"We can't stay in a bunker!"
The sounds of the quarrel reached Asher as soon as he emerged from his vault. Julie had slipped out a few minutes earlier, after showering, and he had waited to take his own shower.
Dark things rode his shoulders now, and he couldn't afford the inevitable distraction if he had showered with Julie. He had gone to places with her that he had not gone to with a woman in a long, long time, and even an immortal could get impatient to repeat such joys.
He walked through his office and stepped out into the outer office where the quarreling was going on between Mackenzie, Jay and evidently even Julie.
"Jay," Mackenzie said, "you don't know what we're up against here. Don't be an idiot."
Jay, who was pacing rather feverishly, threw up a hand. "So we stay locked in here surrounded by holy water and holy oil? What is that going to solve? We can't let this thing keep doing this!"
"I agree," Julie said. Her blue eyes seemed to snap. "We're virtual prisoners here. This can't go on. I've got to get back to work, for one thing."
Asher stood in the doorway wondering what had brought this on. Last night Julie had been frightened, and today she wanted to follow a harebrained Jay's suggestions?
"Am I allowed to join the discussion?" he drawled, allowing just a hint of sarcasm to creep into his voice.
At once, Julie looked at him, and he saw the faint pink stain on her cheeks. Damn, that called to him.
"Jay's being an idiot again," Mackenzie said. "He doesn't even know what we're dealing with here and he wants to charge off and go hunting for it. And Julie must have lost her mind to even suggest it. What did you do to her?"
"I didn't do a damn thing." At least nothing that she hadn't wanted as much as he had. "Julie? I know what's Jay's thinking. He always wants to take the bull by the horns. But what are you thinking?"
"That this thing could outwait us forever. That there's no way we can hunker down indefinitely. We have lives to lead. So we have to go after it, somehow."
He folded his arms and leaned against the doorjamb looking at three people who had become so important in his existence. To his very core he knew he would protect them with his life, if he could call it that. Yet, protecting them did not include keeping them locked up forever.
The question was how to handle this. "If we separate we might become weaker," he said. "But if we don't, we may never get rid of the threat."
Mackenzie put her hands on her hips. "Not alone you don't."
"Absolutely not." Julie sprang to her feet. "No way you're going out there alone. If you go, I go. And don't try to stop me."
"You have absolutely no idea how easily I could stop you."
She glared at him, and it pained him, but it was also the truth. Some things needed to be clear, including how implacable he could be when necessary. But apparently, he underestimated Julie.
"You may be able to stop me, but what's the point, Asher? This thing needs a wedge to get at you or Soren. It's come after me, it's gone after Soren's granddaughter. You can go out there and hunt all night every night and it won't approach you. No, it'll wait until it has a chance to get at someone you care about. So we might as well just go out there and face it. And since it's been nosing around me for a while now, I'd make the best bait."
He closed his eyes. The pain he felt at her words was both unanticipated and sharper than a dagger. "I can't risk you," he said.
"You won't get it any other way. And I'm going to have to go out there, anyway. I have a job, remember? You're not seriously proposing we live the rest of our lives, all of us, inside these walls?"
"I need to think. There has to be another way."
"If you can come up with one, fine. But I've been doing a lot of thinking while you slept, and I can't see any other way."
Everyone remained still and silent for several seconds, then Mackenzie shocked them all by hurling a pencil across the room. Asher's eyes snapped open.
"This stinks," she said. "This reeks." Then she jabbed a finger at Asher. "I told you, you needed to teach us all. I told you."
"Yes. You did."
"You should have let me call Father Dan."
"Maybe so. Maybe so." Then he turned and went back into his office, determined to find a different solution from the one Julie was proposing. She didn't know the risks. She couldn't begin to understand the risks.
He suspected she was behind the mini revolution taking place out there. Mackenzie would never dream up such a scheme, and Jay, for all he always wanted to get involved, rarely came up with a new idea of his own that made any real sense.
No, Julie was the force behind this storm. And that was troubling indeed.
"Jay!"
The young man materialized instantly in the doorway.
"Come in and shut the door."
Jay hastened to obey. "I swear it wasn't my idea, man," he said immediately. "But I think she's right."
"I know it wasn't your idea."
"Oh." Then young man looked relieved. Then, "How can you know it wasn't my idea?"
"Trust me, you don't want to know."
"Oh." Jay shifted, clearly unsure how to take that. "So what do you want me to do?"
"Do you smell it around her?"
Jay's blond brows both lifted. "No way, man. If I did, I'd be all over it."
