He rubbed as his temples, feeling as if a headache was trying to take hold. It left him feeling inadequate. At the same time, he couldn’t read Winchester or Price as he could other people. He couldn’t read Doc, either, but he felt Doc’s anger. From Winchester and Price, however, he felt nothing. And until he perfected his abilities, he’d leave those two alone, just as he would Doc.
As he watched Emma in Winchester’s arms, he felt her pain and fed greedily on the guilt that radiated through her. She grieved for Jillian McComb. Grief was like an unending feast and Emma’s guilt was like icing on a cake. Like a bird listening overhead, he learned that, for some silly reason he didn’t understand, she blamed herself for Jillian’s death. He smiled and formed a new plan. He would finish developing his abilities; he would reach that level of feeling as a man. Then Emma would look at him. He would make her love him and then let her kill James Winchester. Then the two of them would be together forever.
He let Emma experience kissing James. He relished in the passion he felt flow through her, knowing he would someday bring that same, if not stronger, passion to her body. He licked his lips in greedy anticipation and thought he could almost taste Emma. And for the first time in decades, he thought he felt the real stirring of life below his belt. But it fluttered away quickly.
Soon, he reassured himself. Soon it would last.
He lingered in the police station and allowed himself to touch Emma as briefly as an eagle might sweep past her with nothing more than a brush of the feathers of its wing. Then he smiled as he flew away and left her alone with the police chief. He might not be able to have Emma yet. But there was Lily, and if she didn’t bring him into his full powers, there were others.
Chapter Fourteen
Sensual Touch
“Emma?” He held her closer, tighter, knowing without a doubt that as soon as the question came out she would try to move away from him.
“Hmmm?”
She seemed comfortable against his chest. James took a heavy breath. “You were close to him,” he began. He felt her stiffen in his arms, but he didn’t let the action stop him. “Did you open your eyes at all? Did you see him or any part of him at all?”
He hadn’t been wrong; she tried to move out of his grasp. “No . . .”
He wasn’t sure if her “no” was an answer to his questions or a refusal to listen to him and have this conversation. “Em, don’t pull away from me.” His heart ached with the pain he felt wash through her. “Please, just listen. You are the only one who has ever survived him, don’t you see that?”
“I can’t . . . I don’t want to think about this.”
“You have to. More people may die if you don’t. Is there anything you can remember that might help us?”
“I don’t remember anything. I never opened my eyes. I was so terrified I couldn’t look.”
The pain he felt in her body poured out into her words, and James tightened his arms around her. “I won’t let him hurt you again. I promise.” Then he was sorry for his words. What if he couldn’t protect her?
Then what he’d said to Deke was true—he would die with her.
“Don’t promise that. We both know how the impossible can happen.”
He leaned down and kissed the top of her head, unable to speak.
“I’m sorry,” Emma said as she drew away from James and wiped her eyes with the backs of her hands.
“Sorry for what?” He seemed to follow her, reluctant to let her go.
“Crying in your arms. I hate being so out of control. It makes me feel weak and angry. And then I think about how horrifying this is, and I feel sick.” She visibly shuddered, her fists clenched at her sides. This is really getting to me,” she said.
“It’s all right. I rather liked it—not the part about you being out of control, of course, but the part about you in my arms. And I haven’t seen you even close to weak yet.” He grinned at her.
She let out a frustrated huff. “It’s a little scary that it’s so easy.”
“What’s easy?”
“The being in your arms part,” she admitted.
“Why is that so scary?”
“Because I’ve spent so much time trying to distance myself from everyone, especially men, and yet being close to you seems like the most natural thing in the world to me,” Emma said, trying to explain, but knowing it wasn’t really much of an explanation.
“Perhaps that’s where you’re supposed to be,” James replied.
Emma was about to ask him to explain what he meant when something touched her. The touch moved right across her back, a light brush, as if someone ran a feather across her skin from one edge of her back to just above her hip bone on the other side. “Did you feel that?” Emma asked, turning around even though she knew the two of them were still alone.
“Feel what?” His brows narrowed before he looked about the entire room, as if he expected to see something lurking in the corners.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “It felt like someone slid a feather across my back, beneath my shirt . . .What?” she asked, not liking the way he tensed, suddenly on alert.
“Get your coat,” he said.
“Why?”
“Just do as I say,” he replied urgently. He slipped into his own coat and helped her slide into hers.
The tension was suddenly so thick in the office that Emma thought she could cut it with a knife. “Will you please tell me what’s going on?”
He was very serious as he replied, “In a minute.” He took her hand and led her out the door, locking the main office behind them. He left the outer door open so anyone in need of help could come into the small entranceway and use the police phone secured to the wall to contact an officer.
With her hand still tucked tightly in his, they dashed through the rain to his SUV. He opened the door and waited for her to jump in before he ran to the driver’s side and followed suit. They were both fairly wet by the time they were tucked warm and safe inside the SUV. There was simply no way to dodge the huge raindrops.
