Dragon Gate Read online

  “In spite of all these deaths?”

  “I didn’t say he was the brightest bulb on the branch. The only reason he’s letting us stick around is because his sister insisted.”

  She sighed. “Some of these rich people seem to think that money makes them invincible.”

  “If I see or hear anything that might be useful, I promise to call. In the meantime, we’ll do everything we can to keep Dr. Noble and Ms. Noble safe. And if you have any questions we might be able to answer, just call. We’ll do anything we can to help you.”

  “Just be aware that this is clearly the work of a team. They are vicious. I’m not sure what they used to chop off the heads. Machetes is my guess.”

  “Are you thinking MS-13?” I asked, suspecting that was where she was heading with the machete comment. MS-13 or Mara Salvatrucha is a criminal gang known for hacking people apart with machetes.

  “I haven’t ruled it out.”

  “Well, the Nobles aren’t drug dealers if that’s what you’re thinking. If they were, I wouldn’t work for them. And I can’t imagine how they could have come in contact with anyone from MS-13, but I’ll certainly be on the lookout.”

  “Off the record,” Kramer said, “I know you’re holding out on me. I hope you know what you’re doing.”

  The subtext here was that if she thought she could get away with it, she’d force the issue, but because the Nobles were rich and connected, she knew she had tighter boundaries. The department had to be careful when it came to people with money because, quite frankly, money is power. If the Nobles were even middle class, this entire conversation would have gone much differently—especially considering three corpses at their house.

  “I understand,” I said.

  She nodded. “You have my number. If you need us, please call.”

  “Thank you, Detective.”

  She looked at my card one more time then tucked it in her back pocket. “We’ll be in touch,” she said.

  KELLY CHAN

  After the police left, I pulled Rayna aside. “I need to talk to you. Is there someplace a bit more private?” I whispered.

  “Sure,” she said. “Follow me.”

  She led the way to a room filled with mats that had mirrors along one wall. It reminded me of my dojo, though I suspect they taught yoga or Jazzercise here instead of martial arts.

  “This room will be vacant until seven tonight, so as long as you don’t need me for hours on end, I think we’re good.”

  Rayna sat on the floor because there were no chairs, so I sat down on the mats too.

  “What do you need, Kelly?”

  “Answers,” I said. “First, how is Lucas going to react to his daughters’ deaths?” What Jonathan had told me earlier bothered me, so I wanted Rayna’s take. She knew her uncle.

  Rayna frowned and didn’t speak for a moment. I could tell she was trying to choose her words with caution, and I suspect she needed time to compose herself too. “I wish we could have protected them. I feel terrible about it.”

  “You didn’t answer my question.”

  She sighed. “Let’s just say it bothers me a lot more than it will bother Lucas.”

  “Do tell.”

  “Oh, don’t get me wrong. He’ll say a few things about how bad it is, and he might yell at Graham or Jonathan, but at the end of the night, he won’t really care. It’s not as if he lost his sons.”

  “How many sons does he have?”

  Rayna smiled, but it wasn’t a smile of joy. “Three. Wesley and Lucas Junior live in Boulder. His oldest son, Vance, is on the other side of the gate. He didn’t come with us because he married a noblewoman, so he now owns land.”

  “What you’re saying is that Lucas doesn’t care because they’re women?”

  “He holds on to the old ways more than my father ever did. Graham is closer in attitude to Lucas than our father. Where I’m from is probably best compared to how it was in Europe during the Middle Ages. Women simply don’t matter that much.”

  “Don’t kid yourself, Rayna. It’s still that way in parts of the world today. Islamic countries, for example, or even China. The one-child policy led to incredible numbers of infanticide and forced abortions when the parents realized they were going to have a girl.”

  “Did that have anything to do with you becoming a Sekutar?”

  I shook my head. “No. I was born here in the States, but my father sold me to DGI after my mother died and he didn’t want to take care of me.”

