There were no guards at this entrance since it was magically warded; humans just wouldn’t notice it and would walk right by, but if by some off chance a human made it to the entrance, they would be repelled by the wards. I walked towards it; it was walled with eight foot high hedges, a three foot opening serving as the entrance. I felt the magic ripple over me like a waterfall as I stepped through. The air in here was a good fifteen degrees hotter than the rest of the park, and there were various cozy spots for couples and groups to spend some time together. A thick carpet of moss underfoot squished and sprang as you walked. Low tables were scattered around to just sit and enjoy a drink and the atmosphere. In other areas were chaise lounges with small tables laden with fruits and pitchers of waters. And everywhere there was skin and nails and shimmers of magic.
I paused where I stood and took in a deep breath, holding it until my lungs burned, letting the residual magic of so many swirl inside of me. I felt my magic respond to the call, rising inside of me like a cresting wave, waiting, waiting to crash. When I opened my eyes again, my vision had gone soft at the edges, and I could see all the tiny sprites and minor fairies floating in the air among the revelry. I moved farther into The Garden, looking for a place to sit, when I spied an empty table in a far corner, shadowed by the hedges, but I liked the idea of some privacy while I checked things out.
I slipped into one of the wooden chairs and placed my back to the wall so I could observe the area around me. I became aware of a low, persistent growling off to my left, and when I looked, I saw a couple tangled together on the ground, the man on top of a pixie woman; he was the one growling. I watched as his elongated, clawed hands tore at the ground on either side of the pixie woman. His face was contorted mid-change, and his facial hair was creeping down his jawline. The pixie woman’s legs were wrapped around his narrow hips and her hands were gripping his rounded shoulders as he pounded her into the ground, rough and hard with no finesse, and I realized tonight was the full moon and he must be losing control of his wolf in the throws of passion.
I shifted in my seat to watch them, crossing my feet at the ankles, rubbing my thighs together as things low in my body began to respond to the feral magic they were raising. The pixie woman’s skin was glowing faint lavender as she grinned up at him, unafraid of his wavering control, and she cried out for more. The wolf-man roared above her as he slammed his cock into her again, crushing the moss beneath them, and she giggled, bucking her hips up to meet his, their bodies slapping against each other. From this angle, I could see her perky breasts jiggling between them, her purple nipples hard and eager for attention, but he only dug his claws deeper into the ground, churning the earth. The corded muscles of his thighs flexed and bunched as he braced his toes against the ground. I drew in my lower lip, biting down as I gripped the edges of my seat to hold me in place, rubbing my thighs together in time with the pumping hips of the wolf-man. His teeth were longer now, and sharper, as he gnashed at the air above the pixie’s face, and a twist of fear went through me, but the pixie just giggled again as she rocked her hips up, bucking against him faster and faster until, suddenly, a howl ripped through the night air and he spasmed against her, his hips buried between her thighs. She squirmed under and against him, letting the rolling orgasm contort her body. I felt the rush of magic from their twined bodies; it bathed me in a warm cloud, making my back arch and my legs clench and my fingers ache to touch myself.
“Move,” he growled, his head dropped forward and his eyes closed.
“What?” the pixie woman asked, blinking big lavender eyes up at him.
“Move, damnit!” he roared, the words nearly unintelligible through his wolf teeth. She didn’t wait to be told again. The pixie scrabbled backwards, crawling awkwardly away from him until she was out from under him and managed to get to her feet. Just as she took a few steps away from him, we all watched as he roared again and his back arched violently with the sounds of snapping and popping bones as the change ripped through him. His fur burst over his body in a water-like wave, and in a moment, a huge, burnt auburn coated wolf stood panting where the man had been.
He stretched long and deep before shaking out his fur to settle it. Whipping his head back, he howled at the sky, and then turned and ran out of The Garden, leaving the naked pixie woman blinking after him. She looked up and saw me watching her. For a moment, I thought she was going to snap at me, but instead she shrugged her narrow shoulders and turned and scampered off.
I closed my eyes and let my head drop back, taking a moment to enjoy the ambient magic in the air. My skin was warm and tingling. I let go of the seat of my chair and rested my hands on the tops of my thighs, curling my fingers into the fabric of my tights, still tempted to slip them under my skirt.
