Shelly laughed and suddenly felt giddy. She welcomed anything positive to strike a balance against the attack that occurred hours earlier. Her heart felt wide-open toward Colt. His eyes danced with happiness as he guided her into the Portobello Market and Fresh Bakery. The outdoor patio sported redwood siding with iron chairs and round tables covered with white linen. “Why not? Life’s short.” Shelly knew this was the only restaurant open at this hour. A waiter took them to a table at one end of the sidewalk. Parallel to the outdoor dining area was a large garden bed filled with fragrant pink roses. To Shelly’s delight, they were placed next to the gorgeous plants. The menu was deli style and casual. There were selections of freshly baked doughnuts, pastries, soups, sandwiches, pastas and pizzas.
The patio portion of the restaurant wasn’t very busy at this time of day. Inside, there were plenty of comfortable couches along with a specialty coffee bar. Today, she’d rather be outside in the fresh mountain air. Shelly ordered a mocha latte and Colt had dessert along with a cup of rich Colombian coffee. Shelly sat opposite him at the table. “Do you think we should go to Moraine Lake tomorrow morning? It’s sort of late to try it today.”
Nodding, Colt pulled the map out of his pack and opened it. “I’m exhausted from the attack, along with that hike. I want a night to sleep and recharge. We’re going to have to be alert for our hike at Moraine Lake.” He opened the topo and eased it over to where Shelly sat. “We can drive right up to the lodge. It sits on the shore of the lake.”
Shelly studied the map. “Sounds like a plan to me. These lakes are so quiet and smooth that it’s easy to canoe around on them.”
“We should pack a lunch and dinner for tomorrow. No telling how long this will take.” Colt had to continue to ignore how Shelly affected him emotionally and physically. She looked exhausted. The attack had taken a lot out of both of them. He realized it but he didn’t think she did.
The waitress brought their coffee and Colt’s pie. He quickly folded up the map and put it away. Shelly grinned as he dug into the dessert. In many ways, he was like a little boy. There was no effort on his part to hide his joy over the pie. Shelly appreciated that he showed her the real man beneath the protective walls.
“It’s great to see you enjoying that apple pie,” she teased, sipping her mocha latte. If she ate dessert now, it would ruin her dinner. They had a reservation for 6:00 p.m. at the restaurant.
Wiping his mouth with a white linen napkin, Colt said, “We didn’t get many sweets as kids. That was probably good. I’m not overweight and I ate good food off the land instead.” He patted his flat stomach. “Now, I can pick and choose.”
Shelly nodded. Looking around, she saw two men saunter down the sidewalk to the open-air café. Immediately, her warning bells went off, and her heart raced for no reason. As she watched them, her skin started to crawl. “Colt? See those two men? They’re twins. I’m getting a danger signal from them. What do you pick up?” She opened herself up to see their auras. They sat down at the opposite end of the café. Moving her gaze back to him, she added, “I see some dirty colors in their astral fields. What do you feel?”
Having finished dessert, Colt looked across the wide room. The male twins were studying their menus before a waitress took their order. As tired as he was, Colt forced himself to move into his altered state so he could see through his third eye. “Yes, I see what you mean,” he said. Why hadn’t he picked up on them? Colt knew why: it was the residual loss of energy after the attack by the Skin Walker. Right now, he was vulnerable—and so was Shelly.
“Are you feeling as threatened as I am?” she asked in a low tone.
“Yes,” he said, unhappy. “Do you notice that their auras are very similar to Trip Nelson’s aura, the one I think is the sorcerer in your dream?”
Her eyes went wide and she whispered, “Are there three new sorcerers after us?”
With a grimace, Colt muttered, “Very possible.” Three, not one. Instantly, Colt drew upon his last reserves and placed a bubble of protection around them. He’d pay for it tonight, but right now he was feeling frantic over this new bombshell. Three!
Shelly saw Colt pick up his pack and stand. She did the same. Walking to the door which would lead them into the lobby, Shelly shivered. The twins, both young men with red hair and green eyes, followed them with their gaze as they left the patio. Shelly was glad Colt didn’t walk by them. As if nothing menacing was happening, the atmosphere in the restaurant was inviting and people sat on the couches enjoying their coffee.
