Restless (8 page)

“What the heck was that?” she asked in disbelief.

“I added a bit of my magic to yours,”
he replied. “Sort of like Jenna did when she was helping you practice a few months back.”

Leesa looked at the
scarred rock again. “You definitely added a lot more strength to my magic than she ever did.”

“My magic and yours are
much more similar,” Dominic explained. “That makes it easier for me to do than it would ever be for Jenna.”

Leesa nodded. What Dominic said made sense. Her magic
originated with him, after all. A sudden thought struck her.

“
You used your magic, though,” she said worriedly. “Won’t the black waziri sense it?”

Dominic shook his head. “
Just like when I healed your leg, my magic was filtered through yours again, altering its vibrations. My renegade brethren will not detect it.”

Leesa was
glad to hear that. Now all she had to do in the event of any zombie attack was to make sure she stood close enough to Dominic for the wizard to add his magic to hers and she would be fine. Of course, if they were under attack, Dominic would be far too busy to waste his energy and time augmenting her magic. Still, it had been thrilling to unleash so much power—she just hoped that one day she would be able to summon up something close to that on her own.

Another question popped into her head.

“How come you waited so long to do this?” she asked. “Why didn’t you help me like this from the beginning—adding your magic to mine? I think I could be so much further along by now.”

“Too much too soon is seldom a good thing,” Dominic replied. “
Neither your mind nor your body would have been able to handle it. Remember, I was supposed to be preparing you for your magic long before you turned eighteen and your powers appeared, but unfortunately, things did not work out that way. Also, until you were able to visualize your magic and my magic in the way you did the other day, I could not be sure I could do this safely and without detection. With those new images in your subconscious, I finally felt secure enough to try.”

“
I guess I understand, sort of,” Leesa said. She smiled. “Can we do it again?”

“Of course. That’s the whole point of it, to give you the feel and
a visual of what it is like to have full control of your power. My hope is that this will speed up your progress.”

Leesa
hoped Dominic was right. She spent the next half hour blasting ever larger marks into the face of the rock. When she was finished, it was pockmarked with irregular black circles.

“That was fun,” she said, smiling despite how exhausted she felt now that
Dominic’s magic no longer fueled her.

“
I’m glad you enjoyed yourself.” Dominic’s lips curved into a half smile. “But I hope it was useful, too.”

“
Oh, I’m pretty sure it was,” Leesa assured him. “I’m feeling more confident now than ever.”

“T
hen we have made a good start.” Dominic turned away from the outcropping. “And now I think it is time to get you back home.”

Leesa
allowed herself one last look at the charred rock. She was very pleased with today’s work.

1
1. STAYING DRY

THE FOLLOWING MORNING
broke gray and damp. Leesa stared out the living room window, waiting for Dominic to come pick her up. A light drizzle peppered the glass with tiny drops of water, but the dark, heavy clouds promised heavier rain to come.

Leesa didn’t care about the rain
—unless it messed up whatever practice Dominic had planned for today. She wore a dark blue ball cap atop her head and a carried a waterproof windbreaker draped over her arm. Her hair was gathered into a ponytail she had stuck through the opening at the back of the cap. Waterproof hiking boots would keep her feet dry even if she and Dominic hiked into the woods somewhere.

The
silver SUV eased to a stop in front of the apartment. Leesa slipped into her windbreaker and grabbed an umbrella from the urn beside the door. Outside, she popped the umbrella open and walked down to the car. The rain was already starting to fall harder.

The driver’s side window slid down, revealing a
smiling Dominic.

“What’s got you so amused?” Leesa asked.

“Nothing, really,” Dominic replied. “It’s just that I have never seen a wizard with an umbrella before.”

Leesa glanced up at her umbrella and smiled. “Fledgling wizard,” she reminded him. “Maybe if I could dry myself as quickly and easily as you, I wouldn’t use one either.”

“There are other choices,” Dominic said. “At least, there are when you do not have to worry about drawing attention to yourself.”

He pushed the door open and stepped out
of the car, ignoring the rain. By the time he made it around to the passenger side he was half-soaked.

Leesa closed her umbrella and quickly climbed behind the wheel. She looked over at Dominic. Already, his hair and shirt were beginning to dry.
When she had first seen him perform this trick, she thought it took active magic to do it, but Dominic had explained that his “weather-proofing” was the result of a complicated spell enacted centuries before and so could not be detected by the black waziri. While she wouldn’t mind having a similar spell to keep herself dry—especially since Rave’s inner heat made him pretty much immune to any rain—she knew learning such magic was a very low priority. So for now, an umbrella would be her magic; or, if necessary, she would just get wet.

