Fires in the Darkness

by Nora Ash

  And then there was their deep-seated hatred for each other.

  I frowned. Surely, our connection had gone some way to heal the rift between them, seeing as they had both risked their own lives to save the other. Though, if I were to be completely honest, I wasn’t entirely sure how much of that was solely for my benefit. Probably a pretty big part.

  Soulmates or not, whatever the cause of their animosity, it needed to be fixed if we were going to have a shot at happiness together, and it looked like it might be my job to get them on the right path.

  “So, seeing as the city has claimed all your assets, I take it you’re both poor now?” My voice rung with enough sarcasm to make both of them crack an eyelid at me. “And crashing on my couch?”

  Nicklaus flashed me a wry grin before he closed his eyes again. “We’re dragon descendants, Kathryn. We’ll never be poor. I’ve got a few offshore accounts, and I’m sure The Shade… Eliath has a minor business empire set up in a Third World country somewhere, with or without slave labor.”

  Eliath ignored the dig in favor of affording me a downright wicked smirk. “And I don’t know about him, but I certainly won’t be staying on the couch.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Well, then maybe it’s about time we talk about where we go from here?”

  Nicklaus groaned. “I take it you don’t mean to bed?”

  “Well, if you think you and Eliath are planning on spooning each other, go right ahead. I’d just like to know exactly what the plan is here. You both share me, until one of you snaps and kills the other?”

  There was a significant silence from both men, but neither of them seemed to be resting this time. They were all furrowed brows and grimly set jaws.

  “I can tell you right now that I’ll never be okay with choosing between you, so don’t even ask. I love you both so much, and I know I’m meant to be with both of you.

  “So if you want this—if you want me—you’ll have to find a way to work out your issues with each other. One thing this weird Ancient Knowledge-thing Mirome dropped on me has made very clear, is that we all need each other to get through life, especially with everything that’s happened. And for that, you will need to be able to trust each other. Completely.”

  You could have cut the tension in the room with a knife. I was beginning to think that they were going to keep staring at each other in deadly silence forever, until Nicklaus finally broke the ice.

  “You don’t know what he did.” It was impressive he could even manage to get the words out, with the level of strain his jaw was set with.

  “No, I don’t,” I said, opting for as soothing a tone as I could muster. With everything we’d been through, it would be just my luck if what peace we had found was ruined because I pressured them too much. “But why don’t you tell me?”

  Nicklaus gave me one long, agonized look before he turned his eyes on Eliath, and his gaze hardened. “Back in the day, we were acolytes training under Mirome. He took in orphaned supe kids—Thorn and Whirl, Eliath and I—and we had all known each other from we were very young. We were friends. We were going to rule the city together, one day. Pure, youthful stupidity, of course, but Mirome encouraged it. He probably thought we’d be capable of doing what Bright eventually tried.

  “In our quest for power, we did increasingly stupid shit, like challenging grown supes while dodging Mirome’s and the Council’s notice. No adult would ever admit to losing to a group of adolescents. We thought we were untouchable. Of course, it went wrong. It had to.

  “One of the supes we’d challenged surprised us with an ambush. We were out-numbered and out-powered. And… he wasn’t going to let us off with a slap on the wrist and an attitude adjustment.” Nicklaus paused, his jaw working as he brought back the past events. I reached out and twined my hand with his, offering him what support I could. Though his eyes were still cold, it was obvious that the memory was very painful.

  “That’s when The Shade—Eliath—betrayed us. In order to save himself, he pledged his allegiance to this man and killed Whirl and Thorn to prove himself. That marked the end of our service to Mirome. And, as you can imagine, our friendship.”

  I was stunned.

  Somewhere along the way I’d convinced myself that Eliath—that The Shade—wasn’t as bad as the rumors would have everyone believe, and that whatever strife was between him and his archenemy could be solved somehow. But how did you ask a man to get past a betrayal like that?

  “It always pissed me off how willing you were to think the very worst of me.” Eliath’s voice carried the unmistakable note of bitterness—of age-old resentment.

