“Do I remind you of someone, Roman? An innocent little boy who lost his father? Who you opened your home to?” His voice echoed in the woods.
Yes to all. Roman stilled and prepared himself for war.
“I should’ve let you stay in that orphanage and rot, but you were pathetic. Helpless. I pitied you then and I pity you now.”
A twig broke behind him. He spun as Alamut charged.
And tripped the hidden wire. In mid-stride, the beast stopped and his eyes swiveled up. Sharp wooden stakes rained from the trees. He flashed between them, but he couldn’t outpace them all. Spikes pierced his neck, back, and shoulders, but still, he kept going. Balanced precariously overhead, a huge log swung free and gathered speed. Racing on all fours, mouth open wide, Alamut leaped for him.
The log barreled into his ribs with a sickening crunch and smashed him into a boulder.
This battle wasn’t over. Roman gripped his sword tighter. The silent woods witnessed Roman dodge the log as momentum made it swing back, and closed the distance between the man he once trusted. Thoughts of why crowded his mind. He needed answers, but he couldn’t risk keeping Alamut alive to get them. Before he regenerated, he had to die.
Roman stopped in front of the motionless body. For a second, he paused and searched for a remnant of the boy he loved. In the mangled mess, there wasn’t any.
He mourned his loss and raised his sword.
Alamut snatched the stake embedded in his neck and stabbed the sharp spike into Roman’s thigh. Claws dug into his side and chest. Alamut climbed up his body, using the stake as leverage, until he towered over him. His jaws unhinged and clamped down onto Roman’s shoulder, ripping into him. White-hot pain burned away all thought except the need to survive.
The beast shook him violently, flinging him around. He thrust the blade back into Alamut’s abdomen and dragged it sideways.
Alamut tossed him in the air.
He used the last of his energy to twist, avoid the trees and land in the bushes. He tried to move, but Alamut’s jagged teeth had shredded every muscle in his shoulder, chest, and back on the left side of his body. Broken ribs poked through his chest making him pant in brilliant bursts of pain. His arm dangled from its socket, but he was still in better condition than Alamut.
Slumped to the ground a few yards away, Alamut’s crushed bones made his form odd. Blood ran freely from his many wounds and organs peeking through the hand pressed against his gut.
“Let’s make a bet on who will heal faster? You or I?” Alamut grunted.
Roman doubted it would be him. Never had he suffered this much damage in so short a time. Tunnel vision started setting in. His limbs twitched with sluggish energy as he tried to will his body into an upright position and finish his enemy. He didn’t budge but watched Alamut leverage his tail and push himself upright.
Patting the ground around him, Roman searched for his sword. Yards away he spotted the blade. Alamut took a shaky step toward him.
Roman tried to move. His body stubbornly refused. As Alamut’s steps became more certain, Roman’s heart slowed. After two-thousand years, his death finally approached. Though he didn’t know how he would die, he suspected Alamut knew exactly how to end it.
Death.
Welcome, come on in, he snorted and coughed up blood.
The need to live died with Stella, but he wouldn’t lay here like a lamb to slaughter. He would die with his sword in his hand. Peeking from the underbrush, his sword rested. Concentrating, he inched himself toward his goal. He wouldn’t reach it in time, but the effort was almost as good as the deed.
The thud of Alamut’s footsteps shook the ground beneath him. He glanced over his shoulder. The gap between them had narrowed. His lips split into a grin and Alamut gave a bark that almost sounded like a laugh. Soon it would all be over. He turned back to continue his final quest but . . . the sword was gone.
Alamut let out a blood-curdling scream. Roman flipped over to see his tail violently thrashing a few feet away.
“Forgot about me, Daniel?”
Her voice washed over him, sending all his senses into hyper-drive.
“Stella?”
“I’m here, baby.”
Alamut blocked his view of her. He shifted to the right. She was filthy and disheveled. The lace nightie was Swiss-cheese with holes in some dangerous areas. However, she was gloriously alive.
I’ll find out later.
