Blood Trinity (Belador #1)(110)

“I’m not talking to you unless you’re going to help me trade this rock for Vyan.”

Saving a Kujoo was counterproductive to saving the Beladors and civilization. Evalle wasn’t sure if she could talk this woman out of the rock or take it from her, but she was not handing it over to the Kujoo or Tristan. “Why don’t we sit down and work through this?”

Laurette heaved a long breath as though the world rested on her shoulders, which wasn’t far from the truth as long as she held tight to the rock. She sat down on the sofa and her little dog curled across her feet. Her fingers never stopped stroking the Ngak Stone in her hand. “How do I know you’re a Belador?”

Evalle never had a good answer for that one. “I have no way to prove it to you, but I know Vyan. I met him two years ago when he first arrived in Atlanta.”

Laurette nodded. “He said that’s when he met you. What are the Beladors?”

“The short story is that we’re sort of a special group that protects national security, which is why we need to talk about the Ngak Stone you’re holding.”

“But you’re Vyan’s enemy?”

Add him to the list, but let’s move this along. “The Beladors and the Kujoo have a lot of difficult history from eight hundred years ago, but none of today’s Beladors are responsible for that. Where did Vyan go?”

“I don’t know. I asked the rock to take me to him, but it wouldn’t. He left by the roof instead of the front door so no one would pick up his trail.”

No one from the street, but someone could track him back to Laurette’s house. Evalle asked, “Did he tell you anything about that rock?”

“Yes.”

“Then you know we’re working on a tight schedule or you could end up bound to the Ngak Stone forever … if you survive being bound to it.”

“I have to keep this rock.”

“Are you blind, Laurette?”

“Not yet, but soon. I can see when I hold it.”

“The rock is seducing you. It’s meant for a different kind of person than you.”

“One like you or that guy Tristan, because I don’t throw around lightning bolts?”

“That’s right. You’re human.” Evalle wanted to tell her not to feel disappointed or hurt about her human status. Being nonhuman was no joyride. “Some of the most powerful sorcerers and wizards have gone mad after bonding with the stone. The stone has been around forever. Every time the stone takes a new master its power builds upon the previous power gained. I doubt a human would even survive the bonding, and even if you did, the stone would control you, not the other way around.”

Laurette’s eyes glistened with tears. “Vyan told me not to ask the stone for my eyesight. Is that too much to ask?”

“It’s dangerous to seek any gain from something powerful. If you ask for your eyesight, someone else might lose theirs in exchange.”

She gasped. “I would never take someone else’s.”

“I didn’t think you’d want that.” What would it take to get her to part with the stone besides saving Vyan? He must not be cooperating with the Kujoo and Tristan. “You have to decide soon, Laurette, or the choice won’t be yours to make at daylight.”

Laurette fought tears, struggling to do the right thing. “I’ll give it up, but not until I know Vyan is safe.”

“Why do you think he’s in any danger?”

“Because he doesn’t agree with what his warlord is planning and has gone against the Kujoo by not handing me and the rock over to them.”

“What is the warlord planning?”

“Vyan gave me a message for the Beladors if he didn’t return. He said his warlord wants Tristan to use the Ngak Stone to turn the Kujoo warriors that are here now into superwarriors, then Tristan will send them back eight hundred years. Those warriors will kill all the Beladors so that your race ends. Vyan said some witch assured Tristan that something called an Alterant will be safe from the genocide.”

Oh, dear goddess. Evalle’s heart shook with possible consequences of that happening. That’s what Tristan had been talking about and why he had said she’d be safe. In this time period, Beladors lived as sleeper cells for the good, scattered all over the world in every position, from mothers to pilots to doctors to bus drivers to maybe even those in the highest levels of government.

If they all disappeared at one time, the result would be devastating to more than just the non-Belador members of the families that survived. The world could go into chaos. There would be no way to prepare for the immediate disappearance of over a million Beladors worldwide.

And she’d lose Tzader and Quinn.

Laurette’s voice turned thin and desperate. “Vyan is helping your Beladors. Please help him.”

Now to make the right choices that Nicole had warned her were imperative to protecting the Beladors’ past and future. Evalle forced her words to be calm, though she wanted to shout at Laurette to hand over the stone. “If I promise to free Vyan, will you hand over the stone to people I know?”

Laurette got up and walked across the room to look out her window. She gripped the stone in both hands. “Who are these people you’re talking about?”

The less Evalle shared with this woman about the Beladors the better, but VIPER had one person with the ability to ease Laurette’s worries. “His name is Storm. He’ll take you to a place that is safe to leave the rock and I’ll take a team to help Vyan.”