He lowered his head toward her. None. Ill cull every last one from you. So start now by telling me the truth.
She bit back a moan as he traced her lower lip with his thumb. Oh, gods, this was a risk Keira knew shed have to undertake, but she didnt reckon with the magnetic power of Dale Curtiss personality.
The force of his will.
Keira felt herself begin to crumble as the commander stroked her bottom lip, his touch gentle and erotic. His piercing gaze seared into her. Please, dont ask the question, please. I dont know if I can withhold the truth....
The commander would kill her. She knew it. Keira tensed as he whispered.
Youre bound to me. The contract states it. Now, tell me the truth. You must. Who the hell are you and why the hell are you really here?
Chapter 4
Im a Luminaire....
I know what you are. Who are you?
His aura pulsed bright red, spiked with black. Sexual energy, as well as negative forces. Keira shoved lightly at his chest, breaking the physical contact.
Im your new housekeeper, a woman who needs a job, okay? Ive been roving from town to town.
Why?
The man was relentless. I like helping people. I search for individuals that need enlightenment and then help them heal. Ask your neighbor if you need a reference.
I did. Odd how you showed up just when she needed you. He lightly clasped her wrist. Sexual current sizzled between them.
Keira closed her eyes and breathed deeply, channeling every bit of white light she could to fight the temptation to lift her face to his and kiss him. I heard her crying. Psychic cries, not real cries. Im a healer and it compelled me.
Right.
Theres enough darkness and negative energy in this world. Whats wrong with trying to eradicate it and make people feel better?
Maybe theres no hope for them. He dropped her hand.
Keira watched a shadow drape across his expression, then his face smoothed out. Dale Curtis was hiding deep pain, pain she knew well, because shed caused it.
Suddenly he went still. Keiras heart dropped to her stomach as she caught the small, scampering sounds.
Damn mice, he said. One reason why my housekeeper quit.
Thats not a mouse, she said and bolted down the hallway, hooked a right and ran into a locked door. Keira jiggled the knob. Open this, she told him as he pulled up short behind her.
A fierce scowl tightened his face. Thats private.
If you want to get rid of your pests, open it. Now.
He looked shocked, as if no one ever talked to him that way.
Dale clicked a series of buttons on a brass plate and opened the door. She burst inside, barely noting that it was an office, with stacks of papers piled on the desk. Her sense of smell overtook everything. Those little, nasty creatures, smelling like a bad combination of bad breath and rotting cabbage...
My report to the admiral...
Ignoring Dales mutterings as he sifted through papers on his desk, she dived to the floor by the credenza. Keira groped beneath the furniture and felt slicing pain scrape her hand. She peered down. The imp had affixed razor blades to the credenzas bottom, effectively making a protective nest for itself.
Two red, beady eyes glared at her. It started to lash out with its tiny claws and then backed away, obeying the hidden compulsion in the slave armband. Keira stretched out her fingers and summoned the power deep inside.
The creature squealed as it slid into her hand. She wriggled from under the credenza, clutching it tight.
Jar, she gasped.
Dale stared at the creature as it wriggled in her hand. Blood seeped down her clenched fist. What the hell...
Jar, hello, could use a little help here, get a jar, something to hold it. Please hurry.
He seized a heavy metal pencil holder from the desk, dumped out the contents.
Keira squatted down. Be quick, theyre really, really fast... Ill let go and you trap him. On three... One, two, three!
As she released the creature, Dale slammed the pencil holder down. Damn, the man was fast.
He picked up a scrap of paper and tossed it down with a disgusted sound. My report to the admiral... Its chewed to pieces.
Uh, of course. They adore paper. Almost as tasty as flour. Keira examined her injured hand with a rueful sigh. If hed have gotten to your computer, your hard drive would be royally screwed.
To her surprise, he gave a small, wry smile. Never did like anything royally screwed, especially my hard drive. I prefer the commoners touch.
It took her a minute to realize the joke. And then to her enormous chagrin, she blushed. He gave his rusty, deep laugh again. And then he looked at her injured hand and stopped laughing. Dale took her hand very gently and examined it. His touch was absolutely gentle. Fishing out a clean, white square from his pocket, he wrapped it around her bleeding palm.
