Seared by Desire

by Jennifer T. Alli

  “Lucian?” Sara whispered.

  “Yes.”

  “How are you going to make camp? Won’t the sun hurt you?”

  “Vampires can sleep underground. It’s how we travel long distances if there’s no alternative shelter. Don’t worry so much about me.”

  I can’t help it, she mentally huffed, I care for you Lucian. I don’t want anything to happen to you.

  He brought his horse to a halt and all those behind him followed his lead stopping their steeds before dismounting as Lucian was doing. Holding out his arms, he encouraged Sara to jump into them. Her body pressed against his as she slid down the length of him to stand on her own two feet. He was reluctant to pull away from her but could hear voices clambering for his attention.

  Sara rocked on her feet for a moment before regaining her balance, her eyes locking with Lucian's, the connection between them strong and instantaneous. He turned to look at the people gathering around them and the link was broken. It was then, as cool air blew over her exposed skin, that she realised she hadn’t packed and was wearing her sword crafting clothes. Fire elementals didn’t feel the cold but it didn’t prevent her from feeling embarrassed. While she’d been hidden by Lucian's body on the horse her lack of clothing hadn’t been anything to be ashamed of but now things were different.

  “Do you see those women over there,” he whispered in her ear making her jump. She nodded. “They have your things. Get changed.” I can’t stand all these men looking at you like you’re their next meal.

  “Thank you Lucian,” she stated genuinely overjoyed. She rushed to the women, her eyes immediately landing on the familiar items they had in their possession. “Excuse me but which of these bags are mine?” She recognised a few things poking out of the over packed bags but wasn’t sure if there were other things of hers hidden in different bags.

  “These three are yours Lady Sara,” one of the women answered, handing her three heavy bags.

  “Thank you.” Taking the bags from her grip, she placed one over her shoulder and held the other two in each hand. She looked around, trying to find somewhere that she could change before remembering that she was covered in dirt and grime. Casting a final look back at Lucian who was embroiled in an intense discussion with Russell, she moved away from the vampires and their camp, confident that she’d be able to make her way back to them.

  “There has to be a stream or something around here,” she muttered to herself as she traversed the terrain, moving further and further away from the vampires.

  Her adamant belief that there was a body of water nearby proved to be correct and she stumbled upon a tranquil lake. The fading moonlight glittered off of the clear surface making the water seem like glass and it called to her like nothing else. She turned her head scanning her surroundings furtively before she dropped her bags. Certain that she was alone, Sara began to remove her clothes, the process taking mere moments with the lack of things she was wearing. Naked as the day she was born, she stepped into the cool water, wading further and further out into its depths. The water was deep and soon she found that her feet could no longer touch the bottom. Laughing, she delved down further into the lake. It was a commonly held belief that fire elementals didn’t like water; Sara proved that to be a lie, frolicking happily in the water.

  Lucian cursed as he flew over the trees in search of his bride. She had been right beside him one minute and then she was gone the next. The women he’d sent her towards had no idea of where she’d gone and were just as baffled by her disappearance as he. If that silly woman is entertaining ideas of running away from me again, I might be forced to shake some sense into that beautiful head of hers. The sound of loud splashing and laughter caught his attention, the sound out of place in the quiet tranquillity of the forest and he headed towards it, unsure of what he would find. What he discovered made his heart race, his fangs lengthen and his control shatter.

  Sara rose from the water like a goddess, throwing her head back as she shook the water droplets from the long length of her hair. She smiled as she swam lazy circles near the water’s surface, constantly tempting him as she showed him fleeting glimpses of her rosy nipples. Her almost naked body had pushed his control to its limits but this destroyed it completely. He raced towards her, lifting her from the water and flying her towards the bank. She struggled against him, which only served to further inflame his desires. He wanted her, no, he needed her and he was going to take what was rightfully his. All thoughts of the war, his people, flew from his mind until there was only Sara.

  “Let me go!” she shrieked, trying to summon her flame. The fire spluttered out and died before it had ever truly been and her heart calmed. “Lucian,” she sighed.

  He landed on the soft earth of the bank and turned her to face him, kissing her before she had even realised what was going on. His lips were demanding and insistent against hers, his tongue pushing past her lips to draw her tongue into his mouth. He moved against her as though he would never be able to kiss her again, his intensity drawing a corresponding response from her. Her hands tangled into his hair, keeping him close as their tongues strove for dominance. The kiss was wild and frantic. The sensations pulsating throughout her body were making her nipples tighten against his chest and her core throb with desperate need.

  Groaning, Lucian pulled away just far enough to tear his shirt from his body before pulling her close again. Her naked skin now blissfully close to his own, he lowered them to the ground, his lips never leaving hers. He couldn’t get enough of her. Her taste was in his mouth but he needed more. Sensing the distress his kiss was imposing on her lungs, he pulled away. Kissing down her jaw, he licked down her neck, unwilling to place his lips against the tempting skin for fear that his sharp fangs would sink into her neck and drink her blood.

