by Susan Illene
The tightness in Patrick’s shoulders eased. “Yes, I see that.”
“I had a vision about you,” Olivia said a few minutes later. Everyone’s forks clattered to their plates. It had been a while since she’d mentioned seeing anything from the future. The gift seemed to come and go with her.
“You’re bringing this up now?” Micah looked askance at her. “You couldn’t talk to me about it first?”
Kerbasi clucked his tongue. “Is this going to be your first father-daughter fight? I’ve been waiting for this.”
Olivia ignored the guardian. “I rarely understand what my visions mean until I see the individuals involved or the event begins to play out. This one only gave me a brief picture, but it had Patrick in it. I got the sense he’s meant to play a big role in the troubles that lie ahead. We will need him.”
“That’s, um…interesting,” Patrick replied. He’d grabbed his napkin again and began wringing it. The man had a serious fidgeting problem when he became nervous. It explained why Emily bit her nails when she was upset.
“And you’ll need to work with Melena when she returns,” Olivia added, then frowned. “Which will be…”
“Soon,” Lucas interrupted. They’d already shared too much with Patrick.
“Right…soon.” Olivia’s voice had a ring of skepticism in it.
“Is there a problem?” Micah put a hand on his daughter’s shoulder.
“No, it’s just…” she took a deep breath, “with sensors, the picture I get is hazier than with everyone else. It’s more difficult to figure out what I’m seeing, which is why I can’t tell you more about Patrick and how he will be helpful. My gut instinct tells me Melena will be back very soon, and she’s going to need to work with Emily’s father.”
Distant shouts came from outside. Everyone exchanged confused glances. They hadn’t heard anyone come up, and they weren’t expecting anyone. It wasn’t easy to sneak up to their house. That was part of the reason Lucas had chosen a remote location.
He stood, his body going on alert. “Emily, do you sense anything?”
“No.” She shook her head. “Nothing.”
He tried to focus on the shouting, but there were too many voices calling out at once for him to distinguish them apart at this distance. It had to be coming from across the lawn.
Micah got up and headed for the window. “I’ll check.”
“Perhaps they are early Christmas carolers,” Kerbasi suggested.
“Don’t be ridiculous. It’s only May,” Lucas said, scowling at the guardian.
Micah dove from the window. “Move back!”
Everyone scrambled out of their chairs. Glass shattered as a flaming bottle flew inside, landing on the dining room floor. Fire burst out from it, spreading across the recently polished wood. Lucas grabbed Emily and rushed her to the kitchen. After depositing her, he raced back into the dining room, passing Micah along the way with his daughter.
“They’re throwing another one,” Patrick screamed, ducking as a second flaming bottle flew into the room.
“Get out of here,” Lucas ordered. He couldn’t stop the attack if he had to worry about Emily’s father getting hurt.
The bottle struck the sideboard and knocked over some of the sentimental photos Melena kept there. Lucas didn’t want to consider how upset she’d be about that. From the corner of his eye, he caught flames racing up one of the dining room chairs. He grabbed a pitcher of water from the table and poured it over the fire. Some of the flames sizzled, but they’d spread toward the curtains as well.
Lucas grabbed Kerbasi, who was moving the dish of lasagna toward safety. Curse him and his fascination with food. “Put the damn flames out!”
The guardian was the only one with the magical skills to do it, otherwise Lucas wouldn’t have bothered. This was the house he built for Melena so that they could begin their lives together in a place designed just for them. It wasn’t overly large or ostentatious—she would have hated that—but it was cozy, and all the intricate woodwork and inlaid ceilings gave it a sense of warmth. She’d loved every inch of the place when he first brought her here less than a year ago. He’d be damned if anyone destroyed it, especially the day before she returned home.
Kerbasi dropped the dish on the table.
“Hurry!” Lucas shouted at the guardian.
