In Destiny’s Shadow
Page 22
Danielle didn’t flinch. She looked at Liam over her shoulder and spoke calmly, her tone as immovable as the men’s stance. “Let my family deal with him.”
Liam fumed. “Dani—”
“Trust me. Please.” She held out her hand to her aunt. “Aunt Maggie?”
Magdalena went to stand beside Danielle. She clasped her hand and looked at Benedict. “You shall reap what you sowed, Benedict Payne. That which you wanted to control will defeat you.”
Benedict twisted Melina’s arm, forcing her wrist between her shoulder blades as he pointed the gun at Magdalena. “You! You’re the one who stole the babies.”
“Deanna loved her babies enough to give her three youngest to me because she feared what you would do when she told you she was leaving you. I found them homes where you could not hurt them. And you shall not hurt them now.”
A gust of wind moaned through the village. It wasn’t from the police helicopters. The sound of their engines had faded; the air beyond the ledge was empty.
Bracelets tinkled as Magdalena lifted her arm to point at Benedict. “Like a jackal, you prey on the solitary, but we stand united against you. You are no match for the power we wield. Justice will be done.”
The sky was clear, yet Melina felt thunder rumble through the stone beneath her feet. The roots of her hair tingled. She blinked and returned her gaze to Anthony. Despite the pain from her twisted arm and the fear that froze her thoughts, the moment her gaze met his she felt a thrill flow through her body, sparking every nerve to awareness.
She had never seen him look so…alive. So vital. So powerful. His hair streamed in the wind, the gold gypsy ring at his earlobe glinting in the sunlight. Energy shimmered around him, as well as around his brothers and sisters, making the ancient walls and the sheltering cliff waver like a heat mirage.
“Enough!” Benedict shouted. The gun slammed back against Melina’s temple. “You have three seconds to move aside or I’ll shoot her. One.”
The thunder in the stone spread to Melina’s pulse. It gathered force, becoming a rhythm in her bones. She kept her gaze on Anthony’s. Even across the distance that separated them, she could feel the caress of his love.
“Two.”
That was the key, she realized. The real source of power. Benedict was not going to win. She smiled into Anthony’s eyes and waited for the wave to break. She knew it wouldn’t take long. There were six of them. Seven. Standing united, just as Cassie had foreseen.
“Three.”
An eagle dove from an empty window in one of the structures, swooping so close that its wingtips slashed Benedict’s face. He released his grip on Melina’s arm and staggered toward the edge of the cliff. The gun tore away from his fingers and crashed into the wall there, knocking loose a shower of crumbled brick. He spun twice, his feet slipping on the debris, his arms flailing for balance. A nimbus of blue-white light crackled around his face. He screamed and covered his eyes.
It all happened so fast, Melina had barely realized she was free when Anthony caught her in his arms. Sensations too intense to name burst everywhere they touched, leaving her breathless, quivering, gasping for air.
He clasped her to his chest. “Hang on, Melina.”
She anchored her fingers in his shirt. Before the wave could retreat, a new one built. It was broader than the last, deeper, darker, more primitive. Melina felt as if the very mountain was vibrating, channeling the power of these ruins, the painted handprints and the storehouse of stolen treasures that had been hoarded deep inside.
“This one isn’t ours,” Anthony said against her ear. “We’re not controlling this.”
A surge of cold howled through the Anasazi village, racing past the empty windows, darting around the crumbled walls, gathering the ancient dust until it formed itself into a writhing whirlwind.
From the safety of Anthony’s embrace, Melina stared in awed disbelief. The whirlwind tilted, whipping streamers of dust toward Benedict, ripping off his stolen hat and vest, tearing away his shirt, his pants and his shoes, stripping him of his magician illusions.
In less than a heartbeat, Benedict was naked and cowering. The funnel of dust turned black as it swallowed him. The force lifted him off his feet and carried him over the side of the cliff, leaving nothing behind but the fading sound of his scream.
Epilogue
Thanksgiving, one week later
It was lucky that Liam and Danielle’s new house here in Chicago was large enough to hold this family reunion, Melina thought, gazing at the crowd that had gathered in the living room. The reunion in New Mexico last week had only been the start. If Anthony’s family kept expanding at this rate, by next year they would need to rent a hall.
Deanna Falaso Payne’s six children weren’t as unique as Melina had thought. Henry Bloomfield, the man Benedict had named a week ago during that nightmare in the stronghold’s lab, had fathered six other genetically engineered children with a woman named Violet Vaughn. Like Deanna’s children, Violet’s had been scattered by tragedy during their childhood, but they had found each other once again.
