Zora's Dawn (Defender Book 1) (2 page)

She looked
around nervously as they approached, but the area inside the tape looked the
same as the ground they were walking on, with nothing to show that a body had
been there earlier. The cordoned off area was a lot bigger than Zora had
imagined it to be, with room for several bodies. Zora sniffed as unobtrusively
as she could and smelt nothing - no blood or more gross things.

Turning to
Powers she said, “I don’t see anything. It looks just like the rest of the
place. I really don’t know why you wanted me to come here, but I’ve come so now
can we go get my coffee and donuts?”

“In a
minute, come on, we haven’t seen everything yet.”

Powers
lifted the police tape and beckoned to her go under. Zora baulked. Even though
there were no police there, she still felt like she was breaking the law and a
police car would come by the second she went under with sirens blaring and she
would fall to the ground in a panic and be arrested.

Sighing,
Powers grabbed her hand and propelled her towards the tape. “Come on, we need to
check out the area inside here. Then we will go get your coffee. Move your ass,
nothing’s going to happen to you.”

Muttering
under her breath Zora allowed herself to be pulled under the tape. Of course nothing
happened so she followed Powers further into the area, stumbling on the uneven
ground.

“I told
you to wear sneakers and not heels.” Powers threw the words back at her as he
moved ahead without breaking step. Zora grumbled and pulled faces in his
direction. She could walk just fine on any surface in heels, she was just
clumsy because he was making her feel self-conscious.

A strange tingling
feeling that travelled from her feet up to the top of her head stopped Zora in
her tracks. She realised that the hairs on the back of her neck were standing
up. She had never experienced that before, and in truth had never believed it
really happened the way it was portrayed in books. But it did, and it was. Her
heart started beating a panicky tattoo in her chest, and looking down she saw
the fine auburn hairs on her arms standing to attention as well. The wind
picked up and blew her hair all over her face. Zora felt a jolt of adrenalin
and realised fear was crawling over her body.  Her golden eyes searched
frantically for Powers while her feet felt frozen to the ground.

Powers
swung around mid-stride and saw her standing there, eyes wide, hair blowing
around her face. She looked like a mediaeval painting, or an avenging angel. He
ran to her and took her hands, searching her face intently. Glowing golden eyes
stared into deep brown ones.

“Powers?
What’s going on? I feel so strange.”

“You’re
standing right where the victim was murdered sweetheart. You’re picking up the
vibrations.”

Glowing
eyes narrowed in sudden suspicion. “Bullshit, how can you know that? What vibrations
could there possibly be for me to ‘pick up.’”

Wincing
slightly at the sarcastic quotation marks he heard around the last two words,
Powers tugged gently on her hands until he had led her a few feet away from the
scene. The wind died a little, her hair stopped blowing so vigorously and the
hairs on her arms and the back of her neck lay down again. Zora shook her head,
did that really just happen? She looked up at Powers who was studying her
carefully.

“What just
happened? I felt like I was plugged into something.”

“I told
you, you were feeling the vibrations. Not from the victim so much, you felt the
energy from the being that committed the murder.”

Zora
rolled her eyes, feeling suddenly back to normal. “Oh come on Powers, you sound
like a bad crime novel. Why would I feel anything and why would there be
‘energy’ from the person who did this just lying around waiting for me to tap
into it?”

Powers
winced again, apparently when annoyed Zora spoke in quotation marks and laid
the sarcasm on thick. The silence stretched as Powers chose and discarded
words, trying to come up with something that Zora would at least listen to. “Zora,
the reason you picked up on the vibrations is because this being is not exactly
human.” He sighed as she stiffened beside him, but continued anyway. “You are a
special kind of person who can sense where they’ve been.”

She pulled
her hands away and turned to face him fully. “I’m a ‘special type of person’
who can sense where ‘they’ve’ been. Powers, what exactly did you eat for breakfast
this morning? Or what did you drink with it? Or maybe you smoked some funny
cigarette?” She leaned closer and sniffed near his nose. He smelt of citrus and
man, a heady combination for sure, but nothing suspicious. Realising that she
was disturbingly close to his full lips she pulled back and marshalled a stern
expression.

