Warrior from the Shadowland

by Cassandra Gannon

  Cross looked at her, sharply. “There’s no such thing. It’s a fairytale, baby.”

  Nia had known he’d feel that way. The Quintessence was pure Indiana Jones material. Phases had searched for it for years and no one had ever even come close to finding it.

  Until now.

  “It’s real, Cross. Ty was looking at human blood and she found something. Something that shouldn’t exist. Something that isn’t human or Elemental or anything else.” Nia pushed on determinedly. “Something Divine.”

  “In human blood?” Cross almost looked amused. “Why would the Quintessence be a human? If I were all-powerful, I’d go for a dinosaur or something. No, wait, a continent.”

  “I’m serious.” Nia insisted. “I have no idea why the Quintessence is donating human blood and I don’t care. If we could find it, we could fix things.”

  “Fix things?” Cross repeated, warily.

  “It’s magical, Cross.” Nia waved an all-encompassing hand. “It can do anything. It could undo the Fall. Maybe bring back my parents…”

  Cross cut her off. “You lost your parents in the Fall?” He looked disturbed by that idea.

  “Everyone lost their parents in the Fall.” Nia swallowed hard against the memories. “Didn’t you? You must have. Your father was the Shadow King and I know that he died.”

  “Vice wasn’t my father.” Cross’ voice went utterly emotionless. “My father died when I was a boy.”

  “Oh.” Nia gave him a quick compassionate squeeze. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know that. It must’ve been terrible to lose him so young.”

  “Shit happens.” Cross shrugged. “But, usually because it’s supposed to happen, Nia. Nothing can change that. Not even the Quintessence. You can’t fix the Fall.”

  “Cross, I have to try. Don’t you see? I can’t just ignore this when I know the Quintessence is here somewhere. I can feel it. Will you just trust me? Please?” Nia willed him to believe her, even though she knew he wouldn’t. It was like asking him to accept that Elvis was alive and living in Atlantis.

  Cross stared at her for a long moment. “Damn.” He muttered. “Finding it will be the least of our worries. Once we have it, Parald and the Reprisal will destroy the world to get that thing. Literally.”

  “You believe me?” Nia blinked. “Really? You believe it exists?” Job certainly hadn’t.

  “You could tell me anything and I’d believe it.” He shrugged. “But, this? Hell, if anyone could find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it would be you, Nia. Of course, I believe you.”

  Nia couldn’t help it. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him. “Thank you.” She realized that the tears were starting to fall, and tried to wipe them away. “You’re the only one…” She sniffed and trailed off. “Thank you, Cross.”

  “Oh, God. Don’t cry.” Cross drew her closer and buried his face in her neck. “Baby, you’re killing me. Don’t cry. And stop thanking me for things. I haven’t done anything.”

  “Yes, you have.” Nia whispered.

  The Phazing energy flared, again.

  Suddenly, Nia saw a barrage of images in her head and she realized that she was experiencing Cross’s memories.

  …And every one of them was like a horror movie.

  Chapter Ten

  Low lies the plant to whose creation went

  Sweet influence from every element

  Ralph Waldo Emerson- “Woodnotes”

  “If anyone asks, this so isn’t the way this went down.” Melanie pushed back a handful of blonde hair and frowned at Uriel. “Seriously. We met at –like-- a library or church group. I never arrested you. You aren’t an alien or an Elemental or whatever. And we absolutely did not sleep together twenty minutes after we met. No way.”

  Uriel’s mouth curved. “Perhaps, we should also not mention the handcuffs, then.”

  “Shit.” Melanie closed her eyes. The zip cords were still holding Uriel’s wrists behind his back. That meant that the state of their clothing and the sexual misconduct in the back of her squad car had all been her handiwork. She had ravished him on the way to the station.

  Sullivan would toss her ass in jail for public indecency if someone reported this.

  Fortunately, there were some kind of leafy plants all over the car, now, blocking the windows. Since the vines had appeared instantly and were growing right out of the street, Melanie figured that they were Uriel’s way of hiding them from passersby. His consideration touched her. It was certainly way more foresight than she’d been able to muster. She wondered if it was even worth mentioning that a car covered in jungle vegetation, stopped at a traffic light at a Mayport Beach intersection, was going to attract even more attention than two people having sex in a car would have.

