White Fire: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 5 (24 page)

Ajax bowed to them all. Seven centuries of battle deserved his respect. “Thank you. You are all welcome here. We expect three to four hundred to arrive at any moment.”

Helene nodded and pointed to where Nicodemus had just taken another head. “There lies your fight, my friends.”

The Immortals rolled past them, leaving him alone with three females. They’d all been worried before, but eight-to-one odds were odds they could live with. With Mari’s and Emma’s Angel’s Fire and Katherine’s control of the Gate, they should be able to take out most of the threat to Earth tonight. He was happy to leave the hunting of the few Triscani who might escape to his brother, Aron, and the other Darkwalkers.

As if the Triscani sensed the arrival of a larger force, the portal opened into a fully fledged Gate and Triscani Hunters came through in a crush of black that quickly enveloped the smaller force. The Immortals that had just stepped off the ship raised their swords and raced into the fray.

Ajax ran to the front of the females where three Triscani had already made their way free of the inner circle.

A flash of Angel’s Fire passed by his hip and one of the Triscani disintegrated into ash courtesy of Mari. He took the head of the nearest and rose his arm for another attack but the third Hunter had vanished, sure to join the list of Triscani that the Darkwalkers would have to root out of hiding later.

He turned back to assess the battle but a portal opened to his left and Katherine raced through it. Behind her he saw blinding white light, so bright it illuminated the entire battlefield like a high beam spotlight.

Emma.

Katherine ran straight to him. “Go get her, Ajax. I couldn’t get to her. I couldn’t get her out of there.”

“What happened?”

“She’s in the center of about fifty Hunters, and she’s burning through them all.” Katherine’s gaze was troubled. “She can’t stop, Ajax. I could feel it, the fire took her over and it’s burning her, too.”

Ajax looked from Katherine’s face to the battle where the others were solidly outnumbered. He should have felt torn, his duty to his people should have weighed more heavily on his heart.

All he could think about was Emma.

“Go. We’ve got this. Go stop her before it kills her.” Katherine shoved at him and Mari ashed another Triscani that got too close.

“Go, Ajax. We’ll be fine.” The Timewalker blasted another Triscani that had been approaching Raiden from behind, the male completely unaware of her protection. “Go get her and bring her back to me if she’s hurt.”

Ajax.

Emma’s psychic cry pumped speed into his limbs and he jumped through Katherine’s Gate to find himself facing a tower of white fire. The Triscani circled Emma in tight rings, like bands of growth around the center ring on a cut tree stump. All touching, all connected.

All killing her.

Chapter Sixteen

Ajax hovered on the edge of the circle and held out his hand until his fingertips came into contact with the flames. They didn’t leap to his flesh. He had no Triscani evil in him that needed to burn. He’d been very careful about that. He very nearly envied the warriors on the outer edges of the circle, their faces locked on to her in their center with both pain and raw desire in their eyes. He’d been burned by Emma’s fire once before. He knew its bite and its bliss.

He had to get to her.

What if she Marked one of these fools?

“Emma!” He yelled her name, but there was no response. He tried to reach her telepathically, but all that his mind perceived in response was scalding heat, as if even her thoughts were flames inside her brain.

By the gods, Katherine hadn’t been exaggerating. Emma was totally lost to the real world, completely consumed by the fire that poured through her small, human body.

These males had tasted enough of her.

Ajax pulled the first warrior free and the male landed with a solid thud on his ass. He pulled another from the line, and another, until he had a clear line to the next circle. He repeated his actions, tearing the young men from their grasp on each other and tossing them aside to land in the sand behind him. The outer edges of the circle began to dislodge on their own as the inner layer of connection was lost.

The forbidden sons murmured and regained awareness behind him as he fought his way to Emma’s side.

The little ones were last. Barely more than babies. He pulled on them gently, and when he turned around to place them in the sand he discovered the older boys that he’d already freed from the flames waiting to receive them. He handed them out one at a time until there was just Emma and one small boy. Emma was on her knees before the child and had her arms wrapped around him in a fierce hug.

And the two kept burning.

“Emma! Stop! That’s enough.” The female opened her eyes and Ajax staggered back. Emma did not look at him, there was no blue left in her irises. They were white, and fire rose from them as if they were kindling. She burned, inside and out.

Ajax had no gentleness left for the tiny body she held so tightly, for the small boy who would kill her.

He gripped the boy’s arms and yanked him from her arms, forcing the boy away from her.

The tiny male landed on his side and looked up at Ajax with terror-filled eyes. His small voice was adamant and controlled. So much control from such a young body. “You have to stop her. She can’t stop.”

Ajax reached deep within, to the dark shadows were his gift lived, the ability to draw the life force and will from another being, the power to kill and leave nothing but ash behind, the power that made him a forbidden son. He cradled Emma in his arms, lowered his lips to hers and unleashed his dark gift on her small frame. He kissed her and dared the fucking fire to come and get him.

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Something cold and dark touched her lips, and Emma grasped at the feeling, following it through the blazing white light that was all she could see or feel. She was lost, not in a black abyss of night or a deep ocean, she was lost in the light, a light so bright she couldn’t blink it away. She couldn’t see or hear or feel. It was like she was living at the center of a blazing star without a body of her own. She simply burned.

Until the darkness chilled her lips and pulled some of the radiance from her.

She drank in the darkness and wanted more, discovered that she was pressed to what felt like a wall of cool ice. She leaned into that cold, tried to get closer.

And then she felt her fire surrender her to that cold. It retreated somewhere deep within her and she began to chill, to hurt for a completely different reason. She tore her lips from the cold and opened her eyes, eager to see the one who held her and made her fire retreat.

