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  She pivoted as a killing blow was aimed at her midsection, her knees bending as she swung around, sword held low as she thrust it quick and hard into the lower chest of the man preparing to take her head from her shoulders.

  Her scream echoed around her as she felt the blade sink past flesh and bone. She pulled back quickly, staring in shock as he went to his knees, his eyes staring back at her in horrified knowledge. He sank to the ground, a hand to the gaping wound that seemed to grow larger and larger before her astounded gaze. A second later, lightning flared, built, converged in brilliant arcs to a single, horrifying streak that sliced through her would-be assassin.

  Run, damn you! NOW! The voice was screaming as though the furious male stood by her side, closer, more demanding than ever before as she heard a war cry echo through the forest, savage and ruthless, spurring her to do just that.

  She ran.

  Chapter Two

  Shane felt the berserker rage filling him as he glimpsed the dark forms trying to surround Ariel within the storm-drenched forest. Jonar’s men had moved swiftly the moment she had ordered the bodyguards from her property.

  Alyx, the Dragon Prime joining the group of psychic bodyguards, had been less than amused when he related her insistence that the protective force leave the grounds. A less than logical female, he had called her, his voice vibrating with irritation. It wasn’t a lack of logic, Shane knew, but the bitter realization of the lives that had been lost in the attempt to keep her safe as she lay unconscious.

  Damned stubborn woman, he thought, as he cut down the first of Jonar’s men that met him, Derek and Joshua as they raced through the storm to catch up with Ariel. She was determined to do it all herself or die trying. And though he suspected the crystal would aid her in fighting to survive, he knew that she could not do it alone. The thought of her attempting to do so filled his heart with dread.

  He could feel his commander, Devlin, monitoring the battle through Chantel, his wife, and the crystal she wore. The same crystal that allowed Shane to reach out to Ariel as they followed her enemies into the forest.

  Not that she would answer him. Just as she had fired the men who were to watch her, so had she ignored his demands to give her location as he fought to reach her in the storm. Had it not been for Chantel and Devlin’s connection to him, then she would have already fallen beneath the swords Jonar’s men wielded.

  As he rounded a bend in the path that led to Ariel, three of Jonar’s warriors blocked his way. Shane stopped, a smile curving his lips as lightning lit up the scene for long seconds. Great, jagged flashes, one after the other, illuminated the area in stark relief.

  He lifted the sword before him, his wrist twisting as he twirled it dangerously. The assassins before him tensed their bodies, eyes narrowed, concentration lining their faces as they braced for his attack.

  “Well, let’s hope the three of you can give a better fight than the last ones,” he called out over the din of the storm. “Come on, boys, don’t be shy. Let’s play…”

  He cut through them within minutes, for once glad they had not given a better fight. As the killing wounds to the chest began to disintegrate the evil of their bodies, Shane raced on through the storm. Ariel waited up ahead, and he wanted nothing more to delay the moment that he would hold her in his arms again.

  He wanted her out of harm’s way. Away from the assassins sent to kill her and steal the power that had caused nature to unleash its fury onto the land around them. Chantel and Devlin would lead him to her when he was finished sending Jonar’s men to hell. Then he would ensure that she never placed her life in such jeopardy again.

  He tracked her through the raging rains, his eyes narrowed as he made his way through the darkened foothills. He didn’t have the gifts the other warriors had. His eyesight wasn’t exceptionally strong in dim light; he couldn’t use the power of his mind to do great feats of magic. His gifts were in his strength, in the power of his arm, the stamina of his body, and the often cold detachment he used while in battle. Not that he was using it now. The flames of rage fueled him as his sword cleared the path before him of both the enemy and the thickening brush.

  She was terrified; he had felt that overwhelming emotion the closer he came to her and the crystal that reached out to him. She was running on adrenaline and fear alone, her strength steadily giving out as the weakness of her body overcame her will to flee. The crystal would not sustain her strength with him near. It would know that he would protect her, that his sword and his life would cover hers and forever draw from her the danger that surrounded her.

  He paused as he left the battlefield behind, confident that Derek and Joshua were cleaning out the garbage Jonar had littered the mountain with. He could smell her now. He paused to draw in the rich scent of the woman he had waited centuries for. Her scent was that of the storm mixed with a hint of spring. Soft, inviting, with an edge of danger.

  He bared his teeth in a smile. His Ariel had been temperamental, filled with passions that she kept tightly restrained, and a thirst for vengeance against Jonar that he knew would only be quenched at his death. The raping of the child she had been in that first life, as her fragile mother lay dying beside her, had stripped her of any illusion of gentleness.

  It had been a time of darkness, of wars and evil and Jonar had swept across the land like a tidal wave of malevolence, catching Ariel in his path. Her powers had drawn him, though at the time he hadn’t known why. Unaware that what lay dormant inside her would one day be his destruction. Instead of killing her, he had taken a part of her she could never steal back. He had taken not just her virginity, but her innocence and her belief in herself as well.

  Yet, she had been strong. When he had come to her in those dark times, sent by the Guardians to make a pact with Galen, she had been all woman. A woman and a warrioress intent on fighting at his side and spilling the blood of their enemy. A woman whose heart had opened to him, even if she had hid from the power she controlled.

