Shadow Borne (19 page)

I clutched handfuls
of his tunic and pressed closer; my hair became a thick onyx
curtain when he tugged the strands free of their confining leather
band. His fingers grew restless and he stroked the side of my face
with the pad of his thumb.

"Ari..." he
whispered raggedly.

A
loud, exaggerated cough sounded behind us,
close
behind us. Aranu tensed before he looked up, grimaced
and let his forehead rest against mine.

My entire body
froze. I immediately knew the identity of the throat clearer.
Mike.

"Sorry to
interrupt." he said, not sounding at all remorseful. "But Megan
just went into labor and she's asking for you."

My fingers knotted
in the leather of Aranu's tunic. He was still breathing heavily.
The taste of him was fresh on my whirling senses and it took a
minute for Mike's urgent words to break through and make sense.
"Your sister...the baby's coming now?" I released Aranu and faced
Mike with no small degree of shame.

"Yes," he nodded,
refusing to look at me. "Claire sent me to find you and ask if
you'll come to the hospital."

Guilt and confusion
were creeping along the edges of my world in a steady torrent
now.

"Yes, of course I'll
go." I said, unable to meet either man's eye.

"I'll go with
you."

I glanced awkwardly
at Aranu before answering Mike. "That's not necessary. I can make
it to the hospital without your assistance."

"But I can't." he
admitted. "I don't know where it is and everyone else has already
left with Megan."

"Oh." Both men were
staring at me now, waiting for my answer and I felt my face heat. I
didn't want to be the center of attention. I didn't want to be
alone with Mike. I didn't even want to be alone with Aranu now that
the spell was broken and reality had intruded once more.

But I was afraid if
I didn't speak up and take charge of this situation, it would
quickly deteriorate into conflict, or worse, one or both men would
decide we should all go. I cringed at the thought of Aranu and Mike
walking through the woods, one on each side of me, and knew that as
much as I didn't want to be alone with either of them at the
moment, the thought of being alone with both of them together was
even worse.

"Fine. Let's go." I
told Mike.

He glanced at Aranu
before saying a cool, polite "Fine." and turning away to start out
for the path in the woods that led back toward the mansion on the
hill.

Aranu's steady gaze
cut back to me. What was I supposed to say to him? It was difficult
to answer that question so I gathered my hair into a loose knot at
the back of my head and made quick work of securing the smooth
black strands with the leather band.

"I think we need to
talk later. After..." I gestured toward the path. "I have to go." I
finished lamely.

"I'll find you
later." he shrugged, sounding casual and looking anything but.

He was angry, that
much was obvious but there wasn't anything I could do about it now.
The situation with Megan was urgent and besides, I had no idea
where to even begin when it came to having a heart to heart with
Aranu–or Mike.

"Go." Aranu turned
on his heel and began to stride toward the fence.

"Aranu!" I called,
clenching my hands into fists as I watched him vault easily over
the top rail. On the other side, he paused and even in the dark
there was no missing his cocky stance. The dusky gold of the
fence's light illuminated his face enough so that I could just make
out the faintly amused twist of his lips, the raised eyebrow. I
forced my fingers to unclench. "The Lahuel might still be out
there." I called.

He nodded and in the
next second he was loping easily through the forest, his steps
carrying him away from me and our shattered bubble.

"Be careful." I
whispered, watching him go.

I
stood there for long moments after he'd gone. I would have liked to
jump the fence and go home, to my silent solitude and my own bed.
Which obviously wasn't happening tonight.
Great. I smoothed an unsteady hand over my
hair and glanced to the space Mike had just vacated. Wonderful. My
head swiveled until I once again stood staring at the path where
Aranu had stood. Aranu. What in the hell had I just done? No, wait,
I corrected, it hadn't been me at all; what had
he
just done? Only, it had been me too, a little voice
inside my head whispered and I cringed at the truth of that
statement. Dumb bitch Aries chose that moment to rear her unwanted
head and insist it wasn't all that surprising, Aranu kissing me, or
me liking it. A lot. Damn.

