“How do you know? His wife survived it,” one of Nosizwe’s lieutenants spoke up.
“Because she was with him. She’s bonded to him,” rebutted one of Sean’s people.
“We’re not bonded,” Carter scoffed, but Sean had a thoughtful expression on his face.
“In a way, you are,” he said. “I ordered you to defend her. You’ve done so from the start. It’s your nature to defend those you’re commanded to defend.”
“That’s not a bond like...”
“It’s a type of a bond. A very unique bond.”
Sean was rubbing his bearded chin with a finger, thinking. Carter sensed a shift in his mental processes, one that made him slightly uneasy, although he covered it.
“What are you thinking, Sean?” Nosizwe must have sensed the shift too. She edged closer, betraying her eagerness to get something started. To move on from the talks and pursue a course of action.
“What if…” Sean began. Stopped. Cut his eyes to Carter. Hesitated, then said aloud, his gaze on his head of security. “What if the rest of the Stones are there, in the other world, the other dimension? What if to access the full power of the Stones we have to have all of them?”
“Go on,” his enemy urged.
Sean wasn’t looking at her, he was looking directly at Carter, almost like he was pleading with him to understand what he was about to do.
“Would you be willing to help?” he asked. “Would you be willing to take us there?”
“Take…who?” Carter inquired cautiously. He really didn’t like the direction this was heading. It wasn’t supposed to go this way.
“Perhaps…” Sean took a breath, as if steeling himself to say her name. “Nosizwe and myself.”
All sorts of excited exclamations and murmurings from both sides. No one could believe what had been voiced aloud. Carter couldn’t believe it. Nosizwe kept her cool, but despite the imperfect lighting Carter could see her calculating expression. Her mind was spinning as to how she could use this to her advantage.
“Sean, are you sure—” Carter stopped. “Can we talk about this?”
Sean didn’t step away as Carter had hoped. Instead, he placed a hand on Carter’s shoulder.
“Trust me, son.”
Son. Sean hadn’t called him that in a very long time. Not since Carter had first arrived at his home, all those years ago, a scared and lonely kid. Back then, Sean had put his hand on his shoulder and said the exact same words: “Trust me, son.” Carter had, and had been well-rewarded for that trust. This was the same Sean, the same person making the same request. He could trust him the same way now, right?
Ellie’s warnings clattered in his ears, a clanging counterpoint to the theme of confidence he usually had in his mentor. But what did Ellie know? She was human. This wasn’t her world. These weren’t her people.
Carter didn’t verbalize anything, but he nodded. Sean’s hand fell away. As if his plan was now fixed in his mind, he stepped forward, towards his longtime rival, speaking faster and with greater energy.
“Here’s what I propose. You and I enter the world of the Stones together. None of our people. Except Carter, of course, since he’s vital to taking us there.”
Nosizwe frowned. “You, alone I know I could handle if things went south,” she said. She pointed a long, graceful finger at Sean, then Carter. “But you and he both? That’s two to one. An unfair advantage. Why would I put myself in that situation? No, I bring one of my people with me too.”
“No.” Sean barked a harsh refusal. “Nobody else. The fewer people, the fewer either of us has to worry about disobeying orders or betraying us. Carter can be trusted. I’ll simply put the same mandate on him concerning you that’s on him now concerning me, my wife, my son, and his wife. As the Talos, he can’t disregard or ignore it. That’s why this works. You and I search, he takes us there, and he protects us both.”
“Sean…”
Again, Carter tried to interrupt. Again, Sean held up a hand, stopping him. Carter’s sense of unease was growing. What was Sean thinking? Have him protect Nosizwe? It didn’t make any sense. For their part, Nosizwe’s people didn’t seem to like the idea, either. A couple of them stepped up to her, surrounded her, speaking to her in swift, low voices. Ciara’s wheelchair rolled forward, snagging Carter’s attention and Sean’s. Her face was pale, its lines hard.
“What are you doing, Sean? What are you about?”
