Lorcan went back to watching Talfryn’s body accommodate his own and marveled that they could be joined in this way. Talfryn’s heat surrounded him, and he closed his eyes to better absorb the sensation. Once fully sheathed inside his man, Lorcan’s lashes fluttered up and he saw a slight furrowing of Talfryn’s brow.
“Are you all right, Tally?”
“It feels quite different than your fingers. Fuller. Strange.”
“Shall I stop?”
“Hmm, no. Just give me a moment.”
“Take all the time you need, anleydir. Just don’t move. Please. You mustn’t move.” When Talfryn began squirming beneath him, sweat broke out across Lorcan’s forehead. “Please, please. Stop moving.”
Their eyes met, and Talfryn gave him a wicked smile full of promise before pushing his hips up into Lorcan’s body. That broke the small bit of restraint Lorcan had, and he began driving his manhood in and out of his mate. Talfryn gave out a triumphant shout and met him thrust for thrust. Lorcan’s head tipped back as he fought the urge to come. His mate grabbed his prick and began stroking it furiously. Their bodies began moving faster and faster…
Lorcan’s eyes popped open and he frowned as the haze of sleep began to clear. Turning his head, he looked over to see Talfryn watching him. For a moment, he was sucked into the past and could once again see the love in those lavender depths. Shutting him out by lowering his lashes, he was shocked when Talfryn leaned forward and pressed their lips together. Pushing him away, Lorcan scrambled off the bed.
“Get out.”
Talfryn got to his feet. “I’m sorry.”
“I told you to leave.”
“Fine, I’ll meet you in the kitchen for breakfast.”
Lorcan didn’t reply. He waited for Talfryn to leave the room and then he locked it behind him. Dreams like the one he’d had this morning were the very reason he never slept on anything comfortable. On a soft surface with his body relaxed, he was plagued with memories of his life with Talfryn. He didn’t want to remember what it was like to love him because it was all too soon followed by what it was to be betrayed and broken hearted. That he’d allowed his guard to drop pissed him off. He was no longer going to play into any of Talfryn’s clever little schemes.
With no choice but to remain, Lorcan decided he did not need to see anyone until their meeting in several days. In the meantime, he would go back to sleeping on the floor, forgoing meals, and not spending even a moment in Talfryn’s cursed presence. He couldn’t believe he’d allowed Talfryn to tend to him, comb his hair, and even be so bold as to sneak a kiss. This was the man he wanted dead; there was no need to cozy up to the enemy. Lorcan was doing the best he could given the circumstances, and Talfryn would get no more opportunity to portray the tender, caring mate.
Chapter 22
After dinner the following night, Talfryn opened one of the mostly glass doors that separated the kitchen from the outside and stepped onto the wooden deck. He needed a quiet place to think. The day before, he had woken up next to Lorcan and without thinking, he’d leaned close and given in to the urge to press their mouths close. Lorcan had freaked and Talfryn hadn’t seen him since. Sinking down onto one of the chaise lounges, Talfryn propped his elbows on his knees and with a gusty sigh, rested his chin on his upturned hands.
His eyes closed as he mentally kicked himself and when he opened them again, he was momentarily disoriented because the sun was no longer shining above him as it had been just seconds before. Looking up he saw the sky was full of dragons or more accurately full of one extremely large blue-and-black beast flanked by his dukes. Aleksander’s dragon was magnificent and more than twice the size of Brogan and Dravyn. Without a cloud above them, their scales glinted like diamonds in the evening light. Brogan’s blue was nearly as dark as Aleksander’s but missing the black dual coloring that made the D’Vaire king so unique, and Dravyn’s forest green made an earthy contrast.
Talfryn watched them soar over Dravyn’s gardens and pass through Dra’Kaedan’s nearly invisible barrier protecting their home. Aleksander routinely flew beyond his own land and the patch of green that had been given to Dra’Kaedan by the Council when his title had been restored to truly stretch his wings. By chance, the renovations their home had undergone had introduced them to their neighbors: a clan of griffins who owned and operated a renovation business. Harley Griffinis, the leader of the griffins, had given Aleksander and his dukes, who never allowed him to fly alone, free access to their patch of sky.
