by Ramona Wray
His eyes were closed and he was breathing in deeply, his nose turned upward into the light breeze. He licked his fingertips and then rubbed them together in the wind.
“Ah, Katherine,” he whispered. “You taste better than heaven. And I should know, I have sampled both.”
My nose crinkled in disgust, knowing that my magic surged all around us and that he truly was snacking on it. Finally, with one last sniff he opened his eyes widely, and they locked onto mine through the flimsy wall I’d raised between us.
“Oh, shush, little lamb,” he mocked. “Don’t give me that look. After all, it’s your own fault we’re here. I offered you an alternative, remember.”
I didn’t know what he’d seen in my eyes, but I made sure to glare very pointedly as I answered. “Enough lies, Lucian. I told you, I know the truth.”
He bared his teeth at me in a disturbing smile that was more of a snarl. “Oh, I know you do. I’ve known from the moment it happened. There I was, minding my own business like a good little halfling, when what do you know? Boom!” he clapped his hands dramatically. “I was suddenly right back home.”
Gnashing his teeth, jaw tensing under that flawless skin, he wagged one finger in front of my eyes. “Someone’s been naughty. You’ve taken your boy for a test drive, haven’t you?”
Was he upset? Crazy? Pulling the court jester routine to cover the hurt?
“And somehow, in the middle of that, you messed with the curse. Your power jostled it and the bloody thing failed. Allowing you,” he pointed at me, “to see into his thick head. And sending me,” he prodded at himself, “right back to the hole I had sworn never to see again. Like I said … naughty.”
I opened my mouth to tell him just how far off the mark he was, but he never gave me the chance.
“Don’t get me wrong,” he purred, piercing me with icy blue eyes. “I can’t imagine anything worse than leaving this plane without trying it.”
From that lecherous look on his face, he’d had plenty of experience to back up that statement.
“I’m glad you took my advice.”
At my side, Ryder went postal. “Your advice!”
Lucian didn’t even glance at him. “Quiet, piddling meat, no one’s talking to you,” he spat out coldly. Then, without pausing, he went back to addressing me, his voice warm and silky again. “But I wish you would’ve let me do the honors. By my wings, it would’ve made a world of difference to you.”
“You’re obnoxious,” I shook my head while Ryder cursed out loud. “Also, completely off-base.” I stuck out my left hand to show him my ring. “It was the ring, you idiot, not this fantasy-land story of yours.”
Emotions flashed across his face fast, easy to read for a change. All at once he was relieved, embarrassed, annoyed, joyful. Then everything went away, swallowed by that arrogant, too-good-to-be-true mask he used to complement his preppy look.
“Of course,” he said quietly. “The ring.”
His Siberian husky blues connected with mine and for a moment I saw the anger flaring up underneath. He really was a sore loser, which he proved plainly by adding, “No matter. My offer still stands. You can still decide to be with someone who can handle you. All of you,” he finished suggestively.
“If you had a brain, you’d know I’d rather die than let you lay a finger on me.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Did you hate the kiss so much?”
“Kiss?” Ryder was fuming. “You sonofabitch!”
I grabbed his arm, struggling to hold him back and within the confines of the circle. Lucian sniggered, obviously enjoying the show. I was beginning to see red.
“It was like having my tonsils taken out with barbed wire while fully awake!”
He didn’t even blink. “Do stop being such a drama queen, Katherine. There was hardly any tongue involved.”
At my side, Ryder was close to overpowering me and tearing at him. Short on options, I pressed my lips on his, roughly enough to keep him still.
“He’s taunting you,” I whispered. “He wants you to attack him so he can hurt you again. Don’t play into it! Please?”
With my forehead pressed to his, I sent a wave of love and calm through the circle, sensing his muscles relax almost instantly.
“Ahem!” Lucian pretended to cough. He was still smirking annoyingly. “Hex-boy reeks of insecurity. Did something happen after he stuck that thing on your finger? Did he choke on the next step?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
Ryder ground his teeth, tense like a rubber band.
