Alison paced the hall outside the room they’d placed Vanessa in. The doctor closed the door to all visitors almost three hours earlier while he examined and tended to her. Could she be that damaged?
Her thoughts shifted to Alfred and Heloise. She’d learned that Heloise escaped the prison with magic and there was fear that she’d return for Alfred and take him using the same method. The elders were fervently working to decipher what type of magic Heloise used so that, should she return to free Alfred, they’d be ready for her. Not only did they intend to stop her from freeing him, but they planned on recapturing her as well. Once back in custody, steps would be taken to bind her that should have been taken in the first place.
The sound of the door opening caught her attention. She watched the doctor come out of the room with nervous anticipation. “Can I see her now?”
Dr. D. closed the doo
Other than the fact that it was an odd sensation, returning to the mundane side of the veil and re-entering her physical body was relatively easy. She was surprised to see Nick standing next to her when she sat up. “I thought your body was at Martin’s place.”“The king had it brought here by his guards when I asked for protection,” he explained.She looked at the empty spot where Alfred’s body should be. “It’s gone!”Nick smiled as he pulled her to him. “The guards took it with them and put me in its place. As it should be.”“Where did they take it?” she asked.Nick shrugged. “I haven’t a clue and, to be honest, I don’t care. If I ever lay eyes on him again, you’ll be having to hire a lawyer to defend me against murder charges.”She leaned her forehead against his chest. “I know this is a
If she admitted it to no one else, Alison had to admit to herself that she felt a little envious of Vanessa and Martin’s romantic marriage. She’d been foolish in rejecting Nick’s proposals and, now that she’d made her mind up to marry him, she wondered if it would ever happen. They’d discussed it briefly when they first saw each other in shadow land, but nothing was said since. She didn’t want to appear like she was trying to ‘keep up with the Jones’ by bringing the subject up now.She filled her lungs with air while she thought about all of the mistakes she’d made recently. She could be married to Nick by now if she hadn’t been so foolish. Now, she was pregnant and unwed with memories of having sex with a man who turned out to be so horrific it made her want to scrub herself clean until she’d eliminated all layers of flesh he’d touched. She felt dirty beyond reason. Th
Alison rocked in the oversized rocker on Nick’s front porch as she admired his thick, powerful muscles flexing while he attacked the weeds threatening his newly sprouted garden. He’d returned to shadow land during the new moon for rejuvenation and regeneration twice without taking her. It was almost time to go again and she hoped that he would say she was finally ready to join him.She was about to go to him and broach the subject when the sound of someone clearing their throat caught her attention.“Excuse me,” said a glamourous looking redhead as she stood near the bottom step of the stairs leading to the porch. “I’m looking for Nick Jackson. Do I have the right place?”Alison’s reply stuck in her throat as she took in every inch of the tall redhead who so innocently inquired the whereabouts of the man she loved. Thoughts of her former boyfriend, Arthur, and the woman he cheated on her with, Sar
“She’s right, you know,” Nick said with a smirk. “We are in the bedroom a lot.”Alison scowled as she drained her bottle. “Would you prefer we stopped?”“Absolutely not,” he said as he threw his hands in the air. When she got up to get another beer from the refrigerator, he asked, “What’s got you all worked up to the point you’ll be drunk by noon? It can’t be Heloise showing up like that. It’s got to be more.”“Oh, I don’t know,” Alison mused as she opened her beer and tossed the cap toward the trash can that’s lid was stuck in the open position. She was unaccustomed to drinking that much so fast and her vision was already blurred. The cap missed the trash can and skidded across the floor. “Maybe it is your ex-fiancé showing up out of the blue. Maybe I don’t like arrogant beauty queens sauntering
Martin wore a broad grin on his handsome face as he stepped aside to allow Vanessa entrance into his home. “I thought you’d never get here,” he said as he pulled her into his strong embrace and kissed her long and hard. His brown eyes hinted of twinkling light when he finally released her so that he could search the depths of her own large brown orbs. “You still haven’t told her, have you?”Vanessa shook her head. “She’s so frustrated with Nick not thinking she’s ready yet. I haven’t had the heart.”She reached around to squeeze his backside.He jumped away, laughing, and teased, “Where have you been all my life?”“So, where is it?” she asked as she scurried into the depths of the house like an excited school girl. “Is it down in the basement behind some secret door?”“You make it sound so mysterious,” he chuckle
Alison sat on the back porch of her estate house toweling her hair dry. She’d finally been able to swim in the pool she’d had repaired after years of neglect. Her great aunts drained and abandoned it when she was just a young girl for reasons no one would or could explain to her. Nick suggested filling it in, but Alison was determined to bring it back to life. Although, he was clearly unhappy with her decision, he went along with it and called in the workers needed to make it happen.“I see you tested out the pool,” Nick said as he sat on the top step of the porch and wiped his brow with the tee shirt he’d stripped off earlier while tending to their enormous, well-manicured lawn. “I’ll bet it felt good. It’s pretty hot today.”“I don’t know why you insist on doing everything yourself. I have the money to hire more help,” Alison said as she pulled a comb through her long locks.
Realizing that she was still in a skimpy swimsuit and feeling rather exposed after her jolting encounter with Alfred, Alison seized the opportunity given her to slip away and put on something more suitable. She took greater care in tending to her appearance than she had in some time. She told herself that it was because they had another shadow walker visiting and, as their future leader, she wanted to make a good impression, but, deep in the recesses of her mind, she questioned her real motives.She’d only been in his company for a moment, but that was long enough to assess that he was as handsome as Nick, built in a similar fashion, and very confident with the ladies. Perhaps her eyes were playing tricks on her, but Alfred looked more like a brother than a cousin to Nick. Since they were both named Jackson, she guessed it was the Jackson gene that reigned supreme. That wasn’t the case with Martin; who looked like he was related, but certainly not a borderli
Nick perched his feet on the wicker footstool in front of him and leaned back in his chair until the front legs raised just a bit off the porch floor. After nearly a century of anger and hurt where his cousin was concerned, he’d finally talked it out. Admittedly, it took a bit of arguing and threatening before he calmed down enough to listen to what Alfred had to say. More than once, he was tempted to storm away and forget the whole thing. Alfred was not only his cousin, but, prior to catching him in bed with Heloise, they were best of friends. He’d been so angry with him for so long that he’d forgotten how much he enjoyed the man’s company.After being with Heloise for so long, it shouldn’t have come as such a surprise for Nick to discover she’d fed Alfred an aphrodisiac along with a good deal of brandy to get him into her bed. In his early years, a similar trick was played on Nick by a not so seductive female