Reyes, please try. You have more power than you know.
She wouldn’t last long now.
He grew very still once more and finally said, Sweet Dove has intensified the preternatural charge in the shackles, but I’m going to try to access my Ancestral power.
She didn’t answer for a long moment. When she spoke, her telepathic voice was little more than a whisper. Reyes, I love you. If you can do something, hurry, because Engles just put on the cat’s claw.
As rage poured through Reyes he broke communication with Angelica. He had to do something, had to figure something out right now, or his woman would be hurt by that bastard even while she was dying.
Sweet Dove.
Reyes shifted his attention to her. This nightmare was her doing, always hers. And as an Ancestral she would always have the upper hand.
Even with his arms extended in the rusty chains, he focused on the blood-chain that sat in a heap at his waistband, burning his skin. He took deep breaths and closed his eyes. The last time he’d been on this table, with Angelica on top, dominating him yet loving him at the same time, he’d found his Ancestral power and had accessed it sufficiently to break free.
Tonight there would be no holding back.
With the chain next to his skin he began reaching within himself once more, diving deep, and in a split second found the Ancestral layer that belonged to him as his birthright.
This time he plunged into this power, embracing it all, and for a long moment blacked out.
When he came to, power surged through him as he’d never experienced it before. He called to the chain at his waist and felt it respond. He remained focused on it, and the chain moved faster beneath his shirt. Suddenly, without the use of his hands, the chain flew over his head and settled around his neck.
Ancestral power flashed through him in a heavy wave like nothing he’d known before.
He drew his hands into fists and focused on all four shackles at once.
Sweet Dove shouted, “No!”
With a burst of Ancestral power, he shattered the shackles that had held him prisoner. He broke free of Sweet Dove’s preternatural charge. She’d never be able to entrap him again. Nothing could ever hold him again.
He didn’t stay, however, to have his reckoning with her. Instead he shifted abruptly to altered flight, focused on Angelica, and flew faster than he ever had in his entire life, following the beacon that she’d become.
He found her in Engles’s home, on the platform above the long shallow pool.
The bastard was naked, as was she, her knees split, his body ready to pierce hers, the cat’s claw suspended above her left shoulder.
Engles, staring into Angelica’s eyes and unaware of Reyes’s presence, spoke in a commanding voice. “You’ll die right now, Angelica, with my cock buried inside you and blood pouring from your body.”
A red film covered Reyes’s vision as he flew to grab Engles beneath his arms. He pinned him tight against his chest and with altered flight flew him straight up to the carved rock ceiling of the room, shifted back to levitation at the last moment, and slammed Engles’s head into the rock.
He repeated this movement over and over, blood and brains flying everywhere until there was little left and nothing to be healed and restored.
At the same time, security alarms sounded through the space.
Reyes dropped Engles to the pool at the far end, flew back to Angelica, and lifted her up in his arms.
He shifted once more to altered flight and headed to his home. I’ll get a healer. You’ll be all right. You have to be.
She gasped several times, and just as he reached his bedroom, she spoke, Power is flowing through me now instead of hurting me. The chains just needed to be together. The pain has stopped. I’m okay, truly. I’m fine. Reyes, you have to listen to me. We must get Sweet Dove’s laptop. Now.
Reyes shouldn’t have been surprised, but he was. Angelica had almost been raped, tortured, and killed, but the moment she was free of peril, she addressed the critical issue of the mission, just as she always had.
He didn’t try to argue. He knew she was right. And because of the deepening Ancestral bond between them he also sensed that she was healing swiftly, just as she said she was.
He changed course.
If he’d doubted that he’d risen to Ancestral status, he didn’t anymore, because the moment he thought about the location of Sweet Dove’s office, he knew exactly where it was.
Within seconds he penetrated the preternatural shield around the space and touched down in front of the desk.
But Sweet Dove had guessed his maneuver and held the laptop in her hands. “By the look of all the blood on you and the fact that Angelica lives, Engles wasn’t so fortunate.”
“He’s dead.”
“Well, that’s too bad, but you and I can still continue.”
Reyes stared at her in profound disbelief. He sensed from her what he’d always felt, that somewhere in the early years of her life her psyche had become so corrupt that she truly believed Reyes wanted to be with her, that he wanted to be her slave.
On the other hand, she held the laptop, so some part of her must have known the truth.
Reyes knew that she could destroy the laptop right now, with a single preternatural charge from her hands. If she did, the mission would fail.
He ignored the computer and tried a different tack. “I’m bonded with Angelica now, a double-chain bond. And she’s staying with me in our world.” He turned toward Angelica and saw the glow in her brown eyes.
Angelica nodded. “I am.” She smiled and leaned up and kissed him. Then turning to Sweet Dove, she said, “You can’t have Reyes, not ever. He’s powerful and you can feel his power, which means you’ll never be able to capture him or hold him. You’re finished, Sweet Dove.”
The woman still ignored Angelica, but as if in a fog, she set the laptop on the desk.
Reyes forced himself to stay focused on Sweet Dove.
He felt something powerful emanating from his former captor, a heavy vibration that he knew well, that became a painful tingling on his skin.
