“I’m trying to take this slowly for you, Nyx, but you’re breaking what little willpower I have,” he said in a rough voice.
In response, I reached out with one hand and slid it down his body until I finally reached his hardened member. My fingertips grazed the tip and his whole body jerked between my legs.
Yes, he hissed in my mind with near desperation.
Rowe put his free hand beside my head, moving his body closer to me so I could more easily reach him. I wrapped my fingers around him, slowly stroking him, drawing a low groan out of him that seemed pulled from his very soul. He was rock hard within my hand and yet the skin was velvety soft. None of his scars reached past his waist, leaving him perfect, but only for me to see.
“I can’t wait any longer,” he moaned as he once again shifted his position between my legs. Grabbing both my wrists, he held them over my head as he slowly guided his body toward the entrance of mine. He pressed slowly inside and then pulled out again, bringing a whimper of need from my throat. I didn’t want slow. I wanted him inside of me. I needed this feeling of desperation to be squashed and his body deep inside of mine.
“Rowe,” I moaned, shifting beneath him in an attempt to press more of him inside of my body.
“You’re going to be the death of me,” he groaned before plunging deep inside me. There was a flash of pain as my body struggled to expand enough to accommodate his size. He paused, unmoving inside me, as he leaned down and kissed me. His tongue swept through my mouth until I was moaning again. It was only then that he started moving, sending the first waves of pleasure through my body.
“Release my hands,” I pleaded, squirming beneath him as I raised my hips to meet each of his thrusts. It took me only a second to catch his rhythm, driving a fresh moan from his body.
Rowe forced out a chuckle and shook his head, sending his long black hair cascading around his face. “If you start touching me, I’ll lose what little control I do have.”
“I need to touch you, Rowe.” My breathing grew heavier and my eyes closed as I concentrated on the feeling building between my legs. “Rowe?” I said in a fractured voice.
“Just let it come,” he whispered in a husky voice. At the same time, he picked up his speed, pounding inside of me a little harder. He released my wrists and let his hands sweep down my flushed body. Each touch only added to the feeling, until the dam finally seemed to break. A scream was ripped from my throat and my body arched beneath him. Muscles clenched around him as he slid in and out of me, sending fresh waves of pleasure through my frame.
As the last ripples of pleasure ran through my frame, Rowe let out a low groan. I could feel him expanding within me before he finally exploded with a gush. He fell forward, his hands on either side of my head as he finally grew still inside me. His breathing was heavy and a bead of sweat trickled down from his temple. A slow grin grew across his face as he leaned down and pressed a slow kiss against my lips.
“So that’s what sex is like,” I murmured, feeling completely relaxed.
“You haven’t been missing much,” Rowe teased, kissing me again before slowly pulling his body out of mine.
I sat up as he sat beside me, flexing my wings. The pain was gone from my right wing completely, allowing me to slowly and carefully dissolve them into a fine black dust. I reached across and touched his arm with my fingers, drawing him out of thought. I wasn’t sure what this meant between us, if things had changed forever or if this had simply been a release of built-up tension.
“Things are different,” he admitted.
“Do you just live in my thoughts?” I demanded, pinching his arm.
A crooked smile lifted his lips as he looked over at me. “That time I wasn’t in your mind. It was just a guess because I was wondering the same thing. Things are different between us now. I’m not sure what’s going to happen, but I do know that I’m not going to let you out of my sight. Unfortunately, for now, we have a new duty before us.”
“Cynnia,” I murmured.
“And the defeat of Aurora. We can’t be free until Aurora is gone.”
“I know. You’re right.”
Rowe reached over and took my chin between two fingers, turning my face toward him. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t steal a few moments to ourselves when we can.”
I smiled as I leaned in and pressed another kiss to his lips, my fingers straying across the scars that crisscrossed his beautiful face. The Fire Starter was right. There was something evil about this one-eyed naturi, but I welcomed that sinister grin and his nimble fingers.
We finished dressing but lingered by the side of the stream, watching fractured bits of moonlight dance across the water as it splashed within its banks. We talked softly of our time apart, of the years that had passed, separated on two different worlds. Unfortunately, there was one reoccurring thought eating at my mind. I was reluctant to bring it up and spoil our companionable moment but afraid that it had a bearing on what we faced.
“What happened to Nerian?” I found myself softly asking when a long silence settled between us.
“The Fire Starter killed him.”
“I know how he died, but I am more concerned with how my brother lived. I spoke with a couple survivors of the first trip to Machu Picchu those many years ago. They told me how Nerian tortured Mira, and deep in my heart I can’t fault her for wanting revenge.”
“If you’re going to pity Mira, then you should know that Nerian wasn’t alone in her torture,” Rowe stiffly said, looking over at me with a stern expression. “We needed her to be our protection when the nightwalkers came. And as it turns out, we needed her more when it came to opening the door.”
“I know about your role in Mira’s torture as well,” I replied in a soothing voice. “You and I are no different in the duties we’ve had to fulfill during our long lives. However, the others spoke of the twisted joy that Nerian took in Mira’s torture.”
