Fighting Fate: Book 2 of the Warrior Chronicles (25 page)

Jesse looked at his watch again. Ninety minutes to find the treasure that shaped centuries of spirituality, both Pagan and Christian. The ever elusive vessel that produced a legend so powerful men and women died to protect it and fortune hunters of all codes and creeds would not only kill to possess, but sell their souls to drink from it just once.

“Well, I’ll say this for you Campbells, when you go, you go large.” Jesse said, thinking he was going to need more men to protect to her if she so much as whispered this nonsense to anyone else.

Jesse heard a branch crack behind Taryn. He was more than two strides away from her and before he could open his mouth to tell her to get down she whirled around to confront whoever or whatever made the noise. Taryn was on her knees before Jesse got to her. Knife in hand, he surveyed what he could see of the terrain, knowing whoever attacked Taryn was long gone.

Taryn suddenly felt heavy; like her legs just couldn’t hold her anymore. She needed to lie down, but her head was moving faster than her thoughts and it was going to fall down on its own. “Ought oohh. I’m falling and I can’t get up.”

Taryn giggled at the thought of herself as that old woman alone slipping out of her chair in the T.V. commercial, even though the thought wasn’t particularly funny. She didn’t want to be alone. She looked at Jesse’s face, his blurred features swimming in and out of focus and said, “Save me. I don’t want to be alone.”

Jesse caught her before her head hit the ground as she slid down his body. She couldn’t help it. She suddenly weighed a thousand pounds. Taryn laughed again, a hollow sound, “A thousand pound Amazon who needs saving.”

“Shh. Don’t try to talk. We need to get out of here, love. Focus on your feet. On moving your feet.”

Taryn looked at her feet. “I have pretty feet. They’re my best feature.”

Jesse made a rude sound and pushed a button on the side of his watch. He scooped her up. “Put those pretty feet under you. We need to walk, Taryn. Come on. Concentrate.”

Jesse positioned her so she had her right arm across his left shoulder, leaving his right arm free. He was half pulling half pushing her away from the coffee shop. Taryn started to laugh at the absurdity of the last few weeks, but why it was absurd drifted away as she noticed all the pretty colors and sounds of the forest.

Jesse’s voice came to her from far away saying something about putting one foot in front of the other. Taryn tried to waive her hand at him dismissing his grumpy command. Why hurry when they were surrounded by so much beauty.

She was seeing the scent of the trees. “Green smells so pretty. Don’t you think so, Jesse?”

The sight of flower scent was even better, Taryn thought dreamily. “Yellow is nice too, kinda like lemony melon or dragonfly wings dancing in the dew.” She turned her nose up, it was beginning to itch. “I don’t like the way pink smells though. No-”

Her voice sounded funny and her tongue was getting thick.

“-no I don’t like the way pink smells at all.” She giggled. “Pink stinks.”

“Of course it does.”

“Jesse?”

“Yes, love?”

“I think something bit me. My blood’s humming and I feel fuzzy inside.”

“A few more steps, Taryn. We’re almost there.”

She tripped once, twice and then she was tripping into the side of their mini-car. Taryn tried to lift her hand to the side of her neck, but it was too heavy. “My bite hurts.” Her eyelids were getting heavy.

“You’ve been drugged by a dart, love. Not bitten.”

Even in her drug laced state, or maybe especially in it, Taryn not only heard the fear and the love in Jesse’s voice, she could taste it like honey and lemon and copper pennies; she could smell it, rain-washed freshly cut grass, earth and ammonia. It was scary and wonderful and so real she could wrap herself in it, if she could get rid of the fear, the ammonia and the pennies.

She didn’t want Jesse to worry. “I love you, Jesse. With my whole heart. No pretend. I don’t want you to smell like pennies or glass cleaner. I want you to smell like sunshine and honeybees...and…” That was her last thought as her world bled from a kaleidoscope of color to endless gray.

…

The voices were mumbled and indistinct at first. Taryn heard them but she didn’t understand anything. Her limbs weren’t as heavy now and the colors were beginning to lose their scent, although she could still taste everything around her. Since she was in a hospital, that sense wasn’t a good thing. Taryn decided to focus on the conversation while she kept her eyes closed. Something was definitely wrong because even as she wanted to pretend to be asleep she didn’t seem capable of deceit. She had to settle for silence and stillness instead, neither of which were inherent in her nature.

