Witch Heart

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Adam glanced at Theo and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "As a witch, I don't feel good about stopping in a place named Salem, even if it's in Missouri."

Claire had to think for a moment before she got the reference to Salem, Massachusetts, and the witch trials. It had been a part of her education, stuffed away in the back of her brain.

She often felt one step behind everyone else. In the car between Ames, Iowa, and the restaurant in Missouri where they'd received the bad news, he and Theo had talked about something called a Slinky and it had perplexed her for a good half hour.

They were making their stand in a rented cabin out in the middle of the woods near Salem. A town selected because it had a store that dealt in rare weaponry and antiquities. Theo had found that out by searching for stores that met their needs on something called Google accessed from a small electronic box he called a PDA.

They were fortunate enough to locate a mecca for collectors, a store that boasted lots of copper weaponry, among other things. Adam was delighted to find a copper sword. All the copper weapons Theo and Adam had brought from the Coven had been left at the house in Crocus Hill.

Their shopping spree left them well-armed, but Claire knew it would come down to magick, not swords or knives.

Since they couldn't go to the Atrika, they were going to let the Atrika come to them. The cabin in the woods meant they'd be able to fight freely and not draw attention from nonmagickicals.

"I think it's kind of fitting," announced Theo as they brought in the last of what they'd purchased from the car. "Witches are always burned in Salem."

"Sure, now he gets a sense of humor," muttered Adam.

From what Claire knew of the kind of dark magick the Atrika used, most likely the Atrika already knew their position. They'd probably used the first two witches for some kind of tracking spell. She believed the Atrika would keep the remaining witches alive in case they needed them later for blood magick.

She hoped.

"They'll be driving some kind of van or large SUV. Tinted windows, so no one can see in." She'd been giving them her thoughts on the situation as they worked. "They'll be keeping the witches in stasis."

Theo halted. "Stasis?"

"All daaeman hold venom in their fangs. When they're in a killing rage, the fangs extend. They're like spiders. They bite their victims and render them immobile. Depending on the strength of the venom, the victim may not retain all their senses, but they will stay alive."

Adam took some food out of a brown paper sack in the kitchen. "Boyle bit Isabelle last year, right before he was going to kill her."

Claire shuddered. "Yes, they can keep a victim in stasis for long periods of time with regular doses of their venom."

Adam walked to the huge fireplace that dominated the open living room and started a fire on the logs with a burst of magick. "How long can they endure that without bad side effects?"

Claire shrugged. "On an aeamon. I have no idea. Isabelle is the first I've heard to undergo stasis. The Ytrayi have never used it on me, so I don't know."

Adam's cell phone vibrated and he took it from his back pocket. "Hey, Thomas."

Thomas yelled so loud that Adam jerked and held the phone away from his ear.

"Yeah, I know," answered Adam, "but they're going to catch up with us sooner or later. This way, at least we've got a chance of saving the other witches." He listened for a while and then glanced at her. "I got her covered. Got that covered, too. Yeah, yeah." He snapped his phone closed.

"Thomas not happy with our plan?" asked Theo.

"Nope, but I don't see another option at this point and neither does he. If we keep running, they'll keep chasing and killing witches while they come. Plus, when they catch us, we won't have our heels dug in and be ready for them. Anyway, being chased around goes against my grain. I'm not the running type, are you, Theo?"

"Nope."

"Didn't think so."

Adam walked over and gave her the cell phone. "Micah's going to be calling in a few minutes. He wants you to go somewhere quiet for the call. You can take one of the bedrooms while Theo and I finish getting set up."

"All right." She took the phone from him and he grabbed her wrist, deliberately stroking his warm fingers over the inside of her hand. His gaze held hers. There seemed to be a world of emotion and unsaid things in his eyes.

All she wanted right now was to find the couch or a bed and curl with him. He made her feel safe, loved, protected—cherished. She wanted the world to go away, the Atrika, all of it.

In that one moment she wanted Adam with all she was.

With effort she pulled from his grasp. "Thanks." The phone felt smooth and warm from Adam's hand. She walked into one of the two bedrooms off the living room and shut the door behind her.

The cabin was posh. It was rented out to rich people who liked to hunt or go for romantic interludes, according to Adam.

It was just a vacation spot, but she'd happily make it her home if she could. It was a pity it was so nice, since with the Atrika on the way it was likely to be badly damaged.

There were two bedrooms, both decorated in dark primary colors. Overstuffed furniture with lots of pillows and throw blankets were scattered throughout the space. This bedroom had a king-size bed, a long carved wood dresser, numerous brightly colored area rugs covering the hardwood floors. It even had its own bathroom.

As soon as she'd sat down on the bed, the cell vibrated in her hand. "Hello?"

There was a long pause on the other end. "Claire?" queried a rich, low voice on the other end.

"Yes?"

"It's such a privilege to finally talk to you." Pause. The man sounded a little awed. "Wow. I have so many things to ask you I can't even pick one thing."

