Warrior of Fate

by Debra Mullins

  “Leyala?” shouted Larina’s foe. “You’re Leyala?”

  “We both are,” Larina said, shoving her opponent against the minivan. With a single yank, she tore open his shirt and flattened her hand against his chest. Spoke the Word of Judgment. The Warrior screamed and slowly sank to his knees as Larina drained him of his power.

  Adrian walked toward the Warrior Darius had incapacitated. “Let’s question this one.” He jerked the guy to his feet. “Unless you, too, would like to be Judged.”

  “Make it stop,” the Warrior whined. “Make the pain stop! I’ll tell you anything you want to know, just make it stop!”

  “We’ll see. Let’s go.” He sent a thought to Darius. Think we can use your dad’s interrogation room to question this one? Can you hold him in this state?

  Absolutely, Darius answered. On both. What about the other two guys?

  Larina can get Rigo’s team to collect them and lock them up somewhere. They’re harmless now. We’ll bring the whole bunch back to the temple.

  On it, Larina responded. By the way, the housekeeper has been sedated and is under guard inside.

  Good. I’ll take this one down to the security building. Meet you there. Adrian marched his wailing Warrior toward the van, Darius following to maintain the empathic hold.

  Adrian slid open the van’s side door and shoved the prisoner into the vehicle.

  “So, Gray,” Darius said. When Adrian looked over, he continued, “I just wanted to point out to you that my brother and I apparently can take on a Warrior, if we work together. You might want to keep that in mind. For the talk we’re going to have later.”

  The warning was clear. “Noted,” Adrian said, and slammed the side door and opened the van’s driver’s side. Darius made his way to the passenger side as John’s security team streamed onto the driveway to collect the disabled Warriors.

  * * *

  Maria, Tessa, and Faith had gathered in the temple to strengthen the protections around the vault where the Atlantean artifacts—including the Stone of Power—were kept. Cara kept watch as they performed the ritual. When it was done, Tessa reached out along the bond to Adrian. She let out a relieved sigh and turned to the other women. “It’s over. They contained the threat.”

  “Contained the threat?” Maria gave an amused smile. “Sounds like you’ve been picking up some new vocabulary, sweetheart.”

  “I just repeated what Adrian said,” Tessa muttered.

  “And this new ability to see visions about Atlanteans?” Maria prompted. “Is there anything you’d like to tell me?”

  “It could be I just saw a vision about Lupe.” Tessa shrugged. “Nothing out of the ordinary.”

  “And that mark on your neck?” Maria raised her brows. “Are you going to tell me you burned yourself with the curling iron?”

  Faith and Cara glanced at each other, but said nothing as Tessa searched for words to answer her mother.

  Maria glanced at Faith and Cara and jerked her chin toward the door. The two women promptly exited, and Maria came to take Tessa’s hands in hers. “You bonded with Adrian, didn’t you?”

  “Depends on what you mean by bonded,” Tessa said, unable to meet her mother’s eyes. She focused on the large focus crystal hanging around Maria’s neck instead.

  “Sweetheart, look at me.” Maria waited until Tessa finally met her gaze. “Did you have sex with Adrian?”

  “Mom!” Tessa pulled her hands from her mother’s.

  “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” Maria said. “It’s quite common for Seer women to not come into their full powers until they bond with their mates. It wasn’t until I connected with your father that my full powers came to bear, and I became apaiz nagusi.”

  Tessa winced. “Please don’t provide details.”

  “Don’t worry, I won’t. But if you have slept with Adrian, as I believe you have, it’s no surprise that you’re now experiencing a new depth to your abilities.”

  “It just sort of happened,” Tessa said. “I had no intention of being with him.”

  Maria stilled. “Sweetheart, did he—”

  “No!” Tessa drew back. “No, nothing like that. I just couldn’t resist him.”

  Her mother let out a long breath. “As long as he didn’t force you.”

  Tessa laughed. “Adrian Gray doesn’t force anyone to do anything. He persuades. He seduces. He makes himself so damned irresistible that you find yourself willing, whether you started out that way or not.”

  Maria smiled. “Well, that’s different.”

