The Sorceress Screams (21 page)

Once he’d
finished and gotten me logged in, he put in the movie that had come with the
console. He tugged me by my fingers down onto the futon with him. I let him
maneuver me between his thighs as he’d done the first night he’d visited. Like
then, it took a quarter of the movie before I was able to relax even with his
hands sifting through my hair and the occasional kiss to my ear.

An hour later
his hand settled atop my white nylon at the thigh. A shot of heat jumped from
my middle. His skin was cool but smooth. It was almost too easy to believe he
was merely chilled from the air conditioning.

He did nothing
more than set it there, perhaps as a test. I was torn between wanting to knock
it away and wanting to inch down so he’d be closer to the spot that would take
us to the next level. Beneath me the stiffening of his arousal began to make
itself known. Worry built in me that he was moving too quickly. If he kept on
at this speed, our “going slowly” would go from days of taking it slow to mere
hours.

Quietly he
groaned and spoke in Spanish. “I want to be inside you.”

My heart
skipped two beats. It took great fortitude not to immediately jump out of his
arms. He hadn’t realized I understood his native tongue. That gave me a leg up.
But I was fearful of this going too far, too fast.

Maximo’s cool
nose nuzzled my ear. He transferred a kiss to my shoulder blade. Nudging the
rust-color fabric aside, he fastened his lips over the tender skin that had
been hidden. Desire shot straight up my body, tightening everything along the
way. My nipples went rigid beneath the summer dress’s thin fabric. I imagined
his cool lips closing over them.

I drew in a
long breath to keep from panting. His hand slid beneath my skirt and up my
thigh at a pace that wouldn’t have been noticeable if I hadn’t been on
metaphorical fire. I had to fight the urge to rip his clothing from him.
We’ve gone too far
.

“You said we’d
go slowly,” I said in a breathless whisper.

“Dios.
We are. I’m trying.” Maximo
withdrew his hand from my skirt with a muttered apology. He set it safely on
the futon beside me.

I reined in
the desire he’d built. My concentration had been shot to the point that the
images on the screen flickered without my understanding. Beneath my
tush
his arousal remained rigid. His silence echoed the
rising frustration I sensed from him.

“Thank you,
Max.”

“Hmm?”

“For going slowly with me.”

Maximo gave me
a sweet, one-handed hug.
“Whatever you need.
Rebecca.”

“Before you,
I’d only ever had one night stands with men who wanted to finish quickly. The
longest foreplay I’d experienced was ten minutes. I think he was timing it by
the clock on his bedside table.”

“Please don’t
be offended. Rebecca,” he said. “But I don’t want to hear of your previous
lovers. It makes me want to kill them for touching you.” Maximo cleared his
throat.
“And for their idiocy.”

Talk of
killing people cooled my desire the rest of the way. I whispered an apology and
then focused on the movie.

Maximo’s
touches from that point forward were calming instead of arousing. He remained
through another movie. Citing he knew I had to be into work at noon, he lifted
me to bed and promised he’d stay as long as he possibly could. Someone would be
posted outside after he left. Once again I fought him on the bodyguard topic
despite Nadir’s near attack. But Nadir was a vampire—if Maximo had to sleep, so
would he.

The last
things I recalled after I’d changed into my tank top were Maximo’s dark eyes
and his soft words telling me to sleep.

Chapter Fifteen

The Mazda was
in my parking lot when I pulled in. I’d expected Nell to call out sick again or
to quit. Did her car’s presence mean she wasn’t quitting? Or did it mean she
was inside defacing the place before she said, “
sayonara
,
freak”?

My cautious
optimism faltered. Yes,
Dea
Woods was still clean of
antibodies, and yes that was great for the world if it meant we’d discovered a
cure for enthrallment. But, I may have just lost the only friend I had. With a
heavy heart, I went inside to find out.

Nell wasn’t in
the
Wipuk
storefront so I took the stairs down. I
found her seated on the stool behind the glass display case. Her laptop was
balanced in her lap. She glanced up long enough to level a frown on me.

Ever the
tactician, I said, “Are you quitting?”

“Are you
turning evil?”

“I don’t think
so, but evil people rarely think they are.”

Nell snorted.
“Too right.”

I settled
myself against the frame to the employee only area, watching her around the
curtain of her long blonde hair. She was trying to ignore me, but at least part
of her attention was on me.

“Some things
are going to come out in the next few days,” I said. “I want to tell you before
you hear it from someone else.”

She lifted her
eyes, lips already thinning.

“First,
Ascencion
stole something of mine when she kidnapped me and
tried to kill me. She gave it to Maximo as a gift. He hasn’t given it back. He
blackmailed me into going to dinner with him on Saturday with the implication
that he would. But he didn’t. Second, I saved those enthralled witches from
Nadir Khan in Las Vegas. I did it in disguise. I was afraid he’d kill me when
he found out who I was. So I asked Maximo for help.”

The next words
would sound bad. I winced and turned away so I wouldn’t have to see the disgust
on her face. “He said the girlfriends of city rulers are basically untouchable.
And that if I agreed to date him, he’d give me back what
Ascencion
stole when I proved I was devoted to the relationship.”

Nell made a
sound of disgust I wasn’t able to block.

I looked to
her for understanding. The plea in my eyes matched the one in my voice. “I
don’t want to date him. But I really need what
Ascencion
stole. And last night Nadir Khan was inches from killing me. I
would
have died if Maximo hadn’t stopped
him.”

She remained
tightlipped but wasn’t arguing, calling me names, or snorting. So I continued.

“Third, in the
next day or so it’s going to come out that I have access to the Healing school
of magic.”

Nell couldn’t
keep quiet any longer.
“Air, Earth, Water and now
Healing
?”

