Darkness Awakened (Primal Heat Trilogy #1) (Order of the Blade) (36 page)

“Just keep him contained? He’s trying to kill me.” Ryland blocked a death blow from Zach, barely getting out of the way. “Could use some help if I’m not allowed to bring him down.”

Gabe charged up, brandishing a hook sword with a lethal blade that had a spike and a hook on the end. He swung it at Zach as the warrior thrust his sai toward Ryland’s heart, connecting with the back of Zach’s head. Zach pitched forward, crumpling to the dirt, a brutal wound on his crown.

He didn’t get up.

There was silence for a long moment, no sound except the heavy breathing of Ryland and Gabe, and the sound of Gideon’s clothing rustling as he struggled to his feet, his right leg useless, his jeans stained with blood.

Gabe took a breath, then sheathed both his swords. Ryland stripped off his shirt and handed it to Gabe as he knelt beside Zach. Gabe pressed the shirt to Zach’s injury, then rolled him onto his back. The warrior’s muscled body was limp, his jaw slack, a stream of blood sliding from the corner of his mouth. Gabe pressed his fingers to the warrior’s throat, then nodded, and Grace felt the men shift with relief.

Gabe rested his forearm on his thigh, and pressed his bloody palm to his head for a long moment. “What the hell’s going on? In all my four hundred years, I’ve never seen the Order fall apart like this. Dante’s dead. Elijah’s dead.” He looked at Quinn. “You attack me, and now Zach breaks his mission oath and tries to kill us all? His eyes aren’t red, which means he broke his oath when he was sane. And then we don’t find anyone in the woods, even though we all felt someone.” His gaze drifted to Grace, and other warriors did the same. It wasn’t friendly. “What the hell’s going on?”

At that moment Thano, Ian and Kane sprinted out of the woods, weapons raised. They coasted to a stop in the middle of the clearing, and it wasn’t until Gabe, who was kneeling beside Zach nodded, that they finally lowered their weapons.

“I hate it when you guys party and don’t invite us,” Kane said, but his eyes were alert and ready. “What happened to Zach and Gideon?”

Quinn walked over to Grace and put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her tight against him. “Our enemy has finally made a mistake. We have a plan.”

“Seriously? A mistake? I must have missed it while I was fighting off one of my own team members who was trying to
kill
me.” Ryland had paced away from the group, and was facing the woods. His body was rigid, his weapons clenched tight in each fist. His voice was quiet, laced with lethal intent, strained with the effort of keeping control. The loner of the group, Ryland lifted his face toward the sky, and let out his breath with a shudder that vibrated through his whole body.

Quinn squeezed Grace’s shoulder. “It’s your floor,
sheva
. Bring ‘em up to speed.”

She blinked. “Me?”

He nodded.
The men need to hear from an Illusionist right now. They need answers only you can provide.

Grace looked around at the battered team. So many injured. Distrust. Anger. Confusion. The Order was starting to fragment. They were losing control of the situation, and they needed to regain it fast if they were to recover in time to find Nate and Ana before it was too late. And it was up to her to help them?

Grace could see by the aggressive body language of the men that the answer was yes, and there was no room for a mistake. Which was fantastic, because jumping into this world of violence, death, and deadly warriors who didn’t believe in her was
so
her forte.

It wasn’t like her sister’s life was hanging in the balance if she screwed this up or anything.

“Grace?” Quinn looked down at her, his dark eyes full of questions. “You up for this?”

She had to be. There was no other option. As she looked around at the circle of warriors, she realized that they were all looking at her expectantly, as if they thought she would have the answers, the clues they needed to go forward. Gone was the distrust and the hostility from when she’d first met them. True to Zach’s word, they were looking at her with full acceptance, ready for her to deliver the information they needed to succeed on their mission.

Excitement pulsed through her. Right now, in that moment, they believed in what she had to offer, and that felt incredible. She grinned at Quinn. “Yes, I’ve got it.” And she knew she did.

“I know, but I’m not sure how to do it—”

“Ana!” Lily grabbed her hand. “You’re one of the most powerful Illusionists in existence! Use your illusions against him. You have the best weapon available!”

“I can’t,” Ana protested. “They don’t work on him.”

Lily groaned. “Oh, come on, he’s just a Calydon, and he’s not even a powerful one. He’s probably been trained how to resist them, but that’s not infallible.” She took Ana’s hand and squeezed fiercely. “I can’t go out there. You have to do it. Be the murderous Illusionist you have to be and stop holding back!”

Ana stiffened. “I don’t want to murder—”

“Then it’s over. Then he wins.” Lily flopped onto her back, grief consuming her. It was too hard to keep hoping. Too difficult to keep fighting. She couldn’t do it anymore. “I give up,” she whispered as she closed her eyes and stopped fighting her injuries, the hopelessness and the despair. “It’s done.” She realized that it felt good to finally stop fighting. To just be. To let fate fall where it will.

“Oh, come on, Lily! Don’t give up on me.” Ana grabbed her under the arms and pulled her upright, leaning her against the wall. She held Lily’s shoulders, keeping her upright as Lily’s eyes closed. “You’re my strength.”

Lily wrenched her eyes open, fighting the overwhelming urge to lie down and simply give up. “Can you do it, Ana? Can you do an illusion that will break Nate?”

Ana looked down at her forearm, and rubbed her palm over the skin, as if there was some message there for her. When she looked up, there was a new determination in her eyes. “I’ll do it.”

Lily knew she would. “Okay, then.” She let her head flop back against the wall. “Then I’ll hang on a little longer.”

Ana nodded. “You’d better. I’ll be really mad if I come back for you and you’re dead.”

