Kindling the Moon (Arcadia Bell #1)(61)

He nodded. “That’s why my halo looks like this. Both my parents underwent the spell before I was born. I had it cast on me when I turned eighteen. After I started dating Yvonne, she found out about it and wanted it done too. I should have said no, but I didn’t.”

“What exactly does it do? I mean, was your empathic power not as sharp as it is now, or …?”

“It allows Earthbounds to transmutate.”

“Huh?”

“To shift. To become less human, more demon. Your powers are ramped up, and not … tempered by your human nature like they normally are.”

I stared at him, dumbfounded. I’d never heard of such a thing. “So you can do this? Transmutate?”

“Yes.”

“What happens when you do?”

“I can read emotions really strongly, and pick up a few conscious thoughts too.”

“Oh.”

He cleared his throat. “I can also manipulate emotions. Temporarily change the way people feel.”

Wow. That didn’t sound good. “Have you done that to me?”

“Huh?” He squinched up his eyes like I was crazy, then shook his head. “No. You’d definitely know if I transmutated. It’s not something I can sneak by you.”

“Oh, okay.” I thought about it, then my mind turned back to his ex-wife. “What is Yvonne’s ability? Why do you hate it so much?”

Silence.

“Don’t ask me that right now,” he pleaded in a soft voice. “I’m not trying to hide anything from you, and I will tell you eventually.”

He reached for me, and I flinched.

“Please,” he whispered, and picked up my hands in his. He looked down at them, stroking my fingers. We were silent for a moment, not looking at each other.

“I didn’t mean to get started on all that, but I suppose you’d find out soon enough any way. What I meant to say about my behavior last night is that I was mad at myself for being indirectly responsible for putting my own child in danger in the past. Granted, I’m not happy that he got hurt, and I’m not saying I think it’s no big deal.” He leaned his head to the side to catch my eye. “But I don’t blame you for what happened.”

“Okay,” I said lamely.

“Honestly, Jupe’s seen me do magick before, so if you did something wrong, well, I have too. Jesus, you’re shaking like a leaf.”

“Too much magick,” I conceded with a wry smile. “I get drained, and … it doesn’t matter.”

He gave me a tender look, then squeezed my hands firmly, as if that would help.

“Maybe you haven’t thought this all the way through,” I said after a few moments. “I mean, I would never do anything to hurt Jupe on purpose. But you were right the first time—it is my fault. Like you said, I’m a magnet for trouble. I’m not a good person to be in Jupe’s life. He deserves someone more stable. I mean, look at me. I’m holding a kidnapped girl in my basement. What would Father Carrow say about me now if he knew that, huh?”

“Well,” Lon said in a diplomatic voice, “I can’t think that he would approve of kidnapping, or of injuring her, but I’ll bet he would give you a little slack for the situation you’re in. And like Jupe told me, the girl did have a gun, and she didn’t seem all that sorry about slamming my kid’s arm in a door. You might have saved our lives, like Jupe thinks you did.”

“Hmm.”

“Besides, no offense to Father Carrow, but I’m more concerned about what opinion my son has of you right now.”

“Why?”

“Because you might be the first woman Jupe and I have both agreed on.”

My heart vaulted. A cautious hope threaded through me. Did he mean that?

After a short silence he dropped my hands and asked, “So how did you get her back here last night?”

“Uh … taxi?” Umm, yeah. He wasn’t buying that. I reckoned if he was being honest, I should too. “All right. I kinda stole a car.”

He closed his eyes in resigned annoyance.

“But it’s been returned, good as new. The door was unlocked, so I didn’t have to break the window or anything. Bob even put gas in it.”

“Bob?” he said, narrowing his eyes.

I sighed. “He’s this guy at the bar. A regular. He’s a pretty good healer—Earthbound, of course—so I asked him to come over and help her out.” I tilted my head toward the basement. “Told Bob that she was my cousin, and that she’s the one who stole the car. Him and his buddy drove it back to La Sirena. Bob’s got a crush on me, so he was happy to do it.”

He made a low, disapproving noise. “Are you and this Bob …?”

“What? God no! Bob is a supernice guy, but he’s kinda like a stinky stray dog with one leg—you feel sorry for him, but not enough to bring him home.”

“Hmph.”

“If you met him, you’d understand.”

“I don’t handle jealousy well,” Lon said. “I’m warning you.”

“Well, I’m a bartender, so I get hit on a lot. I’m just warning you.”

“I don’t like to share.” I could tell by the way he said it that he meant it.