Although Liam and the others had suspected there was a blood link between Deanna’s children and Violet’s for almost half a year, the official DNA test had confirmed the relationship only a few weeks ago. Suddenly, Anthony had four more brothers—Jake, Connor, Marcus and Gideon—and two more sisters, Faith and Gretchen. The six tall, dark-haired, blue-eyed men and women were a fascinating group of individuals, each with stories as heartrending as Anthony’s. They had overcome tremendous obstacles; every one of them understood how powerful the love of a family could be.
And since these newly discovered half-siblings of Anthony’s were all married and deeply in love—and doing their best to add to the family tree—Liam and Danielle’s snowy backyard was overflowing with nieces and nephews.
Melina turned to the window and wiped the condensation from the glass with her palm so she could look into the backyard. It was fortunate that they had served the turkey before the snow had started. Corralling the children long enough to sit them down for Thanksgiving dinner had been difficult, but the minute they had seen the snow, they had disappeared in a cloud of coats, hats and giggles.
She shifted her focus to look at her hand where it rested against the glass. A diamond glinted from her ring finger. Anthony had put it there before they had left his apartment in Philadelphia this morning after a night of loving that neither of them would ever forget. Maybe by next Thanksgiving…
Anthony came up behind her, slipping his arms around her waist. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I just wanted to watch the kids.”
He leaned down to rest his chin on her shoulder. “They’re really something, aren’t they?”
“They’re the future.” She put her hand over his and moved it to her stomach. For the first time in eight years, this day didn’t make her think about the child she had lost but about the love she had gained. Never in her life had she had so much to be thankful for. “I love you, Anthony.”
A soft pulse flowed from his palm to her stomach, then curled gently around her thigh. “I’ve heard a rumor to that effect,” he murmured.
“I love your family, too. They’re…extraordinary.”
His chest rumbled with a quiet chuckle. “I have to admit, it’s hard to keep everyone straight without a program. Jake and Gideon pointed out that the number of my siblings has doubled twice in less than a week.”
“Jake and Gideon are the math geniuses, right?”
“Uh-huh. I doubt if even those two know how many kids are out there. They don’t stand still long enough to count.”
She laughed. “I’m just starting to get the first names straight. It’s going to be a challenge to sort out all the last ones.”
“And speaking of challenges…” He kissed her cheek. “Elizabeth told me Cole offered you a job on one of his Philadelphia papers. Are you going to take it?”
Cole’s offer hadn’t been the only one that
had come in during the past week. From the moment her exclusive story of the fall of the Titan Syndicate had hit the New York Daily Journal’s front page, she had heard from practically every major paper on the continent, as well as three television networks.
Yet there were facts that hadn’t made it into her story, facts that had been left out of the official police report. How could anyone explain the way Benedict had disappeared? Cause of death—a whirlwind?
Still, no one could deny that justice had been done.
“I probably will take Cole’s offer,” Melina said. “I’d like to work closer to home.”
“Are you going to miss the traveling?”
“Nope. There’s nothing I want to run away from anymore.” She folded her arms over Anthony’s, leaning back into his embrace. “I already told Neil I’m resigning. He’d been expecting it. He sounded genuinely pleased when I told him I’d moved in with you.” She smiled at Anthony’s reflection in the glass. “It seems he’s already dating the new copy editor they hired to replace the one who had been working for Benedict.”
He smiled back at her, his eyes sparkling. “It must be something in the air.”
“Mmm. You might be right.” She tipped her head toward the window. Beyond the melee of children, a middle-aged couple stood arm in arm beneath the snow-dusted boughs of a birch tree. “Have you noticed Magdalena and Jeremy? They went outside to help build the snowman, but they’re watching each other more than they’re watching the kids.”
Anthony whistled softly. “Something in the air, all right.”
“And just when I thought things couldn’t possibly get better.”
He drew her away from the window and turned her to face him. “What would you think about a honeymoon in Florida?”
“Why Florida?”
“The weather.”
“Don’t you like the snow?”
“It’s not that.” He stroked his knuckles along the edge of her jaw, sending a whisper of sensation to her lips. His gaze glowed with a private smile. “I heard there are regions in Florida that have a higher incidence of lightning strikes per square mile than anywhere else in the country.”
Melina didn’t need to be able to foresee the future to be certain that things were going to keep getting better for a long, long time.
Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Ingrid Weaver for her contribution to the FAMILY SECRETS: THE NEXT GENERATION series.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-7364-5
IN DESTINY’S SHADOW
Copyright © 2004 by Harlequin Books S.A.
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