Runestone (14 page)

Maria exclaimed, and there was a volley of speech between her and Javier. Sean focused hard on Dante’s expression, knowing he saw everything that happened inside her head.

She poked a finger into the topmost rune. “This fits between these.” She leapt to her feet and pointed to a rune halfway down Evangeline’s neck and another on her breast. Maria’s dark eyes were as large as moons. “Triple stone. I know of this. A sort of Stonehenge of South America. In the wilds near my birthplace. I visited it as a girl. It was a place of sacrifice, of ceremony.”

Her words tripped over one another in their haste to be spoken.

“What does it mean?” Sean asked.

“We go south,” Dante said, his eyes twinkling with excitement. “To the triple stone. Who knows what we will find there, but we are one step closer to finding Will.” He clasped Evangeline’s cheeks and kissed the corner of her eye, where the smattering of stars lived.

Sean almost felt the shock tear through her. Her body quivered as if on the edge of orgasm, and then she melted against him once more. “We need a bed tonight. How far are we from a village, Javier?”

The new immortal ran a palm over his bare chest, over his tattoo. Sean twisted his gaze away.

He pointed toward the east. “Five kilometers.”

Sean bit off a growl of frustration. More hiking through perilous rainforest with an exhausted wife and a hard-on. Hours before he could find a place for Evangeline to lay her weary head, or procure food for her. “Look, I don’t want to be rude, but isn’t there a better way to reach this triple stone besides on foot? The women are tired.” He looked from Gracie’s solemn face to the shadows under Lillian’s eyes to the slump of Maria’s shoulders. “All of them.”

“He’s right. We must find transportation to the closest point to the stones and go from there. And I for one pray it’s not uphill.” Nathan’s smile was drained of its usual good humor.

Maria brushed off her hands on her pants. “I agree, but we’re on foot now, and we must continue this way until we reach the village. From there we’ll find a new mode of transportation. So rest for a few minutes, eat from your stores, and then. . . . ” Her serious gaze burned into Sean’s. “We walk.”

“An immortal walks into a bar smoking a cigarette and breaks a man’s nose before his ashes hit the floor.” Amsdell’s voice quivered with mirth. He took a deep drag off his cigarette, pinching it between his thumb and middle finger and squinting around the smoke.

“Ha ha,” Will said wryly. He fingered the swollen knob above his brow where the man Amsdell referred to had gotten one good hit before Will shattered his nose. They’d followed the immortal into the scummy bar after listening in on his phone call. All they needed to hear was the name Marcus and he became a target.

“Still, it was a magic of theatrics.” Amsdell flicked his cigarette to the rocky road and crushed it beneath his boot. “If I’d only had a camera. It was like something from an HBO miniseries.”

Will shot him a begrudging smile. The air was cooler and drier now that dusk was settling in. A light breeze whipped at his clothes. How strange not to feel its tender fingers running through his hair too. As he watched the short wheat-colored hairs on Amsdell’s head dance, a surge of lust tore through him.

Amsdell seemed to recognize the dark expression on his face and stopped walking. After Will had incapacitated the immortal with a broken nose, they had dragged him behind the bar and killed him. Will didn’t like killing, but there was a certain high that came with it—a rush of adrenaline that fueled his passions. His cock stood stiff against his denim.

Amsdell’s gaze flicked down. He didn’t need to tell Will he was interested—he was always interested. The immortal’s appetites were never ending. Will’s body was all too willing to respond, but a dark guilt weighed in the back of his brain. He knew Evangeline’s mind well enough to know she wouldn’t have a problem with him sharing his body with Amsdell. But he had no clue what Sean’s reaction might be. And honestly, his separation from Sean was almost as torturous as his separation from Evangeline.

Between these two parts of his soul being torn away, Will didn’t know if he was coming or going. The shakes, the madness, the guilt, the fucking
need.
They were choking him. Hunting and dispatching immortals took his mind off it a bit. And if Amsdell had his way, he’d take Will’s mind off his problems a lot.

Suddenly something whirred past his head and hit a tree inches from his left shoulder. His heart burst in his mouth as Amsdell hissed, “Fuck!”

Two immortals launched over an embankment at the side of the road, running full tilt, weapons aloft. Will pulled up and fired. The pistol grip jerked in his palm, bruising it, the bullet exploding from the chamber. He watched the trace and then the immortal fell with a cry, tumbling down the bank like a mannequin—arms and legs and disjointed neck.

The scent of gunpowder burned Will’s nose. He gathered a huge breath and issued a battle cry into the air. The world seemed to tip on its axis as immortals flooded the road. Amsdell engaged six at once as another shot whizzed past Will’s head. The air stirred as the bullet whistled past his temple.

