“What will you do now, my pretty little earth bird?” he taunted, singing in her ear. “It seems I have the best position.” He laughed at his own word play, then latched his teeth onto her ear. Flames ripped through her body like a volcanic eruption and she arched against him. He was more than ready to assist her, wrapping a strong arm under her back and crushing her body against his.
If Strelzar did not stop toying with her and take her already—this is not real...fight it.
Find the truth.
He grabbed her face and pulled her in for a burning, singeing kiss.
She had to get her feet back on the ground. The layers of powerful earth and energy, she had to connect to it—feel it, not him.
She grabbed him by the shoulders, and flipped him on his back, as he had done to her, and straddled him. Her body told her to press against him, her hips swiveling into him for a split second before a flicker in his eyes brought her focus back for long enough for her to slide one foot down to the floor.
With an almost sickening drain of emotion, Veria was able to regain focus and energy, connecting to the solid, ancient mountain around her. Strelzar stood, with his shirt ripped open, trying to conceal a look of panic at her sudden resistance. Veria took a deep breath and searched for something, anything, any energy she could grab onto and use.
There, she felt it—one of the tall wrought-iron candlesticks behind her. The energy of the metal pulsed through her, compounded by the raging heat of his fervent manipulation. She sent it flying at him, and he jumped to the side nimbly as it slid by, scratching against the stone floor of the cavern.
Strelzar threw his head back and let out the loudest laugh she had ever heard. His entire body went into it, his back arching, and his seductive control over her vanishing completely.
“You mock me,” Veria spat, through heaving breaths.
“No, in fact. The opposite,” he stated plainly.
Then she saw it, the flame hovering above his open palm. She knew what he would do with it, and she needed to act fast. The thought of her first hard elemental duel excited her, more than it should have, for a split second, then she refocused.
Stupid cave floor. And the rest of the standing candle fixtures were bolted into the cave wall—it would take her too long to pry them out. Nothing was loose, and he seemed to know it, a sly, crooked grin splitting his perfect lips while he gave her a few extra seconds, toying with her, teasing her.
Something near the fire called her focus...the wood pile. The logs. She had never connected to a wood source before, but the earth energy was definitely there. Faint, though. She would drain herself trying to latch onto it, but it was the only option. He flinched and she lifted the log swiftly, straining to hold focus on its scarce energy, then hurled it at him as he sent his flame blazing toward her. Their weapons met in the middle, colliding midair and kindling in an eruption of fire. The flaming log hit the floor and built a wall of fire between them.
Cackling mirthfully, Strelzar strode through the flames unscathed. “Oh, Fire! I would marry you right now and we could rule the entire world!” he yelled with excitement as he closed in on her.
He meant it.
She was too exhausted to move away as he he reached up and brushed an escaped piece of golden hair from her face.
“I believe that my flame has devoured your earth, my little bird,” he whispered lustfully. Without taking his eyes off of hers, he maneuvered the tower of flame behind them into the fire pit, where it roared happily. He placed a hand on her chest and urged her several steps back until she was stopped abruptly by the wall. “I win?”
She nodded.
“What's my prize?”
“I leave. Your student stays hidden.”
Strelzar pouted facetiously. “That's a terrible prize! Let us keep playing then.”
Veria shook her head no.
“I will play fair,” he compromised, stroking her throat with his fingertips. Then he plunged his lips into the crook of her neck. Her stomach churned and her body came alive again through the exhaustion.
Fair? He was making her want him again with his ridiculous powers of seduction. His chest fell against hers, and she buckled at the knees, her heart pounding hot blood to every part of her with fluttering pulses.
She dug her fingers into his rigid back, but her focus gripped onto another log from the pile and sent it toward the back of his head, but just as it was closing in on him, it burst into flame.
Veria gasped. He had not even moved or flinched, he was still burying his lips into her collarbone! How did he—?
Without warning, Strelzar grabbed her wrists and pinned her arms against the wall. “You better watch it, Birdie, or you will land us both on the Red List,” he purred. She squirmed against his iron-like hold, to no avail.
“You said fair!” she protested.
“And I was telling the truth, otherwise your precious little earth powers would have sounded the alarm in your beautiful, complicated head. I can hear everything you want. Just like you can find the truth, I can detect a person's desires.”
Strelzar shifted both of her tiny wrists to one hand, then let one hand descend the slopes of her body until it reached the place that wanted him most.
“You said fair,” she attempted again.
“I am playing fair,” he said, lips against her cheek. “Fair means no powers. So, the final test is, can you resist me even when I am not using my powers?”
He was telling the truth. Veria swallowed nervously and tried to free both her hands from the vice of his one. He traced his lips down her jawline, then her neck.
“That was—you were not—?”
“That was all you, dear,” he mumbled, a mouth full of her skin. “If you do not believe me, just remember what your back is against.”
