Veil of Justice, Shadows of Justice Book 3 (13 page)

"Did I say something?"

"Nothing helpful," Jaden said. "We found
herbs and stuff inside Nathan's car. A couple of them match this
list. Care to explain?"

Kelly knew they were all good people; she
just hadn't planned on dealing with a team. She focused on the
common goal of making Nathan better. "I didn't know what to expect,
so I brought a variety of supplies. You make it sound like I'm
dealing full-caff coffee or something when I've never seen this
list."

Jaden crossed her arms and waited.

Kelly tried again. "Those weren't drugs in
the car. Well, not exactly."

"Then what exactly?"

"You sound like my mother," Kelly
snapped.

"So you do have one then."

"Stop it," Petra said, coming between them.
"You're worse than the guys."

Gideon and Brian objected, but she sent them
a quelling look. Kelly admired the skill. Her brothers never shut
up that quickly.

"She's had you worried for months," Jaden
said to her sister.

Petra waved off Jaden's concern, turning to
Kelly. "You broke my brother out of prison. That alone earns you
some latitude. Is there anything on our list here that makes sense
to you?" She turned the potato so Kelly could read it better.

Reluctantly, Kelly moved closer to the group.
It was like being swallowed by a forest. Only Petra was of average
height, but even she had an inch or two over Kelly's smaller
stature.

"Is your hair blue?" Brian asked, getting
Jaden's elbow in his ribs for the trouble.

Kelly ignored him. Her black hair always took
on that deep blue sheen when it was wet. Concentrating, she studied
the list, trying to think like her herbalist grandmother. There
were seven ingredients, the right number to lend power to the
concoction. Too bad Mira wasn't around now to just lay hands on
Nathan. "Who sent you this list?"

"We're not sure," Jaden grumbled. "We've got
someone trying to trace the signal back."

Kelly hoped her next questions had answers.
"Do you have the Paracuron formula yet?"

Gideon answered. "Not entirely."

This obviously aggravated him, because he
stalked away muttering about lab rats. Petra just smiled and
smoothed a hand over the swell of her pregnant belly.

"Okay, then. Do you have a sample of Nathan's
blood?" She didn't hold out much hope. From what she'd seen of
Nathan's battle with the paralytic agent any clue in blood work was
unlikely. Smart viruses were designed to continuously circumvent a
patient's immune response.

Petra slid a printout to Kelly. "For all the
good it's done. Lorine is working on isolating the parts of
Paracuron and attacking it with the ingredients on this list."

Kelly skimmed the blood report. Petra was
right; the values were all within normal range.

"I don't want to leave him open to Kristoff's
influence any longer than necessary."

"I don't understand why he's paralyzed again.
He was up and feeling fine shortly before you found us."

Petra's eyes were wide and a little sad. "He
said as much, but I didn't believe him."

"But you believe her?" Jaden grumbled.

"She isn't the enemy." Petra watched her
sister stalk to the table, muttering into her coffee cup. Petra
whispered to Kelly, "I think the full-caff ramps her up a little
too much."

"I can hear you," Jaden said, looking a
little less irritated.

Kelly studied the hologram, using the touch
pad on the potato base to move things around. "There are a lot of
possibilities here. Five of these are age-old natural stimulants
and the other two speed absorption. But the combinations,
well…"

"Where's the decoder ring when you need one?"
Jaden complained.

Kelly looked from Petra to Jaden and back,
confused.

"Previous life thing," Pet whispered.

"But my hearing's still perfect."

Petra snorted and Kelly realized they'd grown
into a true sister relationship. Watching them made her want to
celebrate for them and cry for her own loss all at once. Where was
the temper she relied on to burn off extra emotion?

"We'll work it out," Brian insisted to the
room in general. "It's all good."

Kelly glanced up, unnerved that he'd chosen
words so close to her father's favorite phrase. She cleared her
throat. "Have you given Nathan any of this stuff yet?"

"No. We didn't want to make it worse."

