Deadly Attraction

by Calista Fox

  In the wee hours of the morning, fatigue set in and she permitted it to consume her.

  * * * * *

  Darien spent the better part of Saturday morning at the burned-out church. He stood on the ledge and stared at the land sprawled before him, having a magnificent panoramic view. The sun was shining, yet there were still patches of snow on the ground. Some of the tree limbs were laden with a half inch or so of fluffy, undisturbed white.

  A breeze rippled the water in spots that had begun to thaw along the river. In two more months, the grass along the banks would be a lush, vibrant green. The wildflowers would bloom. The needles on the pines would be fresh and hearty, not dried and brittle. The river would flow freely, undulating with the rapids and the steady current.

  The birds had already begun to migrate back from their winter in the south and they chirped in a lively way as they fluttered around, apparently in search of branches not covered in snow to perch themselves on or nest in.

  Spring was Darien’s favorite season. Granted, it wasn’t in full swing now, but edging close.

  He enjoyed the solitude and the scenery from his current post, though in the back of his mind, he toyed with the idea of leveling the tall structure on which the church stood. It was, after all, a constant reminder of what had happened to Jade during the fire wraith’s second attack.

  He’d come here a couple of times over the past month, for no reason other than it seemed to be the one place he could think about her and let his emotions move through him when he wasn’t around anyone at the castle to take his angst and frustration out on. Or for them to take note over how much he missed her.

  As he’d told Sheena, forgiveness was not the issue at hand. How to reconcile with Jade and find some sort of tranquility between them was, so they could be together. Yet even as he contemplated that idea, he wondered if it was too late. He’d let a lot of time slip by without seeing her or communicating with her in any form. Not exactly the best means to express one’s love for another.

  He shook his head. As much as he’d like to blame his inability to reach out to Jade these past several weeks on his lack of romantic experience, he couldn’t rely on that shortcoming as an excuse. The truth was, he’d considered not reconnecting with her because the obstacles seemed too great—and threatened his sanity when it came to her daredevil ways.

  This still weighed heavy on his mind when he heard Thunder neigh softly, in both welcome to an unexpected visitor and in warning to Darien. Moments later, the sound of booted feet on the stone steps caused his pulse to spike. He knew who was about to join him before Jade crested the landing.

  She walked slowly toward him, tension oozing from her.

  Her gaze slid to the view he had, and then she said, “Master of all you survey, hmm?”

  He hopped down from the ledge. “Not all.” Not her, certainly. He took her in from head to toe, dressed in black leggings and a lightweight sweater. She had mud on her hands and knees, along with a few smudges on her face. “Starting your gardening?” he mused, keeping his tone light, though his gut wrenched with myriad emotions at the sight of her.

  An overwhelming urge to pull her into his arms and kiss her, forgetting all about the fact she constantly defied him and put herself in harm’s way, overcame him. But he resisted the temptation.

  She said, “Actually, I’ve been looking for the necklace. Sheena has been helping too. At night when I have my watch.”

  His brow dipped. “You’re rooting around on hands and knees?”

  “I’m going to find the pendant and return it to you,” she insisted. “I don’t care what it takes.”

  He stepped toward her, held out his hand and uncurled his fingers. In his palm lay the Star of Nadia.

  She gasped and relief seemed to wash over her. “You found it. Thank God!” She pressed a hand to her chest. “I am so happy.”

  Closing the gap between them, he said, “Take it.”

  Her head shook sharply and her eyes grew wide. “Absolutely not.”

  “I gave it to you as a gift. It’s yours.”

  “No,” she said, her voice suddenly cracking. “You gave it to someone you thought you loved.”

  “I gave it to someone I do love.” He stared down at her, gauging her reaction to his words.

  Her lips quivered and her blue eyes misted. “When you love someone, you don’t shut them out of your life. I’ve learned that recently.”

  He thought of Sheena’s comment about not visiting Jade a while back, and accepted that his absence had likely hurt Jade. So he clearly hadn’t been the only one to suffer through the time and distance.

  As a peculiar apprehension gripped him, he said, “I haven’t yet figured out how to be with you and not try to control everything you do. Not from an arrogant or tyrannical standpoint, but because if something happened to you…” He felt a burning sensation in his heart over the hypothetical horror.

  In a quiet voice, Jade said, “I told you that you have to accept the fact I’m human and mortal. I will die.”

  “It doesn’t have to be that way,” he ground out.

  “You can’t protect me every second of the day, Darien. Nor would I want to be so stifled. I’ve come to terms with what I’m capable of and I can’t bury my head in the sand any longer and live with the easy path in life. I want more. I want to help humans and demons. I want to be someone who makes a difference.”

  She drew in a breath, as though to steady herself. “I might not be the perfect solution for world peace or the right woman to be your queen, but I can continue to learn about life on both sides of the border and help to build a bridge between our worlds.”

  Contradictory thoughts assaulted Darien’s mind, waging a war in his brain as to whether he should give in or continue to push back. But a prevailing notion overruled everything sensible he had to say on the matter. He wasn’t one to let his emotions trump his rationale, yet one glaring fact could not be overlooked. Even as agitated and confused as he’d been the past month—and each time Jade had been injured—he couldn’t deny the fact he respected her tenacity. Nor could he let go of his love for her.