He rolled onto his stomach, crawled over to a tree, and slammed his shoulder back into place. Nauseating pain rolled through his gut. Next, the ribs. He forced the one catching air back underneath the skin and muscles. Surgery on oneself is highly not recommended.
Sweat streamed into his eyes. He shoved the pain to the back of his mind, braced himself against the tree, and climbed to his feet. His vision went gray, but he didn’t dare close his eyes while Stella welded his sword.
The blade was too big for her, but with strength and speed he didn’t think she possessed, she executed all the skills he’d taught her yesterday—perfectly. It wouldn’t last. She couldn’t keep this up. Eventually, she would falter. He needed a weapon.
Quickly, he scanned the area, and lying in the same location where his sword had rested was one of the spikes from the pit. She must’ve dragged it here.
Her scream whipped him around. Alamut’s had claw raked the side of her body from ribs to hip, shredding the nightie and her precious skin. She dropped to her knees in front of Alamut.
The beast raised his hand, claws fanned out, ready to strike a killing blow.
No!
Adrenalin poured into his bloodstream and gave him the last bit of energy. Roman picked up the spike and tucked it under his arm. In an instant, he closed the distance between him and Alamut and skewered him from kidney to shoulder.
“Stella, sword!” he commanded.
Through Alamut’s tree trunk legs, she skated the blade. He snatched it from the ground as Alamut spun.
One swipe.
His head separated from his body, tumbled to the ground and rolled in one direction. His body crashed into another.
Completely drained, Roman collapsed to his knees. Before he could topple over, Stella caught him and guided him to a softer landing. So many questions needed answers, but she snatched his sword from his hand.
Flat on his back, he watched Alamut’s headless body flip onto all fours and start crawling toward its missing head. Stella raced back into the fray and hacked off an arm that swiped at her. The body tipped over, yet the legs kept trying to find purchase in the dirt.
Stella didn’t stop slicing and hacking until a torso and four detached limbs were all that was left. When she finally stopped, blood splatter covered her arms and legs. Her black hair gleamed wetly.
And her eyes glowed golden.
She was an Amazon. Petite in packaging, but absolutely fierce in nature—then her injured side healed before his startled eyes.
The golden glow faded, a hurricane rolled through her stormy, gray eyes. Speechless, he reached for her. She and the sword came.
“How are you here?” he asked as she cradled his head in her lap.
“Shhh.” She kissed his lips. “It’s a strange story.”
“Stranger than what we just fought?” He touched her healed skin. “And this?” Weary, his voice had started to fade.
Stella laughed and shook her head. “No.” She paused and then nodded. “Well, maybe. How did you do that?”
“What?”
One minute you were over there—” She pointed to the right, “and the next you were here. I know you’re fast, but I didn’t see you move.”
A twig snapped, capturing their attention. Stella eased his head to the ground and lifted his sword.
“Help me up.” He ordered.
She ignored him and quietly placed herself between him and what lurked in the woods.
“Damn it, help me up.” Roman bit out, struggling to rise.
“Shhh!” She waved at him.
Sword clutched in both hands, she waited.
Roman couldn’t believe this bloodthirsty creature was the same frightened woman he met a few short weeks ago.
“Who’s there?” she demanded.
A flashlight parted the darkness. “It’s me, Thane.” A few yards away, he rounded a tree.
Relief poured through Stella and she lowered the sword.
“Hot. Damn.” Someone said behind her.
Stella spun. “Get away from him,” she snarled. Sword raised, she rushed over.
“Stella, meet Avery. Avery, meet Stella,” Roman mumbled weakly.
“Pleasure ma’am.” Eyes narrowed, a feral grin stretched his face. He hauled Roman to a seated position.
“You’re the guy from the diner?” She raised a questioning brow.
“What gave me away? The burns or the graffiti?” He raked her nearly naked body with an appreciative eye. Then studied Roman.
“You’ve never looked worse,” he said, probing his wounds. “But we all know you’ll survive.” He grabbed Roman’s good arm.
Roman groaned because he couldn’t summon the energy to cry out.
“Can you stand?” Avery asked.
“Don’t tell me we have to carry him.” Hands resting on his knees and breathing hard, EJ stood next to her. Behind him, Quin brought up the rear.
