FALL (The Senses) (39 page)

“Bitch!” he screamed when he was
able to get his voice back. He threw his hand backwards. It hit her in the side
of the head and she fell onto her butt.

He scrambled to his knees at the
same time as she, but now he held the tranquilizer gun in one hand and the
knife in the other. He sneered. “I won’t kill you, but I will make Waleron
suffer before I gut him.”

Delara kept her calm, waiting for
him to make his move.
Never let words make you react. You win a fight
without emotions.
She took three deep breaths. On the third she saw his
finger flicker and she dove to the left as the dart penetrated the wall behind
her head.

Without hesitation she powered
into him, tackling him against the bed. The momentum sent them both to the
floor. They rolled several times, her hands gripping the knife still in his
grasp. Still partially drugged and weaker, she couldn’t get it from him.

She let it go and pushed the heel
of her hand up into his nose. He screeched then plunged the knife downward.
Delara gasped as the blade sunk through her skin into her side. Her back arched
in agony. She reached for the blade.

Tarek yanked out the knife then
shoved her aside. He was holding his nose in one hand and the knife, dirty with
her blood, with the other as he climbed to his feet. She made a grab for him,
pulling on his pant’s pocket, hearing it rip. Metal clanged to the floor.

He reached for her as she dove
for the dropped throwing stars. She felt the cold sharp metal in her grasp. She
held one in her fist, the pointed blades sticking out between her fingers. She
turned, diving for his neck.

The throwing star sliced across
his throat. Blood spurted in a thick spray, covering her and him within
seconds. He stood immobile, mouth agape, squeezing at his throat. Warm red
liquid seeped over his hands. The blood sprayed from the wound in the rhythmic
beat of his heart pumping.

It slowed.

Then trickled.

Her knife he held clattered to
the floor and Tarek staggered backwards. “I…loved you—”

“Yeah, well I didn’t asshole.”

He dropped, blood pooling around
him. With one last movement she saw him take his cell phone out of his pocket
and smash it on the ceramic tiled floor.

Delara staggered to her feet,
reclaiming her knife with one hand while she kept pressure on her side with the
other. Ripping a piece of the bed sheet, she tied it snug around her waist to
cover the wound. She fell into the wall when she tried to walk. There was too
much blood loss. She needed to get to Waleron before she passed out.

She pulled on the door. Locked.
She managed to get to Tarek’s body and dig through his pockets until she found
a key chain.

Her body was weakening. She shook
her head, trying to clear the double vision as she swayed back and forth. It
took her several tries to fit the key in the lock, but when it opened all she
could think about was getting to Waleron.

Using her telepathy would drain
her; she needed every ounce of strength to make it to the basement. She gripped
the handrail with both hands as she staggered down the stairs. If anyone else
was here, they’d have thought a herd of elephants were coming at them.

“Delara, you’re struggling to
breathe. What’s wrong?”
She couldn’t answer. She
was fighting to stay alive long enough to reach him
. “Talk to me. I
need…Jesus I need to know you’re okay.”

She fell down the last few steps
into the basement and landed on her side. She screamed in pain, her hand coming
away from her makeshift bandage soaked in blood.

“Delara!”

She heard his voice in her head,
but also out loud. He was close. She was almost there. She crawled down the
corridor, her heart palpitating, pumping out more blood from her wound. Her
breathing became difficult and raspy. She recognized this coldness. She’d been
dying like this before, lying in the ditch. The signs were all there.

“Delara, damn it!” She heard
chains rattling and his groans of frustration.

She was at the basement door now.
She put her hand up, grabbed the lever and with all her weight and pulled down.
It clicked, but didn’t open. On her knees, she began inserting the keys until
finally one of them fit and the door swung open.

She fell forward landing on the
palms of her hands.

“Fuck!” Chains clanged together.

She closed her eyes unable to
lift the blackness that was descending. Waleron. She glanced up for one last
look at his face. Her beloved. He stood with the manacles attached to his
wrists and ankles. Chains wrapped around his arms as if he’d been trying to break
them from the cement wall. Sweat trickled down his naked chest, blood pooled at
his feet and yet…and yet he was the most spectacular vision she’d ever seen.

She choked on a sob. The things
she should have said to him. God, she’d fallen so far that only he could’ve
picked her up and saved her. A love so broken it nearly tore them apart. All
the hurt. But their love was for eternity. It had no ending, only a beginning.

She heard him groan and she
suspected he’d read her thoughts. She smiled as she laid her head on the
cement. He knew. That was good. She wanted him to know she loved him.

“We can fix us. We haven’t
been torn apart, baby. I will fix us.”
She heard
his voice in her head and sighed. “Delara, I need you to get up now. A little
further, okay? You can do this. I need you to do this.” It felt good—the
coldness. Soothing. “Damn it Delara, you’re inside of me. I can’t get you out
of me. I need you to live. I need you. Only you.” His voice hardened. “Get up
baby. The button beside the lever. I need you to push it.”

She pulled herself up.

“That’s it.”

She hesitated several seconds as
her body refused to cooperate with her mind. Placing one hand in front of the
other she dragged herself over to the wall. Then reached up for the red button.
She pressed the heel of her hand to it then fell to the floor.

Chapter
22 

Waleron picked her up in his arms
and placed a kiss on her cold lifeless lips. Fear sat like a lead weight around
his neck, drowning him. Knowing that the wound in her side was killing her...
She was dying.

Fear had never been a part of his
existence since he’d started taking the pills. His emotions were dead, except
on occasion when this woman rose them in him—desire and, yes, anger. Other than
Delara, numbness was all he felt.

Until now.

