Mom leaned her head against his shoulder and looked at me. “Of course. I think she’ll be fine, dear. She’s nice and secure here. Let’s go take care of business and let her reflect. Contemplation is good for the soul, after all.”
“I really hope you come around, Starling,” Lionel said, raising a bushy eyebrow at me. “We only want what’s best for the family. Purging you of the evil inside will be good for everybody.”
“As if you’d just let a power like that go to waste,” I spat.
“Of course, not.” He chuckled. “But those gifts in my capable hands make so much more sense, don’t you think? I know what to do with them. I know how to use them to bring about our salvation and ensure our eternal lives. The Divine brought you to me. You are only endangering the family by defying my wishes. Besides, you don’t deserve these gifts. You’re not worthy. In you, it’s just blasphemous rot.”
“Well, yourDivinegave them to me! And I’ll never give you anything, you sadistic, fucking psycho!” I couldn’t control my anger. And it was the last thing I remembered for a while. . . .
Sometime later,I woke to a splitting headache and the taste of blood in my mouth. Damn, he’d gotten me good that time. And it felt like he’d taken a few extra shots for good measure while I was down and out. I tried to raise my head to take in my surroundings and groaned. I was still secured to the chair but lying on my side in the dirt. It was almost entirely dark in the barn, and I heard the squeaks and shuffles of the critters.
Testing my bonds, I found that I had some give in my wrist restraints. The spindle on the back of the chair had come loose, likely from the impact of me toppling over as dead weight and hitting the ground. This was my chance.
I twisted and wrenched, clenching my teeth against the pain and staying as quiet as I possibly could. When I felt the zip tie snap at the same time the spindle popped out of its mooring, I both grunted and breathed a sigh of relief. I freed my legs of their tethers and then stood gingerly, careful of the dizziness. All I needed was to black out again.
I crept over to the large barn door and peeked through the gaps in the boards. It was just light enough out for me to see that nobody stood outside. Maybe they really had taken all the guards with them to the meeting. I eased open the door a crack and peered around the edge, looking first one way and then the other, taking in the woods in the distance. It was my only hope. Being in the swamp at night was a considerable risk, but I’d been raised here. I’d used the bayou as an escape more times than I could count—if only mentally. I could do this. Ihadto do this.
And so, I ran. And I didn’t stop.
Chapter1
~Larken~
Ipushed open the door to my new place, feeling the wards envelop me like a welcoming hug. My previous rooms were fine, livable, and safe enough, but nothing like this place. Above what used to be a voodoo museum and infused with years of Dev’s Vodou mojo along with my magical wards and protections, it was like a spiritual Fort Knox. I would never be able to repay Dev for letting me take over the lease when he moved to Arborwood with Hanlen. Honestly, I owed Dev a whole lot. After all, his energy had sought mine three years ago while I had been working in Jackson Square as a tarot and palm reader, and the minute we locked eyes, both of us knew it was meant to be.
I threw my keys in the bowl by the front door and tossed the envelope of paperwork on the table before snagging a bottle of cucumber water from the fridge. Grabbing a pen from the cup on the little desk against the wall, I sat down and pulled out the paperwork, giving it a cursory glance before finding the page that needed my signature. I’d read over all of it with my agent and the lawyers, but I still perused it quickly again.
The network had given us a pretty posh deal after the success we’d had with both the Arborwood episode andThe Lamour Affliction,and we were all finalizing those particulars during our little hiatus. Over just the past two episodes, we’d dealt with a kidnapping, the gruesome murder of a crew member, discovering that one of our own was a freaking serial killer, and a demon possession. So, Dev had ordered all of us to take some time off. Granted, good always came with the bad, as happened with most things in life, so we’d also gained an awesome new cast member, and Dev, Padre, and Sky had all found love along the way—Dev with Arborwood’s owner, Hanlen, and Paxton and Schuyler had each realized that their friendship was meant for so much more after the events at the Lamour Mansion brought them closer in ways that none of us expected.
I took a drink of water and gripped the pen, poising it over the line. Just as I was about to scrawl my name, I stopped myself, realizing what I was about to sign. Even after all this time, I still caught myself wanting to write my old name sometimes—the moniker I’d been born with and the one I’d been running from.
