Black Gate: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 4 (14 page)

When he saw her, he knew he’d need every trick he had. Three Triscani bastards had her pinned to a wall of darkness, her arms were buried in the wall, holding her prisoner for their attacks. Her back was a bloody mess where one of them had sliced through her soft skin. The dark tendrils she commanded were fighting with her, keeping the Triscani at bay, but eventually she would lose consciousness, and then the fiends would have her.

An age-old beast awoke inside him, the primordial need to protect his female roared to life for the first time in his long existence. The need stunned him with its ferocity, but his conscious mind was shoved aside as instincts took over.

Thankful for Bran’s blade, he beheaded the first Triscani before they saw him. The dark tendrils released a second Hunter, offered him to Teagh before racing to wrap itself around Katherine’s body in a protective covering. He dispatched the brute with a blade strike straight through the temple. There were only three ways to kill one. A forbidden son could suck its soul dry and turn it to ash, the Circle of Judgment on Itara could send an Angelus Mortis, one of the Queen’s genetic line, to roast them with Angel’s Fire, or he could cut off their heads. But a good old-fashioned beheading worked wonders. It would take the fuckers weeks to recover from that.

Teagh yanked his blade free of the second skull and quickly severed the stunned male’s head from his shoulders. Two down, one to go, but that one backed away with a wicked smile. Its grating voice rubbed the already raw nerves in his ears to bleeding. “Nexxxxxxt time, Guardian. He wannnntssss her. He willlll haaave her.”

“Who wants her? Droghan? Who??” Teagh advanced lightning quick, but the damn Hunter was just as fast, and had no one to protect. He was gone in a flash, leaving Teagh alone with the dark and the woman it would keep for itself.

“Katherine. Can you hear me?”

The dark fluctuated around her, like living ribbons of black flowing water. She did not answer. He had no idea if it was because she couldn’t hear him, or if she was hurt too badly to reply.

“Katherine?” He reached through the tendrils that had swallowed her whole. They didn’t move out of his way, as he was used to, but they did not attack him either. He counted himself lucky for that.

The Gate informed him that they allowed him to live because it was her wish that he do so. Nothing more. Nothing less. The dark well and truly belonged to her now. The fact that she wanted him alive warmed him, despite his best attempts to ignore that choice bit of information.

He reached deeper through the black ribbons of energy and stopped when the cold, warm stickiness of her blood coated his fingers. She cried out and the dark pulsed around her in response, flared out, then rushed back in to wrap her more tightly in its inhuman embrace.

The dark wanted her to stay, but it couldn’t heal her. It didn’t know how. It was sentient, but not by humanity’s standards. It was more like a grumpy old man who knew too much, and had no patience or respect a younger generation’s social niceties or manners. Teagh knew this animal well, he’d been coexisting with the Gate for centuries. But he stayed out of the dark as much as possible. He didn’t feel comfortable here, like the Gate had secrets and demands he would never be able to satisfy. The Gate wanted a sacrifice, someone to become a living extension of itself, a way to walk the Earth.

Over his dead body. The damn Gate was dangerous. But now, it had Katherine, and he couldn’t fault it for choosing her. But if it didn’t allow him to care for her, to free her from this place, she would die. She was not Immortal. She had not yet chosen to become one with the Gate. She was frail. Weak.

Human.

He reasoned with the dark, used its fear of losing Katherine to convince it to retreat so he could tend her wounds. One by one, over what felt an eternity, the tendrils of darkness unraveled to reveal the woman. The moment the last strand dropped away her knees collapsed and she slumped, unconscious and covered in blood.

Teagh caught her and laid her across his lap to inspect her for more injuries. Her long, gorgeous back was a mess, the cuts deep. He wasn’t sure her spine hadn’t been severed. With great care he looked her over, from the tips of her toes to the top of her head, and every curve in between. He saw nothing else bleeding. Her hands and forearms, black as night when he caught her, faded to a normal color as her power retreated within. The wall she’d been trapped in had disappeared the moment she fell, vanishing as if it never existed. And Teagh knew that wall, knew exactly who was held trapped behind it.