  “Well, you made it real fucking easy,” Nicklaus snarled, his coolness gone as if evaporated in the heat of this burning hatred between them.

  “It never occurred to you that it wasn’t just my own skin I saved, did it?” Eliath growled. “You’re really arrogant enough to believe you made it out of that confrontation alive thanks to your own skills, aren’t you?”

  Nicklaus’ eyes narrowed to slits. “Don’t even try to—”

  “To what? Tell you it was all a set-up way before we ever walked into that trap? Mirome found out about our escapades and told me he needed me to infiltrate Eruguar. He said I’d need to kill the rest of you to convince Eruguar. I argued with him, pleaded even, but you know how he was. And how we were, worshipping the ground he walked on. In the end, he told me I could let one of you live. My choice.

  “I chose you—and that’s the only reason you managed to escape that night.”

  A moment’s silence passed before Nicklaus shook his head. “That’s… You’re lying. You’re always lying to twist any situation to suit you.”

  “Yeah?” Eliath cocked his head as he looked at his old enemy. His old friend. “Did you never wonder why Mirome let us both out of his tutelage so easily? Did he ever try to get you back? We were fourteen—no one breaks out on their own that young. And with what we know him capable of now…”

  This time, the silence stretched for several minutes. I studied Nicklaus’ face as he crushed my hand in his, his every emotion playing out on his features: disbelief, denial, anger, hurt and—finally—acceptance.

  “Even so,” he said, “it doesn’t change the fact that you killed our friends in cold blood. Without ever letting me know it was all one of Mirome’s ploys. You could have ended our strife, but instead, you let it grow.”

  “I thought there was a reason,” Eliath said. His voice was softer now, no longer hiding his vulnerability. “I trusted Mirome blindly, and he told me to never share this with a soul. At first, I thought you’d figure it out on your own, but when it became clear you wouldn’t… I grew to resent you. You were my closest friend, and you never even…”

  He shook his head. “I thought Mirome had some grand scheme behind keeping it a secret, but maybe he just didn’t want us to join forces as adults. As for killing the others… I didn’t see much of a choice. If I had refused him, he would have found me weak and chosen another to do his bidding. And you and I would have been sacrificed instead. I’m not ashamed of my choice. I never was.”

  My heart ached after Eliath finished his tale. They had both been so young, and in the hands of a ruthless man who had used and abused them for his own ploys. Mindlessly, I grasped after Eliath with my free hand without taking my eyes off Nicklaus. His palm closed around mine, big and strong and comforting, but I knew that this time, he was the one in need of my strength, not the other way around.

  Nicklaus shook his head and his throat worked as if any words he attempted to produce got stuck. Finally, he stood up and released my hand with a small squeeze.

  “Don’t go.” For a moment I thought he was about to leave me again, and tears welled up in my eyes before I could stop them.

  A pained spasm crossed his face, and he bent to bury both his hands in my hair so he could force my eyes to his. “No, Kathryn, no. I’m not… I’ll never leave you again. I promise. I just need… a moment. Go to bed, my love. We all nee
d to rest. I will join you shortly.”

  Eleven

  Kathryn

  When sunlight filtered in through the windows and danced across my face, finally pulling me from a deep, dreamless sleep, Nicklaus was not in my bed.

  My heart leapt into my throat for three long seconds while my mind immediately jumped to the worst possible conclusion—that he had broken his word and left me. But when I twisted my head around to scan my living room, I saw the back of him as he sat on my couch, leaned forward with his head in his hands.

  Relief flowed through my system, and I sank back down into the bed for a few moments as I regained my bearings.

  Eliath was still sound asleep next to me, curled around my body as if he was protecting me from the world even in his dreams. I reached out and let a finger follow his strong brow and watched as the sun danced along his handsome face. How lonely he must have been, all alone and undercover with an enemy at the age of fourteen. No matter how strong superhumans were, no one would convince me that they weren’t still children at that age, and he had had to do horrible things just to stay alive. Including betraying his best friend.

