His fingers caressed my throat before his mouth touched against mine, claiming my lips hungrily. His other hand moved to my hair, yanking it back hard, mercilessly, as his kiss heated up until I no longer cared if he allowed air to fill my lungs. The fingers around my throat tightened, and fear licked the inside of my brain. If I’d had any common sense, it had long ago left me, so instead of bailing and begging him to stop, I growled, because I was kind of digging it, and sometimes you just had to test your own boundaries.
Callaghan’s mouth left mine bereft as it moved away. His hands continued, one applying pressure as the other pulled my hair. He used it to move my body on his slick cock, utilizing the juices he’d forced from me to slide in and out until all I could do was feel him there, using me.
His hand slipped from my hair, reaching around my throat until he stole the air entirely from my lungs. Eyes burned into mine as he fucked me until I whimpered from lack of air as he fucked it out of me. Lights exploded behind my eyelids, from dying, I was sure. My lungs burned, but it didn’t fucking matter because I was quaking with every thrust of my body, which forced him into mine like a well-oiled machine. His mouth slammed against mine, teeth nipping my lip softly as I opened my eyes to fight against his hold. The moment his tongue entered my mouth, I inhaled as his hand released. I sucked the air he fed me deep into my lungs as my body shivered, the orgasm leaving me mindless and coming hard around his thick cock over and over as his magic played with my clitoris.
“You’re a fucking savage,” he growled. “You are as beautiful and wild as the land you were named after,” he murmured while he pushed me down, releasing my body from his and positioning me in front of him as he wanted. “And you’re mine, Erie, say it,” he purred thickly as he pushed my legs apart and settled behind me.
“I’m yours,” I whispered barely above a breath.
His hand trailed up my back as he threaded his fingers through my hair, pulling me back until I was bent painfully, staring up at him. “I can’t fucking hear you,” he moaned as his cock entered me, filling me until I opened my lips on a moan. His mouth touched against mine briefly before he pushed me back down, gripped my hips, and fucked me hard and fast until all I could do was bury my face in the sheets, biting them as pain touched pleasure and became everything. I yearned for more, for him to reach the darkest places inside of me. I wanted it all, to feel him there with me, bringing light into the darkness I’d been born into. I lifted my ass, giving him further depth, and as I did it, my body lifted, and something hit the bed.
I lifted my head from the sheets and stared down at the necklace. My heart sped up as I grabbed it, hiding it in my palm until he tensed behind me, groaning as he found his release. He started to move, and I turned around, lowering my mouth to his cock. I licked the sensitive edge, slowly moving up his body with kisses. My teeth nipped against the silken ‘V’ that sat above his massive cock. I kissed all the way up until my mouth claimed his hard. His hands moved to my hips, lifting my body up to savage me again, already hard and ready for more.
My hand threaded in his hair. My arms settled around his neck as he slid my body onto his. I cried against the soreness and fullness as he hissed his approval. I retook his mouth, momentarily forgetting my purpose as pleasure burned through me, red-hot.
I pulled my mouth away, jerked the necklace over his head, and screamed, “Do not remove the necklace!”
“The fuck?” he demanded as he pushed me onto the bed, staring down at his chest where the necklace glowed beside his other amulet. “You fucking bitch,” he snapped.
“Do not touch me,” I hissed as he lunged to do just that, still erect and full with his arousal as mine shone on his silken shaft. “You will not tell anyone you are wearing it. Understand?” I whispered thickly as I stood up, knowing he’d kill me now for sure. “Tell me you want me, Paladin.”
“I want you, but I don’t need the necklace to admit that,” he snarled as he stood up. His cock bounced as he walked towards me. “Tell me to fuck you again,” he hissed thickly. “Tell me to finish what you started and see what happens, little druid.”
“You think I won’t?” I laughed coldly. “Lay on the bed, on your back.”
I watched his spine stiffen as he moved to the bed and did as he was told. “Do you want me?” I asked, slowly prowling closer to him.