But how the hell had Katherine found it? Was she working for Droghan or the Triads? Had she been lying to him from the beginning?

He’d question her later. First, Katherine needed healing. He needed to get her out of here and summon Mari, the water-breather Timewalker, and the most powerful healer Teagh had ever known.

“Come on, Katherine. I’m taking you home.”

She didn’t respond, not even a flicker of her eyelashes, and Teagh’s chest tightened. He clenched his teeth and asked the dark to take him home. He’d summon Mari immediately. He cursed Raiden’s caution in not revealing the exact location of their home. But he understood. It was going to take the half-blood time to learn to trust him. If Teagh only knew where to take her, he’d step right into Raiden and Mari’s private space, invited or not. But he didn’t know, so he had to go home first, and waste precious time.

At least the Gate agreed to help him get home, not out of duty or because he had asked, but because the dark wanted Katherine to be healed so she could return to it.

He understood the brooding concern the Gate shoved into his mind. He shared it. They both wanted to keep her for their own selfish reasons.

Teagh stepped through the portal into his living room and halted as Katherine’s team of soldier boys leveled a fucking arsenal in his direction, all five men with death in their eyes.

Chapter Six

“What the fuck are we doing here? Just get him the hell away from her and let’s go.” The largest of the group guarded Teagh where he sat on the end of the couch. Katherine’s head rested on his thigh, her lovely frame covered in congealed black blood. The oozing had stopped, but Katherine remained unmoving beside him. The man, Sebastian, held a rifle over the back of one of his white wicker kitchen chairs, barrel leveled at Teagh’s head, finger on the trigger, never moving. “Shut up, Seb. You’ve seen how she gets when he’s not touching her. She goes into fucking convulsions. Whatever that black shit is, it’s killing her and there’s nothing I can do, man. The wounds won’t even hold stitches.” That one, Matteo, moved constantly, full of anxious energy.

“Let’s just call Doc Hansen and get him down here. The kid can fetch him for us.” Ryan spoke from the back door, where he stood guard. “If anyone would know what’s wrong with her, it’s him. He’s been dealing with her blackouts for weeks now.”

“What blackouts?” Teagh asked the question, but knew these bastards wouldn’t answer him. If his presence hadn’t visibly soothed Katherine, they would’ve tried to kill him already…and they’d all be dead.

The silent man, Andrew, looked like a blond beach bum, but his cold stare belied his cavalier looks. Teagh chose to ignore him, which wasn’t difficult, since the male rarely stepped away from the window in the front room around the corner. Andrew in front, Ryan in back, Seb held the rifle aimed at his skull, Matteo paced in circles and Frank stared him down like a hawk watching a mouse. And ‘the kid’? He was the young man Teagh had sensed in the caves, the other, like Katherine, who had access to the Gate’s power. Obviously, the fickle Gate obeyed the boy. They’d used a portal to get from Colorado, where Katherine had evidently dumped them scant minutes earlier, to his home in Florida.

How the hell these men had found his home, he had no idea.

Frank approached, unarmed, but his entire team swiveled to cover him as he got close enough to lay his leathered hand across Katherine’s cold brow. “You tell us who you are, where you two were, and exactly what’s wrong with her, and then maybe we’ll answer some of your questions.”

Teagh shook his head, frustration filled him to bursting. Katherine loved these fools. If he killed them, she would never, ever forgive him. But he couldn’t summon Mari with these men here. He didn’t trust them, wouldn’t trust them with Mari’s or Raiden’s life.

On the other hand, she
loved
these idiots. “I need to take her to a healer. The darkness will devour her from the inside out if you don’t let her go with me.”

Frank searched his eyes for truth, and must’ve found it. “Tell us where the healer is, and we’ll bring him here.”

Teagh shook his head. “You are all fools. The healer is a female, and I would never entrust such a treasure to your power-hungry superiors at the Casper Project.”

“Now, that just wasn’t nice at all.” Sebastian tapped his finger on the top of his rifle barrel. “Tell us where the healer is. She’ll be safer with us.”