“Speaking from experience, mutt?” he snarled.
In the meantime, I was growing bored with the theatricals.
“What’s this about, Lucian? Why are you acting like a jealous boyfriend? Are we back to pretending that you love me? Because that’s old.”
Surprisingly, he met my mockery with a serious expression.
“Pretending? I wasn’t pretending anything, you silly child. Not now and not in the past. When you were Marion Frost, you nearly married me, Katherine!” he said in a very insistent, very emotional tone. It was almost believable. “You know you loved every one of my kisses then. You know we were good together. You’ve seen it. Felt it.”
Okay, of all the subjects I really wanted to avoid, our engagement, which I’d seen more of through Ryder’s memories, definitely made the top of the list.
“You tricked me into it, you know it!” I shouted, gripping Ryder’s hand tighter.
“I did no such thing!” he returned fiercely.
“You kept Ryder from me. You made sure we didn’t meet. You had him confined to a bed, fighting to stay conscious, for months!” I exploded.
“I did that. And you have no idea how dearly I paid for my actions. With nothing to show for it, either. Because you still managed to find your way to him,” he hissed. “You and your potions and balms and whatnot. If not for that Florence Nightingale act, we would’ve been married today. You’d be mine now.”
“How could I marry you, pea-brain? I’m already happily married. To him.”
He made a wide gesture, meant to shrug that off easily. “You’re no more married to him than you are to me. Your so-called marriage will remain a sham until consummated.”
Ryder grinned. “You sure about that? ’Cause the ring on her finger says otherwise. Same ring that you say is the symbol of a sham marriage was strong enough to send your ass right back to gaga-land when I slipped it on.”
Lucian stabbed him with a look that was all ice. “I’ll enjoy ripping your throat out in a minute,” he snarled.
“No one rips anything,” I interjected. “I’ve got a proposition for you.”
Beside me, Ryder stiffened. “What? What are you doing?”
It was the hardest thing, ignoring him. But I kept my eyes on the halfling, whose face was slowly relaxing into another confident grin.
“You don’t have to talk,” he said, all silk and melted chocolate. “Right now, I’m drowning in you, Katherine —” His eyelids closed and he inhaled hungrily. “The same power that summoned me here ... it’s all around me. It forges a bond between us.” His eyes snapped open. “I can hear your thoughts,” he said simply, a crazed excitement glinting in his eyes. He was drunk with my energy.
“Never felt anything like it in four hundred years on this plane, and I looked hard, believe me. Every so-called witch, everyone with the smallest knack for magic. But Katherine, nobody holds a candle to this.” Again he gulped in deep. “You’re … intoxicating, my pet!”
A few things happened at once. Ryder lunged for him, crossing the confines of the circle like there was nothing to it, and the dream I’d had earlier, about J and Elizabeth, tumbled into my mind, as clear as daylight. J’s grin as she high-fived me flashed right in front of my eyes, her voice echoing closely after. We are so kicking his butt now! It lasted all of one second and then my lips moved, whispering one word. To my ears, it sounded like wind howling, but somehow I knew it wasn’t that. Somehow I knew it was Lucian’s t
rue name.
Instantly he was thrust back and lifted into the air, where he hovered, screaming, his body twisting and thrashing around in pain. I made a grab for Ryder, pulling him back into the circle, and then cast a second layer of protection, soundproofing the circle. Making sure that his human ears heard nothing of what happened beyond the boundaries of my double-charmformula special. Call me chicken, call me silly, but I figured Ryder had had just about enough of Lucian’s incendiary comments.
As for the pain in question, by the time I directed my attention back to him, he didn’t look human anymore.
His torso was bare and the moonlight bounced off his alabaster skin, making him into a marble statue. Washboard abs, naturally, because Lucian was like that. Too dang perfect! Around him, fully unfurled and shooting from his back, a magnificent pair of wings quivered with painful after-shocks. They were colossal, and blacker than the night around him.