Claire smiled into the receiver. His voice quavered with excitement. "I'm told you're sort of the Coven archivist and you've been studying as much of Eudae and the daaeman breeds as you can."

"Night and day. It's my obsession. I'm the Coven's walking encyclopedia of all things demon. We didn't know very much before the ordeal last year with Erasmus Boyle. Since then our base of information has really exploded, but there's still lots of things we don't know."

"Well, Micah, I'd be happy to add to your knowledge whenever you like."

"Thank you so much." He blew out a hard breath. "Okay, let me organize my thoughts a moment. I called about the elium, specifically. The rest will have to wait. Our goal is to keep you alive and the elium out of the hands of the Atrika."

"I would appreciate that."

"Over the last year, ever since Thomas was in Eudae and we were trying so hard to get him back, I've been amassing texts. Lots of them are ancient, books of legend and myth that the world thinks are just legend and myth. Many obscure religious texts. Among the books I've been procuring, there's one called the Dai Codex. In it, I found references to elium. What it is. How it works."

"How to get it out of me?" Metallic desperation coated the back of her tongue at the question.

He didn't answer for a moment. "I'm still working on that one, Claire."

She closed her eyes in defeat.

"But we do know more about elium, so we're getting closer."

She opened her eyes. "It's a weapon. I know that much. Adam reached in and sort of… tasted it and it's made of elemental Eudae."

"Demon magick."

"Yes."

"It is a weapon. Claire, you're carrying a magickal weapon big enough to destroy all the magick on Earth and probably Eudae, too, if it's used toward that end. It can kill, as well, render death to thousands if employed with that aim."

She touched the bone between her breasts — over the seat of her magick — with shaking fingertips. On some level, she'd already known that. The heaviness of it weighed her down inside. Death. Destruction. All hiding within her. Resonating like a tuning fork to the energies of the Atrika.

Like to like.

"It's the equivalent of a super-charged EMP blast," he continued. "Only in this case it would render all elemental magick hit by it null. It would also affect all the elements within the strike radius in a negative way — earth, air, water, and fire. The world would be plunged into utter chaos if the elium was ever fully deployed."

"You make it sound like I'm carrying a nuclear bomb."

"You are. Essentially for witches and daaeman, you are carrying a nuclear bomb. I expect that the Ytrayi probably used the elium as a threat against the Atrika. Rue probably carried it himself. But Rue probably also understood that while the Ytrayi wouldn't use the elium as anything other than a way to press the Atrika into certain behavior, the Atrika wouldn't hesitate to deploy it in order to wrest control of Eudae from their enemies."

"So when they broke into the palace, he panicked and passed it to me."

There was a long pause that made Claire's stomach tighten.

"A normal witch — a normal aeamon—wouldn't be able to carry the elium, Claire. I wonder how much of his tweaking of your magick over the years was in preparation for just such an event." He drew a long, slow breath. "I also wonder if he imbued you knowing that no one, not even the Atrika, would be able to extract it."

Her hand tightened on the phone. Had Rue done that? Had he planned since the day he'd made her handmaiden at the tender age of eight to give her the elium in the case of an Atrika uprising? Had he allowed her to sleep next to him all those years with such cold-hearted intentions?

"You said you're still working on finding out if you can get it out of me." Her voice was barely a whisper.

"I am. Claire, lam. Everything I just said, it's a theory. Not proven. I just don't feel like I can keep you in the dark about the possibilities in play."

"I appreciate that."

"I am doing all I can to discover a way to take the elium out of you. Until we make progress on that front, you might be able to use the elium against the Atrika."

She shook her head, even though she knew he couldn't see her. "Every time I touch it, it makes me sick."

"Let Adam help you."

She frowned. "What?"

"You said he tasted the elium. That's one of his special skills. We all have them, nuances in our magick. One of Adam's is being able to touch other people's power, make small adjustments, and do healings. If you work with him, he might be able to help you acclimate your magick to the elium and get past the sickness. Once you do that, I have no doubt that with your strength, you'll be able to tap and use it."

"Okay, say Adam helps me past the sickness and I can pull threads of the elium, what if I pull too much? What if I nuke the world?"

Pause. Then, he said, "Yeah, don't do that."

She laughed. She couldn't help it. It was the stress, maybe. It bubbled out of her irrationally until tears streamed down her face. It probably didn't do a lot to reinforce Micah's faith in her.

"Look, Claire, I don't know you. However, judging by how I'm told Rue shaped your power over the years, I'm betting you have both the control and the ability to do fine work with the elium. You're probably the only witch on earth who does."

She sobered. "We'd better hope so."

"Yes, because the elium may be the only real weapon you have against the demons hunting you. Also, you should start now. No time to lose."

Nothing like putting a countdown clock on trying to control an alien power that could destroy the world.

Claire drew a steadying breath. "Thank you for calling, Micah."

