Read Online Dalton, Tymber - Fire and Ice [A Triple Trouble Prequel] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) by Tymber Dalton - Free Book Online Page A

family.
    “What?” Lina asked again.
    He shook his head as the other three men entered the kitchen. Zack’s finger scrolled down the page as his lips silently moved while he read. When he reached one passage, his jaw dropped in shock.
    “Holy fuck.”
    “Zack, please,” she said. “What is it?”
    He looked at Kael, then Lina. “Edgar and Lenny used Kael’s family for an occlusion spell.” He slammed his fist against the table, making the large, heavy piece of furniture shake. “That’s how they did it. The fuckers used Kael’s family for the occlusion spell. But they needed one more victim to do a third person.” His gaze once again fell on Kael. “There was at least one more person in on this. Were you supposed to be home that day?”
    In obvious shock, Kael nodded. “Yeah. I’d gone out hunting with some of my friends. But I was supposed to be home. Normally would have been home.”
    “Son of a bitch,” Rick said, sitting at the table and spinning the book to get a better look at it. “So they had at least one accomplice.”
    “Yep,” Zack said.
    Lina reined in her irritation. She refused to lose her cool when they were talking about Kael’s family. Unfortunately, she couldn’t make heads nor tails out of the book’s text. Although most of the pictures were fairly gruesome and gave her a pretty good idea of the meaning of the accompanying text.
    “What is an occlusion spell?” she asked. “What did they do to his family? How do you know for sure there’s another accomplice?”
    Zack glanced at Kael, who nodded. In a soft, sad voice, Zack explained. “The spell they used—the whole book, really—isn’t just black magick or dark spellwork. It’s evil sorcery at its worst. When Jan said this was like a metaphysical cookbook from Hell, he wasn’t far off.”
    He took a deep breath. “An occlusion spell allows someone to pass themselves off as someone or something else. It might not make them totally look or smell or whatever like their intended target, but at the very least it nullifies them so that they appear ‘normal’ to whoever it is they’re trying to fool.”
    “Okay.”
    Zack took another deep breath. “I’m guessing, based on their victims, that they were trying to pass for dragons. Or at the least, to pass the sniff test with dragons. This spell requires an equal exchange of an adult for an adult, or if it’s a child victim using more than one, for the spell to be effective. They killed them, and then both drank and bathed in their blood.”
    Lina felt the world spin. Jan and Rick rushed to her side and helped her into a chair.
    “Get her a bucket,” Zack told them. “Looks like she might urp.”
    She felt like she might urp. When she got hold of her nervous stomach, she looked at Zack. “Okay, so how do you know there were three murderers?”
    Kael heavily sat in another chair and scrubbed at his face with his hands. “Because those notes they made in the margin to modify the spell is to occlude three people, using not just my sister, but me, too.”

Chapter Ten

    Zack watched as Kael composed himself. He finally sat up and shook his head. “I think we now have a prime suspect in Bertholde’s murder,” Kael said.
    Not wanting to disagree with him, but knowing he had to speak up, Zack stepped behind him and put his hands on his lover’s shoulders. “But not the only suspect, unfortunately. We don’t know if Lenny had help or not in Yellowstone. The fire destroyed his camp and his truck, including all evidence except for what Brodey and Lina brought back with them.”
    Kael laid a hand over Zack’s. “I know.” He sounded beyond weary. “But I can hope. How many of these fuckers can there still be in the world? They’re antisocial as fuck, normally. Their powers are diluted from years of inbreeding with each other and breeding with humans.”
    Lina nodded. “Lenny was already dead when Bertholde was murdered. It can’t be coincidence that the knife she was