Page 29 of Rebel Spell
I grinned. “The Rabbit of Caerbannog.”
After the credits rolled, she glanced at me. “How have I never seen this before?”
“Exactly,” I replied with a knowing look.
She placed her hand on my forearm. “Good call. You’ll have to introduce me to some others.”
The pleasant warmth beneath her hand drew me to glance at it. When I raised my gaze, I locked on hers and couldn’t pull away.
I didn’t want to. My palms heated and a buzz of awareness simmered in my veins.
Her lips were right there. So close. And so perfect. They were pink and plump and shiny. All I had to do was lean closer and I could…
Nova took in a shaky breath and turned away. She pulled her hand back.
The moment was over, but the heat of her touch lingered.
While I wasat work later processing blood tests in the lab, I thought about Nova. Although I told her we’d be there to watch over her, I wouldn’t return until my shift was over before dawn.
What if she had another incident while I wasn’t around? Sebastian or Lucas might be there to comfort her. An unexpected pang of jealousy struck me at the thought of them being alone with her, and I cringed. I needed to stop thinking like this. Whatever this perplexing attraction I had for her had to go.
Then why on my break did I order her a stuffed killer rabbit online, thinking it would be a funny housewarming gift—a cute reminder of our moment together?
I groaned. I’d just ordered a woman a stuffed animal of a killer rabbit with fake blood coming from its mouth as a gift. No wonder I was single.
I tried to force her from my mind after I returned home and slept.
That afternoon, while I was preparing a blood protein smoothie, Nova entered the kitchen. She appeared as pale as a Scandinavian vampire. I turned off the blender.
“Oh, Diego. Good, you’re here.”
“What is it?”
She stared at me with haunted eyes. “I sensed it again.”
“Sensed what?”
“The dark magic.”
The words didn’t come right away. When they finally did, I uttered my kick-ass go to line. “Oh.”
After I blinked and kicked myself to say something else, I added, “What did you sense exactly?”
Her mouth slanted down as her expression turned grave. “I don’t think my aunt died of natural causes. She was murdered.”
Chapter 6
Nova
How had I not sensed it before? The cloying scent clung to my aunt’s belongings in her bedroom like a pungent perfume. It was so pervasive that I doubted it would ever come out, like how smoke clung to fabric.
“How do you know?” Diego asked, his blue eyes wide.
I chewed my lip before I could pull my thoughts into words, still shaken by the encounter. “While I was gathering dresses to donate, I smelled this faint odor. It grew stronger. And then—it sounds weird, but it felt like ribbons slithering around me. Even though I couldn’t see anything, I ran from it, scared it might capture me and leave me unable to move, like the other night. I ran out of the bedroom and shoutedstaybefore I shut the door behind me and bolted down the stairs.” It sounded insane even to me, but it was the second time something unexpected and somewhat unexplainable happened to me over there. “It appeared to stop chasing me. And somehow I knew—I knew—that it wasn’t a dream the other night or my imagination. It was dark magic, and it had killed my aunt.”
Diego’s mouth fell open. He turned even paler than his already vampire white. “Do you think it was trying to hurt you?”
My bottom lip trembled. “I don’t know.”
