Guardian (21 page)

“What do you think of Nikki?” Mace asked Gearhead as he stepped into the garage.

“Man, doesn’t anyone sleep around here?” Gearhead exchanged the ratchet in his hand for a pair of pliers.

“Sorry. I’m worried about her.”

“With good reason,” Gearhead mumbled.

Mace toyed with a distributor cap lying on the Land Rover’s manifold. “What?”

“Nothing. Hand me that,” he said, pointing to a wrench in the tool box.

“This one?” Mace held one in the air.

A grease-smeared face popped up from under the Land Rover’s hood. “No. Half inch.”

Metal clinked against metal as Mace rummaged through the tool box. The scent of fresh grease and motor oil rose with each movement.

Gearhead murmured a thank you when Mace handed him the tool. “What do I think of Nikki? She’s stubborn, certainly irritating. But it’s sort of hot that she’s so into bikes.”

Mace swallowed.

“I don’t really know her. But I feel bad for her.” Gearhead’s eyes saddened a little.

“Why?”

“Growing up, thinking you’re this normal girl in a normal world. Then, wham!” He smacked a shop towel on the fender. “Wake up one day and you’re a Seer, dragged into a war between angels and demons.”

“It didn’t happen quite that fast.”

Gearhead usually kept his head stuck beneath various car hoods, but he gave his full attention as he stared at Mace. “Just saying. How do you deal with that?” He thought a moment. “And what about her parents?”

“They were killed in a robbery.”

“Yeah, that’s what I heard. As well as the fact Zero found her name on a computer you lifted from that fire you both just happened to be at.”

“Will sent us to that fire, we didn’t just happen to be there.” Frustration burrowed into his gut. Mace didn’t like where this visit was headed. “What are you getting at?”

“The obvious. Maybe she’s a plant.”

Mace’s hands fisted, causing the blood surging from his heart to fill every vein with adrenaline-laced anger. “Are you serious?”

“Sorry, man. It’s just that when she was down here earlier—” Mace cut him off. “Nikki was down here? Why?” “She came to steal a bike.”

Mace’s blood chilled.

The change was not lost on Gearhead. “Calm down. She just wanted to go for a ride.”

“And you let her?”

“I’m not the warden,” Gearhead said as he followed Mace, who’d brushed past him and headed for the bikes.

The last thing in the world Nikki needed was to be out alone. If she wanted to leave, why hadn’t she come to get him? Why hadn’t she asked him to take her? He found his answer as he flipped the light switch on the garage wall.

His eyes settled on the empty hole where the one bike he’d hoped would be there belonged. As he turned away, Mace felt a new kind of pain leech onto his heart.

Nikki crisscrossed the night-darkened countryside on the back of Raven’s Harley for more than an hour. Germany’s Black Forest disappeared around them as they meandered along tree-trimmed paths and pebble-stone streets. In BadenBaden, they stopped for a break at one of the town’s numerous fountains. Nikki sat on the edge of the concrete structure and watched water spill over a stone statue illuminated by an underwater light. After a long silence, she spoke. “How long do you think this fountain’s been here?”

Raven sat beside her and dipped his hand into the cool mineral water. “Hundreds of years.” He gave a half-laugh. “Well, not the light kit. I’m pretty sure that was added later.”

She gave him a sidelong glance. “Hundreds of years?” “Yeah, there are even ruins of the Turkish bath houses beneath some of the mineral spas. The ancient Romans used to come here to soak in the mineral water because they thought it would heal their illnesses and make them immortal.”

“Why did they think that?” Nikki’s finger trailed through the water, carefully maneuvering around the hand Raven had thrust into the fountain.

With a water-drenched finger, he pointed behind them to Viennesse. “Well, for those of us who’ve been around awhile, we think it’s probably because Halflings began dwelling at Viennesse centuries ago, and they didn’t seem to age. The ancient Romans believed the mineral water was an eternal spring that flowed from Viennesse’s hilltop.”

