Guardian's Redemption

by Marie Harte

  It didn’t take long for the demons in Sava to release him from their hold. A large black cloud with green threads poured from Sava’s mouth, and he dropped to the ground in a heap. The cloud hovered and began to disperse in the violet twilight of Tanselm’s sky.

  When it drew near ‘Sin Garu, Arim knew he had to close the deal. He stepped away from the others and absorbed the energy around him. He called on Tanselm, on the Storm Lords, on his love for Lexa, and with a beam of pure light stared into the decaying body of ‘Sin Garu.

  The paralysis broke from the Dark Lord long enough to showcase his terror. While ‘Sin Garu shrieked with horror, the noxious demon cloud screamed as well, a sound that shook the area in a violent tremble of earth before the cloud simply disappeared in Arim’s Light.

  “No. Not like this. Don’t do this to me. Not to meeee…” ‘Sin Garu looked suddenly like a Djinn burning in truth, but without the black flame surrounding his body. One giant mass of blazing Light in the form of a man clawed at itself in a fire so pure even Arim had to turn away. Power suffused every pore in Arim’s body, and the extreme rush made him giddy.

  “Mother of Dark,” Lexa exclaimed with the others as ‘Sin Garu exploded in a shower of sparks and golden dust that floated away on a warm breath of wind.

  Sudden silence fell over the gathering, and it took a moment for it to sink in.

  ‘Sin Garu was dead. The threat over Tanselm for so many years had been vanquished. Faustus, Ravyn and the deceased Storm Lords had been avenged. The Netharat, or what remained of them, would be rounded up and dealt with. The future they’d all prayed would come to pass finally lay in reach for all of them, Light and Dark alike.

  Lexa was the first to move. She tended to Sava while several others looked after Brother Giles. After laying hands on Sava, Lexa nodded to Alandra and several nearby Aellei, who took him in their midst. “He’ll need rest, but he seems fine, physically at least.” She glanced back up at Arim and frowned.

  “What’s wrong?” Arim felt not himself, as if he was floating just outside of his body. He was suddenly ravenous, needing to fill the void slowly eating away at him. A backlash of energy was all he could think.

  “You’re glowing, and the Light’s starting to hurt.”

  He tried to contain it, but the Dark pushing inside him bellowed for more. To feel the pain he craved but could never understand. Lexa saw it. He reached out a hand, unable to control his desire, “Come with me.” The voice was not his own, yet it was. The pitch seethed with need, a Dark echo lined with Light.

  “Arim?” Darius looked concerned, as did the rest of his nephews.

  “Is it more demons?” Cadmus asked with Ellie wormed under his shoulder.

  “I don’t think so,” Aerolus said, studying Arim. “But—”

  The hunger began to hurt. Arim tried to content himself with the Light Tanselm provided, but he couldn’t ignore his craving for something more. His confusing ache grew clearer as his gaze met and snared Lexa’s. The need, the want. It was all for her, for the tempting Dark Lord who teased with every breath she took. Her full lips parted, her round breasts rose and fell, and the sultry scent of desire clung to her, a scent he wanted to absorb into his very being.

  “Mine. Now.” He pulled her to him with bands of Light that threaded through her Darkness. She squirmed but froze when she felt his erection growing against her, and the contact of her slight frame against his made him want to howl with lust.

  If he didn’t find them some privacy, now, he feared he’d take her regardless of their audience.

  “Not a demon, unless you account lust as demonic influence,” Aerolus murmured in an amused voice.

  Unable to wait a moment more, Arim teleported with Lexa into the one place he’d never shared with anyone. Deep within Morn Mountain, in one of the Darkest places in Tanselm, sat a world none of the others knew about, not even Ravyn. She had taken him to a place in the shallower section of the mountain, an area of healing baths and mineral deposits full of gems and stones that accentuated his magic.

  But here, in this place, Arim had created a private domain where he alone soothed those instances of savage Darkness that raged inside him. In a cavern he had fashioned to suit as a private retreat, Arim arrived with Lexa tight in his arms. The spacious area was lit by candlelight spelled to illuminate whenever he entered. A large bed stood in once corner of the comfortably temperate space. There was a dining area, a place where he worked on his magic, and another to surround himself with Tanselm’s abundance that flourished in the Dark, vibrant flowers and bushes that had use only for the Arim’s powerful presence.

