The Redeeming

by Jennifer Ashley

The woman opened the door and peered around it. “Yes?”

  “I’d like to speak to Ms. Townsend, please.”

  “She isn’t in. I’m her personal assistant. Is this about our petition?”

  Samantha didn’t know what petition she meant, but it was a good enough opening. “I have a few questions for you.”

  The woman opened the door and let them in. Samantha noted that she didn’t feel any witch wards on the doors, nothing to keep out the death-magic creatures they purported to loathe. But perhaps they couldn’t do anything so blatant in a large building in downtown Los Angeles, where many death-magic and life-magic creatures worked side by side.

  Tain walked in behind Samantha. The assistant stared at him, her eyes narrowing. “You’re with the police?”

  “I’m not,” Tain answered, cryptic as ever.

  The assistant flushed and looked uneasy, but she gestured for Samantha to sit in a square, hard chair in front of the desk. Tain positioned himself behind Samantha’s chair, silent and still.

  The woman introduced herself as Melanie Atkins. “What is it you need to know?”

  Samantha began with innocuous questions—how long had the group had been active, what were their objectives, who was Ms. Townsend?

  “Ms. Townsend is an amazing woman,” Melanie said with obvious hero-worship. “She gives us hope for a better world.”

  Samantha scribbled notes. “I heard that at a meeting yesterday Ms. Townsend insulted her guest speaker—Leda Stowe—who then walked out.”

  Melanie looked prim. “That was unfortunate. I’m afraid Ms. Stowe took some of the remarks the wrong way. Has she complained to the police?”

  “Not as far as I know,” Samantha answered. “Ms. Townsend then gave a lecture on how to kill demons?”

  Melanie’s flush deepened. “In self-defense only. Demons are so much stronger than we are that we need all the knowledge about them we can get.”

  “Humans killing demons is just as illegal as demons killing humans,” Samantha pointed out.

  “Yes, but so often demons get away with it. Look what happened last year.”

  “Last year was a different story.” So far Melanie had given Samantha little more about the organization than Tain had told her—this was all probably on the brochure. “I’d really like to meet with Ms. Townsend. Can I set up an appointment?”

  Was it Samantha’s imagination or did the woman’s nervousness shoot sky high? “She’s out of town.”

  “Really?” Samantha let the word fall. “She left quickly.”

  “No, she didn’t. She’d planned this. A little vacation.”

  “Fine, then I’ll talk to her when she returns.”

  Melanie gave her a look of suspicion. “Why do you want to see her at all? She’s done nothing wrong.”

  “I never said she had.” Samantha stood and Tain moved to stand right behind her. “Last night, the matriarch of one of the demon clans was murdered, her heart cut out, using the exact method Ms. Townsend described at her rally. I’d like to know where Ms. Townsend was between the hours of seven and eight last night.”

  “On a plane to Pennsylvania,” Melanie said without hesitating.

  “Do you mind if I look at her itinerary?”

  Melanie stood up, covering her agitation with a brisk manner. “Yes, I do mind. You can’t march in here and make accusations. You have to have a warrant.”

  She’d certainly watched her television. Samantha said, “If I can assure myself that Ms. Townsend was on a plane or in another state during the murder, then I won’t have to bother her.”

  “Murder, you keep calling it. The woman was a demon, as you are.”

  Samantha tensed, and behind her Tain shifted. “Why do you say that?” Samantha asked.

  “You’re not full demon, but you have demon blood. I can tell.”

  “Really? How?”

  “I have some magical ability,” Melanie said, sounding proud. “I can see it in your aura.”

  “I’m half demon,” Samantha said sharply. “It doesn’t make me any less able to do my job.”

  “Of course it does. You’ll side with them.”

  Melanie slid open the desk drawer and took out a piece of crystal that had thin wire twisted around it. She held it up, letting it sway back and forth as she began whispering words, and Samantha felt suddenly weak.

  Tain stepped forward and wrenched the talisman from Melanie’s hand. Melanie gasped and shrank away from him.

