Body Temperature and Rising - Book One of the Lakeland Heatwave Trilogy (7 page)

Chapter 7

‘Tell me what I have to do with any of this,’ Marie said. ‘How is this mess my fault?’

For a long moment no one responded. Everyone looked a bit embarrassed including Anderson, but Tara didn’t budge. Still holding Marie’s gaze, Tara spoke. ‘Anderson, show her.’

The ghost shifted in his seat. The colour in his face darkened and the clench of the muscles along his exquisite jaw looked granite hard. When he spoke, his voice was tightly controlled. ‘Tara, my darling, perhaps this is not the ideal way to –’

‘Do it,’ Tara cut him off with a sudden raise of her hand and a swish of the wide silk of her sleeve that snapped almost like a sail in the wind. The tension in the room rose another notch. Sky and Fiori shot each other a surreptitious glance that even Marie could tell was not one of comfort and ease. 

Anderson’s spine stiffened. All emotion disappeared from his face, but his voice was suddenly icy. ‘Very well, as you wish, Madame.’ He bowed his head briefly in acquiescence, then lifted his dark eyes to Marie. His gaze softened as did his voice. ‘My dear Marie, I am truly sorry for what I am about to do.’ Then instantly he was gone, vanished into thin air.

The startled gasp that pushed its way past her lips was followed by another tight sting and tug low in her belly. ‘What happened?’ she asked when she regained her equilibrium, ‘Why did you send him away?’

Tara sat back in her chair and rested both hands against the arms. She looked suddenly regal. ‘I’ve not sent him anywhere. He hasn’t moved.’ She nodded to the sofa where Anderson had been sitting next to Marie. 

Before she could think about the implications, she reached out her hand to the space where he had been. There was a collective gasp among the witches, herself and Anderson as her fingers touched the marble cold of his arm that instantly began to warm beneath her touch. Anderson’s heavy intake of breath vibrated through her hand and up her own arm, then down in her belly where the fireworks were, and suddenly he was there again. His eyelids fluttered and his lips parted, and everything in her wanted him with an ache that was almost unbearable. 

She cried out and pulled her hand back, not from fear, not from surprise, but from the embarrassment at just how close she was to coming, and just how badly she wanted to. And as surely as he was sitting there again, she knew by his own deep-chested groan that he was riding the edge with her, that his need was as great as her own.

Tara nodded to Anderson, who then leaned forward toward Marie. ‘With your permission, my love.’ 

It felt like it was supposed to happen. It felt like nothing else could possibly happen. With lips parted, he took her mouth. There was little more than a feather’s flick of his tongue and a brush of his breath against her lips. His hand cupped her cheek, then moved along her nape to the back of her neck cradling her close to his breath, his delicious warm, superfluous breath. 

And she came, trembling and grasping and pulling him to her, whispering his name into his mouth, oblivious to the three witches watching. And as she returned his kiss with her own, she heard his grunt, felt him convulse and tremble against her, sharing in her lust and her release, and suddenly she wasn’t embarrassed at all. Suddenly she felt freer than she could remember ever feeling before. It was exhilarating, wild, totally mad, and she never wanted the feeling to end. 

But it did end, and it ended with an icy flash of the man snapping Fiori’s neck in the cave. They both felt it, she could tell by the shudder down Anderson’s spine followed immediately by the protective way he tightened his embrace around her as though he were steadying her. 

Then she was shoving and pushing her way up from the sofa babbling hysterically about wanting to know what was going on and wanting to know right now. The businesswoman in her stood back and shook her head disgustedly while the rest of her dissolved into a puddle of hysteria until Tara took her face between her hands and said calmly. ‘Stop it. If you want the truth then behave like you can handle it.’

Marie wasn’t sure what it was about the witch’s touch but it was calming. She sat back on the sofa and wiped frantically at her eyes, embarrassed that she’d let this experience shatter her façade, but then again, nothing in the banking world had prepared her for this. She sniffed, wiped her nose on the back of her hand and squared her shoulders. ‘OK, tell me what just happened,’ she blushed, ‘Other than the obvious.’ This time she didn’t shove him away when Anderson took her hand.

‘You have the power of enfleshment without the Love Spell. That’s what just happened,’ Tara said. ‘I don’t know how. I don’t know why. My mother speculated that such power existed, but she never saw it, and neither have I until now.’ She nodded to Anderson. ‘Anderson is, even now, being held in the flesh by your power. If you wish it, you can will him out of the flesh just as easily.’

