by Dianna Love
Without turning to look at him, she said, “You’re staring a hole through my head, Quinn. Cut it out. Your staring that is, not my head.”
Crazy vixen. He’d like to take a look inside that head and find a few answers, but since that wasn’t going to happen, he asked, “Why are you doing this?”
Lifting her chin in his direction, she said, “You know why. I want my medallion back. Not to mention that I’m the one who figured out someone is using súile marbh demons to power the energy field and that the rain is needed for a massive cloaking spell.”
“If you are correct.”
“I’m right.” No hesitation on her part. “And you need me to get through that field. What are you waiting for?”
The truth behind why she was in the middle of all this. Coincidences were for romantic comedies, not real life. “You’re willing to dangle your energy in front of who-knows-how-many demons that want to rip you apart to get it, just to have your medallion returned?”
She shrugged. “Yes.”
He didn’t believe her. He could absolutely understand wanting whatever allowed him use of his powers, but she had yet to explain why someone had locked her powers down.
He’d offered to enter her mind and see if he could unlock them. How could that be more risky than the low odds of survival that waited below with demons and other powerful beings?
Quinn had survived many near-death situations by trusting his gut. He reached inside his pocket and pulled out the medallion still hooked on the cord. Reese was his only hope for regaining Kizira’s tomb when he’d thought no hope existed.
She might be his only hope for finding Evalle and Tristan if they’d gotten into a scrape.
If Reese got this power ignition key back, would she race away and leave him to muddle his way through this rescue, or would she still be willing to face all those demons?
Did he really want her to stay and face getting injured ... or dying?
No.
He coiled the cord in his hand and dropped the medallion on top, then offered it to her on an open palm. “Take it.”
Her eyes flicked from his hand to his face and back again. She licked her lips, want shining in her gaze. Then the wary woman from earlier returned. “What’s the catch?”
“Are you always so difficult?”
“Pretty much.”
He felt a smile push at his lips, but to smile would say he enjoyed her spark. What man would do that while trying to locate the cold body of the woman who had made the ultimate sacrifice for him?
A very confused one.
Shaking off the strange reaction, he repeated, “Take it.”
She held his gaze as she took her possession from him. Once she had a grasp on the cord ends, she immediately tied it around her neck. Her sigh of deep relief confirmed how much that meant to her.
He got a muttered, “Thank you,” and for the second time in two days, had a feeling those weren’t words she said very often. Not because she didn’t genuinely appreciate getting her medallion back.
That wasn’t it.
She’d sounded as though she couldn’t believe he hadn’t wanted her soul in exchange.
He’d had no intention of keeping her power device from her beyond today, but she trusted no one and for some damn reason he wanted her to trust him.
She deserved a choice in this.
In fact, now that he thought about it, she needed to just leave. She’d stumbled into this and miserable dog that he was, he had taken advantage of her situation. Sure, she was holding secrets, but had she harmed any of his people? No. Was she working with this group who apparently used demons to power the rain shields? Didn’t look that way.
Would she survive being used as a demon magnet?
Probably not.
Don’t I have enough blood on my hands?
Yes. Quinn expected Trey to contact him any time now with a green light to put the next steps in motion.
Reese had made the deal all on her own and he believed she had powers she had yet to reveal, but she was not immortal. He was fairly certain of that.
“Reese?”
She’d been holding the medallion and staring out over the buzzing cloud below them. “Hmm?”
“You can go.”
Ever so slowly, she turned a face to him covered with an expression that questioned his intelligence. “What? Have you come up with another way to break through that canopy, but failed to mention it until now?”
Smart mouth. “No, but I’m not putting you at further risk. This is our fight, not yours. It was wrong of me to press you for that agreement. You were right in the cemetery when you said my head was up my ass.”
Her lips parted.
Well, damn. He’d managed to render her speechless. He’d bet that didn’t happen often.
She started shaking her head slowly at first then adamantly. “No. We made a deal. I’m sticking to my part.”
“I appreciate your honoring our original agreement, but I’d rather you stayed out of this.”
“What about that Daegan guy? He sounds like your boss. What’s he going to say?”
“It doesn’t matter. This our battle, not yours.”
She looked so torn you’d think she had a stake in this. After silently deliberating on something, she released a long breath. “Why is this so important to you, Quinn? What are you going to do with that woman’s body?”
His hair lifted at the censure in her voice.
Who the hell did she think she was? “What I do with that body is none of your business.”
“See, that’s where I’m going to disagree.”
“You need to get going before I change my mind,” he warned.
“Not until I find out what you plan for that body.”
He drilled a look at her that had made warriors cringe. Damn little pistol just stood there defying him. “You didn’t know anything about this body until you stumbled into the battle this morning, right?”
“Right.”
If she hadn’t blinked and glanced away, he might have believed her. His suspicions jumped up ready to pursue the truth, so he fed her rope to see if she’d hang herself. “If that’s so, why would you care about a body to which you have no tie?”
