Dread Nemesis of Mine (5 page)

"It could be due to what he is," Bella said.
"Little is known about his kind, but anecdotal evidence would point
to them as inhuman in the way they experience emotion, almost like
a psychopath. It's highly unlikely he's a friend to Ivy, at least
in his view. Ivy, however, may feel quite differently. She is a
little girl after all."

I balled my hands into knuckle-cracking fists
and stormed away from the table. I wanted to hit something. Break
it. Find Maximus and pound him into toothpaste. I took a deep
breath. And another. It did little to curb my murderous rage, but
the juvenile desire to smash one of Shelton's tables faded. I could
do this. I'd faced rough odds before, and when I wasn't jumping
headfirst without thinking, I could usually figure my way out.

My gaze went automatically to Elyssa. Her
bright eyes met mine. Fierce determination blazed within and she
set her jaw in a grim line. She was my strength. My love.
Confidence surged within my chest, pushing out the helplessness I'd
felt. With her and my friends, I would find Ivy and save her. And
if I got to break Maximus's teeth along the way, so much the
better.

I smiled. Bella flinched back, eyes wide.

"Do I have broccoli on my teeth or
something?" I said.

The Arcane shook her head. "No, but you
smiled like a wolf who has cornered a baby deer."

I walked back to the table and took a seat.
"Elyssa, I assume the Templars are tracking Maximus. Can they tell
me where he is now?"

"I'll make some calls," she said, and walked
across the room, phone in hand.

"Shelton, any idea when this recording was
made?"

He picked up the ASE and examined it. "Since
the video didn't show the date, I'll have to hack into the file
system and see if the device date-stamped the recording."

I leaned back, confused. "A file system? But
isn't this a magical thingy?"

He groaned. "That's a whole other can of
worms, hotshot."

"Give me the abridged version."

"The files are in ArcOS format, just like the
spells you can save on your phone."

That much I could understand. "Will you check
out the dates for me?"

"Yeah, sure, but it'll take a little while to
hook it up." Shelton turned to Bella. "Why don't you give Mr.
Bossypants here a lesson while I dig into this?"

Bella took my arm, and turned her violet eyes
on me. "Are you up to it, Justin?"

I nodded. "Yeah, it'll help take my mind
off…things."

She took me into the large testing room, back
to a quiet section. "You've been practicing your circles?"

"Yep. I can get a circle up in no time now."
I pulled out my handy-dandy chalk from a plastic pouch on my belt
and knelt. In a blur of supernatural speed, I whipped a small
circle around me, pressed a thumb against the line, and willed it
closed. The air crackled and snapped. Magical energy pressed
against me. I rubbed out the line with a foot and felt the energy
rush out.

"Excellent," Bella said. "And you've
practiced the basic spells?"

Basic
was hardly the term I'd use to
describe the spells she and Shelton had me practice. One was
blowing out a candle. Another was lighting the candle. I'd managed
to blow the candle off its pedestal where it set fire to the
curtains in Elyssa's bedroom. And while trying to light the candle,
I'd managed to melt the wax to a puddle without ever actually
lighting the wick.

"Uh, yeah, I did some practicing."

Bella arched an eyebrow. "I take it your fine
control is still lacking."

"You might say that."

"You didn't hurt anyone this time, did
you?"

I fended off her question with a wave of my
hands. "No, nobody lost any hair the last few times."

"Because Shelton wasn't happy about losing
his eyebrows. I still don't know how you managed—"

"Can we start? Please?" I looked around the
room for the candles I'd been using for practice, but didn't see
them.

She smiled. "Today, we'll be entering another
phase of control. I hope you've been running through the meditation
rituals."

"I haven't really had a chance. It's only
been a couple of days."

"Well, you're going to need proper meditation
skills to light a candle, Justin. And since you won't be able to
rely on circles for everything, you need to learn how to fill your
internal well with energy." She touched my stomach just above the
naval. "I can't emphasize enough just how important it is you learn
to fill your well."

