Guardians of Stone (The Relic Seekers)

by Clenney, Anita

  “How about you?” the third man asked Kendall as she dropped her backpack. He had spiky brown hair and mean eyes. “Got any weapons on you?”

  “Her weapon is her mind.” The fourth man had a round nervous face. “Don’t look her in the eyes. I’ve heard she can do all kinds of crazy things.”

  “Seems your reputation precedes you,” Jake said.

  “If you have a fancy move,” she whispered, “I’d do it now.”

  “Move away from the statues,” the gaunt man said.

  “Gladly,” Jake said. “Wouldn’t want to roast like your buddy. Did you see what those statues did to his eyes?”

  Unwittingly, four pairs of eyes glanced at the dead man. Jake leapt at the red-haired man, knocking the gun out of his hand and shoving him into two of his henchmen. Three of them toppled like dominoes. “Run,” he yelled to Kendall.

  She hesitated, remembering her vision of him dead.

  “Go!” he yelled. “What are you waiting for?”

  You.

  She took off, racing in the opposite direction. She heard one of the men yelling at another to go after her. There was a protest, and then the round-faced man who hadn’t fallen started chasing her. She glanced back and saw him closing in. In the background, Jake was fighting the other three, holding his own.

  “Stop!” The man threw himself at her and she hit the ground like a sack of flour. Rolling over, she found a gun pressed between her eyes. Any harder and he wouldn’t need a bullet—the barrel would penetrate her brain. “Get up.” He moved back but kept the gun aimed at her head. “Start walking.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “That way.”

  He guided her away from the castle. The line of statues stretching toward the sky seemed to watch their progress as Kendall and her captor moved toward the seven pillars.

  “Who are you?”

  “Don’t talk. Just walk toward the stones. And don’t look at me.”

  Not the catacombs. Again.

  When they arrived at the pillars, he circled around the one with the motif and pushed. The stone started moving, but this time she knew to stand back. “Down there,” he ordered.

  “Who are you working for? Can I at least know that?”

  “I thought you knew everything.”

  “Not nearly enough.” Maybe she could read him if she could touch something that belonged to him other than the tip of his gun. She was getting nothing from that, and he was taking pains to stay clear of her. When they reached the bottom of the steps, he stepped farther back, still keeping his gun aimed at her. “Now find the key.”

  “What?”

  “The key, find it.”

  “What key?”

  “The key to the box,” he said, sounding exasperated.

  “There’s a key?”

  “You think something that valuable is just kept in an unlocked box?”

  “What’s in the box?” She was hoping to distract him so she could find a way out.

  “I don’t know, but it must be valuable. A lot of people want it.”

  “I barely saw the box before your friend stole it.”

  He frowned. “I don’t think you know as much as they say. I was just hired yesterday.”

  “By who? The Reaper?”

  “I don’t know anything about a reaper.” He gave her an impatient look and nudged her with his gun. “Shut up and find the key so I can get the hell out of this place.”

  “Did they tell you where to look?”

  The man gave a long-suffering sigh. “It’s gotta be in the same place where the box was hidden.”

  “With the old monk?”

  “If that’s where it was. Take me there.”

  “He’s not going to be happy.”

  “Who?”

  “The monk.”

  “Stop that,” the man said, his voice shrill. “I know you’re playing with my mind.”

  “Who told you about me?”

  “Just walk. Find the key.”

  So the box was locked and the bad guys didn’t have the key. That was good. Nothing else was. When they reached the door, she tried again to delay.

  “We can’t get inside the catacombs without the cross.”

  The man reached under her shirt and yanked out the cross. “I’m not stupid. Open it. Now.”

  She inserted the cross inside the lock and turned it. The light flashed and the door began to move.

  That seemed to make him even jumpier. “Hurry,” he said, pushing her inside. “I don’t like this place.”

  “I don’t blame you. It’s booby-trapped.”

  “Booby-trapped? He didn’t say nothing about no booby traps.”

  “There are giant rocks in the ceiling. One wrong step and splat!”

