by Shona Husk
So much for not rushing, but she was still mostly dressed. She smiled and gave him a nod.
“Maybe we should relocate.”
“It’s fine.” She unbuttoned her jeans and started to shimmy out of them while lying on the sofa. He tugged on the legs helping her out of them. Then he caught her foot and kissed her ankle. “If you kiss my toes, you’re sleeping on the sofa, alone.”
Julian wrinkled his nose. “There are some things I never do.”
“Oh yeah? What else is on your never-do list?”
“You’ll have to find out. What about you?” He worked his way higher up her leg.
“I don’t know.” She’d usually been willing to give anything a try, but then most of her boyfriends had been pretty vanilla…except the guy who’d thought a good head job meant shoving the whole thing down her throat. She’d pinched his inner thigh and he’d carried on like she was the bitch for not doing it right. They’d been over before she’d dressed and walked out.
His lips brushed her thigh, then higher. Then he was pulling off her knickers.
Slowly.
Her breathing deepened. The ever-flickering light of the TV in the background turned his blond hair into a halo as though he were some kind of sexy angel who could give her what she needed. He could protect her from herself.
Heat began forming on her skin, followed by tiny flames. She closed her eyes to try to suppress them and regain control.
“Accept them. Don’t fight them.” His voice was near her ear. “You can’t fight yourself and win.” His hand was between her legs.
“Is that what you did?” It was hard to concentrate on what he was saying and what he was doing and still keep control. It was like he was trying to get her to come so she would lose control. For a split second she wanted to push him away and end this game. She’d never be able to win.
But he’d won. He had control.
“Yes.” He nuzzled her neck and kissed along her collarbone. His fingers eased into her and found just the right spot.
Her back arched and she groaned.
“You’re still fighting it.”
She was. She was fighting the fire and the need to come. Her nails pressed against his shoulder. She did not want to be scorching the sofa. “Put the shield up.”
“Not yet.”
She squeezed her eyes tighter shut and tried to think of anything but what he was doing.
“You don’t trust me.”
“I do.” But she wasn’t doing what he said. She was worried about self-combusting or becoming a human candle that never went out. None of those things were likely to happen, but they might. She was still afraid of her own magic. “It scares me.”
She felt the shield go around them and she stopped resisting. The flames raced freely along her skin.
What kind of Albah was afraid of her own power?
He kissed her. “Don’t fear yourself. You are amazing. Brave, smart. You could’ve hopped on a plane and run away.”
“We still could.” It was tempting, but she couldn’t because her sister would still be in danger. Julian wouldn’t because of his brother and father. Although his brother would be leaving soon to do some work with her mother.
“No. We have to find a way to deal with our problem.”
She waved his wallet at him. “One thing at a time.”
He took the wallet from her and pulled out the condom. While he was momentarily distracted she tried to accept the fire as part of her. To feel it the way she felt any sense or body part. It was something she could use, a part of her, not something that happened to her.
For a moment, there was a shift. The fire was hotter and she knew it more intimately, as though it was alive, but she panicked and pulled back and it was gone. The fire was back to the wild thing dancing over her skin that she had no hope of controlling. What must she look like? She glanced down her body to watch the flames chase over her skin.
Then Julian was there, looking at her like she was something amazing and beautiful. She hooked her leg over his hip and drew him closer. For a few moments, she didn’t have to think or worry about anything as he was in control. Nothing bad was going to happen. She needed that freedom and release.
But she knew it wouldn’t last no matter how much she wanted it to.
After they lay on the sofa, tangled together, not really watching the TV, not really doing anything. The TV show that had been on in the background changed to the news update.
“In breaking news, there has been a gang-style hit near Melbourne International Airport. Three women were gunned down. Police are looking for witnesses and have released this security footage.” A ten-second video followed. But all that was shown was vague shadows and the flash of gunshots.
The reporter kept taking about the three American women, whose names hadn’t been released yet.
“That looks like air magic disrupting the footage.” Julian propped himself up to get a better look but the news reader had already moved on.
Leira slipped out of his embrace to reach her laptop on the coffee table. It took her about three seconds to find the story and extended footage. They both watched it, again and again. There was clearly magic involved. If there was, they wouldn’t get many witnesses. Male air users could make a shield of not quite invisibility. Saba had described it to her. It was something Julian’s father could do.
“Do you think the women were the Guardians?” Had they been the ones who had planned to execute Julian, only to find themselves the victim instead?
“If they were, that explains why my future changed,” Julian said.
“It’s a bit public.”
“That would be the Albah family I was telling you about. It’s not their first public hit.”
“You follow that stuff?” She rarely watched the news. The short grabs on the radio was plenty.
“I did while I was living over east. I wanted to know who they were just in case we ever crossed paths. We never did.”
That was lucky as they didn’t seem to care about legalities. Bet the Guardians never thought that would happen. But it was only three out of how many? How many more would now rise up to take out the Albah threat? “Now what happens?”
