She reached out for Arreal and found him near Kenny. She headed in that direction, dodging through the fight that had spread out. The soldiers had surrounded the area of the wall that had exploded. A few enemy soldiers attempted to engage her but she dealt with them quickly and moved on. Finally she spotted her barrack, fighting next to Kenny’s. She saw that the number of soldiers around him had been greatly reduced and her heart sank. It was obvious they’d born the brunt of the first part of the attack. His captain’s jacket was in tatters and she saw he was covered in blood but the insane grin on his face was still present. He clashed briefly with a large opponent. He toyed with him, driving the other man back relentlessly until he was overwhelmed then Kenny ran him through.
“Captain!” Arreal called out in surprise as she appeared with them.
“Ran into a little trouble, sorry I’m late!” She grinned as she caught an opponent’s blade with her own and threw him back before cutting through him with her other ax. The golden energy ran through her like fire. “What’s the strategy?”
“Well Captain Ravin thinks Captain Mazaran is trying to box them in using huge fires on either side of the breach so at least they can’t push wider. It seems to be working though the fires are dangerous to us as well. Captain Ravin with some of the other soldiers with the ability to withstand heat or hold it off with barriers are rotating in and out close to the fire. Captain Mazaran is having the fires put out as we push the enemy back.”
Dahlia tried her scatter shot and was pleased to see a line of soldiers fall. Crackles of gold ran over their skin and they were quickly taken out as opponents clashed around them. At least she’d gotten a solid return for moving forward the impending corruption of her soul.
“So just push them back? That’s the strategy?”
“Seems to be it. It’s working slowly.”
“Well,” she said, the heat of the battle adding to the fire in her veins, “let’s see what we can do to speed that up.”
She spun her ax over her head and, basking in her increased strength and speed, sent it crashing into an enemy who was too slow to dodge. She pulled it back as she met another. Gold crackled over her hand as she caught his sword with the ax in her other hand. Then the energy flashed forward and he crumpled before her. She brought her ax down to split his skull before moving forward to the next man.
She heard Kenny’s full laugh, long and loud, play over the sounds of the fight. She looked to find him faced with a man wielding an enormous broadsword. The man struck at Kenny and a line of blood appeared on his chest. Kenny sped up, grinning from ear to ear, hammering blows at the man who was able to counter.
“Come on,” she heard Kenny roar, “don’t hold back, this is all or nothing.” He grabbed the man’s head and slammed it into the ground before bringing his sword down towards it.
The man rolled, narrowly dodging, and jumped back to his feet only to find himself forced to parry Kenny’s blade. She noticed Kenny was keeping one hand by his side while his opponent gripped the blade with both hands. She shook her head. He wasn’t even showing off. He was just enjoying a real fight. Most of what he’d done up until now had been slaughter.
Kenny took another slash to the shoulder and a thin red line appeared. Dahlia worked her way over to Soa who was looking a little bedraggled. He was holding up a barrier on the side of his barrack to keep the fire from hurting them while fighting against the tide. She fired a scattered shot at the line of enemies facing his group to give them a moment to breathe. He grinned down at her when he saw her.
“Thanks, Captain. Captain Ravin’s an army in his own right but if he gets too far in we can get overwhelmed and I didn’t want to interrupt his current match,” he explained.
“Looks like he’s starting to get bored anyways,” she said.
Kenny’s opponent was starting to breathe heavily and he couldn’t avoid and counter without falling back. The light in Kenny’s eyes was starting to fade a bit. Suddenly he grabbed the sword in both hands, knocked his opponent’s strike to one side, and slashed. A deep, jagged cut opened diagonally across the man’s torso and arm. His sword dropped from his hands. Looking disappointed, Kenny drove his sword through the man’s heart, lifting him off the ground before throwing him back down off his sword. Then he turned and moved back towards his soldiers.
His eyes lit back up when he saw Dahlia.
“DeMorra, what kept you?”
“I ran into an old friend who insisted I stay and hear about his work,” she said cryptically.
“Uh huh, any chance I knew the friend?” He asked, taking in her torn shirt and wrappings.
“I imagine you would. By the way, have you noticed Horan is missing?”
“I didn’t notice, where might I find him?”
“Oh he just lost his head over something,” she grinned, “and couldn’t make it.”
Kenny’s grip on his sword tightened. “Pity, I think I would have enjoyed having a word with him about it,” he growled.
He started to say something else then paused and looked at her strangely for a moment. Then he apparently put it aside to turn back to the fight in front of him.
Soa had been right. Typically captains were stronger and faster than their barrack members by a magnitude. Most in the rank of captain could be expected to stand against the entire rest of their barrack and win. Dahlia had attained the rank purely through her skill with psychic attacks and the added muscle from her puppets. Kenny though, could stand alone against the tide of soldiers threatening to overwhelm any other group. It wasn’t even a stretch. Even when he was holding himself back, not allowing his body to transform and use his full abilities. To have had his barrack sustain the losses it had they must have been completely overrun.
