The Curse (13 page)

Some men would consider her dark green eyes and oval face surrounded by a mane of sunset-red hair attractive.

He’d like to stake that head on a pike.

“What do you want, Kizira?”

“I’ll let you know when I think of something.” She swung around, taking in the old guy.

Whoa. Tristan blinked his eyes. What was going on with Sam? His decaying image shifted and changed … a glamour? Sam pulled the tubes off his mask and tossed them aside. He lost a little height with the alteration to his new form, but this early-thirties body had a substantial, even robust appearance. And, he was
not
currently being held prisoner by the warlocks.

Tristan demanded, “Who is he?”

Kizira looked from Sam to Tristan. “Oh, that’s right. You think he’s Sam something or other. Meet Conlan O’Meary.”

The pain slithering through Tristan’s veins became inconsequential compared to the surge of fury over having been screwed. “You bastard.”

Tristan opened his mind to call a warning to Evalle.
Sam is
—

The words in his head bounced back at him, beating his brain with the force of a gong slamming inside a giant church bell. He grabbed his head, yelling, “Stop!”

And the sound disappeared.

Tristan took shallow breaths to keep from passing out. Stars shot across his gaze.

Kizira warned, “If you try to reach Evalle again, or anyone else telepathically, you will suffer until your ears bleed.” Then she told Conlan, “Were you successful? Convincing?”

“Hard not to be when I’m compelled,” Conlan said with an edge of irritation. “I don’t need that to do my part. I came to you willingly, didn’t I?”

“I didn’t do anything to you. If you have an issue with being compelled, file your complaint with Queen Flaevynn. But take it from someone she compels on a regular basis, you’ll end up being forced to do far worse than fool an Alterant.” Kizira ordered her warlocks, “Leave no trail from here.”

Tristan had nothing to offer in trade to protect his sister, Petrina, and two Rías friends, except himself, and Kizira already had him wrapped in invisible binding. He hoped his group would stick with his backup plan and leave immediately when he didn’t call them with news in the next fifteen minutes as scheduled. He’d told Petrina to contact Evalle or Tzader if anything happened to him.

Tristan would accept his fate as long as those three were safe. “What do you want with me, Kizira?”

She moved across the room, pausing to eye him as a useless speck of a creature. “At the present moment, not a thing. You did better than I expected.”

“What do you mean?”

“Thanks to you, Evalle will find the Alterants for us.”

“No, she won’t.” Not once Petrina gave Evalle the letter he’d written. The first part explained what he knew about Alterants that Evalle could use with the Tribunal. The last part warned her to stay as far away from the Medb as she could.

The Medb wanted Alterants, especially Evalle.

Now he had an idea why.

The Medb believed Evalle would locate more Alterants, including specific ones they clearly had plans for, and once that happened, the Medb would capture Evalle and the other Alterants.

Not if Tristan’s contingency plan worked and Petrina traded his letter in exchange for asylum with the Beladors. Evalle would protect her and the two Rías. And the minute she read the letter, Evalle would realize that coming to save him would only give the Medb what they needed most to kill Brina and take Treoir.

He grinned at Kizira. “You’ll never get your hands on Evalle.”

“You’re wrong, Tristan.” Kizira leaned forward and whispered, “Evalle will lead us to the green-eyed Alterants.”

“If you say so.” He gave her a noncommittal look. “I’d think by now you’d realize that Alterants aren’t as easy to catch as other nonhumans.”

Kizira picked her head up and looked into his eyes. “That’s why I’ve sent a team of Svart trolls to Atlanta to keep VIPER busy until I’m ready for them to bring Evalle back with our Alterants.”

Svart trolls? What the hell were those? “You think a bunch of trolls can capture Evalle?”

“To be perfectly honest, not really. But she’ll eventually come to us, because she’s a sucker for a lost cause.”

