by Lyons, Rene
Instinctively, Lex knew there was a good chance Isobel wasn’t going to survive this night.
“Don’t do it, Lex.”
Constantine’s voice echoed in her mind, over the hum of energy and the roar of the power. She heard him past the chorus of the Halloweds’ voices. It anchored her, kept her on this plane even as the power began to try to take her where she didn’t want to go.
“I love you, Constantine.”
Without giving it thought, Lex slammed herself into Julian. The moment their bodies collided, he tried to knock her aside. She wrapped her arms around him and held him tight, forcing the power into him. His body began to smoke she held tight. She refused to let him go even when his flesh began to blacken.
Julian’s henchmen went to rush her but were stopped by Constantine. In a blur of motion he disarmed Ian, Malcolm and the Viking. Lenora stayed with Isobel as the chaos erupted around them.
By the time Constantine was done with them, the three renegades were broken and bloody. They were ended with well-placed cuts to their throats, sent to the devil in explosions of dust. And still Lex held fast to Julian. Her power burned him until Constantine pried her from him.
Constantine roared in agony when he pulled Lex from Julian. He grabbed his sword from the burnt renegade before he tossed Julian away. Julian, flesh burnt raw from the intensity of the Daystar’s power, faced Constantine with a sneer. The damaged renegade held the dagger out, pointing it at him. “The night may fear you, Templar, but I do not.”
Constantine arched a single brow. “That’s why you failed.”
“You might have won this night, but you’ll still serve in Hell once this world spits you back to the devil.”
Constantine smiled a grin of pure evil. “Then I’ll see you there, you bloody bastard.”
There wasn’t a hint of remorse in Constantine when he backed the renegade into a tall stone. With evil delight, he dragged the blade of his sword across Julian’s neck. The vampire’s eyes bulged as his blood spurted from the gaping wound. Julian exploded to dust even before he hit the ground.
The sword slipped from Constantine’s blood-soaked hands. He looked at the dagger atop the mound of dust, which the night’s breeze picked up and scattered across the forest.
Once again, Constantine had given the devil his due.
Chapter Thirty
Now that one threat was over, they were about to face another.
As soon as Julian turned to dust and the effects of the intensity of her power subsided, Lex ran to Constantine. The moment she touched him he hissed and pushed her away. In her need to get to him, Lex had forgotten the energy was now beyond her control. It raged within her, threatening to consume her and she was afraid. If Isobel, who with Lenora’s aid was only now gaining her feet, didn’t begin the ritual, Lex knew she wasn’t going to survive much longer.
Though it took almost more strength than she possessed, Lex was able to pull the power back enough to touch Constantine without burning him to ash. “I thought I was going to lose you.”
He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. His tenderness brought tears to her eyes. “They’re naught but flesh wounds.”
Flesh wounds? He’d been nearly stabbed through the heart. As far as Lex was concerned, that was far from a flesh wound.
Through his torn shirt, Lex saw that the wound to his chest was still raw and bleeding. How his other injuries fared, she didn’t know. As long as he was alive, that was all that mattered to her.
Lex looked at Isobel, cringing at the amount of blood staining her white robe. She knew the wound wasn’t severe enough to end her, but Lex had to wonder if Isobel’s diminished strength would hinder her from holding Lex in this realm once the ritual was underway.
When a stab of pain hit Lex in the chest, she shoved herself away from Constantine and doubled over with a gasp. Wrapping her arms around her stomach, she bit back a moan as agony sliced through her. Every breath was an effort as pain shot through her. When Constantine reached her for, she stumbled back, out of his reach and warned him not to touch her.
Through a fog of pain, Lex saw Constantine retrieve his sword and level it at the two women of the Order. There was no sympathy in his glare for Isobel, who was struggling against her own wounds. “It’s killing her. Do something. Now.”
The Halloweds’ voices were screaming in her head, calling for her. Welcoming her to their realm. Dear God, she didn’t want to go. Lex wanted to stay here, with Constantine and Allie and the other Templars. She didn’t want to go where they could never follow.
“Move her into position. We haven’t much time.”
Moving swiftly after Isobel rasped that, Constantine took hold of Lex’s arm and began to guide her to her stone. “Come on, elf, you have to walk with me.”
She was trying—God knew she was, but it hurt. Yet when Lex smelled the distinct stench of burning flesh, she knew that if Constantine could bear the pain of touching her, she could damn well bear the pain of walking.
Sweating and covered in Julian’s blood—and God-only-knew what else after literally melting him nearly to death—Lex began to lumber toward the stone that bore the Dagaz rune.
Only once she was in place did Constantine release her. The hand he’d held her with was a ruined mess of burnt flesh. When Isobel urged him to hurry, Lex slumped against the stone and watched as he raced across the henge to the Tiwaz rune. Isobel moved into position and leaned against her stone, too weak to stand.
