[excerpt] (21 page)

Chapter Eleven

Lucian handed Serina the reins. “The only way up the mountain is by horseback. Giddy-up!” Lucian interlaced his fingers and said, “Place your foot in my hand, and I’ll help you up.”

Serina rolled her eyes. “I can’t.”

“You’ve ne’er ridden before?”

“No, but I can’t regardless. Pretty certain I’ve already gone bare-back with a stallion.” Serina inclined her head towards her groin. No matter how sweet the endings, when Lucian and she finished their marathon lovemaking, between her thighs needed some time out. What in Goddess’ name would a horse do to her? The honeymoon was finished, caput, over before it began.

“Side-saddle, luv. You’ll be fine.” Her skeptical look said otherwise.

Making their way up the overgrown trail, Serina followed Lucian’s horse careful to stay away from the edges. Jagged cliffs dropped abruptly to a shallow brook filled with unfriendly rocks. A spare horse tagged behind carrying their supplies for the next ten days. Serina marveled at the surroundings. She’d never set foot out of her city. The forest was alive with lush foliage and small animals hopping from one rock or bush to another. She saw her first doe and fawn and giggled like a small child. “Lucian? Can I try something with you?”

Lucian turned back and pulled up on the reins of his horse.

“Anything, anything at all!” His tone dripped of a steamy seduction.

“One track mind you’ve got. Can I merge my mind with you and attempt to see the colors surrounding me?” Serina watched Lucian’s eyebrows shoot up.

“Will it work?”

Serina shrugged her shoulders. “I haven’t got a clue. Never tried it before.”

After a moment of silent meditation, Serina locked into Lucian’s eyesight and almost fell from her horse when a kaleidoscope of colors exploded in a mad rush around her. Lucian jumped from his horse and caught her before she tumbled off.

She covered her mouth trying to hold back a joyful scream. No use. “Oh mother of God,” she shouted. “Life is beautiful! Lord in heaven, you are beautiful.” Serina remained wide-eyed for the next hour as Lucian taught her all the different colors for everything they encountered: trees, wildflowers, birds, rocks, moss, shrubs, bugs, the horses—
―
everything—her clothing! She couldn’t absorb the information fast enough.

An hour later, Serina no longer focused on the beauty that surrounded her, but rather the nagging soreness where direct contact with the saddle lay. And keeping her mind merged with Lucian she found depleted her energy.

“Lucian, I need to walk for a while. Between you and this horse, I’m rather worn out. Thank you for the opportunity to see through your eyes.”

“What’s mine is yours, Serina. Use me anytime.”

Serina read between the lines with his last statement, knowing full-well innuendos were laced throughout. She slid from the horse, reins in hand and started tugging at the large animal behind her. “Please come,” she begged. She’d have had better luck if she talked to a brick wall. This animal was stubborn.

Lucian slid off his animal. After coaxing the animals to a nearby tree and tying the horses up, he pulled her into his arms. “Would you like me to kiss you better, m’lady?”

“Your kisses, m’lord, are what started this trouble. “

Lucian gave Serina his best sad face.

“Don’t even think about giving me those radiant blue eyes of yours—that is what you called them, right? And trying to look all innocent. You know I can’t resist. Aye, Lucian!” Serina screamed and laughed when he picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder.

“I called them brilliant.”

Carrying her up the mountain path, he slid his hand under her skirt, and massaged her bottom and with a gentleness he hadn’t shown since they boarded the train he stroked and stimulated her private lips until her soreness was replaced by an insatiable need.

Two could play that game. She slid her hand down his trousers and pinched his bum. He roared with laughter, but that never stopped him from caressing her as they trudged their way to the base of the falls.

“You’ll wake the bears with that laugh of yours. Set me down foolish man. This is the most bizarre position you’ve had me in yet, Lucian. I must say, you make a walk in the park an altogether new experience. Maybe the cavemen really knew what they were doing.”

