Any Price (17 page)

Julianna made a rude noise and waved her hand dismissively at the group of men. “Pish-posh. I don’t need help.”

Gregory watched this exchange with a benevolent smile on his face. They were not making sense and he could feel a certain strangeness in the room. The conspirators actually sounded like lunatics, throwing out sentences with no conversational context. It was worse than he’d thought. Their mental processes seemed garbled and disjointed.

His suspicions about a drug being involved grew. Lore was most certainly not himself. The thought began to form that he, Gregory, might be in position to take over both thrones if this continued.

Yuri, who was standing closer to the table than the ministers, chuckled softly and joined Kenna and Julianna’s conversation. “She also thinks she can still take me, my lady. The last time we wrestled I was eight, eh, Julie?”

“You are not too big for the wooden spoon. You and the little devil prince…” Julianna went off into her own tongue to tell Yuri just where he deserved the wooden spoon for some long-ago offense. Him and the little “devil prince”.

Kenna put down her spoon. She was laughing too much to eat. Reading Julianna’s intent translated the unknown words for her, and Yuri’s answers showed he had yet to repent. The only thing she didn’t know for sure was who the little devil prince was. It sounded as if it had to be Thomas since the activity occurred when they were all children.

“Wait, you have to tell me what Yuri and Thomas did?” Kenna asked, laughing around the question.

“No, not Thomas! He’s an angel,” Julianna insisted while looking at Yuri to be sure he got the sisterly dig. “Boris is bad little devil prince. He and Yuri make very bad mischief.”

“Boris?” Kenna laughed. “You guys grew up together? Why do you call him devil prince?”

“He’s a skinny night cat. A very naughty one,” Julianna added for emphasis.

Yuri was openly chuckling as Julianna tried to express to Kenna how bad he and his friend had been as boys.

The meeting across the room was finally over and the ministers filed out. Gregory was the last to leave, his suspicious glances at those remaining were ignored. His effusively cheerful farewell was almost sad in its transparency.

Boris, holding the door open for the ministers leaving, inserted his own comments as Gregory passed, effectively dismissing the negative minister’s impact. It was the equivalent of a laughing, teasing free-for-all, verbally and on the connection that included Kenna in a family circle unlike any she’d ever heard of. It wasn’t a matter of sharing parents. It was a deeper sharing, wider.

The Keeper telepathy provided them with trust, Kenna realized. It was indisputable and freed each one to relax. It bound them in its gifts and its dangers, creating a unit. The dynamics of what might happen when this many strong individuals joined together drifted out of her head as her eyes rested on the large man moving toward her.

Lore strolled over to them and picked Kenna up, sitting down in her seat with her sideways on his lap. He commandeered her spoon and brought it to her lips, inserting soup into her mouth while joining the joking. “Tell me more of this wooden spoon, Julie,” he egged, his amusement evident at the story of his stoic guard’s misspent youth.

Boris interrupted to insist it was an epic tale of heroic proportions.

Julianna sniffed dismissively. Yuri and Boris at ten decided they were spies on a mission to steal thirteen-year-old Julianna’s diary. They had done it but she caught them on the escape and eventually cornered them in a second-floor bedroom. Boris deserted out the window, somehow landing on his feet, last seen laughing up at Yuri and Julianna before disappearing. That stunt had earned him the title “cat”. Yuri then became the focus of his sister’s ire. Apparently the issue was not yet settled.

By the time the story was done, so was Kenna’s soup. The story had been an excellent distraction from pressing issues. Its emotional rest allowing her to eat.

Julianna stood and smiled down at the couple as Kenna relaxed onto Lore’s wide chest. “I must go finish. My lady’s new things arrived and there is a mountain of trash.”

“What of the explanation about our recent guest? I’m not letting you out of that one,” Kenna insisted.

“Hmm.” Julianna looked at Yuri. “My brother can explain it. I really must go now,” Julianna insisted again.

She was already across the room and at the connecting door. Everyone could feel her need to leave. It was personal. Privacy required they respect her feelings even though the matter felt urgent. And she’d indicated Yuri knew as much as she did. It wasn’t a lie. That would have been known to them all.

“You know who that was?” Lore questioned Yuri sharply. “You couldn’t tell me when we were sprinting across the entire property?”