Emma worked to control her breathing as he started the engine and turned up the heater. Then she said, “Okay, so where are we going? What are you doing? And could you please tell me what’s the matter with you?”
Leaving the SUV in park, he turned to face her. “You said you hear his voice, that he has spoken to you.”
“Right,” she said slowly. His tone and the urgent way he looked at her frightened her more than the idea of this creature’s voice in her mind.
“On the street, in the park and a few other places,” he added.
“Right,” she said again.
“Where else?”
Emma had to think. She always tried to push his words to the dark corners of her mind where she didn’t have to face them. “At the clinic,” she said, working to remember.
“Where else?”
“James, what’s wrong?” The urgency in his voice sent her heart racing, and she rubbed her hands together in an attempt to ward off the cold that came over her.
“Where else?” he asked, not answering her question.
“Once at the library, I think. I don’t really remember. And once at the grocery store. I remember that because it made me drop a jar of pickles. I know it sounds stupid to say I don’t remember, but I don’t want to remember, all right?” She shivered. “Why are you asking me this now?”
“But never at home? Have you ever heard him at home?”
“No, no, I don’t think so. James, tell me what you’re getting at right now!” she demanded, fear and frustration reaching a fever pitch inside her.
His expression softened. “I’m sorry. I never meant to frighten you. At first I thought he could put his voice in your mind because the street, the park, anywhere outside, is an open place. And that’s partly true. What’s more important is that it’s public; he can come and go as he pleases. Public places invite the public to them—places like the park or the library. No one stands at the door and ushers people
inside or keeps them out, like you would at home or at the clinic where there would be a record of his coming there.”
“All right,” she said, not understanding. “But I still don’t understand why you’re so upset.”
He raked a hand through his hair. “He can’t talk to you at home because he’s never been invited there. And the police station, well it’s a public place, but people don’t just traipse through there on a daily basis. So he’s obviously been inside the station to gain such easy access, which is how he found you there. I’m sorry, Emma. I thought you would be safe at the police station with me. I underestimated him and his abilities.”
She gaped at him in shock. “You think he touched me? You think that feather feeling I felt on my back was him, that he’s gone beyond talking to me and now he can touch me?” It was so horrifying, so unbelievable, Emma didn’t want accept it as true.
“I think we shouldn’t underestimate him.”
“If he could touch me like that on my back, what else can he do? Kiss my neck, unbutton my shirt?” Her voice rose with terror.
James heard her heart pounding. At the same time, he heard the way she forced in breath after breath, as if the horror of the situation sucked the air from her lungs. He looked down and saw she gripped his coat in her fist so tightly her knuckles were white.
He shook his head, frustrated and feeling helpless. “I don’t know. I’ve never dealt with a vampire who has been able to do these things and wants to use those abilities to kill.” He didn’t tell her he could do them, or that Deke could do them. They had never needed to use these abilities. And they certainly didn’t want to kill anyone. “Generally, the bad ones are so controlled by their thirst for blood that they don’t reach this level unless something out of the ordinary triggers a deeper need,” he tried to explain without giving himself away.
“What do you think triggered this one?” she asked.
For the first time, he flat out lied to her. “I don’t know. But since it seems his experience at mind control may have started with Emma, James had the idea that she was the event that triggered it when he had her tied up at the mill. “I’m just sorry I underestimated him.”
“It’s all right. You couldn’t possibly know or even predict his every move,” she replied, wondering how she could sound so calm. Her insides were shaking with fear, and she clenched her teeth to keep them from chattering. “So where are we going now?”
“We’re going to pick up our lunch, then we’re going back to your house. You’ll be safer there.”
James put the SUV into gear and pulled away from the curb carefully. The windshield wipers were on high and still weren’t wiping the rain away as quickly as he needed. And thanks to the rain, it seemed like hours before they reached the diner. James would have rather taken her to his house, knowing she would be safest there, but he thought she might feel safer around her pool.
The last thing Emma wanted to do was dash through the rain again, but she wasn’t about to stay in the SUV alone while James went in to retrieve their lunch. Once they were in the diner, she attempted to wipe the rain from her forehead, but there was nothing dry enough on her to perform the task.
Thanks to the storm, the diner was filled with only a few regulars. Mr. Sikes occupied his usual stool at the counter and greeted Chief Winchester with his normal, boisterous, “How’re the streets treating you, Chief!”
“Right now, they’re pretty wet, Mr. Sikes,” James replied. Taking Emma by the hand, he led her through the diner toward the counter. “So when you go home, be extra careful.”
“Yep, it’s a hell of a storm blowing in out there,” Mr. Sikes replied.
Two other tables were occupied. There were also the waitresses, Lily, Sylvia, and Marla. Max, the cook and the owner, wore an apron that used to be white over a t-shirt that also used to be white. He was in the kitchen. The diner was named after his deceased wife, Dinah.
