by Stacy Reid
“We would not senselessly kill a family for the action of one man.”
The irony did not escape her. “And your brother…he was killed?”
The burning pain slid along her sense once more, before it was replaced by…nothing. He tightly contained his emotions.
"No. They suspect he fled to Earth or Serange."
Oh.
“Why did he—”
Drac’s fingers tightened on her legs to the point of pain. She remained silent until the tension stole from his frame.
“His mate was taken by Gidon’s enemies. My brother bargained for her rescue. He gave up his loyalty to the realm to save her, but the enemy still took her life.” Drac’s voice had gone flat, hiding a wealth of emotions.
And somehow, she knew this experience had shaped him, just as her grandmother’s betrayal had defined much of Saieke’s life. She felt a curious kinship with him at that moment. "And what have you vowed?"
A cool brush of fingers against her cheeks. “Vowed?”
She nodded. "In the last Great War, my grandmother chose to save her consort instead of coming to the aid of our people. She was the High Duchess of Kryll and instead of protecting her domain…protecting me, protecting my…my younger sister, she raced to save her consort on the battlefield. Many died because she chose the wrong love. I was only twenty years old at the time, but the memory is still sharp as the day the Mevians invaded her courtyard. I can still see the blood pooling at my feet.”
She fell silent, lost in the cries and pleading that had ripped from her throat while she held Sunnia’s crushed body. The crippling fear Saieke had felt as she’d awakened her powers for the first time and had battled to save her sister…while the woman she’d loved with such intensity ran away, crying for her love.
Drac pressed his nose into her throat. “What happened?”
“Mevians attacked my grandmother’s home. The few warriors at the keep could not hold the power of their sound waves at bay. Grandmother left,” Saieke spat. “She saved her consort, and she was imprisoned in a tower deep in our mountains. My sister died before we could administer the elixir, and dozens of our people perished. I learned from Grandmother, duty above all other desires.”
Drac stared at Saieke as if spellbound. Then he spoke, “I vowed never to love a woman as my brother did his mate…for when he lost her, he gave himself over to his demon, and slaughtered…and slaughtered. Such weakness is abhorrent.”
The flatness of his voice and the darkness that leaked from him let Saieke know he would say no more. The tension swirled and thickened around them.
“Is this why you resist me? Because you see me as weak?”
“Yes.”
His honesty was brutal, and pain pierced her. Then another realization bloomed. Did he think himself capable of loving her, for surely, he would have taken other lovers? The slither of interest her thoughts evoked was alarming…and distressingly enticing. “I do not ask for your love, Darkan. I would not want it for I would not give mine in return.”
Danger seemed to hum beneath his surface, and she hated the dip it caused in her stomach. Impulsively, she drew a wall of water in a wave and dumped it on them. Her breath hitched at the frigidness of the water. “I believe I have successfully dispelled the tension.” With a smile, she blew icy wind and froze him.
Saieke leaped from his lap and flashed across the river, keeping herself levitated above the water with the use of her wind. The ice crystals she formed around him shattered, and she blinked in bemusement. She was sure she had frozen him.
She drifted farther from the embankment with the wind as her propeller. As she descended into deeper darkness, she pulsed her chakra outwards and created her halo of light. The great torch was a mere dot on the horizon.
She screamed when a hand shot out of the water and dragged her under. The cold was shocking. She held onto Drac tightly and made the water surge, creating a great wave that spewed them from the depths he had dragged her and tunneled them toward the bank.
Saieke harnessed her elements and froze the wave and all the waters below them. They dropped hard on the ice surface she created. She chuckled when he rolled and cushioned their fall so that he took all the impact when they landed. In a beat, he spun and deposited her on the ice formation. She smiled in delight as he observed her creation.
She had frozen the surface of the river for about a mile and had created an excellent ice sculpture of the wave. It stood in prominence over their heads, its sharp points curving and jutting. The blue of her chakra on the white ice gave it an ethereal glow.
