by Rachel Lee
“Then call off your elemental,” Damien insisted. “Send it back. I don’t even need my magic to deal with your son. He’s a mere human. Before you could do a thing I could snap his neck. Or rend him to pieces the way you did with the Pritchett children.”
Caro was appalled by the threats. She hated threats of violence. Yet this time she understood them. Others would die if Alika didn’t back down.
“Release my son or I’ll call on powers you can’t even imagine.”
Damien smiled, showing teeth. “You think I haven’t learned every one of those powers? You’re talking to a mage who has walked this earth for three thousand years. Your knowledge is that of a child’s compared to mine.”
“Let him go or I will kill her!”
Damien said nothing for a moment. He looked at Caro.
“Let her try,” Caro said, feeling a steely resolve grow in her. “Let her son go, and let her try. I have had enough.”
Whatever Damien saw or sensed about her, his smile widened. “Indeed you have, Schatz.” With that he let Jerome go, but stopped him with a word. “If you love your mother, talk sense to her before I have to act.”
Jerome approached his mother, taking her hand. “Mother, you always told me that using power for dark purposes would rebound. I don’t want anything to happen to you. Please, send it back.”
“And let dozens be homeless, including my own son?”
“We’ll find another way.”
“There is no other way. We tried and tried again. They don’t listen, those rich men who own the world.”
Caro felt the elemental in her struggling to escape. She guessed Alika must be calling it to take care of her and Damien. While it was contained so that it couldn’t hurt her, she could feel her strength draining as she fought to keep it in check. Was there no way out of this?
“In what way,” Damien asked, “are you any better than they?”
For an instant Alika’s eyes widened. Then they narrowed again. “If you’re so powerful, mage, send it back yourself.”
Damien looked at Caro. “Melt it.”
“What?”
“Melt what is inside you with everything you’ve got. Then release it.”
She stared at him, uncertain, then noticed that somehow he seemed to be growing larger. That wasn’t possible, was it?
“Caro!”
She nodded and tried to do what he said, although it was all guesswork at this point. She found the white flame inside her and imagined it growing hotter and hotter. Little by little she felt her insides warm. Little by little the container she had created to hold the elemental seemed to shrink. It was working! She focused more of her energy on it, until she felt it grow small and almost lukewarm.
“Now,” said Damien.
Mentally she pulled the stopper from the bottle. At once she felt the elemental recoil, pulling away from her and back toward Alika.
Alika gasped and took a quick step back. But then she seemed to gather herself. “So we fight,” she said.
“Not if you send it back.”
“I can call another.”
“Not while I breathe,” Damien said. “I don’t have to kill you, you know. I have other methods.”
Alika’s response was surprisingly fast. With a fingernail, she clawed her own wrist and let blood spill on the floor while she began to chant.
Caro looked at Damien, saw the inevitable flare of his nostrils at the scent of blood. Was Alika hoping the blood would distract him? If she was, it didn’t work.
Damien lifted his arms and blue lightning began to dance along both of them. “I am mage,” he said. “I am also vampire. You have no idea, woman.”
She laughed and continued her chant, pulling things from deep pockets in her dress and scattering them around.
Jerome, looking horrified, backed up. “Mother...” But she ignored him.
Damien began to chant, too, his voice growing thunderous. And before Caro’s eyes, he grew, becoming larger and suddenly appearing to her to be wrapped in some kind of white cloak. What was going on?
But then Alika grew, too, though not as big as Damien.
It was as if power was changing their aspects. Maybe only Caro could see it and she wondered. But she didn’t have time to wonder very long. She felt the elemental strengthening again, and with every ounce of will she had in her, she sent hot white light toward it.
Damien’s voice had begun to sound like the roll of thunder from a nearby storm. It drowned Alika’s chant, but as an eerie red light began to glow around her, Caro knew that she was still building power.
Jerome appeared to be wishing he could fade into the wall.
Caro watched with fascination, wondering what if anything she could do. When her skin started to prickle as if there was lightning in the air, she wondered if it came from Damien or Alika. Or whether it even mattered.
As the elemental stirred again, she sent more white light toward it and felt it recoil. Good. If that was all she could do, then she would do it.
Blue lightning spread all over Damien’s body. She could hear it snap and hum like a thing alive. Alika’s red glow increased until it looked like flames leaping outward. Should she direct white light that way, too? But almost as soon as the thought distracted her, she felt the elemental surge again, its power growing. Holding out her own arms, she imagined white heat flowing toward it, holding it in check.
Blue lightning met red flame. The bokor and the mage seemed to fill the room and reach beyond it, impossible or not. To Caro they seemed to become towering giants wrapped in their power, mythical beings no longer human.
As soon as their powers connected, a deafening crack sounded and the entire shop seemed to shake. Startled, she almost lost track of the elemental but quickly cornered it again. She watched as her own white light shot forth toward that force, but then her power did something odd. It seemed to twine around Damien’s blue light, adding just a bit.
