by Karen Duvall
“You called this home. Where are we?” I asked.
“My oldest and favorite dreamscape. I allow my mind to drift here after I fall asleep.” He tossed back the covers and stood naked from the bed. I marveled at his sculpted backside, the way his muscles rippled when he walked to the window. Sunlight streamed in when he pulled back the sheer drape and sprinkles of dust glittered against the glare.
Not surreal, but superreal. His human silhouette outlined against the spring meadow outside took my breath away. Though in reality we were sleeping, his mind wrapped around mine in a semiwakened state and I felt his sweetness seep into me like steam. Peering through his mind’s eye at his creation enhanced every emotion I felt. I loved him more at that moment than I ever had.
Not surprisingly, I was also naked when I joined him at the window, my feet sinking into the plush carpet and sending goose bumps up my legs. The colors around us were vivid and the scents sharp enough to tickle my sensitive nose.
He draped an arm over my shoulder, then turned me to face him so he could pull me close. The erotic touch of his skin against mine filled me with need. His hands trailed over my back and cupped my ass, pressing me even closer, and I felt his own need hot and hard against me.
Gently holding the back of my head with one hand, he explored my neck with his lips, his tongue sweeping down to the hollow of my neck. His head dropped lower and he captured a nipple in his mouth.
I gasped and moved my hips against his. He lifted one of my legs and wrapped it around him, then eased himself inside me to make us one. With amazing tenderness he leaned me against the wall beside the window, his kisses hot and urgent. We swayed together, our bodies so in tune that our pleasure mounted and peaked at the same time. Our minds were linked so we experienced each other’s feelings simultaneously. The intensity of it was almost too much.
My knees buckled and Aydin lifted me up and carried me to the bed. We lay snuggled close, our hearts pounding in perfect rhythm with each other.
Dream or no dream, I knew my breaths came hard and fast, even in sleep. I never realized making love could be so powerful without physical touch.
We lay quietly for a time, and I trailed a fingernail lazily up and down his arm, thrilling to his shivers.
We had a lot to talk about, but not much time since nightfall was closing in.
“Aydin?”
“Hmm?” He sounded as drowsy as I felt.
“The Vyantara know I’m here.”
“I know.”
How could he possibly know? He wasn’t anywhere near the old theater last night. “I don’t understand.”
“Chalice, I was there. Up on the balcony on the other side of the theater, but you were busy. I saw everything.”
I felt a twinge of anger. “You saw and you didn’t try to help me?”
“You were doing quite well on your own until Maria showed up.”
“Bitch,” I said under my breath. “She took Xenia.”
Aydin hugged me gently. “We’ll find Xenia.” He petted my hair and it immediately calmed me. “Two reasons why I didn’t jump into the middle of your chaos—I didn’t want the kid to see a gargoyle, and I didn’t want to distract Rafe from doing his job.”
He made good points. Rafe would have focused entirely on fighting Aydin, which wouldn’t have done us any good. Aydin was getting to know the angel as well as I did. “I worry about Rafe,” I told him.
“Me too,” Aydin said.
“He’s such a traditionalist, yet he’s losing himself in his desire to be human.”
“And part of that desire is to bed you.”
I abruptly sat up. “What?”
He tenderly pulled me down into his arms and pressed his lips against my ear. “Having a child with you is his only hope of becoming human.”
“That’s not what I want,” I said, feeling panicked.
“Shh.” Aydin planted a light kiss on my temple. “I know that.”
“I think of Rafe like an uncle, not a…” I couldn’t even say it.
“Let’s not worry about that now. I’m more concerned about your safety, and Rafe will do whatever he can to keep you out of harm’s way. I’m also concerned about Shojin’s heart.”
“If Xenia sold it to someone in the city, we’ll find it.”
“That’s the problem,” Aydin said, his voice deep with meaning. “It’s not in Denver.”
“How do you know?”
“Shojin and I had a connection. If his heart were here, I’d know.”
