ON EDGE (Decorah Security) (10 page)

The wind blasted them relentlessly toward the edge.

“Can’t you stop it?” he shouted above the roaring around them.

“I’m trying.”

The howling around them increased so that they might have been at the center of a tornado.

He brought his mouth to her ear, trying to make sure she heard him above the din. “Whatever happens, remember that I love you.”

She squeezed his hand, and he knew that she had caught his words. Her arms locked around him. “I never knew what love was between a man and a woman until I met you, but I do now,” she gasped out, just as the wind grabbed the two of them, spinning them off the edge of the cliff and into space, as though they had jumped out of a plane from high above the earth.

They spun around, the sickening sensations worse than a parachute jump because no one but a fool would chance it in these wind conditions.

The gusts tried to tear Ariel away from him, but he closed his eyes and hung on to her as they plummeted through the freezing air. He felt his skin turn to ice so that he could no longer sense his own body, and he knew that they were both going to die. Together.

He waited for them to crash into the valley below, unable to stop himself from picturing the shattering impact. But somehow their descent slowed. It was like a layer of warm air had materialized under their feet, wafting them to the ground.

To Frank’s surprise, they landed on soft earth, and he raised his head. He saw tropical vegetation, dense foliage, flowers hanging on vines. It looked like they were in the jungle where he had first forced his way into the other plane.

Ariel turned her head, taking in the scene. Her breath caught as she studied their surroundings.

He reached for her hand. “Did you mean it when you said you loved me?” he asked. “Or did you just say it because you thought we were going to die?”

“I meant it, with all my heart.”

“That’s the most important thing. I mean—that I love you and you love me.”

“Maybe not.”

The way she said it tore at him.

“Why not?”

“It is out of our control.” She took his hand. “We must go.”

“Where?”

“To the temple—to face them.”

He didn’t like the resignation in her voice, but he knew that the two of them couldn’t stay here. If the gods had conjured a bleak and dangerous landscape a while ago, they could send a green- and orange-striped tiger charging out of the jungle—or anything else.

They walked side by side, holding hands, following a path through the dense vegetation. To confirm his earlier speculation, Frank heard rustlings and warning growls in the foliage. And when he looked up, he saw a huge bird circling overhead.

Ariel followed his gaze and cringed.

“What is it?”

“They come for the dead,” she whispered.

Through the trees he could see a massive white building. They came out of the green foliage to face an enormous structure that towered far above the jungle.

He had thought Ariel’s house was grand, but this building was like no other he could imagine. In front was a wide marble plaza, leading to a facade carved with pictures depicting life in all its richness—animals, people, plants. Some scenes were peaceful like shepherds tending a flock or parents and children cuddling together. Others depicted violence—battlefields with men tearing at each other or cities burning. They were from prehistory to modern times.

As with Ariel’s home, there were arched doorways leading inside, not to a courtyard but to an immense open space with a ceiling held up by slender columns that looked too fragile to support the domed roof.

High above, windows let in rays of light that shone down on a rectangular black stone about two and a half feet high and four feet long in the center of the huge space.

“What is it?” Frank asked, gesturing toward the stone, although he was afraid he already knew.

“A sacrificial altar,” Ariel murmured.

He heard words buzzing in his head and knew they were for Ariel.
Approach, servant of the gods.

She jerked and pulled her hand away from him.

He tried to hold her back, but her slender body was stronger than it looked. She ran from him and knelt beside the black stone. When she laid her head on the horizontal surface, sick fear leaped inside him. Involuntarily, he looked up and saw something awful hanging in the air thirty feet above her. An enormous blade like the business end of an executioner’s ax.

Without considering his own safety, he sprang forward, losing his balance with the sudden movement. But he managed to catch himself against the stone and press the upper part of his body over Ariel’s head and neck.

How dare you interfere. Go back,
the voice boomed.

His heart was pounding inside his chest, but he stayed where he was. “No.”

We saved her when she was dying, and she has broken her agreement with us. Her life is forfeit.

He stayed where he was, feeling her body quiver under his as he looked up. “Why? Because I somehow got into this plane of existence and met her? I didn’t intend it. She didn’t intend it. But we met. And we became important to each other. That must mean something to you.”

When we saved her life, she dedicated herself to serving us.

“And she was only a child. She knew nothing of the world or of what her agreement would mean. She only wanted to live. She has served you. For more than a thousand years.” He gulped as he said it. “Isn’t that enough? Must she be your slave forever? Let her come back to the world with me.”

She can only visit your world. She cannot live there. She would die
.

He hadn’t understood that, and he heard himself cry out in protest. But there was more.

And if we allow her to live in this plane of existence, you will give her up
?

Every fiber of his being recoiled from the cruelty of what they were asking. His hand clamped on Ariel’s arm. It might be the last time he ever touched her, but he would suffer her loss to save her life. “I will give her up,” he said in a voice he struggled to hold steady.

He held his breath, feeling a vibration in the air. He heard words echoing around him. It was as though beings he couldn’t see and couldn’t understand were arguing with each other.

Yet he caught the gist of the argument.

She has defied us.

The situation was not of her making.

He spoke truth. She was only a child.

She dared to give herself to the man.

After long and faithful service.

Frank held his breath, listening to the voices boom and vibrate. Sometimes they spoke of Ariel and sometimes of him.

