KICK ASS: A Boxed Set (35 page)

But Rafe’s sister was another matter. Her name, shouted again by her pursuer, rent the air. Sarina! Only hours ago, he and his brothers had read her hastily scribbled note, announcing her elopement with the Gypsy’s patron, Lord Rogan. Coupled with the threat of annihilation by a paid and ruthless army that had already crossed the Hanoverian borders into Valoren and would reach Umgeben by daybreak, Rafe and his father’s British-born sons had ridden to the village to find their sister and evacuate the Romani.

But upon arriving in the village, they’d found no one—until now. Sarina was running away from the man she’d so childishly professed to love. Running for her life.

Rafe opened his mouth to call to his sister, but she had disappeared into the trees only seconds before Rogan. The sound of their retreat was instantly swallowed. Even in skirts, Sarina was incredibly fast. Unfortunately, with cursed magic at his greedy disposal, Rogan moved with swiftness not unlike the wind.

Rafe leaped to the ground and shouted for his brothers, who, like him, were searching the village. While the lightning and thunder of the storm they’d ridden through had retreated, time was still their enemy. Why was Sarina running from the man she claimed she loved? No matter how Rafe and Irika had railed against her affection for the stranger, Sarina had defended him. Loved him. She’d abandoned her family to be with him. And now she ran from him as if her life depended on it?

At least Rafe had found her. No matter how many chase games he’d lost to her as a child, this time he would catch up. This time, he would snatch her away from the man who had spawned this invasion by defying the British king.

Rafe sprinted toward the forest. Over his shoulder he announced his position to the emptiness, hoping Aiden, Damon or another of his other brothers would hear him and pursue. Rafe suspected he could rip the blackguard Rogan apart with his own hands, but if the sorcerer sensed his approach, Rafe would be at a disadvantage. Rafe’s magic flowed from a source of tranquility and stillness. Rogan’s power flew forth from hate and rage.

Still, Rafe knew these woods as well as any Gypsy in the colony, even if he had been sired in the
gadje
manor on the other side of the ridge. Rogan rarely ventured farther than the gilded steps of his grand castle.

Once within the copse of trees, Rafe stopped, closed his eyes and concentrated on sound. Even before his ears registered the whispers of the spirits that roamed these woods—spirits he’d communed with since childhood—he heard not only the stomp and crunch of rapid footfalls, but Rogan’s cries for Sarina to stop. His anguish was overwhelming, knocking Rafe in the gut like a punch. Why did the
kalo
rat want her so badly? Wisely, his sister did not reply, though he could practically hear her panting as she ran farther, faster, and with desperation to reach some safe haven.

Rafe forced himself to move with deliberation and stealth. The element of surprise might be the difference between Sarina’s life and Rogan’s death. After sliding around a massive oak, Rafe leaped across the twist of roots knotting the ground beneath a blanket of decaying leaves, then ducked through a snarl of prickly bushes.

He knew Sarina had gone this way—he could smell her perfume, feel her fear in the wind. They were not twins, but, born of the same mother and sharing the same Gypsy blood, Rafe and Sarina knew each other’s spirits. They were both wild and unpredictable. Passionate and stubborn. Growing up in a British household, they’d been allowed only a limited number of hours per day in the village. They both hungered for the traditions and the magic of their mother’s people. But Rafe had married the
Chovihano
’s daughter and become part of the tribe, while Sarina remained an outsider—which had sent Sarina into the arms of the
o Beng
himself.

“Sarina!”

He could not keep silent any longer. He shouted her name over and over, suddenly aware that the echoes of footfalls no longer crackled through the forest. He considered turning back, finding his brothers now that they finally knew the direction she’d gone, but there was no time. Rogan was on her heels. He’d catch her. Rafe had no idea what the wizard would do once he had her in his grasp.

But after a half hour of searching without hearing another human sound in the dense wood, he was forced to turn back. He circled around to the entrance to the village, his lungs burning from running and climbing, then staggered to the large gates Rogan had been building, but had not yet completed, to protect the colony.

