Guardian (19 page)

I turned and ran toward the spot, leaving Ian’s layer with a small whoosh of surprised air, and stopped in the place where Etta had been standing only seconds earlier. The Watcher’s ugly face shimmered into view.

I’d never seen such a beautiful sight in my long, long, life. “Watcher! Finally.”

The visage hanging on the air before me folded into a frown. “Etta? Etta, where are you? I followed your power surge. Why haven’t you reported in, girl?”

I just stared at him for a long moment and then tried again. “Watcher, it’s me, Nuria. I’m here. I need you to come get me. Someone needs to take this damned bracelet off me and…”

“Damn it, Etta! Stop screwing around with me. I need your help in finding Nuria. The Council is having convulsions.”

I felt a warm hand on my shoulder but I refused to look at Ian. Tears filled my eyes and I blinked rapidly, trying to disperse them before he could see.

“He can’t see you with the bracelet on, Nuria.”

“No! Dammit! It’s not possible.”

He pulled me up against his body again, wrapping his arms around my waist from behind. Something touched my hair. It couldn’t possibly have been his lips.

I shook my head, feeling more lost than I’d ever felt before. Then my eyes widened and I swung around. “You! He can see you, right?”

Ian’s chocolate brown gaze was filled with pain. He shook his head. “He only saw me before because you were in the room with me.”

I surged away from him and threw myself at the portal. I fell clean through it and landed in the dirt. I lay there, tears falling freely down my cheeks, and listened as the Watcher called for Etta.

Then the portal started to shimmer and finally disappeared with a tiny pop.

Ian walked over and reached a hand down to me.

It occurred to me that I should refuse it. Just lay there on the ground until I died, which in my case would be a really long time. Unless…my eyes widened in sudden fear. “Ian!” I grabbed his hand, allowing him to pull me to my feet. “Am I mortal now? With this damned metal on my arm?”

He shook his head. “Nay. It only dulls your powers, it can’t change your basic makeup.”

Relief flooded me. I realized, at the rate I was going, that I might need a thousand years or so to figure out how to get the damned bracelet off.

Ian put an arm around my shoulders and turned us toward the cave. We walked in silence for a moment. Until I remembered I had a bone to pick with him. “You were following me. Skulking around behind me.”

He grinned, shrugging. “It’s not like I had a choice. I was in the heated pool and I started to double over in pain. You forget you’ve attached a very painful tether to me.”

Oops!
I looked at him and realized his soft, black hair was still damp, and he wore only his faery breeches. Even his feet were bare.
“
Oh,” I said sheepishly “sorry.”

He just shook his head.

Another thought occurred. “Wait a minute! Why were you hidden in a layer?”

He stopped, frowning, and placed both hands on my shoulders, turning me to him. He leaned close, putting a hand on either side of my face. “Because it was the fastest way to get out of pain.”

“Oh!” I gave him another sheepish grin.

I started to turn.

“And…”

I stopped, arching an eyebrow at him.

“I wanted to see if you and the angel would plot against me.”

A range of emotions flitted through me. Predominant among them was anger for his distrust. But then I realized he was being more honest with me than he needed to be and I finally shrugged, sighing heartily. It would be nice if my life wasn’t always rife with intrigue and distrust.

“Okay.” I finally answered, earning a bright smile from my sexy Elfaery.

“Okay?” He questioned as his beefy arm dropped around my shoulders again and we reengaged our feet, heading toward the cave.

I grinned back. “Yeah, okay. I can’t exactly blame you for being suspicious. I mean we did start out working together to entrap you.”

He nodded. “Yes you did.”

Then I shrugged. “And who knows, maybe she and I knew you were there the whole time…and planned the whole thing to throw you off.”

He stopped walking and I continued on, throwing a coy smile over my shoulder as I dipped my head, and slid into the cool, dim interior of the cave, leaving a very perplexed, but eminently sexy, Elfaery in my wake.

Etta was waiting for us when we entered the cave. She had her scrawny little arms crossed over her flat chest and a mean, bulldog expression on her monster face. I smiled at her and gave her a little finger wave just to piss her off.

I thought I heard her growl. But I couldn’t be absolutely sure. It might have been my stomach. “I’m hungry.”

Ian came up behind me. “You’re always hungry.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s not my fault. Using electrical charge takes a lot of energy.”

Etta’s scrawny arms uncrossed and dropped to her sides, her tiny hands bunching into fists. “Where have you two been?”

Ian and I looked at each other. He shrugged.

“Watching you talk to Heaven. What are you up to, Etta?”

Her face turned the color of her robes, without the shimmery quality. “I…I…”

I shook my head. “Never mind. We need your help.”

She frowned. “You need
my
help? After abandoning me over and over again. Causing me to be captured, not once but twice, and imprisoned in the faery dungeons…”

“Well to be fair they were caves…” Ian added helpfully.

“…starved, beaten, attacked by Sprites…”

Ian and I snorted. Etta cast a hate-filled glare in our direction. “It’s not funny, Sprites are scary.”

I bit my lip to keep from laughing outright. “You want scary you should face off with a cave full of Harpies.”

Her dark eyes narrowed. “I was there too if you’ll recall.”

My face flushed guiltily. “Oh yeah. Did I ever thank you for saving our lives?”

She just glared at me.

Ian stepped around me. “Look, Etta, this is the deal. Something’s going on in Olympus. Something big. And we need to stop it.”

She shrugged, looking petulant. “What does that have to do with me?”

I threw Ian a look. “We don’t know who we can trust on the Mount. And if we don’t do something there’s going to be a major war.”

“Humans will get caught in the crossfire.” Ian added.

Etta finally started to look interested. “So?”

