She turned slightly in the seat to face him.
“Those who were lucky enough to be close together learned how to hide what they were and how to take only what energy they needed to survive. As with any human trait, some were better at it than others and survived to pass the gene along to subsequent generations. A few developed more specialized talents.”
“Like you and Judith.”
His mouth took on a grim set as he stared down the highway. “Yeah, lucky us.” Then he looked straight into Kerry’s eyes. “And lucky you.”
Even though his calm declaration didn’t come as a surprise, she didn’t like it. But now wasn’t the time to deny reality. “And I’m like Judith. I’ve got the secret superpowers that she has.”
He nodded. “Judith sensed that you were something special, although she didn’t warn Sandor or me about…” His words trailed off, making her wonder what Judith hadn’t told them and why.
“But you didn’t know until I stopped you and Sandor from fighting,” she said. “That was all it took to convince you all that she was right.”
“Hard to argue when the evidence has you immobilized.” His mouth twitched as if he’d been fighting a grin. “The look on Sandor’s face was pretty damn funny.”
She closed her eyes and tried to recall the exact moment when Ranulf had known that the power had been coming from her and not Judith. It had taken Sandor longer to figure it out, but Ranulf had been furious. Not at her, but at Judith. Why?
“Judith was keeping more than just my abilities secret, wasn’t she?”
“Like I said, our people have different abilities. Judith is the strongest Kyth to appear in all of the centuries of her life. But the more powerful the gift, the more unstable it can be. Before she met her husband Rolf, her ability to control her gifts was unpredictable to the point of being dangerous. The more you use your gifts, the stronger they become until they reach their full potential.”
He turned westbound onto the interstate, falling silent until he cut across to the fast lane.
“When the gift is off-the-chart strong, it can rage out of control without outside help. Luckily, Judith met Rolf before she ran into any real problems. His gift stabilized hers. Judith’s mother’s gifts had done the same for her father’s. Without the right Consort, Judith wouldn’t have been able to serve our people as long as she has, and it’s why she’s fading now. She’s literally burning out.”
So Judith had sent her strongest Talions to keep Kerry safe. Fine. She could understand the older woman’s desire to make sure a potential heir to her position was protected from attack.
But had she ordered them both to protect her for more than the obvious reason? Kerry added up all the facts and did not like the answer she was getting.
“She thinks one of you would make a good Consort for me, doesn’t she?” And Kerry had obligingly taken Ranulf to her bed.
Ranulf had lapsed into a dark silence, going somewhere in his mind that she wasn’t sure she wanted to follow. “There’s more to it than that, isn’t there? This has to do with your pledge to serve Judith.”
After a few seconds, he slowly nodded. “I owed her my fealty and have served her long and well for a thousand years, never questioning my duty. But I need some peace in my life, and she’d promised that after this one last mission, I could retire for good. I wasn’t counting on this…this…whatever this is between the two of us.”
She didn’t know what it was, either. She just knew that it was strong and powerful and good, but Ranulf clearly had different ideas on the subject. Letting go was going to be far harder than she’d imagined. He’d served his Dame and their people in good faith. Although Kerry didn’t know what her role with the Kyth was going to be, she did know that she had no right—they had no right—to ask more of this man.
It was time to change the subject.
“Should I call Sandor and see if he’s been able to find out anything more on Bradan?”
Ranulf tossed her his cell phone. She scrolled to Sandor’s number and pushed the Send button. He answered on the second ring.
“Where the hell are you two? I’ve been trying to call you for the past half an hour. Bradan took Judith prisoner.”
“We know. We were out of cell phone service, but Judith reached us on the landline.” She turned to Ranulf. “How long until we reach Sandor?”
“Thirty minutes, maybe a little more. Tell him we’ll meet him at Judith’s.”
“Did you hear that?” she asked, then listened for a few more seconds before disconnecting the call.
“What did he say?”
Kerry felt sick. “He’s at her house. Josiah’s dead.” She’d never been a vindictive person, but right now she prayed that Bradan suffered greatly for the pain he caused.
“Hurt him for me.” Her fingers tingled and burned with the need to choke something. “Make him pay for all of this.”
Ranulf reached out to cup the side of her face with a soothing touch. “This I will pledge to you: Bradan will die screaming for mercy.”
“Good.”
* * *
His Dame even bled with dignity, making Bradan hate her all the more. Bradan had worked her over pretty well, leaving her bruised and battered, yet Judith remained unbroken by both the pain and the promise of more to come.
“You’re going to die.”
Her eyes met his, the cold hatred burning in their depths with ferocious power. “I was dying long before you started playing your childish games, Bradan. Nothing you do will change that, except to hasten my final breaths.” She coughed and wheezed. “May the gods themselves curse you for what you did to Josiah. He was not your enemy.”
Bradan laughed. “He was foolish enough to serve you and your archaic attitudes, Judith. For that alone, he had to die. A new order is coming, and our people will rise up from the thralldom you’ve ensnared them in to take our real place in the scheme of things. Humans will learn to serve us or die.”
“All you will succeed in doing is starting a war, you fool. Humans will learn to fear our kind, and they destroy that which they fear. It was true a thousand years ago.” Her breath came in wheezes. “It is true now.”
