Natalya lifted her lashes just enough to watch as he dipped his head between her thighs. She had felt every emotion, yet she was unprepared as his tongue stroked and caressed, finding every sore spot and healing her. She was unprepared for the fire racing through her, and the edgy need that spread and built until she was gripping the blanket beneath her and lifting her hips to meet his marauding mouth.
«I thought you were getting me to sleep.» She reached for his hair, anything to stay anchored when her body was so ready to fly away with her.
«I changed my mind. Do not move, Natalya. Just lie there and do not move.»
«It's impossible.»
Immediately her arms were anchored above her head. She couldn't see how he did it, but she lay stretched out on the blanket. He lifted her hips and placed pillows beneath her to make her more comfortable before returning to his ravishment. His mouth and teeth and tongue were everywhere, his hands possessive, demanding as they moved over her until she was sobbing for release. He took her to the edge over and over, but never quite tipped her over.
Natalya could feel the heat of his erection nearly burning against her thigh. He thought he had her helpless, tormenting her to the brink of insanity, but she had other ideas. Deliberately she merged her mind with his, sharing the terrible craving for him, the dark edgy need for relief. She built a picture in her mind of him kneeling above her, her mouth engulfing him, suckling and stroking and driving him to the same fever pitch. All the while she moved her thigh subtly, like a great cat, rubbing back and forth to create a friction against his most sensitive skin.
She heard his soft groan, felt the response as he grew harder and thicker and jumped in anticipation and need. He might think he could dominate and she would be submissive, but she was as fierce and as passionate as any tigress and she was every bit as capable of driving him out of his mind with pleasure as he was doing to her.
Vikirnoff kissed his way back up her body, rubbing his face against her soft skin, unable to get enough of her. He loved the feel of her, satin and silk, fire and flame. The candlelight played lovingly over her body, a temptation in itself. He followed the erotic picture in her
mind, rising above her, knee on either side of her breasts, tight, so he could feel her against him.
Natalya teased him, blowing a breath over him, flicking her tongue, swiping with small curling licks as if he were an ice cream cone. Flames engulfed him, took him to a new hunger. She looked helpless, lying stretched out on the blanket beneath him, her arms still above her head, her eyes like jewels, but there was nothing helpless about Natalya.
Vikirnoff reached down to cradle her head in his palms, holding her to him. Her lips slid over him, the moist heat of her mouth taking his breath, setting his heart pounding hard. Her mouth was a miracle, tight and slick and so hot it seemed an inferno. He lost himself in the mixture of rising lust and power and sheer carnal desire. He knew she was feeding the intensity, deliberately stealing the control. He watched the way he slid in and out of her mouth, the taunting laughter in her eyes, felt the way she wanted him to feel the same pleasure he had given her.
Destiny had tied them together, but she was so much more than that. This woman, impossible to tame, had wrapped herself around his heart. He could not imagine any other suiting him, making him laugh, making him crazy with desire, just as he was right at that moment. Groaning, he pulled away from her, to blanket her, waiting a heartbeat as he pushed slowly against her entrance. He felt the initial resistance of her body, as if she might not open for him, and then he was inside of her, surrounded by her, buried deep the way he hungered.
He whispered to her in his language, unable to find another way to express the deep connection and commitment to her. He made love to her, slow at first, watching the way her pleasure built, feeling her body tighten around him until he could only thrust harder and deeper, surging forward to keep that connection forever. She had tears in her eyes when the powerful quakes rocked through their bodies and left them gasping for air, struggling to slow their hearts; they were limp with exhaustion.
Vikirnoff rolled his weight off of her, kissing her neck as he drew her against him. «It is nearly dawn. We must sleep.»
Natalya struggled to find a way to talk without proper air. Her lungs were burning and her body still rippled with pleasure. «Aren't you going to sleep underground? Shouldn't you? I'll sleep right here, over the top of you and protect you from all the gremlins,» she insisted. «The only thing you have to worry about is the Troll King.»
«I have provided intricate safeguards. Even your infamous Troll King would have to pause to unravel them and I would awaken. We will be safe here.»
Natalya pillowed her head on his shoulder. «I really don't mind if you need to go to ground, Vikirnoff. I can handle it.»
Vikirnoff wrapped his arms around her. «I prefer to sleep right here beside you,» he said.
«I like holding you. If you should wake and I appear dead…»
«I know, I know,» she interrupted. «You're really asleep. Stop flattering yourself, I'm perfectly fine without you.»
«You get into trouble without me.»
«Every morning, when I finally am tired enough to go to bed after watching television all night alone, I call up a dream of my childhood with my brother, Razvan. I've been doing it for years. It was the only way I could feel like I wasn't so alone, as if I still belonged and had family. This is the first time in many years I will not feel as if I have to call him to me.»
