by Claudy Conn
“I was trying to do just that.”
“Well then, do it.”
“It isn’t required of me to explain anything to an enfant of a woman, but I shall. Atha is Gaiscioch’s lover and spy. She sits on our Council, and I thought I would be able to trap her and find out how she is communicating with Gaiscioch.”
This brought me down ten pegs. I was momentarily flabbergasted and bereft of speech. He grunted, obviously well pleased with my condition, and continued. “As it turns out, once again our queen had everything under control. She asked me to keep Atha occupied because she meant to send my younger brother, Trevor, to Atha’s home.”
“You have a younger brother named Trevor?” This had captured my interest. I hadn’t thought of Danté in that light—the light of having a family and siblings. “Do you have more?”
“Have I not told you?” He frowned. “I have two younger brothers … and thank goodness no sisters. Breslyn’s sister is quite a handful.”
I smirked. “Hmmm, all females are handfuls!”
He pulled a face at me and asked, “Do you or do you not wish to hear more?”
I nodded. “Yes, yes. Go on … Trevor going to investigate Atha’s home—the queen wanted you to keep the redhead occupied …”
“Because Trevor has a gift. Most of us cannot find our own Seelie artifacts—but if Trevor is in the same room with one, Seelie or Unseelie, he immediately connects with it. The queen was sending him in to see if Atha was using such an artifact, against our law, to contact the traitor Gais.”
“Kewl,” I answered and then waved at him to continue.
He frowned but after leveling a glare at me continued. “While I kept Atha occupied for a bit … walking and flirting, nothing more—”
“I saw more,” I interjected with one brow up.
“You saw a kiss. That meant nothing,” he answered softly and touched my face. “Shall I continue, enfant?”
I nodded vigorously, but I leveled a dark look at him.
“Trevor went in and found a secret room, but it was spelled. The queen joined him, and together they were able to negate the spell, and there it was—an ancient orb that had always belonged in the queen’s family. Aaibhe asked the orb to show its last session, and it displayed Gais giving Atha specific instructions, and it displayed Atha giving Gais the false information Aaibhe had purposely confided to her.”
“Her goose is cooked. So then what happened?”
“Our Council is convening with Atha even as we speak. It is very bad, Z … she has committed treason and will not be given a pardon.”
I was stunned. My Danté was in every manner magnificent. It occurred to me that he could have seduced the beautiful Atha—she was sure willing—but he had not, if he were to be believed, and somehow, I believed everything Danté said. He could never dissimilate; it wasn’t in his nature. However, Atha’s fate bothered me. “What are you saying? Will they put her to death?”
“I am afraid that is their right.”
“Can she not be rehabilitated, her memory erased … something better than execution? Aren’t we above that? We have magic and so much more …”
“Wise little Z … I shall present your suggestions to the Council at sentencing. For now she will be held a prisoner, and her home and possessions confiscated,” he said quietly.
He wasn’t able to say more because I had already scrambled onto his lap from the driver’s seat. He was naked to his low-cut leather pants, and I was in position as I straddled his lap, threw my arms around his massive neck, and kissed his sensuous lips. I had so much bottled up inside me, and it wanted out …
Apparently so did he, because that was all it took. He was wild, and he was oh so hot and hungry. His kisses took me to another realm where it was pulsing red and glowing with an aura that sucked us both inside. His tongue created sensation throughout my entire body …
My clothes were gone, Fae style, with Fae magic! His lips whispered hungry words that set me on fire as they nibbled down my neck. He leaned me back towards the dashboard and found my nipples. I didn’t think about the confined space because all I could think about was touching and kissing and more touching.
He suckled one nipple and then the other, fondling my breasts with his hands, and then his kisses made a trail down my midriff to my belly, and I was arching up in our confined space …
He shifted us then to my bedroom. I was on my back on my bed, and his fingers were spreading my thighs and playing in the tuft between them. I arched higher for him and groaned for more. He lowered his head between my thighs, and I discovered how talented he was as he nibbled at my clit. I wanted to scream with pleasure, so I did, calling his name, “Danté … yes … do me …”
“When I’m ready, beauty … when I’m ready.”
