by Love, Dianna
He covered her hand. “You lost the baby? What about that bloody medallion you had when I first met you? The one that allowed you to use your powers and even teleport once. Wouldn’t it make you stronger this time?” He raged, but his anger was not at her but how others had failed her.
“The medallion was the only way I could access my power at all at that time, but I don’t need it with me now.” She sniffled. “I didn’t lose the baby like you think. I carried him to full term and delivered him ... then—” She burst into tears. It gutted her every time she relived that moment.
He pulled her to him, holding her in his safe embrace. “Why? What happened, Reese?”
“The curse. It’s true. That baby died at birth. So our ... ” Her face crumbled. She fought to breathe, but she had to get through this and make him understand.
He stroked a hand over her hair. “Tell me, sweetheart.”
Clearing her throat, she swallowed. “Our baby will not live a second after birth. There is nothing you or I can do to stop the curse and I need to be far away from you and Phoedra until ... the time comes.”
“No, I won’t let you do this alone. You don’t know that we can’t protect you and save this baby.” His voice started rising. “The Beladors have healers. We have Garwyli. We have a bloody dragon, dammit.” A tear ran down his cheek.
She leaned in and kissed his cheek. “I care deeply for you and Phoedra, too. I care so much I can’t handle being near you when this happens. I noticed last time that demons were drawn to my energy even more the longer I was pregnant. I don’t think this demon nest is about me, but I can’t say it isn’t somehow my fault. I don’t want deaths on my head. I sure as hell don’t want you or Phoedra harmed.”
Quinn’s hands on her arms trembled. “Please, please go to Treoir.”
She shook her head and pushed away from him. “Would you risk Phoedra, Lanna, Brina, and her babes or any other lives? I can’t and you can’t. You and Phoedra are the world to me. I ... don’t know what will happen ... after, but I will come back.”
Quinn opened his mouth, expression full of argument, but he paused and stared at nothing. Then he cursed.
“What, Quinn?”
“Trey called me on another demon attack. Look, just please give me tonight.”
“Waiting won’t change anything, Quinn.” She glanced at Evalle and her group who all stared at Quinn, probably waiting to discuss the new demon attack with him since Trey would have informed Evalle as well. “If you want to help me, ask someone to teleport me to my destination.”
Quinn got a stubborn look. “If you go anywhere, I’m going with you.” He turned and waved a hand at Evalle, then came back to Reese. “I have to go. Please give me at least until tonight. I’ll come to you where we can talk without demons or anything else interfering.”
She wanted to give him the world or at the very least their child she was growing. But she knew without any doubt what would happen. “Okay, but I can’t wait at my apartment. I’m putting Edward and your other people in danger just to keep me safe.”
“No problem,” he answered quickly with obvious relief. “You can wait inside one of my secure buildings in a comfortable setting where the only people are Belador guards. That puts none of them or humans at risk. I’ll come back as soon as I get a break. If you are still determined to leave, I’ll take you to a private field where my jet is parked.”
“What if I don’t want you to go with me?”
He swallowed hard, his throat moving with the effort. “Then, on my word, I’ll direct the pilots to take you anywhere you wish and forbid them from sharing that information with anyone, including me.”
She couldn’t ask for any more than his generous offer. But she had to set a time limit. “I’ll wait there until nine tonight.”
“I will be there,” he vowed.
A large sport utility and sleek sedan drove into the parking area. She gave him a sad smile. “You need to go, Quinn.”
“The car is for you.”
She lifted up and kissed him with all her heart.
Her rigid Belador Maistir hugged her to him, kissing her with the passion she’d never felt from another man like she had with Quinn. No one would ever take his place.
He finished the kiss and pulled his Maistir image together, running both hands over his disheveled hair as they walked side by side to the new sedan. A woman got out of the passenger side and climbed into the large sport utility the team was loading Alekki into.
She must be a healer.
Quinn opened the rear door on the sedan for Reese.
She climbed in without another word but touched his hand and tried to smile. He tried, too.
Major fail on both their parts.
As the car drove away from the park, she turned to watch the scene. Her eyes latched onto Quinn’s sad face. She waited until he was out of sight to face forward again and speak to the driver.
“I need to stop on the way to the building Quinn asked you to take me to.”
A worried gaze touched the rearview mirror. “I may have to run that by my Maistir, Miss O’Rinn.”
“You can call me Reese. You saw what Quinn is dealing with right now. I’d like to take a quick shower and change clothes at my apartment. I need ten minutes or less. You can ask Edward when you get there. He’s a Belador and can vouch for my honesty.”
“Oh, I would never question your integrity, Miss ... Reese. I apologize if you thought such a thing.”
“I didn’t and I would never put you in conflict with your Maistir, but Quinn has a lot on his plate right now. I don’t want to add to it with even one more call.”
“No problem, Reese. We’ll go there first.”
“Do you know the address of my building?”
“Yes. All of your guards do.”
Good grief. Had Quinn assigned an army to watch over her? That was another reason she had to leave. She took up too much of his defensive resources.
She eased back, glad to get a shower and change of clothes, but that was not the real reason she had to visit the apartment.
