He wasn’t being insubordinate; he was concerned. For all the ages Rhane had known York, he couldn’t remember a time his friend hadn’t been there for him. So, when white-hot anger stabbed through his chest, it wasn’t aimed at York, and it didn’t stem from the line of questioning. The anger grew from the painful memory of that day of blood and ash. The day when he had lost everything. “You know I don’t believe she just left us. Kalista…she wouldn’t have done that.”
York suppressed a sigh of regret. He hadn’t meant to take Rhane back to such a horrible place, especially knowing Rhane blamed himself every single day for what had happened. Days became years. Years turned into decades. And decades had stretched into centuries. Such a heavy burden of conscience threatened Rhane’s soul. They never spoke about the incident. Talk of it only pushed Rhane deeper into the dark place.
York chose his words carefully. “A lot of people died that day, more or less our entire kin. But it wasn’t your fault... Kalista was afraid for her own life. She ran.” He watched Rhane’s eyes begin to glow from within. Darkness mixed into the uncanny shade of green. Unique to him, the singularity typically happened when Rhane was really angry or really turned on. Since it definitely wasn’t the latter, York quickly added, “I’m not saying she’s responsible for the massacre. I don’t believe that either.”
Rhane’s irises continued to pulse. He had learned to control it, but right then he didn’t care to. “You don’t understand. I found her after the incident. But I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t carry out my orders. Something had her afraid. So frightened, she could barely speak. She couldn’t tell me what had happened. But it didn’t matter. I planned to lose the army and meet up with her later. We were going run together.”
York exhaled heavily. It was difficult to process Rhane’s confession and keep listening. “But you ran into Flynn and his legion.”
Rhane’s voice dropped to a hoarse whisper. “Yeah.”
“Wow.” York folded both hands behind his head. “I’d heard the rumors before I left. But I didn’t believe. I didn’t think that even you could…” He faltered, trying to absorb what Rhane was admitting. “It was an entire legion.”
A college of emotion transformed Rhane’s features. Guilt. Shame. Rage. Defiance. “They had taken so much. I couldn’t let them hurt her.”
York had no words. That rarely happened to him.
“I found the children where we were supposed to meet. But she never showed. Someone took her from me. I see it now. They took her memories and changed her somehow. Made it so I couldn’t find her. They stole our life together.” Rhane looked away into the setting sun. The burning anger in his eyes began to cool. He closed them briefly. York still hadn’t spoken. “I understand if you can no longer follow me.”
The way York saw things, it wasn’t a decision. Rhane had earned his loyalty a thousand times over. He found his voice. “We were a small unit, but there were many of the men who would have followed you, even through this. I just wish you had trusted them more. And trusted me more…What you lost was important to us all.”
Rhane jerked his head in a nod. York left things there. He couldn’t bring himself to make Rhane relive such a painful memory. Bending his long legs, he crouched next to his friend. “I can only think of one race of beings with the power and enough of a god-complex to accomplish what you’re saying.”
“Then we are on the same page.”
“No one is sure these guys exist. How are we going to pick a fight with them?”
“I think I only found Kalista now because they wanted me to. Staying close to her should lead us to them.”
“For all of our sakes, I hope you’re wrong about this.” York blew another breath into the evening air. “But it would explain why the three of them don’t remember anything from that day.”
“Yeah, it would.”
“Will this ever get any easier?”
“No.” Rhane’s voice drifted away. “We were born to fight against such odds.”
York decided it was time to lighten things up a bit. It was the least he could do before heaping more crap on Rhane’s evening. “Well, when we find these guys, make sure you at least thank them. I mean, you gotta admit. Though she’s sorta young and doesn’t look precisely the same, your girl is in a smoking hot body.” He went on to tally aloud the list of attributes he most appreciated. “Dark silky hair, nice curves, smoldering bedroom eyes that could literally kill you, did I mention her…” He let the sentence trail. Rhane had returned to the present with a thunderous glare. York grinned. Things were as if Rhane had not just revealed his deepest, darkest secret. At least, he hoped that had been Rhane’s deepest, darkest secret. “Just making sure you stayed with me.”
“Mission accomplished,” Rhane said dryly. He surveyed the college campus. “Did you take care of that other thing?”
“I put Rion on it. Right now your credit card history should show a day of shopping at the Charleston coast over the past two days. So when daddy-o checks, the books will match the tale. Make sure you run through the details with Kalista.”
“Done. Rion knows not to get too creative?”
“I warned him to keep it classy.”
“Thanks.” Rhane didn’t want to know the rest but asked anyway. Night was arriving fast, and they would need to get moving soon. There was a lot to be done before morning. He checked his watch. “Is there any particular reason you insisted we meet here?”
“There is. But I need to begin somewhere else first.”
Several students were milling around the commons. Both he and York looked as if they belonged there, though York was more likely to be mistaken for a star running back on the football team. Rhane listened to the conversation of three students headed to a study group and waited until they passed out of human ear shot. “Make it fast.”
“A boy from Kalista’s school didn’t show up for any of his classes Tuesday. They found him this morning.”
