Sentinel Of Khoth

by Brenda Trim

  “Finn,” a sen­sual fe­male voice called over the noise in the room.

  When he caught sight of stun­ning turquoise eyes, the em­bers turned to flames roar­ing through his blood stream. The siren was head­ing his way and he could scarcely look away from the low-cut top she was wear­ing. “Talysia. Good to see you here.”

  “Well, when you told me about the club, I couldn’t wait to bring my sis­ter. Oh, this is my sis­ter, Tia. Tia, this is Finn, the dragon knight I told you about.”

  “Boy you weren’t kid­ding when you said he was a tall drink of wa­ter,” Tia said as her green eyes trav­eled over his body.

  “You told your sis­ter about the ir­re­sistible dragon you met, Taly?” Blaine asked with a wry smile as he jumped into the con­ver­sa­tion.

  Talysia laughed and shook her head. Finn’s stom­ach clenched at the way Talysia smiled at his friend. No way could he stand by if Blaine tried to take Talysia to his bed. She de­served more than a one-night stand with a sket like Blaine.

  He was some­what mol­li­fied when Talysia took a step closer to Finn. Her prox­im­ity was a live wire next to him, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult to think about much. He wanted to grab her and plant a kiss on her sup­ple lips.

  “Tia, this is Blaine. He’s an­other dragon knight, but not the one I was talk­ing about.”

  Finn chuck­led at the hurt ex­pres­sion Blaine forced on his face. It was more than ob­vi­ous his del­i­cate ego wasn’t in­jured by Talysia’s com­ment. Truth be told, Blaine’s ego was any­thing but del­i­cate.

  “I can see by the way those fe­males are hang­ing on your arm that you’re ir­re­sistible to some,” Tia teased Blaine. Finn liked Talysia’s sis­ter al­ready. Nei­ther of them bought into Blaine’s charm which meant they had good taste.

  Finn con­sid­ered the ef­fect Tia’s voice had on him a sec­ond later. Much like her sis­ter, she had a sen­sual ap­peal that danced over his eroge­nous zones. He could lis­ten to her talk for hours, as well, but he had no de­sire for much more from the fe­male.

  She was at­trac­tive like Talysia, but Finn wanted so much more from Tals than lis­ten­ing to her talk. No doubt it was be­cause he was en­tranced by her voice. “You were right about this place,” Talysia leaned close and told him. The way her breath hit his ear cou­pled with the en­tranc­ing qual­ity of her voice had his shaft hard in sec­onds.

  Finn leaned even closer to the siren. She was close enough that he heard her heart pound­ing in her chest. A smile threat­ened the cor­ner of his mouth when he re­al­ized he af­fected her as much as she did him. “It’s one of the best clubs on Khoth. There are oth­ers, but they aren’t as pop­u­lar as Toxic and don’t play as good of mu­sic. What are you drink­ing?”

  “I have no idea,” she said as she held up her glass that had a few swal­lows of blue liq­uid in the bot­tom. “The bar­tender said I would like it.”

  Finn was side­tracked when she shrugged her shoul­ders as the move­ment made the deep plung­ing neck­line of her top gape and come close to ex­pos­ing her breast. “That’s a sherulla tini,” he ex­plained re­fer­ring to the drink made from al­co­hol and their most pop­u­lar fruit. “Most fe­males love the sweet drink.”

  “I thought it re­minded me of a mar­tini from Earth, but you’re right. It’s much sweeter. What are you drink­ing?”

  Finn held up his glass with a smile. “Dragon’s piss.”

  Talysia choked on the sip she’d taken. “That sounds dis­gust­ing.”

  “The name is worse than the taste. It’s the strong­est al­co­hol we have here on Khoth. A high per­cent­age of our vis­i­tors from other realms fall in love with the drink be­cause they are able to get a nice buzz be­fore their me­tab­o­lism kicks in and sobers them.”

  “I don’t know that I can ever drink some­thing called piss. Makes me think of males whip­ping it out and uri­nat­ing.”

  “You don’t like it when males whip it out? I’ll let you taste mine,” he of­fered, not both­er­ing to hide the dou­ble en­ten­dre.

  Talysia’s cheeks turned pink and she glanced away quickly be­fore she turned back to him and held out her hand. “I’d love a taste.”

  Finn groaned as he handed her his drink. “You like play­ing with fire, don’t you?”

  Hold­ing his gaze from over the rim of his glass, Finn could see the smile she tried to hide as she took a sip of his drink. “Gah,” she cried out. Her turquoise eyes started wa­ter­ing a sec­ond later. “That tastes as bad as I thought it would.”

