Page 1124 of One More Kiss

With nothing else for it, I peered into the just-used cauldron expecting to see a mess inside. There was nothing except a faint dusting of ash. Weird.

Wiping out the basin, I quickly tossed in the required herbs, snatching them from the cabinet with abandon. The bottles in my pouch clinked and clanked together, and I prayed one didn’t bust and blow me to kingdom come. I was nearly done when a pair of men charged into the room.

One was Asa, but the other was a blond-headed guy with weird yellow-orange eyes. Both were carrying weapons in their hands and in scabbards across their backs. On instinct, I reached into the pouch and pulled the first bottle my fingers found.

Arm cocked back ready to let loose, both men froze. Asa stepped in front of the blond guy, and I hesitated.

“Whoa, whoa!” Blondie yelled. “It’s me. Jeff. Jesus, Jasper.”

I lowered my weapon but didn’t put it away. Sure, his voice sounded familiar, but…

Jeff rolled his eyes, which proved who he was faster than anything else he could have done. “You mentioned a lack of opposable thumbs. I can’t do much to protect you in my cat form, but I’m decent with an ax. Also,” he muttered, approaching cautiously, “the orange ones bathe everything in fire, so we don’t use those in the house.”

I looked down at the vial in my hand, noted the bright orange color, and gently placed it on the table. “I think when this is all over, we should probably put warnings on them.”

“I’ll pencil that in,” Jeff muttered wryly. “You done with the ward?”

I glanced back at the cauldron and the athame that was about to slice open my skin. Again. I looked down at the still-pink scar where I’d cut into the flesh what felt like a lifetime ago. “Not quite.”

Screwing up my courage for what felt like the hundredth time, I drew the athame over the still-healing scar. When the blood bloomed over, I started the incantation, the Latin flowing from my lips like a river. All at once, runes burned themselves into the exposed wood and brick, into the floor and ceiling, into every book, every stick of furniture, glowing brighter and brighter as I sealed this room as best I could.

I finished the incantation, suddenly light-headed. Jeff and Asa reached for me as I stumbled, but I caught myself on the table before I could go down. Jeff was muttering about something, angry words sounded like they were underwater as he wrapped my forearm in a strip of cloth.

A hard hand was shaking my shoulder, and blearily, I looked into golden eyes. “What did you do, Jasper?”

Jeff seemed really pissed off for some reason, but he let me go to inspect the spell I’d just done. “This is advanced magic reserved for masters, you dope. Not to mention, you bound the damn spell to you.”

I was too woozy to be pissed off. Like I’d done with Mitchell a thousand times, I just let him yell himself out. He’d putter out eventually. I hoped.

“Aren’t you going to say anything? Explain yourself,” he practically shrieked, and that’s when Asa stepped in between us.

“I think it’s time for you to settle down. It’s bad enough she got the whammy put on her. You aren’t helping. Now, pick up your ax and get ready. You read that spell. It only protected the attic and the books. Not us.”

Something niggled at my fuzzy brain, something crucial, but I couldn’t figure it out. I’d seen the runes cover the walls and floor and furniture, but I didn’t see them cover the window.

The same window that was cracked from my earlier spell.

I opened my mouth to tell everyone to get down, but I was too late. Just as the first word fell from my lips, that cracked window blew in, letting the monsters in with it.

---