Heat poured into Aragon’s spirit, comforting in some places, scorching in others, but his greatest pain lay deep within his heart, where his love for Annette burned. He wished he could have done more, given more, helped more, and loved more. The evil that she and the rest would be facing was so great, he didn’t see how they would survive, much less win. At least he still had Pathos in a death grip.
Suddenly the flame holding them disappeared, and they fell. Still, Aragon did not let go of Pathos, even to save himself from whatever unknown fate lay below. He landed with a stunning thud on his back with Pathos on top.
ARAGON, RISE.
PATHOS, RISE.
Aragon’s soul fluttered. Logos had spoken. He released Pathos’s throat. Pathos looked stunned and, terrified, jerked back with a cry, twisting about to see where they were.
Aragon already knew. He could tell by the roar of the Guardian Forces that they were within the Guardian Arena—the place where judgment would fall. Aragon rose to his knees and bowed his head enough to see his brethren but not Logos. He’d seen the bright, all-encompassing spirit of Logos only once before. He’d never forget it, and was not worthy to see it now. He waited in silence, unlike Pathos, who stood and bared his teeth at the surrounding men, men he’d once called brethren, men he’d once led and taught. He’d fallen so low that it was excruciatingly painful to see him here now.
The forces fell silent, as if realizing their fate might one day be to reveal dishonor before all upon the arena’s unforgiving floor.
ARAGON. THOUGH YOU VOWED YOUR SERVICE, YOU FOLLOWED YOUR OWN COUNSEL AND LEFT THAT SERVICE BEHIND. A FADED WARRIOR YOUR FATE WAS TO BE, ONE WHO HAS NO PLACE WITHIN HEAVEN, HELL, OR EARTH.
“I accept the consequences of my folly,” Aragon said. Though he spoke softly, his voice rang throughout the arena.
“No!” shouted Sven.
Aragon turned to see his brother walk toward him as the forces parted. “My actions led him to his choice. I wish to take his punishment.”
SVEN SEEKS TO TAKE YOUR JUDGMENT, ARAGON.
Aragon stood and faced Sven. “It is a sacrifice I cannot accept, for the flaw was within my own heart, not his. He sought to save. My heart was too full of my need to destroy to see the paths of salvation.”
SVEN, HE SPEAKS TRUE. GO FORTH IN PEACE AND BE THE BRIGHT LIGHT OF GUIDANCE AMONG ALL THE SHADOWMEN.
With his pain and guilt etched deeply into his spirit, Sven turned and stumbled as he left. He would have fallen had York not caught his arm. The Blood Hunter nodded to Aragon.
We are with you always, York said.
Aragon braced himself for his fate, his only regret being that he would never again know the fullness of the love he held for Annette. His hands shook as the pain of it tore through him again, and his whole being cried for one more chance.
PATHOS. YOU SERVED ME WELL. YOU FELL AND SERVED ANOTHER. YOU WILL TAKE ARAGON’S FATE. YOU WILL WALK THROUGH ETERNITY AS A FADED WARRIOR.
Pathos’s cry of denial was cut in half as he disappeared.
Aragon stifled a cry from his own heart. He didn’t want even Pathos to take what punishment was his.
THOUGH YOU LEFT THE FORCES, ARAGON, YOU CONTINUED TO SERVE ME BY FIGHTING AGAINST THE EVIL IMPERILING THE MORTAL REALM, PROVING YOUR MERIT. TO ALLOW THE COUNCIL’S JUDGMENT OF NONEXISTENCE TO STAND WOULD BE UNJUST. YET TO LEAVE YOUR ACTIONS UNPUNISHED WOULD BE UNJUST TO OTHERS WHO SERVE WITHOUT QUESTION. DO YOU FORFEIT IMMORTALITY AND POWER, OR DO YOU FORFEIT LOVE?
Aragon fell to his knees, tears falling, heart hammering. Give up all that he was as a warrior? Could he choose a life as an ordinary man?
