The Crystal Warriors Series Bundle

by Maree Anderson

  And the bitch of it all was, she loved him so much she’d take whatever dregs he could offer her.

  ~~~

  For the next few days, Jade was in a holding pattern, endlessly circling and unable to take the plunge that for better or for worse would move her life forward. During visiting hours, she carefully avoided the bigger issues. Such as love. And whether they had a future together. Or whether now that she’d given him Francesca’s contact details he’d ring her.

  She didn’t tell him much about her conversation with Francesca, but she did tell him about Wulf, and how it’d been Francesca’s daughter, Chalcedony, who had freed him from the crystal’s curse. And afterward Malach’s features were carefully expressionless, giving her no clue what he might be thinking.

  Mei continued to make excellent progress. Her rate of recovery delighted Dr. Rothwell no end, and he in turn delighted Mei by announcing he didn’t see any reason why she couldn’t go back to school sometime this year. Mei didn’t notice that her doctor was carefully vague as to exactly when that might be permitted. Just as he remained cagey as to when Mei would be allowed to come home.

  Grace had decamped to her apartment until Mei was ready to be discharged, leaving Jade rattling around by herself in a suddenly very quiet, empty house. She kept in touch with her aunt via phone, but somehow she couldn’t bear to face Lìli, for that would mean facing up to the consequences of Lìli’s love-spell. So outside visiting hours she had plenty of time on her hands. Too much time.

  She banked Pieter’s money, paid all outstanding accounts, and put all the finances in order, while waiting with trepidation for the first of the hospital bills to arrive. Thank God her parents had taken out health insurance when Mei and Jade were babies. Insurance would cover some of the costs, but not all, and Jade needed to save every penny. She also placed another ad for a temporary caregiver for Mei. Doubtless Grace wouldn’t be too impressed, but Jade couldn’t afford Grace’s normal rates once Pieter stopped his payments to her when the month was up, and Jade absolutely would not expect her friend to work for free.

  The next order of business was to clean the house from top to bottom but despite her best efforts to eke out the chores, she could only make them last a day and a half. Tidying up the garden took another day, because her mother had also had a black thumb and she’d planted with low-maintenance in mind. It was simply a matter of pulling some weeds and trimming a few straggly bushes.

  When she could bear the empty house no longer, she visited Carlo to fill him in on how Mei was faring… and to make a point of letting him know she wanted her old job back as soon as Mei was home and settled. That done, she retrieved Mei’s portrait from the gallery, and touched up a couple of chips on the frame where it’d been knocked about. She hung it back in Mei’s room and dreamed of the day when her sister would again resemble the healthy, glowing young girl in the portrait.

  She had one more task to complete: signing her name to Malach’s portrait. And once that was done she had nothing to do but brood.

  She stood the painting on an easel in her bedroom and spent hours each day lost in contemplation of the reality it represented: the man who held her heart in his big, capable hands.

  When exhaustion finally drove her to her bed she lay there, turning the halves of Malach’s crystal over in her hands. He’d given the two pieces of malachite to her, requesting that she dispose of them as she saw fit. But despite his obvious hatred for the hunks of stone, Jade felt a connection to them. They were a part of him. And if Pieter claimed the portrait, and Francesca claimed Malach, Jade would have these pieces of crystal to remind her of the man who’d burst into her life and seduced her into loving him.

  If he chose Francesca, she didn’t know how she would bear it. And if he wanted to be free, she didn’t know how she was ever going to let him go.

  ~~~

  The day before Jade’s twenty-first birthday, Malach was discharged on condition he didn’t undertake anything “too physical”. Yeah. Riiight. Like he was going to pay heed to that.

  He reluctantly allowed himself to be ensconced in Lìli’s spare room, and she insisted on coddling him to within an inch of his life. Jade wondered how long he’d put up with it…. And tried not to laugh when he lasted all of twenty-four hours. By lunchtime the following day, the endless tasty tidbits he felt compelled to eat “to fatten you up” and the vile-tasting herbal concoctions he was forced to drink “to build up your strength” had finally taken their toll, and he snuck out of the house while Lili was in the garden picking apples.

