by Shah, Karin
“The trail ends here.” Spirit placed a white paw on the first of the dusty gray boards that led up to a slumping front porch. Thalia glanced up at the house, which must have once been white. Now its siding sagged like the skin of an elephant, pulling away from the exterior walls and leaving its boarded-up upstairs windows looking like a pair of droopy eyes.
“We’ll have to come back.” She shivered, suddenly aware of the imminent approach of sunset. There was no time. They had to return to Gideon’s house immediately. “Let’s go.”
“I’ll meet you there later. I have something to do.” Spirit sped off, nails clicking on the concrete. She sent a puzzled look after him, then sighed. It looked like she’d have to go to Gideon’s alone.
The question was, did a greater danger await her there?
He watched from the shadows, a prisoner of the light that still illuminated the sky, as the Champion and the dog separated. The Champion looked up at the house. Come in. Come in, he urged. He shuddered with perverse excitement. Was it possible his time was now at hand?
She placed a foot on the porch.
Yes.
He could already see Gideon groveling before him. Already hear his pleas.
She bent over, tightened her shoelaces, then stood and, with a last look at his window, turned to go.
Noooooo.
He fought the impulse to slam his hands against the wall, to roar his rage to the malicious sky. His hands clenched reflexively. He needed something to throttle.
Perhaps, he shouldn’t have been so hasty in disposing of his little puppets when they’d failed to lure his enemy to him as he’d planned. Oh well, there was always more where they came from.
He smothered the last embers of his fury. As much as he thirsted to vent his ire, he couldn’t risk drawing attention to himself.
Not yet.
His anger awakened a different kind of thirst. He glanced out the window. Damn sun. He put a hand on his chest and realized his shirt was stiff with blood. Spray from the little witch. He raised the fabric to his nose. It didn’t smell like poison. He sucked the fabric into his mouth. His saliva released the dried blood into his mouth. He closed his eyes. It didn’t taste like poison. He swallowed. The mixture of blood and saliva hit his stomach like a bomb filled with shrapnel. He bent over in agony, his body wracked by cramps so forceful they made him wretch. Sweat beaded his forehead and rolled down his checks. His empty stomach heaved continuously until he thought he might come apart. Time lost all meaning. Finally, he lay spent on the floor. Panting, he wiped the sweat from his eyes with a shaking hand. If only a tiny amount of witch blood could do that to him, what might happen to a vampire who ingested more? He shook again, clutching his middle and the sounds of his laughter filled his ears.
Gideon was in a boat on a vast ocean. An ocean of blood. Ripe and sweet. He could hardly wait to take a gulp; he wanted to dive in and swim in the heady stuff. He stretched a cupped hand over the side and filled it with the precious liquid, gleaming ruby-red all around him. He lifted it to his parched lips.
Water.
“No!” His own voice woke him and he lay in the bed panting, still chained, the sheets sweat-damp beneath him. He licked his cracked lips. The thirst was so terrible he’d only been able to sleep for short stretches before nightmares pried him from that small comfort. In his waking moments, he strained against his restraints, exhausting himself in his efforts to break free.
“Thalia.” He shouted her name to the empty air, his voice husky from overuse, but he knew it was no use. She had left hours earlier. He had heard her go.
The house was devoid of life. Devoid of the only thing he needed. Blood.
His famished body told him that sunset was imminent, but what good would that do him? He had made sure that even at top strength he could not break the chains. He was at her mercy.
Fury raged within him, overturning the scrap of sanity brought by wakefulness, and the monster screamed. The sound echoed through the house like the cry of a raptor against steep canyon walls.
She had abandoned him. Left him alone to wallow in pain.
He would have his revenge.
The image of her lifeless body that had haunted him since they’d met, returned. He’d thought her a victim of the rogue, but perhaps he was the culprit. Maybe he was responsible for the barren husk he saw in his mind’s eye, drained of its poisonous blood. Like an infection, madness consumed him. He surrendered to it. He would get free and when he did, he would hunt her down and tear her limb from limb.
