“Ah,” Kenzie replied. “Like people that catch shadows out of the corner of their eyes or maybe a disembodied voice without the aid of an EMF detector?”
Eirik smiled at her tenderly as if talk of spirits was their brand of flirtation. “Yes, people like that.”
Tess snorted again and shook her head, clearly feeling her alcohol. “Well, I haven’t died, and I’m not sensitive, so no worries there.”
“I will believe you because you are my betrothed’s sister,” Eirik said. “But as I said, being honest about such could make all the difference.” His eyes went to Rokar. “Most especially with your mate. He will need to know, above all.”
“My mate,” Tess mouthed and took another swig, chuckling. “That sounds pretty permanent.” Her eyes slid to Rokar, and she refocused on their previous conversation. “What are your thoughts on monogamy anyway? Cuz I’m not so into it.” She flipped her hair back and winked at Leviathan. “Gets a little boring, if you know what I mean.”
Maybe he preferred the other version of her after all. He narrowed his eyes and considered her. Or maybe, she was overacting right now to steer them away from a topic that made her uncomfortable.
Either way, his answer remained the same.
“I am not interested in monogamy.” Because if she had more than one man loving her, there would be more than one protecting her. There to save her when he failed. So jealousy had no room in what they would share together. “If...when we mate, you may take as many men as you like.”
Her brows swept up as her eyes returned to his. “Really?”
He nodded.
“Good.” She chuckled again and quirked the corner of her mouth. “Seeing how I might’ve already screwed Soren.”
When Kenzie tensed, Rokar gestured that it was all right. Tess was in her cups. Not to mention it was best he appeared fine with whatever she and Soren might have done.
“Perhaps it is time to eat.” Leviathan pulled the meat off the spit and set it aside, offering Tess a careful smile. “Then get some rest, yes?”
It hadn’t gone over Rokar's head that the Ancient had made quick work of getting the meat over the fire then used a little dragon magic to cook it faster.
“I guess,” Tess said in response to Leviathan's suggestion. She shrugged, drained her mead, and eyed them all again. “Anyone have more booze?”
Though they likely did, everyone shook their head.
Tess sighed and shrugged again. She looked around. “So this is the Sigdir Lair, eh?” Her eyes swung back to Rokar. “Wanna show me yours?”
“Maybe after you eat.” Kenzie handed Tess another skin. “And drink some water.”
“Naw, I’m good.” Tess started sauntering through the cave in a random direction. “I’m off to explore” she called over her shoulder. “Eat in a bit.”
“Somebody needs to keep an eye on her,” Kenzie began but trailed off when Rokar sliced off some meat, slid it onto a stick and headed after Tess.
Though his dragon felt it was safe here, it was impossible to know when their nemesis would reappear, and she was in no shape to shift, never mind battle. Assuming she could fight like the rest of her sisters thanks to their Ancestral DNA.
He picked up her jacket when she tossed it aside, mumbling she would get it later. She shook out her hair as she sauntered down a tunnel that did, in fact, lead in the direction of his lair.
If he didn’t know better, he would think she knew exactly where she was going.
Though it was dark, he could see her clear enough with his superior sight, and while he tried not to admire her, it was impossible. Loki’s hell, if she didn’t know exactly how to sway her perfectly formed hips and well-rounded ass. While taking a woman as a mate didn’t appeal for personal reasons, the stirring of his cock told him the mating process itself would be most welcome.
“Tell me what happened, dragon.” Her gentle voice echoed in the tunnel as she drew closer to his lair. “Tell me how you lost your family.”
“Tell me when you had a brush with death,” he returned, knowing full well she had. That she lied back there. “Tell me what happened.”
“You first.”
“So something did happen to you.”
“Sure,” she drawled then vanished into the cave that was his.
“What, Tess?” he asked as he followed her into his lair, struck by how comfortable he felt having her here. It had always been his space. Mainly because his wife preferred not to come here.
