The Sorceress Screams (22 page)

His face lit
into his mischievous smile. He hopped to his feet, dark intent filling his eyes
as he made his way across the space. My stomach immediately flipped.

Brushing past
Desmond, Maximo slipped his arm possessively around my waist while the other
fisted in my hair. He held me still as his lips closed over mine. My first
reaction was embarrassment. But the strong pull of his lips, combined with his
cool tongue sweeping over mine, had me melting against his body. Desire shot
from my toes to my
eyeballs
.

Desmond cleared
his throat, reminding me we had an audience. Maximo reluctantly withdrew his
lips from mine and set me on my feet just so … I could nearly fall. He reached
out to steady me. A soft laugh passed his lips.

“I’m sorry.”
His light tone and half smile implied he wasn’t sorry at all. “I should know
better by now than to let you stand on your own so soon.”

By now?
As if we’d been dating for
months?

I shot him a
confused look.
Then caught the dark shape out of the corner
of my eye.
A quick glance showed me Desmond glowered at us with narrowed
eyes that were blacker than his usual aqua.

Maximo made
the situation worse by snatching me up into his arms and carrying me to the
sofa. Smacking him would only prove Nadir’s assumption that I was manipulating
Maximo. The foreign vampire would declare open season on me at the slightest provocation.

Desmond had
left the room by the time Maximo had finished arranging me beside him.

What had that
been about? Desmond’s glowering was completely unfounded. After all,
he’d
asked me to use my feminine wiles
on Maximo in the first place.

With nothing
else to concentrate on but the vampires, I focused on the view. There wasn’t
much of one given it was night and the moon had yet to rise. But the spotlights
on the bubbling stream cutting through the yard were enough of a draw.

“Rebecca.”

I was too
miffed by Maximo’s immature public displays of affection to react to his
sensual greeting like usual. Instead, I slowly faced him.

“How was your
day?”

Now was the
worst time to ask me about my day. I pressed my lips together while I counted
to ten. “I’ve had better days. I’ve had worse.”

Like the day his girlfriend set me on fire
.
Twice.
But today wasn’t over yet. It
could still enter the running.

“My day is
much better now that you’re here,” he said, crooning low in his throat.

Was he
really
using cheesy lines like that on
me?

I lifted an
eyebrow. He laughed softly and then ran his finger over my lower lip.

Desmond’s
voice at the front door hinted
Dea
had arrived. My
body stiffened with worry.

It was the
moment of truth.

Desmond was in
the lead, perhaps because it was his house and perhaps because he thought he
could manipulate the situation if not the foreign vampire. Now was a good time
to send out an empathic link. I willed it to join with Nadir softly. And then I
noted a second signature already in place. Desmond sent a quick glance implying
he’d noted me in return.

Nadir’s
attention was wholly and fanatically fixed on
Dea
.
From the squeezing and wobbly sensations on my consciousness, I sensed he was
trying to do something. And that it might not be working as he’d hoped. He was
confused.

I gave
Dea
a smile meant to be comforting but was probably wan
instead. Rich stood to her right and partially in front. Both were dressed
casually in jeans and light shirts. If eyes could kill, Nadir would be dead.
Rich’s dark glare could have tunneled through stone.

Desmond made
the introductions, but I wasn’t listening to his lovely voice. My concentration
was on Nadir. Frustration quickly replaced the vampire’s confusion.

Desmond might
be interfering with Nadir’s attempt. We needed the vampire to have complete
control of
himself
in order to know for sure. I called
on Air, sending Desmond a message using telepathy.

Please, trust me. Release your hold on him. We need to
know.

Desmond’s
darting eyes and crinkled brows were equal parts perplexed, frustrated, and
concerned. The additional empathic link to Nadir withdrew. I didn’t dare
breathe in relief.

Nadir bolted
upright. Everyone got to their feet with him.

I drew on the
available Water and pressed him magically. “Don’t hurt her, Khan. Don’t touch
her.”

His
frustration and confusion transformed into fury—fury he turned on me. “What did
you do?”

“Don’t move.”

“
Come here
.”

Dea
slumped against Rich.

Had Nadir
managed to hurt her despite my will? I hurried toward her.

“I’m fine,”
she whispered and held out a hand.
“Relieved.”

Nadir’s eyes bulged
as they fixed on me. His nostrils flared with frightening intensity. The mask
of animalistic rage I’d seen last night formed on his face complete with the
red-rimmed eyes and wicked fangs.

“What did you
do? I’ll
kill
you!” His bellow shook
the floor.

Maximo and
Desmond stepped in front of me. Neither knew what I’d done. I could understand
Maximo protecting me. Desmond’s interest in my safety shouldn’t have been worth
the risk to his person. Yet there he was, shielding me from an irate vampire.

Maximo responded
first with now familiar words. “She’s mine. I have claimed her. I am dating
her. You cannot touch her.”

“You imbecile!”
Nadir roared, lunging
in what seemed to be more theatrics than a legitimate threat. But his ability
to move even that much beneath my Water magic hold was disturbing—especially
considering how much power I’d had over him in Vegas. What had changed?

“You bloody
moron! Do you know what she’s
done
?”

The company
waited for Nadir’s explanation.

Nadir snarled
and clawed in my direction. “Your
girlfriend
is about to have a price set on her head so high even the Pope will accept the
challenge!”

Dea’s
hand slipped around my forearm.
She gave me a reassuring squeeze that was only a smidgeon comforting. I feared
Nadir was right.

“What has she
done?” Desmond asked what none of the others had been brave enough to form into
words.

