After Sundown: Illumination

by Eden Robins

  Rebecca peeked around Alex and saw a huge guy standing in front of them. He was at least six-five, built like a Viking warrior, and wore a sweatshirt with Alex’s fraternity letters printed across the chest.

  “Hey, Garth. Not much, what’s up with you?”

  Garth snickered.

  “Nothing. That’s the problem. This is bo-oring. Some of the guys and I are planning to stir things up a little around here. Are you in, buddy?”

  Alex shook his head and smiled.

  “You’re pretty good at stirring things up but no, not this time. I’m kind of busy at the moment,” he said, nodding over his shoulder at Rebecca.

  Garth looked around Alex and gave her the once-over with his eyes. It gave Rebecca the creeps and she moved a little farther behind Alex.

  “Niiiice,” Garth said with a nod and a knowing smile. “Well, I’ll leave you to it then, my brother. Later.”

  “Later,” Alex said, dismissing Garth as he turned to face Rebecca.

  “Sorry about that. Garth is the wild guy of the bunch. Sometimes he takes things a little too far. He and I have clashed in the past because of it, so I was trying to keep you out of it as much as possible.”

  “No problem. I understand. He does seem a little on the wild side.” And rude and arrogant, she thought, but didn’t say that aloud.

  “He definitely is.”

  The rest of the afternoon was relaxing and pleasant as the two of them walked about, looking at the different arts and crafts booths, snacking on junk food and enjoying each other’s company. It wasn’t until the sun went down that they ran into Alex’s fraternity buddy again, and this time he had some friends with him.

  The way they were talking loudly and stumbling rather than walking, Rebecca could tell they were drunk. The minute they spotted her and Alex, they headed in their direction. She felt Alex tense up again.

  “Well, well, well, if it isn’t the two little lovebirds.”

  The other men with Garth snickered quietly. Garth began to circle them slowly but his eye focused on Rebecca. She felt growing apprehension as she saw lust fill his gaze.

  “That’s quite a pretty lady you have with you, Alex,” he said with a leer as he moved closer. “In fact, she looks like more than enough woman for all of us.”

  His friends snickered again. They moved in closer, forming a tight circle around Rebecca and Alex.

  “I know you’d want to share her with your brothers, wouldn’t you, buddy? After all, we are a fraternity.”

  They moved in closer. Scared despite the fact that they were in a public place, she opened her mouth to scream. But before she could utter a sound Garth clamped his hand over her mouth.

  “None of that, little girl,” he said by her ear as he pulled her back against his chest. She could smell the reek of alcohol on his breath. It was so strong she wanted to gag. “You just cooperate with us and we’ll treat you right. If you don’t, I can’t guarantee you won’t be hurt.”

  As he spoke, Garth dragged Rebecca around a building, away from the main street. The ended up in a back alleyway with no one else around. Panic overwhelmed Rebecca. Her heart sped out of control.

  “Let her go.”

  Alex’s calm voice broke through the haze of fear engulfing her.

  She looked over to where Alex was being held back by two other men. Although he sounded under control, his face said he was anything but that. Fury was blazing bright in his eyes.

  “You have a problem with this, man?” Garth asked, the threat in his voice obvious.

  “Yeah, I have a problem with that, Garth. You won’t touch my woman. And do you want to know why?”

  Garth’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.

  “Why?”

  “Because I don’t share well with others. My parents learned that early on, my teachers caught on without too much fuss and my friends, my real friends,” he said, looking around at the other men with disdain and disgust in his eyes, “know that for a fact.”

  Garth chuckled mockingly.

  “Well, that’s just too bad, Alex. Deal with it. It’s time to share.”

  And with those words, Garth removed his hand from Rebecca’s mouth, only to slam his mouth against hers.

  Rebecca fought him but he was too big and too strong.

  Suddenly a quiet calm filled her. She knew what she had to do. She hadn’t wanted Alex to find out about her gift but at this point she had little choice. She felt the energy build in her as she struggled to keep Garth at bay. It wasn’t easy. His hands began to roam her body.

