Page 46 of Ashes and Lilies
I nodded. That made perfect sense.
“I don’t care,” Damen protested, the stirrings of anger beginning to break out on his features. Obviously, his finesse was the opposite of tactful. “This isn’t acceptable!”
“Mr. Damen,” Dr. Stephens cut in, disapprovingly looking at the other man. “All we have right now is Caleb’s recount that there’s even a connection between the property and the Cole family. There must be some reason those records are sealed, and it will take convincing to force them open. And we’ve no suspects to tie to Caleb’s murder. We are not arresting anyone today.”
Damen grumbled and looked out the large windows as the muscles in his neck tightened. “Fine,” he said, not sounding fine at all.
“I wonder…” Detective Kohler was studying me. “Do you know Gloria Protean?”
“At the college?” Was he talking about the professor Damen had scared away from me in the library? “S-she tried to talk to me once,” I told him. “But Damen chased her off.”
Dr. Stephens frowned at the aforementioned man.
“You should see what she has to say,” Detective Kohler said. The notebooks on his desk were uneven, and he began straightening them into piles. “You both might find it interesting.”
“O-okay.” My heart rate had begun to calm during our conversation—having something different to focus on was tremendously helpful.
The office door was suddenly slammed open, and I jumped.
“All right, old man.” Julian strode through the door with a tight, grumpy expression. “Let’s get this over with. I…” His words trailed off as he noticed me clinging to Damen’s sleeve.
“Bianca?” he asked, blinking, and the darkness vanished from him instantly. “What are you doing here?”
My voice shook as I let go of Damen and waved at him. “H-hi.”
Then he was kneeling in front of me, pushing Damen out of the way as he grasped my hand. “What happened?” he asked, studying the reddened skin on my palm. “Did you slap Damen?”
“No.” Why would I do that?
“That’s a pity,” he said. His voice was so soft I doubted anyone could hear, but the words were clear enough from the motions of his mouth.
“I fell when I was being chased,” I said instead. There was no need to respond to a comment not meant to be heard. He’d already procured a baby blue handkerchief and was wrapping my hand even as I spoke, and his attention then moved down.
“Who was chasing you?” he asked, poking at the skin around my knees. “You’re going to have a bruise.”
“B-bad guys?” I ventured, looking to Damen for help.
Once more, he stood with his weight on the desk as he stroked his chin and looked out the window.
“Well—” It was Detective Kohler who elaborated on my statement. “—it is possibly the same group who killed Caleb. But I don’t understand why a simple inquiry into the history of a house would cause such backlash.”
“It’s the Cole family,” Dr. Stephens pointed out. “We’ve known they’ve been involved in unsavory business for years. We’ve just never had any proof.”
“Yes, we’ve looked into their actions before,” Detective Kohler replied. “But you’ve never encountered a spirit like that one before, either. So, perhaps the answer lies there. It is perhaps good that your understudy did not complete the exorcism.”
I glanced at Damen again; I had been right after all. But he didn’t appear to be listening.
“By the way,” Detective Kohler continued. “Julian, how do you know this young woman?”
Julian tensed at the sound of his name, fingers pausing their examination over my lightly scraped shins, and looked over his shoulder. “She’s my… um…” He glanced at me, and I could see the wheels turning in his head. “Friend,” he finished.
I tilted my head. Yes, we were friends regardless of our mythical connection. So why was he acting so strange?
“I see,” the older man replied.
“Julian…” I touched his wrist, and my pulse skipped when he looked back at me, meeting my eyes. I probably should be patient, but my curiosity was becoming harder to ignore. I pulled at the neck of his shirt, trying to move him closer, and he obliged.
“Are you two related?” I whispered in his ear.
