Guardians of Stone (The Relic Seekers) (35 page)

“There’s something strange about these stones,” Nathan said.

He was right about that, Kendall thought. She couldn’t remember exactly what happened to her and Adam all those years ago, but it had something to do with this altar.

“Strange to see stones this big inside a chapel. They look like the ones near the catacombs. Except there are symbols on these.”

“Writing,” Kendall said, earning a surprised look from the men.

“You know what they say?” Jake asked.

Kendall touched her head, which was beginning to ache. “No.”

“The stone in the middle looks different than the other two,” Nathan said. “Looks like there’s a disk embedded inside.”

Jake added the beam from his light to Nathan’s. “I think you’re right. Another circle. I think they’re obsessed with them.”

Kendall grabbed a flashlight and joined them, trying to ignore the way her stomach flipped when she neared the stones. “It does look like a disk.” With all the writing covering it, she hadn’t noticed until she was up close.

“The symbols are in rows,” Nathan said. “Like rings.”

“None of them make sense,” Jake said. “Except this one.” He pointed to one of the small inner rings in the middle of the disk. “It looks like a C. It’s cut deeper than the other symbols.”

“There’s one here as well.” Nathan rubbed his finger over a symbol on the opposite side of the ring. “But the C is backward.”

“It almost makes a circle,” Kendall said. “Wait a minute. This center of the disk has a curved line on the top and the bottom. If we could turn the rings and line the symbols up, it would make a circle.”

“And that’s why she’s my relic expert,” Nathan said. He pressed his forefinger and thumb against the ring and attempted to turn it. “It’s moving.”

They aligned the rings so that the two parts faced. Kendall turned the center, filling in the rest of the circle.

“But what does it do?” Nathan asked.

“The other circles opened something,” Kendall said. “Maybe this is where the four relics are hidden.”

“Four relics?” Nathan asked.

Kendall studied the circle. “Marco said the Protettori protected four relics that were so powerful they had to be separated, so they’re probably not here. Maybe there’s something else hidden.”

“When did he say that?” Nathan asked.

“When you were holding us as prisoners,” Jake said.

“Are you going to remind me of that every thirty minutes?” Nathan growled.

Jake shrugged. “I might.”

“Let it go,” Nathan said. “I could bring up every mistake you’ve made.”

“You’re admitting kidnapping us was a mistake?”

“Can we get back to the task at hand?” Kendall asked. “Edward’s ancestor thought there was treasure hidden in the chapel. Maybe this is it.”

“Hidden treasure. Works for me,” Jake said. “Let’s give it a push and see what happens.”

“We’ll draw straws in case there is a trap,” Kendall said.

“I’ll do it,” Jake offered.

Nathan shook his head. “I will. You stay with Kendall.”

“We’ll all draw straws,” Kendall said. “The shortest one pushes the circle.” Both men were scowling but they agreed. She dug in her bag and found a small tube of mascara and two tubes of lipstick. Disguising their size, she held them out and let Nathan and Jake choose first. Nathan and Jake each chose a tube of lipstick. Kendall opened her hand and showed them her tube. It was shortest.

“Best of three,” Jake said.

“No.” Kendall grabbed all three items and dropped them back in her bag. “Wait by the door.”

They stood mutely, staring at her.

“Go to the door,” she said, louder this time.

Reluctantly they moved, but their faces were tight as they walked away.

She approached the stone and let her hands hover over the mark on the disk. She looked back at Nathan and Jake. Both men had moved a few steps closer and were staring at her, their gazes dark, though Nathan’s eyes seemed to be lightening. Taking a deep breath, she pushed the circle. The ring closest to the circle turned slightly, but nothing else happened.

“I guess it doesn’t work,” Kendall said.

The men moved behind her and they all studied the stone in disappointment. “This wasn’t here before.” Jake touched a small hole, which had been exposed after the ring turned.

“It looks like the keyhole in the door to the catacombs and the chapel,” Kendall said.

