Rogue Belador: Belador book 7 (27 page)

The silence stretched, thin and taut.

Veronika had found a sore spot, and kept digging at it.

With the two women focused on each other, Quinn spared Adrianna a quick look and found her hands had unclasped. She used one hand to hold the palm of her other one open behind her back.

A white sphere of power, the size of a marble, spun above it.

Adrianna had been inside VIPER enough times to know the rules. Specifically, no use of majik under any circumstances.

Still, Quinn whispered, “You’re not going to use majik in here, are you?”

She never took her eyes off of Veronika, but spoke so softly he could barely hear. “Technically, what I intend to use is not majik. Witchlock is a power just like your kinetics, but when joined with a witch like me, who wields majik, it becomes something greater.  I know Sen doesn’t allow  use of power in here either, but I allowed a small amount of the Witchlock power to escape as we walked down the halls. It didn’t seem to affect the energy skating over the rock surface. That makes me think Witchlock might be older than Sen, which wouldn’t surprise me. If this goes as I plan, Sen will either not be alerted, or I’ll simply blame Veronika if he shows up and claims his rules were broken.”

Quinn took in the walls, where energy still rode calmly along the surface. Nothing
had
changed there yet.

What Adrianna said made sense, but only when dealing with a reasonable person, a description Quinn would never assign to Sen. If Sen caught her using Witchlock here—power or majik—he still had autonomy to execute both Adrianna and Quinn and claim it was within his authority to do so.

Adrianna addressed Veronika again, sounding bored with the whole conversation. “We’ll be out of time soon, so if you’d rather spend every minute pretending the world is your oyster, we have no reason to continue this conversation.”

For the first time, Veronika’s chilling, blue-eyed gaze switched to Quinn. “What is it
you
want?”

”He’s only here as my guide. I’m the one with the questions.”

Veronika held his gaze another ten seconds before crossing her arms and switching back to Adrianna. “Very well. What?”

“What do you know about white witches being captured? Did you contract with anyone to kidnap members of the council?”

“What if I did?”

Quinn wondered where Adrianna was going with this line of questioning. He thought she was here to gain knowledge of the dragon.

Adrianna lifted a shoulder. “If you had any part in the crime, you can plan on sharing more than a bath with Sen.”

Veronika’s smile slipped. “I find your humor crude.”

“Be that as it may, I’ll inform the Tribunal of anything you tell me that aids in our investigation ... or anything that hinders us.”

Dark vapors smoked away from a hissing Veronika. “Do you really think you can come in here and threaten me?” she shouted.

Chuckling, Adrianna said, “Remember? I have Witchlock. You have nothing.”

What had happened to the reserved Adrianna who maintained calm control at all times? Who was this braggart who had taken her place? Quinn could do nothing but support her at this point and hope she really did have a plan.

Veronika’s hair shot out wide like a dark sunburst, then whipped around her as it fell again. She shook, but not from fear. That was raw fury bubbling, and Quinn had concerns about what would happen when she boiled over.

Taking a step toward the ward-protected opening, Adrianna said, “
I
am the more powerful.
I
can make you kneel to me.”

Veronika screamed and lunged at the opening, stopping short of being fried alive.

Quinn moved toward Adrianna, but she whipped her open palm in front of her and held it up, shoulder high.

The sphere blossomed to the size of a baseball. Tendrils of white vapors flipped away as it spun. The energy that raced over Quinn’s skin was only a tiny amount of what he’d felt the day of the battle between these two, but even at that it was extraordinary. As powerful as he was, this was far denser and stronger. Hers was a fifty-foot tidal wave she held back from crashing down on everyone, where his now felt like a gentle surf rolling up on the beach in comparison.

Frightening, because his was no gentle wave of power.

Veronika froze, staring at the sphere.

Adrianna kept her eyes on her adversary until Veronika jerked her head up, eyes wild, and started backing away, rising higher off the floor. She grabbed her head, shaking it from side to side. “No. Get out. Get out of my head!”

Energy along the walls hissed and sizzled like grease splattering on a hot skillet.

Adrianna’s face never changed from intense concentration for a long thirty seconds, then she snapped her hand shut, and the orb disappeared.

Veronika hit the floor as if she’d turned to lead.

She moaned, and tears of blood dripped from her eyes. When she looked up, an insane beast stared at Adrianna. “You will regret that. I will do far worse than kill you.”

Stoic once again, Adrianna said, “I hope you have the opportunity. That would mean you’ve escaped, and nothing would stand between us. Come for me. I will not spare you a second time.”

Bloody hell.
Quinn took one deep breath in, then out, and murmured, “Are you done?”

Adrianna said, “Yes.” She turned to leave.

Quinn felt his gaze dragged back to Veronika, who now saw only him. She swept forward, close to the invisible barrier. “I know your secret. You told Kizira you had not found her. You told me about Phoedra, and that secret will buy my way out of here. When it does, I’ll find her first.”

His body stopped moving or breathing, paralyzed by her words. He tried to move just a finger and couldn’t.

Adrianna stepped between them and lifted her palm, fingers folding in to close. “Would you like a second taste of Witchlock, Veronika?”

