The Lost Chalice (The Relic Seekers Book 3) (5 page)

“What will we do if we can’t find a way out?” she asked.

“Jake will find us.” God knows he wouldn’t let Kendall out of his sight for long. That relationship wasn’t something Nathan had expected. If he’d known, he never would have hired Jake to guard her. Nathan looked up at the place from where they’d fallen. “We should check the ceiling for a catch. The Protettori are good with their traps, and someone has obviously been taking care of this place, as they have the temple. This could just be a booby trap.” Though it hadn’t felt like one when he and Kendall had fallen. It hadn’t felt like anything normal.

“It’s got to be ten feet high,” Kendall said, still kneeling where she’d been checking a stone on the floor. “We’ll never reach it.”

Nathan reached out a hand to her as she got to her feet. “We might, if you sit on my shoulders like you did in that Mayan pyramid—”

Kendall squeezed his hand. “You remembered?”

“You’re touching me. It could be your memories I’m sensing,” he said. “I bet you were thinking about that time, weren’t you?”

“Yes, but I don’t think that’s what’s happening.” She looked at the ceiling. “Let’s give it a try. We’re running out of options.”

Nathan bent down so she could climb onto his shoulders. When she didn’t move, he turned. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. It’s just . . .” Her gaze went to his mouth, and moved quickly down his body. “We’re not kids now.”

“You think I can’t lift you?” he asked, knowing full well that wasn’t her concern. He knew exactly what she meant. She wasn’t a little girl either. She was a grown woman, a beautiful, sexy woman, and she was getting ready to wrap her legs around his neck. “Come on. Let’s do this. Raphael’s waiting.”

She put one leg over his shoulder—a very nicely shaped leg—which made him remember the nickname Jake had first given her . . . Legs. He frowned, but the irritation didn’t last a moment, as he was distracted by her other leg settling over his left shoulder and her crotch pressed against his neck.

He was feeling overheated, and not from exertion or his bloody curse. “Ready?” he asked, hoping to get this done before he did something stupid.

“I suppose.”

He stood, but Kendall was still a few feet from the ceiling. “I can’t touch it.”

“Try standing. Can you manage that?”

“I’ll try. Back up to the wall so I’ll have something to balance against. I don’t want to rip out your hair.” She ruffled his head. “It’s nice hair.”

“My hair thanks you.” He put his back a few inches from the wall, enough for her to maneuver into a standing position. “Will that work?”

“I think so.” Holding on to his head and using the wall for balance, she pulled one leg up at a time, until she was standing on his shoulders. “I can touch the ceiling,” she said. He balanced her weight while she checked the area for a catch or an opening. They slowly worked their way around the corner, wobbling as they searched, until it was apparent they were wasting their time. “I don’t see anything. I don’t think there’s a door.” She sighed. “Which means . . .”

“It was a portal,” he finished.

“I think so. That may explain why you were so affected by the fall.”

“You ready to get down?”

Without warning, she jerked, causing him to lose his balance. She teetered for a moment before slipping. Nathan grabbed her and they ended up on the floor again. “Kendall?”

“I’m OK,” she wheezed.

“What happened?” he asked, rolling off her.

“Something hit me.”

“A loose stone?”

“I don’t think so.”

“I don’t see anything,” he said, looking around them.

“I think I’m sitting on it.” Kendall moved aside and saw a cross on a chain.

Nathan picked it up. “Your cross? You must have lost it in the portal.”

Kendall touched the cross under her shirt. “It’s not mine.”

Nathan frowned and pulled his cross from under his shirt. “Not mine either. Then who does it belong to?”

Kendall’s eyes widened with fear. “I think it’s Jake’s.”

For a second Jake felt like he was on fire. He heard sizzling and smelled ozone again, and then he fell hard. For the second time in the past hour, he thought he might be dead. Then he caught his breath, and it hurt so much he knew he was alive. Unable to move, he lay there for a minute, trying to concentrate on the cool stones of the floor to get rid of the burning pain in his body. It didn’t work. Water. He needed more water from the fountain, but he didn’t know if he had drunk all the water in the vial or if it had even made it past the statues. He tried to move, but it came out as a twitch. After a minute, the pain eased enough that he pulled himself up and leaned against the wall. He’d done it. He’d passed the statues without a cross.

