The Keepers Book Two of the Holding Kate Series (39 page)

He broke the eye contact and stepped away from her. They turned as one and continued up the corridor. Trip never deserved her. He had nothing to offer her. He couldn’t even give her his undivided love. Kate had crawled under his skin and he couldn’t shake free from her.

They crept out of the exit and hid themselves behind a large outcropping of rock.

“We were right over there, behind those bushes by those boulders.” Tara pointed toward the edge of the ledge. “The Mother stands in between those two rock groupings and looks over the edge toward the
Traptor
.” Her acerbic tone when she spat the word spoke volumes.

“We need to get closer, so we can see.”

“The dragon will be back there. I am going to go wait for him.”

“Tara! You don’t even have a weapon! What are you going to do to a full-grown dragon without a weapon?”

“Improvise.”

Trip growled at her, but knew she wouldn’t be deterred
. It’s not like she hasn’t taken out a full-grown dragon with a homemade spear before.
He grabbed her arm.

“Tara. Be careful.”

“Never!” Her eyes flashed dangerously, and she slipped down the hill.

Glorious! That woman is glorious
. No other word could describe her.

QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): TARA JOHNSON

Tara couldn’t believe how ridiculously naïve the Keepers acted. Hadn’t they all seen how fickle Kate behaved? Yeah, sure she had a huge heart and sincerely cared for everyone, but that’s where the problem lay. She couldn’t make up her stupid mind!

Tara’s despondence evaporated in the scorch of her anger. Adrenalin coursed through her body. She needed to get her emotions in check. She had to find a weapon that could kill a dragon, then she would unleash her vitriol on that stinkin’ serpent.

She heard the caravan before she saw it and jumped off the trail to hide behind the rocks. The green spotted dragon lumbered back and forth beneath the woman swaying in his saddle.

The Mother!

I knew it!
Kate in full paint-by-number body art straddled the dragon. Just as Tara had seen in the Scriptorium, her Mohawk ponytail swished against her back as the dragon climbed the hill. Twelve Rhinodudes followed, a wall of armored flesh closed behind them.

Tara arched a brow. The guards each carried a long spear. She smirked.

This is gonna be easier than I thought.

QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): TRIP CARSON

Trip turned toward the ledge and scanned the area, only the one outcropping on this side. He didn’t want to interfere with the Scriptorium experience, so he decided to cross over to the other group of rocks to hide.

Scanning the area quickly, he ran across the opening, slid into place behind the rocks and peered back around to see if anyone had seen him.

“Trip!”

He whirled around. “Kate?”

She huffed in surprise.

“Kate!” He grabbed her in a fierce hug and bent his head to kiss her lips.

She leaned away. “Trip! No.”

He stopped suddenly. “What? Why?”

She held up her ring finger. “Married!” Her brows pressed together and she pushed against him. He could see teardrops still in her lashes.

“Married. Kate, what are you talking about? That didn’t stop you before when we made crazy passionate love in the wild flowers!”

Her angry face blanched and an expression of intense sadness claimed her features.

“That wasn’t me, Trip.” She took his hands and her eyes filled with compassion and pity.

Trip reeled from rejection and confusion.

“They captured me, imprisoned me here in the caves when you and Corey and I first explored them. Another woman took my clothes and my place.” Her voice deepened with remorse.

“No. Kate, that is not possible. Are you messing with me?” Anger spiked in his chest.

“I know, Trip, it seems unreal, but it wasn’t me.” Her tears spilled over, trickling down her agonized face.

“Yes, it was. Kate I have been with you before, not to that extent, but I know what you feel like and what you kiss like. I know your taste, your smell.” He touched her cheek and pinned her with his eyes, forcing her to speak the truth. “It was you.”

“No,” she whispered with a tremble. “I don’t know who she is. She looks like me but Trip, it wasn’t me. I promise you.”

Rocked to the core, Trip dropped his hand.
This can’t be true
. He scanned her jumpsuit and held onto her wrist. She winced and jerked her arm away. Her wrists were torn and bruised. She had been captured.

It started to sink in, unbelievable but true. Kate was not the girl he had been with. He remembered the things she did to him. The bizarre sexual appetite and her manipulations just weren’t like Kate. The girl who blushed over an innocent kiss under the willow tree. The girl who chose Corey for his integrity and honor. The girl before him, Katie girl, could never do the things he did with, with who?

He didn’t have long to wonder. As he sat there staring into the innocent gaze of Katie girl, a very different Kate strolled up the hill.

Her naked body painted head to toe, the Kate that he had made love to, the Kate that gave him the electrical buzz when she kissed him, the Kate that was The Mother promenaded past their hiding place. She stopped just before she topped the hill and spat orders at the Kiarnusk, then she turned and approached the edge of the cliff and began the show.

