Page 37 of The Unseen

He glanced over at Nicole, who clung to his arm as if it was all that was keeping her upright. “I’d offer to buy you a drink in the bar, but from the look on your face, I think I’ll pour you something from the bar in our suite.”

She nodded. “Yes, please.”

They took the elevator up to the Vieux Carre Suite, elegant quarters done in cream and gold throughout, a bedroom with a king-size bed and a luxurious marble bathroom.

Lucas led Nicole over to the sofa in the living room and urged her down on the comfortable seat, then headed for the bar in the antique rosewood armoire.

“Brandy all right?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

He opened two small bottles and poured the liquid into heavy crystal rocks glasses, carried them over, and handed a glass to Nicole, who took a hefty swallow.

“Feeling better?” He took a seat beside her. Nicole didn’t answer, her mind clearly on what had happened in the gallery.

“How can you be sure it was her? I thought it was your grandmother who could communicate with spirits.”

He had hoped to avoid the subject. At least for now. Apparently, that wasn’t going to happen.

“I told you once, my talent was different from hers. From what I saw tonight—and what I felt—Simone isn’t just a lost soul. She’s progressed far beyond that.”

Nicole looked up at him with the big green eyes that had captured him from the start. “What do you mean?”

“The entity you got a glimpse of tonight in the gallery is pure evil. She’s powerful. And she’s determined. She won’t be easy to defeat.”

“Defeat?”

“Get rid of.”

Nicole took a nervous sip of brandy. “Is that what we have to do? Find a way to get rid of her?”

“I know the way. We need Grandmere to come to the house and see what other information she can find out. Every little bit will help us.”

“You’re scaring me, Lucas.”

He took the brandy glass from her hand and set it on the table, slid a hand into her glorious mane of auburn hair and tipped her head back, then set his mouth over hers.

It was meant to be a gentle kiss, but the fire that always leaped between them took over, turning the kiss from gentle to hot, went deeper, more demanding.

“I’m going to make you forget about Simone for a while,” he promised, kissing the side of her neck. “After we’re finished, I’ll call down to Criollo.” The elegant hotel restaurant. “Have them send supper up to the room. How does that sound?”

“Perfect.”

Lucas’s finger ran down Nicole’s smooth cheek. His thumb slid over her plump bottom lip, moist from his kiss, and he felt her tremble. He could see the rapid pulse beating at the base of her throat; he leaned down and pressed his mouth there, inhaling the fragrance of her soft perfume.

Lucas kissed her and Nicole slid her arms around his neck. He nibbled and tasted. Didn’t stop until she was moaning. Didn’t stop as he carried her into the bedroom. Didn’t stop until both of them were naked in bed and lying in each other’s arms.

Afterward, sated and content, they rested for a while, their limbs entwined. Lucas felt the touch of Nicole’s finger tracing lines across the muscles in his chest.

“Keep that up and we’re going to be starting all over again.”

Nicole laughed. “I wouldn’t mind—though I admit I’m getting hungry.”

Lucas softly kissed her. “I’m going to feed you. I promise.”

He started to get up, but she pulled him back down.

“I want you to know, Lucas, that being with you has been a very special gift.”

One of his eyebrows went up. “Is that so …”

“From the start, I knew you were an extremely virile man. You once told me your sexuality was part of the reason you left the Church.”

“That’s true. I was never cut out to be celibate. Though it took me a while to accept that.”

Her fingertip continued its journey, circling his navel, making his groin tighten. “I was worried I would never be able to keep up with you, that my own needs would never match yours. You showed me I was wrong.”

He leaned over and kissed her. “You’re a very sensual woman, Nicole. I’m glad I was the man to awaken that sensuality.” He brought her hand to his lips. “We’re good together. I’m glad you’re beginning to see that.”

He swung his legs to the side of the bed and tugged on her hand. “Time for a shower and—since you still seem interested—other things.”

Nicole laughed as he led her into the luxurious bathroom. Tonight was theirs. A long-overdue special evening together.

Tomorrow they would talk. Lucas would try to explain about demons and how to get rid of them, a subject better addressed in the daylight. He would try to prepare Nicole for what was going to happen in the very near future, explain that all hell was about to break loose at Belle Reve.

Nicole rode silently in the passenger seat as Lucas drove back to St. Francisville. Earlier in the day, they had driven to the Winston Gallery to pick up the Spirit pieces now covered in the trunk of the Lexus, harmless it would seem.

After what had happened last night, Nicole knew it wasn’t true.

Aside from the disappointment of her failed art show—and the fear she had experienced—they’d had a wonderful evening. The sex had been spectacular, as it always was between them. She had finally accepted that being with Lucas made the difference, bringing out a part of her that she had never known.

She didn’t want to imagine what her life would be like without him, and yet some part of her believed that day would come.

As the miles slipped past, her gaze swung to the handsome man behind the wheel.

In profile, she could see the slight bump on his nose and it somehow reassured her.

He was, after all, only a man. When he left, she would find a way to live without him, alone as she always had been.

She reminded herself that she had a brother now, but it wouldn’t be long before Sean went away to college.

And Aunt Rachel—she didn’t want to think about losing her beloved aunt.

She shoved the depressing thoughts away and focused on their current problem. It was time to discuss the trouble waiting for them at Belle Reve.

“I think it’s time we talked about it, don’t you? You said you would explain about ghosts, about spirits and demons. I need to understand what’s happening, Lucas.”

His gaze slanted toward her and she remembered last night, his lips moving hotly over hers, the thrill of his amazing lovemaking. He had taken her as if he claimed her, as if she were his and always would be.

If only that were true.

She forced herself to concentrate on the subject she so desperately needed to understand. “Tell me,” she pressed. “Please, Lucas.”

