Falling Into Place (33 page)

He howled in pain, but rolled them over and
struggled to hold her down. “You fucking cunt. Do you realize what
you did to me?”

She threw him off of her and punched him in
the face. “I hope it fucking hurt,” she snarled back.

His head whipped to the side, but he brought
his gaze back to hers as if he didn’t feel it. There was a cruel
smile on his face. “I know what Sinclair did to your sweet innocent
little body when you were twelve.”

“Why do you think I killed him?” She
answered coldly, not willing to let Sinclair fuck with her head
when he was long since dead.

He went still under her, staring into her
eyes. “I always wanted my uncle’s favorite toy. I bet he fucked you
over and over again, until you couldn’t take it. I bet you liked
it, I bet you screamed like a whore.”

She let lightning fill her palm and slammed
it into his chest. “No. He only tried that once, and I killed him,
like I’m going to kill you.”

“Bobby?” Christian called.

There was a pop and several pairs of feet
hit the floor. “Liz,” Robert shouted. He tackled her to the ground
as Jarvis stormed in with fire in his palms that he threw right
where she had been.

James threw up a shield to block the flame.
Robert rolled to his feet and launched himself at James.

James pulled a knife and dove at Liz. Robert
caught his brother by the throat and threw him into his own shield.
Somewhere along the way James dropped the blade.

The shields crumpled and chaos broke
out.

Liz stood as James looked up at Christian
with a wicked smile. “My child. I knew Emily had a baby. How
convenient that you still wound up with my brother.”

Christian’s tone was harsh. “You are not my
father. You’re a sadistic prick who only knows how to hurt
others.”

“Robert,” Liz shouted. “Take Christian from
here. Please.”

“I’ll be right back,” Robert promised.

Draecyn and Tremaine moved beside Liz as
Jarvis sent a wave of fire at her.

James screeched at him as he rolled away.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

Liz threw her hands up, whipping them toward
James. The fire followed her direction, flowing toward him.

A shadowy shield formed around James as he
raised his arms. The flame sizzled and died on the smoky wall.

Jarvis held his fire filled palms out toward
her. She let lightning dance over her hands as she closed the
distance and pushed her magic and his own up his arms. She let him
fall as he howled in pain. Jarvis rolled around, desperately trying
to put the fire out.

She heard the rush of air as Draecyn rushed
forward, taking the blade James threw at her.

“No,” she cried. She caught him as he fell.
Tremaine rushed to help her. Then she heard the pop and felt rain
pouring down on her.

“Get in the back,” Robert told her with a
nod at the Land Cruiser.

Tremaine helped her lift Draecyn into the
back of the vehicle and then shut them in before he charged around
the driver’s side.

“I’m so sorry, Liz.” Draecyn croaked. “I’m
so terribly sorry.”

“No. Don’t be sorry,” she whispered, a tear
falling.

“I couldn’t let him harm you.”

“Shh, don’t.” She pulled the blade from his
chest, and saw the bubbles. Blood was filling his lungs, and the
blade was cursed. She couldn’t heal normal shit on a good day. Liz
didn’t know what to do, but she placed her hand over the wound and
pushed her will, attempting to heal him.

He seemed to relax a little, but the
bleeding didn’t stop, it didn’t even slow down. “I can’t heal. I
never could,” she whispered.

“Shh. It doesn’t matter. Just know that I
loved you from the day you were born. When I finally found out you
were mine, I thought it was too late.”

“No, it was never too late.” She blinked and
he reached up to brush the tears from her cheeks.

“But I didn’t want anyone to know what you
were. The dark mages would have come for you. Your mother is a
druid. You have both our powers.”

“I would have handled it. I would have
understood.”

“Let Robert take care of you. Tremaine too,”
he sputtered, blood trickling from his mouth. “Know that you’re
loved.” His body seized for a second, and then the light left his
eyes as his body went limp.

Robert was having trouble staying upright as
he tried to fight the magic of the blade. His brother threw it,
catching him in the shoulder before he could get everyone out of
there.

His worst memories tried to surface, but he
pushed them back. Ignoring the pain was harder. Tremaine had
already pulled the dagger from his shoulder.

