She slowly nodded and her eyes leaped back to him. “They only come when you are near.”
He frowned. “Me?”
She nodded again.
His presence triggered her visions. She had mentioned that she had limited magic because Tenak had received most of it. He had thought that meant she couldn’t have visions, but she could.
When he was near to her.
As much as he wanted to know more, he had to focus on her and not satiating his curiosity. He would ask about it later, after he had calmed her and eased her fear.
“Are you afraid because your brother is coming?” he said and her eyes darted back up to his.
They dulled.
She rubbed her wrists and began rocking harder, and he turned his frown on them. Her slender fingers unerringly followed the lines of the scarring around her wrists. His eyes dropped to the matching scars around her ankles and then jumped up to the ones around her throat.
He cursed in the elf tongue, the foulest one at his disposal.
It had been being placed in captivity that had terrified her.
Gods, he was going to kill Leif and the others.
He was going to hunt down whoever had placed shackles on his beautiful female and destroy them.
“Taryn,” he husked and she blinked, her eyes brightening again but not enough to satisfy him. They were still distant. She was still locked in her thoughts, caged by her memories. He reached out to touch her hand and she flinched away and snarled at him through teeth that were now all sharp points. He withdrew and held his hands up at his sides, showing her that he meant her no harm. “You know me.”
He couldn’t bring himself to add that he wasn’t going to hurt her, because he had hurt her just hours ago, and in her current state she was liable to remind him of that. He wasn’t sure he could bear hearing her say what he had done, not when merely thinking about it left him raw inside, hollowed out and sick to his stomach.
“I know you?” she murmured and canted her head, causing her hair to brush her right cheek. She frowned. “If I know you… why do I not know your name?”
Her eyes darkened and her lips flattened, and the sense of power she always emanated grew stronger, rising to a level where his instincts warned she was a danger and was about to attack him.
“You are a liar,” she snarled and her eyes shone vivid violet and white, almost glowing in the low light.
He couldn’t argue against that. He had lied a hell of a lot in his lifetime. To people he cared about, to her, and to himself.
“I never told you my name,” he said and forced himself to remain relaxed even as his instincts roared to prepare for a fight.
Her eyes narrowed.
Silence stretched between them, thickening the air in the cave as he waited to see what she would do. She remained tensed, coiled and prepared to strike. His heart beat harder, pumping blood to his muscles as his body disobeyed him and he readied himself. If she attacked, he wouldn’t fight back. He would defend himself and find a way to calm her, because he felt sure that she would feel terrible when the past lost its grip on her and she realised what she had done.
Just as he felt terrible that he had hurt her while lost in the darkness.
She finally eased back, the tension flowing from her and from him at the same time. He let out the breath he had been holding and sank back onto his heels.
“What is your name, Elf?”
“My name is Bleu,” he said and sat still while she studied him, raking her eyes over his bare torso and his leather-clad legs, right down to his knees where they pressed into the black ground before she pulled them back up to his face.
He would answer whatever question she posed to him, no matter what it was or whether it made him feel vulnerable, exposed to her. He would do that for her. He would make himself vulnerable so she wouldn’t feel alone.
He needed to do it and it had nothing to do with his instincts as her mate and everything to do with his growing feelings for her.
Her dull eyes flitted over his face and a hint of a smile touched her lips. “You are beautiful… but that is your most terrible weapon. I have seen the other side of that beauty.”
She caressed the left side of her throat.
Bleu looked away, pinning his eyes on the ground beside her. “And I have apologised for what I did to you… but not well enough.”
He sighed, pulled down another breath and lifted his head, locking gazes with her again. She needed to hear it and he had to stop trying to hide his feelings from everyone. From her. It was time he allowed someone into his heart.
“I am sorry, Taryn.” He reached out and brushed the blanket aside, revealing the ravaged side of her throat, and stared at it, his heart throbbing madly behind his breast. “I should not have hurt you like that. I should never have hurt you at all… I cannot excuse what I have done and I do not expect you to forgive me for it. Condemn me, do whatever you must to punish me for what I did to you. I deserve only that. I deserve your retribution.”
Her face softened, eyes leaping between his, clearer now. “You wish for me to punish you because you did something I did not like… because you disobeyed me?”
He frowned at the words she had chosen and the way the brightness in her eyes faded again. Her breathing came quicker, his heart racing in time with hers, and her pain and fury flowed through him like ice and fire, numbing him and making him burn at the same time.
“I am not like them… do not ever think I am like them,” she snarled and knocked his hand away, her expression darkening as she flashed sharp teeth at him. “I will not punish you for something you did that displeased me.”
Displeased. Disobeyed.
She began rubbing her wrists again, frantically scouring them with her fingers.
“Taryn.” He reached for her.
She shot to her feet, the blanket falling away from her to pool at her ankles, and he looked up at her. She towered over him in the dimly-lit cave, naked and beautiful, but terrifying too. Darkness reigned in her eyes, the same madness that he had seen in them back when she had stopped her brother from killing him on the mountainside.
