Dark Warrior Read online

  With a look of utter terror, the man grabbed the water bottle and ran.

  Rafe sat down to relax again. He had no doubt he could track Ames, and when he caught up with the sorry bastard, he was going to have a good time killing him slowly. With the knife.

  Then he would make other arrangements for keeping tabs on the Ionians’ compound.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  IT WAS WELL into the evening before the sisters got their guests settled down after the frightening experience with the fire. As it turned out, they’d been lucky. Damage to the spa was minimal, and they’d been able to move all their activities into another wing of the building.

  Then all but the women on duty and the mothers gathered in their private lounge.

  Nobody had been harmed except Jason Tyron. Still, they were shaken by the experience.

  When some of the people staying at the spa had said they were leaving, the sisters gave them full refunds. They didn’t depend on the spa’s revenues for their income. Long ago they’d invested their wealth in many diversified stocks, bonds, and other ventures. And they also had large stocks of gold and precious jewels.

  “We must make security our top priority,” Cynthia told the group after the women with daughters had come back from reassuring the little ones. “I think it’s safe to assume that Ames created the fire and smoke as a diversion for the attempted kidnapping,” she continued.

  “Is staying open too dangerous? Should we shut down?” Ophelia asked.

  “We’ll talk about that in a moment,” Cynthia answered.

  “I’d feel like I was in prison if we were the only ones huddled in here,” Denada put in.

  “Yes, we have to be secure without feeling . . . totally confined,” Cynthia said.

  There were murmurs of agreement around the room.

  Sophia glanced at Tessa, who sat in the corner with her back to two walls. Physically she was none the worse for her ordeal, but Ames had almost succeeded in getting her out of the spa, and it was obvious that she’d suffered emotional damage.

  Sophia’s mind flashed back to the ceremony they’d worked. Tessa had brought up the image of a burning building. Sophia had thought it was a church. Maybe it simply represented the spa.

  “The rest of you will be all right,” Tessa said in a small voice. “Ames was after me. He was probably sent by the guy who stopped Sophia out on the road. And we have to assume that attack was supposed to be against me, too.”

  “We can’t know that for sure,” Eugenia answered, but Sophia wondered if her sister believed the reassurance herself.

  The older Ionian looked at Sophia. “The new veterinarian prevented Ames from accomplishing his goal.”

  She nodded.

  “You’d met him previously?”

  “Yes.”

  “Could he have been working with Ames?”

  The question startled Sophia, but she understood where it was coming from. “I don’t think so,” she answered. “When he found out one of the guests was trapped in the building, he ran inside to rescue her. After he brought her out, he heard me call for help and came charging over to the van and grabbed Ames—who bashed him over the head with a wrench. It was a real injury. The hospital’s keeping him overnight for observation.”

  “You checked on him?”

  “Yes. I called to find out how he was.” She spread her hands. “He got hurt because he was helping us.”

  “When he’s here next time, see how he’s doing. And see if you can get a sense that he’s what he appears to be.”

  Sophia nodded. She was thinking that perhaps Cynthia could do the same thing with her lover, Matthew Layden, but she didn’t voice the suggestion. Her mind switched back to Jason. She hadn’t been sure if she could keep away from him. Now the high priestess was ordering her to check the man out.

  Of course, she already had suspicions. But she didn’t voice them, probably because she wasn’t the same woman she had been since the attack on the road. The old Sophia would have reported everything to her sisters. The new Sophia was more guarded.

  And what if Cynthia asked her to stand before them at another ceremony? Could she keep them from seeing what was in her mind?

  The question was unthinkable. No Ionian would do that, would she?

  Cynthia turned back to Tessa. “You can take some time off from your duties,” she said.

  “Thank you.”

  Sophia was startled again. She’d expected Tessa to say she wanted to work to keep her mind occupied. Apparently, she did want time to herself.

  “Should we try to read the future?” Ophelia asked.

  “We didn’t get very far with that last time,” Tessa answered in a low voice. “Why should it work now?”

  “The last time?” Cynthia asked.

  Tessa looked like she wished she hadn’t opened that line of discussion.

  “I asked Sophia to help me see my own future.”

  “Did you?” Cynthia probed.

  “I saw a fire.”

  “You saw the spa burning?”

  “No, another building. It looked like a church. I would have told you if I saw the spa.”

  “Yes.”

  “I didn’t know what it meant. I knew it was muddled in my mind.”

  “Seeing our own destiny was never one of our most reliable skills,” Cynthia said.

  Nobody challenged her, but Sophia could feel the reaction around the room. They were beginning to doubt themselves, which wasn’t helping the situation.

  As they were struggling with that, Cynthia dropped another bombshell.

  “And I believe that the danger may be greater than we thought. I would like to take a vote on closing the spa for the time being.”

  There were various responses. Voting was something they rarely did, but in this case Cynthia didn’t want to take action unless the majority of her sisters were in favor of it.

