Heart of Stone

by Debra Mullins

  The woman behind him grabbed the handles of the chair. He broke the searing eye contact and glanced over his shoulder, his expression softening. “That’s okay, Lupe. I’ve got it.”

  “Are you sure, Mr. Darius? I can push you.”

  “No, that’s fine.” Darius tossed Faith one more hard look before, with an expert spin, he turned the chair and wheeled himself up the ramp and into the house.

  Lupe sighed before turning to them. “So stubborn, that one. Please, come inside. Mr. and Mrs. Montana are waiting.”

  “Faith, this is Lupe,” Adrian said. “She keeps this place running with rather terrifying precision.”

  Lupe shook her head, a smile flirting across her lips. “And this one with his silver tongue. I’m the Montanas’ housekeeper. If there’s anything you need during your stay with us, just let me know.”

  “Thank you,” Faith said.

  “Come on, Faith,” Adrian said, following Lupe to the front steps. “Let me introduce you to your hosts.”

  * * *

  Pity.

  Darius wheeled down the hall with skillful speed, his jaw clenched, his throat tight. He’d seen it on Faith’s face, felt it through his empathic link. One glance at the blasted chair and she got all gooey with sympathy, just like every other woman he’d met since the accident. Well, he wasn’t a charity case. Just a couple of hours ago, he’d held his own against a crazy lightning girl and a Warrior. He’d saved their butts and gotten Faith away from the Mendukati.

  Funny how she forgot that as soon as she saw the damned wheelchair.

  He sped across the spacious kitchen and stopped at the sliding glass doors. He lifted a hand to the door latch, then left it there, resting his forehead against the cool glass. He hated that it hurt him, how she saw him. How any woman saw him.

  Poor Darius. He was so big and strong … once.

  He sucked in a shaky breath. It caught on the knot of emotion clogging his throat, bursting out in a harsh hiss. The sound echoed through the empty kitchen, bouncing back at him. He sat up with a jerk. Stared at his reflection in the pane of glass and the black night outside. And forced the unwanted despair back to its shadowy corner.

  This was a temporary situation. He’d overtaxed himself, and even with the short-term pick-me-up of the amazonite, he needed several hours of therapy and meditation at minimum to get back on his feet. He knew what to do, had spent years learning the art of healing himself. He’d walked out of that chair once and, damn it, he’d do it again.

  Opening the sliding door, he wheeled out onto the patio and headed toward the cabana by the pool.

  * * *

  Faith walked into the foyer of the house just as Darius disappeared down the hallway. She frowned after him.

  “Don’t worry about Mr. Darius,” Lupe said, smiling at Faith. “He has his moods, but he’ll be fine in a little while.”

  Before Faith could answer, footsteps from the opposite hall claimed her attention, and a man and woman entered the foyer. They looked to be in their fifties or early sixties, as evidenced by the silver sprinkling the man’s black hair and the crinkles around his brown eyes. The woman had strands of silver in her dark hair as well, but that seemed to be the only indication of her age. She glanced at Faith with wariness in her stunning blue eyes—the same color as Darius’s—and clung to the man’s hand a bit more tightly than Faith would have expected. But when the woman looked at Adrian, the suspicion disappeared.

  “Adrian, you’re back!” She let go of the other man’s hand and embraced the Warrior. “Tell me you’re staying.”

  “Not this time.” Adrian returned the woman’s hug, then stepped back and held out his hand to the other man. “John.”

  “Adrian.” They shook. “I’ve made some more modifications to the estate’s security systems,” John said. “I’d like you to test them when you have time.”

  “Definitely.” Adrian turned to Faith. “Allow me to introduce Faith Karaluros. She’s the Stone Singer. Faith, this is Maria and John Montana, Darius’s parents.”

  “Hello.” Faith held out her hand. Maria hesitated only a moment before shaking it.

  “Welcome,” she said, and stepped back.

  John reached out to shake hands, staring her down with an assessing gaze that made her think of a cop sizing up a suspect. “Thanks for coming,” he said. “I hear you can tell us something about this stone.”

  She shrugged, fighting the urge to shove her hands in her pockets. “That’s the hope.”

