Blood of the Sorceress (9 page)

“She would ask them, and she would not only know if they were lying to her, she might resort to torture to get the truth. The less they know, the safer they are.”

“My God, what kind of woman is she?” Demetrius asked.

“The worst kind, my son.” Father Dom got up and started to go inside, muttering, “The absolute worst.”

Demetrius went inside with the old man. The entire third level was a giant circle split into four sections by two hallways, several of the rooms encased in glass. The spiral stairway that led through a trapdoor up to the observatory was in the very center, at the intersection of the two hallways. Demetrius’s bedroom occupied the top right quarter of the circle, a small kitchenette the bottom right. The top left held a huge bathroom with a Jacuzzi big enough to swim in, a shower with multiple heads, a sauna and a massage table. The bottom right quadrant was an entertainment room, with a wall-sized screen and high-tech streaming internet that allowed him to play any film currently available and many TV shows, as well. There was a popcorn machine in one corner.

And best of all, there was a secret doorway between the bedroom and the entertainment room that led to an exterior staircase that spiraled down two stories and opened into a hidden corner of the backyard. There, a pondlike pool and a small hot tub were hidden by a dense garden and privacy fence completely enmeshed in vines. From the rest of the yard, it was invisible. From the rest of the house, too. No one else even suspected it existed, as far as Demetrius knew. Not even Gus.

He couldn’t be sure about Sid, who had a history with the house. Short of asking him, there was no way to tell.

Demetrius was going down there tonight to soak and think and try to puzzle out the situation.

Father Dom cleared his throat, reminding him sharply of his presence. “I’m sorry,” Demetrius said. “I...I need to process what just happened. And what you’ve said.”

“Of course.” Father Dom clapped him on the shoulder. “Thank you for hearing me out, my son. I know you’ll do the right thing when the time comes.”

“You’re welcome.”

The old man gripped the railing and started up the stairway to the observatory.

Demetrius went down to his private garden paradise to hide from everyone and everything, and to focus on the one thing he had experienced in that vision that he had experienced nowhere else. The physical sensations.

Full-blown burning desire. Mind-bending passion. Exquisite pleasure at the touch and taste of the witch’s lips, the thrilling feel of her body pressing tightly against his, and the unspoken but clear promise that even greater fulfillment lay ahead. The delighted leap of his senses at the smell of her, the way his eyes had feasted on her beautiful body.

He was intrigued and excited by all those things, because they were part of what he’d expected to experience with the women he’d encountered so far. But he’d failed. Nothing had lived up to what he had believed sex would be. His senses, in the memory or dream or whatever it had been, had been heightened in a way they had never been in his brief existence on the physical plane. He’d decided he must be incapable of such feelings. But now, it seemed to him that if he could feel those things so vividly in a vision, he must be capable of experiencing them in real life, after all.

The unanswered questions circled each other in his brain. Had it been a vision or a memory? Was it true that he’d lived another lifetime? And if so, had he really been that aware? That alive? Was that the way it was supposed to be? Was that what others were feeling when they talked about delicious food and fantastic sex? Was that what he’d been missing?

Or was it all just a part of the witch’s spell?

* * *

Lilia stood at the gate of the palatial home, exhausted and uncomfortably hot as the taxicab rolled out of sight. It was ninety-five degrees in the shade. But beautiful. She didn’t think she had ever seen a more beautiful place on this planet. Not just the house itself, which was enough to take her breath away, but the natural beauty that surrounded it. The towering red rock formations of southern Arizona against a backdrop of sky so blue and so cloudless it was hard to believe it was real. The place was outside the tourist trap of Sedona, but near enough for her to feel the energy of the legendary vortices. They spoke especially deeply to a creature like her, not yet quite human and deeply attuned to energy fields.

She
would
be human again, though—if she could convince Demetrius to accept the final piece of his soul. If that happened she would be earthbound again in no time, and so would he. And they would finally have a chance to live the lives that had been stolen from them so long ago.

For three-thousand, five-hundred years she had waited for this day. And now it was here. It was time to begin fulfilling the mission she’d set into motion so long ago. So why was she still standing at the gate like an orphan in hope of a handout?

