by April Zyon
How screwed up was that? Then again, she talked to ghosts. Still, she couldn’t shake the sense that her world of seriously fucking crazy had just derailed at insanity and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it. “Can I help you, gentlemen?” she asked cautiously, interrupting the ghost in favor of the two living warriors who were staring at her. She was sitting in Marjorie Jones’s desk, her name plate shiny in front of her. She had been manning the front desk while Marjorie took her kid to the doctor. Yet these men—the ghosts, anyway—knew who she was.
They shared a look before both turned their eyes her way. One was a redhead, six feet, about two-forty or two-fifty. Muscular with pale, freckled skin, he had dimples that showed even when he wasn’t smiling. The other seemed more refined, his back stiff and his chin held at a particular angle that suggested a regal air. Dark hair, tanned face with all the bone structure to help lend that regalness some weight. He was about four inches taller than the redhead, more lanky than muscular, probably in the same weight range.
“Guess that would depend, Ms. Reins,” the big redhead said. “What are the spirits telling you?”
“That I’m in some seriously deep shit and have no idea how to climb out of it?” It didn’t do any good to prevaricate or lie, so she just blurted out the first thing that came to her mouth. “You are Eric Thorvaldsson, and you,” she looked at the dark-haired man, “are Robert de Sable.” She bowed her head in respect for both men. “You have both given your lives to keep people safe, and now you are still doing it. Why?” She laughed at herself. She couldn’t seem to help it. “Great. Two legends from the past walked into the office and I ask them why. Please make sure that when they fit me for the straightjacket that they get it right this time?” Yeah, she had been there and done that and had the scars to prove it.
Robert frowned at her, but it was Eric who held her attention with the gentle, understanding look. Not sympathy, not pity, but understanding. “Normally we wouldn’t have the option of giving you some time to attend to whatever you need to, but this case is a little different. Given your position in the community and your job, we can’t slip you away without someone taking note and potentially causing us all a lot of trouble. We’ll be around for the next few days. I’d prefer to leave with you immediately, but we can give you a week to tend to your affairs.” He pulled a card from his pocket and passed it over. “My cell phone number and the hotel we’re staying at, should you need to reach us. I know you’ll have questions, but I don’t think this is the ideal location for such a discussion. Call when you are ready for the answers. If the ghostly ones haven’t already tattled on us, of course.”
With a raised brow, she glanced back up at the ghosts.
The same one who had spoken before nodded grimly. You can trust them, he said. And you need to get out of here. You’ll be safer in the Mountain.
“Oh they are tattling on you, but it’s not about anything bad. Except they are telling me to fucking run,” she admitted. “Not from you guys, but to…” She frowned and looked at the large redhead again. “A mountain?” Okay, so she was seriously confused.
“That’s where our base of operation is. It’s the safest place on the planet for someone with your talents and heritage. Especially given your heritage.” He muttered the last almost too quietly for her to hear. “But as I mentioned we’re not going to rush you. There is no imminent threat, so take a day or two to clear things up and make a clean break so that no one comes looking for you.”
Krista wasn’t so certain about leaving, but she knew that she had to. Everything inside of her told her that leaving was the right thing to do. The dead didn’t lie—well, rarely anyway—and she had long ago learned to listen to her instincts. She would be safe enough with these men, and she had a feeling her talents would be needed with them.
She shrugged and looked at the clock. “I honestly have nothing tying me here. I learned a long time ago that I need to be ready to move at the drop of a hat. I’m just waiting on the lady that normally sits here to get back from taking her kid to the doctor and then we can leave.”
Both men seemed a little stunned by that, though Eric showed it more on his face. Robert was definitely the sort to hold his cards tight to his chest. “Uh, well okay, then. We’ll get checked in at the hotel and order some room service. You can meet us there once you’ve cleared up whatever needs to be done here. No need to make it seem any more suspicious about you leaving than necessary,” Eric said.
