by Dianna Love
Damn, that didn’t make him any happier. He didn’t want either to be harmed. Once again, Quinn reminded himself he had to be patient and earn his place in Phoedra’s life. She’d only recently learned the truth about him and her mother.
He had fallen for Kizira when they were both very young, before he found out Kizira belonged to the Beladors’ greatest enemy.
Talk about a clusterfuck relationship between a powerful Belador and a Medb priestess. Failure had been in the stars from the beginning.
Quinn might never have known he had a daughter, had Kizira not died in his arms with her last request being that he find the girl. It pained him that he’d missed his daughter’s childhood. He could not change the past, only do his best to provide a stable and loving future. It also troubled him that Reese was more a parent to his daughter than he was at this point. Understandable since Phoedra had known Reese when they both lived on the West Coast, and loved Reese. Phoedra barely knew him.
In fact, he’d known Reese longer than he’d known Phoedra. His feelings ran deep for Reese, but they had a complicated relationship, too.
Two screwed up relationships with nonhuman women.
What was the common denominator? Him.
Reese padded out to the balcony and turned to lean her back against the railing. “What’s so important you had to bribe Phoedra with a new Xbox game to get her out of the room?”
He took in the city of Atlanta, which stretched beyond this thirty-eighth floor residence like an urban landscape painted with a vibrant mix of green splashes. “I did not bribe my daughter. I want to make her feel like any other thirteen-year-old girl, even though most others have never been through all that she has.”
“She’s tough and resilient. She’s adapting well,” Reese said in a consoling voice.
She had a way of making him feel like he was doing right by Phoedra even though he hadn’t reached a close bond yet.
As if reading his mind, Reese said, “It takes time, Quinn.”
“Seems that’s the one commodity I haven’t been able to gain and develop.”
She gave him an odd look. “Something’s wrong, isn’t it?”
“Yes. I might as well get to the point. Evalle has been captured.”
Reese stood away from the rail. “The Medb grabbed her?”
“Possibly, but they’re not the only ones at the top of our list.” He explained what he’d learned about the incredible wreck and the planning it had taken to disarm Evalle. “We believe she was teleported away.”
“What are we waiting for?” Reese asked, incredulous.
There was the warrior woman who had taken hold of his heart, but that was before he found out she’d been withholding information on Phoedra. They’d had words and were managing a peaceful truce now so Quinn could see his child, but he itched to hold Reese as well.
Pulling his attention from the dazzling blue of her eyes, he said, “Daegan is pulling together a team. We leave very soon.”
She walked past him, nibbling on her fingernail.
Quinn turned to follow Reese with his gaze as she moved around. The woman could not be still, but he found the constant motion pleasant to observe.
Angling around, she said, “What do you need? You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t need something.”
Talk about insulting. “That’s not true.”
She held up a hand to stop him. “Wait. That sounded better in my head, but it was shorthand thinking. I don’t mean for Phoedra or me, I mean aren’t you here to find out how I can help you with Evalle?”
Explanation accepted, Quinn said, “I would not ask if it were not very important.”
“I know that.” She gave him a testy look. “What’s the plan?”
“I want you to know that I will not think less of you if you refuse my request.”
She put her hands on her hips. “I’m a big girl, Quinn. Tell me what you need and I’ll make up my mind.”
Reese was no girl, but a woman. Not the place to let his mind wander at the moment. He said, “As I mentioned, we’re forming a small tactical team. I’d like you to visit the crash site. You’ve told me your gift of remote viewing doesn’t work when someone travels to another world, but if you came with us you might be of aid at a different location along the way. We have no idea where this trip will take us, but if at any moment I feel you are in danger, I would have you teleported home immediately.”
Her hands slid down to hang loose. She appeared to be studying hard on his words. “Okay, I’m in, but what about Phoedra?”
His chest eased with her acceptance. “I have a plan for Phoedra.”
“Now wait a minute. This isn’t some screwed-up way of moving her to your place, is it?”
Don’t shout at Reese. Quinn took a moment and spoke slowly to keep from yelling at her. “No. I have not behaved in any underhanded way this entire time.”
She looked properly chastised. “I wasn’t accusing you—”
“Yes, you were. You’re just waiting for me to do something to force Phoedra to live with me. I’d love to have my daughter in my home, but only if she chooses to make that move. Until then, I’m playing by everyone else’s rules.”
Blowing out a hard breath, she said, “Okay, fine. I admit, I was worried you were going to do that. But you tried to move us out of our first apartment without asking first.”
“You two chose this place.”
“Only after you forced the issue.”
This woman could irritate him if he was in a coma. Straining not to snap at her, he reminded her, “I agreed to this arrangement of Phoedra living with you, but I was not able to sleep at night when I felt my daughter was staying somewhere I considered unsafe and without the level of security I require for myself. You got your way and I am at ease now. The security here is five times greater than where you had her.”
“Hold it, bud. I didn’t choose that first place.”
No, and she refused to tell him who had been pulling strings for Phoedra over the years, which included placing Phoedra and Reese in a substandard location.
