Under the Moon (5 page)

“Hey, Sam.” He eyed the other man, his brow creasing when he sensed Sam’s hostility. “You tell him?” he asked Quinn.

“I didn’t get a chance to yet.”

Nick dropped into a chair in front of Quinn’s desk, turning it to make a triangle among the three of them. She stood frozen, her body practically vibrating with the friction filling the room. Sam stuck his hands on his hips, the move widening his body, and she would have sworn he stretched to his full height to tower over Nick. Not intimidated, Nick propped his work boot on the edge of Quinn’s desk and tilted his chair back, a smug smile flickering at the corners of his mouth.

“Tell me what?” Sam demanded.

“I’ve gone rogue,” Nick declared at the same time Quinn said, “We’ve got a leech.”

Sam looked from one to the other. Nick’s grin had expanded to fully cocky. Quinn, no doubt, looked grim. The room filled with implications, too many questions to be asked, and a metallic tang of fear from all three of them. Quinn could almost see Sam’s brain sorting through the mess to find the most immediate concern. Of course, that was the one sitting in front of him.

“Rogue? What does that mean?”

Nick shrugged and filched a peppermint from the bowl on Quinn’s desk. “No idea. And I haven’t. But some people seem to think I have, which will make the other problem worse. Raise your hand if you think
that’s
coincidence.”

No one did.

“The leech.” Sam stuck his hands on his hips and looked at Quinn again, concern and accusation on his face. “
That’s
the problem you came in here to tell me about. Not—”

She nodded, wishing she didn’t feel so relieved about the distraction from their discussion.

“Fuck.” He dropped into his chair. “That’s, like, a crisis, not a problem.”

“Not for us,” Nick said. “Not yet. But it will be. Quinn’s got a lot of power, and she’s public about it, so it’s a sure bet he’ll be after her.”

“Not until the moon’s full again. So we have some time.” Sam grabbed a pad out of a drawer and started writing. “Where’s he hit so far?”

“Tanda and Chloe.”

He stopped writing, and his sadness fed Quinn’s. Where were they right now? Had the leeching done physical damage as well as taking their power? Who was looking after them? She checked her watch. It was too late in the night to call Chloe in Rhode Island, but maybe Tanda was still up. Assuming she wanted to accept phone calls.

Sam went back to his notes. “They both draw their power from water.”

“They do?” Nick dropped his foot and the chair legs to the floor with a
thump
.

Quinn nodded. “Chloe from the ocean, Tanda from rain.”

“I wonder if that’s all he wants,” Nick said.

“I doubt it.” Quinn sat down and pulled out her cell phone. “It might explain why he could leech Chloe so soon after Tanda, if his preparation was similar. So he might hit another goddess whose power source is a form of water, but it won’t be where he stops.”

Nick frowned. “What’s that woman in Mississippi’s source? The one who said I’d gone rogue?”

“Jennifer.” She stiffened. “Flowing water. That’s why she’s near the river. Do you think—”

“She’s been hit already?” Nick dialed his cell phone. “There’s a chance.”

While he waited for his call to be answered, Quinn scrolled to find Tanda’s number. The line barely rang once before it went to voice mail. Quinn didn’t know what to say, so she hung up and listened to Nick’s side of his own conversation.

“Hey, it’s Nick. Jarrett. Yeah, you too. Hey, you know who’s got Jennifer…” He raised his eyebrows at Quinn.

“Hollinger,” she said, the name popping into her head. “Jennifer Hollinger. She’s in Vicksburg, Mississippi.”

Nick repeated the information and waited. “Okay, thanks anyway. Let me know if you find out.” He snapped the phone closed and shook his head. “We don’t cover her much. She stays by the river most of the time. Can you contact her?” he asked Quinn. “Find out if she’s okay? It’s only been two days since Chloe, but with the power he got from her, he could make it quicker.”

Quinn nodded and went to her file cabinet to pull out the Society roster. She found Jennifer’s phone number and left a message for her, but a bad feeling grew the more she considered what they knew. She went online and checked messages again. There was still nothing else from Jennifer, and no responses on the Society e-mail loop. In fact, there was no discussion on the Society loop at all, and given the news about the leech alone, there should be dozens of messages. She checked the group settings, but everything looked okay. After a moment, she typed:
I haven’t heard anything from Jennifer about Nick, and she doesn’t answer her phone. Anyone know what’s going on?

Before she sent the e-mail, she told Nick what she was doing and asked, “Should I mention the leech?”

He shrugged one shoulder. “Up to you. Anyone mention it yet?”

“No. Strange.”

“John said the Society doesn’t want to start a panic. They’ve assigned a security team to investigate it, and the Protectorate has mobilized protectors for goddesses they think might be vulnerable.” He reached for another mint, avoiding her eyes, and she wondered if that meant he was supposed to be protecting someone else. Something warm flared low in her abdomen, but she frowned.

“I get not wanting to start a panic, but they can’t sit on the knowledge. People have to know. It’s bad enough Tanda and Chloe had no warning.”

“They’re probably trying to avoid being bombarded,” Sam said. “They’ve got to have their hands full. This is way beyond pamphlets and PR.”

“I guess.” But Quinn still didn’t agree with their methods. After a moment of hesitation, she added a line to the e-mail asking if anyone had heard about a leech and clicked send.

