The Darkness Beyond Part 14

The other problem was that he had next to no money. The restaurant didn't look all that expensive, though. Maybe he could afford a bowl of soup; that was usually cheap.

"A little something might be good."

Then Trahern actually winked at him. "Better eat up, Cody. It's not every day Devlin picks up the tab. Personally, I'm going order a big steak with all the tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs."

Okay, then. Obviously Devlin Bane looked out for his men. That was good to know.

Cody studied the restaurant's sign, which advertised home-style cooking. "Hey, think this place has a good dessert menu? And maybe extras to go?"

"No wonder D.J. took to you." Trahern chuckled as he pulled into a parking spot and turned off the engine. "I like the way you think. You're gonna fit right in with us."

When was the last time he'd fit in anyplace? He couldn't remember, but the idea that these guys actually wanted him to hang with them felt good. As they climbed out of the truck and headed inside, the Paladin clapped him on the back.

"While we're waiting for our dinners, you can tell me all about your fencing cla.s.ses and what kind of weapon you like best. I'm a broadsword fan myself."

When Cody started talking, it was clear that Trahern was really listening to him and cared about his opinions. Once the food arrived, they both turned their attention to eating.

Hanging with the Paladins felt d.a.m.n good.

Chapter 12.

What was going on? For the third time in the past fifteen minutes, Jeban had paused to stare back up the trail behind them. After the second time, he'd said something to his partner in their own language. All Reggie had been able to pick up was the growing tension in Jeban's voice. That, and his buddy's name: Kolar.

Once Jeban had drawn Kolar's attention to whatever was going on behind them, they'd both started walking faster and looking back more often. Jeban was careful to keep her between them, shoving her forward if she tried to slow down at all. She didn't know what to think. Was help on its way or was something else going on?

Obviously these two were criminals in both worlds. If they were being tracked, it could be that their own people were after them. Only one way to find out. The next time Jeban stopped, she walked back to join him.

If there was something happening behind them, she sure wasn't seeing any sign of it. "What's going on?"

"Perhaps we are being followed," Jeban answered in English as he drew his sword. "Kolar, I'm going to circle back to see for sure."

As soon as he disappeared off the trail into the tall gra.s.ses, Kolar caught Reggie by the arm and dragged her along in his wake. She fought to pull free of his grasp. He only tightened his grip, hard enough to leave bruises, making her wish that Jeban had been the one to stay with her.

"Any idea who it might be back there?"

Kolar stopped to answer. "Does it matter? If it is one of our people, he will be enjoying your company along with us."

As he spoke, Kolar's eyes traveled from her head to her toes, pausing along the way to let her know exactly what he was thinking. She glared at him, but it had no effect.

His smile made her skin crawl. "Of course, it could be someone from your world coming to retrieve you, but that will not happen. Either he will die or you both will. That would be a shame. I have such interesting and pleasurable plans for you. Pleasurable for me, anyway."

He moved in closer, his intent to kiss her obvious. Reggie turned her head to the side so that his lips landed on the side of her head. In response, he caught her chin in a painful grip and positioned her face right where he wanted it.

"You should be careful, pretty little human. I like it when women resist my attentions. Punishment offers its own pleasure."

Then his mouth crushed down on hers as he used his other hand to grope her breast, hard. When he deepened the kiss, she retaliated by biting down on his tongue.

Kolar howled in pain and jumped back. He spit a mouthful of blood on the ground, his furious expression promising retribution. She immediately retreated, preparing to bolt if he took one more step toward her.

Instead, she backed right into Jeban. It didn't take him long to size up the situation. He looked at each of them with equal disgust. When Kolar tried to grab her, she used his partner as a s.h.i.+eld.

"Get out of the way, Jeban. She needs to learn some manners. I shall greatly enjoy teaching them to her."

Jeban kept himself firmly between her and his friend. "Now is not the time. There will be plenty of time later for us to school her in the proper behavior for a slave."

Her stomach plummeted. So much for Jeban being the nice guy. When he reached out to take her hand, she jerked it back out of his reach and marched off down the trail ahead of them both.

Reggie ached straight through to her bones. Despite being physically fit, she'd been too long without sleep or enough food. Breathing was rapidly becoming problematic, thanks to air that was too thin on oxygen and too thick with dust. The legs of her black trousers were coated with the stuff; even her teeth were gritty.

A drink of water would taste good about now, but she was in no hurry to stop for the day. As tired as she was, she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep moving. For certain, she didn't want to give Kolar an excuse to begin the training session Jeban had mentioned.

Barbarian b.a.s.t.a.r.ds.

What pa.s.sed for daylight in this world was almost gone by the time they'd traversed halfway across the valley. Finally, Jeban called a halt. After a brief discussion with Kolar, he switched to English for her benefit.

