The Mating Intent-mobi (19 page)

For several minutes, they watched the water. A great blue heron flapped its wings as it landed near them and stood in silence.

“There’s no fish here,” she told the bird. “But there will be soon.”

The bird flew off. Contentment filled her as she leaned against Gabriel.

Something buzzed behind him with angry intensity. Sienna rested her head against Gabriel’s shoulder. “The mosquitoes are back. The swamp is normal again.”

But this mosquito was too loud, too insistent.

He cursed softly. “There shouldn’t be any mosquitoes. I warded the area in my turf against them.”

Dread curled down her spine as she recognized the buzzing. As she pulled away from Gabriel and turned, something smacked into her left eye, stinging like a pinprick. Cupping her injured eye, Sienna screamed.

“You ruined everything! I was supposed to lift the curse!”

Through her right eye, she saw a small, winged Fairy zip around like a hummingbird, something sharp held in her hands.

The Fairy kept attacking, trying to jab her. Gabriel pounced and cupped his hands.

“Gotcha.” He winced and then flung the creature to the ground. The Fairy took human form. Gabriel knelt and touched Sienna’s eye, the pain fading beneath his healing touch.

Then they turned to regard the Fairy. Shock filled Sienna.

“Willow?”

Sitting up, Willow glared at them. “You interfered! I was supposed to lift the curse. It was my curse. Mine to vanquish and you spoilt everything!”

Gabriel stared at his assistant. “You did this? You put the enchantment on the water?”

The petite Fairy glared at them. “You thought I was a silly, stupid girl who couldn’t even count cash for your damn business. I showed you, Gabriel. I showed them all. My magick is powerful. I cursed your beloved Everglades to show you how powerful I was.”

Sienna looked down at the Fairy, clad in black, her mouth a crimson slash, her eyes no longer Fae green, but swirling in darkness. Her aura pulsed a sluggish black. “I recognized the colors in the dark spell. Only royals have rainbow colors in their spells. You’re related to Cael.”

“His niece.” Willow looked furious. “But not a favorite. Never at court, never seen by others, always banished to other rivers and bodies of water because Cael thought I wasn’t powerful enough, good enough for the royal court. Cael thought he could banish me to this godsforsaken place. All I ever wanted was acceptance in court. No one listens to me. No one respects me. Cael sent me here after I killed that sprite who wanted to poison the creek in Montana. I knew it was my one chance to show him and prove myself.”

Willow took a deep breath. “I siphoned the Sprite’s dark magick into me and increased my power. I cast the spell of dark enchantment on the Everglades. Once I lifted the dark enchantment, everyone back at court would be impressed. Cael would finally accept me and acknowledge me as his relative.”

The Fairy glowered at Sienna. “Then you, you bitch, came along and you had to save the day.”

Dim pity filled her. She knew what it was like to long for acceptance, and be ignored. But turning dark…

Gabriel had saved her from that fate by showing her how to channel her inner light. If not for the panther. Sienna shuddered as she envisioned herself turning bitter like Willow, always yearning for what she could never have instead of cherishing what she’d been given.

“And now I’ll have to go elsewhere, show someone else I can be of great use. Another lake or river to curse, and save the Others at the last minute.”

“That couldn’t have been you who pushed me into the water at the river,” Sienna told her, her gaze tracking Willow’s every move. She must keep Willow from spreading her darkness.

“George did. He drove me up there to follow you after I told him you wanted to hurt the river. I blamed everything on you. I told him the only way to cleanse the darkness was to sacrifice you to it.”

Willow turned to Gabriel. “You thought of me as nothing more than a bug to crush under your heel. You didn’t respect me any more than Cael did.”

He regarded her sadly. “I regarded you like a little sister, Willow. I gave you a home, a job and my trust. And you violated not only my trust, but the trust every wild thing placed in you.”

Grief filled Sienna as she pointed out the dead birds. The wild things were protected by Fae and Willow in her eagerness to prove her powers had killed them instead. “You violated your sacred vows to protect all living things of the water, Willow. In your greed to demonstrate your power, you killed wildlife entrusted to you.”