  “That’s horrible! I’m so sorry.”

  I shrugged. “Ancient history. We’re all the people we are today because of what we’ve been through. If my father hadn’t sold me, I might be a lawyer or even an actress since that was my childhood dream.”

  “Yes, well, if we’d remained on the other side, I’d probably be dead right now,” Rayna said. “Strange how the roads of life provide us exits to different destinations.”

  “All right, so Lucas might be mad, but it will mostly be for show,” I said. “I think that’s criminal, but based on what Jonathan said, it unfortunately doesn’t surprise me.”

  “Was there something else?” Rayna asked.

  I nodded. “Tell me about those destroyers.”

  “I don’t have anything useful to tell you about them. I’ve only seen them in cages, and that was when I was a little girl. I do have vivid memories of Thomas feeding a horse to one of the destroyers. The destroyer ripped the horse in half and devoured it in less time than it takes me to tell you about it. That’s why Graham and I called them destroyers. They’re really called bolons, and according to legend, two bolons can take out an entire army.”

  “How do you kill them?”

  “You don’t. At least, I don’t know of a way.”

  I shrugged. “If it comes down to it, I’ll go with decapitation. That generally works on everything.”

  “They don’t really have necks, so that might be harder than you think.”

  Esther popped into the room. She looked at Rayna then at me. “Am I interrupting?”

  “It’s all right, Esther,” I said so Rayna would know whom I was addressing. “We’re just enjoying some girl talk.”

  “That sounds like berries to me, but I’m here to tell you Graham is ready to go.”

  “Well, it certainly wouldn’t be proper to keep a man waiting,” I said without getting up.

  “Is it time to go?” Rayna asked. She started to rise.

  I motioned for her to sit. “Don’t even think about going right now.” I turned to Esther. “Have Jonathan tell Graham we’ll be ready in a bit.”

  “Okay,” Esther said and popped away.

  “Graham won’t like that,” Rayna said.

  I smiled. “Good.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  JONATHAN SHADE

  That night, we all stayed in a hotel. Brand shared a room with Graham, Kelly shared a room with Rayna, and I had a room to myself. Esther stood guard in the hallway so she could pop in to warn me or Kelly in case of danger.

  We didn’t expect danger, of course. The Marshall Clan wasn’t up on technology, so they weren’t likely to be checking local hotels. From what I’d seen of them, they were physically dangerous, but they weren’t likely to be much trouble.

  After we all got cleaned up, we met for dinner in the hotel restaurant. Graham wanted to go somewhere else, but everyone was tired, so he decided to make do.

  Rayna sat on one side of me, Kelly on the other. Graham did his best to ignore the conversation. He just wanted to eat and go to his room to work on the development and rollout plan for his wonder drug. I didn’t know how he expected to make that work since it required their saliva, which didn’t seem like something they could easily mass produce, but that was above my pay grade. Brand ate quickly so he could guard Graham. When they excused themselves, Graham told Rayna to charge the meals to the rooms and he’d cover them all.

  “We need to go kill the Marshalls tomorrow,” I said.

  “Just li
ke that?” Kelly asked.

  “They’re the enemy. We kill them, we can go home.”

  “You know, a year ago, I’d have suggested that, and you’d have shot it down as an option. You’d try to find a nonviolent way to resolve things.”

  “They’re killers.”

  “I’m not saying I disagree, Jonathan. I’m simply saying this doesn’t sound like you.”

  “I’ve got a clearer view of how to do things these days.”

  “Just kill anyone who gets in the way?”

  “When they deserve it.”

  “And you’re the one to decide that?”

  “Somebody has to.”

  “How the hell did we switch roles?” Kelly asked.

  Rayna shifted uncomfortably in her chair.

  I turned to Rayna. “You have a problem with us killing them?”

  She frowned. “I’m staying out of this.”

  “You have a say, Rayna. We’re here to protect you. The Marshalls want to kill you, so I say we kill them first. What’s the trouble?”

