Any Price (16 page)

An impenetrable wall slammed up and shoved back at her, hard. It wasn’t trying to enter her mind as she had its. The being was ejecting her forcefully. The energy coming at her suddenly broke off and backdrafted into itself with an audible whoosh, and then silence. Kenna crumpled to the floor.

For all his natural speed, Boris had no time to react to her dropping off the radar again. From the moment Kenna had disconnected, to her body crumpling had been perhaps two seconds. Boris fell to his knees and grabbed her with her head over his arm, her back supported by his thigh, he began gently shaking her and calling her name. Her eyes rolled back in her head. A trickle of blood appeared out of her ear and dripped onto his slacks.

Immediately Boris contacted Lore on the public channel, wanting to know if anyone could feel her. The first daughter light was dimming and they could all feel the connection faltering.

So wrapped up in the woman who seemed to be fading in his arms, Boris never saw the figure beside him. All he saw was a large hand reach down and cup the side of Kenna’s head. Even though Boris’ head jerked up, the figure was gone. Looking down at her, he found all evidence of blood gone from the side of her head. Her eyes slowly blinked open and every member of the Keepers felt the sudden surge as her connection flowed through them again.

“What the fucking hell just happened?”
Lore roared across the connection, he was already moving at a dead run in the direction he knew her to be. He’d been negotiating drilling rights and horseflesh in the far wing. Yuri could barely keep up with him as the two of them cut across the garden to the old castle.

Around the expansive castle grounds men suddenly went into battle mode. Yuri was barking out orders on the common mental connection to seal the grounds. To the ones who were not connected it appeared bizarrely frightening as gates and doors slammed shut.

In the hallway, Lore came to a skidding halt as Kenna now stood, staring blankly down the other end of the corridor. Boris was holding her elbow, and the normally dark guard was slightly pale. Kenna didn’t look around at Lore and Yuri as she held up a hand in a stop signal to them and stepped away from Boris.

“Kenna?” Lore whispered cautiously. His every sense melded to hers and he felt what she felt.

She was completely calm as she felt the remains of leashed power slipping away and yet not disconnecting completely. The other one who had been here was not malevolent. The traces of its passing were almost wistful in an incredibly sad way.

“He is not gone but he is not here,” Kenna said quietly, and turned to Lore. Her arms came up, reaching for the comfort of his body as her compassionate soul felt the remnants of the being. It had touched her with healing power, but it had not been able to hide a core of pain so profoundly dark that even its awesome abilities could not shield it from her.

It had not harmed her with its physical touch, but it had taken her blood into its being. They could feel it, knew she was connected to it in a way that defied all explanation. But that wasn’t exactly true. It almost defied all explanation. Again they were reminded that fairy tales and legends might not be fiction. It seemed only the warm fuzzy parts were make-believe.

Lore looked at Boris. “Did the being take blood from you?”

“What? No. I barely saw it,” Boris responded, his eyes narrowing on the couple. “Why do you ask, my lord?” he asked with growing concern. Looking down at his slacks, he noticed there was not even a mark where her blood had dripped on his leg.

“It seems to have a taste for it,” Lore answered tightly.

“Sir?” both Yuri and Boris asked in unison. In the personal communication, Lore had just ordered them to silence about the blood, even to the other Keepers.

“We don’t know the answers,” Lore admitted to the obvious question. “But can you rule any fucking thing out, gentlemen? Look at the last twenty-four hours and tell me the unbelievable does not exist.

“Let’s get out of here.” Lore swung Kenna up in his arms and strode toward the newer additions. The two guards flanked them, watching every corner with more than their eyes.

The three men moved in tandem, a tight, fast formation that swept them to the king’s door. Kenna was aware of everything though her face remained buried in Lore’s neck.

Lore waited at the door as both guards swept the apartment for intruders.

Every member of the community could feel the extreme unease of the royal couple, their certainty that something watched. A being who was different in ways that not even Keepers could feel comfortable with. Fear of that unknown thing spread through the Keepers.

At the all-clear signal, Lore moved into the room and sank to a couch with Kenna clutched in his lap. His body surrounded her and she felt him shudder. In his mind, the word kept repeating,
“Mine. Mine. She is mine…”
With each repetition, his telepathic voice grew louder on that other level until it was thundering. He was yelling it into the universe, repeating it to the one who listened. And they both knew it could hear him.

Yuri and Boris instinctively backed up as Lore expanded with the power building in him. It was obvious he was changing as fury raced through him. His form did not transform, but his imprint on the space surrounding him was larger as power rippled through the air.

The fear of losing her, how close death had been, was burning him in ways only she could see. It was bigger than the human in him, Kenna realized. It was the same kind of big she’d just felt next to her yet different. His extreme emotion accelerated changes, and that did not seem to be a wise path to take.

