by Lora Leigh
She stepped back quickly, surprised to find Shane there, his arms coming around her instantly. Derek watched her closely, the blue of his eyes intense, brilliant.
“Get him out of here,” she whispered. “Get them all out of here. I’ve had enough.”
“What’s wrong?” he whispered, his lips at her ear. “Let me help you, Ariel. I’m behind you, as I will always be. Let me aid you in this.”
Why couldn’t he feel it? Why couldn’t they all feel it? It was thick, pervasive, as though something were trying to sneak into her very soul. She stared back at the one called Derek, cautiously, wondering why no one else could sense the waves of power pushing at her. Or did they?
Her gaze went to Chantel. She could feel the power emanating from her, reaching out to her as the other woman’s eyes watched her closely.
“Make him stop,” she whispered bleakly. “Now.”
Confusion filled Chantel’s gaze. “What?” She leaned forward suspiciously. “What are you talking about, Ariel?”
She drew in a deep hard breath. No help there. There would be no help, because no one else could sense what she herself felt. Nothing unusual for a crazy person, she thought. Wasn’t that what her father told her, each time he sensed the voices whispering on the air around her? That she was crazy?
“Ariel, what is going on?” Shane’s voice was soft at her ear, though filled with strength. She could feel that strength inside her, allowing her to draw upon it to find the calm she needed amidst the whispers of warning, not truly words, but a hiss of danger at her ear.
She was aware of everyone watching her carefully. Everyone but Derek. His eyes were too brilliant, too cold…
She drew herself straight, edging away from Shanar, watching as Derek’s eyes followed her. Did he have to see her to do whatever he was attempting to do? She thought perhaps not. She could sense him, probing at her, locking onto her unique aura, rather like a vampire, determined to suck her dry.
Her gaze swung to Devlin.
The leader commands all. The hiss slowly formed words, information needed as she fought against the tendrils of power attempting to force themselves into her mind.
“Make him stop!” she ordered Devlin harshly. “Now!”
He frowned heavily, turning his head to look at Derek. But Shane beat him to it. Before anyone knew what he intended, he was across the room, his fist clenched and plowing into the other man’s face. Ariel watched in shock as Derek literally flew across the room to crash into the abused door on the other side.
“I warned both of you.” He turned to Joshua, gray eyes snapping with fury, his voice so rough, so gravelly it was horrifying to hear. His expression was tight, cheekbones more pronounced, his sensual lips pulled into a snarl. “Use your powers where you will, except on my woman. You destroyed your own, I’ll be damned if you’ll destroy her.”
Across the room, Derek eased to his knees, rubbing slowly at his jaw, shaking his head as though as addled as he well should be.
“Damn,” he grunted, a look of disbelief quickly replaced by ire as he glared at Shane. “It was just a little probe.”
“Damn all of you!” Chantel came to her feet again, fury flushing her face as her crystal began to glow dangerously. How Ariel knew that throbbing glow was a sign of forces no one wanted unleashed, she wasn’t certain.
She turned to her husband, her fists clenched, nearly shaking with fury. “They’re your stupid men, do something with them.”
Her finger poked demandingly into Devlin’s broad chest as she stood fiercely in front of him. Dressed in jeans, flat boots and a dark T-shirt, a black ball cap pulled over her head, she looked like an ill-dressed sprite challenging a dark warrior. But that dark warrior, dressed all in black, despite his fierce expression, looked upon her with a glimmer of emotion so intense it confused Ariel. Tenderness, an affection so intense it defied her understanding, and longing. In that moment she had no doubt that Chantel commanded that warrior as easily as he commanded his men.
Joshua rose to his feet then, shifting his shoulders as though the weight he carried on them was suddenly trying. He stared back at Ariel, compassion glittering only briefly in his eyes.
“The next crystal is worn by his wife, Ariel. And she, unlike you, has few defenses if Jonar snatches her. She must be found, quickly.” His gaze went to Shane then. “You would have done no less.”