“Sure, sounds good. You go and do what you need to do, and I will do what I need to do.” The men in front of her nodded but didn’t immediately move away. Krista lapsed into a brief but awkward silence and glanced around the lobby of the police department to find … nothing. All around her, normal, everyday activity carried on. Both uniformed and plainclothes officers made their way through the lobby. Phones rang and fingers tapped on keyboards, the usual hustle and bustle of the department. But, except for the ghostly warriors standing behind the two men at her desk, the dead had all disappeared. That hardly ever happened to her. She couldn’t see them and frankly after getting used to them it was freaking her out a bit. She had a feeling it was because of these men. “Shoo, get out of here. The feds are in talking to the sheriff about a crime that’s way over his head.” Over the feds’ heads, too, but that was neither here nor there. “So go. Before they come out asking questions I’m sure that neither of you want to answer.”
Robert bowed his head, spun on his heel with precision, and headed for the door. Eric gave her a lopsided grin, winked, then sashayed out of the offices. Robert said something just as the men exited the building that had the big redhead looking back at her. He was smiling now, and suddenly he burst out into laughter. His head went back, and it was boisterous enough she could actually hear a little of it through the windows. Eric slapped the other man on the back, and they wandered off out of her line of sight.
She shook her head and rubbed her hands up and down her arms. Okay, she was officially freaking the fuck out. Dead people popping up and talking to her was one thing, but them suddenly disappearing was a different thing altogether.
She looked out the glass windows that were the front of the office and watched the shadows grow. She frowned as the light began to dim. Then she grabbed her phone. Pulling up the weather app, she was surprised to see a storm moving in. “What the hell?” They were in the closest thing to a drought that they had seen in a long time, and now a storm was rolling in?
The door flew open, and Eric stared at her with a hard expression. “We need to leave, now,” he said in a tight voice. She could hear the wind howling loudly, but there was more to it than just wind. It sounded like… No, it couldn’t be. But it truly did—it sounded like voices howling in pain, screaming for blood.
“That’s not a normal storm,” she blurted as she saw the souls being nearly sucked into a black center. “What the fa-hell is that?” she demanded with wide eyes. The people around her kept on working as if there was nothing going on, only looking up when Eric approached her but going back to work when she shook her head and waved them off. Whatever was happening was supernatural, then. It was something normal humans couldn’t hear. Great. She was standing now, her hands braced on the desk and shaking. “That’s not normal.” No shit, Sherlock, pass the girl a fucking cookie for getting it right, she thought to herself. “Fuck.” She saw him then through the glass—a man lurking near the end of the street. The man stepped back, hiding in the shadows, but she knew she hadn’t imagined the brief, malevolent look she’d glimpsed in his eyes. Eric followed her line of sight. In the next instant he was uttering a vicious curse as he turned back to her.
Eric pulled out a phone as he stared at her, then put it to his ear. “It’s me. The fucker’s here,” he said. Then he got an unholy light to his eyes as his lips peeled back from his teeth. “It’ll be my fucking pleasure, boss.” Hanging up, he held out a hand to her. “We need to go, now. And if I’m lucky enough I’m going to take that bastard’s head off.”
“Is that … Billy the Kid?” At his nod, she scribbled a note and left it for the sheriff before grabbing her purse. “I’m all for getting out of here. Please and thank you.”
Tucking her in close to his side, he eased them out the front door and along the building. He pulled a Bluetooth earpiece from his pocket and stuck it in place before digging out his phone to make a call. “It’s me. I’m with her now. Where are you?”
Eric’s head turned slightly as he narrowed his eyes. “Copy that. We’re just outside the main door and headed for the corner of the building. Stay low. You know that fucker likes to aim for the face and that shit hurts.”
