Surrender (THE DRAGONFLY CHRONICLES) (15 page)

“What are you doing?” Kailin sputtered, her head half buried by the pillows. Jackson swatted the velvety squares off the bed.

“Where is it?”

“Where is what?”

“Whatever bit you? It could bite you again.” In one swift jerk, Jackson tore the length of sleeve from Kailin’s arm.

“What? Wait! Stop!” she shouted and struggled upright.

Jackson held up her arm and rubbed his fingers along her doe-like skin, ignoring how enticingly it contrasted with his own. Only a brown shape lay along her pale limb. A bruise? He leaned into it. No. It had shape, shape with a purpose. “It’s a dragonfly,” he murmured.

Kailin snatched her arm back and ran a hand over the mark. “A birthmark.”

His eyes searched the tossed covers. He flipped over several remaining pillows. “No snake then.”

“Wonderful,” an enthusiastic whisper came from the shadows behind him. Jackson whirled, rolling off the bed, his gun drawn before he stood to his full height. “Already in bed together.” The apparition smiled and flapped her hand toward the scattered bedclothes. Kailin tumbled out the side, nearly falling on her face in her haste.

“We’re not in bed together,” she huffed and righted herself.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jackson saw her pat her hair and straighten her bodice, though her missing sleeve gave her the definite look of someone being ravished.

“Well you should be.” The ghost called Drakkina frowned. “You’re just as stubborn as your sisters.”

“And if we were,” Kailin continued, “you shouldn’t be checking in on us. That’s…that’s just
bloody
rude.”

If Anthony Whitaker had only called his daughter by her true name and this night hadn’t taken a dangerous turn toward the lethally awful, Jackson would have laughed outright at the hissing fury in Kailin’s feminine voice. Like a kitten imitating a tiger. Kailin’s ice just moments ago had sobered him. He told himself it was because he’d jeopardized his plan, not that he’d ruined his chances to ever kiss the beautiful Dr. Kailin Whitaker ever again.

Drakkina waved her hand and several dragonflies jumped off to zip around the room. “I would have left if you’d been indisposed.” She pointed at Kailin’s bare arm. “You will always know when I’m near.”

“The tingling sensation.”

Drakkina nodded. So that was the source of Kailin’s gasp, not a venomous bite but a tingling birthmark.
Of course!
Jackson rolled his eyes. He felt the need to sit, but didn’t budge. Drakkina frowned at his gun.

“All you warriors want to kill me. First of all, I’m on the side of good.” Her lips tightened and she narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m on your side,” she reiterated as if that might be something she needed to make clear. Could the witch read his mind? “Second, your bullets can’t hurt me. I’m already dead, for now, anyway.”

“Why are you haunting Kailin?” Jackson asked and lowered his weapon though he didn’t re-holster it. “You need to move on to wherever you need to go.” He wouldn’t give it a name, as he wondered himself where a devil like himself would end up. Maybe that’s why the spirit remained Earth-bound.

“I am not haunting anyone,” she sniffed. “I’m completing a mission to save this world which includes finding all of Gilla’s daughters and their soul mates to fight the final battle against Semiazaz and his coven of demons.”

She paused and Jackson stared. Kailin grumbled something under her breath. Jackson looked to her. “You know about this?”

Kailin shrugged. “I don’t know if she speaks the truth.”

“You could have shared what you knew.”

Kailin pierced him with those crystal eyes. “It seems we all carry secrets.”

Drakkina chuckled. “Aye, passion. Good, good. It’s just a matter of time then. I won’t have to interfere. It’s best I don’t anyway. Love takes its own bloody time. I thought Merewin and Hauk would never get past their stubborn natures.”

Jackson stared at Drakkina. “You said soul mate.” He glanced between Kailin and the ghost. “You mean me, a soul mate for Kailin.”

Kailin let loose a sarcastic chuckle and paced back to the bed to sit on the edge. “Hardly!”

Drakkina frowned at Kailin and nodded to Jackson. “Her magic doesn’t work on you, correct?”

Jackson just stared. Drakkina took that as an affirmative. “Therefore you are her soul mate. And the link between each daughter and her mate is important in order to gather the power to defeat the demons.”

“Who are these…” He hesitated, feeling foolish talking about beings that only existed in hellfire sermons.

