Irresistible (Delroi Prophecy) (10 page)

“I
didn’t want to drag you into this.”

“I’m
into this up to my neck. You trust me or you don’t.”

“That
goes both ways, baby.”

She decided to kill him slowly.

“Do you have anything else?” she asked
Marina.

“No.” She sighed. “I really wish I did.”

“You and me both, sugar,” she muttered.

“What
was stolen?”
she asked Kaje.

He hesitated so long she thought he
wouldn’t answer.
“A cloaking device. I’ll
tell you everything when we get home.”

Right. She’d probably have to beat it
out of him. She might even enjoy it. His tone was smooth and sultry when he
responded.

“Is
that right? We’ll see, baby.”

She shivered at the promise in his
voice, the images that tumbled from his mind to hers. Before she could figure
out how to respond, a feeling of danger came over her. Trying to pinpoint the
source, she let her senses expand. They were the only people in the building
and the local women were not a threat.

“What is it?” Zola asked softly.

She shook her head, allowing her mind to
expand farther, outside the walls. She felt Janice doing the same. Menace,
hate, fury. The rebels planning an ambush. But all was quiet, neither Vidar or
Sergei had raised an alarm.

“Vidar?
What do you see out there?”

“Nothing,
but something isn’t right,”
he said.
“Kaje is on the way. Stay inside until he gets here.”

“Parker?”

“Rebels, and they’re staying out of
sight. Kaje is bringing more warriors.”

“The
theft Marina mentioned was apparently cloaking technology,”
she said to Zola.

“Why
is that a big deal? They must have that already. We do to some extent.”

“I
don’t know yet.”

But she intended to find out. If she was
going to stay on Delroi she needed to be informed and involved. And if she was
going to have a relationship with Kaje it had to be about more than great sex.

The sound of gunfire breached the temple
walls. Adrenalin surged through her.
Finally.
Some action. She smiled, was sure it was tight and mean.

“Time to get to work. You three,” she
said to Marina, her daughter, and Erika. “Stay here until it calms down.”

Marina stepped forward, expression determined
and hard. “I
am
a priestess. I’m
trained.”

She hadn’t shut down her mental
connection with Kaje.
“Don’t let her
leave, Parker. Her clan is not accustomed to this kind of political
maneuvering. She may have been trained a priestess, but she’s been here at
least twenty years. She isn’t ready for this.”

She agreed with Kaje. She liked Marina,
but she didn’t know her and nothing about the other woman made Parker think she
could wade into a battle successfully. Marina didn’t see it her way, though.
Parker and Janice tried to intercept her as she stalked back to the entrance.
They didn’t react fast enough. They didn’t need to because everyone was left
gaping at Zola, who somehow crossed a hundred feet of space in the blink of an
eye.

“Teleportation isn’t possible,” Janice
said, disbelief heavy in her voice. Parker agreed. But if it wasn’t, what the
hell had Zola just done?

“It’s not teleporting,” Zola said. “It’s…movement
accelerated by my telekinesis.”

Marina recovered first. “We need to get
out there,” she said as gun fire filled the air again. She was angry, unsettled.
It made Parker question her motives.

“Kaje and Falkor have soldiers coming.
No doubt, you’re mate does too.”

“Too late. This is our chance to catch
them. The rebels have never dared approach our clan before. To do so now…” She
trailed off, but Janice continued for her.

“They’re growing very confident, aren’t
they?” Janice said softly.

That really bothered Parker. She turned
to Janice. “They have someone in all the clans. Especially in the south.”

It seemed so obvious. Well, it was. They
all knew it. But there seemed to be a new level of cooperation and focus now.
And if members of Tel were helping the rebels…

“This is bad,” Zola muttered.

Parker had to agree, especially when the
building rocked with a nearby explosion.

“Get
out of there, Parker. They’re firing at the building and using stealth
technology, so we can’t locate them,”
Vidar said,
frustration raw in his voice.

She’d studied the plans for this temple
earlier and led the others deeper inside.

“There are several other exits,” she
told them.

“Vidar,
is the right side of the building clear?”

“As
far as we know. I’ll meet you over there.”

“Can you help me isolate a target?” she
asked Janice. The vehicles the rebels were using might be concealed, but
hopefully their minds weren’t. She knew she could do it herself, though. She
didn’t need any help if she let go. But she’d held back so long. She’d hid her
true strength for so long because she was afraid of it. In raw strength she’d
never met her equal. No one should have that much power, especially unchecked.

Janice nodded. “I think so. Sergei has
narrowed the area down.”

“Let’s do it then,” Parker said, ignoring
her misgivings and turning a hard eye on the local women. “Stay with Vidar until
we get this under control.”

She could see Marina wanted to argue but
she reluctantly agreed. Parker opened the door and stepped into a narrow alley.
She signaled the others to wait while she edged closer to the square, closer to
the gunfire, and allowed her senses to expand. She reached the entrance and
squatted down, drawing her weapon as her eyes and mind searched the area. Vidar
moved so quietly she jumped when he spoke from just behind her.

“Anything?” he asked.

“Shit,” she muttered. “Warn me next time.”

“There better not be a next time,” he
said harshly.

He was worried about her but she didn’t
have time to calm his nerves. Janice and Zola joined them.

“Sergei thinks they’re on the north side
of the square right now. Some on the ground and some in the air.”

She still hadn’t really expanded her
psychic eye, relying on her normal senses. Other than the intermittent sounds
of weapons, it was eerily quiet. What the hell? The stolen tech not only
concealed the vehicle--whatever it was--from sight but also sound? Was that
possible? But when she let her senses spread out she felt minds she couldn’t
see.

