“They must have seen many things,” Rhianne observed quietly.
“Without a doubt. This house could tell a lot of tales. Sometimes it does.”
Rhianne turned to him, her face in shadow as she slid her arms around his waist.
“Do you think we could do what Dimitri and Jaycee are doing?” Rhianne whispered.
Before Ben could answer that startling question, Rhianne pulled him close and kissed him.
Chapter Nine
Ben jumped slightly under her lips, then he gathered Rhianne to him in powerful arms and sank into the kiss.
His mouth was strong, skilled, opening things inside her she didn’t know existed. His solid hands cupped her hips, pulling her close.
In the park in New Orleans, he’d touched her mouth with his tongue but hadn’t opened to her. Now he parted her lips and tasted her deeply. Rhianne tightened her embrace, her tongue tangling his, this intimacy heady and new.
Hot spice, the taste of strength. Rhianne imbibed Ben as though his power could sustain her. Fire ran through her veins, one she hadn’t experienced before.
Her rescuer was the opposite of every man she’d ever known, of all Tuil Erdannan, in fact. They demanded, with arrogance. Ben gave, with simplicity.
Rhianne didn’t know why she’d nearly begged for him to take her, only that a loneliness and longing had welled up inside her until she’d wanted to break.
Ben touched the corner of her mouth as he eased from the kiss. “Shifter mating frenzy.”
“What?” Rhianne’s voice shook.
“It’s catching. Shifters go into mating frenzy, and everyone around them wants sex. Immediate, hard, satisfying sex.”
“I—” Was that the only explanation? The pheromones flying between Dimitri and Jaycee had touched her and made her needy? Her heart sank even as her body craved Ben. She wanted what was between them in this moment to be more than simple reaction.
Ben drew her close again, cutting off any questions. Rhianne surrendered to him, surrounding herself with his warmth. Whatever the reason, she’d be happy to feast on him and not let go.
She slid her hands across his back, down to his hips, pulling him closer. She felt the rigidness of his cock, had in New Orleans as well. He wanted her as much as she wanted him.
The men she’d kissed in her life had been tall. Cloud-scrapers she’d called them, and they’d mocked her for being undersized for a Tuil Erdannan.
Ben was just the right height. She didn’t have to crane to kiss him, having the joy of the kiss dimmed by a crick in her neck. She could stand before him and kiss, kiss, kiss, all she wanted.
Ben’s hand found her waist, then rose to softly cup her breast, stoking her fires to incandescence. He knew how to touch her, to draw forth every need.
The night was warm, without a chill in the air. They could make love here, surrounded by the fragrance of roses, with the many stars in this place overhead. She could have Ben under new constellations smiling down at her.
A rustling under the roses against the wall almost distracted her, but Rhianne didn’t want to stop kissing Ben. The rustling sounded again and Ben drew his mouth from hers.
His breath was rapid as he came alert, scanning the garden for danger.
“A rabbit?” Rhianne whispered. “Lily promised we’d have no danger tonight.”
Faintly, in the distance, a church bell began to toll. Rhianne counted twelve strokes, then the sound faded into the quiet air. The hour of midnight, which, if Rhianne remembered what Ben had explained about time correctly, technically made this the next day.
The ground erupted even as her thought formed. Bright moonlight and the companion light of bright stars showed Rhianne exactly what was pouring out of the earth. She screamed.
Snakes. Dozens of them. No, more than that. Huge, black, gaping-mawed, unnatural snakes. With teeth.
“Shit.” Ben shoved Rhianne behind him, but they were surrounded. “Safe at the haunted house, sure. But we have to be inside the house.”
“Can we get there?”
A snake touched her. Rhianne kicked out, and the snake wrapped itself around her leg. If it bit her, would the poison kill her instantly? She had no doubt these hellspawn things would be poisonous.
She reached for a place inside herself, drawing up the magic that had been simmering since she’d broken her chains in the dungeon. It bubbled to the surface, still not full strength, but restored enough to help.
“Shantar!” she yelled.
The snake around her leg suddenly glowed white hot and fell away.
“Damn,” Ben said in admiration. “Can you get rid of all of them?”