"Aries. Are you
coming or not?"

I spun around,
dismayed I hadn't heard Mike approaching. This was the kind of
distraction I couldn't afford. And oh, yes, one look at his angry,
shuttered face told me that Mike was going to spend the rest of the
night breaking my concentration. I needed some down time, damn it.
Even just a few minutes alone in a quiet place so that I could put
my scattered thoughts into something resembling order. Another
quick glance at Mike's terse expression told me to keep dreaming.
And why not? Yes, I was rattled, but had anything changed
tonight?

No, I reasoned
grimly, mentally gagging dumb bitch Aries. The world hadn't really
shifted this evening, so what was there to figure out? Romance was
still off limits, to me, anyway, and what I used to have with Mike
was still a long dead memory. All the glowering looks and posturing
from him wouldn't change that.

And all the
overbearing, he-man, kiss me now crap from Aranu wouldn't change
anything either. My eyes shifted back to Mike and I glared at him.
Maybe it was about time they learned that...

"I said I would go,
didn't I? Follow me, we'll head back to the house and take one of
the cars."

"I've already got a
car. It's on the side of the gravel road, just before the turn
off."

"Fine." Of course he
hadn't walked here. Why would he have left the cars at the house to
find me on foot, when time was of the essence?

"Aries, stop for a
minute."

"I thought you
wanted to get to the hospital."

"I do–in a minute."
he exhaled.

"Megan." I reminded
him.

"Wait." His hand
closed around the upper part of my arm as I made to pass him.
"We're going to talk. Now. And I don't care if you stab me, or
throw me again, damnit stop!"

I drew back my leg
to kick him again and then paused. Behind us, a branch snapped and
leaves crunched and an eerie chill swept over the back of my neck.
I couldn't shake the sensation of being watched. "Not here." I
said, turning my head back to Mike.

"I said–what?" he
stopped, clearly he'd been expecting me to argue some more.

"Let go of my damn
arm." I snapped. "And walk. We'll talk on the way to the car." I
informed him, shrugging him off easily now and stalking away from
the clearing without a backward glance. Mike fell into step beside
me a second later.

"So that's him." he
observed, going for casual and falling flat. He sounded bitter,
angry.

"Aranu?"

"Aranu." he
repeated, frowning. "That's different."

"I thought you liked
all things unusual."

"Not this time."

"Oh, come on." I
laughed, harsh. "You're the perpetual explorer, right?"

"Is that what this
is about?" He came to a halt, one hand shooting out to stop me,
too. "I had no choice but to leave with Claire and Ashley. Damn it,
Aries, we were under attack. It was use the portal or stay and be
killed. How long are you going to hold that over my head?"

"First of all, if
you don't stop doing that, I'm going to kill you myself." My bicep
tensed under his hand and he released me a second later. "And how
dare you come back here and assume me kissing another man is some
ploy to punish you for something that happened almost two years
ago. You can't possibly be that conceited." Then again, he was a
man.

"Mark forgave Claire for leaving, he
understood
."

"Oh, I understand,
all right." I shoved my face close to his. "It took me a while, but
finally I understood that you didn't give a damn about me, not like
I cared for you, anyway."

"That's bullshit!"
he raged, nose to nose with me now.

"It's the truth!" I shouted back, abruptly shoving him a few
paces back. "You think I don't understand why you and Claire and
Ash had to go through the portal and escape? I do. I got it the
minute Claire explained a year later, when she came back. Key
words, Mike–
Claire
explained it,
a year later
.
She came back. You didn't. You didn't even bother to give her a
damn message to pass along to me." I threw the words at him,
carelessly opening the old wounds and for once, not stopping to
worry over who saw them.

"I never forgot
about you!"

"You didn't have to
leave the first time."

"The first time?" he
frowned, some of his anger appearing to lose steam.