“I’m ready … fuck me now.”
He laughed and slid up against my body, grabbed my hair, and brought my head to his for another breathtaking kiss that left me feeling absurdly submissive—like I couldn’t think, I only wanted to feel … and feeling him … feeling me was everything that mattered at that moment. There was nothing else.
I gazed down the length of his body; his cock was the biggest I had ever seen. I reached and bent until I was able to grab hold. I stroked it, licked it, and stroked it some more before I sucked on its head, and when I heard him make that animal sound in his throat, I sucked harder …
I felt as though I were on fire … and I was … on fire for him. Then he pushed me onto my tummy, pulled up my rump, and made this primal sound that drove me even more insanely hot as he stroked my butt with his magic fingers. “I am going to take you in every imaginable way and then take you in ways you can’t imagine …”
Hot—I was so hot that I was only able to say, “Yes … yes … do that—do it now …”
He had his hard, throbbing rod on my ass, and he positioned it, teased me with it, and I bucked back against him and heard him groan as his voice tore out of his throat. “Z … you beauty … you …”
“Fuck me, Danté … or don’t you know where to put it?” I goaded him because the teasing had me wired. And he slammed into me hard and fast, and then he slowed as he moved that big, hard thing inside me, touching all my pleasure spots until I was grabbing the sheet, scratching through to the mattress … breathing his name as I went off. His dance inside of me continued and rocked me as he shot his hot seed inside. He held me then so tightly as he rocked me for a moment and whispered my name. I couldn’t stop the aftermath of shudders I experienced, and I held him close as I whimpered with pleasure.
Before I could think, before I could breathe, he had picked me up and turned me over onto my side, lifted my leg, and moved alongside me to slam into me again. I moaned with pleasure … I couldn’t stop myself from making the sounds that came out of my mouth. I was a harlot, begging for more. I was a tart teasing him to take me harder, faster, meaner … oh, by Danu, he was a giver, making certain I was satisfied over and over again before he allowed himself release, and then, I couldn’t believe it, he was turning me onto my back and reversing his position so that his cock dangled by my breasts. I took it and rubbed it there, and then he was bending as he held himself above me on his elbows and slammed that hard, huge rod into me again …
* * *
I am a strange contradiction of myself. I have never been needy—you know the kind of woman that needs to hear the ‘love’ word when embarking in a relationship that is as much for fun as anything else. Not that I have had many relationships—only one, if you could call it that. At any rate, I never thought I would need to hear words of love after ‘love-making’.
I was wrong. I waited to see what Danté would say as he held me close and told me to rest. I teased him to make light of the situation. I didn’t want him to think I was going to make ‘forever’ demands on him—I knew how most Fae feel about ‘forever’ relationships. So as he held me, I nuzzled him and whispered, “I probably won’t be able to train today …”
He eyed
me quizzically and laughed. “Why not?”
I slapped him. “Because I probably won’t be able to walk.”
“Good, then you won’t go off sauntering about, and my job will at least today be easier.”
I pulled away, but he brought me gently back and kissed my forehead. “Ah, sweet enfant, I know what you are going to say.”
“I don’t think you do,” I shot back at him.
“You were going to say …” He made a feeble attempt to mimic my voice. “Am I just still a job?”
“Well—am I?”
“How can you ask …?”
“Ask what?” I snapped right back at him.
He kissed my lips and said, “I’ll be right back.”
And he was gone.
Gone! Now this was unacceptable—totally unacceptable. This was much worse than a guy just getting up and leaving after sex, this was …
He was back, and he had a tray laden with food … and a flower in a vase. He said, looking like a shy boy, “I could have flicked my hand and had it here, but I wanted to prepare it for you myself …”
He set the tray down on the bed, and I scrambled into his naked arms, and he held me tightly and kissed my lips, but he did not whisper one word of love.
