The Phoenix Charm (13 page)

Cordelia wandered to the bed and stroked her sleeping cat, giving Nightshade privacy to speak. “You are dear to me, Michael. I’m closer to you than I’ve ever been to anyone else. But I cannot exchange Knots with you.”

Michael raised his head from his hands, scanning Nightshade’s face.

“When I bond mind, body, and spirit,” Nightshade continued, “it must be with a woman.”

“Aye. ’Tis how I feel as well.” Relief swam in Michael’s eyes, softened his voice.

Nightshade smiled, sadness welling inside him for a love lost that he realized he’d only ever possessed in his imagination. “I want a babe.” The words were little more than a whisper, his throat tight with memories of holding Rhys. “My own babe to hold in my arms. For that I need a female.”

Michael smiled and shook his head. “Crikey O’Reilly, you’re full o’surprises. I did not take you for a paternal sort of fella.”

“Neither did I.” Nightshade held Michael’s face between his hands and before Michael could turn away, he kissed him hard on the lips.

Blinking, Michael rubbed the back of his hand across his mouth.

“Come back to us, bard.” Nightshade swallowed, shocked at the tightness of tears in his throat. Jumping to his feet, he spun away and paced to the door. He held his wings rigid against his body and turned, hand clutching the door handle. “Good luck to you both.” His gaze flicked to Cordelia, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, her glass of honey wine frozen halfway to her mouth.

Nightshade closed the door softly behind him and headed back to the laundry room for a few minutes with Rhys before he returned to the council chamber.

Cordelia sat rigidly beside Tamsy. The spicy gulp of honey wine she’d just taken scraped down her throat like a sharp stone. Nightshade closed the door behind him, leaving her alone with Michael in Devin’s ornate room. She had expected Nightshade to argue for the right to exchange Magic Knots with Michael. Her plan had been to back down graciously Giving up her chance of being with Michael would hurt, but there were too many reasons why she couldn’t bond with him.

He stood slowly as if the movement pained him, stretching back his shoulders with a groan. “I’m sorry, lass. I never intended things to work out this way.” He laughed sadly, a touch of his old humor on his face. “I never intended to give up me life so soon.”

“You’ll come back to life, Michael.” She put down her cup and took a few steps toward him. The realization of how important she would be to his survival made her tremble. “I’ll call you back.”

He rubbed his face. “Much as I want to believe I’ve taken
after me father, I can’t imagine how this will work. If me body is mortally wounded, how will I repair it?”

She wanted to reassure him, but she had no idea how anyone could die and return to life. “If you believe…” Her words trailed away at the skeptical glint in his eyes. How could she convince him of something she didn’t believe herself?

“If you don’t want to do this, I’ll understand. ’Tis a lot to ask of you.” He walked toward her.

She trembled as though her insides had been scooped out and replaced with jelly. She wanted him, yet the consequences of his discovering her water nymph nature terrified her.

“I never thought I’d bond with anyone. ’Twas not in me life plan.” He gave a rueful laugh.

“Neither did I.” Her grandmother had forbidden her to bond with a man and shame her father by revealing her true nature. Self-consciously, she pushed stray wisps of hair back from her face. Although Michael had dominated her senses since the day he walked into Trevelion Manor, until the last few days, he’d never given any indication that he found her attractive. Yet if he survived today, he would be intimately tied to her for the rest of his life. He could never undo the lover’s bond forged when they exchanged Magic Knots, even if he fell in love with someone else.

He touched a finger beneath her chin and raised her face to look at him. “What are you thinking, lass?”

“How do you sense me, Michael?”

Little creases formed between his perfect eyebrows. “Here.” He placed his hand over his solar plexus. “You’re a swirly sensation. I suppose that’s your water elemental nature.”

His tone sounded only mildly curious. She tried to look away but he held her chin firmly between finger and thumb. “Why does me sense of you matter, lass?”

She couldn’t admit she felt his psychic presence so strongly, he drowned out everyone else. She quickly changed the subject.

“There’s something I need to tell you. I’m not sure how it might affect my ability to call you back.” She pulled the silver chain out of her polo neck and let the single translucent stone ring fall against her chest.

His brows drew together. “Are your mind, body, and spirit combined in a single ring?”

“No. This is the body ring from my Magic Knot.”

