The Darkness Beyond (17 page)

If only he could erase those ugly memories for her. Last night, he'd done his best to give her better things to think about. Despite the less than stellar accommodations, making love to her had been spectacular. Afterward, he'd slept better than he had in ages. It wasn't just the sex either, although that had certainly helped. Reggie not only challenged him on every level, she also soothed him.

But now wasn't the time to linger, not with the possibility of a passel of Kalith crazies heading right for them. They needed to get moving and soon. It was the smart thing to do, even if it was a crying shame.

Reggie stirred a bit as if trying to snuggle closer. Her head was already tucked in under his chin, her soft-as-silk hair spread out over his chest and her leg flung over his, making him her willing prisoner. God knows, he didn't want to move.

If they reached the cave safely, they could easily be back in their own world by nightfall. That meant this might be the only moment they shared like this. If that were the case, he wanted to make sure it was memorable for both of them.

He eased Reggie over to the side, grinning when she frowned in her sleep and tried to climb right back on top of him. That would be fine if only she were awake enough to take charge of the situation.

When he trailed his hand down her spine to squeeze her adorable ass, her eyes popped open. She blinked several times, as if unsure of what she was seeing.

“D.J., what are you doing?”

He kissed her forehead. “If I have to explain, I must not be doing it right.”

She yawned until her jaw cracked. “Sorry, but I'm not much of a morning person.”

“Maybe that's because no one has ever shown you how much fun mornings can be with the right person.”

Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “And you're an expert on such things?”

Reggie deserved his honesty. “No, actually I'm not. I can't remember the last time I spent an entire night with a woman. Life doesn't lend itself to long-term commitments when you have to hide what you are. It's always easier to leave than to lie.”

“Good answer, big guy. But tell me, do we really have time for this?”

Once again he settled for the truth. “Every minute we're here, the more likely we'll be discovered.”

“Rain check then?”

Her obvious disappointment left a warm spot in his chest. “You got it. Now, we'd better get a move on.”

He mustered up all his good intentions and extricated himself from the warm cocoon they'd shared. He snagged his boxers and pulled them on, the whole time eyeing the one remaining foil packet with regret.

After gathering up the rest of his Kalith clothing, he smiled down at Reggie. “I'll check on your clothes.”

One touch and he knew he'd have to find her something else to wear with the tunic she'd worn the night before. Her underclothes were dry enough, but the pants she'd been wearing would make for a miserable day.

They'd take the clothes with them, though. No use leaving clues behind. He rooted through the supply cache that the Others had left behind. Score! He shook out the pants and held them up.

Looking over toward Reggie, he tried to gauge how they'd fit and had to laugh. Considering how petite she was, they'd have to cut them off at the knees.

He handed her the clothes he'd gathered. “I'll fetch some fresh water while you get dressed. We'll have to hack a couple of feet off the bottom of those pants before you put them on, though.”

She looked insulted. “Very funny. I am not that short.”

Yeah, she was, but he was smart enough not to argue the point. “I'll be back in a couple.”

She waited until D.J. was out of sight to toss the covers aside. It was one thing to prance around naked in the darkness, daylight was quite another. At least her bra and panties were nearly dry. The tunic she'd tossed aside last night was covered in dust, but a couple of good shakes took care of that. And one look at the pants D.J. had found convinced her that he was right about cutting them off.

Yeah, she was on the short side, but those pants could've been made for an NBA star.

While she waited for D.J. to return, she made use of the comb he'd left out for her. Bless the man—he was doing his best to take care of her, a rarity in her life.

So was sleeping so soundly, especially considering the hell she'd been through the past couple of days. She was normally a light sleeper and didn't like sharing a bed with anyone. But right after they'd made love a third time, D.J. had kissed her good night and tucked her close to his side. That was the last thing she remembered until he'd coaxed her awake at first light.

