by Hazel Hunter
On the last two words, his fingers slid along her slit, parting her folds easily to find her wet and waiting. She whimpered, clinging to his hand, but she spread her legs wider still. She wanted him to have all of her. She could feel his love thrumming through his body, through the words that he said to her, even through the gentle touch of his hands.
“Would you watch?” she asked, her voice high and soft. She moaned when he slid a single finger into her depths. “Would you want to see what they did to me?”
“Of course,” he responded, his voice oddly tender for the sentiment. “You are completely precious to me, and I always want to make sure that you are well taken care of. That is all I have ever wanted.”
She ended up on her side with her back to Piers’s chest. She whimpered as he whispered into her ear what all of those people would do to her, how he would take such good care of her. Wrapped in his arms, she felt completely safe. It was a strange sort of freedom to be able to explore this part of herself.
Soon she was arching and moaning, pushing herself on to his fingers while he ground his erection against her rear. She cried out when he nipped at her earlobe, but all she knew was that she wanted more and more.
She could feel the heat between them rising further and further, higher and hotter. She knew she was going to climax soon, but that wasn’t what she wanted.
“I want you inside me,” she moaned. “I want you to be inside me, please!”
Piers’s laugh was ragged. He planted another kiss on her shoulder.
“I could never deny you anything,” he whispered. He moved briefly to slide a condom over his erection, but then he was back again, totally nude. Hailey thought that he was going to move her, either to her back or up to her knees, but instead he left her lying on her side.
She watched wide eyed as he straddled her lower leg while throwing her upper leg over his shoulder. The position stretched her legs nearly as wide as they would go. When she felt the blunt tip of his cock slide against her wet slit, she moaned.
“Do you like this position?” he asked softly. “Try and close your legs.”
Hailey did as he asked, realizing that she couldn’t. She was so open to him, so very vulnerable. In that moment, however, she still knew that he would never harm her, never hurt her.
“I want you so much,” she said, and he pressed forward.
He entered her with one long thrust. Then he started moving like a man possessed, forcing wave after wave of sensation on her. She could feel the rising tide of pleasure come up over her, but though she squirmed and begged, it wouldn’t crest. To have her pleasure right there but to feel it denied to her was impossible. Her gasping sobs took on a pleading note.
“Here, show me,” he said.
Piers paused his thrusts to take her hand. To her shock, he slid it down to her mound.
“Show me what you like,” he whispered. “I want you to climax for me, darling.”
Hailey’s first thought was that she had been pushed too far. She had of course pleasured herself, but it was a secret and furtive thing. She had never done so with anyone watching, let alone the man who was now loving her so well.
Then she was filled with a surge of love and confidence. She knew that Piers would like what he saw. She knew that he would enjoy it. That was all the encouragement that she needed to do as he said, touching herself the way she did when she was alone. The familiar sensations flowed with the feel of him inside her and above her.
The tension built up low in her body, rising like smoke from a fire. When her climax hit her, she cried out, digging the nails of her free hand into Piers’s arm. She could feel his muscles tense and flex as he thrust into her before he went still and shaking.
Through the haze of her own pleasure, she wondered what it be like to do this without the condom, to feel him spill inside her, hot and liquid.
He disentangled their limbs and removed the condom before coming back to hold her. Her eyes were drifting shut when he planted a kiss behind her ear.
“Did you enjoy that?”
Hailey’s laugh was tired and drowsy.
“I have absolutely no complaints, Coven Master. I enjoyed it a great deal. I would direct you to how loud I was, but you know. You kind of had your own thing going on there.”
“My own thing?” Piers laughed.
It made him sound surprisingly boyish. She knew that he was hundreds of years old and charged with the running of a large community, but just then, he only seemed a handful of years older than she was.
“You need to tell me what you like and what you don’t like,” he said more soberly. “In the heat of the moment, it is very easy to get carried away.”
Hailey opened one eye to look up at him.
“I don’t mind if you carry me away,” she said softly. “And trust me to say no if something really hurts, or even if I don’t like it, all right? I’m fine.”
Piers sighed and nodded, even if he didn’t exactly look convinced.
“Sleep well, love. We have a long day in front of us tomorrow.”
Hailey would have wondered what he meant by that ‘we,’ but she was so exhausted by her day, and what had gone before, that sleep claimed her before she could get the words out.
CHAPTER FOUR
TO HAILEY’S DISAPPOINTMENT, Piers was not there when she woke up the next morning. She had been hoping to speak with him, to let him know what he meant to her. In her heart of hearts, she had been looking forward to some morning play as well.
Well, I suppose I will see him at some point before Kieran and I leave.
She went to her own chambers, and then to the supply rooms where the cold weather gear was kept. She could figure out what she needed well enough. The Alps were presumably not so different from the cold of the Wyoming mountains, and the Castle’s gear was among the best.