Chapter Twenty-six
E XHAUSTED, ANNETTE LEFT Risa calming Stefanie and slipped from the room to find Erin, Jared, Sam, and Emerald congregated in the outer room. Stefanie’s screams had awakened everyone, but it was no surprise that Nick was absent. Every time Stef saw him she would say she was sorry over and over again, but wouldn’t explain why, and he couldn’t take it. He was likely out walking the perimeter, checking for problems and planning on going back to Belize. Risa’s story about a drug dealer operating under the name of Sinclair had convinced Nick his father was alive, even though Sam swore Vasquez had gunned down Reed five years ago.
They’d been back from Belize for two days and every time Stefanie fell asleep, she woke up screaming. Even sleeping aids didn’t break the cycle. They only made Stef harder to calm down, and the only one who could really calm Stef was Risa. Given those factors, the hospital doctors, after stabilizing both women, had been quick to release them into Annette’s expert care.
“Is she all right, luv?” Emerald asked, her short hair spiked from a hellish night. Earlier, Megan had had a nightmare about red demons again. Emerald was already strained to the max by having to maintain the constant flow of magic to protect them. Annette was worried about her.
“I don’t know,” Annette said. “Physically Stef’s recovering, but unless she can get some sleep, I don’t think all the nutrition in the world is going to help. People have lost their minds because of sleep deprivation. If she would just open up and tell someone what happened in Belize, we could help her. That she won’t makes me want to scream, too.”
“Just leave her the hell alone,” Sam said, and Annette gritted her teeth. The vampire bites on his neck had him so edgy that he kept jumping down everyone’s throat. “You pushing her to talk is making it worse. Give her some time and she’ll open up.”
Annette shook her head and had to bite her tongue to keep from pointing out that Sam had had plenty of time and was as closed as a sealed tomb.
Emerald had no such restraint. “That gack-head strategy has worked well for you, hasn’t it, Sam? You doona have any idea how to help Stef so stop dishin’ out the advice.”
“Time out.” Annette held up her hand, wondering how long she’d be able to keep it together. From the moment Aragon had disappeared she’d had to be on as a doctor and sister and friend. And she was dying inside. Reaching up, she clasped his medallion to her chest. Aragon was gone, and her heart hurt so badly she could hardly draw her next breath. But nobody seemed to realize that. Everyone was so involved in the aftermath of their crushing blow to Cinatas and the Vladarians. Jared and Nick were searching through the medical records on the trucks and Stef’s computer—
A heavy hand fell on her shoulder and Annette found Jared had silently crossed the room. His uncanny eyes, like burning coals of blue topaz, searched hers. “It’s about to be dawn,” he said. “The power of the Sacred Stones is greatest then.” Erin joined them, sliding her arm around Jared’s waist. Her eyes were full of love and deep compassion.
Erin knew, Annette thought. Erin understood her pain. Somehow it made the knife in Annette’s heart hurt worse, as if empathy let her bleed more. She had to grit her teeth to focus on what Erin was saying.
“Jared and I thought if you were at the Sacred Stones during the sun’s rise that maybe you could reach Aragon through the spirit barrier.”
Annette’s pulse paused then thudded. She swung around to look at the door to her sister’s room.
Emerald stepped in front of the door. “Doona worry, we’ll watch over her. You go.”
“This is real good,” Sam said. “She’s already lost him once. Now you’re going to make her go through it again?”
“Shut the fook up, Sam. Your disbelief doesn’t have to poison everythin’.”
“No,” Jared said. “Sam is most likely right. Once Logos has spoken, nothing will change that. But there may be time yet for her to speak with Aragon one last time.”
And maybe her heart could change Logos’s will before he speaks, Annette thought. She had to try.
Grabbing a light, she ran along the rough ground to the Sacred Stones, the cool air burning in her lungs. The mists of Spirit Wind Mountain swirled around her feet and her flashlight jolted wildly from her haste, making it almost impossible to see where she stepped. She stumbled. Her ankles twisted. Tree limbs and shrubs tor
e at her, but she neither stopped nor slowed her speed.
The first fingers of dawn were creeping across the grass when she reached the center of the stone pillars. With both hands clinging to his medallion, she searched the heavens.
“Aragon! Can you hear me?”
Spinning in a circle, she shouted at each of the pillars, calling his name over and over, but only silence was her answer.
