He’d convince the righteous snobs in the clan council that the Fialko’s had come onto his turf and declared war. They tried to kill him, didn’t they? He had plenty of witnesses, and could buy a few more.
And they stole what rightfully belonged to him.
Mine.
The turquoise was his. He’d kill every last one of them to get it back.
He held the large rough-cut piece of turquoise that had been his only companion all night as he dug underground, and fumed. They had no right. No right to anything.
He thought of his daughter. She was his, too. So high and mighty last night. Bitch. Just like her slut of a mother. She wouldn’t be so haughty once he tamed her and gave her to Eddie. And he would. He grinned, despite all the aches in his body.
A gecko skittered across the desert floor and stared eye to eye. Mic reached out and swatted it flat. It shivered, dying slowly. That was how he would make the Fialkos pay for coming out west and trying to take over his clan.
Chapter 27
Pumpkin wound around her feet as Terra tried to pull up her jeans. Wobbling on one leg, she patted his head and giggled at his antics. “Stop that.”
She buttoned her fly and tossed a scratchy new t-shirt over her head. She thought of her comfy clothes buried with the earthship, and wondered if any survived. Maybe today she would try to get at some of her stuff. Now that Mic was gone, it would be safe, as long as she was careful and could stabilize the area.
But she promised Jace she wouldn’t leave the hotel, and after last night she thought it best to keep her promise.
She gave herself a quick appraisal in the full-length mirror. The strapless sundress scooped low in the front, the hem resting just above her knees. The dress fit her well enough, but she’d never be comfortable in designer anything. She didn’t see the point in spending that much money on clothes.
There was a dark bruise on her right cheek, and a splattering of brown and black marks along her neck and arms.
Not one for makeup, she glanced at the pile that Jace had thoughtfully brought back from the drugstore. Lipstick, mascara, eyeliner. She didn’t know what to do with half the stuff.
With a sigh, she put some foundation over the worst of her bruises. That was enough.
Her small world had broken open into endless sparkling possibilities. Possibilities that scared the hell out of her.
Jace had given up everything to mate with her. What did she have to offer him? A clan of thugs? A worthless mine? A beautiful earthship sunk deep into the desert floor.
She hadn’t had time to really think about what they would do once Mic was gone, but now it was all she could think about. Would he demand she move to Jersey with him? Or would he come here? Maybe they’d live on opposite sides of the country. She had no idea what he was thinking.
Like it or not, the Brasmatia clan was her responsibility now. She couldn’t walk away even if she wanted to…or could she?
A knock on the hotel door startled her from her revelry. Was Jace back already? She rushed across the sitting room to release the chain. Why didn’t he swipe his keycard?
“Who is it?”
“Housekeeping.” A muffled, Hispanic-accented voice sounded on the other side of the door.
“No, thank you.”
“Housekeeping.” The person rapped on the door again.
“No. Later.”
“Housekeeping.”
“Listen–” She opened the door a crack to try to explain in Spanish.
God, no.
A man she recognized as Mic’s right-hand man reached in and grabbed her forearm.
She prayed the little gold chain across the opening would hold as she shoved with all her might against the door, pressing against his arm.
He growled and pushed harder. The door opened a bit wider, and his other hand burst through with a syringe. His thumb went down and she screamed as the plunger sent the needle into her inner arm.
She dropped to her knees from the initial shock. No, no, no. This couldn’t be happening. Not again.
The crowbar forced the door fully open, and the gold chain pulled apart.
Whatever he’d given her was already taking effect. Her head spun, vision blurry, and she knew she was in a double dose of shit.
The man gripped her arm, pulling her roughly towards him.
Through the open door she saw the hotel guard Jace had posted, dead or unconscious on the hallway floor.
“What do you want?” she managed, her voice already weak.
“Don’t worry, Darling. Just taking you to daddy.”
Daddy. The words echoed.
She blinked hard, trying to stay focused, to assess what was happening. Her attacker dragged the guard into the suite.
The room dimmed and she had the feeling of floating.
She recognized the helplessness. Drugged and tied.
Nicole? Where is Nicole? She had to get away. Mic was coming for her. But something was off.
She blinked and the world once again changed. Where was she?
Shaking her head, as if that would fire a few brain cells, she registered her surroundings. Cement. Loading dock. Trucks. Crates. Mic arguing.
What? Mic is dead. Isn’t he?
Adrenaline coursed through her veins, causing more coherency. She remembered the stab of the needle, the man bursting into the hotel room, then nothing.
Voices at the dock grew suddenly angry and loud.
“…dollars then, and five hundred when delivered.” A short, stout man stared up at Mic, dressed in blue cotton work pants and a worn gray t-shirt.
“I said to bring back Jace Fialko’s head and put it at my feet.” Mic grabbed the man by the throat.
“I got you rocks. That should count for something.” His face turned red as Mic squeezed.
She sat up, and scooted back until she was leaning against the cold, hard cement wall.
“I said to kill him. That was our deal.” Mic released him, then started to pace.
“Me and what army of witches?” He rubbed his neck.
“I said to take some of my guys. It should’ve been easy with all of these stones.”
