Brimstone Blues

  The mental drumming finally dissipated, and she relaxed during the drive into Cody.

  * * * *

  The mysterious voice didn’t return. Neither did the uncontrollable verbal tics. Alone with Matthias, they took their time retracing her route from Cody, back through the Bighorn Mountains to I-90.

  “I must admit I’m impressed,” he said.

  “Why?” She fought the urge to tell him to go faster. Matthias held it at a comfortable seventy-five on the interstate. She preferred eighty, at least. The powerful pony was more than capable of it.

  “How quickly you made it out here.” Their fingers were laced together, and he brought her hand to his lips, kissing it. “I’m not angry. Just please don’t ever run off like that again. If you need time alone, I will always give it to you.”

  “Being followed by guards isn’t time alone, Matthias.”

  He glanced at her before returning his eyes to the road. “Taz, we had no idea where you were, where you were going. I’m not saying I would have had people tailing you—”

  “Bullshit.”

  He looked at her again and spotted her knowing smile.

  “Okay, so I would have had you followed. Tim had people watching over you from the time you entered Yellowstone and you weren’t aware of it.” Now wasn’t the time to mention the daily security detail back home.

  “What?”

  He nodded. “He told you we have operatives all over the park. Once he figured out where you were going, he was prepared.”

  She looked out the passenger window. “I don’t need a babysitter.”

  “We know. We don’t want to make you feel like that, either.” He squeezed her hand. “I love you, and I’m damn sure not letting anyone take you away from me now that we’re together. If you need time alone, ask for it. I’ll readily give it, as much as you want.”

  “I want to go away for a month, alone.”

  “Done.”

  She turned back to him, studying his face. “I was kidding.”

  “I wasn’t.”

  She frowned. “You mean you’d let me up and leave, alone, for a whole month, no questions asked?”

  “I’m not saying I wouldn’t miss you. And yes, I would take precautions for your safety. If what makes you happy would be to leave for a month, then I will give it to you.” He pulled over to the shoulder. Fortunately the interstate wasn’t that busy in this desolate part of the country.

  He turned to her and removed his sunglasses so she could see his eyes. “Taz, I love you. Whatever I must do to show you, to prove to you that I will do anything for you, I will do it. If you ask for time alone, I will give it. I will follow you to the ends of the earth if you ask. I will die and kill for you.”

  She finally removed Rafe’s sunglasses. “Why?”

  “Why what, cara?”

  “Why do you love me like that?”

  He touched his forehead to hers, nuzzling her with his nose. “The heart knows what it knows. And the soul always comes home.” He kissed her, and before she could get too into it and drag him into the backseat, he sat up and caressed her cheek. “Just know that I willingly love you, Taz. Not because I’m under a spell, not because I’m forced to.” He put his sunglasses on and put the car in gear and drove as she studied his profile.

  * * * *

  The long drive gave them plenty of time to talk. “What’s the deal with Murry?” she asked.

  “Why?”

  “He told me to ask you.”

  Matthias smiled. “Murry is interesting, to say the least.”

  “How about saying more than the least?”

  “He’s a familiar.”

  “Which tells me bubkis. Isn’t that a witch thing or something?”

  “According to popular lore, yes. Animals as spirits isn’t an idea limited to witches. It’s a popular theme in Native American and other cultures, too.”

  “Where did he come from?”

  She realized he didn’t want to answer.

  “Matthias?” she gently prompted.

  “Rafe gave him to me. He belonged to Cassandra.”

  She closed her eyes and fought a wave of dizzying grief, felt it pass. “Why didn’t he keep him?” she whispered.

  “Murry was too painful a reminder.”

  Now, it seemed, he was again.

  “You know, you keep telling me what we are isn’t anything supernatural, yet I keep finding out about things like daemon pulverem and familiars and all this other crap, which isn’t exactly textbook Science 101 material.”

