Eternal Nights

by Patti O'Shea

With a nod, Kendall tipped the bottle back, drinking nearly the whole thing before she felt as if she’d had enough. She didn’t worry about bacteria—this was the Old City—and she wasn’t concerned that the thieves had poisoned the supply. The lines lacing the room wouldn’t let anyone close to the fountain. She replenished the bottle and handed it to Wyatt.

  As she watched him swallow, she became aware of a burning sensation in the hand she’d used to dip the containers. The water seemed to be interacting with the swirls, etching fire into the pattern. Kendall wiped her palm off on the seat of her pants, but the searing didn’t stop.

  Wyatt held out the empty bottle, and she stared blankly. “I’m good,” he told her, and as it dawned on her what he was talking about, she took it from him.

  This time as Kendall bent to dip the bottle into the water, she tried to keep her hand dry. Not that it mattered since the pain had never gone away, but she didn’t want to make it worse.

  As she leaned over, Kendall became aware of Wyatt’s hands at her waist, the feel of his groin brushing her bottom. She wanted to press backward, feel him grow hard against her again, and she shook her head, denying the idea. The instant the bottle was filled, she straightened, and stowed it. Just as she closed the flap on her bag, she heard a man shout outside the room.

  “Move!” Wyatt didn’t wait for her to comply, he tightened his hold around her, and half carried her as he ran for the backside of the basin.

  Someone fired a pistol, the shot sounding loud in the stone chamber. The ricochet brought a curse from one of the pursuers, but this voice was feminine. There was a pair of them then, a man and a woman. Wyatt reached the rear of the fountain and pushed her down behind it before he dropped over her.

  “I need to be on top!” she told him. Before he could disagree, Kendall rolled.

  “Damn it, I have to be able to shoot.”

  “You can do that without lying over me.” She understood why he was worried. The fountain was low and if she raised her head, she’d become a target. Sure, they had the marble basin between them and the doorway. It would have to be a good shot, but it wasn’t an impossible one. “I was blocked down there,” she explained. “The lines were flowing back—if they touched you...”

  Wyatt muttered a complaint as her voice trailed off. Before she could prevent it, he shifted their positions so that he was kneeling, and she was shielded by him. They were partly behind the column centered in the fountain now, and that limited the shooting angles even more. He lifted the flap on the holster and drew his pistol. “They’re in the hallway,” he told her.

  Almost as soon as he finished speaking, raised voices drifted into the room. Kendall couldn’t make out the words, but their enemies were having a disagreement.

  “What do you think they’re going to do?” she asked quietly.

  “I don’t know. I see three decent options. One, they wait us out. Two, they come in after us. But the best choice is to leave one person outside the room and send the other for help.”

  “They didn’t have comm gear?”

  “I didn’t see any, and the men I killed didn’t have it either. Western Alliance comm systems only work sporadically in the city, and the equipment has to be checked in and out, so unless they have a person in that unit, it isn’t worth the risk to take something so noticeable.”

  The argument became more heated. “I don’t think they’re going to pick the best choice in your set of options. Neither one of them seems to want to give up the glory of capturing us.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Wyatt said without glancing away from the door. “A pair will be a lot easier to handle than an army.”

  As they waited, Kendall felt her nerves pulling tauter. She was behind Wyatt, and that made her more tense than anything else. She knew him. He’d protect her, no matter what—including taking a bullet.

  Almost at the same instant Kendall noticed one of the thieves had stepped far enough into the door to be seen, Wyatt fired. The noise sounded as loud as a cannon. He didn’t miss.

  But while he’d definitely hit flesh, it was impossible to tell how badly the person had been hurt. There was no swearing, no moans, no vows to avenge the partner’s death, and no return fire. The silence seemed downright eerie.

  As tempting as it was to ask Wyatt, Kendall kept her mouth shut. He was too focused for her to risk distracting him.

  They were out there, though, she knew it. If only they’d leave, so she and Wyatt could get out of here. The temple was filled with traps, some physical, some mental. Why couldn’t those two run into something like that now when it would help? Maybe not beetles, maybe something scarier than what it had done to Wyatt, but Kendall wanted those smugglers gone.

