He jerked beneath me, as if coming out of a trance. I felt his tongue sweep over my shoulder, sealing my wound with more of his blood, and then he pulled away, cradling my weakened body in his arms.
“Calliope?”
“I’m okay,” I managed to gasp out. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been this weak. This vulnerable. Yet I felt safe.
“I’m a monster. I shouldn’t have taken so much.”
“You were dying,” I murmured, surprised to find myself perfectly happy to snuggle closer. I ran my fingers across his chest. His wound had closed up, and the enchanted clothes had self-cleaned. The dampness from his spilled blood was gone. All I could feel was the pleasant warmth of his body. It soothed me toward the darkness, and I let it take me, making a choice to trust Godric more than I trusted another being on the earth.
When I opened my eyes again, we were lying on the couch, my back pressed tightly to his body and his erection lodged squarely against my ass. He had an arm wrapped around me with a hand palming one of my breasts—kneading it ever so gently. Enough that my thighs were slick with arousal. How long had he been playing with me?
“You feeling better?”
“Yes. You can let me up now.” I shifted, trying to roll out of his grasp, but his arm tightened around me, and his fingers sought the peaked nipple of the breast he’d been fondling. He rolled the nipple between his fingers and I loosed a gasp of pleasure. I needed to get up and move away from him. To protect him from my curse, but gods, he was making it hard.
He pulled me closer, rotating us so that he could gently shove a hard thigh between mine, rubbing ever so purposefully across my sensitive mound. A moan came unbidden from my lips, and I arched into him, needing more pressure on my aching breasts. He obliged by sucking on each of them in turn. Showing every part of my naked torso attention, while his previously busy hand undid my jeans and went wandering farther south. No. No. This can’t happen.
A hiss of air slid between my teeth as he circled my clit ever so slowly, dipping a finger between my wet folds before drawing it out again. Then he rubbed. Around. And around. And around. Never touching quite where I needed and pushing me closer and closer to the edge he’d sent me careering off earlier today.
I shouldn’t want it, but I did. I shouldn’t want him. I was strong. I was used to being alone. But something about him made me want more than I could have. More than I deserved. I told myself one more orgasm. Just a few more minutes. Then I’d leave. I had to leave.
His lips moved up from my breasts to my neck and then claimed my mouth with the ferocity of the vampire within him. Our tongues lashed each other, and his growls vibrated through me from head to foot as his fingers thrust deep. I rode his hand until I was panting into his mouth. He took each breath, barely giving me a chance to breathe in my next. Harder. Deeper. My body writhed against his until the world around me split apart. My mouth opened in a wordless scream. All awareness fell away as pleasure bathed every cell.
Slowly, I came down from the euphoria of climax. My muscles relaxed. My eyes refocused on the man above me. His stark blue eyes contrasted with his tanned complexion. The angular lines of his handsome face. The slight curl in his dark hair. Gods, he was beautiful, and he was focused solely on me.
“I need you, Calliope,” he murmured into my neck and shoved my pants farther down my hips. “I need to taste you and have you. Make you mine.”
The way he said it had such emphasis, such dominance that I found my willpower fading. His gaze left mine, and his mouth trailed down my chest, between my breasts. Before he got to my navel, all my senses roared back to life, and I tensed, grabbing his shoulders and using my supernatural strength to still his movements.
“You can’t. We can’t,” I said, my voice still more of a pant than speech.
“You want this. I can smell your desire.” He dipped his head and licked my clit, sending waves of exhilaration rippling through me. “I can taste it. Your body is practically screaming for this. You gave me everything you had to heal me. You are my mate. We are meant to be together. Am I so distasteful, such a monster that you would deny us both what we most crave?”
I almost caved, but I couldn’t. “I—I can’t.”
“Don’t you trust me? No one does…but you seemed like—”
Tears blurred my vision. “I trust you,” I blurted out before thinking through what I was about to say. “But I’m cursed. Any man I—” The words caught on a sob, and I took a deep breath. Did I love him?
