The Emerald Key (11 page)

“Move out of the way.”

Nic and Minerva ducked into the doorway to the bathroom. Nic kept a grip on Cass’ arms and braced himself. He’d be damned if he would let her take any more injury. Then he noticed her arms and face. Less than ten minutes ago, she’d been bleeding from multiple cuts. He could still see the blood, but the cuts had disappeared. Gone. Not even a scratch to show where they’d been.

As he watched, Cass stood perfectly still. He couldn’t see her face, but imagined the look of concentration there. His eyes shifted from her to the dresser. It wobbled, then burst into splinters as he yanked her into the shelter of the doorway.

They emerged to find the heavy piece, as well as sections of the wall on either side, gone, replaced by a pile of rubble. They quickly cleared the debris to reach the door. Unfortunately, years of disuse had solidly rusted the hinges on the door. Smoke roiled from the kitchen. The wet towels around their faces helped, but not enough.

“Give me the crowbar,” Nic ordered. Between him and Cass, they made short work of the door and headed down the steps.

“Through the office,” Minerva said. She led the way through the connecting door.

“This is no good,” Nic said. “They’ll be waiting, whichever door we take.”

“Who said anything about going out the doors?” She led them down the steps to the basement. To Nic’s surprise, she easily shifted aside a set of shelves that looked like they weighed more than the Statue of Liberty, revealing a dark opening behind.

“Grab those flashlights,” Minerva said, pointing at a box on the shelves.

Nic flicked on the switch of one and shone it into the opening. “A tunnel? To where?”

“Your past.” Minerva all but shoved them into the opening, and then stepped back and swung the door shut, closing them into the dark.

“Aunt Minerva!” Cass shone her light on the doorway but she saw only a solid rock wall. “What the…?”

She and Nic ran their hands over the wall, pressing against the rocks.

“I’m guessing you didn’t know about this tunnel?” Nic asked after they’d searched every inch and several feet along the sides.

“No. And what did Aunt Minerva do? Why didn’t she come with us?”

Nic shrugged. “I’d say your aunt has more than a few secrets of her own.”

“I can move the stones and get us back out,” Cass said.

“To what? The people trying to burn you out? This is probably our best option.” He shone his flashlight down the tunnel. “Minerva wanted us to follow this tunnel, so I suggest we follow it.”

“I guess there’s no going back, is there? Okay, onward.”

“You might want to turn off your flashlight. Conserve the batteries since we have no idea where we’re going or how long it will take.”

Cass flicked off her flashlight, leaving Nic’s to light their way. They had enough room for her to walk next to him, but barely. Though not touching, she could feel the heat radiating from him, clashing with the cold dampness coming from the stones. The ceiling barely cleared his head and in some places, forced him to duck. Although relatively level, Cass tripped over a protruding stone in the dirt. Nic caught her before she fell.

“Thanks.” His hands held her steady, but her continued lack of balance had nothing to do with the dirt floor as she stared into his eyes. “I, um, I think I’m okay now.”

He dropped his hands and she felt as if a part of her had gone missing. She liked the feel of his hands on her—knew how his touch could make her cry with need and then fulfill that need. She reached out to the rock walls. The cold sharpness gave her something to concentrate on besides him. She needed to think of something else. Anything else.

“Feel like talking?” Nic asked.

“Depends on the topic.” She welcomed the conversation providing it didn’t center on her. Or him. Or them. Or…“Shards.”

“Excuse me?”

“Nothing. What do you want to talk about?” Cass bit her lip, drawing blood. The stinging kept her focused on their talk and not the man walking beside her.

“The cuts I know you had but don’t now.” Nic shone the flashlight ahead of them so they could see uneven floor or drops in the ceiling.

“You noticed,” Cass said.

“Hard not to.”

“Aunt Minerva did a healing.”

“A what?”

“A healing. She’s done things like that before for me, mostly for childhood mishaps.” Cass hesitated to explain Minerva’s abilities or her own. Bad enough he knew about the shattering. How would he feel if he knew she could do more?

“Can she heal old scars?”

“Your foot?”

“Foot, leg, hip, arm. Pretty much my entire left side, except for my face.”

“What happened?”

“Roadside bomb. I got lucky.”

