Black Gate: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 4 (18 page)

“I don’t know.” Teagh’s back muscles tightened as his tension mounted. He hated lying to Raiden, but it was a lie he and Bran had told often over the centuries to protect their King. He’d found Katherine battling Triscani, her hands buried in the walls of Ajax’s prison. He’d felt her will battling his, trying to free the monster that Ajax had become from his prison. If she’d been successful, he hated to think what would have happened to both of them.

“Find out. Soon.” Raiden held out his arm and Teagh took it, gripped Raiden’s forearm in the timeless manner of brother warriors. “I’m taking Mari home. Katherine’s wounds were…difficult for her.” Her frowned and released Teagh’s arm. “If you need me, call. I’ll come. But I won’t risk Mari’s life again. The darkness wants to keep Katherine. It won’t let her go. Mari about drained us both dry trying to force it out of her cells.”

“I know.” And he did. He’d seen the strain on Marina’s lovely face, the slump of Raiden’s shoulders. They were both exhausted, and yet the black marks remained in Katherine’s soft flesh.

“If it gets any worse, Mari won’t be able to help her at all.” Raiden walked back to the house, leaving Teagh to stare up at the stars and wonder how he was going to get Katherine out of this mess alive, because despite what Raiden had just told him, he wouldn’t let her go. He couldn’t allow the Gate to claim her.

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Katherine rolled onto her side and looked up at Mari’s face. Defeat lined the healer’s brow. The unfortunate woman had literally poured a tidal wave of power into her flesh. All Mari had managed was to close the wounds. They were still there, but at least Mari had taken away most of the pain…and nearly kill herself and Raiden in the process. “I’m sorry, Mari. I’m so sorry to drag you into this.”

“Shut up. I’ve done what I can. It’s like the black stuff wants to eat you up.”

Katherine had to chuckle at the apt description. “It does.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. I guess I’m just crunchy and taste good with ketchup.”

Mari smiled. “That saying is for dragon food. Not evil incarnate, trans-dimensional aliens.”

Katherine grimaced and shifted up in the bed so she could sit with her sore back nestled in Teagh’s pillows. She refused to think about the fact that she was half naked in his bed. In fact, she should just stop breathing so the scent of him stayed out of her lungs. His smell seduced her senses, emanated from each strand of his soft sheets. She was bare on top, her shirt removed so that Mari could try to heal the wounds sliced across her spine. Which left her breasts free to rub his scent all over them. And he smelled so good.

She was losing her freaking mind here. God, she was glad the men were gone. She wasn’t sure how much more scowling and brooding she could take. If Teagh saw the desire in her eyes, it would be ten times worse.

Dread filled her. No doubt, the moment Mari and Raiden went home, the inquisition would begin. She saw it in the tight lines around Teagh’s eyes and the tense muscles of his jaw. She tightened the sheet around her breasts and tucked the ends under her arms to hold it in place. Mari watched her, a knowing gleam in her brown eyes. “You want him.”

“It’s the Shen. Not me.”

“Hmmph.” Mari shook her head. “Been there, done that. It’s not just the Mark, Katie. He’s a good guy. In fact, he saved my life.”

Katherine had never heard this story. She had heard a few bits and pieces secondhand from Tim and Sarah, but never a word about this. “What happened?”

“I got tangled up with a soul stone. Long story short, it led me right to Teagh. But the Triscani found him first. I walked into a trap. Almost died. Teagh saved my life.” Mari took Katherine’s hand and squeezed. “He’s one of the good guys. Trust him.”

Katherine shook her head. “I can’t. I’m sorry. I just can’t.”

“Why not?” Mari didn’t argue with her. The question was sincere. Mari was not a woman who made snap judgments about people.

“The Lost King, Ajax, warned me not to trust him.” Katherine closed her eyes at Mari’s gasp of shock.

“Oh my God. Why?” Mari’s hold on her hand tightened to the point of pain.

“He said Teagh and Bran were the ones who imprisoned him. That they were both traitors.”

