Amy's Advantage (5 page)

Through the back window, Jordyn could see the cat-like
Slayer roll several car lengths from the force of the hit before pushing up on
all fours, shaking its leathery hide and rushing after them with the malevolent
glare of a bred killing machine. So focused was it on their vehicle, it didn’t
recognize the threat from behind and Kayn wasted no time in running the vile
beast over.

Cirryc’s eyes darted from the road in front of him to the
rearview mirror. When the feral, pain-filled scream of the Slayer broke the
night, Cirryc groaned. “Man, that is going to be such a fu—” he caught himself,
“fricking mess to get cleaned off my truck.”

Jordyn scanned the dark around the truck. “Slayers are
released in pairs. Watch for the second one.”

“On it,” Cirryc said.

“Get us out on the highway,” Jordyn directed. “Lose everyone
who might be following.”

“Not a problem,” he said, swerving around a parked car. He
spun the steering wheel coming out of the turn and cursed abruptly as he hit
something with the front bumper of the truck. “Found the second Slayer,” Cirryc
announced, with the Hummer bouncing wildly as the wheels rolled over what he’d
just hit. Without slowing down, he took a corner sharp enough to send the
truck’s tires sliding across the asphalt.

Jordyn wrapped an arm around Esraina and Chloe to keep them
from tumbling to the floor. The truck leapt forward again as Cirryc pulled onto
the straightaway of an onramp and Jordyn braced his arms to keep from crushing
Esraina. Once the truck settled at a constant speed on a long stretch of
highway, he sat up and helped Esraina fasten the seatbelt around her waist as
she adjusted her daughter on her lap. There was a moment of panic when Esraina
couldn’t find the stuffed rabbit, but Jordyn located it under the seat where it
had ended up after their flight from the hotel.

Chloe had been startled awake at the commotion and started
to squirm under the layers of coat and blanket she’d been bundled in. Esraina
alternated between comforting shushing and snatches of softly sung lullabies
until the child quieted and snuggled down against her chest, one arm wrapped
around her rabbit.

Esraina waited until Chloe had sunk into the easy sleep of
innocence to ask quietly, “What hit the side of the truck?”

“A Slayer.”

Her eyes widened a little. “I thought it might have been a
Predator, but none had ever jumped at me like that.”

Something deep inside Jordyn began to burn. “How many
Predators have you encountered?”

Esraina looked away and shrugged the shoulder Chloe wasn’t
leaning against. “I’m not sure.”

“Guess.”

With a sigh, she squinted up at the Hummer’s roof. “There
were those at the River Walk and the one before that when I didn’t even know
what they were. I’m pretty sure I saw one at a bus station in Houston and maybe
the same one yesterday, but I don’t know if they were different ones or the
same one.”

“Tell me about the first one.”

A small frown puckered the skin above her nose. “Why? What
does it matter now? We’re going with you and returning to Ilyria. You guys have
won.”

Her response surprised him, but her reasons for returning
home were less important now than the fact that she
was
returning home.
Willingly. He focused on the one thing that might hinder them.

“I need to know how the Sleht were able to track you and
Chloe down before we did.” He didn’t mention that he and most of the heirs were
sure they had a traitor in their ranks that they hadn’t been able to identify
yet, but if Esraina was attacked before they had found her, the Sleht couldn’t
have used leaked information from their side.

“I thought it was a Predator who attacked us. Who are the
Sleht?”

“The Sleht are our enemies. They want our world as their
own. It was one of their attacks that caused your mother to leave Ilyria.
Predators are bred by the Sleht to track and return Mystics to them in Ilyria.”

“So these Sleht, they’re the bad guys, and Predators are
like what? Their evil errand boys? Why are they after Chloe and me?”

The exhaustion in her voice bled into every word. He knew
she needed to rest. “Your ancestry is Mystic.” He paused. He wasn’t the one who
should be explaining her place to her. “Esraina—”

“Amy. My name is
Amy
.”

He met her determined gaze. With a slow nod of acceptance,
he said, “Amy. I don’t know what Ellyna told you—”

“Apparently not enough,” she said, a low warning grumble
underscoring her words.

Jordyn recognized mine fields when he saw them and decided
to avoid that one. “We can fill you in better later,” he continued, “after
you’ve had a chance to rest.”

“Yeah, because a good night’s sleep is going to suddenly
make finding out I’m an alien who has Predators from outer space hunting me and
my daughter all better.”

