Soul Taker (13 page)

His mouth swooped down on hers with a
devouring kiss. He breathed in deeply, moaning as he felt the
warmth of her enter him.

Again, a voice urged Johanna to struggle, but
she just couldn't find the willpower. The sensation proved too
wonderful, making her body tingle as if he kissed every inch of her
skin. Her heart pounded erratically threatening to shatter. His
kiss deepened, sucking, sucking… sucking her resolve to resist.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Isabella opened her purse and fished out her
cell phone. She did a quick search for Harrison's number then hit
dial.

"You rang?"

Isabella could hear the smile in his voice.
He wasn't expecting her call. "Harrison, I—"

"Isabella?" His voice turned serious.

"Yes. I don't mean to bother you, but you
said I could call you if I saw anything unusual."

"Aye. What did you see?"

"Remember how Johanna found a great deal on a
flower shop in Salem?"

"Down by the wharf. I remember."

"I thought maybe you should know the woman
who owned it before Johanna died of heart complications. She was
young like the others you mentioned."

Silence met her.

"Did you hear me?"

"Aye, I heard. I'll check it out. Is Johanna
still in Salem?"

"No. I just dropped her off at her
place."

"Good, good. I'll check out what you told me.
Chances are it was only a coincidence."

"I hope so. I'm worried about Johanna working
there."

"Don't panic yet. Let me see what I can find
out."

****

Harrison rang off and turned to find Garran
staring at him, the newspaper spread out on the table, where he'd
been searching through the obits for possible
Soul Taker
victims. "Yer human again?" he asked.

"Stop with the
your human thing
. Her
name is Isabella.

Garran rolled his eyes. "What did she
want?"

"We may have missed one of the
Soul
Taker's
victims." He strode over to Garran's computer. The
vampire's home may look like a Scottish medieval castle with its
drab stone walls and brightly colored tapestries, but he had all
the modern conveniences like a top of the line computer and
Internet connection. He typed in the flower shop's name. An article
came up about Milly Preston, a young woman found dead in her flower
shop.

"Milly was a quiet woman," he read aloud. He
scanned the rest of the article about Milly opening her own shop.
"She died of heart complications." He looked at Garran. "How does
the
Soul Taker
decide on who he'll take next? There has to
be a pattern here. What do these women have in common?"

"They were vulnerable women who weren't
comfortable in their own skin. Quiet and they kept to themselves,"
Garran said as he stood to his full height.

Harrison nodded in agreement as he went over
what they knew about the Soul Taker. "The victims were all in their
early to late twenties, all unmarried, but everyone mentions how
they had a new boyfriend in their life. I bet if I called Milly
Preston's family they'd tell us the same."

"Quiet, vulnerable women make easy prey,"
Garran said. "They're cravin' attention and the
Soul Taker
is willin' to feed into it—literally, I suppose."

"Damn wanker."

"Aye," Garran agreed.

Harrison thought about Johanna and her odd
behavior of late. No one, not even Isabella, had met her new
boyfriend. Isabella hinted her aura was off, too. Maybe the
incident in the cemetery wasn't random. Maybe the
Soul Taker
was— The blood in his veins ran cold. "I have to check on Johanna.
She'd be a prime candidate for the
Soul Taker
." Harrison
stood and donned his jacket. He would just check on her, make sure
she was all right. Hopefully, he didn't freak her out by showing up
on her doorstep.

"Do ye plan on datin' this human, too?"

"She's a friend. You should try being one
sometime, and I don't mean to a preternatural being. I'm talking
about a human friend. You want to live among them, why not get to
know them."

"What's the point? What could we possibly
have in common?"

"Oh aye, I can see your argument, then."
Harrison's sarcasm came through loud and clear. "You like to read.
I'm sure there's some human out there that enjoys reading as well.
Heck, you could join a reading club."

Garran snorted in his highlander
stop-giving-me-grief
guttural vibration that started in the
back of his throat. Most beings backed off immediately.

Harrison smiled, not in the least bit
intimidated. "Anyway, even if I wanted to start something with
Johanna, I couldn't. She'd be a handful."

