“There’s only one way to find out.” From his backpack, he withdrew his canteen and poured water into the Grail, then sipped from the cup’s lip. Then he handed her his knife, hilt first, and held out his arm. “Cut me.”
Damn him. The idea of cutting him made her nauseous.
“I possess the Grail and I’ve drunk from it. If it’s real, I can’t die in battle.”
“But if you’re right, if the Grail’s a fake, I’m not about to deliver a mortal wound.”
“A small cut should suffice.”
Her hand shook. Sweat beaded on her scalp and rolled down her neck. She licked her lip, and then, with a sigh, she lowered the knife. “Why don’t you do it?”
“Because the wound must be in battle.” He raised his brows. “Self-inflicted wounds don’t count.”
Her stomach twisted in agitation. “I can’t carve you up like a piece of meat.”
“Do it.” He hardened his voice. “Earth can’t afford for us to make a mistake. We can’t leave unless we’re certain we have the genuine article.”
His authoritarian tone was just brutal enough to remind her of the seriousness of their situation. Just enough to make her angry, and that anger fed her determination. She sliced a small cut across his upper arm.
He hissed in a breath but didn’t move. They both watched the blood well, then trickle down to his elbow.
“How long should it take to heal?” she asked, handing him back the knife and hoping she never had to do anything like that again.
“It’s not working.” He tossed the fake aside. “Search the rest of these artifacts. It must be here.”
Maybe not. “Maybe the vision from the hartog was from this fake. Maybe even Trendonis doesn’t know it’s a counterfeit.” She peered at shelves that held ethereal statues of dragons, their wings spread for flight; wooden puzzles carved from moonstone; and an entire collection of leather-clad books with holographic covers.
“In the hartog’s memory, the Grail glowed. It was real.”
She looked behind several paintings. “There’s no safe hidden back here.”
“Maybe we should roll up the area rug and look under it.” Jordan peered behind an elaborate golden mirror that dominated the room.
When he’d moved the mirror, something caught her eye, a strange reflection that was probably a trick of the light. Still, she was curious. “Do that again,” she demanded.
“What are you talking about?”
“Swing the mirror.”
He did as she asked, and this time her puzzlement grew. “Do you see something weird in the mirror?”
He shook his head.
“Let’s change places,” she insisted.
“Watch closely.” She tilted the mirror from side to side, the bottom of its frame scraping the wall. “See anything odd?”
Jordan went pale and his eyes gleamed. “It’s not a mirror.”
“It’s not?”
“It’s a reflection pool.” Jordan faced the mirror head-on, wonder in his eyes.
“A reflection pool?” she asked.
“I’ve never seen one, but according to legend, reflection pools can absorb objects. So it would be a terrific hiding place.” He reached toward the mirror, but his palms didn’t stop on the surface like she’d expected. Instead, his hands plunged through the mirror up to his elbows.
Vivianne gasped. She didn’t understand what she was seeing. Jordan was elbow deep into the mirror, and yet the mirror was flat against the wall. It was as if the mirror held another dimension of space.
“Got it.” Jordan pulled his hands out of the mirror and held up the Grail.
This Grail was shaped exactly like the fake. But the genuine burnished cup swirled with a sparkling inner energy that mesmerized her.
The Holy Grail.
Hands shaking, she poured water into the cup and again Jordan sipped. Holding her breath, she stared at his arm. The blood dried, scabbed over. Within seconds, his flesh had healed.
The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. No one knew who’d made the Grail or how it actually healed. But the legends on dozens of worlds made the object priceless.
Jordan stuffed the Grail into his backpack, then leaned over and kissed her. “We did it, Vi. We’ve got it.”
“Yeah.” She pulled back reluctantly. The knowledge that he wanted her sent a fierce rush of pleasure through her. Then the pleasure jumbled with elation and wretchedness.
Her time with Jordan was running out.
Love is a horizon that expands as we soar toward it.
