She glanced down the hallway that Dec had disappeared into. “It’s funny, though…”
“What’s funny?”
She smiled crookedly and said, “Every time I’m around Dec, I seem to lose time. It’s odd. I just can’t remember things.” She looked over at me with a question in her eyes. “Have you ever noticed that?”
I nodded seriously. “I blame it on his sparkling personality. It’s easy to get swept away by him. He’s such a sweet guy.” I was sure he was listening. “And you can’t ignore the power of the dimples.”
Her own dimples made a reluctant appearance at that. “He does have amazing dimples, doesn’t he?”
I hoped the smell of fried chicken would replace the disgusting burnt demon smell that still lingered in the air. It was comforting to putter in the kitchen after the drama of last night. After Dec’s funny little comment about my cooking abilities, I felt challenged to prove I could cook something from scratch. Frozen lasagna didn’t count. In the interest of a well-rounded meal, we were having mashed potatoes and biscuits with the chicken. I was flipping chicken and poking at boiling potatoes while Sean and Dec stayed out of ear shot. Apparently there was some concern that they’d be asked to help...
“You okay?” Killian’s question broke through my thoughts.
He must’ve traveled in since I didn’t hear the door. He was dressed in jeans and a Candlelight Red t-shirt. I wondered if he appreciated the irony of their latest video called “Demons.” He took the tongs out of my hand and poked at the chicken. Well, this was new. Killian, cooking?
He looked up at me and winked. “What’s wrong with you? You look surprised. I’ve been alone for a long time, Princess.” He gestured at his well-maintained body. “Do I look like I’m starving? I can cook, you know.”
I had nothing to say to that, so I reassured him that I was mostly okay. “I’m not sure, really. I’m just trying to separate all of the crappy things that have happened in the last 24 hours. I don’t know what to deal with first.” I nibbled the crispy coating off a wing and thought about that.
Crossing his feet and leaning back, he considered my answer over his own wing. He blew on the meat before stripping off an entire side in one bite. Licking grease off his fingers, he narrowed his eyes and said, “Hmmm. Aric first, right? Dani’s your first priority.”
At my nod, he continued, “I liked Aric. He was a nice kid. It’s a shame he’s dead, but death happens. His family will have a funeral and Dani will grieve. You’ll help her grieve because that’s what you do. You help people.”
“After a few months, Dani will start to forget the pain of losing Aric and she’ll move on to someone else.” He shrugged at my snort of outrage. “You know she will. Come on, Mica, she’s a pretty girl. Do you think she’ll become a nun and hide from men for the rest of her life?”
Probably he was right. But did he have to be…so, so, right all the time?
“Yes. You should just accept that I am always right. You’ll feel better if you do.”
I had to laugh at that. “You kill me. You know that? I can’t understand how you fit through doors with that ego of yours!”
Stripping another wing, he smirked at me. “I’ve earned this ego.”
Sean and Dec walked in before I could answer. Dec said, “I thought I smelled chicken. Need help?”
Rolling my eyes at the suspicious timing, I said, “No, I don’t. I’m done. Just bring the bowls to the table and we’ll eat.” I dumped the steaming biscuits onto a platter and grabbed the butter.
Living with three large males had taught me that the quietest part of any day is the first five minutes of mealtimes. The only sound ever heard during this magical time is the clanking of silverware. No matter the stress in my life, I had to smile at the three of them wolfing down dinner.
“I hate to bring this up, but can we talk about my wonky vaporizing power? It’s bothering me.”
Sean grinned evilly at me and gestured with a drumstick. “Feeling guilty?”
“Dude, I used to be a little jealous that Mica liked you. But now? I am sooo glad she picked you!” Dec confessed to Sean in a loud whisper.
“She does have a wee bit of a temper these days.”
“Careful Sean, you might find yourself sleeping with Dec from now on,” I said in a syrupy sweet tone.
“Oh, come on, darlin’, we’ve already talked about this.” He grinned over the chicken.