“You wield your shenkiris with grace and skill.”
Saieke gave him a radiant smile pleased with his praise. "I am still limited. Many can freeze for thousands of miles."
"Many possess both water and wind manipulation?”
“No, but the elders of Caelum, and those who have keni manipulate water with a power that is terrifying. I use my wind to help me create ice. They shape the water to their desire to freeze it. I doubt I can attain such a feat without combining my wind with water,” she murmured.
“Keni?”
“Yes, keni. They are unique techniques that only belong to particular bloodlines. I inherited my mother’s powers. I received the ability to shape wind to my will from my father.”
“Tell me more” he commanded.
Saieke raised her brow at his imperious command. She gasped as he suddenly appeared closer to her. Only inches separated them.
“I, too, am curious about you Princess.”
She heard the rueful amusement in his voice.
“Why do you possess the ability to command two elements?’
“My mother is not from Boreas. She belonged to a mighty house of the Caelum kingdom. They were a large, wealthy family that had a powerful bloodline keni. Before my father became the Ricarkri of Boreas, he went to Caelum as an emissary to share information about the elixir spring. He met my mother, and they fell in love. The Ricarkri of Caelum did not want an alliance with Boreas and forbade the marriage. Mother, however, eloped with my father to the distress of her kingdom. Mother was then exiled from ever returning to Caelum, and she was blessed that her family was powerful enough and of the highest aristocracy that an order of death was not placed on her."
She liked how he looked at her, with banked heat.
He dipped his head. “Show me your keni,” A soft order against her lips.
She jerked away from him. “I have no control and cannot wield it with precision. I inherited the ability to use my keni early as I am only one hundred and twenty-five years old. Normally it takes several centi. My mother believes it is because I am also of the wind. I could not risk a demonstration with you,” she breathed.
“What is your bloodline inheritance?”
His tone had a deep inflection of curiosity that tugged at her, reflecting a similar need that burned inside of her. “I combine my shenkiris to freeze an object and then manipulate it by using the sharpness of my wind to cut and shatter it into thousands of pieces. I normally execute it within seconds.”
His gaze was remote. “Why is it that you cannot control it?”
Saieke faltered, hating the lack of inflection in his voice, the absence of feelings in his chakra.
He clasped his hand at his back and slowly glided around her, observing.
She spun and tried to keep him in her sight. "It's not that I cannot control it. My range is extensive. I could not hit only you as a target. If I should unleash my keni, I could do a lot of damage that I do not intend.”
He continued to circle her without responding. Saieke bit her lips at his contemplative silence.
“With practice and age, I will eventually master my keni,” she murmured.
“Your taijiu skills?” he asked silkily.
“I have been trained extensively in close warfare for more than thirty years. I only used it in battle for the first time against the Mevians who attacked me.” Saieke’s muscles uncoiled and flowe
d into battle readiness as he appraised her with a look she did not trust.
His lips curved into a predatory smile when he observed the subtle tenseness in her body.
“Drac,” Saieke said his name like a warning, not understanding the way he assessed her.
“Why were you not able to defend yourself and incapacitate the Mevians warriors who pursued you?”
Of course, he detested weakness. “I had never been in battle before, and they were more skilled than I.” Saieke remained coiled, unsure of what she was waiting for.
He lashed out a blow that would have taken off her head if she had not deflected sharply with her wind. “Are you insane?” She yelped when he flashed to her side and had her neck at an odd angle with a wicked looking blade angled below her chin.
Saieke went perfectly still.
He eyed her in that intense, predatory way of his. “I am moving at your speed. I am within your light range, so you are able to map my movements, yet I was able to come under your left flank,” he said, and then nipped at the corner of her neck sharply.