Once inside the lobby, Shelly stuck close to Colt. Just being near him made her feel a lot more secure than the situation warranted. She glanced up at the round chandelier that hung over the area. They moved through the busy lobby.
Shelly stole a quick look around. The twins had not followed them. Good.
Colt slipped his hand around her elbow and guided her toward the bank of elevators. He was alert. The hair on the back of his neck still stood up, and his heart slammed into his chest. There, sitting in the lobby, was Trip Nelson. He watched them like a coyote watching a herd of sheep. Stomach knotted, adrenaline suddenly pouring into his bloodstream, Colt reinforced the protection around them. The look in Nelson’s eyes was flat and dead. It sent a powerful chill up his spine.
Mouth tightening, Colt placed Shelly on the other side of him.
“What?”
“Nelson’s here, too,” he warned her in a hushed tone. They slipped around the corner. An elevator was open and he guided Shelly into it.
“All three of them are here?” Shelly’s voice rose in fear. Suddenly, she felt chilled to the bone. Mouth dry, a lump forming in her throat, Shelly wanted to scream. She wanted to run away from the evil that multiplied around them.
The doors shut and they moved to their floor. Colt kept his hand around her elbow and she had pressed up against him. He felt her terror. “I’d bet everything that Nelson is possessed by the sorcerer in your dream. And the twins are possessed by some of his assistants. Sorcerers can and do work together with one another when there’s reason to.”
“Oh, no…” Shelly uttered, her knees feeling wobbly. All she wanted to do right now was run away. “Why are they all here, Colt? This is crazy!”
The doors opened. Colt led her down the thickly carpeted hall to the door of his room. He slid the card in and opened the door. “Come on in for a while,” he told her. Right now, Shelly was shaken to her core. Her idealist’s world filled with good had just been shattered. Colt needed to try to figure out what was going on.
After shutting the door, Colt placed his pack in the closet and sat down on an overstuffed couch. He replaced his hiking boots with a pair of running shoes. “Have a seat,” he invited.
Shelly’s eyes were round with fright, and she glanced at the door. “Do you think they’ll try to come up here after us?”
“I doubt it. Remember, Shelly, they want something from us. I’ve been trying to figure it all out. Otherwise, why would they have waited this long to hit us? Somehow, they know about the emerald sphere. Did they intercept our dreams? Maybe Yellow Teeth intercepted mine because a Skin Walker can do that. And that’s the assumption I’m going on. That emerald is a lot more important than we realize. But do they know what the value of it is? That’s the only logic I can find to explain why they trail but don’t attack us.”
Sitting down next to him on the couch, arms wrapped around her torso, Shelly muttered, “I’ve been beating my head for answers on this, too. I think you’re right, Colt.” She tucked her lower lip between her teeth and tried to fight her trepidation. She would be no help to Colt in an attack if she was not focused.
Finishing the knot on his second running shoe, Colt saw how upset Shelly had become. He broke his own rule and slid his arm around her shoulders and said, “Come here…”
Shelly sighed as Colt brought her into his arms. She rested her cheek against his shoulder and eased her arm around his narrow waist. “I’m shook up because we have three sorcer
ers stalking us,” she whispered unsteadily. “Actually four of them. Yellow Teeth is part of this. I’m not used to cat-and-mouse games with sorcerers. I’m sorry I’m so shaken up, Colt. You were right—not knowing about evil and how to deal with it does put me at a disadvantage.”
She fitted beautifully against him. Colt closed his eyes and hungrily absorbed her softness and curves. Her hair tickled his chin and he inhaled her spicy sweetness. When her arm wound across his waist, a yearning grew deep within Colt’s lower body. “Right now we need to stay alert,” he told her, his voice rough and oddly off-key. “We can’t afford to be thinking about anything else.” He said the words but didn’t want to mean them.
