Shadows of the Past (24 page)

“Here,” Preston said. “Fuck, this is her house, isn’t it?”

Hayden nodded, his hands gripping the wheel tight as he drove past the
driveway to circle the block slowly. “Here’s what we’ll do. Robert can translocate to her location. Clint and I can go in the front door. Mathis and Paavo can go through the back. Preston, you stay with Amethyst. We’ll flush Dacia out, and we’ll be right back to you.”

Amethyst crossed her arms over her chest.
“Why don’t we have Robert take you and I directly to her so she can’t float away?”

“
Because Izackarus will bolt. He’ll want you alone or with fewer of us,” Hayden explained.

“
My being outside with Preston makes me a target.”

Preston interrupted. “That’s the point. They’ll flush him out, and right to you. If he doesn’t leave, then
Robert will come back and get you.”

“Fine.
I don’t agree, I hate this plan, but fine.” Amethyst sighed and fell back in her seat.

“Don’t worry, it’s a solid plan,” Paavo told her.

Mathis added, “It honestly is.”

Clint spoke up, “We aren’t going to let anything happen to you, gem. We want this bastard gone just as much as you do. And as much as Dacia can be a bitch, she doesn’t deserve to die over it.”

Amethyst said, “That wasn’t her who attacked me. I mean, it was, but Izackarus borrowed her body, so she didn’t have control.”

“Trust me,” Hayden
groaned, “she is a bitch on her own, but it doesn’t warrant having a Shadow destroy her.”

“Let’s just get this out of the way,” Amethyst muttered.

* * * *

Izackarus fazed into Dacia’s house. He
smiled as he took a look around. She lived in a nice home with modern furniture. The place was open and airy.

There was so much pent up fury
, self-disgust, and insecurity, he could feed from the residual bad mood Dacia seemed to live in.

H
er power was unreal. He could take this body just about anywhere. She was fast, and she had some extra strength. It was enough with her magic to ensure he would finally have the strength to cause a lot of damage and retain enough to manifest long enough to take Amethyst’s heart blood.

He made his way through her house and found the stash of Fae weapons. Then all the noises from the night stopped, and when he looked outside, he saw nothing. Something wasn’t right though.

There was a pop and Zack spun toward the sound as Dacia’s hair flew into his face. That blond mage, Robert whipped up his hands as a ball of crackling flame formed.

Zack
grabbed the first dagger he found and fazed into thin air. He left in a hurry as the door slammed open and Hayden stormed into the house with that werewolf on his heels.

He floated to the
driveway where Amethyst was all alone with Preston. “Let them corner her,” the mage murmured.

“It won’t work
,” she whispered angrily. “You saw the way he disappeared. He’ll wait until I’m alone or there aren’t as many of you.” Her eyes went wide. “Like right freaking now.”

Zack watched as she spun around and started for the front door. He’d already noticed the brewing tension between them. He took Dacia’s shape behind Preston.

“Shit,” he grunted as he slammed his elbow back into Dacia’s abdomen. Preston spun around as flame filled his palm, and fisted her hair, setting it on fire.

Slashing out with the blade, Zack sliced Preston’
s chest open.

Amethyst grabbed Zack’s arm and tried to rip the dagger free but he shook her off and she fell on her ass.

Dacia’s hair melted, and her clothes caught fire as her face blistered and burned. In a last ditch effort, he slammed his essence at Preston who slashed out with his own glowing blade. It sliced across Dacia’s cheek.

Strange magic churned through him in a wave of agony.
Izackarus’ essence bounced off Preston and slammed right back into Dacia’s body.

Pain
ripped through Dacia’s body. Zack fazed into the night to retreat. Even without form the burning from the blade was excruciating. He couldn’t risk staying there when everyone was together.

* * * *

The dark magic from Dacia’s blade swept through Preston. He stumbled back and slid down the tree as his mana-blade fell from his hand and disappeared in a flash of light.

Amethyst
crawled over to him as tears fell down his face. He looked into her beautiful eyes, and whispered, “I’m sorry, babydoll, so sorry. I should have told you.”

Her heart was breaking. “No.
Shh. Don’t,” she begged as she straddled his lap and put her hands over the wound. “You can’t die.”

“I love you,” he reached up to brush a tear from her face but his strength was leaving him, and his arm fell away. “I always have, but you’re too good.”

“No,” she whimpered, looking down at his chest as she shook her head. “No. Don’t you dare die on me.”

He felt a wave of emotion so strong roll through him that he gasped. When he
r gaze met his, he was lost in the lavender depths. Peace, love and lust all flowing through him.

Her mouth brushed over his but he was fading too fa
st to feel it. “Heal,” she breathed the word as her hands flexed on the wound. The pain was fading, but he was so far gone he was sure that was the magic as his end grew near. “Heal.” She shoved at him as her tongue swept over his lips and into his mouth.

Her emotions poured into him as feeling
rushed back. His hands locked onto her hips, pulling her tight against his already hardening length. This time, he didn’t have the will to fight this battle. He would gladly let her take his heart prisoner even if it damned him to hell.

* * * *

Hayden charged out of the house when he heard Amethyst scream. He found her in the mage’s lap, tears running down her face as she held Preston’s rendered flesh together. Then she kissed him and light seeped out of her just like before.

“Mine,” he bellowed as he moved toward Preston. He slammed into nothing, and
pounded his hands against an invisible shield. He turned back to find Robert standing there with a grave look on his face.

“Let her heal him,” was all that came out of the mage
’s mouth.

“Not like that,” Hayden screamed.

