Heartless (Blue Fire Saga) (24 page)

Smith handed Judy one of his cards and then gave one to Bradley.

“Let us know when you hear from Leesa,” he said. “You can give her my number, too. Tell her it’s not critical—we don’t want to worry her—but that it’s pretty important to us.”

Rome stood up. “Thank you both for your time. I’d love to talk more about the vampire stuff with both of you, but we’ve taken up enough of your time for today. Maybe another day you can share a few more details.”

She forced her lips into what passed for a friendly smile and turned toward the door. Smith and Jones nodded to their hosts and followed Rome outside. The three agents did not speak to one another until they were back in the SUV.

“A very interesting family,” Rome said as Smith turned on the engine and backed out of the parking spot. “Two of them have had encounters with vampires, and the daughter is mixed up in some way with some very strange magic. I can’t wait to meet her. It’s hard to believe all this is only coincidence.”

“I don’t believe in coincidences,” Jones said.

“Me, either,” Smith agreed. “We’ll wait a day or so to see if Leesa calls back and we can get a fix on her location. If not, we’ll have to take things to the next level.”

His companions nodded. Neither of them had any concerns at all about taking things to the next level. In fact, they looked forward to it.

31. A SPECIAL TREAT

U
naware that her mother and brother had now been drawn into the xenorian web, Leesa continued to enjoy her time alone with Rave in the mountains. The alone time would be ending soon, however, because she had received a message from Dominic yesterday telling her that he would be heading up to New Hampshire by bus today. He had asked her to have Rave pick him up in the nearby town of Lincoln at four o’clock.

Despite how much she loved being here with Rave, she was anxious to see Dominic. Her magic had been progressing amazingly well, but she was certain her skill and control would grow even faster with Dominic here to teach her.

Leesa was mildly envious that the wizard would be enjoying a ride in Rave’s arms instead of her, but she had been getting plenty of rides lately, so she didn’t really mind missing out on this one. Since she still had an hour or so until Rave had to leave, she decided to make the most of it.

She turned to Rave, who was sitting on a large rock watching her.

“Take me somewhere special before you leave to get Dominic,” she said.

Rave stood up and held out his arms. Leesa was about to hop up into them like she always did, but a better idea popped into her head.

“
Levictius arrami
,” she said. She immediately floated up into Rave’s arms.

“Nicely done,” Rave said, smiling. “And a much more gentle landing for me than when you jump on me.”

“Ha! You know you love showing off your volkaane muscles by catching me.”

Rave grinned and took off down the slope, whisking through the trees with his usual ease. Leesa pressed her cheek against his chest and enjoyed the ride. He carried her for only about five minutes, but she knew they had traveled close to two miles from the cavern. Rave set her down just inside a grove of small but thick evergreen trees. She breathed in deeply and let the fresh pine scent fill her lungs.

Rave put his finger to his lips, signaling her to remain quiet. Taking her hand, he guided her silently to the edge of the stand of trees and pointed out ahead of them.

Leesa peered through the needle-filled branches. A hundred feet below, a mountain stream raced down the mountain. In the silence, she could hear the water splashing and gurgling over its rocky bed. The whole scene was quite pretty, but no more so than many spots she and Rave had visited over the last few days. She started to step out from the trees to head down to the stream, but Rave tugged on her hand, stopping her.

“Wait,” he whispered.

Leesa did as Rave instructed, watching through the branches for whatever it was he was waiting for.

She heard it before she saw it: a clumsy rustling through the underbrush on the opposite side of the stream. Leaning forward for a better look, she strained to see the source of the noise, but saw nothing. She glanced at Rave and saw him smiling. His keen volkaane senses had already located and identified the creature or creatures.

She turned back toward the stream and continued watching. Finally, she saw it—two small black clumps of fur, rolling and scrambling and batting at each other as they neared the stream. She smiled when she recognized them as bear cubs. They were totally adorable! As she watched them paw and jump upon one another in a faux fight, she thought she had never seen anything quite so cute. She squeezed Rave’s hand, silently thanking him for bringing her here to see this. He had obviously known the bears were in the area.

