Exile: Sídhí Summer Camp #3 (23 page)

Jail cells lined the hallway. Most of them
were empty, a few contained unmoving lumps that smelled of
decomposing bodies. Turning a corner, he nearly smashed face first
into a steel door. Not slowing, he slammed his hands outward and
the door went flying off its hinges.

A wall of jagged rock greeted him. The glow
of the moon filled the steep ravine with shadows. Blinking, his
eyes adjusted quickly to the night.

Sucking in the scents of the rocky gorge, he
turned to the right and followed the fresh trail of blood. His
sense of smell wasn’t as good as a vampire’s was, but it was still
ten times better than what a mundane human could smell.

The ravine was too steep and narrow to unfurl
his wings and fly, so he raced after the dragons on foot. In the
distance, trolls howled into the night. Several minutes later, the
gorge began to flatten out. As the deep rift widened, the height of
the walls became manageable, turning his flight hindrance into a
mere deep-cut stream. Ahead of him, a large, rugged wall of stone
rose into the sky.

Following the trail of blood, he rounded the
familiar bulk of the destroyed castle. On the wind, he caught the
faint shouts of Sarah’s men as they searched the area around the
troll facility, hunting for additional clues that might destroy the
Khr'Vurr.

If the searchers had had a few more days,
they might have found the second set of cells hidden deep under the
bulk of the old castle.

If the dragons reacted like most Sídhí, they
would head straight toward the nearest gateway, hoping to put as
much distance between themselves and their pursuers as possible.
With a destination in mind, he unfurled his wings and shot into the
air. Cool night air caressed his body, ruffling his hair.

Thirty feet below him, the rocky landscape
rushed past him. He knew if the dragons managed to get through the
gateway, and had time to change the gateway’s exit point, he might
not catch them without Sarah’s help.

As he neared his destination, he saw several
dozen men and women surrounding the gate. He’d been wrong. The
shouts had not originated at the troll facility.

The whisper-soft movement of his wings,
swishing through the air, caught the attention of several people on
the ground. From the angry look on their faces, his arrival was not
welcome.

Their shout of warning alerted others. The
group of people confronted him, aiming swords and guns alike. The
tension in the air was thick enough to cut with a knife.

If he hadn’t recognized several of them, he
would’ve simply blasted his way through. As it was, he had no
choice but to stop and speak with them.

Landing near the gate, he caught the smell of
burnt flesh and understood the cause for their anger. Under his
breath, he cursed softly. A single guard would have been no
opposition for a dragon intent on escape.

Folding his arms across his chest, he glared
at them in irritation, knowing the answer to his question before he
spoke. “I take it you didn’t catch them,” he demanded from the team
sent to investigate the Khr'Vurr hideout.

“Mac,” General Cory said, growling the
greeting. Stepping toward him, the nearly seven-foot tall vampire
pointed to a charred lump sprawled next to the gateway. “You know
who the hell killed Lambert?”

“It was probably Councilman Maynard. His
mate, Guardian Clara, and another dragon kidnapped Lord Nicholas,”
Mac said, walking toward the gate.

“Lord Nicholas?” Cory asked.

“Sarah’s mate,” Mac said, refusing to add
anything more.

Cory whistled. “I bet she is fuming. I’m
surprised she didn’t come herself.”

Mac glanced around, taking note of each face.
He knew all of them, but not well enough to share everything.

“She sent me to catch them,” he said, and
mentally sent Cory a quick, private update on what had happened,
while examining the ground near the gateway.

“Has anyone gone through the gate?” Mac
asked, motioning to the dark entryway.

“It exits into a damn lake,” Cory said
angrily.

Mac grunted. “Maynard probably changed the
exit point the minute they passed through.”

“That’s what I figured, but I sent several
men through anyway.”

“Could you tell how many people went
through?” Mac asked. His sense of smell wasn’t the best for
tracking, but he only smelled Maynard and Clara. “The ground is too
messed up, but I don’t think Eve came this way.”

Another man, a vampire, stepped forward. “I
was the first one here. If you’re talking fresh scents, there were
only two beside our group that have used the gate.”