  How long had they even been here? Melanie vaguely recalled radioing Sullivan with some excuse on why she wasn’t back at the station yet, but damn if she remembered what is was or when she’d done it.

  Uriel nuzzled the side of her neck and Melanie decided that she didn’t care. She actually felt like laughing. “I was going to blame myself for this mess, but it’s really all your fault.” She pulled away so she could meet his eyes. “What the hell did you do?”

  “Phazing is a mutual process.” Uriel shifted his body, so Melanie was beneath him. “Once it begins, very few Phases have the strength to stop it and I certainly did not wish to.” He gazed at her, lovingly. “You feel it, too, correct? The connection and wholeness.”

  She felt it. Oh, God, did she feel it. “Yes.” She whispered. The Phazing had been a lightning storm of passion. Melanie was kind of surprised that she’d lived through it. There were still aftershocks going through her and, beneath the passion, was a growing sense of peace. Of rightness. “Let me get the cuffs off of you.” She sat up again and reached for his wrists. “You alright? Can you feel your fingers?”

  “I feel…excellent.” Uriel purred out the word. The second his hands were free, they were all over her. Scooping Melanie up so she was on his lap, he grinned down at her triumphantly. “I waited for you. I looked for you. And now that I have you…” His voice trailed off. “Thank you, Melanie.” He studied her face, reverently. “There are not words.”

  Melanie felt her heart crack open. “You’re welcome.” She dropped her head forward so it rested on his shoulder and cleared her throat. “So… um… tell me again why are you wearing this shirt?” It was the safest topic she could think of. Melanie plucked at the pink fabric above the “Sexy Grandma” logo

  “Because, I could not take it off with my hands behind my back.”

  “No, I mean why this shirt. Why not something less…sparkly.”

  Uriel frowned, slightly. “I saw from you memories that this clothing is inappropriate. It was Tharsis’ doing. He provided the disguise. Apparently, he finds my lack of knowledge about human culture amusing.”

  “Sweetie, you are definitely not lacking knowledge in every way that matters to this human.” Melanie assured him.

  She wasn’t sure what to make of his statement that he could see into her memories, because, images had filled her head, too. Flashes of Uriel’s life. For a few moments, it had been like she was really right there next to him as the events happened. The incredible beauty of his homeland. A younger Uriel playing some kind of rugby-like game with his family. Uriel fighting men with golden yellow streaks at their temples in battle. The Air House. The Fall. A sickness that had wiped out so many people that the numbers seemed incomprehensible. Uriel holding his little brother as the boy died.

  “I’m sorry about Vonner.” It seemed like a pitiful thing to say after witnessing Uriel’s grief in her mind.

  Uriel nodded, as if it was only natural that she’d know the boy’s name. “He was a child. It was so unfair that the Fall would steal anyone so young.” He sighed and hugged Melanie closer to his chest. “I miss him, greatly. It is one of the reasons I’m seeking the Quintessence. Maybe there is a way to bring him back or undo the Fall...” His voice trai
led off, as if he knew he was grasping at straws. “I want to believe that Gaia has a reason for all that’s happened.”

  Melanie didn’t have to ask what the Fall was, because she just knew. Uriel’s memories filled in the cultural gaps for her. The Elemental way of life wasn’t that different than humans’. They ate and slept, loved and mourned. They watched TV and bickered about everything under the sun. And they had organic bodies, although they lived much longer than humans. That idea sort of depressed Melanie, because she knew Uriel was going to be real upset when she died in sixty or seventy short years. But, she wasn’t ready to worry about that, right now. Or about anything else. Not even about what came next.

  Because, there was no fucking way she’d ever give Uriel up after this, so they were both going to have to deal with it.

  “Uriel?”

  “Yes, my love?”

  “Can you read minds?”

  “No. Not thoughts or emotions. The images in your head are just part of the Phazing, making us one. Don’t worry.” Uriel sounded amused. “It seems odd to me that your culture doesn’t share memories. How do Matches get to know of each other’s pasts?

