“Well, it could be because I have caller ID,” she said, rolling onto her back, the silk sheets falling to her waist. Chilled, she pulled them back to cover her naked breasts. It hadn’t been the caller ID. She couldn’t see the view-box without her contacts. But she had known it was him. “Or it could also be because you’re the only person crazy enough to call me at…2:26 a.m.” Her brain was fogged from the pain killer she had made herself take.
She had to get some sleep.
Had to.
Just because visions had told her she would die before she saw thirty didn’t mean she didn’t plan to fight it.
“It could have been him,” he said quietly.
“He won’t call me.” Even if he did, she wouldn’t know him. He would give nothing of himself away until the day he chained her to a cold cement floor, until the day he broke pattern—
* * * * *
It hit her in a flash of silver, the silver chains biting into her wrists, the cold cement beneath her back. The gently sloping floor and the drain that lay in the middle. The drain that would carry away the blood and body fluids that would pour from her body and his as they killed each other, him with his knife repeatedly plunging into her body, her with the nebulous but very real gift she had been born with.
Laughter rang through the air, perfectly normal laughter, and a voice that she knew. A voice that was familiar.
I’m glad I waited for you. I’m glad she turned from me. You’re more than she is, more than she could ever be.
Who? She could hear her own voice asking. Who are you talking about?
“Erin!”
The bellowing from the phone shattered the vision and it leaked away before she could catch her breath.
A short one. But vivid, so vivid.
Wearily, she sat up and said, “I’m here, Seth,” only seconds before he could throw down the phone and call for a black-and-white. “I’m half asleep, but I’m here and I’m fine.”
On the other end of the line, his heart was racing in his chest. “Don’t do that to me, Erin,” he muttered, guilt snaking through him as he heard Eva climb from the bed. “Hell, you trying to give me a heart attack?”
“No, I’m trying to sleep. Go and help your fiancée go back to sleep, Seth.”
The phone clicked in his ear and he lowered it, stared at it even as Eva descended the stairs hurriedly, her small heart-shaped face worried, a little scared.
With a sigh, he hung up the phone and turned back to her, assuring her everything was fine.
But he lied. Things weren’t fine, and he wasn’t sure when they would be.
Erin lay curled on her side, staring into the darkness. A fine sweat covered her body and she wanted to get up and shower, to wash away the fine residue of fear the vision had left her with.
But she hurt too much to move.
She had counted, all over her body, how many times that knife had cut into her flesh. Or how many times it would cut into her, she thought. Fifteen times, fifteen times before she gave up the fight. Her body ached from the rape that hadn’t yet happened. And her mind had withdrawn. If she opened her mouth, all that would escape was gibberish.
He would die, too.
In the vision, each time his knife had cut into her, power had streaked from her mind and flayed through his. Tearing it apart as he tore her body apart, until blood leaked from his nose, his ears, his eyes.
And he still kept cutting her.
Time passed and her ragged breathing slowly steadied, her mind stopped chasing itself in circles. She would take him with her. He would die, just as surely as Erin would.
But she didn’t want to die.
Part of her was tempted to hop aboard a plane and fly away. Far away. She had money. She could buy a small, isolated house and never leave it. Mama and Daddy had left her with money, lots of it, and she’d spent so little. She had never made a home, why bother, when she’d die before she could enjoy it?
She could buy herself a new face, a new name. She was smart enough, sharp enough to lose herself in the wide world, to blend in and disappear. She could be safe. She didn’t have to die.
But that wretched ability to see also showed her what would, or could, happen if she fled.
The murders wouldn’t stop.
And the killer wouldn’t be caught before many more women lost their lives.
And if she ran, she would see the faces of the lost every night for the rest of her life.
Pressing her face into her pillow, she sobbed.
Chapter Three
Seth left the bed before the sun rose.
Sleep had eluded him.
Eva had fallen back into the sound sleep of innocence, her face free from worry, her eyes clear and trouble-free.