And the sun kept rising.
“Please!” she cried, falling on her knees, bringing Aragon’s amulet to her lips. She prayed with her whole being, with her whole heart, with her whole soul. “Bring him back to me.” Her voice, growing hoarse, broke on a whisper that still seemed to echo through the silent stones.
“Why Aragon? Why did you have to take him and leave behind evil like Cinatas? Aragon is honorable and courageous and loving and loyal. He is worthy!”
God, how she missed the power of his gaze on her, the feel of his rough cheek against her skin, the sweet, burning tenderness of his passion. His odd humor and even his stubborn code of honor. Every part of her ached to hold him.
“Please send him back to me!”
The wind swirled, moving faster and faster around her and through the trees, and her heart leapt in a rush of anticipation, feeling the kernel of hope she had buried deep, deep inside her come alive. The wind made her feel as if the spirits on the mountain were answering her.
She jumped to her feet and ran the circle, calling his name. She’d been able to call him to her before, she could do it again, especially at the Sacred Stones.
But nothing happened. The wind died down. The sun rose. And the heavens remained as silent as the stones.
She fell to her knees exhausted. She’d had only snatches of sleep since they’d gone to Belize. She’d eaten little, and all she wanted to do was curl into a ball and escape the pain. All she wanted to do was to send her spirit in search of his, to leave this earth behind and find him wherever he was. But she couldn’t.
Stefanie needed her. Sam and Emerald and the rest of the group needed her. They had to stop Cinatas and the Vladarians once and for all.
When she gathered enough strength to move, she returned to the camp. After checking on Stefanie, she told Emerald what happened and then decided she had to have a bath or she’d not live another minute. A hot washcloth in front of a hospital sink was the only cleanup she’d been able to do over the past two days, and the doctor was prescribing a good soak in a hot tub.
She sank into the steamy water and closed her eyes, letting wave after wave of relaxing warmth seep into all the aches, but her heart wasn’t having any of it. The hurt there grew as her tense muscles eased. It was as if by letting down her guard, she’d given her pain free rein to rip her apart.
She wanted Aragon to come barreling across the bathroom and fall into her tub again. She ached to change his fate the way she gave her patients another chance at life through the miracles of medicine.
She wanted the no-matter-what love of his arms wrapped around her. She wanted him to take her heart places she could never go alone.
Her eyes burned and tears welled as she dipped below the water.
It was soap. It had to be soap, because she couldn’t let herself cry.
If she did, she might not ever stop.
A knock sounded on the door, and her heart slammed hard in her chest. “Ar—who is it?”
“It’s Em.”
Annette sighed and gulped back the flicker of false hope. Just because he’d appeared once when she was in the tub didn’t mean it would happen again.
She didn’t want to talk to anyone. Didn’t want to see anyone.
“What is it?” she asked, trying to get a grip, but failing.
“Some lady is ringing for you on the bleedin’ gack’s cell. Why anyone would call Sam to get you I don’t understand.”
“Well, who is it? Tell them I can’t talk right now,” Annette said.
Emerald cracked open the bathroom door. “I’m sorry, luv. I know you want to be alone right now, but she says it’s vera important. You have to go to Sam. The telephone reception is bad, and it’s an international call. Sam said to hurry.”
Quickly drying and dressing, Annette rushed over to the building Sam had designated as his office. She was not in a good mood. “Hell, Sam. Who is it?”
“She won’t say. Hurry up, though.”
“Hello.” Annette rolled her eyes and turned her back on Sam.
“Ees this Annette Batista, no? You are sister of Santa Stefanie Batista, si?”
“Yes.” Her insides scrambled with a mixture of pain and worry at the heavily accented voice. It would be a long time before she could put Belize behind her. But…“Saint Stefanie”?
“Thees is very important. You must come get el hombre before he cause big war here.”
Annette frowned at the phone. “What? Who? What war?”
“You talk to him. You tell him to be quiet until you come get him, or there will be big trouble. He want to change everything. I tell him world cannot be perfect. He cannot fix everything.”