“Questions of my guilt aside, I still don’t understand what I’m doing and I think that could be a problem.” I looked around the table at their blank faces. “Am I the only one who thinks that?”
Sean cleared his throat and said seriously, “No, you’re right. We’re just not panicking about it. Do you want to hear what I think?”
I nodded and he continued. “It’s translocation--pure and simple. In a split second of panic, you unconsciously moved the person out of danger.”
“But that doesn’t explain how I’ve been blowing up demons.” I told them the story about the demon with the fireball at the rest stop and reminded them about the one that attacked my brother. Both times, the demons had gone up in a cloud of smoke. Not the typical ash, just smoke.
“And it doesn’t explain how you vaporized Sean,” Dec added thoughtfully. He was listening to us, but his eyes were glazed as if he were seeing something else.
“Tell me something. Why didn’t you move Dani out of the way? You chose to move that human instead. Good choice considering how he ended up dead…but still, you didn’t intentionally throw him down on the fountain, did you?” Killian asked.
Startled, I said defensively, “No, I didn’t throw him on top of the fountain! Geez. It was an accident!” The image of his eyeballs glistening in the light made me shudder. So gross!
He raised an eyebrow at me and crossed his arms. “Don’t get touchy about it. Just answer my question. Did you consciously pick the guy over Dani? Think about it. This could be important.”
“I think so…this time. With Trevor and Domino I just wanted them away from the fireball. I totally panicked. This time, I wanted the guy with the knife away from Dani.”
The room got very quiet. No one said a word for a few minutes. All of us were lost in our separate thoughts as the sunlight began to fade. I hadn’t turned on the lights and the room suddenly seemed very dark.
“I’ve got it!” Dec announced. “You didn’t blow up those demons, Mica. You scattered them! You vaporized them! Don’t you see? They have a totally different molecular structure than humans do. When you tried to move them, the energy released must’ve overloaded their bodies and poof!” He made a gesture to mimic an explosion. “Up in smoke!”
Horrified, I said slowly, “That makes perfect sense, Dec.” I turned towards Sean and was assailed by the familiar wave of images that played like a movie in my mind. I knew every part by heart. After he’d disappeared, my brain had refused to rest and replayed these images for days.
For the thousandth time, I watched as Sean grabbed for Dec and turned at the exact moment the demon fired his weapon. The red flame of the weapon collided with the white blast of the chemicals as they ignited and exploded. Caught between them, the two blasts hit him at the same time I had screamed his name in sheer terror. Over and over the image of Sean’s body twisting and falling played inside my mind. Totally tranced out, I sat there and let the images come to me. There had to be something I wasn’t seeing.
Gentle fingers closed my eyelids and the images stopped. More thought than sound, he said, “I know what you see.” He kissed both of my eyelids and pulled me against him in a hard hug.
“You have to let this go. Listen, our molecular structure isn’t the same as humans, but it’s also not the same as demons. It’s possible you could move us without vaporizing us.” He rubbed his hand over his chin and looked into my eyes, his eyes clear. “I saw what you saw that night. You know that I was caught between two explosions at the exact second you tried to move me. You know that as fact, right?�
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I agreed with him and he said shakily, “It was an incredible force. In that fraction of time before you moved me, I felt like I was going to implode from the pressure. It was crushing me. I would’ve probably died from the trauma if I’d been left inside that basement. For all we know, you saved my life. The point is we don’t know, and we won’t know. So we need to get past this. We’ve got more to do and we need you focused.” He messed up my hair and added, “Just don’t do it again!”
He looked at Dec and Killian and asked, “Anyone else have anything brilliant to add?”
“Can I have a new partner?” Dec asked Killian and then ducked when I threw a biscuit at him.
“Okay, I think we have other things to talk about tonight. Starting tomorrow, Sean, you and Mica run through some drills and get her in control of this new power. Practice on anything, but each other. We can’t afford to lose you again.” He gave us both a meaningful look. “Dec, you need to pair up with James from now on. I don’t trust him with Mica, and I’m not sending him with Sean.”
