Shadowed Magic (The Enlightened Species Novella) (12 page)

Unbelievable. He'd spent hours talking about himself and the fact he had children slipped his mind. His face paled the closer Emily got. Although Mitch never said the actual words, Aymee had known part of the reason he'd proposed to Emily instead of her was a desire for children. And, they were beautiful. The blonde hair and blue eyes of both Mitch and Emily had carried to their son and daughter. His curious son gaped at the finely dressed patrons they passed. The pint-sized future charmer waved at one patron.

Mitch's daughter, propped on her mother’s hip, couldn't be more than a few years old. If Mitch had been truthful about his divorce happening two years ago, then he'd abandoned his wife while pregnant or shortly thereafter. What kind of man could be so selfish? Her rose-colored glasses metaphorically shattered, and she took a good long look at Mitch, seeing him for who he really was for the first time. A man without honor.

Emily's eyes shot daggers at Aymee. “I guess I should have known it would be
you
.” The venom in Emily's voice shocked Aymee. The harried woman turned her ferocity on Mitch. “Tonight is your visitation. I'm sure you forgot … again!” Emily forced the little girl into Mitch's hands and refused to take the child back when Mitch argued with her. She let go of the boy’s hand and stomped back through the restaurant and out the door into the night. The boy stared after his mother and began to cry.

Aymee had never seen anything more pathetic than Mitch's befuddled face peering at his son in tears while awkwardly holding his daughter. Aymee knelt in front of the boy. “Hey.” He looked at her and quieted slightly. “What's your name?”

He sniffled, “M.J.”
Probably,
Mitch
Junior.

“Well, M.J, you and your sister are just in time for dessert. You like ice cream?” Aymee helped the boy climb into her plush padded chair, scooted him near the linen covered table and moved the candle out of his reach. Mitch breathed a sigh of relief and sat down with his daughter on his lap. The little girl reached for the candle Aymee had just moved. She picked it up and set it on an empty table.

“I like chocolate ice cream.” M.J. said, his tongue swiped at the snot on his upper lip.

Aymee smiled. “Chocolate it is then.” She stood and waved over the waiter.

“I'm so glad you understand. Emily can be...” Mitch started, his nose curled with disgust.

What an Asshole. Aymee held her finger to her lips and gave him a dirty look. “A wonderful mother. I can see she is.”

Mitch swallowed hard and nodded, his guilty gaze dropped to his son briefly then returned to Aymee. “Thank you for letting them join us. I'll have the waiter bring you a chair.”

Aymee ordered the children chocolate ice cream, then turned to Mitch. “I think having dessert with your children is very important. They need to spend time with
you.
”
Aymee knelt in front of M.J. and addressed the boy directly. “Have fun with your daddy, okay?” The boy nodded and grinned, staring at Mitch with hero worship. “I'm going now, Mitch. And, to every question you ever have … ever, it's NO. Understand?” She gave Mitch a meaningful glare. He lifted his brow in question before his face fell and he nodded.

Aymee grabbed her purse and left. Whether she could have Eros or not, she didn't want Mitch. That chapter of her life had ended even if it took her awhile to close the book. She glanced back at Mitch fumbling at parenthood, shook her head and stepped out the door of the restaurant. Pulling her cell phone from her pocket, she dialed the number for a cab company.

“Aymee.” Eros's voice in her ear startled her and her phone dropped to the ground. Tears sprang to her eyes, and she kept walking without picking up her phone. How dare he be here now? She could feel his eyes following her. There was a coffee shop on the corner. If she could just get there, he would have to remain shadowed and silent. “I'm sorry.” His voice came from a distance behind her.

Aymee pivoted on her heels “You’re
sorry
! Do you have any idea how fucking lame that is? Why? Eros? Am I too
human
for you?” She screamed into vacant space.

