Grace lifted the bar of soap to her nose. It smelled like him. Clean, a nice smell—not harsh or astringent. She turned her back to him and rubbed soap over her clothes. It lathered nicely in the warm water. She kept looking over her shoulder. He was concentrating on an oil stain on his shirt, then dunked down again. When Daniel stood up, he peeled off his shirt, rinsed it thoroughly, and threw it over a rock.Grace nearly dropped the soap.Scars, large and small, crossed his torso. She'd seen bullet scars before. There were two right next to each other under his left arm. She was so focused on the terrible scars that she barely noticed the black, abstract, curvilinear tattoos on his chest and shoulders. They were fierce, with what looked like stylized talons interwoven with curving, concentric whiplash curves. He was bruised almost black on his right side. More tattoos covered his wrists and elbows in precise, flowing patterns made up of repeating geometric shapes. The burn scar on hi
Present Times The past or the future? Life … or death? The words drifted toward her through the darkness. Detached syllables. The rough scrape of a flat, airless voice that reached into the heavy drowse of her mind and forced her to come awake, to listen. To make a choice. Life? Or death? The Nork or the future? Grace groaned against the cold plank floor beneath her cheek, trying to bar the voice after she woke up three hours ago– and the relentless decision it demanded –from her mind. This wasn’t the first time she’d heard these words, this question. Not the first time in the space of some endless hours that she’d peeled one heavy eyelid open in the frigid stillness of her cabin home and found herself looking into the terrible face of a monster. Demons, vampires or whatever it was. "Choose, little one," the creature whispered thinly, the word drawn out in a slow hiss. Grave was lost, she couldn't remember anything, all she knew was the past, the kingdom of Nork. She was su
‘Grace, can you hear me?’ The deep, rolling baritone that sounded so near her face was somehow familiar to her. Oddly soothing.It beckoned to something deep within her, giving her something to grab hold of when she had nothing but fathomless dark sea around her. Grace moaned, still lost, but feeling a slender thread of hope that she might survive.The low voice she somehow needed desperately to hear came again. ‘Gabby, Ella. Holy shit, she’s coming out of it. I think she’s finally waking up.’She sucked in a hard breath, gasping for air. ‘Let me go,’ she murmured, uncertain she could trust her feelings. Uncertain she could trust anything now. ‘Oh, God … please, no … don’t touch me. Don’t—’‘Grace?’ Somewhere nearby, a female voice took shape above her. Tender tones, sober concern. A friend. ‘Grace, honey, it’s me, Ella. You’re all right now. Do you understand? You’re safe, I promise.’The words registered slowly, bringing with them a sense of relief and comfort. A feeling of peace, d
She glanced away, stung and not a little afraid of what that silence might truly mean. ‘I have to get out of here. I want to go to James.’When she started to swing her legs over the edge of the bed to get up, it wasn’t Lucan or Steven or any of the other huge men who stopped her, but Ella. Grace’s best friend moved to block her, the sober look on her face more effective than any of the brute strength standing ready elsewhere in the room.‘Grace, you have to listen to me now. To all of us. There are things you need to understand … about what happened back in Alaska, and about the things we still need to figure out. Things only you may be able to answer.’Grace shook her head. ‘I know what you’re talking about. The only thing I know is that I was held captive and attacked – bitten and bled, for God’s sake – by something worse than a nightmare. It could be out there still, back in Russia. James needs my help. We were ambushed. I can’t sit here knowing that the monster that terrorized me
Standing in the corridor outside the infirmary room a couple of minutes later, Ella and the other warriors watched as she sat down on the edge of the bed and quietly comforted her friend. Grace didn’t break down or crumble. Grace let Ella wrap her in a tender embrace, but Grace’s eyes remained dry, staring straight ahead, her expression unreadable, glazed with the stillness of shock.Lander cleared his throat, breaking the silence as he glanced away from the infirmary door’s small window. ‘That went well. Considering.’Ella grunted. ‘Considering she just came out of a a nightmare to learn that her mate is missing, she’s been leeched by the granddaddy of all bloodsuckers, brought here against her will – and oh, by the way, we’ve found something embedded in your spinal cord that probably didn’t originate on this realm, so congratulations, on top of all that, there’s a good chance you’re part Borg now.’ She exhaled a dry curse. ‘Jesus, this is messed up.’‘Yeah, it is,’ Lander said. ‘But
‘When was the last time you ran blood work and DNA?’ Lander asked the grave, low-voiced question giving Steve something else to focus on. He pushed back his shirtsleeve to check his watch. ‘I drew the last sample about seven hours ago.’ Lander grunted as he pivoted away from the infirmary door. ‘Run everything again now. If the readings have changed so much as an iota from the last sample, I want to hear about it.’ Gabby’s blond head bobbed. ‘Given what Ella has told us, I’d also like to take some strength and endurance measurements. Any information we can gather from studying Grace could be crucial to figuring out what exactly we’re dealing with here.’ ‘Whatever you need,’ Lander said grimly. ‘Just get it done, and fast. This situation is important, but we also can’t afford to lose momentum on our other missions.’ Steve inclined his head along with the other warriors, knowing as well as any of them that a human in the compound was a complication the Brotherhood didn’t need when t
‘That’s the warrior twin,’ Ella said, indicating the menacing blond and the scarred brunet respectively. ‘They’re members of the brotherhood, too.’Grace gave a vague nod of acknowledgment, feeling as conspicuous in front of these men, the feeling wasn’t so much about gender discrimination or petty male insecurities. She’d known enough of that bullshit during her tenure with the Statues to realise this was something different. Something a whole lot deeper.Here, she felt that by virtue of her mere presence, she was treading on sacred ground. In some unspoken way, she got the sense from the five pairs of eyes studying her that in this place, among these people, she was somehow the ultimate outsider.Even Gabby’s dark, absorbing gaze settled on her with a weighty appraisal that seemed to say he wasn’t sure he liked seeing her there, regardless of the care and kindness he’d shown her back in the infirmary.Grace wouldn’t have argued that point for a second. She tended to agree with the v
That night, Grace fell asleep.She was back to Nork.Another punch. So. Much. Pain. Okay, I can pass out now. Of course, that’s when the darkness thinned against another blast of adrenaline, sharpening her wits. I'm back! Yes, I'm back! She smiled to herself.But the pain… It hurts so much!Grace wanted to scream for help, but knew no one here would do anything to help her. Only hurt her further. Plus, physically, she couldn’t scream.As she’d feared, her jaw was broken. Another punch. More pain. No, pain wasn’t an adequate word for what she experienced. Agony, perhaps, but even that seemed too tame a descriptor. Hard fingers wrapped around her biceps and shook her, causing the agony to radiate through the rest of her. “Look at me.”She blinked and opened her eyes. Or eye. One of them was already sealed shut, the upper and lower lid glued together, concealing what felt like a golf ball. She lay on her back, and the leader of the beast loomed over her.The moment he realized she was a