The men all stared at her. “What?”
“Well,” Zack drawled, “are you going to open it, or stare at it all day and hope the stuff jumps out onto the table for you?”
She tentatively reached in and withdrew the envelope. The back of it had been sealed with red wax, using a small shield emblazoned with a dragon.
“That was her seal,” Kael said.
Taking a deep breath, she carefully slid her finger under the flap and broke the seal. Inside lay a folded piece of fine parchment, written in the same handwriting as on the envelope. Fortunately for Lina, the letter was penned in English.
Dearest Pavlina,
By the time you read this, child, I will have gone to the Ether beyond. It is my time. I have seen it several times in my visions, and nothing anyone has done has changed the course of my fate. I have lived a long time, experienced many things good and bad. I have no regrets and await it as a new journey. It is not that I wish to die, or even wish to stop living, but this is what the Universe has in store for me. You cannot fight the Goddess of All when Her mind is made up.
The Sisters Three will be your allies. This much I have seen. Love the wolves and even other shifters as the kin that they are—and they are. The good wolves. There are some wolves out there who are not so good. Listen to your kin and they shall guide you well. You can and should trust your kin. They will never fail you.
Do not fear the past. It can only help you now. Listen to it, for you will find many clues to the answers you seek. You are the next in a long line of Seers. And since my brother is older than I, he will most likely follow me soon. (Naturally, however, it would seem from my visions.)
You are the future. You and your dragon men. As in the past, you will save not just our kind, but others from the Dark Gods. Only this time, Goddess willing (for it has not been shown to me yet) you will have many countless happy years together.
My will is also enclosed, as well as some things you will need in your search for a certain item I cannot take the risk of naming in writing in case this should fall into the wrong hands. I have already discussed everything with my brother, and he is in total agreement that it should be like this. Anything I wished him to have, I have already sent to him.
Be well, and blessings to you all.
Bertholde.
P.S. - If Andel gives you any grief, tell him I said to go get fucked. (I have always wanted to say that to him!) He is a pompous blowhard who needs to remember his ego has grown like a flatulent pig over the past few hundred years. Although I do love the little twerp.
Lina couldn’t hold back the laugh. It started as a burping hiccup of a snort, rolled into belly-aching guffaws…then transitioned into sobbing on Zack’s shoulder. She handed him the letter. He held it up so the other three men could also read it.
They all laughed at the same point she had, so she knew they’d finished it. Peeling herself out of Zack’s lap, she ripped off a wad of paper towels from the roll and blew her nose. Then she tucked into the rest of the box.
Books. And more books. Ten in all, seven of them handwritten journals, most of which appeared to be in French.
“Great,” she groused. “Someone overnight me a Rosetta Stone course.” There were also four small, carefully wrapped stone carvings, one of a wolf, one of a dragon, another of a bear. The fourth Lina couldn’t tell if it was supposed to be a lion or a tiger or some other sort of big cat, but they all agreed it was feline. Then there was the large manila envelope that contained Bertholde’s will, as well as other papers, including a set of keys on a ring.
The last item in the box was a mystery. Literally. An intricately carved wooden puzzle box, approximately two feet long, six inches wide and high. She played with it for a moment, then shrugged and handed it over to Jan, who eventually passed it on to Rick, then Kael, then Zack. None of them could open it.
She handed the manila envelope from legal hell to Jan. “You deal with it. Tell me what to do and where to go and come with me.” She felt exhausted, and not just from the trip to Yellowstone. Even more from all the emotional developments of the past twenty-four hours. It wasn’t even noon yet.
Lina grabbed the three books that were in English, or had English content, the stone figurines, and the puzzle box, and tromped up to her room. She put everything on her bed and nearly ran into Rick on her way back down to get her laptop.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“I’m not institutionalized in Chattahoochee, yet, so that’s something. However, the day is still pretty dang young.” She pushed past him, found where she’d left her laptop bag in the study, and hauled it back up to their bedroom. She closed the door behind her.