"Our regular camp lies in that direction," he said, pointing toward a clump of scrubby trees a short distance off to the right. "There we will stop for the night and wait for our partners to join us late tomorrow."

He paused to look back the way they'd come. "Kolar, I'll start the fire and the evening meal. Why don't you circle back this time? I still sense someone behind us."

Kolar nodded. "If I find it is a human, should he die?"

Jeban looked at Reggie before answering, a cold gleam in his pale eyes. "If you can capture him, do so, but it will be no great loss if he dies. Enough of our people have been murdered by human hands. Balancing the scales would be satisfying."

Reggie s.h.i.+vered. These two talked of killing as if a life held no worth at all. Maybe for them, humans were disposable. If that was indeed D.J. or one of his fellow Paladins behind them, she could only pray that they stayed safely out of sight. Then there was the whole other problem of more of Jeban's gang being on their way to meet them.

She slowly followed Jeban to the campsite. She knew she should fear what these alien b.a.s.t.a.r.ds had planned, but right now all she could do was collapse on the ground. Drawing her knees up to her chest, she wrapped her arms around her legs and made herself as small as possible.

Jeban ignored her while he started a fire and then filled a kettle with water from a nearby spring. While he took care of the ch.o.r.es, Reggie prayed harder than she had in years.

G.o.d, I don't want my life to end here, but please don't let D.J. die because of me.

As she waited to see what would happen next, she stared into the fire and let her head fill with images of D.J. From what she'd read about the Paladins, he and his friends were certainly the stuff legends were made of: warriors with a code of honor so profound that they sacrificed their lives over and over again to protect ordinary people like her.

She really wished the two of them had had more time together. Rather than think about the potential horrors that might await her, she thought about the amazing kiss they had shared and drew comfort from the memory.

Todd did his best to ignore the argument occuring just outside his office. He didn't know what it was about and didn't care.

Then the door to his office slammed open with no warning. What the h.e.l.l? He'd told his a.s.sistant Melinda to hold his calls and fend off anyone who wanted to see him so he could get this d.a.m.ned report done.

She hovered in the doorway, waiting for him to acknowledge her. Behind her stood Ray, obviously back from his trip to the coast. What the h.e.l.l had happened to him? Rather than acknowledge him, Todd concentrated on soothing his a.s.sistant's ruffled feathers.

"Yes, Melinda, what is it?"

"I'm sorry, sir. I told Mr. Pine here that you weren't to be disturbed, but he wouldn't listen." She shot the other man a nasty look. "Shall I call security?"

He forced a smile to hide his irritation "That won't be necessary, Melinda. I should've told you that Ray might be stopping by today."

Her relief was obvious as she backed out of the office, shooting one last look at Ray before pulling the door closed. When she was gone and safely out of hearing, Todd leaned back in his chair and glared at his unwanted a.s.sociate.

"Ray, what the f.u.c.k happened to your face and why are you here? I thought we'd agreed that we wouldn't meet at work."

The other man ignored him. Instead he helped himself to a cup of coffee before settling into the chair facing Todd's desk. He looked like h.e.l.l. If Todd had to guess, Ray hadn't slept much in the past two days. He was also sporting a pair of world-cla.s.s s.h.i.+ners and a nose swollen to twice its normal size. And the man looked thoroughly p.i.s.sed off.

Todd couldn't resist tweaking the guy's already bad mood. "Tough day at the office or are you going to a costume party as a racc.o.o.n?"

Ray glared at him over the rim of his coffee cup. "f.u.c.k you, Todd. I told you I didn't want to make that trip. Now look at me."

Todd studied his friend's face. "Looks painful."

"It is, and what's more, I'm going to need surgery to put my nose back together. Tomorrow, as a matter of fact, so I'll be out of commission for at least a couple of days. That little b.i.t.c.h you wanted picked up did this to me. I hope those two Others I left her with-"

When Ray's voice got louder with each word, Todd cut him off in midsentence. "Shut the f.u.c.k up right now. This is not the time or the place for this conversation."

Ray glared right back at him. "Yeah, well, tough s.h.i.+t, Todd. Why don't you explain to my wife how I ended up like this after a business trip?"

G.o.d, he hated placating the peons. "Fine, I get it. You're hurt. You're mad. She's mad."

d.a.m.n it, he should've handled the situation himself to make sure it was done well right from the start.

"I suppose it never occurred to you that by heading straight here you've led a trail right to my door." He rose to his feet. "Let's go."

"Where?"

"Someplace where we can talk without being overheard."

Twenty minutes later they were sitting on a park bench with a couple of sandwiches and cold drinks. Todd had lost his appet.i.te when Ray walked into his office, but appearances were everything. If anyone was paying any attention, it would look as if two friends were taking advantage of their lunch hour to enjoy a sunny afternoon in St. Louis.

"Okay, start to finish, fill me in."

