Between Light and Dark (31 page)

Axiom's hold broke. He was on her in an instant, grasping her shoulders and pushing her toward the wall. She let
out a yelp as her back made impact. A hideous rage spiraled
through him. Not his rage-the shadow side of him tapping into the negative forces of Earth, feeding on the evil
permeating the planet. His fingers dug into her shoulders.

She struggled, twisted, her eyes glittering with panic.
"Let me go."

"No," he snarled.

Her gaze darkened, and she shoved at his chest. He did
not budge. One of his hands circled her neck, held her
there, tightly. She gasped for air, her fingers clawing at his.
His other hand trailed to her belly, splayed across it.

Comprehension flickered through her eyes. She knew
what he intended. Her jaw clenched, her brow furrowed, and
one of her hands left his and curled into his chest. Her body
spasmed, and heat spread over his chest. Surprised, he loosened his hold on her neck. She grunted, and the hand on his
chest clenched and unclenched as pain arced through him.

"Argh!" he cried, letting her go. The pain had been
enough to upset the shadow side; he'd regained a small measure of control. He glanced down at his shirt. Tiny flames
leaped at his sweater. Instinctively, he grabbed the cloth covering a table nearby and pounded his chest with it, putting
out the flames. His skin throbbed. She had summoned the
element of fire and burned him.

She scrambled toward the door. "Help!" she screamed.
She tripped over her backpack and stumbled to the floor.
The backpack tangled in her legs, and its contents spilled
around her.

Axiom could barely breathe. He heaved huge gulps of
air, and his eyes teared from the searing sensation in his
chest. His dark side crouched, waiting to take over again.
He pushed with his god force. One last potent thrust of
Light energy and the Dark fell back, but not before cutting
him once more with its razor-sharp claws, eliciting a painfilled roar.

His limbs trembled with exhaustion. He turned to Laurell, who had risen to her feet and was scrambling toward
the door. He took a step forward. Her wild eyes swept downward, and she seemed to notice the weapon that had
fallen from her bag at the same moment he did. A kitchen
knife, half wrapped in one of the hand towels he vaguely
remembered from the safe house.

Laurell snatched the knife up and clutched it in shaking
hands, waving it at him as she straightened and used her
free hand to grab for the door handle. "Someone help me!"
she screamed again.

The door burst open before she could turn the handle.
Reese came barreling through, almost knocking her over.
His gaze swept from the charred remains of Axiom's sweater
to the knife in Laurell's hand.

"What the hell is going on here?"

"How are you holding up?"

Laurell glanced over her shoulder. Fiona stepped from
the front door of the main house and descended the porch
steps, pulling her jacket tightly around herself. She crossed
the yard to where Laurell stood several feet from the porch.
Her boots made a crunching sound on the snow.

Laurell shrugged and gazed into the blackness of the
woods in front of her. The cold air bit at the exposed flesh
of her face and ears, but she could barely feel it. She was
numb.

"I'm okay."

Fiona stood next to her and wrapped one arm around her
shoulders. The scent of the peanut butter cookies the High
Priestess had been baking clung to her clothes and drifted
to Laurell's nostrils, comforting in its reminder of life's simple pleasures.

"Why are you out here? It's freezing."

Laurell tore her gaze from the starlit heavens and faced
Fiona. "I don't know. I thought the fresh air might do me
good." It had been several hours since her run-in with Axiom, but her legs still shook and her heart had yet to resume its normal pace.

"Wayne said that Axiom has control over his dark half
again. He doesn't think you need to be concerned for your
safety at this point."

Laurell sighed. "It's not my safety I'm worried about."

Fiona glanced at Laurell's abdomen. "I know, honey. The
baby is okay, too, though." She brushed Laurell's gloved
hand with her own. "Whatever you did with the fire element
seemed to do the job. Axiom said he feels like his hold on his
dark half is secure now."

Concern surged through Laurell. "Is Axiom okay? How
badly is he burned?"

"Hillary doctored him up. It looks like first and seconddegree burns, but he's already healing. I guess being part
god comes in handy when he gets injured."

Laurell nodded. "Speedy healing, huh?" Another power
to add to the list of Axiom's abilities.

"Yeah, honey. He'll be fine. Don't worry yourself over it.
You did what you had to do."

"I know. And I know Axiom would never hurt me or the
baby. Not intentionally."

Fiona tilted her head to one side and gave a reassuring
smile. "Of course he wouldn't. Apparently, the longer he's
on Earth and the closer the baby is to being born, the harder
it is to keep the dark energy from infiltrating his own shadow
side. It won't be long now, though. That baby will be born
soon.

"Hillary said I'm due close to the full moon." Laurell
peered at the cloud-laden night sky, where no moon was visible. She wished she could see it; for some reason, its absence
made her uneasy.

Fiona squeezed Laurell's hand. "You know, maybe you
should go talk to him, Laurell. Maybe it's time for you two to come clean with each other. It worked for me and
Reese."

Laurell gave a half smile. Seeing the joy in Fiona's eyes
when she spoke of Reese made her own heart swell with
hope. Fiona and Reese had announced their new partnership at dinner. The coven members had been excited and
happy for them.

Maybe Fiona was right. Clearly, Axiom hadn't felt he
could tell her about his inner battle against his shadow side.
Maybe if he had, she could have helped somehow. She
hated that there were secrets between them. Especially
now, when they were growing so close.

He had asked her once if the joy they felt wrapped in
each other's arms was love. At the time, all she could manage was the one-word response, yes. As professions of love
went, it left something to be desired. Maybe it was time she
made her feelings crystal clear. Once Axiom understood
the depth of her emotions, he would surely feel comfortable opening up to her more.

