Blood of the Sorceress (13 page)

No, she realized. He didn’t.

“Tell me, who is this priest you spoke of?”

Lilia tried to contain her anger. For someone who’d learned patience over such a long time, she was certainly being impatient with him now. “The most evil bastard who ever lived. Sindar. High Priest of the Temple of Marduk in Babylon. A fat pig with kohl-lined eyes and berry-stained lips. He was in love with the King. We all knew it. That’s why he took such horrible vengeance on me for betraying him. And on you for killing him.”

“What was his vengeance on me?” he asked.

“Why are you asking me that when you know the answer perfectly well? He took your soul, Demetrius, and then imprisoned what remained of you in a dark Underworld void, all alone.” She closed her eyes slowly, swallowed. “It was supposed to be for eternity.”

He was searching her eyes with an intensity that was almost palpable, watching every expression that crossed her face. “And why should I believe you? I have already told you,” he said slowly, “that I have it on very good authority that it was you and your sisters who were responsible for that.”

“In a way, I suppose that’s true. We
were
responsible. I was, at least. Your rage against the King was because you loved me beyond endurance. He sentenced me to death, and you had to defend me. Your heart gave you no choice. He was your friend, Demetrius, but your love for me was so powerful that you killed him to protect me. Just as I would have done for you. Only in that was I to blame.”

He stared at her in silence, and she knew he was looking for signs of dishonesty, trying to spot the lie in her eyes. Insulted, she tugged her arm free. “You don’t believe me. But it doesn’t matter, Demetrius. You’ll know the truth when you remember your past—our shared past.”

“And how do I go about getting those memories back? By having sex with you? Giving you the chance to use your powers to plant memories in my mind that aren’t real?”

She grabbed his shoulders, held him hard, digging her nails into his flesh as her eyes blazed into his. “What we had was the most real thing there ever was. The most real thing you’ve ever known. You’ll see that, once you remember.” Then she took her hands away and turned, looking at her own bare feet beneath the hem of her nightgown. “Your memory will return to you with the final piece of your soul. But since you won’t let me restore it, I guess we’re at an impasse.”

“I would get back the memories, yes. And lose my powers. My immortality.” He looked around the room. “All of this.”

“Powers?” She faced him again, tired of his arguments. “What good are they, anyway? You have a blade that shoots bolts of energy.” She shoved his chest, so he stumbled backward as she advanced on him furiously. “Who cares? You could buy a gun that would do worse. You have a cup that allows you to see the future. So what?” She shrugged. “Anyone can learn to the see the future—in a cup, in a candle’s flame, in the ripples of a stone cast on the water. My sister Magdalena was doing it long before that cup came into her possession. Witches have been doing it since the dawn of time.”

She stopped, slightly out of breath and completely caught up in the white-water current of her emotions.

“Perhaps all of that is true. But the fact remains. I am immortal.”

“So is every being on this planet. Haven’t I proven that to you by returning to you after all this time? Haven’t my sisters proven it by finding the very same lovers they lost to Sindar’s rage and reuniting with them again? Lena was pregnant when we were shoved off that cliff. And now, today, even her baby has returned to her. There is no end, Demetrius. Death as humans perceive it is the biggest lie ever told. It simply doesn’t exist.”

He nodded slowly, then turned, paced across his bedroom and came back to her again. “I can manifest my desires by using the chalice and the blade. That’s how I got this mansion and all the money that goes with it.”

“So can everyone else. And they don’t even need any special tools.”

“Now I know you’re lying. People suffer all the time. They wouldn’t do that if they didn’t have to.”

“The only thing that causes suffering is a person’s focus on unhappiness. Expectation of suffering. Belief in suffering. The only thing preventing every living human from having everything their heart desires is that they don’t believe they can. They’re too busy ‘facing reality,’ not realizing that their attention to the things they don’t want is the glue that keeps those things stuck in their experience.”

She moved closer and put her hand calmingly on his upper arm, feeling the muscles flex beneath her touch. “Life isn’t what we think it is, Demetrius. It’s truly what we make of it.”

His lips twitched a little at the outer corners. She was getting to him; she knew it.

“And what about all this? The riches? The mansion?”

