Rebirth (Rogues Shifter Series) (28 page)

He frowned. “We need to make sure your mental defenses are strong before you fall asleep. I’m sure Lily gave her a full report so she must be intrigued. She can’t know how strong either of us has become. Surprise is really our best defense if she moves in to attack.”

“What do you think we should do?”

“She’ll probably leave the rest of you alone if I show up at the villa. Once I’m there I can get into her mind and convince her to release me. I have to be very subtle, so she doesn’t know what I’m doing, but I’ve pulled it off a few times before. I’ll have to spend a few days with her.” He didn’t look as confident as he tried to sound, which worried me.

“Can she force me to come too?”

“No, as long as you're here, you're protected from any long distance mental push. And Liam will make sure you're guarded at all times. If she’s not patient and comes here for you in person, I’ll have to kill her. I've put the house in your name, just in case, so don’t ever give her permission to enter. If your wall is up she can’t glamour you.”

I watched him carefully, surprised that he’d thought so much of this through already. “Can you kill your maker?”

“Yes. I think so. She’s powerful and has some basic magic, but I’ve been working to strengthen my powers. Unfortunately, I can’t just barge into her home and attack her, because her nest is too large for me to overcome alone.” He looked back at me. “I have a few friends in the nest. If I kill her, I’ll have to take them on as mine.”

“Start your own nest?”

“Yes, if I defeated her, I’d have to kill them or create my own nest and take them in. I could never let them loose on the world the way they are now, but I’d like to give them a chance to change.”

At this point we were both sitting cross legged on the bed facing each other so I leaned my forehead against his and whispered, “Tell me how I can help you.”

He ran a gentle hand through my hair and then took both of my hands in his. “We’ll start working immediately on Maya’s list. The more you can use the lines, the safer you’ll be and the safer the team will be.” He squeezed them to emphasize his next words, his rich blue eyes burning into mine, pleading. “You have to promise me that you won’t come after me when I go to her.”

“I can’t promise that.” I shook my head stubbornly.” If you’re in danger, I’m coming to help you. The whole team will come.”

His voice was soft but a touch of real fear made it husky. “If you follow me, you’ll die. She’ll torture you in front of me and make it last as long as she can. She’s done it before. She has a nest of over ten vampires. I won’t be able to save you.” He tenderly brushed a strand of hair out of my face. “If she comes here, I can protect you.”

“Then make her come here. Talk to Rob and Maya and all the shifte
r families: even the bears. You’ve helped them out for years. Talk to Liam and your cousin Aaron and his pack. Kyle, Ethan and Sinc will develop more weapons. We’ll fry her ass with the lines. Please, please don’t go to her. I can’t even think about her hurting you.” I scooted closer, wrapping my arms tightly around his chest and leaning against him, breathing him into my lungs and my heart.

He held me quietly for a few moments. “I don’t believe that the community would agree to put their families in that kind of danger. Maybe they’d send some of their better fighters if we draw her away from the town, someplace where we can set a trap.“

“Solo Island?” I asked.

He was kissing me before I had a chance to take a breath. “You’re remarkable, my cheetah.” He jumped up. “I’m going to call Rob. Then I have to get some rest, it’s almost dawn and I want to rise early today.” He leaned back an
d kissed my palms. “Je t’adore.
I adore you
.” Then he ran out to make his call.

Chapter Thirty-five

When I woke up at noon, I jumped into the shower, dressed and hunted around for Liam, wanting to get the tough job out of the way first. I found him pruning a rose bush in the back yard. As I opened the patio door he turned and
put down the clippers. We stood and stared at each other for a few moments and then I took the plunge, keeping my tone as respectful as possible.

“Garrett told me what you did for me, and I appreciate the risk you took for my safety.” He waited. “You were right. I was arrogant, stubborn and childish and I didn’t show you the respect you deserve. I can’t promise that I’ll never act that way again, because I’m pretty stubborn, but I promise that I’ll treat any future advice that you share with me as a gift to be taken very seriously. I’m sorry, Liam.” I waited quietly for his reaction.

