by Addison Fox
“So what do we expect to discover with these tests?” Brody tossed his empty paper plate in the garbage and walked over to the large, steel-topped lab table that dominated the center of the room.
“We’re going to learn whatever we can. Just as Themis told you to.” A breathy laugh escaped her, the first light-hearted moments she’d had since their discovery of Ajax’s existence. “I know my being a gemologist makes this a rather stupid question. But, do you really think we’ll learn something?”
“Anything we learn is a bonus. Anything that helps point us toward how to destroy the stones is what we’re looking for.”
“And what about Ajax? He has four stones, Brody. He’s got to have some sense of what they’re capable of, even if he doesn’t know how to use them.”
“Then we’ll be smarter about them.” Brody’s smile lit up his face. “If it’s you and my brother in a battle of the minds, I’m not going to bet against you.”
It was silly, really. Such simple words. Such absolute faith. Tears pricked the backs of her eyes, so she shifted her focus to the computer monitors. And felt a rush of love so strong it nearly brought her to her knees.
Someone who loved her, believed in her, championed her.
“Okay. Let’s get started. Ava, come on over here.” Brody waited for her at the table, so she moved forward, her feet much lighter than she’d ever have expected. “It’s all right, darlin’. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Doesn’t mean I want to do this. I like being in control of my own mind. I don’t like something being in control of it for me.”
Quinn kept his eyes on the monitors, calm concentration threaded through each word. “Ava, I know this is hard. But of all the stones, this one is the easiest for you to handle.”
She nodded her head. “The love stone.”
“Yep.”
For the next two hours, they ran a battery of tests on the stone itself—density, makeup, material of origin. They followed those up by physical tests on Ava as she interacted with it—heart rate, blood pressure, even a few paranormal tests Quinn planned out on his own.
As Ava read the property results on the stone and explained them to Quinn and Brody, the three of them hypothesized about what the results might mean.
One result, however, remained unchanged.
The damn thing was indestructible.
She ran a hand through her hair as she read the same results from three different tests. “How can it be indestructible? It had to come from somewhere. Which means it had to be formed into what it is now, which would make me think hammer and chisel, but . . .”
Brody picked up the stone, turning it around in his hands. “Nothing’s getting through this thing, no matter how big the hammer. It’s completely smooth.” With a sigh, he settled the stone back on the counter in its carrying case.
“You do realize, if anyone saw me doing this right now, I would be so out of a job.”
Ava moved around the lab counter, cleaning up equipment as she went. Quinn had purposely arranged all the equipment at the end of the table so she could pick each piece a clear distance from the stone.
With brisk movements, she replaced each tool in its designated place in the lab. Quinn left them in the subbasement, porting back to the Warriors’ mansion with the stone. She and Brody followed a short while later, giving Quinn ample time to store the stone.
As they walked hand in hand toward Brody’s room, she ran through the data again. “Inconclusive results, as we expected. But at least I know I can stand to be in the same room with this one. Well, sort of. I can stand to be in the same room with it, but if anyone else wants to spend time with my spaced-out ass, they’re going to be disappointed.”
“You were amazing.”
“Yeah, well amazing will be when we lure Enyo and Ajax out in the open.”
“Ava, I don’t want you in that situation.”
The warm cocoon of love and affection and mutual respect nose-dived as she whirled on him. “You can’t leave me out of this now. We have to use the stone to get Enyo’s attention. What if she doesn’t even know Ajax has the four stones? We might be able to play them off each other. Besides, I’m the only one who can draw on the stone’s power.”
“I’m immortal. You’re not. Remember?”
Ava stepped into the bedroom, shutting the door with a firm click once Brody had cleared it. “I’m the conduit for the stones.”
“Which is even more reason why I don’t want you out there. Don’t you see? That’s exactly what they want. Enyo and Ajax, they want to use you, Ava. Whether they’re working together or at cross-purposes, both are dangerous.”
Frustration beat like a kettledrum in her stomach, the heavy, pumping rhythm a match for the pounding of blood through her veins. She wasn’t helpless, damn it.
“We can’t fix this—can’t solve this problem once and for all—if you don’t get me involved. I’m the key in all this, Brody. I know it.”
“Well, I’m not ready to go shoving you in any locks and hoping we get a fit. I need you to sit tight and trust me.”
“Don’t throw trust at me. Anything but that.”
He loomed over her, pressing his forehead against hers. “Okay. Fine. I need you to accept that my experience with Enyo is far longer and deeper than yours. And I’d like you to let my brothers and me use our expertise to fight this battle. We have just a few hours to regroup. Quinn’s securing backup from the Warriors and we’re plotting our strategy this afternoon. It won’t be long before we send up the call to draw Enyo out. Add to that that my real brother’s decided to make a return trip from the dead, and I’m just not feeling on firm footing right now.”
Even if she had wanted to argue, his last point about Ajax was the clincher. No matter the number of battles Brody and his Warrior brothers had fought against Enyo, Ajax was a wildcard and Brody his clear target. “When you put it that way.”
The ringing of her cell phone jarred them out of the moment. Shifting, she hit the speaker button on the handset and answered the call without checking the caller ID.