A noise pierced the fevered haze of lunacy. He could hear a car pulling up the driveway. He recognized the unique purr of his Jaguar. She had returned. Excellent.
He cloaked the demon. Hiding him just out of reach.
Thalia. He made his mental voice soft, weak. The demon stifled a gleeful laugh.
Gideon? Are you all right? She was worried about him. He would give her something to worry about. He was Gideon Damek, after all. Warlord. Warrior. Vampire. Not some tame lapdog leaping to do her bidding.
Come quickly. I must feed. He smiled into the dark room, as he lured her with the truth.
He followed her progress through the house. The front door closed behind her. The stairs protested her slight weight as she raced up them. Her heart was beating fast, her pulse running a rapid course through her healthy young veins. She had been exerting herself.
Good. Very good. She would be weak. Easy pickings.
Thalia hesitated outside Gideon’s door, her hand on the button that would release the steel bars. A strange presentiment hovered over her. Something wasn’t right. From what he had told her of the bloodlust, he should be almost crazy with hunger by now. He sounded so calm, so rational.
Too rational.
She shuddered. His groans and shouts had been frightening, but this cold manipulative creature was terrifying.
She invoked the reserve of power she had stored for this occasion, surrounding herself with a shield of protection. She prayed it would be enough and opened the door.
Gideon smiled at her weakly from the bed without showing his teeth. In the light from the hall, his face gleamed with sweat. His hands were fisted in the bedclothes.
Fisted against the pain? Or concealing claws he was too far-gone to retract?
Chapter 12
Thalia hesitated at the threshold.
The fragile veil of control Gideon wore snapped. “Come and release me,” Gideon demanded, his voice half human, half lion’s roar, eyes glowing red with hunger and rage, fangs sharp and white in the dim light.
Thalia took a deep breath. As he’d warned her, the hunger had become a kind of madness. The man she had known had become a monster. He strained against the chains, growling. He’d rubbed his wrists and ankles raw, and precious blood spilled onto the bedclothes in wine-dark rivers.
He would try to drain her if he could, no matter that it would mean both their deaths. But if she left him here...
If she left him here, he would starve. He was near starving now.
Thalia summoned every scrap of strength she possessed and was about to funnel it into her protection spell when she realized the absolute futility of it all. If she released him now, she could prevent him from killing her, but she would forfeit the life of the first unfortunate he met, along with his soul, as he succumbed to the addictive lure of the Claiming. He would become just as dangerous as the villain who had murdered Lily.
Thalia closed her eyes and prayed. Somehow, she would have to reach some remnant of the man beneath the monster on the bed in front of her. But was it already too late?
She diverted the energy she had gathered and began to slowly feed it to Gideon, desperately hoping to give him the strength to bind the hunger and free the man.
The room was drenched in blood. Crimson spatters decorated the dirty cream walls like some vile faux painting technique. Flies buzzed, knocking against the filthy windows as if trying to get out.
Detective Cole covered her mouth
with her hand, choking back the bile that threatened to erupt. It was perhaps the most gruesome thing she had ever seen, but the smell was worse. Poole had already left, unable to stand the stench for another moment. She wondered if he were outside, puking on those Italian shoes he favored. And they said women were the weaker sex. She swallowed, regaining her equilibrium through sheer willpower. She couldn’t afford to vomit. The men she worked with would never let her live it down.
The crime scene investigators had already done their work, but she stepped gingerly into the room for a better look, placing her feet with care.
The body had been removed. Unlike the others, this was the first they’d found inside. And despite the blood spatter, it had already been determined through blood typing that the victim had been killed elsewhere and brought to this location, a derelict house in a neighborhood that had long since finished the treacherous slide into decay. Was the murderer changing his pattern? She should be so lucky. A pattern killer whose pattern changed often got sloppy.
