The circle of scarlet energy continued to spread slowly outwards until it reached the vampires who watched the oncoming blast in horror. Kimi poured her hate and fear of the demons into the flare, channelling the power down. She felt as if she had harnessed the energy in a volcanic lava flow, an inexorable force, white hot, burning and cremating everything in sight.
Branches crumbled, leaves turned to ash, whole trees crashed to the ground around them. Kimi could not believe the power flooding through the three of them. She was intensely aware of both men, of the energy that each of them channelled as if they clutched hold of a high voltage cable. Damien opened his eyes and looked at her, and she gasped in shock. His eyes leapt with fire, so hot she thought they were going to turn her to ash too. He closed his eyes again and tipped his head back, his blond hair glowing so bright she could barely look at it, like filaments in a light bulb. She knew he was helping direct her energy down to the earth. He was amazing, she thought—if she was like a lava flow, then he was the volcano, channelling the power of the earth through her. Desire shot through her, increasing her surge even more, thundering through her, shaking her to her molten core.
Still the flare spread. The closest vampires screamed as it seared over them, turning flesh into cinders and crumbling bone to powder. The flare continued to widen, and nothing could stand in its path. Some of the vampires turned to run, but it was like trying to escape a pyroclastic flow. The heat blistered them, turned them to embers, then to dry dust.
All of them were destroyed.
Robert lifted his hand first, stepping back in shock. The flare blazed brightly, faded to a dull red glow, then disappeared altogether. Damien held her hand for a moment longer, then broke contact, breathing heavily. Kimi staggered back, the energy flow stopping abruptly, leaving her ears ringing. She was completely drenched in sweat and panting. She felt like she’d lived through a nuclear explosion.
“Oh my God.” Her knees shook and she sank to the forest floor. The three of them looked around. Everything within a hundred yard radius had been razed to the ground. Ash fluttered in the air, landing on their hair and shoulders like snow.
Damien burst out laughing. Robert looked at him and also started to laugh wryly, hands on hips, shaking his head.
Damien looked at Kimi sitting on the floor, her mouth open. He crouched down and picked up her hand. Unlike her, he seemed completely untouched by the force of the energy that had surged through them all. His eyes were very warm, full of humour and admiration. “Are you all right?” he asked, reaching out to touch her face.
She swallowed. “It worked then?”
Damien looked up at his father, then back at her. “Yes, it worked,” he said softly. “I think we’ve safely answered the question of whether you are a witch or not. And a fire witch too, if I’m not mistaken.”
Robert came over to them and bent down beside them. He studied Kimi curiously. “I’m amazed,” he said. He looked at his son. “You were right.”
Damien nodded. “Now you see why I kidnapped her.”
“Absolutely.”
Kimi didn’t have the energy to tell them not to talk about her in the third person again. She still couldn’t completely comprehend what had just happened to them.
Robert pushed himself to his feet. “I’ll do a perimeter check and make sure there aren’t any stragglers that got away.” He looked down at them. “You need to get her back and get her hand bound. And I think she may want to rest for a while.”
Damien nodded, standing up. He met his father’s eyes. Robert held out his hand. Damien smiled wryly and took it, and they shook firmly.
“Good work,” said Robert.
“Likewise,” said Damien. “Although I think we should accept we were just innocent bystanders in this.”
Robert laughed, then headed off for the northern perimeter. Ash floated up around him as he walked through the cindered area, and then he entered the trees and was gone.
Chapter Nine
Damien watched him go, then turned and looked at the young woman still sitting on the floor. He studied her with amusement. She looked completely exhausted, as drenched as if she’d been out in a thunderstorm. He grinned and held out his hand. She took it and let him haul to her feet.
A surge of protectiveness flooded him as she swayed slightly and shivered. The heat of the flare had faded, and now the coolness of the October night was reasserting itself. He glanced down, seeing her nipples standing out like buttons through the red T-shirt that now clung to her body. He raised an eyebrow. “Are you cold or just pleased to see me?”
