Vaughn Griffith in the flesh.
Maybe she would take Faylin up on her offer to cook ’em after all.
Chapter 2
As he neared the steps of the gazebo, Vaughn Griffith couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt this breathless. Being so close to Rebekah after all this time—her waist-length, raven-black hair, those large, violet-colored eyes, her flawless complexion, her body so slender, so perfect—was hitting him harder than he’d expected. The sight of her would suck the breath out of any man. Even the anger he saw in her eyes didn’t mar her beauty. If anything, it enhanced it.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded even before he reached the top step. She quickly brushed a stray hair away from her face and he noticed her hand trembling ever so slightly. It belied the sharp edge in her voice.
“I came to help,” he said, then turned and nodded to the elders. “Good to see all of you again.”
“Uh...yeah, s-same here,” Walter said with a stutter.
“It’s definitely been a while,” Faylin said, then arched a brow and grinned. “Time’s sure been good to you, buddy.”
“That’s true,” Ariel said. “Oh, that’s so true.”
Eric simply nodded to acknowledge Vaughn’s greeting. His expression remained, as always, stern.
“No one asked for your help.” Rebekah’s frown deepened. “Or did they? Did my cousins contact you, ask you to come here?”
“No, no,” Vaughn said, holding up a hand. He took a cautious step onto the gazebo floor. He knew Rebekah well enough to know that if he pushed into her personal space before she was ready, she would either coldcock him or command Ariel to wrap him up in a tornado, spin him away then drop him in the middle of the Atlantic. “I heard about Salem, that you’d called for an elders’ meeting. Thought you might need a hand, that’s all.”
Rebekah’s eyes narrowed. “How long have you been in town?”
“Not long. Few hours, maybe.”
“Where...? What...?”
He saw the frustration on her face and the questions in her eyes. He answered her unspoken questions as quickly and as best he could—save for the one he knew she really wanted to ask but wasn’t ready to verbalize.
“I’m staying at the Salem Inn, not far from Sam’s. I went to your cousin’s first, looking for you. She told me I’d probably find you here. You know, Roe—”
“Don’t call me that,” Rebekah said.
“Aw, why not?” Ariel asked. “Pet names are so cute, don’t you think?”
“Oh, for the love of light, Ariel,” Faylin said. “You’re gonna make me puke.”
Eric cleared his throat, then asked Vaughn, “You seen Quentin?”
“No, why?” Vaughn quickly scanned the gazebo for the quintessence elder, then turned to Rebekah. “He hasn’t arrived?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
Vaughn frowned. It wasn’t like Quentin to simply not show for a meeting. “No word from him at all? Any idea where he might be?”
“Probably hiding under a rock,” Faylin said, not giving Rebekah a chance to finish.
“No, he ain’t,” Eric said. He tapped his broad chest with a finger. “Earth elder, remember? I’d know if he’d be under one of my rocks.”
Rebekah glared at Vaughn. “Quentin’s my problem, not yours. And how in the hell did you see us through the illusion veil? You’re not a Keeper and definitely not an elemental, so how...?”
Vaughn smiled softly. The fact that he’d been allowed to compete for the KOFE seat nearly three years ago meant he possessed more abilities than the average human, and Rebekah knew it.
“Oh, never mind.” Rebekah’s eyes blazed with fury. “Why now, Vaughn? Huh? Why? I’ve called the elders together before for natural disasters far worse than this. What makes you think I need, much less want, your help now?”
The more she talked, the angrier she became, and the more Vaughn ached to kiss her.
“What? Do you think I’ve suddenly lost my abilities as Keeper?”
“Of course not.” Vaughn stepped toward her, reached for her shoulder.
She pulled away, avoiding his touch.
Her rejection felt like a taser to his heart. “I know you’re angry, and you have every right to be. I—”
“You don’t know squat. And you don’t have a say over what I have a right to be,” she said. “Especially over what I feel or think.”
“Roe, listen—”
“I said don’t call me that.”