  She needed to hurry.

  She lifted her knee and hit Garth in his most tender spot. He tore his mouth from hers but didn’t release her. It didn’t matter. All she needed was her mouth free to say the words. She began the first part of the chant, only to have it interrupted by someone else. Her eyes whipped around to the other voice. Alex! He was chanting the disable spell she had begun, staring intently at her as he did so. He had heard her begin. He knew. And now, she knew about him also.

  She joined him in the remaining part of the spell. Energy whipped and crackled in the air around them. Rebecca’s hair lifted from her shoulders as if a strong wind had blown in. Garth’s fingers loosened from her arms and he slipped to the ground. The rest of the men also slid, unconscious, to the ground. By the end of the chant only she and Alex were still standing.

  “Are you okay?” Alex asked, striding toward her.

  She nodded and gave him a shy smile. Now that everything was said and done, she felt a little unsure about things. What would happen now that he knew, and she knew?

  “I’m fine. H-how are you?”

  He smiled charmingly, his eyes twinkling with mischief.

  “Better now that I know what a little witch you really are,” he teased.

  Rebecca gasped in mock outrage but then smiled as he chuckled softly.

  As his laughter died down, his stare grew serious.

  “Are you sure you’re okay, Rebecca? I don’t know what I’d have done if they had hurt you,” he said, taking her arm and leading her away from the scene. “I take that back. I know what I would have done.”

  Alex explained, in detail, the gruesome death he would have planned for his frat brothers as she and he walked back to the ASU campus. Rebecca shuddered as he went into more and more detail, describing the horrible ways in which he would kill them. Finally she had to say something.

  “I’m fine, Alex. Really. There’s no need to talk about it anymore,” she said, placing her free hand gently on his arm. “Let’s just try to enjoy the rest of the evening. Tonight the weather’s so mild, and look how bright the stars are. I’d hate to waste it thinking about those drunk guys.”

  Alex looked down at her hand then back into her eyes. The anger in his gaze softened and he smiled gently.

  “You’re right,” he said, nodding his head. “They’re not worth another thought. Sometimes I just get so angry I don’t know how to handle it. It’s then that my power crackles and boils beneath the surface, needing to break free. But you soothe me, Rebecca. Maybe it’s your sweet white energy. I don’t know how I missed it before. But it exudes from you in waves, calming me.”

  Rebecca smiled but inside she wondered about his anger. With the kind of power he had, controlling his emotions was vital. If a witch or wizard couldn’t do that on their own they were dangerous not only to themselves but also to others. Witchcraft wasn’t about emotional outbursts. It was about training, discipline and using one’s power responsibly. She, like most Wiccans, had learned that lesson from the time she had first discovered her powers. Responsibility and discipline in using her gift was something her grandparents had taught her early on.

  She tried to shrug it off, enjoying the rest of the evening with Alex. After that things had gone well, for a while. They grew closer and closer with each passing day, and after a fairly short period of time they shared a different kind of connection. She let Alex make love to her.

  He was her first. T
he first man she had let into her heart and her body. The only man she had ever wanted to share herself with in that way. Rebecca felt she could trust Alex.

  She was wrong.

  Their lovemaking was incredible—exciting and powerful.

  She was in love.

  And thought Xander was in love too.

  She was wrong about that too.

  As she and Alex spent more and more time together in the weeks and months that followed, Rebecca slowly came to realize just how out of control he really was. She found out over time, to her surprise and dismay, that Alex drank quite a bit. And when he did his anger and violent outbursts increased.

  He was constantly starting arguments with other men. The first few times he got into arguments she tried to intervene. She tried to calm him down and stop him. Initially he had backed down, letting her soothe him, but after the first few times of her persuading him to just walk away that changed. They were at yet another frat party and Alex picked a fight with a guy. When she tried to interfere, he became furious, telling her to never try to control him again. And then he pushed her. Not hard enough to hurt her, but with enough strength that she stumbled back and fell down.

