Demons and DNA (Amplifier 1)

by Meghan Ciana Doidge

  And now Aiden.

  Aiden.

  I had to get out of the room before I reached for him. I forced myself to move, to just walk away.

  I made it to the doorway to the front hall before Aiden’s soft-spoken words begged me to pause, to reconsider.

  “Emma. I’m so sorry.”

  I glanced back at him. He was leaning against the counter next to the sink, hands curled over the edge. He was looking at me, and holding himself in a way that might have been meant to look relaxed but didn’t.

  “I’m sorry for any part of this that was my fault. I’m sorry that Silver said all those things, taunted you with me, with your past. Things I know you don’t want anyone to know about you.”

  “None of that is anything for you to be sorry about.”

  “And yet … you’re angry. So angry at me.”

  I almost laughed in relief. He thought I was mad at him. When the exact opposite was true. I should have let the misconception lie between us. I should have shored it up by keeping my distance from him.

  And eventually he would leave and never come back.

  My chest hurt. I forced the words out. “I don’t know how to do this.”

  “Do what?”

  I shook my head, unable to further explain myself.

  “Emma … I need you to elaborate. I know you don’t like to … just … please.”

  I exhaled harshly, forcing myself to look at him steadily, to look at him as if he was just an obstacle for me to overcome.

  He grimaced. “I see.”

  He really didn’t. “I … Christopher and I …” No. It wasn’t right to drag Christopher into this …

  “Christopher? I thought … Daniel. And I was pretty sure Mark, but —”

  I laughed, frustrated by my inability to even carry on a conversation. “Daniel and Mark, yes. You’ve now met the sum total of every Adept I’ve ever had sex with.”

  Aiden went still, his face blanking in the way it did when he was trying to process a situation.

  I had said something wrong. I made an effort to figure out what it was. “But Christopher and I aren’t together like that.”

  He nodded. “So when you said you don’t know how to do this … you meant …” He paused to consider his words. “You mean being intimate with someone who isn’t a brother or … a friend.”

  “Yes.”

  A slow smile spread across his face. “And what I’ve been taking as you being angry with me?”

  “Isn’t.”

  He laughed, low and husky. Satisfied. “I understand.”

  “What do you understand?”

  He tilted his head, looking at me with a grin on his face that made me want to lunge across the kitchen and wrap my legs around him. “I understand where to start.”

  “Start what?”

  “Us.”

  “I liked our beginning.”

  He threw his head back and laughed. “Of course you did. I’m surprised you didn’t throw me through the window of the diner.”

  “I considered it.”

  “Too much collateral damage, though.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Fine. Not a start, then. But we skipped a few steps. And normally, as I understand it, that’s an okay base for some people. But you need more.”

  “And you can give more?”

  He nodded. “I understand the process. I haven’t done it before.”

  “Because you haven’t needed to. Because all the other people you’ve been intimate with haven’t been … emotionally stunted.”

  Anger etched across his face, running down his shoulders and through his arms. It eased, but not wholly. It also wasn’t directed at me. “You aren’t stunted, Emma. I haven’t done it before because I haven’t felt the need.”

  He turned and put the pitcher of iced tea in the fridge. As if the conversation was done, as if he’d sorted it all out. And maybe he had, and I was just a step behind.

  “Like the spell?” I asked. “The spell you put in the gem on my blade? Steps like that?”

  He grinned, easy, confident. “Yeah, like that.”

  “I liked the spell very much.”

  “Did you?”

  “It sharpened the blade well.”

  He laughed. But the tenor of that laughter let me know — once again — that I’d missed something hidden in our conversation. Flirting, maybe?

  The sorcerer stole the last cookie off the plate, winked at me, and sauntered back out into the yard.

  Aiden appeared in the doorway to my sitting room just after breakfast. He was carrying a bag, and wearing his now pristinely pressed suit. My heart squeezed. Then it didn’t let go. I paused the TV and closed the grimoire that occupied my entire lap. But I kept the book between us, between my heart and whatever the sorcerer had come to say.

  I’d been compiling a list of questions, trying to copy the runes I couldn’t find a translation for. But just by looking at the sorcerer’s inscrutable expression, I knew I wasn’t going to get a chance to hand him that piece of paper or to share my research.

  Aiden glanced at the TV screen, seemingly unwilling to start the conversation. I was deep into viewing the first season of Downton Abbey for the fourth or fifth time.

  “You’re leaving,” I said.

  “Yes.” He set the bag down, pressing his hands together. He was wearing all of his runed copper rings. The bag was big enough to hold the bat.

  He was leaving for good.

  I didn’t understand the conversation we’d had in the kitchen, not even twenty-four hours before. I didn’t understand the perfect dinner the previous night. Aiden and Christopher cooking, laughing. All of us around the table, including Paisley. The sweet ‘good night’ the sorcerer had whispered in my ear before he’d headed back to the suite.

  “I finished the fence this morning,” he said. “I’m not … I lay awake all last night. Wanting to come to you.”