  “Hellfire,” her captor muttered, looking overhead.

  “Did he mention the ghosts?”

  “Ghosts?” His flashlight jerked around the catacombs, the light landing on a skull. He yelped. “Hurry up, dammit.”

  If there was a key hidden on the monk, Kendall didn’t want this guy to find it. She had to keep stalling. Maybe Jake would come after her. If he was alive.

  “I don’t remember where the coffin is. I should get help.”

  “From who?”

  “The spirits. They might not tell me, though. They’re angry because we’re here. Watch out for that stone there. I think it might be a trap.”

  He jumped sideways. If she had been a little quicker, she might have knocked the gun out of his hand, but she waited too long. If she could get away from him, she could sneak through the narrow tunnel where she and Jake had escaped. It was unlikely that this guy knew about it.

  They moved on and at each coffin she stopped and ran her hands above it, giving an imitation of a dramatic psychic that would have made Jake proud. She moaned and called on the spirits, asking for guidance to the right coffin, hoping she was speaking loudly enough for Jake to hear and praying that if there were any more booby traps, they missed her and hit her captor, who was sweating and glancing over his shoulder every few seconds.

  “Be quiet,” he said, interrupting her latest act. “I heard something.” After a minute, he pointed to another coffin. “Try that one.”

  Kendall approached the wooden box and held her hands above it. “Oh spirits of the catacomb, tell me where the angry monk lies. And grant us protection from the booby traps which lie in wait to kill us.” She began slowly rocking back and forth. A low moan rose in her throat, rising in volume to a piercing wail.

  “Stop that.”

  She gasped and her eyes flew open in an expression of horror. “I hear you, angry one. Please don’t kill us as you killed the man at the statues, blacking out our eyes and cursing our souls with the horror worse than death.”

  From the corner or her eye she saw him swipe his forehead.

  “Open it,” he said.

  She looked at the rotting piece of wood she’d been talking to. “Why?” Did he believe this was where she had found the box?

  “Open it!” he yelled.

  She touched the wood, and a wave of emotion hit her like a blow. She jumped back. He grabbed her by the hair, and she felt the gun dig into her side. He cursed again and kicked the coffin. She heard a crack and he shoved the lid aside. Like most other corpses in the catacombs, the body was nothing but bones with a bit of flesh for glue. Her captor’s gun lowered slightly as he peered inside. She grabbed the thigh bone and swung it at him, but he dodged the blow.

  “You bitch.” He hit her in the head with the gun. White lights flashed behind her eyes. Her knees buckled. She grabbed the edge of the coffin to keep from falling, and he shoved her from behind. She threw her arms out, trying to stop her fall. She landed facedown on top of the skeleton. Before she could move, the lid closed, leaving her nose to nose with the corpse in the dark.

  There wasn’t enough room to roll over. She was trapped. She panicked, struggling and screaming. With every breath she took she pulled death into her l
ungs. Every move caused the cold bones to dig into her skin. The skull, the ribs, arms, and legs.

  She heard her captor’s muffled voice. “Let me know when you’re ready to tell me where the key is.”

  She closed her eyes and forced herself to stop struggling, trying to stave off the panic. But when her own thoughts calmed, she felt the corpse’s memories seeping into her brain. His family. His life. His death. Her senses were on fire, skin and body burning, mind clawing for sanity again.

  Shut down. Shut down. You did it before when you needed to survive. Do it now.

  She let her mind slide away from the hard, cold bones, and the damp muskiness of the bits of remaining cloth. From the smell of rotten wood. From the laughter of the corpse as a boy, from his agony in death. It was working...until she heard a muffled roar, followed by a scream. There was another roar and something crashed, followed by the sound of splintering wood. The coffin lid flew off and before she could scramble out, she was lifted off her feet. It was too dark to see. She leaned back and made out two dark shapes. The closest one had glowing eyes.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  THE DOOR TO the catacombs was still open when Jake got there. They must have come this way. He’d just entered when he heard a roar that made the hairs on his neck stand, followed by a scream. He ran past the coffins and bones lining the walls, his gun drawn. Another roar sounded. He rounded a corner and in the beam of his flashlight, he saw a man rip the lid off a coffin and fling it behind him. Jake ducked as it flew past his head and smashed into the wall.