  Some of the women were against it. Some were startled by the suggestion. Others, especially the women with young daughters, had apparently been thinking along the same lines. After a half hour of discussion, they decided that they would tell the outsiders remaining on the property that they would have to leave. All of them would be offered the opportunity to come back later at the spa’s expense. They’d say the buildings needed to be repaired, but really they would be evaluating the safety of having outsiders on the property.

  The meeting broke up early, with many of the women staying to talk informally and some of the mothers going back to the children’s building. Sophia knew they were disturbed and worried about their daughters.

  She didn’t want to rehash the day’s events. But as she left the room, Tessa caught up with her.

  “That bucket,” she said.

  “What about it?”

  “He must have known the metal would keep me from calling for help.”

  Sophia nodded. She’d thought of that, too.

  Tessa changed the subject abruptly. “I wanted to thank you again. You and Jason Tyron. You both risked your lives to save me.”

  “You’d do the same for me.”

  “Yes.” They walked in silence for a few moments, until Tessa looked over her shoulder to make sure that no one was listening, then said, “I watched you with Dr. Tyron.”

  A bolt of alarm shot through Sophia. “You mean after he was knocked unconscious?” she asked in a careful voice.

  “Yes.”

  When she heard Tessa’s answer, she let out the breath she’d been holding. Her sister hadn’t seen them going into the hayloft—or coming out.

  Tessa’s next words had her on edge again. “He means something to you. When did you get to know him?”

  Before answering, Sophia stepped into one of the gardens, and her sister followed.

  “I interviewed him for the job. I came down to watch him work.”

  “And you made love with him.”

  Sophia caught her breath. Instead of denying it, she asked, “How do you know?”

  “It was
a guess.”

  “You tricked me!”

  “I thought it was true.”

  “Why?”

  “You were so frightened when he got hurt. So tender with him. You care about him.”

  She swallowed. “I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about him.”

  “Maybe it happened before. Maybe the missing Ionians found someone—a man. And that’s why they left the spa.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “When you came into the gift shop, I started to tell you about them. They were in the register of our Sisterhood. Two were born in the 1940s. One in the 1920s. But they’re not here. And there’s no record of their deaths.”

  “They could be some of the sisters who have jobs out in the world.”

  “We know who they are. Linda, Chandra, and Julia just aren’t anywhere.”

  “Could they have done . . . something bad? Been . . . killed?”

  “You think the high priestess would do that to one of us?”

  “I hope not.”

  “Maybe they bonded with a man, and that changed everything for them,” Tessa said in a wistful voice.

  “Or maybe they were kidnapped.”

  When Tessa winced, Sophia was sorry she’d said it.

  “I should go to bed,” Tessa murmured.

  “Yes. Try to relax.”

  Tessa nodded, then walked out of the garden and headed for her bedroom.

  Sophia stared after her sister, hardly able to believe the conversation they’d just had.

  They were discussing the unthinkable. Bonding with a man. Defection. Kidnapping. But the last had almost happened to Tessa today.

  THE next day, Tessa was glad for the excuse to be by herself. At the morning meal, she told Sophia and the others that she wanted to rest, but once she closed her bedroom door behind her, she was too wired to lie down.

  She paced back and forth across the carpet, her mind in turmoil. Had the fire at the spa been what she’d seen in her vision? Or was there something else?

  But what?

  And what if she were putting the whole order in danger? Was there something she could do about it?

  Had the missing Ionians left because they’d had visions of their own futures? Or had they encountered something they couldn’t cope with at the spa? And they’d solved the problem by leaving the Sisterhood?

  Or maybe they’d left—and then something had happened to them, like an automobile accident. Or what if they’d gone to a foreign country to work with the poor?

  It wasn’t like their mother, Daphne, who’d died while rock climbing in the desert. She’d been brought back to the spa and buried with all the other Ionians who had lived here.

  In some part of her mind, Tessa knew that she was becoming obsessed with the missing women.

  Because she’d lost her mother? Almost no Ionians had more than one daughter. Daphne had been an exception. Because she’d known she was going to die early and wanted to leave her mark on the order?

  “Stop it,” Tessa whispered to herself. But she couldn’t keep her speculations from running wild. Suppose one of the women had clashed with the high priestess. Or she’d been in love with a guest, and the only way to break off the relationship was to leave. Or she’d run away with him. There were lots of reasons why a sister might have felt she had to quit the order.

  Had any of them planned to come back? But something had happened?

  As Tessa contemplated that possibility, her chest grew tight. She wanted to know about the women. Burned to know, but probably she never would. This society was rigid. They might as well have been in some monastic order, except that sex was fine—as long as it was sex in the Ionian way.

  And she didn’t have to take a vow of poverty, either. The sisters lived very well. They kept apart from the modern world, but they incorporated modern conveniences into their daily lives. And they kept up with world events.

  The only vow they had to take that could really be considered monastic was obedience to the high priestess and the traditions of the order. And that, too, was unspoken. It was something they simply knew.

