Calabi Chronicles: Bloodstone

by Ann Vremont

  Yes…the woman sighed. Harder, daughter. Make him fill us completely.

  Her lover laughed and pinched a nipple. Careful, Danu, you would not have us break the girl.

  Aideen growled and wrapped her legs around Kean’s waist. Her arms encircled his neck and she molded her body to his. He groaned against the onslaught of her tight, short thrusts that milked his cock until his seed spilled from him and filled her like molten rock, burning its essence into her soul.

  Aideen released Kean and collapsed against the cushions. But the woman wasn’t finished. Again, daughter! Flames licked her breasts, their hot tongues teasing her nipples. She felt herself being rolled over. Kean’s thumbs found the entrance to her cunt. He massaged the slick folds, coaxing them to relax and allow him to reenter. Another hard stroke and his cock was buried inside her, the slap of his balls toying with her clit. Aideen began to writhe with the woman’s ecstasy. Kean grabbed Aideen by the hips, ramming his cock into her, hot semen again erupting from him to fill her channel and run in pearl drops down her thigh.

  Kean’s weight pushing her down, Aideen collapsed against the mattress once again, her breasts flattened. Still, the woman would not relent. She wanted more. Too many lifetimes, in a place where time was nothing and everything, had she and her lover waited for the perfect communion, the perfect couple. Too long had they merely graced the periphery of these ceremonies. More, much more, she demanded of Aideen. Every orifice teased, every ounce of flesh enflamed with passion.

  Would you have news of the Bloodstone? the woman coaxed. Aideen nodded and the woman covered Aideen’s mouth with her own, her tongue slipping into Aideen to stroke the back of her throat. Aideen wiggled against Kean, who was already pulling her body back up. She was in front of him on her hands and knees, her body still panting for more, her ass rubbing against his still erect cock. She felt the warm glide of the lily oil over her puckered flesh as the pad of Kean’s thumb explored her nether hole. She moaned, another orgasm sending her body into a paroxysm. The scent of the oil reminded her of the calla lilies that had adorned Claubine’s dinner table and the thought of that sensual flower, its petals cupped like a woman’s pussy, the stamen an engorged clit, left Aideen clenching the pillows, her ass bouncing against the probing thumb.

  “Fuck me,” she growled, her voice vibrating with Danu’s need.

  Kean dripped more of the lily oil across the constricted opening. His finger eased past the tight circle of muscle, preparing her for the much thicker penetration of his cock. As he slowly finger-fucked her ass, adding a second digit to the first, he pressed his stomach flat on the mattress. His head was even with Aideen’s cunt and he pressed his mouth against the pulsating slit. His tongue entered her, probing with the same speed and intensity with which he fingered the velvet channel of her ass.

  Aideen clamped down on his fingers and tongue, every trembling muscle focused on the climax that rumbled through her body. Kean withdrew from her and she reached behind, spreading her ass cheeks again. “Fuck me,” she ordered. “Now!”

  At her heated invitation, Kean pressed the bulbous tip of his cock against the tight hole that winked above the center of her sex. As he pushed into her, her body pushed back, the muscles narrowing in anticipation of the imminent invasion. Aideen released a frustrated grunt and ground against him, forcing the head of his cock into her. Her muscles sealed around him as the mushroomed tip breached her. Kean tried to take her in slow strokes, tried to ease the full length of his swollen shaft into Aideen, but neither she nor Danu would accept such tender affection. Aideen lunged backward, drawing the full length of Kean’s cock into her in one hard stroke.

  She squeezed tight, pinching his cock in place and began slowly gyrating her hips. Kean moaned and leaned against her, one hand sliding under her belly to pull at her clit, stroking the enflamed button to a sharp edge. Aideen relaxed her hold on Kean’s shaft marginally, just enough for him to start a rapid withdrawal before ramming his cock back into her. She coiled and uncoiled around him in sharp flutters as he drove in and out of her, the hard slap of his balls beating against the entrance to her cunt. Aideen began to shake, another orgasm building deep inside her as Danu whispered secrets in her ear, told her of the time before time and the sacred center that was everywhere and nowhere. The first wave of her climax hit and Aideen let out a single note—sharp, pure—before she fainted.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Aideen woke in Kean’s arms. They were back in his rooms, their bodies wrapped in cream-colored terrycloth robes. Someone had washed them, the scent of lily and their passions wiped clean. Kean was watching her when she opened her eyes, his own gaze masked. She touched his mouth, trying to melt the thin line of despair it formed.