If I was questioning having sex with him, I did.
He paused, letting the weight of his body sink lower, pinning me deep into the cushions of the couch. “Who did you lose?” He cupped my face and brushed a bit of hair away from where it’d caught on my lip.
“Everyone. I made a deal with Rose to protect myself and my sisters from him.”
“Who?”
“It doesn’t matter.” I waved my hand and moved his body with a fluid stroke of magick. I rolled from beneath him and then let his weight plop down on the cushions where I had been. But he was a vampire. Before I could even reach for my shirt, he was on top of me again. This time on the floor with both my wrists grasped firmly in his hands. I didn’t need my hands to do magick, but I’d let him believe that.
“Who the fuck is coming after you?”
“My father!” I yelled, anger burning a hole in my heart. All the feelings I’d buried during the years I’d spent in debt to Rose came rocketing back to the surface. I’d been safe. Lulled into believing I wouldn’t have to run from him again. Lulled into believing I could live out my life in relative peace.
Well.
Rug.
Fucking.
Pulled.
“This. Us.” I gestured between us. “Not happening,” I said, my voice breaking with each syllable. I grabbed my shirt and leapt up from the couch.
I had to stop us.
I had to stop myself.
Chapter 25
XERXES
“How long will it take you to move the army into position outside of Sanctuary?”
“The better part of a day, Master General.” The Djinn spoke, keeping his body frozen in a deep bow—his face parallel with the floor. Few men had the gall to look me in the eye. Of course that was probably because I didn’t allow many men to live if they did.
I sank back into the large chair at the head of the conference table. The war room had pictures and maps and data collected from the Djinn and Lycans who’d been sent to destroy as much of Sanctuary as possible. According to reports, many of Rose’s precious citizens had died. The town barrier had been disabled, and at least half of the buildings had been burned to the ground.
“Who is monitoring Sanctuary now?”
“Abed is there now, Master General.”
“Bring him. I want an update.”
The Djinn disappeared into a vortex, and I leaned forward to flip through pages of old reports. The Washington Republic was functioning under the watchful eyes of my two Second-in-commands. The Lycan commanders had proven to be worth their salt and loyal as long as I didn’t kill any of their pack…which was easy enough to avoid. I had plenty of others waiting to die. Eventually, they would all outlive their usefulness, but until that moment, they lived and breathed under my protection.
A knock across the room brought my gaze to the closed door at the far side of the conference room. “Enter.”
Instead of opening the door, Cal appeared on the other side with a body in tow—a very bloody body.
“Master,” he said, falling to one knee beside the unfamiliar corpse. And it was a corpse for I’d yet to hear a heartbeat. “I have failed you. I deserve to die for I have brought shame to your house.” He withdrew his sword and held it up above his head, while keeping his face pointed at the ground.
The one man who I allowed some freedoms in my presence was acting as though he were nothing—certainly not my most trusted right hand.
“Why do you speak this way,
Cal?” I rose from my seat and walked toward him. Once at his side, I took the scimitar from his hands and laid it on the table behind me. The body on the floor beside him was slightly familiar. Like I should know him, but just couldn’t quite place him. The bashed and bloody face probably didn’t help, either, but the man was large and smelled very… “He’s a Dragon.” Not one of the twins, though. “Their son?”
“Yes, Master. The male called Mikjáll.”
“Why have you failed me? I sent you to feed my brother, and you bring back—” I heaved a breath and controlled the power seething inside, raging like a bull about to stampede. “What happened in the tomb? Why do you have the Drakonae son?”
“Sanctuary found Naram, Master. Asa was there and another Djinn. Her brother, Anushrowain. He was banished from Court thousands of years ago. I thought him long dead. No one has heard from him or seen him since—”
“What of Naram?” I growled.
“The Drakonae was successful in melting off the shackles, Master. They escaped with him.”