"It was my pleasure to talk to you, Claire. We'll meet soon at the Coven, I'm sure of it."

Claire wished she could be as certain.

Adam sat cross-legged on the bed facing Claire, her palms resting lightly on his. She closed her eyes and opened herself to him, allowing him to thread a bit of his power through her.

Beyond the room, Theo kept watch. The Atrika could show up at any time, but Adam tried hard not put any additional pressure on Claire to perform. She needed to be relaxed to accomplish this.

When Adam had touched the elium at the house in Crocus Hill, he'd noticed that it was wildly off balance with her normal power. He couldn't do more than brush the elium, but he might be able to regulate Claire's natural magick into alignment with it. That might take away the cause of her sickness and allow her to work with the demon magick.

Theoretically, anyway.

"Okay, Claire, I'm going in."

Her body stiffened and her hands jerked on his almost imperceptibly.

He stroked his thumb across her palm and endeavored to make his voice soothing. "Hey, baby, it's all right. Just take it easy."

She drew a breath and relaxed a little.

"There you go. Now close your eyes and let me in."

Her eyes drifted shut and he drew a tendril of power from the center of his chest. It was easier to find a way into her this time than it had been before. Somehow, someway, she was more open to him now.

Adam found the seat of her magick and was surprised — for the second time — at its strength and vitality. Claire had been a powerful earth witch before Rue had tinkered with her. Now she was the bionic woman of magick. He found the core of that strength and enveloped it with his own power, steadying it.

She tapped the elium, very lightly. The tap resonated outward like a tuning fork, vibrating against his power through the tendrils the elium had wrapped around Claire's seat. He held on tight to her power and felt her magick cringe at the resonating vibration of the elium down the length of those tendrils.

The level of her magick was so out of balance with the elium that it made it back away, sensing a threat within her. That was his theory, anyway.

Using his fire magick, he nudged her seat, forcing her power to swell and defend itself. It worked. His natural healing instincts coming to the fore, every time Claire touched the elium, he adjusted her power using various tricky methods.

Her hands tightened on his. Adam opened his eyes and saw that she was grimacing. "Claire?"

"You're helping, Adam. You are. Normally, I would be passed out by now. But—" She drew a shaky breath. Her face was pale and her forehead glinted with a fine sheen of perspiration.

Panic rose in his throat. "Stop, Claire. Release any hold you have on the elium right now."

"I can't." She shook her head. "I need to learn how to control it."

"Yeah, but not at this high a price. It's making you sick."

She drew another deep breath and her body trembled. He couldn't let her power free of the cradle he was holding it in until she'd completely backed away from the elium. "It feels like it's sucking my life away."

"Let it go." He growled the words. "Wow, Claire."

He felt her release the light hold she had on the elium. Immediately, her eyes fluttered closed and she collapsed backward onto the bed. Adam's thread of power snapped back into him like a rubber band and he was over her in a flash, holding her in his arms.

She lay, shaking and cold. Her shallow breath made his heart beat fast in his chest. "Claire, can you hear me?"

After a moment she nodded, licked her dry, white lips. "Give me a moment."

He stroked her hair. It tickled his nose and he breathed in the scent of her gratefully. "You're scaring me, baby."

She gave a shallow laugh. "I'm scaring myself." She swallowed hard. "It's taking little chunks of my life from me."

"It's not," Adam said in a fierce voice. If it was, he'd kick its ass.

He lay down beside her, spooning against her — her back to his chest — and wrapped his arms around her, trying to get her warmed up. He pulled a thread of power and wrapped her in it, but all the heat he poured into her seemed to just evaporate.

She shivered. "I feel so cold, so dead."

Her words made fingers of dread crawl slowly up his spine. He held her closer and increased the amount of heat in his embrace. She shivered once and then went still.

"Claire?" He sat up, trying to look at her face.

In answer, she rolled to her back, lifted up, and kissed him. But it wasn't just any kiss. This was a full-on fuck-me kiss with all the trimmings.

Her tongue meshed to his, mouth slanted and aggressively pressed to his lips. His body responded like a shot. What had been fear for her only moments ago melted easily into passion.

"Damn it, Claire. You're going to make me crazy with a kiss like that," he whispered against her mouth. "Stop it. You're playing with fire."

"I know I am. I'm trying to make a spark." She studied his face for a moment. "Make me feel alive again, Adam."

Whoa.

"Baby, as much as I want you, now is not the time. We have no idea when the Atrika might show up and—"

She kissed him again, cutting off the rest of his sentence. Finally, she set her forehead to his. "Exactly."

Claire nipped at his lower lip and slipped her hand between their bodies to fondle his already hard cock.

There really was only so much one man could take. Especially, Adam was chagrined to admit, when it came to Claire. She was already like some dark, magickical addiction. When she went after him like this, so aggressively, kissing him this way…

The demons could fucking wait.