by Lora Leigh
His original trip had been a supply run. They weren’t buying any groceries or supplies from the towns surrounding the estate, which meant everything had to be flown in personally.
“Good,” Zach sighed. “We’ve had several calls come in and they’re needed if you can spare them. But Miss St. James is high priority. Thankfully, she’ll be under Devlin’s protection soon.”
Alyx shifted restlessly, drawing Lynn’s gaze. She frowned. He didn’t seem to be the restless sort.
“I’m still confused why they couldn’t do this themselves from the onset.” Lynn shook her head. “They’re stronger than we are, in all ways.”
Zach shook his head. “Devlin didn’t say and I didn’t ask. He’s keeping an eye on things, though. If it gets too hairy, they’ll come on in. I’d like to give him the time he needs. He wouldn’t have asked for our help if it weren’t important.”
Lynn caught Alyx’s movement from the corner of her eye. He was staring at the door to the study, his expression bordering on a frown, as though there were some confusion in something he was sensing. She couldn’t feel anything. No hint of malice or darkness. Everything felt calm. Too calm, perhaps. The last two weeks had been one battle after another against the forces sent to take or kill Ariel. It felt strange, the sudden absence of the threat. Had they retreated so easily?
“Alyx and his men have made a difference.” Lynn nodded to the three tense men.
Alyx stood taller, more imposing, but the others weren’t lightweights. Gryphon was black-haired, with brilliant violet eyes. Phoenix was blond, with shimmering green eyes. All three were tall, bronzed and powerful. A lethal combination.
“Good.” Zach nodded approvingly, his auburn hair falling over his brow as he frowned in irritation. He swiped it back, revealing a broad forehead and worried hazel eyes. “I’ll take half of them back with me then— What the hell!”
The three men moved simultaneously, streaking for the door, throwing it back so violently it was torn from the hinge as they raced out of the room.
“Ariel!” Lynn screamed at the others in warning as she sprinted after the three warriors. “Liz, cover me. Jack, get ready to help.”
As she ran she opened the door to her power, letting it surge fast and hard to the room down the hall. She didn’t know how much time they had, and everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Her powers rushed through her, slamming into Ariel’s room, creating a sense of vertigo as the misty impression of the bedroom lay over the real sight of her race up the hall.
The shadow was creeping for the bed, wide, menacing, a dark malevolent force that had somehow managed to slip past them all. She threw the astral shield over the restless form of the other woman; drawing on the sudden surge of power Liz threw at her and the stability Jack was providing.
It wasn’t enough. She could feel the psychic force hammering at it, weakening it. She gasped painfully as the room seemed to fill with malevolent forces, weaving around them, seeking a way past their strength.
Then she felt it. The growing power she had kept so carefully in check. It strained against her control as the shield began to weaken further.
“Lynn, damn you to hell, stop fighting it,” Alyx screamed out at her as he blocked the dark cloud snaking its way to the bed. “Protect her or we’re all doomed.”
The shield buckled further. The warriors had their hands full, their power blocking, fighting against the cloud of rage and fury fighting to get to Ariel. Around the bed, hated shifts of unnatural power whipped around them, probing at the cracks.
Gasping, almost frozen with fear, she eased open a fragment of the hold she had placed around the core of energy screaming within her. It flowed free. Hard, brutal, like a fist slamming into her mind as it finally merged within her being. Alyx. Herself. Whipping around her senses like an immature being, shrieking in joy.
Then it poured free. Astral screams of rage and pain resounded within her head as she drove the enemy’s force back, strengthening the protective layers of power she had weaved around Ariel. She then worked on fighting back the attacking enemy as Alyx and his men worked at destroying the embodiment of hatred that filled the room.
Lynn had never seen anything like it before. Joining them, Zach added another layer of protection over Lynn’s as they raced through the door to the sitting room and came to an abrupt stop. Alyx, Gryphon and Phoenix stood before the bed now, creating a shield around themselves and the dark cloud as it struck with a sudden, violent intensity.
