Man of Passion (26 page)

Ari had no idea how long she stood leaning against
Rafe's
bed praying. She was so deep into her state of compassion and love for
Rafe
that noises barely intruded into her consciousness. Only when she heard the door open, and the alarmed voices of several nurses did Ari realize something was going on.

"You can't go in there!" one nurse cried. "You're armed! We don't allow anyone with a weapon in this hospital! Maria, call security!"

Blinking, dazed, Ari twisted her head toward the commotion at the door. Her eyes widened.

"Inca!"

Inca smiled grimly, her willow-green eyes glittering. "Ho, little sister." She turned and glared down at the nurse. "This is my brother,
señorita
.
Do not call security. I am not here to hurt anyone."

The second nurse, Maria, rushed toward the older, heavier nurse, who had a grip on Inca's arm and was trying to drag her out of the room.

"Juanita! This is the jaguar goddess! Let her go! She can help!"

Juanita instantly released Inca as if her hand had been burned. She gasped.
"The jaguar goddess?"

Maria gripped her companion and pulled her farther away from the woman who stood in military garb, her rifle slung over her left shoulder, two bandoleers across her chest.
"
Aiee
, yes!
Don't call anyone! She is powerful. No one can hurt her. She is here to help. Don't you see that?"

Inca lifted her chin to an imperious position and looked at Maria. "You are right,
señorita
.
Leave us undisturbed, eh? I come to help my brother and his fiancée." Turning, Inca closed the door and looked over at Ari. "I am glad you came back, little sister.
Rafe
has been waiting for you."

Stunned, Ari stared at Inca, who had clearly come to
Rafe's
side straight from the jungle. The boots she wore were muddy, and there was mud splattered up the sides of her camouflage trousers. "You heard?
Rafe
got ambushed at his camp?" Her voice quavered. "They say he'll die, Inca." And she sobbed and pressed her hand against her mouth.

Snorting softly, Inca quickly divested herself of the rifle by propping it against the wall. Ridding herself of the bandoleers, she straightened, threw back her proud shoulders and moved to the opposite side of the bed from where Ari stood.

"Not if I can help it," she muttered, defiance in her low, growling tone.

Ari started to release
Rafe's
hand.

"No, keep your hand upon him while I examine him," Inca ordered. She frowned and rubbed her hands together rapidly. She then opened them and moved
them
outwards. Mouth tightening, she cupped her open palms about six inches above
Rafe's
head.

"What I am doing now, little sister, is feeling the energy from him. My hands become like radar, picking up information," she told her softly as she ran her palms in a circular motion above his head, as if searching for something. Then she moved one hand down the midline of his body. "I know you have come back to tell him of your love. He has been terribly lonely without you. I have watched his spirit flicker a little each day without you being there. He loves you with his being, and that," she said huskily as she looked up and pinned Ari with her gaze, "is what I am hoping will bring him back to us. Now he has a reason to return from the tunnel of light. He has you here, with him."

Ari watched, mesmerized, as Inca outlined every part of
Rafe's
body, beginning with his head and moving down to the bottom of his blanketed feet. The power throbbing around Inca was palpable.

"You feel so different than before," Ari whispered unsteadily.

Inca smirked, lifted her hands away from
Rafe
and flung collected energy off them. "That is because, little sister, I am no longer shielding myself, my energy, from you. This is how I normally feel."

"Shielding?" Ari queried. "I don't understand…." She watched as Inca moved her hands with obvious certainty above
Rafe's
right side, where his liver was badly damaged.

"Yes. Just as you would turn down the volume of a radio that was playing too loudly because it could hurt your hearing, I shield myself, my energy, who I am, from others because it is unsettling to them."

Inca looked up and withdrew her hands from
Rafe's
side. "I no longer have to do that with you. I see you have grown quickly and strongly." She flashed
her a
smile. "You took me at my word and lived your walk and talk. That is good.
Rafe
will be very pleasantly surprised by you, by what you have become."

Ari heard another commotion at the door. She twisted around. All five nurses and two doctors, dressed in white uniforms, were pressing against the window to watch what Inca was doing.

"You have an audience."

Snorting, Inca didn't even bother to look up. "Little sister, I want you to very gently place your left hand on
Rafe's
wound. Put your other hand over his heart. I want you to bend your knees slightly. Keep your feet comfortably apart so that as you stand, you are balanced. When I invoke and ask for my jaguar guide to send his energy through to
Rafe
, you must be strong. Whatever you feel, whatever you hear or see, do not become frightened and jerk your hands away from him." Inca drilled her with a narrowed look. "This is very important, Ari. I need your love, your commitment to
Rafe
, in order to talk him into coming back to us. If you jerk your hand away, the connection I and my guide forge will be broken and lost forever. We have only one chance, my sister. One chance…"

Gulping, her heart beating wildly in her chest, Ari did as Inca told her. "I won't let go, Inca. I swear I won't. I love him too much…I want him back…. Please, anything you or your helpers can do…I'd be so grateful…."

