Chapter Twenty-five
In the abandoned silo safe house belonging to the Slate cousins, Will Slate slowly broke his kiss and straightened. His entire body hurt. Every muscle he had was flexed, his heart was racing, and his breathing hitched in his aching chest. He held Helena as close, as tight as physics would allow, and it wasn’t close or tight enough.
I’m so sorry, he thought as he gazed down at her sleeping face. And the worst part about that was that he really wasn’t.
“If it helps, the kiss wouldn’t have worked had she not wanted it,” said Darryl.
Will peeled his eyes off the woman in his arms and looked up at Darryl. But there was another man standing just behind the warlock, and that man was looking at Helena with very real concern and more than a little anger.
“What have you done, Will?” Ashrim the sentinel asked.
Liam whirled around. “Ash!”
Ashrim was what Will had always considered the living embodiment of the sculpture of David by Michelangelo. He had thick, curly blond hair, big amber colored eyes with long lashes, a strong chin, the perfect build, and he moved with a dancer’s grace. He was one hell of a pool player, but thoroughly enjoyed a good game of Scrabble just as much. He was well read, could play every instrument Will and Liam had once tested him with, and he had a deep but soft voice. His presence was calming. And he was supposed to be the strongest sentinel ever made.
Right now he looked more disheveled than usual, as if he’d come in a hurry. And the top button of his jeans was undone.
Will saw this and his eyes widened.
Darryl also turned to face the sentinel. Ashrim ignored them both and climbed the steps to the platform where Will stood holding Helena. As he did, he finished buttoning his jeans and looked Helena over. When he was close enough, Will finally found his voice. “Ash, this isn’t what it looks like,” he whispered.
“Why are you here?” Liam asked from behind him.
And in the middle of what was obviously a fun night, said Cain.
Ashrim lifted his gaze from Helena and met Will’s. He glanced over his broad shoulder. “She called out to me, Liam.”
And then to Will, he asked, “It isn’t, Will? What it looks like?” He looked over at Darryl. “Or is my warden not unwillingly unconscious in your arms, the infamous zombie warlock not in your safe house, and…” he turned back around, “Helena not bleeding from a rather treacherous wound?”
Will had never felt more out of sorts than he did just then.
Aw come on, never? said the bastard in his head. I’ve been in your head for several hours now, Will. You’re going to make me feel emasculated.
Ashrim’s gaze narrowed on Will. “And is Cain not in your head?”
Wow, said Cain with a touch of real surprise. He’s good.
Behind Ashrim, Liam slowly climbed the stairs. “Ash, we’re trying to help her, honest.”
Ashrim continued to ignore the other warden. Instead, he looked at Will as if Will were some very large and very dangerous beast standing over Helena. Ash slowly raised his hand. “She needs healing.” He peered at Will questioningly, as if he might attack him for touching her. But Will simply nodded. Then he watched Ashrim’s fingers light up with sentinel magic as he placed them against Helena’s stomach.
“Just be sure she doesn’t wake up yet,” warned Darryl off-handedly. “The spell isn’t complete. And the last part’s a doozy.”
Ash glanced at the zombie.
Darryl climbed the stairs, pulled out a chair, took a seat, and propped his feet up on the table. His coat fell open, and he laced his fingers over his hard stomach. “Trust me, she would rather be unconscious for it.”
Liam had come up beside them on the stairs. Ashrim now looked over at him, and Liam looked away sheepishly, his eyes skirting across all sorts of things he wasn’t really interested in. Then Ash looked back at Will, and Will had absolutely no idea what to tell him. There was no helping it. The last part of the spell was atrocious. “Just heal her, Ash. Don’t wake her up.” He shook his head. “Please.”
The Slate cousins had known Ashrim for about a decade, since he’d first appeared in the midst of a massive vampire fight. Will had prevented one of the vampires from stabbing Ash in the back with a fire poker. When the fight was over, Ash had taken the two of them out for drinks in thanks. From that moment on, they’d been amiable, and more often than not, when the boys called out for him Ashrim answered, despite the fact that he was not technically their sentinel.
Now Will knew whose sentinel he was. He watched over the Promised One. They’d assigned him to someone special, indeed.
The Promised One. Why did the term ring between his ears?
Ashrim closed his eyes, the glow on the ends of his fingertips intensified, and then the light flashed. He lowered his hand and lifted the edge of Helena’s shirt. The wound the werewolf had left on her abdomen was gone. Her skin was smooth and unbroken. Even her shirt was clean. But Ashrim’s expression was deeply troubled. “I hate it when she doesn’t call me.”
