Darkness Taunts

by Susan Illene

  “The fire,” I mumbled. “I didn’t know...”

  “I’m fine. It took longer than I liked to recover, but I started searching for you as soon as I could. Everyone did.”

  I lifted my head. “They did?”

  “Yes,” he said. “Aeson had nearly every one of his people out scouring the town for you. It wasn’t until you were at the ferry station I could locate you or we might have found you sooner. Do you have any idea where you were?”

  “No.” I shook my head, then stopped. Moving too fast was a bad idea. “They had me tied up and drugged the whole time.”

  His face hardened. “Did they do anything else to you?”

  I didn’t want to think about it. God knew what Ian did while I was unconscious. My stomach lurched at the thought. I felt violated, but I didn’t want to get anyone upset over the possibilities. My gaze dropped to Lucas’ chest. “I’m fine.”

  Aniya wrapped a sheet around my shoulders. No wonder I’d been so cold. Only Lucas could distract me enough that I wouldn’t notice being naked. Damn the man. I tried to work up my usual embarrassment, but being in his arms felt more secure than all the clothes in the world. It had to be the drugs talking. I refused to believe I’d be this carefree with my body under normal circumstances regardless of what I’d done with him before.

  “Sweetie,” Aniya said. “Are you sure they didn’t do anything wrong?”

  She wasn’t going to give up. I recognized the determined look in her eyes. Why couldn’t people just leave these kinds of things alone? Not everyone wanted to talk about their most vulnerable moments.

  “They didn’t rape me, okay?” I glared at her. “They kept going on about how Lucas might have gotten me pregnant. That was more than enough to disgust them and keep them away.”

  A cough came from across the room. I turned to find a sea of faces looking back at me. It wasn’t just Lucas, Micah, and Aniya hovering nearby. Fallon, Sayer, and Aeson stood together at the edge of the living room. The drugs must have really messed up my senses for me to have not noticed them before. Aniya’s blood had cleared my head some, but apparently not enough. Great. I had more witnesses to see to my indignity. I pulled the sheet tighter around me.

  “I didn’t think it was possible for a nephilim to get a woman pregnant,” Aniya said.

  Micah spoke up. “It’s possible with her. Our race is cursed so we can’t have children who are born alive, but her abilities nullify it.”

  “Like permanently?” Aniya asked.

  “No. She can’t break a race-wide curse, but it wouldn’t work with her.”

  “One of the sensors told me a story,” I said, looking at Lucas’ brother. I detailed what I’d heard about the nephilim and sensor woman to him. At least this was a semi-safer topic and I wanted to find out more about it anyway.

  He nodded. “That was Castor and Eris. I knew them both and I can assure you Castor loved Eris too much to ever leave her. An archangel came to take the child from them after it was born, claiming it was forbidden. Castor fought him, but the angel executed him and took the boy from Eris. She was still too weak from giving birth to do anything to stop it.”

  “How do you know what happened?”

  A flash of sadness crossed his eyes, but like his brother he could cover his emotions quickly. “She didn’t have a midwife to help her with the birthing. I offered my assistance. Later I came back to check on her and the baby and discovered what happened. It’s possible the story you heard was altered to suit sensor agendas. She was considered an outcast for choosing a nephilim over her own race.”

  I’d felt the sting of rejection by my kind already. That didn’t surprise me, but how could the angels take an innocent child away like that? It was one thing to punish a nephilim when they abused their powers, but this was over the top.

  “Did you notice anything unusual about the baby?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “Our races don’t develop our abilities until we’re older. Eris said she could sense the child was immortal like his father, but nothing more. We don’t even know what the angel did with the boy.”

  “Are there any more cases where it’s happened?”

  “There are rumors of it occurring several times over the millennia, but I didn’t see those firsthand and the stories vary in the way they end. The only commonality is the child is always taken away.”

  Lucas pulled my face back to him. “You don’t need to worry about it. I won’t let you get pregnant.”