Chapter 14
“What are you doing here?” Casidhe whisper-shouted in Daegan’s face. He was angry?
Well, she was furious. He had to leave. Now. She had limited minutes to make the front door of Redmond’s home.
“I am huntin’ for ya,” he ground out. “Why did ya leave?”
“Because I don’t answer to you. Put me down, dammit.”
When he dumped her unceremoniously on her feet, she added, “Now get out of here.”
“No.” With his muscled-up arms crossed and attitude locked in defiant mode, he didn’t budge. “Why are ya here?”
She might as well go with the truth since that could be the only way to get rid of him. “I’m meetin’ someone who might be able to help me find the grimoire.”
His deep frown relaxed. “Good. I arrived just in time.”
“Oh, no. You can’t go in with me and if you hold me up any longer, I’ll miss my only chance to talk to him.”
“Why can I not join ya?”
“This man is a reclusive professor. He specified that I come alone or no meetin’,” she argued, checking her watch. “I need to go. Now!”
“I shall cloak myself.”
“No. He might ... sense you.”
Daegan unfolded his arms. “’Tis a nonhuman?”
“I’m not sure and you’re about to lose our best chance at findin’ a lead on this grimoire.” She crossed her arms. “Make up your mind.”
“Ya want me to trust ya to not run away?”
She fed him irony pudding. “It’s up to you, Daegan. Much like when I had to decide if I would trust Quinn to enter my mind. This should be a simple decision.” She kept her voice calm. “I have less than ninety seconds to make it to that door or he won’t answer. I’ve traveled long hours to be here on time. You’re about to destroy a lead I can’t replace. Do you want that grimoire or not?”
Growling har
shly, Daegan waved her past him. “Go. Do not leave here without speakin’ to me.”
She stepped past, slowing long enough to say, “Do not keep orderin’ me around and expectin’ good results.” Hurrying across the open ground, she took care not to step on flower beds along the beautifully groomed lawn stretching from the house to the road. That’s when she saw a freakin’ driveway running from a road to the house on the far side of the yard with ankle-high lights illuminating the paved drive.
Damned old coot.
She should have twenty-eight seconds left when she lifted her fist to knock. Could be more time left. She hoped it was not less.
A woman with snowy hair in spite of appearing no older than fifty opened the door. She wore a pale-orange skirt with a blouse a softer shade of peach. Trim and tidy looking. She couldn’t be a maid, right?
“Miss Luigsech, I presume?”
Breaking out a smile, Casidhe extended her hand. “Yes. Nice to meet you.”
“I am Leelou. Please do not be offended, but I do not touch strangers.” Her soft gray eyes, narrow nose, and narrow lips would fit someone with a French name.
“Oh.” Casidhe pulled her hand back. “No offense taken.”
“Redmond is expecting you. I will take your luggage and show you the way.”
Casidhe did not want to part with her sword, but she was in too deep right now to balk. She would not get an audience with Redmond unless she complied with his rules.
Handing off her backpack, which was placed beside the door, Casidhe followed Leelou through a home decorated with layers of history from gently-worn antiques from the early 1900s to framed family portraits painted in oil. One had what appeared to be a younger Redmond with what she guessed were his parents. She walked a long hall decorated with portraits of other men, patriarchs of the family maybe. They all had the same last names.
Glass chandeliers lit the pristine marble floor.
An impressive home, but too much upkeep for Casidhe.
Of course, hers was in shambles at the moment.
Leelou entered a dark-paneled room and stepped aside. “Miss Luigsech.”
She’d announced that to an empty room.
Casidhe walked into a breathtaking library thirty feet wide by sixty feet long. Tall narrow windows with dark tinting broke up the ceiling-to-floor bookcases filled with books she itched to get her hands on. Fifteen feet above her, a copper-tiled ceiling stretched from end to end.
On one end of the room sat a massive mahogany desk Casidhe estimated to be from the early nineteenth century with a stately deep-brown leather chair. That had to cost a few coins.
The rest of the room had been arranged spaciously with two matching sofas facing off over a mahogany coffee table supported by lion legs with paws.
“Do you wish to continue admiring my home or talk?”
Casidhe jerked at the sound of Redmond’s voice. He sat on a sofa. Where had he come from with her standing just inside the doorway?
She walked over to the seating area and took a place on a sofa opposite his. “Your library is amazin’ and your home beautiful, but I did come for information.”
“What would you ask of me?” He had a distinctive voice, perfect for speaking and teaching. One that would hold your attention as well as whatever he shared. Hands folded in his lap, he looked much the same as the one time she’d spotted him. Gray beard trimmed into a goatee. The red hair he’d been born with had turned mostly gray. He’d lost some weight since the first time she’d noticed him. Where the wool suit had fit him well before, the similar one he wore today hung on his narrow frame.
Nothing had changed about that steely-blue gaze.
She wished to have a notebook and pen, but that would probably end the conversation. “I’m searchin’ for what I was told is a grimoire, but the time period for it does not sound right for it to be in codex form based on when this grimoire would have been written.”
