Blood and Kisses (19 page)

Suddenly her head came up and her eyes widened. “Spirit!”

“He’ll be fine. They’re not after a dog.” He guided her down the tiny secret stairs and into a hidden chamber he’d had built after the initial construction of the house was completed.

“We can’t stay here.” Thalia could hear people moving up above, but the underground room was as dark as a tomb. Cool damp air moved around her, and she got the impression the chamber stretched ten to fifteen feet beyond where the stood.

“Don’t worry. This room was built during the time of the underground railroad. It’s withstood searches before.”

Which meant he’d been a stationmaster. Thalia glanced at where she thought he was.

“Don’t be too impressed,” he said, obviously able to see her, his tone dry. “Having people indebted to me was purely for self-preservation.”

“Right,” she said.

“Shhhh.” There was a long pause as if he were listening. “Shit! They found the door in my closet. It’s reinforced, but I don’t know how long we have until they find the mechanism.”

“Is there another way out of here?”

“Come on.” His warm hand folded around hers, strong and solid.

He towed her to another door and up another staircase. The sound of people through the wall grew louder. Cracks in the lathe wall allowed her to see in the narrow passageway. Dust hung heavy in the air. A burgeoning sneeze tickled Thalia’s nose and her heart slammed into overtime. She scrubbed her nose with her hand, holding her breath, trying to dispel the looming sneeze. She would survive being taken to the police department, Gideon wouldn’t. The feeling ebbed and she closed her eyes for a second.
Thank you, God
.

Gideon guided her down another staircase into a dark stone tunnel. The footsteps and shuffling above faded.

“Where does this let out?” Afraid her voice might travel, she spoke so softly, she almost couldn’t hear herself.

“The garage.”

“They may already be searching there, too.”

He nodded. “I heard them trigger the automatic door earlier. Probably checking for more cars, but there’s not much to see out there. So I’m sure they’re already done.”

When they got to the top of another cramped set of stairs, Thalia could hear Gideon reaching for something, but she grabbed at his hand. “If there’s a shaft of sunlight on the other side of this door, you’re toast. You’d better let me go first.”

He sighed. “Very well.”

A quick smile tugged her lips at the reluctant tone of his words, but it never really formed. Even if the sunlight didn’t smoke him, the cops had no doubt left a cop car to guard the gate.

Thalia opened the wooden panel a crack and peeked out. They were in luck, there was no one left in the garage and the overhead door was still open, but as she’d suspected, she could she the shape of a man in the squad car nearest the open gate, and it slanted at an angle to block any escape.

Worse, sunlight flooded the garage like icy arctic water filling the Titanic.

“Shit.” Gideon swore behind her, but since he couldn’t see the burning sunlight spilling between them and freedom, her already drumming pulse jolted sky high.

“They’ve broken through the door, haven’t they?” she asked, twisting to study his face, though her light-dazzled eyes saw only an echo of the bright pattern outside, overlaying shadows as thick as tar.

“Got it in one. They’ll be here shortly. I take it we’re pinned down? Illusion spell?”

A puff of air rushed from her. She shook her head.
Damnit, she had to think!
“Maybe if we had time to get back to the underground chamber, but when they come through this tunnel, chances are they’ll exit here and brush by us. Touching us would break the logic of the spell.”

Gideon swore again. “And I can’t teleport us outside because of the sun and inside we could end up materializing in someone.”

Thalia grimaced at the thought and gnawed her lip
. Think. Think
! She ran through her arsenal of spells, then glanced outside. “What if I could make it very cloudy?”

“It might help a little, but the burning rays will still penetrate.”

‘What about rain?”

She could feel movement behind her and thought he nodded. “Yes, the liquid might shield me to some extent. Enough that I could still heal, if I fed soon.”

Thalia pulled a ton of air into her lungs, closed her eyes and focused her intentions outward into the elements. She muttered the words of the spell under her breath, afraid the police in the tunnels might hear her and move faster through the network.

Blue light sparked around her.
For Gideon, please! Let there be rain
.

A gust of cool wind pushed through the open panel and within seconds, the sunlight dimmed as black clouds scudded in to block the sun.

