The Haunting (Immortals) (4 page)

“Sounds like you have your hands full,” Mai said, hating the note of bitterness that crept into her voice. She smiled to take the sting out of her words and added, “I’m fine.”

“We’ll just go get Zach and come right back.”

Mai wasn’t sure that was a good idea under the circumstances. “I’d really love to see him, but do you think you could bring him by in a couple of weeks? After I’ve had a chance to unpack and get settled?”

Lexi regarded her like she wasn’t sure if Mai was making excuses or not. Finally, she nodded. “I want you to call if you need me.”

“Riiight.” Mai sighed. “Does Ravenscroft have telephones these days?” The offer to help was nice, but how the hell was Mai supposed to get in touch with them?

“Oh,” Lexi said, finally understanding. “What if you just try summoning me? I know you can’t do a full Calling, but I’m sure I’d hear a simple summoning spell.”

“Normally that wouldn’t be a problem, but it seems my magic is still on the fritz.”

“Really? Damn.” Lexi’s brow furrowed in concentration. “I guess if things got bad, you could always go stay with your folks.”

Mai stared at her, horrified. “I’m not even sure where my parents are. But even if I found them, it would be so embarrassing to have to move back in. It’s not just Mom and Dad, you know. I’d be living with two sets of grandparents, forty-four uncles and aunts, at least fifty cousins and goddess knows what kind of pets. They all live in a roving caravan of travel trailers where the biggest concern is making enough money from homemade goods and ‘services’ ”—she put air quotes around the word—“to fund the next big party.”

Darius smiled. “They sound like fun.”

Mai shot him a withering look. “These are grown people trapped in a teenager’s mentality. I moved to the city so I could do something more with my life. Just because things have gotten a little tough doesn’t mean I should tuck tail and run home.”

Lexi held up her hand to stave off the rest of a familiar tirade. “I know. I’m sorry. Bad idea.”

Mai shook her head. “Look, don’t worry about it. I’m fine.” She said it with more confidence than she felt.

Lexi looked at Darius, who gave her arm an affectionate
squeeze. “I think I’ve got an idea,” he said, reaching his left hand up to his right shoulder to touch one of the two lightning bolts tattooed there. When he lowered his hand, he was holding a small bolt of brilliant light.

Touching his left forearm with his right hand, he lifted off the dagger and, using the tip, cut a small hole at the base of the bolt. “Lexi, I need something to hang this from. Something that won’t come off until Mai wills it to.”

She smiled and lifted her hands to the chain she wore around her neck. “Use this,” she said, undoing the clasp and holding it out to him.

Mai watched in fascination. “No, I can’t take that,” she said as Darius strung the lightning bolt onto the necklace. “Sekhmet gave that to you.”

“Mother can give her another,” Darius said. He held the necklace out so he could put it around Mai’s neck. “Right now you need it more.”

Mai worried that the bolt of lightning would burn, but the second it touched her skin, it turned into a brilliant gleaming diamond.

“When you need us, pull this from your neck and throw it against the floor—or against your attacker. It will turn back into a lightning bolt as soon as you let go of it, so be sure of who or what you’re throwing it at. Once the energy is expended, the bolt will return to my arm. When it does, I’ll know you need us and we’ll come right away.” He turned to Lexi. “Will that work?”

The love radiating from her face was almost embarrassing. “Brilliant. Thank you.”

He gave her a quick kiss and it seemed to take Lexi a second to collect her wits when he let go of her.

“Okay, I guess we should go,” she said finally. “Did Heather put protective wards on the apartment before she left?”

“I think so,” Mai said, though she couldn’t be sure. She remembered Heather muttering something before she left, but it had sounded more like a list of errands than the words to a magic spell.

Mai saw Lexi hesitate. She glanced at her watch and then looked around the room. Mai knew she was about to put off leaving again in order to add her own wards. Mai instantly felt guilty. No amount of wards would help if the problem was all in her head. “Lexi, I’m fine. Go take care of my godson.” She gripped the diamond bolt hanging from her neck. “I’ll be sure to call if I need you.”

