“If it’s so important, then why don’t you take his place, Quentin, and go play black hole?” Faylin asked.
“It doesn’t work that way,” Rebekah said. “As a quintessence elder, Quentin’s natural form is literally the constituent matter of the heavenly bodies, meaning he and the governors who are responsible for the other galaxies basically keep everything in the universe orbiting in its proper place. He can’t do that and be a stationary black hole at the same time.”
“You’re our Keeper. Can’t you change that?” Faylin asked.
“No way. Number one Keeper rule: don’t change what’s already in place. My job is to make sure what’s in place stays there—meaning all of you—and functions as a cohesive unit.”
“Well...damn,” Faylin said, frowning.
“Yeah, that really sucks,” Arial agreed.
“Okay,” Faylin said, “so nature gets disrupted, then what?”
“We’re gone,” Eric said.
“Yep,” Walter said, sweating profusely now. “Gone.”
Faylin swiped a hand over her mouth nervously. “Then what the hell are we waiting for? We’ve got to find this twerp and set him straight!”
“That’s my plan,” Rebekah said. “But all of you need to stop babbling so we can concentrate and try to reach him.”
Wide-eyed, Faylin mimed zipping her mouth shut. She motioned to her peers, and Walter, Eric and Ariel mimed the same.
“Ready?” Rebekah asked Quentin.
He nodded.
“Yes,” Vaughn said. The sound of his voice made her acutely aware once again of his hand, warm in her own. It sent a tingle through her body that she had to mentally block. Otherwise she would never be able to focus and connect with Tee-zee.
Rebekah closed her eyes, and in that moment she felt a surge of energy flow from Quentin’s hand into her left arm and the same coming from Vaughn on her right. As her energy flowed into them in return, she felt like a new fuse in a circuit breaker—alive, connected. In the center of her mind’s eye a ball of brilliant white light appeared—the Circle of Knowledge. Without it, telepathy, along with several other powers, would not, could not, exist.
Tee-zee, where are you? As your Keeper and your leader, as Quentin’s Keeper, I command you to reveal your location.
The only thing Rebekah heard in response was a dull hum—telepathic white noise. She felt Quentin’s grip tighten on her hand and she gave his a small squeeze for reassurance.
Tee-zee, she went on, I command you to make your whereabouts known immediately. If you don’t—
Wait, Vaughn said suddenly, his mental voice booming in Rebekah’s ear.
Startled, she struggled not to open her eyes so she could find his shin—and kick it.
Do you have to be so loud?
Sorry—but I hear him. I hear Tee-zee.
Rebekah strained an internal ear, stepped closer to the Circle of Knowledge. There—just beneath the hum of the white noise—she heard a muffled voice. Low, too low for her to make out the words, but she heard it. For the words to be clearer, she would have to move even closer to the light, which might prove dangerous. The Circle of Knowledge acted like a magnet, pulling all those who sought its knowledge toward its center. Too close and you could be sucked in and made part of it—your old self ceasing to exist completely.
I hear him, too! Quentin cried.
Frustrated with the poor reception, Rebekah chanced another step toward the light.
That single step made a difference. The mumbling beneath the white noise took on just enough clarity. A small voice, like that of a child—and an unmistakable cry for help.
Chapter 3
Quentin had obviously heard the cry for help as well, because he immediately shouted, Where are you, Tee-zee? We can’t help if we don’t know where you are.
Rebekah heard more mumbling and took another step toward the light.
You’re getting too close, Vaughn warned.
No choice. I can’t make out what he’s saying. Have to find out his location.
He’s my responsibility, Quentin said. I’ll do it.
No, you will not, Rebekah said. We need you, Quentin—me, all of the ethereal elementals.
Yeah, but isn’t that like six of one, half a dozen of another? If I don’t get Tee-zee in place, there won’t be anything or anyone left for me to lead.
Rebekah’s mental alarm suddenly went off as she thought more closely about Vaughn. In the short time she’d been preoccupied with Quentin, Vaughn had managed to make his way dangerously close to the Circle of Knowledge. Her heart started beating triple time.
