“Give me a moment.” I dragged on a pair of jeans and a Steelers T-shirt Jacob had left over the back of the chair. “What time is it?”
“Almost ten.” Kayla smiled at me as I opened the door and handed me a steaming mug. “Jake tells me you’ve gotten fond of tea.”
“Yes, thank you.” I took a sip and flipped on the lights so I could examine her face once again and reassure myself that there were no lingering injuries. “How is your side?”
Kayla rubbed the spot where I had stabbed her. It would be a very long time before I could think of our battle the previous morning and not feel that rush of grief and guilt. “There’s not even a scar.” She glanced past me into the bedroom. “May I come in for a moment?”
“Of course.” I stepped out of her way and cleaned off a chair for her. “What are Jacob and your boyfriend doing?”
“Taking a walk around the cabin and making sure everything is secure before Uncle Ghedi gets here.” She tapped my nose before she sat down. “Steve has a name, you know, it wouldn’t kill you to use it every now and then.”
I frowned, but I couldn’t fault their initiative to make sure the perimeter was safe. “What did you want to talk about?
“Can’t a girl want to talk to her father?”
“I seem to remember that particular argument.”
A quicksilver smile crossed her face before she turned serious. “How bad are you hurt? I saw Jake with the first aid kit earlier.”
“I heal quickly, I assure you. It is nothing serious, see?” I held up my hand so Kayla could take a look. “And you didn’t do it to me, either, so there’s no sense in causing yourself grief.”
Kayla looked at me as if she didn’t quite believe me, and she shrugged. “How are you otherwise?”
“Me?” I glanced at her in surprise, and it was on my lips to say I was fine when I thought of my lover. I smiled faintly and shook my head. “I don’t know. I’m taking each moment as it comes, but I promise, I’m not falling apart.”
“Somehow I just can’t picture you falling apart. It would be like Ayers Rock crumbling to dust.”
“Not quite.” Silence fell as I examined her face. It had been a few months since I’d seen her last, and after my return, things had been chaotic. I hadn’t got to spend as much time with her as I wished before she moved. Maybe that was why I hadn’t noticed the new maturity in her face. “About Steve, I am sorry….”
“Don’t.” Kayla waved her hand. “He’s promised not to antagonize you, and if you promise to do the same, I’m not going to say a thing. You two are going to have to work it out amongst yourselves.”
I leaned over and took her hand. “We will, I swear.”
“So Jake tells me you two are engaged.” My mouth dropped open as I straightened, and she grinned. “Hey, we had a long drive, and talking about murder and possessions the entire time would’ve been damned depressing.”
“Jacob is old-fashioned and he wishes to start a family. He believes that getting married will facilitate that.”
“Oooohh, he didn’t tell me that part.” Kayla cocked her head, an impish light coming into her eyes. “You seem a bit unsure. Wedding day jitters already, Kris?”
“No, nothing like that. I have not one doubt inside me that he is the one. I just never considered I would ever get married.” It occurred to me then how much I was looking forward to that day. I smiled. Perhaps I should to tell Jacob that.
“What about you and Steve?”
“It’s a bit early for that.” Kayla paused and cocked her head, eyeing and assessing me. “Would it bother you to know we are serious, though?”
“I gathered that. You did move away and start a dream with him, after all.” As much as Steve irked me, I couldn’t deny that he was a true friend to Jacob or that he’d been good to my daughter. “No, you have my blessing.”
“Words I thought I’d never hear you say,” Kayla bantered, still hiding darker feelings.
“What did you really want to talk about, little one?” I said gently.
Kayla’s face crumpled. “I remember bits, not much, like fragments of a nightmare. Why me? Why did they pick me to possess? These people, some of them were your friends. They were Uncle Ghedi’s people… what am I going to say to him?”
I went over to her and touched her hair. “I have faith you’ll think of something. You’ll face Ussier the same way you have faced every other challenge in your life, Kayla Mercer, with your head held high and with courage.”
She gave me a wan little smile. “You would say something like that.”
