“Well, legend has it Jacob Waltz used the rocks called the Eye of the Needle and Weaver’s Needle as landmarks to the mine,” Remington said.
“So you think Pa was in cahoots with Waltz?”
Remington turned away to face the windows and shrugged his broad shoulders. Even in his expensive suit, he didn’t look half as handsome as Colt, and that was saying something, but if China thought she was going to get her hooks into Colt, she had another thing to consider.
“Maybe. Maybe not. Point is that if you were looking at those mountains or Phoenix, I’d think the Eye of the Needle is the place to start.”
“You’re leaving something out,” Lilly interrupted. She deliberately strode up to Colt, placing her hand on the broad expanse of his back, and leaned between the brothers, pointing to the paper they were looking at. Nearly in unison both brothers turned their identical blue gazes to her amply displayed charms. Colt’s eyes widened a bit and he swallowed hard, while Remington colored slightly. Colt cleared his throat and gave Lilly a heated look that made her stomach quiver.
Remington’s intense regard didn’t make Lilly’s heartbeat speed up, so she focused on him as she said confidently, “You missed the last two words.” She leaned her shoulder into Remington and threw a “take that” glance at China. The shifter’s eyes flashed silver, then narrowed as she spun away on her boot heel.
“Chosen destiny,” Colt grumbled, crossing his arms. “So what? Means we get to choose how it all turns out by our actions.”
She tilted her chin up. “No. ‘Chosen’ is capitalized.”
“Yeah, so?”
Lilly grasped hold of Colt’s arm, letting her fingers skim over the hard curve of muscle there. “Do you really think your father would have done that if he didn’t mean you three boys? You are the Chosen.”
Colt pulled away from her touch and rubbed the back of his neck. “Ah, come on, Lilly, don’t start up with that again.”
Remington chuckled. “I hate to say she has a point, but perhaps she does.”
“It’s your destiny to reunite the Book of Legend, and all of the Darkin know it.”
Colt cast a glance at Remington. “I’ve got something you need to see.”
“More important than the clue?”
“Could be.”
“Well, let’s have it, then.”
Colt pulled a worn leather journal from his pack and handed it to his brother.
“What’s this?”
“Ma’s diary. Had it with me all this time. There’s clues in there, like the one I found about Diego’s map. Things that Pa should have told all of us, but didn’t. Soon as you can, read it.”
Behind the three of them came the clearing of a throat and the tap of a boot against the wooden floorboards. “Excuse me, hate to break up this little tea party, but didn’t you say you’d need to reunite the whole Book of Legend?”
They turned and looked at China. “That clue you got out of the safety-deposit box. That’s to a map that leads to one of the pieces, isn’t it?” She shifted her piercing pale gray eyes between Remington and Colt.
The brothers glanced at each other. Something passed between them, though neither spoke, before they turned, united, back to China. Colt shrugged. “Could be.”
China threw up her hands and growled. “Great. A bunch of idiot Hunters out to save the world and it ‘could’ be the key to the next piece. You know, it’s a wonder that we didn’t both get caught in that last heist.”
Remington stepped over and leaned in closer to China. “I did tell you that I tend to be the brains of the family.”
China huffed, brushed the fall of her blond hair off her shoulder in irritation, and turned away from them. Both brothers gave a lingering look at the tight spread of leather over the shifter’s derrière. A simmering, annoying feeling swam in Lilly’s gut. A woman in pants, shifter or no, simply wasn’t decent, she decided. Why hadn’t she thought of that?
“Let me know when you actually want to do something about finding what you’re after, instead of just cackling about it like a bunch of old hens,” China threw back at them as she stared out the window.
“I think your analysis of the riddle was wonderful,” Lilly said to Remington, grasping his arm and finding it not nearly as thick as Colt’s beneath her fingers.
Remington turned back to her and gave her a sinful grin that made even a succubus take a second long look. “Thank you. Nice to know someone appreciates my efforts.”
“Oh, I’m glad you can make sense of it,” Colt said gruffly. “But that doesn’t change the fact that we still don’t have a single piece of the damn Book in our hands.”
