Relics and Runes Anthology

by Heather Marie Adkins

  “I’ve never made love to a dragon…” he breathed sweetly in my ear.

  “I ‘ve never made love at all, let alone to a mortal.” I smiled as I felt him inhale my desire. And it fueled his hunger for me as the evidence of his need grew hard and fast and he pressed himself against the source of my heat.

  The youthful emptiness inside me filled with womanly love and hope as my passion welled and overflowed into the arms of Rock. The sensations that swarmed over me were foreign but enticing and irresistible. I could no more fight my desire than stop being a dragon. I felt a purpose and a calm as I honored my destiny with the love of this man. I thought, at first, I should be or would be fearful, trepidatious, or hesitant but I wasn’t, not at all. I was eager to be swept away, eager to be embraced, eager to be loved deeply, intensely, passionately. I was eager to be a woman and ready to be filled with the love from this man

  I did not know what the future held but it mattered not as long as Rock was at my side. It did not matter as long as my first thought at daybreak and my last at night was his name on my lips.

  He took my breath away as I tumbled into his love. He lay on my body, and under his weight, I felt the nuance of his mounting love press insistently between my thighs. His cock bulged with an eager need for relief and I opened my legs in a natural response to his ardor.

  “Ahh, Rock, my sweet love. I want you so. I feel my heat stirring, building, dripping with eagerness. Touch me.”

  “Oh, my Verité, my precious. Are you sure this is what you want?”

  “I have never been more sure of myself, darling Rock. Just help me, guide me in your needs and wants. I am yours to love, yours to mold, yours to fuck.”

  He stopped sharply, looking at me as though I’d just slapped him, but I had not. I had fueled his impatience further. Naked before him, he rose to kneel between my splayed thighs and removed his upper garments to expose his beautiful chest to me. He unbuttoned his trousers, all while staring at me watching him. My mouth watered. My fingers twitched. The small rise between my legs seemed to melt with desire, heat and juices flowing with an abundance not known to me.

  I watched as he dug into the tight place his huge cock occupied in his painful effort to set it free. I rose from my back and pointed out, helpfully…

  “Here, let me. My hand is much smaller…”

  “As long as it is not equally as delicate.”

  “You have felt my strength, but I melt in your embrace. All the strength I need is to release you from the confines of your pants and hold your love in my hand.”

  “God, Verité…how you madden me and drive me insane with desire.”

  “Oh, hush, Rock, please!”

  I dug into his trousers and found the object of my desire without delay. It almost sprung from the restrictions that kept it from me. I was shocked at the strength and flexibility of the cock that would serve my delight. It was bent nearly in half! How it was capable of driving away my heated passions baffled me, but I was sure, once I saw it after it sprang to full staff, that it would.

  I giggled with hungry delight. And on impulse bent down upon my prize.

  I took in his aroma and found it stimulating beyond anticipation. He was warm, musky, slightly tacky and aromatically sweet. I looked closely as he squirmed under my touch. I knew there must be something he would rather I do, but, having never seen a man’s cock, my own curiosity held me captive. There was a small slit in the top of the near purple head from which oozed white cream that tempted me to taste it. I held this beautiful massive fleshy staff in my fist, just under the rim. As I squeezed it firmly, it swelled and produced its involuntary bounty. I could no longer resist and so…I didn’t.

  I sank my mouth, slowly—wet and salivating—over the head of his fully engorged cock. I heard Rock gasp, unintentionally, then he fell back on his elbows. Still on his knees, the position he fell into arched his back and midriff as though presenting his prized staff for my pleasure. It was not lost on me and I accepted the presentation of his gift as it was meant to be—mine.

  He tasted sweet and salty, and dark and smoky. His moist aroma was invigorating, like rain in a deep forest feeding its own rich earth with the molten miracle moisture from within. The taste and passions beneath were invigorating and I starved for more. I flicked the hard tip of my tongue in and out of his slit until he moved erratically. And then I froze my Rock in place when I took his hardness into my mouth and plunged the full length down my throat.

