“Please don’t do anything stupid, Carter,” I pleaded under my breath. “And please stay safe. I’m coming. I’m coming.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Have you gotten a response yet?”
Carter glanced up from the computer screen in front of him to see his boss looking over his shoulder. James’ control room in the mansion was mostly intact and still useable. It had become the mansion’s temporary base of operations.
“I miss James being here to run this crap,” he admitted, rolling out his neck, “but with Eric’s help I tracked down phone numbers for some of Nosizwe’s people. They wouldn’t put me through to her directly, but I got the word to someone close to her. Told them to be at the Fossil Edge Nature Preserve at eight tonight. It will be closed. Plenty of room in the middle for privacy; plenty of room for a brawl with no innocent bystanders around to get hurt. And no witnesses to see anything. I told them we had Ciara’s red cap. I told them we had me.”
Carter released a breath. Never thought I’d be using myself as a bargaining chip in this war.
“Told them we’d talk or we’d fight, but we were ending it here. Nosizwe and Ciara show up with ten of their most trusted and we do the same. It’s gone on long enough.”
“What was her response?”
“Nothing yet. The message is being passed along.” He scooted the rolling chair back from the desk, stood. “But I don’t think it’ll be a problem. How can they not come?”
Ciara wanted her red cap, her ability to return to the sea, her true home and forever love. That’s what this was about for her, wasn’t it? Controlling her own destiny? Nosizwe wanted the power of the Stones. Only Carter could give that to her. He and Sean hadn’t worked out exactly how, but they were going to use her needs against her.
“True.” His boss nodded thoughtfully. “And when they do…what are we prepared to offer? Do we offer, or do we take?”
Carter jerked his chin towards the doorway. “Let’s talk outside.”
Sean didn’t dispute, trailing him as he passed outside what remained of the mansion and far enough away from the house, into the back gardens, that they didn’t have to risk being overheard. When they stopped, Sean pulled a cigar from the breast pocket of his shirt and a lighter from the pocket of his slacks. He lit it, waiting until he’d inhaled a couple of times before asking, “Still don’t trust everyone inside?”
“I don’t know what bugs James may have put up inside the house. For that matter, I don’t know what bugs James may have put up out here, but it’s not as likely we’ll be overheard if Liberty somehow still has access,” Carter admitted, glancing around at the darkened trees, benches, hedges…
James had been a force unto himself. Sure, he’d answered ultimately to Carter and to Sean, but he was so good at what he did that most of his work went unchecked. It would take time for Eric to fully navigate the intricacies of his system, and even in that there was risk. Who knew for certain if Eric was trustworthy? At this point, Carter wasn’t sure he could rely on anyone except himself. Tracy, probably. Sean.
Could he, though? He couldn’t help recalling Ellie’s warning about Sean using him. Ellie telling him that she was the only one who definitely had his back. He’d tried to joke it off. But there was a lot of truth to what she’d said. She wasn’t a shifter, so she had no stake in this war. She didn’t care about the Stones of Fire or other worlds or the Talos’ blood or any of it. She merely wanted him safe. With her.
Right now, standing there with his boss, forming plans, Carter could think of a lot worse things than being somewhere safe and solitary with Ellie. However, he wasn’t a quitter and he wasn’t a coward. He’d never run from a fight before. He wasn’t going to now.
Shadows deepened as Sean and he talked. Night drew on. Soon, it would be time to leave for the game preserve. This late in the evening, traffic shouldn’t be bad and they could make good time.
Why am I thinking about traffic?
It was impossible to live here and not be concerned with traffic, since the ebb and flow of traffic dictated when a person went anywhere. Still, it felt almost weird to be considering mundane things like traffic, considering the situation they were heading into. His mind couldn’t settle. It couldn’t settle a short while later when he climbed into his car and pulled away from the burnt, broken mansion, winding down the long drive, beneath the trees, and out the gates. Possibly for the last time. Three more vehicles trailed him, but Carter paid no attention to them, trusting them to keep up as he navigated the streets of Fort Worth.
