* * *
Nicole’s emotions echoed with the hollowness in her soul as she looked down into the dark depths of the shadows beneath her. He had been lost. She had searched, hoped, and waited, but he had been irrevocably taken from her.
His hand brushed hers; a frisson of electricity coursed through her system, pulling her from the depths. He had been lost – and now he was found. Somehow, incredibly, he was here, reborn, fresh at her side. He had found her, just as Christopher had promised he would.
She had missed him for so long …
She closed her eyes against the longing. She just wanted one moment. If she could just but lose herself in his embrace, just once, just for one long, all-encompassing moment …
Snap!
From the left, the sharp, unmistakable sound of a foot landing on a twig.
Adrenaline surged through Nicole’s body. Her entire world focused down into one, desperate thought.
She would not let it happen!
She grabbed for her gun, drawing to shoot.
Her nightmare ticked off, frame by frame, in the sequence it did every night. Her scream echoed off the bluffs; her fingers wrapped around the grip. And there Jon’s body was, as it always was, as it did every night, despite every cell in her body screaming for it to stop.
He was leaping before her, shielding her with his life’s blood.
Her finger was squeezing the trigger, desperate to take the assassin down.
She was screaming … screaming …
Her eyes caught the flash of emerald.
She veered her weapon just in time. Two bolts of energy – one crimson, one the purest white - skimmed millimeters past Richard’s right side. He froze in place mid-step, not a hair stirring, and for a long moment the world suspended.
And then her legs were buckling, Jon’s arm was around her, and Richard was running forward to help ease her to the ground.
Richard’s voice was hoarse. “My God, Nicole, I am so sorry. I should have known. Here, of all places, I should have thought …”
She shook her head, trembling, leaning against Jon, pressing her fingers against his chest.
He was alive.
“Everything is all right,” she murmured, relief coursing through her in wave.
Her nightmare had changed. And if it could be changed …
She leant in against him, and his arms came around her in a tight embrace.
Jon looked up at Richard, his eyes shadowed. “I nearly killed you.”
Richard was shaking his head before Jon had finished. “I am the one who should have announced myself, especially on this bluff,” he countered. “I knew better than that. It is your quick reflexes – yours and Nicole’s - which kept me alive.”
Time passed, and Nicole soaked in the warmth of Jon’s body, the soul-saving relief that he was alive.
He was alive.
At last she drew back from Jon’s cocoon. She ran a shaky hand through her hair and looked over at Richard. “You are sure you are unhurt?”
Richard brushed at his arm. “Had a good inch or so to spare.”
She gave a soft laugh. “That much, then?”
He nodded, a smile coming to his lips. “I’ve certainly had worse.” He looked between the two. “I was coming up to tell you that it is nearly six,” he added. “We should be getting ready for tonight’s performance.”
She moved to get to her feet, grateful for Jon’s steady arm at her side. “You are right, of course,” she agreed. Her hand was in Jon’s, and she looked up at him. “You will be there?”
Her heart thudded in her chest. They had only been together for a scant day, and already the thought of parting from him for an hour filled her with a loneliness she could barely begin to fathom.
He nodded, his eyes full on hers. “It will be my honor.”
Aquarian Awakenings - A Collective Saga Sci-Fi Romance Page 9