In any spot we found people, we led them back to Frontier Square, and made sure they were seen to. Our third trip, Aiko asked about his father—and with no answer, he asked each time we were there.
Yuuto and Aoi had moved to the square to help supervise what was going on. Most people were safe. There were only a few homes that suffered real damage. With three druids rushing through the city, pouring water on things, it wasn’t hard to keep the fires under control.
The guards were exceptional—they were trained well and were quick to find and roust the arsonists. The arsonists were arrogant, and once we all saw what they looked like, wearing the livery of Savion’s Stronghold with some bizarre crown on the breast, it was then easy to spot them and collect them.
Belshazzar and Dorian didn’t bring quite as many back as Roran, Aiko, and me.
After fighting the fires for nearly two hours, we were able to stay in the square and leave to put out whatever flames rose up. A few people still trickled in here and there.
“Where are my parents?” Aiko asked. He turned and faced the large crowd behind us. “Has anyone seen High Master Reo Elkthorne or his wife, Suri?”
A murmured ripple passed through the crowd, but no one had an answer. Aiko glanced at me—I knew what he wanted to do. I nodded, and I motioned Roran to follow.
We were at the Elkthorne house in moments.
It was consumed in flames that didn’t reach into the sky. There were houses on either side burning the same way. I couldn’t decide if it was a new or old fire.
We hadn’t seen it because it was a lower house at the bottom of the rise. And without the billowing flames and smoke, there was no chance with all the rest of the city on fire.
“Mother!” Aiko screamed at the building. “Father!”
The crackling of the flames, along with the creaking of the house, made it nearly impossible to hear if there was any response.
“Mother!” Aiko walked closer as he yelled, “Father! Answer me! Mother!”
Then, just barely over the sounds, I heard the answer. “Aiko…”
Aiko tried to charge the front door, but Dorian was suddenly in front of him, shaking his head. “No. You can’t go in.”
“My mother is in there! Let me go!” Aiko snapped into full vampire.
Dorian flickered and held himself over Aiko. “Don’t threaten me, boy. You cannot go in there.” He glanced over to the shadows next to us.
“Ugh.” Belshazzar walked into the firelight. “I’m only doing this because we need you to help get Gwen back and you’re going to be useless—”
“Bel!” Dorian snapped.
“Fuck off, little brother.”
But Dorian’s twin was gone in the next moment, disappearing through the flames.
Gwen would kill him for this. I just knew it.
We watched silently as occasionally, a new sound would filter out. A grunt, a curse, a bang. The flames seemed to be growing, and I realized that this had probably been the last house they’d set ablaze.
I grabbed Aiko’s hand as he stared blankly at the inferno that had been his childhood home.
There was a great heaving sound through the fire, and the house creaked, shook—
—and collapsed.
Aiko screamed like no one I had ever heard before. Dorian’s eyes went wide with shock, and I could see a look of pure terror in them and felt it in mine, as well.
“I’m fine, thanks for asking,” Bel said from behind us.
We all spun and found him standing there, holding Suri in a cradle carry. He knelt and put her down on the ground and looked up at Aiko.
“Your father was already dead when I found her,” he said. “I heard the house start to give up, and I had to leave him to save her.”
Aiko dropped to his knees and pulled his mother into his arms, crying. She was breathing, I could see her chest rising and falling, and her pregnant stomach moved visibly with the baby inside.
I glanced at Belshazzar, who was dusting ash and dirt off of his shoulder. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”
“Don’t make this shit a habit. I have my hands full.” He walked away, still dusting his sleeves.
21
Kimber
Aiko hugged his aunt and uncle as I waited at the top of the gangway.
His Uncle Daiki stared up at me, but I held my place. He wanted to threaten me with bodily harm if something happened to Aiko, but nothing would.
His aunt touched his cheek as he backed up and smiled at him. Ikue was his mother’s sister, and they had agreed to watch Suri while we were gone.
“Go,” she said. “Help find his woman. He saved our Suri and little Raiden. Go.”