Panic flooded her, and her breath came short, as she realized the meaning of his words. Not only had he gained the upper hand by pinning her against the wall, and therefore did not need to use his powers against her, but her body was in full contact with the same rock and earth that had grounded her throughout their duel. If he were lying or deceiving her, she would have instantly known. The realization both terrified and released her, and she wriggled her hands free and grabbed his face from her chest and pulled it up so she could look at him.
Challenging her, goading her, he raised his brow and smirked confidently.
He really was the most perfect man she had ever seen in her life. He pressed against her, one hand now on her face, and the other still exploring her through her dress. She hungered for him, and it was not a lie. It was real.
“Take me,” she said, this time aloud.
“You fail the test,” he whispered, pulling her back toward the bed.
“I do not care,” she moaned, stumbling with him.
“Good,” he purred, “then I get what I want. And we both win.”
His legs hit the bed and they tumbled backward. She could not wait a minute longer and forced her mouth on his, taking in his gorgeous granite lips. Strelzar bucked against her and her body responded with yearning for him. Then his hands were on the back of her dress, tearing it by the seams with protesting snaps and rips.
“You should never have come here,” he growled, his bottom lip trapped between her teeth.
“Why is that?” Veria asked, releasing him from her jaws, pulling back and cocking her head.
“Because I may never let you leave again,” Strelzar warned, removing the remaining shreds of fabric from her with flourish and throwing them into the fire pit where they were ravaged by flames, as she was about be.
-VIII-
Hours, maybe days, passed, and she would never know how long they laid among the furs and silk in the unchanging glowing cavern and the unending cycle of passion.
Of a few details she was certain: Strelzar's perfect lips had touched every inch of her skin multiple times over, and he had encouraged her to grab onto the wood of the bed frame or keep a bare foot on the floor at all t
imes, “so she would have no doubt that everything she was feeling was genuine”.
At some point, it ceased to matter to her whether her desire was real or not. Strelzar took care of every desire she could have possibly imagined, as well as a handful of his own.
This was what happened when a libidinous man lives to be two centuries old, she thought.
“I have always wanted a little pet bird,” he said into her hair. They lay on his bad, Veria's head on his hard chest. “You even seem to like my cave.”
“I like anything that is hard and solid,” she purred.
“You are going to have to give me some time to recover, love,” he laughed heartily. “Despite my appearance, I will remind you that I am, in fact, quite old.”
“I would never believe it had I not known beforehand,” Veria commented.
“Good,” Strelzar said. “That is how I prefer it.”
“I cannot comprehend how you are the way you are.”
“And how is that?” he asked with a sly grin.
“Flawless. Ravishing. Agile. Virile...”
“Oh, do go on,” he appealed with delight.
“And definitely not in need of rest,” she accused.
“Ah, I should have known you would pick up on that little fib,” he groaned. “But, I have good reason for it. I have something better for us to do!” he added, excitedly.
“I can not think of one single thing that would be better than what we have been doing,” Veria said seductively, her lips against his chest.
“Better may not have been the best word choice,” he corrected, as he wriggled out from underneath her. “But it is important, so get dressed, quickly—now! Before I change my mind,” he added, sitting up and looking at her with ravenous eyes.
“You burned my only dress, Master,” Veria pointed out with a tempting grin, as she pulled herself up to sit, as well.
Strelzar jumped nimbly off the bed and strode across the cavern chamber toward a large dresser.
“You should not call me Master, either,” he demanded, producing a black silk nightgown from a drawer and turning back toward her. “You are making this very difficult.”
He was feet away from the bed when he stopped dead in his tracks and tossed the gown the rest of the distance. She laughed through her nose.
“Was that necessary?” she teased.
“Absolutely necessary,” he asserted. “I cannot be within arm's reach of you or nothing will get done today,” he said, turning his back to her while she stood and slipped the gown over her head.
“What exactly do you have planned?” she asked.
“Oh, my darling bird, if you can bring yourself to trust a sordid old brute like me, trust me when I say it will change your life forever,” he said, turning to face her again with a fiendish smirk, “and that I have been waiting for this day for a very long time.”
Strelzar dressed himself in a slapdash manner and then led her through the library, and down another set of spiral stairs, farther and farther down into the mountain. It was extremely warm in the stairwell, and getting warmer the farther down they went. The nightgown was thin and did not actually cover very much of her arms, legs, or chest, but even it was stifling her in the toasty, twisting corridor.
Finally, they reached the final steps and Strelzar whipped around to face her, and she halted two steps above him. She could see a bright red blazing glow radiating through a stone archway behind him, but his body blocked most of her view of the room beyond him.
“I told you that I could hear people's unspoken desires when you first arrived,” he said, and it was probably the most serious she had seen him since her arrival. Veria nodded to show her attention. “I know what you want, maybe as much or more than you do. I think I have shown that I recognize your more immediate desires—” Veria smirked, but he continued, “—but much of the deeper longing has revealed itself to me, as well. And I am going to help you. But you have to trust me, and do everything I say.”
She had a thousand questions. Her heart pounded nervously, and the heat was making her uncomfortable and light-headed. So she just nodded.
