“But your tree is still bare. Aren’t you supposed to get new leaves, like the other bonded males?”
He’d tried not to worry about that, but it had been in the back of his mind, festering. His soul was still in jeopardy until he had a fresh batch of leaves. “Not yet,” he hedged. “But the more important issue is Eric. You want to find him. I want to help you.”
“Then let me up. We need to get moving.”
He’d wanted to wait until they were within a short sprint of a Gerai house, but his instincts were telling him that now was the time to act. Every minute he waited, she laid another brick in the wall between them. She hadn’t wanted this bond, and if she didn’t come to accept it, his lifemark was never again going to be healthy.
“We will,” he said. “After.”
“After what?”
He didn’t answer her with words. Instead, he dug his fingers into the damp soil and pulled energy from the ground beneath them. As was always the case when he tapped into this kind of power, he was stunned by the sheer volume that surged under his fingertips. All he needed was a tiny trickle, but there was a river seething beneath them, eager to find a home inside him.
He resisted the urge to open himself up completely—not while he was attached to Lyka as he was. There was too much risk involved in trying to access that kind of power. All he allowed in was a single tendril of current.
He spanned her neck with his hand, making sure both parts of the luceria connected. He directed the flow of energy from the ground, through his body and into hers.
She arched beneath him, letting out a low moan of pleasure. “Oh, my.”
He imagined she’d look just like that if he ever had the good fortune to make her come. The flush in her cheeks, the way her pupils flared and lengthened, giving her a decidedly feline appearance. Her lips parted and her breath came out in short bursts.
In that moment, he knew he was going to make her his in every way possible. He was going to strip her naked, kiss and pet every inch of her. He was going to slide his cock into her as deep as a man could go and stay there until the sun burned out. It was going to take at least that long to get his fill of her. And then, when he’d wrung as many orgasms from her as she could stand, he’d let go and find his own release inside her quivering body.
He was fertile now. Tynan’s serum had cured all of the male Theronai of their sterility. Joseph and Lyka could have a child—something he’d never before even dared to consider when it was beyond reach. A child would bind them together and serve as a reminder of the permanence of their connection. Surely she wouldn’t be able to deny him access to her trust, her secrets, if his seed was growing in her womb. He would be part of her, and their love for their child would give them common ground.
“What the hell are you doing to me?” she asked, panting.
“Does it hurt?”
She moaned again, and there was no mistaking the sound. It was one of overwhelming pleasure. She more than liked him reviving her strength like this. She loved it.
“More.” The single word was almost a plea, and Joseph wasn’t sure whether he liked the idea that he could make her beg or hated that she would ever need to.
“If you want more, you have to open up. Relax. Let me in, kitten.” He sent her a mental image of what he wanted. He didn’t know if it would make it through the tiny conduit connecting them, but he had to make the effort.
Her body went lax beneath his. She pulled in a long breath and let it out like she was making a concerted effort to relax.
Joseph felt something between them shift. Stretch. Grow.
“That’s it, Lyka. Just like that.”
A shiver coursed through her body and into his.
He needed to give her more. Make her feel good. Only he would ever do this to her—fill her with power, give her the ability to wield magic. She was his in a way she’d never be with any other man, as long as he lived.
He would make sure of it—give her so much pleasure she’d never have reason to even look at another man.
Joseph pulled more power from the earth and sent it flying through their newly expanded conduit. The walls of it trembled and strained to contain what he forced on them, but they held strong.
Lyka gasped and clung to him. “Too much.”
It wasn’t nearly enough. There was an entire planet of pulsing, churning energy beneath his fingertips. It all wanted to touch him and become a part of him. Every spark he gave her would make her stronger, keep her safer.
“Just a little more,” he coaxed.
She trembled in his arms but it wasn’t from pain. Her nipples were hard enough to be visible through her clothing.
What he wouldn’t give to rip her out of those clothes and have her laid out like this for him, naked and quivering. So beautiful. So his.
The sound of tearing fabric drew his attention. He hadn’t even realized he’d been doing it, but he’d used minute specks of the power he pulled in to give life to his desires.
Her shirt was sliced open all the way down the front. Her bra was torn in two. All the tattered fabric was splayed open, revealing the most perfect pair of tits he’d ever seen.
He had to touch, had to lick and kiss and suck.
The flow of power cut off abruptly as he moved his hand from the ground.
Lyka’s eyes popped open. The traces of the feline in her were acutely evident in the narrow slits of her pupils. As he watched, her gaze fell on his hands only inches from her breasts. Those slits expanded, telling him without a word that she liked what she saw.
Her chest rose and fell with every rapid breath. Her stare shifted to his eyes, and she watched to see what he would do.
An honorable man would cover her up. Offer her his shirt. He’d help her to her feet, see her safely to the truck and tuck her inside. He wouldn’t finish ripping her clothes off and fuck her on the cold, rocky ground, especially not when even one little scratch could fill the air with the scent of blood and send demons charging their way.
