I let go of the door and stepped inside.
“What do you have behind your back?” The words feathered from my lips, barely a whisper.
Josh’s face changed from the sweet, kind expression he always had, to something hard. He was someone I didn’t recognize.
“I have exactly what you think I have,” Josh answered, his voice cutting. He pulled the grimoire out from behind his back. He was wearing black leather gloves but I barely registered them, my gaze hooked on the book. The power of it surged, dragging at my body like a tide.
It’s in the last place you would think to look, Sarah’s voice replayed in my head. “How did you know where to find it … did you hide it there?”
“Try again,” he said in a dreamy, almost taunting tone.
I didn’t have time to play games. I swallowed down a dry throat and edged forward, holding out my hand. “You need to give it to me. I’ll take it somewhere safe.”
Josh smiled, but there was a cruel, calculated callousness in his eyes. “Do you really think I’m going to hand over the most powerful book in history to you?”
Georgie interlinked her hands in front of her lap. Her face was calm, trusting, but she didn’t know much about the grimoire. She didn’t understand the damage it could do.
“Josh, if that book ends up in the wrong hands, there will be a war. Lots of innocent people will die.”
Josh’s face twisted into something dark and bitter. “Innocent people, people like Leah, do you mean?”
Confusion rattled in my brain. I studied his face. Josh looked furious … He looked sad, hurt. Too hurt. “You knew her?”
A low snarl slipped as he bared his fangs. “Leah was my sister, and you two murdered her like she was nothing but trash.”
Georgie’s hands quivered as if she was slowly registering what was happening. Still, she didn’t move.
It all fell into place. The feeling I’d had, the pull to go to Rodney when he opened the cupboard. Leah must have hidden it there. It wasn’t the best hiding place, but maybe I had interrupted her before she got the chance to hide it someplace else? I remembered Mary had caught Billy searching for money at the top of the cupboard, so maybe it was where her family hid things and that was how Josh knew where to find it.
Shock took the words from my lips for a long moment. “I’m sorry … we had no choice. She tried to kill me.” It sounded pathetic coming out. As if Karson couldn’t have subdued her.
Josh snorted. “Sarah was right, Karson destroys everything he touches. He took my family from me.” A whine slipped through his voice and his eyes watered. “I was a witch, Amy. Not a strong one. The powers seemed to evade me.” Bitterness crept into his tone. “But most of my family are witches, and when I was turned, they wanted nothing to do with me. They hated me.Leah was a train wreck. She only cared about getting her next fix, but when I came back into her life she tried,” his voice cracked, “she really tried to be the sister that had been stolen from me. We were slowly becoming a family again. She let me babysit and I loved those kids. When Karson turned me, Billy was only three, Lottie was a toddler, and I couldn’t trust myself to be around them for years as I struggled with the thirst. Leah told me to stay away and I did, I fled the city. After all, I had no one left. But I came back a few months ago when I had the thirst for blood under control, and she was going to let me back into their lives again. Thenhekilledher. He destroyed my life. He destroyed your life. Don’t you see, with this.” He jerked the book out. This time I took notice of the gloves he wore—black leather gloves. The same as the ones that held the blade that killed Mary.
I shook my head. This wasn’t Josh, not the Josh we all knew and loved. His grief had made him angry. He loved Mary, adored her like she was his family, he’d never hurt her.
He moved out from behind the bar, stopping near Georgie, and swallowed. “Don’t you see, we can raise an army and finally be rid of him once and for all.”
I understood his pain, his grief. I wanted revenge. I wanted to see Karson suffer. I wanted him dead. I had just fucking stabbed him. We could raise an army of immortal witches with that book. I was tempted. Then I remembered, it was witches that started this whole thing.
“At what cost? How many innocent people would have to die to get revenge?” I pleaded. “This isn’t the way to do it.”
“This is the only way to do it,” he erupted.
I could throw him, pin him against the wall, but it could be hours before anyone came home. My powers hadn’t fully recovered after the powder, and I’d used what little I had left throwing Rodney. I knew they wouldn’t last that long in my weakened state.
“We are your family now, Josh, Georgie and me. Billie and Lottie, they need their uncle, they need you.”
His face softened at the mention of the children. I dragged in a shaky breath and edged closer. “Those kids need you in their lives, Josh.”
“They need me because Karson murdered their mother.” His voice shook with grief.
“Are you working with Sarah to get revenge?”
“No.” He smirked and his voice came out like silk-wrapped poison. “I’ve never even met her. I merely took advantage of the situation. I knew anything that happened would be blamed on her.”
“And yet you let Leah in, didn’t you. She could have killed Billy and Lottie. Why did you do that?”
Perhaps the accusation was enough to jolt him. The smugness fell from his face, replaced with anguish and desperation. “She told me she was only meant to leave a message for him. Then she swore she’d leave. Sarah promised her a nice house to live in, a place she’d have everything. Once she had her lust for blood under control, we could all live together.”
