“Maddy, Brylanna. Please call me Maddy.” Deciding to be the bigger person, I stood and walked to her, sticking out my hand again. “I’d like to start over with you. It seems that we’ve somehow taken off on the wrong foot.”
She tilted her head to one side and considered, then stuck out her hand. She grasped my hand and bent her head over the joined digits, humming in a way similar to Bahlin’s heat-generating sound. I tried to take my hand back, and she tightened her grip to just this side of pain.
Beginning to feel trapped, I looked at Bahlin and realized his eyes had changed to icy blue. I tugged harder. Brylanna’s head snapped up, and her eyes matched Bahlin’s in their other-worldliness.
“Your path has changed, Maddy,” she said in a resonating voice. “You’ve lost someone from your inner circle, and it is unclear whether he will be returned to you.”
“Tarrek,” I whispered and her hand squeezed mine tighter. Panic fluttered in my chest.
“Brylanna’s a Seer,” Bahlin said softly, having come up behind me. He laid his hand on my shoulder.
“Bahlin, remove your hand. It clouds my Site,” she said in that timbered voice. She bowed her head deeper over our joined hands. Suddenly she was grinding the bones of my hand together. I grunted in pain and she fell to her knees in front of me, hissing.
“Brylanna,” Bahlin shouted.
“Oh, goddess, she’s dark, Bahlin. I cannot see beyond—”
“Leave it,” he ordered again, grasping our hands and wrenching them apart.
Her head snapped up, and she growled at him. “It’s not for you to divine now is it, brother?” she asked cryptically. He held out a hand and helped her to her feet. She accepted then flung herself free of him, turning away from us and wrapping her arms around her middle. I stood shaking, unsure what had just happened, clutching my bruised hand to my chest.
“What did you see?” I asked.
Taking a deep breath she turned back to us, her eyes no longer that icy blue. She looked first to Bahlin and then to me. “Part of it I will not tell you because he,—” she inclined her head toward her brother, “—doesn’t want you to know. But as for the other, you should be prepared. You are hunted by something dark, soulless. It comes for you in stealth, though you know who it is already. And you are ill prepared to defend yourself. Bahlin will come to your aid, but it may not be soon enough. If it is not, you will both perish. Bahlin,” her voice cracking, “the shadow—it’s after your stone.”
In a moment of hysteria, I burst into tear-inducing laughter. Both dragons turned to look at me, astonished.
“It wants his stone?” I gasped for breath and wiped my wind-chapped cheeks. “Isn’t that rather personal?”
“Oh for the love, Maddy,” Bahlin said, rolling his eyes. “Get your mind out of the gutter, chick. My stone, not my stones.” Suddenly he was chuckling and we paused, looking at each other.
“Fine. Laugh if you will, but this may be the death of you and I cannot see.” Brylanna stormed toward the front door. “Do what you know you will. I’ll be back tonight—after.” She grinned at Bahlin and left the house. Moments later I heard a car start and drive away, the sound of the engine fading until there was only silence, the sounds of our breathing and the little sounds of the house settling around us.
Hiccupping, I said, “What’s your stone?”
“Every dragon has what is uncreatively called a Dragon’s Stone. It’s located in the center of the brain and contains a wealth of information. It’s said that each infant dragon retains some of the knowledge of the parents, and it’s how dragon magic is passed from parent to child. To hold the stone is to own the knowledge and skills, or magic, that the dragon possesses.”
“Dragon magic?” I asked. I’m nothing if not skeptical, even in the face of a mythological creature. Go figure.
“Yes, magic.” He stared at me hard as if trying to decide how much to tell me. “Each dragon has a set of gifts. Brylanna’s include divination. She can see the future, though not always clearly as you’ll have noted. One of my gifts is healing, which is how I helped you at the sithen.”
“What other gifts do you guys have?”
“Ah, I think I’ll save that for later. For now, let’s get you cleaned up.”
He headed down the short hallway that Brylanna had been down earlier, and I followed him. There were two bedrooms in the house, one on either side of the hallway. He stopped at a closet and took out towels, then grabbed my hand and pulled me through the doorway on the right. The room was large, with the biggest bed I’d ever seen. I glanced at him from under my lashes, confused and embarrassed. Was this his room? The soft, earthy colors couldn’t compete with the dark blue silk sheets and comforter of the rumpled platform bed.
