“I got it.”
He tossed her a helmet. “Here, see how that fits.” He hit a button on the wall and the garage door opened.
“It’s too big. Are there others?”
He sighed. “Be right back. They’re on the wall in the other room.”
As soon as he left, Nikki snagged the keys, ripped off the tarp, jumped onto Raven’s bike, and tore out of the garage.
Yes , this is definitely Raven’s domain, Nikki decided as she scrutinized the monstrous formation of ruins. It was a little creepy at night, but the moon’s bright glow helped ease her apprehension. Walls stretched to the sky, but crumbled into uneven mountains of stone; too weak to fulfill their destiny, too proud to give up their place. It had taken her awhile to find the stairway, but as soon as she made her way to the top, the remnants of the castle that once was became visible. The flat terrace, where she now stood, could have been a stone courtyard in Viennesse or in any other palace, if not for the eroding walls and columns.
She stopped in the center, her eyes examining the moonlit structure.
A sound behind her made her jump. She spun but saw nothing. The wind coaxed her to the terrace edge. She tested the crumbling ground, found it sturdy enough, and stepped into an open space along the palace wall, stopping when her toes dangled over the side.
A tilt of the head revealed a star-confetti sky hovered above. From this vantage point, she could view the Rhine River off to the right, which snaked through the land and shimmered from the moon’s rays.
Nikki captured the night air in her lungs and spread her arms. If only she had wings. She’d dive off this edge and let the wind take her. In answer to her request, the cool night breeze surged.
“You gonna jump?”
She turned without thinking. One foot slipped off the edge while the other tried unsuccessfully to clamber for better traction. Her arms, already spread, began a series of swirls and jerks as she slipped, and she lurched to grab the stone wall.
But rather than cold, hard rock, they found warm, strong flesh. Arms encircled her, materializing from nowhere. They held her, hands flattening on her back, pulling her closer.
Nikki sucked a breath of panic until she recognized his scent.
Raven.
Instinctively, she buried her head in his neck and dug her hands into the back of his shirt. She tried to breathe, tried to speak, but all that came from her tightened throat was a choked sob. As she trembled against him, he shuddered and drew her even closer.
So many emotions bombarded her, Nikki couldn’t form words. Raven. Alive. And safe.
When the first shades of propriety revisited her, she unfisted her hands and tried to push away from him.
“Don’t,” he whispered against her ear, burrowing deeply into the waves of her hair. With his head tilted down, his long, slow exhale scorched her neck, and for a moment she wondered if her body might combust. His hands and arms finally loosened, and she thought she’d be able to step away, but when her muscles tightened in response, he pulled her back into an embrace so tight it felt impossible to distinguish where one body stopped and the other began.
For a moment Nikki allowed herself to dissolve against him. He was alive. He was okay. And he’d finally come home. Involuntarily, her mouth whispered his name.
In response, he adjusted his stance to accommodate her. A breeze swirled up the side of the castle wall and lifted her hair. She cast a glance downward. “Raven, we’re right on the edge.”
More than you know , he wanted to say.
But rather than follow her gaze, he tugged her to one side, where a castle wall waited to support them.
Pinning her to the wall, he loosened his arms just enough to look into her eyes. In those golden depths, he was home.
She’d wrecked him. Wrecked him with her fierce desire to fight and her strength to stand when her whole world crumbled, had wrecked him with her eyes that beckoned him—even when her head told her not to allow it.
Her breathing was a series of short, hot puffs. Partially because of nearly falling off the wall, partially because of him.
Her body had warmed as soon as he grabbed her, and her muscles gave way, thawing beneath his touch when she’d realized it was him. Him. Not Mace. Not anyone else. And even now as she tried to rationalize her reaction, he could see it—the love in her eyes and the absolute uncertainty of what to do with that emotion and what it meant for both of them.
When she sighed, he pulled the breath she released into his own being. Intoxicating, it entered his lungs, burning out all doubt.
Unsteady hands flattened against his chest. “Raven,” she said. Her voice held an apologetic tone that he would have ignored had it not felt like an ice-cold splash of water. “Raven, please.” She squirmed against the wall, still breathy, but her voice regaining its strength.
“You can’t deny this,” he said.
“What?” More force in her words now, a sign her head was finding control over her emotions. No matter; he knew how to fix that.
He pressed closer. “This.” His hands slid along her side. But she shook her head, ignoring her body’s response to him. “I don’t even know what this is!”
“I told you a long time ago you are in love with me.”
She released such a long sigh, it was painful for him to listen. “Raven, I’m with Mace. He’s right for me. I know that now.”
He could hear the doubt in her voice, every word ringing with uncertainty. Still trying to convince herself.
“And I know you’re right for me.”
“No,” she said as her smooth forehead crinkled and her eyes glistening with tiny droplets of moisture. “I’m not.” His hands stopped moving.
As she blinked, the tears slid onto her lashes, where they sat like diamonds waiting to be sifted from the silt.
He worked to keep his voice even. “How do you know?” One of the larger tears dropped below the outer corner of her eye. “Because I love Mace.”