He looked up at Will. Changing the subject, he said, “She recently used her powers to manipulate time.”
Will looked over Ashrim’s shoulder at Liam. “Yes, she did.”
“She got us out of a mess in the middle of the desert,” explained Liam. “We were surrounded.”
Ashrim sighed heavily. “Compliments of Cain, I’m assuming,” he said almost accusingly.
Will expected the ancient vampire in his head to have a few things to say to that, but the befanged bastard, for his part, was surprisingly quiet. In fact now that Will paid close attention, he realized he didn’t sense Cain there at all. No voice. No presence. Will was completely alone.
Cain was suddenly gone.
“You should never have allowed her to sleep,” Ash told them, his tone laced heavily with reprimand. “You have no idea what you’ve done.”
The cousins said nothing, but their exchanged glances were thick with confusion.
“Let’s set her down somewhere safe,” continued Ash as he brushed past Will to the exit of the room that lead to a hallway and personal bedrooms beyond. “And then we need to talk.” He shot them a hard look over his shoulder as he rounded the corner into the hall. “And we need to prepare.”
Will took a deep breath, looked at his cousin, then looked at Darryl.
“Don’t look at me,” said the warlock. “You needed a spell and I gave you one. I’m not responsible for what happens beyond that. And by the way, you need to finish it quickly.”
Liam shot him a dirty look and passed Will on his way to the hall. “Typical,” he muttered just before he was out of range.
Will gazed down at Helena’s sleeping face and forced himself to memorize it in that moment. When she appeared peaceful. When she wasn’t hurting. When she wasn’t looking at anyone with hatred in her luminous eyes. When she wasn’t hating him.
Then he turned and followed his cousin and the sentinel out of the room.
The boys were waiting for him in Liam’s room. Will stopped in the doorway and peered at his cousin. His cousin gestured to the bed. But nature was releasing something hot and nasty into Will’s bloodstream.
Liam shrugged. “What?”
“Why your room?”
Liam put his hands on his hips and looked at him as if he’d gone off the reservation. He’d gotten rid of Helena’s gun and the syringe, probably throwing the latter away. “Why do you care?” he asked. “You got to kiss her.”
“So now you get to sleep with her?” Will asked incredulously.
“What? No! God Will, she’s freaking unconscious for crying out loud. How hard up do you think I am?”
“Then why your room?” he asked again as more of that hot chemical filled his body and his heart rate refused to slow.
But Liam just settled him with an icy glare. “Because my room was closer.”
Will stayed where he was. Ashrim rolled his eyes. “For the love of all that is good,” he said, moving around Liam to approach Will. “We don’t have time for this. It doesn’t matter whose bed she sleeps on. She probably won’t be sleeping for long anyway. The Night Terrors will be chasing her out of her dreams and into our reality soon enough.” He stopped in front of Will and pointed to the bed behind him. “Either put her there or give her to me, Will. Now.”
Will gritted his teeth in utterly childish defiance, but stepped around him, approached the bed, and braced his knee on the mattress. Slowly and gently he laid Helena out on it, marveling at every aspect of her as he did so. He noticed how light she was in his arms, yet how empty they felt without her weight. He remembered her in her garage, using her mind to send heavy objects flying through the air. He thought of the way she’d gotten the upper hand with him and his cousin, tricking them into drinking silver. She was strong, smart, fast, powerful. But she was helpless now, sleeping and unmoving, and he’d never wanted to protect something more in his life.
“Were you serious that she won’t stay asleep for long?” asked Liam.
“I’m afraid so,” Ashrim replied.
“What are Night Terrors?” asked Will. The leprechaun had mentioned them too. Without looking up, he added, “What did you mean?”
Ash said, “That’s what she calls them. I don’t know of a better term for them, so I adopted it. She calls the place they come from the Dark World.” He turned and made his way to the door. “You two need to come with me. We need to get ready and we don’t have much time.”
“Ash,” said Liam, stopping the sentinel in his tracks. Liam glanced at Helena where she slept, then lowered his head, his hands still on his hips. “Man, we need to finish this spell. This is our chance. If we don’t do this, Cain will be able to get to her. And I know you don’t want that.”
Ash looked from him to Will to Helena. “Then we have even less time than I thought.” He turned and left.
Liam and Will turned to each other. Will’s gaze narrowed, and so did Liam’s, each clearly waiting for the other to leave the room first.
And then Will realized the ridiculousness of their behavior and could have kicked himself. He straightened and rolled back his shoulders, preparing to be the bigger man.
But Liam suddenly strode out ahead of him, stealing his thunder.
“Dick,” Liam told him as he passed by.
“Dickless,” returned Will.