She turned to the side and cast a domed shield over her Watcher. He screamed incoherently at her as he pushed himself to his feet. His fists pounded against her shield, but she would not release it. As Zar’Asur launched another enormous fireball, she teleported from Darian’s side to the Overlord’s. A replica of Darian’s dagger formed in her hand and sliced through Zar’Asur’s neck. His clawed fingers reached for the gaping hole below his chin, and black blood spurted in Sara’s face. She pulled her weapon back again and severed his head from his body.
“Your sister is next,” she said to his twitching body.
Her weapon vanished, and she fell to her knees. Darian appeared at her side, and she collapsed against him.
“Don’t you dare die on me, Seraphina,” he demanded, his voice shaking as he cradled her against his bare chest.
Her world went dark, but she knew in her heart she would not die today.
Chapter 58
Darian
Darian awoke in his bed with Sara curled up against his side. After Magdelin assured him she only needed sleep, he’d brought her home. He wasn’t sure how long they’d slept but suspected it was only several hours. His own body was still exhausted from the overuse of his magic.
He gently ran a finger over the scar on the side of her face. Her mouth twitched, but she didn’t wake up. He flexed his sore fingers, still raw from beating against her shield. He clenched his jaw, trying to smother his anger over her actions. He’d tried to teleport to her but couldn’t. Her shield negated any magic. It would have been so easy for Zar’Asur to kill her, alienated as she was, and Darian would’ve been forced to stand by and watch.
He rolled from the bed, trying not to disturb her. He left the room, tugging on a pair of jeans and pulling a shirt over his head, then disregarding his boots at the door. Wandering down the narrow lane between the houses, he continued to seethe. How could she trap him like an animal and force him to watch her die? Didn’t she understand they were stronger together, not apart? Hadn’t they told her what happens when one of the bonded dies and not the other? He thought about his own questions. Maybe they hadn’t told her those things. Everything had happened so quickly. Every part of their situation had been rushed.
He pulled his hands through his hair and found himself standing at the dove’s fountain. An unintended smile crossed his face. He would have to tell her about that as well.
“It is a much nicer statue than the one it replaced.” Adalina’s voice interrupted his musing as she walked up beside him.
“Did everyone make it home?” Darian asked.
“Yes, but I may lose another of my warriors, possibly two.”
“Adalina, I’m sorry.” He forgot about his anger and looked at the woman who had been his friend through the roughest parts of his life.
“My only consolation is that Zar’Asur is dead,” she replied.
“Yes, it’s still difficult to believe,” Darian added. “We’ve fought against him for so long, it’s hard to accept he’s gone.”
“Only until some jackass summons him back,” Adalina replied with contempt.
“Isn’t that the truth.” As much as Darian didn’t want to believe, it’s exactly what would happen. Maybe not now, or even in a hundred years, but it would happen. The Csökkent were mindless, stupid animals.
“How’s Sara?” she asked, redirecting the conversation.
“She’s sleeping.”
“She shouldn’t be alone when she wakes up,” Adalina noted, giving him a critical look.
He refused to acknowledge Adalina, even if she had a point. He wasn’t past his anger and didn’t want Sara to see it.
“What’s got you all pissed off?” she asked, folding her arms over her chest.
He thought about his response and decided silence was best.
“Really?” Adalina continued as if he replied. “So, you’re mad because she protected you? Isn’t that the Sentinel’s job, to protect the Watcher?”
He turned and glared at her. How dare she judge him?
“Don’t go there with me, Darian. Just because she’s a woman doesn’t mean she’s incapable.”
“I’ve never said she was incapable.” Darian’s voice rose with his defense. “She caged me inside that dome!”
“To protect you from the death that was coming for you!” Adalina matched his tone and got in his face. “That’s what the Sentinel does, Watcher!”
“I’ve spent a lifetime protecting her,” he hissed, his hands flexing as he pushed against the warrior.
“And it’s her turn to return the favor,” she stated.
“I will not watch her give her life for me,” he countered.
Adalina poked his chest, and it took all his restraint not to toss her to the ground. “So, it was okay for Eli to risk his life for Juana, because he was a man and she a woman. Is that it?” she asked.
“That’s exactly it,” he hissed. “Now get out of my face.”
“You would allow your archaic views to drive a wedge between you?”
A low growl rumbled through his chest. She had five seconds to walk away. “I cannot stand by and watch her die, and she cannot make that choice for me.”
“You’re welcome, you arrogant ass.” Sara’s voice made them both turn, and Darian saw the hurt in her eyes. She stood a few feet from him, her hands fisted at her sides and tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Sara, wait.” He lunged and grabbed her arm as she teleported, taking him with her.
Chapter 59
Seraphina
A hundred other comments ran through Sara’s mind while listening to Darian’s pathetic attempt to demonize her actions. Rather than say any of them, she teleported to the first place she thought of; the one place she always found happiness.
She arrived in the driveway, a dozen yards from her jeep. Memories flooded her mind of the day that stole her life. Was it really less than two weeks ago? Darian stood next to her, his long fingers wrapped around her forearm. She glared at him, and he let go. What made him think she wanted him there? Did he believe an apology would take away the words? Or did he plan to continue to make her feel like she did the wrong thing? It didn’t matter. She wasn’t listening.