Powers
studied her unhappily. She wasn’t going to take this well, but she had to know,
and with what he suspected she had to know now. “Zora, listen to me, I know
this sounds absurd to you, but please try to listen with an open mind. I’ll
tell you more when we get back, I’ll even show you proof. But for now, listen
to me and don’t say anything.”

Zora
stared at him, he was obviously serious. She shrugged, the sooner he said his
piece the sooner she got coffee and donuts. “Ok, I’m listening.”

 “Zora you
come from family with a long line of daughters born with a special ability.
Your mother would have told you about it when you were older if she were still
able to.” Zora closed her eyes briefly in remembered pain at the loss of a
mother she adored. Powers touched her cheek and she opened her eyes and focused
on his face. “What you can do is sense the presence of supernatural beings. I
believe you are very strong, you come from a family renowned for their
abilities. You have not been trained, and do not yet understand what you can do
and what you are capable of. There is much more to it, but for now just know
that what you did was sense the presence of another being.”

Zora
stared, her golden eyes huge in her face. “Go on,” she urged. “Clearly there’s
more. What did I sense?”

Powers
took both of her hands, rubbing his thumbs in circles on her palms. It felt
good in a way that was very distracting, but it was also comforting so she left
her hands there.

“Zora, the
creature that you sensed, it was a werewolf.”

Zora snatched
her hands away, took several steps back and stared at him, her natural
disbelief warring with some deep seated instinct. Disbelief – or maybe denial –
won and her eyes flashed scornful fire at him as she snapped, “A ‘werewolf’.
Right, there was a big hairy animal here striding around on its hind legs,
teeth gnashing, drooling at the prospect of human flesh. And nobody noticed!
And shouldn’t there be some sort of gamey smell here?” She sniffed again,
smelling only clean air scented from the flowering native trees. There was no
wild creature scent, no creature scent at all.

Swinging
around she stared at the spot where Powers had said the murder occurred and wondered
exactly what had happened to the victim. And jumped as once again Powers
answered her unspoken question. He had come up behind her and his voice
vibrated against her eardrums as he said softly, “He was beheaded and
eviscerated. His heart, intestines, liver and kidneys were missing. His head
was left beside him, but the eyes were gone.”

Shuddering
at this mental picture Zora felt her legs weaken and didn’t resist when Powers
slid a supporting arm around her waist and began walking her back to the car.
“Come on Zora, we’ll go get that coffee and donut, and when you’re ready I’ll
explain more of this to you.”

Zora shook
her head weakly, her hair sliding across her shoulders and brushing the side of
his neck. Neither of them noticed the strands begin to glow, stopping abruptly
as she slid a hand under her neck and flicked her hair back into place. “I
don’t want to know Powers. I don’t know if this is real or if you are slightly
insane. But I don’t want to know any more.”

His
expression serious Powers helped her up into the car, catching her gaze as she
settled into her seat. “I know, but something is coming, and you need to know.
Whether you want to or not is no longer important.”

Sudden
fire lit her eyes and turned them to liquid gold. “God Powers, stop sounding
like one of those paranormal novels! I’m beginning to feel a little two
dimensional here!”

He smiled
slightly, closed her door and went around to the driver’s side. Saying no more
he turned the car, heading back into town. Zora relaxed with each kilometre
they drove.               Something about getting closer to civilisation made
the whole episode seem more like a freaky dream and less like an actual event in
her life. She was no doubt over reacting since werewolves were one of her
ridiculous phobias. By the time they entered her favourite coffee shop and
placed their order she felt she had the whole thing in perspective.

Excusing
herself she went to the ladies room to freshen up. She needed to scrub the trip
to the murder scene off her hands, and she just knew her hair was a wild and
frizzy creature. Looking at her reflection in the mirror she sighed, yep her
hair looked like it was alive, and she looked…different. She peered more
closely, trying to pinpoint the difference. Her hair was a wild nimbus around
her face, her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were huge and shining. She
looked again, no, they seemed almost to be glowing. She thinned her lips, she
looked like she had just run a marathon, or had some amazing sex. Zora watched
her eyes get even wider at the unexpected thought - where did that come from?
Switching off unwelcome thoughts like that she began to repair the damage,
starting with taming all that hair.

