“Good. That’s good,” Rune said, and crooked one finger at her in challenge. “Now come at me.”
She did. She charged across the room, holding the knife blade low and deadly. He swiped her arm out of the way and she spun quickly, dropping into a crouch while swinging her knife in a wide arc. Rune flashed out. If he hadn’t, she would have had him.
“That’s cheating,” she called out to the room.
“If you expect your opponent to fight fair, you’ll die,” he told her as he appeared again just a few feet from her.
“Then I should just use magic,” she countered, walking in a slow, wide circle around him.
“Use whatever you have,” Rune told her, dodging her next attack, then smiling when she whirled in time to take another swipe at him. “Stay alive. No matter what you have to do.”
She took a breath, looked down at the knife in her hand and said, “That’s what this is about? No matter what? Shouldn’t there be rules, Rune? Didn’t we screw up royally when we didn’t believe in rules?”
“Yeah. You did.” He flashed out, then appeared again right beside her. He pulled the knife from her hand and tossed it aside. “And we all paid the price. Now we work together and we’ll do whatever the hell we have to do to succeed.”
“So, then, we learned nothing?”
“We learned what we had to learn,” he told her, noting the worry in her eyes. It was good that she considered all sides now. She hadn’t once and they had spent centuries paying for it. “Now, tell me. Elena said you should search for new spells? In the library?”
“Yeah. Rune, what library? The one in Sedona? She said search for Serena’s spells … and I don’t know any Serena. We can’t go back there even if I knew what to look for and—” She stopped, tipped her head to one side and said, “You know what she was talking about, don’t you?”
His eyes were fierce now, flashing with the warrior gleam she was coming to know so well.
“You’re sure she said Serena.”
“Hard to mistake that name. It’s pretty different.” She stared into his eyes. “You know who she is.”
“So do you,” he muttered. Just hearing that name opened up a treasure trove of memories inside him, thick as tar and just as appealing. “You just don’t remember yet.”
“What’re you—” She stopped and took a breath. “I knew her then? In the past?”
“You could say that,” he replied. “You were Serena.”
Chapter 40
“I was…when?”
“Does it matter?” Rune didn’t want to talk about that incarnation. The memory pained him. At the moment, he would have liked nothing better than to kick the ghostly ass of Elena’s spirit for bringing it up.
“Of course it matters. Elena said it mattered and now, looking at your face, I can see that your memories of Serena aren’t exactly cheerful ones, so, yeah. I’d like to know what everyone else knows.”
He released her and stalked across the cave, needing to put some distance between them. “You should let your own memories surface. Remember this on your own.”
“Do we have time for that?” she countered. “I’m working at dredging up the memories, but so far I’m not getting much. If Elena thinks Serena’s spells can help, then wouldn’t knowing the truth help, too?”
Irritated and unsettled by the past suddenly encroaching on his present, Rune spun to look at her. The sight of her mating tattoo circling her breast and beginning to spread to her back eased him, though. The past was dead and now they were approaching a future that had been too long in coming. “You want the truth? Fine. Serena was a treacherous bitch. Happy?”
“Thrilled,” she said tightly. “Now tell me the rest.”
“It was 1530,” he told her. “In London. You worked at a tavern there and were drawn to witchcraft even though you had no power. You think the witch hunters now are fierce?” He gave a short, hard laugh. “Back then, they were on a mission from God and were damn relentless about it.”
“I’ve read about it.”
He gave her a cold smile. “You lived it, too. You just don’t remember it yet.”
“So tell me.”
“You were separated from your magic because of the atonement, but your soul was still drawn to the craft,” he said, bringing it all back in his mind in a churning mass of images. “We were together, until you ran afoul of the tribunal. Someone saw you with a woman of power, trying to learn to do spellwork, and turned you in. To save your own ass, you handed me to them. Set me up to be trapped. You had your witch friend cast a spell to hold me so the ‘good people’ of London could beat me down.”
“Oh, God …”
With time and distance, the immediacy of her betrayal had lost the emotional punch it once had. But the bitterness remained. He looked down into her profoundly familiar eyes and saw Serena as she had been that last night. As she had stood with his captors, decrying him as an unnatural “thing.”
“Rune …”
He shook his head. “Her spell couldn’t hold me for long. I flashed out and later I discovered that once I was gone, the crowd turned on you. I returned the following day to confront you, but—” He hesitated.
“Finish,” she whispered brokenly.
“—you were dead. They burned you and the witch at the stake for consorting with demons.”
She closed her eyes, took another deep breath and blew it out in a heavy sigh. “Well, that explains a lot.”
“Really?” he asked wryly.
“You look at me and see her,” Teresa said, turning her eyes up to him. “I can’t really blame you. But, Rune, I’m not that woman. I made a promise to you. I’m your mate and I’m not going to turn on you like she did.”
“Serena didn’t plan to turn on me, either,” he told her flatly.
She walked to him and laid both hands on his bare chest. Rune felt a rush of heat spill from her body into his. It wiped away the chill of his memories and pushed thoughts of betrayal back into the past.
