Fire and Fantasy: A Limited Edition Collection of Urban and Epic Fantasy

by CK Dawn

  I took his depth, and his breath departed with a rough exhalation on my neck.

  “Holy shit! Selene!” he cried.

  The way my name rolled off his tongue had his voice thrumming through me right down to my toes.

  His mouth crashed against mine again as an aching heat grew inside me. Xander's hips collided with mine, slow and in control as I rocked against him.

  His fingers squeezed the globes of my buttocks, harder and harder, as his pace quickened. My back arched, and our kiss broke away only for me to find my nipples again being sucked into his mouth. His teeth tightened around the tips, and the sensation tingled down to the bud of pleasure between my legs.

  I gasped and relished in the way he felt inside of me. My body trembled, and my shoulders shook as my muscles clamped around him. My hands reached around him squeezing, nails digging in and pulling him closer. He couldn’t get close enough. I wanted more. Deeper and deeper, he plunged inside me.

  Friction grew as our bodies slid against each other. When he hit a tender spot, my body quaked and every muscle tightened. I released a shaky breath and met his rapid thrusts.

  “Yes!” I cried as my eyes pressed together.

  Suddenly, my hips bucked, and a silent scream attempted to pour out my open mouth. Waves of pleasure exploded, and a white light beamed from my chest.

  I melted around him as every plane of muscle in his body flexed under me—pulsing, releasing, and driving me farther over the edge.

  We cried out together.

  A thundering roar escaped him.

  His shoulders shook, and his body transfixed as I rode out the aftershock of pleasure.

  I fell over him, my arms wrapping him in a tight embrace as he pulled back from me and released my legs. He then scooped me up and carried me the short distance to the waterfall.

  “I think it is time for us to cool off.”

  I let my head fall back under the stream of chilled water and then came up to catch my breath again as my feet found the earth beneath the pool.

  Xander reached up and pushed the hair from my face, causing me the inability to breathe.

  “You are magnificent in every single way possible,” Xander hummed with our foreheads pressed against each other.

  He leaned in and laced my mouth with another sweet and soothing stroke of his tongue. Our embrace could have gone on for an eternity. The energy flowing between us could have been enough for an entire civilization to live off.

  Fourteen

  “I hope Xena doesn’t mind if we are a minute or two late.” I rubbed at the denim pants covering my legs. It was my first time wearing a pair of jeans. I was still unsure if they were an acceptable option for me, but they had to do for the time being.

  Xander’s shoulders tightened, but a lingering smile had been splayed across his face since we’d gotten out of the hot spring.

  It warmed my heart, and I couldn’t help returning the goofy smile. It was enough to make any bystander sick.

  Even though we’d been cutting it close with the time, we’d had no other choice but to backtrack to Xander’s cabin and retrieve clean clothes. Most of what we’d had on in the woods was either torn to shreds or covered in blood.

  “She will live if she has to stay a few minutes. She is always looking for extra time on the clock. If we weren’t on top of her about taking it easy, she would have stayed for a full shift.” He pulled into the gravel parking lot.

  “Well, thank the gods we are here now to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

  “You can say that again. Although, I also might need to thank the gods that you are here with me as well.” He winked at me just before unlatching his door. “Wait there and let me get the door for you.”

  If he only knew. It wasn’t actually the gods that needed thanking but the oracle, Elysia. It was a Goddess he had actually been fornicating with in the woods.

  I was still too elated from the experience to care about the fact that I had broken my vow of chastity. I would have to come to terms with that when I got back to Olympus. I would be lucky if my devotees didn’t shun me for it all together.

  Xander helped me down from the cab of his truck and never let go of my hand. We walked, joined by the fingers, all the way up to the front door of the diner.

  The bell rung behind us, startling me and putting me back on edge. I scanned the small dining hall for Xena, as did Xander. I didn’t see her or her long blonde hair. With the size of her belly, she would have been hard to miss.

