Black Gate: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 4 (12 page)

With a thought, she hurtled though the black spaces until she found them wrapped up and bound in place by tendrils of darkness that wove in and around their bodies like creepers on a beanstalk. They were floating in a void. It was surreal, like a late-night sci-fi movie.

“Katherine.” Frank saw her first. The black tentacle around his neck tightened until he nearly choked.

“Don’t speak. Any of you. Don’t draw attention.” Katherine whispered the command and they obeyed, questions and words of greeting dying on their lips. She approached Sebastian first. His energy was calm and steady, so steady and cold that the darkness barely held on to him with a couple of strands. “You could have broken free.”

“And gone where?” His whispered response reminded her that they needed her to get them out of here. For her? A thought would send her home. For them? This place would be a prison of eternal night.

“Right. Sorry.” She laid her bare palm on the snake-like vine around his leg and it slithered away at her command. When Seb stood free she turned her attention to the others. Hundreds of small strands wove around Frank. Matteo and Ryan hung upside down, mouths completely covered. The dark had effectively gagged them. Now that she knew they were okay, the sight made her want to laugh. “I’m guessing you two couldn’t keep your mouths shut?”

Matteo grinned and shrugged, helpless to deny it. Frank scowled at her, still straining against the strand wrapped around his neck. He glared at Matteo as he spoke, “Just get us out of here.”

“Yes, Sir.” Katherine closed her eyes and connected with the darkness. Every second that passed she felt more comfortable here, as if she’d found a home, a place where she could let her power roam free. A place where she could change the world, where she would always win.

An image of the Triscani creature her cousin Sarah had battled slipped into her mind. Both the Gate and Teagh had warned her that the Triscani roamed freely here. She just had to hope they were too busy elsewhere to come looking.

At her command the tendrils retreated en masse, freeing the men. She smiled with relief and grabbed Andrew’s hand with her right, and reached to Ryan on her left. “Hold on to each other.”

They formed a circle, holding hands like school children, and Katherine pulled them back to the original Gate, the one beneath the mountain. She knew exactly where it was. That Gate hummed and sang with energy deep in her soul. She would always be able to find it. She’d never be lost again. It was hers now.

When it opened she was stunned to see the room was empty but for one guard standing at the far end of the room. He looked familiar, but she couldn’t see his face.. Didn’t matter who he was. He was from one of their teams, so Katherine assumed they’d had to fight the good fight and clear the grounds. This house and this Gate’s location were in the hands of the Casper Project now.

Bad news, that. Something she’d have to take care of later. The Gate hummed in welcome and Katherine soaked up the power like a dry sponge in water. The Rear Admiral couldn’t have this place. She’d have to kill him if he wouldn’t walk away. The thought made her sad, but not as sad as she should’ve been. The cold insisted that it was pure logic. Her heart whimpered in response.

She didn’t even know if the Rear Admiral was still alive. She hadn’t felt him in the dark, but the man hadn’t been tops on her priority list either. She’d felt no animosity toward her team from the darkness, rather a hunger to know what she knew, to be touched by that which she loved. It was odd to think that this thing, this darkness, could want to know her. To know what she loved.

But the Rear Admiral? No love there. Respect. Caution. Yes. But no warmth.

It became harder to move the closer she got to the Gate’s entrance. The dark wanted to play and didn’t want her to go home just yet. That was fine with her. She supposed she’d better find the Rear Admiral. The man was a weasel, but he didn’t deserve to be eternally tormented in the dark. Then she’d find the barrier, that evil prison wall, and break it.

She released her hold on Andrew and Ryan and shoved them through the portal. They tumbled through to the other side, every damn one of them landing on their feet and clapping each other on the back in celebration. As if she’d expected any less. They were the best.

“Fuck me, I don’t ever want to do that again.” Sebastian stomped his combat boots on the floor and shook his body like a dog. “Ever.”

The others chimed in while Frank turned back to the Gate, looking for her. She met his gaze where she floated on the opposite side of the Gate in the dark.

“Come on, Katherine. Get the hell out of there.”

“Sorry, Frank. Not yet. I’ll send the Rear Admiral out to you, then there’s something I have to do.”

“Damn it, Kat.” Sebastian walked toward her. “Then we’ll go with you.”

He jumped at the portal, intent on getting to her. With a thought she froze it solid and he bounced back like a ball thrown against a playground wall. “Sorry, boys. Not this time.”

They yelled at her to stop, all but Andrew, who lifted two fingers in a mock salute and watched her go in silence.

She turned and called the Rear Admiral to mind. In a flash she stood over him. The dark hadn’t been as kind to him, sensing her mixed emotions and distrust where he was concerned. He lay prone with vines twisted around his body like a mummy’s wrappings. He was completely covered but for one eye and his nose.

The fervor and fanatical belief he’d always carried like a shield of armor lay in shreds behind his visible eye. He was a man defeated, a man who realized he’d put his faith, his dedication and his honor behind the wrong thing. He’d seen behind the magic curtain, learned the truth. Been broken by it.

“Sorry, Sir.” Katherine knelt down and placed her hand along the black vines. They retreated in kind, revealing the Rear Admiral to her in slow stages. “I’ll get you out of here.”

“What the hell is this place?” He accepted her help and she wrapped her left arm behind his back to help him rise. Scratches covered every bit of his exposed flesh. His ankle was twisted in the wrong direction and his neck bore the telltale bruises of strangulation. No, the dark didn’t care for him at all.

Then why was he still alive?

Because he is yours…
The dark whispered the answer in her mind.

Okaaay. That was a bit creepy. Time to get the Rear Admiral out of here before the dark changed its mind.

