Veiled (15 page)

But as much as he was ready to get busy with her, another part of him knew the importance of taking a half hour or so with the team to shake off the night’s adrenaline.

He went straight to the bar and started to mix Rachel a Vodka tonic, one of her favorite drinks, but she caught his arm. “I only want water. Lately, I just haven’t been able to handle much else.”

He frowned at her. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

She lowered her voice. “I think I’m just not used to all the training and battling. I’ve also been nauseous off and on for a couple of weeks. I know it’ll pass once I’ve adjusted.”

“Water, then?”

“That would be great.”

As he put ice in a tumbler and filled up the glass from a New Zealand bottle, he looked her over. The skin below her eyes had a faint bluish tinge, but otherwise she looked really good, healthy.

She’d been through an awful lot and he hadn’t made things easier for her at all. But they were together now, and he could work at doing his part. “Here ya go.”

“Thanks.”

He poured himself a Bourbon County Stout. As soon as Luken had commandeered the space, he’d had a few cases imported from Mortal Earth. He joined Rachel at the table in the corner, sat down and began the process of letting the night go. It was hard to do, knowing Katlynn and Merl’s What-Bee team were imprisoned. None of them were far from his thoughts and even now, the vision once more played through his head of seeing the men chained up and the woman controlled with the lavender veil.

He’d been under the thumb of their captor, which tended to increase his need to set them all free. Yet, he could feel within his soul the time wasn’t right. The future had to play out in a specific way in order for his visions to be of use.

“Hey,” Rachel said, extending her hand across the table. “What’s set your jaw to grinding?”

Taking her hand, he hesitated telling her. But as he saw the concern in her lovely, blue eyes, he recalled his promise to make an effort. “Yolanthe’s prisoners.”

A faint smile curved her lips. “I’ve been thinking about them as well, and I can’t wait to head into the Third grid and get this job done.”

“Me, too. For now, though, it’s tough to stop the tape playing over and over in my head.”

“Finish your beer, because I can think of at least one way to distract you.” She lowered her voice. “You game?”

Catching the direction of her thoughts, his heartrate soared. “Hell, yeah, I’m game.”

~

Rachel stared into green eyes. Every part of her being vibrated with sudden need. In many ways, the
breh-hedden
drove her absolutely crazy. But right now, looking at Duncan, she thought the myth-that-wasn’t-a-myth held a central core of absolute genius.

She’d always lusted after his beautiful, warrior body. Now, she craved him with a desire so intense she only wondered why she didn’t faint when she looked at him.

His nostrils flared and his eyes might have rolled back in his head. She understood. The sharing of scents was a profound aphrodisiac and the more she thought about taking him to bed, the more scent she knew she had to be releasing.

Duncan’s own response returned with a heavy hit of erotic spiced ale. The scent swirled through her brain, tapping every pleasure center possible.

He gulped down the remainder of his beer and rose from his seat, extending his hand to her. She took it and jumped up a little too quickly. She bumped the table with her thigh and almost knocked over his now empty beer bottle.

He smiled, a knowing smile, full of wickedness. His viper-demon appeared to be quiet, thank the Creator.

Rachel said good-night to the rest of the team and worked hard to keep a blush from covering her cheeks. With her fair skin, she could turn bright red in a split-second.

Duncan, however, wore a pleased smile, his head high.

Men and sex, always something of a competition.

Once at the landing platforms in the large hangar, he slipped into her head telepathically.
I have a surprise for you.

You do?

I do. But it means we won’t be going back to Paradise Valley.

Really? Where are we going then?
She had a naughty thought.
You know, the White Lake Resort Complex has a couple of really kinky hotels.

He chuckled as he led her to stand next to him on the platform. She held tight to his arm, loving the closeness.

I like the idea,
he said.
I really do. But I still think you’re going to like mine even better.

She smiled, squeezing his arm.
The truth is, I don’t care where we go. I just need you something awful. So where are we headed?

He looked down at her.
About nine months ago, I bought a cabin not far from the Mogollon Rim, a few miles from Sedona.