She’d taught her men early that was the sign for, “Knock first, or die.” She put on music for background noise, fired up her laptop, then settled in to read what she could of the books.
“Oh.” She did a little research and ordered herself a Rosetta Stone course in French.
Never hurts to learn this shit.
The first book she picked was a hardcover journal that had a handwritten date of 1925 inside the front cover. It looked it, too. Green, but the cover was threadbare and battered. Inside, Bertholde had made copious notes in the margins of the yellowed paper over the years in different colors of ink and pencil markings. Some of the ink from a ballpoint pen, and some from a fountain pen. The original entries were written by a variety of people and detailed first- and secondhand accounts of dealings with the cockatrice.
These suckers were assholes. Not that the fact had escaped Lina after her dealings with Edgar and Lenny, but it was nice to have extra backup. They made the mob look like a bunch of tree-hugging sweethearts.
Murder. Destruction. The occasional raping and pillaging. More murder. And, ah, yes, that perennial favorite, murder.
Unfortunately, none of this gave Lina even the slightest clue as to how the cockatrice managed to find out what the tablet was, or what it looked like.
She put the book aside and started skimming through the others, hoping something, anything, would jump out at her.
Nothing.
Well, not nothing. She learned more than she ever hoped to know about the damn cockatrice, and some of the other races that had allied with them against the humans and other shifters.
After two hours of reading, she heard a polite knock on the door. With a sigh, she put her book aside. “It’s okay. Come on in. guys.”
Jan and Rick poked their heads in. “Are you all right, lovely?” Jan asked.
She nodded. “I’m just…coping.” While she hadn’t known Bertholde for very long, she’d immediately liked the woman. It sucked losing her after only knowing her for a very short time.
The men entered and perched on either side of her on the bed. Rick held the paperwork from the manila folder. “Lina, I don’t know how to break this to you other than to say it. She left everything to you.”
“What do you mean, everything?”
Jan shrugged. “Everything. She made you the executrix of her estate, and left everything to you.”
Lina tried to let that sink in. “Everything?”
The men nodded, but didn’t reply.
She chewed on that. “Define everything,” she finally said.
“Well, we made a few calls. We were able to contact her attorney in France. Her estate is worth over eighty million dollars.”
Lina fell back on the bed, laughing in disbelief. Money wasn’t an issue since meeting her men. She had her own income, a result of Edgar’s overconfident planning, which left everything to her after she ended up killing the treacherous bastard, who turned out to be a cockatrice, in self-defense. Jan and Rick had their own money.
“Are you shitting me?” she finally asked when she could find her voice.
“No,” Jan said. “And yes, Andel is having a fit. He wants access to her estate and papers for the other Seer and the attorney won’t allow it, even though it’s her brother. From what I gathered from my conversatio
n with her attorney, her brother could care less. It’s Andel that’s raising a stink. So, guess where we’re going?”
“Outer Mongolia?”
“Right,” Rick said. “France.”
“That wasn’t my guess.”
He stroked her cheek. “I can read your mind, love.”
“Cheater.”
He grinned. “You aren’t mad at me.”
“No, I’m not mad at you.” She let out a frustrated sigh and turned to Jan. “I just want an easy life. Is that too much to ask? I didn’t ask to be a goddess or a Seer. I just wanted a normal life.”
Jan propped himself up on one sexy elbow next to her. “Complaining, lovely?”
She gave him a frustrated groan. “No. Of course not. Well…yes, I am. Fuck.” She stared at the ceiling. Before she met Jan and Rick, she’d been convinced she was going to die an old maid as Zack’s fag hag. “Has Kael tracked down his friend about the tablet, yet?”
“No,” Jan said. “He’s working on it.” He glanced at Rick. She suspected they’d already talked about something and were in rare agreement. “We think it’s best we head down to Arcadia today instead of waiting.”
“Why?”
