by Jasmine Walt
The sanguinary effect delighted the audience. It brought me back to my nightmare. The dagger fell out of my hand and clattered to the ground as the harsh dream assaulted my waking hours. The children moved closer to their grandfather to receive his praise. The closer they got to me, the larger the roiling wave of wretchedness grew until it crashed down upon me.
I staggered, expecting to hit the floor. But I didn’t. As my legs gave out, I landed safe inside the arms of an impenetrable mountain.
Tres caught me. He cradled me close to his chest and looked down at me, eyes full of concern. I realized I’d been wrong. His eyes weren’t a hard obsidian. They were deep pools of warmth. I remembered being atop Olympus, looking down at white columns, as he came and stood before me, grinning at me, his eyes holding that same warm gaze.
And then, everything went black.
13
I was flying. My hands were outstretched. My bare feet were off the ground. I felt the wind brush across my earlobes. The sea air tickled my nostrils. It was exhilarating. I threw my head back and laughed with the joy of it.
But I lost my balance in the air. I teetered on the wind and reached out for purchase. I found it before me, holding me aloft. It was two broad shoulders attached to the hands that held me in the air. The hands brought me back down to earth. They folded me into strong arms, stronger than an impenetrable mountain.
A face came into view. Dark eyes full of warmth shone brightly. A voice as deep as the ocean, as soft as the crashing waves, whispered in my ear.
“Theta,” it whispered. “Did you think I’d let you fall?”
Tilting my head up, I saw the top of a mountain. I looked around and saw white columns. I knew deep down that I was in Greece. It was the pyramid off in the distance that confused me. Still, this dream was a welcome change from the nightmare of being held down and sacrificed on an altar.
Those strong arms wrapped around me. A defined chest pressed into my back. I relaxed into the hold, safe and secure.
“I will never let you go,” the deep baritone voice said.
I knew it was Tres’s voice, even though it sounded happy and kind. I felt the hard line of his jaw at the tip of my ear. Then his lush lips pressed against my earlobe.
His lips softened into a smile as they whispered their promise. “I’ll never let you go, Theta.”
My eyes slammed open. I winced at the bright light of the new day. Out the window, I saw the smog-filled sky and the steely skyscrapers of Beijing. It was morning, a new day, and I was back in my hotel room. But I wasn’t alone.
“You didn’t strike me as the fainting type.”
Loren Van Alst sat cross-legged at the foot of the bed. She was out of her dress and in cream-colored silk pajamas like we were at a sleepover. I looked down and discovered I was in pajamas, too. The ones I wore were cotton and navy blue, but they weren’t mine. When I was inside four walls instead of a tent, I tended to sleep in the nude.
“Who undressed me?” I asked.
Loren grinned. “Are you hoping it was Mr. Tall, Dark, and Broody?”
My eyes raised in horror at the thought.
“Not your type?” Loren quirked an eyebrow. “Perfect, because he’s exactly mine. Gorgeous, rich alpha who just needs the love of a good woman to tame him.”
I sat up, my tangled hair falling in my face. “You do remember that he’s cock-blocking your excavation, right?”
“Yeah, but if I could get him alone for five minutes, I could so unblock his…” She winked at me. “A night with me and I’m sure I could change his mind. Hell, he might change mine.”
I flopped back on the bed, brushing my unruly hair off my forehead. “You know you can’t tame men. You might train them to pee in the toilet, but they’ll still leave the seat up every now and then. They’re wild beasts at their core.”
Loren wasn’t paying attention to me. She twirled a curl of her blonde hair around her fingers with an unfocused, lustful gaze. “I’ll bet he’s the type to tie you up and spank you in the bedroom … or in the basement that he’s converted into a sex dungeon.”
“Loren?”
“Hmm?”
I waited until her gaze cleared and trained on me. It took a full moment of silence before she blinked and looked in my direction. “What happened last night?” I lay flat on the bed, immobile, but my heartbeat raced as I awaited the recap.
