Midnight Crusader Read online

  Gabriel closed his eyes, his mouth moving in a remembered prayer, his injured arm screaming in protest as he made the sign of the cross over his chest. He walked away from the remains of his past, from the tools of his profession, hurrying now back to the future he coveted with the woman he loved.

  She was dying.

  He could see it in the translucent pallor of her skin, in the waxen color of her lips, in the faint bluing of her eyelids. But her life was not yet gone.

  He gathered her into his arms, turning to sit on one of the steps with her frightfully light and limp body in his lap.

  "Naomi,” he called urgently, hoping to reach her. “Your soul is now free. Justice has been done for you. You can go to your rest and be at peace.” His voice shook. Tears streamed down his face, unnoticed.

  And then her eyes flickered open. Such love, such contentment in that tender gaze. His throat closed up tight around a sob. God, how could he let her go?

  But hadn't her soul been punished for long enough? Didn't she deserve this chance to sleep undisturbed?

  One frail hand lifted, touching his damp cheek then lowering to the bodice of her gown. There was a cord about her neck. She gathered it in the twist of her fingers until the cross hanging from it was revealed.

  "Remember what it says,” was her faint and failing whisper.

  He didn't. He bent to read the ancient inscription.

  Eternity binds us.

  "I love you. Bind me, Gabriel, so eternity will be ours."

  Understanding took hold of him in a sudden jolt to the heart.

  Eternity.

  Gently, so gently, he lifted her hand, fitting its palm to his face then turning his head so his lips could caress the blue veins at her wrist. Such a slow, fading beat. She gasped softly at his bite, then the breath left her in a wondrous sigh.

  Too late? Was he too late?

  Her vitality came zinging through him, hot, bold, as passionate as she'd been in his bed. So little left. Would it be enough?

  While she lolled back against the bolster of his arm, he tore a gash in his other wrist and pressed it to her still lips.

  "Drink, my love, and eternity will be ours."

  She lay motionless, lifeless.

  "Naomi! Don't let fate cheat us from this chance."

  Her mouth stirred slightly. He felt her fragile swallow, and then her hands came up to grip his forearm, holding him with surprising and increasing strength while she fed from the wellspring of rebirth that he offered. And when he was faint and close to losing consciousness, he broke the connection and held her tightly in his arms as she awoke to a new existence, to a second chance to grasp the destiny they deserved.

  And when her jewellike eyes opened upon her new world, her gaze shone with an unchanged love for him. She made one simple claim that made all the pain and sacrifice worthwhile.

  "Eternity is ours."

  * * * *

  The big car idled at the junction of the highway, its blinker pointing east.

  "You and the girls can stay with Rae,” Gabriel was saying as he waited for traffic to clear along the long dark ribbon of roadway. “She had a son last night. For some reason, she came up with the name Rolland.” He was silent until the huge wad of emotion could be swallowed down. “The girls will love spoiling the baby, and Rae will enjoy having you spoil her."

  Naomi considered this. She remembered Rae and that she'd liked her very much. She remembered everything, even the bad things that had happened to Naomi Beorhthilde and to Naomi Bright, but she embraced them all, for it was better than having nothing. Even now she wasn't sure how their souls had mingled, how the damage done to Lady Naomi by Rolland Tearlach's savage possession had scarred her own psyche and reproductive system. Roxanne tried to explain it away with talk of astral bodies and such, but the reason and the result didn't matter so much any more. Not now that they were a family. Accepting a pain-filled past spanning two lifetimes was better than not knowing. And knowing all made her love Gabriel all the more.

  "And you'll go to California."

  Naomi tried not to let her reluctance weight her words. It was going to be hard enough to let him go so he could do his job. But she would. And she would be waiting for his return.

  "We're almost to California now,” Roxanne piped up from the back seat. “It seems stupid to go all the way to D.C. when we're right here."

  "It's dangerous where I'm going,” Gabriel reminded sternly, but his gaze was soft with affection when he gazed at the girls and their lazy pet in the rearview mirror.

  "And it wasn't where we've been? Naomi, you talk to him. I don't want to go to D.C. until we can all go together."

  Naomi silently agreed. She didn't want to be left behind, either. “We might be able to help, you know."

  Gabriel turned to her, ready to argue how ridiculous that was. But then he took in the firm set of her lips, lips he'd tasted and been taunted by long into the night the night before. Her gaze was steady and filled with cool logic.

  "The sooner you finish what you have to do in California, the sooner we can set up house on the other coast."

  How could he disagree with that?

  "I must be crazy thinking I could ever win an argument against four women."

  "And we're crazy about you,” Janeece stated for all of them.

  He grinned, a wide flash of white teeth in the car's dim interior. Hell. The hotel rooms were closer heading to California anyway. Did it matter which way they went as long as they went that way together? He flicked the blinker to the opposite direction.

  The big car made a left turn toward their future.

  * * * *

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  Copyright 2002 by Nancy Gideon

  Published by ImaJinn Books, Inc.

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