Midnight Shaman, Fire Witch Read online

“But your father didn’t like that.”

  “No. He hated it. They used to have terrible arguments, and he demanded she stop, and that she stop teaching me. But she couldn’t, I don’t think. She didn’t know how to stop. So he left her.”

  He nodded. “Is that why she killed herself?”

  “My aunt and uncle always told me it was because she couldn’t cope with her abilities—that the Devil drove her to it, but I knew it was never that. She loved the things she could do. But she loved my father too. She was devastated when he left. She was…unstable, you know? She couldn’t cope without him. That’s why she took her own life.” Kimi bit her lip, hard. Why had she told him all that? She never talked about it, ever.

  “And what happened to your talents when you began living with your aunt and uncle?”

  She looked at her hands. “They told me supernatural abilities were sent by the Devil. They punished me if I did anything they saw as freaky. But…I couldn’t stop. Like my mum, I didn’t know how to. I tried to convince myself I was seeing things, that I was making it all up in my head.” She glanced over at him. “I wasn’t, was I?”

  His gaze left the road momentarily to meet hers. He smiled then, suddenly, impishly, and shook his head. “Absolutely not.”

  Chapter Three

  Excitement surged through her, combined with bewilderment. She’d tried to tell herself for years that her mother was mad, that she was fooling herself. The thought that everything her mother had told her was true made her inexplicably happy—and uncontrollably sad, at the same time.

  “Can we stop?” she asked. “I need to…you know. Use the bathroom.”

  “Of course. There’s a service station in a mile or two.” He remained quiet until the slip road appeared out of the gloom and then took the exit, driving up to the brightly lit building and parking out the front.

  He turned off the engine and moved to face her. She shrank back against the car door, but when he reached to take her hand, she let him, quietened by his gentle gaze.

  “Kimi,” he said, “I’m really sorry I kidnapped you like I did. It was a terrible liberty, and I’ll get into a lot of trouble for it.” He didn’t explain with whom. Did he mean the police? “But I did it because I was worried about your safety. There’s something following you, something that wants you dead. I’m not saying this to frighten you, only to explain why I did what I did. I want to protect you. I want to help you understand your abilities, and to show you that you’re not evil, and in fact you’re a very powerful witch. That’s why I’m taking you to Devon—you’ll be safe at The Crux.”

  “The Crux?”

  “It’s where I live. There are a lot more people like me there.”

  Her eyes widened. More tall, handsome men?

  His lips twitched as if he’d read her mind. “More people with the same powers you and I have.”

  She thought about his words. “Who’s following me? And why does he want me dead?”

  He studied her for a moment. “I’ll tell you more when we get back in the car. But I want you to know that I’m here to keep you safe. I know it’s a ridiculous thing to ask when I’ve kidnapped you, but I need you to trust me.”

  She met his gaze. His eyes were clear, honest. If he’d been any other guy, she’d have been wrenching open the door and running a mile, screaming blue murder. She took a deep breath. “The weird thing is, against all my better instincts, I do trust you.” She pulled a face as he smiled. “I think I’m suffering from that Oslo thingy.”

  He grinned then. “You mean Stockholm Syndrome?”

  “I knew it was a Scandinavian capital.”

  He laughed and reached out a hand to touch her face. She met his gaze as his fingers brushed her cheek, having a sudden, clear memory of his lips on hers, his body pressed against her. He’d wanted her, even though he’d forced himself to pull back. The thought made her glow.

  “Come on,” he said, dropping his hand.

  They went into the building and she visited the Ladies’. When she came out the cubicle, she washed her hands and stood looking in the mirror for a moment. Was she being crazy? Why should she trust a man who’d taken her away against her will? And yet she couldn’t erase the pleasurable feeling she had at the thought of him calling her ‘special’. For most of her life, she’d been told she was wicked, evil. And here was someone who apparently had similar abilities to her, and who knew about the strange otherworld she’d sensed but never investigated. It frightened her, but it intrigued her, too.

  She came out the toilets to see him waiting for her. He was leaning against the opposite wall, looking to his right, and she paused for a moment, taking the opportunity to study him properly for the first time in decent lighting. He drew the gazes of most of the women walking past him, although he didn’t seem to notice. Tall and muscular, with dark blond hair, he made her heart thump, but there was something else about him that she couldn’t put her finger on which attracted her, a restless energy that vibrated from him, as if he was excited, full of the joy of life, raring to go. He turned to look in her direction, and she caught her breath as their eyes met. For a second he just stared at her, and a frisson of electricity ran down her spine. Something shot between them, not as strong as in the club, but still sharp and immediate, making her catch her breath. His eyes widened, and she knew he’d felt it too.

  Then he smiled, and the moment passed. She walked toward him, tipping her head. “Are you waiting to make sure I don’t run?”

  “Something like that.” Giving her an amused look, he turned and picked up the cardboard carry tray from the ledge behind him that held two takeaway cups. “Coffee?”

  She took one. The cup warmed her hands, and she sipped it with pleasure. “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome. So…you’re coming with me?”

  “Do I have a choice?”

  Up until then his eyes had been formal, even slightly distant, but now they glinted mischievously. “No.”