  I kissed him on the mouth and extracted myself without waking him. They both needed help healing their old scars, and I would do anything in my power to give it to them.

  Nicklaus didn’t look up when I pattered toward him on bare feet, but he did wrap an arm around me when I sat down by his side and placed a gentle hand on his back.

  “Have you slept at all?”

  “No.” His voice was hoarse with strain and exhaustion, and more than confirmed his statement. “Too many thoughts.”

  I stroked his face with a gentle hand until he looked up at me. There was so much pain in his glowing eyes that it made my heart clench.

  “Do you believe what Eliath told us last night?”

  Nicklaus scrubbed his free hand across his face. “Yes, but that doesn’t change decades of emotions in one, easy swoop. We have fought for so long, and there’s been so much extra shit over the years… I know Mirome was rotten to the core now, but it’s still hard to fully comprehend how profoundly he lied to us. He was the next best thing to a father to me—he took me in when I was just six years old.”

  “It sounds like he was something similar to Eliath,” I said.

  “Yeah.” Nicklaus sighed and held me closer, wrapping his other arm around my t-shirt clad body. I hadn’t been able to bring myself to get into my trusty footie pajamas the night before, not with the two supes around. “I’m going to try, Kathryn. I know he’s your soulmate as much as I am, but it might take some time. It doesn’t matter, though. Being with you—it’s worth everything to me.”

  The pure love in his eyes made a lump form in my throat. “Thank you,” I whispered.

  Nicklaus kissed me in response. It was soft at first, a simple meeting of our lips to confirm the emotion I had just seen in his eyes. True to form, though, that didn’t last long. My head was still swimming when he deepened the kiss, delving his tongue in between my lips to taste and tease.

  I groaned in response and opened for him, my needy body already clamoring excitedly for what it knew would follow. We might have had a rocky start to this somewhat unorthodox relationship, but at least the sex was one thing that had worked straight from the beginning.

  Nicklaus grabbed me by the hips and lifted me up until I was kneeling on the couch with a leg on each side of his thighs, and then slid his big hands down to my ass underneath my panties. My skin felt on fire everywhere he touched me, and when he broke our kiss to start working on my neck and jawline, the burning crackle of sensation went straight to my clit.

  As if he could sense it, Nicklaus moved from my behind to the front of my panties and pressed a thumb against my clit, letting the fabric crease in my folds. It wasn’t until then I realized I was already wet with anticipation.

  “I need to be inside of you,” he rumbled against my throat. “Let me be inside of you.”

  “Uh-huh,” I groaned in response, because he was rubbing circles against my taut clit with his thumb, ruining my ability to think about anything but the pleasure of being with him—even the fact that Eliath was still asleep on the bed behind us.

  His grip on me strengthened as he stood up. I wrapped my legs around his hips and my arms around his neck, allowing a tiny thrill at being lifted and carried so easily to seep through my mounting desire. As short as I was, I’d always been too heavy for most men to lift me with ease. The contrast between Nicklaus and Eliath treating me like a fragile little thing most of the time, while fully capable of throwing me around the bedroom with all the strength of their dragon ancestry in the heat of passion, was very appealing after a lifetime of feeling like I was never quite feminine enough.

  “I am only complete when you are wrapped around me,” Nicklaus whispered hotly into my ear before he captured the lobe between his teeth, sending shivers of raw anticipation down my spine. Then he released my grip on his body and threw me down. My back hit the bed and made it bounce, but I didn’t have time to protest the treatment before Nicklaus was on top of me, completely naked. Super speed really did have its advantages.

  I stared up into his glowing eyes, lost in their overwhelming need—a need that resonated deep within my own soul. Then I felt a sharp tug around my waist accompanied by the ripping sound of fabric being torn in half. Nicklaus gave me a wicked smile and dipped down, disappearing from my immediate field of vision.

  “Oh!” His tongue stroked up between my lower lips, spreading my slit from bottom to top in one, easy lick that ended in a few teasing swipes over my clit. Then he delved back down again, sucking and tasting my inner folds while completely ignoring my nub of increasingly hyperaware nerves.