“Liz,” Tremaine called. “Robert needs
you.”

“Don’t, I’ll deal,” Robert warned Trem.

Preston growled back. “Liz, seriously, get
your ass up here now. Robert’s too damned stubborn to be smart and
I don’t know how to counter that curse.

“I’ll be fine,” Robert snarled.

“Fuck that,” Tremaine shouted. “We’re not
losing you, Robert. That blade was cursed.”

Liz scrambled over the seat and practically
fell into Robert’s lap. He knew he looked like hell. He was covered
in blood, could barely sit up, and he was getting weaker by the
second.

Her lovely hazel eyes shimmered with tears.
She ripped open his shirt and found the wound. There was a bloody
hole and it was deep. “No, not you too,” she whimpered as she
pressed her hands to his chest. Robert wrapped his arms around her
waist, pulling her close as the road fell away to forest.

Tremaine parked and Robert looked up to find
them in the woods. He felt the spell surround them.

Liz looked into Robert’s eyes. “You can’t
die. I can’t lose you,” she whispered. “I won’t survive.”

Tremaine knelt on the floor beside her and
placed one hand on her thigh, and the other on Robert’s shoulder.
He stared up at Liz until she looked at him.

“You can do this, doll. You’ve got this,”
Tremaine purred.

Her eyes drifted to Tremaine, and Robert saw
the way their connection flared. “I can’t lose him anymore than I
can lose you,” she whispered.

Tremaine reached up to cup her face. He
brushed his thumb over her bottom lip. “Heal him. Trust that you
can. You’ve done it before.”

She looked back down at Robert who slumped a
little further as he fought to keep his eyes open. His vision kept
flickering back to the morning he found her so many years ago. Liz
had been dirty, bloody, and curled so tight. Then he woke her, and
her terror flooded the room.

He had a wave of memories of all the times
he found her curled up, staring off in the distance with a sheen of
unshed tears in her eyes. He remembered all the times she tried to
convince him to choose his family over her. Of course he remembered
the way she walked away from him after James died, or they thought
he had. And then all the times he laid awake at night, wondering
how she was doing and missing her so bad he could hardly stand
it.

Robert whispered. “Promise me that no matter
what happens, you two will be happy.”

“No,” she screamed and slammed her eyes
shut. Robert felt the jolt of electricity. Her squeal of terror
washed through him.

His eyes flew open. The pain was washed away
as his skin mended. Then Liz scrambled away from him, to the other
side of the bench, wrapping her arms tight around her legs as she
curled into a tight little ball.

* * * *

Tremaine moved to Liz, but she shook her
head. “I t-t-took the c-curse. I’ll b-b-be ok-kay. Go t-to Em-mily.
N-n-ow.”

“Liz, doll. Let us help,” Tremaine pleaded.
This was his fault, he had pushed Liz to take the curse and now she
was fighting the dark magic.

Robert moved closer and she shot them a
death glare that looked pretty pathetic. “What can we do?” Robert
asked.

“D-drive. If I’m n-n-not okay b-by then,
we’ll think of s-s-something else.”

“No,” Robert bellowed. “I won’t have you do
this for her. Look at you.”

“F-fuck you. D-d-drive, now,” she screamed
back.

Tremaine slid into the driver’s seat. If she
was arguing like that, she was fighting the curse better than he or
Robert ever could. Tremaine wasn’t going to fight with her. Not yet
anyway.

“What are you doing?” Robert asked as he
leaned over the front seat, trying to take the keys.

Tremaine was faster and started the Land
Cruiser, throwing it in reverse. Robert fell back and Liz squealed
in pain.

Without waiting for a response, Tremaine
started for the druid compound. He glanced back in the mirror and
said, “I’m doing as she asked.”

“Liz is not taking that curse from Emily.
Look at her. It’s tearing her up.”

“She’s also fighting it.” Tremaine pointed
out. “I think it was the same thing Sinclair put on her the day she
killed him. She fought it off and still had the power to kill him.
So give her a chance.”

Preston turned in his seat and glared at
Robert. “Shit, if she could fight it back then, she’ll be okay.
Just chill out, Robert.”

