Black Gate: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 4 (31 page)

Robbie’s body became black as stone, the color poured into him and left Kate empty, like a pitcher full of water tipped to pour its offering into an empty vessel. Teagh’s eyes ached and filled with moisture as he watched the female he loved return to him. He knew Kate might protest Robbie’s decision, but the choice was made and the goddess had accepted.

When Kate’s hair was once again the color of dark coffee and her skin the creamy caramel he loved to taste, she staggered backward and would have fallen.

Nicodemus was there to catch her.

Oh, hell no.

“Kate.” He walked toward her and she raised shining brown eyes to meet his gaze. They were filled with unshed tears.

He opened his arms and she ran into them. He ignored Nicodemus, Robbie, and everyone else in the room, elated to be holding the one thing that mattered to him.

“Gods, I love you, woman.” The words poured out of him and he didn’t care who heard them.

She squeezed him tightly and buried her face in his neck. “I love you, too. I didn’t think I was coming back.”

“You always had a choice.” Robbie’s youthful voice was richer now, deeper than he’d ever heard it. There was power in the kid’s words.

Kate pulled back and turned in his arms to face her young cousin. “Thank you, Robbie. I know I had a choice. You did, too. But I couldn’t leave her alone in the dark.”

“I know. And so does she.”

“Where is Celestina?” Bran’s question made Mari clear her throat, but it was Raiden that answered.

“The Seer took a phone call and left us to deal with an emergency.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Bran’s eyes shot full of fury, whether directed at Raiden or the Seer, Teagh couldn’t tell.

Kate spoke up. “It’s true. She had a cell phone in her pocket. It went off and she talked to someone named Jacob about a fire that she wanted to be on the news. She was talking about tracking someone back to his lair.”

“Gods be damned.” Bran opened a portal and disappeared. Teagh didn’t blame him. He’d catch up to his brother later. If it were Kate out chasing danger…

He looked down at her smiling face and counted himself a thousand times blessed for having her back in his arms. The Mark on his side filled him with heat and comfort where her soft curves were pressed to him.

Movement caught his eyes and Teagh tore his gaze from Kate’s beautiful face to find Robbie a few steps away. Why wasn’t he solid black, as Kate had been? The power in Teagh’s bones stirred, and Teagh knew the goddess had heard his question.

Robbie answered it. “I am her son, not her daughter. She couldn’t take my form, as she could Kate’s. But she’s in there. Trust me. She won’t be alone in the dark again.”

Raiden stepped forward, looking healthy as a horse, a huge grin on his face. “I haven’t felt this good in, well, ever. Now what?”

Teagh studied the prince. He did, indeed look strong. His aura glowed with a shocking amount of power. “I don’t know. I think we need to take Robbie to see Ajax as soon as possible. See if the goddess can help him, too.”

Robbie nodded. “Okay. She agrees.”

Kate stiffened in his arms. “I’m not trying to be a killjoy or anything, but where’s Droghan? He was in the hallway when Mari went down and Raiden tried to ash half the Triscani army by himself.”

Raiden stuck his head out the door and called out to them over his shoulder. “Gone. But there are humans arriving. Lots of them. Helicopters and trucks with soldiers are entering the grounds. We must leave, immediately.”

Hands on her hips, Mari addressed the elephant in the room. “What are we supposed to do about them?”

Nicodemus and his new brothers had gathered in the center of the room and stood mutely listening to their conversation. They still looked lost and wary, except Nicodemus. That smug male was staring at Kate with something akin to awe. Teagh wondered just how long it had been since any of these males had been sane.

“We have nowhere to go, my lady.” Nicodemus spoke to Katherine, obviously still the leader of the group. “We have not walked the Earth in a very long time.”

Kate looked at Robbie. “And we can’t leave the Gate here. She has to move it, Robbie. Or they’ll just start another round of D.N.A. testing until Droghan finds someone else to open it for him.”

“No he won’t.” Robbie looked a bit sad, but resigned. “He doesn’t have time.”