I took a deep breath. “So we need you to contact ‘Him’. And ask for His help.”

Her eyes widened to popping point. “You’re kidding right? You want the one, true God to get involved in your little intrigues on Mount Olympus?”

I frowned at her. “First of all, that’s the last thing we
want
. But we don’t think we have a choice. We think there’s a good chance that one…” I glanced at Ian, “…or more of the gods is plotting against Zeus. You know what will happen if there’s an open war for Zeus’ seat. The whole balance of power will shift and wobble, not just in Olympus, but everywhere. It could spur a breakdown in all control, and humans will be cast into the resulting tumult, probably feeling its effects for centuries.”

Etta glared at me for a long moment, her dark eyes slowly filling with understanding. “You must be very desperate if you want
Him
to get involved.”

Ian nodded. “We are, yes.”

Etta finally sighed. “I’ll need to go to Him. He’ll be reluctant to become involved. I’ll have to persuade him…”

“There is one condition though…” I held my breath as the guardian’s eyes grew stormy.

“You think to impose conditions on the one true God!” Her wings lifted and gave a couple of thunderous beats upon the air. She started to glow and I watched her double in size within mere seconds.

I put my hands up in a motion of placation. “Calm down Etta. Don’t you see, I must insist. Ian and I have to be included in whatever happens. We have to do everything we can to keep this from reaching an unacceptable conclusion. With His help we can hopefully find out who’s at the bottom of this treachery and stop him or her before it becomes necessary to upend the whole hierarchy of Olympus.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Ian and I swung around at the sound of a deep voice behind us.

I heard Etta’s robes rustling as she slid back to her normal size.

My mouth opened but my throat clenched on his name.

Keane, Monad Warrior stood in the mouth of the cave glaring at us. His hostile gaze swept over Ian and then turned to Etta and I. “What’s going on Nuria? And who the hell is this man?”

Chapter
Eleven

Old Friends and New Enemies

I
smiled at my fellow warrior. “Hey Keane. I’m really glad to see
you!
How’d you find us?”

He scowled at Ian a beat or two longer and then turned back to me. “The Watcher sent me. He was worried he wasn’t able to see anything when he followed Etta’s power surge.”

We all looked at Etta and she looked away guiltily. I wondered again what that conversation with the sky had been all about. “I was just checking in.” She mumbled.

Keane glanced at me and I shrugged.

He glanced at Ian.

Ian offered Keane his hand. “Ian Lavelle.”

Keane ignored Ian’s hand and looked at me. “The human you were sent to find?”

The unspoken question was, of course, why was the human still alive?

I nodded. “Yes, Mr. Lavelle has gotten himself in over his head with something and Etta and I have been trying to help him extract himself.
Don’t ask for details, Keane Warrior Monad. I cannot give them to you. You’ll need to trust me in this.

Keane’s ocean blue gaze sparkled with curiosity but he gave me a slight nod.
You promise to tell me as soon as you can?

I nodded.

Aloud he said. “What have you three been up to? You have not checked in with the Watcher. He is not happy.”

I sighed, showing Keane the metal on my wrist. “I’m cut off from my powers. I screamed at the Watcher when he appeared but he couldn’t see me.”

Keane grabbed my wrist and looked at the plain band. “ ‘Tis a simple power block. Any faery should be able to remove it. Have you gone to Tana?”

I felt the first stirrings of doubt and narrowed my eyes at Ian.

He ignored me, staring at Keane. “So you are a Warrior Monad too?”

Keane narrowed his blue gaze suspiciously. “I do not know of what you speak, human. I am a warrior yes, but Monads are spirit tales. They do not exist.”

Ian grinned. “As angels don’t exist?”

All eyes swung to Etta, who stood at the back of the cave in full angel gear, wings drooping at her back.

Keane glanced at me. “He sees her as she is?”

I nodded. “He’s not human. He’s half elf, half faery.”

The droop-winged creature at the back of the cave gasped.

I grinned because I’d figured it out before Etta had. One point for me.

Keane’s eyes widened. “It’s not possible.”

Ian grinned. “I assure you it is.”

Keane walked around Ian, examining him like a viral cell under a human microscope. “Has he powers?”

Ian scowled. “He has ears.”

I bit my lip to keep from smiling. For all Keane’s skill, he’d grown a bit snooty over the centuries. He viewed his advanced spirituality as an excuse to remove himself from the consideration of such things as the thoughts, feelings, and aspirations of those he considered beneath him. It simplified his life. But I’d always felt a bit sorry for him. He missed a lot of good stuff by removing himself from those things.

“Ian has very impressive powers.” I glanced at my handsome Elfaery. “And even more impressive friends.”

Ian grinned at me.

Keane’s gaze swung to my face. “Tana?”

I nodded. “And Faerydae.”

Keane’s eyes widened but, to his credit, he merely nodded, hiding his surprise well. “Then he is well placed to find out what’s going on.”

Ian frowned. “You would think so wouldn’t you?”

I bit my lip to keep from smiling. “We’re working on it, Keane. You can return to the Watcher and tell him I have a plan and, as soon as I’m able, I’ll have this thing removed…” I lifted my metal bound wrist. “…and provide my report to him.”

Keane fixed a suspicious glare on Ian but said nothing. Ian’s shoulders went to square and his handsome chin lifted in affront. When the fingers of his hand twitched I decided I’d better intervene. I grabbed Keane’s arm.

“I’ll walk you out, Keane.”

Keane looked at my hand on his arm and, for a moment I thought he would shrug it off and ignore the unspoken plea in my voice. But finally he gave me a smile and turned toward the cave entrance with me. “As you wish, Nuria.”