“Like I said, you first.” She stood at the cave mouth high above the ocean, spread her arms, tilted her head back, and closed her eyes. “This place is amazing.”
He set his satchel and the meat aside and watched her closely lest she fall. A distinct possibility in her state. Yet she seemed fairly level, a small smile curling her lips as she remained still.
“Everything is so much fresher and wild here,” she whispered. “Freeing.” She inhaled deeply and opened her eyes to him. “It smells like you.”
The way she said it, as though she liked the taste of his scent, hardened his cock to the point of discomfort.
“Did you die, woman?” he said gruffly, holding her gaze. “Has the world brightened for you before? As it did on your bike?”
Tess shrugged, dug her hand into her pocket and pulled out a small container. She shook something out of it and started to pop it in her mouth only to stop and frown.
He met her frown. “What is it?”
“I dunno, I guess I thought I needed a Nicorette, but I'm not in the mood for it after all.” She slanted a look at him. “Ya know, I haven’t craved a smoke since I got here and I damn well should have.”
“A smoke?”
“Cigarette.” Tess sighed and tucked the Nicorette back in her pocket. “Looks like there are some perks to all of this.” She tossed him a sexy grin that did his erection no favors. “I’m not cravin’ anything but you, sweetheart.”
“You’re not going to tell me what happened are you?”
“Any more than you’re gonna tell me about your family.” Her eyes dropped to his groin in appreciation. “Especially considering how guilty you feel about having that right now.”
“I don’t feel guilty.” Just unsatisfied. “Come away from the edge and eat, Tess. After a good night’s sleep, we will talk more?”
He glanced at the ocean and tried to keep old horrors and anger at bay. Hatred at something that had taken so much from him. That could take Tess just as easily if she lost her balance.
She considered him, not letting things rest. “Does losing your family have to do with your fear of the sea?”
“I have no fear of the sea,” he lied.
“Yeah you do so save your breath.” She kept looking at him with a levelness that didn’t quite align with her drunken state. “What remained a mystery was why.” Her eyes went to the churning ocean. “Until I saw the way you just looked at that.” She shook her head. “Not with simple fear but terror...” Her voice dropped to a whisper as her eyes returned to his and lingered. “Heartbreak.”
She had seen all that then? He kept his expression schooled, and offered no reply to her assumption. Instead, he remarked on his suspicion. “You’re not as intoxicated as you would like everyone to think are you?”
“Depends on what you consider intoxicated.” She shrugged. “But no, I’m not all that bad.” She looked skyward before her gaze returned to the ocean. “I guess I've built up a tolerance. Even to that heavy shit you Vikings’ drink . Because hell,” she granted, “it’s stronger than most of what I’ve tried.”
He was about to respond when he felt her emotions suddenly shut down, and close off from him.
“Tess?” he barely got out before her eyes rolled back in her head, and she did what he feared.
She started to fall over the edge.
Chapter Seven
“NO!” SHE CRIED, terrified as waves crashed from every direction and her boat capsized. How did she not know this storm was coming? How had
her dragon missed it? “Bjárr! Helga! I’m coming for you!”
She struggled to spread her wings in the strong wind, against the battering waves, but the power of the storm was too much, too vicious. There was no sense of direction. Which way should she go? Left, right, were they still above the water? Below it? Crippled with fear, she flailed then dove down knowing with heart wrenching certainty that it was too late.
“No!” she cried again only for the sea and storm to vanish into blackness.
“It’s all right, woman,” came a deep rumble before strong arms wrapped her against a warm, hard body. Shaking so hard her teeth chattered, she tried to swallow but couldn’t. Then she tried to speak but had no luck there either.
So she flung her arms around her anchor and tried to ground herself.
“Tess,” he said firmly, slowly but surely pulling her back from wherever she had been.
She inhaled Rokar’s spicy scent, finding as much comfort in it now as she had when it led her to his lair...to him...to...Tess blinked then cracked her eyes open to dim light and the sound of pouring rain.
