by Conn, Claudy
He was everything to her. He made her world level and steady and yet wildly lustful. And for now, her world was made up of only the two of them …
She had said she loved him. Loved? The word was inadequate to what she felt. Not enough of a word for such an enormous meaning. Love did not come close to describing what she felt.
He was big and strong, handsome and powerful, and yet gentle and kind and good and, “Oh, oh, oh,” she breathed as he brought her to a climax.
He exploded inside her in that moment and shouted out, “Jazmine Decker, how I love thee!”
As she sank into his arms she knew she loved everything that made him who he was, even the Old World way he spoke now and then, and as they made love, his words melted and melded her to him.
He covered her face in kisses as he held onto her and pulled the covers around them both. Oh, and his kisses of vanilla honey were beyond description, as was his touch, she thought as she settled into a spoon position and snuggled back against him.
His lovemaking had sent her on a journey into herself, and she knew everything about what they were together was right.
“So, my Fae he-man, is this one of those times when you sleep?”
He laughed. “Sleep? Now?” He nipped at her shoulder with his teeth, and the action sent a thrill through her nerve endings. “My Fios, you don’t really think that is all I am going to give you, do you?”
“Oh, is there more—is this what you meant by spending a couple of days in training?” She laughed.
“Part of it, my sweet Fios.” He dropped a kiss on her back, and then on her butt. “And, yes, there shall be more of this, and more, and more, my love, an eternity of more …”
He held her tightly from behind and whispered words in ancient Danu she did not understand but loved the sound of, and she knew she had surrendered her life to him.
~ Sixteen ~
“YOUR HUMAN ORGANS have reinvented themselves to accommodate the blood that has taken over your body, my love. So in that sense, yes, your inner body has been altered.” He answered her question as he pushed the heavy stick towards her. “Pick it up and use your knowledge of human karate to come at me.”
“Wait, what about my head?” Jazz asked. He had been working her all day, and she wasn’t exhausted but … confused. Her mind was still having a difficult time learning everything he was trying to jam into her. Like shifting. He thought she should learn shifting with the snap of his fingers, but she still had not been able to absorb it all.
Trevor had used Aaibhe’s pendant and managed to get a message to her. The queen had simply told him to train her well. They had been at it for days, and he just wouldn’t give up. He insisted she learn the knack of it, but every single time she tried, she ended up only a few feet away.
“What about your head?” He grinned at her. “It is beautiful. Don’t I tell you enough?”
“No, no.” She slapped his big, muscular arm and then moved in close. She was having a very difficult time keeping her hands off him. She wanted to touch him, lick him, have him all the time. “I mean … I can’t wrap my head around everything. It’s all coming at me too fast.”
“I know, sweet Fios, but you have to. We have been at this for three days, and you were unconscious for two more. All this time, we have done nothing to hinder Pestale and Hordly from opening the portal at the weakest point of the Prison Wall. They know we are holed up here.” He paused and touched her cheek with the back of his hand. “I have not wanted to worry you, but they have visited outside here on more than a few occasions. I have seen them, and I am certain they are wondering what we are plotting. Hopefully, they will continue to worry about what we are plotting, and perhaps it will keep them from going forward, but for now …”
“Yes, you are right. Way too much time wasted,” Jazz agreed with a frown. “Okay, have at me.”
He did, and she was thrilled when she actually thwarted his lunge with the strength of an immortal and the skill she had learned as a human. “Ha!” she said, bouncing like a boxer in place.
“Good, only good, not great.” He chuckled.
“Why doesn’t it all come naturally?”
“Even we Fae have to be taught from infancy how to use our magic, learn our sciences.” He shook his head. “And you are not Fae—at least, not quite, not yet.”
She arched a look at him. “Does that mean I will be Fae one day?”
“In a manner of speaking. You will be …” He grinned at her and feigned a punch. “A half-breed.”
“Hey!” She shifted behind him and swatted his rump with a bright smile.