But now the memories were flowing back, dark and ugly. With the suns coming up, there was no way to ignore the outside world. The interlude she and D.J. had shared had calmed her, even helped her heal, but suddenly she needed to be moving. Right now, before the Kalith came and found them.

D.J. was back. He took one look at her and frowned.

“What's wrong?”

She crossed her arms over her chest, hoping to control her shaking hands. “We're running out of time.”

“Yeah, we are, but I promise we'll be gone soon. I want to fix us a quick breakfast because we won't have another chance to stop before we reach the cave. While I do that, you can put the pallets back where we found them. Once we've eaten, we'll police the area to make sure we aren't leaving anything behind.”

She loved a man with a plan. Especially this man. They both started in on the list of chores he'd outlined. She gathered up what trash she found and left it in a pile by the fire. Then she dragged the pallets back to their original positions. When she was done, D.J. held out a cup with a clump of something yellowish in it.

“Dried eggs,” he said, answering her unspoken question. “Not exactly my favorite meal, but we need the protein.”

She sniffed the cup and wrinkled her nose. “Uh, yum?”

He laughed as she choked it down. When they were both done, she held out the pants.

“Can you cut about a foot and a half off these? They must be extra, extra tall.”

D.J.'s dark eyes twinkled, but he wisely said nothing as he pulled out a Swiss army knife. After holding the pants up to her to measure, he made a quick cut through the fabric and then ripped it the rest of the way. He added the leftover material to his pack.

She pulled the pants on. “How do I look?”

“Stunning,” he said with a grin. “I can honestly say I've never been quite so attracted to anyone who was wearing Kalith clothing.”

“Thanks, I think.”

“It was meant as a compliment.” He settled the pack on his back and then added the cloak. “Why don't you wait over on the trail itself while I do one last check. If the rest of the gang shows up here, hopefully they'll wait awhile before they start hunting for their two buddies.”

Five minutes later, she fell into step behind D.J. and prayed they made it to the cave before anyone in this world spotted them. She hadn't hiked this much in years, or maybe ever. But at least D.J. adjusted his own stride so that she didn't have to struggle to keep up.

At first the going was pretty easy because the valley floor was fairly flat. As soon as they started toward the top of a small rise, D.J. stopped. He opened his bottle of water and offered her a drink.

“Wait here a minute.”

Then with no further explanation, he walked a little farther ahead to peer over the edge of a sharp drop-off to the valley below. He frowned as he walked along staring at the ground. Watching him stroll along the edge gave her the heebie-jeebies. One false step and he could go plunging off, especially the way he was concentrating on the ground far below and not where he was walking.

She moved closer, careful not to startle D.J., who was growing more agitated as he paced back and forth. Finally, he stopped long enough to look back the way they'd come, running his hands through his hair in frustration. “Damn it, this has to be the place.”

“What place? What's wrong?”

Rather than answer right away, he bent down to study the ground. He trailed his fingers in the dust, frowned, and then moved on a few more steps.

“Damn it, this is bad. In fact, it's really bad.”

He looked at her. “We need to move out. Now.”

Reggie scurried to catch up with him. “Fine, but explain to me what's going on.”

His head was swiveling from side to side like crazy, his energy level ramping up big time. “Last night, before I reached the camp where you were, the second Kalith was waiting over there to ambush me.”

She nodded, trying not to think what would have happened to her if the ambush had been successful. Well, and to D.J., too.

“You told Jeban you'd killed his partner last night.”

“Well, that's the problem. He actually fell over the cliff. I saw him go flying off, flapping his arms like wings as he fell.”

Okay, too much information. “So?”

“So there's no sign of a body down there. Either someone found it or the bastard got up and walked off.”

“You're sure this is the spot.”

He nodded. “I had a feeling they'd try something of the sort, so I circled around behind this hill and spotted where he was hiding. We were fighting when he went over the edge.”

He sounded disgusted. “It was too dark to see how badly he was hurt.”

