TWENTY-EIGHT
Evalle would not ask anyone to support her, but she didn’t want Tzader to go under the bus for defending her.
Storm spoke up. “That’s what I saw—Evalle in battle form.”
She swung around, lost for what to say. Storm had just backed Tzader’s claim that she hadn’t shifted into her Alterant beast state.
Storm gave her a look that asked, Surprised? then passed a challenging glance at the rest of the team.
Quinn shrugged. “It was never in question.”
Evalle smiled at him, letting Quinn know that she knew how he’d vote regardless.
“Looked like battle form to me,” Trey concurred.
Lucien shifted his attention to the Sterling witch. “We’re all in agreement, right, Adrianna?”
For the second time tonight, Evalle’s fate rested with the same witch whose cherry red lips curled in a smile of mock innocence. “I’m not familiar with battle form.”
There was a collective tensing.
Adrianna moved a dainty shoulder in a sexy shrug. “I only saw a reaction to the Noirre majik venom and Evalle is now healed. I see no threat. So let it be said, so let it be known.”
Adrianna’s smirk would normally have set Evalle off, but she couldn’t take exception when the woman had just healed her leg and given her safe passage out of this situation.
One thing Evalle had heard about a Sterling witch was that once she said, “So let it be said, so let it be known,” Adrianna could not recant or deny her words.
Honor among black majik witches? But this one had shown a side of consideration Evalle hadn’t expected.
“Thank you,” Evalle told her again and this time with true sincerity. Not enjoying being the center of attention, she changed the topic. “Let’s talk about the Ngak Stone.”
Trey spoke up. “I had a call from Sen. He said Shiva told him the stone had been located and would bind with its new master by Wednesday morning when sunlight strikes the spot where she found it. But Shiva still didn’t say who the woman was.”
Evalle stood and moved over to lean against the banister so that she wasn’t lower than everyone on the porch. Her jeans flopped where Adrianna had torn the material, but other than feeling bruised, her leg was much better. “I don’t know exactly where the stone is at this moment, but I think it’s still in this area. I found the woman who has it. She was in the park with the stone, and that Kujoo Vyan showed up.”
Quinn asked, “Who was the woman?”
Evalle heaved a tired sigh. “I don’t know and doubt anyone else here will know her, because she’s … human.”
“What?” The single word rang out around the veranda.
Evalle shook her head. “I have no idea why she has it, but she is human.”
“Was Vyan alone?” Lucien asked.
“No, but he was acting on his own. He stepped between the woman and another guy to protect her.”
“So he wasn’t trying to take the stone for himself?” Trey frowned, probably remembering the lonely warrior who had traveled forward eight hundred years to seek vengeance. Because of Trey’s compassion for what the guy had lost, he’d allowed Vyan to walk away free.
“Not right then,” Evalle clarified. “Vyan told her to drop the rock and run while he faced off with the other guy.”
“Who was the other guy?”
Answering that was going to be tricky. “Someone Vyan knew, but no one I’ve met before.”
Storm had been leaning against a wood support column for the porch, arms crossed, staring at the floor. His head lifted just enough to draw Evalle’s attention, and his eyes told her he knew she’d just colored the truth.
“Was the other guy after the rock?” Trey asked.
“Yes.” Evalle welcomed the question to avoid Storm’s silent censure. “But he wasn’t Kujoo.”
“What kind of power did he have?”
“Different than anything I’ve faced before.” If she told the Beladors on the porch about Tristan they would call up a league of Beladors to go after him, which was exactly what she believed the Medb wanted, especially if it included Tzader and Brina. Brina could find Tristan immediately.
Or so Tristan had said.
Evalle couldn’t risk any of them walking into a trap. If she told Brina that Tristan was an Alterant who had escaped his cage and that Brina should stay away from him, Brina would think Evalle was protecting an Alterant. She didn’t know if anyone could really kill Brina, but she wasn’t risking the future of the Beladors to find out.
If she told Tzader and Quinn that Tristan wanted to keep her, they wouldn’t let her near Tristan.
