“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Stryx muttered.
Viktoria exchanged smirks with Ember as the dragon pushed off from the ground and launched itself into flight. It gained height and circled the house, climbing high and swooping low until it extended its two rear legs and plummeted towards the roof of the house.
Ciaran gazed up at the dragon. “I’m not sure dragons on the roof is covered by our homeowner’s insurance.”
“What?” Viktoria gasped in mock horror. “Maybe you should upgrade your policy to cover ‘acts of goddesses’ darling.”
“Eh,” He shrugged. “These guys can afford to pay for damages.”
Landing with no impact, the dragon folded its wings and settled in to roost on the roof.
The crow followed the dragon, and the polar bear and snake set to examining the area at ground level. The pond erupted as the ahuizotl burst from underwater and pounced at the shadow animals.
“I would have gotten you a cat if I’d known you wanted a pet.” Stryx pulled Ember into his arms.
“Selene has the cat.”
Stryx sighed. “Of course she does.”
Lurky took Viktoria’s hand in his. “Will you come with me?”
Viktoria searched their bond, but Lurky was still keeping his feelings buried deep. There was a new sparkle to his eyes, though. It gave her a little hope maybe things would work out for them. And if not, she could give him one more thing before she left.
She nodded and followed him inside.
CHAPTER SEVENTY THREE
JAEL
JAEL’S HEART TRIPPED unsteadily as he led the way to his cave.
Nervous.
This was what it felt like to be nervous. Viktoria’s curiosity and a little fear came to him through their bond. He’d caused that anxiety in her, but hopefully he could make up for it now.
There hadn’t been time to furnish a suite in the upper levels of the house like a human would have, and he didn’t want to be in the guest quarters of one of the others. But he wasn’t human, and neither was Viktoria. Would it matter? Would this be enough for her?
He opened the door, hesitated, then tugged her into his room when the door didn’t slam in his face. For the first time, it seemed like a place where a person lived rather than existed.
His bed, made up with soft sheets, warm blankets, and a thick quilt, overflowed with pillows. The bottle of Viktoria’s perfume, which he had no intention of ever returning, stood on the table. Still only had one chair. Damn it. He should have brought another chair.
A framed sketch Idris had done for him of Maescia and Faba hung on the wall over flames crackling in the fireplace. Lighted candles of all shapes and sizes created dancing shadows on every surface.
Every shadow reached for his Dragă, caressing her skin as she paced around the room. “I love what you’ve done with the cave, but my clothes are not going to live here.”
What did that mean? She wouldn’t live with him either? Did he have to live here anymore? In the dream he’d shared with her, they’d lived in her house with their children. Is that what she meant? There was enough room in her closet for the few pieces of clothing he owned.
Which reminded him she was naked under that silver glow. “You need to wear something around the others.” He closed the door. “You have an entire house full of clothes. I don’t see what the problem is.” Well, her clothing seemed to be lacking something, but even that was better than her being naked.
“You should be glad I’m not. If you rip them here like you did in Pohjola, we’re going to have a problem. And, I think you’re wearing too many clothes.” Viktoria stepped closed and slipped her hands under his shirt.
Jael let out a breath, muscles twitching under her fingers. He grabbed her wrists to stop her. “No. This time we’re going to do things the way I want to.”
“Not yet. Sit.” She pushed him towards the only chair in his room. “And close your eyes.”
Caught between irritation she was ignoring him, and amusement with her antics. Jael spun her so her back was to his front and sat on the edge of the chair, dragging her into his lap. “Strygoi Viktoria makes me nervous when she wants me to close my eyes. She causes all sorts of mischief.”
“I promise you’ll like this mischief.” Viktoria stretched her body out and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Close your eyes.”
He relished the sensations of heat and shivers he brought out in her as his fingertips skimmed over her skin. With a great deal of trepidation, closed his eyes as she asked. Last time she’d been out of his sight, she’d created a fucking dragon, now perched on the roof.