More than that blasted through my system—L-O-V-E raged inside my heart, and when you burn like this, I had discovered suddenly, you want the object of your great affection to feel the same. So for a moment, although I put a smile on my face, I was frowning in my head.
However, I had time on my side … or so I told myself in that moment, and thus, we sat naked on the bed, ate, and laughed. Crumbs spilled onto my breast as I devoured pastries. He licked them off my skin, and I trembled—and I know my eyes closed. He gave me his glass of wine and watched me with an adoring expression on his handsome face, and I hoped … hoped that he loved me back. I sipped, and I thought he was about to speak when all at once I saw his eyes flicker and his beautiful smile vanished. His voice when it came sounded grim.
“Enfant … please stay here on the grounds … I must go.”
“Where? I want to come with you …”
“No.”
“Where?”
He sighed and flicked my nose. “I have just received word from the queen that there is a battle raging in Inverness, and a portal … a very large portal has opened along the river. She needs me there.”
I was up. “I’m going with you.”
He frowned and seemed to make a snap decision. “Then hurry.”
Hurriedly I blinked my way through a quick wash-up and an even faster brush over my teeth (I am Fae—don’t need to brush, but old habits as they say die hard). I saw him flick a wrist and knew he had showered … he was still dripping wet as he stood on the tile of my bathroom. I couldn’t move as I looked at him and licked my lips.
He grinned and wagged a finger, and the next thing I knew he was dry and dressed, so I did the same, Fae style … and I was in my black stretch clothes and my hand was up towards the ceiling as I mentally called for my Death Sword. True to its nature, it fit itself to my hand where I knew it belonged.
Danté reluctantly smiled at me, shook his head, and said, “Minx of a woman … I am warning you now if you don’t stay close, I will send you to another dimension to await retrieval. Are we clear?”
“Bully.” I giggled and added, “Big bully.”
He smiled again, and I felt it like a separate entity softly touching me. He took up my hand, kissed my fingers, and said, “Enfant … this is serious, be serious, be wary, be on guard, and hold on …”
And I did—with eyes wide open, and when we stepped into the atmosphere along the Inverness River, we felt it at once!
Power, pulsing, evil foaming and a dark hole that seemed to originate in the depths of Scotland’s Inverness River!
* * *
Chaos—it was as though Inverness had been sucked into another time zone, another dimension. Deep, dark red jet streams riddled the sky, and the river below that threatening sky swirled in wild, uncontrolled motion because out of its depths a huge dark hole had opened.
The depth and width of this portal was of such size that we were thunderstruck for a spellbound moment.
I had not expected Gaiscioch, a non-Royal, to be able to manage such a portal. I looked around and saw that the immortals and Fae around me had been struck with consternation as well. No one had expected anything of this magnitude before Halloween. This portal came out of the river like a black tunnel, but its walls seemed to breathe and emit, and that emission was the stench of death.
Monsters of all shapes and sizes were emerging in numbers at the portal’s wide mouth, and they were coming at breakneck speed!
I looked at my sword and thanked Danu for it, because their numbers were such that without our Death Swords, they could overrun us.
Chancemont, his father, and five others—all dressed similarly in their uniforms of leather, each armed with his own death weapons, and whom Danté irritably informed me were Milesians all—were slicing through the mesh of Dark Seelie. They were doing a damn good job, but they were outnumbered. They smiled at our arrival, but there was no time for greetings. These grotesque creatures could smell freedom and food …
As I went forward I heard one of the Milesian men curse and call to Chancemont that he had been swiped with some kind of paralyzing serum by one of the Unseelies.
Chance was there at once, guarding him, fighting, slashing, cursing as he fought, and I heard him tell his wounded friend the effects of the paralyzing poison wouldn’t last long.
