Free Tempting the Enemy by Dee Tenorio Page A

theirs.
    Refocusing, she searched for the victim. Finding that should be easy. The dead left imprints that were usually far stronger than the living. Overwhelming for the same reason as a Sibile’s signature—intensity. Most people died unwilling to give up their lives. In the hopeless scrabble to stay alive, they often left a mark that could take years to fade. There was none of that here.
    “Are you sure this is the site?” She scanned again, but nothing lifeless, much less violent, stood out.
    “Positive.” She felt his color swirl around her again.
    Impatience threaded through it.
    “There’s no sign of it here.” Another sweep. She shifted away from him again, but he followed her.
    “You’re too close.”
    “Too bad.”
    She turned to snap at him, but the glow of his color shifted the shadows where they stood. Most of them.
    Stopping, she stared down at an inky blackness that didn’t change. She reached her hand out, using the ribbon to shine a light directly on it. The glow disappeared into it.
    “My God.”
    “What? What did you find?”
    “Nothing.” Literally. A black signature. A void.
    Emotion so dark it was evil. Her power recoiled from it.

    Dee Tenorio
    67
    Rysen’s color, though, remained brilliant against it. “This must be him.”
    “You need to start talking, Jade.”
    The order made her hackles rise. Rather than bite him as she wanted to, she flicked her gaze to the woman and the little boy. The child was all of maybe seven, his dark eyes watching them with interest. Brown hair fell over his rounded brow. He didn’t need to hear them talk of death. “We have company. I’ll explain later.”
    If she went only by Rysen’s low growl, she’d think he was resigned to her decision. His signature promised retribution for her dissention.
    Let him try.
    Using his light, she spread her hand wide to the right.
    Then left. The signature didn’t have the streak of movement. It was a near solid mass of blackness. As if he had stayed in that place for a while. But how? “This doesn’t make any sense. He was here…but he didn’t come from anywhere and he didn’t go anywhere.”
    “That’s not possible.”
    Did he think she didn’t know that? She eyed the signature. She could learn more if she was willing to touch it. But opening her mind to the signature of a murderer? What if he wasn’t human? Even if he was, she’d never touched the taint of evil.
    She glanced at the boy again. He smiled at her, waving small fingers. She smiled back, watching as the bus pulled to a stop and the boy’s mother tugged on his arm. They both rose, rushing to climb on. A moment later they were gone, leaving her with the detective in the shadows. “How many victims again?”
    “Three.”

    68
    Tempting the Enemy
    She turned to him, surprised at the ripple she felt all around her. “You’re lying.”
    His chin rose, his bright eyes reflecting affront.
    Maybe this signature thing of his was better than she thought. She smiled, slowly. “There’s something you’re not telling me.”
    He made her wait. She sensed his implacability about saying any more.
    “Fine, keep your secrets.” She fully planned to keep her own. She turned back to the sphere of darkness. “It doesn’t matter anyway. It was an unimportant question.”
    “Why?”
    She sighed, wishing she could let herself off the hook. But three people had already been killed. More were going to end up that way. There was no choice.
    “Because it doesn’t change the outcome of what has to be done.” She pulled off her glove, flexing her fingers in the cold air. “If I start screaming, pull me back.”
    “Why would you start—”
    Jade reached out and slid her fingers into the oily darkness. All at once, the world disappeared. No light. No color. No Rysen. Complete black. Frigid, icy cold. Rage without end.
    And pain. She felt it like spikes of ice spearing through her body. It had to stop. Please, God, make it stop.
    She yanked her hand back,