to us, to create more Bodywalkers. Odjit perhaps would be capable, since she was truly a priestess in her time and was well-versed in the Book of the Dead. And perhaps her niece, Tameri.
Tameri. Their unique defector with her extraordinary power. That defection had definitely fallen into the “good” column as far as things were concerned. He’d had no idea just how powerful she was. Nor had he realized how fearful Odjit had been of losing her. So afraid that she had come for Tameri herself, with all of her power brought to bear and every intention of destroying her if she did not come back to her willingly. And it was truly the power of fate at its finest that, in spite of all the massive Nightwalker power involved in that battle, Odjit had been felled by simple human hands.
Hands, he thought with a sudden choke of rage-filled emotion, that were presently unaccounted for. Jackson was loath to count Leo out without seeing an actual corpse, but it was hard to imagine that even Leo’s strong and powerful body could recover from the bloodbath that had been left at his home. Next to protecting the women, this was Jackson’s top priority. He was going to find Leo, dead or alive, and he was going to seek justice for whatever had been done to him.
“I need Ahnvil,” he said abruptly. “I’m going to send him back to New York as soon as possible. And get me Diahmond. I don’t know to make me feel …>AP who has her in their care, but I want her well in place before her mistress is resurrected. She can help keep a closer eye on the women as well. No offense to Asikri or to you Max, but there are just some places you’re not going to be able to follow them just by nature of your sex. When I say I want them watched, I mean every single minute. I’m not giving any opportunity for someone to get to them.”
“I don’t understand how you think you’re going to keep all of this a secret from that girl,” Asikri said. “And neither one of them looks like they’ll have enough sense to obey whatever rules you set down for them. That spitfire alone will be hard to keep under wraps.”
Jackson didn’t bother to hide his amusement. “Did she really get you in the—?”
“She’s lucky I didn’t have bad intentions,” Asikri groused. “Doing something like that could go a long way to pissing off an attacker and making what happens next a lot worse.”
“Some would say it’s better than just quietly letting someone do whatever they want to you. I know for a fact that every one of us would go down fighting. Why should it be any different for them just because they are women?” Jackson loosed a wry laugh. “I once arrested this guy who had gotten rough with his date and wasn’t taking no for an answer. By the time we got there we were forced to pull her off of him and ended up having to rush him to the hospital with stab wounds to certain tender places.”
Every man standing there winced.
“Never underestimate the power of a frightened woman,” Ram said.
“I don’t underestimate any of them,” Jackson said, thinking about Marissa and how brave she had been in spite of being terrified. She didn’t have to race him to safety the way she had. She could have just left him to rot. She might have had every right to it, too. That impulse to be of need, to help anyone in need of it was going to go a long way to convincing her to become a Bodywalker.
“I better get messages out to the Gargoyles. It’s growing near dawn and we still have a lot to do,” Ram said. “Max, take the women to the guest house and see they are comfortable. We’ll touch base at dusk.”
Jackson’s first impulse was to tell Max to leave Marissa behind. It was strange, but he found himself craving her constant company now. It was as though, now that all secrets were out in the open and the walls of their respective jobs were no longer a hindrance, he was making up for lost time. And there was a lot of that time to account for. Jackson knew that Menes wasn’t overly impressed by his performance so far with Marissa. To the ancient Egyptian it was simple. See something, want something, go after that something