  “I know what she told you,” Kean said, his voice laden with regret.

  Aideen thought of the many things Danu had revealed to her. She sifted through the bits of information, looking for the piece that was causing him pain. Her fingers fastened around something and she held it up.

  “You have to see beyond this,” she said without acknowledging the source of his desolation.

  “You can’t go to him,” he pressed. “It’s too dangerous.”

  “It’s the only way to get the Bloodstone from him.”

  Kean shook his head and raised his body over hers. “He’ll use you and then kill you!”

  She considered the idea and threw it to the side. “No,” she promised. “His greed and arrogance will destroy him.”

  “And what about those around him?” he asked. “All the Everetts and two-bit thugs?”

  “But the stone will be out of reach,” she answered. She put her palms on his chest to soothe him but he brushed them away.

  “I don’t give a bloody fuck about the stone, Aideen,” Kean said.

  Aideen pushed him away and stared up at the ceiling. The ceiling was no less ornate than the rest of the room. Decorative wood molding formed a rectangle in the center. Inside the rectangle was an image she knew well, two swans linked by a gold chain—Oenghus, son of the Dagda, and Ibormeith, his dream lover. She turned her head to Kean, caught his obdurate gaze, and returned to inspecting Claubine’s ceiling. The gold chain that linked her to Kean weighed as if it had been hammered from lead.

  “Stop being so conceited,” she said at last.

  “Conceit has nothing to do with it,” he argued but she held up a hand.

  “Stop thinking you can keep me safe and save the world at the same time.” Kean started to protest but she shoved her hand higher. “I played the little part you were happy to have me play, to hell if you don’t like the results. You wanted her guidance—you’ve got it!”

  “Fine—but you’re not going alone,” Kean said. His body was stiff, transmitting his unwillingness to entertain any objection she might have.

  “Meyrick has a reason to keep me relatively unharmed…anyone else—particularly someone who shot him in the leg—can’t expect such courtesies.”

  “And yet I’m going,” he said as if the matter were settled.

  Aideen rolled onto her side, her green gaze blazing. “Damn it, Kean, stop using my feelings for you to control my actions!”

  “Your feelings for me?” he asked, the bitterness in his laugh unconcealed. “Aideen, I’m not letting the woman I love surrender herself to Donald Meyrick and his criminally insane posse.”

  Tears welled in Aideen’s eyes and Kean’s hard features softened for an instant, but no longer than that. “You’re not leaving the estate, hell, not even this room, without me,” he said. “Besides, you’re not getting a bit of help from me otherwise and you’ve no idea where to start.”

  Aideen folded her arms over her chest, more in defeat than defiance. Kean wedged one hand under her arm, his hand cupping her breast through the terrycloth. His words still stung with the dividing line he’d drawn between her feelings for him and what his heart held for her. Was it too late to tell him she loved him?

  “Stop pouting,” he coaxed. “And te
ll me what else you know.”

  “You mean other than your being the most arrogant man I’ve ever met?”

  “You sound as if that wasn’t one of the things you like about me.” Kean smiled, his wicked grin whipped around Aideen and pulled her toward him. She shifted the smallest bit in his direction. Kean interpreted her movement as an invitation and his hand moved to her hip. He reeled her in until her stomach pressed against his groin.

  “Because it isn’t,” she said. Her tone lacked conviction and she buried her head against his chest.

  Kean chuckled and slipped his hand between the folds of her robe. His hand caressed the curve of her bottom and stilled, cupping her gently to him. “Alright, I’m an ass,” he confessed. “But tell me something I don’t know, something about the stone.”