Vaughn took a step back to give her more personal space. Roe might have had a fiery temper, something he’d always found endearing, but in the many years he’d known her, he had only seen it in full bloom—like now—a handful of times. It happened when someone she loved was threatened, when the weak were taken advantage of, when she confronted blatant injustice or when she’d been deeply, deeply hurt. And judging from the look in her eyes now, Vaughn knew the last reason was to blame for this flare-up.
The last thing he’d ever meant to do was hurt her.
“Oh, this is getting good,” Faylin said, grinning. She rubbed her hands together.
Vaughn shot her a look. The fire elder lowered her head, but her smile remained.
Eric chuffed. “Do you think the two of you can quit peeing in each other’s boots until—”
Suddenly a loud thunk echoed from the dome of the gazebo, making everyone look up.
A groan of pain followed the thunk, then a pair of wing tips slid into view below the east end of the roof. Within seconds a pair of legs clad in tuxedo trousers followed the wing tips, and before anyone had a chance to say a word, a man dropped onto the gazebo floor.
He stood about five-eleven, and had a thatch of wild salt-and-pepper hair, a tangled beard and an unevenly trimmed mustache and cobalt-blue eyes that appeared wild with fear. The rest of his ensemble included a red sports coat and a brown button-down shirt.
“Quentin!” Ariel squealed, then clapped her hands like an overzealous fan girl.
Vaughn did a double take. It was undoubtedly the quintessence elder, but he’d never seen Quentin disheveled before. It had an oddly disturbing effect on him. Like stepping outside and discovering the sky had turned green and the grass blue. Something was off here—way off.
“About damn time,” Faylin said.
Eric flipped a hand toward his peers as if to silence them, then said to Quentin, “You’re late. You were supposed to be here at three. Everybody at three.”
Rebekah hurried over to Quentin, put a hand on his arm. “What’s wrong?”
The wild-eyed elder’s lower lip trembled. He glanced over at Vaughn, then around to the others before his eyes settled back on Rebekah. “Tee-zee’s missing.”
“Uh-oh,” Walter said.
“Uh-oh what?” Vaughn asked. “Who’s Tee-zee?”
Walter shrugged. “I don’t know, but if he’s missing that can’t be good.”
“He’s one of Quentin’s charges—and a black hole,” Rebekah said. “He’s also responsible for the positioning and sizes of the other black holes in this galaxy.”
“I knew it,” Faylin said. “Didn’t I tell you it was him?”
“What’re you talking about? You didn’t say nothing about no Tee-zee,” Eric said. “You said Quentin.”
Quentin spun around, looking from Faylin to Eric. “What about me?”
Faylin waved a dismissive hand. “Nothing. We were doing a little speculating, that’s all.”
Walter huffed. “We? A little speculating? You all but said he was the one who’d brought the darkness to Salem.”
“You...you thought I... How could you?” Quentin’s eyes welled up as he gave Faylin a questioning look.
She tsked. “What? It’s not like I did or said anything bad or wrong. I speculated, that’s all. If you’d been here on time, there would have been nothing to speculate about. Rebekah told us to be here at three. You were late. Not my fault. I got here early.”
“Leave him alone,” Rebek
ah said, then turned to Quentin. “How long?”
“How long what?”
“Has Tee-zee been missing? When did you last call for him?”
“About an hour, maybe two hours ago in human time. I wanted to check in with everyone before coming here, but he didn’t respond.” Quentin’s lower lip trembled even more. “I don’t know where he is.”
Faylin snorted. “Maybe he got sucked into one of his black holes.”
“That’s not funny,” Vaughn snapped.
Rebekah shot him a hard look.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to step on your turf. But you do know what could happen if Tee-zee’s really missing?” Vaughn wanted to kick himself for asking the question. Of course she knew what it meant. She was a KOFE.
“So what if the twerp’s missing?” Faylin said. “What’s the big deal? We just find him and slap his wrists, right?”
“It is a big deal,” Rebekah said. “Everything in the universe has its proper place and serves a purpose in that proper place. If the black holes are not where they’re supposed to be at the time the earth rotates to make way for high tide, there will be no high tide. There will be no tide at all. And without the ebb and flow of the tides, every body of water on the planet will eventually grow stagnant, lose its oxygen. Fish will die, plants, too. Then eventually, inevitably, animals and humans—even elementals.”
