With Nosferatin strength and a large dollop of my Light I pushed up and off his body and out of his grasp, coming to my feet some distance away, aware I was still in a skimpy bikini, but not giving a damn, as I now wore my anger like a cloak. I stood in a fighting stance and glared at the Fey Prince sprawled on the sand before me.
He did not look happy. Well, his face didn't anyway.
“You mean to deny me, elska?”
I don't think Lutin had been turned down once in his life before, which for all I knew was a very, very long one. He was unaccustomed to not getting his own way.
“Others would beg for what I offer freely. To be the elska of a Prince of Ljósálfar is an honour beyond any available in your world. It carries prestige, riches, comforts, power and of course, earth-shattering sex no mere mortal could ever provide you.”
I was beginning to see that old Prince Lutin was fairly full of himself, still I'd let him just keep digging that hole a little deeper. He stood up in a glide, a little terrifying in his anger. Light had begun to collect around him, shimmering in the air, making it look like a mirage over the sand in a desert. I may have just been coveting his Light, but I felt my own Light start to build in response to his, a natural protection mechanism finally taking hold of my body, preparing to battle. Were the Fey a natural enemy of the Nosferatin?
“You cannot deny the attraction, you want me as much as I want you." In your dreams, deadbeat. "It is because you are mœðr, you would want any of my kind, it is part of what you are to provide our children, but more than that, you are part of me, my elska, there is no escaping this fact. You will lay with me and you will provide me an heir.”
OK. So, now I was beginning to freak out majorly.
“Let me go back to the hotel, Lutin. I don't want to have sex with you.” I held my fighting stance, fists still clenched before me. I could do this. I could fight his magic. I knew I could.
“Are you so sure, elska?” And his eyes began to swirl their different shades of brilliant greens. Oh, fuck!
I closed mine immediately, just barely in time to avoid his pull. When I chanced a glance in his direction, going for a peripheral look out of the side of my half closed lids, I shrieked in surprise. He was standing right in front of me, nose to nose. I did what any Nosferatin would do, I punched him in the stomach.
He went sprawling back onto the sand with a resounding splat.
“Yeah, I'm pretty damn sure!” I shouted down at him.
The Light that had started to build around him before, now lashed out, but mine had well and truly got its glow on too. I was angry, confused, overwhelmed and not just a little scared, so when his Light went to engulf me, subdue me, pummel me, it met a brick wall of my own Light. For a moment there, they pushed against each other futilely, neither making any headway over the other.
Lutin looked surprised, then slowly his expression changed to respect. I don't think he had expected me to be able to hold my own. I sure as hell had been unsure if I could. And then suddenly, he let his wall of Light down. I didn't have a chance to stop mine, to pull it back, to change how it was presented. He'd pulled his own Light back so quickly, mine simply had the force of all my Nosferatin will - and anger and fear - behind it and nothing to stop it slamming home.
He writhed on the sand for a good five minutes, a sight I'm not sure I really wanted to witness again. His eyes blazed an incredible combination of greens, so bright and vivid, so shockingly neon, his muscles all tensed, his body was rigid. I couldn't look away, not just because I was mortified again, that my Light manifests as an intensely intimate experience, erotic and lust-filled, but because he was spectacular, there was no other word for it. He was the epitome of a virile male, a woman's fantasy made real. But the whole episode had just left me feeling violently ill. I swallowed down the bitter taste of bile, forcing myself not to be sick.
I knew I shouldn't blame myself for what had happened. I knew, despite my Light creating this effect in others when I forget to temper it, that it had not been my intention to excite or encourage his woefully misplaced affections. I knew this, but I still felt it. Guilt, humiliation, abashment, disgust in myself.
I suppressed a mewl of desolation at those emotions and finally closed my eyes to shut out the scene before me. Whatever Lutin was, he was dangerous. I felt undeniably drawn to his Light, yet equally repulsed by him physically. I was terrifyingly unsure if I could control my lust for his Light. If I couldn't, would the Light tip the scale and my physical repulsion simply be washed away?
