by Ophelia Bell
“I will, I promise,” she said with a hesitant smile. She shot a glance behind her and relaxed at the beaming smiles Aodh and Neph met her with.
“We have no more time to waste,” Nikhil said, forcing everyone’s attention back to him. “Do what you need to do to prepare the temple for transport. The closer we can get to the river, the better, but naturally we don’t want to raise any kind of alarm from the human population. Come upstairs and let’s look at the map to find a suitable landing spot.”
Chastened by her near disastrous spell, Vrishti hung back when Nikhil led Neph and Aodh up the stairs. She avoided the curious looks of several of the males in the room, shrinking back to the relative safety she felt beside the statue of herself. Gradually the others began to filter up the stairs as well, leaving her in near solitude to survey the charred remains of what she’d caused.
Many of the beautiful lotus blossoms remained on top of the pool, but they were now surrounded by floating chunks of charred vines. She let out a shaky sigh and covered her face with her hands.
“You’ll learn to control it,” a feminine voice said nearby. Vrishti lowered her hands as a soft touch rested on her arm. She looked up to see a striking red-haired woman looking back at her. The woman’s eyes were even redder than her hair, but her skin was a smooth alabaster so perfect she nearly glowed.
“I’ve only had access to it for a couple days. My practice spells were limited to magic only a fraction as powerful. I want to help, though, and I know I can. I’ve studied, at least … I just … haven’t had much practice.”
“You’re lucky that you had time to acclimate. I kind of got thrown in cold. It’s a shock to discover the world you always knew isn’t really the world you belong in. I’m Rowan, by the way.”
The pretty redhead reached out a hand and Vrishti took it. When she squeezed, a spark of familiar fertile energy shot through her and the woman’s eyes widened and she dropped her free hand to her belly.
“Sorry,” Vrishti said. “I didn’t know you were pregnant. I read that the power has a special affinity for unborn babies. In a good way, I mean … it’s attracted to new life. As though its entire reason for being is to make things grow.”
“I believe you,” Rowan said, smiling warmly as she held onto the slight swell in her abdomen. “But I do recommend working on your restraint a bit. At least when you’re in mixed company. Come, let’s go up and see where we’re going next.”
She held out her hand and Vrishti reached for it, paused, and closed her fist.
Rowan kept her hand outstretched. “You can do it,” she said.
Taking a deep breath, Vrishti focused on tamping down the churning well of potent magic inside her, then took Rowan’s hand. She let her breath out when nothing sparked and let the woman lead her across the room to the exit.
“Would you like something more substantial to wear?” Rowan asked, glancing back at her as they ascended a narrow spiral staircase. Vrishti glanced down at the sheer white thing Aodh had covered her with and mulled over the offer.
“It would make it easier on the rest of us,” Rowan offered. “You’re beautiful, and fertile. The statue down there barely did you justice. You also aren’t marked, and there are several hundred unattached male dragons up there who don’t have a clue you belong to Aodh. It doesn’t matter that you materialized with his dick inside you. Dragons are all about the prize, you know. You’ll look like another shiny thing for them to possess.”
“If you think it’ll help. I just need to be able to… ah …”
“You want easy access, I get it,” Rowan said with a sly grin. As they walked, Vrishti heard her let out a long breath and the narrow stairwell filled with red smoke for a moment before it condensed, clinging to Vrishti’s skin. It seemed to absorb the white robe and flow downward, the basic pattern remaining unchanged, but tightening around her midsection and her breasts, a soft skirt flowing farther down her legs to cover her thighs by a few more inches. Around her lower legs, the smoke clung, condensing into soft red suede boots that covered her from the knee down, ending in comfortable, moccasin-like feet.
When they reached the throne room, the crowd parted for them both and Vrishti’s neck prickled from the appraisal of all the eyes on her. Rowan stuck close, keeping her hand twined with Vrishti’s.
Vrishti leaned into her new companion. Under her breath, she asked, “If I were marked, would they be looking at me that way?”