And he had lain beside her with his mind running around in circles. He’d always followed his instincts, and they had served him well, for the most part. Maybe not as sharp as Erin’s, but he doubted anybody he knew had instincts quite as clear, quite as sharp as hers.
But his had served him well.
And right now his stomach was a slippery, cold little knot of fear that wouldn’t loosen. He was afraid. Part of him, his gut, told him to put Erin on a plane to somewhere, anywhere but Avalon. Somewhere she would be safe.
But the other part, the cop, knew that Erin was their best chance of stopping the animal that was not only killing women, but raping them and torturing them so horribly that death was little more than a sweet release. A cop, a sharp, smart cop would have a chance that the other women hadn’t had.
Maybe.
He was going to bug her. Slip a little transmitter on her so that even if she disappeared, they could trace her. She may have been joking when she had made that comment about putting a tracking device in a tooth filling, but he was going to do it.
She wasn’t going to die.
Seth wouldn’t let it happen.
The results of a sleepless night showed on her face early the next day. Splashing cold water on her face, she tried to wash the cobwebs away. It wasn’t even six a.m. but she wouldn’t sleep anymore, so after she finished showering, Erin dressed in a pair of sweats and fixed a cup of coffee.
Taking it with her, she sat in the window seat and pulled out her journal and put her pen to the ivory paper, blanking her mind. Sometimes it surprised her, the thoughts that flowed when she wasn’t aware—this was one of those times. When she looked down and read what she had written, her belly clenched.
Something has changed. Something doesn’t feel quite so dark anymore.
I’m not sure, but I think it’s Seth. Having him and Eddie—but mostly him—around, makes me feel…safer. More secure. Something inside me feels a little different. A little less afraid.
I think I have a chance of living through this. And it is because of Seth.
Seth is planning on planting a bug on me without me knowing.
Eddie is going to be the one to do it, today at lunch. He’ll try to slip it into my purse, and another one on my body somewhere, I think probably my necklace.
The meeting with the chief is going to get ugly. Colton doesn’t like Seth, and he doesn’t want him on this case.
Seth’s going to be lucky if he doesn’t get fired before this job is over.
I need to talk to him, try to convince him to keep his cool.
Like he’ll listen to me. He’s a good cop—the best cop I know. But he’s so damn hotheaded.
If I live through this, it’s going to be because of him.
I need him here, not in jail or in the unemployment line.
Eva is going to leave Seth.
“Well, fuck,” Erin murmured, her soft, cool voice sounding droll in the silence of the room. “Aren’t those just the cheery thoughts I need to start my day?”
Eva leave Seth? Now that the thoughts were written, it was clear in her mind. It wasn’t always that way. Sometimes, things came as visions, like last night, clear, like a movie rolling in front of her eyes. Others were misty and vague, n
ot even true thoughts, more like an idea, or a hint of one, that needed to be grasped, molded and once she wrote it down, it became more real.
But now…she couldn’t see what happened. The gift worked that way, sometimes. That’s how it worked this time, thankfully. Erin didn’t need to see the details of Seth’s love life, thank you very much. But Eva was leaving Seth.
“Why?” Erin murmured.
Erin wished she hadn’t asked.
The woman’s voice came through as though she were standing in the room with Erin. “Seth, you still love her. Don’t tell me you don’t. You can’t.” Erin caught her breath, felt suddenly disoriented, and could, for a brief moment, smell him, that woodsy, hot male scent that was all Seth. She could feel his sorrow, his frustration, and his refusal to deny the truth, though that was what Eva wanted.
Lie, Seth, Erin wished softly. Lie.
She felt him jump, felt him search the room for her even though he knew she wasn’t there, felt his awareness of her, and then Seth’s certainty that he was losing his mind. She cursed herself and withdrew. That was the closest she had ever come to revealing to anybody besides her parents and the man who had taught her control, what she could do.