  Sweeping aside his pride, he asked, “Do you understand the concept of compromise?”

  One corner of her mouth lifted, as though she were about to smirk at him. But then it dipped and she frowned instead. “In theory,” she admitted.

  “That seems to be my problem as well.”

  She studied him curiously then asked, “What are you getting at?”

  “I make demands,” he said in an honest tone. “I believe you accept them in good faith, but then you go and chase after your friend Michael in the woods and end up broken and battered when you’d agreed to stay inside your cottage. You take a stand against fifty demons and try to kill a fire wraith, when I’ve explicitly told you to stay in the village.”

  She opened her mouth, likely to defend her actions, but he silenced her with a look.

  “You take the oath of a demon slayer,” he continued on, “knowing full well it’ll send me over the edge.”

  Her expression turned remorseful.

  “And you accept my marriage proposal because you think it’ll provide leverage in keeping the villagers safe.”

  “No,” she quickly interjected. “I wanted to accept that proposal from the beginning. Not because of anyone else or any leverage I might gain. I wanted to marry you. There are no ulterior motives there. I just… I needed validation that it would work.”

  She shook her head, as if that answer didn’t fully encompass what she wanted to say. “I know I shouldn’t have to feel the need to give anyone a reason for my choices. But we were secretive, for the most part, and that was a wrong approach from the start. I shouldn’t have hidden my feelings for you from my friends, regardless of whether they approved. I should have been upfront, and it was a mistake for me to spring the engagement on everyone. Including you.”

  Jade lifted her hands as though in surrender. “I know I appear impulsive and re
ckless. But I do think about my actions.”

  Darien didn’t say a word.

  She said, “The trouble I continually encounter is that what I do is driven by demon encounters. I had to try to protect Michael when he left my cottage in a fit of rage. I had to divert the fire wraith from burning my house to the ground the first time he injured me. I had to take Walker’s place because there was no one else to do it—and I possess the skills. And I had to follow Tanner to the border in an effort to stall the demons long enough for your scouts to reach you and for you to return with an army.”

  Her hands moved to her hips and she raised her chin a notch as she stared up at him. “Yes, I am constantly in dangerous situations. But that could change for me—and all humans—if we work together, as you’d asked me to do.”

  He shoved a hand through his hair. His gut clenched.

  Of course, he did not want a partner who lived in fear and cowered in a corner. He wanted a woman who was strong and determined. He wanted Jade. Everything about her appealed to him, even if she did repeatedly create internal strife for him. He wouldn’t get so worked up if he didn’t have such powerful feelings for her. But could two strong wills unite?

  He said, “There’s one thing I haven’t shared with you yet. It can change everything about us from this moment on. In a positive way.”

  She gazed at him, intrigue in her eyes. “What is it?”

  Unraveling the satin ribbon on the necklace, he wrapped it around her throat and tied the ends, since the clasp was broken. If Jade chose to keep the pendant, he’d have the jeweler who’d crafted her ring fix the fastening.

  “The Star of Nadia,” he told her, “is a mystical piece. It was blessed by a demon princess. The immortal man who gives it to a mortal woman can grant her an eternity with him. The gift hasn’t been evoked in centuries. The necklace has been in my possession since I was a child.”

  Her expression turned quizzical. She asked, “Are you telling me you have the ability to make me immortal?”

  He nodded. “If I ask you, all you have to do is say yes.”

  Jade stepped away. His heart sank.

  “An eternity,” she whispered, a hint of awe in her voice but also a tinge of regret. “I told you humans can’t comprehend that extensive amount of time.”

  “And you would carry around your painful memories with you,” he warned her, in the interest of full disclosure.

  Her lips twisted and her brow furrow. Then she shook her head and said, “Not exactly.”

  This perplexed Darien. “What do you mean?”

  She said, “I took Sheena to the spot where my parents were murdered by demons. I told her what happened and how ashamed I was I didn’t do anything to save them.”

  “Jade,” he stared at her, aghast. “You were eleven years old. What could you have possibly done?”

  “Led the wolves away so my parents could have escaped.”

  He gripped her by the shoulders. “They wouldn’t have escaped. Your father would have followed after them. They would have killed him regardless. And you.”

  “That’s basically what Sheena said. And I know it’s true. But you can’t tell me that every time I ended up in battle with the fire wraith that you didn’t hate yourself for not doing something to keep me from getting hurt.”

  His hands dropped. “You have a point.”

  “Anyway,” she said, “I forced myself to think about what Sheena said and…so much more. I realized I can’t cling to the painful feelings. I made them a part of me and, to be honest, I used them as a crutch. I used them to keep me isolated in my cottage and distant from people. So…I let them go.”

  His eyes searched hers, and he had to admit, there was a vibrant clarity to her blue irises he’d never seen before. Torment no longer clouded them.

  “How…?” He was at a loss for words, really.

  She shrugged. “I don’t know exactly, except to say that I reached a point where I could continue to let the pain taunt me or I could push it away from me. I was ready for the latter, I guess. I knew it was time.”

