Dragonswan.doc by Unknown Read Free Book Online Page B

He pulled her into his arms. "Hear the baby crying?"
    She screamed in horror.
    Aidan tried to shove the god back, but he refused to let go of Leta. "Go to hell, you asshole!" He
    manifested a sword in his hand and stabbed Dolor straight through the heart.
    Releasing Leta from his hold, Dolor staggered back. His black eyes were large with disbelief as he
    disintegrated into a thousand sparkling pieces. They fell slowly to the ground before a feral wind carried
    them away.
    Still Leta continued to scream as if she were caught in the middle of a nightmare she couldn't wake up
    from. She pulled at her hair as if she couldn't bear whatever images were in her head.
    Aidan scooped her up in his arms to hold her close. "Shh," he breathed as she trembled in his arms.
    Tears streamed from her eyes. "Make it stop! Please, God, make it all go away. I can't breathe. Can't
    think. I can't… I can't…"
    He winced as he heard the same agonized pleas from her lips that he'd uttered on countless days of
    bitterness. It made him hold her closer and touched him on a level unimaginable. Whatever her past, it
    was obvious it was as bad as his own.
    "I've got you, Leta," he whispered, rubbing his chin gently against her wet cheek. "I won't let him hurt
    you." He didn't know why he made that promise, but even more surprising than the words was the fact
    that he meant them.
    Something about the sharing of this moment broke through his own pain. For the first time in over two
    years, he felt human again and he didn't even know why.
    She drew a ragged breath. "He'll be back."
    "No he won't. I killed him."
    "No," she said, her eyes sparkling from her tears, "you didn't. You can't stop Pain. He's coming back and
    now he knows…" Her voice faded out as if she were too afraid even to finish her sentence.
    "Shh," he repeated as he held her close and let the warmth of her body seep into the coldness that had
    gripped him for all this time. He hadn't comforted anyone in years. Literally. The last person he'd sat up
    with all night had been his nephew. Ronald had just broken up with his first fiancée, so the two of them
    had gone out drinking. Even though Aidan was supposed to be studying a script he'd been prepping for,
    he'd taken the entire night off to soothe Ronald's grief.
    And what had it gotten him?
    Ronald had eventually sided with Donnie and turned on Aidan even after all Aidan had done for him over
    the years—paid for his private school and college, paid for his high school graduation trip to Florida for
    him and his best friend, given him a job, bought him a car, a house… Nothing had been enough. And this
    after Ronald had told him how badly his father had treated him growing up.
    Now he didn't know if Ronald had ever spoken the truth or if it'd been nothing but lies designed to gain
    Aidan's sympathy so that he could take more money from him.
    And in the end, none of what Aidan had done to help the kid had mattered. Like his father, Ronald had
    demanded that Aidan give him everything he wanted whether he deserved it or not.
    His heart pounding, he looked down at Leta and wondered if she was just as cold inside as they had
    been.
    That was when Aidan made the most grisly discovery about himself.
    He still cared.
    In spite of everything the scum had put him through. In spite of how carefully he'd sealed himself off from
    the world, he cared about Leta. He didn't want her hurt and he damn sure didn't want her hurt because
    she'd tried to help him.
    In that moment, he hated himself for the weakness of caring.
    How much could one human take?
    But it was there. That internal ache that only wanted to tend to her injuries and make sure she was okay.
    Grinding his teeth, he pressed his lips to her soft, sweet hair and carried her out of the snow to a sandy
    beach where the sun was shining brightly above them.
    With her still cradled against his chest, he fell to his knees in the sand and set her down before him. He
    cupped her face in his hands and