In Darkness Transformed Page 4

  An unfamiliar car was parked out front, and a man in a uniform stood on the porch facing the living room window. His hands were cupped on either side of his face as he peered through the glass, probably to block out the glare of the late afternoon sun. At the sound of the truck rolling to a stop, the man immediately turned around.

  Eli finally made sense of what his eyes had been trying to tell him. This was no random visitor. He couldn’t have been that lucky. No, this man was all too familiar from the way he carried himself with authority to his light brown hair cut military short. He was Eli’s commanding officer. More than that, he was a friend. At least he had been in Eli’s old life.

  So far, there was no indication that the man had recognized Eli in return. Was it too late to head right back down the mountain? Yeah, probably. Besides, Eli was no coward. If the army had tracked him down, he wouldn’t run.

  He drew a deep breath and climbed out of the truck. “Hi, Major. What brings you to these parts?”

  Recognition wasn’t long in coming. Mike Voss’s expression went from friendly to furious in a heartbeat. He stalked over to where Eli stood waiting. “You bastard, what have you done? Eight good men died on that mountainside, men who trusted you. They were my friends. I thought they were yours, too.”

  His words hurt like hell, and not just because they were accompanied by a hard right hook to Eli’s jaw and followed by a solid punch to his stomach. Rather than fight back, Eli backed away and held his hands up in surrender. “They were my friends, too. I swear it’s not what you think, Mike. I didn’t betray them or you. I don’t know why the helicopter crashed, but I didn’t have anything to do with bringing it down.”

  Mike was breathing hard, his hands still tightly clenched in fists. “Then how come you’re standing here while all of them are dead?”

  Eli ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. How could he explain without sounding like a crazy man? The short answer was he couldn’t, but he had to try. If he could convince Mike that he hadn’t betrayed everything they both stood for, maybe there was some chance that Eli could get his old life back.

  “Look, let’s go inside and pop open a couple of cold ones. I promise to tell you everything.”

  Mike planted his feet and crossed his arms over his chest. “I ought be on the phone reporting you right this minute. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t.”

  If the man wanted proof that he should listen to what Eli had to say, he would give it to him. He pulled out his pocketknife and quickly slashed his palm open from one side to the other. His friend stared down at Eli’s hand in horror. “What the hell are you doing?”

  “Just watch.”

  He pulled out his handkerchief and wiped away the blood that had pooled on his skin. The wound had already started closing up. He waited another few seconds and cleaned it off a second time. By that point, the bleeding had stopped, and the cut was almost completely sealed shut.

  Mike took Eli’s hand in his own, holding it closer to his face to get a better look. “That’s the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen. If I hadn’t watched with my own eyes, I would never have believed it.”

  He finally released his hold on Eli and stepped back. His steel-blue gaze bored straight into Eli’s. “It might also explain a few things that have happened since that I should tell you about. But first things first. What happened that day on the mountain?”

  The man would either believe Eli’s explanation or he wouldn’t. Regardless, it was time to toss the dice. “I died right along with everyone else, but I didn’t stay dead. I don’t know why, and I don’t know how, but I swear it’s God’s own truth.”

  Mike slowly shook his head, but at least he didn’t go screaming down the road in terror. Finally, he mustered up a shaky smile. “I’ll listen to your story, but I’m going to need that beer you mentioned, and maybe several of its brothers and sisters for good measure.”

  The tight band of worry that had made it hard for Eli to draw a full breath eased up a little. “It’s a deal.”

  4

  Safara stared at the door, so tantalizingly close and yet so far. Could she make it all the way to her cruiser outside in the parking lot before her father finished talking to the mayor? The distance to the car combined with a sprained ankle said the odds were against her. She was already late heading out on patrol, but it wasn’t her sense of duty that was fueling her need to escape.

  No, it was the inquisition that would resume as soon as her dad hung up the phone. The gods knew she’d already told him almost everything that had happened the night before, with almost being the operative word. From the dark looks he sent in her direction every so often, he wasn’t satisfied with her answers. He clearly didn’t appreciate finding out only after the fact his daughter had been in danger on multiple fronts without him there to protect her. There was also his understandable concern for the others of their kind who lived in and around Ridgewick whose lives would suffer if the truth were ever to come out about their origins. And finally, he had a lawman’s innate distrust of any stranger who’d moved into his territory without anyone noticing.

  The fact that she’d spent the night in that stranger’s cabin was just the icing on the cake. Darn Eli for introducing himself as the man she’d spent the night with—although the look on her dad’s face had been pretty funny.

  As if sensing her escape plan, her father stepped out of his office to glare at her from across the room. “Yes, sir. I’ll definitely get back to you on that by the end of the week.”

  He disconnected the call. “Want a refill on your coffee?”

  “Sure.”

  He was back all too quickly, meaning she’d run out of time and options. After setting their cups down on her desk, he plunked down in the chair he’d pulled over to sit on earlier. “Now, let me make sure I’ve got all of this straight.”

  Resigning herself to a long lecture, she sipped the hot drink and let him talk. He launched right in, starting with her most grievous sin. “You went up to the mountain alone and without telling anyone where you were going.”