  Leaning forward to get a better view, she braced her hand on the basin of the fountain to keep her balance. The burning in her hand became almost unbearable. She bit back a gasp, knowing it would alarm Wyatt, but it hurt like hell. Kendall wanted to pull her arm back, but it was as if she were glued in place.

  “Get it off me!”

  Kendall forgot about her pain. The voice had been nearly frantic, and she wondered what was going on to upset the male thief so much. Then he screamed. She and Wyatt exchanged a glance, but he quickly returned his gaze to the doorway.

  Biting her lip, she squeezed her hand more tightly around the marble. What was happening out there? A hallucination? Or something worse? And was it something that would impact on her and Wyatt too? Now the woman was screaming also, and Kendall felt a shiver go down her spine.

  “What are you doing?” Wyatt asked, voice low.

  “What do you mean? I’m just kneeling here.”

  Movement caught their attention, and Wyatt looked away from her. The man ran into the room, the female thief right on his heels. They were swatting at themselves, still screaming, and carrying on even worse than Wyatt had when he’d been hallucinating about the beetles.

  “Stop!” Kendall shouted as the two raced deeper into the chamber, but the smugglers were beyond hearing her.

  The energy lines flared, then something like the fine lines given off by a laser scalpel pierced through the space where the duo stood. Kendall closed her eyes and turned her face into Wyatt’s shoulder the instant she saw what was happening.

  Those laser beams were slicing through flesh, carving up the thieves like they were Thanksgiving Day turkeys.

  If she thought their screams had been hideous before, that was nothing compared to the sounds escaping them now. Unfortunately, she couldn’t plug her ears and block the sounds, not even the noises they made as they died.

  Only when the room was absolutely calm again did the light dim to its previous level of brightness. Kendall didn’t look over at the bodies, but she could remove her hand from the basin now, and she wrapped both arms around Wyatt. That could have been him. If she hadn’t seen those lines, he would have died in agony, and there would have been nothing she could have done to save him. She held on more tightly.

  “It’s all right, darlin’,” he said softly. He tucked his pistol back in the holster so he could return her hug.

  “That could have been you,” she said, still unable to get past the idea that she could have lost him.

  “But it wasn’t. You saved me.” Wyatt lifted a hand to her face, brushed her hair off her cheek, and leaned down to kiss her. Kendall didn’t demur; she met him halfway, immediately opening her mouth beneath his in invitation.

  As his tongue played with hers, she felt her arousal deepen. Almost before she realized what she was doing, Kendall rubbed herself against his body. It wasn’t enough, damn it, and she groaned her frustration.

  She brought her hands up, cupped his face, and kissed him with all the pent-up desire she held for him. Her right hand felt scorching hot, but she ignored it.

  “Ow!” Wyatt pulled back. “What the—” He took hold of her hand, and turned it so he could see the inside. She looked down when he did. There, deeply drawn into her palm, was the outline of a pyramid, an
d inside it were swirly symbols that Kendall couldn’t identify. The lines weren’t faint any longer, but thick and easily noticeable. “Son of a bitch,” Wyatt cursed.

  *** *** ***

  He was pissed as hell. The damn temple had claimed Bug. She had the mark of High Priestess branded on her palm just as Zolianna had after she’d ascended to the position.

  “When did this show up?” he demanded.

  For a second, he thought she was going to shut down on him, and he was in no mood to tolerate it. Then, with a shrug, Bug said, “It’s hard to gauge time here, but it began appearing the day the wall almost crushed me.”

  “You had your hand against the stone,” he realized.

  She nodded, but Wyatt wasn’t looking for confirmation. To go from kissing her—with her kissing him back just as wildly—to this was like a fist in the gut. Taking a deep breath, he forced the fury aside. He wasn’t losing Kendall to this pile of rock, and he’d fight however he needed to in order to hold on to her.