The guy took off his baseball cap and rubbed his sweaty face with the back of his arm. “You need a reality check, man. Most of your guys are up at the reservation. Fubar. Fucked up beyond all recognition. That Indian medicine man? He’s called in help from across the US. Where have you been, under a rock?”
Mic backhanded him so hard, the smaller man fell to his knees. With a sickening crack from a kick to the ribs, the man fell onto his back.
He begged for his life, “No, hold on, please.”
Her father squatted, put one hand to the man’s chest. The building shook, and then…
Oh my God! Blood and gore exploded everywhere. It splashed onto the walls, covering her father.
Terra’s stomach lurched. She swallowed the bile that rose to her throat.
Her father giggled in a creepy high falsetto. He was worse than insane. The man was a psychopath.
Mic grabbed a towel nearby, wiped the blood from his eyes, then walked to the truck bed. All the while he muttered to himself and hugged a stone of rough gem to his chest.
The man who abducted her came out from the men’s room, and wiped his hands on his jeans. His dark eyes took in the situation in a heartbeat. “Holy fuck. He’s completely lost it.”
“He’ll do the same to you, and to me. Let me loose. Please.”
“He’ll kill me.” The man’s face had turned the same dusty gray as the cement walls.
“Not if I kill him first.”
“Are you crazy? Do you have any idea how powerful he is?” Eddie’s gaze darted frantically around the warehouse.
“Please,” she begged.
He squatted beside her and pulled out a switchblade, then cut her bindings. “Get out of here while you can.”
Before she could say more, Eddie stood, turned on his heel and bolted out the front door.
She should follow. Do what he said and get the hell out of there. But the stones in the bed of the truck called to her.
Rubbing her wrists, she stood on shaky legs and inched closer. She needed more power if she was going to finally kill Mic. Or at least hold him here until Jace arrived. And he would. He would come for her.
Mic jumped off the loading dock and disappeared behind the truck. A moment later, he reappeared, holding a stone, caressing it.
“They don’t understand. But I know. I know what you and I can do, Marissa.”
He repeated the process. “I’ll just put you down next to Fay.”
The sick fucker licked the stone, then rubbed it against his cock.
That was over-the-top.
Just one piece of black stone. That’s all she needed to stop this nightmare.
“I know you’re watching me,” he said in a sing-song voice. Turning, he grinned and sniggered, looking at her with wild, crazy eyes.
For a moment, she stood, deer in the headlights, and almost gave up hope. A whole line of stones flew through the air, headed straight for her.
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.
Knees weak, she called upon her new fire power.
Nothing. Shit.
She searched for Jace’s presence deep within, and calmed, his fierce strength with her. A flame flared up in the palm of her hand grew blue in intensity, and then burned so hot it turned invisible.
She willed the energy toward the stones flying in her direction. At first, she thought the stones were resistant, but then the rock in front smoked. A yellow flame ignited. Then the stone snapped and crackled like Rice Krispies, until disintegrating into tiny pieces that spit out in all directions.
One cut into her cheek.
“No. You’re hurting them. Stop it.” Her father tackled her, and they landed on the floor with a sickening thud. He grabbed her arm and put a football size piece in her hand. “Take it. Let it know you. Learn from it.”
Pure power poured into her from the stone.
He had given her the means to destroy him. She was about to fight back when the stone’s energy became a buzz, consistent at first, then growing in intensity, the power unstable.
Visions formed in her mind. She could rule. Do good things. Take over all the Brasmatia clan. But she needed more. Much more.
The stone whispered to her. “Take what you need.”
Her father laughed, stood, pulling a sheet off the largest stone she’d seen yet. Bright orange copper wrapped around its six-foot circumference. A smaller red wire wound down to what looked like an electric generator. The humming box had a thicker cable that snaked up and plugged into a small laptop that sat on a cheap plastic table.
Electric energy excited the air around her, and the small hairs on her arms stood on end.
Fascinated, despite the obvious danger, she stood, clutching her football-size rock and moved toward the larger one. She reached out with one hand and touched the giant turquoise piece. It vibrated against her palm. The need to be one with it, overwhelming.
“Don’t let go,” he sang as he glanced down at the laptop and typed frantically into the keyboard.
At his command, she tried to do the opposite, but her hand stuck, as if pulled by a giant magnet.
“Perfect.” Chuckling, he attached a cuff around his wrist with Velcro.
She struggled to pull away, and put her other hand to the rock as leverage. Like a Tar-Baby, the more she struggled, the more she stuck, until knees and elbows were locked tightly to it.
Her muscles seemed weaker. More than they should’ve been from the effort expended. Should the rock let go, her legs would give out.
“Make it let go of me,” she hissed. Her shoulder ached from the socket as she tugged again.
“In due time, daughter. In due time.” He leaned over, turned some big black knobs on the generator, and mumbled something about capacitance. Then began typing again.
She cried out, her body weak, brain fuzzy from the high of the stone.
“That’s better, now.” His mad eyes met hers and his normally tidy gray hairs frizzed out on end. He sat in a wooden folding chair and stared at her. “Shouldn’t take long. Maybe an hour or so.”