Rowe heaved a heavy sigh and his shoulders seemed to slump under a new weight. “I know where you are going with this, and I have to admit that your suspicions are correct. Nerian had gone mad. At first I thought it was just an obsession with the Fire Starter and getting her to do exactly as he commanded. I thought it was just a need to break something that he perceived as weaker than him. But even after our defeat at Machu Picchu and we became more concerned with simple survival, his obsession never waned. In the last years that I knew him, he no longer followed orders; he mumbled constantly to himself and accused others of helping Mira to escape him. I was finally forced to banish him from the rest of the group that remained under my command before he killed someone.”
Pulling my knees up to my chest, I rested my chin on them while wrapping my arms around my legs. “During the brief time that I knew him before the wars, I could see flickers of moments where I knew his thoughts were in a dangerous place. He looked at Aurora with envy and I heard him utter traitorous words about our father. I think if he had remained with the royal family, he would have tried to kill Aurora in an effort to steal the throne.”
“It is a possibility,” Rowe said, slowly scratching his jaw.
“And now I’m only left to wonder,” I sighed, letting my eyes fall shut.
“Wonder what?”
“Has the same madness that struck down my older brother come to claim my sister as well? During the past century, Aurora has come to see conspiracy against her around every corner. People were killed by me in the name of treason, and there are some that I struggle to believe would harbor a single treasonous act against her. And then she turned on Cynnia, who wanted nothing more than to find a peaceful solution instead of pursuing a route that will ultimately lead to our extinction.”
“She also turned against you, her one and only true champion through it all,” Rowe added.
“Is this madness that is eating away at her brain? She was always a cold, distant person, but in the past years I’ve seen her act in the name of sheer cruelty. Has the same madness that afflicted Neria
n taken hold of my sister?”
Rowe reached out and ran his hand down my back in a soothing caress, wiping away some of the tension that seemed to be growing in my shoulders. “Aurora is not the woman I remember or the person I agreed to be consort to. She is power hungry and obsessed. While I have no love for the humans, you are right that she will lead our people to extinction if she continues this course of action. She’s not thinking clearly.”
Rowe paused abruptly, and I lifted my head to look over at him. He was staring into the woods but I don’t think he was actually seeing the world around him. Without reading his thoughts, I could feel the pain of him reviewing that night on Machu Picchu when his wife-queen rejected him despite everything he had done for her. I could feel the heavy weight of that rejection and his own self-doubt over his appearance, though he hid both very well from the world around him with a thick veil of confidence and sarcasm.
“I think you’re right,” he whispered, still not looking at me. “I think she has gone mad.”
Reaching up, I placed my hand against his cheek, startling him back to look at me again. “Then we have to stop her. We have to protect what is left of our people before she kills us all.”
A crooked smile crossed his lips and then he turned his face and pressed a kiss into the palm of my hand. “I may not agree with the idea of giving the throne to someone as inexperienced as Cynnia, but she will be better than the madness of Aurora.”
“I wouldn’t worry about Cynnia,” I said with a smile. “She may be young and inexperienced, but she will have us as counsel at her side during her first few years. I feel confident that between the three of us, we will find a way to rejuvenate our people.”
“And what of her new consort Locke?” Rowe asked, arching one brow at me.
“I am hoping that he proves to be more than just eye candy for Cynnia.”
Rowe lunged at me, knocking me on my back while grabbing my wrists with both of his hands so he could properly hold me down. “Eye candy? Where would you learn such a phrase as that?”
A soft giggle escaped me as I stopped struggling against him. “Cynnia has made a friend with a human witch. I overheard them talking and they used the word eye candy when referring to the man Cynnia has chosen to be her consort.”
“Are you . . . disappointed? I mean, I’m not the man you came to care for those centuries so long ago. I’m not . . .” he stammered, his grip loosening on my wrists as he started to straighten.
Pulling my arms free, I sat up and cupped his face so he could not pull away from me as I forced him to look me in the eye. “I would change nothing.” And that statement went for my entire life. There were things I regretted and many things I was sorry had to happen, but somehow that connection of events led me to this moment alone in the woods with Rowe. I would not risk changing anything and miss out on this exact moment. I would change nothing.
Twelve
Danaus softly snickered as he stood by the window looking out of my office in my town house. I glanced up from the financial paperwork that my human assistant Charlotte had recently sent me to find the hunter standing with his hands in his pockets as he shook his head at whatever he was watching outside. A frown started to pull at the corners of my mouth, as a feeling crept over me that said nothing good was arriving on my doorstep. Following the brief chaos caused by the Daylight Coalition and Jabari, everything seemed to settle back into an easygoing quiet, and I was hoping that Danaus and I could spend a little time enjoying that quiet uninterrupted.
“I’m afraid to ask, but what are you looking at?”
“It seems that you’re possibly about to have a visitor, if she can make up her mind,” Danaus replied, his gaze not wavering from the scene outside the window.
I pushed out of my chair and started to walk around my desk, closing the distance between us. Pressing my head between his strong shoulders, I wrapped my arms around his waist from behind, holding him tightly against me. “What are you talking about?”