Hold steady, he telepathed to Angelica. Looks like the bitch is going to throw a fit.
Reyes held Angelica close to his side and created an impenetrable disguise around them both, then levitated away from the desk near the waterfall.
She can’t see us, can she?
No, she can’t.
Sweet Dove became a whirlwind and tore around the room with tremendous speed. “Where are you?” she shouted.
She screamed obscenities. Froth poured from her mouth. Her eyes were wild and her hair, freed from the usual clip, flowed in angry waves around her body.
“Reyes!” His name came like a hiss from her lips. Her fangs descended, and she began tearing at her arms with the sharp points, pulling out chunks of flesh in her rage.
Reyes was stunned. She was a monster.
Angelica’s voice moved through his mind, offering a sensible suggestion. While she goes all whirling dervish on us, why don’t we grab the laptop?
Good idea.
With great care, he tried to maneuver around Sweet Dove, but when she almost hit them, he shifted to altered flight, left the room, then reentered behind the desk.
Angelica whisked the laptop into her arms. Reyes, look at the ceiling. The fissure is widening. I think the roof of the cave is about to collapse. I think she’s doing this without knowing it.
Reyes glanced at the long chandelier made of swords. It swayed overhead.
Let’s get out of here.
Returning to altered flight, he hovered not far from the room, close enough to watch as within seconds the ceiling collapsed, burying Sweet Dove.
He waited, expecting her to rise from the rubble, but she didn’t.
Should we leave? What if she pops up out of there and attacks us? Angelica sounded worried and he didn’t blame her. Sweet Dove had been the author of so much misery, she wouldn’t stop now, not if she ha
d the chance to do otherwise.
I think something might have happened to her. I want to have a look, but I’ll keep the disguise tight around us and I won’t leave altered flight.
Sounds like a plan.
With great care, he passed through the tumbled rock and found her buried. When the ceiling collapsed, the artful chandelier’s couple of dozen blades had cut her up, one of them severing her head from her body.
He couldn’t believe it, but his captor was finally dead. Scorpion, the founder of Starlin, the woman known as Sweet Dove, was no more.
The feeling of relief that went through him was so profound that he felt light-headed.
She’s gone. Angelica’s voice gave him substance once more. She’s actually dead.
I believed her immortal.
She seemed immortal, but there’s nothing like a beheading to change a perception.
Reyes glanced at her and saw the wry curve of her lips. Thank you.
For what? Angelica’s brows rose in surprise.
For being here, for saying exactly what you just said, for making it real when I’m not sure I would ever have believed it.
With one arm gripping the laptop and her other slung around his neck, she kissed him. Take me home, Reyes. Take me out of this nightmare and back to your bedroom, where I belong.
He wasn’t sure she could have spoken sweeter words.
As he launched them away from the cave-in, she said, I just realized that no one else will ever know that Scorpion is dead. And Engles was her only contact. So not a single member of Starlin will have a clue that we have the laptop and therefore the means to do with this organization anything you want to do. Reyes, you did it! You’ve achieved what you set out to accomplish. You have everything you need now to take down Starlin. You could even pose as Scorpion while you get everything set up.
Drawing near his home, he squeezed her waist. You’re right, but you know something, I’m not thinking about that right now. He touched down in his bedroom near the table and took the laptop from her, setting it aside.
She didn’t seem to be aware that she was completely naked, which made him admire her all the more. Engles had almost had her, almost taken her life, but she’d kept her wits and brought them both here to this moment.
No, he wasn’t thinking about his mission right now, only about her.
And right now he wanted her in his bed.
* * *
Angelica wasn’t surprised that Reyes had something specific on his mind, so she said the only thing that made sense. “How about we get you out of your bodyguard clothes, although I must say I like you in a snug T-shirt.”
He smiled. She’d never seen such a light in his clear blue eyes before. He lifted his shirt off, his muscles flexing and making her take deeper breaths. Here was Reyes, the man she’d desired for months. She felt his Ancestral power resonating from him and through the double-chain at her neck.
He reached toward her, tracing her chain with his fingers. “I never would have believed this could happen. But you have to know that I have contacts who can work to remove your chain, if you want. It might take some time, but it can be done.” He frowned as he spoke, and she felt his concern for her.
Angelica smiled. “You’re what I want, Reyes, with or without the chains. But given the state your world is in and that you’ll become a target as soon as you start taking Starlin apart, I think I’d like to keep this on. I’m stunned by the level of power that I feel right now and how much I can siphon from you.”
She glanced down at her feet and made a mental decision to levitate. And just like that, she floated.
“Wow.” He caught her around the waist but held on loosely so she could continue to experience the newfound ability.
After a moment she slid her arms around his neck, let go of the levitation, and fell against him.
He laughed and swung her in a circle. “You’re alive. I thought I’d lost you.”
“I know.” She held him tightly, even worrying that she was hurting him, a silly thought because he was so physically strong.
He gripped her in return, not setting her on her feet, but just keeping her pressed against him.
Angelica’s eyes filled with tears.
“We almost died, both of us, didn’t we?”