  I started to laugh. Sometimes men could be so obtuse. I hadn’t said anything to the sensors because it worked to my advantage to let them think what they wanted, but Lucas needed to know. “Oh, all powerful one. You must not have been watching over me during my trips to the doctor or you’d know I keep an IUD in me to prevent that little problem.”

  I’d been using it as a contraceptive for years. Since it made my periods almost nonexistent, I’d continued to renew them even when I wasn’t being sexually active.

  Lucas frowned. “What’s an IUD?”

  Right. I was in a room full of ancient immortal men who were mostly sterile. They probably didn’t bother to learn about that stuff.

  “Oh, it’s a wonderful little invention of modern times that prevents women from getting pregnant,” Aeson said, moving closer to us. “They implant it inside the woman and it keeps her from becoming fertile. It lasts for a long time so they don’t even have to keep up a daily regimen. Those humans can be so crafty when they want to be.” He smiled.

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “How would you know about that stuff?”

  He waved a hand. “I was in season a few years ago. It makes me crave women, but I didn’t want to get any pregnant. I did some research to find out what could be done to prevent it.”

  “In season?” Maybe I needed to read up more on supernaturals.

  “It comes around every few centuries. It only took having a few children before I started looking for ways to stop it. If you think human babies are difficult, you should try dealing with ones who have demon blood in them.” He shuddered. “It’s a nightmare.”

  “Where are all these children now?” I’d never sensed anything like them.

  He sighed. “Gone. They had enough of my charisma to attract attention, but lacked my resilience to survive it. Usually jealous lovers got them. A parent can only protect their children so much.”

  I could only imagine. Just thinking about the trouble they must have caused exhausted me. It was all too depressing. Couldn’t anything happy ever happen?

  Suddenly, all I wanted to do was get away from everyone. Their curious gazes and the sympathetic looks being shot my way were beginning to wear me down.

  “Are we done here? I’d really like to take a shower and,” I glanced down, “get dressed.”

  “Of course.” Lucas grabbed me under my arms and helped me off the table.

  I took a step and felt my knees wobble. Shit. I was still too weak. It would take at least a day or two of eating properly and ridding my system of the drugs before I’d be back to normal. If not for the vampire blood it would be even longer.

  Lucas kept a tight grip on my arm as I forced one foot in front of the other while still holding the sheet in place. Spots colored my vision. It shouldn’t have taken that much energy from me to sit and talk for a few minutes. Then again, maybe it had. My blood pressure was rising and my skin was starting to feel clammy. Who’d turned the heat up?

  “Ugh, I don’t feel so good,” I mumbled.

  Arms wrapped around me when I began to fall. They were familiar and warm. I didn’t fight it this time when the heaviness pulled me under.

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Warm water sluiced over my skin. A hand brushed a washcloth against my stomach. Tingles raced up my spine where my body rested against a much larger one. I opened my eyes to a massive amount of bubbles filling a garden tub and a set of masculine knees rising above it.

  “Lucas, are you bathing me?”

  He ran t
he washcloth up my chest and circled my left nipple. “You implied you wanted to get cleaned up, but since you failed to stay awake that left me to do the job.”

  “You didn’t have to do it,” I said. Lucas wasn’t exactly the caretaking type. I should have been embarrassed that I’d passed out, but I was too busy waiting to see if he’d wash the other breast like he had the first. The cloth had gone back across my belly and started its way up the right side.

  “No,” he nibbled my neck, “but I wanted to.”

  “What made you think I wouldn’t mind?” I asked, shivering at the feel of his lips.

  His hand paused. “Do you want me to stop?”

  I ran my fingers down one of his upraised thighs. He didn’t have any hair on it, but the bulging muscle left me with no doubt he was all man.

  “Absolutely not.”

  “I should be honest and tell you I’m nearly finished.” He circled the cloth around my nipple just like I’d hoped. “You’re much easier to take care of when you aren’t awake.”