His gaze fell on the vial lying near his feet. He picked it up and shook it. There was a little water. He needed it, but so did Raphael. At the moment, the guardian’s survival was more important to Kendall than Jake’s. Raphael had answers. Jake didn’t know what the hell was going on.

He put one foot in front of the other and took a few lumbering steps. He wasn’t sure how he made it outside the mountain or down the long path to where he’d parked his car. Nathan’s was still there. Where were they? He caught a blurry glimpse of himself in the rearview mirror as he started his car. His hair was standing on end, and his skin had a slightly smoldered sheen as if he’d been cooked. He managed the drive back to the Abbey House without crashing, though he couldn’t see anything but large shapes. He saw one car, and quickly realized he was driving on the wrong side of the road. Swerving, he held on to the steering wheel to keep from collapsing.

He parked as close to the house as he could and stumbled out of the vehicle. His vision was fading in and out. He didn’t know if he had enough strength to make it inside, so the figure standing before him was a welcome one.

“Have you been fighting?” Art asked as he hurried toward Jake.

Fighting statues. “Art . . . get Marco. I mean Merlin. Get Merlin.”

“You look kind of scorched. Are you dying?”

“I might be if I don’t get help.”

“I’ll help you.” Art was surprisingly strong for his age. He put a stout arm around Jake’s waist and took on some of his weight.

Jake was embarrassed by how much he was leaning on the boy. “What are you doing out here anyway?”

Art was heaving with exertion. “Waiting for you. I thought you’d never get back.”

“Did you find . . . Merlin and Fergus?”

“I did,” Art said, looking offended that Jake would even question that he had. “And they went to check on the wounded knight.”

“Did they say how he’s doing?”

“They don’t know. When they got there, he was gone.”

Art and Jake were both gasping as Jake opened the door to his room. Marco and Fergus were inside looking very confused. Their faces lit when they saw Jake, but their relief was replaced by alarm as they took in his appearance.

Fergus hurried over to him, tsking like a parent. Jake felt a lump in his throat that he hoped came from being nearly cooked and not because the butler was worrying over him like a father. “Did you have an accident?”

“Statues.” Jake stumbled to the bed that, as Art had said, was minus Raphael.

Marco’s worried blue eyes studied him. “The statues did this?”

“Whoa!” Art’s eyes were round as marbles.

“Art. I’m fine now. You can go.”

Art didn’t look like he wanted to leave, but Jake was worried that he knew too much already. “But I want to hear about the statues.”

“We can talk later. I need rest. So do you. You have done well.” And it was damned late. Or early.

“I am kind of tired.”

“Get some sleep, and don’t tell anyone what happened tonight.”

Art gave them the Scout’s salute. Marco and Fergus returned it, looking very confused again. If Jake could have formed his burned lips into a smile, he would have.

Art left, and Marco and Fergus hovered over Jake like nurses, asking what had happened as they checked him over for injuries.

“I lost my cross.” Jake explained that he’d also found Raphael’s vial.

Both men looked alarmed, but there was a look in Marco’s eyes that made Jake nervous.

“You’re sure you had the cross with you?” Fergus asked.

“Obviously,” Jake said. “Or I would have gotten fried on the way in. I searched the whole place and couldn’t find it. It’s like it vanished into thin air.” His worried gaze met Fergus’s and Marco’s. The cross had vanished, just like Kendall and Nathan had.

“Marco, how is it possible?” Fergus asked, turning to the older man as if he had all the answers. Squinting, Marco leaned closer, studying Jake’s face. He pushed his hair off his forehead, inspecting him from every angle like a sculptor looking at a lump of clay. He closed his eyes briefly and seemed to be humming under his breath. Marco’s eyes opened, wide with surprise. He pulled back his hand and held it, as if he’d been burned. The hand was shaking.

“Marco, can you explain?” Fergus asked again. Fergus was patting Jake here and there as if checking to see if his skin was still attached to his body.

“It’s a mystery,” Marco said, staring at Jake. “A mystery.”

