Black Gate: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 4 (9 page)

What the fuck?

“Who are you? And why are you so warm?”

“Hold still. The Gate nearly killed you. You need to rest.” Mistake to hold her and try to think, but he found he couldn’t put her down, the warmth spreading in his body too delectable to resist. He strode to the recliner and settled them both into it.

“I need to get my men out of there.”

He rocked them back and forth a bit, hid a grin when she gave in and allowed her head to rest against his shoulder. “Why where you in the dark? Why did you open the Gate? It’s dangerous.”

“It’s alive.” Her voice whispered the words across his neck and his hair rose to stand on end. She knew its voice. She’d truly felt it. Spoken to it. By the gods, this was even worse than he’d first thought. And she was either lying outright, or omitting select facts. She had to be.

“All intelligent life is not human. It was arrogant and stupid to play with such power when you knew nothing about it.”

“I’m not arrogant.”

“Is that what you believe?” He raised an eyebrow and lifted his hand to trail a light caress down her cheek. “The Gate is ancient and powerful. You can’t win against it, not even to save your men.”

“I survived, didn’t I? I’ll get them back.” Katherine’s determination was admirable.

“I can’t let you go back in there. The Gate will consume you. This is one battle you will lose.” Teagh resisted the urge to sigh. Yes, the little female was going to hate him.

“I’m not arrogant, I just don’t lose.”

The inferno in his bones fed heat to his blood, power he could literally track as it filled him up and spread with each beat of his heart. “I wonder how you will cope with losing to me.”

Her answer was to glare at him. Obviously, she entertained thoughts of besting him, of outmaneuvering him. Manipulating him to her own desired ends. He met her gaze, unblinking, until she looked away. She shivered and he knew that it wasn’t because she was cold.

Katherine had tasted the darkness. The woman should be able to feel his power, just as he felt hers flowing in pulsing waves, cresting and retreating from his own. The forces she now contained would tear her weak human body to pieces in a matter of hours were he to abandon her to her fate. But she would not die fast enough to prevent the dark from finding her, seducing her. Feasting on her body and soul.

And if she was strong enough to survive? To truly command the dark? Honestly, he wasn’t sure. Perhaps then the Triscani would have their first true Queen, born of darkness. Hell on Earth would become more than a human expression.

And the beautiful woman he held cradled in his lap would be a monster without equal.

His monster. With her at his side, he could even conquer the Immortals on Itara, eliminate the Triads on Earth, trap the Triscani in their own world. End the war forever by annihilating both sides. He’d rule three worlds.

The cost? One small mortal soul.

Katherine’s soul.

She shoved at his arms. “This is bullshit. Why am I sitting on your lap purring like a damn cat? I have to get my team out of there. Now.”

“I promise you, your men will keep.” She tensed, shoved again, harder, and looked up into his face, searching. For what? Truth? Sincerity? He had no use for lies. No need for them.

“How can you know that? Are you the one who captured them, like you did with the Rear Admiral?”

“No. He needed to be taught a lesson. I simply ensured that will happen.” He shifted, less than eager to tell her the truth now. “You are the reason the dark claimed your men. Just you.”

“No.” She shook her head. “No. No way.”

“Think about it, Katherine.” He touched her lower lip with the tip of his finger, starving for the softness of her skin against his flesh. That kiss had been a huge mistake. “The darkness called to you. It knew you. Knew what you wanted.” He traced her upper lip now and she held her breath. “The darkness knows what you hold in your heart, and your team resides there.”

Realization filled her eyes with horror, and remorse. “That’s why it took them?”

“Yes. It wanted to taste you, to sample the core of your essence.” Very carefully, very, very slowly, he lowered his hand to her chest, temptingly close to her left breast, over her heart. “The dark will take what’s in here…” he pressed down until she placed her hand atop his in warning, “…and use it to seduce you. To control you.”

“No one controls me.” The words were brave, but the woman shook like a leaf.

