by Sandy James
Thanks to Zach’s research into the church’s blueprints and what Johann could discover about the COE, the women knew exactly where Helen’s office was. Sarita used the Key—Gina’s magical gadget about the size of a credit card that could open any lock—and quickly let them inside.
“Where do we start?” Megan walked over to the ornate walnut desk and pulled out the black leather chair. “How about...here?” She jerked on the right hand drawer. It refused to open. “Hand me the Key, will ya?”
Sarita used it to pop open the lock on the closest file cabinet before tossing it to Megan, who caught it and passed it over the latch on the drawer.
“Can you fire up her computer while I go through this stuff?” Sarita asked.
“Sure thing.” Megan flipped on Helen’s computer.
Rifling through the files in the top drawer, Sarita found nothing but mind-numbing love letters from Helen’s followers and copies of emails she’d printed out. The extensive pile of praise being heaped on her no doubt fed her power. Having so many worshippers made her a formidable enemy.
The Amazons searched in silence for several minutes, and Sarita’s hopes fell. Helen was playing her cards close to her vest. They found no tangible clue as to what her grand plans were or how anyone beyond her converts would be affected by her slowly seizing power. Did she plan to topple governments? Did she hope to sweep aside all other forms of religion?
What in the hell did she really want?
“Damn it.” Megan slammed the last desk drawer shut, and Sarita sensed her sister’s frustration—and shared it. “You find anything?”
“Like you need to ask.”
Fire shook her head as she sat down and let her fingers fly over the keyboard. “Stupid thing is password locked.”
“Try the codes Zach gave you.”
Jerking a small paper out of her skirt pocket, she placed it next to the keyboard and entered the commands Zach had provided to help get past any computer security system. After a few attempts, a small bit of fireworks shot from Megan’s head. “Well, how about that! I’m in! Way to go, Zachary.”
Megan plugged in the memory stick he’d also given her—one Zach designed himself to absorb a ridiculous amount of information—and started downloading the files on Helen’s computer.
Sarita kept herself occupied searching the office for secret storage areas and looking at the objects in the office.
Helen was obviously an Earth Amazon deep down inside. Every piece of art—from the knickknacks to the paintings—was of animals or nature scenes. Even faux leather covered her office chair. Sarita lifted each frame away from the wall to assure herself no wall safe or hidden cubbyhole lay behind.
Just as she let the last painting rest against the wall again, another small burst of sparks surged from Megan’s hair. “Here’s a huge file labeled ‘Amazons.’ Damn thing’s encrypted, but I’ll bet Zach can get in.”
“I’ll take that bet,” Sarita replied with a wink. She checked her watch. “Get that downloaded. We should get outta here before someone comes.” Every little sound made her jump. Being on constant alert left her nerves raw. She was more than ready to let her hair down and end this charade.
“Done.” The instant Megan yanked the memory stick from the computer, the door opened.
The breath caught in Sarita’s throat when Ian walked into the office, leaving the door open behind him. He appeared exactly as he had on the televised press conference—dressed in a black suit and his hair again slicked back with gel. The only thing missing were the sunglasses.
Those hypnotizing green eyes moved to where Megan sat at the desk. “I dinnae know you’d returned. Can I leave?”
The moment Megan opened her mouth, Ian would know she wasn’t Helen. While she could shape-shift into anyone, she couldn’t change her voice. It was one thing to fool a guard, another entirely to fool a man Helen had raised from the dead.
Megan gave Ian a terse nod and flippant wave of her hand.
He shifted his gaze to Sarita, but no recognition came to his face. “Have we met?”
“You don’t know me?”
“Nay, lass. Should I?” A fleeting twitch of a grin passed his lips.
Her heart plummeted, and she had to breathe deep to keep from sobbing. No wonder he worked with Helen—she’d clearly used Seior to wipe away any memory of Sarita and all they’d shared while he’d held her captive.
Holding tight to her tumbling emotions, she used the story they’d rehearsed in preparing for the mission. “I’m just a humble follower. Our Earth’s savior needed help with filing her letters of adoration.” She moved back to the file cabinet, opened one of the drawers and flitted through a file. “There are so many. I am truly blessed to work for her.”
If she hadn’t known him as well as she did, she might have missed the slight narrowing of his eyes that betrayed his disbelief. “Since my job is to see to Mistress Helen’s safety, perhaps ye should have been introduced to me sooner.”
So he was acting as her bodyguard. A good ruse that wouldn’t raise an ounce of suspicion about why he stayed glued to Helen’s side. “I’m just one of many.”
“But one of few allowed in her office.” Ian’s eyes scanned Sarita from head to toe, and despite the fact he didn’t remember her, she saw desire warm his gaze. “What’s yer name, lass?”
“What’s it matter?” Megan snapped. “I’m nearly done.”
Holding her breath, Sarita waited to see if Ian would recognize he wasn’t dealing with Helen.
After what seemed like far too long, he conceded with a nod. “Are ye ready to leave?”
Megan hesitated, and Ian took a step closer to the desk, those intense eyes no doubt attempting to pierce through her disguise.