Danté grabbed my arm and snapped, “Stay here—don’t enter the fray until I get back. I have to close off the portal!” He went off, I suppose hoping I would obey him.
I wanted to do what he asked, but I couldn’t. Even though with all my heart (I think) I wanted to adhere to his request, there are times when the fight comes to you and choice is off the table. That was just what happened. A moment after he left me, I found myself surrounded by three Unseelies! Here was the kick in the equation. They didn’t have Danu death weapons—but they did have numbers. It was obvious their goal was to overpower with those numbers and confiscate our weapons. Gaiscioch had sent them in to draw us out and do just that! Was this huge portal an accident, or did Gais now have the power to open many like this one? That thought was strictly unthinkable …
In the meantime, Danté’s unreasonable demand and my acquiescence were no longer in play. Circumstances deemed otherwise. I ask you, what was a girl to do? I knew what this girl was going to do. I pointed my sword and mentally requested it to show me how to kill these Unseelies as they were way different from the others I had seen.
“Take the left one’s head off … then plunge me into the gut of the short, stubby one … slice the other in half …” And so I got busy and was aware of one thing only, and that was staying alive, because these things smelled the human in me …
As it happened, it didn’t take long before Chance was at my back, and we went at it because Unseelies were coming at us fast and in quantities I couldn’t count.
~ Thirteen ~
CHANCE LAUGHED LIKE a demon possessed as he slashed through Unseelie after Unseelie. We worked back to back and had got up a rhythm when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something moving along on the river!
It was a large boat with tourists innocently out for a day of sightseeing. I wasn’t the only one that noticed them. A few beasts had looked towards the boat full of people, and I knew they were thinking about leaving the fight for a quick meal …
We would be able to stop them—that didn’t have me worried. What had me crazy concerned was the fact that the tourist boat was heading directly and quickly, far too quickly, right towards the huge portal to the Dark Realm!
It would be sucked in …
I screamed out, “Chance! That boat … all those people … we have to do something!”
“Busy at the moment!” He laughed wildly. “Just forget it, Daoine … the
re is nothing we can do about it!” he yelled over his shoulder at me.
Forget it? I couldn’t forget it—there were innocent people on that boat—loads of them, and they couldn’t even see what was happening right before their eyes. I had to do something … but what?
An Unseelie managed to get through while I slashed his buddy to bits, and he made a grab for my sword. I elbowed him in the face and sliced him in half, and then I turned my attention back to the boat full with people, children included.
I smiled. I should have known my Danté would be aware—my Danté was the sort that wouldn’t set it aside as collateral damage.
He must have seen the boat and knew immediately what to do. He was already at the helm, steering it away from the portal. The captain seemed trance-like and subdued. No doubt Danté had spelled the captain to stand down.
It would not describe the magnitude of what I felt if I said that my heart felt like it had suddenly grown twice its size and vibrated with his name as I watched him. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the pride I experienced in that moment took over my mind and breathed new life into my brain. I felt love beyond words and could not articulate, could never express, the feeling with mere words … so I breathed his name, Danté, and he looked my way.
And then, all at once, he was at my side, grinning like a boy as we drove the Unseelies back from the main thoroughfare. However, beasts were still coming through the portal, and Chance shouted out angrily, “Why the hell is the portal is still open, Fae Prince? What the bloody hell are you waiting for? Close it!”
“It will not be open much longer.” Danté smirked at him and lifted his chin. “I have prepared it for our queen.”
We looked up then—even some of the Unseelies beasts looked up—and saw in a gold-dust aura Aaibhe, Queen of the Seelie Fae, as she floated above the mouth of the black portal. She was guarded by a tall, exceptionally handsome prince, and I heard Danté breathe his name as he smiled. “Breslyn …”
Flanking the queen’s left side was a diminutive Fae that had the aura of a princess. She was a little beauty with long, gold-lit auburn hair. I watched almost mesmerized as the queen gave herself to the elements and enacted her magic.