Solstice Surrender

by Cooper-Posey, Tracy

  He lifted a single brow. “Do I have a choice?” He turned away before she could answer, to face the approaching men.

  Jenna faced Hine as he walked directly towards her. His eyes glittered strangely in the half-light. They glowed almost golden like those of the wolves in the cave.

  Remember he can command elements.

  Hine lifted his hand toward her and pushed. It came at her, a hot ball of air. She pushed back, throwing up a mental wall. This time she did it to protect Rhys rather than herself.

  The force dissipated and Hine nodded as if he had confirmed something. “You’re coming into your full power.” His voice fell flat, out here in the open. “How nice. But no shield you could throw up can stop a physical attack.”

  “I’d welcome a physical attack.” It was simple truth. A physical fight would put this into her territory—well-worn ground where she remained master.

  The first of the men reached Rhys, who tackled him with a grunt of effort, knocking the man onto his back. The man didn’t get up again. Two more were coming in. Too fast. Instinctively, she shot out her hand, palm first. She felt the surge leap from her and the two men flew backwards, one of them taking out a third coming up behind. They rolled across the snow, but they were not out of the equation completely. She hadn’t put that sort of force into it.

  “I hope you know how to multi-task,” Hine called out and she felt him launch another attack. She deflected it quickly, unable to diffuse it completely.

  “Tree!” Rhys cannoned into her, sending her staggering across the snow. Behind her she heard the sharp crack and squealing sound of a falling tree. But Rhys’ shove had pushed her out of the way.

  Before she could recover, Hine threw another volley at her and shadowy men leapt over the fallen trunk, rushing at Rhys. She deflected the volley, throwing it straight at the men and they flew aside like bowling pins.

  They were at a stand-off. Hine could keep throwing men or more at them all night, until fatigue set in and they were overcome. But they didn’t have all night. Her internal clock told her they had only a few short minutes left.

  Unsure of whether it could work or not, Jenna lifted her hands up high into the air, together, pointing. Through them she pushed a surge, then spread her arms, describing an arc that enveloped the two of them. She turned 360 degrees so it became a hemisphere. A shield. She poured all of her will and determination into it.

  Then she watched with detached interest as the man closest to them walked straight into the perimeter of it and fell backwards like he had hit a wall.

  Rhys, behind her, spoke quietly. “Watch Hine, Jenna. He will test you. No one has ever been able to do this and his ego won’t allow him defeat.”

  “Just try me.” Jenna scowled at Hine. He strode forward, fury radiating from him. Even though the shield she had thrown up was invisible, she knew exactly where it reached. The moment Hine connected with it, she felt the impact, the surge of rage and fury. But he could not take another step forward, because she pushed back, her own anger rising. He was just a bully. The way to deal with bullies was to give them their own medicine back twofold.

  She shoved. Hard.

  Hine flew backwards, to sprawl in the snow. He sat up and snarled again. “So be it. I cannot tame you, but I can stop the binding!” He turned and looked towards the frozen waterfall and shot out his hand towards it.

  “The cave! No!” Rhys staggered forward through the thigh-high snow.

  A dreadful cracking sounded. Crunching, rumbling noise came from higher up the side of the mountain. From the riverbed over the top of the frozen river came an avalanche of ice and snow, broken trees and rocks. It thundered down in front of the cave entrance, bringing down the curtain of ice with it. The vibrations of the fall traveled up through her feet and the displaced air lifted her hair from her neck, ruffling it.

  When silence fell again, the cave entrance was completely blocked.

  Hine, propped up on one elbow, laughed loudly. “Even you cannot stop that!”

  For a moment all was still in the clearing. Even Hines’ men paused to stare in awe at the destruction.

  The muffled, eerie silence dropped over them once more. Then it was broken by a slow, long cracking sound.

  “Ice. The ice,” Rhys looked around. “Where is it?”

  “We’re okay.” She watched Hine. Had he seen it? Did he realize his danger?

  Hine lay shouting at his men, encouraging them to move in now that Jenna had dropped her shield. He was totally unaware of the danger.