  Shortly after his disappearing act, Lìli rang Jade and told her to give him a message the minute he turned up… which he did not five minutes later.

  He greeted her at the door with a kiss that made her insides melt, and a box tucked under his arm. “’Tis a gift for you. For your Birthing Day.” He tugged her into the lounge and thrust the gift into her hands.

  “You shouldn’t have,” she told him as she opened the box.

  Inside, nestled amid pale pink tissue-paper sheets, were her fake Manolo Blahniks, their heels reattached and miraculously mended. “Oh my God! I take it back. You definitely should have! How did you—?”

  He grinned from ear to ear, pleased by her delighted reaction. “I retrieved the heels of your sandals from the waste-bin of the hotel room. I have not the slightest clue what compelled me to do so, only that I kept seeing the misery on your face over and over in my mind. And then I found the sandals themselves beneath the chair where you had kicked them, and with Grace’s aid, I found an excellent cobbler.”

  “Ah. So that’s where they got to. I figured Grace had just thrown them out to save me any more upset.”

  “Are they acceptable?” His smile turned anxious.

  Jade took the sandals from the gift-box to examine them more closely. “The man’s a genius. I can’t even see where they were damaged. Wasn’t it costly to have them fixed, though? They were in a shocking state and—”

  Malach held up his hand to halt her mid-fret. “Pieter provided me with plenty of money, Jade.”

  “But—”

  “Yes, it was costly, and perhaps cheaper to buy new footwear, but that was not the issue. Besides, when I explained the situation to the cobbler, he lowered his quoted price and put much time and effort into his repair—a true craftsman, I think.”

  “I’ll say.” Jade stood on tiptoes to pull him down so she could kiss him lightly on the mouth. “I think I’ll wear them tonight. Lìli will expect us to dress up a bit. She loves to stand on ceremony.”

  He sighed, looking rather glum.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Lìli is smothering me, treating me like an invalid,” he grumped. “As much as I like your aunt, I would willingly walk into the sands during the Storm Season than put up with her clucking over me for another day.”

  “I take it a stroll at that time of the year wouldn’t be a very sensible thing to do in your world?”

  “Nay. ’Tis a most unwise action indeed. Quite likely fatal.”

  She bit back a giggle at his disgruntled expression. “You do know she’s going to have some rather uncomplimentary things to say to you tonight when we head back there for dinner.”

  “I know this, but—”

  “It’ll be worth it?”

  “Indeed. If only so I have some room left in my stomach to eat the feast she is preparing in honor of your Birthing Day. She has stuffed me so full, I fear I am in danger of exploding. But I fear offending her if I refuse to sample at least a portion of each dish. She is a most determined woman, your aunt.” He rubbed his abused stomach.

  “You know,” Jade said, eyeing the offending portion of his anatomy. “It does look like you’ve put on a bit of weight around the middle. Maybe you need to go on a diet.”

  He squinted at his stomach. “Do you truly think so?”

  She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. “No.”

  He glared at her through slitted eyes.


  “Gotcha!” she crowed.

  He made a grab for her, doubtless intending to extract some form of dastardly revenge, but she danced out of reach. “Uh uh! No roughhousing. You know what the surgeon said. And truth be told, you’ve actually lost weight and could do with fattening up. I could whip you up an omelette.”

  He groaned. “Please do not ply me with food or I swear I will go on a permanent fast and eat only bread and water.” He frowned and reconsidered that statement. “Well, after tonight’s celebration, at least. Lìli is baking apple pie, my favorite dessert. And as she has taken so much trouble, I must force myself to eat at least one piece.”

  “Speaking of Lìli. She figured you’d turn up here so she left a message for you.”

  “Oh?”