Because I’m afraid, that’s why. Because if I fail, it’s all over. This physical part of it, anyway. I like being alive, dammit. And I want to be alive with him.

She’d disembarked the plane in Phoenix, and even from that distance she’d been able to feel his essence pulling her northward. But she hadn’t known how far, so she’d phoned Magdalena. “I’m in Phoenix. He’s north of me. Did your scrying pinpoint his location?”

“Yes, it worked perfectly.”

Lilia’s rush of relief had been tempered by the knowledge of how much Lena must hate Demetrius after what he had put her through.

How was she ever going to mend that rift between her soul mate and her family?

One thing at a time, Lilia. There’ll be no rift to mend if you’re both back in the spirit realm. Or worse.

“Sedona,” Lena had said. “Go to Sedona. He’s near a vortex.”

“Thank you, Lena.”

Lilia had hated to end the call, already homesick for Milbury and her sisters, her mother and Ellie. But she was feeling a sense of urgency to get to her love, though she didn’t know why.

And now she was here, and still feeling that urgency. The pull he exerted was more powerful now than ever. He was so close. And yet she was hesitant, fear of failure pinning her hands to her sides.

She closed her eyes and began to sing very softly, slow and deep, her voice taking on a resonance it did not have when she spoke. Enchantment. The tune came to her from some higher part of her.

Come to me,
she sang, each word long and drawn out.
Welcome me into your home, into your arms. Come, my love, to me.

When she sang, she became the song, a part of her spirit flowing forth with the melody and floating gently to the intended target, so that her awareness of her body, of her surroundings, faded to nearly nothing. She repeated the verse until she was like a wisp of air, floating to him. And she saw him, vividly and clearly.

He was soaking in a cool, bubbling tub in a hidden garden, with his head leaning against a cushioned rest and his eyes closed. She kept on singing, over and over, as she drank him in. He was the same. He was just the same.

His skin was that same sun-kissed desert bronze. He had the same powerfully chiseled chest, broad and strong. The same soldier’s arms, bulging with the muscle that came from wielding his heavy sword and shield. His black hair was wet and slicked back. His thickly lashed eyes were closed, and those full lips she so longed to taste again relaxed, slightly apart. His skin was beaded with water, and she was overcome with a wave of desire so powerful it sucked her right back into her body.

She landed there with a crash, pressing a hand to her head and realizing she was on the ground.

She would have to do better and not let her physical yearning for the man overwhelm her spiritual obligation. It would not be easy. She had loved him passionately, in every way. But that had been in another lifetime. A lifetime he’d forgotten. Even if he accepted the last piece of his soul from her and became fully human, that did not necessarily mean he would love her again.

Getting to her feet, she brushed herself off and prepared to try again. But she was interrupted by a man’s voice. “Well now, who do we have here?”

She looked through the bars of the wrought-iron gate to meet a pair of pale blue eyes she had seen once before, in the alley where she had first appeared. And maybe...somewhere else, as well. The man recognized her at the same instant, and his eyes widened in what might have been fear. “By God, you’re the witch, aren’t you?”

She smiled gently, nodding just twice, and began humming a tune at him almost too softly for him to hear, as she thought the words at him.
I’m your friend and his salvation. You see me with adoration. My staunch ally you shall be, by the power of sisters three.

Gus blinked and gave his head a shake, but he was opening the gate even before she could ask him to. “D-man will probably kill me for this, but I think he needs you.”

“You’re right, Gus. He does.” She passed through the gate, watching as Gus closed it behind her. “You really are looking well,” she said.

He grinned at her. “Damn sight better than the last time you saw me, eh? Yeah, we’ve moved up in the world. I suspect you had something to do with that.”

She lowered her eyes. “Not me. He had the power all along, he just didn’t know how to use it. Where is he now?”

“I don’t know.” He walked with her toward the front entrance. “He vanishes sometimes. Disappears for hours, then shows up like nothing ever happened.”