“Where to
today?” she asked.

“A place I think you
will be very happy to visit,” Dominic said, already completely dry. “How about we go see some volkaanes?”

A big smile bloomed on Leesa’s face. This was a very nice surprise, indeed.

“I think that’s a wonderful idea,” she said happily. “An absolutely wonderful idea.”

She started
the car and headed down the driveway, going perhaps a bit faster than she might have had they been heading for any other destination.

The rain
began pelting down, splashing hard against the windshield and forcing Leesa to switch the wipers to their highest speed. Even so, the reduced visibility demanded her full attention and forced her to slow down. She rarely had to drive in the rain back in San Diego and had only done it a couple of times since moving to Connecticut. She kept both hands tight on the wheel and maintained a speed that was a few miles per hour below the speed limit.

The drive usually took about twenty minutes, but this morning
the weather made it closer to thirty. By the time she spotted the dirt roadway to the volkaane settlement, her neck and shoulders were knotted with tension. She knew the cure for that was just a few moments away—Rave and his magic fingers.

Pulling
the SUV onto the shoulder, she edged the vehicle as far from the highway as possible and turned off the engine. She opened the door just a couple of inches and reached for her umbrella. Even with the door only cracked open, the wind blew the rain in on her. Luckily, it was a warm summer rain, but it was still plenty wet. She was getting ready to stick the umbrella out through the opening to pop it open when Dominic grabbed her arm.

“
Leave the umbrella here,” he told her.

Leesa
twisted around to look at him. “Are you crazy? It’s raining cats and dogs out there. I think I may even have seen a cow or two.”

Dominic smiled. “Remember how I said there were other choices if there
were no worries about attracting attention?”

“Yeah. So?”

“Well, this is a place where you do not have to worry about being seen. The volkaanes already know you have magic, and if someone happens to drive by on the highway, I do not think they will notice.”

Leesa p
ushed the umbrella between her seat and the shift column.

“Okay. What do you want me to do?
Aside from getting soaked, that is.”

“
Your air shield spell can be used to protect you from more than enemy attacks. I think this is a good time to give it some practice.”

Leesa nodded, wondering why she hadn’t thought of that.
The air shield had given her more trouble than any other spell so far, but with all her practice in the last few months, she had gotten reasonably good at it. She didn’t think any of her shields were ready to stand up against a magic attack yet—but she was pretty sure one would stop the rain, no matter how hard it was coming down.

She pushed the car door open, chanting “
Bonduur
” at the same time. In all her practice thus far, she had always created a shield in front of or behind her, but this time she pictured the barrier above her head. A few drops made it through, spattering against her cap and shoulders, before the shield formed a few inches above her and blocked the rest of the downpour.

She
looked up. The raindrops splashed off the invisible shield as if she was holding a sheet of glass above her head. The water ran down off the edges, spilling all around her in tiny waterfalls, almost as if she was standing in the dry center of a whirlpool. The effect was strange and somewhat disconcerting, but she did not let it affect her concentration.

Dominic hurried around the
front of the car. “Can you make that big enough for two?” he asked, edging close beside Leesa.

Leesa pictured the shield extending out over the wizard’s head, and s
ure enough, the rain immediately stopped pelting down on him as well.

Dominic smiled. “
Very well done. Now let’s see if you can maintain this thing all the way to Balin’s cabin.”

The rain had turned
the rutted dirt roadway into a morass of mud and puddles, forcing Leesa and Dominic to pick their way slowly and carefully. Leesa was glad for her waterproof hiking boots. Dominic’s shoes did not appear to be waterproof, but she knew they would dry themselves, along with his socks and soaked pant legs, as soon as he stepped inside Balin’s home.

Slightly more than half way to the cabin, Leesa slipped on an especially slippery patch of mud. She flailed her arms wildly to keep her balance, narrowly missing falling splat into the mud before she regained her footing. The surprise caused her to lose her focus and the air shield disappeared. She quickly reestablished it, but even five or ten seconds exposed to the rain was enough to soak her.

As usual, Dominic seemed unconcerned by the sudden drenching. Since there was nothing she could do about the wet, Leesa adopted the same stoic attitude.

As they approached Balin’s cabin, Leesa saw Rave
standing in the open doorway. She loved how he always knew when she was near—the touch of vampire essence in her blood assured that it would always be like that. She wondered if there would ever be a way that she could sense his presence in a similar manner.