—HIGH PRIESTESS OF AVALON
38
Vivianne watched Jordan tense and jerk his head to one side as if he was listening and focusing intently. His wince told her something was wrong. But she knew better than to ask questions and interrupt his concentration while he was scanning minds. Instead, she helped him sling the backpack with the Grail over his shoulder.
When Jordan refocused, he hurried her out of the secret chamber. “When we entered and triggered the patio lights, a guard called in the disturbance.”
“Trendonis is sending Security to check on the house?” Vivianne guessed, her stomach twisting into a knot.
Jordan helped her back out the window. “He must have grown suspicious. He’s sending eight squads.”
Sweat broke out all over Vivianne as they crossed the back yard. “How much time have we got?”
“Not long. Maybe five minutes.”
Vivianne swore under her breath. “Which way?”
“I don’t know. I can’t scan again while we’re moving this fast. Run.”
Vivianne made an arbitrary right and pounded down the sidewalk. Her footsteps seemed loud in her own ears. A curtain moved aside in the second story of one of the mansions, and someone peered out.
They were too vulnerable out in the open. “We have to get off the street.”
Jordan agreed. “I know.”
They reached the park and kept running. A couple walking hand in hand stopped to stare. She was certain they’d remember them and send Security. If only they could double back, but there was no place to hide in the block of mansions.
“Can we change levels?” she asked, her breath coming in gasps, not so much from exhaustion but fear. If Trendonis caught them now, they might not ever get another chance to escape with the Grail.
“Look for another lift station.”
She kept her eyes peeled for the wide gates that funneled people onto the giant platforms.
A stitch in her side burned. Her legs ached, and her muscles refused to relax.
Dig deeper.
Sirens and flashing lights behind her urged her to move her feet faster. Still, she lagged behind Jordan.
“Only a little farther,” he encouraged her.
They were in the middle of this sector. They might still have miles to go. She looked right. Left. Back over her shoulder. The orange lights on the chase vehicles behind them were growing more intense by the second.
“Jordan, we need to hide. Soon.”
“Shoot me some mental power.”
She focused on her fear. We need to hide. She opened the spigot of fear and let it flow through her, felt him siphoning it up.
“One more block. Second house on the right. It’s vacant.”
Thank God. She was so tired she could barely move one foot in front of the other. Pumping her arms, she forced her legs to keep churning, her feet to keep moving. One more step. One more step. She kept up the chant. Each time she yearned to slow, she told herself to take just one more step.
“Here.” Jordan veered down a path and headed straight to the back porch.
“Alarms?” she gasped.
“They’re disconnected.”
Jordan raised his fist to break a window.
“Don’t.”
Sucking down air, she removed her multitool from her handheld and picked the lock. Jordan shoved open the door.
They scurried inside and sank to the floor just as a
Security vehicle turned down the street. Slowly, it rolled toward them, its lights outlining the house.
“You think they saw us?” she asked between pants.
“Doesn’t look like it.” Jordan flattened his body and peeked out the window.
It didn’t look like it? Jordan sounded as if he didn’t know for sure.
“Why can’t you read their minds?” she asked.
“I don’t know.” He rubbed his temple. “But I’m blocked again.”
Not good. “Perhaps you need to rest.”
“Maybe.” His tone was tight, annoyed.
They were inside a living area. Although a sagging sofa, a rickety table, and several lamps remained, the home was vacant. Off the main room she saw a kitchen. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her they hadn’t eaten in hours.
She was about to hunt down some food when she glanced at Jordan. He leaned against a wall, chin slumped against his chest.
“Jordan?” She staggered over to him and discovered he was shaking. “What’s wrong?”
“Don’t know.” Again he spoke in that tight voice he’d used earlier.
She slung an arm around his waist. “Let’s get you onto the couch before you fall and hurt yourself.”
“No w-w-worries. C-can’t d-die. Have the G-grail.”
