Twilight Siege: A Dark Fantasy Novel (The Fae Games Book 2)

by Jill Ramsower

  He grunted with satisfaction and lifted my hair back away from my face, tugging just slightly. I peered up at him before taking in as much of his cock into my mouth as I could, touching the tip to the back of my throat. His hips had carefully ground forward and for the next few minutes he fucked my mouth as I moaned in enjoyment at giving him pleasure.

  “Enough, it’s my turn.” He pulled me off him and pressed me back down onto the bed before lowering himself and taking one of my heavy breasts into his warm mouth. As pleasure shot to my core I arched my body off the bed and writhed while he laved his rough tongue over and around my pebbled nipple.

  “Please, Lochlan,” I gasped.

  He lifted his face and his intense blue eyes bore into mine. “Are you sure you’re ready to do this? Once I’m inside of you, you’re mine. There’s no going back.”

  “Only if you’re mine in return. No feeding from anyone else, only me.” I held his gaze firmly to let him know I was serious.

  His lips quirked up and his eyes glinted with carnal desire. “I never thought you’d ask.” Those lush lips crashed down on mine and his hard body pressed my soft one into the bed.

  We had been together in my dream, but it didn’t compare to being with him in person. Knowing that he wanted me fully, not just my body or the magical energy I could provide. My heart swelled and my core ached desperately to have him inside me.

  When the head of his cock began to push inside of me, relief flooded through me despite the burning pressure of accommodating his thick length. We were finally together and surrendering to that desire was a heady rush.

  He rocked slowly back and forth, giving my body time to adjust before he eased himself inside me to the hilt. We both took shallow breaths, lost in the sensation, before he began to pump into me with force. He would draw out slowly before thrusting back into my inviting warmth. My muscles clenched, trying fruitlessly to keep him buried inside me.

  For long minutes we luxuriated in the sensation of being together, but before long, we both became wrapped up in the frenzy of needing more. Lochlan grunted as he began to piston his hips into me and I lost myself in the storm brewing inside of me. When he reached his hand between us and rubbed my clit in sync to his rhythmic thrusts, I couldn’t hold back if I had wanted to. Light exploded behind my eyelids and I screamed as waves of orgasmic bliss pulsed through every inch of my body.

  Lochlan roared his release and I could feel his swollen cock spurt inside me. As we both came down from our highs, he languidly glided in and out a few more times before lowering himself gently over my sweat-covered body. He was careful not to put too much of his weight on me and I ran my fingers through his short hair absently.

  I was a pretty laid-back person and was generally happy with my life, but in that moment, I reveled in a sense of contentedness to a degree that I had not previously experienced.

  When he lifted up his head and our eyes met I said softly with conviction, “Mine.”

  His eyes warmed as he trailed his fingers along my jawline. “I’ve been yours since you ran into me at the club. With your tight little body and fiery attitude, it was all I could do not to tie you up in my bed until you realized there was nowhere else you’d rather be.”

  I nipped at his chin and he narrowed his eyes at me playfully. “Aren’t you the sweet talker,” I quipped.

  “Don’t get used to it,” he mumbled as he kissed at my neck.

  “Hey, you didn’t feed from me, did you?”

  He rose back up and met my eyes. “Our first time together wasn’t going to be about feeding—I’m not giving you any opportunities to claim it was less than what it was. Plus, we can always do that the next time, or the next, or the…” he trailed off as he began to kiss down my chest and my sated arousal stirred back to life on a moan.

  23

  We put all our problems on hold and didn’t leave his apartment for the next two days. He told me about his early days in the Hunt, and I described my travels with my parents. We listened to the rain beat against the windows and lounged in bed while we ate whatever food we could throw together. We learned about each other in a vacuum of time where there was no war, no death, and no deceit.