She stomped across the yard and stopped at the three wooden stairs leading up to her porch. The shattered door left a gaping hole in what had once been her pride and joy. She took a deep breath and tip-toed past the splintered wood into the foyer. The buffet she pulled from the dining room still blocked the entrance to the living room. Her rifle, shotgun, and several boxes of ammunition lay across the dusty surface. To the right, dried, black blood covered the scorched tiles of her kitchen floor. She frowned at the gouge in her butcher block, left from the demon’s axe.
She looked up the stairwell in front of her, and a memory of her daughter bouncing down the stairs assaulted her. Andrew was right behind her with a tiny pair of shoes and a Princess Barbie backpack. They ran into the kitchen, Julie giggling as her bare feet smacked the tile floors. “Sara! You could help me with this,” Andrew said with exasperation.
Sara saw a much younger version of herself turn from the kitchen sink and scoop up her daughter, setting her on the counter so her dad could put on her little white sandals.
“I want pancakes, mommy!” Julie squealed.
“Of course you do,” the younger Sara teased back.
Sara’s memory faded as she sank to the floor. Tears streamed down her face, the visions of her family drifting away. How could she go on without them? How could she continue to be this warrior the Council expected her to be? Now that Zar’Asur was dead, did she need to be? Could she go back to just being Sara? And what was she thinking falling for another man barely two weeks after losing her husband?
Darian’s presence behind her turned her sorrow into anger. She jumped to her feet and turned on him.
“You should’ve left me here to die!” she yelled. “I cannot be what you want. I can’t just turn off my emotions and become some
maiden in distress for you to save. I’m either a warrior or nothing at all.”
She watched his jaw twitch several times.
“You had no right to trap me like an animal and leave me helpless,” Darian growled. “He could’ve killed you, and there was nothing I could do about it. We are strongest when we fight together, not apart!”
“I will not explain myself to you. Either you understand, or you don’t.”
He sighed, and his shoulders slumped in resignation. She didn’t want to see that side of him. She wanted the harsh, arrogant asshole to push her away. That would be so much easier.
“Now that Zar’Asur is dead, we will have time to teach you everything you should have known before fighting against him,” Darian said quietly. “There’s so much about the Council and the demons that you need to hear.”
“I’m staying here,” she said. “I told you, I cannot be what you want me to be. Now that the Overlord is dead, I don’t want to be a soldier or warrior or whatever else you guys call each other.”
Disbelief replaced the anger on his face. “How can you say that? Look what you did; look what we did! A thousand demons died by our hands alone, Sara. That has never happened in the history of the Council. And the only thing we suffered for it was a really long nap.”
“A nap? You think that is all I suffered for it? Look at me, Darian!” She pointed at the scars on her face. “I’m a scarred and broken woman. I’ve killed hundreds, thousands by your count and cost the lives of how many of your Council? I feel nothing but guilt and pain.” She turned away from him. “I don’t know who I am. I thought I knew, but I’ve lost her in all this death.”
“Let me help you find her,” he said softly, putting his hand on her shoulder.
She shrugged it off, and a surge of sadness washed over her. She knew it was Darian’s emotions, but she had a hard time separating her own from his. She remained silent and walked into her kitchen. Darian followed her.
“Sara.”
His voice was pleading, but she kept her back to him. She heard him inhale a deep breath, then slowly release it.
“If you wish to stay here, we can certainly make that happen. We can create a safe-haven for those in the area who survived. It will give you the time you need away from the Council’s demands.”
“What if I don’t want this responsibility, Darian?”
She turned around to look at him and found a controlled mask across his face.
“You cannot run from who you are,” he replied. “All of us have tried and regretted the consequences for doing so.”
“I don’t know who I am!” she yelled at him. “I want to be Sara, just Sara. I want my family back and my life.”
She watched him shake his head, but for the first time, she could not read his expression. Her mind automatically reached for his, but she pulled it back quickly.
“You cannot avoid that either,” he said. “There is nothing that either of us can do to keep the other out. The bond between us overrides any barriers we try to create.”
Her eyebrows rose, and she turned her back to him once again. Was he saying he could always hear her thoughts? Was he always in her head without her permission? Would she know if he was? She thought she should be able to feel him there, but she wasn’t sure. Why would she even want someone there twenty-four hours a day? She didn’t.
“Can we undo the bond?” she asked. “Will that erase my responsibilities and make me a normal person?”
Darian didn’t respond. She stood there for several seconds before a physical pain assaulted her, bringing her to her knees. Her chest throbbed and a stabbing jolt ran from her heart to her mind. She grasped the counter with one hand and her chest with the other.
“What are you doing?” she gasped, spinning around and realizing she was alone. She scanned the room looking for Darian, but he was gone. She tried to stand, but her legs would not support her. The throbbing in her chest increased, and she cried out. Tears ran down her face.
“I’m going to die in my kitchen,” she mumbled. “I survive a damn demon army only to have a heart attack afterwards. What the hell?”
