The Stone Warriors: Nicodemus

by D. B. Reynolds

  But when he brushed off the more serious questions, anything that went too deep, or back too far, she began to include him in her speculation about the origins of her situation. He’d continued to pay all the bills as usual, and the groceries were still delivered, though she’d known enough by then to leave a list with the delivery boy, including extras she wanted, or the deletion of anything she didn’t.

  Sotiris had always made an effort to be pleasant, sometimes friendly even. But he’d been too intrusive, going through her cupboards and drawers in the kitchen, shuffling through the papers on and in her small desk, studying every utility bill, every newspaper she left around, as if looking for anything she’d marked in some way. Even his questions about her well-being were disturbing and insensitive, and his eyes when he asked were always penetrating, as if she were being studied, rather than cared for.

  The unavoidable truth was that she’d suffered an injury or some other sort of memory damage, but she was still intelligent, still human enough to have and sense emotion. And her “father,” if he even was that, appeared to have no real emotions at all. He was so cold, that she sometimes wanted to touch his hand or face, just to see if his body was as frigid as his soul seemed to be.

  She began hiding her journals after that, leaving one diary “hidden” in her desk, where he would be sure to find it. It contained nothing but detailed notes about routine daily activities, and the general memory exercises she’d begun to work on. But she was careful to conceal how much her memory had improved, celebrating in her notes how she’d managed to remember a single event of the prior week, or occasionally most of the previous day. But increasingly, the diary became about her gardens—what she had planted, what food or other treatments she’d used, how different plants had survived the winter, and so on.

  Sotiris had begun leaving sums of cash for her to use, as if expecting her to leave the house and shop for herself. But since she’d never stopped the grocery deliveries, and the utilities and mortgage were still paid, she’d just buried the cash in a box in her backyard, and continued her routine.

  Her father stopped reading even the diaries after a while, although she continued to maintain detailed records of her beloved gardens. They became a refuge—the one place he would never intrude, because he didn’t care enough to visit or ask about them. But she didn’t stop hiding the other journals. And those were the ones that she planned to consult now.

  “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I need a place to work,” she told Lili, wincing at the request and hoping she wasn’t intruding. “Nico offered his office, but honestly the view is too distracting, and so are the books. And he has some gorgeous pieces of art in there that I know must be valuable. But I’m working with magic. I need a place I can stretch out and even make a mess, if necessary. Doesn’t he have a shielded workroom, or at least a stillroom?”

  Lili stood with a friendly smile. “You’re not interrupting and there’s no need to be sorry, ever. This is your home now, too. Any room can be yours. Still, if it’s magic you’ll be doing, I think your idea of a shielded room would be best. Come with me.” She walked out of her office and started back toward the living area, but when they passed the kitchen, she paused. “You want some coffee? Breakfast? Snacks to take with you? I know what it’s like when you’re deep in a project and don’t want to stop long enough to run to the kitchen, even though you’re hungry.”

  “I had coffee already, and some breakfast, too. But now that you mention it, I’d love a travel mug of coffee to go, and some sugar to keep my energy up. Cookies or candy. At home . . . I mean, back in Chicago, I always kept a stash of Snickers handy. I don’t suppose—”

  Lili turned into the kitchen and grinning broadly, opened a long, pantry-style cupboard, to reveal a virtual candy store of snacks. “You’re not the only one around here with a sweet tooth.”

  “Goddess, I guess not.”

  “Help yourself. We even have handy little canvas bags there—we’re environmentally friendly in this house—to carry your supply in. And while you do that, I’ll get you a big travel mug for your coffee. Cream and sugar?”

  “Sugar, please. Thanks. This is great,” she said over her shoulder as she began to fill her bag, feeling like the proverbial kid in a candy store.

  With the candy stuffed in her satchel, and the giant tumbler of coffee in her hand, she and Lili started down the hall again. When they reached the big living area near the front, Lili pointed to a closed door inside the tiled foyer. “We’re going to the basement, which will be colder than up here. Will that sweater you’re wearing be enough? If not, there’s a closet full of jackets and coats. I don’t know who half of them belong to, so help yourself. No one will care.”

  Antonia’s sweater was warm, and she was wearing long sleeves beneath it, but just in case, she opened the closet and took out a fleece jacket that smelled like Nico, then rejoined Lili. “I’m ready.”

  “There are stairs or an elevator. Preference?”

  “Stairs. With all this candy, I’m going to need the exercise.”

  DOWNSTAIRS, LILI used a key to open a thick metal door, then handed the key to Antonia before entering the room. “I don’t want to forget to give you that.”

  Antonia didn’t need to step inside before she knew what the room was. The scent of herbs surrounded her like a warm hug, nearly bringing tears to her eyes. She missed her gardens, but more than anything, she missed her greenhouse. It had been built to her specifications some twenty years earlier—Sotiris had paid for it, for some reason, probably because he thought it was keeping her from thinking about anything else—but she’d updated it just five years ago, and had continued to improve it as technology provided new and better ways of growing plants through a Chicago winter.