Loren put out both her hands in a “stop” motion, but she waved her fingers in more of a “wait for it” sign. She folded her legs under herself and leaned forward to dish like we were schoolgirls in a high school bathroom.
“You fainted, and he caught you. Just swooped you up like in a movie.” She put her hand to her heart as her eyes rolled skyward. “He was all growly and wouldn’t let anyone come near you. He carried you all the way here.”
None of the things that made Loren’s voice go high-pitched with glee caught my attention, except that last bit. “He knows where I’m staying?”
She grinned and bobbed her head rapidly. “So he could come back any minute.” She turned and looked at the door, running her hands over her fitted pajama top.
I glanced over too. We both stared at it as though it would open at any moment. It didn’t.
“I have a boyfriend,” I said. Never had that term seemed more childish, but human laws didn’t apply to us. Sickness and health, death do us part. Zane was my life partner of over five hundred years. And we had to continuously part time and time again or face death.
“Yeah, but he’s in France,” Loren said.
My gaze snapped to Loren’s, and I sat up in the bed. “How do you know that?”
“I saw the country code on your phone when he called. You should know…” She hooked both her thumbs toward her chest and winked. “I’m very observant. I also saw the tension between you and the Broody Billionaire. Do you two have a whole love-hate, angry-sex thing going on? Tell me and I’ll back off. Hoes before bros and all that.”
Now I held up my hands. “I told you, he’s all yours.”
I rose on the legs of a fawn and padded to the bathroom. After I turned on the faucet, I splashed cool water on my face. I stared in the mirror as though I didn’t recognize myself. It felt like death had punched me in the jaw and socked me in the eye. The physical evidence of the assault was the bags under my eyes and the blotchiness of my cheeks. Nothing a proper night’s rest, a little makeup, and distance between me and a certain—what did Loren call him, a Broody Billionaire?—wouldn’t cover.
Fainted? Nothing like that had ever happened to me. What had that man been to me? I closed my eyes, trying to grab onto the memory of my dream in Greece inside Tres’s arms. But my brain wouldn’t budge.
I had gone willingly into his arms in the dream, or was it a memory? I had allowed him to lift me off the ground and into the air. Snuggled into his chest as he whispered in my ear. Had we been lovers? I couldn’t even imagine us as friends.
I reached for something comforting, something that made sense, but when I reached down for my blade, I came up with air. My thigh was bare.
“Looking for this?” Loren held up my dagger from the doorway. Then she tossed it to me, hilt first. “You came to a business meeting loaded for bear. We should talk about that at some point.”
I caught the dagger in the air and fingered it. Instead of responding to her query, I started one of my own. “What do you know about the history of the Xia?”
Loren returned to her position on the bed, stretching out her long form and getting comfortable. “From what my father told me, the legend is that their greatest warrior, tired of seeing his people killed by the waters, went into the Yellow River to stop the floods. A cracked-in-the-head move, right? But it turned out to be ballsy. It worked. The floods receded and he came out of the water with a woman, who would become his queen.”
“The River Queen?”
Loren shrugged. “Any written history is unclear. In some writings, they say queen. In others, they say she was a god
dess who came from the river itself. Whoever she was, the storybooks say she went on to rule after the Xia warrior died, becoming the first and only female monarch who wasn’t a consort. My father told me the Xia Dynasty worshiped their queen because she gave them great power and everlasting life. She forged an army of assassins who moved like ghosts.”
“Ninjas?”
Loren tugged at her bottom lip as she glanced at me, then the door, and then my blade in quick succession. “Unbelievable, right?”
I didn’t answer.
“Anyway, there’s no official record of any of this, only legend. Some stories say the queen ruled for hundreds of years with her guard protecting her.”
If I hadn’t already had my own selfish reasons for figuring out this mystery, I would’ve been hooked by that tidbit. Matriarchal societies were a passion of mine. I wanted to know more about this unwritten queen. And I hoped, to all that was good in the world, that she hadn’t been me.
