Searing Ecstasy

by Setta Jay

  The beast roared again before blasting fire into the nearest ophiotaurus.

  He let the dragon play. It circled and came down, all talons and teeth as he lifted and launched the creature into the nearest rocky cliff and then rained fire on the lesser beasts. Most were immune to the dragon fire, but that didn’t stop his claws and fangs from connecting.

  He wasn’t sure how long it had gone on, but when the haze cleared, he noticed Vane was at his side. How long had he witnessed the carnage wrought by the beast?

  He didn’t speak, only snarled at the male.

  Vane growled back. Give me a damned break. I needed this shit too. Hades was taunting the shit out of me, knowing I hate having him near Brianne. P finally asked me to watch your back. Bastard just didn’t want me to kill the fucking God. He bared his teeth. I actually remember liking Hades, but now he’s a damned menace. And Brianne is, by the fucking way, loving the absolute shit out of torturing me. So just let’s destroy a few beasts and don’t give me more shit right now.

  Drake didn’t answer. Hearing any other voice but hers was grating his nerves, but he felt the frustration rolling off the Demi-God and allowed his presence.

  Vane’s new wings powerfully moved through the air, keeping the male at his side as they hunted. Fire rained from Drake’s lips, catching more prey to dive and rip to shreds as Vane battled quietly beside him, in an attempt to ease his own tension.

  The more hell creatures they killed in the Realm, the less there were for the demon-spawn Tria, Ares and Artemis’ imprisoned triplets, to send to the other Realms.

  It was mindless work that eased his need for blood and warm female flesh.

  *****

  Delia rested her forehead against the shower wall as she breathed through all the arousal still rolling beneath her oversensitive skin. Why had she let him see her? Why had it mattered that he see the true female under all the mud?

  Just once.

  She’d been playing with fire. Burning hot, tempting fire that boiled under the surface, itching for more.

  She wanted to see him as she’d allowed him to see her. He would be magnificent. Just the thought made her ache with need. His naked muscles pulled tight as he held her, thrust into her. She moaned lightly into the steam as her body hummed with the relentless desire that came from having his deep voice in her head. She was caught by how affected she could be from something so seemingly innocent, but that alone had given her pleasure intense enough to light the darkness inside.

  She shook her head. Just a growl or roar from him was fervent enough to send vibrations thrumming through her body. What would it feel like against her skin?

  She was obsessed with a dream, because having Drake was a beautiful illusion.

  She shook it all off and focused back on reality, dumping a final mental bucket of ice around that telepathic connection. She sucked in some air as she allowed the horrors that lived inside her mind to wipe away all thoughts of the gorgeous male.

  Within moments his beautiful, ancient, mesmerizing emerald eyes were replaced with the crazed or blank eyes of the females Cyril had experimented on. Those mixed with the unseeing eyes of the dead her shadow had relentlessly hunted and killed. The old Delia’s sisters were safe; other innocents in Tetartos were safe. She didn’t regret it, because she hadn’t taken one head of the Hydra, she’d destroyed the entire beast. She only hated the way the beast had gone about it. Her shadow had tormented and played with the prey. Delia hadn’t liked that and had hated being caged inside her own body while the beast had done it.

  She turned and let the water slide over her face. That was minor to her greatest fear, which was that she might someday see Cyril’s acts as justifiable, just as she found hunting and killing hundreds to be necessary.

  She chilled at the thought that there would come a day when the power corrupted her so completely that she saw no lines. Her mind was already a mass of calculation and animal need, something that might have originated with the beasts, but was who the female had become. The question was what would that primal creature want when it was powerful enough to take anything.

  She’d been forced to show Drake that it wasn’t only her Lykos or shadow halves that needed to be feared.

  She slowed her breathing. At least she still had some humanity left; as long as she could still see Cyril’s memories as unforgivable acts, then she wasn’t lost. That didn’t mean she was good, it only meant that she wasn’t as sadistic as Cyril or the shadow she held. Her mind was broken into so many pieces it was hard to see where it would all end. She was filled with an obsessed, lust-filled female, a deadly predator, the broken wolf, and a violent shadow beast. She wouldn’t leave him with the illusion that she was an innocent young female, because it wasn’t the truth. She barely felt any echoes of that young Mageia.

  She sighed as she turned off the water.

  She closed her eyes for another beat, concentrating on the cages she’d been forming for the beasts. The wolf did nothing but lay defeated in the corner of her mind most days, but she still heard the occasional howl that she’d been forced to harden her heart against or it would have broken her long ago. That was why she felt so numb most of the time, it was her mind’s only protection against all that sorrow. The beast mourned its dead mate in a way that was just too painful for one soul to endure. If she allowed it to hobble her for even a second, the shadow slipped free.

  Any distraction seemed to be a crack for the shadow beast to exploit.

  She shook her head.

  She wanted to believe that the shadow wasn’t completely amoral, but she wouldn’t trust that to be the case. It may have shown mercy once, when it freed the Lykos that Elizabeth had chained up, but that had more to do with taunting the vicious female than an act of kindness.

