Stone 02 Kato

by DB Reynolds

  “Yes. Lili’s on it. We should hear back from her—” Nick heard the rumble of Damian’s voice in the background before she continued. “Okay. Lili has them. The kidnappers and Grace are both heading east out of L.A., on Interstate 10. What the hell’s out there? Lili says Grace is roughly an hour behind whoever it is she’s chasing, but she’s moving faster, and there’s no traffic this early. She’s going to catch them before we catch her.”

  “Well, tell her—”

  “She’s not listening,” Casey reminded him.

  “Fuck! Send me her number, and I’ll tell her. She’ll damn well listen to me.” He turned off the water and stepped out of the shower.

  “Done,” Casey said almost immediately. “Where are we meeting you?”

  Nick thought quickly. Traffic was a bitch on L.A.’s Westside, but this early . . . what time was it anyway? He peered at his cell. Three in the fucking morning? What the hell? All right, that was actually good news. “I’m not far from you, at the Loews. Head up the 10, and we’ll meet on the fly.”

  “Got it. Drive carefully, boss.”

  Nick’s only response was a dismissive snort. The day he drove carefully would be the day they put him in his grave. And he wasn’t planning on dying anytime soon. None of his people were going to either. Not today, not any day.

  The blonde in his bed sat up as he stormed out of the bathroom pulling on a T-shirt over damp skin with one hand, carrying his duffle in the other. “The suite’s yours, sweetheart,” he said as he sat down to put on his boots. “It’s paid through tonight, so knock yourself out.”

  “Where are you—?”

  “Catch you next time,” he interrupted absently as he closed the hall door behind him and strode to the elevator. His thoughts were already roaming the night, searching for some sign that a significant amount of magic was being used. Kato wasn’t an easy target. If someone had succeeded in abducting him, there had to be powerful magic at work. But he wasn’t finding anything. Nothing active, anyway. There was a lingering trace of something dark and deadly, too weak to be Kato. But his captors, maybe? Who the hell were these people?

  He never let valets park the Ferrari, choosing to self-park and take up two spots instead. The hotel garage was empty when he got there—lots of cars, no people. Perfect. He threw his duffle onto the passenger seat of the car and slid in after it, punching the ignition as soon as his foot hit the brake, and backing out of the spot with a squeal of tires. He had to slow down as he drove up the ramp—his car was too low to the ground—but he used the time to pull up the nav information on his display, knowing Lili would have already sent it to his onboard computer. By the time he was turning out of the hotel parking lot, he already knew where Kato’s kidnappers were taking him. He didn’t know why, and he didn’t know who, but the location was obvious.

  They had to be heading to Joshua Tree. A lot of people claimed there was a special energy out there in the desert. Big-name musicians had used the empty spaces as inspiration for years. But the truth was that they got more inspiration from the various drugs they partook of, than any supposed nexus of power. In Nick’s experience—and he had a hell of a lot of experience—there was no such thing as a nexus. What the desert park did have was a lot of empty space and no one to police it, which made it the perfect spot for a major magical working. Not too far from L.A., less than 150 miles, wide open spaces, no civilians to worry about, and, most importantly, no authorities to ask what you were up to.

  He zipped down the California Incline and onto Pacific Coast Highway, driving the short distance to McClure tunnel and Interstate 10.

  He punched Lili’s number as he blew past Casey’s SUV with a light tap on his horn.

  “Nick,” Lili said by way of greeting.

  “Get Grace on the phone,” he said tightly, focused more on controlling his powerful beast of a car through L.A.’s traffic. There wasn’t much at this time of night, but there was some, which forced him to at least give the pretense of slowing down. He could use magic to cover his presence and keep the police off his back long enough to get beyond the limits of the city proper. After that, he could open her up and fly. Everyone knew the speed limits didn’t apply out there.

  He listened as Grace’s phone rang multiple times. No answer. “What’s going on, Lili?”

  “She’s not picking up,” Lili said, stating the obvious. “The number is good.”

