He dropped beside her. “Look at me.”
She looked into his blue eyes, comforted a bit at the warmth she saw there. “I don’t know what’s wrong.”
“Breathe deep, and look into my eyes, Marie-Therese.” He put his hands on either side of her head, his grip firm but gentle. “Breathe. You’re with me. We’re going to close that portal and kick any demon ass we see. Okay?”
As she breathed, her head cleared and her stomach settled. “Yeah. Okay.”
“Shoulder your bag and grab your knives.” He stood and drew her to her feet, kissed her forehead. “We’ve got this.” His knife glinted in his hand.
She grabbed hers, nodded. “I’m ready.”
They moved toward the shed and without warning, the door exploded outward, sending chunks of metal flying toward them.
She swung her bag in front of her and batted away a piece of metal, her focus on the two Boargan that came thundering out at them. Their eyes were wild and foam dripped from their mouths.
She and Gideon separated and as the demons sped past, both her knife and Gideon’s swung, and took first blood. It filled her with satisfaction.
The Boargan pair grunted and squealed. They skidded to a stop and turned, came back fast. To her surprise, however, the demons ran right back to the shed and into the glowing portal, disappearing from sight in a flash.
They exchanged a startled look. “Well, at least we know it’s there,” she said. They went closer, skirting the pieces of metal.
“Let’s get the damned portal closed. Faugh, it reeks.” He tugged wide what was left of the shed doors and stared inside.
Bags of manure had been ripped open and spread out.
In the farthest corner from the portal, a pile of human bones pulsed blood red. She shuddered and forced herself to study the gaping black of the portal edged in a crimson glow, ignoring the ache in her chest at the loss of life.
Gideon’s voice came from behind her. “Can you close it? Or do you want me to?”
She took a deep breath. “I can do it. Mixed with blood though, I’m afraid.”
“Well, you’ve got plenty then,” he said, and turned his left side toward her. She turned to him and frowned, watching the blood flow slowly down his shoulder.
“It’s going to waste. Follow me.” She made her voice crisp, moved back to the open grass and knelt to rummage in her bag. She pulled out a metal cup and beckoned. “Sit down so I can collect it.” When he settled at her side, she pushed the edge of the cup into his skin just below the gash in his shoulder, pleased with the steady flow. “I’ll have enough in just a few minutes. Better than a blood bank.”
“Thanks for your kind concern.”
She snorted. “You want this portal closed as much as I do. If this wasn’t natural, it wouldn’t surprise me if the gas leak weakened the area here, which could have allowed the portal to be opened from the Chaos Plane. Can you hold the cup?”
“You’re asking a lot.” But his hand came up and held the cup steady.
“If I don’t ask, I don’t get.” She turned to her bag and dug into it for the herbs she’d need, grateful for his presence at her side. She recited the recipe her father had given her that morning. A pinch each of rosemary, basil, thyme and yarrow, three pinches of salt, plus oil of Frankincense…
She checked the cup. “Well done. Almost half a cup there. Mixed in with the herbs and the oil should do it.” After adding the ingredients to the cup, she took up her athame and stirred counter-clockwise, nine times exactly, before announcing with a smile, “I think we have a winner.”
“You have a beautiful smile, Marie-Therese.”
She blushed and scrambled to her feet. “I need to get the portal closed.” The portal blazed red, and a small, dog-like demon came bouncing out. It sniffed the air and pounced on Gideon, still on the ground.
“Shit. Not now, damn it.” Fear gripped her as the demon snapped its teeth at Gideon.
“I got this, Marie-Therese.” He grappled with the demon. “Get the damned portal closed. Now.” A low command rang in his voice and everything in her rushed to obey.
Her heart in her throat, she hurried to where the opening pulsed. “God and Goddess, attend to me in my need for it is great. With demon blood, with human blood, with the blood of the Fae, I close this portal.” She dipped the athame into the cup and flung drops of blood at the portal’s glowing edges with the point of the athame. The mixture sizzled and a thick smoke rose, incense mixed with a scent of sulfur.
