Chapter
Nine:
Raksha Keller pushed aside the
flannel shirt she wore and looked down at her bodysuit, searching for the time
on her pager. They were late by ten minutes. And the traffic couldn't account
for it. They were supposed to be taking a deserted route to meet her. She
raised her eyes to the blue sky, crossing her arms and frowned. It was too
clear, the day too quiet. Something had gone wrong. She felt it in her bones.
If nothing else they were alive. Even through the distance she was tied to her
soulmate, Galen. She hoped they were ok, the dragon included, although the
memories of Azhdeha were still fresh in her mind.
There was the sound of a car.
She lowered her head, silver
eyes narrowing. If it wasn't them there would be some blood spilled on this
deserted road. Uncrossing her arms she rose away from the side of the white
jeep she rested on and waited.
A vehicle was coming. And fast.
The dirt it was throwing up was enough to block the size of it but not the
color.
Black.
She prepared herself
nonetheless, shifting her muscles a bit. Her senses heightened as she called to
them, and now she could see through the dirt to the black van racing her way.
She heard the pebbles as the van crunched over them. She almost choked on the
dust. Now she had to wait to see how it played out. Galen knew what he had to
do. If he didn't follow through she would do her job first and regret later.
That was the way it had to be and that was the way it would be.
The van slowed as it pulled up
beside her jeep and she saw Galen in the front passenger side. His green eyes
came to rest on her as the van stopped and she arched a black eyebrow at him.
He looked away and pushed open his side door, getting out. He slid the back
door of the van open and Thea Harman came out onto the road, lifting a hand to
calm her blond hair. A second person came out after her, a blond-haired woman
with a suspicious look on her face.
The dragon.
Galen shut the door behind the
young women and came around the van, patting the driver of the van on the
shoulder as a farewell.
Thea and the dragon followed
cautiously.
Keller lifted her head and
stared Galen down, watched him through hooded eyes.
Galen came up to her, sauntering
up before her. There was a mischievous look on his face, an 'I-know-a-secret'
look. He paused several inches away from her and leaned into her, eyebrow
lifting. "What's a girl like you doing in a place like this?" he asked in a low
tone and Keller was struck by the smoothness of his tone. For a moment she
simply forgot that he was supposed to come onto her. It was part of the plan
but they had never practiced it. They should have because she was suddenly
feeling a bit weak in the knees.
She nearly forgot her line but
it came to her as Galen sent her a questioning look. "Waiting for my prince."
She finally whispered, gazing up at him with glassy eyes.
Thea glanced toward the woman
beside her, the dragon, and the blond woman was scowling, looking around
cautiously. As if it were a trap.
Galen lifted his arms out at his
sides. "Well, wait no more. Here I am," He said softly, eyes still trained on
Keller. And then he shifted back into the sweet faced proper young man Keller knew
him to be. He turned to Thea and the dragon and called, "Ladies. Let's get
going."
Keller felt a tightening in her
chest as she simply stared at him. The contact. She needed the contact or she
would have to finish it, she would have to end the meeting the wrong way-
Galen turned back to her and
leaned forward once more, this time invading her space. His lips brushed her
cheekbone momentarily but it was enough. Their soulmate link flared, the silver
line shimmering in the darkness and in that small eternity Keller could hear
Galen laugh mentally.
Keller instantly exhaled in
relief. Then she narrowed her eyes at him as he pulled back. "Why don't you use
that tone on me when we're alone?" she asked him and she flashed him a teasing
smile.
"Wasn't sure if you were into
it," he shrugged.
Keller tilted her head
thoughtfully. "I wasn't sure either but now…coming from you…" she let the
sentence die as she gazed at him. He stared back, an impish smile curling his
lips.
And then Thea cleared her
throat.
The dragon began to pat down the
duffel bag she carried. "Damn it, where were those handcuffs I was carrying?"
she murmured mischievously.
Keller's eyes finally took in
Thea's appearance, the tattered shirt that hung in rips. "They knew." She
stated, looking at Galen for confirmation. She pulled off the flannel shirt she
wore over her uniform and came up to Thea, wrapping it around her slender
frame.
"They knew." Galen nodded. He
motioned to the dragon. "Raksha Keller meet Chime Devlin."
