Blood Trinity (Belador #1)(71)

Tristan stopped short, eyes glowing a hot green. His lips rippled with an unspoken snarl. He twitched, his head jerking to one side. His forehead jutted out with a loud snap, and his jaw extended down from the sharp teeth, which lengthened.

“Tristan, stop it!” Batuk ordered, rushing over to where they stood.

Tristan growled and clenched his fists. He twisted his neck, straining as his face cracked and distorted into jagged planes of skin over misshapen bones.

Batuk swung around to Vyan. “What did you say?”

“Me? Nothing. I merely complimented him on how nice he looked.” Vyan crossed his arms and turned to face Batuk. “I told you when this happened the last time he could not be trusted alone. Now do you believe me?”

“I believe you are causing him to change.” Batuk opened his mouth to say more, but Tristan spoke.

“Don’t worry, I’m okay. Just a little tired.”

Vyan turned to find Tristan once again perfect.

“That is understandable considering the past few days, but we will all rest tonight.” Batuk swung his black gaze to Vyan. “Do not provoke him again.”

Vyan started to argue further when the air cooled unnaturally without warning. His arms pebbled from the chill.

Batuk and Tristan straightened, alert and glancing around.

Two soldiers walked in. One said, “These are the only Nightstalkers we found so far that would leave their area.”

A smoky figure, thin and shaky, appeared. The hollow eyes stared straight ahead as three more transparent figures floated into the room from different directions. Vyan’s next breath slipped out in white puffs against the frigid air. None of the Nightstalkers acknowledged the existence of one another.

“Do you know what we want?” Batuk asked the translucent bodies floating in front of him.

“Yes. You want the woman with the Ngak Stone,” one Nightstalker answered in a hollow voice that swirled around them. The others echoed his words.

“How will you recognize her?” Vyan asked them.

“She’ll be glowing bright pink like the boots of a streetwalker,” one ghoul answered. The other three nodded, which meant they were aware of each other.

“The first one to find her will shake with me for a full fifteen minutes,” Batuk declared, offering an enticing trade. “But the one whose lead ends with us finding the Ngak Stone and taking possession will be rewarded with a twenty-minute handshake with both me and Tristan.”

All four images quivered, blinking in and out with undisguised excitement over the exorbitant offer. Vyan disagreed with this, too, as he’d heard it was dangerous to shake longer than ten minutes or with two powerful beings.

What if Batuk and Tristan created monsters that turned on the Kujoo?

“Two of you go with me.” After giving that order, Tristan headed for the door.

All the ghouls rushed after him in a blur and collided with each other in a mob of confused shadows until Tristan swung around and snarled. “Cease!” When the cloudy forms separated, he pointed as he spoke. “You and you, come with me.”

Two ghouls whisked to hover above each side of Tristan when he walked out.

Vyan snatched his coat from where it hung on a nail, then stepped forward. “You other two come with me.”

“I will remain here to meet with more Nightstalkers as they arrive,” Batuk announced. “When the woman has been located, I will send someone to let you know.”

Vyan paused at the door but did not turn around when he replied. “Have you no faith in my ability to find this woman?”

“On the contrary. I have no doubt you will find her. My concern is if you will bring her back.”

That struck at his honor.

Vyan did not want to see the woman hurt, but gaining that rock was the only chance of saving his people and returning to a life he had once known and was quickly forgetting. This time he wanted a new life of spilling sweat as he tilled the land instead of watching other men’s blood run.

“I have always given my best for you and my people,” Vyan told Batuk. “I will give no less now.” With that, he pushed through the door. Once outside, fumes belched from the metal cars, assaulting his nose. By all saints, he missed fresh air. He searched the streets until he saw Tristan striding along the opposite side.

Tristan paused at the corner to glance back with a look so full of challenge that he might as well have produced a gauntlet and tossed it at Vyan’s feet, before vanishing around the side of the brick building with his two ghouls in tow.

So be it.

Tristan might have been born of this world originally, but Vyan had spent his last ten months learning Atlanta well. He would start his search in Piedmont Park, where he’d once held the stone during a battle with the Beladors before losing it in a small stream there.

Now he wondered if he had actually lost the powerful rock or if it had been choosing its path even then.

Neither Tristan nor Batuk had considered what kind of being the stone would call to it or how powerful the woman would be if she resisted giving up the magical treasure.

Vyan’s powers were mighty, but he would lose a battle against Tristan if the Alterant shifted into a beast.

The woman would lose as well if that happened.

One of his ghouls became agitated. “The stone is revealed.”

Vyan’s blood pumped fast. “In the park?”