Of course he would know. But if not here, where could it be? My only guess was still with Xenia, and if she’s with Maria…
Aydin sighed. “It’s possible that it’s on the other side of the black veil.”
Our problems were mounting into a stack harder than hell to climb. But not impossible. I couldn’t let worries interfere with my plans.
“I noticed an addition to your abilities last night,” Aydin said. “I always knew you were hot, but wow.”
I nudged him with my elbow. “Very funny.”
“Isn’t that Rusty’s power?”
“It was.” I explained what had happened the day of the forest fire, after Aydin had helped me rescue the boy from the cellar. “I didn’t mean to take her power from her, and I especially didn’t mean to have it for myself.”
“This is the first I’ve heard of an object transferring power from one knight to another.” He looked pensive while staring off into the distance. “You say it was the Viking horn of breath?”
I nodded. “It saved Rusty’s life.”
“Where is it now?”
“I have it with me.”
“Maybe you should destroy it,” he told me. “If it has the power to steal a knight’s abilities, it’s a danger to the order.”
From a different perspective, fewer knights in the order meant fewer abilities at risk of being stolen. However, I’d rather not destroy the horn if I didn’t have to. What if it could give Rusty her ability back? If so, I needed to learn how.
sixteen
I FACED THE BUILDING PEPPERED WITH broken windows and crumbling bricks. Could Xenia have chosen a more scummy part of town to sell the wind charm? I heard the whistle of wind through cracks in the door and focused my eyes through a hole in one of the windows.
Yep, there it was. The scarf wrapped around a cement block in the middle of the room, the silken fabric fluttering like a sail in a storm.
The charm had often been used as a defense against attack, but it could come in handy in other ways, too. Like blowing away toxic fumes or hazardous smoke, or filling a sail on a calm sea to propel a boat. It even helped with air travel as a source of lift for gliders. But inside an empty building? For what purpose?
I squinted and searched deeper, but there really wasn’t much inside. The building was part of an old elementary school awaiting demolition. The auditorium had been cleared of all bleachers and only an American flag had been left behind on a pole. It flapped in the wind made by the charm.
I took a few steps forward and a ghost slithered out from between the cracks in the door. Oh, great. A wispy distraction was just what I needed to confound my situation.
I tried not to look at it, but the thing wasn’t backing down. It had a message to deliver and it would be damned if I’d ignore what it had to say. Not that it could say anything. It was just a pesky shade of its previous owner. It had no voice, but it had plenty of hand gestures and used every single one of them. There’s nothing like having a ghost flip you the bird.
This one was super pissed off, and the only ghost I’d ever come across this mad had been Zee, the housemother for the fatherhouse. She’d gotten blown up with the house and somehow blamed me for her death. This ghost wasn’t Zee’s, but it was definitely familiar. It belonged to Lilly, one of the teenage sewer rats from last night. She had apparently met an untimely end and was trying to tell me about it. However, my understanding of ghost lingo was sorely lacking.
She motioned me to foll
ow her into the building. Her being here and so close to the charm made it obvious the two were connected. I guessed she had bought this charm from Xenia and somehow managed to kill herself with it, though I couldn’t imagine how. Either that, or this staged event was a trap.
I had to think for second. Trap or no trap, that charm must be dealt with now, or the incident it could create would make Denver the center of too much attention. I’d take my chances.
If the charm was responsible for killing Lilly, it had to go. I reached into my coat pocket for the bottle of salt water I’d mixed up at Elmo’s. A good splash of this and the charm would be rendered useless.
Lilly’s ghost jumped in front of me and grabbed her neck as if choking herself. She stuck her tongue out the side of her mouth, closed her eyes and fell to the ground. Had the scarf done that to her? Or was her murderer someone, or something, else? Did it matter?
I passed through her to reach the door. She moved in front of me again and shook her head this time. She didn’t want me to go in. I peered in through a different broken window and it still looked the same inside: a blowing scarf pinned to the middle of the floor by a cinder block. I neither heard nor saw anyone else around. Midnight was near and darkness permeated every corner, yet I saw clear as day. No obstacle prevented me from going inside to dispatch the scarf.