  I reached for his blond hair to force his head up where I wanted it most, but before I even got to touch his soft locks, my hands were grabbed and roughly yanked up over my head.

  “Hey!” I struggled against the tight grip around my wrists, but to no avail. All it did was make Nicklaus place both hands on my inner thighs so he could keep my lower body still for his continued exploration. “What—?”

  Eliath’s sleepy face popped into view, one eyebrow raised in challenge. “Yes?” He wasn’t even straining to keep me still, despite my best efforts at pulling free.

  “What… what are you doing?” The surprise of suddenly being pinned by an extra set of hands cut through my arousal enough to allow uncertainty to seep through. I hadn’t had much time to think about this particular aspect of our unconditional relationship, but I’d pretty much assumed that the time they both shared me was a one-off, spur-of-the-moment thing. In hindsight, I should definitely have given it some more thought, especially before I let Nicklaus toss me down on the same bed Eliath was sleeping in. Damn those pheromones and their ability to completely destroy any and all rational thought!

  Eliath slanted a smile at me, the devious gleam in his eyes making my stomach flutter with just a twinge of unease. “I’m watching. For now.”

  Just then, Nicklaus flicked his tongue up to lap at my clit once more. I whimpered and every muscle in my body tensed, my pelvis pressing up against his mouth of its own accord to get more.

  Nicklaus relented and closed his mouth around my tight bud.

  I moaned with relief when he sucked the small nub into his mouth. My back arched, and my body finally began the delicious climb toward release. As always, it felt like my entire being was attuned to the man between my legs, as if I was made for every lap of his tongue and every suckle of his lips. It didn’t take long before I was teetering on the edge, ready to fall.

  But before I could, Nicklaus released my throbbing clit and, before I could do anything but moan in protest, lined himself up against my opened entrance and pushed in. Hard.

  “Nn-oh!” The sensation of being taken, roughly and without warning, flowered up through my body from my achingly full pussy in one long, fitful spasm. I pulled against Eliath’s grip on my arms to get my hands free so I cou
ld press against Nicklaus’ taut stomach, try to control the invasion of my defenseless channel. He didn’t budge and only gave me a taunting “ah, ah,” as if I was a misbehaving child.

  If Nicklaus noticed Eliath’s interference, he didn’t mind. When he drew back only to slam in hard again the next second, moaning with pleasure, I thought that maybe he even liked seeing me helplessly held down for him. Forced to take all his pent-up anguish and desire.

  It hurt a little, as it always did when I first took either of them inside of me, but it was drowned out by the rush of endorphins and pure, sharp bliss.

  I let my head fall back down to the mattress as Nicklaus began fucking me in earnest, hard, deep and fast, though he spared me his preternatural speed. Perhaps it was my love for them both, or the trust I had in the fact that they would never, ever hurt me, but the element of force triggered every ounce of fervor and lust in my body. Being truly taken, overwhelmed and consumed with this man’s, this superhuman’s, desire for me—it brought out every debauched desire and fantasy I’d ever had before meeting my soulmates.

  I spread my legs wider and gasped with every ruthless thrust, letting him know I felt his strength and need with every fiber of my being. That I wanted it, all of it.

  Soon, I was climbing the heights of ecstasy once again.

  Though my clit wasn’t being stimulated, Nicklaus was so thick that every sensitive part of my pussy was being rubbed and pleasured intensely. I had never been able to come just from penetration before the two of them, but then again, I was fairly sure no human man had a cock this big. Or knew how to fuck me just right. Nicklaus’ pace quickened as if he felt the spasms in my desperately clenching pussy and knew what they meant.

  “Come with me, Kathryn,” Nicklaus panted as he pounded me. “I want you to come on my cock as I spill my seed in you.”

  I drew in a breath, so close to the point of no return I could practically feel it, but something held me back from tumbling over. I clenched my hands uselessly above my head, straining against Eliath’s grip to find purchase for that last push over the edge.