Timeless Vision (23 page)

Wayne bristled. “She surprised me,” he admitted reluctantly. “I was expecting Morgana, you know. Collette’s greatest impact occurred when I was weakened from the shift to this time.”

“Make your point.” Nick tapped the blueprints. “How do we save Tara?”

“By remembering that Morgana, dead and bound for all this time, is still more powerful.”

Nick slumped into the nearest chair. “Oddly enough, that isn’t very reassuring.”

“Believe me,” Wayne pressed. “Whatever Collette’s intention with the dagger and your cousin’s blood,” his skin chilled at the thought, “Morgana will not let her power go without a fight. I knew this when I planned the binding spell. I knew it when I tracked her followers to that valley on the solstice all those fifteen centuries ago.”

“Earth magic?”

“Yes.” Another icy sensation skittered down his spine. “We know they are under the hotel. We know there is a nexus nearby. Collette is definitely planning her ritual in the deepest chamber she can find.” Wayne was trying to steel himself for all of those strikes working against him.

“Yes,” Nick prompted, impatient. “I’m asking you what we don’t know. Like how we get through her guards and stop her from bringing an evil, furious sorceress bent on revenge into New York City.”

“Blood sacrifice.”

Nick surged to his feet. “You said we’d save Tara.”

“My blood.” Wayne lowered his gaze to the clutter of maps on the table. “Let us hope Collette is strong enough to slow down Morgana’s attempt to rise. It will buy us time to get Tara clear,” Wayne explained. “Then my blood will be required to keep Morgana entombed.”

“A sacrifice play?” Nick shook his head. “Tara will never forgive you.”

“Tara will live, as will you all.” Wayne shrugged with a nonchalance he didn’t feel. “With any luck, it won’t come to that.” It would all depend on Collette. The thought gave him no comfort. “Forget the back door.” The old frustrations pummeled him. He was weary of trailing along, trying to catch Morgana or her cult unawares. A strange confidence settled over him as he studied the blueprints. “We go in through the lobby and drive right through them.”

“Seriously?”

“It is the only way. The time for sneaking around is long gone.”

“I’m not going in there to slaughter innocents,” Nick said.

“I never said that,” Wayne protested, horrified by such a presumption.

“Just so we’re clear.” Nick held up his hands. “If direct is what you want, let’s clear a path with a fire alarm.”

“You want to set the hotel on fire?”

“No.” Nick’s grin tilted one side of his mouth. “Collette’s people will be watching all the entrances. If she’s smart, she’ll have her best defense gathered around her most sacred chamber. Everything she is is riding on this, right?”

Wayne nodded.

“I suggest we go in a little less direct, but equally effective. Fire alarm clears the path, then we knock out the sentry in the kitchens and follow the trail of guards like breadcrumbs down to her lair.” Nick planted his hands on his hips, his gaze traveling from Wayne to Sterling and back again. “There’s only one catch.”

“Which is?”

“We’re two against who knows how many.”

“We are three,” Wayne said. “Sterling is a tremendous asset in battle.” As was Wayne’s ability to cast illusions. He could only hope being underground didn’t prove as much of a hindrance today as it had in the past.

“The odds are still against us.”

Wayne smiled. “We are small, maneuverable, and we can adapt more quickly than they will. We are motivated by good intent. Most will cower, those who fight us will lose. Trust me.”

Nick nodded. “I trust you. That’s what concerns me.”

Wayne clapped him on the shoulder. “Gather your weapons, my friend. We are fighting for goodness and light. We will prevail.”

“Did Arthur sound as confident back in the day?”

“More so.” Wayne strapped his sword onto his back and grinned at the memories of many satisfying fights. “It was often annoying.”

“Well, then you’re doing it right.”

Chapter Sixteen

Tara tugged at the iron cuffs binding her wrists to the stone slab beneath her. She flexed her feet and felt the same cold, hard restraints. She couldn’t move her head to get a better look, but based on her limited view, she felt as though slab was on a slight incline.

“Oh, wonderful. Our magic charm is awake, Darius. Come say hello.”

Tara recognized the bitch’s voice. Collette had finally succeeded. Stuck like an insect on a board she couldn’t remember just now what she’d found so offensive about chivalry and an overprotective knight with antiquated ideals. At this point, she’d gladly play damsel in distress if her gallant knight would hurry up and get her out of this predicament.