And then he'd understand there was nothing they
couldn't face and conquer together.

"You're right, Fiona," she said. "I'll talk to Axiom first
thing in the morning. He needs his rest right now."

Fiona grinned her approval, teeth flashing white in the
dim light. "Good. Now let's go eat some cookies."

The next morning, Laurell knocked twice on Axiom's
door. She balanced the breakfast tray full of food on her
belly and waited.

"Come in," came the response from the other side of the
door. She entered the cabin and kicked the door shut behind her. Axiom was fully dressed, sitting in a chair beside
a small table near the window. He wore blue jeans and a
black sweater. His hair was wet, and moisture still clung to the air from his shower. She set the tray of food on the
table and plopped into the chair across from him.

"How are you?" she asked.

"I am well." He rubbed one hand over his stubbled chin.
The short beard gave him a more earthy appearance. It was
a sexy look for him. His eyes, which had turned to sinister
obsidian pools the night before when he'd cornered her in
his cabin, were back to their normal slate gray.

He gestured toward the tray of food. "This was not necessary. I planned to come to the main house for breakfast."

She shrugged. "I didn't know if you needed more rest or
not. I thought you might like to eat in bed."

"Thank you for your thoughtfulness." He wore a pensive
expression on his face and his back was stiff, his hands
folded neatly in his lap.

"You're welcome. Whatever I can do to help."

"I appreciate that." He lifted the cup of steaming coffee
from the tray and took a sip.

Why was he being so formal? Suddenly that table seemed
to put miles between them, and she couldn't stand that feeling. She half rose and scooted her chair around the table,
closer to his. "Listen, about what happened . . ." she began.

He placed the cup back on the tray. "I apologize for my
behavior. I could not control myself and I-"

She leaned forward and put a finger to his lips, halting
his words. "It's okay. It's not your fault."

He grimaced. "I should have had better control. I should
have been able to fight the pull of the darkness."

"You did the best you could."

Black eyebrows arched. "My best was not good enough. I
would have killed you and the child."

Laurell shivered at those words, remembering the hatred
and fury etched across his face at the moment when one of
his large hands had closed around her neck and the other hand had palmed her belly. She pushed that image away. "I
know you would never hurt us, Axiom."

His lips thinned. "Do you? Do you truly know that?"

"Of course."

"Then what of the knife you have been carrying with
you? Did you think I would not recognize it? That I would
not realize where it came from?" His gaze pinned her in
place, a mixture of accusation and hurt.

She grabbed his hands and held them firmly. "No, Axiom. I know how that looked. I took that knife my second
day at the safe house. I totally forgot it was in my backpack."

Axiom withdrew his fingers from hers and pushed his
chair back. "You were right to fear me."

"Axiom. . ."

He stood. "You will understand, of course, why we cannot spend any additional time alone together."

She jumped up and shook her head vehemently. "No.
You're overreacting now. We belong together. We can help
each other."

"It is true your powers have grown strong. In fact, your
use of elemental magic likely saved your life last night"he glanced at her belly-"and that of the Earth Balancer."

His words drew her attention to his chest and the wound
she knew her magic had caused. Her stomach clenched.
"I'm so sorry I hurt you. I didn't-"

"Have any other choice," he finished for her. He waved
his hand as though to flick her worries away. "I heal quickly.
You need not concern yourself with me."

His cavalier attitude was becoming annoying. She needn't
concern herself with him? Right! How could she keep that
from happening? She was his lover, the mother of his child.
She was falling in love with him, dammit. Falling in love or already in love?

"Axiom, let's talk about this. We've come so far over the past few weeks." She drifted close to him, wrapped her arms
around his waist, and lifted her face to his. The fact that his
arms hung limp at his side, that he did not return her embrace, stung.

She steeled herself and pressed onward anyway. "We've
grown so close. Don't put a wedge between us now."

Emotions, unreadable, flickered over his face. He lifted
his arms as though to hold her, and her heart raced with
anticipatory joy. A moment later, his arms dropped to his
sides again. "That is all the more reason for us to keep our
distance now. This attachment we have developed serves
no purpose. It will only cause you pain when I am gone."

Attachment? Like what, a growth? He was purposely pushing her buttons. He wants to make me angry so I'll keep my
distance. He's trying to protect me and the baby.

"Look, I realize you'll have things to take care of in the
Light Realm and you won't be on Earth all the time to be
with me and the baby. I understand how important the
Council seat is to you. A long-distance relationship isn't
ideal, but we'll handle it. Together."

He reached back and grabbed her hands, removing them
from his waist. He took a step away. "You misunderstand.
There is no relationship once the child is born."

"What do you mean?"

"Once the Earth Balancer is born, this body will die.
And I will return to the Light Realm. Permanently."

His last word rang with a finality that made Laurell's ears
hurt, and the cavern inside her chest that had almost closed
reopened and gaped-raw, aching, bleeding out all of her
fragile hopes and dreams.

The wind whirled around them, bitter and biting. A few
stars dotted the sky; otherwise the full moon was the only
illumination. The coven had finished dinner and now
trooped out of the main house and headed toward the ritual circle, where Wayne had gone earlier to start a bonfire.
Thumper hadn't finished his dinner yet, so Wayne had offered to help. They wanted to get the full-moon ritual underway as quickly as possible.

Midnight wasn't far off, and the protection spell around
the covenstead needed to be rewoven for the final time.
The baby was due any day. Once born, the Umbrae would
be repelled by the child's very presence and the protection
circle would no longer be necessary. The mission would be
complete.