I nodded
rather than speak a lie of omission.

“No one has
access to that many schools naturally.” Her eyes narrowed to rival her lips.
“You
have
to be using weaves.”

I’d have been
furious had it been Desmond speaking those words. But, Nell hadn’t tested me.
She’d accepted that my one show for Desmond had been proof. And because she was
an Air witch, the one faction that could sense weaves, she knew for certain
that I had none.

I shook my
head. “I’m not using weaves. And I’m not using any items like I sell in this
shop. It’s natural.”

“If that’s
true…” Her voice trailed off. Nell gave a quick shake of her long blonde mane.
“The coalition is going to freak.”

“They already
did when they heard about Water.” I shifted my weight to the opposite hip.
“Desmond had to take responsibility for me to keep them from kicking me out of
the colony.”

Nell shot to
her feet.
“Fucking Boston Steamer!”
She stomped around
the display case to the door and then back again. “You’re part of
his
coven now? And
dating
Wipuk’s
First? Could you get any
eviler? Why not join
Eamonn
Cary’s harem while you’re
at it!”

“I’m sorry,
Nell.” I moaned
,
dropping my head until my chin dug
into my chest. “I’m trying to do the right thing, but all this stuff keeps
happening to knock me off the right path. Please…” I sighed. “Don’t lose
complete faith in me. I’ll never do you wrong.”

She folded her
arms in front of her chest. Her head jabbed upward in an aggressive gesture
that wasn’t promising. “But you’ll probably let one of
them
do me wrong.”

“No.” I stood to
my full, upright position. “So long as it is within my power to do something, I
won’t let them hurt anyone who doesn’t deserve to be hurt.”

Nell’s lips
pursed as she hugged herself. I stood helplessly by. Though it wouldn’t be the
end of the world if she quit on me, I’d lose the one ally I had in the entire
colony. I didn’t want that to happen. But I also couldn’t come clean about the
whole truth of the situation—an issue that would eventually drive her away.

“You’re lucky
it’s already July. Otherwise I’d quit and go get a job at another crystal
shop.” Nell stomped by me up the stairs. “I’m taking my break.”

I released a
breath.

I’d done all I
could do to keep Nell around, for now. I hoped it was enough and time would
soothe her hurt feelings.

****

I procrastinated
with my Nissan’s door for the extra few seconds it would give me. Supposedly
the vampire who wanted me dead was inside the house in front of me. And Maximo
was with him. That wasn’t the surprising factoid. The big surprise was that I
stood in front of Desmond Marino’s semi-circle home.

This wasn’t
the location I’d have picked for this to go down. I would have asked for someplace
public—very public, like maybe a professional sports event in Phoenix. But
Desmond had persuaded
Dea
Woods this was the safest
venue for her to meet with Nadir Khan.

She’d asked me
to be present. I couldn’t refuse, nor had I wanted to. The outcome of this
meeting would have a huge impact on my life. But I’d insisted Desmond send
Jacqueline and
Veronika
somewhere safe for the
evening. He’d acted insulted I’d asked.

A meeting that
contained me and Nadir required Maximo be present. I’d made Desmond extend the
invitation, using the excuse that
Wipuk’s
First
ought to be there to control his visitor were anything
to go wrong. Desmond had unwisely failed to question me on what could go wrong.
I hoped he had good homeowner’s insurance.

Dea
, Dr. Yates, and Rich had stopped
by the shop earlier to have me check the priestess’s blood for antibodies one
last time. She’d been clean. Still. In fact, her blood had been the match for
Rich’s right down to the blood type. I prayed we’d found the answer to breaking
a blood bond.

And I prayed
we lived through the night to tell others about it.

I started for
the front door, noting the Escalade was already in the driveway. Maximo was
here. But no one else was unless Nadir had come with Maximo. It was possible
but unlikely.

As he had the
last time I’d visited, Desmond appeared at the door before I reached it. His
raven eyebrows were knit, and his eyes flashed.
Maximo’s
fault?
Had I ever seen the two men together, apart from the charity
ball? This ought to be enlightening if only for that reason.

“Ms. Walsh,”
Desmond said with a professional nod. “The vampires are here, but the priestess
has yet to arrive.”

Nadir had come
with Maximo? How was that possible when the foreign vampire had smashed up
Maximo’s office?

Desmond stared
at me expectantly. I shook the questions out of my head.

He looked
good. He always looked good. But today he reminded me of the dinner we’d shared
here last week. His sports coat had been left somewhere in the house along with
his tie. The top two buttons on his light blue dress shirt had been unfastened
and his pale skin peeked through. Even his beige and gray pinstripe pants looked
good with their creases from sitting all day.

Small talk—I
needed small talk. “How have your visitors been?”

“I barely know
one is here, while the other…” Desmond made a martyred face. “She makes her
presence known at every opportunity. I was enjoying the quiet after they left …
until I was interrupted.”

“I’m sorry.” I
sent him a grateful smile. “It’s good what you’ve done for them.” I glanced
away. “And me.”

He nodded as
we stepped onto the flagstone floor inside. His attention had switched to his
living room. The only sound emanating from the space came from the miniature waterfalls
within the walls and the indoor stream’s flow. No doubt the vampires had been
eavesdropping.

Nadir sat
facing the door in one of Desmond’s French gray chairs—the chair I’d used when
I was here last.
Hades, I hope he can’t smell
me on it
.

Maximo wasn’t
visible until after we’d stepped past the dividing wall. He was lounged in the
middle of Desmond’s sofa with his arms stretched along the back of the
cushions. He’d donned another of his simple black suits—a garment he managed to
make shine despite its lack of fancy fabric or hidden patterns.