“No,” she had to tell him regretfully. “Takes a while to recharge.”
“Like a taser. Too bad we don’t have one of those.”
The earth boiled, black loam emitting these creatures from hell. Ben had said the house was on a ley line. Had Rhianne’s father tapped into that, sending ensorcelled snakes to either fetch her home or kill her?
“What’s a taser?” she shouted.
“Never mind.” Ben glanced over his shoulder at her. “Hang on to me, no matter what.”
Rhianne wound her arms around him from behind, and she wasn’t about to let go. Another snake snagged her ankle while others rose up, higher and higher, surrounding them like a serpent forest.
Ben’s body changed. His shirt dissolved and vanished as his shoulders widened and his chest broadened. He grew, the mid-sized, affable Ben becoming the tall, thick bodied monster she’d seen in the dungeon.
Rhianne clutched him as his skin hardened into an almost wood-like texture. She rose three feet off the ground as she gripped Ben tight.
The snake that had wrapped her ankle came up with them, pried from the ground with a sucking sound. The snake didn’t like being in the air, though, and started to flail. Rhianne kicked and kicked until it finally dislodged.
Ben turned, ponderously, his tattered jeans falling away. He battled the snakes by the simple feat of crushing them. Rhianne hung on as he headed for the garden gate and the house beyond.
Something darted past them, snarling and spitting. Behind it, only a little slower, raced a large russet-colored wolf, the earth rumbling with his growls. Ben turned from the gate, wading back into the fray.
The first animal was a leopard, its spots flashing in the moonlight. The leopard leapt and pounced with consummate grace, knocking snakes aside, tearing them apart with a single blow of a paw.
The snakes never touched the leopard. Whenever they struck, they hit empty air, the leopard sailing straight upward with honed cat instincts. The snakes hissed their fury, the hisses cut off as the wolf cut them in half with his claws.
Ben joined the wolf, the two of them decapitating and splitting open the snakes that the leopard batted to them. Rhianne could only hold on to Ben and pray to the Goddess she wouldn’t fall.
A trickle of mysterious energy sparked inside her, bolstering her spirits. Perhaps she’d be able to use the word of power again more quickly than she’d thought.
This magic felt different, though, unlike the tingle that built in her fingers and throat when she gathered strength to use the words. Her heart skipped and throbbed, and her limbs twitched. The magic built, hammering at her as though desperate to get out.
Rhianne forced herself to calm. If she fell, those snakes would be on her faster than Ben and the others could stop them. She held on to Ben tighter, but magic jumped up and down inside her like a mystical case of hiccups.
The leopard continued to battle, light on her feet, springing with impossible speed whenever a snake lunged for her. The wolf used brute strength instead of speed, and together they made a perfect team. Ben came along behind them to destroy whatever tried to escape.
Slowly the three with Rhianne edged toward the garden gate. The garden, so peaceful and beautiful under the moonlight a short time ago now roiled like a cauldron of evil.
The rose vines shuddered. Rhianne braced her
self for the next horror to spring out of the ground, but the vines themselves seemed to come to life. Were Rhianne and the others about to be attacked by the vegetation?
The vines began to flow across the garden—no, their roots did, Rhianne realized. They swarmed around the snakes, entwining the creatures, and then began to squeeze.
“They’re helping,” Rhianne yelled in surprise.
“Yeah, they are.” Ben’s response was jubilant. “Jaycee, Dimitri, get out of there.”
The wolf swerved and ran with all speed toward the gate, Ben behind him, his size decreasing to that of his human guise as he went. The leopard lingered, batting and swatting at the snakes, playing with them with the focused intensity of a house cat with a mouse toy.
The red wolf turned and ran back into the garden, howling in despair as the snakes converged on the leopard.
Rhianne thumped to her feet on solid ground outside the gate, free of snakes and roots. The tingling rush in her body swelled. She turned back, raised her hands, and shouted the word of power once more. “Shantar!”
Light burst over the garden, glowing on the snakes and roots alike. Snakes shriveled into ash under it, and the vines pulled back.