“Wrong,” Shane snapped. “I would have done no such thing. You cannot force what all of you want, and I’ll rip the head off the next one of you who tries. Now get the hell out of here. We’ll meet you outside on time, and head to the cabins as we agreed. But you will not force her. Not any of you. Try it again and you’ll gain much more than a sore head.”
He turned away from them in disgust then, stalking back to Ariel, his lips thinning as she stepped slowly away from him. She turned to Chantel instead.
“They remind me of the Three Stooges,” she said clearly, crisply. “If this is what the next owner of the crystal has to look forward to, I say we find her ourselves and hide her. We’ll be doing her no favors in letting him find her.” She nodded to the one slowly rising to his feet, working his jaw carefully.
Chantel sighed. “Unfortunately, Ariel, I have to agree with you. And you have no idea how much it pains me to admit that.”
Chapter Ten
“The Three Stooges?” Shane bit out incredulously as the door closed behind the rest of the group and he faced her once again.
Six and a half feet of offended male pride watched her, his eyes stormy, his long mane of hair flowing around his face. “Do you think I don’t know who they are? Woman, that was a low, dirty insult.”
“But more than appropriate.” She crossed her arms under her unbound breasts and faced him, just as angry now. “What the hell is with you guys? You’re supposed to be a group. Working together. Teammates. Ya know?”
He pushed his fingers roughly through his hair, sighing wearily as he plopped down on the sofa and stared back at her in resignation.
“These are trying times for us all, Ariel.” He grimaced. “Much is riding on finding the owners of those stones, such as yours. Not just our lives, but the fates of many. They are all that can defeat Jonar’s madness.”
So she had heard. Too long ago to really remember the exact legends and the warnings that went with them.
“What was he doing?” she finally asked him. “Couldn’t you feel it?”
She had felt it. The bands of power wrapping around her head, attempting to find a way to sneak into her mind, to steal whatever it was he sought. It was insidious, disturbing and it damned well creeped her out. She didn’t need anything creepier than what she was already facing.
“Not at first.” He shook his head negatively. “I felt nothing until you moved. Then, as though you had displaced or displeased the air around you, I felt it pass by me. I know his powers, the gifts he was given. I knew instantly what he was doing.”
“And that was?” She sat down slowly in the chair beside the couch.
Leaning forward, Shane braced his arms on his knees, turning his head to watch her closely.
“He is the Wizard. His powers are that of illusion and the art of stealing secrets. He is a thief of sorts…”
“A psychic vampire, in other words?” she snapped.
“Not as much so as Joshua, but yes, more or less” he agreed, frowning slowly. “I do not know what happened with his wife. Much was going on at that time. But from what I understand, for some reason, she turned from him after their marriage. Derek was devastated. So he stole her memories of whatever it was she held against him, and forced her to remember only the love she had first felt for him, instead. It…weakened her…” He shook his head as though bemused by all that had happened. “As I said, it was a long time ago. We do not know if she still suffers from this loss and its weakness, or if she remembers. Whichever it is, she is either in danger, or a danger to him herself. She must be found.”
“When did this happ
en?” She asked the question that she knew she really didn’t want to know the answer to.
Shanar paused, regret shimmering in his eyes. “This happened nearly a thousand years before, Ariel, as I’m certain you suspect.”
She knew it! She didn’t want to know.
“So…” She breathed roughly. “You remembered all this stuff? After you were reborn?”
His head lowered, a grimace twisting his lips as he shook his head, resigned. She wasn’t going to like the answer.
“I and the other warriors never died, wife,” he said then, spearing her with his eyes, trapping her in a truth she didn’t want to know. “We have lived, knowing, regretting the death of each of you, every day of our existence. We never died, but unless we triumph now, it will be our curse to see your deaths once again.”
Wife… The word echoed through her.
Ariel felt her lips part in shock. Though why she was shocked she wasn’t certain. Somehow she had known, had remembered a vague tale of the warriors who walked time, who searched years everlasting. Immortal, her grandmother had told her. Always seeking. But she hadn’t believed it. Not really. And she didn’t want to believe it now.