  Her heart rate increasing a little, she hid her own smile. “I guess we’d better go then.”

  They left the building. Halfway to the car, however, Damien stopped dead, and she almost bumped into him.

  “What…?” Her voice tailed off as a sliver of cold trailed down her spine. She went still as a rock, noticing he’d done the same. A heavy feeling of dread and fear lodged in her stomach. Instinctively, her hand crept into his. “What is it?” she whispered.

  He glanced at her, his fingers tightening. “Can you feel it?”

  “I feel cold…and frightened. But I don’t know why.”

  He nodded grimly. “Follow me, quickly. Don’t stop until we’re in the car.” He began to walk and then broke into a run, and Kimi followed him, still holding his hand. When they reached the car and he pressed the switch on his key, she left him to open the passenger door and slid inside, slamming it quick. He did the same, thrusting the key into the ignition and turning it quickly. Immediately he moved the gearstick into reverse, swinging the car around before throwing it into first. Something skittered across the tarmac in front of them, and Kimi gasped. Damien slammed his foot on the accelerator, and the wheels spun briefly before the car shot forward. A black figure flashed past Kimi’s window, and something sharp clattered on the glass, like nails. She ducked instinctively, but the car had moved on, and they’d left the creature—whatever it was—behind them.

  He swore. “We shouldn’t have stopped. Sorry. I didn’t think he’d find us this quick.”

  Her heart pounded. “Who the hell was he?” She’d seen only a flash of his face, but the sharp, rotten teeth had been enough to scare her almost witless.

  He sighed and checked in his mirror before easing the car from the slip road onto the motorway. “Something you do not want to meet on a dark night, believe me.”

  She had no doubt now he’d been telling the truth and something dangerous had been following her. She’d sensed it and had known instinctively it wished her ill. But she still didn’t know what it wa
s. “Okay, so you could be describing anything from a giant spider to a politician. Will you be straight with me?”

  “You really want to know?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s a vampire.”

  She stared at him. “Now I know you’re kidding me.”

  “I’m really not.”

  “So is the entire cast of Buffy in town?”

  “There’s just the one vampire,” he said, amused. “They sent me to hunt it down, but when I realised who it was tracking I changed my tactics and followed you instead.”

  “So you’re, like, a vampire hunter then?” She managed to sound only slightly sarcastic.

  “That’s one of the things I do,” he said, not a hint of irony in his voice.

  “You really expect me to believe there are such…creatures?” Even as she said the words, she thought about the face she’d seen at the window and shivered. The face hadn’t been human. “Why does it want me?”

  “If it killed you, it could feed off your personal energy.”

  “But why me? In particular?”

  “I told you—you’re a very powerful witch. It can sense you.” She stared at him, and he must have mistaken her scepticism for fear. “Don’t worry. Now it has to get to you through me.”

  “I’m not worried,” she said sharply. “I don’t need protecting like some medieval damsel—I don’t need a knight in shining armour.”

  “I don’t care. I’m not leaving your side till it’s dead.” He glanced at her. “Don’t look at me like that. It’s my job—I train witches and teach them how to protect themselves. You’re powerful enough to fight a dozen vampires and not break a sweat—you just need to learn how. And until you do, I’m not going anywhere, no matter how much you scowl at me.”

  A shiver ran up her body from her spine to the roots of her hair. Nobody had cared for her like this since her mother died. Her aunt and uncle had always made her feel they looked after her out of duty, not love—she’d never been under the impression when she ran away that they would be anything other than relieved she’d gone. Damien’s protectiveness, as if he cared for her when he’d only known her a few hours, puzzled her, and warmed her right through.

  She looked out of the window, noting from the signs that they were in Devon now. “What happened to me tonight?” She remembered the energy that had risen through her, and the way the sparks had jumped between them.

  “Let’s just get you home, shall we?” he said. “I don’t want to freak you out any more than you’re already freaked.”

  “And I already don’t believe anything you’ve said. I might as well not believe this too.”

  “Okay.” He sighed. “We’re all made of energy, right? Even scientists agree every living thing consist of energy, with molecules vibrating at incredible rates. Well, energy moves through us—we kind of conduct it. It enters us through the crown of our head and flows through a series of channels, a bit like blood vessels. Those of us who know how can learn to control the flow and use it, like directing electricity to turn on the lights.”

  “Or making a candle burn brighter?”

  “Yes. That’s how it works.”

  She nodded. “I’m not saying I believe you…but it makes sense.” She could remember her mother telling her to imagine the rays of the sun flowing down her arms. “So, assuming you’re telling the truth, why was it so powerful tonight?”

  “The energy always flows stronger during a full moon.”

  She thought about that for a while. Then she said, “But there’s a full moon every month. Why don’t I feel like that each time?”

  He shrugged. “There are lots of reasons.”

  “Like…”

  “Finish your coffee. We’ll be there soon.”

  “Will you stop brushing me off?” she snapped.

  He raised an eyebrow, seemingly undaunted by having her scold him. “Look, we’ve only just met, and I’ve already treated you pretty appallingly tonight. I don’t want to embarrass you any further.”