"Pay attention. Keep sensing."
"I can do that."
Moments later, Asher sat alone again. Had he been mortal, he was sure he would have been sweating with fear.
-
-
-
When Asher didn't emerge from his office for a while after sending Jay out, Julie decided to go face the lion in his lair. She couldn't stand being on edge, couldn't stand the thought he might be angry with her, could tolerate even less being away from him.
But they had to solve this somehow.
He looked up when she opened the door and stepped in. "Go away," he growled. "I need to think."
"Are you mad at me?"
"I said I needed to think!" He thundered the words, and it was all she could do not to quail. But she stood her ground, anyway. This was the vampire who had bitten a pillow last night rather than give in to his overwhelming desire to bite her. He didn't frighten her anymore. Not at all.
"No," she answered sharply. "You listen to me, Archer Peres. We're all in this mess now. You can't just come hide in here and make decisions for all of us."
"None of you truly understands what we're up against. Damn it, Julie, I need time and space to figure this out."
"I've got a pretty good idea what we're up against. Enough to know that thing is going to use me against you, whether today, tomorrow or next month."
"I know." His tone was heavy, and the eyes that stared back at her were black as night. "Do you think I don't realize that? I fell right into its trap. I not only wanted you, but I came to care for you. Too much!"
She gasped. "Asher..."
"It's been almost two hundred years since the last time my gut twisted in terror. And now it's twisting because of you. You're the bait, and I'm well into the trap."
She felt her color drain, and she sagged into the chair beside the door. "I'm sorry," she whispered. She felt light-headed, and more distressed that she could have imagined possible. She had brought him to this. "I don't want you to live in terror. I'll just leave. Ignore whatever happens to me."
"Damn it, Julie! Damn it all to bloody hell. You don't get it. I'm not terrified for myself. I care damn all what happens to me. It's you I'm worried about. You're the reason my insides are twisting in terror. And this terror is worse than any I ever knew in battle. I can't let anything happen to you."
"Oh." Now she felt excessively small. She gazed down at her twisting hands, wondering what she could possibly say that would ease his concern even the slightest.
"Oh," he said bitterly, "it baited the trap beautifully. It must have sensed my reaction to your scent and then sent those thugs after you so that I would have come to your aid. Otherwise, I'd have walked away."
She bit her lips and closed her eyes, absorbing the blows as they came.
"I knew you were dangerous," he said. "I just didn't know how you'd be dangerous. I thought all I had to worry about was losing my control with you. Then I thought I couldn't maintain it, anyway, because damn it, I wanted you so much, and every time I sent you away you came back and I wanted you even more. You were the lure and I didn't even know it."
Julie's heart squeezed painfully, and the air seemed to have become too thick to draw into her lungs. "So," she finally asked, when she could get a breath, "I'm just a lure?"
"To that thing, yes. But not to me. Not now. No, you're much more to me that that. Which is what it wanted. It went after Soren through his granddaughter, but we kept Soren from hunting it alone. Maybe it thought that if Soren asked for my help we'd go out there and do something stupid. I don't know. But I do know that it's achieved its goal. It had a wedge to use on me now. A huge one. And now, that very wedge, wants to talk out of here and take it head-on? I don't think so, Julie."
"But..."
"Don't give me any buts. If that thing possesses you, it could decide to hold you long enough to kill you. It wouldn't take long for it to sap you."
"But you can't exorcise it!"
"What if I can't? I've never dealt with this sort of demon before. If I get it out of you, that doesn't necessarily make it gone, the way it is with weaker demons. This one can just keep hopping around and come back for another strike. But I am sure as hell not going to risk letting it kill you."
"If it...it tries to kill me, you can turn me, right?"
He swore savagely.
Julie felt her insides go weak. "Asher?"
"If I drink from you when you're possessed, it will get exactly what it wants. Me."
"Oh." Her usually clear mind was now running in crazy circles, trying to make any kind of sense out of this and failing.
"That is why, job or no job, you're not leaving this office until I figure out something. Because we're in a box, Julie. It will get one of us if we don't know exactly what we're doing."
"But I fought it off once before. I drove it away. Maybe it can't possess me. Maybe I ca still fight it off."
"At this point, fighting it off will be only a temporary solution. Regardless, you're assuming that what troubled you in your childhood was the same thing. We can't know that. The only thing your childhood experience tells me is that in some way, some demon thought you might be susceptible. Clearly, you weren't. To that demon."
"I get it." She shook her head. "Asher, I'm not stupid. Really."
"You're the furthest thing from stupid imaginable. But you're new to this world. Naïve."
