Daniel woke to the feeling of what seemed to be the beginning of a summer rain. Large warm drops were falling to land heavily on his cheeks and forehead. Warm air caressed his face, bringing a sweet scent he knew but couldn’t name.
If there’s a heaven this is what it should feel like, he mused. I would have died sooner if I had known it might be like this.
“Please don’t let him die.” The voice that carried those words was Kate’s, and when he opened his eyes he could see her praying over him. The warm raindrops turned out to be her tears, and the breeze was a product of her heaving chest. Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut as she prayed, and as he opened his mouth to reassure her, a fresh tear landed on his upper lip. Tasting the salt of it brought a strange peace to his heart.
“I’m still here, Kate,” he told her quietly.
A flash of viridian impaled him as her eyes shot wide. Soft red curls cascaded down around him as she released her hair to put her hands on either side of his face. Leaning down she put her cheek against his and wept some more, letting the sorrow drain slowly out of her, until at last she was still.
Daniel’s arms seemed to be working much more reliably now, and he used them to cradle her against him. Neither of them spoke. Not daring to interrupt that one perfect moment, he used his mind to silently explore their surroundings. Ronnie Banks laid not far away, his body utterly still. There was no movement in him, neither his lungs nor his heart moved. He was dead.
Aston and Billy were nowhere to be found. Seth was close by, and to Daniel’s relief his heart still beat strongly. Seth’s eyes were closed and his breathing slow, so Daniel thought he must still be unconscious. His aura gave the appearance of someone who was sleeping.
Blue? Anxiously he sought his dog. He found him not on the slope below but lying beside him. His first reaction was to think that Blue had returned to lie there, but a second later he knew that Blue was dead.
Kate had gone to find him, and brought him back to lie beside his master. She was still naked and injured, but that had been her first action after checking on her two male companions. If Daniel had ever wondered at the reasons he loved her, those doubts disappeared then.
Blue’s death brought out his own tears, and he began to cry along with her, letting the pain tear away the wall he had kept between himself and his emotions. He cried like a child, without shame or restraint, until there was nothing left. Still she clung to him.
Her naked skin was smooth under his hands, but his baser instincts never rose to the fore. When they eventually separated and found their feet he looked at her, studying the dirt and bruises that had marked her lithe figure.
She stared back at him, unashamed of her nudity. She wore her bare skin with the dignity of a queen.
“We need to get him up to the house,” said Daniel, looking at Seth.
“I wasn’t strong enough to drag either of you up the hill,” admitted Kate.
That surprised him. He hadn’t realized he had been so completely unconscious. “How long was I out?”
“Close to an hour,” she told him.
“Damn.” Bending down he worked to arrange Seth’s limbs until he could get his arms beneath his friend’s knees and shoulders. Letting out a slow groan he stood, lifting Seth from the ground. “I think I can get him all the way,” he told her, “If you’ll carry…” His voice choked before he could say “Blue”.
She nodded, understanding immediately, and together they carried Seth and the dog up to her house.
Daniel worried about seeing Brenda when they got there, but he dismissed the thought instantly. There were far more important things to think about. “Does your mother know anything about wound tending?” he asked.
“She isn’t home,” responded Kate. “Seth came by to tell me how she was doing.”
“Seth?”
“She’s staying at his house. His mother is taking care of her,” explained Kate.
“Why?” asked Daniel, more confused than ever. “If she was sick, she could have asked my parents. We’re closer by.”
Kate shook her head, “She wouldn’t hear of it.”
“What was wrong with her?” he continued. He thought he could see why she might avoid his parents’ help, but things still seemed odd. He had been in town many times over the past few weeks, and none of the women in town had mentioned anything about Brenda Sayer being seriously ill.
“Nothing wrong exactly, she was pregnant, Daniel. Seth came to tell me that I’ve got a baby sister,” said Kate at last. She said the words with both shame and wonder.
They had finally reached the house, and once they were inside Daniel deposited Seth carefully onto Brenda Sayer’s bed. He stared at Kate, unable to find words.