Joseph had always thought of himself as an honorable man, but as he stared down at Lyka’s beautiful body and saw the naked hunger in her eyes, he knew he was wrong.
“I’m going to fuck you,” he told her. His tone was too low and rough. Too much a warning and less a question. “Here. Now.”
She said nothing. There wasn’t even a debate going on in those catlike eyes—at least not one he could sense. She’d accepted his statement as one of fact. And she wasn’t fighting it.
“Unless you stop me.” The words came out of his mouth. He had no idea where they’d come from. Clearly, the honorable man in him wasn’t quite dead.
Lyka reached up and grabbed his head. Her fingernails were longer than they’d been only a minute ago. Her eye teeth were sharper, longer.
None of that was right, but Joseph didn’t give a shit. Everything about her turned him on. Even the freaky claws and teeth. All he could think about was what it might feel like if she used those on him, grazing them lightly over his skin.
She gripped his hair in her fists and pulled him down toward her for a kiss.
His lips met hers, and nothing else in the world mattered. She was so sweet and soft wherever she wasn’t sharp and fiery. She kissed him like it was the only thing she’d been born to do. Her tongue danced with his, staking a claim.
As if any other women existed for him now. There was only Lyka.
The taste of her went to his head. He pulled her body close, getting as much of her as he could against him. Each thrusting plunge of his tongue was met with one of her own. The slick heat of their mouths grew until he could feel sparks sliding between them.
He had to have more. All of her.
He ripped the tattered edge of her shirt aside and cupped her breast in his hand. Her skin was so hot, it nearly scalded him. The urgent press of her nipple against his p
alm made his mouth water. He had to have a taste.
Joseph tried to pull his mouth away, but Lyka wasn’t ready to let him go. Her sharp teeth nipped at his lips and tongue before licking away the sting she’d left behind. Her grip on his head tightened, and she wrapped her legs around his hips to pin him against her.
There was nowhere else he wanted to be.
A hint of blood hit his tongue, giving him a fraction of a second’s pause. Something about that wasn’t right, but he was drowning in Lyka and the desperate need for more of her.
She grabbed the hem of his shirt and tore it open. Her bare breasts met his bare chest, sending his world spinning. Hard nipples grazed against his skin, making his mouth water. She worked one hand between them to stroke his erection, and his cock jerked against his fly, demanding to be freed. It was so swollen and hard, he was surprised it hadn’t already ripped through his jeans to reach her hand.
She drew her fingernails over the denim. He could feel restraint vibrating in her touch. “Take these off or I’m going to claw my way in for what I want.”
Yeah, claws near his junk wasn’t his idea of a good time, but he was so turned on, it didn’t slow him down, either. Instead he rolled away from her enough to get naked without resorting to sharp instruments.
That’s when he heard the cries.
Low, eerie tones of hungry demons. And they were close. “Sgath. Fuck! We have to go.”
In one move he lurched to his feet and pulled Lyka along with him. She swayed for a second before regaining her stability. Her eyes widened and those slitted pupils narrowed. “It’s too late. They’re already here.”
Joseph pushed her behind him and drew his sword just as the first demon came into sight. It was about the size of a large dog, with glowing green eyes and rows of sharp teeth. Its proportions were all wrong, like a wolf and a chimpanzee had a rabid baby. Oily black poison seeped from its pores to mat its fur. Long claws were coated with the thick goo, and would make every one of its attacks lethal.
Before the first one had time to charge, another one broke through the underbrush. Then another.
“They found us,” said Lyka.
The blood he’d tasted. He didn’t know if it had been his or hers, but the ferocity of their kiss had earned them this inconvenience. “I’ll try to make this quick.”
Then they could get back to what they’d been doing.
He launched into an attack, timing his movements to take out each one as it crossed the distance to him.
From the corner of his eye he could see Lyka with her twin daggers drawn. She’d closed ranks with a larger sgath on their right flank and was doing a great impersonation of a food processor set on puree.
He turned his attention back to what he was doing, slicing cleanly through the scrawny body of the next demon in line.
These sgath were still young. They were fast, but didn’t have the power of their older counterparts. Thank goodness.
He finished off his side of the battle and was about to go help Lyka clean up her kill when the trees behind her shifted violently.
She didn’t see it happen. She’d just felled the big sgath in front of her and was too busy extracting her short daggers from its body to react to the danger.
Joseph tried to call out a warning, but he was too slow.
Something dark and shiny flew out of the forest. He got a quick flash of yellow teeth and glowing green eyes before it slammed into Lyka’s back and stuck there.
Its claws slid deep into her flesh, delivering a deadly dose of poison.
Rage dropped a red curtain across Joseph’s vision as he barreled toward her. He cut the thing in two with one carefully placed stroke of his blade. He hadn’t so much as trimmed a single hair on her head, but it didn’t matter. The demon had already killed her when it subjected her to its poison. All he could do now was watch her die a slow, agonizing death.
Chapter 21
Eric had no idea how much time had passed when he woke. All he knew was that his head was throbbing and he was thirsty enough to drink whatever swill was available in the dank cave.