  Her mind circled back to the money angle. There was wealth here, and some of it belonged to her. She’d worked for the good of the Sisterhood and always let her earnings go back into the communal pot. But did that have to be strictly true?

  Plans began to form in her mind, plans that should be unthinkable. Yet she was considering them because perhaps they were for the good of the order, not just her own.

  SOPHIA could have called Jason to find out how he was feeling and when he was coming back to the spa.

  There was no reason why she couldn’t. But that wasn’t the Ionian way, and she wasn’t going to do anything that made it look like she was reaching out toward him. Especially after her conversation with Tessa. If her sister had noticed their relationship, others would, too.

  But she couldn’t stop herself from looking for his truck. When she finally saw it three days after the fire, she felt her heart start to pound.

  As she stepped out of the main building and started down to the corral, she had the vague feeling she should tell someone where she was going, although Cynthia hadn’t said anything specific. Perhaps she’d been too distracted, but Sophia was willing to take advantage of that oversight, if that’s what it was.

  Her nerves were jumping as she walked toward the stable, forcing herself to move at a moderate pace in case anybody was watching. When she didn’t immediately see Jason, she stepped inside the barn and found him in the storeroom checking the medical supplies.

  He heard her come in and turned, his arms at his sides and his expression a mixture of emotions, the way it always was when he saw her. He looked defiant, wary, and at the same time glad to see her.

  “I was hoping you’d call,” he said.

  “I called the hospital.”

  “How was I?”

  “They said they were keeping you for observation. Obviously you passed their tests.”

  “You were right. I had a concussion.”

  She winced.

  “But they did a CAT scan and some other tests before they released me. I’m fine.”

  “I’m glad. Should you be at work?”

  “I didn’t want to just sit around.”

  “Let me see your head.”

  “That’s not necessary.”

  “I’d like to see what Ames did to you.”

  He hesitated, then leaned down so that she could reach the top of his scalp. “There’s a bump, but it’s no big deal. The doctor said it will go away.”

  She could see where his dark hair was slightly parted. When she tentatively touched the spot, a rush of dizzying sensations swept over her.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  JASON MUST HAVE felt it, too, because he tried to wrench away, but she grabbed his shoulder with her free hand, holding him in place.

  She’d caught a few of his thoughts when they’d made love. Maybe he’d been able to control her access to his mind before. But he’d been hit on the head and suffered a concussion, which left him vulnerable to her in a way he hadn’t been earlier.

  She gasped when his thoughts leaped toward her. Suddenly she was no longer able to deny what she’d been trying not to believe since she’d first encountered him at the stables.

  “You’re a Minot!”

  Their positions changed abruptly. When she tried to back away, he grabbed her arm and held her fast.

  His gaze bored into hers, and she saw the Minot defiance that was so true of his kind. “Is that a surprise?”

  “Yes,” she spat out. “It should be impossible for one of your kind to get past our wards.”

  “One of my kind? Is that a racial slur or something?”

  “Of course not. I’m stating a fact.”

  “In the way you were taught to think—by your Ionian teachers. Suppose what you’ve learned is wrong?”

  “It isn’t! We’ve been at war with the Minot for almost two thousand yea
rs. You tried to dominate us, and we fought you off. We’re still fighting you off. So stop trying to change the subject. How in the name of Hades did you get in here?”

  “I guess I must be different.”

  “Impossible.”

  She could see him struggle to get a grip on his emotions as he tried to bring the discussion down to a more manageable level. They’d been talking loudly. Would one of her sisters come running in here?

  And did she want that?

  When he spoke again, his tone was more reasonable. “If you picked up on my . . . heritage, you must also know I’m the man who rescued you on the road.”

  “For what purpose?” she asked, trying to match his tone.

  “To save you from the other guy.”

  “You’re not working with him?”

  “Of course not! Again, if you can read my mind—you can see that.”

  “I can’t trust what’s in your mind.” She was going to tell him to get off the spa property, but she had reached the point where she didn’t trust her own judgment. Better to get the others and interrogate him.

  “Keep this between us,” he said in a low voice.

  “Too dangerous.”

  “I’m not what you assume.”

  She laughed mirthlessly. “We both know what you are.”

  “I don’t think so. You’re right about my father. He was a Minot. But my mother was an Ionian. That’s why I can walk in here without any problems.”

  “That’s impossible.”

  “It’s true. My parents had a great marriage, but you’ve been brainwashed into thinking their relationship couldn’t exist.”

  “Because no Ionian can ever trust a Minot. If your mother was with your father, he was holding her captive.”

  “No.”

  “So you say. What was her name?” she asked, ready to tell him that she would have known about any marriages between an Ionian and a Minot.

  “Julia.”

  As the name registered, she felt the hairs on the backs of her arms prickle. Tessa had told her about the sisters who had been born here but then vanished. One of them was named Julia.