“Who?” Annette demanded, her heart thudding with hope she couldn’t voice. “Tell who to be quiet?”
“Annette?”
Her knees went weak, and she sank to the floor with a thump. “Aragon,” she whispered. “Is that you?”
“Yes and no,” he said after a long pause. “I’m here on the mortal ground, but I seem to be unable to leave this country without money or proper documentation. And if you don’t have clothes on, everyone thinks you are loco.”
“Where are you?” She couldn’t believe she was talking to him. That they were using a telephone to communicate.
“I was returned to the mortal ground shortly after Logos pulled me and Pathos away. He sent me back to the same place in the jungle I’d been taken from, and I have been trying to get to you.”
“You’re in Belize?” She swung around and saw that she had Sam’s full attention.
“At a place near the Mayan ruins.”
“We’ll get you out,” she told him. “Are you all right?”
“Yes and no. We’ll talk as soon as we’re together.”
His “yes and no” sounded much like an answer that someone who was half here and half not here would give. Was his fate to be that of a faded warrior after all? Annette quashed her apprehension and prayed she’d make it to him in time. It didn’t matter how faded he was, or how little time they had. He was back. That’s all that mattered. She spoke to the woman and got the full information of where Aragon was and how to get to him. Then she had a five-minute argument with Sam. He wanted her to sit tight and wait for Aragon to arrive in the States via his contacts. She wanted to go charging to Belize. He won; she’d see Aragon faster his way. And despite her impatience, she had to be impressed with Sam’s speed, because several hours later a military transport helicopter was landing on the washed-out and overgrown pad.
Everyone had gathered to meet Aragon. Though the copter blades were still churning the air and punishing the ground, Annette rushed forward. Aragon climbed out of the copter wearing a military flight suit stretched to the breaking point across his broad chest. His hard jaw was covered in stubble, and his dark eyes were questioning. She threw herself into his arms and burst into tears. He kissed her hard and long. The blades had nearly wound to a stop by the time he paused.
“No wonder he was in such a hurry,” commented one of the military men who stepped off the copter. “I would be, too. How about you, Mikey?”
“Would have sprouted wings,” said the other man.
“What happened?” Jared asked, moving closer.
“The whole story will have to wait, but you’ve got yourself another permanent brother for the war you fight on earth,” Aragon said, swinging Annette up into his arms. “Only this mortal man has something very important to do first.” Annette wrapped her arms around Aragon’s neck, completely unconcerned that everyone watching knew what was going to happen next.
It was early afternoon, and the fullness of the sun shone down upon the unnaturally green forest Emerald’s magic had created. Even lush flowers had bloomed in their absence. The landscape looked like the setting for a Disney movie. Aragon threaded his way through the trees, kissing her, then whispering her name, and kissing her again.
Finally he stopped and let her legs slide to the ground. “I have something I must tell you, and then I have something to ask of you.”
“Anything. It’s yours,” she said, dashing at the tears that kept seeping from her eyes.
He cupped her cheeks in his hands and met her gaze squarely. Passion blazed in his eyes, all hot and dark and consuming, but there was something else, an unexpected hesitance. “I am no longer a warrior. I am now mortal. I have no gifts, no strengths, no powers from the spirit realm. Do you understand what I am saying?”
Annette sniffled and nodded. “Yeah, I do. You’re trying to tell me that you’re no longer Superman. But that’s okay, because you’re still Aragon. You’re still the man who melts my knees and can take me to heaven with the depth of his love and passion. You’re still honorable and loving and courageous. You’re still all of those things that make you who you are. That’s who I love.”
Then Aragon knelt before her and took her hand in his. “Annette, I would be honored to have you for my wife, to walk by my side and be what you were meant to be. Will you marry me?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes!” she shouted, embracing her very own fairy-tale hero as he rose and kissed her, letting her know that what he wanted next wasn’t going to make a PG rating.
YOU CHOSE WELL, MY SON.
Aragon released Annette and looked up into the heavens.
“What is it?”
“Did you hear that?”
“What?”
He smiled. “How much I love you,” he said. “I’m sure it can be heard to the ends of the universe.”
And he was right.
The Lure of the Wolf Page 33