The Fire and the Sword (Men of Blood Book 2)

by Rosamund Winchester

  “Come, I will not hurt you,” he coaxed. Her sapphire eyes narrowed at him but she didn’t quite meet his gaze. With a huff, she leaned down, giving herself into his keeping. At least for a moment.

  Supple, warm, lush…Minnette was any man’s fantasy, and she was right there, beneath his palms, held to his chest. He slid her, slowly, over the length of him, until her feet touched the ground. It was torture to have her this close and not be able to touch her as he longed to do.

  At her gasp, his gaze flew to hers. Her eyes were wide, crackling with a hot desire he shared. But there was fear there, as well. It was as though Bellerophon had kicked him in the chest.

  She is afraid of you. And she had every right to be, though he was loath to admit it. Up until that morning, he had been adamant about completing his mission, abandoning her to a husband she did not want. His kitten had fought, fang and claw, to stop him, but he’d persisted, chasing after her. He could imagine the terror, the uncertainty, and he remembered the utter panic on his face as he charged after her, roaring into the sky.

  He would have looked like a beast, a herald of death.

  Carefully, he set her away from him, his hands tingling with the desire to hold her again. It was an addiction. One you must ignore. She is not meant for you. But that didn’t stop the wanting.

  Minnette stood there for a moment as if dazed, but she shook herself then turned away to find someplace to sit. A patch of grass seemed to beckon to her because she made straight for it. As she began to lower herself, Elric noticed that she didn’t appear all that stable. She tipped forward and, in a flash, Elric was there to hold her steady as she slid down to lean against the willow.

  She closed her eyes and Elric watched her expression. It was a mixture of exhaustion, wariness, and just plain frustration.

  He knew exactly how she felt. Since the attack on her, Elric had been hyperaware, his senses alert to any noise or movement that could be that demon returning to finish the job.

  And I will finish what I started, as well. The wound Elric had inflicted would at least slow the man down, hopefully enough for Elric to get Minnette to safety behind the walls of Bridgerdon.

  Taking his water bladder from his pack, he crouched beside Minnette.

  “Here, you need to drink. You lost a goodly amount of blood,” he reminded her. She opened her eyes and glared at the bladder. She bit her bottom lip which made Elric want to kiss her and soothe the self-hurt.

  Finally, she let out a sigh and took the bladder, opening it and raising it to her mouth. Elric watched as her silky, elegant throat swallowed down the cool fluid. Minnette moaned, the sound like a bonfire along his lower back, the need to make her moan beneath him nearly dizzying.

  It was his turn to bite his lip, holding in the urge to take her lips and own them, possess her as he so desperately wanted to.

  She cannot be yours. As the niece to his greatest enemy, she would only ever believe herself a pawn in their war. And once Calleaux discovered his plan had been ruined, he would turn his diabolical attentions to disposing of anyone who knew of the plan, including Minnette.

  Each minute that passed was another minute closer to the confrontation that would either destroy him, the cardinal or the Homme du Sang.

  No! He would not let that happen. Those men deserved more than they had received thus far in service of the cardinal, who was supposed to be speaking for the Church. Then why did it feel as though the Church wasn’t all that happy with Calleaux? Was that the reason for Bishop Norton’s attendance at the meeting in the cardinal’s quarters? Had he been checking in on the cardinal? If he was, it did not bode well for Calleaux and his ambitions.

  “You may have this back.” Minnette’s voice seemed to appear from nowhere, like a fae drifting in on the breeze to whisper in his ear. He took the bladder from her and stowed it back in his pack. “Merci.” She still wouldn’t meet his gaze.

  Rubbing the back of his neck, he knew he needed to remedy the situation, and the truth was always a better remedy than silence.

  “I am sorry for leaving you alone,” he admitted, the words tumbling from his lips.

  She stiffened but still didn’t look at him.

  “I did not mean to leave you unprotected. I knew someone was following us, could feel it in my bones. But I allowed my emotions to dictate my actions. Had I known…” If he hadn’t been so caught up in his own thoughts, he would have remembered the sensation of being followed. He would have considered remaining close to the cottage. He never would have left her at the mercy of someone insane enough to murder in the cardinal’s name.

