Fate Forsaken (4 page)

Eldon thumbed through the pages then cracked the book open gently. He ran a hand over the script and stopped halfway down, pointing to the center of the page.

He frowned and glanced up at Nick. “You know there’s only one way to pull this off.”

“And only one person I can think of who can do it.” Nick’s lips curled into a devious grin.

“No.” Eldon snapped the book closed. “I won’t even ask.”

Rho frowned as she glanced from one man to the other. “Won’t ask what? What are you talking about?”

Nick snatched the book from Eldon’s hand. “There may be a way to undo the spell. Reverse it.”

“Is that possible?” Rho asked.

Eldon shook his head. “No, it’s not.”

“Yes, it is,” Nick snapped back.

“Okay, well, only one of you is right. So which one is it?” Rho was already irritated from losing the magick she’d only barely captured tonight. Her tolerance for their bickering was zero.

Nick folded his arms across his chest. “Eldon and I have an old friend in Paris who may be strong enough to pull this off.”

“I won’t involve her.” Eldon’s brows knotted as his lips thinned into two slashes.

“Won’t involve who in what?” Rho tilted her head up to fix her stare on Eldon, his six-foot-four frame towering over her by a foot. “I’m not following.” If they were talking about a trip to Paris, the timing couldn’t be more impeccable.

Nick answered the question. “Trinador Laurent is a friend of ours and an emulator. Eldon doesn’t want to involve her because they aren’t exactly on good terms, but she may be our only chance at making this work.”

“Find another way,” Eldon said.

Rho turned her attention to Nick. “What’s an emulator?”

“An emulator can read spells. They can actually trace them down to their individual parts, which is a handy trick if you need to reverse one,” Nick said.

Rho tapped a finger on her chin and arched a brow. “Like a death mark.”

Eldon pointed a finger at the book in Nick’s hands. “That book says nothing about reversing a death mark.”

“But it does say they can reverse spells.” Nick tapped his finger on the book’s cover. “This could work.”

Eldon’s scowl deepened until Rho started to wonder if they shouldn’t ease off the subject a little. It wasn’t like him to get angry.

“You don’t even want to try? For her?” Nick’s brows rose as he pointed a thumb in Rho’s direction.

Eldon ground his teeth and stared down at her. She met his eyes, the emotion in his stare telling her he was torn between what he wanted to do and what she needed from him. While she might be curious about what this Trinador chick could do, if he was this adamantly opposed to going to see her, Rho wouldn’t ask him to do it.

She stepped toward Eldon. His arms were tight across his chest and she pulled them down, wrapping her fingers in his. “No one is making you do anything.”

He searched her eyes for a moment before his shoulders relaxed, his defenses melting in her hands. He let out a long sigh. “It’s fine. We’ll talk to the team about it tonight. If we all decide to go, I’ll make the arrangements myself.”

“Good. I’m glad you see things my way.” Nick smiled in triumph and pivoted around to head toward the house. “I hope that sister of yours has made some grub. I’m starving.”

Chapter Four

R
ho grinned as she followed Nick and Eldon through the back door of the house and into the kitchen. There was a chance, however small, they were going to take a trip to Paris. Which not only opened the door on the possibility of removing her death mark, but also meant they could get the hell out of town.

Exactly as Frederick had told her to do.

The warmth of the house covered her skin, removing the chill she’d felt from standing outside for hours. She shrugged off her coat and hung it on the rack by the door before heading directly to the coffee pot. The scent riding the air was divine, a combination of Texas chili and coffee. Even if she couldn’t enjoy solid foods anymore, at least she hadn’t lost her ability to drink coffee. That would have been tragic.

She poured a cup before turning to face her teammates as she leaned against the countertop. Preshea and Tim had moved to the kitchen table, sitting side by side. Preshea’s cropped hair had been smoothed at the front and spiked near the back, the contrasting black and white streaks even more dramatic under the kitchen lights. She whispered to Tim and he laughed, his bright smile vivid against his tan skin and his hazel eyes crinkling a bit in the corners. Rho eyed Eldon as he took his seat at the head of the table.

“I see you found your coffee.” Adelle, the eldest of Eldon’s two baby sisters, stood by the stove. Her shoulder-length red hair swayed as she leaned forward and stirred a pot of homemade chili. She and Jess were fantastic hosts, and considering this wasn’t even their primary home, they’d done a hell of a job accommodating the team.

“Sure did.” Rho nodded and lifted her mug. “Thanks for putting on a pot for me.”

Adelle glanced over her shoulder and shrugged. “Figured you’d be freezing, considering how long my brother’s had you out there practicing. Did you figure it out yet?”

“Almost. We got a spark to flare up for a second before Nick barged in.”

“Well, that’s something.” Adelle turned her attention back to the stove and set the ladle inside the pot before pulling on some oven mitts.

“You need help?” Rho asked.

“Nah, I got this.”

Jess rushed ahead of Adelle to set a towel down on the table, along with a pile of clean silverware.