“It was quite a show, wasn’t it?” a male voice asked, pulling me out of my trance.
“Excuse me?” I stammered a little, pushing myself up in my seat.
“The werewolf and pixie,” he said, coming over to sit in the seat on the other side of the table. “Sometimes it’s nice to watch, isn’t it?” A rueful smile decorated his lips, lips that were a light pink and slightly chapped. He had long blonde hair, very much like mine, and sharp, pointed ears. It wasn’t until I looked him in the eye and saw they matched mine that I knew he too was a Bright Elf, though his accent was different, making me think he wasn’t from my tribe. He also had a long scar on the right side of his face; it curved around his eye and dragged down his cheek, disappearing under the curve of his jawline.
“I guess so,” I replied, averting my eyes. This kind of talk was normal in The Garden, just like being back in the club, but I still wasn’t great with it. I preferred casual flirting that led naturally to the act; this kind of dirty talk always made me feel awkward and a little lame. But you didn’t come into this place if you weren’t looking for this kind of attention.
“Aiden,” he said, holding his hand out across the table to me. I looked at it for a moment before I took it with my own.
“Taryn,” I said. His hand was warm, his palm rough and callused, and I couldn’t help but wonder what it would feel like on my skin.
“That’s a lovely name.” He pulled my hand towards his face, turning it over and pressing a kiss to the soft heel of my palm, sending a shiver down my spine. When he lifted his face from my hand, he still didn’t let go, so I turned in my seat to alleviate the strain on my arm. He was looking at my palm, tracing the lines with his fingertips. I could feel the familiar Bright Elf magic caress my skin where he touched it, but I felt a little off kilter from the awkward way he’d approached me. Still, I didn’t pull my hand back.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Your love line, it’s very interesting.”
“How’s that?” I felt my eyebrow arch and a smile pull at the corners of my mouth; palm reading was for humans pretending to be psychics, not for Bright Elves.
“Well, normally it starts out with many intersecting lines until it becomes one straight line. But yours,” he paused, running his finger over the line he was studying. “Yours remains intersected.”
“Well, I am a Bright Elf,” I offered, as if he didn’t know that.
“Yes,” he said with a light chuckle, “but even our people tend to find their mates and settle down. But here,” his finger stopped on a point on my palm and I leaned forward to look, “there is a deep scar in your love line, which makes me think you’ve had a very serious heartbreak.” My stomach twisted thinking about Cillian, the elf I thought I’d spend the rest of my life with.
“Mmm,” I said casually, not wanting to give him that embarrassing piece of information.
“But after that,” he went on, tracing his finger along my palm again, “I see many loves.”
“Right. Bright Elf, remember?”
“No, no,” he said, shaking his head and finally looking up at me. “There are three distinct lines braiding with yours.” I thought about Andre, Daniel, and Corbin, and my stomach twisted again, but t
his time it was a pleasant, welcome feeling.
“Three, huh?” I said with a smile, pulling my hand back and looking at my palm. He was right; there were three obvious lines twisting around my love line. But I didn’t put much stock into palm reading.
“I wonder if there’s room on your dance card if you’re so busy,” he teased, leaning forward on the table. I felt like drawing back. I didn’t know what it was; he was handsome enough, he was a Bright Elf, so his magic called to mine, there was lust-filled magic swirling all around us, but still my magic did not rise up to meet his. Maybe it had been too long since I’d been with one of my own, or maybe Cillian had ruined me for other Bright Elves. Or maybe, just maybe, my dance card was full and I just wasn’t interested in anyone new.
“Perhaps,” I said vaguely, and suddenly I wanted out of The Garden, away from Aiden, to be back in the cool night air. I glanced around. Roxy hadn’t wandered in like I thought she would, so I stood and turned towards the entrance.
“I didn’t mean to offend you,” Aiden said quickly, standing up and holding a hand out to me as if he’d stop me.
“You didn’t,” I said, waving off his apology. “I just realized I lost track of my friend and I should go look for her.”
“Oh, well, maybe we’ll see each other later?” he asked, hope clear in his voice.
