by Sue Wilder
Lexi gestured toward the rock art. “I drew the same animals.”
“It’s a common enough figure.”
Lexi sensed the threat, but it wasn’t until Kace took a step closer that she looked at him closely.
“You were in my mind,” she reminded him. “When Zal told me her name.”
“But I know what your mate can do with memories. I’ve watched him do it.”
Lexi remembered when Arsen told her Christan could erase existing memories and plant whatever reality he wanted for whatever purpose, and she didn’t want that kind of power in her mind. Kace had his finger against her face now, tapping hard against her temple. “You see why I’m not falling to my knees in open trust.”
“Yes,” Lexi agreed truthfully, “but I’ve asked him not to invade my memories even when he offered to remove the dreams.”
“Why would you do that?”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
Kace turned casually toward the Spaniard. “What do you think, Jago?” he asked. “Do you believe her?”
Jago was holding Kat against his side. “It’s too easy.”
Kace gripped Lexi’s arm to restrain her while Jago produced a serrated knife, and with a deft move, ripped Kat’s shirt down from her shoulder. He slid the blade lightly against the girl's skin, then licked at the blood that began to bead along the wound. Katerina's lips were white with self-control. Kace turned his attention back to Lexi.
“You look nervous,” he said.
Jago was licking again and Lexi forced herself not to look away. “Why wouldn’t I be? You’re hurting my friend.”
“Is that what you think I’m doing?”
Kace let the silence spill across the shadowed cave, filled with the dry scents of a dead past until Lexi heard Jago’s laugh, saw his free hand groping Katerina’s breasts while the girl stood rigid.
“Running out of time,” Jago cautioned. The blade was now at Katerina’s throat, the sharp point pressing deeper whenever she moved, and Lexi forced the words through her constricted throat.
“How can I prove my memories are real?”
“Find me something useful, babe.”
“What do you consider useful?”
“Something linked to Zal.”
“What?” Lexi asked, her voice hoarse as she gestured with a hand that trembled. “This is what I remember. Drawings, on a cave wall. That opening, in the ceiling. Zal, sitting there by the large rock while I drew pictures in the sand.”
“Touch the earth, babe. Show me that psychic ability and give me something useful, or it ends for her here.”
Lexi watched Jago’s hard fingers clench around Kat’s jaw, tilting her head back. Saw Kat’s trembling fingers clawing at the warrior’s forearm. Saw the Spaniard’s look of anticipation.
“I’ll find what you want,” Lexi said, trying to reassure a predator ready to attack.
“Then be quick about it. I don’t want to watch her bleed.”
Lexi turned. Behind her, Kat’s jagged breathing increased, signaling Jago’s impatience. But the cave was empty. Other than the sooty remains of an old campfire there was nothing to find.
“Do you think this is your worst nightmare, babe?” Kace asked when Lexi walked around the cave for a third time.
“Give me a minute. I don’t remember on command.”
“You have thirty seconds before Jago slices up your friend.”
Lexi’s heart raced, and she retraced her steps around the perimeter, studying each image on the wall. “It has to be these drawings.”
Kace stepped beside her. His phone was out, and he took photos as he followed her progress. His nearness was a palpable threat.
“There’s more,” he stated as she paused by a large rock. “Keep looking. Touch things.”
“Are you talking to Six?” she asked, guessing the enforcer was speaking to the Calata member telepathically by the change in his voice.
“If I am?”
“What is he looking for specifically?”
“Scrolls.”
His voice had grown more abrupt, no inflection as if Six was issuing the orders, and Lexi knew if Kace probed her mind again, the two of them combined could break the walls she constructed. She was afraid of what they’d find if that happened.
Katerina sucked in another breath, and Lexi spoke without looking in the girl’s direction. “Don’t cut her or I won’t find anything.”
“You’re not in a position to issue orders, babe.”
“Not orders. You keep cutting her and Kat’s terror will interfere with any energy the Grandmother might have left.” Lexi pushed her hands over the rough wall with jerky movements. “I sense her energy here.”
