Calm Before the Storm (21 page)

Cassi stared at Irina. They were now alone
in the cell. The other two girls were gone, taken away by guards just as Cassi
and Irina returned. It broke Cassi’s heart to see her friend in pieces, a torn,
pale shadow of herself and Cassi had no words to soothe her. She understood her
utter desolation. Irina had given her heart to Tyr, allowed herself to believe
in him and he had betrayed her trust completely.

He was a good liar; she had to give him
that. Cassi had even believed him herself when he had said what he feared most
was losing Irina. It was no wonder she’d never fallen in love herself. Dealing
with ill-fated Esseni was a life lesson in how love could be a futile
endeavour. Could true love ever exist? Then she would remember her parents.
They had an amazing bond that had lasted thousands of years! What would it be
like to be loved like that? Cassi shook off her morbid thoughts. She was a
warrior of the Eunomi and they didn’t wait around to be rescued. Time to get
out of here.

“Irina,” she said gently, “we need to go.
We can’t let them take us to Chthonia. Better to escape, then we can plan your
revenge on the bastard.”

Irina turned amber eyes toward her. They
were dry, tears unshed, sudden determination evident. “Just get us out, Cassi.
I don’t want to think about him again. Ever.”

Irina’s heart was broken and Cassi could do
nothing to ease her pain. She had been shocked watching the cool, calm,
collected Irina she had known for years explode in anger at Tyr’s betrayal, but
seeing the blank emptiness in her expression now was worse.

“How do we do this?” Irina asked.

Cassi held up a lipstick. “Luckily they
were not very thorough when they were searching me for weapons.”

“That’s a weapon?”

“Oh yes. A very good one.”

Cassi pulled the top off the lipstick and
fiddled with the pieces until it was about the length of a pen. She then pulled
a zip down on her boot to reveal three small sharp darts.

“The poison will knock them unconscious for
hours. I’ll stay behind the door while you get their attention. If you get the
chance, grab a weapon.”

Irina did as she was told, banging on the
door and shouting, “Hey, need some help in here. My friend’s collapsed!”

A guard arrived, keys rattling as he opened
the door. The moment he entered, Cassi blew a dart into his neck and smiled in
satisfaction when he felt the sharp sting, slapping his hand at the spot,
falling to the floor, eyes wide in shock.

“Hurry! Look out for others,” said Cassi,
quickly searching him and snatching a gun and a knife that was hidden in his
boot. “You take that.” She passed the knife to Irina. “Anyone else coming?”

“No it’s clear,” said Irina, eyes scanning
the corridor.

“Ok then, let’s go!” Cassi led the way. The
corridors were empty and they were able to reach the lifts undetected but Cassi
thought it better to take the stairwell. “We need to get up to the basement car
park.” It seemed too easy. In no time at all they opened a heavy door, exited
the stairwell and Cassi was leading Irina to a car. She unlocked the door with
another handy gadget that appeared to be a bone-shaped comb. “Skeleton key,
courtesy of Tegid,” she explained. “The wiccani are great at creating magickal
objects. He gave me this for my last birthday.”

They had just opened the doors and were in
the process of sliding into the car when booted feet sounded from the direction
of the stairwell. Within seconds, four burly guards carrying semiautomatic
rifles surrounded them. The guards were pushed unceremoniously aside and Cassi
was confronted by the familiar figure of a Lyrani that she was very keen to
talk to. However, she would have preferred the circumstances of their meeting
to be rather different.

“Hello, ladies.” The tone was sour. “Were
you thinking of going for a jaunt? I don’t think Abrasax would like it. He has
other plans for you.”

“Alcina,” replied Cassi turning to face a
female she had once considered a good friend and ally. “Fancy meeting you here.
I didn’t realize you’d taken to slumming with trash.”

“Look who’s talking, Cassi darling!” Alcina
raised an eyebrow. “You seem to have a penchant for the weak and pathetic
Esseni. You always did have bad taste.”

“You were my mother’s best friend,” broke
in Irina. “Why are you doing this?”

Alcina eyed her with a vicious expression.
“That was a long time ago,” she hissed, “before she stole the man I loved. I
saw him first but just like always she had to take what I wanted away from me!”

“What are you talking about? She loved my
father. There never was anyone else.”

“I know,” said Alcina bitterly. “It was
your father she stole from me. We came to Earth together. I was the one he met
first, but she had to take him, the bitch! So I bided my time, and then she had
you. Right away, I knew you were an Esseni but then she disappeared with you. I
know she was suspicious of me but nothing was going to stop me from getting my
revenge on them both.”

