Jace wasn’t quite as keen on his own attire. The fitted forest-green jacket wasn’t so bad, but the knee breeches and buckled shoes were asking far too much of him. He didn’t care how many eyelashes Aggie batted at him or how many threats she muttered, he wasn’t wearing either of them. So yeah, he was wearing a formal sixteenth-century jacket with his worn blue jeans and his biker boots, and if anyone had a problem with it, he’d call it a night and leave early. He didn’t particularly want to go to this party, but he knew how upset Eric would be if he bailed, so he’d show up. No promises that he’d stay, however.
“You’re going to be the only one dressed like that,” Aggie said, grinning at him in the mirror and shaking her head at his mismatched style. Mismatched style? Hell, his millennia were mismatched. He knew Eric and Rebekah liked to play make-believe, but he preferred to keep his head firmly planted in reality. And right now his reality was how stunning his wife looked in that fucking dress. He didn’t care if he made a complete ass of himself by showing up half baron/half biker. No one would be looking at him anyway. Not with that stunning woman on his arm.
Thomas, a voice whispered through his head.
Jace started.
The bedroom door slammed.
Aggie paused with her lipstick halfway too her mouth. “A draft?” she asked.
“Must have been,” Jace said. “Did you hear someone say the name Thomas just now?”
Aggie’s eyes darted to one side. “No,” she said, drawing out the word. Her eyes darted in the opposite direction and she bit her lip.
She actually looked unsettled. Jace had never seen Aggie anything but badass and confident. He’d seen her attack an armed mugger once. In the end, Jace had been shot twice, and she hadn’t had a scratch on her. The woman didn’t do frightened. It was as if she didn’t possess a fear response. At least that’s what he’d always assumed. He didn’t like the trembling of her lips as she smeared them with a soft pink lipstick, a shade he hadn’t known she’d owned.
“Me neither,” he said with a chuckle he hoped didn’t sound false. “Just messing with you. You aren’t scared are you?” He hoped a challenge would remedy her of any lingering anxiety.
“Well, it is Halloween,” she said.
The bedroom door creaked open again. Jace turned to stare at the empty doorway, his heart thudding high in his chest. He didn’t see anyone. But he felt someone there. Watching them.
Something cool brushed his cheek.
A chill slid down his spine.
“Wow, that’s some draft,” Aggie said, rubbing her hands over her arms. “I think we’d better get going.”
She rose from the dressing table and for a split second, Jace caught the reflection of a light-haired woman in the mirror. She was wearing the same green gown that Aggie had donned, but the resemblance stopped there. He blinked and stared hard into the mirror. It was just Aggie now. Apparently he’d been seeing things.
As well as hearing things.
And feeling things.
He grabbed Aggie’s hand and tugged her toward the front door.
“Yeah, we’d better hurry,” he said. “I’m sure we’re late.”
Lights glittered in lanterns posted along the otherwise dark pathway that led from the cottages toward the field that separated the quaint set of cottages from the main castle. Jace’s breath plumed before him in the chill of the night.
“It’s cold out here,” Aggie said. “Let me go grab my wrap. You pulled me out of there so quickly, I left it on the bed.”
“I’ll get it,” Jace volunteered, though he honestly did not want to go back into the cottage. He suddenly had a bad feeling about the place. And as little as he wanted to go in there, he wanted Aggie to brave it alone even less.
“Don’t be silly. Just wait for me,” she said and went back inside.
The expansive field between their accommodations and the castle was dark. Fog slowly rose from the ground in twisted wisps. Jace looked up at the castle in the distance. The windows glowed with inviting warmth. Every nerve ending in Jace’s body was on high alert. He wanted to be inside the castle, surrounded by others, not out here alone in the dark. Normally he preferred to be alone or in an intimate group of those he loved, but he was craving a big anonymous crowd to get lost in at the moment.
Jace caught movement out of the corner of his eye. A pale mist moved through the field of grass beyond the cottage lane. It was human-like in shape and moving toward the castle. A trick of the light reflecting off the fog, he told himself.
Thomas, who is she? A voice whispered behind him.
He spun around. Aside from the pale stone of the nearest building, there was nothing there.
Thomas?
“Okay, who the fuck is in here?” Aggie yelled inside the cottage. “This isn’t funny, Eric. Where are you? Hiding under the bed?”
Suddenly the cottage seemed like a very nice place to be. Jace dashed inside and found Aggie yanking the closet open and pushing through the clothes hanging there.
“What are you doing?” Jace asked.
“Some jerk is trying to scare me,” she said and pointed at the mirror.
He is mine was written on the glass in pink lipstick.
“Uh, yeah,” Jace said, grabbing Aggie by the arm and pulling her out of the closet. “Let’s go now. Right now.”
Aggie grabbed her wrap off the bed and allowed him to haul her out the front door again. He shut it before taking her hand and dashing toward the castle as if the ground was caving in behind them and they were trying to escape falling into the depths of Hell.