Remind me to be careful dusting under there. It fastened razor blades to the credenzas bottom to keep anyone from going after him.
Dale focused his attention on bandaging her hand. Even without a contract, youd have to stay now. Cant have you leaving here wounded.
Its not much. Itll heal.
I always take care of my own. He looked slightly dangerous as he stared at the floor. The pencil holder trembled, but the creature was effectively trapped.
What the hell is that thing?
Imp. Keira wrapped her hand tighter to slow the bleeding. Blood was bad, attracted bad things, and this house already had enough darkness. She couldnt risk drawing out more.
A demon, he said slowly.
A very minor one. Imps are drawn to negativity and darkness. They feed on it.
That and residual demon energy left on a victim, she thought.
Dale frowned. That thing invaded my home because Ive been in a bad mood?
Not exactly. Youve been expelling dark energy. Something must have happened to you to suck out your white light.
He shot her an incredulous look.
Imps tend to make a person bad-tempered and irritable. They make a bad situation worse. Theyre hard to kill because theyre so fast. They can outrun almost anything.
He raised a dark brow. The commander opened a desk drawer and withdrew a pistol. Keiras jaw dropped as he chambered a round and pointed the gun at the pencil jar and fired. Shards of plastic exploded, along with a nasty splatter of gray demon blood. The stench stung her nostrils.
Not a 9 mm, he said with satisfaction.
Sweat trickled down her spine. Um, youre not very forgiving, are you?
No.
Id hate to be on your bad side.
You would. His expression darkened. Good thing youre not a demon.
Keira swallowed hard. Yeah. Sounds like youve run up against them. Its the source of your dark energy.
Im only interested in one. A hard smile touched his mouth, making him look dangerous. No matter how long I must wait. I will find her and make her pay for what she did to me.
The coffee soured in her stomach as she remembered how skillfully hed wielded the pistol. Keira didnt relish him discovering her true identity. Holding back her nausea, she pointed to the mess on the floor. If youll show me where Im sleeping and then where your cleaning supplies are, Ill get started on my first assignment.
The coffee soured in her stomach as she remembered how skillfully hed wielded the pistol. Keira didnt relish him discovering her true identity. Holding back her nausea, she pointed to the mess on the floor. If youll show me where Im sleeping and then where your cleaning supplies are, Ill get started on my first assignment.
He gently clasped her injured hand. After I clean your wounds. Those are some nasty cuts.
I can do it.
I told you, I always take care of my own.
She was almost afraid to ask. And those you consider your enemies? You take care of them, as well?
Dale gave a slow smile. The same way I did to the imp.
Keira didnt look at the splattered remains on the floor as they left his study.
* * *
After Dale left, Keira brought the saddlebags containing her possessions inside and set them on the floor. Then she sat on the bed of her new room, stroking the ecru duvet.
A real bed, with feather pillows instead of a thin blanket on the cold concrete floor. A brass reading lamp with a comfortable chair by a window that overlooked the wide backyard instead of a windowless basement. Her own bathroom, not a foul bucket in the corner.
Freedom, for the first time in years, not fearing that at any moment the demons would yank her back to captivity and imprison her once more.
Oh, how she longed to sit in the chair, crack open one of the books on his shelves and read. But she had a job to do.
Keira unpacked her kit and set about cleansing the house the way a regular housekeeper would not.
First, his office. Two wide computer screens took up most of a desk. Papers that had been neatly stacked and organized were scattered about the surface.
A map of the world was mounted to one wall, with several colored pushpins inserted into various countries.
She cleansed the remains of the dead imp and burned them in the stone hearth fireplace. Blood called to blood, and even imp blood attracted dark forces.
Keira then took a small box, opened it and arranged the crystals around Dales office in a pattern. Then she closed her eyes and began the sacred chant. The crystals began to vibrate and hum, the music of elemental energy creating a harmonic vibration.
White light suffused the room, ribbons of light beaming out from each of the four crystals. Soothing and melodious, the light singing its own song of purity, drawing out the negative forces.
A dark cloud arose from the corner near Dales computer. Ribbons of white light attacked the cloud, overcoming it, and the darkness evaporated. Keira watched, her chest tight. She lowered her hands. Why could she cleanse rooms and people and not herself?