“You know, I really think being crazy would have been a hell of a lot easier,” she sighed as she leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes wearily. “I think I would have preferred it, actually. Just think, three meals a day, happy drugs, a life of ease and peace. It might be easy to get used to.”
But she knew better.
He grunted, though his lips tilted in amusement.
“I cannot say I blame you. It is not an easy fight we are facing, nor is it one that can be called sane. But, it is our battle, and we must triumph.” His gaze turned suddenly bleak. “You have no clue, Ariel, what awaits this world if we fail. It is because of this that everyone looks to you now for the answers. Just as they looked to Chantel before you.”
“Oh, now that’s just screwy enough,” she grumped, leaning back and staring around the small suite in exasperation. “Shane, I am not having fun here.”
Or was she? She should be screaming, freaking out, on the verge of a nervous collapse. Instead, she could feel the knowledge sinking into her, hear the whispers of truth on the air around her.
Beloved… Wife to the Savage… Mistress of the Wind… Soft as a breeze the words whispered around her, his voice, broken, filled with pain…
“You are merely denying the fun at hand,” he pointed out then. “Just think of all the excitement you have faced in less than twenty-four hours. Admit it; at least you are no longer bored.”
“Who said I was bored before?” She glared back, determined to ignore the little voices that shouldn’t be whispering around her. “I had a perfectly nice life. I enjoyed my life. Boredom was the least of my problems.”
A smile touched his lips. It was sexy, wicked. “You know you were bored,” he chuckled. “Even I could feel your boredom, even if you did refuse to hear my calls to you. And I know you heard them, Ariel. You deny it, but you know they were there, whispering to you.”
She swallowed tightly, suppressing the tears of helplessness that clogged her throat. Yes, she had heard them and she had ignored them, just as she ignored them now. “You’re as crazy as the rest of them.”
Amusement and joy glittered in his eyes. There was something about sparring with her that brought him pleasure, aroused him, made him hot. She didn’t want to admit it, but it did no less to her.
“I am the sane one,” he informed her archly, but that glitter in his eyes warned her that he could possibly be the most dangerous one of all.
Shaking her head, Ariel leaned forward, covering her face with her hands and breathed in deeply.
“I don’t like this,” she whispered then. “It’s been hell, living with this, not knowing what it is or how to control it.”
“And this is what we will fix for you,” he promised her then, reaching out to her, touching her cheek with the pads of his fingers. “You will learn your power, Ariel.” His voice hardened, his expression turning savage. “I will not lose you again. I will not ever watch you die in my arms, bloodied and whispering my name in pain, ever again.”
Ariel felt the breath leave her chest for long seconds, felt her shock deepen at the ragged pain that filled his voice, and once again was reminded that Steele wasn’t just his last name and Savage wasn’t just a codename.
“And I won’t be dictated to,” she whispered just as painfully. “You won’t control me, Shane. No man ever will.” Her father had tried to control her, even as a child, and she would be damned if she would give into another’s control now. “And neither will this power that I may or may not have. I’ll help you and the others all I can, but I won’t be forced into a role.”
“You will learn your power,” he fairly snarled. “No matter what I must do, Ariel, no matter what it takes, I will allow you to hide from it no longer. So be prepared, wife. This time, you will accept my claiming of you, just as you will accept who and what you were meant to be. You will accept it, or I just might end up paddling your ass as I should have a millennium ago. Now get ready to leave, we ride in an hour.”
Chapter Eleven
The summons to Devlin’s room was made by psychic call. A demand that Shane clearly recognized after a thousand years. After leaving Ariel to finish getting ready, he made his way to the room across the hall, stepping into the suite to join the others gathered there.
“How is she handling it?” Chantel was the first to question him. Her emerald eyes were dark with worry and filled with concern.