When Raven bent toward it, her eyes closed. His lips found the tear and kissed it away. “You love me too.”
For a moment, he knew she was trapped. Her body stiffened, but her soul reached for him, a struggle so strong he tangibly felt the war. Finally, she said, “It’s not the same.”
“It is. You know it is or you wouldn’t have come here.” Still holding her captive with his body position, he dropped his hands away from her. “Why are you here, Nikki?”
When her hands fidgeted to reach for him, she clamped her teeth together. “I thought … I thought …” But no more words came.
“You knew I’d be here.”
“No.” Her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment. Perfect. “You knew I’d be here or you wouldn’t have brought my bike.”
When a confused frown betrayed her, he nodded toward the winding stairway leading to the road below. “I heard the motor when you stopped at the bottom of the hill. Only one Harley sounds like that.”
He took her hands in his, cradled them against his chest. “You knew I’d be here. You may not have known with your head. But you knew with your heart. Remember what I taught you on the boat? There’s a difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge.”
More confusion skated across her features as plainly as if a movie ran before her eyes.
“Tell me this doesn’t feel right and I’ll leave.”
“Raven, it’s not right because …” A little panic entered her voice. “Because it’s not right.”
“Does it feel right when we’re together?” Then he went for the kill. “Who helped you master the faith ball? Who soothed you until you read the sign that told us where to find the train?”
He could sense the victory approaching. “Mace couldn’t do that, Nikki. I’m the one you were meant to love. You know that.” She closed her eyes, trying to shut him out.
“Just say it,” he coaxed her. “Does it feel right when we’re together?”
Her tense little gusts full of excitement and surrender
were back. On the tail of one, she whispered almost painfully, “Yes.” Triumph bathed over him. His head dipped closer to her scent, to the source of those words. The admission not only clarified everything, it devoured every obstacle in the way. His arms found their way around her again. She didn’t fight. As if weakened, she clung to him and pressed against the wall at her back like an unstable child on a slippery slope, waiting for the moment when gravity won and dragged her down. And though he held her—the only thing he’d wanted for a long time—Raven couldn’t mistake the sensation that surged within him. Expecting to feel at peace, he felt unsettled. For the briefest moment, he pondered this new alarm.
Nikki was always strong. Except now. He’d beat her down.
And weakness was one thing Nikki couldn’t afford. But conquest breached the warning. “Come on, Nikki, let’s go for a ride.”
“What do you think of Nikki?” Mace asked Gearhead as he stepped into the garage.
“Man, doesn’t anyone sleep around here?” Gearhead exchanged the ratchet in his hand for a pair of pliers.
“Sorry. I’m worried about her.”
“With good reason,” Gearhead mumbled.
Mace toyed with a distributor cap lying on the Land Rover’s manifold. “What?”
“Nothing. Hand me that,” he said, pointing to a wrench in the tool box.
“This one?” Mace held one in the air.
A grease-smeared face popped up from under the Land Rover’s hood. “No. Half inch.”
Metal clinked against metal as Mace rummaged through the tool box. The scent of fresh grease and motor oil rose with each movement.
Gearhead murmured a thank you when Mace handed him the tool. “What do I think of Nikki? She’s stubborn, certainly irritating. But it’s sort of hot that she’s so into bikes.”
Mace swallowed.
“I don’t really know her. But I feel bad for her.” Gearhead’s eyes saddened a little.
“Why?”
“Growing up, thinking you’re this normal girl in a normal world. Then, wham!” He smacked a shop towel on the fender. “Wake up one day and you’re a Seer, dragged into a war between angels and demons.”
“It didn’t happen quite that fast.”
Gearhead usually kept his head stuck beneath various car hoods, but he gave his full attention as he stared at Mace. “Just saying. How do you deal with that?” He thought a moment. “And what about her parents?”
“They were killed in a robbery.”
“Yeah, that’s what I heard. As well as the fact Zero found her name on a computer you lifted from that fire you both just happened to be at.”
“Will sent us to that fire, we didn’t just happen to be there.” Frustration burrowed into his gut. Mace didn’t like where this visit was headed. “What are you getting at?”
“The obvious. Maybe she’s a plant.”
Mace’s hands fisted, causing the blood surging from his heart to fill every vein with adrenaline-laced anger. “Are you serious?”
“Sorry, man. It’s just that when she was down here earlier—” Mace cut him off. “Nikki was down here? Why?” “She came to steal a bike.”
Mace’s blood chilled.
The change was not lost on Gearhead. “Calm down. She just wanted to go for a ride.”
“And you let her?”
“I’m not the warden,” Gearhead said as he followed Mace, who’d brushed past him and headed for the bikes.
The last thing in the world Nikki needed was to be out alone. If she wanted to leave, why hadn’t she come to get him? Why hadn’t she asked him to take her? He found his answer as he flipped the light switch on the garage wall.
His eyes settled on the empty hole where the one bike he’d hoped would be there belonged. As he turned away, Mace felt a new kind of pain leech onto his heart.
