The Mating Intent-mobi (21 page)

And went charging down the path to protect the Elf he loved.

Sienna sensed the great stir of power in the air before she spotted them. Sweat popped out on her forehead as an icy chill skated down her spine. She flattened herself against the trunk of a shady ficus tree, wishing her glamour could disguise her.

Lana and Gideon, the Crimson Wizard. The last time she’d faced them both, pain had become her constant companion.

Immobilized, she stared helplessly. A snarl drew her attention to the left.

In panther form, Gabriel raced forward. He skidded to a halt before her, shielding her with his big, muscular body, and roared at the pair. Her heart melted at his fierce protectiveness. No one ever stood up for her before.

Gideon raised a hand and Sienna knew the wizard would strike Gabriel. She crouched down before the panther, sliding her arms around his neck. “He doesn’t mean it. He’s only trying to protect me.”

Sienna whispered into the big cat’s furry ear. “Please, I can handle this. Stand down.”

He hissed, but retreated a few steps, sitting on his haunches.

Standing, she addressed the royal Enforcer, the female who would decide her fate. Lana was neutral and emotionless. But perhaps this time, she’d listen to reason and judge fairly. Fear slid down her spine in an icy caress, but she managed to lift her chin and square her shoulders. She would not allow Lana to intimidate her.

“I found an alternative means to eradicating the darkness inside me, Lana.” Sienna gathered all her self-confidence. “I did not need the spring of Danu. I found a new means to control Terithen’s dark power.”

She glanced at Gabriel. “I violated my vow of celibacy again, but through sexually bonding with Gabriel, I found the means to turn the dark magick into a force for good.”

Lana blinked, then tilted her head as if listening intently. “You did not follow our king’s instructions. He told you to cleanse yourself and eliminate the dark magick, not control it. You were told to remain celibate and you violated your vow. You must be punished according to law.”

“The spring of Danu is putrid. It’s turned to an acid bath. I will not end my life,” she shot back, fighting the urge to shake the Enforcer and make her see reason for once.

But there was no understanding, no mercy in those green eyes. The lady of Light might as well be a robot.

“You know the punishment for disobedience, dark Elf. Thirty lashes and permanent banishment from court and our colony. Punishment will take place immediately.”

Stunned, she reeled back in her heels. Banished from her own people because she refused to kill herself? What about the good she’d done?

“I’m not dark,” Sienna protested.

“You are in my eyes,” Lana replied. “You always will be.”

Sienna glared at Lana. “Gabriel was right. You are a bitch.”

Surprise flickered across Lana’s face. Then she waved a hand. “Crimson Wizard, I entreat you to punish this wayward subject. Here and now.”

Sienna paled. Punishment she could take. Brutal pain she would survive. But in front of Gabriel, risking his life by making his panther attack whoever hurt her?

“Can we not do this back home?”

Gideon spoke up. “No.”

Shifting back to his human form, Gabriel stepped before Sienna. “You will not touch her, you bastards.”

“It’s all right, Gabriel. Please, go with your dad now. I’ll be fine. But I can’t….” Her voice broke. “I don’t want you to see this.”

Gabriel turned to Lana. “Mother, do not do this. You are inflicting this on Sienna because she violated her vow with me. We are lovers and I won’t see her hurt because I seduced her.”

Sienna stared at Gabriel, suddenly understanding everything. Why Gabriel felt apart from other shifters. Why he mocked the Elven Royal Court and disdained those she longed to emulate.

Because Gabriel had been rejected by them as well.

“You’re hybrid,” she said softly. “Your father is panther and your mother is a pure light Elf.”

His jaw tightened. “I wanted to tell you, pixie. It’s why I brought you here. Knew I had to level with you.”

“Why didn’t you tell me before?”

The glare he directed at the Enforcer was filled with venom. “I was going to tell you after you met Dave, my dad. I’ve always hated my Elven origins and I wanted to deny them as my own mother denied me, as her people denied me. I’m the product of a planned breeding. My mother saw the number of panther shifters were dwindling and thought it was her role to save us.” His voice held a mocking edge, but Sienna saw the shadows in his eyes.

Oh gods, she knew that kind of pain, the type that twisted your insides and wrung you dry, and made you put up a mask for all the world to see.