I’d legally changed it when I turned eighteen, but even before that, I’d shed it like a snake free of its old skin. I wanted nothing to do with that old identity or life, and I’d worked really hard to leave it all in the past—as it should be. I’d even gone so far as to change my voice and appearance enough to avoid recognition by any casual TV viewers who happened to know me from my past. It was a lot sometimes, and I’d caught myself occasionally slipping over the last three years on the show, but I felt the charade was necessary, though I wished it wasn’t. Honestly, it was exhausting.
I set down the pen and grabbed a strand of my bright red hair. I’d been born with a shimmery light red hue, but I’d been adding deposit-only stain to it in nearly every wash since I was seventeen. It made it a vibrant copper that sparked in the sun. It was another necessary measure I felt I had to take, but even still, it was beautiful, and I loved it. It also looked damn good on me.
The other changes were to get implants when I was old enough to do so legally and could afford it. I also worked out religiously to keep my lower body muscular and rounded, altering my shape enough to create curves nature hadn’t entirely intended.
The final alteration was green contacts. I had been born with unique eyes, a lush light green with flashes of gold. My contacts were a vibrant emerald just shy of looking fake. They worked well with the hair and changed the appearance of my face enough that I sometimes did a double-take when I popped them in.
So far, nobody from my past had come knocking, and I thanked all the deities and spirit guides for that. But it meant a somewhat lonely existence. Sure, I had the cast and crew ofHaunted New Orleans, and I loved all of them fiercely, as I adored my job, but I didn’t date, I didn’t mingle outside of our group unless we were at a work function, and my world pretty much consisted of our filming locations and wherever I happened to be living. Yet another reason why this apartment meant so much to me. I finally felt like I had a home. A place to land and just . . . be.
I pennedLarken Maynardon the contract, putting Starling Gautier in my rearview again, and stacked the papers once more. Just as I was slipping them back into the manila envelope, my cell rang. I got up, dug it out of the purse I’d hung on the hook near the front door, and took it back to the table, glancing at the readout. Dev. Time to slip on that mask.
I cleared my throat and affected the higher-pitched drawl I’d been using since the day I’d pulled my first card for a tourist in Jackson Square.
“Hey, Dev. How’s it going?” I cringed and rolled my eyes. I swore I knocked ten points off my IQ by my accent alone. But it was a necessary evil and one I would happily engage in if it kept me and those I cared about safe.
“Hey, Birdie. How’s vacation treating you?” I had beenBirdieto the cast and crew ofHaunted New Orleanssince probably my first week on the job. At first, it’d raised my hackles a bit, bringing back bad memories of the man who used to call me his “little bird.” But nearly everyone on the show had a nickname, and I knew that mine came from a place of love. It was nothing like the words Lionel used to sling like weapons as he tried to beat me down and break me.
I chuckled at Dev’s insinuation that I’d just been taking it easy. “Not much of a vacation. I’ve been working nonstop in the Quarter. I figured I’d do a few shifts to make some extra cash while we finalized things and let the hiatus play out, but the minute I got recognized from the show, I had lines nearly every day and online bookings for the rest of my hours. It’s been good, though. Keeps me busy. Keeps my magic fresh. How are things going with you and Hanlen? Do anything fun like Sky and Padre while we were off?” The new couple had been spending their days at Paxton’s new property in Montana, getting their nature nerd on and enjoying the sights and each other.
“Nah, not really. We’ve mostly been hanging at the plantation, doing some necessary upkeep and repairs. Oh, and working with Myst. She’s getting so good. I can’t wait for you all to see the progress she’s made.” Dev and Hanlen had been training their pit bull terrier to be a paranormal investigator. We’d used her at the Lamour Mansion, and she’d done wonderfully on her first run. Unfortunately, that case had been anything but normal, and she’d almost gotten possessed, along with Padre. Sky actuallyhadbeen oppressed and then taken over for a bit. It was definitely an investigation for the ages.
As if he could sense that we were talking about his best friend, my black cat Phantom walked up and jumped onto the table, butting his massive head against the hand I had looped around my water bottle. I gave his silky ears a scratch and rubbed under his chin. “That sounds great. And relaxing, despite the manual labor.”
“It really was,” he agreed. “So, I did just want to say hello, but I’m actually making all the calls. Our vacay is coming to an end. Did you sign the papers yet?”
I tapped the envelope in front of me. “Just did. I was going to drop them off when I ran out later for some food. Are we being called in? Is it still the Ninth Ward property, or did something else come up?”