  “We’re going,” Tain said.

  Samantha didn’t argue. Tain put his hand under her elbow and steered her quickly out of the office, tossing the talisman into the nearest trashcan. Out of the corner of her eye Samantha saw Melanie scuttle for it, but Tain had Samantha down the hall and into the elevator before Melanie could retrieve it.

  The elevator doors closed with a thump. Samantha leaned against the wall, trying to catch her breath, as the elevator slid smoothly downward. “I think I can consider that attempting to assault a police officer,” she said, wiping her sweat-coated palms on her pants. “Thank you.”

  Tain said nothing as they walked past security and made it to the parking garage on the other side of the street. Tain opened the driver’s side door for Samantha after she unlocked her pickup, then he rested his arm on the roof and looked in at her.

  “I want you to move to the Malibu house with Hunter and Leda,” Tain said. “You’ll be protected there.”

  Samantha, startled, looked up at his grim face, his shadowed blue eyes. “What? Why?”

  “Because I have to go, and I might not be back in time to stay with you tonight.”

  Her heart sped. “Why? Wherever you’re going, I’ll go with you.”

  Tain touched her cheek. “Do you trust me, Samantha?”

  A difficult question. Samantha wanted to trust him. Her initial attraction to him had deepened into something intense, and she couldn’t decide whether to embrace the feeling or flee in terror from it. She wanted to embrace him then fall asleep in his arms after making fantastic love with him.

  In the back of her mind was the worried question—if she let him go today, would he ever come back?

  Samantha reached up and touched the tattoo on his cheek, letting a spark of his life-essence arc into her fingers. “I don’t want you to go.”

  He kissed the palm of her hand. “It’s necessary.”

  Tears pricked her eyes, and she blinked them away. “Can’t you give me a hint?”

  Instead of answering, Tain said, “Stay with Leda and Hunter while I’m gone. It’s the only place you can be protected. Go there now.”

  There was nothing wrong with his arrogance. “I can’t leave Pickles alone.”

  “I’ll tell Hunter to fetch him. Hunter’s good with animals.”

  “Tain . . .”

  Tain leaned into the car and kissed Samantha with firm lips, cupping her cheek with strong fingers. “Go.”

  He straightened up and stepped back. Samantha thought of a dozen more arguments, suppressed them, put the truck in gear, and drove away.

  Trust him. The thought swam through her head even as worry twisted through her gut. He needs someone to trust him.

  As she drove out of the garage, Samantha looked into the rearview mirror at the stretch of concrete she’d just left, but Tain was gone.

  “He went where, exactly?” Hunter demanded.

  Samantha sat on a voluminous sofa in the Malibu house’s living room with Pickles on her lap, facing the inquiries of Hunter and Leda. Leda, at least, didn’t interrogate her, just made strong coffee and looked worried.

  “I don’t know,” Samantha answered. “He wasn’t about to tell me.”

  Her demon senses quailed at all the life magic in the house, even though Hunter had dampened the wards to let her in. Hunter’s aura was almost as strong as Tain’s, and Leda was a powerful air-magic witch. The house belonged to Adrian, the oldest of the Immortals, and his magic permeated it. Samantha had stayed here before, and had thought
she’d be used to it by now, but she wasn’t. The combination of all three life magics was formidable.

  Hunter sank down on a chair, his green eyes troubled. “Adrian told me to look after Tain while he was down here, and now I go and let him disappear.”

  “We can’t keep him on a leash,” Samantha said. “He’ll never be fully healed if we don’t let him go whenever he needs to go.”

  Hunter drew his hand through his tawny hair. “You have to understand. We lost him for such a long time that all of us are constantly scared we’ll lose him again. Even Kalen calls about him, and believe me, it takes a lot to motivate Kalen to communicate with the rest of us.” He gave her an open look. “We love him, Samantha.”

  “If you do love him, you have to show him that by letting him go,” Samantha said. She’d spent the drive up here repeating the same words to herself.