  “Well now you’ve got to tell me—you’ve built it up into this big thing now, and I’m going to make it up in my head, so you might as well put me out of my misery.”

  “Oh for the love of…” He rolled his eyes. “Menstruation, Kimi. Your menstrual cycle affects how the energy flows within you. If you’re ovulating or you have your period, and it happened to coincide with the full moon—that could have been why you felt the energy more.” He glanced across at her.

  She blushed so hard for a moment she thought the surge—as he’d called it—was coming back. She did have her period, but she wasn’t about to tell him that. Why was she having this conversation with a man she’d only just met?

  She forced her discomfiture down, however, aware she had to know more about what had happened that evening. There were too many unanswered questions. “I… I don’t think that was it,” she stammered.

  “What do you mean?”

  How could she put into words what she’d felt? “It didn’t come from inside me. It came from…I don’t know…the Earth or something. No, not the Earth…it was like I could feel the energy from all the stars converging in me…” Her voice trailed off as he glanced at her again. “That sounds stupid,” she mumbled.

  “No it doesn’t.” He sounded thoughtful.

  She shivered. “I know it got stronger when I turned around and saw you standing there.”

  He laughed then. “That doesn’t mean it was anything to do with me in particular.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He gave her an exasperated look. “You really want me to embarrass you again?”

  “Go for it. I’m a big girl—I can cope.”

  “Okay, you asked for it. For an untrained witch, it is very easy to get the energy flow confused with sexual energy.”

  “Oh.”

  “Exactly. When you get a surge—that’s what we call a rise in energy, like what happened to you tonight—it can feel like you’re…you know…hot. Sexy. And having sex can dissipate excess energy. It’s all connected, but if I trained you, you’d be able to distinguish between the two. You’d learn to control the energy, and not let it control you.”

  “So you’re saying that’s what happened tonight? I got confused, misinterpreted the signs?”

  “Well, not all of them,” he said with amusement, and she had a sudden flash of his hips pressed to hers, his erection hard against her. “But yes, that’s all it was—when I stood before you, because you’re untrained, you mistook the energy for sexual interest and got carried away.”

  “No, you’re wrong.” She frowned impatiently. “I’m not completely ignorant. I’ve been out with guys. I know what it feels like to be attracted to someone. But it was more than that.” She hesitated. She didn’t have a clue what she was talking about, and she didn’t want to make a fool of herself.

  “Tell me,” he said. “I have a rule in my classes: no question is too stupid to ask.”

  “Clearly you haven’t had me in your lessons. I suck at school.”

  “None of us is born knowing, Kimi. And you wouldn’t be bottom of my class—I can assure you. Tell me what you’re thinking.”

  Perhaps it would be best to be bold and say it straight out. “I don’t know,” she admitted, “I just feel we connected somehow. I know it wouldn’t have been the same if anyone else in the world had stood before me at that moment. It was like…something slipped into place, like a piece of a puzzle, or two cogs interlinking. We were meant to meet tonight, and when we did, something happened.” She stopped, flustered. She hadn’t even known what she was going to say until the words came out, and now he was looking at her strangely.

  For a while, he said nothing, studying the road ahead of him. His left hand steered the car, his right elbow leaning on the windowsill with his fingers resting on his lips. What was he thinking? He seemed lost in thought. She finished off her coffee, looking out of the window.

  He signalled at the next slip road and came off t
he motorway, heading east.

  “Where are we going again?” she asked.

  “The Crux,” he said. “It’s the central coven in England, like the headquarters, if you like. In a country estate on the outskirts of Exeter.”

  “Coven?”

  “Are you going to freak out again?” he said. She could see his amusement. She studied him for a moment, thinking how gorgeous he was, remembering how he’d kissed her. He glanced across at her. “What?”

  “Do you really think I’m a witch?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Do you think my mother was one too?”

  “Yes. Your local coven should have picked you both up. They should have taught you how to control your abilities. I’m not sure why you weren’t found.”

  Kimi shrugged and looked at her hands. “Anyone who came looking for me would have got very short shrift. And I guess my father would have discouraged anyone from helping my mother.”

  He nodded and took a side road off the main road, and the scenery began to turn more rural, hedges replacing the rows of houses, the roads growing narrower.

  “Damien?”

  “Yes?”

  “Why can’t I see your wolf now?”

  “He’s sitting right at your feet.” He smiled. “We can train ourselves to ‘turn off’ our awareness to the otherworlds. We use what’s sometimes called your third eye, here.” He gestured between his eyebrows. “We call it the portal, and train ourselves to be able to open and close it at will by touching it—that way we’re able to cut ourselves off, because we don’t want to have the energy with us all the time, as you found out tonight.”

  “That’s what you did to me.” She remembered the way he’d touched her forehead, and how the energy had flowed from her into him. She wanted to scoff at all this magic nonsense, but it was beginning to make sense. “You closed mine, outside the club.”

  “Yes. That’s why you can’t see Storm. But he’s there. If you want, I’ll teach you how to open it.”

  “Can you see him even with your portal shut?”

  He glanced at her feet. “No, but I can sense him now, after years of training. I know where he is at all times.” He gave the wolf a fond smile.