“Did they try to uncover the Halflings?” When he didn’t answer and instead ignored her by rummaging that hand through the water, she grabbed his shirt and shook him. “What happened to the ancient Romans?”

“They’re all dead—hence the word ancient.” He chuckled and she released his shirt with a playful shove. “Their goal for immortality didn’t exactly work. But they did build a tunnel through the mountainside to Viennesse. They believed the top of the hill, beneath the castle, was the mouth of the eternal spring.”

“So they were digging to reroute the water?”

“Maybe. No one knows. The Halflings had to leave the area when they became conspicuous. Not much activity at Viennesse for the next few hundred years, and once the legends died, the Halflings came back.”

“Where did they go in the meantime?”

“There’s another castle here in Germany and one in France.” He shrugged while water ran in silvery rivulets off his fingertips. “A few others scattered around the globe. My favorite place is in Switzerland. Great snow skiing. You’d love it there.”

She shook her head sadly. “But you can’t ever rest, can you? Can’t ever let your guard down or just wake up and say, ‘Hey, it’s another normal morning.’” She thought a moment. “Me too, I guess. Since I’ve been drafted.”

“What’s so good about normal?” he challenged, shifting on the concrete seat to face her more fully.

“I don’t know. I can’t remember. It seems like my old life is a lifetime away from me.”

“We’re in a war, Nikki, one that’s been going on for thousands of lifetimes. And the responsibility to protect our generation falls on our shoulders. Welcome to the new normal.”

“Thanks for putting it so gently.”

“You want gentle, go find Mace. You want truth, I’m your guy.”

“Raven, we need to talk about him.”

One side of his face creaked into a humorless smile. “I’d rather not.”

“No matter what you think of him, I love Mace.”

“I thought we covered this,” he said, rising from the seat and brushing his hands on his jeans. He walked a few steps away, staring down a deserted street lit only by the occasional coneshaped glow of a street lamp.

“And I want to be with him.” She looked away from Raven. She had to. Framed by the lonely street and the surrounding darkness, she thought about what his life had been since leaving the train wreck. Alone. Choosing to appear dead rather than face her with the knowledge that she’d chosen someone else. Nikki’s gaze dropped to the fountain, hoping to find the strength to say what she had to say, but no words or encouragement materialized. The single light shone. It was designed to illuminate the stone statue. It was alone. It fulfilled its purpose. Just like Raven.

“Mace keeps me stable,” she blurted, and turned toward Raven. His powerful shoulders dropped a few inches and she knew he was trying to reject her words.

Her foot took a step in his direction, but she stopped, forcing her body to slide her feet back until they bumped against the fountain’s edge. And there she’d be stone strong. Statue stiff. “With everything that’s happened to me in the last few months, I need someone who can keep my feet on the ground.”

He said nothing.

“Raven, I love being with you. When we’re together,” she said, shaking her head, “I feel free. I feel like I can fly. But that’s not what I need right now. I need a stabilizer, not a jetpack.”

“And you think Mace can give you that?” he said, without turning to face her. There was no emotion, no feeling in his voice, just dead words floating toward her over the emptiness.

If he’d only turn around, she could see what was going on inside him. Raven might be able to camouflage his voice, but he could never lie with his eyes. “I don’t know how to explain it, but there’s something …” Her voice trailed and a bitter wind swirled through her jeans. The night was getting colder as the day’s warmth drained from the mountains and valleys around Baden-Baden. And with the chill air came an evil promise. Something desperate to get to her was slipping closer. She could almost feel the icy hands closing on her throat.

Nikki tried to focus her thoughts on Raven. “Like I said, I can’t explain it, but there’s something—”

He must have heard the fear in her voice. Raven turned, closed the distance, and seized her. His brows slashed into a worried frown. “Nikki, what is it?”

How could she explain the sensation? “I don’t know. I just feel like something is going to happen.”

“Then let’s go. Let’s get away from here, away from the Halflings.”

