out and again he was surrounded by darkness. All around him, silence reigned but for the small noises made by the creatures whose home he had invaded. “There’s something else going on, Torin. Something big—and it’s out there alongside the hunters and the feds.”
“Fuck me.”
A rueful laugh shot from Rune’s throat. “Yeah, that about covers it.”
He felt Torin’s mounting frustration as his own. But Torin was in Wales, on the other side of the damn globe, and wouldn’t be able to help even if Rune asked for it.
Torin sighed. “You need me to get a couple of the other Eternals out there to help?”
“No,” Rune said. He didn’t like thinking it, but damn if he wanted more Eternals around here until he was convinced they weren’t at the heart of this mess. He didn’t want to believe that Egan had gone rogue, but not even Torin could deny that it was a possibility. “I can handle things here. I’ll keep Teresa safe and we’ll accomplish our task. But I do think you should check into this.”
“No shit,” Torin said. “I’ll get Shea and her aunt Mairi on it. They can check the Sanctuary libraries.”
“Good.” That was something else they’d discovered only last month. The earth’s witches had maintained knowledge down through the ages and had stored everything they learned in dimensional libraries that any witch could access through a portal if she was close enough to one of the Sanctuaries. “Hope you’ve got some ideas, because I don’t have a clue what they should be looking for. If it’s not one of us—”
“And it’s not,” Torin said.
“Then we’re boned.” Rune shook his head. “There’s something new out there, Torin, and we need to know what it is.”
“Agreed,” his friend said. “Shea and Mairi will cover this with witchcraft. In the meantime, Mairi’s mate, Damyn, and I will hunt down a few of the other Eternals. See what we can find out. And we’ll step up the search for Egan. Damned if I’m willing to accept that he or any of us is behind that doctor’s death. We’ll figure out who the new player is.”
Rune slapped his phone shut and tucked it into the pocket of his jeans. He was no closer to an answer, but at least he wasn’t alone in his hunt now. Torin and Damyn would check on the Eternals in Europe. Rune would contact Finn and get him to do the same in the States.
He turned his head to stare at the rock formation nearly half a mile away from him, and he had to smile. It jutted into the sky, sharp and angled, like a fist raised skyward. Naturally Finn would choose to build his home beneath such a rock. The Eternal was always ready for a fight—and, Rune told himself, that would come in handy if this got any uglier.
Beneath that mountain Teresa was waiting for him. She had no idea that her precarious safety had just gotten a lot more complicated. He thought back to the massacre at the village and felt a ball of ice drop into the pit of his stomach.
Federal agents, police, violent civilians, witches, demons, sorcerers, even perhaps a rogue Eternal—they were all out there, just waiting for their chance at her.
But as long as Rune lived, no one would hurt his woman. He would kill any who tried.
Chapter 35
Parnell sat in the shadows, watching his “allies” down shot after shot of tequila. The ramshackle tavern they waited in was hardly more than a hut, but nothing more was needed, anyway. This was just a stop on a long, well-laid-out road. Lifting his beer, Parnell took a sip and set the glass down as his gaze traveled the smoky interior.
Lights were dim, as they were in most bars. There was a fire roaring in a stone hearth on the far wall, dispelling the October chill in the desert night. Hard-bitten men with murder in their eyes gathered around the tables, playing cards and drinking incessantly. They were celebrating the slaughter of the village, he told himself. Proud of having shot down unarmed civilians and telling war stories as if they’d faced down a demon horde.
Idiots.
He had had them kill everyone in the village for expediency’s sake. Otherwise he wouldn’t have bothered. But he hadn’t wanted to risk word getting out about the witch and her immortal bodyguard.
Now he watched the men who worked for him. He knew there wasn’t one of them who wouldn’t sell him out for the right