He took a bite of his sandwich while Ray explained what had happened. The more Todd listened, the more he wanted to choke the b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

"Any chance the dead guy can be traced back to you?"

Because if he could, there just might be another corpse in the making. At least Ray had been smart enough to use local talent in Portland. One Regents employee making a trip to the area might go unnoticed. Sending four but having only three return would be harder to hide.

"No way. We kept it to first names only. I paid cash and used burn phones."

Ray paused to take a long swig of his iced tea. Then he cleared his throat. "There's more."

"I figured there was."

Todd stared out across the gra.s.sy slope and waited for the s.h.i.+t to hit the fan.

"Someone is already hunting for her. I don't know for sure, but I think it might be the Paladins from Seattle."

Todd snorted his soft drink, nearly choking in the process. "Are you sure?"

"No, but one of the guys thought he overheard her call someone D.J. It would be too much of a coincidence for it to be some other random guy by that name."

"Did he hear anything else?" One look at Ray's face told the story. "Don't tell me, he's the one you shot."

"He let her steal his cell phone. It was his fault that things got this screwed up. I'm telling you right now, if the Paladins are really on the hunt, I want out."

Yeah, like that was going to happen. But before Todd explained the facts of life to his good buddy Ray, he had to ask one more question.

"How the h.e.l.l did you manage to drag those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds into this? It was supposed to be a clean s.n.a.t.c.h-and-grab. You were to let the Others have some fun with the b.i.t.c.h, so that when we drag her back across the barrier she'd be more cooperative."

Not that it would save her life in the long run.

"I don't know how they caught wind of what was going on. All I know is that someone followed us to the caves. We never saw them, but whoever it was sliced the tires to the truck. If I hadn't had a helo on call, we'd have been screwed. As it was, we'd barely gotten off the ground when another truck drove up."

"Did you get a good look at them?"

"Three guys got out of the truck. One was tall and blond, the other two were shorter, with dark hair. We were too high up to pick out details."

At least that meant it was unlikely that the guys on the ground could see Ray any better in the helicopter. Okay, maybe Ray could live awhile longer.

Todd pondered the situation. "Okay, I'll do some checking and see if I can pick up any chatter from out west. If necessary, I'll do some damage control. Right now I've got to get back to work."

He wadded up the rest of his lunch, no longer hungry. "Go get your nose fixed."

Wouldn't want the man to look bad for his own funeral.

In the distance, a flare of light and a wisp of smoke caught D.J.'s eye. If he had to guess, someone was setting up camp. Good. If his quarry had stopped for the night, this would be his best chance to catch up with them. With his night vision, he could keep moving even if both of Kalithia's cursed stars disappeared behind the horizon.

He kept a wary eye on his surroundings. There was no way to know if he'd managed to hide his presence from Reggie's captors. If he were them, he'd have one guy set up camp while the other hung back to watch the trail just in case someone had crossed over into Kalithia intent on rescuing Reggie.

As he walked, he studied the terrain ahead. If he were setting the trap, he'd be waiting just past where the trail wound up and over the side of the last hill overlooking the valley beyond. The trail ran along the edge of a rocky drop-off that would funnel him right toward where he hoped they were resting.

Options. He needed options. His Glock would allow him to kill from a distance. The downside was that the noise would alert any other Kalith in the area. A knife would be silent, but he'd have to get within cutting distance of the enemy.

He opted for skirting around the back side of the hill even though it would take him some distance off the trail. If he was reading the terrain correctly, he'd come out behind where they might be waiting. With luck, the enemy would be too intent on watching for him on the trail to notice that he was staging a little trap of his own.

The hike took him over some rough ground, leaving him breathing hard. When his pulse slowed to normal, he drew his Glock and crept forward to where he could look down on the trail. At first glance, he didn't see any hint of the enemy, but his instincts were screaming that someone was out there.

The night settled around him, the darkness getting thicker with each pa.s.sing minute. A movement in the gra.s.s caught his attention. He continued to stare at the spot, trying to decide if the shadows there truly did have more substance than the surrounding ones.

Oh, yeah. The b.a.s.t.a.r.d was there all right, the blade of his weapon catching the faint glow of the moons rising in the sky above. D.J. resisted the temptation to use his gun to blow the Other to h.e.l.l and back. If he could actually capture the guy, maybe he'd be able to learn more about the situation he'd be walking into before he reached the campfire in the distance.

D.J. bent low and started forward, his gun in one hand, sword in the other. The blade would be his first choice of weapons, but he couldn't risk the Other getting the upper hand with Reggie depending on D.J. to rescue her.

The Other rose up to look around. Had the guy decided that he'd only been imagining someone d.o.g.g.i.ng his footsteps? Maybe, because after ducking down briefly, the Other stood again to stare up the trail. After a few seconds, he started forward, his sword at the ready. D.J.'s prey moved slowly, his head sweeping from side to side, testing the night air and hunting using his sense of smell.