But Tristan had given Evalle a chance to protect her tribe, and if that was her last option, she’d trade her life if that was the only way to save Tzader and Quinn. She would not, however, give Tristan the rock under any circumstances.
The team did need to know about the ghouls being altered.
“I think the guy I met in the park is changing Nightstalkers into crazed half-zombie-like things,” Evalle told the group. “They can’t hold their shape and they’re aggressive. That’s what stabbed me in the leg with a long fingernail. This strange guy has kinetics and can throw energy spikes like lightning bolts. Then he disappeared as though he teleported.”
“He wields Noirre majik?” Adrianna asked. “Was he a witch?”
Evalle thought back on what had happened. “Not a witch, and I don’t think he controls the majik. I had the feeling he was infected with the Noirre majik and passed that infection along to the Nightstalkers when he shook with them.”
Tzader raked his hand over his head and walked around a minute. “A human female got the rock. How could that have happened?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t think she realized what she had,” Evalle told the group. “When the other guy attacked Vyan, I stepped in as Vyan went down. I put up a shield for the woman and told her to drop the rock and run. She was rattled to the point I don’t think she knew what she was doing and said she just wanted to go home. Poof. She disappeared with Vyan.”
In his usual precise manner, Quinn summed up everything. “A human has the Ngak Stone, there’s an unknown player in the mix and the Kujoo warrior Vyan is with the woman who has the stone. I suppose it could be worse, but I don’t know how.”
Evalle really hated to be the bearer of sucky news. “Here’s how. My Nightstalker told me there’s an ancient synergy in the city, and during our brief conversation I confirmed the strange guy I fought in the park is working with the Kujoo. Someone has brought more Kujoo warriors forward in time. Vyan isn’t working alone, but I had the feeling he was in conflict with his warlord.”
“We’ll be ready for them this time,” Trey said.
Evalle raised her hand. “Wait. This guy was arrogant and bragging about how the Medb had a plan for taking down the Beladors. From what I could figure out, the Medb are setting a trap and not preparing for a battle. If what he said was true, they’re planning genocide of Beladors. We have to find out first what they’re up to so Beladors don’t rush into a slaughter.”
“That makes sense,” Quinn said. “Looks like we’re still back to finding that rock, which might answer those questions. Shiva will give advice when he deems it necessary, but we can’t call him or Macha into this until the Kujoo instigate a conflict.”
“The strange guy said the Kujoo would not instigate a conflict,” Evalle followed up. “I don’t know what they have in mind, but this guy was confident about whatever the Medb were cooking up to use against the Beladors. They want us to show up en masse.”
Storm watched her every time she spoke, and his eyes narrowed when she stepped all over the truth. Too bad. She had the Beladors’ safety at heart.
Tzader swung around and addressed everyone. “Lucien and Adrianna—search for whoever is opening that portal for Kujoo. Storm and Evalle will start shaking down Nightstalkers to see if any of them have a lead on a human female with a sentient power source. Also, you two find out how many Nightstalkers are missing that might have been changed by the Kujoo or this guy Evalle fought. If the Nightstalkers are being changed, the ones still here might lead us to this guy and the Kujoo.”
Adrianna released a sigh that drew everyone’s attention. “Where’s Casper?”
Tzader addressed everyone again. “He’s shaking down the trolls to find out if any of them know of a new powerful female in the city. Quinn and I will continue to track the Noirre majik and see if we can find the Medb source. Trey, you still on baby watch?”
Trey nodded. “Sasha’s doing good, but the baby is due any day now and I don’t want to leave her or Rowan alone if the Kujoo are here in force. Especially if there’s a chance they brought Ekkbar with them.”
“Who’s Ekkbar?” Adrianna asked.
“The Kujoo magician.” Trey’s thick chest bunched when he crossed his arms. “He used dreams to possess Rowan two years ago. I don’t think he can do it again, but I’m not taking that risk with her life, my wife’s or my baby’s.”
Tzader nodded and told the team, “Keep reporting to Trey. He can alert the team if the situation changes. Let’s head out.”