“Then where—”

Cordelia glanced over her shoulder at her precious cat curled asleep on Devin’s bed, oblivious to her part in all this. “Tamsy holds my mind and spirit rings.”

“You’re bonded to a cat?” He stared at Tamsy, eyebrows raised. “Why?”

“She’s my familiar. When I was twelve, my grandmother bonded me to her so Tamsy could help me with my work.” And so Cordelia would never be tempted to bond with a man.

He stared over her head, eyes unfocused, and drew a slow breath. Then he lowered his gaze to her face and gave a sad smile. “If you’re willing to accept my Magic Knot, maybe that will be enough to help me find my way back to you.”

She closed her eyes, a maelstrom of mixed emotions churning inside. Part of her raged at her grandmother for taking her mind and spirit stones, thus hindering her ability to help Michael. Another part of her was terrified that when he discovered she was a water nymph, his attitude toward her would change. Nymphos were nothing more than a lascivious joke to most males. And how would she control her allure if he tried to kiss her and touch her?

Yet whatever the personal consequences, she must help him find his way back from the Underworld. She opened her eyes and met his troubled gaze. “I’ll be your anchor in the
mortal world to bring you back from death, but that’s all, Michael. We can’t be handfasted like man and wife.”

“You mean no intimacy. Why?”

She looked away and chewed her lip. He’d find out soon enough. Why not just tell him?

“Cordelia, sugarplum.” He curved gentle fingers around her cheek. “If you’re worried I’ll stray and embarrass you, lass, forget your fears. I’m sure we can keep each other happy.”

“I’m not worried about you, it’s
me.
” She swallowed back tears, hating that she had given him another thing to worry about.

“We can talk over the relationship if I come back. If I don’t, ’twill be the shortest bonding ever.”

“You will come back.” The possibility of losing him forever seared her heart, eclipsed all other worries. Wrapping her arms around him, she pressed her face against his neck.

He returned her hug, his lips brushing her forehead. His fingers stroked her jaw, lifted her chin. Gently, his lips slid over hers. Michael kissed her with a gentle intensity as though she was precious.

She hung in his embrace, her lips moving beneath the silky warmth of his mouth, her muscles limp with desire as he molded her to his hard body. After a few minutes, he drew back with a groan. “Ah, Cordelia, I want to carry you over to the bed and lose meself in you, but we have no time. Are you ready to exchange Knots?”

She nodded. He pulled out a leather thong bearing his three earthy-brown linked stone rings, drew it over his head and looped it around her neck. His Magic Knot settled against her chest, separated from her skin by her sweater.

Pulse racing, she unfastened the silver chain holding her single stone ring, hesitated, then lowered it into his hand. Her breath froze, waiting. Nothing happened.

“Put me Knot against your skin.”

With trembling fingers, she dropped his Magic Knot inside her sweater to settle in the valley between her breasts.

He took her hand and stared into her eyes, his so blue and deep, the shimmer of expectation sending whispers of sensation up and down her spine.

The hot beat of his presence in her chest expanded, flooded her body with heat, flashed along her veins and nerves. He caught her against him. Pressed his lips to her cheek. Then the full force of his power hit her like a truck. Her head pounded, heart thumped, nerves screamed. Her legs folded, her body pumped so full of his energy she felt as though she’d burst.

Tamsy’s distressed yowl cut through the quiet room.

“Cordelia?” His grip on her tightened to hold her up. “What’s the matter”?

“You’re…hurting…me.” She gasped between each word, barely able to fill her lungs to speak.

“I’m not doing anything.”

Suddenly the pressure inside her withdrew. She sucked in air, her skin prickling from the rush of energy. Tamsy’s gentling influence shimmered on the edge of her awareness.

“Sorry, sugarplum.” He stroked her face, kissed her hair. “I just let me self go.”

She clung to him while the strength returned to her legs. She’d feared he’d be overwhelmed by her allure, but the swirling sensual energy inside her faded into insignificance compared with Michael’s power. Troy’s words about Michael came back to her.

He’s a strong earth elemental. Strong enough to ground your allure. You’d thrive together.

“Let me feel you, “Michael whispered against her ear. She relaxed, and although most of her energy remained trapped within her wards, she sent a subtle brush of awareness into his mind.

