The Sorceress Screams (14 page)

Maximo pushed
a sharp huff out of his nose rather like Desmond had done countless times.
“Hone your
Water
abilities?”

I nodded.

“Do you want
to hone your abilities?” His irises darted back and forth over my face
seemingly searching for something there. “I can persuade him otherwise if you
don’t.”

Gazing to the
window allowed me to avoid his eyes, but it did nothing for my discomfort.
“I’ve been guessing as I go along. He can teach me things I didn’t know were
possible.”

More
importantly, I couldn’t afford to alienate Desmond if I had any hope of earning
the other coalition members’ respect.

“I won’t sit
idly by while another woman cheats on me at every turn.”

His sharp
words snagged my attention. Maximo’s dark eyebrows had lowered into a dramatic V
that echoed his thinned lips.

“Cheat? No.
No
, definitely not. The man is
practically a walking icicle.”

Maximo’s jaw
set. “I’d have thought you’d give
me
that title.”

Oh, Zeus. I
should have picked my words carefully. I hadn’t been thinking about the vampire’s
cool temperature. I hadn’t been thinking about the vampire
at all
. Shouldn’t I be if I were agreeing to date him?

“I don’t have
a title for you,” I said. “His title is actually ‘Desmond the dick’.”

Maximo barked
out a laugh that was rich and melodious. I couldn’t help but smile upon hearing
it. My smile remained now that his expression had softened.

“I’ll have to
see that you come up with one for me very soon,” he said, crooning while
ducking his head closer to mine.

He was making
me uncomfortable again. I reacted by blurting out another question. “What if
you decide you don’t want to continue before the year is up?”

Maximo stepped
forward, slipping his hand behind my neck. “I’ll give you your precious ring
when I feel you’ve devoted yourself to this relationship.”

His evasion
made me suspicious. I tried to withdraw from his hold.

Maximo’s hand
went slack and eventually fell away. He made a weary sound. “If I decide this
isn’t going to work, I’ll give you back your ring.” He ran his thumb along my
lower lip. “But that isn’t going to happen.”

I stifled a
shiver at the intimate gesture and his soft, but emphatic words. He was either
an excellent actor—something I suspected most vampires of a certain age were—or
he truly believed what he’d said.

Maximo let his
arm drop between us. He lowered his head until we were at eye level. A cautious
half smile appeared on his lips. “Do we have a deal?”

I nodded
before I could change my mind.

He lifted
upright. “Then kiss me.”

It was a firm
command I didn’t think he had the right to give. But now was not the time to
test his limits.

I edged toward
him, rising on the balls of my feet until my lips were level with his. Maximo’s
expression transformed into a wry half smirk—a combination of amusement and
passion—as he stared into my eyes. He was a little too tall to kiss without
assistance. I slipped my hand behind his neck for something to hold onto. And
then I eased my mouth against his.

He stood
unmoving, forcing me to up the ante if I wanted to prove I was “devoted to this
relationship”. I pushed at his lips with my tongue. Maximo accommodated by
parting them enough for me to get inside. Like him, I swept my tongue over his.
But unlike him, I felt like an untried schoolgirl despite the numerous
encounters I’d had with males at bars.
This
male positively exuded experience from his pores.

I must have
done something correctly because he let out a low growl before wrapping himself
around me, bending me along his body, and deepening the kiss until I couldn’t
breathe anything but the air he gave me. I was lightheaded, unsteady, and
muddled when he pulled his mouth from mine.

His grin
widened. “That’s a fine start. Rebecca.”

Chapter Ten

I ran my
fingers over my puffy lips while I waited for the stoplight at
Wipuk’s
town hall. This was bad. Wasn’t it? I was
dating
Maximo de Sole? Why didn’t that
horrify me nearly as much as it ought to? Truth be told, the level of horror
was really quite small.

He’d asked me
to stay. My initial reaction had been disgust because I’d thought he was asking
me into his bed, and he might have been. But Maximo’s claim he couldn’t
appropriately protect me from Nadir unless I was beneath his roof had explained
the request. Only the assurance that Khan thought my name was Becky and that I
looked quite different got me off the hook.

The debate
raged for several minutes more because he’d wanted to post a guard outside my
apartment. I couldn’t afford his guards reporting back everything they’d heard.
So I’d claimed the “independent female” card. Maximo’s admission that my
independence was one of the traits he enjoyed most got me off the hook a second
time. Now I only had to get home to my guest and hope her vampire master hadn’t
called her while I’d been haggling with de Sole.

My hand
dropped away from my lips. What was I going to do about Jacqueline and the
other enthralled witches? They couldn’t stay in
Wipuk
forever. Jacqueline was happily married. She hadn’t complained yet, but she
must
want to go home. I’d want to go
home, and I didn’t have a husband waiting for me.

I’d pawned the
witches off on their covens, but they were still my responsibility. There had
to be a way to fix this without killing anyone. I didn’t care that this was
business as usual for the vampires. No faction ought to have the power leeches had.
There was an answer somewhere that didn’t require tarnishing a soul.

I simply had
to find it.

****

Jacqueline’s
petite body was folded into the beanbag chair with my laptop propped on her
thighs. Electronic light flickered over her mocha face in the darkness while
her fingers flew over the keyboard. I’d left her with the laptop to watch
movies or surf the Internet because I didn’t have a television. She’d seemed
content to play when I’d left. And she still did.

“Hi,” she said
quietly.

“Hi.”

“Everything okay?”

I sighed and
flopped down onto the futon. “I feel like I just sold my soul to the devil.
And enjoyed it when I shouldn’t have.”

The Dark
witch’s eyebrows lifted as her head made a quarter turn toward me. She
continued to tap out a steady beat on the keyboard. Her attention was only
partially on me, but I wasn’t offended. She didn’t know me. She had no reason
to be concerned, and yet she put forth the effort anyway.

