BlindHeat (13 page)

No wonder the magus was such a mess. An extended amount of
time in her presence would do that, and more. What Jake didn’t get was how the
same female could have that effect on Pantherians of different subspecies.
Marcus was Pantherian and Jake was Yeti. More baffling, she couldn’t be
Pantherian. Which left what?

It left him sitting next to a woman Marcus had warned him
not to have contact with, riding a bus out of town with her because that was
the only way he could follow his instruction to watch and protect her. Although
he could have followed at a distance, his first pledge was to protect and keep
the magus safe and that meant figuring out if she was a threat.

They passed by the newspaper office.

“Her schedule never varies,” Marcus had said. It was five
minutes past the time Allie should have been at work. Thirty minutes past the
time she would have gone to the diner for her breakfast. He wondered why she
had to pick today to break out of her comfort zone.

She’d put a hand to the window as they passed. Her palm and
spread fingers left a print when she withdrew it. He watched her let go with
the simple flutter of lashes descending, like pulling a shade on what she chose
to leave.

They were on the highway, headed north when her phone rang.
She hit the mute button and went back to her reading. A few minutes later the
phone buzzed with a text message. Jake could see the message when she opened
it.

Franny is worried. Me 2. Where R U?

Allie hit the delete button. She plugged in headphones and
clicked on a music app. Jake knew because he recognized the song title that
flashed like a beacon every few seconds.
Slow Dancing in a Burning Room.

When she started to sniffle, brushed away a tear with the
back of her hand, Jake wanted to throttle Marcus. His first lapse in loyalty in
all the time he’d served the magus. What the fuck was he supposed to do now?

He offered his handkerchief.

“Sorry,” she said when she accepted. “Allergies.”

The same song title kept flashing, unchanged, as the miles
ticked away.

They were stuck in morning rush-hour traffic, getting on
I-95 from Fredericksburg when the next text came.

Franny wants cops. I said wait ’til noon. Call!!!

Allie turned off the power button and dropped the phone in
her pocket.

That wasn’t good. Jake waited a few minutes and then eased
his own phone from his shirt pocket, hitting the button and holding it so he
could just make out the time. He had two hours to convince her to phone home
before the cops were called in.

The last two people to see Allie were the last two people in
town who would want the attention of authorities aimed in their
direction—Marcus and Jake. It wouldn’t take long to figure out, after they
discovered Jake and Allie left on the same bus, that Jake and Marcus were
connected. Things were really going to get sticky if he had to take Allie back
against her will.

* * * * *

Marcus caught Oliver scrolling through pages of rabbit
photos. “I believe we’ve had this discussion before. You’re not supposed to
mess with Jake’s computer.” Scooting Oliver aside, he took over the keyboard.
He knew this was where to search for information. He just didn’t have enough
information to know what to search for. “Let’s make a deal. You can use the
computer, but only when I’m with you.”

Oliver looked at him, dark eyes gleaming with intelligence,
whiskers wiggling. Marcus sought a deeper connection, certain there must be
some more satisfactory way to communicate.

A rattle of window glass and the ting of a bell, accompanied
by scents riding a current of air signaled the shop door opening and closing,
though he knew he’d locked it. Oliver took a flying leap from the desktop to
Marcus’ lap just before a familiar voice called.

“It’s me.”

“Maya? You’re alone?” Marcus called back.

She came in, her face flushed pink, blue eyes sparkling with
mischief, blonde ponytail bouncing to emphasize her exhilaration. “Yes, I’m
alone. I took the truck from the farm and lit out while everyone was asleep.
It’s a long drive in from the mountains.”

“You have a driver’s license?”

“No. You drive and you don’t have one.”

“That’s different.”

“You’re starting to sound like my brother, Magus. Females
can’t do this or that. Males can do what they want. How is it I’m the only one
rules are supposed to apply to? I thought you were more enlightened.”

“I’m also able to divert attention and pull a few mental
tricks to get myself out of tough spots. That’s the difference that concerns
me. Not your gender.”

“Then apprentice me.”

“It’s not allowed.”

“Magus, we’ve already broken just about every decree the
high council has penned from the beginning of time. Ean and Adam aren’t allowed
to have a mate and they took one anyway. You look the other way.”

“That’s different. We believe Marie is a genetic mutation
abandoned by her Pantherian parents and raised by humans, the laws don’t
address her specifically.” Though he suspected the high council would have
plenty to say on the matter if they knew about it. He wasn’t going to offer
Maya any more firepower. She was doing well enough on her own. The girl was
born with a rebel streak. No wonder the wasting sickness had skipped over her.
She’d probably just refused to have anything to do with an illness that
wouldn’t let her call the shots.

