The Lost Chalice (The Relic Seekers Book 3) (6 page)

“I need to know,” Jake said, gritting his teeth. He was tired of their secrets. “I found a vial on the floor near the wheel that opens the fountain steps.” He pulled it from his pocket and showed Raphael.

“That’s not the one I hid.”

“Then it’s the one Kendall took. Damn.” He handed it to Raphael. “There’s some water left in it.”

Raphael opened the vial and drank.

“I think Kendall and Nathan dropped it,” Jake said. “They’re missing.”

“Missing?”

“They’ve vanished.”

Raphael leaned against the wall, and Jake wondered why he didn’t fall through it. “He must have come back.”

Jake’s heart thudded. “The Reaper?”

“Who else?”

“Maybe Brandi grabbed them. The little boy, Art, he saw Brandi following Kendall and Nathan.” Jake hoped like hell it was Brandi and not the Reaper. “The Reaper can’t drink from the fountain without the chalice. Why come back without it?”

“To get Kendall.”

“Kendall?” Jake’s insides felt worse now than they had from his encounter with the statues. “Is she his daughter?”

Raphael frowned in confusion, which in his present condition was both comical and terrifying. He seemed steadier after the drink of water, but he still looked like he’d been struck by lightning. “I don’t understand.”

“She still believes the Reaper could be her father, that he’s changed so much he wouldn’t be recognizable now.”

“The statues would know,” Raphael said. “But she needn’t worry. I believe his child is a son. The Reaper will want Kendall, but it’s for her sixth sense so he can find the Holy Grail.”

Of course. Just like Nathan did. “Do you know who the Reaper’s child is?” Jake asked.

Raphael glanced at Marco. “No.”

Marco must know something.
Jake turned to the old man. “Do you?”

“He could be anyone,” the old man said.

Jake didn’t have Kendall’s gifts, but he usually knew when someone was lying to him. Or at least not telling the truth.

“Jake needs rest,” Marco said, giving Raphael a strange nod that seemed more of a command.

Raphael’s hand moved toward Jake, and the room disappeared.

CHAPTER SIX

F
ERGUS HELPED
R
APHAEL
move Jake into a more comfort
able
position on the bed. “He looks terrible.” He turned to Raphael.
“You look quite ill yourself. You should rest before you pass out.”

“I have to search for Kendall and Nathan,” Raphael said. “I think I know where—” The guardian’s eyes fluttered. “Marco, what did you do . . .” Raphael’s eyes rolled up in his head and he fell onto the bed on top of Jake.

“Very impressive,” Fergus said, staring at Marco’s outstretched hand. “I didn’t know you could do that too.”

“Yes.” Marco looked proud of himself. “Raphael forgets sometimes that I’m still capable of many things.”

“I don’t suppose you could teach me how to do that.”

“I’m afraid not,” Marco said. “Now, help me move Raphael over. He won’t be happy when he wakes up.”

“Neither will Jake,” Fergus said, pulling at Raphael’s arm. “My, he’s heavy.”

“Yes, but we must move them apart or else they may kill each other when they wake.”

They worked at separating the two men and making them comfortable. “Move Jake’s arm,” Fergus said. “It’s touching Raphael’s dagger. On second thought, perhaps we should remove the dagger and put it somewhere else.”

“Very wise.” Marco took the dagger and placed it on a table across the room, while Fergus continued arranging the bodies like a funeral director.

He moved Jake’s arm, made a few more adjustments, and then stood back, studying the two men lying side by side on the bed. “There.”

Marco nodded and tugged his beard. “Very nicely done. I do hope they don’t hurt each other when they wake. Come now, we have much work to do.”

“We’re leaving? But . . . Raphael and Jake?”

“We’ll leave them a note. There is something I need to do,” Marco said.

“We’re going to find Kendall and Nathan on our own?” Fergus asked. Marco’s abilities were remarkable at times, but he was still an old man. They needed young people with muscles and strength. And weapons.

“We’re going to find the Reaper.” Marco’s eyes narrowed under his white brows. “I’m afraid he has Kendall and Nathan.”

Jake opened his eyes and saw something in front of his face. He cursed and jumped, thinking it was Raphael’s hand, the last thing he’d seen. But it wasn’t the guardian’s hand. It was a note stuck to his forehead. He pulled it off and turned it over.

Fergus and I will meet you at the castle, Marco

Even more distressing than the note was the fact that he wasn’t alone in bed.

Raphael sat up, his face red with fury. “Marco!”

Jake glanced at Raphael’s dagger sheath, glad to see the weapon wasn’t there. “They’ve gone to the castle.” He handed Raphael the note. “I assume he did the same thing to you that you did to me. Not as much fun when the shoe’s on the other foot.”

