The climb seemed to move faster the second time around. Perhaps it was because she had more confidence in Liam’s ability to follow than the first time they made the climb together. Or perhaps the rate of their ascent had more to do with necessity than caution this time. Either way, they made it to the top in record time.
“Where should we put the flares?” Liam asked, pulling the case from her belt. “And how do you light them?”
Cammie took one from the box, pulled the cap from the end and hit it against the nearest tree.
“Like this.”
“Oh. That’s easy enough, I suppose.”
“Yeah, easy,” she said, looking away. Like falling in love is easy. Falling thirty feet from a waterfall is easy. Yeah, piece of cake.
* * * *
Liam watched as Cammie lit the flares then began to set them around the perimeter of the clearing and followed suit. It wasn’t long before the clearing was awash in red-gold light. The flame of the flares left everything in a fiery orange glow.
The chop, chop, chop sound of the helicopter approached from the south and the two of them waited in the bushes for their ride to safety. Before they knew it, the chopper flew overhead, the blue-white spotlight shining down into the clearing.
“He’s here, he’s here,” Cammie chanted as the helicopter lowered into the clearing. The wind from the blades whipped their hair about and blew leaves from the brush in their faces.
Liam clenched his teeth together in an attempt to keep himself under control. If she wanted this Robert there was nothing he could do about it. Still, something made him believe everything he wanted, everything he desired rode on the outcome of this one night.
Cammie ran from the bushes as soon as the helicopter touched down. Liam made a grab for her, but was too late. He got to his feet and ran after her in case she needed his help. Something just didn’t feel right.
He’d just reached her side when she came to a stop, shock and fear etched on her face. He pulled her behind him just as a loud roar rent the air and a searing pain hit the center of his chest.
He fell to his knees, Cammie’s scream of denial ringing in his ears.
“No!”
Chapter Twelve
Cammie dropped to her knees next to Liam. Blood covered his chest and she looked up at the man who shot him.
“If you want a job done right, do it yourself, I say,” Neiman Carpenter stood in front of her still holding the pistol he’d shot Liam with. Another of his henchmen sat in the back of the helicopter holding a gun on a young woman.
“What—” She glanced over his shoulder. “Who is that? If you think she’s important to me, you’re mistaken. You may as well let her go.”
He laughed. “No. She’s not important to you. She’s important to your friend there.” He indicated Robert in the pilot’s seat and she gasped.
“Why, Robert?”
He turned away. He’d betrayed her and he couldn’t even look her in the eyes and tell her why.
“Oh, stop looking so deceived. He didn’t betray you. Not willingly anyway. The fool thinks himself in love with you.” He sneered. “He wouldn’t tell us a damn thing until we got hold of his sister.”
Cammie hung her head, unable to look at the man she once called friend. Her eyes filled with tears as she tried to cover the gaping wound in Liam’s chest. It was so close to his heart, and she didn’t know what to do. Lost in her misery, and uncaring whether or not Neiman shot her, she pressed down on Liam’s chest, trying to infuse all her strength into him. If he didn’t live, she wasn’t sure whether she wanted to go on in the world without him.
Liam’s chest rose just the slightest bit. He groaned and his lips began to move. Unable to hear what he’d tried to say, she pressed her ear against his face.
“Now, isn’t this touching?”
Unable to hold back her hatred, Cammie turned her head, facing her nemesis, the man who just tried to kill the only man she had ever loved. “How dare you take that tone with me you sniveling, impotent bastard.” She didn’t give a damn if he killed her now. She choked back a sob. She would rather join Liam in death than carry on without him.
Ignoring the seething look he directed at her, Cammie turned back to Liam. “Don’t die on me, Liam. Please don’t die,” she whispered as tears ran down her cheeks and dripped upon her hands.
“Get down!” Robert cried.
Without thinking about it, Cammie ducked down, covering Liam’s vulnerable body with her own. She buried her face in his neck as the sound of flesh meeting flesh ripped through the night air.
The entire clearing flared with a brilliant white light. Guns fired. Shouts and screams echoed across the mountain. And still Cammie pressed against Liam. She would not let him die on her watch and that’s all there was to it.
She held Liam close and rocked back and forth. How could he become to mean so much to her so soon? She looked down at him, her heart breaking because she knew there was no way to get help for him in time to save his life.
Tears streamed down her face as she watched him breathing what she knew to be his last breaths. He reached up to cup her cheek.
“Don’t cry, baby. It’s better me than you.”
“No. Don’t say that! I don’t want to lose you, Liam.”
She bit her lip and sobbed when his hand fell from her cheek. Gooseflesh rose on her arms and she realized they weren’t alone. She looked over her shoulder, expecting to see one of the men who worked for Neiman Carpenter. Instead, she saw two little people dressed in period clothes. She blinked. She must have been shot too, because she was hallucinating. The screams and gunshots faded to nothingness as they gazed into her eyes.