I crossed my arms. "I think you and Shelton
have emphasized it nonstop ever since I started taking lessons a
week ago."

"Well, today, you're going to learn the steps
to filling it."

The demon side of me knew what it felt like
to fill a well of energy. When I fed on emotions, it sated a need
nothing else could. That energy enhanced my preternatural strength,
speed, and other abilities. It also could trigger my ability to
manifest or spawn into full demon form. Feeding my incubus side
required a certain kind of meditation of its own. Otherwise, my
target could be overtaken by lust and do all sorts of embarrassing
things. I'd nearly done the deed in the meat department of a
grocery store the first time I'd unknowingly tried to feed from a
woman.

Bella led me through a series of breathing
exercises, telling me to focus on the magical energy in the
environment around me. After a while, I thought I felt something,
only to realize I was just light headed from all the breathing
exercises.

I steadied myself against a wall. "All this
is doing is making me dizzy. Isn't there a better way?"

She narrowed her eyes, violet like Elyssa's
since she too was a dhampyr, as well as an accomplished Arcane.

Some people are just
overachievers
.

"Do you remember the first time you learned
to whistle? Or snap your fingers?" she asked.

"Uh, not really. I do remember the first time
I learned to burp on command by sucking air into my esophagus."

Bella groaned. "Justin, you have to feel the
magic around you before you can absorb it."

"I feel it when I make a circle."

"Yes, but you can't always stop and make a
circle to fill your well." She gestured at the air around us. "Your
well is only so large—a finite container you must constantly
replenish from the world around you. Making a circle to do this
would be very impractical."

Elyssa appeared from around the corner, a
small frown on her face.

I walked to her. "What did you find out?"

"I spoke directly to Commander Salazar. He
said Maximus is definitely in Bogota and, as far as he knows,
hasn't left."

"Will he help me rescue Ivy?"

She bit her lip. "I don't know. He was
planning to hit Maximus before, well, you know."

I raised an eyebrow. "You mean before he sent
the Templar army after me when good old Franco, the drug lord, held
me captive?"

"Yep. Christian said he's holding back on an
assault because the number of vampires in Max's stronghold have
increased exponentially and he doesn't have enough people."

"Wait a minute, I know Maximus has been
recruiting noms, but unless something has changed, he still can't
turn them into vampires, right? Is Christian sure they're all
vampires?" A chilling thought went through me. "And what about
vamplings?"

Elyssa shook her head. "I don't know." She
blew out a frustrated breath. "He only told me what he did as a
favor."

In any case, I knew exactly where I was
headed. No matter how hard I tried to stay out of trouble, it found
me. It seemed I had no choice unless I could turn off my emotions
and turn my back on the people I cared about. The irony of the
situation was very clear.

It looked like Thomas Borathen would get to
see me off to Colombia after all.

Elyssa gripped me in a fierce hug. "It'll be
okay. I know you hate it when my dad bosses you around. I'll talk
with him and work something out."

I kissed her on her lovely forehead and
forced a grin. "I know, babe. I know."

Someone cleared their throat. I turned and
saw Bella tapping her foot impatiently.

"We should practice more before you run off,
young man." She motioned me back over.

Elyssa nodded. "We're going to need every
advantage if what Christian says is true."

"I'll be more of a liability than an asset if
I have to rely on magic," I said with a groan. Hard to believe, at
one point, I'd wanted to learn magic so badly. But after finding
out I couldn't wave a wand, say a silly word, and defeat
practitioners of the dark arts, some of the—ahem—magic had gone out
of learning.

Bella made me sit down in a chair and resume
my meditations. Instead of meditating, I found myself thinking
about Elyssa. I sensed her hot, welcoming presence nearby, thanks
to my incubus sixth sense. We'd made love for the first time in a
dingy hotel room just a week ago. Talk about
magic
. I sent
out a questing tendril of incubus essence and found the halo of her
aura feet away. She seemed amused with my academic efforts.