“No one is carrying me.” With Avery’s steady body bracing him, Roman stood. “Carry that.”
All watched the beast transform into Daniel, his limbs arrayed around him, twitching. The sword slipped from Stella’s hand and she swayed dangerously on her feet. Thane reached for her, but she dashed into Roman’s arms and buried her face in his chest.
This is the woman he met.
“How was Daniel this . . . thing?” Thane gasped.
“I thought he was missing, but dead, not the living dead, tooling around New York.” EJ imitated a zombie stroll.
“I’m going to be sick.” Stella moaned.
Roman raised her chin and forced her to meet his eyes. “No. You’re not. You saved me. I don’t know how, but you did. You stopped a killer.”
“She did that?” Avery asked and Roman nodded.
A low whistle sounded from Quin. “A woman that knows how to handle a blade? Estoy en el amor.” He gave her a short bow, then unbuttoned his shirt and held it while she slipped into it.
“How did you find me?” Roman asked his men. They all pointed at Quin.
He shrugged his bare shoulders. “Your secret hideaway was never a secret. I always knew where you vacationed. I am my brother’s keeper.” Quin flattened his palm to his heart and bowed deeply.
Stella helped Roman return the gesture.
EJ grabbed two of Daniel’s limbs. “I’m ready,” he said holding the pieces.
Thane walked up to the head. Daniel’s eyes popped open, causing him to jump back. “Jesus, he ain’t dead.”
A low growl preceded, “Fuck. I prayed he was.” His voice trailed at the end as gravity defeated his body and he rushed to kiss the ground. The last thing he heard was Stella screaming his name.
~~~~~~
Roman’s eyes popped open. Fully alert and ready for war, he scanned his surroundings and realized he was in his bed at RockGate with a soft form nestled close. Relief washed over him. He remembered his slide into oblivion and Stella crying his name.
But she was here, alive. He stroked her chin and she snuggled closer to his side.
He watched her die, held her broken body, and saw the light fade from her eyes. They were both alive . . . and in bed. Gently, he kissed her until her lips parted and she moaned. Her arms twined around his neck. She slanted her mouth and kissed him with toe-curling passion.
“You were dead.” He slipped the words in when they paused for air.
“Yes, I was.” She traced a finger down the slope of his nose and kissed the tip.
First Daniel, now Stella. Thank you, God . . . but. His heart fisted in his chest. “Too many people are coming back from the dead,” he mumbled. It wasn’t natural. Not that his immortal state was natural but. . . . He dragged her into his chest and buried his head in her shoulder. “I don’t care why you’re alive, I’m just glad you are.”
Stella kissed his cheek and whispered in his ear, “Elyssian and the others brought me back.
He pulled away and met her soft gaze.
She nodded. “It’s incredible, but they did. They were waiting for me, all of them exactly as they were when you met them, and a few you missed.”
It sounded impossible, but in this life, nothing was impossible. “W-what did they want?”
She brushed her lips against his. “You. They all wanted you.”
His mouth slid open.
She took her hand and with a lift of his chin closed it for him. “They all loved you so much they wanted you to finally be happy. They gifted me their souls so I could stay with you.”
He caressed her face, brushed her wayward tresses behind her ear. Kissed her scar and her lips all the while wondering how that could possibly be true. “How?”
She shrugged, “I don’t know. They’re a part of me now.” She patted her chest. “They gave me their essences. It’s all they had left, so they, and I could be with you.”
“Are you. . . .” Immortal stuck in his throat.
“I don’t know, maybe.” She shrugged again and cupped his face. Her gray eyes captured his. “If all we have is now, I will take it. Marry me.”
He didn’t realize he’d stopped breathing until his lungs forced him to suck in air. He hugged her so tight she groaned but didn’t complain.
“Anywhere, anytime. Where you go—” he started.
“I go.” She finished.