“Now we all take a breath. Maybe the Guardians won’t send more reinforcements and Emily will back off.” He didn’t sound convinced.
Leira wanted to believe him but couldn’t. Emily had been pointing a gun at him in his freshly changed future. “More likely Emily will be extra pissed and more will follow.”
She closed her laptop. She should be feeling relief, but even though the Guardians were dead, the fear was still there. Emily was still here and she was now targeting Julian. “I should find Emily.”
“We aren’t going after her tonight. We need a plan and we need to be prepared.”
* * * *
Emily turned the gun over. She’d stolen it months ago when she’d first arrived in Perth, but had never felt inclined to use it until today. It was like Julian had hated her when he’d walked out of the café. He may not want to be undead, but plenty of his kind did. He didn’t understand why she believed in the Guardians’ work. They couldn’t let the Albah turn into vampires.
She watched the news, knowing that Leira was alive and well and probably with Julian. The idea made her sick—she should have cut the brake lines and made her last car trip more final.
Then she saw the footage of three women getting shot on the sidewalk. Her mother, an aunt and another one she didn’t recognize. Her heart stopped. The words the reporter was saying didn’t make sense. Her body went hot, then cold.
No. It couldn’t have been her mother. Or her aunt. It was a coincidence they were American. That they looked similar. Her mother couldn’t be dead. Her gut was tight as though it already knew the truth.
She reached for her cell phone and called her mother.
It rang, and was answered.
“Hello.” That wasn’t her mo
ther’s voice even though it was female.
“Who is this?” Who had her mother’s phone? Was it a cop?
“My name isn’t important. Who are you?”
She almost said her name. “No one.”
“Well, No one, let me give you this warning. Your kind isn’t welcome here. Take your archaic fear of magic and leave.” The line went dead. That hadn’t been a cop; cops didn’t know about Guardians and magic. It had been an Albah woman.
The Albah had killed her mother. They had gunned her down in public like she was a criminal. How could they? Her mother had never harmed these Australian Albah, not directly. At least she didn’t think she had. How had the Albah have even known that Guardians were coming?
Oh, no.
She’d told Julian. He must have told his father, who must have spread the word. If the Albah were killing Guardians in public, then it meant that the truce was well and truly over.
No one was coming to help her with the Albah problem in Australia, and there was clearly a problem in Melbourne. Maybe Australia could become Albah free. Were those murderous Albah hoping it was Guardian free? They were wrong.
The gun was cold as her fingers stroked it.
She could make Australia Albah free.
They had killed her mother and aunt in cold blood and she could do the same. Living or undead, the Albah were dangerous killers, that much was clear. One by one, she’d find them and end them. She’d get her membership just like her mother had wanted.
From the way Julian had treated her it was clear they weren’t human and were incapable of love.
Chapter 16
Julian stood back as Leira laid out well-used maps. One of Australia, one of Western Australia, then one of Perth. There were others in the large box that she left untouched. She spread them over the kitchen table and circled around as though studying them. The magic she was drawing up was already making the hairs on his arms stand to attention.
She pulled her silver necklace out of her pocket and placed it with Emily’s gold bracelet.
“What do you need?”
She held her hand up, her eyebrows pinched together, and then she folded up the map of Australia. That was when he noticed the candle flame in the middle wasn’t upright. It was leaning toward the more detailed map of Perth. It was literally Leira’s guiding light.
He hadn’t expected Emily to leave the state, but they had both been hoping that she would. The morning news had given no more details about the shooting. His father had seen the footage. His father had made the warning that Guardians would be arriving in Australia public and the Albah family in Melbourne had taken the initiative.
It had put his father in a tight spot as now he owed the criminal Albah family a favor—Julian didn’t need to be a cop or a criminal to know that at some point his father would be asked to look the other way when they did something nefarious.
However, they had done everyone a favor by killing the Guardians, and because they were already a crime family there was no added suspicion and no connection to the Venns or Ryders.
This mess was getting bigger the longer they let Emily stay in the game. What they’d do with her he had no idea. He couldn’t kill her. If they told the police, the odds were they wouldn’t act on the info until it was too late, and he and Leira couldn’t keep calling up with new tips on her location. It would be too suspicious.
Even though his father had warned him against vigilante action, they needed to catch her out and turn her in. They could do that. Then the police would be forced to act, even if it was just to deport her.
Leira folded up the map of the state. Emily was in Perth. No surprise, but Leira was doing this properly, step by step.
After another moment, she walked around the table with the salt container and made a proper circle that included them both. With his pocketknife, she nicked her finger and pressed the drop of blood that formed into the curved disc on her necklace. Then she held her necklace by the chain with one hand and the bracelet fisted in the other. With her gaze firmly on the flame, she let her necklace hang over the map.
