The Sorceress Screams (15 page)

His business
casual-clad figure appeared at the front door before we’d reached the stone
steps leading to it. Jacqueline nodded politely, and then scrutinized every
detail of his modern semi-circle shaped house. By the time we’d reached his
living room, Jacqueline shot me a wide look as if to say I ought to be paying
attention.

Several female
voices mingled from the direction of Desmond’s dining room. We rounded the
corner and found he’d extended the length of his glass table to accommodate the
extra guests. And we appeared to have arrived last.

Dea
Woods held the spot to the left
of the table’s head. The pretty blonde with a soft face one might expect to see
on a Christmas angel statue nodded politely. At
Dea’s
side was the older, stern-faced man I knew to be her Guardian, Richard. Beside
him was the Healer Kaila. Across from Kaila sat necromancer Isabelle. My gaze
continued, landing on the soft-spoken Air witch Gemma. At the end of the table
was the spitfire Rose. And holding the place at the foot of the table was
Veronika
looking smug, as though she belonged in the spot.

Jacqueline
nodded to the other witches. The attention paid me by all in the room hinted
Veronika
had already explained the female with the cerulean
hair was actually “Becky” from Las Vegas.

Desmond
returned from the kitchen with a steaming dish of manicotti in his oven mitts.
“Have a seat.” He gestured to the open chair to the right of him.

Jacqueline
motioned for me to take it even as she grabbed the back of the chair beside it.
I didn’t want to sit next to Desmond. Not in that seat. Not as I had a week
ago.

If he recalled
that night, he didn’t show it while he concentrated on serving the Italian entree.

Why should I be the only one haunted by one stupid,
fake date
?

“Thank you for
coming, Ms. Walsh.”
Dea
caught my attention with her
warm tone and matching smile.

“I don’t know
if you should be thanking me for anything.” I winced. Hopping on the negative
train right out of the station hadn’t been my intention. The whole being-so-close-to-Desmond-that-I-could-smell-his-crisp-mountain-scent
situation made me behave like a freak.

Jacqueline
shot me pinched look. Clearly I was supposed to shut my mouth.

“You saved
these women just as Rich saved me,”
Dea
said.

I remained
tightlipped rather than argue. Desmond was probably glaring at me. I didn’t
look to see if I was right.

“I think what
Ms. Walsh is alluding to is that this is a temporary fix,” Desmond said,
verbalizing part of what was on my mind.

I looked up,
surprised
he’d
jumped on the negative
train.

“But we can
discuss that after our meal,” he said.

His pretty
lips turned up at the corner but rather than appearing as a smile, I sensed a
barely hidden frown. Was I beginning to note tiny details, or was I imagining
things?

His gaze
dropped to the plate in his hand—the plate he was trying to get me to take. I
flushed because I’d been caught staring at him.

“How has the
shop been doing, Ms. Walsh?”
Dea
asked after I’d
muttered thanks and taken the plate.

“The Sedona
shop is doing as well as can be expected for the location,” I said. “However, I’ve
yet to sell a single item on the
Wipuk
side.”

Desmond jumped
in. “I thought you sold one thing.”

My neck and
face heated at the accusation.
Hades’s
hair! The man
wasn’t going to give up on that damn crystal.

“That was
counted as an Internet sale.” My tight response was a bold-faced lie I prayed
he wouldn’t note. I didn’t
feel
any
empathic links that would tell him more than I was letting on.

“Oh, you have
a website?”

“Yes,” I said
with a mutinous look even I didn’t understand.

“I’d be
interested to see it.”

“I’ll give you
a business card before I leave.” Maybe he’d forget by then.

Desmond turned
toward the gathering. “Ms. Walsh held an interesting gathering at her shop on
Monday.”

He related the
events of the party in his rising and falling cadence. Like the rest of him,
Desmond’s voice was simply lovely. It was unfair how he’d received the bulk of
the world’s premium traits. I supposed that was what happened when your race
bred for purity and power.

The group
questioned Desmond about the different items I’d given as prizes. He answered
what he could, deferring what he couldn’t to me. Part of me understood this was
his attempt to put his stamp of approval on my shop. While I appreciated it, he
was preaching to witches who would eventually leave
Wipuk
.
This was a small show on his part to earn big results.

After the meal,
we adjourned to the living room where the group got comfortable on Desmond’s
sofa and chairs. I picked a chair as far from the sofa we’d used together as I
could manage.
Dea
and Rich sat in the love seat to my
left. Desmond leaned against the stacked stone wall to my right—a spot where he
could easily see me.

Dea
began our conversation by telling
the story of her enthrallment. Rich joined in with the details she hadn’t
recalled. We soon found each of the witches had been in Vegas on business, the
same business—a conference on how witches could help bring peace to the Middle
East. Each had responded to the same invitation to be peace ambassadors for
their faction. Nadir Khan had organized the elaborate kidnapping.

I concentrated
on something a little less interactive while they discussed their different
experiences. Each of these female witches was enthralled. Nadir Khan had bitten
them and then immediately forced them to feed on
his
blood. Did that mean the vampire virus was in their veins?
Some
part of Nadir must remain in the
women or he’d have nothing to call on. The leeches didn’t call it a “blood
bond” for nothing. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do a little probing.

Jacqueline was
the only witch in the room I had any level of comfort with. She’d pulled a
chair close by when it was clear there wouldn’t be enough seats on Desmond’s
cushy French gray furniture thanks to
Veronika
lounging a little too lazily on one of the love seats.

