Tain touched the image, feeling empty spaces inside him, before he tapped the button that would bring up his list of phone numbers.
The phone blipped, the readout saying, “No Service.”
Tain thoughtfully shoved the phone back into his pocket. Another advantage to having a meeting place out in the middle of nowhere, was that no one could secretly call for help.
He scanned the ruins again and asked clearly, “Who are you?”
Tain’s voice echoed around the canyon and up to the slit of open sky. After a long few minutes, a small rain of pebbles dribbled from a shelf above, and someone stepped out onto the ledge.
“You were followed.”
Tain looked behind him, trying to probe for an aura, but he still felt as though he pushed through molasses. “I know that, Ms. Townsend.”
The woman drew herself up, no longer wearing the smart suit she’d had on at the lecture. Tonight she wore a flowing black robe, colorless, and hiding her body.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“A traveler. Who are you?”
Ms. Townsend laughed. “I am the voice of vengeance, the hand of justice. Through me, the world will be rid of darkness, and life will shine once again.”
“Will it, now?” Tain answered. “That’s interesting.”
Ms. Townsend looked down at him with icy hauteur. “It will be done. I have been chosen.”
“Who chose you?” Tain asked.
She didn’t answer. “This barren world will be green again, when all the death creatures are gone.”
“This part of the world is supposed to be barren,” Tain pointed out. “And death magic has to balance life magic, or there’s chaos.”
“There is chaos now.”
“Not really.”
As Tain spoke he thought through ways he could ascend the walls and snatch her, truss her up, and drag her back to Samantha for interrogation. Nothing would be easy, but he would try.
“You feel weak, don’t you?” Ms. Townsend went on. “Your magic is gone. It’s not beings like you who will heal the world, it is us. Through me.”
Her eyes were like windows of darkness as she looked down at Tain. Tain wondered if someone channeled magic through her—if that it was possible in this place. If they could, it confirmed something he’d found when he poked around the matriarch’s house by himself, something he wasn’t yet ready to tell Samantha.
“I’ve seen what the imbalance can do,” Tain said. “Now I seek to maintain the balance.”
Ms. Townsend’s lip curled. “Ah, yes, the so-called balance of life magic and death magic. Propaganda from the death realms so right-thinking people won’t swoop down and eradicate the demons. Demons have invaded our world, running what they call businesses and clubs. They’ve oozed their poison into our lives, and now it will cease.”
Tain drew his second sword and crossed both blades in front of him, pouring every bit of magic he had into them. Despite the dampening field, he might be strong enough to at least knock the woman off the ledge, and once she was on the ground he had more than enough physical strength to subdue her.
“No,” she shouted down at him. “I am chosen!”
Sudden darkness surged behind her, and she floated out over the canyon like an enormous bat. Tain reached up with a snake of white magic, but it dissipated before it could reach her.
Ms. Townsend continued to float across the rocks, untouched, until she disappeared into the shadows on the other side of the canyon. Tain started climbing toward the ledge on which she’d stood, rocks and pebbles sliding under his feet. About halfway up, the cliff became sheer with no handholds—he’d need rope to go any farther.
Tain scooted back down in time to see glowing eyes vanish into the shadows of the cliff face below. He straightened up and brushed off his coat.
“Come out,” he said. “I heard you.”
Chapter Eighteen
A gray timber wolf walked out into the moonlight, a huge male with a powerful body and thick fur. It stopped a few feet from Tain and lowered itself to its haunches without fear.
Tain spoke in a low voice, aware of how sound carried in the still air. “Did you come on your motorcycle?”
The wolf made no indication that he understood, but rose and slowly walked toward the entrance of the canyon. Tain followed.
The night was quiet again, no sounds of pursuit from behind, and no hint of Ms. Townsend anywhere. As they walked, Tain felt the restraining field lessen, and his magical strength return. Not long later, the cliffs receded and a chill breeze from the open desert washed over him.