Saieke’ heart thumped. He’d made a move that was hard for her to counterattack. Excitement unfurled, and she dipped her hands into the folds of her caftan to unsheathe her blades. Her body flowed into battle mode, and she balanced herself lightly on her feet. His lips curved into a smile which was a parody as it looked sinister and cruel, but approval flared darkly in his eyes before he attacked.
12
Saieke panted breathlessly with sweat trickling down her temple matting her red strands. They had been dancing around each other for more than an hour. Drac engaged her in a way that put all her taijiu skills to use. She could not keep up with his expertise even though he limited his speed. His attack and countermoves flowed with a mesmerizing rhythm.
He was lithe and quick, but brutal. His points of contact were always one move and aimed at areas that caused maximum damage. He focused on nerves, vessels, spinal cords, and the bending and rending of bones.
It was a most exacting combination delivered with the sole intention to incapacitate. Saieke had never been trained like that before; her taijiu art was focused on inflicting damage at about the third point of contact and concentrated on re-directing her opponent’s flow of attack. It was more of a defensive technique, Saieke realized.
He came at her so often she had learned to deflect moves that she was open to before. It was exhilarating. Her muscles ached, her blood pumped, and her body felt alive. She had always loved training, but with him, it was so much more.
Saieke smiled with pure devilry as her wind lashed out and yanked at his shirt. She used the sharpness of her wind to rip it away from his body. The rending of the material was sharp in the air.
“Princess,” he growled in warning.
Saieke hummed in appreciation and flashed closer to the ice so that she could use the full impact of her chakra glow to appreciate his body.
Coiled and sharply contoured muscles greeted her eyes, his muscles rippled and contracted across his chest and stomach. Saieke’s smile turned purely sensual when tendrils of smoky chakra leaked from him with lust flavoring it. She flashed to stand in front of him and raised her eyes to his. “I want to touch you.”
He stood still and allowed her exploration. She placed her hands on his chest and splayed them wide and gently squeezed. He was total hardness. He had a black mark that curved on his chest and ran straight down his torso and dipped inside his waist. It was a sharp and elegant curve. She traced it with her fingers, and the muscles contracted on his stomach with her touch.
His body looked honed for speed and power. She wanted to taste. Saieke dipped her head in close and swirled her tongue from his collarbone, down his chest and stopped at his navel. Drac inhaled harshly, and she smiled as feminine power tunneled through her.
She glided around to his back and paused. There was a clear and sharp picture tattooed on his entire back and shoulders. Saieke keenly examined the image and uncertainty at what she was looking at unfurled deep inside.
The sheer malevolence depicted by the tattoo was stunning.
She traced the curve that dipped under his arms over to his chest. It was a claw. The beauty of the tattoo was macabre. Slit eyes with a serpentine cast glowing gold with black flecks, stared at her as if it were alive. Powerful wings and scales covered his shoulders, arms, and his back. The claws extended and ran into his hair and ended on the curve of his left cheek. She had wondered at that dark mark on his face. Monstrous and razor-sharp teeth were depicted in a face that reeked of evil. The beast tattooed on his back seemed as if it was coiled to spring off his skin.
Saieke traced the rest of the claws and wings to where they disappeared into his trousers. She inhaled as she realized it meant his entire back from shoulder to feet was painted with the creature. It was fearsome. “This is your beast?” she asked shakily.
“Yes.” Cold and remote.
“What is it?”
“A Dracan.”
A jolt of shock went through her. “They are legendary. Tales of their brutality and might in the first Great War are recorded in our books. You were named according to your beast?”
“Yes.”
“Many Darkans possess Dracans?” She traced her fingertips delicately over the arch of a wing.
“My sister and I are the first to be born tattooed with a Dracan since the first Great War,” he said.
“Your sister!” She had not imagined him with a family. He seemed so alone that it did not even occur to her that he might have people he loved. She heard the hint of affection in his voice when he mentioned a sister.
“Your father and mother live?” she asked tentatively.
“Yes.”
She blinked in bemusement. “What are their beasts?”
