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Authors: Kathryn le Veque

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BOOK: Kingdom Come
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"The night I sought the alchemist, there was a storm very much like this one," he said softly, feeling Rory's grip on him tighten. "An angry storm, cursing the fact that I intended to defy death. It is not strange that a storm has gathered here tonight to witness what I had evaded those centuries ago."

Rory tore her gaze away from Corbin, focusing on the ashen features of her beloved knight. Tears were still pouring but the sobs had faded; in fact, she seemed to be calming in spite of everything and she forced a smile, kissing him with a painful sweetness.

"If you go, I go with you," she said in a tone he dare not contradict. "If death is going to take you, then it is going to take me, too. You said yourself that God brought us together and I just can't believe that He would allow us to be separated after everything we've been through."

Kieran's normally even expression laced with emotion. "My sweet Rory," he murmured. "I do not want to leave you now, not even for a moment. But I cannot deny the wound steadily draining my life. I suspect my true destiny is at hand. Now that the Christ’s crown of thorns has been found, there is no longer any reason for me to live. But there is every reason for you to live.
You
must live. You must pay tribute to this love and duty that we have shared."

She shook her head, her composure making a weak return. "I will pay tribute by being at your side, for always.  Don't deny me this, Kieran. I am nothing without you."

He didn't have the energy to argue. The rain was coming down in sheets, lightning filling the sky. He began to kiss her, tenderly at first, but with growing passion as if knowing this would be the last he tasted of her in this world.

Corbin and his men watched, so involved with the scene before them that they failed to notice a rickety old jeep cresting the distant rise. One headlight was out, but the wipers were working as it bounced over the rough road. The vehicle loomed closer, eventually coming to a halt behind the cluster of Land Rovers.

"Don't go any closer, Corbin!"

Rory’s colleague, Dr. Bud Dietrich, was out of the car before it came to a complete stop. He and another colleague, Dr. David Peck, raced across the wet sand, struggling to gain traction. Corbin heard the shout, turning to the source of the voice and muttering a silent curse. Bud continued to move toward him, aided by David when the man threw a punch at an intrusive Marine and sent the soldier sprawling.

"Do you hear me?"  Bud shouted above the wind and rain. "Leave her alone. Leave them both alone!"

"Dr. Dietrich," Corbin said slowly. "I am not surprised to find you here. But you must know you cannot help her any longer. I've come for your young associate and I demand to know what has become of the corpse she stole. What secret did it possess that she insisted on breaking the law to obtain it?"

Bud paused several feet before him, the rain lashing his face. After a moment, he gestured to the huddled pair on the rocks.

"You want to know what secret it possessed?" his voice was steady. "Take a good look at that man in Rory's arms. There's your secret, Corbin. The living corpse of Sir Kieran Hage, a real honest-to-goodness knight from King Richard’s crusade. We excavated him out of that grave in Nahariya, but he wasn’t dead. He was in some kind of suspended animation brought on by an alchemist’s potion. The guy was trying to save his life after he was wounded but he ended up putting him into some kind of stasis instead. Don’t you get it?
That man is Sir Kieran Hage
."

Corbin cocked an eyebrow, water dripping from his eyelashes. "Bloody Hell, Dietrich. Do you take me for a fool? Surely you don't think I'd be stupid enough to believe such an idiotic story."

Bud shrugged. "Idiotic or not, it's the truth. Rory didn’t steal the corpse or rob the grave because Kieran Hage isn’t dead."

Corbin continued shaking his head, holding up a sharp hand. "Ridiculous, Dietrich. I will not listen to any more of this."

"Would you listen to me, then?"

A soft voice floated up beside him; Corbin glanced over to see Darlow looking rather stunned. After a moment, the representative from the British Embassy who had come to claim the excavated crusader fixed Corbin in the eye. "I told you I saw the corpse,” he said quietly. “And that man on the rocks resembles the knight I saw most definitely. It's... it's truly amazing."

Corbin stared at Darlow, noting the sincerity in his voice. Sincere or not, however, it didn't erase the fact that two grown men were trying to convince him to believe in the tale of a resurrected knight from the Third Crusade. His jaw ticked with irritation as he returned his attention to Bud.

"I will not listen to this any longer," he growled. "Dr. Osgrove is coming with me and her monstrous bodyguard will be placed in the custody of the Marines."

On the rocks, Rory and Kieran were listening to the exchange. Kieran was failing, his grip on Rory loosening as she embraced him tightly. On her knees with Kieran's head clasped to her breast, her anguished gaze locked onto Bud as another bolt of lightning streaked across the sky.

"Bud," she called. "Kieran's dying. We need to get him to a doctor immediately."

Bud's brow furrowed as he took a couple of steps toward the rain-slicked rocks. "What happened to him?"

Rory started to cry again, the tears falling so easily. "His wound," she sobbed. "The wound we thought originally killed him, the one the alchemist sealed up. He reopened it somehow."

Bud was leapt onto the rocks, almost slipping but managing to keep his footing. He was suddenly beside the two lovers, separating them gently and groaning softly when he saw Kieran's blood-soaked shirt.

"Oh... Christ," he muttered. "He's bleeding all over the damn place, Rory. You were a Pre-Med student; what do we do?"

She shook her head. “Other than try to stop the blood flow, there’s nothing we can do. He needs a surgeon.”

“That’ll take time.” Bud’s eyes flicked nervously to Darlow and the Marines. “We’ve got to get him out of here.”