  “If you’ll excuse me,” Lupe said, “I’m going to get dinner started now that everyone is here.”

  “Thank you, Lupe,” Maria said. The housekeeper left the foyer.

  “Speaking of which, where is everyone else?” Adrian asked.

  Maria’s lips curved in a knowing smile. “You mean Tessa?”

  “I mean Rafe.”

  Maria laughed. “If you say so. He and Cara are on their way down.” The mirth faded from her expression as she addressed Faith. “Rafe is my other son, and Cara is his fiancée.”

  “Congratulations.” Faith searched for something else to say. “When’s the wedding?”

  This time genuine amusement lit Maria’s eyes. “Well, that’s the question, isn’t it?”

  “They haven’t set a date yet,” John said.

  “Rafe insists on completing his Soul Circle before the wedding,” Maria said. “If you can’t stay today, Adrian, you must come back for that.” She wagged her finger. “I insist.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  “What’s a Soul Circle?” Faith asked.

  Maria and John exchanged a long look.

  “It’s a coming-of-age ceremony for Seers,” Adrian offered. John sent him a sharp glare.

  Faith nodded, uncertain what else to say. She could tell from the way the Montanas were acting that they were uncomfortable in her presence. She sent a thought to Adrian. Why are they acting so strange?

  Maria’s family was hunted by the Mendukati for generations, came the reply.

  They know I was with the Mendukati while I was married to Michael, don’t they?

  Yes.

  The simple answer explained everything. No wonder the Montanas watched her as though she might steal the silver. As far as they were concerned, she was a nightmare come to life, staying in their house, in their lives. All things considered, Maria was treating her with more class than Faith might, were their positions reversed.

  “I was with the Mendukati for just over a year,” she found herself saying. “But I left. I didn’t like what they were doing.”

  She could tell she’d surprised them. John and Maria exchanged another glance.

  “You say that now,” came a new voice. A slender, blond woman clad in a white blouse and jeans emerged from the hallway where Darius had disappeared. “But how do we know you’re telling the truth?”

  “Tessa!” Maria gave Faith a tight smile. “Please forgive my daughter, Ms. Karaluros.”

  “Faith,” Faith corrected.

  “I’m just saying what everyone else is thinking.” Tessa came to stand beside her mother, folding her arms. “What did you do to my brother?”

  “Tessa, please,” John said. “This situation is hard enough as it is.”

  “Oh, come on, Dad. Dar can barely move. He’s in the chair again. He was fine when he left here.” Tessa moved closer to Faith, her striking violet eyes fierce. “What did you do to him?”

  “It was the Mendukati,” Adrian said. “I was there. They tried to take Faith.”

  Tessa swung to face him, chin raised. “How do you know she didn’t want to go?”

  “She had no idea we were coming,” Adrian said. “I don’t consider Faith a threat and neither should you.”

  “She did something to Darius.”

  “I did not.” Faith came forward, her own temper sparking. “Your brother helped me escape some agents who were sent to bring me back to the Mendukati, willing or not. I didn’t ask him for help. In fact, once I
realized he was a Seer, I begged him to leave. I didn’t want them getting hold of him.”

  “So you say,” Tessa sneered.

  “So I say,” Faith agreed. “Your stubborn brother wouldn’t leave, and he took on a lightning thrower and a Warrior until Adrian got there.”

  “A lightning thrower? Come on.” Tessa rolled her eyes.

  “Yes, a lightning thrower,” Adrian said. “A very dangerous type of Channeler.”

  “You’re serious?” Tessa’s perfect brow wrinkled as she looked from Adrian to Faith and back again.

  “Very.” Adrian tugged a lock of her hair. “Remember, you don’t know much about the Atlantean world, princess.”

  She shoved his hand away. “Darius had no business getting into a fight in his condition.”

  “I got there as soon as I could,” Adrian said. “You can’t protect him forever. He’s a grown man.”

  “Then he should know better!”

  “Tessa,” Maria warned. “Enough.”

  Footsteps sounded on the stairs. “That’s Rafe and Cara,” Tessa said, and turned away, hugging her arms tightly against herself.

  Faith watched a dark-haired man and a fair-haired woman descend the staircase, holding hands.