It was impossible as an elf, who always kept his feet firmly on the ground, not to imagine what it must be like to take to the air. Talfryn wondered if your worries and troubles simply melted away when you allowed your beast to take the driver’s seat. He wondered if it was the same if you were part demon. Lorcan had been born with the ability to fly, and he’d lived a long life—thanks to the Cwylld, much of it alone. How many centuries had he permitted his demon to have free reign? More importantly, what the hell had Lorcan been doing all day while avoiding meals and just as significantly ignoring Talfryn’s repeated attempts to get him to answer his door?
The last thing Talfryn wanted was for Lorcan to skip out on eating; he didn’t want his mate sleeping on the floor, or forgoing good personal hygiene. He deserved better than that, and Talfryn was going to make sure he understood it—if only he could figure out how to get Lorcan to speak to him. Talfryn supposed he could just yell through the bedroom door, but that was unlikely to get him any positive results. What he needed was a different way to get to Lorcan. With another heartfelt sigh, Talfryn realized he was fresh out of ideas.
The vast garden that was both Dravyn’s vocation and art begged for his attention, and Talfryn had to laugh at the poor, blind version of himself that had shuffled through those posies each day to talk to Lorcan. What a trusting fool Edion had been, he thought with a shake of his head. It didn’t really matter if he was Edion or Talfryn; it seemed his mission was to somehow save Lorcan from his own demons, real and imagined. Above him it began to darken again, and Talfryn could see the reflection of the dragons in the large planes of glass that made up a great deal of the house as they circled overhead. Narrowing his eyes, Talfryn stared at them as an idea formed in his head.
If he couldn’t get Lorcan to answer his door, perhaps he could simply avail himself of one of the windows in his mate’s bedroom. Pleased with the solution, Talfryn stood and walked briskly back into the house and down the long hall to his own room. The shortest route to his destination would be through his own bedroom to get to Lorcan’s. It struck Talfryn that it was a very good thing they were housed on the first floor. It was fairly simple to push aside the curtains and find himself back outdoors. For some unknown reason, he then slinked over to Lorcan’s area of the house. Chuckling, Talfryn thought he must look like some cartoon villain.
He shook his head at his own foolishness and then all but pressed his face to the glass after he set the screen aside. Not seeing Lorcan, he wondered if he was either in the attached restroom or simply on the other side of one of the large pieces of furniture blocking his view. Undeterred, he laid his palms flat and used practically his entire body weight to push it up. Sweat popped out on his forehead before it gave and began to inch up. Scowl in place, his sole focus was on forcing the windowpane to do his bidding. After it was finally high enough to allow him to get his fingers under it, he shoved it up and swung a leg inside.
Looking up he let out a shriek when he discovered Lorcan was standing close wearing a ferocious frown.
“Talfryn, get your damn leg out of my room.”
Not paying any attention to Lorcan or to his heart jackhammering in his chest after the other elf scared him shitless, Talfryn bent at the waist and heaved the rest of his body into the room. Surprisingly, Lorcan didn’t bodily push him through the open window at his back. He stood up, straightened his tunic, and met the annoyed purple-red eyes of his mate.
“The door is locked. I don’t want company, especially not yo
urs.”
“Then you should have at least dragged yourself down to the kitchen for meals.”
Lorcan crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not hungry.”
“Liar.”
“The only liar in this room is you.”
“Day before yesterday, you actually tried to take care of yourself. Why are we back to Captain Poutypants?”
Drawing his brows together, Lorcan gave him an unforgiving look of disgust. “Captain who?”
“Poutypants. It’s ridiculous for a man your age to act like a child.”
“I don’t recall asking for your opinion on the matter.”