“I need a few more minutes,” she said. “You go ahead and go back.”
Since he didn’t say a word in response, Sarita assumed they’d avoided detection. A relieved sigh almost slipped out.
Then Ian retreated.
Sarita almost breathed a relieved sigh—until he slammed the office door shut.
He leaned back, chuckled and crossed his arms over his chest. “Since I cannae go home until you send me there, the ruse is over.”
“Ruse?” Sarita quirked an eyebrow.
Megan followed suit. “What ruse?”
“I wondered when you’d come a’snooping,” he added.
A burst of Megan’s thoughts hit Sarita—they were going to try to bluff their way through this.
“What are you talking about?” Megan said in an authoritarian tone.
Ian moved closer, positioning himself right in the middle of Sarita’s path to the door. “My mistress will be pleased I’ve caught Fire and Water.” A small smile curved his lips. “The strongest and the weakest of the Amazons.”
With a growl, Megan shoved her hands out and threw Ian back against the door.
“No!” Sarita put herself between them. “He’s mine to deal with.”
Megan’s face shifted back to her own features as her hair tinted from blond back to red. “Fine. I won’t hurt him.” She glared at Ian. “Unless he gives me a reason to.”
Sarita faced Ian. Having been called the weakest Amazon, she let her temper flare.
I’ll show you who’s the weakest Amazon.
She went on the offensive without giving Ian any warning.
He pushed away from the door, blocked the kick she threw at his midsection and laughed at her. “That’s the best you’ve got, lass?”
* * *
Ian savored the blistering glare the beautiful Water Amazon threw his way. He had no time to enjoy it because, just as he’d hoped, his taunting words sent the tiny woman into a flurry of fists and feet.
She’d been trained well in hand-to-hand combat. It took all his concentrat
ion to block her attacks, but for some odd reason, he couldn’t seem to force himself to land a few of his own. Not that she gave him much opportunity. Yet he let more than one chance to return her attack slip by.
Something niggled at the back of his mind, some recollection of having seen this woman before—and not just in erotic dreams. He hadn’t meant to ask her name, and, had she answered, she’d never have told him the truth. He’d been curious what she’d call herself to pull off this masquerade.
As he parried every blow she attempted to land, he watched her closely, taking in everything about her and branding it on his memory. Her face was far too familiar, although...something was different. Missing, perhaps?
The scent of jasmine distracted him, and he let his guard down long enough for a dainty fist to connect with his stomach. And a damn fine punch it was. Doubling over, he tried to regain his lost breath when she followed the first hit with a solid uppercut to his nose.
Lights flashed behind his eyes. He pushed aside the pain, rising to his full height as he gulped a few more breaths back into his lungs.
Sarita had given him parlay, stepping back while he swiped his sleeve under his throbbing nose. He didn’t have to look at his jacket to know it was smeared with blood.
“Let us through,” she demanded, “and I won’t kill you.”
Such brave words from such a tiny creature.
Then he caught the jeweled hilt of a dagger tucked to her side in the waistband of her pants. Had she wanted to end him, she could have easily slipped the blade between his ribs already.
What was she waiting for?
Pictures hit him again, as though memories were flashing through his thoughts too rapidly for him to understand any of them. Sarita appeared in each and every image—dressed in a gown of blue. Staring out from the catwalks of dorcha àite. Sitting at the table in his dining hall. A scar along the length of her face was there as well. The last of the images stole what little breath he’d recovered. The Water Amazon lay in his bed, arms wide open in welcome, her beautiful body bared to his gaze.
Fire had gotten to her feet and made her way to Sarita. Ian shoved aside the pictures and focused on his job. He’d fought too hard to come back to this world so he could seek his justice. His hatred burned stronger than what he felt for this woman.
Didn’t it?
He wouldn’t let some lust-filled infatuation pull him away from his goal. “I cannae let you go.” After the words spilled out, he knew they were a lie. He should have called out to Helen to come to them and take the women hostage—or perhaps end their lives—but he couldn’t bring himself to do so. He realized, with a touch of amusement, he was going to let them go.
And if that wasn’t the height of folly...
I must be daft.
Megan yanked a dirk from a pocket in her skirt. “You’re Darian MacKay.”
They’d learned his name, and hearing it felt exactly like Sarita’s punch to his face.
“We know you,” Sarita added. “I know you, better than you can imagine.”
He saw no reason to play games with the women, though he had no idea how they’d come to know his secret. “Aye, and you two lovely ladies are Megan Feuer and Sarita Neeraj.”
“Come with us,” Sarita blurted out.
“He can’t—” Megan was cut off by Sarita’s blazing scowl.
“Come back to our home with us,” Water said again. “We can help you.”
A snorted laugh slipped out, and Ian wondered for a moment why he’d done that. It hadn’t been a habit before he’d died. Perhaps burning to death gave a body new customs. “Only my mistress can help me, loving.”
Loving? What in the bloody hell was wrong with him?
“We can help,” Sarita insisted. “I know you so well, Ian. I know what you’ve been through, and I know why you’re with Helen. Don’t you remember me?”
