[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

"What was that?" Elle sounded anxious again.
"An earthquake maybe. A minor one. I've got the kettle on, the teapot is ready with the
powder, two teaspoons of this stuff? Have you smelled it lately?" Damon was tempted to
taste it. "It isn't a dragon's liver, is it?"
Elle laughed. "We save those for Harrington. When he drops by we put it in his coffee."
"I really feel sorry for that man." To his astonishment the teakettle shrilled loudly almost
immediately. He poured the water into the little teapot and tossed a tea towel over it for
added warmth. "Are you really going to have seven daughters?" he asked curiously,
amazed that anyone would even consider it. Amazed that he was talking comfortably to a
virtual stranger.
The house shuddered a second time. A branch scraped along an outside wall with an
eerie sound. The wind moaned and rattled the windows.
"So the prophecy says," Elle replied with a small sigh of resignation. "Damon, is
something else wrong there?"
Magic in the Wind 89
"No, they're just very tired." Damon poured the tea into four cups and set the cups on a
tray. "And the house keeps shaking."
"Hang up and call the sheriff's office," Elle said urgently. "Do it now."
He caught the sudden alarm in her voice and a chill went down his spine. Damn them all
for their psychic nonsense. There wasn't really anything wrong, was there?
The dogs roared a vicious challenge. The animals were in the front yard, inside the fence,
yet they were hurling their bodies against the front door so hard the wood threatened to
splinter. Damon did as Elle commanded and phoned the sheriff's office for help.
No one screamed. Most women might have screamed under the circumstances but none
of them did. When he carried the tray into the living room, all four of the Drake sisters
were sitting quietly in their chairs. He ignored the two men standing in the middle of the
room with guns drawn. Where before, when confronted with guns and violence, he had
panicked, this time he remained quite calm.
He knew they were killers. He knew what to expect. And this time, he knew he wouldn't
allow them to hurt the Drake sisters. It was very simple to him. It didn't matter to him if he
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
died, he needed the women to survive and live in the world. They were the ones who
mattered, all that mattered. The women would remain alive.
Damon set the tray on the coffee table and handed each of the sisters a cup of tea before
turning to face the two men. He remembered them in vivid detail. The man with the
swollen jaw had taken pleasure in torturing him. Damon was glad he had swung his cane
hard enough to fracture the jaw.
Damon straightened slowly. These men had murdered for the knowledge Damon carried
in his brain. They had crippled him permanently and changed his entire life. Now they
stood in Sarah's home, sheer blasphemy on their part. They had entered through the
sliding-glass door and had left it open behind them.
Outside, the sea appeared calm, but he could see, in the distance, small frothy waves
gathering and rolling with a building boom on the open water. He felt power moving him,
a connection with the women through Sarah. Beloved, mysteri-
90 CHRISTINE FEEHAN
ous Sarah. He waited while the women sipped their tea. Stalling for time, knowing exactly
what he would do.
"You two seem to keep turning up," Damon finally greeted. He took two steps to his
right, closer to Sarah, turning slightly sideways so she could see the small gun he had
taken from the hidden drawer where Elle had said he would find it. "Do you not have
homes and families to go to?"
"Shut up, Wilder. You know what we want. This time we have someone you care about.
When I put a gun to her head I think you're going to tell me what I want to know."
Damon looked past the man to the rolling sea. The wind was gusting, chopping the
surface into white foam. The waves crested higher. The dogs continued roaring with fury
and shaking the foundations of the living room door. Damon calmly raked his fingers
through his hair, his gaze on a distant point beyond the men. The sisters drank the hot
sweet revitalizing tea. And the power moved through Damon stronger than ever. Around
each man a strange shadow flitted back and forth. A black circle that seemed to surround
first one, then the other. At times the shadow appeared to have a human form. Most of the
time it was insubstantial.
"Would you care for a cup of tea?" Sarah asked politely. "We have plenty."
"Do sit down," Kate invited. She shifted position, a subtle movement hardly noticeable,
but it put her body slightly between the guns and Hannah.
 This gun is real," the man with the swollen jaw snapped. "This isn't a party." He grinned
evilly at his partner. "Although when it's over we might take one or two of the women with
us for the road."
Sarah looked bored. "It's very obvious neither of you is the brains in this venture. I can't
imagine that the man in jail is, either. Who in the world would hire such comedians to go
looking for national secrets? It's almost ludicrous. Are you in trouble with your boss and
he's looking to get rid of you?"
"You have a smart mouth, lady; it won't be so hard to shoot you."
"Do have some tea, at least we can be civil," Abbey said sweetly. There was a strange
cadence to her voice, a singsong quality that pulled at the listeners, drew them into her
suggestions. "If you're going to be with us for some time, we may
Magic in the Wind 91
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
as well enjoy ourselves with a fine cup of tea first and get to know one another."
The air in the room was fresh, almost perfumed, yet smelled of the sea, crisp and clean
and salty. The two men looked confused, blinking rapidly, and exchanged a long
bewildered frown. The man with the swollen jaw actually lowered his gun and took a step
toward the tray with the little teapot.
Kate stared intently at the locks on the front door, and the knob itself. Sarah never took
her eyes from the two men. Waiting. Watching. The huntress. Damon thought of her that
way. Listening, he thought he heard music, far out over the sea. Music in the wind. A soft
melodious song calling to the elements. All the while the dark shadow edged around the
two intruders.
Hannah lifted her arms to the back of the couch, a graceful, elegant motion. The wind
rose to a shriek, burst into the room with the force of a freight train. The men staggered
under the assault, the wind ripping at their clothing. The bolt on the door turned and the
door burst open under the heavy weight of the dogs. The animals leapt inside, teeth bared.
Damon blinked as the crouching shadow leapt onto the back of one of the men and
remained there.
Sarah was already in motion, diving at the two men, going in low to catch the first man in
a scissor kick, rolling to bring him down. He toppled into his partner, knocking him down
so that his head slammed against the base of a chair. Sarah caught the gun Damon threw
to her.
The man with the swollen jaw rose up, throwing the chair as he drew a second gun.
Damon attempted a kick with his one good leg. Sarah fired off three rounds, the bullets
driving the man backward and away from Damon. She calmly pressed the hot barrel
against the temple of the intruder on the floor. "I suggest you don't move." But she was
looking at the man she shot, watching Hannah and Abbey trying to revive him. Watching
the dark shadow steal away, dragging with it something heavy. Knowing her sisters could
not undo what she had done. Sarah wiped her forehead with her palm and blinked back
tears. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]