Easton comes back and holds the phone over Abby’s face, unlocking it. “I’m familiar with this system,” he tells me. “Give me a few minutes and I’ll have it removed.”
“There’s a camera on the porch too. It’ll show Roger coming up to the house.”
“I’ll take care of it.” He turns and goes into the office on the other side of the foyer to use the computer. I turn my attention back to the door, wiping it down two more times for good measure. Then I move over to my sister, who still looks disturbingly peaceful lying the ground covered in blood.
I wipe up the blood around her and stand up, feeling slightly woozy. Get it together, Callie. Abby’s shirt is soaked in blood. I can pull off the glamour it will take to make her see herself as she was before, but I’m going to need to get her to get out of her clothes and into the shower sooner rather than later. And then…then…fuck. I’m going to have to take her clothes and throw them away.
Once I’ve cleaned up what I can from the floor, I gather all the paper towels and go into the kitchen, telekinetically pulling a grocery bag out of the open cabinet under the sink. I shove the paper towels inside and then take the neatly folded towel hanging on the dishwasher. I run it under water, wring it out, and then go back to the foyer to clean up Abby’s skin the best I can. I go back into the kitchen, passing the bathroom, to rinse the towel. The bathroom is closer, but I want to keep the contamination as minimal as possible.
Easton helps sit her up so I can clean up the blood from her back and on the floor beneath her. Then I wipe down the few pieces of the broken ginger jar that were splattered with her blood.
“What are you going to tell her?” Easton asks when we get things as put together as possible.
“She was on the way to answer the door, thinking it was her neighbor,” I start. “She slipped, grabbed the entryway table, and took out the ginger jar in the process. And you were at the door. You had some demon news and that’s why you stopped by.”
“I think that’ll work. But, uh, what about the blood?”
“I’ll have her go take a shower. We actually just got back from the spa, and she did mention that she has to shower after a massage because the oil makes her feel too greasy. When she’s in there, I’ll take her clothes. The glamour will keep her from noticing the blood washing off her too.”
Easton nods. “Yeah, that’ll work. She’ll shower when you’re still here?”
“Eh, I can be very influential. And you’re going to ask to talk to me in private about demon business. I’m going to come back in after we’ve talked so I can keep hanging out with Abby until her husband and daughter get back so I can say hi to them.”
“I can’t find anything wrong with that, assuming your Jedi mind tricks work.”
“They will.” I hold my hands over Abby, ready to wake her up. Fuck, here goes nothing.
Chapter 2
“I can’t believe that worked.”
I watch Abby go up the stairs and then I turn, giving Easton an annoyed look. “You should know better than to doubt my powers.”
“I wouldn’t say I doubt them, but I am surprised that went a lot smoother than I expected.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” I look back at the floor where Abby’s body laid only minutes ago. There’s a streak of blood that we couldn’t get while she was lying down, and I need to quickly clean that up. Easton gets the broom and starts sweeping up the small pieces of the broken jar, and I feverishly clean up the rest of the visible blood. Then I sneak upstairs and tiptoe into Abby’s room. The shower is on, and while I haven’t been in Abby’s bathroom before, I’m sure the shower has a glass door and I can’t sneak by unnoticed.
Dammit. I could really go for Ruth’s invisibility spell right now. The next best thing I can do is a cloaking spell, which won’t prevent Abby from seeing me if she was staring right at me, but it will keep her from looking.
Using magic to unlock the bathroom door, I peer in. Thank the fucking stars. I was right about the bathroom being super fancy, and there are his and her closets right inside the entrance to the bathroom. Abby’s laundry basket is inside her closet, and her clothes are on top. I grab them and dash out of the bathroom, silently shutting the door behind me.
I’m back downstairs in a flash, and Easton is holding another grocery bag, ready for me to put the bloody clothes in.
“Thank you again,” I tell him as he adds that bag to another. He’s taking everything blood-covered from the house to dispose of elsewhere.
“You’re welcome. I figured I still owe you from that time I kind of tried to kill you.”
“You never actually followed through,” I say with a half-smile. “And I think this makes us even.”
I rub my temples as exhaustion crashes down on me. So much for a relaxing day. The universe has it out for me, I swear.
“You have some explaining to do,” he tells me. “Where is Roger’s body and how the hell did you heal your sister?”
“I don’t really know where Roger is, but I’m guessing he’s in Hell.”
“Assuming Heaven and Hell are real, then yeah, I’d guess he’d go to Hell too.”
“They are real, and I don’t just mean his soul. I think his body is there too.” My mind is racing, and I don’t see a good way to get out of this without telling Easton the truth. Part of it, at least. He just helped me clean up a crime scene, after all.
“I have to tell you something about me, something that even after all you’ve seen, will still be hard to believe.”
“Okay,” he says slowly.
“Let’s sit down,” I say because I’m feeling a little sick again and need the room to stop spinning. We go into the kitchen and sit at the island. I grab a saltine cracker and take a small bite. “Do you remember the man who walked me down the aisle at my wedding?” I ask, not sure if Michael allowed anyone to keep the memory of him.
“Yeah,” Easton answers, tipping his head as he thinks. “I can’t recall what he looks like, though, which is weird.”
“Not really, he probably did that on purpose.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Because of who he is.” I take another bite of the cracker. “He’s my father. My real father. I’m not a Martin, and I’m not…I’m not fully human.”
Easton leans back in the barstool and looks at me, waiting for me to go on. I like being the center of attention from time to time, but this is awkward. Might as well spit it out and get it over with. “I’m a Nephilim, and that man walking me down the aisle was an angel. So was the other guy who was with him.”
“You’re not joking, are you?”
“No. I didn’t know until recently.”
Easton plows his hand through his hair and looks me up and down. “Fuck.”
“I know.” I shake my head. “One of my family members healed Abby and took care of Roger’s body. You can’t tell anyone, okay? I don’t want to magically bind you into keeping the secret, so promise me.”
Easton’s head slowly bobs up and down. “I promise.”