  Plac­ing his lips where hers were a sec­ond ago, Finn drank the rest of his drink. “Want to dance?” he asked.

  Nod­ding, she set her glass down and he led her to the dance floor. The song was fast, but he ig­nored that and wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close. “What spell have you put me un­der?”

  When Talysia stiff­ened in his arms, Finn knew he’d made a huge mis­take. “I haven’t put you un­der a spell and, de­spite what you might think, I’m not ca­pa­ble of per­suad­ing you with my voice.”

  Finn tight­ened his grip, re­fus­ing to let her put space be­tween them. He was go­ing to make this right with her. “I didn’t mean to up­set you. I was only teas­ing. I know you didn’t put me un­der a spell. You’re fuck­ing sexy and ir­re­sistible and I have no de­sire to try and hide how much I want you right now.”

  Talysia re­laxed in his arms and pressed her body closer to his. “I shouldn’t have got­ten up­set. I’m sen­si­tive about peo­ple say­ing I in­flu­ence them. Most hu­mans on Earth said that which is why my sis­ter and I left, but as a half-breed I don’t have the pow­ers of a full siren.”

  “You want to go out­side where we can talk eas­ier?” he asked, sud­denly want­ing to be alone with her.

  “Sure,” Talysia said be­fore she al­lowed her­self to doubt her ac­tions. Finn was sexy and seemed like a trust­wor­thy male. He was a dragon knight and spent his days pro­tect­ing the cit­i­zens of Khoth. It wasn’t like he was go­ing to harm her.

  As but­ter­flies swarmed in her stom­ach, she won­dered if it was nerves or fear. Seemed like a com­bi­na­tion of both. No go­ing home with him yet, she chas­tised her­self. Finn grabbed her hand and walked her to­ward the door. Once out­side, he kept walk­ing un­til they were at the edge of the for­est and not un­der the street­lights.

  “Much bet­ter,” he mur­mured as he pulled her into his arms again. “Tell me more about what it’s like to be a siren, ice-de­mon hy­brid.”

  Her skin tin­gled ev­ery­where he touched her, and her breasts strained for con­tact with his mus­cu­lar chest. Try­ing to hide the way her breath hitched, she trailed her fin­gers over his shoul­ders. “There isn’t much to say. I don’t have the full pow­ers of one species or the other. I can do party tricks like freeze wa­ter.”

  “I’m cer­tain you can do far more than that. There is a Vam­pire Prince in the Tehrex Realm that has pow­ers over ice and the way he uses it to freeze and elim­i­nate his en­e­mies is kick ass.” Finn’s eyes fo­cused on her mouth as he spoke, mak­ing her lick her lips as she won­dered what he was think­ing. The urge to shift from foot to foot died a mo­ment later when he low­ered his head and pressed his lips to hers.

  Elec­tric­ity ex­ploded from her mouth and spread through her body and straight to her core, mak­ing it tighten with need. Finn was a great kisser as he moved his lips over hers slow and sen­sual.

  Talysia re­sponded and gripped his bi­ceps, go­ing to her tip­toes. The at­trac­tion flow­ing from Finn in waves nearly knocked her off her feet. Per­haps, that was his ex­plo­sive kiss.

  His tongue nudged her mouth, en­cour­ag­ing her lips to part. The sec­ond she opened her mouth his tongue delved in­side and ran across hers. The way it tan­gled with hers had her pant­ing and her panties wet within sec­onds.

  She in­stinc­tively wrapped a leg around his hip, seek­ing con­tact. Finn latched
onto her ass, pick­ing her up off the ground. Their tongues du­eled and her hips be­gan mov­ing of their own ac­cord. When she thought she would die from lack of oxy­gen, Finn broke the kiss and pressed his lips to the cor­ner of her mouth while she panted in his arms.

  It was then that she re­al­ized he was mov­ing into the trees and out of sight. Ex­pect­ing fear to over­whelm her, Talysia was shocked when she grabbed for the hem of his shirt. Finn kissed a path across her cheek then down her neck as he set her on her feet.

  Cold air kissed her over­heated skin and made her shiver. Af­ter his shirt was over his head, Finn paused and stared deeply into her eyes. Her heart leapt at the raw de­sire re­flected in his brown depths. At that mo­ment it felt as if their souls con­nected.

  ‘Don’t get all sappy now, Tal.’ she told her­self. This was only about hav­ing fun. The male wasn’t ask­ing her to be his mate or any­thing. No ex­pec­ta­tions.