  I gripped the edges of the grimoire instead of leaping up and dragging him across the hallway and into my bedroom. If he had come to me last night, I would never have turned him away.

  And then when he’d regretted it the next morning? As he was already regretting even the suggestion that we could try to build something between us? That … that would have been …

  My heart turned to lead in my chest.

  He cleared his throat. “I can’t stay here as I am. Will you …” He sighed, finally looking up at me. “I’m guessing you know, I’m addicted to … the accumulation of magic.”

  “Yes,” I said. And, because of that addiction, being around me had to be excruciating.

  “The top-up of Silver’s magic was brilliant, amazing. But … eventually … I lay in bed last night and I thought … I thought you’d never know. If I came to your bed as I am. My addiction would always be wedged between us.” He paused, giving me space to comment.

  I didn’t.

  “I had thought … with the suite over the barn and the fence to work on, I could detox. And maybe we could ease into whatever we … whatever was happening between us. Whatever happened the moment I laid eyes on you in the diner.”

  My heart warmed, melting around the edges.

  “But then …” He trailed off.

  “Silver Pine showed up. And I gave you her magic.”

  “I’d like to stay in touch while I’m gone, Emma. I don’t want to go. But I think I have to, for now. Are you open to that idea?”

  “All right.”

  “Will you walk me to the gate?”

  “Yes.” I uncurled my legs, moving automatically but not really feeling the steps. Numb as I watched him pick up the bag and step down the hall.

  We moved silently like that, me slightly behind him, down the stairs, out the front door, and all the way up the driveway.

  I probably should have offered to drive him somewhere, anywhere. But he had asked me to go only as far as the gate, and I figured there was a reason behind that. And maybe it would be easier to say goodbye with my
feet firmly planted on my own property.

  Aiden waved to Christopher in the garden. Paisley skulked on the other side of the rose bushes, walking alongside us.

  My heart still felt like a piece of lead in my chest. But it was molten now, churning, unable to settle into a definitive form.

  Aiden stopped at the front gate, resting his hand on the side post. He ran his thumb over something carved into the wood, gazing out at the road. Then he unlatched the gate, set his bag down, and turned back to look at me.

  “A rune?” I asked softly, nodding toward the gatepost.

  He smiled tightly. “Yes.”

  “To ward the property?”

  “Yes. I’d thought … I thought I would trigger it when I was at full strength.”

  Warding two hectares would take a huge amount of power. “Thank you.”

  Silence fell between us, and we stood like that, staring at each other. With the late-morning sun gently touching our shoulders, and the sound of the chickens, the neighbors’ cows, and the wild birds around us. The lead eased out of my chest, drip by drip, replaced with a soft touch of warmth that had nothing to do with the weather and everything to do with the sorcerer.

  Aiden smiled, his clear blue eyes crinkling around the edges. He opened his mouth to speak, but I beat him to it.

  “I was born to be an assassin. Bred to be a sociopath. Trained to be a ruthless, vicious killer. Conceived in a test tube. Born to be an instrument of death and destruction.”

  “I could say the same, Emma. Born to a megalomaniac who coveted my mother’s magic so much that he enslaved her, forced himself on her … to breed me.” He laughed scornfully. Then he quieted, his gaze resting on me. “What a disappointment we both are to our makers,” he whispered.

  I didn’t mind disappointing the Collective, or the sorcerer Azar specifically. Not one bit. I smiled.

  Pinning me in place with his soul-piercing gaze, Aiden reached over and smoothed two fingers through the length of my hair. “I’m ready …” He glanced down, away. Then he rolled the thick lock of hair he’d captured around his hand, two, three times, holding it across his knuckles as if it were a weapon he was preparing to wield. “I’m ready to shed all of that. I’m ready to simply say, to simply believe … that I was born for you. Born to be here for you. Born to be with you.”

  My breath caught in my throat. My mind blanked of all the words, all the possible things I wanted to say, to do.

  He smiled softly. “Don’t worry. I’ll prove myself. Prove that it’s you I want, not your magic. Then you can decide if you want to give me a chance.” He kissed the hair he’d wrapped around his hand. Stepping away, he allowed the thick lock to slowly slip through his fingers. “I left you a present. On your bureau.” He scooped up his bag, taking a few steps backward through the gate, all the while grinning at me. Then he turned away, crossing to the edge of the road and setting off toward town.

  I wanted to call him back. I wanted to beg him to stay. The words didn’t come. But even if I couldn’t speak, I could have run after him. I could have flung my arms around his neck. I could have kissed him.

  Except … I would never know. I’d never know for certain that he wanted me. Wanted to build a life here with me, and Christopher, and Paisley. We were a package deal.

  And I wanted Aiden to want me, not just my magic.

  Pulling my attention away from sorting out my churning thoughts, a green truck with a Home Cafe logo decal on the door pulled to a stop by the farm stand. Leaving the engine running, Brian Martin hopped out, shading his eyes to look at me. “Hey, Emma. Chris texted that he’d put eggs aside for me.”

