Hot Magic (27 page)

“Did my father, my mother’s husband, know that he wasn’t my true father?” Jean asked, finally speaking.

“No. Your mother couldn’t tell him and risk your banishment. Your mother refused to send you to boarding school, afraid you might exhibit the wild powers of a mixed child. She negated your powers as much as possible.”

“Until recently, I thought my only power was that of a Sensitive. When I began working with the Gigis, they showed me that I, too, could wield energy in other ways.”
 

Abigor nodded. “Your mother met your father again at a Triad gathering when you were fifteen. Once they saw each other, they decided they couldn’t live apart. Your mother ran off with the Walker, planning to come back for you later. Instead, she and the Walker were killed in an accident, and their deaths started a war that almost destroyed your Triad.”

“Oh my.” Julie put an arm around her mother, feeling the tremor that went through her.
 

“Love can make people do stupid things.” Abigor watched Jean as he said the words. Then he turned to Julie. “I want to talk to your mother alone.” He moved his arm. In the blink of an eye, Julie found herself in a white-walled room.

Damn him! Oh, wait. That would be redundant. Julie slowly sank to the floor, leaning her back against one wall as she stared at the one opposite.

She trusted her mother to be able to hold her own against her father. That had never been a problem in the past. She pinched herself, hard, hoping this was some bizarre nightmare and she’d wake up in her bed. She broke the skin on her arm, but remained in the silent white room.

Her dad was a demon! And not just any two-bit demon. He called the shots in Gehenna. She closed her eyes and let that truth sink into her reluctant psyche.
 

She was the offspring of evil. A bad seed. Demon genes, if demons had genes, were part of the building blocks of who she was. What exactly did that mean? Did she have the genetic disposition for evil? When under stress, would she suddenly do something like hang her crucifixes upside down or sacrifice virgins?
 

She jumped up, unable to even think about it. No. No. No. She didn’t want to be a demon. Aside from any other ramifications, there was no way she and Harry could ever have any kind of relationship. If the rules didn’t allow him a relationship with a Dancer, they sure as hell wouldn’t allow one with a demon/Dancer/Walker hybrid.

She put up a big red stop sign in her head, a neat little trick that a cognitive psychologist had taught her to use when she wanted to quit thinking unhealthy thoughts. Thinking about her relationship—or non-relationship—with Harry led her down a dark tunnel with no light at the end of it.
 

She straightened her shoulders and reviewed her choices. She could succumb to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or she could tuck this trauma into her subconscious—to be dealt with later in intensive therapy—and figure out how to accomplish her original mission to save her daughter. Of course, after saving Tash, she’d have the hard job of explaining to her that Grandpa was a demon. And that she better compare family trees with the cute hunk of a Walker she was dating to make sure they weren’t related.

Julie leaned her forehead against the smooth wall and groaned. The red stop sign wasn’t working. She had a feeling that orange barrels and wooden roadblocks wouldn’t stop these thoughts. She could almost wish for the good old days when she’d found out her husband thought she was boring, and she would have to raise her daughter as a single parent.
 

A thin thread of something trickled through her pity party, tugging her out of her funk. She sucked in her breath and lifted her head, trying to capture it again. That something felt like Tasha. Tasha was near.
 

Both her hands came out and touched the wall. She felt energy flowing like static across a television set. She jumped, snatching her hands away. Slowly she put them back, wonder building inside her. In the midst of the chaos, she felt the familiar thread. The life force that she recognized as her daughter.
 

She took a step away from the wall and considered her options. Somewhere inside her, if she could only access it, she had the power to get out of this room and follow the energy trail to her daughter. She knew this with a deep certainty.

She tried to remember what Bas had taught her. “You don’t need to look at something to see it,” he’d told her one day in her kitchen, when he’d been trying to teach her to transport a book from her bedroom into the kitchen. She hadn’t known what he meant then, and she still didn’t know, but the words kept running through her head as if they were a key.
 

An hour later—at least she thought it was an hour later, her watch had stopped working—she kicked at the wall in frustration. She really, really hated cryptic phrases. Why couldn’t people just say what they meant, straight out?
 

She’d tried closing her eyes and letting her senses “see” how to get out of the room. All she had to show for her efforts were several large bruises from walking into the wall. She’d tried looking through and beyond the wall with some magical inner sight, but she didn’t seem to have a magical inner sight. Then she’d thought about strangling Bas, a much more rewarding endeavor, which had taken most of the elapsed hour.
 

What good is power if you don’t know how to control it? It’s kind of like dying of thirst in the kitchen because you can’t figure out how to turn the water faucet on.
 

She slumped on the floor, dejected. Maybe if she fell asleep, she’d dream the answer. Her unconscious would release it into her relaxed dream state mind. Okay. So it was a stupid idea. But she didn’t have any better ones. She closed her eyes and tried to will her body to sleep. Instead, she felt a surge of energy rush through the room. She sat up straight and opened her eyes.
 

She was no longer alone. She blinked, wondering if she had fallen asleep and was dreaming. The vision remained, staring at her with a grim expression.
 

Harry!
 

Chapter Fifteen

J
ulie rubbed her eyes. Harry was still there, though he looked like he’d been through hell and back (or not back, as the case may be). His blond hair poked up around his head, giving him an interesting punk look. Stains and creases marred his white shirt, and his shirttail was half in, half out of the back of his pants. He wore no shoes; his black socks were torn and gray with a layer of dust coating them. “Are you okay?” She scrambled to her feet. “What are you doing here?”

