A moment later icy water cascaded over Bedelia. Garden hose. Any in their mouths or up their nasal passages, in their eyes, or a tiny cut… Holding her breath, she stood and turned in a circle and let the spray hit her. She pulled off her clothes and stood naked letting the water douse her.
“Inside with the others,” the woman said, barely heard. “Into the showers. Strip them and get them clean.”
“Apply your blood all over them,” Linc said. “Let them sip and spit and then drink. Hurry.”
“Yes, my master,” a man said.
“Bee,” Linc said. “Sip. Wash out your mouth and spit.”
Bee opened her mouth. Linc’s blood flooded in. She swished and spat and then his wrist was pressed against her lips. She drank. The first sip flooded her mouth and his fear crashed against her, through her. That bond she hadn’t known existed opened wide and she burst into tears as his love and horror flooded through her and twined her heart. She drank.
“I’m going to wipe you down with my blood.”
“I am uninjured, my master,” the female vampire said. “I have washed myself clean of the were-filth. May I take your place?”
“Yes, Nubit. You’re right. Hurry,” Linc said. Eyes still closed, Bedelia felt the cold, bloody vampire hands patting her down. A blast of icy air crested the cliff; the night breeze froze on her wet, and now blood-wet skin. But Linc and his vampires were fast and they quickly wrapped her in a blanket that smelled a little of Linc and a lot of horse. “Into my SUV,” he instructed.
“My things,” Bedelia said.
“Contaminated,” Nubit said. “I will burn them all for you. I will care for your personal items, anything that could call you. I will burn them into ash and mix them with the earth.”
“You know our ways,” Bee said, finally opening her eyes, to see the woman. She hadn’t paid attention to Nubit when Linc first called her over. Nubit was short, broad-shouldered, and dark-eyed, with dark skin. She wasn’t exactly pretty. She was far more. A warrior. A fighter.
“Yes. I come from a people who had a holy woman. We all knew how to protect her.”
“Thank you, Nubit,” Bedelia said.
“I’m putting you into the SUV,” Linc said.” A helicopter’ll be landing here soon to pick me up.”
“You’re going after Liz, aren’t you,” Bedelia said.
“With the others, yes. I’ll bring her back safe.”
It was a promise he might not be able to keep, she knew that, but she knew he was her daughter’s best bet.
“And Bee. I’ll see you just after sunset.”
“Mama—”
“Is asleep with the sun.” And he was gone.
Bedelia
Bedelia checked on her mama one last time. She was asleep. Snoring softly. She closed the door and padded barefoot away, her favorite housedress swishing around her calves. It was an hour after sunset. She settled on the screened porch, stretched out on a chaise lounge. On the table between the two reclining chairs were two bottles of wine, a white in a terracotta chiller for her and an unopened red for Link. She sipped, waiting. Knowing, from the moment he woke, that he was thinking about her. Knowing that he was on his way. By full dark, Linc was here.
The outer perimeter dinged, a soft note. The central ward dinged, his distinctive notes, as he walked through the woods. Bedelia’s heart leaped, and this time she didn’t try to still her heart. Where once she had made him knock, mostly to let him know that the power between them was hers, she deliberately pressed the bloodstone amulet between the thumb and forefinger of her left hand.
Thehedge of thornsfell in that delicate sprinkling of darting fireflies. The lights of the fallinghedgecascaded across Linc, brushing over him and bursting into that rich red color as they fell, his unique welcome. When he crossed thehedge, she closed it and dropped the inner ward. He stepped onto the deck, opened the screened porch, and entered. He lay a single red rose across her lap, opened the red wine and poured a taste.
“Nice,” he said, taking the seat beside her, as if he had always done so. Tonight he didn’t smell of barbeque. He smelled of a fresh shower and his heart was full of hope.
“Thank you,” Bedelia said. “Thank you for making certain my witches were safe. If it hadn’t been for you and your people, we would have been dead or furry by now.”
Linc made a soft,hmmmingsound.
“And thank you for your part in saving Liz and Cia.”
“They are brave and powerful, and I am mighty proud of them,” he said. “Have you ever told them? About us? About me?”