“I didn’t know then,” Yuri growled as he watched his sister leave the room with a frown. “She just sent it to me.”

“What?” Kenna was tempted to invade Julianna’s privacy as the woman disappeared. There seemed a sadness about Julianna’s need to leave the warm circle of the room. Kenna felt nothing wrong in that departure though, it was more a need to be alone to handle personal emotions.

“She thinks you met one of the gods. That’s not the only term used for them. They have been called gods in every variation and Satan in all those forms. They may be one or the other, but Julianna thinks they are neither. Our knowledge of them is vague and has been passed to us verbally through the first daughters in our family.

“My female ancestors felt they were forbidden to record knowledge of the gods. They were not the actual Keepers of the Treasure. As their place was beside the royal first daughter, they could not assume the privilege of record keeping.” Yuri paused to mull over his next choice of words.

“Julianna is hard to read on this next part. She sent emotions more than words. The gods are feared and loved with a sadness of the soul. They are or can be everything mythology paints them as, but it is not what they should be. She is talking about scary children’s stories here. Her mind equates them to monsters, and villains as depicted in the old tales, but that makes her sad. They are not these things and Julianna truly does not understand why she feels this way,” Yuri finished.

“That’s it?” Lore questioned sharply.

“All she gave me. It would have been more logical to simply send this information to you both. I don’t know why she did not,” Yuri replied.

“Ah—that’s not much information, Yuri. All you’re saying is the boogie man exists and Julianna kinda thinks he’s cute.” Lore raised a brow.

“She was upset,” Kenna injected softly. “Why was she upset?”

“I haven’t been able to answer that since she turned thirteen,” Yuri stated as honestly as he could. “It has to do with the god and his hurting you. The event upset everyone. It’s understandable in that context.”

“I suppose.” There was a pause. Kenna turned her face up to Lore, telling him verbally, “I went to the old castle for a reason. Your buddies interrupted but weren’t the reason for my being there. I need to go back.”

“I’ll claim old Alex because he’s blood, but the other guy is on his own. Not a buddy of mine.” He smiled at her and let their banter lighten the mood around them.

Kenna returned the smile to the man literally wrapping his body around her. She could feel his constant fear that the so-called god would come back. He was determined any attacker would have to step over his lifeless body, mentally and physically, to reach her. He was full of the male certainty that even if he didn’t survive the attack, his death would give others the time to reach her and save her.

“I think I surprised old Alex somehow. In any case, it doesn’t feel as if he would mind us looking around the room. There is something more in that space. We are all struggling to understand what’s happening and every clue is valuable. I think we should go back over there.”

Lore frowned and looked away from her as he controlled his initial response. She was not tired, she’d eaten, he’d cleared his schedule, and there was no reason to say no. Except the huge one that said,
Do not return to the place where they almost killed you!

“Why must you go back? Tell me what you seek and I will send for it,” he offered.

“Answers. Can you send for the answers to what is drawing me there?” she asked. There was no reason to hide that the trip back to the old castle was strange and urgent. The need to be there was building, as were other pressures. She could feel the god entity in a manner that was like knowing there was movement peripherally but it was too quick to turn the eye and focus on it. And then there was such darkness pressing in from the west.

“The west?”
Lore questioned privately.
“You can feel a direction?”

“Yes. We are growing and it is coming. You know it,”
Kenna answered the confidential question while saying aloud, “I need to find what’s calling me.”

Off to the side, Yuri took out his Glock, checked the round in the chamber then checked the magazine. The sinister snick of ammunition shoved home conveyed his displeasure with this plan. Across the common link, he directed six Keepers to sweep the old structure from top to bottom. He wanted men who could see with more than their eyes.

Outside the door, but completely tuned in to the conversation, Boris allowed his upper lip to curl in a silent snarl. Her need to return to the old stone bothered them all.

* * * * *

North of the city, a large figure glided along the ancient forest floor. His movement was almost leisurely compared to the speed with which he’d entered this place of the past. He scanned his surroundings over and over. Ruthlessly, the intellect raked through every life form. Searching every cavern and crevice in this territory so familiar that he knew how many trees were new since he’d last been in the range.