Chuckling with pleasure, he grabbed for her and took her into his arms. “Well done, Fios. You have the jump shifts down. Now you have to get control and be able to shift longer distances, as I taught you—let your mind find the coordinates and then go there.”
She sighed, picked up the long fighting stick, and jabbed playfully at him. He shifted in behind her, took it away, and said, “Pestale would now have you … take you wherever he wished, and you don’t know how to shift back to me.”
She turned around to face him, and sank into his arms to hold him tightly. “Okay, let’s try it again.”
He gave her back the long wood pole, and she took it up and gave him a saucy look. This time when she jabbed, she shifted above him.
He took a minute to look for her, and she came down once again behind him and slammed him lightly with the wooden pole. “Tagged! Whoop, whoop! If you were Pestale, you would have been stabbed with my sword. Ha!”
He grinned as he turned to her. “Well done, sweetness.” He folded her into his arms and sighed. “Let’s do a reconnaissance.”
“Yay, reconnaissance—how?”
“I’ll do the shifting for now. You just hold onto me—don’t let go.”
“Never letting go,” she said, tucking her hand into his leather pants at the waist. He grinned down at her.
“Do not distract me,” he cautioned, trying to look solemn.
She crossed her chest, where her heart she hoped was still there, and said, “No distracting.”
And they shifted.
* * *
Trevor had felt a disturbance in the atmosphere. It cranked with power, and he heard a creaking of the Prison Walls that vibrated and fought the magic threads created by Queen Bridget. They had been reinforced by Queen Aaibhe after Bridget’s death and maintained with the help of her best Druid priests, but Pestale had found a way to weaken those walls. Sooner or later, he was going to open them wide enough to create the portal he needed.
With Jazz in hand, Trevor shifted to the location he felt drawn to, and what he found horrified him.
He stood with his mate beside him, viewing the treeless and barren landscape. The earth was gray and cracked from lack of water. The world had not been able to withstand the devouring, hungry hordes of monsters set loose upon it. Nothing grew any longer. When the Dark King had first created this Realm, this had been a grassy plain where he had intended to place deer and antelope, but his experiments had not turned out the way he planned.
However, it wasn’t that which horrified Trevor. He knew what all counties of the Dark Realm had become. It was the crack of light across the barren earth, about five feet wide by twenty feet in height, that kept him momentarily transfixed.
Trevor had no way of knowing how long Pestale had been working on this particular break in the wall, though he guessed it couldn’t have been too long, for he had not felt it until just recently.
Light streamed through the crack, but the magic threads that held the Prison Walls together reached towards one another, as though moved by another, outside force, evidently attempting to bridge the gap. Trevor smiled to himself. His Royal brethren were hard at work on the other side.
Pestale was there and standing with his back to them. He was totally naked, his arms outstretched towards the light. He appeared to be in some kind of trance as he chanted the word osclaitear over and over again.
“What is he saying?” Jazz asked as she clung to Trevor, but even as she asked the question, her mind translated the ancient word. Open. He was chanting a simple command. Open.
Flanking Pestale on each side were his two brothers, their heads lowered as they murmured the same command as a backup chorus. All stood naked as the essence of their magic worked itself into a breathing, living thing. That living magic left their bodies in a stream of dark mist, and deafening thunder cracked overhead.
As Jazz and Trevor watched, the sparkling black threads of evil magic burst into flame. The Dark Princes were trying to override the white magic on the other side, but their combined effort was fruitless. Trevor saw this at once. Why put so much energy into something destined to lose?
Pestale howled with mixed emotions when he saw he could not break through and widen the fissure. “I will get through, Seelie … I will get through …” he told the Royals he knew were on the other side. He turned to his brothers then and for the first time realized that Trevor and Jazz stood but a hundred feet away.
Without a word, the Dark Royals shifted.
* * *
Even as they vanished, Jazz felt the change in the atmosphere. It was as though something in her mind had taken over and allowed her to assimilate minute changes beyond her immediate perception.