She blushed, and he laughed, bending to pick up his coat, then placing it tenderly around her shoulders. She pulled the edges together at her throat, hiding her body from him.
“Now then,” he said, smoothing the collar, “I think there’s a little matter of the running away incident we need to straighten out. I distinctly remember mentioning something about putting you over my knee.”
She didn’t laugh. She looked up at him with her beautiful green eyes, and he was surprised to see a spark of anger in them, and also a hint of sadness. “You didn’t want me here,” she whispered. She shook her head, lifting her chin, some of her energy returning. “What was it you said? Something about not wanting to ‘waste precious time on such a beginner?’”
“Oh,” he murmured. “Sounds like someone was eavesdropping.” He looked at her with interest. “I wondered why Storm was fidgeting. Astral travel, was it?”
She shrugged. “Do you deny saying it?”
“Well, it seems pointless considering you were standing there,” he said wryly. “But I’m guessing you disappeared shortly after that? You didn’t hear the end of the conversation?”
She glared at him. “Don’t go all disappointed teacher on me again—it irritates the hell out of me.”
He sighed and brushed the collar of the coat, sending flakes of ash fluttering to the floor. “The reason I said all that was because I suspected how powerful you are and I was…concerned it wouldn’t be a good idea if I trained you.” He met her gaze. “I’ve never dated a witch. Never even kissed one. I’ve taken an oath, you see. A vow to the Elders and to The Crux that I would never touch one of my students. Can you imagine what would happen if the two of us got all hot and sweaty in a training session?” His pulse quickened at the thought.
Kimi swallowed. He studied the smudge of blood that stained her cheek and licked his thumb, then smeared it over her skin, trying to clean it up. He did it again, brushing slowly over her top lip.
“I don’t think your father would approve of you doing that,” she whispered.
“No,” he agreed reluctantly. He dropped his hand. She was right. He shouldn’t touch her. He shouldn’t really be within ten miles of her.
She looked up at him. He could see the change in her thoughts from resentment to understanding, the realisation shifting in her eyes like clouds passing over the moon. She stepped very slightly closer. Her green gaze held a hint of pity. “It’s all about control with you, isn’t it?”
“Absolutely,” he said. “And bearing in mind that with sex there has to be a certain amount of letting go of that, it would not be a good idea for us to get involved.”
She nodded. But she didn’t move away. He reached up a hand and lifted a strand of hair that had stuck to her cheek, tucking it behind her ear. He thought of how she’d channelled the energy, of how powerful her surge had been. He’d known she was something different, but it had even taken him by surprise, and he’d known more than a few witches in his time.
“You’re amazing,” he whispered.
“You too,” she said, just as softly.
A smile curled his lips. “Welcome to the Mutual Admiration Society.”
She smiled back. Then, still holding his coat together at her throat, she raised the other hand to touch the wound on his face. “Is it painful?”
He shook his head, holding his breath as she brushed his skin with her fingers.
/> “What I want to know is,” she said, stepping even closer to him, her thumb grazing the stubble on his cheek, “if we’re not supposed to get intimate, why aren’t you marching me up to The Crux right now?”
“I don’t know,” he said honestly. Something was happening, something momentous, like the slide of tectonic plates beneath his feet. He couldn’t have moved if his life depended on it. The full force of the whisky he’d drunk that evening and the light of the full moon flooded through him, and he felt slightly heady.
“I want to say thank you,” she whispered, “for saving my life tonight.” She brushed his lips with her thumb. “What I’m about to do is not your fault. You’re not giving in, you’re not losing control, you’re just letting a friend show gratitude for your generous courage.”
He looked into her eyes, then at her soft mouth. He could feel her energy being contained and realised she was doing her best to control it. Even so, he should turn around right now and walk away. Off you go, he urged himself. Back to the house. Start walking.
But he didn’t.