Vaughn, get back! She tried mentally pulling him away, but he didn’t—wouldn’t—budge. Vaughn!
He nodded, but not at her. Where? The question wasn’t for her, either. He’d obviously found a much stronger, clearer communication line with Tee-zee. Yes, I can hear you...How big?...We will...It’ll be okay, I promise...We’ll find you.
And then Vaughn took a step back and the Circle of Knowledge abruptly vanished. In the physical realm he let go of their hands, breaking the connection.
Rebekah’s eyes sprang open. “What the hell were you thinking, getting that close?” she asked Vaughn.
“We needed information, and that was the only way to get it.”
“So something like that is only foolish and irresponsible if I’m the one doing it. Is that it?”
“No.” His eyes briefly broke contact with hers.
“Yeah, right. You never could lie worth a damn.”
“I—”
“Forget it,” she said. “What about Tee-zee?”
Four impatient elemental elders suddenly appeared at her side, all of them talking at the same time.
“Did you—”
“—find him?”
“Where’s—”
“For the love of light, everybody shut up so we can hear what they found out!”
In the following two seconds of silence, Quentin managed to ask, “Where is Tee-zee?”
“As best I could decipher, trapped under the ground,” Vaughn said.
“Under...” Walter began.
“Where?” Quentin asked. “What ground?”
“How on earth did he get stuck underground?” Rebekah asked.
Vaughn shook his head. “From what I pieced together, Quentin was right. Tee-zee really wanted to help here in Salem. He knew you mandated that the elders take on human form, so he tried changing into one.”
Quentin gasped. “He’s never done that before.”
“Obviously,” Vaughn said. “Seems like he got confused midtransformation. I’m not clear on why he went underground in the first place, but I do get that whatever small space he’s in now wasn’t so small when he first got there. He probably finished the transformation inside of whatever hole he found, and now he can’t make his way out.”
“But where beneath the ground?” Rebekah asked. “Did he fall in a hole? Is he under a reef in the water? Did—”
“Judging from Tee-zee’s description, I think he’s in a cave,” Vaughn said.
“A cave where, though?” Quentin said.
“Yeah, there must be thousands on this continent alone,” Faylin said. “But if he’s trapped inside because of a stupid human body, why doesn’t he just revert back to his elemental state?”
“I don’t think he knows how to revert back,” Vaughn said. “And I get it about the caves, but he’s got to be relatively close. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to connect with him so clearly.” He turned to Eric. “Are there caves in Salem?”
“Not right in Salem, but close by,” Eric said. “Maybe thirty to thirty-five miles west of town.”
“Great, we’ve got caves,” Faylin said. “Why are we just standing here, then? Let’s go get him.”
Ariel, who’d been unusually quiet up to now, asked, “But how do we get him out when he’s mutated into something too big to get out on his own?” She looked flustered and began to wring her hands. “Huh? How?
”
“Good point,” Walter said. “But I’m sure with all of us together, we’ll come up with something, don’t you think?”
“For sure,” Faylin said.
“We’re not going to be together,” Rebekah said.
“Huh?” Eric said.
“Why not?” Ariel asked.
“Because I need each of you in other places.”
“I don’t get it,” Faylin said. “We finally know where Tee-zee is and you don’t want us to help get him out?”
Now that the elemental had been located, Rebekah immediately leaned hard toward her cousins’ initial suspicion that a rogue sorcerer was responsible for the darkness. Which was frightening even to consider, because it meant the sorcerer would have to be more powerful than any she’d run across before. And she knew some very powerful sorcerers.
“That’s the point,” Rebekah said. “We know where he is. Even though it’s important that we get him back into position for the tides, that still leaves someone—maybe some uber sorcerer—playing ‘who’s got the light’ with Salem. That’s where I need you, looking for this guy. We need as many eyes and ears as we can get out there, so he can be found and stopped.”
Faylin pouted. “I don’t wanna look for some stupid sorcerer.” She suddenly brightened. “Hey, I can light up the cave so you can see where you’re going. Good idea, right?”
