Genesis (The Legend of Glory Book 3) (16 page)

Kaia looked at her. “You’re still really depleted. So much of a witch’s magical power is carried in the blood, and you gave up a lot of it. We’ve got a long drive ahead of us. Use it to recharge.”

“I can do that.” Rory settled back into the plush leather seat, closed her eyes, and let go. A moment later, she landed in a chair at a table on which a chessboard was set up. Nyx sat across from her, controlling the black chess pieces.

Rory had faced Nyx in a fight the year before, when her coven had summoned the demoness in an effort to save Kaia’s life. Nyx’s beauty and powerful presence remained the same. However, instead of wearing long robes, this time she had on blue jeans and a tee shirt that read,
TIME IS THE MOTHER OF INFINITE DIMENSIONS
.

“Chess is an interesting game, don’t you think?” Nyx said.

Rory instinctively knew this wasn’t a dream, but she refused to allow herself to feel fear. Figuring there might be something to learn, she kept her eye on the prize. “Some think winning the game is all about skill. I believe it’s more about being a badass.”

Nyx laughed and her breath, sweetened by wine and spices, blew across the table and filled Rory. “Just think, if I had killed you when I killed your mother, I would have missed witnessing your clever wit.”

“What do you want?”

“I overheard you and Kaia talking about chess recently and thought I’d address the question she brought up.”

“About who controls the black pieces?”

“The problem with Kaia’s question, and the problem with your entire light warrior philosophy, is your basic premise that there is only white and black, light and dark, good and evil.” Nyx’s hand made a casual gesture toward the chessboard. It shimmered, and suddenly, rather than being a flat board set up with white pieces on one side and black on the other, it morphed into a multi-dimensional board constructed of multiple levels and intersecting spaces. Then Nyx’s hand flicked again and chess pieces of many colors took to the battlefield.

Rory blinked.

“Very Star Treky, isn’t it?” Nyx asked.

Rory glanced at Nyx’s tee shirt again.

“Time is the Mother I worship,” Nyx said. “Not your Mother Earth. This is just one little planet, in one little universe, in a sea of multiple dimensions and multiverses.”

“But you serve Lucifer,” Rory said.

“He’s the black king I protect, but—” Nyx reached into the board to locate the white king and tipped it over. “Checkmate, darling.”

Rory peered into the depths of the shimmer. “What about the red king, and the blue king, and the yellow king?”

“See, here’s the thing about multiple dimensions—they all exist here and now. The inhabitants of those realms each have their own agenda. Gods, goddesses, angels, demons, humans, fae, and caretakers of the various dimensions each believe their color is the right one and that they have the only king worth saving. Well, unless alliances are formed.”

Rory struggled to understand the metaphysics of it all.

“You’d be surprised at some of the alliances.”

Rory shifted on the hard chair and tried to see the entire picture. She remembered what White Bear had told her about the shadow government and demons being in cahoots. If the
NWO
was the source of the religious apparitions, why did Gaia tell her to take Kaia out? “Riddle me this, Nyx. Is there a reason the New World Order would want Kaia dead?”

“What?”

“They told me she was dancing with the dark and tried to get me to kill her.”

Nyx stared at her.

Rory tried to read her mind, but couldn’t. However, she did pick up feelings of betrayal. “Sweetie, I think that hooking up with them might not have been in your side’s best interest. I think they have their own agenda and are using your alliance with them in ways you didn’t expect.”

“It’s true that Kaia is destined to serve a dark king. So, why would the
NWO
want you to kill her? What advantage would that bring them?”

“You tell me.”

Nyx grew pensive. “Perhaps they consider you a threat? Maybe they wanted to distract you from something else right now?”

Rory glanced at the chessboard and then back at her. “Be wary of one-night stands. Hookups aren’t always what you expect.”

Nyx’s eyes flashed fire.

Rory liked to unsettle the enemy. It made them careless.

“And it’s because you’re such a smart little firecracker that we needed to take you out of the game for a while. That’s what this quantum physics lesson has been about.”

Rory suddenly saw clearly and summoned every ounce of her will to return to her body. The last thing she witnessed before awakening in the
BMW
was Nyx’s startled expression.

“Never underestimate me, bitch,” Rory mumbled as she swam through the fog of consciousness and assessed the scene around her.

Now dark, the car was surrounded by forest, and Kaia stood in the headlights of the
BMW
facing two men and two women Rory didn’t recognize. Another car was across from theirs, its light shining on Kaia who stood frozen like the proverbial deer. Rory removed the switchblade from her boot, palmed it, and stepped outside to join them.

Nearly knocked over by the force of Kaia’s terror, Rory quickly took a protective stance in front of her friend. “Seems I wasn’t invited to the party.”

A small woman stepped forward. “This is a private conversation. You were supposed to be distracted longer.”

“Kaia?”

“They forced my car off the road.”

Rory flicked open her switchblade and held it up for all to see. “You have no clue who you’re messing with. Move on.”

The spokeswoman burst out laughing, raised her hand, and a bolt of energy blew Rory’s knife away.

“Crap,” Rory mumbled. Well, it had been worth a try.

The woman’s grin was impish. “My name’s Delaney.” She gestured toward the other three in her group. “Brian, Cassidy, and Finn. We’re the Flanagans. Kaia is a long lost cousin. We wanted to introduce ourselves.”

Rory made a quick study of them. Like Kaia, they were all tiny, copper haired, and shared a certain pixie-like appearance. Blue tattoos covered faces, hands, arms. Unlike Kaia, they exuded bad mojo. Rory did her best to throw a mantle of magical protection around Kaia, but her energy reserves were virtually nonexistent.

