Faith (Soul Savers Book 7)

by Kristie Cook

  * * *

  Tristan and I flew to Hades before we headed home, hoping to plea to our son, but Hades had been deserted, as far as we could tell. The Shaman village near the main entrance had been abandoned, and the back entrance, the ice cave Vanessa and I had gone through last time, had been collapsed. There was no telling where Dorian was now. All we knew was that he didn’t want to be with us.

  By leaving with the Daemoni, with the harsh words he’d barked at me, I couldn’t help but feel that he’d disowned us. But my hope for him didn’t waver. My love for him would never falter.

  We took our time flying back to the U.S. and The Loft, allowing our hearts and souls to mend somewhat before we had to jump in and face the new reality before us. When my mind didn’t focus on Dorian, Charlotte, Heather, and the rest of our losses, it wandered into the future. Questions with no immediate answers circled in my brain, such as how the world would rebuild itself, who would emerge as leaders, if the countries and states would stay as they used to be, or if new boundaries would be drawn. When could I take a long, hot shower again with my man? Would we ever be able to eat fresh food? How long would it be before we could begin manufacturing again or rebuilding the power and communication networks?

  “It’ll take time,” Tristan answered my thoughts. “The Daemoni did a lot of lasting damage. The world may never be the same again. Which probably isn’t a totally terrible thing.”

  No, it wasn’t. In the Before time—before the Daemoni ruled and the Demons walked the Earth—many Normans believed the world could use a push of the reset button. Now, they’d been granted that wish. If only nature herself wasn’t so desolate.

  As we flew farther south and entered the States, we left the dirty, gray snow behind, finding the warmer weather of spring. And a surprise greeted us.

  Tristan, look. Green!

  Speckled against the monotone landscape of Earth were various flecks of green. I immediately dropped to the forest of bare trees to inspect. We landed on the top of a huge redwood, most of it gray and seemingly dead. Except for the one branch in front of me.

  “A leaf!” I squealed as I gingerly lifted it under my hand. “An honest to God green leaf.”

  Liquid silver trickled down the branch toward the tree’s thick trunk, and Tristan swiped his finger through the rivulet. He held it to his nose, and after inhaling, he smiled before bringing it under mine.

  “It smells like Sasha,” I said. “Baby powder.”

  My heart twanged at the thought of Sasha, who’d disappeared after the battle, which brought on thoughts of Dorian again. I hoped she was with him, protecting him from the evil of his so-called people, serving as a constant reminder of us and our love.

  “My guess is Angel blood,” Tristan said, bringing me back to the here and now. “And I’m thinking everywhere where there’s green, Angel blood fell.”

  I glanced around the forest, seeing only specks of color in the gray. Just like it had in the Otherworld, the battle for humanity must have waged all around Earth. “Their blood is healing the world, like mine.”

  He nodded. “It’ll still take time, but at least we don’t have to drain you.”

  I punched him lightly in the shoulder. He gave me a beautiful grin, and I couldn’t help but return the smile. He was my light in the bleak world, keeping me hopeful for brighter days ahead. His gaze fell to my lips and lingered, and when his eyes lifted to mine again, my stomach dropped. In a good way. His expression smoldered with desire, igniting a low burn within me.

  I backed up until I pressed against the trunk, and he advanced predatorily. He lifted his hand under my jaw, held me still as he gazed into my eyes for several pounding heartbeats before his eyes dropped to my mouth again. My lips felt dry and chapped as my breaths came shallow over them, and my tongue slid out to wet them. A low, playful growl rumbled in him before he leaned down and captured my mouth with his. His lips were firm, but soft as silk, urgent yet giving. His tongue implored my lips to part, and when they complied, it delved inside, tasting me, devouring me.

  My psyche must have needed his touch, his love to become physical, because passion instantly rose. My heart sped. My belly quivered. My thighs already shook with need. And we were still only kissing, deeply, pressingly. My chest heaved, my breasts pressing against him. He moaned into my mouth, and then slowly pulled away. My lips tried to follow.

  I’m not done kissing you!