He rushed up the gangplank, and with the help of the dock workers, we cast off.
Back on the water again, but this time, supposedly for only a day and a night, to the Barren Bay and the Short River Gorge.
Elkthorne was grateful to us for helping them with the fires. I was sure they would blame us for the attack, but they didn’t. They blamed Niniane alone.
Once Aoi and Yuuto spoke, they gave us a fast sloop to get us up the coast to where their intelligence said the mad queen was hiding.
The sloop had only two sails: a foresail and gaff-rigged mainsail. Easy, and with six of us we could take turns sleeping. We desperately needed it.
I steered us out into the water, but not far. The wind was a strong northerly, so we wouldn’t have much work aside from steering. Rilen and Roran were getting good at swinging the rope, gaff, and rigging to get the boat moving the way we needed. Rilen retreated down below with Belshazzar and Dorian for sleep. He was the most spent of all of us. Roran stood at the bow, just watching the water.
Aiko sat on the bench behind the wheel with me.
“Are you all right?” I asked quietly.
He looked at me. “Did you know that my real name isn’t Aiko?”
That was a surprise. “It isn’t?”
He shook his head. “I was named Akio. It was a strong name. My grandfather was Akio. My great-great-uncle was Akio. Then, when I was in my teen years, and my father became disappointed in me, that I wasn’t what he’d hoped for, he started to call me Aiko. He would introduce me as his disappointment. His little flower, his darling Aiko.
“I don’t even know what he was looking for in me. I did everything he wanted. I was an eager student in everything, including sciences and fighting techniques. Nothing made that man happy.”
Aiko blinked a few times, staring up at Roran standing at the bow. “I’m not sorry he’s dead.”
Belshazzar, who I had thought was sleeping, walked up the few steps between the main deck and the pilot deck. “He died badly, Akio. There was a wooden beam through his chest, his head half pulled off, and a look of terror on his face. He was a dozen feet from your mother when the beam came down. I watched him push his way ahead of her to get through the only visible passage.” Belshazzar shook his head. “He’s not worth a single thought. Coward.”
Aiko nodded. “Thank you. I’m glad he died badly.”
Bel looked at me quickly and smirked. “I could come to like him.”
“Please don’t,” I said.
“I’ll steer for a while. Get sleep. We’re going to need your amazing breaking abilities at peak form just in case I need them.”
“So selfless,” I mumbled but stepped away from the wheel. “Watch out for sandbars, Your Highness.”
“Land on the left, water on the right. It’s not that hard,” he said.
Aiko and I walked down the short set of stairs and down into the ship. There was a small galley and eating area to the back with a few high windows, and then two bedrooms. Bel had claimed the one port, sharing the space with Dorian. The rest of us had to figure out the other room.
Rilen was asleep on one side of the bed. He was the most exhausted of all of us. He had kept the water flowing until all the fires were mostly contained or were within the firefighters’ abilities to contain. He had just about co
llapsed after that.
I shucked the outfit I was wearing, trying to drop it neatly on the chair, but not really caring. I climbed up under the sheets and motioned Aiko to join me. He wiggled around a bit to find a comfortable spot.
Turning my head, I lifted my chin and offered my vein. “Take, Aiko. You need it.”
I saw him want to hesitate and refuse my offer, but in the next moment, I saw something new there. A resolve I hadn’t seen, a willingness to accept what this was with the four of us.
He lowered his mouth to my skin and kissed it softly. I didn’t even feel his fangs slide into my skin, but the pull and desire were unmistakable. His hand slipped between my legs, and he teased me as my hand found his hard cock and stroked slowly. He suckled at my neck, taking only a few sips at a time to prolong our time.
“Mm,” Rilen said, stretching and yawning. “A druid could get used to waking up to that…”
“You need more sleep,” I managed to say.
“In a bit,” he answered, taking his own stiffening shaft in his hand.
The door opened to the room, and Roran stood there, frozen for just a moment. He stepped in and shut the door. “Bel said I might find you three here.”