  “Fuck. All right. We’ll do this my way. Stay tuned.” Grace Van Allen didn’t know Nick very well if she thought she could blow him off like some unwanted solicitor. In point of fact, she barely knew him at all, but she was about to. Kato’s museum girl was going to discover what it meant to deal with the most powerful sorcerer walking the earth.

  “ANSWER THE DAMN phone, Grace!”

  Grace nearly lost control of her dad’s SUV when the voice filled her head. She gripped the steering wheel with both hands and stared into her rearview mirror, expecting to see Nick’s red sports car on her tail. But there was no one. Most of the early-morning traffic was heading into the city, not out of it, so there were very few cars behind her.

  She jumped when her phone rang for the umpteenth time since she’d left the city. She didn’t have to check the display to know who was calling. They’d been trying to reach her ever since she’d hung up on Casey, and she refused to answer now, because she knew what they’d say. They’d want her to slow down and let them take the lead. To which she had one reply . . . hell, no.

  That was why she wasn’t bothering to answer the phone. But apparently Mr. Big Shot Sorcerer Nick was getting impatient.

  She blew out a dismissive puff of air and hit receive on her console display. “Hello?” she said sweetly.

  “Pull over and wait for me, Grace,” a voice ground out. It sounded vaguely like Nick, but with all the charm stripped away.

  “I can’t do that,” she told him. “They’re heading into the desert, and cell signals aren’t reliable that far out of the city. I need to get a visual on them before that happens.”

  “I don’t need any damn cell signal to find Kato.”

  “Well, you did until a few days ago. Who’s to say that’s changed?” Grace knew she was pushing it, reminding him of Kato’s long imprisonment, but Kato’s life was on the line, and that was far more important than Nick’s ego.

  “Look,” he said, with surprising patience. “Emotions are running high—”

  “Don’t even go there, Nick. This has nothing to do with emotion.” That wasn’t entirely true, but she wasn’t going to let him play the hysterical woman card either. “This is simple physics. Besides, you’ve got your fancy-ass car. You can catch up.”

  “Grace.”

  She could almost hear the thread of his patience snapping.

  “I don’t want anyone to get hurt,” he was saying. “Not you, not Kato. You don’t know—”

  “Oh, for Christ’s sake,” she snapped. “You think I’m an idiot? I’m not going to storm their camp like some kind of Rambo. But I am going to make damn sure I’m in a position to do something if Kato’s life is threatened before you get here.”

  “Are you armed?” he ground out.

  “Just my trusty bow and arrow.”

  “Grace.”

  “Yes, Nick. I have a gun and everything. This isn’t my first rodeo, you know.”

  There was a moment of silence, surely a rarity when dealing with Nick Katsaros. And then he said, “No, I don’t know that. Are you keeping secrets, Grace?”

  “Thousands of them. Now, let me drive, while you try to keep up. Van Allen out.” She hung up without waiting for a reply. They’d left the main part of the city behind and, as predicted, were heading out in the desert. There would still be small towns along the freeway, and they’d pass by the Palm Springs area eventually. But there were long stretches of nothing but empty desert road, which left her plenty of time to think. Too much time. She kept imagining what Kato must be feeling right now, all bound up and trapped in a small dark
space, with enemies all around.

  Nightmare.

  She pressed her foot to the gas pedal.

  KATO WAS TRAPPED. Blind, mute . . .

  He strained against his bonds, muscles taut, sinews shrieking with effort, but to no avail. There was no chain, no rope, no tie for him to break. He was surrounded, encased. . . . Oh, gods, not again. He knew a moment of pure despair. He was a strong man, a man of discipline and conviction. But he couldn’t do this. Not again.

  His mouth opened in a silent roar of . . . what? Anguish, desolation. Surrender? Never. He would go mad before he’d surrender. He closed his eyes against the blackness that was all he could see . . . and frowned. This was different. He hadn’t been blind before; he hadn’t been deaf. Sotiris had left him those senses so that he would suffer more—seeing, hearing the world go by without him.

  He drew a deep breath, filling his lungs with air, feeling his prison press against his chest. And something else. He let his senses roam. He was the son of the Dark Witch. He wasn’t limited to the five senses of regular humans. He breathed again, and every instinct he had sparked to life in an instant.