Seth stared at Eva’s slim back as she walked out the door. She had woken not even an hour after he had left their bed, which had told him something was wrong. Eva was the type who only climbed out of bed when she absolutely had to, and then, she only talked after she’d gotten three cups of coffee in her. It was one thing they had in common. One of the few.
She hadn’t let the tears he’d seen gleaming in her eyes fall, and he wished she had railed at him, kicked him, hit him, screamed at him. Done anything but be so sweet, so kind. So…well, Eva.
He prowled the room, searching for something to explain what he had felt. A jacket, a shirt. Anything. He had smelled Erin. He had felt her. He had heard her, for crying out loud. “Lie, Seth. Lie.” Tell Eva that he wasn’t still in love with Erin, was what she had been urging him to do.
He had heard her. And Erin wasn’t there. He was going out of his fucking mind. And he had a raging, burning hard-on, the kind that only Erin had ever inspired. The kind that demanded he find her, fuck her, claim her, mark her.
And she wasn’t here.
Flopping into the leather chair, he pressed his hands to his eyes and groaned, “Porter, you are losing your mind.” He had to get it together. Had to. Eddie was going to plant a bug on Erin today, somehow. Without Erin knowing. They had a meeting with the fucking chief. And Eva had just figured out that he was marrying her to try to fill the hole Erin had left in his heart years ago.
Just figuring out, hell.
She had always known. Maybe she had just figured she could heal him, or he’d get over it.
Shit, Erin wasn’t a cold. More like a cancer, he groused, shoving out of the chair and out the door for his morning run. He checked to make sure he had his phone with him. He didn’t usually take it, but he had to be available if Erin needed to reach him.
Damn it, Erin. The incurable kind, the kind that eats and eats and eats away at you until it’s taken everything inside of you.
The cool morning air felt good to his gritty eyes. He hadn’t slept worth a damn. His shoes slapped the concrete, the damp air filled his lungs, and his blood started to pump. Eva was leaving. She’d take some time after court to come back and get what she needed, and she’d come back this weekend to finish up. Seth wished he had known what to say to her, but he hadn’t been able to say anything beyond, “I’m sorry.”
Eva had laughed and said, “Yeah, me, too.”
The bad thing was—he wasn’t sorry. A fucking, fierce joy filled him and he knew exactly why as he ran faster, and harder, circling through the wooded trail, taking a path he hadn’t taken in years. Erin. He cleared the trail that ended just shy of her house, nearly three miles from his, in just under thirty minutes, chest heaving, heart pounding. She sat curled up in her window seat, outlined by the light.
She still cared for him. She needed him. She wanted him. He even suspected she loved him, as much as he loved her. Seth didn’t know why she had kept pushing him away, but damn it, he’d been a fucking fool to just walk away. He wasn’t doing it again. Whether it was what they had discovered with her life being in danger, or with Eva calmly pointing out to him, “Seth, it’s as plain as daylight, you love her like you love to breathe. You can’t stop,” he didn’t know.
Now wasn’t the time.
He wasn’t so stupid that he didn’t know that.
He wasn’t going to accept his fiancée’s ring back and run to his ex-lover and pound on her door until she let him in, so he could pound himself inside her until they both died from the pleasure of it. But he wasn’t going to wait too long.
He walked over to the police car driven by the uniform he had assigned to follow Erin and tapped the window. Lewis rolled the window down, red-faced at being caught in a daze. He had a half-empty mug of coffee, fresh brewed, if Seth’s nose served him right. “Have you bothered to call up to the Lieutenant and tell her exactly how visible she is?” Seth asked nonchalantly. He was pretty sure the kid had. Jake Lewis was young, but he was pretty sharp.
“I did, sir. Her response was, ‘I know exactly how visible I am, and how visible you are, Lewis. If anybody is going try anything, I doubt they’ll do it where you would have a front row seat to see it all.’”
Seth chuckled and ran a hand through his sweaty hair. “Anything going on?”
“No, sir. She’s been sitting there a while. Looked like she did some writing in a journal, or diary or something that she kept on that seat there. After that she’s just been sitting there the past half an hour, drinking her coffee. Left for about fifteen minutes, and ah, brought me some coffee after I called her.”