Keller looked at the woman
suspiciously, her silver eyes running up and down the dragon's frame. She was a
pretty little thing. Maybe not little. They were almost the same height, Keller
beating her out by an inch or two. The dragon had golden-blond hair and milky
skin, smooth. And she had the eyes and face of a child. Wide blue eyes. A soft
mouth. And a straight, upturned nose.
Chime stared back at Keller,
studying her. The woman had black hair, long and silky looking, an elegant bone
structure to her face, with sculpted cheekbones and faint hollows under them.
Tight jaw. A definite model type if she would lose the wary expression in those
silver-gray eyes.
They were complete opposites.
Keller was moving, holding out
her long, slender arm. "Welcome aboard." She said finally. Chime accepted the
handshake with a look of relief and Keller suddenly knew. Chime wasn't like
Azhdeha. The power was there, it radiated from the dragon and thrummed down her
arm, into her hand and through her grasp into Keller. Yes, it was there. But
the will to use it was not.
"Let's get going, then." Galen
said with a nod.
The driver of the black van
honked once and they turned to him as he saluted them. Then he was backing up,
the van veering and driving back off the way it had come.
Keller motioned to the jeep.
"Let's get out of here." She said and she waited until the group had climbed in
before seating herself and starting up the jeep. A moment later they were off,
disappearing into clouds of dust.
Chime looked up at the average
looking mansion. Average only because it didn't seem to fit the definition of a
sanctuary. She frowned at Thea beside her who threw her a look of reassurance.
The jeep beeped as Keller
checked the alarm and then she and Galen were coming up the circular driveway toward
them where they waited at the foot of the mansion. "We have wards surrounding
the house." She explained as she joined them, looking up at the second floor
windows.
The mansion rested on top of a
cliff. Redwood trees had blocked the view of the sanctuary from the road and
behind the mansion the cliff dropped away suddenly. Chime craned her neck to
the side and noticed the small, beaten path that led around the mansion and
over the edge of the cliff. She could only guess that there was a shore below.
Keller was still looking up at
the windows.
Chime glanced up also just in
time to see a pale face pull away from the window, curtain falling back into
place.
"I swear, that girl is too damn
curious." Keller sighed and Galen gave her a sympathetic smile.
"That was Iliana." Thea
whispered in an excited tone.
Iliana Harman. Witch Child.
Chime squinted thoughtfully. She had looked awfully young from the quick glance
she had gotten of her.
Keller clutched the car keys
against her side and glanced over her shoulder toward Chime and Thea. Galen was
already moving, striding toward the front of the mansion. He hopped up the
front steps in one smooth jump and cast a quick look at Keller. His hand
grasped the shiny doorknob.
"Come on." Keller said in a low
tone and she sprinted up the steps, her figure agile and lovely. She hesitated
behind Galen, slowing to a stop, her hand reaching to touch his elbow and he
looked down at her blankly.
"Let's go. We have to go in."
Thea said suddenly in an urgent voice. She pulled Chime and the dragon allowed
herself to be dragged. As they came up to the door they heard Keller whisper to
Galen.
"Count of three." She whispered
softly against his ear. "One, two, three."
Galen shoved the door open into
a large cubicle and Keller streaked passed him, going toward a corner of the
box. Thea pulled Chime forward, arm winding around the dragon's waist and then
the door slammed shut behind them, Galen securing it and locking it.
Chime looked at him with a
frown. And then in the upper left corner of the wall a small red bulb began to
blink brightly. She glanced at it and then stared, confused by it. Thea's brown
eyes were also on it.
"You have yours?" Keller
demanded at the exact moment that Galen came off the door. He darted toward the
other corner, opposite Keller and flashed a key at her with a determined smile.
Then they were both turning to two separate control panels in their respective
corners, Keller brandishing her own key. Together they shoved their keys into
key slots and Keller inhaled shakily. "One. Two. Three."
In unison they turned their keys
and looked toward the bulb flickering near the ceiling.
The red bulb blinked off.
"What was that?" Chime whispered
as Galen exhaled in relief. Her blue eyes were wide and she fixed them on Thea
in confusion.
"That," Keller said, leaning
away from the panel, "was the first round of security. The second anyone opens
a door or forces a window that light goes on in every room. For one minute.
