Always the Vampire (21 page)

Her brows arched in surprise. “You read my thought?”

I shrugged. “An image that clear is hard to miss.”

“Only because you wanted a peek at your report card.”

“Okay, I’m busted. I wanted to know your opinion, so I looked.”

She gave a sharp nod. “Good, we can build on that. Now we’ll test your other vampire skills.”

For the next half an hour, Lia tested my vamp speed, sight, hearing, and sense of smell. I did wind sprints fast enough to make a running back weep with envy, spotted a bird’s nest through twenty feet of overgrown woodland, and heard a raccoon foraging from seventy feet away.

I tracked the animal by her scent with Lia trotting at my heels. I swear the limbs seemed to move out of her way, because her robe didn’t snag on a single twig. When the raccoon stopped, backing her hindquarters into a fallen pine tree near a stream, Lia soothed the agitated female coon with a word.

The next trial, though, was a stumper.

“All right,” she said in hushed tones. “The creature is calm now. Your turn to enthrall her.”

“Um, Lia, I don’t think that works on animals,” I whispered back.

“Of course it does. Did King Normand not teach you?”

“I must’ve skipped that class.”

“How is your ability to enthrall humans?”

“It sucks. I laugh every time I try it.”

She held my gaze. “You never saw enthrallment used for good, did you?”

I snorted softly. “In a nest of vampires? Not even close.”

“Then I take it Normand only demonstrated the death gaze.”

I gaped. “That’s a real thing?”

“I fear so. Legrand excelled at it. He even used it on other vampires.”

“Well, we can skip right over that trick.”

“No, we cannot. The death gaze is an extreme version of enthrallment and is related to your ability to drain life force. You need to know how to enthrall in order to send energy as well as take it. Now, when I lift my calm spell from the little mother, I want you to will the raccoon to be easy again. Ready?”

“Wait, no. She’s a mother?”

“Her kits are nearly six months old. Listen to them in the log.”

I tuned in and heard the scratching of claws.

“Lia, I’m not messing with a mother. Find me another animal or move on to the next test.”

“No, you need to prove to yourself that you won’t injure the creature. Think becalming instead enthralling. Now squat on your haunches, look at her, and assure her she and the kits are safe.”

I followed orders, and to my shock, I connected with the coon’s confusion and fear. She paced at the opening of the den, the instinct to protect her family strong. I sent her gentle thoughts, mentally told her that she was a wonderful mother with beautiful children and that I meant no harm. As I crooned to her in my head, she ceased pacing, stood on her hind legs, and made eye contact. A moment later she shambled away to hunt.

I rose slowly, in awe.

“There, now you understand. You did not compel her to leave her den, you only helped her understand it was safe to go about her business. You must remember that distinction. Manipulation isn’t necessarily destructive.”

 

 

“Sit in a circle on the grass,” Cosmil instructed a short time later. “Get close enough to comfortably hold hands. Left hand up, right hand down.”

Surrounded by four white candles in tall jars, Saber, Triton, and I folded to the ground cross-legged then closed ranks until our knees almost touched. We clasped hands, Triton on my left, Saber on my right, and looked up at Cosmil for further direction.

“The point of this exercise is to connect by channeling energy. You will be tuning into each other, so to speak.”

“This will help us fight the Void how?” I asked.

“If one of you is weakened, the others will quickly be able to transmit an energy boost.”

“Once learned,” Lia added from where she stood opposite Cosmil, “the technique will work even if you’re separated. You’ll also be able to locate each other through your energy, but you must practice until you can create a vortex.”

“Correct.” Cosmil turned to Saber. “You are neither shifter nor vampire, but you carry the mark of both. You are the balance between Triton and Francesca, so you will start the flow for the first session.”

“What do I do?”

“Fill yourself with a thought or an emotion that brings you joy. Hold that energy until you feel its pressure. When you’re ready, imagine turning on a water spigot. Let the energy flow through your right hand into Triton’s left. Triton and Cesca, picture yourself as pipelines and let the energy pass through you and back to Saber.”

Sounded easy enough. I relaxed my shoulders, closed my eyes, and wondered if I’d know the energy when I felt it.

Less than a minute later, I sensed the first trickle of the warmth I associate with Saber pass from Triton to me. I kept the pipe analogy in mind and felt the fingers of my right hand tingle as the energy moved back to Saber. Then, the tickles and tingles came faster, flowing up one arm, through my chest, and out of the opposite hand until I thought I might float away.

“Excellent,” I heard Cosmil say. “Now do not break your handclasps. Saber, imagine slowly turning off the spigot and dial down your flow of energy the same way.”

The tickles and tingles gradually stopped.

I opened my eyes when Triton freed his hands and wiped them on his jeans. Cosmil and Lia beamed their approval.

“Fine job, Saber. You have done this before?”

“I did similar exercises when I studied Eastern and Western disciplines to improve my skills as a slayer.”

“Your studies serve you well.” Cosmil pointed at me. “All right, Francesca, your turn.”

I held hands with the guys, closed my eyes, and pictured surfing. Catching a wave, flying across its face, and being rocked by the sea when I paddled out again.

The smells and sounds and splashes of the ocean enveloped me so much, that I almost missed Cosmil’s signal to ease up and stop.

Saber gave my hand a warm squeeze. “If that’s what surfing is like, maybe I’ll learn.”

“You saw what I pictured?”

He nodded. “Did you see the image, too, Triton?”

“Yeah.”

Even Cosmil blinked at the terse reply. “Is something amiss, Triton?”

“I’m fine. Just tired. Can we get on with this?”

I narrowed my eyes at him but only read a jigsaw puzzle jumble of pictures.