"Really?" His brows shot up.

"Not in the way you're thinking. I intimidate
her and I don't have the luxury to take my time to break down her
defenses." He sighed.

"Sounds like ye're smitten, my
friend,
" Garran stressed the word friend.

Harrison rolled his eyes. "To be sure, a Mac
Tíre is never smitten."

Garran's raised his eyebrows. "Clearly, I
have hit a nerve." Garran grabbed his car keys on the table. "I'll
go with ye to check out the hu… yer friend's place. I'll see if I
pick up the
Soul Taker's
scent there. Then ye'll know if
he's stalkin' her."

Chapter Twenty-Three

Garran reached for the dagger in his coat
pocket the moment he stepped onto Johanna's walkway. The air reeked
of vampire—a
Grim Sith
to be exact, his
sept
if the
earthy scent was any indication. Garran's fangs lowered
automatically, his weapon poised for use. "The scent is fresh. He
may still be here."

"Bloody hell." Harrison would shift if he
needed to, but he didn't want to scare Johanna senseless with a
wolf storming into her midst.

Johanna lived in a four-home flat. Her porch
was decorated with potted plants and colorful flowers, all healthy
and thriving from her special care.

"I can't enter her house." Garran gestured
toward the door.

Harrison didn't bother with knocking. If the
Soul Taker
had been here, Johanna may not be in a condition
to answer. He did the honors of opening the door, not caring he
broke the lock with his grip.

He took a cautious step inside as a crash of
wood hitting plaster vibrated the walls.

"The back door," Garran shouted as he flitted
away in pursuit. Harrison would have followed, but his gaze caught
sight of Johanna on the floor of her living room. He had a clear
view of her face. Dark shadows bruised the tender area beneath her
eyes, and her skin had turned an ashen color with her lips only a
shade darker.

"No…No… You did not do this to Johanna." He
hurried over to her and dropped to his knees. His heart pounded so
loud, he wasn't sure if he would be able to detect if hers beat as
well. He lifted her and held her limp body in his arms as he
cradled her near. A faint fluttering beneath her chest met his
ears, not much of a heartbeat, not nearly enough to make him
believe she'd be all right. He stood and walked over to her sofa, a
floral print of violets with purple throw pillows to accent it. It
seemed so
her
, feminine and frilly, that a male would look
ridiculous sitting upon it. He loved it simply because it reminded
him of her. He placed her gently upon the cushions. He then took
out his mobile and called for help.

Ten minutes later, Garran came back around
and stood on the porch just outside the door, hovering with anxious
energy. His gaze was on Johanna and he knew the vampire was
monitoring her vitals for his own assessment of the situation.

Harrison waited patiently. When Garran met
his gaze and shook his head, his hopes were dashed. "Did you—"

"Lost him," Garran said. His gaze shifted to
Johanna. "She's no' goin' to make it."

"Feck off!" He turned away, not wanting
Garran to witness the tears which stung his eyes. He crouched down
beside Johanna and brushed her hair away from her face. "Let the
doctors determine if she'll make it or not." Her skin felt cold to
his touch. He should have been here. He should have protected
her.

"Ye couldn't have done anythin'," Garran told
him, as if reading his mind.

"Aye, and I didn't, did I?" They could
already hear the siren in the distance. The ambulance would be here
soon. Harrison stood as he took out his mobile again. He dreaded
the next call he needed to make, but he had to do it. "Hello,
Izzie…"

Chapter Twenty-Four

Garran looked up at the sky with reverence.
Twilight was his favorite time of day, where remnants of the sun's
presence still lingered until the darkness consumed it. The night
awakened everything dark and foreboding, allowing them to walk
among the humans. Garran MacLaurin would be considered such a
creature, though with practice he learned to control his unusual
appetite to destroy everything in his wake.

From the shadows, Garran watched Isabella
Lucci lock her car, the beep of the alarm echoing in the hospital's
carport.