They passed a fork in the stone-paved drive that led to a grotto where beautiful women splashed in a pool with a fountain. A few men were with them. Not many.

“This place is like a maze,” Gus said, and he tapped her shoulder to get her focus off the women and onto him again as he led her up the broad flagstone steps to the front door. “A person could get lost wandering in here. I think he likes it that way. I make it a point never to try too hard to find him when he goes off by himself like this.”

“It’s beautiful,” she said, pretending interest in the house, but her throat was tight and she wasn’t really seeing it. “Who are...all those women?”

“Guests,” he said. “Now, if you give me a minute, I’ll—”

“Whose guests?”

Gus looked at her, frowned a little. “Mine, to be honest. I know it probably seems...kinda primitive to a lady like you. But I like beautiful women, lots of them, around me. And I’m not kidding myself. They wouldn’t be here, short of gunpoint, if they didn’t think they were gonna get something out of it. The money, the mansion, it all draws ’em in like flies to sugar, mostly hoping they’ll have a shot with the D-man, but figuring I make a good consolation prize.”

She tilted her head as she studied his sad eyes. “I think you sell yourself short. You’re not a bad-looking man, you know. And I can feel that you have a good heart, Gus. Maybe you should focus less on women who look good in that pool out there and more on finding one who’s a match for you on a deeper level.”

“Maybe you’re right.”

“So they...they come here to try to seduce Demetrius?”

“Would do it, too, if he ever gave any of ’em the time of day. He did at first, but lately... D’s a shade too fussy, if you want my opinion.” He led her through a high-ceilinged octagonal foyer with two-story windows, all arched at the top, and into a smaller sitting area off one side. It was a comfortable room, with bookshelves on one wall, a seventy-two-inch flat-screen TV on another and a giant window on the third. There was an island bar with stools in front, and deeply upholstered armchairs in colors ranging from russet and brown to mustard and sunflower, all with pillows and chenille throws tossed invitingly over them. Her feet sank into the plush carpet so deeply they left footprints. A beautiful room. But not where she wanted to be.

“You make yourself at home, Angel, and I’ll—”

“I’m not an angel, Gus.”

He grinned again, and she noticed his teeth looked whiter. She suspected he was in the process of getting them fixed. “You look like one to me. I’m gonna go find Sid, and he’ll locate our man for you. All right?”

She nodded, wondering who Sid was.

Gus left the room, pulling massive double doors closed behind him.

But Lilia had no intention of waiting. She was too close to Demetrius now to delay. She could feel him pulling her nearer. She didn’t need anyone’s help to find him. She got to her feet, opened the double doors and let her senses guide her back across the foyer, up the stairs, down a hall and up another set of stairs.

The doors at the top were locked. She smiled at the doorknob and sent her spirit flowing through it in song.
Little lock, a part of me, I am you, and I’m your key.

It clicked, and she opened the door and went inside, closing it behind her and turning her fingers in a mimicry of turning a key and relocking the door. As she moved along the hallway, Demetrius emerged through a doorway, rubbing his hair with one plush towel, another anchored at his hips. She drank in the sight of him, his chest so powerful and broad and familiar. Her palms itched to run across it.

He looked up, spotted her and stopped in midstride. Then he lowered the towel he was holding and stared at her.

Lilia lost every shred of control she’d thought she possessed. She launched herself forward, pressing her face to his magnificent warm, damp chest, and wrapping her arms around his waist, palms flattening to his powerful back. Her tears flowed like rivers.

She felt his hands on her shoulders, but she blurted, “Not yet, don’t push me away yet, Demetrius. I’ve waited so long to feel you again. To touch you again. Just give me a minute, just a minute, just one precious, precious minute, please, my love, please...”

She was weeping, her words broken by sobs that ripped through her chest like fissures opening in the earth, and letting thirty-five-hundred years of emotion come flooding out all at once.

He stilled his hands on her shoulders and then, grudgingly, reluctantly, slid them downward, over her back, and tightened his arms around her. For a long moment he held her, and she cried and clung and basked in the feel of him. If only, she thought, this moment, this very moment, could last forever.