Like the others, the vic had been drained of blood. So the sixty-four thousand dollar question was, whose blood spattered the dingy walls? A sample would be sent out for DNA comparison, but she held little hope it would yield results. The average person rarely showed up on a DNA database, and without DNA to compare to the sample...
Cole started as her cell phone broke the eerie silence. “Cole here.” She nodded as she recognized her boss’ voice. “Sergeant Bryant,” she said in greeting.
“We’ve identified the latest victim. Her name is Dorrie Thompson. She worked at the Bell, Book, and Candle.”
Cole snorted. “Big surprise.”
“There’s more. We just found another body of a young girl in the High Falls District. Looks like your perp has struck twice.”
“We’ll be there.” Cole shook her head and closed her phone against her thigh. Was the smell getting worse? Probably. No doubt the result of the last evening sun heating the house through the boarded-up windows. A sudden sound spun her toward the door. The creak and pop of the elderly floorboards set every nerve on end. Someone climbing the stairs, or the normal cries of a settling house?
“Poole?”
“I’ve called you here because we all have a stake in this,” Heath said to the crowd in his living room. He ran a hand over his bare scalp. Witches and mages packed the cozy space. Those that didn’t fit on the furniture, or the rows of metal folding chairs he had set up, lined the walls.
“Is that a pun?” a gray-haired witch named Karla Gibson asked. Her creased face folded into an ironic smile.
He ignored the remark and the vampire jokes that followed on its heels, his face a mask of displeasure. Slowly the occupants of the room seemed to pick up on his anger and the laughter faded. Outside the window, the red evening sun went behind a cloud and the room felt suddenly dark and cold. A young witch in the front row rubbed her arms as if to warm them. A June bug pitched its tiny body against the light fixture in the ceiling, intermittently clicking on impact and droning as it fell back and made another attempt to penetrate the glass.
A young mage wearing a rock concert T-shirt spoke into the unnatural hush. “I don’t see what all the fuss is about. It’s not like the vampire is a danger to us.”
“Of course, he’s a danger to us.” Karla shifted in her chair. “Don’t you see that if the pettys knew that vampires were real and a threat, they might realize that witches are real, as well?”
The young man rolled his eyes. “This isn’t the sixteen hundreds.”
“Sixteen hundreds, two thousands. People don’t change.”
“She’s right.” Heath shook his head, and took a few steps closer to the blue-jeaned mage, hazel eyes intense under his heavy brows. “It’s human nature to destroy what’s different. We’ve survived out in the open because the pettys no longer believe in magic.”
He scanned the diverse crowd. Seeing the comprehension on the faces before him, he switched gears, strolling back to the center of the room where everyone could see him.
“We’ve always had a Champion. And no one can argue that the Champions we’ve had in the past have been witches and mages of remarkable power and insight.” A wave of nods circled the room, but perhaps quashed by the stern expression on his face, no one said a word. “We have grave doubts about the present Champion, however, and that, as you know, is one of the reasons for this meeting.”
“And just what do you propose to do about it? Champions are born, not elected.” Karla again.
Heath colored. “We would have had to alter tradition eventually. This Champion shows no sign of producing an heir.”
“She’s still young,” Karla countered. “And although she’s never shown signs of great power, she’s proven herself capable in the past.”
Footsteps pounded up the front steps and across the porch. The screen door was ripped open, its hinges screaming. It was John Trenton, his black hair in disarray, his open face distressed. He bent over, clearly out of breath from running. He wiped his exertion-stained face with his sleeve. “Kimmy Simpson is dead.”
The room seemed to draw a collective breath. A woman gasped, and the crowd exploded into a cacophony of exclamations. Heath raised his hands to chest level, palms down and motioned for quiet.
When the noise died, Heath asked, “The vampire?”
John nodded.
“How?”
“He cut her throat.”
A wave of reaction crashed through the room. Hands raised uneasily to throats, covered mouths, or were clasped to chests. Shocked glances were exchanged. One woman sobbed softly, while another leaned over and patted her hand, murmuring comforting phrases.