  “Just because we slept together does not mean he owns me.”

  “Of course not. But does he know that? He seems like a possessive man.”

  “Yes.” Tessa pointed a finger. “That’s it exactly. Possessive. When I had the vision and told him about it, he didn’t believe me. Asked me if I was dreaming.”

  “Surely you understand that, sweetheart. You’ve never had a vision about Atlanteans before.”

  “Maybe I still haven’t. Maybe it really was about Lupe.” Tessa closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Usually any Atlanteans around the human who triggered the vision are indistinct. Blurry. But I saw those three Warriors in the van, clear as day.”

  “I suppose we’ll find out the next time you have a vision,” Maria said. “In the meantime, don’t be too annoyed with Adrian. He’s a man who deals in facts, and when those facts change, he might need a moment to adapt. He went to investigate, didn’t he?”

  “They all did. I called Rafe and Darius, too. Oh, man.” She blew out a long breath. “Darius. He’s going to know. He’ll tell Rafe, and they’ll both give Adrian a hard time.”

  “You leave the boys to me, sweetheart.” Maria rubbed a hand on Tessa’s shoulder.

  “They’ve already been in overprotective mode,” Tessa said. “It started after the incident with Luke years ago and has gotten worse with this war. Did you know they interviewed Carter to take care of Rigo without even including me? I’m the one who can read human minds. You’d think they’d find that useful, wouldn’t you? Well, I’m getting sick of getting shut out. I’m not a child.”

  “No, you’re not,” Maria agreed. “Maybe it’s about time we remind them of that, don’t you think?”

  “Yeah, sure.” Tessa shrugged. “How do you suppose we do that?”

  “They’re questioning that Warrior over in the security center. Let’s go down and give them a hand.”

  Tessa grinned. “Mom, you’re devious.”

  Maria chuckled and turned toward the door, Tessa right behind her. “Just don’t tell your father. He hasn’t figured it out yet.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  By the time Tessa and Maria got down to the security center near the front gates, the interrogation was in full swing. The two women joined Cara and Faith in the observation room, where monitors showed Adrian, Larina, John, Darius, and Rafe pressuring their captive for information.

  “Who sent you?” Adrian demanded of the Mendukati Warrior, who sat cuffed to a chair bolted to the floor. The Warrior just stared at him.

  Adrian nodded at Darius, who focused hard on the prisoner. After a moment, the bound man’s face twisted. He stiffened in the chair, howled.

  “Want him to stop?” Adrian leaned closer. “Tell me who sent you. Was it Azotay?”

  The prisoner squeezed his eyes tight and pressed his lips together, the veins in his neck bulging as he struggled against the pain Darius was inflicting. Larina paced back and forth behind the hostage like a cat scouting a bird’s nest, fingers flexing and gaze sharp.

  “He can make it worse,” Adrian warned. “Do yourself a favor and tell us what we want to know. Did Azotay send you?”

  “No!” The prisoner roared, arching his head back as if he could escape the agony.

  “Not Azotay?” Adrian said again.

  “Not Azotay,” the prisoner gritted.

  Adrian glanced at Darius, and a moment later the prisoner’s grimace eased. Adrian w
aited until the captive opened his eyes before posing the next question. “If not Azotay, then who?”

  The prisoner remained silent for a long moment, his gaze sliding from one person to the next. “We are the Mendukati,” he finally said. “We come for vengeance, and we will keep coming until the stones are ours, and you Seers are all dead.” He glared at Darius. “You. You are the one who destroyed Corinne.”

  Tessa felt Faith jerk beside her, and she laid a hand on the Stone Singer’s suddenly tense arm. The only sign that Darius was even affected by the statement was a slight flicker of his eyelids.

  “Corinne?” Cara whispered.

  “A Mendukati lightning thrower we encountered in Albuquerque,” Faith murmured. “They’d come to bring me in. This guy must be one of the New Mexico battalion. A local. Not one of Azotay’s.”

  “And then there’s the traitor!” the prisoner spat. “The Stone Singer. She disgraces our kind by allying with the enemy, by spreading her legs for this one.” He jerked his chin toward Darius.

