Page 22 of Capture of Capricorn (The Thirteenth Zodiac #3)

Aries couldn’t stop pacing and freaking, completely unraveled by his impotence when it came to aiding his wife.

An inability to starbeam to the portal room had never been an issue they’d dealt with before.

Sure, they could book a flight to Iraq and then drive to Tower.

After all, they knew its location and its defense—if any even remained.

However, that would take time, and who knew the damage Adam and his goons could do?

Not to mention the harm he might cause to Zora and Sage.

There had to be a quicker way. If they had their usual sandbox they could have calculated a trajectory. Alas, they had no access to meteorite dust?—

“Aries, how far is Paris’ National History Museum?”

“What? Why the fuck would I know or care?” snapped the boss.

“Because doesn’t it have a display of galactic rocks?”

Aries stared at him for a moment before exclaiming, “Holy shit, you think we can crush them up and use them to connect to our constellations and chart a path.”

“You think it could work?”

A pensive expression tugged Aries’ features. “I don’t know. I mean, first we’d have to steal those displays, then we’d have to find a way to crush the stone down into a powder. I don’t know if there will be enough to draw the calculations.”

“You got a better idea?”

Aries pinched his lips. “No. So I guess the question is, how can we obtain them without too much notice?”

“Pity we dispatched the gargoyle. It would have made a great distraction,” Capricorn mused aloud.

“I’ll bet Aquarius can help with that.” Aries crouched to grab his satellite phone, the screen of it cracked from the abuse, but at least it still worked. He placed a call and relayed the situation then their plan.

When Aries hung up, he glanced at Capricorn. “He’s working on a diversion but figures he’ll need at least an hour, which gives us time to scout out a portable stone-crushing machine and make our way to the museum.”

“The curator is gonna be mighty pissed when they discover we decimated the collection,” Capricorn remarked.

“Better they replace some rocks than we lose the women we love,” Aries replied starkly.

Love? Capricorn’s initial impulse was to deny. However, that would be lying, something he tried to avoid when possible, especially to himself. He did love Zora, and after the week they’d spent, he couldn’t imagine a future, a life, without her.

“Let’s get moving,” he growled, because who knew how easy or hard a portable stone crusher would be to find in Paris?

Not too difficult, as it turned out, since Aquarius sent them a lead on a college with a petrology and mineralogy department.

A yank of a fire alarm cleared the building, and they quickly absconded with two of the machines tucked under their arms and made a rapid getaway in the rental parked nearby.

They then made their way to the museum and waited for the distraction.

Aquarius called them. “You need to get around to the back side. I’ve disabled the cameras and will override the door lock in the next ten minutes.”

“What about guards?”

“They’re about to be busy evacuating the building due to a bomb threat.”

“Meaning cops will be quickly on the scene and surrounding the museum,” Aries pointed out.

“Not necessarily. See, a certain terrorist group just released a statement claiming they’re about to blow up ten sites of significance.”

Capricorn whistled. “They’ll have to spread themselves thin to cover them all. Good thinking.”

“I will keep them off balance as long as I can. May the stars shine favorably on your mission,” Aquarius stated before hanging up.

As promised, the rear entrance to the museum provided access with only one minor hiccup. A guard having a smoke had to be knocked out. They left him tied and gagged amidst some crates in a loading bay.

Within the museum, an alarm rang stridently, making it hard for them to hear, but as they made their way to the meteorite collection, using a map of the floor saved on Aries’ phone, they encountered no one. Wouldn’t have mattered if they did. Their mission took precedence.

Capricorn felt the presence of the rocks before seeing them, and his steps quickened. Please let this work .

Upon reaching the vast collection, featuring even more meteor bits than they could have hoped for, Aries pointed to a clear area of flooring. “Let’s make our pile of sand there.”

They quickly got to work snaring samples from the various cases and crushing them.

The slowness of the process frustrated, but bit by bit, a pile of small pebbles and grit grew.

The compact machines didn’t exactly provide them with the fine sand they were used to, and some bits needed to be run through a few times, but at least it felt as if they were accomplishing something.

Aquarius kept in touch during that time, doing them the favor of cutting off the alarm, while updating them on the situation outside.

When it appeared some of the bomb squad might enter, their Zodiac tech specialist arranged for a nearby transformer to overload, the explosion startling the advancing cops and sending them scurrying for safety.

“Do we have enough?” Aries asked as he spread out the pile and traced his fingers in it to test if he could draw.

“Only one way to find out,” Capricorn stated.

“You got the calculations for me?” Aries asked Aquarius.

“Already texted,” their tech guy replied.

Aries held out the phone and frowned at the screen before he sat in the pile and began to draw.

It had always seemed such a dumb way to travel, but at the same time, those sigils acted like the tattoo on his back, creating a path between their location and their constellation, which then redirected their life energy to where the sigil’s coordinates indicated.

In this case, since they couldn’t beam into Tower, they chose a spot just outside of its purview.

The boss finished his tracing and tossed the phone at Capricorn. “Now to see if it works.” He placed his hands on his thighs and closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath and?—

Aries disappeared, and a streak of light rocketed from the pile of sand up through the skylight. No way of knowing if it worked, but that didn’t stop Capricorn from smoothing out the meteorite debris and plopping himself down.

The phone rang as he drew.

“What?” he barked, putting it on speaker and continuing his artwork.

“The bomb squad might have figured out it’s a hoax. They’re coming in.”

“Fuck.” Capricorn rushed his sigils and had just finished the last swirl when he heard shouts and the clomping of booted feet.

