Sealed With a Curse(54)

“Ouch!”

“Quit whining and drive,” I snapped.

Tim pulled back onto the road, muttering how I couldn’t take a joke.

“Excuse me, Tim—”

“Emme, tell me you’re not being polite to this prick!” Taran shook out her hands, which were bright red from beating on Tim.

Emme blushed. “Um…I just want to know what the glowing was all about.”

Tim rolled his eyes in the mirror, but then caught the aroma of Taran’s anger and rising magic and decided against further pissing her off. “All master vampires are soul takers—susceptor animae. They possess the power to take one’s soul in order to turn them vampire. Celia is the rare dantem animam—a soul giver. We felt the master’s aura return when she bit him; that’s when we recognized her power.”

Shayna thought about it. “But that seems like some pretty powerful magic. How does it not link them?”

Tim spoke like it was obvious. “Because Celia is not giving him a piece of her soul, just returning his own back to him.”

Shock spread across Taran’s lovely yet bloodlust-caked features. “Damn, Ceel. You sent a lot of vamps to hell today.”

I shuddered. Vampires were notoriously egocentric, but that shouldn’t have given them an all-access pass to hell—especially when their actions were a result of an infection beyond their control.

Tim groaned when he caught a whiff of my sadness. “For a tigress, you’re a real puss—” My growl cut him off. He cleared his throat. “The return of a soul is something only a master is capable of receiving.”

Shayna leaned toward Tim’s window. “So then she did return Zhahara’s?” She smiled weakly in my direction. “I’m not trying to upset you, Celia. But you did bite her.”

Tim shook his head. “No. Bloodlust is too powerful and foul for the soul to penetrate. Which goes to show the master has no trace of it—even after the level of exposure he had today.”

I thought about what Tim said. “So if direct contact with those infected doesn’t cause the bloodlust, then what does?”

Tim shrugged. “Who cares? The master is safe and it’s no longer our problem.”

“Way to be selfless, Tim.” My mind mulled over my strange newfound power until unease twisted my small intestine into a Christmas bow. I pictured master vampires from all over the world lining up in front of some whacked-out, supernatural kissing booth advertising soul returns for a buck…and me chained on the other side. “Tim, I want Misha’s word that no one else will find out about my dantem animam thingy.”

Tim chuckled. “Relax, Celia. Trust me when I say most masters would prefer not to account for their sins.” He turned onto the main road. “Besides, I suspect the master would prefer to keep the return of his essence to himself. A vampire with a soul juggles both life and death at once. Constant touch with such powerful forces grants him greater strength.” Tim fell into a more serious demeanor. “Thereby making him a greater threat to those who oppose him.”

Silence fell among us, yet the events of the day prevented it from lasting. Shayna flashed Emme a grin. “You were quite the hero, Miss Watch Me Lift a Bus. Thanks for coming back to save the day.”

“My power seemed to refresh the closer we got to the lake. Tim was scared to go back—”

“I wasn’t scared!” Tim insisted.

Yes, he was, Emme mouthed. “But I convinced him it’s what Misha would want. The bus was parked along the front driveway. Tim scaled the wall and looked inside. When he told me you’d trapped Zhahara in the floor, hitting her with something big was the only thing I could think of.”

I laughed. “Well, it worked. I’m so proud of you, Emme.”

Taran smirked. “You did good, baby girl.”

I hugged Emme close just as the phone inside the limo rang. Tim picked it up without hesitation. “Hey, Ana Clara. You still at Z’s?” She whispered something too low for me to hear. “What? Oh, hell, hold on.” He talked over his shoulder. “They found another cluster of infected vampires in the dungeon. They killed most of them, but two escaped.” He ignored our groans and returned to his conversation with Ana Clara. “Look, urge the master out before anything else happens. Tahoe’s magic will leave him soon. I’ll be back as soon as I drop them off. Later—Oh, yeah. I’ll take a brunette and a redhead. Make sure the master eats well before he falls into the sleep. Yeah, yeah, I know they’re pains in the ass, but the master will be pissed if I leave them on the side of the road.”