Dweller on the Threshold (30 page)

But the faint cry of a trapped spirit around him begged for release. I turned my face away, sucked in a deep breath before looking back. “We have to steal my sister from the hospital before we go to Cypress.”

He didn’t even question why. Just nodded. “Have the pretty boy raise a couple of harmless zombies to distract them. Might be fun.”
 

Chapter Fifteen

The zombie idea turned out to be an excellent one. We were able to snatch my sister while Dooby got creative with the dead. I’d just made him promise not to raise anyone who’d recently died in that hospital.

 
Yeah, I felt a twinge of guilt over terrorizing people already stressed by the Somatic Slumber, but my hesitation was short. What was a little stress when the world was about to end?

Thankfully, Elsa didn’t need a ventilator. We drove to the town with the most Somatic Slumber victims on the pandemic map. Dooby and Blythe argued word and symbol conversion the entre way. After making sure Elsa was comfortable in the hotel room we rented, Nikolos and I left them to work on the translations while the others watched over my sister.

I hadn’t wanted to leave her, but the only thing we knew to do was walk the town and see if we could spot something out of place. Stray spirits…a messiah.
Whatever the hell a messiah was supposed to look like.

Alligator Flag was barely on the map and I could see why. Nikolos and I strode down the one main street that ran from the beginning of the town to the end. It resembled a ghost town right now—not surprising since nearly half the population was in a coma.

“I kind of expected reporters to have picked up on this place by now.” I squinted into the sun, lifting a hand to shield my eyes. The humidity sat on my skin like I’d been rubbed down in butter. But I was still glad for the jeans because the mosquitoes were thick here on the edge of the swamp—even in the daytime. “You’d think media people would be crawling all over a town with so many people sick.”

“They might be afraid to catch it.” Nikolos leaned into a window, cupping his palms on either side of his face to look inside. “This place is closed, too.” It was a bait shop—Roy’s, to be specific. We’d already passed three other bait shops. This town was nothing more than a small tourist stop for those going into the swamp to hunt or fish. The hotel had been a surprise. Surprisingly clean despite its shabby, dated décor.

Fred wandered ahead of us, peering nosily into windows. Phro was being unnaturally quiet. I’d lifted my eyebrows at her several times, silently asking for an explanation, but she merely ignored me. I gave up and turned back to the town.

There were still a few people out and about, running shops or buying groceries. An intermittent stream of cars moved through. I’d had a feeling Nikolos and I would stand out, but when traffic started to slow, I’d stopped and pulled my hat from my pocket to stuff my hair into it.

Yeah, it didn’t help much—not when I was walking next to a gorgeous, raven-haired giant who would never put his hair up for anyone. But then, his didn’t glow in the sun…

He watched me quietly as I messed with my hair. He didn’t question my motives—didn’t give me a hard time for hiding, as Elsa would have. For that, I offered him a smile. A real one.

His gaze went hot and before I had a chance to blink, he stepped close and stared down at me with a look that curled my toes. The heat in the air around us had nothing on the warmth emanating from that big body. I bit my lip and stared back. For an instant, I let my fear for Elsa take a backseat. I lost myself in the wonder of a man who wanted me with the kind of passion I’d thought never to experience.

Before I could let nerves get in the way, I placed one palm on his chest. He pressed his lips to mine. I had to tilt my head so the floppy hat didn’t hit him. He slid his hand around the side of my neck, his thumb still on my chin. He smelled faintly of sweat and the sage incense Blythe had burned to cleanse the hotel room. I breathed deeply to take that scent as far in as possible. Slight whiskers rasped my cheek. I thought about how they’d feel against other parts of my body.

He was smiling when he pulled away. I didn’t know which got to me more. The kiss, the very flattering smile, or the pornographic direction my imagination had gone.

“You’re blushing. It was just a kiss.”

“It was nice.”

“Yes,” he said slowly, touching my cheek. “It was. Though I think the blush comes from something else. Tell me.”