“And what of the law stating males who lose a mate can’t
retain guardianship of their children?”

“Again, the mother is with the children and Marie chooses to
keep Adam and Ean with her. More fuzzy legality.”

“If she were in Pantheria, where they rightfully should have
taken their family, the council wouldn’t agree. They took Adam from you. His
mother wanted you to raise him.”

Not enough to stay and join him in the process. Nikayla had
chosen exile over Marcus and their offspring. She’d chosen exile over revealing
which other male had added to the conception. While it was forbidden for
females to share pleasures with a male before joining a mating triad, young
Pantherians often did, selecting only one partner so unexpected pregnancies
wouldn’t result. Marcus had been foolish enough to play that game, foolish
enough to think he was the only one playing with Adam’s mother. She insisted
right up until they took her from the island it was so. A child conceived by
one male instead of a pair was the equivalent of a human claiming a virgin
birth. Genetics were genetics. A Pantherian female required sperm from two
unique male donors to conceive. After more than three hundred years, Nikayla’s
betrayal still burned.

“You think prying into my personal failings will win you
what you want?” It irked that his sensitivity was obvious enough to silence
Maya, who normally pushed way beyond where she should.

“I’m sorry, Magus, that was unforgiveable.”

“Marcus, if you please. Remember where you are if you want
to be allowed to stay.”

She brightened. “You won’t send me back to the farm?”

“I should send you back to Pantheria. But we can use an
extra pair of hands right now. While it’s rare, my son and his family aren’t
the first triad to deal with seven infants at once. They can manage without you
for a week or two.” The long hours and sleepless nights infant care demanded
were not the way to convince Maya to return to Pantheria and submit to the high
council’s demand that she take mates and start a family. A taste of the
drudgery and responsibility of looking out for herself might.

“Thank you, Magus. I’ll be the best apprentice.”

“I didn’t say as my apprentice. I said I need some help.
That’s all.”

“Oh come on, Marcus, what’s one more rule? If the council
discovers you’ve been protecting me, apprenticeship is a tiny transgression
compared to harboring me.”

“Those rules are meant to protect. Besides, protecting you
from forced breeding is not the same as exposing you to apprenticeship
training.”

He doubted Maya would have patience for the years of study
required. And she would have to take the long-form training. He could not do
what he did with Allie to Maya. Maya was like a daughter to him. While
outwardly the two might appear the same age, Allie had that “old soul” quality,
a wisdom about her that sometimes had him feeling like the student.

He held up a hand to ward off further argument. “Let’s see
how you handle the responsibilities I give you now. You haven’t as yet done
anything to prove yourself ready for apprenticeship.”

Maya knew enough to snatch the crumb he offered.

“What do you need?”

“Working for me will make taking care of seven infants at
once look easy.”

“I’m ready.”

“First, I’ll need you to help around here, when Jake has to
be away. He mentioned bringing you in before, so I doubt we’ll have any
resistance from him.”

“Done. You can count on me, Magus.”

He waited…she frowned but caught on much faster than Jake.

“Oh right. Marcus. I’ll remember. Mag—Marcus. It just takes
some getting used to.”

“I also need you to get this to Adam for DNA analysis.”

He withdrew a small plastic sandwich bag from his pocket.
Hair he had stolen from Allie’s brush was coiled neatly inside.

“If I contact Adam, Ean is going to come here and collect me
before I do even one of the items on your list.”

“Look, Maya. I have enough problems to solve. You want to
work for me, figure this out. You need to settle this with your brother. Family
bonds are sacred. He and Adam have enough to juggle sharing care for their mate
and their new family without you adding conflict. You convince Ean you’re
reliable and responsible enough to be on your own. Mention that I need you to
help, but that can’t be your only argument. Make things right with them. And
don’t do that by pitting them against each other. Clear?”

She nodded. “Just curious, Marcus, why are you giving this
to me instead of taking it to Adam yourself?”

He should send her back to Pantheria. He could see a whole
host of problems her curiosity was going to cause. “My son isn’t comfortable
with my presence. As I said, he’s got enough going on right now.”

Maya studied the bag, her intensity, the slight parting of
her lips told him she’d detected the scent. “So who’s watching over the lucky
lady we’re analyzing?”

“Jake, and that’s why he’ll be too busy to help me with
other projects for a few days.”

“Jake instead of you?”

“Maya, do you know one aspect of apprenticeship that males
are particularly good at?”

“Not asking questions about things that are none of their
business?”

“Smart girl.”

She placed the bag on the table next to the laptop. “If you
and Oliver are done with the bunny pics, I’ll send an email to Adam and see if
I can’t keep him and Ean from descending to collect me.”