“Very likely still, yes. It isn’t just that you aren’t marked yet, but your aura is lit up like a Christmas tree to them. They can scent the men on you at least, so they won’t cross any lines.”
“Good, because I’m an ursa, so I’m the one who gets to do the marking. I plan to do it on my terms, on the Equinox after we’ve taken care of this.”
“Sounds like a good plan,” Rowan said, smiling at her. “But dragons are all about marking their mates, so be prepared to get one of your own.”
Neph and Aodh were standing to the side of a huge topographic map of the world that seemed to be carved into the giant stone tabletop. Aodh jabbed a fingertip down in one spot.
“This is where we land. It’s remote enough to avoid drawing attention, but close enough to drift in moments. Anywhere within a hundred miles is ideal, so this is as far as we dare go from the portal, which is Meri’s likely target.”
Vrishti moved around the table to stand between Aodh and Neph. The big dragon made room and slipped his arm around her waist, pulling her tight to him and pressing a kiss to her temple. Her chest warmed with the contact in the same way it had the night she’d woken to see Neph sound asleep in his human shape after spending all day pretending to be Aodh.
She reached for the satyr and he took her hand, smiling down at her. In only a couple days, their union would be official, with her mother’s blessing and her full power realized when she took over as the vessel of the Summer Spirit.
“Very well,” Nikhil said, tapping the map gently with his knuckles. “What do you need to do to prepare?”
“Make sure every individual in the temple is linked to another physically in some way. The closer, the better, but holding hands should be sufficient. Aodh and I will handle it from there.” Glancing at Vrishti, he said, “Do you mind waiting for us here? Since we aren’t fully melded yet, it’s best if you’re linked to the others when we begin.”
Vrishti nodded, her heart pounding. Then they both kissed her before disappearing in a shimmering cloud. Rowan stepped in to resume her spot by Vrishti’s side, gripping one hand.
“We’ve got you,” she said. A tall, dark-haired man joined Rowan, linking their hands together, and then a younger man stepped in on Vrishti’s other side and slipped his hand into hers.
“I’m Trevor,” he said in a low voice. “Her better third.” He gestured to Rowan, his gaze sparking with affection and humor. Around them, all the other residents began to join hands, first forming a circle around the big table, then spiraling outward until she saw them linking in a line out the doorways that bordered the room, the branches sometimes linking three hands together where they split off to continue in an unending line of linked bodies.
Vrishti closed her eyes, hoping she still had her melding link to Neph and Aodh. She found herself in the lush garden she’d begun to consider her sanctuary within the Sanctuary before she’d left, only now the small pool had grown to a large pond that rippled in the sunlight, its surface glowing with the power it held.
“Here,” Neph called and she turned, spying a waterfall upstream from the pond that formed a wide, shimmering curtain she could just make out the shapes of her two lovers beyond. She went to them, passing through the veil of water and found herself again in the cavern beneath the temple. The pair of them dove into the pool together and swam to the center where they stood face to face, hands cupping each other’s cheeks.
Aodh appeared tense at first, his gaz
e wary as he met Neph’s more desperate look. “Will you give me time to make amends?” Neph asked.
“I have no choice, but don’t expect it to be easy for me. Torturing you isn’t my purpose, at any rate. Vrishti’s happiness is what matters most to me now. Not yours. Understand that and I think we can at least coexist. Now, shall we get this done?”
“Yes. Give me your breath first and help me see the temple as you have built it.”
They bent their heads, tilting slightly as their mouths came together. Aodh’s chest moved as he exhaled long and slow into Neph’s lungs. The sight was far more intimate to Vrishti than even seeing the pair of them buried inside one another in their swiftly shifting lovemaking before they’d drifted across time.
This time they merged in a different way, their intimacy focused on each other instead of on her. Aodh’s hurt was apparent in his cautious acceptance of Neph’s touch when the satyr pulled him into a deeper kiss, enveloping the dragon in his arms as he grew in size to his fully horned, massive height.
Aodh didn’t shift, but seemed to surrender to Neph’s touch, allowing the bigger man to grip one thigh and lift it high over his hip.