  Is that not what you have done for the last twelve years? Struck by that thought, Elric nearly missed it when Minnette peered up at him through her thick, black lashes. Lord, but she was beautiful.

  “Why did you?” she asked, breathlessly. “Why did you leave? When I awoke, I first thought you had abandoned me to die. That it would be easier to tell my uncle I had succumbed to the elements than bother with dragging me all the way to Lorne.”

  Her words sliced through him to the marrow.

  He swallowed down a litany of curses.

  “No, I did not leave you to die,” he replied, his heart pounding.

  She lifted her face, her gaze finally meeting his, burning into him like a fiery spear.

  “Then why?” she asked on a sudden sob.

  Shaken to his very core, he couldn’t stop himself from gathering her into his arms. Instead of resisting as he thought she would, she melted into him, her body trembling as she cried silently.

  “Why?” she asked, tearfully.

  Choked by his own guilt, Elric closed his eyes and tried to take a deep breath. It stuck in his chest.

  “I left because I could not…” Words failed him. How could he tell her that he was such a coward that watching her sleep had made him flee?

  Minnette stopped trembling and she looked up at him from where her head was tucked into his shoulder. “Could not what?” she prodded.

  Overcome, his head spinning, his chest splitting in two, he set her back and stood. Every muscle in his body vibrated with suppressed anger and frustration.

  He felt her rise and he turned to see her standing, a hand curled around her bandaged wound.

  He had done that to her! He had been so busy trying to get away from her, from the feelings she elicited, that she had become the target of a killer. And if he hadn’t heard her screams…

  He shuddered, his breath catching. No, he couldn’t think about that.

  “Elric?” she murmured, taking a step toward him, her striking eyes turned dark with concern. For him. “What is wrong?” The worry in her voice was his undoing.

  Growling, he strode to her, grabbing her face between his palms. She gasped but did not pull away. Staring down into her face, he took in every feature, memorizing her as a master artist memorized every aspect of his muse before creating his greatest masterpiece.

  “I left because I could not stand to look at you without wanting you. Every moment of every day is taken with thoughts of you, how you feel in my arms, how your lips taste, how you sound when I give you pleasure. It is torture to see you, to desire you, and know I cannot have you,” he ground out, panting. “I needed space to think without your presence there to taunt me. So, I left the cottage, thinking I would only be gone long enough to gather more firewood. But the longer I was out there in the cold, away from you, the further away I walked.”

  Her eyes wide, Minnette asked a question that startled him. “Did it work?”

  Did it work? A dark chuckle quaked through him. “No, it did not. No matter how far away from you I am, I think about you, yearn for you, my mind and body wound up in you. You are like a specter of all I cannot have, following me wherever I go, haunting me in my anguish.”

  Elric studied her expressions as they moved across her face. Shock, then disbelief, then desire. It was a look he had seen before in the eyes of comely maids as they silently beseeched him for a quick tupping.
But on her, it was different. There was none of the guile or arrogance. In the place of the obvious interest was an innocence, an uncertain yearning. She wanted him but she didn’t know why. She didn’t understand the depths of that want.

  I know how she feels.

  Elric held his breath and her gaze, waiting for her to step back or speak, castigating him for his wickedness. But she did neither of those things. She stepped closer, her face still pressed against the heat of his palms. The warmth of her breath flittered over his lips, his cheeks, his eyelashes, like a kiss that was yet to come.

  His hands shook.

  “Minnette, I—”

  She held a finger up, pressing it against his lips, halting his words. He did not know what to say anyway. What did one say to a woman who held the whole of him in her small, delicate hands?

  “You left because you desire me but you do not think you can have me?” she asked, though it was more a statement of fact.

  He nodded silently.

  His heart nearly leaped from his chest at the tiny, crooked smile that began to grow on her face. It was delicious sin personified.

  “But what if you could have me?” Her voice was like velvet sliding over his skin.