  The man lifted someone out of the coffin as easily as if she were a rag doll. It was Kendall. Jake could see her blonde hair. The man crushed her to his chest. He was going to kill her. Jake yelled out as he ran, hoping to distract the man long enough to get a clear shot. He raised his gun and the man turned. Jake saw two eyes glowing in the dark. He raised his light to the man’s face. What the hell! “Nathan?”

  Kendall opened her eyes and leaned back, her shocked gaze moving from Nathan to Jake. “Jake, what are you doing with that gun?”

  Jake kept the gun leveled at Nathan. “Kendall, step away.”

  Nathan pushed Kendall clear and turned to Jake. His eyes looked normal now.

  “What the hell just happened?” Jake asked. “Your eyes were glowing.”

  Nathan picked up a flashlight that he must have dropped in the fight. “You’re imagining things.”

  “I didn’t imagine those iron doors ripped off their hinges and that heavy coffin lid you tossed like a Frisbee.”

  Kendall looked at the bent doors. “You did that?” she said to Nathan.

  “It was just adrenaline. I heard you scream.”

  Adrenaline could do strange things to a man. Jake had seen it, even felt it, but something about this felt unnatural. He remembered Nathan punching the concrete wall in the underground cell at the hotel, and his eyes shining that night at the inn, and how quickly he’d evaded Jake when he tried to follow him.

  Kendall had moved around beside Jake. She touched his arm. “Put the gun down, Jake. It’s just Nathan.”

  Jake lowered the gun, staring at Nathan. He wasn’t just Nathan. Jake didn’t know what he was, but this was more than adrenaline. Maybe it was this place, with its strange statues and hidden spears. They were near one of the lanterns, so Jake lit it, giving them better light.

  “What happened to him?” Kendall asked, looking at her assailant.

  Nathan stared at the body, his expression as stony as one of the statues.

  “Looks like he broke his neck,” Jake said. He guessed Nathan had done that too. He turned to Kendall. “What were you doing inside the coffin?” He saw the gleam of bones inside. Thinking of lying in there with a skeleton made Jake’s stomach knot.

  “He was trying to make me tell him where the key was.”

  Jake wished Nathan hadn’t killed the guy so he could do it. But rage wouldn’t do any good now. “What key?”

  “He said the box won’t open without it. He seemed to think it was buried with the old monk.” She looked back at the coffin behind her and rubbed her arms, even though she was wearing a jacket.

  “How did you find me?” Kendall asked Nathan.

  “I was in the woods when I saw him move the stone,” Nathan said.

  “Thank you, but when we get back, I quit.”

  “Quit?”

  “I’m not working for someone who kidnaps me because I don’t go where he wants me to go. Even if you thought it was for my own good.”

  “I thought you were going to die. What are you doing here now?” He frowned at Jake, as if it was his fault.

  “Don’t look at me. I tried to keep her away. And she’s not the only one quitting. You can do whatever the hell you want. I’m done with you.”

  “I apologize, but it was for your own good,” Nathan said, his face tight. “I’m not going to be responsible for your deaths.”

  “My own good?” Kendall said. “I’m sick and tired of both of you telling me what’s for my own good. I’m a woman, dammit, not a kid.”

  She looked like a witch, her hair all over the place, her face smudged with Jake didn’t know what, and there was a finger bone stuck in her belt.

  “How did you get away from the hotel?” Nathan said.

  “Fergus is trying to save your ass,” Jake said. “If it was up to me, I wouldn’t bother.”

  “He let you out?”

  “Jake escaped first,” Kendall said. “Then Fergus told us where to find you.”

  Nathan shook his head. “I might have known.”

  “When I told him you were going to die, he asked us to find you.”

  “I’m going to die?” Nathan said.

  “Another one of her visions,” Jake said. “We’re both going to die if she doesn’t save us.”