“I’ve never pretended otherwise,” he admitted. I stepped onto the bed, placing my feet close to both hips as I knelt down, straddling him. His hands didn’t move; he didn’t move. “Come on, big girl, say it.”
“So you can hurt me?” I asked carefully.
“No, so I can make you sore enough to remember who the fuck you belong to when you leave me here. So tomorrow, when you wince, you think of me, and the next day after it. I want to fuck you so damn hard that my dick is imprinted in your womb, and you remember who claimed you first.”
“Fuck me,” I growled, not intending it as an invite. I was pushed down so fast that I wasn’t even sure how it happened. His body pounded with inhuman speed against mine until I was whimpering and screaming his name to the Gods above us. His mouth crushed against mine in a painful kiss, meant to punish. I brought my hands up to push his mouth away, but his hands captured them, slamming them against the bed as he refused to release my lips. He was fucking me silent? I wasn’t sure if I should be okay with it, but fuck, he was sexy when he was pissed off! He pulled back far enough for me to gasp air and instead of issuing a command, I screamed… “Yes, fuck yes! Harder, you bastard,” I demanded, and he did.
Magic slithered up around my nipples, applying painful pressure. It pinched against my clit, sending my body twisting away from it as the already sensitive nub pounded with the impending orgasm. He jerked tautly, and I screamed as the hardest, most violent orgasm of my entire life bowed my back and shook the world around me as it tore through me. I moaned against his mouth, biting his full lip as he groaned and hissed while his own orgasm continued.
The moment he finished, he fell off of me onto the bed beside me. “Run, little druid,” he laughed. “Because I know how to remove this damn thing,” he admitted before turning to stare into my eyes. “When I do, I will hunt you to the ends of the world to claim you. Remember, don’t harm her people on your way out, and don’t touch anything in the garden because it will kill you. But Erie, know this, there’s nowhere you can hide from me. No one who can stop me from getting to you, or finding you, little one. It’s no longer just a quest for our people. It’s fucking personal now.”
“Sucks when the shoe lands on the other foot, doesn’t it, big boy?” I lay beside him, stretching out as I eyed the room for clothing. I expelled the air from my lungs and sat back up, only to be gripped hard around the wrist and shoved beneath his hulking frame. “Let me go!” I screeched, but he didn’t. He stared down into my eyes with something dark and brooding as the necklace glowed between us.
“It was created by the Templar Order, Erie. My fucking Order,” he hissed out as it glowed brighter in warning. “I’m going to enjoy punishing you when I catch you. I do enjoy hunting pretty little things down and claiming them,” he uttered before his mouth claimed mine. I didn’t move away from his kiss, not until he pulled away, claiming my bottom lip between his teeth and drawing blood. He sucked it, the fire in his eyes igniting further as I reacted to it.
My legs spread, inviting him for more, but he didn’t indulge. He watched me, and then rolled off of me, unable to ignore the magic that pushed through the necklace demanding he did as I said.
“You will remain here until sunrise,” I instructed. “After that, you will destroy the necklace and then remove it. If you come after me, Callaghan, I will kill you. Happy hunting, Paladin,” I muttered as I turned around and grabbed the robe, slipping it over my shoulders on my way out of the room.
Outside the room, I paused, leaning against the door as I struggled to calm the furious reaction that thundered
inside of me. That man had been wild, unmatched in lust, and a fucking beast in the sheets. If he wasn’t who he was, and I wasn’t the one thing that could save his people, we may have had a future—if I actually liked him. I could admit I enjoyed his cock and body, but him? He was a rich, entitled, good-for-nothing prick. It was too bad, really, a waste of a good dick. Maybe it was a good thing he was my first though, because he’d set that bar rather high.
I followed Synthia’s instructions as I made my way into the garden. The moment I entered it, I screamed. A dragon literally flew over it as a woman with dark hair bounced a small boy on her lap, reaching for that fire-breathing, honest-to-Gods dragon. It flew back over us, and I hit the ground with my naked ass in the air.