  She dried and quickly applied the clay over every inch of exposed skin and hair, all the while focusing on building more links to the cage for her beasts. As soon as she was covered, she murmured the words to spell it, ensuring it stayed covering her. A quick telekinetic burst set the exhaust fans to high and a second later air and steam were powered into the filtration system. Just another gift from the dragon.

  Her shadow beast snarled inside her head, hating the prison. The creature wanted back in control and it was on edge around the dragon, and the new link seemed to add another level it hated.

  Maybe that was one of the reasons Delia fixated on Drake. His presence kept the beast back more than anything else could. She shook her head. No, she wanted him from the moment his scent hit her. From the second she’d seen how beautiful and strong he was. She craved him.

  She slipped on yoga pants and a shirt before turning to the door when she felt Alex’s presence getting closer.

  As soon as the female made it to the spelled enclosure, Delia eyed her.

  Alex greeted her cautiously, “Hello, Delia.”

  “Sirena said you’d be here.” Delia shook her head slowly. “I already told Drake I won’t let you in my head.”

  Alex nodded, her bright sapphire eyes assessing her. “How’d he take that?”

  “What do you mean?”

  Alex leaned into the wall behind her and crossed her arms over her chest. The female wore tight dark jeans and a low tank top that showed her figure well. Her dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail that trailed over a tan shoulder. She crossed one high-heeled boot over the other as she contemplated Delia through the hazy blue spell confining her inside the room.

  Delia generally saw only Sirena, likely because she’d made it clear she didn’t want visitors. It seemed this guest wasn’t planning on leaving any time soon. She sighed as the female spoke. “He hates knowing you’re in pain. So how exactly did he take your choice to keep the nightmares? He feels you going through them.”

  Delia clenched her jaw and had to fight the shadow for control as the words impacted her. She didn’t want him going through any of it with her. “I won’t let anyone in my head. I’m sure you can imagine why. You had a glimpse in ther
e.”

  Alex didn’t look all that contrite at the fact that she’d invaded Delia’s mind without permission.

  “I was trying to help, and I would have asked if you’d been available.”

  “And that’s why I don’t want your blood,” Delia said without inflection. “That and the fact that you helped a young female when she suffered.” Delia sighed as she sat on the bed, leaning her head back against the wall, already done with this conversation.

  Alex had been lucky the beast had remembered her; it had been furious at the invasion. That had been during her first week there, and it was a big blur of pain.

  Alex and Uri had come to her after Cyril had taken her. The young tormented Delia wouldn’t have been able to slay the monster without their help. And truth be told, they’d stayed with the frightened, broken female she’d been, they hadn’t let her be completely alone in the dark and that… meant something. It showed Alex’s strength of character.

  “Will you let me help you again?” She could tell by Alex’s tone that she knew the answer before Delia gave it.

  “No.”

  “Do you know why my shields aren’t working completely with Drake?” Delia looked at the female. She needed to find a way to block the nightmares from him; that was the only kind of help she’d accept from Alex.

  “You mean when you’re asleep?”

  “Yes.”

  “A mating bond is strong,” Alex answered. “Severe distress will seep through unless you’re consciously trying to stop it. I don’t know of any way to strengthen the shields enough to hold during sleep.”

  Delia nodded; it wasn’t the news she was hoping for.

  Alex stared a little longer before asking, “Why won’t you give Sirena the formula?”

  She growled. “It’s too dangerous and I already know that nothing will fix this. There’s no way to stop the power surges. The beasts have nowhere to go. The only thing it could help with is the pheromones.”

  “Wouldn’t that be worth it? To be able to ditch the mud?” Alex said.

  Delia wanted that. More than almost anything, but that was the most dangerous component of the drug. Letting it out in the world seemed too big a risk to take.

  She sat there trying to find a way to justify putting something that horrible out in the ether, simply for her own benefit.

  “Delia, wouldn’t it be possible just to give her the details on that one component of the formula?”

  She shook her head, but her mind was going over all the details again. She’d done it before, but with her beasts and the power surges, concentration was sometimes too difficult.

  Delia shook her head. “I can’t.”

  “Just consider it.” She paused. “How are the beasts doing?”

  Delia eyed her for a moment. “The wolf wants to die.” The heartbreaking ache of the wolf was something she hated thinking about.

  Alex knocked her head into the wall. “I know. Uri and I haven’t been able to do anything for a beast who’s lost its mate. We’ve tried.” Delia heard the female’s frustration.

  “Even taking the memories of a mate away still leaves a hole and the animal never forgets; the beast still mourns.”

  Delia nodded her understanding. She could feel the truth in it, neither animal should exist in her to begin with, but the wolf had a mate who’d at least tried to protect her from Cyril.

  The shadow’s problem was in having Cyril as a mate. Where true mates were cherished and coveted, he’d treated his female as a prisoner, a slave to be abused and used. There was lust for flesh and power, but no real emotion and the shadow felt enraged at the twisted version she’d been given. The shadow harbored so much hate, it was slowly consuming it, and Delia couldn’t see that fury ever ending. It was like a sickness, even all the kills hadn’t eased it, and now it had no one else to destroy. That made for an unpredictable animal, and Delia had no way to ease the beast.

  She sighed.

