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“The other guys, like Robby and Ian, are teleporting westward with Angus,” Howard added. “And they’re bringing the shifters with them. Everyone will gather at Tiger Town and wait for you to give the okay for us to move to Frederic’s cabin.”
“Sounds good.” Zoltan removed his bottle from the microwave and poured the warm blood into a glass. “I’m going upstairs for a few minutes. Be right back.” He grabbed his duffel bag and glass of blood and teleported to his bedroom.
He sipped warm blood as he shaved and packed more clothes. After a quick shower, he dressed and called Milan in Budapest.
“I’ve been trying to contact you, sir!” Milan responded with an excited voice. “The scientists—”
“How is the land deal going?” Zoltan interrupted.
“Oh, it’s fine. Rajiv has the papers. He said he’d use Vamp delivery service to get them to you. But, sir, the scientists at the university are astounded! They think you’ve discovered a new species! They’ve been calling me nonstop, wanting to know where you found the scale.”
“The scale?”
“Yes! The black thing you gave me,” Milan explained. “The scientists have never seen anything like it before. They said it was a cross between a turtle shell and a reptile scale. Where did you find it?”
Zoltan remained quiet, trying to make sense of this. Turtle shell? Reptile? What the hell?
“But it’s much bigger than the normal lizard scale,” Milan continued. “The scientists want to announce it to the world, but they need more information. Where did you find it? Have you seen the creature?”
“Creature?”
“Yes! Judging from the size of the scale, it has to be really large. Like an enormous iguana. I don’t know how you could miss it.”
“I haven’t seen anything.” The image of the cave flitted through Zoltan’s mind. Was there something strange living inside? Damn, but the last thing he needed was a bunch of scientists demanding access to Beyul-La. “I think the animal is dead. Long dead. Probably extinct.”
“Oh.” Milan sounded disappointed.
“I found the scale buried in the ground,” Zoltan lied. “Like a fossil. There was nothing else around it. I didn’t write down the exact location. It was somewhere in China.”
“Oh, I see,” Milan mumbled. “I’ll let them know.”
Zoltan hung up and dragged a hand through his damp hair. What the hell was going on at Beyul-La? He needed to go back and investigate.
He teleported with his duffel bag back to the kitchen.
“There you are.” Howard and his wife were eating pizza at the kitchen table. He motioned to the counter. “I brought you down a sat phone. So you wouldn’t forget.”
“Thanks.” Zoltan slipped it inside his jacket pocket. “What’s this?” He opened a folder to look at the papers inside.
“J.L. brought that back from Tiger Town,” Howard explained. “Rajiv said you wanted it.”
“Excellent.” It was the land deed for the valley of Beyul-La and surrounding territory. Zoltan stashed it inside his duffel bag.
“We have a visitor!” Emma called out as she entered the kitchen with a man behind her.
Howard sat back, his eyes narrowing. “Hello, Russell.”
“He has news for us,” Emma announced. “And I talked him into taking a sat phone with him.”
“Amazing,” Howard grumbled.
“What’s the news?” Zoltan asked as he handed Russell a Bleer.
“I tracked down Lord Liao.” Russell unscrewed the top off the bottle. “He went back to one of Master Han’s major outposts in the Yunnan province. Apparently he convinced Han that there was something in Tibet worth fighting for, because he’s headed back that way.”
“We think we figured out what they’re after,” Zoltan said. “The women of Beyul-La have a fountain of youth. Living Water, they call it. Some of them are thousands of years old.”
“Sheesh.” Russell gulped down some Bleer. “Lord Liao is headed in their direction with a new group of soldiers. Two hundred of them.”
Zoltan winced. Even with all the Vamps and shifters they could gather, they would be terribly outnumbered.
“Can you follow them?” Emma asked Russell. “Call as often as you can to give us an update of their location.”
Russell nodded. “I will.” He gave Zoltan a worried look. “They’re moving fast. They’ll be near Beyul-La in three or four days.”
Zoltan gathered up his ice chest and duffel bag. “I’d better get back.”
Chapter Nineteen
Neona paced back and forth in her house, too agitated to sleep. It had been a huge shock to find out that Zoltan had inherited a gift from his mother. What if Minerva’s son had inherited her gift?
“I’m so sorry.” Neona touched her sister’s pillow. “I shouldn’t have let Mother take away your son. I should have rebelled then.” Instead of waiting till now. Now, when Minerva was gone.
Tears burned Neona’s eyes, and she angrily wiped them away. Why had it taken so long for her to see the truth? Was it because of Zoltan? She shook her head. No, she’d already suspected her mother of lying. And she’d hated the way Minerva had been forced to give up her son. The seed of rebellion had already taken root inside her. Zoltan’s arrival had just caused it to burst into full bloom. Each time she tried to explain their way of life to him, she caught a glimpse of it through his eyes, and things she’d accepted before seemed suddenly strange. Wrong.
She paced toward the fireplace. How was Minerva’s son faring? Was he happy? Or did he feel abandoned? Unloved? God help her, she didn’t even know what name he’d been given. She needed to find him, but he was thirty miles away at a Buddhist monastery.
Could Zoltan teleport her there? And if he did, would she have the courage to bring the boy back here to his rightful home? No doubt the queen would be livid. It was a severe breach of their laws to allow a human male to live in Beyul-La. The queen was only tolerating Zoltan until he impregnated her.
But who had come up with these laws? Had it been part of the original pact, like the queen said, or was it a decision she’d made afterward? Had she excluded men simply because she hated them? Or did she fear that someday a gifted male child would grow up and challenge her position as ruler?
There was no way to know. The pact had been made with the three original women—Nima, Dohna, and Anjali. Only Nima remained.
Neona paced faster as her anger grew, not just anger at her mother but anger at herself as well. For centuries, she’d considered herself a brave warrior, always fighting to protect the secrets of Beyul-La. But the truth was she’d been a coward.
It seemed pathetic that just a few days ago, she had panicked out of fear of having and losing a son. Now she was filled with a new, hardened determination. There was no way on earth she would allow a child of hers, boy or girl, to be given away. If she decided to have children with Zoltan, nothing would stop her!
Except his dead seed. Her pacing stopped with a jerk. Could she heal his dead seed? She looked at her hands. If she touched his male parts enough, could she heal him?
She inhaled sharply as a new idea sprang to mind. Could the Living Water bring his seed back to life? It was against their law to give the water to a human male, but to hell with that. She was already considering bringing Minerva’s son here to live. If she could break that law, why not break them all? Why not marry Zoltan and have all the sons and daughters she wanted?
She peeked outside. It was still raining, but with the mood she was in, a little rain was not about to stop her. A small army wouldn’t stop her. She put her damp tunic back on, then dashed to the storeroom where they kept all their dishes, pottery, linens, food, firewood, and medical supplies. She’d spent enough time in the small building over the years to know her way around in the dark. She searched the shelf where empty bowls and jugs were kept and selected a small clay flask with a cork in the top.
The wind and rain buffeted her as she ran toward the cave. Her leather slippers splashed through puddles till they were soaked through. As she neared the entrance, she slowed down, easing around the boulders silently, listening for any voices.
It was quiet. She peeked inside. The throne room was well lit with torches, and it was empty, except for Zhan, who rested close to the entrance. He sat up and tilted his head, giving her a curious and concerned look that touched her heart.