She shrugged. “If you decide it’s what you want, you’ll find a way to keep it. But do you really think it’s important, Demetrius? If I were in your arms I could be happier in a tent, or in that alley where I found you, than I could ever be in a golden palace without you.”

He blinked rapidly, turning quickly away, and just kept walking, all the way into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. She went after him, gripping the knob just in time to hear the lock turn. “As if that can keep me out,” she called. “Demetrius, please, you have to listen to me.”

“No,” he said. “I don’t.” Then sound of the shower running came through the door, and she lowered her forehead to the cool wood in defeat.

Who was poisoning his mind against her? It was going to be a hard enough task convincing him to give up all his powers and possessions, which were the only things he thought he had, without some stranger filling his head with lies. Who would want to do that? Who would want to see her fail? See him die? Besides, they would be in bliss, and together—as long as she didn’t die first and take his soul with her. Maybe her enemy was ignorant of that. Maybe it was someone who still believed that death was an ending and wanted to see her life over with.

She returned to her own room, showered and dressed in a sundress of white muslin with embroidered daisies all over it. Sundresses made up the bulk of her wardrobe, all of them white or a pastel hue. Her sisters kept telling her she would need jeans, sweaters, heavier footwear, by the time winter came, but she couldn’t see spending their money on those things when she might very well be dead by the first snowfall.

She swept her hair to one side, using tortoiseshell combs to hold it there. Stepping into a pair of white sandals, she silently thanked her stars for Selma’s love of shopping and Indira’s sense of style. Though Indy had balked at Lilia’s tunnel vision when it came to choosing clothes, she’d helped her find matching shoes and bags so she would look her best.

When she finished dressing, she went downstairs in search of something to eat. Often, when she felt that odd gnawing pang in her stomach, it took her a minute to process it in her mind as a sign of hunger. Feeding her body was not something she’d had to worry about on the other side.

As she passed through the massive great room with its deep-hued, rich wood floor, the walls all swirls and knots of gleaming fox-red and dark cherry, she glimpsed Gus sitting outside with a young man with red curls and seaweed-green eyes. She hadn’t met him before. They were on one of the countless patios, sitting at an umbrella-shaded table that was loaded down with food.

Gus glanced up and met her eyes, then flashed her an adoring smile that made her feel a little guilty about enchanting him the way she had at the front gate when she’d first met him. But it had been necessary. Her sisters were not with her. She needed allies.

He waved a hand to beckon her, and she smiled back at him and started forward. She noticed the younger man looking at her with a hint of suspicion, a touch of wariness. She looked him right in the eyes and read him instantly. Devoted to Demetrius, half in love with him, uberprotective and loyal to a fault.

Good. So was she.

You love me on sight, friend to be,
she sang softly
.
You see the light that shines from me.
Her voice dropped to the deep, mesmerizing tone she thought of as her magical voice, and the tune that came to her naturally was a slow, haunting one.
Help me do what’s right, friend to be. We’ll save him together, you and me.

She watched his dark green eyes change, pupils expanding. His freckled face relaxed, and he smiled a warm welcome as she made her way onto the patio.

Gus got up and pulled out a chair for her. “See, Sid? I told you the D-man let her stay.”

“I didn’t give him much of a choice, to be perfectly honest,” she said, sinking into the seat, beaming at the other man. “I haven’t met you before. I’m Lilia.”

“Sidney,” he said, “But everyone calls me Sid.” He clasped her hand in his cool, very tenuous grip for a fraction of a beat. “I’m Demetrius’s driver and all-around gofer.”

“Oh, you’re more than that. Demetrius thinks the world of you.”

Sid’s smile went up a notch. He handed her a plate. “Please help yourself. We always breakfast out here, and the cook always makes enough for any guests who might stop by.”

“You do seem to have a lot of them.” She accepted the plate, and helped herself to some luscious-looking blueberry muffins and fresh melon and pineapple wedges as she looked toward the grotto, the pool and fountain, and the gardens where she’d seen so many frolicking females the day before. “Though there are none here now.”

“The women who come around here are not exactly...early risers,” Sid said. His voice held a touch of disapproval.

She was glad. “I don’t like them, either.”