Triumph faded on Willow’s face. The Fairy stared at the dead birds littering the water. “No, I didn’t mean this… I only wanted to show Cael, prove I was worth recognition…”

“I gave you a chance, Willow. Several chances,” Gabriel told her. “You had a home here and acceptance for as long as you wanted it.”

Willow raced over to the birds. Grief replaced the triumph on her face. Her light flickered, shot through with white, as if the inner light struggled for freedom.

“I know what I must do.” Willow looked calm. “The blame lies with me. I must atone for the evil I did to the environment. The dark enchantment will die with me in the spring of Danu.”

“No,” Gabriel breathed.

As Willow started for the path, Gabriel tackled her to the ground and held her down. “I won’t let another living thing use that damn spring,” he said, voice choked with anguish. “Don’t do this. You can right this wrong without extinguishing your life.”

“But I can’t stop the darkness. It’s inside me. I’m the one infected. I called forth the evil and it must die with me.” Willow kicked and struggled in Gabriel’s grip. “Release me, panther. This is the only way.”

Despair shadowed his eyes. Gabriel looked at her. “Sienna, how do you cleanse evil from Fae as the king’s Shadow Guard?”

“I pull out all their magick. Light and dark. It leaves them cleansed, but they take their true form and are emptied of all magick.”

“Do it,” he said thickly. “I can’t bear for her to vanish into the spring.”

She thought quickly. It might work. They had to give the Fairy a chance. Like her, Willow had not truly been evil, but had taken it inside her.

Sienna hesitated. By taking Willow’s evil into her, she tripled the dark power. It meant she needed Gabriel to purify it.

It meant if she left him, she’d lose her ability to control the darkness. He was the conduit.

She looked at her lover, at the haunted look in his eyes, and then at Willow, who only wanted to be respected and acknowledged, as Sienna had. She thought of her life back at the royal court and her duties as the king’s Shadow Guard.

“I can’t. It’s too risky,” Sienna told him. “I won’t be able to control my dark powers by myself. I’ll always have to depend on you.”

Gabriel looked torn. “No, you won’t. Please help her. And I’ll show you how to control your powers. Help her.”

All her resolve melted beneath his deep, husky plea. The panther needed her.

“Hold her down. This is not going to feel good for her.”

She knelt by Willow’s side, and chanted in a loud voice. She placed her right hand over Willow’s beating heart, and pulled hard at the power inside the Fairy.

Willow screamed.

Gabriel cursed.

She ignored them both and kept pulling the power. Black, inky goo covered her hand, crept up her arm, coating her skin. It hurt, burned with darkness, but she kept pulling, feeling the blackness suffocate her spirit, absorb into her like water into sand. And finally, there was nothing left.

Sienna sank back onto her haunches, bending over and panting.

Gabriel released Willow as she began to shrink. With a loud pop, Willow assumed her true form.

A small Fairy, who could fit into his palm.

As Gabriel reached for Sienna, she held out a hand. “Don’t touch me,” she said thickly. “I’m contaminated. You could die from this darkness.”

“Then we’ll die together.” He drew her into his arms and kissed her. Blackness swam from her mouth to his, covering his cheeks, creeping up to his eyes. And then it receded as they began to glow with blue white light.

The darkness pushed down deep into Sienna, a pocket of blackness tamed by Gabriel’s white light. When he stopped kissing her, he tenderly pushed back a lock of hair.

“You did it, pixie. You saved her.”

They glanced at Willow, now flitting above the ground. No longer dark, she glowed with pure white light.

“Thank you, Sienna,” the Fairy sang in a clear voice.

“You’re welcome, Tinkerbell,” she said dryly. “Stay away from the bad guys next time.”

As they both stood, bushes rustled behind them. They turned and saw George staring at Willow, his expression taut. “I tried to convince her I loved her and make her feel special. Guess it wasn’t enough. Thank you for letting her live.”

From the shore, they watched Willow dart away to land on a lily pad like a dragonfly.

George glanced at Sienna. “I’m sorry for pushing you into the river. I wanted to believe Willow that you were connected to this. It’s hard watching someone you care about turn to darkness.”

“Where are you going?” Gabriel asked him gently as George went toward the Everglades.

“I’m following her. She needs me to look after her. She’s such a tiny thing… something might get her out there. But not if I protect her.”