Which means if Iliana is in the mansion she has a minute before the second
alarm goes off." She shoved the key into her pocket and then fished out her car
keys again, unlocking the other door of the cubicle. The door opened up into
the mansion and she beckoned for them to follow.
Chime moved forward, Thea with
her and Galen bringing up the rear.
"The second alarm is an actual
siren. That goes off for two minutes. By then hopefully Iliana will be safe in
the sub-level basements." Keller said, pausing in the center of the hallway.
"And if she isn't?" Chime asked,
swallowing.
Keller looked at her over her
shoulder and her face was closed off, emotionless. "Then we wouldn't have done
a good enough job."
Chime nodded, not reassured but
finally looked about. The mansion was amazing. A large staircase directly
before her branched off into separate left and right wings, large windows
bordering the staircase landing. On the ground floor there were rooms on the
left and right of her and more doorways leading into even more rooms under the
branching staircases.
"Ok." Thea said, snapping Chime
back to reality. "So what if you don't shut off the alarm in the next two
minutes?"
Keller motioned toward the
ceiling, pointing to a vent on the wall. "Gas. Sleeping gas. We, as bodyguards
to the Witch Child take shots every week, so that the gas doesn't affect us.
But it will affect the intruders. That goes on for ten minutes. Iliana has to
be in the sub-level basements by then. Has to be."
Chime dreaded her next question.
"And if she isn't?"
Galen shoved his hands into his
jeans pockets and looked at Keller warily. Keller glanced at him before
shrugging nonchalantly. "There's C4 all over the house, especially in the four
corners. Three minutes after the gas, if no one has turned off the alarm…"
Thea's jaw dropped open and she
stared at Keller in shock.
"Then?" Chime demanded.
"Just…boom?"
Keller nodded. "Yeah. Fifteen
minutes to get out of the actual mansion or into the sub-level. If intruders do
get in, it's best that the mansion go down with all its secrets then have them
handed to the Night World."
"But…but, Iliana…" Thea
sputtered, in disbelief. "She's a Wild Power! She has to be alive for the
Millennium-"
"Yes, I understand that." Keller
nodded reassuringly, "but if the Night World gets a hold of her what are the
chances she will be kept alive? It's better she die here than in the hands of
the vampires."
Galen's lips were tight, green
eyes agreeing with his soulmate.
Chime settled back on her heels,
looking around observantly. "A window of fifteen minutes." She murmured. "Not
much time…"
A figure suddenly appeared at
the top of the staircase, standing in the direct center and all conversation
was cut off.
Keller turned as if she had
sensed the intrusion. "This is Iliana." She said, motioning upward toward the
figure. "Come on down, Iliana."
Chime watched the girl float
down.
If there had to be one word to
introduce Iliana Harman, the Legendary Witch Child, it would have been
beautiful, or stunning. Perhaps even magical. Iliana had milky-pale skin, an
angelic baby face with fairy-fine platinum blond hair falling down the sides of
her sweet face and back like silk. Her amethyst-purple eyes shone as she came
toward the group, and she gave them all a tender smile. There was an aura of
goodness about her, a caring expression on her face.
She almost seemed like love in
human form.
"Iliana. Meet Chime. The
dragon." Keller said slowly.
Iliana's expression didn't waver
in the least at the mention of the word. She merely held out her hand and clasped
Chime's hand in hers. "Nice to meet you, Chime. Hi, Thea. Nice to see you
again." She beamed. "You'll be staying for a while, right? We need new faces
around here, I never see anyone." She released Chime to grasp Keller by the
chin, her fingers making hollows in the dark woman's cheeks. "This is all I see
every day. She never smiles."
Keller pulled away with a roll
of her eyes. "You never give me a reason to smile, Iliana. I thought I told you
to stay away from the windows."
Iliana grimaced faintly. "Caught
that, did you?" she sighed.
"Anyway," Galen cut in, "Let's
get Chime and Thea settled and then we'll fight. Sound good?" he didn't bother
to wait for answer. "Good. Come on, ladies. I'll take that for you." He pulled
the duffel bag from Chime's shoulder in a smooth movement, throwing it over his
own shoulder. "You'll meet Nissa and Winnie soon enough."
"Nissa and Winnie?" Chime asked
as Galen escorted them up the staircase. Keller didn't follow, instead moving
toward the rooms under the staircase. Iliana happily tagged along with them,
bouncing childishly, face bright with excitement.
