His Redeemer's Kiss

by Diana Castilleja

  David shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. I’m already dead.” Wild eyes looked up and searched everyone. “Tani. I have to find Tani. She has to get out of here.”

  “She’s fine, David,” Houston repeated calmly, facing David. “Why Tani?”

  “Because he’s coming. For all of them,” he croaked, his eyes growing wider. Then, David lifted his T-shirt.

  Lily covered her mouth to not scream. Amy dropped the bowl of water she held and toppled backward in horror, her face draining of blood as the gnarled mess that was David’s midsection became exposed. Sutured and taped to a shallow hole in his abdomen was a small device the size of a lemon. It was ticking off time.

  “You have to lower the gates, whatever…they are. He—He’s going to blow me up.” Tears were forming in his eyes. He tried to breathe, but shuddered again. “Hurts,” he hissed, his focus wavering, then he sat up straight again. Reaching, he fisted Houston’s shirt in desperation. “Where is she?” He bit out the words through a pain-clenched jaw.

  “We have to remove it.” Houston’s face was pale, fighting to think coherently.

  David shook his head. “You can’t. It’s wired…part of my body. Removing…blows up.”

  “Fuck!”

  David’s laugh wasn’t unkind. “Yeah.” Then, his lids closed and he blacked out, falling into Houston’s arms.

  “How long before they get here?” Lily asked Houston. He lifted David with no trouble and laid him on the kitchen table. His wan face was streaked with dirt, sweat and blood. She doubted the rest was anything nearing peaceful.

  Laney dashed to the window, then said over her shoulder, “Less than fifteen minutes. How long…” She stopped and swallowed, sending David a teary-eyed look. “On that?”

  Houston carefully lifted the T-shirt. “Less than thirty minutes. If he walked from as far out as I think he did…” Houston raked a hand through his hair. “He walked for well over an hour, bleeding and in agony with every step. The bastard didn’t give him much time to get here.” Houston put a kinder hand on David’s shoulder, watching the shuddering rise and fall of his chest. The immense pain he suffered for his friend sliced into every part of his face and body.

  “You have to remove the ward.” Lily knew none of this was David’s fault, but he didn’t deserve to die either. She clenched her hands at her sides to not allow the queasiness she felt to become real.

  Houston’s expression said it all. “I can’t. Diego is the only one with absolute control over them.”

  Amy’s head was ricocheting between the two of them, horror widening her eyes. “What wards?”

  “Diego has strong magic,” Lily explained.

  “Well, go wake him up!” She was almost screeching.

  “He’s not here, Amy,” Houston bit out, his head bowed to think.

  Kathy came barreling down the stairs, skidding to a stop in the kitchen. “Oh my God! What happened to him?”

  Houston blocked David’s body with a stilted movement. “He’s been badly hurt. He just got home.”

  Towel dried hair explained with little doubt that she had been in the shower and had missed David’s entrance into the house.

  “What can we do for him?” Amy neared, silent tears leaving tracks down her face. “When will Diego be home to remove the wards?”

  “In a few more minutes.” Laney put a supporting touch on Houston’s arm, the same one that was resting on David’s shoulder. Houston inched the shirt down to cover the ticking death sentence. Lily saw it as well as he did.

  They weren’t going to have enough time.

  Numerous sets of eyes rose to search, looking for answers, a miracle. All they saw was each other.

  Lily’s hands fisted again. Anger fueled her words, but she kept her calm in a way she couldn’t remember ever finding within herself, the whole seething, boiling mass giving her strength even when she knew she was losing energy with every minute. She did the only thing she could.

  “Amy, Kathy, get Claire and go to Tabitha’s room and keep everyone calm. You know what Tab can do if she gets agitated. She’s awake now and not secure yet. Keep her calm,” she stressed again. “Lock the door. Stay inside. You too, Laney. The more with her, the safer she’ll feel.”

  “But—”

  “Just do it!” She turned to Houston, not waiting to see if they would do it or not. “I’m not letting this happen again. He’s not going to die.”