  My back arched. “Were you washing me like this the whole time?”

  His hand moved down again, farther, until he stopped oh so close to the juncture between my thighs. “Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t molest unconscious women. It wasn’t until I noticed a change in your heart rate and breathing that I altered my methods.”

  Now that I took stock of myself, I realized he’d washed my hair. It didn’t feel greasy and nasty anymore. In fact my whole body was squeaky clean and I’d missed it.

  “How long was I out?”

  One of his hands hovered close to my nether region while the other massaged my right breast. Warm and relaxed, I felt like putty he could mold in any way he wanted.

  “Perhaps half an hour,” his voice rumbled close to my ear. “I had Aniya feed you more blood while I prepared your bath. How do you feel?”

  “Good, so long as you don’t stop.”

  He paused. “I half expected you to wake up screaming at me.”

  “I will be screaming at you if you keep torturing me like this.”

  I spread my thighs wide, dying for him to keep going. He took the hint and dove his hand between them. The cloth rubbed back and forth over my clitoris. I dug my fingernails into his legs and moaned.

  “Is that better?” he asked.

  “Yes,” I breathed out.

  He lifted my left leg and snaked his hand underneath it. At least three fingers found their way inside of me. They plunged in and out while he continued rubbing the washcloth in a simultaneous rhythm. My breath came in heavy pants. I wanted more and pushed myself into his hands. He obliged by delving deeper, increasing the tempo until I was a wriggling mass of need.

  My hands dug deeper into his thighs when I came. I started to scream. It felt so good, but he took my mouth with his and muffled my voice. I can’t say how much time passed. When I opened my eyes he was looking down at me with an inexplicable expression. I rolled over and pressed against him, chest to chest. My legs hooked over his hips. His hard cock rested between us and I knew he had to be in pain to keep holding himself back.

  I kissed him and rubbed against it. Despite the strong orgasm, I wanted to feel him inside of me. To have that fullness push deep like I’d experienced days ago in the restaurant bathroom.

  He put his hands on my hips and held me still. “No, Melena. You’re not ready for that.”

  “Yes, I am.” I gripped his hard length.

  He uncurled my fingers from him and set me on the other side of the tub. “You just passed out on me again. If I take you, it’s going to be a lot rougher than what I did with my hands. I won’t risk hurting you.”

  I ground my jaw. “Then why’d you do that much?”

  He stared at me for a long moment. “Because I needed to reclaim your body. To make it mine again.”

  “They didn’t rape me. I didn’t lie about that.” I slumped in the bathtub and wrapped my arms around myself. My previous good mood was gone.

  “I’m not saying they did, but your initial reaction to us when we brought you here implies they did something to hurt you.” He stood up and grabbed a towel off the nearby rack. “Come here.”

  “Go away. I can dry myself.”

  “Melena.” He gave me that look that said I was testing his patience. “We both know how this is going to end.”

  Damn him all to hell. He just had to have his way every single time. I stood up and gave him my back. At least no black dots appeared in my vision or signs of dizziness. Lucas dried my hair first before moving down to the rest of my body.

  “Someday, I’m going to find a way to get the upper hand with you,” I warned him.

  He wrapped the towel around me. “You have the upper hand more often than you realize.”

  I twisted around to look at him. He was drying himself off now and it took all my effort to hold onto my anger. It was the first time I’d ever seen him totally naked. I could have stared at his golden, muscular form forever.

  “Like when?” I asked.

  He paused and gazed at me with those mysterious golden eyes of his. “Once in a great while you allow yourself to truly smile. Even more rarely, you aim that smile at me. You’d be surprised what I’d be willing to do to see it more often.”

  My mouth opened and closed. That hadn’t been the answer I’d been expecting. He wasn’t supposed to say shit like that, especially since he’d know I knew he meant it. I didn’t protest when he scooped me into his arms and carried me out of the bathroom. He’d managed to get the door to my room open and was weaving through my clothes that were still scattered across the floor. To my relief, no one had cleaned my mess while I was gone.

