Authors: Kate Douglas
Crystalfire (28 page)
He wasn’t certain how long he kept guard while Willow worked on his shoulder, but he remained alert and there was no sign of the demon. After a while Taron realized his shivering had eased, and before very long, the pain was mostly gone.
Slowly he turned his head when Willow sat back on her heels. “That should do it,” she said, but her face was drawn and she moved as if the effort to remain upright was almost too much for her. She slowly shoved an errant strand of hair out of her eyes and ran her fingers over his newly healed skin. “I wasn’t certain I could still heal injuries.”
Taron carefully stretched his arm out and back. He’d lost track of time, but what Willow had accomplished seemed absolutely impossible. He stuck his hand through the burned hole in the leather jacket and ran his fingers over fresh, pink skin that only a short time ago had been entirely burned away. There was some tenderness, but it looked almost normal.
Willow, however, slumped over as if she were ready to collapse. He put an arm around her and tugged her onto his lap so he could reach the small pack she’d fastened around her waist. He unzipped it and pulled out a water bottle and an energy bar. “Eat this. Drink some water. You need to replenish what you’ve lost.”
She nodded, but just stared at the water and the bar until Taron tipped the bottle to her lips. She swallowed slowly, as if she were too tired to really think about what she was doing, but when he unwrapped the bar, she took a bite without any argument. Taron fed her, made her drink, and watched as the light slowly returned to her eyes. Then he set her on a flat rock beside them, stood up and stretched his newly mended arm. It felt fine. A little tender, the joint a bit stiff, but it was almost as good as new.
And way too close to his heart. He’d not realized how close he’d come to dying. If Willow hadn’t been here to help, he probably wouldn’t have survived. Almost immortal he might be, but Lemurians still could be killed. Scholars tended to live longer than warriors, and right now, though he thought himself a scholar, he was taking a warrior’s risks.
The knowledge sobered him. It was a vivid reminder of the reality of their situation.
Willow had saved his life. If anything happened to her, who would help Willow? He had no medical ability to heal her if she were injured, though he would fight to the death to protect her. If he died, Taron knew Willow would continue on without him, no matter the risk to her own safety. If she were to die, he would do the same, but nine hells, he did not want anything like that.
They were in this together—a team. He needed her and he hoped she needed him. At the same time, he worried what would happen should one of them not survive. He had no intention of leaving Willow to fight this battle alone, but the demon’s attack had been a very graphic reminder of just how dangerous the night had become.
Artigos the Just had done his best to remain physically active during all those long years of captivity, but it hadn’t prepared him for the bone-aching weariness of sharing his life force to help build a new body for a living, breathing woman.
He was, quite literally, running out of steam.
The final steps to the main levels of Lemuria were almost his undoing. He might have blamed it on age, but the youngsters were having every bit as much trouble as he was.
At least Dax had his beloved Eddy back, and watching the two of them together, the love they so obviously shared, did his heart good. No more so than the joy he found in his grandson Alton’s love for his lady. Ginny was truly a match for any Lemurian—a bold, intelligent, and beautiful woman who had accepted her unexpected life as both warrior and Lemurian without question. Artigos could not have chosen a more worthy mate for Alton if he’d tried.
And then there was Dawson. He’d learned very quickly not to underestimate the quiet, unassuming human. Dawson had hidden strengths and a love for Selyn that brought out the young woman’s sparkle and her joy for life—a joy that had survived in spite of a lifetime of slavery and abuse. The adoration in her eyes when she gazed upon her human mate was a tribute to both her capacity for love, and Dawson’s amazing inner strength. Only a very strong and loving man would be able to capture the heart of a Paladin. There could be no doubt Selyn’s was all his.
As it should be.
Artigos drew strength from each of the young couples, but love was like that. It gave you the power to succeed when success seemed an impossibility. It brought joy to life, fed the soul, and strengthened the heart. He envied each of them, sharing in their love for one another, finding strength and the courage to place one foot in front of the other no matter how difficult the journey.
Artigos drew strength from each of the young couples, but love was like that. It gave you the power to succeed when success seemed an impossibility. It brought joy to life, fed the soul, and strengthened the heart. He envied each of them, sharing in their love for one another, finding strength and the courage to place one foot in front of the other no matter how difficult the journey.
And yet, he wondered, would he ever experience a love like that again? Would he ever know that joy in another’s touch, that sense of completion a man knew when he’d found his true mate?
The love of his youth had died so long ago that her memory had grown faded with time. Alton’s grandmother had been a wonderful woman, but she’d been gone so long now that another had taken her place in his heart. It was difficult, though, to imagine love without an image to hold, or a real face to recall.
Ah, the meanderings of an old brain. At least his thoughts took his mind off the agony of cramping legs and labored breathing. It also helped his male ego to know he wasn’t alone dragging up this final bank of stairs—all of them were ready to fall into bed and sleep the clock around.
