Twilight Fall

Valentin tried to call back, only to discover that his battery had run too low.

Storm clouds were closing around the plane, pelting the windows with tiny hail. He had dropped altitude to move the plane out of the commercial airline lanes, as he could not receive any radio transmissions to change course. Outside it was still night, but Jaus's Kyn eyes could easily make out the features of the land below.

Wherever the dead pilot had flown them, they were over what appeared to be uninhabited forests, rivers, and lakes. No towns or houses appeared, increasing his frustration. He couldn't land in a deserted area. Liling needed to be taken to a hospital.

The storm lashed the plane with rain and buffeted it with ferocious wind gusts at the same time a low-fuel indicator light blinked on. Valentin couldn't risk running out of fuel or being forced down by high winds. Some miles ahead, he saw a narrow but cleared area stretching out in front of a large lake, and decided that would be his landing site. He disengaged the autopilot and began guiding the plane down.

As he descended, he reduced airspeed and went through instrument procedures, methodically following the instructions that the pilot had given him. He was only too aware that one mistake would end in disaster, and looked over at Liling. She had already been seriously hurt by the bullet that had gone through his body.

He would not crash. He would not snuff out her young life.

The meadow was not meant to be a landing strip, and the plane jolted and rocked as the landing gear touched the ground. He applied the brakes, slowing the plane as quickly as he dared, seeing the lake looming in front of them.

There was not enough meadow, he realized too late, and at the last moment released his harness and lunged across the cockpit, covering Liling's body with his.

The plane gave a sickening lurch as it ran out of land and slid over the banks into the lake. The windows of the cockpit imploded, water blasting in through the broken frames. A support frame broke loose and slammed into Jaus, knocking him away from the girl. The surge of water flooding the cabin swept him off into the darkness.

* * *

Chapter 10

Water filling her nose jerked Liling awake. The interior of the cockpit had flooded with dark, cold water. She tore off the seat harness and turned to see the dead bodies of the pilot and copilot floating up toward the ceiling of the plane. A glint of golden hair between them made her push off the seat and dive under the water.

Jaus floated beneath the surface, limp and unmoving, bleeding from deep cuts on his face and hands.

A torrent of air bubbles escaped Liling's mouth as she called his name without thinking. She kicked her way up to the dwindling air pocket, gasping as she refilled her lungs, and then dove under a second time. Keeping her gaze averted from his face, she tugged at the tangle of equipment trapping his body.

It took three tries before the pile of debris shifted and she was able to pull him free. She put an arm across his chest and kicked, swimming up to push his face into the air pocket and surfacing beside him.

Jaus was not breathing.

"No." She dragged him by the collar to the cockpit emergency exit. The pressure of the water had knocked out the door, and through it she saw the lake bank some two hundred feet away. She pushed Jaus's body through the open door frame and into the water. From there she swam on her back, using her legs to propel her while towing Jaus in front of her. Oily water swirled as the sinking plane completely submerged.

A few feet from solid ground Liling's heels scraped the silted bottom of the lake, and she stood and dragged Jaus's body the rest of the way out of the water.

"Help, someone, please," she called out. The land around them appeared uninhabited, but the pitch-black conditions made it hard to see exactly where they were.

She wasted no more time shouting but rolled Jaus onto a grassy section of the bank. She had to stop and pant through a stabbing pain twisting in her side, and then she remembered what had happened in the cockpit. She pulled up her soaked T-shirt to check the wound. Where there had been an ugly, ragged-edged bleeding hole in her side there now appeared to be smooth, wet skin.

The gunshot wound had vanished.

Liling looked at Jaus, who had not been so lucky. Dozens of ugly cuts and scrapes covered his face, and when she felt for it she couldn't find a pulse in his throat.

She would worry about the wounds after she got his heart started and his lungs working. Thank God one of the requirements of her job at the Lighthouse had been to take a course and become CPR certified.

"You landed the plane. Valentin," she said to him as she tipped his head back. "We're safe. So you can't give up now."

Liling opened his mouth to check whether his airway was clear, and listened for sounds of breathing. His chest remained still, and she heard nothing. She pinched his nose shut, took a deep breath, and sealed her mouth over his. She blew hard, twice, trying to force her breath, into his body.

She lifted her head. "Breathe for me. Valentin. Please breathe."