“There’s one here too,” Nathan said.

“The box needed three keys,” Kendall said. “What do you want to bet this does too? Look for another keyhole.”

Jake scratched at something with his knife. “Bingo.”

“OK, we have three.” Kendall took an excited breath. “Where’s my cross? Sorry, your cross,” she said to Nathan.

He pulled it out of his pocket. “Try it.”

She took the cross and stuck it inside the tiny hole. “It fits. We need the others.”

Nathan put Marco’s cross in one of the keyholes, and Jake put Raphael’s in the third keyhole.

“On three,” Nathan said. “One. Two. Three.” They turned the keys together and light shot out of the keyholes, like it had in the catacombs.

“Get back!” Kendall yelled, but Nathan and Jake had both already jumped clear. There was a scraping sound and the entire disk started to turn. The center stone began to slide backward, revealing a set of steps leading below the chapel.

“Bloody hell,” Nathan said.

“Another secret room.” Kendall held her light up, trying to see where the steps led. The beam cut through the darkness, picking up flashes of gold. “Edward’s ancestor was right,” she whispered. “I think we’ve found the treasure.”

“Let us go first this time,” Nathan said.

“We go together.” She took a step. Nathan and Jake stayed beside her, each movement from their flashlights picking up the glint of silver and gold. At the bottom of the steps, they stopped, frozen in awe. “The treasure.”

“There must be a light switch in this place.” Jake pointed his light at the wall then pushed something. Massive torches on each side of the room flared to life. “That’s cool. A fire hazard, but cool.”

“The torches must burn on gas,” Nathan said.

“This is unbelievable,” Kendall said, walking deeper into the room. “It’s like something out of a movie.” The hidden room in the castle had appeared to be more of a museum, but this was a treasure hunter’s dream. Trunks and shelves of treasure. Gold and jewels and coins. Very old coins. There were statues, figures of solid gold, ancient papyruses and scrolls.

The room was larger than the chapel, which appeared to have been built as a disguise. They walked around, afraid to touch anything but unable to stop themselves. Kendall picked up a wooden box filled with pieces of gold. She found another box beside it with coins and jewels that she believed to be from a shipwreck in the thirteenth century.

“Where did they get all this stuff?” Jake held a dagger embedded with a huge ruby. He took a couple of practice swings that made Kendall’s stomach clench.

“Careful with that. It looks ancient.” Everything in here was probably ancient.

“What are you?” Jake asked. “Some kind of Protettori proxy?”

“I would hate to see anything damaged. I doubt there’s ever been a find like this.”

“I’m starting to wonder if they were protectors or pirates,” Jake said. “We have to get this stuff out of here before someone finds it. We got rid of the men outside, but they were just pawns.”

“We’ll see what Nathan wants to do.”

Jake put the dagger away. “Where is he?”

Kendall looked around the room and saw him standing by a table with books in glass cases. “There. He’s been quiet since we came down here.”

Jake looked at Nathan, and a shadow darkened his eyes. “He’s probably fighting his demons.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s killed a lot of men today. That’s not an easy thing to have on your conscience.”

And he’d killed at least one of them to save her. As if he’d known they were talking about him, Nathan looked up, meeting Kendall’s gaze. She felt a tingle run over her arms.

“Did you find something?” she asked.

“Just some old books.” Nathan put one of the books down. Kendall thought she saw him put something in his pocket as he walked away.

“What will we do about all this?” Kendall asked after he joined them.

“We’ll have to see if Marco recovers enough to tell us more about the group,” Nathan said. “We need to know if there are others.”

Jake picked up a goblet that appeared to be made of gold. “The treasure can’t stay here.”

“It’s not ours to move,” Kendall said.

“Too many people know about the place now,” Jake said. “Edward and his men, Thomas and Brandi. The Reaper.”

“Those last men must have been working for him,” Kendall said. “Edward said they weren’t his.”

“Who knows how many others any one of them might have told,” Jake said.

