by Marie Harte
“I—” Blue flame shot from Remir’s mouth, a monstrous wave of pain taking him to his knees.
“Shit.” Jonas muttered under his breath and turned the power ensnaring Remir into a boost of energy, helping him to further block ‘Sin Garu’s Dark magic.
“Hurry,” Remir rasped, fighting the coldness freezing his vocal cords. “Church going to… kill… the qu—”
A demon’s shriek echoed. Remir writhed in agony as a creeping evil wound through the blood pulsing within him.
“I didn’t want to believe it when Lexa told me she suspected you. I told her she had to be wrong. Not you.” Jonas leaned towards him, speaking through a tightly clenched jaw. Worry mingled with the blame in his gaze, and he increased the surge of energy he lent Remir.
Remir tried again to do the right thing. “Help.” He coughed, pulling at his throat, his chest, needing Jonas’ strength to make sense of the misery that had so recently been his life.
“I’m trying to help, dammit.”
“Warn…queen.”
Jonas stilled. “Ravyn?”
“K-k-kill her.” He took a deep breath. “To-night.”
Jonas scowled, and suddenly a Djinn appeared next to them.
Alor, another of Remir’s battle brothers, stared down at him in shock. “Remir? By Dark’s breast, now they’re attacking us one by one?”
Jonas cut him off. “Hurry back to the keep. Tell the Storm Lords Queen Ravyn is in danger. Don’t stop for anyone or anything. Go.”
Alor’s face darkened, but before he could disappear, a half dozen Djinn, members of ‘Sin Garu’s Netharat, surrounded them. A burst of energy shielded them from teleporting anywhere.
“So…sorry.” Tears spilled down Remir’s face. “Sor…cer…y.” He coughed again, blood pushing over his lips as he blindly reached for Jonas’ hand. “Bro…ther.”
Before his vision completely glazed over, Remir swore he saw forgiveness flash in Jonas’ face. The sound of battle tore him from the haze invading his mind and body, and unbearable pain struck him as his own personal hell became real.
He heard a bloodcurdling scream, felt the burn of his soul as it was ripped away by the demons crawling all over him, and belatedly understood the cries came from his own throat.
“Mother of Night,” someone prayed before Remir lost all feelings but those of abject terror. ‘Sin Garu’s punishment had not been the worst thing he’d ever felt, nor did it come close to what the demons were doing to him as they carted him through the between into their world, one piece at a time.
Chapter Eight
Arim stared at Lexa, wishing she’d say something. Since her outpouring a week ago, she’d been steadfastly silent. Truth be told, he’d welcomed her quiet…at first.
Being around the woman he wanted to hate but couldn’t was hard enough. Confusing emotions pressed him from every angle, making him second-guess his interactions with Lexa throughout the years, stirring up the past and causing him to wonder about the future. For centuries Arim had tried to bury his feelings for the slight female, lingering only on that one day when their world had gone horribly wrong. It had been hell to remember the loving, blue radiance of her gaze, the delight she took in spending time with her family, the bewitching softness of her skin.
From the first, he’d been enthralled. Her ties with Darkness had intrigued Arim on every level, his initial resistance to their differences nonexistent. Their innocent love had blazoned with the potential for so much more, until the damning deaths of her foster family. Deaths he’d always thought she’d caused.
Uncertainty gnawed at him. The more time he spent around Lexa, the more he doubted what he’d seen so long ago. A small glimpse into her mind had pushed his reservations, snowballing into the cauldron of doubt now boiling over. Because for all of Lexa’s purported viciousness, he’d never actually seen her harm anyone save the Dark Lords and, well, himself. Even then, she’d never done him any real damage. Their battles had been fought fairly, Light against Dark. And just when Lexa had been granted an opportunity to kill not only ‘Sin Garu, but Arim as well, she’d chosen to save him, granting her enemy’s escape.
At what cost to herself?