Teagh held Kate back when she tried to leave his arms and go to her young cousin. He wasn’t ready for that yet. She flashed him a quick smile of understanding and settled back into his side. “What do you mean, he won’t have time? All he has to do is deliver a few more syringes to the Casper Project, or hell, I don’t know, kidnap some idiot off the street and inject him. It won’t take that long.”

“That’s still too long, Kate. It’s too late for Droghan to try to get control of the Gate. Ask these guys. They know.” Robbie nodded his chin toward Nicodemus and the others.

Raiden returned to the room and grabbed Mari’s hand. “He’s right, Kate. Droghan doesn’t have that much time. Whatever plans we have for Ajax, we’d better get moving. We’ve only got until the new moon.”

Kate stiffened in his arms and whispered, “‘
New moon, new beginning.’”

Raiden nodded. “Exactly. She told you, too.”

Teagh drew Kate’s scent into his lungs and asked the one question he really didn’t want to ask. “What happens at the new moon?”

Bran answered this time. “The Crux. The final battle. The Gates wide open. Triscani pouring from the portals like a flood of black water.”

Kate leaned her forehead against his cheek and explained. “She thinks of the Triscani as her lost sons. She loves them.”

Teagh didn’t like this one bit. “Doesn’t mean she should set them loose on the rest of us.”

Nicodemus spoke and they all turned to face him. “That is not Her divine intent. She means to save those that can be saved, as we were, and reclaim the rest.”

Mari looked at the ancient Immortal warrior with doubt in her eyes. “Reclaim them? How can she do that when they’re all going to be running around gobbling up humans and creating hell on earth? Sounds like a stupid plan to me.” She glanced at Robbie. “No offense.”

“So, Droghan isn’t trying to open the Gates and free all of the Triscani?” Teagh’s head was going to explode. Hundreds of years of assumption and teaching were at war with every word Robbie and Nicodemus had spoken.

“No. Droghan wants to keep them for himself. They are his servants and private army. He is the firstborn son of Sora and king of a false kingdom, a kingdom he created to trap the Triscani and hold them prisoner. The Triscani threat gives him immense power, both on Itara and with Earth’s triads. He does not wish to give that up.” The other reclaimed Immortals nodded in agreement of Nicodemus’s words.

“Then why try to control the Gate at all?” Katherine asked. “Why take such a huge risk? Why start the Casper Project?”

“Droghan is a forbidden son, not a Gate key. He can only move three or four of us at a time. He wanted to be able to move more. And he interacts with humans for the same reason the Triads do, to control them, to use them as a threat against the other Immortals here. The Triads are strong, my lady, but none of them want an all-out war with humans. They prefer to operate in the shadows and pick off troublesome humans one at a time, slaughter them like sheep.”

A new thought struck Teagh. “Why were there so many of you here?”

“To hunt the prince, Aron. He escaped from his prison cell yesterday.”

Kate gasped and Teagh smiled. So, his Mate’s visit to the Triscani dungeons had resulted in the prince’s escape. “And he’s not lost? Not turned into one of you?”

Nicodemus shook his head, slowly, a gleam of respect in his eyes. “No. The prince proved impossible to break, even for the false king. But he is close to turning. Droghan believed he would make a powerful Hunter. And he would. None but his brother, Ajax, would be able to defeat him. Droghan very much wants his favorite pet returned to his cage.”

“He was wrong.” Raiden pulled Mari’s hand to his lips and kissed her fingertips. “Aron was prophesied to be a King, three babes, three kingdoms. One to rule the Dark, one to rule on Earth, and one to rule Itara.”

“Three babies? Triplets? Then where is the third brother?” Mari asked.

“Triplets, yes, but not three boys. Their sister, Aria, was the first born and heir to the throne of Itara.”

“Then where’s their sister?” Kate wanted to know.

“Dead. Murdered at nineteen by her Marked Mate for defying him.” Raiden looked at the shocked faces around him. “What? It’s the truth. Happened about a year before the Crux, so she’s already dead. Believe me, I thought about trying to get word to the Itarans. I already did the math. It was a huge scandal on Itara. The Seven Circles wanted him executed, but the reigning Queen refused. He was her nephew by marriage. So, the bastard got off easy and they put him in the chute.”