To stop myself taking the few steps needed to reach him and touch his returning Light, I let myself fall to my knees in the sand and just whimpered, pathetically.
After what seemed like an eternity he rolled over and looked at me with what I could only call bedroom eyes; heavy lidded, sated, sexy.
“That, elska, was fun.”
“Let me go back to the hotel.” My voice was tiny, broken. Pleading even.
Lutin didn't say anything for a moment, just watched me, but I was no longer able to hold his gaze, instead I stared at the azure blue of the ocean, trying to fall into the rhythm of the waves.
“Can't you see how we are meant for each other?" he asked, his voice sounding incredulous. Could it be he was finally noticing my reluctance? I could live in hope. "Only elska can play with a fey's Light.”
I shook my head, refusing to believe that. “I have my own Light, Lutin, what you just... experienced is nothing different from what I have done a dozen times before to vampires.”
“Lucky vampires.”
“It is nothing special and nothing to do with supposedly being your elska. It is me, mine, who I am and that is not a reflection of your beliefs.”
“I beg to differ.”
There was no arguing with him, he was so sure of his belief and I was so sure he was wrong.
“Let me go back. Please.” I tagged the please on the end as a last resort, but I was getting desperate. I wanted to be back in my own clothes, near Samson. If I was honest with myself, right now I was also pining for Michel.
“You are mine, elska.”
“No and stop calling me elska. Do you even know my name, Lutin?” I asked him angrily.
He looked at me for a moment and cocked his head slightly. “You are angry,” he said, surprised.
I huffed a short breath out in shock. He just didn't get it. “Of course I am angry! You won't let me go back, you came on to me uninvited. You control me without my consent!" I was just so damn sick and tired of men in my life trying to control me. "I don't like being controlled by anyone, Lutin. Especially someone I barely know.”
“You can go back whenever you please. You did want me, it wasn't uninvited. Of course I control you, you are human. And you are my elska and I will have you.”
“I won't have you,” I said softly, just wanting this to be over.
He was in front of me in an instant, I didn't see him move, but I don't think it was vampire type speed, it was more a distortion of the space around us, as though he could bend the air and shorten the path needed to reach me. I'm not sure how I recognised it, but that explanation felt right.
“We will see, elska. And are you in such a hurry to go back to your life? To your kindred vampire? You didn't look happy in the hotel and your vampire was nowhere to be seen. And if I am not mistaken you are leaving the country. Running, elska? Perhaps you are running to me and you don't even know it. You are mine.”
I laughed at him, a short, sharp bark of a laugh. “In your dreams, Lutin. I don't belong to you and never will. I belong to Michel.” Liar, liar pants on fire.
“It doesn't look that way. Where is your kindred? I think you have left him.”
“We're fighting, I haven't left him.” I put as much conviction into that statement as I could manage.
“You are no longer his, Lucinda and you know it.” Huh? He did know my name.
I wanted to argue, to say I was still Michel's, but when I opened my mouth, all that came ou
t was, “Michel is still mine.” Freudian slip?
Lutin looked at me intently and then slowly smiled, flashing me his white, blunt teeth. I got the impression that particular smile was for when he was sizing up an opponent. Was I his opponent, or was it Michel?
“I'm going back to the hotel.” Perhaps if I said it as a statement I'd poof back to my room, hopefully fully clothed, but nothing like that happened.
“Do I need some pixie dust or something?” I asked, still staring down at myself and the sand around my knees.
“No.” Lutin's voice was soft. I chanced a glance at him. He seemed pensive, contemplative. “I shall court you, elska, I shall prove to you, that you are in fact mine.”
I stifled a sigh. He just didn't get it. He must have seen something of the frustration I was feeling on my face, because he added, “This is a concession on my part, elska, no fey would grant you this. I am showing you, that you can trust me. I have waited so long for my elska, it is difficult, but I will grant you this.”