“Take it up with Fate. I’m your mate. It’s my job to worry about you.” Talfryn held up a hand to stop the inevitable rush of words that were at this very moment burning a path from Lorcan’s brain to his well-formed mouth. “Don’t. I don’t want to hear about how I left you or how I wasn’t worried about you because for some reason that still baffles me, I chose to blind myself so I could forget you. Whatever you think about what happened, I’m here now and I’m not going to allow you to keep punishing yourself. Your people died. I’m sorrier than I can ever begin to express for their loss, but you are still alive. You can damn well start acting like it because I am not going away. Every barrier you throw in my path I will find a way around, so deal with it.” When he was finished speaking, Talfryn mirrored Lorcan and crossed his arms over his chest and looked the man dead in his eyes. He knew the other elf would see his steely determination to do exactly what he’d said.
Silence fell for several minutes before Lorcan pursed his lips slightly. “I shall make a deal with you.”
To say Talfryn was suspicious was an understatement of titanic proportions. He narrowed his eyes. “What kind of deal?”
“If you agree to leave me in peace until the meeting with your D’Vaires, I will attend meals.”
“It’s not enough for you to just attend, you have to eat.”
“I will agree to eat.”
“And sit with me?”
“You are pushing your luck.”
“Sit with me.”
Baring his teeth, Lorcan agreed. “Fine.”
“And I want you to promise to use your bed to sleep in.”
“Do not worry where I rest my head at night. I’ve agreed to not only take meals but to sit at a table with you. I’m not willing to agree to anything further. You can take it or leave it; you will get nothing more from me.”
“I’m not happy about it, but okay. I’ll agree to give you space until the meeting on Monday. After that, we renegotiate.”
“After that, we will be ending the lives of the remaining Cwylld. Then you will die in the land of your birth.”
“I sense you are about to jump on your soapbox about my supposed treachery. Please spare me.”
“No surprise you have no care for my feelings on the subject or any other subject for that matter.”
“On that note, I’ll see you tomorrow at breakfast. Sleep well, Lorcan.” Not giving him time to reply, Talfryn headed back to his own room and flopped face-first down onto his bed. Tears were trying to press their way through, but Talfryn wasn’t going to cry. For the first time since he had regained his memory, he found himself truly afraid his relationship with Lorcan was not fixable or at least not any time soon. Lorcan was too damaged to listen to reason and unwilling to move forward in his grief or have any desire to listen to the real facts surrounding their separation. Talfryn was scared their love could not conquer this, and it damn near paralyzed him to face the fact that he might not ever be allowed to stand at Lorcan’s side as his mate again. He couldn’t wait until they had a plan to make his former tribe pay for what they had done. The need for vengeance rose from the deepest, darkest parts of him. Matebonds were sacred, and no one had the right to steal that. Lifting himself from the mattress, he decided this included Lorcan, and he would pay any price and try as long as it took to remedy this mess.
* * *
What was left of the time between his confrontation with Lorcan and the weekly D’Vaire meeting luckily flew by for Talfryn. Nothing of real consequence came about in the meals he had shared with his mate; Lorcan had said little but had, as he’d agreed, eaten every bite on his plate—giving Talfryn no room to argue. Unwilling to irritate the other elf, Talfryn hadn’t engaged in any discussion, and now their new family was making their way into the living room and getting themselves settled on the various pieces of furniture clustered about the space. Talfryn had dropped down onto a loveseat and beckoned his other half over; Lorcan had surprisingly sat next to him without a word of protest.
“Thanks for taking the time to come tonight,” Aleksander said once everyone was settled. It was his custom to show his appreciation for the attendance of his court. “We’ll start with Dra’Kaedan. Do we have any sanctuary applications to review?”
“We don’t. We’ve gotten a few, but they either went elsewhere or weren’t a reasonable sanctuary candidate.”
“Okay, thanks, Dra’Kaedan. Let’s move right onto Talfryn and Lorcan’s request to discuss the Cwylld situation. Talfryn?”
“Right. Well, as you all know, the Cwylld separated Lorcan and me about a thousand years ago. We would both like to see them pay for that. Council rules, which we now live under, stipulate that coming between mates is a crime and when grievous enough an offense, the punishment is death. In this case, I can see nothing more fitting than seeing those responsible pay with their lives,” Talfryn said.
“How many elves are we talking about? How many are directly responsible for what happened?” Brogan asked.