  “I’m trying to build cages for them. I haven’t been able to block them out completely, they’re too deeply ingrained, but it may help me hold them.” As she grew in strength, so did the beasts.

  “That’s a good plan.” Alex nodded.

  She needed it to be. The metal walls didn’t feel like they were dampening her power even the slightest anymore and she seemed to be taking in energy without being surrounded by the rock and dirt of the world.

  She was already too powerful and there was no hint it was going to stop growing. It seemed that the link to Drake gave her more of a reprieve from the beasts, but not the spikes in power. One would surge again at any moment.

  Sirena slipped into the hallway.

  Alex greeted the other female and explained, “She won’t let me in and Drake knows.”

  “What’d you say to him?” Sirena said.

  “I gave him a glimpse into my mind,” Delia admitted.

  Alex and Sirena both looked at her with concern.

  Drake needed to understand that she was too damaged to fix. She narrowed her eyes at the females’ expressions and tracked him mentally. He was in Hell Realm, she’d never been there, but somehow she was aware of coordinates. She saw a small flicker of light with him.

  Her brow furrowed and she felt her power begin to flare and flit through the room. “Who is with him?”

  Sirena’s brow rose, but Delia didn’t care if her knowledge surprised or concerned the healer.

  “Vane’s with him,” Alex answered after apparently doing a mental check. Delia didn’t know who all the links belonged to, but she could see them all around him and it sparked something dangerous.

  She saw how tense they’d both gotten, each watching as if she were going to strike out at any moment. And she might have, but her breathing eased at the sound of a male’s name.

  Alex finally continued cautiously, “Vane is my brother and also Brianne’s mate.”

  She breathed through the reaction, the obsessive possessiveness was getting stronger every day.

  “Are you going to tell us what that was, Delia?” Sirena asked, using the power of her voice to finish calming the wild emotion.

  “I’d think it was obvious,” she said as she closed her eyes for a second and rocked her head back and forth on the wall. “Jealousy.” Damn it.

  “What happens if a female gets near him, Delia?”

  Delia evaded while trying to keep her mind off the much more frightening question. The realization was too chilling.

  “Near. Probably nothing.”

  “What happens if one touches him, Delia?” Sirena asked cautiously.

  The image of female hands caressing her male’s bare skin sucked the air from her lungs and filled her with a rage and a power so furious it lifted the items in the room.

  “Death.”

  Chapter 8

  Sander’s Home, Tetartos Realm

  Nastia woke so damned hot she let out a soft moan as she slipped a hand beneath the warm blankets to the ache between her thighs. She turned her face to bury her nose in the pillow; it smelled like fucking heaven.

  “Not a fucking chance.” The growled words snapped her into complete awareness. She launched from the bed and saw the Phoenix sitting in a chair next to the bed. His bed? She looked around. No, this wasn’t his home in Earth Realm, she’d been in that bed, well, her mist had hovered over it.

  “Where the hell am I?” She was still so damned horny and his scent was everywhere.

  He looked to be in much the same state as he stood, shirtless and gorgeous. His eyes were flashing with those sexy as shit flames and his jeans were tented as he stalked her. She didn’t move an inch, just waited. The second his hands were on her she nearly came apart.

  She tried to shake off the drugged haze of need, but it was too late for that.

  His deep sexy voice brought her eyes from his chest to his growling lips. “Your energy’s normal now?”

  Nastia nodded, relieved to feel strong again. She felt good, not good… out of her mind. If she didn’t ge
t him under her now, she was going to lose her fucking mind.

  She panicked for a second. Was her power working again? She teleported into mist and would have cheered in utter relief if his flames hadn’t engulfed her invisible body.

  “Don’t even fucking think about leaving,” he growled. “I will hunt you, Nastia.”

  The flames caged her, but they didn’t burn. If anything, it felt incredible being surrounded with his power, but that didn’t mean her mist could get through it.

  You can let me go, you damned barbarian. I was just checking to see if my power worked again. She was too hungry to have his half-naked ass. She might fight completing the bond, but she wouldn’t fight the need to screw him blind, not when they were already in the frenzy. She wasn’t stupid, she knew there was no going back now, and as far as she was concerned this was the only plus.

  His flames pulled her closer to him and she growled. She teleported, landing directly in front of him. His power and those fucking flaming eyes ignited her. She slammed her palms into his chest and was on top of him before they’d fully landed on the bed. Her mouth met his in heated pleasure so strong she moaned as she rolled her hips into his cock. His fingers tunneled through her hair and tugged her where he wanted as his tongue tangled with hers. He gripped the strands tight and demanded more until she couldn’t focus on anything but the kiss and the way his head lifted from the pillow to get more of her. She braced on one hand and used her other to get at the fly of his jeans.

  She broke the kiss as she ripped the material free in her hurry. She needed his skin, had to feel it inside her. “I need your dick now,” she snarled. His cock was a thing of beauty. She’d welcome the pain it would no doubt cause because she hadn’t taken anything other than a dildo in more centuries than she could count.

  “Do you need pain to get off?” He growled, his eyes glowing fire. His hands had moved to her hips, sliding her over him, tilting her in a way that rode her clit over him until she was gasping for more.