Later that night, Mai tossed and turned in bed, trying to get comfortable. She felt lost and alone—and wanted someone to give her answers to her problem. She needed someone…

Her thoughts turned to her mysterious rescuer. As the movers had carried boxes from her old apartment, she’d lingered first in the hallway and then in the lobby, hoping he’d happen by so she could meet him; maybe get his name; give him hers. She never saw him, though, and when the last box was carried down, she knew she never would again.

The thought had filled her with such sadness and longing. It was ridiculous, she scolded herself. She didn’t even know him. Yet she couldn’t stop thinking about him and when she finally fell asleep, he was there in her dreams.

“I wasn’t sure I’d see you again,” she told him as he came to her.

“I couldn’t stay away. You’re all I’ve thought about.”

His admission warmed her and she smiled. “I’m glad.”

“Walk with me,” he said, holding his hand out to her.

She felt a thrill of excitement race up her arm as his large hand enveloped hers. He pulled her close to his side and they began walking. In her dream, they walked along
a garden path, surrounded by fragrant flowers and trees. The crystal-blue sky was clear except for a couple of billowy clouds that seemed softer than cotton.

They were content to walk along in silence and simply enjoy being together on a cool, spring day.

They reached a grassy meadow where they stopped and spread out the picnic blanket that conveniently appeared. Lying side by side, they stared up into the sky. Mai had never known such peace.

“Are you happy?” he asked, rolling onto his side to face her.

“Yes.”

The wind stirred her hair and he moved a strand out of her eyes with his fingertip, which then trailed lightly down the side of her face and across her cheek to brush across her lips. “You are so beautiful,” he whispered.

She looked up at him, hardly daring to breathe. His gaze centered on her lips like he wanted to kiss her, and every fiber of her being wanted him to. The moment of uncertainty seemed to last forever before he finally—slowly—lowered his head.

The first touch of his lips seared her to the center of her being. It was as though with each touch he was claiming her and she wanted nothing more than to be his forevermore. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she pulled him closer. He needed no further urging to deepen the kiss.

Her pulse quickened, and she felt the stirrings of a primitive hunger deep inside her. She ran her hands along his broad shoulders and back, reveling in the feel of his bare skin. She savored every taste, every touch.

Then, as in the way of dreams, she, too, was suddenly nude and while one hand cupped her head to hold her a willing captive to his kiss, his other hand caressed the curve of her waist, moving upward until he found her
breasts. He molded each one in turn until her nipples tightened beneath his intimate touch.

“Please,” she begged, not sure what she was begging for. But he knew.

He lowered his head to caress each budded nipple with his tongue. Instinctively, her body arched into him and she buried her fingers in his hair to hold him there.

She thought she might die from the pleasure of his touch and felt deprived when he tore his lips away. Then he was kissing a path up the side of her neck, stopping beneath her earlobe.

“Let me make love to you,” he whispered, his hot breath fanning across her ear.

With her senses under such attack, Mai found it hard to focus on anything other than the feel of his hand skating over her hip to find the sweet spot between her legs. He slipped a finger between her soft, slick folds.

She felt a tension building deep inside her, increasing with each stroke of his nimble finger.

“Tell me what you want,” he whispered.

“You,” she gasped, her body trembling while she teetered on the brink of her release. “I want you.”

He withdrew his finger and moved his body to fit himself between her legs. His rigid shaft teased her sensitized flesh. She waited in anticipation, aroused to the brink of climax, knowing it wouldn’t take much to send her over the edge.

As he pushed himself into her, she felt every nerve in her body tighten until she thought she would explode and then—

Mai’s eyes flew open and she was suddenly wide-awake, her entire body still humming from a dream that had seemed so real she was having a hard time believing it wasn’t.

The room was dark—and she was alone.

Reality hit her with crushing disappointment. She’d
been so happy. Even more than that, she’d finally felt she was no longer alone. She had found the man she could spend the rest of her life with.

A man who doesn’t exist
, she chastised herself with a fair amount of disgust. She climbed out of bed and ambled to the bathroom, where she proceeded to rub a cold, wet washcloth over her heated face and neck.

