Terran Realm Vol 1-6 Read online

  “And how many people work at your firm?”

  “About forty. And before you ask, most are human, ex-military, and don’t have a clue what Donovan and the rest of them are. Julian and a few others are the exception.”

  That shocked her. “How can they not know?”

  “Hell, you think they would have survived this long, undetected, if they weren’t discreet?”

  “Yeah, but … how did you find out?”

  “I’ve always known, I guess, that there was something different about Donovan, from the first day I met him in Monterey. He was teaching Russian to a bunch of guys back when the Cold War was really firing up, and he was just … I don’t know … more than the rest of us. He looked up from his lecture and saw me, and somehow, the day I got out, he was there, offering me a job. Obviously, I took it, and I’d do it again in a hot second. Since then, I’ve moved through the ranks, to where I am now, as second-in-command.”

  “That sounds very military.”

  “Yeah, but if the shoe fits…”

  “Brenna, Mark, c’mere. I think we’re starting to get somewhere.” Donovan’s voice drew her head up.

  “Thanks for the talk, it helps, y’know?” She stood, and he followed suit.

  “Yeah,” and then he was striding past her. “What’ve we got?”

  Brenna sidled up next to Donovan and looked down at Julian. He looked scared as hell, but no worse for the wear besides the dried blood caked around his nose and mouth. The change between the being who had looked at her with such hatred and the cowering mess at her feet was shocking. The smell of his fear overrode even the taint of Destroyer, thick, cloying, nauseating. Even more unsettling was the fact that his fear smelled good to Brenna, like victory.

  “What did you do?”

  “Just showed him a little of what I told you earlier this morning, things no one really knows about the time I spent in the field.”

  Brenna warmed inside at the words, even as she wondered at the truth of them. He’d shared with her things almost no one else was privy to, but had those experiences truly frightened Julian that much?

  “A little, ah, demonstration of what I learned was all it took.” A wicked, satisfied grin curved his lips.

  “So where are we?”

  “Julian is going to tell us a story, aren’t you, Julian?”

  The Terran made no sound, crouching at Donovan’s feet, his head bowed.

  “Go ahead, sit up on the couch. We’re listening.”

  “What do you want to know?” The voice that had been so superior, so hate-filled, just a few minutes ago was now subdued, almost broken.

  Brenna just hoped it wasn’t a ruse as Julian heaved himself onto the settee.

  “What do the Destroyers want?”

  “The Sorhineth, and you and the Warden with it.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. We were just told to direct you to Boston, and then Jenalee found out something, I don’t know what, that made her panic. She had one of our people there try for the Sorhineth first, but he couldn’t find it, and then you lost him in the storm.”

  “So there’s obviously more Terrans than you and Jenalee involved. Who’s behind this?” This from Mark, whose voice had gone dangerously low.

  “KOTE. That’s all I know.” His reply was wire-tight and filled with fear. “And now that I’ve betrayed them, I’m dead.”

  “Don’t forget it was me you betrayed in the first place, you worthless bastard.”

  Brenna heard the anger under Donovan’s words, and knew it was because he’d expected loyalty from his men. Hell, from what she’d learned of Donovan, he deserved it. And even if it wasn’t her place, Brenna had to know. “Who else can enter my thoughts?”

  Julian’s head lifted, surprise written on his features. If he hadn’t been tainted by pure evil, he would have been extraordinarily handsome. What a waste.

  “Only Singers can affect outcomes, but only verbally.”

  The wash of relief coursing through Brenna was almost sexual. While the power Donovan held as the Spirit Talisman was still in question, the knowledge he hadn’t been using something on her intentionally eased her mind and heart. “And how did you become a Destroyer?”

  “They offered me the world. No one seemed to care anyway, so what did it matter?”

  *

  Donovan stiffened. Hell, if that’s all it had taken for Julian to turn, then hadn’t he been a Destroyer himself, simply by not acting?

