Zora's Dawn (Defender Book 1) (7 page)

Zora
blanched as her active imagination obligingly conjured up all sorts of nasty
things she might encounter, and she hoped fervently that should she do so she would
not disgrace herself by throwing up in the nearest bush. Fortunately for her
reeling senses, Axel commanded the attention of them all by clearing his
throat.

“Once we
have finished this excellent lunch, we should go to the site and allow Zora to
test her new abilities. Marcus, I believe you have been filled in on what she
has already discovered, and I am most curious to learn what her abilities will
show her in a second viewing.”

Marcus
flashed an unreadable glance at Zora before addressing Axel, a slight frown
marring the perfection of his face. “Do you think she will be able to sense
anything now? I believe it has been about 48 hours since the event, will there
be any vibrations left?”

Axel
leaned forward and said seriously, “I don’t know. Ordinarily I would say not.
But this is a very strong werewolf, and Zora is the strongest ever defender. I
am most anxious to find out.”

Right, no
pressure then. Suddenly no longer hungry Zora placed her plate on the small
table beside her and picked up her coffee to moisten the dry cavern her mouth
had become. Feeling a hand on her arm she glanced up and met the serious gaze
of Powers. “You will be fine, more than fine. Don’t worry, we are all on your
side remember.”

Swallowing
the lump that had formed in her throat, Zora nodded and smiled as brightly as
she could at him. She was relieved and comforted when he did not immediately
remove his hand from her arm, somehow she could feel strength transferring from
him to her. She wondered if it was this bond between them, but let that thought
go as she didn’t really want to think at all about the bond.

Marcus and
Axel began discussing the known details of the murders, and Zora picked up her
plate again. Reasoning that the coming hours were going to drain her strength
she decided she should finish eating and tuned them out. Something was nagging
at her, something that she had forgotten. It wasn’t anything major but she just
had a niggling feeling that she should have done something. Of course the
events of the last day and a half were quite enough to drive everything else
out of her head. She wondered vaguely about what was going on at work, relieved
and still a little annoyed that Powers had called in for both of them, citing
an article they were working on together.

She let
her thoughts drift, trying to catch that annoying thread of something but it
stayed just out of her reach. Zora shrugged, if it was important it would come
to her. Which it did quite literally, as at that moment an aggrieved Sunny
stomped around the side of the house. As soon as she saw her Zora remembered
the arrangement to meet for coffee yesterday. Oops.

Seeing the
amount of masculine perfection in various stages of relaxation on the back veranda
brought Sunny to a halt. Her gaze flicked past Axel and Marcus, flicked back to
Marcus and stayed there almost long enough to be considered a stare. Marcus
smiled lazily, dimple on display, and Axel lifted an eyebrow. Neither looked
surprised to see Sunny and Zora supposed that as fairy and predator their
senses were much sharper than hers. Or maybe hers might have been sharper if
she hadn’t been wool gathering. Powers stood and moved towards Sunny, and Sunny
pulled her gaze from Marcus, past Powers and onto Zora. Her eyes narrowed and
she flicked her blonde hair, today in a high ponytail, and started stomping
directly at Zora.

“So ok you
stood me up for coffee,” she began. “That was cool, I had coffee with myself
instead, no biggie.” From the tone of her voice Zora felt that maybe it was at
least a little bit of a biggie but before she could utter an apology Sunny
continued. She was by now on the veranda and standing directly in front of
Zora. “But when you didn’t answer my text, or the multiple calls and texts I’ve
sent since, or the home phone, and you didn’t message me – well I became a
little concerned. Oddly I never thought to call Powers. Malcolm told me you
were here.” The word ‘oddly’ was delivered with a sledgehammer of sarcasm that
brought grins to the faces of Axel and Marcus and a bewildered expression to
Powers.