  “I don’t want to go into—”

  “Go into it anyway,” I said.

  She took a deep breath then turned to look into my eyes. “Very well. In my opinion, taking someone’s life shouldn’t be something you just toss out there as an item to cross off a to-do list. And certainly not a group of people. Shouldn’t life mean more than that?”

  “It should.”

  “But to you, it doesn’t?”

  “It used to,” Kelly said.

  “You’re talking about murder,” Rayna whispered even though we weren’t close enough to any other diners for them to overhear.

  “They’ve made runs at you, so it’s time to end it before they succeed. Think of it as a preemptive strike, or think of it as retaliation. Whatever makes you sleep well at night.”

  “You’re just so casual about it,” Rayna said. “You could be talking about ordering a salad, and telling the waiter to hold the cheese.”

  “I’m doing it for you and your brother.”

  “That’s why it bothers me.”

  “You feel responsible?” Kelly asked.

  She nodded. “They’re dying so I can live.”

  “You’d rather die?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “No, but I don’t think they should have to die either.”

  “You have a better idea?”

  “Send them back through the Dragon Gate, and seal it forever.”

  “You want me to ask them politely to leave? Or maybe leave a trail of gingerbread crumbs to get them to follow? Tell them they can have you and Graham if they come to meet us at the gate?”

  “I don’t know. I just don’t want to be the reason for anyone’s murder. That’s all.”

  “They won’t give up.”

  “I realize that. And yes, I know they killed my parents and Jenkins and Lucas’s girls. Life is cheap in the other world. Men die on hunts; people die from diseases or common colds. It’s a rough world, but under normal circumstances, we don’t murder each other.”

  “Could have fooled me.”

  “These aren’t normal circumstances.”

  “In that case, it shouldn’t bother you that we go kill them.”

  “Let me rephrase. To them these aren’t normal circumstances. They were wronged. They have valid reasons for wanting to kill us, Lucas in particular, but because of what he did, it means all his family must die too. They’re only enforcing the rules that have been in place for thousands of years.”

  “What did Lucas do?”

  Rayna looked down. “I’m not allowed to tell anyone. You wouldn’t understand it anyway. You’d say it’s stupid and it’s not a reason to kill someone. Or maybe you don’t need reasons. Hard for me to say.”

  “I do need reasons, Rayna. But they’ve given me five reasons already. Your parents, Tess, Chantelle, and even though he drugged me, Jenkins.”

  “By my count, you’ve killed four of Thomas’s sons.”

  “Kelly killed one, so my score is only three.”

  “Since Jenkins was a traitor, that should have things evened out, then. Right?”

  “So you think we should try diplomacy?”

  “I don’t know what you should try, but you should try something other than death. I want to go to my room.”

  Kelly pushed away from the table and rose. She leaned close and whispered, “You sure have a way with the ladies these days.”

  Back in my room, I tried to understand why Rayna took issue with my plan. They were trying to kill us, so it made sense to kill them first. Playing defense wasn’t doing us any good, so I wanted to take the battle to them. What was so wrong with that?

  I knew that even a few months ago in this timeline, this would have seemed wrong to me, but a few months ago, I was an idiot. If you have enemies who want you dead, your best course of action is to kill them before they kill you.

  The old me would be going into a spastic rage about how life is sacred and you only kill when there’s no other alternative, but that version of me had never seen what I’d seen—my friends exploded in front of my face—and I’d worked five long years to find a way back to change that. While they were unaware, I continued to relive that other timeline in my dreams. I kept watching Kelly die, and that was something I never wanted to see again. So yeah, I understood where Rayna was coming from on this, but my darker view of humanity overpowered her civilized pacifism. The Marshalls had to die.

  KELLY CHAN

  When Rayna and I were alone in her room, she sat on the bed and cried. I was used to seeing women cry. The women I trained often cried because of what they’d been through or because they knew they were finally safe or happy. Crying isn’t part of my nature, but I didn’t see it as a weakness. I saw it as being in touch with one’s feelings. While I didn’t need to cry, I knew many people did. Rayna, clearly, was one.