“Oh, oh wow, you’re naked,” throaty laughter sounded, and then the sensation I’d felt earlier covered my body. I jumped to my feet as I kicked myself for being the world’s biggest ninny and stared at the mother and her child. Was she pregnant with a toddler? Hadn’t I heard that the Fae had conception issues I’d envied? “You must be Erie; I am Ciara, and the dragon who is now showing off for you is my husband. The door is right there,” she nodded her head towards a thick door guarded by what looked to be mutes. “They won’t stop you. Us women, we tend to stick together in times of need. You are free to leave if you wish it.”
“Definitely.” My tone was devoid of emotion or fear as I moved towards the guards, intending to fight my way out if I had to. They shocked me by opening the gate, which had a dark-haired male barring my way. I’d known it wouldn’t be this easy.
“I’m Ristan, I’ll be your tour guide to the portal as our world will try to keep you here, and as Synthia promised, you are free to leave.”
“Why the fuck would you do that? Isn’t Callaghan your friend or something?” I countered.
“Use ‘friend’ loosely and you have what he is to us. He helped us when we were in a rather tight space,” he smirked. “Not a good sort of tight place. You smell like you fucked him.”
I blinked and his sudden change of subject. “That was rude.”
“Hey, tour guide here,” he groaned as he waved his hands down his tightly coiled body. I followed those hands as I took in the Demons do it Better shirt he wore, down to his Doc Marten shit-kickers. “I didn’t say I wasn’t an ass or polite. You smell like you just got fucked, and you have welts around your neck. My kind of freaky deaky sexy bitch,” he laughed throatily. “Fuck, I wish Olivia would have our kid already. These mood swings are hell on our sex life.”
“You’re a demon in Faery,” I pointed out offhandedly.
“I am half-demon, anyway,” he agreed as he started forward, and I had to run to keep up with his long strides. “My other half is Fae. And here we are,” he said with a wave of his hand at the portal.
“Where does it lead?” I asked, turning to eye the rising sun. “Shit…”
“You should probably run; he’s already coming for you. Can’t say I blame him any,” he mused as he reached over, grabbed my shoulder, and started me towards the portal. “Good luck, druid,” he laughed. “I’m sure we will meet again if Faery brought you to us.”
“Faery didn’t bring me here; he did.”
“Faery has indeed brought you here, druid. She calls to everyone who enters, and I assure you, she led you to us for a reason. Five minutes.”
“Five minutes?”
“Until he is here,” he chuckled. “See you soon, female.”
I hadn’t considered the fact that time moved differently inside Faery. Or what time it had been in general when I’d given him the order. I turned back, eyeing the demon that smirked and wiggled his fingers at me oddly. I slipped through the portal with one thought: Callaghan was coming for me, hunting me. So were the druids and Templars. I didn’t intend to let any of them catch me. Not now, not ever. I was Erie, born of two worlds that could never control me, and I’d be damned if he thought he could.
Chapter 11
Callaghan
Four weeks later
I stared out over the street, watching the Guild for any sight of the little imp who’d slipped my watch in Faery. I knew she was within, protected by the Fae. Not that they could protect her from me, not with the mark brandishing her flesh. I felt her pain, knew it like I knew my own. I’d betrayed her trust, but then she’d been moments away from being attacked by those within that bar, and I would have gone to war to protect her. She was and always would be my downfall, since way before she’d drawn air into this new body of hers.
I could still feel her body beneath mine. The lavender and mint that clung to her flesh as I fucked her without mercy. She’d come undone for me, bending and twisting to take more with a hunger that drove me over the edge way too soon. Then she’d placed the necklace over my head, shocking the ever-loving shit out of me. I wasn’t even sure why I’d been surprised since, if anyone could fight her way out of a corner, it was that girl.
Sure, I could have fought harder to hold her there, withstanding the pain of the necklace. It would have been easy enough, but I hadn’t wanted to break her, and if I was honest, I wanted her to want me on her own. I didn’t crave some fake fucking relationship that the necklace demanded she abides by. I wanted her, the wildness that she freed as she took what she needed, what she wanted. I wanted those eyes alight as she came on my dick, riding it with abandoned need.