Rhane’s expression turned grim. “Alive?”
“Barely. He’s in a coma over at Providence ICU. At this point the police are no longer involved. The authorities recovered him and the medical work up ruled out any suspicion of a crime.”
“What’s the official report?”
“Exhaustion.” York quoted the word with two fingers marking the air. “The kid’s brains got scrambled after practice. He wandered off the path on his way home from school and fainted.”
“It sounds very unlikely.” Rhane was distracted with his own thoughts. “How long are you going to keep me waiting for the punch line?”
“Trust me. It’s a side splitter.” York pointed across the street to a row of wooden dorm facilities on stilts. “Those are Pine View Dorms, the oldest campus lodgings but also the most isolated. Everyone wants to live there, especially kids that prize partying over studying. A sophomore went missing from a party there Monday night.”
Rhane exhaled slowly. “Have they found him?”
York shook his head. “Not yet. The cops are all over it though.”
“How far is this college from where she works?”
“Not even five miles.”
Rhane swore. “We have to find out if anyone saw or heard anything on campus.”
York agreed that was the right course of action. It was why he had wanted to come here. All the same, he was determined to stay positive. Kalista would have the benefit of his doubt for as long as he could give it to her. “Even though she went missing the same night as the boys, we have no reason to suspect her. Maybe it’s all a long string of coincidences and she had nothing to do with any of it.”
“I don’t believe in coincidences. Right now we have to assume the worst. When the authorities find the second kid, he may not be alive. In a small town like this, be sure every angle will get pursued. Three kids went missing in the same night. All it takes is one person with a hunch to connect the dots and start asking questions. And if there’s a solid connection between them and Kalista, we need t
o find it first.” He glanced up. Two athletic looking males were walking toward them but were too far away to hear anything. “Search this campus. See if you can find any sign she was here. Ask around, but be discreet. If someone saw Kalista at either scene, the story I told Greg will fall apart and he’ll be after the truth with every resource at his back. We don’t want that. What names did you get?”
“The boy from her school is Trevor Walker. And the missing college brat is King David Greyson.”
“I assumed you tried tracking her already.”
“She left nothing. Her trail stopped cold at Mack Ventures, Inc. But it reappears at the estate.”
“She could have shed her human form.” He rubbed his jaw, falling silent as the jocks passed. “Have the twins try things from the other end. Go to King’s dorm--”
“It’s King David.” York grinned.
“I’m not calling him that.” Rhane face was deadpan. “Find his trail and follow it until it’s cold. I want him found. Have them call me before doing anything else, no matter what condition he’s in. Understood?”
“Got it.”
The noise the two guys were making grew louder as they returned to where Rhane and York were standing. The shorter one called out to them. “Hey, man! The party is in Pine View tonight!”
“Be there or be squares!” His friend chimed in and then burst into a loud guffaw at his own joke.
York looked at Rhane. “Are people still saying that?”
“It smelled like that guy was already trashed.”
“Well, I think I feel like sharing some hard liquor in the name of good detective work.”
In spite of his mood, Rhane surrendered to a wry grin. “Before you go binge drinking with a bunch of college idiots, I need you to help me do something.”
“Is it illegal?”
Rhane’s smile widened. “Of course.”
Chapter 33
From the college, the trip to Mack Ventures, Inc. was a short one. Being inside an automobile with someone else driving made York nervous no matter the distance. He pelted Rhane with questions, finding it pretty much impossible to stop talking. “What about my truck? Did I mention it was totaled?”
Rhane shrugged. “Was that thing even worth the gas you put in it? There was no carpet on the floor. The only intact window was rolled down permanently. And three shades of rust is hardly a paint job.” Seeing York squirm had improved Rhane’s mood. “Besides, I know how much a ride along makes you all fluttery inside.”
York ignored the jab. “That truck was old but it had sentimental value. I think it should be replaced with something right off the lot, a brand spanking new one.” He stroked the leather console of Rhane’s relatively new ride. “The grain on this baby is nice.”
Rhane didn’t bother with a reply. York’s fantasy upgrade from junk to a forty grand set of wheels at his expense was going to be a stretch.
“Seriously, man, I lost my virginity in the tail bed.”
“You’re absolutely full of shit.”
York grinned. “You’ll come around.” He sat quiet for a few seconds, drumming his fingers against the door to a tune only he could hear. Then he pounced on a new topic. “So he said his name was Bailen, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“He’s pretty small. Even Rion is bigger.”
“Yeah,” Rhane repeated distantly.
“Is it possible for him not to be an adult? The surviving children have since reached maturity.”
Rhane shifted uneasily but did not respond.
“Where did you find him?”
“I didn’t. He found me.”
“Bailen isn’t a common name for us.” More than a hint of skepticism tinged York’s words.
Rhane glanced over at him and snapped the blinker on to signal an upcoming turn. “I trust him.”
“I’m not saying you shouldn’t…but--”
“Putting ‘but’ in there negates everything you said before it.”
York acknowledged that with a nod. “Okay, scratch that.” His expression was serious enough to openly convey concern. “This guy refuses to reveal himself to you. His behavior is in blatant defiance of our laws—and yet you accept him. What has he done to earn that kind of trust?”