  He grabbed the back of my head and my short coif fell evenly over my face. He would discover how long I could hold my breath as the strong walls of my throat massaged the length of his cock up and down and down and up again. On one throaty contraction, he moaned and started to thrust rhythmically with his hips. His abandon was infectious. I eagerly bobbed my head up and down, drooling my excitement over his flesh and down my hand. The slippery bone moved swiftly up and down, back and forth. And my heat increased with the speed of his hips. It was magic, if there would be magic in love, and I believed there was. He spoke my name into the cool night, the air heated around us.

  “Oh, Goddess…my sweet! What web do you weave over me with your magic and beguiling mouth? I am at your mercy. Pray, I beg of you, tell me your wish and I will move all things humanly to give you anything that you desire. Just. Don’t. Stop.”

  A deep and resonating throaty laugh found its way up his cock and out my mouth. My love, strong as he was, whimpered in my hands as the deep rumbling laughter rolled like a reverberating hum that resonated up his cock and out my mouth. He weakened further.

  This was definitely a rewarding endeavor for me as much as him. But, what was not lost on my young, inexperienced lips and hands was how malleable, how putty-like he was in my tiny hand. The thought passed and left as I absorbed myself in his joy and reveled in the mounting sensations rising within me. While I was inexperienced, I was instinctive.

  I wanted my love inside me. I knew this was quite normal and passion wrote my script. I kept my grip but removed my mouth, much to Rock’s dismay. But I turned and sat on his cock with a swiftness that surprised even me. My accuracy was joyful. He slid into me without resistance and I bounced upon him with a fervent joy and abandonment that had Rock groaning with pleasure. He was big; it was tight, but I was slick and ready, so eager and so hot.

  As he entered me, he consumed all the space inside me and my lungs released a loud splutter. He filled every inch of the inside of my body. What he hadn’t touched inside me with his cock down my throat, met in the middle when I sat on his solid shaft. I was delirious with excitement—wholly in a world of joy all my own. Then I felt his hands grab my tiny waist as he moved with fierce determination to impale me.

  With eyes closed and my back to him, I felt in a world of my own making, my joy and destiny of my own making. I couldn’t help myself when I began to grind, rotate, roll back and forth, bounce up and down and any other move I could dream up. I was in total ecstasy.

  Oblivious to the man beneath me, I began to flow and flow quite freely. I rode his stead with the strength of a warrior, the determination of soldier of love, willing to give my life in the pursuit of all end things.

  Without exception, every move, every gesture of my hips, extracted a response from my lover. I was joyfully in pursuit of my abandon and then it began. A small teasing rumble. Unwilling to break the spell, I kept the same pressure, the same motion, the same joyous rhythm. Like a fluttering bird, I didn’t want to scare it back into the darkness in my quest of its capture. It responded and fluttered, darted, dodged and came back to the sweet spot in which it thrived. The wings inside me built in strength and momentum and the flutter fast became a rolling thunder. I moved even faster on the shaft beneath me. My passion impaled upon his, we moved with the speed and measure of our pounding hearts.

  I was there, wherever there was. I felt perched on a precipice, teetering between passion and release. It ebbed and flowed, teased and taunted as my satisfaction at once within my reach
, darted like a fleeting bird and fluttered out of reach. It was perilous and tortuous, but welled again. I grabbed the nipples on my tiny breasts and pinched them hard. The wave came over me like a firework—flying, reaching—soaring, only to finally explode inside me with an excitement that left me without the ability to feel anything else, my breath suspended in my chest until I finally expelled every ounce of strength, every morsel of resistance and collapsed backward on the chest of my love.

  “God, Verité! You are without mercy. If I was required to defend your honor, I would be slaughtered at your feet, weakened by exhaustion by the energy you just sucked, literally, out of my body. You have everything I have to give and I have given it all.”

  He put his arms around my body and each hand cupped the opposite breast. He unconsciously nipped and rolled my nipples between his thumb and forefinger as his mouth lingered on my shoulder. I was sated in a way that left me weak, but exhilarated beyond my wildest dreams. I was introduced to the power of love and the exhaustion of passion.

