ON EDGE (Decorah Security) (8 page)

He pushed himself up and began to claw his way toward the demon again, but now he felt an invisible wall between them like when he’d tried to fight his way into the other plane.

Although he slashed at it with the knife, he was unable to gash his way through. No matter how forceful his strikes, the knife only bounced back at him.

Amusement flickered on Lilith’s lips as she watched. From her position of safety, the look in her eyes changed. Not just the look. The color darkened and her mouth opened, a parody of a smile stretching her lips.

“And now you die,” she whispered.

He felt power gathering in her, power that focused in her outstretched hand which she pointed at him. As he watched, small lightning bolts flickered around her fingertips.

With a twitch of her lips, she launched the bolt at him, and he knew he was going to die.

But the surge of power never reached him. From out of the air, a body flew between him and Lilith, taking the bolt meant for him.

Lilith screamed, her face contorting to one of unimaginable anger as her plans were thwarted.

Frank screamed, too, when he realized what had happened. He saw Ariel lying on the tile floor beside him, still and lifeless.

Chapter Eight

Lilith had vanished. One moment she was in the room. In the next she was simply gone.

Frank bent over Ariel, his heart blocking his windpipe as he closed his hand around her shoulder.

“Ariel,” he gasped out. “Ariel.”

She didn’t move, didn’t speak. Gathering her in his arms, he cradled her against his chest.

He’d doubted her feelings for him when he’d come back to the hospital to find he’d suffered a cardiac arrest. But now she had leaped between him and Lilith’s fatal blow.

He rocked her in his arms, bending to press his lips to her cheek. He had denied what he felt for her—until this moment.

And now it was too late.

“Ariel, oh Lord, Ariel, don’t die,” he begged.

She didn’t stir, and as he held her, she began to fade and lose her substance. She grew paler and lighter, so that he could see right through her.

And then she was totally gone, leaving him sitting on the floor, cradling nothing in his arms, grappling with a feeling of total devastation. She was gone. She had given her life for his, and he could hardly cope with that knowledge.

He wanted to howl with grief, and perhaps he would have done that if he’d been alone.

But Gordon spoke, reminding Frank of his presence.

“What happened?”

“Lilith, the mind vampire, came to suck the life out of you,” he answered, hearing the flat quality of his voice.

Gordon didn’t argue with the explanation.

“She was trying to take your life force.”

“And you kept her from doing it.”

“And the other one—Ariel kept her from killing me.”

“Yeah,” he breathed. “But how is any of this possible?”

“I don’t know,” Frank answered.

He pushed himself up and stood unsteadily, grabbing the side of the bed to keep from falling.

“I’m sorry,” Gordon whispered.

“About what?”

“About that girl dying.”

Frank could only answer with a tight nod.

Gordon dragged in a breath and let it out. “And about not admitting I understood what was going on.”

“You admit it now?”

“Yeah. Well as much as I understand it. One of them was evil, and the other was good?”

“Right.” Frank clipped out. At least that concept had gotten through Gordon’s thick skull.

Frank made his way slowly toward the door.

“Wait,” Gordon called out.

“I need to be alone,” he answered, keeping his back turned so that the other man wouldn’t see the moisture in his eyes.

He stepped into the hall, walking slowly back to his room, knowing he had lost Ariel.

Numbly he sat down and went through the procedure of taking off his prosthesis. He was too drained to cope with what had happened. But he vowed one thing. He couldn’t let this terrible loss destroy his will to live. That would mean he’d be ripe pickings for Lilith. And he would not taint Ariel’s memory by allowing that to happen.

Somehow he got through the next day, thanking God that he didn’t have an appointment with Dr. Leonard because he couldn’t talk about what had happened or talk about his feelings. And he didn’t want to be the subject of another write-up citing him for being uncooperative.

He did his PT. He ate in the cafeteria, as much as he could choke down. He avoided Gordon because he didn’t want to talk to him either.

But after pushing food around on his plate at dinner, the other man scooted his wheelchair beside him as he was leaving the mess hall.

“You okay?” Gordon asked.

“Yeah.”

In the hall, the other man wheeled himself to an alcove where there were several chairs and tables. Frank thought about walking away but he decided there was no point in making the other guy feel worse than he already did.

“Maybe you’re fooling everybody else, but you’re not fooling me.”

“What, now you’re on the psych staff?”

“I can see you’re hurting.”

Frank lowered himself into a chair so that he was at the other man’s eye level. “And there’s nothing either one of us can do about it.”

Gordon nodded. “I want to ask a question. Did that thing come after me because I was feeling like I might give up?”

“I think so.”

“So the message is—stay strong?”

“And defeat the evil vampire by choosing to live.”

Gordon nodded again. “I’m not going to let her get me.”

“You realize we’re having a conversation about something nobody would believe?”

“Yes. So we’re both not nuts?”

Frank laughed. “Hopefully.”

“I didn’t want to deal with it,” Gordon said. “That’s why I wouldn’t talk to you about it.”

Frank dragged in a breath and let it out. “You saw the weird green light?”

“Maybe. Sort of. I get the feeling you were more involved than I was—I mean I was just a victim.”

Now that they were talking, Frank opened up to his curiosity. “What did you see last night, when I came in again?”