Gee thanks. Not.
“Take my hand and I will take you back to your hotel.”
I didn't waste any time reaching for him, perhaps I should have thought about that, but Lutin, maybe because he did want to prove I could trust him, didn't try anything. Which also made me realise he could keep those pheromones or whatever the hell it was he did, under wraps.
In a flash of Light we were back in my hotel room. I was fully clothed again, so was Lutin and from the look on the clock, several hours had passed. He obviously hadn't played with time, only distance and space. Good to know.
I pulled my hand from his grasp quickly and rubbed it on my T-Shirt. It was intentionally rude, my patience had run out. I was tired, having had no sleep last night, but more than my bed, I wanted a bath. I could feel sand and salt on me, and Lutin. I wanted it all off.
I could tell he was watching me, unmoving, so I took a breath and said, “OK, thanks for the sun, but I want to be alone now.”
He laughed. “Dismissing a Prince.” He laughed again. “You really are something.”
Then before I realised what he was doing, I felt his lips on my own, his Light wrap around me and his warm breath against my cheeks as he whispered, “I give you certain allowances, because you are having trouble adjusting to your new role, but my patience will wear thin before too long, elska. I shall court you, as I have said, but be warned, it will not last an eternity and I will not accept no for an answer.”
With that he disappeared in another flash of Light and I battled the tremble through my body his touch had left for some time, before the call of a bath finally reached me and broke the spell he had left in his wake.
The bath was good, the small nap and room service meal I had later even better and before I knew it, Samson and I had boarded our plane and were on our way to Birmingham. I slept most of the journey, allowing Samson to glaze those passengers and staff in the business class area to keep their shades down, masking the sun's harmful rays. I even missed the two lay-overs. Samson handled it all. Where would I be without Samson?
He got up once towards the end of our flight, while he thought I was asleep, and I watched as he chatted up the stewardess and then surreptitiously took her into the serving area. He was gone a long time, much longer than a feeding should have taken and when he returned - with a sparkle in his eyes - and the hostess came out looking extremely happy, I noticed a few of her buttons astray and her once immaculate hair a little tipsy.
I flashed a glance at Samson and raised my eyebrows. He smiled, a stunning smile I hadn't seen on him before, it made his deep brown eyes flash with bronze and copper. And I noticed then, that his long blonde hair had come a little loose too. Naughty boy. I reached up absently and tucked a few strands behind his ear, his head leaned into my hand and then he turned his face and kissed my palm.
I'd never been attracted to Samson before, maybe it was a spill over from Lutin's visit, a residual of his influence still affecting me, but Samson must have seen something in my eyes, because his widened, just a fraction and his mouth parted, letting a shot of hot air came out in a rush.
“Mistress,” he said, softly.
His hand came up a little hesitantly to brush my cheek. I just stared at him, as though I was seeing him for the first time. He didn't look away, but let me see in his eyes, in the way he touched my face, that if I wanted him, he was mine.
I shook my head to clear the thoughts. “Fey,” was all I could get out. My inner monologue had started humming, a warning that could only mean one thing. I was not acting under my own cognition. Lutin had done something and I was about to pay the price.
Samson glanced around the cabin, maybe thinking he'd spot Lutin somewhere on the plane, but he wasn't here, I could tell and that thought alone was a little scary. Whatever influence he was having over me, did not require him to be present. When Samson's head spun back to look at me, he'd got it. He understood and I saw a little of the light that had been in his eyes dim and a rueful smile grace his lovely lush lips.
“It was a pleasant thought, mistress, while it was mine. When did you see the fairy?”
“Earlier today, he brought me my room service,” I said, laughing quietly at the lunacy of it all. “Then he took me to the Bahamas and tried to seduce me. I think, I may still be a little under his effect.” I blushed slightly and then looked back in his eyes. “But," I licked my lips falling into the depths of those chocolate brown eyes again, "you are beautiful.”
