him, as well as a few of the most prominent memories of him that Menes quickly gave him access to. They told him that Ahnvil was to be trusted implicitly, and that the Gargoyle was loyal to Menes, no matter who held his touchstone during those one hundred years he had to spend in the Ether between lives. Sometimes it had been Ram, other times Asikri. If not one of them then a powerful female who was less of a target than those in the governing seats.
“What is it?” he asked as soon as he was close enough.
“There is a powerful presence heading this way,” Ahnvil told him, his voice like gravel crunching under feet. “We are all feeling it.”
The Gargoyles were protectors for a reason. They could feel trouble coming, whatever it was. And though they were turned to stone by the touch of sunlight, the Templars could no sooner go out in daylight than any of them could, so their guardianship was only needed in the darkness. When they settled to their touchstones they could bear witness to everything crossing their path, to be reported at the full break of dusk.
“Powerful as in Templar?”
“Very close now. It won’t be long.” Ahnvil looked down at the gun in Jackson’s hand and raised a stony brow. “That will not do much against Templars if they are this powerful. They will be very strongly shielded.”
“I know. But until I got out here I didn’t know the nature of the trouble. If it was human,” Jackson retorted dryly, “I would think keeping a low profile and using a gun over my telekinesis would be the preferred course of action. You know, I wasn’t just reborn yesterday,” he said, the light of humor entering his eyes when he saw Ahnvil’s sheepish discomfort. The big Gargoyle was known for his deep respect … as well as being hard on himself if he should fail in any way … even if it was just a simple misunderstanding. There was never a need to punish Ahnvil in any sense of the word, because the Gargoyle always proved to be much harder on himself than anyone else could be. The only exception, perhaps, being his former Templar master and creator. Ahnvil didn’t talk much about it, but Jackson knew well enough it had not gone easy for him. For any of them.
“I know, Menes,” he said. “Though you are still young I can see you are well Blended.”
Another talent the Gargoyles had. Anyone who was a Bodywalker had a distinctive glow around them if seen through a Gargoyle’s eyes. It was, Jackson supposed, the Templars’ way of an early warning system. Until a human being did something to reveal his Nightwalker nature, it was virtually impossible for Templars to determine whether there was one or two souls in the body of a human approaching them. So, they had equipped their would-be slaves with the ability to see the difference so that they could warn their masters. And, apparently, the stronger the souls, the more enriched the Blend, the brighter they would glow.
“Jackson,” Jackson corrected almost absently. “We think we prefer Jackson for this lifetime. Although I don’t suppose it makes much difference to us either way.” He shrugged and tucked the gun into the waistband at the www.ballantinebooks.com wag.back of his jeans. It wasn’t an ideal holster if they were going to mix it up, but it would do.
“Odd,” Ahnvil said, his head lifting and his large stone nostrils flaring wide. “The Templar is not on the air. Why would a Templar travel by foot onto the grounds when they all use their spell work to become airborne? And I …” Again, a wide flare of nostrils. “I smell blood. A great deal of blood.”
That made the tension in Jackson’s shoulders tighten even further. “An injured Templar?” Jackson looked back toward the house, wondering where Ram was and if, perhaps, this was one of the Templars Tameri had come to warn them about. A defector, of which she was one of many she had said. When Tameri and Docia’s Blending had advanced enough for the former priestess to speak, those words had been like pure hope to Ram … and to Menes. Never in all these generations of war had they heard of such a thing. After all, no one dared to cross Odjit. But perhaps, if he let it be known that Templars would be welcomed back into the fold, they would begin to come in