Inca settled her right hand over the top of
Rafe's
head. She placed her left hand over Ari's, which was pressing upon his chest over his heart. "I know you love him. I knew that from the beginning." She smiled a wolfish smile, her eyes glittering as she held Ari's tear-filled ones. "Allow all your love, all your hopes and dreams, to flow into him now. When a spirit hovers in the tunnel between life and death, many times they have to make a choice to stay or go—and it is
their
choice, not ours. If you see
Rafe
, talk to him. Talk to him as if he were awake and here with us. Do you understand?"

Caught within the throbbing, swirling power that she felt building around Inca, Ari
nodded,
her mouth dry. "Yes. I won't run, Inca. I swear it."

Taking a deep breath into her body, Inca closed her eyes. "Then let us
begin,
little sister. We are going to ask for his life, for his spirit, to return to us, to stay. To love you as I know he does…Close your eyes, take a deep breath. Do not open your eyes until I tell you to."

Inca's low, growling words were lost in a jolt of electricity that surged through Ari. Shocked by the wild, powerful tingling now racing through her hands and up her arms, she instantly felt fear. Following Inca's instructions, Ari closed her eyes. Her breath was ragged with fear, with anticipation. She felt a deep burning sensation where Inca's hand rested on hers. Ari almost wanted to jerk her hand from beneath Inca's, but she knew better. Her hand was throbbing as if it were red-hot. That energy quickly raced up both her arms to her head, and she suddenly felt dizzy. With her feet planted apart, her knees bent, she was able to maintain her stance. If she hadn't been prepared for it, Ari would have fallen to the right, as if suffering from a severe case of vertigo.

The electrical energy suddenly left her head and she felt her body explode with a burning, tingling sensation. In moments, Ari had lost all touch with the outer world. All sounds disappeared. Was this what infants and children and the elderly experienced when Inca laid her hands on them? Ari had heard the villagers try to describe what Inca had done to them and they often compared the experience to that of lightning from the sky. Well, it was true, Ari thought.

She tried to hold on to her center, to her emotions, to the fact that she loved
Rafe
.

Yes,
Inca told her,
narrow your focus, your life, your breathing, to your heart, to how you feel about him. Do not waiver. Do not lose that focus. Hold it…That is good.

Inca's voice rolled inside her head. Ari was so shaken she nearly opened her eyes, but didn't. She remembered
Rafe
telling her that Inca had the capacity to use mental telepathy. Before, Inca had never unveiled her abilities to Ari like this. Probably because Ari would have run off like a screaming, frightened child. She was no longer a child, she was an adult. Ari realized in those blistering, heated seconds, as the temperature soared through her body, out her hands and into
Rafe's
quiet form, that she had grown from being a girl into a woman those months in
Amazonia
with
Rafe
. He had allowed her the beauty of becoming her own woman. As Ari stood there, she felt herself begin to rock slightly back and forth in sync with the energy that was moving in hot, undulating waves through her and into
Rafe
.

Suddenly white, bursting light exploded inside of Ari's head. She gasped audibly, but she was so gripped by what she saw, she did not hear the sound she made. Suddenly, somehow, she was standing in a huge, lighted tunnel. Ahead of her was
Rafe
. The emotions she felt were not hers, but his. Trying to adjust to the situation, Ari felt herself running
forward,
her arms open, crying out his name. He was standing on the threshold, and she saw several figures made of light hovering nearby, on the other side of that golden line that was like a demarcation between this world and the other. Ari had no idea how she knew
that, only that
she did.

As she cried out his name,
Rafe
turned. He was dressed in his usual khaki trousers and short-sleeved shirt. Startled, Ari realized he wasn't wounded at all. He was his normal, vibrant, handsome self. As she ran toward him, her arms open wide, she saw the sadness on his face disappear.

Ari! You're here…how?

Ari felt every nuance of his emotions throughout her entire body, moving into her open heart, which was pounding in her breast. She realized she could talk to him with her mind. She didn't need to speak to him verbally.

Rafe
! Come back! Please come back. I need you…I
love
you! You can't leave me now. I came back to see what we had together. Please, can't you return so we can try to live together? Darling, I love you. I've come home…."

She saw his dark brown eyes lighten to that wonderful cinnamon color. Sunlight sparkled in the depths of his gaze as his mouth lifted into a dazzling smile of welcome. He looked over at the beings of light, then down at the golden line between him and them. Turning, he lifted his eyes to Ari and he laughed. It was the laugh of a man who had been given everything he could have possibly wished for.

Come here,
mi
flor
.
All I want to do is hold you. I love you. I've always loved you. Come here….
And he walked toward her, his arms opening.

Ari cried out his name and flung herself into his awaiting arms. The instant their bodies met and touched, a powerful, shaking bolt of what could only be described as lightning slammed through them simultaneously. Ari cried out and clung to
Rafe
. She felt them spinning madly around and around. She felt
Rafe
clutching her.

Don't let go of him!

Inca's growl reverberated through Ari. She clung even more tightly to
Rafe
as they became spinning light, like a huge, oblong cocoon of glowing energy. She felt movement, but she was unsure of direction.
All she knew, all she felt, was a powerful spinning.
Moments later, the light was gone and she was plunged into blackness. She could no longer see
Rafe
, but she could feel him gripping her hard against his entire body as they were whirled wildly into the inky depths.