Finally convinced there was nothing and no one who shouldn’t be here, the large male came to a halt under the low-hanging branches of a huge pine. His back casually leaning against the trunk, he became so still there was no sign of movement on his wide chest. The shadows became a blanket, as if he pulled the tree around him.

“Impossible!”
whispered through his mind. Savoring the taste of her, he tested it again.
“Yes. No. It cannot be.”

He hadn’t thought it possible to feel a deeper pain than he’d already experienced. There was no need to again be faced with the bitter lesson that there was always a worse fate than the misfortune one currently enjoys. That was a reality he’d face over and over again.

His moment in the old castle had given him more information than the last nine hundred years had generated. A direction he’d never looked for an answer that was overwhelming. The possibilities were impossible but still indisputable fact. Hope lay in them and he dare not think them, but evidence would not let him deny it. They were thoughts he could not afford.

Long after the sun sank below mountain peaks, the figure remained unmoving. The moon rose before breath shuddered through him in a low, primal roar. The mournful sound hung low to the ground, echoing through the forest on the damp shoulders of midnight’s mist. Night creatures froze then scurried for cover. In the absolute silence of a terrified forest, the predator had no comfort to offer. His dark body was suddenly gone from the place he’d been.

Flanked by Lore, Yuri and Boris, Kenna crossed the lovely solarium flooded with late-afternoon sun. Fragrant scents from pampered flowers draped the space in invisible, old-world elegance. Across the great room at the archway to the gray stone corridor, the four of them paused. All of them stretched senses to feel the space before they entered it.

Collectively they found nothing but the six Keepers who’d stationed themselves throughout the structure and the normal staff bustling about their tasks. This section was used almost as much as the newer wings.

The four of them stepped into the corridor and down the hall to the door Boris had opened earlier. Inside, all was as they’d left it, but there was no sign of old Alex. After the men had searched it several times, determining it safe, Kenna moved through the room. She let her hand glide over dusty crates, covered furniture and found no answers to the questions she didn’t know how to ask. An hour later she was almost ready to give up when she rested a hand on the stone wall.

Cool stone caressed her palm and suddenly Kenna knew she was close. Very close. But to what?

Turning her whole body to face the stone, she placed both hands on it and closed her eyes. Lore stood directly behind her with large hands gripping her hips and moved with her as she shifted down the wall. Stacked boxes blocked her path, Yuri and Boris cleared them as fast as possible until she stopped and breathed the word, “Here.”

Kenna stood for some time, not speaking, not moving. Lore wrapped his arms around her, his body pressed to her back. Their minds studied the echoes emanating from the wall in front of them.

“A passage?” Kenna asked Lore.

“It’s an old castle. Of course we have a secret passage. Did you guys know there was a passage in the walls?” Lore asked the two men who were natives.

“No,” Yuri answered for both of them. “Never heard of one. Have you checked with Julianna, she might know more?”

“She doesn’t know about it but she’s rushing over here,” Kenna answered.

“Just what we need. Another woman we can’t afford to lose trying to get into the dangerous, booby-trapped secret passages,” Boris stated in disgust.

Kenna was still standing with both hands braced on the wall. The feelings coming from it were both inviting and sinister. “Why do you think its booby trapped and dangerous?”

“Didn’t you ever watch
Raiders of the Lost Ark
, better yet,
The Mummy
? If it’s an old secret place, it’s always booby trapped,” Boris informed her. “Does the wall tell you where the entrance is? I’m guessing this has to involve the dungeon. Those people were way too taken with their dungeons.”

“Dungeon? Who’s in the dungeon?” Julianna wanted to know as she entered the room. “Are they cleaning it?”

Kenna laughed at Julie’s natural concern with neatness. Dropping her hands from the wall, she leaned on Lore as she continued to study the solid gray slabs, looking for a clue as to why they could feel what they did right here while she listened to the conversation behind her.

“Clean it? Is that really the first thing you think of when someone says dungeon?” Boris asked Julianna. “Woman, you need a life. Something that involves a man.”

“Hey, that’s my sister. Watch your mouth or we’ll be calling you the gnat,” Yuri calmly threatened.