“Killian, I can handle James,” I offered. Dec wasn’t happy with this change at all.
He frowned and said, “Not a good idea. Something bothers me about the way he looks at you. Until I figure that out, you stay with Sean.”
“Sean, you need to know James has been acting strange. He’s been conveniently there each time someone was hurt at the penthouse, and he was here yesterday before all hell broke loose.” He stabbed a finger at the air for emphasis.
I hadn’t thought of that and gasped out loud. “No, he didn’t! You don’t think James had anything to do with that? It had to have been Balin.”
I filled them in on my time with Balin in the park and the burn of his kiss on my hand. It was embarrassing to have been fooled by his disguise. The stupid dog was a Trojan horse…
Sean slammed his hand down on the table. The glasses rattled and I jumped. “Damn it! Is she still marked?” He threw the question at Killian who shook his head.
“Absolutely not.” He lifted my hand for them to see. “This rune is mine--I put it there to protect her from psychic attacks. They can’t trace her anymore.” To emphasize the rune’s power, he traced the rune slowly. As before, my blood rose to meet his finger and the rune was outlined in pale golden light. The rune on his own hand responded and began to glow.
Sean snatched up Killian’s hand in disbelief. He flushed, struggling to control his temper. Between his teeth, he said, “What is this?”
To his credit, Killian didn’t punch him in the face. Instead, he looked him straight in the eye and said with great patience, “My blood to protect her blood. The runes are twins and have even greater protective power because of it.” He glanced at me then.
How much do you remember?
Every last second.
His lips curled in a sexy smile that I felt wash over my mind. I covered my rune with my hand.
In the reasonable tone of a history professor he said, “Calm down, Sean. Look, you know the magic is very old. Blood is always required.” He said this with a trace of pride. “After what happened with the demon, I had no other options. Keeping her alive and sane were my only priorities. You should understand that.”
Killian reiterated the dream I had when we were in Eden, leaving out the part about the demon masquerading as him, and the terrible voices they put inside my head leading up to that. Clearly the demon was planning to use me to get to Sgaine Dutre.
When Killian mentioned the blood, I noticed that Dec turned a bit green and I went over to him and whispered, “It was a really big knife too. Actually, there were two of them. Very sharp. In fact, they were so sharp that I didn’t feel it at all when Killian carved the runes into my hand or over my heart. I didn’t notice until the blood dripped onto the altar.” I cocked my head as if thinking of something else. “It sort of undulated down my stomach…very strange in the firelight.”
His face had turned the color of moldy cheese and his eyes were squeezed tightly closed. So I added one more little detail to push him over the edge. “You know, now that I think about it, it didn’t hurt at all until he set my back on fire. That sort of st…”
Dec bolted to the sink and lost his dinner. All conversation stopped as the three of us listened in shocked silence. It sounded like someone was killing him in there; I almost felt sorry for him. Almost, but not quite. Smiling to myself, I thought, yep, payback is a bitch.
“How much of your blood did you share with her?” Sean sounded pained.
“A bit, why?”
“I don’t think we can stand two of you.”
The stars were out again, but I wasn’t in the mood to appreciate them. I was still thinking about Balin and how he’d tricked me into spending time with him. He didn’t look like a demon, and he’d brought bait--the dog. That was pure genius and I fell for it. He’d nearly tricked me into going to dinner and God only knew what would’ve happened. Probably he would have brought me to the underground room that night instead of the next. In hindsight, he’d probably followed me and bided his time to grab me.
I’d forgotten about the green-eyed doctor who’d helped save my life. Sean filled me in on him in our meeting. After bringing him back with me, they turned him over to Alex for more…thorough questioning. Apparently he was an undercover fed. He’d been working to get information on someone who was trying to create new biological and chemical weapons. Before I showed up, he’d worked with petri dishes and test tubes. He was supposed to be a scientist, not a medical doctor. He’d been horrified when they sent me back to him broken and bloody. He’d wanted to help but didn’t want to lose his cover. So he gave me injections to help me zone out during questioning and then pain injections when things got ugly. It turned out that he was one of the good guys. According to Killian, Alex had someone adjust his memory and they released him. I said a prayer for him as I supposed demons had long memories and would look for him. He’d be completely at their mercy.
