by Tina Gerow
*****
Ariel woke to the smell of pines and a crisp breeze caressing her face. The tittering of birds and skittering sounds of small animals sounded softly all around her.
Hazy light filtered in through her closed eyelids, letting her know it was either dusk or dawn. She took mental stock of herself and realized she wasn’t in any pain, other than a headache, and was lying on a soft, cushiony bed of—pine needles by the feel of them through her shirt.
She reached out instinctively to her sisters, but her head pounded and she winced, the connection never completing.
Where is Logan? And how did I get here? Wherever here is…
She slitted open her eyes and saw a cerulean blue sky through a maze of pine tree branches, which swayed gently in the wind. The sky to the west was brighter, telling Ariel the sun was setting not rising.
“Ariel.”
She turned her head in the direction of Logan’s voice and smiled as relief washed over her, even as her head protested the sudden movement. What kind of protector was she if she passed out and left her charge vulnerable? But at least she apparently got him to the ground safely and he didn’t look any worse for the wear.
Logan knelt by her side and helped her sit up. “How’s your head?” he asked, examining her temple.
She hissed as he touched a sore spot. “It was a dull roar before you touched it,” she snapped and then instantly regretted her outburst. Apparently, plane crashes left her a tad cranky.
Regardless, Logan’s face blossomed into a blinding smile. “If you’re that feisty, it looks like you’ll live. It could have been worse,” he said gesturing to her temple. “I kept pressure on it until the bleeding stopped. But I was really worried.” He handed her a silver beer can. “It’s all I could find to put water in, drink it. You need to hydrate.”
Ariel took the can and sipped so she didn’t make herself sick. She looked past him and realized they were sitting on the edge of a small clearing. Her earlier deductions had been correct—they were in a forest. But where? Her memories of the explosion and their flight to the ground were hazy. A few snatches flashed through her mind of explosions, Logan’s face, and the ground hurtling toward her. But she had a hard time putting them in order or making much sense out of them. She recalled nothing about actually landing safely. “I don’t remember a lot from the crash. How long have I been out?”
Logan leaned back against a tree trunk. “Almost twenty-six hours. I was concerned about a concussion when I couldn’t wake you up.” He leaned over and took her chin between his long fingers. “You don’t know how happy I am to see you open your eyes.” Logan leaned slowly closer.
Panic skittered up Ariel’s spine and she wrenched her chin from his grasp. If she let him get too close, she’d be tempted to tell him about the baby. But she couldn’t, especially not with the newest piece of prophecy Alonna told them. Too much was at stake.
Placing a hand against her stomach, she instantly connected to the new life within her for the first time since she’d found out. She would do whatever it took to protect this child, even if it meant keeping its existence from Logan. And even if that fact alone would tear at her heart.
Ariel looked up to see a hurt expression raw on Logan’s face.
Firming her resolve for her unborn child, she changed the subject. “Any idea where we are? I can’t remember any landmarks from yesterday.”
Logan was silent for so long she thought he wouldn’t answer. “Well, as far as I can tell, we are somewhere in Northern Arizona.”
“How do you know?” Ariel rubbed at her sore temple and then leaned back against a tree, facing Logan.
He stretched out his long legs and crossed them at the ankle. “I saw the Grand Canyon as we flew over yesterday.”
“We didn’t fly over the Grand Canyon, our flight plan was a bit south of that.”
Logan grinned. “I didn’t say the plane flew over the canyon—I said we did. Or at least close to it.”
Ariel concentrated and tried to remember anything from their escape from the plane, but her mind remained a blank void. Frustration running rampant, she stood, handed him the can and stepped toward the clearing. Logan seemed content to watch her in silence, and she wasn’t sure if she was disappointed or grateful. On one hand, a comforting touch from Logan could take her mind off her frustrations, but on the other hand, it would crumble her already shaky resolve.