“Let me guess,” Rory said. “From Kaia’s mysterious maternal lineage.”

Cassidy tossed a long braid back over her shoulder. “Good guess.”

The men approached Rory and Kaia, grabbed each one by an arm, and yanked them toward their vehicle.

“Kaia Flanagan-Moonstone-Killian, your lineage isn’t all White Goddess and silver moonbeams,” Brian said. “It’s time to learn what happens when a light warrior embraces her dark side. We’ve just been waiting until you were primed.”

Rory struggled to shake off Finn, and he responded by practically wrenching her arm out of its socket.

“You weren’t supposed to be part of this, but I guess we’ll improvise,” he told her. “Love your pretty, pouty lips. A child bride might be fun.”

“I’d eat you alive,” Rory said. She kicked him in the nuts and broke free.

Finn doubled over and howled, and then the night air shattered with other howls that were way more terrifying.

A large mountain lion streaked through the shadows, jumped on Brian’s back, and bit his neck. He shrieked and twisted in a desperate effort to get away, and Kaia sprawled onto the ground. Two other lions charged Delaney and Cassidy. Fierce growls and shrieks filled the air, blood splattered, and energy balls flew wild. Rory dove for her knife and moved to cover Kaia, but no cats attacked them. Rory looked at Kaia and saw she was smiling. Her chin jutted toward the smallest lion. “It’s Annie. Seems she’s made some friends.”

Annie. The orphan cub Kaia had raised.

Rory grasped Kaia’s hand and tugged her toward their car. “Let’s get out of here fast.”

As they pulled away from the mayhem, Rory said, “Next time you dream up a sisterhood of the traveling psychics’ road trip, definitely count me out.”

†          †          †

By nightfall, Zane’s battle wounds had healed and he was itching to ride the cure. White Bear and Kate set up the guest room as a medical suite. White Bear provided Kate with the syringes, blood pressure cuff, stethoscope, and other equipment she needed.

White Bear set up his medicine bundle and a clay
chiminea
fire pit on the bedroom’s balcony so he could support the scientific effort with his own magical one. He lit a fire, threw handfuls of herbs into it, and called for the blessing of spirits.

“How long will it take?” Zane asked Kate.

She shook her head. “I don’t know. It’ll start rewriting your
DNA
right away. You’re going to get awfully sick.”

“I can handle it.”

“The pain will be beyond anything you’ve experienced.”

“I’ll push through.”

“I’m uncertain about so many things. There have been no clinical trials. It might kill you.”

“If that happens, I just hope it’ll turn me human first. I’d like to die human.”

White Bear studied him from the doorway to the balcony. “Tell me, are you doing this for yourself or someone else?”

Zane removed his hat and hung it on a bedpost, took off his shirt and boots, then settled onto the bed. “I’m doing it for me and a lot of someone elses.” He thought about Glory, Joy, his family, the Goth Girls, and all the other vampires he’d met over the decades.

“Do you have any concerns about becoming human again?” White Bear asked.

Zane thought about it. “My friend Jade once said that most humans are asleep, dreaming of themselves. From what I remember, and what I’ve witnessed over time, that’s true. Being a vampire is about being totally awake. I don’t want to lose that.”

White Bear’s eyes twinkled. “I predict you’ll be one of the rare, awakened humans.”

Kate sat on the edge of the bed, loaded syringe in hand.

“Are you ready?”

“I always pray before a battle,” Zane said. He bowed his head and asked for strength.

†          †          †

Zane’s stomach had been stomped on once by a bull while rodeoing, which produced an injury so severe that if he hadn’t been a vampire he would have died. The first symptom that hit instantly upon receiving the injection felt exactly like that. Kate had a bowl ready for him to vomit into, and he did so until blood came up.

Then it felt like his head was stomped on by that very same bull. Despite every bit of grit he could summon, he cried out with anguish. Kate sat down next to him, pulled his head into her lap, and cradled it until his cries settled into moans.

“I’m not sure I can get through this,” Zane whispered, fearful for the first time in forever.

Kate picked up her small volume of Rumi poetry and read aloud.

“Your body is woven

from the light of Heaven.

Are you aware

that its purity and swiftness

is the envy of angels

and its courage

keeps even devils away?”

Zane thought of the light from Heaven and imagined it filling his body. It helped. But then his eyes went blind.

“It’ll pass,” Kate assured him.

“If light is in your heart,

you will find your way home.

Darkness may hide the trees

and the flowers from the eyes

but it cannot hide

love from the soul.”

Zane remembered Kate telling him that her husband had read her poetry when she suffered a horrible case of the flu. He surrendered to her kindness as waves of pain, fever, and weakness wracked his body.

“Limp along until your legs are spent,

and you fall flat and your energy is drained.

Then the grace of the Divine will lift you.”

No, Zane believed he was beyond Divine grace, but maybe he wasn’t beyond Glory’s love. Perhaps that would be his ultimate salvation.

“I was dead, then alive.

Weeping, then laughing.

The power of love came into me,

and I became fierce like a lion,

then tender like the evening star.”

The hallucinations began, and monsters attacked Zane. The horrors of all the years arose in his mind and threatened to consume him. Would this treatment leave him insane? His arms flailed at the devils only he could see. Kate held him tighter and kept reading.

“Love is an emerald.

Its brilliant light wards off dragons

on this treacherous path.”