  The Dark Witch. Her magic surrounded him, feeding his prison, squeezing the air from his lungs. Not possible. He pushed back, expelling his breath, sucking in a fresh draught. And . . . there it was again. Something his enemy didn’t want him to know, a clue to his prison, if only he could figure it out. He frowned, trying to concentrate within the web of magic that surrounded him.

  Oh. Magic. It wasn’t stone that surrounded him, trapping him for another eon. It was magic. Energy. And it reeked of the Dark Witch come to life.

  Fuck.

  He inhaled a furious breath . . . tasting it yet again, but with his human senses this time. It was familiar, and yet not. A distant memory, but as fresh as a new rainfall. He blinked. The scent was dry and bitter, an acrid smell that burned his nostrils and reminded him . . . of home.

  The desert. He was in the desert. He sniffed again. But not his desert, not where he was born, where he grew up. This was something else, somewhere else. Sometime else.

  He forced himself to calm down, to reason, to remember. He’d been . . . asleep. The sound of waves suddenly filled his head, crashing against the shoreline, making the house shudder. There was a weight against his chest, warm and welcome. Grace. He’d been asleep in a bed with Grace.

  Oh, gods, Grace! What had they done to her? Was she trapped next to him? Had they hurt her, killed her to get to him? Please, gods, not that.

  Focus. He reined in his thoughts. Whatever had happened, he would do Grace no good if he panicked like a frightened child.

  Something changed in his surroundings, and he realized they’d been moving all this time, but now they’d stopped. Fuck. Could it be that simple? He was in a car and, given the absence of light, they’d probably put him in the storage compartment in the back . . . the trunk Grace had called it. He felt like a fool. You’re not blind. It’s simply dark, you idiot.

  But as relieved as he was to discover that he hadn’t been cursed all over again, it didn’t change the basic facts of his imprisonment. Someone had kidnapped him using the magic of the Dark Witch. Diluted, to be sure. Weak. But the essence of his mother was in the magic surrounding him.

  The good news was that his kidnapper wasn’t Sotiris. He’d never known their great enemy to use the Dark Witch’s magic. Sorcerers were possessive of their powers. They didn’t share, and didn’t expect others to, either. They might steal an artifact, or even a spell, but they would make it their own before using it. If Sotiris had captured Kato, the magic binding him wouldn’t reek so obviously of the bitch who birthed him.

  The bad news? He still didn’t know what they wanted with him, but couldn’t imagine it was anything good.

  Sudden light blinded him. Not because it was bright, but because he’d grown used to the dark. This was no more than a flashlight or two, and the moon burning brightly overhead. Oh, great, he thought cynically. Whoever had him thought to use the power of the full moon with the power of dark magic. He’d been captured by acolytes so ignorant that they didn’t realize his mother drew her power from the dark moon. She was, after all, the fucking Dark Witch.

  This was better for him, however. Even if these fools managed to draw on the power of the Dark Witch, the full moon would limit how much power they could conjure, while he suffered from no such limitations. He didn’t need to conjure his mother’s power; it was always there. The spell that had bound him at his birth was always gathering whatever bits of power it could find, replenishing it constantly, so that it was always available for her to draw upon. Even now, long after she was dead, it filled his soul and made his heart thunder, whether he wanted it or not.

  And right now, he fucking wanted it.

  They grabbed him roughly and dragged him from the trunk. He did nothing to help them, letting himself fall to the ground as if he were still unconscious.

  “Fuck, he’s heavy. What’s he made of, lead?”

  “Iron, maybe. You know, like Iron Man?” Two men, at least, snorted at what was clearly meant to be a joke, although Kato didn’t understand the reference.

  A third man didn’t find it so funny. He brought them to heel with an angry order. “Get him over here, you fools, before he wakes up and kills us all.”

  His captors yanked him to his feet, but he refused to stand. Why make it easy for them? Let them lift and carry him. And, yes, he was heavy as hell, but that wasn’t magic. It was simply hard work and muscle. Weak ass motherfuckers.