Evalle tested her leg, walking to the steps. All systems were a go. She’d made it to the sidewalk along the street when Storm fell into step beside her. He didn’t say a word until they were out of sight and earshot of the house.
“Why aren’t you telling the team everything?” he asked.
“The same reason I’m not answering your question.” She kept walking, not looking at him. “The less you all know, the safer you’ll be.”
He put his hand on her arm, but she didn’t snarl at him this time. Why was it when he touched her she felt her insides go soft and gooey? “Don’t push me, Storm.”
“Would it be so awful to ask for my help?”
She considered her answer as she listened to the sounds of Atlanta. “Asking for help can sometimes be dangerous.”
“I will not hurt you.”
“I will not let you.”
He breathed quietly for a moment, a quiet gathering of his thoughts. “If you won’t ask for help for yourself, then think about the team and this rock we’re after. We have to find it.”
Evalle turned to him. “I am thinking of the team and that rock. Can you follow someone who has been teleported?”
“No.”
“Did you sense a trail of any kind when you found me?” Like Tristan’s?
“Only to the street and it disappeared.”
“Then I don’t think there’s anything you can do that is more than we’re already doing.” She didn’t snap at him because she sensed his sincerity.
“Tell me who the other guy was that you stopped from killing Vyan.”
She didn’t reply.
“I think you’re afraid to tell me because you believe it’s going to change your status with the Tribunal, but you’re wrong. I’m not handing you over to Sen or them.”
He was telling the truth. She sensed how important it was to him for her to believe that he meant her no harm. Her empathic ability reared its head at the strangest times. He’d been there for her tonight and hadn’t hesitated to stand up for her with Tzader.
Would it cost her anything to give him an inch?
She lifted her hand but stopped short of touching his cheek. Maybe it was that same maturing empathic ability that was stir-frying her hormones. “I believe you, but I still can’t tell you any more.”
“You better be worth all the trouble I see ahead of me.” He snagged her hand before she dropped it to her side, then kissed her scraped knuckles.
The touch of his lips stroked her heart rhythm into a gallop. She didn’t want that hand back when touching him filled her with an unfamiliar happiness.
But he released her, so she folded her arms over her chest.
He kept nipping at her personal space, but he wasn’t a lecherous doctor.
She’d try to remember that.
“Where’re you going now?” he asked.
“To get my bike, swing by the morgue to see if the body came back on its own because we might be able to use that to track the Noirre majik, and I intend to hunt down some Nightstalkers. One in particular.”
“Then let’s get moving.”
She kept pace with him all the way back to her motorcycle. He wasn’t happy when she said she needed to work Nightstalkers on her own, but he didn’t fight her and agreed his time was better spent seeing if he could pick up any trails. She agreed to meet him at the same entrance to the park at dusk, then hopped on her bike and cruised toward the interstate with a few hours left until daylight.
The morgue was in chaos. A gang fight had ended with four stiffs, and two more arrived from a tractor-trailer pileup. No mangled female body had been returned.
Evalle slipped out before anyone could yank her into service. After taking the Edgewood exit off the downtown interstate connector, she rode past Grady Hospital and parked in her usual place on a side street. She’d dumped her helmet and was putting on her sunshades when six men in black fatigues and all wearing night-vision monoculars emerged from the shadows with weapons trained on her.
Now what?
When they had her surrounded, the largest one said with a Southern drawl, “You’re to come with us, ma’am.”
Ma’am? “Who the hell are you?” She had a suspicion.
“I’m Laredo Jones. My boss wants to talk to you.”
“Is this where I get to phone a friend?” She made a subtle move with her feet into a fighting position.
Must not have been that subtle, because the leader’s gaze dipped to her feet, then rose back to her face, unconcerned.
She couldn’t use her powers against a human, and he was the size of Texas. She thought about calling Tzader, but he couldn’t get here fast enough if she did. And she wasn’t sure what these weapons would do to Tzader and Quinn.
Her gaze stopped on one weapon to read the word engraved on the side. NYGHT.
Isak was kidnapping her.