He proved his bravery.

He has suffered much.

Can he be trusted?

He couldn’t stay silent. “Was there ever a man who walked between the worlds as I have?”

The voices raging around him went silent. Then one spoke directly to him.

We saw the tendency when you were young, and we blocked it.

He caught his breath as he thought about his early flashes of something outside the world when he’d played in the orchard back home. He’d seen them as a child. Then they’d simply stopped.

But it came back—the night you heard Gordon scream for help. Perhaps you are something new in the universe
.

Frank Decorah, something new in the universe. He tried to wrap his head around that. Then he tried to use it to his advantage.

“For a reason. I came into this plane before Ariel arrived. I saved a man Lilith would have killed. I can do similar services again, if Ariel can stay with me and tell me what is needed.”

Long moments ticked by, and he thought he might go mad waiting for a response.

Finally, one of the voices said,

It is a reasonable scheme
.

Just as relief flooded through him, he was hit with one more warning.

She is forbidden to marry. You would give up a normal life for her? You would give up marriage and children?

“Yes,” he answered in a strong voice.

We will hold you to that
.

And suddenly from one blink of an eye to the other, they were no longer in the temple. They were back in the house where he had visited her, both of them, together.

He looked around in confusion. “What happened?”

She raised her head, and he saw tears shimmering in her eyes. “They gave us permission to be together—when we can.”

Overcome with emotion, he embraced her.

“And you can help me in my sacred mission.”

“I want to.”

“My work is important to me. There is so much evil in the universe, and if I can hold it back just a little, I know I have won a victory.”

“Yes.”

She lifted her face to his and looked him in the eye. “It will not be easy—this arrangement.”

“But as long as I know I have you, I can do it.”

He held her tightly, and she molded the contours of her body to his.

“I love you,” he murmured. “So much.”

“And I love you.” Her voice hitched. “But can you live the life we must?”

“Yes,” he answered.

She kept her gaze on him, her face serious. “You defended me with your life—against the gods. That was either very brave or very foolish.”

“I had to fight for you.”

“I never thought anyone would do something so heroic for me.”

“You had done nothing wrong.”

“But I did.”

“You only loved me.”

He lowered his head, and as their lips met, he knew that he had almost lost her. Or lost himself, or both.

He pulled the gown over her head, and she tugged at his uniform jacket.

“Do it with your magic,” he managed to say.

“Gods. I forgot about that.”

In a moment, he was as naked as she. Standing on two legs, because he was whole and uninjured in this place.

Naked, they swayed together in the center of the room, both of them having difficulty staying on their feet.

They made it to the bed and sank onto the mattress together where they came up to their knees, stroking and kissing, both of them so hot that he expected to see the flames spring up around them.

They lay down, and he dipped his head, pressing his face against her breasts, then taking one hardened nipple into his mouth, sucking on her before sliding down her body to press his lips to the hot, swollen folds of her most intimate flash.

She gasped as she felt his kiss and gasped again as he began to lick and suck at her.

She cried out, “Enough. I want you inside me.”

He covered her body with his as she closed her fist around him again before guiding him inside her.

He had been frantic to join with her. Now he went still, looking down at her, meeting her gaze.

“My one and only love,” he murmured.

She reached up to touch his face, her eyes full of wonder. “I never thought to have this.”

“You have me. As long as I live.”

“And after.”

“What?” he asked, not understanding

“There is no death here unless the gods decree it.”

He hadn’t thought about the future—about what it might mean for him. Ultimately. He could hardly wrap his head around it, but he stopped worrying about what would be as she began to move under him.

He picked up the rhythm, slowly at first and then with more force. He wanted this lovemaking to last. But the moment was too emotionally charged. Both of them surged against each other, driving for completion.

He struggled to wait for her, but when her hands clasped his buttocks, he came in a great roiling climax. And he felt her exploding with him.

They hung onto each other as the storm swept them away in time and space. To that place that only the two them could enter.

And when they floated back to earth, he raised his head and stared down at her again, a grin on his face.

“I never would have imagined this. Permission to be with you in this place.”

“I never imagined myself with anyone.”

“How long can I stay here now?”

“Until morning, but it will seem longer. I can stretch the time.”

He settled down beside her, clasping her to him, marveling that they belonged together now.

He didn’t know exactly how it was going to work, but they would find out—together.

He couldn’t hold back a surge of joy as the true implications sank in. For the first time since he’d lost his leg, he had a future he craved. A future that included the woman he loved—the woman who loved him.

oOo

Epilogue

Seventeen years later

Frank Decorah cuddled his beloved against his side, so thankful that this amazing woman was still with him. Every time he looked at her, he marveled at her beauty—and her youth. There was not a gray hair on her head. Not a hint of sagging in her marvelous breasts. She looked exactly the same as she had when they’d first met one very strange night at the Naval Medical Center. Too bad he couldn’t say the same for himself. His hair was turning gray, and his jawline wasn’t quite as firm as when he’d been a Navy Lieutenant Commander. But he kept his body in excellent shape, thanks to the gym he’d installed in the back room of his house—overlooking the gardens that Ariel tended for him. By magic. He had no work to do there. He had only to enjoy the flower beds, fountains and sculpture she had artfully arranged.