  Pickles, oblivious, climbed up on Samantha’s shoulder, his claws pinpricks through her shirt. She saw via the large mirror across the living room that he was staring with interest at Mukasa the lion pacing down on the beach.

  Hunter’s green eyes narrowed, and he pinned Samantha with a knowing stare. “You love Tain too.”

  Samantha softened. “’Fraid so.” She tried a smile. “Even if he never loves me back, I can’t help it. I’m trusting him, whatever it is he’s up to, because I need to.”

  “I understand,” Leda said, setting down another mug of coffee. “Believe me.”

  Samantha saw in her eyes the brave compassion of another woman caught by an Immortal. They are hard to love, the look said, but worth every second of it.

  Tain investigated what he needed to in the building that housed No More Nightmares, using a little misdirection magic to keep people from noticing him. He’d become very good at that while a captive, some part of him becoming expert at hiding his true self from Kehksut.

  That tiny hidden part of him had been his salvation. Samantha had reached it, allowing Tain’s brothers to then bond and pull him out. He remembered the anguishing pain when his true self had emerged at last, the reluctance with which he’d been dragged back into the light.

  Returning to the light meant acknowledging his torment and loneliness, facing his pain head-on instead of hiding in madness. Tain’s brothers had ripped the scab from his very deep wound, and Tain had bled for a long, long time.

  Tain discovered what he wanted in the building and departed, heading for the roads that led out of town. He didn’t have much cash left, so he traveled the way he’d learned in the last year—he walked along the side of the highway and stuck out his thumb.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Samantha returned to work, assuaging Hunter’s and Leda’s concerns by having Logan drive her. Logan emerged from the car in front of the house when Samantha came out, and laughed when he saw Pickles touch noses with the lion Mukasa, before the two cats strolled away together.

  “At least someone’s enjoying his captivity,” Logan remarked as they pulled out and headed down the hill. “It must be hell for you having to stay in this luxury house on the beach with better security than Fort Knox.”

  “The view is nice,” Samantha admitted. “Though all the life magic in there makes me dizzy.”

  Logan shot her a look of concern. “How are you holding up?”

  “I’ll be all right. They’re trying to keep down the magic without jeopardizing the protection.”

  “Any word from Tain?”

  “Not yet.”

  Logan drove for a few minutes without speaking. He turned onto Sunset, making for the freeway, traffic quickly hemming them in as soon as they left the on-ramp.

  “You know,” Logan said as they inched along. “I’m not the kind of guy who interferes in my friends’ personal lives. And one of the things I like best about you is that you don’t pry into mine.”

  Samantha studied the cars packed onto the freeway on either side of them. “I figure if it’s important for me to know something about you or your past, you’ll tell me.”

  “And I appreciate that,” Logan said.

  “But . . . ?” Samantha turned to him. “I hear a big but coming.”

  “Something’s on your mind. You look at me, then look away— like you need to tell me something, and you’re not sure how. You can give it to me straight, Sam. Does McKay want to fire me?”

  Samantha’s eyes widened in surprise. “Good Lord, no. You’re one of the best detectives in the division. Why would you think that?”

  “Don’t know—you’ve seemed jumpy around me the last couple of days.”

  “Well, I’m sorry if I worried you.”

  “What is it then? I wouldn’t push you, but I’m feeling the tension. What’s up? Or is it the whole matriarch dying thing?”

  The traffic opened out a little, and their speed picked up to an even 30 mph. Samantha faced Logan, deciding to stop being a coward.

  “Tain told me I need to imbibe life essence in order to survive. That the demon in me does it instinctively.”

  Logan gave her a nod. “That’s probably true.”

  “He said I must have taken some from you without knowing I was doing it.” When Logan said nothing, Samantha’s heart gave a painful throb. “Oh, gods, he was right, wasn’t he?”

  Logan moved his shoulders in a shrug. “I don’t mind so much.”

  Samantha sat up straight, her mouth open. “Are you insane? You let me do that to you without trying to stop me? Without saying anything?”

