A Kind Of Magic (26 page)

Suddenly, Hugh reached over and pulled back on Roderick’s reins. The stallion slid to a halt and reared on his hind legs as Roderick jerked the reins out of Hugh’s hand.

“What are you doing?” Roderick growled.

“Trying to save your fool hide,” Hugh answered. “You will do her no good to go barreling down there.”

Roderick sighed and glanced away. “I do not wish to waste any more time.” Val nudged his horse next to Roderick’s. “This isn’t wasting time if it saves Elle’s life. Isn’t that what you want, my friend?” Of course it was what he wanted, and they knew that. He gave them a nod, more than anxious to get to Elle.

“I don’t think we should go down as one group,” Hugh said.

Roderick scowled. “We’re better in numbers. Any other time I would agree, Hugh, but I’ve seen the harpy fight.”

“You may be right,” Hugh said. “However, Alex and the harpy only think you will come. They will think the rest of us are too scared.” Roderick smiled as it dawned on him. “I go down alone.”

“Aye,” Val said with a smile just as sinister. “We will come up from behind.

Keep Alex and the harpy occupied so they don’t notice us.” Roderick jerked his head once in agreement and started to turn his horse around when Val’s hand gripped his arm. He turned back to Val.

“Stay alive,” Val said.

“My life doesn’t matter. Just make sure that Elle lives. Earth and the Fae need her.”

Val sighed and released him.

Roderick then turned to Hugh. “I have one favor to ask.”

“Anything,” Hugh said.

“Once you find the answer ….”

Hugh nodded. “I’ll make sure Thales gets the information. Even if I have to deliver it myself.”

Satisfied

that

everything

would be taken care of, Roderick gave his friends one last look before he turned his stallion toward the glen.

Val stared after Roderick. “I should be with him.”

“Nay,” Hugh said. “You will be better served covering his back.” Val looked at Hugh. “While you find Elle?” Hugh nodded. “No matter what, stay with Roderick. Once Elle is away, I will return.”

Val stretched out his hand and fingered the tip of his halberd. “There won’t be anything left by the time you return.”

Elle’s gaze scanned the snow covered hills in an attempt to find Roderick and the others. Yet, nothing moved. The wind whistled a deadly tune as it swirled around them; the threat of more snow heavy in the air. And the threat of death nearly choked her.

“Just so as you know,” Alex said as he turned toward her and pulled something out of his trench coat that looked somewhat like a gun. “My offer is rescinded.” Elle had no wish to speak to the bastard. “What offer?”

“The offer for your friends to live.”

Her blood stopped in her veins. Slowly, she turned toward the devil’s spawn.

“Why? Because I feel nothing when you touch me?” she taunted.

He only laughed and ran a finger over the gun. “It doesn’t matter to me whether you like me or not. I cannot stand weak women. You and Jennifer are the weakest women I have ever met. I need someone much stronger by my side.” Elle didn’t think beyond hearing Jennifer’s name. She launched herself at Alex, her numb hands clawing at his face as she screamed at him to die.

Roderick crested the rise the same time he heard the scream. Instantly, he knew that scream of rage and betrayal was Elle’s. It wasn’t hard to spot her either. He saw her small form propel itself at Alex and began to claw at his face. If the situation wasn’t so dire, Roderick might have even smiled to see his feisty woman unleashed.

While Alex was detained, Roderick rode closer. He thought it rather odd that Kaleno didn’t aid Alex, but then again, he hadn’t asked her to. The harpy eyed him as he rode closer but never moved. Roderick silently urged Elle on as she brought her knee up into Alex’s groin. The man doubled over, and Elle gripped his hair as she brought the same knee up to smash into his face.

This time, Roderick did chuckle. He imagined no one in Elle’s world would have thought the quiet museum worker had this in her. He had known otherwise from the first moment he had seen her. The fire inside her burned just below the surface.

It had just needed to be shown a way out.

He had done that for her. Hopefully she would look back on him favorably for it.

Alex suddenly roared and shoved Elle away from him where she landed on her back in the snow. Blood covered the front of her gown as well as Alex’s clothes from the broken nose she had given him.

“You stupid bitch,” Alex screamed.