She heard the howl dying down, but then the rain started. “How the hell is he making it rain?” That was the only thing she could think. Somehow Billy was able to make it rain. He was controlling the weather? “Wait.” She stopped dead in her tracks as the small child, no, the soul of the small child, spoke to her. The little girl was in bloody pink footed pajamas. She had a massive slash in her throat and looked up at Krista was wide, fearful eyes. He is controlling a woman that can control weather. He’s hurting her to make her do what he wants her to do, and then he’s going to kill her when he’s done with her. He’s a very bad man.
“Fucking hell,” she murmured. “He’s controlling someone that can do with weather what I can to talking to the dead. He’s hurting her to make her do what he wants. Jesus, this guy is all kinds of cracked.” The dead were useful at times and brought information to her when she most needed it, and that was very good right now.
“Damn right he is. He’s been a long time off whatever rocker he might have had going at one point. He doesn’t care who he hurts as long as he gets exactly what he wants when he wants it. Where is he, Krista?” he asked, holding her arm in a firm but oddly gentle hand.
Krista shook her head. “She’s gone now. I don’t know where he is. I wish that I did.”
Sliding his hand down her arm, he laced their fingers together. “We need to head straight across the street to meet Robert. He’s with the vehicle, and we’re going to get in and get the hell out of Dodge. Billy knows the area, we don’t, and while I know for a fact you are knowledgeable of the layout, I’m not about to risk a VV on killing the little shit. Hopefully, he follows us out of here and we get a shot at him, but I’m not about to worry about it. Let’s go.”
She just looked at him. She was utterly and completely still when he touched her. It was as if she had come home for the first time in her entire existence. “Okay,” was all she could manage. She was too shocked to say anything other than that one pathetic word.
With a tug, he got her moving into the haze that swirled through the town, his hand in hers the only thing keeping her grounded in the moment even with her head spinning.
Chapter Four
After being practically tossed into the back seat of a car, with Eric following her in to cover her, Krista found herself cosseted on a plane. The ride out of town had been frantic and more than a little hair raising. Somehow they’d gotten ahead of the unnatural storm that was mixed up in the naturally occurring one and made it to a little airport, where she’d been hustled up into the private jet.
The door had barely closed before they’d shot up into the sky. Hell, she hadn’t even had her seat belt on properly during takeoff.
“Two minutes before we begin our descent,” the pilot said over the intercom.
“Wow. Seriously, I’m shocked. What the hell? You sure enough don’t take your time when you sweep a woman off her feet, do you?” Now that she wasn’t feeling the pressure of Billy breathing down their necks, so to speak, she was able to tease and joke. “I should likely tell you boys, though, I’m a one-man kinda woman. Not that you both aren’t super lickable and all, but I’m a bit of an oddball when it comes to being with someone.”
That earned her a pair of odd looks from them both before Robert rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath. Eric was now looking at her curiously, with a hint of a smile. Neither of them said anything, though, as the plane began to descend to wherever they were going.
She closed her eyes as they came down fast. “Right, note to self. Need to keep my mouth from running off at the edges.” She was not making sense and knew it. There was no way in hell that Eric had felt what she had the moment he’d taken her hand in his. Nope, she needed to get a life.
Given the speed with which they had seemed to plummet to earth, the landing was perfect in every way. As they slowed down, the plane did a lazy loop on the tarmac and pulled up next to a helicopter. Robert was already at the door, pushing it open and lowering the stairs. Eric stood by her seat and held out a hand. “One more flight to survive, and then we’ll be at the Mountain and we can all finally relax.”
“Is the helicopter pilot as suicidal as your plane one is? If so, I think I’ll just sit over in a corner somewhere. Seriously, you might be immortal but I’m not. I have an expiration date and I really would rather not be tossed into death’s door before that time, if you wouldn’t mind?”
“We’re not immortal, just tougher to kill,” he said. Reaching down, he took her hand and pulled her up from the chair. “The pilots are all military trained, so I’m pretty sure they are just short of being locked in some loony bin. It’s a prerequisite, I believe. Lance is good, though. He won’t take any risks in getting us back to the Mountain.” He led her out of the plane and over to the helicopter.