“Well, I wouldn’t want to make you mad.” Lily had a sudden image of her cell door opening, of that feeling of disbelief when she saw someone besides Nate walked through that door, someone who held the door wide open for her, of that moment when she realized she was free, that the nightmare was over. Truly, blessedly, over. The triumph. The relief. The gift of a second chance at life. It would be worth everything she’d suffered to reach that moment. “I’ll be here,” she whispered. “I’ll be waiting.”

Then the door clicked, and Lily’s stomach rolled with the grim reality of what she was facing.
Okay, girlfriend, time to take this one home.
“They’re here.”

Ana’s gaze jumped to the door as she stood up with determined strength. Gone was the victim. In its place was a woman ready to finally win.

And that’s when Lily knew they really had a chance. Adrenaline and excitement raced through her, chasing away the pain and the fear. “Help me up. I can’t let him think he’s won. “

Ana grabbed Lily’s arm and pulled her to her feet as the door opened.

Lily braced herself against the cold cement wall, and lifted her chin, willing strength into her body. “Okay, Ana, let’s do it.”

Ana squeezed her hand. “You got it, sister.”

Sister.
Lily smiled to herself. “I like the sound of that.”

A smile flickered briefly across Ana’s face. “Me, too.”

Then the door opened, and in walked Nate and Frank.

* * *

Quinn saw the tension in Grace’s body as she surveyed the circle of unsmiling warriors, preparing to lecture them on illusions.

He gave a reassuring touch to her mind.
You’ll be fine. They’re not going to kill you in the next five minutes.

Gee, that’s so reassuring, especially when I have one of their teammates bleeding out at my feet.

Zach’s not bleeding out. He’s taking a nap.

She snorted, then pulled back her shoulders and faced his men. “I saw the illusion that’s inside Zach. He no longer trusts Quinn, or even the rest of the Order, to do what’s right. His loyalty to someone else is being strengthened.” She walked across the clearing, her hands gesticulating with passion as she talked.

Quinn folded his arms over his chest as he watched her. With the firelight dancing in her dark hair, she looked like a powerful force as she strode past his men.

Damn, she was impressive.

“The illusion appeared in Zach as soon as Quinn put him in charge of keeping Drew safe,” Grace explained. “I think he was selected because he’s the one who will have access to Drew. This guy wants Zach to hand Drew over to him.”

“Who is the man?” Ryland asked. He was still pacing at the edge of the woods, restless and moody. Thano stood near him, watching him, but the other men had moved away and were sitting on the other side of the clearing.

“I’m not positive, but I got a sense of him.” She looked at Quinn. “I think it was Nate.”

“Nate again? I can’t wait to find that bastard,” Kane growled. “Where’s Zach supposed to meet him?”

“It wasn’t part of the illusion. The illusion was to make Zach not trust the Order, and to trust Nate, so that’s all I could see. The illusion was about changing Zach’s emotions, not specifics like where to do a handoff. He’ll have to make contact with Zach to arrange it.”

“What about Gideon?” Kane asked.

Grace quickly explained the illusion being played on Gideon. There was rumble of disbelief when she said he was questioning Dante’s loyalty, but when Gideon stepped up and admitted it was true, there was a distinct increase in their respect for Grace.

Any force powerful enough to make Gideon distrust Dante was a hell of an opponent, and with Gideon’s confirmation that Grace had been correct, they all knew they needed what she could offer.

The men stopped resisting, and there was a universal shift as they all leaned forward, listening intently, the same as they would have to any chosen leader. They had now truly accepted Grace’s value to their mission.

Pride surged in Quinn. How in the hell had she managed to do it? He’d forced their agreement, but Grace had won them over. Hot damn. She was good. He studied her as she walked, watching the gentle sway of her hips, the soft tangle of her hair over her delicate shoulders, the way her shirt cupped her breasts. She was all woman, all sensual heat, and at the same time, she was a warrior.

He became hard, and he laughed softly to himself. For a man who’d been celibate for more centuries than he’d been active, he was one raging inferno of lust when Grace was around. He liked it. He liked what she ignited in him.

“Gideon was put under the illusion after Quinn had put him in charge of reading the
mjui
,” she explained. “Nate, or whoever it is, wants the Order not to trust Dante.”

“If Gideon read the
mjui
while under the illusion, he would have misinterpreted it. That means there’s information we need in that stone.” Thano was standing in the back, balancing his halberd horizontally on the tip of his index finger, and spinning it. The triple damage end, with a hook, a spear and a knife caught the glow from the fire as it spun, making it look like it was on fire. “We all would have thought Dante betrayed us.” He raised his brows. “I don’t know about you fellas, but I’m impressed as hell. That’s some damn fine card playing he’s got going on.”

Quinn nodded. “But now that we know what he’s doing, we can use it to our advantage. We can—”

“What about you?” Ryland interrupted. “She said you were under an illusion, too.”

“He shook it off.” Grace said. “It’s gone.” She met Quinn’s gaze, mischief flirting in her eyes. “We used the
sheva
bond to do it.” She glanced at the men. “Who knew a
sheva
could come in so handy, eh?”

Thano barked with laughter. “Well, isn’t that a kick? The bond you all were so worried about actually strengthened Quinn and enabled him to shake off the illusion. Guess the weapons were right to pick him, eh?”

“Shut up, rookie,” Kane snapped.

But a few of the warriors were chuckling now, and Grace grinned.

Oh, yeah, one woman was changing history all by herself.

* * *

Quinn gestured to get everyone’s attention. It was time for him to step up, now that Grace had, by some miracle, pulled the team back together. “Even though he’s under an illusion, we’ll still allow Zach to go after Drew. But we’ll track him and be there when he makes the drop. We’ll take out Nate at the same time, but not until he’s given us answers about Ana and Ezekiel. Everyone clear on that?” He gave Ryland and Kane long looks. “You will
not
kill him until we get answers.”