This was no astral battle. She watched in amazement as the warriors countered the violent arcs of electricity with shields of energy and released their own from outstretched hands. They weaved about the area, bodies graceful in their strength, muscles bulging with the power it took to harness the incredible energy being used.
They blocked the dark force at each turn, moving it back, spearing into it with sizzling bolts of energy that produced horrendous shrieks of pain from within the cloud of evil. The warriors fighting it weren’t doing so without risk, though.
Lynn watched as dark streaks of blood began to stain the cloth of the warriors’ clothing. Alyx had a wide stripe across his bicep and the outside of his thigh. His face was strained as he held his arm outstretched, energy gathering as a brilliant ball of focused light in the center. His shield deflected a heated arc of flame as he aimed the spherical, psychic weapon and sent it flowing deep into the black mass.
Another shriek rent the air and the cloud seemed to shrink in size and menace. Gryphon and Phoenix, working in coordination with Alyx, aimed for the heart of the malevolent beast. The room rattled with the creature’s scream of rage, the very air around them trembling in reaction to the power the warriors unleashed into the cloud. In the blink of an eye, golden light coalesced within its center, filling it, overtaking it, until it finally exploded in a shower of energy that washed over them all.
“What the bloody fuck was that?” Zach gasped as he collapsed to the floor, the power he had used to protect Ariel disappearing in a single instant. Liz fell next, cushioned by Jack’s supportive arms as they breathed roughly.
Lynn reined her own power back, stumbling beneath the exhaustion of throwing everything she had into a shield that would protect the woman from the sinister threads of cloudy energy that had moved over them, searching for a weakness. She was weaker than ever physically, though the strength inside her seemed increased a hundredfold.
“Alyx.” He stood tall beside the bed, his own wounds seeping slowly into the material of his black clothing.
He didn’t appear harmed, but she could see the fine lines of weariness about his eyes and mouth now.
“Return to the ship,” he barked at Phoenix, his eyes glowing with menace. “I want answers and you tell Koran I want them now or else all bets are off.”
Phoenix disappeared just that quickly as Alyx swept Lynn into his arms, bracing her exhausted body against his own.
“Gryphon.” He turned to the other warrior. “How severe are your wounds? I need you to protect the Wind Mistress.”
“Shanar will get pissed,” Gryphon sighed. “I’ll protect the girl. My wounds are not as deep as your own and I’ll heal quickly. Take your woman and rest.”
The room seemed to spin around her, darkness threatening the edges of her mind.
“Alyx, what was it?” she gasped, as he lifted her into his arms and strode quickly from the room. “How did it get in here?”
She heard the growl of rage that vibrated in his chest and she shivered at the force of fury behind it.
“It is hatred, Lynn. Pure, unadulterated hatred sent by a force that has not been known of in over a millennia.”
“But why didn’t we sense it?” she asked weakly as he slammed the door closed on his bedroom, the dim, cool confines of the room washing over her in a wave of comfort.
“Because it’s natural,” he sighed as he laid her on the bed and sat beside her slowly. “Somehow Jonar has tapped into the dark force of this planet and harness
ed its evil. Until the Shadow Warriors arrive and the crystal at Ariel’s neck awakens, we can only play a game of wait and pray. Because it will be back. Hungrier and stronger than before.”
Chapter Eleven
Lynn protested weakly as Alyx stripped her of her clothing and tucked her naked between the sheets. Then she watched in amazement as he waved away his own clothing and proceeded to heal his wounds.
They appeared deep. Dark red blood stained his skin and he closed his eyes; a shimmering veil of energy enclosed him. As she watched, the wounds healed, but the effort it took to close them up left him pale and weak.
Afterward, he crawled into the bed beside her, pulled her against his larger body and slept. She needed desperately to follow him. She couldn’t remember a time when it had taken so much of her power to hold back a force threatening one of her clients. Stopping bullets didn’t leave her this drained.
