The Lost Chalice (The Relic Seekers Book 3) (19 page)

He supposed he’d have to tell Kendall about that one day. He had a lot of past sins to confess. If he was around long enough. The hug he’d witnessed at the graveyard crept into his head again. Nathan had a bond with Kendall that would never break. Not even death had stopped it before. Now that Adam was alive, nothing would separate them. And now there was a possibility that Jake could be the Reaper’s son. What chance did he have with her?

He felt the nausea coming and put the thought out of his head, focusing on the ancient city with its beautiful buildings and grand churches. But the sights just reminded him that this wasn’t a vacation. It was a rescue mission. He could only pray that the Reaper wouldn’t hurt her until he got what he wanted. The chalice. Thank God she didn’t know where it was.

He looked at the woman lying in the bed,
her
bed, and he felt the loss as fresh as he had that terrible day. After all this time he still loved Maryanne. No matter how many centuries he would live, even until the end of time, he would always love her. Some souls were meant for each other. They had been, until she found out about him. He had many regrets, so many things he wished he had done differently. Perhaps if he had explained, she would have understood. Perhaps not.

He touched his cheek, feeling the rough texture of skin that had aged the instant he had used the wrong chalice to drink from the Fountain of Youth. Kendall had known it was the wrong chalice. She had lied to him. He should be angry with her for tricking him. He should kill her, but he needed her to find the real chalice, and in spite of her deception, he admired her spirit.

He limped to the bed, his bones aching. And the aging wasn’t limited to the outside. He had grown older inside, his organs and tissues and bones. His mind and his abilities weren’t as sharp. For the first time in his life, he felt like an old man. He needed the chalice quickly, before more damage was done. He placed his hands on Kendall’s head, softly so as not to wake her. He closed his eyes and sank into her mind.

He didn’t find out where the chalice was. She didn’t know yet, but he was confident it would come. Her gifts were extraordinary.

“Time to wake up, Kendall.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

K
ENDALL WAS IN
a room filled with chalices. Big ones, little ones, gold, silver, wood. Each was beautiful in its own way. As she explored, she heard someone call her name, and she looked around for Adam.

It must be Adam. She wouldn’t be exploring a room like this without him.

Then she felt darkness closing in around her, and she was afraid.

“Adam!”

Kendall awoke to find she was in a large room. Not the chalice room. The bed she lay in was quilted, an odd design, kind of retro. Her thoughts were foggy as she tried to remember how she’d gotten here. The last thing she remembered was being at Thomas’s town house and going to look for Brandi. Kendall sat up, alarmed. Brandi had told her everything was all right, and then her face had changed. Had Brandi done this? No. She hated the Reaper.

“You are awake, finally.”

Kendall spun around and saw him sitting in a chair on the other side of the bed. His face looked different than it had in the temple, but she knew he was the Reaper. He was dressed elegantly, his hair short, his eyes kind. But those weren’t his real eyes. Nothing about him was real. “Where am I?”

He sat back, casually, as if they were just visiting. “You’re in my home.”

“Where?”

“I can’t tell you that. Unless you help me.” He spread his hands, which were wrinkled. “Then I’ll not only tell you where you are, I’ll share my home with you. I’ll share everything with you, Kendall. Power . . . knowledge . . . the world.”

Her head felt thick. She needed the vial of water Raphael had given her, but she could feel her pocket was empty. The Reaper must have taken it. “What if I don’t want it?”

He laughed, a soft rolling sound like water in a stream. “You may be surprised to find what you like. I wasn’t always like this.” His face changed slightly, then he shrugged and sat forward with a look of calculation behind his brown eyes. Brown? Or were they blue? “What do you want, Kendall?”

“I want to go home.”

“Would you rather have your friends?”

“Where are they? Did you take them too?”

“Perhaps. But what if I offer you their lives in exchange for your help? You find the relics for me, I spare your friends.”

He said it in such a calm way, it made her fear worse. This man was old, probably more than a thousand years old. How could she fight him? She twitched her fingers, wondering if she could do her trick again. She’d done it twice. Once she’d knocked the Reaper down, the other time, Raphael.

The Reaper looked at her fingers. “That won’t work again. You caught me unprepared last time. So, do you want to hear me out?”

What else could she do? “Tell me what you want.”

“I want the spear and the chalice, for now.”

“I don’t know where the spear is.”

“I daresay you could find out. You have a lot of power where Nathan Larraby is concerned.” Nathan’s name sounded strange rolling off the Reaper’s tongue.