Viktoria ran her hands down his arms and something cool closed around each of his wrists. Two heavy weights pressed against his skin. Not shadows, then.
It was one thing for her to play these bondage games with shadows when they were alone. He wouldn’t wear cuffs for everyone to see. Jael’s eyes snapped open, but whatever she’d put on his wrists remained hidden beneath her hands. “What are you up to, strygoi? You seek to lock me up and have your way with me again? If we’re keeping track, I believe it’s my turn to have you bound and at my mercy.”
A shadow pulled her long black hair over one shoulder and she tilted her head to the side. She rotated her hips against him. “Play along and you can have your way with me later. Close your eyes and bite me, Lurky. I need your venom to make this work. All of it. And trust me, so our bond is strong.”
Unsure about that damn nickname, or being bound again, he felt no ambiguity about the request to bite her. After she’d made such a point about him not biting her, the invitation and offer of her throat sent venom surging through him. He closed his eyes and sank his fangs into her neck.
Viktoria moaned. The sound of her taking pleasure in something she’d forbidden him to do not so long ago made him ache to be deep inside her in every way possible. She laid her hands over his and intertwined their fingers as she lifted his hands from her body.
He growled.
“Patience.”
The one thing, as an assassin, he had in abundance always deserted him around her.
She converted his venom into her magic somehow. The sensation of her shadows flowed over and under his skin, the touch of them familiar, but they carried sentience now, moving with purpose. “Viktoria...” He opened his eyes.
His Dragă radiated silver and drew every shadow in the room close. They spun and twisted around the two of them, condensing around their wrists as she directed half the shadows to each.
“What are you up to, strygoi?” The shadows surrounding them settled around his hands. They were cool and more substantial than they looked as they piled on top of one another.
“Shhhh. Think of your swords,” Viktoria whispered. “We must show the shadows what to be.”
His swords? They were destroyed. “Viktoria, I gave up the past when —”
“You can’t give up a part of yourself. You swore to your daughter you would kill mages, but think you’ve broken your vow to her because of me. I can feel it eating at you, though you try to hide it. I won’t have you feel this way because you think you need to make some sort of grand gesture for me. You are my assassin and I fell in love with you when you killed those men for me three thousand years ago.”
She turned his hands to show him the medallions on the underside of each wrist as the last of her shadows disappeared into them. “But I’m not helpless anymore. I don’t want you to give up what you do. I want to help.”
Pain shot through Jael’s chest and he sucked in a breath. “How did you get those? I thought... I thought the mage destroyed them.”
“He couldn’t destroy strygoi magic. Your daughter would have been one. Let us help you.”
“Us?”
Silver magic flowed out of the medallions, forming two question marks.
“Your daughter’s magic never left you. Mages couldn’t take her from you before. Why would they be able to take her now?”
“Maescia?” Jael w
hispered. “You’re still here? You want to stay with me?”
The question marks merged and formed into a woman that floated in the air. Traces of his little girl lingered in the grown-up version in front of him.
After three thousand years, his heart started beating for Viktoria only a few days ago, but he remembered a time when it beat for his daughter. Before he had been turned. Sadness filled him.
Maescia leaned forward, her lips brushing his cheek. Instead of a song in his mind conveying the mood of his swords, his daughter whispered, “Habu, Abu.”
Her silly words put an even sillier grin on his face, but he didn’t care. “Habu, Hibu.”
Maescia pulled back and faced Viktoria, who smiled and nodded. The silver woman dissolved into a cloud, floated over their hands and expanded to cover them both, then cascaded down like confetti.
Jael’s heart might not beat for his daughter anymore, but he felt her take a place in his soul.
He smiled as Maescia’s magic gathered in front of them. “I’m not sure I can survive two strygoi. I’ll never win an argument again.”
Viktoria laughed. “I don’t know what gave you the idea you could win an argument with one of us.”