Jago sneered. “What’s she saying?”
Lexi bit back the angry retort. Violent emotions disrupted the residual images pulled from the earth, which was why she often worked alone.
“Does he need to be here?”
“Yes.”
“Then tell him to let her go and stand closer to the cave opening, damp down the excitement. I can’t get through his energy.”
A moment later Jago moved, but he was tugging a resistant Kat with him.
“That better?”
Lexi didn’t respond; she glanced at Kat, but all her attention had to be on the center of the cave if they were going to stop this nightmare. She dropped to her knees and pressed hard against the gritty sand. Energy, ancient and fierce pierced through her palms and Lexi’s gaze drifted. Beyond Kace, in the bright light outside, she noticed a flicker at the edge of the brush.
“He can’t find you in time, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Kace said. “I’ve shielded both you and your friend. Even if they get to the coastline I’ve arranged for a welcoming party to keep them busy.” The long negotiations at the checkpoint, and yet, Christan had been in her mind, telling her to cooperate. Lexi scrubbed her fingers deeper in the sand while scanning the rocks at the entrance of the cave.
“Clock’s ticking,”
The rough warning reminded Lexi of the immediate threat, and she understood the Spaniard well enough to guess what he’d do if she didn’t cooperate. Anger drove her to her feet. Faded paintings covered the cave walls, but Lexi knew the important image was the antelope with the long curving horns, the thin horns and not the fat ones, half-hidden within a crack in the stone as if drinking from the trickle of water that appeared with the rains. It was the fancy of a child’s imagination, but it came to her now and without question Lexi dropped to her knees, dug into soil until her nails bled. Unlike the center of the cave, the sand here was soft and pliant, and she worked her way deeper until she found the earthenware jar. Yes! the jar screamed so loud Lexi thought Kace must have heard it before she stood with the jar tight in her hands.
“That’s just too damn perfect, babe,” Kace said with a bark of laughter. “Look what you can do with the right push.” To make his point, he used a burst of telekinetic power to drive Lexi backwards, then another for intimidation. “Now bring it here.”
Lexi pushed back with telekinetic power of her own. Kace looked surprised but only for a moment.
“What other secrets have you been keeping?” Rocks pelted down, falling from the ceiling in a quick, violent shower. The sand beneath her feet began to tremble, draining away through newly-exposed rock, and Lexi realized she was fighting not just an enforcer but the immortal Calata member who controlled him. Kat looked terrified, and impulsively, Lexi threw the earthen jar toward the cave entrance, hoping it might roll outside.
The jar fell awkwardly, several feet short, shattering open as several tightly-wrapped scrolls spilled free.
“Proof enough for you?” Lexi stood ready, and Kace’s response was so characteristic. She felt his power surge as he bent and retrieved the scrolls. His gaze flicked to Jago and then back to Lexi, his mouth lifting in a cold and meaningless smile.
“Such a pity, babe. We could have had some good times.”
And then Kace disap
peared.
Not in a poof, just vibrated out of sight while power flowed through the cracks in Lexi’s mind like crimson blood. She thought it might be Christan’s power, but she hadn’t sensed him near. Her mind was still wide open to the aggression flowing from Jago as he pressed the knife into Kat’s throat, and justice was such a wild, fierce thing. Lexi couldn’t control it, didn’t want to control the force suddenly filling her body. She burned with it, felt for an instant that wings were unfurling at her back filled with unrestrained power.
Energy burned hot in her hands. She had no finesse, but she had anger along with days filled with fear. Memories of Luca, of Six and the men on the boats and lying sick on the deck with boots kicking at her stomach all added to the momentum as Lexi swung around toward the Spaniard, threw out her hands, watched as kinetic energy threw him backward in a violent few steps against the cave wall.