“Lucky?”

“I lived.”

“Oh.” She thought about what Minerva had done to him in the room, but didn’t want to say anything to give him false hope. Her aunt had said the healing would take time. Cass wondered what the time frame would be.

“Not an issue. What about this stalker of yours. What’s changed that made him go from e-mails to physical attacks?”

“I don’t know.”

“Did the e-mails all look the same?” Nic helped her over a pile of rocks that partly blocked the tunnel. They’d run up against a couple of such areas—nothing that could be called a cave-in, but areas where rocks had shifted.

Cass scrambled over the dirt. “No. At first, I saw just the empty altar, then the lit candles, and so on, up to the one with me lying there dead. Over the past week, they’ve added the figures chained in the background.”

“And the police did nothing? Not even your boyfriend?”

“He said he couldn’t do anything. Each file originated from a different place with a different name. Greg tried tracing them, but always came up empty. The frustration really got to him. It seemed like every time he added new security, another one got through. Then two weeks ago, they stopped and we thought they’d finally given up.”

“So what has changed? They reached the limit with your death. Three months—to get there. Why? And why escalate things now. You said it started on your birthday. Any other special days in your life right now?”

“No.” Cass chewed her lip.
Could it have anything to do with the coming winter solstice?
The time when she and Minerva got together with other friends to celebrate. She debated telling Nic. Would he dismiss her ideas? She decided to take a chance. “I wonder if the change has anything to do with the solstice.”

“The what?”

“The winter solstice is in a couple of days. Aunt Minerva and I always get together with friends to celebrate the day.”

“One of your witchy things?”

“No. It’s just always been a time of celebration for us. The winter and summer solstices and the spring and autumn equinoxes. This started on the autumn equinox. Could it have anything to do with that?”

“It also happened to be your birthday. I’d put more importance on that aspect than on some equinox or solstice day.”

“Ever heard of druids or the Mayan civilization? Or even Egypt?” Cass’ sarcasm had an effect as Nic stopped. He shone the light on her face, dropping the beam as she glared at him.

“Okay, I agree a lot of civilizations celebrated those particular days. If we ever get out of this tunnel, we’ll look into that angle.”

Nic and Cass stopped as they reached a branch in the tunnel. “What now?” Nic asked.

“Don’t look at me. I’ve never been here before.”

Nic shone the flashlight over the stone walls. The left-hand side appeared more level and wider. The right side sloped sharply downward. He paused when he saw a symbol on the right-hand tunnel. “Recognize this?”

Cass grasped her pendant. “It looks like the key.”

“What do you think?”

“I think the other way looks easier, but I have the strangest feeling easy isn’t what we’re supposed to do. This is as good a direction as any.”

They turned right. Cass noticed Nic having some trouble with the steep slope. His gait had a more pronounced limp and their pace had slowed considerably. He needed to stop, but she didn’t think he’d appreciate coddling. “Nic? Would you mind if we stopped for a few minutes? I’m about beat.”

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I just need a break.” To emphasize her point, she slid to the ground, her back against the wall. “I didn’t exactly dress for a long walk.”

In their haste to escape, she hadn’t put on shoes and her feet did hurt a little, but she wasn’t nearly as tired as she showed. However, she couldn’t stop the shivers from the damp cold.

* * * *

Nic leaned against the wall, afraid if he sat down he wouldn’t be able to get back up. His leg ached from toes to hip. He’d had pain from the injury before, but never like this. This felt different. “I’d give a week’s pay for a good stiff drink right now.”

“I’ll see that pay and raise you another week for some more of that cocoa we had.”

Nic dug into his pocket. “I can’t do the cocoa, but how ’bout a kiss?”

The startled look on Cass’ face told him she’d misunderstood. He held out his hand with a piece of foil-wrapped candy, but wondered if he didn’t prefer where her thoughts had first gone. Sitting there in the dirt with mud and blood streaking her face, her hair a mess, wearing an old T-shirt and torn jeans, he’d never seen anyone more desirable.

“Th-thanks.” She took the candy from him, her hand lingering a moment in his.

He noted how cold her hand felt and the shivers she tried to hide. He yanked off his shirt, berating himself for not doing so sooner. “Here. Put this on.”

“No. You need it.”