  Sara moaned as he continued his journey down her body, kissing along her collarbone before he moved to her breasts. Her heart was racing. Fear and trepidation at her actions drowned out by her own thundering heartbeat. Her eyes were drawn to his bare chest and her mouth went dry at the sight. His pale skin was tinged pink in excitement, his muscular chest so hard that it could have been chiselled from stone. Her hands reached out to touch him, rubbing over every inch of skin she came into contact with. She should have been nervous. She’d never been this close to a half naked man before, especially not one with such clearly lusty intentions, but all she felt was a burning need to press herself closer to him, to crush her breasts against the wall of his chest, to dig her nails into his flesh and keep him close. His hands fastened around her arms preventing her from doing any such thing as he continued to look his fill of her.

  Her breasts fascinated him, the way her nipples had tightened to hard nubs and how her soft skin quivered the longer he continued to simply stare at her exposed body. His lips moved again, kissing all around her breasts but deliberately avoiding her painfully hard nipples. Her short nails dug into his back, desperately trying to get him to touch her as she needed to be touched.

  “Please Lucian,” she begged. “Please Lucian.” She called his name as though it were a prayer, her hands moving over his back, keeping him close to her.

  His long fingers crept down the length of her thigh as he spelt his name against her skin, wishing he could mark her so that the entire world knew she was his. Her keening pleas moved him and he fell upon her ravenous, licking and sucking the small bud into his mouth, switching quickly between her breasts never leaving one unattended for long. She moaned again, her back arching from the ground as his tongue swept over her sensitive flesh. In all the centuries of his existence Lucian couldn’t remember ever being so hard, ever needing to connect intimately with another so desperately. His shaft ached with need and seemed to pulsate in time with Sara’s breathy moans. He ground himself against her hip, his hand edging ever closer to her core. He could smell how wet she was for him, how ready her body was to receive his.

  Not yet, he instructed himself. He pulled away from her breasts the instant
his fingers met her wet heat. She gasped in shock as his fingers moved about in lazy circles over the engorged nub that seemed to be directly connected to the pleasure sensors in her brain. “Tell me how much you want me,” he instructed, moving his fingers quicker.

  She moaned loudly confused as to how he expected her to form a coherent sentence when she could barely remember her own name when he was touching her like that. His talented fingers stopped when she didn’t say anything. “I want you Lucian,” she breathed, sighing in relief when his fingers returned to her.

  “How much?” he purred, licking her still hard nipple. “More than anything?”

  “Yes.”

  “Tell me how much you need me,” he demanded.

  His fingers moved over her core teasing her as they almost entered her before they retreated, leaving Sara sighing in frustration. She wasn’t sure what it was she needed but his clever fingers were offering her a glimpse of something she was sure would rock her to the very foundations of her being.

  “I need you Lucian. I need you more than anything. More than my next breath. Please Lucian.”

  He sunk a finger deep into her core making her cry out as pleasure began radiating throughout her body. She writhed beneath him, desperately seeking something she’d never known but he was more than happy to show her. He added a second finger, stretching her gently while his thumb made unhurried circles over her throbbing clitoris. Her sensuous movements brought his attention to her flaming red hair as he prepared her body to receive him and he smiled as the strands caught the sunlight, glittering brighter than the rarest ruby.

  “Your hair really does outshine any jewel in the sunlight.”

  His words brought her out of the haze of lust he’d pulled her into and Sara opened her eyes finally noting the rising sun on the horizon. “Lucian!” she cried out. His fingers moved faster in response to her words. She moaned, long and loud feeling her body approach the pinnacle of something resplendent. “Lucian,” she groaned, covering his hand with her own to still his movements.

  “What?” he demanded, his fingers struggling to move, to give her release so that his throbbing shaft would be able to slip into her small body with ease.

  “Lucian, the sun…”

  “I don’t care about the sun Sara, I want to finish this. I need to finish this. Spread your thighs wider.”

  Her tone was desperate as she pleaded with him. Now that her mind wasn’t so clouded with desire she could feel the sun’s heat increasing as it made its way higher into the sky. The trees above them were letting small rays of light through but soon the sun would be out entirely, its rays strong and deadly to Lucian. “No Lucian. The sun’s rising, you’re in danger. Please, listen to me.”

  Her words managed to reach him, the desperation in her normally confident voice making him pay attention to what she was saying and it was then that he felt the burning pain in his back where the sun’s rays had reached him.

  “Please Lucian,” she begged, close to tears.

  Even with the sun at his back, he was torn between trying to finish what he’d started before common sense returned and saving himself from the sun. It was the sight of unshed tears in his bride’s eyes that had him standing, pulling her to her feet as he rose. There will be another, better, time to finish this. I shouldn’t even have done this much. Heavens above she drives me insane! He moved further into the shade trying to protect his sensitive skin. “Get dressed Sara and then we’ll go back to camp.”

  “Lucian, go ahead without me. Get safe.”

  “No,” he answered stubbornly.

  “Please Lucian hurry, the sun is rising, your burns will only get worse.”

  “I’m not going to leave without you. I want you to know where I’m sleeping so that if something happens you know where to find me. We can’t be together as I sleep this time. Seraphina may creep up on you. We can’t take that risk. Hurry.”