Jago surged upright. Kat had fallen at his feet, but his face was a mask of fury as he raised his arm and the serrated knife was spinning toward Lexi. She tried to move aside. Failed. As the blade tore into her flesh, more energy exploded from her hands, changing trajectory in mid-flow. Then Jago was flying backward into the sunlight while the rim of the cave was crumbling inward, and it was an avalanche of dirt and noise. Lexi rolled into a ball. Tiny pellets from destroyed rocks beat at her arms. Gritty sand fell from the ceiling. The darkness was suffocating without the touch of fresh air or light, fueling an adrenaline-driven panic.
“Kat! Where are you?”
A moan. Lexi crawled forward and pulled the half-conscious girl into her lap. There was blood on Kat’s forehead but her eyes were open wide. Pebbles and roots continued to drop to the ground until the rising sounds from the battle outside drowned them out.
Lexi recognized those sounds for what they were. An animal screamed.
“What was that?” Kat was shaking, and Lexi’s relief was so intense it hurt.
“That,” she said, “was Christan.”
CHAPTER 23
Lexi sat in the rubble, too exhausted to do anything but watch the others do the work. Darius threw a large boulder out of the way and then Christan was walking into the cave, his energy swirling around him. Dust motes scattered, the electric aura skimming along her skin. Lexi reached out both hands and he dragged her into his arms. As he carried her outside he was murmuring, his voice muffled against her throat, but he didn’t stop, just kept speaking in Italian with that deep soothing voice until she calmed down.
“We’ve been here before,” Lexi said, drawing in a jerky breath. “You, me… Kace in the rocks.”
“You’re killing me here, cara.” He was smoothing the hair from her face, running his hands over her throat, around the back of her head, checking for injuries. “Here I come to rescue you, and you’re already rescuing yourself.”
“It was your plan,” she reminded him, and he told her dryly that the plan hadn’t included collapsing a cave. Lexi tried to laugh as Christan continued his inspection, but the sound choked in her throat when he touched the blood on her arm.
Jago.
Frantic, Lexi twisted to search the sandy ground, but Christan said, “He’s dead, he can’t hurt you anymore.”
“Kace is gone. He took the scrolls.”
“Hush. Let me take care of this wound.”
Lexi scanned the sunny clearing while Christan washed her arm, using warm water from a plastic bottle he pulled from a pack. Kat sat with her back against a tree. Arsen crouched in front of her, wiping the blood from her throat while the girl had her face turned away. “What will happen between those two?” Lexi wondered aloud, and Christan shrugged.
“Who knows? Arsen never expected to find her here.” He found a clean area of Lexi’s shirt and ripped off a long strip, tying it around her arm. “This will have to do until I can get to the medical equipment.”
“Who else is here?” Adrenalin was fading and Lexi’s hands trembled.
“Darius is taking out the trash. Phillipe entertained himself with the local wannabes. The last time he checked in they were running toward Egypt.”
“Oh, god, not another diplomatic incident. One will be pissed.”
“But Three will be pleased.” Christan was studying her face as if he needed to memorize every line. Lexi stared at the cleft in his throat.
“You found me.”
Christan pushed his hand through her hair, lifting the strands away from her face, and she thought, then, that his fingers might have been trembling.
“I found you,” he said. Lexi reached up, tracing the angled cheekbones, remembering how she’d imagined him in her dream state. Now the thud of his pulse, the silky texture of his hair, the rich male scent of his skin that was like wild sunlight spilling free—all of it was a touchstone to her reality, and Lexi indulged the need to run her hands over him as he had done for her, checking for injuries; most had started to heal. She pressed her face against his chest, drawing on the energy thrumming through the amber tattoos with so much raw vitality her memory lines burned.
When she realized men were entering the clearing, Lexi stepped out of Christan’s embrace. Darius approached first, a commanding figure, intense and intelligent. She reached out and hugged him.
“Thank you.”
The words were muffled against his chest. Darius stood with military stiffness before patting the top of her head.
“You’re welcome, Shorty,” he smirked, and then added, “I see you’ve got quite the aim.”