  Jade watched him pace up and down the threadbare rug. He radiated the need to burn off some of his excess energy, and she knew he wasn’t going to be happy with what Lìli had to say. “She said to tell you she’s already spoken to Dai-soon and appraised him of your specialist’s wishes, so don’t even think about trying to cajole him into sparring with you.”

  His expression reminded her of a mutinous child who’d just hatched a brilliantly cunning plan, only to be thwarted before he could put it into action.

  “Sorry. I know it’s hard to have to swear off exercise after you’ve been confined for the best part of a week. I’m sure you can think of something less strenuous than taekwondo, though. How about we go for a walk?”

  “I have done enough walking up and down Lord Alfred’s infernal corridors to be lasting me a lifetime. I do not want to go for a walk.”

  “Just for the record, those ‘infernal corridors’ were actually named after a royal Prince not a Lord. And you’ll do as you’re told or I’ll tell Lìli and Grace on you.”

  He lowered himself into an armchair “I am perfectly fine.”

  “Sure you are.”

  “I have made a complete recovery.”

  “Aha. And I’m sure you know better than your surgeon, right? You being such an expert in removal of kidneys and how long it takes to recover after major surgery—which, I might add, doesn’t even exist in your world. But of course you’d know best.”

  He glowered at her.

  It was an impressive glower, one that might have had a lesser mortal beating a hasty retreat, and it didn’t affect Jade in the slightest. She knew him well enough to know he was still feeling the effects of his operation, even though he’d rather die than admit it. Typical man.

  “Stop grinning at me and come here,” he growled.

  “Who made you my boss, huh?”

  “Come here.”

  She raised her eyebrows.

  “Please?” he amended.

  “Since you asked so nicely.” Jade had fully intended to perch on the padded arm of the old chair but Malach grabbed her and plonked her in his lap.

  “Hey!” She struggled but he merely wrapped an arm around her hips and had no trouble holding her still. Of course, she could have jabbed him in the stomach, but that would be playing dirty, and she couldn’t bring herself to hurt him.

  “I have thought of one thing I can do to quell my desire for physical activity.” He tunneled his fingers through her hair, angling her head so he could nuzzle her ear. He bit gently on the lobe, then his lips trailed down to the sensitive little spot just below her jaw-line, and Jade found herself trembling instead of struggling.

  “Ahhh… do you really think this is a good idea?” she managed. “Mightn’t it be a bit too strenuous?”

  “Easily solved,” he murmured, flicking open the buttons of her blouse and easing the garment back from her shoulders. His lips found her breast and he drew one lace-covered nipple into his mouth, suckling deeply.

  Sharp pleasure pooled in her pelvis. Whoa. Happy Birthday to me!

  He pulled back just long enough to say, “I will just take my ease here, in this comfortable chair, leaving you to do all the hard work. I am sure that will more than satisfy my surgeon.”

  There wasn’t much she could think of to say to scotch that suggestion, especially since he’d turned his attention to tormenting her neglected nipple and her brain had decided to take a hike. She moaned, wriggling in his lap. He took that as a yes, and shifted her until she knelt astride him.

  “Malach, you’re supposed to be careful!”

  “I promise to be very careful indeed, as long as you divest yourself of those ridiculously short trousers before I am forced to rip them from your body.”

  He was dead serious. Jade climbed from his lap and unbuttoned her shorts with unseemly haste. For good measure, she shed her bra and panties, too.

  His eyes darkened as he gazed at her. And he held her gaze as he slowly rose to shuck his track pants and t-shirt, before lowering himself back into the chair. She didn’t wait for him to ask again. She supported her weight on her knees and lowered herself slowly onto his erect cock. When she leaned in to kiss him, she was careful not to graze the rapidly healing incisions on the lower left side of his body.

  It was strange, this feeling of absolute control, the realization she was the one setting the pace. Increasing it then slowing it down, squeezing and releasing his hard length with her inner muscles, drawing him on unmercifully until he lost control. And then she reveled in his tight grip on her hips, his hoarse whispers urging her to come with him, insisting she let go and tip over into ecstasy with him.