Faylin tsked in disbelief. She looked at Vaughn.
“She’s right,” he said.
Rebekah glanced at her watch. “We have about two and a half hours before the next tide. Not much time to find him.”
“But isn’t Tee-zee a black hole?” Walter asked. “How do you lose a black hole? It’d be like someone losing this darkness. How do you lose the dark?”
Quentin opened his mouth as if he meant to respond, then snapped it shut.
“That’s a very good question,” Ariel said. “’Cause you can’t lose the dark, really, right?”
Vaughn saw the depth of worry on Rebekah’s face. He wanted to hold her, assure her that he would be by her side no matter what they had to face. But this wasn’t about what he wanted. It had to be about what Rebekah needed, right now more than ever. Lives depended on her—as did the future of the whole damn planet.
* * *
Rebekah looked at her watch again, only to see too many minutes going by too fast.
She’d tried to collect her thoughts, narrow her focus to the challenges ahead.
Originally, when Salem’s darkness first came to her attention, she had in fact feared that one of her charges might be responsible for it. The darkness seemed too big an event for a sorcerer. She’d yet to know one with enough power to affect the well-being of the universe. Many sorcerers had the power to produce darkness by casting an elementary magic spell. But those spells only created illusions, like pulling a shade over a sunlit window. The darkness here had no break in continuity, a sure sign that it wasn’t an illusion. It sat heavy over the town like the lid of a casket. Because of that, she had to consider the possibility that Tee-zee might be responsible. Had the elemental gone into hiding after he heard Quentin was headed for Salem to meet her and feared being found out? As much as she hated even considering the possibility, there was only one way to know for sure. They had to find Tee-zee.
But how?
She communicated regularly with the elders telepathically and knew they stayed in touch with their charges the same way. It was possible that Quentin was too upset to get a telepathic fix on Tee-zee’s whereabouts. If their telepathic powers were combined, they might be able to tune in to the lower elemental and make contact.
Rebekah turned to Quentin and held out her hands. “Maybe we can find him together. Take hold of my hands.”
“Good idea,” Faylin said. “Power in numbers.”
“What numbers?” Walter asked.
“Are you always this dense?” Faylin asked.
“Huh?”
“Just shut up and pay attention, leaky lips.”
“Quentin?” Rebekah said, capturing the elder’s attention. She motioned, and he took hold of her hands.
“Now, please, I need the rest of you to be quiet,” Rebekah said.
“Can I help?” Vaughn asked, taking a step toward them.
She glanced up at him, and in that second, memories and images from the past came rushing into her mind, too many to dismiss or brush away...
She had always taken her role as KOFE seriously. Although her parents had been KOFEs and she carried a Keeper’s birthmark—hers a pentacle, a word Rebekah preferred over pentagram, since most people associated the latter with evil—she had not automatically inherited her position the way her cousins, Samantha, June and Katie Sue, had inherited theirs. The Order of Antiquities demanded that KOFEs earn the title through hard work, study and absolute dedication. Rebekah had done just that after the untimely deaths of her parents. She had committed herself completely to the cause of becoming a KOFE—or dying in the attempt. She knew no better way to honor her family.
The race to occupy the open high seat had not been an easy one, especially with Vaughn Griffith nipping at her heels. She’d known him since childhood and had carried a secret crush on him throughout her teens. He was smart, ambitious and handsome in a rugged, outdoorsman sort of way. As she’d grown older and life had taken a more serious turn, her crush on Vaughn had turned into frustration. She’d seen him as a relentless tease and felt he needed to take life more seriously. She hadn’t really been surprised when he’d stepped up to challenge her for the KOFE position. She’d figured he was doing it simply to get a rise out of her.
Throughout the competition, he had demonstrated multilevel supernatural powers with uncanny ease. He seemed to take those powers for granted, which angered her, because her own powers had developed only after relentless practice and sheer, dogged determination.