“Do you love him?” the little woman asked in a singsong Irish brogue.
Cammie, unable to speak past her tears and confusion, just nodded.
“Then you must believe,” the gruff voice of the man whispered in her ear.
“Be—believe what?”
“Believe in the love you share. Believe in magic. Believe in miracles, lass.”
Cammies gaze dropped to her bloodstained hands, hands that still covered Liam's wounds though the bleeding he’d stopped as soon as he’d drawn his last breath.
“What miracles . . .? Liam is dead. Her shoulders shook as her grief ravaged her. Choking sobs wracked her body. With her head bowed over Liam, her tears bathing his wounds, a brilliant white light began to glow, spreading from his heart outward, until his whole body was encased in the light. Soon, all four of them were encased in a bubble of white light. The battle that raged around them disappeared and they were no longer surrounded by gunfire and death. They were surrounded by a beautiful jewel studded city.
She tried not to gape at the emerald and ruby studded roof tops and golden fences and walls. What was it they said about leprechauns and their treasure? She barely stopped herself from snorting. She didn’t believe in leprechauns. She was dying and this was some strange version of heaven. Three little redheaded men walked past and leered at her. Or maybe it was her version of hell.
Ignoring the rude little men, she followed behind the couple as they led her to a large gilt building with a sapphire roof the same color as Liam’s eyes. Wherever she was, she hoped Liam was here. They walked through the arched doorway and she stopped.
“Where’s Liam?” How could they expect her to just follow them without question? She took another look at the diminutive pair. They may be small, but they exuded authority and self confidence.
“He is here.”
She looked around. “Here? As in here in this building?”
The woman nodded and gestured toward a doorway. “We could not help him in your realm. We needed to bring him home.”
“Home?”
The woman nodded. This, she threw her arms out to encompass the large building.
“This is his home.”
“Where—” She licked her lips. “Where is he?”
“He is here.” She waved her arm. “And there.�
�� She turned and indicated behind Cammie with an empty hand. “And there. He is everywhere in these rooms, you need only look.” She raised her hand to Cammie’s heart. “In here.” She patted the center of her chest. “This is where you will find him. This is where you must find him. Call out to him, Cammie. From your heart.”
Cammie nodded, not quite sure she understood, but willing to do whatever she could to bring her man back to her. Falling to her knees, she closed her eyes, and remembered. Remembered his smile, gentle at times and naughty at others. Remembered his husky groans when they made love, his tender caresses when he was near. She remembered the warmth of his hand in hers, and the feel of his arms holding her tight. And finally, when she reached deep inside her soul, she found that spark of love, of warmth that she felt only for him. The only man she could still see in her future a week a month a century from now.
She found him there—a dim light in her heart, growing stronger as she held on to him, as she coaxed him back to her.
“This is a place of miracles, Cammie. Of magic, you need only believe,” the woman breathed in her ear. “You find yourself in exalted company. Not many of your kind can boast to having a boon granted by the king and queen of the Little People. You need only ask it and believe.”
“Can you . . .” She nervously licked her lips. “Can you bring him back?” Her face burned as her voice cracked with fear and longing.
“Do you believe that we can?” The woman, who was so obviously the queen she spoke of, asked as she reached up and pushed the hair from Cammie’s face.
She wanted to. God, how she wanted to.
A lone tear trailed down her cheek. “I believe in Liam. I believe he's part of me.” Letting out a choked whisper, her voice cracking, “I believe in our love and that even in death nothing will ever separate us . . . “ She raised her head, lifted her chin. "Yes. I believe . . . I know you will bring him back to me."
“Then thy will be done.” Next to her, the king chuckled. “She has fire this one. She is Liam's match in every way."
Chapter Thirteen
“It is a fitting punishment, don’t you think?” Leeanau asked her mate.
Danu grabbed his crotch and grimaced. “It seems a bit cruel to me.”
“But each of them intended to do worse to Cammie.”
“True. So true.” Danu made a face and gestured to the guards at the door. “Show them in for their sentencing.”
The guards showed the six men into the room. The men, all big and burly, towered over the leprechauns.
“Like you scare us,” the one who appeared to be the leader shouted. “Like we could be scared of people barely half our size.”
Leeanau’s eyes narrowed. “You should be.” She and Danu both waved their hands toward the group and they all suddenly became half the size they once were.
“What have you done to us?” Neiman Carpenter demanded, looking from his men to Danu. His face mottled red with rage, the light of understanding finally dawned in his eyes. “We didn’t mean to hurt him.” His voice became low and pleading. “I didn’t expect to see him there. He startled me.”
“You carried a weapon we all know you intended to use on a defenseless woman. For that, there is no excuse. Nor will there be forgiveness anytime soon.” Danu turned, waved his hand and two identical, jewel-encrusted thrones appeared before him. “Come, Leeanau, let us sit.”
