"And do what? Bite her hand off?"
"That'd work. If she was all gooey-eyes over my man, I'd dig her eyeballs out with a rusty spoon."
"There is something seriously wrong with you," I pointed out sweetly. "Besides, she's not looking at Theo gooey-eyed, she's looking at Mark."
"That bitch!" Sonya declared, wholeheartedly. Then ruined it by adding, "How dare she make your brother enjoy his last few days on this earth!"
"You're no help at all," I complained.
She smiled, eyes closed again.
"You missed me," she offered.
"Yeah," I agreed simply.
"OK," Theo said. "When you're ready."
Mark sucked in a deep breath of air, which was ironic because in the next instant I felt him reach for it.
A chill raced down my arms, setting the fine hairs up on end and making me shiver. Condensation appeared before my lips, even with the fire blazing in the brazier and the room warm only moments ago. An ominous heaviness landed on my shoulders, making me sink down in the sofa, and desperately wanting to cover my head and disappear.
"Mark?" Isadora called, giving him a small shake.
He didn't reply.
"Is he breathing?" Nico asked and I found myself on my feet, even as something was trying to push me back.
I hadn't realised I'd moved. Sonya was struggling to right herself, as her legs, which had been over my lap, had ended up on the stone floor beside the sofa. I opened my mouth to apologise and Air rushed in. A whistling sound filling my ears, followed by a wheeze as I tried to exhale.
I managed to push it out again, so that made me think Air wasn't trying too hard to harm me. But when I went to take a step towards my brother, I was immediately shoved back. A slap of wind in my face, against my chest. Like being punched in the stomach and then being unable to even gasp.
I made a strangled sound and Theo's head lifted searching for me. He was on his feet in an instant, trying to reach my flailing side, but Air was having none of that. Theo roared as he fought against an invisible enemy, the sound abruptly cut off as he was thrown to the ground, unable to draw any breath at all.
Desperate now to reach them. My brother who was once again turning blue and the man I loved despite everything imprisoned on the floor and gasping like a fish out of water.
I made it one step closer, and the whistling became a hissing laugh. So out of place in the cellar.
Without another thought I ordered, Stop!
The whistling became a humming, as though it was reprimanding me for trying to curtail its fun.
I had no control here. It may have protected me on Mount Victoria as it rained down its vicious anger on earth. But I had the feeling the free pass was over, and Air wanted to play with me now, instead of mankind.
I staggered another step, aware Nico was trying to get up and help me, and Isadora was trying to perform mouth to mouth on Mark, and Aktor was reaching for the fire, from where he lay, trying desperately, but futilely, to fuel himself enough to help out.
I stared at the flickering flames, willing myself to push through the barrier to reach a now non-moving Theo, yelling inside my head frantically for Air to stop.
It wasn't listening. I hadn't expected it to. But I sure as hell hadn't expected the flames in the fire to flare even higher as though Pyrkagia was about to join in the fun as well.
We couldn't battle one Stoicheio, how the hell would we fight two at once?
I lifted a heavy arm, reaching my hand out towards the flames and called Fire.
It had been instinctive. A desperate action to stop the inevitable.
Air swirled around me, lifting the hair on my head off my shoulders, while Fire spat and hissed in the brazier licking heated fingers over my skin.
Earth, I called, needing more strength to fight them. Knowing I couldn't hold them off much longer like this. I was down to one knee, just a short distance from Theo, unable to touch him, unable to save him, unable to stop this.
The ground shook, the arched columns swaying but not crumbling. The massive springs at their bases absorbing the shudder and shift of the soil. Dust rained down. A bottle smashed behind me. The scent of full bodied red wine met my nose as the high pitched scream of wind whistling assailed my ears and the touch of heated flames lashed at my skin.
Mark shuddered. His back arched. And then somehow, I don't know how, maybe I'd distracted Air enough to give him a reprieve, maybe the bitch had actually revived him, but somehow he sat up, and stared me in the eyes.