He ran a tired hand through his hair and gave her a steady look. “You’re here,” he said simply.
 

His words stopped whatever she’d been about to say. For a moment, she’d have sworn her heart stopped too. Then she ran to him, and his arms closed around her so tightly she couldn’t breathe. She didn’t care. She could die now, right here in his arms, and be happy.

“I’ve been so scared.” The words poured out of her, tumbling over each other. “Everything is so confused. Abigor is my dad, Harry. I’m part demon. I’m like those things that slither up from the Hell Mouth on
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
. Oh no! Will I go poof if someone puts a wooden stake in my heart?”

“Slow down. I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said above her head. “No one is going to put a stake in your heart.”

“Harry, did you hear me? I’m part demon.”
 

“Bas told me before I came.”

“Bas knew?” She would kill him. “Why didn’t he tell me?”

“Something about the learning process being important.”

She hated Bas. To withhold important information because he thought she should learn it on her own was arrogant and…arrogant.

“I think he just found out recently,” Harry offered, his hand rubbing her back.

“I don’t want to be a demon.” She whispered the words, trying to burrow into him and make this night go away.

“Everything will be all right.”
 

The standard comfort phrase socked her in the gut. She loved him for saying such a totally stupid, untrue thing. Tears pressed against her lids, and she sniffed. He held her, just rubbing her back.
 

Then she remembered. He should be safe in the protective circle of the Council. She didn’t know how much time had passed, but surely not enough for the moon to have risen and set. She pulled against his arms. “Harry. You have to get in the circle before Marguerite succeeds with the second tie.”

His gaze remained calm as he fished a handkerchief out of a pocket with one hand and wiped the tears dribbling down her cheeks. “Too late. She already has.”

“What did you say?” Surely not what she thought he’d said.

“Marguerite placed the second tie before I made it to the Council circle.” His eyes were carefully blank as he tucked the handkerchief back in his pocket.

This was all her fault. He’d put himself at risk because of her. The idiot man. Julie looked hard at him, expecting to see a change somewhere. He looked the same—golden, hot and British, even in his current untidy state. “She’s in your head right now?”

“Yes. She’s searching for something. Some kind of information she hasn’t found.”

“She knows what you’re doing and saying?”

“Yes.”

“Does she know what I’m saying to you?”

“Yes.”

“Marguerite—you’re an ugly, nasty toad and nobody likes you.”

His lips twitched. “I’ve always admired your maturity.”

“Ha. She’s lucky I don’t steal her soul and lock it in some back room in Gehenna.” She frowned and then slowly mouthed the next words. “Can I do that?”

“I don’t know,” he mouthed back. “If I know what you’re mouthing, so does she,” he continued in a normal tone of voice.

“We can’t have secrets? Small, intimate moments between the two of us?”

“Do you want small intimate moments between the two of us?” His voice deepened, and he regarded her with interest.

“I want much more than that, Harry,” she finally admitted, probably letting the devil in her overcome her common sense. “So owhay oday eway etgay idray ofway Argueritemay.”

“I have no idea what you just said.”

“You don’t have Pig Latin in England?” No wonder they lost world dominance.

He frowned. “It wasn’t taught at the boarding school.”

She sighed. “Your education is lacking. So does this work both ways? Do you know what Marguerite is doing and saying?”

“Yes.”

“What’s she doing now?”

“Looking up a Pig Latin translator on the Internet so she can figure out what you said.”

“The itchbay.”

He looked confused and then a smile broke on his face. “She found the translator.”

“Okay. Enough fun and games. Let’s just ignore her like she deserves.” Julie stepped away from him so she could pace. “My father popped me in here so he could have a private discussion with my mother. If past history is anything to go by, I could be here for a very long time. How did you get here?”

“The Triad. Your mother’s determination and your daughter’s kidnapping have united the community much more quickly than my speeches could have. Their combined power opened the gate enough for me to slip through. I stepped into the freezer, visualized you, and stepped out into this room.”

“Can they get us back out?”

“Bas doesn’t think so. Apparently it’s easier to get into Gehenna than out of it. I think we’re on our own in finding our way back.”

“Why did you come?”

He spoke patiently, as if to a slow child. “I already told you.”

“Harry, you’ve let Marguerite place the second tie. You’ve put your soul in mortal danger. You’ve probably broken a few Triad rules—travel to Gehenna can’t be allowed for the Balance. Why? Being with me doesn’t seem like enough of a reason.”

“It’s enough of a reason.” He met her eyes.
 

She would have done the same stupid thing. She would slay giants to get to him if she thought he needed her. At least she’d try to slay giants. She frowned. “I know I have the power to get us out of here and rescue Tash. I just don’t know how to access it.”

With one swift movement, Harry shoved her against the wall. His body came against her, hot and hard. She felt the energy from the wall sizzle through her back and the energy from the powerful male sear her front. His head swooped and he found her lips, taking them without hesitation. Taking them as if he owned them.

Sunbursts exploded behind her eyes. She felt as if her feet floated off the ground. She pushed into Harry, her mind firing at the feel and taste of him. Just when she thought she couldn’t take any more without going up in flames, he gentled the kiss. His hands softened and moved to frame her face. He lifted his mouth from hers and brushed them against her forehead.

“The wall is gone,” he whispered.

She blinked, and turned her neck, looking up and down the long, white corridor that flowed past where the wall had been. “Did I do that?”

“Yes. You seem to have no trouble finding your power when we kiss.”