  “You okay? Am I mov­ing too fast?” he asked.

  Talysia shiv­ered as his fin­gers danced across her col­lar­bone. “Yeah. I mean, yes I’m good. And, no, you aren’t mov­ing too fast. Well,” she paused and tried to calm her rag­ing hor­mones. She wanted Finn, but she wasn’t ready for in­ter­course. “I’m not ready for ev­ery­thing, but I want to play.”

  “No pres­sure. We won’t do any­thing you aren’t ready for,” he as­sured be­fore he low­ered his lips to hers once again.

  A moan es­caped her mouth when he teased and licked his way into her mouth. She reached for his pants and un­but­toned the top, but he pushed her hands away and lifted her into his arms.

  For the first time in her life, she felt com­pletely se­cure and safe with a male. She knew in her heart he would never hurt her or push her into any­thing un­wanted. The feel­ing em­bold­ened Talysia and gave her the courage to squeeze her hand be­tween their bod­ies and grip his hard cock through his pants.

  “Fuck, Tal. You’re mak­ing it dif­fi­cult to be good here,” he in­formed her be­tween bites and licks of her neck. Her fin­gers low­ered the zip­per and his hot, hard flesh was in her palm.

  Us­ing her knees, she lifted her hips off him and stroked his shaft while grip­ping his shoul­der to steady her­self. His groan was fol­lowed by the thrust­ing of his hips. His breath­ing in­creased and she wanted to drop to her knees and take him into her mouth.

  Finn had other ideas as he lifted the hem of her dress and pressed her against his body. She had a choice of con­tin­u­ing to stroke him un­til he came which would in turn get her off or let go and trust him not to go too far.

  As horny as she was, she wasn’t ready to go all the way just yet. She was get­ting to know him and didn’t want to have sex too soon. In her ex­pe­ri­ence, in­ter­course changed the dy­namic and of­ten led to the re­la­tion­ship fiz­zling. She wasn’t ready for the end with Finn.

  The mere thought of this be­ing all they had made her heart twist in her chest. It wasn’t as if she was look­ing for a mate or dec­la­ra­tion of love from him. She just didn’t want this to be all they had. The slow build made the sex so much bet­ter, but she usu­ally gave into her baser de­sires and jumped in bed way too soon.

  This time was go­ing to be dif­fer­ent, she vowed.

  “Don’t worry. No mat­ter how much I want you, I’m not go­ing to fuck you right now,” Finn promised as if he could read her mind. It made her won­der if drag­ons were tele­pathic.

  Finn held her to his body and thrust his hips at the same time, steal­ing any thought but, “oh my,” from her mind. His cock was mas­sive as it thrust be­tween her legs. The silky thong bikini was a pal­try bar­rier be­tween their bod­ies, but Talysia wasn’t com­plain­ing.

  It would be em­bar­rass­ing how wet and needy she was if she wasn’t too busy mov­ing her hips in time with his. Her de­sire seeped from her core as his big shaft rubbed against her sen­si­tive flesh in a fast, ur­gent rhythm.

  Dig­ging her fin­gers into his shoul­ders, she claimed his mouth and moved her hips, spread­ing her wet­ness all over his cock. He grabbed her breast with one hand, squeez­ing and tweak­ing her nip­ple while hold­ing her up with his other arm hooked be­neath her butt.

  His fin­ger dug into her hip as he in­creased his speed. Her breath­ing be­came as choppy as her move­ments as she chased her or­gasm. Finn con­tin­ued kiss­ing her while play­ing with her breast and rub­bing his shaft through her slick folds. The silk of her panties rubbed over her clit with each thrust of his erec­tion. She was so close. The coil in her core tight­ened, push­ing her to the peak.

  Break­ing the kiss, she caught his gaze as she came in his arms. “Gods, Finn. Yes. That’s it. Don’t stop.”

  Finn growled and made her bounce on his cock each time he pushed his hips for­ward. “Not a chance. Fuck, Tal. You’re so fuck­ing hot. I’m right there with you.”

  His head fell back on his shoul­der as his shaft kicked against her clit then hot liq­uid hit her lower stom­ach. Sev­eral long sec­onds later his head lifted, and he smiled at her. “That was in­cred­i­ble, and I’ve made a mess of you. Can I take you home to clean up?”

  “My sis­ter will kill me if I leave with­out telling her, but I doubt it’s a good idea to walk back in­side like this,” she said and glanced to her se­men-cov­ered dress. “Can you let her know we’re leav­ing?”

