Heart and Soul (8 page)

Not saying anything, Leandra turned around and walked toward her room.

Yeah, she was tired. Very much so. She wasn’t the only one, though. Glancing over her shoulder, she stared at the old witch’s diminutive figure.

Her head was bowed low, her frail shoulders slumping a bit more than normal. Agnes had looked tired. Downright exhausted.

Leandra had met up with the old witch several times over the past few years, and she couldn’t ever recall seeing Agnes look even a little tired. But now, exhaustion seemed to have carved even heavier lines in her face, and her eyes looked a bit more faded, her shoulders a little more slumped.

Leandra started to turn the doorknob, looking away from the other witch. But then she paused and looked back.

The air around her turned to ice, and her breath froze in her lungs.

For one second, Leandra couldn’t see Agnes.

Just a black cloud of death.

 

 

ELI’S ENCLAVE WAS NESTLED ON TOP OF A HIGH RIDGE in West Virginia, about a half hour from Huntington. It was quiet; Eli made sure it stayed that way. He took his responsibilities as Master very seriously.

He owned the mountain and much of the land around it. Vamps and shifters tended to get very territorial. Even having somebody living a couple of miles away was too close.

His territory, however, expanded beyond the land he owned. A Hunter who forged a territory established a bond with the land. Through that bond, the Hunter was aware of the land—and the people who lived on it.

Agnes studied Eli as he finished talking with his lieutenant. Jonathan was an Inherent, a shape-shifter that could shift at will. He was a bloody strong one; Agnes had only met a few that were his equal in all her years on the Council.

Right now, both of the men looked grim, and when Eli finished, Jonathan turned and headed for the door without a word. Agnes watched as Jonathan slowed for a moment by the redhead standing near the door. He reached up, cupping her cheek in his hand and arching her face toward his.

There was a poignancy and a passion in the kiss that made Agnes feel even more melancholy. Envy stirred in her heart, and at the same time, happiness. Hunters lived a hard life; it was only right that they should spend their years with a mate they loved.

Not everyone found that mate, though; Jonathan and his pretty wife, Lori, were some of the lucky ones. Too many of them still spent their lives alone.

Jonathan pulled away slowly, and as he walked away, Lori murmured quietly, “Be safe, Jonnie.”

“Something nasty is in the air,” Agnes murmured, looking at Eli with an arched brow.

“Aye, something nasty,” the blond vampire said as he lowered his long body back into the chair behind his desk. “Been drawing closer for a few days. Like smoke, faint at first, and hard to track.”

“You’ve located it?”

He nodded, turning to gaze out the window with a brooding stare. His skin was pale, his eyes the color of old golden coins, and the hair framing his lean face was every shade of gold and blond imaginable. A very attractive man; Agnes wouldn’t have thought somebody with his fair looks could make such a sexy brooder.

He’d proven her wrong, time and time again. Eli excelled at brooding.

“Stop worrying, lad,” she murmured. “Jonathan can take care of himself.”

A slow smile curved his lips up. “Aye. I know that. It’s not so much worry for him, just . . . worry. She feels young.”

“She?”

Eli sighed, shoving a hand through his hair and climbing to his feet. He started to prowl the room as he spoke. “A girl. Jonathan is going after a girl. She feels . . . wrong.”

“Hmmm.” Agnes didn’t like the sound of that. “A child?”

He glanced toward her. “I don’t know. But she’s young. And dark.”

Agnes lifted one shoulder. “Darkness isn’t always the same thing as evil, Eli. You know that as well as I do.”

Wearily, he sighed. “Yes. I do know that. And yet this girl feels—vile.”

The door swung open, and Malachi came striding in. Agnes smiled at him, lifting a hand. He caught it and bent low, pressing a kiss to it. “Nessa, love.”

“Are you being a good boy, Mal?” Agnes asked as she glanced toward the dark woman who stood behind him. “You aren’t driving Leandra mad, are you?”

With a scowl, Malachi muttered, “Indeed—that one will drive
me
mad.”

Eli laughed dryly. “Hard job, that. You’re quite insane already.”

Malachi didn’t respond as he moved to join Eli at the window. Long red hair was caught in a queue at the nape of his neck, and muscles stretched the black cotton of the long-sleeved T-shirt he wore. The front of the T-shirt was emblazoned with huge red letters:
Bite Me
.

Mal had told Agnes earlier that Jonathan’s adopted daughter had given him the shirt. “I rather like it,” he’d said.

Right now, though, the humor was gone from his eyes, the midnight blue nearly black as he brooded into the night. The stink of evil had thickened until it all but choked the oxygen from the air.

“Have you sent anybody?”

Eli flicked Malachi a glance. “Why, yes, Father. I have.”

Malachi chuckled as he turned away. “He’s been in America far too long, Nessa. See how sarcastic he is? No respect. None at all.”

Agnes just smiled. “At least he has a reason. What is your excuse, dearest?”

Malachi smiled angelically and gestured toward Leandra. “I need no other.”

Leandra bared her teeth in a smile as she flipped Malachi off. “Don’t blame me, old man.”

“See? No respect.”

Agnes chuckled. “And what should she call you? Young lad?” She lifted one shoulder. “Seeing as how you passed a millennia quite some time ago, I’d say
old man
is accurate.”

“And at more than a thousand years, you’d think I’m entitled to respect.”

Leandra rolled her eyes. “Respect—if people cower around him, that makes him brood. Treat him like a normal person, and he thinks it’s demeaning.”

Malachi shot Leandra a grin. “Well, I’m not normal.”

She snorted as she dropped onto the couch, sprawling her long legs out in front of her and crossing them at the ankle. “Believe me, Malachi, I am well aware of how
ab
normal you are.”