"Obviously." She twisted her fingers together, then forced them to relax. "I couldn't bear it if anything happened to you because of me."
"Then be patient. Please. There's something at the back of my mind, rattling around. I can't quite get to it. Something I heard or read long ago. I don't know. It might be useless regardless. But I need time and space to think, and I can't do that if I'm worrying about you darting out the door."
"I won't."
"Good."
She hesitated, then asked, "How do you turn someone? Just by drinking from them?"
"No. Of course not. But I have to drink enough of your blood that it becomes thoroughly mixed with mine. Bring you almost to death, actually. Then I feed you myself, returning to you our mixed blood. I don't know how it works. I just know that only by passing our sufficiently mixed blood back to you can I be sure you'll resurrect."
"If you did that to me now that thing couldn't possess me."
"Julie!"
She saw the horror on his face and couldn't say she was surprised. She knew what he thought of his kind of existence. But it was the only way out she could think of. "If it comes to that."
"I won't let it," he said harshly. "I won't. You have a proper life to live, and I'll be damned if I take it from you."
For some reason, she didn't want to consider just then, that hurt. But it was obvious to her that she had nothing at all to offer. All her education and apparently even her experience were useless now. So at least she rose to leave the room, but even as she was turning to the door, Asher was suddenly there in front of her.
He cupped her neck and chin gently with one hand and bent to kiss her. "Please," he said, "don't think I'm angry with you. I'm not. I'm angry with myself."
"No need." She looked up into his dark-as-night eyes, and despite everything felt the trickle of longing he never failed to awake in her. "This is not your fault. It's no one's fault. I'll leave you to think."
Just a few minutes after she returned to the outer office, joining Mackenzie and Jay in glum preoccupation, Asher called out. "Mackenzie? Get me the grimoire, please."
"Asher!" Mackenzie sounded appalled.
Asher instantly appeared in the doorway of his office. "If you won't get it for me, then I will."
Mackenzie jumped up and stood in front of the wall behind her desk where a large painting hung. "Touching that thing scares me. You had me lock it up for a reason."
"Yes, because of how it might be used. But I need it now."
Mackenzie shook her head. "The dark arts are never the answer."
"They are when you need to find a weakness." He appeared in front of her. "Move to the side, please. I'd rather not move you myself."
Mackenzie's lips set, but she stepped out of the way. Asher swung the painting away from the wall, revealing a safe. He worked the combination almost too fast to see, then opened it to remove a very old, very thick book.
He closed the safe, moved the picture back into place, then turned to Mackenzie again. "Call Soren. Ask him to get over here quickly. I may have remembered something and I need him."
Then he was gone again. Mackenzie sat down at her desk, scratched impatiently at her forehead, and looked as if someone had told her the world was about to end. "Call Soren," he said, wagging her head in disapproval, her tone snotty. "Yeah, I'll call Soren. Maybe he has some sense left."
"What's a grimoire?" Julie asked.
"You don't want to know. But if your curiosity is killing you, look it up online. In the meantime, I'm supposed to be calling Soren."
It was a strangely subdued Jay who answered her. "It's a book of magic spells. For summoning demons and angels, supposedly. Or other things."
Julie felt ice water trickle down her spine. It sounded like a book she would never even want to open the cover on.
Who the hell would want to summon a demon?
"It also," Jay said, "tells you how to get rid of them when you're done with them. Of course, that's the tricky part."
"Tricky?"
"Demons and djinns and things like that often want a little quid pro quo. But I doubt Asher is going to ask a demon to do anything for him. He's just looking for a way to send this one back."
Another icy chill trickled through her. "I'd be afraid to even read the book. And I don't think I'm superstitious."
"Oh, it's got nothing to do with superstition," Mackenzie said, phone to her eat. "This is real. Why else do you think Asher keeps that book in a safe? Hi, Soren. Asher needs you now. I don't know what he wants, but maybe you can talk some sense into him."
Asher's voice issued from the inner office. "I heard that."
"Not my fault you don't like what I say. Soren heard you, too, by the way. He's laughing. Thanks, Soren," she said and hung up.
"Laughing," Mackenzie said, disgust dripping from the word. "Only vampires could find this amusing."
"I heard that, too," Asher called out. "Trust me, Mackenzie, I am not in the least amused by any of this."
Mackenzie sniffed but fell silent.
Julie simply didn't know what to sat or even think. This was all so far outside the familiar that she just kept drawing big blanks.
Only Jay appeared to remain confident. "Asher will figure this out."