Chapter 16
Nikki crisscrossed the night-darkened countryside on the back of Raven’s Harley for more than an hour. Germany’s Black Forest disappeared around them as they meandered along tree-trimmed paths and pebble-stone streets. In BadenBaden, they stopped for a break at one of the town’s numerous fountains. Nikki sat on the edge of the concrete structure and watched water spill over a stone statue illuminated by an underwater light. After a long silence, she spoke. “How long do you think this fountain’s been here?”
Raven sat beside her and dipped his hand into the cool mineral water. “Hundreds of years.” He gave a half-laugh. “Well, not the light kit. I’m pretty sure that was added later.”
She gave him a sidelong glance. “Hundreds of years?” “Yeah, there are even ruins of the Turkish bath houses beneath some of the mineral spas. The ancient Romans used to come here to soak in the mineral water because they thought it would heal their illnesses and make them immortal.”
“Why did they think that?” Nikki’s finger trailed through the water, carefully maneuvering around the hand Raven had thrust into the fountain.
With a water-drenched finger, he pointed behind them to Viennesse. “Well, for those of us who’ve been around awhile, we think it’s probably because Halflings began dwelling at Viennesse centuries ago, and they didn’t seem to age. The ancient Romans believed the mineral water was an eternal spring that flowed from Viennesse’s hilltop.”
“Did they try to uncover the Halflings?” When he didn’t answer and instead ignored her by rummaging that hand through the water, she grabbed his shirt and shook him. “What happened to the ancient Romans?”
“They’re all dead—hence the word ancient.” He chuckled and she released his shirt with a playful shove. “Their goal for immortality didn’t exactly work. But they did build a tunnel through the mountainside to Viennesse. They believed the top of the hill, beneath the castle, was the mouth of the eternal spring.”
“So they were digging to reroute the water?”
“Maybe. No one knows. The Halflings had to leave the area when they became conspicuous. Not much activity at Viennesse for the next few hundred years, and once the legends died, the Halflings came back.”
“Where did they go in the meantime?”
“There’s another castle here in Germany and one in France.” He shrugged while water ran in silvery rivulets off his fingertips. “A few others scattered around the globe. My favorite place is in Switzerland. Great snow skiing. You’d love it there.”
She shook her head sadly. “But you can’t ever rest, can you? Can’t ever let your guard down or just wake up and say, ‘Hey, it’s another normal morning.’” She thought a moment. “Me too, I guess. Since I’ve been drafted.”
“What’s so good about normal?” he challenged, shifting on the concrete seat to face her more fully.
“I don’t know. I can’t remember. It seems like my old life is a lifetime away from me.”
“We’re in a war, Nikki, one that’s been going on for thousands of lifetimes. And the responsibility to protect our generation falls on our shoulders. Welcome to the new normal.”
“Thanks for putting it so gently.”
“You want gentle, go find Mace. You want truth, I’m your guy.”
“Raven, we need to talk about him.”
One side of his face creaked into a humorless smile. “I’d rather not.”
“No matter what you think of him, I love Mace.”
“I thought we covered this,” he said, rising from the seat and brushing his hands on his jeans. He walked a few steps away, staring down a deserted street lit only by the occasional coneshaped glow of a street lamp.
“And I want to be with him.” She looked away from Raven. She had to. Framed by the lonely street and the surrounding darkness, she thought about what his life had been since leaving the train wreck. Alone. Choosing to appear dead rather than face her with the knowledge that she’d chosen someone else. Nikki’s gaze dropped to the fountain, hoping to find the strength to say what she had to say, but no words or encouragement materialized. The single light shone. It was designed to illuminate the stone statue.
It was alone. It fulfilled its purpose. Just like Raven.
“Mace keeps me stable,” she blurted, and turned toward Raven. His powerful shoulders dropped a few inches and she knew he was trying to reject her words.
Her foot took a step in his direction, but she stopped, forcing her body to slide her feet back until they bumped against the fountain’s edge. And there she’d be stone strong. Statue stiff. “With everything that’s happened to me in the last few months, I need someone who can keep my feet on the ground.”
He said nothing.
“Raven, I love being with you. When we’re together,” she said, shaking her head, “I feel free. I feel like I can fly. But that’s not what I need right now. I need a stabilizer, not a jetpack.”
“And you think Mace can give you that?” he said, without turning to face her. There was no emotion, no feeling in his voice, just dead words floating toward her over the emptiness.
If he’d only turn around, she could see what was going on inside him. Raven might be able to camouflage his voice, but he could never lie with his eyes. “I don’t know how to explain it, but there’s something …” Her voice trailed and a bitter wind swirled through her jeans. The night was getting colder as the day’s warmth drained from the mountains and valleys around Baden-Baden. And with the chill air came an evil promise. Something desperate to get to her was slipping closer. She could almost feel the icy hands closing on her throat.
Nikki tried to focus her thoughts on Raven. “Like I said, I can’t explain it, but there’s something—”
He must have heard the fear in her voice. Raven turned, closed the distance, and seized her. His brows slashed into a worried frown. “Nikki, what is it?”
How could she explain the sensation? “I don’t know. I just feel like something is going to happen.”
“Then let’s go. Let’s get away from here, away from the Halflings.”
Guardian Page 15