Lucian removed his hand from under Serina’s skirt and brought her around to his chest. Sitting down on a low boulder, he sat her on his lap and gazed into her eyes. A tender kiss, he placed upon her lips. “Lay back and let Dr. St. James take care of you.”

Serina’s jaw dropped. “What—your title of Lord isn’t enough, so now you pinch mine?”

“I pinched something else as well.” He found Serina’s neck and ran his tongue along it. “I’ve always wanted to play doctor. I have a special serum I can inject into you to make you feel like you’re atop of the world.”

“I can only imagine.” He isn’t playing fair, she thought. “Can we please rest for now?”

Lucian stood and set Serina on her feet. He pointed to a soft grassy patch a few feet from the edge of the cliff. “Come and lie down.” Lucian walked to his horse, pulled a blanket from his pack, and spread it on the ground.

Sprawled out on her back, Serina merged her sight with Lucian’s again and looked up to the waterfall; its beauty left her in awe. Tiers of rocks blanketed in green moss gave the precipice of the falls a warm, earthy appearance. Vines both brown and green, some with tiny, white flowers hung suspended over the ledge. Leaves that swooped and fell from the light blue sky, landed in the water and were swept away to a mystical place, just as Serina was.

Lucian closed his eyes and listened to the falls, Serina tangled within his arms. The power and endless rush of the water as it plummeted to the ground gave a flagrant display of force. He found the roar of the falls luring him into a sleepy state.

Serina started to stir, but Lucian tightened his hold on her, not ready to relinquish her.
Just a while longer, luv. Let the horses rest and me.
Lucian curled up around Serina and inhaled her scent. The fragrance of black roses filled his soul. “I love you, my wild rose. I will love you with my dying breath.”

Serina turned, and looked at Lucian, her expression most befuddled. “Lucian, that may have been nice in your mind, but once out in the open, it came out cryptic. With my dying breath?” She shoved at his chest.

“My apologies. I meant I’d love you till the day I died.”

“Cryptic again. Let’s change the subject.” Serina slowly undid her husband’s trousers.

“I think a change of subject is doable. Let me help you with that, dear.” Lucian winked.

The wolf watched as the horses threw their heads into the wind, and their nostrils flared in search of a scent.

His.

Well concealed in the thick brush, he bided his time as dusk encroached. Watching the two lovers awoke a distant pang of emotion that pierced his empty heart better than a dull arrow.

Annoyed for a few reasons, he couldn’t fathom why watching them would bring back an emotion he snuffed out long ago. How long had he been the beast that killed for no other reason than to feel the raw surge of power, caught between a man and wolf? When did he turn into the ruthless murderer that had taken his life in the same manner? Was he so far gone that he no longer knew himself? And more important, did he want the answers?

The answer to that he knew—no he didn’t want to know. Ignorance is bliss on the rarest of occasions and this was one of them. He certainly didn’t need Sigmund Freud sitting across a cold room staring him down for answers into his personal psyche of hell.

He knew of Lucian, although never formally introduced. They attended the same university, but traveled in different circles. He often thought of the twins as recluses, together always, letting only a few people into the trust of their lives, and he now understood why.

He watched Lucian and his new bride making love. It wasn’t just sex, but truly, they loved one another. He knew he violated their privacy, but still...watching them excited him, sickened him, and confused the dickens out of him. This was a job, pure and simple, wasn’t it? Would he be here now if he were not called upon by the pestiferous rogue he traveled with?

No. He knew he would never kill these people of his own hand if he were of free will, but free will hadn’t been an option for five long years.

Do not deny me this fun tonight, Jonah. Someone’s going to bloody well die tonight. Your sister and brother would love to meet me, would they not?

Jasper’s laugh cut to his very core better than a guillotine splitting him wide open could have.

Lucian and Serina stirred. The sky’s faint hues of orange and red faded through the treetops as the sun set. From the corner of Jonah’s eye, Jasper materialized from a thin mist back to his hideous form. It startled the wolf setting off a chain reaction of events that time could not turn back.

