Immortal Becoming (19 page)

“You’re sure this is the one,” he asked, seeming less than convinced.

“It’s certainly possible. Her mind is not psychic. It is, however, gifted and complex.” Moira could guess what Sofia’s talent was. She was an aura reader.

The male turned back to face Sofia again. “We shall see.” He leaned in, nipping Sofia’s lip with his dente and licking the resulting drop of blood before returning his attention to Moira.

Sitting on the edge of her desk, putting them at eye level, he studied her. “You look nearly the same as you did fifteen years ago. You made me think you took your life that day. I nearly had you and your underground network. You must have masked your energy to appear dead. Either that or you are the first Hulven able to go dormant?”

Oh shit, he thought she was Marja. Wait … “took her life”? What did he just say?

The male peered closer at her, and Moira’s skin crawled under his scrutiny. “Is that some special talent you have? The ability to mask your energy?” Reaching out, he ran his knuckles down her cheek. “Your energy reads human. No psychic enlightenment. How is that possible?”

Moira glanced up at the painting, cringing when he followed her line of sight. Standing, he turned to take a better look. “Well. Now that is interesting.” He grinned maliciously back at her. “Was I right about your energy? Or was it your sister that I watched slit her own throat the second I appeared? Did she do it to protect you?” Unwanted tears sprung to Moira’s eyes. She’d always thought Marja was murdered. To find out she took her own life …

Grabbing one of the computer monitors from the desk, Moira turned and sent it crashing through the window behind her. She dashed at the gaping hole left behind and jumped toward the ground below, she saw two more Elven coming across the yard toward her. Before her feet even reached the ground, Mason had her against his chest, suspended in his arms. His wings gave one powerful flap and she was back in her office. He released her onto her feet, his wings tucking away instantly.

“You son of a bitch.” She turned and pushed against his chest with all her strength, catching him off balance. He almost went back through the window, but disappointment filled her when he caught the sill. He shook his head at Sofia when she attempted to come to his aide.

Chuckling, he crossed his arms across his chest. “Not human after all.” He noticed the continuous stream of “communication error” scroll across the remaining screens. “Son of a bitch indeed.” His smug grin faltered. “You are a worthy advesary. Even more than your
symbiotic
preaching family.” His deviant grin returned. “Do they know you run an underground network?”

“I don’t know who you are talking about. I have no family.” Moira responded through gritted teeth. “You killed my only family.” She hated the male with a passion she didn’t even know she possessed.

“Not true, she killed herself. A true anemic, she bled out fast.” He recited it like she was a dense child, further enraging her. “I mean your Elven family. Look at you. There can be no doubt to whose bloodline you belong. I knew it fifteen years ago. I originally thought it was an SOSC trap for me.”

“Mason!” Sofia shouted, rushing over to them as the two men at the door turned to face the two men outside the door, who were engaged in a fight with several people.

“I believe your cavalry has arrived.” He pulled Moira against his chest, facing him. For just a second she could have sworn it was Marja fighting the males at the door. When she saw a male who could have been her twin, she immediately knew. It was Enlil and Ninlil, the fierce warrior twins she read so much about in Etana’s diaries. Her great-grandfather and aunt were fighting for her.

Her line of sight was interrupted as Mason grabbed Sofia pulling the female against Moira’s back. Moira cried out when Mason sunk his dentes into her neck. She felt a single draw off her artery before he disengaged from her. Muttering a curse, he leaned over further and sank his dentes into Sofia. Moira let out a cleansing breath.
Time to put decades of planning into action and light a fire under the SOSCs proverbial asses.
I’m ready,
she thought. She felt as if her eardrums were going to explode. Vomiting violently at the sudden vertigo, she slipped into embracing darkness.

Chapter Fifteen

“
Jess, help us, please.”
Jess’s gut clenched from the fear she could hear in the girl’s voice. She didn’t know what was going on or understand how the girl was communicating with her; she only knew she was being asked for help. The call of the child filled her with unexplainable urgency. She distractedly pulled on her t-shirt and boy shorts. Shane followed her lead, redressing, watching her cautiously.

“Who could be talking to me like this, Shane?” she asked again. “She’s so young, calling herself Jorie. She’s crying, begging.” Jess’s voice cracked.

“I’ve never heard of a Volaticus named Jorie. Could she have taken your blood?” Shane asked. Jess shook her head. “Then it must be a relative’s bond, a close one at that. Could you have a sister you don’t know about?”

Again Jess shook her head. “She says her mom’s in trouble. My mother is dead. She sounds really young. There is no way my mother could have had a child this young.”

The second she completed the sentence she realized the stupidity of what she had just said. Who knew how old the child calling her was, if she was Elven?

“Let’s go ask Gil.” Shane grabbed her GI from where it had been placed on the dresser and handed it to her. Dressed, they headed side-by-side back down the stairs.

“
Jess, hurry. I think they’re gonna steal her, maybe even kill her.”
The young girl’s voice came again, crying harder than before.
“She told me to hide, but I can fight. I practice all the time.”

“
You should listen to your mother, Jorie. Your mother would want you to stay safe.”
Jess told her. “
I want to help you, but you have to tell me what’s going on. How we are connected? Who is your mother? Help me help you.”

Hurrying toward the sound of voices, they found the others gathered around a casual breakfast nook tucked against an enormous window, overlooking a long expanse of groomed yards. It looked like a series of sports fields with complicated obstacle courses extending farther than any golf course she had ever seen. She could see a small group of individuals flying at each other at tremendous speeds, battling using their wing fingers.

Shane and the others followed her line of sight. “She’s never seen us fly,” Shane told the others.