Her passive expression remained, but her eyes gave her away. Fire blazed in them. What drove that passion?
She said, “I have an issue with a body being used by preternaturals. I’m not leaving until I know it’s safe.”
Quinn couldn’t decide whether to shout at her that she had some nerve dictating morality to him or thank her for not being yet another preternatural looking to take advantage of the body.
But, that still left the question of her interest unanswered.
In the end, he held his ear as if he were receiving a telepathic call, which had not happened. In truth, it was still a few minutes too soon. He stared off, nodding as if he was agreeing to something he heard.
After a moment, he lowered his hand and said, “I will ease your conscience. The Beladors down inside that buzzing fog are there to rescue the tomb and bring that body back. We are keeping it from beings who would use necromancy on Kizira. As for me, I have a personal stake in protecting that body. We now have enough people in place that your expertise is no longer needed. The sooner you get going, the sooner my people can move on this. Thank you for your offer of help. It will be remembered should you ever need aid from the Beladors.”
“I don’t believe anyone just contacted you. Why are you lying to me? And before you try to yank my chain again, keep in mind that you have not seen all my powers.”
Chapter 31
Reese hated to admit the truth, so she wouldn’t.
At least not out loud where one of Yáahl’s snooping crows might hear, but she’d realized she was mentally defective.
There was no other reason for her failure to take the medallion and leave. All she had to do was find a place nearby to watch the battle
, wait for one side to disrupt the energy canopy, then she’d slide in through the battle lines and find the tomb.
That wouldn’t help Quinn, but she wasn’t convinced that the Beladors had honorable reasons for getting the tomb back. From what she’d heard, Macha had been kicked out of their gang and a guy named Daegan had inserted himself.
What did that say about the Beladors?
They had once been known as the most honorable of preternaturals. Now some of them even used demons for dark reasons. So who knew?
She had the medallion and no intention of throwing herself to demons like fresh meat to piranhas, but she was not leaving Kizira’s body at risk, even if she had to kill someone.
Yáahl was a roaring pain in her backside, but he was considered a benevolent being who would do no harm. If it came down to a safe place for Kizira’s body, Yáahl topped the list at the moment.
Quinn’s normally calm demeanor went through a pissed-off overhaul. “Are you threatening me?”
“Not specifically. I only warned you not to lie to me again because you don’t know what else I’m capable of, should I take offense to your lies.” That sounded reasonable to her.
He stepped forward, bringing all that powerful male up close and personal. She had the crazy desire to feel him right up against her, but that took her from being mentally defective right into just plain stupid.
Men are bad, remember?
Okay, got it.
Her body, however, had the memory of a toadstool when it came to the opposite sex.
“What the hell is it going to take to get you out of here?” Quinn growled.
Underneath all that anger was a layer of concern that permeated every breath he drew. Concern and pain. She’d seen both today. She was walking a tightrope through her conscience right now and needed to decide one way or the other if she was going to get involved.
“The truth.”
He lost his homicidal look. “Come again?”
“Tell me the truth if you want me to leave.” She wasn’t saying she would leave, but a man this aggravating would assume it meant the same.
“About what?”
“Why do you feel so responsible for Kizira’s body?” This would tell her if he had a nefarious reason for possessing it. Nefarious was a good word to use with this snob. She should have worked that into a comment. “Come on, Quinn. Put up or shut up. I’m tired of you feeding me crap.”
A muscle in his neck stood out, but in the next second his shoulders lost their tightness. He said, “Her death was my fault.”
Hmm. Reese wasn’t sure what to do with that. “Did you kill Kizira?”
His mouth dropped open, appalled. “No, I didn’t kill her.”
“Did you pay someone to do it or make someone kill her?”
“Hell, no.”
She didn’t get this at all. “Then how was her death your fault?”
Misery flooded his eyes. A deep misery unlike anything she’d ever seen in a man.
Reese regretted bringing that to the surface.
Quinn looked into the distance. “During a battle between the Medb and Beladors, Kizira stepped in front of me when a gryphon attacked. He gutted her and she’d been compelled not to heal herself by that bitch Flaevynn, who birthed her.”
Reese reeled from the shock. From that little bit he’d shared, she figured out Kizira had cared for Quinn, maybe loved him, to have made such a selfless sacrifice.
But Kizira’s death wasn’t Quinn’s fault.
Reese wanted to smooth that pain from his face. “Who controlled the gryphons?”
“The Medb did at the time. The gryphons are now with us, the Beladors. What’s your point?”
Reese had no idea why she wanted to help Quinn through his grief, when no one had eased the pain she’d suffered over losing her child.
That was it. No one had been there for her.
How could she have explained losing a baby because of a preternatural energy that lived inside her? She couldn’t. Just as Quinn had to feel isolated in his guilt over an enemy who obviously cared for him.
Had he cared for Kizira?
