Blood and Kisses(22)

He opened his eyes and made himself face Spirit’s dark-rimmed gaze. “I deserved that. But I will walk into the sun before I endanger her again.”

Spirit nodded, which should have looked absurd coming from a dog, but Gideon had become inured to the sight of human gestures coming from the familiar. Spirit’s dark, almond-shaped eyes lingered on Gideon’s face. I must be mad, but I believe you.

“It’s good to know she has you to watch over her,” Gideon said. He wished it could be he, but since that could never happen, at least she had someone. “How did you come to live with the Kents?”

Spirit looked at the floor. For a moment Gideon thought he wouldn’t answer. Finally, he said, I love her like a daughter. But I serve her family as atonement.

It was clear the familiar was stepping into painful territory, perhaps was already regretting his words, but Gideon couldn’t help but ask, “Atonement?”

Spirit sighed. Thalia comes from a long line of beautiful women. It was a long ago ancestor, Georgina Atwater, who bound me to her family. I...made a mistake. That mistake cost her her life. She had a young son. I promised her as she died that I would protect him. I gave up my life as a mage and took on the role of familiar, so I could do just that.

“Why a dog?”

Spirit chuckled without humor. It seemed a fitting penance. Of course, I wasn’t a basenji in those days.

The familiar seemed in a talkative mood. “Tell me about Thalia.”

He walked over to the kitchen table, pulled out a chair, and settled into it while pulling the chair next to him out for Spirit. Spirit hesitated, then leapt into the chair. He lay down, sphinx-like and crossed his white paws. What do you want to know?

Gideon shrugged. “Everything.”

You don’t ask for much, do you?

Gideon cocked a dark brow.

Thalia has always been different, even for a witch. Her mark sets her apart from witches because it identifies her as the Champion. And it keeps her from forming attachments with pettys because she feels it’s unattractive.

“I think it’s lovely,” Gideon said, then regretted it. But perhaps it was the right thing to say because Spirit seemed to relax at the words and when next he spoke, he seemed less guarded.

A Champion can be male or female, but they always have the mark. It’s hereditary in Thalia’s family, as is potent magical powers. Unfortunately, Thalia has never shown more than average talent in magic and I’m afraid... He broke off and then began again. I’m afraid that the local magic community has lost faith in her. I’ve been hearing rumors from some of the other familiars and earlier this evening while you were...ill, I got word of a meeting being held to discuss Thalia’s suitability as Champion.

“What?”

Spirit raised a paw. They’re scared. They mean well.

“Do they?”

“Yes, do they?” It was Thalia speaking from the doorway, her hands braced against the doorframe on either side.



Thalia couldn’t believe what she’d just heard. It seemed she wasn’t the only one who doubted her abilities. Blindsided, her chest clenched. What more could go wrong? She took a shaky step toward the table.

In the blink of an eye, Gideon was there. He helped her take a seat and began rummaging through the massive, state-of-the-art refrigerator, looking, she assumed, for something for her to eat.

He piled food on the counter, tomatoes, onions, green peppers, spaghetti sauce, cheese, bread, then closed the fridge and examined the items as if he had never seen them before. Despite her agitation, the lost expression on his face as he looked at the pile was priceless. She laughed.

“I’ve watched Cam cook for her family hundreds of times. You’d think I would have picked up something,” he said.

Thalia directed him in the making of a grilled cheese sandwich. While he fried it, she turned the subject back to the discussion she’d overheard earlier. “Do you really think they mean well?”

Spirit exchanged a look with Gideon that Thalia couldn’t read. I don’t know. From what I heard, Mina Shaw had a vision. And now a witch is dead. It will only inflame the situation.

“And Mina didn’t think she could come to me.” Thalia couldn’t keep the hurt out of her voice.

Word is whatever is coming could destroy the world as we know it. Spirit seemed embarrassed by the overly dramatic statement, but he didn’t qualify it.

Thalia groaned and shook her head. “Isn’t that always the word? I don’t think we’ve ever had a threat that didn’t endanger the world, including Jay Hefer’s boils.”

This time the word could be accurate, Spirit said, matter-of-factly.

Gideon glanced over his shoulder as he flipped the golden-brown sandwich onto a plate. His face was closed as his eyes flicked to Spirit and then Thalia and back again, but he said nothing.

“Have you been hiding something from me, Spirit?” She might cry if her oldest friend had betrayed her as well.

You were asleep when I returned from the meeting. He hesitated. I’ve been reading your mother’s book.

Thalia let out the breath she’d been holding in a rush and slapped a hand on her forehead. “I can’t believe I forgot the book.”

Gideon placed the plate on the table in front of her. Fragrant steam rose from the sandwich, and she took a bite. It was good. God, she was hungry.

Gideon sat down across from her. “We’ve been busy. There’s no time like the present. Spirit, will you get the book?”

The familiar hit the ground and disappeared into the hall. Thalia downed the rest of the sandwich in several large bites. Her energy was returning. She felt stronger every second.

She looked up from the plate to find Gideon’s eyes fixed on her face. Did she have ketchup on the corners of her mouth? She took a napkin from the holder in the center of the table and dabbed at her mouth. “What?”

“How was the sandwich?”

Thalia couldn’t help but smile. He was so cute. “It was delicious,” she assured him, ignoring the fact that one side had been just the tiniest bit burned. “Perfectly melty.”

Spirit trotted back into the room with the book in his mouth, holding the thick tome by the end of the worn leather strap that bound it.

He put his front paws on the table and set it down next to her.

Thalia pushed her plate out of the way and unfastened the book.



“Is this it?” said Gideon. It seemed likely, but this was her forte, not his. Vampire magic was more a matter of will than words.

They were two-thirds of the way through the heavy book. Thalia had long since passed it to Gideon and he’d leafed through it, periodically sharing with her some passage that might be important. Spirit was napping on the couch in the office. Thalia lifted her pointed chin from where it rested in her palm, yawned, and dragged the book closer so she could see the page Gideon had indicated. She straightened as she read the words before her.

In the new world,

one lake of five shall be the site.



The ancient dead but living

shall attain great power



When the marked one dies

and a sacrifice is made



By one who rose long ago

from the grave.



She paused, her eyes solemn.

“Bad poetry?” Gideon prompted.

She raised an eyebrow. “This has to be it.” A ribbon of hair fell forward, obscuring the page. Thalia tucked it behind her ear. “The notes say this prophecy came to my mother the night before my father died. She says, at first she thought that she was the marked one in the prophecy, but that now she believes I’m the marked one. That I’m the one who dies.”

The stark fear on Thalia’s face ate at his heart. Against his will, his hand came up and covered hers. “Prophecies don’t always come true.”

“Maybe not, but a lot of people are already dead because of this thing. What I don’t understand is why my mother didn’t tell me about the prophecy before she died. Why keep this from me?” She switched gears, uneasy with the intimacy of the conversation. “You could be both the ‘ancient dead but living’ and ‘the one who rose long ago from the grave.’”

“Or only one.”

“The other could be the rogue.”

“Or someone else entirely.” A face flashed into Gideon’s mind’s eye. Rounded cheekbones, accentuated by a straight nose and firm chin, night dark eyes and perfect skin, a stunning beauty by any standards. Was it possible the woman who had turned him was the being mentioned in the first part of the prophecy?

“God, this is frustrating. I hate prophecies.” Thalia had gone back to examining the notes around the prophecy, using one crescent-shaped nail to trace her mother’s words.

His hand fisted at his side. He’d already endangered her through his own loss of control. Now, this. “I think I know who the first vampire might be.”