Because of the demon blood inside me, she reminded herself. Until the Centurions were permanently vanquished to the netherworld, part of her would always remain in darkness. Lately it got more difficult to regain her inner light. Each time the demons returned her to captivity, her inner light shrank. Eventually it would go out all together, leaving her in the abyss.
Each time the Centurions allowed her freedom, Keira used the time to refresh herself with positive energy, using elements from the earth and her crystals. White light held the demons darkness at bay for a little while, until the Centurions forced her wolf to torture a new victim.
Refreshed, she set about cleansing the other rooms, until reaching Dales bedroom.
Keira hesitated at the door. She drew in a deep breath and stepped into the room, feeling the despondency and grief. The master bedroom had an attached bath. Large, with a glassed-in shower and a Roman tub big enough to fit four, it was sleek tile and slick chrome.
The darkness of horrible pain slammed into her temples.
Holding a hand to her head, she opened the medicine cabinet above the sink. Lined in a neat row were several prescription-pill bottles. All of them recently issued, most for pain, some for sleeping.
The bottles held a layer of dust.
Dale Curtis had not touched a single pill. Instead, hed suffered.
Keira cleansed both rooms, feeling the light chase away the thick layers of suffering. With a much lighter spirit, she started on her housekeeping duties.
She worked steadily, leaving the basement for last. It still needed cleansing with her crystals, as well. Dread curled in her stomach as she finally gathered her courage and climbed down the stairs, clutching her most powerful crystal. Sweat dripped down her temples and she wiped it away with the back of her hand, the dust rag gripped in her fist.
You can do this, you can do this....
The basement ran the length of the house and was enormous, divided into two sections. The smaller section was unfinished, with a utility room, wood workbench and neatly arranged tools, the furnace and storage cubicles.
This section was separated by a wall with a solid door. She opened the door and went into the larger section. It was a comfortable living room covered with beige carpeting, a small, tiled kitchen with shining stainless-steel appliances, a dining table and chairs and a sectional sofa set before a flat-screen television mounted above a fireplace. Next to the stairs were eight bunk beds. She opened a door and found a bathroom with a tiled shower.
A shiver snaked down her spine as she gazed around the room. Another door was near the bunk beds. She opened it and found a small, windowless room with a narrow bed. No light switch. Nothing to chase away the darkness...
A sly, rollicking laugh echoed in her mind. You will never escape us....
Whimpering, Keira slammed the door and leaned against it, the crystal in her left fist squeezed tight. She raced up the stairs.
Maybe shed tackle that room tomorrow.
* * *
Dale arrived home after seven. When he walked into the kitchen, Keira noticed the shadows beneath his gray eyes were pronounced and dark.
He flipped the light switch, flooding the room with overhead lighting. The man was thin and haggard, and looking worse each day. If he didnt regain strength soon, hed lose the fight to darkness. Keira glanced up from the pot of stew she stirred on the stove. He brightened as he sniffed the air.
Smells great, but you dont have to cook. I usually grab a sandwich at the commissary.
I like cooking and making new dishes.
And you need more than sandwiches to get your health back.
He eyed the dining-room table, set with the china shed found in the elegant cabinet. I just eat in the kitchen.
This is nicer, though, dont you think? He had such nice things. Keira wanted to relish and experience every good thing she could while she was free.
He sighed deeply, as if something hurt him. Its been a long time since I sat down at a dining-room table.
Dale looked down at his uniform. You went to a lot of trouble. Mind if I change first?
The stew will keep warm. Unless you decide on a hot bubble bath.
I never take bubble baths alone, only with company. Saves on water.
He gave a real smile, showing white, even teeth. The smile lit up his face and chased away all the dark shadows.
Keira stared out the kitchen window as he went upstairs. Her pulse raced. First time alone all night with the man shed tortured, a man of honor and integrity and tremendous power. She didnt underestimate his rough appearance. If he wanted, Dale Curtis could turn her to ashes with one flick of his hand.
A few minutes later, Dale returned to the kitchen, clad in khaki trousers and a navy blue polo shirt. Deck shoes covered his feet. He went into the dining room and returned with a sparkling crystal wineglass.