She understood why she’d had the erotic dream. Wood nymphs needed sex as much as they needed oxygen. Her decision after the big battle to abstain from recreational sex was taking its toll, especially since now she was living like a friggin’ nun. No doubt this was her body’s way of compensating for the loss. And since she wasn’t finding Mr. Right in reality, it made sense she would find him in her dreams—and who better to play the role than the man who’d rescued her in her hallucination? He was strong, mysterious, heroic and totally imaginary.

The cold cloth wasn’t doing much for her, so Mai jumped in the shower to help cool down. As she toweled off afterward, she couldn’t resist checking the mirror for messages. Nothing. She breathed a grateful sigh.

But her sense of relief was short-lived as she thought about her article. As scared as she was, she refused to back down. She could write up what she remembered from Lenny’s notes, but without the actual documents, she’d have no way to back up her story. She’d need another copy—and that’s why she was going to have to track down Lenny again.

She was going to expose Preston for the piece-of-slime politician he was. She
would
do this. If necessary, vanquishing all foes that stood in her way—even if it turned out those foes were only in her head.

“Morning, sunshine. You look like hell.”

“Bite me,” Nick said, giving his best friend a nasty look
before heading directly to the coffeemaker and filling a mug for himself.

Dave Runningbear chuckled, but his tone was serious when he asked, “Those wounds still bothering you?”

I wish it were that simple
, Nick thought. Thanks to his magical nature, his wounds were almost entirely healed and the whole episode was quickly fading into a bad memory. “I didn’t get much sleep last night,” he admitted, knowing Dave expected some kind of answer. “Bad dreams.” Actually, they’d been great dreams. Erotic dreams. But not the kind of dreams he normally had when he slept, which begged the question: had he inadvertently participated in someone else’s dream? While it was possible for spirit walkers to move about in the dreams of others, it wasn’t Nick’s habit of intruding on another’s privacy. Especially someone he didn’t even know.

“Want some breakfast?” Dave asked. “I was about to make some eggs.”

Nick nodded and took a seat at the kitchen table. They were staying with his father at the Los Paseantes Compound. Generations of Nick’s people had been living in the compound for over a hundred years. Only a few from each generation ever chose to live on the outside. Dave and Nick spent two-thirds of their time there and the other third living in New York City, where Nick operated his security business.

Nick let the coffee burn its way down his throat as his thoughts turned to his last job.

Stan Gentry was back in Washington, D.C., and the papers were calling Nick a hero—even though Nick considered it to be all in a day’s work.

“I hear Grindal and his people are back,” Dave said with ill-concealed interest.

Nick shook his head. “You have a half-track mind.”

Dave grinned. “Why? Because I enjoy the pleasure of a lady’s company?”

Nick laughed. “Like you’d know a lady when you saw her.”

“Maybe not,” Dave agreed. “But I know a nymph when I’m lying between her legs and let me tell you, there’s nothing better than sex with a wood nymph. You should try it. All this work is making you old before your time. Tell you what? Come with me next time I run out to the gypsy camp. Grindal will set you up with one of his hottest girls.”

“Are you sure you aren’t half wood nymph yourself? I swear, sex is the only thing on your mind.”

“Enough,” Nick’s father said, walking into the kitchen and interrupting the two of them. “We have a bigger issue than Grindal and his band of wood nymph gypsies to discuss. The Lampson Corporation wants to book ten different survival courses for its corporate executives. There are several families in the compound who need money and with a deal this big, we could afford to hire additional guides. The sooner we close this deal, the better. Only problem is, I have to stay here because Don Halfacre needs the services of the shaman.”

Don had taught Nick how to track deer through the woods when he was just a boy. It was hard for Nick to think such a strong man was growing old and frail. Of course, Nick had seen the elder the day before and “old” and “frail” were not words he would have used to describe him. “What’s wrong with Don?” Nick asked.

His father shot him a look. “You know that’s privileged information—unless, of course, you’re asking as the new shaman?”

Nick felt the weight of both Dave’s and his father’s stares on him. His father had been trying to get him to take over as shaman for some time now, but Nick wasn’t
interested in having his every action dictated to him by the demands of his people. He’d seen what such dedication to a job could do to a family. He’d seen what it had done to his. “You stay—I’ll go.”