In the end, when the title of KOFE had officially become hers, she suspected that she’d won by the smallest of margins. But it was still a win—and no small feat, considering that had been nearly three years ago, when she’d been twenty-five, the youngest KOFE on record.
The competition had been exhilarating, but not because she’d been a woman who’d beaten a man. It had nothing to do with gender or physical strength. It was because she knew Vaughn hadn’t given her an inch. She’d earned the title fair and square. She remembered the look of absolute sincerity on his face when he’d congratulated her on the win. How her breath had caught when he’d leaned over and kissed her unexpectedly. And how, almost immediately afterward, for no apparent reason at all, he’d seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth. She hadn’t seen him since. Until now.
Now—out of nowhere—Vaughn Griffith had traipsed into Salem, Massachusetts, and offered to help. She wanted to tell him to take a flying leap off the nearest cliff.
But she didn’t.
Her responsibilities as KOFE took precedence over pride. And whether she wanted to admit it or not, she couldn’t deny Vaughn’s amazing telepathic abilities. She’d witnessed them firsthand during the KOFE competition. Refusing his help now would be childish on her part—and irresponsible.
With a sigh, she freed her right hand from Quentin’s grasp and offered it to Vaughn. He immediately took hold of it, then linked his other hand to Quentin’s, completing the circle. The heat of his hand in hers made it difficult to concentrate.
“Quentin,” Vaughn said, “you know your charges better than anyone. What are we looking at here? A breakdown in communication? Or do you think Tee-zee’s hiding because he caused this darkness?”
A look of embarrassment crossed Quentin’s face. “If you had asked me that this morning, I would’ve bet the universe that none of my charges could possibly be responsible for it. When I told them I was coming to Salem and why, many of them wanted to help, Tee-zee especially. Now that he’s missing, though... I don’t know. I just don’t know.” His eyes filled with pain. “I’m really sorry, Rebekah. I lost track of him and let you do
wn. I’m so sorry.”
She squeezed his hand. “I’m not faulting you for anything, so stop beating yourself up. You’re a good elder, Quentin. Sometimes a person—even an elemental—gets an idea or plan stuck in his or her head and there’s nothing we can do to change it. They’ll do what they want to do regardless. We may be jumping the gun here, anyway, and we have precious little time for speculation—an hour and forty minutes until the tide is due to roll in. Let’s just concentrate on finding Tee-zee, and we’ll deal with the rest as it unfolds.”
“Whoa!” Walter suddenly sprang to life as if he’d been jabbed with a hot poker. “An hour and forty minutes? That’s not enough time! If the tide doesn’t come in, my mermaids and all the undines will get sick. They might die!” He started to pace. “This is simply disastrous, beyond crucial. We’ve got to find Tee-zee.”
“Get a grip, water boy,” Faylin said. “We talked about this earlier. Why are you freaking out about it now?”
Walter’s pacing picked up speed. “Because... I don’t know. I guess it just sank in.”
“Well, take a breath, bubble belly. It’s not the end of the world yet.”
“Easy for you to say,” Eric said. “You and yours are sittin’ at the planet’s core, so you’ve got a little time. Walter don’t. His charges are gonna be hit right away if the tides stop. Then mine are gonna follow, ’cause when the water elementals start dying, ain’t gonna be nobody left to water the earth. Won’t take long then before this big ol’ blue ball starts crumbling away. And when that happens, you’ll see. Only a matter of time before you get snuffed out like a candle at a kid’s birthday party.”
“He’s right,” Ariel said in her breathy, high-pitched voice. “Planets will tumble out of their orbits and crash into each other. A lot of people are going to die. Well...all of them will die, actually.”
Faylin arched a brow. “The earth’s going to crumble for real?”
Vaughn nodded. “If the black holes aren’t in place for tide, the natural order of the universe gets disrupted. We know what the repercussions of that are. We can only guess at the time it will take for them to occur.”
The Keepers: Christmas in Salem: Do You Fear What I Fear?The Fright Before ChristmasUnholy NightStalking in a Winter Wonderland (Harlequin Nocturne) Page 8