Mari groaned and leaned over, pressing her forehead to the blankets next to Katherine’s knee. “Danger Will Robinson! Danger!”

“Exactly.” Katherine burst out laughing, suddenly very grateful for Sarah and Mari both. The other Timewalkers. They really felt like sisters now. Confidants. Something she’d never had.

Mari raised her head just enough to peak at Katherine through a thick tangle of straight black bangs. “I saw your Shen. Did you Mark him?”

“Yes. He shares my Mark.” Katherine said it like a schoolgirl reciting dates in history class. A fact. Nothing more. Nothing personal.

“That totally sucks.”

Katherine sighed. Did she have to answer that? No. It wasn’t a question. Mari knew the score better than anyone else in the world could. She knew all about the animalistic hunger and attraction Katherine battled. Except the pretty little Hispanic girl got to give in to her urges. She was linked to a man who loved her. An honorable man. Not a traitor.

“Raiden demanded I get answers from you about Ajax when we were on the way over here. He’s hell bent on finding this guy. Says he has a promise to keep. Apparently, some big-time shift happened when Ajax disappeared. The Immortals call it the Crux. His wife was murdered right in front of him and the Triscani found a way to change the timeline so that they won the war against the Immortals. If this Lost King doesn’t show up at the fight, Raiden told me that Earth and Itara are both doomed.”

“Shit.” Katherine slid her hand out from Mari’s tight grip and sighed. Raiden said Ajax was the key to saving Earth. She said the only thing she could, the thing Mari would expect to hear. “Then I’d better go back in there and get him.”

“Let us help. We’ll get you out of here.” Mari looked worried. “If the Triscani get to you again, I don’t think I’m going to be able to help you.”

“I can’t leave yet.”

“Why not?” Mari crossed her arms over her chest, worry replaced with stubborn insistence. “Spill.”

Katherine checked the room, strained her ears for any hint that the men were returning to the house. She heard nothing, but motioned Mari to bend in close. Even then she did not dare speak the truth aloud. She touched Mari’s temple and whispered the answer straight into her new friend’s mind.
Because I’m not strong enough to go back in there yet.

But what are you going to do?

Seduce him and take what I need
.

Mari took a deep breath, shock rounded her eyes into huge disks.
No
.

Aloud, Katherine asked, “The Mark is permanent, right?”

“Yes, for a human. But he’s like Raiden. He can choose to give it back.”

“But I can’t change it. I can’t force him to give it back to me.”

“Not that I know of.”

Katherine shrugged and swallowed her sadness. “I don’t think Teagh’s going to give it back.”

Mari turned her head completely on its side and laid it across Katherine’s thigh, offering friendship and understanding when Katherine desperately need it. “This sucks.”

“That’s what I said.”

Mari tilted her head and smiled. “Raiden is coming to take me home. Says I need to rest, which is Raiden code for wild monkey sex.” She laughed.

“He loves you.” Katherine tried to keep the longing out of her voice, knew she’d failed completely when Mari’s eyes filled with sympathy. She didn’t want pity. Couldn’t deal with pity right now.

Luckily, Mari kept talking and broke the uncomfortable silence. “Teagh will be right behind him.” She leaned forward and resumed speaking telepathically.
Are you sure you want to do this?

That was the million-dollar question.

Raiden entered the room and walked straight to his wife. He pulled her up and lifted her into his arms. “Let’s go, woman, before you actually manage to kill yourself.”

“I’m fine.” Mari’s eyes sparkled, a stark contrast to the gray tinge of her skin and the lines of exhaustion around her eyes and mouth. Love could do that, Katherine supposed, make unbearable things bearable.

“Thank you both. I do feel better.” It wasn’t a lie. The burning had stopped and she wasn’t bleeding. And she didn’t need Teagh touching her to maintain her grasp on sanity. That was a huge improvement. “A few hours of rest and I’ll be good as new.”

Mari caught her gaze. “Be careful.”

