The Sorceress Screams (23 page)

“
Viho
will find out,” I said. “It was one of his Healers who
helped.”

I glanced at
Dea
and found her face creased with concern. Her worry made
me worry. I evaluated what had been suggested through another lens. Faster than
should have been possible given my frazzled state, I honed in on another large
problem.

“But following
your suggestion will paint a target on the Healers,” I told Desmond. “Their
faction is already limited in number. We can’t risk the vampires using this as
an excuse to hunt yet another group to extinction.”

“So what are
our options?” Rich asked in a sharp tone that was on the edge of being
reasonable—
an
improvement over his previous
statements. “We have the vampires target the Healers or we have them target
doctors, hospitals, clinics, and medical supply factories?”

I lifted my
hands in a sign of surrender. “This isn’t a decision for us to make.
Viho
needs to be told. He needs to discuss the situation
with his leadership. They should make the ultimate call because it’s their risk
to take.” I got to my feet with the intention of ending the debate by going
home.

Desmond
blocked my path to the door. “In the meantime you are the target.” Whatever
meaning was in his eyes was lost on me. “An entire race, hundreds of thousands
strong will want you dead. Nadir was right. The price on your head will be
immense.”

My heart
skipped wildly, but I forced a twisted smile. “Nadir has to remember what he
learned before that will happen.”

Desmond
grabbed my arm. “You’re powerful. But you’re not that powerful.”

I pushed every
ounce of Water magic I had left in me into him. “Let go of my arm, Marino.”

His hand fell
away. He blinked back surprise. Then his eyes narrowed into tiny slits.

I could have
hurried to the door, but I’d manipulated him to prove a point. Desmond would
want to have his say. I stood still while he worked through his anger.

“I quickly
broke free from your will,” he said.

“You’re the
high priest of Neptune’s Fellowship. If you’d been anyone else, you would have
taken me home that day.”

Maximo shifted
in his position behind and to my left. I’d nearly forgotten he was here. I
wouldn’t have thought it possible if it hadn’t just happened.

Desmond had
had his say. I started for the door once more.

“You’re going
to meet with the coalition,” he called after me.

I waved a
dismissive hand at him without slowing, knowing he was right.

****

The emotions
passing over Maximo’s face were fascinating. His brows were knit in high relief
and both quivered every other second. The fine lines etched around his features
likewise deepened and faded as his gaze darted around the driveway. His eyes
pressed shut for a full second before opening for several rapid flutters of his
lashes. Between all of this his lips worked open and closed, thinning and
pursing in alternating pushes.
A silent debate between
frustration, anger, concern, and a dash of lust?

He hadn’t
touched me or looked as if he’d like to touch me since before Nadir’s
revelation. Considering I’d thought Maximo would kill me when he’d heard, a
lack of touch was probably a good thing. But a small part of me was hurt he’d
gone from reducing me to a weak-kneed, stammering girl to stiffly keeping his
distance.

“I need to
make certain he’s left
Wipuk
,” Maximo said at last.
He walked for the Escalade. “I’ll call you.”

I stared after
the vehicle moving in reverse.
Was that
it
?

He hadn’t
kissed me. He hadn’t killed me. He hadn’t even demanded anything in return for
what Nadir had called a “betrayal of his race”.

I’ll call you
sounded like
the kiss of death for any relationship. He’d said he’d give me back my ring if
he decided he didn’t want to continue our relationship before the year was out.
Would he keep his word if the cause were something this destructive?

And why was I
suddenly
disappointed
that he might?

I still stood
in the driveway watching the taillights on the Cadillac fade in the distance
when
Dea
and Rich stepped onto the pavement. She
hurried to me, giving an unexpected hug.

“You did
something,
Kora
,” she whispered in my ear. “You
changed the world. Thank you so much.”

I hadn’t
changed the world. What I’d done had been to use the Internet to come up with a
suggestion someone else should have thought of ages ago. And for it I was going
to be in for a heap of trouble.

Dea
pulled away with one last
squeeze. She gave me a closed-mouthed smile before following Rich to their Toyota
hybrid.

Something
brushed against my consciousness. Desmond called out. “Come back inside.”

My legs
carried me toward the house quite literally with a mind of their own. It was a
startling sensation I didn’t like at all. I glowered at Desmond all the way
into his foyer.

He’d needed to
flex his power in retaliation for what I’d done to him. It was really quite
surprising he hadn’t done it in front of the others as I had. Was that because
he didn’t want them to know he could?

Desmond pushed
himself between the door and me. He gestured for the living room.

I didn’t move.
“What do you want?”

“To talk,” he
said in his professional voice. “You nearly started a war in my house. You knew
it was coming and failed to warn me. I think you can give me a few minutes of
your time.”

I inhaled a
long breath for fortitude and then lifted my chin in a sharp nod. Boots
clomping loudly on his floor, I walked back into the living room. The chair
Nadir hadn’t used was my destination.

Desmond didn’t
sit, choosing to pace the room instead. “You figured out how to break the blood
bond?”

“No. I just
told you. I only asked a doctor to try something that should have been tried a
long time ago.”

He stopped his
pacing, leveling a sharp eye on me. “But
you
asked the doctor.” Desmond ran a hand over his cropped hair. “Do you have any
idea how much you’ve just changed the world?”

My head felt
heavy from the weight of the situation. I dropped it into my hands with a sigh.