  It was the massive bed in which Arim was interested, a hedonistic confection littered with silken pillows and a firm yet luxurious mattress—one he’d never shared with another. He appeared right next to it. Standing together with the woman he loved in his Dark, easy resting place, Arim shook with the violent need to release inside her. He squeezed her tighter. The things he fantasised about with this woman. His life, his love, his children…

  It was the last thought that prompted him to temper his waxing aggression.

  “Arim, I can barely breathe—”

  He stole her protest with a kiss, greedily devouring her Darkness with his carnality. He’d never desired so much. The power within him writhed and seethed, wanting all she had to give him. To his surprise, Lexa met him lust for lust. She nipped at his mouth and pulled at his clothing while rubbing up against him like a cat in heat.

  “Yes, yes. More,” he panted as he yanked her clothes from her body. Too far gone to concentrate on a spell, he simply ripped until nothing stood between them. “I need you so damned much.”

  “Yes,” she whispered and sucked hard on his neck. He growled and pressed harder against her belly, feeling his cock slide over her skin as it glided through the moisture seeping from his tip.

  Dark’s Mother, but he was so close to coming.

  “Do it now,” she urged and lay back on the bed, her eyes glittering like diamonds.

  Arim wanted to but couldn’t, not like this. It was more than the physical, though he couldn’t identify what exactly he wanted. Giving himself over to instinct, he flipped Lexa onto her belly and nudged her thighs wide. Like a plaything for my own enjoyment. Mine. The thought made him even harder, and he couldn’t help himself as he knelt between her thighs.

  Her scent was so sweet, her ass so firm and pale.

  “Arim?”

  “Stay down,” he commanded, his voice both gruff and filled with power.

  She shivered, but not with fear. He could see her excitement as her pussy glistened, dew sliding over her folds. Arim spread her thighs uncomfortably wide and leaned close, kneading her ass with large, hungry hands. Tilting her pelvis up, he saw what he’d been looking for. The smooth, wet pussy that was his.

  He stared at the pink flesh beckoning him closer and licked her with a long, smooth stroke. More than satisfied with her moan of delight, he still knew it wasn’t nearly enough. He had to consume every part of her. Closing on the hard little nub that felt so good between his lips, Arim began eating her in earnest. He licked and sucked, drunk on her taste. Barely aware of her first climax, he pressed on, needing to swallow her cream and the Dark that passed through her sex like honey.

  “Blue,” he rumbled, unable to form coherent thought apart from her body. Her clit was like a tiny cherry, hard yet bursting with flavour. She tasted like ambrosia, a heady mixture of Light and Dark, of Lexa… She was his, and he needed to hear her say it. “You’re mine. Say it.”

  She groaned and clutched at the bed, her skin so cool in contrast to her heated sex. The differences excited him unbearably. Arim quickly rose and lifted her waist, angling her for better ease into her tight, hot pussy. Poised at her entrance, he felt sweat beading on his forehead, his craving to possess her riding him hard.

  “Say it, Blue. You’re mine.” He pressed slowly inside her, inch by inch, seizing what belonged to him and him alone.

&n
bsp; “Please, Arim. I need all of you.” She squirmed, trying to shove back onto him, but he held her fast.

  “Say it.” He gritted his teeth, fighting the urge to take what she needed to give.

  “I’m yours,” she cried and he plunged deep, no other thought but satisfaction blazing in his brain.

  He fucked her without mercy, thrusting in and out, so hard he thought he’d explode several times over. Yet the desire compounded like a madness, and he was helpless to stop himself from pushing as deep into her as he could go.

  “Arim! Night and Stars.” She moaned and screamed as another orgasm shook her.

  The feel of her tight walls sucking him in opened the floodgates on his Darkness coiling to be let loose. He spurted, the beginning of a mind-blowing orgasm escaping before he could contain it. But this was no ordinary sex, and after he emptied between her thighs he roared and pulled out of her, only to push inside her ass, his cock still hard, still needy.

