“Loki? Ya think one of us is a trickster demon?”
Curtis nodded. “They say he pulls pranks and likes to run around naked.”
“Right.” Maura should have known.
“Could be you for all I know,” he teased.
“Could be. So ya better be careful.” She arched a brow and realized she was flirting with him.
Seriously. What the hell was wrong with her.
Focus, Maura.
“My point is, if ya know I’m a MacGregor, then ya know that magick is how I detect people are in that direction. Maybe we’ll get lucky, and it’ll be Green Vallis.” Maura doubted it. Green Vallis would’ve had more life forces than what she’d witnessed.
“I knew this place was special with those ley lines and whatnot but didn’t think they could move people around.” Curtis again peered over the field as if it could give him answers. “I think they’re maybe part of what drew me here. It felt like signs pointing in this direction, you know.”
“My cousin Erik is why we’re here. It was his turn to find a place for us to relocate. The second he stepped into town, he’d felt that power. He even bought the giant mansion on the hill that overlooks town—”
“I’m familiar with it,” Curtis inserted.
“—without checking with the rest of us first.” Maura leaned down and pressed her hands against the warm earth. The grass was soft against her fingers. “I feel nature, enough to easily fuel my magick, but I don’t feel the ley lines. I don’t think we’re close to home.”
“Fuel?”
Maura hesitated. Not because she couldn’t trust him, but because centuries of being told to keep the MacGregor secrets had been hammered into her head.
“Magick needs to come from somewhere. It doesn’t just manifest out of thin air. We warlocks take from nature, converting the energy. It’s better if we take a little from a large section rather than a lot from a small one. My family could kill every tree in a tristate area in one go if we wanted.” She gave a half smile. “Sex works too for a quick power fix.”
Enough with the flirting, Maura, she scolded herself.
“Are you asking if I’ll…?” He slowly smiled and looked at the ground. “Here?”
“Easy, lover boy.” Maura grinned. “The night is young, and the date just started. I haven’t decided if I’m going to let ya kiss me goodbye at the end of the night.”
“Well, for the record, if you need to refuel, my services are available.” He tightened the sleeves around his waist, grimacing at the applied pressure. “Any chance all this nature fuel means you can magick us back to Crimson Tavern? Kay wasn’t planning on locking up after her shift. I just disappeared on her.”
“Sorry, all out of magick carpet rides. Though, I wouldn’t worry too much. Sheriff Johnson makes regular rounds, and we’re not exactly a high-crime area. I’m sure your place will be fine.” Maura focused her attention away from him as she considered the route leading to the gathering. “So, coin toss. Do we head toward the people or run from them? I have no clue if they’re friend or foe.”
“I vote cautiously toward them. Civilization feels safer than the wilderness. We’ll find a phone and call for a ride,” Curtis said.
“Agree. Besides, ya need a doctor.” Maura ducked under his arm and slipped her hand around his waist to support his weight.
“It hurts like a bitch, but I’ll be fine.” Curtis placed his arm over her shoulder. The breeze helped ease the humidity, but the heat from his body radiated along her side.
“Is that a dhampir thing?” Maura supported him as they began their journey across the open prairie.
“Yes. Fast healing is one of the only useful things my great grandfather gave me.” A small, humorless laugh followed the statement.
“I meant the tough guy act,” Maura teased. If not for the fact they were magickally lost, he was injured, and they had just met, this might have been considered a nice night for a romantic stroll.
He nodded. “Yeah, probably that too.”
Her mind kept trying to wander away from the reality of the danger they were facing. There was a comfort to the energy between them, a familiarity like she’d known him a long time.
“What else did he give ya, your great grandfather? Ya said that was one of the things.” She wanted to keep him talking, hopefully taking his mind off any pain.
Curtis laughed. “The need to pack extra sunblock. The other kids at school used to tease me because I sunburned so badly. They started calling me Crispy.”
“Ah, that’s kind of cute. Crispy Curtis.”
“Don’t even.” He lifted a finger in warning but smiled to soften the benign threat. “It took me years to outgrow that horrible nickname.”
“Before ya fainted, ya said something about not knowing if there were more.” Maura kept an eye on the empty field. “It was a vampire, wasn’t it? That is how the fire started. Ya killed it, and those were the death flames. Is there a den near Green Vallis?”
He took several steps before answering. “I need you to know it was an accident. I didn’t mean to kill him. I don’t want to bring trouble.”
“No one is going to be mad that one less vampire is in the world.”
“Except maybe other vampires.” Curtis took a deep breath, the sound a little ragged, and she wondered if he was in a lot of pain. “I was minding my own business. Virgile abducted me from the alley behind the tavern when I went to take the trash out. After he brought me to the woods, he attacked, and I lifted a piece of wood to block him. I’m not sure if I stabbed him or he landed on the branch and stabbed both of us.”
“Sounds like a clear-cut case of self-defense to me.
He inhaled deeply. “Hey, do you smell that?”
“Nothing out of the ordinary.” Maura didn’t smell anything but nature tinged with sweat. “What about the ghost army that came after?”
“Ghost army?” Curtis started to laugh but stopped. He glanced around without letting go of her. “Wait, seriously?”
Maura nodded. “Civil War troops, drummer boy, all of it. Have ya ever seen anything like that? They marched over us, and we were transported here.”
Curtis dropped his arm from around her shoulders and walked in a small circle to study the landscape. “I would almost bet that a magnolia tree was nearby. They grow all along my mawmaw’s property.”
Maura took a deep breath. She smelled grass with a hint of flowers, but nothing to cause her notice or alarm.
“I’d know that scent anywhere. Magnolia trees on a Mississippi night.” He inhaled and made a slight noise of appreciation. “Come to think of it. They used to tell stories of a ghost army around the campfire when we were kids. I never believed them. The South is full of ghosts, and stories, and superstitions. Mawmaw kept a bottle tree in the front yard to capture ghosts. On hot summer nights, about all you could do is sit in the breeze spinning yarns.”
“Spinning…? Oh, aye, telling stories. Right.” Maura watched him move without her assistance. Moonlight shifted the shadows over his muscular chest as he lifted his arms over his head to stretch. “Ya don’t move like ya needed my support.”