He laughed, a lovely masculine rumble. Damn, everything he was doing was just so darn attractive. I squirmed slightly in my seat. Samson noticed, he's a vampire, they spot any change of emotion, any change of stance, any thing that would help them on their hunt, straight away.
“Let me try something, do you mind?” I had no idea what he was asking, but I trusted him, so nodded.
He turned toward me slightly, then reached over and placed a hand behind my head, his eyes never leaving mine. I was trapped, unable to breathe, unable to stop, but then the thought of stopping him just wasn't there, even if my inner monologue was shouting. He wasn't glazing me, he can't unless I let him in my mind, he's my vampire, he's part of my line, but he might as well have been. When his lips met mine I almost exploded, wrapping my arms around his neck and practically climbing out of my seat to get to him. He tried to pull back, to put some distance between us, but then I just bit him. A small bite on his bottom lip, enough to get any vampire's attention.
Shit, what the hell was I doing?
His tongue swept mine, his moan was low and throaty, and then we were eating each other like there was no tomorrow, all lips and tongue and teeth and hands and bodies. God knows what the other passengers or stewards were thinking, but no one stopped us, maybe because Samson had enough wherewithal to cast a little Sanguis Vitam in the air to cloak us, but I didn't really care, I had absolutely no control over the response of my body. And my mind baulked at that thought.
Fucking controlling men in my life. I swear, here and now, that I don't want to have another thing to do with any of them ever again.
I pushed back against his hold, I'm not sure how, maybe I used a little Light, but somehow it made Samson came to his senses and somehow he stopped kissing me back. I gasped at what had just transpired, the familiar feel of bile rising up my throat, then I jumped back off his lap, ignoring the fact that he had risen to the occasion despite having stopped participating and wrapped my seatbelt around my lap, securing it tightly.
“Shit,” I said, breathlessly.
“Indeed,” he replied, almost as breathless.
After a few awkward minutes of nothing being said, he finally announced, “Well, we know two things.”
“Two things?” I asked, chancing a glance at him and relieved to see he had on his usual Samson façade.
“Yes,” he said, taking a deep breath in and looking straight at me. “One, you are under the influence of a Fey Prince of Ljósálfar. And two,” - and here he blushed ever so slightly
, must have been the recent fill of blood, and a wicked smile curved his lips - “you bloody well know how to kiss, mistress.”
Chapter 15
The Abbey
I was a little pissed off that Samson had chosen to kiss me to test his suspicions. The anger at myself for having taken advantage of a vampire under my line, subject to my protection, was directed at him. If he hadn't have kissed me, would the influence Lutin had left behind have been activated to such a degree?
I pushed those thoughts aside, now was not the time to get bogged down by semantics. “How long will Lutin's influence last?” I asked, vaguely realising my hand had started massaging his thigh. I yelped, he looked a little pained and I promptly shoved my hands under my butt.
“I do not know.” He took a deep breath in and actually shifted further away from me in his seat. I would have been offended, but I was just so grateful. “You were not like this in the hotel room before we left, or while we waited to board the plane. What set the spell off, can you remember?”
I tried to settle my breathing and banish the images I had playing in my head - images that were totally not mine. Damn fairy fucking magic! I took a deep breath in to control myself and turned my head away from Samson, staring at the shuttered window beside me. After a few more deep breaths and a concerted effort to think of cold water and puppy dogs and pussy cats, I managed to replay the afternoon since Lutin had left, ending with Samson taking the stewardess into the galley and both returning dishevelled.
By the time I turned to tell Samson my conclusion, that it was only when I had seen the lust in both their eyes after returning to the cabin, that I had felt the undeniable attraction to him, he had my wrist in a firm grasp as I my hand hovered over his crotch.
“Oh for fuck's sake!” I exclaimed, unbuckling my seat belt and jumping up and away from his body.
We stared at each other for a moment, his eyes a little wild and most definitely excited, mine no doubt showing mortification and an equal amount of excitement. Shit. What the hell had Lutin done to me and why?
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