The Trouble with Twelfth Grave (Charley Davidson #12)(73)

He matched my speed almost instantly, and we squared off, as they say, preparing for battle.

“At last,” he said, a knowing smile on his face. “The god eater emerges. Will you devour my heart as you have so many before me? Will you feast on my soul?”

“I’m seriously considering it,” I said, only half lying. To keep him away from Beep, I might have no choice.

But now I had a new problem. Rey’azikeen was painfully aware that Garrett knew where to find Beep. Where could I put Garrett so that Rey’azikeen couldn’t find him? And how would I do that without my bloodthirsty husband knowing?

He seemed to have the uncanny ability to read my mind. He would know where I’d stashed Garrett. And if I involved anyone else, that person would be in just as much danger.

No, I didn’t need to stash Garrett Swopes. I needed to stash the god Rey’azikeen. Even for just a few moments.

I charged forward and shifted. He was ready, but the moment I started toward him, another thought hit me. If I could slow time, who’s to say I couldn’t speed it up as well?

I reversed my hold on time, sped it up to roughly the speed of light, and slammed into him. He had no defense ready against a guided missile. I disintegrated his molecules along with mine, and I took him to the one place I feared. The place of my nightmares.

I dragged him to the center of the sun.

We crossed through the void of space in seconds, splashed into the corona, and careened through the layers of gas until we stopped at the core of the burning ball of gas. Then I did the unthinkable. I shifted us, body and soul, back onto the earthly plane, forcing us both to materialize into the center of a fireball with temperatures reaching twenty-seven million degrees.

I’d surprised him. He gazed at me with utter shock on his face a microsecond before I dematerialized and left Reyes in my dust. Or, well, my solar gases.

In the seconds it took me to get back, I came up with a plan to get Garrett to safety and was working on finding a way to get Reyes back when it hit me. I’d done it. I’d faced my nightmare.

Then again, maybe it wasn’t a nightmare at all. Maybe it was a message, but from whom? Had someone planted that idea—the one where I accidently materialized in the center of the sun—in my head via my dreams?

Stranger things had happened. Perhaps not to me. My life was completely and perfectly and incandescently normal. Gawd, I loved Pride and Prejudice.

I materialized back in Garrett’s apartment, completely naked once again, smoke drifting off me.

“Chuck!” Pari rushed forward and patted my hair, hopefully because she liked me. My hair could not afford to be on fire. It had been through so much this week already.

“Again?” Garrett asked, incredulous.

“I left him in the center of the sun, but I don’t think he’ll stay there long.”

They stood speechless for a solid minute.

“Is that a metaphor for something?” Garrett asked.

I gaped at them. “Seriously, guys, we don’t have much time. We have to get you out of here and have them move Beep, this time without your knowing where.”

He rushed to get me a T-shirt and a pair of lounge pants with a drawstring. I dragged them on in record time. They still hung off me, but at least they wouldn’t fall down.

“Shoes?” he asked.

“No, I’m fine. Let’s go.”

“Charles, you need to go to the Loehrs. You need to move them somewhere I don’t know about.”

“He can read my thoughts. I’ve caught him doing it more than once.”

Garrett sank onto the arm of his sofa. “Then we’ve lost. He’ll find her.”

“No. We just need to keep you hidden until I can get Reyes back. He’s in there, Garrett. He’s keeping Beep a secret. He wouldn’t even let Rey’azikeen see her. It’s like he’s blocking the memory of her. I have no idea how, but he’s in there. I just need to find him and bring him out.”

He nodded. “I’ll get word to the others. Just to be safe. We’ll move the Loehrs again tonight. They’re not far.”

He stood and headed for the door, only to find Rey’azikeen blocking his path. Completely naked, engulfed in fire with smoke billowing around him and lightning crackling along his skin, Rey’azikeen grabbed hold of Garrett’s throat and looked into his eyes.

But he’d caught Garrett off guard. And he got what he’d come for.

“There,” he said softly, a microsecond before he snapped Garrett’s neck again and disappeared.

I ran and caught Garrett as he crumbled to the floor, healing him for a third time, when I realized he did it for a reason. Rey’azikeen. He broke Garrett’s neck again for a reason. To slow me down. He knew where to find our daughter, and he didn’t want me interfering.

Garrett had been thinking of the location at the exact moment Rey’azikeen looked into his eyes. He saw it. He saw where Garrett had hidden her. And he wanted to get to her first.

“Garrett,” I said, my voice breathy with fear, “where is she? Where did you hide her?”

He shook his head, trying to clear it. “Did he break my neck again?”

“Yes, and he knows. He saw her location in your eyes. Where is she?”

His lids rounded. “She’s in Santa Fe. She’s at the Loretto Chapel.”