Laughter caressed his mind.
“You've become a lot sassier lately, young lady.” Jael resigned himself to his fate as his daughter’s magic split in half, each portion flowing into a medallion.
His Dragă twisted in his lap and cupped the same cheek Maescia had kissed. “Your metal swords are gone, but my shadows can help you. Past and present together will shape your future. Imagine your swords.”
Jael pictured his swords in his mind as Viktoria’s shadows emerged from the medallions, and combined with Maescia’s silver magic, coalesced to take the forms of the twin blades he’d carried for three millennia. The blades no longer gleamed like polished metal, but were shadow laced with silver, and when the hilts pressed into his palms, they were solid enough.
The touches of the strygoi magic that was his daughter’s and Viktoria’s magic, new and old at the same time, both familiar, felt right, and he felt whole again. No, not just whole — he was what he’d always been meant to become.
“Are they as you like?”
“They’re perfect.” Jael whispered the words, afraid if he spoke too loud, the shadow swords would disappear.
Viktoria slipped off his lap and faced him. She reached for his right wrist and slid the shadow and medallion over his hand.
“No, please don’t —”
“Shhh.” She slid the band around the blade just above the crosspiece. The band constricted until Jael could no longer tell where it ended and the blade began, but the medallion gleamed silver.
She did the same thing with the band on his left wrist. “When we met, you were a creature of darkness. Now, as mine, you are a creature of shadow.” Viktoria took a few steps back and sat on the edge of the bed. “Show me the Scourge, Lurky.”
Jael stood, swinging his swords to get a feel for them, then fell into the familiar pattern of forms and routine practice.
CHAPTER SEVENTY FOUR
VIKTORIA
RELIEVED HE WASN’T angry with her about the medallions and creating the shadow swords with the help of his daughter’s magic, Viktoria lay on the bed, chin propped on her hands.
Finally, she’d done something right. She’d taken his pain away and somehow caused him unhappiness. He’d bonded with her, but didn’t seem to want it. He wanted someone to protect, and even though the deal with her mother was over, she couldn’t be a helpless damsel anymore. At least she’d managed to get his swords right.
She watched, wishing she could see Lurky’s muscles, as he went through basic, slow movements at first, progressing to faster motions. He added turns and flips, spinning his blades into blurs she could only see because they were made from her magic.
Every one of his actions was precise. Just watching his concentration and focus on what he was doing sent shivers through her. She should go now. Let him have the space he seemed to want, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave quite yet.
Entranced by his movements, a jolt of regret ran through her when he stopped, going still as a statue. He turned, caught her gaze, and all that focus and concentration converged on her, trapping her in his eyes.
Never breaking their locked gazes as his eyes went to that darker black, he stooped to set his swords on the floor, rose, empty-handed yet somehow infinitely more dangerous, and stalked towards her. Her creature of darkness had returned.
Heat and anticipation swept through her as their bond flooded with all the ways he intended to use his fixated diligence on her. Viktoria sat up and scrambled back on the bed, the intensity of him taking her breath away. All the damn pillows were in her way.
She reached for a shadow and pulled it over herself. With such a new shadow, she couldn’t travel far and stepped out near the fireplace.
Like he’d anticipated where she’d end up, Lurky was there, pressing his body against hers.
“You can't hide from me anymore. I can feel you, even in your shadows.” Lurky scooped her up and tossed her onto the bed in an explosion of pillows.
Lurky pounced, pinning her under him. “The first time you were mine, there were bars between us. The second, you kept me leashed. The third we had to hide from fairies and leprechauns in a shadow. The fourth, I only remember flashes. This time I’m going to have you as I want to. In the light. For as long as I want.”
Keeping his eyes on hers as he lowered his head, he didn’t let her free of his fervor as he brushed his lips over hers. Viktoria tangled her hands in his hair, pulling him down, wanting passion, not patience.