Unable to break free and spooked, the horses kicked up their back legs in self-defense. Hearing the commotion, Serina jumped to her feet and doubled over. A noxious gas plugged her nose better than clay could have.

With smell being the strongest human sense and links to memories, Serina recognized the repulsive odor from the first night she’d met Lucian and Raven.

The vampire was back.

With a scan of her surroundings, she saw nothing except a thick fog coming toward her. It made absolutely no sense until she looked through the fog and stared into the most virulent eyes she’d ever encountered. Flames darted out at her from
its
pupils. She ducked to avoid their contact. Behind her a small bush burst into flames. Her old ticker picked up its pace.

Lucian grabbed Serina hard, and threw her between himself and the horses.
Get on the horse and ride. Do not look back
.
Lucian looked into Serina’s eyes and with that one look, an eternity of unspoken words, unrealized dreams, love, life and hope passed between them.

He untied the horses’ reins.
I found love with you once, my wild rose. What is between us is never finished. Go now to our family and see them safe. My promise to you, Serina, I will come back to you.

Lucian, that promise is not one for you to make. Only God can.

’Tis not my time, m’lady. We still have our destiny to fulfill—together. Death cannot separate us, Serina—only time and circumstance. Dying now makes no sense.

Nothing makes any sense, Lucian. Life…death.

No, Serina, you and I, we make sense together. Forever. I will accept no less.

Lucian slapped the horse and screamed, “Be gone.” His only thought was to see Serina to safety. Her life was all that mattered to him. He could do no more than try and save her from the same twisted fate he faced. He had to, because to live knowing he’d failed her would be a fate far worse than death.

“Lucian you’ll get nothing more.” Jasper remarked, after reading Lucian’s mind.

****

Crouched against the ground, the wolf crawled out from the brush. Yellowish saliva gooey and hanging off his lips like a rabid animal. He erected his awkward shaped body directly in front of Serina’s horse, causing the horse to rise up onto his rear legs again. Serina tightened her grip on the reins, her fists white. She clamped her thighs to the horse’s large trunk praying not to fall and opened her mouth to scream, but the sound she made could only be compared to a death rattle, the last noise someone makes before their soul leaves their body. Right here and now, she wasn’t sure her soul didn’t flee. If it was smart, it did.

The horse clipped the wolf’s head and knocked him off balance. The beast’s retaliation came fast. He sprang at the animal using powerful muscle-clad hind legs and ripped directly into the mare’s chest with his teeth. When he finished a large hole lay where the animal’s heart once beat.

Stunned by the fatal blow, the horse stumbled head first to the ground, and catapulted Serina into a boulder, head first.

Serina now saw two wolves, both with malice in their yellow eyes. She saw the colors without Lucian’s help. She shook her head to clear her vision, only to have pain radiate to every distal nerve in her body. Her only thought, save Lucian. If he died—well he just wasn’t going to. Life without her husband was not an option. Before she could formulate a plan, the wolf pinned her wrists and rubbed his large, wet muzzle over her face. He sniffed at her the way a dog does hot on a trail of a bitch, and left behind a sticky trail of snot. His jaundiced eyes never blinked. Neither did she. Growling, he displayed numerous teeth, stained red from the dead horse. Spittle dripped into Serina’s eyes, and burned as if it were acid.

Lucian
.
She cried over and over. Serina couldn’t see him but she could hear the struggle between him and the vampire as tree limbs snapped, cries of pain echoed out and the vamp’s cackle trumpeted.
Lucian, please hear me. What do we do to save ourselves?

Lucian had no answer. He didn’t understand why this was happening to him, or how to get away from the situation. A skilled fencer, he’d never been equaled with a gun nor bow. His marksmanship held him high honors. Unfortunately, he had neither a gun nor sword nor bow on him. His horse, for all the good it did, stood heavily armed and unattainable on the opposite side of the path.