When her captain finally arrived before her, he dipped his head and raised his hand in a salute. When he did so, he finally caught sight of Mike’s lifeless body stretched out on the finely manicured grass.
“No,” he shouted in disbelief, and approached his fallen right-hand man, dropping to his knees beside Mike.
There was no doubting the real emotions there this time. Pain and also guilt.
The former made sense to Victoria, but the latter not so much. She approached her cadre captain and laid a hand on his shoulder. “Where were you tonight?”
He stiffened at her question, although she had done her best to keep her tone neutral. In all honesty, if there was guilt to assign, she bore the greater chunk of it. She was the one who insisted on trying to be more human and go without the presence of her cadre of warriors. Maybe if more of them had been present, Mike would still be alive.
Rafael rose and faced her, his features stoic, but all around him quivering tendrils of silver and blue swam as the sapphire blue of his aura became visible. Emotion was threatening to best his control. When he finally spoke, his tone was as dead as his fallen comrade.
“The Shadows attacked north of here last time. I thought it wise to patrol that section of beachfront personally, but I left a line of energy to warn me of any threat in this area,” he explained in his defense.
Victoria recalled sensing that energy, but for only a short time. “Your warning line did not last long.”
Raphael immediately barked back, “And whose fault is that?”
Stunned gasps erupted from those around her at the challenge to her authority. Her father, always quick-tempered, raised his hand toward her captain. An energy ball gathered there, readying to punish Rafael for his insolence, but Victoria laid her hand on her father’s arm.
“No, Father. He is right. If I had adhered to our ways more closely, this might not have happened.”
Victoria applied gentle pressure until her father disarmed and lowered his hand.
She strode directly in front of Rafael and tilted her face up to his much greater height. In a low whisper, she said, “You are my friend, but never forget again that I am your future Quinchu.”
Rafael stared straight ahead, never meeting her gaze. Long seconds passed before he dipped his head and brought his right hand to his chest to salute her. “Forgive me, Quinchu.”
His actions did little to alleviate her concern that something was not right with him. However, now was not the time for further discussion.
“Assemble the rest of the cadre. We must return Mike to his wife.”
Once she had given the news to Mike’s wife, she needed to prepare for yet another challenge.
She had to call Christopher and arrange to meet him. When he arrived, she’d determine if he’d had a hand in the attack, and if he had…
That sick feeling came again. Although she didn’t know much about Christopher, she had been hoping for so much. Peace and prosperity for her people. Possibilities for herself.
Looking back at the rippled sand that hid one Hunter body and then at Mike, those things seemed farther away than they ever had.
CHAPTER
16
The trails of spent energy wafted down the beachfront like the smoke from Fourth of July fireworks.
Ryan and two other cadre members sped along the sand, chasing the origins of the expended power. There was no doubt that there had been a large release of Hunter power nearby. Christopher had charged him with investigating while he continued with what he needed to do for his meeting with Victoria.
While Ryan questioned the wisdom of Christopher’s possible involvement with Victoria, he had sworn his allegiance and, more important, Christopher was his best friend. He would do anything to protect him which in part explained his headlong dash down the almost deserted beachfront in search of what they had sensed.
To the few humans who were out on the late summer night, he and his men were invisible, their passage along the sands marked only by a slight gust in the eastward-blowing breeze. Humans could not detect the Hunters when they shifted to their most elemental state of energy, skipping from ion to ion in the atmosphere before reconstituting into a more corporeal form. Only Hunters and some Hybrids could see such travels as blurs of light through the cosmos.
When he reached a spot on the beach where the presence of millions of stray ions signaled a great disruption, Ryan reined himself in and materialized. Recognizing the change in their captain, the other cadre members likewise shifted and armed themselves. The remnants of energy were so strong here, there was no doubt that Light and Shadows had fought at this spot. Evidence of their two distinct life forces littered the area.
Looking westward, Ryan took note of the large mansion farther up from the shore. Like Christopher’s place several miles down the beach, the home was capable of housing at least a dozen or more people. Perfect for keeping a Hunter leader and cadre members.
Stretching his arms out, he opened himself to the ether, not only absorbing the stray bits of power, but seeking them out. One signature registered strongly. A familiar pattern, and yet he couldn’t quite confirm who it was from at the moment. Then the remnants of a second life force came at him, much more potent and totally distinguishable.
It belonged to one of the cadre members he had set to watch Maya.
Following the trail of that energy, Ryan came upon a large dune of sand whose surface appeared to have been rippled by massive waves. Only it was too far from the ocean for the waters to have reached that spot. Puzzled, Ryan bent and ran his fingertips along the hard-packed sand. The buzz of Light Hunter energy was strong, but beneath it were minute traces of another vitality—that of his cadre member.
“Bill, stand guard. Chase, help me here,” he commanded as he knelt and began shoveling away sand with both hands. He had gone no more than about six inches down when he encountered what remained of the physical presence of Jason, his warrior.