  Chantel had warned him to expect differences when he met with her this time. Her soul would be the same, but her life experiences different. She had feared it would cause him to be less than understanding of the woman she had become this time.

  He shook his head, flinging back his soaked hair as he drew closer. He could sense her weariness, feel her fear swirling in the winds around him. As he drew nearer, the sensation of her presence became stronger, until he stopped completely, staring around the darkness with narrowed eyes as he tried to catch a glimpse of her through the storm raging around him.

  “Ariel, I’m here to help you,” he called out, knowing she was near, watching him.

  She was silent, the scent of her fear thick in the whipping winds.

  There was no answer. He turned, knowing she was within feet of him yet unable to glimpse her in the gathering darkness. But he could feel the crystal drawing him. The link he had established with the enchanted stone was strong within his soul now, in a way it had never been centuries before.

  He concentrated on that bond, with everything inside his soul he called out to it, reached for it and fought for a glimmer of knowledge as to where she would be.

  As he made a slow circle, the faint glint of light through the foliage caught his eye. He almost missed it, would have if the lightning hadn’t stilled for that brief amount of time. The wink of violet light was all he needed.

  Shane restrained his smile of triumph as he began to move through the night encased trees, knowing her eyesight would be no better than his right now. The sheer darkness surrounding them was as thick as her tension, his satisfaction.

  He lifted his arm and returned his sword to the leather sheath strapped to his back to better free his hands when he moved upon her. He wanted them free, wanted to experience the warmth of her body with all his senses once he had her in his arms.

  She was trying to circle him. She held her sword in her hand, raised in preparation to defend herself. She knew he was close; she just wasn’t certain where he was.r />
  Steeling himself for what he knew he had to do, he moved in on her. Before she could protest or fight, his arms circled hers, clamping them to her sides as she screamed out in terror and struggled to fight against his greater strength.

  “Dammit woman, I’m not here to hurt you,” he yelled out over the sudden renewed violence of the storm. “Would you settle down!”

  Lightning was striking the ground all around them, sizzling with electricity, protesting the terror raging through her. The winds were barreling through the hills, trees cracking beneath the force as thunder shook the air repeatedly and rain poured down in almost blinding sheets.

  His hand gripped hers, breaking the hold she had on her sword as she tried to swing it at his legs. He was terrified that in her rage and fear she would do more harm to herself than to him.

  She fought him like a madwoman, her curses blistering the air as lightning struck ever closer to their struggling forms. Shane gritted his teeth, containing his snarl of outrage that his wife, his wife, would fight him in such a manner. Her curses were those she had reserved for only her worse enemies in that first lifetime, never for him. He didn’t care if she may not remember that life, she should feel it, sense it, feel him.

  “Damn you woman, settle down now!” he cursed heatedly as her foot, small as it was, nearly tripped him as she fought him.

  At this point, his bond with the crystal would do him no good. She was locked in a kill or be killed state of mind, and the power of her crystal was reacting to this hysterical terror. It was doing as they had never believed it would. Drawing from the Earth Crystal’s powers and fueling the natural forces of her sisters that came to her aid. Independent of one another, yet reaching out to each other, the crystals were reacting to Ariel’s hysteria and her fears. Her sisters were coming to her aid.

  Chapter Three

  Ariel’s eyes widened in shock, confusion, as her back met the drenched trunk of the tree, and the stranger’s lips came down on hers. She could have fought him. She would have fought anyone else. And he was more dangerous than any who had tried. But suddenly, the crystal stilled. The raging heat that had lain against her chest as she fought her way through the storm, cooled and the hard, rain-wet lips that moved over hers stilled something within her as well.

  It was irrational, unexplainable. She fought to break free of the web of sensations that held her in its grip as strongly as the man before her held her to the tree. Shifting shadows in her mind had her reaching for reality as she fought the shift that slammed around her. She hated this, hated the moments of terrifying knowledge that came and then were gone just as quickly, leaving only remnants of the knowledge she knew she needed.

  She whimpered beneath the conflicting impressions, unable to make sense of them, unable to fight him. One moment she was herself, the next she was another, and yet not. But no matter which she was, the kiss was flavored with such passion, such need and a familiar driving hunger, that she couldn’t resist it.

  Was she crazy, just as her father had always claimed? What else could it be but insanity?

  She stared at his closed eyes, feeling the fierce, heated possession of his kiss as his tongue forced her lips open and pushed arrogantly against her own. She whimpered at the onslaught, her lips softening beneath his, accepting his kiss, his touch, as though she had known it forever.

  One hand twined in the hair at the nape of her neck as he jerked her head back, restraining her, holding her still for a kiss that possessed, that whipped through her system like a supernova. And all she could do was stare back at him in shock as his lips moved over hers, as she felt the pleasure burn through her body and fought to make sense of it.

  She had never known this. She wasn’t a sexual person, experimentation had never interested her. No man had ever incited passion or pleasure within her. But this wasn’t just passion. This wasn’t just pleasure.