As he made his way out of the city, he couldn’t help studying his surroundings with a renewed sense of appreciation, coupled with a sense that this could be it—this could be the last time he saw the place he’d spent most of his life. He loved this city, this city that spilled out into dozens of smaller cities surrounding it, eventually bleeding over into its twin sister, Dallas, creating the gigantic Metroplex. As a child, going from Greece to the United States was a big switch. Going from his home to Texas, from his parents to Sean, from all that he’d known into the unknown was a change he’d thought he would never get used to. That lonely kid cried himself to sleep more times than his tough, outward exterior would ever admit. In time, though, he’d forgiven his parents for sending him away; appreciated, in fact, what they’d done.
Even if it had ultimately led to this outcome.
Carter, as the Talos, going out to face Sean’s enemies in a war not of his making, but in which he’d long been involved.
The crazy curves of the road ahead were the living, thrumming veins of the city, packed with red taillights like Texas fire ants scurrying into and out of their ant hills. Carter could appreciate the glow of city lights reflected on the shimmering glass of downtown skyscrapers—the tallest things around for hundreds of square miles. He could make sense of the up-turned spaghetti bowl of bridges and highways, spilling out in a tangle of concrete and asphalt every which direction. He knew the good parts of the city, as well as its underbelly. The crime, white and blue collar, which he’d seen firsthand or brushed up against as Sean’s associate. He knew firsthand the secrets most didn’t, of the world inside worlds, of shapeshifters and their struggles to survive. Struggles centered here, in this part of Texas where Sean’s family had fled persecution so long ago and wound up establishing an empire.
He was now a part of that history, that empire as he drove towards the culmination of the feud between his mentor and his mentor’s rival. But what the culmination would be was anyone’s guess. Carter ran over multiple scenarios in his mind during the drive out to the nature preserve, trying to outwit and outguess their opponents mentally, from the safety of the car, before he had to face them in person.
Safety.
It wasn’t that he feared death. He’d faced it down once, coming out on the other side. Literally. The other side of who knew where. He didn’t even fear pain. In fact, there wasn’t much he’d ever feared, since coming into his own as the Talos. Unless it was something happening to the folks he was meant to defend. Sean. Jackson. Even Ciara. As the Talos, he’d been sworn by Sean to protect her. In the heat of the moment, could he betray that trust, despite what she’d done?
The fear that he couldn’t consumed Carter. He didn’t hate Ciara. In fact, understanding as he did what it was like to be captive to your alter, to its strongest drives—she to the sea, he to protect those he was bound to protect—Carter felt a certain sympathy for her. What she’d done wasn’t right, but, as much as he hated to admit it to himself, he could understand her motivations. And he couldn’t hate her for it, except for how it had endangered his wife.
Ellie.
That was the sticking point. Carter’s vehicle swung up to the gates of the Fossil Edge Nature Preserve, headlights playing across the shiny metal. Putting the car in park, he waited while one of his people climbed out of the car behind him, a pair of bolt cutters in hand. A quick snap, a squeeze, and the lock fell into the dust. The gate swung open. Head
lights off, using parking lights and the glow of the moon to guide him, Carter passed through. The last car had instructions to wire the gate closed so none of the exotic animals could escape.
They were shapeshifters, but they weren’t animals, he’d told them with grim humor. There’d been a few obligatory chuckles, since some of them were, in fact, animals. The kind of animals that had evolved into myth and legend around the globe, not just werewolves, like Ellie had mentioned the first time they’d met.
Ellie.
Even now, Carter’s mind couldn’t stop turning to her. His gut couldn’t stop churning with a deep fear he could hardly stand to acknowledge to himself. That all of this would end with him dying or dead and he’d never see his wife again.
Would it be worth it?
Was loyalty to Sean worth it?
Or should he have done what Ellie had accused him of not having the strength to do—walk away? Walk away from this cumulative battle, and go with her?
