Grimm: A Novel In The Nate Temple Supernatural Thriller Series (The Temple Chronicles Book 3) (11 page)

I turned back to Gunnar, a feeling of dread creeping over my shoulders. “We should probably get back to the girls. I don’t like this.”

His posture instantly grew rigid as the situation dawned on him. If the Armory was on lockdown, something we probably wouldn’t like was happening nearby.

Or, more likely,
had already happened
.

We began to run.

The wolf howled behind me, urging us on, the sound chilling as we raced back the way we had come, Gunnar hot on my heels.

Chapter 9

I
ndie had been justifiably alarmed at being woken up by her paranoid boyfriend in the middle of the night, who was freaking out about an impending attack, yelling jibberish about the Armory being on lockdown, gargoyles, and a talkative wolf carving refusing to open a door.

Especially after a growling werewolf forcibly shoved Ashley into our room. Indie had shrieked, tugging the sheets up above her nakedness. We hadn’t immediately gone to sleep after all, thanks to Barbie’s gift.

I owed Barbie for
that
memory reel.

And the best part?

After I proposed to Indie, she was mine forever.

Which was awesome, yet terrifying…

In my mad dash from the office, I had deemed it prudent to nab the feather that Pegasus’ brother, Grimm – no relation to the psycho brothers currently hunting me – had once given me. I had wanted to make sure I had my bloodthirsty pony on call to get us out of Dodge if we needed to flee on the spot. I spotted the black feather with the red orb on the tip – like a demonic peacock’s coloring – poking out from my satchel now on the far wall of the tunnels where I stood.

It had taken me quite a few deep breaths to calm down and share the full story with the girls, by which time Gunnar and I had mostly downgraded from a Defcon 1 threat assessment level and had returned to merely believing in general conspiracy theories.

My drifting thoughts earned me a solid
thwack
from Mallory’s quarterstaff.

“Ow!” I spat, shaking my thumb in the air by my side to ease the pain.

Mallory only looked determined. Then he attacked me again.

I calmly embraced the raging river of power that seemed to constantly reside beneath my feet, or more accurately, beneath the surface of the earth, which just so happened to be beneath my feet. No matter where I stood at any given moment – from the top of a ten-story building, to a hot tub, to the secluded basement halls of
Chateau Falco
– I could now at least
feel
the power every time.

Progress!

But it was the harnessing of that power that constantly eluded me.

I reached for the overwhelming force, hoping to eke out a small defense against Mallory’s rapidly approaching quarterstaff, and my hands sailed right through it. Which earned me a thump on the head this time, knocking me from my feet to land on my backside. Even with padded ends, Mallory’s quarterstaff packed a punch. I growled a warning at him, but he merely shrugged.

“Your enemies enna’ gonna’ give you an inch, Laddie. You asked me to train you, so I’ll be a doin’ it right. Like you want me to. Even though right now you wonna’ admit it.” He held out a hand to help me to my feet.

“I just can’t seem to get a consistent feel for it. At least I can always sense it now, but I can’t always tap into it.”

“That’s better than when you started training.” He offered with a shrug. “Baby steps, my son.”

The words hung heavy in the air, and I could tell that Mallory wished them back. A slip of the tongue. Still.

Instead of climbing to my feet I stayed on the ground, patting the dirt floor beside me for him to sit down. He complied, looking uncomfortable. We were in the crypts before the door that led to the Armory. We watched the wolf chasing the owls, yapping excitedly as he eagerly hunted for a quick snack. I smiled. Which didn’t last long. The door was no longer a door, but an obstacle in my mind. It was all that stood between me and possible answers to the Brothers Grimm. So close, but so far away.

“Any luck after you deactivated the
Guardians
?” He asked. I shook my head. He stared at the door thoughtfully, but didn’t speak.

I turned to him, feigning nonchalance. “Who are you, anyway? I’ve never asked. Just took you on faith after my parents’ passed.”

His face turned stony.

“I saw you only once before, you know. That day at the police station when you were driving my dad to bail me out. That was years ago. Before I opened the bookstore.”

His features slowly melted to their usual sunny demeanor as he grunted with a distant smile. “Aye. I remember it well.” He chewed on his lip, idly plucking unseen things from his pants. “A lot happened that day. Maybe not all of it seemed important, but me thinks it was. Especially now.”

I nodded thoughtfully. No one knew what really happened that night. Well, now they did since I had spilled the beans last night. But before that, I had told no one. Not even my parents. So how was Mallory aware that something big had happened that night?

“Why do you say that?” I asked softly.

He was silent for a few moments. “Intuition. I remember the air feeling tense that night. The sea was wild. Air thick with unseen lightning. The Perfect Storm…” he trailed off.

“The
river
.” I said with a frown.

He chuckled. “Aye. The river.” He corrected.

“Because claiming to know what the sea was like that night all the way from St. Louis would be crazy…”

“Well, I reckon I fit that bill, Laddie.” He laughed lightly, squeezing his staff.

I let the silence calm me, focusing my mind. “You’re not going to tell me.”

“No.” he finally answered with a sigh. But the word was apologetically firm.

“You know how that looks, right?”

He sighed. “Aye. I reckon I do.”

“But that doesn’t change anything.”