Back in her room, fitting everything into a small pack that she could carry easily, she wondered what the next few weeks would bring. She wondered how it would feel traveling with Kieran, and what would become of them. Somewhere in the Alps was a group of men who were dedicated to wiping her and her people out of existence. From what Kieran was telling her, they were going to walk right up to those men.
A knock at the door made her turn.
“Come in,” she said, hoping that it was Piers.
Instead it was Liona, who registered the disappointment on Hailey’s face with a quirked eyebrow.
“I’m aware that I am not the most impressive thousand year old witch that you know, but have I done something to disappoint you lately?”
Hailey laughed at the other woman’s jibe.
“No, I’m sorry. I was just hoping to see Piers before I left.”
“Hmm. So I understand that you are leaving with that man from the Magus Corps.”
“He told you about that?”
“Something like that.”
Liona paused, as uncertain as Hailey had ever seen her.
“Hailey, are you sure that you want to go?”
Hailey blinked at Liona’s question.
“Kieran tells me that I could save someone’s life. There’s really no question after that. If I can help someone, I need to do it.”
Liona’s gaze was distant.
“There is something about what is going to happen out there. Every time I try to see, I come up blind and wanting. I see flickers, dark things. Nothing ever stays the same, but I think that if you go out there, there is a good chance that you will come back changed.”
Hailey tried to laugh off her friend’s words.
“You sound like a state fair fortuneteller warning me of my dark fate.”
Liona smiled a little at that.
“Well, I’ve done fortuneteller tricks more than once in my life, so I suppose I deserve that. I wish I had more to tell you and more useful things at that, but it is what I have. I also wanted you to join me on the wall for a few moments if you have the time.”
Hailey looked over her bags. She was as
packed as she would be, and soon enough, it would be noon, when she would meet Kieran. Honestly, she was a little hurt that Piers had never appeared, but perhaps it was too difficult for him to say goodbye. He had mentioned having a busy day last night, so she put the sting out of her mind.
Liona took them first to the armory, where there were a number of weapons to choose from. She bypassed the guns, and in the back, she found what she was looking for. She pulled a primitive-looking longbow, plucking the string a few times to ensure that it was sound. Instead of taking the quiver of arrows that sat to the side, she pulled out only one to take with her.
“All right, let’s get up to the wall.”
The day outside was misty and cool. Liona led her up the twisting staircase to the eastern wall, which faced out to the forest.
“What are we doing out here?”
“Something I want to do,” was the only answer. “Give me your hand.”
Hailey did as Liona said, only to yelp with shock when the other woman pulled out a small pocketknife to prick her finger. She watched in confusion as Liona dabbed some of her blood on the arrow’s point.
“First, that hurt,” Hailey said, “and second, you still haven’t told me what this is for.”
“This arrow represents you now,” Liona explained.
There was a faintly foreign cadence to her speech. When they usually spoke, Liona did not have an accent. She could have been a woman from the Midwest, from the east coast or from the mountains of the west. Now though, distracted with what she was doing, Hailey could hear another language shadowing her speech, perhaps several of them. She realized that if Liona had been born in ancient Rome, her first language was likely Latin. It made her feel faintly dizzy to realize all of the languages that Liona had seen live and die over the course of her lifetime.
“So flies this arrow, so will you fly. So the arrow finds its mark, so will you find yours. So the arrow fulfills its purpose, so will you. So the arrow travels safely, so will you.”
Hailey watched as Liona nocked the bloody arrow, stretching the bowstring to its full extension. She was faintly surprised to see the muscles of Liona’s arm. It was obviously not a new art to her.
When she let go of the string, the air rustled with a sound like tearing silk. The arrow arched over the trees, disappearing into the forest below.
“What do you think it hit?” Hailey asked after a moment.
“I don’t know,” Liona said. “All we know is that its path was straight and true.”
Liona put down the bow and turned to Hailey, taking her in her arms. The kiss that she planted on Hailey’s mouth was firm and sweet at the same time. For a moment, Hailey could simply relax into the other woman’s embrace. Older than many countries, she was a fixed point that Hailey could trust.
“Are you truly afraid for me?” Hailey asked softly.
Liona sighed.
“Sometimes. Other times, I see the strength you have in you. Not just your powers, but the strength of your heart. Then I know that whatever happens, you will be just fine.”
Hailey nodded, tears prickling her eyes. Liona’s comfort could be strange at times, but she knew it was real.
“Thank you for everything. In the future though, I would prefer a warning before you steal my blood.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Here’s something that you should think about, however. Do you know what happens when you pull power from others?”
Hailey blinked.
“They call me a vampire,” she said cautiously. “They say that I remove energy from others to make it my own.”
Liona shook her head.
“Perhaps that’s what it seems like to people who are unused to their power. No. When you drew power from me, you were also giving it back.”
Hailey blinked.
“I don’t think I understand.”
“Power is a strange thing in Wiccans, Hailey. It isn’t like a jar of sugar that you can scoop from, it doesn’t empty out over time. I have found that when I practice my own powers, it is a great deal more like the rising of a tide, something that beats in time with my own heartbeat. There is no end to it, not really. Not for people like you, and I suspect, for your men.”
