Page 20 of The Guardian's Curse

“Yeah, we’re both fine,” she said. “But I think I’m going to be here a few days while they figure things out.”

Ruby was quiet for a while. “Do you want to come stay with us instead? This seems like a lateral move from the frying pan into the fire, babe.”

She nodded to herself. “You’re not wrong. If it looks like it’ll be more than a day or two, that sounds better.”

“I’ll tell Miles to clear his gaming crap out of the guest room,” she said. “He’ll be excited to have you, although you’ll have to put up with hearing about Twitch streamers.”

“Thanks,” she said with a laugh. She wasn’t sure Ruby’s cousin was a big improvement over a reclusive vampire. “I’ll keep you posted.”

“Send me pictures of the house!” Ruby ordered. “And obviously of Hottie McFangs.”

“I’ll try,” she said, shivering again at the thought of that gorgeous face. “Talk to you later.”

Shoshanna spent the next few hours roaming the house. She convinced herself that she was looking for cleaning products to make herself useful, but she took her time looking into every nook and cranny of the breathtaking home. The interior was done in dark colors, with rich ruby red walls and oil paintings framed in decadent gold. The centerpiece of the open living room was a polished grand piano, surrounded by leather couches.

The house was oddly dark, with all the windows covered by heavy blackout curtains. Even when she peeked out the front windows, there was the grayish-brown tint of tinted glass.

She ventured across the house and lingered at Alistair’s door. There was no sound, and she was suddenly tempted to descend the stairs and see him sleeping. He probably looked like a male Sleeping Beauty, with those beautiful lips and long lashes.

With a shiver, she stepped away before she made a stupid mistake. Instead, she returned to her snooping upstairs. In addition to several more well-furnished bedrooms and a study, he had an actual library lined with overflowing bookshelves.

Across from the library was a bay window overlooking a barren patch of dirt where there might have once been a garden. But stranger than the empty garden was the eerie, lifelike statue of a woman who faced the window.

A strange energy surrounded the statue. Shoshanna circled it slowly before gently touching its cheek. Bitter cold prickled down her spine, and she gasped. Her arcane sight overwhelmed her, revealing a tangle of dark, blue-black energy running through the statue like veins. Most recently, she’d seen that same bruise-colored energy entangled around Paris and Dominic. It wasn’t vampiric energy, which had a rich crimson hue.

This was a curse, a powerful act of spell-weaving imbued with malice and cruelty. She hadn’t brought it up to Paris, but she’d gone back to her textbooks to confirm what she was seeing after the first day that they met. The same distinctive energy ran through the stone statue. There was no mistaking it; even touching it made her feel uneasy.

Why would Alistair Thorne have a cursed statue in his home? A centuries-old vampire might find all manner of things fascinating, but this was the only thing that she’d noticed with such obvious magical power. Shoshanna gazed at it. The face was remarkable. It was eerily lifelike, as if someone had been frozen in time. But that was absurd. Such powerful magic was practically nonexistent in modern times.

She shook her head and walked away from the statue, though the mournful look lingered in her mind. If the vampire showed himself, she’d work up the nerve to ask him about it.

Shoshanna finally located a closet filled with cleaning supplies and linens tucked in the closet of an immaculate guest bathroom. It only seemed right to do something around the house if she was staying. Even if he didn’t ask for it, the lemon fresh smell of cleaning products would shout I’m making an effort to not be a complete leech.

After scrubbing the kitchen, she sat down with her phone to order some groceries. There was no TV in the house, so she watched a true crime documentary on her laptop while she waited for her delivery. Once it arrived, she sauteed chicken thighs in a savory sauce, then added a rainbow assortment of vegetables. After she’d eaten and cleaned up, she paced the living room.

It was strange to be in the big house all alone, without the pressure of going to work tomorrow. She felt like she was on a vacation into a parallel universe. With nothing else to do, she went to her room for the notebook where she’d kept her notes on her grand travail. She’d been working on a large, multi-layered array that could be installed in homes or even hospitals to aid in healing work. When Dad was sick and getting sicker by the day, she’d searched every book she could find to no avail. Her work would be too late to save Dad, but maybe it could help someone else.

Staring at the notebook felt like trying to remember a song from middle school. She flipped through her neatly organized notes to refresh her memory. Halfway through the notebook, her phone buzzed. It was swiftly followed by a knock on the door. Her heart thumped, and she was immediately tense at the thought of Elliott standing outside.

She grabbed her phone and found a text.

Paris: It’s me at the door. I’m coming in

By the time she rounded the corner, Paris was already walking through the door with a bag slung over his shoulder. “Something smells good,” he said. When he leaned down to kiss her cheeks, his lips were cool on her skin.

“Do you want some? There’s a lot of leftovers.”

“I don’t eat,” he reminded her. “But if you want to warm up something for me to drink, I wouldn’t say no.”

She hesitated. “You mean blood.”

“No, I mean chocolate ice cream,” he drawled. “Yes, mon sorcière, blood. There’s a double boiler around here somewhere. Around one hundred degrees, if you please.”

She planted her hands on her hips. “Can I get you a glass of whiskey? Perhaps a massage?”

“If you’re offering...” he said with a grin. He perched on a stool at the kitchen island and took a tablet from his bag. She rifled through the cabinets. “The one next to the microwave.”

She found the double boiler in the cabinet as directed. “Can I just microwave it?”

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