She smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Nathaniel?”
“Yes?”
“I love you, too. Now shut up already.”
There was a moment of complete and utter bliss, of two bodies, two souls becoming one. A taste of Heaven . . . before it all shattered.
Nathaniel screamed and clutched at his head before he slid completely off the bed and onto
Lloyd’s hardwood floor.
Val clutched the bedsheet to her, her eyes wide. “What’s wrong? What are you doing?”
She watched his chest rise and fall with his labored breaths. “Shit,” he managed. “Shit!”
“What? Talk to me!”
He scrambled for his black pants, now in a ball at the end of the bed—he was searching for something. He pulled out his cell phone and stared at it, then swore loudly and threw the phone against the wall where it shattered. Then he clutched his head again and screamed.
Val was beside herself by this time. What was happening to him? Everything was fine, and wonderful, and well, damn near perfect only moments ago when they’d made love, and now he was freaking out. What was going on?
He scooted back into the corner and held his knees to his chest. “I honestly didn’t think they’d find out about us. Stupid. I’m so stupid. Oh Valerie, I’m so sorry.”
“What?” She practically fell off the bed and crawled to his side. She grabbed his arm but he pushed her away, “No . . . don’t touch me . . .”
“What’s going on? Please! Nathaniel, tell me.”
He looked at her then, a half-crazed look in his eyes. “Head office. I . . . I didn’t answer their call. And now, they’re—”
He screamed again and clutched his head.
Val’s entire body shook as she helplessly watched him suffer.
He calmed down enough to say, “They’re . . . summoning me. Right now.” He pressed his hands against his head. “They’re in here. But I can’t move. I can’t leave this place or you.” He met her eyes. “Please . . . you have to help—”
He convulsed and curled up into the fetal position.
She stared at him, tears streaming down her cheeks. Hell was summoning him. They knew he’d just broken the rules by making love to her. Shit. Shit! And he couldn’t move, he couldn’t answer them because he was still bound to her.
“Nathaniel.” She gently touched his back and he flinched as if it caused him additional pain.
“I can fix this. I can. Just try to hold on.”
Where was it? She stood up on shaky legs and tore through the room looking for her jeans.
The summoning crystal Claire had given her. It had to be there. Where the hell were her jeans?
She looked up. Oh. Um, okay.
She yanked her jeans off the ceiling fan and said a silent prayer that the summoning crystal hadn’t disappeared during the course of the day. She honestly couldn’t remember the last time she’d touched it. For the first little while during their trip to the Underworld she’d touched it in her pocket regularly to reassure herself that Nathaniel was still bound to her. But over the last few hours she’d completely forgotten about it.
Please. Please, let it still be here, she thought frantically.
She slid her hand into the pocket as she heard Nathaniel gasp in pain. The sound made her physically hurt. There. There it is. She exhaled deeply with relief as she wrapped her fingers around the cold, hard crystal and pulled it out. She squeezed it and frowned as she looked over at Nathaniel. His body seemed almost distorted, as if he was being reflected in a fun house mirror. Stretched. Like he was being pulled in two different directions. He cried out again in agony.
“Valerie!”
She clutched the crystal tight enough to hurt. “I release you! You are no longer bound to me!”
But nothing happened. He continued to suffer, but managed to look up at her through pain-
filled eyes. “It’s okay, my beautiful angel. If this is to be my end, then I will accept my fate—
” He gasped for breath and yelled, “Shit! I take it back. Valerie—damn it—do something! Do anything!”
“Okay! I’m trying!”
She squeezed the crystal even tighter. “Just release him. Let him go. Now. I demand it!” She stared at him. “I don’t know what to do. Claire never told me how to break the summoning.”
She tried again. And again. But no words she said seemed to make a damn bit of difference.
She couldn’t bear to watch him suffer any longer. It was going to drive her mad with grief.
She felt an anger such as she’d never felt before well up inside of her, spilling over as she failed and failed again. Time after time. Her words were just words. They had no power to save him from this. She wasn’t a witch like Claire. She had no power to stop this. He was being destroyed right in front of her.
And again, it was all her fault.
Val swore, so loud she thought she felt the house shudder under her feet and, frustrated, she threw the crystal as hard as she could against the wall.
The crystal shattered and fell like sparkling dust—like the shadow salt that had bound him to her in the first place—to cover Nathaniel where he lay curled up on the floor.
She saw his shoulders immediately relax, and he swallowed. His chest rose and fell with his labored breathing. He pressed a shaking hand against the hardwood floor and pushed himself halfway up to look at her. A small smile began to form on his beautiful face and she knew the pain had gone. It was okay. He was okay. She let out a long, shaky sigh of relief.
“You had me scared there for a minute.”
“You’re incredible, Valerie,” he said, and reached out to her. “Thank you—”
His face contorted and he screamed again, then vanished in a column of flame.
Val sat with her back against the bed, eyes wide and glassy, staring at the place Nathaniel had just been. She raised a trembling hand to pull her messy, tangled hair off her face.
What the hell just happened?
She took in a deep breath and heard it shudder through her chest.
Nathaniel.