He shrugged. “What’s the point of looking like this when I’m me?” He didn’t seem upset when he said it, but I had to fight the urge to wrap my arms around him to comfort him.
“What are you?” No one had ever been able to tell me.
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I awoke one day and I was the only thing here except for the plants. I was never born, I was never young. I was always like this. I never change, my hair never grows, and I never get old. I’m just here.” He smiled and this time I saw a twinge of sadness in his eyes. “I used to wonder what I was.” He took a step toward me and stopped when I took a step back. “Don’t look so sad, my love.”
“Stop calling me my love. I’m not your love.”
“That is where you are wrong. I may not be your love, but you are definitely mine. That’s alright. I don’t mind.”
This new Ternach was throwing me off my game. “What are you trying to do?”
“I’m not doing anything.”
“I see that. Why not?”
“I’m tired of fighting with you. It was fun at first. I’d rather we just get along. I’ve come to realize I would feel a lot of regret should I kill you.”
I frowned and my shields moved up. He flinched and took a few steps back. “Hayden, please.”
“What’s wrong with you?”
“It seems I may not be immortal after all. Whatever it was you pushed into me has depleted my energy levels unlike anything I’ve ever felt. I wasn’t lying. It is taking everything I have just to keep us hidden so no one comes to get you. I just wanted to talk. I promise I’ll return you to your mate unharmed.”
I dropped my shields completely and pulled the green waves in front of me. “Can I see?” He looked uncertain but nodded. I started to walk toward him then stopped. “What’s that?” My skin was tingling. His eyes widened and he sucked in a breath.
“Nothing.”
I raised an eyebrow at him.
He frowned. “That’s me, but not really. That’s how I’m feeling. I can’t explain it, that’s just the way it is. I was able to shield you from it before, but now that I’m weakened, I can’t.”
“You feel tingly?”
He nodded. “That’s how I feel when I’m around you.” Something close to hunger flared in his eyes and it was my turn to suck in a breath.
“Shit.”
“Yes, I do believe that sums it up. I won’t touch you, Hayden. I promise.”
I hesitated.
“Don’t you think if I were to try anything I would have done it by now? I’m not going to try to kill you, or make you mine in any way. I promise not to touch you.”
The problem I was having had nothing to do with the fact that I thought he might touch me. The issue I was struggling with was the fact that I wasn’t entirely sure I didn’t want him to. It didn’t make sense. I was fated to Jasper. There was no way I should have been having thoughts like this about anyone but him.
Ternach stood awkwardly in front of me, watching me as I thought through this new development. Our eyes met and he swallowed hard.
“I think it would be best if I sent you back now.”
“Why?”
“With my energy levels low, I can’t control this.”
I didn’t ask what the this in question was. Whatever energy he had was reacting to mine and the air was so thick with his need that I let out a moan. He hugged his arms to his chest.
“I’ll be in Paradin when you get there, my love. I wanted to warn you not to go. That’s why I brought you here. Stay away from Paradin. I won’t be able to help you. Since our kiss I’m now bound to Braw because of the staff, but only if you go after him. If you try to kill him, I’ll have to kill you. I’m begging you, Hayden. Stay away.” He pushed his nudge with a quick flick of his wrist and I felt the ground disappear. I landed on my back in the middle of our campsite.
Everyone rushed to my side and Jasper pulled me to his chest.
“By the moons, Hayden, what was that?”
“I have no idea.” I wasn’t lying. Absolutely nothing that had just happened made sense.
You should tell him, my love.
I jumped at the voice in my head and looked around for anyone who might strike me as Ternach. Jasper growled.
“Where is he?”
“You heard him, too?” I looked around. “Did anybody else hear that?”
Everyone shook their heads. I frowned. “Where are you?” I kept glancing at everyone, trying to find the eyes that were usually dead. But that wasn’t right anymore. I’d seen feelings flashing in those eyes just moments ago.
