Harlequin Nocturne March 2016 Box Set Read online

  “So I need a guide that will cloak my supernatural hearing, not so that I can be invisible to others, but to prevent my picking up their auras.” She smiled. “I’m ready to meet mine.” Problem solved.

  Tombi snorted. “Not many are able to connect on their first attempt.”

  “Then I’ll keep trying until I meet him or her...or it, if my guide turns out to be an animal instead of an ancestor. Can we do it now?”

  “Try it tonight at dusk. It is said that’s the most opportune time, when the sun descends from the sky and gives way to the mysterious moon. When all around supernatural forces awaken and lengthen the shadows of men.”

  Which meant a wait time of several hours. “Will you be with me when I try?”

  He shook his head. “It’s something you need to do alone, in your own way. I’m sure you and your grandmother already have rituals for this.”

  “Hmm.” Annie tapped a finger to her lips. She’d pore over her grandma’s grimoire today and find a root working.

  “For novices, most guides will appear in dreams. As you lie in bed tonight, concentrate on your intent to meet your guide in dreamland.” He cocked his head to one side. “I’ll sort of be with you, after all.”

  “Come again?”

  “I want you to spend the night with me.”

  Annie’s face flamed with heat.

  “Not in the same bed,” he hastened to explain. A slow, sexy smile carved his face. “Unless you want to.”

  Oh, she wanted. She spoke quickly, hoping he wouldn’t sense her flustered nerves. “I’m sleeping here tonight, in my own bed, with only fifteen steps to a working toilet—thank you very much.”

  “We wouldn’t be sharing a tent in the woods. The hunt is over for this month, remember? You could stay with me at my cabin.”

  “I think I’ll do better here at my own home, working at my own altar.” Here, she felt closer to her grandma’s presence, could perhaps draw on Tia’s energy for help. “Besides, I’ve got a ton of stuff I need to get caught up on—groceries, bills, the usual.”

  “And I’m sure you want to visit your grandmother again. How is she doing?”

  “Still in a coma.”

  He swore under his breath. “I’m responsible.”

  She should argue he wasn’t, because it was obvious he felt guilty. But Annie still harbored resentment. He had brought Nalusa to them; they would never have drawn that spirit’s attention otherwise.

  “Time apart will do us good,” she said, picking up their empty plates and putting them in the sink. She needed time to do some research. Visit Tia again and see if her grandma had any more messages or could help her in her quest. “Hanan said you were behind at work, anyway.”

  He opened his mouth, and she kept talking, to forestall more objections. “What kind of work do you do?”

  “I’m a carpenter,” he answered tersely. “There’s no reason we can’t both do our own thing during the day and then be together tonight.”

  Annie dropped the forks she was rinsing, and they clanged in the sink.

  A chair scraped, and Tombi stood behind her, placing his hands on her shoulders. “I don’t expect anything from you. We won’t share the same bed.”

  “Why are you so insistent I spend the night at your cabin?”

  He hesitated, as if not wanting to tell her his reason.

  “Well?”

  “It’s no longer safe for you to stay alone,” he admitted. “Nalusa knows where you live.”

  Astonished, she turned around to face him, not realizing how close he stood. The nearness of their lips made her throat dry. Annie jerked back toward the sink. “I won’t open the door for anyone. I’ll be fine.”

  “I won’t take no for an answer.”

  “I don’t care what you do, but I want to stay here tonight, and that’s the end of that.”

  Tense silence settled around them in the tiny kitchen.

  “I’ll leave you alone, then. For now,” he said.

  It sounded like a promise to return. She kept her eyes glued to the window and didn’t see him leave, only heard the creak of the door as he exited. The door reopened.

  “Lock up behind me,” he ordered.

  Before she could reply, the door shut again, and she obediently locked up. She watched as he strode down the driveway. His golden skin gleamed, kissed by the sun, and his black hair hung past his shoulders, as dark as if it carried the energy of the night.

  Day and night. Sun and moon. Hunter and hunted. Tombi was a living veil between this world and the spirit world that he entered into at will.

  A dangerous protector. He’d brought her and Grandma Tia danger, but he’d also offered his protection. She sensed he was an honorable man who took his word seriously.

  Could he really be the key to her escape from this personal auditory hell, or did he plan on using her? He might be honorable, but he’d set his own code as to what was right and where his duties lay.

  Lesson One hadn’t gone the way she’d anticipated, but at least it was a start. Annie set about rummaging through Tia’s books and papers, gathering them into a pile on the kitchen table. The stack was over a foot high. With a sigh, she opened a grimoire and began leafing through the yellowed paper filled with her grandma’s bold handwriting, with its fat loops and exaggerated serifs. An acrid, licorice smell of myrrh and camphor wafted through the old tome. Bits of dried leaves and herbs crumbled into the binding and spilled on to the open pages.

  Annie’s heart spasmed painfully beneath her ribs. She missed Tia with an ache that tightened her throat. Was her grandma faring any better today? She had to know.

  * * *

  For such a little bit of a woman, Annie sure had a huge stubborn streak. How could she possibly think she could defend herself against Nalusa and the shadow world? And what if she was part of that world, and that was why she was unafraid? He had to make her willing to stay with him in the evenings.

  Tombi entered the restored antebellum home. It served as a visitor’s center for those interested in touring the bayou for either bird hunting or walking the scenic hiking trail that featured a pier and pavilion where alligators were daily fed. Tallulah was cleaning a glass counter in the museum area that housed a collection of arrowheads, pottery and other Choctaw artifacts from bygone days. Her long hair was severely pulled back and braided, and she wore a red smock over jeans.

  A familiar jolt of guilt and sadness pinched his heart. Tallulah should be managing the center instead of working as a combination cashier and cleaner. She’d been studying anthropology in college when Katrina crashed into their worlds.

  She leaned against the counter and rubbed a hand along the small of her back. It had to be tough on her when she hunted at night and then had to come work the day job. A job that barely enabled her to eke out a threadbare existence. If he hadn’t built her a small cabin on their family’s land, she wouldn’t be able to eke out any existence at all.

  “Backache?” he asked.

  She stiffened and returned to wiping the counters. “It doesn’t matter.” Tallulah slanted him a suspicious glance. “Don’t tell me you’re here to scold me about that girl again.”

  Scold? “I’m your brother, not your father.”

  “Good. I’m glad you remember. Because sometimes I think you forget.” She set the bottle of window cleaner so hard on the glass, he expected cracks to fissure the surface.

  Tombi inwardly sighed at the chip-on-her-shoulder attitude. Bo’s death had made her bitter, as if it were the last straw in a string of tragedies. Something inside her had broken. As twins, they’d had a close camaraderie growing up, but in the past year they had been more like strangers. Worse than strangers, as they each knew just how to push each other’s hot buttons.

  A phone rang, and Tallulah stalked across the