Vrishti’s mouth went dry when their kiss broke and Aodh rasped, “Do it now.”
With a half-sneer and growl she knew was a prelude to fucking, Neph spun Aodh around and pushed him against the side of the pool. His big hand on the dragon’s shoulder, he held him down, whirlpool eyes raking over the sturdy, broad back beneath him. With his free hand, Neph stroked his massive erection, squeezing until clear fluid leaked from the tip. He pressed it between Aodh’s cheeks and the dragon groaned.
“Don’t you fucking dare be nice about it, you bastard,” Aodh spat over his shoulder. “I’m not in the mood to like you again so soon.”
Neph chuckled. “My pleasure,” he said, then in one swift, punishing thrust, shoved deep inside the dragon’s ass.
Vrishti let out a sharp cry of surprise, her own backside clenching tight at the memory of how it felt to have something as big as Aodh buried in it. She couldn’t even imagine Neph’s huge satyr cock fitting in her there, but when Aodh’s pale eyes met hers, they flashed with pure ecstasy and she knew he loved it.
“Come,” he said in a rough voice and reached out to her with one hand. She went, her mental shape moving swiftly and kneeling before him. She gripped both his hands in hers and simply held him while Neph pounded into him from behind.
Through their joined minds, she could sense the ever rising pleasure the pair both experienced, and along with it the distinctly conflicted feelings. Neph’s desperation to remind the dragon how deep his love endured was at odds with Aodh’s lingering sense of betrayal that would need far more than a good fuck to be mended. But she was heartened to see them agreeing to work together. That they had blood-melded suggested their commitment to each other, if not an easy willingness to let bygones be bygones.
Within moments the pair of them shuddered as one, and she realized that despite her presence in their minds, they had a deeper bond she couldn’t be part of yet. And when their heads tilted back, their voices rose together in their climax, and their bodies rippled with more than mere ecstasy. They became liquid, skin fading swiftly to translucence until they were both nothing more than water flowing back into the pool. A moment later the water before her churned and bubbled as though boiling and a massive cloud of white steam flowed forth, covering the entire floor of the big room, snaking around her in a tickling cocoon before rising higher and making its way toward the doorway.
Vrishti opened her eyes in the throne room just as the steamy cloud of her lovers flooded it, and she breathed them in with everyone else. The power filled her up in a way their cocks never had, and she closed her eyes, savoring the sensation of them inside her lungs, infusing her body.
Around her everyone let out a collective sigh. Then the ground beneath them began to shake. At first it was only a slight vibration, but then it took over her entire body, every cell seeming to light up, first with a tingling sense of pure, euphoric contentment. Then a rush of movement took over and she knew they’d entered the drift.
The sensation was nothing like the other times she’d drifted with Neph. This time she was one with all the other creatures in the temple, their cells flowing together in a tidal wave of motion, intent on a single target that Neph and Aodh pushed into her mind through their meld, allowing her to picture the expanse of desert to the west of the Nile where they intended to place the monolithic temple.
Within moments she was nothing more than particles of sensation, her entire purpose to move through space and surrender to the flow of the universe around her. In the midst of it, she understood the inner workings of Neph’s magic. His connection to this constant flow of magic through the world, the thing he referred to as “The River” that connected everything, and the essence of the Source that he possessed which fueled his power. It didn’t take much of the Source to do this immense magical feat, and within her, she had access to an infinite supply. She knew if she practiced she could do as much, if not more, with that much power. When she made it back to the Sanctuary and their lives were calm once more, she resolved to practice so she could master it herself to this degree.
The rush of kinetic power subsided slowly and then stopped, her body becoming hers again as though she were a cooling mist condensing into a crystalline shape that was unique among all the others also reforming around her. Together, they sank down to the ground like so many perfect snowflakes falling in the Appalachian forest that winter night when she’d first known she loved Neph.
When she opened her eyes they were there with her, her body somehow having moved itself down to the empty cavern where they had done their magic. They were both standing at the edge of the pool, clothed now in the same military-style cargo pants and drab t-shirts Nikhil’s other soldiers wore.