«You do belong,» he said. He pressed kisses against the nape of her neck. «You belong with me, thanks to those binding words you disliked so much.»
She frowned, snuggling closer. «Don't think I'm giving up on undoing the spell. I'm tenacious.»
«It is not exactly a spell.» His eyes were heavy and his arms were taking on the leaden feeling of his kind. «But did you figure out the first two lines?»
«Of course.» She felt smug; she couldn't help it. She had always had a gift for. languages and she had the advantage of speaking earlier languages before they had evolved into the twentieth century patterns. She was familiar with the way many words were considered unnecessary in the earlier languages. «The first two sentences translate more exactly to something like this: 'you wedded wife-my'. There is no specific word for the word 'are'. The second line comes out something close to: 'to me you belong, wedded wife-my.' I'm not certain of the exact phrasing, but it is far closer than the more modern form.»
A slow smile lit his eyes. «Really?» He arched his brows at her.
«Yes, really,» she said, undeterred. «I know you think it's funny, but I refuse to be trapped into something whether I want it or not. It's not good for you to think you've got me tied to you. I'm not a passive person and I wouldn't want you to think I am.»
His laughter was soft, his breath warm against the nape of her neck. «Passive? You? I cannot imagine anyone, least of all me, making that mistake.»
She grinned, closing her eyes. «Razvan said I needed to curb my tongue and that if Shakespeare had met me, Kate wouldn't be the famous shrew, Natalya would.»
«He said that, did he?» Vikirnoff was wise enough not to agree aloud. Not when her body nestled so comfortably next to his. «What else did Razvan have to say?»
«He said I needed to learn how to sew, to be more restful and soothing and to censor most of what I say.» There was laughter and affection in her voice.
«I cannot imagine.»
«I told him I did censor most of what I say. If he could read my mind…» Her voice trailed off, her lashes lifting so she could meet the amusement in his gaze. «Lucky you. You get to know the real me with no censorship.»
«Good night, Natalya.» He kissed her again and succumbed to the sleep of his kind, feeling very lucky to know the real woman.
Chapter 15
«Razvan! Where are you? I'm so happy. Come to me tonight. Where are you? Why won't you answer me?» Natalya hurried down the cobblestone steps leading to the g
reat garden. They always met in the garden if they'd been separated for the day, but she couldn't find her brother anywhere.
«Why are you so happy?» The voice came from a distance and Natalya spotted her twin seated on the slabs of slate overlooking the fountain. He looked glum, his legs drawn up, his elbows on his knees, chin propped in hand. «Where have you been, Natalya? Do you even realize you deserted me? I didn't know the safeguards and I had to see grandfather.»
That brought her up short. They never referred to him as grandfather. Xavier was supposed to be dead. If they talked about him he would punish them, and his punishments were terrible. Xavier. Their Grandfather. They were forced to live with him after their father had disappeared. Natalya frowned. Why couldn't she remember Xavier when she was awake? She knew exactly what he looked like when she conjured up her dreams of her childhood, but not when she was in present time awake. How did that happen? «Don't call him that. We are to call him Uncle. He might hear you.»
«Why didn't you give me the safeguards, Natalya? How could you leave me wide open like that?» Razvan stood up slowly, turning as he did so, lifting his shirt. «Look what he did to me.»
Natalya halted instantly. «Oh, no! Razvan, why does he take it out on you when I make a mistake? I hate that. I hate that we're so afraid to be together we have to meet like this. Did he take your blood?»
«He always takes my blood. If not mine, then he would take yours. You know that. I don't care if he punishes me; he isn't going to get your blood.»
«Why do we stay? Why are we allowing him to dictate to us and keep us small children? I have power. He can't control me. He wants me to believe he can, but he can't. You have the same power in you, Razvan. You've resisted him for years. Together we can break free
of him.»
«We have different strengths, Natalya. You're good at commanding the elements. You have a quick mind and can figure things out.»
«You come up with the ideas in the first place, Razvan. Without you, we would have been dead a long time ago.» The words caught at Natalya. She looked down at her hands. They weren't the hands of a child, but those of a grown woman.
Shock spread through her. She looked up at Razvan. «What happened to us?»
The form of the teenage boy shimmered, became translucent and a man's image superimposed itself over the child. «You betrayed me. You chose the hunter, my enemy.»
Natalya shook her head, reaching out toward her brother. «I chose happiness, Razvan. That was something our grandfather didn't understand, could never understand. What was the point of longevity? I've watched people die over and over, but they led happy lives while I just lived on and on alone with no one to share anything with. Neither sorrow nor joy.» Her arms dropped back to her side, empty.
«We have power beyond imagination.»
«No, we don't. I've seen power beyond imagination, but it doesn't matter to me. Those people who are born, live their lives together as a family and die surrounded by family; they know how to live. What do we do? What does he do? He hides from the world with his malevolent schemes, drinking blood to stay alive-for what? Why live so long without happiness? I choose to be happy, to share my life. I will not apologize or feel guilty for that.»