He shrugged, tired of the discussion. In any war there were casualties, but the strong survived and flourished. “I have some arrangements to make. Save your strength.” He patted her on the head. “You’ll need it.”
* * *
Sandor brought a clean sheet into Judith’s living room to cover Josiah’s body after Ranulf arrived. He’d already been through the room gathering as much information as he could, but the Viking might be able to sense something Sandor had missed.
He paced the hallway. What had the bastard been thinking by taking Kerry so far away? Even if Judith had ordered them out of her house, there had been other places to keep Kerry safe. But Ranulf wasn’t thinking with his brain.
Closing his eyes, Sandor concentrated on easing the pounding in his head. It had been days since he’d slept through the night, the need to find Bradan driving him from his bed after only an hour or two of rest. He needed to restore his energy supply and soon, but when was he supposed to fit that in? Sometime between rescuing Judith and killing her kidnapper?
The squeal of tires jerked him out of his thoughts. Drawing his gun, he sidled up to the front window to make sure it was the Viking. Sure enough, that white tank he drove was parked out front, and Kerry was climbing out of the passenger side.
He threw open the front door, ready to rip Ranulf a new one. “Isn’t that smart? You drive all the way to hell’s half acre to get Kerry out of Bradan’s reach and then bring her straight back here.”
“Shut the hell up, Sandor. You can—”
“Stop it! Both of you.”
Kerry got between the two of them but then instantly took Ranulf’s side. “He tried to leave me on the mountain, but I make my own choices, Sandor. Both of you are feeling raw over Judith being kidnapped, and I understand that. But we’re not going to do her any
good if the two of you keep fighting each other instead of going after the real enemy here.”
Though Sandor needed a target for his guilt and his anger, she was right. As tempting as it was to blame Ranulf, he hadn’t been the only one who’d gone off, leaving Judith alone to defend herself. He should have argued more, but he hadn’t.
Sandor forced his lungs to fill with air and let some of his tension drain away as he exhaled. “Come inside, Ranulf, and look around in case you can pick up anything from the room.”
“Good thinking.”
Ranulf entered the foyer and closed his eyes, remaining absolutely still for a few seconds before moving on to the living room. His breath came in short jerks, the only sign that Ranulf was disturbed by the sight of Josiah lying in a pool of drying blood.
Kerry started to follow him into the room, but Sandor blocked her with his arm. “Let him work alone.”
When she spied Josiah’s body, she uttered a soft cry. Feeling her raw pain, Sandor pulled her back against his chest and wrapped a protective arm around her shoulders. He thought she was crying; his time for mourning would come after he’d tasted revenge against Bradan.
The big redhead prowled back and forth across the room, pausing every so often to sniff the air or tilt his head, as if listening to a sound only he could hear. Finally, he returned to Sandor.
“There’s not much to learn. Bradan shot Josiah from outside the window. I can feel the afterburn of Judith’s attempt to stop the bleeding. Judging from the strength of the residue, she expended a great deal of her reserve energy before Bradan reached her.”
Sandor had suspected as much. “Was there a struggle?” Had he hurt her?
Ranulf stared into the room for several seconds before shaking his head. “No, the only violence I sense surrounds Josiah. I suspect Judith went along peacefully after making sure we knew what was going on.”
Kerry pushed away from Sandor’s embrace, rubbing the tears from her face. “Why would she do that? Give in to the man without putting up a fight?”
Despite the fury in Ranulf’s eyes, he gentled his tone to answer. “It could be that she didn’t have any energy left to fight with. Josiah’s death would have hit her hard, maybe hard enough to leave her stripped bare. And if she’d resisted, that would likely have triggered more immediate violence from Bradan. She might have been trying to buy herself—and us—some time.”
He spotted the sheet Sandor had brought in and picked it up. Stooping next to the dead man, he straightened the body and crossed the man’s hands over his chest. After closing the butler’s eyes, Ranulf murmured one of the old prayers and then spread the temporary shroud.
It was time to search for Bradan. “If you’re done in here, Ranulf, I have some information to show you,” Sandor said. “We finally have a lead on where Bradan went to ground.”
In the dining room he stood back while Ranulf scanned the computer records. Sandor waited to see if the Viking came to the same conclusion he had. If he was following the paper trail correctly, Bradan had himself a nice little retreat high in the mountains. It didn’t take long for Ranulf to finish reading the screen.
Ranulf’s smile was a promise of violence to come. “Well, he’s got balls, I’ve got to give him that much.”
Something about his reaction seemed odd. “Why do you say that?”
“He’s on the property right next door to my place.”
Sandor thought he’d heard everything. “Are you sure? Did he know where you live?”
“I don’t know, but you pass the turnoff to my place about half a mile before crossing his property line.”
Kerry reached out to trace a twisting line on the map. “That state road we take to your home—where does it go?”
Ranulf slammed his fist down on the table. “In Bradan’s case, the only place it will lead is straight to hell. Shall we go wish him bon voyage?”
For the first time in days, Sandor felt like smiling. “You bet.”