  Brenna’s sweet voice, laced with steel, continued, “But how? How did you start?”

  Julian’s voice became animated, as if in the telling he was redeeming himself, if only a little bit. “Jenalee brought me in. It was little things at first, dropping packages off at construction sites, running messages for a few extra bucks. Then it got bigger, providing some muscle on my off time.”

  “Sounds a lot like the Mob,” Claire said dryly. Donovan could tell she was still on her guard, ready to unleash the binding spell again if need be. She needn’t have worried. Julian was well and truly broken.

  “Pretty close,” Julian conceded, as he finally relaxed a bit and leaned back against the cushions. “It was always about the money, until Jenalee changed her focus, then it was about power.”

  “And what did she do differently?” More than anything, that was the question Donovan wanted answered. He hadn’t given himself the chance to really dissect what had happened a few short hours ago, and if he had his druthers, it would remain that way until this was all over. Then he could think about it. But the need to know why burned.

  “Used her power as a Singer, to influence things. Government, corporate decisions, hell, everything. Being who she was, Jenalee had access to almost everyone in power in San Francisco. And she used her access to make money. A lot of it.”

  There was more, Donovan was sure of it, but now they had enough to move. And the clock he’d felt earlier… Well, it was dangerously close to striking midnight. The time to act was now, before KOTE came to them.

  Chapter Ten

  The Jag arrowed for the familiar triangular Transamerica Building. The afternoon had faded into a cold, sullen evening, sending a chill through Brenna’s bones as she considered what she and Donovan were about to do … alone.

  Claire and Mark stayed with Julian, locked behind a protection spell that should keep out even the most determined Destroyer. While Julian had accepted his prisoner status with little grace, Donovan had been loath to kill him outright, saying he’d been the cause of enough bloodshed over his lifetime. It was something she was glad of, but she would have understood it if he had dispatched the traitor, as he’d originally voiced.

  But Julian’s admissions had brought more questions than answers. She’d been thinking about some of the things he’d said … and what he hadn’t. And what niggled in the back of her brain was the fact Jenalee and Julian had been more intricately interlaced than either had implied. It wasn’t a certainty, but rather a gut-deep feeling. If Jenalee and Julian had been in on something together, where did that leave KOTE? And did she really care, with one dead and one in custody? To be honest, she was glad Jenalee was dead, if for no other reason than her betrayal of Donovan.

  It made her wonder when she’d become so bloodthirsty. It took an actual effort for her to remember her life just five short days ago. Before Donovan. Before she’d discovered being a Warden might just cost her life … and quite possibly her humanity, since she had no regrets over Jenalee’s death, and wouldn’t have shed a tear over Julian. And now, given what she, Donovan, Claire and Mark had decided was the best course of action, her mortality was definitely hanging in the balance. They were, quite simply, going to storm KOTE and demand answers. Donovan, Mark and Claire had all said the element of surprise would be the kicker, and Brenna hoped to God they were right, because she wasn’t so sure.

  It was time—past time—she earned her title as Warden, even if she’d broken her family’s most sacred covenant by handing the Sorhine
th over to Claire. No way in hell Donovan was going to face this alone.

  And because of that plan of attack, there was more she needed to know, and now.

  Brenna felt like she was pulling teeth, but if they were going to get out of this alive, the man needed to talk. Julian’s revelations aside, something else had been plaguing her for days; now she had every right to ask it. And if she were truly his mate, he would answer.

  “What changed your mind?” she asked baldly.

  “Huh?” He pulled his gaze from the road, meeting her eyes with confusion.

  “Eyes on the pavement, Callahan. This traffic makes me twitchy.” When he complied, albeit grudgingly, she continued. “What made you come after the Sorhineth? It must have been something big if you were okay with everything until then.”

  Donovan clenched his jaw and tightened his hands on the steering wheel before answering. When he did, his voice was rife with a mixture of rage, disgust and sorrow.

