Chico’s whistle sounded again as the bird flew into the shadows like a brightly colored missile. Teresa heard someone shriek in pain. She stood behind Rune, looked into the darkness and saw three men running at them. One of them had blood streaking along one side of his face, probably thanks to Chico’s claws.
Fear washed over her just as Chico’s shrill voice shouted, “Run for it!”
Chapter 22
Kellyn was on hold.
On hold.
Her fingers tightened around the cell phone until she was surprised the tiny device didn’t simply shatter in her hand.
The Presidential Suite at the Ritz-Carlton, D.C., felt claustrophobic as she waited, listening to silence, wondering what the hell was going on at the damn lab. The mortals in her little cadre were getting completely out of hand. They were treating her as if she was one of them. As if she didn’t have enough power in her little finger to send them all into a caldera.
Which she just might do if someone didn’t answer the bloody—
“Henry Fender speaking.”
She huffed out a breath as the familiar masculine voice came on the line. “Dr. Fender,” she said, congratulating herself silently on the calm, even tone she maintained.
“Kellyn,” he replied. “How nice to hear from you.” Nice?
Henry Fender was the head of the Seekers. A national organization that ostensibly existed to find a way to steal magical abilities from the witches it captured. In reality, of course, Henry was looking for so much more.
The fact that the membership of his organization actually believed that Henry would share one iota of power with them only gave credence to just how convincing Henry could be—or, she thought with a smile, just how gullible humans were.
She drew his image up in her mind. He looked like everyone’s fantasy version of a lovable grandfather. Though he was only in his fifties, he had a full head of flyaway gray hair that fed into the appearance of geniality. His cool blue eyes were hidden behind round glasses and his voice, always soft and caring, gave the impression of gentleness.
Amazing just how far off impressions could be from reality.
Of course, Kellyn had known just what kind of man Henry Fender was the moment she met him. But then, she had powers of perception that most didn’t. Lucky her.
She pushed off the sofa and walked barefoot to the private veranda off her suite. The view of Washington was spectacular and as she stared at the city lights shining below her in the distance, she said, “I’ve been waiting for an update on your latest acquisition, Doctor. And I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that I’m not a patient person.”
“No, of course not.” He paused, as if measuring his words. “I was preparing my notes before calling both you and our associate.”
Careful, she thought. At least he was intelligent enough to be careful about what he said over an open phone line. With federal agencies forever expanding their snooping policies, one just never knew when a line might be tapped. She could spell the line to protect their conversation, but frankly, she simply didn’t care enough to do that. If Fender was caught, it wouldn’t affect her. And what could any federal agency do to her?
Although no sooner had the thought crossed her mind than she was reminded of how she’d once been captured and imprisoned. She’d needed the aid of an Eternal, of all things, in order to break free. Fine. She would be as circumspect as Fender.
“Excellent,” she said, laying one hand on the cool iron railing. “You have news, then?”
“A few nuggets of information, but sadly, our latest … guest … was devoid of anything interesting involving our ongoing project.”
Fabulous, Kellyn thought. The man was the most gifted torturer she had ever known and considering her background, that was truly saying something. If Doc Fender couldn’t get information out of a captured witch, then there was nothing to be found. Another dead end. Well, there were plenty of witches running around out there.
“Do you have any other guests scheduled to arrive soon?”
“Yes,” Fender told her carefully. “As a matter of fact, I’m expecting two friends later this afternoon.”
“Good. Be sure to tell me if they give you anything special.”
“Of course,” he said and his tone was even more unctuous.
Kellyn rolled her eyes and told herself she wouldn’t have to deal with him forever. “You’ll see that your current guest is taken care of?”
“Naturally,” he said, a whisper of insult creeping into his voice. “My assistant will see that she gets to her destination safely.”
Translation: One of Fender’s henchmen would kill the witch and dispose of the body. Apparently this latest witch wasn’t even worth holding on to at Fender’s lab. She knew very well that the good doctor had a holding area where at least a dozen witches were kept in captivity. They were the rare few whose genetic memories could be mined again and again through the judicious use of drugs and physical encouragement.
Those unfortunate witches would be held indefinitely as Fender searched for clues that would lead Kellyn and her partner to their own holy grail.
The focus needed to channel demonic power.
The Artifact forged by witches and fired by the flames of hell itself.
Once that priceless relic was recovered, there was simply no limit to what Kellyn would be able to accomplish. The world would be hers. Billions would kneel in supplication. Adoration.
And all that stood between her and her goal was a few paltry earth witches.
Chapter 23
“Bruja!”A shout in Spanish that needed no translation. Witch.
Rune instinctively grabbed his knife and crouched between Teresa and whoever was coming at them out of the darkness. His blood pumped furiously and if his heart could have beaten, it would have been pounding against his rib cage. Eyes narrowed, he split his attention between the witch he must protect and those who meant her harm.
He didn’t feel the presence of another immortal and that was good. At least he knew there was no Eternal lying in wait with the mortals determined to kill Teresa.