“True.” Remington grasped and held the lapels of his long coat as if he were in court debating. “But we do have a good lead to the second piece. The clue in Diego’s safety-deposit box starts just outside Tombstone.”
Colt took off his Stetson and smoothed the edges of the firm felt brim between his fingers, then locked gazes with his brother. “We’re running out of time, Remy. I can’t go to Phoenix looking for Pa’s part of the Book and go on a hunt for the piece Diego heard about at the same time.”
Remington glanced over at China. “What if China and I were to go after it?” China shifted, cocking her head to listen in, but refusing to face the three of them.
“You’d do that?”
“I’d be willing to sacrifice a few weeks in the office for you if it meant saving the world,” he answered, his words laced with sarcasm.
Colt gave him a brotherly slap on the shoulder. “That’s mighty big of you, Rem.”
“Nobody asked me if I’d be willing,” China interrupted as she turned away from the window and strode slowly up to the brothers, positioning herself between the Jacksons and directly across from Lilly.
Lilly glared at her. Didn’t the shifter know when to back down? “Do you have any idea of what will happen if you
don’t
?”
China glared back. “The end of annoying Hunters?”
“How about the start of a new world order, featuring a sadistic archdemon lord at the helm?” Lilly volleyed back.
China stood up a little straighter and glared at Remington. “Well, why didn’t you say so?”
Remington put up his hands in defense. “I just found out, like the rest of them.” He jerked his head toward the window. “What the hell is that nois—?”
A mixture of screams, the whinny and galloping of spooked horses, and the thunderous crash of wood splintering came from the street outside the office. A shadow darkened the interior of the office. As one they ran to the windows.
Lilly had never seen anything like it. “What
is
that ... thing?” she demanded of Colt.
“It’s a dirigible, a class A, I’d guess from the size of it,” Remington answered over the din coming up from the street. The silver fabric skin of the giant dirigible, at least two hundred feet long and fifty feet across, glittered in the afternoon light as it descended over Allen Street, scattering the citizens and animals below.
“That better be good news,” Colt said as he whipped out his revolver and cocked the hammer back. “I’ve just about had my fill of bad news.”
“You ever seen that insignia before?” Remington pointed at the red castle turret bracketed by black bat wings emblazoned on the side of the dirigible.
“Nope. You?”
Remington shoved back the edge of his long coat and pulled his gun from his hip holster. “You packing silver?”
“Marley’s special bullets.”
Remington nodded. “Then let’s join the welcoming party, shall we?”
Lilly grasped Colt’s shoulder. “I’ve seen that insignia before. That’s vampire. European or Russian royalty.”
“You tellin’ me we got a vampire nobleman just deciding to drop in for a visit?” Colt grumbled.
China snickered, crossing her arms. “Since when would that be so strange for you two? You are Cy Jackson’s boys, after all.”
Lilly pointedly ignored her. “Based on the size of their dirigible, I’d say it’s either a very small vampire nobleman with a very big inferiority complex or an entire battalion of vampires.”
“Have any idea which royal house it might be?” Remington asked.
Lilly squinted in thought. “Could be Petrov, or the house of Drossenburg. Both have bat wings in their insignia.”
“Nothing like a little subtlety,” Colt muttered. He eyed Remington and knew his brother was thinking the same thing he was. Colt turned toward Lilly and China. “You two stay put. We’re going to check this out.”
“And miss all the action? No, siree,” China spat back, her face hard with determination. In a flash her form began to change. It was like looking at a watercolor portrait that suddenly had water poured over it. Everything grew smudged and shapeless for a moment as the particles rearranged themselves into the form of a great golden mountain lion. The mountain lion roared, baring an impressive set of white canines, and everyone took a big step back.
Lilly was pressed against the wall, her smooth, silky skin a definite shade paler than normal. Maybe she’d never seen a shape-shifter like this before. Only a desk stood between the two of them, and the big golden beast began to pace Remington’s offices, its head bent low and ears pinned flat to its enormous head.
