A Warrior's Heart (Shields) (13 page)

“The Harpy attacked you then?” Val asked.

Gabriel squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. Even now he could still recall the stench of evil as it had surrounded him and spoke of his past.

The hands on his back ceased, and he felt more than saw Hugh straighten.

“Nay, Val. Roderick and I came upon Gabriel and the Great Evil. The evil had him. It could’ve killed him, and I felt sure that he would try.”

Val cursed in Latin as he raked a hand through his hair.

Cole on the other hand stood still as a statue with his arms crossed over his chest. “Why didn’t he kill Gabriel? If he had him, what would’ve stopped him?”

“I don’t know,” Roderick said as he rose with a sigh. “Maybe it was because the son of a bitch doesn’t have a form!”

“Enough,” Hugh bellowed. “Gabriel was right. The evil is trying to divide us.”

“Its frustration that’s dividing us,” Roderick said as he stormed out of the chamber.

Gabriel could barely lift his hand to his face he was so tired. His head ached, it hurt to breath, and it was near excruciating to move his arms.

“Gabriel?”

He heard Cole’s voice as if from a great distance. Slowly he opened his eyes to find him sitting in the spot Roderick had vacated.

“What is it?”

“Tired,” was all Gabriel could muster. He had never felt so exhausted, so devoid of any type of momentum.

“It’s the loss of blood,” he heard Hugh mumbled from behind.

But I’m immortal
. Gabriel wanted to shout it, but the most energy he could manage was to think it. He had seen Cole sustain greater injuries than this and be healed by morning with the help of his herbs.

With great effort, he raised his head. “My bag. I need my bag.”

Instantly, Val and Cole opened the bag before him. The many small clear jars and herbs blurred before his eyes. But he didn’t need his eyesight. He knew where each herb was located by heart.

He lifted his hand and pointed to the fourth jar on the left. “Two, nay three drops mixed with a cup of water.”

Val raced off to do as ordered, and Gabriel moved his hand to the right. The third pocket on the second row. “Take two leaves and crush them until there is only a fine powder. Mix with water to form a paste and spread on the wound.”

By the time he finished, he could barely breathe. Each breath was like a knife through his lungs. Coldness crept over him like a veil of death. He looked down at his hands and rubbed his fingers together.

“I can’t feel my fingers.”

“Val!” Hugh bellowed from behind him. “Mina you must hurry.”

“I’m doing all that I can,” she whispered.

But Gabriel knew. Something was wrong, dreadfully wrong.

Suddenly, a cup was thrust into his hands. “Drink,” Val said, his voice breathless and worried.

Gabriel lifted the cup with much difficulty and ignored the pull of his back. He drained the water and then handed the cup back to Val. “Hugh,” he said.

“We’re working on it, Gabriel.”

“Hugh.” He waited until his leader walked around to stand in front of him. “Something is wrong. I don’t know what. Aimery. Call for him.”

A forced smile pulled at Hugh’s lips. “We won’t need Aimery, my friend.”

But Gabriel knew they would.
 
There was a reason Hugh wasn’t calling for Aimery, but Gabriel couldn’t get his thoughts together. Darkness edged his vision as he succumbed to the healing draught.

Hugh and Cole caught Gabriel before he hit the floor. Carefully, they laid him on his side so Mina could administer the paste.

“So much blood,” Mina said as she wiped at her face with the back of her hand.
 
“Are you sure we can do this?”

Hugh could well understand her tears. They had already buried one of their own. He didn’t with to bury another. Not Gabriel.
 
“Aye.
 
We have to.”

“What do we do?” Val asked.

Hugh turned to the Roman before looking to Cole. Both men were anxious and frustrated. “We heal him.”

“He’s supposed to be immortal,” Val argued. “I saw it with my own eyes in Scotland, Hugh. He should be healing by now.”

Cole stood and gripped Val’s arm. “Gabriel will be fine. If he healed once, he can do it again. Maybe there was something different about this Harpy. Hugh?”

He shrugged. “In truth, I barely paid attention to her. I was so rattled by having the Great Evil right there. He had Gabriel high up in the tree by the neck. All around us was this thick mist and the reek of evil.”

“Yet he didn’t hurt Gabriel.”

Hugh met Cole’s gaze. “The look on Gabriel’s face...it was pure terror. In all the creatures we have faced, all the evil men we’ve fought, never once has he shown an ounce of fear.”

Val shook his head and sighed. “Who knows how any of us would react if the Great Evil had us in its clutches.”

“He could have feared for Jayna,” Mina said as she lifted her hand, the thick, white paste on her fingers.

Hugh turned to her. “Jayna? Why do you say that?”

She spread the paste on Gabriel’s back gently. “For men who see great detail, you miss many things. Have none of you noticed how Gabriel rarely dines with us, and when he does, he never stays long?”

“Aye,” Cole said. “He likes to be alone.”

Mina sighed. “Nay. Each of you have found your mates. Each of you have love and happiness in your lives regardless of your pasts. Gabriel doesn’t have that. He doesn’t have anyone.”

“We are his brethren,” Val stated.

Hugh watched his wife smile sadly. “She’s right,” he agreed. “I wouldn’t have thought it to bother Gabriel, but it makes sense.”

For a long moment, he watched the rise and fall of Gabriel’s chest. The wound had been deep, but it shouldn’t have caused as much damage as it had.

“Do you think the evil could’ve taken away his immortality?” he asked softly. Val and Cole jerked their gazes to him.
 

“Nay,” Val answered first.

Cole shrugged. “It’s possible, I suppose. We all know he wants us and the women dead. He has gone to great lengths to do that. It could be why he went after Gabriel and not you or Roderick.”