She sniffled in response as Bud suddenly noticed the blood-stained box between them. Kieran was holding it tightly and Bud couldn't take his eyes off it.

"Hey," he nodded his head at the small wooden case. "Dave told me about the crown. Is... is that it?"

 She gazed sadly at the box. "Yes," she blinked, tears splattering with the rain. "Christ’s Crown of Thorns, the object we were searching for when we found Kieran’s grave. It wasn’t buried with him like we’d hoped, but he remembered where he had hidden it so we dug it up. But I swear I'd give it back if it would make Kieran well again. It's just not worth the heartache it's caused."

 "There was a man who thought differently, once," Kieran's voice was faint. "He believed it worth dying for."

"Well, I don't," Rory snapped softly. "It's not worth your life. God, I wish you'd never found the damn thing."

Bud put his hand on her shoulder in a gesture of comfort and also to prevent her from reining out of control. Now was not the time for hysterics with Kieran bleeding to death. Tearing his gaze away from the holy treasure he had spent over a year of his life searching for, Bud’s ice-blue focused on the dying man.

"How ya doin', pal?" he asked, a ridiculous question considering. "Looks like we've got to get you to a hospital."

The knight shook his head weakly. "'Tis of no use. Now that my task is complete, I am to die as I should have eight centuries ago."

Bud fixed Kieran in the eye, a man he should hate for stealing Rory away from him but a man he found he could not hate. When they had excavated Kieran from his grave those weeks ago, there was no way of knowing how Rory and the knight would have been drawn together, both in death and in life. There was something in the man's nature that provoked Bud's respect in spite of everything. A determination and a sense of duty that Bud himself would have liked to have possessed.

"A doctor can help you, but we've got to go now," he said, feeling his desperation when Kieran once again shook his head. He didn't have time to argue with the man. "Look, Kieran; Rory means a great deal to me. If you die... she'll never be the same. No matter what we've been through, our differences and all, in the end all that matters is that the woman we both love is happy. Right?"

Kieran raised an eyebrow slowly, rain coating his ashen face. "Another selfless gesture, my lord. Pity I am unworthy of such respect for the misery I have caused you both."

"That's not true," Bud disagreed, casting the man an exaggeratedly selfish glance. "Besides, I haven't finished pumping you for information. I haven't found out a damn thing about the world you come from. I’d be the first archaeologist in history to get that kind of information first hand.”

"Then ask quickly," Kieran murmured, licking his wet lips. "There is not much time left."

Bud looked at Rory, seeing the desperation in her eyes. "We've got to get him to a hospital," he said to her, wondering if it wasn't already too late. "Let me talk to Corbin and see what I can do."

He turned away from the drenched pair, sliding down the rocks until he reached the soaking sand. Shuffling across the grit, he focused on Corbin's haughty glare.

"Look," he said firmly. "Kieran is very sick. He's probably dying. We've got to get him to a hospital immediately."

Corbin drew in a deep breath. "Fine. I shall take them both in my custody now and will be more than happy to have the bodyguard escorted to a hospital."

 As he spoke, his right hand emerged from his pocket gripping a Beretta 9mm handgun. Bud's eyes widened.

"What in the hell are you doing?" he hissed. "Put that damn thing away."

Corbin aimed the gun directly at Bud's heart. "Not a chance, Dr. Dietrich. You and your associates have taken me on a wild ride from Nahariya to England and back again. I represent the descendants of the knight’s family and they want him back, wherever you have hidden him. I’m not letting any of you out of my sight.” He turned to the men behind him, keeping the gun aimed at Bud. "Take them. The bodyguard goes to the nearest hospital and the woman goes with me."

"No!" Rory shrieked, clutching Kieran tightly. "I have to stay with him. I won't let you separate us."

Corbin turned his attention to Rory, preparing to reply. Just as he did so, Bud saw his chance and lunged for the gun, receiving a butt in the face for his efforts. As he landed heavily in the sand, a marine trained his rifle on David before the man could move. With Bud wallowing just above unconsciousness and David effectively stopped, there was no one left between Corbin and Rory except Kieran.

He knew he was dying. He had nothing left to lose by protecting the woman he loved. Somehow finding the strength to disengage himself from her tight embrace, he rose to one knee and faced the man who had plagued him like an evil curse for centuries, the one man who was responsible for all of his misery. The man who had been jealous of Kieran and the holy relic he possessed. The face Kieran remembered from eight hundred years ago, now reincarnated and standing in front of him. Even now, he was still trying to kill him.

"You will not separate us, Simon," he said weakly, feeling Rory's hands on his shoulders. "The lady will come with me."

Corbin stared at him, the odd sense of déjà vu plaguing him.  It happened every time he looked at the man, a sensation he was struggling to ignore.

"Don't be a hero," he snarled. "From the look of you, you couldn't take a bullet wound."

Kieran cocked an eyebrow, holding out his arms as if to embrace the world. "Is that what you wish? To kill me as you once attempted eight hundred years ago?" he shrugged his massive shoulders. "Then complete your task. Complete what you started. But know this; I have what I came for. I have the holy relic and my lady will see that is returned to England, as I vowed. There is nothing more you can do to me to cause me any greater pain, Simon. But you can cause the lady great pain and I will not permit it. If I am to go to this hospital, then she will go with me and you cannot stop her."

BOOK: Kingdom Come
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