by C. L. Parker
“You promised to bring him back!” Sinclair heaved in great sobs as she ran at Drew, gripping his tattered dress shirt in one fist and hitting his chest with the other. Her punches lacked the energy to do any real damage, but it didn’t matter. Drew held his wife in his arms, always the dutiful husband, comforting though needing comfort of his own.
Tori cradled Dante’s head against her breast, refusing to let go even though a battle-ravaged Dominic was gently tugging on her shoulders. Kerrigan’s tear-coated voice was hoarse, but she was doing her best to talk her daughter through the gut-wrenching pain that ripped at her insides.
There would be no comfort for any of them—not if he wasn’t okay.
While Colton checked Dante’s pulse, Tori quietly begged him to live, telling him over and over again that she loved him, that they had won, and she loved him, goddamnit!
Colton said not a word as he stepped back from the bed. His saddened eyes merely regarded Tori’s questioning gaze and then he shook his head.
Dante was dead.
Sinclair sank to the floor, her fingers digging into Drew’s chest as she tried to find purchase. But Drew had no more strength to lend to the grieving mother of his dearly departed son, and he soon followed after her.
Tori’s shoulders heaved with sobs, her whole body shaking when she buried her face in Dante’s neck, refusing to believe he was gone. Lifting her heavy head, she caressed his cheek and pressed her lips to his tenderly. They were still warm, but she knew it wouldn’t be long before they went cold, as would her broken heart.
“I love you,” she whispered against his tear-soaked lips.
The Guardian of Mankind had saved the world, but she wouldn’t have been able to do it if the Guardian of the Guardian had not fulfilled his destiny and met his fate by sacrificing his life in exchange for hers. Only the ones in that very room at that very moment would know how epic a sacrifice it had been. There would be no parades thrown in his honor, no worldwide holidays in observance of his courage, no monuments erected in memoriam. His only legacy would live in the fact that others got to go about their normal lives without fear of the end of days.
Yes, life would go on, but for the people who had loved Dante Dickens and known his love in return, it would never be the same.
Life as we know it has come full circle. The end met the beginning and a new path has been forged in mankind’s destiny. It wouldn’t have been possible had it not been for the sacrifices we were all forced to make. Not only me, but my parents, Dante’s parents, and every Guardian that came before us.
The world has seen a dramatic change over the past year, but scholars can only guess at the reasoning behind it. It thrives, as it was always meant to. People just seem to be happier, and the air doesn’t feel as heavy as it once did. Crime rates are down, the hungry are fed, disease no longer runs rampant, the economy is good, and there is peace in lands that have never known anything but war.
There are still theories as to when the end of the world will take place, such as there always will be. Little do they know, the great battle at the end of times has already taken place inside the sanctuary of one half mortal/half immortal young woman.
What’s more is that archeologists recently uncovered irrefutable proof that Adam had in fact been the culprit behind the famous eviction from the Garden of Eden, in the form of cuneiform tablets upon which he had brazenly recorded the entire event. I should note that discovery came to them from one Andrew Dickens. Drew had been tending to Dante’s garden the old-fashioned way and while uprooting some weeds that had grown around the statue of Eve, he found a bit of clay underneath with carvings engraved in it. Turns out, there was a reason behind that mysterious smile on Eve’s stone face; she had been hiding the secret right under everyone’s noses all along.
Eve has been vindicated, and history has been rewritten. That was the moment I no longer felt her presence within me. My hair still carries blond streaks, a silent homage to the woman who had suffered so dearly, but fought bravely to right the wrongs against mankind in return.
Archeologists and theologians alike have taken an interest in the statue as well. They offered Drew an insane amount of money to move the priceless work of art, but that was just it—it was priceless. It wouldn’t have mattered if they had offered Drew all of England; he wouldn’t have sold. That statue had been Dante’s most favored piece in the garden, and no way was Drew going to part with what he had left of his son.
As for Mom and Dad . . . they’ve gone back to the States with promises of regular visits. The Cruz family home means way too much to my family’s lineage to abandon it, even though they don’t like the distance from me. Yes, that’s right; I haven’t left. The Dickens estate is the only home Dante ever knew, and I can’t bear to leave it. Nor can I bear the thought of separating Drew and Sinclair from the last of their son that remains.
Tori closed her journal when she heard the first whimpering of a baby on the monitor that sat on the desk next to her. Taking it in hand, she quickly climbed the stairs to the third floor and opened the door to what used to be Dante’s room. It was a nursery now, complete with two of everything, including two bronze-haired babies with hazel-colored eyes that lit up ever so slightly when they were content. One boy, one girl—twins.
They were Dante’s legacy, the product of the one time they had made love. One Guardian of the Light might have passed, but the universe always found a way to keep the bloodlines alive. The Cruz and Dickens bloodlines united, they were the first of their kind and would undoubtedly be beyond powerful, celestial.
Sinclair was already there, lifting Evan from his nap while Eden continued to snore gently in her own crib.
“Shh, shh, shh . . .” Sinclair comforted her grandson as she swayed from side to side on her feet to comfort him.
“He’ll go back to sleep,” she whispered to Tori. “I accidentally bumped the bed when I came in to check on them.”
Tori arched her brow with a knowing tug at the corner of her mouth. It had been no accident. Sinclair could hardly stand to keep her hands off the two babes and always made excuses to hold them whenever she could. They were spoiled rotten already, but Tori couldn’t bring herself to scold the doting grandmother. Those twins were all she had left of her only son. Drew was just as bad.
Sinclair pressed a kiss to Evan’s head and looked back at Tori. “I’ll take care of them for a while. You should get out,” she said, fussing with Eden’s pink blanket to be sure it was tucked in around her small body.