  She could feel every cell in her body straining toward him. Her head bent back as his hold tightened on her, a strangled groan echoing from his throat as he licked at her lips, nipped them, then returned for another deep, all-consuming possession that had her shuddering with a whiplash of hunger.

  “Kiss me,” he growled against her lips then, a rough, gravelly sound that had her stomach clenching in pleasure. A man’s voice should never sound so sexual. It should never stroke the flesh like invisible fingers of a lover’s caress. Yet it did, trailing insidious wisps of sensation through her body that had her staring back at him, dazed, as she ignored the rain still pouring around them.

  For a moment, she fought for strength, her utter disbelief that he would dare to attempt to restrain her in this way. That he would use her passion, her need for him…

  She pushed her head back against the tree as a frustrated growl of fury tore from her lips. No, dammit to fucking hell, now was not the time to remember things that were not real!

  “No…” She bit at his lips as the hills echoed with the clash of thunder and sizzling bolts of lightning tore through the sky.

  Her hands balled into fists, one driving into his hard abdomen as her knee drove upward but missed its intended target.

  “My warrioress…” Male laughter stoked the fires of anger and lust pouring through her now.

  The tight muscles of his stomach deflected her blow, just as he moved with a grace and speed she wouldn’t have expected as he lifted her, insinuating his body between her quickly spread her thighs as the hardened length of his cock pressed against the rapidly moistening mound of her cunt.

  She was wet, damn him, and not just from the rain.

  His teeth flashed in the night, startlingly bright as he pinned her to the tree, his broad hands framing her face as he took her lips in a kiss that drove the breath from her body. Deep, controlled, his tongue tangled with hers as his thumbs pressed her jaws open, keeping her teeth from clamping down on his tongue.

  Tension, albeit a less violent sort, tightened her body now. She could not smell the stench of evil, but what she did smell made no sense. Passion. Arousal. And something so subtle, so unexplained she could make no sense of it. Something natural, elemental, honest and pure. She trembled at that thought just as she trembled with the pleasure suddenly whipping through her.

  Burning sensation sang through her veins. Her tongue twined in carnal hunger with his even as she fought against him. Her hips bucked against the erection between her thighs as her hand clenched at his wide shoulders, holding tight as she ground herself against his hardness. She didn’t know if she was protesting or encouraging the licking flames building in the core of her body or the hard hands rocking her against him.

  All she knew was the sudden shift from violence to passion. A stranger, one so tall and broad that her femininity was forced ruthlessly into her mind. He cradled her to him, keeping her back to the wet trunk of the tree as his lips raided hers, and she could do nothing to stop the answering desire surging through her body. She wanted him. God help her, his kiss was like a fire racing through her veins, her need for him confusing, terrifying, but there all the same.

  Before she could stop herself, her hands were buried in his hair, her fists gripping the wet strands. She wasn’t trying to force him from her, though; she was trying to bring him closer. Ever closer.

  His taste was incredible. Fire and heat, dispelling the icy fist of terror that had tightened in her chest and turning it to a blazing firestorm of need instead. His tongue wrapped around hers, licked at her teeth, her lips, tasted her in turn and she knew, found her pleasing. As pleasing as she found him.

  “God help me,” he muttered at her ear as his lips slid over her cheek, his breathing rough and raspy as his chest labored against her breasts.

  Or was it her fighting for breath, fighting for an anchor amidst the chaotic storm of terror and passion whipping through her system?

  Though it had lessened, the rain still fell rapidly above them, the drenched leaves of the tree spreading out above them providing little protection against the fall of moist
ure. She could feel it dripping from her hair, from his, and it should have chilled her. The heat of his body warmed her instead, a heat that curled through her, heating parts of her body, her mind, which she would have preferred remain cold.

  Like her common sense…

  “Let me go.” She struggled against his hold, though her voice wasn’t as strong, or as demanding as she would have liked.

  Her ankles were locked behind his back as she unconsciously rode the thick shaft rubbing against her swollen clitoris, bringing it to blazing, fiery life. For all the protests her head was screaming, her body was telling a different story. It loved being held against him, loved the heat and hardness of him. It welcomed him.

  “Not this time,” he growled in response. “Never again, Ariel. Never will I let you go again.”

  She started to protest, would have protested virulently if he hadn’t bent his head, stroking his lips over the flesh of her chest between the edges of her blouse. The rough velvet feel of his lips over the upper mounds of her breast shocked her to silence. Her nipples became electrified, the fabric of her bra a rasp against them that she wanted gone.

  She wanted to feel his lips covering the tormented peaks, sucking them into his mouth, licking and nipping and…

  “What are you doing to me?” she cried out then, her head falling back against the tree, her eyes staring sightlessly into the misty, fog-enshrouded night, fighting to make sense of the impressions and sensations roiling within her.

  He drew back then, his eyes blazing down, shocking her as the gunmetal sheen glistened within his dark face. He looked like a predator, a hunter, a hungry savage intent on sating the lust that threatened to overwhelm both of them.

  “You’re crazy,” she charged, breathlessly. “Aren’t you supposed to be trying to kill me, rather than fuck me?”

  A chuckle stroked her senses as she watched the struggle for control in his expression.