Rebekah shook her head. “Think about it, Faylin. If Tee-zee is in a place too small for a human body to escape, that means you wouldn’t be able to get in, either. You’d have to revert back to your elemental form to get anywhere near him. The last thing we need is a fried Tee-zee. As for the sorcerer, if that’s who’s creating the darkness, he’s anything but stupid. We’re probably looking at someone very powerful. I mean really powerful. The sorcerers I know can only do silly hocus-pocus illusions. None of them have the ability to screw with the sun, even in a controlled setting like Salem. No matter who’s doing it, or how, it’s serious. No illusion. And if he, she or it is not stopped soon, the darkness will keep growing, moving beyond the borders of Salem into the next town, then the next state. We’re talking perpetual darkness eventually covering the entire Earth. That has the same potential for planetary devastation as a misplaced black hole.”
“Wow, I didn’t think of that,” Ariel said.
“Yeah,” Faylin said. “Pretty heavy-duty stuff.”
“What about me helping with Tee-zee?” Walter asked.
“Same problem with your human body and your elemental form, only you’d wind up drowning him.”
“When you’re talking caves, though, you’re talking my turf,” Eric said. “I should be there, because I can move the earth out of the way to get to Tee-zee if we have to.”
“Sorry, Eric, afraid not,” Rebekah said. “It’s not that simple. A shift in the earth could cause a cave-in and bury Tee-zee alive. It could even facilitate an earthquake. We can’t take that chance.”
“Okay, so what, then?” Walter asked. “What do you want us to do?”
“I need you to take your undines, nymphs, mermaids, all of them, and head west of town. Have everyone keep an eye out for suspicious activity, underwater or otherwise. Faylin, you collect your salamanders and go south. Same thing applies—eyes and ears, as many as you can put together. Eric, you and your charges look to the north.”
“I guess that leaves me looking east, huh?” Ariel said.
“Yes, get all of your sylphs together, especially the fairies, and monitor the east end of Salem.”
“Okay, but...how are you going to get to the caves and still have time to get Tee-zee out? And how are you going to get him out?”
Ariel’s helium-filled, Marilyn Monroe voice might have been irritating as hell to listen to, but the air elder was far from being a dumb blonde.
“I know the timing will be tight,” Rebekah said, “but we’ll manage. I’ll figure it out.”
“Well...I could get you there really quick. You know, like in a tornado or something. You’d be at the caves in no time.”
“Thanks for the offer, but no tornadoes.”
“But—”
“No buts. Just head east like I said. With everyone covering so much ground, I’m sure we’ll come up with some solid clues pretty quick. I’ll take care of Tee-zee.” Even as she said it, Rebekah wondered how she would manage it. Heaven only knew what kind of human form Tee-zee had chosen. The bigger the body, the more difficult it would be to revert him back to his elemental state, especially in a small space.
“We will take care of Tee-zee,” Vaughn said. “I’m going with you.”
“That’s not necessary. I can—”
“Rebekah...we’ll get Tee-zee,” Vaughn repeated softly.
She sighed and gave him a slight nod. The sigh had been one of relief, but she would never let him know. For the first time since she’d spotted him headed for the gazebo, she was glad he was here. If ever there was a time she needed backup, it was now.
“I’m definitely going, though,” Quentin said. “Tee-zee’s my charge. I can help him change back to his natural state.”
“I wish it was that easy, Quentin,” Rebekah said, “but you can’t be the one to do it. In order to revert him to an elemental state, you’d have to be in your natural form. Two quintessence elementals in that small space, especially with one being an elder, would act like a detonator to a mountain of explosives. It would cause an underground explosion far worse than anything that might happen if Eric started moving the earth around. Just hang tight, okay? Keep tabs on the rest of your charges and make sure everyone has their attention focused overhead. I promise you’ll be the first to know when we get Tee-zee out.”