The wolf padded back down the wash to the unpaved, rutted road where Ed and Vonda had left Tain. He turned aside and led Tain over a slight rise to another wash, which was nothing more than a narrow slice in the desert floor. A motorcycle had been shoved behind a thick stand of brush, its Harley Davidson logo gleaming.
The wolf’s body elongated as it rose on its hind legs, his features contorting and twisting until they resolved into those of a man. Tain turned away so Logan could grab his clothes, though Logan, like most shifters when they changed, didn’t seem bothered by his own nudity.
“I got your call,” Logan said as he pulled on his T-shirt. “Why didn’t you want me to tell Samantha I was meeting you?”
“Because she would have insisted on coming.”
Logan grinned. “True. She’s one tough lady. But when it comes to strong magic, I like to go in first, and she doesn’t always appreciate that.”
“No.” Tain smiled slightly and pulled the motorcycle from the wash, propping it up to wait for Logan to dress. Tain pictured Samantha’s outrage when she learned he and Logan had investigated this place without her. “You’re protective of her,” he said.
Logan shrugged. “I’m a wolf. I like to take care of my friends.”
There was more to it than that, Tain suspected. He didn’t pursue it, but Logan’s answer confirmed his idea that Logan was high in his pack—the closer to pack leader the wolf was, the stronger his need to protect.
“When you disappeared into the canyon,” Logan said, “I became the wolf to follow you by scent. Then the vortex hit me, and I couldn’t change back.”
“Is that what it is?” Tain glanced at the ridge in which the canyon hid. “A vortex?”
Logan nodded. “You get a lot of vortexes out here in the desert—places where energy and magic collect. Some vortexes enhance magic, some cancel it out. I’ve never felt a dampening one as strong as this, though.”
“You know a lot about what’s out here,” Tain said.
Logan shrugged. “I’m a biker. I explore roads other people don’t.”
Tain looked back at the ridge. “The Townsend woman was possessed by something, and the vortex didn’t seem to suppress that.”
“Well, there’s definitely something weird about these No More Nightmares people.”
Tain leaned against the bike and folded his arms while Logan pulled on his jeans and boots. “Something unusual about you, too.”
Logan looked up sharply. “Look who’s talking.”
“There can’t be much you don’t know about me by now,” Tain said. “Whatever Samantha hasn’t told you, I’m sure Hunter has. But no one knows much about you. First I thought you might be a pack leader, but I’m guessing you were Packmaster.”
Logan stopped. “What would make you think that?”
“Because a leader wouldn’t walk away from his pack. He’d fight to the death rather than choose exile. But a second-in-command might leave—in fact, if shunned by the pack, he’d have to.”
Logan turned his face to the moon, his tawny eyes glittering in the white light. “The pack is no longer part of my life. I made my decision.”
“Did they force the decision on you?”
Logan sighed, his expression bleak. “It’s something I’d rather not talk about, if you don’t mind.”
Tain was curious, but he more than anyone recognized the need to leave the past
in the past. “If you promise me the reason won’t hurt Samantha, I won’t ask you.”
Logan relaxed enough to grin again. “Now who’s being protective?”
“Samantha’s worth protecting.”
“She’s becoming pretty wrapped up in you, you know. Do me a favor and don’t break her heart. If I have to punch you, I will, even though I don’t think the odds are in my favor in a fair fight.”
“It won’t come to that.” Tain had no intention of leaving Samantha until he stopped whoever was cutting out demon hearts. After that it would be her decision whether he went or stayed. If one of them ended up brokenhearted, it would likely be Tain.
Logan came to the bike and lifted his helmet from the back. “It’s about six hours to Los Angeles. We’ll be there by morning.”
Clearly finished talking about his past, Logan climbed on the bike and slid forward enough to accommodate Tain. Tain settled his swords out of the way and climbed on behind him. Logan fired up the bike, and they took off into the night, the sound of the motorcycle ringing back up the still, silent canyon.