“We must find Nathan and Kendall,” Fergus said. His voice was strong and determined, but he looked frightened. Nathan was like a son to him, and the butler was very protective of Kendall, not just because she meant the world to Nathan. It was apparent in the way Fergus treated her that he adored Kendall. The cooked feeling inside Jake felt a little soothed knowing that Fergus was also fond of him. Jake rarely inspired affection in people. Women liked him, but that was just lust or misguided thoughts of romance. He kept them, like everyone else, at the distance that suited him. The men on his team and his grandmother had been the only real family to him since Lilly.

“I assume Raphael hasn’t come back?” Jake asked.

“No,” Marco said, still giving Jake a bewildered stare. “I wish he would. I’m worried about him. We don’t know what happened when he followed Luke . . . the Reaper.” Marco blinked several times.

Jake was starting to get nervous. Had the old man sensed something terrible about Kendall and Nathan?

“He must have been feeling better if he left,” Fergus said.

“Or desperate,” Marco whispered.

Jake rubbed his chest. He still hurt like hell. “Can we call him? Does he have a cell phone or does he just fly around and walk through walls?”

“He does have a cell phone,” Marco said. “But he doesn’t like it. He rarely keeps it charged. I’ve left him a voice mail.”

“If he’s strong enough to leave, I’m drinking the water.” Jake pulled out Raphael’s vial and opened the cap, but then he found he couldn’t drink it. Raphael could have crawled off somewhere like a wounded animal. This sip of water might be the only thing to save him.

Marco rubbed his beard, his eyebrows moving together in a worried frown. “This is all very bad. We must think.”

“Perhaps Raphael woke and went to find the water on his own,” Fergus suggested.

“I hope,” Jake said. “We need him to help find Kendall and Nathan.”

“Maybe Kendall and Nathan are somewhere talking,” Fergus said. “They’ve made some startling discoveries, and they have many years to catch up on.”

As alarming as that thought was, it would have been a relief to Jake. The other options were terrifying. “I’ll go search the tunnel.”

Fergus’s arms stiffened at his side. “You will not. You need medical attention.” The butler’s mouth was firm. “You are very ill.”

“I don’t have time to get medical attention. We have to find them now. They could be in terrible danger.”

“I’ll call Hank and have him bring some of the guards,” Fergus said. “They can search the tunnel.”

“We need boots on the ground now,” Jake said. “Call the castle and send some guards through the maze. I’ll start at this end, and we can cover more area.”

“No.” Marco shook his head. “We can’t let outsiders know about the maze.”

Jake shook his head. Even his brain felt fried. “Kendall and Nathan’s safety is more important than hiding Protettori secrets.”

“I cannot allow that,” Marco said, sounding less like a frail old man and more like an ancient keeper of a secret brotherhood.

Jake sighed and rubbed his head. His hair was still sticking up. He tried patting it down. “They could have been taken deeper into the tunnel. We need to search now.”

“The secrets are too important to reveal,” Marco said.

“Damn Raphael. Why did he leave? When I see him, I’m gonna knock those tattoos off his face.”

Fergus cleared his throat and took a step back, his gaze focused on the wall behind Jake. “I believe you now have your chance.”

Jake turned and saw Raphael standing in the room, as if he’d been summoned. He was a terrible sight—face pale against his tattoos, hair so wild it looked like he had dreads, robes like the Grim Reaper. Glowing, amber eyes locked on Jake like a laser. “Who took my cross?”

Fergus edged closer to Marco. “What on earth happened to you?”

“Someone stole my cross,” Raphael said, keeping his eyes on Jake.

“Nathan took it to the fountain so he could refill your vial with water,” Jake said.

Raphael’s expression relaxed some, but he still looked like a wild animal. “Give me your cross. I need water.”

“Mine’s missing too. I went to the fountain to look for Kendall and Nathan, and I lost the cross.”

Raphael’s eyes—almost normal now—narrowed in disbelief. “How did you get out?”

“I drank some of the water as I leaped past the statues.”

The guardian’s singed eyebrows shot up. “You passed the statues without a cross?”

“Didn’t have a choice. What happened to you? You were unconscious when I left.”

“I woke up and everyone was gone. I went to the temple to get water. I didn’t realize my cross was missing until my foot touched the sentinel boundary.” He moved his mouth in something resembling a snarl.

“Tell me about it,” Jake said. “At least you’re alive. How were you going to drink without a vial? Won’t the water harm you otherwise?”

“I have another one hidden there.”

Could that be the one he’d found? “Where?”

“I won’t say.”