  I was abundant in my love and overwhelmed with satisfaction.

  “I could say the same to you, young Rock. You were relentless, you rake! It’s just my luck to fall in love with such a randy scoundrel. I couldn’t be happier!” I laughed and as I did, I felt him slip with a slurping pop, out of my burning hole, and I regretted the chuckle immediately. His love oozed gently down my cheeks to my great dismay. Basking in the last vestiges of romantic passion, there was nothing stopping me from rolling over on him to face him. As I did, he moaned his discomfort as he tried to extend his legs.

  “Oh, Rock, I’m so sorry. Your legs much be cramped with my weight.”

  “You are as light as a feather and I can’t feel my legs.” He laughed heartily.

  “Oh, my. I hope you will live to love again.” Overly dramatic with a comic flair.

  “Oh, yes, my beautiful one. I will love you again and again—perhaps even tonight—fierce, Verité. You must prepare yourself!”

  “Perhaps, sire, it is you that needs rest in preparation for me, Dark Verité—fierce, ravenous, deadly.”

  “You sound insatiable.”

  “Be warned. Be very warned, sire.”

  7

  Then the Flames Came

  I don’t know why we chose there to rest, but the moon was hung low in the western sky and to the east a sliver of light sliced through the horizon. It was very late or very early, depending on one’s view of life. I chose to think of it as ‘The Beginning’ especially when my thoughts gave rise to Rock, even in his presence. I lay with my head on his shoulder, his arm draped over my shoulder as he slept and I watched him.

  My attention was drawn away from his peaceful visage and I was alerted to something, what I didn’t know. But, I listened, intently, my keen sense of hearing on high alert.

  I held my breath.

  My heart slowed.

  My ears twitched in the direction of the motion.

  I was alarmed.

  “Rock…Rock! Awaken!”

  “Wha…?” His eyes opened quickly but were unfocused as he tried to gain his bearings.

  “Shhh, listen closely.”

  “I don’t hear anything. What? What do you hear?”

  “Voices. I hear men’s voices.”

  “What are they saying? Can you hear?”

  “If you be silent, I might be able to hear. Let me up.” I wrestled my way out of his embrace reluctantly, then stood slowly behind the parapet and peered out the guard battlement through the crenel while shielding myself behind the taller merlon. I peeked silently and froze. There were men heading up the escarpment to the palace.

  We were in danger.

  “Where are your father and brother, Rock?”

  “No doubt in their chambers sleeping.”

  “We must gather them and your trusted guards. Have you prepared for this?”

  “I have, Verité. Follow me.”

  We quickly stepped into our clothes. I tied the sash behind my neck, brought it up between my legs and twisted it at the back and tied it in the front at my waist. All my peaks and valleys were covered modestly—for now. Soon clothes wouldn’t be a concern.

  We ran down the spiral stairs that led to the parapet and gave access to the watchtower. Rock lit a torch from the burning lanterns in the hall. We ran to the lower level of the catwalk then over to the guards’ barracks. The grounds were quiet, almost silent but for the swoosh of our own movement.

  My heart raced and then felt big and sluggish, as though everything inside me was in slow motion while the world around me was in furious movement.

  Rock tapped on the lower window in the front of the barrack. And then he lit a fuse that hung limply from the window. He grabbed my hand and without thinking, I wrenched it away and followed him freely. I heard boots and loud whispers, thumps and thuds from the sleeping quarters behind us and then an explosion, like rockets, burst from the chimney in showers of sparkling embers colored red, gold, green, hot white and blue the color of Rock’s eyes. For a moment, I was frozen, mesmerized by the brilliant display.

  The men who breached the escarpment scurried like the cockroaches they were in the dark shadows while their leadership tried to reorganize their assault. But the defense signal was launched. Places were taken, highly trained guards, friends of the Crown looked at first glance to be scattered and ill prepared but then fell into a machine-like drill and took their places and uncovered their armament. Defense weapons were stashed and hidden in all manner of places. The offending forces appeared to think at first that they had the superior edge, but were clearly surprised by the Crown defender’s preparation.

