Not even the scars on his knuckles remained. What had she done?
"Livia?" He held her against him.
She didn't answer. It was like she was . . .
Dead.
Adron tilted her head and saw the ghostly paleness of her face.
"Livia?" He tried again, shaking her gently.
She didn't respond.
Jayce tried to help, but Adron pushed him back. He didn't want anyone touching her. "Livia? Please talk to me. Please."
The MTs came in, and he reluctantly released her to their care. More terrified than he'd ever been before, he followed them out of the restaurant and to the lift that would take them to the hospital.
For the first time in years, Adron sat in the antiseptic waiting room while Theo tended Livia. He finally understood some of what his parents had felt while they waited for word of his multiple operations. The fear and uncertainty tore him apart. And he and Livia had known each other only a short time. How much worse must this have been for his parents?
"Adron?"
He looked up as his mother and father joined him. His mother's eyes brimmed with tears as she took his face in her hands and touched his undamaged cheek. "What happened to your scar?"
Jayce, who'd followed him to the hospital and had stayed with him, answered. "Livia cured him. I don
't know how she did it, but one minute he was practically dead, and the next he was perfectly fine."
His father frowned. "What did the doctor say about you?"
Adron pulled back from his mother's touch. "He wants to do tests on me later." But Adron didn't give a damn about himself.
Livia was all that mattered.
His mother nodded. "Did you call her parents?"
Adron's chest tightened at the memory. "I tried. Her father told me she was no longer his concern and he didn't care what happened to her."
Disgust contorted his mother's beautiful face. "How could he?"
Adron shrugged. He didn't really want to talk at the moment. Then again, Livia was the only person he liked talking to, period.
Please don't die . . .
The pain of the thought of being alone again was all he could focus on. Everything else was insignificant.
His father smiled as he passed a glance from Adron to Jayce. "It's good to see the two of you in the same room without bloodshed."
Adron exchanged a wary, shamed look with Jayce. This was all his fault. If he'd just left Jayce alone, none of this would have happened.
I'm such an asshole.
Jayce turned away.
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His parents went to get something to drink.
Once they were alone, Jayce approached him. "I'm really sorry about all this."
Adron glared at him. He was tired of Jayce's excuses. "If you'd killed me when you were supposed to, none of this would have happened."
Jayce curled his lip as his eyes blared a cold, harsh rage. "Tell me honestly, could you have killed me if you'd found me lying half-dead and helpless?"
"Rather than see you suffer, yes."
Jayce's entire face went blank. "Then you're a better assassin than I am. Because I would never have been able to live with myself had I killed my own brother."
"Adron?"
He turned as Theo joined them.
Theo hesitated in front of him. "This is weird, isn't it? I'm not used to having discussions with you while you're dressed and upright."
"You're not amusing."
Theo looked apologetic. "Sorry, nervous humor." He cleared his throat and a feeling of dread washed over Adron.
Theo was avoiding something bad.
"Well?" he prompted.
"She's firmly in a coma. Whatever she did, it caused a great deal of neurological damage to her. Honestly, I've never seen anything like it. It's as if she burned up part of her brain."
Like her grandmother . . .
Adron choked on a sob as he thought of her lying helpless in the dark. Alone. It was her worst fear.
Why had she done it?
For him . . .
Oh gods, he couldn't breathe for the agony in his heart. He wanted to scream out at the injustice. Wanted to rail against everyone and everything.
He wanted to hate Jayce for this, too.
But in the end, he knew the only one really to blame was himself, and that stung most of all. He leveled a fierce stare on Theo. "Will she come out of it?"
"Honestly . . . I doubt it. There's too much damage. She's only alive right now because of the machines." Theo gave him a hard, cold stare. "My professional opinion is that we should turn everything off and let nature take its course."
Adron fell back against the wall as his heart shattered into a thousand pieces. He felt the tears in his eyes, felt the bitter, swelling misery that overwhelmed him.
He couldn't let her go.
Not after everything she'd done for him. Everything she'd come to mean to him. But then, he couldn't let her live when he knew she wouldn't want to. It was too cruel. And all he felt was a desolate agony so deep, so profound, that it made a mockery of the one he'd learned to live with over the years.
He grabbed Theo by the shirt. "Don't you dare let her die. You hear me?"
Theo looked aghast. "All we have is the shell of her body, Adron. Her mind is already gone."
"Only half of it, right?"
"Well . . . yes."
"Then there's a chance." And half a chance was better than none. "You keep her heart beating until I get back."
"I'll do my best."
And so would he.
Releasing Theo, Adron ran from the hospital with a strength and agility he hadn't known in years. Livia had one chance for survival, and no matter what, he was going to give it to her. Even if it killed him.
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"What are you doing here?" Livia's father demanded as Adron forced his way into the throne room where the older man was overseeing his advisers.
Oblivious to the roomful of men who gaped at him, Adron approached his father-in-law. "I have to see Livia's mother. Now."
"It is forbidden."
That wasn't good enough. "The hell it is. Livia's dying, and her mother is the only one who can save her."