Irina was staring at her in open-mouthed
horror echoing Cassi’s own shock as Alcina’s words sank in and she realized the
truth. Alcina, as she had suspected, was the traitor, but her betrayal went so
much deeper. Her vendetta had caused the murder of Irina’s family, which meant
that Alcina had been betraying the Eunomi for at least fifteen years, perhaps
longer.

Cassi was the first to recover. “I guess
you have a welcome party for Borealis then?” she asked coolly.

Alcina snorted. “Of course. That’s why we
were here, waiting. And then you two showed up. It’s just like Christmas. Get
out of the car. I’m taking you up to Abrasax. He may decide not to send you to
Chthonia after all. I might just ask him to give you both to me. It would be
fun to see what some of my Discordant friends would do to you”

They had no choice but to move. Cassi’s
weapon was no match for the four guards. “We’ll see who has the last laugh,
Alcina,” said Cassi. “Eunomi warriors are not stupid. They will be expecting a
trap.”

“Maybe,” said Alcina, “but by that time,
you two will be long gone.”

Tyr had finally managed to persuade Rusalka
to take him to her playroom but to his disappointment there were no current
inmates. The room itself was a BDSM lovers’ fantasy with every kind of bondage
restraint, whip and flogger imaginable. Tyr eyed the room in distaste. He
didn’t want to imagine that Melanie and Delora had been subjected to this but
it seemed all too likely. “What happened to your playmates?” he asked.

“Oh they became useless,” Rusalka sighed.
“I had them shipped out to Ophiuchus. Someone there will find a use for them
and if not…” She shrugged. “But now we’re here, perhaps you would like to play
with me?” She purred again reminding Tyr more and more of a cat but then she
would wiggle her hips and her moist skin had him thinking of fish. Maybe that’s
what she was, a catfish. Whatever she was, she was beginning to bore him and he
wasn’t getting any answers. Clearly the girls were no longer here.

Tyr decided to end the game. He still
needed to get to Ophiuchus but he calculated that the most pressing concern now
was to liberate Irina and Cassi. Surely the Eunomi would be able to give him
the help and resources to locate Sal’s girls. He also needed to get both
pendants back even if it meant revealing his true allegiance to Abrasax.

“No thanks, Rusalka. If I wanted to play,
you’d be the last person I’d ask.” He watched as her jaw dropped and she
struggled to grasp his meaning.

“Are you turning me down again?” She glared
at him, a dangerous glint in her eye. “Is it because of that brown-haired
bitch, the one with the ugly freckles? Because if it is I can make sure that
she suffers. I owe her payback for earlier but I’m willing to forget about her
if you are.”

Closing the distance between them, she
stared up at him under golden-yellow lashes, her hands gliding over his chest.
Tyr put his hands over hers. She was smiling at him as he bent his head close
to her ear. “Rusalka, if you ever touch Irina I will make sure that you suffer
a hundred times anything you inflict on her. And believe me when I say that
this is not a game.” His grip on her hands intensified has he spun her around
and shoved her away.

Tyr felt immense satisfaction as Rusalka
twisted back to face him, her expression one of vicious outrage. She must have
imagined he was a sure thing. He felt no compunction in doing what he did next.
Rusalka was an evil bitch. She had already hurt Irina and threatened to hurt
her more.

The female launched at him with sharp nails
flexed but his weight and strength presented an obstacle she couldn’t overcome.
He let her attack then simply grabbed her by the throat, choking her into
unconsciousness. She was evil but he couldn’t bring himself to kill her. He
left her tied up in one of her own restraints, regretting for a moment that he
wouldn’t be there to see the expression on her face when she awoke to
experience a taste of her own medicine.

Tyr made his way back to Abrasax’s office.
No more games now. He needed to find Irina and get the pendants. Somehow he
would track Melanie and Delora but first he needed Irina to be secure. Reaching
the door of the office, he paused before entering, hearing a familiar voice.
Peering through the gap in the door he spotted Alcina. He was surprised,
thinking she had been captured as well, imagining she had been so worried about
Irina that like Cassi she had foolishly come after her. Those thoughts soon
vanished in a haze of shock as he watched Alcina calmly walk to Abrasax and
kiss him. “Look what I brought you, darling,” she said as she curled her arms
around his neck, “for the second time.”

Abrasax had his arm around her waist.
“Thank you, Alcina. You have again shown your loyalty to us. I think we will
have to speed up our plans for these two. The transport is here to take them to
the nearest starportal and Choronzon has decided to meet us on Ophiuchus. He
has some business to attend to there and said he could kill two birds with one
stone as it were.”

