by Ophelia Bell
Cade struggled to keep his voice even, the steady slide of both her hands up and down his raging erection making it difficult to focus. He reached out and stilled her eager stroking just so he could form a coherent thought. “You’ve got me at your mercy now, sweet pea. What’s the plan?”
“No plan, except for the next six hours, I want you to fuck me like our lives depend on it. There’s only one rule…”
Cade didn’t wait for her to finish. The second she said “fuck me,” he hooked his arm around her waist and spun her, pressing her flat against the door hard enough that her breath left her lungs. He shoved the silken fabric of her robe up her thigh and hiked her leg over his hip. His cock slid along the soaked crease of her pussy until his tip felt the welcoming give of her opening, and he shoved home hard. Numa dug her fingertips into his neck and her head flew back.
“Oh, Sweet Mother, yes!” she cried, wrapping both legs tight around him as he began to pump into her with reckless abandon.
Sweet Mother, was right. Gaia’s tears, he’d never felt a snatch so fucking perfect. Inside his mind, Zephyrus hummed a rhythmic tune that matched the rhythm of Cade’s thrusts, the wind spirit’s ecstasy nearly as close to the surface as Cade’s own.
“Rules, ursa…” Numa said in between her own moans of pleasure.
“Don’t worry, sweet pea. I’ll hold out until you say so. I’m happy enough just feeling you wrapped around my cock like this.”
She sighed and her eyes fluttered shut, her hips moving to meet his steady thrusts. The force of his fucking had slid her robe off both her shoulders, and he lowered his lips to her collar bone, then bent to tease his tongue around her exposed nipple. Her core heated and tightened around him, testing his limits. Gaia’s tears, he needed her to come soon or he’d lose his fucking mind—and lose the damn contest in the process.
He hooked his hands under her ass and hoisted her a little higher, angling his hips to spear her deeper. She let out a resonant yell that echoed through the room and held on as he grabbed her around both hips and began to slam her down on his cock over and over. The new angle seemed to do the trick. Within seconds, she trembled and a gasping, hitching moan escaped her throat as her pussy tightened around his shaft in the most delicious squeeze. That glorious sensation made him regret so hard that he wasn’t shooting the contents of his balls deep into her.
The power of her climax that flooded into his body soon after was like nothing he’d felt before, and it was all he could do to channel it into that empty well Zephyrus had helped him prepare. Her entire body went slack except for her arms and legs still wrapped tight around him as she nuzzled his neck.
“Thank you,” she said.
Cade gritted his teeth in his effort to hold his shit together. His balls felt like molten lead again. Zephyrus was no fucking help, either, the wind spirit apparently struck dumb by the experience. Cade was only halfway coherent as it was.
“I’m here. What a fucking beautiful thing that was. You are a master.”
Cade ignored him, instead focusing on controlling his need to start fucking her again. She let out a soft sigh, but offered no other directions. Cade turned and surveyed the room, then headed toward the big bed against the wall on one side.
“I’m gonna just lay you down here, all right?” He climbed onto the bed, then slipped out of her as he gently lowered her to the mattress.
When he glanced at her face, he paused and frowned. Wet streaks marred the clear, pale skin of her cheeks, and her eyes and the tip of her nose were red.
“Honey, please tell me I didn’t hurt you,” he said, reaching up to brush one knuckle lightly over the tracks of her tears.
Numa let out a soft laugh and cupped his bearded cheek. “Oh, no. You’d have a hard time hurting me, even if you wanted to. I just really, really needed that.” She sighed heavily and turned onto her side, tugging him by the hand. He followed her, still uncertain, but not wishing to disappoint her at any point during his trials.
“You feel like talking about it?” he asked.
She studied him in silence, then tilted her head. “That song you were singing … was that you, or Zephyrus?”
“Song? Ah …” He shook his head and chuckled. “That wasn’t me. I didn’t even realize you could hear that. I thought it was just some gibberish syllables he was chanting. Do Re Mi shit.”
“It wasn’t gibberish,” she said. “Tell him I heard him and … me too.”
A gust of wind blew across them both, catching tendrils of Numa’s hair and toying with it. The wind spirit hummed once again in pleasure inside Cade’s head.
Cade’s brows lowered. “He’s here … You talk to me, you talk to both of us. And whatever you meant by that, he’s pretty damn happy about. Do you two mind cluing me in?”
Numa’s eyes twinkled. “He keeps secrets from you? That really isn’t fair.”
“I’d say not,” he agreed, shooting a quick impression of his irritation at his smug passenger.
“Zephyrus and I have history, though I never realized how much history until today. His song was just a reminder that he’s wished for this day for a long time. I used to wish for it a lot when I was young … to be the object of his affection. If I’d only known…”
“Can I take the wheel?”
“Be my guest,” Cade said, then lifted his gaze to Numa. “He’s yours now, sweet pea. Just don’t abuse this body too much while he’s got control. It’s the only one I’ve got.”
