Ties That Bind: The Bellum Sisters 3 (paranormal erotic romance)

by Grey, T. A.

  Lily tried to pull him down in the seat by her but he pulled away. He needed space from her right now. He stood in front of the group and crossed his arms.

  “I'm going to overthrow Alrik from the throne.” His eyes caught Lily's expression and he frowned. She looked sad or disappointed. Isn't this what she'd wanted? Why she'd supported him?

  “Share the details,” Tyrian said.

  “Since we have no choice but to drop in announced we can't use stealth to our advantage. They're going to see us. I believe since Alrik has sent assassins after us he may even be expecting an attack.”

  “I and the Warriors will back you,” Tyrian said. His mate gasped and squeezed his hand in a tight grip. Telal looked away from the emotional sight.

  “So will my men.” Lyonis' mate didn't look scared but nodded slowly as if she was ready to take arms and go down there with him. He almost laughed. The Bellum family was so diverse yet similar it rattled his mind.

  “We'll go late at night so most of the royalty will be asleep. I don't want innocents dying if we can avoid it. We'll storm the castle. But Alrik's mine.” His eyes met the understanding nods of the group. Seeing their acceptance actually helped him to resolve to do this, he realized. He felt better after getting their agreement, like he wasn't doing this alone.

  “When do we start?” Lily's curious question, met with her soft beseeching gaze, made his chest pull tight.

  “Just so we understand each other, you're not going. None of the women are.”

  Anger darkened her face and she stood, her voice almost a yell. “What? You need us down there. Me especially and what about Rosa? She can help with any healing if it's necessary.”

  Telal didn't voice the fact that whether Rosa wanted to go, even if he'd allow, should be her decision because he honestly didn't want to fight with her. He cared for her and whether or not he made it out of the rift as king, he wanted her to be safe in Tyrian's castle.

  “You are not going. None of the women are. Rosa will stay here and help the injured after it's done.” He paused. “Besides, we can't take a legion of men with us. Only a small group.”

  “Why?” Chloe said.

  “Because I can only port in as many people as I can touch. It'd take hours to port in even half the Atal Warriors, and that will only exhaust my powers. I'll need them to go up against Alrik.”

  Tyrian nodded. “He's right. Even with Henry, Draven, and Rayn helping to port people in. Sitting around while waiting for more help to arrive isn't going to help the surprise attack.”

  “I'll make a detailed list of who's going, though if you don't want to you don't have to go. It's entirely up to you. I'll get the list out by the end of today. We'll attack four days from today.”

  Lily's eyes widened. Had she realized that he'd planned the attack around her new moon? He did. He wanted to be here for this, to be with her for his final days. Hopefully by then his powers will be back in full force.

  “That's all for now.” The room cleared out except for Lily who came at him with a pointed finger and hard steps.

  “I'm going with you dammit. I haven't sat around this whole time planning to help you just to sit here twiddling my thumbs while you could get hurt.”

  “It'd bother you if I got hurt?” he said softly. The notion gave him a peculiar feeling in his chest, something like happiness.

  He thought she might explode from her reaction. “Bother me? My god I—”

  She stopped and the silence that followed was deafening. It felt as though the floor just dropped out from under his feet and he was free-falling in the air with his arms and legs kicking nothing but air around him. Then he landed with a crush that jarred him back to reality.

  “You love me?” His body felt strained and tense, torn between wanting to flee and squeeze the life out of her.

  She crossed her arms and looked away, a bright blush covering her cheeks. “I do not.” Her stiff words brought a smile to his face and a joy in his heart that he'd never felt before.

  “Don't lie to me, Lily.”

  She gawked at him. “Don't use the imperial voice on me. We've had sex.”

  “What does that have to do with it?” He hadn’t realized he liked her switches between mood and until now. She was just so...cute. God, now he was going to blush.

  Her mouth opened and closed several times. “That means you can't order me to do anything.”