Her heart shot into her throat at the realization of what this meant for all of them. Their enemy had an army, and so did they. They were literally about to go to war today.
Neph stepped close and rested his hands on her upper arms, squeezing gently, the warmth of his palms sinking through the conjured dress Rowan had given her. “Yes, we are at war, but if today goes well, this will be the only battle we must fight. Are you up for it? We’d be more comfortable if you remained here, safely guarded.”
She took a deep, shaky breath in an effort to steady herself and shook her head. “I’m not leaving the two of you if I can help it. We’re stronger together.”
“If we were blood-melded and fully mated, we would be even stronger.”
“No. You know I’d risk losing full access to the Source if we did that. We need my power even more now. If there’s even a chance of pregnancy before this is done, I want to wait.”
“It’s all right,” Aodh said. “Just promise us you’ll never leave our sight.”
She shot him a grateful smile. “No way in hell, as long as you make the same promise. We’re together for the long haul now.”
Neph chuckled, his smile warming her insides with its slightly flirty tilt. “By the time this is done, there will be a baby in you, I promise.”
Her breath caught in her throat at the utter seriousness in his tone, giving her the sense that he’d like to do that very thing right now. Shaking her head, she reached out for their hands. “Later. Now we go take care of this bitch who hurt you both.”
Chapter Forty
Neph
A cold blade seemed to slice down Neph’s spine after blurting out the unexpected words that had popped into his head. Sure, he ached to fill Vrishti with his seed until her belly swelled with their child, but the words hadn’t come from his own desire to breed. It was as though they’d been spoken through him by some outside source—the power that fed him the visions, yet refused to show him any hints of his own future. Despite his desire for that exact thing to happen, something about i
t felt wrong, as though this was not a thing he should want despite knowing this was one of the very reasons he and Aodh had longed for a female to complete their triad.
Shaking off the strange sense of foreboding, he bit his tongue when the urge rose to lock her up inside this cavern. They’d made their vows to each other to stay together and he intended to stick to that until they were properly mated, marked, bonded, and blood-melded every which way.
“You should mark her,” he said to Aodh silently via their mental link.
The white-haired man shot him a surprised look, his eyebrows raised. “Even if she agreed, to what end? It’s her marks on us that matter to the ursa.”
“Protection. Something doesn’t feel right, but I’ll be damned if I can see it.”
“What can you see?” Aodh asked, maintaining a steady pace with his gaze now fixed ahead of him on Vrishti’s back as they climbed the narrow spiral staircase back up to the main hall.
“Death, but that is no surprise. We will be slaughtering our enemy soon. Beyond that, I see more blood. A river of it, but no sense of who it belongs to.”
“She has her mother’s mark as a safeguard. Even if we fail—which we won’t—she will be all right.”
Neph still couldn’t shake the prickle at the back of his skull, but hoped he’d have a better sense of where things stood once they got underway.
The din of the massive crowd met them before they reached the main hall, and when they emerged through the secluded doorway at the top of the steps, the bodies were packed in nearly too tight to move through. Peering over everyone’s heads, Neph saw Nikhil standing atop the table in the center of the room. He wore drab, loose-fitting robes, his head wrapped in a patterned turban. Beside him, Belah stood, blue smoke twining slowly around her, condensing into a black robe that covered her from head to toe until only her brilliant blue eyes were visible through a small opening.
“The enemy will be hiding in plain sight, as we should as well,” Nikhil said. “The temple’s protective cloak remains around it, so it blends in with the desert, appearing as a sand dune to the casual observer. We are close to the Pyramid Gardens, so it is safe to filter out of the temple and pretend to be tourists before making your way into the city. Do whatever you need to blend in with the locals until you receive my command. Travel in small groups, no fewer than two, no more than four, with at least one dragon and turul per group. Watch and listen for the enemy and neutralize any you come across as swiftly and silently as possible, ideally without their knowledge. We don’t want their leader alerted to the danger until it’s too late. Go now. Alpha team, you are with me.”