Stone Cold Lover Read online

  Spar growled, long and low. It took concentration to keep his rage in check, especially when each new revelation landed like fuel on a blazing fire. “A cowardly plan that suits the craven nature of the corrupt ones. But they must realize even if destroying the Guild weakens us, we will still wake if the Seven stir. Not if every Warden on the earth were to die could a Guardian sleep through that.”

  “Maybe that’s what made them decide to try to blow you up tonight while you were asleep.”

  Fil’s words rang out like a bell in the silence. They cut through the thick blanket of anger and speculation and jabbed at Spar like an icy shard of truth.

  He and Kees both turned to fix their gazes on her face, and he heard Ella curse softly in the background.

  “Damn it, I was really hoping we were wrong about that,” the woman said. “Fil, are you sure? Was there a bomb? Is that what happened tonight? Did someone deliberately try to blow up Spar? You have to tell us everything.”

  “Oh, there was a bomb all right. In fact, I think I might still have pieces of it in my hair.”

  Fil—oh, how Spar hated that name—reached up and ran a palm over her hair, then tugged at the long tail in which it was bound. He ignored the way his own fingers itched to follow the same path.

  “I saw it as well,” he said, at least partly to distract himself. “I am not well versed in such incendiary devices, but from the information I have absorbed from my Wardens through the years, I believe it was indeed a bomb.”

  “A pipe bomb, but a pretty damned powerful one.”

  “And the human who carried it was without a doubt a member of the Order. A fully inducted one. He wore one of their robes.”

  Kees cursed, and Fil eyed him curiously.

  “There are levels of membership in evil?” she asked.

  “The nocturnis go through training and indoctrination much as those who join the Guild would do,” Spar said. “Their members might be evil inherently, but they are not born knowing how to channel the Darkness. It must be taught.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “Fil, you saw the guy, too, right? Are you certain he was targeting Spar?”

  “He said he was. I mean, the guy was a stone cold babbling nutcase, El. He had diarrhea of the psychosis, or something. I think he was mostly talking to himself, but he said someone had told him to ‘smash the Guardian.’ Of course, I had no idea what he meant, and my being there must have distracted him. He obviously didn’t expect me to be there, and once he spotted me he seemed more concerned with coming after me than setting the bomb.”

  “Did he say who gave him his instructions?”

  Fil shook her head. “No, not that I remember. Not a name anyway. I think he called him by a title, though. Um … ‘the Hierophant,’ maybe?”

  Ella frowned. “I don’t know what that means.”

  Spar heard his fellow warrior hiss and knew Kees understood exactly what that meant, just as he did. Their eyes met in the video screen, and neither one looked pleased.

  “Hierophant is a title,” Kees confirmed. “It is given to the highest-ranking priest in the Order. In other words, if this cultist was sent by the Hierophant, it means he was ordered to destroy Spar by the head of the entire nocturnis.”

  “Why do you look worried by that?” Fil asked. “I thought you said you guys were immortal, and since Spar not only flew away from the blast in tip-top shape, but carried me with him while he did it, clearly a little bomb is not the way to get rid of one of you. Right?”

  Kees shook his head. “Immortal does not mean invulnerable. We can be destroyed, though to do so is not easy. The problem is that we are at our most vulnerable while locked in our sleeping forms. That is one of the reasons why each Guardian was appointed a personal Warden, so that he would have someone watching his back during his slumber. While we sleep, our bodies react much like the stone we resemble. If that stone is broken to pieces, our essence is released from this plane and we cease to exist in this world.”

  “That’s why knowing the nocturnis have been bumping off the Wardens has us so freaked out,” Ella said. “Not only is losing them a blow to our knowledge base, but with the Guild destroyed the Guardians become more and more vulnerable. At first, the destruction of the headquarters helped us—by burning out the library there, the nocturnis also destroyed any records of the last known locations of the seven Guardians. Still, they can’t stay hidden forever. We’ve been trying to locate the other six—well, the other five now—in the hope that we can wake them up before the Order gets to them. Awake, a Guardian is next to impossible to kill, at least for anything less powerful than one of the Seven. While they’re asleep, though, it’s a whole different ball game.”