Lex looked back at Constantine, who appeared as if on the verge of a great battle—not having just come from one. And maybe he was. Maybe he was preparing himself for her death, just as she was.
Another wave of pain came over her and Lex was unable to hold back her scream. It echoed throughout the forest. In answer, a hawk screeched as it soared high overhead.
When her scream died down, Lex heard the Hallowed, no longer a scream, but a whisper in her head. It soothed her as they spoke to her, telling her she wasn’t alone. She was part of them now, and they would be waiting to welcome her should this be her time to leave the world behind.
A perfect calm settled over Lex and she knew she was ready to face her fate—whatever it may be. Life or death, or something else, she was ready to face it.
When Constantine sensed the calm acceptance come over Lex, he knew what true panic was. He didn’t want her calm and accepting. He wanted her to fight tooth and nail for life.
Regret tore through him as all the things he should have said to her bombarded his mind. He’d never told her he loved her.
And oh God, did he love her.
He loved her with everything he was, and knew that if he lost her tonight, all that he was would go with her. Because of her, his past no longer mattered. The ghosts that had haunted him for centuries had no place in his existence as long as Lex was there to keep them at bay. The light of her being lit the dark he’d dwelled in for seven hundred years, and it had nothing to do with Daystar’s power. Lex’s love was a force to be reckoned with, and it broke through the darkness with an incandescence that blinded him to the horrors dwelling in the blackness of his heart.
Isobel began to chant, her voice low and strained with pain. Lex stiffened and Constantine sensed the pain that sliced through her. A brilliant light lit her, cutting through the night, making the forest as bright as day. So intense was the light that Lenora was forced to look away. Constantine and Isobel kept their gazes locked on her.
He’d make damn sure his gaze never left her. If she were to go, he wanted to see the moment the power took her. He needed her to see that he braved the pain to make sure she wasn’t alone in that final moment.
When Constantine saw tears began to spill down Lex’s cheeks, an unfamiliar sting irritated his eyes. A single bloody tear cut a path down his own cheek as he watched his woman weep. Never, not even when he’d burned to death, had he known such helplessness.
Here he was, an immortal warrior, a dragon, and yet he couldn’t
save his woman—his mate—from her fear and her pain. What good was his bloody strength if he couldn’t protect his woman?
But when Lex’s lips curled into a barely perceivable smile, he knew the strength of his love for her aided her more than his sword ever could.
Unable to fight it back any longer, the power burst like a raging fire. Lex bit down on her bottom lip to keep from crying out again, but even that couldn’t hold in her scream. The sound was pulled from her very soul as the power pressed down on her.
Isobel called on all of the Druids who passed over to the other realms that lay just beyond a human’s sight. She chanted prayers to the gods and to the elements. She prayed to the moon and to earth. Her fervent prayers charged the very ground beneath their feet.
When a vicious surge of energy shot through her, Lex’s head was thrown back and her arms flung wide as if on their own volition. The pain was nearly unbearable as the incandescent light burned so bright it rendered her blind to the physical world.
Suddenly, it all vanished.
Pain, fear, and death—it was all just—gone. The weight of the last month—no, of her entire life—eased from her shoulders. A peaceful darkness surrounded her, and though Lex was able to see Constantine and the others, it was as if she were seeing into a dream. She heard Constantine in her mind, willing her to fight and watched Isobel fighting to hold her to this plane.
The voices of the Hallowed called to her, softly. And she wanted to go. Oh God, did she want to go to them. They offered her peace. Here, there was no grief. Her parent’s negligence didn’t matter here. Doubt and fear held no meaning in this place. Time ceased to matter. Moments could have passed or days. It all seemed the same.
Nothing mattered but the voices talking to her.
Her body seemed to float through the darkness, wherein hid the women behind the voices. They wanted her with them and she wanted to go. With a calm acceptance, Lex let go of life and began to make her journey to whenever it was those women waited.
“I’m losing her.”
Isobel’s voice came to her from someplace far away. Lex ignored it. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered here. Being here gave Lex a sweet relief of the burdens of life.
She stretched out her arms into the dark, reaching for something she knew lay beyond the darkness. The other Hallowed? Heaven? God? Lex wasn’t sure. All she knew was that somewhere hidden in the darkness was something unknown, but something she instinctively knew she wanted to find.
Closing her eyes, Lex moved forward, further into the dark. Warmth surrounded her, wrapping around her body and taking her away from Constantine. A tinge of terror edged into her being at the thought of leaving him behind, yet something told her he’d understand her need to go in to the warmth and peace beckoning her.
Though in this place she had no breath, Lex released a pleasant sigh as the warmth engulfed her. She felt such love here. It chased away a lifetime of loneliness and neglect.
“I can’t hold her much longer. She’s fading, Constantine.”
Constantine... His name invaded the perfect peace settling over Lex. Her need to stay with him warred with the desire to travel deeper into the blackness and come out the other end, where the promise of pure happiness awaited her.