“Oh, very well.” Kerbasi stretched his hands toward the conflagration. He knitted his brows in concentration, and a moment later the fire was gone. He blew out a breath. “This isn’t my specialty, you know.”
“I don’t care. If you want to keep calling this place home and protect Emily, you better help keep it in one piece.”
Shame crossed the guardian’s features. A moment later glass shattered in the living room, jerking them both to attention.
“I’ve got it,” Kerbasi said, disappearing in a flash. At least he finally understood the urgency.
Lucas glanced out the window and witnessed a gathering of men and women on the front lawn. They stood about fifty meters back, but they weren’t so far away he couldn’t see them lighting up more bottles to throw. Supernaturals wouldn’t resort to these tactics—only humans.
“Micah, come with me,” Lucas said with grim determination. “Everyone else, get away from the windows!”
Olivia stood in the kitchen doorway, her fists clenched. “I could do something to help.”
“Have you had any visions about this?” Micah asked.
She shook her head. “Nothing at all.”
His lips thinned. “Take Emily and Patrick to the back of the house and watch over them. Lucas and I will handle this.”
“Fine, but let me know if you need me.” Olivia grabbed the others and rushed away.
“Should we get behind them?” Micah asked.
Lucas nodded.
They flashed outside, reappearing at the opposite end of the lawn. A thick forest of spruce and aspen trees bordered the front yard and driveway to the house, providing cover for him and his brother as they surveyed their attackers from behind. There were about a dozen gathered together. They had a large box next to them filled with bottles, rags, and fuel.
At seven in the evening, it was still bright outside. Had they thought daylight would give them some sort of advantage? Lucas stiffened when a man darted toward the house with a bottle in one hand and a lighter in the other. No flames came from it yet.
Lucas flashed in front of him and tore the bottle out of his hand, chucking it onto the gravel drive. The man swung at him without hesitation. Lucas caught his fist and squeezed hard, breaking the small bones in his hand. He screamed, falling to his knees on the ground. The human was lucky he wasn’t dead. If Lucas didn’t have an archangel monitoring him regularly, he would have snapped the man’s neck.
Micah put the rest of the humans in a trance-like state by locking their gazes with his. Lucas hauled the man with the broken hand over to the group, ignoring his struggles. He settled down after he met Micah’s angry glowing eyes.
“They are resisting me. I can barely hold them,” his brother said through gritted teeth. “They must have taken the elixir.”
“I am not surprised.”
Lucas added the force of his stare to Micah’s. Usually, he had no problem compelling a room full of people. He could easily grab their minds and order them to do whatever he wanted without speaking aloud. This time, it was as if he had to swim through a muddy bog to reach even a scrap of their consciousnesses. Several minutes passed as he and his brother worked in tandem to take over their human wills. The elixir worked well, but even it had its limits against stronger supernaturals. Lucas hated wasting the massive power it took to do it, though. He and Micah would be left severely weakened after this and would need time to restore their strength.
“Go home,” his brother ordered the humans. “Do not come back to this place.”
“And keep away from supernaturals,” Lucas added, touching his gaze to each person and emphasizing the command.
W
ith each moment that passed, his breath grew more ragged. Micah was nearly heaving. It took everything in them to push their commands into the human minds and penetrate them deeply enough. Lucas felt the last gasps of his power drain as he continued to push.
“Go!” Micah shouted, his voice thunderous.
On wooden legs, the humans turned as one and shuffled down the gravel drive. He and his brother followed close behind them for several hundred meters until they reached the highway. Their vehicles were parked alongside it. At least that explained why none of them had heard the humans pull up—even their enhanced hearing had limits at that distance. The attackers got into their respective cars, still in a hazy state, and drove away.
“Think the compulsion will hold?” Micah asked, exhaustion in his voice.
Lucas shrugged. “It should for at least a week or two—longer if they don’t take the elixir again.”
“I should return Olivia to the training facility,” Micah said, turning back toward the house. Both of them walked slower than normal, weakened from all the power they’d used.