Ryan cursed beneath his breath and shoved away the sand more forcefully, viciously working beside Bill until they revealed Jason’s face. Caught up in the Light Hunter power that had created the sand trap, he had been unable to shift into an energy form that would have allowed him to escape. Instead, he had been locked into his physical being, trying to fight off the sand that had covered him and filled every orifice, suffocating him.
Ryan took hold of Jason’s hand, hoping that enough Hunter energy remained in his core to revive him, but not a speck lingered in his stiff body. They could not leave him here, but even as deserted as the beach was, it would take too long to dig him out, creating the risk of discovery.
If Christopher had been here he could have stirred alive the waters in the sand again and loosened Jason enough to remove his body for return to the compound. But the cadre members with him were not as strong and their affinities for plants and empathy were of little use at the moment.
Which left his affinity and only one way to deal with Jason.
“You cannot,” said Bill, and Chase mumbled beneath his breath in agreement as they realized what he planned to do.
“It’s the only way. We cannot leave him here,” Ryan said, and laid his hands on Jason’s cold, rigid shoulders.
Summoning the power he had stored during the day, he centered his attention on his fallen comrade. Where Ryan’s skin met Jason’s a bright orange glow developed along with heat as powerful as the sun from which it came. Directing that power inward, Ryan sent a bolt of light and heat through the corpse and then pushed off onto his feet.
Before him the golden glimmer spread across the exposed parts of Jason’s body and then flames erupted. So strong was the heat that it drove the three Shadows away from the corpse, and then with the suddenness of a gunshot, the fire and heat disappeared, leaving behind a fine layer of blue-gray ash in and around the sand trap.
Drained, emotionally and physically, Ryan dropped to his knees and rested his hands on his thighs. Murmuring a short blessing, he ripped off hi
s T-shirt and spread it out on the ground beside him. Leaning forward, he gathered handful after handful of the sand combined with the ash and deposited it on his T-shirt, explaining as he did so, “His wife should have something to bury.”
When he had a fairly large pile of ash, he tied up his shirt and tucked it tight under his arm. With a look at his cadre members, he watched as they covered what remained of the ash with more sand. After they had finished filling the hole, they both paused for a short good-bye. Then at his nod, the three called forth their energy and disappeared into the nearly moonless night.
Christopher stood on Victoria’s balcony, staring at the large glass sliding doors and the darkness beyond them.
She hadn’t answered her door, but he knew she was home. There was no hiding the intensity of her power within the feeble confines of the human structure. It was also impossible to disguise the anger, pain, and uncertainty roiling through her. The connection that had formed between them during their last encounter was alive with her troubled emotions and his.
He, too, was furious, unsure and filled with hurt at the loss of Jason. The death of each Hunter diminished all of them. He had not liked telling Jason’s young wife that her husband was gone or presenting her with the handfuls of ash that had once been her spouse.
Nor had he liked Ryan’s insinuations that Victoria was somehow responsible. Nothing that he knew about Victoria said that she was capable of an unprovoked attack on a lesser Hunter, even if he was a Shadow.
But then he reminded himself that he knew little about her. He wondered what had happened earlier that night and why if she had called him to confirm their meeting, everything was dark at her home.
Breaking down the door would have attracted too much attention, so he walked to the glass and laid his hand on its surface. With glass capable of a liquid state, it presented no hindrance to his entry as he centralized his energy beneath his hand. He pushed away the glass molecules to create an opening large enough for him to step through. Then with another outpouring of power, he sealed the glass shut to conceal his entry.
Christopher didn’t need to turn to know she was there. The force of her emotions and her power beat at his back in warning.
Because of the instability he was sensing in her, he pivoted slowly, arms outstretched and hands open to reveal the emptiness of his palms. To his dismay, he realized she was fully charged and ready to fire, with bright softball-sized orbs of red-silver in the palms of her hands as she stood in her living room.
“I lost a friend tonight,” he said, his tone low, but calming in the hope of not escalating the situation.
She took a step toward him and the glow from the orbs illuminated her face. Tears had swollen her eyes and left trails down skin paled by grief and a loss of hope. When she spoke, her voice was raw with pain and the remnants of sobs.
“Mike was a friend as well. He died saving me.”
Saving her? he thought. None of his people would dare attack her, well aware of the edicts he had issued against any interactions with the Light Ones. “No one in my clan would attack you.”
She launched herself at him, and he barely blocked the swing of her arm with his. As the fields of their life forces crashed against each other, steamy mist exploded into the night air. The contact echoed down their arms and deep into their being, awakening a rash of conflicting emotions.
“Liar,” Victoria said, and lashed out at him with her other arm, but he captured both of them in his hands, gentling his grasp since she had retracted her orbs.
“You trapped him with your power, Victoria. He suffocated in that quicksand,” he accused, losing some of his restraint as he imagined what Jason must have experienced in the last moments of his life. How it must have felt to have the sand fill his lungs and block out the sight of the world above him. A world he was too young to have left so quickly.