  Our exploration was equally carnal as it was intellectual. We indulged in our primal natures without the hindrance of societal norms or preconceived expectations. I cooked us eggs in the morning and he fucked me on the kitchen counters. He ran us a bath and then I rode him until there was little water left in the tub. I didn’t have to wonder if I was expected to leave and he didn’t have to ask for my number. We just were. The simplicity of accepting what was between us without question was liberating. I was his, and he was mine.

  We didn’t check our phones and no one intruded on our hiatus—there was no television or radio, nothing to distract us from each other. My deadline was fast approaching and I was resigned to whatever my fate would be. One week was hardly enough time to make any substantial changes in my preparedness, so I was either ready or I wasn’t. Either way, Beltane would come and I would pour all of my strength into stopping Morgan. Hopefully, it would be enough. In the meantime, I would celebrate everything I was grateful for in life.

  I learned that Alberich’s body had been taken back to Faery the morning after he was killed. The members of the Hunt who resided in Faery would conduct a ceremony to honor his passing. Lochlan refused to go back to Faery for the ritual, insisting that he remain on Earth with the others to prepare for Morgan because it was what Alberich himself would have done.

  When we finally emerged from our self-imposed isolation, we had less than a week before Beltane. Our first task was to work on opening a portal. I had told Lochlan about my conversation with Merlin so he took me to one of the outdoor portal sites just outside the city and I was able to briefly open a portal to the Twilight Realm.

  I would need to be able to open a portal for a longer period in order to allow the dozen huntsmen to come with us. We decided it would be best to go wherever the strongest magic was located to give me the power I would need, which as it turned out, was the Beltany stone circle. We made the short drive out there and were able to confirm that it was that much easier for me to hold open a portal between the worlds in that location.

  As soon as I released the magic and closed the portal, Lochlan pulled out his phone and placed a call to what had to be one of the huntsmen. “She had no problem opening the portal out here so we’re going to stay in Strabane. Bring the others out on the second as we discussed.” There must have been a short reply and then the conversation was over.

  “You didn’t mean you and me are staying in Strabane until Beltane, did you? I have to go back,” I said emphatically.

  Lochlan looked unimpressed as he turned to head back to our car. “We need to stay close to the site in the event that anything changes.”

  “I’m thrilled that you are so effing self-assured and confident that everything will go down exactly as planned, but I’m painfully aware of all the possibilities.” My voice shook with anger and desperation as I laid out all of my fears. “If we fail, if I fail, it likely means my death and that’s something I have to prepare for—I had plans for this week and you can’t just upend those plans. I can still talk to my parents from here, but I needed to be with Ashley this week. This could be my last chance with her and I’m the one that put her in this situation, I need to be there for her. Michael’s being a dick and not making it easier for Ash, and now she has to worry about whether Guin will force her to move to Faery—she has so much weighing on her, I can’t just disappear.”

  My words became more frenzied as my rant progressed and my stomach seized up at the thought of never seeing my best friend or my parents again.

  Lochlan listened to my tirade, eyes intent, then strolled over to stand before me. His hands came up to gently cup my face as he held my eyes. “We need to stay here, Becca. I know you’re worried about Ashley and I’m sorry to add to that burden. I hadn’t said anything because I’m still process
ing it myself, but while the men gathered for Alberich’s funeral rites, they voted me in as the next Erlking. After this ordeal with Morgan is over we will perform the crowning ceremony and I’ll have the power of the Hunt behind me—we will keep Ashley safe, no matter what happens.”

  His thumb reached forward and wiped away the tear slipping from the corner of my eye. He had listened to my words, heard the concerns behind them and said exactly what I needed to hear.

  My lips formed the words ‘thank you,’ but in my eyes I told him, ‘you are my world.’

  He pulled my forehead to his lips and placed reverent kisses from my temple down to my lips. “My confidence lies not in our success, but in knowing that I have no qualms letting this world burn if it means keeping you alive. You’re mine and I will not let you go so easily.”

  “You can’t say things like that. We have to keep the Unseelie from invading Earth, my death would be a small price to pay to save so many.”

