Enlightened (Love and Light Series) (7 page)

Shaking uncontrollably, she grabbed a pair of gray sweat pants and an old pink pullover from the closet floor, tucking them under her arm. She tugged a boot on, hopping across the floor on one foot. Cracking the door open less than an inch, she peered through the little space. The raven was still perched in the dogwood. She bolted for the closet by the front door. Yanking her shearling jacket off the hanger, she felt for her purse and keys on the top shelf. She paused.

Hmmmm hmmmm hmmmm

Clothes and purse dangling from her arms, she burst out the front door, sprinting across the circular driveway to her Jeep. Leaping in, her hands shook so bad it took several attempts to fit the key into the ignition. The car roared to life, and she threw it into reverse. Flipping on the headlights, she wrenched the gearshift into drive and stole a glance at the dogwood—
yep, still there
—then spun the wheel, spraying gravel. The raven flapped fitfully and took off as she careened down the driveway, leaving long divots in her wake.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Loti screeched to a halt in front of her friend’s farmhouse in five minutes flat–a ten minute drive under normal circumstances. White-knuckling the steering wheel, she peered into the rearview mirror, half-expecting a pair of glowing eyes or the raven. When nothing manifested, she turned her wide eyes to the front porch, a loud rushing in her ears. It took a minute, but the blue porch light penetrated her voided mind, and she realized she was holding her breath. But when she tried to breathe, her constricted lungs fought back. Grimacing, she pried her stiff hands from the wheel and fumbled around in the glove box for her inhaler. The screen door flew open, and Rachel ran down the porch steps, flinging the Jeep’s door wide as Loti took a hit off the inhaler.

“What the hell’s going on, Loti? I got your message.” She yanked at Loti, who sat motionless behind the wheel, inhaler held mid-air. They stared at each other, Loti’s eyes glassy and wild, until she let her breath out in a harsh huff. She took her first deep breath since she woke from the nightmare.

“What are you still doing up?” she rasped, blinking rapidly.

Rachel gawked. “Are you serious? What. The. Hell?”

A toxic mix of adrenalin, cortisol, and albuterol raced through Loti’s bloodstream. Nauseous, she tasted copper and her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. She tried licking her lips, but she couldn’t make enough spit. Dropping the inhaler in her lap, she groped around for her stuff.

“You’re in your nightgown. Its freezing,” Rachel yelped as she leaned into the car to turn off the engine and retrieve the keys.

“Put this on.” Rachel draped her coat over Loti’s shoulders as she helped her walk.

“I don’t know what happened.” Loti laid a tremulous hand on her clammy forehead. A tingling frothed up her spine and she bent over, barfing on the brick walkway. The screen door slammed shut. She snapped her head up, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. A dark figure stood on the porch, hands in his pockets. The porch light cast a blue halo around him, so that it was impossible to make out any features. Straightening, her heart pounded as she clutched the wad of clothes tighter.

“Nice outfit.” He chuckled.

She rubbed at the strange vibration in her chest as she looked down at her nightgown and Uggs, her cheeks and ears burning, cold sweat dripping down her back.

“Wolf,” Rachel warned.

“Hey, just saying. Here—” He braced a booted foot on the top step and held out his hand to Loti. She looked at it like it might bite her. “Give me your hand,” he said like he was talking to a child.

Dizzy and covered with a sick slick of sweat, she managed a glare “I don’t need your help, thank you very much.” She clipped each word as she spoke, and he lifted both hands.

“Have it your way,” he rumbled and backed up as she skirted the puddle of vomit and stomped into the house. She clenched her jaw so hard, her teeth hurt. Rolling her neck a few times to ease the tension, she leaned on the kitchen table. Glancing at Wolf, it dawned on her how rude and silly she was being. The man hadn’t—check that—the vampire hadn’t said or done anything that bad. So, what was her problem? The freak show she witnessed at her house? Her queasy stomach? That insane buzzing in her spine?

She wobbled into the living room and dropped her stuff on the big, blue chair by the fireplace. An inviting fire crackled behind the screen, so she held her hands to it, giving herself time to gather her wits. Shivering, she looked down and moaned.
Oh, good lord.
This was the nightgown David had always loved because it was just clingy and see-through enough to get him hard. Her face burning, she casually crossed her arms over her chest, but they would be getting a little show from the back side, too. She wasn’t wearing any underwear. Who slept in their underwear? Rachel trotted over to her, picking up Loti’s bag from the chair.

