by Jamie Craig
As it turned out, she didn’t even have the chance to reach for her gun. One large hand fell on her shoulder and the other curled around the back of her neck. In the next second, she was vertical, at least two feet off the ground. Her captor was the size of a mountain and held her like she weighed nothing at all.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” He set her on the ground and shone a small flashlight in her face. “Oh, it’s you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. Marisol said she was expecting you. She just didn’t think you’d be stupid enough to go through the front yard.”
“She must be eager to see me.”
“She said I should get rid of you.”
“Then she’ll never know where the other coin is. Doesn’t she care about that at all?”
The mountain narrowed his eyes at her, clearly weighing Marisol’s previous order against this new information. He wasn’t eager to displease her. She imagined nobody was eager to displease Marisol these days. Were they aware of how powerful she was becoming? Or was it that crazy look in her eye that kept her men in line? Without uttering a word, he dragged her toward the house. Olivia had to move quickly to keep up, her heart beating faster as he shoved through the front door.
No wonder Gabriel had so many interests and his fingers in so many pies. The rented house was more of a palace. It must have cost a fortune to keep a woman with expensive taste like this happy. Olivia almost said as much, but her enormous companion didn’t look like the sort who would appreciate the humor. At least it had to be more comfortable for the girls than some warehouse.
He dragged her up the first flight of stairs, down a hall, and then up another flight. Olivia kept careful track of the path he took as well as the floor plan of what she could see. It might be necessary to use the house as an obstacle path later, and there was always ready weaponry in the kitchen. She might not like the thought of using a knife, but that wouldn’t stop her from cutting somebody like a ripe tomato if it came down to it.
At first, there was only the sound of his ragged breathing and their footsteps across the polished tile, but after they reached the second floor, the unmistakable rhythm of a Spanish chant drifted to them. It wasn’t familiar. Not the same chant she’d heard when they’d raided Gabriel’s house, but Olivia had no question of what it was. Which meant they weren’t too late yet. But a couple more minutes of delay and they would be. A perfectly round patch of heat burned through her pocket, and something in her chest stirred in response. Endorphins raced through her system, giving her a new charge of energy and a strange sense of invulnerability.
Olivia ignored that. The last thing she needed to do was get in a battle with a behemoth, and it had nothing to do with whether she’d win or lose. But as they neared their destination, anticipation surged through her. She was finally going to see the priestesses in the flesh. They wouldn’t be black-and-white images any longer. She was relieved to be so close to rescuing them, but that wasn’t quite what it felt like. It was heavier, somehow. And more exciting. Like she was about to shake the hand of somebody she’d admired her entire life.
He knocked on the door once before pushing it open. The chanting stopped and six pairs of eyes turned at once to regard the intruders. Clear relief shone in five of those sets, but Marisol looked furious enough to chew through a wall.
“You were supposed to get rid of her,” she snapped. “Is it that hard to follow an order?”
The mountain man fidgeted from foot to foot. “She said you’d want to know where the other coin was. I thought the Silver Maiden was more important.”
“She’s playing you.”
“You know I’m not, Marisol. So what exactly are you up to here? Something Gabriel wouldn’t approve of?”
Her eyes glittered. “It doesn’t matter. Gabriel isn’t here.”
“God knows I don’t like the guy, but he and I agree on one thing. You’re not going to hurt these girls anymore.”
“Because you’re going to stop me? You haven’t been effective at anything yet. Couldn’t keep Gabriel in prison, couldn’t stop me from coming back, couldn’t even get in the house without getting caught.” She clicked her tongue as she shook her head. “Such a waste. I’ll bet you couldn’t even keep that cute detective of yours satisfied.”
“I don’t know if I’m as worthless as that. I did find you, after all.” Well, Remy had done most of the work to make that possible, but Olivia wasn’t going to let on. “How’s that arm? It looked like an ugly wound.”
Though Marisol didn’t flinch, four of the five girls looked at the long, loose sleeve covering her arm. Good. Point out the fact that Marisol wasn’t as invincible as they thought, and give them confidence to help if the need arose.
“Tie her up and put a gag on her, Cruz. It might be fun to have her watch when she’s helpless to do anything about it.”
“Can you just tell me one thing first, Marisol? I’ve been dying to know. What, exactly, is a Keeper?”
For the first time, Marisol smiled. “My own personal watchdog. Now muzzle her, Cruz. Unless I need to get Ernesto to do your job for you.”
Cruz’s jaw locked, and his head bowed in compliance. The hand he’d clamped around her wrist tightened even more as he dragged her to the edge of the room and shoved her against the wall. He blocked Olivia’s view of Marisol and the girls, catching her jaw and forcing her head back when she twisted to look past him.
“She wanted you dead. She meant it.”
“What can I say, big guy? Sometimes you gamble and lose. But I think you should get out of here while you’re still ahead.”
“You’re the one who fails to serve the Silver Maiden.” He reached for a length of thin rope resting on a nearby table. It was the same rope she’d seen around the kidnapped girls’ wrists and ankles. “You’re the one who isn’t safe.”
“And you’re the one who’s talking too much,” Marisol complained behind him. “Hurry it up. I’ve waited too long for this already.”
