At Death’s Door

by Kenyon, Sherrilyn

  They drew up short.

  Only then did Nibo turn around to stare at her in awe. “Vala?”

  She nodded.

  Nibo couldn’t believe what he was seeing. It was Valynda. Whole and restored. Not the poppet monstrosity they’d made, but the beauty he’d fallen in love with. He felt tears stinging his eyes as so many emotions flooded him at once that he couldn’t even begin to sort through them. Before he could even think better of it, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

  When he lifted his head, he saw that familiar blush on her pale cheeks that he’d missed so much. The one that had always made her eyes sparkle and glow. Dear heavens, how he’d missed it.

  “How?”

  “Circe.”

  “Her ship’s gone.”

  They looked over to Bart, who had his spyglass trained on where the ship had been.

  “What do you mean, her ship’s gone?” Captain Bane asked. Bart handed his spyglass over. “See for yourself, Captain. They vanished as eerily as they’d appeared.”

  The captain scowled at Valynda. “Did she say anything to you?”

  “Not to trust the Malachai.”

  “You think? Because that’s always such a great idea, yeah?” She glared at William for his unwarranted sarcasm, then returned her attention to the captain. “And she wants her son back if I’m to remain human.”

  Thorn’s eyes widened at those words.

  Then he burst out laughing. At least until he realized she wasn’t joking. “Question, my little lamb. Did she happen perchance to tell you anything about him?”

  Valynda shook her head.

  Thorn let out a disgusted sigh. “Well, that’s something, I guess.”

  “How so?” Nibo mirrored her curiosity, especially given the odd note in Thorn’s voice.

  When Thorn finally spoke, he understood. “Oh, ’twas nothing too serious, mind you. Just that he happened to lead his army against the gods. As you can imagine, they were a little miffed, shall we say, about the whole affair, and being that they’re what we call gods”—he overemphasized the word—“he’s being punished eternally for his blatant and rampant stupidity. Because when in the whole history of the universe has that ever worked out well for anyone, I ask you? So, I’m going to postulate a theory here, children, that getting someone from them after they’ve been so crossed isn’t exactly the easiest thing to do.” He blinked and smiled. “What do you think? Huh?”

  Ignoring his sarcasm, Nibo gave him a pointed stare. “But you’re going to try and get her son back for us, aren’t you, Thorn?”

  “Ah hell n …” His voice trailed off as he looked past Nibo to Valynda. Then back again. “Now here’s a thought, what with sonny-boy being dead and all, and you being a psychopomp and all, why don’t you take a trip down there for once, and do the heavy lifting? How about those pineapples? Huh?”

  He gave Thorn a peeved glare. “I would do it in a heartbeat were I able. Sadly, this one’s on you as it’s someplace I can’t venture.”

  “ ’Course it is. It always is.” Grinding his teeth, he curled his lip and glared down at the sea. “Hate you, Father. Would say I was hoping you were roasting your nuts over an open flame, but I know you’re not, you worthless piece of shit.” Growling in the back of his throat, he finally stopped, then sighed. “Fine. I’ll go, but you know you owe me.”

  Nibo took her hand. “Knew you were a good demon cackle-berry.”

  Thorn rolled his eyes. “I hate you so much, Nibo.”

  “Hate you more.”

  “Really, not possible.”

  “And on that note, we needs be underway.” Captain Bane stepped back to issue orders. “Stay on the tail of Barnet, Lady Dolorosa. Make sure we watch for any others to attack.”

  Sancha took up the wheel. “Aye, aye, Captain.”

  While they began to return to their duties, Nibo pulled Valynda toward the ladder that led belowdecks. His heart pounded as her scent infiltrated every part of his being. Worse, her presence made him harder than he’d ever been. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d wanted any woman this badly. But then she’d always had that effect on him. No one had ever commanded him the way his Vala did.

  That was what made her dangerous.

  Which was why it was a good thing that she had no idea just how much power she wielded over him.

