He rolled his eyes. He didn’t believe her any more than she did. “Very well. What harm is there in providing some last creature comforts.”

That was when she realized what the “obvious solution” was.

He was going to kill her and take the necklace off her corpse.

Ahnvil had felt the danger only moments before he had heard Kat scream for him. Somehow they had cloaked themselves from his senses, making it possible for them to come undetected to the borders of the property. He had run for her, stone rippling over his body, wings exploding from his back. He had seen them attacking her, but before he could reach her they had all disappeared together. When he had reached the end of the drive there was nothing left for him to find.

He stood in the dirt road and roared with fury.

He should never have let her leave the house. Should never have let her go off on her own! Now she was gone and there was nothing he could do about it except stew in the most incomprehensible paralysis he had ever known in his life. By the time Ihron and Jackson made it to the end of the drive he was on his knees, breathing hard, unable to catch his breath no matter how hard he tried. Tears filled his vision, tears he couldn’t understand because he couldn’t remember the last time he had shed them. Not even when Jan Li had died, burning to a crisp in his hands as the Curse of Ra was thrown against her from three separate quarters. Maybe one, even two simultaneous hits she could have survived, but not three. She had not been strong enough for three.

And Kat was nowhere near as strong as Jan Li. He didn’t even know if she was immortal or even had immortal traits. She was a half-breed. That meant any number of variables. Any number of weaknesses.

“Please,” he rasped hoarsely. “Oh God, please … she’s just a li’le thing. She doesna know how tae fight them off. ’Tis all my fault.”

“Ahnvil,” Jackson said, reaching to put a hand on the Gargoyle’s shoulder. He roared out, in pain and dismay and what felt like a hundred other feelings. He was responsible for her. He was responsible for her and he had let her down. He threw Jackson off himself.

Think! You have to think!

“Panahasi! It has tae be Panahasi.”

“The Templar?” Jackson asked.

“Yes.” All three of them looked up to see Kamen standing there.

Ahnvil surged to his feet, unwilling to be caught kneeling before his nemesis.

“And what do you know of it?” Ahnvil asked scathingly.

“He’s a weasel,” Kamen said simply. “Weak. A low man on the totem pole.”

“Even a low man can hurt her,” Ahnvil growled. “He was the one who took the Amulet from your quarters. The one that captured me. I canna believe he even managed it and now I’m answering for it. I’ve committed one blunder after another and she pays the price.”

“How did he capture you anyway?” Kamen asked. His affectation was flat, but Ahnvil took it as smug.

“They drugged me. Before I could process the poison I was out cold. Woke in a cell. I doona know anything about it from here to there. But …” He looked away, his mind obviously working. “But I could find the place again wi’ a li’le luck. I was injured … burning and weak, but … just the same … if I use Kat’s house as a starting point and took tae the sky, surely I could find it.”

“It’s as good a point as any,” Jackson said. “I’ll call the jet.”

“It will be hours before you get there that way. If they are using the method I think they are it will only take them minutes. If it is who you say it is and he’s working under the radar, he can’t afford to deal with her for very long. He’s going to use the fastest way possible to get to the Amulet.” Kamen made sure he met Ahnvil’s eyes. “The only way to get it off her is to cut off her head.”

“Gods above.” Ahnvil was shaking, a cold weight settling into the pit in his belly. He was paralyzed with fear. Couldn’t move. He was the take action sort and he should be moving but all he could do was stare dead into the bright blue eyes of the man who had created him.

“I can travel as fast as they can. But only to a place I’ve seen. And from the sound of it they’ve moved Templar headquarters far and away from where it was last I saw. We were in the southeast before. Now it appears they are northwest.”

“That doesna help us!” Ahnvil growled.

“What about a satellite photo?” Jackson asked quickly.

“That will do. Do you think you can find Kat’s house?” Kamen asked.

“She left her wallet in the house. No doubt it has her address in it.”

“One other thing … I can only take a willing person. It took three of them to take her while she was kicking and screaming. Someone who resists me will do no good.”

“I’ll be going,” Ahnvil said. “And make no mistake about it.”

“I figured you would want to. But that will leave it to me and to you to get her back,” Kamen pointed out. The unspoken was clear. Ahnvil had shown no aptitude for trusting Kamen. “I have the skills to get us in and out of the stronghold … perhaps without anyone even knowing we are there. Provided you allow me to do what I know how to do.”

“Magic,” Ahnvil scoffed. “Spells, prayers, and incantations.”

“Yes. Spells that hide. Prayers that bring luck. Incantations that can steal us away from there to here without anyone being the wiser. Are we agreed?”

Ahnvil narrowed his eyes a moment, but then with a clenched jaw he nodded with a short dip of his head.

“Verra well. Let’s do this.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The Bodywalker male with the cockney accent made yet another appearance about an hour later with the cot and the blanket in tow. He also had toilet paper but held it out of her reach.

“What you gonna give me?” he wanted to know. “Here I brought you all these nice gifties. Do somefin’ for me, yeah?”

“Like what?” she wanted to know with narrowed un-trusting eyes on him.

“Well, you’re a bit small for my liking, but you’ve got tits just the same. C’mon then. Show a little.”

“Over my dead body,” she hissed at him.

“Well then, I’ll be going.” He went outside of the cell, taking the paper with him. Then he chuckled as the door closed. “You know what? The master is going to kill you for that bauble you’re wearing. After that, I will look at your tits well enough.” He leaned in with a leering grin. “And I’ll touch ’em, too.”