“He won’t tell me,” she said, and then immediately worried that she had focused the Reaper’s attention on Nathan.

“Then let’s start with the chalice. We’ll deal with the spear later.”

“And if I won’t?”

He leaned closer. Kendall didn’t know what color his eyes were this time, but they weren’t kind. “Your friends will suffer.”

Kendall licked her lips and wiggled her fingers.

Before she could attempt to blast the man, the Reaper moved his hands, and she felt herself falling asleep. “No—”

She stood at the window looking over the estate. Her stomach was a knot of nerves as it had been ever since she’d discovered his secret. How had she not known what evil lay hidden beneath that beloved exterior? And now, now there was so much at stake. She closed her eyes. So very much at stake. She had to get away before it was too late. There was no way around the agonizing decision. This is what must be done.

Kendall woke up in the same bedroom as before, but this time she was alone . . . except for the woman who had been in her head. The frightened woman. She had been a prisoner here too. Not locked up, but something had held her here. Who was she? Maryanne?

There was a tap at the door, and someone called Kendall’s name. A man stepped in. He was young and muscular. He wore a suit and a gun holstered at his waist. “I am Aaron. I have brought your food.” He carried a tray to the bed and set it down.

Kendall reached for the tray and deliberately touched his hand. “Can you tell me where I am?” she asked.

He pulled his hand back and looked toward her, but didn’t meet her eyes. “No.”

He’d been warned about her gifts. So much for reading him. She raised her hands a few inches off her lap, but her fingers felt numb. Had the Reaper done something to them? “I just want to know where I am,” she said, trying to sound nonthreatening. “Are we in Prague?”

His eyes flickered. “I can’t tell you.”

But he already had. She was in Prague, in the bedroom of a woman who had been terrified of the Reaper. Were Jake and Nathan here too? Brandi? Had he hurt them? They must be alive if the Reaper was using their lives as a bargaining tool. But for how long?

“Can you tell me if a woman stayed in this room before?” Kendall asked Aaron.

“I think his . . .” He stopped. “I don’t know. But I would make a suggestion. Do what he says. Tell him what he wants to know. You should eat something. He’ll be here soon to talk to you again.” He closed the door.

Kendall didn’t plan to be here when he arrived. She had nothing. No weapons, mental or otherwise, but she had one thing that could help her. She was certain the woman who’d been here before had known a way out. If Kendall could connect with her, she could find it. She got up and started moving around the room. She grabbed handfuls of the rich, feminine covers, touched the retro furnishings, walked barefoot on the shag carpeting, and tried to connect with the woman. If she ever needed a vision, it was now.

She got brief glimpses of the woman from the items in the room. She was probably in her thirties, very intelligent. Kendall needed more than that. She tried the first of two interior doors and found a bathroom, which she quickly made use of since she didn’t know when she’d have the chance again. The second door was locked. She sensed the woman’s presence stronger near that door. Working with the butter knife from the tray, Kendall fiddled with the lock until she heard a click.

She’d hoped she would find a way out, a back entrance, but it was a closet. A huge, walk-in closet filled with clothes, gowns, shoes, and handbags as if the woman still lived there. Kendall saw a pair of wooden clogs. Everything was old, not today’s style, from twenty years ago or more. As Kendall touched the items, she felt the woman’s presence so vividly she almost glimpsed a face. The woman had loved someone, fiercely, and she was terrified. Not for herself, but for someone else. That was why she needed to leave. Kendall strained for more, but she couldn’t see her face or get a name. She knew that the woman was dead. Had the Reaper killed her?

Kendall dug through a dressing table looking for something else to touch. Jackpot. She found brushes and combs lying as if they had just been placed there minutes before. Had he kept it this way to honor her memory? She had just found a small photo when the door to the room opened.

Without looking closely at the image, Kendall shoved the photo into her pocket. She needed a weapon, but there wasn’t time to search for scissors or something sharp. Her eyes swept over the handbags and shoes, and she grabbed the wooden clogs. They might put a dent in someone’s head, unless it was the Reaper. One in each hand, she quickly moved behind the closet door, heart thudding so loud she knew the visitor must hear it.

It wasn’t the Reaper. Aaron stepped inside, and Kendall hit him on the head with all of her strength. The wooden clog made a solid thunk, and Aaron dropped with a groan. Kendall rolled him over until she could reach his gun. She removed it and looked for something to tie the guard up. She had to settle for stockings. Not the best, but Adam had shown her lots of things about knots. After securing the guard’s hands, she gagged him with a silk blouse. His eyes were still closed, so she checked his wallet and saw his ID. Czech Republic.