In a flash, Veronika turned away and Quinn was free to breathe again. He backed away and stepped past the cell. Adrianna followed and the stone reformed across the open space.

When she reached his side, Adrianna asked, “Are you okay?”

He ran a shaky hand through his hair. “Bloody witch. I’ll be fine, but she can never leave that cell. At least not until I find my daughter.” He glanced over at Adrianna.

“I’m not going to help her escape, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“I wasn’t thinking that, but I’m glad to know it.”

Lanna had warned him that Kizira’s dead body could give up secrets, that he was making a huge mistake to leave her in that tomb. But how could he destroy Kizira’s body before their daughter had a chance to mourn her mother?

Knowing the way Kizira thought, and how much she’d hated the life she’d been born into, Quinn was certain she would have hidden their child somewhere safe and away from the supernatural world.

He shook off the cold chills. With a potential war now on the horizon, he was glad that no one knew where Phoedra was.

~*~

The next guard showed up right on time. A Belador who looked at Lionel and said, “How are the inmates?”

“Quiet. Nothing to report.”

“Okay, you’re free to leave. Have a cold brew for me.”

Lionel laughed and shook his head, walking away. He met two more VIPER agents on the way out of the mountain who stopped him to chat, but he broke away by explaining he was in a rush to pick up a birthday gift.

Once he located the pickup truck he’d been using, he drove fifteen miles down the road back toward Atlanta. When he hit the right exit, he pulled off and parked behind an empty strip center where he’d arranged to have his beige sedan delivered.

Stepping out of the truck, he stood still and allowed the change to come over him, switching the Belador’s clothes, face, and body for his usual attire as Emilio, the warrior mage from Italy.

He would now give his aid in locating the dead Belador who had donated his truck, clothes, and guard shift.

Chapter 25

Evalle followed Storm through the unfinished lobby to the conference room of their building.

A disgruntled Tristan trudged along behind her. He popped off, “You do realize that dragging me here against my will constitutes kidnapping.”

Storm paused at the doorway to the conference room, shoulders tensing. He would turn around, and Evalle would have to separate the two men again.

Evalle said, “We’ll be there in a minute, Storm.”

His head moved, acknowledging her words, before he continued into the room.

She turned on Tristan. “What
is
your problem?”

“Do we have time to list them all, Dr. Phil?”

“Could you dial back the wiseass enough for us to have a serious conversation?”

He circled the space, muttering to himself, and came back to stand in front of her with his arms crossed. The frigid weather falling across Atlanta hadn’t seemed to affect Tristan at all. They’d found him walking along Peachtree Street two blocks from the Fox Theater.

Actually, after a lot of time spent searching the old-fashioned way, since Evalle had to stay within the warded truck to avoid exposure to the sun, Storm had finally gotten out and tracked Tristan by scent.

Bad enough that Tristan had been on the move all day, but Storm was even less happy that Tristan had put Evalle through hell by pretending to be gone when he failed to reply to her telepathic calls.

She put her hands on her hips and leaned in, keeping her voice down. “What’s it going to take to get your head out of your ass long enough to hear what’s going on?”

“I don’t care what’s going on. Whatever mess you’ve gotten yourself into isn’t my problem. I tried to tell you that before your tomcat got his back up and dumped demon majik on me.”

A chair in the conference room scraped.

She got the message. Storm was letting her know he’d heard Tristan, and that the Alterant was dangerously close to getting his mouth permanently shut.

“Storm did that to get you into our truck,” she shoved back at him. “A reasonable person wouldn’t have made that so difficult.”

Tristan dropped his chin low and chewed each word as it came out. “There is nothing reasonable about any of this.”

“Dammit, Tristan. Don’t you want to get your sister and friends out of Treoir? Don’t you want
all
the gryphons out of Treoir?”

“Is that a trick question?” He sounded wary.

Don’t strangle our only option for teleporting
. Evalle said, “No, it’s me trying to get you to listen. I need your help. If you help us, once we’re done I’ll link with you to teleport gryphons back here until they’re all out.”

For the first time since she’d forced him into the truck to come here, Tristan quieted, and his face shifted as he considered her words. “Why would you do that? The minute Macha realizes what happened, she’ll come after both of us.”

“Yep. If I finally have your attention, I’ll tell you what’s going on.” Evalle gave him the bullet point version, which included sharing concerns over Macha. She concluded, “I’ve come to realize a lot of things. One is that the minute Macha gets me inside Treoir, she’ll never let me leave. This isn’t about my not coming home, or I’d just take my chances since Storm feels confident he can hide both of us from VIPER and Macha. This is about me taking a stand for all of us. If she’s willing to lock me away, then she cares nothing about any relationship with VIPER or my being a liaison for the gryphons. We’ll become her captives. I would never have left any of you there if I’d thought this would happen.”

He chewed on the edge of his thumb, pondering away.

She gave him one more thing to think about, but had to say it in a way that preserved his secret. “The dragon I told you about believes war is coming no matter what we do. He’ll support our side if we help him escape. Adrianna has seen this war in her dreams, and said if it does come to pass, humans will be involved. We’ll watch over those humans tied to our Belador clan first.”

