A Warrior's Desire

Chapter 2

“Damn, Rand. You look like an Esri.”

Jack Hallihan shook Charlie’s hand as Jack and his wife, Larsen, joined Charlie a few minutes before midnight in front of the Dupont Circle Fountain. The cop and his wife, two of the small band of Sitheen, each carried a flamethrower, ready to defend the world against the Esri invaders when the gate opened in a few minutes.

“A little bigger than the last time I saw you, aren’t you?” Larsen, an attractive blonde, patted Charlie’s chest. “And lumpier. What in the world are you wearing under that outfit?”

Charlie grinned. The night was clear and brisk, a cold wind stinging his cheeks. He was dressed in the Esrian Royal Guard’s uniform of silver tunic, black silk pants and black cloak. To the naked eye, he hoped to pass for an Esri. But beneath the costume, he was armed.

“Vest, T-shirt, and my gear.” Everything from a first-aid kit to C-4 charges in case he needed to blow something open to reach the princess.

“You ready for this?” Jack asked.

Charlie shook his head. “Hell if I know.” His breath fogged, glowing in the illumination from one of the streetlights. “How do you prepare for the twilight zone?”

He’d feel a hell of a lot better about this op if he could bring his team with him. Most of them were, like him, ex-SEALs. All had extensive special ops training. But he was the only one who had the trace of Esrian blood that made him immune to Esri enchantment. He’d seen Baleris turn the D.C. cops into his own personal army. The thought of an Esri turning his own men against him sent chills all the way to his toes.

Larsen gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Be careful, Charlie. We need you back.”

“I’ll be fine.” He wasn’t sure if he said the words to convince her or himself. “Where’s Tarrys? I thought you were bringing her.”

Larsen glanced to his right. “She stopped to talk to Harrison.”

Charlie turned and saw Tarrys heading toward them. Not the attractive petite who’d stirred his hormones this afternoon, but once more the Marceil slave, complete with gray sacklike slave gown, two bows slung over one shoulder and a pair of quivers on her back.

What the hell?

A growl of frustration rumbled in his throat. Harrison was behind this. His brother was the most controlling son of a bitch on the planet.

And Tarrys was playing his game. He stalked toward her. “I already told you, you’re not coming with me,” he snapped.

Tarrys stopped short, her expression filling with a wariness that bordered on fear.

Charlie caught himself, reining in his temper. “I’m not mad, eaglet. I’m not mad at you, anyway.” He stopped an arm’s length in front of her, glad to see she didn’t back away. Once again, she looked a little otherworldly. Until his gaze dropped to the hand holding the two bows, fingernails painted pink. That pink nail polish reminded him that the woman in the purple sweater and snug jeans was still in there. Her sweet scent wafted over him, heating his blood, driving home the lesson. Even dressed like Friar Tuck she stirred his interest.

She met his gaze without flinching. “You can’t go through the gate alone, Charlie Rand.”

“Yeah, I know that.” Humans didn’t possess the magical genes to get through without an escort from Esria. “But all you have to do is hand me through, right? You don’t actually have to go all the way through yourself.”

“I don’t have to stay, but I have to go through.” Her gaze broke from his and traveled to the mammoth fountain that was the location of the gate into Esria. “I will go first, then come back for you.” Her gaze slowly returned to his. “I would not have you walk into a trap.”

His gut started crawling and he looked at her sharply. “Do you have reason to believe there’s a trap waiting for me?”

Her eyes widened. “No. But as I’ve told you, I don’t have the gift of foreknowledge. If there are Esri in the area, I’ll draw less attention if I’m dressed properly.”

“If there are Esri in the area …” A chill washed over him at the thought. She’d be snatched and enslaved and there’d be no one there to protect her. “Forget it. We’re going through together. If we find Esri waiting for us, we’ll come right back.”

There was something about the little Marceil that brought out his protective instincts. Her size probably had something to do with it. But it was more than that. He’d seen her under the control of Baleris, seen the way she fought against the son of a bitch’s far superior power. And he knew she’d probably suffered serious abuse at the bastard’s hands. No way could he blithely let her go back to that.

She’d take him through the gate and come right back. Nothing more.

“The gate’s open.” Kade’s voice resonated over the park.

Charlie’s pulse leaped as he lifted his flamethrower and ran to take his place with the others. There were five of them guarding the gate tonight, four Sitheen and Kade.

Harrison stood on Charlie’s right. Jack and Larsen had taken up position across the park, on the other side of the fountain. And on Charlie’s left stood Kade, seven feet of hard-muscled immortal. Kade didn’t look Esrian, especially in his jeans and leather jacket. He’d been as surprised as the rest of them when they’d realized he was only half Esri. It turned out that both his parents, born more than fifteen centuries ago, were half human, but Kade had inherited his dad’s dark hair and Caucasian skin and his mom’s immortality. The Sitheen were more than happy to have him on their side.