“Ajax.” He looked down at her, anger and relief at war behind his green eyes. His body burned, the white fire leaping and dancing along his skin for several seconds as she watched, fascinated. Then it died, leaving Ajax standing unaffected. She smiled up at him even as her body began to shake. This was where she’d pass out, and hope he wasn’t so angry he killed her while she slept.

“Thanks.” She lifted her hands and wrapped them around his neck, burrowed as close to his strength as she could get, and gave in to the darkness as it rose to claim her.

When she came to, it was to the sound of raised voices outside her bedroom door. She smiled. Ajax had brought her home, to her own place, so she could wake to her own things. She listened for a minute and recognized the voices of Ajax, Bran and Nicodemus.

“No one sees her.” Ajax’s tone brooked no argument.

“She nearly died today. She needs a Marked Mate before she faces the Queen. You must let the Darkwalkers visit her, see if any of them are compatible.”

“No.”

Bran spoke. “You refused her Mark, Ajax. She’s vulnerable without a male to ground her. She’s going to kill herself.”

“Get out.” Ajax’s voice was low, nearly a whisper, but it carried the threat of death and Emma shivered under the covers.

She felt a shift in energy and assumed the two males Ajax argued with had summoned a portal and left. The door to her bedroom opened less than a minute later and Ajax stood before her, still pissed.

“Are they gone?”

“Yes.”

She shuddered and pulled her soft pillow more snugly beneath her chin. She felt weak and tired and just wanted to be left alone. By all of them…except she didn’t want Ajax to leave. His presence made her feel safer, more in control. But that didn’t mean she was prepared to talk to him, either. He was dangerous to her in a completely different, but no less painful way.

He walked over and sat next to her on the bed. “How are you feeling?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“You would have died today, Emma.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“It took Mari an hour to heal you.” He raised his hand to her face and ran the back of his fingers along her cheek. It was all she could do not to rub against the soft touch like a cat.

“What happened at Carhenge? With the Triscani?”

He continued to pet her. “The Archivers arrived with their crew, as Helene promised. We eliminated many, each warrior tracking their kills. We took care of over two hundred.”

“But Nicodemus said there would be double that.”

“And there were. They ran faster than we could follow them.”

She sighed. “The Darkwalkers are going to have their hands full.”

“And the humans. And the Triads. The Triscani presence on Earth will affect them all.”

“But not you.” His hand stopped moving. “You’ll be on Itara.”

He leaned over her, his lips so close all she needed to do was lift her head a fraction and she’d be in heaven. “No, I will not.”

“What?”

“I gave Aron a sealed order to present to the Itaran Queen and the ruling Circles. I relinquished any and all right to the Itaran throne.”

“You can’t do that.”

“It’s already done. Aron delivered it a few minutes ago. He sent me a text message when he returned to Earth.”

Her heart skipped a beat, then raced so fast she thought it was going to leap out of her chest. “Why? What are you doing?”

He kissed her, his touch softer, more tender than anything she’d ever felt. When he pulled back, she drowned in his eyes, in the emotion she saw there. “Give me your Mark, Emma.”

“But, what about Itara? About all the people there? You said the Queen was evil, that her entire line was evil. You said it was your duty and your destiny to defeat them. You can’t leave the Itarans unprotected.”

He nuzzled her nose with his. “They’ve survived that bitch for two thousand years. After you burn their Queen to ash, they’ll no doubt survive her successor as well. They can live without me.” He kissed her forehead, then her lips. “You, however, cannot.”

Her heart sank like lead weights thrown into an arctic lake, the pain was twice what it would have been a few minutes ago, before he’d made her stupid heart hope for more.

He didn’t love her. The sex was great, and he felt obligated to protect her from herself, but he didn’t love her. Ajax was a great male, a King in truth, a male ruled by honor and duty, by service to others. In her vulnerable position, she’d be the bait he couldn’t resist, the ultimate damsel in distress, a woman who would literally die without his protection.

Whoop-de-do. She wanted the real deal, soul-stealing, mind-numbing, risk-everything you’ve-got true love. She didn’t want to be anyone’s duty. A job. A regret.

She rolled out from beneath him and scooted out from beneath the covers to stand on the other side of them bed. “Excuse me for a few minute, okay? I need to take a shower.”

He looked confused, unsure, but she couldn’t help him with that. And she didn’t wait for his response. She practically ran into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. She started the water and stripped, made it under the spray before the first tear fell.

God, she was an idiot. She’d tried to convince herself she didn’t love that fool, but she did. She’d heard about him her entire life, and now? Now she knew it was all true. He was everything Bran had told her he would be. Brave. Strong. Fearless. Honorable.

And sexy as hell. Bran hadn’t told her that part, but God help her, every time Ajax touched her it was like he’d struck a match under her skin.

The hot water sluiced down her back and Emma pressed her forehead to the cool white tile as her silent tears mixed with the water. There was a small bench seat to her left, but she didn’t have the strength of will to move to it. She leaned, and cried, too emotionally spent to move.

The soft click of the shower door behind her made her moan. She knew he was there, her dark lover, waiting to take her apart and put her back together again.

When his strong hands landed on her hips she leaned back into his chest and relaxed against his strength. She would let him let him have her body. He already had her heart. But her Mark was her own, her last defense against a life of being second best, a life in which he’d eventually grow to resent her for the loss of his birthright, his throne. When the people of Itara suffered, she’d know it was her fault, know that she’d been too weak to stand on her own, and so would he.