Out of Mind

clothes were old-fashioned. And purple smoke filled everything up. Smoke. Haze. A cloud. I don’t know. It all sounds stupid.”

Ben wouldn’t let her jerk free of his arms, which was what she immediately tried to do.

“Back up,” he said. “A man with a book and purple smoke? Very normal, Willow—happens to people all the time.”

He felt her shudder. “You called before anything happened,” she said. “Why did you come rushing over to get me?”

“That can wait. What man? What book?” Sykes had hinted at the things she was talking about.

“I already know,” Sykes said. “At least, I think the man could be Jude Millet.”

Willow sat up straighter and craned to see her brother. “That Jude? The Mentor? The one who reminds us about following the—”

“That one,” Sykes said rapidly.

Ben got the impression his friend didn’t want all of his family’s business aired. That would change once Willow gave in and let Ben back into her life for good. Covertly, he looked at her profile. He had never seen or met another woman who pleased him as Willow did, or one he wanted with even a fraction of the desire he had for her.

She would be his—unless he had somehow hurt her too deeply and without knowing. He would find out what had made her drive him away before and deal with it.

“Jude was the first male Millet born with dark hair and blue eyes,” Willow told him, apparently oblivious to Sykes’s desire to keep this information to themselves. “He was the one in charge of the family’s affairs at the time, in Bruges—that’s Belgium.”

“I know,” Ben said.

“His fiancée had died and he was desolate, so he married another woman—to ease the pain, I suppose. This one ruined the family. Just about. I think she must have had something to do with these Embran people…things, or whatever they are…if they’re anything. She was evil, and the people there thought she was a witch. Anyway, because of her, everything fell apart in Belgium and the family had to escape to London, then here to New Orleans. With each move they lost things they treasured.

“That’s who Jude was…is. He’s our Mentor. He guards the Book of Rules. Our parents are supposedly looking for the book to help them get rid of a curse. I don’t understand it when we know it’s with Jude. Wherever he is… or…” She looked troubled and confused.

Sykes’s expression was blank.

“And it’s why Sykes isn’t looking after the family instead of Pascal now our parents have taken off,” Willow continued, raising her voice to compete with a drum solo. “Sykes is the second male Millet heir—after Jude—with dark hair and blue eyes. Our folks decided to go look for a way to break the curse—that’s the dark-haired, blue-eyed curse like Sykes has got—and because Sykes is so cursed, Uncle Pascal had to take over. He never wanted to and he shaved off all his red hair because he was mad at getting saddled with the responsibility for the family and everything else that should still be my dad’s. Uncle Pascal’s the younger brother, see, and he should never have had to look after things.”

“Cursed, are you, Sykes?” Ben said. “I could have told you that before.”

“Sure you could.” Sykes had the grace to grin. “I guess all this revelation means Willow is welcoming you into the family—just like you’ll be welcoming her into yours. I look forward to hearing all your secrets.”

“We don’t have any,” Ben said, attempting complacency. He had no intention of sharing anything secretive about the Fortunes—other than with Willow when the time came.

Unfortunately, Willow didn’t show signs of announcing that they were a couple again.

“The man showed me a picture of a dragon—a horrible thing. And a picture of a pale woman’s effigy. A stone angel like we have at home. She was beautiful and she smiled at me. Please don’t ask how a picture of a stone woman smiles. I don’t know. That was before she looked as if she wanted to kill someone.

“If we don’t destroy the Embran, they’ll destroy us, that’s what the man said. And he told me to listen to the woman. He said she was beautiful when she smiled, but I don’t know what he meant by any of it.”

At the mention of a dragon, Ben had all but stopped listening. “You think that could have been a picture of Marley’s dragon? The one who almost killed her?”

“I never saw it,” Willow said. “But I think it must have been.”

Sykes pulled up a chair of his own and sat in that.

What Sykes had told Ben about Willow was that she could sense or even see old injuries and knew the emotional damage they had done. And some of the time, she knew what others were thinking and feeling, if the contacts were strong. In her case, according to Sykes, strong seemed to mean very heightened emotion. Ben began to think there were aspects of Willow that Sykes did not know about.

Willow checked her watch. “I’ve got an appointment soon,” she said, but she didn’t meet Ben’s eyes.

“What kind of appointment?”

“It’s business,” she said.

“Where?”

“I’ll be just fine now,” she told them, making a move to get up. “I can’t hide away forever.”

“You can if you need to,” Sykes said. “And if we make you.”

Ben winced and knew he would not have long to wait for the explosion.

“If you make me?” Willow stood up and whirled on both of them. “You don’t get to make me do anything.”

“You’re in danger,” Sykes said. “Haven’t you figured that out yet?”

“Of course I have.”

“No,” Ben said. “You’re not. Sykes likes his drama. I won’t let you be in danger.” He meant it. He knew the risks and the concentration he would need to fight off all comers, but this was his intended mate. What he would not tell her was that if she died, so did he. That was one of those secrets the Fortunes pretended they didn’t have. They did not outlive their mates, or not for long.

The music swelled to full, hypnotic volume. “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” beat its irresistible patterns around the club. On the stage, the musicians played as if they’d entered a trance and they were many parts that made up one whole.

Ben saw his brothers, Liam and Ethan, walk into the club. They paused, looking his way, but instantly picked up that he didn’t want to be disturbed. Carrying on, they went directly to Poppy, who spoke and gestured expansively. All three arranged themselves in a row, elbows on the bar behind them, where they could watch Willow, Sykes and Ben easily.

“It’s a zoo here,” Ben said. “Next there will be clowns.”

“There already are,” Sykes told him. “Nasty ones. We’re just not seeing them yet, or not clearly.”

“We need to talk bats,” Ben said, afraid Sykes would say too much for Willow to cope with. So far she was holding up well enough.

“Rock U. mentioned bats,” she said, eyes widening. “I thought he was joking.”

“Bats have been seen in daylight in the Quarter,” Ben told her. “Rock U.?”

“Tattoo parlor guy,” she told him. “He said he heard about it on the cruiser radio parked outside our building.”

“Did he say anything else?”

“Just that people had been scared by them. Zinnia—my office manager—she said if bats come out in daylight they could be rabid.”

“Wish that was all,” Sykes muttered. “Some details have leaked out about the condition of the two corpses in the morgue. Blades is ready to take the mouthy culprit apart if he can find him—or her. Now bats have been seen, and the public theory is that they are rabid and that’s what’s killing people.”

“Might be a good thing if they do think that,” Ben said. “At least it’ll keep them from thinking other things.”

He studied Willow, who had fallen silent again. Not so long ago he had seen a shaded being fly from behind her and rise in the air. He had almost gotten close enough to touch the thing—or had he? Could it have been a bat, or what passed as a bat for the locals?

Willow got up. She looked from Sykes to Ben and said, “I need to be alone. There’s something I must