“We must make certain the other nerou return safely as well.” Lucas glanced over at his brother. “It is possible we were not the only targets tonight.”
Micah sighed. “Let us hope this was isolated.”
They crossed the lawn. Lucas mumbled a few choice words when he saw the house and the damage the humans had caused. There were scorch marks on the outer walls where some of the Molotov cocktails had missed the windows. No flames remained, though. Kerbasi must have put out the fires while they were busy with the humans. Though he’d never admit it aloud, Lucas found the guardian useful—sometimes.
“I’m surprised they found us,” he said to his brother.
Micah lifted a brow. “If you’ll recall, we were caught on the news fighting each other a few months ago and not in a very human way. They must have replayed that footage dozens of times across the country.”
“If you weren’t purposely drawing attention to yourself, it wouldn’t have happened.” Lucas glared at him.
He still hadn’t fully gotten over that. For months, he’d worried about Micah and conducted a ruthless search for him. Lucas had taken measures that were drastic even for him, and he’d lost time he could have spent with Melena. It had been a huge shock to find his brother on television, revealing himself as a supernatural to the world. Lucas had been furious and reacted without thinking. He’d forgotten all about the cameras when he arrived to confront Micah. After all the frustration and worry his brother caused him, he’d been ready to kill him.
In the end, though, they had too much history between them for Lucas to stay angry for long. Not to mention everything Micah had done to anger Lucas was toward the goal of getting Olivia back. After meeting his brother’s daughter, he could hardly fault him for that. He would have gone to great lengths as well if he’d had a daughter locked away in Purgatory.
“We’ll need to strengthen our security measures,” Micah said, pushing open the front door.
Lucas followed him inside. “I’ll make some calls later.”
“Are you guys okay?” Emily asked, rushing up to wrap her arms around Lucas. A feeling of warmth came over him as he returned the gesture. In all his long centuries, few had ever dared hug him with such enthusiasm.
“Nothing we couldn’t handle,” he reassured her. “They’re gone now.”
“They made a mess,” Olivia said from the living room.
Lucas and Micah joined her to survey the damage. Glass was splattered everywhere, a lamp was knocked over, and some of the furniture was burned beyond repair. They’d managed to throw several of the cocktails in this room before they were stopped.
“This place is too dangerous,” Patrick said, coming behind them. “I can’t allow my daughter to stay here any longer.”
“And you think you can protect her by yourself?” Lucas asked.
“I can take her someplace no one will find her.”
Lucas gave him a questioning look. “Then how did Stephanie find you?”
Patrick sighed. “I was visiting a human cousin she knew about from our time at college, and she found me there. She still doesn’t know where I live.”
“For now, perhaps. I’m not certain how those humans located us, but they likely had someone watching the house before they attacked. They must know what Emily looks like and now you as well.” Lucas crossed his arms. “Considering you can’t sense them, how do you plan to keep them from following you?”
Patrick’s expression turned stoic. “I’ll be fine.”
“With these puny little muscles?” Kerbasi pinched the man’s arm. “Or would you talk them to death?”
“I suspect that is your specialty, guardian,” Patrick replied, stepping away.
“He has to stay with us,” Emily said, giving Lucas an imploring look. “We can’t let him go back to Fairbanks by himself.”
Micah’s expression turned grim. “I’m afraid she is right. We compelled the ones we found, but we don’t know if others are involved.”
Lucas ran a hand through his hair. They were out-maneuvering him again and he suspected Melena would join the chorus if she were here—which she would be soon. Whether he liked it or not, he had to view the situation objectively. Should anything happen to Patrick, they would blame him. Allowing Emily’s father to stay at the house would serve the dual purpose of keeping him safe and provide Lucas the opportunity to learn more about the man.
“Very well, he will remain with us,” he said, still unhappy with the idea.
Patrick shook his head. “That is really not necessary.”
