“Seriously, what use is an ability that smacks a girl in the head at the most inopportune moments, and then fails to come through when we need it most?” Tessa withdrew her hand from the cabinet with a frown and brushed her palms down the sides of her jeans. “So, how do we find out what’s back there?”
“Well, you did point us in the right direction.” Alec grasped her shoulders and moved her gently to the side. Then he reached into the cabinet again. “I could power up and blast through it. But, it’d be a shame to destroy all this beautiful old walnut. Or, I could try to fade in and hope there’s enough room back there to accommodate me when I reform.”
“You’re huge, McAllister. I’m smaller, maybe I could…” Tessa began.
“Not a chance,” he interrupted. “Of course, there’s one more option. We could do it the easy way.” Tessa heard a click, followed by a metallic squeal. Alec stood back from the cabinet and planted his hands on his hips with a wide grin as the back of the cabinet popped open revealing a darkened space beyond. “I could use my superior intelligence and unparalleled powers of deductive reasoning to locate the hidden latch in the carving across the base and simply open the door.”
“So, basically, you got lucky?” Tessa smirked.
“I got lucky,” he agreed, reaching for her with a chuckle and hauling her against him. Tessa no sooner raised her face to capture his lips when his head snapped up as the unmistakable sensation of shocks racing up and down her spine hit. Galen appeared in the center of the room with a muted pop.
“We’ve got company,” he announced unnecessarily.
“How many?”
“Didn’t waste time looking. Set sigils around the priest to protect him and headed over here.”
Alec’s features tightened as he grabbed Tessa’s hand, held the vestments aside, and dragged her toward the unknown.
“Wait!” Tessa tugged free and raced to a tall cabinet against the side wall. Yanking open the drawers, she shuffled the contents until she curled her fingers around a couple of long, white taper candles. She shoved some others aside until she located a packet of matches, then she raised her hand triumphantly.
“Good thinking.” Galen gently shoved her in Alec’s direction, following so closely, he nearly stepped on her heels. Alec grabbed a candle and lit it, then touched it to the wicks of two more and handed one to Tessa and one to Galen, before shoving the matches in his pocket. Then holding his own high in front of him, he reached for Tessa’s hand again and pulled her into the passage.
Unnerved by the distorted candlelit shadows dancing along the close confines of the dampened rock walls, Tessa gripped Alec’s fingers tightly, and started down the uneven stone stairs. Yes, Alec got lucky finding the passage, but as Galen closed the outer cabinet door, and then pushed the back panel of the cabinet into place with a definitive click, Tessa hoped they weren’t on the verge of their luck running out.
Chapter Twenty-One
The further they descended into the earth, the less pronounced the prickling sensation of evil along her spine. Tessa kept her increasing claustrophobia at bay by replaying a Beethoven symphony in her head and concentrating on the solid reality of Alec’s fingers wrapped around hers.
“They don’t seem to be following us,” Galen remarked. “But, I doubt they’ll go far. The sigils in the rectory will have tipped them off that Earthbound are in the neighborhood.”
“Probably be waiting when we come up,” Alec agreed, stopping to sweep the candle in front of him. Tessa peeked over his shoulder and saw only thick cobwebs dangling from the ceiling and more dusty stairs falling away into the darkness. She swallowed hard and switched to a more uplifting composition by Mozart. “Assuming we go back the way we came. Are you okay?” He brought the candle close and peered into her face.
“Fine,” she lied in a breathless voice. “Why?”
“Mozart is your go-to guy when you’re nervous.” Damn. After ten years of blocking everyone out, she had a tendency to forget she let Alec back in her head.
“It’s a little close in here, that’s all. It’s not as bad as last time, honestly.”
Alec brought her hand to his lips and skimmed them across her knuckles.
“It shouldn’t be long now.” Giving her fingers a reassuring squeeze, he raised his candle and continued their descent. True to Alec’s prediction, within minutes they reached the bottom and found themselves in a small, rough-hewn chamber facing a massive iron door. Alec reached out and rattled the handle, but to no one’s surprise, the portal didn’t budge.