Was she helping? She wished she knew. The only thing she knew for certain at that moment was that nothing must happen to Damien. Nothing.
Although given how large and powerful he looked right now, she doubted anything at all could harm him. He seemed to hurl blue bolts at Alika from his hands. Zeus on a rampage, she thought inanely.
To her it seemed almost as if time had stopped. Seconds and minutes became meaningless in a point of eternity. Blue bolts met red flames again and again until she wondered if the powers were evenly matched. Nothing seemed to change except for those bolts.
“Send it back now,” Damien thundered, “or I swear I’ll leave you with nothing!”
Then to Caro’s amazement, the blue lightning seemed to be sucking the red flames toward it. Oh, God, she hoped Alika wasn’t winning. Frantically she tried to think of what she could do to help.
But Damien, she realized, didn’t look as if this change bothered him at all.
“I told you, woman. I am mage and I am vampire. You have not met the likes of me before. Send the elemental back!”
Alika said nothing. She tightened her face, as if fighting with every ounce of her strength. For an instant the red flowed back to her. But only for an instant. Then it started flowing toward Damien again, and as it reached his blue lightning, it faded toward lavender.
“You’re running out of time,” Damien warned.
“I can leave it and you won’t be able to stop it,” Alika gasped.
“If you leave it, can you prevent it from harming your son? Or his family?”
More red flames disappeared into Damien’s blue aura. Caro blinked, as it seemed to her that Alika was shrinking a bit, that her fiery aura was fading.
“Do it!” Damien demanded.
Caro felt it happen. One moment she was holding the elemental back, and the next it was gone. Completely gone. While the air still sizzled with electricity, it had also grown lighter, clearer.
“Caro?” Damien asked.
“I can’t feel it anymore.”
“Wait a mi
nute, and be sure.”
Alika continued to shrink, her aura growing dimmer. “Stop,” she begged.
“I’ll stop when I’m sure the elemental is gone.”
“It’s gone,” Alika groaned. “It’s gone.”
“Caro?”
“I really can’t sense it anymore.”
Another clap sounded, this one quieter. All of a sudden there was just an old woman sagging into a chair, and Damien, the Damien she had known all along, standing there.
Damien surprised her by squatting before Alika. He waited until he had her attention.
“I took power from you.”
“I know.”
“You still have enough. You can build it again but it will take time. But do not do this again, Alika. I don’t want to have to come back.”
“But the people,” she whispered. “My son, his family.”
Caro stepped forward. “If I may?”
Damien nodded and moved to the side a bit so Caro could squat beside him. “Alika, you tried to protect me. I know that. And while I don’t approve of what you did, I understand why you did it.”
The woman’s eyes, looking ancient now, stared glumly back at her.
“I’ll work with my friends on the force to find places for your son and all the other people to live. I can’t promise they’ll succeed, but I think everyone will want to help.”
Alika barely nodded.
Damien stood. “You’ll be all right, Alika. I just hope you didn’t pick up a lot of bad—what do you call it?”
“Juju,” Caro supplied. She, too, straightened and turned to Jerome, who looked as if he had aged a dozen years. “I’ll find a way to help you.”
He just nodded, but there was no hope in his face.
Outside on the street, Caro breathed the cold air, enjoying the freedom of no longer being stalked and watched. The city looked so damn normal that it was almost impossible to believe what she had just seen.
“Damien?”
“Yes, Schatz?”
“I have questions.”
“Of course you do. But let’s get somewhere warm first. You’re merely human, after all.”
She laughed, feeling so good all of a sudden. It felt even better when he lifted her onto his back, and along with Jude they headed back, leaping from rooftop to rooftop. Someday she hoped to be able to actually see it, not just feel like she was riding a crazy elevator.
Then, in the midst of her relief and happiness, she realized something. Tomorrow, or the next day, she would have to return to her mundane life.
She loved being a cop, wanted to be a detective, but nothing in her life was ever going to be the same again. She wondered how she would mesh this new world into her old world. Surely there had to be a way to use her newfound skills and power in her job?
But as she clung to Damien, even that didn’t seem all that important. Not as important as how much longer she might have with Damien. Not as important as how soon she was going to lose him.
Her face pressed to his back, she fought down a sudden urge to weep.
So much had changed so fast, and one of the things that had changed was her heart.
Somehow she had to deal with that.
Back at Jude’s office, Chloe started pumping coffee into Caro to warm her up. Jude and Damien disappeared, probably to feed, then returned to join the women.
Chloe demanded immediate explanations, and Caro added her voice.
“What did I see? What happened in there? What did you mean when you warned her that you were both a vampire and a mage?”
“I was warning her that she had never seen my like.”
“I got that part,” Caro said a little sarcastically as she cradled the hot mug of coffee to warm her hands.
Damien sat beside her on the sofa and wound his arm around her shoulders. Liking the embrace, she leaned into him and let her head rest on his shoulder. She wished she didn’t fear this might be the last time she would be so close to him.