  Xander turned to me. His eyes shifted uneasily as he stalked toward Jane. Her hand was tipping a pot of coffee over the only patron’s coffee cup.

  “Is Xena in the kitchen?” he asked.

  Jane rubbed her lips together, quickly retracted the pot, and moved back away from the old man.

  “Jane?”

  She shook her head, and her eyes darted back and forth. She looked terrified to answer him, and it wasn’t sitting well with me. A sudden empty hole seemed to open at the base of my belly. All the joy and elation that I had been filled with depleted in a matter of seconds.

  “Where is she, Jane?” Xander’s voice took on a stark and dire tone.

  “She isn’t here. She left with Bruno.” Jane stepped back and slid the pot onto the machine behind her, never taking her eyes off Xander.

  “What?” Xander’s face flushed red and the vein running across his forehead started to pulsate. “What do you mean she left with Bruno? She would not have done that. She knew I was coming to get her, and I did not get a call or text from her.”

  “I…I was going to call you, but…” Her head tipped forward, and she looked down at her feet. “He kind of didn’t give her much of a choice, and he told me if I said anything he would come back here and set this place on fire.”

  Xander’s nostrils flared, and his jaw set into stone.

  “I am so sorry I didn’t call you. I’m sure she is fine. For heaven's sake, he is going to be the father of her babies. They have been dating on and off for almost two years.”

  Bang.

  My shoulder shook along with all the condiments and silverware on the counter where Xander slammed his fist down.

  “We have to go. Now!” He turned and grabbed me by the hand, nearly dragging me through the parking lot.

  “How bad do you think this really is?” I asked him as we got into his truck.

  Before my door was even fully shut he was peeling out of the parking lot.

  “I don’t know.” He slammed his hands against the edges of the steering wheel. “This is my fault. I should have been here.”

  “It isn’t your fault at all, Xander. We don’t even know how long ago she left with him.” It didn’t matter how long ago it had been, if he laid one finger on her, he would not live to tell about it. “Where do you think they went? They certainly didn’t go back to your cabin. We would have passed them.”

  “We are going to the shack he likes to call home.” He pulled out his phone, pushed a few buttons, and told it to call Xena’s cell.

  It rang and rang until a recording came on, telling him to leave a message.

  “Dammit!” He slammed his phone down into the center console.

  “How far is his shack?”

  “Not too far. They live in a small compound of trailers a few miles into the woods. We are almost there. I really hope they are there.”

  We pulled down another dirt road off the main stretch and traveled quite a way into the forest until we came up on a row of mail boxes. Just past the boxes was an opening with scattered trailers—some with cars and rockers out front. Others had piles of junk and old household appliances stacked up on top of what appeared to be broken down vehicles without wheels.

  He came to a screeching halt at the last and most dilapidated of the homes.

  “You stay here. I don’t want you to get mixed up in this. Just get Xena into the back as soon as I get her out of there. If I don’t come right out after her, take my truck and her away from here.
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  “Have you gone mad? I am not letting you go anywhere without me. I won’t allow harm to come to her either. And you may not believe it, but I can be way more useful than a getaway driver.” His intentions may have been to keep me from harm’s way, but I was not a mortal or a defenseless female.

  “Just stay behind me, okay?” he demanded.

  His fist collided with the dirt stained door. Instead of it making a loud thumping sound, the door swung inward.

  “Oh!” I gasped.

  “Xena?” Xander shouted as he ran into the small living space. It looked as if a tornado had taken a path directly through the interior. Furniture had been turned over and broken glass was scattered all over the floor.

  He ran to the end of the short hall and slammed open the doors. “Xena! Are you here?” he shouted frantically.

  “They aren’t here!”

  His head tipped back, and he growled so loud that I heard the birds and other animals in the woods around us scurry away. Once he finished his animalistic cry, he kicked the old, stained couch that was already lying on its side.

  “I will kill him, and when I am done, I will kill him again.”

