Deviant Knights (22 page)

But she’d been willing to risk her own life to
save his.
 
That meant something, didn’t
it?
 
Foolish, silly
woman.
 
He wasn’t worth saving. Hadn’t
he proved that with his rough handling of her in bed?
 
Hadn’t he shown her how much of an ass he
was?

Yet she’d still been willing to fight for
him.
 
Fight for a man she barely
knew.
 
Fight for a man who’d been
unwilling to see the good in her the moment doubt was thrown in the way.

The moment he’d first seen her, he’d seen her
light, her zest for life.
 
He’d been
pulled to it like a moth to a flame.
 
She
made him smile.
 
Made
him laugh.
 
She made him feel—more
than he’d felt in an eternity.

She made him want more.

And then she’d fallen on a sword for him.

He’d said to her that she wasn’t the woman he
needed.
 
That he needed something more to
heal the broken spirit that rested within him.
 
He’d been so wrong.

She was more than enough woman.
 
And she lay dying in his arms.

The fighting quieted.
 
Sirens began to waft in the distance, the
authorities nearing.
 
It was a wonder
they hadn’t come sooner considering the explosions.
 
But this part of the tarmac was far away from
the normal traffic.
 
It probably wasn’t
noticed at first, giving them plenty of time to fight off the Illuminati.
 
At least he hoped that his brethren had been
successful.
 

Henri’s face appeared in the doorway, bruised
and bloodied.
 
“How is she?”

“Bleeding.
 
A lot.
 
We need to get off the ground, now.
 
I hear sirens.”

Henri ducked back out and down the stairs.
 
Lightning struck outside the plane.
 
His brothers were eliminating the Illuminati
soldiers.
 
Was
Paloma
in their number?

Gabriel strode through the door, a headless body
in his arms.
 
He dropped it on the floor
at Michel’s feet.

“What is this?”
 
Michel kicked the torso away and it began to disintegrate.

“The ash seemed to strengthen her the last time.
Perhaps it will help her now.”

The body disintegrated and the powder swirled
into the air and moved toward
Kadence
.
 
It flowed into her and her body lifted
slightly from Michel’s arms.
 
He pulled
his shirt away and saw her wound.
 
It was
not healed, but the blood had stopped flowing from it freely.
 
The sirens were getting louder.
 
They didn’t have time to wait for another
body.

The engines kicked over right after Lucian
rushed into the cockpit.
 
The other
Templars
crowded into the cabin, seating themselves.
 
All looked worse for wear.
 
Blood-soaked clothing, cuts, and bruises
abounded.
 

“
Paloma
?”
 
Michel didn’t ask anyone in
particular.
 
He just needed someone to
answer.
 
Was the nightmare over?

“She got away.
 
I’m not sure how she did it.” Thierry answered from behind him.

“Bitch needs to die.”
 
Kadence
breathed
out on a low murmur.

Michel exhaled a sigh of relief.
 
Kadence
would
live.
 
And she was right.
 
That bitch needed to die.

****

Thierry opened the doors to the German estate as
Gabriel carried
Kadence
in his arms.
 
They’d called Nicolas mid-air and told him of
their plight.
 
If his woman did indeed
have the power to heal, then they needed her to heal
Kadence
.

Gabriel rushed up the flight of stairs before
him, not knowing where he was
going,
only knowing that
he needed to find her a soft bed to rest in.
 
Thierry rushed past him on the stairs and guided him to a bedroom,
opening the door wide to let them through.
 
Michel was fast on their heels, carrying her bag and the first aid kit
with the medical supplies they’d used on the plane to bandage her wounds over
his arm.
 
Lowering her to the bed, Gabriel
gingerly released her.
 
She moaned lowly
as he jostled her as carefully as possible.

Thierry looked out the large thick-leaded
windows into the night sky.
 
“I see
lights approaching.
 
It may be Nicolas
and Matthias.”

Michel and Gabriel were left alone with
Kadence
.
 
Gabriel sat
on the edge of the bed, watching the shallow breaths she took, worrying over
her ashen appearance.
 
She’d put herself
in the path of that sword to save Michel.
 

Gabriel had promised himself that he would
protect her from Michel.
 
He’d already
dropped the ball.
 
Here she was before
them, fighting for breath, a sword wound running through her.
 
For what?
 
A man who didn’t trust her, didn’t know how
incredible a woman she truly was because he was too wrapped up in the past to
get his own head out of his ass?

“She’s here, like this, because of you,” Gabriel
bit out, the anger in his words sounding like venom to his own ears.

“She’s here, like this, because she was a fool
to think she could fight
Paloma
.”

Gabriel turned, rage filling him.
 
“She risked her life to save you, to prevent
your head from being cleaved off, and you call her a fool?
 
The only thing she’s foolish of is thinking
you’re worth the effort.”

Michel’s eyes widened, his nostrils flaring, but
he remained quiet.
 
After a moment, he
relaxed a bit.
 