  Spar watched while understanding tightened Fil’s features. She looked fierce when she grasped the gravity of the situation.

  “So the fact that this Hierophant dude sent one of his evil minions to the abbey to off Spar means that the Order knew where he was.” She nodded and fixed her friend with a sharp gaze. “Do you think they know where to find the others?”

  “We have no real way of knowing,” Ella said. “I hope not, because we’re having a heck of a time finding them ourselves. Kees and I have made that our top priority, but without records it’s slow going. We’ve been following leads to a few surviving Guild members in the hope that some of them will have information, but most of them have gone into hiding. They don’t want the nocturnis to find them, and we’re paying for that right alongside the bad guys.”

  Fil’s eyes narrowed, and Spar noticed her knuckles turning white where she continued to grip the blanket around her shoulders. He could detect no real anger in her expression, but he could see a hint of suspicion and something else that tugged at him down in his gut. Something like vulnerability.

  “You say ‘we’ pretty easily there, El.” He had noticed the way she used her friend’s shortened name when she expected a displeasing response. “How exactly did you say you got mixed up in all this anyway? You didn’t forget to mention someone tried to blow you up, too, did you?”

  The camera showed the other couple exchanging a meaningful look before Ella turned back to answer. Spar did not miss the way his brother laid his hand over the human’s shoulder, as if offering his strength, and he had a feeling Fil didn’t, either.

  “No, no bombs on this end, but it’s kind of a long story. Let’s just say that I accidentally managed to wake up Kees, which confused him almost as much as it confused me. I offered to help him locate his Warden, and by the time we found out Gregory was dead … Well.” The woman shrugged. “By then, I was already in it up to my eyeballs, so it seemed a little late to try to bury my head in the sand.”

  Spar could practically see the gears turning in his little human’s head as she connected the dots between what Ella had just revealed and the rest of the information her friend had recently dumped on her. The question she asked then was one Spar, too, wanted to hear answered.

  “Wait a minute. You woke up Kees?” Fil demanded. “What happened to that neat little story you just told me about how the Wardens were the ones in charge of waking up the Guardians and then tucking them back in for nap time?”

  Ella hesitated. “We have a theory about that, but it’s just a working assumption at the moment. You see, it turns out that I kind of am a Warden.”

  She must have noticed Fil’s baffled expression, because she rushed to clarify. “Only kind of, because I haven’t had any formal training of course. With the Guild scattered to the four winds, it’s not like I have a mentor guiding me through a series of lesson plans. I’m studying a few materials we’ve been able to dig up, and Kees is helping as much as he can, but we think that if the Guild had been operating normally I would have been recruited years ago and done the whole apprenticeship thing, the way it’s supposed to happen.”

  The news took Spar by surprise, and—judging by her expression—that word barely scratched the surface of what Fil was feeling about it. He watched confusion,
understanding, shock, and bafflement play across her features before she uttered a ragged half laugh.

  “For that to have been the cause, I would have to be some kind of magic user, too, right?” Fil shook her head. “El, come on. I don’t even own a rabbit, let alone a top hat to pull one out of.”

  “Magic, Fil, not illusion. Trust me, I’ve learned a lot over the past couple of weeks, and one of the most important lessons for me was that magic is just another word for ‘energy,’ and a magic user is nothing more than a person who can work with that energy on a level above the average human being.” Ella gave her a level look. “Are you honestly going to try to deny that you’re one of those people? To me? After you saw some of the things that happened with me?”

  Spar saw the quick denial rise to Fil’s lips, and saw her just as quickly push it down. She looked less than happy to have such an admission pulled from her lips.