“With herbs divine and oil of the blessed, I close this portal.” She spattered blood faster. The smoke grew thicker. The sulfur scent grew stronger. She heard the sounds of struggle and the harsh breathing of Gideon behind her and her heartbeat sped up.
“With salt of purity, with the help of the winds of the West, the South, the East and the North, I close this portal.”
The winds rose to her call. The smoke grew thicker, blacker, and obliterated the glow of the portal’s edge. “I close this portal against all attempts to reopen it, whether from the plane of origin or the Human Plane.” A shriek rose from inside the smoke. She flung the rest of the blood into the portal and screamed back at it. “I close this portal!”
A boom shook the ground, sending Marie-Therese sprawling backwards. She watched as the smoke folded in on itself and disappeared. The portal was gone, but the sulfurous smell lingered.
She rested against the ground for a moment, relieved.
A squeal from behind her had her bolting to her feet.
The demon had a knife stuck through one of its eyes and was dying slowly, twitching in the grass a few feet away from Gideon.
Her gaze traveled from the demon to the man, and her heart stopped in horror.
The scrubs shirt was ripped, and his chest bore teeth and claw marks. If she still needed blood for a spell, she had plenty waiting for her right there.
Her heart thundering in her chest, she went to him, knelt at his side and put her hand on his face. “Gideon.”
His eyes opened, flickered. “Baby. Do something for me.”
“Of course. Anything.”
He focused his gaze on her face. “I won’t make it to the doc’s house in time. You’re gonna have to heal me, Marie-Therese.”
Panic closed her throat. Her heart thundered and she stared her greatest fear in the face. She quailed. “I can’t.”
“Then I shall die, looking upon your lovely eyes.”
Chapter 4
Anger swept through her. “That’s cheating.”
“How is me dying cheating?” He let out a chuckle that quickly turned to a low moan. “If I could heal myself, I would. But I can’t. It’s one of those things, baby. But you have the mojo if you’ll let yourself use it.”
The fear that had lingered in her for years poured out of her mouth. “I tried to heal, once. I killed the man. I can’t take a chance on you, Gideon. You mean too much to me.”
His eyebrows lifted. “Now you tell me.”
“If…” she took a deep breath and embraced her heart. “I can see myself bonded to you. I can see it as if it were unraveling in front of me. You are demonkind, but I can see myself loving you and it scares me.”
“So I shall die because of your fear.” His eyes closed and his breathing became shallower. “At least you are by my side. At least I am not alone. That’s one of my fears, dying alone.”
Tears blurred her vision. How can I let him die? But what if I did something wrong? Torn, she clenched her hands together as her heart raced. I love him. I love him. I love him.
“I love you too, and shall surely die if you don’t try, dear heart. I’d much rather die with you trying to fix me than from the poison of a…a…I don’t even know what kind of demon that was.”
Startled by his response, she stroked his forehead. “You can hear my thoughts.”
“Yeah.” His eyes fluttered and opened, and the startling blue pleaded with her. “I don’t have much time. Put your hands on my chest,
open your mind to my body, and look for the ripped veins. Close them, with any visualization that works. A bandage, or glue, anything. Look for the poison, and dissolve it with your mind. You can do this, or I die.”
Damn the man. She took a shaky breath and put her hands on his chest, right on the worst of the rips and tears. She would succeed. Damn the man, she had no choice, wanted no other outcome than to live with this tribred until her life ended.
Closing her eyes, she allowed her awareness to flow into his body, and soon lost track of time as she followed the veins and pathways of his life source, slapping mental bandages on veins and at times sewing carefully. She was aware of his presence in her mind, encouraging her when she grew fearful.
The work focused her and prevented her from falling apart when his heart stuttered and his presence in her mind vanished. She reached in mentally and with a gentle pressure, encouraged the regular beat to take over.