Finally they reached the residential level. Artigos leaned against the wall, gasping for breath with the others. They’d each be going off to their rooms—Dax and Eddy had taken over Alton’s old quarters, while Alton had moved into his father’s rooms, now that Artigos the Younger was back with his wife. Selyn and Dawson would retire to their small but comfortable apartment in the Paladin’s new quarters, while Artigos himself had taken over rooms recently made available following the death of Drago, one of the demon-possessed council members.
Drago had truly loved his creature comforts. The thought of that big bed waiting for him had Artigos shoving himself away from the wall. Somehow, he would find the strength to make it the final few steps to his doorway.
Eddy stopped him. She stood in front of him and took his right hand in both of hers. “My lord, thank you. I would not be here without your generosity. There are no words ...”
Her eyes were the color of bittersweet chocolate and they sparkled now with tears. She was his daughter now, every bit as much a part of him as was his grandson, if not more. His life force was part of Eddy Marks. All he could think was how proud he was to have helped save such a worthy young woman.
He brushed his left hand through her short, dark hair. “You were willing to give your life for the future of Lemuria. I am proud to have had a part in your rebirth, my dear. Now go. Sleep. When all of us are rested, we’ll free your father.”
Eddy stood on her toes and kissed his cheek. Then she grabbed Dax’s hand and stood beside him. Artigos’s gaze fell on each of the six in turn, until finally he focused on his grandson. Gods-be-damned, but he was proud of the boy, though he spoke to all of them as equals. “We will all be tested in the days to come. Eat, sleep, and recharge. Meet with me when you are rested, and not before.”
He turned his attention to Eddy. “I know you’re worried about your father. You have every right to be, but you must try to rest. Mother Crystal is correct—we are all sorely depleted and would be worthless in battle. I’ll contact Roland of Kronus and have him go through the portal to see if he can reach Taron. We’ll find out what’s happening in Earth’s dimension, specifically in Evergreen. Possibly we can send Mari and Darius to help with your father’s rescue. Go now. All of you. Rest and make yourselves ready to fight the good fight once again.”
Eddy, Dax, Selyn, and Dawson left. Ginny and Alton stayed behind. Alton stood before him with that direct gaze Artigos so admired, and said, very softly, “Thank you, Grandfather.”
Artigos pulled Alton into a tight hug. “Thank you. I owe you more than I can ever repay.”
Alton returned his hug, but when he stepped back, he shook his head. The powerful sense of conviction in his voice sent chills over his grandfather’s spine. “You owe me nothing,” he said. “What I have done has been for Lemuria. You, Grandfather, are the best thing for this world. I will do anything for you. Whenever you need it, whatever it is. Anything at all.”
He glanced at Ginny and then once more looked Artigos directly in the eye. “I love you, Grandfather. It’s so good to have you back. Be well.”
Before Artigos could respond, Alton and Ginny had turned and headed to their rooms. Artigos stood there for a long, long time with Alton’s heartfelt words lodged firmly in his heart.
I love you, Grandfather.
“As I love you, Alton. More than you will ever know.” He turned away, then, and made his way to his apartment.
Chapter 22
After such an amazing night, after so much emotion, so many unbelievable experiences, Artigos never expected the wave of depression that swamped him when he stepped into his beautiful apartment. Even with his favorite chair and beloved artwork, his books and his personal treasures, it seemed lonelier than usual.
He wished there was someone to share the night with, to talk about all he’d seen and everything he’d done, but these magnificent rooms were even lonelier than the cell he’d been held in for so many years.
He’d had everything brought here. His comfortable chairs, his well-read books. The pictures on the walls, the trinkets in the display cases and on the shelves, many brought to this world from their ancient homeland so many thousands of years ago.
He walked over to one of the display cases and looked at bits of jewelry his grandmother had worn on the original world of Lemuria long before they’d ever dreamed of a life on Earth.
So many years gone by. So many lives now passed beyond the veil. He’d missed too damned much. So many things had happened since his son, already demon-possessed, had caught him alone in his office on that fateful day. He’d been gathering important papers he would need in this new Lemuria when he’d been taken prisoner. He’d languished for many thousands of years in those silent rooms near the mines, locked away from life.
So many changes he’d not been part of, other than as a silent witness through the eyes of Mother Crystal. He sighed and sat heavily on the arm of the sofa. He’d tried not to think of her since leaving the caves, but it was impossible.
She’d been in his thoughts far too long for him to ever successfully drive her from his mind. Dear gods but he loved the woman. He chuckled, thinking of the look in Alton’s eyes when he’d said he wanted Mother Crystal in his bed. He’d not been kidding. It mattered not what she looked like. He’d fallen in love with her brilliant mind, her wit, her compassion, the crystal clarity of her laughter.
