by Sandy James
“You need to learn some control,” Johann scolded. “You’ve been out too long on your own.”
She wasn’t about to tell him she had plenty of control with every other human being on the planet. Everyone…except him. Hell, she had more control when facing demons than she did when facing Johann Herrmann.
“Your Sentinel will stay here to renew your training,” Freya said before standing and smoothing her hands over her green dress.
The dark sable trim of her sleeves looked so soft, Megan almost reached out to run her fingers through the fur. She resisted the temptation. Johann and her sisters would probably tease her if they knew how much she loved soft things. Fire was supposed to be rough, sturdy. Hard. Besides, as angry as she was, she’d probably scorch it.
“I’ll be a good girl from now on. No public beheadings. No demon chasing in the mall. I don’t need him here.”
She tucked her fingers into her palm. Her carefully filed nails dug into her flesh, the pseudotalons a reminder of the hawk she could become. At least she hadn’t gotten mad enough to shape-shift. At least not yet. That sure wouldn’t make her goddess and Sentinel happy. And what would the bartender think if a red-tail started flying around the joint?
“’Tis not a punishment, Megan,” Freya assured. “He is here to help you find Ashley, and to help you become a bit…wiser in your pursuit of enemies. I have faith in you, my child. The Sentinel will help you.”
Freya leaned in and kissed Megan’s cheek. Her lips were cold. Then the goddess snapped her fingers and disappeared in a bright flash of light.
Megan looked around, relieved no one seemed to have witnessed the abrupt departure. “And she says I need to use better judgment.”
Johann pulled out his wallet and dropped a twenty on the bar. Another one magically appeared to replace it. His patroness, Rhiannon, would never let one of her Sentinels want for anything.
“Let’s stop and talk to Ashley’s mother,” he said. “Then we can head to your place.”
Megan’s heart skipped a quick beat. “You’re not staying with me.”
“’Fraid so. You need some guidance, and I need to be close enough to help you.” He smiled and her knees went weak. “Don’t worry. I’ll try not to cramp your style.”
That wasn’t what worried her…
If Johann was with her 24/7, how was she going to keep her hands off him?
Chapter Two
Megan threw the convertible into park and frowned. She hated suburbia. The neat lines of houses reminded her too much of her growing up years, years she thought she’d put behind her.
She’d never fit into this world or into this kind of life. There was no place she belonged or a group she could call friends. Little boys didn’t like little girls who could outrun, outplay and outshine them. Little girls didn’t like tomboys who had flaming red hair and a penchant for being a smart ass. Compulsively playing with matches only made her more of an outcast.
She hated thinking about her past. Childhood memories, depressing as they might be, were baggage most people carried through life. Hers just always seemed a bit heavier than others lugged around.
No mother. No father. No lap to crawl up onto when she skinned her knee. No arms to hug her when she was frightened by the monsters hiding in her closet—monsters she now realized might have been real. Just an aunt who didn’t want to deal with a curious and impulsive child who was in a hurry to grow up. Her Aunt Tasha was brusque and precise and very, very cold. At least Megan had plenty of toys, an enormous tree house and had never really wanted for anything. Anything except someone who loved her just the way she was.
An aunt. All the Amazons had an “aunt” who’d raised them. While she guessed their birthmothers were high priestesses of the patron goddesses, Megan had never had that story confirmed. Nor were the Amazons told who gave them birth.
Rebecca was the only one who knew, because her mother was the goddess Gaia. To help Gaia remain hidden among the humans she loved, Rhiannon would take Gaia’s daughters and turn them into Earth Amazons. Water, Air and Fire would never know who their real parents were. All of the women spent their early years unaware of their destinies. If a potential Amazon was never called into service, she lived a normal life.
Megan took in her surroundings. The Cape Cod house was painted a warm brown. An SUV sat parked on the concrete drive. The prerequisite grapevine wreath hung on the door. Such a nice, middle-class home.