Kayla was by his side in an instant, her sweet face puckered with worry. “Are you okay? You’ve been asleep a long time. We tried to wake you up, but you didn’t hear us.”
He sat up a few inches, hoping it would help his head stop spinning. It didn’t. “How long?” he croaked through his sandblasted throat.
She shrugged her narrow shoulders. “They fed us twice.” She scurried away for a minute and came back with a plastic pitcher of water. “The ugly guy left this for you. He told us not to drink it, but I took a sip anyway, just to make sure it was safe.”
Now a kid was protecting him? He must have looked even worse than he felt. “Don’t do that again, Kayla. You have to take care of yourself when I can’t.”
“But who’s going to take care of you?”
He forced himself upright, doing his best to ignore the way the cave was whirling around him. Even if he wasn’t strong right now, he had to find a way to look like it so none of the young would do anything foolish.
Kayla held the pitcher out to him. “The water is clean. You should drink. You smell sick.”
“Not sick. Just a little tired.” He closed his eyes to block out the spin and drank.
The cold water felt good going down. He was careful not to take too much at once for fear of puking it up.
Just the memory of that gaping maw in the top of Treszka’s head was enough to make him want to vomit.
He touched his neck where she’d fed from him, but the skin was whole again. He’d been out long enough to heal the wounds she’d left behind.
And the young had been alone the whole time.
“Is everyone safe?” he asked, too dizzy to do an accurate headcount.
“Yes.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “But the boys have been crying.”
“But not you?” he asked.
She bared her baby teeth. “I don’t feel like crying. I feel like killing them.”
Eric hoped the kid got a chance to do just that. “Tell me what happened while I slept. How many guards have you seen? Is there any kind of routine you can see to their movement? Some kind of pattern?”
She frowned at him in confusion.
He shook his head and patted her arm. “Don’t worry about it. I got this.” Or he would, once he had enough blood pressure to stand.
For the next hour or so, he sipped the water and held as still as possible. Kayla stayed by his side. The other young slowly migrated his way until they were all clumped up against him, shivering with both fear and cold.
He had to get them out of here. Already they were weakening. If they stayed down here much longer, there wouldn’t be any fight left in them.
When he was able to stand, he slipped from the pile and wobbled on unsteady legs to the opening in the chamber.
Armed guards with patchy fur and rusty swords were everywhere. He counted at least thirty of them in sight, and could smell lots, lots more nearby. The second he approached the doorway, several of the demons bristled in aggressive warning.
Eric held up his hands and stopped in his tracks. “I need to see Treszka.” He had no clue if they understood him or not. As far as he could tell, they seemed incapable of speech. All he’d heard from them were animalistic grunts, howls and that eerie hum of reverence they let out whenever Queen Bitch was nearby.
At least she couldn’t sneak up on him.
“Do you understand?” he said, louder and more slowly. “Take me to your leader. Treszka.”
The demons rumbled in confusion and looked at one another. Clearly, they were all idiots, incapable of a single independent thought among them.
“They won’t take orders from you,” said a low voice from a deep crevice in the stone.
Vazel.
He s
tepped out of his hidey-hole and pushed his way through the guards.
Once again, Eric was struck by how intensely ugly this creature was. He tried not to let his revulsion show on his face, but he was a few pints low and not exactly at the top of his game.
“Why do you want to see her?” asked Vazel, his words thick and difficult to understand through his fleshy lips.
“These kids won’t last long down here. I thought she might show mercy and let them go.”
Vazel grunted in what must have passed for laughter for him. “Treszka doesn’t do mercy.”
“A bargain, then.”
“She has everything she wants. Why would she give up something now?”
“A woman as ambitious as she seems to be must have something else she wants. Maybe I could help.” Eric probably wouldn’t be able to stomach helping her reach her goals, but if it saved the young, he’d find a way to gut up.
“She’s going to get what she wants from you, with or without your cooperation. She always does. So far, it hasn’t mattered.”
“What does that mean?”
“You haven’t figured it out yet?” asked Vazel. “Maybe that blow to your head did permanent damage. Or maybe you’re just not that bright.”
Eric so wanted to lunge at the demon and slam him to the ground. But playing nice was in the kids’ best interests, so he tamped down the urge and stayed where he stood. “Care to fill me in?”
“Treszka is the most beautiful female ever born. Synestryn lords come long distances for a chance to mate with her, but she’s turned them all down.”
Remembering what she had hidden under her hair, Eric did his best not to gag at the thought of what might be lurking under all those clothes. “Dare I ask why?”
“She wants beautiful children. Strong children.”
All the lights went on in Eric’s head, blinding him with the truth. “She told me she had needs, but I didn’t realize she meant she was looking for a breeding partner.”
“It is why you’re here, Slayer.”
He shuddered at the thought, working hard not to puke up the water he’d just gotten down. “No fucking way, dude. Chick is not only crazy, but she’s got this horrible case of dandruff. Don’t ever touch her head. You might catch what she’s got.”
Binding Ties Page 17