The mother appeared a moment later, following behind her cubs to keep them safe. Leesa had seen bears before at the San Diego Zoo, but this was very different. There was nothing between her and the powerful beast except a narrow stream and maybe a hundred feet of ground. She knew from television nature shows how quickly a bear could cover that little bit of distance.

She glanced at Rave, but he seemed unconcerned, so she relaxed. As fast as the bear might move, Rave could carry her out of here far faster if need be.

The mother bear stopped and rose up onto her hind feet. Leesa could see her sniffing the air. She wondered if the bear had discovered them. She got her answer when Rave stepped out of the trees into the open. The bear let out a low growl, but made no move toward them. Rave pulled Leesa forward. Now they were both standing in full view of the bear. The animal growled once more, but then dropped down onto all fours and resumed watching her cubs, apparently having decided Leesa and Rave were no threat.

Leesa was pretty certain it was Rave’s volkaane nature that was keeping them safe. From everything she knew about bears, the mother would be behaving quite differently if it had been two humans approaching this close to her offspring.

“Would you like to pet the cubs?” Rave asked.

Leesa looked up at him in disbelief. “For real?”

“Yes, but you have to do it with me carrying you.”

Leesa smiled. “You know I never need an excuse for that.”

She jumped toward Rave, who caught her easily. He carried her slowly toward the bears, heading toward the mother first. Leesa could feel her heartbeat quickening as they drew within ten feet of the creature. This close, the animal was even bigger than she had thought—and so were its teeth, which were dripping with saliva. She had seen Stefan’s vampire fangs from close up, but they were nothing compared to these. It was all she could do not to close her eyes and bury her face against Rave’s chest.

Rave shifted Leesa so that he was supporting her with his just right hand. He extended his left toward the bear, who shuffled over and sniffed it. Leesa had done something similar when greeting strange dogs, but to see Rave do it with a giant bear was something else entirely.

Apparently satisfied, the bear lumbered away. It kept its eyes on Leesa and Rave as he carried her slowly toward the two cubs, which had stopped their fighting and were watching curiously. Leesa knew she and Rave were undoubtedly the first people the cubs had ever seen. Rave dropped down into a squat beside the two young bears. Once again, he held out his left hand and waited while both cubs sniffed it. The cubs examined Rave’s hand much more playfully than their mother had.

“You can pet them now,” Rave said when the bears were done smelling his hand. “Move your hand slowly, though, until they get used to you.”

Leesa reached out and gently placed her hand on the back of the nearest cub’s neck. She slowly ran her fingers down across its back. The fur was amazingly thick and soft. After a moment, the second cub bumped its sibling out of the way and offered its back to Leesa. Delighted, Leesa stroked its fur. She could hardly believe it—she was petting bear cubs in the wild while the mother watched!

After a few minutes, the young bears tired of the petting and resumed batting at each other. Rave straightened up and carried Leesa back across the stream, putting her down at the edge of the stand of trees from which they had first watched.

“That was totally awesome!” Leesa said. “Wait until I tell Cali. She’ll be totally jealous.”

“I take it this place was special enough, then?” Rave asked. “Mission accomplished?”

Leesa jumped back up into his arms and wrapped her arms around his neck.

“You bet,” she said, hugging him tightly. “Thank you so much.”

She sighed into Rave’s neck. This would be a perfect time to reward him with a big Thank You kiss, but of course that was still not an option. One day, she thought…one day….

32. A NEW TRICK

L
eesa sat on the cavern floor, her back resting against the rock wall, about twenty-five feet from the cave’s entrance. Normally, she wouldn’t be sitting in the darkness on such a beautiful afternoon, but she needed the dimness right now. Rave had just left to fetch Dominic, so this was the perfect time for her to experiment with a trick she had been thinking about trying for some time. With her magic working so well, she thought she just might be able to pull it off. If she did, she would have a fun surprise in store for Rave when he got back.