  “Xander, I am right here with you. He will do more than pay if he has harmed Xena in any way. That being said, we need to focus and find her. Tuck your rage in deep and let it come to a boil. For now, we need to find her.”

  “Grrr. I don’t want to tuck my rage. I want to unleash it on his face.”

  “Understandable! Listen to me. We are hunters. It is what we do. We can track them. All we need is a starting point, and we will find them.” The floor held enough crap to slow us down, and I stepped over some old cans and a pizza box to get closer to Xander.

  “You ready?” I put two hands on his shoulders, then slid them down over his tense arms, and took his hands in mine. “Let’s go find her!”

  “Look!” It didn’t take but a minute before Xander found something shiny in a small pile of mud about a foot from the front stoop.

  “What is it?” I asked, even though I had a good idea.

  I cringed, watching him stick his fingers into the muck. It hadn’t rained once since I had arrived, so who knew what was causing the moisture. He lifted a finger, and from it, hung a silver chain with Xena’s charm of the moon and bear cub.

  “That is hers!” I gasped. “I would never forget what that looked like.”

  “Bruno likes to hunt not far from here. It is just a few miles in. Where Xena said she thought he and his cronies spotted your stag. Maybe we will be able to spot him as well.”

  “I am not even worried about Ceryn right now. He can wait.” I completely forgot about him and why I was on Earth in the first place. I had become so enthralled with Xander and his sister, I didn’t much care about anything else.

  “Look, I think I’m right.” He pointed as he ran to examine tracks he found.

  The sight of them left me ever more uneasy, and my bow tingled at my back, itching for me to pull it out. Unclear as to how well Xander could read tracks, I didn't want to scare him by telling him what they looked like to me.

  “There are quite a few tracks here, lots of large boot prints, I don’t know how fresh these are. It is possible that he and the others had been through here earlier this morning or even yesterday.” He sighed, and a sadness took a hold of his eyes. “This here is what concerns me. Even though I don’t see a track small enough to belong to Xena, this smear mark looks as if she could have been dragged through here.”

  His head shook and his lips pressed together. He stood back up and balled his hands into fists. “I don’t know how fast you can run, but I can move a lot faster in my bear form. If I shift, and you can’t keep up, can you follow my tracks?”

  “I can keep up with you, And, yes, I can track you if you get ahead of me for some reason. You can’t get away from me that easily.” I nodded at him and gave him the permission he needed.

  Anxiously, I waited as he stripped down and tucked his clothes under a bush off the path. In awe, I watched as his body morphed into a large black bear. I hadn’t noticed it when I’d first shot him in the leg, but now that we had grown close, it was obvious to me that his eyes were still Xander’s. If he was in a pack of bears, I would know him in a heartbeat by the way he looked at me.

  He angled and knocked his head in the direction away from the trailers. He didn’t need words to tell me it was time to go. When he’d said he would be faster as a bear, he hadn’t been kidding.

  It was freeing to be able to run with him and not hold back. I felt as if I didn’t need to hide who or what I was in front of him. Thus far, he had completely respected my privacy and had secretly admired my uniqueness without question.

  Borus’s tracks were not the only ones I spotted as we ran. Even at our amplified speed, I knew Ceyn’s tracks anywhere. They had a unique shape that only he and his brothers possessed.

  I shrugged it off and hoped the situation with Xena would prove to not be as big a deal as we feared. When we got her to safety, I could double back and find him. My two objectives at the time were to find Xena and keep Xander cool enough so that things didn’t escalate without us getting his sister to safety.

  I actually blew past Xander for fun. We were faced with a serious situation, but there was still that competitive bone in my body that wanted to be the best at what we were doing.

  I could hear the sound of men’s voices before we came up on them. Whether Xander’s hearing was anywhere as good as mine was still a mystery to me. My thundering feet slowed to a less than a jog, and I put a hand up to signal to Xander to stop running.