  “Usually, their moms bring out embarrassing baby pictures and high school yearbooks.”

  “The Elemental way is better. Gaia chooses certain experiences in our lives and allows our Match to relive them in their minds, so they can understand us more fully.” He petted a hand over her hair. “I am very proud that you are my Match. You are caring and fierce. That man came at you and, in my head I worried that you’d be hurt, but you defeated him…” Uriel trailed off with another pleased sight. “It was beautiful.”

  Melanie knew exactly what memory he was talking about. She hadn’t been exactly sure what images from her past he’d seen, but it figured it had to be the one where she’d shot somebody. “Aw, hell.” She tried to move away from him. “That guy lived, ya know, and I…”

  “You saved those children from a father who abused them.” Uriel interrupted. “You are a warrior.”

  “Oh.” Melanie settled back against Uriel, comforted by his obvious admiration for her peacekeeping talents. “Thanks. That son-of-a-bitch reminded me too much of Sullivan’s dad. I hated my uncle. Hated how he treated Sullivan.”

  “I now hate your uncle, as well.” Uriel assured her. “I would kill him for you, if he weren’t already dead.”

  “Thank you.” Melanie was actually moved by that. She cleared her throat and tried to steer the conversation towards happier topics. “Didn’t you see any good memories?”

  “Well, I saw your love for you cousin. I saw your appreciation of nature and the kindness that you show creatures weaker than yourself.” He smirked. “And I now know that you sing songs very badly when you’re at bars.”

  Melanie ignored his analysis on her karaoke. “These flashbacks aren’t –like-- something that happens every time you guys hookup with a girl, right?”

  “There is only one Phase-Match.” Uriel’s eyes met hers and held. “You are the only woman in the universe I will ever ‘hook up’ with.”

  He said it with such precision that Melanie found herself grinning. “Yeah, you remember that, cowboy. ‘Cause I gotta gun.” She hesitated again. “You really think that I have some kind of Elemental DNA in me?”

  “I know it.” He assured her, with all his Spartan-y confidence. “And I have the proof, should the Council question my right to have you.”

  “I’m pretty much the only one who can question that, actually. Although, Sullivan will probably try.” Melanie wasn’t exactly clear on what the Council did from Uriel’s memory. She got the impression they were like the Elemental United Nations, though. “Um, what kinda proof are we talking about showing them. ‘Cause I’m a real open girl. Seriously. But, if you wanna try that Phazing thing with an audience of old Council guys in robes all watching…”

  Uriel’s laughter cut her off. He laughed so hard that tears rolled down his cheeks. So hard that he wasn’t even making any sound.

  Melanie found herself grinning, as well. “That’s a ‘no’ to voyeurism, I take it, huh?”

  “If you knew Job…” Uriel tried unsuccessfully to get the words out. “The idea of him… at our Phazing…” More laughter. “Ah, Melanie. You are truly a treasure.” He wiped at his eyes. “No, my love. I meant that I had seen proof in your memories.”

  “Hey, cowboy, trust me on this. If I could perform your little miracle grow gardening tricks, I’d recall it all by myself.”

  “Your mother’s father. I saw him in your memories. He is dead?”

  “Yeah. He died when I was younger. I loved him something awful.” Melanie remembered her grandpa vividly. A tall, athletic man with an easy smile, who’d toss her up in the air and tell her stories of magical kingdoms. Most of the time, he’d been in his garden. Some of Melanie’s earliest recollections were of kneeling beside her grandfather in the dirt while he explained the different plants and flowers to her. It was no surprise that Uriel had seen those images in her head.

  “He had the mark of a Wood Phase.” Uriel touched the streak of mahogany at his temple. “I saw it.”

  Melanie wrinkled her nose in deep concentration. Her grandfather’s hair had been blonde, like hers. If she pictured him in her mind, she could visualize the darker shade on the left side of his head, though. “He was an Elemental?”

  Uriel nodded. “I know of him. Parson. He was very old, even when I was a boy. A great man. A warrior. But he’d seen too much and he walked off alone one day never to return. We did not know what became of him.”

