Embrace the Power: A Paranormal Romance (The Blood Rose Series Book 9) (2 page)

He knew she wanted him, though. Her woodsy, herbal scent was laced with so many come-and-get-me pheromones, he’d almost jumped her then and there.

The trouble was, the woman could teleport so he’d have about as much chance of holding onto her as flying to the moon.

The last thing he wanted to do, however, was to share any of this with Delia.

He changed the subject. “How’s that husband of yours?”

“Mm. As stubborn as ever—”

Something in the tone of her voice caused Stone to glance at her once more. He watched her shake her head, her three forehead ridges compressed together, her lips forming a tight line. The words were right, but they didn’t match the concern he saw. He knew something was wrong.

He leaned in her direction. His Communication Center had doubled the staff from a year ago and there were so many ears listening to anything either of them said that he switched to telepathy.
What gives and you’d better tell me now.

In all the decades she’d been with him, he’d never seen Delia shed a tear, not even when her favorite dog got slain by a wraith-pair. But she had tears in her eyes now.
Elias is missing, Mastyr.

How long has he been gone?

I shouldn’t be bothering you with this.

He reached over and took her arm gently in hand and repeated the question.
How long? Please, tell me. And don’t think I’ll let this go. You’re important to me.

Delia’s lips turned down, but she squared her shoulders.
Two days and a night.

That length of time during the war against the Invictus wraith-pairs might as well have been a week.

Any word from him during that time? A text? Anything?

No.

Sweet Goddess, why didn’t you tell me sooner?

At that, she turned to glare at him then swept her hand from one side of the room to the other, encompassing the battery of images that each monitor displayed constantly. Forty realm-folk, half of them Guardsmen, manned the various stations.
You have something far more important on your mind than whatever might have happened to my husband. Maybe the Invictus got him, hauled him off to force him into a wraith-pair bond or maybe they slaughtered him. That makes me one of how many tens of thousands this has happened to? So why should I get any special treatment?

Stone knew she was right. She shouldn’t get special treatment. But she’d been the best assistant he’d ever had, she never let him get away with his usual bullshit, and dammit, she was family.

He looked around and seeing that one of his lieutenants had just come in, he called to him. “Harris, I need you on this.”

Delia shook her head at him. “But Mastyr—”

He turned to her. “This is my call. Don’t worry. All we’re going to do right now is gather more information. I promise, I won’t jeopardize any part of the war effort. Okay?”

She put a hand to her chest, her soft blue eyes stricken. “I couldn’t live with the guilt if you did.”

“Understood.” One more reason he valued Delia. She knew the meaning of sacrifice.

Harris levitated swiftly to Stone’s station. He was a full six-five and muscled and had long blond hair that he wore pulled tight into the woven Guardsman clip so that his cheekbones stood out like blades. He wasn’t a mastyr yet, but damn near close.

When Harris reached Delia’s workstation, Stone told him the gist then added. “We need more information.”

Harris frowned slightly and glanced at Delia. “You and your husband live on a farm, out by Rutland, right?”

“We do. But Elias left there day before yesterday. He and a friend heard about this old gold mine southwest of Charborne. He’d gone there to see if the claim was worth re-opening.”

The mention of Charborne set Stone back on his heels. Though it had been a long time since he’d lived in the area, the memories rushed forward as though having a life of their own. His chest tightened painfully. His parents had died near the village in one of the worst Invictus attacks of the Nine Realms during which half the villagers had perished.

He still owned his family’s property on the outskirts of Charborne, some three-hundred acres, in the southwest quadrant. But for a long time now, he’d leased it out to a fae-troll couple who had lived on the land for the past two hundred years. He should have sold it to them long ago, but every time he got the process started, something stopped him. The past would always rise up to haunt him, tearing his peace down bit by bit, until he had to let the sale go.

Delia’s strong voice brought him back sharply. “Stone? You okay?”

“It’s Charborne.”

“Oh, right. I forgot,” she said. “Sorry.”

He ground his teeth. “Can’t be helped.” He turned toward the monitors and called to the man in charge. “Alex, I need the current feed from Charborne. We may have a problem out there.”

“Got it,” Alex called back.