Until we all reclasped hands. In seconds, a rogue wave of ecstasy rolled through my body, and so did a slideshow. One featured Triton in his dolphin form meeting Lynn in hers. Others depicted the pair racing and chasing and leaping from the water. Then the image switched to a man and silver-haired woman wearing only towels, falling onto a bed. I didn’t know if it was Triton’s bedroom or Lynn’s, but I wanted out of the vision before the towels came off.

I jerked my hand free of Triton’s.

“Geez, you couldn’t stop with the Flipper scene?” I snarled. “You had to go X-rated?”

“Francesca,” Cosmil snapped, “why did you break the flow?”

I turned to Saber. “Did you see pictures this time, too?”

“Leaping dolphins, and a woman with light hair.”

“It’s blond.” Triton pulled his knees to his chest, wrapped his arms around his legs. “Silver blond.”

Cosmil’s bushy gray eyebrows shot up, two gull wings of surprise. “It has happened, Triton? You have met a mate?”

 

 

We retired inside to the living area for Triton’s revelation. Cosmil and Lia shared the sofa, Saber took an armchair, and I leaned a hip against the stainless steel counter sipping water.

Okay, my body language screamed that I was divorcing myself from the group, but I wanted to watch their reactions.

Triton started his tale with the men who assaulted him, answered a few questions, and agreed to have a look at mug shots. He didn’t commit to a date, I noticed, but then Saber would have to contact Detective Bob March with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office to arrange a viewing. Good thing we had an in with law enforcement.

Triton also mentioned that transfiguring while being injured had been difficult and that he’d been too weak to want to travel far. He’d headed to the fishing pier where he usually shifted, and that’s when and where he echo-located Lynn. Since she was alone, they swam farther north to Vilano Beach where he began to feel stronger. Eventually they’d gone to Jax Beach.

The rest I knew, so I studied Cosmil’s, Lia’s, and Saber’s expressions. Cosmil’s “you finally got a girl” grin had faded, though he held a hopeful gleam in his eye. Lia seemed the most thoughtful, and the longer Saber listened, the more his cop face settled into place.

Triton finally dropped the key piece of information I’d been waiting to hear—that Lynn had been a shifter for only five years. Good to know I hadn’t harbored a minor, but no way should shifting have made Lynn as shaky as she’d been. Not with five years worth of shifter experience.

Last, Triton revealed that Lynn shared a duplex with three college friends. The roommates believed Lynn to be Wiccan and assumed she conducted new-moon ceremonies when she went off alone each month. A perception that Lynn fostered, in part by working in a New Age shop.

When he finished his story—without the X-rated parts I’d seen in his mind—silence reigned until Lia turned to me.

“What impressions did you have of Lynn?”

“Not many. She was shivering on most of the drive back to Triton’s. She didn’t do much more than murmur hello and good-bye.”

“You’re a vampire,” Triton put in. “You intimidated her.”

“Perhaps,” Lia agreed, “but there is more. Cesca, what’s bothering you about the young woman?”

Triton sent me a glare, which I sent right back.

“You have to take this in the context of timing, but here it is.” I held up a hand to tick off my points. “First, it doesn’t quite fit that Triton and Lynn wouldn’t have met before now.”

“Why would we have met?” Triton muttered. “I don’t know every dolphin in the sea.”

I ignored him.

“Second, it’s hinky that Lynn would be hanging out at the pier where Triton usually shifts.”

Triton objected. “Plenty of dolphins hang there. So do sharks.”

“Yes, but to avoid the party at that beach, I took you farther south. If you had shifted injured at the pier beach, you would have been more vulnerable to a shark or some other kind of attack.”

Saber nodded. “True.”

“Third, it’s odd that Lynn is such a young shifter.”

“Why?” Lia asked.

Saber answered. “Because unless you can tell me differently, there are no weredolphins. Never have been.”

“Which means,” I concluded, “that Lynn could be the product of a spell, and we know of only one wizard on the loose.”

“Damn it, Cesca, Lynn is not Starrack’s tool,” Triton raged as he came off the sofa and stormed at me. “You’re jealous and petty. You couldn’t land me when we were younger, so you thought you could have me on the side and keep Saber, too.”

“Honey, are you jealous of Lynn?” Saber asked.

I whipped my head toward him. “No, but I lust after her straight hair.”

Triton sputtered. “You undressed me at the beach.”

“You whined that you were too weak to do it yourself.”

“You looked at my goods.”

“So? I’ve seen you since we were kids. Nothing’s changed.”

Suddenly, Triton’s skin darkened, and his brown eyes went pitch black. In slow motion, I saw his fist take aim at my face.

In the next instant, Saber yanked the back of Triton’s shirt, pulling him away from me enough that his fist
whooshed
harmlessly through the air.

My heartbeat pounded in my throat as the five of us stood frozen. Then Triton wheezed, exhaling the smell of oil, and dropped to his knees in an unconscious heap.

My first instinct was to rush to my unconscious friend, even if he had intended to clock me.

Cosmil’s voice whipped across the room.

“Do not touch him, Francesca. No one touch him.”

“He’s had a flare of the Void illness, hasn’t he?” I asked softly, my gut clenching with new dread.

“I fear so,” Cosmil confirmed as he strode to the far side of the stainless steel island and opened a drawer.

A pile of surgical gloves and masks hit the countertop, and Cosmil slammed the drawer shut before donning a pair of gloves. He tossed a second pair of gloves and a mask to Saber.

“Lia, please prepare a healing circle. Saber, if you would kindly help me examine Triton and then move him outside?”

I stepped aside as the men went into action. And, yes, I wondered at the precaution of gloves and masks. Cosmil hadn’t insisted we wear masks after he had been attacked, although Saber had worn gloves to treat Cosmil’s oozing head wound. I supposed taking any measures to slow the spread of infection was a good thing.