AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I feel…so strange…” Camille said, her eyes still closed. “I can feel Shade working—moving through my energy field— but it’s like there’s more than him there. I can’t explain it.”
A few moments later, the smoke issued out from her mouth and she let out a deep sigh, as if she’d been holding her breath. The shadow drifted back over to where Shade had been sitting and re-formed into a cloud, from which he emerged, shimmering back into view, his eyes crackling with purple fire, a grave look on his face.
“Thankfully, the bhout wasn’t able to fully attach to you, but it did siphon off some of your energy. You’ll be particularly susceptible to them now, so you’re going to have to work on some protection magic and wards to carry with you.”
“Was it in the club? Or just hanging out in the astral?” I asked.
“I think a group of them are focusing on the club. They found a ready feeding source, although that won’t last too long. Not at the rate they’re draining the clientele there.”
“Do you think the bartender is in on it?” I hadn’t liked him, he was a seedy little thing, but I didn’t want to blame him for something that wasn’t his fault.
Shade shook his head. “No, he doesn’t have anything to do with it, in my opinion. I think he was as mystified as we were about why the customers are so lethargic. And, probably a bit disappointed, considering he’s an energy whore.” Shade turned to Carter. “I only know so much about these creatures. Do you have any information on them, since they’re of both the spirit and demonic realms?”
Carter frowned. “I’ll have to look in the archives. Meanwhile, Morio, why don’t you fill them in on what I told you. I’ll consult my files and be back in a few moments.” He excused himself and retreated to his desk.
Before Morio launched into what Carter had been telling them, he took Camille’s hands and held them tightly. “I should never have let you go in there. We should have thought about what might happen.”
She shook her head. “We didn’t know. We can’t hesitate every time there might be danger involved. You know that. Don’t you start acting like Smoky!” She looked ready to scold him but then dropped back in her seat. “I’m too tired to argue, so don’t even start on me.”
He looked like he wanted to say something, and a lock of his hair escaped his ponytail and trailed down the side of his face, stirring something inside me. I wanted to lick his face and sink…Whoa, Menolly, back it up pronto.
This was neither the time nor the place for these thoughts. In fact, there was no time or place that would be right for them. Enough was enough. There had to be a way to break the bond that had formed between us.
A thought struck me. “I’m so stupid,” I blurted out.
Everyone looked at me, confused.
Flustered, I shook my head. “Never mind, just something I was thinking about.” Talking about how I wanted to fuck my sister’s husband wasn’t going to add much to the conversation except tension. But it had suddenly occurred to me to ask Roman what to do. If anybody knew how to break a vampire-blood bond, he would. Why hadn’t I thought of that in the first place?
Morio held my gaze. His nostrils flared slightly, but then he turned back to Camille, making sure she was tucked under the throw and that her brandy was refilled. When he was satisfied she was okay, he looked over at Delilah and Chase, and they nodded.
“Menolly, why don’t you and Shade move over next to Camille so you can all look at these pictures together?”
We did, flanking her sides.
Morio took what had been Carter’s chair. “Okay, here’s what Carter found out for us.” He motioned for Delilah to hand us the sheaf of photographs. “Reports have filtered up from Portland, Oregon, of bhout activity, but they thought they were just ghosts. They didn’t realize that the spirits were demonic.”
“We didn’t either, at first,” I said, glancing at the first photograph. It was taken with a special camera, and it had actually captured one of the wispy jellyfish-like creatures on film. The spirit was latching onto the aura of a woman sitting in a recliner with her eyes closed. “That’s one of those things I saw on the Dream-Time. That must be its natural shape. But who took this? How did they get a picture of it, if the bhouts aren’t corporeal?”
“One of the paranormal investigators down there used a special film he developed to see if he could figure out why she was languishing. And languish seems to be the word.” Delilah handed me another piece of paper. It seemed to be some form that had been filled out, and when I glanced over it, I saw that it was a from the Oregon Psychic League, a paranormal investigatory outfit.
As I scanned the contents, it became clear that, at least down in Portland, the psychic community was better organized than up here in Seattle. They’d recognized the problem sooner than we had and had formed a task force to investigate.
“So she’s a test subject who reported lack of energy, inability to concentrate, and a drop in her psychic energy that didn’t seem normal?” I pointed to one of the fields. “Here it says she runs one of the bigger covens down there.”
“Yes, and apparently the entire coven has been affected. When they heard this from several groups, they wondered if something was systematically draining their energy. Hence the tests. That photograph is one of the results. The other pictures are of ghosts and apparitions. Apparently, hauntings have picked up there, too.” Morio glanced over to the desk, where Carter waved for him to continue. “Carter checked with a few other major cities on the West Coast and nothing there, yet. So if this is spreading, it’s only reached down the coast so far.”
“Is there anything else?” We had too many pieces of the puzzle that weren’t quite fitting yet.
“Yes, I’ve found more,” Carter said, returning to us.
He held another folder of papers in his hand and motioned for Morio to stay seated. Instead, he pulled the rocking chair over and sat in it.
“I found more information on bhouts. I also just received a fax from one of my operatives in the Demonica Vacana society. I’d contacted him about Gulakah. But I also asked him about the bhouts, to see if he knew anything about how they’re controlled and how to stop them.”
“What did you find? Anything we can use?” Camille sat forward, still looking wrung out. “If this is what it feels like to just be grazed by one, I’d hate to know what the FBH pagans and witches are dealing with.”
“They’ll feel it in a different way than you, since the magical abilities of Fae and humans vary widely.” Carter frowned, glancing at the clock. “It’s one in the morning. Do you want to go over this now?”