  He chuckled. I opened my eyes.

  “Let’s find somewhere a little more accommodating,” he suggested.

  Granted, balanced at the top of a redwood with branches blocking our wings in, this was not an opportune place. Tristan leapt off, and I followed him. He landed in a clearing next to a flowing stream. I landed in front of him. Our wings disappeared. I rushed into his arms.

  As our mouths found each other again, our hands moved frantically to undress each other. I pulled his shirt over his head, and he unzipped my vest, freeing my breasts that ached with demand for his touch. I forgot about the ugly scar and being self-conscious. I needed him to touch me and love me like I’d never needed him before. His hand immediately found one breast, cupping it, fondling, pinching and pulling my nipple. My fingertips skated over his hard chest and up and down the ridges of his abs. They flexed under my touch, causing a ripple of pleasure to run through my own belly. We parted long enough to remove our boots, each of us eyeing the other, our breaths already coming in pants. I yanked down my shorts—what was left of my leathers—as he removed his.

  A jolt of pleasure at seeing his naked body in all of its perfection shot through me, causing me to shudder.

  His brows pinched together.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “Are you sure about this?”

  I smiled. “Absolutely!”

  He glanced down at my not-quite-flat belly. “I don’t … want to hurt them.”

  Now I chuckled. “You’re practically a doctor. You know better than that.”

  He glanced down at himself, and then his gaze came back up at me, a cocky grin on his face. “But look at this! Aren’t you even a little afraid?”

  Full-on laughter burst out of me. His eyes fell to my shaking breasts and all humor left them, replaced by flagrant want. That look he gave me … Oh God, that look. My laughter disappeared as warmth and wetness pooled between my legs.

  “Not even in the slightest,” I panted before I leapt high onto him, wrapping my legs around his upper torso and my arms around his head, pressing his face into my breasts.

  He grunted out a laugh-moan before his mouth became occupied, kissing and sucking its way up and over the round flesh, until he found its tight and puckered tip. His hands pressed into my back, and I leaned against them. My shoulders arched over them and my head fell back as he pulled my nipple and part of my breast into his mouth. His tongue swirled and flicked. His mouth sucked, and his teeth grazed. My hips ground against him, teasing the tip of his erection as it pressed against me. He moved his attention to my other breast, and my hands dove into his hair, my fingers curling around the locks. As his mouth worked, I whimpered and moaned, moving myself against him. Every part of my body screamed for more. My thighs clenched and quivered.

  Unable to hold back a moment longer, I loosened the hold of my legs just enough so I could slide down onto him. We both gasped with the beautiful sensation.

  “Lexi,” he moaned against my throat as he plunged inside of me. “My sexy Lexi.”

  I lifted and descended, meeting his upward thrusts, relishing the strokes against the hot, swollen flesh inside me. He was my rock. My light. My love. My everything. My glorious lover making sweet, hard love to me. We rocked together, skin against skin, hearts pounding, minds opening, sensations flowing and twisting together, heightening, expanding, soaring … exploding.

  “Lex!”

  “Tristan!”

  We hung there in pure, unadulterated oblivion, convulsing against each other, melding together, drawing out the bliss for as long as
we could make it last. And slowly, we drifted back, our muscles trembling, grins spreading, eyes full of love and adoration.

  “I love you,” we both said at the same time.

  “Forever,” he added.

  I smiled and whispered, “And always.”

  Chapter 32

  5 Months Later

  “CHOO-CHOO-CHOO-CHOO.” Alexis pushed the air through her clenched teeth while gripping my hand in one of her fists and Vanessa’s in the other. She squeezed so hard, my skin turned white, and I wished there was some way I could relieve her pain, but there wasn’t. All I could do was be there for her.

  When the contraction passed, Carlie’s head popped up from between my wife’s legs, where she sat on a low stool at the end of the bed. Alexis lay on the mattress we’d brought back from the shelter to the Caribbean room specifically for this occasion, her legs propped up on pillows. She’d insisted our babies be born here rather than in an underground bomb shelter, even if it did have the ironic name of The Loft. So Owen, Blossom, and I had been busy preparing our house in the Florida Keys, creating a protective bubble around it and cleansing the air and everything else within it.