  They half-carried, half-dragged him a few yards, then dumped him to the ground again, but the sand was fuller here, still warm under the surface, from the previous day’s sunlight.

  “We’re all ready, sir.” He heard that same voice, the one that had called the two jokesters to heel. But the man it belonged to was clearly not in charge, because his voice carried respect and fear.

  He felt movement all around him, and then the rush of sound as a fire suddenly bloomed to life with a flare of heat against his skin. And then . . . the nightmare returned as another wave of magic ghosted over his skin. New and horribly familiar.

  “Let’s get this started. His friends are close.” Kato recognized that voice. It had haunted his dreams for thousands of years.

  Sotiris.

  Horror exploded in Kato’s chest.

  GRACE WOULD HAVE lost track of the car carrying Kato long ago, if she hadn’t dropped her cell phone into the trunk with him. Hell, she’d never have found them in the first place, wouldn’t have known where to start. She was rather proud of that bit of subterfuge on her part, but there was little time to gloat.

  It had quickly become obvious that Nick was right. Damn it. Something about him just rubbed her the wrong way, but she had to admit he knew his stuff when it came to magic. Certainly way, way more than she did. And, right now, that’s what they needed. Not only someone who could anticipate where the kidnappers might be taking Kato, but someone, like Nick, who’d have the power to stop whatever monstrous plans they had in store.

  That didn’t mean she was going to wait for Nick to catch up, however.

  Based on the distance between them, she’d been a good hour behind Kato’s abductors when she’d started out, but they were moving slowly, probably observing the speed limit, which told her his captors weren’t from around here. No Californian, and especially no one who lived in the L.A. area, would observe the speed limit at night and out in the middle of nowhere like this. Hell, nobody even did it in daylight unless traffic forced them to. So, by the time the kidnappers were turning off Highway 10 and entering Joshua Tree Park, she was less than twenty minutes behind them.

  It worried her, though, that her only connection to Kato was still the “Find My Phone” app. Joshua Tree was a big, wide-open place in the middle of nowhere. If she lost cell reception, she’d never find them.

  “Don’t buy problems, Grace,” she muttered to herself. For now, the app was not only working, but p
roviding amazingly precise data. She knew when the car carrying Kato entered the park, and knew which road they turned onto once past the unmanned gate.

  Grace had called up a map of the park on her nav system, so she knew that his captors were following a road that would take them away from the campgrounds and visitor’s centers where they might encounter other people. It also happened to be marked for four-wheel drive vehicles, which could work to her advantage. If her memory served, the car that had taken Kato was definitely not a four-wheeler, while hers most definitely was.

  She had to call Nick before she entered the park. From here on out, she’d have to maintain a very low profile. Kato’s abductors were likely to be the only people out on this deserted road, other than her, and in the flat desert like this, light and sound could easily give her away. Secrecy was her best weapon, at this point. The assholes must believe they’d gotten away cleanly, that the spell they cast on her had worked, and she was still sleeping in blissful ignorance back in Malibu. She didn’t waste time wondering why that wasn’t true, why the spell had gone wrong. Her own magic, maybe, or some lingering effect of Kato’s presence . . . she didn’t know and didn’t care. She was just grateful to have woken when she did.

  But for now, at least, they should have no reason to suspect that she was right on their tail, much less that Nick and the others had been called out. Although she imagined Nick’s magic would give away the game once he came on scene.

  She punched Nick’s number. It rang only once.

  “Where the fuck are you?” he demanded.

  Rude. She contemplated telling him where he could shove it. He knew where she was. She was sure he was tracking her, just as she was tracking Kato. But the goal was to rescue Kato, so she said calmly, “I’ve just entered the park. The road they’re on is unpaved, which is slowing them down pretty massively. Their car can’t handle it.” She wanted to add that his fancy Ferrari wouldn’t make it ten feet, but she didn’t. He had to know that, and it wouldn’t help Kato for her to poke the bear.

  “Casey and Damian are somewhere behind me,” he told her. “But I’ll be there in thirty minutes. Maybe less. It’s probably pointless to tell you to wait for me.”