Mark of Damon by Eva Chase Page 0,25

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“I don’t want to assume so,” Jin said. “But it’s a respected gallery. There might be some big buyers who check out my work. Whether they like it as much as the gallery owner does…” He shrugged, but the hope shone through his grin.

“Between this and the gazebo, you’re on a real roll lately.” Gabriel waved his fork at Seth. “What gave you the idea to put that thing together anyway? Was it something Rose mentioned that you ran with?”

The big guy shook his head. “No, I just figured—I mean, knowing her tastes.” He paused. “It’ll probably sound a little crazy, but I’m finding the memories of what we’ve been through—all the bad stuff from last year—are hitting me harder now and then. Almost like I’m back there. It made me want to do something new, and also to reconnect with my dad while I was at it. I hadn’t let myself think much about how I’d been keeping my distance after he got hurt.”

Ah ha. So, my rant about how the other guys had been covering up the problems in their own lives hadn’t been totally off the mark.

I’d have gotten more than a split-second of satisfaction out of that realization if Jin’s expression hadn’t tightened in the same moment.

“The memories,” he said. “You said it’s like you’re back there. Like they totally overwhelm what you should be seeing—and hearing, and feeling—in front of you?”

Seth gave him a curious look. “Yeah. It’s only happened a couple of times like that. Why?”

“The same thing happened to me a few days ago, seeing the fire in the gallery. It’s part of the reason I agreed to go ahead and do this exhibit.”

An icy trickle ran through my gut, deepening as Ky nodded slowly. “I’ve had a couple of moments like that too. Weird. I wonder if it’s just something about it being a whole year now.”

Gabriel glanced around the table. “If it hasn’t been happening before now and it’s affecting at least the three of you, you should probably bring it up with Rose as soon as she’s back. It sounds like it could be some sort of magical effect.”

It did, didn’t it? All starting so recently… since around the time my scar had really been acting up.

But I hadn’t cast any of its energy toward the guys. The vivid memories could be happening simply because I’d pushed them in a completely non-supernatural way to confront the stuff from the past they’d been suppressing. It didn’t sound as if what they’d experienced had hurt them any.

Gabriel turned his bright gaze on me. “Have you had anything hit you like that, Damon?”

Had I? I thought of the echoes of my mom’s insults when I’d been fixing her sink… the impressions I’d gotten of the guys’ unsettled emotions around the table that other night… but none of those sounded like what Seth, Jin, and Ky were talking about.

I shook my head. “Sounds like something that might just pass.”

“Yeah. We can hope so.”

When I’d gulped down the rest of my dinner as fast as humanly possible, I wandered out back away from the guys and stood in the darkness at the edge of the garden. The sweet floral smells of the summer blooms barely registered in my mind. Mr. Hallowell’s words were echoing there too loudly.

Your only real hope is to figure out what they want and give it to them as swiftly as you’re able to.

What did the demons want from me, after all? I thought I’d been denying them. I couldn’t be that wrong, could I?

I rubbed my arm through my shirt. The mark wasn’t prickling at all right now. Rose’s dad had only wanted to make me doubt myself. Rose had taken so many risks for us—how could I give this power up when I could still do so many things for her with it? I’d screwed up a little today, but that was understandable while I was still getting the hang of it.

If Rose checked out the other guys and decided some power had been acting on them, I’d tell her everything immediately. But if I hadn’t been affecting them in any unexpected ways… I could take a little more time to get my act together. I owed her that much.

Chapter Ten

Gabriel

“Thanks again,” said the buyer I’d found for the Jaguar as she got into the driver’s seat. The woman looked like a female version of Rose’s father, poised and cool, so the purchase seemed fitting.

I raised my hand to