20. Cade

20

CADE

M orning came too early. The winter's sun assaulted us as it streamed in through the windows and across the bed where we slept. We were still tangled up together, and the male morning alarm clock of my rock-hard cock had found a nice warm place to rub up against.

"Keep that up, bear-man, and there'll be trouble," Jay whispered.

I threw my arm around him and caressed his taught muscles, making my way down his torso until I found his own rod standing at attention, happy that it was morning.

I tugged on him.

Jay moaned as he snuggled into me but shifted his legs, so I had more access.

"I could wake up like this every morning," Jay whispered while wriggling a free hand to wrap around my own meat.

"I wouldn't say no to that." I nibbled on his ear.

Jay's body tensed, and then he shimmied away from my grip, but spun around to face me.

"Really?" His breath was warm against my face as we attempted to keep our words as soft as possible.

I kissed him.

"Despite all this shit that's going on, yes, Jay, really. You're a good man. I've seen how you handle Sam, how he's the most important thing in your life. You're dedicated to your job, and you are involved in your community. Those are all qualities I really admire. I mean, the gym body is kinda sweet." I tweaked one of his nipples, teasing him. His cock twitched against my leg. "I know this is probably way too early for this conversation. In several respects."

I slid my hand down and gripped him again, gently pawing him.

"My God, you turn me on. But you're full of surprises. Your world isn't anything I would have ever believed in, and frankly, it scares me. But your heart is kind. Now that you'll be living here in Camrose, and once this whole debacle is over would you want to…like date?"

"Jay McClaren, are you asking me to be your boyfriend?"

"Well, I don't know if we have to put labels on it…but I guess?"

I kissed him and stroked him some more. I didn't let go until his body told me he had let go of the conversation and given in to the sensations of physicality.

"Yes," I whispered into his ear. "I will be your boyfriend. Or at least we can properly date each other and figure out if that's something the both of us are happy with."

Jay kissed me back. "Cade?"

"Yeah."

"I'm going to come."

"Something you should know about me…"

Jay moaned, then stammered out, "What's that?" He bit his lip and shuddered.

I kept stroking him. "I don't like wasting loads. If you're going to make a mess, it had better be in my mouth."

"Oh, shit." Jay scrambled up and slid his dripping, shiny, rock-hard erection into my mouth, and the second my tongue touched his throbbing cock, he burst.

With each thrust, another spurt landed on my tongue. I swallowed every drop until Jay fell forward, smothering me.

It wasn't a bad feeling.

"Oof, sorry." He climbed off of me, then snuggled up and cupped my nuts. "Come on, bear, your turn."

I gave him a kiss. "Later. It sounds like people are up, and we have work to do."

Jay stopped and we went silent for a moment. Sure enough, the sound of clinking dishes and cutlery could be heard coming from the kitchen. "Damn." Jay frowned.

"It's okay. Apparently I got myself a boyfriend now who I can call on when I'm in need." I gave him a wink, flipped the covers off, and went about finding some clothes.

As soon as I was dressed, I left Jay, who was still putting himself together, and walked barefoot into the kitchen. Coffee was at the top of my priority list.

Sharon sat on one of the bar stools at the kitchen counter, doomscrolling on her phone, while Sam had the TV on, watching some cartoon while he shovelled cereal into his face. I chuckled, then noticed that Sharon had made a pot of coffee.

"How long have you been up?"

"Really? After last night? I didn't sleep. At all."

"Oh," I said.

"And yes, I heard everything. You're not as quiet as you'd like to believe," she whispered. "Let me just say this — you hurt him, I hurt you."

"I have no intentions of hurting Jay." I said, suddenly feeling a little clammy. I'd never been threatened by an ex before.

"Oh, I'm talking about both of them. And this whole ghost thing. Apparently you're the guy to fix it. Get it fixed. This business is bullshit."

I had my orders.

Sharon left shortly after a cup of coffee and once Jay emerged from the bedroom. She pulled him aside to have a private conversation that looked very heated and intense. Then she gave Sam a kiss on the head and left in an Uber to go to the hospital.

Jay came sauntering over to the counter where I was about to finish my second cup of Joe. "You okay?" I asked over the rim of my mug.

"Yup."

"You sure? That looked…fierce," I said.

"It was. A stern warning to say the least. But I get it. She might have some generational gift, but she's a hardcore science girl. She won't give into this, and she doesn't want anything to happen to Sam. Despite that, she likes you."

"Really? How could you tell?"

"Because she didn't want to murder you on the spot, and she's willing to leave Sam in our custody while we get this sorted."

"A ringing endorsement."

"Actually…it is. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. She's tough, but she'll defend those she loves with everything she's got." Jay came around to where I stood and playfully bumped shoulders with me. "Kinda sounds a little like your family. Doesn't it? Don't worry. She'll warm up to you."

"I don't know, apparently we weren't as quiet as we thought."

"Ha!" Jay had started to pour himself a cup of coffee, and almost spilled it. "Well, at least I don't have to explain that part to her."