“A long time ago,” Damien said, “the Magi realized something. There were those who would do evil, and while they could be thwarted, they couldn’t always be prevented from trying again. Power is power, after all, and how it’s wielded is a personal decision.”
“Okay. I get that part.”
“It was told to me that one of our most powerful priests was changed, long before my time. It wasn’t by choice, but it proved to have an unexpected benefit.”
“And that was?”
“That a vampire priest, one who held true power himself, could drink the power from others. Take it away as surely as if it were blood.”
“Really?” At that Caro sat bolt upright.
“Really,” he said, still keeping his arm loosely around her. “The secret was closely guarded by the temple. Only a very few of us were selected after proving our trustworthiness for years, and then we became the guardians of the secret. It was important that no one else know.”
“I can see why. But you didn’t drain Alika completely.”
“I hope I never have to. I suspect that until this event she’s always tried to use her power for good. And she did give you that gris-gris to protect you. For that I am grateful to her.”
“She didn’t seem like a bad person,” Caro agreed. “Mostly she just seemed desperate.” She listened to herself, and realized that henceforth she was apt to be a very different sort of cop. Not that she would excuse murder, but she was probably going to be a lot more sympathetic to some of the reasons why people broke the law.
“You said you were going to help those people find homes,” Damien said. “How will you do that?”
“The force works with several charitable organizations. I’m sure I can get them working on it. It would be good for the community.”
“I agree.”
“What would have happened if you had continued to drain Alika?”
He gave a slight shrug. “I could have left her with no power at all. I could have burned it out of her. Or I could have killed her. I really had no desire to do the latter.”
“A predator who prefers not to kill,” she remarked.
At that, both Damien and Jude laughed.
Then, without warning, Damien swept her up in his arms. “Time to go home, Schatz.”
Home. Where he’d probably say good-night and maybe goodbye now that the problem was solved.
With a very heavy heart, she let him take her.
Chapter 15
Her apartment still smelled of incense and burned beeswax, and even the faint aroma of rose petals lingered in the air. After what she had been through tonight, she suddenly noticed how small the place was, how little she had really done to make it homey. Why that suddenly seemed important, she didn’t know.
Unless she was trying to avoid thinking about the things that might tear her heart apart.
“Well,” she said brightly, a brightness she definitely did not feel, “I’m home, I’m safe and you no longer need to be my watchdog.”
She thought his eyes narrowed a bit, and he didn’t answer immediately.
“I should vacuum up all the salt,” she prattled on. “Change the sheets, air out the incense...”
She jumped as she realized he was standing right in front of her. “Will you stop doing that?”
“What?”
“Moving so fast I can’t see you. I jump every time.”
“Not every time, Schatz,” he said, reaching out to capture a lock of her hair between his fingers. “Are you giving me my walking papers?”
Was she? The thought made her chest tighten and her throat ache. “Well, I don’t need to be guarded anymore, and you have a life and were talking about going back to Cologne. I just assumed...”
“Are you assuming what I want?” he asked silkily. “Or assuming what you think must be?”
Her mouth turned dry as she saw his eyes grow as dark as night. “What are you asking?”
He hesitated. “I’m asking you if you’re telling me to leave.”<
br />
“No!” The word popped out of her instantly, without thought. Truth often did that.
“Then perhaps we should talk,” he said quietly. “Can you just talk with me and not buzz around cleaning?”
She bridled. “Of course I can.”
He motioned to the couch and they sat side by side but not touching.
“You’ve seen how I live,” he said after a moment. “Haunting the night, never seeing the sunlight. My friends are limited to a very few I trust. There is nothing normal about my life, as you would think of normal.”
“Normal is a relative term.”
A smile lifted the corners of his mouth, just barely. “Relative indeed. I live a normal life for a vampire. I have a great many things to amuse me and keep me occupied. By contrast, you have an important job, one I am quite convinced you want to keep. You have friends, and I’m sure you couldn’t introduce me to most of them. I’d make them uneasy, even if they never guessed what I am.”
“So?”
“So?” he repeated.
“Look, if you’re trying to find a graceful way to let me down, don’t bother. I know you plan to leave. I know you plan to go back to Cologne. I get it.”
“I don’t think you get it at all.” He lifted her swiftly until she straddled his lap and had to balance herself with her hands on his shoulders. All of a sudden her growing sorrow gave way to the inevitable passion that was never far away when he was close. She wanted him beyond all reason, even now as she believed he was trying to say goodbye.
She saw him smile as he caught scent of her rising desire. It didn’t bother her anymore that he could read her that way. In fact, it heightened her desire for him. There was something to be said for being emotionally exposed. In its own way it was as frighteningly erotic as being bound to her bed.
“Schatz,” he said.
“Yes?”
“I told you about claiming.”
“Yes, and how much you want to avoid it.”
“I’m not sure you fully understand. Claiming is a matter of life and death for me, not just love. I cannot lose what I claim without losing my sanity or my life. It’s an obsession beyond all obsessions. Were I to claim you, I would need you as much as I need food and air to breathe. You see?”