Haunting Magic (Book 6 of the Ink Series)

Unknown

"What do you mean you killed someone?" Slade asks.

That's what I want to know too. I take a seat, too afraid to leave. I need to know what the hell is going on with this guy.

"A shaman."

"A shaman! What the fuck, Dax?" I assume killing a shaman isn't good, judging from the language coming from Slade's mouth. "Shit... fuck. And the first place you come is here?"

"What else was I going to do?"

Slade sighs. "Not drag me into this."

"Then I'll leave. I knew you would blow me off just like before."

I flinch at the sound of something thudding, it shakes the whole house.

"Are you fucking kidding me? Are you joking me right now?" Slade's anger is way worse than I ever heard. "If you weren't my brother I would kill you."

"Then it's settled. What room should I put my bag in?" What an arrogant prick. If he thinks Slade would just open our home to him without talking to me first he doesn't know his brother anymore.

"The last room on the left upstairs." I stand corrected. I fight back the anger and betrayal and stand. If Slade will not do something I will.

"You don't think you should talk to your wife first before you let a murderer into our house?" Yeah I said it. I stand in the doorway, looking at Slade waiting for a logical response. I don't get why he is letting this guy call the shots.

"It's only temporary." Slade turns away, picks up the mess in the dining room and leaves the room. Dread stays behind mocking me. As well as his psycho brother that now is a problem for us all.

"Well, I guess you've won for now." I glare at him, so pissed off I can't breathe. "But that doesn't mean I won't knock some sense into him." And with that I walk away.

***

"What do you want me to do? Throw him out on the street?" Slade tosses our throw pillows off the bed one by one. "He's my brother for fuck sakes. You have two living here and you don't see me bitching."

I take off my rings and place them in the tiny glass bowl next to our bed and pick up the lotion. "That doesn't mean that's what I want." I squeeze lotion in my hands and set it back on the nightstand. "I didn't imagine our first year married muddled with family members and murder."

Slade slips his shirt over his head and unbuttons his jeans. Instead of throwing them in the laundry basket I keep inside the walk-in closet, he throws them over the chair by the window. "I'll take care of it. I'd be an ass to throw him on the street considering what the hell happened."

I lift my brush and work it through my hair, still annoyed. "I'm sick of always helping everyone out. When is it going to just be about us?"

"Really?" He jerks up the blankets on the bed. "You sound like a whiny brat right now. This is life. Things happen, things you might not want anything to do with. You can either help or be an asshole."

"Sometimes you have to be the asshole. You used to be good at it." If he still was we wouldn't have my brothers and now his brother living with us.

I put the brush down and stare at myself in the mirror. Dark circles were never my thing and now they radiate from me, they are fused with my soul. I shake the thought of premature aging out of my head and snap the light off and climb into bed.

"Good night." He kisses me on the cheek and drops back onto his pillows.

"You mean you have nothing to say about my asshole comment?"

He shakes his head. "Nope. You're being a whiny brat right now. Maybe after you get some sleep you will see things clearer."

I huff and roll over, my back to him, I slip my hands under the pillow and close my eyes. But sleep isn't coming. Music is playing down the hall. And if I can hear it I am sure Slade does.

"You have got to be kidding me," I sit up and groan. "I am married to a man in a band and I can't sleep in my own house in peace?!" I walk to the door and fling it open, heading down the hallway. I open the first door where Elliot sleeps and find nothing but the stale stench of old socks and an unmade bed.

I throw open the next door, Easton's room and find just about the same besides the television being on and his window open. I slam the door and move on to the last bedroom and open the door.

"What the hell is going on?"

Slade is behind me at this point. He grabs me by the waist and moves me out of the way.

"We were just playing around," Dax says, dropping the cigarette in his hand right there on the carpet, he snuffs it out with his foot. Elliot puts his out in his beer can and sits down on the bed avoiding eye contact with me. And Easton tries hiding his beer behind his back.

"They aren't even twenty-one." I take a deep breath to keep from knocking Dax's head off his shoulders. "I want him gone. Figure out what the heck is wrong with him and fix it because he will not corrupt my brothers."

I push past Slade and go back down the hallway to our bedroom. Slade tells him how bad he pissed me off. I don't know if I believe his sincerity. I don't know what to believe.