Her voice was icy and screamed her distrust.
“Me? Why, trying to find the Stones, my love. Isn’t that what we’re all after?”
“You have treachery up your sleeve.”
Her husband shook his head. “You should know, Ciara. You’re the queen of it.”
Before the two could argue further, the shifter queen broke away from her people and stepped once more between the two of them.
“We have an agreement,” she announced.
Carter felt a weight sink to the bottom of this stomach.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Carter didn’t want there to be an agreement between Sean and Nosizwe. Not one that required him to be in the middle, protecting them both. Certainly not one that required him to escort both of them to the world of the Stones. What if he couldn’t find it anymore? What if he couldn’t take them there? He hadn’t tried to take Ellie the last time. This was unfamiliar territory, literally and figuratively. They were messing around with forces none of them understood, and he didn’t like it.
Before he could say anything, the growl of a moving vehicle caught his attention. A truck prowled forward through the darkness, guided by its parking lights. One of Nosizwe’s people must have called the driver. Once it got close enough, Carter could see large shapes in the truck bed strapped down and covered by tarps.
The Stones of Fire.
His skin crawled with unease. He sent Sean a glance, hoping to silently convey his misgivings, but Sean wasn’t paying attention. His gaze was riveted on the Stones, and there was a glint in his eye Carter had never seen before. A glint of covetousness, like everything Sean had ever wanted and worked for was right there in front of him.
Maybe he’d wanted the Stones for himself more than he’d ever let on—and not just for the protection of his people, like he claimed.
Carter’s unease heightened.
The truck crawled to a stop. Immediately, people were scrambling over it, most shifting into their alters for the added strength to be able to move the massive Stones from the truck bed to the ground. Working like a well-oiled piece of machinery, Nosizwe’s team quickly had the Stones set up in a loose circle—which had Carter even more on edge, causing him to remember that scene in the country club gardens a few nights ago. Within minutes, the moment Carter had been dreading was upon them. The Stones were there. The vehicles shut off their lights, wrapping them all in darkness. The moon shone down on the granite slabs, teasing out glints in the marble. Shadows filled the runes on the Stone’s surface. Carter stared at those etchings, remembering how they had come to life, filled with flame. If only there was a full translation, but they needed the other Stones for that. Which is why Sean had come up with this crazy scheme.
His boss now beckoned Carter over. His feet felt weighted, but he went anyway. Everything inside was roaring that this was dangerous. It was a bad idea. Others seemed to think the same. Once his vision adjusted to the semi-darkness, he could see Ciara, her ivory skin practically glowing. She kept switching her focus between her husband and her new ally. Carter had known her for years. He knew her well enough to tell she disapproved of this scheme. She opened her mouth as if to speak, closed it. Like him, she knew this was wrong, but was also afraid they’d reached the point that nothing she said would make a difference.
Now Carter, Nosizwe, and Sean were standing within the circle of the Stones.
“How do we do this?” Sean asked. “I wasn’t there the last time,” he said with a gruff chuckle.
Carter had been and he felt no humor, remembering being
forced to offer his blood in exchange for Ellie’s life.
Thank God she isn’t here now, he thought, then recoiled mentally when he realized the thought felt more like a prayer. That wasn’t like him. Ellie was the one who prayed, not him.
Guess I’ve hung around her too long. He chuckled mentally, ruefully.
Seriously, he was glad she wasn’t here. He was thankful. And if that meant saying a prayer to the God she believed in—well, hey, whatever worked.
“We need the Talos’ blood,” Nosizwe said, looking pointedly at Carter. Sean looked at him too.
For a half-second, he was tempted to say, “What if I refuse?” What if he did refuse to go along with this? How bad would the situation get? Would Sean and his longtime rival team up on him? Fight him for his blood? Could he fend off the combined forces of the Minotaur and the Impundulu? Would the fight be worth it?
He restrained himself.
“I need a blade,” he finally said out loud. “Preferably something small and sharp. Not planning on opening the entire vein like last time.”