“Maybe,” I said, offering him a small smile, not wanting to be cruel. After all, he hadn’t done anything wrong, per se; he just didn’t do anything for me. I made my way out of The Garden. As soon as I passed through the threshold, the air was cooler, lighter on my face, and I was able to clear my head with a few lungfuls.
I started walking towards the bonfire area, people still dancing around it, to look for Roxy. The sun was lower in the sky now, sending long, stretching shadows through the fairgrounds. The flames of the torches bent and flickered in the light breeze caused by the raised energy of the musicians and dancers. The air was almost as intoxicating out here as it had been in The Garden. As the dancers circled around again, I caught sight of Roxy, but when I moved forward, I was suddenly swept off my feet.
The world turned upside down as hard, thick arms lifted me off the ground and spun me around. I saw a flash of cherry red as my vision blurred, and the rumbling chuckle was decidedly masculine and vibrated against my skin. When the world stopped spinning, I was pressed against Daniel’s chest, his arms cradling me under my back and knees.
“Daniel!” I cried, throwing my arms around his neck, and captured his mouth in a hungry kiss. It had been a couple of months since I had last seen him as he had been training for a big fight and been out of town to do so. His lips were as soft and warm as they had been the first time I remembered kissing him. His fingers curled into my body as he gripped me and answered my need with a fierce kiss. I caught his bottom lip with my teeth and bit down until he made a noise for me; then I let go with a smile.
“Missed me, luv?” he asked as he set my feet back on the ground, but kept his other arm around my body, pressing me against him as I lifted up on my toes to keep as close to him as I could. He was nearly a foot taller than me, so I couldn’t keep my arms comfortably around his neck as we stood. My hands slid down to rest on the panes of his chest, only light, white cotton baring my access to his flesh. I realized he had lost a couple of pounds while he’d been away training, and now he felt as hard as bent steel. He lifted his free hand and ran it through my hair, brushing it away from my face.
“Yes, I did,” I admitted. Daniel was as human as they come, but after he had rescued me from a couple of trolls and stayed with me to help me deal with a Hunter’s bite, he’d become something special to me. He not only made me break my no-humans-rule, he made me shatter it. After we had formed our connection thanks to the Hunter’s bite, I could now raise magic with Daniel, something faes weren’t supposed to be able to do with humans. I didn’t know why the connection remained after the bite was removed, but every now and then I could still feel the power of the bite on my shoulder so I only assumed the power was something else left over.
“Good.” He grinned down at me, lowering his face to press his lips against mine again, making no comment about missing me, but the glint in his eye told me he had.
“How did the fight go?” I asked, but there wasn’t a cut or a bruise on his oval face, so I had a feeling it went well.
“Glass jaw,” he said. “Knocked the bloke out in the first round.” He said it casually, but his lips were turned up in a proud smile, and I could feel his pent up energy, almost making him bounce on the balls of his feet. “So I thought I’d come out and celebrate. I was hoping to run into you,” he said that last bent close to my face, his breath warm against my skin.
“Celebrate, huh?” I smiled up at him before glancing over my shoulder. I couldn’t take him into the Garden because of the wards, and I didn’t want to get arrested, but looking up into his face, feeling his arms around my body and the tingle of his kiss still on my lips, I realized how much I’d been missing him while he was gone.
“Come on,” I said, turning out of his arms and catching his hand as I went, pulling him with me. He didn’t question me, just followed willingly. We maneuvered through the growing crowd of revelers around The Great Bonfire, fighting to get to the other side, away from the fairway, and over the crest of the sloping hill on the far side of the park. As we moved farther and farther away from the crowds and booths, the park became darker and darker, the sun nearly half gone on the horizon. There was a cluster of trees and shrubs planted in a very precise manner, speaking of man-made landscaping. It was draped in shadows and hidden alcoves, a perfect hiding place.
When we were well within the little oasis, we could still hear and smell the festivities only a few hundred yards away, but we couldn’t see anyone and, more importantly, felt safe enough that no one could see us. I spun around, stopping Daniel in his tracks, and grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him down and kissed him, rough and hungry. He responded in kind with lips, teeth, and tongue, my body responding immediately as happy little shocks ran over my body. I tore at the white button up shirt he was wearing, popping a couple of buttons as I forced it off.
