Jordan (34 page)

The place of honor was reserved for a white granite pedestal. Atop the pedestal perched a large cup with graceful handles.

“The Holy Grail?” she asked, her tone filled with awe.

Jordan nodded and reached for the Grail.

“Wait.” She knocked his hand back. “Check the guards’ minds. See if this thing’s triggered to go off when the Grail’s weight
is removed.”

Jordan stilled, checking the men, then shook his head. “No. We’re safe.”

At the sight of his careful handling of the sacred chalice, both sadness and happiness flooded her.

They’d found the Holy Grail.

The healing cup that might save Earth.

The instrument of Jordan’s death.

He stood still, mesmerized by the smooth metal. His eyes glinted with triumph.

One of the guards groaned, reminding her that more could arrive any moment. “Jordan. We should go.”

The light in Jordan’s eyes hardened to a bright glint. “It’s a fake.”

“What?” She spun around so fast she almost tripped.

An awful sinking sensation engulfed her. Had they come all this way for nothing? “How do you know it’s not real?”

“The Grail contains a rippling energy field that’s visible to the naked eye.”

She stared at the cup. “Maybe it’s in the dormant stage.”

“There’s only one way to find out.” From his backpack, he withdrew his canteen and poured water into the Grail, then sipped
from the cup’s lip. Then he handed her his knife, hilt first, and held out his arm. “Cut me.”

Damn him. The idea of cutting him made her nauseous.

“I possess the Grail and I’ve drunk from it. If it’s real, I can’t die in battle.”

“But if you’re right, if the Grail’s a fake, I’m not about to deliver a mortal wound.”

“A small cut should suffice.”

Her hand shook. Sweat beaded on her scalp and rolled down her neck. She licked her lip, and then, with a sigh, she lowered
the knife. “Why don’t you do it?”

“Because the wound must be in battle.” He raised his brows. “Self-inflicted wounds don’t count.”

Her stomach twisted in agitation. “I can’t carve you up like a piece of meat.”

“Do it.” He hardened his voice. “Earth can’t afford for us to make a mistake. We can’t leave unless we’re certain we have
the genuine article.”

His authoritarian tone was just brutal enough to remind her of the seriousness of their situation. Just enough to make her
angry, and that anger fed her determination. She sliced a small cut across his upper arm.

He hissed in a breath but didn’t move. They both watched the blood well, then trickle down to his elbow.

“How long should it take to heal?” she asked, handing him back the knife and hoping she never had to do anything like that
again.

“It’s not working.” He tossed the fake aside. “Search the rest of these artifacts. It must be here.”

Maybe not.
“Maybe the vision from the hartog was from this fake. Maybe even Trendonis doesn’t know it’s a counterfeit.” She peered at
shelves that held ethereal statues of dragons, their wings spread for flight; wooden puzzles carved from moonstone; and an
entire collection of leather-clad books with holographic covers.

“In the hartog’s memory, the Grail glowed. It was real.”

She looked behind several paintings. “There’s no safe hidden back here.”

“Maybe we should roll up the area rug and look under it.” Jordan peered behind an elaborate golden mirror that dominated the
room.

When he’d moved the mirror, something caught her eye, a strange reflection that was probably a trick of the light. Still,
she was curious. “Do that again,” she demanded.

“What are you talking about?”

“Swing the mirror.”

He did as she asked, and this time her puzzlement grew. “Do you see something weird in the mirror?”

He shook his head.

“Let’s change places,” she insisted.

“Watch closely.” She tilted the mirror from side to side, the bottom of its frame scraping the wall. “See anything odd?”

Jordan went pale and his eyes gleamed. “It’s not a mirror.”

“It’s not?”

“It’s a reflection pool.” Jordan faced the mirror head-on, wonder in his eyes.

“A reflection pool?” she asked.

“I’ve never seen one, but according to legend, reflection pools can absorb objects. So it would be a terrific hiding place.”
He reached toward the mirror, but his palms didn’t stop on the surface like she’d expected. Instead, his hands plunged through
the mirror up to his elbows.

Vivianne gasped. She didn’t understand what she was seeing. Jordan was elbow deep into the mirror, and yet the mirror was
flat against the wall. It was as if the mirror held another dimension of space.

“Got it.” Jordan pulled his hands out of the mirror and held up the Grail.

This Grail was shaped exactly like the fake. But the genuine burnished cup swirled with a sparkling inner energy that mesmerized
her.

The Holy Grail.

Hands shaking, she poured water into the cup and again Jordan sipped. Holding her breath, she stared at his arm. The blood
dried, scabbed over. Within seconds, his flesh had healed.

The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. No one knew who’d made the Grail or how it actually healed. But the legends
on dozens of worlds made the object priceless.

Jordan stuffed the Grail into his backpack, then leaned over and kissed her. “We did it, Vi. We’ve got it.”

“Yeah.” She pulled back reluctantly. The knowledge that he wanted her sent a fierce rush of pleasure through her. Then the
pleasure jumbled with elation and wretchedness.

Her time with Jordan was running out.

Love is a horizon that expands as we soar toward it.

—H
IGH
P
RIESTESS OF
A
VALON

V
ivianne watched Jordan tense and jerk his head to one side as if he was listening and focusing intently. His wince told her
something was wrong. But she knew better than to ask questions and interrupt his concentration while he was scanning minds.
Instead, she helped him sling the backpack with the Grail over his shoulder.

When Jordan refocused, he hurried her out of the secret chamber. “When we entered and triggered the patio lights, a guard
called in the disturbance.”

“Trendonis is sending Security to check on the house?” Vivianne guessed, her stomach twisting into a knot.