Now he remembered what it was
like to fear to lose something that had become so immersed with his every
breath that he would suffocate without her. He understood the despair she’d
felt so long ago when she’d thought he had died. He felt his abiding love for
this woman, damn it. And the despair of losing it. God, he felt. Without the
pills Zurina had been giving him all these years, he finally felt.

He’d not lose her now. Not now
that he’d give her all of himself. “Baby.” He stroked the side of her face. A
drop of blood fell from his wrist and landed on her neck. He wiped it away then
kissed the spot, lips trembling. “I can’t…I can’t endure this life without
you.”

He rocked her back and forth in
his arms, a tear escaping the prison it had been locked in for years. It felt
warm and thick as it slipped slowly down his cheek, then off his jaw to land on
her lips. “Noooo!” He stared up at the ceiling as he screamed. If he could call
to the Wraiths he would. Anything to save this woman he loved beyond reason.

He gathered her in his arms and
picked her up, a low growl escaping as his wounds broke open and he felt the
fresh blood dripping down his back. He staggered a couple steps and nearly fell
to his knees as his muscles gave out from weakness. He carried her close to his
body, ignoring the agony as he climbed the stairs, each step ripping his skin
apart further.

He found the front door and
carried her outside, laying her gently in the grass. He ran back inside and
searched the house for anything that he could use to contact someone. He saw
Tarek’s dead body lying on the floor in its own blood and then he saw the
smashed cell phone. He closed his eyes, running a hand over top his head.

Nothing.

He ran back outside and fell to
his knees before Delara. “Baby, hold on for me.” The warm breeze swept across
them as he adjusted the makeshift pressure bandage on her wound. He tightened
it as much as he could. There was no boat. No way off the island. His only
chance was keeping her alive until the drugs wore off enough so he could Trace
her to the Realm.

He kept her head in his lap,
stroking her face, the odd tear escaping as he was reminded of a time just like
this. The same man had nearly been the death of her once before. But this time
Waleron had no way to save her.

His head jolted up. A low buzzing
sound in the distance.

A motor. A boat.

Jesus. A boat.

He looked up and saw it. The
engine cut.

“Waleron!” His Talde. They were
running towards them.

He buried his head in Delara’s
hair, eyes filling with more tears as he pulled her up against his chest. A
waterfall of relief poured over him.

“Maitagarri,” he whispered,
pressing his lips to her neck. He pulled her in tighter, his fingers locked in
her hair, mouth against her cool skin. “Don’t give up on me. We found hope,
baby.”

Chapter
23

Xamien had watched while Anstice
healed Delara. Already her color was coming back, but Waleron still didn’t look
so good. Anstice managed to heal him, but he suspected not completely. Probably
enough so he could Trace. The guy had looked so tortured when Anstice was
touching him that Xamien was surprised he lasted as long as he did.

Xamien stood by the water,
throwing shells into the waves. He kept one in his grasp, turning it over and
over again as he watched Waleron on his knees beside Delara. She had yet to
wake after the healing, but Anstice promised it would be soon. Waleron’s hand
rested on Delara’s forehead, an expression of—sorrow mixed with worry.

Something had changed in Waleron,
there was the fear for Delara, yes, but it was more. The man was showing
emotions. The tilt of his head as he hovered over her, the distinct frown
lines, the deep breaths. His usual stoic, cold expression had faded.

A hand patted his shoulder.
“Anstice says she’ll be fine.” Ryker bent over and picked up a shell and
slipped it in his pocket. “Hannah had a collection of shells on a shelf in our
bedroom. Every beach we visited, Hannah would take one.” Ryker stared off
across the ocean, silent for a good minute. “That woman knew where each and
every shell was from. Guess I’ll collect them for her now. She’d have wanted
that.”

Christ, Ryker had really adored
that woman. In one second it had been destroyed. Xamien hadn’t known Hannah,
but knew of her. He was told she was the type of woman to bring anyone into the
fold of her arms, no questions asked. She put up with Kilter for years in the
Talde house—that deserved a commendation.

Xamien focused on Waleron and
Delara. Two pieces of a puzzle finally put together.

He tossed the shell into the
wave. He’d been truthfully afraid after dreamstepping that he’d lost Delara to
Tarek. They all had. Losing Delara to Waleron—that was expected. A long time
coming really. Funny how it was Tarek who finally brought them back together.

For Delara this had started with
Waleron and would end with him. Deep in Xamien’s heart he’d known that all
along. It still bloody well hurt.

“She is where she was always
meant to be,” Ryker said with a soft, sympathetic tone.

Xamien nodded. “I know.”

Delara’s eyes flickered and she
bolted upright. Anstice and Waleron urged her to lie back down. She was
confused, her plush lips parting, her eyes widening and then her lungs yanking
in deep breaths. Xamien watched, an ache building in his soul as his Kitten met
Waleron’s eyes. Waleron held her hand and brought it up to his lips; he kissed
the back of it and she did this slight inhale with her face lighting up like
the brightest stars in the sky.

Waleron pushed her jagged strands
of hair back behind her ears, letting his fingers linger on her skin. But all
of it was nothing compared to Xamien watching the single tear slip down
Delara’s face and Waleron gently wiping it away with the pad of his thumb. A
heart-wrenching sob escaped her lungs and then she threw her arms around him.
The emotion on Waleron’s face, Xamien would never forget. Waleron looked as if
he had just been given the most precious gift in the world.

Xamien turned away.
Goodbye
Kitten.
He Traced home.

Waleron was afraid to let go as
he held Delara in his arms. Every inhale he breathed this woman, every heart
beat was for her, and every day he had died a little more without her.