“I’ll fly my disease expert in. She recently retired from the CDC. There’s no one better.” Taryn recognized her boss’s voice and wondered why he was there. He had a museum to run.

“The hell you will, MacBain. Until I know exactly what happened here, no one whom I don’t know personally is going to touch
my wife
. Why are you here?” Jesse demanded harshly.

“I couldn’t reach Taryn by phone…and I received a
disturbing
e-mail.”

Jesse made a rude sound, but otherwise said nothing, his earlier tone still smoking her ears. Taryn hadn’t heard that particular tone in Jesse’s voice before and she’d heard plenty of them from him: uncompromisingly cold, hot, and deadly. She almost smiled at his possessiveness, something she should have chastised him for, but couldn’t since she was being forcefully honest with herself. The truth was she liked being possessed by Jesse. In fact, she found she wanted to do a little possessing of her own. Starting with straddling him on a chair where he was at her mercy and she could tease and taunt and please to her heart’s content. Maybe she could get him to take her back to Rhia’s castle and try out the dungeon’s swinging chair.

“Taryn will be fine. She’s stronger than you think.” This from Merlin, her champion.

Taryn opened her eyes. “
She
is strong enough to get out of here. Thank you, Merlin.” Taryn smiled at him and he smiled back, a wealth of knowledge and understanding in his age old eyes. “This place tastes like death. I want to leave.”

Jesse’s concerned gaze flew to hers. “Are you still smelling colors?”

Taryn thought about that. Again she wanted to lie. “Yes. But not as powerfully now.”

A man she’d never seen before dressed in a white medical coat came up and slapped a cold stethoscope on her chest. He smiled at her with warm brown eyes, seeming to tune out the other men in the room who, with the exception of Merlin, were fighting an invisible testosterone war.

“I’m Jay Minorik. Jesse flew me out here to see if we can figure out what’s happening with you. Fortunately, I was at a conference in London when the call came in. How are you feeling?”

“Like I’m a toy no one wants to share.”

Dr. Minorik laughed at that. “Nothing wrong with your cognitive functioning then. Heartbeat is steady and strong. In fact, all your vitals are perfect. Your blood work shows that you’ve been drugged with a compound we can’t yet identify. Its chemical signature isn’t in any database I have access to and no one I know has seen it before. It appears to be naturally occurring and not synthetic. That alone is making it difficult to identify.”

Taryn’s face must have shown her worry because when he continued Dr. Minorik seemed to be speaking to her husband and her boss more than to her, although he continued to look into her eyes. He confirmed it when he winked at her.

“Other than not being able to identify what’s in your bloodstream, it doesn’t seem to be dangerous. If anything, it seems to have restorative properties. Your vitals are more like a nineteen year old athlete than a woman in her thirties. And the evidence of a bone fracture when you fell and broke your femur is almost gone. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’d grown new bone, as healthy as it was when you broke it as a child.”

“Can I leave? I’ve got a shoot to do.”

“I delayed your shoot. We won’t do this segment until next summer. I thought about having someone else step in, but this is your shoot, darling. We’ll simply add Scotland to the itinerary and shoot longer next summer. I have an option on filming some of the Mayan ruins that I can fill your spot with. No worries.”

“Stop calling my wife, ‘darling’, MacBain.”

Lauren MacBain, didn’t look the least bit contrite when he smiled at Taryn and brushed a lock of hair from her brow with the back of his hand. Lauren was looking at her, but his words were for the doctor. He ignored Jesse, seeming to enjoy yanking Jesse’s chain. Men were interestingly juvenile creatures, Taryn thought, charming, frustrating and endearing all at the same time.

“What are the possible side-effects? And how long do you think they’ll last?”

“The healing aspect will most probably be permanent. The heightened sensory experiences have already begun to fade. Taryn may experience some permanent heightening of her senses. It’s too early to tell. The more troubling aspect seems to be her inability to prevaricate. If that’s like the rest of her symptoms it too will fade, but how quickly? That’s anyone’s guess.”

“You mean she can’t lie?” Jesse asked, pushing past Lauren and shoving him none-to-gently away from her.

“That’s exactly what I mean.”