  When Kathy turned, Lily followed Kathy and Amy with her eyes until they were out of sight. She prayed they went to Tabitha’s room. Laney picked up the bowl and washcloth, then followed the two girls upstairs with a final worried glance at David. Resignation was as apparent on her pained features. Houston stayed beside a comatose David.

  “We only have to wait for them to get here,” Lily said, feeling exhaustion creep up on her like a stalking tiger. Ready to pounce the moment her head was turned.

  “David doesn’t have the time.” Houston ran a shaky hand over his jaw. “If this thing is real…” His voice caught. “Damn! Why did they have to do this?”

  “Don’t give up yet,” Lily said, knowing she had no other option. With no warning to Houston, she opened herself up, doing the only thing she could think of to find out what they needed to know, diving into David’s psyche to find out what they had done to trigger the time bomb. To find any information about Hawthorne, or Tenorio, any plans. She collapsed to her knees with a low cry, her eyes blurring as all the suffering and pain he’d lived through slammed into her like a relentless tide. Horrors not unlike the life she’d been forced to endure had been dealt to David to make him cooperate. He’d fought them, but had paid for it. The bomb was their answer to controlling him. Their answer to get what they wanted.

  The girls who had been rescued. All of them. Whether they knew they had Claire or not, or were assuming it, the intent was crystal clear.

  “Lily!”

  She barely heard Joaquin’s anxious shout, oblivious to how long she searched, walking through David’s mind, his thoughts, his memories, seeking the threats floating through his subconscious. She couldn’t acknowledge Joaquin regardless. Her strength was leaving her fast for trying to find the secret to David’s only chance to live.

  Strong arms encircled her at some point. Strength poured into her body. Slowly, her lashes fluttered, but there was little she could see. She could only stare through unseeing eyes that refused to focus properly. Joaquin was kneeling behind her, holding her tightly in his arms. She would know him, his touch, anywhere. She felt almost weightless in his arms.

  “It’s triggered to his heart. You disconnect it and the loss of the current of his heartbeat will detonate it.” The words tumbled from her lips, feeling herself almost as a separate, disembodied being in the room.

  She thought she explained it. Didn’t just think it. Her brow wrinkled. Tired. So very tired. Her lashes felt so heavy. She wanted to rest. Hopefully, it was enough information for them to find a way to do something about it. She hoped she told them. Concept of time was lost to her as her gray world went black, completely drained.

  Chapter Twenty

  “Tani?”

  Joaquin held Lily’s limp shape in his arms, terrified for the brave woman. Exhaustion was a thick cloud surrounding her body.

  “I’m here, David.” Tani stepped forward and he tried to sit up on the hard table, struggling to breathe, searching desperately for her.

  Houston was quick to put out a hand to halt him. “Don’t, David,” he insisted, deliberately calm.

  “We have to go. He’s coming.” His voice cracked. “Don’t let him get you.” Harsh gasps for air tore through his lungs, sounding like bellows on each exhalation. “I won’t let him get you.”

  Joaquin stood, stepping away a few feet, cradling Lily tenderly in his arms like a child. He needed to care for Lily, but the threat outside was imminent.

  “We’re safest right here, David,” Tani said, trying to keep him calm, to stop him from jerking himself off t
he table and around Houston.

  “There’s no time!” He shoved everyone back and lifted his shirt. “What does it say?” Tears streaked down his face. Sunken eyes. Hollow eyes. Defeated.

  A shouted order ricocheted from outside. The danger outside was getting closer. Somehow, they had breached the wards.

  David laughed, bordering on insane, pushed past his endurance. “Too late. God, Tani. Why? Why did you have to be gone? With him. He’s going to get you. I could’ve saved you.” His voice wavered. “Could have lo…” He stopped as though he realized what he was saying.

  Joaquin saw the pain in the young man’s eyes when he pinned that hurt on Titania. Pain that went deeper than the pain of his body. All the love he’d never shown Tani was exposed in that one moment. Sorrow colored her face when she looked up over her shoulder to Diego.

