Seduced by Crimson (43 page)

Xiao Fei opened scratchy eyes and groaned. The light was too thick, and her head felt too bright. Were her eyes really open?

She blinked. Okay, they
were
open, but she really didn't want them to be. So she closed them again.

Fuzzy. Tired. Important.

Important? Mission. Mission: important.

Wake up!

Xiao Fei swam upward from the warm abyss of floating nothingness. Reality wasn't an improvement, but it did seem vital in some obscure way.

She opened her eyes. No, she blinked her eyes many, many times. What she was seeing couldn't possibly be real.

"Xiao Fei. How are you feeling?"

Sweet heaven, it was real. There was Patrick, looking like he'd fought a rooster in a pigsty, then slept in the mud.

"Xiao Fei?" her beloved asked.

"Water," she croaked.

He moved and pushed a straw into her mouth. She frowned but obligingly sucked. Tepid water flowed into her and tasted amazingly good. She took a few gulps, then pulled away. He set the cup to the side while she continued to frown at him. He wore a mud-and blood-streaked white T-shirt that was too short on his lanky frame. And what was that smell?

"Water," she said.

He froze. "You want more?"

"No," she gasped. "For you. To wash."

He stared at her. Then he suddenly burst into laughter. It shook his frame and reverberated off the walls. In fact, he laughed so hard he had to brace himself on the bedside table.

Xiao Fei tried to lift up. She wanted to see when he actually collapsed on the floor, but her head was too heavy. And she was suddenly thirsty again. "Water," she croaked. "To drink."

It set Patrick off on another laughing fit. Fortunately, the door opened and someone else walked in. Xiao Fei turned to see Slick and a very big guy enter the room—her hospital room, she now realized. But something was wrong. They were dressed in basic jeans and tees, but Slick's eyes were rimmed in red and swollen. And her companion wasn't right. He was the druid named Dread, but it should be…

Hank. Hank was dead. He'd died protecting her and Patrick from demons. She remembered now. "Slick…"

"Well, I guess you're alive then, if he's laughing," Dread boomed, while Slick made it to the bedside. Without a word, the woman lifted the water cup and gently pushed the straw inside Xiao Fei's mouth.

Patrick sobered and touched Slick's shoulder. "You didn't have to come—"

"She wanted to report," Dread said from the other side of the bed.

"And bring you some clothes." Slick gestured to a plastic bag in Dread's hand. Then she looked down at Xiao Fei. "You're okay, right? They said you were, but there was so much blood."

"She'll be fine," Patrick said as he gave the woman a hug. She returned it in full measure, despite the dirt.

"Lots of people are fine, too," Slick said. "The remaining demons are on the run. B-Ops and others are chasing. But as for us…"

Dread continued when Slick faltered. "Seven druids dead, lots of wounded. But everyone's getting treatment—vamps and werewolves too." Dread glanced at her. "Your Chinese friend is doing fine."

Xiao Fei blinked. "
Pei
Ling? That's good."

Dread nodded. "Spry little guy."

Xiao Fei smiled. Only the massive Dread could call Pei Ling little. "But Hank," she whispered. "He saved our lives."

Slick pulled away from Patrick, wiping her eyes. "It's okay. He always wanted to go out a hero."

"I'm so sorry."

Slick touched Xiao Fei's hand and squeezed. She tried to return it, but Slick drew back too fast. Then Slick moved away so Patrick could move close again.

"How much do you remember?" he asked. She almost lost his question. He stroked her cheek in a caress that made her close her eyes to appreciate it better.

"Does she know?" Dread asked.

Xiao Fei's eyes sprang open. Did she know what? She remembered druids. A ritual. The gate. She frowned. "Something happened. The gate… Is it closed?"

"Yes," Patrick answered.

"Not for long," groused Dread. Patrick silenced him with a dark look. Meanwhile, Xiao Fei tried to concentrate. Everything was so fuzzy.

"I remember Jason. And surfing…"

"The gate is closed," Patrick repeated firmly. Xiao Fei wasn't listening; she was trying to feel for demons. She should be getting information. She should be sensing something, but when she tried, she came up with nothing.

"I can't feel anything," she said.

"You're paralyzed?" Slick gasped.

"No," Xiao Fei explained. "I can't feel the gate. I can't feel the Earth's energy at all."

"Has that ever happened before?" Patricks voice was soothing and calm. She focused on its gentle cadence, on his warmth against her cheek, and his very solid presence where she gripped his hand. She didn't even remember clasping that, but they were joined in such a way nonetheless.

"Once before," she finally said. "In Cambodia. After…"

"After you closed the gate there."

"Yeah."

He stroked her palm. "But it came back, right? It was probably from the blood loss."

And the trauma
, she finished silently. "I didn't want it to come back then. But…"

"It's okay. They poured a whole lot of other people's blood into you. As you recover, you'll probably get your power back."

She nodded, reassured. She'd often thought of her abilities as a curse. But while hemophilia was no picnic, it was her curse, and she felt "off" without the energy of her strange blood. She took a deep breath, mentally calming herself. The others waited for her to relax, and for that she was grateful. Until she remembered the purpose of this little discussion. "The gate. A woman ran through it? She—"

"Don't worry about that now." Patrick's voice was firm, but Xiao Fei ignored him. Of course she was worried about the gate. Extremely worried, now that she remembered Pete and his knife. She'd been dying, but there'd been so much power. Oceans of it.

"What happened?"

"You lost too much blood and started drifting in and out of consciousness. Without you to hold the connection, I couldn't shape the energy anymore." He leaned forward, his gaze strong, his touch against her cheek gentle. "The gate closed. The veil's just very thin right now. But it'll strengthen with time."