“Your father understood. My intentions were noble, Gabriel. I loved you from the moment you were born. I only wished to breed a perfect son who had the pureblood panther shifter genes,” Lana told him.

“Perfect son, Mother? I was nothing more than a science experiment to you. You might as well have cultivated me in a petri dish with my father’s sperm.”

“I did care. Gabriel, I love you.” Lana protested.

“No, you never did. You left me with my father soon as you gave birth. Caring isn’t mouthing tributes. Caring is action. Which is why I’m doing this…”

Gabriel squeezed Sienna’s hand and she went cold all over, knowing what he intended.

“No, Gabriel…”

“I will take her punishment.” His gaze narrowed as he turned to the Crimson Wizard. “If is permitted among the Elven to have a substitute take her punishment, then take me.”

Her heart leapt with joy, even as horror filled her. Gabriel would do this for her? Emotion clogged her throat. All her life she’d sought to be loved unconditionally for who she was. And this brave panther had proven his love.
I love you.

“It is permitted,” the Crimson Wizard agreed.

Now it was Lana’s turn to turn bloodless. “No, you cannot allow this.”

“I can.” Gideon looked hard at Sienna. “Sienna, you will face punishment unless you leave the Elven for good and never return to your people. Then your vows are negated and all charges are dropped.”

Blood drained from Sienna’s face. “I cannot. As an Elf, I belong with the Elven.”

“You could stay with us,” Gabriel told her. “We accept you, and my people will love you as I do. Have faith in us.”

In me
, his gaze pleaded.

Her chest tightened. “But I’m Elven and Elves belong with Elves and shifters belong to shifters.”

“I am half Elven.”

“But your home is here. Mine is with my people. They’re all I’ve ever known. I can’t cut off all my ties to them! I’m sorry. I can’t stay. My place is with other Elven. But I won’t let you take my punishment for me.”

Gabriel turned from her and held out his hands to Gideon. “I will take her punishment. Call it a parting gift from a lowly beast shifter.”

Mockery rang in his tone.

No one had ever offered to sacrifice anything for her, until Gabriel. He loved her, she realized. Loved her enough to suffer for her. She wanted to fling her arms around him and never let go. Her heart melted as she regarded his solemn expression. “Don’t do this,” she whispered to him.

Lana turned to Gideon. “How can you ask me to hurt my only son?”

“You never deliver the punishment, Enforcer. It is my task. As the lady of Light, you always remain unsullied.” Mockery rang in Gideon’s tone. Then he turned to Gabriel.

“Take off your shirt. I have glamoured the area. No Skins will see us.”

As Gabriel shrugged out of his shirt, accompanied by Lana’s loud, protesting wails, Sienna put a hand on his arm. “Don’t do this. Please. Not for me. I’m not worth it.”

He cupped her face with a warm palm. “But you are. That’s what I’ve tried to tell you all this time. You are worth it, and much more. You’ve been more than a healing agent for the shifters wounded by the dark enchantment. You’ve been my salvation from loneliness. All these years I’ve kept your memory alive. I’ve tried being with other women, but they were stale and shallow and never brought me to life the way you did. I’ve tried being alone and alone was better because the memory of you warmed me inside, knowing there was someone out there for me.”

The Crimson Wizard waved a hand and a vine dropped from the tree branch, wrapping around Gabriel’s wrists and jerking him upright until his body was stretched tight.

Torment swirled in Gabriel’s eyes. “Please, Sienna. Leave. I don’t want you to see this,” his words echoing what she’d said earlier.

Waving a hand, the Crimson Wizard sliced off a thin tree branch. “Stop it,” Sienna shouted.

Dangling from the tree limb, his toes barely brushing the grass, Gabriel looked at her solemnly. “It’s okay, darling. I’ll take a beating from all the wizards in the Brehon, if it means keeping you safe. You don’t deserve to be punished for having the courage to love me.”

This brave panther, who had dared to point out the truth of her life, was sacrificing himself for her. She darted forward to stop this madness.

And found herself frozen to the ground.

Helpless, she looked at Dave, growling in fury. He and Lana were both immobilized.

The air compressed and expanded and in a brilliant flash, Tristan appeared. He immediately strode up to Gideon.

“What the hell are you doing? He is my subject. You cannot touch him.”

Gideon gave the Silver Wizard a cool look. “Gabriel is half Elven. Glythen come under my rule.”

