Page 55 of Ghostly Touches

He closes the small distance between them, takes her face in his hands, and kisses her thoroughly. Willow’s squeak of surprise is followed by a moan as she leans into it. It takes everything in me not to react. Choking down the protest and keeping my hands relaxed and limp at my sides is harder than it should be. When Jonah pulls away, Willow stares up at him like she’s seeing stars. He plants another swift kiss on her lips before glaring at Theodon and then at me and Viktor.

“And that, gentlemen, is how you treat the woman who has saved your lifeandsoul,” he says. “Now, let’s eat. I’m famished.”

Chapter16

JONAH

“Here, want the other spring roll?” Willow asks me as she rummages through the containers of food.

“Yes,please.” I take it from her as she hands it over.

The tee shirt I wear slides off one shoulder. Whoever stayed at this safehouse before must have either been a big guy or they just walked into a thrift store and picked out a random size and went for it.

I can’t complain. Wearing shirts and pants again feels so human that I could cry.

Willow turns her attention to her noodles as she helps herself to seconds. While she’s distracted, I sneak a peek at her profile. Now that I can trulysee,I want to take all of her in. She’s a gorgeous woman who can talk solely in facial expressions. Absentmindedly, she pushes a curl behind her ear. Curious about its texture, I reach out and wrap a strand of her hair around my fingers.Fingers. I grin as I can feel the softness of her hair against my skin. She looks up at me, and our eyes meet.

“How are you doing?” she asks me.

Her gaze is warm, and suddenly, I feel huge again, but not like the monster I had been. I feel like I can take on the world when she looks at me. Is it this whole soul thing? If so, I love it even more.

“I’m doing a hundred times better now that I have food in my stomach,” I assure her.

“Good, now we can get to business.”

I hate who this voice belongs to. Viktor enters the room, his dead eyes piercing me with that cold gaze. This is the man who’s taken every chance to hit me when the others aren’t watching. When he’s not attacking me, he verbally berates the others or ignores them completely. The hatred in this man is astounding.

Next to me, Willow stiffens.

“As long as it’s just talking,” Willow warns.

He glances at her, and I’m not sure how it’s possible, but his gaze grows colder.

“Of course,” Viktor says tersely as Theodon strolls in behind him.

Kwil comes in last, his hood still up.

“Let’s get straight to the point. Tell us how you came to possess the book and why you attacked us when we came looking for it,” Theodon demands.

I wipe my hands on a napkin and then prop them behind me so I can lean back. I hate these men. I’m not sure how I’m going to make it happen, but once we figure out this soul thing, I’m going to whisk Willow away from them.

“I’m an elite tracker. I can find anything once I know what the object looks like. I’m one of the best, and one night I got drunk down at a bar with another two trackers. Someone challenged us to find this mystical book full of secret spells. Whoever brought the book back would receive three million dollars. With that type of money on the line, the three of us went in search of it with no questions asked. I found it first in the cave, hidden in an old chest. But then the other two showed up. We fought for it, and Greg managed to get his hands on it. The moment he did his body turned inside out. He was cursed to live like that. It wasn’t a long life. He died pretty soon afterwards.”

I recall how Greg looked and shudder. His screams of agony will forever haunt me.

“Andre went for it next, thinking that Greg had tripped the only curse that came with touching the book,” I continue. “Andre was pulled into the walls andbecamethe cave. He’s still there as part of the rock formation. I saw what happened to the other two and wanted nothing to do with the book. I simply kicked it towards the chest in the back of the cave, wanting to be done with it. But just that set my curse in motion. Once I became a monster, I knew that if I left that cave, everyone I’ve ever known would try to kill me. Unable to talk to explain what happened, I knew the only thing I could do was to keep other people from trying to get the damn thing, so I stayed there to watch over it.”

Willow places a hand on my leg. The contact sends a jolt of warmth and peace through me. I look over and see the pity in her face. I shake my head even as I reach forward to take her hand. Bringing it up to my mouth, I kiss the back of it. I love touching this woman. The feeling it elicits is addicting.

“Don’t look at me like that.” I sigh. “I was stupid enough to go after a book of spells without doing any research on the damn thing.”

“Did you know who we were when we entered the cave?” Theo asks.

As I look over to him, I notice his attention is on our hands and not on my face. Willow seems to notice this too because she pulls away and turns her attention back to her dinner.

“I’d heard stories of you people, but I couldn’t be positive.” I shrug.

“Yet, you tried to kill us.” Theodon scowls.

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