The truly frightening part was that alone she could have never accomplished it. It had taken her, Zachary, Liz and Jack, backed by the entire force of psychics at their disposal, to shield Ariel and allow Alyx and his men the freedom to concentrate on keeping the evil from surrounding them. Had the alien warriors not been there, she knew they would have died in their effort to save the other woman, and it would have been in vain. She would have died with them.
Despite the weariness tugging at her, her mind refused to let her sleep. She had learned long ago that exhaustion this deep bred nightmares so horrible she would awaken gasping and crying out in pain. She never remembered the dreams. Never knew why her body ached as though a fatal blow had been delivered, but it terrified her. That fear held her awake now.
“Sleep, little love,” Alyx murmured at her ear, his voice low and weary. “Nothing will harm you here. I promise you this.”
His hands smoothed down her back, creating a firestorm of sensations that caused her to shiver in awareness of her state of undress.
“I will.” She relished the feel of his strong arms surrounding her, the broad strength of his chest cushioning her head, the power of his thighs against her smaller ones. She had never been held so closely, with such warmth.
“When?” he grunted tiredly. “I cannot sleep while you are so tense and frightened, Lynn. I swear to you, that force cannot slip into this room. I have made certain that for the time being, we are protected.”
“How?” They hadn’t been protected from its invasion earlier.
He sighed deeply. “Are you certain you wish to know?”
“I asked, didn’t I?” She frowned against his chest, stiffening further in his arms.
“I sent out a call to a friend,” he said softly. “She will protect the area until Phoenix can return and lend his aid in doing so. We are safe. I swear this.”
“And who’s your friend?” She didn’t like the bite of jealousy that struck at her. Help was help. Right?
“The friend was your Earth Mother.” Amusement shaded his voice as though he were aware of the streak of jealousy. “It is her daughter we protect, just as it was the evil of her own planet that attacked. She will provide her protection until our strength is renewed once more.”
Earth Mother? Mother Earth? Mother Nature? Lynn was certain she would be hysterical if she weren’t so damned tired. She dealt with the paranormal on a daily basis. Knew of forms of evil that would break most men’s minds. Fought the deadliest foes without knives or guns or fists and knew that true evil existed. Yet, the thought of being protected by a force she couldn’t call upon, sense or see wasn’t comforting.
“Alyx, I have to admit, this is getting too freaky, even for me.” She breathed out heavily at the admission. “I thought I had seen everything there was to see that could terrify one human being. But I might have just reached my limit.”
His arms tightened around her as he shifted against her. Her breasts raked against his chest, sending shooting darts of sensation through her nipples then straight to her pussy. She gasped at the pleasure, though her body felt heavy with exhaustion.
“If you do not go to sleep, I am going to spread your thighs and bring you to such a climax it will render you unconscious. If I do this then I promise you, Lynn, when you awaken, I will make you pay for the suffering I will go through waiting on your eyes to open. Trust me, you won’t find it pleasant.”
His voice was heavy with sexual warning, his cock already thick and hard, pressing between them demandingly.
“I can’t sleep,” she finally snapped. “I would if I could. But I can’t.”
“Why not?” His voice softened dangerously.
“Because I dream,” she snapped, unwilling to face the dreams now that she had released the energy that had so begged to be free. “I’ll have terrible nightmares and I’ll awaken us both screaming, then you’ll never rest. I’ll nap until I catch up.”
“I will protect your dreams.” He sounded desperate now. “Close your eyes, little one, and sleep. I swear to you, no nightmares. I can do this, Lynn.”
His cock pulsed against her stomach as he shifted again. Lynn gasped as it pressed harder against her.
“Can you sleep like that?” She didn’t dare move away, look down or attempt to breathe too hard. She remembered clearly just how big and how strange it was. She still wasn’t certain she would survive any sex act with him, though she was smart enough to know she would likely die trying.
“Sleep.” The order was given in a hard, deadly voice.
Before Lynn could protest she lost all ability to think. Sleep slammed into her, dragging her into the dark, comforting well of utter senselessness.