Nadir’s body trembled
with rage that didn’t look healthy even for a dead guy. He unclenched his teeth
enough to give a melodramatic reply. “She’s broken a blood bond.
Without killing the master.
And for it, I’m going to kill
her.”

Maximo’s
attention whipped toward me. His dark eyes were wide. His attention shifted to
Dea’s
grip on my arm. And then his jaw dropped open clear
to his chest.

Nadir’s lips
spread into a wicked sneer. His back and legs straightened from his lunged
pose. He rolled onto his heels arrogantly. My stomach plummeted. Nadir looked
positive Maximo would flip out and kill me himself.

My breath came
in a quick gasp. I couldn’t use an empathic link on Maximo. If
Wipuk’s
First
wanted to kill me, I
wouldn’t be able to stop him.

Desmond made a
move that managed to capture my attention away from the vampires. He gestured
to the door with his head—a barely perceptible nod. But it was a foolish
suggestion. They’d only follow if I ran.

Maximo gained
control over his jaw. Likewise his eyes slipped back into their deep-set,
thinner shape. It would happen now. He’d disappear in a blur and then snap my
neck.

He stared at
me. I tried to hold his gaze without flinching, pleading, or otherwise swaying
him. Maximo must have seen something in me that prompted him to turn away.
Nadir’s mouth went slack long before Maximo began speaking.

“She’s mine. I
have claimed her. I am dating her. You cannot touch her.”

My body
wavered on suddenly weak legs.

He wasn’t
killing me. Why wasn’t he killing me? What horrible deal would I have to make
with him in exchange for
this
?

“Imbecile!”
Nadir’s body quaked in
his impotent stance. “You’ll pay for this betrayal of your race! I’ll destroy you
and your entire pathetic colony!”

“No,” I said
with a heady push of power. “You’ll leave
Wipuk
. You
won’t return here ever again. And you’ll forget what you’ve learned here. You
won’t seek vengeance on any of us. Leave now, Nadir Khan.”

Every eye in
the room was fixed on me as Nadir trod stiffly around us. I ignored them,
keeping an eye on the raging vampire. My Water manipulation wouldn’t last
forever despite pouring all of the energy I could grab at him.

He’d leave
Wipuk
. But one day he’d be back. One day he’d remember what
he’d learned. And one day he
would
seek vengeance on us all.

Until then, I
had to deal with those in my immediate vicinity.

Chapter Sixteen

No one moved a
muscle until the front door slammed shut. Desmond and Maximo faced me with nearly
identical graceful twirls.
Dea
remained close to my
back with Rich beside her. He was protecting her. What she was doing was
anybody’s guess.

Maximo had the
first question. “What language was that?”

“What?”

“What you said
to him…”

Desmond
entered the conversation. “You spoke several phrases in a foreign language, Ms.
Walsh.”

“Oh.” I
concentrated on the past two minutes. “
Oh
.”
My shoulders slumped. “It was
Fārsi
.”

“You know
Fārsi
,” Desmond said in monotone.

I slipped out
of the aggressive box we’d placed ourselves in and dropped onto the sofa so I
could set my head in my hands. A long breath did little to slow my pulse.

“What did you
tell him?”

The question
had come from Maximo, spoken in a wary tone. Though he’d stood up for me, he no
longer trusted me, if he ever had.

I explained
what the vampire had said and how I’d responded. Maximo must have realized
Nadir’s threat had been leveled on him. His hard expression softened into one
that looked a lot like concern.

He crossed the
space, taking the seat beside me on Desmond’s sofa. “He’s going to come back
eventually, won’t he?”

I nodded.

“How long do
we have?” Desmond asked.

I couldn’t
look anyone in the eye because I was too worried. “I’ve never tried to do
anything that serious before. It could be a couple hours. It could be weeks. I
don’t know.”

Silence
followed my words.

Maximo
interrupted it. “Did you break the blood bond?”

“I didn’t do
it,” I said with a touch of defensiveness in my croaked voice. “I persuaded a
doctor to try something that should have been attempted decades ago. It
worked.” I made myself look at him. “It was a standard medical treatment.”

There was no
change to his expression. He wasn’t happy. But he didn’t look like he wanted to
murder me. How could one vampire scream about Pope
assassins
and another be calm in the face of something this momentous?

Desmond jumped
in with another question. “Do you think you could do it again?”

“I didn’t do
anything. But yes. Now that we know it worked for Priestess Woods, the other
six
need
to be offered the treatment.”

“The other
six
?”
Rich said
,
reminding me he was still with
us. “What about every enthralled person on the planet?”

“The undead
community will resort to violence if the treatment is publicized,” Maximo said.

Every eye
switched to him.

“They’ll
destroy the equipment used for the treatment and the people who know how to use
it,” he said, seemingly heedless of the sour expressions. “They’ll track down
anyone who has knowledge of it and kill them as well as anyone who could have
learned from them. And then they’ll target the factories that manufacture the
equipment and
their
employees.
They’ll do this quietly, without mercy until the treatments are ceased or until
there are no tools left with which to complete it.
Exactly as
they’re trying to do with the Cured.”
He lowered his head until we were
eye-to-eye. “Your only chance for success is to carry it word of mouth and to
keep the details secure.”

Rich waved
aggressively toward us. “That’s bullshit.”

“No,” Desmond
said. “He might be correct. Vampires use the blood bond to control local
government all across the world. Without their thralls, they would be required
to use legitimate methods of getting what they want. They won’t want to do
that.” He faced me and squared his shoulders—the sign he was going to make one
of his proclamations. “Tell
Viho
Hiamovi
the details. His Healers can carry the news word of mouth and keep the
treatment as secret as any of their other methods of Healing.”