He nodded, his cheek sliding against her hair, his chest rising and falling. She felt the depth of his emotion, the near loss for each of them and the relief that they’d survived.
“She’s dead,” Angelica murmured.
“I know. I’m so glad. She won’t be able to hurt anyone else ever again or to use her abilities to create another auction, or betting Web site, or method of torture.”
Angelica pulled back and her feet finally touched the carpet. She cupped his face with both hands. “We made it.”
He nodded. “I have so much I want to say to you that I hardly know where to start, except that I love you. I should have realized it sooner, but I couldn’t wrap my head around what was really happening between us. Part of me knew and wanted to believe, the part of me that had known love as a child. Yet I’d gone through so much, I wasn’t sure I had the capacity to feel anything ever again.”
“I can’t imagine what that was like for you. I can only speak for myself.” She chuckled softly. “I was kidding myself, Reyes, when I spoke of leaving, of going back to my old life. I think there was a part of me that was uncertain whether I could measure up in your world.”
“Well, you certainly proved yourself. What made you take the chains with you, and where the hell did you keep them?”
“In my gloves. That’s why I chose this pair that went almost to my elbows. As for the why of it, you were being justifiably stubborn about not making use of them, and for very noble reasons. But remember how Sweet Dove hurt me that first week of my captivity? I felt her power then, and I knew its flavor and its scope. I believed with all my heart that the only way we would survive, if Sweet Dove chose as she did tonight to act against us, was if we had her level of power.
“And Reyes, my God, your power. It surpasses hers. Did you know that’s how it would be?”
He shook his head. “I’m convinced that I kept myself blind to my potential. Of course being her slave all that time and kept in a subservient position helped me feel constantly less than Sweet Dove. But I feared so much that I would become corrupt like her or like Engles. Even now, I know I’ll need to be vigilant.”
She sensed his fear that being an Ancestral would change him, but she also knew his character and that so long as he lived he’d work hard to stay true to his deepest values, the ones his parents had taught him when he was young. “All I can say is, welcome home, Reyes. That’s what I want to say to you. Welcome home.”
“That’s one of the most wonderful things you could say to me, and that’s how I feel. It’s taken all this time, from the first day of my captivity until now, to meet you and be with you in order to find my way home. You’re my home, Angelica. In fact, that’s where I want to go.”
“But this is your home.”
A slow smile overtook his face. “Venezuela. In the Cordillera system, high in the mountains near the Caribbean coast.”
“Oh, you mean your family home. The one you took back when you made your fortune.”
He nodded. “How about we get cleaned up, pack some clothes, and head there now?”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Angelica soon learned that the double-chain had changed the proximity issue so that while she showered, Reyes could remain in the sitting room as he continued to explore Sweet Dove’s laptop.
By the time she’d emerged wearing jeans and a tank top, her makeup restored and her hair brushed out, she found Reyes at the table, in a robe. He still sat at the table, staring at the laptop, chin in hand.
He glanced up at her, and she put her hand on the double-chain. He seemed to be in a state of shock.
“What is it?”
“It’s all here. Every last bit of information I ne
ed. It’s clear to me that Sweet Dove didn’t feel in the least threatened.”
“Was it even password protected?”
Reyes shook his head. “She seemed to have a love of numbers, though. The records here are careful to the penny. Her crimes are legion.”
She rounded the table and sat on his lap. He surrounded her with his arms. “I like you in jeans.”
She kissed him. “I’m all packed. Ready when you are.”
He closed the laptop lid and headed for his turn in the shower.
She stared at the laptop for a long time. Part of her was curious, and no doubt in the coming days and weeks she’d become completely familiar with Sweet Dove’s organization.
For now, however, the horror could rest. More than anything she needed this time with Reyes, to just be with him.
A half hour later he carried her in one arm, her satchel dangling from his free hand, and flew her at top speed to South America.
I have no pain.
What? He squeezed her waist.
There’s no more pain when I fly.
Nor should there be because of my Ancestral power. But the truth is I didn’t even think about it. Although if you’d suffered in any way, the chains would have told me in a split second.
Within minutes he slowed, flying into the coastal range of Venezuela where the mountains ran along the northernmost section of the country.
He flew her to the highest elevation and passed through a forest, then finally drifted through the hard rock walls of the cavern system.
My housekeeper has come and gone, so we’ll have privacy. But she’s left a meal of spicy chicken-filled empanadas and a salad. And beer.
And suddenly I’m starved.
Reyes touched down in the middle of the living room. A thin but very wide waterfall made up the wall opposite, tucked behind a low stone barrier. Soft lights lit the dark rock that sparkled with gold-colored minerals.
Heavy, carved-wood chests and tables sat against the walls but a cream sectional lightened the space. A brightly colored woven rug anchored a solid coffee table. Branches of antique candelabra and ornate silver boxes completed the decor.
Faylen’s boxes.
She moved toward one that sat on a dark wood chest. It was one of the larger ones and had intricate carvings on each drawer. “This belonged to your mother, didn’t it?” Oddly she could almost feel Faylen’s presence in the space, and for a long moment she wished, for Reyes’s sake, that his mother was still alive.