“Excellent,” Mac said with a grim smile. It
wasn’t a pretty thing, not when his eyes turned hard as ice. “Cory,
I need a couple of trackers. We’re going to hunt us up a Dyrst’Lye
dragon.”

^____________

It took several hours to retrace Nick’s
steps. They talked the entire time. Sarah didn’t think her heart
could be any fuller than what it was at that very moment.

Once inside the ruins, they walked down a set
of stairs and she saw liquid crystal filling the lower portion of
the area. She slowed to a halt. She knew it would be impossible to
touch the crystal that lay outside of the In Between, but she tried
anyway. Nothing, not even a flicker of recognition ran through the
energy that she could see but could not touch.

“It is several inches deeper than it was.”
Nick waved toward the liquid filling the tunnel. “When I first saw
it, I knew that much energy flowing through something so old and
powerful like the ruins seemed like a bad idea.”

They started forward. “I think you’re right,
nothing good can come from it.”

He pointed to a spot several feet away. “The
gateway is right through here. Be careful, the bottom of it hovers
a good foot off the ground.”

Feeling deaf and mute, she hated the In
Between. “I’m guessing the umbra didn’t warn you about it the first
time around?” she asked, stepping over the invisible barrier. Color
returned to the world, and she uttered a sigh of relief.

“Nope,” Nick said, snorting at the thought.
“The umbra said the ruins of most valleys are connected.”

Sarah jerked to a stop. “How? Oh, never mind,
now that we are out of the In Between, I can feel the ebb-and-flow
of the crystal. Earlier, when I was searching for Mac, something
felt off, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.”

“Can you stop it?”

Considering his question, she tilted her head
in thought. “I would need to trace it to its source.”

“Time consuming?”

“Very,” she agreed, pleased he seemed to know
her answer before she spoke it. “If I knew the process they used
for expansion, I might find it faster.”

“How?” he asked, curiosity flickered through
their bond.

“Well, most people aren’t aware of it, but
there are several ways to make crystal expand. And before you ask,
no, I have no clue why they work. The simplest method is to put a
bit of crystal in a vacuum sealed container. The liquid crystal
simply grows until it fills the container. You can pour liquid
crystal in a chasm or a deep cavern that goes down at least a
thousand feet and has a heavy source of certain metals. Lastly,
according to the Chi’Kehra’s journal, is activating part of the
ruin. Each ruin has a centralized pit that is covered in the
ancient language, symbols, and has circular grooves. Supposedly,
there are several hoops of crystal that once placed in the grooves
activates the crystal into expansion.”

“You’re kidding, right?” he asked
suspiciously. “That sounds like something out of an epic fantasy
novel. You know, ‘…go find the crystal rings and save the princess
from the evil dragon’.”

Laughing at his mocking tone of doom, she
said, “Honestly, it sounds as weird to me as it does to you.”

“I can’t believe that in four thousand years
someone didn’t try to create a crystal spring on Earth,” he said,
pausing near the base of the second set of stairs.

“Well, now that you mention it, they have,”
she said, grinning at his utter look of horror.

“Where? How?” he demanded, refusing to budge
another inch.

“A few thousand years ago, Haven Valley had a
few rough years of political unrest with people wanting to explore
Earth. From what we can piece together, a group found a hidden
gateway. Once on Earth, they tried to replicate a synth
spring.”

“It worked?” he asked.

“Only too well,” she said with a shake of her
head and started up the stairs. “Let’s find the umbra, deal with
him, and then I’ll tell you all about the little town in North
America that should not be there.”

“I’ll agree to that, but you want to tell me
what’s wrong? I can feel your worry,” he said, briefly touching the
center of his chest as if it was a physical ache he could
sooth.

She sighed and gazed into his eyes. She
would’ve liked to ease him into the idea, but he’d already been
kidnapped once and she wasn’t willing to take another chance at
losing him. “I don’t want you to think I’m trying to be too
possessive, but I’d like to insert a tiny piece of crystal in your
body.” Before he could say yes or no, she stated why. “It’s like a
built-in GPS chip that only I can access.”

“Okay.”

“Okay? Just like that? You don’t mind?” she
asked with a slight frown. For the last ten minutes, she’d been
preparing a speech to convince him.