  He couldn't help himself. He stepped forward, lowered his voice. “If I told you to take off your clothes for me you would.”

  Her eyelids drooped but then shot right back open. “Nope. Nope. Don't turn this around like that. I'm going with you and you can't stop me.”

  “I couldn't take it if you went with me.” He hadn't meant to say something so blatantly true but she'd broken down something inside him, and he didn't want to lie to her. She deserved better than that.

  Her expression softened. He couldn't keep from touching her anymore so he threaded his fingers in her hair. Her eyes narrowed on his, bright and clear. “You love me.”

  His hand fell from her hair, his lips dropping into a flat line. “No.” Those eyes, he swore, were trying to see inside him. He took a step back, ready to leave. He didn't need this foolishness from her, not now.

  “Stop.” It wasn't the command but the plea in her voice that kept his feet from moving. She flattened her hands against his chest and he stretched out his neck to loosen the muscles before looking away. He couldn't look at her like this, pleading. It made him feel raw inside. Scratched with vicious nails from the inside out. It reminded him of being a child in the rift and his brother Alrik begging him to take him into the fields to play. He had the same plea, the same eagerness, and the same wide eyes. God, his heart felt crushed.

  “You do, don't you?”

  “This isn't about me,” he said after a minute.

  She took a deep breath and it came out shaky. “Okay then. Let me tell you something.” He stiffened, but something strange happened, his heart started pounding. Not the pounding of arousal or fear but the hard slow steady thump of anticipation, building and building inside him until the beat of it resonated in his ears. He wanted to hear what she said. Had to hear it.

  “Telal, I love you. I wasn't going to tell you yet but I don't think I have much more time.” Her voice faltered, thickened with sorrow. He barely managed to refrain from ordering her not to cry and pulling her into his arms. The only reason he managed not to grab her was because her words had rooted him in place like a statue. He was frozen, slowly trying to absorb her words. He just learned that it was one thing to assume Lily loved him and another to hear the words from her mouth.

  “If you go and... don't come back. What am I supposed to do?” Her clear eyes wobbled then tears spilled down her cheeks. The sight of them crushed his heart in a brutal fist. He felt humbled. No one had ever loved him like that, said those words to him and meant it like she did. He felt so undeserving. Like a dirty old fool.

  “Then you understand why you can't come with me, Lily.” He pulled her into his arms if only so he didn't have to see her tears anymore, which were really droplets meant to crush a man's soul.

  They held each other for what felt like a long time. She was the first to pull away. He hesitated to let her go. Her face had dried of tears and he felt his shirt wet from where she'd laid her head. A part of him was actually proud, happy in fact, that he'd been able to help her stop from crying in some way.

  He looked down at her and caught her smile; it curled from a grin into a full-blow smile that melted his heart. “You do love me.” Then she stood up on her toes, kissed him, and left the room with a certain bounce to her step.

  Telal stood there, baffled, confused, and elated for some time. He swallowed over his dry throat and raised his hand to stop her, but he didn't know what to say. It might take him some time to work through all his emotions and everything that had just happened, but he did know one thing. He loved Lily Bellum.

  CHAPTER 40
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br />   Each day that passed felt like a noose being wrapped tighter and tighter around her neck until the bristly rope cut into her skin, cutting her. Anytime she tried to speak to Telal about letting her go, he simply changed the subject, usually by kissing her senseless. Her skin felt itchy everywhere, she couldn't stop scratching it, and this time it had nothing to do with the juice. God, the juice. She didn't even miss it now. Okay, she did miss it. If she had some of that in her system, she wouldn't be pacing back and forth across the living room while her stomach felt like insects were crawling inside.

  Two more days. She had him for two more days. She wanted to scream; she wanted to cry. Most of all, she wanted to go with him. Not just because of him but because her mother was down there in that dank and dirty cell. What if something happened to him? Then how could she free her?

  Oh god, oh god. Tears did fall from her eyes and she brushed them away hard, hurting her eyes in the process. It didn't matter. The little sting of pain helped to take out the heavy weight over her heart.