  “Fine. I can’t deny that I can see things most people can’t,” Fil bit out, clutching her blanket tighter, “but I have never in my life ‘worked with’ it, or however you want to phrase it. Seeing auras and being able to identify people with special abilities is a hell of a lot different from casting spells and battling the forces of evil, El. In case you hadn’t noticed.”

  On the screen, Ella’s face went hard for a moment, the expression ill suiting her appearance of soft sweetness. “Believe me when I tell you, Felicity Jane, that I know more about evil forces at the moment than I hope you will ever have to find out, but neither one of us gets to make that choice. If you’ve awoken a Guardian, you’re in this war now, and your place is as a Warden. Like it or not.”

  “Um, not.”

  Felicity. Was that the human’s actual name? It suited her far better than that masculine nickname he so disliked, Spar decided. At the moment, however, a name that translated as “happiness” sat poorly on her small shoulders. She looked as pleased with the news of her involvement in the battle against the Darkness as he felt. A longing to protect her surged within him, and he fought back the urge to snarl his displeasure.

  He leaned down and peered into the phone, seeking out his brother’s gaze, hoping to convey his feelings without stating them so abruptly. “I like this idea no more than she does, Kees. Even if you are correct about Felicity being an unnamed Warden, the very fact that she has no training makes bringing her into a situation like this untenable. She cannot be expected to face nocturnis untrained. We must find what is left of the Guild and deliver her to them. They can protect her while you and I confront this danger.”

  “‘Deliver’ me? Am I a bloody package now?”

  Both warriors ignored her.

  “Were you not listening, Spar? The Guild no longer exists, not as we knew it. Even if we could locate a member who would agree to train her, it would do us no good. The Wardens have all they can handle protecting themselves at the moment. We cannot place on them another burden.”

  “And now I’m a burden. This just keeps getting better and better.”

  Spar felt a tiny thud on the back of his shin, as if a moth had butted against him on its flight through the night air. Wait, had that been the small human? Had she kicked him? He could not tell by glancing at her face. She had worn the same belligerent expression for at least half an hour.

  “Yet more reason to think she must be placed somewhere out of harm’s way.” He turned back to Kees, determined to impress upon him the importance of keeping Felicity safe. “She has already been injured once. It is too much to ask that she risk such danger a second time.”

  Ella butted back into the center of the frame. “Fil, is that true? Were you hurt? You sounded fine, so I just assumed Spar got you out without a problem.”

  Felicity shot Spar a glare, which he ignored. If she expected that he would not mention the nocturnis’s spell, she was mistaken. Kees and Ella needed to realize what sort of risk they courted by asking her to join this crusade.

  “I’m not hurt,” she repeated, irritation filling her voice. “Like I told rocks-for-brains over here half a dozen times, I’m fine. The lunatic at the abbey tried to blast me with something, but I don’t think it took.” She held her hand up to the phone’s camera and showed them her palm, where only a patch of reddened skin indicated the spot where the magical blow had landed. “A little sunburn is all. Magicburn. Whatever. I’m fine.”

  Kees peered at the screen and scowled. “The vermin cast a spell at you? And it touched you? What was it? What did he say?”

  Fil raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips like she’d tasted something sour. “Um, yeah, sorry, but I was too busy trying to get the hell out of there to take notes on the ravings of a certifiable basket case. I’ll do better next time.”

  “As you can see, it is too dangerous to involve her,” Spar cut in before the other warrior could respond to that sarcastic taunt. Now was not the time for squabbling. “I will leave Felicity and come to you, Kees. We will make a plan to deal with this threat together.”

  The other Guardian jerked his head. “I understand your reaction, Spar, but you must pause and think. What if the minion the Hierophant sent survived the explosion? You know there are spells that can shield a human from such things. If the nocturnis lives, he will undoubtedly report back to his sect that a human woman witnessed the attack, as well as your awakening.”

  “And,” Ella cut in, “if they even suspect that Fil has powers of her own, they’ll come after her, Spar. Believe me when I tell you, the Order isn’t kidding around about destroying the Guild. Whether Fil is a member or not, they’ll want her dead. They don’t want new recruits replacing the members they’ve already destroyed. They want to salt the proverbial earth the Guild stands on.”