  She looked up at him in shock but he didn’t notice. All Alex’s attention had turned back on the man he was arguing with. She felt the fury emanating from him in sharp, stabbing waves. It was so strong, so overwhelming, she almost could see it surrounding and snuffing out his natural aura.

  And as his anger built so did his dark power.

  It crackled in the air around him.

  The hairs on her arm stood up.

  This wasn’t going to be good.

  The power building in Alex was so dark it was almost black. It wasn’t healing power. It was destructive and malevolent. It was the kind of power she had been taught to stay far away from. The kind she knew could eat you up inside.

  She cared about Alex. She didn’t want him to destroy himself with the darkness but as she got to her feet, she admitted he was beyond her help that night. He didn’t want to let go of the destruction. He was embracing it tightly within the anger that overwhelmed him. So Rebecca walked away. She left the party and went home.

  The next day Alex apologized. He claimed his anger had gotten the better of him. That the man he had been arguing with had sent him over the edge, had made him cross a line he never would have crossed. He was humble and defeated as he apologized for pushing her and promised it wouldn’t happen again.

  At a rational level, Rebecca knew she shouldn’t have accepted his apology. She knew she should have said goodbye.

  But she hadn’t.

  She couldn’t.

  After that, things were better.

  For a while.

  After about a month back together Alex told her he wanted to change his name.

  “Why Xander?” she asked, surprised by his unexpected announcement.

  “It suits me better, Rebecca. Alex is just too, well, too mortal. Xander is more my style.”

  So Alex changed his name to Xander. And he insisted she call him that, so she did. That transition marked the beginning of something else. The beginning of their relationship’s end. Not too soon after Alex became Xander the arguments and fights started again. Their relationship finally ended on the night he almost killed a man—and then actually backhanded her across the face when she had tried to stop him.

  Stunned by his actions, her face pounding with pain, she had known she had to do something. The minute Xander had turned his attention back to the man he had chosen as his target for the night Rebecca struggled to her feet. She wouldn’t stand by and watch this. She wouldn’t let Xander use the darkness to hurt this man more. Enough was enough.

  Rebecca quickly and quietly let the energy build inside her. And while Xander’s back was turned, she sent the disable spell right at him. His hands dropped to his sides and he remained still, frozen in place. She also discreetly sent a healing spell to the man Xander had beaten to a pulp. He lay still and bleeding on the ground and she prayed he would be okay.

  She took Xander home and told him goodbye that night. She also warned him to never contact her again. Sending a mental suggestion for him to sleep and wake up calm and at peace in the morning, Rebecca walked out of his house and out of his life forever.

  Or so she thought.

  He reappeared in her life several years later, almost as abruptly as he had left it.

  She was visiting a hospice in downtown Phoenix one afternoon, talking with patients, thinking about doing a spot on the facility as part of her new job as the TV reporter for one of the local news stations. She had just finished doing her research and was planning out the show in her mind as she walked through the parking lot back to her car. Her mind was so occupied with how to best describe and recount all the good the hospice did for the near death or dying patients that she didn’t see Xander until he was right beside her.

  She had just reached her car when he appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.

  “Hello, Becca.”

  She was wary at first, shocked to see him after all the time that had passed. But since he seemed calm and pleasant, different from the college frat boy she had known, she talked pleasantries with him for a while. But then he asked her out on a date. She had immediately said no, trusting her instincts that Xander and she should never get involved again.

  And from the moment she refused, things had gotten ugly.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The sound of a low growl brought her back from her reverie. She saw that Jason’s eyes glittered dangerously.

  “What exactly do you mean by ugly?” Jason demanded.

  “I initially tried to coax Xander out of his hostility. I tried to calm him,” Rebecca explained. “But I should have known from past experience with him that it wouldn’t work. If anything, my efforts to pacify him seemed to further enrage him. He resorted to physical violence yet again. He cast a propel spell that sent me crashing into a car. After that I knew there was no talking him out of it. I had to defend myself.”