Heath addressed the crowd. “This just emphasizes how important it is that we have a powerful Champion. Where was Thalia when this was happening? Consorting with that vampire?”
“That’s not fair!” a middle-aged witch shouted.
“It’s a valid question!” a mage defended, triggering a rush of heated arguments.
“Enough! I’ve had a vision.” The voice came from a tiny African-American woman wearing a violet pantsuit, seated in the back of the room. She could have been anywhere from fifty to one hundred. Her hair was upswept into an elegant braid. Her voice was as rich as crème brulée.
“Mina.” Her name swept through the room like a fragrance carried on the breeze. Perhaps the most respected witch in the community, Mina Shaw rarely ventured out of her elegant home in the affluent suburb of Brighton. When she did, it paid to listen.
“If the rogue vampire is not stopped, we will have more than just pettys to worry about. We can’t afford to allow Thalia the chance to fail.”
Her words seemed to reverberate in the heavy air.
A young witch sneezed, breaking the tension, and all heads turned in her direction. “Sorry,” she sniffed before sneezing again, and then a third time. She raised watery eyes to Heath. “Do you have a dog?”
Spirit slid out behind a late arrival, ducked into the bushes and materialized. Whew! For a second there he thought he’d be discovered. Who’d have thought he would choose to sit next to one of the rare people who were allergic to basenjis? An ordinary group of humans wouldn’t have thought a thing about it, but witches...
He waited until the coast was clear and loped down the sidewalk. A dried leaf blew across the street, skipping and skittering as if it were alive. He restrained the urge to chase it. This body, as convenient as it was, came with strong instincts. Real basenjis had a powerful prey drive and no car sense at all.
Fortunately, he had the benefit of human intelligence. He looked both ways before he crossed the street and headed toward the bus stop. The driver had no idea as he opened the door for his exiting passenger that he’d also picked up an invisible hitchhiker.
Spirit growled softly as he ruminated over what he had heard at the meeting, causing the only other occupant of the bus, a heavy-set woman in a blue flowered dress with four burgeoning grocery bags at her feet, to look u
neasily in his direction. When she didn’t see anything, she looked to her left. Failing to see anything there as well, she shook her head, pulled a paperback bestseller out of one of the bags and buried her face in it.
As the bus driver navigated the bends and curves of the city streets with great swings of the steering wheel, Spirit lay down on one of the plastic seats, his invisible body rocked by the vibration of the bus, and conjured terrible penalties for Heath and Mina. They should be banished from the community. Boiled in oil.
How could they attack Thalia’s abilities as Champion?
The Kents had been Champions since before he met them.
Thalia was an excellent Champion. True, she performed her duties with a minimum of magic, but why use more when less would do? If she was sometimes so drained in the pursuit of executing her responsibilities that she had difficulty getting home, well, that was just part of the job.
And to blame Thalia for Kimmy’s murder, when even now she risked her life to find the rogue? It was more than just unfair. It was nothing less than betrayal.
“Come here.” Gideon seemed to regain some small fragment of humanity, but Thalia knew he had only switched tactics. His voice was low and seductive, full of promise and urgent with compulsion. Thalia shuddered. Her body longed to obey. Sweat burned on her forehead. Her muscles trembled with exertion as she fought to retain control.
She didn’t dare use magic to resist. He needed every bit of power she could spare. She had to rely on willpower alone. She took an involuntary step forward, as if jerked by an invisible string. Gideon smiled. His eyes gleamed. A wolf watching prey step into an ambush.
Thalia dug in her heels. She imagined her feet were rooted to the floor. Her upper body swayed forward, like a skyscraper resisting an earthquake, but she stayed put. Thwarted, Gideon growled.
The sound crashed over her like a breaker of cold water and broke the spell. Freed from compulsion, Thalia raised her arms, channeling energy from every cell in her body up and out. Streams of blue light flowed from her out-raised palms. Twisting and turning, they combined into a river that washed over Gideon.