Her father's face stoic, he seemed completely immune to the news. "If she dies, so be it. That is the will of God. She has disgraced us with her disobedience. I told you and her that she was forever severed from this house, and so she is. Her affairs are your problem, not ours."
"I need to see her mother." Adron started for the side door.
"Guards!" her father called. "Remove him immediately."
Adron knocked the guards back until they called for reinforcements. Seriously outnumbered, he fought as best he could, but eventually they seized him and dragged him back in front of her father.
"You can't let her die." Adron struggled against their hold.
The smugness on her father's face disgusted him. "Had you wanted her to live, you should never have shamed her."
"Damn you!"
"Remove him from this planet."
Against his will, Adron was pulled back from the throne, but as he fought against the guards, he saw a teenaged servant girl watching him from the shadows with concern and pity on her face. Adron met her frightened gaze and hoped that she could get a message through. "Tell her mother Livia needs her. Please . . ."
"Krista!" Livia's father snapped. "Get out of here. Now!" The girl scampered off, and the guards threw him out of the palace.
Adron struck the closed door with his fist as more guards came to escort him back to his ship. He bellowed in rage. "So help me, if she dies, I'll see all of you in your graves!"
But no one heard him.
Defeated, he turned and headed back to spend as much time with Livia as he could before death stole her c
ompletely away from him. . . .
Adron paused in the doorway of the hospital room as he listened to the familiar monitors beep and hiss. Only this time, they weren't connected to him.
He knew from his own experience that she could hear them. Knew what it felt like to lie there unable to communicate. Alone. Afraid.
He wanted to scream at the unfairness of it all.
His throat tight, he crossed the room and sat on the bed beside her.
"Hey, sweet," he whispered, taking her cold hand into his. He cupped her face with his other hand and leaned over her to brush his lips against her cool cheek.
"Please open your eyes, Livia," he whispered as tears blinded him. "Open your eyes and see what you did. I'm actually sitting here without grimacing. There's no pain at all. But you know that, don't you?"
Adron traced the outline of her jaw. And then he did something he hadn't done in a long, long time. He prayed.
He prayed, and he yearned to feel her sweet arms wrapped around him. To hear the precious sound of her voice saying his name. Just one more time.
Why wouldn't she open her eyes and look at him?
Hours went by as he stayed with her, talking more than he'd ever talked before. Sitting by her side, he held her hand to his heart and willed her to wake up. "I don't know why you Page 47
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stayed with me. God knows, I wasn't worth it. But I don't want you to leave me alone anymore. I need you, Livia. I can't live without you in my life. I can't . . . I'm not that strong. Please open your eyes and look at me. Please."
"She can hear you, you know?"
Adron tensed at the voice behind him that intruded on his last few precious hours with his wife. Assuming it was a nurse, he didn't bother to look. "I know."
"Are you going to unplug her?"
He choked at the thought. And for the first time, he understood exactly how Jayce had felt when he'd pulled Adron from the Dumpster.
God, he'd been such a fool to hate his brother for loving him. His throat tight, he was blinded by tears. "I can't let her go. Not while there's a chance."
"It's what she wants."
"I know." He knew it in a way no one else ever could. He'd been there. The nurse came forward and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "She wants me to tell you that she is with you. And that you were well worth it. She loves you more than her life."
Frowning, he looked up to see a small woman wearing a cloak that completely shielded her identity from him. "Who are you?"
She lowered the cowl. Her features were angelic, and he knew her in an instant. She was Livia's mother.
And he saw the silvery-green eyes of a race that was more myth than reality. "You're Trisani?"
She nodded.
Adron gaped with the knowledge. The Trisani were legendary for their psychic abilities. So legendary that they had been hunted almost to extinction. Those who survived were very careful to stay hidden away from large populations where they might become enslaved or killed by those who wanted or feared their powers.
She stepped to Livia's side and removed the IV from her daughter's arm. Then slowly, piece by piece, she took the monitors off.
"It's time to wake up, little flower," she whispered. She placed a gentle hand on Livia's brow. Stunned, Adron watched as Livia's eyes fluttered open. "Mama?" she breathed. Her mother smiled, then kissed her on the forehead. She passed a hand over Livia's body. Adron felt weak with relief as joy spread through him. Livia was alive. Her mother took his hand and Livia's and held them joined in hers. Adron's heart pounded at the warmth of a touch he'd thought was lost to him forever.
Livia looked from him to her mother. "You had Krista send me to the Golden Crona, didn't you?"
Her mother nodded. "You two were destined for each other." She looked at Adron. "And to answer your unspoken question, Commander, yes, it's permanent. Livia healed you completely, but . . ." She turned a sharp glare at her daughter. "You are not to call on your powers anymore. Your human half isn't strong enough for them."
"I know, but I couldn't let him die."
"Understood. But don't ever do it again." She raised her cowl. "Now I have to return before I'm missed." She paused in the doorway and turned back. "By the way, it's a boy."
Adron frowned. "What's a boy?"