He had to know she’d been taken by now. So where was he? Had the witch overcome Wayne and Nick as well? Her body trembled on a rush of fear, rattling her bindings. She didn’t much care what happened to her - as long as Wayne survived and Collette failed.

“Miss O’Malley,” Collette said, sidling into view. “Allow me to introduce my dearest friend, Darius.”

“We’ve met,” Tara mumbled, recognizing the last man she’d seen before blacking out. “It was no pleasure.”

Collette’s humorless laughter ricocheted off the walls, and trickled away into the shadows. “You have grit,” Collette said. “I think I like that in a sacrificial lamb.”

Lamb
. Collette would soon discover Tara wasn’t near as soft or amiable as a lamb. Never had been. “It won’t work,” she said, as she racked her brain for a topic that might sound valid enough to distract the demented witch. “Morgana can’t be raised.”

Collette laughed again. “The dagger if you please, Darius.” She held up the narrow blade for Tara to see. “I don’t want to
raise
the sorceress, my dear lamb. I only want to bind her power with mine.”

Tara’s stomach knotted. “What use do you have for a little moldy, 6
^th
century power in the 21
^st
century?”

“More than you can imagine.” Collette’s smile twisted as she skimmed the point of the blade lightly over Tara’s chin, down her throat.

She closed her eyes, willing herself to remember Wayne’s warm touch in place of that chilly metal.

“You needn’t worry about dying tonight,” Collette continued. “No, I’ve learned a great deal about this ugly little knife. I have no intention of spilling all your blood at once.”

“Isn’t that how sacrifices work?” Tara challenged.

“Why so eager for the ever after, my lamb? It’s not as if your knight will be waiting there for you.” She gripped Tara’s chin, her nails biting into her skin. “Look at me girl. You have conflicting destinies.”

“What did you do to him?”

“Oh, not me.” Collette cooed. “Morgana, Arthur, why even Sir Gawain himself disqualified your hunky knight from Heaven’s reward.” She circled the dagger in a vague gesture toward a heavenly host well above this hellish cave.

Tara told herself it was lies. She promised herself just one more hour with Wayne was worth any price. One minute. She didn’t need forever, or an eternity. Just an hour. A minute to tell him she loved him.

What could Collette know about it anyway? If the self-styled sorceress had known anything of value, she would’ve kidnapped Tara and the dagger together and been done with the whole mess before Gawain could have blinked the centuries of sleep from his eyes.

“I made a mistake,” Tara murmured as she searched for some way to save herself.

“Do hush now,” Collette scolded her. “It’s time, Darius. I feel it.”

“All is ready,” he replied. “The power is already seeking you out.”

Tara gave the jerk credit for knowing how to stroke Collette’s ego. She bit her lip, tried to muster up some tears. “Can’t you give me something so it doesn’t hurt? Please?” she begged.

“My dear lamb, your blood must be pure. It’s why we’ve waited for the drug to wear off.”

“Right. But -”

Her stalling came to a sudden end as the blade sliced across her wrist. She felt the warmth of her blood pulsing though the wound, down her palm, sliding between her fingers. Collette murmured strange words as Tara’s blood dripped into a container, a sick descant emphasizing the spell.

“Have you ever heard a sweeter sound, Darius?”

“No, my lady.”

“You said you wouldn’t kill me tonight,” Tara protested, feeling weak.

“You’ll be surprised - and dare I say proud - when you discover what a spirit as tough as yours can endure. There now, just a bit more…”

Tara’s mind drifted away from the ugly sensations of the moment, taking her far from the copper-tinged air, the pain and pressure, the sounds of her blood fulfilling Collette’s horrible intention. She pushed her thoughts toward happier times. Family walks on the promenade. Trips to Manhattan to visit Santa Claus. Trailing her dad around the pub, learning the business. Resisting the fog of pain and despair, she thought of Wayne’s lessons about magic and intention.

Was it too late to intend for her blood to be ineffective? Too late to ruin Collette’s spell?

“Take her out of here,” Collette ordered. “I’ll join you shortly.”