“If she wants to go out and greet the vampires, I think you ought to accommodate her,” Lilly offered, a tremor in her voice.
Colt grimaced. He’d seen China transmogrify enough times to no longer find it impressive. She was such a damn show-off. He pointed at the cougar. “Fine. Come along, but don’t attack unless they provoke. Got it?”
“We need to know exactly what we’re dealing with first,” Remington added. The big cat growled low and deep and blinked in acknowledgment.
“We’ll be right back,” Colt said to Lilly, then opened the office door.
“Unless there’s trouble,” Remington said with a smile, “then we’ll be back in about thirty minutes.”
Chapter 15
Colt cursed under his breath. Vampires. He hated vampires. They were too damn unpredictable and a bit too uppity for his taste. The only thing Colt did like about vampires was that they weren’t around fifty percent of the time. Through the leaded glass doors they could see the dark shadow of the dirigible on the street. A dark shadow meant the sun was at its zenith. No chance they’d be coming out, unless they were fully covered in protective clothing. So why park the thing smack dab over the center of town in broad daylight instead of waiting for dark? Clearly this wasn’t an attack.
“What do you reckon they want?” Remington muttered as they clomped down the stairs, guns at the ready, the golden mountain lion trailing behind them with soft padded thumps.
“Hard to say. But make no mistake, they’ll want something,” Colt answered as they swung open the fancy doors to the sidewalk. “You know vampires. They
always
have an agenda.”
A wash of dry heat, smelling of horse, dust, and the oily scent of creosote, tightened the skin on Colt’s face. It shimmered in the air, distorting everything beyond the massive shadow of the dirigible overhead that blotted out the desert sun.
A ladder, constructed of rope and wooden rungs, hung down from the lowest deck of the airship. It swung perilously close to the building, threatening to break a window or two. Colt shaded his eyes with his hand as a dark form emerged, then started to descend the swaying ladder. He narrowed his eyes against the backlit shadow, but couldn’t make out who or what it was, though from the shape and the boots it looked to be a man.
“About time you made it out,” a familiar voice shouted. “I was beginning to wonder if Marley had told me wrong about you coming here.”
Winchester
. A pair of tight-fitting, dark-lensed brass goggles obscured his face, and he was wearing his black oilskin duster and his favorite black Stetson.
The coiled tension in Colt’s shoulders and back slipped away as easily as taking off a coat. He slid his revolver back into the holster just below his hip, the weight of it as comforting as Winn’s voice. “What in tarnation are you doing on a vampire dirigible, Winn?” Colt called out.
China rubbed her furry cheek and chin up against Colt’s leg and he shooed her off. She answered with a low rumble in her chest and padded away to sit closer to Remington.
Winchester made it farther down the ladder and hopped the last few feet to the ground. The dust billowed up in a cloud around him as he pulled the dark goggles down to rest around his neck. “Was made an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
Remington gave their older brother a narrow-eyed look, glancing upward at the dirigible. “You in trouble?”
“No. Not yet. Seems the vampire royalty in Europe thinks they could use our help in tracking down a missing third of the Book. The Contessa says they sent her here to request our assistance.”
“Who
they
? Vampires? They want
our
help?” Disbelief tinted Colt’s tone.
Winn shrugged. “Simple matter of survival. If Rathe wipes out humanity, their food supply disappears.”
Remington grimaced and Colt saw his hands tighten reflexively on his guns. “Hardly seems like the best of reasons for us to forge an alliance with them,” Remington muttered more to himself than his brothers.
People were beginning to peek out from behind their closed doors. Across the street the tinny sound of a piano started up again. As odd as the dirigible was, nothing could get the hardy souls of Tombstone ruffled for long. A gust of wind blew, kicking up dust along the mostly deserted street and making the rope ladder sway. Colt peered up at the windows to Remy’s office and saw Lilly silhouetted there, looking down at the unfolding tableau on Allen Street, her arms crossed, nibbling her lip.
Of course, who were he or Remy to judge Winn? Colt cast a glance over his shoulder at China, who was now cleaning her face with a large paw. He was working with a damn demon, and Remington had paired up with a shape-shifter. Their pa would be twisting in his grave if he could see his boys working side by side with the very supernaturals he’d trained them to slay.