  I tapped my ears and pointed forward. I spun my finger around to tell him that we should stay low and go around, separating so we could approach them from two different angles.

  Fifteen

  Slowly, we stalked the men from opposing sides. I spotted Borus first. Three other men accompanied him, all wearing nearly the same attire. The only variation seemed to be the color of vest and the print on their shirts.

  “Your brother thought he was slick, threatening me. He doesn’t want me to have you, and I don’t want you, so where does that leave us?”

  His words cut through me worse than any blade could.

  Watching my step, I quietly got into a position where I could take my best shot.

  Before I could take out my bow, Xander’s black fur charged across the clearing, head first into the man closest to him.

  “What the hell!” Borus turned, his eyes red hot with blood lust.

  Xander had knocked his target onto his feet, but before he could turn to assess the other men, they were already beginning to shift. Their clothing shredding off around them, their bodies grew.

  I ran to get myself into a better angle. Borus would have to wait. He was the farthest away and the least threat since Xander had three other men to fight off first.

  Sliding the bow from behind me, I positioned my arms to prepare for the first arrow. I could shoot fast, at least ten arrows per minute if I needed to if I had the trajectory to hit my target.

  Just as my arm pulled back the arrow to hit the light brown bear raising his claw to Xander’s back, I heard a moaning sound coming from the other side of the clearing.

  From the corner of my eye, I watched as Xena’s blonde hair spread out on a bed of dried leaves and dirt. Her pain shot through me as if I had been the one on the receiving end of my bow.

  Xander needed me, but Xena needed me more. Something was wrong. Her babies were in danger. I couldn’t ignore her suffering.

  With my bow in one hand and the arrow in the other, I took off into a sprint across the opening. Borus and Xena were farther than I’d anticipated. Even at my speed, I wasn’t fast enough to get to her before he did.

  Borus grabbed Xena by the hair and started to lift her off the ground.

  “No!” she cried as she doubled forward with her hands clutching her belly.

  “There is one very simple way to deal with the likes of you
and the vermin you carry in your fat, disgusting belly. I can’t believe I actually fucked your grotesque ass.” Borus pulled a hunting knife from a small leather case attached to his belt.

  Tears streamed down Xena’s scrunched up face as it filled with a fear I had never seen before. Sheer panic for the safety of her unborn children more so than for her own life. Her feet kicked at the dirt as her body lifted.

  “Hey, Xander! You think you are a tough guy, huh? How about now? You dumb piece of shit. Have fun being ripped to shreds by my crew.” He laughed. “Don’t worry, they will keep you alive long enough to watch me cut your sister and her spawn to bits.”

  His threats distracted Xander. The loss of concentration allowed one of the bears to kick his leg. The force of it took him down to his knees. A large clenched paw came crashing down from the other direction, and it slammed into Xander’s jaw, knocking him back into a sway.

  Bruno cried out with a maniacal laugh.

  “Get off me!” Xena screamed.

  “Shut up, bitch.” Before he even finished yelling at her, the handle of the knife thudded into her face.

  I watched as her eyes rolled back and her body went limp, hanging by her hair in his hand.

  His chin notched upward. “Now it’s time to get to cutting.”

  “Oh hell no, it’s not!” I shouted and raised my bow and arrow. It had been a long time since I needed to shoot and run at the same time.

  With my bow raised in my left hand, I notched my arrow, drew my right thumb across the edge of my lip, and slid it against my cheek.

  There was no way I could close one eye this time. Luck or fate would have to be on my side while I took aim. Brunos wasn’t the only target I had.

  I released the arrow, aiming at the hand Brunos used to grip the knife. He’d had it angled and ready to cut into Xena’s belly. The smug look on his face flashed white, and his eyes went wide as my arrow shot right through his wrist. He dropped the blade and Xena.

  It wouldn’t be enough to keep Brunos down, but Xander was having trouble defending his position. I knew he could take on those bears, but he needed an advantage and two seconds to get back to his feet.