Tristan chuckled in spite of the pain that ripped through his chest. “Here’s a tip, Kizira. Don’t hold your breath waiting on Evalle, because I’ve made sure she won’t come back for me.”

Kizira levitated a couple of inches off the floor, smiling indulgently as one would at a naïve child. “Evalle will never see your letter. I took it when my warlocks delivered Petrina and those Rías to Tŵr Medb … right before I left to come here.”

“No,” Tristan roared, lunging against the invisible bonds that sliced his skin. “I’ll kill you!”

TEN

I
t’s almost one thirty. Evalle’s not with you?” Quinn slowly closed the door to his suite behind Tzader.

Why did Evalle have to be late this time? What could she still be doing this time of night … morning?

He’d waited long enough to confess his betrayal to her. Guilt, and the potential for losing a friend, were eating through the lining of his stomach.

“No, haven’t heard a word from her,” Tzader called over his shoulder. When he reached the living room, he went straight for a cushy side chair and sank into it. “Glad to have your help at the cemetery, but why didn’t you let me know you were coming back?”

“I made up my mind at the last minute, as soon as I felt ready to return.”
And I hadn’t planned on seeing you until tomorrow, but that would only have delayed the inevitable.
“Should we be concerned about Evalle?”

“Any other time I might be, but with her on some errand for Macha I’m thinking she’s just running late or I’d probably have heard something from her or the goddess.”

Quinn detoured to his wet bar, pulling a Guinness from the refrigerator for Tzader and pouring Boodles on the rocks for himself. He handed the chilled brew to Tzader, who wasted no time cracking it open.

Where to start?

Quinn had gone over this conversation in his head a hundred times and it never improved. “I would prefer for Evalle to be present so I only have to say this once, but now that I think about it, talking with you first may be better.”

That brought Tzader’s head up, his brown eyes sharpening. “You still having issues from probing Conlan’s mind?”

“No noticeable residual issues.”

“Then, what’s bothering you?”

“We do have a complication. When I went into the precognitive area of Conlan’s mind and accessed the future … I ran into a problem.”

Tzader leaned back, shaking his head. “You think I’ve forgotten how you bled from your eyes, nose and every other place blood could get out? Just glad you survived. Hate that you had to be the one to see Conlan joining up with the Medb. I know you had high expectations for him as a Belador warrior.”

“We both did.” Quinn swirled his drink, staring at the ice. “I condemned a good man to being hunted as a traitor.”

“Not your fault, Quinn. You were doing your duty. And Conlan did more damage to himself by escaping from VIPER and running.”

“We gave him no other option. He’d worked double time to prove he was not his traitorous father. Conlan came to the probe session willingly. Why would a traitor allow me, of all people, to search his mind?”

“I don’t know, but nothing will change popular opinion right now.”

Hearing resignation in that comment, Quinn asked, “What about you, Z? You thought Conlan was innocent at one time. Do you still think so?”

“Until I see hard evidence, I’m not willing to convict any person based on a vision of the future.” Tzader twisted his neck, stretching it, then settled back against the chair. “You and I may be the only two who believe in that kid. Best way we can help him is by keeping our game faces on when we’re around VIPER and Brina. Act as if Conlan’s on the top of our most wanted list at all times. That way when we find the
real
traitor, they’ll listen.”

“I see your point.”

Tzader’s arm dangled off the side of the chair, beer loosely clasped in his fingertips. “Right now we have to come up with a plan for the Svart trolls and find out what they’re after in Atlanta. I met with Sen and the other teams at headquarters—”

This was the part that Quinn had been dreading. He interrupted by raising his hand. “Stop. Before you go any further, there’s something I need to tell you.”

This time, the drink Tzader took clearly allowed him a pause to think. “Okay. Shoot.”

“I did experience problems that lingered after the mind probe, but thought I’d heal like I had in the past.”

“You didn’t?”