“Are you sure?”
With a motherly smile, Sinclair waved her hand for Tori to go. She did, but not before kissing her son’s soft hair, inhaling his heavenly aroma, and then pressing her lips to her finger to stroke Eden’s plump cheek with it.
God, she loved those babies. Although she and Kerrigan had made amends a very long time ago, it wasn’t until she’d had children of her own that Tori truly understood how protective a mother could be. She would do anything to keep them safe, and would likely drive them as nuts as her mother had driven her in her quest to do just that.
Tori hated to leave her children, but she welcomed the opportunity to check on Dante’s fairy mound. She had been its primary caregiver since his passing. Not only because she knew he would’ve wanted her to, but also because it was a special place for them. She couldn’t stand to see it go to ruin.
It wasn’t long before she found herself brushing the vined entrance aside to be encompassed by the memories that still lingered in that space. She let her fingers drift over the furniture of Dante’s making as her feet carried her to the place where she felt him the most. The makeshift bed of foliage he had constructed by his own Light. Climbing atop it, Tori sank into the thick blankets and plush pillows. His scent still lingered, faded by time, but there.
Wasting no time, she closed her eyes and cleared her mind, concentrating on warping herself to her personal nirvana. Within moments, she found herself standing amid her sanctuary. What had once been destr
oyed had since been rebuilt by a masterful hand. No longer the meadow of her youth, the sanctuary was now a near-exact replica of Dante’s. She was closer to him here. He was in every little nuance, from the grains of sand on the beach to the cozy clouds that encircled the highest mountain peak.
She smiled when she heard a splash of water in the distance. Stripping her clothes off a piece at a time and leaving a trail behind her, she headed toward the lagoon. She always found it hard to resist a shower beneath the trickling waterfall there, and was completely nude by the time her bare feet stepped onto the smooth stone that had served as her diving board. Taking a moment to admire the view, she inhaled a deep breath and dove into the deep, clear pool.
The water was refreshing, crisp, and exhilarating. With long, practiced strokes, Tori swam toward the waterfalls without coming up for air. Craning her neck toward the rays of sun beaming down through the water, she closed her eyes and rose to the surface. In that one moment, everything was perfect. The cool breeze blew, kissing her skin until it pebbled and she shivered—in a good way. The aroma of exotic plants and the gentle songs of the tropical birds in the trees lent to the serene moment, but the most coveted feeling of all came from a pair of strong arms that encircled her waist until she was pulled flush against a warm, bare chest.
“It’s been too long, Angel. I grow bored here without you,” a husky voice whispered across the shell of her ear.
Tori opened her eyes and gazed into a pair of creamy blue orbs speckled with bits of honey.
The sight of him always made her breathless, and she could still hardly believe that he was there. “I love you, Dante.” It was the first and last thing she ever said to him now. Having missed the countless opportunities when he had been alive, she swore she would never let him doubt her feelings again.
His presence in her sanctuary was made possible quite simply because he had died there. It was his sacrifice for the sake of mankind that afforded him the choice of ascending to the higher plane or remaining trapped in Tori’s sanctuary until she ascended as well. He opted for the latter and considered it a blessing. Tori considered it a blessing, too, however selfish that might be.
He smirked in that cocky way that only he could. “I love you, too.”
Dante dipped his head and took her bottom lip between his, teasing it with the soft tip of his tongue until she opened up and let him in. He still tasted the same, deliciously bold with a side of something that was scrumptiously sweet. Tori lapped him up, meeting the eager strokes of his tongue with an equal eagerness.
Even as her need for him grew, so did Dante’s manly appendage against her stomach. Tori moaned into his mouth and lifted her hips, but he kept her at bay.
Breaking the kiss, he chuckled when her bottom lip came out in a pout.
“I love how eager you are for me, too,” he said, rubbing against her unabashedly to tease her even more. “How are my little ones?”
Tori hated that he couldn’t see his children, but some day, when the twins were old enough to understand, she’d be able to take them there and introduce them to their father in person. They deserved to be able to know who he was, after all, and he deserved to look upon the lives he had helped create and know the joy of being a parent as he passed on the things his Guardian father had taught him.
“They’re beautiful, of course. They look like you. Eden smiled this morning when I said your name, and your mother just accidentally roused Evan from his nap before I came.”
He laughed. “Accidentally? Yes, well I doubt that.” There was a pause and the stirrings of sadness in his eyes. “How is she getting on?”
Tori held him closer and rested her head against his chest with a heavy sigh. “I can still hear her crying at night when she thinks everyone has gone to bed.”
“Hmm, I’d hoped time would eventually make my departure from the human world easier on her. Perhaps we should reconsider telling my parents our secret.”
“I told you from the beginning that I thought we should. I’ll leave it up to you.” Tori turned her face into his chest and gave him an open-mouth kiss over his heart. It still beat as fiercely as it ever had.
Dante moaned in response, his hands roaming down her back to cup her supple cheeks. “We’ll think about that later. Right now, I want to enjoy my time with my wife.”
No, they weren’t married in the eyes of man, but they were married in their hearts. Their marks were two parts of one whole, likewise their souls. Unlike Kerrigan and Dominic who had to gift half of their souls to each other, Tori and Dante were born that way.
As Dante busied himself with lavishing her already heated skin with scorching kisses, Tori thought about that. She had been taught that free will decided the destiny of all men, and that destiny eventually led to their fate, but the truth of the matter was that fate had been written in the stars since the first origins of men. They simply needed to find their own way.
What did that mean for the future of the world? Tori didn’t know the answer, but there was one thing she was sure of . . .
Everything happens for a reason.