  “In the cooler, I think.”

  Brian sauntered over to the red cooler tucked into the middle shelf of the stand, stuffing money in the cashbox as he opened the lid. “Yep!” He lifted out three egg cartons, then looked back at me. “See you for lunch at the diner?”

  “Sure. I’ll ask Christopher if he’d like to come with me.”

  “Good, good.” He turned back to the truck.

  I raised my voice so he could hear me over the engine. “Brian?”

  “Yep?”

  “You’ll pass Aiden on the road up ahead. Would you give him a ride into town? Then hook him up with a ride to the airport? Nanaimo or Victoria?”

  “I can do that.” He winked at me, climbed into the truck, and pulled away.

  I forced myself to step away from the gate, to latch it, to wander back to the house. Instead of stepping forward to watch Brian drive Aiden out of my life.

  A rune I didn’t recognize had been carved into the top corner of my oak bureau. I placed my fingers over it, triggering the spell waiting for me.

  A mote of magic spiraled up, hovering just above the rune. That speck of power expanded, unfolding into a velvet-petaled flower.

  A translucent black rose.

  Identical to the rose on the teacup I coveted at Hannah Stewart’s secondhand store.

  But … there was absolutely no way Aiden could know that.

  It was delicate, precise magic. The kind of magic that took time and a lot of energy, much like fixing the bowl I’d broken. I cupped my hand around the rose, mesmerized.

  Paisley wandered into the room, stretching up on her hind legs to see what my attention was focused on. Then she flicked out her forked tongue and ate the rose.

  I sighed. “That was mine. Made just for me.”

  Made just for me.

  I smiled, remembering the warmth that settled in my chest when I had simply looked at Aiden, when I’d allowed myself to just look at him like all I wanted was him.

  I rubbed my thumb over the carved rune. “Thank you.”

  Grabbing a cardigan, I wandered downstairs to drag Christopher out of the garden and into town for lunch.

  RELEASES JULY 23, 2019

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  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  * * *

  For Michael

  At first sight. And ever after.

  * * *

  With thanks to:

  My story & line editor

  Scott Fitzgerald Gray

  My proofreader

  Pauline Nolet

  My beta readers

  Anteia Consorto, Terry Daigle, Angela Flannery, Beth Patterson, and Megan Gayeski Pirajno.

  For their continual encouragement, feedback, & general advice

  Venetia Roy — for the 1965 Corvette

  Louise Croall – for the typo

  SFWA

  The Office

  The Retreat

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  * * *

  Meghan Ciana Doidge is an award-winning writer based out of Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, Canada. She has a penchant for bloody love stories, superheroes, and the supernatural. She also has a thing for chocolate, potatoes, and cashmere.

  * * *

  NEW RELEASE MAILING LIST

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  For recipes, giveaways, news, and glimpses of upcoming stories, please connect with Meghan via:

  www.madebymeghan.ca

  info@madebymeghan.ca

  ALSO BY MEGHAN CIANA DOIDGE

  * * *

  Novels

  After the Virus

  Spirit Binder

  Time Walker

  Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Dowser 1)

  Trinkets, Treasures, and Other Bloody Magic (Dowser 2)

  Treasures, Demons, and Other Black Magic (Dowser 3)

  I See Me (Oracle 1)

  Shadows, Maps, and Other Ancient Magic (Dowser 4)

  Maps, Artifacts, and Other Arcane Magic (Dowser 5)

  I See You (Oracle 2)

  Artifacts, Dragons, and Other Lethal Magic (Dowser 6)

  I See Us (Oracle 3)

  Catching Echoes (Reconstructionist 1)

  Tangled Echoes (Reconstructionist 2)
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  Unleashing Echoes (Reconstructionist 3)

  Champagne, Misfits, and Other Shady Magic (Dowser 7)

  Misfits, Gemstones, and Other Shattered Magic (Dowser 8)

  Gemstones, Elves, and Other Insidious Magic (Dowser 9)

  Demons & DNA (Amplifier 1)

  * * *

  Novellas/Shorts

  Love Lies Bleeding

  The Graveyard Kiss (Reconstructionist 0.5)

  Dawn Bytes (Reconstructionist 1.5)

  An Uncut Key (Reconstructionist 2.5)

  Graveyards, Visions, and Other Things that Byte (Dowser 8.5)

  The Amplifier Protocol (Amplifier 0)

  Close to Home (Amplifier 0.5)

  * * *

  www.madebymeghan.ca

  Join Meghan Ciana Doidge’s NEW RELEASE MAILING LIST to be the first to know when the next book in the Adept Universe is available.

  DEMONS AND DNA (Amplifier 1)

  Copyright © 2019 Meghan Ciana Doidge

  Published by Old Man in the CrossWalk Productions 2019

  Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada

  www.oldmaninthecrosswalk.com

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be produced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author, except by reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, objects, and incidents herein are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual things, events, locales, or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

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