Last time had nearly killed him. If not for Ellie’s bravery, not to mention intervention from whatever forces had helped in that other world, he didn’t know that he would have recovered.
Somebody stepped up, handing him a tiny knife that looked like it had come from a surgeon’s kit, handle first. Carter accepted it, grimacing.
Handle first. Like we care about safety.
Every sense was shouting this was wrong. Ignoring his instincts, Carter half-crouched in order to reach the vein at the back of his ankle, even as he allowed the transformation into the Talos to overtake him. As he reached back with the knife to carefully nick the vein, he heard Nosizwe ask, “What about me? This doesn’t happen, Sean, unless you order him to protect me.”
The Talos’ smooth, bronze head came up, looking to Sean for orders. Sean didn’t hesitate.
“Carter,” he said, looking deep into the Talos’ eyes, “While we’re in this other world, you, me, and Nosizwe, I want you to protect her exactly like you’d protect me. Don’t let anything happen to her. Understand?”
That strange sensation fell over him, like a thin, warm sheet had been draped over his body and quickly dissolved into the coolness of his bronze flesh. Sean’s injunction had taken hold.
No going back now.
The Talos used the borrowed blade to carefully score the one vein in his bronze body that contained blood. This time, instead of his enemies rushing forward to collect his blood, he caught the warm, dark liquid that oozed out in his palm. Rising, he strode over to the nearest Stone, smearing his own blood across the etchings on the surface.
A faint glow in response. A glow that brightened from orange to deep red, to fiery red.
Carter knelt to collect more blood, painted the next Stone. Again, the same thing happened. The etchings across the Stone’s surface, the writing, the runes, came to life. He repeated the process until all of the Stone were awakened.
“Next we should see the portal,” he heard Nosizwe remark to Sean. “Are you ready?”
Sean grunted. From the corner of his eye, Carter saw Ciara leaning forward intently in her wheelchair. The big moment had come, the moment the quickened Stones were supposed to birth the fiery portal that would carry them to the other world. Only…it wasn’t happening. The runes on the Stones, smeared with the Talos’ blood, glowed brighter and brighter in the darkness, each individual letter lit up like a firefly. Still, no ring appeared.
“What’s going on?” the Talos heard someone in the crowd murmur.
The question was picked up, repeated by others. It spread, like flames on the etchings had spread, until the entire circle of shifters was wondering the same thing. What was going on?
Sean caught his stare. “Carter?” he asked. The Talos, Carter, shrugged. If they didn’t know, he didn’t either.
“What is this?” The glow of the firelit Stones, the wash of moonlight, cast Nosizwe’s scowl into twisted planes. Her anger was palpable. “Is this some kind of trick?”
Sean snorted. “You’d know better than me. You were there last time. I wasn’t.”
“Why isn’t it working?” The frustration was evident in her voice, along with a thread of fear and certainly anger. She pushed past Sean to face Carter in his shifter form. “What have you done, Ballis? Why isn’t it working this time? Did you figure out a way to beat the system?”
The Talos didn’t like her so close. For a split-second, he was tempted to shove her back. Had she been in her altered form, he probably would have. He’d sworn to kill her, after all. But he’d never laid his hands on a woman unprovoked, and this wasn’t the time to break that record. Instead, he stepped back, shrugging, shaking his head to indicate his own confusion. She didn’t know? Neither did he! Wasn’t like he was an expert at this.
While they’d been confronting each other, the glow from the runes had begun to flicker. Fade. Like any real fire, left unfed, they were going to burn themselves out. Somebody on Nosizwe’s side called her attention to it. She swung around to check, then spun back to him.
“Do something!” she demanded angrily. “More blood!”
He could try, but the Talos was certain that wasn’t the problem. Still, when he caught his mentor’s worried look, his nod of encouragement, he bent to squeeze more blood from the tiny cut on his ankle. Rising, he approached the first Stone he’d originally painted. The flames had nearly burnt out. The Talos tried again, swiping its own blood across the runes. He could feel the tension in the onlookers behind him, like they’d drawn and held a collective breath.
