What You Can't See (29 page)

Zach reached over and took Danica’s hand. He brought it to his lips and kissed her.

“Tell me everything, Zach.”

“Promise me you won’t jump out and try to admit me to the nearest nuthouse?”

She laughed. “They’d take me right along with you. At this point there is nothing that will surprise me.”

Zach gave her a look that said,
Don’t be so sure.

“When we crashed, I died, no thanks to Santos. I was on my way straight to hell. I could feel the heat of it. The pain was excruciating and terrifying, yet I didn’t fight it. I deserved it—”

“No, Zach!”

He smiled and squeezed her hand. “It’s true, I did, but sometime during that fall a hand reached out and plucked me from the air. I ended up in a room. I thought I was in an IA, but it wasn’t that, it was—someplace different. This guy who calls himself Michael, he knew things about me, Danica. Bad things. Then he told me I had a choice. Come back to earth and find the star and scabbard, protect the Starkeeper, and fight to the death to keep it from the Immortals. Or?” He looked at her. “Continue my descent to hell.”

“I’m glad you chose to come back to me, Zach. I would have died that day without you.”

“I couldn’t not see you again.”

“Was Michael the man who stabbed you?”

He shook his head. “No, that son of a bitch is Raiden, and I’m not sure who the hell he is, he just appears and tells me things. He’s the one who healed me at the hospital and gave me the sword. Only the sword can kill an Immortal.”

“What’s an Immortal?”

“Mark and the two cops with him tonight, to begin with. I can smell them, Dani, sulfur. They stink. They, the Immortals, are the guys who made a different choice. They’re promised immortality by something else. Something evil. They buy into it and fight for their lives to not go back to the flame.”

“Why were you chosen?”

“According to Michael, I come from a bloodline of people who have the power of the sword to kill Immortals. I’m also one of the chosen to continue the line of the Starkeeper.”

“What’s a Starkeeper?”

“You are, Danica. As your mother before you, all the way back, to the firstborn daughter. The Starkeeper holds the secrets of the Trinity.”

She shook her head, denial hitting her hard. This story—everything—it was so unbelievable. She retrieved her hand from his and pulled her knees up to her chest. She hugged her legs and shook her head. “I—I can’t explain it, but for the first time in my life, I feel as if I have a purpose. Is this it? Is that why only I could save your life?”

“Yes.”

“But my mother never told me—”

“Over the centuries the secret was lost. But the time has come for it to be resurrected. There are things happening I don’t understand. I fought it, Danica, thought it was a crazy dream. But then Raiden showed up in my hospital room. He put his hand to my throat and healed me, just as you did after he stabbed me. I can’t ignore that. Something is happening around us, and while I can’t explain it, I know we need to get that star back from Mark, and in the process eliminate him.”

Danica shivered.

“It’s not murder—he’s already dead. But I understand if you want to sit this one out. I can take care of Mark myself. In fact, I’d prefer you wait for me.”

Her heart screamed no. Her gut told her there was no other way. “No.” She reached for his hand on the steering wheel and squeezed it. “I’m not letting you out of my sight again.”

Zach nodded. He swallowed down a huge lump in his throat and blinked back the hot sting in his eyes. He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her. “I love you, Danica Keller, and if it’s the last thing I do I’ll protect you with my life.”

She moved toward him and kissed his cheek. “We’re in this together, and we’ll survive it together. I’ll be damned if I’ll lose you a third time.”

He flashed her a somber grin. “I’m going to hold you to that.”

“Tell me where we’re going.”

“Raiden said ‘the lake.’ I know Mark has a place up near Clear Lake. I have a general idea and hope once we get up there I’ll be able to pick up his scent.”

“I know where it is.”

Zach raised a brow and looked at her questioningly. “How is that?”

“He thought he had a chance with me and invited me up for a weekend. He wasn’t happy when I showed up with Marcie.”

Zach laughed. “I bet he loved that!”

“He ended up leaving us to a girls’ weekend, said he had an emergency to take care of and asked us to just lock up.”

“How far north?”

“It’s on the lake, a mobile home park.”

“Mobile home?”

“Don’t knock it, the park is gorgeous and his place is set up like a swank condo, with all the toys.”

“That kind of stuff impresses you?” Zach’s voice carried an edge of jealousy.