Gently he descended, so gracefully that my heart wept in the face of so much beauty. He was a jerk, I hadn’t forgotten that, but he was a celestial jerk with wings. And his mere sight had been designed for the purpose of taking your breath away.
At least, until he opened that distinctly un-angelic mouth of his.
“You have been naughty! Do you realize you’re the only being in this world who can hurt me like this?” he asked, drifting closer.
He was smiling, as if he had just paid me a compliment.
With detachment, I shrugged. “See? That’s another reason we’d never work. I don’t like pain.”
He responded with an arch grin. “I don’t mind a little pain if it’s skillfully applied. And I bet I could teach you those skills, considering you already possess the means.” His voice grew softer, low and caressing. “Think about it; with me at your side, you’d never have to hold back. We could do things no mortal body can take … I could touch you in ways no one else can, Katherine. I could set your power ablaze! And we’d rule this plane, you and me, together.”
Ignoring the warmth spreading through my limbs, I rolled my eyes. “Hmm, tempting: pain, sex, and taking over the world. When can we start?”
Even if he couldn’t hear Lucian’s answers, Ryder could still listen to me. His fingers, firm, familiar, and reassuring, laced into mine, and he squeezed my hand once. The contact made me shiver. It made me stronger. It made me smile.
From the corner of my eye, I saw him smiling, too. Without saying a word, we were in perfect sync.
I could never be any more worlds apart from Lucian.
With my free hand I shook the second Thermos bottle, the one holding the rest of the potion. I dangled it right in front of the halfling’s eyes and smiled in satisfaction because he watched it, completely hypnotized.
“You know what I want. Let him go unharmed and you get more than just to sniff at my power. You get to taste it. So you can go on annoying the heck out of this world for another hundred plus years. What do you say?”
He licked his lips, eyes never straying from the container in my hand. “Deal.”
“Can I trust you?”
One brow rose contemptuously. “Of course you can trust me! I’m a damn angel.”
Yep, about as reassuring as handing a pair of sharp scissors to a blind man and asking him to cut your hair, but I couldn’t afford to argue anymore. Casting a second layer of protection had bled my energy dry. It didn’t matter if I released the circle or not; pretty soon it was going to explode all by its lonesome.
I let the magic flow free and watched Lucian staggering back like a drunk man as it slid over him. He was no better than a junkie getting his fix. Same complete abandon. Same loss of control.
“Lily, what’s going on, baby?”
Ryder gripped my shoulders, kneading them with unsure fingers. The look in his eyes, that of a man on death row, told me that he’d guessed time had run out. Rising on tiptoe, I pressed my lips on his for a moment.
“I want you to go now.”
It wasn’t a plea, not even a request; it was an order. It came out as inflexible as a blade.
“No way. No way am I leaving you with him!” he argued sharply.
“You will. Or I will send you away. I dipped into my power deep enough tonight to pull it off,” I threatened. “I’ll send you to the other side of the world.”
He switched to pleading. “Lily, please, I need to be here! You can’t take this from me. You can’t. Don’t!”
I blinked back tears but held my ground. “No, you don’t need to be here. If you stay you’ll get hurt and I don’t want that happening again. Understand? You’ve seen this movie already and you know how it ends. Just go.”
His face hardened. “Make me!” he challenged.
We locked stares squarely. “I can and I will. If this is how you want to say good-bye, fine. Have it your way.”
“Lily, please —”
He never got to finish, though. Lucian was suddenly standing right behind him. “You know what? I’m bored.”
The same slim, silver blade he always used grew from his arm, first as an extension of his hand and then as a full-bodied weapon, gleaming menacingly. His arm thrust forward, aiming at Ryder’s neck, and I screamed, pulling him out of the way just in time. The blade barely grazed him …
... before sinking fully into my chest.
I fell.
Chapter: Thirty-Three
They both screamed my name at the same time. Both my names, past and present.
