Page 121 of Blood Stone
Chapter Twenty-Six
Roman was sitting on the bottom step of Garrett’s trailer. He didn’t get up. Instead he looked up at Nial, annoyed. “An imperial summons? When did I get to be your flunky?”
Garrett grabbed him and slammed him up against the metal wall.
Sebastian winced. “Shh!” he murmured. He was carrying Winter in his arms. She was still completely asleep and utterly relaxed against his chest. Either her trust in Sebastian was absolute, or she was simply that exhausted.
Garrett turned to Roman, letting the anger he had been holding at bay since Cyneric had first mentioned the Blood Stone rise to the surface and spill over. “You fucking hypocrite,” he breathed, keeping his voice low for Winter’s sake and for the sake of any sleeping humans who may be within earshot. “All the time Kate was roasting my gonads over glowing embers for my ‘agenda,’ you were snuggling up to her because you thought she had the Blood Stone.”
Roman’s face shifted almost comically with surprise. “That’swhat this is about?” He looked at Nial, then Sebastian. “Who tipped you off?”
Sebastian rolled his eyes. “I think Cyneric is rubbing off on me. I don’t have patience for stupid right now. I’m tired. Winter is a dead weight. I’m going to bed before someone sees me as not-Terry.”
He walked off, heading for their shared trailer.
Garrett let Roman go with a frustrated exhalation. “He’s right. Play the idiot, Roman. It’s your funeral.”
Roman straightened his shoulders and righted his tee-shirt.
“Tell us what you know about the Blood Stone,” Nial said. “The real one.”
“Cyneric the Slayer is here? In L.A.?” Roman asked.
“What of it?” Garrett replied.
“You want information about the Stone, you should have started with him,” Roman said. “We all have natural eidetic memories, but he takes it a step further. He’s a natural computer. He pours all the facts into that skull of his. Endlessly, day after day. He’s a collector of data. Every conversation, he sifts for innuendo. Inference. Then he’ll sit, like he’s in a trance. Two hours. Two days. A week. He’ll find the answer he wants out of all the facts and inferences he’s figured out.” Roman’s mouth curled into a sneer. “He’s done more to uncover the real Blood Stone than anyone else put together. He’s a master at putting together the most unlikely pieces of data and coming up with a new clue. It’s why Menes made sure Cyneric was shackled to him, long ago.”
“Menes?” Garrett repeated.
Nial gave a dry laugh. “Menes Heru. It’s ancient Egyptian. He’s the Deadly Moon. Cyneric is working two sides. We’ve been played.”
Garrett swore. “Son of a bitch. I was starting to like the guy.”
Nial just looked at him.
“A bit,” Garrett amended.
* * * * *
“If Khurshid is here, too, thensomethingis going on. She doesn’t move off her estate for anything less than a dire emergency,” Roman said, settling back into the deep corner of Garrett’s leather sofa. “Menes coming down his mountain and flying to the States would do it.”
“Menes would come here only for the Stone?” Garrett asked, pulling up the executive chair from behind the antique desk.
“That’s about the only thing that would beckon him, yes.”
“Why would that bring Khurshid?” Garrett asked.
Roman shrugged. “Fear. She knows what the Stone is capable of.”
“Why does she know so much?” Garrett insisted. “If Menes is the pro and you’re our resident expert, why does Khurshid go pale and trot off to the Philistine-like United States as soon as Menes sways in our direction?”
“She’s an unspoken one,” Nial answered. He had settled in the one armchair. “They handed down this information from maker to child, back then. Later, the information was lost as the world expanded and generational lines were broken.”
Roman was watching Nial with an odd look on his face. “Is that why you never took on the title of unspoken one officially?”
Garrett switched his gaze to Nial, shoving aside his surprise in order to listen properly.
Nial’s mouth turned up at the corners. “I’m not that old,” he objected.