Lexi glanced at the pile of rocks and debris outside the cave. “Maybe I was trying to scare everyone,” she said, and Darius laughed out loud. The sound broke the tension.
“That you did, Lexi, that you did.”
Arsen had risen to his feet, and Lexi walked toward him, studying his tense expression. The evidence of the fierce fight outside the cave was deep in his eyes. The wounds in his arms were no longer bleeding, but he, like Christan, looked virile and strong. She pulled him into a tight hug and pressed her face against his chest.
“Come on, Slick,” he said as he stroked her hair. “You’re not getting sentimental on me, are you?”
“I’m thanking you,” Lexi mumbled against his torn shirt. “So just shut up about it, Bucko, until I’m done.”
“Take as long as you need, or at least until Christan explodes.”
“He’s not going to explode. We have an understanding.” Lexi was still mumbling against Arsen’s chest and he was still stroking her hair. When she stepped back a minute later, she saw Kat watching before looking away. “You need an understanding, too,” she said.
“Not gonna happen,” Arsen answered as he turned his head and stared off into the distance. Lexi wasn’t sure if he was sensing the environment or avoiding the discussion, but let it go and looked around for Phillipe. The tall immortal was standing beneath a shaded tree. Lexi reached out to him telepathically.
“Phillipe.”
He nodded once in acknowledgment; she understood his difficulty with emotion.
“I want to hug you.”
Phillipe hesitated, then power that was uniquely his surrounded Lexi with tenderness and reserve.
“Is that the best you can do?” she teased gently. “I can’t express my gratitude in words.”
It took him a moment, but then Phillipe approached and touched the small bruise on her face, his silver eyes like mercury. Lexi wrapped her arms around his stiff back, pressed her palms to urge him close. When he finally responded, his embrace mirrored hers, his arms sliding around her shoulders.
Lexi looked into his ascetic face. “Thank you. You saved my life many times.”
“You did that for yourself. I was not there.”
“You were. Here.” Lexi pressed her fingers against her forehead. “And here,” she said, moving her palm down to her heart. “Everything you taught me.”
“We’ll work on your control,” the immortal replied with complete seriousness, but she saw the humor in his eyes.
“I’ll
look forward to you yelling focus at me twenty times.” Lexi stepped back. There was one other thing she needed to do. She turned toward the cave.
The enforcer stood in her way.
“Where are you going?” Christan asked casually.
“Inside.”
“It’s not safe.”
Lexi moved aside the tangled brush. “There’s something I need to see.”
Christan dipped his head. Both he and Phillipe followed as she dodged piles of loose rock. Lexi halted in the middle of the half-crumbled cavern.
“Zal told me this was a special place, that it had magic only for me.”
“Zal?” Phillipe repeated.
“I touched the earth and saw her. She told me her name. Zal was the Grandmother who told Gaia the stories. She brought me here.” Lexi gestured to the rock drawings on the walls. “She insisted I learn to draw these images and said they were important, that I should never show them to anyone. I drew something else, too, but I don’t see it here.”
“What was it?” Christan asked, his hands settling on his hips.
“A map with marks that looked like mountains, and a river or stream. She never told me what it was, or if she did I haven’t remembered yet.” She paused. “Kace made me draw that map for him, too.”
Lexi walked over to the disturbed sand and inspected the impression from the storage jar, the evidence of frantic digging. She looked at the red painting of the antelope, bending as if to drink. Within seconds the memories surrounded her, warm and comforting, but Lexi didn’t fall into the usual altered state where she pressed her hands into the ground. It was more of an invited conversation.
“I was here many times. Zal is telling me the scrolls hold—I think the word she is using is curiosities. She says not to worry, that her enemy has stolen nothing of value because he did not take the jar. I’m not sure what that means.”
Christan was across the cave. One knee was pressed into the sand as he studied the broken shards. “There are markings on the inner curve of these pieces.”
Phillipe had joined him. “Zal had the ability to create pottery where the decoration was hidden on the inside,” the academic agreed. “Those are deliberate marks.”