“Always.” Careful. Thorough. Logical. Methodical. It was what had kept her people anonymous and safely hidden from the Rear Admiral. It was what had kept her team alive. That was, until Chicago. Or, scratch that thinking now…until Doc Hansen had put alien D.N.A. into her system. Now she’d walked in the dark. Now she felt like a loose cannon, a bomb with a lit fuse. Trouble was, she had no idea how long the fuse was, or when it would blow her to hell.

Teagh walked into the room and stopped to lean his shoulder against the doorframe. Arms crossed, he didn’t look happy. Raiden ignored him and bestowed a very regal nod of his head in her direction. “Call on me if you have need, Timewalker. I will answer.”

“Thank you.” She appreciated the offer, but knew damn good and well there was only one man in the room who could follow her into the dark. Ajax’s warning against him was soul-crushing, a hideously cruel twist of fate. The only man she’d ever really wanted…and could never trust.

Mari smiled at her before wrapping her arms around her husband’s neck. “Good luck, Katie-bug.”

Before she could respond, Raiden whisked Mari out of the room. Katherine watched them go, her mind wandering to all the ways her lucky friend would most likely be “taken care of” after Raiden got her home. It was an extremely treacherous place for her fragile mind to go.

Goddamn it. Couldn’t she think about anything else?

Teagh crossed to his closet and pulled out a large white T-shirt and a pair of boxers. “You need a bath.”

Truly, she wanted to work up some defense, but the fact of the matter was, she did. She smelled like metallic gases, or stone. She smelled like the dark, not dirty or sweaty, just odd, like the strange twang of the powder inside an airbag.

It smelled like death to her.

A shiver took hold and rattled her from tip to toes. How was she going to manage it if already the shivering had begun. Without Mari there touching her, grounding her, feeding her Earth’s energy, she was fading faster than she’d imagined. She’d thought she would be free of the need for Teagh’s touch, at least for a while. But with Mari gone, she was right back where she started, physically dependent on a man who might be responsible for the end of the world.

<><><>

Teagh looked at the woman lying in his bed and fought off his own fatigue. She was a fucking mess. Hurt. In pain. Stubborn as hell. He had no doubt she couldn’t make it to the tub without his help, but gods forbid she ask him for assistance. Her pride and fierce will just made him want to kiss her into submission. Her rebellious nature would make her surrender so much sweeter.

Assuming he could keep her close long enough to seduce her. He had to. At least that was what he told himself as he entered the bathroom and ran the tub full of steaming water. His body’s enthusiasm for the task held no bearing in this decision. Seduction was the only alternative if he wanted to keep her alive. If she were going to survive the dark, she had to be fully bonded to him. He needed to burrow so deeply into her heart and soul that the Gate’s darkness could never touch her there again.

His heart did a strange little flip when he walked back into his bedroom. She’d managed to shuffle to the edge of the bed, her bare feet poking out from his sheet, her shoulders bare and gleaming at him, the tops of her breasts swelling above the fabric pressed there. But it was her eyes that caught and held him in place like a deer in headlights.

Longing burned in her gaze. Desire. She wanted him, too. This human Timewalker, Gate Key, and newly anointed ruler of the darkness. She was every kind of danger and trouble he could ever have imagined, the most volatile combination of female power possible, the potential cause of world ending disasters…and he didn’t fucking care.

“Come.” He closed the distance and lifted her from where she sat, just as Raiden had carried Mari. He’d seen her longing when she looked at the couple. He could give her that, at least. She didn’t fight him, just nestled her head into the curve of his neck and relaxed into his arms. Her long hair, finally free from her braid, flowed over his biceps like hot silk. Energy flowed between them, heat and power rode his spine like lightning, now that their skin touched. She stopped quivering and rested her forehead just below his ear. Gods, he could hold her like this forever. Not that she’d let him.

It was both heaven and hell, knowing she wanted his body, and knowing that she didn’t trust him enough to tell him the truth, to talk to him about Ajax, or tell him about the dark. She even refused to allow him to witness her pain. Her back was still black where the Triscani claws had cut her, but she didn’t even wince when he lifted her.