Gripping the gun, she closed the door, wedged a chair under the knob, and slipped from the room. It probably wouldn’t stop Aaron for long, but it might give her a few extra minutes to get away. Get away? To where? She didn’t even have money to make a phone call. She should have kept Aaron’s wallet. And what if the Reaper had taken Nathan and Jake? And Brandi? Kendall knew Brandi wasn’t behind her kidnapping. She hated the Reaper as much as anyone. How had he made himself look like her?

With no clear idea where to go, Kendall sneaked past several rooms, all lavish, with elaborate furniture and objects she would have loved to examine if she weren’t trying to escape. The older items whispered to her, but she blocked them out. She didn’t want to hear from inanimate objects. She wanted to hear Nathan and Jake.

She crept along, listening and then opening doors, but she didn’t see them. In fact, she hadn’t run into anyone. A place this opulent must require a lot of care. From the appearance of the interior, it would seem the property was a castle or a palace. The Reaper probably didn’t want many people around to discover his secrets.

She’d grown so accustomed to the silence, the crash startled her. It sounded as if something heavy had fallen. She ducked into the nearest room and quietly closed the door. Holding her breath, she waited. There were other noises, thumps, and thuds.

It was quiet after that, and she decided to slip out and see if it was clear. Her hand was on the knob when she heard soft footsteps outside the door, stealthy, like someone hunting for her. Aaron must have freed himself. Anyone who worked for the Reaper must be trained well enough to escape a pair of dated stockings.

Tightening her grip on the gun, she eased back against the wall. Her free hand flexed, and she rubbed her fingers together, priming them. The knob turned, and the door began to open. As soon as she saw the top of the man’s head, she slammed the gun over his skull.

“It’s a bloody tourist attraction,” Nathan said. They had found the town hall Raphael remembered seeing before, and although it was evening, there were several tourists about. “What would the Reaper be doing with a gateway here?”

“It may be that he discovered a natural gateway,” Raphael said.

“Like the maze,” Jake said.

“What makes them?” Nathan asked.

“I don’t know. They’re just there, like the mountains and the sky. There are mysteries humans can’t explain.”

“Is there a way to destroy them?” Nathan asked.

“I’ll have to find a way,” Raphael said. “The maze is protected, but I can’t allow an unsecured gateway to the fountain.”

“If the Reaper can teleport, why did he need a portal to get to the Fountain of Youth? Couldn’t he just teleport himself directly there and to the castle, avoiding the sentinels?”

“He can’t teleport past the statues,” Raphael said. “That takes mental ability, and the sentinels would block him, but a natural portal, or a created one, that doesn’t require the same power.”

It wasn’t easy searching for a portal in a tourist hotspot, especially with Raphael there. He either inspired fear or lust. Several women flirted with him. Whether or not they spoke English, it was obvious what they wanted. Jake and Nathan got more than a few smiles too.

“Now I see why you have to transport yourself,” Jake said. Nathan wasn’t much better. His eyes kept changing. “Might as well be traveling with Santa.”

Both men gave him a quelling stare from their amber-colored eyes.

After they had examined every section of the town hall, frightening off some tourists, Jake knew they’d hit a dead end. “This is getting us nowhere. We need to ask someone where we can find Cedric Alexander.” According to Nathan’s people, that’s who owned the private jet. Cedric may or may not be the Reaper’s alias, but the lead was the only one they had for now. “Stay here and try not to scare anybody while I ask.” Jake found a man who conducted tours. He spoke English, and when Jake asked about Cedric Alexander, he told Jake about a château not far away.

“Few kilometers that way,” he said, pointing. He gave them directions. “It’s hard to find. He’s a private person, from what I hear. Doesn’t like company. Not sure I’d pop in on him. I’ve heard strange stories about people who disappear. But if you’re determined, look for a statue of a knight at the gate. The road’s there.”

Statue? A souvenir from his past?

The man was right. It was hard to find, but they located the statue. It was not like the Protettori statues. This one was smaller, but the figure had a sword like a knight. A tall stone fence adjoined a heavy gate. Jake estimated it at about ten feet high. “Doesn’t look very welcoming,” he said as the three men studied the place from their hired car, which was parked a safe distance down the street. “We need to do some surveillance first, find out what we’re up against.”

“How do we plan to get inside?” Nathan asked. “There are cameras at the gate. I’m sure he’ll have a top-notch security system.”