Terran Times 18 - Emerald Envisage (9 page)

Lysette wrapped her arms around his neck. “Hold me
,”
she whispered, pressing her face against his chest.

Arrden scooped her into his arms, carried her to his glen and sat on a moss bed. He tightened his embrace, wanting to protect her from whatever was distressing her. “Talk to me,” he said, stroking her hair. “Tell me what troubles you.”

“I must leave next week.”

“
What
?” Panic tightened the muscles in his stomach. “No.”

“Hush and hear me out. There is a unique disease destroying my lungs and the doctor is ordering me from my home.” Lysette pulled back and looked at the man who owned her heart. “If I stay here with you, I die for lack of a sterile environment, but if I let them take me away, I’ll die for the lack of you.” Tenderly she cupped his cheek. “I want to live and I want to stay with you, but I can’t do both.” She sobbed against his chest. “I’d rather a few days with you than a lifetime without. Please just stay with me.”

Arrden cradled her close and kissed her temple. With his cheek resting against her head, he weighed his options. Ever powerful, he knew he was helpless to cure her unless he surrendered the one thing he possessed for all time—his forest, his immortality, his very life. He looked down at the woman in his arms, treasuring every tear that fell on his chest and trickled down his body. “I can save you, Lysette. I can give you a chance for life.”

She pushed up and met his gaze. “There’s no cure, Arrden.”

“
I
am the cure.” He framed her face between his palms. “I can give you the gift of live your life if you wish it.”

Lysette smiled. “How, my sweet forest lord, can you succeed where medical science in all its glory has failed?”

Arrden adored her. “I don’t rely on machines,” he said. “I listen to Gaia. All cures reside in Nature’s medicine cabinet, if you know where to look.” Suddenly sad, he pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Over the centuries, I’ve witnessed my domain shrink while civilization grows. In time, I will be destroyed with it, but where will I have left my mark to say I even existed? In this chance with you. Just as you lack the desire to live without me so do I lack the will to live without you. Let me pay the price to heal you.”

“What price?” Her eyes were wary and she pulled back from him. “What are you going to do?”

“I can trade my immortality for your life.”

Horrified, Lysette shook her head. “No!”

Arrden wished to tell her more, but such remained a forbidden secret. He eased her from his lap and sat them face-to-face. “I will help us both.”

“You’ll die.” She shook her head. “I won’t allow it. Not now, not ever.”

“It is my choice.” Gathering the immortality from the forest on the wind
,
he cupped her face and kissed her lips. The power poured from the wind, through him, collected his immortality and plunged into her. Their lip lock broken, he held her. Black mist seeped from her body and faded into oblivion. Weakened, he clutched her close and inched lower until he lay on the ground, his head in her lap.

“What’s happening?” Lysette stared. “I’ve never seen you so…pale.”

Arrden smiled when color returned to her face. “And I’ve never seen you more beautiful.” He closed his eyes.

* * * *

As the last breath slipped from his body, the first leaf of autumn floated to the ground and landed on her shoulder. “No.” She sobbed and clutched him tight. “I didn’t want this. It isn’t worth losing you!” Her wails carried through the trees on the wind and echoed deep into the night.

He faded in mere minutes, disappeared and left no trace just as the leaves did over a single season.

Time passed slow and painful for Lysette. There was no joy for her when the beauty of Spring flowered over the forest.

Stepping out onto the porch, she watched as the sun started its descent toward the horizon. She stared at the trees and a longing seized her, bringing agony to her soul. Not even her clean bill of health could console her shattered heart.

“No good came of your sacrifice, beloved. Nothing is worth the loss of you.” Tears blurred her vision and she rubbed her arms as a sudden chill passed over her. Then movement at the wood line caught her attention. Stock-still, she peered between the trees at the worn path and gawked. “Can’t be…”

* * * *

His senses attuned to her presence, Arrden had waited for her all day. He proffered a broad smile and opened his arms. “Will you come to me, little wood nymph?”

Exuberant, she sucked in an unsteady breath. “It is you!” Without hesitation, she sprinted off the porch toward the man she lost at the beginning of the previous autumn. She stumbled a time or two, but never faltered in her headlong plunge into his arms.

He swept her up into his embrace and clutched her tight. The wrap of her legs around his waist earned his sigh. Her wild and woodsy scent filled him while honeysuckle and lilac encircled and embraced his senses. “I knew you would return for me.”

Lysette leaned back and pushed the hair from his face. “So vivid and wonderfully. Never have I seen more beautiful green eyes. I thought I lost you when you died.”

All too aware of the new forest lord behind him who now controlled his once green and vibrant world, Arrden hugged her tight. “You did for a season, but you needed to return and take me from the forest for me to exist again.”

“Take you from the forest? I don’t understand.”

“As an immortal, I was forbidden to leave the forest. The sacrifice of my life granted me the ability to cure you, but I had to release my body back to Gaia and be reborn as a mortal in the following spring.” He untangled her from him and set her on her feet. “The moment we’re at right now is the one that decides if I stay here or live elsewhere.”

Bewildered, Lysette furrowed her brow. “What do you mean?”

“You must lead me from my world into yours.” Arrden held out his hand. If the lady of his heart didn’t accept him now, he faded with the last rays of the setting sun. “Will you take me from my former realm into yours, little wood nymph, to live at your side as a mortal man for the rest of our lives?”

She stared at the palm held steady before her. “Forever,” she said and clasped his hand in hers. Then she backed into the meadow and led him from the shadow of the forest. The warm smile, which spread across his face, danced her heart on air. Turned and tucked against his side, she managed a few steps toward the cabin before the eerie rustle of the trees drew her backward glance toward the woods.