Sometimes
she gave serious consideration to cutting it all off, it was so wild and curly
and hard to manage. But her mother had loved her hair and had spent a lot of
time combing and styling it, and it was the memory of this that always stopped
her. Even though she knew it was impossible, often when she fought with her
hair she could feel her mother’s hands smoothing the frizz and easing out the
knots.

Her hair
restored to order she splashed a little cold water on her face and patted it
dry with a paper towel before checking her reflection again. Her cheeks were
still flushed, but her eyes seemed to have lost some of that weird glow which
was a relief as that had looked freaky. Deciding that was probably as good as
it was going to get she went back out to hear whatever it was Powers thought he
needed to tell her. She figured she should do him the courtesy of listening
since he was providing the treats, and she was starving. Mentally rehearsing
her scoffing responses she sat down at the table, delighted to see the coffee
and donuts had beaten her there.

Powers
said nothing while he watched her eat the foam off her coffee with a spoon and
break the first donut into several pieces. He winced mentally as she dunked the
piece of donut into her coffee before popping it into her mouth, but kept his
expression bland. Once she had finished he asked mildly, “Were you feeling very
hungry?”

Reaching
for the next donut Zora nodded and said absently, “Starving, and these are the
best donuts I have ever had!”

“Using
your power is very draining for you, you need to eat more food to sustain your
energy. Sugar is a good way to give you immediate energy but when we leave here
you need to eat a proper lunch with protein, like chicken salad or something.”

Zora glared
at him, eyes narrowed. The severe expression was marred somewhat by the sugar dusting
her upper lip. She took a big mouthful of her coffee and licked the remnant of
foam off her upper lip, taking the sugar with her tongue into her mouth. Powers
was momentarily mesmerised by this simple action, images entirely inappropriate
to the occasion searing his mind and making his pupils dilate. He should not be
having such thoughts at this time and especially not about this woman. He tried
to push the images away; that he failed to hide his reaction was evident in the
way her eyes widened. Powers blinked, thought desperately of fluffy kittens and
put his mind back on track.

Zora
stared at Powers, too startled to look away. For a second there something had
flared in his dark eyes, something hot and primitive. Zora felt her entire body
react, a tingling that went from her breasts down through her stomach and into
her groin like a fire tipped arrow. An image of a naked Powers poised above her
flashed into her head causing her mind to momentarily stop. Shocked at her own
thoughts she closed her eyes and thought of coffee, mmmmmm, coffee. No that
wouldn’t do, too sexy, coffee. Paperwork, that should do it. Feeling more
normal she opened her eyes and found Powers staring at her quizzically, no sign
of that searing look that had turned her insides to mush. Zora blinked,
confused, had she even seen it or was it imagination?

“Tell me
Zora, do you often feel hungry around me?” Powers gazed seriously at her while
Zora’s thoughts flipped back to where they were a few seconds ago.

Hungry?
Is he
kidding? A woman would have to be dead not to feel stirrings after that look
from him. Seeing him still gazing at her, waiting on her answer, Zora was about
to speak when she realised belatedly that he was referring to actual food
hunger. She could feel an embarrassing blush sweeping up her throat and over
her face, making even her ears burn. The curse of the redhead, pale skin that
showed absolutely everything. Gazing steadfastly down at the table she gave his
question unnecessary focus. Did she feel hungry around him?

Actually,
she realised, she did. But then she usually saw him in the mornings and she
often skipped breakfast so to be precise she was hungry before she saw him
rather than because she saw him. Shaking her head in irritation she realised
that she was actually taking his question seriously. Looking up she caught the
traces of a smile hovering around his full lips and remembered that her face
was still flushed. She was sure he could not possibly have guessed the
direction in which her thoughts had gone, yet that was a decidedly male gleam
in his eye and the hint of a smile seemed definitely to be smug. Groaning under
her breath Zora remembered that uncanny way he had of reading her mind and her
face flamed even more in response. Well attack was always the best defence.