Gordon looked like he didn’t want to answer. Finally he said, “The bad one was leaning over me, and I could feel her sucking the life out of me. Then you started fighting her. She was winning, until the other one appeared.”

“Yeah,” he answered, but Gordon had made him flash back to Ariel.

“We can talk more about it later,” Gordon said, catching Frank’s mood.

They went their separate ways, and he returned to his room, thinking he would try to get into the other plane of existence again—and find Ariel’s house. And then what? Could he levitate over her monster defenses? Maybe pole vault or something.

He made his preparations for bed, stretching them out, knowing he didn’t want to put his ability to get to Ariel’s plane to the test.

What did it mean if he got there? Would he be in more danger than before? But what if she was lying in her house, injured? What if she needed him? That thought made his heart start to pound.

He took off his prosthesis and climbed into bed. Lying back, he closed his eyes and started the routine where he could put himself into a light trance. He felt the peaceful feeling slipping over him and was encouraged.

But his consciousness didn’t move from the bed, and when he felt a light touch on his cheek, his eyes blinked open.

Ariel was leaning over him, her colorful sari clinging provocatively to her body and her eyes bright in the greenish light that filled the room.

“Is it all right for me to be here?” she asked in a small voice.

“All right! Of course it’s all right. Thank God you’re here.” He pushed himself up, his gaze ranging eagerly over her as he breathed her name. “Are you really here, or did I imagine you because I want you so much?”

“You didn’t imagine me.”

“But you were hurt when you took that bolt meant for me. You didn’t move, didn’t respond to me—and then you faded away. Like she did.”

“My spirit and my body needed time to heal.”

“You’re all right now?”

“Yes.”

He looked around. “Where is Lilith?”

“You weakened her. She used up all her energy when she tried to kill you. How did you know to stab her?”

“It seemed like the thing to do.”

“It drained her substance. That’s why she put up the shield.”

He dragged in a breath and let it out. “But there was no way for me to kill her, right?”

“No. She has existed for thousands of years. She will go on. But she will think long and hard before she tries to harm you again.”

“I thought I was losing.”

“You were hurting her. A lot.”

“But she would have killed me with that bolt,” he clarified.

“I don’t know. But I couldn’t take a chance.”

He reached for her and pulled her down beside him on the bed, cradling her against him as he brought his mouth to hers for a long hungry kiss.

“I was sure I had lost you,” he whispered. “When you faded away and didn’t come back.”

“I understand why you thought I had tried to harm you. It wasn’t me. It was her. She figured out how to yank you out of the other plane, and that was a shock to your heart.”

He nodded against the top of her head, then looked toward the door. “Can you make sure nobody comes in here?”

“I already have.”

“Can you take me back to the other plane?”

“I could. But I want to be with you here.”

“Why?”

“Because I know you’re worried about . . .”

“About making love with you when I only have one leg,” he finished.

“Yes. And I want you to know that it doesn’t make any difference to me.”

She stood up and pulled the sari from her shoulder, then untied the knot at her waist, dropping the garment on the floor. She stood naked beside his bed, looking down at him with an expression that told him she wasn’t quite as confident as she appeared.

“Come warm me,” he whispered.

He lifted the covers, and she slipped into the narrow bed beside him. And suddenly the bed was a lot wider and more luxurious, filling almost all of the hospital room. It was covered with a bright patterned spread, and soft pillows in a riot of colors now cushioned his head. And the walls were no longer plain institutional green. The bed was in a tent now, something that a desert nomad king might use with rich hangings closing in the sleeping chamber.

“Nice,” he murmured.

“For my pleasure. And yours. And for my pleasure, we should take off your sleeping clothes.”

One moment he was wearing a tee shirt and shorts. In the next he was naked except for an embroidered loincloth that circled his waist and hung down to hide his genitals. It left the lower half of his body exposed. One hair-roughened leg and one empty place where the other leg should be.

He pressed his hand against the mattress to keep from pulling up the spread and hiding the deformity.

“You are beautiful,” she murmured.

“How can you say that?”

“Easily.”

She knelt beside him, kissing him lightly on the mouth, then sliding her lips to his jawline, his shoulder, his chest, nibbling her lips through the crinkly hair there, then touching her tongue to one of his flat nipples.

He wanted to relax and enjoy what she was doing, but he couldn’t quite manage it.

“This could get a little tricky,” he muttered.

She raised her head. “Not if I straddle you.”

“How do you know about that?”

“There are many pictures. Have you seen the illustrations on the walls at Pompeii? Or the stone carvings at Khajuraho in India?”

He swallowed hard. “No.”

“But you probably saw the movie
Basic Instinct
.”

He laughed. “Did you?”

“I watched it to learn. And others of your moving pictures, like that
Coming Home
one. Some of them are quite . . . graphic. But the ancient Romans and the Hindus are just as informative. Only the illustrations don’t move.” She shook her head. “The Greeks aren’t as good a source of instruction for a woman. They were too interested in men with men.”

She bent her head again, moving down his body, making his stomach muscles quiver as she probed his navel with her tongue.

She looked lower, seeing the tent his erection had made of the loincloth. Her hands went to the waistband, tugging it open, freeing him from the fabric so that his erection stood up from his body.

“Tell me if I do something wrong.”

He made a strangled sound as she took his cock in her hand, holding it while she licked her tongue up one side, then the other.