Fury poured into his veins, making him into a vessel of rage.

He hurled himself at the man who shot at him. As he struck him fully, he grabbed the loose flap of his trench coat and whipped the cloth over the immortal’s eyes as he delivered frantic blows to his face.

When the man beneath him stopped struggling, Will placed his palms on each side of his head, stretched his neck and twisted simultaneously. The soft pop of the immortal’s spinal column reverberated up his arms.

Dropping him, he ran into the fray. Amsdell had managed to disarm most of the men. Will shot one in the back and took the numbers down to five. Power and skill flexed in his mind, and his world narrowed to the flutter of an immortal’s cotton shirt. A cocked fist meeting Amsdell’s perfect jaw. And the pulse in another’s throat as Will whipped a piece of tough wire around his neck. Abruptly, he yanked inward and upward, slicing his neck. His jugular ruptured, spurting fountains of hot, sticky blood all over Will’s forearm.

He dropped him and spun just as another man attacked. Will flicked the wire whip, beyond thankful that Amsdell had recommended they carry these simple weapons on them.

The man’s arm was upraised, a lethal blade clutched in his meaty fist. Will’s wire sliced into his knuckles, and he released the knife with a scream.

Amsdell delivered an uppercut to his kidney, and he plummeted like a stone.

Suddenly arms clamped around Will’s waist and a blade was at his throat. The tip dug into the soft underside of his jaw. Savage rage rose in his chest and he fought with all his might not to turn in the man’s hold and head-butt him. His arms were pinioned. His legs locked between the man’s broad stance. One swift twitch of his captor’s wrist and Will would fall, his life’s blood spraying upon the gravel road.

Oh, God, no. Evangeline.

The link gaped open. Sandalwood and musk. Dark curls against her pale cheek.

Will slammed it shut immediately.
She is not going to witness your death. Think, goddammit!

Hot frenzy washed over him, coating him with sweat. The wire hung uselessly in his palm. In seconds, this immortal was going to take his life.

With a piercing war cry, Amsdell thrust the machete he used to clear vines from their path through the chest of an immortal. The glow splintered from him and Will’s captor drew a deep, rasping breath.

Will’s mind latched onto that.
Prepare to be mind-fucked, asshole.

“You like watching your friend die?” Amsdell taunted. “Look at his blood soak the ground. Watch his glow dwindle.”

The knife point dug more insistently into Will’s throat, but his captor gave a hoarse laugh.

“Ahh, see that? The last convulsions as death takes him. True death. In a couple more seconds, he’ll be no more. I think it’s even too late to share your blood with him. How long has he been Walking?”

With a grunt, the immortal shoved Will away from him and thrashed through the brush at the side of the road to his friend. The scent of fresh blood met Will’s senses as the immortal used the blade to slash his forearm. Before he could re-Make the dying immortal, Will had retrieved an AR-15, which had been kicked into the weeds. He fired at the immortal, his friend, and then hosed down a third who had Amsdell cornered.

“Where is the last one? There should be two,” Amsdell cried to Will. He body-checked the last standing immortal, ripping him from groin to throat with an upward jerk of his machete.

Frantically Will searched the area, turning in a circle, aware that some men were merely wounded and would require killing once the threats had been resolved.

He threw out his hearing. Death rattle of one immortal. Wind soughing in the trees. Throaty rasp of Evangeline’s voice in his soul.

Dammit!
He slammed their link shut and mentally nailed it down.

He plucked a fresh weapon from the gravel and started through the bush, making wide swaths as he searched.
One more. There’s one out there, and he is not going to be the end of me.

“Will!” Amsdell’s voice shattered the air, and he spun just as the immortal Amsdell battled fell and the final warrior popped up out of the cover.

Will stood on a higher plane than him so he reared back and kicked a cloud of dirt and leaves into the man’s face even as he fired.

The man crumpled to his knees, his face going slack. A stream of blackened blood coursed from the corner of his mouth. Will watched the light fade from him, his eyes go dull, and then he collapsed heavily.

Amsdell flew up the bank to the others who were dying. With two quick slashes, he’d slit their throats. Then he turned to Will, eyes bright with bloodlust, sweat streaming into his eyes. His jaw was rapidly swelling and he bore a cut over his brow. Blood snaked down the corner of his eye and dripped off his cheekbone.

He swiped it away with a grin, the bloody knife still in his fist. “Fuck, man, you sure you weren’t a berserker? You’re covered in blood and your eyes are wild. I’ve never seen Norsemen fight like you just did.”