“Don’t forget about the Slayers,” Cirryc added.

“What exactly are Slayers?”

“Special pets of the Sleht. Big mother fu-uhh-fricking cats
that don’t stop until you’re dead or they are.”

Amy visibly shuddered. “Good god.”

“Don’t worry. We won’t let them get to you.” Cirryc expertly
avoided Jordyn’s glare as he kept his eyes on the road. “I’m Cirryc, by the
way. The youngest and handsomest heir to the First House.”

Jordyn’s attention was pulled from Cirryc when his phone
vibrated against his leg in the side pocket of his cargo pants. He pulled it
out and checked it. Amdyn.

He’d mentored all of the royal heirs to the Five Houses of
Ilyria at one time or another, even though he was less than a year older than
Amdyn. But unlike the heirs, he’d spent a lot of time on the front lines in the
battle against the Sleht. He’d seen things that aged a person’s soul and sank into
a man as lead bricks into muddy water. He might not have the royal blood that
carried Mystic properties, enabling him to turn invisible or read people’s
minds, but time had proven to him and those around that he was born to be a
soldier.

Keeping his voice low, he answered Amdyn’s phone call.

“Esraina and the baby okay?” his commander asked.

“Yes.”

“We saw that Cirryc got the second Slayer. Was there
anything else?”

“There might have been a Predator coming around the side of
the building, but the Slayer got to our position first.” He glanced at Esraina.
She was looking at him over the top of Chloe’s head, eyes wide as she listened
carefully to his end of the conversation.

“Kayn thought there was someone else there as well. Ellyna
said that Esraina thinks she’s been followed at times too, but isn’t sure.”
Amdyn paused. “From what I understand, Esraina is very good at losing people.
Beats the hell out of me how they’ve been tracking her.”

Jordyn had been turning that same problem over in his mind
since the incident at the River Walk. He had an idea, but if he was right, they
needed to get Chloe and Esraina back to Ilyria as soon as possible.

“Hold on,” Amdyn said. “Ellyna wants to speak to Esraina.”

Jordyn shifted to hold the phone against Esraina’s ear. “It’s
Ellyna,” he said.

Esraina whispered into the phone, “Hello?” She paused before
saying, “Yes. Just fine. Chloe’s sleeping.” She frowned at whatever Ellyna said
before responding. “I remember. We’ll see you then.”

She nodded at Jordyn, who took the phone back. Amdyn had
returned to the other end. “We’ll see you back in Colorado,” Amdyn said. Jordyn
hung up after acknowledging.

Esraina adjusted Chloe on her lap, twisting her hips against
the seatbelt, trying to get comfortable. With a tired sigh, she dropped her
head against the seatback and closed her eyes.

“After we’ve put some distance between us and the hotel,”
Jordyn said to Cirryc, “pull into a twenty-four-hour Walmart or Target.” Cirryc
nodded at his instruction.

Esraina rolled her head toward him, opened one eye to peer
at him. “You pick weird times to go shopping.”

“It’s a long way to Colorado,” he said. “We’ll stop and get
a baby seat. You can’t carry Chloe the entire way.”

She rolled her head back and closed her eyes. “I could if I
had to,” she said.

He didn’t doubt it for a moment. There was probably very
little she couldn’t do once she put her mind to it. Stubbornness had its upside
and all of Magdalyne’s daughters had the trait in double portions.

Cirryc had turned the radio on low and was tapping on the
steering wheel to another song as he concentrated on keeping the Hummer going
just above the speed limit and well out of any traffic congestion.

Save for the occasional flash of passing headlights and the
faint glow of the dashboard, the inside of the truck was dark. Jordyn silently
shifted to look at Esraina more carefully. Even in the dim light, he could see
the tired circles under her eyes. Strain was evident on her face, more so
tonight than it had been the last time he’d seen her.

Except for the fact that her arms were still wrapped around
Chloe, holding her securely in place, she looked fast asleep. Her hair fell in
thick, dense tangles over the seatback. The red streaks he knew twisted through
her curls weren’t visible in the shadows, yet knowing they were there made him
want to wind the soft strands around his fingers. His eyes roamed to the pale
skin of her neck and then to the spot on her chin he’d touched weeks ago. Her
skin had been warm and smooth and that simple touch had haunted him ever since.
Narrowing his eyes, he turned to gaze out into the night.