She warmed up with an ordinary illumination spell. She had gotten so good at this spell that it took her no more effort than flicking the tip of a lighter to create her light. Once the golden glow was hovering above her right palm, she held out her left hand. With a single thought, she made the light leap from her right hand to her left. Technically, it didn’t really leap—she simply replaced the sphere above her right hand with a new one above her left—but the effect was as if the light had quickly jumped from one hand to the other.

She played with the yellow light for a few minutes, making it jump back and forth and then holding two lights at once. She smiled at how easy all this had gotten in the last few days. Now it was time to try a new variation.

She let both lights wink out. Waiting a moment or two while her eyes readjusted to the dimness, she pictured the effect she wanted to create. When she thought she was ready, she held her right hand out once more.

“
Illuminati verdus
,” she said, concentrating hard on the new image.

She smiled as a pale blue orb, very similar in color to Rave’s flames, appeared above her palm. The blue light was not nearly as bright as the yellow had been, but it was far better than the meager glow she had managed the first time she had tried to create blue light, back when she was first learning the illumination spell.

She let the light linger, burning the image into her brain so that she would be able to call it forth even more easily in the future. This was only the first step in her plan, but it was an important one. She figured she had about half an hour before Rave returned with Dominic, and she was going to use all of it to work on this new version of the spell.

For ten minutes or so, she practiced calling forth the blue light, making it a bit brighter each time. Once she was satisfied with her progress there, she repeated the process she had used with the yellow light a short time before, only now it was a blue glow that jumped from one hand to the other. Finally, she held her arms widespread and called forth a blue light in each of her hands.

Having gotten used to the blue light, she found it surprisingly easy to maneuver the new color from hand to hand. Now however, it was time for the truly tricky part, the thing that would make this whole thing extra special.

She held her right hand close in front of her stomach, palm down this time, almost like she was examining a new coat of nail polish. She breathed in a long slow breath and closed her eyes, concentrating hard on the image she wanted to create. When she felt ready, she opened her eyes and mouthed the spell. For a moment, nothing happened, and then a smile appeared on her lips. The effect was faint, but it was there, and she still had time to practice before Rave returned.

By the time she had practiced it four more times, she was smiling widely. This was going to be fun, for sure!

Leesa was sitting on a waist high boulder just outside the cavern entrance when she spotted Rave and Dominic coming rapidly up the slope. Rave was carrying the wizard piggyback style. She supposed that method was probably easier for Rave, but she was glad he never carried her that way, much preferring to be cradled in his arms against his chest. She doubted Dominic cared one way or the other, though.

She hopped down off the rock as Rave covered the last fifty yards and deposited Dominic on the ground a few feet from where Leesa stood.

“Hi, Dominic,” she said, moving forward and giving him a hug.

Dominic smiled as he returned her embrace.

“It’s good to see you, Leesa. Sorry about intruding on your little vacation like this.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Leesa said as she let go and stepped back out of Dominic’s arms. “Rave and I have been having fun, for sure, but I can’t wait to show you how much my magic has improved.”

She moved toward Rave and took hold of both his hands. “I know you weren’t gone all that long, but I missed you. How about a quick kiss?”

Rave looked at Leesa with a puzzled expression. She did not usually ask for a kiss, unless it was going to be one that required using a timer or having Balin watch them. Otherwise, she usually just gave him a quick peck whenever the mood struck her.

“How can I say no to that?” he replied.

Rave bent his head and pressed his lips against Leesa’s, holding them there for only a brief second before pulling away. Despite the brevity of the kiss, Leesa let out a sharp gasp and jerked her head back like she had just kissed a live wire.

“What’s wrong?” Raves voice was filled with surprise and concern. “What happened?”

Dominic moved nearer, watching Leesa closely.

“I’m not sure,” Leesa said. “I felt so hot for a moment—burning almost. Way hotter than usual.” She pulled her right hand out of Rave’s grasp and stared down at it. “Something’s happening to my hand.”