"Assuming the demons don't re-open it before then," Dread repeated.

"But they're not going to," said Slick. Her voice was strong and angry. "They're on the run with nowhere to hide."

"The whole city's looking for a little payback," Dread said with a nod. "We'll get them all soon enough."

Xiao Fei's gaze returned to Patrick. His face was calm, his eyes almost serene. "Could you have finished it? Could you have sealed the veil for good?"

He shook his head. "Not without you. Never without you."

"But…" Her words were cut off as he pressed a kiss to her lips. It was tender, and it heated her lips and her body as nothing else could. She hadn't even realized she was cold until he touched his mouth to hers. Then he slowly pulled back.

"Marry me, Xiao Fei."

She blinked. "What?"

"I love you. I can't live without you."

"But…" She frowned, trying to keep up. "What about the demons?"

"They're not invited."

She smiled. She couldn't help it.

"Well?" asked Dread. "Answer him!"

Xiao Fei grinned. Suddenly, everything felt right. None of it made any sense, but it all felt absolutely and totally right. She didn't care about gates or demons or any of the fears that had perpetually dogged her thoughts; for the first time ever, they were completely irrelevant. Patrick loved her, and she loved him. That was all that mattered.

"Yes," she said.

"Yes?" asked Dread.

"Yes!" echoed Slick.

"On one condition," interrupted Xiao Fei quickly. Patrick abruptly stilled. "You have to go shower now; then come back and make love to me until my eyes roll back in my head in ecstasy."

"Wow, that's a pretty tall order. I'm not sure I'm up to the task."

She leaned forward, pretending to want a kiss. He stretched nearer, only to be surprised when she reached her real target—her hand slipped down between the bed and his belly and found his long, hard length. "I think you're up to the task," she said.

"God, I love you so much," he said on a groan.

"I love you, too."

The morning light filtered slowly through the broken branches and across charred remains of the battlefield.

Barely thirty-six hours had passed since the fight, but Patrick felt as if it were all happening again, right in his head. He remembered the screams, watched again as Hank was gutted from behind, tasted the bitter air from Xiao Fei's blood spilling into the ground.

But Xiao Fei was fine. She'd been released from the hospital yesterday and now looked better than ever, especially bathed in the rosy tones of sunrise. Like him, she stood in silence, her body and spirit completely still.

"How do you get past it?" he asked her. "How do you…"

"Live to fight another day?" She slid her arm around his waist and tucked herself tight to his side. "You just do."

He walked to a half-broken branch. The tree wasn't going to be able to repair it, and so he pulled it off and tossed it into a nearby garbage can. "The amulet's still out there, you know. I have to find it." He began to clean.

Xiao Fei joined him in his task, spreading out mulch to cover bloodstains and gore. But when they both reached for the same shell casing, she shifted direction and grabbed his hand instead. "Do you?" she asked. "Do you really have to find that thing?"

He frowned. "You know how powerful it is."

"Yeah, but you can't sense it now—you're too weak."

He shook his head. "It's not because I'm too weak that I can't sense it." He sighed and sat wearily down on a tree stump. "We were using the amulet; it was working the energy. When she took it from me—that woman—she took the energy too. She…" How to explain? "She disappeared, Xiao Fei. Not into Earth. She's trapped somewhere between Earth and Orcus."

"Oh no," Xiao Fei whispered.

"It's not that bad. It'll feel like nothing to her, like no time at all. And eventually, she'll reappear on Earth."

"Not Orcus?"

He shook his head. "I don't think so. She's human. Her energies should reassert themselves and take her back where she belongs: here."

"But, when?"

Patrick sighed. That was the problem exactly. "I don't know. Could be five minutes, could be months."

She pressed her fingers to his lips. "So we have time to rest."

He nodded. It was time they needed—not only to rest, but to attend funerals and sanctify a new druid leader. He pressed a kiss into her palm, then turned away to pick up the shotgun shell. It could have been from any of a number of guns, but in his mind's eye, he saw Hank shooting the three demons. He saw Hank saving their lives before he was brutally murdered. Then other faces whipped through his mind: Pete, Jason—his parents as well, and a dozen other victims.

"You can't keep torturing yourself," Xiao Fei said, interrupting his thoughts. "We closed the gate, Patrick. It's time to rebuild."

He swallowed, startled to realize how trapped he could be in this grove, in the events of the last few days. "I don't know if I can go back, Xiao Fei. I don't know if I can go to San Bernadino, drive by my parents' empty home, and just pick up where I left off."

"You can't," she agreed, her voice tender. "But you can go on. We'll do it together. We'll help each other."

As she spoke, Slick came into the grove. She carried a seedling of an olive tree—for Hank and for peace. The real service would be in a few days, but for now, this was the healing they all needed. Patrick and Xiao Fei watched as Slick planted. "May it grow strong in this land and in our hearts," the woman said as she poured water onto the roots.

Patrick added his own silent blessing. But when it was over, his mind continued to spin, continued to worry. "I'll have to find that woman. She's going to be disoriented. She won't understand—"

"Not now," whispered Xiao Fei. "Not yet." Then she pressed a kiss to his lips. Her mouth was warm, her touch a balm, and just like that, he found the strength to go on. With her help, he could release the past and look to the future.

He lingered as long as he could over their kiss, but at last drew away. Taking her hand, the two walked together to the car. Slick joined them. She would come along to San Bernadino and be part of the ceremony that made Patrick the next Druid leader. She was also going to be a bridesmaid at their wedding.

There was a bright future spread before him. Did he have the strength to face it, to grasp it with both hands and hold on? Patrick glanced down at Xiao Fei just as she looked up and smiled at him. Of course he did. With her he'd faced the end of the world. What could be worse than that?