“You tried to return it.”
She nodded. “I knew he would stop at nothing to reclaim what he now viewed as his property… his prized possession. The dragon need to protect our treasure is powerful, easily rules us and turns us against even those we love with all of our hearts. I knew that only the elves had the strength to fight my brother, so I tried to bring the sword back.”
“We attacked you… again.” He closed his eyes, his nostrils flared and he huffed. “I am sorry, Taryn.”
He flicked his eyes open and they leaped between hers, a beautiful look of sorrow mixed with an apology in them, a touch of tenderness that soothed her.
“I ordered that assault. If I had given you a chance—”
She pressed her finger to his lips to silence him. Gods, they were warm and firm beneath her fingertip, giving just enough to have her remembering how good they had felt against hers when he had kissed her.
“You were not to know that I was not returning to destroy your kingdom with the sword. I should have done things differently but I had been panicked and in a hurry.” Her eyebrows furrowed and she stroked her finger off his lips, traced it along the strong line of his jaw, his dark whiskers tickling the tip of it. “I should have tried to contact your kin or found another way, one that would have made it clear I meant no harm.”
Her life was filled with regrets and what might have beens and she couldn’t allow them to take hold of her and drag her down. The past was just that. It was unchangeable. She had to deal with everything that had happened, put it to rest and move forwards.
Bleu made the thought of doing such a thing seem easy when he wrapped his arms around her, holding her close to him, a contented edge to his expression that his feelings backed up. He enjoyed holding her like this, laying with her and talking. Spending time with her.
It was such a contrast to how things had always been between them.
No war.
Only peace.
“What did you do after that?” he whispered, his voice too husky and low, telling her he was beginning to think ahead too, to a very short time into the future if the hungry edge to his gaze was anything to go by.
He wanted her again.
Heat pooled in her belly, her blood growing hot at the thought of making love with him again.
She fought the need that rolled through her and focused on their conversation, wanting to finish it now that she had started. She wanted to climb on top of Bleu and satisfy him, but she needed this even more.
“I hid from my brother, constantly on the move, but when I grew tired of running from both him and you, I found the witch again and asked him to cast a concealment spell on the sword. I gave him every drop of gold… every jewel… all of my treasure in exchange for a shot at living.”
The soft look that entered Bleu’s violet eyes said that he knew how difficult that must have been for her, but he couldn’t imagine the half of it. Parting with her treasure had been like cutting off a limb, or tearing out her own heart with her claws. It had left her lost and weak, vulnerable.
“I gave the sword to Loke when I began to fear Tenak was growing close to finding me and after I encountered you in that dragon village.”
“That was three hundred years ago.”
She nodded. “Loke concealed the sword for me, using his magic to cast a different enchantment on it.”
“What happened after that?”
Taryn averted her gaze, unable to look at him. “I was captured by slavers.”
“Fuck,” he breathed and the force behind that word conveyed everything that ran through their bond from him. Anger. Disbelief. Regret.
His arms tightened around her and he crushed her to his chest. She didn’t resist him when he clasped the back of her head and pulled her down to him. She settled her cheek on his chest and closed her eyes, absorbing his warmth and how good it felt to be held like this, wrapped safely in his arms.
She nestled closer and flinched when pain stabbed her.
Bleu tensed, his hand halting halfway through stroking up her shoulder towards his bite mark on her throat. “What is wrong?”
She sighed and appreciated his concern even though it was misplaced. It wasn’t her throat that had hurt. He had no reason to feel guilty.
Taryn placed her hand on his chest, breathed in time with him and listened to his heart beating strongly against her ear.
“I am still a little sore.”
He was silent for a moment, his fingers twitching against her shoulder, and she could feel his confusion and guilt through their bond. It faded a little as she focused on their link, trying to grow accustomed to it, the confusion disappearing but the guilt lingering. She could almost sense he had realised what she was saying, and that it had nothing to do with him biting her.
“I am sorry. I tried to be gentle.” Those soft words curled around her and gave her comfort, but they pained him too, and she couldn’t ignore that.
She pushed herself up and gazed down at him, right into his rich purple eyes. “You do not need to apologise. I was not complaining. It is not an unpleasant sort of soreness.”
She couldn’t quite believe she had just said that, but any foolishness she felt fled when his eyes darkened, his pupils dilating, and heat washed through him and through her too.
Taryn leaned in and kissed him, unable to deny the desire rising within her, the need for an encore and the hunger to learn more about this male.
Her male.
His hands leaped to her backside and he dragged her up his bare body, pinned her to him and kissed her harder.
She sank against him and gave herself over to her passion, stroking the seam of his lips with her tongue and begging entrance. He opened for her and the moment their tongues touched, bright light surrounded her.
It dropped away a heartbeat later, leaving her blinded.
Only sound came to her.
The clash of metal. The agonised bellows of males.
Scent joined it.
The tinny odour of blood.