  “Lily?” said a soft voice.

  Lily turned to find Willow and Chloe at the door to the living area. They both wore expressions of understanding. Lily shook her head. She didn’t need to see them now. Not now. They couldn't help her. Telal had already made his plans. He was taking Kearnyn, Tyrian, Lyonis, Draven, Rayn, Henry, and Jackie and Thane. Everyone had been ported in. Now they all just sat like sitting ducks for the day to come. Her stomach squeezed tight and she wished she could still eat food just so she could throw up to try to ease it.

  “Hey, hey. Come on now. Everything will be fine.” Chloe wrapped an arm around her shoulder and she wanted to throw it away, push her away. She didn't want to stop pacing; had to keep moving.

  He loves me. I love him. We're supposed to live together like Chloe and Willow have gotten to do.

  “You know we understand what you're feeling.”

  Lily snapped. “Oh really, Willow? And how's that?”

  To give Willow some credit she didn't flinch, didn't even cock a brow. But she did flip her off. She actually chuckled at that. So characteristic of her sister. “Did you forget that we have mates, too, who are going down in that demon hell? Like I want him going there. I've been in the rift.”

  True. “But that was different. You were in a sub-layer. Where he's from is...pretty. The sky a hazy pink and orange. Everything looks more vivid there. The grass is greener. Thing smell different. Not bad, just different.”

  “That's all fine and dandy but it still doesn't make us feel better,” Willow said.

  “I get it. I do.” Lily walked to a window. Chloe'd made Tyrian put bars over them to keep anyone from accidently falling out. He'd done it without hesitating. “I love him.”

  “I know.” Her sisters both said it at the same time and shared a little laugh.

  “How does he feel about you? It's so hard to tell with him,” said Chloe.

  Lily sighed. “He loves me, but I don't think he'd admit it.”

  “Then he and Tyrian have that in common. Tyrian was so adamant about not feeling anything for me. Yeah, that didn't last long.”

  Lily nibbled her lip. She'd been thinking about this ever since he announced his plans. She was going to go with him. She didn't have much magic, but she'd made half a dozen potions when he wasn’t around. She couldn't test them out but Rosa assured her they'd work. They'd both enspelled the potions, really nothing more than small vials of foul-smelling liquid, to freeze the target in place. It should last anywhere up to thirty minutes. They'd run out of supplies so she'd only been able to make six. She'd have to use them wisely. She also had Rosa get several of the daggers she'd enchanted with electricity. If she had to use one, she would.

  Could she tell her sisters about her plan? Or would they run off and warn Telal. “Can I trust you guys with something?”

  They nodded. Lily sat on the floor in front of them so she could whisper. She didn't need any prying ears to pick up on this. “I'm going to the rift with Telal. I'm going to have Rosa make another potion and take us there. This time since we're leaving from the same place as Telal we'll arrive in the same place in the rift, too.”

  “Are you sure about this?” Willow didn't tell her no, didn't condemn her for what she wanted to do. Lily supposed she was surprised because she'd always felt like the odd man out with her sisters being fraternal twins.

  “I'm sure.”

  “Have you had any visions to think you could help?” Chloe's brow pinched forward in consternation.

  “No. I haven't had dreams in a while.” She left out the part that the juice she made helped to assuage them. And, that the last dreams she'd had were of a black man with evil energy around him. Alrik Demuzi. She'd stay away from him in the rift. She'd free her mother, help out if she can, then get out. If luck prevailed she might not even have to see Telal and he'd never know. Well, until he realized her mother was in their bedroom.

  “Why not?”

  Lily ignored Chloe's probing stare. “I don't know; they just dropped off. I'm going to bring mother back.”

  The sisters stiffened but nodded almost in unison like they'd choreographed it. “How...damaged is she?”

  Lily frowned, the image of her mother rocking and shaking in her cell coming to mind. “Very.” She didn't know what else to say so she left it at that.