“Figures,” he muttered. “Can nothing be simple?”
“It’s not like a locked door can keep us out,” Galen chuckled. “We simply fade to the other side. Looks like our only option.”
“I know. I’m just not thrilled about going in blind with Tessa along,” Alec replied. He sighed and raked his free hand through his hair. “On the other hand, there’s no way in heaven or hell I’m leaving her out here alone and unprotected while we check it out.”
The giant warrior ran a palm over the tattoos adorning his smooth pate and came away with a handful of shurikens. Then he nodded at Alec. “Okay, McAllister, whip out that new toy you’re sporting and let’s get on with it.”
Tessa regarded Alec in confusion as he released her hand. He handed her his candle and shoved his left sleeve to his elbow, revealing an intricate tattoo on his forearm. After a moment’s hesitation, he withdrew a wicked looking dagger from the ink, the blade gleaming with deadly intent in the flickering candlelight.
“Where did you get that?” Tessa gasped.
“Told you we made a pit-stop,” Alec shrugged, avoiding her eyes.
“But—” As far as Tessa knew, Michael only bestowed such supernatural weaponry on members of the Defensori.
“We’ll talk about it later,” Alec bit out.
“Don’t you think an about-face from scholar to soldier is something worthy of discussion before rather than after the fact?” Tessa sniped back.
“Yes, and I said we’ll talk about it later.” He cupped a hand around her nape and pulled her forward, kissing her hard on the mouth. “Nothing’s been decided. Now, be a good girl and hold onto the candles so Galen and I can keep our hands free.”
Tessa clutched her sputtering taper, as well as Alec’s, as Galen blew his out and tossed it to the floor. He transferred half of the steel throwing stars to his other hand, and stepped around her to Alec’s side.
“Tess, you stay behind Alec and me until we see what we’re dealing with,” Galen directed. “We fade on three. One, two, three…”
Tessa materialized on the other side of the door and found herself alone in a sealed room surrounded by deathly quiet.
“Alec?”
She reached out to him first on their private wavelength, and then on the open channel all Earthbound used, but neither he nor Galen replied. Where could they be? Alec would never leave her alone down here deliberately. Did the Djinni sense the proximity of the piece of himself she carried, and allow entry to her alone? Did the creature actually wield that kind of power even though trapped? Not a comforting thought. Her chest tightened and her lungs struggled to draw in the thick, age-stale air. Heart racing, she held the candles aloft and examined the small room more closely. It looked as though it hadn’t been disturbed in years. The smart move would be to return to the other side and locate Alec and Galen. But, a force stronger than her common sense drew her like iron filings to a magnet toward the heavy wooden table against the opposite wall. The black metal box sitting in the middle of its dust covered top pulsed with a life of its own in the dancing shadows cast by the flickering candlelight.
Tipping the tapers, she dripped the melted wax onto the tabletop, then stuck the bases in the cooling puddle, creating a makeshift candle stand. Sucking in a shaky breath, she caught her lower lip between her teeth, and held her hands over the box. She should leave this place and find Alec. He must be frantic. But, they came for the necklace, right? Shouldn’
t she at least see if they were right, or if this entire expedition was a waste of time? Open it, open it. The thought welled up, unbidden, from the deepest recesses of her mind, a thought not her own. Alec, she must find Alec. But, the trapped Djinni, was here. She knew it as well as she knew her own name. And she could free him. It would only take a minute.
Tessa flipped open the lid and snatched the necklace from its resting place. A tortured scream fractured the silence the moment she curled her fingers around the filigree cage and came in contact with the smooth, cold stone. Memories crashed over her with the force of a monsoon. Rage, desperation, betrayal, and torment drowned her in suffocating darkness. Held captive by the Djinni’s memories, her senses screamed as she struggled to rise to the surface and free herself. The pressure threatened to split her head in two as the Djinni tore free of her consciousness to reunite the pieces of his own. The searing pain vanquished the visions, and left her panting on the floor, gasping for breath, her fingers still locked around the pendant. She pressed her other hand to her forehead and struggled to her feet, wondering if the dull pounding she heard came from within her head. She gripped the edge of the table, thankful for the support. It was the only thing preventing her from face-planting when the Djinni stepped from the shadows and smiled.