Before he could think of anything she went on, “She won’t say who the father is. That’s why she hid it. Seth’s parents promised not to tell anyone.”
“Oh.”
They made Seth as comfortable as possible, removing his shirt and using wet cloths to sponge the dirt out of the wound on the side of his head. It wasn’t bleeding any longer, and his breathing seemed normal. Not knowing what else to do, they withdrew.
“You should probably put something on,” Daniel told her, glancing at her body. He hadn’t paid much attention before, but now he found his eyes drawn to the smooth curves that adorned her. Throughout their entire misadventure she had shown not the first sign of self-consciousness in front of him.
“You’ve seen it before,” she observed.
While he had seen many women naked over the past few months, he had never seen Kate bare-skinned. He was pretty sure he would have remembered that. Looking at her once more he reaffirmed that thought, I definitely would have remembered that.
“No I haven’t,” he protested, and then he reconsidered. They had gone swimming together a few times as children. He didn’t think that counted, though. She had changed a lot since then.
“The others,” she said plainly.
Daniel looked away, suddenly understanding. The dark shadow began to close around his heart again. He hadn’t realized that she had heard the rumors.
She left and returned a minute later, now wearing a plain white shift. It looked like the sort of gown she might use to sleep in. Taking him by the hand she led him to her room and indicated that he should sit on the bed.
“I feel a lot better already,” he told her, thinking it would be better to clean the dried blood from her cheek before trying to make him lay up like an invalid.
Kate pushed him down and sat close beside him. When he tried to rise she held onto him, using her weight to keep him there. “No. This is the first time since whatever happened at the dance that you’ve spoken a single word to me. I won’t let you go until you talk.”
He looked away.
She climbed in beside him and curled up, putting her head on his chest and throwing one leg over his. “If you don’t want to talk, that’s fine. You can lay there for the rest of your life if you want. We can both stay here, but you aren’t stepping one foot out of this room until you tell me everything.”
The idea was a pleasant one. He thought he could easily spend his life that way. “If you knew the truth you’d be afraid to come within a mile of me, Kate. I stayed away because I wanted to protect you, and I didn’t talk because I couldn’t bear the thought of you hating me.”
“Protect me from what?” she asked without a trace of fear.
“From me.”
“Is this something to do with what happened to Ronnie?”
He nodded.
“Was that really you?” she probed.
Daniel shut his eyes, “I killed him.”
“You’re god-touched,” she said suddenly. That was the term sometimes used for the humans who served the forest gods. The wardens often displayed strange abilities that had no easy explanation. Consequently rumors had sprung up that their close connection to the forest gods had given them powers of their own.
“It’s nothing to do with the gods, Kate. There’s something evil inside me, something wrong. It isn’t just the power either. I barely understand that, but some of the things I’ve done. I’m turning into a monster,” he confessed.
She pulled on his chin until they were face to face. “Open your eyes,” she ordered.
“No.”
She kissed him, not lightly, but with depth and passion. After a few second she drew back, “Open your eyes or I’ll keep doing that until you do.”
“What is wrong with you?” he asked. “You’re playing with fire.”
“Why?” she returned. “Because you’re a dangerous villain? Because you’re some sort of love demon that has seduced half the women in town? Because soon you’ll lose control and take hold of me with your evil power, tainting me as you have so many others?”
Her words cut to the heart of him, and he stared at her aghast. Clearly she knew quite well what he was thinking, and just as clearly she knew a lot about his recent depravity. “Yes,” he answered.
“That’s complete bullshit!” she told him fiercely. He was stunned to hear her swearing for the second time in one day. It was completely un-Kate-like behavior.
“I’ve known you since we were barely able to walk. I’ve seen you caring for animals. I’ve seen you holding a newborn lamb after helping to turn it. We’ve run and fought and cried over the course of the years as we grew up. You’re possibly the kindest, most gentle man I will ever know. Whatever happened that has made you think you’re evil, or worthless, whatever it is—it’s false. And if that’s the reason you pushed me away and started sleeping with every depraved woman that was willing to spread her legs, then you’re an idiot!” she finished.