  “There was a woman, years, decades ago. Her name was Angeline, and she was my first true love.” He kept his eyes on the road, but Brenna could sense he really didn’t want to tell her this. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear it, but she’d been the dumb ass to open her mouth. Then he switched gears so fast it made her head spin.

  “A few of us were in the City when Loma Prieta hit. Me, Claire, Mark and Julian headed down to the waterfront. I don’t remember much about ’06 … just fire and screams. But this, it was worse somehow. Buildings sliding off their foundations. People screaming and crying like their hearts were going to explode. Fear so palpable you could actually taste it. And then I saw a woman, and she looked so much like Angeline it froze me. She was crouched over the body of a young man, and the sound she was making almost killed me. I’ve seen death before, hell, it was my life for thirty years, but nothing I’d ever seen floored me like her grief. It took me back, back to France. I’d never had a flashback before, but knew what it was.

  “I saw Angeline again, saw her lying on the ground as if she’d gone to sleep, but the bullet hole between her eyes told me differently. Her head was resting funny, and it took me a moment to realize the back of it had been blown off by the force of the bullet. I was devastated. As a half-breed, I never thought I’d find a mate, so poured everything into my relationship with her. Then I saw Luc, our compatriot, crouched over her, huge, silent sobs wracking his body, I knew… She’d been his mate, the man who had loved her from afar while we carried on our affair. By simply not knowing, I’d denied him a life with his mate, even if it was a shortened one because both were human. Had I known then what being mated truly felt like, I would have gladly walked away.

  “All of that came back to me as I stood there, feeling the aftershocks as they rumbled through me, and I felt useless, as if nothing I’d done had made a difference. Why win a war or fight for freedom when something as random as an earthquake can take it all away?”

  He went silent, and Brenna knew he was torn between two sets of memories. She leaned across the console and brushed a kiss across his cheek.

  “Don’t think I’m a noble man, Brenna. I’ve killed people, done things even I don’t want to remember.”

  “Do you regret them?” she asked softly.

  “Some of them, yes.”

  “Then you’re a good man, Donovan. Nothing more, nothing less.”

  “After hearing that, do you really believe I’m your Spirit Talisman? I don’t think so.”

  “Ah, but I do, and I know when push comes to shove, you’ll realize it too.”

  He snorted in pure derision, but it didn’t bother her much. Donovan was what he was, and time would tell.

  She peered out the windshield, clutching the backpack to her chest as doubts began to assail her. Should they really have left Claire and Mark guarding Julian? What if they needed them, especially Claire? Who was she to go into battle? Especially against the likes of KOTE? The Warden title should have gone to Terry, the youngest brother, she was now positive of that. It would have meant she might have missed out on meeting and falling in love … yes, love … with Donovan, but wasn’t the future of the world more damned important?

  She turned to her mate … yes, mate … and voiced her trepidation. “I’m scared. Terry would have been so much better suited for this. I wasn’t meant to be the Warden. Gram must have been wrong. For God’s sakes, I’m a librarian!”

  Donovan quirked up his lips. “You’re more than a librarian, Brenna Kennedy, and I can think of no one I’d rather have guarding the Sorhineth. Your brothers are fine when it comes to brawn, hell, even brains, but have they learned to temper both with compassion? Have they learned the fastest course of action is not always the correct one? I think not. You know all of these things without being taught, realize what is important. If one of your brothers had been in The Drake, would they have thought to protect the Sorhineth, or would they have charged forward, ready to do battle?”

  She thought long and hard, focusing on the traffic swirling around them before answering “Battle. They would have chosen battle.”

  “And so your birthright as Warden was appropriate, yes?” The grin was still in his voice, as if he had no cares in the world, as if they were not headed toward a fateful confrontation.

  “Is this the smartest thing to do, then?”

  “Good question, and one that deserves answering. Yes, because if we don’t, they’ll always be one step behind us, and we’ll spend our lives on the run. I don’t know about you, but it’s not something I’m willing to accept. We need to meet them on our terms.”