Trip turned to look at the Kate at his side. She had her fist pressed into her mouth, staring in horror at the bleeding, dying Corey, strapped in the Traptor. He shrugged off some type of rodent who had started feasting on his flesh. Kate winced as she watched the torture of her true love.

Her expression broke the hold on him. Deep grief tugged at the corners of her mouth, tears coursed down her cheeks. Ablaze with hopeless, anguished, eternal and pure love, Kate yearned for the man across the ravine.

He felt it snap. She was not his Kate and she could never be. Completely and totally devoted to the dying man hanging on the cliff wall across the gorge, she belonged with him.

Trip staggered back and the distance between them became a tangible wall, an unscalable wall. A permanent barrier rising up separated them conclusively.

He leaned against the boulder and slid down to land in the dust.

QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): DIRK JOHNSON

Dirk took Eunavae’s hand, and Donnie followed closely behind as they quickly crossed in front of the cages, keeping low. They spilled into the entrance to the cliff face that they had seen the Kiarnusk use to access the higher portions of the Traptor.

“Oh, no, no! We have to hurry!” Eunavae moaned. “I saw Kate, painted up on the top of the cliff when we crossed.”

“It’ll happen soon!” Donnie confirmed, heartbroken that Kate had actually fooled him. She betrayed them all.

Stairs had been cut into the stone and they zigzagged back and forth. They took them two and three at a time until they spotted light breaking through a corridor.

Dirk skidded to a stop and jerked backwards to enter the lighted passage. He stepped over peculiar rodents scurrying toward the cliff face.

“Rats!” Eunavae whispered harshly. “I hate rats!”

Dirk poked his head out of the opening and looked to the left, almost eye level to Corey and three feet away. Eunavae and Donnie crowded around behind him and strained to see Corey.

QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): COREY CHASTAIN

Blood poured into my eyes, a stinging mixture of sweat and blood blinded me as I peered down into the faces of my family, my oldest friends, my jump mates. Angry shouts, betrayed glances, and defensive insults stabbed me worse than the metal spikes pinning me to the rock face. Large rusty metal pylons jutted up through my arm pits to anchor me to the cliff wall. My arms and legs were splayed and manacled into iron bands that cut into my flesh, pressing my stained body against the stone. I stilled, locked in a vice with jagged teeth stabbing into my face and clamping into my skull. In spite of all the torture, the worst pain was the grief swelling in my chest. With a broken heart, I drew a slow stuttering breath.

I sang.

Carefully, gently, our song poured out of me. My last gift of love to those I left behind.

My friends turned and left me, escaping back into the caves. Good. They didn’t need to see this.

The blood thickened, congealing as dehydration set in. Clicking sounds pressed in from all sides. When teeth burrowed into my fingers I jerked and flung a small rodent into the crowd at my feet. Long-bodied carnivores surged over me and nibbled at my torn flesh. I lurched reflexively when one bit down on my side. The spike at my temple drove into my skull and stole my vision as I blinked into blackness.

I woke in agonizing pain. The crowd vanished. One person stood on the ledge above me. Her beautiful body covered in heinous tattoos quivered before me. Bile rose in my throat at the thought of the hands that had perpetrated the vile images on the body of my beloved.

My Kate.

She strained toward me. The heavy iron cuff around her neck jerked her backward and her manacled hands flew up to her throat. She gagged, eyes bulging.

A massive creature topped the rise behind her, the chain linked to her bonds clutched in his colossal scaly hands. His long tongue flashed out and flicked across her face, down around her neck, savoring the taste of her. He jerked the chain up into the air, and she hung there by her neck kicking and flailing, while his tongue explored. Taunting me, challenging me to give up, the beast warned of vile acts in store for her.

Enraged, I struggled with my bonds, wanting to break free, but knowing I had to die so she could live.
Kate! What have I done?
I chose to take her place in this death contraption as a bargain so that her life would be spared. What life had I cursed her with? Chained like an animal, painted up, Kate suffered captivity for the brutal enjoyment of these barbaric monsters. 

The massive beast dropped her chain and she crashed to the ground at his feet. Gasping for breath, her chest rose and fell and my heart lurched. 

My beloved, my bride, my one true love, my Kate of a Thousand Years, I wanted to hold her, enfold her in my protection, whisk her away from here to our home in the pink clouds where we could love and make love as husband and wife for an eternity.

But no. It was possible this was not my loving wife. The actions on the cliff above me were exactly as Tara and Mel described.

The scene played out in front of me. If she had betrayed me, just as Tara and Mel said, she would rejoice in my death. It didn’t matter to me either way. Whether Dagan had turned her or not, I had no malice or blame for her. I knew the dragon did this. My greatest hope endured that my sacrifice would reach her soul. If I gave myself for her, maybe it would startle her out of the stronghold of the dragon. Maybe by dying, I could really save her.

Kate’s gaze stretched across the chasm as though she too were thinking of our love, she reached out her hand to me and mouthed the words my soul knew so well.