  David fought to lurch to his feet, shoving past a stunned Houston. “No!” he snarled. Weaving, he marched to the front door, whipping it open, then leaning on it. Taking one staggering, pain-filled breath, he looked at the tableau of people who had followed him.

  “Put me down.”

  “I don’t think I will.”

  “He’s going to do something stupid!” Lily clenched at Joaquin’s shirt.

  “And you think I’m going to let you do something equally stupid? Again?” He trembled with the rush of emotion at having awakened, yet again, to feel her in pain. It hadn’t mattered it hadn’t been her own pain he felt ravaging his body. If he was feeling it, then she was feeling it on some higher level, too deeply.

  “They won’t get you, Tani.” Shakily, he ran a hand over his face, oblivious to anymore pain or the streaks he left behind. “They’re coming. He won’t stop.” Another shout and a fired shot. Closer. They weren’t exactly going for the covert sneak attack from the sounds of their entrance.

  Joaquin held Lily tighter into his chest. Bright beams sliced the night beyond the front door, breaking apart the thick night with their search lights.

  “How’d they get through?” Houston stood, glaring daggers toward the roar of vehicles.

  “Drugs,” Lily managed, barely loud enough for Joaquin to hear. The truth had been found in the bowels of David’s nightmare. “They’re counteracting the fears instilled in the wards. Forcing their own sense of preservation to ignore the sensation of the threat embedded in the ward. Hawthorne knows where Tenorio is.”

  “Stop it! Close your mind right now!”

  “But it’s what I do. What I can do.” She burrowed tighter into his body.

  “You’re not strong enough. You can’t even hold your eyes open.”

  She didn’t argue that one with him.

  “How long do I have?” David demanded, ripping the T-shirt away from his body with a rending sound.

  Tani approached him, the weight of the pending moments so heavy on her shoulders, she was bent under the pressure. Diego let her go, but still followed to stand only a foot or two away. “I’m sorry, David. I never knew.” Her lips trembled, regret and sadness battling on her face for the man before her. For feelings she’d never had a clue about. For a friendship that was at an end.

  Joaquin saw her steal a glance over the blinking numbers on the front panel. One second at a time to reach zero. He couldn’t miss the desperation in David’s eyes. He knew what the young man planned to do, and he didn’t need Lily’s gift to make that conclusion.

  For a moment, David’s gaze cleared and he lifted a hand to her face. “I know. Don’t let them get you. They’ll destroy you,” he said, emotions making his voice thick, along with all the ravaging pain and regret he felt. “How long?”

  Her voice broke. She blinked, fighting a losing battle to stem the tears. “Minutes.”

  The first vehicle skidded to a stop, spraying dirt and forest debris for several feet, followed by two more. They were all easy to see through the front door. They had made it through and their intent was clear as men spilled out of the vehicles and gathered, all carrying weapons meant to kill, not capture. “Tell me when I have less than thirty seconds.”

  “You don’t have to do this! There has to be a way to save you!”

  A short laugh broke the brittle tension with unconcern. Joaquin could see his mind was made up. Shouts began to drift into the house from outside. “Just get away. Go far away.” Resolute, his voice never wavered. Joaquin let Lily slide to her feet, watching her carefully for more signs of her physical self withering. She was tired, but was holding on as long as she could before succumbing to the fatigue her latest effort had placed on her.

  David drew an aching breath. “Time?”

  “Twenty-eight seconds.”

  He nodded with grim determination, and acceptance. “I always loved you.” Then, he turned, closed the door and stumbled out to meet the caravan of vehicles.

  “Stop him!” Tani’s heart-wrenching cry echoed through the house, whirling to find someone to help. No one moved.

  Diego shook his head. “I am not fast enough to do what needs to be done, even with all the knowledge, which I do not have. He is a brave man to do the only thing he can. They gave him no option.” He cut a meaningful look to Joaquin. “Let us rid ourselves of these animals once and for all.”