“Because it’s the truth. As for why.” I sobered, looking down at my hands as I sat down again. I could remember the sensation of the knife going into her with sickening clarity. The sight of Kayla battered and pale from my hands was burned into my mind. “Whoever is behind this wants to break me. So they are striking out at the ones I love the most. They are taking the city that has been a sanctuary for me for over a century and making me unwelcome there. I believe their goal is to hound me until I’ve lost everything, until I’m destroyed, and then when their fun is over and they are satisfied, I suspect their plan is to just kill me.”
“How can you say that so matter of fact?” Kayla said, her expression appalled. “You can’t let them.”
“I didn’t say I was going to let them get away with it, child.” My interlude with Jacob and the chance to sleep had let me deal with the shock and grief, dulling its sharp bite. Now a cold fury fueled me, but I kept it in its place. I couldn’t allow it to cloud my thinking.
“Who hates you that much?”
I frowned and finished off the last of my tea. “I don’t know,” I admitted. I wasn’t in the habit of leaving enemies alive to come at me again. And I couldn’t think of any others that I might have angered who could’ve discovered that I was more vulnerable. Unless, of course, it was the spirit of a fallen enemy. Stranger things had happened, and that was a possibility I could discuss with Ussier and Lisabeth when they arrived.
Abruptly, the sense of Jacob’s mind went dark. The mug shattered on the floor as I leapt to my feet. “Jacob.”
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Kayla demanded as I grabbed the rod off of the dresser.
“Stay inside and stay quiet,” I growled.
“Kris, wait!”
“This isn’t open to an argument,” I snapped, yanking the bedroom door open and glaring at her. Kayla pressed her lips together but nodded. Satisfied that she would stay put in the dubious safety of the cabin, I leaned down in a crouch and headed for the back door.
Steve’s shout rang out as I emerged into the night. I followed the echo of the sound around the corner of the cabin. They sky was clear, the moon and stars providing a faint illumination through the trees. The underbrush rustled as somebody moved among the trees, twigs snapped, and Steve shouted again.
“Drop him, motherfucker, or I swear to god I’ll cap your ass in the back of that bald head of yours.”
I bit back an oath and followed after Steve on silent feet. The sharp crack of a gunshot cut through the air, and I abandoned stealth, bolting for the sound. Steve whirled around as I came up behind him, and I blocked his gun arm before he could train it on me. Bewilderment crossed his face, followed by relief, then suspicion. “Kristair?” He stepped back, his face hardening as he lifted the gun again and pointed it at me. “How do I know this is you?”
“Kayla is holed up in the cabin. If you fail to protect her, I’ll tear you limb from limb myself,” I snapped.
“That would do it.” Steve looked over his shoulder toward the cabin, his expression anxious and torn.
“I’ll go after Jacob. I’ll be able to track him easily.”
“Jake wasn’t joking; he looks exactly like you,” Steve said. “I think I winged him, though.”
“That’ll make it easier. If I don’t get back before Ussier arrives, let him know everything that has happened. He’ll be able to follow us.” With that, I turned into the trees, searching for signs
of the doppelganger. He made no attempt to hide his trail, the evidence of his progress plain through the woods. It wasn’t long before I found dark drops on a leaf. Steve had indeed gotten a hit in.
It was harder to sense Jacob now that he was unconscious. I hadn’t put forth the same effort he had to re-establish our link, a decision I now regretted in light of his conversation with Tony. Perhaps they were right and the Ascended gave us no more thought than they would have given any other insignificant curiosity.
Concern for Jacob now hampered my efforts, and I concentrated on the skills I still did have to track this creature. He was slowing down. Jacob wouldn’t be easy to carry as a dead weight, especially since the creature was losing blood, and soon I could hear them crashing through the underbrush. I smiled, crouching down, the rod in my hand lengthening into a short, broad-bladed spear.
Then the sounds quieted, and I moved slower, placing each foot carefully as I advanced. There were deeper shadows ahead in the profound gloom under the trees. A grunt was followed by the sound of a body being set down hard. A profile of a man emerged from the dark, his face a pale blur, but enough that I recognized him as the creature Jacob had named.