And regretted it the moment she heard the voice on the other end. “Hello?”
“Ava. It’s your grandmother.”
When she didn’t say anything, her grandmother’s voice barked down the phone line.
“Ava Marie, are you there?”
“Grandmother, I’m sorry. I’m, um, at work and I’m not getting very good cell phone reception.”
“I need to see you. This evening. I’ve gotten word from some museum patrons that you’ve been running around with some archaeologist fellow. We must talk.”
Ava shot Brody a wry grimace and wasn’t surprised when she got wiggling eyebrows in return, his favorite expression when it came to her grandmother.
“Grandmother, I’d hardly call it running around when that archaeologist fellow is assigned to the exhibit with me.”
Oh, and I’m in love with him. And he’s saved my life. And he’s completely and utterly wonderful.
“Mitzi Boniface said she saw him when she was doing her docent duties and she said he looks like something out of a movie.”
“So being attractive is a crime?”
“It is when you run around acting like a common piece of ass.”
“Grandmother!” Ava wasn’t sure if she was insulted or ready to burst into peals of laughter.
Good Lord, the woman really was losing it. Ava stared at the phone, wondering if she’d mistakenly given belligerence and a haughty attitude far more credence in the mental health department than she should have.
“Now, back to the reason for my call. I need to speak with you.”
“Fine, fine, fine. I’ll stop by on my way home this evening after work. Will that be soon enough for you?”
“No later than seven. And don’t be fresh. I expect you to show me your respect.”
“Yes, Grandmother.” She wanted to ask about her respect, but she held her tongue. Ava Marie, ever the dutiful chil
d. “I’ll see you later this evening. Good-bye.”
As she hung up, Brody moved in, pulling her into his arms. “Movie star? Piece of ass? Are all your calls like that?”
“Usually. That woman has the timing of a rhino. And is about as stubborn as one, too.”
“I don’t want you going alone. Enyo or Ajax might attack you there to get the last stone.”
She stepped back, but didn’t fully pull out of his arms. “Brody, this is my grandmother. It’ll take a half hour, at most, to run over and do my duty.”
“Need I remind you, yet again, of the family surprise that awaited me? Nothing is off-limits right now. And at this point, they’re going to be desperate to get to the last stone. Neither Enyo nor my brother are ones to sit around and wait for victory to come to them.”
“Fair point.”
“I’m serious, Ava.” Brody took a deep breath. “It’s not just Enyo and Ajax. I don’t trust your uncle Wyatt.”
The vague annoyance of her grandmother’s call faded in the light of Brody’s comments. “How would you know my uncle?”
“Maybe I should have told you this earlier. I met him on the dig for the prophecy a few months ago. Quinn and Grey ran a few checks on him. Your uncle’s up to something, Ava, and we think it’s tied to you.”
“And you’re just telling me now?” Raw fury whipped through her as she stepped out of Brody’s arms. How dare he keep this from her.
“I didn’t want to worry you. And as long as you’re with us, you’re safe. Protected.”
“You think my uncle—one of the few freaking family members I’ve got—is a threat to me, and you didn’t think it was worth mentioning?” She waited a beat—saw the remorse that ran heavy in his gaze—and pressed harder. “What did you find out about him?”
“He recently had a deposit made to his private bank account for twenty million dollars.”
Ava felt the air rush out of her lungs. “Is that all?”
“And he purchased a gun after he arrived in Egypt. And a dig worker was murdered on the site, a few days before Peter Dryson’s murder.”
Brody and Ava snuck into the museum before heading to her grandmother’s. Dr. Martin hadn’t been seen or heard from in two days, according to Ava’s assistant, Suzy, but Brody wasn’t eager to take any chances.
Quinn was out securing backup from the other Warriors, putting everyone in place on Mount Olympus. Although Brody wanted to be with him, running the op, he couldn’t leave Ava alone and unguarded.
And they still had unfinished business at the museum.
The great exhibit hall was nearly complete, Ava’s efforts around planning and design coming to fruition in the execution.
“I don’t believe it.”
Brody ran a hand down her back, settling at her waist. “Believe it. This is what a hell of a lot of hard work can create.”
“What did you want to see?” She didn’t accept the compliment, but she hadn’t pulled away from his touch, either, which Brody took as a good sign.
He’d made a serious miscalculation on how he handled the Wyatt situation. And while it chapped his ass to be called on it, he couldn’t exactly fault her for her anger.
“I want to look at the prophecy relief again.”
“The official translations came in the other day. I picked them up on e-mail. Your translation was flawless.”
“Why, thank you.”
They moved to the front of the exhibit, where visitors would begin their journey. The relief was already framed up behind bulletproof glass and a freshly created translation hung next to it.
Brody let his gaze scan over both of them, reading the prophecy in both languages.
Once in every age, a Chosen One, selected by the great god Ra, will harness the Great Summoning Stones of Egypt. The five stones grant the Chosen One dominion over everything: death, life, love, sexuality, infinity. The Chosen One—the Key—will bind the power of the stones under its command. The Key will rule over all the earth and no portal will be immune to its influence. No god can rule above the Chosen One when the Chosen One commands the power of the stones.