  With another deep breath or two, he calmed down enough to realize this gave them a bit of an advantage. The temple had laid claim to Kendall, but as High Priestess, she controlled a lot of things. He would bet a month’s worth of pay that Bug had caused whatever had made the thieves scream in the hallway. “Turn off the trap in this room,” he said.

  “What? How do I do that?”

  Wyatt sighed silently. Her confusion was real, and it went back to her not remembering any of her past lives. “Picture it, okay? Maybe visualize flipping a switch, and having all the energy lines in the room disappear.” She looked dubious and he smiled faintly at her reaction. “Just try it.”

  She freed her hand, but he kept her body pressed against his. It was this contact that let him feel her gathering power. Kendall might not consciously remember what she was capable of, but she still had the talents.

  “It worked.” She sounded amazed. “The lines are gone.”

  “Good job,” he said, but Wyatt was less than happy even though she’d done as he’d asked. This was one more piece of evidence that she was connected to the temple. He debated whether to ask the next question, but decided Kendall would be quizzing him anyway from what he’d already said. “What were you thinking while those two were outside the room?”

  “What do you mean?” Bug wouldn’t meet his gaze.

  Tightening his hold on her, he said, “Don’t you dare do this to me, Kendall. Don’t shut me out or lie to me.” Her gaze flew to his, and she looked startled. “What were you thinking while those smugglers were outside?”

  Kendall bit her bottom lip, then said, “I just wished that they’d trigger a mind trap the way you had, that’s all.”

  Wyatt nodded, then reluctantly released her, so he could stand. Holding out a hand, he pulled Bug to her feet.

  “What happened to them—it’s my fault, isn’t it?”

  “No, of course not,” he assured her.

  “It is.” She grabbed his arm, held on tightly. “I wanted them to run away from us, though, not into the chamber.”

  Gathering her close, he cuddled her against his chest. “You’re not to blame, darlin’. They’re the ones who chose to come in the room; you didn’t force them.” Kendall didn’t argue with him, but he knew she didn’t believe it. Wyatt didn’t have time to talk to her about this right now. More members of the smuggling ring could show up; they weren’t clear yet. “We need to get out of here,” he told her. “Why don’t you wait over by the door while I check out our uninvited guests?”

  “I’ll go with you,” Kendall said. “I can handle it.”

  “There’s no reason to. I already know you’re tough enough to deal with it.”

  Bug was tough. She’d take on anything he asked of her, but there really was no benefit to her seeing the bodies up close. He knew this was going to be ugly, probably the worst thing he’d ever viewed. Unlike Kendall, he’d watched while the lights had sliced the pair to pieces. Wyatt had wanted to look away too, but he couldn’t. He needed to know what they were up against, and burying his head in the sand wasn’t going to keep them safe.

  Taking a chance, he leaned forward and kissed her lightly, quickly. “I’ll be fast, and you really don’t need to see it.”

  With a jerky nod, Kendall agreed. He waited until she was halfway to the exit before he walked over to the corpses. Shit, they were a mess, pieces of them everywhere. He felt the water he’d had earlier come up on him, and Wyatt swallowed hard.

  He considered taking their pistols, their ammo pouches and the canteens, but the items were saturated with blood. Not worth it, not when they’d remind Kendall what had occurred every time she looked at them. She already blamed herself; this would be like a thorn in her side, tormenting her continually.

  Wyatt went over to the other body. This one had been pierced, probably by the same lasers, but not sliced. The only thing he could figure out was that this thief hadn’t gone as deeply into the room, so the temple hadn’t reacted as violently.

  He left bloody boot prints in his wake as he rejoined Kendall. He grimaced, but there’d been no way to avoid it, not given the condition of the bodies. “Nothing salvageable,” he reported when he drew beside her. She nodded. “When we leave the room, I want you to turn those energy lines back on again. They might take out a few more smugglers for us.”