Seth ran his tongue over his teeth. He wouldn’t mind some coffee. Wouldn’t mind at least stirring Erin up a little. Then he laughed and wondered if it was possible.
She met him at the door, dressed in a sleeveless vest-styled shirt the color of the inside of a sea shell, a soft pale-pink, and tan pants, looking soft and cool and feminine. Nothing like a cop, Seth mused. In her hand, she had a cup of coffee that she held out to him with an arched brow and a bland look. “Are you going to run over here every morning to check on the uniforms, Seth?” she asked as he took the coffee.
He drank half of it down even though he was still hot from the run. The caffeine went singing through his system, even as the sight and scent of her went singing through his soul. Damn it, she was beautiful. He crowded her at the door until she stepped back with a sigh, sweeping her arm wide, and drawled “Come on in, Seth. Make yourself at home, why don’t you?”
The bland little condo looked exactly as it had the last time he had seen it, when he had walked out years earlier, his heart still pounding, his cock still wet from the clasp of her satin sheath. It didn’t seem to fit her, anymore now than it had then. Too impersonal, too bland, too cold. Which, he thought irritably, should have suited Erin to a T. But he always had the oddest feeling she was keeping herself from settling in, keeping herself from, well, nesting.
There were no pictures on the walls, very few knickknacks, nothing that said, This is home. Hell, he was a man, and he had done more decorating in his house than she had done in hers. He started to wander through the condo, while she watched him with blank eyes.
“Is there something you need, Seth?” she asked.
Not, “Is there something I can do for you” or “Do you want anything?” The answer to one of those questions was too likely to get her in trouble, and Seth slid her a small smile at her wording. But she still wasn’t careful enough. He paused in his search of her condo to cup her cheek in his hand, staring into her soft, pale-blue eyes, stroking his rough thumb over the velvety surface of her full lower lip. “I need a whole world of things, Erin,” he murmured. Then, before he could do something he knew it wasn’t time for, he pulled his hand away and went back to pacing her home.
He had been wrong.
She had one picture.
Over her bed, there was a large framed piece of art that he had bought her only three weeks after they had started dating, and he had felt like a fucking moron for doing it. The lovely, long cool blonde had shown nothing more than an almost amused interest in him and he was buying her a painting of a nude faerie in profile, arms up, eyes half closed, her long blonde hair tumbling between her wings to spill down her naked back. Her small rounded breasts were lifted up, her pink lips parted. The faerie bore an uncanny resemblance to Erin, which was why he had bought it. He had seen it from across the street while out of town at a conference and had spent a freaking arm and leg on it, and nearly a kidney having the damn thing framed.
When she had unwrapped it, there had been tears in her eyes and she had thrown herself at him, her slender, strong arms going around his neck, her lips seeking his, her tongue thrusting eagerly into his mouth. They had made love the first time that day.
She had kept the painting.
He turned to study her, absently rubbing his stubbled chin, wondering if he had actually seen a flash of nerves in her eyes. “You kept it,” he said quietly.
If there had been nerves, any and all signs were gone as she replied with a faint smile, “Why not? It’s a lovely piece of art. Not every woman is able to look back at something a past lover gave her, and see herself.” She glanced at the slim gold watch on her wrist and said, “It’s getting a bit late. Don’t you think you should finish up your run?”
“Hmm. I was going to bum a ride off you and have you wait while I shower,” he answered, almost absently, turning back to study the painting. The sweat had dried uncomfortably on his body and he had already cooled down too much to run back anyway.
“Really,” came her flat reply.
“Yeah. My car’s in the shop and Eddie won’t be in until late. Eva was going to take me in but…well, she had to go in early,” he said. He turned and was walking out the door. He caught sight of a cloth bound book peeking out from under the cushioned window seat. The journal. If it wasn’t for that and the painting, this could have been a fucking hotel room.
Mythe & Magick Page 3