I tried the door handle and found it unlocked. Or it could have been broken. The scarred wooden floor was covered with broken boards. I stepped over the threshold and paused. Nothing.
I sprinted to the center of the auditorium and tossed the salt water on the scarf. It steamed and smoked, and purple sparks glittered around it like a dying Roman candle. The charm was dead and the wind inside the building abruptly stopped.
But the wind below me didn’t.
I glanced down at the boards beneath my feet and saw an energy spiral through the gaps in the floor. The spinning caused something like a vacuum that sucked at my feet and I fell to the floor. My hands clasped the cinder block that had anchored the scarf in place, but I was a few pounds heavier than that scarf. It wouldn’t hold for long. In fact, it was already starting to slide in the direction of the growing hole trying to eat me.
I gazed down into the vortex and saw the body of a man twirling around as if circling a drain with a black hole at its center. He appeared calm, lying on his back, legs crossed at the ankles and arms cradling his head. I knew this man and the sight of him had me choking on the breath I’d been holding. I gasped and sputtered as I scrambled for a better hold on the block. I managed to make it onto my elbows, but the block slid the same number of inches I’d gained.
“Gavin!” I screamed with what I hoped wasn’t my last breath. “Stop! Our battle is over. Let me go.”
He laughed. “You think it’s that easy?”
“I’m not your slave anymore.”
“The hell you say.”
He was more than a ghost. His soul-stain in the church wasn’t harmless as a painting—it was real, and Gavin had been watching for me. Now he had me. His tie to the Vyantara continued even in death.
I had asked Aydin to stay clear of me for this very reason. Better they get only one of us than both. I didn’t come in here without an escape plan, but I hadn’t expected a hole to open up in the floor with a dead sorcerer trying to take me again.
The sigil on my palm pulsed with my will to open the veil. But I couldn’t without my blood on it first. I’d need both hands to grab my knife and cut myself, and if I let go of the block, I’d be a goner.
I brought my palm to my mouth and bit hard into my scar. The pain nearly jolted the fingers of my gripping hand loose, but I dug harder into the brick, feeling my nails splinter.
Gavin laughed.
The sadistic son of a bitch was enjoying himself at my expense. Some things never changed.
“We’ll meet again, my dear,” he said, his voice a loud reverberation inside my head. “Bet on it.”
I swung my bleeding hand up to slap empty air, and the shimmering silver veil rippled where I touched. Gavin’s cruel laughter echoed from the depths of the vortex still sucking at me. Maybe I wasn’t strong enough to pull myself out.
A pale hand thrust through the silver curtain and grabbed my arm to hoist me up and out of the pit that surely led to hell.
* * *
“What were you thinking?” Rafe shouted as he paced in front of me. The silver walls around us were blanketed in pale fog that swept up the sides and undulated across the floor. Serene, calm, empty, safe. The silver veil was the sanctuary that could drive me out of my mind.
“I was thinking about us,” I said. “About everyone who has anything to do with the order. If left where it was, that charm would have only caused trouble.”
He nodded. “You did what the Vyantara wanted you to do. You fell right into their trap.”
Nice pun, but I knew what I was doing. “So?”
He glowered at me. “You’re not taking this seriously.”
“Oh, this is very serious, Rafe. Trap or not, I did what had to be done.”
“Without discussing it with me first.” A twinge of hurt flickered in his eyes. “I’m your guardian, Chalice. We’re supposed to be a team.”
“You’re my guide, not my guard,” I said.
“Who told you that?”
Was this something I wasn’t supposed to know? “Rusty and Natalie. They said it’s why their guardians don’t come rushing to their rescue.”
Rafe shook his head. “Such modern sensibilities. The Arelim forget their vow to protect their knights. It shames us.”