“Who is at the bow?” I asked.
“No one,” Roran said, pulling off his jacket. “Belshazzar is a capable captain. We’ll be fine.” He dropped his pants off his hips and climbed on the bed. “And I’m not letting this happen again without me. I’ve missed our ilati.”
“Three?” Aiko asked and gave me a surprised look.
“Ilati is inventive,” Rilen said, motioning to his brother, who was crawling up the bed slowly. Roran did as Rilen requested, and Rilen leaned in close to Aiko. “Though I think that I should like to fuck you tonight, Aiko. If you’re up for it.”
I chuckled. “Well, it seems that your cock is betraying you!”
“Traitorous beast,” Aiko grumbled. “You don’t have an objection to…”
I grinned. “Take your pleasure. If you think you’d like to try it, I won’t stop you.” I bent to his ear. “Watching Dorian fuck either of them is a treat.”
“Gods,” he whispered and looked at Rilen. After a moment’s pause, Aiko nodded.
The grin on Rilen’s face was unmistakable. “First, we always make sure that ilati is comfortable and taken care of. She is the tether that brings us all together and keeps us strong.”
I smiled, feeling Roran propping up some pillows behind himself and settling in. I motioned Aiko and Rilen to kneel up, close to one another at the end of the bed. “I want Aiko inside me when he has Rilen inside him.”
Aiko’s eyes were wide. Roran ran his hands over my sides, stroking over my skin softly. “And what do I get, Mistress?”
I smiled at him as I maneuvered myself to all fours. “You may have my ass, Roran.”
“Oh, I do love that,” he said and grabbed a small bottle of oil from the pack on the floor.
Carefully, his fingers worked on my dark hole while my mouth eagerly worked back and forth on Rilen’s and Aiko’s cocks. While I feasted on Rilen, my hand made work of Aiko’s. When Roran’s finger breached me, I chanced to look up and found Rilen and Aiko kissing each other.
That was incredibly sexy.
A second finger joined the first and brought my attention back to what Roran was doing. He had used just the right amount of oil to loosen me. I had never thought I would like and ask for this, but I did. There was something so very different about being claimed from the back.
“Come,” Roran said, handing his brother the oil. “Ride me, ilati.” He coaxed me back until I felt the head of his shaft against me. A nudge more and he slipped through the tight ring of my ass.
As I lowered myself, Aiko eagerly moved to cover me and found my lips. “What does it feel like?” he asked quietly. But I didn’t have to answer because Rilen had followed him. In the next moment, his finger found the soft, responsive skin of his hole, and Aiko gasped.
“Oh,” he breathed.
Rilen leaned over him. “Tell me to stop if you’re not comfortable.”
“Keep going,” Aiko said.
Rilen kissed the shell of his ear, and I could tell when Rilen breached him. There was a look of pure bliss that passed over his face, with just a touch of pain. Aiko seemed surprised at the bit of pain.
“You’re untouched, Aiko,” I said, kissing his forehead. “There will be a little pain.”
He turned and stared at Rilen. “Don’t you dare stop now!”
“I think he likes this,” Roran said.
Rilen was so very careful with Aiko. He made sure there was no pain before going further, and by the time Roran was ready to take him, Aiko was a blissed-out mess.
Pushing Aiko forward a bit, he lowered him to me, and Aiko kissed me sweetly. I leaned into this ear and whispered, “Put your cock in me, Aiko.”
He was surprised for a moment. “Are you sure?”
“Oh, yes, love. Yes. The feeling is like no other.”
Sliding into me, he gasped. “I feel…”
“You feel me,” Roran answered. We were all becoming breathless. “Brother, take him. Show him how good this is.”
Aiko’s expression changed from just delighted to a state of utter euphoria, even though I knew it still had to hurt him a bit. Rilen had a look of hard restraint—he couldn’t get enough of Aiko surrounding him.
“Are you ready, ilati?” Rilen asked.
“When you are,” I answered. “Take your pleasure, and bring us ours.”