“You’re not
enthralled, are you?” Jacqueline’s careful question brought concern to the
forefront.

“I don’t think
so. He said he wouldn’t unless I asked him.” But my hand went to my neck
anyway. Maximo could have done it and made me forget. I didn’t think he had.

I’d told her I
was going to warn
Wipuk’s
First and that she should
get a note to Desmond if I hadn’t returned by sunrise. In hindsight it had been
foolish of me to go like that. She would have had no way to contact me because
I didn’t have a home phone and I’d taken the cellular phone with me. I supposed
it had worked out in the end.

“I’m pooped,”
I said. “Do you mind if I go to bed?”

Jacqueline
arched an eyebrow at me. “It’s your place.”

I grunted.
“But you’re my guest. It’s rude of me to take off on you like this.”

She shook her
head. “I’m not your guest. I’m a refugee you’re kind enough to put up.”

“You’re a
guest. But I’m going to bed because if I don’t get some quality sleep, I’m
going to be no good to anyone.”

“Well, okay.”

I shot a quick
glance at her. Was that the beginning of a smile twitching the left corner of
her lips? She hadn’t smiled or laughed since I’d taken her out of the spa. This
was a good change.

With that bit
of positivity on my mind, I stumbled into the bedroom for a good night’s rest
despite my lingering depression.

This wasn’t
how I’d wanted my life to turn out—dating a vampire I didn’t particularly like
to remain safe from one who ought to have been killed, hosting witches I didn’t
know so they wouldn’t be used against humanity, and with hair I wished I could
turn the clock back on. I missed my hair. I missed being a graduate student.
And I missed more I couldn’t put my finger on. Maybe it was the simple
day-to-day of homework and eating at a bustling cafeteria with happy-go-lucky
humans.

Yes, that must
be it. Perhaps I’d get into the habit of eating lunch in Sedona more often.
That would fix it. It had to.

****

Thanks to
falling into bed at the ripe hour of eleven, I awoke an hour earlier than
usual. Jacqueline was up and cooking. I hadn’t realized I’d had enough
ingredients to cook anything short of pasta. She’d managed to find a box of
generic pancake mix and had used it to make a hefty stack. She shoved a plate
with four on it and a healthy dollop of margarine at me.

“You don’t
have any syrup.” There was a liberal dose of sourness to her soft words.

“I don’t have
much of anything. I get take out or eat frozen meals.”

“You need to
learn to cook, girl.” Jacqueline sliced the fluffy mass with her fork. “Or find
you a man who can.”

The image of
Desmond chopping mushrooms in his modern kitchen appeared in my head. My cheeks
heated. I replaced it with a memory of Maximo’s amused half smile. Could the
vampire cook?

What was I
thinking? He drank blood to live. Of course he didn’t cook.

“I don’t have
to work today,” I said in the hope of changing the subject.

Jacqueline
nodded. “I saw the hours on the door.”

“Oh.” I’d
forgotten she’d been at the party last night. She’d been so quiet. “Is there
anything you want to do today?”

“Buy us some
syrup.”

“I guess it
would be a good idea to go grocery shopping in general.”

“I could use
doing laundry.”

My expression
fell.
“Oh, gosh, Jacqueline.
I’m sorry. I didn’t even
think.
Of course.”

She waved me
off as though it was no big deal. I supposed it wasn’t. But her laundry need
was indicative of a larger issue. She was living out of a suitcase she’d packed
for Las Vegas. She wasn’t
in
Las
Vegas. Not only that, she also wasn’t home. And I didn’t know when she’d be
able to leave.

“Vamps can
track their thralls, you know,” she said without looking me in the eye. “He’s
going to find me.”

My breath
caught. Maximo hadn’t mentioned that. Then again, I hadn’t mentioned I had one
of the witches staying at my apartment.

“It won’t be
until tonight at the earliest because he’ll go for back-up.” Jacqueline glanced
at me. “That’s why I didn’t warn you. And he’ll try to go through the official
channel of the city ruler.”

The city ruler I was now supposedly dating
.

“But he’ll
come.”

She was a
regular old font of knowledge.

Her voice
hardened. “I was his thrall the longest of the six. I watched how he worked.”

That explained
that.

“I want to
kill him,” she whispered. “He made me do … things I wouldn’t wish on anyone.”

“How long?”
I hoped she knew I wanted
to know how long she’d been at his mercy.

Jacqueline
shook her head. “Not long.
A week and a half at most.
I lost track because of the drugs. But it was long enough.”

My stomach
flipped with empathy. I’d been enthralled for a short time. She’d had it so
much worse. “I’m sorry, Jacqueline. I can’t kill him. But I’ll do everything
else I can to keep you safe.”

The Dark witch
forced a partial smile. “You already did.”

But it wasn’t
enough.

****

I’d wanted to
ignore the phone message from Desmond and his invitation. But lunch with the
witches Nadir had enthralled would be an opportunity to speak with
Dea
Woods. My distaste for Desmond would have to go on the
back burner, even if the luncheon
were
at his house.

The deal had
been sealed when he’d assured me the coalition wouldn’t be there. I wasn’t in a
position to stand before the magical community’s ruling body yet. Not until I’d
successfully swayed a coven or two to my side.

Jacqueline and
I had time to do a few loads of laundry before we had to be at the gated
community at two. My guest was in better spirits with fresh clothing. I
promised we’d stop at the grocery store on the way home. Maybe her lukewarm
mood would remain.

The gated
community’s security guard took one look at my cerulean hair and waved me in.
Desmond’s driveway held only two other vehicles apart from mine. Perhaps he
hadn’t fibbed and his guests would be only
Dea
, the
six enthralled witches, him, and me.