  And she did.

  She thought she heard the slamming of a car door as she lay slumped across his chest with only his arms across the small of her back preventing her from slipping bonelessly to the rug. Probably the neighbors.

  The harsh blare of the doorbell jolted her from her languor. “Bugger. That’ll probably be Grace. Talk about bad timing.” She slithered from his lap and grabbed for her clothes.

  The doorbell chimed again. “Coming,” she called. “Won’t be a minute.”

  She shoved herself into her shorts and blouse, threw her bra and panties at Malach, and ran to answer the door. She glanced over her shoulder before she exited the lounge, just to make certain Malach was decent. Lucky she did, for she spotted his briefs lying on the rug.

  “Malach!” She pointed at the offending item, and he grinned at her before snagging them with his toe and kicking them up to snatch them out of the air.

  “Show-off.” She knotted the front tails of her blouse in an effort to disguise her braless state, and opened the door with a grin.

  The grin faded the instant she recognized the tall, elegantly-dressed blonde standing on her doorstep.

  ~~~

  Chapter Sixteen

  Jade escorted Francesca through to her lounge. She copped one look at the stunned expression on Malach’s face, and the tears pooling in Francesca’s expertly made-up eyes, and bolted to her bedroom muttering about giving Malach and his visitor some privacy.

  She sprawled on the bed and tried not to torture herself about what Malach and the love of his life might be talking about. But it ate at her soul. And when she’d counted all the blotches of discoloration on the ceiling, and the walls of her room began to close in on her, she gave up. She didn’t intend to linger and try to eavesdrop. Anything Malach didn’t want to say in front of her she had no desire to hear.

  She tiptoed down the hallway, and as she flit past the slightly ajar door, she couldn’t help glancing through the gap. Seeing Malach with his arms around Francesca, comforting her, and Francesca burrowed into his embrace, was the final kick in the teeth. Head down, numbed beyond coherent thought, she stole from the house, down the path, past the top-of-the-line Avis rental car parked in the driveway, and kept on walking.

  Time passed, but Jade had no conception of how much. The numbness had spread, encasing her in a protective, emotionless shell. She tried to fight it because this time she wanted to feel—needed to feel. She had been so scared to truly feel anything for so very long.

  She wanted to wallow in overwhelming loss she knew was lurking inside her.
She wanted to fully experience the shame of realizing she’d been a coward, and the despair of knowing it was now far too late to tell Malach how she really felt about him. She wanted to despise Malach for choosing another woman. And most of all, she wanted to hate the poised, perfectly dressed, beautiful woman who’d had the courage to do what Jade had not, and claim the man she loved before it was too late.

  She leaned on the wooden rail of the bridge and stared into the clear, reflective depths of the water below, wishing she could wind back time and have her chance over again. Sure, even if she’d bared her soul and confessed her love for him, Malach might have dumped her like last week’s takeaways the instant he laid eyes on Francesca. But maybe knowing Jade loved him would have made a difference. Maybe he’d have politely shown Francesca the door. Maybe.

  Francesca. God. What a piece of work. She’d screwed him not once, but twice, and then balked at completing the bond with him.

  Francesca had never allowed their relationship to progress as far as the Testing. Jade had given herself wholeheartedly to Malach and gone all the way right from the start. She’d been there right through it all. And if the Testing descended here, now, Jade would still fight for him.

  Francesca had never given him the slightest chance to escape the crystal—had believed she was condemning him to death. Jade had gone so far as to have Lìli cast a spell on her in an attempt to fool the Crystal Guardian’s goddess.

  Francesca had had her chance with Malach and abandoned him. So why should she have him? Why should she have another chance when she’d screwed up the first one? It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t bloody fair.

  “Whoever said life was fair?” a gentle voice enquired.

  Jade glanced up and discovered Pieter, leaning nonchalantly on the railing, not two feet from her.

  “You.” The numbness fled, supplanted by rage. Her hands clenched into fists as she considered her options.