“I can’t change what I—she—did.” She shook her head and frowned. “Every time I find out one more hideous piece of a past I don’t remember, it makes me want to scream. But I can’t do anything to change it. All I can do is be who I am now. And I’m not that woman.”
“I know you’re not.”
“Do you? Really?” She tipped her head to one side and her long hair swung over her shoulder to cover one bare breast. “I think we’re both coming into this with a lot of our own problems strapped to our backs. You don’t trust me and I don’t—”
“Don’t what?” He frowned as her gaze shifted from his. “Teresa.” Cupping her chin in his hand, he turned her face back to him until their eyes met once more. “You don’t what—”
Steeling herself, she said, “I don’t want to love you, okay?”
“Why? Because of that bastard of a boyfriend you had?”
Her eyes went wide in surprise. “You know about Miguel?”
“I know everything about you,” he said. “You think it was easy to watch that bastard with you? I saw how he treated you and I wanted to kill him for it. If he had ever struck you or harmed you in any way, I would have.”
She smiled at the hostile tone of his voice. “Even though you don’t really like me?”
“I do like you,” he said and silently admitted that liking her didn’t even begin to cover what he felt for her. “I just don’t know that I can trust you. And, yes, I would have killed him for daring to harm you. As I would anyone else.”
“I know I shouldn’t like hearing that, but I do,” she said, “so thank you.”
“You don’t have to love me,” Rune said softly.
“But you do have to trust me,” Teresa told him. “If this is going to work, if we’re to have a chance of succeeding, you’re going to have to trust me at some point, Rune.”
He nodded because he knew she was right. But knowing and doing were two different things. Still, he was working on it. “I’m trying.”
“Hasn’t stopped us so far,” he said.
“True,” Teresa admitted. “So … back to Elena and what she said. Do you know which library she was talking about?”
“Yeah, I do. It’s an interdimensional library.”
“What?”
He looked down at her, his gaze moving over her features while he slid one hand up to cover her left breast. As if he needed to touch the mating brand, to link them somehow. To get past the powerful emotions flooding the room. Old pain had no place in his present and he would have to make a stronger effort to let it go.
“Torin and Shea,” he said slowly, “the first Eternal and witch to bond during the Awakening, discovered the library last month.”
His hand cupped her breast and the heat wound through him in a sensual ribbon.
“Tell me,” she said, urging him to continue.
“You know that you’re the reincarnation of one of the chosen witches. A member of the last great coven.”
She nodded, impatient for him to get to the important part. “Yes, that much I know.”
“Well, there are other witches, thousands of them.”
“Yeah, and they’re being hunted and rounded up by the feds, and by civilian hunters. But what does this have to do with—”
He blew out a breath. “For centuries, witches have been handing down knowledge through the generations. From one to the other in a long, unbroken link, they’ve passed down spells and secrets and legends.”
She’d had no idea that women of power had managed to retain all that they were throughout the ages. If the feds knew about this, she told herself grimly, they would increase their already rabid efforts to wipe out the witch population.
A shiver wracked her body and as if he understood, Rune dropped a quick, hard kiss on her mouth. She appreciated the kiss for its own sake, and for the reassurance that the awkwardness caused by their conversation was over.
“The witches crafted a ‘library’ to hold the ancient texts and vital information gleaned through the years. Any witch can access it if she’s close to a Sanctuary.”
“How close?”
“That wasn’t clear,” he admitted ruefully. “But I’d guess within a few miles.”
“And we’re nowhere near one now, right?”
“We are,” he said. “We just can’t get to it. The closest one is just outside Sedona—but before you say anything, we’re not going back there.”
“You’re right. Going back would be really stupid.” She nodded, then asked, “Do you know of any others?”
“There is one outside Veracruz.”
On the plus side, she thought, the state of Veracruz was a lot closer to Chiapas, where they were headed anyway. “We should go there, then, don’t you think? Let me find a way into the library before we go to my grandmother? Get as much information as we can.”
“It’s a good plan,” he agreed solemnly. “I don’t like this ‘beware the immortal’ warning your friend gave you, though.”
“Me neither,” she said with a wry smile. Then she reached up to touch his face, drawing her fingertips along the line of his jaw. “But I want you to know, Rune, I do trust you.”
He kissed her then and before her brain fuzzed over in an onslaught of sensation, she realized he might never trust her in return. She felt a twinge of regret as she acknowledged that a part of Rune was still holding her past against her. He was still keeping himself at an emotional distance from her.
Teresa only hoped that their shared misery of a past wasn’t going to doom the future.
Chapter 41
In a soundproofed lab deep below the pretty treelined streets of Arlington, Virginia, a witch finally died screaming.
“You should have gagged her,” Kellyn said, her ears still ringing with the echo of the dying woman’s wailing.
“Oh, no,” Henry Fender said with a jovial wink. “I find their screams quite invigorating.”
One of Kellyn’s eyebrows lifted into a high arch. She had been in the lab for days already and she’d discovered nothing new—well, beyond the surprising fact that even torture could get boring after a while.