  Faith paled. Darius clenched his fists but otherwise did not move.

  “You can’t protect her, Seer. Prophecy decrees she will serve the stones as she was meant to do.” The prisoner laughed—a sound that quickly turned to a howl as Darius amped up the pain again.

  “I suggest you watch what you say,” Adrian advised. “Especially to him.”

  John gestured at Darius to stop the torment, and the prisoner dropped his head forward, panting. “You seem to know a lot about us,” John said.

  At first it seemed as if the prisoner wasn’t going to reply, but finally he raised his head enough to glower at all of them from beneath thick brows. “We know everything.”

  “Not enough,” Rafe said. “You got captured, and by non-Warriors at that.”

  “Due to Seer trickery!” the prisoner snapped. “You have no honor.”

  “You claim to know everything about us,” Rafe said, “but then resort to insults. Because you’ve got nothing.”

  “Nothing?” The prisoner jerked his chin at Darius. “This one damaged Corinne. He broke her mind, and my lord Azotay had to kill her. And his whore Stone Singer—she killed her husband, a loyal follower of the cause. Oh, and also…” He turned slowly to fix his gaze at the cameras, his slow smile making Tessa’s skin crawl, as he appeared to be looking right at her. “Luke sends his regards.”

  “Son of a bitch!” John leaped forward and slugged the prisoner. The bound man’s head snapped back with the blow, and he sagged in his chair.

  “Dad. Dad!” Rafe grabbed his father beneath the arms and dragged him away from the now unconscious prisoner. “It’s cool, Dad. He’s out. It’s cool.”

  John shrugged out of his son’s hold. With one contemptuous look at the bloodied Warrior, he stalked to the other side of the room and stood there with his back to them, one hand braced against the wall and head bowed.

  Tessa stared at their unconscious enemy, a chill sweeping her skin. Luke sends his regards.

  So Luke had been Mendukati, even then, way before Tessa had learned about the extremists who wanted to exterminate the Seers. She’d been ignorant and naïve, a silly girl in the throes of her first crush. She’d ignored the warning signs right up until the end.

  She was lucky he’d only sold her to kidnappers, probably for his own gain. Otherwise, he would surely have killed her. It’s what Mendukati did—kill Seers.

  “Tessa,” her mother murmured, resting a hand on her shoulder. With that small comfort helping her hold it together, Tessa wrapped her arms around herself, bowed her head, and made herself listen to the rest of the conversation going on in the other room.

  * * *

  Adrian sensed Tessa’s distress through their link, and his every instinct urged him to go to her. But he couldn’t leave until the prisoner was secured and everyone was safe. Not for the first time, the bonds of duty chafed.

  Larina broke the silence. “Who’s Luke?”

  The mention of the name again raised the tension in the room, though none of the Montanas answered the question.

  “Come on, guys. Is Luke someone we have to worry about?” Adrian asked. “What’s his part in this?” He looked from Rafe to Darius to John.

  “Luke was the bastard who nearly got Tessa killed,” John said from the other side of the room.

  Adrian fixed his attention on Tessa’s father. “How?”

  John sighed and turned to face Adrian, swiping a hand over his face. “It was about five years ago. Rafe had left, and Darius had been shot. Maria and I spent most of our time at the hospital or chasing down leads from a private detective about Rafe. Tessa had just graduated from college and had started a summer internship at my company.”

  He paused, clearly collecting himself, then took a deep breath and continued. “We had no idea she was in any danger. She seemed excited to be working for the company, and it was a good distraction for her, kept her from worrying too much about her brothers.”

  Rafe looked down at his feet, jaw clenched.

  “Where does Luke come in?” Adrian asked. He kept his voice level with effort.

  “He was a new salesman we’d just hired at the company,” John said. “Passed all the tests. Background check was good. Smooth talker. I remember being impressed with him. Apparently, he and Tessa started dating. She knew we were worried about Rafe and Darius, so she hid it from us. Probably didn’t want to add to our burden.”

  “Or she was rebelling,” Larina said. “Sometimes young women want to relish a new love before introducing him to the family.”