Chapter 14
The drive seemed to take an eternity, giving them plenty of time to worry about Judith. Kerry insisted that they make a short stop at a crowded restaurant at the edge of a town between the highway and the national forest. All of them had gone too long without eating a decent meal, and both men clearly needed to renew their energy levels.
As they waited for a booth and then for their food, Ranulf sat with his eyes closed and drew in deep, slow breaths, taking in energy. By the time the waitress returned with a heavily laden tray, the sickly pallor in Sandor’s complexion had disappeared, too.
Neither of them wanted the delay, but they hadn’t argued for long. They knew that going against their enemy in a weakened condition was a recipe for disaster. Although Kerry wasn’t conscious of tapping into the life force of the humans surrounding them, her own nerves felt soothed. Or perhaps it came from being in such close proximity to the two Talions sitting on either side of her in the circular booth.
She had so much to learn about who and what she was to become. Already her previous life seemed distant and faded; only the immediate present was full of vivid colors and passions. The intensity of her feelings for Ranulf and even Sandor should have frightened her. Now, she wanted to embrace whatever it meant to be Kyth.
She only hoped they lived through the next twenty-four hours. After swirling her last steak fry through the ketchup, she popped it in her mouth and pushed her basket back. Then she swiped one of Ranulf’s fries and gulped it down.
“Hey!” He moved the rest of his food out of her reach. “How can a little thing like you pack it away like that and stay so thin?”
She liked the momentary amusement sparkling in his eyes. “I’ve been burning a lot of extra calories during vigorous exercise lately.”
The look she gave him sizzled with heat and made him shift restlessly in his seat. There would be retribution later, she was sure—definitely something to look forward to.
“Ahem.” Sandor cleared his throat. “Do I need to remind you two that a) you’re in a restaurant, not a motel; and b) we have more important things on our mind than…that?”
Kerry couldn’t help herself. She giggled. Listening to the sophisticated Talion stumble over the word sex hit her as funny, though maybe that was just a release for some of the stress. At first Sandor looked insulted, but then he slowly smiled and shook his head. Ranulf snaked his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into the haven of his warmth.
Ranulf gave her one last squeeze before sliding out of the booth. “I guess it’s time we go.” He offered her a hand, which she gladly accepted. There was no telling how their mission was going to turn out, and she wanted every second she could with her lover.
Just that quickly, the fear was back. “This is going to be bad, no matter how it turns out, isn’t it?” She looked from Sandor and then back to Ranulf, reading the truth in the shuttered looks in their eyes.
Ranulf grasped the talisman at the same time Sandor reached for his. “Bradan will die tonight, Kerry. This we swear.”
She believed them, but that didn’t mean he would be the only one to die on the mountain. How could she bear to lose Ranulf when she’d only just found him? Her heart ached with the need to hold him, to tell him her truth, and it took her a second to realize that Sandor was talking.
“You two go on out. I want to get some coffee to go.” Sandor picked up the check and headed for the register.
Ranulf tugged her toward the door. He leaned down close to whisper, “I think that’s Sandor’s way of giving us a few minutes alone. Let’s not waste them.”
Outside, the sky to the west was ablaze with color. Behind them, the mountains were already shrouded in darkness. The natural beauty registered only faintly as Ranulf led her to the shadows under the trees.
There she threw herself at him, unwilling to allow even air to separate them. Then she was in his arms and his tongue was demanding entry to her mouth, the need for touch, for taste, for this burning heat so exquisite and oh, so preciou
s.
“Kerry!”
“Ranulf, please!”
Her name became his mantra, her ragged whisper the amen to his prayer. Tangling her fingers in his hair, she held on as he plundered her mouth. He swept her up in his arms and crossed to a picnic table in a few long strides to set her down on the edge.
Without asking for permission, he nudged her knees apart and stepped in close enough to let her feel how much he wanted her, needed her. There wasn’t time for more than a hurried embrace, but if this was their last moment together, he wouldn’t waste it worrying about finesse.
She rewarded his audacity by wrapping her legs around his waist as he lowered her back down onto the rough-hewn table. Her hands were everywhere, caressing his arms and then busy digging her fingers into the muscles of his back. He did his own fair share of touching, palming the fullness of her breast, cupping her bottom, lifting her tighter against his erection.
He drove her higher, wanting to feel her coming in his arms, wishing their clothes to perdition so that he could bury his cock in the welcoming heat of her body. Even if he couldn’t satisfy himself, he wanted to hear her cry out her release to the heavens.
He thrust against her again and again, until the friction threatened to ignite the cool mountain air. Finally, he yanked down her zipper and slipped his hand between them to settle at the junction of her legs. She was slick and wet and so ready for him. By the gods, this woman was enough to bring a man to his knees.
“Come for me, Kerry.” Her body clenched tight around the two fingers he eased inside her, as he was loving the way she whimpered with pleasure as he stroked her, loving the way she clung to his shoulders, loving the way she kissed him as if she could devour him completely, just plain loving her.
He hadn’t realized he’d said that last part out loud until her eyes flashed open to meet his. She stilled in his arms and captured his face with the soft touch of her fingers. “I love you, too, Ranulf. I need you to know that.”
Dark Warrior Unleashed Page 20