What had gone down between those two for him to put his life on the line to protect her body?
It didn’t matter. Reese understood that part, if there had been some relationship between the two.
She’d lay her life down to protect the body of the baby she’d lost if it was under threat from preternatural predators.
Her tone was unusually gentle when she said, “You feel guilty because Kizira chose to save you. That doesn’t make her death your fault, Quinn. She made a decision, knowing she couldn’t heal. Why are you beating yourself up over it?”
“There are things you don’t know, and that I can’t tell you.”
Reese tamped down on her exasperation. “Tell me one thing and I’ll let it go.”
Quinn said nothing, looking like he might toss her over the edge if she didn’t drop this topic soon.
She asked the same question as earlier, but this time without condemnation. “What do you plan to do with her body if you get it back? There must be a reason you didn’t cremate her, spread the ashes and so forth, which would have prevented all this.”
Quinn took a while to answer and in that moment he seemed to be pulled inside out. “I shouldn’t have put her in that tomb, but I … had a valid reason, or so it seemed to me at the time. Now I see that my thinking was unrealistic for the world in which we live. If I get her back, I’m going to make sure no one can ever touch her body and use it for dark majik, but I’m running out of time.”
Reese still didn’t know everything, but she figured out something in listening to his voice as much as his words.
Quinn had cared for Kizira. He’d had some type of relationship with Kizira. No man, especially not a Belador, would put his life at risk to save the body of a dead Medb.
She suffered a moment of jealousy that Kizira had earned the dedication of such a man. Reese hadn’t believed it possible. She’d never seen that level of caring before.
Who was this man? He’d given back her medallion, no strings attached.
She still had to face Yáahl. How had everything gotten so turned around?
She needed to know more about the Tribunal. “You’ve got a meeting tonight. I heard you mention it. Does that involve her body?”
He nodded. “I’m expected to deliver her body to a Tribunal just over an hour from now. If I don’t, the Medb can come after me and the body without repercussion.”
Crap. Now he tells me this?
Quinn rubbed his forehead. “Just go, Reese. Whatever interest you have in this is not going to supersede mine.”
She mentally stuttered at that.
Had Quinn figured out she did have a personal stake in finding Kizira’s body?
She did.
If she showed up empty-handed, Yáahl would never return her power. He wouldn’t perform necromancy, which seemed to make this all better, but not really.
She needed her powers now that jötnar demons had found her.
Quinn crossed his arms. “Get moving, Reese.”
“How do you intend to disrupt the energy field without me?”
“You mean without dragging you in there like a sacrificial lamb?” he snapped.
“Yeah, that’s about right, but you need me to kill demons, too.”
He replied in a droll voice. “I’ve killed a few demons in my time. The ones today will wish they’d met me on other battlefields. I’m not in a merciful mood. I’m done. Go now and stay out trouble. I know that’s a difficult task for you—”
“Was that a joke?”
Quinn sighed hard and lifted his phone. It must have vibrated. She hadn’t heard it.
He confirmed, “I’m ready.” Pause. “No. I told Daegan everything. He trusts us to get this done. If you’re still not reaching the others telepathically or through their mobile phones, you may not get th
rough to me either once I go in there. I’m watching a fog below me that’s buzzing and—”
Quinn listened with a stern expression. “Tell Storm to wait.” Another pause. “No, that resource didn’t work out. Tell him I’m working on another way to breach the energy field.”
Reese had heard enough.
This medallion had only so much juice left.
She should take Quinn’s advice and leave, but stay close enough to come in once the tomb was revealed.
That would be the wise thing to do in her situation.
Only an idiot would think about anyone but herself right now.
She turned to look down the side of the ravine and jumped, dropping as quickly as her IQ obviously had. The medallion had felt weaker each time she’d drawn on it. She clutched the disk tightly, hoping it wouldn’t fade on her before she had to return to Yáahl.
Chapter 32
Quinn watched Reese disappear over the edge of the drop-off.
That woman was insane.
He jammed the phone in his pocket and backed up two steps, then took a running start. He leaped into a dive then flipped in the air and shoved his kinetic power down before the last twenty feet, slowing his fall to land on the ground at the bottom of the incline.
Just in time.
Reese came barreling down the mudslide, all legs and arms. Fifteen feet up from him, her foot caught.
She pitched forward off the hill.
Quinn caught her arms, pulling her to him. He wheeled around to keep her momentum from carrying them both to the ground.
She clung to him for all of a second, then fought against his hold. “Let me go, dammit.”
Don’t bite her head off. He refused her order and shook her. “What do you think you’re doing? I tell you to leave and you jump off a ledge?”
“I had it under control.”
“It didn’t look like you were using your power just now. What was the point in giving that medallion back to you if you’re not going to use it? If you want to kill yourself, do it somewhere else.”
Her face lost its spark. “I was not trying to kill myself. Don’t you dare accuse me of that.”
Why did she look hurt?