«Look at us, Natalya. You took our world and changed it. I'm no longer a boy and I'm fading. Would you really choose him over your brother? Your twin?»
«I will not leave him. Why would you think I'm trading one for the other? You're in my dreams, Razvan. I will never forget you, never.» Her heart pounding, she studied the fading image of her twin, the harshness in the face of the man.
«You don't need me. You have him.»
Natalya refused to sound as if she were pleading. Or asking permission. «He is alive and I am alive. I cannot sustain my life on dreams of a brother long gone from me. My love for him is different.»
Razvan's face twisted with anger. «I forbid this! He is a hunter, hated by our family. Choose another.»
«This is a dream, only a silly dream. I choose Vikirnoff. I choose happiness,» Natalya said, determined to wake up. She would not allow her dreams to take on the twisted
nightmares that sometimes invaded them. Razvan would want her happy. He wouldn't be so angry with her over choosing to be involved in a relationship with someone who made her happy. Whatever occasionally crept into her dreams and corrupted them, she wasn't going to put up with it anymore.
«Wait!» Razvan called frantically. «The safeguards. You didn't give me the safeguards. I can't weave them myself.»
Natalya turned back to him, frowning as she murmured the spell to him.
He smiled at her, beloved Razvan, already repeating the words to ensure he didn't forget them. Pain flashed unexpectedly through her head, a terrible pressure that increased without mercy, and then, just as abruptly disappeared, leaving her shaken.
He shook his head. «It isn't right. That's not right. You aren't telling me the truth.»
Natalya stared at her brother in sudden shock and dawning horror. «My god, Razvan, it's you. It's been you all along.»
She gave a low, tormented cry. Her heartfelt as if he had literally torn it from her chest.
She jolted into full consciousness with the sound of her cry still echoing in her ears. Tears spilled from her eyes and her breath came in great anguished sobs. «This can't be happening. This can't be happening.» She pressed the back of her hand against her trembling mouth. Her stomach lurched and she crawled away from Vikirnoff on her hands and knees and was sick in the corner of the cave.
He woke instantly, moving with his preternatural speed, kneeling beside her, hand on her back, his body pressed against hers. «What is it? Tell me what has caused this distress.» Only an hour or so had passed, and the lethargy did not have him in its grip.
«A dream.» She sank into him, shivering with cold, wanting his arms around her. «Only it wasn't my dream. It hasn't been my dream for a long time only I didn't know. I didn't understand.»
Vikirnoff wrapped his arms around her tightly, pulling her into the shelter of his body. He rocked her gently, feeling her pain, a terrible hurt that couldn't be comforted. «Tell me, ainaak enyem.» His voice was infinitely gentle.
Natalya was grateful he didn't probe into her mind. She felt raw. Betrayed. Ashamed. Was it the legacy of her mage blood? Was it possible her whole family was so tainted? A small sob escaped before she could choke it back. She huddled closer to Vikirnoff while he rocked her, stroking her hair and holding her close to him.
«He's alive.»
«Xavier? We knew that.»
She shook her head, tightened her fingers around his wrist, needing to hold onto his solid strength while her world shattered around her. «Not Xavier. Razvan. He's alive. He's the Troll King.» Her hand crept down to rub her ankle. «And that means he's in league with Xavier and Maxim. He's in league with vampires.»
Vikirnoff brushed the top of her hair with a kiss and rubbed his cheek against the back of her head in an effort to soothe her. «How do you know this?»
«Remember when we were in the cave and Maxim attacked me, was able to get into my head so easily? My safeguards were gone. You replaced them, not me. You wove a different thread through my mind, not one I've ever used.»
«How does that make him alive?» Pain radiated off of her in waves but all Vikirnoff could do was hold her, feeling utterly helpless in the face of her anguish. All of his centuries of education, all of his vast power could not prepare him for this moment when she needed him the most. He could only hold her to him and feel her terrible grief.
«My dreams have always been of my childhood with him. It was the only time we were together. We separated to be safe from Xavier, but we'd meet in our dreams and share information. We did that for years. After he died, I summoned the dreams and they would repeat and it would comfort me. But somewhere along the line the dreams started changing. I don't even remember when. We would talk about things pertinent now, in this time. I just assumed it was because I was
lonely and I wanted to share my thoughts about things so the dreams changed to suit me.»
«That's logical, Natalya. Things occurring during the day that prey on our minds often will creep into dreams. At least that's what I've read.»
She shook her head, her eyes dark with pain. «It wasn't like that. He would ask me questions about experiments just like in the old days, but these were new ones.»
«The challenges. You said you were challenged to make things work. I thought Xavier challenged you.»
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