Out of Darkness: Cirenthian Chronicles (Erotic Fantasy) Book 1

by D. R. Rosier

  That night I taught my sunglasses magic to Ari. Not to be outdone she had the idea to do the same thing to increase night vision by enhancing the light, and then we modified it again to work on a sliding scale based on how much light was available. The change was immediate when looking at the sun and then moving into the shade.

  Sienna had been watching all this and said, “You know that would make a great weapon, you could blind an enemy with a bright light, or total darkness.”

  I grinned, “That’s brilliant.”

  That gave me another idea, and we added sound creating a magical flash bang. It was becoming clear to me just how diverse off the cuff magic through our elementals could be. I wondered at what the spells would be like but knew I would find out soon enough.

  Our third day on the road we started to see a plume of smoke on the horizon and I pulled up on the reigns. It was an alarmingly large plume of smoke. We were still two, maybe three days from Ciren so I doubted that was it.

  Ari said softly, “Forest fire. If we ride hard we can reach it before dark.”

  I wondered how she knew that for a second, and then I realized the obvious and started scrying. The fire was large, several acres and spreading. It had also burned through a few farms and blackened land stretched away behind it. It must have been burning at least a day already, maybe longer. We took off at a canter; the horses would be able to go much farther that way.

  We slowed to a trot around noon and ate on the move, picking back up again a short time later. The horses made it almost another hour but were getting lathered up so we slowed to a walk before proceeding again at a trot. The ride in the afternoon seemed to take forever, but we eventually arrived.

  When we got there Ari tried putting it out, and some of it did die, but it was way too big. I gauged the size of the fire with scrying and while channeling magic to my elementals, told them to set up firebreaks. There was no way I could make enough water just to put it out.

  Great wind concentrated in a ten foot funnel tore all the grass, sticks and other flammables and tossed it to either side. It was taking a lot of magic and thought I could only do it for fifteen minutes or so, I got off the horse and started to run in front of the fire, trying to completely cut off the way the fire was moving with firebreaks. My water elemental dampened the trees and the ground by the break.

  It still wasn’t enough, but Ari seeing what I was doing joined me, and we managed to corral the fire in a semicircle, no reason to block the already dead and burned area. We set up camp upwind to stay out of the smoke after that and kept an eye on it. The fire did jump the break in a couple of spots during flare ups, but I was able to put them out quickly with water before it started to spread any further.

  I was low on magic, almost at a quarter, but before we went to bed that night I set up a ward along the firebreak with instructions to douse any fire that made it past and to wake me up if the magic I fed into it ran out. At that point I was dipping below a quarter.

  We were all hot and sweaty from the fire and the smoke, so we washed up the best we could without a tub and changed clothes before going to sleep. I hated seeing a forest fire and the damage left behind, but that was nothing to Ari’s reaction and I held her close that night wrapped up in my arms. I didn’t understand the degree of pain in her eyes at the burning forest, but the truth was I didn’t need too, not just to be there for her.

  We stayed the following day just to make sure it wouldn’t spread further. We filled our time with just chatting although there was very little joking around. Ari and I wouldn’t be full with magic until much later that night, or perhaps not even until tomorrow after how low we had gotten. With my ward still active I wasn’t gaining as fast as I could either, so we couldn’t train.

  The fire burnt itself out the next day, but the area was still very hot. We decided to stick around one more day to be sure of it, but we spent it taking a look at the three farms that had burned down. There wasn’t anyone around, and no bodies we could see, so perhaps they got out in time.

  Ari slowly cheered up the following day as we rode deeper into areas that were free of harm from the fire. By that night she was her usual cheerful self. After finally resuming our nightly training session and having a quick meal, Sienna went inside the tent giving us some private time, she really was a wonder.

  I asked Ari about it, the fire, and how it affected her, wanting to understand.

  Ari considered for a moment then nodded, “Elves have a stronger connection to land than Humans do. We can feel the health of the trees and grass around us. That’s why I don’t like cities so much, it feels like losing a limb if you can imagine that, or perhaps it’s more like losing one of your senses. Imagine if you suddenly couldn’t smell anything anymore, it would be… not painful but really uncomfortable.

  “The fire… well it doesn’t really cause me or the land true pain, but I could feel the life fading and dying. It wasn’t a pleasant thing.”

  I pulled her onto my lap and kissed her softly.

  “I think I understand, at least the best I can, without feeling it myself.”

  She put a hand on my chest, her other arm wrapped around me and she cupped the back of my head with her hand, and drew me into a lingering soft kiss.

  Ari pleaded with me softly in tones that gripped my heart, “Make love to me Marcus…”

  I kissed her again as I laid her on the grass beneath us. I worshipped her body with my lips and fingertips first. I kissed down the graceful curve of her neck and onto her shoulder. I pulled her shirt off slowly, claiming each new view of her silken soft skin with my lips. She arched her back unconsciously and whispered my name as I teased the bottom of her pert supple breasts with my lips and tongue.

  I explored the curve of her waist, and her tight stomach, and then worked my way down to her long toned legs.