She flashed them across the empty spaces and yelled at Frank as she approached, pushing the injured man through, back into the bedroom where this whole fiasco began. “He’s injured. Catch him!”

The men converged on their commander and she waved, backing away. The Rear Admiral leaned against Frank and looked a hundred years old. “Thank you, Katherine.”

It was the first time he’d ever thanked her for anything. She nodded and backed away, closing the Gate behind her. Time to explore a bit. Time to find out who or what was trapped behind door number two.

Chapter Five

Katherine knelt, head pressed to an egg, a giant, black egg of energy hovering in this dark space. At first touch she’d believed it to be a wall. But no, the evil bastard who’d tied his soul to this place had made a giant egg the size of semitruck’s trailer.

There was no way in or out, no creases and no door. She’d wandered every over every curve and angle, every single fingertip’s worth of space. It was a perfect oblong sphere floating in nothing. What the hell was she supposed to do now? She’d thrown every ounce of determination and will she had at it, and not a crack. Oh, she could feel the anchor’s power, but she couldn’t break through.

She felt like an idiot trying to kill an elephant with a fly swatter.

Oh, she’d been so smug, believing she could break it down. The prison walls gave her the same feeling as wandering the ruins of an ancient European castle. This place was old. Strong. Built to last.

She had to get in.

Tendrils danced around her feet, wove in and around her body in a constant ebb and flow of greeting and seduction. They whispered promises of power, enough strength to crack the magic egg wide open. But the dark wanted something in return.

It wanted her to stay in this place. Forever.

Immediately the image of Teagh came to mind, his hot hands and soft kiss. She couldn’t stay. Long ago she’d dreamt of a life, a real life. She’d wanted a hot hunk in her bed, chubby babies crawling around her feet, hot sex and teenage children driving her mad. She wanted to be done with all of this saving the world stuff.

Want in one hand…

She knew exactly what she had in the other.

Duty. Honor. She had a job to do. Fairy tales were for petite princesses with blonde hair, blue eyes and pouty pink lips. Not for too tall, too mean, too dark women like her. She’d hunted, lied and killed to protect the other Timewalker descendants and her team. She’d seen too much to believe in happily ever after. And Teagh? Hot hunk? Great kisser? Hell, yeah. And he’d probably saved her life back there, when the Gate was trying to eat her alive. But, he’d also kidnapped her, refused to help rescue her team, and then tried to telepathically knock her out.

Some Prince Charming.

This prisoner had to be Immortal, or damn close to it. No one else could survive a cage like this. As far as she could tell, there was no food. No water. No light. Laying her palm on the surface allowed the dark to speak to her of silent centuries come and gone. Centuries.

Yet a heart still beat behind the wall. It pulsed in time to the darkness in her blood and bones. A creepy side effect of staying too long? Coincidence?

No. She didn’t believe in coincidence. Not when it came to the non-human freaks.

Katherine floated to the top of the strange structure and envisioned herself lying atop it, pressed flat on her stomach with her right cheek just touching the ancient surface. The exterior of the egg picked up the thud of her heartbeat and echoed it down and around, amplified the sound until the reverberations in her ear formed a pattern of beats and echoes.

The being inside woke and reached for her. He pierced her mind with telepathy and centuries of rage.

Body twisting like a pretzel, her strangled wails penetrated the dark and sent the once friendly tendrils running.

Katherine stopped fighting the wrath of the being trapped and let it flow through her.

The prisoner was most definitely male. An Immortal of some sort, or at the very least extremely powerful. His anger hurt her, but he hadn’t attacked. If he had, her brain would be jelly seeping from her eye sockets, he had that much power. She could feel the iron-clad control the prisoner possessed. That control was the sole reason she continued to draw breath. Perhaps the male would respond to logic.
Enough. Please. I am trying to help you.

Her pain lessened and she felt him pull energy back into himself.
Who are you?

I am Katherine.

And the others? Where are they?

Katherine paused, a frown marring her brow as the pain in her skull increased again. What betrayer? She lifted her head and asked the dark to set up watch, to notify her if anyone approached. When the soft tendrils whispered to her that she was well and truly alone here, she decided to trust it and turned her full attention to the male trapped inside this bizarre prison.
I don’t know what you are talking about. I found you in the dark. Who are you? Why are you here? And please, stop hurting me. I am trying to help you.

Absolute silence greeted her and she could literally feel the male trapped in the eternal cage thinking, weighing his options. It felt like a million beetles scurrying around the inside of the shell she sat atop, a million tiny vibrations of energy humming through her body. The pain receded completely, and she sighed in relief when he spoke.
I am listening.

Who are you? Why are you here?

I am a man, a warrior, and a king. Release me now. Time grows short.

What if he was a criminal? Had Teagh placed him here for being a mass murderer on another planet? Just her luck to get stuck in the dark and release an Immortal serial killer because she didn’t know any better. She would not be one of those stupid females who trusted every word that came out of a man’s mouth.

Your name, Sir? And, once I verify your identity, I will release you.

He mocked her with his laughter.
I am Ajax. But who would you ask about me? I am a legend, lost in time to my own people. No one will help you make this choice, human. It is your conscience. Your decision alone.

If he was a king, where was his kingdom? His army? His guards? His wife? His ire stirred anew. The male raged in her mind until his power threatened to burst the blood vessels in her brain.

Stop! You’ll kill me!
Instantly the pressure vanished and was replaced with a sense of being watched, stalked like a doe in the mountains. If she left him here now, he’d never forgive, or forget. Bloody hell.

Who could she ask about Ajax? Teagh of the smoking-hot kisses and lying lips? Perhaps Sarah or Mari could ask Celestina? That was a much more reasonable option.