“No. It doesna’ change a thing.” I let the tension in the air build, and was about to give him an ultimatum when he continued. “Your father swore that that was mine to keep. Even from you, his blood.” He trailed off distantly. “I’ve done… things I’m enna’ too proud of. I don’t want to relive ‘em. Or to have someone judge me by me past.” He looked at me. “I’m sure you understand.” He winked. I was about to press the issue, but found myself calmly admitting that he had a point. I briefly pondered a suspicion that perhaps his accent was another form of disguise, because I had caught him slipping out of it several times over the past months. His next words caused me to look up. “Trust me by my actions, Laddie. Can’t go wrong with that, can ye’?” His eyes twinkled in the dim torchlight.

I shrugged. “You’ve done right by me. I was just curious. I don’t like puzzles.”

“I know.” He climbed to his feet, offering me his hand. “We have enough time for another few rounds if you want. After that ye’ need to get going. Big meeting today.”

I groaned, accepting his scarred hand to help me to my feet. I didn’t want to think about that. “Are you trying to rile me up? You know how I feel about today’s meeting, despite what the Board of Directors says.”

He nodded. “Riling you up seemed to work a few times. You tapped into this…
well
of power almost seven of ten times. And you were as angry as a fisherman coming home after a voyage to find his wife porking the local baker!” He burst out laughing.

I hadn’t been
that
angry. But he had a point. “I don’t get it. I can sense it all the time now. It’s everywhere. And it feels… alien.” He watched me thoughtfully.

“I’m sure the first wizard said the same thing about magic.”

“Yes, but a Maker
gave
the ability to use magic to wizards in the first place. Just makes me wonder if I’m playing with toys better left untouched. Well, if I can ever figure out how to consistently touch it.” I complained.

He was silent for a few seconds, turning his back to me.

“That won’t work out too well for your lady friend…” He muttered. “Makes me wonder how much you really care about her. Down here in your batcave whining about this and that when you should be focusing.”

My vision went blue in a blink. I don’t really know how else to describe it. I used to see red when angry, but after my transition in power, the world seemed to turn an arctic blue tint whenever I grew angry now.

“You don’t get to talk about Indie like that.” I warned instinctively.

“Call ‘em like I see ‘em. Whining down here about billion dollar meetings, probing into my past like a gossipmonger. Like any of that really matters. You’re running.” He called over his shoulder, not even looking at me, apparently disgusted. I must have struck a nerve with my questions.

Still, that gave him no right to bring Indie into this. I pointed a finger at him and unbidden power abruptly launched from my fingertips, slamming him into the far wall. He bounced off and hit the ground with a groan. Crackling blue cuffs sailed from my fingertips and lifted him from the ground, pinning him at my eye level, facing me now. “Take it back,
whoever you are
.” I snarled.

I noticed that a single tear leaked from his cheek. Then he smiled sadly. “Told you it would work.” He spat blood onto the floor.

I blinked.

He had riled me up.

And I had tapped into the power instinctively. I focused on it now, feeling it settling around my feet in a seeming unending well, hungry to be used. I mentally dipped my fingers into the torrent and felt galactic frost, scalding lava, razorblade air, moist earth full of life, and rock denser than anything on earth – all melded together into a single force.

And I was wielding it.

“Nate, you ready yet? We need to leave in ten minutes.” A voice called from the distance.

Indie.

The power rushed out of me like water through a sieve, leaving me exhausted. Mallory slumped to the ground and took a deep breath. So did I.

“I’ll be right up, mom.” I muttered under my breath.

“I can hear you, Sir Echo. You’re in a tunnel.”

I muttered under my breath, softer this time. Mallory spat a bit more blood and saliva onto the dusty floor. “Sorry about that, Mate. Yer’ easy to read. I needed ye’ angry quick to see if ye’ could do it on the fly.”

I watched him, and his lone tear suddenly made much more sense. It had hurt him to hurt me. But he had done it anyway.

Trust my actions
, he had said. Well, he had plum proven his character to me.

I thought about what he had done, and then began to laugh. “You taught me how to cheat.” I finally said.

He grunted agreement, climbing to his feet. “If ye’ can’t consciously use your new power, at least ye’ know how to cheat enough to keep yer’ friends safe. One of yer’ father’s most valued lessons.”

I lowered my head, nodding at the memory of my father. “Still, I’m sorry I reacted so strongly. You gave me a gift and I hurt you.”

“The best gifts come at a cost. Now, it’s time for you to get primped up. Big meeting today, whether ye’ like it or not. Just don’t get too angry with ‘em.” He winked, helping me to my feet again. “They’re only doing their jobs, and they do work for you.”

“Let’s see what crazy scheme they have lined up for me this month.” I muttered.

I made my way back to my room to rinse off and get ready to meet with Temple Industries’ Board of Directors for an urgent meeting they had set up last minute.

Which was never a good thing.

I needed to be finished with this quickly. I had more important things to do than worry about my company right now.

The satchel with the books never left my sight.

Even from the shower.

Chapter 10

I
clicked the pen clutched in my fist, the sound surprisingly loud in the packed room.

Then I did it about a dozen more times in the space of a minute, while gazing lazily out the window of the twelve-story building. I shifted uncomfortably in the chair for a few seconds, and then finally lifted my feet up onto the table itself, letting out a soft contented sigh. That earned me a few thinly veiled looks of disapproval, but Mallory had beaten me up pretty good this morning, and my whole body seemed to throb with a dull, but constant pain, like a form of Chinese water torture.