His hands tightened on the steering wheel.

“You’ve met my grandmother. Being raised in the Devereaux family, life and death, heaven and hell, were always just part of living.

We took it for granted that God and Satan existed.

My grandmother told me when I was just a boy about the special gifts certain family members were born with. ”

“Did she know you were one of them?”

“I’m not sure if she knew at the time. It’s more common on the female side of the family.

Mine came through my mother. Maybe my grandmother suspected.

Perhaps that was the reason she occasionally took me with her.

I think she wanted me to understand, to see the possibilities.

Back then, I was far more interested in girls and cutting school.

As I got older, I had too much money and too much time, which only managed to get me into trouble.

You know how those years ended. I didn’t really understand the nature of my gift until I joined the priesthood. ”

“That’s when it started?”

“That’s when I realized I was one of the people my grandmother had told me about.”

“What happened?”

“I was working in the garden when one of the older priests came to see me. He said he had a feeling about me. He said if he was right, I could be useful to the Church. I knew Father Bartholomew performed exorcisms.” A faint smile touched his lips.

“Turned out performing an exorcism takes a lot more than just an innate ability to communicate with unholy beings. It takes hours of study to learn the necessary rituals. Combined with the gift I’d been given, I was extremely successful. ”

“But you’re no longer a priest.”

Lucas pulled the Lexus around a Toyota with dented fenders. “The Church makes allowances for people with the ability to perform the necessary tasks. They give them dispensation, even if they’re not members of the priesthood.”

Lucas being born with a special gift didn’t surprise her. There was something extraordinary about him. She felt it every time he was near.

“I keep thinking of Aunt Rachel,” she said. “After what happened at the gallery, I’m worried Simone might hurt her.”

Lucas cast Nicole a speculative glance. “I’ll call my grandmother again, get her out to the house as soon as possible.”

“Rachel won’t like it,” Nicole said.

“I’m afraid we’re past that point. We’ll just have to make her see how important this is. “Simone is clearly a danger.”

“Yes,” he said. “As soon as we get back, I’ll make the call.”

“What about Sean? It’s Friday. I’ll be picking him up after school.” For Sean’s sake, they were still keeping their relationship as quiet as possible.

“We can wait until next week,” Lucas said, “but we’re taking a risk.”

Nicole lifted her hair away from the nape of her neck as she leaned back in the passenger seat.

“Sean already knows some of it. He helped you dig up Francois’s grave. He knows Aunt Rachel believes Belle Reve is haunted by Francois’s ghost and that you have a special talent when it comes to dealing with spirits.”

Lucas nodded. “I think it’s important we move forward on this.”

Nicole thought about what had happened in the gallery and that someone could have been killed. “I think so, too.”

As they drove through St. Francisville, Lucas took a left onto Old Ferry Road, then turned onto Belmond Place and drove down the lane to Belle Reve.

Next to him in the passenger seat, Nicole sat up straighter at the sight of an Onyx Pest Control Management truck sitting in front of the old white-columned mansion. “I don’t remember making an appointment for the house to be sprayed.”

Lucas cast her a glance. “Maybe your aunt did.”

“Maybe.”

He turned off the engine and both of them got out of the Lexus. Lucas followed Nicole around to the back of the house to find Rachel sitting at the wrought iron table on the terrace. She rose as they approached.

“What’s going on?” Nicole asked. “I didn’t think we had anything scheduled with pest control today?”

“A problem came up,” Rachel said.

“What kind of problem?” Lucas asked.

Rachel sighed. “Cockroaches. Thousands of them, if you can imagine. I found a cluster of them under the sink in the hall bathroom.” She shook her head. “I’ve never seen so many, all of them crawling around on top of one another.”

She shuddered. “I started looking, and they were everywhere. The bathrooms, under the sink in the kitchen, the laundry room. Under the bar sink in the den.” She crossed her arms and hugged herself. “I hate bugs, especially roaches. I called the exterminators and they came right over.”

Lucas glanced up as two men in white suits carrying spray canisters walked out the back door from the kitchen: one was bone-thin, his suit baggy around his long, skinny legs; the other was chubby enough to stretch the waistband of his suit to the limit.

“You’ve got a real mess on your hands, Ms. Belmond,” the thin man said.

His name, Lenny, was embroidered in blue on his uniform.

“We’ve done the best we could for now. We got a good percentage of ’em, but there were thousands.

We’ll need to come back the end of the week and spray again—probably more than once.

In the meantime, you best hire someone to clean up all the dead ones.

You don’t want ’em to start smelling up the house. ”

Rachel’s face went pale. Nicole looked as if she was about to throw up.

“What caused this?” Lucas asked. “We live in Louisiana. In this climate, we’re used to bugs, but thousands of cockroaches? That isn’t normal.”

“No, sir,” Lenny said.

The chubby man, Waldo, agreed . “Never seen anything quite like it, but they’re here just the same.

” He pulled a billing pad out of his uniform pocket, filled in the information and the charges, tore off the page, and set it on the wrought iron table.

“A check for the full amount would be appreciated.”

Nicole picked up the bill, her eyebrows arching at the amount.

“Emergency fee,” Waldo said.

She looked back down at the bill. “How about a credit card?”

“That’ll do.”

Lucas resisted the urge to pay the damned bill. He knew better than to offer. Eventually they might be able to discuss Belle Reve’s money problems. From the fierce look on Nicole’s face, he knew that time wasn’t now.

She retrieved her purse from the Lexus and handed Waldo a credit card. He wrote down the billing information, then shoved the pad back into his uniform pocket. “Call us the first of the week and we’ll set up another appointment.”

“Thanks for your help,” Rachel said.

Lenny smiled. “Happy to be of service, ma’am.”