A chuckle escaped from my chest, and Cal risked a quick glance upward. I met his gaze and motioned for him to stand before I spoke. “I knew Asa would try something, but I didn’t think the people in Sanctuary would agree to work with a Djinn so easily. I suppose, with their leader dead, they’re desperate.” I returned to my chair and sat. “If it hadn’t been feeding day for my dear brother, you would’ve simply found an empty tomb. Am I right?”
Cal nodded slowly. “Yes, Master. That would be true.”
“Manda’s mother must’ve been following us a bit more closely than I realized. Since I know her ultimate goal is to save her little girl, I’m going to give you Manda to do with as you wish. She’s in a warded room at the Pentagon…And, Cal, in twenty-four hours, I expect you to execute her.”
Cal’s eyes widened, and his stance relaxed just a hair. He’d gone from thinking I would execute him to realizing he was still my trusted executioner. I picked up the sword from the table behind me and handed it back to him.
“You honor me, Master. I would be pleased to carry out this task.”
“Make her suffer, Cal. I want her mother to know, when she sees Manda’s body, that everything she did was for nothing.”
Cal bowed low as he slid his scimitar into its sash at his waist.
A knock at the door turned my focus, and I didn’t see Cal blink, but I felt the ripple of his jump. A Djinn’s magick always left a trail. A tear in space that I could feel for a while after they blinked.
“Master General, sir.”
“Enter,” I said, taking a backward step to lean against the table edge. The Djinn from earlier returned with another in tow.
“Abed has the report for you, Master General.”
“Speak.”
The obviously younger Djinn swallowed and squared his shoulders before opening his mouth. “Master General, sir. It is how you predicted. Those in Sanctuary have moved nearly all their people into the castle. They have blockaded it with ice in addition to the teleportation barrier that was already in place.”
I narrowed my eyes and let a growl rumble from my chest. Both Djinn in my presence fell to the floor in prostration. “The teleportation spell was supposed to be nullified with the death of the witches. You failed to kill them all?” I shoved away from the table and paced the room. “What do you mean, the castle is blockaded with ice?”
“A-a dome, Master. The Ice Dragon has created a dome over the entirety of the castle from the walls up—like a four foot thick l-l-lid.”
“The doors are bared?”
“Yes, Master,” they both answered in unison.
I crossed my arms and growled again. The only way through that shit would be for me to shift and smash it myself, and they knew it and were likely preparing for it. Even with one more Drakonae dead—I glanced at the body Cal had left behind—there were still two others. And a fucking elf with a dragonfire sword. Of course, there was also the problem that they had my brother now. Only hours would pass before he was healed enough to be dangerous to me.
“They won’t be able to get through the Pentagon protection wards without one of their witches. Be on the lookout. I want them all dead on sight. Whoever they bring. Is that clear?”
“Yes, Master General.”
I waved my hand, raising them both from the floor and giving them a good shove toward the closed door. “Now,” I thundered.
They both disappeared into a vortex before either of their bodies collided with the heavy wooden doors. Everything was getting closer. Pieces were falling into place. The two east coast Republics were completely under my control, and now I could look westward with the might of tens of thousands of soldiers under my control—humans and supernaturals alike.
They would all die for me, if necessary.
And it would be necessary for many.
Sanctuary would not fall easily. And the Texas Republic would fight tooth and nail and claw.
Chapter 26
KILLÍAN
“How is Naram?” I asked, staring out the glass window into pitch blackness. The ice encasing the top half of the castle blocked out even the light of the moon. Shadows danced here and there in the courtyard below from the torches and flashlights. The pixies had set up small floating balls of light that helped illuminate much of the open court, but still there were plenty of blind spots. Plenty of ways the darkness made us vulnerable.
“He said he will be fully healed in the morning when the sun rises. But that he must get outside into the sun or the ice must be melted down so that it can get through to the courtyard outside.
“The ice will keep them out.”
“Aye, love,” said a big Lycan in the corner. “But it’s also keepin’ us in.”