“Could you all focus for a minute?” Lore interrupted. “We have an idea. The awareness that connects us is stronger with the inclusion of more of us. Strength in numbers. So it follows that if more of us pulled on this place where it’s trying to tell us something, we might be able to hear it.”

The others gathered around. “What do you want us to do?” Yuri asked.

Kenna instructed, “Everyone, try to clear your minds and then I think we have to join together mentally. I’ll pick you up and add you to the group like a conference call with me being the operator. Get it? When we are joined, each of us places a hand on this stone.” She tapped the one she wanted and tried to look confident as if she knew what the hell they were doing.

“Then what?” Boris wanted to know.

“I have no idea. The stone will melt like fairy dust and butterflies will swarm out? Could be anything,” Kenna glanced at his frowning face. “The key word is we are
trying
something.”

Julianna smacked the back of Boris’ head as she added, “You do not question. Do it.”

“Hey. I’m not eight. You can’t do that.” Boris scowled at her.

“Done,” Julianna pointed out the obvious with a superior arch of her brow.

Yuri stepped between them and placed an arm around Julianna to move them toward Lore and Kenna. Boris stood on one side, Yuri with Julianna in front of him, much like Lore and Kenna stood, on the other.

Kenna’s idea about joining was only that to begin with, a new idea. She could feel all of them, but finding a way to connect was something that seemed just out of reach. She knew instinctively that she could do it. She was hoping exactly how would come to her as she went.

It was Lore who came up with the answer. “Keep it simple. Visualize what you want to do.”

The simplest visual for what she was attempting to do was gathering the silk threads of each connection and twining them into one rope. Suddenly it was simple to do exactly that.

Quickly they joined, individual threads twisting together. It was the first time they’d attempted this and the result was new. They had discovered the joint communication, but actually joining several to make a unit showed them the possibilities could be limitless. It wasn’t as though each had all the others’ memories and experiences immediately, but it was clear those could be accessed by the unit, making it an exercise in trust.

At first, each felt the need to pull away. Potential exposure of every naked truth about self, every shameful secret, memory and experience was frightening. Remaining joined required surrender of self to a certain degree. It required faith that each person joined would respect the privacy of the others. Adjusting to the unit, each acknowledged the connection and agreed to continue. It was natural for Lore to take the lead voice and the acknowledgements went to him as members fully absorbed the situation.

Ramifications of this new power were staggering. Each of them embraced the suggestion that this was yet another thing it would be best not to discuss with anyone, not even other individuals like themselves.

Was Kenna the key to achieving this connection? Could it be done by others of their kind without her? The possibilities of what it could be used for were unknown. All the individuals who might be capable of using it were unknown. There were too damn many unknowns.

Together they raised hands and placed them on the wall. The stone beneath their palms warmed as energy invaded it. Behind the stones the past groaned as a new being floated into the dark corridor. They could feel themselves there, not sure if the reason there was no visual was because the passage was dark or because this sort of exploring was a bodiless experience. Moving to the left, they came to what felt like a sharp corner but hesitated turning it.

This form of exploring was draining and they could feel the toll on their bodies in the room. Also, it left them physically defenseless. The men were extremely uncomfortable with that. With their attention absorbed in the corridor, no one was watching the door.

“Enough,” Lore directed. “We know how to do it. We will try again when we are more prepared.” They pulled back and found unwinding from the group was painless though not necessarily easy. The slight difficulty disengaging suggested the longer such a connection existed the greater cost to each member. What that cost might be was another unknown. Letting go was totally voluntary, a good thing to know among so many unknowns.

Both women were physically weak and all of them felt ravenously hungry. The five of them backed away from the wall in a shuffle that was a bit stunned.

Yuri and Boris turned to scan the room. Lore put a supportive arm around both women and moved them out the door. Letting Julianna go so they didn’t draw undue attention, they walked in a casual stroll across the castle. The silence was both mental and verbal except for Julianna ordering food be brought to the king’s rooms.

Even though only Lore and Kenna had been unaware of being different to begin with, none of them had known how different they really were. It was sobering.

Though they all felt the need to eat, Lore and Kenna felt something that was more than the need for food. The two of them remained entwined and the connection turned sensual. Every sense enhanced made the hunger passing between them a carnal taste for each other. It was sharp and urgent. The needs beating at them were demanding reminders of how different they were becoming. Food was only a small part of what they now needed to sustain them.