She stood and clearing her mind, she visualized her wings. As they materialized on her back, the solid weight of them forced her to adjust her stance so she didn’t topple over. Flapping them experimentally, she winced.
“My wings are a little sore,” she said more to herself than Logan. He continued to watch her, taking in every movement and she turned away from his intense scrutiny. Flexing her wings gingerly, she extended them open as far as they would go. But even in the small clearing, they kept snagging on the trees, so she had to keep angling between the branches to open them to their full ten-foot extension. After one last stretch, she returned them to their tattoo form and rolled her shoulders. “I guess that will have to do until I can find a gargoyle-friendly Jacuzzi.”
Ariel’s stomach rumbled. Logan stood and stepped toward her, nodding toward her stomach. “I was just getting ready to build a fire and then find us some breakfast when I saw you were awake.”
Food sounded terrific, but Ariel had more important issues on her mind. She grabbed Logan’s arm as a wave of nausea roiled through her. He steadied her, but then the strong taste of bile rose in her throat and her mouth watered, so she pulled away and made it to a nearby tree before her stomach emptied itself. When the spasms finally eased, she turned to find Logan there to support her and help her back to the side of the clearing to sit.
He squatted in front of her and captured her gaze in his steady one. His blue grey eyes were soft and concerned and she resisted falling into them.
“What are you keeping from me, Ariel?” His gaze never wavered and gave her no room to look away. “I know there’s something wrong.” His voice was mesmerizing and she could almost feel it caressing her skin.
Not able to meet his concerned gaze and lie, she looked down at the blanket of pine needles on the forest floor. “I’ve just got a supernatural form of the flu, and now I’ve lost Alonna’s herbs, so I’ll have to deal with the symptoms. Or maybe I just sipped the water too fast.”
He made no move to stand and his gaze settled over her like a heavy weight. After holding out as long as she could, she looked up, not at all surprised to see him still studying her. “I’ll be fine. Really,” she insisted, when he remained silent and motionless. “I just need to heal so I can contact my sisters.”
Logan’s brow furrowed, his dark expression a striking contrast to his sandy blond hair. “You can’t contact them?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll figure out how to get us out of here.” Her thoughts turned to formulating a plan to get them back home.
She was shocked when suddenly, Logan loomed so close his breath feathered against her face and his hands gripped her upper arms. His eyes had gone dark and hard and she could tell he resisted the impulse to shake her. “You arrogant female,” he said, his voice low and dangerous. “I can find my own way out of the wilderness. I’m not some helpless child you found orphaned on the side of the road. I’m concerned because if you can’t contact your sisters, it means you’re hurt badly and I have no way of getting you proper care. And I don’t even know what care you need because you’re too damned pig-headed to trust me enough to tell me what’s wrong with you.” He huffed out a frustrated breath and stood.
She watched, stunned, as he stalked off toward the center of the clearing, where a charred ring of rocks already stood. He began gathering twigs and wood for the fire. The truth of his words pierced her like angry daggers. She treated him as if he was helpless and she had definitely withheld information. She pushed away her guilt at the latter, but she admitted fault on the former.
A picture of
Logan fighting the zombies popped into her mind and she smiled. She could still visualize perfectly how calm and competent he looked holding the shotgun, even when the vampire attacked. No one seeing him then would ever think of him as helpless.
“Logan…” she began. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to treat you like you were helpless.”
Logan continued to arrange the wood inside the rock circle and then turned to her expectantly. “And?”
Ariel smiled at him reluctantly. This frustrating man held her heart, and all the prophesies in the world couldn’t change that. Even if it prevented her from being totally honest with him. “And I’ll even admit I’m pig-headed…at times.”
He returned her smile. “And?” he asked, his voice a sultry invitation.
And we made a baby I’ll cherish forever. Aloud she said, “And I’m fine…really. Gabriel said this would take a few months to get out of my system, but then I’ll be good as new.” At least she hadn’t lied. Gabriel had told her exactly that.