“Everything I say,” he repeated very seriously. And she nodded again, her heart leaping inside its cage.
He turned on his heels and passed through the arch, and she followed cautiously. What exactly were these deep desires she had? And how exactly did he think he could help her fulfill them?
She was so lost in thought and dizzy from the heat that it took longer than normal for her to be fully aware of her surroundings. They stood in the middle of a huge cavern, veins of molten rock embedded in the walls, trickling down the rocks and crags like fiery blood vessels. On the opposite end of the cavern was a split in the wall that spewed lava into a jagged, pond-like pit, bubbling and spitting and threatening to consume the whole chamber at any moment.
“I shall preface our little lesson today by admitting my initial underestimation of your abilities,” Strelzar said, without looking at her. “I thought you may have just piddled around with it like your father, or used it for entirely self-serving purposes like your mother.”
“Thank you, I guess,” Veria muttered.
He rounded on her. “I think you do not comprehend how smitten I am with your skill,” he said, seriously, stepping in close and grabbing her shoulders. Her chest tightened and the skin on her arms quivered under his grip. “You are the first Earth Mager to ever waltz, quite gracefully, I might add, into my little fortress and attempt to assail me with hard elemental.” He chuckled at the mention of the previous events. “In fact, you are the first Mager I have seen even attempt to use hard elemental in as long as I can remember.”
“You laugh again,” Veria groaned. “And you keep saying attempt.”
“No, no, Veria,” he said, his smile and laugh gone, and his hands sliding down her arms to clasp hers intently, “it is amazing. And I laugh because it confounds me, and impresses me, and delights me.”
“Well, that is nice of you to say, but why do you care so much about my powers?” she asked, scrunching her face up as she stared into his dark eyes for answers. “Daloes said Masters only teach within their own element.”
“Ah, well,” Strelzar nodded, “Daloes would say that. Because he cannot see the bigger picture, and he enjoys the numbing tedium and safety of tradition. For as much as he talks about the Earth being a connected element, he never wanted to help me do this.”
“Help you do what?” Veria inquired.
He squeezed her hands in his.
“You have obviously mastered your element with little trouble. And deep in your thoughts, you want power,” he said, in a severe and raspy tone. “How would you like to be the most powerful Mager in the world?” he asked, raising one of his sleek dark brows at her and letting his lip curl devilishly across his face.
“I think you are insane,” she answered, pulling her hands away from his grasp. “Handsome, intelligent, very nice to spend a day with, but probably insane.”
He shook his head. “Give me your hands, again, Birdie,” he ordered.
“I—”
“You agreed to do everything I said down here, remember?” he said, holding his hands out.
She frowned at him, but did not argue.
“If you do everything I say down here, I will do everything you say up there,” he offered, playfully. “Just let me show you before you write me off as a lunatic. Give me your hands.”
She did as he ordered, displaying as much reluctance as she could.
“Good,” he purred. “Now, tell me what is in this cavern.”
“You, me,” she groaned, “lava, and a strange dragon statue. Is one of them made out of leaves?”
“And what are you?” he asked, ignoring her query.
“I am a woman—”
“No, what are you?”
“A person—what are you asking?”
“What am I?” he changed sharply.
“You are a Fire—”
“Good,�
� he cut her off, “so you are...?”
“Earth!” she blurted out.
“And the dragon with the leaves for scales is—”
“Earth,” she answered.
“And the dragon with the flaming breath is—”
“Fire.”
“Molten rock is....?”
“Earth and Fire?” she ventured.
“Right,” he drawled. “So tell me what is in this cavern.”
“Earth and Fire,” she repeated, more confidently than the first time. She was starting to realize what he was getting at, and her heart began to pound again. “We cannot—”
“We can, and we will,” he commanded with certainty.
“I am not sure what to do.”
“Well, good thing that you are in the hands of a capable Master, then.”
“I thought I am not supposed to call you Master,” she commented.
“You are not supposed to say it when I am trying to concentrate, no,” he said. “You can call me whatever you want we are not in here, though.”
“Crazy old man?” Veria offered.
“Sure,” he nodded. “Now quiet. It is time to focus.”
He took a deep breath, and she did the same, but the hot, sticky air did not refresh her, only stifled her more. It vaguely reminded her of how the air had felt to her when her mother had planted that desire in Willis Villicrey. Except that was just a feeling, and this was real.
“Connect to the rock,” Strelzar ordered, and she did. It was easy, as she had done it many times already since arriving. “Now the magma.”
“It—it's fire!” she argued.
“And Earth,” he hissed. “Connect,” he repeated.
She closed her eyes and searched for it—there did not seem to be anything else beside the mountain. He squeezed her hands again and heat rushed through her body. Suddenly, she felt the molten rock. A hot, fluid energy, circulating through her, hard to pinpoint to one location or to grab onto, but it was there. She focused on it, and Strelzar uttered his pleasure.
“How did you know I found it?” she asked, opening her eyes.
The Second Talisman: (Book II of the Elementals Series) Page 7