Oliver put his paws on the counter, sniffed the bag and
hopped onto the table. He plopped down on the package, his body blocking Maya
from further access.

“Hey, you little fuzz ball, give it back.” When Maya reached
to grab him, Oliver thumped a loud warning with his hind foot.

Before Marcus could think too deeply on Oliver’s strange
reaction, his jacket pocket chimed. He’d gotten a cell phone from Jake after
Allie had questioned why he didn’t have one. He hadn’t gotten instructions as
to how to use it. He fished out his phone and passed it to Maya. “Deal with
whatever this is about.” Marcus collected Oliver and carried him to his pen in
the back of the shop.

“It’s a text from Jake,” she shouted.

“Why does he need a phone to contact me?”

“I think he has a human with him who might be expecting to
see communication carried out in the typical fashion. That or there’s some
interference.”

Marcus rejoined her. “He’s right here in town. There’s
nothing here that would block him.”

“The geolocator says he’s in Washington DC.”

“Where’s that?”

Maya shrugged. “North, I think. Anyway, he said he needs a
really nice house with a centerfold-quality garden and get him permission to
take photographs.”

“This makes sense to you?”

“Not why he needs it, but I can fix him up.”

“Mmm. Ask Jake who’s with Allie?”

“Crap. Sorry, Marcus. The connection dropped.”

Marcus didn’t know what was going on, but he knew Jake would
give Allie the same loyalty and protection he’d always shown Marcus. He assumed
Jake had someone keeping watch over her while he did whatever it was he was
trying to do now.

“Well, I’ll trust you to manage here by yourself for a
while. Ben has been asking me to meet with him in Virginia Beach.”

“Where is that?”

“I don’t know. I’m not going to try driving. Ben has a
mirror portal. I’ll go upstairs and teleport there through Jake’s portal. Keep
my phone and call Jake if you need anything.”

Chapter Six

He’d lost her. He should have held back the details of the
photo shoot he’d arranged for her until they were safely headed back to
Greyville. Now he didn’t know if she was still running or headed home. Jake
turned around and surveyed the crowded terminal. He felt like Gulliver in a
colony of noisy little people. He could barely tolerate the crush and rush.
Without the authority to grab Allie’s hand and hang on to it, it had been easy
for her to disappear into the throngs of humans getting on and off buses.

He tried to go by logic. He’d convinced her, he thought, to
go back home. She’d need to go to the ticket counter. He didn’t find her there.
Being taller than everyone should help him spot her, but Allie was practiced at
blending in. She’d made herself invisible here.

The place made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on
end. His long, curly hair fell to his shoulders, so hairs raised against that
weight and opposing force were an ominous sign. The whole city had a dirty,
brown aura clinging to it. Here in the bus station, at the heart of what humans
called civilized, uncivilized undercurrents ran like blood from a cut artery.

He didn’t need telepathy to spot the ones watching for a
weakness, an opening. They moved among the passengers and the homeless with a
predatory awareness. They measured Jake with their eyes. He sent back the
primitive signals that said he was not the weak spot they were looking for. The
idea that somewhere nearby Allie would be perused for weakness made his blood
simmer.

“Hey, dude, too bad your old lady found a bigger ride.” The
cackle and slap on his back grated over nerves already too raw.

Jake spun. He grabbed the street scum behind the wisecrack
by his shirt, backed him against a pillar. Thin, greasy hair, a rat-like face,
tattoos on nearly every inch of exposed skin. Jake remembered seeing the guy
get on the bus in Fredericksburg. “Where is she?” he growled.

The guy squirmed like a fish on a hook. “Back off, man. If
she’s that easy to lose maybe you should be glad it happened so fast.”

Jake shook him and the guy’s head bobbled on his skinny
neck. “Where?” he asked again.

“She went off with a dude even bigger than you. A dork in a
cowboy hat.”

Jake was so startled he almost dropped his only source of
information. He let go of the shirt, smoothed the wrinkles with one hand.
“Look, give me some details and I’ll give you a couple of bucks.”

“Not much to say. He came up and said he knew her. She
recognized him I guess. One of them said something about him being a lawyer. They
was both headed the same place so he offered her a ride and she went.”

His suspicions already confirmed, Jake pressed for more.
“The dude she left with, what‘d he look like?”

“Like a country singer.” The guy said it like the words
tasted bad. “Think the hair was blond, had a bit of beard on the chin,
mustache, country-boy drawl.”

“Seth,” Jake said and let the man go. He kept a twenty in
his shirt pocket, handy for situations like this. He slapped it into the guy’s
greasy hand and thanked him.