He chuckled and gently squeezed her fingers.
“I like the fact you can track me. I just wish there was some way I
could track you. If you ever disappear, I’d go insane trying to
find you.”

“Oh,” she said, absorbing the intense look in
his eyes.

“Go for it.”

From her blood, she created a tiny sliver of
crystal and pushed the shard through the skin at the base of his
head. With a flicker of thought, she embedded the fragment into the
bone of his skull.

“Can you put another one in the fleshy part
of my upper throat?” At her look of surprise, he added. “Anyone
that finds out who you are, and realizes your method of tracking
people, might find one, but not both pieces of crystal.”

“Good thinking,” she agreed and did as he
suggested.

Finished, she touched his cheek. “Thank
you.”

“You’re welcome. Now, I have a question for
you,” he stopped speaking, and she felt a gentle nudge at her mind.
They were no longer In Between, but the action was still so muted
by the surrounding gateways, she would never have felt the touch if
she hadn’t been his mate and Chi’Kehra. Easing a bit of power
through her fingertips, she very carefully boosted his inner
power.

Opening her surface thoughts to her mate, she
heard his inner monologue,
“She trusts me. She is mine. I didn’t
lose her. Her soul is more beautiful than her face, and her smile
knocks me to my knees every time I look at her.”

Random thoughts flowed through her upper
mind, coasting beside her own thoughts, easy to listen to, and just
as easy to shut out. When she realized his pleasure over the
experience matched her own, she flashed him a rare grin of
delight.

Behind his head, inside the frame of a
gateway, she caught a flicker of movement. Hissing through her
teeth, she stalked to the gateway.

A helicopter flew through the bright, blue
sky. A single glance told her she wasn’t looking into a Sídhí
valley, not with the call letters of a wildly popular mundane news
agency appearing on the side of the machine. Below the helicopter,
on a beautiful stretch of beach, a swarm of people surrounded the
sprawled body of an umbra.

A shiver of dread raced up her back.

“I threw his wretched body onto Earth?” Nick
questioned disgustedly. Spitting out a curse, his self-condemnation
hit her. “If the media are just recording, and not doing a live
report, we might contain it.”

She wished she could agree with him, but it
was too late. She shook her head, pointing to the people. “Look how
many have their cell phones out. There are probably dozens of
pictures and video going viral across the web.”

“A hoax? We could implant the idea in their
minds,” he suggested desperately.

Slowly, she nodded. “That might work. Let me
contact my first response team.”

“There isn’t time,” he grumbled.

“A single mental warning and they will be
armed and ready to fight,” she paused, sending out a mental alert
to her men a thousand miles away.
“Red alert, boys and girls,
there is an umbra in the mundane world.”

“
Liege, we know about the creature. The
media are streaming live video,”
said Major Garrick Moran.

“
Then we make it look like a hoax. Send
someone to that big museum in Royal Valley and take the wax statue
of the umbra. Be ready…”
her words jerked to a halt.

Without warning, a dozen armed men and women
appeared around the curious crowd. The few people that had been
looking behind them screamed. The screams quickly turned into howls
of terror as vampires from the Dhark Empire, flashed fang and
claws.

His hand clenched around her arm. “That umbra
knows you’re Chi’Kehra. We can’t let it fall into the empire’s
hands,” Nick snapped.

“Agreed,” she said, while her thoughts raced
a mile a minute, spending precious time she didn’t have.
I can
have my men there in an instant. Nick’s not trained for this kind
of warfare. I don’t want to hurt his feeling. I can’t lose him, not
now. If he goes, my attention will split, putting all of us in
greater danger.

“Hush,” he put a single finger over her lips.
“Go, stop them, and come back to me.”

Understanding flickered through her. He had
been reading her thoughts.

At the last minute, she yanked Bowie from its
secure position under her shirt. Handing him the weapon, she
stepped backward.

The bit of crystal tracker ID embedded in the
bodies of her men worked just as well as a lock for her power.
“Porting in two seconds, one second, porting,”
she warned
each of her people. As she spoke the last word, she grasped each
splinter of synth crystal embedded in their bodies, and teleported
the group of hardened warriors onto the beach, making it appear to
any observer that they ported under their own power.