“Demons,” Drakkina finished for him. “A group of thirteen corrupted, powerful souls who are determined to collect enough magical power to break the web of time holding all eras in their proper place. If they succeed, time will no longer have meaning. All of humanity that has ever lived will be back on this small planet, piled upon one another, starving, tormented, dying all over again hideous deaths. Everyone you care about, everyone you’ve ever cared about, every generation of family you’ve ever had will live again in agony, only to be toyed with and tortured for fun and game. Oh some will escape their far reaching attention, but they will live in hiding until the meager resources of this planet give out.”

“Why would they do that?”

Drakkina threw her hands wide. “Why do demons do anything? To cause havoc out of a sense of revenge and resentment, grow huge on dark power, feed on pain and suffering. And don’t underestimate them.” Drakkina lowered her arms and pointed at him. “They will stop at nothing to succeed. I bound them millennia ago to stall their progress, but they’ve learned to work together. Now they’re even angrier I fear.” Her gaze dropped with the weight of guilt.

“You could be making this all up,” Jackson challenged. “To toy with us. Perhaps you are the demon.”

Drakkina glanced upward as if seeking assistance from a deity. “When they show up you’ll know I speak the truth.” She pierced him with a pale blue-eyed stare. “Treasure hunter. You understand the call of the hunt. These monsters hunt power and Kailin is the most powerful of Gilla’s daughters.”

Jackson’s hand contracted into a fist. “They’re hunting Kailin?”

Drakkina nodded.

“I’ve never seen them,” Kailin interjected.

“They haven’t found you yet, but they found your twin.”

Kailin shot off the bed. “Is she still alive?”

“Not in this year, but yes, she survived. They also nearly found Merewin. They are getting better at hunting you all. I think the final battle that my oracle has predicted is nearing. It is only a matter of time before they sense you. The magic of the stones in Scotland and the vast power still ingrained in the pharaohs’ monuments have masked you, masked Gilla’s power in you.”

“Do you, could you,” Kailin began, her stare quite serious on the spirit. “Could you teach me to control this gift from my mother?”

Drakkina grinned slowly and nodded. “I taught her. I can teach you.”

“When?”

“Now, except I seem to have interrupted something I probably shouldn’t have.” Drakkina’s gaze flicked to the bed. Kailin blushed and the oil lamps flared hot, sparking bright light through the room.

“We were dealing with a snake in the bed,” Kailin said.

Drakkina laughed raucously. “Like I said, I’ll leave you to it.”

The flames shot up out the tops of the lamps, cutting off Drakkina’s cackles. Jackson immediately grabbed Kailin’s hands and the flames retreated. “It was an asp,” he said, “venomous and likely meant to kill Kailin.”

Drakkina sobered. “A human hunts you too?”

“Apparently,” Kailin said and her blush began to recede.

“Well don’t die,” Drakkina ordered and looked at Jackson. “You either. The world needs you two, just like the rest.” Her gaze moved back to Kailin. “You will want to meet your sisters. You can’t do that dead unless of course the demons win and they bring you back to devour you.”

“Why are you trying to save a world you no longer live in?” Jackson asked. He still wasn’t clear on her motives. Some motives seemed pure on the surface, but underneath they reeked of corruption.

Drakkina’s lips tightened. She looked for a moment like she wouldn’t answer but then her lips relaxed and opened. “I’m tied to this world still, tied to Gilla’s daughters.” She met Kailin’s questioning gaze. “I gave my oath to your mother to protect all of you and your world.” She swallowed, and the dragonflies zipping about came to hover close to her, some of them flickering like a caress against her cheek. “I lived in this world too once, long ago. I remember it. And I remember the feeling of loss, loss at the hands of ultimate evil.” She looked up. “As long as I can, I will fight it. If I stop I truly will be dead. They will have won. Not to mention that if they bring me back in corporeal form, they will seek me and take great pleasure in torturing me for shackling them all these years.”

Silence sat between them like a thick triangle of questions and muffled thoughts. Jackson was the first to move, slowly releasing Kailin’s hand. “Perhaps the lessons can begin tomorrow on our expedition. It is late tonight. Kailin needs sleep.”

“So do you,” Kailin mumbled indignantly.

“So do I,” Jackson parroted.

