Stone of Ascension (18 page)

Joseph led them to a gate in the metal fence that was sealed with a large, bolted lock.

“Great,” Amber sighed, the strains of defeat settling through her. “There’s no way in.”

“Do you believe?” Joseph looked at her around the stretch of Damian’s chest. His eyes were shadowed. But the expectation was there in his voice.

She let her head sag in resignation, heavy under the physical and mental weight. “Believe in what, Joseph?”

“In what you are. In what you are meant to do. Meant to be.”

Did she? It was a question she simply didn’t have an answer for. “I’m not meant for anything. I’m just me.”

“And just you is everything,” the shaman insisted. “
That’s
what you need to understand. You, in all your innocence and simplicity, are exactly what you need to be.”

Damian groaned. Amber’s gaze lifted to his face, and she was shocked to see him looking at her. His lids hung heavy over his midnight eyes, pain etched into his furrowed brow, exhaustion evident in the effort it took to keep his eyelids up. He didn’t speak, but the impact of his gaze slammed into her, snapping hard and fast against her chest.

“What do I do?” The question escaped her lips without thought.

“Use what is around you to get to the circle.” She felt the approval in Damian’s voice as his instructions whispered hoarsely through the night.

The slamming of a car door echoed through the silence followed by the
bleep, bleep
of the doors locking. A tree creaked in resistance as the wind blew across the park and pulled at her hair. But Damian wasn’t talking about those things.

The energy, the force that she was just starting to accept, swept over her skin, bypassing her doubt and denial to wrap itself around the tiny ember of belief. And once it found the kernel, it fueled the acceptance until it burned through her.

Amber reached out and wrapped her fingers around a cold, metal bar in the gate. The vibration caught her by surprise and she inhaled against the feeling. She closed her eyes and listened. Ancient lyrics of power and struggle flowed through her. So much information, but none of it understandable. Confusion riddled her, and she closed her eyes harder in her effort to block out the jumble and focus on the immediate need.

It was Damian who cleared her thoughts. She felt his energy as it joined with hers. His was weak, faded, but pushed forward to aid her anyway. Amber opened herself further, to the possibilities, to the unbelievable.

Her bird screeched in joy and turned its face into the wind in delight.

The power surged and burned from the stone. Once again, it wound around the mingling energy and strengthened the bond. She focused on the bar within her grip and thought of her need for the lock to open and the lights to go off. She pushed the thought along on the energy, used the invisible power to obtain her wish.

The soft click and slide of the lock opening on the gate pounded against her eardrums and barely preceded the plunge of darkness behind her eyelids.

Amber gasped and opened her eyes to total blackness. She jerked her head around to see that every light surrounding the tower was extinguished along with every streetlight lining the perimeter of the park. The metal gate squeaked on its hinges, her movements forcing the door inward to open slightly.

“I did that?” Her voice shook, her disbelief coming out in the wobble of words.

She looked up at Damian, but his eyes were closed once again. His head hung down and bobbed slightly as she gave him a small shake. Her own doubts were forgotten when pressed against the need to help Damian.

“Damian,” she said sharply, hoping to keep him awake. “Stay with me. We’re almost there.”

She gave a shove to push the gate open farther then stepped forward to enter the enclosure. Only Joseph wasn’t moving with her. She shot the shaman a questioning look.

“This is where my journey ends,” he answered. “I cannot enter. The rest is up to you.”

Doubt reared its ugly head once again. “But I can’t do this by myself.”

“And you are not alone,” the shaman said. “Reach out to what is around you like you did just now. Trust what is within you. Trust the one you are with.”

“Do you ever give a straight answer?” Her annoyance at the man, at the entire situation, vented itself in the angry tint of her words. At the same time, she knew it was useless to sputter at the shaman. It wasn’t going to change what she needed to do.

She released an exaggerated sigh and pushed her shoulder into the gate as she braced her legs and back for Damian’s weight. “Let’s go, Damian. Just a few more steps.”

Joseph stepped away, and she looked back for one last indication of support. The shaman took another step back, smiled slightly and inclined his head, returning the silent plea with the grace of his age.

She bit her lip and looked forward. She stumbled through the gate with Damian, over the small grassy area and through one of the tower arches. The second she entered the building, the power struck her hard and strong. Her steps faltered, but she regained her balance and pressed forward to the center of the circular structure.

Slowly, she lowered herself and Damian to the ground. His arm slid off her shoulders as he executed a controlled tumble to lie on his back on the cold, stiff grass. His head tipped sideways and his lips parted, letting a small groan escape before he appeared to pass out completely.

She blinked back the hated tears and bit down on her lip when the overwhelming feeling of defeat sunk hard and fierce within her. What was she doing? Who was she kidding? There was no way she could do any of the things everyone seemed to believe she could do. All the wild and crazy assumptions that so many had made about her weren’t true. It was too much.

But there before her lay a man who needed her right now. Who for some reason, did seem to believe in her. He’d risked his life for
her
.

And as much as she wanted to shut her eyes and deny it, she had watched fire shoot from her hand. Flames that had exited her palm with a force strong enough to take down two powerful men.
 

She inhaled hard, held the air deep in her chest then exhaled, blowing away the self-pity in a gust of carbon dioxide. She watched the fog form before her face, the vapor cloud billowing up before disintegrating. Damian’s big coat gapped open as it pooled around her knees in a puddle of fabric. She shivered, the coldness of the night creeping in to chill her heated skin.

She looked toward the gate for Joseph, hoping he could tell her what to do, but the gate was closed, the shaman gone. There was no one left to lean on. Her fist clenched in her lap, and she reined in the thoughts that threatened to crumble her last wall of internal strength.