While he pulled in gulps of air, Rafe glanced beyond the tall fence posts to the castle at the other end of the village. Rogan had finished the ostentatious structure, and yet the Romani remained without gates, unprotected and vulnerable. Rafe looked up at the sky. From the position of the moon and stars, finally visible through the swiftly moving clouds, he estimated the dawn would come in less than four hours.

If the army discovered the caves, the Romani would die trapped inside walls, torture for a people who traveled the earth. Confining them to a colony in a deserted corner of Germany had been cruel enough, but at least the first King George had allowed the Gypsies to live. His greedy son, however, had not appreciated Lord Rogan’s arrogance. The fool had taken control of the village and declared Valoren free from British rule—which explained the march of the mercenary army toward Rafe’s home.

Rafe had started through the gates when a flash of red caught his eye. Carved into a stone marker embedded in the fence posts was Rogan’s insignia—a hawk with a fire opal for an eye. With facets more brilliant than a ruby, and decidedly more uncommon, the gem was the sorcerer’s favorite amulet. He had them crafted into his most prized possessions, from the brooch he wore boldly on his cloak to the hilt of his favorite sword. It signified the wealth he’d used to achieve his reign over Rafe’s people.

Unable to stand the insult of the usurper’s signature, Rafe drew his knife, intent on gouging the cursed gem out of the gatepost. With a battle cry from deep in his soul, he stabbed into the marker, connecting with the opal.

Pain shot through Rafe’s arms, then centered on his heart. A blast of heat fired his insides, and before he could scream in shock or agony, the world went black. His legs buckled. He collapsed, but the ground never came.

Only nothingness…

One

“Don’t touch it, Mariah.”

With dexterous skill bred from close shaves all over the globe, Mariah Hunter pocketed the stone she’d spent the last half hour digging out of the craggy earth and traded it for the Walther P38 pistol she’d bought in a Berlin pawnshop. The warning had come from the last person she’d wanted to catch up to her. And considering the dangerous and desperate people who were currently on her trail even in the middle of this godforsaken wasteland, that was saying a lot.

Bending her knee to cover the gaping hole in the ground, Mariah stood, then slid her boot directly over the spot where she’d found the stone. Ben Rousseau couldn’t see that his warning had come too late. She hadn’t had a chance to notice anything about the rock other than a glossy red shine in one corner and the odd markings carved along the edges, but the find must be valuable or Ben wouldn’t have taken a chance with a confrontation.

He held his open palms at shoulder height. “I’m not armed.”

“Then you’re an idiot,” Mariah replied, flipping off the Walther’s safety. She spared a split-second glance at the thick trees directly behind him. The massive pines curved around the tight, oblong clearing. She saw no sign that Ben had brought anyone with him, but she couldn’t imagine that her former lover had come after her without backup. At the very least, she expected that Catalina Reyes, the paranormal researcher who’d been sharing Ben’s bed for the last year, was out there somewhere, probably training a rifle sight on her while Ben attempted to sweet-talk Mariah out of her hard-earned treasure.

Mariah hoped Cat remembered that she owed Mariah a favor. Mariah had used her aviation contacts to track down some dodgy collector threatening to swipe some Gypsy artifact out from under Ben and Cat.

Ben took a step forward, but Mariah stopped him with a shot that missed his big toe by a quarter inch. He jumped back and cursed, just as Mariah dropped and rolled, bouncing back to her feet with her gun steady.

Maybe Cat isn’t here
.

“Hey! I said I was unarmed,” Ben shouted, side-stepping to the left, arms out, instinctively protective of someone hidden behind him.

Or maybe she is.

“I beat you to this dig, Rousseau. Finders keepers. Back off now, while you still have all your body parts.”

Ben’s gaze dropped slyly to his crotch. Maybe he wasn’t as clueless as she remembered. He’d zeroed in on precisely where she might have shot him ten years ago, after their disastrous relationship and fiery breakup. Now she had no desire to hurt him. She simply wanted to keep what was hers.

Though he didn’t lower his hands, Ben’s posture relaxed and his mouth curved into an infuriatingly lazy grin. “Threats, Mariah? I’m just trying to keep you from falling into a quagmire of trouble you really don’t want right now. From what I’m hearing, you have enough on your plate.”

He wasn’t talking out of his arse on that, was he? If not for the aforementioned
quagmire
of trouble, she wouldn’t be in this godforsaken wasteland digging up rocks and threatening an ex-boyfriend with a gun.