Dahlia stood with their barracks and helped push back against the flow. Her newly enhanced abilities seemed to have no limit and she had gained physical endurance along with the speed and strength in the bargain. She felt the price she’d paid keenly, though. The elation she’d felt before was nothing compared to what she experienced now. She felt the rhythm of the fight running through her bones and she met each new opponent like a child with a new toy. She grinned as she felt her ax sliding through flesh and bones. The monster deep within her clawed to the surface and seeped into her soul, no longer a stranger.
She was also more keenly aware of the man she fought alongside. Even when he was out of eyesight, she had a constant level of awareness of Kenny’s presence just on the edge of her conscious mind.
She felt when the tide of the battle finally shifted and their opponents’ will to fight faded. She imagined their leaders had been told they just needed to keep the force engaged long enough and then another weapon would turn the tide.
She could sense when their expectations turned to fear and they abandoned the fight. The commanders began to quietly retreat and the soldiers at the back fled. The soldiers towards the front lines weren’t so lucky. They were taken down by vengeful opponents. Few who threw down their weapons were spared. Many who saw the fate of their fellows turned and ran, breaking from their own ranks.
Finally, Dahlia shouldered one of her axes and stood on the battlefield strewn with broken bodies and flames. The battle was over and they had won.
Kenny turned to her, “You know, I like your eyes that shade but it’s kinda strange they changed.”
Dahlia’s heart dropped into her stomach.
Chapter Forty Eight
A few days had passed. Repairs were under way but life was anything but normal. The casualties had been unbearably high. Once the force had been stabilized, the captains would be called to select new members for their barracks from the available fighters in training and possibly even fill in empty spots with promising soldiers who had not been selected for the barracks in previous recruitments and instead had been sent to guard duty in the city.
Dahlia stood by a small pond in the trees behind her barrack, gazing at her reflection in the softly rippling water. She’d exa
mined herself in the mirror once she gotten to her room and found that not only were her irises now a striking gold to match the power she’d used, her hair had become a more vivid shade of auburn that matched Leon’s, and her canines had become more pointed. The marks of her deal with her own personal devil.
She heard footsteps behind her. She sighed and turned to face the man who approached her.
“You’ve been avoiding me,” Traedon said and stopped. “Dahlia, your eyes…”
“I know,” she interrupted softly and paused. “On both counts.”
“What happened?” he asked her.
“It’s part of what I did to break the construct they were holding me with.” Then she smiled softly as she lied to him, “Some people get white hair under stress, it looks like I get gold eyes.”
They were silent for a moment.
“Dahlia, I....” he paused and closed his eyes as if bracing himself. “Was what he said about Ravin true?”
“Yes,” she said simply. He deserved the truth in that. He deserved to know the whole truth but she couldn’t bring herself to tell him about the deal she’d made.
“I know I had no claim on you but I don’t think I can accept that,” he flinched. “I know you, you have heart and soul and compassion. He’s a monster.”
“A monster like me,” she said sadly.
“I don’t understand.”
Dahlia looked back at her reflection in the pool.
“I know. I’m sorry,” she whispered. There was nothing else she could say.
He left her there by the pool. Two tears fell down her cheeks as she heard him walk away.
Chapter Forty Nine
She was sitting in her garden in the last light of the evening when she felt a familiar presence drop over the wall. She’d known he was coming, she’d been able to sense him constantly ever since she’d reached out for him during the battle.
“You ok?” Kenny asked her in a richer voice she’d come to find marked concern.
She felt tears pushing at her eyes. “No,” she said.
He sat down next to her and pulled her into his lap. “Figured. Thought you might need space but then I wanted to see you.”
“Kenny,” she said, the words tumbling out, “I saw him. The real Puppet Master, he’s in my head, a part of me. I traded him a bit of freedom in exchange for the strength to break out of their hold and save Traedon and Genji. They were going to use my abilities to amplify some attack and take out everyone on our force.”
“What the hell was Traedon doing needing saving?” he growled.
She smiled, “He attacked Horan.”
“Should’ve known he’d lose that one.”
“You would have fought, too, given the same odds,” she told him.
“That’s true but I would’ve won.”
She felt the corners of her mouth quirk up, “I said given the same odds.”
“It’s good to see you smile.”
Her face fell. “I’m a monster.”
“The people you care about needed you to be a monster,” he stroked her hair absently. “I don’t have that excuse.”
“You don’t need an excuse.”
He slid his hand to her chin and tilted it up to look into her eyes, “No, I don’t. Neither do you.”