He reached into the display case and picked up a necklace made of precious crystals, perfect stones his grandmother had worn, a beautiful piece of jewelry from another world. He held it in his palm and felt the warmth from the stones, and he wondered what life would have been like if their original birthplace had survived, if they’d never come to this planet.
He might never have become a ruler, would most likely not have spent millennia imprisoned in a cell deep inside a mountain. And if that hadn’t happened, he would never have met the woman who would forever fill his dreams.
He wondered if she’d ever walked the Earth or any world as a living female, if she had a name other than Mother Crystal. When he thought of her, it was as Crystal, the woman of his dreams. Legend said she’d come with the huge ship that had landed on Earth so long ago, that his people so revered the spirits of their world, they’d brought many of them along rather than leave them to a dying planet.
Was Crystal truly from the world that had spawned the first Lemurians? She’d never divulged any of her past. If it were true, she was, at the very least, a demigoddess, yet she’d taken the time to befriend him when he was held prisoner. She’d supplied him with scrolls and then books to keep him informed, had engaged him in lively debates that kept his mind sharp and his tongue nimble. She’d laughed with him, flirted outrageously and made him smile when he could so easily have chosen to cross over the veil and leave his hopeless existence behind.
He’d never seen her—had no idea if she even had a feminine form, but her crystal clear voice, her beautiful laughter—even her temper—enthralled him. He raised his head and stared at his spacious but lonely rooms, and knew he’d give anything to have her here with him now.
And not merely for tonight, but for all nights.
“Damned old fool.” He chuckled and headed into the kitchen area. He was weak as a kitten and ready to drop, and yet he was growing aroused, thinking of an imaginary lover he was too tired even to attempt to woo should the opportunity exist.
He searched through the cold case and found some leftovers that looked moderately appetizing, quickly heated them and took his meal to the table. Food was the last thing he wanted, but he knew he’d not regain his strength without it.
He ate quickly and cleaned up the mess, then headed to the bathing room. As tired as he was, a quick shower made more sense, but he chose the heated pool instead, a beautiful stone grotto stretching a full eight feet across at its widest point, carved into shimmering green and black serpentine. A natural hot spring fed the pool, and the bubbling water flowed in from one side and out the other, always warm enough to give him pause when he first entered.
Stripping off his tunic and pants, he stepped into the steaming water and, groaning with a hedonist’s pleasure, lowered himself all the way in until the water lapped at his chin. He settled into a curved bench seat that held him near natural vents, and let the soothing mineral-laden water work its magic.
He must have dozed off. Water splashing his face and slapping over the sides of the pool brought him to full alertness.
Earthquake?
Blinking rapidly, he charged up out of the seat and stood shoulder-deep in the steaming water.
Earthquake?
Blinking rapidly, he charged up out of the seat and stood shoulder-deep in the steaming water.
Blinking rapidly to clear the drops from his eyes, he realized he wasn’t alone.
A woman was treading water in the middle of his pool. She gazed at him out of eyes of brilliant aquamarine and her long, silvery white hair flowed out behind her as she slowly moved her arms beneath the water, holding herself in one spot, watching him.
Her face was ageless and yet so perfect she might have been carved by a master sculptor. So regal she could easily have looked cold and hard, but for the tiny laugh lines at the corners of her eyes. Her full lips were much too lush to speak of anything other than a lust for life and a most passionate nature.
He couldn’t stop staring. He’d never seen her before. He couldn’t take his eyes off her, and yet, in his heart of hearts, Artigos knew her. Knew her, and realized he’d not imagined his feelings. He had always loved her.
He pushed away from the bottom of the pool and met her in the middle. His feet touched the bottom but the water was deep here and almost covered his shoulders.
She smiled at him, but she didn’t speak.
“Tell me,” he said, and he tilted his head as he looked at her. “Tell me you’re not a dream. That you really are my beloved Crystal.”
She laughed, and it was the laugh he knew, the one that had kept him alive and hopeful for so long. “I’m glad you didn’t preface it with ‘Mother,’” she said.
He chuckled, but his throat felt tight and his body surged with need. “For what it’s worth, I’ve never thought of you as my mother.” He laughed softly. Touched her cheek with his fingertips. “You’re beautiful. More beautiful than I could possibly imagine, so I know you must be real. Even I couldn’t come up with perfection like this.”
Again she laughed. Her lips parted, her eyes sparkled, and he wanted to kiss her so badly he ached.
“I always knew you were a smooth talker,” she said. “But I never got the chance to find out if you were smooth at other things as well.”
He shook his head, remembering so many thousands of lonely nights. “Why not? You would have made an old man’s life much easier.”
She reached out and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. Her palms were smooth sliding over his skin and her fingers tightened against his back. Her long legs circled his waist and he felt her ankles hook at the small of his back. Tilting her head, she smiled sadly at him. “The time was not right. There was so much to do, so many lives in the balance.”