That inconsistency he’d noted when making love to Lexa bothered the hell out of him. Regardless of the spell Sava had cast disabling both Lexa and him from using magic, Lexa didn’t look well. She was still sexy, still alluring in every sense of the word. But he could feel a subtle difference in her magic. Arim should have been pleased to finally be in a position of clear advantage. If her magic was off, the better for him. With both of them mystically powerless, superiority fell on the shoulders of greater physical strength. Bottom line, in this particular contest, Arim was the winner.
So why did he want Lexa to engage him as an equal? Why wish that she confront him, talk or argue with him, about anything at all? Just to prolong contact with her?
He grimaced at the ceiling in her bedroom, his hands clasped behind his head as he lay in her bed. They’d taken to keeping to themselves. He in the bedroom, she in the living room. He needed a clear head to think, and every time he laid eyes on her, remembrances of their lovemaking seared him. One look at her siren’s face and body and Arim wanted to throw everything aside and finally slake his thirst for the contrary woman who bedevilled him by simply breathing.
Dammit. He glared down at his rising erection, wishing he could get through even ten minutes without wanting her.
“Bring her back,” Faustus had ordered. How could Arim do that when he couldn’t even function around the woman without wanting to bend her over and command her sensual obedience?
He cursed again. While he lay trapped by a Shadow spell in the mundane world, Jonas and Sava were running amuck doing the-Light-knew-what. Arim could only pray his nephews and sister kept Tanselm safe while he was stuck here with Lexa. Stuck with a woman he wanted to love with every fibre of his being. A foolish pursuit, but one he couldn’t shake. And how stupid was that?
His frustration built. Something had to give. He wanted Lexa. He knew she desired him. Staying away from one another wasn’t working. Arim had felt true peace the last time they’d touched. Dammit, he wanted to feel it again.
Desperation for something more hit him hard, and he wondered at the sudden ache in his chest. For three hundred years he’d been without her, without Lexa by his side in his life. Now he had the chance to at least get the answers to the questions that had been plaguing him for so long. Never in a million years would he have expected an encounter like the one they’d had just a few short days ago. A perfect union followed by a brief moment of utter peace. So why was he avoiding her?
He eyed the closed door between them, knowing the truth he’d been unwilling to face for so long. I’m such a fool. Arim flushed at his cowardice, finally understanding the course he had to take if he ever wanted to be truly whole.
He had let her go once because he was confused…and afraid. That debilitating fear had returned after making love to Lexa again. Arim Valens, Guardian of Storm, Tanselm’s most powerful sorcerer, allowed fear to rule him. Disgusted with himself, he cursed low and long. His conscience, however, refused to back down, forcing him to look at himself. Losing Lexa all those years ago had nearly destroyed him. It had taken everything he had to go on with his life, to build new safeguards around his heart and strive to be a better man. Facing Lexa now would force him to review his past actions. To deal with her honestly, and to see where the truth would take them.
Arim sat up and swung his legs over the bed. Time was a commodity that worked in his favour in this plane, yet that wouldn’t last forever. Who knew when Sava might return? Arim had spent a week trying to make the situation between him and Lexa go away. A fool’s notion, surely. Because the tension between them existed, and the dangers outside this small bubble of Shadow waited for them still.
Something within him finally broke down. He stood, determined for the first time in days. Arim had to make the most of this opportunity.
At least if he knew the truth, he could live content that he understood why Lexa had done what she had. That had bothered him more than anything, that he’d misjudged what his heart had told him. The key would be getting Lexa to tell him what he needed to know.
The time had come to start acting like a man, to take charge of this mess and make sense of an inevitable confrontation. With determined strides, Arim left the bedroom, only to find Lexa curled up on her couch covered in pillows that did little to conceal her curvy shape.
Arim stared down at her, a curious melting in the core of his heart. So beautiful, so vulnerable…
He leaned down to stroke her soft black hair, unable to help himself. The minute they touched, the soft frown on her face faded. She gave a breathy sigh that went straight to his groin, and Arim both cursed and thanked Sava for this golden opportunity.
