Blackthorne (The Brotherhood of the Gate Book 1) (10 page)

The fact Rhi had suffered again because of her gifts shook him but made him more determined than ever to make this time better for her. Blackthorne justified showing up at her gym to himself as a preemptive action. The forces gathering in the town were drawn to her. He should be nearby.

Every instinct Blackthorne had screamed at him to detest her. Even though she had no idea, the girl was responsible for the continuation of his cursed existence. Somewhere, deep in Rhiannon’s subconscious was the same woman who had pitilessly condemned him. He needed to hate her but all he could seem to do was stalk her. And try to control his urge to touch her. Touch her hell—he wanted to break down the door of that picturesque house of hers, and throw her down on the floor to take every agony of the past decades out on her beautiful body. Double-checking the ropes of her harness had been agonizing.

The tiny girl stretched herself as far as possible on her route to the top of the wall. Her hands grasped handholds he wouldn’t have guessed she could reach. Her legs flexed and strained as she pushed herself harder and harder, trying to ignore his presence below.

Ellie Mae appeared like a ghost at his feet and sat directly beside him on her haunches. The only sign the lazy looking dog was agitated was the glimmer from one of her huge canines as she let off a low growl. Blackthorne was no longer alone in his admiration of Rhiannon Brennan.

“She is more beautiful than ever…healthier, if you know what I mean. Sex should be better…she won’t be coughing up blood the whole time.”

He didn’t bother to look at the man who joined him as he continued to watch Rhi scale the wall, choosing the most difficult route she could. The blood began to boil in Blackthorne’s head at the urge to kill the owner of the new voice and he fought to control his emotions. He was shocked the dog did not attack immediately, but the hound had already turned to face the newcomer, crouching between him and the wall, the hair on her ruff standing on end and a rattling growl emanating from her chest.

The other man continued companionably, “And she always had quite the tush…didn’t she, brother? I wonder if she’s as bitchy as she was before.”

Blackthorne kept his eyes on the girl. It took every bit of his self-control not to rip the other man apart with his bare hands. His vision started to cloud with bloodlust. Killing him would be so easy. But then the last one hundred and twenty years would have been for nothing. “Find the skull yet, Manius? Shouldn’t you be out beating the bushes with your putrid little creatures? Oh…of course it won’t come to you, will it? Only to her. Does that inspire your confidence that you are its true master?”

Manius swerved into Blackthorne’s line of sight, purposefully trying to block his view of Rhi. But he wasn’t as tall as his brother so Blackthorne just looked over his head. Manius tried to stand cloaked in his arrogance and beauty but to his brother, the man’s curly black hair, elegant charcoal gray slacks, black turtleneck and black leather jacket were just not carrying it off. He would never command the power Blackthorne did…he did not have the discipline for it, although to Manius, his lack of power was due to some slight by those they had both once served and not his own doing. That single fact forever burned the younger man to the tattered remnants of his soul. His handsome features took in Blackthorne’s own tanned, worn face and the scarred hands that still firmly guided the rope.

“You are looking a little leathery, my friend. Have the years not been kind?” he whispered.

Not losing his hard won composure, Blackthorne grinned at Manius. The years had given him patience, up to a point.

“Some of us haven’t spent the last few decades in a pine box. It looks like that process keeps the skin silky and smooth.”

Fury flamed in the other man’s eyes. Both were tensed, as tightly wound as steel springs, and yet both men knew they’d do nothing. Manius wasn’t ready to start a war and Blackthorne didn’t want to take out the entire street by picking a petty fight with Manius. If the oracles were right, Manius needed to be present for the end of this war…whichever one of them won. Unfortunately, Manius knew this.

“Give this up, Brother. What do these people mean to you now? I’ve been catching up on current events…would the world be much different if I held sway in a few places of my choosing? Children starve in the street—people fly planes into buildings in the
name of your Lord.
Where’s He been lately? What difference is it to you, who He has deserted?” His brother leaned closer, hiding the anger Blackthorne knew was raging through his veins. The older brother carefully maintained the tension on the rope that supported Rhi, who was climbing, oblivious, above them. Manius’ voice was as silky as Satan himself when he offered up the beautiful lie. “I can give you the girl, you know. You can go and live the life you’ve been denied. Brother dear, what did our last fight get you other than damnation?”