Jake knew who had Allie. He didn’t know why he’d missed that
someone else was following her. Seth was hard to miss.

All the pieces fit. There was only one Pantherian bigger
than Jake—Seth. Lawyer, country drawl—odds were against there being a human
fitting the same description that just happened into Allie at a bus station
when Jake was following her. There were too many coincidences lately. Seth in
the middle of those coincidences had an apocalyptic feel.

Jake had spotted him in town once or twice, had mentioned it
to Marcus. Marcus believed Seth was there to earn forgiveness from Jake. Jake
didn’t think so. Seth wasn’t stupid. He knew there’d be no forgiveness for what
he’d done.

Jake checked the bus schedule and saw that it would be eight
hours before the bus could deliver him to a home three hours away.

His phone chimed. Another text from the technologically
challenged, Marcus.

* * * * *

It was the first time Allie had ever seen Lila at loss for
words. The two stood on the path from the driveway, at the first curve where
the house came into view. Allie understood though, she couldn’t think of
anything to say either. She felt like a flock of geese was flapping wildly in
her stomach and her confidence, that she could take pictures to do justice to
whatever the garden might hold, plummeted.

“Some digs, huh?” Lila asked at last.

“I had no idea,” Allie said, her voice hushed with awe. “It
belongs to a research scientist, a guy named Adam Kemenev.”

“He married?”

They shared nervous laughter.

“I thought you were hot and heavy with Cliff.”

“Hey, it never hurts to have a backup plan.”

“Well, Dr. Kemenev is married, so he’s not it.”

“So is he the one who designed the garden?”

Allie didn’t know much about the house or garden. During an
hour-long traffic standstill in Northern Virginia, her seatmate on the bus had
pried and poked until Allie started talking about wanting to leave her job,
start fresh, and how the clean-break plan was looking to turn into a big
emotional mess. His story being similar to hers, it made sense when he said
maybe they should go back and do some damage control, come up with a more
carefully thought-out plan, so that when they did leave—and each was still
determined to do so—it would be a clean break.

He told Allie where she could find a garden that would help
her smooth over the situation with her boss. Allie told him where one of the
women in his life could find a job. After that the conversation turned to his
cat. He’d related every escapade from first steps to first mouse before Allie
managed to ditch him when the bus doors opened at the DC terminal. She hadn’t
thought to ask him, or the assistant she’d called to set the appointment, about
the garden’s history. She’d taken Jake’s word that it was unique and stunning.
It certainly sounded that way from his brief description. She shared the little
she knew with Lila.

“Dr. Kemenev moved his family to a place in the mountains.
The house is empty, so we’ll have the place to ourselves while I take the
pictures. Whoever writes the article about the garden can do the historical
research.”

Lila passed Allie the camera bag. “I bet Elaine writes this
one herself. She totally forgave you for being MIA this morning when I told her
you were tracking down a connection who would get you into Dr. Kemenev’s
garden. There is some sort of legend behind it, and don’t ask because she
didn’t furnish details. She let me check out the newest digital SLR for you.”

Allie handed her flashlight to Lila and cradled the precious
bag in both hands. “Cliff let me take some shots around the office with it the
day this camera came in. I’d love to own one like this.”

“Keep landing shoots like this and Elaine will probably buy
you your own. She drove me crazy all morning with reminders of things she
wanted you to look for. Apparently this lunar garden is a big deal with the
garden club. Oft gossiped about and never seen by any of them. How did you get
in?”

“I got lucky, met up with a guy who knew somebody who knew
somebody. The garden is supposed to be around back.”

Lila led the way and Allie followed her around the side of
the mansion, the moon cast in heavy shadows.

“Thanks for driving me out to do this shoot. With my big
raise it shouldn’t be long before I can afford my own car.”

“Not if Franny has anything to say about it. She totally
lost it this morning when you went missing, swore your prince charming had
murdered you and dumped you in the woods. She called me snarling about how she
thought the guy looked guilty of something and she’d even given him free
doughnuts. You free to roam the world in a car is going to be too much for
her.”

“Brother, I hope she didn’t catch up with Marcus before I
called to smooth things over. You’d think a person could do something different
once in a while without it upsetting the whole town.”

“I think to get away with that you have to do something
different more often than once every two years. If you hadn’t called when you
did, I think Franny would’ve had the National Guard out looking for you.”

It felt good, really, when she let her friends fuss. In
Eddie’s world girls only mattered when they went missing—if they went missing
with something that belonged to him or with information that could cause him
problems or if they went missing because they’d embarrassed him. In Eddie’s
world girls went missing all the time and no one looked for them. The ones that
mattered enough to look for, never came back. If Allie ever became one of the
girls that didn’t come back, Eddie would make sure anyone stirring up a fuss
about it went missing too. In the end, Allie would have to leave to protect
these overprotective friends, she just had to do it in a way that wouldn’t draw
attention and lead Eddie right to them.