  “A small price to whom? For me it would mean losing everything. We have covered every scenario and have plans in place for all of them—if anything outside of that realm happens, you walk away. You hear me?”

  I was never particularly good at lying so I didn’t respond. How was I supposed to agree to that when my actions would totally depend on the circumstances? I had to stop Morgan, and I would only get the one chance. I wouldn’t run in fear to save myself knowing I was damning the rest of humanity.

  “I’m not playing, Rebecca. Tell me you won’t do anything stupid.” His gravelly voice grew more insistent as his fierce blue eyes bore into me.

  “I’m sorry, but I’m going to do whatever it takes to stop her. Hopefully that won’t be anything crazy, but there are no guarantees.”

  He gave a frustrated grunt before he lowered his lips to mine in a desperate kiss.

  The days passed in a blur—training, planning, practicing and sometimes arguing. We made backup plans, and backups for our backup plans, knowing that we would be going in blind when we traveled to the Twilight Realm. All we knew was that Morgan was going to attempt to open a portal on a massive scale come Beltane, anything else she may have had up her sleeve was a mystery. We didn’t know if she was working with anyone else, how many Unseelie and Shadow Fae she would have with her, or what she might try to do in addition to opening the portal.

  As much as I appreciated having the plans in place, at the end of the day, it would come down to me. Either I found a way to stop her, or I didn’t. Whenever I would start to drown in self-doubt, I would remind myself that Merlin hand-picked me, and believed I could do it. It wasn’t one-hundred percent reassuring, but it helped.

  Lochlan had no magic in the Twilight Realm, so he nor anyone else I brought through with me would be able to help in any way but physically. I hoped that the same limitations would apply to anyone Morgan brought with her, but I wasn’t certain.

  We stayed at the same hotel Cat and I had stayed at on our tour of Northern Ireland. When I explained that we were in the very hotel where I had been when I first dream walked with him, we both relived that memory, this time live and in living color.

  Each day the knots in my stomach coiled tighter, despite Lochlan’s best efforts to relax me each night. The day before Beltane, Michael and the others arrived loaded down with an arsenal of weapons. We had a quiet dinner together and for the first time, their appreciative glances made me feel accepted by the discerning group of warriors.

  That night, I lay in Lochlan’s arms and hoped above all else that it would not be the last time I enjoyed the comfort of his embrace. Without any words necessary, he poured his soul into making love to me. He worshipped my body and I paid homage to his, losing track of where one of us ended and the other began. After that night, I knew that if I died at least I would die knowing what it was to be revered above all others by the man I loved.

  24

  The next evening I gathered with my small army of eleven huntsmen at the Beltany stone circle. Liam had stayed back in Belfast with Ashley but the rest had all come to play their part. As the sun slowly descended toward the horizon, we ran through our strategies, again, and double-checked weaponry, again.

  My veins thrummed with adrenaline and I could hardly stand still with a flood of nervous energy pulsing through my body. When the sun finally dipped out of sight, we gathered in the middle of the circle and I called forth my magic. The world around me became eerily quiet as I envisioned the Twilight Realm and focused on creating a passage to its perpetually starry skies.

  Sparks swirled in a circle far larger than I had been able to conjure previously. The thinning of the veil between worlds on that particular night had greatly impacted the magic I was able to perform, and it chilled me to think that Morgan would be benefiting from the same circumstance.

  I ushered the men through the opening, led by Lochlan as he was the only one who had been to the Twilight Realm previously. Once they were all through, I followed them in and allowed the portal to close behind me.

  I wasn’t sure what exactly I had expected, something along the lines of Morgan standing with her minions around her while she stirred a cauldron and cackled. Reality was less cinematic but enormously more unsettling. The eleven men stood in varying degrees of awe as they took in their surroundings, completely alone. There was no sign of Morgan. I had no idea how large the Twilight Realm was and hadn’t even considered that we might have to find her once we arrived, assuming she was even there. Was it possible we had made some epic miscalculation about Morgan’s plans?

