Ghost Writer - Pandora Pine Page 0,76

Cope’s tongue to ask what came later, but the look on the young man’s face turned from one of utter sadness to terror.

“I must go. He’s coming.” Brooks wrung his hands together and looked ready to bolt.

“How do we help you and the others?” This was the most important question of all. Cope needed this information so he and Jude could rescue Brooks and the others.

“Musgrave may have hated witches, but that didn’t stop him from using their powers.” Brooks cast a fearful glance behind him and was gone.

Cope felt his knees give out underneath him. Jude lowered them both to the hardwood floor of the hallway. “It’s just the tip of the iceberg, Jude.” Needing to anchor himself to something solid and sure, Cope set his hands on either side of Jude’s face.

“You think there’s more? More what? More atrocities done to the men and women he held captive in that schoolroom? Or more atrocities in other prominent houses around the city?” Jude shivered.

“Yes. All of those things.” Cope was bound and determined to make sure Father Musgrave’s reign of terror ended here and now.

“Brooks said Musgrave used witchcraft. It’s a good thing we know the best witch in town.” Jude pressed a kiss to the side of Cope’s head.

Madam Aurora would help them. Cope was sure of it. Unfortunately, they didn’t have anything solid to give her. Musgrave had used some sort of binding spell, but which one?

“I need a shower and then I want to cuddle with my baby.” The only way to combat evil was with love. The only way to combat black magic was with white. Thankfully, their family and friends had an overabundance of both.

34

Jude

After another near sleepless night, Jude was ready for this case to be over. He was grumpy, under sexed, and so damn tired he could fall asleep standing up.

As had become the usual, Wolf was more than happy to be handed off to Kaye. The little boy barely noticed his parents leaving, with Everly and baby Aurora to keep him company.

Jude knew it was for the best, that his son was confident enough in them to know they weren’t leaving him forever. But on a morning like this, Jude would have appreciated his son maybe crying a tear over his leaving. He didn’t even get a hug from Everly or Aurora. Both girls seemed as wrapped up in Wolf as he was in them.

“What crawled up your ass and died?” Cope asked, when they were in the car and on their way downtown for their meeting with Madam Aurora.

“Neither of us are sleeping, we’re barely eating, and my dick hasn’t been this dry since 2007.” Jude knew he sounded like a baby, but he didn’t care.

Cope managed to cover his snort with a cough. “Do I even want to know what happened?”

Jude blasted the horn at a driver who tried to cut him off in traffic. Christ, he really wasn’t in the mood to deal with any of this bullshit today. “There was this guy back in Cheyenne. I liked him, but he thought I was a man-whore, which I was. He said he didn’t want to be with a man who’d been with every other man in town. I quit sex cold turkey and ended up jacking off so much I sprained a tendon in my right hand. I had to go to physical therapy.” Jude snorted. “Imagine explaining that to the doctor when he asked how I hurt my hand.”

By now, Cope wasn’t bothering to hide his laugh. “You’re making that up! I can’t imagine you giving up sex for anything.”

“It’s true, alright. Not only was the guy fucking the hot bouncer at the club, he was doing the same with the female bartender.” Ellery had been handsome as sin, and he used his looks to gain every advantage possible. It was crazy thinking about him now, Jude hadn’t spared the man a thought since the day he’d driven out of town twelve years ago.

Still laughing, Cope managed to ask, “How did you celebrate the end of your celibacy?”

Jude stiffened at the question. He wasn’t quite sure he wanted to give his husband the answer. They had no secrets from each other, but this story from his past didn’t exactly fill him with pride. It had, on the other hand, filled him with cock. Several of them. “You could say I got back on the horse.”

“Uh, huh. Exactly how many horses were in your corral?” Cope raised an