He said nothing, so she pushed on. “I believe it was created during BCE,” she said, referencing Before Common Era. “This leads me to believe the original form could have been scrolls. That’s somethin’ I will have difficulty trackin’ down even with my extensive library.”
“What will you do with this grimoire if you find it?”
Heavy question. “I will not utilize the formulas in it or give them to someone who will do harm. There is an outbreak of glowing yellow beins’ who escaped an imprisonment. They attack humans and ... others.” She dropped that and used his term for nonhumans, then paused to watch his face.
Only a flicker of surprise jumped through his gaze, but enough that she believed he did not know about the current Imortik escapees. When he said nothing again, continuing the conversation fell on her shoulders.
“I was attacked by two of these yellow beins’ when—”
“How did you escape?”
For a man so proper to interrupt her spoke of an emotional reaction. He’d asked that in the quietest voice. As if he took a risk to discuss the topic.
“I decapitated them, but in all honesty, I had some help.” She would not bring up her sword to a stranger, especially one who might be a nonhuman. “So I know these things are a very real danger. I hope to find this grimoire and use it to save humanity as well as those who are nonhuman.” Actually, saving humanity would be Daegan’s job, but she could claim facilitating it.
“That will never happen.”
Interesting that Redmond had not asked what she meant by nonhumans. “What are you sayin’, Mr. Mac Seáin? That I can’t find the grimoire or that it will not save our world?”
He held his head erect, sitting quietly as he composed his next words. “What you seek can be found. Once those writings are entirely unearthed, there will be someone with power who wants more. You will not keep it from the wrong hands. Therefore, you will not be able to save humanity or ... others.”
Good thing her ego didn’t need his support. “I understand what you’re sayin’, but I have a person who I assure you can hide it from the world.” The grimoire should be safe with Herrick. He wouldn’t want something floating around that might release Imortiks again to kill his dragon.
Redmond sighed. “Those who were once tasked with hiding this deadly book from the world possessed the same confidence and you see how that turned out. Those groups were far more powerful than you.”
She had no argument for that, but she’d given her best reassurance. “I have told you the truth and I am desperate to locate this grimoire. I have a duty to protect my family and will do all in my power to see the grimoire does not land in the wrong hands.”
“That is quite a vow, Miss Luigsech.” He remained still for a long time, breathing slowly.
She hoped Daegan didn’t get antsy and pop in here cloaked.
“You should know that locating the three volumes of the Immortuos Grimoire comes with a greater risk than anything you can imagine.”
She hadn’t said the name of the book, but he clearly knew just what she was talking about. Time to drop all pretense and speak clearly. “Then you know what Imortiks are.”
He nodded slowly.
“Is it true one volume can release the Imortiks?” She had to know exactly what she hunted and if Daegan had been telling her the truth.
“Each volume has text capable of creating a rift, which it sounds as if has happened. All three volumes in the wrong hands will take down the death wall between humans and Imortiks, releasing all of them.”
She wiped a clammy hand on her jeans. Maybe hunting this thing was a really bad idea. “Is there any way to get Imortiks back behind the wall or close a rift that’s been opened?”
“The three volumes utilized by powerful beings working together imprisoned Imortiks the first time and closed the death wall. I would think it possible to do so again. I believe you will need all three volumes to control anything substantial related to Imortiks.”
That sounded better, but too vague for her comfort. “Are these volumes in codex form? W
ho wrote them?”
Redmond said, “A sorcerer and a Fae created the grimoire when they partnered to become the most powerful beings in the human world. It is believed they brought in a Latin scholar known as Pliny Laelius to write the text, but there is no proof, leaving it unconfirmed. Those two offered the scribe great power but killed him as soon as he finished. The grimoire was originally known as Immortuos Cartis.”
“Undead Scrolls. That makes sense,” she murmured, mentally translating the Latin. Interesting, but it wasn’t helping her find a book, or a scroll.
“The sorcerer and Fae who partnered ran into conflict when one of their more powerful Imortiks dove into another Fae and managed to stay in the body. That wouldn’t have been an issue, but the nasty being did so in spite of orders from the sorcerer to touch no Fae. At that point, powerful beings, including deities, got involved.” He paused as Leelou delivered tea and poured two cups.
Casidhe accepted hers to be polite. She liked tea, but her nerves did not need any caffeine right now. She took several sips, placed the cup on the saucer, and sat back.
Redmond held his cup as he continued. “When the powerful beings of that time came together to put an end to the Imortiks, they took the scroll and cut it into many pieces. Those were divided into thirds and placed in bronze boxes made for this purpose. That’s when the grimoire became known as Immortuos Arca.”
She snapped her fingers. “Undead box.”
“Yes.”
“I knew it had to be something other than a book form.” She sat back, enjoying that moment in a search when she uncovered a key piece of the puzzle.
Redmond’s lips twitched, almost smiling, as if he could appreciate the tiny victories for researchers. “You are correct. Over so many centuries, the mysterious writings took on different names, eventually evolving into Immortuos Grimoire as those hunting it described the text as a book of majik. That is correct even if it is not in codex form.”