In an instant, she was on her feet and charged him again. Roderick called her name the moment he realized she didn’t have a chance. He roared as Alex punched Elle in the face, sending her on her back again. Except this time, she didn’t move.

Roderick seethed with rage, and the desire to exact vengeance ran deep within him. “You will pay for that.”

Alex laughed and wiped at his bloody nose. “I think not.” With a flick of his wrist, Roderick had the flail in his hand. The twin spiked balls danced at the end of the chain, as if they too itched for blood.

Alex rolled his eyes. “That measly weapon against this?” he asked and pointed to the harpy.

Roderick dismounted without looking at Kaleno. “Why not fight me man to man?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Why?” Roderick asked as he stepped around his stallion. As if knowing what he wanted, the stallion moved a safe distance away.

“Why?” Alex repeated with a laugh. “I’m no fool.”

“Oh, I disagree. You’re the biggest fool of all to think we wouldn’t find you.”

“Puh-leeze,” Alex said with a roll of his eyes. “My master is always one step ahead of you and will always be one step ahead of you.” Roderick soaked that news in and hoped that Hugh and Val had also heard it. He continued toward Alex and Elle.

“And your master would be?”

“You must think I’m some kind of idiot,” Alex said, his arms crossed over his chest as if he had nothing to fear.

“I do,” Roderick agreed. He stopped beside Elle and knelt next to her. There was a nasty bruise on her right cheek and another on her left eye.

He raised his head to Alex. “No one touches my woman,” Roderick said as he rose to his feet.

“Yours?” Alex questioned. “I find that hard to believe when she was bargaining her body.”

Roderick didn’t believe a word of it. He knew Elle too well to believe she would easily give her body to the man who had killed her best friend. There had to have been a reason she would have tried to use her body to tempt Alex.

“It was for me, wasn’t it?” Roderick asked. “The only reason she would have thought to bargain her body was to save her friends.” The shift in Alex’s eyes let Roderick know he had hit upon the truth.

“I don’t know why you want her,” Alex said. “She’s weak. She’ll only weigh you down.”

“On the contrary,” Roderick said as he took a step closer to Alex, “she’s one of the strongest women I have ever met.”

“I

doubt

that.”

“I don’t care what you think of her, but you will pay for touching her and hitting her.”

Alex threw back his head and laughed. He straightened and eyed Roderick with a cocky smile. “Do your best, Thalean.”

Roderick took a step toward Alex when he spotted the ray gun.

Elle came awake slowly to the feel of water on her back. It took her a moment to realize that it wasn’t water but snow beneath her. She tried to sit up and nearly groaned at the pain lancing through her skull from Alex’s hit.

Muffled talking reached her, and she opened her eyes to the loveliest sight in the world. Roderick.

How he had gotten there and when didn’t matter. He was here. He had come for her. Maybe it wasn’t because he cared about her, but because it was his duty, but that didn’t matter. He was there. That was enough.

Then she realized what they were saying. Alex called her weak again, yet Roderick had called her the strongest woman he had ever met.

Warmth grew inside of her that pushed away the iciness of the snow. Slowly, she climbed to her feet, careful not to draw attention to herself. She had no wish to have Alex’s gaze on her again, nor did she want Roderick to worry about her. If he thought she was still unconscious, then he would fight better.

And then she saw it. The gun, and by the rigid stance of Roderick, that weapon meant something to him. She thought back over the many times he had fought, and never once had he been afraid. He was immortal. Only the ray from .…

Her thought drifted away as she looked at the weapon again. A gun, but different.

It had to be the kind that could kill him.

The warmth that had enfolded her seeped away, leaving her as cold as death.

There was no way she would allow Roderick to die. Not for her. What he did was too important for the survival of his planet as well as Earth.

Because of her love for him, she would do whatever it took to keep him alive.

Roderick halted instantly. The same weapon that had killed his brother was about to end his life. He eyed the nasty weapon, then raised his gaze to Alex.

“Where did you come by that?”

Alex shrugged and laughed. “Its amazing what my master can get hold of when he wants to.”

“Are you going to play with it all day, or use it?” Roderick waited for his taunt to spur the bastard on. The flail in his hand swung on the chain as Roderick began to move his hand. He braced his feet apart, waiting for the attack. Behind him, he heard the battle cries of Val, Hugh, and the knights as they raced towards the cottage, but Roderick never took his eyes from Alex.