"What do you need?" he yelled, but I could only read his lips. The sounds in the cellar were deafening, the roar of Fire, the rumble of the Earth, the howl of Air.
Three Stoicheio couldn't stop this. Could four?
"Water!" I shouted back, my words whipped away in the frenzy.
I could hardly see anymore, a black shroud covering my eyes, or that could have been the dust we'd unsettled in this mini battle of wills. Because I knew this was small, nothing like Genesis and its power to upset the world. This was me and them and a test to see if I had what it took to contain them.
I didn't. I was sure of it. I was on two knees now, no longer breathing, no longer moving, about to pass out.
And then Sonya appeared, the glass of water in her hand that she hadn't quite managed to finish, and she threw the bloody thing in my face.
Er, not what I'd been thinking. Water hadn't Awakened, and right now when it might have been helpful, it sure as hell wasn't going to accommodate me.
But Mark was there, touching my cheeks, calling Water, making the drops of liquid rise up in a funnel and swirl around our heads.
And something else was there, that I couldn't quite identify but I knew it was not of this world. A presence, a show of support. Something that felt missing, but filled the emptiness inside. It made no sense, but I reached out to grasp it, hold it tight, and willed myself not to black out just yet.
Then screeches and bangs and crashes and even the odd flare of lightning, all in too small an enclosed space. People shouted; it sounded like hundreds of them, but there was only seven of us here. But I could hear the roar of many voices, all raised and shouting and trying to get me to do something.
I whimpered, not understanding them, then the dust devil parted and there was Theo, still out cold on the hard stone floor. And I had to reach him. I had to reach him. I just had to reach him.
So I clasped Mark's shoulder, used him to haul myself closer to that prone form. He realised what I was doing and dragged me a step nearer. The wind picked up, the flames in the brazier flared, somehow not being snuffed out in all of this, the ground shook beneath our bodies, and the water dripping from my face danced a dazzling twirl around us.
And something sparkled. It could have been inside my head. It could have been stars in the night sky.
Then, thank you Aetheros, my hand wrapped around Theo's ankle; he sat bolt upright and stared at my face. Gold blazed. Matched by my green and white and Mark's ice blue. And then everything lifted, rose up off the floor, and came crashing back down again in a final sonic boom.
Ringing resounded in my ears. My vision blurred. My jaw felt locked tight. My muscles trembling. But Theo stood before me, Fire dancing from the tips of his fingers, and hopping across the distance between us to land on my nose.
I sneezed, the ringing turned to crackling, and Mark threw his hands towards Theo and snuffed out the flames with what appeared to be a bucket of water.
The last crackle and pop sounded, and then noises came rushing into my ears, as I heard Theo say, quite calmly, "My Stoicheio is back, Alchemist. Try that again and I will burn you to a crisp."
"Go ahead," Mark growled in return, moving to his feet and puffing out his chest. "But I'll steal your oxygen and cut through your flesh with the power of a water-blaster."
Theo took a step closer, his large chest butting up against Mark's slightly smaller one. The fury, though, in both of their eyes pretty much matched.
It was Theo
who opened his mouth, but I managed to stumble to my feet, and pushed my way between their Neanderthal bodies.
"Stop," I gasped. "Just... stop."
"Cassandra," Theo immediately turned me into his body. "Are you hurt?"
I tipped my head back, feeling all kinds of exhausted but otherwise OK, and lifted my hand to his cheek infusing my touch with Pyrkagia. Oh, blessed return of Pyrkagia.
He closed his eyes, groaned low as he hauled me hard against his chest, and then rasped, "Fuck," under his breath as his body shuddered.
"Um, what are you doing?" Sonya asked, eyes wide, a pink flush up her cheeks at what she was watching.
"Sonya!" Nico exclaimed and rushed over, as Aktor gingerly stood, and Isadora discretely hauled Mark away from my side and out of possible Theo blasting range.
"Alone," Theo instructed, quietly in my ear. "Now," he added more urgently.
"We need to check that everyone else got their Stoicheio back," I argued, half-heartedly.