“Well, little angel, I believe I owe you both my thanks and my apologies.”
****
Alec hit the stone floor with the force of a cannon blast.
He shook his head to clear it, slapped his dagger against his forearm, and climbed to his feet in the darkness. He heard a scuffling to his right, and then the space lit with an eerie blue glow emanating from Galen’s palms. Alec glanced around wildly, his heart climbing into his throat. “Tess? Where’s Tessa?”
“Hell-forged steel. The door and walls must be laced with it. Guess we probably should have checked first.” Galen scooped his abandoned candle from the floor. “Lot less painful that way. Got a match?”
Alec dug them out of his pocket and tossed them to Galen. “Okay, hell-forged steel. We can’t fade through it, so where the hell is my wife?”
“Your wife isn’t Earthbound. My guess is, she’s on the other side of the door.” Galen struck a match and the candle flared to life as the glow from his palms faded. He brushed the dust from his jeans, then bent to scoop his throwing stars from the floor where they’d scattered when he landed. He returned all except one into the ink on his scalp, then scraped the edge of the remaining one along the surface of the door. He arched a brow at Alec when the friction produced sparks of both red and blue. “Not only hell-forged, but heaven-forged, too. Smelted in iron. Whoever constructed this wanted to make damn sure no one—Earthbound, Fallen, or Djinn—got in. Or out. Telepathy won’t penetrate it, either. Don’t get your shorts in a knot. Tessa is an intelligent woman. As soon as she realizes we didn’t get through, she’ll be back.”
“She’s had plenty of time to realize it,” Alec croaked, advancing to run his hands over the door. Anything—or anyone—could be on the other side. He couldn’t feel Tessa, couldn’t sense her. He should have demanded she return to his mother’s. Angry and hurt he could fix. Dead might be a bit trickier. “We aren’t standing here with our thumbs up our asses waiting for her to reappear. There has to be a way to breach this.”
“I don’t think so,” Galen grunted, holding the candle close to examine the perimeter of the portal. “Whoever put this together did a pretty thorough job. I didn’t go straight through the door. The walls are laced with the stuff, too.”
“Well, I didn’t get her back to lose her again,” Alec shot back, slamming his fist impotently against the barrier. He mopped at his sweaty forehead with his sleeve and planted his hands on his hips, the better to conceal their trembling. He couldn’t help Tessa if he let the fear control him. Think, McAllister. With his head cocked to the side, Alec watched Galen continue to run his palms around the doorframe, searching for any weakness. Something about the scene struck a familiar chord. The answer came courtesy of a flashback to his sister-in-law Katrina’s basement and a time when Jacques Rapier held Kassian’s wife hostage in a series of tunnels beneath the mountains. Kat’s cousin, a powerful witch, cast a spell on the entrances, forcing Alec, his brother, and Luca to stand helpless, unable to breach the magic. When they couldn’t find a way through it, they went around it.
“You said the walls are laced with hell-forged, so it’s mixed with stone?” Alec clapped a hand on Galen’s shoulder and pulled him away from the door. He rubbed his palms together until they glowed, then directed a blast of blue white energy at the wall beside the doorway, giving a satisfied grunt as it cracked and rumbled. “What if we can weaken the walls around the door enough to blow it out?”
“Not a horrible idea. In fact, it could work.” Galen rubbed a hand over the back of his neck as Alec directed another blast at the same area as the first. Dirt and tiny fragments of stone trickled from the spot, and the ceiling creaked overhead. “Then again, it could bring the whole place down on top of us…and Tessa.”
“You have a better idea?” Alec hesitated, his gut tensing. He had no concern for his own well-being, but until he clapped eyes on her, he had no way of knowing Tessa’s current situation. If the tunnel collapsed and anything impeded her ability to fade, his plan could easily bury her alive.