Sam bounced his pen against his pad. “How does someone become a leech, anyway?” He directed the question at Nick. “I mean, not just anyone can do it, right? Or everyone would.”

“Not a lot of people know goddesses,” Nick said. “So not
everyone
would.” He crossed a leg over his knee and stretched his arms over his head before bracing his hands behind his neck. The heat in Quinn’s belly spread and added bite. She stared at the computer screen and clicked refresh on her e-mail in-box, waiting for her body to subside so she could tune back into the guys’ conversation.

“When was the last time a leech actually existed?”

Sam’s question was rhetorical. There hadn’t been a leech in their lifetime. Goddess fairy tales abounded with leeches instead of trolls and witches or the specter of nuclear war. Parents lumped leeches in with child abductors, piggybacking warnings with lessons about not talking to strangers. But they never discussed how a leech came to be. Quinn hadn’t even known until she met Nick. As a protector, he had extensive training in all possible threats.

“So?” Sam scowled at Nick, then at Quinn. “Why are you avoiding the question?”

Nick raised one eyebrow at Quinn. She sighed. “A leech can only exist if a goddess bestows power on him.”

“What?” Sam sat up sharply. “They can do that?
You
can do that?”

“Yeah, but…no, not me. But some goddesses, yes.” Quinn hunched her shoulders a little. “Not like donating blood or something. It’s tied into her abilities, I guess, and the recipient has to be male and receptive.”

“Who wouldn’t be receptive?” Sam asked. When Nick and Quinn both looked at him, he made an “oh, come on” face. “I’m not saying
I
would. I mean—”

“Receptive as in physically capable,” Quinn said. “And there’s no way to test for that or anything. Right?” she confirmed with Nick.

“As far as I know. But it’s not like anyone teaches this stuff. No one
wants
it to happen. The legend is that she can only give power to a man, and since he won’t be a natural vessel, he’ll have to constantly reacquire it. So he becomes—”

“A leech.” Sam blew out a breath. “Okay. So a goddess had to have started this.”

Quinn didn’t say anything. She had no idea of the actual process involved and wasn’t sure she’d understand it if she did. Goddesses were vessels for energy, similar to batteries but with only short-term storage. Each goddess had a different capacity and manifestation, so she supposed some had the ability to transfer power to a vessel with the capacity to receive it.

She hated the idea of any goddess she knew doing such a thing. They didn’t come into their power or even know what would feed it until they hit age twenty-one. Because their life expectancy was higher than a normal human’s, they weren’t fully mature, and fully connected to the world’s energy, until then. The whole process of determining the source and training to channel the energy was different for every person and meant a long learning curve. Who would go through all of that and then give some of it up? Who wouldn’t care about the damage they could do if they created a leech?

The more immediate concern, she decided, was determining who was next so they could prevent it. Stop the leech, then find who’d created him.

Sam seemed to be going down the same road she was. “Quinn, does the roster list details about the goddesses? Like power source, age, stuff like that?”

She shook her head. “That’s kept in a database at headquarters in Boston, but general members don’t have access.”

“You’re the board’s secretary, though, not a general member.”

“Good point.” Quinn leaned over to access the computer. “I’ll see what I can get.”

“Tanda’s your age, right, Quinn?” Nick drummed his fingers on the desk.

“A year younger.” She entered her officer code and password to access the Society’s protected web pages. “Chloe’s older than us, by maybe six or seven years.” Midthirties to maybe fiftyish would be the ideal age span for leeching. Leeching a young goddess would be like eating celery to put on weight—more effort was expended than benefit gained.

Quinn logged into the live forums and saw that Alana, the Society’s executive director, was online. She IMed her a request for access to the database. Alana responded immediately.

ED:
Why do you need it?

QUINN C:
We’re trying to track the leech.

She watched the screen for a few minutes. Alana didn’t respond. She felt Nick and Sam looking at her and glanced up. “I’m working on it.”

The computer chimed.

ED:
The board and security team are in charge of the investigation. Your assistance is not required.

There was the sound of a door closing and the screen read,
ED has gone offline, 11:22 p.m.

“Shit.” Quinn stared at the screen, stunned and a little hurt at the abrupt cut-off.

“Well?”

She slapped the lid down and bounced back in her chair. “Nothing. She said the board and security team are investigating and they don’t need our assistance.” She busied herself crumpling up scrap paper, but Nick guessed what she was thinking anyway.

“They heard about me going rogue and know you’re mine.”

“Tell me again what that means?” Sam sounded exasperated.

“We don’t know!” Quinn and Nick said together.

Sam shook his head, looking disgusted. “Don’t you think we’d better figure it out? Or why this goddess you’ve never met would say it?”

“I dunno, maybe she’s got a hard-on for Quinn.” Nick swung to face her. “Maybe she’s the one who created the leech, and she wants to get rid of me so you’re vulnerable. Which
would
make you an immediate target.”

It was too logical to refute. “Maybe.”

Sam, who’d been packing his computer into his tote, paused. “I should stay here tonight, then.”

“Hell, no.” Nick swung himself upright and clapped a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “You know I’ve got it covered. Besides, you two keep saying she can’t be leeched until full moon.”