  He brought her hips firmly against his and shoved through the tightness of her anus, knowing he gave her as much pain as pleasure. He was covered in her cum and his, but the roughness of his intrusion could by no means be smooth.

  His little Dark Lord, however, shook from the force of her pleasure.

  “It burns. Oh more, please,” she said in a hoarse voice.

  That quickly, his body built towards another inferno. A few thrusts more and he was too close to turn back. Arim shackled their energy as he rode her, taking what he wanted and giving her everything he had. Love poured from him in waves as he crested another unbelievably high peak into climax.

  Raw ecstasy blinded him, and he was frozen in the moment as he shot inside her, his cum filling her ass and dribbling down her pussy and thighs. Yet still the orgasm wasn’t enough. He pulled out and found himself still hard, still hungry.

  Lexa turned over, her body awash of his seed and her cream. The scent made him dizzy with lust, and the Darkness of the mountain increased the hunger.

  “What have you done to me?” she breathed, the sparkle in her eyes enchanting. The blue in her eyes had never been warmer. The love shining from their depths threw his heart into a rhythm of unbearable feeling.

  “Light, what you do to me.” He groaned and closed his hand around his throbbing cock. “I don’t know what’s wrong. I’m so Dark and you’re the only thing I can see, can want.” He made no sense, but he spoke from the heart, the words pouring out of him. “I love you so much. I can’t contain it.” And he couldn’t. He could feel the emotion bleeding out of him into her, his Light and Dark a tangle of contrasts and compliments waiting to find its equal.

  Lexa’s eyes welled with tears that she angrily wiped away. Arim knew he’d never seen anything more beautiful in his life. “I love you too. And if you ever do anything so stupid as to take on a sorcerer and demon without me, or sacrifice your damned soul, I’ll… I’ll…”

  A tear fell over her cheek and the sheer Dark glory of her love pushed him over the edge.

  He kissed her hard, bruising her lips in his need to dominate. Her raspy breathing told him she liked it, and more, that she welcomed it. He fisted his hands in her hair and pulled her away from him.

  “Come to me.”

  He watched her crawl to him, and his cock ached to feel her mouth around him. He waved a hand to cleanse them of the mess covering them both and waited for her to look up into his face.

  “Arim?”

  “My love,” he corrected and brought her mouth to the tip of his cock.

  “My love,” she whispered in a throaty voice.

  Arim stared at her beautiful lips, wanting nothing more than to slide past them into love. “Suckle me. Take me down your throat.”

  He couldn’t contain the thrill, knowing he possessed the dangerous creature who could kill as easily as she could heal. The woman behind the ice blue eyes was warm and passionate, but she met his Dark needs more than he could have dreamed. His love for her spilled into the room, making the Darkness within glow with a bright blue light.

  “I love you so much,” he rasped as he watched her wet her lips with her tongue. “I need to fill all of you. I want to fuck that mouth, Blue, until you’re brimming with my cum.”

  She took him balls deep, her lips warm around him as he nested in the heat of her mouth. He clenched his hands in her long, black hair and held on as she took him to the gates of the Next with the light rake of her teeth and the swirling of her tongue.

  She ran her hands up and down his thighs, cupping his balls that hardened into needy stones.

  “Mmm,” she moaned around him, her lips sucking and stirring a thirst he was more than ready to fulfil.

  Her hands crept around his hips, and she pushed him further down her throat. Then she spread his cheeks and shoved a finger hard into his ass. The pressure made him roar his pleasure and he increased the tempo of his thrusts, nearly there.

  She began fucking his ass with her finger and the combined stimulation was too much to bear.

  He shouted her name as he shot down her throat. His body trembled in the aftermath of so much stimulation. When he finally withdrew, he found himself unsteady and pulled her to her knees, only to topple back onto the bed with her.

  As a deep peace settled over them, Arim drew Lexa deeper into the curve of his body, watching her sleepy eyes as she stared back at him—eyes for once not guarded or cautious about revealing her feelings.

  “You can’t take it back, you know.”

  She frowned. “I won’t.”

  “I love you. You love me. And we’re going to be a family sooner than you think.”

  She palmed her belly, her eyes glued to his when he placed his larger hand over hers. “Is this what you wanted?”