All that was missing was the daughter.
She got out of the car, waited for Johann to shut the passenger-side door and then chirped the alarm. Routine, not suspicion, forced her hand. She was, ultimately, a creature of habit—what she considered to be her worst trait.
Compulsive, Aunt Tasha always said when Megan had been caught playing with yet another book of matches.
At least now she knew why she’d been irresistibly drawn to making fire.
Megan pushed the doorbell.
Following some shuffling sounds from inside the house, the door opened to reveal a middle-aged woman. Her eyes were red and raw, her mousy-brown hair disheveled. She didn’t offer a greeting. “What do you want?”
“I’m Megan Feurer. This is Johann Herrmann.”
The woman leaned against the door. “The uniform cops just left. Are you detectives?”
“No, ma’am. Freya sent us. We’re here to talk about your daughter.”
“Freya? Really?” The woman’s eyes flew wide as she opened the door the rest of the way. “I’m—I’m sorry. Please come in. It was good of the goddess to send you to me. I didn’t expect any help from her, although I’ve been praying and praying. You’re an Amazon?”
Megan nodded as she and Johann followed her to the kitchen. The place was a mess. Dirty dishes rested in the sink. A plastic jug of milk and an open box of cereal sat on the counter. Newspapers were spread over the small table.
The woman took a couple of abandoned jackets from the backs of the chairs. She opened another door and threw them aside, then pulled the door shut. “Please. Have a seat. Sorry about the mess.”
The cop who would always be a part of Megan’s personality took charge. “It’s all right, ma’am. Would it be okay to ask you a few questions? We’d like to talk to your husband as well, if that’s all right.”
“I’m divorced. He’s not part of our lives now.”
Men were like “aunts”—so undependable. “We want to follow Ashley’s tracks, see what we can find out. The more you tell us, ma’am, the better chance we have of picking up her trail.”
“Please call me Nita. Freya thinks you can find Ashley?” She grabbed a tissue from the box and wadded it into her fist. “I just don’t understand. I’m loyal to the goddess. Why can’t Freya… Why can’t she…” A sob slipped from her lips.
“You know Freya well enough to know she won’t find your daughter, Nita,” Megan said, angry at the goddess for her arbitrary assistance. This woman was hurting, and Freya could bring an end to it with the snap of her divine fingers.
Capricious. All four of the Amazons’ goddesses were capricious—as were all the Ancients. Maybe in their world they could afford to be. In this world, there was a missing teenager whose mother was in real pain.
“She sent us, and we’d like to help. I want to find Ashley. I may not have Freya’s powers, but I’m a damn good investigator. Could you tell us what her plans were the evening she disappeared?”
Nita sighed, tears brimming her eyes. “She was going to a concert with her friends. It was just in Aurora, at the Paramount, but I didn’t want her to go. It was a school night, and I knew they’d be back so awfully late. But it was Maksim Popov. All the girls are nuts about him. Ashley begged. She begged me to go. Maybe if I hadn’t let her—maybe if I…” Nita wiped away fresh tears with her balled-up tissue.
“You wer
e just being a good mom.” Megan hesitated before she laid a reassuring hand on Nita’s arm. “This isn’t your fault.” She inclined her head toward Johann. “Let us help. We want to help.”
“I know, and I appreciate it. Not knowing is killing me. Is she hurt? Is she in trouble? Is she—is she—” Bowing her head, Nita sobbed. “Ashley is all I have.”
Megan put her arm around the woman’s shoulder, glancing to Johann for support. Being soft and nurturing was difficult especially when her Amazon intuition was screaming at her, as was her cop intuition. She would find Ashley.
But she wouldn’t find her alive.
Nita pulled herself together. She patted Megan’s hand before Megan gratefully let it drop away. “She went with Shelby and Leanna. They’re her best friends. They told me she was invited backstage to meet Maksim Popov. They said Ashley sent a text message saying they shouldn’t wait for her, that she’d find a ride home.”