He moved for the first time since she touched him. He glided around her with a movement that she could not track. He stood in front of her and looked at her piercingly.
“Still curious, Princess?” Darkness seemed to echo in his voice.
"You enthrall me," she responded with bare honesty.
Satisfaction flavored his chakra and a more profound emotion that slipped from her grasp before she could identify it.
He lowered his head and licked her lips. “They have dragons.”
Excitement hummed within Saieke at the sexual intensity stamped in his features. “They are also legendary,” she whispered huskily. “Beautiful, graceful, immensely powerful and deadly. Dragons are never black; their beauty and grace are in their colors and the red flames that they spew. Their strength and fighting power are not on par with that of a Dracan.”
A slow smile curled his lips.
“How is it that you possess a Dracan when your sires have Dragons?”
He inhaled her scent. “My sister and I are the first to be born in millennia with the tattoos of a Dracan.” He pressed a short kiss against her lips. “You smell like wild wind mixed with honey.”
“I do?”
There was a beat of silence before he answered. “My beast and I find you captivating,” he whispered, punctuated with a hot swipe of his tongue across her neck. “Tell me, Princess, why did you flee your kingdom?”
Saieke shivered as he nipped at her neck with his teeth. “I love Boreas,” she said as fire licked at her throat and her nipples tightened. “My people, my kingdom, would be irrevocably changed under the rule of the Nurian king. His flames would consume our ways--our history and traditions."
Saieke moaned as anticipation made her tremble. She felt as if she stood on a precipice waiting to plunge off into something terrifying yet exhilarating.
“So, you break the oath?”
“Yes,” her voice was a whisper of heat as his hand drifted over her body.
He lightly skimmed her neck and shoulders down to her breasts. They throbbed and rose under the pressure of his fingers, straining against her caftan. He ran his hands to her stomach, where he trailed one down and cupped her between her legs with posse
ssion. Saieke's heart lurched, and she shivered.
“Ahhh, Princess,” he said against her lips. “I wonder if you can handle what you invite.”
“I can," she said huskily and pushed her tongue out and lightly licked his lips. She then snaked her hand down and cupped his hardness.
A hissed escaped him. “You leave the Darkage in a day’s time. Today was to be about learning of you, but I cannot concentrate on anything but tasting you.”
Sweet pleasured warmed her. “Then taste me…take me.”
“You risk much to take a lover, Princess.”
“I risk all for my people.”
“You invite death and war for taking a consort.”
Dread sliced through her. “Yes.”
“So, you take me for a lover to escape the Nurian King?” There was the merest hint of amusement in his voice.
“I…no…yes.” She frowned. “Are you not angry? Disgusted?”
Drac let out a deep chuckle that slid inside and caressed her. A whisper of a kiss followed at the nape of her neck. “You fled from your oath to save your kingdom. Your plans were waylaid, yet you quickly thought to take a lover. You have since then single-mindedly done everything to entice me into fucking you once you realized that you must return to your kingdom to honor your bargain with the Darkage.”
Saieke moaned as his chakra swirled around her with seductive intent.
“I would have simply killed the Nurian king, yet all your actions show thought of protecting your people. What is there to be disgusted about? You are merely executing a plan of action to save your kingdom. I would ravage Amagarie to save the Darkage.”
Saieke lifted her head and met eyes that reflected amusement and heat. She held his gaze as his words resounded in her. She had felt shame and uncertainty since she decided to flee. But, he only saw her will to save her kingdom.
She frowned as she realized that he admired her cunning.
“You are wrong in one thing, Darkan.” She leaned in and nibbled at his neck. She smiled when she felt his arousal against her stomach. “You create an ache in me that seems unquenchable. I do not seek just any lover. I ache only for you.” She held his obsidian gaze and let the fear, uncertainty, fascination and desire poured out of her. “I risk my sanity if you do not kiss me, Drac,” she said as need pulsed wicked inside of her.