I tapped against her halo. She flinched, and
for a moment, her defenses sprang up reflexively, cold and
impersonal. Then she realized it was me and opened up, even more
amused than before. But beneath the surface of her amusement
simmered love, spiced with a bit of lust. My demon senses burned
with desire to dive right in. But if I did it without tempering my
mood, Elyssa and I might get more than we bargained for. I sure as
heck didn't want us to rip each other's clothes off in front of
Bella.

Easing back on the throttle, I evened out my
emotions, trying to match her amusement, rather than the lust.

"Do you feel anything yet, Justin?" Bella
said, seemingly from somewhere far off as I concentrated.

Oh, I felt something all right. I felt a grin
spread across my face and quickly tightened my mouth so as not to
give myself away. With my incubus senses extended, I could taste
some of Bella's emotions, namely frustration and concern. She
really cared about me and was worried sick about my abilities. A
wave of guilt came over me. Here I was, screwing around while she
was dedicating time and energy toward helping me.

Easing back on the emotional throttle, I
started slowly withdrawing my senses, trying to focus instead on
the magical energy in the air around me. The thread of my essence
abruptly tingled in a way it never had before. The feeling was so
alien, it shocked me out of my trance and my eyes jolted open.

"What is it?" Bella asked.

"I felt something weird."

"Describe it."

I shrugged. "I dunno. All tingly. It made me
feel funny."

"Funny?" She took a seat across from me, gaze
intense.

"Well, not funny like when someone touches
you in your no-no place, but—"

"Justin, be serious."

I sighed. "Let me see if I can find it
again." I closed my eyes and breathed deep. Nothing happened for
what seemed an eternity. I realized whatever I'd done had been with
my incubus senses extended, so I pushed it out in different
directions. Still, nothing happened. Setting aside the emotions
emanating from Elyssa and Bella, I forced back my own frustration
and probed for the strange sensation again.

All of my senses tingled with such
abruptness, I yelped and jerked back. My chair fell over backwards
with me in it. Bella leaned down, her violet eyes laughing at me
though her mouth held a firm line. She offered a hand and pulled me
up with dhampyric strength that belied her petite frame.

"I think you've found the magic," she said, a
note of triumph in her voice.

"Did you really?" Elyssa said, eyes wide with
delight.

I grinned. "That's magic? It feels nothing
like when it's trapped in a circle."

"How does it feel?" Elyssa said. "All I feel
when I'm in a circle is pressure in my ears."

"You don't feel the static in the air?" I
asked.

She shook her head.

"Strange." I shrugged. "I feel pressure in my
ears, too. Depending on the amount of magic in the circle, it's
like an electric charge in the air." I set my chair upright and sat
again, extending my incubus senses. When I focused on the tingling
sensation, it flooded back, nearly overwhelming me. It wasn't
unpleasant, just weird.

"Do you feel it?" Bella asked.

I opened my eyes, maintaining my link.
Usually when my demonic senses were active, I saw the ghostly,
glowing auras of the people around me and sensed their emotions.
Looking at Bella and Elyssa, I saw them now, both glowing and
healthy with positive emotion. In addition, I noticed a smoky haze
in the air and motes of bright light, some drifting lazily, others
zipping past like little stars. A bright ball of white the size of
my head rotated around a similarly sized ball of glowing black,
their twin orbits carrying them down until they vanished into the
ground. Tiny capillaries of light pulsating between black, white,
and gray ran through the floor and the walls as well. The lines
zigged and zagged in places, sometimes broadening into finger width
streams before narrowing into a line so thin as to be almost
invisible.

I reached my hand for a hazy puff of gray
floating before my eyes. It swirled around, insubstantial as a
cloud, feeling like nothing to my hand. A spark of flickering
ultraviolet passed through Bella's head and out the other side. I
snatched at it, but my hand closed on nothing.

"What are you doing?" Bella asked, dodging
away.

"The magic. It's all around us!"

She quirked an eyebrow. "Yes, that's
generally true."

"And it's like little clouds shooting stars,
and lines."

Her other eyebrow climbed even with the
first. "What are you talking about?"