“Dinner’s ready!” Adelle called as she headed for the table with careful steps.

Rho pushed away from the countertop and strode over to the new kitchen table. The entire set had been constructed of exotic mango wood and could easily seat eight. Over the past few weeks, Eldon had purchased several new pieces of furniture to accommodate the large number of houseguests in their secondary home, and had storm shutters installed on every window to keep the daylight out.

When Rho had protested him spending money on her behalf, he’d justified the changes by saying they were for the safety and comfort of the team, not just her. She didn’t believe him, of course, but he had plenty of cash and she wasn’t going to tell him how to spend it.

“Hey, watch it,” Rho snapped as Nick bumped into her, nearly splashing her coffee all over the brand-new table—and Eldon’s lap.

Eldon shook his head, his shaggy brown hair falling around his face. His eyes met hers and she smiled. He sat at the head of the table, Rho in her normal spot to his right. Tim and Preshea sat to the right of her. Vectra took the spot next to Preshea, her big sister.

“Sorry,” Nick said as he took the seat beside Eldon.

Everyone was salivating by the time Adelle lifted the ladle from the pot. “Who’s hungry?”

Four bowls shot up and she started to fill them one by one.

Tim stuck his nose over the bowl and drew a deep breath. “You’ve outdone yourself this time, Adelle.”

She smiled. “You haven’t tried it yet.”

“I don’t have to.”

The room fell silent as they stuffed their faces. Rho glanced around at the unlikely alliance, thinking they were easily the most diverse group of DarqDwellers she’d ever met.

“You still feeling all right?” Tim focused on Rho. He’d asked her the same question every day since she’d taken the death mark.

Rho nodded. “Fit as a fiddle.”

“I dug into some older archives today,” Adelle cut in as she scooped herself a bowl last and took a seat. “They’re all handwritten in Latin so it’s a process, but I’m getting there.”

“I appreciate it,” Rho said, truly meaning it. Eldon’s sisters had been cold and angry when she’d first met them. They’d been raised to scorn vampires, believing they were the lowest of the DarqRealm races, but things had changed since she’d taken the death mark from their brother.

Eldon wiped his mouth with a napkin. “Nick had an idea about that, actually.”

“Oh?” Preshea shoveled another spoonful of food into her mouth.

“How would you feel about taking a little trip to Paris?” Eldon eyed Tim and Preshea.

His sisters shot each other a sideways glance, and their teammates looked equally surprised.

Preshea frowned. “Now isn’t really the best time for a vacation.”

“Not a vacation.” Nick leaned across the table, scooped a massive heap of chili, and slopped it into a bowl. “A business trip.”

“You’re so rude.” Adelle shook her head. “You could just ask someone to pour you a bowl, you know.”

Nick settled into an empty spot at the table. “I’m no different than I was as a kid. And back then, I was adorable.”

“Hardly.” Adelle rolled her eyes. “You were rude then and you’re rude now. Only these days, my mom isn’t the one cooking you dinner.”

Tim gulped down a glass of water before setting it back on a coaster. “So what’s in Paris?”

“I know someone there who may be able to help us—help Rho, actually, with her death mark,” Eldon answered. “It’s also where the mover Kamen is. Or used to be, I should say.”

“That’s where it was stolen from?” Preshea asked between her mouthfuls of food.

Adelle met Rho’s eyes, clearly irritated by Preshea’s lack of table manners. Rho tried not to grimace as the shifter continued to smack down her food.

Eldon nodded. “We’d put the mover Kamen far away from the others, hoping that might help keep it safe. Only the Collective members knew where it had been hidden.”

Rho set down her mug and opened her hand to stare at her palm. Back when they’d first joined this team, their racial divides had threatened their ability to work together. The leader of the Collective had branded their palms with the emblem of the magick movers, a triquetra surrounded by four moon phases in different colors, each representing one of their races.

The symbol was actually a skin-binding spell, which forced their cooperation. When Tim, Preshea, Eldon, or Rho—the official, Council-appointed members of the team—argued, the headache that followed was nothing short of excruciating. They’d learned quickly to get along with each other. Or at least try. Scary how powerful magick could be, if wielded by a strong enough magick mover.

“Hard to believe even with all that magick, someone still got their hands on it,” Rho said.

If the movers wanted to hide something, she could only imagine they’d do a hell of a job wrapping the object in protection spells. Back when she’d been ordered to hide the vampire Kamen, she’d hired Eldon for that very reason.

Then again, her Kamen had been stolen, too.

“That’s why I think it’s a fae job.” Eldon frowned. “Especially knowing what we know now.”

“What do we know now?” Vectra’s soft voice piped up. No one said anything for a moment as every stare centered on Preshea, the girl’s older sister. Vectra looked every bit of fourteen, the high cheekbones and straight nose giving her away as Preshea’s kin. Her jet-black hair was stick-straight as it cascaded over each shoulder, and unlike her sister, it gave her a much softer, more delicate appearance. She was certainly not a member of the team, but she was the only family Preshea had left. Whether Preshea wanted the girl involved was her call.