"Nissa and Winnie are my two
other personal bodyguards. They also have keys. Only them and Keller and Galen.
Not even me." Iliana pouted.
Galen threw her a grin over his
shoulder as he took the right-hand staircase. "Iliana can't be trusted." He
explained to Chime and Thea in a low, secretive voice. "If she had a key she
would only need one more person with a key to get out. And she'd go right after
Winnie. Winnie's the softest of our group." He playfully smirked at the Witch
Child. "And Illie knows it only too well."
"See what I put up with?" Iliana
asked Chime and Thea, motioning to Galen. "I am the Legendary Witch Child and
who do I have watching me? Him!" she said, feigning disgust.
"Yes, only the Prince of
Shape-Shifters." Chime nodded in agreement.
Galen came to a dead stop and
looked at her. "Hey. How did you know that?" he asked her curiously.
Chime shrugged. "You fit the
description of the prince and your name is Galen. You're also a NightWorlder by
the way you move. I sense an animal form from you. Leopard. And there were
rumors that the Prince had helped find the Witch Child so I thought, 'Why leave her after everything he's helped
her do?'" Chime shrugged again. "It all seemed to fit."
Galen was nodding and he arched
an eyebrow. "Either way, you're correct. Although I rarely see myself as prince
these days. Now it's all baby-sitting Iliana…" he cast a quick glance at Iliana
and playfully ducked as she swatted at him. "Anyway, before our Witch Child
resorts to name-calling, here are your rooms." He motioned as he paused halfway
down a dark hallway. "For now you guys should get some sleep, rest up. And
later we'll come get you so that you can meet Winnie and Nissa. And…" he
hesitated, "we'll talk."
Thea glanced at Chime and
nodded. "Sounds great, thanks."
"No problem." Galen opened one
of the doors he had motioned to and placed the duffel bag just inside. "We'll
see you later. And you, young lady," he said, turning on Iliana, "You'll be
coming with me."
Iliana blanched. "Oh, no,
Galen." She said, looking flustered. "It isn't necessary. Really it isn't. I
can find my way around perfectly well-"
"Come here." He stressed.
Iliana turned and fled with a
small shriek, blond hair floating after her nimble frame.
Chime arched an eyebrow, biting
down a grin.
Galen smiled at them. "See you
two. I got me a Witch Child to hunt down." And with a wink he turned to follow
Iliana, whose laughs echoed in the mansion hallways.
Thea giggled, looking at Chime.
"Ok, I feel beat. How about we set up our alarms for two hours from now and
meet up again and hang before they come for us?" she suggested, glancing at her
watch but frowning when it didn't match the time on the clock hanging on the
wall.
Chime nodded. "Sounds good.
Maybe I'll dream about Rayne." She shrugged. "Kills time."
"Hey! Don't you dare dream about
him without me!" Thea called after her as she ducked into her new room.
Chime stuck her tongue out at
her. "You have your own soulmate!" Then she closed the door on Thea and looked
at the bed with a small smile. She was definitely going to dream about him.
The Past:
Selena crouched by the stream of raging water,
washing the dirt from several vegetables. Her hands were cold from the water,
her lap drenched as she laid the plants across her knees. The sky overhead was
clear but it was a bit cool. She squinted toward the sun, forgetting the
vegetables for a moment. It was going to be a beautiful day. Already the
morning was looking cheerful. The animals were awakening, the birds chirping
musically. It was the time for love, new and old. And where was she? She was
washing vegetables because she required sustenance. She sighed dramatically and
looked back down at her lap.
The presence of someone next to her, picked up be her
peripheral vision, made her cry out in surprise and she flinched away, dropping
a vegetable into the stream.
Rayne reached down in one fluid movement, scooping up
the vegetable in mid-air and holding it toward her, his other arm resting
across his knee. His smile was quirky, an arrogant twist to the corners.
Selena threw him a look and snatched the vegetable
from his hand with a roll of her eyes. "It's you, again." She said wearily,
leaning forward to wash the vegetable once more. It had been in contact with
his hands and who knew where his hands had been.
"Yes. Me, again." He said with a nod and a sigh. He
lifted his head toward the sun and closed his eyes, bathing in the warm rays.
"It's a lovely day."
Selena smirked. "Yes, it was. Then you showed up."