Jordan helped her back out the window. “He must have grown suspicious. He’s sending eight squads.”

Sweat broke out all over Vivianne as they crossed the back yard. “How much time have we got?”

“Not long. Maybe five minutes.”

Vivianne swore under her breath. “Which way?”

“I don’t know. I can’t scan again while we’re moving this fast. Run.”

Vivianne made an arbitrary right and pounded down the sidewalk. Her footsteps seemed loud in her own ears. A curtain moved
aside in the second story of one of the mansions, and someone peered out.

They were too vulnerable out in the open. “We have to get off the street.”

Jordan agreed. “I know.”

They reached the park and kept running. A couple walking hand in hand stopped to stare. She was certain they’d remember them
and send Security. If only they could double back, but there was no place to hide in the block of mansions.

“Can we change levels?” she asked, her breath coming in gasps, not so much from exhaustion but fear. If Trendonis caught them
now, they might not ever get another chance to escape with the Grail.

“Look for another lift station.”

She kept her eyes peeled for the wide gates that funneled people onto the giant platforms.

A stitch in her side burned. Her legs ached, and her muscles refused to relax.

Dig deeper.

Sirens and flashing lights behind her urged her to move her feet faster. Still, she lagged behind Jordan.

“Only a little farther,” he encouraged her.

They were in the middle of this sector. They might still have miles to go. She looked right. Left. Back over her shoulder.
The orange lights on the chase vehicles behind them were growing more intense by the second.

“Jordan, we need to hide. Soon.”

“Shoot me some mental power.”

She focused on her fear.
We need to hide.
She opened the spigot of fear and let it flow through her, felt him siphoning it up.

“One more block. Second house on the right. It’s vacant.”

Thank God. She was so tired she could barely move one foot in front of the other. Pumping her arms, she forced her legs to
keep churning, her feet to keep moving. One more step. One more step. She kept up the chant. Each time she yearned to slow,
she told herself to take just one more step.

“Here.” Jordan veered down a path and headed straight to the back porch.

“Alarms?” she gasped.

“They’re disconnected.”

Jordan raised his fist to break a window.

“Don’t.”

Sucking down air, she removed her multitool from her handheld and picked the lock. Jordan shoved open the door.

They scurried inside and sank to the floor just as a Security vehicle turned down the street. Slowly, it rolled toward them,
its lights outlining the house.

“You think they saw us?” she asked between pants.

“Doesn’t look like it.” Jordan flattened his body and peeked out the window.

It didn’t
look
like it? Jordan sounded as if he didn’t know for sure.

“Why can’t you read their minds?” she asked.

“I don’t know.” He rubbed his temple. “But I’m blocked again.”

Not good. “Perhaps you need to rest.”

“Maybe.” His tone was tight, annoyed.

They were inside a living area. Although a sagging sofa, a rickety table, and several lamps remained, the home was vacant.
Off the main room she saw a kitchen. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her they hadn’t eaten in hours.

She was about to hunt down some food when she glanced at Jordan. He leaned against a wall, chin slumped against his chest.

“Jordan?” She staggered over to him and discovered he was shaking. “What’s wrong?”

“Don’t know.” Again he spoke in that tight voice he’d used earlier.

She slung an arm around his waist. “Let’s get you onto the couch before you fall and hurt yourself.”

“No w-w-worries. C-can’t d-die. Have the G-grail.”

She placed her free hand on Jordan’s forehead. “You’re burning up.”

After helping him to the couch, she searched the kitchen for a dishcloth, placed it under cool tap water, and wrung it out
in the sink. Returning to his side, she bathed his face and neck.

But mere moments after she placed the towel on his flesh, his body heat warmed the towel. Even worse, Jordan was once again
glowing from the inside out. Either she was seeing things, or this time more of those bluish lights had returned, shining
so brightly she had to squint. It seemed as though the lights themselves were responsible for raising his temperature, yet
back in the cave, she hadn’t noticed him visibly warming.

She tugged him to his feet. “Get up. We have to cool you down.”

Together they moved toward the back rooms of the house. At the sight of a huge bathing tub, her pulse skipped in relief. At
least sixteen feet long and eight feet wide with a seat and jets at one end, the indoor pool’s clear water lapped the steps
invitingly.

Jordan tripped forward and barely kicked off his shoes before staggering into the pool fully clothed. With his flesh so hot,
she almost expected to hear hissing as the blue lights struck the water. Although the lights didn’t even dim, blue once again
shined from Jordan’s eyes.

By now she’d become somewhat accustomed to the weird glow. After all, jellyfish glowed, and their phosphorescence was not
only natural but compelling. Perhaps it was because her own flesh was also beginning to glow that she didn’t find him so strange.

Holding up her hand to the light, she marveled at the sparkles that tingled pleasantly. “What’s happening to us?”

“You don’t know?” he murmured, and then his mouth came down on hers.

And instantly she knew. Jolted by the electric zing that ripped through her core, she gasped at the wondrous sensations swirling
around her, through her, inside her. Heat was transformed into burning lust. Once again she was surrounded by Jordan’s sparkling
blue aura, but now it was also becoming part of her.

And he felt good. Damn good.

Every cell in her body was sensitized and aching for his touch. It was almost as if those blue lights were a torch that ignited
a burn so hot it consumed them.

“I want you,” he whispered. “I need you, Vi. I have to have you.”

“Then take me.” She leaned into him, her chest pressed against him, her double hearts thudding against her ribs. Sliding against
his hard length, she lost herself in the blue cloud of light.

He was thinking about her lips, how he loved the way she tasted, how she welcomed him with eagerness and yet somehow still
stayed soft and willing. As they kissed, her emotions fed him, and
his
thoughts were trickling into her.