Finally, there was no more to be done. The bruising would heal in normal time and his heart was steady. She withdrew her mind from the depths of his body slowly and slumped to the ground at his side, exhausted, her bloody hands still clinging to him and marking the thump of his beating heart.
His chest wounds were closed, and he looked to be sleeping.
There was only one thing left to do. With a weary sigh, she raised her hand to the sky, startled to realize it was close to sunset. She called, a firebolt answered, and she directed it to the demon that lay not three feet away from them.
It burned quickly and a breeze came up, blowing the ash away. She lay on her back then and stared up into the darkening blue.
She’d done it, saved his life, and as good as bound herself to him by doing so. A thought flashed through her mind then and she sat up, startled, new energy pulsing through her as she looked down her torso.
Sure enough. She didn’t even have to filter out her human vision. The green and orange bonding threads danced around her body, crossed the space between them and continued their joyous movement around Gideon before melting into the core of their very DNA.
Elation swept through her, and tears blurred her vision. She hadn’t expected euphoria. She’d always been sure that when she eventually mated with someone, she’d be panicky and angry. Instead, her heart filled with a bubbling joy that cleared the tears from her eyes.
Gideon stirred, reached for her. “Baby?”
“Yeah?” She put an anxious hand to his cheek. “You feel okay?”
“You did it. You saved my life. Thank you. And look at you, all green and orange and mine.” His eyes glowed with love. “Kiss me. Fuck me. Marry me.” He tugged at her T-shirt. “Now, Marie-Therese.”
Need raged through her like wildfire. “Can you?”
He sat up, pulled her offending T-shirt off and stripped her of her bra. “I can. I will. I need you, babe. Now.”
She unzipped her pants, rose to a kneeling position before Gideon took over. He shoved her pants and panties down to her knees.
“Bend over, baby. On all fours.”
She did as he asked and before she could take another breath, he’d shoved his cotton pants down and she felt the blunt head of his cock searching her opening. She widened her knees as much as she could, arched her hips back toward him, and he plunged into her in one long thrust.
She screamed his name as he took her down to the dry lawn, one hand on her breast, his mouth on her neck. His other hand shifted beneath her to caress her clit.
“You’re mine. Mine,” he growled, his hips pistoning into her.
He filled her up, possessed her utterly even as he bit into her neck and she let out another cry, trembled as she came hard beneath him.
Gideon thrust into her once more with a harsh cry, his hands hard on her body, holding her close as she shuddered with their combined release.
He rolled them to their sides. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I’m good. You’re obviously doing well. I don’t know why I was worried about you, Gideon.”
“You did good. I’m hungry. A bit sore. Can we go home? And get married soon?”
She rolled away and pulled her pants up, zipped them. Grabbed her T-shirt and pulled it on.
His question caught her off guard. Where, now, was her home? Not Lyons, not anymore. She studied Gideon as he arranged his clothes, ignoring the threads that bound them. His eyes were tired, but there was no trace of the poisons in him. He really was healing.
She took a shuddery breath and smiled. “Yeah. Let’s go to your house. Your family house, I mean.” She stood, leaned down and held out her hand. “Up you go.” She pulled him to his feet.
He took her in his arms, held her close, and she buried her nose in his shoulder. “Thank you, babe. For so much. But you haven’t yet answered my proposal.”
“Thank you for believing in me. Thank you for not dying. And yes of course I’ll marry you.” Marie-Therese steadied herself and took a step back. Took his hand. “Come on. To the car, and then to your home.”
“Do you like pizza? There’s a great pizza place that delivers, called Ciro’s.”
He slung an arm around her shoulder. She slid an arm around his waist to steady him, rejoicing inside whenever their hips brushed. “I like pizza.”
“Good. Oh.” He let go of her and rounded to the passenger side. “Do you eat meat? I know the Fae don’t, in general.”
She sent him a wry smile. “My human side is a total carnivore. So bring on the pepperoni, mushroom, onion and olive pizza.”
They settled in the car and he sighed. “Okay. I’ll get one of those, and a pepperoni, sausage, and ham one for me.”