  Valynda pulled Nibo to a stop. “What are you doing?”

  “I just want to be alone with you.”

  “Why?”

  The heated look in his amber eyes told her exactly what he had on his mind, and while she wasn’t opposed to the thought, there was more to it than just that. “Xuri … is that all I am to you?”

  He looked as if she’d struck him. “You have to know better than that by now.”

  Did she?

  “Then why did you walk away from me when you had a chance to keep me?”

  He gaped at her accusation. “Pardon?”

  “What is it you said? We have a spiritual marriage? That means you need nothing more from me than that. I’m just a plaything to you when you want release. Something to be used and then cast aside and forgotten as soon as you’re done. You told me that I was a fool for ever thinking we could have anything more.”

  For once, he appeared ashamed and wounded. “Vala, I was trying to protect you.”

  “From what?”

  Nibo fisted his hand in her silken hair as he tried to explain to her that words said to others weren’t always what was meant. They damn sure weren’t what was felt. Had his nanchon known what she was to him, they would have attacked her and killed her where she stood. As a human, she had no protection, and he had no way to protect her because he couldn’t get to her without them releasing him from his dimension.

  As they’d proven in the most brutal way.

  They’d mocked his best intentions. Just as he’d feared. But he’d done his best to keep her safe. Because she was so important to him.

  “From what happened to you. Didn’t it ever occur to you that your fate had nothing to do with you, and everything to do with punishing me?”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Nibo cupped her cheek in his palm. “I love you, Vala. You have to know that by now.” He placed his cheek to hers, and the moment their skin touched, it took her back to the first time they’d been together as lovers.

  It’d been a cool night on the beach not very long after they’d met. Valynda had thought of them really as friends, and while she’d been growing fonder of him night by night, she’d done her best to keep her distance.

  But Nibo had made it so difficult. He was unlike anyone she’d ever met. There was such a carefree air about him as he frolicked in the moonlight, showing her the wonders of her island caverns. Showing her how brilliant the stars looked while he played his guitarra and made her laugh at silly jokes and puns.

  Especially that night on the beach when he’d handed her a small pouch to open while they sat before a small fire he’d made for them. “What is it?”

  He’d set aside his guitarra. “Open it,” he urged.

  With a frown, she’d loosened the strings of the bag until she dug out a gold ring encrusted with tiny, sparkling emeralds. Tears had filled her eyes as she looked from her small treasure to her much larger one. “A ring?” Her voice had been tight and hoarse.

  His gaze had warmed her even more than the fire as he nodded. “I consider you mine, Vala. That is my pledge to you.”

  There, for a moment, she’d felt so incredibly special. For the first time in her whole life, she hadn’t felt alone in the world. She’d been a part of someone else. Her heart pounding, she’d pressed her trembling lips together as she rolled the ring around and around in her palm to look it over and appreciate just how exquisite a gift it was. No one had ever given her anything like it. The emeralds had winked at her in the firelight as if they knew some jest that had escaped her notice. As if they were possessed of some ancient spirit themselves.

  Never had
she expected such a gift from anyone, especially not her loa, who didn’t appear to value anything so extravagant or expensive. Rather, he was more akin to her father, even to the point that Nibo usually walked about barefoot.

  Though it seemed foolish, his gift made her wonder if it were possible that they might have a life together after all. Dare she even hope for it? Yet why else would he have given her such a costly present, especially when such things didn’t seem to be part of his world?

  With a devilish glint in his eyes, Nibo took the ring from her shaking fingers, kissed it, then placed it on her hand. He looked up at her, a small, timid smile on his lips. “Like your presence in my life, ma petite, it fits.”