Raphael jumped out of bed, staggering only a bit, and looked at the window where the sun was shining behind the curtains. “It’s afternoon.”

“We need to get moving. We’ve lost too much time. Do you feel up to searching the tunnel?” Jake asked. That was the logical place to start. He still felt fried, but not as bad as he had before.

“Yes. Let’s go.”

“You gonna walk around looking like that?” Jake asked. “You look like a burned rump roast.”

Raphael scowled. “I don’t have anything else here.”

Jake walked back to the dresser to get his bag. Kendall’s lay next to it.
Where are you?
He glanced at the bed where he and Kendall had made love, and his heart ached. He had to find her. He rummaged through the bag and pulled out some pants and a shirt. “You can borrow these,” he said, handing them to Raphael.

The guardian held them up. “You want me to wear these?”

“They’re sweats. They’ll grow on you.” Jake had bought them in the gift shop near the abbey after he, Kendall, and Nathan had fallen through one of the Protettori’s damned portals and ended up in England, dirty and tired, with Kendall still in her pajamas.

“I doubt it.” Raphael grimaced at the clothing and disappeared into t
he bathroom. He returned a moment later wearing the sweats. Jake struggled to keep his face blank. Raphael was a big dude, probably thirty pounds heavier than Jake and a good three inches taller—definitely bigger than the sweats. He looked kind of like the Hulk, except he wasn’t green and his pants weren’t as short, and the Hulk didn’t have singed hair and a sweatshirt with “Glastonbury, England,” straining across his chest. But even in the odd getup, he still looked like a badass.

“If we don’t find Kendall and Nathan, we’ll take the maze to the castle,” Raphael said. “I need more water.” He ran his gaze over Jake. “So do you. A lot more.”

“You have water there?”

“Some. We keep it for healing and ceremonial purposes.”

“We can’t risk losing more time. There’s something wrong with that tunnel. We lost an entire day in there the first time.”

“I know where I’m going.”

“Then you search the tunnel, and I’ll look for Brandi. The boy said he saw her. I’ll find out if she knows anything about their disappearance.” Jake paused, feeling the bite of fear. “If she didn’t, we’ll know the Reaper has them.”

“We should stay together.”

This was odd coming from the mysterious guardian. “Why, you need my help?”

“I think you need mine. You’re wounded.”

“It’s not the first time. If we’re sticking together, let’s get a move on. We have a lot of ground to cover. Do you have something to pull your hair back?” Jake asked. “You look like Attila the Hun pretending to be a tourist.”

Raphael’s face darkened. “No. And don’t ever call me that again.”

Jake found a hair tie in Kendall’s things. A blond hair was still attached. His throat tightened as he pulled the strand of hair free and gave Raphael the tie. “Let’s go then.” Tucking the strand of hair carefully in his pocket, Jake walked toward the door.

The drive to the Tor was tense, not only because both men feared for Kendall and Nathan’s safety, but also because Raphael criticized every turn Jake made, every tap on the vehicle’s brakes. “Do you want to drive?” Jake asked.

“No.”

“Then shut up. A man who can walk through walls shouldn’t be so intimidated by a rental car.” He probably shouldn’t badmouth the guardian, but Jake was too worried about Kendall to fear what unspeakable things Raphael might do to him. Luckily, all Jake got for his tirade was a frown.

Jake and Raphael searched the entire tunnel, but there was no sign of Kendall or Nathan. “Maybe they went through the maze.” Jake didn’t know why they would have with Raphael waiting for them to get back. “Should we try it?” Jake’s head already felt like mashed potatoes, but he was willing to try about anything.

“Not in our condition. We’re both weaker than we realized. I’m afraid we’d never make it. You have to be strong to use the gateways. We’ll have to get to the castle another way.”

They exited the tunnel the same way they had come in. The trip was much faster with Raphael than it had been when Jake was with Kendall and Nathan. “I wish you’d been here when we fell through the maze. It felt like we wandered in circles.”

“You probably did. The tunnel is . . . unusual.”

No kidding. “How does it work?”

“I don’t really know.”

Jake hadn’t expected more than stony silence or a grunt in reply. Even this short admission was a surprise. “You didn’t build it?”

“No. It was already here. We found it when we moved the treasure from the abbey to the Tor.”

“And the maze?”

“It was already there too. That’s why we moved the brotherhood to Italy and built the castle there. With the maze as a gateway connecting the two locations, we were hidden but could still watch over the fountain.”

Raphael must be sick. He never talked this much. Or maybe he was distracted by the sweats.

“Are there other portals?”

“Gateways? That’s what we call them. There are some.”

“Where?”

“That information is secret.”