“Listen to the bloody professor,” she said haughtily, stepping back and to the right, lining up her body to make the quickest escape. “And whatever trouble I’m in, I’ll get out without any help from you. I always have. You may have lost your nerve for the antiquities game, but I haven’t.”

“Some artifacts are worth coming out of retirement for,” he replied, with an annoying hint of cockiness that contradicted his current situation. The man never did know when an ounce of humility would do him good.

“But this place,” he explained, “it’s cursed, Mariah.”

“So was that cave near the Oasis at Dakhla. That didn’t stop either one of us from scooping up the statue of Sekhmet and selling it to the collector in Yemen.”

“This is different. Trust me—”

She snorted. “Trust
you
?”

“Anything taken from this area,” he continued, ignoring her justified doubts, “could contain very powerful black magic. There are some really dangerous—”

Mariah laughed. She couldn’t imagine for one minute that Ben thought his warning would scare her off. Not after all they’d seen together. Not after all they’d survived.

“This isn’t funny,” he insisted.

She raised the gun to his chest. “Look, after what I’ve been through, I take my laughs where I can get them. Now pipe down. I thought I heard something.”

The wind, sharp with an icy nip, whistled through the pines. Tucked in a corner of Germany still relatively undeveloped and surprisingly wild, the area had been dubbed Valoren, which the locals told her translated loosely into “land of the lost.” Made perfect sense. From the sharp, jutting ridges of the mountains that surrounded them to the mossy soil beneath their feet, the area was a perfect place to hide treasures like the cricket ball–size stone she now had in her pocket.

Under the circumstances, she didn’t imagine that Ben would tell her why this stone—or whatever else she might have found here—was so sought-after. Even the people she’d met in the nearby village had been perplexed by the recent interest in their undeveloped corner of the world. As a result, the locals had become exceedingly suspicious. She’d considered it a major coup that she’d found a local artisan with Gypsy roots who’d provided a hand-drawn map.

“Look,” Mariah said reasonably, “like you’ve said, I’ve got troubles that have nothing to do with you. Once I pack up, I suggest you don’t follow me.”

“What makes you think you’re leaving?”

“Who’s going to stop me, you?”

Mariah fired the weapon again, missing Ben purposely and splintering the trunk of a nearby tree to his right.

Ben spun and started toward the trees on the left, giving Mariah the chance she needed.

She sprinted into the tangled forest. Behind her, Ben shouted for her to stop. She didn’t look back, but focused on leaping over rocks, ducking behind boulders and sliding over fallen tree trunks. Finally she spilled out onto the path where she’d stored her transportation—a dirt bike she’d bartered for in the village. It wasn’t pretty and it was as loud as a cyclone, but it would get her out of there in a hurry.

She rode for nearly a quarter of a mile before her pursuers caught up, roaring behind her in an open-topped Jeep. With a curse, Mariah leaned forward, downshifted and swerved off the road, sending dirt and gravel flying. She preferred air travel to ground, but she’d scoped out the area well enough to map a few escape routes. Behind her, the Jeep’s horn honked. Did they really expect her to stop?

She careened around an outcropping of boulders and under a canopy of trees that would lead to a river if she could avoid dropping over any of the cliffs that dotted this region. The overhang threw her into shadows. She could hear nothing but the roar of the bike’s engine, the kick of the rocks beneath her wheels and the thumping of her heartbeat in her ears.

The path narrowed, forcing her to either slow down or crash. She cursed, wondering yet again why she’d come here. The whole operation had been a lark—a spontaneous grab at an opportunity that might have gotten her arse out of the proverbial sling. She’d jumped at the chance to beat her former lover to a valuable piece of history, which she planned to sell to pay off her debt to a certain collector who wasn’t above having her legs broken if she disappointed him a second time. Last month’s failed Mayan operation would have been her largest score in years, but she’d had to dump the coins in the Chiapas jungle rather than risk arrest by the Mexican police. Trouble was, the tracking device she’d attached to the treasure before she tossed it wasn’t working. Now, the collector wanted either the coins or the cash he’d paid her up front to facilitate her operation.