“She approaches the front steps then stops, and paces away talking to herself. She’s done it three or four times now.”
“Who?”
Danaus twisted around to look down at me, a smile growing on his handsome face. “The one person that can make you feel uneasy.”
Ignoring his ominous, teasing comment, I peered around him to look out the window and saw a woman pacing the sidewalk in front of my town house, talking to herself as if trying to give herself a pep talk into ringing my doorbell.
“Shit! It’s Shelly!” I hissed between clenched teeth. I grabbed Danaus’s arm and tried to pull him away from the window, but he wouldn’t budge. “Come on and move. Maybe she hasn’t seen you yet. We can pretend that we’re not here. She’ll go away.”
As if it were a sign that my luck really had run out, the front doorbell rang, echoing through the town house.
“Damn it! We don’t have to answer it,” I said in a hushed voice, as if she could hear me through the thick brick walls.
“Mira, we have to answer the door,” he replied in a firm voice, though the corners of his mouth were twitching with suppressed laughter as he stepped around me and starting walking toward the front hall.
“You don’t have to enjoy this so much. It’s not like you’re all that comfortable around the witch either,” I muttered under my breath, but I had no doubt the hunter with the superior hearing heard the comment.
Reluctantly, I followed him into the hall, but hung back several feet with my arms folded across my chest as Danaus answered the door. He didn’t hesitate, didn’t bother to ask what she wanted; he simply guided her into the house, grinning up at me over Shelly’s head as she glided across the doorstep.
The pert blonde beamed at me in her pretty white slacks and yellow top as if she were a fresh spring flower. She quickly rushed across the short distance that separated us and captured me in a tight hug that didn’t seem to end until I finally patted her on the back a couple times. When she pulled back, she grasped both of my hands in hers and released a heavy sigh.
“Oh, it is so good to see you again!” she crowed. “After all that mess at Machu Picchu and the stories I heard about what actually happened at the ruins, it just gives me nightmares. But you and Danaus made it out safely and that’s all that matters. And you look fabulous! Well, of course you look fabulous. You’re a nightwalker. Have you ever seen a nightwalker that didn’t look fabulous? But really, you look just great after everything you have been through.”
“Shelly, would like to come in and sit down?” Danaus inquired when she finally seemed to take a breath.
“Yes, that would be wonderful!” she said, giving my hands one final squeeze before releasing me. She preceded Danaus and me into the parlor, giving me a chance to throw the hunter a dark look behind her back.
I hadn’t seen Shelly since we’d left her at the resort at the foot of the Machu Picchu ruins months ago. Danaus had initially contacted her when I expressed an interest in trying to learn how to use earth magic, since Shelly was an earth witch. Unfortunately, it seemed that being a nightwalker was effectively stunting any hopes I might have of becoming a great user of earth magic. However, she had been key in protecting the nightwalkers during the day from the naturi that had surrounded us. She had also been instrumental in keeping a close watch on Cynnia when Danaus and I were otherwise preoccupied with staying alive.
After Machu Picchu, I heard that Shelly returned to her home in Charleston and possibly traveled a little farther north in search of fresh, welcoming earth to recharge, following the violence and bloodshed that washed over the peaceful Peruvian mountain.
In truth, I expected never to hear from her again. She and I were as opposite as two people could be. She was an eternal optimistic who saw only the good in people she encountered. She was a powerful witch in her own right and yet struggled to use her powers against anyone else, even if they were aiming to harm her or those she was sworn to protect. I had no doubt she fully believed in the creed t
hat many magic users initially swore by: “Do no harm.” Unfortunately, as I learned the hard way, the more powerful a magic user became, the easier it was for them to forget that little promise.
Shelly perched on the edge of one of the chairs, as if her excitement threatened to send her back to her feet again in a fit of joy. I chose the corner of the sofa farthest from her, while Danaus chose the other end of the sofa, directly across from her. But then, I think he was confident that she was there to visit me and not him, which would mean he would be able to beat a hasty and obvious retreat.
“I ran into Knox a few days ago,” she started as soon as we were all seated. She shifted so she was fully facing Danaus, and the hunter slid back in his seat, suddenly looking extremely uncomfortable. It was all I could do not to laugh out loud. “He told me that you’ve left Themis and you’re now staying permanently in Savannah. That’s wonderful!”
“Thank you,” he said in a low, gruff voice. His eyes shifted to me for a second, as if seeking help, but I only grinned at him.
“Knox also mentioned that you’re working at the Dark Room. That has got to be a strange switch for you. I mean, one minute you’re hunting down nightwalkers and now you’re serving them drinks. How did you make such a switch?”
“I look at it as he’s keeping the peace,” I smoothly interjected before Danaus could take a breath to answer. I worried that this was still a sore subject with the hunter after spending so many centuries hunting nightwalkers; that his new position at the Dark Room chafed more than he was willing to reveal to me. “That has always been Danaus’s job, to keep the peace. He did just that for Themis for centuries, and now he is helping to maintain the peace in one of the most dangerous places in all of Savannah.”
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