She said sardonically, scrubbing at flecks of dirt across the smooth surface of
the food. She laid it aside into a basket beside her and pulled forth several
dark berries, lowering her hands into the cold water once more.
"Is that sarcasm I detect in your beautiful voice?"
he asked her with a tilt of his head and his amber eyes were narrowed
devilishly. He lowered his gaze toward her hands and watched her as she rinsed
the berries expertly.
"Sarcasm?" Selena echoed with a troubled frown, the
berries blurring before her. She had to keep her attention on the berries.
Sustenance, she reminded herself. "No, of course not. You know what it is?" she
paused, looking up at him against her will and she nodded when she saw she held
his attention. "It's regret."
"Regret?" he asked with an arched eyebrow.
"Regret." Selena nodded again. And then she glared at
him, "Regret that I am still sitting here talking to you when I could be on my
way home."
Rayne chuckled, bowing his head and shaking it. He
seemed sweetly handsome when he smiled like that, she realized. He had smiled
around her probably more than he had ever smiled in his entire life and yet all
she had done to provoke the smile was insult him. She almost felt sorry but he
was speaking again.
"You really hate me, don't
you." He said and it was a statement. There was no question about it. He turned
his head to look at her again, clearly interested in her response.
Selena threw him an innocent look. "Gee, you think?"
she asked. Then she tossed the berries into the basket and rose, lifting the
basket into her arms. Rayne stood with her, towering over her as he
straightened to his full height. And there was a bit of impatience forming on
his face.
She stared up at him, eyebrows lifted close to her
hairline. "Was there something you wanted, Endymion?" she asked politely from
her small spot in his shadow, "because I really must be going now-"
"A chance perhaps…Chimes." He said, biting out her
name.
"Chime." She corrected him. When he frowned at her
she explained wearily, "Everyone calls me Chime." Not that she wanted him to
know that but she didn't see a reason why not to tell him.
He pulled back a bit, cautious. "Chime." He said
slowly, as if testing the name, trying it on. And he shrugged, not giving a
damn one way or the other, it seemed. "Whatever. Selena sounds nicer, more
feminine…"
"How lovely for me." Selena said through gritting
teeth. And she wound around him, heading toward the village.
His hand lifted and wrapped around her elbow. Lucky
for her it was clothed. She looked at him as he turned her around slowly to
face him. There was something in his expression, like he was impatient but
sympathetic as well. The early trace of arrogance was lost from his face and
that was always a good thing. "Can we just talk for a second?" he asked her.
Selena frowned faintly as he pulled her closer to
him. She felt so small around him and the fact that she was one of the tallest
women in the Witch Village did nothing to help her. She stared up at him,
gazing straight into his eyes and they were so thick, the amber. They drowned
out everything else in her line of vision, even reaching toward the peripheral.
"We were talking." She said quietly, swallowing. She
looked around in a quick glance, looking for a distraction from him, anything
to take her attention away. But there was nothing, except the stream and she
would much rather drown in his eyes than in that icy water.
He stared down at her and nodded slowly. "Yeah. Yeah,
I know." He said in a low voice. "But not here. Later. Around evening. Meet
me."
She blinked and then began to shake her head. "No,
Rayne, I don't think that's a good idea. This isn't a good idea, what we're
doing here-"
"Just meet me," He said hoarsely, grip loosening on
her elbow. "Outside the First House. Where we first met. Wait for me there and
we'll talk. Just talk."
Selena gazed at him, knees weakening for some strange
reason. She shouldn't. She shouldn't meet him. She should just tell him no
thank you, wish him a happy day, a happy life on top of it, turn and walk away
as quickly as possible. But her legs weren't listening to her. They stayed
planted firmly in that spot and was it her or was she feeling a bit warm? She
shuffled her legs a bit nervously and then he leaned toward her a bit, bringing
his eyes even closer to hers. Oh, no. Not those eyes. Her lips tightened into a
straight, tight line, arms curled around the basket.
"Meet me." He said again,
softly. And his voice was low, sending delicious shivers down her spine.
Finally she nodded. "All
right. I will see if I can get away and we'll talk." She murmured. After a
moment she stressed, "Just talk," before pulling away. He released her but
there was a small smile on his face.
"Evening." He reminded her as she turned to walk
away.
"Evening." She murmured to herself.