  While the thick walls had been breached, there were traitors among the loyal who had lowered the castle gate, allowing the assault teams to enter the basilica and scatter. While I was unafraid, I didn’t know how I could help, immediately. My keen eye scoured the surrounds to follow the movements of the forces and I watched as they approached with lethal force the steps to the palace at the far center of the courtyard. Rock grabbed my hand again and yelled.

  “Verité, come with me, hurry! Move!”

  I snapped my head in his direction and looked beyond him as he looked into my eyes with a black frown. A rebel charged toward him with a lance and a shield. Rock was unaware of the imminent strike. I changed almost immediately, my sash popping the knotted restraints. I inhaled quickly and it pulled anyone near me closer. As I jumped in front of Rock, I landed between him and the assailant. Rock’s jaw dropped in awe and his eyes were frozen on my dragoness form and beauty. I pulled my head back, arched my neck and I winked at him as I exhaled a blistering bolt of sulfuric fire in the direction of the assailant. The danger he represented vaporized with him before my feet.

  “Rock, jump! Jump on my back! Now, Rock!” He looked stunned. “Jump, now!”

  He leapt upon my back, draped his arms around my neck, careful not to engage the knife-sharp scales along my neck and backbone. While I sprang, Rock wrapped his muscular legs around the sides of my torso, anchored a strong grip with his knees above my shoulders and I winged our way to the top of the watchtower above. We were safe for the moment as the rebel soldiers fought and the loyal guards defended the palace. Men were dying, screaming, yelling their loyalties with each strike. The battle was ferocious and brutal. The sound of steel and forged metal against metal rose in a deafening roar. The blood of both ran together and steamed on the morning coolness of the courtyard grass.

  I was overwhelmed with sadness. I had never seen anything like it, so brutal and senseless.

  I had never killed before but thought little of it while I did so without hesitation to save the life of Rock. I had never used my powers before, not like this, and all the sensations, while new to me, were real and effective. I dare not use my aura. It was impossible to separate the assailants from the loyalists to the throne. I could not kill them all with my breath weapon, and that is surely what would happen. I have a quiver of many mystical powers but I fe
ar not all of their use would be welcome in hand-to-hand combat as we witnessed from the watchtower.

  “Your father and brother…where are they? Are they safe?” I looked to Rock and smoke emanated from my nostrils.

  “I knew you were special, Verité, magical even, but in ways I could never imagine. It never occurred to me to ask. Is there more?”

  “More what? More about me that you do not know? Perhaps…for example, I am of royal lineage myself. And have mystical traits in my arsenal of weapons. But I would prefer not to demonstrate their effectiveness, nor my accuracy, at the moment. Shouldn’t we secure your father and brother’s safety, first?”

  “Yes, of course, but first…” Rock stopped on the top step, before descending.

  “Yes?”

  “If I am going to introduce you to Father, do you think it would be wise to make his acquaintance like…like…”

  “This? A dragoness? Perhaps not.”

  “Can you change at will?”

  “Why yes, Rock, I can…and I will because we are out of danger. But if I must return to my wyrm form, I will. Where are they, if we are separated?”

  “They should be secured in the north watchtower. There’s a yard ladder that descends from the tower to the tunnel opening in the maze garden. The escape route has long been there, known by blood royalty alone, in the event of a battle.”

  “Wouldn’t it be faster if I flew us to the garden below?”

  “Yes, you have a point and a practical one at that! Off we go then, my girl. You can change in the garden.”

  His humor, while black, set me to laughter as he straddled my back once more, careful not to impale himself on my spines. With one spring and a jump, we were gliding to the ground below.

  “Where?” I asked my lover.

  “There…see the lavender tree in the corner? There, put us down there, by it.”

  “Yes, love.”

  “I could get used to this, Verité. It is all so beguiling. You are so beguiling.”