There was no point in entertaining those thoughts. Esraina
would soon be mated to a member of one of the Houses and his only concern
needed to be getting her and her daughter back home safely. That was his job.
That was all that mattered.

Chapter Four

The bleak winter landscape sped by outside the Hummer’s
windows. The frozen white of the ground melted into low-hanging gray clouds,
but Amy’s thoughts were far removed from the area of western Arkansas they were
passing through. They’d been driving for nearly twelve straight hours, stopping
only for gas, bathroom breaks and drive-through food.

Helped by the bag of toys Jordyn had bought along with the
car seat when they stopped at a Walmart hours ago, Chloe was taking the trip in
stride. It had been better than Christmas for Chloe. Jordyn had gotten her
several child handheld games and a DVD player complete with headphones and
about a dozen different cartoon DVDs that kept her busy and happily
entertained. The man had been in the store for less than an hour, yet had
managed to outfit them both with a set of winter clothes and outerwear besides
creating a moving playground for her daughter.

Chloe also had the luxury of being able to sleep easily,
since Jordyn’s supplies for the trip included a soft, fuzzy pink blanket and a
child-sized neck roll pillow in the shape of a monkey. The constant lulling
motion of the truck didn’t hurt either.

Amy grimaced and rubbed the bridge of her nose. After Jordyn
had explained to her what a Slayer was a couple of hours ago, she was sure
she’d never sleep again.

What the hell kind of freak sideshow had her life turned
into? It was bad enough to find out she was from another planet with some kind
of secret “mysticness” in her blood that was wanted by an enemy she didn’t
know, an enemy who had created monsters to track her to the ends of whatever
world she might be on. That particular fact Ellen had told her months ago,
though just not in as much detail. Today—last night—early this
morning—whatever, Jordyn increased the freak show by adding mutant cat-like
creatures trained to follow her scent until she could be cornered and killed.

“You okay?”

Amy lowered her hand to find Cirryc’s sky-blue eyes looking
at her with concern from where he sat in the passenger side of the front seat.
She caught Jordyn’s quick glance at her in the rearview mirror before he
returned his focus to the road.

“Just peachy.” Immediately, she realized that Cirryc’s
question had not deserved the bite in her words. “Sorry. Long day.”

“No problem. It’s a lot to take in, the whole new world
thing. Bethany and Brooke freaked out about it too.” Jordyn’s gaze cut to him,
and he amended, “At first. They’re fine now, though.”

“Good to know.”

“I’m sure you’ll get used to us like they did.”

He paused, but she didn’t know what to say in response to
that. “And Ilyria is beautiful,” he added.

The man was trying so hard to put her at ease, but she’d
obviously made him uncomfortable. Even embarrassed, the man was just too damn
gorgeous. If she’d met him before Andrew, she’d have found him impossible to
resist.

Both he and Amdyn carried the same coloring, with
white-blond hair and light blue eyes that glowed against their tanned skin
tone. Ellen had mentioned how the main line of heirs to each house maintained a
consistent coloring from generation to generation. At the River Walk, she’d
seen Amdyn from the First House and Connyn from the Third House, who had
bluish-gray eyes and light brown hair. She was interested in seeing the men
from the other three houses. If the ones she’d seen were typical of the rest,
the women in Ilyria must be extremely happy.

“You resemble your brother quite a bit,” she said.

When he grimaced, she smiled. “You two are the perfect
mixture of the iconic California beach boy and Nordic god.”

“Thanks. I think.”

She shook her head. “I meant it as a compliment.”

He nodded. “A Nordic god, huh?”

“Don’t encourage him.” Jordyn’s dry comment surprised her.

“I have a feeling I’m not the first to mention it,” she
responded.

Jordyn grunted. “Unfortunately not.”

“Don’t mind him,” Cirryc said. “He gets cranky when he
doesn’t get his beauty sleep.” When Jordyn didn’t rise to the bait, Cirryc
winked at her and said, “Unlike me, he needs every minute he can get.”

“I see.” She smoothed a dark-red curl so like her own back
from her daughter’s sleeping face. As soon as the strands slipped through her
fingers, they bounced back exactly where they had been. She smiled, knowing her
hair did the exact same thing.

On the armrest of his seat, Cirryc tapped out the drum solo
from the song on the radio before saying, “You look a lot like Bethany and
Brooke. Not so much like Ellyna though.”