  I sat on my bed and started writing in this stupid journal. After a time, Rayna stood and walked over to me. “Can you take me to the house?” she asked.

  I looked up at her. “What do you need?”

  “I need you and Jonathan to understand us.”

  “And going back to the house helps in that regard?”

  She nodded at the notebook in my lap. “You’re writing a journal?”

  “Jonathan’s idea. Not mine.”

  “I used to keep a journal. As I’m not allowed to tell you what happened, perhaps I can dig out my old diaries and let you and Jonathan read about it.”

  “And you want me to take you? Jonathan might be better company because you need him to understand why you don’t want us to kill the Marshall Clan. Convince him. I don’t care one way or the other. I can kill them when they attack us, or I can go kill them if Jonathan feels that’s the way to go.”

  “And you won’t lose sleep over it?”

  I cocked a thumb toward my chest. “Assassin.”

  She furrowed her brow. “How many people have you killed?”

  “I haven’t kept a running tally.”

  “Do you like it? The killing, I mean?”

  I gazed into her eyes. “To be honest, yes, I do.”

  “It makes you feel like a god?”

  “There are no gods, Rayna. The truth is that when I kill people these days, they are always people who deserve to die. They attacked me or someone I care about or someone I’m paid to protect. I don’t go around killing people just because it’s fun.”

  “I still want you to take me to the house.”

  “It’s your call. I can take you.” I tossed the notebook on the nightstand, set my pen on top of it, and rose. “Shall we?”

  oOo

  The Noble mansion was quiet. Police tape stretched across the front door. Rayna tore it down, and we entered the house. The place was still a crime scene, and they hadn’t cleaned up the blood. The bodies were gone, but there was still blood on the floor where they had been.

  “Try not to disturb anything,” I said.

 
“I don’t even want to look at it,” Rayna said. “Chantelle or Tess died right here.” She stared at the congealed blood. Most of it was dry, but some was still a little moist and sticky.

  “Let’s get that diary and go,” I said.

  She started up the stairs, but I touched her arm. “Let me go first. Just in case.”

  She nodded.

  I moved ahead of her and quickly went upstairs. Nothing moved in the house. There were no unusual sounds. The place felt empty. I moved into Rayna’s room and did a quick sweep to verify everything was all right. I motioned for her to enter.

  “Can I turn on the light?”

  “It’s your house.”

  She clicked on the light.

  Everything looked fine. Normal.

  She moved to her dresser, knelt, and opened the bottom drawer. She rifled through some papers and notebooks until she found the one she wanted. “Here we go,” she said.

  “Since we’re here, do you want to grab anything else? Clothes, toiletries?”

  “Good idea. I’ll pack a bag for myself and one for Graham.” She pulled a suitcase out of the closet, set it on the bed, and opened it.

  “I’ll double-check his room,” I said.

  “Great.”

  I left her in her room to pack, moved down the hall, and switched on the light in Graham’s room. I hadn’t been in there before. It was a large master bedroom with a king-sized bed. He had a massive walk-in closet. I turned on the light in the room then stepped into the master bathroom and hit the switch there too.

  Something smelled rank in the bathroom.

  I glanced over at the sink, a long marble affair with twin basins. In the second sink, I saw Jenkins’s head. Beneath the head was a foul green and brown slime. It smelled like rotten chicken. That didn’t make sense. The police would have checked the house. They’d have found the head.

  That told me that the Marshalls had returned to the house. And they might still be here, watching.

  We’d been turning on lights, so they would know where we were. I drew my sword and quickly moved down the hall to Rayna’s room. She was still packing. Good.

  She glanced over at me in the doorway, saw the sword, and said, “Something wrong?”

  “Maybe.”

  I heard something outside. A whistle. Bird? Human?