Ryder, after getting to his feet from where I’d hurled him, launched himself at me like a bullet. With the last of my strength, I tossed a protective cover in his direction, pinning him where he stood, safe from Lucian as long as the magic lasted. As long as I still did.
I lay on the grass with my head turned, unable to tear my eyes away from him. He struggled to break free from my safety net, but I’d learned my lesson since he’d broken the previous circle. I’d made sure this one would hold. From behind its confines, his voice barely carried, smothered by magic. But the tears, his terror, those muffled screams; the visual alone was more than I could bear.
My own pain was … familiar. I’d had my head splitting open with pain all my life, so I was used to it. As crippling as eternal damnation, sure, but at least something I knew. The unknown came past this point, and it scared me much more.
Lucian fell on his knees, his eyes wide with shock and glistening with tears. His hands cradled my face and his wings wrapped around us, soft against my cheeks, but robbing me of the sight of Ryder. Should I have had any strength left in me, I would’ve screamed and fought. But very little life was still streaming through my veins and I was using it up fast on keeping Ryder safe.
“Aw, Katherine,” he sighed. “Look what you made me do, you stupid, stupid child.”
The pain distorting his chiseled features seemed real enough, and as the first tears fell from his eyes onto my face, I wondered if maybe I’d been mistaken. Maybe in his own twisted way, he really did love me. For reasons that were all wrong, of course, since he was as bad as they come, but no less compelling. His tears testified to it.
He moved one hand over the spot where the blade stuck out from my chest and his face crumpled. Around us, the blue tendrils wove a soft blanket, no longer pulling at me, for a change. No more soft-electricity covering, this one was a mortuary shroud.
“Hell’s teeth, Katherine! It brushed your heart, pet. If I take it out, you’ll be dead within seconds. As it is ...” His jaw snapped shut and he seemed unable to utter any words for a moment or two. “The the knife is enchanted and a part of me, the hunter. The hex forces me to kill you and this blade is my instrument. You’d die as a result of a simple scratch from it.”
I blinked once to let him know I understood. I may have not been quite ready yet, but I knew where I stood.
“Why did you save him? Why would you do that?” he shouted angrily, and before I knew it, his lips brushed mine, quick and savage.
When his head came up again, the tears had gone
dry, leaving only the fury behind. “He needs to die! Without him standing between us, we’ll be together. We’ll end the curse. You belong with me, can’t you understand? He’s just a mortal. You’re not. Your blood calls to me because it’s just like mine. You and I are the same.”
Stop it! I thought, pitching a few sparks of magic onto the words and hoping he’d be able to pluck them from my head.
His hands tightened around my face. “Stop what?”
Oh, good, he could hear me. Stop tempting me with what I could be with you by my side. Stop saying we belong together. You don’t even see me, Lucian! All you care about is my power. The magic.
“You are the magic!” He threw the words I’d told Ryder back at me. I winced, and not just from the blade in my chest.
But I never asked for it. I don’t want to be consumed by it. I don’t want to be it!
His eyes softened. “My Kat … my fearsome little cat, don’t you know by now that you can’t escape what you are?”
I know. But I can be more with him.
The monumental black wings cocooned around us quivered. “More? You mean you can play mortal with him. You can pretend to be a simple human. How exactly is that ‘more’?”
I know you don’t get it. You see it as a power trip. You see the mortal world like some personal playground. It’s so much more than that. It’s home to me.
Quietly, softly, he pleaded. “I could make it my home. For you. With you, if you’ll only have me.”
My vision blurred; was it tears or the Grim Reaper, circling nearby?
I have a home, Lucian. Ryder is it.
The softness vanished. He was done begging, which I guess meant we’d be moving up to threats now.
“Not if he’s dead, he’s not!” he hissed darkly.
You can’t kill him, you know that. The hex will keep him alive.
He nodded, his eyes turning charcoal and cold. “But I can hurt him a lot. I can hurt him again and again. I can make sure he’ll spend an eternity in a sickbed, where maggots devour his flesh.”
