family could be involved. Or he or she could live in one of those buildings.”
Caro nodded. “I was just wondering if we knew of a direct link.”
“As of now, no.”
“All right,” Damien said. “I think it would be wise for us to get down from here out of sight of the bookshop. While we won’t exactly be a surprise, we can at least avoid providing additional information.”
“How about heading away a bit?” Jude suggested.
“Good idea,” Damien agreed. Turning, he held out his hand to Caro. She could have sworn she felt an almost electric zap as they touched. Then she was on his back again and had no idea where they were going.
When next they alighted, she looked around and realized they were no longer on the same street.
The sense of being in a bubble had vanished.
“It might look like we missed him. Her. It,” Damien said. He gave a quiet chuckle. “Maybe we bought a few minutes.”
Perhaps out of deference to Caro, they made their way down a fire escape. Though it creaked and clanged, no one even looked out a window. Maybe, Caro thought, this was a neighborhood where seeing things could be dangerous. It wouldn’t surprise her. As a cop she was intimately acquainted with how many people never saw or heard a thing, even when the ruckus should have wakened the dead.
Once they reached street level, they began walking at a human pace. Not that anyone would have seen if Damien had lifted Caro on his back and flown. The streets were amazingly empty, although that might be in part because of the bitter cold, and in part because this wasn’t a safe part of town. Still, her instincts rose into high gear.
“There’s something wrong,” she said. “Cold, night, whatever, there’s no part of this city where you don’t see groups of young men out until the wee hours.”
“Gangs?” Damien asked.
“Often, but not always. Something’s going on. Maybe somebody put out the word to keep inside.”
“Who would have the power to do that?”
“A bokor,” Jude and Caro answered simultaneously. But Caro continued. “Someone everyone is terrified of.”
“Then it seems we may have come to the right place.”
“I thought you already knew we had.”
He flashed a grin. “I do, but I’m just talking for the sake of talking.”
“Are you nervous?”
“A bit. Aren’t you?”
“I’d rather not think about it.” It was true. Nerves were to be ignored, not fed. They were useful only insofar as they kept you alert. Beyond that, they could become a hindrance.
They covered two blocks before she again saw the storefront. She kept waiting to feel the bubble again but didn’t. “We fooled them,” she said.
“For a little while,” Damien agreed. “Not much longer, though.”
Only a few steps later, she felt it like ice on her neck. “The elemental is here.”
“I feel it.”
“Get to the door,” Jude said. “Let me know when you’re sure it’s there with you and then I’ll get to work warding the area.”
“The bokor is already warding it,” Caro said uneasily. “Do you feel it, Damien? The bubble is coming back.”
He turned to Jude. “Can you sense it?”
“Only vaguely.”
“Surround the entire block, then, as soon as I tell you. Caro, where’s the elemental?”
“All around me,” she answered as ice began to seep into her. “It’s after me again.”
“Let’s hurry.”
Without further ado, Damien gripped her arm, lifted her and began heading for the shop door. “Stay close. Stay very close. My power will cloak you, as well.”
“What about mine?” she croaked.
“I feel the light of it. What it will do I don’t know. Use it carefully. Only you can direct it. But not yet, not unless you feel that thing getting too far into you.”
She had begun to shiver and wondered if it was already time. Then she remembered she needed to carry the thing into the store with her, so that Jude could create a circle around the entire area. She let the cold seep in even more, until her teeth chattered.
At last they reached the door of the shop.
“It’s in me,” she said.
Damien spoke. “Go now, Jude. Caro has the elemental.”
Jude disappeared as if he had never been.
“Can you manage,
“A little longer. I’m so cold inside.”
He took her gently by the shoulders. “Imagine yourself as a vessel. A container for this thing. It cannot hurt the vessel that holds it. Like water in a jug.”
“It can’t?”
“Think of it that way. Believe it.”
Even as she shook from head to foot, and felt her lips stiffen from the cold, she got it. See herself as an inert vessel, holding it but not affected by it. She formed a mental image of a clear jug holding ice water, and as the image grew clearer, she felt the strangest thing. The cold didn’t leave her, but it felt a whole lot less threatening. It also didn’t get any worse.
“Ready?” Damien asked.
“As I’ll ever be,” she said, and she realized she had regained use of her lips, even though she was still shivering.
Damien reached out and pushed the door open. A bell rang, announcing their entrance but no one was in sight.
“Alika?” he called out. Then again when no one responded.
Finally the curtain at the back moved and a tall man stepped out. He looked to be in his thirties and resembled Alika, but only a little. His hair was almost white despite his youth, and his eyes, dark, held a burning intensity.
“My mother is unwell,” he said. “You need to come back another time if you wish to see her.”
“I just needed a book,” Damien said, apparently playing along. “Maybe you can help me.”
The young man shrugged. “I don’t know the store the way she does.”
Caro narrowed her eyes, wondering if she saw a bright red halo around him. It came and went so fast that she couldn’t be sure. “I’m so sorry Alika is sick,” she said. “How bad is it?”
“I’m sure she’ll be on her feet in a few days. But right now the store is closed.”
“Then you should have locked the door,” Damien said. He stepped closer to the man. “I’m Damien. You are?” He offered his hand.
“Who I am doesn’t matter,” the other said, refusing to shake hands. “I think I asked you to leave.”
“Well, unfortunately, we seem to have something that belongs to you. Or maybe it belongs to Alika.”
The man’s brows lifted. “What?”
“An elemental.”
“A what?”
But Caro could see something in the way he shifted that told her he was lying. Thank goodness for the street smarts she’d gained over the years. “Oh, come on. You know all about it,” she said. “I’m carrying it right now.”
“That’s impossible. You’re crazy.”
Caro closed her eyes and envisioned putting a stopper in the jug of ice water. As soon as she did it, she felt a little warmer. “It’s not impossible,” she said. “I contain it and it’s not going anywhere unless you’re willing to send it back to where it belongs.”
