Keri Arthur: Chasing The Shadows

Mary's gaze met hers. Though she didn't say anything, Nikki understood the plea in her eyes. She took a deep breath, then reached for the last of her energy reserves and sent it Mary's way.

The older woman's form solidified. "There was so much left we had to do. So many things we left unfinished." She touched a hand to Jake's face, her smile sad, wistful. "So many angry words last spoken."

Jake made an incomprehensible noise in the back of his throat. He placed a hand over Mary's, his fingers shaking.

"I would never have really left you for long, you know," Mary continued. "No matter what I might have said."

"I wouldn't have let you go for long." He took a deep breath. "But there was no way in hell I was going to take the hotel job. I hate it."

"I know." She hesitated. "But would settling here have been so bad otherwise?"

He shook his head. "No. It was just the job that was too restricting."

"You would never have made a very good lawyer. You can't lie."

"No."

Mary smiled and leaned forward, brushing a kiss across Jake's lips. "Enjoy life while you still have it.

Take care, my love."

Her body dissipated, became a shimmering mist that looked like a curtain of tears hanging in the rising light of dawn. But gradually that, too, faded until there was nothing left beyond memories.

Jake's anguished cry filled the silence. It was the last thing Nikki heard as the darkness crashed into her mind and swept her into unconsciousness.

Michael sat on the edge of the bed and brushed the hair from Nikki's forehead. She stirred but didn't open her eyes, though the awareness flowing through the link told him she was awake.

He skimmed a finger down her cheek to her lips. The alarming pallor of her skin had finally faded, but her cheeks still looked hollow. It was as if the ghosts had sucked every ounce of fat from her body—and she didn't have a lot to spare in the first place.

Three days had passed since she and Jake had battled Farmer and won. The police had arrived the same time as the sun, and by then the fog had burned off enough to destroy the young vampire's remains.

It had been easy enough to touch the minds of the two young officers and make them believe the reported gunshots had been nothing more than cars backfiring. And that Nikki's wound was nothing more than a scratch from a fall. With the gun safely hidden in Jake's jacket pocket, and Jake himself sitting on a park bench calmly smoking and sagely nodding in agreement with everything they said, the ruse looked more than believable, even without him enforcing it.

Farmer was dead. Jake and the ghosts had had their revenge. All that was left was the uncertainty that still stood between him and Nikki.

An uncertainty he had every intention of sorting out today. Now.

He leaned forward and gently kissed her. Her lips were soft, warm, and her response one that invited further exploration. But he resisted the temptation. She'd once accused him of using sex to avoid difficult conversations. He had a feeling she was attempting to do the same right now. Her tension surged through the link, even if she looked so very relaxed.

"Merry Christmas, sweetheart," he said softly.

A smile touched her mouth, and she opened her eyes. In the amber depths, pain and guilt still lingered.

"Same to you. Though merry doesn't seem the right word to use right now."

"Perhaps. But I very much doubt if Mary would want this day wasted to sorrow."

"I guess not." She sighed and shifted, exposing one bare shoulder and the swell of a breast. "We don't even have a Christmas tree. And I left your present at home."

That she said home, rather than his home, had hope surging. Maybe the fight to keep her by his side was going to be easier than he'd first feared.

He raised an eyebrow. "Who said we don't have a Christmas tree?"

She stared at him, her smile growing. "We do?"

He nodded. "Went out early this morning and found one."

"Where? It's Christmas morning. Everyone would have sold out by now."

They were. But it was amazing what you could find when you had the money and the determination. "I couldn't let our first Christmas go by without a tree, could I?"

She touched a hand to his face, caressing his cheek with her thumb. "You really are an amazing man sometimes."

"And you, my love, are an amazing woman." He leaned forward and kissed her again, long and lingering.

She sighed when he pulled away. "You keep doing that—stopping, I mean. I guess it means we have some serious stuff to talk about before we get down to the fun stuff."

"That we do." He hesitated, not sure what to say first.

She solved the dilemma for him by placing a hand to his lips. "Let me." She ran her hand down his arm and wrapped her fingers around his. "I'm sorry for walking out on you the way I did. And I'm sorry for being so unreasonable with my demands. While I still truly believe we could work as a team on at least some of your missions, I can't expect these things to happen overnight. As you once reminded me, you've been on this Earth for over three centuries. Changing set ways takes time."

She was right. And yet it had taken so very little time to get used to having her in his life. He squeezed her fingers gently. "And I'm sorry for not taking your fears seriously. While I still believe much of my work is far too dangerous for you to be involved in, I agree with Jake in that there must be common ground between both our needs."

She raised an eyebrow. "Does that mean you are actually thinking about me helping you on some of your missions?"

He'd not only thought about it, but had spent hours discussing the pros and cons with an old witch. "You walking out on me gave me a glimpse of the future. I don't want that future, Nikki."

Emotion surged through the link—love and regret intermingling—stirring his senses, warming his heart.

"My mom once told me only a fool runs from gold. She was right. What we have is too good to let go so easily." She hesitated, then added softly, "I guess I was just scared one day you'd walk out that door and never come home, and I'd be left to wonder for the rest of my life what happened. At least if I was with you, I'd know."

Then they shared the same sort of fear, though for different reasons. Still, the base was the same—love.

"I've been talking to Seline while you slept."

And she'd delighted in reminding him that she'd warned long ago this would all happen. That there could only be one end result if he really wanted happiness—and an end to the utter loneliness and despair that had begun to descend on him before Nikki came into his life. The old witch was right—as usual.

"So what did Seline say?"

Though her voice was carefully neutral, the tension running through the link increased. She still wasn't certain about his relationship with Seline, though it wasn't so much distrust as curiosity. He'd have to introduce them—if only because the old witch wouldn't stop harassing him until he did. He had a feeling the two of them would get on like a house afire, even if they were as different as night and day.

"First she chided me for being a stubborn fool. Then she agreed that there were some cases definitely too dangerous to risk taking you along."

"And?"

He had to restrain a smile at the edge in her voice. "And she said that you and Jake were one hell of a team, and I'd be a fool not to make use of you both on at least some of the cases."

She laughed, the sound warm and sexy. It touched her eyes with heat and sent a surge of desire through his body. "You really must introduce me to this Seline of yours. She's sounding more and more like my kind of woman."

"Yeah, and it's got me worried. I don't need two of you nagging me senseless."