“Do you think I make this decision lightly?” Lucas asked, staring hard at the sensor. “You’re Emily’s father. As long as you wish to be in her life, you will do as I say. Is that understood?”
Olivia spoke gently. “It is for the best. You’ll see.”
Patrick sighed. “Fine, but I’ll need to get my things from the hotel.”
Lucas considered it. “Kerbasi, I am entrusting you to go with Emily and Patrick to get his things. Protect them by any means necessary.”
“Very well. This could be entertaining.” A disturbing smile spread across the guardian’s face. “But why give the task to me, rather than take care of them yourself?”
Lucas stepped in front of him. “Because I may not trust you with much, but I do with Emily’s life.” Kerbasi had proven more than once he’d do anything for the girl. “Also, Micah and I must return Olivia to the compound and check on the other nerou.”
The guardian’s eyes met his and a look of understanding came between them. They might not like each other, but they had found common ground. “Very well, but I’ll expect to eat dinner with you tomorrow night after Melena arrives.”
Lucas ground his teeth. “You may—as long as she approves of it.”
“I’m certain she’s missed me terribly.” Kerbasi puffed out his chest.
Micah let out a snort. “On that note, let’s get the windows boarded up before we go.”
Chapter Ten
Melena
Dannia kicked the cell bars. “Get up. It’s time to go.”
“What?” I lifted my head. “We just finished working an hour ago. Where in the hell am I supposed to go now?”
The only thing we had left for the day was dinner. It was supposed to be arriving…well, whenever they got around to delivering it. With only two prisoners left, the guards had become lazy. The only thing they remembered to do on time was take us down to the mines.
“Don’t argue with me. Get up,” she ordered.
The scowl on her face didn’t bode well. She usually only got that bad after I’d done something to make her angry, but I hadn’t seen her all day. Whatever had set her off, I didn’t have the energy to fight her. Not after the long day I’d had working. Every muscle in my body ached thanks to the grueling pace they’d been setting for Bartol and me. We could barely walk back to our cells after our shift ended.
&n
bsp; I put a steadying hand on the wall and pulled myself to my feet, shuffling my way toward Dannia. An eighty-year-old could have moved faster. Even during my toughest military training, I’d never felt this beat up and sore. Cuts, scrapes, and bruises covered my skin from where stray rock had struck me while picking away at the stone walls.
Dannia’s scowl deepened as she observed my progress. If there ever was an ounce of sympathy in her body, she must have lost it long ago. She stepped back when I reached her, making room for me to exit the cell. Then she produced a set of shackles and fitted them to my wrists and ankles. I hated standing there meekly as she did it. Despite the fact I could hardly present a threat, she insisted on dehumanizing me further.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
Dannia gave me a cryptic look. “You’ll see.” She turned and banged on Bartol’s cell. “You, too. Get up!”
Unlike me, he didn’t argue. As soon as she opened the cell door, he shuffled out of it and stopped before her. She put a set of shackles on him, too. He stood there, golden eyes unfocused as if he didn’t even feel the cold metal being attached to him. Bartol had a way of turning his mind inward whenever he needed so that he could block out the world. It was a nice skill to have, but he couldn’t have acquired it without suffering a lot first.
“Aldous!” Dannia called down the tunnel.
The male guardian stepped into view from around the bend. He’d been hovering a short distance away for the past five minutes, along with three other guards. They marched toward us with staid expressions on their faces. Every one of them had a weapon strapped to their belts and appeared ready for battle. What the hell was going on? I prayed to God they hadn’t decided to execute us or send us off to some remote planet like they had with Yerik and Zoe. We were too close to being released.
“Where are we going?” I repeated my question.
Dannia ignored me and addressed the guardian. “You may take them now.”
With two guards in front of us and two in the back, Bartol and I shuffled down the tunnel. After a few minutes, I figured out the route we were taking. I’d been down this way a few times, but not for almost three months.