  It had smelled just like this. The deep, dark aroma of enriched soil lingered beneath the multitude of scents that were the various plants and herbs. Mostly herbs, she saw, since this was a working greenhouse, whereas her own had been as much for pleasure as utility. She’d ask Nico if she could add to this one, or have another built for her own. She had the money Sotiris had given her over she didn’t know how many years, and she’d saved all but a small amount. Eventually he’d just given her a credit card, so she hadn’t used any of the hidden cash at all, except for the mechanical bugs she’d bought. She could probably have bought those from an online store that was generic enough that the specific item wouldn’t have shown on the credit card, but hadn’t wanted to risk it.

  As soon as she’d refused to help him, he’d taken the card, of course, though either from neglect or a desire to make her dependent on him, he’d never stopped paying the other bills. And that meant she still had most of the cash, and could pay for a new greenhouse here in Florida herself. Although she knew Nico would never let her. Still, she needed to make the offer. And she had to start thinking about a way to earn her own money, she thought. But not today—not until Sotiris was dead.

  “And through here . . .”

  Antonia jumped at the sound of Lili’s voice. She’d become so lost in the joy of once more being surrounded by the familiar scents of a greenhouse that she’d almost forgotten where she was. She turned to see Lili entering a complex digital code on a keypad against the far wall, and frowned. It was just a keypad. No door, so . . . . She gasped when the “wall” moved, and another of Nico’s secret doors revealed itself.

  “Yeah, I know,” Lili said. “He’s like a kid with his toys. And he loves hidden rooms.” She entered another code, and placed her hand on the biometric scanner. The door, which reminded Antonia of the vault door upstairs, popped open a few inches, and Lili shoved it open farther.

  “Here you go,” she said, holding out one arm like one of those prize women on the game shows. “One magically, environmentally, and every other kind of ‘ly’ shielded workroom.”

  Antonia stepped into the open doorway, but didn’t ente
r. It was recognizable as a shielded workroom, but magnitudes more sophisticated than anything she’d ever used before. For one thing, she hadn’t needed or used a shielded room in this world at all. What magic she’d used had been for her garden and plants, except for the few listening spells she’d attached to Sotiris. And all of them had used only her earth magic. So even if Sotiris had noticed the use of magic, he’d have thought nothing of it.

  But this . . . this was a modern, sophisticated shield room. It still was primarily shielded with magic, since technology and magical spells did not get along. Even she knew that. But the building materials and the construction were so much stronger and sturdier than anything she could have imagined. There were shelves on or around the walls, and a single wooden table sat in the center of the room, with nothing on it. It was assumed that the magic-user would bring every element he or she required into the room with them, and cast a cleansing spell when they left. Based on its location in the basement, and since Nico had designed it, she knew there would be clean soil for several feet all around, and nothing but natural products would have been used for the walls. Of course, “natural” took on a new meaning in this modern age. Wood and metal could be manipulated in ways that added nothing foreign, but still made it stronger.

  “Is this Nico’s?” Antonia asked. “I don’t want—”

  “No, this is a guest workroom, I guess. Kato’s used it a few times. But Nick has his own under the weapons room out back. In an attack, he figures all of his weapons will be reachable at the same time.”

  “That’s not necessarily a good thing,” Antonia said absently, but still didn’t step inside. Call her paranoid, but she wasn’t walking into any room she couldn’t get out of. Gesturing at the biometric scanner, she asked, “Do you need to enter my data into that?”

  Lili’s eyes went wide. “Oh my gosh, of course. Nobody new has used this in forever. Kato’s the only one with the right kind of magic, and like I said, he’s already in there. Damian is magic, so he doesn’t use any of this. Here.”

  She back-stepped out of the room, closed the vault door, and then the secret door in the wall. Then, entering a different code, instructed Antonia to place her hand on the scanner, all five fingers and palm. She gave Antonia both codes, one for the wall and a separate one for the vault door.

  “Do you need to write those down? I’d rather you didn’t, but—”

  “No. I was raised in a time where histories were more likely to be spoken than written. We learned to remember things. Besides, I can always ask Nico.”

  “Not if you’re stuck inside there. And your phone won’t work, either.”

  “Huh. I guess I better remember, or at least be sure someone knows I’m in there.”

  Lili studied her with serious eyes that were completely at odds with her usual friendly personality. “You’re sure about this?”

  “Yes. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t joke. My memory is excellent. There’s no need to write it down.”

  “Okay. Well, I’m going to check in a bit later to be sure you’re okay. And Nick will be awake eventually. I’ll make sure he knows, too.”

  Antonia could have told her that Nico always knew where she was, but the woman was already freaked out enough at the possibility of her getting stuck inside. “I appreciate that. And if I need anything else, I’ll step outside and call. I’ll be fine, Lili. Honest. I have my candy and my coffee. Everything else I need is right here.” She patted the satchel with her journals.

  Once Lili had been sufficiently persuaded enough that she’d left and gone back upstairs, Antonia closed the vault door and slid the concealing wall back into place. Before she could do any work with magic—whether to tap into the spells or devices already in place with Sotiris, or to devise new ones—she had to refresh her knowledge of them. Even though each of the ones she’d be working with were her own designs and castings, she needed to be absolutely confident before activating them enough to “download” their data. Use of the technical term wasn’t precisely accurate, but it was an excellent description of what she did.