  Bug paled, but she nodded, and the urge to kiss her hit him once more. Hell, he always wanted to kiss her, but this was specifically because she was showing her mettle. He appreciated her strength, her willingness to do what he needed even when it wasn’t easy. Things were bad, but they could be a lot worse if Kendall wasn’t as solid as she was. “Darlin’, they’d do the same to us, or worse, if they had the chance.”

  “I realize that. You can count on me.”

  “Yeah, I know. Come on, let’s get going. We need to put some distance between us and this fountain before we stop for the night.”

  Wyatt paused outside the room, waited for her nod indicating she’d rearmed the trap, then took her hand—the one on which the damn pyramid had carved its mark. He felt energy zipping between their palms, and ignored it. Kendall Thomas was his and he wasn’t letting some fricking heap of rock scare him off.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Kendall battled to conceal her disappointment. She’d known when her attendant had informed her of Wyatt’s arrival that it was official business, so there was no cause to feel disheartened at seeing his lieutenants at his sides. She herself had come with half her cortege and her personal guard. It was expected.

  The men went down on one knee, her lover included, and bowed their heads. “My lady,” he said.

  She took a moment to study her visitors. “You’ve my leave to rise.” At times such as these, Kendall despised the formality to which they were forced to adhere. She wished to go to him, wrap her arms around his waist, and simply hold him while they discussed what was wrong. But they were surrounded by the entourages that came with their respective positions, and she could not.

  Turning to her attendant, Kendall gave one regal nod. The young priestess stepped forward at once, and asked, “Would the gentlemen care for refreshments?”

  “Thank you for your hospitality, senet,” Wyatt said, “but we must decline.”

  “We shall be comfortable,” Kendall pronounced, and with all the gracefulness she possessed, glided to the sofa. When she was seated, her cortege and guards in position, she indicated the opposite chair. It wasn’t nearly as ornate or comfortable as her own, but since it was considered a great honor to be allowed to sit in her presence, that fact was usually overlooked.

  Hands calmly folded in her lap, Kendall waited until Wyatt was settled to ask, “What news have you for the temple?”

  “My lady, Guard Commander Gustus asked me to inform you of events which have taken place outside the walls of our city.” He took a deep breath. “There’s no easy way to impart this information. Thirty-two of our citizens were found murdered outside the city walls.”r />
  Kendall barely kept herself from gasping, but her young attendant was not so skilled at hiding her reaction. “Is the Guard certain it was murder?”

  “Most assuredly,” Wyatt said.

  “Explain,” she ordered.

  “The details are gruesome, my lady.”

  After giving that a moment’s worth of consideration, Kendall dismissed her attendant, then added, “All save my guard may leave if they wish to do so.” Not one member of her cortege shifted. Kendall inclined her head toward Wyatt, and said, “Proceed.”

  There was a hesitation that Kendall ascribed to Wyatt’s need to protect her. “My lady,” he said at last, “the victims were mutilated—their eyes were missing from their sockets, their tongues gone as well, and their hearts torn from their chests.”

  Kendall clenched her hands tightly in her lap. The description itself was factual and held no unnecessary detail, but she found it too easy to envision such horror. “Has the Guard discovered those responsible for such carnage?”

  “No, my lady. The physical strength required to break through a person’s rib cage is incredible. We’ve been unable to discover who could possess such power.”

  She asked more questions, but Wyatt had no answers. Perhaps that was not too surprising. The City Guard was ceremonial and unaccustomed to dealing with such matters. There were tales of violence in the ancient past of their home world, but they’d long since abandoned such uncivilized behavior. The Guard was at a loss as to what to do, that was obvious. By the time he and his men bowed before taking their leave, Kendall was concerned about how many more would die before this madman was apprehended.

  *** *** ***

  Alex stared down at the paper lying on his desk blotter and scowled. It shouldn’t be this difficult to come up with ideas to win Stacey. Hell, men wooed their women all the time.

  He’d started with three items—flowers, candy, perfume. This was Jarved Nine, though, and any kind of candy was hard to come by. Everything they had that wasn’t alien in origin had to be shipped from home, and space on the transport was too valuable to waste on chocolate. He’d crossed that off the list.