Not to Henry, though, she mused, watching the good doctor as he unstrapped the dead witch from the white-gold torture table. Kellyn kept her distance from the slab of gleaming metal, knowing that if her body got too close to the damn thing, her own powers would be drained. And she didn’t trust good old Henry to keep from torturing her if he got the chance.
The man was as single-minded as a campaigning politician going after votes.
Dr. Henry Fender had started out his career as a gynecologist. He’d been well respected, with a thriving practice in Richmond. He had given it all up, though, as soon as the world had become aware of witchcraft. He, like so many other humans, was drawn to the promise of power. The only difference between Henry and most of the population was that Henry had no scruples about how he acquired that power.
“She told you nothing,” Kellyn said, seating herself on a swivel stool a good distance from the table. She really didn’t like this part of the lab. It bothered her to be so close to the power-sucking metal. She much preferred the old-fashioned torture room. After all, Henry had had it stocked with some of the classics. A rack. An iron maiden, thumbscrews and a Judas Cradle, not to mention a few other items that Kellyn remembered fondly from the Middle Ages, all newly made, handcrafted in the mountains of Virginia.
Buy American, she thought with a smile.
Henry waggled his long, bony finger at her as if she were a child in a schoolroom. “Not entirely true. She did reveal that the witches will all eventually head to Wales.”
“Yes, well,” Kellyn snapped, “I knew that already.”
He tipped his head to one side and stared at her. “Did you? Now, isn’t that interesting?”
Kellyn shifted uncomfortably. This was what came of being bored to distraction. One slip of the lip and her entire plan could be shot to shit. Once again, she felt that flickering stir inside her, as something fought to surface. Frowning, she buried it even deeper. Covering for herself, she said, “Not very interesting at all, really. Wales is a lot of territory. Their home could be anywhere.”
“Hmm …” He simply watched her, a curious glint in his deceptively soft eyes.
A change of subject was needed, she told herself.
“Beyond what we already knew,” she said sharply, “the witch told you nothing.”
“The more of these women I experiment on, the more I learn. Did you know that with their bonding, their powers are stronger?”
“Yes,” Kellyn said, “I knew.”
“It’s fascinating, isn’t it?” His pale blue eyes glazed over as new possibilities occurred to him. “If we could get a witch in here after her bonding, then her power would be that much greater.”
“And that much harder to contain,” Kellyn pointed out.
“True, but scientific discovery is not without risk. And think of the rewards. If we could bleed off a bonded witch’s power, it would make locating the Artifact a piece of cake.”
She chuckled a little and idly studied her nails. She’d actually chipped the polish on that last witch. Now she needed another manicure. “Henry, you’ve been working on a way to bleed off witch power for ten years now. When are you going to admit it’s just not possible?”
One hand snaked out, grabbed her throat and tipped her head back until she was looking up into those pale, haunted eyes. “I will do it. You’ll see. You’ll all see.”
Furious, Kellyn called on her own power and teleported out of his grip to the other side of the room. “You son of a bitch. What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
He smiled at her in genuine wonder. “I love that you can do something so incredibly amazing without the slightest effort.”
>
“The effort I’m making now,” she told him, “is to keep from killing you.”
“Oh”—he waved one hand at her—“you won’t do that. Our common partner wouldn’t like it. And besides, we still need each other. The Artifact is out there, my dear Kellyn, and it’s up to us to find it. Now … would you like to take first shot at our next guest?”
He looked harmless. Affable. Charming. Almost like an absentminded professor of sorts. But underneath it all, he was vicious and, she was beginning to think, dead crazy. But he was right. She couldn’t kill him. Their partner wouldn’t like it and for right now, Kellyn needed that partner on her side.
Once she had the Artifact, that would be a different story. But for now …
“Yes, Henry,” she said, giving him the smile he seemed to be expecting. “I would like to take first crack at her. But shall we go downstairs to the other chamber? I’d really like to put the witch on the rack and take it out for a spin. For old times’ sake.”
Chapter 42
Rune and Teresa spent nearly a week reaching the outskirts of the state of Veracruz. They stayed away from towns and cities, camping in the desert or in valleys as the terrain changed. Veracruz was more of a tropical state, with rivers, waterfalls, jungles and rich meadows. Keeping away from the more populated coastal areas gave them plenty of places to hide. It wasn’t only the feds and witch hunters they had to be wary of. There were always humans with nothing better to do than to rob and kill as well. Which made the trip interesting, if nothing else.
He didn’t mind roughing it.
Belen only knew, Rune had lived rougher than this for most of his immortal life. But he also knew that Teresa wasn’t used to it. Still, he admired that she was game. She didn’t complain. Didn’t whine. Didn’t do anything but practice her magic whenever she had the chance. Using him as a focus, she was becoming unerringly adept with the lightning that she called with a flick of her fingers.
And she was skilled with a knife as well, he thought with an inner smile. He’d been working with her and she was a quick study, her innate grace and speed making her a star pupil. He wanted her to be familiar enough with weapons that she could defend herself if necessary. Of course, he planned to be at her side always, especially in times of danger, but he’d lived long enough to realize that sometimes a plan blows up in your face. And a matter of moments could mean the difference between life and death.
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