“I sense them. I can’t see them, but I
know where they are,” she said with a cross of sarcasm and curiosity and not a
small bit of fury. “Does this technology protect them from direct fire?”

“I have no idea,” Vidar said.

Janice was quiet a moment. “Falkor
doesn’t think so. He wants us to wait until he gets here before we test that
theory, though.”

She would have, but she felt a mind
brush hers then return to strike. She swayed and struck back, arrowing her
power along a narrow thought straight to a mind that felt too damned familiar.
Earthling. The same man who had captured her and Kareena. She wanted his blood.
She wanted him to suffer as much as she had.

“Kaje?”

“Almost
there, baby. Stay out of sight.”

The Tel operative attacked again, but
she was ready for him. He couldn’t touch her in terms of raw strength so he’d
try to wear her down with repeated strikes. She could end him, but she needed
information and he knew it.

“I
may not have that option. There’s a Tel spy here.”

Kaje was silent a long moment and when
he responded his voice was full of rage and fear.
“Do not endanger yourself, woman.”

She had no intention of getting captured
or hurt, but she sure as hell wasn’t letting him go and Kaje’s lack of
confidence in her bit hard. She closed down the mental connection and pushed
him out of her thoughts. That was when she noticed the strain around Janice’s
eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s more than one. They’re attacking
me and Sergei too,” she said.

“Zola? You okay?”

She looked worried. “They’re leaving me
alone.”

“That can’t be good,” Janice drawled.

“No. It can’t,” Zola agreed. She met
Parker’s gaze. “We can’t let them go.”

“We aren’t.”

Hell no. She was ready to be done this
crap. She pulled on more of her power, let her senses expand to find the
others, and was rocked back on her heels when another explosion thudded through
the square. Time slowed to a crawl as she watched the small flyer Kaje and
Falkor were in turn into a ball of fire. The enemy telepaths renewed their
attack. It was vicious, like razored talons slicing into her skull. But that
wasn’t the pain that made her fall to her knees. Agony crushed her chest. Kaje.
The bastards had killed Kaje. She forced air into her lungs, staggered to her
feet, and full of rage and vengeance, took a step forward. Zola grabbed her
wrist.

“Together,” the other woman said. “You
get the telepaths and I’ll deflect their fire.”

She saw the assassin in Zola’s eyes,
knew she’d buried her fury deep, but Parker couldn’t do the same. Her heart was
an open angry wound and she wanted vengeance. She wanted blood. Zola would help
her get it. She nodded, merged her mind with Zola’s and then unleashed her
power.

She found the telepath first. She
couldn’t see where he was but she sensed him. That was enough. She seized his mind,
took control of him and forced him to turn on his companions. Once they were
dead, she made him turn off the cloaking device and stripped away the last of his
mind. Then the other Tel members attacked, both with laser fire and mentally.
She was beyond caring, possibly beyond thought. She strolled out into the
square, Zola at her side easily countering the weapons’ fire, while Parker
seized the closest telepathic mind. She didn’t know if he was friend or enemy
and didn’t fucking care. She blasted so much power at him his brain began to
leak through his ears. The rest fled in a cloaked shuttle, but she had the feel
of their minds. She could track them.

“Parker.” Sergei’s voice was whip hard. “You
have to leash your power.”

Hell no. Ignoring the blood trickling
from her nose, she turned to Vidar. “I can’t feel Kaje in my mind anymore.”

Who knew that would hurt so fucking bad?

“They put him in a mobile regeneration
tank. We’ll take him home to recover.”

She couldn’t have heard him right. She’d
seen
the explosion. “He’s alive?”

“They both are. They jumped out just
before the missile hit.”

She didn’t believe him, but why would he
lie? She looked at the people around her, saw fear in the eyes of the Delroi
warriors. Of course, they were afraid she’d turn her rage on them. And she was
tempted. The green zone was supposed to be safe. Instead it had cost Kaje his
life. Janice stepped forward and Parker was surprised that she didn’t see the
same rage reflected in her eyes.

“They
are alive. Falkor and Kaje.”

“I
can’t touch his mind.”

“He’s
unconscious. Injured very badly. You have to stay strong for him.”

“I
don’t believe you.”

Janice spoke aloud. “I’ll take you to
him.”

Could she trust her? Or was it just a
trick to get her out of the crowd and eliminate the threat she posed? Parker
was still drunk on power. In her present state she couldn’t be defeated, even
if Janice and Sergei combined their strength. But she knew it wouldn’t last.
She was already draining her reserves, would crash soon, and hard. She’d be
vulnerable then. Zola moved to her side, Vidar the other.

“We won’t let anything happen, sister,”
he said softly though the challenge was clear to those around them.

“Let’s go then.”

She had to know the truth about Kaje and
plot her revenge accordingly. When they reached the shuttle pad, Janice and
Sergei peeled off and entered another vehicle.

“Don’t worry,” Vidar said. “They’re
taking Falkor to their healer in Saber City. We’re taking Kaje to Jarek.”

Honesty rang in his voice, but she was
still suspicious. Despite her misgivings, she followed a Keep warrior into the
shuttle and through a door she hadn’t paid attention to on the flight to the
Green Zone. Inside the small room was a tall glass fronted box filled with a
pale green gooey looking substance. Kaje was in it. She could see his chest
rise and fall though with all the wounds on his body she couldn’t image how
he’d survived.

“How is he breathing?”

“The gel. You’d have to ask Jarek the
specifics. Most warriors avoid those tanks at any cost. Kaje didn’t get to make
the choice.”