Shelly rested her cheek against his chest, felt the stretch of fabric beneath. Leaning against Colt seemed like the most right thing in the world. She heard the slow thud of his heart and felt the monitored strength of his arms around her. “I guess I’m afraid to die,” she admitted, closing her eyes, “It’s one thing to have a dream warn me about a deadly sorcerer. And quite another to see the threat come to life.”
“Right,” Colt breathed. Oh, how he wanted to kiss Shelly! And yet, he knew it would be the stupidest thing in the world to do right now. It entered his mind that these other sorcerers might try to kidnap them. Or one of them. Was he picking up telepathically on their thoughts? But why would they do such a thing? Colt had never heard of a sorcerer ever kidnapping anyone. He sat there with the woman he’d come to love. Under any other circumstances, he’d lean down and press small, light kisses across her hair, her soft, fragrant skin and find those lips that reminded him of a flower in bloom. But not now.
“What do you think we should do?” she asked in a quiet voice. Sensing that Colt was distracted, Shelly waited.
“I don’t know—yet.” Colt didn’t want to lie to Shelly, but he also didn’t want to further alarm her if his imagination was making up a kidnapping plot. Sometimes it was hard to tell what was real telepathy versus his own imagination. Colt wasn’t very good at telepathy, although he could do it from time to time. Shelly wasn’t a telepath, so she couldn’t confirm or deny what he had picked up on. Frustrated, Colt lifted his hand and smoothed several strands of her copper hair. “We know these three have the same signature in their aura.”
“So the twins might be possessed by other sorcerers who are working with the sorcerer in Trip Nelson’s body?”
“More than likely, that would be my best guess,” Colt muttered, brows drawing downward. “Nelson feels like the one in charge to me.”
Shelly snuggled more deeply into his arms. “I’m so glad you’re here, Colt. You have really good powers of observation and training. I hunt for vortexes, that’s all.” Just feeling his arms contract for a moment and give her an embrace made some of her fear disperse. As much as Shelly wanted to sit up, frame Colt’s face and kiss him until they melted hotly into one another, she knew it wouldn’t be a good move. Her lower body ached for him and his exploring touch. No man had ever made her feel this way. The keening deep in her body was a newfound hunger she’d never known existed until now. What would it be like to love Colt completely? Blinking, Shelly grimly resolved to put her selfish desires aside. They were being stalked now. Their lives were at stake and she knew it.
“I think we need to change the game,” Colt said. When she looked up at him, her lips so close to his, he inwardly groaned. “We need to get out of here. There is a lodge over at Moraine Lake. It’s a good place to go since it will be our next place to search for those boulders and vortex.”
Sitting up, Shelly said, “That’s a great idea.” Giving him an admiring look, she lifted her hand and grazed his cheek. She could feel the stubble beneath her fingertips and it excited her. “My cell phone is in my day pack.”
“Get it,” he said. “I’ll cancel our reservation here after we get over to the new lodge. We’ll pack up and go down the exit stairs. That way, no one at the front desk will know we’re gone and the rooms will still be in our names. We’ll go to the parking lot, get our car and take off. Call over to the Moraine Lake Lodge and get rooms for us, make up some different names for us so we can’t be tracked that way. And pay for the rooms in cash. That way, your credit card can’t be found.”
Nodding, Shelly got up and went to her pack. “Will they know we’re going?”
He shook his head. “No, it’s impossible. I have us completely shielded in a bubble of protection. They can’t pick up on us in any way, shape or form.”
“Good.” She grabbed the cell phone and walked into the bedroom to make the call. Just having an escape plan abated some of her fear.
Colt started packing his suitcase. Moments later, Shelly emerged from his bedroom. “Did you get the new reservation?” he asked.
“Yes. I reserved a room for us.”
Colt felt a ribbon of triumph because they were going to leave the sorcerers behind. “I’ll keep up the protection so they’ll think we’re still here.” Never mind how the exhaustion was eating at the corners of his energy. Right now, Colt knew his will was making the difference. He was damned if a group of sorcerers would take them down.
Putting the cell phone away, Shelly sighed with relief. “I lied and changed our names. We’re now Susan and Paul Hornsby.”
