Claimed by the Immortal

her, but at least it wasn’t hitting him full-force in the face.

“Are you okay?” he asked as he watched her rub her cheeks.

“No, I’m not okay,” she said querulously. “How many more places do we have to visit to hear exactly the same thing, which is nothing?”

He wondered what had made her so irritable. Then he smelled it, sweet and enticing, and knew the ride had been as much torment for her as for him.

He couldn’t quite hide a satisfied smile. Ungenerous perhaps, but there was something good about knowing he wasn’t alone in his torment. Perhaps he could do something about that, for her anyway. Later.

For now he stepped to the side so that her alluring scents didn’t reach him as strongly.

An image flashed across his mind’s eye, an image of her naked and writhing beneath him, begging him to take her and drink.

He sighed.

“I’m going to do this differently,” he told her. “You reach out with your senses and see what you can detect. I’ll do the same. Talking to people seems to be getting us nowhere.”

“I’ll second that. Okay, I’ll give it a shot.”

He watched her close her eyes and almost smiled again as he saw her stiffen with effort. “Just relax,” he said. “Sometimes trying too hard just blocks it all.”

She obeyed him, relaxing herself in stages until she looked more comfortable.

As soon as he was sure she wasn’t trying to force herself, he stretched out his own hand. No one on the street would see it, but he was still surprised that Caro had been able to. The hum of power, so long unused, felt wonderful. His fingertips tingled and sparkled with energy, and little blue streamers of electricity arced between them.

Let it build, he told himself. Just let it build. It had been so long, and he had missed it so much.

It grew until he felt it humming up his arm, then into his entire body. He felt alive with the power and wondered why he had abandoned it so long ago. Times had changed, forcing him to be far more discreet and cautious than in his temple days, but maybe he had sacrificed too much to caution. Way too much.

He watched his hand begin to glow blue with the power, a glow that was probably starting to surround him from head to foot. So much power, but it had to be directed.

He thought of the threat, reached out to sense it hovering nearby. When he found it, he extended his power outward toward its source or summoner.

As soon as he touched on it, it snapped back, but as it instantly dissipated, he caught a general direction. It wasn’t as good as an address, but at least he knew which parts of the city he didn’t need to check out.

Unless, of course, the bokor moved.

He let the power seep away, then waited for Caro’s reactions. When she opened her eyes, they seemed darker than usual. “I felt it,” she said. “But then it snapped away. You?”

“Me, too.”

She turned slowly and pointed to the west. “That direction.”

“That’s what I got, too.”

“Then let’s go.”

He reached out to grip her arm. “Wait.”

“Wait?” Her irritation was unmistakable. “Wait for what? I’m tired of this thing stalking me. I’m tired of never feeling alone even when I’m in an empty room. I’m tired of wondering if it will somehow slip by you or other witnesses and do the deed anyway. And I’m worried that it might go after someone else, too. Like Pritchett’s brother-in-law. That thing is murderous and it has to be stopped.”

“I absolutely agree.”

“Then what are you dragging your heels for?”

“Are you ready to face a bokor?”

“Isn’t that what we’ve been looking for?”

He shook his head slightly. “We’ve been looking for information. I’m not ready for a confrontation with a bokor and neither are you.”

“But you made that thing snap back.”

“For now. The bokor will know it. Now he has a measure of my power and yours. That doesn’t work to our advantage unless we prepare.”

“Why not?” She sounded impatient. “If we wait, we give him more time to prepare, too. Maybe come up with a stronger force or more of them.”

“That’s possible. Possible but unlikely.”

“You’d better explain.”

“Let’s go back to your place. Your lips are turning blue. Then we’ll talk.”

She grumbled a bit, but she allowed him to carry her home. Such sweet torture.

Once inside her apartment, he waited for her to wash up and change and get herself a hot drink. Then he made another protective circle around them so they could sit in her living room and talk.

“So explain to me how we gained any advantage by not going after the guy right now.”

He liked the feisty set of her jaw, and the way her gray eyes snapped at him. He tried to remember the last time any woman had ever stood up to him this way, and he couldn’t. Times had changed indeed, but even so Caro was a force to be reckoned with.

“He’ll know his elemental was detected and deflected, but that’s all he knows. That could have happened in a number of ways. By not following, we leave him to think it may have been purely accidental.”

“But what if he doesn’t?”

“We still have to prepare. Caro, there are simply some battles you can’t wade into without adequate preparation, and magic is one of them.”

“What kind of preparation?”

He put his hand over his mouth. He didn’t want her to see the smile twitch his lips as he anticipated her explosion. Because she was going to erupt.

Then he wondered why he was even considering mentioning it. She would definitely erupt, with some justification because his proposal was going to seem so out of line to her, and then where would they be? Worse off than right now.

“Damien? Just get on with it. What kind of preparation?”

He picked his words with care, feeling as if he were tiptoeing between rays of sunlight, which for him were the equivalent of mines. “In my tradition...”

“In your tradition what?”

“In my tradition we practiced certain rituals to enhance the power of the mage. Rituals of great focus, power and intensity.”

“And they were?”

“Sex.”

Her mouth hung open. She shook her head a little. The expected eruption didn’t happen. Instead she almost squeaked, “Sex? A ritual?”

“Very much so. Can you think of anything that embodies the life force any better?”

Her mouth closed, then opened again. “Life force. But you’re dead!”

“Not exactly,” he reminded her. “Undead, not dead. I straddle two worlds, which makes me more powerful. But I can still focus the life force. And so can you.”

“Sex,” she repeated. Then the eruption came, clearly because she didn’t like the way he was proposing this. A seduction was one thing, but a ritual? It must sound like an excuse to her. “What is this? Some new kind of pass to get into my pants? Are you that desperate?”

“I’m desperate all right,” he admitted frankly, “but not enough to lie to you. What I’m telling you is true. Lots of people believe in the strengthening powers of sex, that it unleashes the hidden powers in all of us, however temporarily. If you know what you’re doing, the powers aren’t temporary.”

“And I suppose you know what you’re doing,” she said acidly.

“Of course. I was a temple priest.”