Alterant (6 page)

They stumbled back several steps, but not as far as she’d expected. The stone-cold leader with spiked hair and tats across one side of his face whipped out an evil-looking machete that sizzled with majik.

Where on earth had these mercs gotten all these majikal toys?

The Medb.

She should be able to reach Tzader now, but before she could send a telepathic message his voice yelled in her head,
Get your butt over here, Evalle! What are you doing?

Got caught in an ambush. Need help. I’m over on—

Machete guy swung the blade back and forth as fast as an airplane prop. Maybe he wasn’t a stupid merc after all.

She shut off her telepathy and sent all her energy into raising an invisible shield at the moment her attacker swung a high arc.

He brought the sparking blade down fast to cut her in half.

The strike hit her force field so hard that it jarred her teeth.

She spared a glance at the other goon to make sure he wasn’t coming after her with a weapon, too. He pulled an oversized handkerchief out of his coat pocket and dropped it over the bleeding guy, who howled one time and glowed like a stoked coal in a fire, then turned to ash.

What kind of hanky was that?

Tattoo face swung again.

Her shoulders took the brunt of the constant attack from the machete. She braced one foot behind her and pushed forward, but she was losing ground.

Could he cut through her wall of power?

Tzader shouted,
Can you run?

No. He’ll kill me if I drop my defense.

Where are you?
Tzader said in a voice charged with fury.

Still under the parking deck at—
Another barrage of blade attacks beat her backwards several feet.

Was she out of time? Would the Tribunal understand if Tzader reached Brina before the meeting and explained?

Tattoo face kept coming at her with the machete. Evalle strained to give everything she had to hold her protective wall, but he’d break through soon.

That blade had serious juice.

Power surged through the air and shocked her skin.

Light exploded, flashing against the walls of the dark buildings.

Her attacker and his buddy took one look, turned and fled.

Evalle lowered her arms, now aching from the pounding they’d taken. She drew a long, hard breath, pulling her body back into its normal form. Pain shot through her chest and
legs. She had no idea how Z had found her or gotten here so quickly or what he’d done to scare off that bunch, but she was ready to hug him when she turned around.

Ah, crud. Could her night get any worse?

Sen stood with arms crossed and a look of disgust on his face that rivaled his usual hate-filled welcome for her.

His being here explained how someone had shown up so fast. Sen had the ability to teleport anywhere he wanted. He must have been in the park when Tzader had called to her.

She couldn’t believe she had Sen to thank for getting her out of that fix.

Standing much taller than her and twice as wide, he was dressed in gray T-shirt and black jeans. He wore his hair skinned short today, but it could be down to his waist tomorrow. Would be nice to know what he was or where he’d come from with those diamond blue, almond-shaped eyes. Or who had the power to force him to be the liaison between VIPER and the preternatural beings that were agents for the VIPER coalition.

A job he obviously loathed.

Tzader had warned her to play nice, so she said, “I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I’m glad to see you.”

A muscle in Sen’s jaw flexed in and out. “You waste good oxygen just by being alive. Don’t think this little theatrical act fooled me.”

“Act?” Couldn’t he smell the Noirre majik? She sniffed and looked around. Where was that sack? Nothing smelled like Noirre majik now, but she couldn’t back down. “I was tricked into an ambush. They attacked—”

“Yeah, right. Tell it to the Tribunal.” He waved a hand.

She wrapped her arms around her stomach as it tightened from the first stage of teleporting. Couldn’t he at least say
Ready?
before doing that? There was no way to reach Tzader once Sen had her in transport.

Had those three men been trying to trap anyone with powers, or her specifically? What had the leader meant when he’d said they had to make sure they had the
right one
?

The right Belador? The right Alterant? The right VIPER agent?

Or the right something else?

She had to tell Brina about the attack
if
she was allowed a moment before the Tribunal meeting started. Much as Evalle detested Sen on every level, at least he’d come looking for her rather than waiting at the park.

Not because he gave two hoots about her being late, so he must have had orders to deliver her on time. Whatever the reason, she was glad for it right now.

Sen’s superior tone ghosted through the swirl of colors and spinning sensation, but she couldn’t see him. “One more thing, Alterant.”

“What?” she said nicely, or at least she tried. Hard to be civil when her insides were coming apart.

“I was at the park on time,” he said, then paused to let his point settle in. “Once you were late, I had no choice but to pick you up. You’re a minute late according to time among the humans, but in the Tribunal’s world time flexes. You’re already forty-five minutes late.”

FIVE

O
nce the vertigo from teleporting ended and her next breath tasted ancient and dangerous, Evalle knew exactly where she was—the Nether Realm. She held her head in her hands, fighting nausea. Screw Sen. She would not give him the pleasure of watching her barf in front of the Tribunal.

She opened one eye to peek.

When she’d last visited the Nether Realm, she’d stood on grass that had covered a circular plane the size of a city block. This time, her feet had landed on a rocky surface that glistened lavender and silver. She looked up further to locate the dais in search of the two gods and one goddess who would preside over this meeting.

The Tribunal was indeed in progress, and no one was happy to see her, not even Brina.

Especially Brina, whose holographic image, with her waist-length flaming red hair and vibrant green gown, sung with tense energy.

Silence hung like a guillotine awaiting a neck.

The trio on the dais glared at her. Pele, the Polynesian goddess, wore a swoop of deep pink and purple flowers across her breasts. More flowers wrapped her lower body as a floor-length skirt. She stood between Ares, the Greek god of war, decked out in his battle attire, and
Loki, the Norse god of devilment, who showed off his massive naked chest by wearing only blue silk harem pants.