The leopard shot upward from all four paws, twisted in the air, and came down squarely on the wolf’s back. The wolf stumbled with the sudden impact, then he regained his balance and sprinted for the gate.
“To the house,” Ben yelled as the wolf slowed.
The leopard tumbled off the wolf’s back, landing on her feet, and loped gracefully toward the house. The red wolf dashed behind Ben and Rhianne, guarding the rear while Ben and Rhianne dashed, hand in hand, to the veranda.
All three climbed the steps at the same time to collapse on the porch floor, where the leopard waited. The house shook once, then let out a sigh as though in relief.
The wolf’s face crumpled and bent, emerging as Dimitri’s handsome one, his wolf’s pelt receding to become Dimitri’s red hair. The rest of the body flowed into that of a tall, well-muscled, naked man.
The leopard flopped down at Dimitri’s side and began to carefully lick her paw.
Dimitri dragged in several long breaths. “So, Ben,” he said hoarsely. “When did you become the Incredible Hulk?”
* * *
Dimitri decided that winning a battle against evil snakes called for drinks, and Ben agreed. The four went upstairs, Ben and Dimitri ducking into bedrooms for clothes. Jaycee, still a leopard, zipped into the room she shared with Dimitri, and emerged fully dressed in a matter of moments. Ben heard her greeting Rhianne in the kitchen.
Ben finished dressing and hurried to join them. He found the two women sitting at the table, blood-red glasses of merlot before them—Jaycee enjoyed wine. They had their heads together, one red, one blond and brown, and they were laughing.
“Ladies,” Ben said.
They looked up, exchanged a glance, and went off into a gale of hilarity. Great.
“Battling creepy snakes is funny, is it?” Ben asked as he went to the refrigerator for beer. He pulled out two bottles, one for himself and one for the still-absent Dimitri.
“No, your butt is,” Jaycee said. “With your shredded pants barely hanging on it.”
Ben slammed the refrigerator door. “Hey, it happens when you shift in your clothes.” He could vanish all his clothes when he needed to, but sometimes he was in too much of a hurry, like tonight.
“I never shift in my clothes.” Jaycee took a delicate sip of wine. “I fold them carefully first. What was that you yelled, Rhianne? Saved our butts.” She slid her gaze down to Ben’s jeans and burst out laughing again.
“Yeah, yeah, make fun of the goblin,” Ben said, though his relief that Rhianne was safe let him not mind the teasing. “Rhianne said it was like a taser.”
“Your butt?” Jaycee snickered, and Rhianne laughed, a magical, silvery sound.
“No, Feline, the—”
“Why are you talking about Ben’s butt?” Dimitri waltzed into the room with his usual grace. “You shouldn’t be looking at his ass. You should be looking at mine.”
“So full of yourself.” Jaycee sent him a lofty glance, but her eyes did slide appreciatively to Dimitri’s backside as he turned to grab the beer Ben had left on the counter for him. “I was asking Rhianne about the magic she did that almost set the garden on fire.”
“A word of power.” Rhianne shrugged. “Not a very strong one. But enough to help.”
Dimitri took a seat on the bench next to Jaycee, snuggling into her. “Burning up evil snakes trying to kill me is good enough for me. So, thanks for that.” He raised his bottle in salute.
“The power doesn’t last long,” Rhianne explained. “It does damage, but I can’t prevent the snakes from rising again.”
“I think the house took care of that,” Ben said. “Extended its power out to the garden, via the plants. There are vines all over this house. Hard to tell where they begin and end.”
Jaycee patted the nearest wall. “Whatever happened, I’m grateful.”
“I believe the attack came from my father.” Rhianne fingered the stem of her wine glass. “He might have been able to reach through the ley line and make trouble. Trying to frighten me home? Or kill me outright? I’m not certain.”
“Have to wonder why.” Ben slid into the chair next to Rhianne’s. He’d love to cuddle up to Rhianne like Dimitri was doing to Jaycee, but he knew the danger of that. In the garden, he’d wanted her with powerful intensity, had been ready to take her down to the grass and have all of her. Thank the Goddess they’d been interrupted by demon snakes.