“My…my men?”
Liona’s smile was sly.
“Oh, yes, both of them. And if you don’t see it now, well, I think there is a good chance that you will see it sooner rather than later. What I need to say, however, is that when you are taking power from others, you are also trying to give them what you have.”
Hailey frowned.
“I’m not sure I understand.”
“When you reached for me, I was ready to feel my power being drained. I did feel that, but more than that, I felt you trying to give me your power as well. When that happens, I think that it is more than an exchange. I could feel that between the two of us, we were creating more than had been there before.”
“Like…like a pump of some kind. Two components come together to make something greater.”
“Or an explosion, perhaps,” said Liona with some degree of satisfaction. “Regardless of what happens with it, it is something that you should be aware of.”
“I will be, thank you. Thank you for everything that you have give me, as well.”
Hailey hugged Liona, wondering if this would be the last time she would be able to do so. If the mission to the Alps was as dangerous as Kieran was telling her it was, there was a possibility that she would not return at all.
“You’re very welcome. I hope you return whole of heart and stronger than ever.”
CHAPTER FIVE
HAILEY CARRIED HER things down to the courtyard at noon. She had said goodbye to the other friends she had made at the Castle. She was as ready as she thought she was going to be. Kieran was waiting for her with an unreadable expression on his face. There was no trace of the desperate man who had kissed her the night before. Even in the cloudy light of the day, the bruise on his face was dark and obvious.
“Well, here I am,” she said. “Shall we go?”
“We’re still waiting for one more,” was his answer.
“What, what are you talking about?”
Kieran grimaced and pointed behind her. Confused, Hailey turned to see Piers approaching, dressed to travel and with a bag much like hers over his shoulder.
“Piers?”
“I’m sorry I missed you this morning. There was a lot of delegating and organization that I needed to do to make sure that the Castle would run well in my absence, whether that absence was one that lasted a few weeks or whether it was one that proved to be permanent.”
“You…you can’t do that!” Hailey cried in astonishment. “You are the Castle! The people here need you.”
“I created the Castle to give Wiccans the protections that they needed as well as to offer them all of the choices that they deserved. In this way, this is my choice, not yours, Hailey.”
Piers’s voice was calm. There was nothing that she could do to dissuade him, so she turned to Kieran.
“Are you going to let him come along?”
Kieran’s smile was twisted.
“I’m not actually sure that I can stop him. Also, I’m going to point out that if this mission was serious enough that I was willing to endanger you, I’m certainly not going to say no to more firepower, no matter what form it takes.”
There were no further arguments that Hailey could make, so she followed the two of them out of the Castle. A short ways into the forest was a small plane ably hidden underneath a camouflage tarp. When Kieran stripped it away, she and Piers got on board. As Kieran started his pre-flight checks, she leaned closer to Piers.
“Why are you here?” she asked softly. “The Castle means the world to you.”
Piers’s laugh was soft. He reached out to touch her face gently, just once.
“The Castle might be my world, but I have found that you are my heart. I can’t be in two places at once, but I know where I need to be most. I created
the Castle to be a defense in its own right. I might be the coven master here, but I have always looked ahead to a time when I might be out of the picture. The Castle will survive even if I do not.”
The idea of Piers dying was a sobering one to her. Her heart clenched with fear. When she glanced at Kieran’s broad back in the cockpit in front of them, she felt the same way. She wondered if Piers felt the same thing when he looked at her, if Kieran did as well.
We will come back from this, she thought firmly to herself. We will fly as Liona’s arrow did, we will find our targets, and then we will find our way home.
The plane began its slow ascent into the sky. Hailey looked out the small window just in time to see the Castle fall away. It was the first home that she had ever known. She wondered briefly whether she would ever be able to see it again.
Next to her, Piers took her hand gently, bringing it to his lips for a kiss.
“It’ll be fine, and so will we.”
Settling in for the flight, she tried to believe him.
CHAPTER SIX
LESS THAN A day later, Hailey was on the other side of the world. They had taken a commercial flight from the United States to Italy, but from there, they had found a taciturn man with a small plane to take them further.
“There’s a Magus Corps safe house that we can use to find our feet,” Kieran said. “It’s as close as you can get to the place we are heading. From there, we can strike into their territory on foot.”
“Will we see Cavanaugh there?” Hailey had wondered. Cavanaugh was Kieran’s wolf familiar. It felt almost strange to see Kieran without his companion.
Kieran had shaken his head.
“As a matter of fact, I left him at the Castle. It’s a place that’s close enough to his home, and if I don’t come back, I know he’ll thrive.”
That was all that Kieran had had to say about the matter, but Hailey could read a world there. She had left Merit in Wyoming for much the same reason.
There was very much a sense that they might not come back from their mission, though if Piers or Kieran’s thoughts ran along the same lines that hers did, they did not reveal it.