An hour later, she walked into the office. Marge looked up from her desk and gave her a sympathetic smile. Lexi groaned.
"I must really look bad if you feel like you have to be nice to me."
`Actually," the older woman said, "you've got a little glow underneath the dark circles. How ya doing, sugar?"
"Honestly? I've been better," Lexi admitted, going over to the case files. She had several stacked up and she flipped through them. Finally she picked one out and handed the rest to Marge. "Tell TJ that I appreciate what he's trying to do, but I'm fine. I don't need all the light cases." She held up the file in her hand. "I'm going after this one, but when I come back, we'll divide up the rest of the cases a little more evenly."
Marge gave her a critical look and then accepted the files from her. "You got it. Welcome back."
"Thanks." She turned and left the office, managing to keep her composure until she reached the street. She had to fake a serious interest in the display case of the bakery next door while she took several deep breaths. One of the case files had been for Paddy Darby, leprechaun. He'd missed his second court hearing, and Lexi had a feeling no one would ever see the little man again. In any event, she couldn't bring herself to look for him.
Pulling herself together, she walked several blocks north to an OTB. The skip she was looking for was a repeat offender, and she knew this was where he liked to bet on the day's horse races.
She made herself comfortable waiting outside. The last two times she'd brought him in, he'd shown up right around this time.
He appeared five minutes later, walking down the street alone. When he saw her, he didn't bother to run, like he normally did. Instead, he gave Lexi a knowing smile, pulled out a gun and shot her.
At first she didn't even feel the pain. Her next thought was that he'd better not have shot her in the abdomen, because if he harmed her baby, she was going to kill him. Finally, she took note of the horrified expression on his face as he stared at her.
Then she realized why he looked that way. He'd shot her in the right shoulder, and, since she wasn't wearing sleeves, a bullet wound should have been clearly visible. But there was only a small pucker in the flesh, and even that quickly disappeared.
She was as shocked as the skip was, but there wasn't time to think about it. Already he was aiming again. Suddenly there was a flash of light on the ground between them, and when the accompanying smoke cleared, a man dressed in black pants and a black sleeveless duster stood there, his upper torso covered in tattoos.
Lexi's heart skipped a beat as she stared at Darius. His attention was fixed on the skip, whose hand holding the gun was shaking so badly, Lexi wasn't sure he would be able to hit anything should he pull the trigger. Darius didn't give him the chance to try.
He tapped Fury, and the small demon shot forth and chased the skip down the street. Lexi didn't even mind that the skip was getting away. Her entire focus was on the man before her.
He strolled forward, and she waited, hardly daring to breathe as he stopped before her. She stared into his eyes, willing him to remember her.
"Darius." His name escaped her in a breathless rush.
"I missed you," he told her, cupping her face. He dipped his head and kissed her. It was a long time before either of them was able to speak.
"I thought you'd forgotten me," she said with a shaky laugh after they finally came up for air.
"I never did. Back in the chamber, after we made love, everything started to go blank, but I kept thinking how much I loved you. It seemed to work, because after several minutes passed, I remembered everythingincluding the fact that some force, probably Amadja and Tain, had eavesdropped on the dream I had when Whitley summoned me. They would know that I was destined to forget everything should I climax during lovemaking. I knew that had to be part of their plan. Why else would they have given
you,
specifically, Demon Fire? It was part of their plan all along that we make love. That's when I knew I had to pretend to lose my memory. I'm just sorry I didn't have a chance to tell you. I love you, Lexi. More than life itself. I want you to know that."
"I do," she assured him. "That arrow Tain shot should have killed me. When it didn't, I knew there had to be a reason why, because I remembered being too weak to morph. That's when I noticed your tattoo. I had your tattoo, but you were gone. I thought ..."She hesitated, because even now, the thought brought pain. "I thought by giving me your tattoo, you had killed yourself."
He rested his forehead against hers, still holding her close. "Don't you realize that you're the most important thing in my life? I couldn't sit there and watch you dienot if there was anything I could do to save you. I gladly gave you my life-force tattoo-even if it meant my own death." He pressed his fingers to her mouth when she would have argued with him. "Shh. Instead of dying, I was pulled back to Ravenscroft " He gave a short laugh.
"It seems that my mother spent my entire absence working on spells to safeguard me-including one that would return me to Ravenscroft should I lose my life force." He pulled her to him for a quick hug. "I was a crazy man when I got there. I was wild with worry about you-whether you lived or died. I didn't want to leave you, so I demanded to be sent back to Earth-to no avail. My only means of getting to Earth lay with the life-force tattoo-which I no longer had. I was trapped in Ravenscroft."
"What changed?"