He dropped his arms and swallowed, finally getting her message. The woman he cared for would be at risk.

Evalle didn’t want to talk to him telepathically. If he was going to be on this team, he had to speak so that all could hear, including Storm. She needed this conversation to show Storm that Tristan was committed.

She asked, “Do you understand what I’m saying, Tristan?”

“Yes.” Taking his time, he said, “We may not get all the gryphons out. I want a guarantee that if you and I get stuck there, my sister will be safe here.”

Tzader stepped out of the conference room. “I’ll guarantee that.”

Evalle turned, hoping he looked better. Not much, but she prayed he’d at least rested. She asked, “Is Adrianna back yet?”

“Should be here any minute. She called to say she was on the way. Quinn is staying at VIPER to demand an emergency Tribunal hearing with Queen Maeve and Cathbad.”

The door to the garage opened behind Tristan, and Adrianna waltzed through wearing jeans, short boots, and a knit top covered by a brown leather jacket. Evidently, Storm had given her an access code. She must have made a side trip to change clothes.

Adrianna stopped abruptly when she saw Tristan. “Color me shocked.”

“No more surprised than I am.”

Tzader called over, “Can we move this along a little quicker? We have to be ready to go the minute Quinn calls.”

That got everyone into the conference room.

Evalle took a seat next to Storm, and he handed her a mug of coffee. The elixir of life.

Adrianna fixed another cup of tea and sat across from Tristan, who had pulled out a chair close to the door and plopped down. That was also the farthest point from Storm.

Tristan said, “What now?”

Finished dipping her tea bag, Adrianna said, “First I need to let you all know that Veronika
was
after the dragon throne, and it is a red dragon. She knew more, but I had to pull out anything I could quickly before she managed to block me. I discovered that she believed she could take the dragon from Tŵr Medb.”

“That’s good, right?” Tzader asked, hope so strong in his voice Evalle wondered if that was what kept him upright.

“Perhaps, but she also thought as I do ... that it might kill the dragon to teleport him out of that realm as a throne.”

Evalle cleared her throat and offered, “It doesn’t change the basics of what we have to do. What else?”

Tzader had remained standing and her words shook him back into motion. He started detailing the trip, addressing Tristan first. “Since you and Evalle know the Tŵr Medb landscape, we’ll need you to teleport us into a space close to the throne room, but not in the actual room in case someone besides the dragon is in there.”

Tristan scrunched his forehead. “The throne room is part of the queen’s private quarters. Once we’re in the tower, I can teleport someone into her space. But what’s your plan at that point?”

Adrianna said, “I cloak the two of us, then you take me into the room. Once we confirm it’s empty and no guards are in the immediate area, you leave me and bring the other three in while I start working on the curse.”

Tristan cocked an eyebrow at her. “I never said I was going
inside
the throne room.”

Evalle placed a hand over Storm’s, silently asking him not to take Tristan’s head off. She looked to Tzader, who had no sense of humor whatsoever when it came to a mission.

Tzader told Tristan, “Fine. If you’re afraid, just get us to that first room and we’ll do the rest until it’s time to leave. If we get captured, you’re free to teleport away and save your ass.”

“I never said I was going to abandon anyone, either,” Tristan snapped.

Evalle caught a dose of surprise coming from Storm and snippets of the same from Tzader and Adrianna. It had taken Evalle a while to figure out Tristan, but she’d come to realize he had backbone and pride, and a healthy dose of honor. Few others knew that because he buried his good traits beneath layers of jerk personality. He hated to give any impression of being a hero or loyal or dependable, but he was all of those things.

He was finally showing more of his true colors.

She gave him a little help accepting his role. “Tristan, do you remember the Tŵr Medb room where Lanna and I were held before I evolved into a gryphon?”

He nodded.

“That would be where I’d teleport in. What do you think?”

Sitting forward to lean on his forearms, he ran a hand mindlessly through his hair. “That would work. I don’t know if the soundproofing spell on that room is still in place, or whether it will hold against the new queen, but it’s our best shot for entering undetected.” His eyes flicked around, the way they did when he worked out an answer for himself. “I have teleported individuals I couldn’t link with, but those times happened with plenty of recovery in between. I’m talking days. I can link with Tzader and Evalle for additional power, but just in case, we need to find a way to bind Adrianna ...” He glanced at Storm. “And
him
to the group.”

Evalle wanted to thump Tristan on the head. He’d been doing so well acting like a normal person. But that evidently just got too freakin’ taxing. She turned to Storm. “Think we can make this work?”

“Should be able to.” Storm asked Adrianna, “Can you weave an invisible chain around all of us?”

“Hmm, I see what you’re saying. I think I can do that. Sort of like creating a spell that affects a group instead of just one.”

“Right. Make it so that everyone is affected the same way.”

“Not too tough, actually.”

Tzader interjected, “Good thing, because you’re going to need all you’ve got to break that dragon’s curse, and I just heard from Quinn. We’re leaving in five minutes.”