He cursed under his breath, glancing back the way he’d come, gaze searching the trees for pursuit, and I eased another foot closer. Then came the sound of cloth ripping and more cursing as he started to tie a length of cloth around his leg. I’d have to praise Steve on his excellent aim.
I searched the shadows around the base of the trees and spied Jacob sprawled against a trunk, unconscious. I pushed a thought out toward him. “Jacob, you need to wake.”
Silence.
Frustrated, I began to circle, hoping to get closer to Jacob before revealing myself. I didn’t know if I’d inadvertently made a sound or whether he sensed eyes on him with murderous intent, but the doppelganger’s head snapped up. He snarled and dove for Jacob as I leapt at him.
I made another desperate attempt to penetrate Jacob’s mind, urging him to wake as my doppelganger went tumbling down. He rolled to the side, away from Jacob, to dodge the stab of my spear.
“You,” he snarled in hatred, leaping to his feet as I crouched low between him and Jacob. Then, to my surprise, he turned and fled.
My fingers tightened on the spear, and I resisted the urge to throw it after him in the hopes of a lucky hit as Jacob stirred with a groan. I knelt down next to him, hands cradling his head as I searched out his injury. There was a good-sized lump behind his ear, but it didn’t seem as if the skin had been broken.
Jacob awoke with a gasp, trying to jerk back from me. He landed a punch on my jaw that would’ve stunned me if there had been more force behind it. “Get the fuck off me,” Jacob rasped, shoving my hands away, sounding dazed.
“Jacob, it’s me,” I soothed, reaching for him again. “He’s gone.”
Jacob lurched to his feet, clutching his head, and he fought my hands with a desperate snarl as I attempted to reach out and steady him. “Jacob, you’ll hurt yourself, please let me help you, mo chroí.”
Jacob stiffened, his eyes blazing. “Don’t call me that,” he roared. Then his mind lashed out at my own, ripping through the barriers I’d unconsciously built as if they were paper.
I gasped, falling to my knees, overwhelmed by the unexpected attack. Jacob raged in my head, revulsion and fear dominating his mind until he realized his mistake and a wholly different kind of horror took its place.
I clutched at his legs but made no attempt to free myself. Instead, I embraced the link, opening my mind fully to him, laying myself bare. “Kristair?” Jacob said, and then again in my mind, with wonder, “Kristair.”
A headache pulsed at my temples, but I didn’t care. The connection was back as strong as ever, pulsing with vitality, and the Ascended had done nothing to stop it from happening. Unable to speak, I wrapped my arms around Jacob as he helped me up. “Are you okay?” he asked, his mental voice gentle as he attempted to ease some of the ache away.
“I should be asking you that.” I held him tight, savoring the touch of his mind, clinging to him as if it would be snatched away again. “What happened to you?”
“Fucking bastard got the drop on me. He must’ve found some way of blocking my initial impression of him. The last two times when I saw him, I knew immediately there was something just wrong about him, but not this time. By the time I realized my mistake, he was on me, must’ve hit me or something.” Jacob touched the back of his head and grimaced.
“I shouldn’t have shoved myself into your head like that. I didn’t know. I had to know if it was him or not.” Jacob was grim, and I didn’t quite understand the tone or the flintiness in his mind as he spoke.
“I’m not about to quibble over the results,” I murmured. “Come on, let us get back to the cabin so I can take a look at that hard head of yours.”
Surprise flashed through Jacob, followed by relief. He was hiding something from me. I’d suspected it earlier, and I knew it for sure now. Something about him and the doppelganger. As much as I hated dropping the matter, this wasn’t the moment to press my lover. “How’d you know I was in trouble?” Jacob asked as we began to make our way through the trees back toward the cabin.
“All of your efforts to renew our link have left an impression on me. I had a vague sense of you when I awoke, enough to know when you’d been struck unconscious.” I let him feel my pleasure at having our connection fully restored and felt his joy in return.
