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Lance inhaled roughly. He had known it would happen this way. He had known what would happen. He had heard his own death in the wind, heard its price for surrender, its demand for payment. He would miss Harmony. Even in death, he would miss her. He lifted his head, his eyes narrowing behind the night-vision goggles as he timed what he knew was coming. He hadn't questioned the knowledge when it came to him during the long drive to Colorado. He hadn't debated it or attempted to find a way to change it. Nothing came without a price. The life and happiness of his woman and child was worth more to him than his own life ever would be.
Covering Harmony, he slid from the protection of the boulders he had placed himself behind, giving the shooters the target they were looking for. The price of her freedom was his blood. She would be safe. The winds had made their promise, and his blood would seal it.
Her precious Dane would hide her and the child Lance had created with her. They would be protected, and that was all that mattered. He might not understand the price the winds claimed for her freedom, for her life, but he wouldn't deny it. He could hear the wind howling through the mountainside, its demand for his blood a banshee cry he couldn't ignore. And in that moment he saw why. As she moved to save him, a tall blond-haired soldier stepped from the shadows, a maniacal smile twisting his lips. The bastard stepped from cover, his gun aiming for her, his expression twisted into a snarl of fury as he fired at her.
Lance threw himself in front of Harmony, knowing the moment the bullet left the barrel that it would strike flesh. Better his chest than hers. Better his heart than the one who had never known freedom, never known love. The winds had whispered its promise for his sacrifice. His child's laughter, his woman's freedom. They would survive. ______________
Harmony felt the impact of Lance's body against hers as they went down. She knew. Her eyes went to his chest as her howl rent the air. An enraged feline scream that echoed with a cougar's cry.
"Motherfucker!" Her gun came up, her finger depressing the trigger as the rounds slammed into the figure. "You diseased fucking bastard!"
She saw his eyes widen in shock, as though he believed he couldn't die. As though he had the right to live, to destroy what belonged to her.
She knew him, one of the fanatical bastards who had joined Alonzo. Alonzo would pay as well. So help her God, if Lance died on her, then they would all pay. She threw her gun as she came to her knees, before tossing the satchel that contained the information she had thought was so important to preserve. She had no idea where it fell; she didn't give a damn.
Her hands hovered over Lance's chest; she didn't care who fired at her now. It didn't matter. Death was preferable to the horrible, aching agony twisting through her mind now.
No pain could come close to this. No horror could ever compare to staring into Lance's dark eyes as she pushed the goggles from his face, and seeing the knowledge in his eyes.
"No…" Her moan joined the distant cry of the wind, the sound of explosions around her, a loud hum throbbing in the air.
None of it mattered.
"Shhh. " Lance's expression twisted with pain as she tried to stop the blood flowing from his chest. It fell over her fingers, a silky, heated fall of life that blistered her hands.
"No. No. No. Oh God. Don't leave me. Don't leave me. " She was crying. She could feel the tears running down her cheeks as she watched a single droplet slide from his eye.
"It had to be," he whispered sluggishly. "I knew it had to be. " Screams echoed around them. Gunfire. The sound of a motor. She didn't know what was going on, she didn't care.
"Don't leave me. " She gagged at the thought of being without him now. Of being alone.
"Please, God. Lance. Please. "
His face twisted with pain as she felt her stomach cramping with the cold, horrible knowledge that this was her fault.
She had killed him after all.
"I'll follow you," she cried. "Just as I swore, I'll follow you. "
"No… Live free…" His expression twisted in pain.
"I'll follow you," she screamed. "You made me care. You made me feel, damn you. I won't do it without you. I can't do it without you. "
As she moved to touch his face, hard hands jerked at her shoulders, attempting to drag her from him. Enraged, feral, she fought back, seeing the shadows merging around them. Death was taking him, jerking her from his side to tear his soul from his body. Her payment. This was her payment for taking innocent lives as a child. Life was being taken from her now.
"Take me," she screamed, fighting the clawlike hands pulling at her, fighting to hold back her blows. "Take me. Kill me. Don't take him. Please… please…" The sharp blow to her face barely registered, but the voice screaming at her ear did.
"Harmony, goddammit, let us help him. "
Jonas!
Shadows cleared, and suddenly the brilliance of the heli-jet's lights struck his tormented expression.
"He's prepped. Let's fly. "
She swung her head around. Rule, Merc and Lawe were standing protectively around Elyiana and the two Breeds lifting the stretcher they had strapped Lance onto. She jerked from Jonas's hold.
"Move!" Grabbing her arm again, he forced her to the heli-jet. "We have more of those bastards that attacked you coming up the mountain. "