  “Sorry we’re late!” the woman called. She wore her long, caramel-colored hair in a curly ponytail that bounced as she walked. “Rafe was practicing for the Soul Circle.”

  The couple reached the bottom of the steps and approached the group. As Rafe came closer, the tattoos on Faith’s hands began to heat. A stone was nearby, a powerful one. But the song whispering in her mind sounded off-key, disharmonious. She glanced around the foyer but saw no stones in evidence.

  “Well, well,” Rafe said, extending a hand. “Adrian Gray. You bring my brother home in one piece?”

  Adrian shook. “Mostly.”

  “Not mostly,” Tessa said, coming back to the conversation. “He’s in his chair again.”

  Rafe frowned. “What the hell did you do, Gray?”

  “Not me, the Mendukati.”

  “And her.” Tessa jerked her chin toward Faith.

  All gazes turned to her, and Faith froze as if she had been shoved on stage naked and ordered to sing. Rafe narrowed his eyes, the same gorgeous blue eyes shared by his mother and brother. “So you would be the Stone Singer?”

  “Yes.” She gathered her courage and extended her hand. “Faith Karaluros. I’m afraid we had an encounter with the Mendukati, and Darius took the brunt of it.”

  “Did he now?” Rafe shook her hand. “What happened?”

  “Your fool brother took on a lightning thrower and a Warrior by himself,” Adrian said. “Messed himself up, so he’s back in the chair for the moment.”

  “He’s holed up in his cabana with his healing stones,” Tessa said. “Won’t talk to anybody.”

  Rafe snickered. “You mean he won’t talk to you.”

  “By the time I showed up,” Adrian said, “he’d neutralized the lightning thrower and was keeping the Warrior busy until I could get there.”

  “He did all that, even with a bum knee and a cane?” Rafe grinned. “Way to go, big bro.”

  “I told him to leave,” Faith said. “He wouldn’t go.”

  “I bet not.” Rafe’s shoulders shook as he chuckled. Faith caught the glint of a chain around his neck, beneath his shirt. A pendant of some sort? Maybe with a stone in it?

  She longed to ask, but didn’t dare. They were already suspicious enough without her probing them about stones of power.

  “Oh, for pity’s sake.” The woman with the ponytail shoved Rafe back a step with a palm to his solar plexus and extended a hand to Faith. “Hi, I’m Cara McGaffigan. I’m engaged to Chuckles over here.” She scowled at Rafe. “Your brother being hurt is not a laughing matter.”

  Rafe rubbed his gut where she’d pushed him. “I’m laughing at Tess, not because Dar was hurt.”

  “You think he’ll be all right?” Faith asked, trying to focus on the conversation and not the persistent cry of the stone. “I’d hate it if he was permanently injured because of me.”

  “Thank you for your concern,” Maria said, “but we’ll take care of him.”

  Cara smiled at her. “You look beat. Did you want a few minutes to freshen up before dinner?”

  “Oh, my, yes.” Faith winced. “But I didn’t bring anything with me. These guys pretty much packed me on the plane with the clothes on my back.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me.” Cara glared at Adrian.

  He held up his hands. “Hey, the bad guys were out for blood. We had to get out of town, fast.”

  “I have something you can borrow for tonight,” Cara said. “Tomorrow we can go shopping for some clothes.”

  “Hold on a minute,” Rafe said. “If the Mendukati are after her, you can’t just jet off to the mall like nothing’s wrong.”

  Cara whirled on her fiancé. “And what do you suggest we do? The woman can’t go around naked.” She pointed a finger. “And don’t even think about making any kind of smart crack, pal.”

  Rafe came closer to catch her hand in his, opened her fingers, and dropped a kiss on her palm. “Yes, dear.” Cara’s face softened for a moment. Rafe pressed her fingers closed. “You hold on to that,” he murmured.

  His proximity to Faith left no doubt; Rafe had the discordant stone somewhere on his person.

  Maria stepped forward. “Why don’t I show you to your room, Faith?”

  “I’ll do it.” Cara stepped away from Rafe with only a hint of reluctance and smiled at Faith. “I know what it’s like to be the new kid around here.”

  Something that might have been relief swept across Maria’s face. “Thank you, Cara.”