There was the Raphael he knew. “We’re up to our eyeballs in this. Seems to me you could be a little more helpful.”

Raphael sighed, but it sounded like a growl. “The maze is an ancient gateway. We don’t know how it came to be.”

“But there are others? I mean you travel around, popping in and out of rooms, landing in strange bathtubs.”

“Traveling as I do requires good physical and mental condition. I was injured. I needed water. I was thinking about the fountain and Kendall.”

“Kendall?”

Raphael’s mouth tightened. “I was hoping she was all right after her encounter with the Reaper.”

Something about Raphael’s explanation didn’t feel right. Then again, it was Raphael. “Wait a minute. You don’t use portals?”

“Gateways? Not always.”

Hell. Portals were eerie enough, but just popping up anywhere was something out of a science-fiction novel. “How do you do it?”

“It’s all in the mind.”

“You can move your body through space with your mind?”

“To some degree.”

“Anywhere you want to go?”

“Not anywhere. It’s complicated.”

Was there anything about the Protettori that wasn’t? “Kendall’s gift is complicated too. It just seems to work when it wants to.”

“She and Nathan need to drink the water. That will help them focus and control their powers.”

“So that’s why Kendall’s sixth sense is so quirky. Does she have your traveling gift?”

“Perhaps. I don’t know her well enough to say.”

“Something strange happened to us when we were in the tunnel under the Tor. She saw the ghost of a black knight.” He paused, feeling like an idiot for even talking about such a thing.

Raphael scoffed. “The black knight. Serves him right to be stuck as a ghost.”

“You know about him . . . knew him?”

“Yes. He was a good knight, but a hateful man.”

“Holy . . .” Jake shook off his shock. “When the knight ran at us, Kendall touched Nathan and me, and we ended up in Camelot.”

“Camelot? You mean a vision?”

“No, I think we were really there. The black knight came after us. Nathan stopped him, scared him off.”

Raphael looked disturbed. “Very strange. You’re lucky you made it back. As I said, he was a powerful knight.”

“So Kendall might be able to walk through walls too?”

“It’s hard to say. She needs training to learn to control her abilities. So does Adam. Nathan, I mean.”

“You believe he’s Adam?” Jake asked.

“You don’t?”

“I don’t know. Kendall seems to think so. Nathan’s not sure.”

“You hope he isn’t?”

“I didn’t say that.”

Raphael shrugged. “You didn’t have to.”

“So you read minds too? This Protettori stuff sucks sometimes.”

“You’re jealous because they have abilities and you don’t.”

Jake grunted. Hell yeah, he was jealous. All the odds were in Nathan’s favor. “I wouldn’t mind being able to run like the wind and walk through walls.”

Raphael gave Jake a dark smile. “Careful what you wish for.”

They drove back to the room to see if by some miracle Kendall and Nathan had arrived. They hadn’t.

“I’m going to look for Brandi and see if she knows something,” Jake said.

Raphael stayed in the room in case Kendall and Nathan showed up. Jake secretly thought the guardian was planning to get more rest. On his way out, Jake arranged to keep the room for another few days since he didn’t know if Kendall and Nathan were nearby, and they still had to wrap up things with the police regarding the stolen Blue Chalice and the death of the Reaper’s man.

Jake asked around the local hotels and found that Brandi had been seen by several people. Her hair made her noticeable, and it didn’t seem as if she was trying to hide. Another indication that she wasn’t responsible, but he could still wish. He could deal with Brandi. The Reaper was a different ball game. A taxi driver remembered dropping her off at a hotel. Jake found out which room she was staying in, but she had already checked out. Alone.

When he arrived back at the room, Raphael was eating an apple. Jake hadn’t seen him eat before. It was a relief to see him do something human. “Any sign of them?” Jake asked.

“No. Did you find Brandi?”

“No, I found out what hotel she was staying in, but she’s checked out. Desk clerk said she was alone. She’s got her faults, but for all her talk, I can’t see her hurting Nathan or Kendall. Where the hell are they?”

Raphael frowned at the apple and then put it down. “I’ve been thinking. I don’t believe they’re in England.”

Jake’s gut tightened. “Where do you think they are?”

“When I followed the Reaper through the gateway, I ended up in a city. An old city. I was too injured to search for him. I could hardly move. I needed to get back and drink from the fountain.”

“What’s this got to do with Kendall and Nathan? Oh hell.” Jake’s stomach dropped down to his balls. “You think they fell through the Reaper’s portal?”

“I’m afraid they must have.”

“You don’t know where you were?”

“The language was strange, but I can’t quite recall it.” Raphael’s eyes sparked with a memory. “Czech. I think someone was speaking Czech.”