The bloodied silver disk swung as though seeking. Whatever Leira was seeing in the flame was guiding her. Her focus was absolute. He didn’t speak, not wanting to break her concentration, although he wasn’t sure she’d have heard him even if he had. She closed in on Emily’s location drawn by silver, blood, and fire. Eventually she stopped and let the silver disk hit the map.
She exhaled, then glanced at him. “Pull up that area on my laptop. I might be able to get closer.”
Julian did as he was asked. He had wondered why she’d put the laptop on a chair in the circle with them. She went through the process again before ending up with a block in the same suburb his apartment had been.
That was creepy.
“I can’t get closer. She has iron around her.”
“I’ll let Dad know.”
“Don’t. We don’t know if she is getting breakfast or at home.” She brought down the circle. She had a drink of water and swept up the salt, all simple grounding activities.
“You can’t find that out?”
“No. Iron. But also it would be kind of wrong if I could peek that closely into people’s lives. I mean I can, but only if they are with me and offering up their blood.”
How much had she seen in his blood that she hadn’t shared? “Do people, humans, do that?”
Leira shook her head. “No. Saba would be horrified if people asked her. She doesn’t like doing readings that involve blood. Especially after the Albanex.”
“I don’t blame her.” He paused, so tempted to ask Leira to go deeper next time she read for him. Given that everything had been very grim so far he wasn’t sure that he wanted more details.
She shook her head. “Don’t even think about it. Three uses of blood magic make an unbreakable bond. I’ll always be able to check up on you. You don’t want that.”
“I know. We’ve only shared one drop and that’ll last a while.” It would last longer if she stopped doing readings to see how his future was changing. Those little innocent uses of blood magic for readings and healings fed people’s fear of Albanex. They didn’t understand the difference between using a single drop for a spell and using liters to feed a spell that gave the user unnatural life. An Albanex only lived because of magic. No magic, no life. Unlike an Albah, silver killed them.
“So, should we do a little recon? See where she hangs out? Then we can pass the info on to Quinn and he can do his thing.”
“Even if they pick her up for shoplifting, they haven’t got her on anything else. Is that enough to cancel her visa?” He didn’t think it was. Otherwise his father would’ve acted faster.
Leira shrugged and folded up the last map. “What should we do then? We can’t lock her up ourselves. That would be kidnapping, and I don’t want to be on Quinn’s bad side.” Neither did he. It would be just their luck to end up being charged with kidnapping while Emily walked free. “Maybe we need to lure her into doing something more careless?”
“Set her up?”
“Maybe?” They weren’t trained assassins, or cops, or anything special. He was a doctor and she was a historian who knew a little too much about the medieval torture methods used to get confessions, and names, out of witches. Why take one Albah when there could be more lurking nearby waiting to turn undead at the drop of a hat?
The fear of magic and Albanex—who had once had a valid purpose in keeping the magical lore and ways alive after the destruction—had been handed down through the generations. Had no Guardian ever stopped to think about what they were doing and destroying?
Now, the only Albanex worth talking to were the Keepers. The magic modern Albah could do was nothing compared to what they had wielded in the past. It had all been lost, and with each death a little more was erased. Eventually it would be like the Albah had never existed.
“Could we offer a truce? Do you think she knows that he
r backup is dead?” If Emily attacked them in public, then there would be witnesses.
“I could offer myself, if she promises to leave the rest of you alone.” Julian frowned. “I don’t think it would be a good idea for you to be there. She wants you dead.”
“And she wants you alive, that could be a whole lot worse.” So much worse, death could come very slowly and neither of them knew exactly how much training Emily had received.
He nodded slowly. “I know. But I can speak to her. Make the meeting place public. If nothing else, you can watch and follow her to find out where she is living.”
“You don’t know?”
“She told me it was with friends. I’m thinking she doesn’t have any, at least not here.” More lies. It was a wonder their relationship had lasted as long as it had without falling apart. He would never again lie about who he was, but then he didn’t want to date humans ever again. His gaze followed Leira; he didn’t want to think about dating anyone else. He wanted to make this work. He wanted to believe in the happy future Leira had seen for them. All he was holding on to was that this could be put right and he got to be happy. That Leira got to be happy.
Leira scowled. “Okay, so the plan is to contact her. You meet face to face and I watch and follow. What about the whole you getting shot thing that I saw in your future? How effective is your shield against bullets?”
“No idea. It might slow them down. If she shoots me in public, there will be a reason to arrest her.” He forced a smile that was definitely more of a grimace. He’d dealt with bullet wounds and had no desire to see how it felt to have one.
“You might die.” She put her arms around him. “I don’t want you to die.”
“I won’t die.” He kissed her and held her close.
“You don’t know that. I saw her shoot you.”
“You didn’t see me die. If we sit and wait for her to come to us, then she has all the power. If we set the time and place, we at least have some control. Maybe Dad or Dale could act as backup? It should be Dale, if there are Albah around, she’ll get suspicious.”