Kenna’s hand came up and rested over his unmoving lips, the gesture quieted him. He stopped flinging his passionate possession of her into the universe and closed his eyes. Tiredly he rested his cheek on the crown of her head while pressing his lips to the precious palm over his mouth. Her lips gently touched his chest as he clutched her tightly.

“It almost killed you,” he said when he was calm enough to communicate. “I will not allow that to occur, baby. There is nothing I will not do to prevent it.” He had to breathe deeply for a few seconds before he could continue. “I know I’m changing. Something about the connection between us is altering me. The power I feel now is unimaginable, but it is all focused on you, Kenna. Do you understand? I need you more with every increase. I am hungry for you in ways we don’t have words for.”

Kenna answered calmly. “I am here. The creature healed me as soon as it knew it had hurt me. You know it was shocked when I thrust into it. I think it was my fault that it pushed back. Not knowing what I was doing made the push seem like a surprise attack. The beast was simply defending itself.”

“No. Power like that carries the responsibility to be aware at all times. I do not excuse it just because it healed you. And what kind of thing takes your blood? It took without permission. In the changes affecting both of us, we are aware that the blood is the ultimate connection. Damn! I sure as hell don’t like where this is taking us.” Lore cursed in Hungarian as he felt the ramifications of his changing body that saw her blood as the ultimate bond between them.

Kenna once again brought him back to the place they were currently. “Lore, you have to be the king. Feel the panic around us. We cannot leave them like this. They know as little about what to expect as we do. These changes are not normal for anyone and I think it’s our responsibility to help people feel safe.”

She referred to the waves of shared fear as Keepers dealt with the issue of nearly losing her so soon after finding her. The mix of emotions was boiling at volatile levels as the community realized there was a threat they could not see or touch. They wanted to lash out as much as their king did. The impotent frustration of nothing to punish was escalating the situation. The royal couple’s time in private communication had cut them off from the others and left the collective without answers.

Added to that was the newness of all this. Even though most of the local Keepers had known something about what they were, they hadn’t known much. Their level of surprise in dealing with the swiftly altering world around them was only slightly less shell-shocked than the royal couple.

Gathering in his turbulent emotions, Lore took a moment to assess the explosion of power he’d felt and the corresponding deadly intent her near death had triggered. The danger that he now embodied was something he’d have to control with an unyielding hold. He also realized that each jump in power occurred in direct correlation with how fully intimate the two of them had been. As he suspected, being physically intimate had made them more mentally intimate.

Their connection grew, but it was the emotional increases that triggered every other increase. When her life had sputtered, he had felt as if someone were reaching into his chest with bare hands and extracting his heart by pulling it out, stretching the arteries and veins to ruthlessly rip them apart.

The tearing pain of almost being separated from her would have crippled the man he’d been a day ago. Through it, he’d had no other thought than reaching her and annihilating whomever it was threatening her. He didn’t just want to kill them. He’d wanted to wipe them from the planet in the most excruciating way possible.

Over her head, Lore issued orders mentally, marshalling the chaos into bustling activity.

“Yuri, open the castle. The creature does not need doors, no reason to frighten the general public.

“Boris, you know its signature. If you feel it we need to know. Stay close.”

Having calmed the activity around the palace as much as he could, there was another pressing need he had to take care of.
“Julianna,”
Lore summoned on the private connection,
“Kenna needs something to eat, please.”

“At once, sir,”
Julianna responded calmly.
“My lady is all right?”

“So it would appear,”
Lore answered abruptly, impatient to get on with what needed doing.

“Then stating this would be helpful, my lord. It is not just you who felt her pain.”

Lore was aware he needed to make some sort of statement. This was a new reality, being connected to so many was a responsibility and right now it was a shackle. Kenna was his woman and he would give anything for them to be a normal, human couple. No one connected to them, no one trying to kill them, no unknown abilities, just people. Then she could have been his alone.

“Of course, thank you, Julianna.”

Lore forcibly calmed himself. Making public statements simply by thinking them was a danger in itself. Whatever they were, or were becoming, sucked. Privacy was forfeit.

”As all of you know, there was a serious incident. Currently your first daughter is fine. The details are unclear but now we know our kind are not the only paranormal creatures in the world. Extreme caution is called for by each of us.

“Let me take this opportunity to impress upon you the danger of sharing the developments in our lives with anyone who does not join us in this form of communication. We have no scientific explanation for the changes we are experiencing. Please do not endanger yourself or all of us by broadcasting information that might be used against our people.

“Historically, the cost of being different from normal humans has always been death. Don’t assume that outcome has changed in modern times. The only thing that will reflect modern sensibilities is the label for capture and kill. That command will be dressed up in scientific terms but the intent will remain the same.”
Lore closed the public statement, hoping he’d impressed everyone with the dangers they could be facing.