He was losing her to her memories.
“Taryn,” he whispered and her eyes narrowed on him. “I take it back. I do not want you to punish me.”
I want you to love me.
It beat in his heart with every powerful thump, ran in his veins like a relentless wave, and he couldn’t deny that desire as it filled him, opened his eyes and stripped away his strength, tearing down the barriers around his heart and leaving it open to her. Vulnerable.
He had never felt so weak.
So afraid.
It felt as if his very existence depended on the female towering over him.
She started shaking her head, her eyes widening and her fear flooding the link between them. Her hands came up and she shoved her fingers into her hair, dragging it back from her face.
He rose onto his feet and she backed away from him, still shaking her head, her fine eyebrows rising high.
Gods, he had meant to comfort her and he had only made it worse. She had to speak with him, she had to tell him about what haunted her, or he would only keep making mistakes with her.
“I do not want to be punished,” she mumbled and looked down at her feet. “I do not want it.”
He reached for her and she lashed out at him, catching him across his left pectoral with her claws. He leaped back when she snarled, baring her fangs at him. Blood trickled down his chest.
“Keep away. Do not touch me!” She backed away from him again, until she hit the rear wall of the cave and couldn’t move any further. She tossed a panicked look beyond him to the cave mouth.
No. He couldn’t let her run away again.
He sidestepped and blocked her path.
She threw a pained glance at him and her face crumpled. “Please do not punish me. I did not mean to escape the cage… but I had to fly.”
“I know,” he whispered and hel
d his hands up, hoping to calm her. “I will not punish you, Taryn… but someone did. Who punished you?”
Because he wanted a name, something he could go on, someone he could punish for her.
Her eyes turned wild. “The first was a mortal… he was not strong enough to hold me… he was not strong enough to break me.”
“The first?” Bleu snarled, darkness curling through him, driving back the light. “How many have tried to hurt you, Taryn?”
“Tried?” she whispered and blinked, and gods he wanted to hold her when she looked at him like that, the truth shining in her striking eyes. The bastards hadn’t tried to hurt her. They had hurt her.
He stepped towards her, his bare chest heaving as he struggled to keep control and keep his voice smooth and calm so he didn’t frighten her. “Tell me their names.”
She blinked again, her eyes darted around, and her fear jacked up, panic and frustration joining it.
She shook her head and looked at him. “I do not know their names.”
Gods damn it.
“Then tell me what you do know. Give me something I can use so I can make them pay for the things they did to you.” He reached for her again and backed off when she flashed those killer sharp teeth at him, warning him away. He knew she needed her space, but it was hard to hold himself at a distance when he wanted to draw her into his arms and hold her to comfort her.
Her eyes locked with his, clearer again now. “You swear you will make them pay?”
He nodded.
Her pretty face blackened. “You will kill them?”
He didn’t hesitate.
“I will slaughter them for you.”
She took a step towards him. “There are six of them.”
“Six is nothing. I can kill six with a mere thought. I will crush them and I will make sure they know they died because they hurt you.”
Her violet-to-white eyes leaped between his. “Why would you do this for me?”
Because he loved her.
Gods, he loved her.
He could embrace the darkness inside him if it meant avenging her. He wouldn’t hesitate. He would do whatever it took, no matter how bloody or dangerous it was.
“Because…” he started but trailed off, unsure what to tell her. She was in no state to hear about his feelings or anything of that sort.
She smiled. “Because you are my fated one?”
His eyes widened but he nodded. She knew. He had suspected as much but hearing her say it still hit him hard. It unleashed a need to tell her more, to tell her that he had feelings for her and that he wanted to complete this bond between them. He held his tongue instead, because he didn’t want to tell her things in the heat of the moment that she might not remember when the madness lost its grip on her.
He needed to know that she was in control and knew what she was saying when he told her and she gave him a response.
He didn’t think he could handle her admitting her feelings for him only to forget she had ever said anything about them.
“Tell me,” he husked, voice thick with emotion and need to know what had happened to her so he could understand her and help her. He didn’t want to hurt her, but he had to know.
She looked down at her wrists and began rubbing them again. “The first caught me three centuries ago. A mortal. He tried to break me but I was too strong… so he sold me.”
Her hands trembled and Bleu had to pin his feet to the ground to stop himself from crossing the short span of black rock to her. The need to hold her was overwhelming, battering his control, but he had to keep his distance and let her talk. She needed to tell someone what had happened to her. He could see it in her because he had been in the same situation once, only he hadn’t shared his feelings and they had festered inside him, corrupting him.
He didn’t want that for her.
“The second was a shifter… a cat… and the third was a witch.” A dark smile curled her lips. “Even they were not strong enough. I fought them… I hurt them… and they sold me.”
Her shaking worsened.
“The f-fourth…”
She swallowed hard and closed her eyes.