  “Hine!” Jenna called. “Move. You’re on the ice, Hine.”

  The cracking, groaning, grinding sound came louder now.

  “Hine!” Jenna rushed forward.

  He stopped shouting, looking down at the snow beneath him as it moved. Horror spread across his features, but it was already too late. The ice sheet, separated from all anchors, bobbed about, unbalanced with his weight on it. It tilted just like a tip truck, sliding Clement Hine into the cold waters flowing beneath the ice. He flailed, screaming, but the ice sheet, now back in balance, fell back into place over the top of him like the final piece of a jigsaw puzzle.

  Jenna turned away, sickened. A couple of his men ran to where Hine had disappeared, but there would be nothing they could do.

  The solstice, Jenny.

  She whirled back to Rhys and saw he was struggling with a solitary figure, the last to offer any resistance. She reached out and brushed the man aside casually and he was flung away. Already she noticed the difference in the surges she pushed out. They were stronger—they pulled through her with an almost pleasurable rush. Rhys had been right. Much of this was intuitive. She just knew what to do.

  Then Rhys fell to his knees in a tired heap and all her confidence evaporated in an instant. She hurried forward, the snow dogging her every step, until she dropped beside him. He leaned on one hand, the other hand clasped to his stomach.

  Fear sat like a heavy imp on her chest, and grabbed her throat. She couldn’t speak.

  Rhys!!

  He lifted his head to look at her. “A bloody knife.” He coughed. “I didn’t see it in the dark, until it was too late.”

  He collapsed into the snow.

  Her fear leapt high within her. “No, no, no….” She scrambled to roll him over. She sat in the snow and picked him up in her arms. She caught her breath as the black shadow across the snow was revealed. His blood. She shook him a little.

  “Rhys! Stay with me.”

  Solstice. You must go.

  “I can’t go anywhere now. The cave is blocked.”

  Jump.

  “I’m not leaving you.”

  Have to. I’ve done my job.

  Even his mental voice was fading. Sobs tore at her chest. Hot tears burned her cheek. But she ignored it all, as she delved deep with her mind, searching for him.

  Stay, Rhys! I need you!

  Silence.

  She looked around at the three men still standing. They watched her, wary. “Go away!” she screamed at them.

  She looked at the cave entrance, wearing its own impenetrable shield of ice. Jump, he’d said. He’d assumed she could do it.

  She closed her eyes and thought of the cave while she held Rhys tightly to her. He’d shown her his own jump, the day they’d met. How he’d leaned towards the place, yearned to be there. So she thought of the cave, with longing and despair. She must get Rhys out of this snow, into warmth and light. Love.

  Suddenly she was there, the twinkling light from the ice all around her and Rhys lay in her arms. They were in the center of the circle with the wolves ranged around them. Jenna held Rhys to her, feeling with her hand for a heartbeat and finding none.

  The solstice was nearly on her. The energy of the field built, swirling like an orgasm rushing at her. She reached out with her mind, searching for Rhys, calling for him.

  She felt him echo back. It was enough. She grasped and held on, just as the inhuman surge of the field ripped through her. It was
like a blast of light, or hot air, a call of trumpets. All of it. From far away, she heard the wolves give voice. She lifted up, up high to float for an endless moment of time, before the surge moved beyond her.

  * * * * *

  Jenna blinked and found she still sat on the hard rock of the cave floor and Rhys still lay in her arms. She wiped at her wet cheeks and sniffed mightily. “Rhys?” she whispered.

  I’m here…I’m really here. Amazement flooded him as he grappled with the facts.

  “You told me yourself the circle can heal.”

  He reached for his side and probed, then held up his fingers to examine them. Traces of blood from his shirt coloured them, but that was all. “Sure, fevers, sickness…I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a six-inch knife wound being healed.”

  “I guess there’s a first for everything.”

  He sat up, moving gingerly. “But I have a hell of a headache.” He looked at her. “You did it, Jenny. You brought both of us over.”