Mathis and Paavo skidded to a stop as they looked past Hayden. Mathis shoved Hayden. “Do you feel the magic from the blade? She couldn’t heal Preston the way she healed Darla. This is different. She needs to do this.”

“By fucking him?”
Hayden screamed.

Paavo slammed his fist into Hayden’s gut. “Turn around and look. It’s a kiss, not sex. And if you had bothered to ask her about Preston, she would have told you that yes, she grew up loving him. He always did what he thought was right and turned her down, even though he loved her. He just wouldn’t admit it to even himself.”

“If you stop her,” Mathis continued, “he dies. And Amethyst will never forgive you for that. Let her heal him.”

“If I have to,” Robert warned, “I’ll take you far from here, but you will not interfere when he’s the only reason we figured out what Izackarus is.
He’s the one who encouraged her to do what she’s done.”

Paavo glared at Hayden. “I guarantee you will lose her if you stop her. So suck it up. I
promise you neither Mathis, nor I, could do what she is doing right now. Those blades of Dacia’s are too potent for us to combat the curse.”

Hayden slammed his hands into the wall of spell and looked back as light exploded from where Amethyst and Preston had been. He couldn’t see a damned thing.

* * * *

Preston’s fingers dug into the flesh of her hips as he ground against her. His kiss was explosive and needy. It felt so good, but n
ot right.

His love was so strong and so unexpected that it wrapped around her, nearly suffocating her. She fought past it and focused on healing and pushing the cold dark magic from his body as he took the kiss over.

Preston groaned as one hand slid under her shirt, caressing up her body. She ignored the guilt, and pushed the love she always held for Preston at him.

She heard Hayden’s scream
and chose to ignore it, even though it chipped at her already shattering heart. After loving Preston for so long, even if she wasn’t in love with him, it would have broken her beyond repair to let him die when she knew she could heal him.

Was this too far?
Maybe, but as soon as he was whole, she would walk away from Preston, even if it killed her because her heart was breaking for Hayden too.

She felt the last of the curse leave Preston and she broke the kiss, scrambling back as a new set of tears burst free. “I’m sorry
, Preston.”

He stared back at her, his own tears falling down his face. “I know
. Me too.” His eyes closed and he dropped his face into his hands, drawing his knees up. “I know.” His sob tore into her and she let her own out.

“Amethyst,” Hayden whispered brokenly, but she couldn’t
pull her eyes from Preston. She’d done this to them, both of them. She looked to Robert, pleading with a look, because she just couldn’t deal with either of them just then.

Robert disappeared, reappearing beside her to take her hand. He whisked her to her apartment in space of a heartbeat. “Is this where you want to be?” he asked quietly.

She nodded, unable to find the words. She squeezed his hand and let go.

Robert nodded once.
“Call someone when you’re ready. I’ll leave you now.”

He disappeared and Amethyst collapsed on the bed as she fell apart.

* * * *

Hayden stood there fuming. He wanted to hurt Preston for touching Amethyst even though the rational part of his head knew that would only push her away. Even though he knew she did exactly what she had to
in order to save Preston, jealously reared its ugly head.

Preston was clearly suffering from his own heartache. He did nothing to keep Amethyst there when she broke the kiss. He didn’t call out to her. In fact, the ma
ge apologized as his heart shattered.

The thing that tore Hayden up the worst was that Amethyst chose to leave instead of deal with the fallout. Not that Hayden
had helped matters any, but he was going fix this.

“Don’t be hard on
Ame.” Preston cried. “Blame me. I could no longer fight what I’ve been hiding for so many years. I’m sorry. Don’t let me get in the way of her being happy.”

That was a blow to his chest.
“I can’t blame you, either of you, so don’t apologize.” Hayden sighed. “Fuck, this is a mess, and she isn’t even here. I just want to make it right.”

“You and me both,”
Preston admitted.

Mathis and Paavo took a sigh of relief.

Robert appeared in front of Preston and shot a deadly look at Hayden. “I swear to God that if you touch Preston after she just gutted herself to heal him, I will make you wish you had never laid eyes on Amethyst.”

“What?” Hayden and Preston both asked.

“She’s falling apart because she had to choose, and I’m pretty sure she chose you, Hayden. I just don’t think she can deal with being accused of doing something wrong when she just tore herself apart to heal Preston.

“Shit.” Hayden looked to Preston and offered his hand. Preston stared up at him. There was so much despair in his eyes.

Hayden told Preston, “Look, I don’t know what happened, but I don’t blame either of you. I know she didn’t do anything wrong, and neither did you. Let me help.”

Preston nodded and took his hand. As he gained his feet, he pulled his shredded shirt off and looked down
. He stared at his chest. “That blade was cursed.” He smoothed his hand over his flawless skin. “I didn’t think that was possible.”

Mathis and Paavo shared a glance. Mathis grinned. “She’s better than Sapphire.”

“That she is. Mom won’t know what to say to that.” Paavo shrugged as humor danced in his eyes. “She always assumed Amethyst was weak and that was why she feared her talent.”

Mathis nodded. “That wasn’t it at all. She was afraid because she’s stronger.
Remember Johnny?”

“Yeah, her first orgasm with another person after her
awakening. Of course she was going to enthrall him.”

“Yeah, but you remember how embarrassed
she was that she had to fuck him in front of Mom and us just so we could help her unenthrall the poor kid.” Mathis chuckled.

“Okay, just stop,” Hayden growled. “I really don’t want to hear about her fucking anyone. Watching her kiss someone
she obviously cares deeply for was bad enough, but at least she saved his life. I don’t need to hear about anyone else.”