Blood and Kisses (16 page)

He barely restrained a laugh as he bolted into the cool embrace of the summer night. Blood dripped from his shoulder, but it was easily replaced. The policewoman probably thought he had run off because he feared her weapon. He feared nothing and no one except the dawn.

They had no idea how lucky they were to still be breathing. How the rush of their blood called to him. How he longed to feel the warm, rich spurts upon his tongue, to glut himself on the delicious fluid. If only he didn’t need the pathetic fools. Even now he could imagine the ecstasy of draining the last embers of life from their twitching corpses. He shivered. Oh, the power, the pleasure of the Claiming, how he loved it. Even the taste of blood could not compete. Unlike Gideon, he was not restrained by some fatuous notion of morality. A notion his enemy had not espoused as a human.

He smiled, and felt his eyes flame, not with bloodlust this time, but with anticipation. He was so close to his goal. It wouldn’t be long now. Soon he would have power such that would make the Claiming seem like nothing but a cheap thrill.

If only Inanna were here to share his triumph.

Hatred seethed through him. It was Gideon’s fault he was alone. Everything was Gideon’s fault. It was long past time for his enemy to pay for his crimes.

Thalia fought to wake up. There were things she had to do. Gideon to find, a murderer to stop, but the tentacles of unconsciousness wrapped around her, burying into her flesh, unwilling to let her go, and she lapsed once more into fevered dreams. A swirl of images solidified into another place and time, all at once foreign and familiar.

She walked down a long, smoky hallway lit with flaming reeds and approached the throne, falling to her knees and laying down her heavy basket in front of the pharaoh and his guest, keeping her eyes carefully downcast.

“Is she to your liking?” Pharaoh’s tone was idle, but his deep voice sent a shiver down her spine. The attention of the god/king could be very dangerous. She, a mere slave, had never thought to draw his awesome gaze.

“She is beautiful,” his guest observed.

Thalia hid a gasp. It wasn’t his words that startled her, but the godlike timbre of his voice. Even Pharaoh’s voice could not match its majestic resonance. Her eyes skimmed up across the stranger’s face before she remembered herself and glued her gaze back on the stone floor.

Who was this man who dwarfed Pharaoh?

His commanding presence implied he was at least a king, but she had not heard of a visiting king, nor seen the extensive entourage traveling royalty would require.

“You have served us well. She is yours.”

Thalia bit her lip. Her breath came fast. Three words and her life had changed.

“I’m honored by your generosity.”

“Her name is Neferet.”

Thalia opened her eyes and stared into the darkness, her heart still pounding within her chest. The dream had seemed so real. Her breathing slowed. She could hear Spirit snuffing softly in his sleep.

Only a dream.

She’d had vivid dreams before. The one she’d had the night before she met Gideon, the clairvoyant dream last night, but something about this dream wouldn’t let her go. Even now, she felt she was that slave girl, her life changed forever on one man’s whim, given as a reward to the king of a foreign land. No, not a king—Gideon. Her conscious mind identified the slave girl’s mysterious stranger. She closed her eyes, hoping to finish the dream, certain there was a clue she needed somewhere in it, and sleep claimed her once more.

“How is she?” Gideon slipped into the room, hands in his pockets, his equilibrium restored by a night’s feeding.

Spirit lifted his whiskered chin from the comforter.
Look for yourself
.

Thalia lay sprawled on the bed, her dusky lashes shading her cheeks. Her color had returned and she was breathing deeply and evenly.

I think she’ll wake soon
.

Gideon nodded. “I’ll sit with her.”

Spirit leaped from the bed.
I think she’ll be okay for a moment. Why don’t we go downstairs?

Gideon followed Spirit back down the stairs and into the kitchen, wondering what the familiar wanted to say.

He didn’t have to wait long.

I’ve held my tongue, and didn’t interfere
, Spirit began,
because although she is not the strongest witch ever to be Champion, Thalia is a talented investigator with excellent instincts and that has always seen her through, but you should know I have the means to protect her, if necessary.

Gideon let slip a tiny bitter laugh. He didn’t know if that was true, but God, he hoped it was. He squeezed his eyes shut. He had proven he couldn’t be trusted to keep the animal inside at bay. That he was only a thread away from going rogue. He should leave her. But the image that had convinced him to join her would not go away. He had to stay.

He opened his eyes and made himself face Spirit’s dark-rimmed gaze. “I deserved that. But I will walk into the sun before I endanger her again.”

Spirit nodded, which should have looked absurd coming from a dog, but Gideon had become inured to the sight of human gestures coming from the familiar. Spirit’s dark, almond-shaped eyes lingered on Gideon’s face.
I must be mad, but I believe you.

“It’s good to know she has you to watch over her,” Gideon said. He wished it could be he, but since that could never happen, at least she had someone. “How did you come to live with the Kents?”