She straightened, checked his throat again, and listened. Nothing had changed. She tore open his shirt and found the lower part of his breastbone, crossing her hands against it as she began to push down, performing the cardiac compressions. After fifteen compressions, she still found no heartbeat. She bent to put her mouth over his, and then stopped. At first she didn't believe what she was seeing, but she put her fingers to it. When she fell it happening, she had to believe.

The gashes and cuts on Jaus's face were closing and disappearing, as if they were erasing themselves from his skin.

No human being healed that fast, not even when Liling touched them to take from them. She shook her head, sure she was hallucinating, and pinched his nose before forcing her breath into him twice more. This time when she sat up the lacerations were only a few fading pink lines on his flesh, and his eyes were opening.

"Valentin." She rolled him onto his side as he choked out lake water, supporting him with her hands as he shuddered and cleared his lungs. He didn't gasp or make any breathing sounds, and she was about to flip him over to breathe again for him when he pushed himself up into a sitting position and turned to her.

Wet hair hung around his face, which now didn't have a mark on it.

She felt stupid, as if she had forgotten or missed something important. What she had seen on his face must have been only streaks of blood. The burning in her side flared, making her grimace as she pressed her hand to her ribs.

"Liling." She saw in his eyes the same confusion she felt. "What has happened?"

"I don't know. I must have blacked out." She tried to smile. "What do you remember?"

"Landing the plane." He turned his head and spit out a mouthful of water before finally breathing in. "I did not do It very well. Forgive me."

"For saving my life?" She wanted to laugh and hug him and dance around the meadow. She settled for brushing the wet hair back from his eyes. "You landed the plane, and we survived. You don't have to apologize for that." She dropped her gaze and swallowed against the tightness in her throat. "I thought we were going to die."

"I keep my promises." Valentin caught her hand and brought her palm to his mouth, placing a gentle kiss in the center of it. He closed her fingers over the tingling spot and pulled her suddenly into a tight embrace, holding her as close as he could.

Liling wanted to shriek with happiness. He was using his arm. The taking had worked.

As if he heard her thoughts, he said, "I do not know what you did to me, mein Mädchen." He put her at arm's length to look into her eyes. "But now I can hold you as I have wanted to."

She started to deny it, but his touch burned strangely into her, and she couldn't find the words to lie to him. "Valentin."

He tipped her head back. "It is my turn. I think, to kiss you."

Valentin brought his mouth to hers. The kiss felt weightless, the brush of a tendril of breeze against her lips. He took her deeper, coaxing her lips apart and tracing their edges before pushing into her mouth. The slow glide of his tongue against hers made her sigh with pleasure, the sound catching and humming between their lips.

Her hands crept up his chest and stilled. She couldn't feel his heartbeat, and then she could, a single pulse. An eternity passed before the next thudded against her fingers.

Fearful again, she pulled back. "Something is wrong. Your heart is hardly beating." She touched his neck, searching for the pulse.

"I am not like other men," Valentin took her hand away before he stood and scanned the entire area.

Liling didn't understand. He had virtually no heartbeat, but he moved and talked and breathed as if nothing were happening to him. Adrenaline did odd things to people, she knew, and while he appeared fine now, he might collapse at any moment. Her anxiety doubled as she felt the pain in her side return. How could she find help for him if she couldn't catch her breath?

He crouched down again beside her. "We have to find some shelter. I think I saw a house or a barn over there, by the pine trees. Can you walk?"

"I don't think so." Liling gritted her teeth as the heat blazing across her ribs doubled. "I have a cramp in my side. You had better leave me here for now."

"I am not leaving you anywhere, mein Mädchen." He frowned, catching her shoulder. "Liling?"

She tried to push him away, but the pain flared up into an inferno that she thought would burn away the world, and Valentin with it.

A hammering fist made Jayr, the newly named suzerains of the Realm, lift her mouth from the place she had been kissing on her seneschal's shoulder. She turned her head toward the sound of it outside their bedchamber. "Did you bolt that door?"

"No." Aedan mac Byrne, former suzerain of the Realm, nuzzled her throat. "But I will strangle the first man who walks over the threshold."

"Better you learn how to lock it." She climbed off his lap, pulled on a robe, and went to open the door. "What?"

Rain, a hulking bear of a man with the personality of a mischievous boy and the temperament of a kitten, grinned down at her.