“Who you are now comes from what was before. How can the past not matter?”
Furious, mainly because a part of her wondered if he wasn’t right about all of this, she shoved him, putting all of her strength into her hands as she pushed at his massive chest. Sparks of light swept from her fingertips, like droplets from sparklers on the Fourth of July, singeing his shirt. Instantly, she was horrified and patted at him to make sure she hadn’t set him on fire.
“Damn it, what good is this magic if I can’t control it?”
“You will gain control through the Mating,” he told her, ignoring the flash of light sparking at the tips of her fingers. “We are meant to join. To balance each other. To focus our magic into one honed force.”
It sounded right, she told herself, but that small, doubting voice in the back of her mind still shrieked out warnings. It had always been this way. Through the years of training, of studying, she had prepared for her duty and dreaded its arrival.
She could see his point of view, even if she didn’t want to. She had known him less than a week, yet her entire life had been leading her to him. So maybe she should allow for the fact that he knew more about this whole thing than she did. Damn. She really hated being rational.
“Put me down, Rune. Please.”
He did and she wobbled a little unsteadily for a second. Not surprising, really, since desire, fury and magic were mixing into a thick, debilitating stew inside her. Hard to straighten out just what she was feeling, what she was thinking, when a pair of gray eyes were fixed on her, waiting for her to make the mistakes another woman had made in another time.
She knew those memories were locked away inside her and she would do all she could to free them. But even if the time came when she could recall every moment of each of the lives she’d lived before this one, she would still be Teresa. And he had to realize that.
“I don’t remember those lives you’re still holding against me,” she said finally. “The images you showed me earlier were hard for me to accept. But I still don’t remember them. It’s more like watching a movie starring a completely selfish heroine. This is my life. This one, Rune. And despite all the years of training, what you’re asking of me is all new.”
He folded his arms across his chest and stared down at her. “I know that.”
“So blaming me for what I did back in the day is probably not the best way to make friends.”
A reluctant smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “No, probably not.”
“Thanks for that much, anyway.” She reached up and pushed her hair back from her face. The roar of the water rushing into the hot tub had become just background noise. Steady. Like her own heartbeat. The heat in the room filled her and the steam rising from the surface of the water shone from the colorful brilliance of the crystals in the wall.
This whole thing, she thought, was out of some wildly twisted fairy tale. An immortal and a witch, chased by enemies, stranded in the desert, sharing a magical cave filled with gleaming crystals. But in this story, the hero and heroine were so busy butting heads they weren’t getting anywhere. And she was willing to admit to her share of the confrontations.
Sighing, Teresa reached out and took one of his hands in hers. The sizzle and flash that shot through her at his touch was almost familiar in days filled with too much change. “Whoever it is you remember from our past, it’s not me. Whatever you think, that’s not me.”
“We will see,” he said.
Irritation rose up and quickly died away. Yes, she’d had a hard time of it, but so had he. Maybe she could cut him a little slack. “Look, I know what we have to do and I’m not trying to back out. I just want to know what you expect from me.”
“I expect you to be beside me,” he told her, rubbing his thumb across the back of her hand in long, sexy strokes. “I expect you to be my mate as I will be yours. To join our energies, to channel our magic into finding the Artifact and returning it to Haven. I expect you to do what we must.”
She nodded and watched his thumb moving over her skin as if she were mesmerized. “That’s it? You’re not expecting … love?”
He laughed shortly. “My heart doesn’t even beat, Teresa. If it once knew how to love, it’s forgotten now and I’ve no interest in reacquiring the knowledge.”
She didn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed. How could they possibly succeed when neither of them was willing to invest everything? If each of them held back, would either of them be able to do what they had to, together? But what choice did they have except to try?
“All right, then,” she said quietly. “How do we do it?”
“We start like this.” He snapped his fingers and they were naked. Torchlight flickered over the walls, firing the crystals and shimmering on their skin.
Danger still resonated between them. They weren’t safe and wouldn’t be until all of this was over. Maybe, Teresa thought, that emotion was feeding into what was sweeping through her now. She had nearly died today. And again in Sedona. And both times this Eternal had saved her, at great cost to himself.
Life was too damn fragile, she told herself. And too short, despite the fact that she had led many lives. Each one of them had been too short; she knew it instinctively.
There was a nebulous connection between her and Rune, yes, but despite what he was thinking, he didn’t know her. He knew the woman she had been through the centuries, but this woman—Teresa of the here and now—was new. And he had no idea who she was.
That would come, she supposed. They had thirty days to complete the Mating and find the shard of the Artifact she had hidden so long ago. One cycle of the moon. As they worked together toward a common goal. As they became physically closer, their bodies bonding, their souls intertwining.
Her heart wasn’t involved and she wouldn’t allow it to be. But her body burned and she was witch enough, woman enough, to accept the sexual pull between them for what it was.
He caught her left hand in his right and folded his fingers over hers. She did the same and then held her breath as her gaze locked with his. This was a moment filled with more tension than she had ever known.
