Meadow's Keep (The Gatekeepers Series) (20 page)

The sun disappeared and a cold drizzle helped slow the drive even further. Finally, Jasmine pointed and
Eryk hit the brakes and swung up a short drive to a closed gate. Hesitantly, he slipped his hand through the ivy and pressed the speaker button Jasmine assured him was hidden among the vines. He announced them and watched as the high iron gates slid back. As he eased through, a palatial, deep red brick mansion, complete with clinging ivy, loomed at the top of the winding drive. The shroud of overcast gray added just the right touch of drama.

Eryk let out a low whistle. “What did you say the Abbott-Ruthorford connection was?”

“Kind of a chicken-egg thing. Pull on around,” Jasmine pointed, indicating the front. There is a porte-cochere on either side. I use the one on the far side. Carport,” she added when he looked at her.

“I know what a porte-cochere is. Just surprised you did,” he teased.

Eryk eased the vehicle over the packed gravel and under the covering, pulling to the left, which would leave room for another car to pass through or stop beside him. Jasmine was already climbing out by the time he came around the car.

“Won’t you
at least let me
try
to be a gentleman?”

She just looked back at him with that come-hither grin of hers and opened the
massive wooden door. They stepped into a wide side hallway. The wood floor gleamed even in the low light.

“Missy?” Jasmine called out.

They walked down the hall and stepped into a gigantic foyer. Even by Eryk’s standards, having come from a family who thrived on
palatial
, this was huge. In the middle of the impressive room sat an ornately carved reception desk. An elegant woman looked over her shoulder and smiled at Jasmine. When she stood, she was easily five-foot-eleven and striking.

“Missy, this is Eryk.
Eryk, this is
Miss
Gwynn.”

Missy
took Eryk’s outstretched hand. “My name is Esmeralda, but Mr. Bask asks that I be Miss Gwynn or Ms. Gwynn. Jasmine couldn’t stand it when she was interning and thus started the Missy. He’s in the library, by the way. Do you want to wait in his office?”

“No. I want to show Eryk the library,
if that’s okay?” Jasmine waited for Missy’s nod and led Eryk to the wide stone steps. They split on a landing before curving back and heading to another floor.

“Nice to meet you,” Eryk said
over his shoulder as he followed Jasmine. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Missy punch a button, probably signaling Bask of their arrival.

Jasmine
stopped on the first landing, looking out of the expanse of windows. Far below and stretching back quite a ways was a formal English garden with a tall hedge maze in the very back. Eryk knew immediately this was something for which his father would gladly commit larceny. The elder Vreeland had been paying landscape architects a fortune for as long as he could remember to emulate such a spread. The estate had actually grown quite impressive over the years, but compared to this, it was paltry.

Eryk
’s quick movement kept Jasmine from falling into the window glass. He held onto her arm, steadying her. “You okay?”

She blinked and
looked from him to the window, frowning.

“What happened?” He wasn’t letting go of her arm until he knew she was all right.

“It happened again,” she said in a low tone, almost a whisper. “Let’s find Bask.”

H
e kept his hand on her back, walking one step down—just in case.

“I’m all right. Honest.
"

“Then
humor me,” he said and stayed close to her until they were on the large landing.

Jasmine nodded to a door. “That’s his office. The library’s this way.” She turned and headed down a hallway until she came to a set of tall, arched mahogany doors. She opened the right one and stepped inside.

The scent of oiled leather filled the room. Long rows of mahogany bookcases, filled with leather-bound tomes, towered in neat rows. There were large chairs with side tables and lamps set about for casual reading. Huge mahogany library tables, the grandeur of which he’d never seen, offered places to study. On one side sat several glass cases, displaying special volumes.

“Hey, old man, where are you?” Jasmine called. She followed an “in the fourth row, second stack,” winding her way around, obviously familiar with the huge facility until she came to an area with another library table. Bask stood, rolling down his sleeves. Books were scattered over the table, as were several legal pads. A laptop and a tablet computer were shoved aside in favor of pen and paper.

“Don’t get dressed on our account,” Jasmine teased, walked over
, and planted a kiss on the weathered cheek.

Bask smiled at her, turned and offered Eryk his hand. “I’ve been doing some research.”

“Isn’t that what you have peons for? Like me.” Jasmine quipped.

He rolled his eyes. “Not like you. Never like you. Lord help me if another
you
shows up.” He turned to Eryk. “Would you prefer to talk here or in my office?”

“Here’s fine. Wherever the information is,” he added.

“Then, please, take a seat.”

They walked around the table and
sat across from Bask while he stacked some books in different piles and organized his notes. “I wish I had more information for you, Eryk. I don’t. I started doing research on Dorian’s parentage years ago and kept coming to a dead end. I have a feeling Donald Vreeland has more information than I do at this point.”

Eryk
stilled his nerves. He felt the anger and agitation moving through him, unchecked. Jasmine’s hand moved slowly onto his leg and she gave a reassuring squeeze. He let his hand drop onto his leg and he entwined his fingers with hers. The energy drifted back and forth, forming a slower rhythm.

Bask watched t
he two people across from him. Their mutual support did not escape his attention—they were growing closer by the moment. He wanted a good relationship for Jasmine. But, he also wanted to make sure this was it, before he gave his approval.

“You have to remember,” Bask
said, “when you and Dorian were born, DNA matching wasn’t available. And honestly, with all the evidence pointing to Dorian being the only living child, we didn’t pursue...,” he faltered, a grimace crossing his brow. He took a breath and went on, “You changed things.” He pushed a couple of faxed sheets across the table toward Eryk. “We still don’t have any DNA from your birth mother. The woman who died around the time Dorian was found, we believe, was cremated. We are still looking into it.”