His hands were pulling at the button and zipper of my jean skirt until he could push it off, landing in a circle around my ankles. I stepped out of and kicked it away as my hands fell to the button fly of his jeans. I gripped the waistband and ripped savagely, hearing the buttons pop satisfyingly as they came undone, and I was peeling them down his legs, legs corded with muscles and smooth skin. Daniel waxed his body for his fights, and I was happy for it. He stepped out of the boots he was wearing as he pulled his feet out of the pool of his jeans before reaching for me and pulling me back up to my feet.
He pulled my sweater up and over my head, dropping it to the ground, leaving me in my boots and tights and black lace bra. He bent at the knees and wrapped his arms around my waist before standing back up, lifting me up with him. I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck as I gazed into his rich brown eyes. He’d lost the black tips of his Mohawk as the red had grown out and been freshly dyed, making it a shock of color in the fading light. He bent his face close to mine and started pressing light, tingly kisses along my jaw line, leading to the hollow under my ear and up to my ear lobe.
He caught the soft skin with his teeth, rolling it before drawing it into his mouth. I leaned into him, letting my eyes fall closed. I felt one of his hands at the clasp of my bra, and with one expert tug and twist, I felt the light fabric become loose around my body. I slid it off my arms and dropped it behind him to the ground. Daniel’s hand came up to cradle my right breast as he continued his slow assault on my left ear, having moved up and slipped the tip of his tongue inside, making me squirm against him. I felt my tights stretch around him and I now wished desperately that I hadn’t worn them.
Daniel’s thumb brushed across my nipple, puckering it, hungry for more attention. I arched my back, pressing myself against him, wanting to
feel him inside of me already, remembering him above me, my nails cutting into his pale skin, tasting the salt of his sweat on my lips, the press of his hips into my thighs. The magic inside of me that had been quiet most of the night woke up suddenly, lashing in and out of my body, and I felt Daniel start as it struck him, and his teeth bit down on my ear and his hand spasmed on my breast in surprise, making me cry out for him.
He set me down and knelt in front of me. He urged my right foot up, holding my leg by the bend of my knee, and slipped off my boot, doing the same to the left before his fingers came up and curled into the waistband of my tights. I braced myself on his shoulders as I stepped out of the clinging fabric. Daniel sat back on his heels; he was left wearing only a pair of black cotton briefs, but I was naked now. I felt the magic swirling in my belly, clenching things low in my body. My long, fair hair drifted in the breeze, teasing my skin and the tops of my breasts. Daniel stared up at my body, his brown eyes dark as night now, and his lips parted, looking hungry and thirsty for me.
The lines of his body had gone soft at the edges and the world around us was aglow, and I knew my eyes had gone to quicksilver with the energy we were raising. I lifted a hand and ran it over his cherry red Mohawk; it was soft, but the spikes still sprung right back up. I ran my hand around his head and back up to his jaw until I could crook my fingers under his jaw and I urged him forward. Daniel came willingly, lifting up on his feet again, dragging his lips up my body until he was towering over me again. Hooking my fingers into the band of his briefs, I pulled them down until he could step out of them, the area now littered with our clothing.
The sun was gone and the moon was bright in the sky now, casting the world in a silvery glow, making our bodies shine. I realized then that Daniel and I had mostly only had sex standing up, and while there were trees here, I wasn’t keen on feeling the bite of bark on my bare back. As if reading my mind, Daniel took my hand and led me over to a patch of grass between the shrubbery, kneeling down and pulling me with him. He caught me around the waist and rolled me onto my back so that he was looking down at me. The first few times we had been together, my mind was clouded by the power of a Hunter’s bite, and while I had recovered snatches of memories, I couldn’t really remember what it had been like to see Daniel over me, his weight pressing down into me, and I was eager to do so now. I brought my legs up and around his waist, bending my knees and resting my heels on the curve of his ass, opening myself to him. I could feel him hard and ready for me, the swollen tip of his cock resting familiarly against my opening, already wet and eager for him.
Elfmoon (A Taryn Malloy Fantasy) Page 2