Having no idea how wide the population he spoke to was, it was a very fragile hope. The greater the numbers, the more likely someone would talk to the wrong person. Their only defense would be information and the time to gather it had probably just been cut in half. Figuring out what they were, what was happening to them took on new urgency.

They needed to follow the breadcrumbs of history. The path to the past was their best hope of gaining more information.

“Mrs. Yeltsen, please come in here,”
he summoned his senior secretary. The discovery that she was a Keeper had been a pleasant surprise.

“Damn it! I need Gregory,” Lore warned Kenna as he verbally sent for his cabinet through the efficient secretary who’d appeared after Yuri left the room. Now was as good a time as any to prove Gregory was still in the position he’d always held. They needed him.

Julianna entered with a tray of soup and something else that smelled heavenly to Kenna. This morning all she’d eaten was the fruit.

Lore let Kenna out of his hold reluctantly. The sunlit table area was a pleasant oasis with a lovely view of the formal gardens. It was close to the sitting area but even that distance was almost too much. He had no intention of letting her out of his sight again.

Both Lore and Kenna were sure whatever healed her was also the entity that almost killed her with a push of power. The events suggested the unknown creature hadn’t meant to damage her but the disturbing power signature was so massive they had to suspect it might not be able to control the effects. Also, the reason she’d even encountered it was because it had been reaching for her mentally. Now this enigmatic power had her blood and they could feel the connection the creature had gained with that theft.

The room started filling with the small group of cabinet ministers required in running both countries. Gregory arrived last.

Entering the royal apartments, Gregory felt a rush of satisfaction. He hadn’t expected this so soon. Nobody could argue with his place, it was an inherited right. However he’d expected the conspirators to make it much more difficult to retain his position. It would have been helpful to have them do a few more stupid things trying to deny him. He’d hoped they’d give him more ammunition to prove to his people that their rightful born leader was being shoved aside by usurpers.

Glancing around cautiously, Gregory took note of the conspicuous placement of those who had shown themselves to be involved. The bitch was present and made a show of smiling at him and nodding, which he returned with all the graciousness of a true monarch. She would learn her place soon enough. Satisfaction invaded the cold resolve he’d armed himself with. Gregory greeted Lore as he always had.

Gregory’s participation meant Kenna had to read him. It was a security issue at this point and Lore joined her to do it. She’d been expecting bitter anger after this morning’s events. His mental assault at the sight of her had the energy of a slap. But after his initial bitter reaction he was calm, relaxed and even happy.

Lore would rather backhand his smug advisor than smile and invite him to sit. Seeing the man’s jealousy through Kenna robbed Lore of the ability to respect anything about Gregory. Directing Kenna to block the whiney bastard’s energy was a relief for both of them.

Briskly starting the meeting, Lore quickly went over the facts he could share. His future queen had been attacked. There were issues he needed to deal with and would have to leave some of the governing duties to his cabinet. Lore made it clear he was not going to explain further. This was not a discussion group.

Passing out assignments and distributing the appointments he’d made for the remainder of the week was complicated. Two of the men were Keepers but the other four were not. Each appointment required discussion to be sure the cabinet member understood Lore’s goals for that meeting.

At the table, Julianna sat across from Kenna, blocking her view of Gregory and watching her eat with a motherly eye. Kenna relaxed as calming concern settled around her. Julianna provided an added layer of diluting composure and protective distance to enduring being in the same room with Gregory.

Kenna found having a look into someone’s soul made her a damn excellent judge of character. Not that she’d ever read Julianna’s thoughts, but she felt herself invited to the heart of this woman at all times. The connection between them was comfortable in the way of a lifelong friend, perhaps a sister.

Kenna didn’t have to listen to hear her thoughts, Julianna was simply open to sharing them and they drifted between the two women with the freedom of dust motes in the sunshine. Julianna was making sure my lady ate before she had to deal with the rest.

“The rest?”
Kenna’s head jerked up and her eyes narrowed on Julianna.

Lore repressed a sound of frustration and glanced at them. He was almost done freeing his time and he needed whatever “the rest” was, he wanted it to wait a few more seconds. His complete awareness of Kenna drove him hard as he laid out the last of his instructions. He sent an impatient command to Julianna to wait. He was met with gentle but placating assurance, much like he’d heard her use on her brothers.

“Of course, my lord,”
Julianna assured him.
“My lady is not done eating.”

“Julianna? You know who that was. Don’t you?”
Kenna could not resist asking.

“I know many things, some yes, some no,” Julianna answered aloud calmly.

Kenna burst out laughing but continued talking on the mental channel.
“That makes no sense and you know it,”
she accused Julianna.
“You do that on purpose.”

Julianna crossed her arms and looked at Lore, who was trying to wrap things up. He’d managed to free himself from the next two days’ appointments but that was it. It was impossible to schedule any farther in advance.

“Oh no you don’t, he’s not going to help you,” Kenna warned Julianna.