“Never in your wildest dreams.”

He grinned. “I think I’m going to have to take a chance after all. I’ve been considering the fact that maybe—just maybe—you are here to be a part of my wildest dreams.”

I nearly swallowed my tongue. I’d never flirted in my life. He stepped close again and I had to stop my eyes from rolling back in my head with the stunning pleasure I felt up against him like this. Before I realized what he was planning, he’d backed me into a small opening by the side of a shop.

“Go,” I said to my guides just as my back was gently placed against a wall. Never before had I liked or even allowed a man to push me against anything and now I’d let him do this twice. With him, I had the feeling I could push him back and he’d be cool with it.

When he lifted me just far enough to reach his lips, I sighed. I’m strong, yes. I’ve fought monsters and demons and won, yes. But I’m still a woman and it still made my toes curl to have a man stronger than me lift me up. It wasn’t something I ever thought would happen. I couldn’t stop myself from unraveling the bottom of his braid so I could slide that slick, silky hair through my fingers.

“You make me crazy,” I whispered against his lips. “I haven’t reacted to anyone like this before.”

“Me neither.”

I pulled back. “But you’ve been married.”

He stared at my mouth for the longest second before raising those dark eyes to meet mine. He nodded slowly. “I was. I loved both of my wives. Deeply. But they were different. Softer. Even my first wife, who was considered a warrior on our island was smaller.”

That didn’t sound so good to me. He went for small and delicate. I couldn’t get much further from that. “So, I’m something different to try?”

He grinned. “You are tall, strong, and it’s quite possible you could kick my ass in a fair fight. It’s hot. Very hot.”

“You’re messing with me, aren’t you?”

“Yet you are still a woman with a woman’s insecurities. What confuses me is why your insecurities seem so much stronger.” He set me back on my feet and cupped my face, knocking the hat far back on my head. “I look at you and see incredible beauty, intelligence and a deeply felt compassion—something that seems to be missing in this world. I also see a woman who dries up my throat, twists up my tongue and makes my body get hard at inappropriate times.” He dropped a kiss on my mouth. “I see a stunning woman who is strong enough to handle my own strength and that knowledge has me breaking into a sweat. Often.”

“Oh.” All words fled my mind. I swallowed and stared at him and felt everything in me go soft and ready. I suddenly didn’t care that we were barely hidden where someone could come along at any moment. I just wanted to know more of his touch—wanted to know what it would feel like to let myself go with him and know I couldn’t hurt him. I speared my fingers into his hair and watched lust spill into his eyes, watched his nostrils flare. I felt a primitive heat uncurling inside me—something dark and exciting and all… very… much… his.

When I kissed him, I spoke with my mouth, my lips, my tongue. I told him things I wasn’t yet ready to say aloud and I knew he heard them because his hands tightened on me and his breathing picked up pace.

We kissed until I heard a child’s laughter from not so far away. Nikolos pulled back with the most blatant look of regret I’d ever seen on a man. He stepped away just as a couple of kids ran past our hidey hole. They didn’t stop, but the spell had been broken. Nikolos braced on hand on the wall as he worked to catch his breath.

“Well, hmm…” I wrestled my own libido back under control. “This is probably not the best place for um…that, anyway.”

“No. But we’re going to find a better one. Soon.”

I barely stopped the unladylike gulp I nearly let loose. Instead, I nodded quickly and reached up to pull my hat forward again. Stunning. He’d said I was stunning. I was smart enough to realize he was excited by the prospect of me not being easily hurt because of his big hands and big—I stopped thinking right there. Heat filled my cheeks. I had no idea what was big on the man.

Seems I was going to find out.

Nervous anticipation had me skirting around him to get back to the street. It took me a couple of minutes to pull myself out of that sensual fog, so I started back down the sidewalk. “We need to focus on finding this host. What did the first one look like?”

Nikolos fell into step beside me. “That information won’t help us. Each incarnation of the Dweller has been different. I showed you that it’s been inside women as well.”