As suddenly as it started, the pain vanished. Darian collapsed in a heap next to her. Sweat poured from his brow, making his hair stick to his forehead. His eyes narrowed as his gaze found hers.
“That was uncomfortable,” he said.
She laughed. She couldn’t stop the hysterical, rolling laughter that escaped her. She knew it stemmed from her stress, grief, pain, and anger, but she still couldn’t make herself quit.
After several minutes, she wiped her eyes with the tail of her t-shirt and looked at the man sitting on the floor next to her. He still chuckled at her sudden outburst.
“So, what was that?” she asked.
“I believe that was our bond rebelling against the distance I put between us,” he replied.
“We’ve been apart before, and it never hurt like that.”
“I went to my home in Germany,” he replied, which I need to return to with you.”
“It didn’t hurt like that when I was in Santuario after the bitch, well…,” she paused, unable to finish her sentence. “You were here in Wyoming while I was in South America.”
His eyes met hers, and the slow burn of longing wrapped around her heart. She tried to push it away, but it refused, like a living being setting up camp in her heart. She was a fool to think she could just walk away from this. They weren’t done yet, not by a long shot.
“That was also before we made love,” she whispered.
“So it seems,” Darian said softly.
She looked around her kitchen. She couldn’t go back in time to the life she had. Going forward was her only option. And going forward without Darian wasn’t an option. He stood by her with all her stupid quirks, scarred body, and tortured mind. The only time he judged her was when she trapped him behind a shield. If she was honest with herself, she’d be pissed if he did it to her.
She reached over and slipped her fingers around his hand. He didn’t stop her. They were large for any man, but they fit him perfectly, even the rough callouses lining the ridge of his palms. He spent a lifetime fighting for her and a lifetime before that fighting for humanity. She already had a glimpse of his pain through the memories they shared. She knew how much he lost. Her future would not be easy, but it would be infinitely harder without him.
“I’m sorry,” she said softly.
“So am I,” he replied.
“Truce?” She held out her free hand to him, and he took it, but raised her fingers to his lips rather than shaking it.
“Of course, my lady.”
Chapter 60
Seraphina
Sara looked out over the fields north of Minot Air Force Base. Heavy morning dew clung to the soil darkened by the blood spilled across it the day before. Dozens of soldiers picked their way through the corpses, pulling their fallen comrades from the field. Adalina’s warriors worked among them, removing the enormous bodies of the demons who threatened their survival a mere twenty-four hours ago.
Standing amongst the carnage were the undead. Their unfocused milky eyes never strayed to the survivors moving around them. Their tattered clothes and weapons hung from their decaying bodies, and their perpetual stench added to the already overwhelming smell of death.
They hadn’t moved since their master’s death. According to Adalina, they went from unwavering assault to standing still with startling abruptness. And now, they remained where they stopped. The human soldiers were reluctant to go near the reminder of their own fate had Zar’Asur succeeded in his plans.
“Get out of the way!” Adalina bellowed, kicking at several of the undead as she dragged a demon corpse between them.
“You can leave them with the undead,” Darian called back from across the field. “I’ll burn them together.”
“Good idea,” Adalina responded, dropping the hooved feet of the one she pulled behind her. “David! Pile them next to the undead.”
“Now you make the offer,” David yelled, swinging a muscled arm towards the pile of bodies nearly as tall as him.
Several other warriors stopped halfway across the field, dropping the demon corpse they carried. Sara noticed Kadir immediately. The dark skin on his shaved head glistened in the morning sun. He scowled at Darian, then Adalina. Sara recognized several others but couldn’t remember their names. They all mumbled and groaned at the thought of relocating the disgusting pile.
“There is no need to relocate the ones you’ve already got together,” Darian replied. Sara could see him roll his eyes despite the distance between them. “I’m certain I can manage two fires.”
She felt useless standing to the side watching the others gather the dead. Her mind constantly went back to her argument with Darian. It was something they needed to sort out, sooner rather than later.
She shook her head to bring herself back to the field of death in front of her. Her gaze drifted over the listless rows of the undead. They used to be people. Some of them were even friends or family of the soldiers who fought against them. Sara shuddered at thought of seeing her own loved ones endure that fate and was grateful they died before this battle. She wasn’t sure she could’ve fought against them, undead or not.
One of the swaying corpses caught her attention as its milky gaze met hers. It appeared to be a woman. Her stringy black hair hung limply around her shoulders. She was missing one of her arms, and the other held a short sword. A tattered sundress draped across her shoulders and ended at her knees. Sara couldn’t tell what color it been before it was covered in blood.
The undead woman slowly turned her head to the right, then back to Sara, then back to the right again. Standing next to her was another zombie, slightly shorter with the same build and a similar dress. Sara gasped as she realized the resemblance between the two women. They appeared to be sisters.
Sara reached for the woman’s mind, and a deep sense of sadness washed over her, followed by disgust and remorse. Sara spread her reach to the rest of the undead and felt the same emotions from at least a dozen of the more than one hundred zombies standing in the field.
Sentinel's Rise: Book 1 - The Watcher and the Sentinel Series Page 37