  Her sisters hugged her one at a time. Lily squeezed them back, her heart swelling in her chest. “Take care and be alert,” said Willow.

  “Be careful,” Chloe said, giving her one last squeeze before leaving.

  Lily started to leave but stopped. She felt better. The tension and worry in her had been alleviated; it wasn't completely gone, the worry still sat there but not like it had been. She afforded her first smile of the day and went in search of Telal. If she only had two days before he left for the rift and she snuck in behind them, then she wanted to spend the days with him.

  She found him in the bowels of the castle, deep under it where a staircase seemed to never end. Strong, tall, strapping warriors moved around corridors glancing her way as she passed them. In a room at the end of the hall she found Telal sitting inside on a padded floor that looked like it was used for sparring or wrestling. He wore a white t-shirt which looked glorious across his golden skin and muscled body and a pair of loose fitting white pants.

  She knocked softly then entered. He didn't turn to look at her. “Telal?”

  No response so she crept forward and laid a hand on his shoulder. Suddenly he grabbed her waist and slammed her to the mat, his lips catching hers. She laughed against his mouth, feeling winded. The move didn't hurt her but she felt stunned, shocked. His lips slid over hers creating a stir of feelings that warmed her.

  He pulled back something close to a smile on his lips. “What are you doing here, lilit?”

  “The name's Lily not lilit. I came to find you. I missed you.”

  He did smile now, and when this demon smiled she felt like she'd just been granted some kind of unique gift. The smile lit up his whole face, softened his eyes, and made them brighter.

  “I know your name...Lily,” he said softly. He closed in on her then caught her lips in a caress she barely felt, then he nipped at her, tugged on her lip, and traced it with his tongue. “So you came to play?”

  Her heart kicked up several beats. “No, well, sure, but no.” God, what was she saying?

  His smile disappeared, turning his look into something dark and wicked. He stared into her eyes, simply looking at her until she started to squirm.

  “You are beautiful.”

  She pursed her lips as a blush came over her. She hated blushing; it was her job to make others blush. “Thank you.” He kissed her again, his lips consuming her, making her thoughts fog and derail like a runaway train.

  “Come on. I want to take you somewhere.”

  She barely had the “huh” out of her mouth before he led her upstairs and ordered her to wait. He bounded up the stairs, came back a few minutes later in
thick winter wear and boots. He carried a woman's snow coat in his hands and a scarf.

  “Put this on.”

  “Whose is it?” She put the dark purple coat on. It felt cozy and soft and had a hood with white fur trim lining it. The white scarf didn't fit easily around the bulky coat but he helped her to wrap it around.

  “Chloe's. She said you could borrow it.”

  Two guards were stationed at the front door, if one could call it that; the two massive doors were made of some dark metal with gothic designs carved into it. The handles themselves with large rings that the guards grabbed and pulled open.

  Telal grabbed her hand in his, the heat of him instantly warming her as they stepped out and into the snowy landscape of northern Norway.

  Lily let out a sigh of wonder. She'd seen the view from her window a time or two, but it was another to really see it. To feel the cold biting at her cheeks and hands; to see the puffs of smoke coming out from their mouths. Snow seemed to go on forever as if the entire world was covered in it.

  They walked down the steps and the first crunch of snow under her shoes made her smile. The snow didn't cover as much here. They must shovel it to keep it from getting too deep because from the castle to the fence which looked like it belonged in a high-security prison, the snow never looked to go much deeper than ankle deep. Yet, outside the gates the snow looked higher, climbing up nearly halfway up the gate.

  “You like the snow.”

  “Not usually but this is something else. The snow we get in Georgia is usually accompanied by ice and a lot of car wrecks. Out here,” he paused, “just listen how quiet it is.”

  She did. The air seemed still but alive, the wind blew in the distance kicking up clouds of loose snow. It was quiet, peaceful.

  Suddenly her heart felt like it was going to burst. “I love you!”