“It got me the chance to entomb you in the ground for a hundred plus years. That was a perk.”

Manius waved his hand at the wall, insolently holding his brother’s gaze as the rope that could hold a compact car easily broke directly above Rhi’s head.

Blackthorne just as casually waved his own hand and Rhi, who had been in the midst of a long stretch for the next handhold when she felt the rope give way, became motionless in the air, as was the entire room. Unlike the rest of the room, for whom all thought stopped the moment they were frozen, Rhi’s face betrayed the realization of where she was and the impossibility of her situation. Ellie Mae was also unaffected by the spell and got up to stand between the brothers, examining Manius’ shoes in an unconcerned manner. A trail of slobber marred the shiny leather of the shoes and the front of his immaculate slacks immediately.

Blackthorne snorted as his brother backed away from the dog and tried to wipe the side of his shoe on the carpet. He could swear the bloodhound was grinning.

“Why do you keep trying to hurt her when you know you can’t touch
it
unless she digs it up for you?”

Manius responded in the stillness, one regal eyebrow raised. “Because I can. And every time I make a play for her, I get to watch you scramble to save her. It’s amusing.” With a vicious grin, Manius turned his back on his brother and walked away, wiping at his trousers and muttering. “Damned animal.”

Blackthorne stepped forward and held out his arms, chanting softly. Rhi flew again through the air to land in his arms. They crashed to the ground, winded but unhurt. He rose to his feet again to watch his brother walk out the door and step into the waiting Hummer at the curb.

Rhi sprawled for a moment at Blackthorne’s feet on the padded carpet. Ellie Mae anxiously nuzzled her face and hair.

Rhi stared at the frayed ends of the rope that had been a brand new, unblemished climbing rope not ten minutes before when she had checked it. The essence of climbing for Rhi was the silence and tranquility of the act. All thoughts, worries, fantasies, and conversations left her mind during a climb. All she could think of was the next move. All that she could hear was her own heart beating in exhilaration. There could be a Greek wedding being held beneath her, she wouldn’t hear it while she was climbing. That peace was now lost.

She rolled her eyes. Why was she surprised? Of course a virtually unbreakable rope broke when Blackthorne was holding the other end of it. As for the floating in the air thing?

Definite hallucination. I need to cut down on the coffee.
She ignored his outreached hand, preferring to stand on her own.

Nate ran over from the desk, babbling. The other patrons of the gym joined him to gather in a circle and babble with him. Rhi stood in the center, facing Blackthorne, her face turned upward, her eyes challenging the inscrutable look on his face. She hadn’t said a word.

He spoke first, his now ice-cold eyes mocking. “I assume you think I had something to do with this.”

“I assume I’m better off if I keep my distance from you and whatever kind of mojo’s following you around. Excuse me.” Rhi turned to gather her gear into her bag. She spoke loudly to the small group gathered. “Thank you all so much for observing our ‘safety’ demonstration. Please consult Nate here about the chances of that happening to you.”

She gathered everything, refusing all offers of help. Once her gym bag was stuffed full, she made her way to the door. Ellie Mae cast Blackthorne another mournful look before lumbering over to stand by Rhi.

Blackthorne stood nearby throughout her preparation, observing. To her surprise he hadn’t left mysteriously as was his wont.

She threw her bag over one shoulder and addressed him once more. “Well, I think this makes us even.”

He had lost the arrogant angry look that dominated his features their every moment together and instead looked at her sadly. “Even for what?”

“You seem to be angry with me every time we meet. Now I can blame you for these ‘accidents’ every time I meet you.”

His strong features held emotions that froze her for a moment…an image she had seen before in a dream of the past. “My anger makes all the sense in the world, Raven.”

“My name’s Rhi. As you have already known from the first moment we met.” She walked out the door and started to cross the street with her dog to the Blazer.

His voice stopped her. “You don’t have any questions about what happened here?”