He’d lived fifteen centuries in Esria until a month ago when he’d stolen through the gate on a mission to destroy the Sitheen and steal back the strongest of the seven stones. When he’d realized the full extent of his king’s evil plans for the human race, he’d discovered he had too much humanity in him to let it happen. It hadn’t hurt that he’d fallen in love with a human—Larsen’s friend, Autumn.

As he stood by the fountain, Charlie saw that the light of the full moon had cast the three life-size statues carved into the fountain’s pedestal into ghostly relief. The statues looked ready to leap naked from the marble.

Charlie settled his flamethrower securely in both hands. Adrenaline pumped through his veins like rocket fuel. Within the next sixty minutes, he’d be walking through that gate himself. But first, he had to help make sure no Esri jumped out.

A chill breeze molded the silk pants against Charlie’s legs and lifted the hem of his borrowed cloak. He was wearing Kade’s uniform from the Esrian Royal Guard. The uniform had been hastily altered to fit his more normal, six-one frame. With any luck, if he did run into Esri he could pass himself off as a mixed blood immortal, like Kade. If they figured out he was mortal, he was dead.

Charlie glanced at the giant. “Any last-minute advice before I go through?”

“Stay away from the Esri,” Kade advised.

Charlie laughed. “Yeah, I figured that much. Anything else?”

“No. Nothing that I haven’t already told you. Other than the Esri, the biggest threat to you are the black trimors, but there’s not a lot you can do about them except hope you don’t cross their paths. You’ll never see them coming.”

“Great.” If there wasn’t anything he could do about them, he wasn’t going to worry about them.

He’d spent all morning with Kade, learning as much as he could about the place—what to eat, what to avoid, like the deadly, cat-like black trimors that remained invisible until the moment of attack. And how to reach the Forest of Nightmares where Princess Ilaria had been held captive for more than three hundred years. Kade knew she was alive. Linked by the magic of their world, all Esri knew the moment one of their own died … and at whose hands. Princess Ilaria still lived.

But rescuing her was going to be a feat of gigantic proportions and Kade could offer no advice. He’d never been in the Forest of Nightmares. No Esri entered those dark woods willingly.

“I wish I could go with you,” Kade said, sounding frustrated.

Charlie couldn’t imagine what the man was feeling. Just last night Kade had killed one of his own men as that Esri forced open the gate a day early and tried to abscond with the seven stones of power that were the keys to the gates … and so much more. Kade had stopped him but at a terrible cost. It was forbidden to end an immortal life, and Kade was now marked for death should he ever return to Esria. The moment he stepped through one of the gates, every Esri would know and be able to track him. They would terminate his existence long before he got anywhere near the Forest of Nightmares.

Now Kade was stuck here and Charlie was going into Esria alone.

Silence settled over the small group as they watched the fountain, waiting. The tension in Charlie’s gut twisted even as adrenaline simmered in his veins. Fifteen minutes. Thirty. Forty-five. Enough.

He stepped forward, breaking the circle. “If they were coming through, they’d have done it by now. I can’t wait any longer.”

One by one, the others left their positions to shake his hand and wish him luck.

Finally, Harrison stepped up to him. Charlie had never gotten along well with his too-serious older brother. But this wasn’t the time for old fights. And he had a sense of what it was costing Harrison to watch him enter the Esrian world. Harrison’s first experience with the Esri had been a nightmare. He’d taken his young kids to the Kennedy Center to see The Lion King and fallen victim to Baleris instead. Baleris had done no more than touch Harrison’s six-year-old daughter, Stephie, for an instant, but the pain he’d launched into her small body had damaged her in ways no doctor could repair. Even Aunt Myrtle, with her gift for healing, hadn’t been able to help her. Months later, the child still remained catatonic and might stay that way for the rest of her life.

Anger flared every time he thought of his little niece, but Charlie knew his anger was nothing compared to his brother’s. Harrison hated the Esri with a depth that was chilling. He wouldn’t deal well with the loss of a second family member to that evil.

But Charlie had every intention of making it back alive. He grinned to lighten the mood. “Cheer up, Harrison. I’m going to kick some major Esri butt.”

Harrison’s cool expression never wavered. “If I don’t hear from you in a month, I’m coming in after you.”

Charlie scowled. “Stay the hell away, Harrison, I mean it.” If he, a trained special operative, couldn’t handle Esria, what chance did his white-collar CEO of a brother stand? “I’ll try to make it back in a month, but it might take longer and I can’t exactly call to give you an update. I’ve got at least several weeks of walking ahead of me just to reach the freakin’ forest. After that, who knows how long it’ll take to free the princess and find another gate out of there. Just stay put until I get back.”

