Bride by Midnight
Page 21
“Tell him I found the man I was looking for and... tell him Runa lives,” Blade added in a lowered voice.
So much to be done, so little time... Blade’s words about a message spurred Lyssa to speak up. “You must tell Empress Morgana that the emperor has enemies all around him. His Foreign Minister is a traitor. I doubt Volker will survive the night, but if he does, Emperor Jahn needs to be warned. Even if Volker dies, there are others.” He had not been working alone.
“She might not believe me,” her father began.
“Make her believe,” Lyssa said sharply.
They gathered all they needed, all they could carry, and Lyssa enjoyed a last round of hugs. There were tears, but none of them were hers. As she and Blade headed away from the center of town, toward the forest, they heard a cry of alarm from the palace.
And they ran.
Blade carried the swords he’d taken from the sentinels who’d died at the hands of Ksana demons—now also dead—in scabbards that hung at his back. They each carried a large canvas sack of supplies; enough for a few days, at least.
Soon the woods swallowed them whole. Even though they could not see what lay before them, they moved quickly and easily, as if they were being guided to safety by unseen hands. Instinctively they leapt over fallen logs and around low lying bushes. Once, in the distance, Lyssa saw the glowing eyes of an animal, but it only watched and let them be. She was not afraid, even though she remembered all too clearly that chilling howl and wondered—for a moment—if those eyes were indeed those of an ordinary animal.
They were deep in the woods before she stopped to take a deep breath and look Blade up and down. They’d left in such a hurry! She was starving, and she was tired. Even though they had tried to prepare, there was so much to be said, still so much to be done. It occurred to her that she should have asked her father for bandages.
Oh, wait, she didn’t need bandages. She could heal every cut on Blade’s body, every scrape, with a touch.
He took her in his arms and pulled her close. It was nice; it was beautiful. She hid her face against his chest and listened to his heartbeat.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t want this for you. I never meant to make you a part of my revenge.” He barely paused before he asked, “How is your throat?”
“Healed.” Completely. As soon as she washed the blood from her skin, there would be no sign that she’d ever been cut. “When I can see you more clearly I’ll take care of your wounds, as well.”
“No,” he whispered. “None are life threatening. They will heal on their own, in time.”
Her heart sank. They were meant to be together, they had a tremendous job ahead of them... but that didn’t mean Blade would love her; that didn’t mean they would be more than soldiers on the same side in a battle between good and evil. There were moments when she knew without doubt that he cared for her, that she was convinced he was hers in an elemental way. But then there were other moments when she doubted everything.
“Are you afraid of me?” she asked. “Afraid to let me touch you?” She was touching him now, as he held her so close, but not with magic. And that magic was such a part of who she was. What she was.
Her healing touch didn’t just affect him physically, it also touched his soul. It changed him, and maybe he didn’t want to be changed any more.
“No. But I waited a very long time to face Miron Volker. I don’t mind carrying the reminders of that encounter for a while longer.”
“If you change your mind...”
He leaned down and kissed her. It was a deep, stirring, important kiss. His lips molded to hers; their tongues danced. No, he was not afraid to touch her, not like this. Lyssa got lost in the kiss; she let it feed her. There was power in a kiss. The Ksana demons used a kiss to kill, to take life’s force. A kiss fed Lyssa, too, but there was a difference. She didn’t take life... she could give it. Could her kiss alone heal Blade? Did he crave her the way she craved him, or was she simply an obligation?
Again she had the thought that the two of them and the demon daughters were two sides of the same coin. Light and dark, love and hate, good and evil.
Blade was hers, in so many ways. She was his. And she so wanted them—together—to be more than soldiers on the same side of the fight.
“What now?” she asked, when he ended the kiss.
“We find Runa, or else we let her find us. She’s close, I can feel it.”
Yes, she was close. Lyssa felt it, too. “All right.”
“There are more like them, Lyssa. There are so many more demon daughters. You heard that howl. You saw the expression on Volker’s face when he talked about all his girls. A part of me wants to hide you away and protect you from everything, even from my sister, but...”
“But that’s not what we’re meant for, is it?”
“No, that’s not what we’re meant for.”
Some, like Runa, could be saved. Others, like the two blondes who had devoured the sentinels, could not. They were pretty monsters, but they were indeed monsters.
Lyssa put her hands on Blade’s face. “We will find your sister, and we will care for her. We will make her a part of our family.”
“It will be dangerous, though I don’t really have any idea how dangerous.”
He pulled her close once more, and she was happy to rest her head against his chest again. A couple of tears fell, soaking into his shirt, but she did not sob. He would wonder why. The reason for her tears was simple, but she could not share this truth.
She wanted him to love her, so much.
Soon she would tell him about the baby, their daughter. But not now. Not like this. She would share the news in the sunlight, with a smile on her face and no tears stinging her eyes. No matter how he might feel about her, he would love his daughter. Wouldn’t he?
Yes. The knowing came the way it sometimes did, and she wondered if she would ever be powerful enough to have all the answers. She hoped not. It would be... exhausting.
“I love you,” Blade said as he tightened his hold on her. “Not because of a prophecy, not because you’ve touched me inside and out with your magic. And your body,” he added, almost teasing. “It’s deeper than that. It’s more. I was meant for you, Lyssa, and you were meant for me. Even if we do have demons to fight and sentinels to avoid, even if our life is anything but ordinary... I love you.”
Connected by magic or not, she knew he spoke the truth. His words dried her tears. They were one. More. They were joined in spirit and always would be. The man she loved, her Blade, made her so much more than she’d ever imagined she could be.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
He drew away, a little, and looked down at her. “Thank you?”
She gripped his jacket, held on tight. “I wondered, not too long ago, if I should thank you or curse you for showing me, for teaching me, what love and true marriage is like. I have decided to thank you.”
It was hard to tell, in the darkness, but she thought he gave in to a smile.
I love you, too, more than you will ever know. She thought the words, and Blade heard them. And then she said the words aloud, because she could. “I love you.”
An ordinary life?
Never.
*********
Recent releases
Running Wild, Ballantine, written with Linda Howard
A Week Till the Wedding, Harlequin Special Edition
Previous Columbyana books
The Sun Witch
The Moon Witch
The Star Witch
Prince of Magic
Prince of Fire
Prince of Swords
Untouchable
22 Nights
Bride by Command
For a complete list of previous releases, visit www.lindawinsteadjones.com
Linda Winstead Jones
Linda's first book, the historical romance Guardian Angel, was released in 1994, and in the years since she's written in several romance sub-genres under se
veral names. In order of appearance, Linda Winstead; Linda Jones; Linda Winstead Jones; Linda Devlin; and Linda Fallon. She's a six time finalist for the RITA Award and a winner (for Shades of Midnight, writing as Linda Fallon) in the paranormal category. Most recently she's been writing as Linda Jones in a couple of joint projects with Linda Howard, and rereleasing some of her backlist in ebook format. She can be found at any one of a variety of Facebook pages (search for Linda Winstead Jones and Linda Howard/Linda Jones) and at www.lindawinsteadjones.com.
Linda lives in Huntsville, Alabama. She can be reached at...
E-mail:
lindawinsteadjonesauthor@gmail.com
Twitter at @LWJbooks
https://twitter.com/LWJbooks
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Linda-Winstead-Jones/103936415079
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Recent Releases
Meet the Author