He doesn’t love you. The thought nagged at her mind. Lex wasn’t sure where it came from. Whether it came from her own sub-consciousness or from the Hallowed, she didn’t know. Nor did she care. She shook her head. He did love her. She was certain of it. He might not have declared it to be so, but his every action proved his feelings for her.
But the darkness pulled at her and Lex floated further away from the world. She drifted further away from Constantine. She kept on drifting until whatever she’d once been seemed to have all been a dream. Her family, her life, the Templars—even Constantine—ceased to be real to her.
“She’s gone, Constantine. I lost her.”
Lost? Lex smiled at Isobel’s announcement. She wasn’t lost. She was home.
“Bring her back, Isobel. Bring her back to me. Now.”
The desperation in Constantine’s tone yanked Lex back from bliss. She looked back at Constantine, who seemed a million miles away. Lex watched as he fell to his knees. When Isobel told him Lex was beyond her reach, his hoarse cry echoed throughout Lex’s very being. His pain pierced her like a million knives, shattering the peace.
Oh God, how could she leave him? He was everything to her. This—wherever it was Lex found herself—wasn’t real. Constantine and her love for him was what mattered. He needed her, and Lex needed him right back. Any promise of happiness couldn’t be found in this realm, away from Constantine. It could only be found wherever he was.
Pushing out of the darkness, moving away from the Hallowed, Lex drifted back toward the world. Back toward the pain she knew waited for her once she stepped from this place.
Just like that, the pain returned, the forest replaced the blackness, and the song of the Halloweds’ voices faded into the night.
The light around her exploded in a million points of white-hot intensity. Lex screamed loud enough to shake the night. She collapsed on the ground, her gaze fixed on Constantine as he rushed toward her. Out of the corner of her eye, Lex saw Isobel fall back. The ethereal creature who’d saved her life hit the stone and slid down to the ground. Lenora rushed to her and cradled her as Isobel was in danger of bleeding out.
Trembling violently, Lex almost couldn’t believe it was over and that she was still alive. The power of the Daystar still throbbed within her, though now, it wasn’t hitching a ride inside of her body. No—it was one with her. Flowing through her in time with her breathing and with the beating of her heart.
Lex wept with relief when she saw Constantine kneeling beside her. “You made it.”
She laughed softly. “I know.”
“You’re alright?”
That was a loaded question. Her body throbbed with life. Power poured through her, and yet it was all so—natural. “I’m okay. I feel different, though, and yet the same.” She shook her head in bemusement. “I know I’m not making any sense.”
Constantine knelt and gathered her in his arms. “I thought I’d lost you there for a moment.”
The emotion behind his words wrapped around her heart and told her how much he loved her. “I think for a moment there, you did. I fought hard to stay with you.”
He pushed her away and stared deep into her eyes. He went as still and stiff as a statue. “Oh God, elf, I don’t know what I would have done if I’d lost you.”
“You don’t have to worry about that now.” She smiled weakly. “You’re stuck with me for a while longer.”
“Thank God for that.”
“I feel strange, Constantine. I feel the Daystar power still in me. But there’s something else that I can’t explain.”
He smoothed a hand over her hair before placing a kiss on her forehead. His lips were cool and unyielding and she loved the feel of them on her warm flesh. “You’re immortal.”
“That can’t be. I don’t feel immortal.”
Whether Lex felt immortal or not, the fact remained that she was. Constantine saw the truth of it reflected in the brilliant depths of her glowing silver eyes. He’d miss the clear blue they’d been, though he had to admit the silver complemented her. With her dark hair, her now-permanently sun-kissed flesh, she looked not so much as a dark-angel come down from Heaven anymore. Now, Lex had the look of an exotic jewel he knew he was damned privileged to call his mate.
Constantine’s eyes slid closed. Thank you. Though he knew his silent prayer of thanks would go unheard, he’d needed to say it nonetheless.
He helped Lex stand. She was none too steady on her feet and he knew if he weren’t supporting her, she’d fall.
“She needs blood or else she’s going to die.”
The urgency that laced Lenora’s voice wasn’t lost on Constantine. She wiped away the bloody tears cutting a path down her cheeks and looked at him imploringly. Never
would he have imagined that anyone from the Order of the Rose would look to him for aid. Nor would he ever have believed he’d be in the position to help Isobel of Lowel.
How odd that life, somehow, had come full circle.
Constantine went down on one knee and pushed aside Lenora’s hands. He stared deep into Isobel’s eyes and saw the acceptance of death in them. “Death won’t take you this night, Isobel,” he assured her. “You saved me, now I’ll save you. And then my debt to you will be paid.”
As he lifted her and cradled her against his chest, he was struck by how small she was in his arms. All of these centuries, until this moment, she’d always seemed larger than life. But then he’d always viewed her through the eyes of a frightened young man.