“No? Then why did you chase the dark? Why did you answer its call?”

She didn’t answer because they both already knew the truth. She’d had no choice.

“The dark controls you, Katherine. It owns you now. It’s in your bones and blood. You played with fire and got burned. Losing your men is one of the consequences you’re going to have to learn how to live with.”

“I refuse to believe that. You know the Gate. It listens to you. You can help me find them. Help me bring them back.” He looked away from her eyes before he drowned in them, before he made promises he had no intention of keeping. She was too dangerous to be allowed to walk in the dark.

“How did you find me in there? Why did you come?”

“It is my job to guard the Gate. I felt your intrusion. I am not good or evil, Katherine. I am only a male who does his duty to three worlds. But I will help you if I can. Trust me.” He’d said the last two words a hundred times, a thousand times, and he’d never before stopped breathing while waiting for an answer.

She sighed and the heat of her breath flowed across his neck like dancing flames. She made him burn.

Teagh looked down and met her gaze as she spoke to him. “If you betray me, or hurt any of my men, I will kill you.”

“You can try, my lady.” Teagh bit back his grin when she scowled.

“I am most definitely not your anything…”
Jerk
.

“What should I call you then? Kate?” He’d heard the unspoken thought, the insult to his honor. And still, the need to move his hand, to explore her body, threatened to overpower his will.

“My name is Katherine.”

Teagh’s heart raced at the challenge in her voice. Women threw themselves at his feet. They didn’t call him names, threaten, or insult him. Ever. Unless they were Immortals, and those bitches didn’t count.

His thoughts were interrupted by a disturbance at the Gate. The other human male, the young one he’d sensed before, the male hiding in the hallway who shared a kindred type of Katherine’s power, touched the dark and sent a wave of psychic energy through the portal. Searching. For the Rear Admiral? For Katherine? For her missing men?

Teagh smiled. The human might be able to feel an echo of their presence, but hunting in the dark was much like searching for a single molecule of air in the middle of a hurricane. A thousand Triscani hunters could do it. One untested human boy?

He waited for the usual rage to rise in his chest at the boy’s intrusion, expected the acidic burn, the pain of it to eat away at him like gangrene around his heart.

The customary anger failed to waken. Instead, he felt a surge of protective instincts unlike anything he’d ever known before. Katherine was innocent as a child. An incredibly dangerous child. The Gate called to her, fed from her passion, and would pursue her through time and space now that it had tasted her. He couldn’t blame it, he wanted more, too.

And if, by some miracle, she managed to survive and master her power? Then she would be truly dangerous. The Triscani, the humans, and the Triads would do anything to own her power. Anything.

He enveloped her mind in power and sent her to sleep, one hand gently draped around her delicate neck, fingers lost in the exploration of her satiny skin.

Far from proud of himself, he realized that to keep her alive, to control her, those bastards weren’t the only ones willing to do anything…anything at all.

Chapter Four

Katherine allowed Teagh to believe his little power play had worked. His intention with the whole hand to her head move was clear. So, she let the power roll over her, faked sleep and let him carry her to his bedroom. Once more her superb acting skills had come in handy. Purring in his lap like a kitten? Hardly. More like she was pissed as hell and scared to death. The molten heat and comfort, the power that flowed into her body whenever he touched her, scared her more than the Gate. For a year now she’d had to listen to her cousin, Sarah, wax poetic about the hot flood of lust and strength that flowed through the Shen whenever Sarah’s husband, Tim, touched her.

She’d felt the Gate transform her, knew the Mark of a Timewalker had risen from deep within to color her flesh. And now she knew it had chosen a male for her. This one. But instead of helping her go after her men, he’d tried to knock her unconscious and told her to let them rot in the dark.

And she was supposed to fall in love with him? Trust him? Not a chance. Not now. Not if he was willing to leave the people she loved to suffer in the dark. The entire situation made her want to scream in frustration.

