Chapter 69
“I will see to it this buffoon does no harm to our girl, but you will not do this thing.” Exasperated, Miah decided against arguing with Alexander’s tyrannical ways. At once she felt Alexander relax, felt his amusement, and she shook her head over the silly idiosyncrasies of men.
“Did you have some questions you wanted to ask me?” she queried softly, looking directly into Barry Woods’s eyes. “Or did you have information that you thought was very important to tell me?” He could feel himself falling forward, deeper, deeper still until he was so mesmerized he wanted to stay there for eternity. He cleared his throat, unable, unwilling to break away from the beauty of her eyes. “I have friends who heard things about you.
They’re dangerous men. We hunt demons. Real demons, not the make-believe things in the movies. No one believes the creatures exist but us. We’ve been collecting proof over the years. We just need to get one, a body, something tangible to make the world take us seriously. Right now they think we’re fanatics, nuts to be laughed at, but we’re scientists and we’re trying to save the world.”
Miah wrapped him in waves of warmth, swamping him with approval, with the idea that she believed in him and what he was doing. He broke out in a sweat, but his gaze remained captured by hers.
He wanted to do whatever she wanted of him, whatever it took to make her happy. He wanted her to believe in him. She tipped her head to one side so that her hair fell in a seductive sheet of silk across her shoulder and tumbled past her waist.
“Why would anyone think such a thing of me? I have lived in this community for some time and have been involved in many things. I think my life is rather an open book. It is not so difficult to find those who know me.” Woods leaned forward, needing to hear the purity of her voice, or maybe he wanted to touch her hair. He really wasn’t certain which was more important at that moment. “I think I can dig up indisputable proof that you’re no demon.”
There was a trace of humor in his voice. The idea of her being in the ranks of the demon was totally ludicrous. He could convince his fellows they were wrong about her and she would be crossed off their list. “Are there many of you?” Miah requested the information softly. “Are there any others named on this list of potential threats? Perhaps I can aid you in some way.”
“We have to protect ourselves now. We’ve lost many of our best people. It’s a war, a real war, between them and us. We only know a few of each other’s names; our meetings are small. We use phone numbers and a place on the Internet to leave messages back and forth. That way if our society is penetrated, we will only lose a few.”
Miah could see that something was making him very resistant to giving out the names of those on the demon list, although he was deeply ensnared by her compulsion. She pushed further into his mind and found a strange phenomenon. Immediately she reached for Alexander and shared the information, puzzled by what she found in Barry Woods’s mind. “He has undergone some kind of strong hypnosis.” Alexander replied.
“You can get around it, but he might have flashbacks. I can remove all traces of you from his memory. It is not so difficult to extract the information from his mind. He will never know.” “Go ahead then, Alexander. I don’t want him to take up any more of my time.”
Miah wanted to get her business out of the way and return to Alexander. She didn’t like him being out in the city hunting the demon. She wanted him back in the safety of their home. She wanted Shaina safe within the walls of their home. She wanted the reporter long gone.
“Are you attempting to distract me from my task with your wanton thoughts?” There was a curling caress in Alexander’s voice, brushing at the walls of her mind, flooding her body with heat and excitement.
”Wanton thoughts? You need a checkup, my boy. Your fantasy world seems to be growing larger with each passing day. I wanted you home to take out the trash.” She was staring directly at Barry Woods, so that Alexander could use her as his instrument, could “see” the reporter and extract the information they needed from his mind. Alexander’s teasing had lifted her spirits, given her the impression of a cool cleansing breeze moving through her mind, erasing her worries. Miah smiled at the reporter.
Alexander had what they needed and it was time for her to reinforce her most important command. She leaned closer to him so that her eyes held his. “You will never, under any circumstances, go near Shaina again.”
At once she felt Alexander’s power moving through her mind, swift and deadly, unbreakable, relentless. He issued his own command, stronger than any she could have made. The reporter would protect her, ensure that others left her strictly alone. Miah shook her head over the vehemence of that command, but she felt very precious to him. Cherished.
“You are cherished. Now do something women are supposed to do, something I will not worry about.” “Look who’s talking!” She tried to sound indignant, but he was making her laugh with his nonsense. “It is not nonsense. These are commands from your lifemate, and you should listen and obey.” He sounded very arrogant as only Alexander could.
“You’re showing your age again. You awoke in the twenty-first century. Women no longer listen and obey, worse luck for you. I have work to do, and you are in some place very musty and smelling of wet dirt. What are you doing?”
“Performing secret masculine rituals.”
Miah found herself laughing out loud. Woods startled her by smiling and reaching out to shake her hand. She had almost forgotten his existence. “Thank you so much for your time, and I enjoyed the tea.” He sounded very brisk and businesslike. Alexander had ensured his obedience and the reporter was doing exactly as he had been instructed. He was leaving Miah and going to report his findings to his friends.
They would believe him: Miah was a human woman with extraordinary talents but she walked in the sunlight and drank tea. Woods was certain he had shared such a thing with her. Miah smiled gently.
“I am pleased to have met you, Mr. Woods. Good luck with your work.” She turned and made her way through the corridors, moving silently. She was scanning for Bert. He often slept in one of the empty rooms if he had been working all day and late into the night.
When he was not attending social events, Bert spent the majority of his time at the hospital. She caught his scent and turned unerringly toward the small room at the end of the hall. It was one of his favorite places to escape. Alexander moved silently through the cemetery, the very place where he had spent so many years locked in the ground.
The earth was torn up where graves were being opened and the caskets removed to make way for progress. He shook his head at the way of life.
A hundred years ago no one would consider disturbing a grave site in such a manner. It would be sacrilegious. Evil stalked Paris, and it slept within this ancient cemetery that held the bodies of so many of the dead. As he moved through the graveyard like a silent wraith, he thought of that long-ago battle, nearly two centuries ago. He had found Luther crouched over his latest victim, a man in his early thirties.
The victim had been drained of blood, a lifeless rag doll that Luther had tossed carelessly down on the ground when he turned to confront Alexander. As always, Alexander was struck by his twin’s elegance, the way he moved so silently. There was never a stain of blood on his clothing or his teeth or nails. He was always immaculate. Nothing about him seemed different, yet he was a terrible monster, not the legendary hunter their people whispered about. Just the memory of his brother, tall and elegant and so courtly, sent a wave of love through Alexander. He had not felt it for so long, only remembered the emotion, but now it was stronger and more intense than ever. Alexander bowed his head. Luther.
His brother. The grief was overwhelming him and he shook his head decisively to clear it. That way lay his own destruction. His mind had to be clear and fixed on the hunt. He needed every advantage ferreting out the evil demon. They were here in force. A grave caught his eye. He turned back to examine it. Freshly dug, it was one of the newest in the cemetery.
The heavy equipment had not reached this corner so near the rock wall. He touched the soil and at once felt the vibrations of destructive forces. So tuned, he snatched his hand away. The earth itself was groaning from the touch of the vile abomination. He remained hunkered down, his eyes casting along the floor of the cemetery even as his senses flared out to scan the region around him. Alexander sighed.