“Kaleno,” Alex yelled as he raised the ray gun towards Roderick.

The world seemed to slow to an unnatural crawl. Roderick could hear the drops of snow as they fell to the ground from the snow laden limbs. At his back, he heard the whoosh of the blade as a sword cut through air.

His gaze stayed on Alex though. The bastard let out a great rush of air that slowly billowed around him just before his finger moved toward the trigger that would end Roderick’s life.

To his left, the snow crunched as someone moved toward him. He realized too late it was Elle. And he knew what she was about to do. His heart screamed for her to stay, but he didn’t utter a word. Instead, he crouched and released his flail as he heard Elle approach. The rush of his blood hissed in his ears, and fear engulfed him.

With only mere moments in which to pull Elle out of the way of the laser, Roderick moved his left arm and grasped her to him. Just as Alex squeezed the trigger, Roderick turned to protect his woman.

He heard the scream of the ray as it left the gun and shot towards him. A cry tore from his throat at the raw pain that penetrated his body. He lowered his head to look at Elle. She was so beautiful, so pure and full of passion. He was going to miss her.

Her eyes widened as his weight began to fall on her. Blackness began to fill his eyes until only Elle was left.

“Love you,” he managed to get out as he closed his eyes.

Elle toppled with Roderick, screaming his name over and over. Something warm and sticky coated her hand, and she didn’t need to see it to know it was blood.

Roderick’s blood.

With more strength than she knew she had, she managed to turn Roderick on his back and lean over him. She didn’t heed the tears that ran down her face or the battle that raged behind her. Or even Alex.

Her only thought was Roderick.

He breathed but barely. It was as if the life drained out of him with every breath.

She laid her head on his chest and listened to his faint heartbeat. It wasn’t supposed to be him lying there, but her. How had he known what she intended?

With her eyes closed she recalled his last words.

Love you.

He loved her. And Alex had killed him.

Rage took the place of grief as she raised her head to glare at Alex. “You will pay for that,” she said between clenched teeth.

He laughed and shrugged. “Who will make me pay? You? I doubt it.”

“We’ll

see.”

She had taken only two steps before Alex lunged at her face with his meaty fist.

Somehow, she managed to duck in time. There was no way she could compete with him without a weapon, and he knew it.

Elle cursed and looked around for a weapon. She saw Roderick’s flail and his sword, neither of which could do her any good since she couldn’t pick them up, much less use them. How she wished she had her bow.

And then she saw it strapped to Roderick’s stallion.

She glanced at Alex to see him raise the gun at her. Without another thought, she ran towards the horse, grabbed her bow and arrows, and rolled just as he let loose the first shot.

Her flesh stung where the laser skimmed her, but she shook off the pain and climbed to her feet.

“You were lucky that time,” Alex taunted. “You won’t be again.” Elle merely smiled as she notched an arrow.

He laughed and raised the gun. “A bow? Really, Elle. I’ll fire off two shots before you even think of releasing that arrow.”

“Let us see, shall we?” she asked.

She didn’t wait for him to respond as she lifted her bow and took aim. Once she had him in her sights, she released the arrow the same time he fired his first shot.

Having no other recourse than to dive to the side to miss the laser, Elle didn’t know if she had found her mark or not. She came to her feet to see Alex still standing, and she cursed her uselessness of the bow.

Then, the most amazing thing happened. Alex fell backwards, never to move again.

Elle blinked and started towards him. She notched another arrow just in case, but when she reached him, there was no doubt he was dead.

Yet there was no time to rejoice as the sounds of the fighting reached her. Elle looked up to see several of the knights dead and Val and Hugh covered in blood as they battled the harpy alone.

Several crossbow bolts protruded from Kaleno’s body, but they didn’t affect her at all. Another one landed in her wing, and that’s when Elle spotted Mina hiding behind the stack of wood.

Val never said a word to her, but he gave Elle a look that sent her into action. She jerked as if shot and looked down at Alex. The stone still hung around his neck. She knelt and yanked the necklace off, then looked around for something to smash the stone.