Numa sat up excitedly, and Cade almost regretted the fact that her eager look wasn’t for him. Zephyrus slipped past his consciousness with practiced ease, and Cade barely even noticed he’d lost control over his own body. The only sign was the strangely distorted view of the world now, as though he were watching from behind thick glass. Every sensation was slightly dulled, but every emotion his new master felt hit him as hard as if it was his own.
Gaia’s tears, but the man hadn’t been lying. Cade’s heart broke all over again at the reminder of what it felt like to love so strongly. He’d never expected to have his own loss haunt him with such acute potency, and at the same time be counterbalanced with such optimistic hope.
The wind spirit took Numa into his arms and proceeded to make slow, deliberate love to her as though it were their first time together. Cade could only watch and hope that somehow the two of them succeeded in winning this contest, because he didn’t think he could survive having to deal with two broken hearts inside one body.
Chapter Twelve
Meri wished she’d discovered the breadth of her power in this incorporeal form before. Having the bloodline of a million human souls as her personal tributary of the River gave her a range of abilities she had only dreamed of before. The lack of a physical form to experience the world firsthand meant little when she had access to so many at once. She couldn’t wholly inhabit any of the bodies, however—only share them with their native spirits. And only her army of Hunters fighting in the Haven seemed to respond to her mental commands. Those men had tasted her blood directly.
She found she could split her focus more easily without the distraction of a single body’s consciousness to keep track of. The broken shell that was held captive in the Haven was merely her anchor now, but her true power resided outside that body, in the minds of her Hunters and the millions of humans who carried traces of her bloodline after centuries of breeding.
The temporal bubble she struggled to break through still held strong, though the barrier fluctuated with each surge of power she sent through it. It took immense effort to force those ripples, but she had the sense if she persisted long enough, it would soon deteriorate to the point she could break through and access the mind of the creature she had created to be her immortal vessel. The child she had implanted inside Vrishti’s womb was free from a soul, making her the perfect host for Meri’s own itinerant spirit to make a permanent home within.
> But the fight inside the Haven could not be forgotten. She still needed to reach the Source if she intended to have all the power she required once she did reclaim the child. While the baby’s genetic makeup was ideal, she was too young for Meri to inhabit yet and remain in control. The Source would help speed her growth along.
With other fragments of her mind, she continued flitting through the bodies of her Hunters, keeping a keen eye on the fight unfolding in her home. The ursa and nymphaea had banded together and were defending the Source to the death. Their numbers were greatly outmatched by her Hunters, thanks to Nyx’s excellent job locking down every access point and guaranteeing no reinforcements would come, but neither would any more Hunters be able to aid Meri’s fight if she needed them. All Meri needed was for her Hunters to maintain the upper hand. It was just a matter of time before they broke through to the Source, and she wanted to have control of the child when that happened.
On her sojourn through the minds of her troops, one Hunter’s vision triggered an old memory and she paused to observe his surroundings. He was with a small squad that had split off from the others, chasing down one of the Thiasoi she had once called sister. The wounded female had run, leaving a trail of blood behind her the four men were intent on tracking with intentions of both blood and carnal lust. She reveled in the strength of those urges she had fostered in them. They would not cease their fight until they’d sated those desires. All the nymphs who had spurned her so long ago would be crushed.
The bloody trail stopped at the edge of a waterfall, but the path the men stood on was one she remembered well. When they wavered at the edge of the water, perplexed by the nymph’s disappearance, she took over. She filled the leader’s mind with her own will, shoving his spirit aside.
The power of the Source itself infused the waterfall, but there was no way to harness it without controlling the origin pool. Yet there was something within the cave beyond the falls that could give her an advantage, if she were brave enough to venture inside.
“The nymph we followed has passed through the waterfall,” she said, her voice sounding strange coming from an unfamiliar mouth, heard by someone else’s ears. The other three men snapped to attention, having been conditioned to understand when she spoke through one of their number. They knew who their true master was.
She settled into the big soldier’s body, giving him a mental stroke as positive reinforcement for allowing her control as well as the continued eagerness to find and subdue their prey. The adrenaline that lingered in his bloodstream felt good, his arousal a potent influence making her revel in her possession of this man.
She looked down and found the gap in the vegetation that flanked the edge of the falling water. Cool spray soaked through the tight cotton t-shirt the man wore, cooling his hot skin. She pushed through the bushes to the ledge that led past the curtain of the falls and carefully stepped onto it, turning back to beckon to the other three to follow. They obediently stepped through the bushes and trailed her as she made her way into the darkness of the secret cave beyond.
The scent of blood was stronger there, and she crouched down, waiting for her vessel’s human vision to adjust to the dimness within. The dawn light only filtered through a small amount, but the dank interior of the cave that served as the antechamber to one of the oldest creatures in existence was as familiar to her as her own mind.
The nymph may be out of their reach if she ventured farther in, but Meri no longer cared about chasing a broken, terrified enemy. Not when she could take advantage of a greater power she had all but forgotten about over the centuries.
She rose again and sought out the entrance to the deeper caves, a void in the far wall. Walking forward, the power grew, the hairs on her vessel’s arms standing on end. The three men behind her hesitated.
“We aren’t going in there, are we?” one asked.