His gaze fell on a piece of the Dark-hide Lexa had taken with her. It sat next to the couch on her coffee table, and Arim had a sudden desire to use it. A plan formed, an outlandish idea he’d fantasised about for years. Lexa responded to him physically, so why not use that to his advantage? She’d never tell him what he wanted if he asked straight out. The Light knew he’d asked her plenty of times before, to no avail.
His cock throbbed at thoughts of dominating his little Dark Lord. Hell, I might be more like Aerolus than I thought, he imagined with a grin. Bending down, he gathered Lexa in his arms and sucked in a breath at the rightness in their contact. Arim ached to possess her, to feel her cool skin sliding against his own as he took what had once been his.
“And soon will be again,” he murmured, kissing her forehead when Lexa frowned in sleep. She calmed instantly and snuggled closer, her breasts brushing his chest, stimulating him with each breath she took. Time to take charge. Sava, damn him, is right. This has gone on too long. One way or the other, Lexa and I are going to find the truth. Either way, I’m finally taking what’s been denied me for so long. The pleasure in Darkness only Lexa can show me.
Lexa rose to awareness feeling well-rested. A warm caress over her belly woke her, and she knew instantly that Arim lay beside her. Light streaked through her stomach into her core, the flare of passion not as surprising as her desire to feel him inside her again, despite the tension between them.
Scared at how much of herself she’d revealed to a man known as the Killer of Shadow, Lexa had taken refuge in silence the past few days. While secure in her quiet, a larger part of her was disappointed that Arim seemed content to accept her isolation. Loneliness, a concept she’d lived with her entire life, pulsed anew as she spent day after day so close, and yet so far, from the only man she’d ever truly loved.
Oh, she’d loved Esel and Sercha, but with affection and familial joy. Arim was another matter entirely.
“Blue, you’re finally awake.” Arim’s touch roamed up her body, his hand passing under the swells of her breasts. His breath brushed the side of her neck, and an uncontrollable shiver of need shook her. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
As if their recent discord had never happened, the connection between them intensified. She tried to move and found herself unable to do so. He’d tied both her arms above her head to the bed frame, and spread and secured her ankles to the footboard.
“I split the length of Dark-hide,” he answered her unspoken question. She noted the burns on his hands. “It hurt, but you’re worth the pain.”
Lexa paused, startled at the confusing sentiment in his words. She’d never before seen him so aware of her, or so open about his desire. “Arim?”
“We’re long past the time for talking, Blue.” He kissed her hard, forcing his tongue through her lips with a decided stamp of ownership. A large hand caught and caressed her breast, teasing her nipple with stabbing arousal.
Arching into his touch, she sighed in response to the strength of his need—and his Darkness—pulling her in.
“That’s it, Blue.” Arim ran his lips over her cheek to her ear. His warm breath made her shiver. The slow moving slide of his inner Light worked its way over her body, a painful burst of pleasure she was helpless to resist. “Need me the way I need you. I’ve missed you so much.”
His confession startled her. Before she could say anything he was kissing her again, his hands cupping and plumping her breasts, his touch melting her from the inside out. The desire between them had yet to be sated. Instead it had grown during their days apart. As much as Lexa wished she could ignore the feelings his touch evoked, she was helpless against the onslaught of passion driving her mindless with desire.
She wanted so badly to touch him, to feel his warmth under her palms, but the tug of Dark-hide held her fast. Bound and helpless before Arim—both a skilled lover and extremely powerful man—Lexa’s walls crumbled. The knowledge that she was defenceless under his control should have scared her. Perversely, being bested by Arim shattered the last of her resistance. Dark need slammed through her into him. She knew he felt it when he stilled and leaned up, staring down at her with a sexual haze of satisfaction.
“You’re just what I need,” he said thickly, his eyes so black it was like looking into true Night. Ensnared, she couldn’t help feeding him more of her passion. “Darkness and Light, I could love you for an eternity and still not get enough.”
She couldn’t help tingling when he said ‘love’, though she knew he meant ‘have sex’. Despite all she’d been through, some stubborn part of Lexa yet longed for the past, to feel cherished and loved again. The need for such weak emotion worried her, but she soon lost all train of thought when Arim trailed his lips over hers, down her cheek to her neck. Biting her throat, he startled a gasp out of her before soothing the mark with his tongue. The small prick of pain made the pleasure that much sweeter. Arim’s hot mouth continued its foray over her skin, lingering over the curves of her breasts.