  “Where is Nathan?” Joaquin looked to Houston, almost forgetting he was in the room when Diego answered.

  “He went to feed. He is returning now to join us.”

  “Bastards!” Anger flared as deeply as the sadness in Titania’s gaze.

  Silver eyes found her, staring at the raven-haired woman raging inside at the injustice dealt to her friend, sharing the weight of a friend’s loss. “Do you want his sacrifice to be wasted? Do you want his affection to go unavenged?”

  “No.” She swept her hand beneath her eyes. A sudden roaring explosion rocked the front of the house, rattling dishes in the kitchen. Tani stuffed her knuckles into her mouth to stifle her scream, reaching out for the door in reflex. Diamond bright tears fell in streams while hard, racking sobs shook her shoulders and body like a dry stalk in a fierce wind. Lily pressed her face into Joaquin’s chest, muffling her own hard sobs from the rest.

  Diego approached his wife, tenderly lifting a thumb to stroke the tears away. He drew Titania into his arms, engulfing her within his large frame. “I am sorry, cara. Do not doubt that.” He turned to Houston. His entire demeanor had frozen to stone. “Take the women upstairs. We will dispatch the remaining attackers and remove the vehicles. Do not worry if you do not see us before dawn.”

  “Go with him,” Joaquin urged the woman in his arms. “Rest.” He needed time, even a few minutes, to do the next exchange to boost Lily’s waning strength. A little privacy would also be nice. She didn’t have any reserves to keep her going; she had no choice but to stay still. She nodded into his chest where he held her. He wound his hand through her hair, offering his understanding. He’d seen death many times over his life, but few had been anyone he could call friend.

  Diego faded out of sight, leaving Tani standing by the door only a moment later, moving outside to begin the decimation of the last of the forces trying to reach those inside. Joaquin pressed a kiss to Lily’s lips, then releasing her, he also faded out of the room.

  * * * *

  “Hawthorne is out there.” She knew it with certainty.

  Houston shook his head, worry rising rapidly. “You are pale, Lily. Don’t do it.”

  She walked to the door and leaned against the frame, not looking at the door, but through it. She laid a hand of comfort on Tani’s shoulder. The other woman was too stunned to acknowledge it. “We can’t let him die in vain,” she whispered.

  Looking at the woman before her Lily knew Tani was a devastated wreck. Her face was blank. Lily doubted she had a coherent thought to make under the circumstances. She wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t. David had been a part of Tani’s band for years, a friend for as long. And now he was gone.

  “Take Tani upstairs, Houston,” she said. “She needs your help more than I
do right now. I’ll follow in a minute when I get my strength back.” She was still feeling woozy from what she’d done to reach David, but she’d do it again in a nanosecond. Houston didn’t have to know she had no intention whatsoever of following him up those upstairs.

  “Don’t go outside,” he warned suspiciously, but already moving to Tani’s side. The other woman was reacting like an automaton, on autopilot, nodding to whatever Houston said. “I’ll be right back for you.”

  “Sure,” Lily replied with a wan smile, leaning on her shoulder to hold some of her weight. She lingered until he was well up the stairs with a thunderstruck Tani before slipping through the door to the dark world outside. All the lights had been extinguished, leaving the world in a shadowy, raucous pocket of time. Gunfire and screams rolled over her from her right, bodies and shapes outlined in the dark night. She stayed flush to the house, moving quickly within the wavering shadows. Dark, tumbling clouds obscured much of the starlight and the waning moon. Lightning flashed with angry bursts and crashing thunder made the ground shake beneath her feet. Crouching on the porch in the corner behind a post, she flexed her fingers and pressed them to the wood beneath her to steady her fatigue-wracked body and reached outward, seeking Hawthorne’s mind. Pain splintered her control with a bombardment of needle sharp daggers, each voice erupting over her as though she sat in the center of an enclosed box and thousands of voices were screaming within. She pushed herself through it, her weight sagging against the wood of the porch in the deepest shadows of the house.