  Yep, she had. She was also a trained police officer, who carried both a sword and a gun. She wisely refrained from mentioning either of those facts, because they hadn’t actually played out in her favor last night. She also didn’t mention she needed to make another trip up there to retrieve her service revolver and the Kalith blade that had been handed down in her grandmother’s family for generations.

  He was still talking. “You brought down the barrier without knowing who was standing on the other side, again alone and without backup.”

  This time she felt obligated to protest. “Yes, just like I’ve done on many other occasions. Someone has to bring down the barrier so Granddad can come home.”

  That much was true. Her father’s own ability to manipulate the barrier was only a fraction as strong as hers. “He and I had agreed before he left that I would check to see if he was ready to come home last night. I’m supposed to check back again next week. We had a plan.”

  “A plan that wasn’t worth a damn thing, Safara.” Her father slammed his cup down on the desk hard enough to splash hot coffee onto his hand. “You could’ve been killed. We both know that we’ve been having more trouble with rogues slipping across. If your cousin hadn’t been alone, you would’ve been dead before Eli Jervain got there.”

  Time to divert the attention to another quarter. “Did Martin ever mention anything about Eli to you?”

  “Not that I can recall, but you’d be better off asking your grandfather when he gets back. He spent more time with the old man than I did. As far as I know, Martin only had the one grandson, but he hasn’t been around here for years. He’s in the military. The army, I think.”

  That jibed with what she knew. “From what Eli told me, he inherited Martin’s cabin when the grandson died in a helicopter crash about five weeks ago.”

  She had no reason to doubt his word, but there’d been that slight hesitation before Eli had answere
d when she’d asked if Martin’s grandson knew he was staying in the cabin. His answer hadn’t felt like a lie exactly, but she bet there was more to the situation than he was willing to tell her.

  “Should be easy enough to check out his story. I’ll do some poking around and see what I can learn.”

  “Good. And while you’re at it, Eli has questions about Martin’s death. I offered to get the report from the county sheriff’s department. He told me to forget about it, that he was just curious what they’d found out.”

  She paused to sip her coffee, mainly to give herself time to think. “But even if he isn’t all that interested, I am, because it sounds as if Martin was killed by someone like Tiel. If so, we need to increase security on both sides of the barrier.”

  Her father’s eyes, pale gray like her own, took on a hard edge. “I’ll request the report. I heard the deputies who responded to the scene were bewildered by the condition of the body. The coroner thought some of the wounds were odd, but Martin had been worked over by scavengers pretty good by the time he was found. As bad as that sounds, it might’ve been a blessing in disguise if it threw the investigators off the track. We can’t afford any suspicions that there’s a sword-wielding killer on the loose.”

  Speaking of which, it was past time to tell her father about her initial suspicions about her rescuer. “You know, Pop, Eli seemed pretty darn handy with that broadsword. I thought for sure a Paladin had finally found us.”

  She shuddered at the memory. They all lived with the nightmare specter of the Paladins charging through town, herding their people like cattle back across into their homeworld. She’d grown up in this one, so it was home. Then there was the almost certain fact that the darkness in Kalithia would eventually rob her of her sanity, sending her charging back across the barrier to die on the point of a Paladin sword.

  But that was a problem for another day. She dragged herself back into the moment at hand. “However, I’m reasonably sure the sword wasn’t Eli’s. When we reached the cabin, he hung it back on the wall with the rest of Martin’s collection.”

  The image of him fighting her cousin played out like a movie in her head. Eli had moved with such lethal control and power, a male in his prime. It would’ve been sexy if the whole experience hadn’t been so terrifyingly dangerous.

  She picked up where she’d left off. “But also, when I accused him of being a Paladin and asked him to leave me—leave us all alone, he didn’t seem to know what I was talking about. All things considered, I believe him.”

  “We owe him the benefit of the doubt if for no other reason than he saved your life last night.” Her dad sat back in his chair, looking more relaxed than he had since she and Eli had driven into the parking lot. “That doesn’t mean I won’t be doing some quiet checking to see what I can learn about him. I’ll also warn the clan leaders about Tiel. We’ll have to organize a hunt if he continues to be a problem.”

  There was no mistaking the grief in her father’s voice. The same pain pulsed in her own heart. It was never easy to put down a rogue Kalith, but it was far worse when it involved family. Even though she and Tiel had grown up in different worlds, they had been close as children. She hated that her memories of him were now tainted by the crazed killer who’d pinned her down in the mud on that mountainside with such violent lust in his gaze.

  She knew the light disease was destroying the man she’d known; that didn’t make it any easier to deal with. The fact that her mother had died from the same illness only exacerbated her grief.

  Her father knew the same pain firsthand. How many friends and family members had he lost over the years? Too many to count.

  He followed the same path her thoughts had traveled. “I know it’s hard, honey. For now, let’s get you home so you can rest that ankle. If you call in an order to the diner, we’ll pick it up on the way to your place so you don’t have to cook.”

  Her sense of duty reared its head. “But I’m supposed to be out on patrol today. If I stay home, you’ll be shorthanded.”

  “I can cover your shift. It will do me good to get out from behind my desk for a few hours.”