Danica laughed. “Stop being an ass.”

“Can we enter without being noticed?”

“Yes. There’s a steep circular road that leads down to the park. We can park up on the road, and go down the bank, maybe one hundred feet down, and it’ll bring us right to the back of his place. Or we can come in from the other side. But coming down the embankment will give us more cover, and we can most likely go in through the back bedroom window undetected.”

Zach nodded. “I’m taking him out the minute I can.”

“Is he stronger than you?”

“I think we’re more evenly matched, but he knows his boundaries. I’m just learning what I’m capable of.”

Danica nodded, a feeling of unrest shivering through her. Could Mark, with his superior experience, overcome Zach? Could she stop him? Could they?

An hour and a half later the Jeep rolled to a stop at the top of the bluff overlooking Lake Vista Mobile Home Park. Lights twinkled in the early morning light, the tiny community quiet. As soon as Zach exited the Jeep his nostrils twitched. “I can smell him.”

Danica stepped up next to Zach and inhaled deeply. “Sulfur.”

Zach grinned down at her, a dim streetlight illuminating her features. He took her face into his hands and kissed her. “Good girl. It’s their stench. Whenever you smell it one is near. Remnants of hell, no doubt.”

Danica nodded then pointed down to the soft lights in the shroud of brush and trees that separated them from the back of a mobile home. “I’m not sure if that’s his place, but once we get down there I can get a fix on his unit.”

Carefully, like mountain goats, the two zigzagged down the steep embankment. They weren’t quiet as mice but they didn’t sound like a herd of cattle either. Besides, the residents of Lake Vista Mobile Home Park were used to the sound of deer foraging for breakfast in the early morning hours.

When they hit flat ground they were several units south of Mark’s. His stench was stronger.

A few minutes later, with the wire cutter she’d borrowed from Troy, Danica cut the thick screen open like a tuna fish can, then slid the window open. Easy. For a cop Mark wasn’t very security conscious. But then, he was so arrogant, he probably had no fear of death. When Danica made to go in first, Zach pulled her back by the hips. He put his fingers to his lips and shook his head.
Me first
he mouthed.

Danica stepped back. He was the stronger of them and he held the now familiar sword in his hand and had no compunction to use it. “Good luck,” she whispered.

Zach hoisted himself up and into the window. He gave her the three-minute sign. She nodded and watched his form disappear into the darkness of the unit.

Zach crept through the small bedroom, careful not to disturb any furniture. His vision was sharp, his hearing acute, and his sense of smell on alert. He smelled Mark but his scent was not as strong as it should be if he were in the unit. Alarm bells began to sound. What if he wasn’t here?

A small scraping sound from behind him and outside caught his ear. Danica!

He rushed back to the bedroom, his speed so fast it would be a blur to a mortal. He nearly died when he saw Mark with an unconscious Danica in his arms hovering just above the ground. “Welcome to Hell on Earth, my friend.”

Zach lunged through the window and Mark jumped up with Danica still in his arms. Zach turned and saw as clear as day Mark standing on the flat roof of the neighboring unit, dangling Danica by the foot over the sharp rocks of the side yard. “She won’t be such a catch if I drop her on her face now will she, Garett?”

“If you harm one hair on her head, Santos, it will be the last thing you do.”

“You think with just a few days of increased power, you can best me? Even with the sword you need the star more than you need your sweet Danica alive.”

Mark laughed and in his gleefulness he reached into his pocket and held out the star. Taunting. “I have both. At mornings’ end I’ll have it all.”

“You’ll have nothing, not even your Immortal life!”

Mark laughed. “You’ll discover soon enough you are no match for me.” He slid the star back into his pocket and hoisted Danica up in front of him. She hung limp, unconscious in his arms like a rag doll. Mark pressed his hand against her belly. “Her womb is ripe. I have a hunger for her. If she bears my child then I will hold the power.”

“You’re too late.”

Mark raised a brow and grinned, his teeth glittering like canines in the rising morning light. He pressed his hand more firmly into Danica’s stomach. She moaned in pain. “I can undo what you have done.”

She cried out, her body jerked against her captor’s, and Zach saw blood. He sprang into the air and lunged at Mark, knocking him backward. Santos tossed Danica out into the air.