“Good. That way the sorcerers won’t find us by our real names.” He kept mum about the fact that some highly skilled sorcerers could pick up a person’s energy trail and follow it. Time would tell how skilled these sorcerers were. He would wipe out their trail energetically to ensure they couldn’t follow them. Grimly, he added, “Tomorrow morning we’ll start off at dawn and slip down to the canoe rental and be off before we can be identified by anyone.”
“Do you think they know where we’ll be searching next?”
“I don’t know. They’ve been able to follow us easily because we’re here under our real names and with my passport. That’s going to change now.”
“I’m glad,” Shelly said, relief in her voice as she hoisted the pack onto her right shoulder.
“Sorcerers vary in their experience and abilities,” Colt told her, walking her to the door. He was going to escort her down to her room and help her pack. At this point, he didn’t want Shelly out of his sight. “We don’t know the extent of their skills.” He opened the door a crack and then peeked out. The hall was empty. Taking her hand, Colt led her out into the hall and swiftly walked down to her room.
Shelly quickly packed, Colt hoisted the black piece of luggage to his room and she followed with her day pack on her back. There was a sense of urgency. She shut the door and followed Colt into his bedroom. “I’m feeling really unsettled, Colt. It’s as if they’re waiting for us or are going to spring a trap on us.”
“I know,” he said, making sure he had left nothing in the room that could be a clue. “The sooner we get out of here, the better.”
“NOW!” VICTOR GROWLED at his men. The three of them dashed out of the elevator to the floor where they knew the Taqe were staying. No one was in the hall as they moved swiftly toward the first door. Victor had gotten cards for both rooms by hypnotizing a clerk and making her create them.
After sliding the card into Shelly’s room door, Victor burst in. The twins would hit Colt’s room down the hall. Once inside, he halted. It was empty! Moving quickly, Victor scanned the bedroom. Nothing! He quickly checked every corner, including the bathroom. The female Taqe’s energy was not present! Breathing hard, Victor went to the closet and slid it open. There were no clothes. Turning, he moved over to the dresser. He opened all of the drawers—also empty.
“What is going on here?” he snarled. Turning on his heel, he raced out of the room. As he jerked open the door and stepped out into the hall, he saw Lothar and Jeff standing outside Colt’s room. The look on their faces was one of surprise. Hurrying down the hall, he asked, “Why are you out here?”
Lothar said, “My lord, he’s gone. We checked everywhere. No sign of luggage, clothes or him.”
“S
ame here,” Victor said, unhappy. Looking up and down the hall, he kept his voice low. “They must have known of our plan. Somehow they picked up on it!”
“Kidnapping the girl was a good idea,” Lothar said. “We were shielded. How could they have picked up on our thoughts?”
Rubbing his chin, Victor said, “I have no idea. But they know who we are now. I saw that earlier. The auras on these three we’ve possessed look the same. Black must have put it together. He realizes we’re sorcerers and have possessed these three bodies.”
“They’re smarter than I thought,” Jeff murmured. “Because I know I’ve shielded my thoughts from them. And neither of them are telepaths according to their aura signatures.”
Hands on his hips, Victor felt rage. “Who could have tipped them off, then? Is there a third person to their party who is a telepath?”
Groaning, Lothar said, “My lord, we always assumed they’d only put out two people on a mission.”
“I know, I know!” Victor paced the hall, the anger consuming him. “They’ve outwitted us.” Victor refused to give voice to an even worse thought: that the male Warrior for the Light had extraordinary telepathic abilities, good enough to pick up on what they were planning even though they were fully shielded. That was not a good sign. Black was far more dangerous than Victor wanted to admit.
Jeff traded looks with Lothar. He was about to speak, but Lothar gave him a warning shake of his head. Being a knight, Lothar knew Guerra much better than Jeff did. He remained silent as the Dark Lord paced angrily up and down in front of them.
Finally, as Victor slowed his pacing, Lothar spoke. “My lord, they are gone. I was thinking about where they might be now.”
Jerking his head up, Victor glared at Lothar. “Pray tell, where do you think they’ve gone?”
“I was talking to the waiter earlier, after the Taqe left the restaurant. He overheard them talking about Moraine Lake.”
The Adversary Page 13