  “Lucas,” I asked as he laid me on the bed. “If you like to see me smile, why do you do things you know will piss me off?”

  “Because it amuses me. You’re such a small, mortal woman and yet you still try to hold your own against men far more powerful than you. Sometimes, you even manage to do so.”

  Lucas pulled the towel from me and tossed it on a chair. We worked together to get the tangle of blankets sorted out until I could cover myself completely with them. I glanced at the clock on the nightstand and saw it was past two in the morning.

  He was moving to leave the room and some weak part of me couldn’t stand the thought of him going yet. I wasn’t ready to be alone. To face all the things that had happened in the past few days by myself. He said I sometimes won against the men I faced, but I didn’t get myself out of trouble this time. He’d had to rescue me and I wasn’t even awake for it. I’d failed everyone and precious time was wasted looking for me when we should have been dealing with the demons. Maybe I didn’t deserve it, but I didn’t want Lucas to leave just yet.

  “Don’t go,” I said. My voice came out barely above a whisper.

  He paused and looked back. “I have some things I need to take care of. Get some rest.”

  A lump formed in my throat as he walked away, turning the light off as he went. I turned over and stuffed my hand in my mouth to keep from sobbing out loud. After almost three days of being held captive, I couldn’t stand the darkness. It felt like I was back there again.

  The idea of finally being free was like a dream. Any minute I’d wake up and find myself back with the sensors being fed more drugs to keep me unconscious. The man who called himself my father would be calling me vile names and threatening to let other men use my body.

  Tears ran down my cheeks. The drugs had kept me numb before, dulling the emotional pain as much as the physical. Now that they were wearing off, I had nothing to protect me from the shock of it all. Some part of me had known the whole time Lucas would come for me, but with each day that passed I’d begun to doubt him. He’d been burned to a crisp. I couldn’t blame him if he decided I wasn’t worth the trouble. The sensors had no intention of killing me. He could have chosen not to come and I would have lived.

  The bed sunk down and warm arms wrapped around me. I had been so caught up in my misery I had
n’t sensed him return. My hand clutched his where it spanned across my stomach.

  “You came back.”

  “It occurred to me,” his voice rumbled in my ear, “that you’ve never asked me for anything before. You’ll swallow your pride and ask favors for others, but never for yourself.”

  I let go of his hand and scooted away. “So you came back as a favor.”

  “No.” He pulled me back, tucking me into the shelter of his body. “I came back because you needed me. It just took me a minute to recognize that.”

  He was still confused about us, too. I could feel it in his mixed emotions. We were freefalling into the unknown trying to figure out each other’s boundaries and where to go from here. The attraction was there, but we had a history of clashing wills that left a wide gulf of distrust between us.

  It didn’t help that being abducted by my own race had put me in a vulnerable spot. I hadn’t had a chance to recover and build back my defensive walls. It left me with the need to lean on someone until I could stand back up on my own. Lucas had so much strength. With him willingly offering it, it was hard to resist.

  “Can I ask you a question?”

  He ran his fingers through my hair, combing the still wet locks. “It depends on the question.”

  “Why did you come for me?”

  He stilled. “You’re mine, Melena. I’ll always come for you.”

  I turned toward him. “Even if you didn’t have to protect me?”

  “Even then.” He gave me a soft kiss on the lips.

  “Lucas, sometimes you scare me when you act like this,” I said. “I keep waiting for the punch line to a really bad joke.”

  “I didn’t think anything scared you with the way you throw yourself into danger. If it will help, though, I’ll try to contain myself in the future.”

  I swatted him in the shoulder. “I’m serious.”

  He looked down at me, his gaze inscrutable. “Why don’t you tell me what happened? I prefer we get you back to making my life difficult. It isn’t like you to let a bad experience get you down.”