  Though her body thrummed with thwarted desire, she threw on her dirty clothes in record time, unwilling to waste time searching for clean clothes in the three bags she’d brought with her. “I’m dressed now let’s hurry. You’re burning.” There were blisters on his shoulders from where the sun had touched him, his torn shirt providing no protection.

  “I’ll be fine,” he reassured her, lifting her into his arms and racing back to camp. With his superhuman speed, they quickly reached camp. The sun was brighter now and Lucian's eyes watered as Sara slid down his body.

  “Get in the ground,” she ordered, terrified for his well being.

  The ground beneath her feet moved, parting to create a large hole in the ground, easily big enough for Lucian to fit inside.

  “Sara,” he breathed, caressing her cheek lightly. I suppose it’s true then, I’m a vampire and she’s not, we really can only be together by the night and they seem to slip by in the blink of an eye.

  Her hands caressed his bare chest, hovering over the burnt blisters on his skin. Tears began to well in her eyes as she realised the pain he must be in, pain he was suffering because of her. “Oh Lucian…”

  “I’ll heal Sara. I fed last night, there’s still fresh blood in my veins, when I rise, it will be as if I was never hurt in the first place.”

  “I’ll miss you Lucian, but…” She shoved him hard, the unexpected movement causing him to fall off balance and tumble into the hole. “But I’ll miss you even more if you died because you were being stupid.”

  He laughed, the sound dying as the earth moved again, covering him completely and taking him from her. She caressed the earth lightly, missing him already. Sara stood, quickly noting that the very much normal humans around her were once again staring at her. Her eyes however, weren’t focused on them for long, her gaze returning to the earth under which slept.

  “He’s fine,” she mumbled to herself very much hoping that the words meant to reassure her were in fact true.

  She had become accustomed to terrified stares being direct at her during her time in Pentonville while playing the part of a true fire elemental and so she didn’t let the intense stares faze her as she walked calmly back to the lake to collect her bags. The exposed skin was beginning to wear on her now that Lucian wasn’t around to appreciate it. Confident that no one had followed her, Sara changed into a simple green dress, drawn from the depths of one of her bags.

  Now appropriately dressed, she couldn’t help but remember her heated encounter with Lucian on the bank of this very lake. She moaned at the memory, her breasts tingling, her core throbbing. She could still feel his lips moving over her body, the glorious sensation of his bare chest pressing against her breasts, how his hands had moved within her body. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to stop her body’s reaction to such a powerful memory. Her arms were covered in goose bumps though she wasn’t cold and she was beginning to shiver slightly. Her eyes were drawn irresistibly to the exact location they’d touched each other so intimately and had intended to do more.

  “Lucian,” she whispered longingly, wishing desperately to feel his arms around her once more, to hold his body close. She sighed, forcing herself to move away from the lake and its memories.

  She walked back to the encampment, noting that most people were preparing to go to sleep even though the day had only just begun. Tents were being erected, fires extinguished and belongings gathered close. It makes sense I suppose. They spend most of their nights awake, when else would they get a chance to sleep?

  She strolled further into the makeshift camp, wanting to be near Lucian again when a small voice called out to her.

  “Lady Sara, Lady Sara.”

  She turned towards the voice as the much taller woman hurried towards her. For someone so much taller than herself, the woman’s small voice seemed strange but she shrugged her concerns off easily. Her short stay in Acton had opened her eyes to just how peculiar the world could be.

  “Yes?”

  “Lady Sara, we have something for you.”

  Her eyebrow arched in disbeli
ef. “We?”

  A small hand waved from behind the woman’s skirt and a young boy came into view, his cheeks well rounded with care though his blonde hair was dirty and his cheeks streaked with grime. Sara bent down so that she wasn’t towering over him, smiling warmly at him.

  “What’s your name?” she asked gently.

  “Matthew,” he answered proudly. “And this is my mother.”

  “I remember you from when I first came. Your name is…” Her brows drew together in thought as she struggled to remember the woman’s name. “Your name is Laura.”

  The woman in question smiled. “You remembered my lady.” She curtsied graciously.

  “There’s no need to call me Lady, I’m just a simple sword maker.”

  “I know,” Matthew squealed happily. “You’re the legendary Quicksilver. When I grow up I’m going to make swords that are even better than yours.”

  “Matthew hush,” Laura scolded before turning to Sara, clearly embarrassed at her son’s words. “I apologise for Matthew, he really admires your work. His father’s a blacksmith but after growing up hearing everyone sing your praises, he aspires to be just like you.”

  “It’s fine,” she reassured, standing up.

  “It’s because of him that I remembered to bring this.” She reached behind her back to pull out a long wrapped object which judging by the straining muscles in Laura's arms was very heavy. It was so heavy that she couldn’t even lift it from the ground to give to Sara instead having to pull it along the earth floor, creating a dirt trail. The object passed between them quickly, Sara clearly surprising Laura when she lifted the gift easily. Sara’s eyes wandered between the wrapped parcel and Laura clearly trying to debate just what it was she’d been given. “Go on,” she encouraged. “Open it.”