Rhane’s right hand gripped the steering wheel and then went slack again. “He would change if I ordered him to.”
“But you haven’t.”
“No.” Rhane wished he’d back off the subject.
“He could be a spy.”
“He’s not.”
“Fair enough.” The finality of Rhane’s tone had not escaped York’s notice, but he couldn’t resist saying one more thing. “I think he’s a pup.”
“York…that’s impossible.”
“But what if--”
“No.” His patience already stretched thin, the direction the conversation had taken was a dangerous one. Not a day had gone by when Rhane hadn’t pondered the possibilities a hundred times over. But he could never venture there aloud. “We saved all we could. Let this go.” Pain fluttered through his chest. He scowled when it threatened to reach his face.
Rhane reached up to adjust the rearview mirror. Hell would freeze over before York could be silenced, but maybe for both their sakes Rhane could at least give him something else to talk about. “I think being around her again has caused some changes…I’m getting the old me back.” He waited, watching York as much as he could while giving enough attention to the road ahead.
The redirection worked. York’s face was twitching, barely able to contain the anticipation. “Banewolf?”
Rhane shook his head, holding up his right hand so York could see his palm remained as bare as the rest of their kinsmen. The mark that made him special had not returned. “I didn’t say I was back. But I think I’m getting there. The other day I cleared a twenty foot pool.”
“Straight on or sideways?”
“Does it matter?”
“It does if the pool was anything but a twenty by twenty.”
“For Pete’s sake, it was twenty feet wide and forty feet long. I cleared it sideways.”
“Sweet.” The grin on York’s face extended from one ear to the other. “So, when others follow you to her, we might have a chance.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“You can always count on it. And hey, worst case scenario: we all die.”
Rhane hit the brake, putting the gear in park as the truck came to a full stop behind a pair of dumpsters. “This is it.”
York looked around expectantly. Nothing in their immediate surroundings stood out. He stared ahead at the dumpsters. “Impressive.”
“I’ll scout around front. You take the back.”
York grinned. “And we’ll meet up in two seconds?”
“And then we’ll go up together.” Rhane jerked his head impatiently to the left. “The building is across the street.”
Rhane didn’t seem ready to exit the truck, so York opened the sunroof and poked his head through. He found the building easily. Large and isolated, the exterior was warehouse style. Two stories, possibly a third existed below street level. “So, that’s where she works. Not too shabby.” He settled back into the passenger seat. “What are we doing here?”
“Someone stole The Siren’s Heart.”
“But the deal was worked out.”
Rhane checked the time. “I’ve had several meetings with a Chinese contact. Going in, I knew his loyalties were dubious but he was the one with access to what I needed. For years he’s been a respectable custodian for the remnants of our culture.”
York scoffed. “I remember how he got the reins in the first place.”
“Yeah, like I said, dubious.” Rhane paused in thoughtful distaste. “When I flew to Baotou, he changed the place of meeting to coordinates within the Greater Khingan mountain range near the Mongolian border. An American team was on site, apparently with a contract to dig. Those idiots set off a bla
st that left my ears ringing for hours.”
York’s interest was piqued. “What do you think they were looking for?”
“I don’t know, but there is something buried in those mountains that doesn’t need to be found…especially by humans.”
“I bet your contact, Tsai, knew what they were looking for.”
“I’m sure he does. He requested the meeting so I would see the search team.”
York lifted an eyebrow. “Is that what he said?”
Rhane shook his head. “He was indifferent to the Americans blasting holes so close to sacred ruins.”
York waited for him to say more, but Rhane had fallen into a pensive silence. Good thing York didn’t mind interrupting. “Just so we’re clear….Tsai wasn’t suspicious—and that made you suspicious?”
Rhane trained his focus on York again. “My concern right now is getting the statue back. Tsai thinks someone pretending to be with the dig snuck in and stole it. And that man works here.”
“How do you know it was a man? It could’ve been a sexy cat burglar. That would be way more interesting.”
Rhane continued as if York hadn’t spoken. “A few days ago, Kalista was carrying a file from this place. I didn’t have long to look at it, but the unfinished permits and bogus coordinates stood out like a red devil in a Christmas parade. Beneath the fluff some of it was real. Doesn’t 43-94’N sound familiar to you?”
York’s fingers drummed again. “My geography is rusty, but those sound like desert coordinates. It’s worth checking out.”
“There were pictures too, actual drawings of the artifact. Kalista has seen the statue. She just didn’t know what she was looking at. When I saw the pictures in her possession, I knew I needed to talk to Tsai in person. But I hoped my suspicions were wrong.”
“Well, you’re not wrong very often.” York nodded toward the building. “You think this guy is dumb enough to stash the stolen goods at home base?”
“Let’s go find out.”
They left the truck without further discussion. Rhane took the lead with York close at his heels. Their progress was silent and swift, moving with the night instead of through it. A pair of headlights swept by and they quickly ducked into the shadow of a neighboring building. The car passed and they glided forward again, this time stopping at the rear wall of Mack Ventures.