“He is half panther shifter. Wyldings are under my rule.”

The Crimson Wizard dropped the switch. “You are correct. We are at an impasse.”

“Perhaps we should divide him into half,” Tristan said mockingly. “Cut him up. I will get the half that has the power to breed, and you may have his sarcastic mouth.”

“Hey,” Gabriel protested.

Gideon waved a hand and a golden sword appeared in his right hand. “Shall I do the cutting?”

“It’s your sword. Be my guest. Make it a clean cut right at the waist. Fifty percent of him is mine,” Tristan told him.

Horrified, Sienna pulled hard at her feet and finally broke free. She rushed forward and flung her arms around Gabriel’s sweating waist, facing the two powerful wizards.

“You won’t touch him. You’ll have to go through me,” she snapped. “You can’t divide him in half! He’s a whole person.”

“But his shifter half belongs to me,” Tristan said.

“And his Elven side belongs to me. We are using your logic, Sienna.” Gideon gave her a pointed look. “You say you are Elf and the Elven only belong to the Elven, and shifters to shifters.”

“Why are you protesting our actions when we honor your philosophy? Warped as it is,” Tristan put in, his dark gaze glittering.

The wisdom of their words hit her like a sledgehammer. She eased her grip from Gabriel and looked up at him, the cords of his arms straining as he dangled from the rope.

“Pixie, I love you enough to make it work for us. I’m not saying this only because my arms hurt like a bitch and I don’t want these guys to turn me into chopped panther.” His gaze was tender. “Stay with me. You have a home here, always, with people who love you and will always make you welcome.”

Oh, how she longed to stay. But her sense of honor and duty tugged at her head, while his pleading eyes tugged at her heart.

“How can I make it work? How can I be certain this is where I belong, if I can do any good here?” she asked Gideon, her voice breaking.

The Crimson Wizard’s expression turned dark. “You need a demonstration? Fine.”

Turning, he gathered a glowing ball of pure red energy into his palms. And then he flung it.

Directly at Gabriel’s father.

Dave screamed and collapsed to the pathway.

“You fucking bastards! He did nothing!” Gabriel yelled. With a mighty roar, he yanked hard at his restraints, breaking the vines. Gabriel raced over to his father’s side.

Dave was gasping for air, his eyes rolling backwards.

With a shriek Lana ran to her former lover, dropped her knees and touched the horrible, jagged wound in his chest. The ice cold Enforcer stared wildly at the Crimson Wizard. “Heal him!” Lana pleaded. “Please, he’s dying!”

“That was a bit extreme,” Tristan told Gideon.

Gideon shrugged. “She has no faith in her usefulness and needed a test.”

A test? A freaking test? These wizards played with lives like a child kicked at his blocks. Rage filled her as she gathered her powers, wanting to turn them into dust, not caring they could fry her to ash. The darkness within her swirled and gathered.

And then she heard Dave’s cries grow feeble.

“Sienna,” Gabriel whispered. “Help me. We’ve got to save him.”

Fury vanished, replaced with grief. Sienna went to Gabriel and knelt by Dave, whose chest rose and fell rapidly.

She looked at Tristan, begging with her eyes. The Silver Wizard crouched down.

He touched her hand and warm, good power flowed from his skin. “It is within you, little one. You have the power within you. Light and dark. Gabriel will show you.”

She reached for her lover’s hand and clasped it. Gabriel kissed her knuckles. “Feel my love for you, pixie. Gather all your power, both dark and light.”

Sienna thought of Gabriel, his sunny smile, his wicked sarcasm and sense of humor, his hands, so gentle upon her skin.

A warm glow pulsed through her. She reached inside herself for the power, both light and dark, and forced them together into a ball as a baker kneaded flour into dough. Sienna opened her eyes and clasped Gabriel’s hand.

White light rippled across their hands. Gabriel pulled away, the ball of pure light energy dancing in his palm.

Slowly Gabriel smoothed the light over Dave’s tortured flesh, chanting the sacred words. The light hovered over his skin and then sank into it.

The bloodied scorch mark on his chest slowly vanished. Dave opened his eyes.

“There’s no more pain,” he marveled. “What happened? Did you heal me?”

Tears blurred Sienna’s vision. She wiped them away. “It was your son and me, working together.”