  “Yes,” he said softly, completely open to her. “The question is, is this what you wanted? A man who loves you without reservation, a family to love and cherish.” He prayed she would take his words to heart. “No matter what.”

  She chewed her lower lip, that delicious piece of flesh he wanted to kiss and caress until he came inside her again. “I’m still a Dark Lord.” Her expression changed, to one he couldn’t read at all.

  “Lexa?”

  “Does it matter what I am? Or what you are?”

  “No. I can honestly say it doesn’t. Lexa, if you aren’t happy here, we’ll leave.” They both paused when Tanselm literally groaned in protest. “Not that I want to go, but your happiness comes before anything now. My nephews can manage Tanselm. Our enemy is dead.”

  “The enemy that you know of. The way you Light Bringers act, I’m sure you’ll have more,” she muttered.

  He grinned. “Probably. But we’ll soon have another overking to take care of all that. The affai are pregnant. The future is unfolding as we speak.” He rubbed his hand over hers again, wanting to feel the life inside her under his palm. “I’ll do anything for you, Blue. Just name it.”

  She stared at him, her gaze full of wonder. “You really mean that, don’t you?”

  “I do.”

  Lexa cupped his cheek and smiled. “Don’t think I won’t hold you to that. Hmm. You won’t have to call me Dark Mistress…all the time.” She laughed when he tickled her and then sighed into his embrace. “Just promise you won’t leave me again.”

  He kissed the top of her head, his throat understandably tight, his voice gruff when he answered, “I’ll never leave you again, Blue. I promise.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Seven months later

  Only a few months back in Tanselm and Lexa was already wishing they hadn’t returned. A spike of energy under her feet and a glance at the rilk trees shifting to block the midday sun from hitting her had her revising her thoughts. She wished they hadn’t returned so soon.

  The aftermath of the war with ‘Sin Garu hadn’t been pretty. The Light Bringers still had yet to fully accept her, but Lexa knew the process would take time. Most of the sorcerers and Light Bringer warriors seemed to respect her. Apparently, word had gotten
out about her part in ‘Sin Garu’s and the demons’ demise—thank you Jonas and Sava—and many in Tanselm treated her with reverence.

  Brother Giles, in fact, tripped over his feet every time he looked in her direction. The stalwart young Churchman had apprised them of Ordinary Nohjen’s responsibility in the death of Ravyn and several other loyal Light Bringers they hadn’t known about, as well as his partnership with ‘Sin Garu to rid Tanselm of all things Dark.

  Unfortunately, Nohjen had escaped. But Lexa knew he would soon be brought to justice. Arim himself had overseen a thorough cleansing of the Church of Illumination. With Brother Giles’ help, the tide was turning in favour of accepting the Djinn and Aellei, now very much a part of Tanselm’s culture.

  Lexa waddled clumsily through the woods towards the roomy cottage she and Arim shared on the fringes of the western keep. Though she would have preferred that they live in Morn Mountain, she recognised the need for him to see and be seen by Tanselm’s people. Despite the fact that the great Guardian of Storm tried to stay behind the scenes as he guided his nephews in the running of the land, many still looked to him when any grand decision needed to be made.

  If only the new overking would show himself. Of the four pregnant affai, only Tessa and Alandra had given birth. Tessa delivered a healthy set of twins, one boy and one girl. There had been much excitement until she stopped pushing. Marcus however, looked extremely relieved, and so much in love with his wife that Lexa forgave him for his occasional arrogance.

  Aerolus and Alandra produced a healthy baby boy, one with bright white hair and sparkling grey eyes. That one would definitely be a handful, she thought with a smirk. Sava had been beside himself with pride, so much so she might have thought he’d been the father.

  Lexa’s smile dimmed at thoughts of her friend. He’d recovered well enough from his possession, but the carefree demeanour she’d come to expect in Sava was often mixed with a sobriety she didn’t care for. Too often Sava seemed to stare at nothing, lost in nightmares or worries he wouldn’t say. He was currently taking care of matters in Aelle, stifling more rebellions and dealing with pesky Aellei plotting mischief, though he continued to visit on and off, thoroughly pleased with his nephew.