  “You’re doing fine,” Carlie said, giving her patient an encouraging smile. “We’re getting close.”

  I squeezed Alexis’s hand. She looked up at me with glassy eyes that quickly filled with pain.

  “Argh!” Her teeth gritted as she breathed through another contraction.

  “Good.” Carlie’s head disappeared for another moment. “You’re doing great.”

  She didn’t come up, and I peeked over Alexis’s legs to see her hands moving around.

  “I … have to … push,” Alexis groaned.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on,” Carlie ordered.

  “I can’t fucking hold on!” Alexis yelled as she gripped my hand harder. Vanessa and I exchanged a look, her eyes filled with humor and her lips pressed together.

  Carlie lifted her head and nodded. “Okay, go ahead. You can do this.”

  Alexis’s torso lifted from the bed as she bore down. My arm slid to her back, supporting her as she screamed and groaned. The contraction passed, and she fell back, panting.

  Carlie let out a noise of excitement. “I think … Yep …” She bent over and peered closer before letting out a little squeak. “I see a head!”

  I leaned her way until the stretch lifted Alexis’s arm from the bed, trying to see for myself. She released her grip on my hand.

  “Go,” she said between pants. “I know you want to.”

  Blossom rushed over and took Alexis’s hand. Vanessa’s arm slid under Alexis’s back to brace her for the next contraction. I hesitated, not wanting to leave my wife’s side.

  “Go!” she barked.

  “Get over here,” Carlie snapped at me. “Hurry!”

  I joined her at the end of the bed, and my gaze landed on the most frightening and most beautiful view I’d ever seen.

  “You can do this, Lex,” I said as Carlie moved to the side so I could kneel down in front of Alexis.

  She came off the bed again, groaning and pushing.

  “There’s the crown,” Carlie said excitedly. “Get ready to catch, Tristan.”

  I positioned my hands in preparation and listened to my wife scream in pain as our child’s head emerged from her. I gently clasped it between my palms and held it still as Carlie cleaned out the nose and mouth. A few moments later, with another push, the rest of the body slid out and into my palm.

  Carlie went to work immediately, but I could only stare at the tiny human.

  Tears filled my eyes as Carlie lifted my hands to lay the baby onto Alexis’s stomach.

  Alexis lifted her head off the bed, her hair plastered to her sweaty scalp, and her mouth stretched into a tired smile. “Finally. A girl.”

  Carlie clamped the umbilical cord and pressed scissors into my palm. My normally calm hands shook as I cut through. Sheree took the baby to towel her off, and the little thing let loose a loud cry while she was wrapped in a blanket. Just as Sheree was about to pass her back over, Alexis bolted up, screaming again.

  “Baby B!” Carlie rushed back over to the end of the bed, and I hurried to join her.

  After several pushes, the head crowned, followed by the body sliding into my hands. And I was no less awestruck the second time around. Sheree and Carlie both gasped, followed by Vanessa and Blossom. My own breath caught in my lungs, and my vision blurred as I tried to blink away the tears. My whole body shook now as I cut the cord and lay the baby on Alexis’s stomach, my cheek muscles aching from the grin on my face.

  I hurried over to Sheree to take our crying girl, but I couldn’t quite figure out how to hold her itty bitty body in my arm that suddenly felt like an ape’s, too large and unwieldy to be safe.

  “Like this.” Sheree smiled as she settled the bundle into the crook of my arm.

  Our baby quieted as soon as I held her. Her lids opened wider, and then she blinked at me.

  And from that moment on, I would never be the same man.

  God help anyone who so much as tried to lay a finger on her.

  I sat on the bed next to Alexis as Carlie and Sheree cleaned and checked the younger twin.

  “She’s so beautiful,” Alexis whispered as her fingertip traced over our daughter’s tiny nose.

  “Of course she is.” I pressed my lips to her temple. “Look at her mommy.”

  Tears rolled over Alexis’s cheeks as she looked up at me. She lifted her hand to my face, and with her thumb, wiped away my own tears.