Platters of cold meats, cheeses, breads and condiments were delivered to the king’s private dining room. The order for food had been answered immediately. The second chef was Boris’ younger brother. He’d taken charge of the order and loaded the trays with high proteins. The desserts were rich and creamy, delivering a sugar boost as well.

The five of them ate with enthusiasm and very little conversation, besides to comment that everything seemed to taste better. Perhaps it was the hunger.

Lore and Kenna were pressed together, his arm around the back of her chair. The sensual needs coursing through them and the sharp hunger had her trembling slightly. Lore watched the food fall off her fork twice before she could get it to her mouth and took the instrument from her.

“Eat a sandwich with your hands or I’ll feed you, woman,” he growled. Watching her struggle to do anything was difficult, but feeding her would throw them directly into sensual overload. Sending the images in his head to her, he showed what he meant by the threat to feed her.

Kenna frowned in the natural rebellion that came over her when she was both physically and emotionally drained, but still she leaned into the muscled body beside her. His idea of feeding her was about the most lewd use of food possible and he wasn’t really kidding. She could read his intention of sending the others out and doing exactly what he’d shown her.

Hastily she made a sandwich and munched with the rest of them. It’s not as if she was such lady she had to use utensils. It was just the food was on the plate and she wanted it in her mouth. Wasting time making a sandwich seemed silly. Belligerence was a reaction to the intensity swirling around them.

Hunger faded quickly but only after Lore grabbed a round confection dessert and pressed it into her mouth. Three of those and Kenna relaxed enough to begin feeding the sugary dessert to Lore.

Licking the sugar off her fingers, Lore sucked them into his mouth, his hand holding her wrist to ensure his possession.

Around the table, the other three occupants grinned at each other. Lore and Kenna becoming absorbed in feeding each other had closely followed the collective discovery that sugar replaced the energy used in the joint exploring.

“Perhaps you two would like to postpone the discussion on what that passage is?” Boris asked casually in a tone laced with sarcasm as Lore bent to lick some sugar off Kenna’s chin. “It’s not like this is an urgent matter. The passage has been there for hundreds of years. Just because it suddenly calls us there’s no reason to be concerned.”

Lore straightened. “I’m beginning to understand Julianna’s title for you,” he growled to the teasing. “What do you mean, it calls you?”

“It calls you, Boris? It stopped calling me. Wow, that’s strange,” Kenna added as she realized her urge to return to the old castle had passed. Shifting so she leaned more fully into Lore as his arm now wrapped around her back, his big hand resting on her hip. The sensuality building between them made her want to rub up his body like a cat. The thing that stopped her was his approval of that thought. Shameless male.

Boris chuckled and flicked a glance at Lore. “My lady, what’s calling you probably drowns out any other voice. If it doesn’t, he’s not doing it right.”

Julianna gasped. Yuri spit food as he barked a laugh. Lore coughed in what sounded like a chuckle, and Kenna calmly picked up a slice of bologna and threw it at Boris. It smacked Boris flat on the cheek and hung there. The table froze then erupted in laughter.

Boris peeled the bologna off his face and ate it while eyeing Kenna as she took another slice from the tray. She calmly rolled it and started munching on it as the others chuckled.

Leaning forward, Kenna seriously informed Boris, “He’s doing it right.”

There was nothing Boris could do about her taunting. He couldn’t throw food back at the future queen. He couldn’t follow up her statement with the off-color remark that came immediately to mind. Well, he could, but Lore would probably not think it was funny and that might get dicey. One thing they were all aware of was that Lore was changing. His changes were different from the rest of them.

“Tell us how it calls you, Boris?” Lore asked.

Boris sat back and considered in silence a moment. “It is inviting,” he finally said.

Everyone waited for him to continue. Boris started eating again.

“Boris, would you rather share it with us the other way so we can all understand it?” Kenna asked carefully. She could certainly look into his mind, but that was an option she found she’d never use outside an emergency. Lore concurred with her as his soul rubbed gently against hers. He almost distracted her with his approval as the feel of it suddenly became a heavenly, hot-candy craving.