“It wasn’t like that,” she spat at him, trying to pull free of his hold.
“Then tell me how it was. Tell me what happened,” he said, and released one arm so he could run the pads of his fingers across her cheeks, wiping away the wetness of her tears. Once again the buzz of harmonious energy came against his fingertips.
Victoria yanked away from his tenderness and marched to the center of the room, where she paced a few steps before facing him once more. Her arms were wrapped around herself defensively, as if they were the only thing holding her together. “I was out on the lawn alone after a meeting with the Quinchus of our clans. I was just relaxing, thinking about all that’s happened. I was even considering what to do about you—”
“Me? Why would you—”
“Because I think you awakened my Equinox and I’m afraid of what that could mean,” she confessed, agony in her tone.
He understood her fear. His Equinox was well underway and he needed to bond with someone powerful soon to maintain the peak of his life forces for his coming triad. He had never expected that his energy would respond so strongly to Victoria’s. But there was something else he feared.
“I do not wish to join with someone I cannot trust,” he replied, keeping his distance because being too close to her was creating havoc with his life forces.
“I understand. I had hoped we could come to a peace between us, between our clans, but then you murdered Mike.”
“And you murdered Jason,” he shot back, losing what was left of his patience with her attack.
She appeared ready to strike back out at him, but then a visible tremor racked her body as she collected herself. When she spoke, her tone was restrained, barely in control.
“We were just chatting when we sensed the Shadows down on the beachfront. Two men and a woman at first, we realized. A third man joined them just moments later. They seemed to be arguing for a moment.”
Had the third man been Jason? Had he been following the other group? A group that included Maya? he wondered. “They threatened you?” he asked, wanting to understand. Maybe even wanting to have faith in her.
“They were armed. They started to approach.”
“And you created a barrier to stop them?” It was what he would have done in order to protect and not escalate the situation.
Victoria tossed her hands up in the air and shook her head, almost as if trying to eliminate the memories of what had happened. But then she continued with her tale. “The quicksand unsettled them. Kept them from advancing, but then they got out of the slurry I created. The Shadows retreated a few steps and armed themselves. Mike, my cadre member, and I prepared for their attack.”
She raked her hands through her shoulder-length hair. He took a hesitant step closer, wanting to comfort her, but she snapped her hand up and froze him in place by setting up an energy barrier. He kept still and urged her to finish her story with a soft entreaty.
“Please tell me what happened next.”
She wagged her head again and a furrow marred the smooth skin at the center of her forehead, as if she was trying to understand herself. “The Shadows abandoned the third man to the quicksand. Mike and I stood there in disbelief as he struggled to escape.”
Jason, he thought. But he had no idea who the other three Hunters were, except…
Ryan had mentioned that he had sensed a familiar energy signature at the site, although his friend could not say with certainty to whom it had belonged. Christopher now had no doubt about who it had been.
Maya. Somehow she had escaped the compound and met up with his father’s people. It was the only thing that made sense.
“The man in the quicksand was my friend, Jason. He was not there to hurt you,” Christopher urged.
“The other three were the ones who fired. Mike jumped in front of me to absorb the blast. He died protecting me,” she said, and tapped her chest with her hand, guilt clearly weighing her down.
Christopher took a more determined step toward her and again encountered the barrier. “Let me in, Victoria. We cannot allow others to keep us from what may be the right path for our people. Or for us
.”
“You think this is right?” she asked, motioning between the two of them with a fitful action.
“The Shadows who attacked you were likely sent by my father. He believes that the Light Hunters are nothing more than prey. That Adam’s energy can be depleted to save our Shadow clan, only my father is wrong.”
“How can you be so sure?” she asked. In her voice Christopher could hear how she strained to contain her anger.
Christopher jammed his hands in his jeans and looked away for a second. He knew he needed to give Victoria a reason to believe in him—to believe in those possibilities she wanted so badly. With a heartfelt sigh, he said, “How can I be so sure?”
A long moment passed before he shrugged those broad shoulders in seeming resignation. Reaching for the hem of his polo shirt, he jerked it over his head and tossed it aside, exposing the muscled plains of his chest and lean ridges of his midsection.
Victoria’s eyes glowed as desire jolted through her. He could feel the heat radiating from her core.
“There is no pox, is there, Victoria? The ageless ways of hunting are pure. My people, those who have left my father’s clan, believe in this. Believe in me,” he said, and pointed to that perfect chest.
The lack of pox was only one sign of his purity, and as their gazes met, he seemed to understand that she needed more proof. That she needed to see the real him. To see the true nature of his energy.
Legs slightly apart, Christopher raised his hands to shoulder level and spread his legs wide. He closed his eyes and tossed his head back as he reached deep into his core and called forth his life forces.
As the buzz of his vitality surged across his body, Victoria sensed his Equinox rising with the summoning of his power. Neither could deny the awakening of their needs, which pulled them to each other like magnets, any longer.
The Claimed (Sin Hunters) Page 14