  “Considering scientists can’t even unravel the origins of the universe yet, does it truly surprise you to know there are things that defy current scientific explanations? There are yogis who can control their body temperature through meditation. Animals hibernate for winter in a form of suspended animation without eating or drinking. Yet awake, they would die if they went several days without water. There are cicadas that only emerge once every seventeen years. There are things science hasn’t even discovered, much less begun to figure out.”

  “But a cat who’s over four hundred years old? You expect me to believe that?”

  “Did you ever expect to believe you’re a vampire?”

  He had her there.

  “How did he live so long?”

  Matthias shrugged. “He’s like an antidemon, a spirit that could take whatever form he chose, and he chose the one you see. He’s not really a cat, he just looks like one.”

  “Why does he stay at the office?”

  “It’s where he chooses to be. He is the best early-warning system I could ever ask for.”

  True. If it wasn’t for Murry, the daemon pulverem would have killed her.

  “That’s why we had to move from the LA office in the first place,” Matthias continued. “He discovered our security team was infiltrated.”

  * * * *

  They stopped for the night in St. Louis. As much as Taz wanted to get home, she wanted a shower and a soft bed even more.

  Cuddling up to Matthias felt right, there was no denying. She’d get to spend hundreds of years with this man?

  She was a lucky woman.

  “There are so many places I want to take you, Taz,” he whispered, kissing her. “So many places I’ve been that I wished I had a soul mate to share them with.”

  “Like where?”

  He nuzzled her neck. “Key West, for starters. I’d love to watch the sunset at Mallory Square with you. I’d love to dive with the stingrays off Grand Cayman with you, take you on a tour of places I’ve been throughout my life. Britain, Ireland, Europe.”

  “I’ll follow you anywhere, Matthias.”

  They lay quietly for a few minutes. He thought she might be drifting off to sleep when she spoke again. “What are the Others?”

  “That’s hard to say. We don’t know a lot about them, unfortunately.”

  “My dad said they’re sort of like werewolves.” The glimpse she’d had of the severed head of the one that nearly killed Matthias had churned her stomach.

  “Yes and no. They were the origin of the myth, those like them. They’re also the Yeti and Bigfoot and the Swamp Ape and all those kinds of legends.”

  “Chupacabra?”

  “That, too. Anything that’s a bipedal unidentified thing, it’s most likely where a group of Others have one of their bases.”

  “Can they really change how they look?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. Supposedly they can, but who knows if that’s true or not? We don’t know for sure. All I know is they don’t call themselves ‘Others,’ that’s just a label we gave them eons ago to distinguish them from us and from humans. They call themselves ‘lycans.’”

  She thought about it. “Lycanthropes?”

  He nodded. “Different from shape-shifters. The lycans are tightly knit. Unfortunately, we don’t know as much about them as we’d like.”

  “You were ready when that one attacked me at my house that night.”

  “I w
as ready for whatever was going to attack. I thought it was another daemon pulverem, at first. I didn’t know it was an Other until we got inside.”

  “Okay, while we’re on the subject, what’s with the sword?” She noticed he didn’t have it with him.

  “It’s a very old relic. Unfortunately I don’t know a lot about it, it’s that old. It’s been passed down from generation to generation, and if you want to destroy a daemon pulverem—”

  “Or behead a lycan,” she smiled.

  “Yes,” he agreed, “or that. It’s the best thing to use. You can destroy a daemon pulverem other ways, but the sword has a special property that dissolves a daemon pulverem’s bond with its form.”

  “But doesn’t kill a daemon pulverem?”

  “No. Like I told you, the energy isn’t destroyed, it just dissolves the bond, the form the body has. The creature can reform another body and come back, but it takes a while.”

  “Can you kill its energy?”

  “Yes, but it involves rituals that I have no idea how to perform.”

  “Who does?”

  “Ra—” He stopped.

  “Rafe?” she finished.

  He nodded. “He studied that, knew a lot about it. Which is another reason he was helping us, and was going to help train you.”

  “Oh.”