Though the Key will hold power over all in its dominion, there is but one force that can magnify its power tenfold. At the entrance to Heliopolis will the Key wield its greatest victory.
“Ava. Please pull up your e-mail. Is that last paragraph in your translation?” A sinking feeling washed over Brody, the words swimming before his eyes.
Magnify its power tenfold.
Wield its greatest victory.
At the entrance to Heliopolis.
Ava handed him her phone, the e-mail function engaged and ready for view. Brody scanned the text and saw the last piece matched.
As his gaze darted over the bottom of the relief, he saw the hieroglyphics, saw what he had missed—what must have come to life as the last part of the relief was pulled from the tomb.
“Brody, what’s the matter?”
“Read the bottom part.”
“Tenfold? There’s even more power in the stones than we thought?”
“Indestructible power.”
Her strangled laugh touched a chord in him as she tried to be brave. “Times one or times ten, isn’t indestructible the same any way you slice it?”
“Degrees of bad, darling. And this is a very bad thing.”
“Right, but where’s Heliopolis? Egypt? We still have one stone. Even if Enyo and Ajax have all the others, we’re in New York.”
“Yes, but the entrance to Heliopolis is right here in Manhattan.”
Chapter Twenty-one
“What do you mean, ‘right here in Manhattan’?” Ava scanned the prophecy language again, still not understanding the problem. This wasn’t ancient Egypt. Heck, even if these artifacts had remained for all these years, things were different.
Times had changed. Ancient artifacts didn’t lie in wait, eager to be unleashed in foreign lands. Did they?
“Cleopatra’s Needle. In Central Park.”
In her mind’s eye, Ava saw it immediately, remembered Saturdays in Central Park with her father, picnicking in full view of the monument. “The old obelisk that stands on the back side of the Met?”
“Yep.”
“Come on, Brody. I went there as a kid. My father was obsessed with all things Egyptian—how could I have missed it? And in all the times I’ve been there, I’ve never felt anything. Not even a hint of anything. It’s not like the stones.”
“Well, half the prophecy can’t be right. It’s all or nothing. Besides, it would make sense you didn’t feel anything, because the obelisks harness power; they’re not the source of power.”
“But—” Ava broke off whatever argument she was about to make. If she’d learned anything over the past few days, it was that nothing was quite what she expected.
And nothing was exactly as it seemed.
“Okay. So we need to add yet another dimension to this puzzle.”
As Brody turned back toward the prophecy, she left to wander the room, checking out how the various elements were coming together.
Lighting was set up mostly how she’d asked, with very few exceptions. And in those cases, she actually liked the new lighting selection better almost every time.
The glass cases were polished and shined to perfection, just ready and waiting for their first, smudged fingerprints.
Traffic flow was shaping up nicely, as various items were placed to divert the museum-goer into a specific locale, every step of the way.
Immense pride filled her. She had had a hand in this. She owned it.
And it was about time she stood up and owned what was hers.
Following out the rest of the traffic flow, Ava walked the last several yards of the exhibit. The exit would be through a black set of curtains, next to the entrance, but she could see Brody as those hadn’t yet been finalized.
Brody smiled at her across the distance as she closed the last forty yards. “Does it meet with your expectations?”
“Does it ever.” She eyed a small row of benches that had already been put in place to her specifications.
Who had left a bag lunch sitting there underneath? As she walked toward the bag, a strange taste hit her tongue.
Sharp.
Metallic.
She continued to reach for the bag, unable to stop the pull—the suggestion—she needed to pick it up. Hold it. Own it.
Don’t pick it up, Ava Marie!
Even as she tried to shake it off, Ava recognized the signs for what they were.
Drumbeats pounded as a snake slithered past her ankle, its fangs bared. Another joined it, rearing up before her eyes. It undulated before her, hissing and darting forward in time to the heavy drumbeats stuck in her ears. The smell of fire assaulted her as the large fire pit grew before her eyes.
People screamed as they fought the pull of death.
More snakes slithered toward them to rain down on their bodies.
Brody landed in a heap on the couches in the great room of the mansion. Even Callie’s screams couldn’t penetrate the wall of fear that gripped him and wouldn’t let up. Hard, heavy pressure lay on his heart as he shifted Ava, laying her down on the couch.
“Oh my God! What happened to her?”
“Callie, go get Quinn. Now. Then call Kane and Grey.”
For once the woman didn’t argue or suggest she knew better. She just left to find the others.
Brody leaned over, incoherent words spilling from his lips as he took in her pale white features and the dark circles that rimmed her eyes. “Baby, baby, baby. Come back to me, Ava. Baby, come back.”
Quinn and Kane were on him immediately, while Callie raced back into the room.
“What the fuck is going on, Talbot?”
“She’s unconscious. And I don’t know why.”
Belatedly, Brody realized Quinn had him by the shirt, a huge handful balled up. Without rational thought, he fought at his brother, scratching and kicking as Quinn dragged him away from Ava.
“What did you do?”
His muscles quivered as Brody pushed at the Bull. “Get the fuck off me.”
“Brody!”