Julie sure hoped so.
-
-
-
Soren arrived little more than twenty minutes later. He looked far happier than when she had last seen him. "Is your granddaughter better?"
"Much so. Improving by leaps and bounds, physically. She'll probably need therapy, though." His face darkened at that.
Julie hesitated then asked, "Does she know about you?"
"No. Of course not. She's never even met me."
Julie felt a pang. "That's sad, Soren. But you keep an eye on her?"
"Yes, I do. I may not be much of a guardian angel, but I do what I can. Too bad I wasn't watching over her the other night."
"Nobody can watch someone else every minute of the day."
"Not even a vampire, unfortunately. But she'll mend, thank God."
Asher called out from his office again. "Soren?"
"Coming." Soren looked down at Julie and smiled faintly. "You're amazing, for a mortal. I rather like you, Dr. Matheson."
Then he disappeared swiftly into Asher's office, closing the door behind him.
Julie looked at Mackenzie. "What did that mean? Amazing for a mortal?"
Mackenzie shrugged. "Maybe that you seem to be taking the undead in stride?"
For some reason, Julie felt a crazy urge to giggle. "In my job, I deal with the dead all the time. Undead is only a step removed."
Mackenzie finally let go of her disapproval and relaxed into a grin. "But ever so much more trouble!"
-
-
-
An hour later, Asher and Soren emerged from the inner sanctum. Something in Asher's step immediately told Julie he was feeling confident again. At least more confident than earlier.
"Ok," he announced as he went to the safe and put the grimoire safely back inside. "Here's what's going to happen."
"I can hardly wait," Mackenzie muttered.
"Mackenzie, you're going to that shop you know over on West Alma."
"The place that sells all that stuff for potions?"
"Exactly. I need you to do some specialized shopping. They close at midnight, right?"
"Or later, but yeah."
"Soren is going with you for protection. He has a list of the things I need. I want exactly those things."
"I can do that," Mackenzie agrees. "What are you going to do?"
"Some things you don't need to know about." He ignored Mackenzie's huff of displeasure. "Soren?"
"Let's go," Soren said to Mackenzie. "Limited time."
"All right, all right." Mackenzie grabbed her purse and held out her hand to Asher. He put a credit card in it.
"Everything," he repeated. "Exactly."
"I can follow orders."
"When you choose."
Asher watched them leave then turned to Jay. "Go out and test the night, Jay. Especially down by the warehouse district. It's out there. If you catch a whiff, report back immediately."
Jay leapt up, clearly glad there was something to do besides sit around.
And then Julie was alone with Asher. He sat beside her on the couch, and took her hand, his touch cool. "I hope you're brave," he said.
"Do I have any choice?"
"It doesn't look like it."
"Then I'm brave. What are we doing?"
"I'm going to set a trap to send that thing back to hell. You have to promise to do exactly what I say, no matter what. We're messing with dangerous stuff tonight."
"Black arts?" She only had a foggy idea of what such things could be.
"Something like. It's going to be risky. It might fail."
She nodded, pressing her lips together, feeling her heart begin to hammer. "I'm going to face that thing?"
"You're the lure. But I'm the real bait. It doesn't want you except as a way to get to me. So we're going to set a trap, and you're going to do exactly what I say, and you're going to pray as hard as you've ever prayed. I'm going to give you some incantations to read. You must read them exactly the way they're written, and you must do it exactly when I tell you."
"I can do that."
"I know you can." He reached out, running a cool fingertip over her cheek, and along her jawline. "It's too late, Julie."
Her heart slammed. "Too late? What's too late?"
"We'll talk later. If I don't succeed tonight, it won't even matter."
"What? Asher, please!"
He leaned forward to silence her with a kiss. "Just know this, sweet one," he whispered. "No matter what happens, you hold a place in my heart that no one ever has."
She gave in then, bringing up her arms to wrap them around his neck, drawing him close, letting him press his face into the hollow of her throat, hoping he might take her blood there and then because she felt such a need, such a deep and overwhelming need, to give him what he most craved.
Instead, she felt feather light kisses on her throat, felt him inhale her scent deep into his lungs. Then he sighed and straightened, looking deep into her eyes.
"When I am close to you know, my heart keeps time with yours."
A ripple of pleasure poured through her. "Really?"
He kissed her cheek then drew back. "Really. And if I keep this up we'll be otherwise engaged when the rest return. First, we deal with this thing. Then we'll deal with us."
She liked that word, us. A different kind of shiver ran through her as she wondered if they'd both still be around come dawn. Leaning forward, she rested her head against his shoulder and sent a prayer winging heavenward that they would both survive the night.