Stars crowded the black sky stretching from one side of the Nether Realm to the other, the perfect backdrop for glowing entities.

Pele’s exotic eyes studied Evalle with the same consideration an exotic bird might ponder the merits of a slug. She spoke in a voice crafted of honey and gold. “You have delayed this Tribunal, Alterant. Why?”

Evalle made the mistake of taking a second to decide how best to answer, which allowed Sen to speak first.

“She has no excuse, Goddess.”

“Wait a minute,” Evalle snapped, spinning on Sen. “She asked me.”

Sen lifted a negligent shoulder. “You won’t like what happens if you lie during a Tribunal meeting.”

Loki had been spinning a ball of power between his hands. The sphere rumbled and flashed with a kaleidoscope of colors inside. He paused to interject, “The body of one who tells an untruth here will glow red.”

Evalle hadn’t planned on lying now or any other time in a Tribunal meeting because she figured they’d just
know
if she told a lie.

But this was the first she’d heard about glowing red.

Ares leaned forward, squinting. “Was not your aura silver the last time you were here, Alterant?”

Everyone gawked at Evalle.

Brina’s lips parted in surprise.

Evalle considered his odd question. He hadn’t said
anything about her aura being brighter. She answered truthfully. “As far as I know, yes.”

Ares scowled at her. “Then why did you change it to gold?”

Gold?
Storm changed her aura to gold?

Evalle would kill him if she survived this. How was she supposed to answer that and not tell this bunch about Storm using his majik on her? What
had
he done to her? “I didn’t change my aura. I can’t see auras and don’t even know how to change one.”

That didn’t soften Ares one bit.

Evalle added, “I’m around a lot of different beings, and one of those must have affected mine somehow.”

Her skin didn’t light up red, so tiptoeing around the truth seemed to work. She let out a strained breath.

Loki juggled two balls of power and sighed loudly, clearly feeling put upon to be here. “Gold, silver, whatever. This is not why we are here.”

Evalle took that cue to change the topic back to smoothing things over. Submissive had never been part of her makeup, but she gave humble her best shot when she spoke.

“I have the greatest respect for the Tribunal members and Brina.” Yes, she’d intentionally left Sen out of that lineup. “I apologize for arriving late, but while going to the aid of a human in danger I was ambushed by three men wielding Noirre majik and was fighting for my life when Sen arrived to escort me. As a member of VIPER, I swore an oath to protect humans first even at the risk of my own safety.”

Evalle caught Sen looking at her with a curious expression.
Surprised I didn’t light up like Rudolf’s nose?

She gave a quick check of Brina, who stood ahead of Evalle and to the right, between her and the dais. Brina hadn’t been happy at first, but now her eyes registered . . . pride?

That breathed life into the hope clamoring inside Evalle’s chest.

The Tribunal must have been appeased by her explanation, because Pele moved on. “When last we met, you were told of a pregnant Alterant female who shifted into a beast and killed a human. Until then, the only Alterants who had shifted and killed were males. You were given a chance to produce proof that humans are at no risk from you as an Alterant. Where is this proof?”

Evalle didn’t have said proof. She’d gotten sidetracked helping VIPER save the world.

Brina asked in her Irish lilt, “Might I have the floor?”

Loki spoke up. “By all means, anything to move this along and spare me from spending any more of eternity here.”

That drew a gritty snarl from Ares. “If being immortal is an inconvenience, I am willing to end your suffering . . . now.”

Loki leaned forward to speak past Pele. “I would find that amusing for the few minutes it would take to destroy you.”

Pele lifted her hand and flicked her fingers. Lightning shot from her fingertips and spread across the sky. Thunder rolled around the Nether Realm. “Enough!”

Evalle held her breath. Just her luck she’d have the Tribunal meeting where a god went postal. That’d end up being her fault, too.

As if nothing had happened, Brina calmly launched into what she had to say. “There are still questions we have not answered about Alterants—”

What?
Evalle could hang herself without Brina’s help.

“—but Evalle has proven to be a valued member of the Beladors. She’s put mankind and our tribe ahead of her own needs, which impaired her ability to deliver tangible evidence for you. As we are living proof of the intangible within the world of the humans, can we not accept her actions as intangible proof of her reliability?”

Way to go, Brina. That’s more like it.

Brina wasn’t done yet. “Evalle was also part of the VIPER team tasked with finding and returning the Ngak Stone before daylight in Atlanta yesterday morning. She acted selflessly, risking her life to stop the Kujoo warlord
and
at one point when she took possession of the Ngak Stone—”

A collective gasp erupted on the dais.

“—Evalle voluntarily handed the stone over to be placed in the VIPER vault,” Brina continued. “Might I point out that many of our kind would not have relinquished an artifact so powerful? As warrior queen of the Beladors, I consider her one of my best.”

Really? Evalle couldn’t believe her ears, but Brina’s voice rang with sincerity and passion. Tzader had stated over and over that Brina was always ready to stand up for her Beladors. All of them.

Ares appeared unmoved by Brina’s declaration. “What of the seven Alterants that shifted and attacked humans in recent days?”

Seven?
Evalle spoke to Brina mind to mind.
I just heard about the attacks on the West Coast. Now is not the time for them to lock me away with a surge in Alterant attacks. I know the Tribunal won’t see it this way, but I could help with this outbreak. Beladors are the strongest arm of VIPER, but they can’t link their powers to face an Alterant, not after what happened in Charlotte.

Two months ago, nine Beladors had linked to stop one Alterant. They should have been able to contain him, but he’d shifted and ripped the head off one of the Beladors before any of them had a chance to unlink.