“Where am I?” she whispered, fisting the soft fur beneath her. Her mouth was bone dry, and her tongue felt like leather. “And is there water wherever I am?”
“Right here,” he rumbled. His hand appeared in her blurry vision holding a skin of what turned out to be refreshingly cold water. That’s when things cleared a bit, and she realized exactly where she was.
In bed.
With Rokar.
Hell, what had she done this time? They were sitting up, her in his arms, but thankfully, fully dressed. She pulled back and put a hand over her mouth, using a dash of dragon magic to ensure fresh breath. Because her dull headache had too much booze written all over it. High tolerance or not, she was a smidge hungover, so mumbled through her palm, “Um...sorry...”
Honest to God, when did she ever apologize to a guy for having bad breath? Or even ending up in his bed with little recollection of how she got there? Never. Yet she got the overwhelming sense she wanted to, no needed to be sorry and had no idea why...until she looked at the storm raging over the ocean and it all came rushing back.
“Oh, sweet Jesus.” She clutched her stomach and stumbled from the bed, rushing for the cliff before she leaned over the edge and puked. Just like she had when she touched the First Blade.
Except this time it had nothing to do with that.
“No,” Tess whispered. She fell to her knees and clutched the rock. “It has everything to do with Rokar...them.”
Pain hit her so hard she felt like she had been punched. A familiar pain that tore at her guts and made the world wrong in every which way. She bit back a sob and tried to pull herself together, but it was damn hard. Nobody should suffer like that. Him. Her. Neither of them. But most especially them. When she looked up, Rokar stood a few feet away, his haunted eyes on the ocean.
“You were there again,” he rumbled, his tortured soul obvious in the octave of his voice. “How were you there...”
She sat back, rested her elbows on bent knees, and held her head, trying not to feel his anguish. The torment he had experienced. Grief that reminded her all too well of her own. What she ran from every day of her life.
“They were your family then?” she said softly. “Bjárr and Helga?”
When he didn’t answer, she glanced up. He was somewhere else staring at the sea with a craving she knew all too well. He longed to reach out and bring those moments back. Make them right.
But they would never be right again, and they both knew it.
Though she wanted to question him more, she understood he needed time. She had just been let into something very personal without his permission. How did she end up there to begin with though?
“The last thing I remember was talking about your fear of the sea.” Which she well understood now considering his family had drowned. “What happened after that? How did I end up in bed?”
Silence stretched before he answered.
“You passed out.” His eyes turned to hers. “After that, you slumbered until you awoke.”
“God.” She frowned and shook her head. “Why do you think I passed out and saw...?”
It was too hard to say. Too rough to voice his living nightmare.
“I don’t know,” he said, though they both knew it likely had to do with their dragons growing closer. “We should go to Níðhöggr’s Realm. It will be safer there.”
She arched her brows. “But I thought your dragon felt it was safer here?”
Even as she said it, she knew he was right.
More so, her dragon knew it.
“Not only will we be safer but there are things we can only discover in the Great Serpent’s Realm,” he said. “My dragon knows it with certainty.”
She nodded and drank more water before looking at the driving rain. “I take it we’ll be walking then?”
“Part of the way.” He held his hand out to help her up. “We should go now.”
“Thanks but I’m not so sure touching is a good idea,” she reminded standing without his assistance. That’s when she realized neither of them seemed all that different right now. “Hey, we don’t seem...off.”
“No.” Yet his eyes appeared troubled. “I think whatever you just experienced within my memories leveled us out for the moment.”
“I think you're right.” She wasn’t super flirty or bitchy but sort of evened out. He seemed somewhere in between too. Not brooding or flirtatious but on an even keel. And that was okay. Staying off the personality rollercoaster suited her just fine.
“So what do you think is going on?” she said.
He shook his head, his expression disgruntled but not as standoffish as it might have been. “It’s hard to know, but I suspect you...absorbed some of my...”