“I love how soft you are, how full you get for me.” Arim took one hard nipple in his mouth and sucked. Lexa moaned, helpless to stop herself from arching into the wet suction of his lips. She couldn’t spread her thighs any wider than they already were and wished he’d put himself inside her already. His mouth would surely be her downfall, a plague of ecstasy over a woman who longed to be shown what honest, loving desire could feel like.
Arim swirled his tongue over her nipple, teasing the other with pinching and plucking fingers. He reduced her to a writhing pile of want, and while Lexa cursed her traitorous body, she desperately needed him to sate her. A physical ache throbbed between her legs. She would have done anything, given him anything at that moment to quench the hunger pressing her.
“Arim, please,” she gasped and cried out when he suddenly thrust a large finger inside her. He continued to lave her breasts, stabbing her nipples with hot blasts of his breath and tongue as he thrust his fingers—first one, then two—in and out of her in a steady, maddening rhythm.
“So cool, yet so hot,” he murmured around her breast. “You taste so sweet, Blue. Like honey melting all over me.” He groaned, sucking her into a near-orgasmic state. The hard feel of his arousal against her only intensified her desire, and Lexa put everything she had into breaking the bonds holding her tight so that she might force Arim to take her. Unlike the warrior on top of her, however, she hadn’t the strength to break free.
“Oh yeah,” he rasped, shifting to kiss the valley between her breasts. “I’ve waited for you for so long.” Arim groaned and continued to kiss and caress her belly, her hips, and finally, the plump flesh between her thighs. The moment his mouth covered her sex, Lexa cried out at the feeling of fire shooting through her womb. “So good.” Arim gripped her thighs tight as he feasted.
His tongue burned and stroked, pushing her clit to respond in spite of Lexa’s attempt to stave off her orgasm, to wait until he put himself inside her.
“Arim, I want you.” She struggled against her bonds, moaning his name as he pulled on her sensitive flesh with teeth and tongue.
“Tell me, Blue. What do you want?” His lips bru
shed over her clit, and it wasn’t enough. “And how much are you willing to pay?”
“Anything, everything.” Lexa was mindless with need, to feel him stretching her, filling her with himself. “Arim, I need to feel you inside me. Come in me.”
“I will.” He sucked hard on her clit and cursed, then rose over her, claiming her lips with his. She tasted herself on his mouth, excitement flaring along her skin like tingles of Light. His position over her put his shaft in direct contact with her clit, making Lexa tremble with anticipation as he pressed against her. “You’re hungry, aren’t you, Blue? So tight and wet for me.”
Her body was on the verge of exploding. Arim fused his mouth to hers and stabbed deep with his tongue. The motion added to the combustion brewing between them and she lost her hold on reality. Lexa exploded as she hit her peak and heard Arim groan.
He wasted no more time and thrust hard, claiming her pussy as his own as he began pounding into her. His tongue mimicked his cock, and as he rode her, she tasted the bliss of his Light beginning to overtake her body. Lexa continued to come, greedily accepting his surge of seed as he climaxed within her. Their inner magic mixed and held, her Darkness and his Light meeting and melding, and making them both something more than they were when apart.
Arim moaned her name and continued to thrust. To Lexa’s amazement, she could feel him pulsing inside her, could feel both the flow of lust and something more filling her up.
When he finally ceased, Lexa realised he’d overridden her efforts to maintain a clear head with relative ease. Good Night, but she’d promised him anything if he’d just make love—have sex—with her. Before she could even think about gathering the energy to reject their closeness, Arim disarmed her.
He leaned up on his elbows but remained inside her, his body still hard, to her surprise. He caressed her cheek with a rough finger, his touch soft and gentle. Then he closed his eyes and nuzzled her cheek, a familiar closeness they used to share so many years ago. “I’ve missed us so much, Blue.”