James greeted Max with a wave as he looked out at them through the large opening above the grill.
“Got your order just about ready,” Max called out.
“Thanks, Max,” James replied.
“Hi, Emma, how’s it going?” Lily came over to the counter where they stood. “Can I get you guys some coffee while you wait for your order?”
“No, none for me, thanks,” Emma replied.
“None for me, either, thanks,” James said.
“Lily, are you feeling all right?” Emma couldn’t help asking as she took in Lily’s pale features.
“I think I’ve got a touch of the flu or something,” Lily said. “I haven’t felt good ever since I got to work.” She set the coffee pot she held back on the coffeemaker’s burner.
“And I’m tired of watching you mope around and possibly pass on whatever it is to everyone else. Now go home,” Max put in from behind the wall. “I doubt with the storm that we’re going to have a crowd. Sylvia and Marla can handle it.”
“I just feel worse leaving them with the work. And I don’t understand it. I was feeling wonderful when I left home,” Lily said.
“We’ll be fine, but you look like you won’t,” Sylvia said, coming closer and refilling Mr. Sikes’ coffee cup. “So go home and sleep it off.”
The idea struck Emma so suddenly that it was like a knife cutting through her skin. “Lily, have you met anyone new lately?”
Lily looked up with something close to guilt in her expression. “Anyone new?” she echoed. “Um, no,” she stammered, then turned and hurried away before Emma could question her some more.
A short time later, James and Emma were back in the SUV with the wet sack that held their lunch.
“Lily was lying,” Emma said. “I feel it. She also has the same pale look that Jilly had the last time I saw her.”
“I think she was lying, too,” James said. He started the SUV and reached for his phone.
A moment later, Emma listened as James said, “Deke, you know Lily Swan, the waitress at Dinah’s Diner?” There was a pause. “Well, I need you to keep an eye on her—a close eye, to make sure she’s not meeting up with our killer.”
After he hung up, he reached for Emma’s hand.
“Deke knows about this, too?” Emma asked.
James thought of his choice of words. “Yes.”
“Does he also believe in vampires?”
“Yes.”
Only then did he move to get them home, and he was grateful she didn’t ask any further questions. She had a great deal to digest, and he simply held her hand and drove as she took it all in. It was nearly a half hour later before they reached the house Doc and Emma shared. It didn’t help that Beach Drive was under water, forcing them to take the long way around the island.
When they finally reached the house, James picked up his radio and checked in with Jackson and Hayes, telling them he could be reached on his cell phone. He also took a handheld radio out the glove box. Jackson was on the east side of the island, watching the storm and the flood waters, making sure no one drove his car into danger. Hayes was on his way back to the station, where he planned to wait out the storm since the roof there was not as leaky as his own, he’d said.
James grinned at that comment, knowing the little house where Hayes lived. “That place of yours is as solid as rock,” James told his officer.
Hayes’ chuckle came through the airwaves with very little static, despite the storm. “Actually, I was trying to think of a nice way to say I’ll stay at the station to catch any leaks there.”
James looked at Emma. Into the radio, he said, “We all know there’re no leaks at the station. But thanks for sticking close and keeping an eye on things. Call me if anything comes up.”
James and Emma jumped out of the SUV together. The sounds of the doors slamming were lost immediately, carried away in the wind. An umbrella would have done neither of them any good. Because of the wind, the rain pelted against them from all angles, hard enough to hurt. When they drew close to one another, James took her hand, and the
two of them dashed to the door.
There was simply no way to avoid the rain and keep any part of their clothing dry. They were completely drenched before they reached the porch and its sheltering roof. Yet even under cover, the wind drove the rain against them. Emma opened the door and they quickly moved inside.
James slammed the door, shutting the storm out, muffling the sounds of the wind. The lock, as he latched it, sounded loud in the stillness. The two of them stood in the small foyer for a long moment. The only sounds in the room were the sounds of their breathing, mixed with the storm outside which sounded as if it were trying to beat its way in.
Then another sound touched James ears. It was the sound of Emma’s chattering teeth. He reached out and took her hand again.
“Hell, you’re freezing,” he said. “We need to get you out of those wet clothes.”
She didn’t argue as he led her, dripping, through the house, past the kitchen where he tucked the bag that held their hamburgers into the fridge, before moving on to the poolroom. It was a room he knew well from watching her swim time and again. He knew the water was well heated this time of year. He also knew about the shower room at the far end of the room.
It was there, in the shower, that he stopped. He didn’t bother to remove any clothes. He simply turned on the shower and let the steaming water fill the space around him and Emma. He pulled her close, working to send his own body heat into her.
“How did you know there was a shower here?” she asked, stammering over the words as she fought to keep her teeth from chattering. “Today while I swam, you only came in as far as that chair out by the pool.”
“I helped Doc with the plans for this when he wanted to build it for you.” He rubbed her back, then her arms.
“Aren’t you cold?”
No Fear Page 19