  Matthias’ voice softened. “He was incredibly well versed in ‘arcane’ knowledge. Much of it learned while he was with Cassandra. She was very skilled with the knowledge and lore available to her at the time.”

  Taz sensed there was more behind his words than he let on, but she let it go.

  Matthias continued. “Rafe took that knowledge and built upon it. He had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.”

  “He diverted his energy after she died?”

  Matthias no longer met her gaze. “Yes. He also spent centuries perfecting his skills and control. Just because a vampire has powers doesn’t mean they’re strong, especially if they can’t focus. He was a master at that, put many who were much more powerful than him to shame. There will never be another like him.”

  * * * *

  Matthias was asleep, but Taz knew there was no rest for her yet. That skin-crawling feeling had returned, a nagging thought drumming constantly. Rafael’s laptop bag sat by the desk.

  Might as well.

  She took a deep breath and opened Rafael’s e-mail. Taz was used to getting dozens, if not hundreds, of e-mails a day. His e-mail hadn’t been checked since before his death, and only twenty downloaded.

  Two were spam. Seventeen were newsletters, announcements, general stuff from e-mail lists he was on.

  Delete.

  The last was from a woman, dated just that morning. Taz fought the unexpected surge of jealousy, knowing full well Rafe had a life outside of the one day they shared together. She wasn’t exactly in a position to be jealous.

  Rafael, I haven’t heard from you in a couple of weeks. I left you some messages, but you haven’t called me back. Are you mad at me? Give me a call, I’m worried. Luv ya!—Trish.

  Trish, hmm?

  A ghostly chuckle rumbled through her brain. Wonderful, just what I need, to have that back now. The voice had been quiet ever since the oil change incident.

  The silence had been blissful.

  Taz found Rafael’s cell phone in the laptop bag and turned it on. Sure enough, there were several voice mails. Taz played them.

  The girl sounded younger than her. She also sounded worried, but it was hard to tell by the tone and content of the messages if she was more than a friend. Her cell number showed up on the outgoing call logs as Trish. When Taz matched the number to the incoming list, she found quite a few.

  Taz felt bad. Obviously, the girl had no idea what happened. Logging into the corporate VPN, she found the information she needed, punched the number into her cell phone, and went into the bathroom before hitting send.

  He answered on the second ring. “Davidson.”

  “It’s Anastazia Proctor.”

  “Yes ma’am. What can I do for you?”

  “I’m sorry it’s late, but I need a favor.” She detailed what she wanted and read him the cell number from Rafael’s phone.

  “Can you hold on a moment? I’ll get it for you.”

  “Thanks.” Taz waited several minutes, checking to make sure the call didn’t drop. He finally came back on the line. “I’ve got it. Patricia Nunez…” and read off an Atlanta address. Taz wrote it down on the hotel notepad she’d brought in with her.

  “Thanks, Davidson.”

  “Anytime, ma’am.”

  She hung up. It was too late to call her tonight.

  Then again, this wasn’t exactly the kind of news you wanted to drop on someone over the phone. They would be in Atlanta late tomorrow. She could call the girl and try to meet with her there, tell her face-to-face.

  “Want to see the competition?” Crap, the voice was back, and stronger than ever.

  Oh, God, would that please, shut the hell UP!

  Another ghostly chuckle.

  This would drive her crazy if it continued. Eventually she’d break down and tell Matthias it was still happening. Keeping a barrier around it was taking a major toll, and she hated keeping secrets from him.

  She just couldn’t bring herself to tell him the whole truth, even though she suspected he knew more than he was letting on. Sparing her the embarrassment of telling her she was crazy, perhaps?

  When she told Matthias about Trish the next morning, he frowned. “We can call her, Taz. We don’t need to stop by.”

  She let her anger take over. “What the fuck? Matthias, she was dating him. You can’t drop a bomb on her like that, you insensitive male bastard!”

  After a few moments, he nodded. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

  Taz sighed and put her arms around him. “We’ve been dating for what, a few weeks now, and you’ve seen me at my worst. Why aren’t you running and screaming yet?”