Nothing happened.
The runes momentarily flickered brighter, then abruptly fizzled. When they did, the dying fires on the other Stones followed suit. Instantly, all was darkness.
Chapter Twenty-Six
I clutched the sword tightly as we roared down city streets, passing windows stacked upon tiny windows in the tall business towers, going from that to patches of businesses and restaurants with neon-lit signs, and from that into the rings of neighborhoods guarding the heart of the city, and finally out of the city itself. Dusk was falling, broken up by yard lights and the glow of gas stations and fast-food joints. It had taken me awhile to track Carter down.
Calling his phone hadn’t done me any good. Next, I’d tried the Costas mansion. It had rung and rung, but gone unanswered. No surprise there. Who knew, considering the explosion earlier today, if the phone lines were even working? Detective Ewing, with her cop resources, had finally dug up a number for me to call. It was a Ridge Lawson, the man who tended Mr. Costas’s expensive fleet of automobiles. She said his name had come up early in her investigation of the Botanic Garden last fall. I hadn’t met him personally, but when I explained that I was Carter’s wife and I needed to speak with him urgently, I lucked out. Apparently, this Ridge Lawson hadn’t defected to Ciara Costas’s side, because he’d finally told me where Carter, Sean, and several of their folks were headed.
I’d never visited this nature preserve, although I’d heard about it in passing. It might’ve been a fun place to go with my brothers under different circumstances. Now, as Detective Ewing drove her partner and I out to the preserve, guided by the automated voice spewing GPS directions, I couldn’t help sitting in the back seat, staring out the window worrying.
What if I didn’t get the sword to Carter in time?
What if a fight had already occurred?
What if Carter was injured or dead?
What if I never saw, held, spoke to, kissed him again?
I’d been the one who chose to walk away. I still thought that had been the best decision at the time. Yet here I was, speeding along, desperate to get to him, praying I’d make it before anything went down.
I glanced at the sword in my lap. Hard to believe something like this could potentially change the tide of battle and alter the course of the future for Carter, for me, for everyone around us. But the angel, shifter, had intimated exactly that, and tha
t’s where I was placing my faith. I knew Carter having this weapon was vitally important, and I was going to get it to him, come hell or high water.
Before long, we were pulling up outside the gates to the preserve. Detective Tozzi opened his door and climbed out to inspect the gate. Apparently, the lock had been cut, but the gate was wired shut to keep any roaming animals inside. He opened the gate for us to drive through, closed it behind us and re-wired it. We drove forward at a snail’s pace, parking lights only, until we came to a fork in the dirt road.
Detective Ewing stopped the car and leaned forward, chin on the steering wheel, peering off into the darkness beyond the small glow of lights.
“Which way do you think?” she asked softly.
Her partner also leaned forward to peer outside. “Judging by the tracks,” he answered slowly, “I’d say to the left.”
His partner shot him a weird look. “Judging by the tracks? There are tracks going in both directions.”
He pointed to the road on the left. “Those look fresher.”
“How can you tell?”
Now he gave her a strange look. “How can you not tell?”
She stared at him a moment, one eyebrow raised, and finally shrugged. “Okay, Mr. Expert Tracker. I’ll go with it.”
In the backseat, I smothered a nervous giggle. They sounded like an old married couple who had been together a long time and seen everything together. I guess, being work partners, in some ways they probably were as close as an old married couple.
Detective Ewing crawled the car forward. The dirt road was all bumps and lumps that had us jolting in the seat. I was a city girl and not used to dirt roads. I gripped the sword tighter for fear of dropping it and wondered if the vehicle would shake to pieces before we arrived.
After a few moments of tense silence, broken by the creaks and groans of the protesting car, Detective Ewing said, “I see something.”
I leaned up between the front seats to look. “Cars,” I announced. “People. That’s them.”
Repairer of the Breach (Stones of Fire Book 4) Page 17