His brows rose in surprise. “Am I that obvious?”

She beamed at him. “I know a kindred spirit when I see one,” she said, and his cheeks went pink with pleasure. Then she turned to the man who was his opposite in almost every way. “
You
like them, though, Gus, yes?”

“What’s not to like?” Gus asked, sounding a little defensive. “Gorgeous females, half-dressed, giggling and splashing and paying me all sorts of attention.”

“Hmm. I wonder.”

“What do you wonder, Lilia?” Gus asked, hanging on her every word.

“Well, it’s probably not my place to say. But I do wonder, if you were still in that alley, hungry and dirty, maybe sick or injured and bleeding on the pavement, do you think any one of those giggling, half-dressed females, should she happen to be walking past, would stop to offer you aid?”

He blinked at her, mischief in his pale gray eyes. “I didn’t say they were nice.”

“You asked what’s not to like. I’m just telling you.”

“She’s right,” Sid said, as he got up to angle the umbrella to shade her face from the sun. “None of those bimbos would give you the time of day if not for the mansion, the pool, the free food and drinks, and the notion that they might get to meet the big guy by hanging around here.”

Gus shrugged, pushed out his lower lip in a petulant pout and pretended great interest in his breakfast wrap.

“How long have you known Demetrius?” Sid asked her, filling a coffee cup from a silver pot.

“It seems like forever. We were so in love once. So in love.” She closed her eyes, remembering his passionate kisses and heart-wrenching declarations of undying devotion. “But we were torn apart by...outside forces. Evil ones. And now he doesn’t really remember me.”

“Really.” Sid bent close, and he was clearly curious. “I don’t understand that. How can he not remember?”

She shrugged and sipped the coffee he offered her, not knowing how to answer that question and deciding it was better not to answer it at all. “And what’s worse,” she went on, “someone’s been telling him things about our history that simply aren’t true. Trying to turn him against me. And I’m afraid it might be working.”

Gus smacked his wrap down on his plate so hard a green pepper popped out of it. “Who?” he demanded. “Just tell me who it is and I’ll put a stop to that nonsense right here and now, I’ll tell you that much.”

“Easy, Gus.” But Sid looked just as angry. “Why would anyone want to keep you apart?”

“Yeah, and why would D-dog be dumb enough to believe ’em? I mean, just one look at you ought to tell him you wouldn’t lie. You couldn’t lie.”

She lowered her head, wondering if she’d done too thorough a job of making the men adore her. “I don’t know why he’s choosing to believe this person. Much less why anyone would want to mislead him that way. If I knew who was doing it, I might be able to figure out why. But I
don’t
know. I have a feeling it was someone he’s seen recently, though. And I keep getting the feeling there’s...someone else in the house. Someone whose only goal is to hurt me and hurt Demetrius.”

“A feeling?” Gus looked across the table at Sid. “I told you, she’s something special. Not a normal, everyday woman, that’s for sure.”

“I can see that,” Sid said.

Lilia drew a deep breath, gave a nod. “Yes, it’s true. I’m not an ordinary woman. But I’m not an angel, either. However, I do have some...special abilities.”

“I knew it!” Gus said. “She’s one of the witches who’s supposed to help the boss. Aren’t you, Lilia? Aren’t you?”

She nodded but didn’t elaborate. Instead she sent Gus a pleading look. “There’s a presence in this house, Gus. Someone’s here, someone...evil. The problem is, there are so many people here all the time that it’s hard for me to sort out who the enemy is.”

“Ah, I see now,” Gus said.

“Is it part of your witchcraft?” Sid asked, like a kid asking,
Is it Santa?
“The way you can...sense someone’s presence and intentions?”

She nodded. “Yes, but it only goes so far.”

“None of my beauties are here now, Lilia.” Gus waved a hand, indicating the grounds. “Can you sense who you’re looking for? Can you feel the evil?”

“I’ve been feeling it ever since I first came to the gate. But that doesn’t mean the person has been here the whole time, or even that he or she is here now. People leave an energy trail behind when they’ve been somewhere. The more time they spend, the longer it lasts. It would be very helpful if we could...just maybe...” She let her words trail off, knowing Gus was going to balk, despite his fondness for her.