I was no
stranger to saving humans from the Underground, but it had always been in small
numbers, in narrow areas. This was big. This was a global change. And Rich was
right. We couldn’t keep this to ourselves.

But Maximo was
also correct. The undead community wouldn’t take this sitting down. The fact
that
he
hadn’t killed me was
worrying. Was he biding his time until he could find out who else knew the
answers so he could take them out first?

“You need to
go to a safe house,” Desmond said in his commanding way.

“I told you I
wasn’t going to run from the situation I caused.”

The Water
witch made a high-pitched sound of frustration. He dropped into a crouch in
front of me. “They are going to destroy you!”

If I hadn’t
known better, I might have thought the urgent width of his eyes was a sign of
legitimate concern.

“I’ll be fine,
Marino. You’ll have your chance to make me your mole.”

“Damn it,
Kora
!” He shot to his feet and stomped halfway to the
dining room. I followed his motion with my gaze but glanced away when he
twirled around. “If you won’t go to a safe house then at least come here. Your
apartment is no good for safety. Anyone can get in there and—”

“No!” My
vehement tone had been directed at the floor because I still couldn’t look at
him.

“Between the
two of us we can keep any vampire away.”

“Any vampire except Maximo de Sole.”

He drew in a
sharp breath. I waited for him to lambaste me as Nell had.

Seconds later
he asked, “Do you think he will attack you?”

“I don’t know.
I thought he might. But now I have no idea what he’ll do.”
But I am pretty sure he is going to dump me the next chance he gets
.

“You really
can’t control him?”

“Do you think
I’d have agreed to date him if I could simply make him give me back what
Ascencion
stole?”

Desmond’s tone
went sour while his pitch deepened. “You looked content enough with him when you
arrived.”

My cheeks
flushed crimson in a rapid wave of embarrassment. I had no defense because I
had
looked content.

We remained in
strained silence for a full minute. I sensed the slow easing of Desmond’s anger
like water flowing out of a lock.

He broke the
silence. “I’ll tell him you’re my responsibility and that you’re staying here
for safety. He won’t be able to argue with that. And he won’t cross me to get
to you. He knows I have the coalition’s full backing behind me. You’ll be safe
unless he decides your death is worth war with the coalition.”

“I’m not
hiding from him, Marino.” I ignored Desmond’s angry huff. “I have to take
responsibility for my actions. I’ll never earn respect in this town if I’m
always hiding behind someone.”

Just like I’ve been hiding
behind Maximo to save me from Nadir
.
But I’d needed it. I was no match for a predator who was faster,
stronger, and quieter.

“And I don’t
think he’ll kill me,” I said. “If he were going to, he would have followed me
home tonight instead of telling me he’d call me.”

I hopped to my
feet so I could try to leave for the third time. Desmond didn’t stop me, and
for that I was grateful. I was tired, shocked, in need of dinner, and then a
long shower.

As I set my
foot on the first step outside his front door I thought I heard him say, “You
earned mine.”

Chapter Seventeen

I sat in the
beanbag chair staring out the front window at the eastern sky. I’d lived to see
the sunrise. Even if it had been crowded with dark storm clouds, the visual had
been beautiful.

Only when the
light had softened into the ordinary morning glow did I stumble into the
bedroom for a nap before work. My mind raced through what had happened in the
past few days, but eventually I snoozed.

I stopped for
a tall latte with extra cream at the coffee shop on the way in to the shop. The
caffeine in my system didn’t prepare me for the unfamiliar pick-up truck parked
in my lot. That vehicle had also been in the parking lot at the apartment
complex. My body went on full alert. I pulled into my usual space, debating if
I were safer
in
the car or out of it.
In the end I got out to minimize the damage my ride would take. I couldn’t
afford to replace it.

I took a step
toward the store. The owner of the truck opened his door. A thick motorcycle
boot landed on the pebbled lot followed by a second one as a massive-shouldered
male drew out of the vehicle. Most people would have had to step
down
from a Ford F-350 but this guy
merely stepped
over
.

At noon in
Sedona the temperature was a balmy eighty-two degrees. The sun was brilliant
overhead now that the storm clouds had faded to the east. But this guy still
wore a leather jacket as if he were
cold
.

He couldn’t be
a vampire. The reflective sunglasses and leather and jean getup alone wouldn’t
keep him from burning up in the midday sun. But the wavy haired guy he had to
be something. No way would I get close enough to scent him.

He stopped
halfway down his lengthy truck. His V-shaped torso remained motionless despite
his thick upper thigh’s slight bunching. He was ready to pounce if need be.

A rumbling
voice called across the lot. “Ali Mac.”

“What?”

The stranger
tossed the medium length black walnut hair away from his face. “I’m Ali Mac.
Max sent me.”

Hera, help me
.
Maximo isn’t even going to kill me himself
.

The dark man’s
lips lifted beneath two days of stubble. No doubt he’d heard my racing
heartbeat from where he’d stood. Keen senses like that hinted he
was Were
or shifter. It also implied he was stronger and
faster.

But I wasn’t
going down without a fight. I called on Water and formed an empathic link to
him. Sensing amusement and anticipation from him, I slowly backed toward the
door.

Ali Mac took a
step forward. I hit him with a focused blast of Air magic, directing it with my
free hand. He went down on his ass on the pebbled lot, giant legs lifting
straight into the air like some sort of mutated beetle. The force of his hit
shook the ground and echoed against the building.

“Shit!” Ali
Mac rolled onto his rear end and glared up at me. “What the fuck was that for?”