His violet eyes sparkled with what looked a little bit like humor. “Miss Jacqueline, “he said formally, “I acknowledge your statement as truth and I hope that I may be of service to you in the future. I have never seen Master Garrett so happy. I begin to understand the reason.” His mouth curled up in a gentle smile. “There’s food warming in the oven. Go and eat.”

“But is everything all right between us?”

“Yes, everything is right between us.” His eyes narrowed and he took a step toward me sniffing twice as if testing the air. “Do you know that you are using the lines right at this moment? That you are using magic to heal our small disagreement? Is this done without intension?” I saw anger flash in his eyes.

I must have looked as bewildered as I felt. “I’m not trying to do…anything; I’m not trying to influence you in any
way. And I’m not touching you.” I lifted my hands.

He  motioned for me to sit on the bench and he sat on the edge of the fountain across from me. “I am also a healer, so I know how difficult it is to learn to control yo
u gift. You may not be aware because you are just learning to use your abilities, but you are powerful. Just as you were able to send Garrett ley line magic from a distance to help him escape the weres, you are able to send healing energy without actually having physical contact with someone. Not everyone will be happy with your mental intrusion, even though your motives may be pure. Your spirit’s goal will be to create a balance where you sense there is turmoil. However, it is extremely important that you are always aware of when you are using magic. You must never allow the magic to control you, as it just has.”

“Garrett said that Maya may want me to use my power to become a fighter.”

“You have that ability. Healers can reverse the flow of the ley lines and drain the health from our enemies, pulling their life force into our bodies and making our strength double what it normally is. Not many can stomach the consequences of that skill, because we leave behind an empty husk. The average vampire does this unconsciously when they take in blood to feed. Very powerful vampires, like Eleanor and Garrett, can pull in a creature’s life force in other ways as well.

"
To be a strong healer is a wondrous gift and a terrible burden because we can cause injuries as easily as we can heal them. We are constantly forced to choose between the two paths.”

There was sadness in his eyes and I imagined that he’d had to
make those choices many times. I nodded, feeling a little overwhelmed by this information, and said, “Thank you,” wanting to spend a little alone time thinking about what he’d said. I dished out some pancakes and sat down to eat.

His words tumbled around in my head like fall leaves in a brisk wind, my mind taking his advice a step further. With magic, control was essential, that was obvious. My nature is to heal, but I must never force my energy on someone. Going into someone’s mind
without permission is a kind of rape, after all, even if the purpose is to heal. Kyle had accepted it, but Liam hadn't, and I was fairly sure that most powerful supes wouldn't appreciate it either.

And what about the destructive side of my nature? If I can learn to drain an enemy’s energy, I would be an enormous asset to the team. But could I do that to someone: even someone like Eleanor? Could I take away
someone’s life force? Just suck it away like dirty water down the sink drain? Or maybe more like sipping on a straw until only the dregs at the bottom of the glass remained.

I decided to call Maya to talk to her about what Liam had told me. There was no one else who might understand. When she answered I asked, “Maya, could we meet somewhere? I have a few questions about my healing abilities.”

“Your healing abilities haven’t manifested themselves quite yet. Wait a few months and then we’ll talk.”

“Liam thinks I’m healing subconsciously. He thinks I’m using the lines without realizing it to calm people. I’ve already used m
y healing with Kyle and I think I helped him a lot. That time it was on purpose.”

I counted three beats of silence before she said, “I’ll meet you at Bette’s Diner in one hour. Go to the back room.”

One hour later I was drinking a coke at a small round table in the empty back room of the local diner. Maya was sitting across from me nursing a cup of coffee and studying my face. I’d already explained everything that Liam had told me, so I guessed that she was twisting all the possibilities around in her mind.