Stone crossed his arms over his chest, his gaze glued to the monitor directly above Alex. He’d built the center that now linked to thousands of cameras around his realm. Every main thoroughfare of every village had three cameras, more if the lane curved. The cities had hundreds and his crew checked the feeds constantly.

Behind him, he could hear operators talking softly to realm-folk who called the Invictus-sighting hotline he’d set up. Sure, they got more crank calls than he’d like, but his people had become one of his best weapons in alerting the Tannisford Vampire Guard and the Shifter Brigade to Invictus activity across the realm.

He waited as Alex’s keyboard clacked softly. More than once the feed of Charborne came up then flickered away. “What’s the problem, Alex?”

“Not sure. Could be the cameras.”

Stone didn’t like it. He had a missing troll and a wonky feed.

He turned slightly in Harris’s direction. “Let’s get a team out there to see if anything’s going on.” He could feel Delia’s sudden tension beside him.

“Will do,” Harris said. “But there’s something else. I got a call from Merhaine that the Vampire Guard hasn’t been able to locate Mastyr Gerrod for the past couple of hours. It’s probably nothing, but about five minutes ago, I got a similar call from one of Mastyr Ethan’s lieutenants.”

“And you tried reaching them both?”

“I tried my cell and telepathy. Couldn’t make contact with either of them. Of course, there could be lots of reasons, but it seemed odd.”

“It does seem odd. Stay on that situation, would you? And if in the next hour or so, you still can’t firm up a connection, let me know.”

Harris nodded. “Also, did you see the latest analysis sheet on several of the western villages? Charborne was one of them.”

“It was next on my list.” For the past several months, the ruling mastyrs had hired several data analysts to compile numbers from as far back as each realm had written information on hand. Some of the realms had records from eight centuries ago.

Harris added, “In Tannisford, Charborne is one of the places that’s had higher-than-usual Invictus sightings century after century.”

Delia set her hands on her keyboard. “Let me pull it up.” She tapped on her computer and quickly scrolled through her files. It wasn’t lost on Stone that her fingers trembled. Yet, she kept on working.

When she found the document, she levitated to Stone’s shoulder height and passed her laptop to him.

He scanned the list and there it was. Charborne had one of the highest recurrence rates in Tannisford and ranked tenth in all Nine Realms. He handed her laptop back. “That settles it. We need to get out there. Harris, take several squads. As soon as you have confirmation of even one wraith-pair, let me know.”

Harris nodded, then headed toward the door. Stone could hear him talking quietly into his shoulder com and issuing orders.

So much had changed throughout the Nine Realms over the past few years. All the mastyrs had upgraded to more efficient methods of communication. Not every realm-person could communicate through telepathy and even those that could were often limited by distance.

As for the gold mine, he remembered a small operation that started up about two-hundred-and-fifty-years ago.

Delia said, “Sorry that it had to be Charborne.”

He avoided meeting Delia’s gaze. “It’s okay. All that matters is that we get this sorted, the sooner the better, and bring Elias home.”

“So, do you know where the mine is?” She settled her laptop back on her desk.

Stone frowned at the screen. “Pull up a topographical map of the area and I can show you exactly what we’re looking at. The good news here is that I think the mine is at the edge of a densely wooded area. If there was an attack in the vicinity, Elias was in the right location to secure a hiding place.”

Delia did her magic and a few seconds later, Stone had the laptop once more in hand. He scrolled again, then put his finger on the spot. There was even a pick-axe graphic, typical of maps showing mine locations. “The mine is about five hundred yards north of Charbeetle Creek. I’ll let Harris know.”

“Thank you.” Delia buried her face in her hands. He could see by the movements of her shoulders she’d lost it. But he’d been with her a long time. She was a woman with grit and would come around soon enough. In the meantime, he settled his hand on her shoulder and kept it there.

There was nothing to do now except wait.

His thoughts, as usual, turned to Aralynn. If a heavy Invictus attack was going on out at Charborne, he suspected it wouldn’t be long before Aralynn contacted him. Though she was predominantly wolf-shifter, her powerful fae abilities had more than once clued him in on a dangerous situation in Tannisford, things that his Guard patrols or village-mounted cameras weren’t catching. But why her fae visions hadn’t picked up on this situation before, he didn’t know.