“Come.” He tightened his arm around her waist and encouraged her forward as the new forest lord faded into the nearest tree. “They’re whispering farewell. Take me home, my love.”

“Forever.”

THE NECKLACE

Kira Chase

Lara hummed softly to herself as she sorted through the miscellaneous baubles spread out on her bed.

“What are you doing?” Ian asked as he surveyed the assortment of earrings, necklaces, bracelets and rings.

She grinned. “I decided it was high time I got rid of some of these things.” She picked up a gaudy looking red-stoned ring. “This can definitely go. I can’t believe I ever wore this thing.”

Ian sat on the edge of the bed. “What are you going to do with all of this stuff?”

She shrugged. “Probably take it down to the thrift shop and donate it.”

He laughed. “I never realized how much jewelry you have. Why did you decide to do this today?”

“I’ve been thinking for quite awhile that I need to overhaul my stuff and since I’m going to be moving in with you in a few days, I didn’t think you’d like all this stuff cluttering up the place.”

“I don’t mind, just so I can have you whenever I want you without being interrupted by your roommate. By the way, where is Skye today?” he asked with a mischievous glint in his eye.

“Working. Ah, you’re wondering if we have time for some down time,” she teased.

He looked at her and raised his eyebrows in mock shock. “Now why would you say that?”

“Well, if you help me clean this stuff up, then we can drop it off later. I have a couple of cartons by the bed.”

Ian quickly began stuffing the items into one of the boxes. “This is pretty,” he said. “You’re keeping it, aren’t you?”

Lara looked at the necklace dangling from his fingertips. “Oh my, God,” she excitedly said, gently taking it from him. “I haven’t seen this in years. I thought I’d lost it.”

“Want me to put it on you?”

“Maybe later,” she said as she placed it in a special compartment in her jewelry box.

Ian stared at the emerald for a moment. “I’ve never seen a stone sparkle like that. Where’d you get it? The green almost matches your eye color.”

Lara’s eyes misted. “From my Gramma Kathleen. She gave it to me right before she died. I remember bringing it home, but then it disappeared. I searched for weeks, but couldn’t find it.”

They finished sorting the rest of the jewelry into keep and discard piles. After all the pieces had been put into either the jewelry box or donation box, Lara was closing the lid of the jewelry box when Ian suddenly grabbed her arm.

“Look! It’s glowing even with all the other pieces in there.”

She stared at the necklace. “I remember Gramma Kathleen telling me a story about it. She claimed it had mystical powers.”

Ian suppressed a smile.

“I know what you’re thinking…it’s some silly story passed down from a grandmother to her granddaughter.”

“I have to admit I’ve never seen anything glow like that,” he alluded. “What’s the story behind it?”

Lara ran a hand through her long red hair. “She told me that she was given the necklace by her grandmother when she lived in Ireland. It was about a year before she met my grandfather. She said it will grant the intended her hidden desire, but it may not be what you think.”

“What does that mean?”

“I asked her the same thing.” She smiled. “It will grant your deepest desire even if you aren’t consciously aware of what that desire is.”

Ian frowned. “That doesn’t make sense.”

Lara was thoughtful for a moment. “She always had some sayings I never understood, but I think it means there are some things we think we desperately want, but we are really settling for less.”

“I still don’t get it.”

She sighed. “Maybe even if I believe I’m perfectly content with what I’ve gotten from life, what was hidden inside will become known to me the minute I put the necklace on.”

Ian rubbed her shoulder. “I have something that I’d like to hide inside you.” He guided her hand to his bulging crotch.

“You have a one-track mind,” she said huskily as his hands slid under her T-shirt and lifted it over her head. She tingled at his touch the same way she had the first time they’d made love six months ago after their third date.

“Just what I like…no bra.” His mouth came down on her left breast and he gently suckled it before moving to the right one while his hands slid to the waistband of her jeans. He swiftly undid her jeans and guided them down to her ankles.

She wriggled out of them and helped him pull off his shirt. She ran her hands over his smooth chest while his hands moved down her long legs and rested between her thighs. He gently nudged her legs apart, then with the tip of his tongue, sensuously licked a trail from between her breasts as he dropped to his knees. He continued down her stomach and stopped when he reached her thong. With his teeth, he tugged at the band, then ripped it off and began to hungrily devour her dripping cunt.

She moaned as her fingernails dug into his brawny shoulders. His tongue teased her clit and she was on the edge of coming when he suddenly stopped, undid his jeans, pushed them and his boxers to his ankles, then kicked them off and out of his way. He picked her up and laid her on the bed.

She arched her back as he slowly entered her and squeezed her pussy tightly around his rock hard cock. As he thrust in and out, she felt herself on the verge of coming again and she grabbed his ass, pushing him deeply inside. She screamed with pleasure.

He abruptly pulled out. “Roll over and get on your knees,” he demanded.

She got on all fours and he slapped her ass before entering her from behind while his fingers manipulated her pussy. She screamed again as she began to come.

Her bedroom door flew open and her roommate burst inside. “Lara! Are you—”

“Don’t you believe in knocking?” Ian growled as he tried to cover his naked ass with the comforter.

“Sorry,” a red-faced Skye mumbled as she ran from the room.

Ian pulled out and angrily sat on the edge of the bed with his back to Lara, leaving her frustrated and empty.

“Come on, baby,” she coaxed. “I was starting to come. You can’t leave me like this,” she moaned rolling onto her side, her hair cascading over one shoulder.