“He was stronger… owned many females. H-he…” Her eyes snapped open, a glassy quality to them. She wasn’t with him again. She was lost in her memories, drowning in them. “I wanted to fly. I want to fly.”
She looked beyond him.
Bleu inched into her line of sight. “I know. You can fly soon… but you were telling me something.”
And it was hurting her.
He wanted to tell her she could stop, but she had to keep talking. She needed to speak about what had happened to her and she hadn’t come far enough yet, she hadn’t delved deep enough for their conversation to have done her any good. He hated listening to her talking about the things that had happened to her, despised the way her heart would hitch whenever she tried to say that the males had touched her but couldn’t bring herself to speak the words, but he would put himself through this torment if it would help her.
“Did they ever?” He couldn’t finish that question, wasn’t sure he was strong enough to hear her answer without losing his mind and going mad with a need to slaughter every male who had done so much as look at her.
She shook her head. “I fought them… I hurt them.”
But they had hurt her too.
It was there in her eyes.
She might have managed to fight the males off to stop them from forcing her into sex, but they had lashed out at her in return, punishing her for disobeying them and not allowing them to paw her and use her against her will.
His strong, brave little female.
Tears lined her eyes and she wrapped her arms around herself.
“The fifth… a fae… an incubus… he kept me in a cage… made me watch… th-things.” She shuddered and curled into herself, and he couldn’t stop himself from moving closer to her, filled with a need to comfort her. She looked so small like that. Vulnerable. Gods, he needed to hold her. Her eyes squeezed shut and she lowered her head. “H-he liked me watching… he liked it when I tried to make him stop… he hurt females just to see me react… my brother hurts females…”
Her knees gave out and he caught her before she hit the rough ground, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close to him. He realised his mistake but it was too late. He couldn’t undo what had happened. All he could do was brace himself for her wrath.
It didn’t come.
Rather than lashing out at him, she buried her face against his neck, her breath hot on his skin as she sobbed.
He straightened with her, closed his eyes and rubbed her back between her shoulders, muttering soothing things to her in the elf tongue. The need to kill that had been surging like a terrible tide within him washed away, running from him as he held her and listened to her ragged breaths and felt the wet of her tears on his shoulder.
“I need to fly,” she whispered, lips brushing his skin, and he tried not to draw pleasure from that caress.
“I know,” he murmured and stroked her hair, holding her gently and absorbing how good she felt against him, and how good it felt that she let him do this for her despite everything that had happened to her.
She let him hold her even though males had hurt her.
Did that mean she trusted him not to do the same?
He wasn’t brave enough to ask, so he voiced another question instead.
“What happened with the fifth?” Because he wanted to kill that male first.
“The sixth murdered him.”
Damn.
He would have to settle for the pleasure of killing that male instead.
“Who was he?” He lowered his head and breathed in her scent, using the smell of sunshine and blue skies to calm his furious need to avenge her.
“A demon,” she whispered against his flesh. “He grew angry with me when I kept fighting him and managed to destroy half of his home, and took me back to the market to sell me and replace me with s
omeone weaker.”
She was lucky that dragons were so rare and valuable in the slave trade, otherwise any one of the males she had fought and denied might have killed her rather than sold her.
“The market where I saw you?”
She nodded and settled her head on his shoulder, and gods, it felt like Heaven. The fingers of her left hand traced patterns on his right pectoral and he could feel her focus was there, on where she touched him.
“Cait helped me escape… a hellcat…” She drew back and looked up at him, her eyes crystal clear and shining. She was back with him, the tide of her memories abating, and deep in the pit of his soul he felt warmed by the knowledge that he had helped her. He would keep helping her. He would do whatever it took, for however long it took, to free her from her past. Her eyes leaped between his. “I knew you were coming.”
“Because you saw me in a vision?” He frowned down at her and she nodded again. “They only come when I am near?”
Another nod. A little smile. “Because you are my fated one.”
Her fingers paused at their work of driving him mad with a need to caress her in return, to learn her body at the same time as she learned his, taking small steps forwards and closing the gap between them until they finally came together. She pressed her palm against his bare chest, scalding him and branding his flesh with her touch.
“You are my fated one?” Her eyes searched his.
He nodded. “I am… and you are mine.”
Mine.
Gods… she was. His mate. Mine.
He wanted to growl that word at her but bit down on his tongue instead, aware that if he uttered it, he would push her back into the past, to times when other males had sought possession of her.
Had tried to rule her.
He wanted nothing of that sort, and the word would simply be an admission on his part, telling her more that he belonged to her now than she belonged to him, but it would frighten her nonetheless.
Gods… he was hers though. He had been hers from the moment he had set eyes on her. He just hadn’t known it back then.
He knew it now as he gazed down at her though, her warm body pressing against his, her beautiful eyes tinged with shyness, as if she was aware of his sentimental thoughts, could hear them rattling around his head. Not the thoughts of a warrior, cold and methodical, but the thoughts of a lover, tender and warm. Probably the last thing she expected from him given their history.
Possessed by a Dark Warrior Page 24