“Well, I suppose I can be grateful to that bastard for one thing. If I hadn’t had to know so damn bad, it probably would’ve taken us a lot longer to reach this point.” Jacob reached out and linked my hand with his. “Are you sure I didn’t bruise your brain or anything?”
I chuckled and raised his hand to my lips. “I’ll recover, and you ceased your attack once my walls were down. They weren’t too sturdy to begin with, not when it comes to you.”
“Good to know.”
We fell silent, as there was really no more need for conversation. There was nothing quite like the intimacy of sharing my mind and soul with Jacob. We walked on in silence, lost in each other.
Chapter 21
THE CABIN was ablaze with light when we emerged from the trees, and I almost moaned in relief. I was dying for some aspirin and a beer. The effort to block Kristair from some of my thoughts had drained me completely. Not that he was trying to get to them. All I sensed from him was patience, which only made me feel guilty, especially after all my talk about not wanting him to keep things from me. But this was different. I’d tell him everything that happened between me and the doppelganger after this whole mystery was solved, not before. I didn’t want him putting more blame on himself.
“It’s Jacob and I,” Kristair announced from the porch. A curtain twitched to the side, and after a moment, the front door opened.
“I was beginning to get really worried,” Steve said, ushering us in.
“Ussier isn’t here yet?” Kristair asked, frowning as he glanced around the cabin.
“Nope.”
“Sit down,” Kayla said, looking at me and pointing to the couch. “The last thing you needed was to have your brains jostled again.”
I smirked at her and gave her a wink. “Why don’t you come sit on my lap and give me a little TLC?”
Kayla laughed and sat down on the couch next to me. “Do you do that to irk Kris or Steve?” she asked in a low voice.
“It’s a bonus if I manage both.” I flashed her a grin and then winced as she probed the lump on my skull, but I could tell it wasn’t that bad. I’d knocked myself harder playing football.
“I think you’ll live,” Kayla said, kissing the top of my head.
“What about evil Kristair? Did you kill him?” Steve asked.
“Don’t sound so eager.” Kristair shot Steve an irritated glance. “He got away, but you did manage to injure him. He’ll be moving slower now.”
“Rock on.”
I sensed Kristair’s impat
ience as he glanced at his watch, his thoughts racing. “What are you planning?”
“I don’t want to give the doppelganger too much of a head start. We have a chance of apprehending him if I….” Kristair hesitated and looked at me. “If we go after him quickly.”
“Did Ussier say when he’d be here?” I asked.
“It should be soon. I got the impression he would leave as soon as the sun set. He was going to catch a flight.”
“None of you are going anywhere,” Kayla announced, giving each one of us a hard look in turn. “If Uncle Ghedi says he’s going to be here, then he will. It makes no sense for you all to go haring off without backup.”
“I always knew there was something I liked about you, girl.” I jumped up at the sound of Ussier’s voice and gasped as he stepped out of the shadows near the stairs to the loft. He held out his hand and Lisabeth emerged, followed by Artemise.
“What the fuck.” Steve scowled and threw up his hands. “If you could do that, why the hell weren’t you here earlier?”
“Mr. Teasia.” Ussier nodded and clasped Kristair’s hand, ignoring the question. “Corvin.” He grinned at me, showing me his wolf’s dimples, and held out his arms to Kayla.
Steve’s expression tightened further as she ran to him and he enveloped her in a rib-crushing hug, picking her up. “You look damn good, girl. I thought you were hurt.”
I sensed Kristair’s sudden tension. Damn, I’d forgotten that Ussier and company didn’t know about the Ascended, and they weren’t supposed to know either. It seemed weird to have me, Kayla, and Steve in on something the vampire lord didn’t know.
“I think one of the lingering effects of being possessed was quick healing. I couldn’t really fight vampires and kill them if I didn’t have some edge.” Kayla clutched Ussier’s shoulders. “I’m so sorry, Ghedi, believe me, I didn’t know what was going on or I would’ve said something to Kristair.”
“I know you would’ve. We’ll to the bottom of this farce tonight.” Ussier’s face hardened. “I’ll take care of the problem permanently.”
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