His voice floated from the same distance away. “I thought it for the best. I was afraid you’d be giving up a chance for children if I claimed you for mine-own. Then Jess told me --”

Fury ripped through Aymee. Mitch had dumped her because she couldn’t have children and Eros coldly dismissed her because he thought she could. “You are an ASS, Eros Sicarius!” Her fists balled at her side. “So you’re saying if I weren’t
infertile,
you wouldn’t be here right now. How dare you. So what … having children is more important than being with the person you love! You can toss me aside because you think it’s the best thing for me? Don’t you think I should get a fucking say in what’s best for me? I don’t want a guy to lord over me like a god. If you don’t think enough of me to trust that I know my own mind and heart, then just stay gone. I don’t need that in my short human life.”

A motorcycle slowed to a stop at the curb in front of her. Red-rimmed glazed eyes glared at her with madness and rage.
The
fourth
assailant.
Her mind barely registered the raised barrel of a 9mm and the flash of it firing at her before everything went dark.

Eros arrived at Aymee's apartment to see her looking beautiful in a black dinner gown as she slid into Mitch's car. A glutton for punishment he'd flown above the car weaving through the streets of Mesa. Watched her on a date through the window his heart full of sorrow. He turned and started to walk away slowly when the sound of her familiar gait echoing over the sidewalk caused him to turn back. He glanced into the restaurant window and saw Mitch sitting at the table with children instead of Aymee. The clip strike of her heels called to him.

“Aymee.” He deserved the angry indignation her expression morphed into. She lifted her chin proudly and kept walking. Eros halted pursuing her as she continued farther down the sidewalk away from him. “I'm sorry.” He'd been right … he didn't deserve her.
If
you
don
’
t
think
enough
of
me
to
trust
that
I
know
my
own
mind
and
heart
then
just
stay
gone.
That single sentence filled him with hope. He did trust her to know her own mind. And he would happily spend the rest of her life proving it to her.

Eros recognized the motorcycle immediately. He'd seen it passing in front of his house on the highway many times over the last week and a half. This time, he could clearly see the face of the rider. The male who'd escaped the alley. His stare intent on Aymee, the man pulled to the curb. The sickly scent of gangrene wafted toxically from the man. His red skin and fever-crazed eyes showed the man’s intent an instant before the gun lifted in his hand.
Oh,
great
Fates,
NO!

Eros surged into motion and snapped the sick bastard's neck a moment too late. He'd already fired. The point of penetration in Aymee's chest trickled blood and her eyes fluttered closed. Eros caught her crumbling frame in his arms and launched toward the heavens, roaring in complete disregard of the windows the sound shattered in the buildings below. His mind was at a loss for what to do, he listened to her heartbeat stutter in her chest. She was dying. Pain shredded him. He couldn’t lose her. He would follow Aymee into the hereafter.

“
Father.
The
High
panel
healer
awaits
you.
Bring
Aymee
home.
”
The telepathic call of his daughter, Umbrae gave him a direction. There was no way for him to shield this level of pain from being emphatically felt by his children.
Herme,
the eldest and greatest healer of the Volaticus people--could he save a human? Eros prayed to the Fates and flew faster than he'd ever flown before toward his house.

Thud
thumb
… seconds passed before he heard another
thud
thump
from Aymee’s struggling heart. A crowd awaited him below. Eros plummeted towards his yard directly toward the one person who represented hope. Herme held his arms out. Eros set his precious bundle into the arms of the healer and stepped back. All seven of his children stepped behind him. Linking his bloodline by hand to shoulder contact, they infused him with their strength and love. Aymee was so pale, cold. Herme set her on the plush grass.

“Do you love this woman?” Herme asked. Eyes closed, his hand hovered above the bullet's entry wound.

Words eluded Eros, he could only stare and pray. Herme gave Eros a sharp look over his shoulder. “DO YOU LOVE THIS WOMAN!”

The healer's shout snapped Eros out of his trance. “I do.”

Herme nodded, his eyes fell closed again. Beads of sweat bloomed across the healer's forehead and lines of strain appeared around his lips. Whatever the healer was doing was weakening him dramatically.