  “He retired in a trailer park twelve miles from here and fished a lot.” Melanie said, dryly. Her grandfather’s name had been John Parson, so even if she’d had a small bit of doubt remaining about her paranormal heritage, it vanished. “I wish he was still here, so I could ask him stuff. Like what the hell he was doing playing bingo instead of ruling the world or whatever.”

  “Parson must have Phazed with a human.”

  Melanie made a face. Imaging her grandparents engaged in the same activity she and Uriel had just completed kinda skived her out. “Whatever. Let’s not go there.”

  “But, don’t you see? For eons, the Council has insisted that humans and Elementals could not interbreed, but they were clearly misinformed because here you are. A mix of human and Phase DNA.” He eyed her considering. “Do you feel alright? Being around my energy may activate some of your own. We can’t be sure how Phazing with me will affect your powers.”

  “I’m peachy.” And Melanie could definitely see the coolness factor in developing some superpowers. “But, if …? Would you…?” She glanced away from him. “Would you still want to be with me if I was only human?”

  His expression softened. “There is nothing that could ever make me leave you, Melanie.” He dipped his head so he could meet her gaze, again. “Not the Council or any rule ever written. I am a Wood Phase and I follow the code of Elementals. No law against Phazing with humans will ever equal my Gaia-given right to have my Match and protect you always.”

  “Even if your Gaia-given Match just has a lot of regular, human, cop DNA?”

  Uriel shrugged. “If I discovered you were comprised of rodent DNA, I would still have no other as my Match.”

  “Charming.” She wrinkled her nose, even as she relaxed against his body. “Ya got a real way with words, cowboy.”

  “I prefer action.” He was getting aroused, again. She could feel it in him and the coiling tension fed into her own passion. There was an energy around him; a weighty power that brushed against places that she didn’t even know she had and electrified them. “Melanie?”

  “Yeah?” She bit her lip and moved against the growing bulge between his legs, her palm sliding downward. Skid Row was playing on the radio again and if there was a better song to make love to than I Remember You, Melanie hadn’t heard it, yet.

  Uriel swallowed. “We really do need to focus on my mission to find the Quintessence and guard the Water P
hases. And there are many questions about your grandfather that need to be answered. And the Air House could attack. I’m taking too many chances with your safety…” He trailed off with a groan. “Oh, Gaia. Right there, my love.” He tilted his head back. “Yes. Perfect. Just like that.” He drew in a harsh breath. “Good. Harder.”

  Melanie moved her hand faster and leaned forward to nip the side of his jaw. “I’ll help you find the Quin-whatever person you’re looking for. You shouldn’t have been messing around with a hospital database, anyway. Trust me. If you want comprehensive DNA files, you go to law enforcement. I’ll find you what you need.”

  Uriel brushed her cheek with his lips. “You are all that I need.” He whispered, his eyes glazed with helpless pleasure and total adoration.

  Melanie realized she was so getting fired for this. Luckily, Uriel was completely worth it.

  Chapter Eleven

  These water-galls in her dim element

  Foretell new storms to those already spent

  William Shakespeare- “The Rape of Lucrece”

  Cross knew he had a big problem when he saw the castle.

  It was a magical fairytale concoction of sea foam colored bricks and impossibly curved turrets. Sitting beside a waterfall that poured into a crystal-clear ocean far below, the palace afforded perfect Caribbean blue vistas from its hundreds of delicate balconies. For an endless heartbeat of time, Cross just gaped at the scene before him. He’d spent his life in thick, gray shadows, so this intense saturation of color and light was… amazing. The vibrant flowers, and the bright summer sky, and the azure waves that stretched out in every direction. It was the most beautiful place he’d ever seen. Ever imagined.

  He didn’t belong here. That much was pretty damn clear.

  These lands felt protected and clean, two things that had never been part of Cross’s life. This place was a haven for artists and intellectuals and peace. From the Minoan-style dolphin murals gracing the walls, to the barely there hint of soothing ocean breeze in the air, everything here had Water Palace written all over it.