Claim the Night Page 10

  “If I had gotten distracted, it might have been able to…occupy me. I certainly sensed it trying to find a way to use you against me. If you hadn’t been praying, I don’t know what might have happened. You cannot, must not, go into these things unprepared. Which is what I keep trying to get through Garner’s thick skull.”

  Chloe put one foot up on her desk. “You know, Jude, maybe it’s time you got us all qualified as exorcists.”

  He sat bolt upright, wincing, but staring at Chloe as if she’d lost her mind. “No. You’re safer away.”

  “Sure, until one of those things follows you home. Garner wants to be involved. Maybe Terri does, too, I don’t know.” She tightened her lips a bit. “I’ve been reading, Jude. If one of them follows you back here, we could be in some serious trouble. You at least owe it to us to teach us how to protect ourselves. How to fight if we need to.”

  Then she pushed back from her desk and stood, stretching. “Well, I’m going to take advantage of having help. I’m outta here. I need some sleep, and for once I’d like to get it at the right time of day. For my kind, anyway. See you tomorrow.”

  She picked up her purse, smiled a little too brightly, and left.

  “Freaking bloody hell,” Jude said irritably. “What got into her?” Then he rose and stomped into his office, closing the door.

  Leaving Terri all alone in the front office to think about what Chloe had just said. And maybe Chloe was right: maybe they all needed to have at least some idea of how to deal with demons. Remembering what she had faced as a child, what she had been sensing for the last week or so, she shuddered.

  But then, almost as if her mind refused to linger on those fears, it skipped to the kiss she had given Jude. Her cheeks colored at the memory, mostly because she couldn’t believe her own temerity. She’d never kissed a man first before. She could put it down to overwhelming curiosity, to find out what it was like, whether she would find his lips as cool as his skin, whether she would like it or not.

  The thing was, it hadn’t been all curiosity. Desire for him seemed to have become an almost subliminal background to her life since he had rescued her. Ridiculous, and according to Jude, dangerous. He kept trying to send her on her way, and she kept coming back.

  Until now, she hadn’t thought of herself as the kind of person to take unnecessary risks, yet here she was sitting in the office of a vampire. Instead of grabbing her things and leaving, as any sane person would do, she had kissed him, and she shivered with longing every time she remembered him saying, “I want you like hell on fire.”

  Twenty minutes later, however, Jude opened his office door. “No Garner today?”

  “Chloe didn’t mention him.”

  “That’s odd.” He frowned. “He usually shows up by now.”

  “Can I call him?”

  He raised a brow, then came farther into the office, almost like a man testing the water. If her scent disturbed him so much, maybe he was trying to see how close he could safely get. He wound up back on the couch, as far as he could be from Chloe’s desk, where she now sat.

  “I need to get you a phone,” he remarked.

  She pointed to the set on the desk.

  “No, I mean a cell phone like mine. I have us all on a special plan that gives us multi-way talk ability, like a radio, but only among ourselves. And given what we deal with around here, I prefer knowing you can all get instantly in touch if you need to regardless of where you are. It only becomes more imperative if someone is indeed stalking you.”

  “Oh.” There didn’t seem to be anything else she could say about that. Nor did she want, at the moment, to consider the implications. She was still trying to absorb what had happened last night, what she’d seen and what she’d heard, as well as Jude’s warnings. Then there was his apparent acceptance of her feeling of being stalked. Enough to make the back of her neck prickle with fear yet again.

  He pulled his own cell out of his pocket, flipped it open and pressed a button. A moment later he said, “So where the hell are you? Why aren’t you here annoying me?”

  Silence.

  Then “Ah. See you then.” He snapped the phone closed.

  Terri couldn’t hide a smile of amusement. “You speak so nicely to him.”

  “If I give him an inch, he takes a mile. Usually the wrong mile.”

  “Is he coming?”

  “Later. Seems he has a hot date.”

  “Lucky him.”

  All of a sudden the air in the room seemed as thick as syrup. As if everything had slipped into slow motion, and breathing became difficult. She was alone with Jude. A vampire she had dared to kiss in hopes of discovering that she wouldn’t like it. Instead, she had found she liked it a lot. Alone with a vampire who said he wanted her like hell on fire.

  The worst of it was, she began to feel the same way. Her heart skipped, then started a slow, steady beating. She couldn’t look away from his golden eyes.

  “I can hear your heart,” he told her. “It gives away your secrets.”

  She swallowed. “Really?”

  “You don’t even know what it is you think you want.”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “No, you don’t. Because what you want is something you know nothing about. It’s not in the library of your experience. And be honest with yourself, Terri. You’re not even really sure it’s what you want. You’re tempted, you’re curious, you feel drawn. But you’re afraid, too.”

  It was true. She managed to tear her gaze from his and look down at the desk. “Would you be happier if I just left? Permanently?”

  “A week ago I said so, didn’t I?”

  Her heart slammed and her stomach sank. “Then I’ll go.”