  She closed her eyes, savoring his words that brought so much joy to her heart because no one had ever valued her before. She was nothing, and she knew that. God knew that others were so quick to remind her of that, in so many ways. Indeed, they took pleasure in telling her how unimportant she was. For a minute, she thought that maybe, just maybe, if he saw her as something more, perhaps she wasn’t as worthless as they all made her feel. She wanted to be the lady of beauty that he seemed to see whenever he looked at her with those sparkling amber eyes. Not the ugly thing that made the others curl their lips when they looked at her in daylight. The girl who made them jeer and make snide comments about her lowly birth or pity her because of her parentage or penury.

  This night, she felt beautiful and special. Not pathetic.

  Yet even so, she knew that Nibo was a loa not known for being faithful, and that she was a mere human.

  How could they have any kind of future together?

  Valynda wanted desperately to ask him what he meant by giving her such a present, but no matter how hard she tried to bring that question to her lips, she couldn’t. It was as if she knew better.

  As if her heart feared the real truth and so it forced her to remain silent as he claimed her lips for a scorching kiss under the bright moonlight.

  Valynda drew him to her so that she could taste him fully. His rich, masculine scent filled her head and set her to trembling. Aye, this was what she wanted.

  All she would ever want, even though a part of her was terrified on so many levels. If anyone ever learned of this, it would be the end of her. Somehow that didn’t seem to matter. How could it? Her life was absolute misery. She’d never really wanted it, and in truth, she hated every second of it.

  The only happiness she had were these little moments with Nibo. He, alone, didn’t judge her or look at her as if something was missing. He made her laugh instead of cry. Whenever she spoke her mind, he didn’t censor it. It was as if she were a ghost flitting about in a pseudo existence until he came along and awakened her into her real body to make her truly live and breathe.

  Her body burned for his touch. Burned for him.

  Wanting to feel every inch of his lush body, she ran her hands over his back, delighting in the dips and curves of his muscles. He buried his hand in her hair, cupping the nape of her neck in a way that made her scalp tingle. Moaning against his lips, she ached for him in a way she barely understood.

  While she’d never had a man of her own before, she understood from her girlfriends and the bawdy talk she’d overheard on the island the mechanics of coupling. What she wasn’t quite ready for was this onslaught of heat that suffused her, nor the demand that her body flooded her with. What was this warm wickedness? No wonder they preached so vehemently against it.

  She felt alive and on fire. Molten, even.

  The very next thing she knew, Nibo picked her up in his arms and carried her a small distance away to a secluded area of the beach so that no one would be able to see them. He laid her against a bed of soft moss on the sand.

  Valynda tried to understand the fire in her blood and the strange aching that defied anything she’d ever known or experienced. Every part of her felt as if it were engulfed by flames. As if it were aching for something she couldn’t explain or describe.

  Nibo stared at her like a starving man eyeing a governor’s banquet. The raw hunger in his eyes sent even more ribbons of heat through her.

  She wanted him to devour her and she longed to taste the rich, salty dips and ridges of his muscles until she’d had her fill. But part of her heart told her that she would never be sated with him. Nay, she would always want him and yearn for his touch. How could she not? He was too inviting. Too much fun.

  Too delectable.

  Licking her lips, she offered him a hesitant smile. “What can I do to please you?”

  Nibo closed his eyes at her words, savoring each and every syllable. No woman had ever asked him such a question before. It was such a sweet dream. But then, so was she.

  Maybe he was damning both of them to an eternity of rumors and hostility, but for his life he couldn’t stop himself from seizing this one moment, this one woman, even though he knew it was a bad idea from every which way he looked at it. He needed her, and the only way he could let her go would be to cut his own heart from his chest. It made no sense. He knew that.

  This was absolute madness.

  But he couldn’t leave. She would be worth each and every torment ever delivered, every bit of wrath he evoked, and he would gladly relive all of it for this one instant in time. To him, she was worth it all and more.

  Because she was that precious to him. That unique.

  Valynda, who didn’t cater to his ego. Who made him laugh when he felt bad and who saw things that others missed. In no time at all, she had become a vital part of his world.

