“Being reborn has nothing to do with it.It’s your hold on Lucien.It’s beyond me what he sees in you.I can offer him more but it’s always you he wants.”
Giselle’s words peppered Lainie like bullets, escalating her terror.Did Lucheux want her like he’d wanted the countess?Had his obsession merely lain dormant all these centuries?Lainie shuddered.No way did she want to be the object of his desires again.
“Why can’t you just stay away?”Giselle cried out.
Oily sweat trickled down Lainie’s back.Giselle was going to kill her again because of jealousy.Would this endless cycle never stop?
Her fingers scrabbled for a weapon.A large rock or a stick.Anything to beat Giselle off with.She needed to get out of here and find Christien, to warn him that Giselle had found them.If Giselle was here Lucheux wasn’t far behind.Slowly air leaked back into her lungs and Lainie screamed again but she couldn’t draw in enough air to make much noise.She managed to flip over, her fist swinging, but Giselle anticipated the strike and blocked it with her forearm.
Her hands went around Lainie’s throat.Visions of Madelaine fighting for her life in a clearing just like this danced before her eyes.She drew her knees up and slammed them into Giselle’s back.Giselle grunted at the force, but didn’t release her hold.
Lainie’s vision dimmed.
No!She was not going to die like this.Not again.She managed to get her hands between Giselle’s arms to break the woman’s hold, but Giselle was tenacious.And strong.Lainie was surprised at how strong the woman was.
She tried to head-butt Giselle in the nose, but Giselle jerked out of the way.
Giselle’s pale lips thinned into a slash of hatred.Her eyes flashed with fury.The muscles in her jaw flexed with the effort it took to squeeze the life out of Lainie.
Lainie’s throat worked convulsively to bring in air.She was going to die in this forest, by this woman’s hands.Again.Giselle obviously didn’t know Lainie was the key to opening the seals.If she did, she wouldn’t be trying to kill her.
Maybe that was a good thing.Then Christien wouldn’t have to worry about protecting her.He could concentrate on only protecting the treasure.Lainie thought of her sister, another out there who probably didn’t know what she was.Would Christien protect her sister?
An overwhelming sadness flooded her.She was never going to meet her sister, never hear Christien’s laugh again.She should have gone to him, talked to him like she wanted to.Now she’d never have the chance.
Chapter Twenty-One
Christien stared at the papers before him, unable to recall what they were about or why they seemed so important days ago.On a surge of anger, he swept them away.What the hell did real-estate contracts matter now?What was the point of acquiring more property, of earning more money when he had no one to share his accomplishments with?
He furrowed his fingers through his hair and blew out a frustrated breath.He wanted to share it with Madelaine, but she was pulling away from him.He didn’t know what to do to stop her other than give her the space her eyes silently begged for even though everything inside him told him not to.
What he wanted was to hold her tight, to never let her out of his sight, as if proximity would solve everything.For so many years his sheer force of will got him what he wanted but it wouldn’t work now, not with this situation, and he was more than a little lost.
He couldn’t force her to accept his immortality or the fact she was adopted or she had a sister or her bloodline was the key to the end of the world.So many things he’d confronted her with in such a short period of time.
She wanted space?He’d give her space.It was the least he could do.That and pray like hell she’d come back to him when she sorted everything out in her mind.
Or would she come back to him?
Unable to sit still any longer, he paced, the papers he’d swept off his desk crumpling beneath his feet.Once again he’d fallen in love with Madelaine and once again she was, as they said in modern times, out of his league.More so now than ever before.He thought her bloodline the upper echelon of nobility back then, but that was nothing compared to what he knew now.She was way beyond his humble origins.
He stopped to stare out the window.The hollowness inside him grew until there was nothing left but a gaping hole he’d lived with for so long.Until Madelaine walked into his nightclub, he’d become one with it.She’d filled the darkness with her laughter and quirky humor, with her honesty and humanity.A humanity he’d lost after so many centuries.
She’d given him so much and in return he’d taken everything she’d ever known about herself and destroyed it.
He spun on his heels and bowed his head, fighting the despair threatening to pull him under.Surely she’d understand he had to tell her about her family, that because of her bloodline it was imperative she know about all of it.
Surely she’d understand she was his priority now.He would guard her with everything he had because she was the Blood of the Lion of Judah.But more importantly, because she washisand his love for her demanded nothing less.
She’d understand.
Wouldn’t she?
With a strangled sound he lifted his head and tilted it back to stare at the ceiling, blinking the sudden wetness from his eyes.
His cell phone vibrated in his pocket.For a long moment he ignored it but the damn thing wouldn’t stop and he jerked it out with a muttered curse.
He had to clear his throat before answering.“Chevalier.”