  “Come on, Faith.” Cara swept her hand in a “follow me” gesture. “You’re upstairs.”

  Faith turned to Adrian. “I want to thank you for your help today. And to ask you … well, please keep Ben safe. I’m scared for him.”

  He nodded. “Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of him.”

  She exhaled with relief. “Thank you.”

  “Who’s Ben?” Tessa demanded. “Boyfriend?”

  Faith narrowed her eyes at Darius’s sister. “Family.” Turning her back on the rude young woman, she followed Cara upstairs.

  “What’d I say?” she heard Tessa grumble from below.

  “Too much,” Rafe replied. “As usual.”

  Cara said nothing until she and Faith reached the top of the curving staircase, and she led Faith down a hallway. “Don’t mind Tessa,” she said over her shoulder. “She’s very protective of Darius.”

  “I got that.”

  “I’m fairly new here myself, but from what I’ve seen and what Rafe has told me, Tessa took it hard when Darius got injured. Apparently she idolized him.” She stopped in front of a door halfway down the hall. “This is your room. It has its own bathroom. All the bedrooms in this palace have their own bathrooms.” She opened the door and waved Faith in.

  The bedroom, expertly decorated in desert tones of sage green, sandy beige, and dusky rose, boasted a queen-size bed and what promised to be a spectacular daytime view of the red rock formations of Sedona through the panoramic windows. Sturdy wooden doors to the left indicated closets, and Cara turned the knob to open a smaller door on the right, flipping on a light.

  “Bathroom just has a shower, no tub, but it’s big enough for a family of five.” She shook her head. “The Montanas sure like to be comfortable.”

  “It’s a lovely room.” Faith set her purse on top of a low dresser. “Do you mind if I ask you something?”

  “If I can answer.”

  “I’m sorry,” Faith hurried to say. “I understand if they told you not to tell me too much—”

  “No, no! That’s not it.” Cara gave a little laugh. “What I meant is, I’m new here myself, not just to this house but to the West in general. I’m from New Jersey and just moved out here permanently a couple of weeks ago. Still getting acclimated, so I m
ay not know the answer to your question, that’s all.”

  “Oh.” Faith rubbed her forehead. “Maybe I’m just hypersensitive. Adrian told me the Montanas were hunted by the Mendukati for generations, and I was a member of that group for a short time. I just assumed they don’t trust me much because of that.”

  “That’s probably true,” Cara said. “From what I understand, some members of Maria’s family were killed by the Mendukati, including her mother. I can’t imagine it’s easy for her, having you here.”

  Faith’s stomach clenched. “I had no idea. I lost my mother when I was nine. You never quite get over it.”

  “I lost mine in a car accident when I was in college,” Cara said. “And I agree. It stays with you, no matter how much time passes.”

  “No wonder she doesn’t want me here.”

  “She’s cautious,” Cara corrected. “She’s spent the past thirty-something years protecting her family from the Mendukati. You can’t blame her for being concerned now that a former member of the Mendukati is staying in their house.”

  “No, I can’t.” Faith sighed. “I wish there was someone else, but I’m the only Stone Singer alive right now. If they really do have one of the Stones of Ekhia—”

  “Oh, they do.” Cara’s friendly face settled into sober lines. “Jain Criten himself came after it. Held me hostage and threatened to kill my stepbrother unless I gave him whatever artifacts from Atlantis the Montanas have.”

  A different slant to the story Corinne had told her. “Since I’m here, I assume he didn’t get the stone.”

  “Oh, he got it. My brother had it—long story—and even though Criten got his hands on the stone, he couldn’t resist coming after the Montanas. That’s what did him in.”

  Faith frowned. “Did him in? What are you talking about? I thought Jain Criten is still alive.”

  “Yeah, he’s alive. But he left here on a stretcher with a fractured neck. He won’t be getting around under his own power for a while.”

  The news sent Faith reeling. Darius had mentioned an ambulance. And she remembered Corinne telling her Criten had been ambushed by Seers. More like driven back by Seers defending their home. And wounded? It didn’t surprise her that Criten had hidden that little weakness from his Mendukati soldiers. If he was unable to walk or fight … “That’s why he sent Azotay,” she murmured to herself.