"You don't even
remember, do you?" I snorted, shaking my head and raising my eyes
to the tree tops. "I asked you to stay. The morning you left the
dome." I pressed on before he could speak. "You said you had to go,
there was something you just had to do. But you wouldn't trust me
with what that 'something' was, and you never came back. Yes, I
know why you didn't come back." I said, holding up a hand when his
face darkened and he opened his mouth. "But it doesn't change a
damn thing, Mike. What it comes down to is this: adventure, a
thrill, was more important than me. And you sure as hell didn't
hurry back once you were able, did you?" I shook my head. "I would
have gone with you." I said, quieter now.

"And now?" He took a
shaky breath and abruptly shoved his hands deep into his
pockets.

Slowly, I shook my
head, let my eyes rest on his face. "No. Anyway, I have nothing
left to give."

"Shouldn't I be the
judge of that?"

I shrugged but
remained silent. Leave it to a man to come up with something like
that.

"It's because of
him, isn't it?" Mike asked after several moments had ticked by.

"No." I finally
answered, sorely tempted to keep my mouth shut and let him sweat it
out. But I had no desire to hurt Mike, not anymore. There was no
use in prolonging the discussion...it was long past time to get
everything out in the open. "And there is no 'him', not like you
mean."

"Really."

"Yes, really." My
chin came up a notch.

"Did you somehow
forget that ten minutes ago I walked up on the two of you kissing.
And don't tell me he kissed you and not the other way around. I've
got eyes. You weren't exactly fighting him off."

"Fine. I kissed him
back. Are you happy now?"

"Hell, no."

"Aranu is just..we
were under stress back there and it was...stress." I finished,
cringing a little inside. Even to my own ears, it sounded pathetic.
Mike snorted and my eyes narrowed. "Not that it's any of your
business, but it's not like that with Aranu. He and I grew up
together. He's–" I shut my mouth, having been about to make the
claim of Aranu being like family. No, that wasn't quite right. Once
more, I felt the lines of my world begin to blur and fought like
hell to regain control. "We used to play together, as kids. He's
always been there." I explained.

"He cares about
you."

"Not like that." I
argued.

"Exactly like that."
Mike ran a hand through his hair and exhaled. "I'm too late, then,
right? That's it."

"You're months too
late and it has nothing to do with Aranu."

He was silent for
what felt like a long time. But for all his other faults, Mike had
always been sharp; I saw it in his eyes, the exact moment when he
put all the pieces together and the light finally dawned.

"Then it has
something to do with why you've changed." he correctly surmised.
"When I first came back here, I thought the war had become so bad,
the army needed all the able bodied men and women it could get to
fight. But none of the other nymphs are fighting, are they?" He
cocked his head to the side and regarded me thoughtfully. "The
Sprites, yes, regular women, yes, a few–that I've seen anyway–but
other nymphs? No. Not like you, at least. And they don't command
any of the male warriors. They don't fight hand to hand,
either."

"Who told you all
that?"

"Mark. He was trying
to convince me to quit worrying about you so much. So, is it
true?"

"Yes."

"Why?" The single,
softly spoken word seemed to echo around us.

"Because I'm
needed."

"But that's not the
only reason, is it?"

I wished he'd stop
staring at me. He wouldn't, of course, so I turned to the side,
taking up our trek and walking in silence. Mike fell into step
beside me. The moment I'd spent months secretly dreading was
finally here. When the trees thinned and dirt met gravel, I paused
and took a deep breath, faced him.

"No, that isn't the only reason I fight. When Claire came to
Terlain to find you, she was led to the dome and that's where she
and I first met. Me and some of the other nymphs agreed to take her
as far as the border. At that time, most of the area was protected.
Some of it wasn't, even then, but still, violence wasn't
that
common. We all knew to be careful,
but...we weren't alert enough."

"What happened?"
Mike demanded.

"Claire and I were
abducted by the guards." I watched the blood drain from Mike's face
and I remembered that he'd also been abducted by Kahn's guards, so
he knew exactly how brutal they were capable of being.