"No," Theo argued back, much more forcefully than me. "I need to be inside you."
Oh.
"Now."
There was no freaking way I wanted to argue with that.
He grasped my hand, flicked a cursory glance over everyone else, and then marched us down the closest corridor into the darkness.
And all I heard, getting quieter the further we went, was a tired sounding Aktor chuckling quite contentedly, as the rest of the room went about recovering from our latest Elemental encounter.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Take Me, Oraia
I shouldn't have felt so desperate. So hungry for his touch. For him. Something miraculous and totally unexpected had just happened. Something that I was sure had returned Stoicheio to at least Theo, Mark and myself, maybe the rest. I couldn't think clearly enough to work out the mechanics, though.
All I could think about was Theo's hot hand in mine, the Pyrkagia he was throwing around with abandon, and my body's own eager response.
Pyrkagia are sensual beings. Part of what makes them Fire Elementals is their call to all things heated. Passion and lust are forms of heat. Something a Pyrkagia can manipulate, feed off and fuel. They need it. They can be blinded by it. It can rule their actions and thoughts, direct them, almost control them. Especially if it comes back in a rush off adrenaline and takes them unaware.
For several days we'd been without it. Theo, a prince who commands his Stoicheio with regal perfection, was completely at its mercy right now.
He pulled me down a series of narrow corridors until we must have been as far away from the others as we could get in the cellar. It was cooler here, which was a relief because my skin was burning. The light from the candles and fire didn't reach this corner either, but the glow from our eyes was all we needed to see.
Theo stopped in front of a large wine barrel, and then turned and picked me up, placing me down on top of the surface, spreading my legs and stepping into the V. His lips found mine, his hand fisted in my hair, the other working its way under my t-shirt and wrapping around my breast.
He made a sound, a desperate, hungry, needy sound, then pressed himself deeper into my groin, rocking his hips. His erection was already impressive, but when he felt the dampness through the layers of clothes that separated us, I felt him swell and harden even more.
It was like placing petrol on an open flame, heat flared between us, becoming uncontrolled.
In an instant he had my jeans undone, and encouraged me to lift my hips enough to pull them and my panties down my legs, then threw them all to one side. The t-shirt was next, then my bra. I was left in socks, which felt ridiculous, but right then with Theo's tongue dancing with mine, and the furnace that was igniting between us stealing all thought, the socks were soon forgotten.
My hand roamed freely over his top, and then with a pained moan I began hauling it up and off. He accommodated me, pulling away from my bruised lips and lifting his arms, baring the sweat soaked glory of his torso. My tongue lapped at his nipple, while my fingers followed the contours of his muscles. I realised distractedly that I was squirming on the barrel top, unable to assuage that consuming need to find friction.
Theo's hand slipped between my legs, a thick, long finger running up between the soaked folds and dipping in. I bit his pectoral muscle, digging my fingers into his obliques. He groaned, pumping his hand between my thighs, flicking just in the right spot inside.
Starbursts before my eyes, my head tilted back and I let out a muffled cry. Muted because Theo had placed a hand over my mouth to contain my release, even as he sought more from me with his fingers and the pad of his thumb on my clit. The reminder that we were in the same room as the others had an unusual effect on me. I am not experienced, Theo has been my one and only lover, yet in that instant I had never felt as turned on as I did right then.
I whimpered against his hand, then bit down gently on his palm. He made a rumbling sound, deep inside his chest; appreciative, eager, encouraging.
"Lean back," he growled low, a sexy, roughened whisper.
I obliged immediately, finding a wall behind me to prop myself against as Theo pulled my butt to the edge of the barrel's top, spreading my thighs wider, opening me up to his perusal. He licked his lips, gold eyes I couldn't stop looking at flicked up to mine, and then he was down on his knees, his face at just the right height, his tongue delving between my folds and making me shudder.
One hand held firmly to my hip to keep me pressed against his mouth, the other pinched one of my nipples, making my back arch, a sound escape which wasn't muffled and my hips to begin to rock, seeking more, needing more, desperate for more.