  “But you don’t have to go. They’re after the Sorhineth, and by extension, me. This doesn’t have to involve you at all.”

  Donovan whipped the car to the side of the street, threw it into park and whirled in his seat. His face was angrier than she’d ever seen, ever imagined seeing it.

  “You would have me leave you, my mate, to such a fate? Do you think so little of me, then?” His words were hard, bullets leaving his mouth in rapid fire.

  She shook her head in denial, hair whipping around until it nearly blinded her. “No, that’s not what I meant. I just want you to be sure this is what you want, not something you’re doing out of obligation to me, or to Jenalee, or to Angeline.”

  “And what makes you think my past lovers have anything to do with you and me?” Now his voice was silky, smooth in menace. It scared her right down to her toenails, but she forged on, because it had to be said.

  “Because they helped create who you are, and that’s important, almost more important than the Sorhineth.”

  “I doubt that very much, but thank you for your concern.”

  “Don’t make light of this, Donovan. We’ve been over this before. Your best friend is lying dead in your guest room. That has to mean something.”

  He reeled back as if struck. He’d obviously thought they were finished on this subject. He didn’t want to think about it anymore, but she needed to be crystal-clear on where she stood, where they both stood. “Jenalee has nothing to do with you and me.”

  “Of course she does.”

  He mulled over her words, and she could tell he was suppressing the rage she’d seen only once or twice before. When he finally replied, his words were clipped. “If Jenalee hadn’t been the Destroyer? Then it would have mattered. But she became everything I despise. When I came back from Algeria in ’65, I had the same feelings I do now about saving the fucking world. And what I saw when I got home—protests in the street, kids being gunned down, and the Terrans not giving a shit, I realized everything I went through in that prison camp made no difference. I’d held my own under torture because I didn’t want to reveal the Terrans, and when I get home, they’re worse than the humans. I turned my ass around and went to Cambodia, worked as a mercenary. I saw horror that pales in comparison to what happened today, so don’t think I’m all wound up about Jenalee’s death. She brought it on herself, and she deserved it. Don’t ever put yourself in the same sentence with he
r. I may be a reasonable man about most things, but not about that.”

  “Oh hell,” Brenna said in disgust and no little amount of exasperated love. His little speech about the horrible things he’d done meant nothing to her. She knew the man he was underneath. Yes, he was capable of the things he’d done—he was a survivor, and right now, his life experience was what she was counting on. “You’re worse than a freakin’ woman, you know that?”

  “Explain.” No emotion coated his words, just a stark, vacant tone.

  “Don’t get all Alpha on me. I just wanted to give you the option, let you know you had an out if you wanted it, after what happened today. Everything that happened.”

  He curled a hand around the nape of her neck and drew her in for a thorough kiss. When he released her, she could feel her heartbeat matching his.

  “Don’t ever leave me, Brenna-girl. I don’t know what I would do without you.” His tone, full of love, made her soul ache. Could she ever find a man to complement her more?

  “No fear, Callahan, you’re stuck with me.” She didn’t qualify it was for the duration. If there was a duration. At this point, she wasn’t so sure. But there was one thing she was positive of. “Since we’re about to walk into the lion’s den, as it were, I need to tell you something.” She took a deep breath. “You were right. I am your mate. And God help me, after only five days of knowing you, I love you more than life itself.”

  Donovan’s face creased into a huge smile and he swooped in for another kiss, this one long and lingering. In it she felt everything they would be, could be, once this showdown was over. Once KOTE was neutralized, and they could spend some time really getting to know each other.

  She eased back, pure joy suffusing her entire body. They would get through this … they had to. The future beckoned too brightly for it to go any other way.

  Donovan jerked upright, a flicker of discomfort crossing his face, chasing away his own expression of wonder and elation.

  “What?” she asked, then felt it, a tremor surging through the earth, gently rolling the ground beneath them, shifting the car minutely before easing to a halt.