Easily interpreting the look on my face he said, “I know it’s a bit of a contradiction, but I’ve learned from living in London that I’m a creature who values comfort versus style in his living space. When possible I’ll elect both and stay at my hotel, but Brylanna’s more a country soul. This bed is her one concession to me and she’d be rid of it if I didn’t need a hideaway on occasion.” He walked into the bathroom and came back out.
“It’s fine,” I said, not sure if he cared for my opinion, but offering it anyway. “Uh, the bathroom?”
“Through this door. I’ll use Brylanna’s. I’ll leave some of her clothes on the bed for you to borrow. I’m sure she won’t mind.”
I looked at him.
He laughed. “Okay, she’ll mind, but she’ll get over it.” And he walked away leaving me with a view of his wonderfully taut ass.
The bathroom was sparse but fully functional. Soap, hot water and time were what I really needed, and this offered all three. I ran a bath, needing to soak my aching muscles and, likewise, warm them up. I still felt chilled. I peeled the leather pants off and swore to do my best to avoid them in the future. Remembering I didn’t have any underwear available made me curse and hope that Bahlin delivered a non-sheer shirt for me to borrow.
The water was borderline too hot as I stuck first a toe then a foot into it, slowly adjusting to the temperature. I stepped in and sank down, reminiscing about my first night in England. I’d ended it in a bathtub, too, though it felt like it was both yesterday and years ago, and I was ending this day with the sunrise. Still, I followed tradition and washed my hair, dunking it to rinse the shampoo out of it. I drained the water and refilled the tub and crawled back in to soak, drifting on the edge of sleep until a soft knock sounded at the door.
“Maddy?” Bahlin’s voice was soft but concerned. “It’s been nearly an hour. Are you okay?”
I sat up and held my hands out in front of my face. Yep, prunes. I was finished.
“I’ll be out in a minute, Bay,” I said, pushing myself up to standing and reaching for a towel. I stepped out onto the tile floor and briskly dried myself off, wrapping the towel around my torso. It was a near thing, but it went all the way around. I’d be okay if I didn’t move too much. I finger-combed my hair and went to the door, peaking out. Bahlin sat on the edge of the bed in a pair of boxer shorts. He looked up at me and smiled and it was such a winsome look that I smiled back.
“You’re beautiful when you smile like that,” he whispered, standing and moving toward me. I noticed the slight tenting of his boxers and whipped my gaze back to his eyes. Gently he said, “I believe that, to quote you, it was something like ‘sex and the whole near-death-reaffirming-life thing,’ wasn’t it?”
I continued to stare at him, unsure what to do. I had had two lovers in my lifetime, both results of relationships affectionately referred to as monogamous monotony by my girlfriends. Neither relationship had left me with a wild, passionate view of sex. One ex-boyfriend had even accused me of being an ice princess, unreachable, unpleasurable. Such stellar reviews of my past performance definitely tainted the developing fantasy I had about the man standing in front of me. So did I give in to the raging primal instinct to reaffirm life, or did I stick to my basic
moral code and lock myself in the bathroom and wish him luck with himself? Of course, in all my mental ramblings I’d forgotten to take into consideration one thing: the man himself.
Bahlin approached me slowly, his boxers twitching from their internal assault. He reached me and, instead of pulling me up into a wild embrace, he ran a finger down my bare arm leaving a trail of goose flesh in its wake. I looked up into his eyes and they were the deep, dark sapphire color that had stolen my breath in my first night’s dream. He sank his head toward me and brushed his lips over mine, breathing out the words, “A stór,” as he nibbled his way to my jaw. I was barely breathing, scared to encourage him and equally scared he’d stop his exploration of my neck, then my shoulders. He began working his way back up to my ears, his breath hot.
“Ah, my love, you’re such a temptation,” he whispered.
“You don’t love me,” I whispered back.
He lifted his head, drawing his attention from my ear to my eyes. “You don’t know that,” he said in a gentle voice.