As the trail curved, she looked back. “No one could survive a fall like that.”

D.J. got an odd look on his face. “I wouldn't bet on that, but whether or not he died is beside the point. Either he's up and moving or someone else found the body.”

“So we could be walking into a trap?”

He nodded. “I'll look for someplace to stash you while I check out the trail. We have an alternative route we can use if we have to, but it's a lot farther and would mean we'd have to get by the Others your kidnappers were expecting.”

She didn't like the sound of that idea. “I'd rather stay with you than get left behind.”

The fact that she was sweating had nothing to do with the temperature of the air. Fear was eating big holes in her control.

“I'd rather keep you with me, too, but I don't want you to get caught in the middle of a swordfight if I can help it.”

She was huffing pretty hard now. “Seriously? I'd rather neither of us got caught up in a swordfight.”

He abruptly slowed his steps and looked back at her. “If I'm going too fast, say something. Why don't you wait here while I scout up ahead. Once I know it's clear sailing, I'll wave to you.”

She didn't want to agree, but she definitely needed a moment to catch up on her oxygen supply. “Go ahead. I'll be fine.”

Before he left her, he pulled out an automatic and handed it to her. “Don't hesitate to use this if you need to. I know you don't want to kill anyone, but trust me. These crazies won't hesitate to return the favor.”

The metal surface of the gun was cold and smooth to the touch, and the grip fit her hand as if it had been custom-made for her. She hated that. Despite her self-defense training, she had no desire to use lethal force against anyone. Could she bring herself to even pull the trigger? For both their sakes, she hoped so.

D.J. disappeared around a bend in the trail. He'd told her to wait for him to signal, but she found herself creeping forward, hating that she couldn't see him anymore. She was on the brink of charging after him when he reappeared and waved.

Relieved, she picked up her pace. He was alternating between watching the valley below and the trail above as he waited for her.

“See anything?”

“Not yet. The dust in this place covers up trails pretty quickly, but I haven't seen any clear sign of anyone having gone up the trail recently.”

“Clear sign? Does that mean you might have seen something?”

He shrugged. “It's hard to say. I saw some footprints pointed in that direction, but they didn't keep going.”

That made sense. “Maybe they're from when Jeban backtracked to see if someone was following them. Us, I mean.”

“I hope that's it.” D.J. continued to stare up the trail. “But if it is Jeban's buddy between us and the cave, there's no telling what he has planned. Regardless, we either need to get into the cave so we can cross into our world or we need to retrieve the supplies I left stashed up there.”

He pointed back across the valley. “My friend Barak is from this world. He said there's another crossing point beyond that second ridge of hills across the valley. He also sent word to his Kalith friend Berk to be on the lookout for us.”

“Can these guys be trusted?”

“Barak, absolutely, and Berk is a Sworn Guardian, which means a lot in this world. He's worked with us a couple of times and hasn't screwed us over yet. If he ever does—”

D.J. flexed his right hand on the pommel of his sword; his left held a gun that was the big brother to the one he'd given her. His stance positively shouted
God help anyone who crossed him
.

It was hard to see her gentle lover from the night before as the hard-edged man standing beside her now. The metamorphosis disturbed her on several levels, even though she'd seen this same side of him right before he'd killed Jeban. The question was, which was the real D.J., the killer or the lover? His seamless change from one to the other bothered her more than she cared to admit.

“Let's keep going. As I remember it, there aren't any good hiding spots for some distance up the trail.”

With an increasing sense of dread, she nodded and started walking. She just wished she knew if they were headed for salvation or slaughter.

D
evlin set a cold can of pop down on the desk along with a sandwich and a bag of chips.

“Here, Cody, take a break and eat. We try not to starve our people if we can help it. Are you and Cullen hitting it off okay?”

Cody grinned. “Oh, yeah. He's already taught me a few new tricks.”