  She wrapped her arms about him and he shivered from the tenderness of her silken limbs sliding against his flesh. Lying next to her in the sandy moss, he tasted her sweet lips, her neck where he inhaled her divine, lavender-rose scent. His lips tingled from the saltiness of her skin and he drank of it deeply. This was the only food he needed, the nourishment he had been starving for the whole of his life. She filled a hole in him that he hadn’t known was there until the night he’d found her on the beach with her lunatic friends.

  Heated fire replaced the coldness in his heart. Every color and scent seemed amplified and more vibrant to him, as if he’d opened his eyes for the very first time ever.

  As if he’d been reborn into the world.

  Her hesitant touches as she removed his clothes and explored each inch of his body echoed through his soul, crashing through every barrier he’d ever erected to protect himself from harm while he lay there scared and trembling like a naked babe on the edge of a cliff.

  Never had he felt so exposed. So very vulnerable. Indeed, one word of rejection from her right then could destroy him. Because he was hers.

  She pulled his tunic from him, her hands eagerly exploring each dip and curve of his flesh. Nibo closed his eyes, his body burning.

  “Do these hurt?” she’d asked as she saw the faint cuts along his ribs where he’d fought his brother and occasionally scraped himself coming through the gates to reach the human realm.

  Nibo shook his head, his throat tight. Truthfully, all his wounds, past and present, seemed healed whenever she was near. And for his life, he couldn’t fathom the peace she brought to his heart. “All I feel is you, ma petite, and you could never bring me pain.”

  Valynda’s breath faltered at his tender words. She smiled, her body afire with her need for him. No man would ever mean so much. Nor could he ever be such a part of her.

  Her head reeled with the masculine sandalwood scent of him. With the gentle pressure of his strong hands roaming over her flesh. Everywhere he touched, hot chills sprang up in their wake. Valynda brushed her lips over the hard stubble of his neck, delighting in the salty taste of his skin. His throaty moan reverberated under her lips and thrilled her.

  “I need you, Vala,” he whispered against her cheek as he loosened the stays in her gown and corset.

  Valynda pulled him closer. “I will always be here for you.”

  She shivered as he pulled her gown from her and heat stole up her cheeks. Deep
embarrassment filled her heart. Never before had any man seen her so bare. She felt so incredibly exposed, and completely vulnerable to his gaze, his touch.

  Worse, she knew her father would kill her if he ever learned of what she was doing.

  And yet she didn’t want to stop. She wanted to share herself with Nibo. Sooner or later, she would have a husband. Better to be with someone she wanted than someone she didn’t.

  Honestly, she couldn’t imagine ever wanting anyone else the way she wanted this man. She had never been a fickle woman. Never been the kind to do anything without a lot of thought.

  Until now.

  But he was special, and she didn’t want to regret not having this with him.

  His eyes burned with an intensity that stole her breath as he moved again to claim her lips.

  Nibo savored the rich taste of his Vala. Nibbling a path to her throat, he nipped at her tender flesh. She was sweeter than any rum and could make him twice as drunk, thrice as fast. Sharp, pulsing fires burned inside him. It seemed as if he’d waited the whole of his life for this moment, as if the first time with her was his first time all over again.

  More experienced than anyone had a right to be, he still found himself shaking from expectation. Nervous almost beyond endurance. The other loas would laugh and mock him if they could see him like this. He acted like some callow youth, not the spirit of fertility.

  But he couldn’t help it.

  Her lips brushed the flesh just below his ear and he shook from the boiling desire that pitched inside him. “I will always be yours, my brave Nibo,” she whispered, her husky voice urging him further.

  He separated her thighs.

  Valynda shivered in expectation of the pain she knew would come. Even so, she reveled in the feel of him lying against the entire length of her body. A deep part of her soul was absolutely terrified of this and begged her to shove him away before it was too late.

  But she couldn’t do that. She was already gone.

  Because the truth was, Nibo was her life, her breath.