We still didn’t know the name of the demon who’d tortured me; I assumed he was in charge though. He had too much arrogance to be a lower-level demon. Others deferred to him there, so he had to be the boss. He was still out there too.
Absently, I rubbed the rune against my cheek for reassurance. I trusted Killian’s magic. If he said I was protected, then I was going to believe that. My mind was safe for now, but what about my body? I wasn’t indestructible…The door opened and a sliver of light crossed over the rug.
“You’re still up?”
Turning away from the window, I pulled the curtains and curled up on the bed. “Couldn’t sleep. Are you coming to bed now?” I patted his pillow in invitation.
He pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it carelessly on the floor. Completely unaware of how sexy he was, he stood there for a minute, apparently thinking. Not for the first time, I caught myself drooling a little and licked my lower lip. I could have a million problems, but they all vanished the minute he took his shirt off. The jeans came next and he crawled into the blankets with me. The sheets were cold and I burrowed against his side.
Pulling me close, he whispered against my ear, “How tired are you?”
Chapter 15: Killers, Serial and Otherwise
“NO WAY.”
“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?” I turned around to see my butt in the hallway mirror. “It’s the perfect stakeout look. Black, black, and more black.”
Dec chose that moment to stroll into the room and whistled in male appreciation.
Sean’s teeth clacked together, and he asked pointedly, “See?”
“Dec, what do you think?” I twirled around for him to see all sides.
I was wearing black stretchy jeans with steel-toed thigh-high leather boots with a black under-armor V-neck shirt tucked into the jeans. It was all topped off with a bad ass black military jacket. I thought it was very practical…lots of pockets to stash important things like extra magazines, pepper spray, rope, and essential beauty products like
a nail file and lip gloss. My gun and its new partner were stashed happily on my black web belt. I thought I looked good.
Dec laughed uncertainly and swiveled back and forth between us. Backing away from Sean, he said, “I’m just gonna say you look hot in those boots!” Raising his hands peacefully, he added, “Not sure you should be hot on a stakeout though. Might be a wee bit distracting.”
Sean gave him a fist pump and smirked back at me, “Are you going for hot or practical? Seriously, babe, you look hot--too hot for a stakeout. Shit, you’re supposed to blend in wherever we are. In that?“ He waved his hands over the general direction of my cleavage. “No way. You have to change.”
He had a point.
But that was beside the point.
I worked really hard to put this together and wasn’t giving in that easily. “Come on, Sean!” I batted my eyelashes, but he still looked stubborn. “Fine. We’ll let Killian decide. He’s on his way. I can sense him.”
“Is that new?” Killian asked as he appeared out of thin air in front of me.
I posed like a super-secret agent and said, “Yes! And it’s awesome, isn’t it?”
He frowned in confusion at my comment and said, “I was talking about your ability to sense me before I got here.” He gestured in amusement at my clothes and added in an offhand way, “You’re not wearing that on a mission. You look ridiculous.”
Three hours later, Sean was still feeling victorious and was in a great mood while I sulked in the other seat. He was drumming his fingers on top of the steering wheel in time with his iPod. The new car had a fabulous sound system, and he completely tuned me out as soon as we were parked. Two cars mysteriously appeared overnight a few days ago. I couldn’t get a straight answer from anyone, so I still had no idea where they came from. We were sitting in the one Sean insisted on driving tonight. It’s a faded blue 1967 Camaro. The paint was so faded it was nearly white in patches. It probably had the original paint. Judging from their condition, the vinyl seats were the originals. The stupid car is older than I am so it’s a classic. Yay. I don’t know why the Car Fairy couldn’t have brought us a new Charger. I shifted my butt again and grouched to myself. My seat wasn’t keeping its springs to itself.
The Lost Soul Trilogy (Primani Book 5) Page 43