He stood, unmoving, as she raised herself on tip-toes and gently touched her lips to his. He didn’t take her in his arms. But neither did he pull away.
She gave him gentle kisses, continuing to stroke his cheekbone with her thumb. When her tongue brushed his lips, he inhaled sharply, then breathed out in a long sigh.
She pulled back, looking up. “Your eyes have gone dark,” she murmured. “Are you thinking about your father?”
“Mm, no, actually I was thinking about what you would look like naked.”
Her eyes widened, then sparkled. She tsked. “I don’t think Robert would approve.”
“No.” Once again, he felt a flash of warning, almost as if Storm were tugging at his trouser leg, although he could see the wolf sitting patiently out of the corner of his eye, watching them.
“At least there aren’t any light bulbs here,” she pointed out, her lashes lowering, her voice husky with desire.
“True.” He could hear the yearning in her voice. In spite of her resentment at the way he’d kidnapped her, she wanted to kiss him again. Something was pulling them together. He could see she, too, felt the weight of the moment, could sense something shifting under them, the advance of an historic event.
They studied one another, waiting. Time seemed to shudder to a halt. Damien wouldn’t have been surprised if his watch had stopped. There was nothing else in the world, nothing but the two of them standing in what remained of the wood, the ash floating around them like snow.
For the first time since being created an Elder, he was considering breaking his oath. How—in merely a matter of hours—had she managed to find a chink in his skin-tight armour? She was gorgeous, but he’d known many attractive women in his time. She was powerful, true, maybe the most powerful witch he’d ever seen, apart from Margaret and Rose, but instinctively he knew that wasn’t the only reason they’d been attracted to each other. He’d known he was in trouble from that moment outside the nightclub when he pulled her to him, feeling like all the clocks in the world had struck midnight, that something momentous had been set in motion. He didn’t want this complication in his life. But, at the moment, he wasn’t sure he had a lot of choice.
It was only a kiss, he told himself, looking at her soft lips. But deep down he knew it was more than that. Both of them were poised on the edge of a precipice, about to fall, and he was the one holding them back. He’d been physically aware of the turn of the Earth since he was born, of the wheel of the stars above his head, of the waxing and waning of the moon. These movements of the natural world were part of him, and now they were screaming to him that this woman held his fate in her hands. There was a connection between them—Kimi had sensed it first, he realised—something vaster than a basic sexual attraction. Their fate was laced in the spinning of the planets, carved in the ancient runes that lay deep in the Earth. They were either going to save the world—or obliterate it. He stood at the fork of two paths—one of them was his destiny, and one would destroy him.
But which was which?
His heart thumped. Was it the whisky making him dizzy, reckless? His blood surged around his body at the heat emanating from her.
And at that moment, he knew he had to have her.
To hell with it. He knew which path he wanted to take. Perhaps he was damned. If so, he had been since the beginning of time. What was the point in fighting it?
He closed the last inch between them and put his arms around her. She lifted her arms around his neck, letting the coat fall open. She pressed against him, her taut nipples grazing his chest, and desire shot through him like a rush of adrenalin. He lowered his lips and kissed her firmly, the softness of her mouth and tongue doing nothing to dampen the heat rising inside him. She brushed the short hair on the back of his head, stroked his neck, and he pressed one hand firmly on her lower back, pulling her against him, letting her feel the full extent of his passion. He kept one hand between her shoulder blades, making sure she didn’t pull away—not that she seemed inclined to do that.
He kissed her leisurely, enjoying the taste of her, trying not to rush it. Now that he’d given in, he wanted the moment to last. His heart pounded, but he remained as still as possible, afraid if he moved he might end the spell, keeping his power reined in tightly like a hungry animal. It was as if they were in the eye of a tornado, aware of time whirling around them, but they stood motionless in the centre. He’d never felt so aware of a woman, so conscious of every single part of her. He desired her so much it hurt.