So, she’d played the frightened and weak damsel in distress and ignored the ping of guilt at deceiving him. If she could fool legions of highly trained military personnel, one lonely man in Florida was a piece of cake. Men swallowed the “I’m so feminine and frail” act all too easily. The more honorable, the faster they bit.

She had a feeling that Teagh was a very, very honorable man. But, damn it, so was Frank. And Drew. And Matteo. Ryan. Seb. They were as good as it got, as far as she was concerned. She’d lie to Teagh and sleep like a baby if it meant saving them. In fact, what she was having a hard time processing was why she cared about him at all. She’d known the guy for about fifteen minutes.

He bent over her and pressed a soft, chaste kiss to her lips. “The darkness has tasted you, sweet Katherine. It will not let you go so easily.”

Talking to an unconscious woman now? She waited, hoping he’d say more. The darkness wanted her. She knew that, had tasted its intent. But what could she do? She needed to get her boys out of there. And, she had to try to find the Rear Admiral as well. It just wasn’t in her to leave that poor bastard to his fate. He wasn’t a bad guy, just a little lost.

But there was nowhere safe to work on control, no time to try to master her new power, before going on a rescue mission. Every minute Frank and the boys were gone was one more minute something bad could happen to them.

She had to escape Teagh. But where could she go? How was she going to get back to Colorado? Her mind supplied a hundred answers, all possible. She needed a phone, that was all. The Casper Project would have a helo here to pick her up in under an hour, no matter what backwater hellhole she was lost in.

What a mess. And what if Mr. Freeze-Her-With-A-Thought could control her remotely now? Could Teagh use the dark to find her and manipulate her body across long distances? Was it possible? She had no idea, and no other options. She was just going to have to find out.

Perhaps she could “poof” herself somewhere else with the Gate’s power? Maybe she could ask the Gate to create a new portal and walk through it like she had before. She’d be quick about finding her boys, this time avoiding the hulking male who still paced the bedroom.

But maybe not. He’d spoken the truth a moment ago. That last trip had hurt like hell. Something had changed. The sweet tendrils that had fed her energy at first had become horrible parasites draining her dry with cold and pain.

Not that it mattered. She had to get to Colorado. Convince whoever was in charge to let her get back in there and go after her boys. If that didn’t work, she’d work on Plan B.

Teagh had transported them across the country using the dark. Now he stood over her, staring for several minutes as Katherine kept her breathing slow and even. His gaze burned into her through her clothes. God help her if the man ever got her naked. She’d be game over in about ten seconds flat. Maybe less.

It wasn’t right, wasn’t normal, the way she lusted after him. She barely knew the guy’s name. She could do it, summon her own portal like he had. She had to try. At least the kiss had been worth it, a once-in-a-lifetime, fire-all-the-way-to-your-toes kiss. Never in a million years would she ever have believed that she’d get one of those for herself.

Wanting more was a luxury she didn’t have. Her boys were out there, waiting for her. She’d wait for Teagh to leave her alone and ask the dark to come get her…

<><><>

Teagh left Katherine asleep on his bed and summoned his brother. He stepped out of the portal, eager to talk. This business with Droghan was disturbing and he was in over his head with the lovely Timewalker. This wasn’t the first time he’d counted on Bran to set him straight. Bran was his half-brother. They walked opposite sides of the line. But they’d been fighting together since the beginning, even if no one knew it.

Bran paced the insides of the small mountaintop church where they’d been meeting, in secret, for hundreds of years. The crumbling ruin was one of hundreds scattered across the hills of Ireland. It was close to one of Bran’s favorite homes, where he’d lived a good number of years near the Cliffs of Moher.

Teagh preferred to stay much farther south, where the ocean waters were warm year round. It was too cold and gloomy this far north. Too much rain. The north seemed to fit Bran’s moods perfectly, but then, his brother wasn’t forced into the water every other day to purge their Lost King’s darkness. No, Bran was an Archiver, and Bran fed the evil he siphoned from their King directly into the void beyond Time.