“If I was the rain,” Rave said
as Leesa neared the doorway, “I’d be very frustrated at not being able to touch you.”

Leesa let her
air shield dissipate and ran the last few steps into Rave’s waiting arms. She loved when he said things like that.

“Luckily, you don’t
ever have to worry about that,” she said as she hugged him tightly. “I’ll always make sure you can touch me.”

Pressed against Rave’s warm chest, Leesa could feel herself beginning to dry. Rave ran his hands across her cheeks and then down her ponytail, quickly drying her
with his magical heat everywhere he touched and leaving a pleasant warm tingling behind.

“Ahem,” Dominic said from behind them
, where he was still exposed to the rain. “Would you two lovebirds mind stepping aside so I could come inside? It’s a bit damp out here.”

Rave lifted Leesa easily and deposited her inside the cabin. Dominic quickly stepped
in behind them, his hair matted against his head and his lightweight jacket soaked. In moments, he was completely dry.

Leesa pulled off her muddy boots and placed them near the door
as Balin came over to greet his guests.

“Welcome,” he said, smiling. “I’d say come sit by the fire to dry out, but it looks like both of you have other means
to do that.”

Leesa
glanced over to the fireplace, where a lively fire was popping and crackling. She smelled some of Balin’s delicious stew simmering above the dancing tongues of flames. She wasn’t at all hungry, but she found herself inhaling a deep whiff just the same.

“I love your fire,” she said
to Balin as she pressed herself against Rave’s chest again. “But drying off like this is so much more fun.”

Balin grinned. “I do not doubt that for a moment.”

“I think my boots might welcome a spot by the fire, though,” Leesa said. She bent to pick them up, but Balin beat her to it. He carried then across the room and set them in front of the fireplace.

Her boots taken care of,
Leesa turned back to Rave. “Would you mind massaging my neck and shoulders for a minute or two, please? They’re all knotted up from the drive over here. I’m not a big fan of driving in the pouring rain—not that I thought about staying home for even an instant.”

Rave
smiled and spun Leesa gently around so that her back was too him. He began gently kneading her shoulders.

“I don’t mind a bit,” he said.

Leesa closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath as Raves strong fingers massaged her muscles. She could feel his heat flowing into her. Not for the first time, she thought about how in demand he would be if he ever offered his services in some fancy spa somewhere. The magical heat in his hands was better than any hot stones or heating pads, without a doubt. In no time at all, her tension had completely melted away.

“Thank you,” she said as she turned around and slipped one arm behind Rave’s back, holding herself close to him
. She looked over to Dominic and Balin, who had moved away from the doorway to give Leesa and Rave some privacy and space.

“Am I here so that Rave and I can practice some more kissing?” she asked hopefully.

“Actually, that is precisely why you are here,” Balin replied. “I thought you two should get in one more try while you can.”

Leesa
frowned. She did not like the sound of that one bit.

“What do you mean, ‘while we can?’” she asked.

“The solstice is drawing nigh,” Balin said. “With
Destiratu
still building, my people are getting ready to head north again.”

Leesa’s heart sank. She had forgotten all about the approaching solstice. During the
winter solstice the year before, Rave and his folk had been gone for several weeks—the longest weeks of her life. She wondered if perhaps she should go with him this time—her mom and Bradley were doing well enough now that they would be okay without her. She would miss them, of course, but not as much as she would miss Rave if he left her. If she went to New Hampshire, Dominic could come along with her. The mountains would be a great place for them to practice magic.

She turned to Rave. “Can I come with you this time?”

Rave didn’t answer. Instead, he just grinned. Leesa did not understand.

“You
could
come,” Balin said, “but I’m not sure why you would want to.”

Leesa frowned. “Why wouldn’t I want to go?” she asked, perplexed.

“I just think you might get lonely up in the mountains,”
Balin said, holding back a smile.

Leesa felt like she had just entered Alice’s Wonderland, where questions were seldom responded to in
the way you expected. Why was Rave still grinning? And why would Balin think she would be lonely? She had already spent an amazing week up there with Rave a few months ago. None of this made sense.

“I don’t get it,” she said, looking from Balin to Rave and then back to Balin.

Balin smiled. “Tell her, Rave. I think she’s suffered enough.”

Leesa looked up at Rave. “Tell me what.”

“I don’t plan on going to New Hampshire,” he said.

“You’re staying here? Alone? Won’t that be dangerous?”

“Not here. The elders have given me permission to stay in Middletown—under one condition.”