“What on
earth are you on about now Powers? Why would I be hungry around you? It’s not
like you suck the energy from me or anything.” Satisfied that her tone was suitably
derisive Zora picked up her coffee, noted it was almost empty and wondered if
they would be here long enough to justify a second one, and maybe a few more
donuts, or they made a great red velvet cupcake here too, and she really was
still hungry.

Powers
deep voice cut through her thoughts of red velvet cake. “I’ll get you some more
coffee soon and a red velvet cake too, to go. You need to come with me Zora,
there’s something I need to show you that will explain so much more easily than
words can.”

Zora
blinked in astonishment. Go with him? Go where? And dammit how did he know she
was thinking about the red velvet cake? And oh my lordie lord maybe he knew
exactly where her thoughts had gone before. Was that why he wanted her to go
with him? What exactly did he want to show her? Opening her mouth to ask that
question she was forestalled by Powers standing up and reaching out a hand to
help her.

“Come on
Zora, time to go. Let’s get you your coffee and cake, and go to my place. I’m
afraid what I have to show you is not nearly as much fun as you are imagining.”

Gobsmacked,
Zora allowed herself to be herded over to the counter. She did not once look at
him while she waited for her coffee refill and her cake, to go, but she was all
too aware of the amusement seeping from him. Deciding it was ok to be dignified
while clutching a giant takeaway coffee and a bag containing not one but four
of the delicious little cupcakes she stalked past him out of the shop.

Then of
course she had to wait because since her sense of direction was minimal to
zero, she had no idea where the car was parked.

Powers
joined her on the footpath. “We’ll go get your car and you can follow me to my
place, ok?”

Zora
nodded, it would be good to have her own transportation. She waited unobtrusively
for him to take the lead and accompanied him to his car. It was only a short
drive back to the car park. Once there Powers said, “I’ll go first and you
follow ok?”

Zora
shrugged, it was certainly easier than trying to remember where his house was.
Powers lived in a rambling old house on the other side of town, very close to
the beach. He was lucky enough to have no back neighbours, and a gate set in
his back fence opened to a path that led to the beach. It was a beautiful spot
and very serene.

Once there
Powers led her through to the veranda and disappeared back inside. Zora sat in
one of the chairs and gazed appreciatively at the view. Sipping her coffee she
slipped one of the cakes out of the bag and proceeded to break it up into
little pieces and had consumed half of the cake by the time he returned. Zora’s
eyes widened a bit when she saw that he had changed into board shorts and a
loose shirt. She had never seen him in informal clothes and it gave her an
unwelcome sense of intimacy.

Pulling a
chair around until he was sitting facing her Powers stared at her soberly for
so long that Zora became self-conscious and wondered if she had cake on her
mouth or cheek, or maybe some icing stuck on her teeth. She ran her tongue as
unobtrusively as she could over her teeth and reached for her coffee to wet a
mouth suddenly gone dry.

Powers
looked uncertain, as though he was trying inside his head several ways of
saying something to see which one was the best fit. That was exactly what he
was doing. There was so much to say to her, he didn’t know quite where to
begin.

“Zora,
remember I asked if you were hungry whenever you were with me?”

Mouth full
of cake, Zora just nodded. Her eyes were narrowed and suspicious.

“Remember
when you felt the werewolf at the murder site, and how hungry you were
afterwards? I told you then that you can sense supernatural beings but that it
drains your power and makes you hungry. By the way I’m going to give you lunch soon,
to make sure you get the proper mix of protein and minerals.”

Zora
blinked at this apparently random off topic statement, but still said nothing.

“Ok,
here’s the crux of the matter. You sensed the werewolf, a supernatural being.
But you can sense other supernatural beings also. That’s why you get hungry
around me. Your senses, your extra senses, are stimulated and that uses up a
lot of energy.”