Time to see if he’d succeeded.

He closed his eyes and reached out to the stars, to the special ones linked to him. As people poured into the room, coldness enveloped him as he shot off to the sky.

The intense frigidness lasted only seconds, but he still shivered as he returned to Earth.

Naked.

Dammit. He must have messed up part of the equation. Capricorn eyed his naked junk and sighed. Nothing like storming a tower to save the woman he loved with his dick and balls swinging.

“Well, now I don’t feel so dumb,” drawled Aries.

Capricorn glanced over to see his friend just as nude. “Guess we should have taken our time.”

“Bah. We’re here, which is the most important part.”

“We made it?”

Aries nodded. “Not exactly where we planned, but close enough” He pointed behind him. “Tower’s just over that hill.”

“Could you see anything?” he asked.

“A few abandoned all-terrain vehicles, a disabled tank, but not much else. There’s a thick fog surrounding Tower.”

“I don’t suppose there’s some clothing and weapons lying around?” his hopeful query.

“Only one way to find out.”

Despite being a tough-as-nails warrior, walking over rough ground in bare feet sucked.

At the peak of the hill, they hunkered and observed.

As Aries detailed, there was a smattering of vehicles parked on the outside of the moat.

The tank showed harpoon damage, indicating Tower did put up a fight.

But of Tower itself… the fog hung too thick to see.

Aries nudged him, but Capricorn had already seen the movement. A man emerged from the tank and sat down, legs dangling, to light a cigarette.

Oh hell yeah. Seemed like one of them would be getting a pair of pants.

“First one there doesn’t stay naked,” Capricorn whispered.

Before he could say go, Aries bolted.

Fucker. Capricorn couldn’t catch the boss. Aries made it almost to the tank before the guy having a smoke noticed.

He tossed his cigarette and stood, his gun loosely aimed. “You there. What the fuck are you doing?”

“Thank god, we found you. Me and my friend were set upon by bandits,” Aries exclaimed, holding up his hands. “They took everything. Even our clothes.”

“Sucks to be you. Now scram. I’m busy.”

“You can’t be serious. You have to help us. We’ll die out here.” Aries overdid it on the drama, but the guy seemed to believe it, because he snorted.

“Then maybe you shouldn’t have been wandering around here in the first place.”

Aries had been approaching the entire time he engaged with the fellow and now stood right below him. “Surely you have an extra pair of pants? Maybe a phone so we can call for help?”

The tank guy snarled, “Listen, asshole. I don’t have time for this bullshit. Move it before I put a hole in you.” The fellow stood close to the tank’s edge, glaring down.

A mistake.

Aries leaped, moving fast, faster than the guy could react. He grabbed him by the ankle and yanked, dragging the fellow down to the ground, where a few quick pops to the face knocked him out.

Only then did Aries grin at Capricorn over his shoulder. “Here’s hoping there’s another one for you.”

“Heads up!” Capricorn shouted as a second fellow emerged from the tank, aiming his gun. Capricorn quickly ducked and snagged a rock, his arm moving forward before he’d even thought of throwing.

Bonk .

It hit the guy between the eyes, and he toppled off the tank with a thump.

Given the noise it made, they both waited to see if anyone else would pop out of hiding.

Nope.

In minutes, they’d stripped the guys—and trussed them—as well as dressed and armed themselves.

The pants were too snug, the shirt couldn’t be buttoned, and given the way it flapped when left open, Capricorn elected to go bare-chested like Aries.

The boots weren’t even close to a fit either, but the soles of his feet would recover.

“Ready?” Aries asked, a knife tucked in the waistband of the snug pants while he held a rifle.

“Let’s go kick some Cetus ass.”

As they approached the moat, he noticed how it appeared dull and lifeless. Aries knelt and dragged a finger through it. “Seems like just plain water.”

“How the fuck did they neutralize the poison?”

“How the fuck did they manage to even get this far?” Aries grumbled. “Come on.”

They crossed the moat using the ladder bridge that spanned it. The fog on the other side hit them but not with expected moisture.

Aries spat. “It’s dust.”

Indeed, the air was chokingly full of it. What had happened? As if to reply to his inner query, the dull boom of an explosion had them both dropping to their haunches.

“Sounds like it came from inside,” Aries stated.

Adam must be trying to get inside the sealed rooms.

They moved slowly, guns swinging left and right, ready to shoot anything that jumped at them. Nothing did. They heard and saw nothing. Aries stumbled slightly when his foot encountered the edge of their beaming sandbox. He stepped through it, and Capricorn followed, knowing Tower lay just ahead.

The dust fog remained thick until they were only paces from the building. Then a clear spot appeared, and sitting in it, a box with its lid flipped open.

A box that made him sick to his stomach.

“What is that?” Capricorn murmured, peeking inside and shivering at the strange swirling blackness being held within.

“Dunno, but I don’t like it. Feels wrong,” Aries replied, kneeling by it. He gritted his jaw as he reached his hand for it.

“I don’t think you should touch that.”

“Wasn’t planning to.” Instead, Aries flipped its lid shut.

The nausea dissipated immediately, and Capricorn let loose a breath. “That was unpleasant.”

“I do believe Cetus discovered our version of Kryptonite.” Aries stood and glanced in the direction of Tower as if he could see it.

“What should we do with it?”

“Nothing for now. We’ll deal with it after we free Sage and Zora. Ready to take back our tower?”

“Hell yeah, I am. Let’s go Zodiac some asses.”