Talon stretched out on his stomach on the floor of the balcony and positioned the crossbow between the rails. He could see Shadow without using the binoculars. “That’s right, you son of a bitch. Just one more yard and your ass is mine.” He loaded the bolt.
His finger hovered near the trigger ready to take the shot. Shadow suddenly moved behind Draagon. “No, no, no, Blue. Come on, baby. I’ve got him now. Move, Shadow.”
His pleading didn’t work. She was plastered to Draagon’s back. He tried again and again to take the shot that would put an end to his nightmare, but he couldn’t. He wouldn’t risk Shadow’s life or any innocents caught in his sights. The changes he made to the crossbow would send the bolt through Draagon and anyone behind him for an easy twenty yards. In that crowd, he was looking at forty or fifty collateral damage deaths. Talon wouldn’t lose a single minute of sleep at taking out that many Phantom Riders; but he couldn’t tell them from those caught up in the mob mentality and just along for the excitement.
What the hell was I thinking? All along, I pictured me and Draagon, face-to-face. Alone. Never with anyone else around.
“I’m a damn fool.” He muttered to himself. Shadow tried to tell him this wasn’t the way to do things. He just blew her off—accused her of not having faith in him. Today set a new record for stupid. Not only did he run her off, he sent her right into the clutches of that walking, breathing embodiment of evil.
Talon slipped the bolt from the crossbow and released the cable. He would find another way. One that didn’t put innocent bystanders in harm’s way. Maybe the newly graduated bounty hunters would have some ideas. With the loss of his enhanced vision, his options were limited. It was a harsh reality to accept but he was becoming an expert at the task. He couldn’t stay here where there was no one he could trust with his limitations. It would take time, but he would continue his campaign to rid the world of Draagon. First things first, he had to find someone to guide him back down the mountain or he’d be stuck in this room until they threw him out. Although, he did have that blackmail option.
It didn’t take long to dismantle his snowdrift observation station and repack everything. A week of little to no sleep was catching up with him. All he wanted to do was crawl beneath the blankets and sleep the clock around. He would deal with the end of a twenty-year vendetta tomorrow.
* * * *
Talon woke up with a killer headache and needing to pee in the worst possible way. Bathroom first. When he stumbled back and sat on the edge of the bed, he wished he could see the numbers on the clock. Was it dark because it was night or was it dark because the sun hadn’t risen? There was no way to tell. His growling stomach demanded immediate attention. While he waited for his meal he headed to the shower. Thanks to the voice taking his order he knew he had only slept about twelve hours.
The shower washed the cobwebs from his brain. He could think clearly about the events of this morning. He expected to feel disappointed, frustrated, or even angry because Draagon slipped through his fingers again. Instead he felt…lighter…like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. A knock at the door started his mouth watering. He was starving!
“Good evening, sir. I hope this meets with your approval.”
“It smells fantastic. Do you mind moving the chair closer to the table? I have significant vision loss and without my companion….”
“Say no more, sir. I’m at your disposal.”
“What’s your name?” Talon asked. He hated to keep referring to him as man.
“It’s Alfie, sir. I’ve been here two years—since the doors first opened—and you’re the first guest to ask my name. Will you be needing anything else, sir?”
“It’s Talon, Alfie. I’ll need to hire a guide in a few days to get me safely down the mountain. Do you know anyone reliable?”
“There’s going to be a regular caravan of folks leaving after what happened to Lord Draagon this morning. He owned this place but with him dead, we may all lose our jobs.”
Talon had trouble getting enough oxygen into his lungs. Draagon was dead? “What happened? I couldn’t see what was happening but I heard the yelling.”
“A woman cut his…uh…man parts off and he bled out right there in the middle of the street. Every man who witnessed the act covered their own…uh…parts and found a reason to be somewhere else.”
“Do you know if it was my companion?” He had no trouble at all envisioning Shadow doing that. She threatened to slice off his man parts more than once.
“Absolutely not, sir…I mean Talon. It was Big Bess. She runs the whorehouse and Lord Draagon got too rough with one of her girls. Left that girl for dead, he did. She won’t ever be able to turn a trick ‘cause he cut up her…woman part. Big Bess got right up close to him with that hook-bill knife and sliced them clean off.”
“I imagine it will be a long time before that lesson fades from the memories of any man who witnessed it.”
“You want to know something funny? The whole time he was bleeding to death he kept blubbering and carrying on about he couldn’t die like this. Some kind of prophesy said he was supposed to die through a window. He didn’t make a whole lot of sense. But I guess seeing someone wave your dick around in the air would make you a little crazy.”
“Indeed.” Talon couldn’t come up with a single reason to feel sorry for the way Draagon died. “If you can locate a reliable guide, I need to return to Cypriana.”
“A trip that far has gotta take a month or more by horse. There’s a supply transport that’s due here in a few days and you could be home in a few hours.”
“I’d rather take the slow route this time. My new job will limit my free time for the foreseeable future.” And I’ve got to find a way to contact Shadow.
“What kind of job keeps a man that busy?” Alfie asked, while loading the empty dishes back on the cart.