“Jackie, I need you to let down your wall and let me into your mind. I know that you and Garrett don’t trust me completely, but someone needs to see what’s going on here. I won’t harm you. I swear on my life.”

Something about her voice and her concerned expression made me believe her. “Fine. Only I’ll force you out fast if I don’t like what you’re doing.”

“Deal.” She reached across mentally before I could change my mind. I felt her nudge at my wall and so I opened a small hole to actually let her inside.

I felt her poking and nudging but not hurting me. “Good, now let’s see what you can do. I don’t have anyone for you to heal like you helped Kyle, but there are other forms of healing. We’ll start with a simple practical experiment.” To my surprise, Maya took a Swiss army knife out of her bag and ran it across her palm drawing a thin line of blood. “Focus the energy and heal me.”

“But I don’t think Liam was talking about healing physical injuries Maya.” I said, shocked and upset by her pain.

“Jackie, now’s the time to get over your ‘I can’t do it’ attitude and just focus the damn energy and heal me. I’m bleeding, in case you haven’t noticed.” 

She sounded very calm for someone whose blood was dripping on the table
, so I took a breath and did what she said. The heat from the lines built up in my stomach and chest, the way it had when I’d poked at Lily in the woods. I stared at her hand and reached across to hold it in both of mine, feeling the need for physical contact.

“Send the warmth of your aura out like a bandage to cover the wound and then pull it tightly together to seal it.”

I concentrated on my breathing, pulled on the current and pushed a flat wave of emerald energy toward her bleeding palm. I felt it make contact with the surface like a second skin and was amazed when I saw the bleeding start to slow down. I sent another strong pulse to push the edges of the skin together and heard Maya shout out loud.

“Ow, shit that hurt. That was like healing my cut with a soldering iron. You can definitely use some practice.” She scowled f
rom the pain, saying briskly, “Don’t turn away, look!” She held out her hand, palm up. It was perfect.

“Your tr
ust in my abilities is a little—extreme. What if I couldn’t do it?”

“I know power when I feel it, and you’re buzzing like a bee hive. Worst case, I wo
uld have needed a few stitches. Or I could just shift to heal." She shrugged.

I didn’t know how I should be feeling. I was embarrassed that I’d done it so clumsily, amazed that I could actually heal a small wound and
scared about what this meant. Garrett and Liam had said that a healer can kill using the same energy. I found myself trembling a little.

“I see you’ve put two and two together, so let’s give that a try, shall we?” She laid her hand palm up on the table. “Cut me. Cut me the way I cut myself. Try not to make it too deep; I’d like to survive the day if that’s alright with you.” 

“I can’t…” She put her hand up to silence me.

“We had this discussion
five minutes ago, just do it.” There was no fear in her eyes or in the relaxed way her hand rested on the table in front of me. In fact, she looked eager, and almost hungry. Maya the scientist and magic user was aching for another challenge. Looks like I was prime guinea pig material.

I didn’t argue further, taking in three or four deep breaths and then drawing in the power, shaping and sharpening it to a very fine point and pushing it out to quickly flick across her palm. Maya winced but didn’t make a sound. The shock of seeing her skin open up without anything touching it, made me feel a little dizzy and so I took a long drink of coke to calm me. Because it was bleeding steadily I grabbed her injured palm with both of my hands and sent out a strong wave of healing energy to seal the skin once more. This time when I finished she was beaming. Of course, I was happy too, just still too shocked to show it. I tried to stand up to stretch my legs and my kn
ees wobbled. I plopped down again rather ungracefully.

Maya seemed
annoyed by my weakness. She probably wanted to keep experimenting on me. “You need to eat something now before you pass out. I’m going to call Ethan to come and pick you up and take you back to Garrett's.”  She signaled to the server and ordered me a cheeseburger and a salad, never asking what I wanted. “You need to get lots of rest tonight. No strenuous training. No strenuous anything, understand?”