The tree sighed and shook with tremulous joy, whole once again. A great boom centered in its core and shot outward from its roots, invigorating the land and everyone in it. Heather smiled and wiped away a tear, caught in the beauty of new life, of peace in the land once more.
This was the journey she’d been meant to make.
Chronicles
had served its true purpose finally. The old book would remain a piece of her family’s history, but its real power had returned to its rightful place in the Source—once again whole. She tucked the book back into her backpack before turning to her lover.
She shook Jack awake and saw his immediate understanding that something amazing had occurred. He took her in his arms and hugged her tight, and then they lay down in the tree’s shadow and slept once more.
JACK WOKE COMPLETELY well rested. His body didn’t ache, and he had perfection slumped over his chest, murmuring in her sleep. Good Christ, but he’d had amazing, psychic sex—and he’d
liked
it. For the first time in a long time, he trusted himself to differentiate a woman like Heather from a woman like Melissa.
Too long had he doubted himself and his ability to make good decisions based on intuition. After all, if he hadn’t sensed Melissa’s character after working with her for years and even sleeping with her, what good was he? He knew the psychic manipulations of her shady lover had been at fault, but it didn’t make it easier to swallow.
Now he felt he could put that in the past. Everyone made mistakes. Even the great Jack Keiser. He smiled to himself and hugged Heather tighter. Granted, he didn’t like her messing with his mind, but the woman had pure intentions. Unlike everyone he’d ever met, who seemed to want something from him, Heather wanted
for
him. She wanted him better, and he could live with that.
Hell, he could live with her.
He blinked up at the leaves rustling above him, watched as they slid against the moonlight bright overhead. Jack loved her. He wanted more than this operation to keep them together. Heather had mentioned moving to Bend. Maybe when they returned, he could slowly maneuver her so that she was dating him before she realized it. The woman responded to him, so he’d work with what he had. He’d bind her to him with great sex, then slowly make it so that she couldn’t leave him.
Jack wasn’t loveable. He had a temper, he liked things done his way, and he didn’t have any problems with himself. But Heather was soft, tender, and loving. Way too good for him. But maybe he could guilt her into loving him?
He tensed when he felt humor around him. He glanced at the tree and swore he felt it laughing at him. Weird, but then, everything in Drei-Gewalten had been off since he’d arrived.
But he couldn’t fault his being here, because it had brought him to Heather.
She brushed his chest with her lips, and he sighed, fully caught and unwilling to be let go. Now he just had to make her see that keeping him was a good thing.
A sudden surge of energy from the tree hit him and woke Heather.
“Jack?”
He felt the danger and quickly dressed. “Put your clothes on, baby. Something’s coming.” Or rather, someone. He picked up his gun and centered himself, exercising that surge of
knowing
that often aided him on missions.
The damn Source made it hard to detect the direction of menace he could feel coming his way. Not for the first time did he miss working with Kitty or Aidan, an empath and a mind reader from PowerUp!, who could pinpoint the enemy with uncanny precision.
Heather had just pulled her sweater down over her head when a dozen men entered the small clearing, all armed to the teeth. Jack didn’t recognize any of them, but Heather took a step closer to him and clutched his arm.
He saw Jan enter behind the men, armed as well. The older man’s expression bore no trace of the earlier friendship he’d shown. Not someone to rely on, then. Jack remembered what Ida had told him—that he and Heather would need to trust only each other to leave the mountain. Well, he was trusting her. And from the death grip on his arm, she seemed to believe he would protect her.
He didn’t like the look on two of the younger guys’ faces. One of them looked at Heather as if he owned her, and the other smiled like a friggin’ psycho. Something not quite right lingered in that one’s dark gaze, a sight Jack had seen before in the eyes of those he’d normally been sent to eliminate.
“You should not be here.” A large, intimidating male spoke with authority. He had dark hair going gray, a barrel chest, thick arms, and a rifle pointed at Jack’s head. He also looked a lot like the younger men, giving Jack a bad feeling.
“I’m guessing you’re Ralf Baer.” He ignored the others, though he’d already cataloged their danger potential. Of the thirteen now surrounding him and Heather, less than half seemed to be a psychic danger. Ralf, his two sons, Jan, and one other resonated with real power. The blond across from Ralf would be one to watch. How clever that he positioned himself where he’d be hard to keep track of if Jack focused on Ralf. Jack said to Heather in a low voice, “Keep an eye on the blond.”