“Why don’t you get into something warm, Loti? You’ll feel better.” Rachel pressed the bag into Loti’s arms and steered her toward the bathroom, walking behind her to block the view. “Help yourself to anything you need.” The bathroom door almost closed, then opened far enough for Rachel to tuck her head inside. Gesturing at her head, she whispered, “Brush your hair.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

Loti collapsed into the blue chair-and-a-half by the fireplace with a cup of Rachel’s herbal tea, a special blend that calmed and cleared. Loti’s head pounded and her mouth was dry as if she’d been on a drinking binge or taken one of David’s Vicodin, but she’d done neither, so what the heck?

“Feeling any better?” Rachel asked, curling up on the brown couch on the other side of the glass coffee table. The vampire crossed an ankle over his knee and stretched his long arms along the back of the couch. His lips parted as he stared at Loti.

“Better, yes,” she nodded, shifting in her seat. “But still strange. Maybe it’s just late, but I’m having a hard time clearing my head.”

She peeked at Wolf’s high cheekbones and full lips as energy ants marched up her spine. Scratching her back against the chair like a bear with an itch, she studied his strong jaw and prominent nose in the flickering firelight. She was used to a certain amount of prickly sensations, but this was more, harsher and incessant. She gulped her tea. With a little curl to the corner of his mouth, he stared back. The soft lighting highlighted the small, crescent dimple in his cheek, but his eyes . . . they were so brown, almost black, that she couldn’t tell where the irises ended and the pupils began. She couldn’t look away from them; they went on forever and the ants trooped faster up her back.

 Rachel cleared her throat. “I guess I should officially introduce you two.”

Loti startled.

“Loti, this is Wolf,” Rachel said, setting her mug on the table. “And Wolf, this is Loti, my best friend.”

“Nice to meet you.” Loti rubbed her eyes.

“Same here.” He nodded, his smile captivating as he dropped his leg and leaned his elbows on his knees, hands dangling between them. His long hair slithered over his shoulders as he moved and energy slid up her back, hugging the nape of her neck. Her jaw unhinged as she got the firm impression that his smile, his movements, the vampire himself was causing the unnerving sensations.

“What are you doing?” Loti’s cheeks flushed pink.

He blinked, and the ants stomped up her spine, down her arms and legs, both cool and warm at the same time.

“Hey!” She rubbed her arms. “Are you doing that?” Her voice was thick with uneasiness.

“Wolf?” Rachel sat up a little straighter as she raised her voice. “Tell us what you’re doing.”

He ignored her. Loti put down her mug and concentrated on Wolf and the buzzing in her spine and was struck by the change in his energy. His signature was still vampire, but now there was something else—witch? If she had to describe what she felt around witches, she’d say their energy was bigger, but since she couldn’t actually see it—more voltage would be more accurate. However, she suspected that wasn’t it. She’d come to believe over the years that witches, and healers too, were somehow more connected to the universal energy, so they felt like they had more power. Vampire energy was more defined, denser and closer to the body. Wolf had both, which didn’t make sense. Her skin crawled with energy everywhere, and Loti clapped her hands in rapid succession.

“Okay, that’s enough. Tell me what you’re doing.” She battled the urge to wriggle in the chair as his eyes concentrated on her hers, and she thought,
he’s beautiful
.

Without taking his eyes off of her, he sat back, draping his arms over the back of the couch. “I wasn’t doing anything,” he said, smiling that disarming smile.

“Then what was all that?” Loti grimaced at the way her insides went all melty and liquid.

“What?” Both of his eyebrows rose.

“What I was feeling.” She narrowed her eyes.

He mirrored her expression. “What are you feeling?”

“Energy crawling up my spine, and . . . ” She groped for the words. “When you were . . . whatever you were doing, it got more intense and spread.” She huffed at herself.

His smile faltered, but he caught it and put it back in place. God help her, she couldn’t stop staring at his smooth, black hair or his rugged, handsome face—
oh dear lord, what a cliché
—but that was how he looked. He rubbed his smooth chin, holding her gaze prisoner as he stretched out long legs, crossing heavy engineer boots.

“Wolf? Are you doing something?” Rachel scooted to the edge of her seat.

