Page 18 of Revelations

There was still not a peep from Kael. His silence unnerved her, but it was also a welcomed reprieve. If she were honest with herself, the last thing they needed was to openly discuss their feelings after what they had just experienced.

Reluctantly, she turned to face Kael, who was unblinkingly staring at her. His eyes sparkled, but his facial expressions warred with themselves. His eyebrows would arch in inquisition with eyes wide for a moment before dropping into a pinched look—was that fear? What had he seen in that room? Had they experienced the same things?

It just was not possible.

***

Kael’s chest squeezed until he was certain that breathing was no longer possible. The garden. All that had passed between them. Had it been real, or just memories flaring to life? Were the memories even real? Sometimes he doubted even that.

What he did not question was the aura of pure white love that had washed over him as he had lost himself in the shimmering emerald seas of Greylyn’s eyes. Passion. Love. Merged in a beautiful shower of iridescent raindrops enveloping them both.

Had she felt it, too? Or had it just been his own emotions radiating back to him?

There had been a darkness there, too; a deafening darkness that belonged to him alone; pitch-black nothingness, devoid of all emotion.

But then a speck of hot white light had pierced into the abyss. A tiny dot of energy had made its way straight into his soul. It had hit its mark and grown exponentially, second by second until it had burst outward into an explosion of stars obliterating the darkness, filling it with light…and love.

It was at that point Claude had yanked him back to reality. The light had been immediatelyextinguished. Nothing had been left but an emptiness greater than what had ravaged his soul for the last four centuries.

***

“Kael…”

As if the sound of his name on her lips broke invisible shackles from his body, he sprang over to her and scooped her up in his arms. Something unintelligible passed his lips, not even recognizable as words.

A hand reached up, softly stroking her hair. A part of her yearned to succumb, just to allow him to envelop her in his arms; to lose herself in him again. But her mind screamed,No!

Although her body instinctively snuggled into his chest, she allowed herself one last whiff of his citrus and sandalwood scent before pulling away from him. He reached for her, his eyes pleading, but her arms went up to stop him from stepping closer.

Her voice wavered, “Kael, we need to focus here. We have less than half an hour to get out of this disaster. I need you in top badass form to pull this off.”

His stare did not register her words. Just hurt and pain, easily recognizable as the same emotions that tore at the fiber of her being.

She smacked her hands together, making enough of a sharp sound to knock him back to the present. “Kael, snap out of it! Attention, I need to speak with the evil dark guardian right now.”

Gold-flecked eyes blinked. Once. Twice. He reached out to her again, stopping mid-way in the air. His eyebrows furrowed and then eased. Finally, he dropped his hand back to his side and nodded.

A pent-up breath that she had notknown she had been holding escaped her lips. Apparently, they needed to have a long talk once they were out of here, if they made it out. “I think I know where Kristina and Brian are being held. We have to get to them.” She motioned for him to join her in the center of the room and whispered, “Question ishow?” Luckily, since they were both guardians with enhanced hearing beyond the supernatural auditory abilities of even vampires, she could simply mouth the words and he would hear her.

Kael’s face had taken on a calmer, cooler expression, barren of any signs of his vulnerability from just moments earlier. He pulled her close and nuzzled her neck while softly explaining. “We tell Claude what he wants to hear but force him to bring them into the room with us before we agree to be bitten. After that, we fight our way out, I guess.”

Shrugging, she said, “Simple. It’s a rather long shot, but it’s as good a plan as any, I suppose.”

“Sorry, love. It’s all we got right now,” he growled.

Kael hugged her so tightly, that she felt the blood pounding through his veins, as well as the physical proof of her effect on him. He planted a kiss on her neck, just below her earlobe, that left her breathless. Involuntarily, her head dropped back as if her spine could no longer hold it up.

The door suddenly swung open. A barefoot Claude stood in the entrance, smiling smugly. “It seems I was right, after all.” He had changed into an ivory silk button-down shirt that accentuated his slender, but obviously toned chest, and linen khaki pants rolled up just above his ankles.

Greylyn fought the urge to spit some sarcastic remark at him and hoped that she had enough control over her facial expression to not reveal her true thoughts. Instead, she placed her hand in Kael’s. Interlacing their fingers, they stood side by side. United once again. Three months earlier,they had joined forces to protect Kelly and her child. This was getting to be a strange habit—fighting alongside her own worst enemy.

Kael squeezed her hand tightly. Whether as reassurance or a warning to play along, she did not know or care. It just felt right. He answered their gloating host first, sounding more like a lawyer mitigating a case when he realized that he was on the losing side, but determined to find a way to come out on top. “We can’t arguecertainaspects of your case.”

She gave him anothersqueeze of his hand. Looking up into his eyes, she saw a wicked spark as one corner of his mouth ticked up, highlighting his dimple. The bastard was enjoying this a bit too much.

“Are we meant to be together?” Kael continued. “Yes, I accept as true.”

Her stomach knotted. Her chest constricted. They were merely words; a game to be played to get them out of this mess. Not reality by any means…or, was it?

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