At Amsdell’s words, Will’s blood cooled a degree. But his jaw was set. These attackers had almost wiped him from the earth. And though he would live to see another sunrise, and hopefully someday soon hold Evangeline in his arms, he was beyond furious. The words 'personal vendetta' were like droplets of rain in a downpour of rage.

His breath seared his lungs. He tore his gaze from Amsdell’s and stomped through the area, prodding the immortals with the barrel of his weapon to ensure they were really dead.

Suddenly Amsdell was at his side, gripping his shoulder roughly. “Will.”

He swallowed. “Evangeline saw. I let down my guard and she saw part of it. She saw me killing. She felt that knife point in my throat.”

Amsdell compressed his lips. His gray eyes were calm and sympathetic. “Don’t you think it’s time to end your torment and let her in? She must be frantic with worry.”

Emotion coiled in him, back-built like flames behind a bedroom door. He firmed his jaw but tears threatened, pricking at his eyes. He rubbed his knuckles under his nose. Carefully, he avoided Amsdell’s gaze. If he saw that understanding expression, he’d lose it. And he couldn’t. He’d just killed how many men?

Amsdell’s thumb softly probed the spot between Will’s neck and muscled shoulder. “Call to her.”

He shook his head hard. “Can’t.” Feeling her presence had both freed him and enslaved him. In that brief moment when he’d heard her rasping voice, his soul had exalted. But knowing that if he lost his life she’d go mad made him sink into despair.

“You need her.”

He couldn’t deny it. In that moment when he’d realized he might be drawing his last breath, he’d seen that he needed to finish this hunt quickly. He needed help.

“I’m going to contact Sean. He has his cell on him, I know it. If I can send him a text or talk to him without Evangeline knowing, maybe I can glean their information and combine it with ours.”

Amsdell brightened. “That’s my boy.” Without warning, he crushed Will to him.

He felt a shiver of emotion rip through Amsdell’s frame. Will gripped his nape and brought him near. “That was fucking intense. We made an almost fatal mistake when he didn’t search the town for more immortals after I killed that man outside of the bar.”

Amsdell’s lips found his, and they shared a rough, impassioned kiss. When he withdrew, he said, “A mistake we won’t make twice.” He worked a hand over Will’s abs to the lowest point where his tattoo resided. He touched the outer edges of it, sending a shock of calm and need through Will. Blood surged to the tip of his phallus and made his already stiff cock throb.

“I’m glad you made it through it, Amsdell. I don’t think I could witness your death again.”

“As long as I have you fighting at my side, I’m safe. But let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Should we take care of the bodies?”

Amsdell cast a look of loathing around the body-strewn area. “No. Leave them for the buzzards, and as a warning to any others who come along. Don’t fuck with Will.”

He snorted. “Don’t fuck with
us.
Now let’s go.”

* * * * *

Will’s hands shook as he punched the letters of his text message into his cell.
Don’t tell Evangeline. I need to talk to you.

Almost immediately, a reply flashed across the screen.
She’s sleeping. It’s safe. Text.

Holding his breath, Will’s thumbs worked over the keypad, thanking God that he and Sean had decided to upgrade to satellite phones, as there wasn’t coverage in the wilds where they lived or traveled.

Emotion thickened his throat. He pinched the bridge of his nose hard, imagining his sleeping mate curled on her side, her face angelic in repose, the lock of violet hair dripping across her forehead, and her pale lips parted, inviting his kiss.

Hard battle. Can’t let her see it.

Then Sean’s reply.
R U OK?

He nearly broke. Cries burned in his throat, but he refused to release them. He wanted to text to Sean that he loved him, that he trusted him with Evangeline’s life and well-being in the event he never returned to her.

In the latest battle, he’d realized how quickly his glow could be snuffed out.

Just as he thought he was about to fold from emotion, he was dealt another hand, a caring hand that strengthened him. Amsdell hunkered behind him, slinging an arm about his chest. Will felt his lips moving over the back of his shaven head and his tears receded.

Yes. Her tat is map?

Yes. Stars as guides. Runes have meaning. We found runestone
.

Will typed a question mark, wondering what the hell a runestone was. And then he recalled a long-ago history lesson on the ancient peoples who placed such stones around the world as guides to travelers, grave markers or to herald good tidings.

Sean responded at once.
Runestone points to a triple stone. Henge.

Will looked over his shoulder at Amsdell. “Do you know of any henges in this part of the world?”

Ansdell’s eyes went out of focus as he considered his question. “No, but I imagine there are things hidden in these parts that no one has ever seen or imagined. Expeditions and digs are formed every day.”