“That is precisely where we are going. Either you follow on your own, or I make you follow,” she said, giving them a dark look with one eyebrow raised.
Another soldier’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. He nodded toward the corridor. “After you,” he said. “Just tell us what to expect. Whatever’s in there has my hackles up.”
Meri let out a low chuckle. “The answer to our prayers.”
The three men gave each other resolute looks, but fell in behind her as she stepped into the darkened passage.
The ancient, primal power that filled this place grew more potent the farther in she went. Soon the walls and ceiling closed in, forcing the four of them to crouch, and then crawl on all fours for several meters before it opened again and they were able to stand and stretch. When the ethereal light of the Diviner’s chamber bled in, the magic that filled the passage made it feel like Meri was pushing through a dense barrier to move forward.
She gritted her teeth, the big soldier’s body sweating from the exertion of simply walking the last few feet only to reach an invisible, yet seemingly impenetrable wall that refused to give, no matter how hard she pushed at it.
Scales slithering against wet stone sent a chill running down her spine, and the ancient, all but forgotten memory of her last visit to this place bloomed in the forefront of her mind. All Thiasoi soldiers, male and female alike, were required to visit the Diviner’s lair as part of their initiation, to arrive in their true primal form and undergo a test of wills against the ancient creature before being allowed access to the River. That network of water magic was what allowed the Thiasoi their link to each other and to access the infinite, endless flow of time through the universe.
Meri had been stripped of her link when she was banished from the Haven, but if she could win over the Diviner now, she could gain access to that flow of time once more and gain greater power to affect the bubble that barred her access to the child. It would also allow her a clearer view of events as they unfolded, giving her the ability to react more swiftly if anything went awry.
“I sssee you inssside that human man, little nymph. You know the price of entry to my chamber.” The Diviner’s voice slipped inside her skull and drifted over her skin in a cool caress.
The price of entry. Of course. It hadn’t occurred to her because she had no ability to take a primal form in the bodies of these human men. But she could take them as close as possible.
“Strip,” she commanded over her shoulder and began to tear off the clothes of her vessel. From within the Diviner’s chamber came the soft, terrified pleas of the injured nymph they had chased, begging the Diviner not to let them in. But Meri no longer had any interest in that nymph, not when there was a greater prize to be had. Still, she could use the promise of that smaller conquest to encourage the other men to action.
Once she was naked, she gripped the large cock between her thighs and stroked it to full hardness. At the same time, she crafted a vision of the thing that had provoked these men into chasing the nymph to begin with and sent it to the three of them through their blood meld.
Before her eyes all three’s fearful expressions turned hungry, and they all hurriedly removed their clothes and stepped closer to the barrier that blocked their entry to the Diviner’s lair. Their basest, most primal urges at the surface now, she turned and smiled into the mist-filled room.
“We are ready,” she said, and reached out to test the barrier once more. The slithering sound from within grew louder, accompanied by the wet, rhythmic tempo of waves lapping at stone.
Beneath her hand, the barrier dissipated, and she stepped into the room. Her entire body immediately flushed with hot arousal, the erect cock between her thighs aching painfully. It was a distraction she didn’t need, but would have to endure in order to see this scheme of hers through to the end.
“Why are you here, little nymph?” the Diviner said, her voice ricocheting off the walls.
“To offer you a bargain. I will soon control the Haven and the Source itself. I propose an alliance. Grant
me a fresh link to the River. Open the Haven to those who share my blood, and I will set you free.”
The mists shifted and thinned, the slithering sounds reaching a crescendo around them as the old, familiar shape coalesced before her. An immense female figure loomed from the center of the pool, a woman who was part-nymph, part-dragon, with hair like tiny snakes and hands tipped in claws. The water churned and bubbled around her, a writhing mass of huge tentacle-like tails with iridescent blue-green scales twisting in and out, as thick as the torso of a man where they emerged from her hips, all tapering to fine tips that slipped over the edge of the pool. Several of those creeping tails made their way beyond, reaching for Meri’s vessel and the men who stood behind him.
“Freedom. That isss a novel offer, one I have never had before. What makes you think you have the power to grant me thisss freedom?”
“I have forged a bond of blood with humanity that grants me power in the outside world. I can release you from the Haven, give you free rein among the humans, allow you to see for yourself what wonders there are to find out there that you never got to see trapped in this cave.”
The Diviner tilted her head, her hypnotic eyes swirling with interest. The tiny snakes framing her face coiled around each other.
“Ssshow me this power. What can humanity do for me that your kind doesss not already? That I cannot do for myssself?”
The mass of tentacles before her rose up from the water. The shape of a naked female body emerged, a nymph in full primal shift, her head lolling back from the weight of her antlers. Red gashes slashed across her torso, welling blood that dripped down her flesh. The Diviner cradled the nymph with several of her tails while the tips of others caressed the unconscious woman. Water flowed over her, cleansing the blood from the cuts the Hunters had given her and uncovering a deeper wound that had pierced the nymph’s side. More blood seeped from that gash, and as Meri watched, the wound closed, and the anguished expression on the unconscious nymph’s face eased as she fell into serene slumber.