“Why would I remember you? This is the first time I’ve laid eyes on ye.”
“I was with you at dorcha àite.”
“How could you know of my home?”
“Helen’s robbed you of your memories. You captured me after you let a demon loose to lure out Earth. You took me to your castle, jaanu, and we—” She stopped talking so abruptly, her teeth clicked when she shut her pretty little mouth.
A bright light flashed to Ian’s left, and damn it all if Helen didn’t appear. He’d been trying to reconcile what she told him with the fleeting memories that still assaulted his mind. Now he’d have no chance to get more information. Although he wasn’t sure why he trusted the Amazon, his own mind gave him glimpses that she told the truth.
Helen took one look around, fisted her hands against her hips and frowned. “I’ll assume, Darian, you were about to call to me to tell me you’d captured two of the Amazons.”
He chose not to say anything. Anger brewed inside him. Anger at his brother for leaving him behind after setting him up to die a horrible death. Anger at the Amazons for trying to keep him from finding justice. And, despite the fact she was giving him a chance at vengeance, anger at Helen since she’d obviously done something to his thoughts.
Raising her hands, Helen said, “I’ll take care of this problem now.”
Before any words of a spell could fall out of Helen’s mouth, Sarita shouted, “Ganga! Help us, please!”
As Helen screeched in fury, the two Amazons disappeared in a shimmer of light.
Helen grabbed his upper arms. “You let them go! How could you let them go?”
Ian shrugged her hands away. “Water called to her goddess. There was nothing I could do to—”
Thunder rumbled, no doubt her angry response as she interrupted him. “The moment you found them, you were to call to me.”
“Killing two of them willnae achieve your goals. Let them work their mischief.” He inclined his head at the computer. “They’re sure to find the false trails and stay well away from your true plans.”
Another clap of thunder, louder this time. “I want them dead.”
“Keep your eye on the goal, m’lady. They’ll die. No doubt. But not until the proper time.”
While he waited for Helen to cease her tantrum Ian rubbed a sore spot on his neck Sarita had hit. Helen’s goal—and his—would be harder if she’d killed Fire and Water. Had she done so, no doubt Earth and Air would hunt them with a passion that would never be stopped.
By letting them go—especially with the false information they’d taken from the computer—they’d be well-occupied until it was too late.
“I want them dead, Darian.”
“I told you, I wish to be called Ian.”
She dismissed him with a wave of her hand. “Check the computer. See if they took the right files.”
Grateful that Helen had cast a spell to fill his mind with knowledge of this era, he sat down in the chair and put his hands on the keyboard. Although he could never quite get past the foreign feeling of using a computer, he brought up the encrypted files he’d put in place specifically for the Amazons. He’d known all along they’d come to Helen, a feeling deep in his gut that these women were no different than the Highland warriors of his era. They didn’t wait for a fight to come to them—they hunted down their enemies.
A quick check told him the files had been successfully pilfered, so he smiled. “Aye, m’lady. The Amazons have the information.”
“Good, good. Then let’s go. I want to be home.” She sounded weary, a tone he’d grown accustomed to with the long days she put in. “I need to have my own things around me.”
After he flipped off her computer, Ian went to Helen’s side so she could teleport them to the home she’d acquired for them. Best he could gather, it was a great distance away—someplace tropical. While he enjoyed the opulence of the beach, he missed the simplicity of his castle. Just as she needed
to have her own things near, so did he.
Picturing dorcha àite in his mind’s eye, he was surprised that remembrances of the beautiful Water Amazon were now intertwined with memories of his home. Each new image triggered a flare of emotions—strong emotions—that he couldn’t seem to control. Added to what Sarita told him, it could only equal one conclusion.
Helen had erased his memories.
Confronting her would serve no purpose. He wasn’t surprised. What did bother him was what she feared. Her confidence in her ultimate victory was absolute. So what did she gain by messing with his mind? What had been so important she wanted him to forget? Would those lost memories pull him from her side?
Even if he’d spent time with the lass as she’d claimed, he couldn’t stray from his path of revenge. Especially when it was finally within his grasp. No interlude, no matter how sweet, was worth giving up his quest for justice.
Ian took Helen’s hand in his and let her take them to her home.
Chapter Thirteen
Ganga was waiting when they popped back into Avalon.
Not a surprise. Sarita had never called to her goddess for rescue before. Amazons weren’t supposed to beg for help. Megan might have asked Freya to transport her from place to place, but Freya was her mother. Every now and then Rebecca would have Rhiannon send her to a mission. Even Gina asked for Ix Chel for a favor from time to time.
Sarita had never felt comfortable requesting anything from Ganga. Not that Ganga would deny her—the goddess had always been generous to a fault. Sarita just preferred to handle things without troubling her. This time, she’d had no choice. Helen wasn’t a usual problem, and the fact she’d exposed the entire world to magicks made the stakes of this mission the highest any Amazon generation had faced. Once Helen had found them in that office, Sarita had no other options that didn’t put Ian and Megan at risk.
She hurried to her goddess. “Thank you, Ganga.”