“What’s the chute?” Mari looked as confused as Kate did. Teagh took pity on them and answered.

“The Immortals whose crimes don’t warrant death by Angel’s Fire are still punished. ‘The chute’ is a transdimensional portal that sends them to another world to live out their lives in exile.”

“Where does the portal send them?”

“Here. Those that survive join one of the existing Immortal Triads on Earth. Each Triad rules over a territory. They are vicious and unforgiving, and they have their fingers in everything, from politics to banking.”

“You’re telling me that the Earth is actually ruled by criminals from Itara? Like an Immortal mafia family? Or drug lords fighting over territory?” Kate shuddered and leaned into him. “God. Never mind. Sorry I asked. I don’t want to know that right now. We can deal with later. We need to find Aron. If he’s anything even close to what Ajax is now, he’s going to need his own meeting with Robbie. He’s probably half insane already.”

“God. Can someone please cue the sad, creepy music?” Mari threw her arms up in the air and Raiden coughed, discreetly, into his hand. “The stench from all this ash is making me sick. We’re walking on the dead and I can’t save them. We’ve got more human soldiers coming. We need to get out of here. If I keep thinking about how sad it all is, I’m going to start crying. And I hate crying.”

“Sorry.” Kate looked up into Teagh’s eyes. “Where should we go?”

“Home.”

“With everyone?”

“Yes. They are Darkwalkers now, and I am the Darkwalker Lord, at least until we can find Aron. We will need to set them up with homes and identities of their own.”

Robbie hopped up onto the obsidian platform where it had all started and opened a portal big enough for a truck to drive through. “One portal to Teagh’s living room, coming right up.”

Raiden and Mari stepped through first, followed by the five new Darkwalkers. Teagh took advantage of their first ounce of pseudo-privacy to pull Kate to him and kiss her with every ounce of love and relief he had in him.

She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him back with all the fire and love he’d ever dreamed of receiving from a Marked Mate of his own. She was his personal miracle, and he was never letting her out of his sight again.

Robbie cleared his throat and Kate pulled away from him, laughing. “Sorry, Robbie.”

“No worries, Katie. Just get moving. The Casper boys’ reinforcements are one floor up and coming fast.”

Kate entwined their fingers and pulled Teagh toward the Gate. She stopped on the threshold and looked around the room, studied the ash on the floor with sadness in her eyes.

“Most of them were really decent guys.”

Robbie reassured her. “They aren’t really gone. You know that. Now that you’ve had Her in your system, you have to know that.”

Kate grinned, but she was still sad. “I know. But their families are still going to miss them.”

Teagh tugged her back into the crook of his arm and wrapped his arm around her waist. “Let’s go home.”

“Go on. I’ll see you guys later.” Robbie hopped down and waved.

“You aren’t coming with us?” Kate looked appalled until Robbie explained.

“Naw. Frank’s going to be here in about two minutes with the rest of the guys. I’m going to lie here and play dead until they call in the medics. I want to stick around here and see what happens.”

Kate smiled. “Just try to behave. Okay?”

Robbie’s grin was infectious, and Teagh smiled. “I’ll be as good as they are.”

Kate was still smiling when he pulled her through the portal and took her home.

<><><>

Celestina blinked slowly, trying to orient herself in absolute darkness. It was cold and damp, the smell of earth and the ocean tickled her nose. She focused her mind and ignored the sudden thumping of her heart as her hand glowed brightly enough to show her what she’d seen in her vision.

Ajax. He lay unconscious in the stasis pod, as she’d known he would be. She stood deep below the ocean’s surface in a cave and studied the face she hadn’t seen in centuries.

Tears ran down her cheeks as she opened the stasis capsule to look at his once handsome face. His skin was gray, tinged with dark power and the taste of evil Celestina knew flowed in his veins. She was furious with Bran and Teagh for keeping this from her, but she understood their reasoning. Ajax was more than a pawn on the chess board, he was the King. If he fell, they were all lost.