“I’ll be an instructor at the bounty hunter academy.”
Alfie pushed the cart through the door with a guarantee that he would find him a guide. He needed that time to come up with a plan to get Shadow back in his life on a permanent basis. It hit him when he realized he would kill her when he killed Draagon. Somewhere between the binge drinking and reconnecting with the bounty hunters, the sassy, potty-mouthed woman had wormed her way deep into his heart. He never allowed himself to think about a life past Draagon. Now he wanted that life with Shadow. Two hours later, he was no closer to that illusive plan than he was to Cypriana.
“Talon!” Alfie yelled, while pounding on the door. “Open up! It’s important!”
He yanked the door open expecting an emergency. What he found was Alfie and someone or something that gave off body heat but no aura at all. “What’s this about, Alfie?”
“This is Dr. Vu and I asked him to look at your eyes. Maybe he can help.”
“That’s a nice thought, but my eyes were burned by a laser blast. There’s nothing that will fix that.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Mr. Talon. May I have just fifteen minutes of your time?”
“Why not?” Talon ushered them in and closed the door struggling to keep that tiny spark of hope burning in his chest from exploding into a raging inferno.
Epilogue
Shadow docked her hover-boat at one of the newly rebuilt slips. The marina looked so different from the first time she made this trip. She used the final payment from Dak to buy a smaller hover-boat than the one she and Talon used when they left the island. She would make it available for anyone to use because she didn’t plan on ever leaving.
Sam and Emmie knew she was coming and she couldn’t wait to see the children. Fresh air, plenty of food and a secure place to live worked miracles for all of the refugees who now called this island their home.
They grew from thirty-one to one hundred and one families in just over a year. Emmie’s baby girl wasn’t dead like she thought, and was the first true citizen born on the island in a very long time.
Her favorite moment—the one she
looked forward to every time—was walking over that rise and seeing the thriving, bustling community where nothing but ruins stood before. She paused at the top, like she always did, and thought about Talon. He would be so proud of what these people accomplished is such a short period of time. She missed him desperately, but hoped he was enjoying his tenure at the academy.
Bud’s forge was going strong but he stopped pounding on a horseshoe when he spotted her. “Welcome home, Shadow. I’d hug ya but I’m all grimy. Ya got supplies ta unload?”
“Always, Bud. Tell the boys I’ll bake up a big batch of cookies for their help.”
“You’ve got my young’uns spoilt rotten and that’s a fact.” Bud shook his head, laughing.
“Any problems I need to know about?” The newly formed city council had appointed her as the voice of reason in any dispute. So far the incidents were minor and easily solved with both parties happy. She knew that would change one day but until then, she’d take her blessings anywhere she found them.
“Nope. Everybody’s too busy getting’ ready fer spring plantin’ to get up in each other’s bidness.”
“I’m turning the entire yard between my house and the mausoleum into a garden this year. I brought seeds for herbs that I want to put in pots in the windows.”
“A garden that big is a lot of work fer one person. Are ya sure ya can handle all that? Maybe we need to find some nice young man to help with that garden of yurs?”
“I’ve got no use for a man—old or young. Besides, just think how much enjoyment you’ll get from telling me ‘I told you so’. I’m going home. Give my love to your wife.”
Bud would talk as long as someone stood there and listened. She had too much to do today. She was practically running by the time she spotted her bright yellow house. Talon instructed Sam to make sure no one bothered her house and the one with the funeral urns. Everything else on the island was available for claiming.
When she came here after Draagon’s death, she didn’t plan on staying. She just wanted to check on Emmie and the children. Someone had cleaned her house and stocked it with dried meat and garden produce. A week turned into a month before she admitted she wasn’t going anywhere. Now she rarely left the island. A supply run was about the only thing that could drag her away.
She expected Sam’s children to greet her like they usually did when she passed their house, but they were nowhere in sight. Those little rascals better not be hiding under her porch again.
Her front door was standing open and someone was inside. The curtain just twitched. Sam and Emmie wouldn’t go in unless something was wrong. Was that why the children weren’t here?
Shadow ran across the central square, fear churning her stomach. As she passed the last tree and reached the road, a man stepped onto the porch. She couldn’t see his face in the shadows of the porch roof. Taking slow, measured steps, she eased closer to her house. Dammit, he had no right to be in her house.
“Have I changed that much, Blue?”
Shadow’s knees gave out. She sat down hard just inside her gate and covered her eyes with her hands to hide her tears from him. She couldn’t deal with this right now. She needed time. She needed…oh hell, she needed him. When she opened her eyes he was kneeling beside her, lifting her into his arms. She buried her face against his neck and let the tears flow.
“Don’t cry, baby. I know seeing me was a shock, but you’re killing me, Blue. Are you crying because I came back? I’ll back off and go slow but I’m not leaving.”
“Why aren’t you at the academy?” She slapped her hand against his chest.
“Because you weren’t there. Next question.”
“Why are you here?” She couldn’t hide the longing in her voice.
“Because you’re here. I told you I would always come back to you. I love you, Shadow, with all my heart and I want to spend the rest of my life proving that to you. Will you give me a chance, Blue?”