Charlie clasped his brother’s shoulder. “I will come back, Harrison. I promise.” He forced himself to smile again. “With a fairy princess on my arm.”

Harrison snorted, the faintest hint of a smile twitching his lips. “Get your cocky ass through that gate, little brother.”

Their gazes held as something heavy passed between them. The knowledge that this might be goodbye.

Charlie refused to accept that. “Keep an eye on the apartment for me.” He turned to look for Tarrys and found her waiting quietly behind him. “You ready, eaglet?”

She nodded and held out her hand to him.

“Be careful, both of you,” Larsen called as Charlie’s fingers closed around the surprising warmth of Tarrys’s fine-boned hand. Excitement sparked inside him, adrenaline charging through his system as it always did at the start of an op.

Charlie glanced down at the delicate profile of his pretty companion. “Let’s do this.”

Her face lifted and she met his gaze, her eyes shining like violet-hued silver in the moonlight, piercing him with their intensity, stirring that excitement.

“Be safe, Charlie Rand.”

His gaze dropped to that intriguing mouth of hers and for half a second he thought about kissing her. And wouldn’t that give the others something to talk about when he was gone?

But before he could give it another thought, Tarrys turned and tugged him with her as she stepped onto the fountain’s rim and down into the dry well. When they reached the thick marble pedestal, Charlie hesitated. Tarrys didn’t. Inch by inch, she disappeared until all but her hand was gone … the hand caught tight in his.

Then she gave a tug and pulled him into chaos.

Charlie opened his eyes to a canopy of spinning, glowing orange, confusion clouding his mind.

Where was he? What had happened? His mind scrambled for an answer as he quickly took stock of the situation. He was on his back, something hard pinned beneath him. No pain. So he was either unhurt or so close to dead nothing mattered.

Something entered his line of vision, flying about twenty feet above him. What the …?

A snake. A green-and-white-striped snake with long black wings.

In a dizzying rush, it all came back.

Esria. Chills raced across his flesh.

Charlie blinked, stayed where he was a moment longer, listening for sound. When none met his ears, he slowly glanced in every direction, wanting to make sure there was no obvious reason to stay down. The familiar smells of loam and pine mixed with a flowery-metallic scent that burned his nostrils.

The alien landscape that caught his gaze made his heart stutter. It was as if he’d stumbled into a cartoon world where the artist had mixed up all the colors. The light was dim, but not dark, the sky low, glowing like a dark orange dome over a colorful yet barren terrain. A few clumps of straggly trees or bushes and a scattering of jewel-colored rocks were all that relieved the hilly expanse of blue, royal blue, dirt. Except for the small patch of vibrant pink flowers he’d managed to land upon.

He sat up, then slowly rose to his feet, adjusting the bow and quiver slung over his shoulder, his senses alert, his gaze searching for sign of trouble. But the land was utterly quiet. He was alone.

Tarrys.

His gaze searched for her even as he knew she wouldn’t still be here. A tiny regret had him wishing he’d at least had a moment to say goodbye. Maybe he could have snagged himself a kiss for good luck.

Right.

Sounds began to rise around him, sounds he’d probably silenced with his arrival. Insects, if he had to guess, but unlike any he’d ever heard before—odd clicks, musical screeches, and a host of others, pitched both high and low. He hoped to God they were merely insects and not something that might decide to put him on the dinner menu.

A chill slid down his spine, part excitement, part reaction to the total unknown. What dangers lurked in this place that he might never know existed until too late?

With a start, he realized the flowers had disappeared. All that remained beneath his feet was a tuft of orange-and-gold grass.

Jesus.

He looked around, trying to get his bearings, needing to figure out which way to go. Where was the gate? His gut clenched with the sharp realization that it didn’t matter. Even if he stayed here and waited for the gate to open in a month, he couldn’t get through. Not without help. There was no turning back. The only way he’d ever get home was hand in hand with the princess herself. Anything less and he’d never see home again.

Which was precisely the reason he wouldn’t fail.

Determination surged into the flow of adrenaline firing his body and he grinned. God, he loved a challenge. But as he looked for his first landmark, the twin peaks of the red mountains, a sound reached his ears, beneath the clicks and squeals of the night creatures, that had ice forming in his blood.

The sound of voices. Human voices.

No, not human.

Esri.

Chapter 3

Charlie tensed, his mind scrambling as he listened to the low, unintelligible voices drawing nearer. Esri voices. From the sound of them, they were just below the rise, less than twenty yards away. Three Esri, he’d guess. Maybe four. By the time he knew for sure, they’d be able to see him. And he couldn’t kill them, unfortunately. He might be able to outrun them, but a human-looking Royal Guard running from the gate was going to look damned suspicious. No, the only thing to do was hide and pray none of them possessed a gift that would sense him. He scanned the area and spied a nearby thicket of low, bloodred bushes that might do the trick. It would have to. Using skills honed as a SEAL, he ran across the hard-packed dirt to the bushes without making a sound. As he ducked low within the center of the soft, fuzzy branches, a flurry of winged insects took to the air, like a spray of raindrops flying skyward.

