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.”
Again her mouth opened and closed. While this was nowhere near as bad as he’d anticipated, he expected more. This wasn’t her culture’s way of looking at sex. In fact, there was hardly a group on the planet more prudish than her culture, although there were probably some. The Brits, he thought with a flicker of humor. All that Calvinism and Puritanism had found a great home here.
“Sex,” he said when she offered nothing more, “is a joyous celebration of life. Properly practiced, it’s purely good.”
“You’ll have to excuse me, but I’m a police officer. I’ve seen it used in a very different way too often.”
“I’m sure you have. There are always abusers of gifts. People who use them as weapons. Like the bokor we seek.”
She sighed. “Point taken. So what do you expect me to do? Get naked with you on the floor?”
He bridled a moment, then reminded himself this concept was utterly alien to her. “I’m not trying to take advantage of you, but to explain a ritual. The occasion requires considerably more ceremony and thought than that. It requires a certain amount of devotion.”
“Devotion sounds good,” she admitted. “Let me think about it.”
He could only wonder at her thoughts because she didn’t share them. Not that he had expected instant capitulation. While he could see, smell and nearly taste her desire for him, she probably wanted something a little more romantic, or a little more spontaneous.
He suspected the whole of idea of making love as a ritual was what was setting her back on her heels. It did sound a bit clinical if you weren’t used to the idea.
Her gaze tracked back to him and it was now suspicious. “Did you just make this up?”
“Absolutely not.”
She shook her head a little. “I don’t know about this. It sounds so cold.”
“It’s anything but.” Yet he could understand her feelings. Most women preferred to be wooed.
“What exactly would be involved?”
“I’d make love to you and try to bring us both to the highest pitch of completion possible.”
He saw her eyes darken, smelled the scents of her desire. His own arose in response, and he knew he was halfway there.
“What else?” she asked.
Now came the part he was sure was going to upset her. But there was no way around it.
“I’m a vampire,” he reminded her. “My predatory instincts must not be wakened.”
“So...I’d have to hold still?” She looked as if that didn’t exactly please her.
“More than that,” he admitted frankly. “I’d have to tie you up.”
Chapter 10
Tie her up? The words caused a windstorm of reactions in her, ranging from anger at the mere thought of being constrained to an amazingly powerful shiver of longing.