She placed her free hand on Jordan’s forehead. “You’re burning up.”
After helping him to the couch, she searched the kitchen for a dishcloth, placed it under cool tap water, and wrung it out in the sink. Returning to his side, she bathed his face and neck.
But mere moments after she placed the towel on his flesh, his body heat warmed the towel. Even worse, Jordan was once again glowing from the inside out. Either she was seeing things, or this time more of those bluish lights had returned, shining so brightly she had to squint. It seemed as though the lights themselves were responsible for raising his temperature, yet back in the cave, she hadn’t noticed him visibly warming.
She tugged him to his feet. “Get up. We have to cool you down.”
Together they moved toward the back rooms of the house. At the sight of a huge bathing tub, her pulse skipped in relief. At least sixteen feet long and eight feet wide with a seat and jets at one end, the indoor pool’s clear water lapped the steps invitingly.
Jordan tripped forward and barely kicked off his shoes before staggering into the pool fully clothed. With his flesh so hot, she almost expected to hear hissing as the blue lights struck the water. Although the lights didn’t even dim, blue once again shined from Jordan’s eyes.
By now she’d become somewhat accustomed to the weird glow. After all, jellyfish glowed, and their phosphorescence was not only natural but compelling. Perhaps it was because her own flesh was also beginning to glow that she didn’t find him so strange.
Holding up her hand to the light, she marveled at the sparkles that tingled pleasantly. “What’s happening to us?”
“You don’t know?” he murmured, and then his mouth came down on hers.
And instantly she knew. Jolted by the electric zing that ripped through her core, she gasped at the wondrous sensations swirling around her, through her, inside her. Heat was transformed into burning lust. Once again she was surrounded by Jordan’s sparkling blue aura, but now it was also becoming part of her.
And he felt good. Damn good.
Every cell in her body was sensitized and aching for his touch. It was almost as if those blue lights were a torch that ignited a burn so hot it consumed them.
“I want you,” he whispered. “I need you, Vi. I have to have you.”
“Then take me.” She leaned into him, her chest pressed against him, her double hearts thudding against her ribs. Sliding against his hard length, she lost herself in the blue cloud of light.
He was thinking about her lips, how he loved the way she tasted, how she welcomed him with eagerness and yet somehow still stayed soft and willing. As they kissed, her emotions fed him, and his thoughts were trickling into her.
He was enjoying the scent of her skin, anticipating the removal of her clothes. As his thoughts weaved with hers, as he remembered the peachy pink color of her areolas, she reacted to his thoughts, her nipples tightening, feeding him energy.
Her response to his thoughts and the resulting energy gave him pleasure, and he smoothed his hands up her rib-cage to cup her breasts, skimmed his fingertips over the straining tips. A ripening tingle of need swooped through her.
Somehow she knew he could feel what he was doing to her. Just as she could feel how much he enjoyed playing with her nipples. Overwhelmed by his thoughts and hers, she felt caught in a swirling energy–pleasure loop that was spiraling out of control.
“Jordan?” she gasped. The man knew exactly what felt good, how much pressure to exert and where… because she was feeding him her emotions, and he was feeling exactly what she felt, too.
“Mm.”
She tore her mouth from his. “Your thoughts are rolling into mine.”
“I know,” he murmured, trailing his lips down her neck.
“But, but,” she sputtered. “What’s going on?”
He sighed and straightened, but the effort cost him. She could feel his heavy groin, the tension in his erection, the tightness and the yearning to plunge into her. Yet he held back. “The Staff’s picked you for my mate.”
She blinked. “What?”
“According to the data chip Arthur gave me, the Staff senses my perfect mate. And does its best to make sure we realize what we are to each other. That first time we made love, the Staff changed our electrical chemistry to bring us together.” His voice was gentle, patient, and she could feel him still holding back his desire to make love.
She recalled how lust had overwhelmed her that first time in the engine room, how her passion had seemed to come out of nowhere.