“You’ll be able to yourself soon enough.”

Jess turned and saw a person she had yet to meet.
I’m going to have wings? Not possible. This guy must think I’m Elven.
“What are you talking about?” Jess snapped.

“When you Become.” The stranger shrugged. “Ediku, she is new to us,” Nin said. “Forty-eight hours ago, she didn’t know we existed. You may want to balance on eggshell somewhat. Shane is newly bloodmated to Jess, so he’s a little feral right now.”

Looking at Shane and Jess incredulously, the stranger mumbled, “Damn. Sorry ’bout that.”

“
My mom is your Aunt Moira. Please hurry.
” Jorie was nearing hysterics.

“Moira.” Jess whispered, turning to Shane “It’s Moira in danger. Jorie is her daughter. We have to go to her, right now.”

“You’re the only one with a bond to her, Beauty. Once you’re there, I could follow you, bringing the others. It’s never safe to port to an unknown location, or we could go as a group if we had a geographical location. Does Jorie know where she is?” She knew Shane was monitoring the conversation through her, and he too could hear the desperation in the child’s voice. The others were nodding, ready to go, including the stranger. All they’d heard to this point was that Moira was in danger. She felt an overwhelming sense of relief and belonging

“
Jorie, can you tell me exactly where you and Aunt Moira actually live?”
Jess asked.

“
But you know how to get here. Why aren’t you coming?”
Scared and crying, Jorie was almost impossible to understand.

“
I am coming, sweetie. I want to bring some people to help. I have to tell them how to find us too. Won’t it be better to have more help?”

“
Yeah, I guess. Mom doesn’t let strangers here. She told me to reach out to you if something ever happened to her.”
Jorie hesitated

“
If you think that alone I can save both you and Aunt Moira, I will come alone, right now. Say the word.” J
ess could almost feel the girl physically shake, she was clinging so tightly to the mental connection between them.

“
No! You’re right. There are so many of them.”
A clearer assessment of the danger Jorie was in was revealed by the short comment.
“I’ll try. I have never done this before. A window just broke upstairs.”
The sound had startled her. “
Hurrrryyy!”
She sobbed harder.

A detailed image of Italy popped into Jess’s mind, narrowing like a beacon from Google Earth to a small coastal town, then tighter to a farm, then a house, and finally to the very room she had returned to over and over in her life. She stumbled with a momentary vertigo, and Shane reached out to stabilize her.

“Drop your shield, Beauty, so we can all access the information in your mind,” Shane instructed. Jess dropped her shields, and her mind was bombarded with the subliminal ability to port. She could tell the trigger came from Enlil. It happened like Shane and her mental shield; one minute she didn’t know how, and the next it was as natural as breathing.

She felt the sensation of running through a moving tunnel at the carnival. Dizzy. Spinning. Shane’s comforting presence in her mind kept her calm.
“We’re here. Raise your shields, my love.”
My love! Did he really just say that?

Opening her eyes, she found herself standing in Moira’s living room. The pink floral chaise in the cream room sat empty. Her family began to spread out. She heard her aunt cry out from another room, but before she could run in that direction, a closet door opened and a young girl ran out, throwing herself into Jess’s arms.

“Thank the Fates you’re here. I knew you’d come.” She was about the same height as Jess. The girl was clearly about twelve or thirteen with curly brown hair and fear-filled, saucer-sized, pale-blue eyes. Her voice identified her: This was Jorie.

Shane, the last person in the room with her and the child, looked back at her. “Go,” she said, guiding the terrified child toward another door she hoped led outside. “We’ll be right out here.” Shane nodded and ran after the others.

She could hear fighting from further in the house begin. Turning the knob, she stepped into the warm, early-morning sunlight. When they’d poofed from Gil’s, it had been dusk. Shit. She realized that she had no idea where on the globe she had just been. She wasn’t even sure she could get the child out of here by porting.

“Jorie,” she said. The girl just shivered harder. “Jorie!” She shook the girl softly to get her attention. “Can you port?” she said, using her sensei voice.

“A-a l-l-little. Mom says I don’t have the focus yet to travel far. I can get around the f-f-farm.”

“Okay.” Jess watched two men headed in their direction. Both males were removing their shirts. “I want you to think of the best hiding spot you ever found that was outside.” Her tone demanded the respect she naturally commanded in the Ryu.

Responding to the tone, Jorie lifted her chin in determination and nodded. “Can you port there from here?” Jorie nodded again. “Good, go now. Don’t come out unless someone calls to you using the word … peaches. Not even me or your mom, got it?” Nodding again, Jorie shimmered and vanished less than a second before one of the males reached for her. The overzealous male had flown at them the moment his shirt was off, barely missing the child.

Jess felt a calm focus come over her. She caught the male’s outstretched arm, pressed her thumb into the joint at the back of the wrist, and used his attacking forward momentum to propel his flight past her and into the side of the door she’d just exited. Stunned, he hit the ground at her feet, and she kicked him behind the ear, rendering him unconscious. The same blow would have killed a human. Would it kill an Elven?

Seeing his partner go down, the other grinned and came toward her at a sauntering pace. He was by far the more dangerous of the two. The first guy had been a sacrificial lamb who enabled the better soldier the opportunity to determine her weakness. Though cunning, her quick dispatch of the first could have only made him cautious; it was too rapid to give him a gauge of her talent. His grin indicated he was looking forward to the challenge.

Circling away from the house, she gained a moment to observe the way he moved a little longer. She returned his grin with a challenging one of her own and the male came to a stop, barking out a laugh at her audacity. He told her all she needed to know to win this fight against him.