  “I realize now that that had been his plan all along. He knew I had powers to rival his, he knew I was no weakling when it came to my craft and his ego wouldn’t let him forget that, or what I did to him the night I left him. It was simple. He wanted to prove to me that he was stronger, more powerful. He wanted to prove to me that the years had made him better than me. And he wanted me to submit to that and to him. He wanted to dominate me in a way I would never allow. Not then and not now. Not from him. Not from anyone. Ever.”

  Rebecca looked pointedly at Jason. She was her own woman, proud of who she was and her heritage. She wanted and needed a man in her life but not at all costs. She needed her own power and her own sense of self. She would never give that away to a man or let a man take it from her.

  Jason nodded his head but said nothing. His gaze told her he understood what she wasn’t saying and what she was. And he seemed to genuinely respect that.

  Good.

  He needed to know that she couldn’t and wouldn’t be dominated or controlled by a man.

  “Tell me what happened, Rebecca.”

  While listening to Rebecca tell her tale, it was hard for Jason to imagine what she was telling him. She was such a positive, gentle person, so full of goodness and healing. The fact that his light and laughter had been faced with such violence and evil outraged him.

  He would kill Xander Davis with his bare hands. He didn’t need his bow. The way he felt now he would tear him limb from limb without a problem.

  “From that moment on I didn’t hold back. My self-control had reached its limit,” Rebecca explained. “I sent my own propel spell his way, sending him crashing into a nearby car.”

  Jason understood about self-control.

  The gargoyle in him was strong. Despite his human form he was not human. He was a creature with primitive, primal and sometimes savage urges and instincts that were unacceptable in the human world. He had learned to control that part of him
self early on but there were still occasions, especially since he had met Rebecca, where he had to fight the urges threatening to take him over. But he did fight them, and won, time and time again. There was no other choice. If he wanted to survive in this human world and fulfill his mission as a gargoyle he had to win.

  He held tight to his self-control, especially where Rebecca was concerned, because he didn’t know if she could handle that part of him. Yes she was a witch, yes she knew of his world and the paranormals existing all around them but that didn’t mean she understood what gargoyles were or what they were capable of.

  Yes, he understood self-control. And he would maintain it. Not just for himself but for his woman, his M’Tali.

  “He seemed barely fazed and he got off the ground but his expression was livid. Before I knew what hit me he threw a confusion spell my way. I didn’t even have the chance to throw up mental shields. I became disoriented,” Rebecca explained, her eyes becoming even more haunted. “That was when he physically attacked me. During my confusion he must have charged me, because in the next moment Xander slammed into me and knocked me to the ground. He beat me then. And I don’t mean just light hits with an open palm. He literally started pummeling my face and body with closed fists. The pain was overwhelming and intense and all the while he kept repeating the same thing.”

  “What was he saying?” Jason asked hoarsely.

  He almost didn’t want to know. He swallowed, not letting the nausea take over as he imagined his woman, his heart, getting beaten. Fury like he had never known threatened to overwhelm him in that moment. He tamped it down, remembering his need for self-control.

  Xander would get his retribution. It was only a matter of time.

  “He kept saying, ‘You are nothing, Rebecca, I am everything. Give in to my will.’”

  “His words had a different effect than he’d intended. Instead of making me want to give in they made me want to fight back. I knew I would never give in to his will. I somehow took him by surprise. I don’t think he expected much resistance from me. He should have known better,” she said with a satisfied smile. “His arrogance cost him, again. I managed to escape from under him and sent a kick to his face that laid him flat for a moment. I managed to pull myself together. Calling upon my powers, I cleared his spell from my mind and threw it back at him. Xander tried to stand but couldn’t. He was too confused. Then I hit him with another disable spell. He couldn’t fight it. Between the confusion and disable he had no control.”