“Do you wish her for your mate?” The voice of the Presiding Oracle, Innanna, came from behind him. Eros turned and noticed the faces of those gathered for the first time. Innanna stood with her bloodmate, Gilgamesh, next to Shane and a tearful Jess. Eros loved Innanna like a sister. They grew up together in Atlantis. Being asked that question by his friend and the most powerful Oracle ever to exist made his answer all-important.

Eros didn't hesitate. “Yes. I wish her for my mate.” He'd never heard anyone refer to a human as a mate. If married, a human would be a wife or husband. That didn’t matter. Aymee mattered. If he spent her life sitting at her bedside, he'd do it.
Just
please
Fates,
let
her
live
. He pleaded with Innanna with his gaze. Tears filled Innanna’s huge violet eyes, and she gave him a single nod. Eros returned his gaze to Aymee and Herme.

Herme set his mouth over the hole in Aymee's chest. The healer’s muscles shook with strain. He lifted with the bullet between his teeth and spit it to the side. Eros saw the wound had sealed completely from the healer’s unique saliva, though Aymee's heart could still be heard struggling.

Herme looked beyond Eros and his family towards Innanna. Sweat beads covered the healer’s brow and upper lip. Innanna ported the distant between herself and Herme. Kneeling, she lifted Aymee’s head into her lap and met Eros’s gaze. “Your blood can save her, Eros.” Innanna extended her free hand to him. He took it and sat on the ground with Aymee’s pale face between them.

“How?” His voice cracked with emotion. Volaticus blood had no healing effect on humans. Out of desperation, he’d tried giving his blood to his wives before with zero benefit.

“Son-of-a-bitch. Hurry!” Herme straddled Aymee’s body and started CPR.

Innanna yanked Eros's wrist to her dentes, punctured his vein and placed the wound to Aymee’s bloodless lips. “Sicarius!” She called to his children, “Strengthen your father. Aymee will require every ounce of his ancient blood.”

Umbrae shoved her wrist to Eros's mouth. Innanna gave him a nod of encouragement. Gently, he bit into his daughter, her iron rich Hulven blood nourished his rapidly depleting cells. Innanna placed her hand to Aymee's forehead, her violet eyes closed and pinched with strain.

Eros’s gaze returned to Aymee as he heard the distinct sound of
thud-thump
. Herme fell to his side, exhausted. The healer drained a pint of blood handed to him by Shane in a matter of moments before starting on a second one.

Aymee’s color started to improve. With instincts she shouldn't possess, Aymee latched onto Eros's wrist with suction. Her hands grasped his forearm and held it to her hungrily. A behavior Eros had never seen outside the Volaticus species.

Umbrae withdrew her wrist from her father and Daniel stepped forward to offer his. This time Eros didn’t hesitate. He drank from the six out of seven of his children that had been born iron rich rather than anemic. His only anemic son shoved pints of blood into his mouth once the others had given all they could.

Herme yanked Eros’s wrist free of Aymee. “It is done.” Innanna fell back into the waiting arms of her bloodmate, Gilgamesh, and drank the goblet of blood he held for her.

Eros sealed the wound at his wrist. The strong beat of Aymee’s heart music to his ears. Her eyes blinked open, beautiful twin pools of blue, wide and alert. Her lips, coated in his life’s blood, never looked more beautiful. She blinked several times and rubbed her eyes, then looked around wide-eyed again.

“What's happening to me?” She whispered. Her hands suddenly grasped her head, and she cried out writhing in pain.

Guilt flooded Eros. Had their sacrilegious actions tonight doomed Aymee to a fate worse than death? “What did I just do to her?” His heart wrenched with every painful cry Aymee emitted.

Gilgamesh spoke, the concern for Innanna clearly etched across his face “The three of ya saved her. Aymee is enlightenin’, Eros.”

Innanna’s voice shook with fatigue. “Her conscience is expanding into the unused parts of her brain, tapping into her psychic energy. She will be immortal … like us. Yet she’s human, too. It required the three of us. Herme held her spirit, your ancient blood … and the sanction of the Fates that allowed me to open the neuro-pathways in her mind.”