Blood Trinity (Belador #1)(90)
Evalle shook her head. “I have no idea why she has it, but she is human.”
“Was Vyan alone?” Lucien asked.
“No, but he was acting on his own. He stepped between the woman and another guy to protect her.”
“So he wasn’t trying to take the stone for himself?” Trey frowned, probably remembering the lonely warrior who had traveled forward eight hundred years to seek vengeance. Because of Trey’s compassion for what the guy had lost, he’d allowed Vyan to walk away free.
“Not right then,” Evalle clarified. “Vyan told her to drop the rock and run while he faced off with the other guy.”
“Who was the other guy?”
Answering that was going to be tricky. “Someone Vyan knew, but no one I’ve met before.”
Storm had been leaning against a wood support column for the porch, arms crossed, staring at the floor. His head lifted just enough to draw Evalle’s attention, and his eyes told her he knew she’d just colored the truth.
“Was the other guy after the rock?” Trey asked.
“Yes.” Evalle welcomed the question to avoid Storm’s silent censure. “But he wasn’t Kujoo.”
“What kind of power did he have?”
“Different than anything I’ve faced before.” If she told the Beladors on the porch about Tristan they would call up a league of Beladors to go after him, which was exactly what she believed the Medb wanted, especially if it included Tzader and Brina. Brina could find Tristan immediately.
Or so Tristan had said.
Evalle couldn’t risk any of them walking into a trap. If she told Brina that Tristan was an Alterant who had escaped his cage and that Brina should stay away from him, Brina would think Evalle was protecting an Alterant. She didn’t know if anyone could really kill Brina, but she wasn’t risking the future of the Beladors to find out.
If she told Tzader and Quinn that Tristan wanted to keep her, they wouldn’t let her near Tristan.
But Tristan had given Evalle a chance to protect her tribe, and if that was her last option, she’d trade her life if that was the only way to save Tzader and Quinn. She would not, however, give Tristan the rock under any circumstances.
The team did need to know about the ghouls being altered.
“I think the guy I met in the park is changing Nightstalkers into crazed half-zombie-like things,” Evalle told the group. “They can’t hold their shape and they’re aggressive. That’s what stabbed me in the leg with a long fingernail. This strange guy has kinetics and can throw energy spikes like lightning bolts. Then he disappeared as though he teleported.”
“He wields Noirre majik?” Adrianna asked. “Was he a witch?”
Evalle thought back on what had happened. “Not a witch, and I don’t think he controls the majik. I had the feeling he was infected with the Noirre majik and passed that infection along to the Nightstalkers when he shook with them.”
Tzader raked his hand over his head and walked around a minute. “A human female got the rock. How could that have happened?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t think she realized what she had,” Evalle told the group. “When the other guy attacked Vyan, I stepped in as Vyan went down. I put up a shield for the woman and told her to drop the rock and run. She was rattled to the point I don’t think she knew what she was doing and said she just wanted to go home. Poof. She disappeared with Vyan.”
In his usual precise manner, Quinn summed up everything. “A human has the Ngak Stone, there’s an unknown player in the mix and the Kujoo warrior Vyan is with the woman who has the stone. I suppose it could be worse, but I don’t know how.”
Evalle really hated to be the bearer of sucky news. “Here’s how. My Nightstalker told me there’s an ancient synergy in the city, and during our brief conversation I confirmed the strange guy I fought in the park is working with the Kujoo. Someone has brought more Kujoo warriors forward in time. Vyan isn’t working alone, but I had the feeling he was in conflict with his warlord.”
“We’ll be ready for them this time,” Trey said.
Evalle raised her hand. “Wait. This guy was arrogant and bragging about how the Medb had a plan for taking down the Beladors. From what I could figure out, the Medb are setting a trap and not preparing for a battle. If what he said was true, they’re planning genocide of Beladors. We have to find out first what they’re up to so Beladors don’t rush into a slaughter.”
“That makes sense,” Quinn said. “Looks like we’re still back to finding that rock, which might answer those questions. Shiva will give advice when he deems it necessary, but we can’t call him or Macha into this until the Kujoo instigate a conflict.”
“The strange guy said the Kujoo would not instigate a conflict,” Evalle followed up. “I don’t know what they have in mind, but this guy was confident about whatever the Medb were cooking up to use against the Beladors. They want us to show up en masse.”
Storm watched her every time she spoke, and his eyes narrowed when she stepped all over the truth. Too bad. She had the Beladors’ safety at heart.
Tzader swung around and addressed everyone. “Lucien and Adrianna—search for whoever is opening that portal for Kujoo. Storm and Evalle will start shaking down Nightstalkers to see if any of them have a lead on a human female with a sentient power source. Also, you two find out how many Nightstalkers are missing that might have been changed by the Kujoo or this guy Evalle fought. If the Nightstalkers are being changed, the ones still here might lead us to this guy and the Kujoo.”