“Mikhail.” She squeezed Jack’s hand. “He’s a pyrokinetic, I think.”
A fire starter. Not good.
“You have no right to be here,” Ralf insisted, his gaze still on Jack. “I don’t know how you found the town, but it’s obvious to all you have power. This is acceptable, except that you deliberately disobeyed the laws.”
“Whose laws? Yours?”
“The Source was entrusted to us long ago. We are its keepers, its guardians.”
“Entrusted by who?” Jack snorted. “You’re not the police. More like a group of angry villagers with rifles instead of pitch forks. We’re not hurting anything. If you have so much power, as you’ve said, you’d realize Heather fixed the tree.”
Ralf frowned.
“True,” Jan spoke up. “But then, it was her people who screwed it up in the first place. Johann thought he was so clever.” Jan seemed sad to Jack, not angry. “He took what didn’t belong, and he affected us all.”
Johann. That meant they knew Heather was a Stallbridge. Maybe she’d been exaggerating that they had a kill order on her and—
“Can I do it, Father? Can I kill her?” the more psychotic-seeming of the Baers asked.
“No, Klaus. Not yet.”
Not an answer to inspire confidence.
“They must be brought back and put on trial,” Jan said.
Jack thought the man might be trying to help them, but he couldn’t be sure. Waves of energy leaped from the tree to him, to Ralf Baer, and to Mikhail, the pyro. Then Jack felt the Source caressing him, loving him with a welcome acceptance that surprised him.
“Ralf, wait.” Jan blinked at Jack. “The Source knows him. Do you see?”
“It…does.”
Jack turned to see who’d spoken, and noted the pyro frowning.
“The Source is not mistaken. We should take him back for trial, Ralf. He’s disobeyed, but he’s new.”
An ally?
“Yet he helped cover Heather’s lie.” The other Baer spoke, the one who had yet to take his hungry gaze from Heather. “He knew; he didn’t care. An outsider with no respect for our laws or our town. We should take him back and ensure justice, for all who might think to go against you, Father.”
Ralf’s eyes narrowed, and then the bastard smiled. “Yes, Ernst. You make a good point.” He nodded to Mikhail and Jan. “You all do. We will go back to town. And Heather, it will be taken into account that you have helped the Source. Yet this is not enough to sway me to total leniency.”
Heather gripped Jack’s sleeve, hard. “Yes, sir.”
Bullshit, she’d go along with that. Being a Stallbridge shouldn’t mean she had a death sentence coming. And if she thought he’d willingly go along with these pricks, she was out of her mind.
He turned to her and leaned down to kiss her. “Go along until I give you the signal. Then you run like hell. You get me?” he whispered harshly into her ear.
She nodded and in a louder voice answered, “I love you too.”
His heart raced. She didn’t mean it, of course. It was all a cover for their audience. But damn if he didn’t want it to be true.
Jack glanced toward Ernst to see the huge bully glaring holes through him. He grinned back at the jackass, daring him to take what belonged to Jack. Before the night was through, one of them would be left standing. The other would be dead.
Jack knew they had to make their move soon, but they needed to wait a bit longer. In the clearing, they were too much of a target. And besides, he was strangely loath to do anything that might put the big tree in danger. He liked it, liked what it had made him feel and what it stood for. With the Source, he could believe in the mysteries in this world. Not the psychic, human kind, or that cursed paranormal crap. But something pure and true outside of human perspective.
He considered the elder Baer. “Okay, Ralf. You’re in charge. But I don’t want anyone but Jan putting his hands on Heather. Your boys look way too enthusiastic for my peace of mind. You don’t want trouble; you won’t get any from me if you keep her safe.”
Ralf considered his boys and nodded, ignoring their scowls. “Fine. No trouble. But have no doubt I can and
will
kill you if I feel the need.” Then the bastard shoved Jack to his knees with the force of his mind, and Jack knew he’d have to deal with Ralf before he and Heather could make a run for it. Good thing he’d been training with his team for a while now. He knew how to handle a telekinetic and a pyrokinetic. But it would have helped to get a handle on the others so he knew what he was really dealing with.