“Yes and no. My mind has healed completely and I’m strong enough to handle a threat or a probe, maybe even stronger than before, but right after the probe while I was in my hotel room, I thought I was having hallucinations of Kizira being in my room.”

That raised an eyebrow on Tzader’s grim face. “What do you think caused that?”

“When I was in Conlan’s mind and found the vision of the future where I saw him at a Medb meeting with Kizira, I got distracted and … dropped my shields.”

“What?” Tzader put his beer down and sat forward, feet on the floor, hands on his knees.

Quinn circled the mustard-yellow sofa and sat down, placing his drink on the glass end table and propping an arm across cinnamon-red pillows. “The spirit of Conlan’s dead father showed up, but he didn’t interfere. At first, he asked me to protect his son, then later he taunted that we were all fools. When Kizira didn’t see or hear him, I took that as a positive sign. But when she started talking about the attack on Brina and Treoir Castle, I was caught off guard and allowed my shields to fall. Kizira saw me when I did.”

“To be caught
that
off guard is … unusual for you.” Tzader spent a moment assessing Quinn. “What shook you?”

Quinn had argued with himself for hours over how much to tell Tzader, but he, Tzader and Evalle had always had each other’s backs. He’d have to trust that Tzader would continue watching Evalle’s when Quinn was no longer around. “I told you Kizira mentioned Evalle in that vision.”

“Right.”

“But I didn’t say in what specific context her name was mentioned. I could claim having been in too much pain, but the truth is that I needed time to digest what I’d seen and heard. With Evalle’s future on the line at the time with the Tribunal, I hesitated to repeat
everything
said about her.”

Tzader propped his elbows on his knees and cupped his laced fingers under his chin, sorting through something mentally. “I took what you said to mean we had to keep an eye on Evalle because she was in danger.”

“I know.”

“That wasn’t it?”

“To some degree, yes, but in the vision I observed Conlan telling Kizira that when the time came to take possession of Treoir, he would deliver Evalle to Kizira so that Evalle could destroy the inhabitants and breach the castle.”

“No way. Evalle would never do that.”

Lifting a hand to hold off Tzader’s anger, Quinn said, “You’ll get no argument from me, but with Conlan loose, VIPER, Macha and even Brina will have to give every possibility serious consideration, even that one.”

“I won’t let anything or anyone harm Brina.” Tzader’s conviction shook the air. “But neither will I give Sen the evidence he needs to bury Evalle in a VIPER prison or Macha to terminate her. We’ll capture the traitor before anyone can get to Treoir. Besides, the Medb would have to find Treoir Island first.”

“That’s not the
entire
problem.” Quinn looked Tzader in the eye when he told him the last bit. “When I was in my hotel room, I thought I hallucinated that Kizira was there and … we made love.”

Tzader chuckled, sitting back. “That wasn’t a hallucination, bro. That’s called a fantasy.” Then he sobered and heaved a sigh. “Trust me, I understand about wanting someone you can’t have. You said you two met when you were really young. One time. Your mind and body will never forget her. That’s all. Nothing to feel guilty about, and I
know
you’re loyal to the Beladors.”

Quinn allowed a smile, albeit sad. “I wish this was only about lust, but there’s much more going on. When you arrived afterwards at my hotel room and woke me up, I didn’t recall everything about Kizira immediately, but I kept having a feeling that something was wrong. That someone had been
inside
my hotel room.”

“
I
couldn’t get past your warded Triquetra until you moved it from the doorknob, and no one even knows how to figure out which hotel room you’ll be in on any given day but me and Evalle.” Tzader added quietly, “What are you saying, Quinn?”

“That Kizira
did
come to my hotel room and we did make love.”

Rarely surprised by anything, Tzader squinted in disbelief. “Based on what proof?”

“I had scratches on my back from her nails.” In the precise spot where she’d left them on his back years earlier.

“She’s a witch. They have ways to make you
believe
something that’s not real. She could have put a spell on you when she saw you in Conlan’s mind.”