He gave a little chuckle. "Nothing." When she looked at him confused, he went on. "As the weeks passed, my love for you never faded. If anything, it grew stronger-just as yours did for me." He smiled. "One day, I woke up' and my life-force tattoo was back. At first, I was horrified. I thought it meant that you had died. My mother begged me not to do anything rash until she could discover the truth,
which
she did, apparently, by coming to you in a dream." He smiled. "She liked you very much, by the way."
Lexi thought back to the dream she'd had and the woman in it. "I think I remember her."
"Once she learned that you were alive and still very much in love with me, she knew what had happened." He smiled. "My life-force tattoo can only attach itself to me or something as precious to me as my own life-in this case, you. It just took time for the tattoo to reappear over my heart." He pulled back from her enough to flip open the left side of his duster where she saw the life-force serpent tattoo over his heart.
Surprised, she unbuttoned her shirt enough to verify that her own tattoo was still in place. She looked up at him, confused. "I don't get it. Are we sharing the same life force now?"
"Sounds poetic, doesn't it? Two souls merged into one through the power of love? Mother said she couldn't risk losing either one of us and merged our immortal life forces into our souls. That gives us the ability to travel back and forth from Earth to Ravenscroft whenever we want."
It was all a little overwhelming for Lexi. "Our
immortal
life forces?"
"Yes. I'm afraid you're stuck with me for the rest of eternity" Taking her hand, he led her toward the street. "Now, unless you don't mind a very public display of affection, I suggest we go someplace private."
Lexi couldn't remember much about the cab ride to her apartment except that she spent most of it in Darius's arms.
When they finally walked into her apartment, he kicked the door shut and, picking her up, carried her into the bedroom.
"I've been fantasizing for the longest time about making love to you in a real bed," he told her, setting her on the bed.
She smiled and pulled him down beside her. "I can't believe you're here," she whispered, leaning over to kiss him. "I'm so afraid that all of this will turn out to be a dream and when I wake up, you'll be gone." She shuddered. "I never want to go through that again."
"I'll never make you. I promise."
He kissed her then-slowly, sweetly-as if they had all the time in the world. When they came up for air, it was only so he could get rid of their clothing. Lying naked, facing each other, it was strange to see their twin tattoos. Two halves of one greater love. Lexi, who had never been one for sappy stuff, thought it was romantically poetic.
Darius didn't give her much time to think about it before he had her beneath him on the bed. Holding himself above her, he looked strong and capable. When he dipped his head to tease first one nipple and then the other, liquid desire pooled deep in her abdomen, and she felt her pulse quicken.
The blunt tip of his erection probed her swollen flesh at the juncture of her legs, and she shifted her hips in anticipation. When his cock finally pushed into her, filling her, Lexi thought she'd never felt anything quite so exquisite. As if realizing the effect he was having on her, Darius started moving with deliberate slowness. It caused the tension in her to quickly build. Soon she was skating on the edge of a powerful orgasm, waiting for that last driving stroke that would send her crashing over the edge. She tightened her inner muscles, and when Darius surged into her one last time, together they found their release.
Afterward, they lay in each other's arms for a long time, spent yet satisfied.
Lexi thought she had everything in the world that she wanted-the man of her dreams, a child on the way. . .
Reality raised its ugly head. What if Darius didn't want children?
"I need to tell you something," she said tentatively. "And I hope it won't spoil things between us."
Darius look at her with obvious concern. "What is it, love?"
"I'm pregnant."
He grinned. "I know"
"What ... How ... ?"
He took a deep breath. "As an Immortal, I can control the release of my seed. When we made love that time in the chamber, I didn't know if the spell to forget would claim me again. If it did, I wanted to leave you with something to remember me by-something as precious to me as my life or yours. I'm sorry we didn't talk about it first, but there was no time."
She felt her heart swell. "When I found out I was pregnant, it was like getting a part of you back in my life. I had a reason to live again. I could never regret being pregnant with
our
child."
Darius smiled. "Whew." He dipped his head and kissed her. "But if I seem extra protective in the coming days, you would do best to humor me."
"Why? What's happening?"
"We leave for Seattle tomorrow-to meet up with Amber and Adrian."
"We?" she asked, not sure she'd heard correctly.
He smiled at her. "You don't seriously think I'd go without you?"
"So Amadja is still out there?"
He frowned. "I'm afraid so."
"And Tain?" She almost hated to mention his name. Darius sighed. "He's out there as well." "Will you and Adrian be enough to defeat them?"
"We're still hoping that Kalen and Hunter can be found, but if not, it still won't be just me and Adrian. Amber and you will be there, as well as the Coven of Light witches and some of Amber and Adrian's friends.
"And Ricco and Mai," she added.
Darius gave her a startled look. "What?"
She nodded. "Mai called me last night and told me she and Ricco-who have been seeing a lot of each other, by the way-made plans to join forces with the others in Seattle. I hadn't decided yet whether or not I was going.
"And now?" Darius asked.
"I go where you go," Lexi said, leaning close to kiss him.
"Wherever you
go, my love."