  A sly smile teased his lips and started the familiar tingle between her legs. “Because you haven’t seen me at my worst, cara. This is one contest I know I could easily win, if I so chose.”

  * * * *

  The girl lived in a small apartment near Turner Field, where the Braves played. She looked nervous but welcomed them in. Her apartment was clean and tidy if sparsely furnished. Maybe in her early twenties, Taz got the feeling she was a college student, or recently graduated.

  “Can I get you anything to drink?” Trish asked. “I don’t have much, just water and Coke, but you’re welcomed to it.”

  Taz shook her head. “No, thank you. Can we sit and talk for a few minutes?”

  The girl swallowed and nervously nodded. Taz sensed the girl knew something was seriously wrong but was trying to talk herself into believing the best.

  Trish sat in a chair by the end of the couch while Taz took the end closest to her. Taz reached over, took her hand, and looked the girl in the eyes.

  “I’m afraid we have some bad news about Rafael Collins.”

  The girl’s eyes widened. Taz wasn’t trying to take control and fought the urge to smooth this over for her. Trish needed to feel her grief, not have it masked.

  “What happened?”

  Matthias stayed silent and let Taz take point. “He had a heart attack. He came out to Yellowstone National Park for a meeting with us and some business associates. I’m so sorry, but he died.”

  Trish didn’t need to know Rafael was suffocated by another vampire not too long after Taz had played happy hooker succubus with his head because she was pissed at Matthias.

  Trish also didn’t need to know how much Taz loved him.

  The girl froze, trying to process the information, then her tears fell. “He’s dead?”

  “I’m so sorry.” I feel like I killed him, but you don’t need to know that, either.

  “It’s not your fault, Taz baby!”

  God, not NOW! Taz wanted to scream, and the only thing that kept her from doi
ng so was that Matthias and Trish sat right there. Taz wanted to reach into her brain and rip the source out. She was having a hard enough time keeping it together.

  The girl pulled away, hugging herself. “Dead?” she whispered.

  Taz nodded. The girl looked to Matthias, who also nodded but remained silent. He knew he was on Taz’s short shit list over suggesting they call instead of stopping, and he didn’t dare enrage her.

  Trish shook her head. “I talked to him the night before he left. He said we’d get together when he got back…” She started sobbing.

  Taz lost the inner battle not to ask the question. “Were the two of you close?”

  The girl didn’t look up. “I wanted to be. We weren’t…you know. We hadn’t. He wouldn’t, said he wanted to get to know me better first. We’d been out on a few dates, only knew each other a few weeks.” She finally looked up at Taz. “He just had this really sweet, playful side, you know?”

  Taz knew. All too well. Seeing this girl’s grief stirred her own, and it was sheer will holding her own tears in check. They stayed a little longer, then Taz handed Trish a business card. “If you want to talk, give me a call, okay?”

  Trish nodded, still stunned. Taz knew the girl would cry herself to sleep that night.

  Matthias wanted to drive but Taz withheld the keys. “I need to do this. I need the focus.”

  “Okay.” Without further discussion he went to the passenger side. He was learning to take his cues from her.

  Taz adjusted the seat, the mirrors, and tried to steady her shaking fingers as she hooked her seat belt. She didn’t want Matthias seeing how rattled she was, how close to her own breakdown.

  It didn’t get any easier, even after her own grief.

  * * * *

  They arrived home after midnight. Matthias offered to carry the laptop case, but Taz shrugged him off.

  “No, I’ve got it.” She also had Rafe’s phone and MP3 player in there, and she wasn’t letting them out of her control. She needed more time to deal, and she still wanted to know why the playlist mysteriously appeared.

  “All right.” He took their bags, leaving the photo albums and other things until morning. He followed her up to their room and she put the laptop case on the floor on her side of the bed. She’d deal with it tomorrow. For tonight, she needed to sleep.