“My parents, Chieftain Aniernan and Chieftess Taliya. They worked with Carvallius; they wanted my matebond to disappear. He told them the price was my sight. Luckily, he’s already dead. Thanks for that, Dre’Kariston.…I know you didn’t do it for me, but I’m happy he’s taken care of. Also, there were two guards, Cadlyr and Eirsel. They were involved. I don’t know where to find Eirsel; he may be at another Cwylld holding. I was drugged, so I don’t know how they captured me, but they’re the ones that did and held me down until I lost consciousness.”
Lorcan laughed. “Colorful lies. I hardly expect you to turn on your parents or your dear friend Cadlyr, but they are all that remain in that village or any other, for that matter. I killed Eirsel myself at the beginning of our war with your people. Truly, how can we believe you would murder the very people you blinded yourself to return to?”
Before Talfryn could get a word out, Brogan asked, “There are only three in the village?”
“Indeed. I don’t know if the others are dead or simply left but I was there after I met ‘Edion,’ and it was Cadlyr playing nursemaid to the chieftains,” Lorcan said.
“That certainly makes things easier,” Dra’Kaedan said.
“There were more than three last time I was there,” Talfryn said. He didn’t doubt Lorcan’s words, but he was shocked to hear so few Cwylld remained.
“Missing your life as a Cwylld? Too bad there is no dark warlock willing to re-blind you so you can return to your easy existence.”
“For the last damn time Lorcan, I didn’t blind myself. I was drugged.”
Lorcan scoffed. “How else could it have happened? No one in my tribe would have allowed any harm to come to you. You were the mate of the chieftain.”
“I still am the mate of the chieftain,” Talfryn bit out. “I don’t have all the answers, but I know I was poisoned in the Acwellan camp.”
“There is no way that is possible. That would mean there were traitors among my people. Acwellans are not traitors. Did they not rush to battle at my side against the Cwylld?” Lorcan’s eyes blazed with fury.
“It seems clear to me that we need to get the answers to this mystery. I think it might be worth taking the time to question the three before you exact justice,” Aleksander said, as always, having the bravery of ten men by jumping in.
“I have all the answers I need,” Lorcan said wit
h a glare.
“I don’t. I want to talk to Cadlyr, Aniernan, and Taliya before they die. I don’t know if they will tell me what I want to know but I have to try,” Talfryn replied.
“Okay, so we know there are three of them. Lorcan was there recently, so we can use his memory of the location to cast a circle to send all of us. We question them and when we’re satisfied with all the answers we get or their lack of cooperation, we make some elves pay. Light their funeral pyres, clean up, and get the hell out. Seems like a pretty easy plan to me,” Dra’Kaedan said.
“Oh hell no. You aren’t going,” Brogan retorted to his mate in a tone that brooked no argument.
Dra’Kaedan was apparently willing to push his luck. “What the fuck? Of course I’m going.”
“Yeah, you really aren’t. I’m going,” Dre’Kariston said to his twin. “Twice now you’ve almost died. None of us are willing to take a chance on a third. I can cast a circle same as you.”
Alexander nodded. “Squirt, it’s better if you let your brother handle this one.”
“Fine, but no dark spells. There are only two warlocks; we need to both stay on the side of light so we can heal.”
“I’m fully aware of that. I have no intention of going dark,” Dre’Kariston replied. “I don’t think we need more than Talfryn, Lorcan, and I going.”
“I agree, but before we can decide when this is all going to take place, we need to agree on if this is going to happen at all. As I’ve said from the beginning, I understand and sympathize, but we need to all agree this is the best solution. There are ramifications if this gets out and the Consilium decides to retaliate. It could mean we lose the sanctuary. I need all of you to understand that before we move forward,” Aleksander stated. “If you have objections, you need to get them off your chest now.”
The room was quiet for several minutes before Dravyn broke the silence. “Long before we knew our Council existed, we were taught there was nothing more sacred than the bond between mates. I have waited centuries to find my other half. I can’t imagine settling for anything less than the ultimate punishment should someone manage to take even a moment of our lives together. We live for our mates and our mates alone. I’m all in and willing to sacrifice whatever it takes to see justice done for Lorcan and Talfryn.”
Vengeance From The Dark (D'Vaire Book 3) Page 14