“But Roderick is immortal as well,” Val said.
 

Hugh nodded sadly. “I need to speak to Aimery.”

* * * *

He smiled into the darkening skies. A storm was indeed brewing, and not just the one in the clouds. His plan was working out nicely, though he would have liked more time with Gabriel. He needed to speak with him, to make him remember the past.

To remember his promise.

He had been surprised to see Gabriel with Jayna and still alive. The little minx had been fixed on revenge for so long he naturally assumed she’d seek retribution as soon as she found Gabriel.

But then Gabriel didn’t remember her.

He laughed. How ironic. Jayna must have felt let down facing Gabriel after so long and he not remembering her...or the crimes he committed.

“But it won’t be long now,” he whispered into the air.

He gathered the mist around him. He had been angry when he’d first learned that Gabriel had joined the ranks of the Shields, aligning with the Fae. But it hadn’t taken him long to discover that Gabriel had lost his memory.

That’s when he’d realized just how wonderful everything could turn out.

Oh, he hadn’t wanted it to reach this far. He would have much preferred to destroy Earth like he had so many other realms. Yet, now that he had a pawn such as Gabriel, things would turn out just as he wanted.

Not even the Chosen could stop him now.

Chapter Fourteen

Jayna was pacing her chamber. Well, not pacing, more like shuffling. Her ankle was better, though still swollen and soar.

She had heard nothing from Elle or anyone regarding Gabriel, and even her asking the servants had turned up nothing. Whispers could be heard through the castle, but for what...or whom?

Could it be Gabriel? Surely not, he was supposed to be immortal. He should be fine. He should be up and walking around, tormenting her with his sexy smile and molten silver eyes that looked as though they could see straight into her soul – a soul that wanted to kill him.

She sighed and sank into a chair before the fire. All her pacing had done nothing but aggravate her ankle. She stared into the leaping flames, her mind taken to another time...another place.

“Marry me,” Gabriel whispered into her ear as they stood before her father, the king.

She smiled when she really wanted to throw herself into his arms. With the barest nod of her head, his hand moved to grace the small of her back.

“I’ve already spoken to your father,” Gabriel continued. “He’s approved of our match.”

“It wouldn’t matter if he didn’t,” she whispered, which earned her a stern look from her mother.

But Jayna didn’t care. It was the most joyous day of her life.

“Jayna?”

She jerked and turned in the chair to find Hugh standing beside her.

“Forgive me,” he said with a slight bow of his head. “You didn’t answer my knock and I worried you might be ill.”

“Nay,” she said with a small shake of her head. “I’m not ill.”

He took the seat beside her. “You looked very deep in thought. Were you thinking of your past?”

She looked into his brown eyes as his hand swept his dark locks away from his face. There was no need to lie to him, at least not about this. “Aye.”
 

“Good memories?”

She glanced away and licked her lips. “One of the few. It’s odd, is it not?” At his questioning gaze, she said, “How memories once forgotten suddenly become all you can think of?”

“I’ve always thought that when those memories come to the forefront it’s because they are needed in some way. To comfort perhaps?”

Jayna gave a short laugh. “Good memories should comfort, my lord, yet this one only brings pain.”
 

“Good memories that bring pain. Just what happened to you, Jayna?”

She sighed and folded her hands in her lap. “I don’t think you came to my chamber to speak of my memories, my lord. I do hope, however, that you bring tidings of Gabriel.”

At Hugh’s diverted gaze, Jayna felt sick to her stomach. “Is he all right? He said he was immortal.”

“I know,” Hugh finally replied as he looked into the flames. “The wound was...difficult...to stop bleeding.”

“But you did stop the bleeding?” She gripped the arms of the chair unknowingly.

Hugh’s gaze looked down at her hands, then to her face. Jayna instantly refolded her hands in her lap. She couldn’t allow any of them to know how important it was that Gabriel be all right. Let them think she was worried about him because she was fond of him. They need never know she must kill him to end her own torment.

“Aye, we finally stopped the bleeding,” Hugh said quietly. “The wound traveled from his left side to his right shoulder. Along with the cut on his back, he also has cracked ribs.”

Her lungs began to burn and she let loose the breath she had been holding. She sat perfectly still, waiting for whatever it was that brought Hugh to her chamber.

After a moment of silence she said, “You talk as though he is still in danger.”

“Because he is.” He sighed and raked his fingers through his thick hair. “Jayna, I need you to tell me what happened to Gabriel before we arrived.”

All the saliva in her mouth vanished. She tried to lick her lips only to fail. A shiver ran through her and she rose to get closer to the fire, hoping it would warm her since her thoughts would not.

“It happened so fast,” she said softly.

“Tell me,” Hugh urged.

Jayna closed her eyes as she wrapped her arms around herself. “The mist, there was so much of it and so quickly. I’ve never seen it move so quickly, as if it were alive. Then....” She stopped the memory of the Great Evil’s voice snaking fear through her.

“And then?”

She opened her eyes to find Hugh beside her.
 
“The voice.
 
It was...everywhere, but nowhere.”

“What did it say?”

“He spoke Gabriel’s name.”

Hugh nodded. “And Gabriel? What did he do?”

The look of terror in his silver depths would be with her forever. “I saw fear in his eyes. The mist was all around him, swallowing him. The next thing I knew, he was being lifted high into the tree, just dangling there. Then, you arrived.”

“You didn’t hear anything else the voice said?”

“Nay. I’m not sure it did.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she wondered why she had uttered them. She knew the evil had spoken to Gabriel. Why was she protecting him?

Hugh gave an audible sigh. “You are taking all of this very well. Not many people would be so calm after all they saw today.”