  “Doesn’t matter why she did it,” John said. “The point is, she did hide him from us. And because she did, we almost lost her.”

  “Tell me how.” Adrian curled his hands into fists at his sides.

  “He drugged her and sold her to some kidnappers for money,” John spat. “Luckily, the Team was able to find and rescue her. These scumballs were just greedy humans. We took care of them. But Luke disappeared. Never saw him again.”

  “Tessa mentioned later that she liked the fact that she couldn’t read Luke,” Darius added. “She said he was peaceful to be around.”

  “Apparently this Luke may have been more than an opportunist,” Larina said.

  “Had to be,” Adrian agreed. “Otherwise how would this guy know about him?” He indicated the slumped body of the prisoner.

  “You’re saying you think Luke is Mendukati?” Rafe demanded.

  “It’s possible,” Adrian said. “This guy seems to know him, and Tessa couldn’t read him, so he’s probably at least Atlantean. It all points to the same place.”

  “Of course.” Larina glanced at John. “Apparently the Mendukati have had you under surveillance for some time.” She kicked the prisoner’s leg with one steel-toed boot. He didn’t awaken. “Let’s lock this guy up, A, and we can sit down and sort all this out.”

  “Agreed,” John said. “I, for one, could use a drink.”

  “They’re just going to keep coming, aren’t they?” Rafe said, his face and voice uncharacteristically grim.

  “Afraid so,” Adrian said.

  “We’ve fortified the security several times since this all started,” John said, “but still they manage to come. Eventually they’re going to get lucky and get past us, get their hands on the stone.”

  “We can’t let that happen,” Darius said. Rafe nodded in agreement.

  John looked from Adrian to Larina. “I think we need to talk about moving the stone to your temple. You said you’ve got a bunch of Warriors there?”

  “Battalions,” Larina said.

  “Good. Let’s see them get through that.” He cast a last glance at the now-stirring prisoner. “Think he heard us?”

  “Don’t worry,” Adrian said, his lip curling. “This guy won’t be a problem much longer.”

  John nodded. “Do your thing and lock him up somewhere. Then come back to the house for drinks. And a plan.”

  “Will do,” Adrian said. As the Mont
anas left the room, he looked at Larina.

  “You go,” she said and kicked the prisoner’s leg again. “I’ll take care of this.”

  Adrian gave a nod and headed out of the interrogation room. The fact that John was leaning toward bringing the stone to the temple was a good thing and would please the Council.

  But it was Tessa on his mind as he made his way back to the house.

  * * *

  Tessa’s father and brothers had come out of the interrogation room and scooped up the women, John with an arm around both his wife and daughter, and spirited them all back to the house in security vehicles. They poured into the house, everyone heading for the dining room and drinks. Except Tessa.

  She wandered out onto the patio, unable to shake the chill that pervaded her bones. Luke had been Mendukati. The true understanding of her narrow escape consumed her. Bad enough that Luke had created massive trust issues after his betrayal, but now, realizing the close call she’d had, the danger she’d been in beyond mere kidnapping—it shook her until she was literally trembling.

  The Mendukati had been watching them even before the Montanas had known of the group’s existence.

  Then again, perhaps her parents had known. Her mother had already confessed to deliberately isolating her children from the Atlantean world, allowing them to believe their ancestor was the only survivor of the cataclysm. She’d claimed it was for their safety. When Rafe and Adrian had shown up and exposed the truth and their mother’s well-intentioned lies, their lives had been changed forever.

  Tessa stood there, arms wrapped around herself, watching the gentle lapping of the pool water, the lights beneath the surface warped and beautiful. She could admit she was frightened. She was a Seer, not a fighter like Rafe or an emotional weapon like Darius. She just got visions. If the enemy grabbed her, she wouldn’t be able to defend herself. They’d murder her in moments.

  Luke could have murdered her at any time.

  The chill crept from her bones to her flesh, slinking along her limbs as if she’d been dipped in ice water. If only she’d been able to read him, she might have seen past her infatuation to his true nature. And that thought brought a new one, even more unnerving: what she’d felt for Luke barely touched what was already growing between her and Adrian.