“You’re right.”

Gabriel jerked at that, not expecting an
admission but rather more denial.
 
Michel
was great with denial.

“I’m not worthy of a woman like her.”
 
Michel turned from Gabriel and bent down on
one knee beside the bed.
 
He reached a
hand out to caress her cheek with the back.
 
“She’s a fool and I’m a selfish bastard who couldn’t see what was right
before me.”

Envy filled Gabriel.
 
Kadence
was Michel’s.
 
If she survived this, she was his.
 
She would be the one to save his miserable
soul.

Kadence’s
eyes fluttered open.
 

“Selfish bastard?”
 
She chuckled lowly before
moaning in pain.
 
“You are a
stubborn
bastard.
 
Get it right.”

Gabriel watched as Michel gathered one of her
frail looking hands in both of his and brought it to his lips, pressing a kiss
onto the back.
 
Michel smiled at her, and
Gabriel realized it was the first real smile he’d seen from Michel in
years.
 
The envy bled from him in that
moment.
Kadence
was the woman who could save his
friend.
 
And he wouldn’t stand in the way
of Michel’s happiness, or
Kadence’s
.

He just wished he’d seen this coming before he’d
lost his heart to her.

Chapter Eighteen

A willowy blonde rushed into
Kadence’s
room, followed by Nicolas and Matthias.
 
Michel narrowed his eyes at the woman. His trust may have opened to
accept
Kadence
, but no one else would be so
lucky.
 
She approached
Kadence
slowly, eyeing Michel like a wild beast she’d need
to tame.
 
How right she was.

“Michel, Gabriel, this is Britt.
 
She’s here to help.”

Britt moved closer, Michel never easing.
 
He refused to move, seated at the head of the
bed,
Kadence’s
head in his lap.
 
The woman smiled softly, her green eyes
glistening.
 

She dipped to the bed, resting on the edge.
 
Collecting
Kadence’s
hand in hers, the woman closed her eyes and began to hum quietly.
 
Her other hand lifted and began to hover over
Kadence’s
body, floating in large circles until it
narrowed into smaller ones just above the wound.

A light formed under the bandages, in the exact
spot the wound was, and mere seconds later, was gone.

“The sword missed the major organs.
 
She was lucky.
 
She could’ve bled out if it had been a few
inches to either side.”
 
Britt stood, a
smile on her lips and in her eyes, as she stared directly at him.
 
Michel could hear a slight Nordic accent to
her words.
 
“But you, you have some
wounds, yourself.
 
Deep
wounds.
 
And the healer for those
lies in this bed.”

Britt turned to Nicolas and Matthias.
 
Both men smiled at her, Nicolas pulling her
close.
 
The three left the room, the door
clicking shut quietly.

Gabriel slowly began to unbind the bandages
around
Kadence
, probably needing to see it as much as
Michel did.
 
They peeled back the bloody
gauze to find a light pink gash.
 
The
skin had knitted together nicely.
 
It
looked like it had been weeks, not hours, since
Kadence
had received the wound.

The woman had done it.
 
Britt had healed
Kadence
.
 
More proof of Thierry’s claim.
 
The seer and the healer.
 
Two down, three more to go.

Kadence’s
eyes opened, a gasp filling her lungs.
 
Michel held his own breath, waiting for a
response.

“What was that?”

“The woman Nicolas told Thierry about.
 
The one they think may be the healer.”
 
Michel didn’t want to admit that everything
was coming together, proof that the story Thierry had found could be true.
 
The men had told him of the warrior woman
who’d planted a sword in
Paloma
, and he’d felt great
love for this warrior woman.
 
Too bad
she’d not taken the gypsy’s head.

“So skeptical.”
 
She looked down to the wound
in her chest.
 
“Looks like I’m healed, so
that would make her—a healer.”

Michel frowned down at
Kadence
,
even though he reveled on the inside.
 
She was restored and he’d finally gotten his head out of his ass,
hopefully in enough time to make it up to her.
 
If she still wanted him.
 
And if Gabriel did not
object.
 
He had a lot of crow to
eat.

After all the things he’d said, all the things
he’d done, she had every right to cast him out.
 
He hoped she didn’t, but would understand if she did.

Britt’s words came back and ran through his
mind.
 
The healer to his wounds lies in
this bed.
 
Perhaps there was hope?
 
“I’ve recently said a lot of things I
regret.”

“Like?”
 
Kadence
looked at him innocently, but he felt the hint of her ire.
 
She wanted to torment him a bit.
 
He could see it in her eyes.
 
And she deserved to after what he’d done to
her.

“You’re going to make this hard, aren’t you?”

“Yes, perhaps a little.”

“Saying you weren’t the one.
 
I was wrong.”

“So now you think I am?
 
Because I got hurt?”

“Because you cared enough to
attempt to save me.”

She pursed her lips a
little,
he thought to hide a smile.
 
“I had to
get hurt for you to finally trust me?”