“Because,” Rick said, “we don’t know who is responsible for the murder, and while circumstantial evidence points to the third killer of Kael’s family, we don’t know for sure. There could be more than one person out there. They could have had other coconspirators. Like whoever provided Lenny with those special cuffs that we couldn’t get out of. Not to mention, if the third guy was a common shifter race, like a wolf or cat or something, that makes him even more dangerous. We already called Brodey and his brothers. They invited us to come down sooner. In fact, Brodey insisted upon it.”
“Because I need to be guarded.”
“Lina, please don’t fight us on this,” Rick said. “We only want to keep you safe. Whoever is responsible for killing Kael’s family, and maybe even Bertholde, they’re hiding something from the wolves and the dragons.”
“We don’t know which wolves.”
“True,” Jan said, “but Ain Lyall is pretty high up in their pack order. He’s going to talk to their pack Seer about bringing you to Maine. She might be able to help you with some of your powers.”
Okay, that plan she could easily get behind. “When are we going to France?”
“After we handle this here, first.”
“Okay.”
They both looked a little shocked at her immediate agreement. “Okay?” they said together.
She smiled. “Okay. I’m not going to fight you guys. You have a point.”
“Wow,” Rick said. “I think hell just froze over.”
She threw a pillow at him. “Watch it, buster. I’m still able to randomly blow stuff up.”
Before they were ready to go, Lina stopped by the kitchen for a soda and caught Zack sitting at the table, staring at the book, the two knives, the remnants of the handcuffs Lenny had used on Jan and Rick, and some of the other items Brodey had grabbed from Lenny’s tent.
She really hadn’t paid much attention to the other stuff, because between the knife and the book, she already felt overwhelmed.
“What are those things, anyway?” She pointed to the five small stone carvings. They’d been on the makeshift altar Lenny had set up in the tent.
Zack shrugged and touched one. Three inches tall, it looked like a malformed creature of some sort, a crudely shaped beast carved from reddish stone. “I have no clue. Some sort of talismans, I guess.”
She picked up the one Zack had touched and nearly dropped it again. She shuddered as she put it back on the table.
“What?” he asked.
“Blech! That thing…” She wiped her palm on her shorts, then went to wash her hands. “I don’t know what that damn thing is, but it’s, like, slimy or something.” The others were different shapes about the same size, but looked like they were carved out of the same material. No way in hell was she touching the others.
He picked it up and held it, frowning. “It feels like stone to me.” He put it back down. “Maybe it’s got some weird residual energy in it you’re sensing.”
“The only thing I’d like to sense is what it feels like crushing it under a sledgehammer.”
He smiled. “After we figure out what they are, knock yourself out. Until then, I think we need them.”
Chapter Fifteen
At least Lina had time to get her laundry done before she had to pack again. Since she didn’t know how long they’d be gone this time, she packed several weeks’ and climates’ worth of clothes.
She might not have a wolf and a soggy bear to keep her warm if she got lost in the woods again like she did back in Yellowstone.
They decided to caravan down in several cars. Lina, Rick, and Jan in her car, and both Kael and Zack following in their own vehicles. Lina sat in the backseat and took in the scenery. She didn’t feel like talking. The fact that there was someone out there capable of the despicable acts she witnessed in her vision made her sick. Even worse, that the person might have also killed Bertholde and still be out there, gunning for her as well.
Add to that the things she’d read about in the books from Bertholde, and she didn’t need convincing that the cockatrice were not a group of people she wanted to include on her Christmas card list.
It took them four hours to reach Arcadia, including a stop for a late lunch. When they pulled into the yard in front of the Lyalls’ house, Brodey, Cail, and a third man she assumed was Ain from his looks all stepped onto the porch. Brodey immediately smiled and swooped in to give her a huge hug when she got out of the car.
“There’s the Princess.”
“Goddess.”
“Whatever.” He flashed her a big smile and turned her to the third brother. “Ain, this is Lina.”
He walked over and shook hands with her. “Nice to meet you.”
She wasn’t expecting the surge of emotion she felt from him through their simple handshake. Gratitude mostly, which surprised her. Affection of a cousinly kind, even though they were strangers until this moment. Protective.