“What would I be doing, Rachel?” He glanced at her, breaking the spell.

 Loti picked up her tea with downcast eyes. Her toes curled. Rubbing her knuckles over the corners of her mouth, she hoped she hadn’t let her jaw go slack or drooled all over herself.
No, no drool.

“I know. But, um...” Rachel frowned at Loti, “maybe it’s from what happened tonight?” She sounded like she was trying to convince herself.

Loti peeked over her cup, looking back down when she realized Wolf was looking straight at her. And those eyes. . . they roiled. Biting her lip she lowered the handle-less cup and wrapped her hands around the blue glaze finish. Aware of the silence, she glanced up. Rachel and Wolf held hands, both sets of eyes glazed over.

“I think. . .” Rachel barely moved her lips. “I can sense it. Her energy seems more intense, and then there’s an absence really.”

“What’s absent?” Loti straightened, her eyes flaring. “Has someone messed with me? What in the hell? Why would anyone—”

“Shh,” Wolf soothed. “You’re getting upset. It’s changing your energy, making it harder to . . .” His voice trailed off.

Her nails bit into her sweaty palms, but she took a shaky breath, held it for a brief moment then let it out with a whoosh. Her lungs felt stiff and achy, but after several deep breaths, they eased and her heartbeat slowed.

“That’s good,” Rachel whispered.

Leaning back in the chair, Loti closed her eyes. Not looking at Wolf helped. She wondered what he could sense about her and tried not to blush, but in the end, it was pointless to worry about it. Vampires could smell emotions; they’re mostly hormones and brain chemicals. And what they couldn’t smell years of experience filled in the blanks.

“There has definitely been a wipe.” Rachel re-focused her gaze and dropped Wolf’s hand.

“What does that mean?” Loti’s eyes flew open as she jumped out of her seat. “Has someone messed with my memories?”

“No, nothing like that. She means someone has come into contact with your subtle energy and covered their tracks, erased the evidence.” Wolf’s eyes followed her as she paced the floor with fluid, graceful strides.

 “If they covered their tracks, how do you know they were there?” Her stomach flipped at the thought of someone—or something—getting that close without her knowledge. Then again, she
had
sensed something tonight—something not nice. Something scary.

“How?” she demanded, stopping in front of Wolf, the coffee table between them.

“Well, I think the more important questions are who? And why?” He stood up and Loti tilted her head up to look into his face. He was at least a head taller than her.

 “I agree, but, Wolf, I’m . . . ah . . .” She faltered, not sure how to explain her abilities.

“Loti’s some kind of intuitive,” Rachel jumped in. “We think she’s in the same league as a healer, but not quite. She should have been able to sense this happening.”

Wolf raised an eyebrow, and Loti almost burst out laughing as the gesture conjured images of old Star Trek episodes. Wolf smiled back like he was trying not laugh, too “Ah, I see. Then whoever did this is more powerful than we are.” He turned toward the kitchen. “I’m going outside for a smoke.”

With an incredulous stare, Loti mouthed,
He smokes?

Rachel shrugged. “Hey, it can’t kill him,” she said as she walked into the kitchen. “I’m going to make more tea.”

Loti followed, packing more unwanted emotions away for later. Why did it bother her? Yes, David had died of lung cancer, but Rachel was right. Vampires didn’t have to worry about those things.
Who’s Wolf to me anyway? Why should I worry about him? So what if he smokes?

You’re the walking wounded, girlfriend, that’s why. That skin’s been burned
.

She grimaced at the two voices in her head—the didactic, wise old woman and the scared, defensive young one. The warrior and the wounded. The sage and the grasshopper.

She stuffed those thoughts away for later. “Hey, were you two scanning me back there? I thought you needed several witches to do that?”

“Wolf and I figured out a way to do it years ago. Something about his energy augmenting my abilities, remember? I told you we experimented with magic?”

Loti screwed up her mouth and inhaled noisily through her nose. “I didn’t know vampires could practice magic.”

“They can’t.” Rachel stared at the water flowing out of the faucet. When the stainless steel kettle was full, she set it on the stove. As the water heated, she filled the cloth tea bag with herbs. With closed eyes, she cupped the bag in both hands, holding it up to her mouth as she mumbled an incantation. When she blew on the tea bag, it soaked up Rachel’s breath like a sponge.