Wishing for some red camouflage paint, Charlie took a deep breath and concentrated on quieting his thudding heart. Calm. Steady. He looked back the way he’d come and nearly had a heart attack. A narrow path of that same thick rust-and-gold grass led straight to him. Grass that hadn’t been there a moment ago, as if it had followed him. It was going to lead them right to him!

The grass disappeared.

Charlie blinked. Shit. Nothing remained of the grass except the tuft beneath his feet. He reached down to feel the stuff and had gotten nothing more than the fleeting impression that it felt like the grass at home when the grass disappeared and he once more found himself on a bed of tiny pink flowers.

Charlie’s skin raced with goose bumps. Kade had warned him that the two worlds didn’t follow the same laws of nature. He’d laugh at the understatement if he weren’t quite so shaken.

The nearing voices pulled his attention away from the insta-garden beneath his feet and again he prayed none of the Esri possessed the ability to sense his energy. While every Esri had certain baseline abilities, each had unique gifts as well. Hell, most of their human descendants … the Sitheen … did too, with the unfortunate exception of his own line. Neither he nor Harrison had any special talents except for the inability to be enchanted which, all things considered, was really all that mattered.

Still, it would have been nice to have had some magic at his disposal. Larsen foresaw death. Jack could speak with his Sitheen ancestors. Myrtle was a healer of prodigious skill. The Esri, Baleris, had been able to smell the power stones. And Zander, the Esri Kade had killed, had been able to sense power in others.

If any of the approaching Esri possessed that ability, he was in trouble. Because if they could smell power, even the low-level power of a human’s life force, they’d know he was here.

Pale heads broke the level of the rise. Charlie watched, barely breathing, as three male Esri wearing the same silver tunics and black cloaks he himself wore came fully into view. One of the three possessed the startling whiteness of both hair and skin that he’d come to associate with true Esri, but the other two just looked deathly pale. All three were fairly tall with lanky, rangy builds. Their hair varied in shade from stark white to white-blond.

Though the air temperature was comfortable, a trickle of sweat rolled down Charlie’s neck as the trio neared, speaking Esrian gibberish. If they caught him, he was going to have to decide whether to run or grunt and thump his chest and hope they backed off, though why they’d be afraid of someone who’d been hiding in the bushes, he couldn’t fathom.

The Esri neared, their voices growing louder. Clearer. With a jolt, Charlie realized he was starting to understand snatches of what they were saying. “… gate … nearby …” “… must have closed …” “… King Rith … displeased.”

Goose bumps rippled over his skin. He was beginning to understand Esrian. Had he inherited a gift from his Esri ancestor after all? Or was this newfound ability just part of the magic of this world? Kade had warned him to expect anything. He’d been expecting the worst, but speaking the language was a huge plus.

“We are not even certain the gate is here,” said the shortest and whitest of the three Esri.

“I felt it.” The speaker’s face was rounder, his hair thick with straw-blond waves. “When it opens again, I will know.”

The first man made a noise of dismay. “That won’t happen for another cycle.”

“So we wait.”

Charlie gave a mental groan. Don’t wait here. If they settled in, he was sunk.

But the men never stopped, never glanced his way, just continued to walk toward the hills. Finally, when they were but a speck on the horizon, Charlie crept out of the bushes and headed the other way.

He was being followed.

Charlie picked up his pace as he crossed the rocky, hilly blue terrain, the rust-and-gold grass appearing beneath his feet with every step and disappearing a few steps behind him. The grass had entertained him for a while after he escaped the Esri at the gate.

He’d been so distracted by the grass, he hadn’t noticed when he’d first picked up the tail.

The trees had grown more numerous the farther he traveled from the gate, thin patches of woods cropping up here and there, the trees resembling those in his world only in their basic shape. They had trunks and branches and leaves. But the trunks were blue or green or some combination, some shimmery as satin, others spiked with thorns. And the leaves looked like an autumn forest with the color turned up two hundred percent. Reds, golds, oranges as bright as crayons from a coloring box.

Unfortunately, scattered everywhere were bushes and rocks as big as boulders. Whoever was following him had plenty of places to hide.

Charlie followed the stream Kade had told him would lead him through the mountains. It wasn’t the most direct route, but would provide him with water the entire journey. A necessity, especially since large bodies of water were rare in Esria.

In the distance rose the twin red peaks he knew he’d have to cross. The air was cool and comfortable with a light breeze that brushed his heated skin—skin heated from exertion and the tension of feeling he had a bull’s-eye painted on his back. He didn’t dare confront his stalker unless he had no choice.