  Aideen frowned, the corner of her mouth brushing his hardened nipple. She felt a wistful contraction below and she closed her eyes, trying to focus on what Danu had whispered to her. She took a frustrated breath and then started, her mind stumbling around for words that would give meaning to what she had seen.

  “The stone is a part of where they are,” she hesitated, testing the accuracy of what she had said. She shook her head. “It’s a part of what they are.”

  “What are they?” Kean asked. His body was filled with a relaxed interest and his thumb lightly stroked her tailbone.

  She rolled the word around on her tongue before she released it. “Calabi.” She looked up at him to see if the word had meaning. It didn’t. “What they are is where they are, too.” The frown lines along her forehead deepened and Kean pressed his lips against them.

  “But where is Calabi?” he prodded.

  Aideen thought of the flower Danu had shown her—a fire lily, its petals closing in on it. “It’s the center dimension.” As soon as she said it, she saw the lily’s petals unfurling in a red blaze. Her face gained certainty and she nodded. “And it serves as a balance for everything around it—like a gyroscope or the earth’s core.”

  Kean thought of the Bloodstone’s fiery red brilliance and the volcanic dream demesne Danu and Myr inhabited. “So the Bloodstone is like cooled magma?” he ventured.

  “Kind of…but it shouldn’t be here…it creates an imbalance.” She remembered the way the stone pulled at her whenever it was nearby. “The other dimensions try to wrap around it, too. The curtain between dimensions tears and things leak out.” She gave a shudder and Kean stopped the gentle teasing of her bottom and wrapped his arms around her. Her shudder turned to shaking. “It has to go back.”

  “You said before that the stone knows the way?” he asked.

  “Yes, I just need to get to it and release its energy.”

  Someone knocked at the double doors that led to the study. Kean stiffened and sat up, his body shielding Aideen. “Yes?”

  “Claubine thought you might be hungry.” Vera waited impatiently on the other side.

  If Aideen closed her eyes, she could see the woman tapping her right foot, her mouth puckered in anger. Undetected, Aideen reached into Vera’s mind. Vera seethed with perceived betrayal and plans for revenge.

  Kean rose and opened the door. He moved to take the tray from Vera but she brushed past him and placed it on the bed, her gaze glossing over Aideen’s robed body. Leaving the room, she ignored Kean’s softly voiced thanks.

  Well, there’s our Judas, Aideen thought and lifted the tray so that Kean could sit on the bed. She watched him pop a strawberry in his mouth, his thoughts too focused on the problem at hand to notice the fruit’s ripe sweetness. A fat drop of juice glistened at the center of his bottom lip and Aideen leaned forward. She sucked the juice from his mouth and offered him a second taste with the tip of her tongue. His body’s reaction was immediate but he shook the temptation away.

  “How are we to get you to Meyrick?” he asked. He picked the fullest strawberry from the bowl and pressed it against Aideen’s lips. His gaze heated as he watched her open her mouth, her pink tongue sliding under the fruit to pull it into the moist cavern.

  Aideen looked at the door Vera had so recently marched through. “Someone is already taking care of that.”

  Kean’s gaze followed Aideen’s. The line of his jaw hardened and he stood. Aideen caught his wrist. The hand was balled into a fist. Kean tried to shrug her hand away but Aideen held tight. He looked down at her. His lips were bloodless from being pressed too thin and his eyes were shining from Vera’s treachery.

  “She has no right,” he started. “No claim—”

  “She loves you,” Aideen corrected him. “Even if you don’t love her, that is claim enough.”

  A shadow passed over his features and his anger collapsed under the simplicity of her statement. The look on his face told Aideen he understood Vera’s feelings all too well. Aideen captured his other wrist and knelt on the bed in front of him. Their bodies almost touched, only the distance of a word separating them. She had rebuffed his earlier declaration of love in the house on Inish Oirr and had danced around her love for him just this hour. Surely, he would think it forced if she said it now.

  “I would walk through fire for you,” Aideen said, releasing his wrists and laying her palms and head against his broad chest.

  His laugh was hard edged. He captured her chin and looked at her, gray gaze meeting green. “We’ve walked through fire together,” he reminded her. “It’s the shadows that worry me.”