With a quick shake, Amber raised her head and looked around the interior of the building. It was about the size of a small dining area with the arches providing an open feeling of exposure even though the two of them were bathed in complete darkness. As she looked at the tall, thick columns that supported the structure, she knew instinctively that they aligned with the cardinal points of a compass. The configuration was comforting in a strange way. One she didn’t understand.

The power in the small space was strong and old. It pushed against her exposed skin and she let it in. Let the external energy enter and mingle with her own. And it whispered to her once again. Built her up and strengthened her from within. She reached out and grasped Damian’s cold hand between her two warmer ones. His eyes fluttered open at her touch and she leaned over to look into his eyes. The visual connection pulsed through her with the power of the energy.

There, in the very center of the circle where the energy was a pinpoint of strength, she connected with Damian in an unspoken thread of understanding. His energy flowed into her from the callused palm of his hand. A hand that was strong and capable. One that had defended her without hesitation.

The pull was impossible to resist or deny.

It made no sense. Blood still oozed from both his shoulder and leg wounds, and he was clearly weak and in need of medical attention. Why didn’t she take him to a hospital? Why did she bring him here to this lonely, mysterious circle based on his one command?

Because she trusted him.

The realization dawned bright and clear in her heart and mind. On both levels, she trusted this man who, with his mere action of appearing in the shop that morning, had forever changed the course of her life.

For good or bad, she was connected to this man in a way she didn’t fully understand.

Her bird tumbled and preened, swiping its feathers in a dance of joy. The satisfaction filtered through Amber, confusing her even more. It was obvious the strange mark approved.

Damian still held her gaze, his eyes dark pools that blended into the night. He tugged lightly on her grasp, pulling her closer. She leaned in, expecting him to tell her what to do next. Why they were there in the ancient circle.

He whispered something that she missed.

“What?” She leaned in closer. “I can’t hear you.”

Her hair fell forward, casting them in a veil of further darkness and creating an illusion of total isolation. He lifted his head with apparent effort and caught her lips in a deep, aggressive kiss. The power assaulted her, and she opened her mouth to let him in. To feel his tongue as it caressed hers, claimed her and demanded more. His hand came up to palm the back of her head even though she had no desire to pull away. She wasn’t afraid.

No. She wanted more.

The ancient power surrounded them and flashed with bright pops of light. The world spun and tilted as she sank into the kiss and the longing that stirred within her. To everything she had dreamed of, but never reached for. The rightness plunged through her, gripped her hard and sent her reeling.

The energy built and crashed around them, pulsing with each brush of his tongue against hers, with every breath that drew them together, that bound them tighter, until it shifted, split, then slammed together in a shattering clash of power.

The ground rolled, and the wind gusted and howled around the circle. Amber broke the kiss and braced herself over Damian, providing as much protection over his weakened body as she could. The energy pressed hot and heavy on her back. Her muscles strained in the effort to keep her weight off Damian, to hold herself above him and away from his injuries.

The eerie creaking of metal, the distant roar of an angry beast pummeled her mind and froze her blood. A shiver wracked her from the inside out and sent rivers of fear racing through her.

The weight lifted from her back at the same moment that the wind died and the ground stilled. Her eyes flew open in the sudden stillness; she’d been unaware of their clenched-tight state. A quick check showed Damian still and unconscious once again. The dark red tinge of his lips stuck out sharply against his pale skin, emphasizing his vulnerability.

“Damian,” she breathed, bringing her hands to his cheeks. His skin was cold, but his energy flowed stronger, more consistently under her palms.

“Touching,” a voice purred through the stillness, throaty, soft and unmistakably sinister. “If it weren’t so pathetic.”

Amber whipped her head up, swallowing the gasp that formed in her throat. Her gaze zeroed in on the tall, dark-haired woman who leaned against the metal rails on the far side of the fence. The woman pulled her own gaze up from the leisurely perusal she was giving her blood-red nails to peg Amber with a glare that tightened the mass of knots in Amber’s stomach into an intertwined jumble of dread.

Amber straightened and pushed to her feet. The woman mirrored her movements, shoving away from the fence to face Amber. The hip-length, black leather jacket the woman wore hung open over a black T-shirt that pulled tightly across her breasts and emphasized the slim lines of her waist. Her long legs were encased in black jeans and thigh-high leather boots, the three-inch spiked heels adding more height to her already imposing six-foot frame.

In contrast to the hard lines of the woman’s body, her features were full, lush and strikingly beautiful. Recognition hit Amber even as the energy churned with sickly unease. This was the woman who had appeared back at the fight to take the injured enemy away.

Her bird screeched and lifted its sharp, deadly talons, ready to fight.

“Who are you?” Amber demanded, putting strength in her words to cover the weakness in her locked knees.

The woman tossed the mass of long, dark curls over her shoulder as a cold smile slid over her lips. The emptiness that filled her dark eyes was far more chilling than the quickly cooling elements.

The pause vibrated through the air, the woman drawing out the tension. Amber held her silence and met the unspoken challenge, refusing to cower.

The women let out a sharp, tilting laugh before she finally answered the question. “I am Kassandra, the first wife of the Shifter leader, Tubal. And
I
am your death.”

Chapter Fourteen

Like hell she is.
The denial flared instantly and furiously within Amber, awakening every lagging, fatigued nerve and stoking the flame deep within.

“Really?” Amber countered. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that today. And look, here I stand.”

The woman, Kassandra, started a slow, stalking pace around the perimeter of the fence. She pursed her lips and cast a sidelong look at Amber. “Luck, I’m sure. But all luck must end.”