Logan walked in late the next day, reaching his desk as Samantha was eating lunch at hers.
“Where have you been?” Samantha demanded.
“The Nevada desert.” Logan yawned, very much like a wolf stretching after a long night. “Ran into construction on the freeway, which slowed us way down. Then I had to take a shower, or you wouldn’t have liked me sitting next to you today.”
“The Nevada desert?” Samantha repeated. “Us?”
“Tain came back with me.” Logan rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand and logged in to his computer. “He said he’d crash at his own place and meet up with you later.”
“Oh.” The explanation felt anticlimactic and at the same time awakened more of Samantha’s worries. “What were you doing in Nevada?”
“Looking for the No More Nightmares compound.” Logan then told her an incredible tale of a narrow canyon with a magic-dampening field and Ms. Townsend floating across the sky.
“Am I supposed to understand any of this?” Samantha asked when he finished. “Is this evidence that No More Nightmares is doing the killings?”
“You tell me.” Logan yawned again. “My brain is fried.”
Samantha regarded him without sympathy. She’d stayed up far into the night at the Malibu house looking over the file Septimus had given her on Tain, then tucked it into her briefcase and brought it in with her this morning, not wanting Leda or Hunter to stumble across it.
The evidence Septimus had gathered was pretty damning. The photos and surveillance notes showed Tain in places where he shouldn’t have been, meeting with people like the fine-boned Djowlan demon who’d led the attack on the matriarch’s house. And now Logan talked about Tain hitching across the desert to track the No More Nightmares group to a bizarre canyon in Nevada.
“We can contact the county sheriff out there,” Samantha suggested. “See what he knows about it.”
“Sheriff in that county’s a she. I called her already, and she said she’d send a couple of deputies to check it out. Humans only, I said, because of the magic-killing vortex. She laughed at me and said they weren’t much for paranormal police in her county anyway.”
Samantha paused. “If she said that, they might be sympathetic to No More Nightmares. Another thing to be careful of.”
“Yep.”
Logan turned to his computer, looking ready to bury himself in work. Samantha decided to leave him to it.
She went in to see McKay, said she needed to go out and follow up her investigation of No More Nightmares, and left without Logan. She took the file on Tain with her and made her way to the apartments in east L.A. where Septimus’s notes said Tain lived.
The apartment complex Samantha parked in front of looked like a converted motel, and was as worn out as any building in this neighborhood. She climbed outside stairs to a railed balcony that ran past all the front doors on the second level, and walked briskly along until she reached number 210.
Samantha found the door slightly ajar, but when she listened she heard nothing from within. She reached into her blazer and closed her hand around her pistol before she ducked inside.
The apartment was small, with a tiny living room—empty—an equally tiny kitchen, and a door leading to a bedroom in the back. The bedroom door stood open, but Samantha heard no sound from behind it.
The bedroom was so small it could contain only the bed and the man who lay in it, facedown in a pool of sunshine. A sheet bunched around his lower body, revealing his sun-kissed back and arms, a tan from wind and weather that some red-haired men could achieve. Tain had scrunched the pillow beneath his head, fists clenched as though he’d been fighting with the pillow in his sleep. His tattoo was stark black on his cheek, his lashes curled against his skin.
His life essence called to her in a powerful surge, a need that swirled through her brain in red-hot waves. Samantha didn’t want the need, had been fighting it, but now it rose up and overwhelmed her. She found herself stretching out her hand to touch his tattoo, ready to pull in and savor his magic. Plus she just wanted to touch him, the man who’d made her open herself to him. She needed to feel his warm skin, the firmness of his body under her fingertips.
She closed her fingers over her palm and backed a step, sweating. The demon in her growled. Take him. It is what you are.
This was a mistake. She turned to go.
“Samantha.”
Tain’s deep, accented voice slid over her, forcing her to turn back before she even made it through the bedroom door.