“I’m not going to let you tie me up. I’ve been very cooperative up to now, I think you’ll agree, but that’s where I draw my line in the sand.”
Cruz hesitated. After taking care of the more docile girls, he probably didn’t know what to do with a female who didn’t cower in the face of his size. Olivia lifted her chin and stared him down. She would put up a much bigger fight than this if he tried to actually use the rope.
Behind him, a girl cried out. They both jerked at the sound, and Cruz stepped enough to the side to allow Olivia to see what had happened.
Marisol stood behind the tiniest of the five young women, a long blade at the girl’s throat. “Stop fucking around and just do it. Or so help me, I will make sure this one dies slow and hard.”
Olivia tensed, ready to stop fucking around with Cruz and put herself between Marisol and the girls. The coin burned hotter than before, urging her forward like the sharp sting of a whip. The girl Marisol held was crying now, her tears falling silently as she held herself perfectly still. Fear flooded Olivia, but it didn’t belong to her. Marisol pressed the blade forward, and Olivia felt an answering throb at the base of her throat.
“You know what I think a Keeper is?” Olivia asked, her voice steady. “I think a Keeper makes sure maniacs like you can’t abuse the Silver Maiden’s powers. I think it’s my job to stop you, and I’m going to.”
“You can’t. You couldn’t in your time, you couldn’t at the warehouse, and you won’t now. Because she’ll be dead before you get past Cruz, and not even you are stupid enough to take that chance.”
The girl was absolutely going to die if Olivia stood there and did nothing. That was not an acceptable outcome. As far as Olivia could see, she had only one real choice.
With Cruz still looking at Marisol, Olivia took advantage of his distraction to drive her heel into his foot. The hand on her throat clenched and he growled like an injured bear. He tried to catch her other hand, but her fist shot up, catching his chin with a hard upp
ercut that snapped his head back. Still, his hand didn’t loosen. She punched him in the throat, mouth twisting with satisfaction when he started to choke. A knee to his unprotected groin dropped him an instant later.
“There. Now it’s just us girls.”
With a furious sneer, Marisol jerked the girl harder to her chest, the muscles in her arm tensing to draw the blade across the front of her throat. Something pounded heavily outside the door, drawing the terrified attention of the other girls but not Marisol. And not Olivia. She refused to take her eyes off the bitch.
The door splintered as it flew inward. Screams filled the room, and two of the young women dropped to their knees to curl up into a ball. Blood spurted from the slice into the throat of Marisol’s hostage, but before the knife could draw all the way across, something whistled through the air.
Marisol shrieked, dropping both the girl and her blade. When she stumbled back, Olivia got a good view of the wicked knife buried in her upper arm.
“You started the party without me,” Remy commented from the doorway. “That’s a little rude, don’t you think?”
“I stalled as long as I could.” Olivia rushed to the cut girl. She just reached her when Marisol shouted and slammed her shoulder into Olivia’s side. Olivia lost her footing, crashing to the ground with Marisol on top of her. She tried to roll from beneath the other woman, but Marisol took advantage of her position, digging her knees into Olivia’s ribs as she pulled her uninjured arm back, forming a tight fist.
Remy appeared at Marisol’s shoulder, catching her wrist and twisting it behind Marisol’s back. It knocked her off Olivia, but as Olivia scrambled free, struggling to catch her breath, it was Remy’s turn to be wrestled to the hard floor. She tried to reach for her boot, only to be blocked by Marisol brandishing a bloody knife. Olivia recognized the hilt. It was the one Remy had thrown.
Marisol’s lips curled back. “It’ll be a pleasure to kill you.”
“You have no idea how many people have said that to me.” Remy arched away from the stab of the blade, missing its edge by only inches. When her leg swept up to try and curl around Marisol’s upper body, Olivia saw blood seeping through the back of her jeans.
The heat from the coin burned through her pants, scalding her thigh. She gasped, desperate to get it out of her pocket while she refocused on the girl. Remy would have to take care of Marisol herself. The girl was losing too much blood for Olivia to ignore. Her fingers closed around the coin at the same moment she pressed her hand against the ragged wound on her throat.
“It’ll be…” A series of rapid explosions cut her off, and she looked over her shoulder for Cruz or an accomplice firing an automatic weapon. Marisol and Remy froze in their struggle, and silence descended for a beat. “Remy?”
Sudden violet light exploded into the room, sending Olivia reeling back, pain shooting through her eyes, a hundred times worse than any vision.
Marisol screamed. Her entire body twitched where it pinned Remy down, the convulsive grip she’d had on Remy’s hair loosening. Remy took the opening and rolled away, but the heat of whatever went off scorched through her clothes, curling her body inward, legs bending, head bowing, arms reaching behind her neck to protect herself as she pulled into a tight ball.
The smell of wet earth suddenly filled her nose, thick and moist and clogging where it clung to the back of her throat. She tried to breathe through her mouth, which helped a little, but not enough to suck in any real air. Distantly, she heard weeping, but as she tried to discern who might be hurt and how she could possibly force herself back to her feet to help, the heat searing through her clothes seeped into her flesh, sinking all the way to her bones.