Logan searched her face and when his smile widened, she let out a breath of relief. He stood and closed the distance between them until he knelt in front of her once again. “I’m glad you’re all right.” His gaze bored into hers with an intensity that made her skin tingle and her breath catch.
He cleared his throat, and reached out to trail a callused finger lightly along her jaw line. “I should’ve found the courage to say this on the plane—at least before it crashed.” He grinned, mischief dancing in his gaze. “I’m sure you’ve heard it from Dara, but I want you to hear it from me.”
Ariel swallowed against a lump inside her throat. She had heard about Charity and Logan’s fight from Dara. But the words she’d been dying to hear since Charity came into their lives now threatened the balance between good and evil. It almost sounded like a cosmic soap opera. But unfortunately, it was very real and had become her life.
She couldn’t be with Logan because he couldn’t raise their child. And both her heart and her hormones needed to remember that.
Oblivious to Ariel’s inner turmoil, Logan continued and shifted closer. So close, she could smell the musky scent that was uniquely Logan. “I love you, Ariel. Charity was never anything but a diversion to me, and I’m a different man since you’ve come into my life.”
The sun sank lower and the dusk raised the feeling of intimacy around them. A band squeezed around her heart so hard she thought it would explode. The skin on the back of her neck ruffled, breaking the spell of the moment. Her head snapped up in an automatic gesture to better scent the unseen enemy.
“What is that?” Logan whispered. The smell of pure evil so strong that even Logan seemed to sense it.
Ariel stood, keeping Logan behind her and whatever she sensed in front of her. “Vampires. Several from the smell of them.”
“Smell, hell. All the skin on the back of my neck is about to crawl off.” Logan stepped even with Ariel and pulled a hunting knife with a wicked looking blade from his boot. “I know, aim for the heart.”
Ariel stared and then chuckled. “You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?”
“Flying on private planes definitely has perks.” Logan grinned over at her, and her heart melted.
“Do you always carry that?”
“I’m a country boy, we never go anywhere unprepared. We’re like boy scouts, only better.” He grinned at her, his lopsided grin creeping past her defenses.
Once again, she’d underestimated him. Ariel swore it would be the last time. But she also swore she’d keep him as far out of harm’s way as possible. “Let’s go see what’s hunting us. Because I’ll bet they’re the same ones who put the detonator on our engine.”
Logan adjusted his grip on his knife. “Vampire for dinner, it is.”
*****
Odeda ran into Logan’s living room and found Dara and Kefira sitting on the sofa discussing the awards ceremony, a cozy fire blazing in the fireplace beside them. At her arrival, they both fell silent and stared up at her, concern clear on both lovely faces.
“Charity is gone. Have either of you seen her?” Odeda demanded, her breath coming in short gasps since she’d done a running search of Logan’s entire property already.
Kefira bolted to her feet and shook her head. “I saw her in her room a few hours ago, she said she was going to read and then to bed. How did she get past all three of us without being noticed?”
Odeda ground her teeth in frustration. “I could care less if that spoiled bit of plastic fell off the planet, but Logan’s baby—the child of blood—needs to be protected.”
Dara, always the voice of reason, spoke up. “Let’s contact Ariel and let her know to keep an eye out for Charity.” She turned toward Kefira. “When are Ariel and Logan supposed to be back?”
“Charity told me Logan’s message said they’d get in late tomorrow.”
Odeda nodded. “I’ll contact her.” She closed her eyes and concentrated since it was harder to pinpoint Ariel at this much of a distance. Her sister’s presence hovered just out of reach. Odeda could tell she was alive, but she couldn’t connect to communicate. Opening her eyes, Odeda glanced up and met her sister’s worried expressions. “I can’t reach her. Something’s wrong.”
Odeda waited impatiently while both Kefira and Dara tried to reach Ariel. But she knew she would’ve done the same thing in their place.
Kefira growled low in her throat. “Charity. That bitch lied to us about Logan and Ariel.”