He wrapped his arms around her and cupped her smooth bottom with his hands. She floated closer until her breasts pressed against his chest and the curve of her belly molded perfectly to his. “There are just as many lives in the balance now,” he said. “Why tonight? Why now?”
She leaned close and kissed him. He didn’t hesitate, kissing her with all the fervor of a young buck. Her taste was ambrosia, like nothing he’d ever experienced, her lips firm beneath his, her breath sweet. He could have spent the rest of his life kissing her, but he was the one to end it.
He pulled away slowly, even though he was rising hot and hard against her feminine folds and his desire for her body was much stronger than his need for answers.
Yet he felt her need to explain, and so he waited.
She rested her head in the curve between his shoulder and his neck. Her hair swirled about them in the steaming water, and her voice, as pure as crystal, was barely above a whisper.
“Much lies in the balance tonight. A battle will be fought, a most important battle with unusual warriors—a powerful demon, a Lemurian scholar, and a woman who was constructed from swamp gas and dreams. They are the ones who have been chosen as the final contestants in a war none of us really wanted.”
“Why them? Why not our finest warriors against demonkind? Why a scholar? It’s Taron, right? A young man who freely claims he’s not a fighter but a man of words.”
She turned her face against his throat and sighed. “We had no choice. None at all. This is the way it is fated to happen, this battle between good and evil. It’s been building for many thousands of years, but it will all end tonight. Without Dax, without Alton or Dawson or their women. While they make love and then sleep, the fate of all worlds will rest on a single battle over which we have no control.”
“I’ve sent Roland to help.”
She shook her head. “He’ll not be able to reach them. The portals have all been sealed and no one can pass out of Lemuria. The demon cannot return to Abyss. Taron and Willow cannot escape to Lemuria or even Sedona. It is all as it should be.”
“So ... what now?”
“We make love, Artigos the Just. We spend what could very well be our last night in this world as we have always known and loved it, making love. We will do something selfish and wonderful for ourselves, because it’s too late to change what will happen, but it’s not too late to experience what could very well be our final chance at happiness.” She kissed him, just a quick, teasing peck of her lips against his. “I have wanted you all these years, and I’ve run out of patience.”
He sighed and held her close. This was not how he’d imagined making love to this woman. Not at all. Now he thought of his grandson and Ginny, of Gaia and her newfound love with her husband after years of demon possession. His mind went to the others who loved so freely and to those twelve baby boys that had finally found mothers to give them a second shot at life.
Was it all going to come to nothing?
If the demon prevailed and Abyss ruled, life as they knew it would end. Eden would fall, and Lemuria and Earth. Even Atlantis might finally bow to the evil of Abyss.
He thought of that desperate race against a sun gone nova when his grandparents’ generation had made their fearful escape, and it saddened him to think it could all end here, not because of some terrible natural disaster, but merely because evil had finally won.
Then he thought of the woman in his arms, of the love he felt for her and he knew that this was his way to claim victory, no matter how brief. He held her close against his body and walked to the stairs cut into the side of the pool. Holding her in his arms, he climbed out of the water. Once they’d left the pool, he let her slide from his embrace until her toes touched the ground. She was much tinier than he’d realized and the top of her head reached only halfway up his chest.
He chuckled as he leaned down and kissed her. “You’re not nearly as big as I imagined. This could call for a bit of creativity in our bed.”
She kissed him again. “It’s been a long, long time for me. You’ll have to remind me how these things work.”
He flashed her a cocky grin, feeling more like a young man than an ancient. Then he reached for one of the warm towels hanging on the wall, and wrapped her carefully in its soft folds. He grabbed another one and tied it around his waist.
“If we make love tonight and the world doesn’t end, I hope you realize I’m never letting you go.” He leaned down and kissed her again, and felt her smile against his lips.
“I had hoped you would say something like that.” Twining her fingers in his, she led him out of the bathing room. Then Artigos took the lead and she followed him into the bedroom.
He’d dreamed of her in his bed for so long that it felt perfectly natural to pull back the blankets, tug the towel off of her body, and lay her down on the clean sheets.
She was beautiful, she was his lady love, and he’d be damned if all of this was going to end tonight. As he crawled in beside her, Artigos fervently and with hope promised Crystal forever.
“What’s that?”
Taron pulled Willow closer against his side and leaned over to whisper in her ear. “Nothing,” he said, but he managed to fill his lungs with the scent of the vanilla shampoo she’d used and her own sweet perfume. The familiar scents he would always associate with Willow calmed his racing heart. He kissed her cheek. “It’s just the wind. You need to rest.”
She shivered and snuggled even closer. “It’s not easy. Not when I know he’s up there, somewhere.”
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