I concentrated
on Jacqueline’s blood. It was widely thought the vampire condition, like
Were
, was caused by a
virus.
Thus the most helpful school of magic ought to be Healing. I connected to the
aether
, drawing on Healing. Silently I willed the magic to ease
into Jacqueline exactly as I did with Water’s empathic links.

I concentrated
on Jacqueline’s face for signs of discomfort. She didn’t flinch until a fly
appeared within her line of sight. Satisfied that she wouldn’t cry foul, I
dropped my attention to the floor so I could focus on the information received.
Healing magic didn’t report anything amiss.

Perhaps I was
going about this the wrong way. I didn’t rightly know
how
Healers worked beyond what I’d read in my mother’s ancient
books. Those hadn’t been particularly helpful given the Old World jargon and my
ten-year-old self. Perhaps I needed a broader sample.

Again I willed
Healing energy to enter a witch—this
time
Dea
Woods. I asked Healing to tell report the differences
between Jacqueline and
Dea’s
blood. Useless details
were reported such as their blood types, that Jacqueline’s blood pressure was
quite a bit higher than
Dea’s
, and that Jacqueline
had less of it running through her.
Because Nadir had fed on
her more recently?

Next would be
to introduce a control for my silent experiment. Desmond and Rich were the only
unenthralled
witches in the room. One of them would
have to do. This would be a test of my ability—to control three threads of
Healing power in three different witches without them noticing.

I willed
Healing to enter Desmond and focused on his face, looking for a reaction. His
attention switched to me. My face warmed at being caught staring, again.

But had he
noticed the invasion? I probably should have asked for permission.

No. What was I
thinking
? If I’d asked for
permission, I’d have to admit I could access the Healing school of magic as
well as the other four Desmond knew about. He was already wary enough of me
without adding to it.

Desmond rolled
onto the balls of his feet as if he wanted to step closer.
Veronika’s
voice retelling how she’d met Nadir in a bar kept him where he was. I forced
myself to concentrate on my work. That meant looking away from him.

I pressed my
eyes shut in the hope of visualizing the three different circulatory systems in
my subjects. My mind’s eye lit up with three separate images much like an
angiographic, shocking me into almost giving an audible reaction. The second
surprise was the extra blood pooled low on Desmond’s torso. The leggy blonde
Water witch on the love seat
was
showing too much thigh.

Healing
snagged my attention with the report of an unrecognized antibody in the
females’ blood. Desmond didn’t share the antibody. I willed the power to
illuminate the antibodies. Pulsing crimson bits soon peppered the witches’ circulatory
systems.

Was
that
the blood bond? Short of replacing
their blood completely, how would I fix the issue? Unless… Was there a way to
isolate antibodies?

“Ms. Walsh?”

My eyes
snapped open upon hearing Desmond call my name. “Yes? Sorry.”

I blushed,
avoiding his eyes to hide the guilt in mine. He’d surely attack me if he
realized I was doing something to him. But did I need to anymore? I’d isolated
the differences in their blood. Now I needed to see if the other five witches
had the same antibodies I’d discovered.

“You seemed to
have some concerns earlier,” Desmond said. “Do you want to discuss them now?”

“Uh …
Jacqueline brought up some disturbing points earlier. I’ll let her tell you.”

In the
meantime I needed to check the others.

Jacqueline
sent me an unhappy look, but she spoke in her quiet way anyway. I only had a
few minutes to accomplish the remainder of my experiment before they’d expect
me to take part in the discussion. I withdrew my Healing link and sent it into
each of the other witches with the command to be painless.

They all carried the antibody
.

I inhaled a
ragged breath as I asked Healing to check
me
for the antibody. I damn near slumped out of the chair when it responded with a
negative report.

The antibody
wasn’t in me. By Zeus, I was a lucky girl!

I may have
located the cause of a vampire’s thrall. All that was left would be to check at
least one healthy,
unenthralled
female witch to make
sure I was correct. I brought the conversation into focus as I released my link
to them all.

“He is going
to kill her,” Rich said.

“No,”
Jacqueline said in a firm voice I hadn’t thought she was capable of. “She
successfully manipulated him. He’s going to want to use that to his advantage. He’ll
try to enthrall her first.”

So they were
talking about
me
?

“She did it
once,” Isabelle said. “Can’t she just do it again?”

“She had the
element of surprise then,” Jacqueline said. “Nadir didn’t think she was a
threat. None of us did. He’s not going to make that mistake twice.”

It was nearly
the match for Maximo’s words.

“Unless she’s
enthralled by another vampire,
Kora
isn’t going to be
much safer than we are,” Jacqueline said.

“That isn’t an
option,” Desmond said in his harshest tone—the one he’d used when he’d told me
I wasn’t welcome in
Wipuk
weeks ago. Strange now that
he was arguing to keep me free from vampires. “She’ll be safe if we can keep
Nadir from finding her.”

“He’ll find
her if I’m with her.”

No one argued
with Jacqueline’s statement. No one but me, that is. I shook my head wide
enough to capture her attention. “I didn’t save you from Nadir so you could get
snatched up by your high priest. You’re safer with me. I’ll take my chances
with the vampire.” Especially now that I had Maximo’s backing.

“You can stay
here, Jacqueline,” Desmond said. “I have an extra guest room downstairs.”

I jerked to
the edge of the seat. “No.”

Desmond arched
a single, raven eyebrow. “No?”

The more I
thought about it, the worse the idea became. “What can you do to stop a
vampire?”

He held my
gaze without blinking. “Apparently I can manipulate him using Water magic.”