Involuntarily, Marie tightened her grip on Anderson’s hand. The very thought made her skin crawl. ‘Why? Why can I do that?’

‘Because you’re a rider,’ Fiori broke her silence, ‘a rider who doesn’t need the spell. I assume Tim Meriwether has told you all about it.’

Marie nodded, feeling like it was just the thin layer of her own skin holding her together, keeping her from flying apart with all of this information she didn’t want. ‘And you’re saying I unleashed this … this …’

‘Deacon,’ Sky said. ‘He calls himself Deacon.’

‘You’re saying I unleashed this Deacon in the same way my touch can enflesh Anderson?’

‘That’s the only explanation,’ Sky replied. ‘We bound him securely after the incident with Tim Meriwether three months ago. We were very careful to make sure he had no avenues into the flesh, then you show up, and suddenly he’s shoving his way in again.’

‘But I didn’t do anything. I would never want someone like that free. I mean it was different with Anderson, but this man is a murderer, and he’s …’ She found herself suddenly at a loss for words, suddenly fighting tears again.

‘Oh, it’s not your fault,’ Tara said. ‘Deacon is clever. He would have been aware of everything that has anything to do with me, and the people I care about.’ She looked down at her hands folded now in her lap. ‘And until you came along, the only other person walking among the living I had reason to protect was Tim Meriwether, though I had to do it very stealthily and with the help of the spirits. Deacon knew the minute you arrived, as did we, that there was something extraordinary about you. We knew up on the fells that you could see Anderson. We knew that you were a rider. But we didn’t know until you enfleshed him without even being aware of what you were doing just how much power you wielded, and just how dangerous that could be to all of us.’

‘And my getting lost? Was that a part of your little plan? Me losing my compass?’

This time it was Anderson who replied. ‘The loss of your compass was none of our doing.’

And once again Marie remembered the dark figure she had seen before Anderson came to her in the mist. ‘It was him.’

They all nodded in unison, and her skin crawled at the thought of how close she had been to danger.

‘We sent Anderson because we thought he could guide you down safely without revealing himself, and protect you. We still didn’t know the extent of your powers,’ Tara said. ‘Not until you were in the cave with him did we realise what was happening.’

Thoughts of her time in the cave with Anderson made the heat in her stomach dance in a much nicer way. ‘And the … the way it makes me feel?’ Marie found herself blushing.

‘It is your lust, your passion, my dear,’ Anderson said. ‘It is the power that drives every rider, the power that activates the magic. The uncomfortable heat you feel is a build-up of unchannelled sexual energy stimulated by the presence of a ghost. Never underestimate the power of human sexuality.’

‘OK, I can understand that with you, Anderson, but I certainly wasn’t turned on by this Deacon guy.’ Marie shivered at the thought.

A meaningful glance passed between the rest of those present in the room, meaning that was lost on Marie. Fiori heaved a sigh and spoke. ‘Everyone is turned on by Deacon, Marie. Don’t doubt his appeal for one moment, or it may cost you dearly.’

Marie ran a hand through her hair and closed her eyes. When she opened them four pairs of eyes were looking back at her. ‘I feel like I’ve been dumped in the middle of a horror film. I’m just getting bits and pieces of what’s going on and none of it makes any sense.’

Tara’s gaze was like fire against her, burning her almost like the heat low in her belly that she was strangely beginning to get used to. ‘What? What is it?’

Tara took a deep breath and released it slowly. Her gaze was still locked on Marie’s. ‘I kept Tim Meriwether out of the loop, and it cost Fiori her life.’ She raised her hand to prevent Fiori’s response, ‘And now every day we fear for him as well. Deacon has had the upper hand long enough. We’ve got to stop fighting a defensive battle.’ She slid off the chair and knelt in front of Marie, taking her hands in hers. ‘Marie, if you’re willing, we can show you everything, we can help you understand.’ She squeezed her hands hard. ‘But it won’t be easy for you. It may be the hardest thing you’ve ever done.’

‘Understanding would be a good start.’ The hammering of Marie’s heart in her throat felt like it would suffocate her.

‘You have already dreamed with us and thus inadvertently participated in our magic,’ Anderson said, moving still closer to her. ‘One can only imagine how confusing that must have been with you having no context for such an experience.’