She smiled to herself and shifted as well. She wanted to counter any attack they might have in mind. She managed to put herself thirty feet away from Trevor.
All she knew was that she didn’t want Trevor in danger. Three Dark Princes were enough to handle, without her being a liability and a distraction.
She knew he would risk all to save her. She had to be smart and prevent that; she had to be one step ahead. What she had, the only things she had, were human ingenuity—and surprise, as they had no idea what she was now.
The hilt of Trevor’s Death Sword was in his fist, but Hordly pushed forward at him regardless. They came to stand for a moment, face to face.
Hordly, still naked, grinned wickedly and turned towards Jazz to point his hard shaft at her. He stroked it, saying, “You aren’t made to fight us, woman. This … this is what you were made for—play and pleasure. Come, beauty, let me show you, while my brother attends to the Seelie.”
She snorted. “Put that little thing away—it does you no credit.”
Jazz saw that she had landed a solid hit to his ego. His face darkened with his anger, but Pestale and his other brother laughed at Hordly.
Pestale, now clothed, flicked his wrist. All three were clothed in what could have passed for a motorcycle gang’s black leather uniform. They wore heavily zippered black leather jackets over their tattooed bare chests, tight-fitting black leather pants, and silver-tipped boots.
Pestale waved a hand over his clothing and said, “I saw this in one of your movies while I enjoyed myself in the Human Realm. Do you like it, pretty woman?”
“You look, all three of you …” Jazz said in a sexy voice. “Like. You. Are. About. To go down.”
Pestale laughed and raised his hand to stop Hordly, who had taken a threatening step her way.
Jazz noted that the other one, the middle brother, whom she had heard Hordly call Graely, had stayed back and was quiet, watchful. Their eyes met for a fleeting moment, and she was struck by something she couldn’t name. She didn’t have the time to contemplate it and shoved it to a back burner.
She saw Trevor had shifted up close and oh so personal to them. He swung his Death Sword in a slashing motion through the air. His voice was hard and purposeful. “Which one wants to meet eternal nothingness first?” he growled at them and swelled with confidence. She felt a wave of pride. Three stood against him, and he did not balk.
Pestale frowned darkly at him. “You do recall that your queen does not wish you to kill us.”
“Yes, I know, but I wish to. Always have.”
“Yes, but you should worry about the human at your back.” He clucked his tongue. “Are you still pining over the lovely Milesian, Lana?” Pestale taunted him and then looked at Jazz. “Has he told you about her yet? She killed our youngest brother when we had stormed Dublin, not so very long ago.” He shrugged. “What I did next was what you humans call payback. I took my payback and killed her. Your Seelie lover was distraught over the business. Who could blame him—she was devastatingly beautiful …” Pestale had been watching Jazz and added suddenly, “Ah, I see it is as I thought. He has not told you how much he loved her and vowed vengeance for his loss. Why is that, do you think?”
Trevor growled at him and jabbed with his sword. Pestale laughed, and then he and Hordly shifted away. The middle brother lingered a moment and then shifted off as well.
They had been gone only seconds, and during that time Trevor sent his sword with the Orb once again into concealment. He then turned to Jazz, saw her face, and cursed softly, for he could see Pestale had gotten to her. He stomped over to her, took her shoulders in his hands, and looked intently into her eyes. “My Jazmine Decker, do not allow him to get to you,” he pleaded.
“Tell me,” she said.
“I have told you. There is nothing more to tell. Yes, Lana and I were just beginning … we never got past that first look, that first kiss, and, yes, I loved her, but it was different than—” He touched her face and then shook his head. “—different than you and me. It was real, and I won’t make little of it by denying that what I felt for her was enormous, yes, but it was my first real attachment. Lana and I had just begun …” He sighed heavily. “I believe in facts. My queen believes in the fates. Here are both for you to consider. The fact is, I lost her early on in our beginning, and perhaps the fates have always intended to bring you to me. Are you listening to me, Jazmine Decker—are you listening?”