Preshea gave a short nod. “It’s fine. She won’t say anything. I’d like her to stay here in the safe house with Adelle and Jess, though, until we get back. Since our allegiance to the ShiftMaster has changed, I’d like to know she’s protected while I’m away. This safe house is about as secure as I could hope for.”

The situation with the ShiftMaster had, indeed, changed. He’d once been Preshea’s boss and the leader of the shifter nation, but since they discovered he’d been using fae magick to maintain his power, the respect she’d once had for him had vanished.

Eldon’s stare turned to Adelle then Jess. “That’s fine with me as long as it’s fine with my sisters.”

Jess shrugged a shoulder, and Adelle nodded. Neither of them stopped stuffing their faces.

“Rhyannon wants the Kamens.” Tim pointed his spoon toward Eldon. “I don’t know why, but we know for a fact she’s after them. She needs them for something.”

“The only Kamen we’ve recovered is the one that wasn’t missing. The fae aren’t represented on our team because Rhyannon claimed the green Kamen was still in her possession—until the night we fought her and took it from her. But Rhyannon still has the yellow one,” Eldon said.

Rho nodded. “She had it around her neck when she disappeared.”

“That Kamen belongs to my people
,
” Preshea growled. The yellow stone held the magick of the shifter nation, and Rho had no doubt Preshea would kill to return it to its rightful home.

“We’ll get it back,” Tim assured. “Just like we got the green one back.”

“The green one wasn’t exactly ours to retrieve, though.” Eldon frowned. “Not that I mind taking anything from Rhyannon.”

Preshea smiled and gripped the gun at her waist. “I wouldn’t mind taking a lot more than a Kamen from her.”

Tim cracked a slight smile before turning serious again. “So we have the green fae Kamen and the black werewolf Kamen in our possession.” He glanced toward the hallway where the team had sealed the relics away in a magickal hiding place. “But we’re still missing the blue, red, and yellow relics.”

Preshea turned to Rho. “You’re sure Rhyannon has the yellow stone?”

“Positive,” Rho answered. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that the rock around Rhyannon’s neck belonged to the shifters.

Preshea’s brow pinched in thought as she licked her spoon. “That means the blue mover Kamen and red vampire Kamen are unaccounted for.”

“Could she have organized for them to be stolen and sent to her?” Rho asked. If Rhyannon possessed only one Kamen now, and the team had already hidden two away, the others had to be out there somewhere. And seeing how the queen had somehow managed to get her thieving hands on two stones already, they could only assume she’d had a hand in the disappearance of the others.

Eldon rubbed his chin, as he usually did when he was thinking. “It’s possible, but we’re going to have to retrace our footsteps. Figure out exactly where the vampire and mover Kamens could have gone missing.”

“They’re still out there somewhere,” Tim said.

“As much as I hate to admit it, Nick’s right. Given Rho’s current…predicament, Paris is the best solution.” Eldon set a gentle hand on Rho’s knee and glanced toward Tim and Preshea. “We could visit my friend to try and find a fix for the death mark, and you two could investigate the disappearance of the mover Kamen.”

“Two birds, one stone.” Leaning back, Tim met Eldon’s stare. “I like it.”

Preshea shrugged a shoulder. “Makes sense. Plus, I’ve never seen the Eiffel Tower.”

“I’ll need a day or so to get in touch with a few people on the other side of the pond. They’ll probably appreciate a heads up before we just show up at their doorstep.” Eldon reached into his back pocket and fished out his cell phone. “Then I’ll need to buy a couple of tickets.”

Nick arched a brow. “You can’t just jump them?”

“I can take you two through the lines.” Eldon pointed a finger to Tim, then Preshea. “But Rho and I will have to catch a red-eye.”

“I can’t jump?” Rho had traveled with Eldon through the lines before. She might get a little vertigo when she landed, but that wasn’t reason enough to keep her from going.

Eldon shook his head. “I’d rather not risk it.”

“Risk what? You’ve jumped me before.”

“Not since you took on a death mark.” His glittering blue eyes met her stare. “I’m not saying you could contaminate the lines, per se, but I’d rather not take an unnecessary risk. There’s too much at stake.”

Folding her arms across her chest, she tried not to pout. “I hate airplanes.”

It was true. Despite her vampire nature and being nearly impervious to death, they still freaked her out. Something about hurtling through the air in a steel tube thirty thousand feet above the ground while traveling hundreds of miles an hour seemed totally unnatural. If she were meant to fly, God would have given her wings. Or turned her into an angel instead of a vampire.

Eldon leaned toward her and pressed a kiss to her temple. “It won’t be so bad. You can take a few books from the library to distract yourself. Or I can buy you one of those e-readers.”

She frowned. “No thanks.” No way was she going to take gifts or money from Eldon, even if they were sleeping together. She didn’t need him to take care of her. “You should know, if we hit turbulence, I’m not going to be happy.” And she’d probably claw him to keep from screaming like a crazy lady.