  Logan kept his eyes on the traffic. “I thought maybe you did it to all your partners.”

  “This isn’t funny. I had no idea . . . When did I?”

  Logan started to smile. “You do it in tiny bits at a time, like when you touch my shoulder or shake my hand or whatever. Maybe the demon part of you can’t resist the powerful life essence of a badass werewolf like me. You never take very much, and it doesn’t hurt me.”

  “Son of a bitch, Logan. Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

  Another shrug. “What was there to say?”

  Samantha balled her fists. “Are you kidding me? So if I were a vampire and bit your neck every time I saw you, you wouldn’t mention it?”

  “That’s different.”

  “It’s exactly the same,” Samantha nearly shouted. “Maybe the life-essence sucking isn’t as obvious as a vampire drinking blood out of a vein, but it’s just as bad. How did you feel when you found out you’d been partnered with a demon?”

  Logan’s smile died. “Compared to being with some of the wolves in my pack, hanging out with you has been absolute bliss.” The bleak anger in his eyes surprised her. “You’ve never hurt me, Samantha, and I was grateful I could do something for you. You were patient with me when I was a newbie detective.”

  “Wait a minute—are you telling me things were so bad in your pack that having a demon suck on your life essence was better?”

  “You have no idea.” Logan stopped talking as he navigated through some tricky traffic. “Let’s just say I was happy to start over again.”

  “Wow.” Samantha turned her gaze out the front window again, studying the dented trunk of the older car in front of them. Logan closed his mouth again, finished with the discussion. Samantha wondered again what on earth had happened in his pack to make him leave it—especially if he’d been high in it, as Tain had suggested—but Logan had just finished telling her how refreshing it was that Samantha didn’t ask a lot of questions. When Logan was ready to tell her, he would.

  She let out a breath. “It was easy to be patient with you when you were a newbie detective,” she said. “You’re a good cop, Logan.”

  “Thank you.”

  Samantha leaned back in the seat. “And it’s handy to have a partner who can turn into a sniffer dog.”

  “Aw, thanks.”

  Samantha shared a grin with him then lost the smile. “I’m still not sure how I feel about you not telling me I took your life essence,” she said. “When I figure it out, I’ll let you know.”


  “Hey, any time you need my life essence, it’s here for you.” Logan gave her a sideways glance. “Although I have the feeling you don’t need it so much these days.”

  Samantha thought about the wild, white-hot sensations she experienced when she joined with Tain, and her face heated. “Remember back when we didn’t talk about our personal lives?” she asked, her voice light. “I liked that.”

  Logan gave her a nod and a laugh. “I’m right there with you, partner.”

  They turned to discussing the matriarch’s murder and what Logan had discovered, which hadn’t been more since Samantha and Logan had parted ways at the matriarch’s mansion. Logan and McKay were still going over the statements and tracking down whatever maintenance and repair workers had come to the estate. Forensics was still analyzing and would tell them what they’d found on their end when they were done.

  Samantha listened, trying to bury herself in the facts of the case, but she couldn’t quite shut out the new tension between herself and Logan, nor her deep worry about where Tain was and what he was up to.

  Tain braced himself on the hard bench backseat of a pickup as it started bouncing along on bad shocks down the I-15. He’d found rides all the way out to Barstow, then walked along the freeway again as the sun had set. The two friends in their truck saw him and stopped for him, and the driver good-naturedly told him to hop in. Tain found himself squeezed into their backseat between a large cooler and an even larger tawny-colored short-haired dog, who was currently asleep.

  “So where you headed, bud?” the driver asked as the sun sank behind them. He had a grizzled beard and a head of wiry, graying hair. His friend looked much the same.

  “Not sure yet.” The information Tain had found at No More Nightmares mentioned a hideaway out in the deserts on the California-Nevada border, but hadn’t been specific about where.

  The driver burst out laughing. “Anywhere but here?”

  “Something like that.”

  “Yeah, I hear you. I’m Ed,” the driver went on. “This is my buddy Mike.”

  “Tain,” he responded.