  “No. Oddly…I seem to have changed my mind on that. I can handle the temptation. Just quit…inviting me.”

  Lifting her eyes again, she looked at him. “How so?”

  “Everything about you. The way you look at me. The way you move. Even that kiss you gave me, however tentative you tried to be. You’re attracted and it shows in a million ways.” Then he gave a short, sharp laugh. “Forget it. It’s like asking you to change the way you breathe, and the way you breathe is tempting enough.” He waved a hand. “I’ll manage. But do you even know why you keep coming back? Is it just fascination?”

  “I don’t think so.” She hesitated. “That’s probably part of it. But there’s also a compulsion of some kind. I knew, just knew, I had to be there last night, Jude. I was screaming at myself to stop, but something else made me go up there and stay even when I guessed what was going on. I don’t know what it is, but after last night, standing in that hallway scared half to death and praying as hard as I could, I can tell you it’s not fascination.”

  “Now I’m fascinated,” he remarked quietly. “And not just because you’re the most tempting human morsel to cross my path in at least a couple of lifetimes. A compulsion.” He frowned faintly. “I wonder if you have some kind of Gift.”

  “Gift?”

  “Like Garner. He senses demonic presences, infestations. It’s like he was born with a radar for the minions of hell.”

  “Oh.” She tried to conceive of it and failed. Nor could she imagine what kind of gift she might have. “I don’t know, Jude. Except for living in a haunted house when I was a kid, my life has been perfectly ordinary.”

  “Haunted house?” His brows lifted, then knit in thought. “I want to talk about that, but later. First we have some other things to do.”

  “Like what?”

  He rose. “I’m getting my coat. It’s not very late yet. Let’s go get you a cell phone and a few other things.”

  “What other things?”

  He smiled. “If you’re going to work with me, Terri, you need to carry holy water and a cr
oss at all times—or whatever your particular preferred religious symbol is. Still want the job?”

  Something deep inside her answered before her brain could. “Yes.”

  “Then let’s go.”

  Evidently, Jude had more than one long black leather coat. He emerged from his office wearing a fresh one, and filled the pockets with the items still lying on Chloe’s desk from last night.

  “I’m still not very strong,” he remarked after they climbed into the car. “Which means I can’t offer you a full measure of protection. So if I tell you to do something, just do it. Promise me.”

  “I promise.” She wondered what he was worried about. Or maybe he was just making a general statement.

  She learned something at the cell phone store, though. Even though there were quite a few customers, and every sales person seemed to be engaged, the instant Jude’s eyes settled on one, he excused himself from the person he was talking to and hurried over.

  “I want to add Dr. Black to my business plan and get her a phone.”

  The guy practically tripped over his words. “Yes, sir. Immediately, sir. Let’s go to the computer and see what we have.”

  Jude smiled faintly and walked over toward the desk, the sea parting before him as people glanced his way, then edged back. They didn’t seem consciously disturbed, but they created a hole around him.

  Terri was amused. The salesman continued too eagerly, racing through the phone selection and updating the account. As if he couldn’t wait to be done with the transaction. In an amazingly short space of time, they were out the door, Terri with a new phone in hand.

  “I can see one advantage to being a vampire,” Terri remarked as they drove away.

  “Which is?”

  “If I’d walked into that store alone they probably wouldn’t have gotten to me before closing time.”

  Jude chuckled, but quietly, as if it hurt. “I do have a way of getting attention when I want it.”

  “And when you don’t?”

  “Easy enough to blend with shadows.”

  Twenty minutes later, they pulled up in front of a steepled brick church. Lightning flickered silently overhead as Jude gathered up some plastic bottles from his backseat. Then they walked to the entrance where Jude pulled out his key ring and unlocked the front door of the church. When they stepped inside, the only light came from a red sanctuary lamp near the front of the church.

  When he had closed the door, she heard him lock it behind them. Only then did he flip a switch and turn on some dim lights.

  “It’s a beautiful church,” Terri breathed appreciatively. As lightning flickered, she noticed tall stained-glass windows running along either side of the rows of pews.

  “Not a very busy one anymore,” Jude remarked. “But yes, it’s beautiful. Built at a time when a concrete box wasn’t considered to be the height of architectural expression. Let’s get these bottles filled. The font is right over here.”

  Terri stood beside him, handing him one bottle after another as he filled them.

  “A spray bottle?” That definitely surprised her.

  “Maximum coverage, minimum wastage,” he said. “Actually quite efficient in a pinch. Let’s go sit for a minute.”

  She followed him up the aisle to the rear pew and sat beside him. He reached in his pocket, and this time he pulled out a necklace. It caught the light enough that she could see it was a cross.

  “Not very pretty,” he remarked. “But this is all I have that’s already blessed. I’ll get you a nicer one.”

  “It doesn’t matter what it looks like,” she said impulsively. “That’s not what’s important, is it?”

  He smiled, and for him it was a strangely soft smile. “No, that’s not what’s important. And you must be the first woman I’ve ever known to turn down the offer of a better piece of jewelry.”