  Struck dumb by her question, he could only stare down into her eyes, silently scouring her expression, her gaze, for the truth. Was it possible for this creature of light and beauty to actually want to give herself to him?

  If she truly knew me, what I have done, she would shudder in revulsion.

  Who was he to take what she was offering? He was a lecher, a man who took without giving anything back. He had nothing to offer her save the fleeting pleasure of the mating. There was no future for them, and Minnette, a lady born, deserved to have a man, a husband, who would cherish her and the gift of her virginity. No, taking her innocence would only consign his soul to the darkest pits of Hell. For where else did a soul as tainted as his belong?

  “Elric?” There was uncertainty in her voice this time, and it pierced him to the quick.

  Inwardly shaking, he tried to step back, but her hands flew up to twine around his neck, and she pulled him down, pressing the softness of her lips against the hardness of his.

  Bolts of lightning blasted through him at the point where their lips met.

  The desperate need he had barely kept in check finally broke free of its flimsy restraints.

  He growled, taking her mouth in savage intensity, his hunger driving him to devour her like a man starved.

  Minnette groaned and slid her breasts over his chest. Damn me for wanting her so much. Damn me to oblivion!

  His chest expanded, desperate for more contact. Moaning, he explored the seam of her soft, plump lips, seeking entrance to the Heaven of her mouth. She gasped, her mouth opening to offer him bliss. He took what she offered, sucking her breath into his body only to breathe into hers. In that moment, they were as one body, breathing together as their mouths and bodies learned the meaning of pleasure.

  Elric had kissed many a willing maiden, the enjoyment enough to distract him for a moment, but none of them had ever gutted him as this one did. The heat of this kiss was as a forge, hot enough to join metal to metal. Soul to soul.

  “Och, isna this precious?” a high-pitched, mocking voice sounded. Elric tensed, breaking the kiss and pulling Minnette behind him to shield her, his heart pounding. He spun, his hand on his sword hilt, to face the intruder.

  “Shite, Glenn!” Elric growled at the man leaning devil-may-care against a tree. His blue eyes glittered with mirth.

  Releasing the tension in his muscles, Elric let out a breath. “I nearly killed you.”

  Glenn’s eyes widened with incredulity, his lips quirking as if holding in a laugh. “That would take some doin’, ye ken?” Glenn replied, pushing away from the tree. “I am harder ta kill than skin rash.”

  A snort of laughter from behind Elric made him look over his shoulder to find Minnette with her hand to her kiss-swollen lips. Her eyes were dancing.

  “You find that humorous, do you?” he asked, teasingly. “Is it funny that Glenn has just compared himself to a pox?”

  Minnette rasped, “Oui,” before breaking into a fit of giggles. The sound of her laughter, the lightness of it, made something in Elric’s chest tighten. He would do whatever it took to hear her laughter for always.

  You cannot offer always. But, for the love of God, he wished he could.

  It was Glenn’s turn to snort. “If ye’re done findin’ her tongue, I think it best we return ta Bridgerdon.”

  At Glenn’s remark, Elric tensed.

  “Consider your words when you speak about Lady Minnette,” Elric ground out, his body thrumming with the need to do violence. Mine, he wanted to growl, but he stopped before he said something he couldn’t take back. She wasn’t his, and not only because she wasn’t something to be possessed. She wasn’t his because she deserved better; a lord husband, a passel of children, a proper home. A lifetime of happiness and safety.

  Glenn held up his hands, a crooked grin back in place. “I meant nothin’ by it. Ye ken me, Commander. All brash bellowin’ and little sense.”

  “I do know that, you cur,” Elric replied, his humor returned. He looked over his shoulder at Minnette. She was staring at the ground, her gaze faraway, her skin suddenly pale. She seemed a lost child, tired, anxious, and stressed to the point of breaking.

  Protect her.

  “Right. Let us get to Bridgerdon,” Elric agreed. “There is much to discuss with the rest of the men, and Minnette could use Bell Heather’s care.”