In the distance, a
door opened and shut. They could hear footfalls and Miss Gwynn appeared with a tray laden with glasses and a pitcher of iced tea. She set down coasters, drinks and napkins, and set a plate of scones on the only empty spot on the table. Without a word, she turned and left.

Jasmine took a scone, placed it on a napkin and s
lid it in front of Eryk before grabbing one for herself, all the while keeping her other hand linked with his.

Bask watched, expressionless.

“The papers in front of you are what I have found from the hospitals around the time of your birth, searching for twin births during that time. It took some digging, since most records have long been archived.” He tapped a highlighted section with his pen. “This one is of particular interest. A woman gave birth to a set of twins, one of which was stillborn. She gave her name as Jane Doe. The name of the surviving male child is listed as Dorian. Identification we found in the apartment listed the woman’s name as Janice Drake. Some paperwork we found on the child from a health clinic listed her child as Dorian Drake. We aren’t sure of anything at this point, other than the fact that you and Dorian have matching DNA.”

“May I keep this? Or have a copy?” He was holding the papers
Bask had pushed in front of him.

“That’s a copy. It’s yours.” He handed a manila envelope to Eryk.
“I’m sorry, Eryk. I wish I had more for you. It looks like someone went to a great deal of trouble to obliterate any records.”

“Thanks.”

Bask interrupted. “One more thing. I want you to stop by the lab. I need some blood and DNA samples. Also, I’d like a CAT scan and a MRI on both of you.”

“Where?
"

“Jasmine will show you.”

Eryk nodded and looked at Jasmine. “Your turn.”

She released his hand and
rested both of her hands on top of the table, set a pensive look on her face, and waited to get Bask’s full attention.

“Is there anything in all these journals
,” she let her eyes skim over the room, “about someone looking through the eyes of a bird?”

Bask
grabbed a legal pad, pulled it in front of him, and began writing. “You know the drill,” he said without looking up. “What happened? When? How many times?”

Jasmine
gave an exaggerated roll of her eyes and a slow shake of her head. “I didn’t take notes."

Bask glanced at her as if to say, “Why not?” but said nothing, waiting with pen poised
.

She tried to think back. “
Something happened at the fair. But, not like what happened on the plane. Yes, I believe the first time it happened was in the plane on the way here. I didn’t know what it was, then. All I knew was that I was outside the plane and I could see the ground. Then—it was the other night—I was going up to my apartment. I heard an owl and turned. Suddenly, I was flying through the air, looking at the ground. I could see bugs in the dark.” She turned to Eryk and smiled before finishing. “I’d opened the door, so when I lost my balance, I fell into my apartment, landing on my wrist. Eryk arrived, having heard me with his super hearing, came to my rescue and reset my wrist joint.” She moved her hand around in circles, demonstrating its apparent good health.

Eryk narrowed his eyes at her. She sent him a cocky smile and lifted a singular brow
, knowing what was coming next.

As if on cue, Bask asked,
“What super hearing?”

Jasmine’s smile turned into a full
-blown grin.

“Hyperacus
is. Since I was very young.” Eryk watched the man flip a sheet and start scribbling like crazy. He decided to turn the attention back to Jasmine. “Jasmine’s last episode occurred right before we came here. Oh, and that moment on the stairs.” Eryk narrowed his emerald eyes and grinned right back at her.

Bask stopped writing and looked up. He appeared
to weigh his thoughts, torn between which avenue to pursue. He glanced down at his previous notes before flipping the sheet of yellow legal paper back, poising his pen. “Okay, tell me what happened,” he said to Jasmine.

“It was like
in the airplane, except, I was sitting on the balcony, finishing my coffee when, out of nowhere, I was looking at a leaf blowing in a gutter. When I shifted—that’s the only word for it—I was sitting in the chair. There was a hawk on the railing.”

Bask started to say something and stopped when Jasmine held up her hand. “Then, it happened here, on the landing.”

“Here?” Bask looked up at her.

“Yep. Right here in Abbott House. I was looking out the window over the grounds and felt the shift start. This time it didn’t follow through. Eryk grabbed me before I fell into the window.” Her color heightened. “I get kinda dizzy at first.”

“I can understand that. What else?”

She sat straighter. “Isn’t that enough?” She threw up her hands in frustration. “In the last year I’ve gained abilities I’ve never had
before and now this.”

Bask had the courtesy to look sheepish. “Sorry. Sometimes, I get carried away.”

Jasmine smiled. “You think?”

He made another note and closed the legal pad.
Moving several books on the table, he pulled out a copy of a drawing and put it in front of Eryk. “This is a sketch of a Gulatega.”

Eryk looked at the black and white drawing
. The drawing depicted a cross between a cat and a raccoon. The snout was very short and the eyes were large and long. No fur had been drawn in, but a shadow had been added around it.

He studied it and set it aside
, running a hand through his jet black hair. That errant wave Jasmine found so beguiling, fell forward. “Okay. I know I’m different. But, there are many people who are different. People who absorb electricity and release it—people who attract lightning.” He noticed Jasmines expression and added, “No, I’ve never been hit by lightning.”

He waved his hand toward
the sketch. “But this…first, a dimensional portal…then, these creatures. I just don’t know. I am having trouble wrapping my mind around this.”

“Wait here.” Jasmine
got up and disappeared down one of the isles. She reappeared with several large volumes in her arms. He rose to help but she dumped them on the table, grabbed one and started flipping through it.

He sat back down and waited. Bask didn’t say a word.
When she found what she was looking for, she slid it in front of him. It was another sketch of the cat-like creature, curled up. The next page was a watercolor. The creature was on all fours, the violet outline surrounding it appeared more opaque than the creature. Its eyes glowed with the same violet color.