As he unwrapped his sandwich, he looked up at the clock. God, where had the time gone? Devlin had met him and Trahern at the local airport sometime in the early morning hours. They'd dropped the other man off, and then Devlin had taken Cody to his house. After they'd each grabbed a few hours of sleep, he'd brought Cody to Paladin headquarters in the Seattle Underground. Almost seven hours had passed since then.

The Paladin leader perched himself on the corner of the desk. “So how's the hunt going? Any progress?”

Cody nodded as he washed a bite of his sandwich down with a swig of pop. “D.J. had already found an e-mail someone sent Reggie offering to meet up with her in Portland. Whoever it was promised to answer her questions about the Regents and the Paladins.”

“Which means it's an inside job.”

“Yeah, that's what D.J. thought, and Cullen agrees. We've been tracking the e-mail back to its origin. As far as we can tell, it came from—”

Cullen finished the sentence for him as he walked back over to the desk. “Headquarters in St. Louis. I swear, we'd be better off nuking the whole damn building.”

Devlin grinned at his friend. “Tell you what, I'll light the fuse if you two build the bomb.”

A female voice entered the conversation. “Mind if I give my dad enough warning to get away from ground zero?”

Both Cullen and Devlin winced as a woman about the same size as Reggie joined them.

Devlin turned to face her. “Sorry, Sasha. You know we don't mean it.”

Surprisingly, she just laughed. “Oh, yeah, you do. However, I assume you have good reasons since you called me here to meet you.”

When she spotted Cody, she came around the desk and held out her hand. “Hi, I'm Sasha. I don't believe we've met.”

He looked to Devlin for guidance, who nodded. “I'm Cody. I'm, uh, new here.”

Cullen and Devlin immediately moved to flank him. Hopefully it was a gesture of support. What was it about this woman that had both men acting so weird?

She raised her eyebrows at their action. “Nice to meet you, Cody. I wasn't aware that we had a new recruit.”

Okay, what was he supposed to say to that? Luckily, Devlin stepped in.

“He's actually more of a consultant at this point. He's been working on a special project with Trahern and Cullen.”

“Really? Am I to assume this special project is why I'm here?”

Devlin nodded. “Why don't you come into my office so Cullen and Cody can get back to work? I promise to explain everything.”

“Good idea. I'd rather hear what's going on from you than be blindsided by St. Louis.” She turned her attention to Cullen. “Would you let Larem know where I am and bring him up to speed on the situation with D.J.?”

“Sure thing.”

She smiled at Cody again. “It was nice to meet you. I hope to see more of you.”

Cody waited until she and Devlin disappeared into the Paladin's office before asking Cullen, “Okay, so, who is she? And who is Larem?”

Why did that name sound familiar?

“Sasha is the Regents' representative in our area, and her father serves on the Board of Regents back in Missouri. Larem is, uh—”

“Standing right behind you.”

Cody jumped about a foot at the deep voice coming from over his shoulder. That was the first shock. The second was that Larem had the same distinctive look as Barak. His hair was long and dark but mixed with silver. His pale eyes were sort of freaky, too, but he was an alien after all. The whole idea of people coming and going from another world was beyond weird, although the Paladins he'd met so far obviously had no problem with it.

To be polite, he rose to his feet and held out his hand. “Hi, I'm Cody.”

“I've heard good things about you, Cody.” Larem gave his hand a firm shake and then stepped back. “Trahern said you're handling all the stuff that's been thrown at you with the strength of a Paladin.”

“I'm trying.”

Then Cody got a clear look at Larem's companion. Holy hell, was that a white wolf? Probably not, but that was one huge, scary animal. When the dog started forward, Cody instinctively backed away. Unfortunately, the desk prevented him from putting any real distance between himself and the dog.

Larem caught his pet by the collar. “Chance, that's enough. That sandwich belongs to Cody.”

The dog shot his owner a disappointed look and sat down with a big sigh. Okay, so maybe Chance wasn't all that scary after all.