“You’ll never have a normal life with her. She’s destined to remain in Fairy form, now that all her magick is gone,” Sienna pointed out.

George looked anguished for a moment. “It doesn’t matter. I love her.”

He gave a low bellow, and then shifted into his gator form. George slid into the swamp.

Stuffing his hands into his jeans pockets, Gabriel nodded. “Good-bye and good-luck George. Guess you won’t be needing a severance package.”

When he reached the lily pad, George surfaced. Willow flitted over to him, and then rose into the sky. George followed her, his tail rippling the water as he swam.

Together, they sat on the sand and watched Willow fly off into the horizon, until she became a tiny dot on the sky, and then disappear.

Gabriel touched his fingertips to hers. “I made you a promise, pixie. I’ll show you how to control your dark power. If I’m not around to help you, you need to know this. As much as I enjoy kissing you and making love to you, your welfare comes first.”

Warmth surged through her at the gentle press of his fingers against hers.

“You did this before, when you created the dark magick to stop Jake and I from fighting. Remember?” he asked.

Sharp disappointment filled her. “I went into the woods and tried doing it again. And failed.”

A wry smile touched his mouth. “So that’s why you needed privacy.”

Blushing, she nodded. “I couldn’t risk hurting you or Jake. I created a ball of pure power, Gabriel, but it was all dark magick. I thought good thoughts, like watching a sunrise…”

“Did you think about us? About me?”

Sienna blinked. “No.”

“That’s why you failed. You didn’t use our connection and think of how we shared our sexual energy. That’s the secret to controlling your dark powers, pixie.”

Gabriel withdrew his hand. “Shut your eyes and remember how we made love. Remember how good you felt, how we shared something deep, rich and real.”

She closed her eyes, recalling his mouth upon hers, the exquisite feeling of being one with him.

“Now summon your dark power. A lot of it. Form it into a ball of energy.”

The darkness inside her itched and burned. She thought of an energy ball, glowing with pure evil.

“Then thread your white light through it. The white light, the good magick that we made. Let the white light shape it like it’s a ball of clay. The dark power is the clay and the white light is your fingers. Mold it.” His voice dropped to a seductive whisper. “Think of the most exquisite pleasure you felt with me while you’re doing this.”

Sienna trembled and stretched out her palm, remembering Gabriel’s cock driving hard inside her as they’d made love beneath the Blood Moon.

“Open your eyes.”

She did and saw a ball of pure black, encased in a netting of pure white light. The white magick controlled the dark.

“Draw it back inside,” he told her. “Relax when you’re doing it. Open yourself up, as you opened yourself up to making love to me.”

As she did, she pulled the power back into her. It sank into her spirit like a warm bath. Sienna stared at him. “Whoa.”

Smiling tenderly at her, he cupped her cheek. “Yes.”

She could control the dark power within her without Gabriel. She no longer needed him.

But her heart cried out to remain, because they’d shared something deep and special.

Sienna wasn’t certain she’d ever find it again with anyone else.

Sienna awoke in Gabriel’s bed the next morning, and found herself wrapped in his arms. She eased out of his embrace and sat up, studying her lover. In sleep, his eyes closed, he looked boyish and young, his full mouth pouting, long dark lashes feathering his cheeks.

So handsome.

They had defeated Willow’s dark enchantment and cleansed the land. She and Gabriel had done it together. Never again would the land suffer from evil magick.

Regret pierced her. Willow had allowed her jealousy of her uncle, and her own insecurities to consume her. She had used George in her scheme to ruin Gabriel. But the gator shifter had loved the Fairy, loved her so deeply, he’d followed her.

Sienna pushed aside a hank of dark gold hair spilling into Gabriel’s face. She adored making love with this panther. They were good together and created white magick.

But she must leave him and return to her people, for she did not belong here. She was Elven.

The darkness inside her no longer pulsed with eagerness to consume her body. It was still there, a power lying in wait like a predator, but she felt confident in the ability Gabriel had taught her. Exactly as Gabriel had promised, the magick was hers to control. She was a true Shadow Elf now.

Sienna brushed a soft kiss against Gabriel’s forehead. “Thank you for teaching me.”