Jesse looked at her, probing into her with those penetrating gray eyes. “Are you alright?”

Taryn sat up, feeling more than alright and more than ready to leave. “I feel great. I want to leave.”

Jesse’s gaze shifted to Dr. Minorik, silently asking his question.

“I don’t see any reason to keep her in the hospital. I can monitor her progress as well at her home as I can here.”

“I’m not going home.”

Jesse looked at her, all compassion gone from his face, replaced with cold determination. “You are.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“I have a job to do here. I’m fully capable of doing it. I’m not leaving until I see it through.”

Lauren MacBain stepped up again. His voice was kind when he spoke, but the look he gave her was every bit as determined as Jesse’s. “Listen to me, Taryn. I canceled the shoot. There is no work to be done here until next June. It’s time for you to go home. Let it be.”

Did she imagine more in Lauren’s words than polite concern? He wanted her gone.

“Damn straight.” Jesse said.

Taryn flashed her anger at him. “
Now
you agree with him?”

“Now he’s talking sense.”

Taryn thought hard. She caught Merlin’s eye and suddenly it was like she could read his thoughts.
Stay the night in the cottage. You’re too tired to travel today. You’ll stay at Sacred Springs Cottage tonight. Tomorrow is early enough to go home.

“I’ll go tomorrow. Tonight I want to stay in my cottage.” She smiled at Dr. Minorik. “The good doctor can keep tabs on me there.”

Jesse’s jaw unclenched and his shoulders dropped, visibly relaxing. He looked at the doctor. “Can I take her now?”

Dr. Minorik nodded. “I don’t see why not.”

A strange and indecipherable look flashed across Lauren MacBain’s face. Part relief and part worry, but Taryn didn’t think the worry had to do with the state of her health. She couldn’t dismiss it. The scent emanating from Lauren MacBain was worry commingled with an absolute need to protect. But protect what or who from what or from whom? Too bad she couldn’t smell or taste that, so instead she said exactly what needed to have happen.

“Get me out of here.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

The cottage was everything Taryn remembered, quaint and lovely, open and fresh. The thatching had recently been redone. The ornate swirl pattern on the edging and the fresh whitewash made it look like a welcoming haven in the center of a fairytale. Taryn loved every inch of it, but it was the gardens she loved best. And with her new superpower, not only did the scents and colors come alive, she could taste the plants as well. Surprisingly, the most lovely looking plants left a cabbage taste while the more natural, daisy-like plants were all honey and earth and herb.

“I love it here.” She said, as Jesse led her up the step a hand under her arm even though she felt stronger than ever. “I can see why Aunt Olive doesn’t want to give it up.”

Jesse led her to the open kitchen that had been recently updated with all modern appliances that had a surprisingly old-world feel. The cabinetry was all made from reclaimed oak from the old forests and it shone with fresh polish.

“This is a wonderful place. When the danger to you is over, I’ll bring you back. I promise. I need to figure out what’s going on and stop it before you really get hurt. I thought we’d be safer here. Now all I want is to get you back to Potter’s Woods. I know I can protect you there.”

“At least you know now this isn’t about being a Bennett. It has something to do with this bracelet and my father’s work.”

Jesse set her at the high counter and pulled out a stool for her before checking out what was in the refrigerator. “I
don’t
know that. And until I know exactly what’s going on, I’m not counting anything out.”

Shannon O’Shay stepped into the kitchen with a young man who was so roughly masculine and so beautiful at the same time, he didn’t seem quite real. “As well you shouldn’t.”

Jesse seemed to relax as soon as Shay walked into the room. Shay’s bruising had faded and the butterfly bandage was gone, but his nose was still swollen. Taryn took less shame and more pride in that than she should have. It must have been the honesty still swimming in her blood. She grinned at him, no longer angry, now all full of good will.

“How’s the nose?”

Shay cocked his head at her. “I’m finally breathing through it.”

Her grin widened and she almost sang the next words. “Still tasting blood every time you inhale?”

“Not so much.”

“Pity. I was hoping that would last longer.”

A full grin split Shay’s handsome face, the swollen nose not detracting from his rakish allure at all. “I knew there was a reason I liked you. You remind me more of Red every time I see you.” Shay stopped himself abruptly, seemingly tentative with the subject of Taryn’s biological mother and his best friend in her presence.