Rilen was slow, careful, reminding Aiko he’d stop anytime he asked. But Aiko didn’t seem inclined to ask. Aiko tried to keep his eyes open, his lips on mine, but it was a wasted effort. The sensations that Rilen was creating in him were too much.
Rilen’s thrusts telegraphed through us. He pressed into Aiko and Aiko into me, and then I moved over Roran. It was a well-coordinated filthy ballet of skin on skin. The slick movement of skin on skin, the sweat of bodies easing the friction to the point where all it felt like was satin sliding over us.
The press of heat and weight heightened the movements, the erotic touches between us. Rilen pushed down into Aiko and leaned forward, finding my lips. We kissed and panted and shared our breath. I could see Roran watching Aiko over my shoulder.
“Go ahead,” I whispered between my gasps of moans of pleasure. “Kiss him, Roran. Learn about the lips of the man your brother and I love…”
Aiko’s eyes snapped open, and Roran’s lips touched his. The kiss was electric—I could feel it in the movement of Aiko’s and Roran’s cocks inside me.
I groaned. Who was I? Who was this person filled by two men, taking pleasure and blood from her lovers? A year ago—just one single year—I had trouble even thinking of sex. I’d been shy and inhibited. Not a clue that my powers and abilities ran off sex.
There were times I wondered if my lack of abilities as a child stemmed from never being told where my power came from, never knowing who had created me and imbued me with magic that seemed to control the whole of S’Kir itself.
That Elex had tricked me, and used me, and kept me drained of my power still stung, but only just.
Because now, I had four men who I loved. Four men who would see to my sexual need, and, well… appetites, and lend me their blood when I needed—or craved—that as well.
And I had four men who loved and needed me.
“Aiko,” Rilen whispered, “take my blood.” He raised his arm to Aiko’s mouth.
Roran brought his wrist up to my lips and grasped his brother’s hand. “And you take mine, ilati.”
There was no hesitation. Aiko and I sank our fangs in their wrists, and our orgasms detonated between all of us at the same time.
It took what seemed an hour, but it was probably just a few minutes to gather ourselves from the pleasure that had made my vision go white and my brain go completely blank. We were a twisted mess of limbs and sheets, and it was hard to tell who started where.
I found myself face to face with Aiko, whose heavy lids were starting to droop into sleep.
“Are you all right?” I asked quietly.
“I held myself apart from physical pleasure. I couldn’t be distracted,” he whispered. “But this… this isn’t just a physical bond anymore. This is different. More.” He smiled. “I want more.”
Rilen chuckled. “Not tonight, sehru.”
Roran lifted his head. “Definitely not tonight. You’ll be too sore.”
“But I like this sore…”
I laughed. “We’ve created a monster.”
Rilen was at my lips. “That we have, ilati. But I think that sehru is a monster we can control.”
Aiko propped up on an elbow. “Sehru?”
“Second, as in a second brother,” Roran said. “Rilen is my masu, my twin. Kimber is our ilati, our beloved.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “What is Dorian?”
“Pain in the ass. It needs no special words,” Roran answered.
We fell asleep tangled together, chuckling.
22
GWYNNORE
A tiny prick of my finger startled me awake.
Had a mouse gotten in here?
Did it just fucking bite me? Perfect.
That was about right. The rodents would start feasting on my flesh like the starving scavengers they were. And I wouldn’t be able to fight them off.
“Finally. There you are,” a masculine voice stated quietly behind me. “Do you know how many caves there are in the Barren Mountains? That was ridiculous.”
I blinked my sluggish eyes open and stared at the gems—they were shimmering like mad with excitement, burning my sensitive eyes. I gulped down a lungful of air, unable to move from the agony. More days had passed—the amount unknown to me now. I was this close to putting myself into Rest…and someone showed up now?
I squinted at the sparkling stones, my hand placed solidly on one—just in case they wanted to take me away to Ota’ano again, as the minerals had been doing repeatedly, removing the pain from my mind.
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