Evidently satisfied that the dog was going to behave, Larem turned his attention to Cullen. “I assume it's too soon to have heard anything back from D.J. and his lady.”

Cody wasn't sure how he felt about their assumption that Reggie somehow belonged to D.J. Yeah, it turned out that she'd been playing cybergames with the man for a couple of months, but she'd met him in person only a few days ago. How did that translate into D.J. having any claim to her?

Cullen was shaking his head. “Lonzo checked in earlier to say that Barak took the barrier down first thing this morning, but there was no sign of D.J. as of yet. They'll try again tonight. How about Berk? Was Hunter able to get word to him?”

Larem's pale eyes stared into Cody's briefly, as if unsure about how much to say in front of him. “Hunter left a message in the usual place. It's not Berk's regular day to make contact, but he sometimes checks in more often than that. Hunter will let him know what's going on. I'm sure the Sworn Guardian will assist D.J. in any way that he can.”

It was so hard to trust strangers to keep Reggie safe. Cody sat back down at the desk using the excuse of finishing his sandwich to avoid more conversation. Aware that a pair of brown eyes watched his every move, he broke off a corner of his sandwich and held it out to Chance. The dog's tail wagged wildly as he gulped down Cody's offering.

Chance plopped his big head on Cody's lap with a contented sigh. As Cody brushed his hand over the dog's fur, it finally hit him where he'd heard Larem's name before. He'd been the one to lend his father's sword to D.J.

He kept Chance happy with ear scratches while he waited for a lull in the conversation. “That was your sword that D.J. took with him.”

“Chance, will you quit that?” Larem glared at his dog, who'd gone back to eyeing Cody's sandwich, before answering. “Yes, it is my family's sword. I thought D.J. might prefer a weapon that wouldn't immediately brand him as human.”

“He was glad to have it. He said he was honored.”

Although Larem didn't exactly smile, there was a softening in his solemn expression that made Cody think he was pleased.

“I know you are concerned about your friend, but D.J. will do everything possible to bring her back safely.”

To hide his worry, Cody went back to petting the dog. “I'll just be glad when Reggie is back on this side of the barrier.”

Cullen patted Cody on the shoulder. “With that in mind, we'd better get back to the hunt. Where were we?”

The Paladin knew exactly where they'd left off, but Cody appreciated the excuse to concentrate on something he could actually help with. It was hard to sit still though. He picked up a pencil and began tapping it on the desk in counterpoint to the rhythm of his foot kicking the leg of his chair.

After a few seconds, Cullen shook his head and grinned. “It's easy to see why you and D.J. hit it off. That man has more pent-up energy than any three people combined, but you run a close second.”

“My bad.” Cody dropped the pencil back on the desk and tried to stay still. “Seriously, the only reason Reggie can stand to share a cubicle with me is because she's almost as bad. When I'm bothering her too much, she throws one of her desk toys at me.”

He'd been eyeing the collection of toys on a nearby desk. “I'm guessing those belong to D.J.”

Larem picked up one of the balls and tossed it to Cody. “You guessed right. I see he's gotten new ones since the last time I was here.”

He actually smiled. “Chance stole a couple of the balls and chewed them up. D.J. pretended to be mad about it, but then gave him two more to play with.”

The Kalith's cell phone rang. After a brief conversation, he clipped Chance's leash back on his collar.

“It seems like Sasha's meeting with Devlin is going to take longer than expected. I'm going to make a coffee run. Cody, would you like to take a walk with me and Chance?”

Cody looked to Cullen for permission, who spoke without looking away from the computer. “Go ahead and go. Bring me back one, too. Larem knows what I like.”

“Okay. Be back in a few.”

As Cody followed Larem and Chance to the door, he had to smile. Who knew aliens liked lattes?