Ellie was right. He didn’t have the strength to do that, even though part of him wanted to. Carter didn’t have the strength not to be here. He wished he did. He wished he were a better man, for her. But he didn’t. And he wasn’t. He was who he was. He was the Talos. And there was no changing or getting away from that, any more than there was getting away from this fight.
The small cavalcade of vehicles wound towards the remotest part of the preserve. Before they were close enough to see the actual cars, Carter glimpsed moonlight reflecting off windshield glass and safety reflectors. He squinted, trying to ascertain how many vehicles were in Nosizwe’s group.
Five, maybe. Six. More than him, but he’d told them to bring the Stones. If they’d kept their end of the bargain, they would’ve needed trucks to haul them. The extra vehicles made sense.
Approaching at a crawl, he finally pushed the brake down to stop his car. Set the parking brake. Opened the door. Climbed out. Behind him, Carter heard the sound of other car doors opening, closing. One vehicle purred, moved, drawing his attention. His head swiveled to the left, tracking it. Were they trying some wild counter attack, like ramming him again?
No. The vehicle was moving itself to a right angle compared to the rest of the cars. It stopped. The driver switched on the headlights and climbed out.
Now they could see. Carter mentally tipped his hat to his enemy for that bit of forethought. As he did, here she came, striding through the knee-high grass, all black pants and tall boots and a dark bomber jacket, elaborate hoops in her ears, half of her braids coiled on top of her head and the other half trailing down her shoulder blades. The beads at the ends slapped her back with every step she took. He had no use for the woman—hated her, in fact, for what she’d done to Ellie—but in that moment even Carter was arrested by her. She was regal, like the shifter queen she was, stalking out to meet him and Sean, who now stood behind his shoulder, and the rest of their party.
Flanking Nosizwe were several of her lieutenants, whom he recognized, including Alan, the terracotta warrior he’d fought in the coffee shop and who’d escaped both the mayhem and the police. No surprise he’d been handpicked to shadow his boss. Nosizwe needed a nearly indestructible bodyguard who could stand up to the Talos. Carter felt his guard, already up, elevate.
His guard elevated further when, being pushed across the rough, uneven ground, came a wheelchair out of the darkness. Ciara. His boss’s estranged wife. Carter felt the tension rolling off Sean like a wave. Never mind his harsh words—Carter somehow doubted the man actually wanted to kill Ciara, but what he would do remained to be seen.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The two lines of enemies met with a mere few feet between them. Sean stepped out to face Nosizwe, his followers spreading out to the right, the left. Carter maintained his position. He wasn’t the true boss, but he was the Talos, and everyone wanted his blood. He wasn’t there as a mere defender or protector. Not this time. He was a bargaining chip, and he knew it.
Finally, Sean and Nosizwe, the hub, the core, the axis of the longstanding feud, stood facing each other. Nosizwe was a tall woman. In her heels, she was taller than Sean. Sean’s face and form were iron, though, the moonlight and headlights playing off the silver in his hair and beard, turning them steel-grey. Steel, like the glint in his gaze. Neither shifter boss looked prepared to surrender.
“So.” Nosizwe spoke first. “We’re at an impasse, Sean. You have the Talos. I have the Stones.”
“And you have my wife.”
Sean didn’t look beyond his enemy towards his wife, but Carter noticed Ciara shift in her chair. Was she uncomfortable? Good. Maybe that meant she still had a conscience.
The shifter queen smirked. “She came to me on her own. I certainly didn’t kidnap her. She’s no victim.”
“I know that. And I also have what she needs—her red cap. She can’t return to the sea without it.”
“That’s what she wants. That, and her son.”
Carter’s gaze flickered towards his boss. Sean, already still as a statue went rigid. “I didn’t bring Jackson. She’s not getting my son.”
“He’s my son too.” Ciara’s voice floated up out of the darkness. Soft, but deadly. “Our messengers specified for you to bring him.”
“Why?” Sean barked a chuckle. “So he could learn his mother is a deceitful, ungrateful bi—”
“Sean.” Rory, standing nearby, stopped him with a hand on her boss’s arm. “Not helpful.”