Not for the first time Daniel realized that he had completely underestimated Catherine Sayer. She had not only discovered a large portion of his crimes, but she had in some bizarre way, already forgiven him for them, at least in part.
She was obviously deranged.
“The only part I don’t understand,” she continued, “is why some of them did it. Some of them seemed like good people, not the sort to take those kinds of risks.”
“I was very persuasive,” he said simply.
“You mean your new power?” she asked. “So you really do think you’re some sort of love demon?”
He nodded.
“When was the first time?” she asked. After a couple of minutes of waiting she prodded him again, “You might as well tell me. I already know a lot of it anyway. Talk to me!”
“The first time I was with a woman?” he asked cautiously.
She nodded, “The first time you used your gift to seduce someone.”
Those were two different questions, but he wasn’t about to talk about her mother. “I think it was a month or two after the dance.”
“Who was it?”
“Alice Hayes. It was sort of an accident that time.”
She gasped. “No one knew about her.”
“No one?” He was beginning to wonder about the source of her information.
“A lot of the women in town have begun to talk about you. Some confessed, others are just rumored to have been with you. They claim you bewitched them,” she explained.
Now he was even more alarmed. “Do their husbands know?”
She shook her head, “No, though some may suspect. So far the ladies of Colne have been keeping the gossip amongst themselves. If it had just been one or two, they might have let it get out, but I think you compromised so many of them they’re all afraid to tell anyone.”
He tried to pull away from her again, but she refused to let go. “Why are you still holding onto me?” he asked as he relaxed again. “Any sane girl would run screaming in the other direction.”
“Is that really the best way you can think of to apologize?”
A spark of anger lit in him then, “Why would I do that?”
“Because, of all the women you’ve known, I’m the only one you’ve ever loved, and I’m the only one who loves you. If you apologize to anyone, before we even consider all the rest, you should be apologizing to me,” she said bluntly. Her eyes had grown red as she spoke.
“Don’t you remember what I told you at the dance?”
“You were lying, Daniel Tennick. I’ve known you long enough to know when you tell the truth and when you lie and that was the first and worst lie you ever said to me,” she replied bitterly.
The pain in her eyes made him sick, and thanks to his gift, he could see it in her aura as well. She burned with a storm of emotions even though she kept her outward appearance relatively calm. Anger, jealousy, and confusion fought with one another to dominate her heart, but beneath and above them all was love, an abiding devotion that denied them the power to control her. It lay within her like a fortress, refusing to move in the face of everything that threw itself against her heart. The surface waters were whipped up in a frenzy by the wind, but underneath them the still depths of her love lay undisturbed.
In the face of that, he felt small indeed. “I’m so sorry, Kate. There’s nothing I could ever do to make this right, but I never meant to hurt you.”
Swollen lids still held back the tears, but she couldn’t keep them for much longer. “That’s a start, but first you have to tell me the truth.”
“I can’t,” he said, thinking at first that she meant the truth of what had started it all.
“Say it!” she bit out fiercely, and then she repeated the words, beating his chest as she did, “Say it!”
He finally understood. “I love you Catherine Sayer.” He started to kiss her, but she pushed him back.
“Now tell me why.”
“Why what?” he asked, thinking that she might mean his reasons for loving her.
“Why did you do it?” She said hoarsely. “What could possibly cause all of this? Why would you sleep with every woman you could lay your hands upon, when you loved me? Why am I the only one you couldn’t be with? I’m the one who loves you, but you’ve gone to great lengths to seduce every single woman that was remotely attractive—except for me.”
His original crime lay within his heart like a stone, and he knew it would have to remain there, even if it choked him to death with its poison. “No,” he answered. Even as he said it, he felt something else, something worrying the back of his mind.
“No you won’t tell me?” she asked, “Or, no, you won’t seduce me?”
He sat up, pushing her aside. He recognized what was bothering him now. Focusing his attention, he saw the rider clearly. “There’s a warden coming,” he informed her.