  Drawing a deep, purifying breath of the herb-scented air, she settled on a padded stool in the greenhouse, placed her coffee and candy within reach, and opened the journal holding the notes of when she’d first begun working on the design of a spell that could be used to spy on Sotiris.

  NICK GRABBED A towel and stepped out of the shower. He’d spent two hours in the weapons room with Damian, Casey, and Dragan. They each had their preferred weapons, but to say that Nick’s personal armory was overstocked was an understatement. If an ordinary human had his stockpile, they’d be arrested. The variety of guns might not be unusual enough in some states, but the RPGs and explosives, along with all the supplies necessary to use them, were an insurrectionist’s dream.

  There was also a large and varied collection of edged weapons, from the tiniest pocket knife, to an ancient broadsword that required a man of Damian’s strength to wield. Not that the former god of war would be using a broadsword, except as a backup. Damian had fallen completely and utterly in love with modern weapons, and considered sub-machine guns to be a miracle of invention. That didn’t mean he’d be going into battle with no blade at all, only that the HK MP5—which he’d modified, using his godly knowledge and modern techniques, to better suit his unusual strength and speed—would be his weapon of first choice. It was almost guaranteed, however, that the sword would be drawn before he was finished, when the ancient warrior he’d been born to be came out to play.

  Kato’s main weapon was his magic. Dark, deadly, and unforgiving, the magic he’d inherited from the infamous Dark Witch who’d been his mother was unforgiving and always inside him. But he also carried an MP5, for when the enemy came in too great a number and demanded an immediate death.

  Dragan used a blade, pure and simple. His wings dictated the placement of his weapons, and he’d been trained to fight with wings nearly from birth. Rather than an encumbrance he had to work around, they were themselves a lethal and intimidating weapon. Sharp and taloned like a dragon’s, he could gut or even decapitate a man with the single swipe of a wing as he flew past, on his way to battle someone else. He was deadly in the air or on the ground, but always used a blade.

  Gabriel was a vampire, and bound to Raphael, so he’d be joining the battle with the vampire lord’s fighters. Raphael wasn’t an ordinary vampire, however. He was very possibly the most powerful vampire alive, and as such, could share his enormous power and strength with the vampires going into battle with him. He also had the advantage of telepathic communication with them, so that coordination during the fighting was fast and accurate. Nick had hated to lose Gabriel to the fucking vampire, which was how he saw it. But he had to admit that his brother warrior was healthier and happier since he’d pledged fealty to the vampire lord. Apparently, the connection between lord and vampire was essential to a vampire’s well-being. Nick hadn’t known that when he’d “healed” Gabriel, but then, the vampires of their world had been very different than those of this one.

  Casey and Cyn, of course, would both be in the thick of the battle. It would have been impossible to stop them, no matter who tried. They were both highly trained and experienced fighters, equally skilled with gun and blade, which, in their case, meant a variety of knives. Casey had tried a sword to please Damian, but had found a long knife worked better with her strength and reach.

  The other women, Antonia included, were to be in secure locations, manning the extensive network of computer and other electronic data gathering. Antonia was already working to access her magically-obtained surveillance data, which should grant them a tremendous advantage, and one that Sotiris wouldn’t know to look for, until it was too late, if then. There was no reason for—and every reason against—Antonia to be on the battlefield itself. It was not only unnecessary for the retrieval of her data, but might actually work against her. By her own admission, she�
��d never been on a battlefield, much less in an actual fight. Her concentration would be shattered. Far better for her to remain on Raphael’s estate, where he almost certainly had his own equivalent of a shielded room. Vampires might not use magic the way a sorcerer did, and frankly Nick wasn’t sure about all of them, but they did use magic. There had to be times when they required a magically quiet room.

  Of course, Nick hadn’t yet told Antonia what her tactical position would be. When he did, he knew she’d argue about it, but even during the years when she’d still been helping Sotiris design weapons for the battlefield, she’d never used or even tested any of them.

  But then, Sotiris had rarely stood on a battlefield either. His only guaranteed appearances had been when he and Nick had faced each other directly, which was usually separate from the rest of the fighting.

  Thoughts of Antonia had him automatically searching for her on the magical plane, as he’d done at regular intervals through the afternoon. He didn’t find her, not her physical presence anyway. But he knew from Lili that she’d started working in the still room that morning, and intended to use the shielded room as well. And after their conversations yesterday, he wasn’t surprised. Though she rarely spoke of it directly, her need to destroy Sotiris was probably stronger than any of theirs. She might have felt some need to stamp out the stain on her blood lineage, but her desire for revenge came mostly from the fact that the bastard had stolen her life for so many years—most of which she still had no memory of. She didn’t know what he might have had her do in that time. Nick knew Antonia. He’d known her before Sotiris had cursed her, and saw the heart of that same woman in her still. She grew into herself more and more with every day, since they’d been reunited. She was strong and independent enough to have primed the hexagon with her own blood in order to stop Sotiris, and then to have stolen and delivered it to him, knowing that Sotriris would kill her. She’d been willing to die to stop him.