With a chuckle, Agnes murmured, “Oh, it’s a good thing you took her on, Mal. She’s good for you. You’re getting stuffy in your old age.”

Yes . . . a good thing,
Agnes mused later as she left the vampires alone. Malachi was ancient, and the past few centuries, he’d begun to worry Agnes. He withdrew more and more, becoming so damned solitary, he often went years without talking to anybody. For a time, the Council had been forced to consider asking him if he was ready to step down.

He’d finally resurfaced, yet many of the people who had once called him friend looked at him differently. With every passing year, he grew more powerful. And power in a vamp as ancient as Malachi often translated to something that made many, many people uncomfortable.

The aura of menace he exuded had become a part of him, like the color of his eyes or his hair. Once, he’d been able to shield it, but as he aged, it became harder and harder for him to mask it completely.

And those who didn’t have to fight the need to cower in front of him too often were overcome with an urge that was just as basic: lust.

Most women were powerless against it. The sexual beckoning that emanated from a vampire was known simply as
the call
. It increased with age, and Malachi’s . . . well, Agnes had been around him, just once, nearly three centuries ago without her shields up. Simply being near him had been almost orgasmic. She never went around him again without low-level shields in place.

Unless a woman was bonded, a true soul bond, like the one Jonathan and Lori shared, or Eli, with his warrior witch, Sarel, she was almost helpless in the face of it.

Unless, of course, she knew to shield against it.

It must be lonely
, Agnes thought,
having damn near
everybody regard you as either death incarnate . . . or sex personified
.

So, yes. Leandra was definitely good for him.

Before she had been Changed, she’d been a witch. Usually, the two canceled each other out. A witch rarely survived the Change. Leandra had, though. A strong woman, Leandra was. She’d come through the Change not only intact, but powerful. Even as a vampire, she wasn’t cowed by Malachi. Many vampires couldn’t stand to be around the bastard, simply because of the power he exuded.

There were a select few, but Leandra, newly Changed, should have been more susceptible. Perhaps it was the magick in her veins that made her different. Not only was she mostly unaffected by his presence, she completely lacked the deferential attitude he had become accustomed to dealing with.

Leandra was exactly what Malachi needed.

A friend. Somebody that wasn’t intimidated by him and a woman that wasn’t overcome by the urge to strip herself nude in front of him.

A friend—Malachi had far too few of them. Agnes. Eli. Perhaps Tobias, although the shifter who had served the Council for three hundred years was as much a loner as Malachi, if not more. Centuries old, and Malachi could probably count those he called friend with one hand.

Agnes just prayed that Malachi let those friends in when he needed them.

CHAPTER THREE

Leandra woke after a dark, dreamless sleep that lasted about four hours. She climbed out of her bed, feeling refreshed, energized . . . and ready.

There was something in the air.

Whatever it was, it sucked the oxygen from the air, and as Leandra dressed, a sense of foreboding washed over her.

She left her room, heading toward Malachi’s quarters. There would be no Hunting tonight. He’d informed her earlier that it was time to focus on . . .
other
areas.

Other areas.
Leandra had no idea what that meant, but with Malachi, she could be looking at a night of sheer boredom as he droned on about responsibilities. Or possibly a night of sheer exhaustion as he pushed her beyond her physical limits. A night of mental anguish was also not out of the question. Malachi had a knack for knowing just which buttons to push to make her feel. He knew exactly how to bring out the emotions she tried so hard not to acknowledge.

So it wasn’t a big surprise that she felt like taking off. But if she did, he’d just find her and drag her back. Malachi had that internal radar that usually only belonged to the territory’s Master. He sensed the vampires around him. It was really pretty damned unfair. If she wanted to get away from him and be sure he wouldn’t show up, she’d have to vacate the area entirely.

Before she could knock, he opened the door.

The devilish glint in his eyes had her sighing, and tension gathered at the base of her skull as she stared at him.

Well, now she knew it wasn’t going to be lectures. And it wasn’t going to be any of the emotional trips that bastard was so adept at pulling. Leandra grimaced and imagined the aching muscles she’d have in a little while.

She might be as strong as damned horse now, but even horses could drop from exhaustion.

Malachi grinned as though he knew exactly what she was thinking. He stepped outside, closing the door behind him and offering his arm. That old-world charm of his was so at odds with the sadistic streak that ran through him.

Leandra slid her hand inside the crook of his arm after she’d bolstered her shields.

It was going to be a very, very long night.

 

 

MIKE HEARD THE SOUNDS OF STRUGGLE COMING FROM the training center.

Eli’s enclave wasn’t as big as some, but with nearly two dozen Hunters in residence, the average workout room wasn’t going to cut it. The training center was actually two gyms, one for the day walkers, and one for the vamps, each one equipped with weights, treadmills, stationary bikes, and heavy bags—an exercise buff’s dream come true.

But there were also huge mats spread out over the floor for sparring. The walls displayed more weapons than the average person could name. Everything from ancient claymores to chain whips to fighting knives.

There were also indoor and outdoor shooting ranges and an armory that was packed with more firepower than the local SWAT team possessed.

It was the sparring area that was being used now. Even before he opened the doors, he knew who was in there. Malachi and Leandra.

He stepped inside, closing the door behind him. With his back propped against the wall, Mike watched as the woman he loved went flying through the air, landing by the wall in a boneless pile. She was silent for a long moment and then she moaned as she sat up.

Her amber eyes flashed as she glared at Malachi. She shoved herself to her feet and braced her back against the wall. Leandra never even looked toward Mike as she pushed off the wall and stumbled back onto the mat. Malachi smiled at her.