  Staring blankly at Lochlan, I raised my shoulders in question.

  “See if you can sense anyone,” he suggested warily.

  I gave myself a mental slap to the forehead for not having done so already and closed my eyes. I concentrated on connecting with the shadows around me, and a mass of whispers assaulted me from some distance ahead. “Over there,” My voice broke as I pointed in the direction before us. “There’s thousands of them.”

  We all turned our gazes toward the distance and with hardened expressions, we began to walk into war. Not one of us said a word and before long a distant hum confirmed that we were headed in the right direction. The form of a great swarm of creatures slowly took shape on the horizon. The gathering extended as far as the eye could see—hordes of beasts, both large and small, swarmed together in waiting.

  My rational mind screamed at me to turn back and run, and at one point my feet faltered a step. I shut the door on the scared girl hiding inside me and steadied my resolve for what would be the greatest challenge of my life.

  When we drew near enough to be seen, one-by-one the creatures turned in our direction and began to hiss and growl with contempt. A tall ogre-like beast with tusks and scaly grey skin spat in our direction and others gnashed their sharp teeth at us.

  Lochlan pulled two canisters from his pockets and twisted the tops before tossing them onto the ground between us and the crowd. Thick grey smoke spewed from the metal cans and the Fae mob began to grumble and holler as they backed further into themselves.

  I reached out with my magic, letting my eyes go black with a display of power. Drawing the smoke to me, I formed it into a solid barrier around our group. Once we were fully encompassed on all sides, we began to make our way toward the crowd.

  The vicious Unseelie lashed out at the wall of smoke, slicing with razor-sharp claws and pounding to test its strength. I was relieved to see they were restricted to physical attacks and had no magic that I could see. My shield withstood their abuse and I formed a plow at the front to slice our way through the group. Despite the tightly packed density of the creatures, they squeezed back out of our way as we pushed forward toward the middle of the mass.

  The nucleus of the horde was a space about one-hundred feet in diameter and was nearly empty save for Morgan and two large Fae standing guard. Her terrible beauty was almost mesmerizing and her regal confidence commanded attention. It was deeply unsettling to think that a woman who appeared so delicate co
uld be capable of such destruction and death.

  As our group entered the smaller circle, Morgan lifted her chin and smirked with amusement. “I see Merlin was too scared to come here himself. Instead, he sends a sad little girl and a bunch of dogs. I would have thought the pack would have tucked tail and run after I dispatched your leader so easily.” She tisked and slowly shook her head.

  I was more than happy for her to underestimate our small group, and as much as her comment about Alberich infuriated me, I kept my cool. “Morgan, you may hate Guin, but killing thousands of innocent people is not an acceptable way of exacting your revenge. I can’t let you do this.”

  “As if you have any hope of stopping me.” She threw back her head and laughed with delight. “I would think one as compassionate as you would understand my plight. Would you continue to allow the oppression of all these poor souls? For centuries they have been bound to the lands on which they were born, denied the opportunity to seek better food and shelter. If people on Earth had been repressed like these creatures have been, you would have been the first campaigning for their freedom.”

  The crowd raised their fists and bellowed in support of her speech and my heart raced when I was reminded just how outnumbered we were. “Call them off. If you have a problem with Guin, take it up with her and leave the people of Earth out of it.”

  Her eyes narrowed and she glanced over her shoulder. “Tell me, Rebecca, are you familiar with the Bergresar?” When she said the name, the crowd behind her parted and a hooded figure about seven or eight feet in height stepped forward. “They are Shadow Fae and among the oldest creatures known to still exist. With such a long lifespan, it’s easy to understand why they thrive on chaos—what a boring existence it would be otherwise. My friend here is a Bergresar and his proclivities made it remarkably easy to align him to my cause. A small touch of his essence in my amulet, similar to the one you wear, and I was able to bring us all here.” She raised her arms like a child standing in the rain for the first time before she continued. “Unfortunately for you, I don’t have any more time to waste on this conversation. Take care of them.”