“I do,” I said. “You’ve not known me long enough for me to drive you crazy. The only people who loved me unconditionally are dead.” Tears blurred my vision and I looked down, giving them permission to slip down my cheeks.
“Ah, your parents.” He lifted his hand from my shoulder to chin and pushed up gently, forcing me to meet his gaze. “They are gone but never forgotten, mo muirnin. Never doubt that.” He stroked a finger down my neck, and I shivered. “And, with all respect due you, I don’t believe you’re qualified to tell me how I do or don’t feel.”
I nodded my head too fast, pushing yet more tears over the dam of my lower lashes. He bent his head even closer to mine and kissed the tears away.
“We are fated, you and I,” he said.
“Fated? Is that what I’m not supposed to know?”
“Ah, no.” He took a deep breath and stepped back from me. But he didn’t elaborate.
I felt adrift in the large room without him to serve as my anchor. I reached out for him, and he stepped into me with the passion I had expected with his first approach. He wrapped his arms around me and crushed me to his chest so tightly I let out an oompf and he laughed, squatting down and picking me up by wrapping his arms around my upper thighs before spinning me around. I locked my hands behind his neck and bent my forehead to his.
“Do you want me as much as I want you, mo chrid?” he asked, sliding me slowly down the front of his body. His erection, trapped behind the thin cotton of his underwear, was blazing hot against my lower belly as he gripped my hips and held me close to him.
I let my head fall back and he feasted on my neck, kissing and nipping from jaw to shoulder with more intent than moments before. He quickly dipped his head and licked his way along the top of my left breast over my heart, slipping his tongue under the edge of the towel.
“Holy crap,” I gasped, as the heat of his tongue went straight to my womb. I had never been so aroused in all my life and this man had taken me there in minutes.
He pressed his lips firmly to my heart, bending low and running his hands up my outer thighs, under the towel until he could grip my ass hard.
“Maddy? Say the word and I’ll stop, but if you don’t stop me now, I’m going to throw you down on that bed and have my way with you.”
I couldn’t get his words through my head. All I wanted was the heat, the passion, not conversation, and definitely not responsibility. For once I wanted breathless recklessness.
But Bahlin wasn’t programmed for recklessness when it came to me, apparently. “Maddy? Look at me and tell me you want this.” He softened his grip on my ass, running his hands in small circles over the branded skin.
I looked at him, really looked at him. I wanted him so badly, but Tarrek was out there somewhere. I couldn’t do this, not now, not with obligation weighing down on me.
“Bay…” I didn’t know how to say this. Looking at me, he recognized the hesitation in my face and he released me, stepping back. “I’m so sorry.” Damn it.
“No apologies, Maddy. You feel as you feel. It only means I’ll have to wait you out, and I reckon I’m one of the most patient blokes in the world. I’ve waited over…let’s just say I’ve waited a very long time for you,” he said light-heartedly.
“Give me some time, Bay. It’s been too much, too fast. All of it.” I sighed heavily and stepped back, putting some distance between us. And then I smiled. “How old are you, anyway?”
Holding his finger over my lips he said, “First, no apologies. I meant that. And I’m much older than you.” He turned, walked to the bed and straightened the bedding, folding it back to some sort of order. “I’m going to suggest we sleep together—”
“We discussed that,” I said snarkily. “And how much older?”
“Ah, but we weren’t discussing sleep, my love.” He waggled his eyebrows and I laughed, the tension broken just like that. “I think it’s safer if, from this point on, we’re not separated. You’re going to be hunted by the High Council for the murder of Gretta. And apparently whoever is murdering different beings is after my stone. Do you agree that we should stick together?”
I nodded. I was reeling from his shift from sex to murder, and I felt like I had a tenuous grip on reality, at best. I was going to need him to walk me through this and, according to his sister, save my ass.
There was only one answer: “I agree.”
“Then let’s put all this aside,” he said, waving a hand between the two of us, “and focus on finding a murderer and saving our own skins.” He crawled into bed and rolled onto his side, opening his arms to me.
“And Tarrek, Bay,” I said. “We need to focus on finding Tarrek. And, uh, I still need clothes.”
He sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. “Dreams never fade,” he said, reopening his eyes and looking at me very directly, “though I never imagined taking you to bed with the faerie between us, even figuratively.” He ran his hand back and forth over the silk sheets, the hiss of skin on the fabric seeming to thunder through my ears. “The clothes are sitting on the bed in the other bedroom. Hurry and change before I do my best to change your mind, Maddy.”
For the second time in less than twelve hours, I hurried.
Bahlin had set out a pair of sweats and a black V-neck T-shirt. I pulled the clothes on, grateful for the solid shirt even if I didn’t have what I now thought of as the luxury of underwear. I padded back across the hallway to his bedroom, and he opened his arms to me again.
“Just sleep, right?”
He smiled, his eyes flashing color to ice blue and back. “Of course. It’s what we negotiated.”
“Negotiated?”
“Never forget, Maddy, that I’m a dragon at heart. When you’re dealing with mythological creatures, and particularly dragons, vampires and the fae, you will need to negotiate everything. We are selfish creatures as a general rule, though we can be ruled by our hearts on rare occasions.”
I thought about that. Had he stopped his seduction because he was following his heart or because I had somehow negotiated it without meaning to? Questions for another time. I was exhausted. I walked to the bed and sat on the edge, pulling one knee up to my chin and looking over at Bahlin.
“I’m too tired to go through negotiations, especially since I didn’t know I needed to, so here are my terms: sleep. Only sleep. No nasty, not now, not ever.”
“Not acceptable.”
“Come again?” Oh shit, not what I meant. “I mean—”
Bahlin roared with laughter, rolling onto his back and tucking his hands behind his head. “No sex, not now and I’ll agree to not seduce you while you’re in this bed this time. All bets are off when you leave the bed, though.”
“No nasty, no attempt at the nasty, until we get back to London and get a bead on Tarrek.”
“Son of a bitch, Maddy. That could be weeks.” He exploded into a sitting position, throwing the covers back to reveal his still impressive erection.
; “Take it or leave it, Bay,” I said softly. “Because I’m sure Tarrek would find the terms acceptable if your positions were reversed.”
“Don’t bloody bet on it, love,” he said darkly. He seemed to truly think things over before he answered. “Fine. I agree.”
I crawled into bed and lay down on my side, resting my head on the pillow closest to me. He reached out and snagged me around the waist, pulling me close as he spooned me, and nestled himself between my ass cheeks. I began to struggle, and he laughed darkly.
“You didn’t negotiate no cuddling, love. Sweet dreams.”
Damned dragons, was the last thought I had before sleep claimed me. This time I dreamed.
Chapter Eight
I was walking through the forest wearing a medieval-looking gown that felt familiar to me. It was more appropriate for a Renaissance fair than a nature hike. Where had I seen it before? The night was moonless, and there wasn’t a star in the sky. It wasn’t the gentle dark that comes with sweet dreams, but the cold and calculating dark of nightmares. I shivered from the bones out.
“Run,” hissed a deep voice that was neither male nor female. “Run as fast and as far as you dare, you American whore,” said the voice.
Almost involuntarily my legs began to pump, faster and faster still, until I was tearing through the forest blindly, not watching where my feet went. I put my hands up as if to ward off the unseen blows of limbs slapping at my face. My mind echoed with the words, and it gave me pause.
I’m no whore, I thought timidly and then more firmly. “I’m no whore,” I yelled. “Who the hell are you to be throwing down the verbal gauntlet?” I taunted, leaning back and forcing my legs to either slow or allow me to fall. They slowed. Then I stopped, spinning in a circle and I screamed out, “Coward.”
The blow landed on my shoulders and made me face-plant into the dead leaves and moss of the forest floor. I choked on the detritus in my mouth, spitting it out. Warmth spilled down my face, and I realized I’d bit my bottom lip when I hit the ground and I’d split my forehead open at my hairline. It didn’t hurt, which meant it was either nothing much or something serious. I pushed up to my knees and took a well-placed kick to the ribs. Grunting, I went back down. That was going to leave a mark.
Legacy: The Niteclif Evolutions, Book 1 Page 13