“Considering how little time we’ve got, if Marley’s calculations are correct, I don’t see much of an option. If we want to discover where all the pieces of the Book have been hidden, we’ll have to split up,” Winn answered. “You two any closer to decoding Pa’s message?”
Colt caught Remington’s gaze for just an instant, then turned his attention back to Winn. “Remy thinks it’s got something to do with either the Weaver’s Needle in the Superstition Mountains or a place called the Eye of the Needle on the outside of Phoenix close to McDowell.”
Winn rolled the sharp, waxed end of his mustache between his fingers, his dark brows bending together in concentration. Colt could almost see the gears spinning as he calculated in his head. “Phoenix,” he paused for an instant. “I could get you there in about an hour.”
Raw-awrr.
From behind them the mountain lion growled, and Winchester gave it a pointed look. “What is that? And what is it doing here?”
“You mean
who
is that,” Remington corrected him.
Winchester nodded with understanding. “Shifter?”
“China McGee,” Colt and Remington said in unison.
Winn’s eyes widened slightly in recognition and his gaze darted to Colt. He at least had the decency not to let his jaw drop. “Not the same one who—” He waved his hand as if shooing the thought away. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.”
Remington tried to hide his amused smile, but Colt saw it and punched him in the arm. That was the thing about brothers. They never let you forget anything, especially if it was embarrassing, and his first run-in with China had been a whopper, leaving him buck naked and tied to a bed. That had been several months before she sought him out dangling information about Diego’s safety-deposit box in front of him.
“It wasn’t my fault,” Colt growled.
Raw-awrr
the mountain lion growled again in retort.
“She begs to differ.” Remington holstered his guns and flipped his long jacket back over them. “Despite that, she’s agreed to go with me down to follow the clue Diego left about the map in Mexico.”
Colt gazed up at the black wings of the sigil on the dirigible. “You sure the Contessa would be all right with extra company?”
Winn smiled, and it lifted the ends of his mustache. “We already have Tempus on board. Thought we might drop it off for you. We’re flying to Europe.”
“And now Phoenix is on the way to Europe?” Colt knew it was actually northwest of where they were now, but if Winn and the Contessa were willing, it’d be a hell of a lot shorter trip than taking the train and a lot more comfortable than him and Lilly riding Tempus double.
“It could be. Are you up for it?”
Colt nodded. There was no use wasting time. “Let me go and fetch Lilly down here from Remy’s office and we can get going.”
Winn’s face darkened. “You still hanging on to that demon?”
Colt pulled back his shoulders a bit and set his jaw. Winn had a hell of a nerve throwing it at him when they all had uneasy alliances to deal with at present. “She’s with me until we find Pa’s part of the Book.”
The look in Winn’s eyes changed. There was only so far he could push as a big brother, and Colt had long ago passed the point of taking anyone’s advice but his own. “Just watch yourself,” he said simply.
The tension gone, Colt jibed back, “Look who’s talking. You better consider wearing extra starch in your collars. You might need it, considering the company you’re keeping.”
Winn’s mouth tipped up at the corner. “Fair enough, little brother. Go fetch your demon and let’s be on our way.”
Colt took the steps two at a time back up to Remington’s office. It occurred to him that in a very short time, he’d stopped thinking of Lilly as a demon at all, and as, well, Lilly. Not a mortal woman, but not a supernatural being to be destroyed on sight either. Somehow she’d wormed her way into the no-man’s-land between the two and straight into his heart.
If there was one thing Colt knew, it was that gray areas tended to be very dangerous, even deadly. Black-and-white always made quick reactions born out of gut instinct easier, and therefore safer. With Lilly he was treading dangerous waters in more ways than one. And he sure as hell didn’t know how to swim.
He opened the door to Remington’s office. Lilly’s curved silhouette was outlined in the window by the light. The bronze and copper threads in the brocade of her corset sparkled and the sunlight turned her hair into a fall of molten fire down her back. Colt’s breath hitched. He inhaled the scent of spicy sweet, warm female flesh and cleared his throat. Damn, she was one hell of a woman. “Ready to go?”