Robert slammed his hand on the seat. “I
don’t want her hurting, I don’t want her facing her worst
nightmares. That’s what it did to me. It was tearing me apart,
forcing my worst fears and memories on me.”

“I’m fine,” she snapped back, the stuttering
gone. Robert was pulled back. Tremaine glanced in the mirror to see
Liz jab Robert in the chest. “I’m fine. I know how to fight it. It
will kill Emily if I don’t take it from her. Is that what you
want?”

“No, but I don’t want you suffering for it,”
Robert whispered, before growling at Tremaine. “You shouldn’t have
urged her to take it from me.”

Preston laughed bitterly. “Oh, she was about
to try it anyway, Robert. She didn’t really need any encouragement.
She was desperate enough to try anything.”

“She just lost her father though,” Robert
answered.

“A father I didn’t even know was my father
until last night. I was never close to Draecyn. I don’t know what
to feel about that. You, I couldn’t have lost you anymore than I
could have lost Tremaine. So please, drop it.”

“You fought the curse,” Robert
whispered.

Liz sighed. “Not the first time, and we’re
not discussing it. We’re going to fix your sister and then we’ll
hopefully have a few more answers.”

“I don’t get much choice, do I?” Robert
asked.

“No, now shut up and let Tremaine drive,”
she snapped.

Tremaine laughed. She was fine. They could
help her forget all the pain and fear after they got back to the
cabin. That’s where Robert had deposited a very shaken Christian
and Delilah. At least Delilah’s werewolf senses had picked out the
fact that James was not Robert.

Christian tried to step in and try to stop
James. Tremaine had held him back while Delilah whispered in his
ear, which was the only thing that had seemed to calm
Christian.

“Thank you Trem,” she muttered, and turned
to face the window, staring outside.

Robert placed a tentative hand on her
shoulder and she shrugged it off. “Don’t. Not now. I don’t need
comfort. I need your dumb ass to trust me.”

“I do,” Robert said softly. “But I’m scared
to death of losing you again.”

“Yeah, well you will if you keep acting like
I can’t handle this. I can, and I will.”

Tremaine glanced up at the mirror to see
Robert sit back, his eyes on Liz. Robert still looked worried, but
he couldn’t blame him. He was too, but he knew she would find a way
to Emily if they didn’t take her.

Preston fell back in his seat. “This is
going to be a fun trip.”

* * * *

James wanted to kick Jarvis, who was slumped
in the passenger seat of his car, cradling his poor burnt hands to
his chest. “You shouldn’t have tossed flame around like that, you
moron.” There was a sneer on James’ face.

“You should have planned better,” Jarvis
whined, his pain obvious, and once again he wanted to thump the
dumbass upside the head. The fire was his doing. Had he stayed
outside, things wouldn’t have been such a mess.

“Plan better? What was I supposed to do
differently? I went in there, and everything would have been fine
if she hadn’t somehow seen through the damned illusion.”

“Did you ever think that maybe you can’t
pull Robert off because you are nothing like your brother and your
arrogance shines through the illusion?”

“I hadn’t even opened my mouth, so don’t you
dare start on me.” He snapped back

Jarvis snorted, throwing himself back in the
seat. He watched as a familiar little purple haired woman bounced
past him and into a shop.

A smirk quirked Jarvis’ mouth. “I may have a
solution. One that works for both of us. There’s a nymph in town,
one we can use to heal me, and use to draw Liz out. Preston is
still helping with his case against me, and he’ll come for her.
He’s here and he was awfully protective of the little runt.”

James turned toward Jarvis. “And how do you
propose we go after a nymph?”

“I’ve heard she belongs to the town’s
sheriff now. You can impersonate him long enough to draw her out
and then we can take her away.”

James thought about it for a moment. Nymphs
were renowned for their healing powers. Perhaps she would do a more
thorough job than his sister had. First, he needed to find out more
about this Sheriff if he was going to pull it off.

Her phone rang for the fourth time in a few
minutes. Liz finally pulled it out and answered. “What?”

Christian’s tone was frantic. “Liz, what the
fuck is going on? I watched Robert walk in and you attacked. I
swear to God I thought it was Robert until one of your spells broke
the illusion.