clubs have buffets?”
“Who cares?”
“To keep horny guys from leaving long enough to get a burger?” Cole offered.
“Close,” Rico told him. “It’s because their customers don’t
“Ladies, huh?” Paige snorted. “Did they get their hooks into you after one too many freebies?”
Rico took an even sharper tone when he said, “Hey. They haven’t done any harm to anyone. A bunch of them have already been taken and may be killed at any second by that Lancroft asshole. Tristan and the others are willing to put their own necks as well as the necks of their sisters on the line to help us. Since they’ve offered to repay our help on a long-term basis, you should show some respect.”
“You’re right,” she admitted. “I’ll keep the attitude in check.”
“Good, because Ned wouldn’t want us to screw this up. It may be too late to save him, but we can make him proud of us wherever the hell he is. Plus you’re really going to like the deal I’m working on.”
“All right,” Daniels said from the back of the SUV. “I’m all set.” He climbed down from the vehicle, picked up a thin vial of black liquid and allowed his jaw to hang down far enough for his drooping fang to slip all the way out of its casing in his gums. When Cole followed Daniels’s line of sight to the vision strutting toward them, it was easy to figure out what had stymied the Nymar.
Tristan rushed across the parking lot wrapped in a tan robe that covered her from ankle to neck. Although she held it shut well enough to keep from stopping traffic, a breeze flipped it open to show that all she had on beneath it was a collection of multicolored veils that stuck to her like pastel smoke. Quick to pull the robe shut again, she said, “We’re almost ready for you. Since we’re not in a proper temple, we’ve had to gather a lot more energy than normal.”
Cole felt a tightness in his chest that he hadn’t experienced since the first time he followed Paige on a hunt. “Are we really doing this?” he asked. “This is teleportation. We could never be seen again. We could get some kind of exotic disease. Hell, we could freaking
Rubbing Cole’s face, Tristan purred, “You’re cute. Why don’t you bring your things and come with me? We’ll talk along the way.”
As Rico walked with him to an unmarked side entrance, he slapped Cole on the shoulder and said, “Don’t get worked up. I checked it out already. Well, as good as I could check it without actually trying it. The theory sounds pretty solid.”
If Daniels’s loud muttering wasn’t enough to get his displeasure across, he made sure to slam his cases shut as loudly as possible before hauling them out of the SUV. Cole went to the Cav and stuck his head in through the broken passenger window so he could pull the GPS unit from the bracket mounted to the dash and stick it in his pocket. Seeing the impatience scrawled across Paige’s face, he told her, “This thing’s worth more than the damn car.”
The club’s side door opened into a storeroom that was filled with cases of beer, empty kegs, stacks of coasters and bundles of napkins. Tristan walked through another door that led to the narrow space behind the bar, rubbed the tender’s shoulder and skirted the edge of the main room.
It was a short walk that allowed the Skinners to sneak in without attracting much notice. Then again, considering what was going on in the spotlights, a herd of elephants could have ambled through without being noticed. Two large stages were bathed in pulsing light. Shae was on the first one, crawling up to a row of gray- haired gentlemen standing with dollars in their hands. Her miraculously perky body was on display thanks to a pair of shorts that could have easily passed for a rubber band and a wet T-shirt plastered to her breasts. Every move she made was enhanced by a spray of water droplets, and when she brushed them off her skin, everyone in the club could feel it.
Kate was on stage number two in a one-piece swimsuit made of two strips of material that crossed her front and back to form a V on either side of her body. Although Cole could feel her touch running down his stomach, he decided the real magic trick was how she managed to keep the straps of her suit in place.
The free show was over in a matter of seconds as the Skinners were led into another storeroom. This one had been emptied of clutter and supplies so the walls and floor could be marked with the same swirling symbols as the ones in the purple A-frame. As with the previous temple, a beaded curtain hung from the ceiling to separate the front half from the back. “These look kinda like hieroglyphics,” Cole said as he extended a hand to touch some of the symbols. “But they don’t seem to have a beginning or an end. I can’t even tell if one leads into another.”
“That’s the language of the dance,” Tristan said. Looking to Paige, she added, “And I’m not trying to be poetic. That’s truly what it is. My sisters and I speak through our bodies. Our gifts flow through our movements. These symbols date back to a time before humans decided to write in straight lines from one side to another. I explained it all to Terrance.”
Cole started to say something, but Rico beat him to the punch. “It’s still Rico to you, boy.”
Holding up his hands, Cole was more than happy to concede the point.
“Most of our gifts use energy that we extract from a person’s spirit,” Tristan explained. “And most of our talents aren’t much use to anyone but our kind. There are some gifts, however, that have made my sisters and I very sought after throughout the years. We are what you might call magical beings.”
“Oh, Christ,” Paige groaned. “Here we go.”
“See!” Rico said as he snapped his fingers. “I
Paige stepped through the beads and pivoted on the balls of her feet as a crackling force tugged at her hair. “Magic is what people call something they can’t explain. It’s a term used for something that can’t
“Ceramic,” Tristan replied. “Some are glass and some are metal.”
“Forged through a specific process?”
“Yes.”
“There you go, Rico.” Paige nodded to Tristan and said, “Please continue.”
“The magical forces my sisters and I produce allow us to create a bridge from one temple to another. With enough power, we can create a passage using only one temple, but it’s not very stable.”
“So that’s why Lancroft took those other nymphs?” Cole asked.
Rico stood with his back to a wall, eyeing the beads as if he was ready to charge through them no matter where they led. “If that asshole is spreading Pestilence around, I can’t think of a better method. He could just teleport it into the sky or into the water. Ain’t that right?”
Lowering her head, Tristan pulled in a deep breath and let it out while the lids slowly fell down over her eyes. “It shames me to think of it, but I suppose so. With all the other Dryads he’s been collecting, he must be doing… something else with them.”
“Dryads?”
“It’s the proper name for our kind, Cole. We’re more than the nymphs of human legend. Actually we’re more like several of your legends combined.”
Tensing up even more, Paige asked, “So can you send us to Lancroft or not?”
“You must understand. The moment we send you anywhere or do anything to put you onto this man’s trail, my sisters’ lives are in jeopardy.”
“They’re in jeopardy now,” Rico told her.
Slowly, Tristan nodded. “You promise you’ll help them?”
Paige stepped in front of her and held onto both of Tristan’s hands. Looking her directly in the eyes, she said, “There could be thousands of lives at stake if Pestilence isn’t stopped. That’s our first priority.”
“Pestilence may not be anything you can stop. It could be something no human can stop. Ancient Mayan mythology tells of the Mud People and Wood People. Legends say the gods made several attempts at creating man before they got it right. Among the failures were people made of mud, who were too soft, and people made of wood, who were too brittle. Those beings were discarded once the gods settled on flesh and bone as their