“Why
didn’t you think to call me Sunny? I work with Zora too.” He looked genuinely
hurt which caused both Zora and Sunny to roll their eyes. Apparently Powers had
never noticed that Zora usually chose to stay clear of him. Ignoring his
question Sunny staring accusingly at Zora, while Zora felt a bit shocked at
this display of concern from the usually sunny Sunny. When it became evident
that Sunny was waiting for a reply Zora apologised, her mind frantically
searching for a plausible reason for totally forgetting not only coffee with
Sunny but also the existence of the rest of the world. Had she really not
checked her phone since yesterday morning?

“I’m so
sorry Sunny. We are working on an article and I just lost track of the time. My
home phone is out of order (blatant lie) and my mobile has no service here
(totally blatant lie). I’m so sorry I forgot coffee (absolute truth), can I
take you out for a wine instead next time we have an evening free? We could try
out that new wine bar.” Wine sounded like an excellent idea she thought.

“And
perhaps you would like coffee and cake now, since you’re here and if you have
time?” Powers had come to stand beside Zora and smiled winningly at Sunny.
Sunny stared suspiciously at him, pulled out her phone – full service – put it
rather pointedly back into her bag and appeared about the flounce off.  At that
point Marcus added his desire for her to join them for coffee in a voice so
smooth that Zora felt chills down her spine - and they were not chills of fear.
She was unsurprised to see Sunny visibly thaw, shrug briefly and take a seat
that offered an unobstructed view of Marcus. Axel appeared to be trying to
stifle a laugh, Powers merely went back into the house to make more coffee and
Zora sank back into her seat wondering if she was going to have to protect her
friend from a hungry vampire.

As though
he could read her mind (note to self, could vampires read minds?) Marcus turned
that lazy smile onto her. “Do not worry Zora, your friends are safe with me.”
His smile turned mischievous and he flashed a hint of fang at her before
turning that smile back towards Sunny. Zora glanced anxiously at Sunny, had she
seen that? No, her expression was as sunny as her name. Powers came back out
with fresh coffee and a plate of red velvet cakes which distracted Sunny from
her close examination of Marcus.

“So Powers
and Zora, what is this article you are working on, and do these guys have anything
to do with it?”

“We are
working independently on the murder case, and Marcus and Axel here are helping
us. Oh Sunny, how very rude of me, you haven’t been introduced.”

Marcus and
Axel rose to their feet as Powers performed the introductions, but Zora sat
frozen in her seat. Sunny was an ordinary human, someone who should be far away
from all things supernatural. Now she would want to be involved too, or at the
very least she would tell Malcolm. What was Powers thinking? How were they
going to cover up all this supernatural stuff?

Sure
enough, as soon as the introductions had been made, and Marcus had held onto
Sunny’s hand for a touch too long, she dropped back into her chair, picked up
her coffee and said, “So, where are you at and how can I help?”

Zora tried
to glare at Powers inside her mind, maybe if she concentrated strongly enough
his head would explode or something. Sadly, judging by his amused smile, that
was not likely to happen. Instead Powers leaned forward and addressed Sunny.

“We all
know there is more to these murders Sunny, which is why there is the media ban
on them. Marcus and Axel have further information but they don’t want to take
it to the authorities as yet. I’ve known them both for a long time, so they
came to me as a journalist to help them to uncover more details.”

Sunny was
staring at Powers in fascination and a definite air of disbelief and Zora was
not surprised. Undeterred he continued, “Very soon we are all going out to the
murder site to look for clues. Would you like to come?”

Zora
almost choked on her mouthful of coffee, yet looking at the focused expressions
of Marcus and Axel, she seemed to be the only one who thought this was a bad
idea. She swung her gaze back to Sunny – was there something about the girl
that the others knew and Zora didn’t?

Tentatively,
Zora tried to focus her new abilities. She had no idea what she was doing and
no idea even if she had any ability to see below the surface of people. She
stared as unobtrusively as she could at Sunny and tried to clear her mind of
thoughts. She got nothing for her efforts except a feeling of lightness and a
sort of bright blue haze coming from Sunny. She was focusing so intently that
it was a few seconds before she realised that Sunny was staring at her
speculatively, and Powers was addressing her. Blushing faintly Zora tuned back
into her surroundings in time to hear Powers saying in a slightly annoyed tone
that told her he was repeating himself. “Are you ready to go Zora?”