  She nodded. “I appear to have chosen.”

  He cupped her cheek. “You surrendered to your fate.”

  “Screw fate. I chose you. And anyway—” She moved her cramped legs. “Now that I got through the solstice and you got me here, aren’t we done with the fate thing? Neither of us have any more destinies lined up, do we?”

  He laughed. It was a carefree, happy sound. He sat up properly himself. “Just a long lifetime of trying to keep humans from destroying themselves several times over every time they dream up a new and exotic blend of something or other.”

  “Hell, that’s what I’ve been doing for the last ten years.”

  He kissed her. “Let’s go home.”

  She picked up his hand, not sure if she needed the physical contact or not to make this work and looked at him. “Where is home?” she asked. “For you, I mean?”

  “Wherever you are, Jenny.”

  * * * * *

  In his big bed that night, Jenna turned to him. “Doesn’t it bother you that despite your heritage, your upbringing and all your years of experience and wisdom, I come waltzing along and can do more than you have ever been able to achieve?”

  Rhys stopped brushing his fingers through her hair. “It would bother me more if you turned your back on those gifts and walked away from the duties they lay upon you.”

  “So, the fact that I am more powerful than you isn’t an issue?”

  “You’re only more powerful in one respect.” Quickly, surprising her, he flipped her onto her back and anchored her wrists beneath his hands and straddled her, holding her down on the mattress.

  “Brute strength,” she told him. “With the emphasis on ‘brute’.” Never in a million years would she admit that the show of strength made her heart flutter and her belly roll in a weak, feminine way.

  He laughed down at her. “You could toss me across the room if you wanted. Why don’t you?”

  “I don’t need to prove a point you’re perfectly aware of.” She tried to sound prim and pissed, but it didn’t work, because her voice become throaty, betraying how much she enjoyed being at his mercy.

  He leaned down to nuzzle aside the silk of her nightdress where it lay over her breast, while keeping her arms pinned. She gasped as his tongue lapped at her nipple and his teeth nipped the tight, hard bud. Hot languorous desire spread through her, and she sighed. He transferred his attention to the other breast, stroking the flesh through the thin silk with his tongue, before bathing the nipple itself. The soft lapping and stroking, the caresses, echoed by the wet fabric stretched over her nipples, soon had her writhing beneath him, her hips pushing into his bare thighs. His cock had hardened and stood at sharp attention and his balls brushed against her abdomen as she moved restlessly beneath him.

  Rhys moved slowly backwards and his cock slid over her pussy, a gentle caress. But still he did not let her wrists go. Instead he used his teeth to tug her nightdress up, until the hem fluttered around her waist. Then he trailed his tongue and lips across her abdomen, down to the hair-covered cleft.

  She gasped as he slid his tongue inside her, lapping at her copious juices, before sliding up to her clit and kissing it, making her hips lift. He flicked at the swollen flesh with his tongue and with each stroke, Jenna quivered. Her breath came in dry pants.

  She caught a sense/image from Rhys: his deep pleasure at being able to make her squirm, to feel her writhe beneath him and to make her come. The joy of feeling her contracting around his cock in endless orgasmic waves.

  Yes, now, she told him.

  He lifted himself up and slid into her and she gasped again. She would never tire of the sensation of that first thrust, feeling him slip into her. She gave Rhys that image/feeling.

  “I see.” He studied her face as he slowly thrust into her again. “Ah, your face when you are deep in your own pleasure. You are truly beautiful, and I am truly blessed.”

  She gasped as he thrust again. “Not if you linger like that.” Her body trembled around him, desperate for more.

  He teased her with another few, painfully slow thrusts but then even he could no longer dam the flood. Jenna watched his orgasm build and dipped into his mind as it came. He felt the touch and welcomed it by opening himself up to her. She was caught up in the rushing, heated wave of excitement building in him. It tipped her over into her own hard, convulsive climax. She clenched around his cock, stroking him with the sheath of muscle. Their minds mingled, drowning in pleasure.

  I have waited for you forever. And now you are here.

