Touched by Darkness (46 page)

plush stingray that was over a foot long, and was

light purple with dark purple dots. "It's adorable."

"Purple is one of your favorite colors," Alex said

proudly.

"Yes, it is." She swept her hand over the plush

surface. "I love it. Thank you, sweetie. Come give

me a hug."

"But there's something else. Look at the tail,

Mom."

"Where... is this it?" She saw a silver band toward

the base of the tail, held with tape. She peeled the

tape away, slid it off. It was a ring, with a large,

oval-cut pink diamond—at least she thought it was

a diamond—and three smaller pink stones framing

each side.

"It's a ring, Mom!" Alex's voice pitched up with

excitement. "It's from—" He glanced at Damien.

"You tell her."

She forced her gaze from the gorgeous ring to

Damien. His eyes were like molten silver, his

expression as warm and open as she'd ever seen it.

"It's from Alex and me," he said. "We want the

three of us to be a family."

"W-what?" She could only stare at him, her mind

too shocked to function clearly. "What are you

talking about?"

"He wants to marry us!" Alex crowed.

"I—" She looked at the ring, then back at Damien.

"Why didn't you discuss this with me first?"

"I already had a pretty good idea how you felt. But

Alex needed to agree to the idea as well."

"I voted yes!" Alex was practically glowing. "And I

helped Luke pick out the ring, although Damien

gave us a lot of instructions. We used one of your

old rings to get the size."

"Who the hell is Luke? Will someone explain

what's going on?"

"You're not supposed to use words like
hell,"
Alex

said. "Luke is this really cool Sentinel who moved

in across the street from Grandma. He was keeping

an eye on me, and he showed me lots of neat

Sentinel stuff. He helped me talk to the ghost. And

he called Chief Greer when I told him what the

ghost said."

Her eyes narrowed. "The ghost? Sentinel stuff?

Damien, you promised—"

"Mom, pay attention! I'm trying to 'splain. Mr.

Morgan and I wanted to surprise you with the ring.

But he was in the hospital, so me and Luke went to

get it. It was way cool. I got to ride on his

motorcycle—a
Harley
—to the jewelry store and—"

"You rode a motorcycle? "
She was getting sensory

overload from so much information crowding her

mind. "Your grandmother let you do that?"

"Actually, it was Grandpa, and he thought Luke's

bike was iced, so he said yes."

"Men and their toys," Kara muttered. She stared at

the ring. "I don't know what to think."

Damien sat up, swung his legs over the edge of the

bed. "Come here."

"Oh, no. I'm not doing that again. There's a child in

the room, Morgan."

"Then I'll come to you." He stood, steadied himself.

He'd been taking regular walks through the

hallways, and his strength was returning. He moved

around Alex and took the two steps to her. Grasping

her left arm, he pulled her to her feet. She stared up

at him as he unfolded her clenched fingers and took

the ring.

"I love you, Katherine Jennifer Cantrell," he said in

a husky voice. "And I think that boy of yours is

pretty special, too." One-handed, he slipped the

ring on her finger, fumbling a little. "I want to be

part of your lives."

"I still don't understand," she said, wondering if

maybe she'd taken too many pain pills and was

dreaming all this.

"I've had a lot of time to think," he said.

"Especially that first day, when I was drifting in

and out of consciousness."

"You made this decision based on drug-and-pain-

induced hallucinations?"

"Kara." His voice was a caress, melting her insides.

"Of course not. My weakened state merely allowed

me to drop the barriers created by fear and the past.

I had nothing to do but think, especially about some

things that
you
said."

He slid his free hand against her face, his molten

gaze stealing her breath. "You were right. I was a

coward, and I was denying my feelings. Love is the

truest and purest expression of The One. It's our

divine birthright, and it's supposed to guide our

actions. I was terrified when I thought the Belian

was going to kill you. I realized how much you

mean to me, and I'm not letting another chance to

be with you slip away."

The reality began to sink in, and she began to

believe. Part of her was elated, while another part

remembered her earlier mortification. "Damien

Morgan! You sat in that bed and let me bare my

soul—and you didn't say anything. You let me

think you didn't want to be involved with me. You

—
"

He was getting pretty good at cutting her off with

that sensual mouth of his. And she couldn't seem to

resist kissing him back.

"Wow," Alex said. "I've never seen anything like

that, not even on TV."

She broke off the kiss, tried to pull away, but

Damien tightened his arm around her. "Come over

here, Alex, and join in this hug," he said.

Still grinning, her son stepped forward and tried

valiantly to put his skinny arms around both of

them. They were wrapped in a group hug, in a

wonderful cocoon of love and warmth.

"Well?" Damien demanded, those silver eyes

mesmerizing her again.

"Well?" Alex echoed.

Her heart was singing, but she still felt the need to

regain some dignity. "I think we'll have to come to

some understandings about equal rights in our

relationship."

"Ah, negotiations." Damien gave her a suggestive

smile. "One of my specialties."

"I'll just bet." She angled her chin, sent him an

unspoken challenge. "Better get used to me

winning, Sentinel."

"Sweetheart, with you and Alex, I can't lose." He

kissed her again, and this time, she didn't even care

that her son was watching.

Life was good.

No, life was
wonderful.

* * * * * * *

Author's Note

I've been fascinated with Atlantis most of my life,

and I'm certainly not alone. Atlantis has long been a

topic of intense interest and speculation, going all

the way back to Plato, who discussed it in his

works
Timaeus
and
Critias,
which was around 350

B.C.E. Since then, much more has been written

about this mysterious place.

Despite the numerous books on Atlantis, no one

really knows if it actually existed, or if any of the

speculation is remotely accurate. So anything goes

when writing about Atlantis in fiction. The author

can make up any details that fit with his/her story

vision, and many have done just that.

What I wanted to do with the premise of this

Sentinel series was to incorporate my fascination of

Atlantis with my life-long interest in the psychic

Edgar Cayce. Many of my details on Atlantis were

inspired by the Cayce readings—and there were

over seven hundred on the topic. There are a

number of books discussing Cayce's Atlantis

readings. The two that I find the most fascinating

are
Edgar Cayce on Atlantis
by Edgar Evans

Cayce, and
Edgar Cayce's Story of the Origin and

Destiny of Man
by Lytle Robinson.

If you'd like to learn more about Edgar Cayce, you

can visit http://www.edgarcayce.org/. You can also

visit my website at www.catherinespangler.com or

www.thesentinelseries.com for a complete list of

my Atlantis reference books. Also posted on my

website is a talk I presented on Atlantis some years

ago. Thank you for sharing this mystical, magical,

and emotional journey with me.

~
Catherine