Three men charged from the shadows. Armed with knives, silver blades shining in the pale light that poured from the store windows, they came at Rune and Teresa in a rush.
Rune caught the first man with a shoulder in the stomach, then stood up quickly, tossing the attacker into the air to land hard on the dirt. He spun around to face the next man, big, with a scar on his cheek and dark eyes slitted in determination. Rune braced himself, all the while hearing his witch shouting in fury and her damn bird screeching.
He caught the man with the jagged edge of his blade but didn’t have time to enjoy the spread of red across his shirt. Already the fallen attacker had regained his feet to join in the strike again. The third man was heading around him toward Teresa, but the bird screeched, flew up and came at the guy’s eyes, claws extended. The man howled and dropped, lifting both hands to protect his face.
Rune grunted in appreciation and threw himself wholeheartedly into the fight. In hand-to-hand combat, his immense strength was an advantage that mortal men couldn’t hope to match. In his peripheral vision, he saw people racing into the narrow street to watch—or to help their fellow villagers. He didn’t know which. All he knew was he had to protect Teresa.
How had they all discovered so quickly that he and Teresa were there? Fixing his gaze on those still threatening them, Rune realized how it had happened. It was the old man in the store. Teresa’s magic had set off the radio and television and the old man had picked up on the presence of magic. He had sent the boy out to alert the other villagers. Or maybe there had even been a report about them on the television playing in the store. Word had spread to even this smallest of towns in the middle of the desert, then. Which meant there would be others hunting them. Mexico wouldn’t be safe for Teresa.
Nowhere would be safe.
As his mind raced, he called on the flames to cover his hands for the fight. Someone
gasped; another voice cursed loud and viciously and yet another voice began to pray. Rune wasn’t listening to any of it.
His and Teresa’s identities were no longer a secret. There was no reason not to use all of the weapons available to him. He threw a ragged bolt of flame at the porch beside him and the fire attacked the desert-dried wood like a starving animal offered a feast. Someone cried out a warning and he knew that the crowd’s attention would be diverted, at least temporarily, while they fought to keep that fire from spreading.
“Skyfire burn and surge with heat!” Teresa shouted a spell at the heavens and Rune felt the ripple of her magic sliding across his skin. She hadn’t used a spell to reinforce her power before—he hoped it influenced her aim.
“Magic I call,” she cried, her shout rising above the noise of the fight and the roar of the growing fire. “Skyfire burn and race to me!”
Rune took a slice to his biceps and used the fury thus engendered to turn on the bastard behind him.
His opponent grinned now as he sidestepped in a wide circle around Rune. Foolishly, the man tossed his knife from hand to hand, as if Rune would be impressed. Instead, Rune ended his taunts by flinging one arm toward him and allowing flames to leap from his fingertips to the man’s filthy shirt.
Instantly, fire raced over the man’s body and he threw himself to the ground, rolling over and over in the dirt.
The storekeeper stepped outside, carrying a shotgun that he lowered and aimed at Teresa’s back. Rune threw fire again, but before the flames reached the old bastard, Teresa’s spell erupted.
Lightning forked from the sky, slamming into the earth with an electrical charge that lifted the hair on Rune’s head and sent several people crashing to the ground, including the treacherous old man. His shotgun fell harmlessly from his hands as those still standing screamed and ran for the relative safety of their homes.
But not everyone was alarmed by the jagged bolts of lightning that slashed and burned the village. There were still two attackers, ready to risk all for the reward of trapping a witch. Teresa’s body arched gracefully toward the sky as she sent her power heavenward to call down the energy of the gods.
Even in the fury of the moment, Rune was struck by her beauty. Arms lifted high, her long, black hair twisting and writhing in the wind created by her magic, she looked like a young goddess. And while his mate worked her spell, Rune was left to take care of the most immediate threat.
He squared off against the first man, who came in low with a long swipe of his blade, designed to gut Rune and leave him bleeding out on the dirt. Rune stepped quickly to one side at the last moment and made a hard jab of his own. His knife cut the other man down and he dropped like a stone. The second man cursed him in Spanish and slashed his knife in an arc that caught Rune’s shoulder and sent a low hum of pain firing through him.
The old man’s reinforcements were falling fast.
Bolts of lightning continued to illuminate the night. Again and again, the slashing streams of white-hot power crashed to the ground, and though Teresa didn’t actually hit anyone, she kept the village distracted.
Losing patience with the skirmish, Rune finished the last of their attackers with a knife to the heart, then let him fall. Standing in the middle of the street, surrounded by the bolts of energy pummeling the earth, Rune felt his own powers recharging through his connection to Teresa. His hair lifted in the wind and his body thrummed with the prickling sensations of millions of volts sizzling the air.
“Rune!” Her shout reached him over the clamorous noise and the powerful bolts of electricity. His head came up and his eyes fixed on her in time to see the old bastard once again lifting his damn shotgun to point at her.
Instantly, Rune called on the flames again, flashed out and reappeared behind the duplicitous old man. He snapped the man’s neck and dropped him to the dirt. Without a backward glance, Rune grabbed Teresa, who automatically reached down and snatched up their bag of supplies.