“If Marco dies, we’ll have to move this treasure ourselves,” Nathan said. “Jake’s right. It’s too risky to leave it here for long.” He pulled in a long, steady breath. “We don’t breathe a word about this.”

“I thought I’d write a book,” Jake said, his voice droll.

Nathan didn’t smile. “If anyone found out about all this, we’d have every treasure hunter, every lunatic and every criminal in the world descending on this place.”

“I think we should swear an oath of silence,” Kendall said. As soon as the words left her mouth, she felt the pain hit her skull. She closed her eyes until it eased. When she opened them, she saw Nathan and Jake staring at her.

Jake scowled. “An oath? Are you kidding?”

“No, I’m not.” She stretched her hand out, palm down. “I swear I won’t mention the treasure, the spear, or anything else I’ve seen here,” she said.

“This wasn’t exactly what I meant.” Nathan rolled his eyes, but he put his on top of hers. “I swear,” he said.

Jake shook his head and put his hand over Nathan’s. “Like the damned Hardy Boys. Do you know how stupid we look? I swear I won’t breathe a word.” Jake yanked his hand back.

K
ENDALL SANK DEEPER
into the dream. Hands slid down her arm, moving across her stomach. A kiss brushed her shoulder and she felt the tip of a warm tongue. The hand slid lower and she heard a moan. It must have been hers. She was going to take these sleeping pills more often, she thought, and then wondered how she was conscious enough to think about sleeping pills if she was really dreaming. Her eyes flew open. The hand was still there. She scrambled up and turned.

Jake grinned at her. “Sweet dreams?”

Sweet didn’t really cover it, she thought, still breathless. Another minute and she might have been too far gone to care that it wasn’t a dream. “What are you doing?”

“I thought that was obvious.” He was fully dressed, but he had kicked off his boots.

“How did you get in here?” She frowned. “Did you pick the lock?”

“No. The door wasn’t locked.”

“Why are you here? You have your own room.” They were at a house in Tuscany that Nathan had rented. Or maybe he owned it. She wasn’t sure. Nathan had decided the three of them should stay a couple of days before heading back to Virginia. It was designed to feel like a vacation. In reality, Nathan was debriefing
them and waiting to see if Marco would recover so they could move the treasure now.

Jake rolled onto his back and rested his head on his hands. “I couldn’t sleep. I’ve gotten used to having you in my bed.”

She’d gotten used to having him in her bed too. And that wasn’t good. She had feelings for him that she wasn’t sure what to do with, and she suspected he felt the same, but she didn’t mix dating and work.

“You need to go back to your own room,” Kendall said, straightening her pajamas from the effects of his roving hands. “The sun isn’t even up.”

“I’m going fishing. There’s a river a few miles away. I thought you might want to join me. It’ll be warm by afternoon. We could go skinny-dipping. It might be chilly, but I bet we could keep warm.” The look in his eyes made her want to forget the river and get naked right there.

She wrangled her hormones back under control. “Jake, we can’t keep doing this, whatever it is. We work together.”

He sat up, his gaze steady on her, unreadable. “Guess it’ll be a lonely fishing trip, then.”

“You could come to the museum with Nathan and me.”

“Three’s a crowd, unless it’s a ménage, but I don’t think this particular gender arrangement would work for me.”

Kendall rolled her eyes. “This museum is giving Nathan a private showing.”

“How private?”

“Stop it. You know Nathan avoids public appearances.”

He frowned. “Don’t you find that strange? I get sick of people sometimes. A lot of the time, but what’s he hiding from?”

“He’s worth a lot of money. He’s good looking. I can understand why he doesn’t want to deal with the attention.”

Jake shook his head. “I think there’s more to it. Be careful. There’s something strange about him. In the last couple of days
I’ve seen him punch a concrete wall and toss iron doors and men around like toys. And it’s not adrenaline.”

Kendall felt a shiver brush her neck. “What do you think it is?”