  I got lost in the taste of her skin, the feel of her hands on me while I explored and loved every inch of her body. When I finally got between her legs, I slid slowly and effortlessly into her tight sex thanks to her wet and ready sheath. Her body welcomed me and we locked eyes as she shivered and trembled under me, our extended loving foreplay causing her to reach bliss on my first stroke.

  “I love you Ari Lira,” I whispered.

  Her bright smile, twinkling eyes and loving face was answer enough as she caressed my body, but she said it back all the same.

  I slowly pleasured her with measured but long strokes into her soft supple body. Our eyes seemed locked together as she rose to her pleasure time and again, each one more powerful, making her body tremble and quake harder than the last.

  She whimpered softly, “Cum in me my love, I want to feel you fill me.”

  As if the words were an order I felt myself expand within her tight heat, I felt ecstasy as my legs went numb and I emptied myself into her waiting body.

  I kissed her softly for a minute as I came down, and then rolled off onto my back. We looked out into the night sky together holding hands.

  Ari asked softly, “Do you think the goddess knew? I mean, do you think when she put you there in that field, that it would lead to this, us? The three of us I mean?”

  I replied in a thoughtful tone, “I don’t know. If she did I owe her a big thank you. All I know for sure is I was judged, and she thought this an appropriate place and world to put me on. If she knew it or not, it was still our choices that led us here.”

  She rolled over and put her arm over my chest, bent at the elbow and rested her chin on the back of her hand. Her face and eyes looked up to mine.

  She said, “My love and my life are yours. It’s so strange, usually it is the Elf who must endure afterwards, when the human ages and dies. I feel, blessed in a way by that.”

  Before I could ask what she meant exactly she started kissing her way down my chest. I moaned loudly when she reached her destination and looked down. Her full lips slowly took me in while her expressive silver eyes twinkled at me. Her silken light silver hair tickled my sto
mach and inner thigh as she took me in all the way to her throat as I felt myself growing against her wet warm tongue.

  She hummed, vibrating her throat against my tip which made my cock surge and jump, popping into her throat. She moaned changing the feel of the vibrations before pulling her head up and off. She raised an eyebrow at me and started stroking me teasingly.

  She seemed to transform from earlier. Her face was hungry and filled with naked desire.

  She said sultrily, “I want you to take me, hard and fast, heedlessly until you explode deep inside me. I want to be taken, owned, and claimed.”

  She squeezed my upper shaft and ran her thumb up and over the tip collecting my precum. She tilted her head and sexily looked at me through her eyelashes as she sucked the taste off her thumb.

  She purred throatily, “Do you remember that first time? That’s how I want it, rough and wild.”

  Everything about her was screaming at me to take her, and her scent hit me like a train and my nostrils flared. I dimly recollected our first time, but the thought faded, all thoughts faded from my mind until there was nothing left but her and desire.

  I sat up and pushed her forward while grabbing her inner thigh, twisting her body away from me roughly. She fell to her hands and knees, her ass popped up in a desperate invitation. I grabbed her hips and pulled her back into me, burying myself into her depths hard and fast. I paused long enough to grab a fistful of her beautiful long hair and pulled back hard before I started pumping my body in and out of hers.

  She looked petite and fragile, but I knew her Elven body was more robust and stronger than a humans. I hardly held back on my speed and strength as I plundered her body with a single minded ferocity.

  She purred, “That’s it, harder, faster,” as her body bucked back into mine.

  I spanked her hard and growled, “Mine.”

  Her body shuddered and trembled as she came all over my intruder but I didn’t slow my rhythm as I pounded into her tight wet sheath. She whimpered softly as she came down which drove me to go even faster. Her scent of arousal was maddening, along with the sound of her voice and her tight sexy body I lost my control and rutted into her like an animal.

  All that mattered to me in that moment was reaching completion and claiming her body with my seed, I needed to fill her. I felt it growing in me, the pleasure rose to a breaking point and I slapped her ass hard again and pulled back hard on her hair as I slammed in twice more. I was as deep as I could go, but I kept pushing, looking to get deeper in her body as I emptied myself into her.

  As I came down I came back to myself and pulled out. She collapsed mewling in pleasure and rolled into a ball. I had been so focused on my need I hadn’t even noticed her cumming again, but just looking at her intense aftershocks I could tell she had, a lot and hard. I pulled her into my lap and kissed her softly as she cuddled up into me with her head under my chin and against my chest.

  It had been intense, almost crazy, no… it was crazy. I had totally lost it to a fog of lust and the need to make her mine. I remembered my growl, and telling her she was mine. It had been said in a dark way, a claim of ownership. I kissed her on the head softly again as she shook in my arms.

  I figured it was an Elven thing, remembering how animalistic and intense the first time it had been. She was sweet and loving, and I knew she liked how I treated her. Apparently though, I would have to claim her like an object every once in a while. While I didn’t think of her that way at all, it wasn’t an unpleasant prospect either.

  She tilted her head back and kissed my neck and jaw line. She blushed when she pulled back and looked at me. She looked worried as she caressed my face and studied me for a moment, before she expressed relief. She must have found whatever she was looking for on my face. What did she expect to find? Rejection? Disgust? Not in this life.