The hand at my breast reached up until he could cover my mouth - I hadn't realised I'd started to moan loudly - and the other at my hip moved between my legs and two fingers slipped inside. He sucked and licked as he pumped and flicked, and then just as I thought I couldn't take anymore, he gently bit down on my swollen nub and sent me skywards.
His lips replaced his hand at my mouth and the taste of me and him on my tongue made me jerk and twitch and then he was there, just at my entrance, his trousers somehow gone, his hard, broad head pressing in, seeking entry, stretching me deliciously as he slowly slid inside.
I was so wet he met little resistance, and within seconds he was buried deep, holding himself still as a breathless grunt escaped his lips, swallowed by my mouth.
"Oraia," he groaned against me. "I'm going to make you come around my cock now," he added, still not moving, but I could feel his hard length twitch inside me and my walls clench in response, stroking him wickedly. "Oh, Aetheros," he exclaimed and started to rock his hips steadily.
I was thinking that maybe it would be Theo who came next, the desperate thrusts he made were evidence of his heightened arousal. His hands moving feverishly over my skin, his lips brushing, kissing, tongue licking, soft noises escaping on each pump and grind.
But as I rocked back, meeting him on each forward thrust, pulling him deeper and deeper with each quiver that rolled through my centre, I realised I was once again so very close to that edge. Skin smooth against skin, Pyrkagia burning between us, tangling together in a way that I'd forever crave, making our movements frantic, our heartbeats desperate, our touch scorching and beautiful at the same time.
His lips wrapped around a nipple and with exquisite perfection he timed each pull with every single thrust, until I wasn't sure if I was being fucked or being sucked to orgasm, and that decadent thought sent my skin blazing with a flush of embarrassment, or maybe that was arousal as my mouth opened, I sucked in a breath of air, and Theo's hand clamped down hard over my lips again and held my scream of release inside.
Holy freaking sparks of blissful sensations. My entire body shuddered, not just my centre where I climaxed, but everywhere. My skin tingled, Fire licked up my arms, sweat rolled down my back, my joints locked, my chest threatened to burst apart, and then Theo's golden eyes were right there.
"Stunning," he whispered, no
small amount of male satisfaction gleaming back at me. "Once more, I think," he added and I might have moaned in distress or desire, it was hard to tell.
He gripped my butt cheeks, pulled my rear further off the barrel's top, left me balanced precariously as he started to really pump into me. Each thrust rocking the unstable surface beneath me, sending me back against the wall, making the breath rush out of my mouth in a gasp. A soft exhalation accompanied each rock of his hips, and then the look of utter adoration on his face stole me from the world and left me floating in a star studded space I'd never known existed before now.
"You are mine," he somehow managed to whisper between the thrusts. One hand moving between our bodies, making my legs wrap more tightly around his waist for fear of falling off the barrel without his hold.
A thumb rubbed over my nub, then stroked back again, and then repeated. I was so sensitive, almost too sensitive, I whimpered, my eyes rolling back as he determinedly sought my orgasm, his thumb pressing harder, the sweeps coming faster, my insides clenching and rippling and threatening to explode.
And then I was up off the barrel, Theo's magnificent strength holding me aloft as my arms wrapped around his broad shoulders, my ankles crossed at his back. Our hips rocking, skin slapping, breaths grunting. Oh dear freaking God, this was insane. I couldn't catch my breath, I couldn't stop making little whimpering sounds, I desperately rocked back against him as he less and less steadily pumped his hard length into my core.
One of his hands was up my back, supporting my head at my nape, the other was holding my body aloft with a hand on my butt cheek, fingers digging, squeezing, pulling, making me experience sensations in parts of my anatomy I never knew were erogenous zones as well.
"Casey," he groaned, his face falling into the crook of my neck. "I have to bite you," he whispered against glistening skin. "Oraia," he pleaded, asking permission for something that he knew would hurt, but couldn't seem to deny himself.
A need as strong as this coupling was. A desire that came from deep within him, as intrinsic a part of his make-up as Pyrkagia.
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