  There was one more problem that needed to be dealt with and soon. “My ATV is still up on the mountain. I left my work phone and wallet in it.”

  “Your ankle should be better in the morning, so we can head up there to pick it up before work. It should be fine for that long, especially when no one knows it’s there.”

  She grimaced. “Eli does.”

  Her dad shrugged. “Nothing we can do about that. Besides, he can’t learn much from them even if he does go exploring.”

  True enough. She kept very few numbers on that phone, all related to her job. Any personal calls came in on her other phone, which she hadn’t taken up on the mountain with her. “What do you think we should do about Tiel?”

  “While I’m up there, I’ll do a little scouting around to see if there’s any sign of him. If he is the one who killed Martin, he’s probably got a bolt-hole someplace close to the cave up there. As far as I know, he can’t manipulate the barrier himself, but it does go up and down on its own once in a while. He’d sense that and likely cross back into Kalithia.”

  “Let’s hope he stays there. Maybe the Sworn Guardians will have better luck in catching him.”

  That wouldn’t change Tiel’s fate, but neither she nor her father would be the ones who had to execute him. Maybe that was cowardly on her part, but she’d save her father that pain if she could.

  It was time to get moving. “Give me a minute to call in our order, and then I’ll be ready to go.”

  “I’ll let dispatch know I’ll be out on patrol, and then I’ll bring my car around to the door so you don’t have to walk so far.”

  “Thanks, Dad.”

  “That’s what fathers are for.” Then he grinned at her. “That and to warn you to stay away from men like Eli Jervain, at least until your old man has a chance to check him out.”

  She laughed as he patted her on the shoulder and headed for the door that led to the city hall half of the building. In the meantime, she phoned in their order to the diner. Then she rolled her chair over by the door to cut down on the distance she had to walk. Although she didn’t have the same recuperative ability as some of her people, she still recovered from minor injuries faster than the purely human. If she babied her ankle for the rest of the day, it should be pretty much back to normal by morning.

  Meanwhile, she pondered her father’s warning to stay away from Eli. Most of the time he treated her like the adult she was and stayed out of her personal life. As a result, she usually took any advice her father felt motivated to offer her pretty seriously. She pictured Eli’s quiet strength and gruff manner, remembered the way it had felt to be held in those strong arms, as well as his fierce determination to protect her—a total stranger—from a crazy man swinging a sword. The bottom line was that she owed him both her life and the benefit of the doubt. The fact that he was drop-dead gorgeous was beside the point.

  She glanced at her father’s empty office. “Sorry, Dad, but one way or another, I’m going to see Eli Jervain again, and sooner rather than later.”

  The sound of a car horn startled her out of her reverie. She pushed herself up to her feet and gingerly made her way outside, pausing just long enough to lock the door behind her. For now, she’d let her dad fuss over her a little and spend the afternoon catching up on her reading.

  Tomorrow would be soon enough to get back to work and start solving the mystery of Eli Jervain.

  “SIT DOWN, MAJOR, while I get us a couple of beers. Are you hungry? I’ve got sandwich makings.”

  “A sandwich sounds good about now. And, by the way, can the formality. I’m here as your friend, not your commanding officer.” Mike sank down on the sofa with a sigh. “Damn, this feels good. I took a red-eye from D.C. and got in at oh dark thirty this morning. Before that, I was in Europe for a week. I drove straight here as soon as I landed, and I’m feeling every mile I
traveled.”

  Eli set the beer within easy reach of his friend. “After we eat, you can catch some shut-eye. We’ll talk later when you’ve had a chance to unscramble your brain from all the time zone changes. In fact, think about spending the night. I can thaw steaks for dinner.”

  His friend didn’t hesitate. “I might take you up on that. The powers that be know I planned to take a couple of days of personal time, so they won’t be looking for me to report yet. Maybe I’ll crash here for the night and head back down to Seattle tomorrow.”

  Eli threw together a quick lunch for the two of them and grabbed another pair of beers. By the time he carried everything over to the coffee table, Mike had already dozed off. Grabbing a few minutes of sleep at the drop of a hat was a talent most soldiers developed. It was tempting to let the man sleep if for no other reason than to give himself time to collect his thoughts. Too late. Mike’s eyes popped open as soon as Eli set the plates down.

  He shifted to sit up straighter. “Sorry, didn’t mean to drift off like that.”

  Eli sat down in Martin’s old recliner and got comfortable. “No problem.”

  Soldiers also knew to eat whenever food was available. Yeah, they weren’t in any danger of anyone interrupting them or, worse yet, incoming fire, but old habits died hard. It didn’t take long for them to finish off the sandwiches and chips.

  About halfway into his second beer, Mike finally spoke again. “Okay, I need to hear what happened to you, start to finish. After that, I’ll tell you what I know about what’s going on with the investigation.”

  As he spoke, he stared at Eli’s hand, the one he’d sliced open outside to convince his friend that he wasn’t bullshitting him about what had happened. He held it up so Mike could see the clear evidence that the wound had disappeared completely in the time they’d been together. His friend shook his head and took another long drink of beer. Eli knew just how he felt.