  I caressed her face and played with her hair, then teasingly ran my fingertip down the back of her ear. She didn’t volunteer any information so I let it go. I knew she would tell me eventually what it was about, and why she was ashamed of it. It wasn’t like humanity didn’t have skeletons in the biological closet.

  It was also apparent why she begged me so fervently to make love to her, she had known it was coming, and wanted to have something precious between us before it happened. I certainly wasn’t going to argue with that either.

  She wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me, “Take me to bed?”

  I smiled, “Always.”

  She was in my lap sideways so I just stood up, sliding an arm under her legs and upper back. I carried her to the tent and we laid down and I spooned Ari while she spooned Sienna. That’s when I realized Sienna must have known about it already, and why she gave us privacy so fast.

  That is what finally annoyed me. Why was she afraid to tell me and why be afraid of how I’d react after the act? If she didn’t tell me soon, I’d ask.

  With a sleepy thought I set up a ward to wake us if there was any trouble and fell into slumber.

  Chapter 19

  I did my best in the morning as we ate breakfast and packed up to push it down. But Ari didn’t even try to explain it, acting as if it and the awkwardness on her part that followed never happened. It was such a stupid reason to be pissed off, but I was. Hadn’t I proved myself to her, that I loved her and would do anything for her?

  Yet she hides it from me. She hides something that is inextricably shared forcefully between us. I get woman need their secrets, but this shouldn’t be one of them.

  It took me a couple of hours but I realized she did trust me; she was just ashamed of whatever it was. Perhaps it was taboo and the Elves didn’t even talk about it, whatever though, I still needed to know. Didn’t I?

  Apparently she didn’t think so.

  I was glad for the ride; it allowed me to settle my mind. By the time we stopped for the evening I was back to my normal not ready to bite her head off self.

  Sienna frowned looking through the packs, “Well, with the fire adding a few days to our trip we are down to a couple of things. Do you want venison soup, or venison soup?”

  I snickered, “I’ll try the second one.”

  She grinned, “Got it.”

  We chatted while she cooked and continued throughout dinner. We thought we’d get to the capitol early tomorrow morning, which was a good thing as we were running low on food. Not that we couldn’t hunt but…

  I was tempted to ask Ari about last night, but I finally realized I had dark things in me I didn’t want to share with her either. Like how I want to pound other guys if they look at her too long. Or even that there is a small dark part of me that feels possessive of her, and reveled in claiming her last night. Even if I would never act that way without her scent driving me there, I still enjoyed it.

  No one wants their dark sides shown to the ones they love. At least I’m able to suppress my ridiculously jealous impulses, so far anyway. I put it out of my mind, I loved her and that was what counted, I was sure she would tell me if I ever had the true need to know. I already knew it would happen again, and I made my choice, I’m still here and I still love her.

  We kept the conversation to lighter subjects. I was glad I didn’t try to force a conversation about last night. It’s never pleasant to contemplate our darker aspects much less share them. That night when we went to bed I think we were all a little nervous about what opportunities and dangers tomorrow would bring…

  I got up early and watched Ari’s sword dance. It would be the last time I’d see it away from the city in a long time, I hoped we found a way to keep it up in Ciren. We ate the last of the food for breakfast, the leftover soup from last night we had left simmering on the fire. We packed up and headed for the city.

  In less than an hour we started seeing farms on the road. Before noon there were houses and an hour after that we saw the city. It was at least three times the size of Hunter’s Ridge, and instead of a mansion and government building this city actually had a castle. From our vantage point
the castle, barracks, outbuildings, and nicer large housing seemed as large as the entirety of Hunter’s ridge.

  The mage training building was in the inner city by the south gate. It wasn’t what I had been picturing when we were told it had its own gate, apparently that just meant from the inner to outer city. With all the houses and farms outside the walls it would be a trek for her sword dances. Ari looked depressed as we rode into the city and I reached out and squeezed her hand.

  “We’ll figure something out, can we teleport?”

  She snickered, “What’s that?”

  I said, “Like scrying, but instead of looking at an area, it actually moves you straight to it.”

  She shook her head, “I’ve no idea, we could try it, but it doesn’t seem possible.”

  I nodded and said sagely, “They do it on Star Trek all the time.”

  Sienna shook her head, “Another Earth reference?”

  I sighed, “And a fictional one at that. That doesn’t mean I won’t try it though.”

  The ride to the inner gates took about twenty minutes, granted the streets were packed but it was still a goodly distance. The gate guard at the south gate waved us in, apparently expecting us. I didn’t like that and wondered if they had been tracking us through scrying.

  Yes, of course they were. It would be silly to think otherwise.

  There were stables to the back of the large stone building and we headed for them. Ari waved off the stable boy and we took care of our own horses and got them groomed and fed before heading for the mage training building. I wanted to think of it as a school, but I didn’t think they had those here, people were taught by their parents.

  This place to train mages was all about keeping us under control really, not that I could blame them and it seemed to work as this country was extremely old. The building itself was fairly large. It had two levels to it and the stone looked to be sanded and polished smooth. There were a number of designs carved into it as well as small crenellations along the top and they seemed to be in perfect shape.