Spirit looked at the floor. For a moment Gideon thought he wouldn’t answer. Finally, he said,
I love her like a daughter. But I serve her family as atonement.

It was clear the familiar was stepping into painful territory, perhaps was already regretting his words, but Gideon couldn’t help but ask, “Atonement?”

Spirit sighed.
Thalia comes from a long line of beautiful women. It was a long ago ancestor, Georgina Atwater, who bound me to her family. I...made a mistake. That mistake cost her her life. She had a young son. I promised her as she died that I would protect him. I gave up my life as a mage and took on the role of familiar, so I could do just that
.

“Why a dog?”

Spirit chuckled without humor.
It seemed a fitting penance. Of course, I wasn’t a basenji in those days
.

The familiar seemed in a talkative mood. “Tell me about Thalia.”

He walked over to the kitchen table, pulled out a chair, and settled into it while pulling the chair next to him out for Spirit. Spirit hesitated, then leapt into the chair. He lay down, sphinx-like and crossed his white paws.
What do you want to know?

Gideon shrugged. “Everything.”

You don’t ask for much, do you?

Gideon cocked a dark brow.

Thalia has always been different, even for a witch. Her mark sets her apart from witches because it identifies her as the Champion. And it keeps her from forming attachments with pettys because she feels it’s unattractive.

“I think it’s lovely,” Gideon said, then regretted it. But perhaps it was the right thing to say because Spirit seemed to relax at the words and when next he spoke, he seemed less guarded.

A Champion can be male or female, but they always have the mark. It’s hereditary in Thalia’s family, as is potent magical powers. Unfortunately, Thalia has never shown more than average talent in magic and I’m afraid... He broke off and then began again. I’m afraid that the local magic community has lost faith in her. I’ve been hearing rumors from some of the other familiars and earlier this evening while you were...ill, I got word of a meeting being held to discuss Thalia’s suitability as Champion.

“What?”

Spirit raised a paw.
They’re scared. They mean well
.

“Do they?”

“Yes, do they?” It was Thalia speaking from the doorway, her hands braced against the doorframe on either side.

Thalia couldn’t believe what she’d just heard. It seemed she wasn’t the only one who doubted her abilities. Blindsided, her chest clenched. What more could go wrong? She took a shaky step toward the table.

In the blink of an eye, Gideon was there. He helped her take a seat and began rummaging through the massive, state-of-the-art refrigerator, looking, she assumed, for something for her to eat.

He piled food on the counter, tomatoes, onions, green peppers, spaghetti sauce, cheese, bread, then closed the fridge and examined the items as if he had never seen them before. Despite her agitation, the lost expression on his face as he looked at the pile was priceless. She laughed.

“I’ve watched Cam cook for her family hundreds of times. You’d think I would have picked up something,” he said.

Thalia directed him in the making of a grilled cheese sandwich. While he fried it, she turned the subject back to the discussion she’d overheard earlier. “Do you really think they mean well?”

Spirit exchanged a look with Gideon that Thalia couldn’t read.
I don’t know. From what I heard, Mina Shaw had a vision. And now a witch is dead. It will only inflame the situation
.

“And Mina didn’t think she could come to me.” Thalia couldn’t keep the hurt out of her voice.

Word is whatever is coming could destroy the world as we know it.
Spirit seemed embarrassed by the overly dramatic statement, but he didn’t qualify it.

Thalia groaned and shook her head. “Isn’t that always the word? I don’t think we’ve ever had a threat that didn’t endanger the world, including Jay Hefer’s boils.”

This time the word could be accurate
, Spirit said, matter-of-factly.

Gideon glanced over his shoulder as he flipped the golden-brown sandwich onto a plate. His face was closed as his eyes flicked to Spirit and then Thalia and back again, but he said nothing.

“Have you been hiding something from me, Spirit?” She might cry if her oldest friend had betrayed her as well.

You were asleep when I returned from the meeting.
He hesitated.
I’ve been reading your mother’s book.

Thalia let out the breath she’d been holding in a rush and slapped a hand on her forehead. “I can’t believe I forgot the book.”

Gideon placed the plate on the table in front of her. Fragrant steam rose from the sandwich, and she took a bite. It was good. God, she was hungry.

Gideon sat down across from her. “We’ve been busy. There’s no time like the present. Spirit, will you get the book?”

The familiar hit the ground and disappeared into the hall. Thalia downed the rest of the sandwich in several large bites. Her energy was returning. She felt stronger every second.

She looked up from the plate to find Gideon’s eyes fixed on her face. Did she have ketchup on the corners of her mouth? She took a napkin from the holder in the center of the table and dabbed at her mouth. “What?”

“How was the sandwich?”

Thalia couldn’t help but smile. He was so cute. “It was delicious,” she assured him, ignoring the fact that one side had been just the tiniest bit burned. “Perfectly melty.”

Spirit trotted back into the room with the book in his mouth, holding the thick tome by the end of the worn leather strap that bound it.