She was about to pledge her life to this Eternal. The step she had been waiting for all her life was here and the reality of it was a little more intimidating than she had expected. Eternity. Not just the human version of until death do we part, this was literally forever. When that thought settled in, a flurry of images raced through her mind, leaving her clinging to Rune’s hand as her world was rocked. The present fell away and the past rose up to claim her.
Chapter 27
Teresa felt the bite of the cold wind, the stinging needles of the rain and the sizzling punch of the lightning. And she smiled. It was all so much more than they had hoped. More than they had thought possible. She and her sisters faced the storm and welcomed it. They chanted as power surged through the air, jockeying from their pale bodies to the sky and back again. As if the witches and the universe itself were charging each other with enough power to change the world.
Lightning lanced from the sky, jagged bolts hammering into the earth on the borders of a circle carved into the dirt. Witches filled the circle, as they stood in the center of the tempest, skyclad, their naked bodies arched skyward, as if awaiting a lover.
“Don’t do it!”
The woman Teresa had once been turned her head slowly to find the source of that voice. Rune. Standing beyond the circle, forced to be on the outside with his fellow Eternals, locked away from the witches and what they had come here to do.
“Come to me!” he shouted over the roar of the sea and the crash of the lightning. She heard his voice despite the chants rising from her sisters’ throats. She heard it and responded because he was hers. In a way no other man had ever been, Rune was hers.
But she was more than simply his.
She was a witch. A member of the great coven. She owed her sister witches her loyalty even before him. And she had no wish to stop the events of th
is night. She knew they were making a necessary choice and that one day Rune would see that, too. Later, she would soothe him with her body and ease him with her touch. And he would see that the coven was right.
“Stay back,” she warned. “You cannot enter the circle!”
“Nor should you,” he cried. “Come to me now before it’s too late.”
She gave him a sad smile, knowing he would never understand her and why she did what she did. “You’ll see, Rune. This is the way. For all of us.”
She turned back to her sisters, lifted her hands toward Heaven … and watched, helplessly, as hell came down on them instead.
Shaken, Teresa staggered and found that Rune’s grip on her hand was the only stable point in her universe. She clung to him as the last of the memory slid away, hopefully never to return. He had shown her pieces before. Now, though, she had felt it all. Lived through it. And the knowledge and fear and pain were so real they were choking her. “How could I have done that?”
“What did you remember?”
She looked up at him, tears swimming in her eyes. He appeared blurred, but steady. Beside her. As he had tried to be then.
“The night hell opened.”
His features tightened, but so did his grip on her hand. As if his own memories were fueling his hold on her, he stared into her eyes and asked, “Did you remember more than what I showed you? Can you tell me why? Why wouldn’t you listen to me? Why didn’t you step away?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered brokenly, still feeling the chill of that long-ago night creeping through her system.
“I trusted you,” he murmured, his grip on her hand even stronger now.
Ashamed of what she’d done and what the memory was making her feel, she tried to pull free of his grasp, but he wouldn’t let her go. A part of her was grateful. She needed his touch to mitigate the soul-deep chill crawling through her.
“I know.” Two words. Not nearly enough, but all she had to give. “I don’t understand why I did it. Why we did it. But I know it has to be undone. Finally and at last, it has to be undone.”
“And so it will,” he said, his voice as rough as sandpaper.
“The Mating makes us stronger, right?”
“Yes. Every day our powers will increase until we’ve gained enough between us to accomplish our task.” He paused and added, “We will share a … connection. Our minds will be linked.”
“You mean like mind reading?” That sounded horrible. How could you ever have privacy if someone else was able to go picking through your thoughts?
“No, not mind reading. It’s more a way of touching each other and being able to communicate silently. Our thoughts will remain our own.”
“Okay, that’s good. And?” she asked, knowing there was more. “Look, I know the bare bones of this. I know that the Mating will make me immortal. Will give me control of my powers and bind me to you. What do you get out of this, Rune?”
“My heart will at last beat. I will be at last what I was meant to be. A part of you. No longer separate and alone. I’ll be more fully human—able to feel more deeply, experience all that has been muted for centuries—and still immortal. And I’ll have you. At last.”
She flushed at the heat in his eyes, in the tightness of his words. Maybe she was wrong, but she didn’t think he looked very happy at the notion of finally “having” her. And that was probably best, she told herself firmly. It would set them on more common ground. Because immortal mate or not, she wouldn’t be staying with Rune after their thirty days were over. She’d be spending her eternity alone. In the long run—and eternity was certainly a long run—it would be better for her. Better for him.
“So, a heartbeat,” she said, laying her free hand on his chest to feel the stillness beneath his skin. How could any man be so vibrantly alive and still have nothing pounding in his chest? “Experiencing a full range of emotion and sensation. Is that it? Is that all you want out of this Mating?”
“No.” He caught her hand in his and held it tightly. “There’s more. There’s redemption.”
Redemption.