Realizing he needed to act fast, Tyr scoped
out the rest of the room, his heart jumping fearfully in his chest at the sight
of Irina and Cassi, held immobile in the grip of two guards. Alcina! He now
understood what a double game she had played. He wanted to kill her. He knew
without doubt that Irina hadn’t received his message, that she must believe
that he had betrayed her. No wonder she’d been furious with him and Rusalka! He
weighed all his options. There was only one. So game on. Tyr entered the room.

“Ah, Tyr, back with us again and just in
time,” drawled Abrasax. “We were just discussing traveling arrangements. It’s
time we performed the ceremony to harness your essences. How would you like to
see Ophiuchus?”

“I could make the time.” He nodded to the
traitor. “Alcina.”

“Hello, Tyr. You managed to access the
starportal then. I hoped my instructions would work for you.”

“They did, but you could have just told me
that you and Abrasax were friends.”

“Ah, but I didn’t know if I could trust you
then.”

He acknowledged the hit with an incline of
his head, his mind more focused on the chasm that lay between himself and
Irina. She was studiously ignoring him, the torn threads of the connection they
had once shared scattered between them, Tyr willing her to gather them up. She
remained impervious. Cassi however was eyeing him with pure vengeance in her
blue eyes. “You do understand what that means, don’t you, Tyr?” she spat at
him. “The Discordants will destabilize The Balance with your essences, causing
chaos, death and destruction and in order to use Irina’s essence, they will
kill her.”

His eyes flew to Irina’s face, her amber
gaze frozen on his in fear and shock. Trying to remain impassive, he replied,
“I know.”

Irina’s pain was intense. She couldn’t
believe her day could be any worse. She had barely recovered from Tyr’s
betrayal and then discovered the bloodstained night forever etched into her
brain had been orchestrated by Alcina—and now this! Her focus on his eyes
faltered as the full weight of his reply crushed her. Not only had he betrayed
her, he didn’t actually care if she died!
Oh my god!
Irina felt her body
go numb. It was the only way she could deal with the shock, the agonizing
reality that someone she had trusted, had felt for so intensely had coldly,
cruelly dismissed her existence with two words. He knew. Knew she would die!
That thought left her utterly destroyed. The shattered shards of her broken
heart began slicing through the last fraying threads severing any remnants of
their connection. The last tendrils withering and dying, leaving a gaping empty
chasm, a black hole of dark matter the color of Tyr’s eyes. Darkness. She hoped
never to see those eyes again. If she could only wipe them from her
consciousness every time she shut her eyes!

Tyr was still staring at her, his obsidian
eyes boring into her soul. What was he trying to do to her now?
There’s
nothing left!
She wanted to shout and scream,
You’ve taken it all!
Irina gritted her teeth, determined to fend off the intrusion. It was then that
she sensed it, a small filament of a thread, an electrical pulse, weaving its
way tentatively toward her. She batted it away but it persisted. It was molten
heat, probing and pulsing, a warmth spreading desire, arousal…love? Her brain
was confused. It felt as if the thread was coming from Tyr. The warmth knocked
again, a jolt of incandescence, a fluttering of wings, like a…like a dove! It
was
Tyr. A message! He was trying to tell her something. The dove fluttered again,
flying along the cord cradling a message under its wing.

I Love You.

She could actually hear the words in Tyr’s
voice, although he’d never said those words to her before.
I. Love. You.
Little dove. Believe.

The room faded away, dissolved into
nothingness and all she could see was Tyr, standing in front of her in a white
space, arms outstretched.
Magnet. Attract
. She ran. Arms enfolding.
Encircling. Entwining.

She answered.
I understand.

Tyr stood in that same white space, his
heart pounding in his chest, Irina in his embrace.

Soft. Warm. Safe.
I understand
. Two
words that sustained his soul. His relief was immeasurable.

She heard him. She knew.

“Irina!”

Back to reality, Tyr heard Cassi’s cry and
watched helpless as Irina crumpled into a heap at the foot of the guard who let
go of her arm the instant she fell. Cassi struggled to reach her, wrenching
away from her jailor’s grip and gathered Irina onto her lap.

At the same moment Tyr’s eye was caught by
Abrasax removing the two pendants from the safe. Knowing instinctively that
Cassi would help Irina, he had to act on the distraction she had caused and
went full throttle for his quarry. He landed on Abrasax with the full force of
his body weight, slamming him down to the ground, at the same time ripping the
pendants from his grasp.