“But no one would believe stories about flying ninjas,” Loren continued. “And China isn’t known for its female rulers. That’s another reason no one believed my father and his findings on the Xia.”
“They didn’t believe him because he faked his findings.”
“He faked one artifact.” Loren’s tone was clipped. “But he found that site. He told me where to go before he died, and it was exactly where he said it was.”
The site and the bone might be real, but the story had holes. If I had been this River Queen, I would’ve never promised humans eternal life. I had no way to deliver it. My powers were not transferrable. Maybe that was why these men were after me? Because I didn’t keep my promise? But no, they had enhanced powers. They got them from somewhere.
“We’re leaving for the Gongyi in the morning,” I said, pushing off the wall and coming back to the bed.
“We can’t,” Loren said. “Trains only run to Gongyi on Wednesdays. And even so, we won’t get past Mohandis’s security, especially not after my little performance down there the last time.”
“But you’ve done it before. You’ve gotten past their security?”
The smile that spread across her face was full of wicked delight. “Why, Dr. Rivers, are you suggesting a little tomb-raider adventure?”
I sighed, but I didn’t see any other way. We’d have to steal onto the land and possibly steal the evidence we needed. The answers were more important than getting permission. Before I could confirm my temporary foray into the dark side of archaeology, there was a knock at the door. I gripped the hilt and flipped the dagger blade up.
Loren shook her head and hopped off the bed. “Tetchy, tetchy.” She sauntered over to the door and peered through the peephole. “Who is it?”
“Room service,” called the voice.
Loren turned back to me, brow raised to ask permission. I lowered the dagger and placed it behind my back.
Loren pulled the door open and was greeted with a bouquet of flowers and a tray of food.
“Compliments of Mr. Mohandis,” said the wait staff.
I moved cautiously toward the door, ignoring the flowers and focusing on the dish.
“Looks like somebody’s got an admirer,” Loren said.
“He doesn’t admire me,” I said, picking up the dish of stir-fried chicken stewed in pomegranate seeds. “We’re diametrically opposed to one another.”
“Sounds kinky.” Loren took the bouquet, which was bigger than her head, and sat it on the dresser.
I took a bite of the dish and tried to stop the melting of my knees. It was delectable. But just because he knew pomegranates were my favorite food didn’t mean Tresor Mohandis knew me.
“If you work on him,” Loren said, “we wouldn’t need SACH. He could give us passage onto his construction site.”
“I’m not working on that beast of a man,” I said around the spoon in my mouth.
“I’ll let you think about that,” she said as she slipped on a pair of shoes.
Suddenly, being alone sounded like the worst idea in the world. “You’re not hungry?”
Loren paused and focused on my dish. “You don’t look like you’re willing to share.”
I shrugged. “You can order something else.”
She slipped off her shoes, flopped back onto the bed, and grabbed the room-service menu.
“You could’ve told me we didn’t have a meeting with SACH before the party,” I said.
She cocked her head at me. “I’ve learned that sometimes you have to hide the truth until people are ready to see it.”
Hairs stood up on the back of my neck at her words. It felt like something I’d heard before. It felt like an omen awaiting its calendar date.
“Besides, you’re still not sure whether you like me,” she said. “Which is odd. Everyone likes me. I’m delightful.”
“You’re a pain.”
“Which is how you learn that there’s pleasure.” She grinned and reached for the hotel phone.
14
We made slow progress through the street market. Vendors shoved colorful silks, plastic gems, and newly made vintage handbags in my face. Nothing had a price tag. Instead, numbers were shouted out as an opening bid for bargaining.
I didn’t shout back. Didn’t even open my mouth. But my eyes did catch on a sweet Tory Burch handbag. The enterprising saleslady stepped in my path and uttered a price that had me reaching for the wad of Yuan tucked inside my pocket.