Tain rolled over onto his back, tucked his hands behind his head, and he regarded her with his sky-blue eyes. His torso was hard with muscle, red-brown hair dusting his chest and hiding the thin scar lines there. The sheet dipped to his hips, revealing a swirl of darker hair south of his navel.
Samantha wet her lips. “The front door was open. I thought I’d better check if everything was all right.”
“I must have forgotten to close it right. It drifts open.”
“This is a bad neighborhood for doors that drift open.”
Tain flicked his fingers and sent a wave of magic swirling past her. The front door slammed, and the lock clicked into place.
Samantha jumped. “You don’t set wards,” she said, a little breathlessly. “I walked right in without feeling anything.” If Tain had warded the apartment, the strength of his magic would have prevented Samantha from even poking her head in the open door.
“I didn’t, in case you happened by,” Tain said.
“You were expecting me?”
His blue gaze raked up and down her. “I hoped.”
“Logan told me what you’d found out in the desert,” Samantha said quickly.
“Is that why you came?”
“Partly.” She trailed off, hugging her arms over her chest.
He doesn’t need to trap me with magic. All he has to do is reach out his hand.
Tain reached for her now, his strong, scarred fingers stretched to her in wordless invitation. Samantha swallowed, then went to him and let him pull her down to the bed, into the warm goodness of him.
Tain slid her on top of him, and then cradled the nape of her neck and kissed her. His mouth was all kinds of delicious, his skilled tongue loosening her. His lips tasted of sleep and need, warmth and smoothness.
He deepened the kiss, fingers furrowing her hair. Beneath her thighs Samantha felt the solid hardness of his arousal through the sheets.
She broke the kiss, pushing at his chest, but it was like trying to move a brick wall. “I can’t. I’m on duty.”
Tain’s heated breath brushed her face. “Then why did you come?”
“To talk about where you went last night.”
Tain brushed back a lock of her hair. “Logan told you. I’m sure he left nothing out.”
Samantha licked her bottom lip, which was tender from his kiss. “A good cop always follows up.” Following up, ch
ecking to see if Septimus had been right, was just an excuse to see Tain, and Samantha knew it.
He traced her cheek. “You want me to tell you the part that happened when I wasn’t with him.”
“That would be nice.”
Tain only looked at her. She could drown in his heated gaze, the one that probably had made hundreds of generations of women wilt. Samantha traced his lips with her fingertip, liking that, at the moment, she was his sole focus.
“You need more life essence,” Tain said.
That was part of why she’d come, but only a small part. “I’m trying to cut back,” Samantha answered, trying to sound lighthearted.
“You know you can take it from me whenever you need it.”
Samantha gave him a faint smile. “Funny, a lot of people have to be seduced or given Mindglow before they’ll let demons anywhere near their essence. The first time, anyway. After that, they’re addicted.”
He watched her in solemn contemplation. “I’m not human, and I’m not giving it to demons. I’m giving it to you.”
“Why?”
Tain’s touch drifted to her lips. “It’s what I’m meant to do.”
Samantha drew a ragged breath. “I never understand you.”
“There’s nothing to understand.” Tain took her hand and started to move it to his cheek, but Samantha pulled away.
“I can’t right now. Whenever I get a taste of it, I want to have sex with you.”
Tain’s rare smile flashed. “And that’s a bad thing?”
“It is right now. I’m supposed to be working.”
Tain kissed her fingertips. “Samantha, you need this. I see the hunger in your eyes. If you deny it for too long, it will kill you.”
“I’d like to think I’m stronger than that.”
“You’re not.” Tain’s seductive smile vanished. “All demons need a dose of life essence to exist, especially outside the death realms.”
“Another thing I don’t understand about demons. I’ve never been to the death realms.”
“Good. I don’t want you ever to go. It’s dangerous if you’re not full demon—it’s dangerous even if you are. A death realm can kill anyone who has a spark of life magic in them, if they’re not under a demon’s protection.”
The Redeeming Page 20