“Did the police check for her cell phone’s location?” Johann asked.
“They tried, but the battery must be dead because they couldn’t find it.”
“Who’s this Popov guy?” Megan asked.
“Oh, he’s really popular. He sings all those songs about the problems in the world. War. The ozone layer. Recycling. The girls just adore him. He’s awfully handsome.”
Megan searched her memory. “Haven’t heard of him.”
“Did she meet Maksim Popov?” Johann asked.
“I don’t know,” Nita said with a hiccough. “That text message was the last anyone heard from her. Her friends didn’t see her again after she went backstage. Her cell phone goes right to voice mail.” She bowed her head. “I keep calling the number just to hear her voice. I wanted to go to the theater, but the cops told me not to, that I’d be harassing Popov for no good reason.”
“Would you mind if we have a quick look at her things?”
“I’ll take you to her room.” Nita led her and Johann through the house and up a staircase to Ashley’s bedroom.
If she hadn’t heard the name Maksim Popov before, Megan would sure have learned it from the room. One entire wall was a shrine to the man, complete with his name emblazoned in big, glitter-covered letters.
Nita excused herself when the phone rang.
Taking visual inventory of Ashley’s room, Megan tried to ignore the sets of obsidian eyes staring at her from the posters on the far wall. A shudder ripped through her as she wondered why those eyes should have such a hypnotic effect. She brushed aside the cold chill racing across her skin, telling herself she was being silly. The pictures weren’t staring at her.
Johann went right for the girl’s computer. He fired it up and waited as the machine went through its boot-up machinations. “What’s wrong with you?”
Megan took a few steps closer to stare at the wall-sized collage. Popov’s eyes seemed to follow her every movement. She couldn’t focus on any of his other features.
“Megan?” Johann asked. “You all right?”
Damn it.
A smoky haze rose from her hair. She squelched the unease causing that response, angry at herself for not being aware her powers were showing. At least she’d stopped the smoke before it was thick enough to set off any detectors.
“Get a grip.” Johann tapped away on Ashley’s keyboard. “You won’t do us any good if you blow your top. What’s got you mad?”
“Nothing,” she snapped. “I’m fine, Joeman. I just want to find Ashley. Anything useful?”
She grabbed an iPod from the nightstand and turned it on. Ashley had nothing loaded on the gadget except Maksim Popov songs. The guy sure was prolific. How had Megan never heard of him?
“Not yet,” he replied. “Typical teenage stuff. She’s got a profuse habit of chatting online.” His fingers flew across the keys. The man’s technological talents were astounding. He pulled a device from his pocket. “I’m downloading her e-mail and IMs to my phone. We can plow through them later.”
Megan nodded but swallowed some guilt for prying through the girl’s private life. Damn, it was easy for the Sentinel to access anything on a computer, password protected or not.
Shit.
She didn’t want him having that kind of access to her e-mails and Internet history.
“I won’t bother your computer, Megan.”
“Quit it.”
“Quit what?”
“Quit reading my mind. It creeps me out.”
Johann chuckled as he kept tapping at his phone. “I’m not reading your mind. I get the same reaction anytime I pull up files from someone’s computer. Anybody who sees me sweep a hard drive thinks I’ll sift through theirs. I only do this if I have to. Just don’t give me a reason to have to.”
“I’ll try not to disappear.”
She picked up a navy blue backpack resting on the carpet and placed it on the bed. She unzipped it and pulled out a couple of textbooks and thumbed through them and a loose-leaf notebook. Aside from a few notes over biology and geometry, the only thing Ashley seemed to care about was doodling pictures and writing I love Maksim Popov in the margins. “She really had it bad for the guy.”
Johann nodded toward the wall. “I guess I’m used to teenage crushes. My sister covered one of her walls with pictures of Justin Timberlake and NSYNC.”