Her vision returned and she gasped as she saw the battle spread below her, engulfing the rolling plains as far as her eyes could see. Smoke billowed from the broken pale towers of a castle to her left. Fire blazed across the lands in the distance. The once verdant earth was churned with blood beneath the boots of the warriors.
Elves and demons clashed with dragons and demons on the battlefield.
The elf kingdom.
“Taryn… Taryn!” Bleu’s voice pierced the screams and roars filling her ears.
She blinked and the vision faded, her world going dark for a few seconds before Bleu’s face appeared before her. He was shaking. She frowned. Realised that she was the one trembling all over as she clutched his shoulders, her short claws pressing into his muscles.
His eyes searched hers and he didn’t ask her what had happened, or whether she’d had a vision.
He came right out and asked, “What did you see?”
She blinked again, her heart still pounding against her chest, her thoughts jumbled as she tried to gather her wits. Her pulse slowed as Bleu breathed steadily beneath her and she realised he was the one doing it, helping to calm her by using their link to control her. Part of her fought against him, rebelled against the idea of anyone having power over her. The rest melted into him, sought the comfort of his embrace and tried to piece back together the quiet calm that had just shattered.
“Tenak will attack the elf kingdom. I saw the castle in ruin. The battlefield drenched in the blood of demons, elves and dragons.”
Bleu snarled. “Never.”
She wished she shared his confidence, but all she knew was fear as she recalled the things she had seen. So much death. So much destruction. The thought that Tenak was bringing it to the elf kingdom chilled her blood. It was her fault.
Bleu eased her up into a sitting position and stood. Black leather trousers appeared on his legs and he hastily fastened the laces. She stared blankly at his thighs, ears ringing w
ith screams and roars and the clash of swords.
“Taryn,” he snapped, rousing her from her stupor. He held his hand out to her, the steely determination flashing in his eyes giving her a sliver of strength and hope, enough that she found the will to lift her hand and place it into his. He pulled her onto her feet, tugged her against his bare chest and looked down at her. “We have to move. You will be safe. I swear it… but we have to return.”
She looked around her at the cave and when she looked back at Bleu, he was gazing at the blanket and lantern, a faraway look in his eyes. It was difficult for him, and gods, it was difficult for her too. She didn’t want to return to the world either. She had been happy here, lost in Bleu.
But both of them knew what had to be done.
Neither of them could allow her brother to bring harm to the elves.
She called her violet leather trousers and her white corset, forming them over her body, and then her boots, and nodded.
The resolve in Bleu’s eyes was only made more reassuring when a black sword appeared in his left hand and he banded his right arm around her waist.
“I will not allow anyone to hurt you or anything to happen to you. I swear that, Taryn.” His fingers flexed around the hilt of his blade.
She knew in her heart that he would protect her, even if it meant fighting his own people. She knew he would do anything for her, because she would do anything for him.
She looked up into his eyes as he tucked her close to his bare chest. Her beautiful, breathtaking mate. Her dark warrior.
The desire in his eyes echoed through her and she didn’t resist when he dipped his head and claimed her lips in a searing kiss that was both passionate and comforting, meant to convey something she already knew deep in her heart.
He wouldn’t let her go now that he had her.
CHAPTER 27
The darkness evaporated to reveal the courtyard of the castle and Bleu’s grip on his sword instantly tightened, his entire body tensing in preparation as he faced off against a line of soldiers with arrows trained on him.
And Taryn.
He growled low in his throat and drew Taryn closer to him, shielding her as best he could.
An urge to teleport away from this place with her bolted through him but he tamped it down, wrestled his instincts as her mate under control and stood firm. He ran a quick assessing gaze over the elves before him.
Around him.
They formed a square, two rows deep crossing the pale gravel paths and beneath the lush green trees on the four sections of grass between them, the front one kneeling while the back row stood. All in all, close to one hundred armoured elves had arrows pointed at his mate.
He narrowed his eyes as he swept them back over the line from his left to his right, searching for any weak spots in their ranks. A few arrowheads wobbled, a sign that elf feared attacking him.
As the seconds ticked by, more began to shake.
They knew their offense was futile.
He could teleport in the blink of an eye and have half of their numbers cut down before they could release a single arrow.
If he wanted to attack them.
He didn’t.
Not even to satisfy the dark part of his soul that demanded they pay in blood for threatening his female.
He tugged that female closer, using the feel of her pressed against him to soothe his more dangerous side, keeping it under control.
Gods, he wanted to slaughter them all.
The darkness Taryn had purged from his soul in that isolated cave began to creep back in and he flashed sharp fangs at several of the stronger elves, unable to stop himself from threatening them back as it rose to seize control. He fought it, tried to fill his mind with light, with thoughts of Taryn.
But this time it only made the darkness grow stronger.
She was in danger.
These males meant to harm her.
She trembled against him, their incomplete bond relaying her fear but also the instincts that were starting to rise in her too, birthing a hunger for violence and bloodshed that was as terrible as his own. She wanted to fight these males for daring to threaten him. She needed to protect him.