In the end, I shook my head and continued, leaving the market and the bag behind. We were on a mission and had reached our destination. I stepped onto the pier behind Loren. She motioned with her hand for me to stay back. I did as she wished as she boarded a houseboat and knocked on the door.
The smell of fish permeated the air. The heel of my boot squished into something that I hoped had already been dead. I didn’t look down to confirm.
I did look over my shoulder as I had been doing for the last hour. But no one was there. I’d had an eerie feeling all day that I was being followed, but no men in black flew off any buildings with blades swinging.
Loren stood in the doorway, arguing with the boat’s captain. She’d said she knew another way to get down to the Gongyi. Looking at the shirtless captain whose tanned muscles rippled with tension as he glared at Loren, I realized the way she said knew was in the biblical sense.
Loren hitched one hip as she tried to convince the captain to give us a lift down the Yellow Sea to the Gongyi province. She’d come armed with a push-up bra beneath a low tank top. But for the second former lover in a row, the tactic wasn’t working.
The door slammed in her face, and Loren stumbled back. “Asshole,” she shouted to the doorframe. “Now I remember why I broke up with him.”
Mohandis Enterprises was breaking ground on the site in the Gongyi in a matter of days. We could take the train into the province, but it wouldn’t leave for three days, giving us even less time to sneak past the security Tres had set up around his new possession. Since it was evident we weren’t going to get free access to the Mohandis-occupied lands in the Gongyi, we were opting to go by water. We just needed a vessel and a crew. Unfortunately, we were being cock-blocked at every turn.
“Did you sleep your way through Asia?” I asked Loren as she stormed down the pier.
She threw me a glare over her shoulder. “Are you slut-shaming me? What’s your number?”
That shut me up. Though I’d been faithful to Zane for the last half millennium, the number of men I went through during the Renaissance period alone would put modern-day athletes to shame.
I coughed.
“Are you coming down with something?”
“No, just an allergy.” I looked around but didn’t see a dark, brooding billionaire anywhere. The reaction was likely the residual effects of being near two of the oldest Immortals in the same week.
“They say the flood is coming soon,” Loren said as we came to the end of the pier. “No one is willing to go down once the water rises.”
“We could get a boat and sail it ourselves,” I mused.
Loren looked at me as though I’d gone mad. “Sure, if we had a death wish. We don’t know those waters and could get lost at sea if we don’t captain it right.”
I’d survived at sea more times than I can remember. She could die, but I wouldn’t. Which would be a shame. I hated to admit it, but Loren Van Alst was growing on me and I didn’t want to see her harmed—much. Plus, I needed her to guide me to where she’d found the dragon bone. So we’d have to stick together, and we’d have to find a way down to that land. But no matter what path we wound up choosing, it would be perilous.
“Loren, why are you doing this? Why are you trying to get back to this site? It’s dangerous, and that bone probably won’t make you any money. There’s not much value in an ancient Chinese tribe that no one believes was a dynasty.”
Loren tugged at her top lip with her teeth. She assessed me with those crystal-blue eyes. But this time, there was a crack in her gaze, like a tiny window had opened. I saw the light of truth let one ray through.
“There are some things worth more than money,” she said. Then she blinked. The window shut, and she stumbled dramatically. “I can’t believe I just said that.”
I grinned at her theatrics. I also believed her. I knew this was about more than money. This was about her dad and his vindication. Dr. Van Alst had passed away in obscurity. Most of his earlier finds had come under scrutiny after the dragon bone he’d claimed to have found had been proven a fake.
Loren looked away from me, off into the horizon, as she continued. “If I can get that bone, the real bone, out into the light of day, and you authenticate it, it will prove my dad wasn’t lying. That’s worth a little danger.” She turned to me, a quizzical eyebrow raised. “Why are you doing this?”
Same reason—to clear my name. Or maybe to implicate myself in mass genocide. Whichever answer it wound up being, I needed to know. But I couldn’t tell Loren that. I went with my standard: “Every story deserves to be told.”