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Suddenly the woman noticed Mercy. They exchanged heated glares, and the woman zeroed in on Mercy, sending a quick telepathic zing in her direction. Mercy intercepted the mediocre attempt, added a touch more power to it and returned it to its sender. The zing knocked the woman backward so strongly that she barely managed to keep her balance.
“I see you’re not alone,” Cael said to Judah, who didn’t move a muscle. “Your Raintree whore seems to think you need help.”
Judah stood fast, not responding in any way.
Mercy walked down the road and up to the gate. She stood slightly to Judah’s left, only the closed gates and less than five feet separating her from him.
“The child isn’t safe,” Cael said. “I can breach the shield surrounding this place, so that means others can, too. As parents, you should be watchful. You never know when someone might try to harm Eve.”
“Anyone who tries to hurt my daughter will have to face me,” Judah said.
Cael smiled. Cold, calculating and sinister. And filled with a bloodlust unlike anything Mercy had ever sensed in another being. She realized that this man was as unlike Judah as he was unlike Dante or Gideon. He was what she had believed all Ansara to be: pure evil.
“I don’t suppose you’d like to invite me in and introduce Eve to her uncle Cael?” Judah’s brother made direct eye contact with Mercy for a moment. “I see why you screwed her, brother. She’s remarkably lovely. Which did you enjoy more—taking a Raintree princess’s virginity or making a fool of her?”
“Leave this place,” Judah said. “If you don’t—”
Cael roared like a beast, the rage inside barely controlled. Ten foot flames shot up from the paved road between him and Judah. Mercy moved to open the gates, but she heard Judah telepathically telling her to stay where she was as he drew back his fist, opened it into a claw and whirled his hand in the air. From out of nowhere rain poured down in one spot, onto the flames Cael had created. The water extinguished the fire, leaving only whiffs of gray smoke.
Apparently Judah had the ability not only to create fire but to extinguish it. Dominion over fire was a talent possessed by only a few Raintree, her brother Dante to name one.
“We can end this here and now,” Judah told his brother. “Is that what you want?”
Cael smiled again. “Not yet. But soon.” He looked at Mercy again. “Did he tell you that he killed one of his own to save your life?”
Then, laughing, he turned and walked away toward a black limousine parked down the road. The others followed him like obedient puppy dogs lapping at their master’s feet.
Judah didn’t move from the spot nor did he speak until the limousine disappeared from sight. Then he turned and faced Mercy, the closed gate still between them. “Don’t ask,” he said.
“How can I not ask? I know someone tried to kill me Sunday, and you stopped them. How did you know? Why would you save me?”
“I told you not to ask.” Judah stared at the gate. “I could enter the sanctuary without your help, but it would expend a great deal of my energy. And I don’t want to disturb Eve.”
Mercy opened the gate and held out her hand. Judah took her hand in his and stepped through the protective shield that separated the Raintree sanctuary from the outside world. Once inside, he didn’t release her. Instead, he pulled her up to him, his gaze boring into her, chiseling through the barriers that protected her mind from intrusions. She didn’t try to stop him, knowing that as he worked so feverishly to expose her thoughts, he left his own thoughts and feelings unguarded.
She sensed great worry, a deep and true concern for those he loved. Loved? Was Judah actually capable of love?
“Does that surprise you?” he asked, apparently realizing that she had picked up on his emotions.
Once again shielding herself and ending their mental connection, Mercy jerked free and turned away from him. “I want you to leave as soon as possible. You can’t stay. If the others find out you’re here, you won’t be safe.”
“You can’t protect Eve now without my help,” Judah said.
She whirled back around. “Then go after your brother and…and do whatever you need to do to protect our daughter. I don’t understand why you didn’t kill him just now.”
“Because he wasn’t alone,” Judah said. “I could have easily dispensed with the three he had with him, but…” He hesitated, as if uncertain whether or not to share the information with her. “There were ten others—a tiny band of Ansara who are loyal to my brother—nearby, waiting for Cael to summon them. If I had challenged him to a death-fight, I would have been at a distinct disadvantage.”
“I could have called for help,” Mercy said, then gasped when the absurd reality of the situation hit her. “If I had called in the Raintree who are here at the Sanctuary, you would have been the enemy to them as well as to your brother.”
“I had no desire to be a lone man against a small group of Ansara on one side and Raintree on the other.”
“So, what do we do now?”
“We keep Eve safe.”
ELEVEN
Cael and his small band of Ansara warriors arrived at the private compound in a rural area off Interstate 40, between Asheville and the Raintree sanctuary, well before sunset. While the others ate and drank and screwed, psyching themselves up for the battle that was only days away, Cael closed himself off in his private quarters and contemplated his next move. He had leased this property over two years ago, once he had decided on a date for the Ansara attack on the Raintree home place. Slowly, cautiously, secretly, he had combed the world in search of renegade Ansara who would be willing to do his bidding and fight at his side on the chosen day. His army now exceeded a hundred warriors, small in comparison to the number Judah commanded, but adequate for the attack Cael had planned. By Saturday, they would all have arrived here at this secluded retreat, armed and ready for battle.