Lost in thought, Allie nearly bumped into Lila when she
stopped just as they stepped from the shadow into the moonlit backyard.

“Oh wow,” Lila said. “Elaine is going to flip when she sees
pics of this. A stone circle. Who would have thought you’d find one here?”

They were still a few yards back. The garden was set on a
circular mound just at the edge where the yard dropped away toward forest and
river. The stone pillars formed a circle inside a perimeter defined by a
bubbling stream that ran round the garden like a moat. Gnarled trees between
the stones had been trained to grow into the shape of a gazebo.

They crossed into the garden over an arched wooden bridge.
Allie felt as if she’d stepped from the real world into a fantasy. Stars winked
like jewels through a lacy latticework of branches stretched high above. But
there was an opening at the very center and judging by the moon’s track it
would be over that opening soon.

A round marble slab was set just below that lunar window, it
had an energy, a pull that compelled her to get closer, the way the dark orb of
Marcus’ pupils could capture her will, pull her in. Grass swished around her
knees with each step closer to the marble centerpiece. Allie dropped to one
knee, pressed her hand to the carved swirls on its surface and tried to imagine
it as something ordinary. Safe.

But running her fingers over carved runes on the edge, she
couldn’t convince herself it was no more than a patio for picnics. The stone
against the flat of her palm pulsed with the energy of earth and water, the way
the balcony outside Eddie’s bedroom had pulsed with the beat of music from the
club below. Cold moved through her fingertips and up her arm. Cold ran fingers
across her back and she remembered, more than remembered, felt as if she jumped
through time to sit outside in a nightgown, bare toes curled on concrete, her
back pressed to a brick wall. She gazed up at the stars wishing for something
missing, something lost while she was too young to grasp what it was. A hole
opened under her breast bone, a hollow space, as if she were hungry. Only the
feeling was located higher up.

She tipped her head back and blinked hard, looking up at the
stars to keep the sudden dampness in her eyes from spilling out. The stars
winked through a lattice of limbs, the exact same shade of blue-tinged silver
she had seen in Marcus’ eyes when he laughed. Fairy dust, she thought. Magic.

God how she wished there was magic. Magic that would wipe
out the past. Magic that would make her something other than the daughter of a
pimp and murderer. Something other than a forger and accomplice in crimes she
barely dared to imagine.

She lifted her hand from the stone toward the glimmering
diamonds above, and she wished most of all there was some magic that could make
Marcus an ordinary guy.

But guys like Marcus wore trouble like a second skin and
Allie had given up believing in magic before she could spell the word.

Lila had stepped to the center of the marble slab and turned
in a slow circle. “I wonder what Dr. Kemenev got up to in his little garden.
Weren’t circles like this used in fertility rites? I half expect a guy in a
black robe to step from behind one of these stones.”

An image of Marcus holding that candle flashed through
Allie’s mind, and just behind that, one of the lit tapers between her legs.
Trouble. If she let her thoughts go there she’d be melting and dripping.

“Mmm,” was the only thing she could think to say to Lila.

Arousal and fear pressed Allie’s legs together and urged her
to her feet.

She grabbed her camera and turned it on, glanced about for
anything to get a shot of, anything to push the memories away. A stone pit with
fresh wood and kindling laid for a bonfire claimed her first shot. She tried to
ignore the images of naked dancers Lila’s comment brought to mind. This was
just the sort of place she could imagine Marcus feeling at home.

Spiritual leader he’d called himself. At the time she’d
thought something like a televangelist, or modern cult leader. After last
night, something older, steeped in knowledge of mysteries that were better left
forgotten, came to mind.

The garden was the sort of place that if Allie had seen a
fairy flit through the flowers, or an elf contemplating life from a perch on a
toadstool, it wouldn’t have looked out of place. It felt old, as if it had been
there hundreds of years. It looked wild, untamed and unplanned, despite the
fact that every element here had probably been aligned to stars and moon.

She moved along a haphazard path of scattered flagstones.
Wildflowers in shades of milk and silver flanked the walk, waist high on either
side. She thought it too early in the season for flowers. She didn’t know much
about gardening, but perhaps sun-warmed stone and the mists drifting up from
the water to hover under the dome of ancient trees acted together to create a
natural greenhouse. Giant lunar moths fluttered between the blossoms and rode
the air currents. Starlight and moonbeams captured in water droplets swirled
like glitter around them.