“I love you, too, bounty hunter.” She looked at the face she dreamed about every night and the green eyes that could burn with…what the hell! His eyes! They weren’t green!
“What the hell happened to your eyes?” She demanded, struggling to get out of his arms. “You had green eyes and now you have one blue eye and one brown eye! What the fuck did you do?”
Talon laughed at her reaction. He was still getting used to them himself. “Let me tell you a story about having a conversation and a cup of tea with an alien doctor and waking up onboard an orbiting medical center, light-years from here. This alien doctor said he could repair a laser burn but instead he transplanted new eyes. It took months to find compatible donors and heal from the surgeries. I have perfect vision, by the way.”
“I can’t wait to hear that one.” Shadow traced the faint scar from his accident. “Does this story include lots of hot, monkey sex?”
“Don’t interrupt.” He dropped a quick, hard kiss on her lips. “Where was I? Oh, yeah. Then you can tell me how you brought life back to my village. Somewhere in the telling of these tales, you can let me in on your secret for controlling your body heat. That has intrigued me since the first time I laid eyes on you.”
“Sounds good but…let’s hold off on these stories for an hour…or six.”
“Nothing would make me happier than to spend eternity in your bed.”
“I hear a ‘but’….”
“I didn’t come alone.” Talon could feel the heat climb into his cheeks. He didn’t know what he’d do if she rejected his proposal. Before he could explain, a squeaky wail came from inside the house.
“She’s awake and probably hungry.” Talon announced as he released Shadow and dashed into the house. She was right behind him.
He lifted the tiny infant from the blanket on the floor and cuddled her close to his heart, nuzzling the downy fuzz on her head that was the exact shade of Shadow’s hair. She never said she wanted a baby—just that she couldn’t have any. His decision to bring the orphaned newborn here was based on a huge assumption.
One look at the longing on Shadow’s face calmed most of his fears. He held the baby out to her and she gathered the child close, as if she’d done this a hundred times.
“Aren’t you a pretty little thing?” Shadow cooed, gently rocking side to side. “Whose baby is this, Talon?”
This was the part he worried about. “She’s yours…ours…if you want her. If you don’t I’ll find another family to adopt her.”
“Where did she come from?”
“Her mother was a survivor of a Phantom Rider raid. Her husband was killed in the raid and she was too weak and malnourished to survive the delivery.” Shadow hadn’t answered his question. Would she accept the baby?
“What’s her name?”
“I thought I’d let her mother name her.”
Shadow sat on the thick, pink blanket Talon spread out for the baby and picked up the bottle warming by the fire. She tested the temperature of the milk like she’d seen Emmie do for her daughter before placing the nipple against the tiny, rosebud mouth. She smiled when the nipple disappeared with a slurp.
“I don’t know how to be a mother, Talon. What if I do something wrong and warp her for life?”
“You look like you know what you’re doing and she’s not complaining. I have another gift for you.”
Shadow glanced up at him, but quickly went back to watching the feeding baby. “Nothing could possibly top this,” she spoke softly.
“Not even close but I think you’ll like it.” He knelt beside her and dangled the object between them.
“My belt!” She cried, giving Talon a dirty look when the baby jumped. “How did you get it back?” She whispered.
“The bounty officer in charge of cleaning out the political corruption saw your name painted on the inside and pulled it out of the evidence room. I told him I’d bring it to you.”
“First thing I’m going to do is clear out my arsenal. We’re going to need diapers and bottles and toys and clothes and…Talon, we do
n’t have a bed for her!”
Talon smiled but wanted to hear her decision about the baby. “I take it I don’t need to find her another family?”
“You take one step toward my daughter and I’ll hurt you. Isobel is right where she needs to be. What about you? Are you prepared to give up the academy for a family? Farming is hard work.”
Talon sat down behind Shadow on the small blanket, wrapping his arms around both of his girls. He liked the name Blue gave their daughter. His life—their life—couldn’t get any more perfect than right now.
“We’ve already had the conversation about the academy and I don’t plan on being a full-time farmer.” He kissed the side of her neck because it had been too long since he’d been able to touch her in any way. “I thought I could teach music to the children now that I can see again.”
“Teach music? Are you serious?”
Talon pointed at his mother’s desk and the shiny new vioharp case sitting on top. “Can’t have you singing lullabies to Isobel, can we?”
THE END
Don’t miss the first two books in THE MEN OF ANDERAS series:
Men of Anderas I: JarDan, the King
Men of Anderas II: Dak, the Protector
Fall in love with all three powerful Men of Anderas and the women strong enough to love them as they embark on their quest for the most valuable prize in the universe—a love to last for eternity!
Aura Color Meanings
RED - money worries or obsessions; anger or lack of forgiveness; anxiety or nervousness
Deep Red: Grounded, realistic, active, strong will power, survival-oriented.
Muddied red: Anger (repelling)
Clear red: Powerful, energetic, competitive, sexual, and passionate
Pink - bright and light: Loving, tender, sensitive, sensual, artistic, affection, purity, compassion; new or revived romantic relationship.
The Men of Anderas III: Talon, the Assassin Page 22