Gideon braved a look past her shoulder. “It’s working.”

Thalia concentrated harder, her whole being consumed with one thought and one thought only. Save Gideon. Bring the rain.

A flash of lightning struck nearby with a clap of thunder so loud she jumped.

A few fat juicy drops pattered down onto the driveway and hammered like nails into the wooden shingles on the garage roof. Then rain fell in earnest, coming down in heavy sheets, making it hard to see outside the open garage door.

“Gods.” Gideon shook his head. “This isn’t rain, it’s a typhoon. Maybe I can teleport us now.”

“No.” Thalia bit her lip. “There’s no way to know how far the downpour goes. We’ll have to make a run for it.”

The sound of voices made her grab his hand. “Do you have your keys?”

He nodded and they took off into the wall of water just in time to see two men emerge from the tunnel.

The car engine roared to life. She swallowed. The rain sheeting the windshield transformed the world outside into a wash of colored pixels, but she could make out the boxy shape of the patrol car they somehow had to make it past.

“Ready?” he asked, revving the engine and gripping the steering wheel with pale knuckles. “I’m going to have to try and clip the front of the cop car at the right angle to shove it out of the way and hope the airbags don’t go off.”

Thalia grabbed the door handle with both hands. “This isn’t a movie, Gideon. Why does this sound like something that’s been busted on Mythbusters?”

“You have a better idea?

“No.”

His eyes glowed in the gloom. “Then here we go.”

The impact happened so fast, Thalia barely had time to register more than the screech of grinding metal. She gritted her teeth, wincing a little at the thought of the damage to Gideon’s beautiful car. They shot out the gate. The hot stink of burning rubber filled the car as the jaguar fishtailed on the slippery pavement, and then the tires found traction and they were free, for the moment.

“You do realize, they’re going to be right behind us?”

“Not if they can’t get through the gate.” Gideon reached up and pressed a button. She craned her body around and caught a glimpse of the wrought iron structure moving in the distance.

She settled back in her seat. “That ought to buy us enough time to ditch this car and find some place to hole up.”

“Wegman’s?” Gideon quirked a dark eyebrow at the storefront before them. The effect was rather lost since the movement released the raindrop perched on top and it rolled down his cheekbone.

Thalia huffed and dragged him inside the vast grocery store by his wrist. “Sunset isn’t until almost ten. You know any other place open that late? Don’t,” she flashed him her palm. “No more bars. And I can get some food at the café here without drawing much attention.”

Towing him into an empty row of freezer cases, she conjured a drying spell and a warm wind swirled around them, evaporating most of the water.

At the market café, she ate quickly, stuffing an egg roll in her mouth without really tasting it. Gideon watched her without speaking, and glanced at his phone as she tossed the remains of her meal. “One more hour. Let’s go browse the book section.”

He rifled through a magazine and Thalia tried to get into a brick sized bestseller, but her mind kept wandering. She supposed she should be worried about catching the rogue, but for some reason her mind refused to stop running through Gideon’s kiss earlier in the day and its abrupt end.

Behind her book, her hand found the edge of her mark, slid up and covered it.

“Why do you do that?” He strode to her and lifted her hand away from her cheek. The rough edge of his thumb stroked the pink skin of her birthmark.

She sighed. “You have to ask?”

“I do.”

She shook her head. “I had a nickname in middle school. Phantom. I got it after an eighth grade trip to see
Phantom of the Opera
in Toronto from a boy named Billy Lasher.”

“Where does he live?” The tone of Gideon’s voice made Thalia smile, but the urge faded quickly.

“It wasn’t only him. The other kids were just as bad.” Even the witch kids had kept their distance. She was going to be the Champion after all.

And then Peter Drury had moved to town from Costa Mesa, California, in her senior year of high school. By then she’d taken her nickname to heart, had learned to hide her birthmark and slip quietly through the school day without drawing painful attention to herself.

“There was a boy. He was sweet to me.” The laugh that escaped her had little humor in it. “Made me feel like a normal girl. He even invited me to the senior ball.”

She glanced up at Gideon. His mouth was tight, his eyes intent. “He asked me to meet him behind the bleachers at school.”