She stifled a laugh and followed his directions deeper into the Valley.
They ended up at a driveway that was bordered by tall hedges. The gate stood open, and she drove a good quarter mile until she saw the open parking area and the welcoming, gracious house.
She stopped the car and stared. “Mon Dieu.”
It was a glorious house. It fit into the landscape comprised of tall Eucalyptus trees and some sort of flowering bush, and yet there was grandeur about it. The front gardens were barren, and she vowed to see them blooming again.
Marie-Therese glanced, wide-eyed, at Gideon. “This is your family home? It would be at home in France, England, parts of Italy. It does not look American.”
He smiled, took her hand. Kissed it. Her skin hummed at the contact.
“My father was English. My mother, African.” He gave a wistful look to the house. “She was never very comfortable here,” he added.
She squeezed his hand in sympathy with his sadness. “Where to, first?”
“The back yard. The house can wait, especially since there are no beds in there at the moment. Not even in the master bedroom.”
“That’s definitely something we’ll need to remedy.”
“Since we’re getting married, yes. Absolutely.”
Marie-Therese took his hand as they walked across the gravel drive and up the side walkway, where a deep green gate led to the back. The rich smell of citrus and eucalyptus enveloped them. She clapped her hands in surprise. “It’s an orchard.”
“Meyer Lemons, Bearss Limes, and Navel Oranges. Mostly oranges.” They stood on the back porch, his arm around her, and she leaned her head against his shoulder. “I love this yard. See, way in the back? There are barns there. Plural. A hundred years ago, we had much more land and a few cows. Horses. Chickens.”
“This is amazing.” The yard was more like a huge orchard, a couple of city blocks in size. She hung onto him. “So we will live here?”
“We should live here. It needs a family, and we can fill the rooms with kids.” He kissed her cheek. “The mating threads never lie, my love.” His voice was tender, and she melted into him, grateful when his arms tightened around her.
“I’m not as scared as I thought I’d be. Mucking about with your physical heart was scarier than thinking of us together for life. And no one has ever told me the mating threads are
so beautiful.”
“You’re beautiful.” He turned her toward him, brushed the hair away from her face. “I felt them knitting us together as you healed me. The threads were there before, but they solidified between us when you saved my life, and after you finally gave in to your feelings for me. I never thought I would be mated, especially once all my brothers were mated and gone. As it turns out, I have won the best woman of them all.”
With a brief shudder of fore-vision, she realized that his greatest fear would come about.
He would die alone. Loss swamped her, slashed her happiness to ribbons.
She felt his kiss on her forehead, closed her eyes and pressed her face against his chest, her heart breaking for him. How could she tell him that their union would not lead to the happy ever after he was expecting?
You don’t, my child. Telling him would serve no good purpose.
Marie-Therese stiffened. Who are you, to speak so freely in my mind?
A gentle laugh sounded in her mind. I am Gideon’s mother, Kalisha.
That means sorceress. Marie-Therese clung a little closer to Gideon. Where are you? Your sons mourn.
She heard a sigh in her mind.
Kalisha spoke. There is a price to pay for being a tribred. It is one of honor. It was hard leaving our children behind, but it is fated. They will carry on.
I don’t understand. Please. Explain it to me. If she could give ease to Gideon…
I cannot, Marie-Therese. But I am so glad you are his chosen mate. There is much work before the two of you.
You will bear children. Protect them all. Do not let one child take precedence over the others, no matter their heritage. This is your path, to help others to their higher destiny.
But… Marie-Therese gasped and swallowed a sob.
You are loved. And you will be reunited with Gideon, when the time comes, and before your sons have completed their journeys. Take comfort, my dear. And love your men well.
The awareness of another in her mind slipped away, and she was alone.
Well. Not alone…she was wrapped around Gideon, who seemed to be likewise wrapped around her.
Demon Blood: A Demon Soul Prequel (The Caine Brothers) Page 5