Realising
that Marcus and Axel were already standing, and Sunny was looking at her
expectantly, Zora grabbed her cup and gulped down the last of her coffee before
standing. She smiled sweetly at Powers and began picking up the cups and plates
while thinking ferociously about sharp knives and sensitive parts of Powers’
anatomy. Unsurprisingly he began putting things on one of the trays with a
great deal of speed and they both took them into the kitchen. As soon as they
got in there Zora rounded on Powers.

“What do
you think you’re doing? How are we going to hide from Sunny that Axel is a
fairy and Marcus is a vampire who by the way seems to have very impure thoughts
about her! And what about this werewolf, are we going to be exposing her to
danger? I don’t want her harmed Powers.”

Powers
held up a hand to stop the flow of agitated words. “She already knows Zora,
maybe not about the werewolf or who Axel is, but she knows about the
supernatural world.”

Zora
stared at him, her mouth open in shock. Sunny, bright cheerful mostly lacking
in common sense Sunny already knew about this world she Zora had only just
discovered?

“Close
your mouth Zora, I can see what you had for lunch. Sunny’s family is one of the
families Axel told you about, that supply blood to the vampires. She herself
does not help out in the family business but she has grown up with it.”

Sunny
walked into the room in time to catch what Powers was saying and grinned at
Zora. “So if you’re trying to protect me from knowing that Powers is a
shapeshifter and that those two gorgeous specimens out there are supes, don’t
worry Zora. However I would like very much to know exactly what you are, you
seem quite different to the girl who stood me up for coffee.”

Zora just
stood there, her world once again shifting beneath her feet. Seeing this Powers
sighed, grabbed her bag and her arm, promised to tell Sunny all about it on the
drive there and called out to the others that it was time to go. Zora allowed
herself to be led out to the car, and sat in silence on the way there while
Powers, Axel and Marcus filled Sunny in on the whole story. Sunny was
sandwiched between Axel and Marcus, three golden heads filling the back seat
with various shades of sunshine and a slight trace of blue that still clung to
Sunny. Zora tried to come to terms with all that had happened.

Somehow,
Sunny knowing all about this new world made it much more real and permanent to
her. Acknowledging to herself that she had been thinking this was an aberration
in her life, and that things would go back to normal soon Zora tried to accept
this new reality, and the realisation that for a large percentage of the
population there was nothing new about it. It was simply how the world really
was only her eyes had been closed to it until now. It made Zora feel very
vulnerable, to know that the world as she had previously understood it did not
exist. A bit like Alice, she felt she had fallen through a mirror to a strange
world and there was no way back. Without taking his eyes off the road Powers
reached out a hand and captured hers, rubbing his thumb reassuringly along the
back of her hand. Sighing inwardly, Zora admitted that sometimes it was good to
have someone so attuned to her.

She stared
at the police tape still in place as they pulled up beside the scene. She
so
didn’t want to go back in there. The three in the back had no such qualms and
were already out and approaching the tape. Sunny was walking very close to
Marcus Zora realised, and repressed a niggle of worry for her friend.
Compressing her lips, she climbed down from the cab and allowed Powers to take
her arm, something that caused him to arch an eyebrow, but he simply placed his
other hand over hers where it rested in the crook of his arm, and walked
silently with her to the tape. The others had climbed under it without
hesitation and were walking in different directions, studying the ground
intently. Marcus, Zora noted, walked unerringly to the spot where she had felt
frozen and stood sniffing delicately. Axel seemed more interested in the trees
to the left and Sunny seemed to be walking aimlessly but she was nonetheless
clearly studying the whole site. It made Zora feel like a bit of a lightweight,
remembering her last time here. She herself would not have been able to
describe the scene in any kind of detail.