Now that the drugs had completely left his system, he could feel the bond more clearly, and as he stood in the castle courtyard facing down a hundred soldiers, and watching more pouring into the area, he could feel the strength that flowed through him.
Flowed from Taryn into him.
Under normal circumstances, an incomplete bond would weaken an elf male, because they were usually more powerful than their mate.
His incomplete bond with Taryn only made him stronger, because she was the more powerful one.
It was a little emasculating to say the least, but he was going to roll with it, because right now having that added strength gave him a shot at protecting her.
He scanned the soldiers again and snarled when his eyes settled on one just off to his left. The male’s eyes were locked on Taryn, the fingers hooked around the string of the bow pulling back slightly, bringing it into a position where he would release it and send the deadly bolt at Bleu’s mate.
Bleu’s chest grew tight, the darkness beginning to squeeze the light from his soul as it seized hold of him, swamping everything until all he could feel, all he knew was a terrible urge for bloodshed that chilled his blood even as it made it burn.
Black tendrils snaked around his soul and squeezed, sending jagged thorns deep into it that poisoned his mind, driving all rational thought from it and leaving only a wicked hunger behind, a need to deal justice to the male who dared to threaten his mate.
A red veil began to descend.
“Stand down.” A familiar male voice rang through the tense silence, the commanding edge to it brooking no argument.
Bleu refused to heed that order. It wasn’t the first time he had ignored such a demand from this male and it wouldn’t be the last.
He tightened his grip on his sword and on Taryn, his eyes never leaving the male who was still preparing to fire on her.
“I said, stand down!” the other male barked.
Every soldier in the courtyard immediately turned to face the direction of the castle and dropped to one knee, lowering their weapons and their heads at the same time.
Every soldier except that one male.
His violet gaze remained fixed on Taryn.
Bleu bared his fangs, daring the bastard to try and cut his female down. He would be breathing blood before he could release the fucking arrow, his guts pierced by Bleu’s blade.
A black clawed hand materialised out of the air, grabbed the shaft of the arrow as the male finished drawing it back, and snapped it in two.
“It is not wise to disobey me,” Loren snarled and whatever dark spell the male had been under shattered.
He dropped to his knees and bent his head.
“I will deal with you later.” Loren looked down the line of his straight nose at the soldier, an imperious look that Bleu had been on the receiving end of too many times to count over the four thousand years they had known each other. Loren’s clear amethyst eyes slid towards Bleu and narrowed, darkening by degrees. “As for you…”
He tensed, waiting for the reprimand he could feel coming, one that would be followed by an order to return Taryn to the cells. He had disobeyed his prince in front of the entire castle, and Loren couldn’t go easy on him. He knew that. This time, Loren would have to punish him for his insubordination.
He could damn well throw him in the cell with Taryn then because he wasn’t leaving her side when so many soldiers were lifting their heads to look at her again, the desire to strike her down still shining in their cold eyes.
“Dacian has just finished explaining the situation to me,” Loren said and Bleu frowned as he glanced beyond his prince to the large warrior male where he stood near the entrance of the castle with Fynn and Leif flanking him.
Dacian nodded and Bleu returned it. He would have to thank the male later
.
Right now, he needed a moment to take in and comprehend the fact that he wasn’t about to get his arse handed to him by the elf prince slowly turning to face him, his dark expression softening.
Loren’s gaze fell to Taryn and Bleu barely bit back the growl that rumbled around his chest. His prince’s violet eyes lifted to him again and Bleu didn’t like the knowing edge his smile had gained.
Before Bleu could scowl at him in silent warning not to say a word about his situation, Loren turned around and looked over the soldiers kneeling around him.
Loren tipped his chin up and clasped his hands behind his back, resting them against the tails of his crisp dark purple knee-length jacket. Bleu curled his lip at the silver embroidery on the square tails and across the shoulders. His damned prince had chosen the jacket on purpose, wearing one that depicted dragons and elves. Loren knew she was something to him and this was his way of sneakily teasing him.
Mischievous bastard.
“The female is no threat to us,” Loren announced and all thoughts of tackling him to the ground and beating him into a bloody pulp dissipated. “She is a guest and will be treated as such. Understood?”
Every elf in the courtyard made a noise of affirmation.
Every elf except Bleu.
He could only stare at Loren, deeply aware that he owed his prince a huge one for what he had done for him and Taryn.
Loren looked back over his shoulder at him, his eyes relaying a silent command. Bleu nodded, released Taryn and then took hold of her hand. He curled his free hand around the leather hilt of his black sword, refusing to send it away or even sheathe it. He had a promise to keep.
Nerves still flowed through his link to Taryn, fear that was yet to fade as she stood close to him, wary violet-to-white eyes on the soldiers surrounding them. Her grip on his hand was firm, almost painful, relaying her need for comfort. He shifted his hand and slipped his fingers between hers, linking them together in a stronger way, and she glanced up at him.
Gods, it was difficult to resist looking at her, but he couldn’t let his guard down and taking his eyes off the males surrounding them would be doing just that, leaving them open to attack.
Possessed by a Dark Warrior Page 28