“I don’t remember Brooke or Bethany, but Ellen prefers to
keep her hair short, spiky and blonde—or did anyway. She wore colored contact
lenses until the River Walk.”

“You’ve never met Brooke or Bethany?” When Amy shook her
head, Cirryc said, “You’ll like them. They’re pretty cool.”

Cirryc’s grin tugged a smile out of her. “I’m glad to hear
that.”

“So what’s the deal with Aurora?”

The question surprised the smile away. “What do you mean? Is
she all right?”

“She’s fine,” Jordyn injected, his flat, matter-of-fact tone
much more comforting than a placating one would have been.

“Sorry,” Cirryc said. “I just meant, how’d she wind up with
you and Ellyna?”

“That’s none of your business,” Jordyn replied.

“No, it’s okay.” Amy took a deep breath and looked down at
the face of her two-year old angel, sleeping in her new car seat, thumb still
halfway in her mouth. “It’s not like it’s a big secret anymore.”

“But not something you have to share either.”

Jordyn’s tone carried a definite warning. A warning she’d
initially thought was for her before she looked up and caught the accompanying
expression aimed at Cirryc and the younger man’s sheepish response. Whatever
teasing Cirryc doled out to him, Cirryc nonetheless respected the man and
heeded his words. From the incident at the hotel, it was pretty damn obvious
Jordyn wielded some sort of power over most of the men from Ilyria.

She leaned forward slightly and looked at Jordyn. “You know,
you never did answer my question in the hotel room.”

This time, he didn’t look at her by way of the rearview
mirror, but turned his head to look at her where she sat behind Cirryc. “A lot
of questions went unanswered.”

The censure in his words might have set her back a year ago.
Today, she just raised her eyebrows. “I was protecting my family.”

“I know.” Although the hard lines of his face remained
unchanged, an unmistakable glint of understanding flashed in his eyes before he
turned back to face the road. “Now you have help.”

Cirryc eyed them both with interest. “What question?”

With a loud huff, she sat back against her seat and looked
at Cirryc. “I asked him who he was back when he snatched Chloe and me off the
River Walk.” Though he didn’t turn and look at her again, her comment earned a
frown from Jordyn.

“I heard about that,” Cirryc said. “That was a bad
situation.”

“One of many,” she said.

“I can’t believe you went with him without arguing. Aurora
and Ellyna gave Connyn and Amdyn hell.”

“I wasn’t really thinking about going with him, just about
getting away.”

“You were probably relieved to find out he’s an Ilyrian
commander and not just some random man snatching up women in San Antonio.”
Cirryc’s tone made it obvious he was enjoying teasing Jordyn, who for his part,
was ignoring them both.

“A commander of what?” she asked.

Cirryc’s eyebrows shot up. “He really didn’t tell you?”

“Nope,” Amy answered tersely.

“He’s one of the top commanders of our military. He’s in
charge of the military unit working with our Houses to find you.”

“Humph. No, I didn’t know that, but I didn’t have much
choice about going with him. He had Chloe.”

Over the years, she’d developed a strong instinct for whom
she could trust and whom she could not. Both of the men in front of her fell
solidly in the first category.

She wouldn’t admit it out loud, but the way Jordyn had
handled the situation—and her and Chloe—had made her feel safe. He was
controlled and focused in the middle of a life-or-death situation and though
there was no arguing with the grip he’d had on her arm, his hands had been, if
not quite gentle, definitely not bruising. She knew what that felt like.
Moreover, the constant reassurances he had given Chloe had kept her daughter
from being completely terrified as he rushed them to safety.

“You could mention that I’d just saved Chloe from a
Predator,” Jordyn stated.

Amy almost smiled at the tiny bit of annoyance coloring his
normally unaffected tone. “You could have mentioned you were an Ilyrian
soldier. Excuse me. Ilyrian
commander
.”

Jordyn didn’t respond, but she was beginning to distinguish
the subtle signs of emotions beneath his stoic demeanor. She didn’t know why it
gave her such an intimate satisfaction to be able to prick a response out of
him, but it definitely did.

“Don’t take this wrong,” Cirryc said, “because we’re all
glad you and Chloe are all right, but the whole Aurora switch out really pissed
my cousins off.”

Amy shrugged. “There was a lot we didn’t know and we had to
plan as best as possible around it. None of us knew if Chloe would be welcomed
in Ilyria or not. We didn’t know we couldn’t be forced through a portal against
our will.”