“Yes.” She rubbed her face against his naked chest and then looked up at him. “Trev, don’t misunderstand me. I am not jealous—well, maybe a little,” she admitted with a smile. “I just wanted to know everything, so that when a monster tries to cause trouble, I know just how to respond.” She kissed his chest all over.
He took her head in his hands and kissed her lips, and then without another word, and kissing her still, returned them to their bedroom in the Retreat.
Curled up in his arms on the bed, he told her about their last days fighting Gaiscioch and Pestale—how it had all come about and why. He told her about the first time he saw Lana and how he had felt. He told her how she had saved his life by taking the fourth, and youngest, Dark Prince by surprise and killing him with her Death Sword, and how he had felt having to watch Pestale kill her—because of him.
“I was helpless … Jazmine Decker. She saved my life, and I could not save hers. Her brother, Chancemont, and I formed a union to track Pestale and kill him. Princess Royce joined us at the queen’s command. We did track him. He was ours to destroy, but the queen intervened, saying the Dark King wanted to take him home and make him drink from the Cauldron and start anew.”
Jazz frowned. “She had no choice, Trevor—she had to avert a battle with the Dark King.”
“I agree, but it was a difficult time for me, and in the end, look what it has wrought, and where is he, this Dark King who has thrust his son upon the universe?”
“It sucks,” Jazmine pronounced.
Trevor regarded her for a serious moment and then let loose with uncontrollable mirth. “It sucks,” he repeated and began laughing again.
She hugged him fiercely then and said, “Trev—something is wrong.”
He forced his laughter to die down and took her chin. “Yes, we should be lying on a bed of green grass in Tir—”
“Trev, listen to me. I know it is only human instinct, but something in my gut tells me those brothers were putting on a show for us. Like us, distracting them while the other Royals work to close the gaps on the other side, the Dark Ones are trying to distract us from the real door they are opening through the Prison Wall.” She put a fist to her stomach. “I feel it … here …”
“Y
ou feel it, but that doesn’t make it so.” He frowned.
“Well, then logically, Fae logic, think about it. What the heck were they doing? Standing there naked, chanting just one word—open? You don’t really believe it would have stayed open long enough for them to get through? And where was their army?” She shook her head. “I don’t think they mean to go through without backup. This time, when Pestale goes marching into our worlds, I think he will have his two brothers and Queen Morrigu at his side, yes, but he will need that army at his back. And they will be dressed for battle, with whatever weapons they have accumulated at their disposal. Think about it—he can’t cover the globe unless he has numbers. Trev, he has to have his Dark monsters come through with him … he has to, because he damn well won’t risk coming back for them.”
He considered her, and then dawning lit over his face. “Your human gut is very wise.” He began pacing. “Right then, where would he be working on this portal, for, my sweet Fios, it will have to be enormous and bursting with living power.”
“I’m guessing it has to be somewhere we wouldn’t think to look. Somewhere he could line up his army and have them available for the trip. Somewhere, hmm, somewhere where he is in control of his surroundings.”
“Queen Morrigu’s castle then—it would have to be at the Castle. But there isn’t enough room there for the—”
“Yes, there might be. Do you know how cavernous the dungeon part of his castle might be? He might have a tunnel that could extend for a mile for all we know. He is a Dark Prince—he can create with the flick of his wrist, and he isn’t Hordly. Everything he does, he does with forethought and purpose.” She got onto her knees on the bed and held his hands as she continued, “Think about it. A tunnel for his monsters to line up in while he opens the real portal to the Human Realm. Wouldn’t that be convenient? And convenient is what I think Pestale will go for. Trev, you can’t underestimate him. He isn’t a raging bull like Hordly. There is more to him. He arranges his plans with a certain flair—I feel that in my gut. I can see that although he is reserved enough to control himself to achieve what he wants, he is ruthless.”