Libra Ascending: An Epic Urban Fantasy Romance (Zodiac Guardians Book 1) by Tamar Sloan (adult books to read .TXT) 📗

and despite Cassandra’s flirting, it’s Brielle’s wide green eyes that fill Tristan’s mind.

Shaking his head, Tristan punches in the code to the safe. Inside, another simple black box lies in the gloom. The gems. Not all twelve, seeing as some of the Zodiac Heirs already had theirs, but six of them.

They’ll be the only way to truly know if Brielle or Cassandra are destined to join the fight against Chardis. The moment they’ll be united with their stone it will glow; their power will be amplified. Tristan grips the purple tourmaline hanging around his neck, aware there’s a second, identical stone in the box.

The stone that belongs to his Gemini Twin.

Placing the box with the vials beside it, Tristan closes the safe with a click.

Zarius’s voice trickles through his mind. Patience isn’t a weakness.

“Well, it sure isn’t one of my strengths,” Tristan mutters.

Thinking of Zarius has Tristan looking around. He’s already set up the basement as their command center. The back wall is covered with images and printouts. Most are cut-outs from newspapers, some are articles from alien fan sites. All researching landing of pods around the continent. The side wall has a bank of computer screens, several linked to the surveillance cameras around the house, others scanning the internet for the information they’re desperately searching for.

He’s about to head back up the stairs when a new slip of paper catches Tristan’s attention. It’s nothing more than a yellow note, but he knows it wasn’t there yesterday. He and Zarius spend hours poring over the information they accumulate, trying to find clues or patterns. If anything seems to be of interest, it gets pinned up on the wall.

Stepping closer, Tristan sees it’s an address. His pulse leaps—maybe it’s the address of the building from his vision! Glancing over his shoulder to confirm Tess isn’t coming down to check why he’s taking so long, he quickly slides in front of one of the computers and shuffles the mouse. The screen comes to life and Tristan enters the address into Google maps.

The little red pin pops up in a square of farmland. Zooming in, Tristan discovers it’s an old warehouse. Although it’s not what he was hoping for, he can see why Zarius thought it might be interesting. Isolated, but not too far away, it looks like an ideal place to hide a pod.

Finding one of the other pods would be pretty cool, but would it keep Zarius away the whole day? With no texts or calls?

“Only one way to find out,” Tristan murmurs, heading to the stairs. He goes to take two at a time, but when the first leap jars through his ribs, he slows. The nanites had better work their magic before he gets to Zarius or playing down the fact his ass got whooped is going to be hard.

“All okay?” Tess calls out as Tristan locks the door to the basement.

“Yep. All good,” Tristan states cheerfully. “I’m just going to chill in my room, give the nanites a chance to do what they do.”

There’s no way Tess is going to let Tristan go and look for Zarius straight after the fight with the Skins. Which means sneaking out.

Time to put all those lessons on stealth mode into practice.

Thankful for the carpet in the hall, Tristan keeps himself as light footed as possible as he heads to the back door. Turning the knob slowly but steadily, he waits for the resistance that tells him the latch is moving. He finds it and tightens his grip, slowly twisting it further.

Click. Tristan freezes, holding his breath, but there’s no sign of Tess coming down the hall. Slipping through, he repeats the process to close it. Out in the backyard, he pulls in a breath of fresh, calming air. Saying Tess is going to be unimpressed when she finds him gone is an understatement.

But if he finds Zarius, then forgiveness will quickly follow the fierce frowns.

The backyard is little more than lawn and a clothesline surrounded by an eight-foot hedge. Tristan lines up the prickly green fence. He’ll be able to clear it, but landing on the other side is going to hurt like pitch.

Stepping into a sprinter’s stance, he jams his back foot into the ground. He’ll need to gain as much speed as he can before—

“I don’t think so.”

Tristan’s push off is abruptly interrupted by Tess’s statement. He stumbles as all the momentum he was trying to launch has nowhere to go, floundering for a few steps before righting himself.

Tess raises a brow. “I’m just going to chill in my room? Really, Tristan? You never do that, even when we actually want you to.”

Dammit. Tristan’s shoulders sag. “I found an address. I think that’s where Zarius went.”

She’s already shaking her head. “No. You’re not well enough, yet.”

Tristan takes a step forward. “But—”

“No!” Tess seems almost as startled as Tristan as she half-shouts the word. She pulls in a breath. “I’m just as worried as you are. I don’t need to be worried about you, too.”

Tristan snaps his mouth closed on the argument he was about to pose. Tess is wringing her hands, something he hasn’t seen her do often.

“If Zarius doesn’t come home tonight and we don’t hear from him, we’ll go searching in the morning. Together.”

Tristan nods, not liking the knot of worry that’s clenching his gut. “Okay.” He smiles. “I reckon he’s found another pod and got trapped inside.”

Tess’s returning smile is strained. “I hope so.”

Slipping an arm around her shoulder, Tristan leads her back inside. “Let’s get dinner organized. If he finds the emergency exit button, he’s going to be hungry when he gets back.”

Holding the door open for Tess, Tristan sends out a silent message to the man who’s been far more than a guardian and a mentor. Zarius has raised him as his own son.

You’d better be back by morning, Zarius.

Tristan doesn’t want to think what it could mean if he’s not.

10

Brielle

“So the new guy is kinda loopy, huh?”

Brielle