Her heart lit up.
You have a cabin
?
In the mountains?

I do. It’s near a stream and I dammed it up enough to make a pool for swimming. How does that sound?

She did a full body shiver as she thought about being in the water with Duncan.
Like heaven.

When the officer in charge of the landing platforms signaled for them to leave, Duncan folded them both. She felt a swift glide through nether-space, afterward arriving in front of a large home set in the ponderosa pines of northern Arizona Two.

Not exactly a cabin, but quite beautiful.

At least thirty stone steps led at various angles up to a glass and timber house. “This is yours?”

“I bought it shortly after I had my first battle vision. At that time in my life, with new powers showing up, I thought I could use a retreat.” He turned toward her slightly, pulling her into his arms. “But I think I may have bought this house because of you, Rachel, because I know how connected you are to nature.”

She’d never been more surprised. “You did?”

“You always told me I was wound too tight. And I was. I am. I live with a constant sense of everything I do not being good enough. When I had my first vision and it unfolded in such a way lives were saved, I wanted something for myself, a reminder I’d done some good.”

She smiled up at him. “You don’t know who you are or how much good you’ve done every night of your warrior life. I hate your father for having torn away your self-belief from the time you were little.”

“He was a bastard.”

Rachel cocked her head. “I’m not sure you’ve ever said anything so true about Carlyon. Maybe he was a great warrior in the field, but he was a sadistic brute to his family.”

Rachel recalled the tale Endelle had told of how Carlyon had chained Duncan in a basement when death vampires had surrounded his Militia Warrior force. Carlyon and his men had died that night, including Rachel’s ex-husband, Grieg. And Duncan had only survived because he’d called for back-up. Luken had arrived just in time to beat back the deadly force.

A pained frown rode between his brows. “I never wanted to hurt you, Rachel. Never.”

“But there were two of us in this relationship, Duncan. I’ve just started to recognize how every time you withdrew, I’d pull back as well. I’m trying hard not to react to you the way I used to.”

He ran a hand down her back. “And I hate that your husband hurt you.”

“Me, too. But it was the same tone your father set for his squad. I hope the Creator has the same baptismal pools Beatrice has on Fourth Earth. Carlyon should have to suffer in them because I’m told the perpetrator, once immersed in the pools, feels all the pain he’s caused during his lifetime. Or hers, given the gender.”

“You know, that would be a fitting punishment.” He shifted his gaze away from her and an odd light came into his eye as he said quietly, “You know, I never knew what happened to my mother.”

The shift to a parent he rarely mentioned, surprised Rachel. “What do you mean?”

“After my mother left, I never made an effort to find her, to learn her side of things.”

“Why not? By the time you were an adult, you must have known she wouldn’t have left unless she’d believed it necessary for her own safety, possibly even for yours.”

“It’s funny you would say that, because she said almost the same words to me when she left Carlyon’s house. But you have to understand, my father filled me with his own propaganda, telling me she never wanted me. Despite knowing he’d lied, I still have so much rage when I think about her. She abandoned a child. How can that ever be forgivable?”

Rachel searched his eyes. “What exactly did she say when she left?”

“She said she was leaving so I’d survive.”

Rachel wasn’t sure how to say what she felt needed to be explained, but she tried anyway. “When a man has taken to hitting a woman, threatening her life day in and day out, he also uses any psychological tool at his disposal to strengthen his power over her. You and your safety, even your life, would have been a favorite pawn in his constant game of control and abuse of your mother.”

The pain in his eyes deepened. He’d never talked so openly before and she could tell the wounds still hurt. “I know you’re right,” he said. “But he’d fed me on the poison of how weak she was, how cowardly, that I’d come to believe him. It’s hard now to think otherwise.”

“Duncan, her story is probably a very different one. You should find her if you can and really listen to her side of the tale.”

“I’ve never wanted to.” He glanced around suddenly as though the environs surprised him. “Well, how the hell did we get on this subject?”