He waved her into the one on his left and he lowered himself onto the embroidered pillow on the seat of the other.
“Your sentence is five-hundred years service to my queen and me. Five hundred years to service the beautiful women of the Emerald Isle.” He glanced over at Leeanau and she raised a hand to make her own decree. “Another five-hundred years as guardians for people of magical descent. To see no harm befalls them while they search for their soul mate. Our blood must never be completely gone from the human realm.” He smiled softly. “Someone must keep the legends of the Little People alive.”
The six men smiled. Two of them stepped forward and addressed the royal couple. “Do you mean we will be alive for the next one-thousand years?” One with sandy blonde hair asked.
“We’ll be servicing the women here?” The other asked with a knowing smile. The others leered.
Leeanau smiled then, her beauty showed throughout the room. The men nearly swooned at the sight of her full glamour, each of them grabbing at their crotches.
The queen giggled when their leers became looks of horror. “What have you done to us?”
“I have given you no more or less than you deserved. Each of you will go to your respective mistress where you will finally learn the compassion and manners your parents should have instilled in you.”
“But—but my dick doesn’t work.” One of the men cried.
“Work? Who gives a shit about that? Mine is less than an inch long!” Neiman Carpenter cried.
They all dropped to their knees. “Please, don’t do this. This is cruel. It’s inhumane.”
Leeanau’s face hardened to a mask of pure indifference and she gave them a mirthless smile. “Who made the mistake of telling you we are human?”
Epilogue
“Can I open my eyes now?”
“Not yet.”
“Why not?” Cammie complained. “I already know we’re back on my mountain. I can smell the pine trees and the musty smell of the composted leaves.”
She smiled and a little dimple creased her cheek. Liam wanted nothing better than to kiss it. But he did have his priorities. The first one being to give her the gift he’d been dying to give her since he woke up knowing who he was.
“I can even hear the waterfall.” She wriggled in his arms. “Put me down before you hurt yourself. You’re not immortal anymore. You can hurt yourself now.”
Yeah, that’s what she thought. He just grunted in response.
“See you can’t even talk now. I’m too heavy.”
He shifted her in his embrace, held her in one arm while he playfully slapped her rear. That should settle her worries about his strength. “Hush woman. I have two surprises for you.”
Cammie swatted him on the arm. “Okay, but don’t hit me again, you know the rules about that and I don’t see a bed around here.” Her face turned a wonderful shade of pink when he grinned at her and winked.
“First,” he said stopping. “I’d like to welcome you to your new home.” He pressed his mouth to her ear and she shivered. “You can open your eyes now.”
She opened her eyes and gasped. A beautiful two-story log cabin stood where her old one had once sat. A large wraparound porch held benches and swings. Colorful drapes framed the glistening windows and a huge automatic generator stood to one side next to a large propane tank. It was her cabin, the way she’d always dreamed it. The way she told him she wished it could be.
“Oh, my god. This must have cost a fortune.” Wriggling in his arms, she tried to squirm free of his embrace. “Put me down, dammit!”
He shook his head. “No. I have another surprise.”
“Look,” she said, crossing her arms over her breasts. “I may have married you, but it doesn’t give you the right to be bossy.”
“Today it does. Now be a good girl and sit tight while I take you to your next surprise. Close your eyes.”
“You are so cut off, mister. See if you get any nookie tonight,” she complained, but closed her eyes anyway.
After another few minutes and a little leprechaun magic, he had her just where he wanted her.
“You can open your eyes now.”
She opened her eyes and squealed. “My cave, what did you do to my cave?”
He glanced at her worried. “You don’t like it? I had to hide it somewhere. I have to keep it close to me or lose it.”
* * * *
Cammie gaped at her once plain, stone cave. “It’s—it’s beautiful, Liam.”
Gold, silver and gemstones littered every surface, the floor was gold, silver lined the two pools and precious stones glittered alon
g the walls. It was a fairy cave. No. She corrected herself. It’s a leprechaun cave.
A large bed stood in the corner and she smiled at Liam’s thoughtfulness. “Did you have grand plans for this, Liam?” She asked, barely able to keep the smile from her face.
“Aye, my love.” He nodded his head and winked. “Grand plans.”
About the Author
Tianna Xander is the author of several paranormal, time-travel and science fiction romance novels. She loves reading everything from romance novels, murder mysteries and encyclopedias, to handbooks on solar energy. Tianna is the first to admit she spends far too much time surfing the internet and chatting with her online friends and critique groups.
Having written many novels and working on at least one more at any given time, Tianna still finds time for her family, friends and her many pets. She currently lives in Michigan with her husband, two children, three cats, two big dogs and one occasionally terrorized Netherland Dwarf bunny. Her life is anything but boring.
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