He groaned deep in his chest. His fingers flexed against
her back. “Sweet Anu.” His breath puffed hot among the strands of her hair. “You’re a water nymph.”

She buried her face against his chest, trying to judge his attitude from his tone of voice.

“Sweet bejesus, Cordelia.” His chest rose and fell beneath her cheek. His hand trailed up her spine, traveled down again to splay on the small of her back.

Her tension slowly leaked away when he seemed to accept her nature.

“Let me into your thoughts.”

She raised her head and blinked. “Can’t you read my thoughts?”

“You’re shutting me out.”

She must instinctively be protecting herself. The realization that she still had control over what he saw in her mind flooded her with relief. Maybe she could hide the fact that she’d watched him in the divination mirror.

She touched his face, relieved to see pleasure sparkling in his eyes. “When you come back, I’ll show you my thoughts,” she whispered.

He cupped her bottom in his hand and lifted her against the hardness of his erection. “When I come back, I want to see more than your thoughts, lass. When I come back, I want to make this joining between us physical.”

A knock sounded. Before they had time to move apart, the door opened and Devin strode in. He nodded in greeting and grinned at Cordelia. “Michael made the right choice, I see.”

“Is it time to go already?” Fear shot down Cordelia’s spine, chilled her core.

“Don’t worry.” Devin’s grin softened to an encouraging smile. “You’ll get through this together.” He slapped Michael on the back. “We need your shirt off.”

Michael pulled the T-shirt over his head and dropped it on a chair. Devin’s gaze flicked down to the front of Michael’s
jeans and the corners of his mouth crooked up. “You have enough incentive to hurry back to life now, do you,
ya rajol?
”

Michael grinned, and her heart wrenched to see him being so brave.

“Cordelia.” Devin beckoned her closer and retrieved Troy’s dagger from the table where he’d left it earlier. “When you call Michael back from the dead, you’ll use the Phoenix Stone. The dagger was designed to both take life and restore it. Hold the stone in front of him. The diffracted colors will penetrate the nine energy centers of his body to heal him.”

Michael rubbed his chest as though it was already sore. “I was wondering how I’d heal me body.”

With trembling hands, she took the dagger from Devin and held it up so light streaked through the stone and sprayed colored rays on the djinn’s body.

“You’ve got the idea. Just keep your head and all will be well.”

Devin went and stood in front of Michael. “One final thing.” He held up his left hand and flexed his fingers. The pointed nails glittered darkly, then the nail on his middle finger extended to a vicious inch-long point.

“Ruddy Badba.” Michael stepped back, bumping into a table.

“Stand still, and don’t be a wimp, boy.”

Cordelia hurried forward, wanting to protect Michael, although she had no idea how. “Please don’t hurt him, Master Devin.”

“I’m only going to numb his chest.”

“Oh.” Cordelia stood helplessly with a hand pressed to her mouth while the djinn pushed the long nail into Michael’s chest just over his heart. Michael hissed when the point pierced his skin.

Within a few seconds, the wound disappeared.

“How will that numb me chest?”

“I’ve poisoned you.”

“You’ve
what?
” Cordelia shouted, making both men jolt with surprise.

The djinn gave Michael a wry grin. “You’ve got yourself one possessive woman looking out for you now,
ya akhy.
” He slapped Michael on the shoulder. “I only injected enough venom to dull the pain as the blade goes in.”

“You have venom under your fingernails?” Cordelia stared at his hand, horrified. He might be beautiful, but with sharp poisonous fingernails, she couldn’t imagine women were lining up to go out with him.

“Just one fingernail.” Devin flipped up his middle finger, and Michael chuckled.

Michael tapped the area over his heart. “Me chest is less sensitive already.”

“You can buy me a drink later,” Devin said. “Now it’s time to go to the council chamber.”

The smile dropped from Devin’s face and he stared at Michael. “I know you’re scared, boy. But you’ll be fine. I promise.”

He turned his back to give them a moment of privacy. Cordelia rushed to Michael, pressing her palm over his heart center, willing her strength into him as he wrapped his arms around her. She inhaled the herbal, earthy tang of his skin. His lips met hers, and she kissed him with all the passion locked inside her, the allure swelling and surging like a storm within her wards, threatening to break free.