“Remy? Are you hurt?”
Olivia. Her voice was clear, if a little shaky.
“Just aces.” It came out more of a croak. Clearing her throat, she summoned the will to pull her head up, like a turtle poking its way out of its shell. She expected her muscles to protest, but they didn’t hurt. Instead, they felt rubbery, like Nathan had given her one of his best massages. “What was that?”
“I don’t know. Where’s Marisol? I can’t see.”
She squinted and scanned around, looking for Marisol, or at least, a blob that looked like it might be a schizo bitch. The constantly shifting light made it too hard to be certain. Slowly, she unfolded her limbs. One arm, then the other. A leg, and then her vision was clearer, and she could make out the silhouettes of two figures, the closer of the two on her knees and bent almost double, clutching her head.
The other was merged with the pulsing light. A woman, completely naked, gazing down on the shape at her feet with undisguised fury. Her hair was twisted back in a loose braid, jet-black except for the threads of silver shot through it, but it was the sharp profile that caught Remy’s eye. She just couldn’t place why the high cheekbones and narrow, regal nose seemed familiar.
“Betrayer.” The woman uttered the single word with a curl of her lip, though her voice remained low and fervent.
The figure at her feet shook her head. Though she had to squint, Remy could now see it was Marisol. “I’ve served—”
Another scream tore from her throat. The woman standing above her hadn’t even moved, though the light around her deepened its violet hue.
“I’ve seen your heart, Marisol. Don’t think you can lie to me.”
“It wasn’t me, it was Gabr—”
Her body flew to the side as her pained shout pierced the room. Fresh blood spattered along the floor, dripping from a new cut down the side of her neck.
“All those girls,” the woman said. “You should have helped them.”
Though she kept her head bent, Marisol dragged the back of her hand across her mouth, smearing blood in its wake. “They didn’t even know what they were. They were wasting their powers.”
“It wasn’t your place to take them.”
“Remy?” Olivia called. “What’s going on?”
Her query distracted the woman in the light, drawing her gaze away from Marisol to where Olivia was huddled on the floor. The anger in her face softened, and the sense of déjà vu washed over Remy again.
Until she saw the knife in Marisol’s bloodstained grip.
“Look out!”
In spite of the saturated heat holding her body hostage, Remy threw herself at Marisol. The woman in the light was faster.
She caught Marisol’s wrist and stopped the blow in midswing. Her other hand plunged into Marisol’s chest, tearing through clothes and skin like they weren’t even there. The rhythm of the light changed, slowing down beat by beat, as the two women remained locked in their stasis. Slowly, Marisol went slack, and the fury shadowing the woman’s face smoothed over.
The light didn’t pulse at all when she let Marisol go. As the dead body crumpled, the woman straightened, her hands as clean and perfect as they had been when she arrived. Only when did she turn to smile at Remy did the light surrounding her begin to beat again.
“Thank you, Remy.”
She didn’t know what to say to that, except…“No problem.” But she did remember what else she was dying to ask. “Who are you?”
A small, enigmatic smile curved her lips. “You summoned me.”
Remy blinked. “Huh?”
“You’ve gathered the priestesses and used the coins.” It wasn’t until that point that Remy realized the woman wasn’t speaking English. It didn’t sound like Spanish, either. Whatever it was, Remy understood easily. “What is your purpose?”
“I didn’t…”
That had been Gabriel’s plan. Bring them all together, and use them to…summon the Silver Maiden.
The woman looked familiar because she resembled the woman on the coins. That poor soul, so many centuries ago, fleeing a servitude that had fought so desperately to destroy her. The one who’d given Remy hope, because she’d understood that fierce desire to be free.
And the light. She knew that too. It wasn’t a conscious memory. She knew it mostly becaus
e of Nathan, and his recounting of the night she’d arrived in L.A. He described gunfire and the strange light before she’d appeared. The power of the coins made manifest.
The Silver Maiden.
“Olivia?” she called out. “We have company.”
“I can’t…I can’t look at her, Remy. It hurts too much.”
“She can’t see me,” the Silver Maiden said. “Very few people can. Only those I allow and those who have inherited my gifts.”
“But I didn’t summon you. I don’t even have the coin. She does.”
The Silver Maiden’s face remained serene at Remy’s outburst. “My medallion will respond to her, but she lacks what you have. As your guardian, she’s allowed to experience only a small amount of what the medallion is truly capable of.”
“She used it to travel through time. She can see things I can’t.” She saw no reason for the Silver Maiden to lie, but maybe she didn’t have all the facts. “I’m nobody.”
“The medallion allowed her to travel through time so she might find you. And what she sees always leads to you. She was born to protect you, Remy. And your child.”
The protest died on her lips. Child? It wasn’t possible. Her hand strayed to her stomach, slipping beneath her shirt to touch the warm skin. She couldn’t be pregnant. She had the—except no, the birth control shot she’d always taken for granted had been from D.C., from before Nathan. It had a shelf life she’d completely forgotten about in the joy and love that Nathan had given her, an expiration that had passed almost two months ago. They hadn’t worried about condoms since that first talk about it last summer.