Abrasax stayed down, blood dripping from
his temple where his head had bounced off the table. Tyr’s action was so fast
that the guards and Alcina were taken by surprise. He sprang back up again
before they had even moved. “Cassi!” he shouted, “bring Irina. Now!”

To her credit Cassi didn’t hesitate. Her
two-thousand-year-old instincts came into play. She kicked out at the nearest
guard, knocking his legs out from under him. He crashed to the ground. The
second guard went for his gun but Cassi was too quick, the knife she had given
Irina finding its target. The guard fell, blood streaming from his chest.

Tyr took the opportunity to grab Alcina in
a chokehold. “Grab their weapons, Cassi!” She did.

“What game are you playing now, Tyr? Whose
side are you on?” Cassi eyed him suspiciously.

“No game, Cassi,” he said. “I’m on the same
side as I’ve always been. Mine and Irina’s.”

“Glad to hear it,” she said. “Now what
shall we do with this bitch?”

“Kill her.”

“That’s a bit cold-blooded of you,” said
Cassi.

“You know what they say,” said Tyr. “Take
no prisoners.”

“Did you hear that, Alcina? Tyr wants to
kill you.”

Alcina struggled as Tyr tightened his hold.
“Go to hell!”

“It won’t be us going to hell, Alcina.
Maybe we should take you to the Eunomi council. They have a number of methods
for dealing with traitors.”

“I will kill you, Cassi, and Irina, the
little bitch won’t know…”

Alcina crashed to the floor, Tyr shrugging
at Cassi’s look of reproach. “She was threatening Irina,” he said knowing it
was all the explanation he needed to knock someone unconscious. “And we need to
get moving.”

“Agreed.”

Tyr stalked to where Irina lay. She was
just beginning to stir as he gathered her into his arms, breathing in her
scent, the warmth of her skin soaking into his chest, chocolate curls lying
soft against his cheek.

“Tyr,” she murmured.

“Sssh! I’m here now,” he whispered into her
hair.

“You are such a bastard,” she muttered,
nuzzling into his neck.

“I thought we were past all that!”

“We are, but I can still say it. You put me
through hell.” Her eyes locked on his.

“Never again,” he swore, kissing her
forehead. “I guess Alcina didn’t give you my message.”

She shook her head, amber eyes heavy with
regret. “I’m sorry, Tyr. I should have had more faith in you.” Tyr held her
even more tightly. “But you did, you came for me even though she didn’t give
you the message and that means everything.”

“Why did you go?” Irina asked. “The Eunomi
think you’re working for Abrasax.”

“I had to,” he explained. “Abrasax has
Sal’s daughters. He killed both Sal and Leah and threatened the girls unless I
helped him locate the pendant. I came back to find them but they’re not here
now. They’ve been taken to Ophiuchus.”

“Maybe the Eunomi can help.”

“I’m hoping they can.”

“You can put me down now Tyr, I’m fine,”
said Irina.

He did. “I meant what I said earlier.” Tyr
kept a tight grasp on her hand.

“I know.” She smiled up at him her eyes
locked in his gaze. In that moment Tyr was floating, soaring in the pool of
warm air that enveloped them, a circling coil of energy, infinitely weaving a
timeless web to bind them together in a union so perfect that everything but
the woman in front of him melted away into nonexistence.

He loved her beyond measure and his hand
tightened to pull her closer to show her just how much when Cassi’s voice
intruded, breaking them apart. “Ahem! Sorry to butt in on the reunion. You can
kiss and make up later. Right now we have a problem.”

Tyr had a problem withdrawing his eyes from
Irina’s, but he knew Cassi was right and turned to face her, alert to the
serious expression on her face. “We need to get you both and the pendants out
of here,” she said.

“Okay, lead on.” At that he grabbed Irina’s
hand, again urging her forward to follow Cassi out the door. Leaving the room,
Tyr caught a glimpse of Abrasax beginning to stir. “We’d better hurry, they’ll
be onto us soon,” he shouted to Cassi as they ran down the corridor, heading
for the stairs.

It was the Friday before a bank holiday and
Abrasax Tower was quieter than usual, most of the businesses located there
having closed up early, giving their staff a long weekend break. They met very
few people, managing to evade Abrasax’s guards by crossing floors to change
stairwells periodically. The tactic worked until they reached the twenty-second floor. As they crisscrossed through the empty offices of an
advertising agency, Tyr felt a stinging sensation that forced the hairs on the
back of his neck to stand to attention. They were not alone.

Turning the next corner, he was unsurprised
to see a huge warrior in black armor standing before them. Unfortunately he
also was not alone. Hordes of what Tyr now knew as shedu in their true beast
form were at his back.