To be fair, their first apartment hadn’t been the ghetto, but he could not live in finer accommodations while his child did not. With a quick glance, Quinn gave Reese credit for furnishing the new unit in a comfortably casual way, and she’d failed to spend a third of the money he’d made available for their needs.
He told her, “Since you didn’t choose that other apartment either, you should be glad for the change. For one thing, you are safer here. I have a contingent of Beladors to protect both of you.”
Her eyes fired up. “Hey, I’m not complaining about this place. I was only stating that you have a habit of demanding your way. Phoedra and I have existed for years in situations that were not of our choosing. We both want the chance to choose.”
That sounded perfectly fair, but by constantly questioning everything he said or did, Reese had pissed him off after he’d bent to meet her halfway more times than not recently. He said, “You may make any choice you wish, but Phoedra is my child. Until she’s capable of protecting herself, I will provide for and protect her in the best way I know how.”
“Fine.”
That evil female word. It was not fine, but Reese appeared ready to throw in the proverbial towel on this one.
Running a hand through his hair, he said, “I don’t want to fight with you, Reese.”
“Me neither. So, what’s your plan for Phoedra while we’re gone?”
He explained how Storm had his building warded for a preternatural apocalypse and that Kit would be staying there. Storm had called to share that new development just before Quinn knocked on Reese’s door.
She asked, “Who’s Kit?”
“Can I explain that on the way over to Storm’s building?”
“Oh. I get it. We need to get rolling.” Just like that, Reese went from arguing to action.
Those were the times he took a moment to enjoy the whirlwind of energy known as Reese.
&nb
sp; The sound of a microwave running in the kitchen had Quinn turning. He walked over to see what Phoedra was up to and inhaled a deep breath of popcorn.
Had his daughter heard that entire exchange? With her odds at having preternatural hearing, she most likely had.
Reese had taken steps to the right as if to grab something off the sofa, but spun around and raced past him down the hallway.
“Reese?” he called out.
“Packing,” she shouted without turning around, and slammed a door.
Phoedra appeared in the entrance to the kitchen with a worried look on her face.
“Something smells good, sweetheart,” Quinn started in a happy tone he would always have ready for her. “Do you like your—”
“Oh, uh, sorry, be right back.”
He leaned over to watch her run down the same hall to Reese’s room. “What’s going on, you two?”
Phoedra paused at the door with guilt splashed all over her face. “Helping her pack.”
Quinn didn’t require Storm’s gift of ferreting out a lie to know his daughter had not told the truth.
CHAPTER 15
The third time Evalle came to from a hallucinogenic dream, she screamed, “Stop! It!”
The dream had started as sexy as the last two, but this one ended with Storm being yanked up on his feet and his head cut off in front of her. His blood had gushed all over her naked body and she couldn’t get to him.
She’d tried to stay awake, but loss of blood and the inability to heal had wiped out her endurance. She’d had three dreams in the same span of hours. The emotional toll was becoming worse than her physical injuries.
Still shackled to the wall, she called out in a weak, raspy voice, “Germanus.”
No one answered her.
She leaned back against the wall. She couldn’t have gotten to her feet even if she’d been free to do so. Her energy reserve was nonexistent.
When holding her head up became too much effort, she let it hang down. Her gaze landed on the dried blood that had seeped through from her chest wound, but it no longer oozed.
Who cared?
Wind rushed around the room.
She lifted her gaze to Germanus.
He said nothing for probably five minutes. “If you are ready to speak without shouting, we’ll continue our conversation.”
Too tired to argue, she just stared at him and let him figure out what that meant.
Lifting his hands to clasp them, he smiled. “Excellent. First rule is that I will not induce those images if you do not give me reason to do so. Next, you should know that I can also bring Storm here. I have not done so because I can see how this would take longer if your mate was around to encourage you to fight back even at the risk of losing his life. Also, you would probably make constant attempts at escape.”
She struggled not to throw up at the thought of Storm being in this hellhole with her.
“Just because I have not chosen to capture Storm yet, does not mean I don’t have the option,” Germanus went on. “I know all about your life and have access to everyone in it.”
She considered his words. Everyone back in Atlanta from Storm to Tzader, Quinn and Daegan would be hunting her. Storm would keep those in the building safe and the Beladors would protect the others.
What about Adrianna?
Had Germanus captured her, too?
Licking her dry lips, Evalle asked, “Who else is here with me?”
“No one. I need only you.”
She allowed herself a moment of relief at that, if he was telling the truth. Forcing words past her parched throat, she asked, “What do you want me to do?”
“Ah, yes. We finally reach the point of cooperation.”
Really? He thought this was a voluntary situation?
Evidently so, because he carried on as if she’d agreed. “You will need to continue healing, but only to the point that you are able to shift and function.”
Good. Shifting would help her heal faster, but he had to be a fool to allow her the ability to fly away.
Unless he had some crazy-ass power to stop her.
“What exactly do you want from me?” she asked.