Megan stopped flipping through the notebook and stared at him openmouthed. He’d never given anyone an inkling about his life outside the Amazons.
For more than a year, she’d tried to goad him, tease him and get on his last nerve, but it had all been in fun. She didn’t like thinking the man had a true vulnerability, and in the Amazon world, family made a person vulnerable. Family was a path an enemy could follow, a weapon a demon could exploit. That’s why one of the most important rules for an Amazon was to avoid romantic attachments.
“Your sister? Rhiannon knows you have a sister?”
Johann gave her a curt nod.
“And she recruited you anyway? Is your sister—”
“Rhiannon didn’t recruit me. I called to her. And Janelle’s safe.” His words were filled with annoyance. Not like he didn’t have a habit of getting irritated around Megan quickly and quite often. “My sister’s not your problem.”
“Just askin’.”
“Let it be, Megan. We’ve got work to do.”
The defensiveness in his tone warned her to leave it alone. She’d obey. For now.
Didn’t matter. She had a memory like an elephant.
He slid his phone back into his pocket, clicked a few more keystrokes on Ashley’s computer and then flipped it off. “Find anything?” he asked.
“Just an abnormal obsession with Maksim Popov that borders on stalking. Creepy eyes on that guy.”
“I’ll check him out when we get back to your place.”
Chapter Three
“We need to get my computer hooked up.”
Johann carried the last of his supplies into Megan’s Lake Shore Drive condo. Dropping the duffel bag on her black leather couch, he set down his laptop bag and took a long look around. “Did a hurricane just go through here?”
Scattered magazines. Piled up running shoes. Abandoned Code Red bottles. Discarded clothes.
Chasing demigods, demons and revenants probably didn’t offer her a lot of free time to straighten up. Knowing Megan, the leisure she had, she devoted to working out.
“If you don’t like it,” she replied, “there’s got to be a nice hotel room somewhere near here. We’re in Chicago, after all. Tourist central.”
“Sorry. You’re stuck with me. Where do you want me to put my clothes?”
“At the Drake,” she grumbled. She sat down and unlaced her boots, tugged them off and pushed them under her coffee table.
He refused to laugh, although he felt lik
e it. “I’d ask where you want me to set up my computer, but I’m sure you’d just tell me Lake Michigan.” He walked over to the heavy drapes and nudged them open. “Nice view by the way. The lake’s gorgeous. I’d never get tired of looking at it.”
“Then go bug Sarita. She’s usually near water.”
Nothing was ever easy where Megan was concerned. “Where can I put my stuff?”
She shrugged and leaned back in the chair. “Set it up wherever you want.”
“You mean wherever I can find room.”
“Whatever. You know, the Palmer House probably has an open suite. I’m sure Rhiannon would foot the bill if you check in there. I’ll bet they have great wireless.” She grabbed the remote and turned on the television, scrolling rapidly through channels until she settled on Cops.
She clearly had no idea how upset the goddesses were with her or that patronesses had to be cajoled to agree to give her another chance.
But only one more.
Megan’s last episode had been the worst. When she’d killed the hantu Penyardin in public, lots of people watched. It had taken him days to track the images, remove them and create a computer virus to hunt down new uploads to keep more pictures of her from appearing. The goddesses had to scrub several witnesses’ memories, not an easy process that often had repercussions. Worse, some of the other Ancients had taken notice. That was never a good thing.
Johann sighed in frustration.
Megan was a loose cannon. The goddesses had left the final decision about yanking her powers to him, but they’d let him know they expected to see a big change in her. Otherwise, she would be retired and returned to the mortal world.
Freya would have to wipe Megan’s memory clean. Fire would never recall the last two years of her life, nor would she ever remember being an Amazon. She’d forget Rebecca, Gina, Sarita and Artair.
And me.
That thought turned his stomach. From the moment he’d first seen her face on that computer monitor, he’d been smitten.
Smitten?