Ben was not what Rhianne needed right now—a goblin lover who wanted to consume her, She was dependent on him and under instructions from her mother, no less, to stick with him for her safety.
But, damn, that kiss had been good. Ben had tasted the need in her, a longing that matched his own. He wanted to think the longing was for him, but Ben sensed she was simply lonely. It couldn’t be easy for her, living in the shadow of a powerful mother and evil-as-hell father, being a pawn for political marriages, having to stay far from home to find a little peace.
“Who is this guy?” Dimitri asked Rhianne. “Your dad, I mean? Ben told us a little—floored me that Lady Aisling had a husband at all—but why would he send angry reptiles after his own daughter?”
“Because he loves power more than anything else.” Rhianne’s voice grew sad as she explained. “My mother found that out too late, but to her credit, she sent him away instead of keeping him around, hoping he’d change. He used her to gain power, nothing else. Ivor de Erkkonen cares about no one but himself.”
“He’s already a big, bad dude, though, right?” Dimitri went on. “Why does he need to be bigger and badder?”
“You have to understand Tuil Erdannan,” Rhianne said wearily. “To some of us there is nothing more desirable than absolute mastery—of everything. They create new species of animals, or of people, to see if they can do it, and then they abandon them. They can be so far above the rest of the world that they don’t understand what they destroy.”
Ben nodded. “Like I say, Tuil Erdannan do some scary shit. You aren’t friends with them.” He glared at Jaycee who often had chats with Lady Aisling about whatever.
“But kissing them is all right.” Jaycee took a casual sip of wine.
Rhianne flushed and studied her glass, not answering.
Ben cleared his throat. “Yeah, well, that was, you know, the excitement of the moment. Your fault.” He pointed his beer bottle at Dimitri. “Mating frenzy.”
“Oh, sure.” Dimitri appeared affronted. “Would you believe me if I said Jaycee and I went directly to sleep tonight?”
“No.”
Dimitri huffed a laugh. “Good, ’cause it would be a lie.”
“We’re not discussing our sex life.” Jaycee sent Ben a pointed look. “Dimitri and I are mated. We have a cub. Don’t toy with Rhianne, Ben. I like her, and you don’t want to mess with me.”<
br />
Rhianne’s flush deepened as Ben stared at Jaycee in disbelief. “Toy with her? What is this, the Victorian age? Been there, done that. The nineteenth century was a violent time. Everyone thinks it was so quaint and refined, but I’m glad it’s over.”
“You’re changing the subject.” Jaycee scowled.
“So are you. We were talking about keeping Rhianne safe and what we’re up against.”
“Their love life is their business, Jace,” Dimitri said gently.
Jaycee ignored him. “Just watch yourself, Ben. Mr. Here-Today, Gone-Tomorrow.”
Jaycee wasn’t wrong. Always peripatetic, was Ben, as he’d explained already to Rhianne. Since he’d volunteered to be caretaker of this house, he’d stayed put more, but when Jasmine decided to move back in, or sell the place—though that was unlikely—Ben would have to leave.
“What do you want to talk about, Rhianne?” Ben switched his focus to her. “Figuring out what your dad is up to, or us kissing in the garden?”
“My horrible father, please.” Rhianne lifted her glass. “Is this right for a toast?”
“You say ‘to’ something when you toast,” Ben explained. “Like, ‘to besting my pain-in-the-ass dad and going home without fear’.”
“Can I say ‘to winning the battle’ instead?”
“I’ll drink to that.” Dimitri lifted his beer, and Jaycee joined him with wine.
The four of them clinked glasses and bottles and settled down to drink.
“We did win this battle,” Ben said after a time. “Not sure about the war.”
Rhianne slumped in her chair, her braid of brilliant red hair flowing over her shoulder. “I’m thinking I’ll be stuck here forever. My father won’t give up, whatever it is he wants. He’s very determined.”
Ben slid his hand along the table and covered hers with it. He couldn’t help himself. “When Lady Aisling asked me to bring you here, I didn’t get the sense that she was saying goodbye to you for keeps. More like she wants you here while she takes care of the problem.”
The Last Warrior: Shifters Unbound Book 13 Page 10
