Rachel Lee: Claimed by the Immortal

“And I’m bringing my gun,” she announced. “If necessary, I’m going to use it against this bokor.”

Damien shook his head. “Your power is the whitest of lights, Caro. Don’t dim it by bringing a weapon of violence with you, or violence in your heart. Please.”

Everything in Caro rebelled. Going into a dangerous situation unarmed? It violated every precept of her training as a cop. On the other hand... She closed her eyes and felt for that light within her. It was still there and even seemed a little stronger now that she knew how to call upon it.

Maybe he was right. Her grandmother had always warned her about the way evil backfired. She had never thought of her gun as evil, merely as a tool to be used only in extreme circumstances, but perhaps it would have the wrong vibe for this job.

Finally she sighed, pulled the holster off her belt and laid it on the table.

Damien smiled. “Trust. It’s important. Trust me, trust your own power.”

She looked at her holstered piece and thought that was a whole lot of trust she had just put on the table.

At Damien’s direction, she bundled up warmly against the winter night. The two vampires, impervious to the cold, simply wore their usual leathers.

Outside they darted into a dark alley, then Damien lifted her on his back. She clung tightly as they climbed straight up a building. Rock climbers had nothing on a vampire, she thought. Not only did he seem to be able to cling where there was hardly a finger or toe hold, but he moved so swiftly that they reached the top of the building in an eyeblink. Even though she was getting used to the speed at which he could move, she was still astonished at how quickly he set her on her feet.

“Now?” asked Jude.

Damien didn’t answer. He closed his eyes, murmuring something, and then held out his arm. Caro could see the blue sparks dancing along it, and from the expression on Jude’s face he could, as well.

Still murmuring under his breath, Damien turned slowly, extending his arm as if it were a pointer. A minute ticked by, then he dropped his arm.

“To the west,” he said. “The bokor hasn’t moved since last I sensed his general direction. But I’ll have to keep checking so I can home in on him.”

Then they were off again, on a wild ride from Caro’s perspective, but one she was beginning to love even though the cold wind of their movement threatened frostbite to her nose. She loved being wrapped around Damien this way, loved the way she could feel his muscles bunch and unbunch, so fast it was hard to believe any muscle could twitch that fast.

It felt like a speeded-up roller-coaster ride, leaps followed by gentle landings but enough that her stomach couldn’t decide whether it was rising or falling. Like being on a crazy elevator, she thought, and she had a wild urge to laugh because she liked it. No amusement park would ever again seem exciting.

They paused again, and she took the time to get grounded, feet firmly planted, stomach settling, as she looked out over the rooftops. This wasn’t a vantage she was used to, and it proved a bit difficult to get her bearings.

Damien was holding out his arm again, but this time he wiggled his fingers a bit, as if trying to get more detailed information.

She closed her eyes and reached out with her own senses, feeling for the elemental. It was nearby.

“Damien. It’s here.”

“I feel it,” he agreed. “Jude? Sprinkle some of that holy water on us, will you?”

Jude obliged, pulling a spray bottle out of his pocket. He must have read the astonishment Caro felt on her face, or smelled it, because he smiled faintly. She still had to get used to that smelling part.

“It’s efficient,” he said as he walked around her, spraying. After he sprayed Damien, he handed the bottle to Caro. “Do me, too, if you don’t mind.”

A moment of absurdity, she thought as she used an ordinary spray bottle to cover Jude in holy water.

Then she closed her eyes and reached out. “It pulled back a bit.”

“Let’s go,” Damien announced. “Not much farther.” He swung Caro up onto his back as if she weighed nothing at all and the roller-coaster ride began again.

Fear fluttered in her stomach as she wondered if she would survive this night.

When at last they stopped, some deep instinct told her they were in the right place.

They walked cautiously to the parapet and looked down on the street below. Caro gasped as she recognized the shop. “Alika! Not Alika!”

At once she thought of the talisman in her pocket and pulled it out. As she started to hurl it away, Damien snapped his arm out and stopped her.

“You said you felt nothing ill about the gris-gris.”

“I didn’t. But if she’s behind this...”

“We don’t know she’s behind this. Not at all. I just know it started here. It could be someone else. Regardless, if she’s part of this, she gave you the talisman for protection. Maybe she wanted to protect you from the force she unleashed. Or maybe she just wanted to protect you from something else she was aware of.”

Caro tightened her grip on the talisman, hesitating. It was true they couldn’t be sure Alika was the bokor. It was equally true that she had sensed nothing evil about the pouch in her hand. More confident in her special senses, she checked it once again. It still glowed with a lavender light and seemed to offer no threat. Slowly, she returned it to her pocket. “It didn’t protect me that day on the street,” she remarked.

“But that elemental may have been strengthened. Or perhaps you survived only because it couldn’t do its worst work.”

She looked at Damien. “You don’t feel anything bad from it?”

He shook his head. “We don’t discard anything that might be helpful until we’re sure it’s not.”

“Okay, then.”

Jude crouched beside Damien. “You’re sure it’s in that building?”

“Most definitely. I can’t tell exactly where it’s coming from, though. But it’s definitely emanating from there.”

“Then let’s go. Carefully. I’ll surround the building just as soon as you’re close enough.”

Just before they descended the building, Damien drew Caro close. “Know this. I’ll keep you safe at any price. Trust your instincts about what to do. And don’t use any more power until we know who we’re facing. Just as I can sense the use of it, the bokor may, as well.”

She nodded and swallowed hard. This was it. An experience beyond her imaginings. She had at least been able to imagine the ritual he had suggested, but for this she had no known paradigm. This would be so totally and completely outside her realm of experience that it staggered her.

What had he meant by protecting her at any cost? Her heart squeezed and she grabbed his arm. “Damien? Don’t do anything foolish on my behalf. Please.”

He smiled and brushed a chilly kiss against her cold lips. “It’s certainly not my intention.”

That had to satisfy her, because he quite clearly wasn’t about to make promises of any kind except that he would keep her safe.

She didn’t like that mentality. Partners were supposed to look out for each other. A joint effort. She should have made that clear from the outset.

Well, she promised herself that she’d have his back no matter what. And clearly he felt he needed some backup or he would have insisted on doing this alone. Vampire or not, he still had plenty of male arrogance about him at times.

Then she noticed something. “Wait,” she whispered.

“What?”

“Don’t you feel it? Listen.”

“To what?” Damien asked, then said, “Oh.”

There were no sounds at all, as if they’d been caught in a soundproof bubble. A glance down at the street, despite the early hour, showed that no one was about.