The Taking (Seven Deadly Sins #3)(24)
Author: Erin McCarthy

Felix could feel his own anticipation for the meal, feel the pleasure of the innocuous domestic scene, smell his mother’s floral perfume, and see the crisp newness of his gloves. He even turned and saw the exterior street through the floor-to- ceiling windows. The houses across the street were well maintained and attractive, and a couple strolled by, an idyllic neighborhood scene.

“Are you taking the carriage?” his mother asked his other self.

“I’m of a mind to walk. Have a wonderful evening.”

His mother nodded, and then she and he were gone, the parlor receding, the room disappearing like a carpet being rolled up and hauled off. There was a brief moment ofdarkness, where Felix hovered in nothing, then the sound came first, of ladies laughing, their sweet high-pitched voices unnatural in the emptiness. The visuals returned, rushing back at him in a blur of color, like butterflies’ wings, and he was in a different house, surrounded by proper ladies.

They were attentive and twittering, their chairs arranged in a circle in front of him, their expressions rapt as they batted eyelashes and flicked fans in the summer heat.

“That is fascinating, Mr. Leblanc,” one brunette said. The girl next to her whacked her arm with her fan, and the original speaker made a moue of distaste at her friend. “What? It is.”

The friend who had smacked the brunette said, “Mr. Leblanc, I fear that your intelligence so greatly exceeds my own that I am having trouble following your lesson. Perhaps you might be so kind as to repeat your thoughts again for me at the end of the session?”

Outrage played over the brunette’s face and she sat up straighter. “I think I could benefit from additional instruction as well, Mr. Leblanc. Would you be so kind?”

They were flirting with him, that was clear, and he felt his own smug satisfaction in the scene. Then Felix saw the cashbox behind him on the piano bench, the lid slightly askew. It was stuffed with bills, hundreds of dollars, and he knew that it was his money.

He was rich and he had everything he had ever wanted. Everything he had ever wanted…

The scene crackled in front of him, the sound that of fabric tearing, and then it was gone and he was back in the grip of the man with many names, the glow of his amber eyes dimming. He dropped Felix’s hand, and the loss of that vise-like grip had him stumbling backward in the courtyard, his skin throbbing where they had touched, not from pressure, but as if it had been warmed from the inside out. Felix glanced down, afraid his hand had been seared, but it looked perfectly normal. It just felt as if it had been shoved into the fire.

“Who are you?” he whispered to the man.

“The genie of your lamp,” he said with a smile. “I have shown you what I can give you.”

Felix shook his head. “I don’t understand… how…”

“Your mother raised you with voodoo secretly, didn’t she?”

He didn’t answer, the warnings of his mother too engrained in his mind. They were never to tell his father.

Of course, that no longer mattered.

“Yes.”

“Then you understand the gods and goddesses and that if you please them, they will help you achieve your desires. That is me.” The man turned his hand over so his palm was up, and on it rested a wedge of bread. “For you.”

Fear and fascination mingled together, and Felix’s heart raced. He should walk away, turn his back on whoever and whatever this man was. Because he knew that you never got everything you wanted without paying a price, and this man, this creature, would exact a high price, he was sure.

But his mouth watered at the thought of eating the warm, crusty bread, and he could smell its yeasty freshness. His stomach growled, an aching pit of desperation, and his hands trembled from exhaustion and hunger. The warnings his brain were whispering were drowned out by the urgent cries of his stomach, and getting lost in the vapid fog malnourishment had created in his thoughts.

He reached out, stretching his arm, hand trembling, saliva filling his mouth, and he accepted what was being offered him, with no real understanding of what that even was.

“Do you regret any temptations you’ve resisted?” Regan asked him, crossing her legs, her fingers flitting over the top of her coffee cup.

He’d made her nervous.Felix smiled at the irony. “No, for me it’s the opposite. I wish I had learned fortitude earlier in life. There are a number of things I should have resisted.”

His greed had driven him to accept the demon’s bargain, his greed had led him to his dalliance with Camille. And he had paid for both. Harshly.

“I’m not sure I’ve ever really been tempted to do anything,” she said in a thoughtful tone. “I’ve never been a risk taker. I guess marriage was a temptation, but like you, I wish I had resisted that urge.” She shrugged like it no longer mattered. “Have you ever been married?”

“No. Never even tempted.”

Regan laughed.

Felix smiled at the sound. She had an innocent, joyous laugh. Regan was an interesting woman to be around. Despite what she was doing, starting a new life and fighting Alcroft tooth and nail to get out of her marriage, there was nothing cynical or bitter about her. Anxious, yes, but not hardened. He found that intriguing, refreshing.

Every minute that he sat there in clear view in a public place increased his risk of being caught with her, of facing retribution, but he didn’t want to leave. There was a quiet peacefulness about just sitting there with her, and he enjoyed her company. But he didn’t want this to turn into yet another temptation he wished he had resisted. Punishment would be swift and harsh and painful.

Then again, Alcroft had given up, accepted a divorce. Maybe it had been his pride that had led him to resist the end of their marriage, instead of genuine affection or an agenda. Maybe he wouldn’t care what or who Regan did now.

Or maybe that was a horrible rationalization on Felix’s part.

He tapped the cover of Camille’s journal, the initials mocking him. “Are you going to try to research who this belongs to?”

“Yeah, as soon as I have some time. There are some clues. The date. And the fact that her entire family died that year in a yellow fever epidemic. Her grief is so stark, so palpable. It just broke my heart to read about it”

What the hell was he supposed to say to that? “I’m sure.”

“I’ve been wondering if it happened in my house … if all those people died there.”

“Would that bother you?”

She shook her head slowly. “I guess not. I mean, it was a long time ago. It’s just a house, four walls and all that. But I’m not going to lie, it makes me sad. I don’t want my house to have been a sad house.”