That single word seemed to reverberate throughout the cave, only to hang in the steamy air between them.
“You don’t need redemption, Rune,” she told him, pulling one hand free of his grasp. “That night, it wasn’t you who totally screwed up the world. It was us. My God, I don’t even know what to say to that. But you and the other Eternals tried to stop us. At least you can say that. We have no excuse for what we did.” Shaking her head, she whispered, “I know it was me, but I don’t see how I could have done that …”
He rubbed his hand against hers, palm to palm, flesh to flesh. Sparks shot from their joining, flashed brightly and disappeared, winking out like the sparks from fireworks.
“If the Eternals had been able to get through to all of you, the gates of hell would never have been opened in the first place,” he said, jaw tight, eyes ablaze. “But we failed you. The bonds we had forged between us weren’t strong enough to blast through the coven’s thirst for power.”
“Why not?” She had to ask. Had to know. She’d had one brief memory of that time, but Rune knew it all. He’d lived through it with her and his memories hadn’t been clouded and hidden by generations of reincarnated lives. “Why weren’t the bonds strong enough?”
“We hadn’t mated,” he said, letting his head fall back. Staring up at the crystals shining in the rock face, he added, “The coven refused to mate with the Eternals.” He lowered his gaze to hers again. Frustration and old anger radiated off him in thick waves that seemed to reach for her and draw her closer to share in his frustration. As if he believed that she deserved to experience what he had felt that long-ago night. “Sex was all they wanted from us then. You and your sisters closed yourselves off from what we were meant to be together.”
She rubbed at the spot between her eyes as if she could massage more memories into life. But nothing came. There were no images filling her brain; there was only the sinking sensation that he was absolutely right. That she and her sister witches had tossed aside everything good and pure in a futile search for more power. Unaware or unconcerned that with that power would come a darkness they couldn’t control.
“We were meant to be mated. Two halves of the same whole. Our god, Belen, created the Eternals as equal partners for the witches created by his lover, Danu.”
“The mother goddess,” Teresa whispered, remembering some of the things her abuela had taught her about the origins of witches and witchcraft.
“Yes,” Rune said. “She was a bringer of light, knowledge, magic. It’s said she gave birth to the witches so that her children could share her with the world.”
She shook her head; she couldn’t help wondering what Danu would make of her children now.
“Belen was her lover. The sun god. In ancient times, Beltane fires were lit to encourage the warmth of the sun.” He smiled, as if remembering those days and, she supposed, he was. “For love of Danu, Belen created the Eternals. He drew us from the heart of the sun itself, molded the fire and breathed life into our bodies.”
She looked at their joined hands, and as she watched, fire leaped into life around them. Blue, yellow and red flames danced across her skin and his, joining them in a conflagration of heat without pain.
“We were meant, Teresa.” He stared into her eyes, his gray gaze swirling now into rich shades of silver and pewter. “But when you needed us most, there was no mating bond to anchor you.” Rune’s voice came fast and thick, choking with memories that ran soul deep in him. “You stood alone because you wouldn’t accept me as your equal.”
“If I had?”
“We’ll never know,” he admitted. “But I believe that mated souls are stronger together than apart. Otherwise why would we have the Mating ritual at all?”
“Good point.” She flexed her fingers around Rune’s hand and felt the flames quicken with her action.
The room was hot and steamy. The glow of th
e crystals shone through the mist and Teresa felt everything in her shiver. She wouldn’t again be the woman she had just glimpsed in her fractured memories. She wouldn’t risk the world for her own selfish desires and needs.
This bonding would make them both stronger and she knew that in the coming days they would each need that strength. She had to trust in what she was meant to be. Had to give herself over to the cause that was so much greater than her fears and reluctance to be bonded to any man for eternity. She was doing what she had to do, but she knew that she could never offer him all that she was. She couldn’t pledge her heart and risk an eternity of pain.
Nodding, she swallowed her uncertainties and looked directly into his eyes. “Then let’s do it, Rune. Let’s begin the Mating. I’m ready.”
He took a breath and studied her as if weighing her words. Finally, he said, “Once the Mating ritual has begun, there’s no going back. No changing your mind.”
“I understand.”
“Each time we come together, the Mating will take a greater hold on us. Entwine our souls more completely.”
“I know.” She glanced at their joined hands again and saw the fire burning inside their enclosed palms. Felt its heat snaking down through her system, charging her as if a live electrical wire was being threaded through her veins.
“At the end of thirty days, with our quest fulfilled, the Mating will be complete.”
“Why thirty days?” she asked. “Why not fifteen or twenty?”
“You know why. Somewhere inside you, you feel it. It is the cycle of the moon, Teresa,” he said. “The magic of the coven was drawn from the moon.”
“Okay.” Harder to talk now. It felt as though the heat filling her was cloaking every doubt and fear inside her. They were still there, but Rune’s presence was muffling them somehow. She took strength from his surety about what they were about to do.
But there was one thing she had to know before they began. “And if we don’t succeed at this mission? Then what?”
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