Rhi felt unreasonably calm as she answered. She didn’t turn. “Would you tell me the truth? I dream about you for years, hallucinate an invisible killer and now I’m Peter Pan? I’m going to opt for willful ignorance on this one, if it’s all the same to you, big guy.”

She drove away into the dark, the frayed rope on the seat beside her.

»»•««

In the sanctuary of the warm SUV with her dog, Rhi sat for a moment trembling. There was no mistake. She’d been floating in mid-air. No strings attached.
Purge it.
The problem with that course of action was the fact she had no problem accepting the events of the morning. She knew floating wasn’t only possible…but something she was capable of herself.

“Time to practice the womanly art of denial,” she told herself firmly and started the truck. “And
you
, dog.” She addressed Ellie Mae directly who once again stood at attention in the cargo space of the truck, “You were about as useful as a
cat
back there.”

Ellie Mae tossed her head reproachfully at the insult before turning to press her nose against the window to observe the slowly lightening landscape.

Rhi drove home and found Bobby Wayne waiting on her porch. He informed her that he would like to take her dog on yet another hunting trip. She managed a grin, happy in the knowledge that at least her dog was having a good and
normal
day as the pair made their way into the woods.

“Don’t bring home anything you guys catch,” she yelled as they faded from sight.

Upon opening her door, she decided to she needed to think of something besides Blackthorne. She needed…to get her chores done and to get ready to meet Houston and Pam for a late dinner after her shift ended. She needed to steam her black wool pantsuit for Marie’s funeral. She needed…a shot of blue agave tequila…but would settle for a cup of Earl Grey.

Later that afternoon, Rhi finally completed the list of chores for the day. It had been easy to bury her mind in cleaning and unpacking after the morning’s events. The stack of books in the box and the papers on her makeshift desk was calling to her. The fascination she felt for the history of her adopted mountain town would be a welcome diversion.

She sat in the still beauty of the day, reading history and sipping a Yoo-hoo. Rosemary Clooney softly crooned in the background as Rhi examined the second book that had caught her eye in Da Vinci’s Bookstore. The first book in the pile, the Bible with the skull inside the cover, she had squirreled away without a second glance inside. It was safely stowed in a zip lock bag and duct taped inside the safest place at her home. The same something that told her the Bible should make her uncomfortable also informed her that it should be hidden and forgotten.

The book in her lap was
Colorado Treasure
, a history of the lost treasures of the state. It seemed that there was a legend about buried treasure in every town and hamlet in the mountains. A heading on page 120, noting that the next chapter would be called
The Gates of Hell,
caught her eye. Hair rose slightly on the back of her neck as she studied the pages in fascination. The tale was strangely familiar, unlike the rest of the cliché treasure hunter tales that filled the book.

…During the 1560s, a contingent of Spanish soldier explorers wandered the Southern Rockies, searching for the eternal Spanish narcotic, gold, to mine, smelt, and ship back home to Spain to finance the country’s further exploitation of the New World and various wars in Europe. In what is now assumed to be the Pike’s Peak region, they stumbled upon what appeared to be a well-hidden ancient complex of caves. And much to the explorers’ surprise…the labyrinth was man made. Against the advice of their Indian guide, who claimed the area was under a terrible curse,

“Aren’t all mysterious caves possibly holding treasure cursed?” Rhi said aloud, smiling as she turned the page.

…they eagerly searched the caves, keeping to the foolish belief of all Spaniard Explorers that every member of the indigenous tribes of the new world did nothing but dig up and play with gold. The Spaniards wandered in circles for days, in and out of the complex. Finally, they were faced with the disappointing fact the caves held nothing for their plundering hearts to gloat over. They had begun the trip back to the surface when several of their group managed to move aside a large stone toward the back of one tunnel. A great golden gate was revealed, inlaid with ebony and rubies skillfully crafted to resemble giant flames. The floor of the cave surrounding the gate had various artifacts, treasure, and human bones scattered among the rubble of what looked to be a great battle. The Spaniards went wild with joy at their discovery and were busy in the torchlight counting their plunder and brainstorming about how to pry the jewels out of the portal or remove the gates completely to carry off when a stranger approached, rising out of the darkness surrounding their campfires at the front of the cave.