“And those shared memories? The Staff used them to make us feel closer to each other?”
“Yes.”
“And now?” she prodded. “The Staff is messing with our heads?”
“When the Staff picks out a mate, there is no fighting one’s destiny.”
She slipped her arms around his neck. “I tried not to love you.”
“Me, too.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “We’ve bonded on physical and emotional levels, as well as on a plane of energy.” He threaded one hand through his hair. “But on Dominus, there are… deeper bonds. Shari-ki is more than a mental bond.”
“Shari-ki?”
“There’s no equivalent in your language. To my people,Shari-ki is the total unification of everything we are, everything we feel, want, and have to give, everything we shall be.”
“If we unite, will I still… be me?”
“You’ll be a combination of both of us.” By now he knew her well enough to guess her deepest fear. “It’s not so much losing a part of yourself. Think of it as gaining everything that I am.”
Not long ago, being part of him and him being part of her would have scared her to death. But no longer. She could love him, share his mind, and still be independent. Loving didn’t change the self—loving expanded the self. She recalled his thoughts, her thoughts, melding into one. “And shari-ki happens when we make love?”
“Yes.” He tipped up her chin, his thumb caressing her cheek. “But understand that shari-ki is not only a connection during lovemaking.”
Her mouth went dry. “What are you saying?”
“Shari-ki is forever. Even after I am dead and gone, there will always be part of me with you.”
“Forever?” Her eyes widened. “You’re saying we’ll be linked beyond death?”
He nodded. “We’ll be joined for eternity.”
Eternity? She might not have to lose him? Her hopes rose.
“I think I’ll like this shari-ki.” She snuggled against him. “What do we have to do?”
“You’re certain?”
“Yes.”
“This connection once made cannot be broken.”
; “So we’ll always be able to communicate?”
He shook his head. “Shari-ki doesn’t work like that. It’s more of a presence.”
“I’m not sure I understand.” Still, if she could keep part of him, it would be a huge comfort to her. The businesswoman in her wanted to know exactly what she was agreeing to, but Jordan seemed to be having difficulty putting shari-ki into words.
“You’ll be able to tap into my memories. But you won’t know everything I know—not unless you ask. It’s like having a databank at your disposal, but unless you pull out the right file and read it, you won’t have the answers.”
If she could tap into his thoughts, his feelings, his knowledge, she would never lose him. “Shari-ki is a two-way deal. You’ll have all my memories, too?”
“For as long as I live.” He placed his lips on her forehead.
“I’d like that.”
His mouth came back down on hers and his thoughts flooded her. His hunger flooded her. Her acceptance of shari-ki had pleased him. She could feel his pleasure, his pride, his love, and as his feelings wrapped around her, she’d never felt so cherished, so happy, so filled with joy.
If her destiny was to have only this one moment of total connection, she was determined to enjoy every second. She marveled as Jordan skimmed his hands over her flesh and enjoyed her softness under his fingertips.
“God. You feel incredible,” he murmured.
As a bolt of his heat electrified her nerve endings, she gasped. His blood was pounding, his sex heavy and hard.
“How… do… you hold back?” she asked.
“It isn’t easy.” He spoke between gritted teeth, his voice harsh, but she could feel the smile beneath his words. But just as important, she knew he was holding back to give her time for her pleasure to build. Only now that she could feel how badly he wanted her, she felt as if the heat was consuming her, too.
The swirl of blue lights thickened. Dozens of fleeting impressions rushed through the new mental bond they were forming. She saw Jordan as a small boy in his mother’s arms after he’d skinned his knee. His father swinging the boy up onto his shoulders at a fair. The taste of Dominus berries. The sound of a waterfall pounding into a river as he kissed his first girl. Enjoyment of a deep friendship with Arthur. His painful loss of the Ancient Staff, flying in the shape of an owl, satisfaction at getting back his human form.
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