“Once you’re ready, you’ll need to be in gryphon form. I will explain more as you are prepared, but first you must heal further.”
Experiencing a moment of hope at the idea of healing, she suggested, “If you let me shift, I’ll heal faster and save you time.”
He actually seemed pleased at that idea, the fool. He said, “If that is what you wish to do.”
Before she could ask anything else, the shackles clicked open.
She slowly brought her arms forward, clenching her eyes shut to stem the tears threatening to pour. It hurt so much she could hardly breathe. When she finally wrapped her good arm across her chest, she moved one leg.
The crooked one wouldn’t bend.
Sighing loudly to emphasize his impatience, Germanous held out his hand.
She was not accepting it.
Then he lifted his hand. As he did that, her body rose from the floor until her legs dangled beneath her. The broken one flopped and a stab of pain ran up her leg.
She cursed.
Moving his free hand, he flicked it at one wall and a door appeared.
Had that been there all along but hidden from view? Maybe he hadn’t teleported in. Dragging her along kinetically, he stepped out of the room and walked down a long hall.
Where were his guards? Didn’t he have any?
It wasn’t until he’d ascended three sets of stairs to a much brighter area that Evalle saw any other life form.
But the light was the greater threat. “Germanus, no sunlight unless you want roasted gryphon.”
“You will not be harmed. It is twilight.”
Two gargoyles, ten feet tall and looking like there’d been a T-Rex somewhere in their background, stood next to an arched opening. They had the same Celtic dragon shape burned into their chests that she’d seen on the clothes Germanus wore.
Ouch.
Just as he’d said, light from post-sunset skies filled the opening. She’d be concerned that since she brought it up, Germanus would now threaten her with death by sunlight, but it seemed he already knew that about her.
He knew too much. Who was this man and what was he doing?
Medieval style weapons decorated the stone walls and vintage rugs covered the slate floors. Windows had no glass. Nothing about this place said twenty-first century.
Germanus lived in a castle.
Was she in Scotland or Germany?
Evalle couldn’t wrap her head around any of this.
As their boss approached, the gargoyles quietly studied what Germanus dragged along on an invisible leash.
She could only imagine how vulnerable she had to appear right now. For the time being, she had to button down her urge to snap at him if he was going to allow her to shift and heal.
Let her regain her strength and he’d face a beast unlike anything he could imagine.
Once that happened, she’d figure out what to do next.
Outside the building, lush green land stretched forever toward majestic, snow-capped mountains. She should have spent more time studying geography instead of reading about mythology and watching NASCAR.
No, she cherished her time with Feenix, who was a huge racing fan.
Her heart ached at thinking about Feenix.
He had to know something was up when she hadn’t returned by daylight. Storm would keep her baby safe, but he’d have a hard time explaining what was going on without upsetting the little gargoyle.
Germanus would deserve every bit of payback she could come up with once she was free.
The sun was nowhere to be found, but darkness did not seem to be falling. Just a greenish-golden hue to everything. The closer he took her to the edge of the roof, if this area of the castle was called a roof, the more she realized the structure had been built on the side of a mountain.
A thousand
feet down, the stone face of the mountain fell away to a valley of grass that swayed in the slightest wind. Beyond that open space, trees filled a stretch that led to a lake in the distance.
A mix of yellow, blue, purple, white and red dotted the valley floor.
Flowers, leafed-out trees and green grass? Would everything be blooming now in northern Europe, or was this castle somewhere closer to the equator? She really had to work on her knowledge of other countries. In her country, the northern states had just suffered a late-spring snowstorm.
What place could she be that was so remote she didn’t even see roads?
She had no idea, but this was a perfect spot for someone like Germanus to hide what he was doing, and maybe even let preternatural beasts like those gargoyles fly without being seen. Who tended the castle? Where were people? Maybe he used his majik to prevent humans from coming too close, but ... that was more power than she could wrap her head around.
Looking out over the beautiful land, she felt the first trickle of true belief that she could escape.
Germanus paused near the edge, moving his hands to position her close to it. “You may shift and fly. Do not attempt to fly away. You will not be successful.”
Could he have warded an area this massive?
She didn’t care what he’d done. She got ready to call up her beast and turn into a gryphon.
Daegan had given her permission to do so when she’d battled alongside him in the human world. If the Tribunal found out that she’d shifted, she had no doubt in her mind that Daegan would back her up and claim she had a right to save herself.
It was nice to have a true ruler who would fight for his people.
Changing shape strained every muscle.
By the time she felt the full extent of her gryphon, she was exhausted. She probably should have healed a bit first before trying to change, but she had no idea if Germanus would allow her to shift again.
Her body would have to keep up.
Now was the time to find out what power she had available.
After the slowest shift in history, she stood, but kept weight off the broken rear leg, which was fairly useless. The crooked leg kept trying to heal ... but it would not mend straight. Lowering it to the ground to take some of her weight, she tested her pain level. Tolerable in this form, but she could only use that limb as a prop. If she had a patch over one eye, she could be a peg-legged gryphon pirate.