EPILOGUE
“No, not there. Over there!” Hector shouted at the men placing the ice sculpture. Stella didn’t want an ice sculpture, however, what she wanted didn’t count. Once Hector discovered Roman’s proposal and her acceptance, the only thing he allowed Stella to do was pick out her dress. With only one week to go, she walked into Kleinfeld’s—with Hector carrying the black card—and walked out with the gown of her dreams. A strapless, drop waist, beaded, confection that transformed her into a goddess. After a week of loving, she was ready to get married.
So why was she dying inside?
“Oww!” She flinched as the stylist yanked her hair for the fifth time. A manicurist pushed her cuticle back to what felt like her recently waxed eyebrows and her face itched from the coating of make-up. She flinched again as another section of hair was manhandled.
“Enough!” she pushed away from the hairdresser, the make-up artist, and manicurist, and ran from her bedroom. Down the back staircase, she dodged the caterers and exited through the kitchen.
Focused straight ahead, Stella marched into the maze and didn’t stop until she reached the gazebo in the center. She flopped onto the bench and tipped her head back, into the speckled sunlight peeking through the vines. The quiet soothed her frazzled nerves and the building migraine.
“We don’t have to do this.”
She jerked out of her sun-induced daze. A few feet away, Roman leaned against a column. His eyes had darkened into a bottomless pool of pain, but his face remained neutral, giving away nothing.
Already dressed in a charcoal gray suit, freshly shaved and hair trimmed, he was the most handsome thing she had ever seen and he loved her. Did she have enough time to get him out of that suit and take advantage of him?
“I can take you back to the city.” His voice held a grave note.
“W-w-what?” she stuttered blinking away the carnal thoughts lodged in her head.
He cleared his throat. “Come on. I’ll take you back to your apartment . . . or wherever you want to go.”
“I’m getting married in two hours. Why would I want to go to the city?” The confusion on his face made her smile.
“Uhmm, you ran out of the house—”
“I needed some air or someone was gonna end up dead.” She laughed a
t his tilted head and raised an eyebrow. She pointed to the rollers in her hair and her half-made face.
“This is so not me.” She shrugged.
Roman stopped a foot away. “I agree. It’s not you. So why are you doing it?”
Because, she wanted to shout, instead she swallowed the lump in her throat and gathered her self-esteem. “I . . . I wanted to look pretty for you.”
He took her hands and drew her to her feet. His intense gaze made her fidget until he cupped her face and brought her as close as possible to him.
“Are you kidding? You’re the most beautiful thing on this earth. No one compares to you. No. One.” Gently, he pulled the rollers out of her hair then threaded his fingers through her tresses until they cascaded past her shoulders. Then he rubbed the makeup off her face with his handkerchief. “You’re perfect, you always were.”
Her heart swelled, nearly bursting with love for the one man in the world who loved her. “I love you so much.”
“And I’ve loved you for an eternity.”
He leaned in to kiss her, but a finger pressed to his lips halted his intention.
“Hold that kiss. I have a dress to put on. Meet you at the altar, husband.”
He gave her the most brilliant smile. “I’ll be there, wife.”
Her face ached from grinning, but never wavered as she said, “I do,” and hauled him in for their first sizzling kiss as husband and wife. Afterward, they danced the night away. Nothing could spoil this day, not a dismembered Daniel, lounging away in several containers in the basement and the unknown waiting for them all. Whatever decided to come their way, she, her husband, and his brothers would face it . . . together.
Ready for the next installment in the Descendants of Ra series?
Thank you for reading ETERNITY, the 1st book in the Descendants of Ra series. Are you ready for Reign and Alexis? Their story continues in Everlasting the next book in the series.
Kill the beast. Save your brother. Win your freedom. No problem. Falling in love with the cop trying to arrest you? Problem.
To save his twin from death, Reign Nicolis will have to bargain with Goddess of the Dead, and once more become what he despises, El Mortem, The Scourge, a killer trained to show mercy to none. But he is haunted by those who have fallen beneath his blade. Their ghostly shapes dog his footsteps, relentless in their torture to make him suffer for what he was put on this earth to do two thousand years ago. Saving his twin ensures Reign’s enslavement to the Goddess. She may own his body, but never his heart.
Eternity (Descendants of Ra: Book 1) Page 29
