CHAPTER SIXTEEN
JAKE FELT A prickle in his shoulders. He often felt it when something was wrong, and something was sure as hell wrong now. Kendall was in his sight one moment, vanished the next. He ran after her. What the hell? Had she stepped into the trees to avoid him after the talk of dating?
A sense of urgency knotted his guts. He needed to get to Kendall now. He often had these gut feelings. They didn’t make much sense, but they’d saved his life more than once. He hadn’t thought of it until now, but his team used to tease him about being psychic. They knew he was skeptical of all things paranormal. If they could see him now, he guessed they would be having a good laugh.
He reached the spot where he’d lost sight of her. The trees were thicker here. He was surprised she would come this far unless she sensed something. His own sense of urgency grew stronger, but he also felt aroused, as if he’d been here. With her. An image shot through his head, a man and woman making love on the ground. What the hell? He pulled out his knife and started running as he called her name. “Kendall?”
Jake heard her voice then. He felt it. He locked on one spot ahead of him in the trees. It seemed to waver, like heat rising off pavement. He ran toward it, his heart pounding. He couldn’t have said why, but he reached out, feeling for her, and in the midst of the air he felt her wrist. He grabbed it and pulled. Kendall burst out of nowhere. Her eyes were wide, her face pale. Where the hell had she come from?
“What happened?” she asked, holding on to him.
“I don’t know. Where were you?” Because she sure as hell wasn’t on the same hillside as he had been.
“I don’t know. I was walking, and I found this beautiful forest. It was like a fairy tale. Like in my dream.” She turned and looked back at the thick trees where Jake had found her. “That’s not what I saw. Maybe it was a vision like the one with King Arthur.”
“It wasn’t a damned vision. I saw you the whole time in the King Arthur vision. This time you weren’t even there. I had to pull you out of thin air. We’re getting out of here. If Arthur wants to talk to you, he’ll have to do it someplace else.” He pulled her up the hill, and when they reached the top, the others were waiting for them, frowning.
“Are you OK?” Halle asked. “We were worried. We couldn’t find you. Didn’t you hear us calling?”
“We didn’t hear you,” Jake said.
“We felt something…” Sandy paused.
“Odd,” Larry said.
“We didn’t just feel it. We saw it,” Rhonda said.
Alice looked nervous. “A cloud appeared right there in the sky, over the area where you had gone.”
“It was more like a mist,” Sandy said. “What happened to you?”
“I got lost.” Kendall said. She still looked shaken.
“Here?” Larry said.
“I bet it was the enchanted forest,” Alice said.
Sandy nodded. “There are rumors that an enchanted forest surrounded Camelot. Someone with your abilities could probably find it.”
“Let’s get out of here,” Jake said. The others looked surprised to see his knife. “I’m her bodyguard as well as her assistant.”
“And her husband,” Sandy reminded him.
“Right.” He put the knife away, and they all walked down Arthur’s hill a lot faster than they had come up. But by the time they got to the bus, they were feeling more comfortable with the eerie experience. Relief gave a false sense of security. He’d often had a close call and afterward felt like he could take on an army. Or ten women. Not that he’d ever tried. For all his talk, he was a one-woman man. One at a time, that was. And now, just one.
“I’ve never felt anything like that,” Alice said. “I wish I’d been there.”
She would have died of fright, Jake thought. Kendall was tougher than most women, and the experience had shaken her.
“Another grand adventure,” Halle said, playing up the event. “We should stop for tea.”
“I’m not sure Kendall is up to it,” Jake said. He wasn’t sure he was. He didn’t know what had happened, but he must have tapped into whatever Kendall was experiencing. Making love, it had felt like. Who had she been with? Him? Lancelot? Someone else?
“I’m fine,” she said. “It might be nice to have a change of scenery.”
The bus dropped them off in Glastonbury. It was Kendall’s first glance at the town.
“We could go to the Abbey Tea Rooms,” Rhonda said.
The group agreed that it sounded lovely. Jake would have preferred a hamburger and beer, but the others seemed enthused at the prospect of tea and scones. He found the tea shop and held the door as everyone entered. After everyone had finished, they decided to walk around the town for thirty minutes and meet back in front of the tea shop. Jake planned to sneak back to the house and look for the chalice. He didn’t want to wait until tonight. They could make some excuse to the others later. He convinced Kendall, and they started toward the bus stop. A small group of people walked past, and he used the excuse to pull her close. It was troubling how much he wanted to feel her next to him.
Should he buy her something since they’d slept together? He wasn’t sure of protocol. The women he’d slept with had been looking for the same thing he had. A night of distraction or fun, no strings attached. With Kendall, he felt tied up like a mummy.
“What the hell happened back there at Camelot?”
“I don’t know. I felt as if I’d been there before, as if I were someone else. I had to see… him.” Kendall frowned.
“Lancelot?”
“I think so. It’s the same dream.”
“It was damned odd. Like déjà vu.”
“You felt it?”
“I felt something.”
“The man and woman?”
He nodded.
“Then it changed. I felt something dark, like that shadow in the cave.”
“You said there were supposed to be fairies under the Tor. If that was some kind of enchanted forest like Sandy said, maybe fairies lured you there.”
Kendall stopped on the street, staring at him. “Jake Stone, are you saying you believe in fairies?”
He grunted. “Well, if you put it that way.”
She laughed, and that made him smile. He was glad to see her mood lighten, even if it was at his expense.
“That fishing boat on the lake’s looking better and better.”
“Fishing isn’t as exciting as this,” Kendall said.
“I’d rather deal with fish. We’re talking stuff that shouldn’t exist.”
“You don’t like being out of control, do you?” Kendall asked.
“Does anyone?”
Kendall smiled. “I guess badass bodyguards have a harder time with it than most.”
“Don’t forget knights. If you’re not well, I would be honored to tote you home if you feel faint.” He wasn’t sure why he chose that moment to look across the street. He saw a man watching them. He turned and disappeared into a small group. “Get inside that shop,” Jake said, nudging her toward the door of a small shop behind them.
“Why?”
“Someone was watching us. I’m going to follow him.”
“Maybe it’s Nathan,” she said hopefully.
“I can move faster alone. Go, please.”
Surprisingly, she did as he asked, which would have pleased him if he hadn’t been sure it was out of desperation to find Nathan. The man was tall and wore a hood, but he didn’t move like Nathan. Still, something was familiar about the man. Jake hurried across the street, trying to catch a glimpse of him through the crowd. Both Jake and the man were taller than most of the people walking, but with everyone moving around, it was hard to keep him in sight. The group passed a street and the stranger disappeared. Jake hurried to the street. The man was running away. He looked back at Jake, but the hood made it impossible to identify him. Jake started running hard. He was catching up when the stranger darted down another street. Jake burst around the corner, but the street was empty. There were several shops. He could have gone into any one of them.