She looked into his eyes. “Thank you,” she softly said.
He appeared startled. “For what?”
“For offering to keep me safe.”
He smiled. “Hey, we protect our kin, by blood or adopted. And you and Brodey have apparently mutually adopted each other.”
Jan and Rick walked up. Fortunately, she didn’t sense any jealousy or tension from either of them. “Guys,” she said, “this is Brodey’s brother, Ain. Ain, this is Jan and Rick Alexandr.” The men all shook hands, and the next several minutes were spent unloading and schlepping luggage inside into the appropriate rooms. The old Florida ranch–style house felt warm and inviting, and looked neat and tidy despite it being occupied by three bachelors.
They cooked steaks outside on a huge, professional-looking grill. Gathered around a fire pit on their back lanai, Lina felt truly at ease for the first time since her abduction in Yellowstone. She found herself able to relax, and her men relaxing as well, knowing that, at least for now, they were all safe.
How long that would last, she didn’t know and didn’t want to think about.
“Another beer?” Cail offered.
She smiled and accepted the proffered bottle. “Thank you.” Normally, she wasn’t a big drinker, but tonight was special. Tonight, she could let everyone else take the driver’s seat and she could chill the frak out.
“Hey,” Kael said. “Do you guys know a wolf by the name of Daniel Blackestone? We called him Blackie back when we ran together in Europe. I’ve called around to my other contacts, but no one knows him or where he is.”
Ain contemplated for a moment. “Name sounds familiar. I’ll call Jocko Connelly up in Maine at the clan compound and ask him. If anyone’ll know, it’s him. Why?”
“It’s…complicated,” Zack said.
Lina tried to tune the men out as they explained to the Lyall
brothers about the tablet.
“I think,” Kael said, “that if anyone can give us a lead on the tablet’s last known whereabouts, it’s Blackie. I remember when we were young, we’d gone out drinking one night in Brussels. We heard this drunk guy holding court in one corner, a bear shifter, bellowing about how no one can get the drop on them again because of some tablet. I didn’t know what he was talking about, but Blackie went real quiet. His face got all dark, like he was really pissed off. He says to me, ‘Come on, we gotta get this guy out of here. Now.’ So I follow him, he threw some money on the bar to cover the drunk’s tab, and we drag the guy out literally by the scruff of the neck.
“So we get him outside, and there’s a park one block over. Lots of trees and cover and it’s night anyway. Blackie starts muttering under his breath and dragging this guy along like he weighs nothing. The guy’s fussing and fighting and I’m just going along wondering what the fuck, but helping Blackie with him.
“When we get to the park, Blackie pulls back and slugs the shit out of the guy. Says, ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing, running your mouth like that?’ The guy said his father had told him about the tablet. He was all drunk and pissed off because some asshole had welched on a bet and now the bear couldn’t find him to get his money out of him.
“Blackie tells him, ‘Forget the fucking tablet, dude!’ and his eyes went really dark, nearly black. Told him if he ever heard about him mentioning the tablet again, he’d come eviscerate him and make him eat his own entrails. The bear freaked out. Said okay, man, sorry. Sobered him right the fuck up.”
Lina shivered. “Nice guy.”
Kael laughed. “Actually, he is. Let me finish. So the bear dude runs off. I asked him what the fuck was that about? Blackie asked me, ‘You’ve never heard about it? You’re a dragon.’ I said no. Long story short, he tells me about the tablet, the battle against the cockatrice, yadda yadda. He said he personally wasn’t sure the legend of the tablet’s powers wasn’t more than a fairy tale, but since his own parents were murdered by cockatrice looking for the tablet, he takes it damn personally. Then we went back to his workshop. He drew a rough sketch of the tablet out on a piece of paper, then burned the paper. Told me he knew where it was, had helped conceal it the last time, but that they’d have to kill him to get the info out of him.”
Fire and Ice Page 10