  Kees sighed. “I am afraid she is already at risk, my friend, whether we draw her deeper into our confidence or not.”

  “Then I will send her to you. If she is not safe here, she must go elsewhere,” Spar insisted. “You will guard her while I determine if the nocturnis still lives. If he does, it will not be for long.”

  “Spar, you are reacting without logic. You must stop and think. Vancouver is no safer for Felicity than Montreal. In fact, the Order has more reason to be wary of Ella and me, since we already destroyed several of their number here. It is only a matter of time before they come after us again. We must concentrate on more important matters. Our first priority is to locate the rest of our brethren. We must all be awoken and warned of the enemy’s plans.”

  A shrill beeping sound punctuated the statement Spar had not wanted to hear. With a sigh, Felicity reached past him and tapped the phone’s screen.

  “Um, not that I’m disagreeing about the world needing saving, and all,” she said, “but my phone is about to run out of battery. Could we maybe continue our kaffeeklatsch later? Like, near an outlet?”

  Ella forced a smile that dragged with weariness. Spar could read it in the dark circles under her eyes and the drooping of her shoulders.

  “Of course,” the other woman said. “We’ve thrown an entire encyclopedia of information at you—”

  “Felt more like you dropped an Acme anvil on my head,” Felicity muttered.

  “—and it’s already getting close to morning. You need to get some rest. And, you know, wash some of the gravel and stuff out of your hair.” Ella smiled and gestured to her face. “Maybe wipe off the smears of charcoal.”

  “We can meet again tomorrow to discuss what must be done.” Kees’s nod was all masculine meaning and aimed squarely at Spar. “I will admit that while I would not have wished another human female to be dragged into this war, I will be glad to have you stand at my shoulder, brother. I fear it will require the strength of all our brethren to cast the Darkness back into the abyss this time.”

  His gaze flickered to Felicity, and Spar nodded grimly. “Whatever must be done, we will do,” he vowed. “By my honor as a Guardian, I swear this. The Light will lead us to triumph.”

  “Yeah, that’s just great,” his small human said beside h
im, her tone dry and acid. “But since you flew us here without so much as letting me pick up my bike first, and since I’m not entirely sure exactly where ‘here’ is anyway, Mr. Tall, Gray, and Invincible, the real question is: Is the Light going to lead me back to my apartment? Because I would kill for a shower right about now.”

  Chapter Four

  The question had been rhetorical, but Fil had meant the bit about the shower. Her skin felt dirty and gritty, coated with a layer of gray silt made up of the debris from the bomb, Spar’s pedestal, and probably a good bit of the abbey’s four-hundred-year-old stone walls. She wanted hot water and the largest shower pouf known to man or God, and she wanted them stat.

  Unfortunately, she may have expressed her urgency a little too strongly to her winged companion, because she found herself whisked back up into the sky before she could do more than squeak in protest. This led to the discovery—on her part, at least—that arguing with a stubborn male while suspended several hundred feet in the air by no more than said male’s goodwill affected her blood pressure in a way her physician would never have approved of.

  By the time she managed to convince him to set her back down on solid ground, Spar had returned them to within a half-mile of the scene of the crime. When she managed to open her eyes and pry her fingers from around his neck, she was able to read the street sign on the nearby corner and determine that the spot where she’d parked her bike for her illegal excursion onto the abbey grounds—and didn’t that feel like about eight or nine lifetimes ago—was less than two blocks away. Thankfully, they were just beyond the area already cordoned off by the authorities. Yay for preplanning and paranoia.

  As soon as her legs stopped trembling, Fil straightened her spine and turned on her heels. She began marching toward her parking spot without sparing her companion so much as a word of parting. Frankly, she couldn’t be sure that if she opened her mouth, she wouldn’t start screaming again. Flying without an airplane around her was for the birds.