"The baby she carries. Congratulations, Commander. In seven months, you'll be a father."
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EPILOGUE
One year later
Livia paused in the doorway as she watched Adron giving their infant son his three A.M. feeding. Propped against pillows, Adron sat on the bed, wearing nothing except a sheet draped modestly over his lap as he held the bottle and stared adoringly at baby Jayce . . . named for the uncle who'd been key in bringing them together.
Adron laid his cheek against the top of the baby's bald head and held him close. "I've got you, little bit," he whispered. "Yes, I do."
Jayce kicked and cooed.
She laughed.
Adron looked as if she'd startled him. "I didn't know you were back."
"I can tell." She moved to sit next to them. Then she leaned against Adron's raised leg to stare at the beautiful baby that lay on his unscarred chest.
Jayce smiled at her as he wrapped his tiny hand around her finger. Adron brushed a loving hand through Livia's soft, mussed hair. Thanks to her, he'd come a long way from the bitter alcoholic she'd found tossing down drinks in the back of the Golden Crona. She'd found a broken, bleeding man and made him whole again. Not just in body, but in his heart. She
'd reunited him with his family and with his soul.
Over the last year, he'd watched her grow ripe with his baby and had held her hand as she struggled to bring Jayce into the world.
Life turned on the hairpin of a second. He'd always known that, but on one rainy, cold night in the back room of a filthy dive, his life had taken a sharp turn into heaven. Redemption is never where you expect to find it. And he, a bitter cynic, had found it in the arms of a guileless innocent.
Livia furrowed her brow as she caught the intensity of his stare. "What are you thinking about?"
He traced the outline of her lips with his fingertip. "I'm thinking how glad I am that I traded myself for that woman. How glad I am that my brother couldn't kill me. But most of all, I'm thinking just how damn grateful I am that you saw something in me worth saving."
He leaned forward and kissed her gently on the lips. "Thank you for my son, Livia, and for my life. I love you. I always will."
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KNIGHTLY DREAMS
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ONE
"Well," Taryn Edwards said into her cell phone as she stood beside the road, watching the steady Dallas traffic pass by her broken-down car, "I would throw myself under the nearest bus, but considering my luck today, I'm sure it would break down less than a millimeter from me and just ruin my clothes. . . . Probably break my watch, too."
"You wear a Timex."
She snorted. "Trust me, today not even my Timex could take a licking and keep on ticking. Give me a Tonka truck and I'll squash it with my ink pen."
Janine's laughter echoed through the static. "Taryn, is it really that bad?"
Holding her cell phone in a tight grip, Taryn looked at her stalled-out Firebird, which was the prettiest, most expensive lawn ornament she'd ever purchased.
Of all the rotten luck, especially since all she wanted to do was get home and drown her woes in gallons of Ben & Jerry's Phish Food. "Considering the fact that I'm stuck out in this wretched heat wearing high heels with a black car that currently wouldn't go downhill with a hurricane pushing it, I'd say yes."
Janine laughed again. "Do you need me to come pick you up?"
"No. I appreciate the thought, but I have to wait on the tow truck, which seems to be the only thing moving slower than my DOA Firebird."
"Jeez," Janine said. "You are in a pissy mood."
That's because I just caught my boyfriend in his office with his secretary showing her a position I'm sure would qualify them for the Kama Sutra Hall of Fame. . . . Pain sliced through Taryn's heart as she remembered the sight of them going at it on his desk. Unable to breathe for a moment, she wanted desperately to tell Janine the whole story, but the last thing she needed was to cry on the side of the road. Her dignity was all she had left, and she had no intention of giving Rob that last piece of her.
"Taryn, why don't we . . ."
All of a sudden the phone, much like her car, went dead. "Janine?"
Nothing.
Taryn tried to redial the number, but the static was so severe, she couldn't hear anything.
"Great," she mumbled, turning the phone off and glancing at the shopping center across the street. It would be a bit of a hike through screaming traffic, but at least it had a grocery store where she could grab something cold to drink and a few shops she could browse in to pass the time until the tow truck could get here.
And with any luck, a car or truck might plow into her and put her out of her misery. Dodging traffic, she made her way over to the shopping center. Damn, she actually arrived without bodily injury. It really wasn't her day.
Disgusted by that, she headed for the grocery store, but as she drew near the entrance for it, she happened to see the small bookstore next door.
Taryn paused and frowned at the cozy-looking place. When had they opened that? She couldn't recall ever seeing it here before.
She stared up at the hand-painted sign: DAYDREAMS AND RAINBOWS. How odd.
Well, thank God for small favors. A good book would cure her woes tonight almost as much as Ben
& Jerry.
Heading inside the cheery store lined with bookshelves, she saw an elderly woman straightening the books on the wall to her right. There was something about the old woman that appeared youthful, almost sprite-like as she came off her ladder to greet Taryn. The woman moved with surprising agility. Her platinum gray hair was pulled back into a tight bun, and she wore a pair of faded blue jeans and a pink summer sweater.