Alyx breathed out in misery as he turned to his back, his cock jutting out in fiery demand as every breath Lynn took caressed flesh so sensitive it was torture to feel her and not take her.
He would never rest in this state, he thought wearily. His cock was like the monster she had seen it as, insistent once aroused, refusing to allow him rest or peace until he had given it at least partial satisfaction. Ahh, the trials and tribulations of being a Prime Warrior.
His hand wrapped around the broad length as the seminal fluid wept from the dual eyes at the tip. He stroked the lubrication along the demanding shaft, pulling Lynn tighter against his body; the feel of her, warm and sensuous, had a groan ripping from his chest.
He closed his eyes. He imagined the wet heat of her tight sheath and pumped the shaft with hard quick jerks of his wrist. He gritted his teeth as she moved against him, stroking his side, sending fingers of exquisite desire pouring over his body. His cock throbbed as his hips shifted, driving the length deeper into his fisted grip as a groan built in his chest.
He pumped himself harder, faster, the sensitive shaft and even more sensitive head streaking with heated ecstasy. His body tightened, his lips curling back from his teeth as his scrotum drew tight against his body, the veins along his erection throbbing, humming, the cock ridge twitching in building excitement until his orgasm washed over him with a nearly painful explosion of heated seed.
He was left gasping, nowhere near replete, and senseless with exhaustion. His eyes closed as he wrapped his power around the woman he held in his arms and sent a sharp, mental command to her unconsciousness to bring her a dream worthy of the sensual woman she was. A tired smile curled his lips. If he couldn’t fuck her, the least he could do was up his chances that she would give in to him in her dreams.
As he allowed his own weary mind to rest a smile lifted his lips. She had given in to his power. The power he had given her soul so long before, she had finally released. She would be his now. Completely. Soon. They were bound and she would no longer be able to deny that bond. Finally, his mate was returning to him.
Chapter Twelve
She had to see if that cock was real. Lynn felt a smile curve her lips as one of the odd, rare erotic dreams began to fill her mind. She usually existed in the world of nightmares when she slept. Visions of battles and blood, tears and remorse, had been her steady sleeping companions. But sometimes, as though Morp
heus, the god of sleep, had found pity on her, she experienced one of the rare erotic treats she lived for.
And this treat was one she definitely needed to taste. Taste, touch, lick, suck. It didn’t matter; she wanted it in her mouth. The need was like a hunger, building steadily, growing inside her, unable to control now that she had lifted the shield around that final force within herself.
Lynn sat up, suddenly awake, staring down at Alyx’s sleeping body. She was breathing hard, blood surging within her veins, her juices seeping from her pussy, dampening her thighs. He was hers. She held a part of him forever within her. The dreams weren’t dreams. They were memories. Another time, another life. She trembled at the thought. It wasn’t easy to get used to. But she could get used to Alyx.
For all intents and purposes, he appeared no different from any other man she had ever known. Well, in shape anyway. He looked human, she amended, if a bit taller than most.
His flesh was a dark tanned hue; a toasty, warm color that suggested hours spent in the sun. Beneath the dark flesh, muscles rippled, corded with power in his broad chest. Tapering down, the impression of lean, finely tuned strength showed clearly in the hard packed abs, the sinewy strength of powerful thighs and long legs.
She swallowed tightly as her gaze skirted the most uncommon part of his body. It flickered back, then away. Finally, unable to resist, she gazed fully at the apparition he called a cock. The monster, he had dubbed it. The monster damned near suited it.
Even at rest, it was long and imposing, though not as thick as she had glimpsed the night she had walked in on him. She licked her dry lips nervously, staring at the ropy veins that pulsed under the flesh, wrapping over it in thick ridges as though the veins lay more above, rather than below, the skin. Her breathing became shallow as it seemed to twitch, and beneath the shaft his scrotum appeared to tighten.
She could clearly see the presence of not just two spherical balls, but three. She wanted to whimper as the massive organ began to harden, becoming erect in a matter of seconds, lifting from his hard stomach imperceptibly as though drawn to her.