“She’ll be exploited by your commanders and used until she collapses from fatigue and abuse, as Katherine was.” Teagh brushed one hand along Katherine’s perfect cheek. “You are lying to yourselves if you believe the humans who order you about like puppets will care for or protect either of these women.”

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Let’s just shoot this asshole and take Katherine to the doc.” Matteo’s dark looks spoke of an Italian heritage, as did his fiery temper.

“Do that and Katherine dies. Your human doctor can’t help her now.” Teagh spoke the truth and waited for their anger. He didn’t wait long.

Frank cursed and sank into the chair opposite Teagh’s position on the couch. “You are a pain in my ass.”

“But he’s right.” Andrew spoke for the first time, and Teagh tilted his head to watch the tall blond man walk to the edge of the living room. “He’s right, about everything, and you all know it. If this healer has any real power, they’ll lock her up and drain her dry. And then she’ll be another kill order hanging over our fucking heads…”

The room’s sudden, uncomfortable silence told Teagh all he needed to know. “Your commanders ordered you to kill Katherine?” He knew the answer, just needed to hear it confirmed before he exacted justice on the human male who lay unconscious in the guest room.

Andrew put his gun down and walked to stand beside Frank’s chair, his cool eyes on Katherine’s face. He looked Teagh in the eye. “We tracked her vest. If you need to hide one of us, dispose of it next time. Boots, too.”

Andrew looked at Frank when he spoke next. “Kill or contain, right? Not that I ever would’ve been able to do it. Not with Kat.” Andrew took off his dog tags and dropped them in Frank’s lap. “Let ’em go. I’m out, Frank. I’ll disappear, or you can try to kill me, but I’m out.”

The voices of the other men rose in protest and argument until Teagh could barely hear himself think.

“The Rear Admiral’s in no condition to lock anyone up at the moment.” Frank tried to restore calm. “And no one leaves until we settle this.”

Teagh reined in his power and waited to see how this would play out. Frank was going to allow Andrew to leave alive and unchallenged. The question now was just how many of these men would accompany him?

“That jackass needs a damn healer himself,” Matteo chimed in, relief evident in his voice. Even if Frank ordered one of these guys to take Andrew out, Teagh wasn’t so sure any of them would try to do it.

“Serves the bastard right for lying to us all this time.” Seb looked Teagh dead in the eye and lowered his rifle to the floor So, Sebastian would leave with Andrew.

“He didn’t know.” Katherine’s quiet voice created a deep void of silence as every male in the room froze, listening. Frank was the first to recover, leaning forward until his elbows rested atop his knees.

“What didn’t he know?”

“The truth.” Katherine shifted, winced, but didn’t make a sound despite the agonizing pain he knew she still suffered. Reluctantly, he realized she might be stronger than he’d first thought. Strength of will would make her harder to control.

The dark strike of a Triscani’s claws burned for days, even in an Immortal’s flesh. He couldn’t imagine the pain a mortal would endure. Teagh knew the feeling very, very well, and despite his ambition to remain calm, he knew his instinctive need to protect her would rise very soon if these men didn’t cease their arguing. “He knew.” Ryan’s voice swelled with venom. “He had to have known.” Another deserter. The Rear Admiral was about to lose this entire team of men.

Smart, for humans.

“Let me go with Teagh.” Katherine’s entire body shivered with cold, and even that small movement had her fingers curling into his thigh with a death grip. The Mark at the base of his ribs felt like a hot dagger twisting and ripping him open. Katherine whimpered, moved her head to look Teagh in the eye. “It won’t stop.”

Frank hit the floor on his knees and shuffled to her side, face level with her pain-filled expression. “Tell us where she is, and we’ll get her for you.”

Katherine smiled at the man, and Teagh wanted to rip Frank’s eyes out of their sockets when the fool smiled back, his gaze full of adoration. Love. Not desire. The love of a father. That look kept Teagh from killing the man when he grabbed Katherine’s hand and kissed it. “Tell me, Katherine. And I promise I will bring the healer to you.”

Teagh settled for running his fingers over Katherine’s hair while he battled for control, waiting for her to answer Frank. He’d never acted like this, never had to battle such primordial urges before. It unnerved him, made him indecisive. He hated every moment.