  The backs of his fingers brushed over her cheek. “And you’re all right?”

  “Yes. I feel about fifty pounds lighter, actually.”

  He chuckled. “You would joke.”

  “Why not?” she asked. “I can’t live the rest of my life under a dark cloud. It suited me initially, I’ll admit. But no longer. I can envision so much more for myself now. I owe that in large part to you. As well as Sheena and Morgan. Tanner and my other friends.”

  His fingers skimmed over her jaw and down her throat. He touched the Star of Nadia and said, “You could have an eternity to explore everything you were meant to be. Everything you were meant to do.” He gave her a compelling, earnest and imploring look as he all but begged, “Share it with me.”

  She pulled in a breath. Conflicting emotions flashed in her eyes and she said, “But I irritate you on a regular basis.”

  He laughed. “Yes, but I still love you. I always will, I told you that. I haven’t done a good job of showing it this past month and I promise to rectify that. Make up for it. But, Jade, if you were immortal… Your tenacity wouldn’t worry me so much. I’d still insist you be careful, yet you’d be much more resilient.”

  “Are you saying you still want to marry me?”

  “I never stopped wanting to marry you.”

  “But—”

  “Yes I know.” He sighed. “I’ve been distant and aggravated. I’m not proud of that. Clearly, I have anger management issues to work through.”

  Jade bit her lower lip, likely to keep from declaring he’d made a monumental understatement.

  With a low chuckle, he said, “Look at the couth and diplomacy you’re demonstrating. You really have learned a lot. Although you could be more discreet with your sarcastic expressions.”

  She smiled. “I’ll work on that.”

  Gazing deep into her eyes, he said, “I can only ask you this once in order for it to work. Will you stay with me…forever?”

  Her breath hitched. He hadn’t been overdramatic seconds earlier—it truly was a one-shot deal. If she said no, he’d never have the chance to invoke the gift again.

  Naturally, when she hedged, panic tore through him. He didn’t want to lose Jade. He’d admitted to not handling the situation with her correctly, but he knew now they had the potential to work together and resolve the complications they encountered. But he also had to face the fact that, in his heart and soul, he wanted her to be an immortal. Not just because she’d be infinitely safer, but so that they could share endless years together.

  Her gaze remained locked with his and he could see she was overwhelmed with the decision. He should have given her more time. He should have considered that she’d need to process this and—

  “Yes.”

  She smiled again and his heart soared. His hands gently clasped her face and he kissed her. She responded with equal passion and Darien knew they had finally found their common ground. It turned out to be unwavering affection.

  When he eventually pulled away, he said, “I love you.”

  She nodded. “You’d better. We’re going to be together for a long, long time.”

  He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly.

  “I love you too,” she whispered.

  “You had me going there for a moment.”

  “Forever isn’t easy to quantify.”

  He kissed her once more then loosened his embrace. “Where’d you pick up that term?”

  “I’ve dabbled with the mathematics books you added to Lisette’s library. But Sheena will have to tutor me. I’m at a complete loss when it comes to calculus.”

  “Think of all the time you’ll have to learn it.”

  “That’s an advantage to living for all of eternity.”

  He crooked a brow. “There’s just one?”

  She swatted playfully at him. “Teasing, remember?” Then a thought seemed to occur to her. She gnawed her lip a mom
ent and asked, “How can you be sure I’m immortal now? I don’t feel any different.”

  Releasing her, he stepped up to the ledge of the church and tugged on her hand so she joined him.

  “You’re not going to push me over the edge in order to test this, are you?”

  “Of course not.” Holding her hand, he said, “Be still and listen.” He gave her a few seconds then asked, “What do you hear?”

  “Birds chirping.”

  “Beyond that.”

  She concentrated harder. “Tree limbs brushing against each other in the breeze. The stream of water that’s broken through the ice trickling downriver. Voices.” Her eyes narrowed. “No, just one voice. Near my cottage. Tanner? He’s wondering where I went without Walker’s horse. But…he’s muttering.”

  “Your senses are heightened.”

  “Yes.” Her gaze swept the clearing on the opposite riverbank and the woods beyond. He watched her closely. “I can see farther. Hear more acutely. And now I feel…a little strange. Your hand.” Her eyes dropped to where their fingers were entwined. “Your touch is even more electrifying.”

  “Now you know what I feel every time I’m with you.”

  Her gaze lifted to connect with his again. “I feel…incredible.”

  “Just remember,” he warned, though he kept his tone light. “You’re invincible against a normal human. But not necessarily a slayer or a vanquishing spell. Or another demon. You’ll be harder to kill, but not impossible.”

  “I’m definitely not invincible. Sheena pointed that out the other night.”

  “Keep it in mind. Although…” He reached for his dagger with his free hand.

  She looked taken aback. “You’re not going to stab me in the heart, are you?”

  He laughed at her jest, remembering their first encounter of this nature in the library. “Trust me.”

  Raising their twined hands, he shifted his hold on her so he exposed her palm. Then he slowly dragged the blade over her flesh. It split and blood oozed, as it had in the past.