  Finn low­ered his head and kissed her while set­ting her down on her feet. “I’ll be right back.”

  Talysia watched him head through the door a sec­ond later while she strug­gled to re­call her de­sire not to have sex with Finn yet. That en­counter had been un­like any­thing be­fore, and it made her want him even more.

  The way Finn made her feel was new and re­fresh­ing and she wanted time to see where this could go. It might be nowhere be­yond a few months to­gether as was typ­i­cal for her, but sex would only com­pli­cate things be­tween them too soon. She needed to get to know him bet­ter.

  She gulped in the cool night air, us­ing it to calm her hor­mones. By the time Finn re­turned to walk her home there was no risk of her at­tack­ing him the sec­ond they reached her apart­ment. Hope­fully.

  * * *

  Chap­ter 7

  “So how was the siren?” Blaine asked. “Did she taste as good as she smells?”

  Red hazed Finn’s vi­sion at the way his fel­low Maa­hes goaded him about Talysia. Be­fore he could stop his ac­tions, Finn clenched his fist and punched Blaine in the jaw. The male’s head snapped side­ways, and Blaine cried out, “What the fuck was that about, douche-dick?”

  “For you be­ing such a scrote, that’s what,” Finn coun­tered as he shook off the sting from his punch. Damn, Blaine had a hard head.

  “Geez, when did you be­come so sen­si­tive about a fe­male?”

  Finn knew the mo­ment he en­tered Toxic and ran into Talysia that he was in a world of trou­ble. Be­tween the arousal emit­ted from count­less hot and sweaty bod­ies to Talysia’s ir­re­sistible sex ap­peal, his lust was at an all-time high. No way would Blaine ig­nore the fact he dis­ap­peared with the sexy siren.

  “Jeal­ous much? Didn’t you find a will­ing fe­male?” Finn asked, hop­ing to side­track Blaine.

  The knight paused in his cir­cle around the clear­ing. The breeze was gen­tle and made the leaves in the trees sur­round­ing them sway, along with, Blaine’s brown hair.

  One cor­ner of Blaine’s mouth lifted in a smirk. “I found sev­eral will­ing fe­males but de­cided to stay and chat with Tia. She was highly up­set about her sis­ter hav­ing sex with a sen­tinel of Khoth, as she put it.”

  “That’s a first. You skipped sex for talk­ing?” Finn teased.

  “Fuck you. I had to calm her down be­fore she went look­ing for the two of you. I did you a fa­vor, and a thank you would be ap­pre­ci­ated,” Blaine quipped with a smug smirk. “Be­sides, her voice is easy to lis­ten to. It made talk­ing so much more ap­peal­ing.”


  Wasn’t that the truth? Talysia and her sis­ter might be half-breeds, but their voices were un­for­get­table. For Blaine to sit and talk to Tia and not be con­cerned with bed­ding her told Finn there was po­tent power be­hind the fe­male. It made Finn won­der how a full siren would af­fect them. He re­called the sto­ries Talysia shared of how hu­mans re­acted to her and the lore that sirens lured men and their ships to their deaths.

  “We need to mark this day on a cal­en­dar. Blaine choos­ing con­ver­sa­tion over sex?” Finn com­mented as the last ves­tiges of his anger dis­si­pated. Sev­eral of the other groups stopped spar­ring and chuck­led along with Finn.

  In a swift move, Blaine lifted one leg then his body blurred as he turned with preter­nat­u­ral speed. Be­fore Finn re­al­ized what Blaine in­tended Finn found him­self fly­ing through the air. De­spite know­ing it was go­ing to hurt when he hit the tree, Finn couldn’t help but laugh at his friend.

  His laugh turned to a groan when he hit the rough trunk of a tree. The seven-inch star shaped leaves shud­dered and one of Finn’s ribs cracked be­fore he fell to the ground.

  Rolling to his stom­ach, Finn took a deep breath and pushed off the lush ground­cover to get to his feet. The clear­ing was just in­side the pro­tec­tions around the city and it never ceased to amaze him how the magic that kept Un­seelie out also helped keep the grass alive in what usu­ally was their dirt-cov­ered prac­tice arena.

  Hav­ing some­thing softer than packed soil to land on helped soften the blow and kept the bruis­ing to a min­i­mum. Finn nearly fell back to his ass when he stood on un­steady legs. For a sec­ond, he thought his legs were go­ing to give out, but then he no­ticed the rest of Maa­hes in the train­ing yard were stum­bling, as well.