She wore a tan long-sleeve shirt with jeans,
which looked tailored to fit her trim figure, and designer boots.
She turned to go toward the hospital entrance, but something caught
her attention. Her feet stilled. Her gaze turned toward him and
apprehension crossed her delicate features. She took a hesitant
step in his direction, clutching her purse like a lifeline. She
scanned the parking lot, searching… For what? He stood still and
waited. Finally, she turned and continued inside the hospital.

He would have to be careful. Isabella hadn't
seen him, but he knew without a doubt she sensed him. Rare for a
human to sense the preternatural world, but then again, if Harrison
was correct in his assumptions, Miss Lucci could raise the
dead.

Garran waited a respected few minutes so not
to run into Miss Lucci. Then he too, entered the hospital.

****

Isabella still couldn't believe what happened
to Johanna. Harrison said there had been no break in. He had gone
over to Johanna's to check up on her and ended up finding her
passed out on the living room floor. The EMT's said heart failure.
Isabella had known Johanna all her life. Johanna didn't have a
heart problem and no one would convince her otherwise.
Dammit,
there was a murderer out there giving women some
kind of drug that affected their heart.

But, if that were true, why wasn't this all
over the news?

Johanna wasn't dead, but she'd slipped into a
coma. It was only a matter of time before her body would shut down.
She wasn't the only case, either, in the hospital. Isabella had
made a point to check. Two other women were brought in with similar
symptoms.

Isabella couldn't prove it, but there was
something going on, something strange which made the little hairs
on the back of her neck rise. Harrison knew about it, too, but he
hinted and danced around telling her the whole truth.

And tonight… Tonight, she suspected someone
followed her. She may not be able to spot him, but she felt his
presence. She wanted to call the police, but what could she tell
them? They needed facts, not hunches. She convinced herself it was
the guy at Marcy's wake, who had stood across the street and
watched from afar. His aura hadn't been right and for a moment, she
thought she'd seen Marcy's essence attached to him.

Crazy, she knew, but she couldn't dismiss
what she witnessed as nothing.

Isabella patted her purse, feeling the weight
of her gun and the crystals she brought with her.

Johanna suffered some kind of trauma caused
by a man, not a predestined condition that had gone undetected
until she finally collapsed. She couldn't explain this to the
doctors because there wasn't any physical evidence to support it.
Most people tended to think she was a
kook
when she told
them she could see a person's essence as if they had donned it like
a sweater.

Johanna's aura was fractured. There was a
break in the usual flow of life, indicating some kind of shock to
the system. The doctors claimed heart failure, but Isabella knew
what the aura looked like after a person suffered a heart attack.
She hung out in hospitals enough to know. They were fluttery,
sickly colors around the person, the lighter the colors the more
likely the person wouldn't recover.

Johanna's aura wasn't anything like a person
suffering from heart failure. It was as if Johanna's life-energy
had been vaporized in sections. Some of it was there – lingering,
separated by large gaps of
nothing
.

Once inside Johanna's room, she dropped her
bag on the end table next to the bed and opened it. Her fingers
wrapped around a crystal.

She inhaled deeply as her gaze took in her
best friend lying so still. Wires and breathing tubes were attached
to her and the monitors mounted on the wall showed the steady beep
of her heart.

Johanna's father moved to Idaho a few years
ago and ran a small grocery store there. Isabella didn't know how
to reach her mother. She wasn't sure if Johanna did either, since
her mother walked out on the family when Johanna was eight. Her
father was scrambling to find someone to take care of the business
so he could make the trip to be with his daughter. He hoped to be
there in a few days.

Isabella pulled back the bedcovers. Through
the hospital gown, she felt for Johanna's navel. She placed three
crystals just below the navel, giving the crystals the look of a
downward pointed triangle. With the moonstones, she placed them in
an arc directly below the crystals.

Isabella worried she would unhook the
monitors, but she needed to be at Johanna's head to perform the
rest of the ritual. Her fingers gripped the guardrail and carefully
rolled the bed away from the wall, leaving just enough room for her
to squeeze in. As she recited a prayer, her index fingers and her
middle fingers rubbed in a circular motion at Johanna's
temples.