Page 24 of Alien King Crashes the Wedding

“Sasha,” Falden said urgently. “Do you submit to the yielding? Are you willing to yield all that you are to become something more with Dagan? Do you yield your heart to Dagan? Your mind? Your soul? Your life?”

Sasha, so close to death, found the will to whisper, “I yield.”

The second half of the ancient runes on the blade began to glow with the same eerie blue light. A second arc of lightning lashed out from the pommel and struck Sasha in the heart, holding the connection between her body and the sword. Sasha convulsed, and like Dagan had, arched away from the electrical current.

A third arc of lightning lashed out from the pommel and struck the top of the orb, spreading jagged fingers of lightning throughout the crystalline shell. The heat from the lightning made the air vibrate. Deafening thunder cracked, violently shaking the orb.

Dagan and Sasha were lifted, as if by an unseen hand, to float in midair. Falden stepped out as the forks of lightning began to rejoin around Dagan and Sasha, wrapping itself like tentacles around their bodies, binding them more and more tightly together.

Wave after wave of electricity arced from Sasha into Dagan and back again. For an instant she felt nothing. She was free of pain. Free of her body. Her spirit lifted. Soared. Connected. “Dagan,” she whispered.

Sasha felt rather than heard his response.I’m here with you, my love.

Dagan’s strength. His courage. His love. Excruciating pain. Agony. Dagan’s every physical and emotional response, every memory, slammed into Sasha, mixing with her own. Every burning inch of his flesh she felt as her own. She screamed.

Ugly, painful blisters appeared on Sasha’s skin, breaking and oozing just as Dagan’s had done. Her thigh suddenly ripped open, exactly where the shattered glass was still buried in Dagan’s leg. She screamed in agony as blood poured from the wound.

Sasha heard Dagan’s voice in her head.Share my strength as you share my pain. I can’t live without you.

A tear slipped from her glowing eyes.I love you, Dagan. I can’t let you die because of me. It’s too late for me. Whatever was happening to me is too much. I’m going to explode. I can feel it. Let me go. Live.

Never without you. Share your pain with me. Share everything. Yield.

Another wave of pain slammed through Sasha. She screamed again, unable to control herself. Unable to rise above the pain. She couldn’t breathe through the agony. Her heart stuttered, taking her one step closer to death.

Sasha! Yield!

“I can’t!” she screamed aloud. “I don’t know how!”

Start with your deepest pain. Share it with me. Let me have it. Let me in. Yield.

Sasha hesitated. Her family. Their deaths. Her Guilt. Could she do it? Could she give it all to him?

Sasha! Yield!

She took a final breath. Her heart beat sluggishly. Stuttered. Stopped.Yes. All that I am, I yield to you.She opened her mind, allowing Dagan in, sharing everything. The best of her. The worst. Her most painful, terrible memory. The impact. Spinning. Rolling end over end. Glass shattering and slicing through her tender flesh. Blood. So much blood. The sound of metal crunching and twisting. Sounds of agony. Blood spewing across her face, in her mouth. Everywhere. The metallic taste choking her. Screams. Pain. The smell of burning rubber and gasoline. The smell of death. Loss.

As she slipped out of consciousness, Dagan’s body convulsed. He roared with the pain. Twisted with agony. Electricity clawed at his body. Flipped him over and back again. He gagged and choked on blood. Pain unlike anything he’d ever felt before coursed through his veins, his every nerve on fire, His eyes glowed with blue fire. His markings blazed with renewed intensity, the same energy coursing through Sasha now shared with him. Bruises, dark and ugly, appeared on his body as he relived the crash. He wept silent tears at the soul destroying loss guilt, regret. He felt her love and need to protect him from the fire raging through her body. He accepted every memory, ever sorrow, every emotion spilling into him. He accepted. Welcomed. Yielded, until all that remained was her purity of spirit. Love, strength, passion. He reached for her. Embraced all that she was. He hadn’t thought he could love her more, but he was wrong, and he felt her slipping away. He roared in pain, his heart breaking. She had to live. She had to survive. He would sacrifice his own life to save her. He poured his strength into her. His determination. His love. His life. He gave all that he was to her without reservation, without regret. His last breath was but a whisper. “I love you, Sasha. Live.”

Abruptly, the electrical current wrapped around them disappeared, dropping Sasha and Dagan to the ground. The silence echoed. Time stood still. Slowly the orb shrank until it was once again hovering innocently above them.

Dagan stirred, spit out the last of the blood in his mouth, and gathered Sasha back into his arms. He slowly turned his head to look at his warriors, dazed, and found Falden standing to his left. “We are one. It was not enough.” Before he could say more, darkness overtook him and he slumped to the bottom of the tub, unconscious.

Falden reached for the orb and murmured to himself, a small smile playing at his mouth, “And yet you both live.” He turned to Gareth and shouted “It’s time to get out of here. Cam should be here by now! Check the window!”

Gareth sheathed his sword and ran out of the bathroom, only to return a moment later. “He has a small freighter hovering outside the hotel.”

“Let’s move!” Falden ordered. “I’ll take the queen. Go!”

The Knights sheathed their swords and dragged Dagan out of the tub. Vander heaved Dagan’s dead weight over his shoulder and ran toward the window, activating his spectral cloaking armor just as he leaped through the opening, disappearing into thin air before landing in the hovering freighter. The others followed close behind, Rachel’s shriek and Cassiel’s laughter abruptly cut off seconds after they disappeared.

Falden gently scooped Sasha into his arms, shaking his head in amazement as Sasha’s blistered skin healed right before his eyes. “A human? Goddess help us all.” He activated his cloaking armor, gave one last look around the collapsing building, and ran for the window.

Chapter Twenty

Sasha woke slowly to the sounds of beeps and whirring machines, and the smell of a sterile environment. Was she in heaven? If so, where was Dagan? She took another deep breath in through her nose. Gross. She couldn’t be in heaven. She was sure it would smell better there.

Sasha stretched tentatively. She felt great. How odd. The last thing she remembered was dreaming about Dagan and a strange orb full of lightning. She’d been certain she was dying. She’d never felt so awful before, like she’d been in a train wreck, and the roots of her hair down to the tips of her toes had felt bruised and tender. She was sure she was going to explode, she’d been so hot. Even her eyes had burned and she’d hallucinated that her hair had gone bat shit crazy with static electricity and her forehead and skull had turned into a giant disco ball, shooting light out all across the room.

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