Her eyes grew weak, and her head bobbed. The rock thrummed to the pace of her heartbeat, as it seemed to drain the life out of her. If she didn’t get free soon, he would win.
“So. While we wait, you might as well understand what it is that is killing you.”
Terra moaned, and closed her heavy lids.
“This is your fault, you know. If you had just come to me, none of this would have been necessary.” He tapped on the box with the antique knobs. “About thirty, maybe forty years ago, my family figured out how to harness the energy from dark turquoise. I can’t explain it. Quantum physics, reversal of energies. After all, under the skin we’re all electrons. Atoms. Way over my head.” He tapped a finger to his temple. “I just know that with this program,” he peered into his laptop and typed, “I can re-energize. Undo the effects of the stone.”
“Wha-what are you go-going to do?” She was so tired now, she could barely keep her eyes open.
He leaned back with hands behind his head and crossed his ankles. “Unfortunately, you have to die. This time, I let the stone take me too far. Only someone as powerful as you could bring me back. But I can’t die. You, however? You’re nothing.”
It was true. She was nothing. But he was lower than nothing. A maggot. No, worse. Primordial slime.
She fumed and a small spark fizzled in a fingertip. Suddenly alert, she tensed and waited for him to react, but he hadn’t noticed, turning to type away on his computer.
That was it. She wasn’t just earth anymore. She tried another spark and a fingertip flamed.
How could I have forgotten so soon? Since mating, she was part Iesco, as well. That machine wouldn’t be designed to touch that part of her, or so she hoped.
Fire, flames, matches. Damn. She tried to bring her new talent front and center, but she was so damn tired. Think bigger. Napalm. Meteors in the desert. The sun.
Her left foot hit the floor.
Mic kept on typing.
The Great Chicago Fire.
Her right foot slipped off the stone. Then, she was free. Jace’s heat surged in her veins as she focused on his strength, living inside her.
I am firestorm.
A blaze fired up in her palm. Nearby the pile of turquoise called to her. She needed it just one last time. Stepping onto the stones, the surge was too much to hold. She flung the energy at her father.
At that second, he turned, and his mouth dropped open. When the wall of flames hit him, he screamed, and fell back on his ass. He tried to scramble away, crablike, but it was too late. He was encompassed in fire so hot, it burned blue and white.
He put his hands to the earth and shouted, “We die together, witch.”
The building shook, the cement under her feet cracked, and she fell.
Gagging at the smell of burning flesh, she turned her head and covered her ears and nose until the awful screaming ended. When she looked again, all that was left of her father was a pile of black ash.
She stared and tried to feel something. All she felt was relief and something else. A niggling need. The stones under her feet glowed and whispered into her mind.
Just to be safe. Grab another piece from the truck. While you wait for Jace. What if someone comes?
It all made sense until she stepped into the bed of the truck.
Chapter 28
Jace had nearly lost his mind when he returned to the hotel and saw the door busted open, the security guard lying unconscious on the floor.
He paced along the plate glass window where below, the Paris Eiffel taunted him with cheerful yellow lights. The Bellagio Fountain rose and fell, as if nothing was amiss.
Jack was on a plane back to Jersey and Josh wasn’t picking up his phone. He was on his own.
As a last resort, he diale
d Falcon. “You better not have anything to do with this, or I swear to God I’ll tear you apart limb from limb.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. What’s going on?” The healer sounded genuinely surprised.
“Terra’s gone. Someone broke into the suite.”
“Shit.” Real fear shook the man’s voice, and something else…What wasn’t he telling him?
“I’m heading down to security to take a look at the surveillance videos.” Jace raced across the room, cursing internally, when he realized he’d been wasting time.
“I can be there in fifteen.”
Could he trust the little weasel? Jace paused at the elevator and jammed his thumb repeatedly at the elevator button.
“Look.” Falcon exhaled heavily on the other end. “I know I fucked up royally, but I care about her. If I can help…”
“Fine. Meet me in the control center at the Vdara. I’ll let them know you’re coming.”
The elevator jerked and descended, nauseating him even more. Who the hell was after her now? He never should’ve left her alone.
Finding the door marked security, he barged into the dim room filled with floor to ceiling monitors. Using the Fialko name as leverage, it took less than ten minutes to pull up a video. Two men carried Terra’s limp body from the elevators to the parking garage.
Jace slammed his palms on the table, and a Styrofoam cup filled with coffee fell to the floor.
“Where the hell were you guys when this happened?”
“It’s not all that uncommon to see someone being carried out of here.” The darker skinned man winced when Jace sent him a withering glare.
“Can you zoom in on that licence plate?”
“No need. I know who they are.” Falcon moved into the room and pointed at the still shot on the main monitor. “That’s Eddie Miravito. He’s one of Mic’s men.”
“Shit.” Jace grabbed Falcon’s upper arm and dragged him into the hall. “What do you know?”
The healer’s eyes widened. “I made a few calls on my way here. They’re headed to an old warehouse just south of the city.”
“What the hell do they want with her? With Mic gone–”
Falcon shook his head. “That’s the thing. He’s still alive.”
Dark Tremor (Mated by Magic #2) Page 13