Slowly he moved his hand to her waist, then up her ribcage, the thud of her heart beneath his fingers. He could feel the pulse of her blood through her veins as clearly as he could the turning of the tide. Cupping the swell of her breast, tentatively he brushed her nipple with his thumb. A small spark jumped between her skin and his hand and they laughed softly.
Behind them, someone cleared his or her throat.
They froze. Damien pulled back slowly and looked at Kimi, and as one, they turned and looked around. It was Margaret. Her face was carefully devoid of emotion, and she studied Damien, then looked at the young woman in his arms.
“Good evening,” she said. “You must be Kimi.”
Kimi stepped back, although Damien caught hold of her hand and held it. “Yes. Hello,” she said.
“I’m Margaret,” said the older woman. “I understand you’ve been through quite an experience this evening.”
Kimi swallowed nervously. She tried to pull her hand free of his, but he had a tight grip and wouldn’t let go. “Yes, it was quite…overwhelming.”
Margaret nodded. She looked pointedly at their linked hands. “Perhaps you should go and get that wound seen to, my dear. Ella is waiting for you just outside the trees. She’ll show you where the first aid box is.”
Kimi looked up at Damien. Her eyes showed her worry for him.
“Go on,” he said softly. “I’ll be up in a minute.”
She looked about to resist, but he shook his head, and she nodded, backing away from him. Turning, without looking at Margaret, she walked through the ash-covered area to the edge of the trees, disappearing from view.
Damien put his hands in the pockets of his jeans and waited for Margaret to speak. Her gaze ran down him, and he knew his desire for Kimi was still obvious. Her eyes met his, and he raised an eyebrow, lips curving with wry amusement.
She glanced away, looking at the wide area of devastation. “That must have been quite a flare.”
He glowed with pride and smugness. He’d been right—Kimi had been exceptional. “It was amazing, Margaret. Her power…it took all of us by surprise.”
She nodded, turning back to face him. They studied each other for a moment.
Damien waited to see how she would address what she’d seen. He expected anger and even emotional blackmail—he’d disappointed her, let her down, yada yada. He was ready to retaliate, poised to counter her like a panther waiting to spri
ng. Margaret had been his main teacher as he grew up, and he respected her and had never, ever, argued with her before. It was the way he’d been brought up, and he’d always valued her abilities too much to question her, even if he didn’t understand her motivation on any particular issue.
But he would not be able to stand there and take it if she began lecturing him on his duties. He knew his responsibilities, goddamn it—had followed them to the letter in all the years he’d been at The Crux, never straying from them once. And he was tired of being responsible.
Margaret watched him silently as these thoughts ran through his head and for a brief moment he wondered if she could read his mind. Finally, she said, “We’ve known each other for a long time, haven’t we?”
Some of the resentment stirring inside him faded. “Yes.”
“This is the first time I’ve ever seen you come close to breaking your oath.” She frowned as he remained silent. “Do you have anything to say on the matter?”
“No.”
She came closer to him. She seemed curious. “What’s different about this girl? Is it her power?”
“No. I don’t know, I…” His voice tailed off. He couldn’t put into words the feelings he had about Kimi, about their fates being entangled like skeins of wool. He didn’t want to. It was private—not a thing he wanted to share.
She looked up into his eyes. “I have a lot of respect for you, Damien. Don’t tell Robert, but I think you’re the most powerful shaman I’ve met, on either side of the Atlantic. I’m telling you this not to inflate your ego, but to remind you—you have a duty to The Crux. I know it’s a heavy burden on such young shoulders, but there’s nothing I can do about that. We have an invasion coming—we need you now more than ever. You know what oath you took. You know what it means. It’s nothing to do with Robert and me—the very fabric of reality won’t let you break it idly. We are here to keep the balance between light and dark, and if you take from one side, you will have to give with another. If you get involved with this girl, you will forfeit your powers. If you give in to this weakness, it will be your undoing.”
Midnight Shaman, Fire Witch Page 8