Somehow, from what she knew of Asher, she didn't think heaven would object to such a prayer at all.
-
-
-
When Soren and Mackenzie returned with a large shopping bag, Asher emptied it, examining its contents. There seemed to be herbs, incense sticks, candles and even a large lighter, and a box of chalk.
"Perfect, Mackenzie."
"I told you I can follow orders. Now, what are you going to do with that?"
"Trick a demon."
"Sounds like a great plan."
"There is no other plan." Asher put everything in the bag. "Time's wasting. Julie, come with me. I want to explain to you what's going to happen, then we'll go."
She followed him into his office again, her feet leaden. Why did she think she wasn't going to like any of this?
Asher closed the door firmly and waved her to a chair. He sat behind his desk as if he was determined to keep a distance between them. "Ready?" he asked.
"As I'll ever be."
"This isn't going to make you happy."
"I didn't think it would."
He gave her a half smile. "You're the lure."
"You said that already."
"Ah, but you're also the lure for that demon. You attract it as surely as you attract me."
"I didn't even think of that!"
"For different reasons, but you lure it the same as you lure me. So we're going to use that."
"Ok. That's what I was saying earlier, basically."
"Basically. But this time, we're going to be ready, prepared. And you're not going to like it."
"We already covered that. What do I need to do?"
"I found a way we may be able to send it back to hell. But first, we have to localize it."
Julie didn't need a translation. "You mean it has to occupy me."
"Or me. If it occupies you, I'll attempt to exorcise if. If that doesn't work, I may have to grant it permission to possess me."
"Asher, no!"
"Julie, yes. Just listen. That thing wants me not only because I'm immortal, but because I have the innate ability to become a terror beyond your imagining. If that thing takes me over, it can wreak horror I don't even want to describe. That's why it wants a vampire."
She nodded, going almost numb with fear. "But if it takes you..."
"Then we have to stop it at any cost. Any cost, Julie, even if it means killing me."
She jumped up. "No!"
"Julie, listen to me."
"No, I'm not going to kill you. I'm not going to stand by while someone else kills you!"
"Julie..." An instant later he was there, his arms wrapped tightly around her, steel bands she could not escape.
"Listen to me. Listen to me!"
Finally, she nodded, even though she could feel the sting of tears in her eyes.
"You cannot conceive what I am capable of. Unleashed and misdirected I could instill such terror in this city that people would be afraid to emerge from their locked houses. I could do that. I could go on a killing rampage that would approach genocide. I could leave such a bloody trail behind me that you humans would never feel safe again. And little could stop me. Do you think I want to become that monster? I would rather die."
She bit her lip too hard she tasted blood. She saw his eyes darkness, knew he smelled it and wanted it, and much as she wished she could drive words from her mind, make herself forget them, she knew he wasn't exaggerating. The little she had seen of his capabilities was enough to verify the truth. He could become a monster beyond reckoning.
"But I can be killed," he said flatly. "I can be. The sunlight. Fire. Decapitation. Those things can kill me. The demons know this and will try to avoid it. It wants me as I am, not dead."
Still biting her lip, feeling a hot tear roll down her cheek, she nodded. Speech seemed impossible.
"So here is the thing. If it takes you and I fail to exorcise you, I'll invite it to take me. If that happens, you're going to wake up in the midst of things, because while you're possessed, you won't remember anything from when the demon is in control. If you become suddenly aware that things have changed, then you must presume I am possessed. Don't trust me. I'm going to make a protective circle. If the demon holds me, it cannot cross the unbroken circle."
Again she nodded, trying to take every word to heart.
"It may try to break the circle, scuff it if it's pretending to be me, so that once it enters it can still escape. If that happens, you must immediately close the circle."
"How?"
"I'll show you when I make it. If I refuse to enter the circle, use fire. Every bit of fire you can. Burn me if necessary. Drive me into it, and seal it."
"Burn you?" She quailed at the thought.
"I can heal from any burn except immolation. The demon won't want to risk that. So burn me if you must to get me into the circle. Then you must do and say exactly what I've written down for you. Exactly. Can you do that, Julie? Can you?"
She closed her eyes a moment, drawing a shaky breath, facing all that he had told her and the consequences of not obeying. In the end, it was the thought of many lives that might be lost if she failed that persuaded her. The thought of Asher being turned into something he loathed. She opened her eyes. "I can."
He studied her for several seconds, then nodded. "Ok. We'll go as soon as Jay gets something."