Rebekah looked over at her elders. “Once you and your charges have covered your assigned territories, I want you to switch. If you had the north end of town, take the south. I want fresh sets of eyes and ears looking and listening at all times, until all four corners of Salem have been covered by all of you. Meanwhile, as soon as we find Tee-zee and get him repositioned, we’ll come and help you. And I’ll bring more troops if I can—my cousins are Keepers, too, and their charges can help.” She hated the thought of having to bow out of Sam’s party, which was scheduled to start at seven-thirty, only an hour and a half after the tide. Realistically, though, she didn’t see any way they would make it back in time.
“That’s all fine and wonderful,” Walter said, “but I still don’t see how you’re going to get Tee-zee out of the cave. If my human body won’t fit, yours and Vaughn’s won’t, either.”
“I’ll dig him out if I have to,” Vaughn said.
“What’s the difference between you digging him out and me moving the earth?” Eric asked, frowning.
“Big difference,” Ariel said. “Like a summer breeze and a hurricane. No disrespect meant, Eric, but Vaughn can dig slowly and move little bits of dirt at a time. Your way would be quicker for sure, but it might kill Tee-zee, too, like Rebekah said.” She glanced over at Rebekah. “Right?”
“Yes.”
Eric harrumphed.
“Okay, we’re wasting time rehashing this,” Rebekah said. “Everyone get into your directional positions and—wait. Eric, I need the coordinates to the caves.”
He squinted, as if trying to read a faraway sign. “Forty-two degrees, sixteen feet, forty-four point one inches north. Seventy-one degrees, twenty-four feet, fifty-nine point eight inches west.”
Rebekah nodded, committed the coordinates to memory, then dismissed the elders. “Go. I’ll see all of you soon.”
In the time it took her to blink, the elders vanished, leaving her alone with Vaughn. All that remained as evidence that the elders had even been there were a red sports coat, a pair of tuxedo trousers and a blue aviator’s hat, complete with earflaps.
* * *
With Rebekah’s back momentarily to him, Vaughn chanced a smile. She hadn’t put up a fight when he’d insisted on accompanying her to the caves. That had to mean something, hopefully that
her heart was softening toward him.
One of the things he’d always admired about Rebekah was her willingness to put the needs of others before her own. He knew sometimes that meant her pride had to take a backseat as well, as it had earlier. He’d seen the internal struggle on her face when he mentioned the caves. Her fierce independence had wanted to tell him to take a hike, but instead she’d chosen to follow her head as a responsible Keeper and hadn’t pushed back when he’d insisted on helping. She might not always have been great about asking for help, but when a situation became serious, hitting the point of no return, she graciously accepted help when offered.
She’d matured into a remarkable Keeper. Her tenacity, determination and sheer dedication—all of which he’d witnessed during the KOFE competition, as well as secretly over the past two years—had only grown.
He knew the responsibilities that came with the KOFE title, understood the seriousness of the position. It was why he’d competed for the KOFE seat in the first place. Not because he didn’t think a woman could handle it, but because he wanted to protect Rebekah. It had always been about protecting her.
After the competition, the Order of Antiquities had held a party in Rebekah’s honor, and he had sought her out to offer his support and to congratulate her. There’d been so many in attendance, though, that he’d found it virtually impossible to get her alone. Later that evening he’d found her standing in the garden, staring off into space. When she’d spotted him, she’d given him a soft smile. It had been the smile of someone who’d been contemplating something bittersweet. He’d returned the smile and held out a hand, intending to bring her close for a simple hug. But something had happened the moment their bodies connected. His lips, as if acting without his control, had immediately sought hers.
The kiss had been electrifying, all consuming. It had erased time and space. All that existed or mattered was Rebekah, the feel of her, the taste of her. Their kisses became hungry and urgent. To this day, he couldn’t recall if he’d offered her words of congratulations. If they hadn’t heard someone calling out for Rebekah, insisting she was needed for yet another speech, he was certain things between them would have gone much further than a kiss.
The Keepers: Christmas in Salem: Do You Fear What I Fear?The Fright Before ChristmasUnholy NightStalking in a Winter Wonderland (Harlequin Nocturne) Page 9