He could see her clenching her jaws—to keep her teeth from chattering? “Don’t be ridiculous. You’re shivering. I’m not. In fact, I’m actually warm. I’d give you my shoes, but they’re rather large for you.”

“Thanks.”

Cass took the shirt and wrapped it around her, but her eyes lingered on him, warming him even more. “You always carry candy?” she asked.

“I grabbed a handful from your candy dish earlier.” He unwrapped one of the chocolates for himself. “How are you doing?”

“Better. You okay?”

“Fine.”

“Uh-huh.” Cass rolled up the leg of his jeans and ran her hands over his calf. “How do you feel?”

Nic stared at her. Her hands had seared his skin with a gentle touch. And her voice had emerged as a low, breathy murmur. Maybe he wasn’t the only one affected. “Like I have a heating pad wrapped around my leg. What did you do?”

“Not me. Aunt Minerva. She did a healing, but I didn’t want to tell you in case it didn’t work. Why? Are you all right?”

He pulled his pant leg up and shone the flashlight on his leg for her to look at. The scars still showed, but the wasted flesh had filled out. Healed where he’d been told no healing would ever occur. “It hurts, but in a different way and not as much.”

“It felt bad before?” she asked.

“You know it did.”

“What did it look like before?”

“The scars looked heavier, darker, and the muscles atrophied.” He lifted his leg, flexing and stretching it. “I’m guessing you weren’t really tired.”

Cass grinned. “Yes, but not quite as much as I let on.”

“My turn to say thanks. Shall we go on?”

“Can you?”

“Yeah. It hurts, but not as much. It’s been worse.”

They continued downward, at places slipping in mud as a narrow stream trickled down the path.

“Are we sure this is the right way?” Cass asked after a particularly slippery area.

“I think so.” His light picked out the same symbol every so often. As a scream echoed from the tunnel ahead of them, Nic shoved her against the wall behind him. He reached for his gun, swearing when his hand came away empty.

* * * *

William brought the knife down on the old woman’s chest, grinning when her scream tore through the cave. Her blood flowed over the altar, anointing it with life. He could feel some of his strength returning as her life ebbed. But even with her blood, it wasn’t enough. She was too human. With almost no magic. He needed more. He needed someone of power.

“Hurry. I think I heard someone.”

He glanced at Sheila as she stared at the tunnels. “This isn’t exactly something that can be rushed.”

“Well you’re going to have to. Someone’s definitely coming.”

Rage tore through him and his scream echoed off the rock walls. To be so close! He ripped the heart from the chest and placed it on the altar.

“Take the body. Throw it in the water.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you. Do it. Now.”

He ignored Sheila as he chanted the ritual over the heart, fearing the rushed words wouldn’t work. To his relief, the altar softened and the heart disappeared. Strength flowed through him—not much, but enough to sustain him and make him more powerful than he’d been in the last few days. But he questioned losing his power just when he needed it most. He should be getting stronger, not weaker.

As Sheila toed the body into the water surrounding the stand, he studied her. The homeless hag’s power had been a mere trickle compared to this one. He wondered what her blood would do.

“Don’t even think it.” She turned to him, eyeing him as if she had read his thoughts. “Understand this—I see even the slightest twitch of that knife and I’m gone. You want the last of the line? Well I’m it, brother. And you’d better remember that. You need me. My power and my money. So back off.”

William smiled and joined her. When necessary, she had a strength that almost rivaled his chosen. Plus she gave him a good time in bed. He almost regretted having to kill her. “Relax, my dear. Soon everything will be over.”

“Did you hear that?” Cass asked as the echoes died away.

“I’d have to be dead not to have. Stay here. I’ll go check it out.”

“Not on your life.”

“Cass—”

“Don’t even think it. I come or you don’t go.”

A second scream echoed through the tunnel, this one worse than the other. Cass stepped away from the rock wall. “I can stop you, Nic. All I have to do is open a hole in the floor or bring down some rocks in front of you.”

Nic shrugged, his outward nonchalance a blind to cover his anger. “Then come. But stay back at least a little, please?” He glanced around—only packed dirt for the ground, no weapons there. And the walls appeared solid. “Any way you could loosen one of these rocks to give us a weapon of some sort?”