I frowned and shook my head. “Don’t be ridiculous. We’re not in the Middle Ages anymore, Rafe. The knighthood is made up of strong women with the power to protect.”
“And look what’s happened to them.” Rafe stood looking down on me with his arms crossed. His posture degraded me. He saw me as weak, someone he had to protect, and that pissed me off. “Nothing like this ever would have been tolerated eight centuries ago.”
“The knights have evolved,” I said.
“You’ve become arrogant and foolish.”
“Look who’s talking?” I stepped up to him and jabbed a finger into his rock-hard chest. “You think you’re all that and a bag of chips, but you can’t even stop the knight who’s killing us.” I folded my arms to match his stance. “Think about that, Mr. Save The World Angel.”
His eyes softened and his shoulders lost some of their starch. “I promise you that our daughter—”
“Our what?” I backed up and held out my hands, palms out. “You and I are not—” I swallowed and bit my bottom lip when I saw the anguished look on his face. “It’s not happening, Rafe. I’m sorry, but get over it.”
I turned around and walked blindly into a white fog that never seemed to end.
* * *
An hour later I opened the veil inside Geraldine’s shrine at the cathedral. I knew it would be peaceful and safe there. Some alone time to calm myself was exactly what I needed.
I stepped out into the little garden room and heaved in a breath of sweet, sanctified air. The veil closed behind me and I stepped over to the plush sofa to drop bodily onto it, the cushions enveloping me in softness. I could easily drift off to sleep right here and now.
Surprised to see the veil suddenly reappear, I watched its rippling surface and braced myself for another confrontation with Rafe. I couldn’t talk to him right now. He’d put a strain on our friendship and I wasn’t sure I could ever feel comfortable with him again.
It wasn’t Rafe who emerged, but my grandmother followed by Natalie.
I shrilled a happy hello and ran into my grandmother’s arms. I’d never been one for hugging before, but I was learning that a warm and comforting embrace from someone I cared about felt pretty darn good. I really needed that right now.
“Natalie! I’m so happy to see you,” I said, throwing my arms around her neck. She hugged me back. “You look great.”
“Thanks.” A slow a
nd gentle smile played at the corners of her mouth. “I’m totally back to normal. Thanks to Aydin.”
“And you still have your abilities?”
She nodded and my grandmother said, “We know you have Rusty’s powers now.”
Damn the tell-an-angel newswire.
“The Arelim have a hive-mind, dear,” my grandmother said. “What one sees or hears, the others do as well. Unless one of them makes a conscious effort to block it.”
“And Rusty knows, too?” I asked.
Natalie winced. “I’m afraid so. Harachel told her.”
Big mouth. Oh, well. It was bound to get back to her sooner or later, but it bothered me that it came from Rusty’s angel. He was a jerk who treated her like crap. He probably got a kick out of her reaction, which I guessed involved some very angry words.
“I’m so happy to see you. I need girl company in the worst way right now.” I waved them over to the love seat and chair. “How did you know I was here?”
“Rafael told us,” my grandmother said. “He mentioned you two had a fight and that you might need someone to talk to.”
Who did he think he was to assume what I did or didn’t need? I wanted to get mad at him for it, but I couldn’t. He knew me too well. I sighed and said, “He presumes too much sometimes.”
“He wants a future with you, Chalice,” my grandmother said.
“You have no idea how uncomfortable that makes me,” I told her. “Rafe is my friend and my mentor…when I want him to be. But that’s as far as it’s ever going to go.”
“Your grandfather and I have been happily married for over fifty years,” she said.
“Yeah, but the two of you love each other—”
“And Camael and I are starting our wedding plans,” Natalie said with pride. She glowed like I imagined any bride-to-be would. Or was that glow something else?
I pointed at her flat belly. “You’re not, you know…”
She giggled. “Not yet, but I plan to be. Right after the wedding.”
I narrowed my eyes and rubbed my chin. “Um…I don’t think it works that way. I’m no expert, but as I understand it, conception isn’t a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am kind of thing.”