Far enough away that no one will see me.
I caught my breath as my skin started to tingle.
Though, not far enough, it would seem. His voice was just a mumble in my head. Hang on a second.
Jasper was rubbing his arms. “What was that?”
I took a deep breath. “That was Ternach. That is how he feels.”
“He tingles?”
“When he’s around me he does.”
Jasper’s eyes widened and I could see him thinking about how he should react to this information.
At the risk of sounding extremely mortal, could we not talk about my newly found weaknesses in front of everybody?
Jasper and I looked at each other. I shrugged. “Something happened to him when I pushed the staff’s energy into him.” I shivered at the feel of fingers on my arm. “You need to get farther away, Ternach.”
Sorry.
“Alright. Let’s go talk to him and try to figure this out.” He looked around. “You won’t try anything?”
I won’t. I’m not even sure I can. All I seem able to manage at the moment is shield myself from Hayden, and even that isn’t working well. Go east. I’m in a clearing with a large Burrie tree in the middle of it.
“What about the tingling?” Jasper frowned.
“I think I can shield from it. I’ll try not to push against you, Ternach.”
Thank you, my love.
Jasper growled and I put a hand on his arm, letting him feel how much I loved him. “He refuses to stop calling me that, but we have bigger things to worry about, Hun. We’re not going to go talk to him if you’re going to go there to defend my honor. He won’t touch me. He’s promised.”
Jasper frowned. “After everything he’s done to you, you trust him?”
The question took me by surprise. I could feel Ternach in the back of my mind waiting to hear the answer. “I… I guess I do.”
Instead of arguing, Jasper just shook his head and kissed me. “I suppose you wouldn’t be you if you thought otherwise. I, on the other hand, am not as forgiving. If it looks like you’ll try anything at all, Ternach, you’re dead.” I took his hand and we started to walk east.
“How long have we been walking?”
Jasper smiled. “About fifteen minutes.”
I can hear you. You’re almost here.
We entered a clearing that held a large tree. The trunk of the tree was such a dark brown it almost looked black and its leaves were a darker version of the Burrie’s teal colored skin.
Stay there and I’ll come out.
Now that we were here, I was starting to wonder if I truly did trust him. I took a deep breath to calm myself.
Don’t be nervous, my love.
“Great. Another one who can feel what I’m feeling. This just gets better and better.”
“Why do you think he can feel you?”
“I don’t know. It has something to do with the kiss. It’s almost like we bonded or something.” Ternach stepped into the clearing. My eyes met his and both of us sucked in a breath. Jasper growled.
I pulled up my shields. The instant my energy touched Ternach’s the air filled with feeling. “Shit.”
Ternach groaned. He was on his knees, his head in his hands, his eyes closed. “Drop your shield, Hayden. Please!”
“By the moons, Shlova, listen to the man!”
I glanced down at Jaspe
r who was in the same position as Ternach. I dropped my shields. Jasper fought to stand, then decided to sit, pulling his knees up and placing his head in his arms. I reached over to put a hand on his shoulder and he flinched away from me.
“Don’t touch me. It is taking everything I have right now, Hayden, and I don’t think I’ll be able to stop myself if you touch me.” He was shaking, all of his muscles tight.
“Stop from doing what?”
Jasper took a deep breath but didn’t answer.
I looked to where Ternach had adopted the same position as my mate. He raised his head and my heart started to beat faster in my chest. The look in his pale green eyes wasn’t hard to recognize. I felt my body tighten at the look, and not in a bad way.
Jasper groaned. I tore my gaze away from Ternach’s and found myself caught in Jasper’s sky blue eyes. The look in them shocked me. There was no anger, fear, or jealousy even though I knew he’d felt my reaction to the other man in the clearing. He swallowed hard, his eyes the mirror images of Ternach’s. The heat started low in my belly, the hairs on my arms rose as a breeze brushed over them, and suddenly, my body was starving.