The dust hung in the air and clumped on D.J.'s sweaty skin, making the day feel even hotter. His head felt like it was mounted on a swivel as he tried to keep one eye on the trail in front of them and one on Reggie. She'd yet to complain, but breathing the thin air was harder on her than it was for him, no doubt thanks to his mixed DNA.

He forced himself to slow down despite the growing sense of urgency that had him wanting to hoof it up the hillside full-speed ahead. It wasn't fair to Reggie with her shorter legs. Besides, if things did suddenly go to hell, he wanted her to have enough stamina to make a quick run for cover.

When the path leveled off a little, he stopped by a cluster of scrubby trees that would afford them a little shade and at least minimal cover. He pulled a bottle from his pack and took a long swallow.

Reggie reached him a few seconds later, looking tired and a bit frazzled. He smiled at her. “I thought you might like a short break. God knows I could use one.”

She sank down on a nearby rock and shuffled through the Kalith bag she'd taken for water and a granola bar. While she caught her breath and refueled, D.J. returned to the edge of the path and stared back down the hillside. What—or who—was out there setting off all his alarms?

He wandered the trail for a short distance in each direction, trying to find a vantage point that gave him a clearer view of what lay ahead. Nothing. Not even a bird or a bug or any kind of local fauna moving around, just the rolling grassland in the valley below and the stunted trees jutting out of the hillside.

Reggie joined him. “What's wrong? Well, other than the obvious, us being stuck in Kalithia.”

She squeezed his hand and looked up at him with a smile. He couldn't believe it. A little thing like her, she had to be exhausted, yet
she
was supporting
him
. He hoped like hell that the time she'd spent with him last night hadn't added a whole new layer of complications for her.

It sure had for him. No matter what happened from this point on, the memories of what they'd shared would be a bright, shining moment in the endless bloodbath of his life. Reggie deserved better.

The kindest thing he could do would be to take her back home, make sure the assholes within the organization left her alone, and let her get back to her real life. That's exactly what he planned on doing, even if the mere thought of letting her disappear from his life made him want to scream.

He forced himself to step away from her, staring down into the valley as a pretext.

“No sign of anyone following us yet.”

She shaded her eyes and surveyed their surroundings. “That's a good thing. Maybe our luck has taken a turn for the better.”

“Let's get moving before it changes back. I'll check the trail ahead again. Just give me a second.”

He walked away before she could say anything, but he felt her confusion. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her feelings, but her life depended on their making it back across the barrier. Each step away from her felt as if he was walking through sludge.

Focus, damn it!

Just around the next turn, he noticed something odd—a heel mark in the dust. It looked too fresh to have been from the day before. He might be wrong, but he didn't think so.

Kneeling down, he studied the print, looking for others. They weren't hard to find, and they were definitely headed in the same direction as he and Reggie. He backtracked a short distance until he found where they'd started. Someone had climbed up to the trail from right below where he stood. He stood at the far edge and looked down at the ridge. No sign of anyone now, but he could see where a few rocks had been disturbed, marking the Other's route to where D.J. now stood.

Great. As far as he knew, the only thing of note located along that trail was the cave and the barrier inside. This couldn't be good. Not at all.

It appeared the prints belonged to one individual, which didn't particularly worry him. In this world, no one was armed with anything other than blades.
That
he could deal with. The real question was what the guy was up to. Was he hoping to make contact with someone from Earth?

That didn't feel right. No, it had to be another trap. Not all Kalith had the healing capabilities the Paladins had inherited but some had it in spades. If this was the guy who had plummeted off the cliff the previous night, he'd had plenty of time to recover from the experience, provided he'd survived at all. For sure, he'd be carrying one heck of a grudge against D.J. for damn near killing him. If the Kalith had found out that D.J. was responsible for the death of his partner, that would only compound the problem.

Should he and Reggie continue onward and upward? Shit, what choice did they have? No matter what, it was still their best option. The straightest route to back home was through that cave. If nothing else, their supplies were stashed only a short distance from the entrance.