Sean sucked in a breath through his nostrils, blew it out, regaining control of the situation and himself.
“You’re not getting the boy, Ciara. Not unless you kill me and all of my people first. And I don’t think you can do that.”
“Now, now. Before we devolve into fighting and killing, there may be other ways to settle this.” Nosizwe spread her hands gracefully, her gold jewelry glinting in the darkness. “You have what we want, we have what you want…surely we can figure out some sort of compromise.”
“There is no compromise where my son is concerned,” Sean growled. His eyes had moved to his wife. He was addressing her, not his enemy. “You won’t find him, Ciara. He’s hidden away in a safe place with people I can trust until all of this is over. No matter the outcome, even if I die, you’ll never see the boy again. My people have instructions on where to take him and to whom if I don’t make it. I won’t have him raised—ruined—by you.”
“I’m his mother,” Ciara ground out, pushing herself upright in the wheelchair, her arms and neck tight with strain.
“You’re a lying, deceiving, conniving witch!” Sean shouted back.
“That’s enough.” Nosizwe physically stepped between the two, blocking their eye contact. “We didn’t come here to play family court. Let’s stick to the matter at hand, shall we? If both of you survive, you can actually fight for your son in family court. If one of you survives, the winner gets him. If neither of you survives…” She stopped, a tiny smile quirking the corners of her lips. “Maybe it won’t come to that. That’s why we’re here, after all. To work together. To figure out a solution. To stop the feud once and for all.”
“Or to kill you once and for all.”
Sean wasn’t joking. There was no humor in his voice.
The shifter leader raised her eyebrows and tsked her tongue condescendingly.
“Always a quick leap to violence for you, isn’t it, Sean?”
Carter couldn’t restrain a derisive snort. “You’re one to talk,” he muttered.
Nosizwe’s head turned his way. She’d caught the remark.
“I can be brutal when I need to,” she admitted, almost carelessly. “Speaking of, how is your girl, Carter? How is Ellie?”
Images flashed before his eyes of Nosizwe, transformed into her alter, the Lightning Bird, standing over Ellie, drenched with Ellie’s blood. Fire seared his vision. He gritted his teeth to shut out the memory, get control of himself. He’d sworn that day to kill Nosizwe. There was nothing stopping him from keeping that promise now. He cou
ld lunge for her, be on her before anyone could stop him. He could break her neck in mere seconds. That’s all it would take. Mere seconds, and Nosizwe would be gone and all of this finished.
Sean must have read something in his gaze, his posture. Possibly he’d started forward without knowing it. One second he was staring into the haughty gaze of the woman who’d nearly succeeded in murdering Ellie, picturing her death, feeling her neck snap in his hands, and the next Sean’s firm, unyielding grip was on his wrist.
“Don’t let her bait you,” his boss said quietly. “That’s what she wants.”
The warning was enough to shatter the delusion. He came to, caught the mocking glint in Nosizwe’s eye, and realized what he’d nearly done. He possibly could have reached her and killed her that quickly, but more likely she and her shifters would have been all over him in an instant. They would have had the Talos, the Talos and the Stones, and the war would have been over before it began.
Carter physically took a step back, blowing out a breath, reminding himself that it wasn’t worth it. This would all play out one way or another. He’d have his chance.
Nosizwe saw him step down and laughed, turning back to Sean.
“What about it, Sean? What are we going to do here? Are we going to reach an agreement about the Stones, the Talos, your wife, or are we going to fight? Winner takes all?”
Sean folded his arms and stared her down. “What did you have in mind?”
She lifted and lowered one shoulder in a shrug. “I see no reason we can’t work together. Your Talos agrees to give us more of his blood. We open the Stones again. This time, we make sure nobody goes through—we wait and see what happens with the magic as it builds. Either that, or we both send someone through. Or, hell, you and I go through. We test it ourselves.”
Sean was shaking his head. “You’re insane. Only the Talos can survive the journey between this world and that.”
Repairer of the Breach (Stones of Fire Book 4) Page 16