  “We’ll build our own fires if we find ourselves in shadow.” She reached up and curled one arm around his neck, lightly stroking the fine taper of hair. “We’ve done it before.”

  Kean released her chin. Standing as straight as a beam of steel, hands at his sides, he searched Aideen’s face for some hint of what she was feeling. “With what tinder?” he asked, a trace of hope softening his tone.

  “Love, Kean,” she answered and clasped both hands behind his neck. “I love you, and there is no balance in losing you twice to Fate.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  The tray, most of the meal it had been laid with still intact, was on the bed and Kean reached behind Aideen to remove it. With the tray on the floor, he pushed Aideen onto the bed. Her blonde hair fanned around her in waves and he caught a lock and brushed it against his lips before peeling back her robe. Pale bruises dotted the white skin of her hips and he matched his fingertips to the spots. She arched against his touch, the pink flower of her sex sending up its receptive aroma.

  Kean kneeled in front of the bed. His hands moved from her hips to brush the warm petals. He parted them, his erection thrusting forward at the sight of the nectar that already coated the folds of the inner petals. He dipped his tongue into the centermost fold. The sweetness of her taste wrenched through his hungry soul and he probed deeper. His hands caught the bend between Aideen’s thighs and hips and he held her firm to still the waves passing through her body. She called his name, wet heat blurring her pronunciation until there was no longer a distinction between the love she had lost and the one she now claimed.

  “You know me now?” he asked.

  Aideen looked at him, seeing the raw need for an answer mixed with an unconditional acceptance of whatever she might say. Tears pooled in her eyes, gentling the heat that threatened to burn her alive. Her voice tremulous, she nodded and pulled him closer. “Yes, my love, I know you.”

  With her body quieted under his command, Kean found that he missed the soft gyrations. His tongue a wet rod, he laved the inside walls of her pussy and she bucked against him. He licked a slow line to her clit, his mouth fastening on the small button while his hands reached up to pinch her nipples. Aideen reached past his arms and hooked her hands behind her knees. She pulled her knees to her chest, her cunt fully revealed to him. His appetite leapt, magnified, and he climbed onto the mattress, his form prostrate before her as his lips and tongue worked her clit.

  Kean’s hands pressed at the back of her thighs, pumping her against his mouth. She grabbed her legs more tightly, hugged them to her chest as the wal
ls of her pussy contracted in anticipation of his touch. He groaned at her enthusiasm, his appreciation a gust of hot air against her sex. Kean slid three fingers inside her, stretching her with an exquisite fullness that had her moaning for his cock. His hand played along her interior, her body tightening against him while his mouth stacked pleasure on top of pleasure until she collapsed against the bed in climax.

  As she shuddered beneath him, he rose up on his knees. His fingers, slick with Aideen’s satisfaction, teased the swollen clit until cum, a warm thread of liquid, shot from her. His free hand squeezed the base of his cock, trying to prevent his own orgasm as she released her legs and invitingly pushed her full breasts together.

  “I want to taste you,” she said, squirming beneath the continued onslaught of his touch.

  He shook his head but his gaze remained fixed on her half-parted lips. “I could come just looking at you,” he moaned. His hand slid to the tip of his cock where pre-cum formed small pearls.

  Aideen licked her lips and pushed her tits higher. She closed her eyes, nipples pinched between thumb and forefinger and moaned. She repeated her demand. “I want to taste you.” Another slide of her tongue moistened her blood-flushed lips.

  Kean moved over her body, his shaft gliding along her stomach. She opened her eyes as she felt his tip reach the press of her breasts. He pushed through the pliant flesh, her mouth widening to gently receive the offered delicacy. Her saliva lubricated his shaft and he pulled back for another stroke. Her lips pulled him in again and held him while her tongue swirled around the tip. Kean’s breathing was ragged, every muscle in his body straining. She released him for another stroke, her own excitement pushing against her. She began to move beneath him, adding to his strokes, her tongue following his shaft as it pushed forward from her breasts and then retreated.