She turned, her eyes a bit wide, her lips curving into a tempting smile. “You weren’t jesting. That really did take less than half an hour.” She jerked her head in the direction of the dirigible outside the window. “I notice it’s still here. Did you get rid of all the vampires, then?”
“Nope. We’re hitching a ride with them.”
Her mouth dropped open and she thumbed over her shoulder. “On that?”
Colt nodded and reached out to take her hand. “Yep. Let’s get going.”
Lilly shuffled back, clasping her hands behind the small of her back just above her bustle. “Oh, no. No. No. No. You didn’t say anything about air travel.”
Colt couldn’t resist teasing her. “Afraid of heights?”
The tremor in her lip was all the confirmation he needed that it was no teasing matter. His chest tightened with regret. Damn. He hadn’t meant to upset her. Colt walked toward her slowly, like he would a skittish mare, keeping his voice steady and soothing, his fingers a gliding touch up and down her arm. “It’ll be all right, Lilly. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. You can trust me to look after you.”
Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears. His stomach clenched tighter and he hoped she wasn’t going to cry. He wasn’t sure he could handle that. Considering how very real, and debilitating, his own fear of water was, he should have known better than to joke about this. Her fear was clearly very real to her.
“It’ll only be an hour. You’re a strong woman. Think of all we’ve already made it through. This can’t possibly be as bad as three hellhounds or that spider.”
She gave him a tremulous smile.
“I know you can do this.” Colt wrapped her into his arms. Lilly laid her head down on his chest. Her heart was beating hard and fast, but with fear, not desire. Colt’s own heart recognized the frantic pace.
He stroked her hair, doing everything he could think of to soothe her frayed emotions. “I’ll be right there beside you the whole time.”
Lilly lifted her head and stared into his face, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. “I’m sorry to be such a milk-water miss about it, but I just—” Her voice cracked and her throat moved as she swallowed. “When I was very small my father told me to climb to the top of a tree or I wouldn’t get to eat for a week. I was terrified of heights, but I did it, knowing it would be worse if I didn’t. And while the crowds gathered and discussed how to get me down, he picked their pockets. In the end, I was up there, petrified, my fingers turning numb, for four hours, not knowing if I was ever getting down. I truly believed I was going to die up there.”
Colt winced. “Sounds like a character from a Charles Dickens novel.”
“Unfortunately, not much better,” Lilly said as she shrugged, but her shoulders sagged a bit more, curving into him, absorbing the solace he offered her. It was tempting as hell to just hold her, comfort her, and let them both believe he could and would protect her from anything, that they could freeze time and stay in each other’s arms without the rude intrusion of the world, but he knew it was impossible.
She wasn’t a real woman—not yet. Any ideas he had about living a life beyond his quest for the Book were purely fantasy. She was still tethered to Rathe, and Rathe still wanted his head as an ornament for his watch chain. Winn and their fast one-way airship ride to Phoenix were waiting, and their time to find Pa’s part of the Book was dwindling fast.
“We really should go,” he said softly into her hair.
Lilly raised her head, her gaze falling to what lay outside the windowpane. She heaved a resigned sigh. “What’s the worst that could happen? It’s not as if I’d die if it did indeed crash.” Resolutely she slipped her hand in his and he squeezed it tight, although her comment did give him pause for thought. Just how reliable was the dirigible? He’d never actually been on one before.
They tramped down the stairs and out into the bright Arizona sunshine. Colt didn’t miss the long, lingering gaze Remington gave Lilly or the deep, throaty growl that rumbled around China’s pursed lips, even though now she’d transformed back into her human female form.
Winn had snapped the dark goggles back into place, the brass edges of them glinting gold in the afternoon sun. He dug deep in the pockets of his duster and fished out two pairs of similar goggles, handing one to Colt and the other to Lilly. “You’ll want those once we get up in the air. The sun seems even brighter up there, and there’s some dust.”