Unless, of course, Margetta herself had her hands in it. She had enough power to render the camera feeds useless and to disguise the area from outsiders. The more he thought about it, his own vampire instincts began to curl and writhe inside him.

The Ancient Fae had to be involved.

But where was Aralynn?

~ ~ ~

Rosamunde paced her private living room situated at the less formal west end of the castle. She could feel the sacred elf-lord power rumbling at a distance, which meant something was afoot in Tannisford and Stone would need her soon. She’d learned from experience to let the visions come when they wanted, not to force them.

But she was in deep trouble with Stone because if he ever learned the truth about her, that she was both Rosamunde and Aralynn, he’d never forgive her. The man had a hard head and a stubborn streak a mile wide.

A moan left her throat and she actually wrung her hands. Somewhere in the middle of partnering with Stone, the worst had happened: She was pretty sure she’d fallen in love with the intractable mastyr of Tannisford.

Goddess help her!

She had more secrets locked away as well, each of which could set an impenetrable block wall between herself and Stone. Because of it, she’d become a ridiculous tangle of nerves.

She’d tried to tell Stone the truth more than once, especially when he’d almost kissed her the night before while she’d been in her Aralynn form. But the words had gotten stuck in her throat as though they’d grown claws and held on for good.

She was in so much trouble especially because Stone didn’t respect her as Rosamunde. He thought her lazy, uncaring and cowardly.

“Did you summon me?”

The woman’s voice startled her. She whirled around and there was Vojalie, the tall elegant fae who had served as her counselor for centuries.

She threw her hands wide. “Yes. Vojalie, I can’t do this anymore.”

“Can’t do what?”

“Keep being Aralynn when I’m with Stone when he doesn’t know that I’m Rosamunde as well. I want to quit.”

“But I thought you were enjoying your missions with Stone. You begged for years to be allowed to participate in the war in a substantial way and now you are.” There was an amused light in Vojalie’s eye.

“Are you laughing at me?”

“A little, but what did you expect? You’ve always had a thing for Stone, even at a distance.”

Rosamunde dropped onto an ottoman, shoulders slumped. “You’re right and I’ve become this ridiculous, weak-kneed female that I hardly recognize.” She shifted her gaze to Vojalie’s. “He only has to look at me with those beautiful mossy-green eyes of his and I swear I starting melting into a puddle. Have you ever experienced anything like that in your life?”

Rosamunde didn’t miss the soft light that entered Vojalie’s eyes. “Oh, yes. With Davido. All the time. Still.”

Rosamunde found it very hard to believe. Davido was the ugliest troll she’d ever seen. How could Vojalie have what was obviously a full-on lust for the man?

On the other hand, Davido’s charisma was pretty much off the charts, so perhaps that was the reason he’d wooed and won the most beautiful fae in the Nine Realms.

Vojalie gave herself a shake and drew close. She even settled her hand on Rosamunde’s shoulder. “Stone has a severe bark and a quick temper. We both know that. Tell him the truth, tell him who you are. He’ll understand. Eventually.”

“He’ll take my head off. You know how much he despises
this woman
.” She waved a hand to encompass her long silk gown and the intricate braids she wore.

Vojalie’s lips quirked once more and her eyes danced. “That he does. But I must say, it’s only because you’ve done a very poor job at helping him to understand that you’ve single-handedly protected the entire Nine Realms against Margetta all these years.”

“He scoffed when I told him, I mean when ‘Aralynn’ told him. He basically said that ‘Rosamunde’ was indolent. Maybe I was … am … I don’t know. I’m very confused.”

“You’re halfway in love with him, is all. And sometimes it makes it hard to find the right words.”

At that, Rosamunde grew very still. “I’ve tried to tell him that ‘Rosamunde’ found it difficult to leave Ferrenden Peace because supporting the mist was that important. And it is, I know it is. I remember when I went to heal Lorelei in Walvashorr, I was so afraid Margetta would realize Ferrenden Peace was unguarded. I’m still afraid, even now, when I leave my kingdom to run missions with Stone.”