“You shouldn’t be alone, my lady,” Darius reminded her. “They must be searching for her.”

The restraints popped open and Tara slid down the angled stone, her feet landing with a jarring thud. How much blood had the witch taken?

“They’re too late. Take her,” Collette snapped in that frigid voice.

“Why d’you put up with that?” Tara asked Darius.

Darius guided Tara slowly through the chamber, away from Collette. Blinking rapidly, she tried to bring the scene into better focus. Maybe somehow, Wayne would be able to see what she saw. The chamber was bigger than she’d thought, lit with torches in the corners of the arched stone ceilings. They must be in an abandoned subway line under the hotel. Such a prime location would be the perfect escape route for Collette and her followers.

“Move,” Darius ordered.

He gripped her arm above the cut Collette had made and another lance of pain shot through Tara. The resulting adrenaline blasted through the last of her lethargy. She couldn’t let Darius take her away. Once Collette had the power she coveted, there might not be another chance in her lifetime to break the witch.

A thunderous sound reverberated through the chamber. Collette swore as dust sifted from the ceiling. She brushed it away from the pattern she’d drawn into the floor.

“You’re out of time, my lady,” Darius called, turning back.

“Hold them off. I’m not done!” Collette shrieked. 

Tara dropped to her knees, feigning a weakness she no longer felt. The unexpected move startled Darius and he left her, rushing back to Collette. The witch poured out the blood she’d collected from Tara, dribbling it over the intricate symbol on the floor.

As if there hadn’t been enough surprises, Tara saw the dagger, discarded as she’d been, near the angled stone slab. According to Wayne, both dagger and O’Malley blood were essential to unlocking the spell binding Morgana.

Too bad for the self-styled leader of the new world. Tara was getting out of here and she was saving the family dagger in the process. Seizing the dagger, Tara felt an astounding sense of victory and purpose. The hilt warmed in her palm and to her shock, the ruby started to glow from within.

The dagger clutched to her chest, she surged to her feet, only to lose her footing as another thunderous boom shook the room. Hopefully that was a sign of potential rescue rather than the end of the old world. Taking shelter on the far side of the stone table where she’d been a captive minutes ago, Tara watched Collette’s body shake.

Darius was tossed aside like a feather as the ground beneath Collette came alive. Pebbles and dust bubbled up like boiling water, defying gravity. The effect grew, swirling in an upward tornado over Collette’s cloak. Horrified, Tara watched light and power coalesce in the symbols stamped onto the floor, then rise ever closer to Collette.

This was shaping up to be the worst day ever. For her, the O’Malleys, Wayne, and mankind in general.

~*~

Wayne brought his sword back up, preparing for another strike against the magic lock on the heavy oak doors. Tara was in trouble, he could feel it. She was surely injured, but worse than that he could feel Collette already losing control of the spell. He needed to get through this door before all was lost. Behind him Nick and Sterling were nearly done rounding up the last of the followers who had not fled at their arrival.

Focused on the lock and the spell blocking his attack, Wayne took a deep breath, adjusted his grip, and drove his sword straight through it one last time. The spell fractured and what had appeared to be a heavy oak door splintered like kindling.

Wayne stormed into the chamber, Sterling at his side. He spotted Tara immediately, hiding behind a stone slab. “To her,” he told his hound.

“I’ll take the guard,” Nick reported.

Wayne didn’t bother with an acknowledgment. The man could hold his own. He’d proven himself time and again. Wayne kept his gaze locked on the sorceress playing with powers far greater than her ability. Hopefully that power wouldn’t prove greater than his.

The energy snapped and sizzled through the room. Collette’s body was stretched, tugged and tossed by invisible forces. She hovered over symbols painted on the floor in what was likely Tara’s blood. He smothered his temper, not allowing it to change the tenuous balance of power in the chamber. “The dagger?”

“I have it!” Tara called to him.

From the corner of his eye he saw her move. “Stay back,” he warned. “Put it down.” When she did, Sterling looked at it and through their connection, he could see Collette had used Tara’s blood to illuminate the spell that would spring Morgana’s trap.

Wayne completed another circuit of the sorceress, stopping in front of her. He studied her eyes, glassy and wild thanks to the improper spell she’d brought on herself.