In a lightning move, Zach dove to catch her. She cried out, now conscious of her surroundings. Zach clutched her to his chest and rolled with her as they hit the sharp white rocks of the side yard. Zach stood and helped Danica to her feet.

Mark’s laughter rang in their ears. “Danica, he played you again.” He reached his arms out to her, his hands open, palms up. “Come to me. I’ll love you unconditionally.”

“Shut up, Santos,” Zach warned.

“Did he promise to get your job back, Dani? Did he feed you a line about him going to hell but being saved? Then did he promise never to lie to you again?”

Zach felt Danica stiffen in his arms.

“Did you tell her, Zach, it was you who snitched her out to Captain Weber?”

Danica jerked out of Zach’s grip and threw a hard look his way before she looked up to face Mark. “You’re boring me, Mark. Tell me something I don’t already know,” she challenged.

Zach’s heart stopped in mid-beat.

Santos was more than happy to indulge her. “Your lover boy told the captain you knew about the information IA was going to use to put Zach away. He said you paid the snitch for false information to jade the case. False information muddies up the big picture, doesn’t it?”

Danica gasped and looked back at Zach. The pain in her eyes tore him in half. It was true. But he’d had his reasons.

Bravely she turned back to Santos. “That’s old news.”

Santos laughed. “Oh, really? Did Zach tell you how he maneuvered you between the sheets to seal the deal for when he needed an IA out?”

Danica swallowed hard. Zach felt like the biggest piece of shit on the face of the earth. He’d done many things in his lifetime he was not proud of. But his initial reason for getting intimate with Danica was his all-time low blow.

“Do you still want him, Dani?” Santos taunted.

“Finish the story, Santos,” Zach said.

“There is no more.”

“No? Tell her about the price on her head, and the death threats. Tell her about the package with all of the pictures of her. In her home, in the shower.
In my bed
.”

Danica gasped. “Death threats?”

Zach looked down at her stricken face. “When it looked like I was going down for killing Thomas Pike, an opportunity presented itself. And before I knew how it was going to play out, the pictures started to arrive. The last one had a picture of you naked, and asleep in bed, with your heart cut out. With the picture was a note. ‘Back her off or she dies.’ ” Zach shrugged. Still not regretting he did what he thought he had to do to save her life. “So, I manipulated the evidence to make it look like you paid off an informant to testify in my defense. My attorney got a hold of it and, as you know, it killed the case against me.”

“Did you kill Thomas Pike?”

“Yes.”

“And I got fired for trying to prove you innocent?”

Zach’s temper flared. He took her by the shoulders and squarely faced her. “I killed that pedophile piece of shit, Danica. When his scumbag attorney got him off, I went to tell the bastard I was watching him, and to let him know the minute he even looked at a minor I’d string him up. I found him sodomizing a nine-year-old. I snapped his fucking neck!”

Danica blanched at his rage. Not at her but for the children. The injustice of it all. “Who sent the death threats?”

With her question, it all suddenly fell into place. Zach smiled. Finally, Danica would understand. He looked up at Santos who stood on the edge of the roof. “You’re smarter than I gave you credit for, Mark. Nice setup.”

“What are you talking about?” Danica demanded.

“Mark made the threats. He made them so I’d turn on you to protect you. You get canned, he gets me out of the picture, and the door opens for him.”

“You!” Danica screamed at Mark. “Is that why you pursued me? Is that why you wouldn’t leave me alone?”

Mark pulled the star from his pocket. “The time has come for the next generation of Starkeepers. You have no idea how close you came to my raping you, my sweet Dani. With my blood in the child’s veins, the Immortals will have the power to set the Watchers free.”

Zach pulled Danica against him and spread his hand across her belly. “You’ll never poison her.”

“Such a sentimental sight,” Santos cooed sarcastically. “But you’re too late, Garett. My power is stronger, older, more defined.”

“No!” Danica screamed, grabbing her belly. Several lights in neighboring mobiles flashed on.

Like an avenging angel, Zach leapt into the air, the sword poised. Mark stood battle ready. The men leapt, lunged, and parried. They flew high into the air—somersaulting, striking, twisting, and kicking each other. The force of their blows was horrific. Danica stood in transfixed fascination and watched the two furious spirits fight to the death.