Drakkina flipped her hand around. “I will keep watch with your pet.” She indicated the balcony where Tuto perched on the rail, surveying the garden below, perhaps for more asps or human assassins. The spirit began to fade. “Tomorrow then.” And she was gone.

Jackson watched Kailin’s shoulders slump. “No more tingling?” he asked and she shook her head without looking at him. “I suppose we should get some sleep. The camels will be here early, just after dawn.” She nodded, still mute. “Where do you plan to sleep?” he asked.

“On the balcony.”

He nodded. Tuto and Drakkina would no doubt guard the balcony and gardens below. He would guard the door. “I’ll take the bed then.”

Kailin’s head snapped toward him. “The bed in your own room.”

He unbuckled his holster, letting his belt and the gun slide off. They clunked heavily on the night stand next to the bed. “I’m not leaving your side, not now that I know someone is trying to kill you.” He walked to the balcony while she sputtered behind him. She had moved the divan out on the narrow balcony. He riffled through the linens, checking for more surprises. The only thing that assaulted him was the light floral scent that permeated the sheets from Kailin’s time sleeping there last night. He exhaled the enticing aroma and turned. “All clear out here. Tuto and the ghost are keeping watch in the garden. No one will get by me inside.”

“I will be fine. You need to go to your own rooms. What will people think?”

Jackson came up close to her inside the room. “People will not know and if they somehow find out”—his lips quirked up a bit at the corner—“I’ll just explain to them that we are soul mates.” He winked then just to watch anger light the blue in her eyes. The ghost was right, there was passion between them. Which was good because he much preferred fury to apathetic avoidance.

The oil lamps flared and he grabbed her hands. “No bonfire tonight. I plan to sleep in that bed, and if there are any flames in it, it will be when we’re in it together.”

“Oooo!” Kailin stomped her feet but let him hold her hands. “When Drakkina teaches me how to control my magic, I’ll have no need for you at all anymore. You can crawl back into whatever hole liars stew in.”

Jackson’s grin faded. “Maybe when you learn to trust me with the whole truth, I’ll learn to trust you.” He released her hands and strode to the bed, leaving her gaping in the middle of the room. He stretched out on top of her bed and doused the flame nearest him. “Goodnight, Dr. Whitaker.”

****

Four one-humped dromedary camels stood before the Hotel Moudira. Three were saddled with colorful woven mats in the traditional fashion, tassels dangling evenly around. The fourth beast served to carry the supplies Jackson had arranged the day before. A young native man stood silently beside them. Kailin had sent word to Musa, Anthony’s lifelong friend and guide, only to hear the shocking news that he had been taken along with her father. Hopefully he hadn’t been murdered for the simple reason of not being of value.

Kailin studied the new guide, Qeb, as she sipped a tall mug of warm dark chocolate with cream. He was between twenty and thirty years of age, she guessed, and dressed in the traditional white
thobe
or basic dress to his ankles with a
kufeya
head wrap. Several curved knives with colorfully swathed handles hung from a mustard brown belt tied loosely around the
thobe
. Worn leather sandals were the locally preferred hiking boots.

Qeb smiled cautiously at Kailin and nodded, his eyes flicking down to his hem in a nervous bow. She knew absolutely nothing about Qeb, but he’d been recommended by her father’s merchant friend. Or at least that is what Jackson had told her. There was too little time to fully inspect the man’s background.

Kailin frowned at Jackson who inspected the leather bags and bed rolls tied to the fourth camel. He wore trousers with boots and a long-enduring leather expedition jacket that lay comfortably across his broad shoulders like a second skin. A wide-brimmed hat sat on his head in more of an American-West style than the popular rounder brimmed hats the Brits wore. It fit him, as if it belonged there even when his mount had a hump instead of a sleek neck and flowing mane.

He ran his hand down the nose of one camel and let it lip away some fresh stalks from his palm. Qeb had brought the animals watered and fed this morning. Kailin had settled her hotel bill and only waited for Jackson’s signal to head out. It came in the form of a nod.

She stifled a yawn from not having slept well knowing he lay only yards away, probably without a shred of clothing on. Every time her mind wandered to the minute details of his kiss, she’d remind herself tersely about his lie. Why had he said that he was close friends with Anthony? To convince her to come with him quickly? Why was he even involved in trying to liberate her father if he didn’t know him? What was in it for Jackson Black?