I instantly went red with embarrassment. "She knows though. Right? About — you know — you're dating guys?" I asked, suddenly worried that Jay sleeping with another man would have been a shock. I flushed a little harder, thinking about that potential scenario, and me being the one standing in front of his ex, smelling like sex.

"Oh, ha! No, she knows. Again, she'll make it tough for you at the beginning. You succeed and pass in her books, you'll be part of the family. Stick around. It's gonna get all kinds of fun."

I relaxed a little with that, but still, Sharon was not someone to trifle with. "Well, the fun is only going to ramp up for you too, I think. We're not done with the dead quite yet. Shall we go search for a book?"

"Ugh, do we have to?"

"Yes." I gave him a wink, then waved him to come with me as I walked down the hall toward the primary bedroom and the secret witch room. Sam, being the good kid he was, continued to ignore us, while watching his cartoons. But out of my periphery, I spied him tracking us, and I suspected he had listened to every word we'd said.

"Oh my God, how many damn books did this woman own?" Jay opened yet another box filled to the brim with tomes, scrolls, and assorted diaries. There were at least another half-dozen boxes left. The floor of the secret room was littered with the box contents we had already pilfered.

"It's a witch thing." Sitting cross-legged on the floor, I flipped through the pages of one of Shirley's many notebooks. I wasn't finding anything that looked like it would help us locate a reaper. The musty smell from the books was making my nose itch. I knew most liked the smell of old books. I did not.

"Some of these things are creepy as fuck." I glanced over at Jay, who had made colourful commentary on his discoveries from the treasure trove of witchy items. He held, between a pinched forefinger and thumb, a small wire-bound book. It's outside cover appeared to be black leather. There were glyphs etched into the skin. The minute I laid eyes on it, I wondered.

"Jay, toss that over here."

"Gladly." He pitched it over to me, and I caught it, but the minute my hands touched it, my skin crawled. The room seemed darker. The air heavier. This book held nothing good between its pages. "If I were a betting man?—"

Very cautiously, I opened the book, only to be greeted by an exhalation of breath, not from me, or from Jay.

The room became very cold, and very dark.

"Jay, am I seeing things?"

"Nope. I'm freezing, and we need lights in here." Jay cocked an eyebrow as he stared at the tiny black book. "Is that thing safe?"

"Absolutely not." I didn't want to pursue this. Dread filled my every thought as doomsday scenarios played out in my head.

With trepidation, I flipped to the next page.

La Livre de la Morte

"This is the book!" I exclaimed.

"Great. I just knew it. It couldn't have a little glittery unicorn on it or be a nice shade of pastel pink. It just had to be something made out of human skin and breathe on its own." Jay paled slightly.

"We are trying to find a reaper. I can't imagine they'd take interest and show up by offering cupcakes and teddy bears." My fingers were ice cold from holding the book. Jay wasn't wrong though: this shit was dark.

I flipped through the notebook, looking for something that would give us what we wanted. After studying several pages, I chanced upon a sole paragraph – something I had been looking for – at least we'd found one piece of useful information. A description of reapers, and it was in English.

Reapers: Also generically called Death. Solitary creatures that are neither dead nor alive, they are the bridge between life and death. Extraordinary long lives with the sole purpose of ensuring the departed are escorted to their next destination. They do not show the doorway, they are the doorway. Can only be exterminated by decapitation or complete destruction of the physical form. NOTE: Killing a reaper has serious consequences. Do not attempt.

I continued to peruse the book. A lot of the contents were in French, not surprising, given the title, but there were Latin, Italian, and what I thought might be Welsh languages in here too.

"How many languages did Shirley speak?" I asked Jay, shocked at the variety I saw.

"Ah, English as far as I know."

"Huh, wild." I continued to peruse the pages; Jay looked over my shoulder.

With every turn of a page the room seemed to get colder, darker. We were damn near at the end of the contents when finally…

"Invocation de la mort," I said, brutalizing the accent. "I'm pretty sure this is what we want. But it's all in French, and my knowledge isn't that good."

"That's easy." Jay whipped out his phone, tapped a few buttons and held his phone over the page. The camera captured the words written and immediately translated the spell.

As Jay and I read it together, my blood went cold.

"We're not doing this," Jay whispered.

"We don't have much of a choice." I swallowed, hard. Knowing what I had to do. "This is my responsibility."

"No one is doing this. Period." Jay's mouth turned downward, not quite a frown, nor a grimace, but somewhere halfway between. "Absolutely not." He put a hand on my shoulder. "Besides, where the hell are we going to get ‘the heart of someone recently passed over', or ‘the essence of the dead'? He was deliberately missing out the biggest component.

The touch turned into a tight grip, as if holding me in place. As much as he attempted to forbid what needed to come next with that gesture, I knew that he knew it had to be done. And not speaking the most heinous piece of the summoning meant he was trying to ignore the reality.

The only way to get a reaper to show up, was to die.