She bowed at the middle as they ran for the helicopter, wincing at the thump-twack-thump sound that surrounded them. Her hair blew all around her head in long, dark, silky strands, enough so that she had to reach with her free hand to pull it all to the side and hold it while they got on board the chopper. Well, while she was tossed up into it and Eric climbed on.
With his arm around her middle, he moved her into one of the bucket seat. While someone else pulled the door shut, Eric buckled her in, then fell into the seat at her side. He put a hand on her knee and gave it a squeeze as the sound of the rotors sped up until they lifted from the ground. One of the Marines offered her a headset and a smile.
She took the headset and smiled at the man. He wasn’t like Eric and Robert. He was more like her. From this time frame at least. Once she had the headset on, she keyed it up and asked, “How long until we are at this Mountain?”
“Twenty minutes if the winds are with us, ma’am,” the same Marine said. “It’ll get bumpy towards the end as we climb to reach the landing pad. Just hold on, and everything will be fine.”
“Just hold on, he says,” she grumbled. “Right, and what am I supposed to hold on to?” She looked at Eric, and her smirk turned to a devious smile filled with heat. “You look sturdy.” Yeah, she was so going places she had never gone before, but something about the big red-headed man had her willing to step outside of her comfort zone.
“So I’ve been told,” he said. Lifting his arm, he moved it around her waist and hugged her close. “You are more than welcome to hold on to me any time you like, Ms. Reins.”
“Well, I think that if you are going to let me hold on to you, then you should be allowed to call me Krista, don’t you?” She felt warm and safe inside of this man’s embrace, and that shook her to her very core. She was shocked that she was able to be so close and feel so calm. But she was. There was a sweet serenity when this large man was holding her that she had never felt before and she loved it.
“Krista it is, then.” He gave her a smile before letting his head drop back to rest against the wall of the helicopter. Adjusting his arm, he settled his hand on her hip and gave it a squeeze.
Krista found herself closing her eyes, the smirks of the men around them making her want to ask what the heck they were talking about, but she didn’t. Instead she rested her cheek against the upper right part of Eric’s chest and sighed. There was a heat there. It wasn’t burning hot, but it was a comfortable warmth that spread through her and had her relaxing fully.
It felt like only seconds aft
er she closed her eyes before someone was waking her up. “We’re here,” she heard someone say into the headset. Eric was lightly brushing her hair from her eyes. He smiled down at her when she looked up. “Had a good nap, did you?” he asked.
“I did, actually. It was kind of nice.” She rubbed her cheek against the heat of his chest, then pulled back. “Right, need to get my butt up and out of here, huh?” Krista passed the headset back to the Marine after thanking him. She moved to the door and was a little surprised when Eric jumped out before her so that he could turn and help her out instead of letting Robert help her out. Oh well. She had no clue what was going on there, but she was fine with Eric touching her instead of Robert.
He kept her hand in his as he led her across the landing pad to the side of the Mountain. He put in a code on the pad there, and a section of wall slid away to reveal an elevator car. Stepping in with the other men, they were soon descending.
“That’s seriously cool.” She was looking around the small enclosure, then frowned. “Wow.” She shivered as the cold washed over her. “Did someone die in this elevator?”
“No one’s died in here,” Eric said with a frown. “A few of the guardians have perished in the Mountain, but it’s rare. Usually they are killed while out in battle.” He looped his arm around her shoulders to pull her in closer to him, rubbing a hand up and down her arm.
“Are you sure about that?” She didn’t like to question him, but she was sure that it had happened. She had felt the chill she typically felt when a ghost was near. She couldn’t see them right now. Perhaps the ghosts simply didn’t want to be seen, which was unusual but not unheard of.
“Very. We didn’t have the elevator installed when the last death in the Mountain occurred.” He rubbed his hand over her arm a little harder, drawing her tight against the heat source in his chest. Resting his chin on her hair, he wrapped his other arm around her to rub her back.