  Kendall gave him one of her should-be-patented glares. “That’s not exactly what I said.”

  “What did you see?” Nathan asked.

  “Three bodies. One was yours, another was Jake’s.”

  “Whose was the third?” Nathan asked.

  “I couldn’t tell. I don’t know why, but I need to be here. I trust my visions...most of the time.”

  “Well, it looks like we’re all here to save each other,” Jake said. “Except him.” He looked at the dead guy. “Any idea who this guy and his crew belong to?”

  Nathan shook his head.

  “They were well trained, whoever they were. I just got rid of his buddies.”

  “Did you kill them?” Nathan asked.

  “No. Just incapacitated them.”

  “Maybe they’re working with Brandi or the guy with the ring,” Kendall said.

  “What guy?” Nathan asked.

  They explained about the mysterious guest who they believed had murdered the historian.

  “I have a feeling he’s your Reaper,” Jake said.

  “What did he look like?” Nathan asked.

  “He was in disguise when I saw him. Kendall got a better look at him at the inn.”

  “The inn? He was there? Bloody hell.”

  “He was average height and weight,” Kendall said. “Hard to describe, except for his ring. It was gold and it looked really old, with a big red jewel. It may have been a ruby.”

  “I think it’s him,” Nathan said. “There was a ruby ring that disappeared a few years ago. It was part of a rare collection that belonged to a well-known dealer in antiquities. I was about to buy the ring when it vanished. The dealer turned up dead, and the collection had disappeared. Everyone assumed the Reaper stole it.”

  “These guys must be working for him,” Jake said.

  Kendall shook her head, staring at the dead guy. “I don’t think so. I asked him if he worked for the Reaper. He had no idea what I was talking about.”

  “How many people are after this thing?” Nathan rubbed his chin.

  Jake noticed that Nathan’s split lip had completely healed. So had his hand after punching that hotel wall. Jake’s e
ye was still bruised from the fight. He must be testing some kind of drug. “There are at least three parties after this box, including us,” Jake said. “If the Reaper had the box, I think he would have killed us. So assuming the first three thieves, including Thomas, worked for him, either party number two stole it from him or one of his thieves took it for himself.”

  “Thomas was undercover,” Nathan said.

  “Why do you say that?” Kendall asked.

  “I talked to him after he was stabbed.”

  Kendall’s mouth dropped open. “After he was stabbed!” she said, her eyes sparking. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

  “I didn’t think it was important for you to know then.”

  Jake shook his head. “After I told you I recognized him from Iraq, you still didn’t think I needed to know?”

  “I was trying to sort some things out.”

  “It might have helped if you’d let us sort it out with you,” Jake said.

  “This is getting us nowhere,” Kendall said. “What happened with Thomas?”

  “The morning I stopped by the inn—”

  “Thanks to the tracking device,” Jake reminded him.

  Nathan scowled and continued. “I saw someone watching the inn. Thomas came around the side. I didn’t know who he was then, but when the other guy started following him I was suspicious, so I followed him as well. I found Thomas in the graveyard. He’d just been attacked. He was dying, half-conscious, and mumbling about stopping someone, saying that he couldn’t get it and that they were in danger. I figured it was you two.”

  “And you didn’t think we needed to know?” Jake clenched his fists. He wanted to punch Nathan. If Kendall hadn’t been there, he probably would have.

  Kendall shook her head in disgust.

  “What was the point?” Nathan said. “You were supposed to be on your way home and out of this mess.”

  Jake glared at Nathan. “If the Reaper is who you say, I doubt we would’ve been any safer in Virginia.”

  “I can protect you in Virginia. I can’t when you’re running around God knows where. That’s why I had my guards grab you when you didn’t leave. You two are in danger.”

  “Everybody calm down,” Kendall said. “We have to stick together until this is over. There are at least two people, maybe entire groups, who want us dead. If Thomas warned you that we were in trouble, and if ‘it’ referred to the box, then it sounds as if he was on our side. He was probably warning us off with that note at the hotel.”