  Sensing the urgency, Glenn disappeared but quickly reappeared straddling his large, black horse, Sluagh.

  It took but a minute to help Minnette onto Bellerophon’s back and then climb up behind her. He slid his arms around her waist, careful not to bump her injured arm.

  They set out at a sedate pace, Elric unwilling to jar Minnette. She had already endured more than most ladies did the whole of their lives.

  My kitten is a wee fighter. A smile of admiration grew on his face. Glenn, the arse, caught it, his own dastardly smile showing above his black beard. Damn, but the man looked like a proper rapscallion, a plunderer rather than a holy knight.

  That is just the way he likes it.

  “How are you here, Glenn?” Elric asked, remembering that he sent Glenn north.

  Glenn shrugged. “It didna take long ta realize the lady hadna gone that way. So, I doubled back to Bridgerdon. When Bear returned without ye, I knew ye just might need a man o’ my particular skills.”

  Elric lifted a brow. “Oh?”

  Nodding, Glenn continued, “Aye. I kent the lady would give ye a chase, and I am the best tracker in forty-eight counties.”

  “That is all the counties,” Elric remarked, smiling.

  Glenn widened his eyes in false surprise. “Is it? I hadna realized.”

  He could feel Minnette’s body tremble with silent laughter. She was enjoying this. Good. She needed something to think about other than, well, everything else.

  Like the depth and devastation of that kiss.

  Praying for the patience and self-control of a saint, Elric continued his questioning. “How did you find us?”

  “I followed the road east. I came upon a burnt-out cottage,” his voice was heavy with disgust. “There was a body inside, a wound in the thigh. The largest vein was cut, they bled out quickly. It was a fresh kill, no more than a few hours. From there, I continued southwest, where I eventually saw the smoke from the chimney o’ a then abandoned cottage. I knew I wasna far behind ye.”

  Immediately, his thoughts conjured up the image of the man in black, his wicked dagger slicing through Minnette’s flesh. She must have thought of that, too, because she tensed to the point of snapping in half.

  “I think I know who killed that person and burned down that cottage,” Elric intoned, his breath leaving in a hiss. “It was the same man who attacked Minnette last eve. I fought him, wounded him, but he escaped befor
e I could land a killing blow.” Much to his shame and frustration.

  Glenn pulled Sluagh to a halt, turning the beast so he could face Elric straight on.

  “Ye best be tellin’ me the whole o’ it,” he demanded, his sharp blue eyes as dangerous as the daggers he carried.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Minnette listened with half an ear as Elric recounted the events of last eve to Glenn. The memories flashed through her mind like moving portraits, more vivid and terrifying than anything any human could paint.

  “Did the bastard say who sent him?” Glenn asked, and Minnette prepared herself to hear the answer spoken in raw truth.

  “Cardinal Calleaux,” Elric answered, her uncle’s name a curse.

  Minnette watched as Glenn’s body roiled with revulsion, even as his eyes widened in shock.

  “Damn.” Glenn grunted, his penetrating gaze examining Minnette anew. His eyes narrowed when he finally caught sight of the bandage on her arm. “I will kill him myself.” At the intensity of Glenn’s statement, Minnette shivered. She had no doubt Glenn would sink every single one of his daggers into her uncle’s body. Was it a sin to hope he would?

  “Not if I kill him first,” Elric ground out, his voice moving through her as if to stamp the promise on her bones.

  There was a weighty silence punctuated with bird song, but the songs failed to uplift her as they usually did. Even the blue of the nearly cloudless sky did nothing to pull her from the melancholy that suffocated her.

  Elric’s kiss certainly helped. A blush heated her cheeks, and she ducked her face to hide her embarrassment from Glenn’s too-perceptive eyes.

  Thankfully, Elric kicked his horse into action once more and Glenn followed suit. Soon, they were moving along, silence reigning, as the distance between them and Bridgerdon closed. She had fled through the forest and then slept in the back of Harold’s wagon, so nothing she saw she recognized. But she could feel the tension rising with each silent mile. Until she couldn’t take it any longer.