  She nodded, hearing the truth in his thoughts and marvelled at how easily she could now accept such an astonishing statement. If I had only known, I, too, would have waited.

  You are what you are. Thank god. It was a heartfelt endorsement that warmed her with its sincerity. I think... he continued, his mental voice already slipping towards sleep ... you had to have the life you did before I found you. It would not have worked any other way.

  But I have missed years we could have had together! Sadness touched her. All that wasted time!

  But we will have many more, he reminded her. This time, the gods were kind. Cara ‘ch Jenny.

  She didn’t need to know Welsh to know what he had said. She was awash in his love and regard…this man who had crossed history for her.

  Stay Up To Date

  Did you enjoy Solstice Surrender? Then, please leave a review on Amazon.

  Subscribe to my mailing list and join the hundreds of readers who get to be the first to hear about my latest books. You receive two free stories when you subscribe, and occassional discounts on new titles. http://bit.ly/dkc9Yu

  Or you can subscribe to my blog feed for more frequent news. To subscribe to the RSS feed via an e-reader, click here: http://bit.ly/VDrFUA

  To subscribe so the posts are delivered to you via email, click here: http://bit.ly/UtFGFk.

  More erotic paranormal romances by Tracy Cooper-Posey:

  More erotic paranormal romances by Tracy Cooper-Posey:

  Eva’s Last Dance – short paranormal romance.

  Nearly one hundred years after their last dance together Eva’s long lost love, Edward, makes contact again. Eva—lonely and a vampire now—can’t resist falling into his arm and under his erotic spell. She’ll do anything he asks of her now.

  Then the spell is rudely interrupted by human demon hunter Ryan Jefferson, who is on the trail of an incubus. He sets out to seduce Eva properly in a searing night of dance and passion.

  This dance counts in more ways than one...

  This is a short story. You could enjoy a long coffee and the story for dessert.

  __

  5 Stars - A super fast read that will fog up your windows, curl your toes and give you those warm fuzzies we all love...A story of love, true love that never dies, a guilty little pleasure and a delightfully delicious scorcher! If I wasn't already a Teal/Tracy Uber fan, I would be now. - Book Junkie

  4.5 Stars & Reviewer Top Pick - An endearing love story with mystery
and lots of steamy bedroom scenes. The love that Eva and Ryan start to feel for each other is timeless. - Night Owl Romance Reviews

  4 Stars - This story I'll recommend to all my friends. From the outset, I was intrigued. If you want a read that's not the norm and totally engaging, then you need to read Eva's Last Dance. - Whipped Cream Erotic Romance Reviews

  A fantastic story that tugs at the heart-strings. I truly enjoyed this book. If you are looking for a hot and sweet paranormal, this is the way to go. - I Do Not Want To Wait, I Want The Book Now.

  __

  WARNING: This book contains a hot hero and sexy heroine, frequent, explicit and frank sex scenes and sexual language.

  It includes heart-stopping sexual scenes, anal sex and the use of sex toys. Don't proceed beyond this point if hot love scenes offend you.

  No vampires were harmed in the making of this novel, but one gargoyle did met a dusty ending.

  Eva’s Last Dance is now available.

  Erotic Vampire Romance Novels

  Bannockburn Binding - Book 1 of the Beloved Bloody Time series.

  In the early 23rd Century, vampires learned how to travel back in time, and created a time-tsunami that threatened life as we know it, until they corrected their mistake. They created the Chronometric Conservation Agency, which is tasked with preserving history and therefore protecting humanity’s future. The Touring arm of the Agency offers trips back into the real past, with vampire guides, called travelers.

  When Natalia (Tally) Marta, vampire and traveler, takes her client to visit the siege of Stirling Castle in 1314, she is caught and held hostage for ransom by Robert MacKenzie, a Bruce clansman. Rob finds himself drawn to the wilful, stubborn and very different English lady he has captured and the relationship becomes an intimate, highly-charged sexual pairing. Swiftly, Tally and Rob realize their bond is more than sexual, that the emotions stirring their hearts are true.