She stepped out of the Guild, and I watched her graceful movements as she paused on the steps. A frown tugged at her bottom lip as she turned, staring back at the doors with something foreign in her eyes. Erie didn’t get attached to people; she didn’t reach out for help either. Seeing her evolve made something inside my chest ache from within.
Several moments later, she was heading away from the Guild as if it too had scared her. As if she’d noted the same thing I had just whispered in my head, and now she ran from it. I didn’t blame her, people sucked. She’d been put through hell, abused to the point that when I’d discovered it, I’d been unable to reach her. That hadn’t been in the plans I’d made for her, and yet she’d emerged even stronger than she’d been. For a whispered moment, I’d thought she’d emerged from her cocoon, but she hadn’t, not yet.
At the tender age of fifteen, I’d gone to the Druid’s Den to check in on her. To see what progress she’d made in school, to see what new thing she’d discovered. What I had found hadn’t been pleasant, far from it. The moment I entered the observation room, it was to find a broken, beaten girl lying in a pool of her own blood. Bile had escaped my lips as I’d inhaled the filth of her cell and the excrements that came with the sickness of what had been done to her.
They’d beaten her, whipping her until the flesh was open on her back, her spine exposed. They’d continued, snapping it until it had severed and for what? Because some little boy had gotten too close to her, and then they’d forced all the adolescent boys into the stands to watch as she was punished for his crimes. All because Erie was different, unnatural to them.
Afterward, instead of helping her, or allowing the healers to tend to her, they’d locked her into a glass room. One that allowed the others to watch as she’d healed, but that took weeks or even longer with the damage they’d done to her spinal cord. So she’d lain there, in her own blood and waste as they’d watched, dehumanizing her while she compartmentalized what they’d done. She was so alone and broken that I’d come undone, freeing the beast to punish those who had tarnished what was ours.
I’d gone unhinged, murdering each and every one of the adults who had wielded that whip against the child she’d been. I’d let the monster out to play with them, and oh, had he. She was his; he’d whispered it to each and every one of them as he’d ripped them apart that day. I’d taken her from there, bringing her to my home as I summoned the healers to help her. It had taken almost an entire year to heal her body. Every part of her had eventually healed except her mind, and from that day forth, she nev
er let another person get close to her. No one touched her, and when she walked by them, they stepped away from the madness they had placed into her mind.
They’d broken her, so fucking deeply that she never even knew it was me who washed her, who tended to the sewing of her flesh. It had been me who held that slip of a girl against my chest, singing hymns from Ireland, pushing her hair from her face as I begged her to come back to me. I’d done everything I could to save her, to keep her as more than just the womb everyone thought her to be. I’d wanted that fire within her to blossom, and it had taken me more time than I’d ever imagined getting even a whisper of a flame to light in her soul again. When the flame had finally come back, I fed it promises of a better life if she could just hang on for me. I’d purchased rare soap that smelled of the lavender that grew wild in Ireland, and to this day, she wore it without knowing why.
They’d sheered her wild, beautiful red hair, butchering it until her scalp bled from where they’d cut it. Barely having grown tits to be noticed and she’d had the boys all hard for what she was becoming, and they’d blamed her. She was created of the cauldron, magic in the purest form, and I didn’t question the beauty she had been blossoming into, but then I’d seen it before; the wild red hair that was natural to Ireland, and the bluest eyes that had once smiled without knowing it. To this very fucking day, they didn’t smile. They held pain, a pain so fucking deep that it couldn’t be erased. They watched everyone with distrust, took in everything around them. She expected everything bad to happen to her as if it was how it was supposed to be. That girl trusted no one, not a fucking soul, not even me, who had spent the last ninety-nine years protecting her, only to fail over and over again. The moment I’d been called to follow orders, something always befell Erie in my absence. I’d fought to get her brought to the Templar Order compound, but they’d refused. To them, that girl was a monster, and to the druids, she was an unnatural thing of ugliness that didn’t belong. To me, she was the most beautiful fucking thing in the world.
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