Jasper twitched. “You need to leave now, Shlova.” His voice was thick with need. My body reacted to it. I wanted to rub myself against him, to feel his hands and lips run over me.
Ternach groaned. “My love, you need to stop feeling. Now.” His eyes caught mine and suddenly I was wondering how his hands would feel on my body, how his lips would taste if I were to run my tongue over them. Both of the men moaned.
“Hayden, please.” I wasn’t sure if Jasper was begging me to leave, or asking my permission to take me right there.
“Hayden, go!” Ternach was clutching his knees to his chest. He sounded so normal, so human that it took me a moment to react. I took a couple of steps toward the edge of the clearing and stopped.
“If I go, what happens when we get too close a week from now, or when we get to Paradin. Do you two really want to be stuck in the middle of a battle when the only thing you can think of is screwing me?” I wasn’t sure if it was me talking or the heat in me that wanted to be taken care of.
The two of them were quiet. I took a deep breath and thought about what I was suggesting we do. Even if one of them took me into the woods, we were too closely linked for the third person to not be involved even if just in thoughts. The thought of a threesome had never really done anything for me. The thought of this one, however, made me groan in anticipation. The air was still full of sparks and heat. It was a miracle I hadn’t stripped at least one of them naked by now.
Ternach groaned. “Hayden, if he doesn’t take you now, I will. By the moons Jasper, this is all her. She’s reacting to my magic, but what she’s projecting is how she feels about you. Give her what she wants before I can’t stop myself.”
Jasper shook his head as if to clear it and looked at the other man. “She doesn’t want you?”
“I’m fairly sure our link is just through our magic. She’s projecting, but because our energies are linked, it’s amplified.” He took a deep breath. “I think.”
“What in the world happened to you after she kissed you?”
Ternach frowned. “Could we discuss my big change after we’ve taken care of this? I’m going to lose the little bit of control I have right away. Take her, or I will.”
The thought of Ternach simply getting up and taking me made my stomach clench and the heat rose. Both of them groaned.
“That was you she was thinking about, not me.”
“Are you giving me permission?”
Jasper growled then stopped. “I… I’m not sure.”
“By the moons, Jasper, I don’t feel like being hunted down after this. She’s not the one thinking of anything, it’s her body. She’s reacting to all of the emotions we’re all feeling. She’ll take whichever one of us breaks first. You’re not even really thinking like yourself. Her emotions are overpowering yours. On any other day, would you even consider sharing her with someone else?”
“This isn’t one of your tricks? You honestly can’t control this?”
“Damn it! Do I look like I’m in control?”
“Hello! Can I have a say in this?”
That seemed to snap Jasper out of whatever frozen state he was in. His eyes met mine and I sucked in a breath. The blue in them was dark with the wanting I was projecting on[ him. He stood so smoothly that I wasn’t entirely sure he’d been sitting in the first place. I gasped as he flung me over his shoulder and stalked toward the woods.
“No, you do not get a say in this.” He set me down and had my pants down before I could even think of saying anything else. His arm brushed against my breast as he stood back up. My nipples were so hard that the fabric of my shirt rubbing against them was almost painful. Jasper ran a thumb over them and I groaned. A shiver ran through him.
“Jasper, please.” It was almost a sob. I pressed myself against him. He growled low in his throat before reaching between us to untie the laces of his pants. He only bothered to free himself before turning me around, and bending me over. I reached forward and placed my hands on a fallen tree. Jasper thrust into me with no warning and I wanted to cry it felt so good. He pulled out and pushed back in again. I pushed back against him, begging him to fill me again. He reached forward and found my breast under my shirt. His fingers pinched my nipple which caused me to shiver. I tightened around him and he caught his breath. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I heard another groan.