  “Then you know the wrong women.”

  Her heart fluttered a bit as he opened the clasp of the necklace, then leaned forward to put it around her neck. The touch of his fingers as he fastened it was cool and erotic. A shiver ran through her, and her heart speeded a bit.

  “Tut,” he said, but he was still smiling. “And in a church.”

  “Sorry.”

  His hands, instead of sliding away immediately, cupped her cheeks gently. Oh so gently, a cool touch that felt good in ways she couldn’t begin to describe. “Don’t apologize. I was just teasing.”

  His hands lingered, and even in the dim light she could see his eyes darken. Then, as he had once before, he leaned close enough to inhale her scent. She felt the tension grip him, waited almost frozen herself, acutely aware that he could, if he wanted, take her blood then and there. And that he wanted to. That he had a hunger for her beyond mere desire, one she couldn’t begin to understand.

  He released her, and disappointment filled her. She wanted that touch again. More of it. Much more of it. She had to bite her lip to keep from saying so.

  “I have a St. Michael medal for you when we get back to the office. Pin it inside your clothing, okay?”

  “Okay.” She looked down at the bottles of holy water sitting between them as her fingers touched the cross on the necklace he had put on her. All of reality seemed to be shifting beneath her feet, carrying her ever deeper into the very world that had so terrified her as a child.

  Did she really want to face this? Deep down, she felt as if she had refused to truly face these issues once before. Yes, she had fought back, and successfully, but then she had banished the incident from her thoughts without ever trying to understand what had happened. Without dealing with what it might have meant.

  She looked at him again, still fingering the cross. “These things really work?”

  “If there’s evil, and there is, don’t you think there must be good forces to counter it?”

  “But these are just objects.”

  “And objects, because of faith, have powers.” He turned and faced the front of the church. “What do you know about voodoo dolls?”

  “Probably the little that most people know.”

  “When they’re created, their maker infuses them with power. The power of belief. And I can assure you, Terri, they work whether the recipient believes it or not. The same with that cross, and the holy water. They’re infused with power because they were blessed as an act of faith. Faith infused them. Your faith, if you can find it, will make them even stronger.”

  “I have faith. You heard me praying last night.”

  “True.”

  “Why do you have a key to the church? So you can get holy water?”

  “Not just that. I have keys to a few churches. Sometimes the only sanctuary is holy ground.”

  That caused a shiver to trickle down her spine. “You mean you sometimes have to hide here?”

  “It happens. Not often, but it happens.”

  He sat staring toward the altar for a little longer, then sighed. “Time to head back. I’ve been out of touch too long, and Garner should be arriving soon.”

  Terri doubted it, not if Garner had a hot date, but she didn’t argue.

  She watched Jude genuflect and followed suit.

  What a complex man he was, full of seeming contradictions.

  But then she wondered where those contradictions really came from. Were they an artifact of what she’d always believed about vampires? Or was Jude just a huge exception?

  And she wondered if she would ever know.

  Chapter 7

  Garner still hadn’t arrived when they returned to the office. Terri slipped into a small room that held a cot, probably for Chloe, and followed Jude’s instructions to pin the St. Michael medal on the inside of her clothing. A glance in the mirror of the powder room told her that the cros
s he had given her must be stainless steel. Plain, ordinary, and, if Jude was right, very powerful. She touched it, decided it looked okay, and returned to the office.

  Jude once again sat on the couch.

  “How are you feeling?” she asked him as she took up position at the desk.

  “Better, actually. The burning has begun to subside.”

  “Good.”

  “Now I want something.”

  “Blood?”

  He shook his head. “No, I’m fine. What I want is information. About you.”

  “Oh.” She hesitated. “I don’t talk much about myself.”

  “I’ve noticed. Why not?”

  “I’m not a very exciting person. I have more fun listening to other people than talking.”

  “I think you’re a very exciting person,” he said, and something in his gaze made her heart speed up again, and that made him smile, because he could hear it.

  “The haunting,” he said. “Tell me about that haunting you mentioned.”

  “Other than that it was scary?” When he nodded, she tried to decide where to begin. “I noticed it the first night we moved into a new house. I was five at the time, and I honestly didn’t know what to make of it. It wasn’t as if I saw anything, or heard anything. It was just this feeling that someone was always there, watching me. And I didn’t like it but I couldn’t figure out how to express the feeling. It wasn’t as if I could say someone was there because obviously no one was.”

  “Very difficult experience at that age.”

  “For a long time, that’s all it was. But night after night I’d lie in my bed with my eyes wide open, just waiting, sure I was going to see something sooner or later. I refused to sleep in the dark. Some nights, when the feeling got too strong, I’d try to hide myself under the covers, as if I could make myself invisible to it.”

  He nodded encouragingly.

  “The feeling never went away, but at some point I convinced myself it wasn’t real. I got better at living with it, even ignoring it.”

  “Why do I suspect it didn’t end there?”