“Willful woman!” he muttered and flashed them from the village, leaving only the dead and the suddenly still, silent night behind them.
Chapter 24
“Chico!” Teresa exclaimed the minute Rune flashed them to the entrance of a cave. She looked back over her shoulder at the wide expanse of desert stretching out between them and the village. All she saw was darker shapes of yucca trees, sage bushes and the occasional saguaro cactus, looking like tall, thin men with arms raised to heaven.
Her heart still racing with the aftereffects of what had just happened, she took a long, deep breath and tried to find balance again. But that, it seemed, was impossible.
“Chico’s not with us.” She turned her gaze on Rune. “We left him behind in that damn village.”
Rune shot her a hard look and clapped one hand to the gaping slice on his arm. “The bird’s not an issue. For all we know, the federales have been called. Mexican feds could be crawling all over that village right now, looking to track us. And you’re worried about that bird?”
“Yes!” Furious, she whipped her hair back out of her eyes and tried to get a handle on the raw nerves still rippling through her.
He muttered something under his breath, but she didn’t catch it. Temper and a million other things combined in the pit of her stomach to build to a roiling mass. Only moments ago they had fought as a team, each of them feeding off the other, creating more powerful magic between them than either of them could claim singly. Maybe she should give them both a minute or two to breathe. Yes, Chico was out there and she would find a way to get him. She would. But for now …
Teresa couldn’t help feeling a wash of victory. She’d actually called down lightning out of a clear, starry sky. For the first time since her magic had awakened, she hadn’t had to wait for a storm. She’d created the storm with her own will. She’d felt the power, the surging charge of strength that held her in its tight, brutal grip. Inside her there was a fire burning that was as hot and fierce as the flames that made up the soul of her Eternal.
Residual magic still washed through her like tiny orgasms, making her tremble as she looked up at the man who had saved her life. As energized as she felt by the surge of magic she had wielded, she knew that if not for Rune, the old man from the store would have killed her.
And that thought was enough to leave her shaken. “You saved my life. Again.”
“I did.”
Her gaze went to his arm. “You’re injured.”
He shook his head. “Not injured. Just hurt. It will heal. Are you all right?”
“Yes,” she said, though she wasn’t sure of that answer. These had been the longest days of her life and the danger wasn’t over. Her mind was a tangled mass of thoughts, sensations, fears and worries. And overriding it all was the crushing knowledge of just what she was actually capable of. “Well, I will be. That was … awesome.” She scrubbed her hands up and down her arms, as if she could ease the chills racing across her skin. “I mean that in the literal sense of the word, too. Awesome.” She shook her head, amazed by what she’d done. “There was no storm—no clouds, even—and I still drew down the lightning.”
He blew out a breath and nodded before closing the small space separating them. “You did. You were … magnificent.”
She liked the praise but wasn’t entirely sure she deserved it. “It was impressive, sure. But I didn’t hit anything.”
“You didn’t have to. Your power terrified them.” He took the bag of supplies from her and steered her into the mouth of the cave.
“That’s probably not a good thing, either,” Teresa said, trying to look around but not seeing much beyond inky darkness and hard rock walls. Good thing they’d bought candles. “When word gets out about us being in the village, it will only be worse for us. They saw us using magic. Your fire, my lightning—”
He pulled her to a stop. In the darkness his gray eyes shone like beacons. The flames that were a part of him danced in their depths, making him look exactly what he was—dangerous.
“You were already hunted as a witch. Now maybe those tracking you will think twice before approaching.”
“Do you really believe that?”
He shrugged and gave her a tired smile. “No, but it doesn’t matter anyway. We are the magic, Teresa. We won’t hide from it any longer. Instead, we will embrace it and do what we’re expected to do.”
His words, the forceful way he said them, all seemed as though he was asking her to make a pledge of faithfulness to their shared duty. He wasn’t just talking. He was looking for confirmation from her that she was with him. And she was. Whatever else was going on around them, she knew that she belonged at this Eternal’s side. At least until they had completed their mission.
“What is it you want from me?”
“I want to believe in you. Your loyalty,” he ground out. “To me. To this task. I want to know that you’ll see it through this time.”
She bristled a bit at being reminded again that in her past lives she had been less than trustworthy. And now that she had remembered just enough to make her feel shame for choices long since made, she liked it even less. She hated knowing that in another lifetime she had been … dangerous. Paying for your sins was right, she supposed. But paying for sins you committed as another woman entirely just didn’t seem fair at all. Still, there was no choice but to move ahead, so she swallowed the emotions nearly choking her and solemnly nodded. “I will.”
He studied her for a long minute or two, then finally inclined his head in a nearly regal sign of acceptance. That bristled, too, but it had already been a long enough day and she didn’t really have the energy for an argument, so she let it go.
Taking her arm, he steered her deeper into the darkness. She turned back for one last look at the mouth of the cave and the glimpse of the starry sky and the open desert beyond. “But what about Chico?”
“I’m not going back for him. Not now, anyway,” Rune said.
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