Kelly toyed with the ingredients on the
counter, turning her mind back to the days when her Grandma tried
to teach her the basics of plant properties and purposes.
Unfortunately, all Kelly had wanted to learn were the more complex
fighting combinations and the battle strategies her brothers were
learning.

What to do with five stimulants
? She
continued to study the assortment of dried and fresh plants. Some
of these leaves were less than a day from being parted from their
parent plants. Potency would vary by the processing method. So what
to do? Should they try a tea, an inhalant, what?

She shifted and her hand brushed Petra's arm.
The empath gasped and sagged, her eyes glazing instantly. Jaden
caught her before she hit the floor.

Gideon came charging back into the room, some
husband instinct alerting him to his wife's trouble. He glared down
at Kelly. "What did you do to her?"

"It wasn't intentional," Jaden assured him
from her place on the floor, surprising Kelly with the certain,
automatic defense. "Just a brush of fingers. I'm surprised it hit
her so hard."

Gideon grumbled, chafing Petra's hand between
his palms. "She's doing too much. Tells me crap like pregnancy is
no reason to slow down."

"Women have babies all the time, Gideon."
Petra's voice was strong enough to ease the worry lines creasing
his forehead. "And it's not Ca-Kelly's fault. I'd been running wide
open."

"Why in god's name would you be doing
that?"

Petra ignored his outburst, but let her
husband help her to her feet. When she was situated again, Kelly
felt her piercing assessment and knew all hope of pretense was
gone. Petra had gleaned something. Hopefully it was just her real
name. She glanced around for an excuse to leave and came up
empty.

"Being there would not have helped," Petra
began, those wide eyes, full of compassion, held Kelly immobile.
"The rest of you out. Now."

Kelly's admiration of Petra soared. The quiet
authority and underlying determination Kelly found so magnetic were
in full force. But she didn't need the Serena lecture round two, so
she diverted her eyes and her attention to the plants.

"Kelly, I've studied and researched records
of the map box Kristoff had me looking for in the city of Petra.
I've spent some time on it every day since then. I figure you're
connected to it somehow, based on the emblem we found on your
dirk."

Kelly was shocked, unreasonably so. Of course
Petra would have looked into whatever might have sent her running.
Kelly hated herself for lying to an employer and a friend. More,
she hated that she wasn't better at it.

"Your father said all things work for
good."

Kelly just nodded miserably. Did everyone
have to point that out? She'd grown up with the man, she knew all
his pet phrases.

"What else did he tell you?"

Kelly's temper snapped and caught like dry
tinder. Suddenly she was on her feet, yelling, all her control
burned away. "He told me I lack self-control. I lack respect for
tradition. It's a man's job," she sneered, ticking off every point
on her fingers, "I'm a woman in case I hadn't noticed and I would
never be allowed to guard the maps."

"No." Petra reached out, taking Kelly's hand.
"He said you 'could' never be allowed to guard the maps."

Kelly opened her mouth to argue, but the
flash of fury was already fading. Was Petra right? "Is there a
difference?"

"I believe so. I saw something…you were very
young and eavesdropping on your parents."

Kelly pushed her hands through her hair and
tried to recall whatever Pet had just seen. No luck. How did the
empath see what she couldn't?

"They were arguing over you," Petra said
gently.

Kelly could explain how rarely her parents
argued, but she knew Petra didn't see nonexistent memories either.
She held her tongue, waiting to hear more.

"You'd been hurt. You needed stitches and
your father was angry with your mother for risking the 'key'. That
was the day they decided to duplicate the map box. An extra layer
of precaution to keep the treasures safe."

Why would Petra see something and cling to
it, when she didn't even remember?

She'd known, only through second hand
testimonials until today, that Petra was the best at this sort of
thing. It still irked her to find nothing in her own heart and mind
to support the theory.

"Turns out it was a wise move. If I interpret
this correctly, Kelly, you are the key."

She snorted.
First a cup, now a key
.
This was all so bogus. "The key to his every irritation, maybe. I
spent my life training, proving my dedication and he sent me away.
Without consideration, without pretending to care what I'd learned.
He just sent me away. He wouldn't have done that if I were so
valuable."