He kissed her. Feeling her hesitating again he pulled back. “I’m never going to get compassion and sympathy. Trust and respect though, I can do that. And you’ve already got it from me. You’ll have it regardless because you’re too strong to be anyone you don’t want to. Does that make sense?”
She kissed him, “Oh Kenny, it does,” she pressed closer, to taste him. Her lips, still tender and swollen from where Horan had struck her, burned, and she flinched.
Kenny growled, low and dangerous, “If you hadn’t taken their heads off I would’ve torn them apart, one piece at a time.”
She kissed him again, softer this time, and he dropped his mouth to run it over her neck and collar. She leaned her head back, her weight against his arm, and enjoyed the sensation of her skin tingling under his touch. Her body responded to him like metal to a magnet. She marveled at it every time.
She pulled herself back to face him and pushed his jacket off his shoulders. The cuts he’d taken during the last fight were still visible, but shallow now. She ran her hands over his shoulders and down the back of his arms as he tugged at the knot holding her wrap on, feeling his powerful muscles moving. She turned to straddle him as the knot came undone and she moved her body against his as he tugged the wrap off her.
Scooping her up and standing, he untied and kicked off his own pants and then dropped both of them gently into the grass.
“Kenny,” she said hesitantly.
He growled into her neck as he moved his hands behind her thighs.
“Take down your shield.”
“Ok.” He nipped at her neck. She felt his mind against hers as she dropped her shield as well.
She felt him stroke her clit as she cautiously found the resonance between them and opened it further, strengthening it and pulling them together. She felt herself drawn in as he sunk his fingers into her.
His chest rumbled when he felt what she was doing, “That’s interesting.”
He pulled his fingers out of her and pulled her down onto his cock. With their bodies intimately connected, the link between their minds solidified and Dahlia gasped as she felt everything intermingle. She could feel her body, could feel him pressing inside her, the pleasure of the sensation washing over her. It was more than that, though. She was caught up in what he experienced: pure need and the clarity of unconflicted desire. She felt washed in the raw lust she’d drowned in the first time they’d been together. It mixed with the bittersweetness of longing she’d grown to feel for him, the desire for someone who made her feel unhesitatingly accepted. Her breasts became even more sensitive as she felt them rubbing against his chest as he moved inside her. She pressed against him and ran her hands over his back, wanting to experience every bit of him.
She felt him move faster, deeper as she rolled her hips against him. The pleasure that swept over her was layered and intensified by his. She found the same bittersweetness in him along with hot rage that someone had hurt her. It consumed her as he ran his hands over her body and buried himself in her, needing to feel her, know that she was alright. She felt him dig his teeth into her breast again; a primal mark claiming her, protective and possessive.
She moaned and pushed her hips against him, telling him she wanted to feel him even more. He responded to her desire by pushing harder into her and her pleasure washed over him. She let go and floated halfway between the physical world where their bodies intertwined and the world created between their minds. The ecstasy coursing through her limbs became as real as the blood in her veins. She buried her hand in his hair and gripped his back, desperately pulling him deep into her as she satiated her need for his body. She felt his complete acceptance of what they were and what they wanted and she felt herself opening to return the same. The wound that had opened in her heart when she’d traded for power closed. Relief washed over her as her body found the same release in the sensations making her tremble.
Their need, their desire built as it was answered by the movement of their bodies. She cried out as she became lost in that passion. Thoughts silenced, words became meaningless, and her existence narrowed to just the melding of their bodies and the rapture they had created. For a moment, she found eternity with him as colors danced around her eyes and the ocean roared in her head. Her body trembled and a delicious shiver ran down her back from the intensity of her release. She felt herself wrapped against the body of her lover, descending back into the grip of reality they’d managed to escape from.
She ran her hand through his hair and down his face as she took in his black eyes and carnivorous grin, matching it with one of her own.
Epilogue
He watched as gold energy danced between his fingertips. Hells it felt good to use his
power again. It seemed that he’d been locked up so long that even memories of him had faded into nothing more than myths and legends. That he and the dragon had been released now could only mean one thing: the immortals were assembling their pawns to once again fight their battles for them. He sneered and the gold energy flared up. Conceited bastards thought they could control him. This time he would not be their tool to be used and discarded. His little Dahlia was shaping up well, he hadn’t expected a female but the possibilities were interesting. When he’d bound himself to the dragon he certainly hadn’t seen this coming. Funny how that had played out. All to his advantage, though.
He twirled his fingers and the gold spun into patterns of twisted wire above his hand. He had woven his plan carefully, all he had to do now was wait. If Dahlia couldn’t measure up he would just have to step in and take over.
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Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty One
Chapter Twenty Two
Chapter Twenty Three
Dahlia: A Novel of Dark Desire Page 30