She stiffened. “You mean away from Mace.” Did he really expect her to just run away? Maybe running was what Raven did best. In the amount of time it took lightning to flash, Nikki’s emotion toward Raven shifted. “I’d never walk away. I owe them.” The pain materialized in his gaze, and she could almost hear his thoughts. She squeezed her eyes shut, hoping he wouldn’t give those words voice. But of course he did. This was Raven, after all.

“What about the guy who was willing to die for you?”

It sounded like such a self-serving comment, the kind of bargain small children make. You do this for me and I’ll do that for you. “Don’t do this, Raven, please.”

“You say you want a stabilizer, Nikki. But I know you. You don’t want safe ground. You want castle ruins where you can stand on the edge, where maybe it will stay firm and maybe it will crumble.” He let his hands roam over her arms, her back. “How long will it take before you’re bored out of your mind? How long until Mace’s firm foundation closes around you like a cage?”

Part of her wanted to shut him out completely, but part wanted to agree. If there was one thing Nikki’d always feared, it was being trapped. So much so she’d dreamed about it as a child: the cold, unforgiving floor, the bars where she pressed her face, the desperation to feel the air beyond the stifling confines of the prison. She shook her head against the memory, but the gilded cage would not dissipate. “I don’t know. Okay? I. Don’t. Know. Can we please just give this more time?”

He dropped his hands from her with chilling reserve. “Why? You’ve made your choice. And as I recall, giving you time didn’t work out so well for us.” Raven took a few steps back.

This is for the best. She pulled a shaky breath, released it slowly. “Yes, I have made my choice.”

“You know I’m not going to sit around and watch. You don’t expect me to, right?”

Fresh waves of panic unfurled in her chest. “What do you mean?”

He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. Come on, I’ll take you home.”

The garage door was open, but Raven stopped a distance away from it and got off the bike.

Nikki stared at him, questions glistening in her night-darkened eyes. Lights from Viennesse illuminated the grounds, giving it a homey glow. He wouldn’t let the image take root in his psyche. It was hard enough leaving already.

Off the motorcycle and standing beside him, she tilted her head. “Why didn’t you ride on into the garage?” Apprehension captured her voice.

“I’m not staying.” His voice was solid. Solid as a rock. “What? Where will you go?” She started to reach out. Raven stepped back, erecting an invisible wall between them. It’s what he had to do to survive this. “I still have work to do at the lab in Arkansas.”

“So you were the one sending information to Zero.”

“Yeah.” Raven ran a hand over the smooth gas tank. A lone bird in flight. Just like him. Nowhere to rest, nowhere to call home. And no one along for the ride. Nikki would drive the motorcycle in and cover it with the lifeless tan tarp. There his bike would wait in lonely silence and fading hope, perhaps forever like some of the others.

“Have you been in the lab this whole time?” Concern filled her words, along with a little bit of … urgency. Yes, she was eager to keep him talking, keep him engaged in conversation. Keep him there. But that didn’t matter. His course was set.

“In and out. The air vents there are safe enough to hide in during the day, and nights I’ve stayed in the barn.”

“Isn’t there a guard?”

“Yeah, I guess you could call him that. Anyway, there’s more information to obtain and now is the perfect time. There’s hardly anyone in the lab. It’s like there’s been a mass exodus or something. I think they routed everyone to another facility when they hired the new geneticists.”

“When you’re done there, then you’ll come back here?” Was that hope blooming in her? He almost couldn’t wait to squish it. Until her eyes found his. There, trapped in the soft rays of moonlight, was his Nikki—hands clasped innocently in front of her, teeth nibbling on her bottom lip. The girl he’d rescued on countless occasions, the one who threw her arms around his neck and squealed at the chance to feed a dolphin, the one who loved him. And the one who was just too scared to accept the truth attached to those feelings.

Her eyes swam in fresh pools of tears. It made leaving that much harder. “No. I’m not coming back.” Harder. Not impossible.

“Raven, please. Stay here. Don’t go back to the lab.” She grabbed his arms in a vice grip. “Something awful is going to happen.”