“Right. So, how did you find the host the first time around again?”

“The majority of sleeping people were there on my island. It wasn’t that large of a place so it was easy to figure out who it was. He stood out, radiated something that made people want to do things for him. He was a fire mage—our healer and heavily protected.”

“So it was hard for you to get to him.”

He shook his head. “No, I was trusted in that household.”

There was something very, very bad in the tone of his voice. A memory he didn’t yet want to revisit.

I was waiting for him to elaborate when there was a loud gasp behind me. I turned to find an elderly woman staring up at me like she’d seen a ghost. She couldn’t have reached five feet and she carried a humongous, crocheted bag in purple and green. She had a purple orchid on the front of her white cap and her straight, iron-gray hair fell to her shoulders. She took a step back, her red lipstick-lined mouth still open.

“Are you okay?” I asked, reaching out to help steady her before she could fall into the road.

 
She nodded and hurried away. I was used to stares from people, but that had been weird. Nikolos and I continued our search for anything out of the ordinary. We spent two hours wandering in and out of stores and the only strange things were the over-the-top reactions from people. Closed-mouthed, annoying people. I was close to bopping heads when Nikolos decided it was time to check on the witch and the necromancer.

When we walked into the hotel room, Dooby sat by the window, mouth slack, eyes glazed.

“What’s with him?” I checked on Elsa before flopping down on the end of the hard-as-nails bed. Wrinkling my nose, I noticed that they’d tried to cover up the old motel smell by burning some incense. The sage earlier should have been enough. This was lavender. I enjoy almost all aspects of nature, but not lavender. I don’t know why. The scent repelled me. I moved closer to Phro, hoping her pineapple would defuse the cloying, flowery scent. I didn’t even bother looking for Fred.

Dooby finally blinked and aimed those incredible eyes at me. “It was supposed to have been burned.”

“Huh?”

He pointed at the book lying open on the small, particle-board desk in the corner. “That book. I can’t believe it’s just here like this. In a cheap motel room. With us.” He gulped. “It’s not the original Key of Solomon—it’s a book that isn’t supposed to exist. It’s without name, but… but…”

When he broke off, I sighed and looked at the witch. “Can you explain without checking out, Blythe?”

She nodded and tried to heft the book, frowned when both Nikolos and Dooby winced and started to reach for it. “I know, handle with care.” She staggered to me and sat down, the book smacking her lap. “The spells in here are like nothing in any spell books we’ve seen. There are a few that I kind of recognize—Dooby, too. But some of these go against everything our training has taught us. There’s a lot more here about your Dweller, only it wasn’t called a Dweller then.”

“Abalam,” Nikolos murmured. He was leaning against the wall across from me.

“We noticed that a part of the inside cover was peeling. Dooby was so upset—it’s a priceless, ancient book, you know.” She paused.

When the silence continued, I guessed she was waiting for me to agree with something I thought obvious. “Blythe, really.”

Sighing, she gently placed her palm on the cover. “Well, Dooby wanted to tape it with something until we could get it to a book restorer. But I, uh, decided to try a little glue spell and accidentally, uh…”

“Caught it on fire,” I finished for her. It was easy to guess with the small black smudges of soot that someone had tried to wipe away. “You know this fire thing is getting out of hand. I really believe you’re supposed to be working
with
the substance, not against it.”

“Duh,” Dooby spat out.

Blythe pointed her finger at him. “Nothing from you. You make mistakes, too. You accidentally raised Bael, didn’t you? Before the witch’s council even got all the spell preparations together.”

Nikolos came off the wall, body tense. “You ‘accidentally’ raised Bael?”

“What?” Dooby shrugged. “I put him right back.”

“You can’t accidentally raise such a powerful demon.”

Dooby started nodding, his long red hair floating around his face. He really did look feminine with his hair down like that. “I’ve done it before. Remember the clown zombies?”