  “And not only you two,” I said as Sheree brought over our other little bundle. Alexis took the first baby while I held the second. “Meet the other love of my life. What am I going to do surrounded by three of you?”

  Alexis’s eyes widened, understanding. “Seriously?”

  “Look for yourself, if you don’t trust me.”

  She peeked under the blanket. “Wow. Not that it matters anymore, but … wow.”

  As I held the baby in one arm, I slipped my other behind my wife’s back and hugged her and our daughters to me. Alexis shivered under my arm.

  “If only Dorian were here, everything would be perfect,” she said with a sniffle.

  “He is, my love. He’s in our hearts. Maybe one day in our lives. Until then …”

  She sighed and nodded. “We give praise for the blessings we have.”

  “Exactly. And for me, that would be you. All of you … you are my everything. My heart. My love. My woman. My children. My world.”

  Chapter 33

  What could be sexier than a hot man holding a baby? My own Mr. Beautiful holding two babies.

  Every time I walked into a room to find Tristan holding one or both of our newborns, I fell in love all over again. When he leaned in and kissed a tiny forehead, my heart melted. And when he got up with them in the middle of the night because they wanted to walk, not feed, or when he volunteered to change a dirty diaper? I absolutely died.

  We’d spent the last few days since the birth on what I deemed a family honeymoon in our beach house at the Keys. We needed time to adjust to parenting newborns, and our babies needed time to acclimate to life outside the womb. We weren’t alone, of course. Vanessa and Owen, Blossom and Jax, and Sheree and Carlie each took turns “guarding” us, although I knew they really wanted to spend time with the babies.

  Because there was no real danger anymore. We’d won the war. The Daemoni had essentially disappeared from the face of the Earth. Along with my son. A reality I’d come to acknowledge, although not fully accept, months ago. One day, I vowed to myself, I would get my son back. I just prayed his soul would stay intact until then.

  Soon, we would be returning to The Loft, which ironically provided more creature comforts than the house here. Owen had magically created a system to give the beach house somewhat fresh water for the bathroom and cleaning diapers, but it wasn’t a long-term solution. Neither was the generator running on magic. Besides, we had a
lot of work ahead of us to turn the people of The Loft into a full-scale community, hopefully on Earth’s surface sometime in the future.

  In fact, Tristan had gone through a portal to The Loft this morning to help with preparations for the babies. So I was surprised when I padded into the Caribbean room, wearing a t-shirt and stretchy yoga pants, to find the large body standing by the open sliding doors, the sandy-brown head leaned over the bassinet the twins shared as a breeze fluttered through the sheer curtains around him.

  But then my heart jumped into my throat when my mommy-exhausted brain caught up and identified the mind signature. At the same time, Vanessa suddenly appeared beside me, the rush of air she produced lifting the ends of my hair.

  “I sense Daemoni,” she hissed as she stepped farther into the room, her head cocked as she scrutinized the figure in the other opening.

  I hurried inside and clamped my hand on her arm to stop her. My heart raced as I walked past her, closer to the bassinet and the sliding glass doors. My throat and tongue felt full of sand.

  “D-Dorian?” I whispered.

  The breeze settled, and the curtains fell still, hanging to each side of the doors. My son stood in front of the babies’ bed, no longer a child but a grown man. He wore a midnight blue suit, as though he’d come to a business meeting, making him appear even older. His light brown hair was perfectly coifed, although … he had the scruff of a beard on his jaw! My hand covered my mouth as I stared at him, tears welling. He looked up at me with hazel eyes that sparkled with gold and a small smile on his lips.

  “Hi, Mom.” He spoke quietly, not to wake the babies.

  Although I, too, sensed Daemoni, I didn’t feel as though we were in any danger. I rushed to him and threw my arms around him.

  “Dorian! Oh my God!” I whispered. Tears flowed as I held onto my son, afraid to ever let go of him again. “I knew you’d come back!”

  He held me for a long moment, but then stepped out of my embrace. He gazed down at the blanket-burritos before him.