Shane snorted. “As stubbornly as ever, but at least now she admits to what she hears in the air around her.” Smug satisfaction filled him then. “She admits it enough that her crystal is able to share it. I could smell the evil of Jonar on the winds this past night and heard the presence of the whispers she hears around her. She is opening herself to the powers and this is what matters.”
“What about Caitlin?” Derek stood on the other side of the room, his eyes dark with the thoughts of his wife.
“That has not yet come to her.” Shane shook his head firmly. “And I tell you now, Derek, you attempt to steal into my wife’s mind again and there will be nothing left of you for Caitlin to care if you live or die. I’ll take you apart myself.”
Derek’s full, sensual lips lifted in a wry grin as he massaged his jaw.
“Aye, I have felt your determination to do just that, Savage,” he grunted in amusement, then sobered. “But I warn you now. By the time we reach our destination, have you not learned of her location then all bets are off. I will know where she is, one way or the other.”
Shane knew he could expect nothing else, no matter how it grated. For all his faults, Derek was a good man, and he had waited, perhaps not as faithfully as Shane had, but in as much torment, for the rebirth of his wife.
“We’ll travel on the cycles,” Devlin informed them all, stepping forward to ease the tension that filled the room. “It will place her directly within the winds, keep her in constant contact with it. Chantel will use her powers to amplify the call that Caitlin’s crystal will send. We have five days before we reach Newhalem. Hopefully, we’re going in the right direction, and if not, then Chantel will be able to at least detect that much if we are off course.”
“We won’t go off course,” Chantel spoke up then, her voice crisp and filled with her own knowledge. “I’ve been able to track the power coming from her that far. The storm last night held more information than I could have hoped for. For the time the rain fell, I was able to sense her, and to assure myself of her general location. But only Ariel can connect with her and bring her out of hiding. Until she does, we’re helpless.”
“Why would she hide if she knows she’s needed?” Shane questioned her roughly. “Surely she would know her legacy if she is deliberately hiding from us?”
Chantel shook her head at that. “It could be unconscious, the help she’s given Ariel so far. We can’t be cert
ain. I don’t sense her except during the few times she’s reached out to obey the command for help that Ariel’s crystal sent out. She may not know anything. Or she may know everything. I won’t know until we get closer or until Ariel connects with her.”
“Ariel’s a strong woman.” Joshua spoke then, surprising them all, his voice dark, pitched low.
Shane turned to him questioningly, wondering at the strange note in his voice.
His eyes were eerie; there was no other word for it. The amber color wasn’t so much brilliant as it was deep, swirling with the color as power moved inside him. Joshua was always the strangest of the warriors, and Shane often wondered at that otherworld appearance he sometimes had. If he did not know better, he would swear the other man was Guardian.
“She fears the dark,” he said softly, dangerously. “Being locked away in it for answering the wind, for acknowledging who and what she is. Her mother and her grandmother before her lost the fight to prove their sanity. Ariel is determined she will not lose.”
Shane clenched his fists at his sides, fury moving through him. The bastard who raised her had much to answer for.
“Is she Galen’s blood?” He looked to Chantel, knowing that the crystals had first been bound to blood alone.
Galen had sired the four girls in that first life, as well as Chantel in this life. It was suspected, based on the investigations into Ariel and her parent’s pasts, that he may well have fathered Ariel in this life as well.
“She’s Galen’s child,” she sighed. “Though she is unaware of this. Galen is in Boston now working to prove paternity and to break the hold St. James has on her. Let’s hope he accomplishes this before her father convinces the judge in Lexington to sign the papers requiring an evaluation based on her experiences at Jonar’s hands. Her hysteria in the hospital won’t help her.”
“I told you she should not have been sent back alone,” Shane snarled, remembering well the report he had read in the plane.
Weak, in pain, Ariel had awakened believing she was on that battlefield where she had died in that first life. She had seen her blood, had watched Shanar become mist as the Guardians stole him away, and had raged at the Fates, Destiny and Mother Earth. She had believed the orderlies and nurses to be Jonar’s warriors and nearly injured herself further attempting to escape them.