Jasper straightened and grabbed my hips in his hands. He pushed into me and pulled me against him in long, firm strokes. My legs spread in answer and he managed to plunge deeper into me still. I felt the pressure start to build as he pushed into parts of me I was sure he’d never reached before. The release started deep inside of me and made its way slowly through every nerve in my body until I was blind with the pleasure of it. Each thrust sent a new wave of heat washing over me. I cried out his name and collapsed back against him. He let out a cross between a groan and a growl as he spilled himself inside of me.
He pulled out slowly, did his pants up then helped me back into mine. He pulled me to his chest.
“Are you alright?” His voice was just a whisper. I nodded, still too out of breath to speak.
You can come back. I think I’ve got this under control now.
Jasper took a deep breath. “Out of everybody you could have bonded with, Shlova…”
“Well, it’s not like I tried to. If you’ll remember correctly I wanted to kill him, not bond to him.”
I can still hear you.
Jasper ran a hand over his face. “Alright. Let’s go see what the hell is going on.” He cupped my face in his hands and kissed me softly. “I’m sorry, you know… about this.” He motioned to our immediate area.
I tried to keep my laughter down but couldn’t. “Oh my god, Jasper, did it look like I was complaining?”
He grinned and shrugged. I took his hand and we made our way back into the clearing. I got ready to feel the tingle of Ternach’s feelings along my skin. I found him lying on his back where we had left him, his one arm over his face. He was still trying to catch his breath.
“Why can’t I feel you anymore?”
He removed his arm so he could look at me. His pale green eyes met mine and held my gaze. He smiled. “Thank the moons, this is going to be much easier now that I can shield again.” He sat up. “I was able to pull enough energy from the two of you while you were… well, to bring my levels up. I’m not anywhere near as strong as I used to be, but at least I can shield.”
Now that I wasn’t feeling what he was feeling, it was much easier to put things in perspective. I realized that it hadn’t really been me that had wanted him so badly, it had just been a mix of everyone’s emotions thrown together and amplified.
Jasper let out a sigh of relief as everything clicked into place. Ternach’s eyes saddened for an instant.
“Don’t worry, my love. I was fairly sure it wasn
’t me you wanted like that.” He grinned and the look vanished. “Though I probably would have been able to absorb more energy had I done the deed myself, I’m afraid that until we can figure out how to break this bond, the three of us are stuck together for a while and I must say, it would have been a rather uneasy relationship to deal with.”
“So what’s going on? Are you still immortal?” I tried to ignore the fact that if Jasper hadn’t been around, Ternach would have stepped up to the plate.
“I am, though I’ll have to admit that I’m not entirely the man I used to be. You nearly did me in with that kiss of yours. Fortunately for me, I managed to pull away before you did any permanent damage, though I do believe it was a close call. Somehow, the kiss opened a bond between the two of us, and because you are bonded to Jasper, he got sucked into the mix as well.”
“So explain to me why you don’t even sound like yourself anymore.”
He shrugged. “This is just how I talk. The other voice worked better for what I needed it for. Since I’m not really the Evertimeless anymore, well…”
“Which part of you was affected?”
I wondered if Jasper was just curious or was going to use this information to his advantage.
“My magic. I can still shift at will, and now I’m able to shield again, thank the moons. I was able to displace Hayden, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I was only able to do so because of our bond. I tried displacing one of the shifters that came by here earlier in the day and I had absolutely no effect on her.”
Ternach’s gaze held mine for a moment. He glanced to where Jasper’s hand laced with mine. Jasper’s hand tightened around mine and Ternach’s eyes met his. Ternach looked away first.
“Since you’ll probably feel it eventually, Jasper, I’ll tell you right now, I’m in love with your mate.”
Jasper growled. “You have a funny way of showing it.”
Ternach shrugged. “I’m afraid that after endless years alone, my sense of humor may be lacking. I never did intend to kill her. It was just a bit of a shock to find someone with as much power as her. It was fun.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Jasper frowned.
Destiny (The Chosen One Trilogy:Book Three) Page 24