Rachel knew not to push, so she said, “Why don’t you show me your ‘cabin’?” She did air quotes.

He smiled as he slid his arm around her waist and led her up the steps.

The downstairs was a huge vaulted space, leading to a typical ‘A’ shape for snowy climates. A massive stone fireplace graced the west wall and opposite at the far end was a large kitchen with an island.

Rachel felt dizzy suddenly and without warning wavy lines moved in front of her eyes, then an image appeared in the kitchen. She blinked several times because sitting on a stool at the island was a dark-haired little girl. Duncan was pulling a box out of the cupboard smiling at the child over his shoulder. “You want snails and bugs for breakfast, right?”

“Pancakes, Dad. I want pancakes.”

His eyes twinkled as he set the mix on the counter in front of a large clear bowl. “Pancakes. Right. My mistake.”

The girl giggled.

The wavy lines dissipated as quickly as they’d come. She knew she’d just looked into the future, that she’d had a vision of Duncan and his child.

The dizziness remained, however, and the next moment, her world turned black.

“Rachel. Rachel.”

She heard Duncan’s voice from far away. Her eyes fluttered open and it took her a moment to realize he was holding her in his arms. She was still very dizzy.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She took deep breaths. “I saw something. At least I think I did.” Or maybe she’d only seen what she wanted to see. Duncan had a little girl and she was her mother. Somehow, they’d become a family.

But the images, whether prophetic or not, struck a chord deep within her. She’d never thought she’d have children. Her marriage had proved fruitless, something she’d thanked God for repeatedly, and so had her on-again, off-again relationship with Duncan. They’d never used protection and she’d simply come to believe she was barren.

But was it possible she would one day have a child with Duncan?

For reasons she couldn’t explain, the idea of it made her incredibly sad, because it seemed impossible on so many levels. She was a warrior now and Duncan had this viper in his gut. She had no confidence at all their current warm relationship would last.

“You can put me down now. I’m not dizzy anymore.”

“Rachel, what the hell happened?” He set her on her feet, and she felt normal again.

“As I said, I think it might have been sort of a vision, yet not.”

“What was it about? Yolanthe? The prisoners?”

She put a hand to her chest. “No, nothing like that.”

“Then what? Tell me. I can feel how upset you are.”

She stared at Duncan, her lips parted. “Would it be okay if I held onto this for a little while? The vision wasn’t bad and it wasn’t about the war on Third. But it’s thrown me and I need some time to process, if that’s okay.”

She rubbed her hand over the top of his battle harness. “And I’m not pulling away from you, I promise.”

He searched her eyes for a long moment. “Whatever you need to do is okay by me, so long as you’re not in danger.”

She shook her head. “No. Not at all.”

Though her heart was, maybe. When she’d first been with Duncan ages ago, she’d wanted a family with him. But that was a long time past, so many fights in-between, so much impossible baggage to overcome.

“Now, how about you show me your bathing pool.”

“You still want to go?”

And just like that, she shed the effects of the vision and the conversation about Carlyon. “I’m right here with you, and the only thing I want is a swim without a stitch of clothes on and everything else that follows.”

His shoulders released their ready-to-attack mode and a half-smile curved his lips. “Then let’s go.”

With his arm around her, she felt herself glide back into nether-space as Duncan folded her to a nearby forest stream.

The pool was quite large and flowed from a shallow waterfall at one end to a manmade dam at the other. Nothing looked more inviting than diving into the dark water with dawn just lighting the sky in the east.

~

Duncan had no idea what Rachel had seen before she fell unconscious, or why she’d fainted after having the vision.

But he was worried about her. Maybe the battling and all their new Third Earth powers had taken a toll more than either of them realized.

She seemed to have recovered her balance both physically and emotionally. But between her nausea, her complete rejection of alcohol, and now a vision, his concern had ramped up. Rachel was an important person in his life. She had been from the time he’d first hooked up with her. And recent events had brought them even closer. The thought something could be physically wrong drove deep into his heart and set the serpent moving swiftly through his gut once more.