All three sisters exchanged a practiced nod and then stepped forward to join hands to form a circle. Power sparked through her and flowed out to both Kefira and Dara. Their power doubled back to fill her body. Of their own accord, her wings materialized on her back and her skin slowly began its transformation back to stone.
Humans came from dust and returned to dust, but the gargoyles—they came from stone and only became dust upon their deaths. But all of their power stemmed from the stone.
As the last of her body flowed from flesh into cold, white granite, Odeda opened her senses and allowed herself to merge with her sisters. Their joint stream of power snaked out, seeking the last part of themselves—seeking Ariel.
“Be careful not to touch Ariel with the power or she’ll turn to stone and kill the baby,” Dara warned.
Odeda sent her wordless consent through the stream of power and received Kefira’s in return. Their bodies left behind, their joint consciousness flowed up through the roof and out into the early Texas morning.
In this form, they couldn’t feel the wind against their bodies or the dwindling rays of the sun as it sank beyond the horizon, only the utter cold that permeated them in their stone forms. But their destination pulled at them like a magnet. They raced through the sun kissed sky faster and faster until only a blur of color and sensation was visible.
After what seemed like only seconds, they hovered over a large forest of pine trees. Their energy moved slower now as all three of them sensed danger.
“She’s close by,” Kefira said inside Odeda’s head.
“And so are several vampires,” added Dara.
Odeda glanced down through a space in the canopy of pine branches and saw both Ariel and Logan look up to search the sky. Both seemed unharmed and the joined consciousness of the sisters breathed a sigh of relief.
“Ariel?” they tried together.
Ariel nodded but tapped her temple. Odeda received a flash of pain and frustration at Ariel not being able to contact her sisters.
“Is the baby all right?” Dara asked.
Ariel placed her hand over her stomach and nodded. Unable to hear the exchange, but sensing something, Logan whispered something to Ariel. When she nodded, he waved toward the invisible trio.
“He senses our connection extremely well for a human. There’s got to be something supernatural in his family tree somewhere.”
Odeda, joined with Dara, gleaned the knowledge of Logan’s connection with James and would have smiled if she were in her solid form. �
�Of course. I should have seen it earlier. With ancient vampire blood, he’ll definitely be sensitive to all things supernatural.”
Odeda sent reassurance through their connection to both Ariel and Logan. Then they relaxed and let the pull of their bodies drag them back without conscious thought.
Odeda’s consciousness snapped back into her body like a rubber band and her skin stung as she adjusted to the confinement of the stone. Taking a moment to savor the healing quality of the stone, Odeda allowed the stone to flow away leaving behind her human form.
“Where are they?” James asked startling Odeda, and by the way Kefira and Dara jumped, both of them as well.
Odeda turned to James. “A few miles south of the Grand Canyon.”
“They’re all right,” Kefira added. “But there are several vampires close by and Charity lied to us about when Ariel and Logan’s plane was supposed to get in.”
“God help me…,” murmured James.
Odeda saw only a blur and then nothing where James had stood a second before. “I’m going to stake his feet to the floor. I hate it when they do that.”
Dara stepped forward, her wings fluttering in an unconscious gesture. “Stake him later. Right now, we’ll have to fly hard just to catch up.”
Chapter Fifteen
Logan adjusted his grip on his hunting knife and stepped forward toward the stench of evil.
“Wait.” Ariel grabbed his arm to stop his progress. She seemed to search for the correct words before she began. “I’m not underestimating you. I’ve learned my lesson with that. But I’m better equipped to fight vampires than you.”
“We don’t have time for this discussion,” Logan said and began to push by her.
Ariel refused to release her grip and as much as it galled Logan to admit it, he was no match for her supernatural strength.
“Actually we do. The sun hasn’t fully set, we have about ten minutes. I’ll know when they get close.”
He concentrated and was surprised he was able to sense the distance inside his head. “Wow, I see what you mean.”