He resisted with a smirk, giving her lip a gentle bite. Dragging his fangs along her neck, he shifted his body down hers in increments so tiny it seemed he wasn’t moving at all.
She pushed on his shoulders, trying to urge him to move, to give her what she needed, but Jael refused to be budged or hurried in his exploration of her. When he released her right nipple, it was only to move to her left breast and begin again.
Viktoria groaned in frustration, digging her nails into his shoulders. She squirmed beneath him, but his larger body kept her trapped.
“I’m not done,” Lurky murmured into her breast, his black eyes meeting hers as he bit and laved her nipple. He took an even longer time with this breast before licking his way over every rib in a slow back-and-forth pattern that maddened her.
“Lurky!” Viktoria screamed in frustration, sitting up.
“If you distract me, I’ll have to start all over.” Lurky lifted his head to grin at her. “Is that more skin I haven’t explored yet?”
Viktoria narrowed her eyes, blew out a breath, and flopped back onto the pillows.
Lurky prowled up her body. He lowered his head, his lips coming down over hers.
She turned her head to the side so his lips landed on her cheek. “You already had the chance to explore this part of me!”
He chuckled. “But you moved, and I lost my place. You know I’ve had some trouble with my memories lately.” He tilted her face back towards his with a gentle finger on her chin and moved his lips over hers. “I want to make sure I don’t forget any of this.”
Viktoria pouted.
“Don’t you want to kiss me?” He placed kisses on each corner of her mouth.
She shook her head, letting mutiny show in her eyes.
He slid the tip of his tongue over the seam of her lips. “I think you’d like kissing me.”
Viktoria rolled her eyes to stare at the wall, keeping her lips pursed firm.
“A bargain, then?” He nipped at her mouth. “What can I offer you for a kiss?”
She lowered her eyes to stare at his chest.
“My shirt? Are you mad because you’re naked and I’m not? You seemed to prefer it that way before. I’m just trying to make you happy.”
Mischief in her eyes, Viktoria glowed silver as she called shadows to her, honing the
ir edges so they were sharp.
“I’ll trade my shirt —” His body stiffened over hers as shadows slipped under his collar, sleeves, waistband, pant legs, and socks. She raised a fist so he could see it and flung her fingers open. “Hey!”
Shadow knives exploded from under his clothing, leaving it in tatters and him bare to her view. Her eyes roamed over Lurky’s form, watching his muscles stretch and flex under bronzed skin. His erection lay hot and hard against her thigh. She reached for him, but he intercepted her hand.
“Patience, strygoi. Not all of us have a house full of extra clothes, you know. I am owed at least three kisses for you tearing my clothes apart.”
“I’ll buy —”
Jael’s mouth crashed down on hers, silencing her words.
Viktoria made a half-hearted effort to avoid his kiss, but when the sharp point of a fang caught on her lower lip, she relented, opening to him. His exploration of her mouth was thorough. She licked his fangs, not caring when a shallow cut opened on her tongue. Lurky groaned and sucked the drop of blood into his mouth, his tongue sealing the slight wound on hers.
Her eyes widened at the jolt of pleasure she felt through their bond when he tasted her blood, his pleasure and need surging through and building on hers.
He slid lower, giving her gentle bites along her chin and down her neck.
Then he struck.
Her back bowed as his fangs sank deep, and a hot-cold sensation flowed into her. Her nipples tightened so much it almost hurt, and her core ached. Unlike before, his venom didn’t flow through her blood. It pooled at the bite.
Lurky sat up and straddled her legs. “I’m going to enjoy this. So you just lay back and make your shadows behave themselves.”
Not going to happen. “My shadows can’t help themselves around you. No promises.”
He placed his index fingers on her neck. The venom let her feel his touch under her skin as it followed his fingertips where he drew them down her body, separating to stroke out across her shoulders, in over her collarbones, rejoining them in the center of her chest to draw a line down her sternum.
Viktoria's Shadow: Jael Page 38