When he struggled to find the words, she finished for him. “Some of your grief and terror.”
Clearly a man who didn’t enjoy sharing his feelings, he merely nodded before he swung his fur cloak on and gestured at a bathtub sized pool of water. “The water is clean and warm if you wish to bathe.” He glanced at a satchel on the floor. “Kenzie brought you a change of clothes better suited to the terrain ahead.”
Her thanks fell on deaf ears as he strode out before she had a chance to be grateful. While tempted to think him an ass, she knew better now. While she grasped little about the family he’d lost, other than that they’d been his wife and son, his love for them had been deep. As deep as the ocean that had stolen their lives.
It turned out he had warmed the water with magic, and it felt wonderful, soothing muscles she had no idea were so tense. Deeper than it appeared, she submerged herself as though in a bathtub and rested her head back against the cool rock.
Though he had appeared to leave altogether, she sensed Rokar nearby. He was uncomfortable leaving her unattended with the enemy about. Was he watching her, though? Or still lost in memories that surely plagued him as much as her own past did her? She sniffed the crude bar of soap he had left, happy that it didn’t smell flowery but sort of spicy. Like a scent, he might use.
She inhaled deeply and lathered it on, her memories, strangely enough, returning not to his horrific experience but how she had felt waking up in his arms. If she didn’t know better, her dragon was refocusing her deep sadness for him to the attraction it felt...she felt. While accustomed to losing herself in the feel of a man so she could escape memories, it had been different with him.
He grounded her in a way she couldn’t quite explain.
Or at least that’s how it seemed waking up in his arms, engulfed in his strong embrace. It hadn’t been sexual but real in a way that was hard to pinpoint. Almost as if she’d been waking up in his arms her entire life. As though it were the only way she was supposed to be awakened.
“Hell,” she whispered, eying the jagged but spacious walls of his lair. Her gaze drifted to the large fur covered bed and the sizzling torches bracketed to the walls. The space as a who
le was raw and wild, suiting her perfectly. She found it cozy and welcoming where she knew damn-well most would find it off-setting and cold.
She wished they could stay here. Get to know one another without ever having to step foot beyond these walls. Battle their enemy from this very spot ...then what? She ducked beneath the water and resurfaced, wondering what was at the end of her and Rokar coming together. Sure, fated mates, but what did that mean for two people so broken? Two souls who refused to open their hearts to the possibilities?
By the time she dressed in black leather Viking garb that was surprisingly cute, sexy even—no doubt picked out by Shea—the storm only raged harder. Thunder cracked, and lightning flashed as she stood at the edge of the cliff overlooking the ocean, not quite ready to leave yet.
“Hey, Sis,” Kenzie said softly from behind. “You okay?”
She nodded when Kenzie joined her. “Yeah, I just wish we didn’t have to leave yet.”
“You like it here then?”
“More than makes sense.” Her gaze remained on the churning waves then the black sky. “It feels sad and lonely but safe somehow.” She met her sister’s eyes. “I know that sounds crazy.”
“Not really.” Kenzie’s gaze went from the lair to Tess. She sensed her sister was curious about her past but left it alone. “I actually felt something similar when I went to both Eirik’s lair and his lodge at the Fortress for the first time. Strong emotions that I now realize were tied in with him...part of him.”
Tess nodded but made no comment. She knew her dragon was connecting with Rokar’s. She also knew the sensation was only going to grow stronger. Especially considering what had happened to her overnight. Something she almost shared telepathically with her sister but held back. Those were his memories. His pain. And they shouldn’t be anyone else’s unless he wished it.
“Time to go, then?” Tess said when Kenzie's curious eyes kept lingering on her. She wanted to know what happened. Not just in Tess’s past but likely overnight in this very lair.
“Yeah, time to...”
That’s all Kenzie got out before she vanished, and the world brightened.
Viking's Conquest Page 5