“We’re not barbarians,” Cirryc muttered. “We don’t just go
around kidnapping women.”

Though many of Ellen’s past comments would prove otherwise,
Amy chose to let that comment slide. “We thought that if Aurora and Ellen were
forced into Ilyria, I’d still be here for Chloe. Even if Chloe were taken with Aurora,
Ellen was sure the Kilth would come back for me, since I was the actual Mystic.
But Aurora wasn’t supposed to have to pretend to be me past the River Walk.
That part of the plan went a little askew.”

“Askew?” A sudden laugh burst out of Cirryc. “That’s not
exactly how Amdyn described it.”

Amy could imagine. The man she’d seen with Ellen at the
River Walk didn’t look like he’d have much tolerance for being lied to. “Aurora
wasn’t supposed to go world jumping right away. I still don’t know what happened
with that.”

Cirryc snorted. “Connyn happened.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.

“It will make sense when you meet him,” Jordyn said.

Amy remembered seeing the other large, angry Ilyrian at the
River Walk and his initial reaction to Chloe. “I can’t wait,” she said, less
than enthusiastically. “Which reminds me
¼
.”
She waited until Jordyn glanced back at her in the rearview mirror. “Just how
did you find Chloe and me last night?”

“Tracking device in the diaper bag,” Jordyn said. He was
back to his no-nonsense, laconic self.

“You bugged my daughter?” Amy’s outburst had Chloe fidgeting
in her car seat. Though Chloe kept her eyes closed tightly, she scrunched up
her eyelids and sucked on her thumb noisily. The three adults in the truck
froze, all holding their breath until the smallest among them settled back into
peaceful slumber.

“Jesus,” Cirryc hissed, “taking care of a baby is hard
work.”

Amy nearly laughed out loud. The man was so hot, it was hard
to breathe normally if she looked at him too long, but god, he was so
young
.
She did laugh—and clapped her hand over her mouth to keep from disturbing Chloe
again—when Jordyn glanced at Cirryc and muttered, “Tell me about it.”

Cirryc frowned and crossed his arms over his considerable
chest, but Amy cut off any intended comeback by leaning forward and giving
Jordyn’s sleeve a sharp tug. “You’re not getting off that easy. You bugged my
daughter and I want to know why.”

“Technically, he bugged the diaper bag,” Cirryc corrected.

“Semantics.” The heat in her words backed up the glare she
leveled at Cirryc.

“I put the tracking device in the diaper bag because it
seemed logical that you’d keep it with you wherever you went. I didn’t have the
opportunity to sew it in to the stuffed rabbit.”

“That’s not what I meant.” There was a long pause, filled
only by Cirryc’s resumed, absent-minded tapping on the armrest to the beat of
another song.

Jordyn sighed and readjusted his grip on the wheel. “I don’t
believe in coincidences.”

Another long pause. Amy looked from Jordyn to Cirryc and
back again. “That’s it? You don’t believe in coincidences?”

Tension pulled the muscles in Jordyn’s jaw into a tight
line. “The way you were watching Ellyna and Aurora did not fit your
explanation. You sensed the Predators’ arrival before you saw them, which is
very odd if you’ve never encountered one before, but is not uncommon for those
with Mystic blood who have been attacked by them previously. You instinctively
reacted to them as if you’d dealt with them before.”

Jordyn paused and looked at Amy through the rearview mirror.
“And you have your mother’s eyes.”

Amy’s lungs felt as if the air was drawn out of them so
suddenly that they cramped up into two little useless lumps in her chest. “You
knew my mother?”

Jordyn shook his head. “No. I saw her only once at Rordyc’s
Matching Ceremony. I was young and it was very brief. I was at the back of the
room and only got a look at her when she passed by holding Eavyn.”

“Eavyn?” Amy asked.

“That’s Brooke’s Ilyrian name,” Cirryc supplied.

“Oh.” Amy nodded. “Got it.”

“When did you first meet Ellyna?” This question came from
Jordyn. From his tone, she could tell he was back in his interrogation mode.
Though it wasn’t as if she had any more secrets she was worried about keeping
now that Aurora was in Ilyria and she and Chloe were about to leave Earth as
well.

“My junior year in high school. I think we met at a party.
I’m not sure. It was kind of a bad year.”