it’s more. I need to be close to her.” She rubbed her nose. “Not in a stalkerish way or anything. It’s like, I don’t know. When you’re thirsty and there’s water nearby. Promise is the water.”
Adare’s face cleared. “Yeah. That’s it. Exactly.”
Ivar looked from one to the other. Then he spotted Benny loping their way after having gone for a run. Sweat ran down the huge vampire’s face, pooling on his bare chest. “Hey. Do you feel drawn to Promise?”
Benny wiped his forehead off with one arm. “Shit, yeah. She’s hot. Why? Does she want me?”
Jesus. Ivar barely kept his seat. “No, she doesn’t want you. But do you feel a compunction to be near her? Like she’s, I don’t know, drawing you in some way?”
Benny exhaled and bent over, stretching his back. His gaze sobered. “Yes. Figured I was just being an asshole. Has it been obvious?”
“No.” Ivar looked toward Ronan and Faith’s cabin. He most likely knew the answer, but might as well confirm. “Hey, Ronan,” he yelled, waiting until Ronan had walked outside, munching on what looked like a ham sandwich. “Are you drawn to Promise in any way?”
Ronan finished chewing and swallowed. “Huh?”
Yeah. That’s what Ivar had figured. “So anybody who can teleport is drawn to her.” He was drawn to her too, but he couldn’t teleport. So he won. His attraction to Promise was not based on her enhancement. “All right.” He chewed on the facts, reconsidering thoughts he’d earlier discarded. “If you’re all drawn to her, maybe others have been too. Maybe those other headaches happened to her because demons or fairies were drawn temporarily to her in public?”
Adare exhaled, his entire body relaxing into the chair. “Thank God. I felt like such a dick.” He grinned. “It’s not attraction. It’s something else.” He lifted a hand. “Not that she’s not attractive, because she is. Very pretty.”
Ivar rolled his eyes. “Thanks.”
Mercy tapped him on the arm. “Hey. So. Since she’s a draw to us and can identify people able to teleport, and since you’ve lost your ability, do you think mating her would help you get it back faster?”
He wanted to pretend that the thought hadn’t dawned on him. “I don’t know. Mates usually acquire each other’s abilities, so I’d gain hers, and yeah, that might strengthen mine.” How could he consider mating a woman and leaving her as soon as possible? He’d already made a vow to Quade. He couldn’t make an opposing one now. Except Promise had brought up the subject before he had.
Adare pulled his burning boots back finally. “If you mate her, she’ll be able to shield her mind better.”
How practical. Ivar ground his palm into his right eye to combat the tension headache attacking him. If he brought the subject up with Promise, she’d probably agree as a logical matter. She wanted immortality, and right now, she didn’t care if she was alone for eternity.
But she was selling herself short. She was a woman who needed warmth, love, and protection. She just didn’t know it.
* * * *
After a second morning of working on equations, Promise stood back and studied her latest model. This wasn’t good. Not at all. Building from Einstein’s theory of relativity, she’d been theorizing about dark matter and the effect time and gravity had on each other.
To give her brain a break, she looked over at the computer running searches of hell worlds and then snorted. A couple of posters for B movies scrolled across the screen followed by a series of books, including Clive Barker’s. She let the screen computer continue its search. Just in case.
“Shield yourself, lady,” Mercy chirped from outside.
Promise mentally tugged shields into place. “Come on in.”
Mercy slipped inside, and pain boomeranged into Promise’s head. She gasped, her eyes tearing, and imagined the shield growing. The pain lessened. Slightly.
“Um, all right. You’re pale. Good try. We’ll try again later.” Mercy began to back out and paused, her gaze stopping on the computer conducting the searches. “What is that?”
Promise blinked water from her eyes and focused. “I’m searching human popular culture for anything on hell dimensions. That’s a book.” She squinted. “No. Painting. Wow. Several of them. Those are beautiful.”
Mercy leaned to the side. “Modern art by Haven Daly.”
Promise stepped closer to the screen to watch the stunning landscapes go by. There wasn’t one she recognized. A couple looked alien. The woman must have a fantastic imagination. An image came into focus; this one much different than the others. She tilted her