I rolled my neck and nodded at Duncan. It was a risk to be so enclosed. I could feel the itch in my skin because of it. They couldn’t see us. But we couldn’t see them. Every advantage also held with it a disadvantage. We had to open the doors to get out and look around. Especially since Calliope and her Djinn had hidden themselves away somewhere. She was the only being in town that could feel teleportation. Well, except Naram now.
Diana stood from her chair and rubbed her large belly, swollen with the three babies she carried. I didn’t know a lot about childbirth, but she and my Eira were both about to birth from the look of them. And perhaps it was just me being overly protective. This town meant something to Eira. These people were her friends.
I had wanted to take her and leave the second it’d turned into a war. I was done with wars. Wars killed innocents. Wars killed everyone but those too cruel to die.
“It is better to fight from a defensible position. If we were out in the open, we’d all be dead in minutes. The ice will funnel the enemy. Control the flow of their numbers. We can defend the castle if we are careful,” Miles said, rising to stand next to his wife. “Djinn are not known for seeing in the dark. Xerxes will wait until morning to make a move. Everyone should rest and kiss their loved ones. Tomorrow we have war, Killían.”
Footsteps outside the room silenced all of us. We turned and waited. Javier, one of the Protectors, stepped through the doorway.
“How did you get in?” Miles asked, his eyebrows raised in alarm.
“Calliope answered her phone,” he said, shaking his head. “She opened the back. The vamp is waiting outside. He’s not much to look at, but the Oracle has already confirmed he’s the right one.”
“You spoke with Calliope?” I asked.
“Not long. She and that Djinn vampire guy disappeared back down a dark hallway after locking the door behind us. Why?”
“Jared is out of his mind with the other Djinn, both about to rip out throats if we don’t set up something to go for Manda. We’ve been trying to get a hold of Calliope, but she wasn’t answering her phone.”
“We’re still going to go get that Djinn bitch?” Javier asked.
“A deal is a deal. Asa gave us Naram. We have a chance to save Sanctua
ry because of it,” I reminded him.
Javier shook his head and sighed. “It’s no good, esé. Xerxes has an army gathering south of town, over the rise. We need all hands on deck. It’s gonna rain blood in the morning.”
“Let’s be sure it’s not our blood,” Diana said, her voice sharp and her eyes bright blue.
The vampire snorted. “I’ll find one of the Lycans to start his tattoo. Morning comes, he’s gonna need to be able to move in the sunlight. Naram can do that, right?”
I nodded. “I’ll speak with him. Tell Travis and Garrett to hurry. Perhaps they can work together. I know the tattoo usually takes hours to complete.”
Javier waved a half-salute and turned to leave. “Will do,” he hollered before blurring from sight.
“He’s just one more body. One more soldier,” Diana said, the exhaustion starting to show in her slumped posture.
“We need more soldiers,” I answered. It was true. He might be another body. But another body in a war like this could tip the scale in our favor.
She shook her head. “We still need another Protector to complete the spell,” Diana said, her voice slow and precise. “We have lost our mate and now our son. We have nothing left to give, Killían. If one of us dies, the other will turn on our friends. We would kill without discretion. Everything and everyone inside this castle would die by our hand, if not by the hand of Xerxes and his army. We are just as great a threat as he is…” Her voice trailed off as she walked to a window and stared up at the darkness.
“We can’t get out now, can we?” I glanced up at Miles. His brown eyes glittered with the orange flame of his Dragon.
“There are too many Djinn watching. We’re trapped now. Diana and I could fly out, but we’d only be able to take a few people with us.”
“How could we choose which friends to take and which to leave? We will fight at your side, but you needed to know that if one of us falls, you have mere minutes to kill the other before we lose ourselves to our Dragon.” Diana placed both hands against the wall of the castle and took a deep breath. Loud snaps shattered the silence outside, then moonlight flowed through the windows of the room.
Sanctuary, Texas Complete Series Box Set Page 126