“Well, not yet, but—” Both men froze. Galen’s head swiveled and locked on Alec, whose muscles bunched into apprehensive knots as a muffled scream from beyond the door pierced the silence. Tessa’s scream. Galen tossed the candle to the floor, where it sputtered and died. Then he quickly buffed his palms and directed his energy at the wall. “Hey, what the hell. A bad plan beats no plan, yeah? You stay left, I’ll blast right.”
Alec knuckled his burning eyes, and squinted through the murky light. He mentally reached out to Tessa over and over as he and Galen worked, every sense straining to discern the slightest whisper of response. Nothing. His throat ached and his eyes watered, temporarily clearing the grit from his vision. The door stood as solid as the Rock of Gibraltar, and only the superficial facing of the wall crumbled. Mouth dry, chest tight, he kicked at the pile of pulverized stone littering the floor, and swore loudly. They weren’t getting anywhere.
“Maybe it’s time to consider going to plan B,” Galen croaked, bending to hug his knees as a fit of coughing seized him.
“You got a plan B?” Alec asked.
“Not yet, but I’m working on it,” he rasped.
“Then we keep going.” Alec directed another blast of energy at the stubborn rock. Dirt rained down from the groaning ceiling like confetti.
Galen’s brow pleated as he glanced up. “Not sure that’s the best option.”
Alec followed the other man’s gaze. An irregular crack split the rock ceiling, spanning half the distance from the doorway to the bottom of the stairs. He swallowed hard and rolled his stiffened shoulders. “It’s the only option.”
“Alec—”
“I know. But, I’m not leaving without Tessa, no matter what happens. This isn’t your problem, Galen. Get yourself out before I bring the whole damn thing down on our heads.” Alec rubbed his palms together and aimed them at the wall beside the door. “Seriously, no hard feelings.”
“Told you before, no one goes in alone. And no one gets left behind. Not even stubborn assholes.”
“Yet you’d leave Tessa behind?” Alec clenched his jaw until his teeth ached, fixing a glare on the bald warrior.
“Absolutely not. Just need to figure out an alternate plan. But, since you’re hell-bent on this one…” Galen scraped his hands together and focused them on the same area Alec targeted. “Let’s concentrate both our energies on one spot and see if we can make a dent. And for the record, you’re going to owe me big time for the massive headache and assorted broken bones I foresee in my immediate future.”
The force of the combined blast sent large chunks of stone spewing from the wall, and revealed the tight cross-hatch of metal strips
woven in concrete beneath. Alec took his first full breath since Tessa disappeared. One tiny chink, one pinhole of penetration was all he needed to touch her mind and make sure she was safe. “Again.”
The second dual blast enlarged the hole. It also widened the fissure above them, raining buckets of dirt and rubble on their heads. An ominous rumble sounded deep within the rock, and the room shook as the crack widened and deepened. His eyes locked on Galen’s and he knew the warrior’s alarmed expression matched the one he must be wearing.
“Alec?” Alec spun in disbelief. There stood Tessa, an amber stone caged in metal dangling from the heavy chain around her slender neck, her brow pleated in a perplexed expression. As his heart kicked him in the ribs, her wide, blue eyes shot toward the ceiling when the earth groaned. The crack expanded, and a fine layer of dust filtered down to powder her bright curls. “Well, that can’t be good.”
“Out!” Galen roared, diving to grab Tessa with one hand and snagging a handful of Alec’s shirt with the other. They dematerialized as the ceiling shuddered and thundered down on top of them, reappearing a heartbeat later in a dusty heap on the floor of the sacristy.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Conscious of the pin-prick shocks racing along his spine confirming their company remained, Alec extricated himself from the tangle of limbs and climbed to his feet. He reached down and grasped Tessa’s outstretched hand, and pulled her up against him. Now, with her safely in his arms, he couldn’t decide whether to kiss her senseless, or kick her sweetly rounded ass.
“Contessa McAllister, if you ever scare me like that again—”
“For the love of…Alec, don’t you think you’re overreacting? It was only a few minutes—”
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