For the first time, the fire in her pelvic girdle calmed to an even spread of warmth. ‘This isn’t going to go away, is it? What’s happening to me, what I’ve become?’

‘No,’ Anderson whispered. 

And Tara shook her head, her eyes dark and sympathetic.

‘And afterwards?’ The words pressed themselves up her throat.

Tara released a long sigh. ‘Afterwards, once you understand, then we’ll teach you how to cope. We’ll teach you how to use your magic. We’ll teach you what’s good and wonderful about becoming what you are, what we all are.’

Marie closed her eyes and swallowed hard, then looked around at everyone, they all seemed slightly out of focus, but before she could respond, Anderson spoke. 

‘Tara, my love, you realise the risk you will be taking, I have no doubt. But do you not think it wise to inform Marie of the risk she will be taking?’

Tara turned to Marie, whose hands she still held. ‘You might die, or worse.’

There was a collective intake of breath in the room, all ghostly. Marie found herself calmer than she could remember being in months, maybe years.

‘And if I don’t do this magic with you? If I go home and try to ignore you like Tim has?’

‘You might die, or worse,’ Tara repeated.

‘And this Deacon guy, will he leave me alone?’

Tara’s eyes darkened and the emotions that flooded her face were too many and too fast for Marie to read, but for the tiniest of seconds she caught a glimpse of sorrow so deep that it left her breathless. Then Tara’s mask was once again firmly in place. She shook her head. ‘Never, not as long as I’m alive he won’t.’

The answer really came as no surprise, though the fact that it didn’t, the fact that it didn’t shake her resolve surprised her a lot. She held Tara’s gaze. ‘Then I don’t really see that I have a choice, do I?’

Into the charged atmosphere, the doorbell rang, repeatedly accompanied by a heavy pounding. Only Marie jumped.

A knowing look passed between Tara and Anderson, and the ghost rose to answer the door.

Before Tara could continue with what she had been saying there was a loud commotion in the hallway, a sound of something heavy crashing on the floor, and Tim Meriwether burst into the room with Anderson right behind him. ‘Where is she?’ He was shouting, breathing like he’d just ran a marathon. ‘Where’s Marie?’

He stopped at the door with Anderson nearly ploughing into him and took in the scene, Sky and Fiori were seated in wing backed chairs to one side and Tara still knelt on the floor with Marie’s hands in hers.

The clench of his jaw, the tension along his neck muscles combined with his uncombed hair and untucked shirt caused a different kind of tingle at Marie’s centre. His icy gaze fell on Tara. ‘Get away from her.’ His voice was little more than a low growl.

‘Tim, what the fuck is the matter with you,’ Marie began. ‘You can’t just walk in –’

‘It’s all right,’ Tara interrupted. Her voice was calm and suddenly very remote. She gave Marie’s hands another reassuring squeeze and moved back to her chair. Tim stormed in and grabbed Marie by the arm, but she jerked away. ‘What the hell’s going on, who do you think you are –’

‘Did she tell you it was her? She didn’t, did she?’ He cut her off and threw a venomous glance at Tara. Anderson bristled, but Tara calmed him, calmed them all with a quick look. All except for Tim Meriwether.

‘Tim, what the hell are you on about?’ The anger and irritation at Tim’s bad behaviour gave way to something a little more frightening as his gaze came to rest on Fiori, and his eyes darkened. 

Then he addressed Tara again. ‘If you don’t tell her, I will.’ He grabbed Marie by the arm and manhandled her from her seat. ‘We’re leaving, Marie, now, while we still can.’

‘I’m not going anywhere, damn it!’ she jerked back so hard that she lost her balance and toppled back onto the sofa. ‘What the hell’s wrong with you? Tell me what?’

‘Tara didn’t tell you that she’s the one who killed Fiori, did she? That she’s actually the one who snapped Fiori’s neck.’ Before anyone could respond he shot another glance at Fiori. ‘Did you think I couldn’t tell? Did you think I wouldn’t know? And yet here you sit like her lap dog after what she did. Is that how she controls you? Did she do it to you too?’ He nodded to Sky, who bristled, then calmed at Tara’s glance. 

‘Where the hell did you get that idea,’ Marie slapped at him as he grabbed for her again. ‘That’s not what happened. I saw what happened. It was Deacon. Deacon killed Fiori, and who the hell do you think you are waltzing in here and –’