Exes and Exorcisms by Keira Blackwood (uplifting book club books .txt) 📗

the ground, call her a monster. You do know how to put on the charm, don’t you?”

She sure sounded like Kelly.

“What’s going on?” Joe asked. “You two seem to know each other, but there’s a lot of hostility. There’s history here...fucked up history.”

Kelly shot him a look. “Way to read a room.”

The scent of confusion carried off of Joe in waves. It wasn’t the scent of magical manipulation, either. It seemed like neither of us fully knew what was going on here.

“We used to date,” I told him.

Joe nodded knowingly. “So you’re not going to kill her, right?”

Kelly raised a brow in challenge, daring me to say otherwise.

“You’re a vampire,” I told her. “But you sound like Kelly.”

“Because I am Kelly. Did you hit your head?”

Her words rang true. I would have heard it if she was lying. I would have felt it. But somehow, somewhere inside her vampire exterior, was the woman I loved.

“I won’t hurt her,” I told Joe.

“Good, because you two have some seriously weird vibes going on. And I don’t need to be a part of it.” He grabbed his shirt from the floor and his jacket from the hook by the door and left.

“You let Peter get away,” Kelly told me as she gathered some of the tools that were scattered across the floor.

I bent down to help her, setting a sketchbook and a tattoo gun on the tray. “Who’s Peter?”

Her eyes flicked to mine, then back away. “The idiot who ran upstairs. If he’s locked himself in my room, I won’t forgive you.”

A smile pulled at my lips. It had been so long since I’d smiled. The air was different when it was just the two of us, charged like it always used to be when we were together. She was still my Kelly, same as always. Only now she didn’t breathe. And there was something about her, a newfound confidence, though I couldn’t put my finger on why I thought that was the case. She’d always said exactly what she was thinking, so it wasn’t that.

“Tell me it was him who murdered the human, and not you,” I said. It was a plea, though I did my best not to let it sound like it.

“What?”

“Someone found a human in the woods, torn nearly in half, all of his blood drained,” I said. “That’s what brought me to Forbidden.”

“Ohhh, you mean that asshat Ryan something or another. One of Marla’s clients. Complete dirtbag. Andy killed him.”

I was getting a lot of names, but I didn’t know who any of these people were.

“Where is Andy?”

Kelly shrugged. “Dead, of course. Do you truly think I’d let a murderer hang around in my town?”

I guessed I wasn’t so sure anymore. But this was Kelly. She might be a stronger, supernaturally enhanced version of the abrasive, gorgeous woman I loved, but she was still Kelly.

“The answer is no,” she said. “Forbidden is shifter-run, and vamp-protected. Protected by me, if that wasn’t clear. No one kills anyone here and gets away with it.”

Kelly didn’t kill humans.

She seemed to think her friends didn’t kill humans either, but I couldn’t say I trusted Peter. Whatever was going on between them when I’d arrived, it hadn’t been friendly.

“Where can I find Andy’s remains?”

“You can’t,” she said. “He’s dust. Poof. Gone.”

Or course he was. There’d be no way to confirm that. But I could tell Kelly was telling the truth.

Kelly strolled closer, looking every bit a predator on the prowl, and every bit the sensual woman she had always been. Her sweet scent filled my lungs as she leaned in close to inspect me. It was heady and fruit-like, that of a lotus at dusk. It was wild and unfamiliar, yet undeniably alluring.

Her gaze flicked from my mouth to my chest, then to my arms. She said, “You’ve been working out.”

Vampire hunting kept my senses sharp and my body strong. I decided it was better not to say that part out loud.

She ran a hand over my bicep, sparking my dick to life. It was a simple touch, nothing sexual about it. Except this was Kelly, and with Kelly, everything was charged. With a smile, she could make me want to kiss her until her lips were swollen and she could hardly breathe. With an insult, she could make me want to tie her to my bed and tease her until she pleaded for my cock.

She placed her palm softly on my jaw. Her brilliant blue eyes softened and my throat and jeans tightened in response.

“I don’t like the scruff,” she said with a condescending tap on my cheek, like I was a puppy dog.

I opened my mouth to respond, aimed to tease her right back.

This was us.

But then something slammed loudly on the floor above us, scraping, and then banging. We both looked up to the ceiling, then Kelly eyed the stairs.

“I need to deal with this,” she said.

Peter was definitely trouble. I just hadn’t decided what kind yet.

I started after Kelly, but she stopped me with a hand on my chest.

“No,” she said. “You need to leave.”

“I thought you were dead and I was wrong,” I said.

“I thought you were an arsehole and I was right. Time for you to go now.”

I laughed. I’d just found the woman I loved who died, and she was alive-ish, and she expected me to walk away?

“No way,” I said. “I finally found you. I’m not going anywhere.”

4

KELLY

Arsehole men shouldn’t be allowed to have lickable biceps. They shouldn’t have strong jaws or kissable lips. Forest green eyes shouldn’t be permitted, especially when they somehow made my insides melt and my non-beating heart race.

Men like Xavier Breene should look like walruses and smell like dung beetles.

“You’re really not leaving,” I said to Xavier. “Seriously? There’s nothing for you here.”

“There’s you.” He gave me the sexy grin he’d always tried to use when he knew he’d made an arse of himself and wanted me to forgive him.

Fortunately for him, it usually worked.

Unfortunately