"He would," Petra insisted in that quiet way
of hers, "if having you and the maps in the same room was a bad
combination."

Kelly's mind was baffled and her heart
battered as she struggled to come up with the memory Petra
referenced. She played with the fresh and dried leaves, using
pinches of them to make rune-like shapes on the countertops.

"We should focus on helping Nathan," Kelly
said, hoping to nudge Petra off this track.

"What do you propose?"

Kelly jumped on the topic change. "Let's dose
him with the stimulants. I say we brew them up and see what helps.
Start with the least volatile and go from there."

"You think a stimulant will work against the
paralytic?"

"I don't see why not." She shrugged. "If you
think of the paralytic agent as a downer, then yeah, a stimulant
would counter the effect."

"What's the fastest delivery method?"

Kelly stared at the list on the screen. Seven
plants. In different stages, fresh or dry, they had varying degrees
of potency. "It's not simple."

"Welcome to our dilemma. I think Jaden was
right about the decoder ring."

It would make it easier. "These could all be
solitary suggestions listed in preferred order of treatment. I say
trying a tea of each single plant is the safest first step."

"It's an option." Petra consulted another
sheet of paper, this one more like parchment. "I have another idea.
Would you chop that sprig of mint, please?" She handed Kelly the
knife, but bobbled it and sliced Kelly's finger open.

"Ow! Oh, damn," Kelly added, covering the
wound so it wouldn't drip on everything.

Petra grabbed her wrist and held it firm
until Kelly's blood dripped onto an old weathered document.

SIX

Man can hardly even recognize the devils of
his own creation. Albert Schweitzer

"What are you doing?" Kelly cried. "That
looks like it should be in a museum."

"Oh, definitely." Petra smiled. "It came from
one. A private collection, actually. But look."

Kelly forgot the blood, the finger, and most
of her recent bizarre life as a red trail blazed across the paper,
bringing different symbols to life. "What the –? Is that
Latin?"

"Yes. And you've just illuminated a map that
leads to Noah's ark."

The red line of her blood drifted apart from
the fading ink of the original path noted so long ago. "No way,"
she said breathlessly. Kelly studied the faded writing, trying to
make sense of the symbols. Her curiosity was piqued and for a
moment it was like she'd never had to leave Petra. "Where'd you get
that? Did someone hire you to find it?"

"No. Someone volunteered it so I could test
my theory." Petra's soft laughter jolted her out of the reverie.
"You, Kelly, are the key to the map's secrets. I believe it's a
genetic factor in your family."

"That's so weird," she said taking the damp
towel from Petra to staunch the bleeding. "Why wouldn't he have
just told me?"

"I'm sure he meant to. He loves you –"

"Yeah. I know." She glanced at Petra and then
peeked at the wound. It was already closing, surely courtesy of
Mira. Keeping the towel on for privacy, she started separating
herbs to steep for a tea for Nathan. "I’m really not as bitter as
that came out. It was just a challenge being the odd man out."

"Because you were a girl."

Kelly wiggled her fingers. "And a key too
apparently."

They made notes as they set the first tea to
steep. Eventually Brian, Jaden and Gideon trickled back in; each
setting to various tasks as if nothing had gone awry.

The quiet atmosphere gave Kelly time to think
and review her years at home. Where had her father sent the real
map box? She considered asking Petra to take a closer look for
clues she might have forgotten, but decided against it. She felt
exposed enough already. Excusing herself, she left the apartment,
taking the first cup of tea to Nathan.

The room was dim and he lay so still on the
bed that she shuddered, remembering the remains of her father and
brothers. She forced her feet closer to the bed, eyes on his chest,
waiting for the shallow rise that had to happen.

Had to happen.

"Nathan?" No response.

Panic sunk deep claws into her gut. She
reached for him, praying to feel anything but cold, lifeless skin
under her hand.

"
Relax, Kelly
," his voice was soft in
her mind.

Startled, she jerked her hand away and
sloshed the tea. "Crap!"

"
I'm okay
," he insisted.