Two older men took his and Heather’s packs but let them keep their jackets after going through them.
Jan gave Heather a brief frisk. “She’s clean.”
“I’ll do this one,” Ernst said to his father with a nod at Jack.
He handed Klaus his rifle and moved toward Jack with sure strides. Too cocky. Jack watched everything, absorbing the man’s weaknesses and strengths from the way he moved and what he paid attention to. Ernst thought himself superior, probably because he towered above most men and women. A hint of cruelty lingered on his face, and Jack knew the man had killed before.
“Easy, son,” Ralf cautioned. “Jan told me this one can instill fear.”
Jack frowned at the old man, who winked back at him. A wink?
Thoroughly confused, Jack waited to see what Ernst would do. So far, Jan watched over Heather, but Jack didn’t trust him. Ralf jerked him to his feet but kept his arms outstretched out by his sides. Smart, because this way, Jack couldn’t wrap his hands around Ernst’s throat.
The dick roughly patted him down, nearly gelding him in the process. Ernst confiscated his gun and landed a few hard hits to his midsection, all the while watching for a reaction. But Jack didn’t give him one. He just stared at the man, infusing that gaze with his intent to do real harm. To give Ernst his due, the big man didn’t balk.
Ernst leaned in closer and whispered, “I’m going to take you back with us. Then I’ll make you watch while I fuck your girlfriend. She’s a hot piece, eh? Bet she’s a screamer. Or she will be, when I’m done with her. And I won’t kill her. No. You’ll die, knowing she had the great honor of becoming my almost-wife. I would have married her, you know, but she’s a Stallbridge. My father won’t kill her. But she will become a part of this town, never to leave again.”
“Quit playing, Ernst. We need to go,” Ralf barked at his son.
“Yes, Father.” He stood back from Jack. “My personal plaything, you can bet on it.” He leered at Heather before turning to join his father.
Jack didn’t flinch, not once. But he’d made up his mind. Before he left the mountains, he’d kill Ernst Baer. The stench of evil was too pervasive to believe the man wouldn’t harm Heather at some point. Or that he hadn’t already done damage to many others.
A gun at his back prodded him to walk.
“The trail, Ralf?” Mikhail asked, directly behind him.
Good. Jack had the pyro close. The energy from the tree surged through his feet again. Jack allowed his hand to swing back and touch Mikhail’s.
“Forward, move.” Mikhail dug the rifle into Jack’s back, and Jack started walking. Heather was three men ahead of him, quiet and doing as ordered without protest. At least Mikhail and Jan were somewhat smaller than Jack. He wouldn’t be constricted by clothing when he shifted form.
The party entered the thick forest on a trail a few feet wide, enough that men could walk side by side. Jack was in the middle surrounded by the pyro and three others. Klaus, he thought, could be behind him, though he’d lost track of that Baer. Ralf, however, kept him in sight by taking a rear position. Ernst walked by Jan’s side, too close to Heather for comfort.
From what Jack gathered from listening to the men talk, most of them were related to the Baer family in some way. Some cousins, a few uncles. Mikhail and Jan were the only two non-Baer members of this odd posse.
An hour into their journey, the moonlight above drifted away as clouds covered the moon, and Jack knew he had to take a chance. As he walked, he let his body grow bigger, stronger. He normally employed this side of his talent when in real jeopardy, but he didn’t want the others to know he could shift yet.
His only concern was that they’d use Heather to call his bluff. He couldn’t risk them killing her. The thought of them doing so sped his blood to the muscles in his body needed to crush his enemies. The scent of fear came to him, and he let the scent of menace flow from his body, pleased when the wind carried it to those around him.
“What the fuck is that?” one of the men said. “Something in the woods?”
“It’s him, idiots. Ignore it,” Ralf ordered.
He needed Heather to remember what he’d said. That on his signal, she had to break free and run. Jack needed to somehow encourage Ernst and Jan to leave Heather alone long enough to let her run free. Something to make the men guarding her focus on him instead.
Jack went for broke. He stopped in his tracks and punched the men in front and behind him. Immediately shielding himself from the mental attacks coming his way, as he’d trained with his men at home, he nailed Mikhail in the throat, putting him down hard. Ralf yelled to his men, and then Jack was there in his face.