Triquetra

by Marguerite Labbe

  “Ask me.” I captured one peaked nipple and gave it a bite. I nipped him again as he bit back a curse, then soothed away the sting with a stroke of my tongue.

  “Please, Jacob,” he whispered, with an impatient arch of his hips. “Let me touch you.”

  I smiled and thrust my fingers into him a little harder, craving the little catch in his voice as he panted and twisted, grinding against me. I loved how helpless he was, not able to stop himself from reacting so wantonly. And I loved how he still kept his hands in place, even though I could taste how he hungered to get them on me.

  “You may.” I was so close to having him right where I’d wanted him. So close.

  Surprise widened his eyes, but Kristair didn’t waste one moment. Those long legs wrapped around my waist and pulled me close. His hand dug into my hair as he lifted up to steal a torrid kiss. He was so close. There was desperation in the way his tongue battled mine, the way he pressed himself against me, until there was nothing but skin to skin along his entire body.

  Yet still he held onto that veneer of self-control.

  Once again, I nudged at his mind, silently urging him to let go. I could make him. He’d let me take control, but I so wanted him to give it to me. “I can’t,” he said in my mind.

  “Yes, you can.” I pushed a little more, teasing his prostate, kissing him deeper, silently demanding his surrender. The tension in his body built up to a fever pitch. I held nothing back, letting him feel in my mind everything that was in me, everything that I wanted to do to him.

  He tore his mouth away from mine, his body riding the edge of an orgasm I refused to release. Kristair’s fingers dug into my shoulder and upper back hard enough so I was sure there would be marks the next day. The more marks the better.

  His dark eyes were wild, his lips parted as he moaned. Every one of those sweet emotions evident on his face as his control crumbled. It was damned beautiful. I leaned in close to him, and he bit his upper lip as I smiled down at him. “Now beg for real.”

  A shudder ripped through Kristair as I pressed with my fingers, stroked him with my thoughts, leaving no part of him untouched. “You’re evil,” he said, and I laughed. He could retaliate if he wanted to but he just kept accepting my torments without even trying to take control.

  “Jacob….”

  “Yes, love?” I dragged my tongue over his gasping lips then nipped his jaw. He was so damn close. Without warning, I slid down his body again and took the full length of his cock into my mouth, tightening the muscles in my mouth and throat around it.

  Kristair shouted, his hands fisting in my hair as he drove his hips up. My mouth was filled with his rigid cock, the taste and scent of him. I groaned and relaxed my throat and when my lover struggled to get his control back, to stop his relentless thrusts, I blocked him.

  “I like you like this, Kristair. Out of control, letting your body guide you.”

  “Jacob… Jacob… please, let me go.”

  “Never.”

  I looked up the length of his body as he drove his hips down onto my fingers then back up again into my mouth, holding my head still. I delighted in the sting of his hands hard in my hair. I had pushed him to this.

  “Jacob…,” he said, his voice harsh with need. I almost gave in to my desire to drive my cock inside of him until we were both spent, but I held on. “Let me go….”

  I didn’t respond. I didn’t have to; Kristair already knew the answer. And with that the last vestige of his control broke and he began to plead. Desperate words falling from his lips, dark eyes begging, lean body writhing for more.

  “Jacob, Jacob, Jacob. Fuck me. Let me come, please, Jacob.”

  I could barely breathe the sound of it was so damn erotic. It made my head swim and, for a moment, I couldn’t react, only take it in. Then as Kristair’s begging continued, I rose up from him and rolled onto my back, pulling him with me so that he straddled me. I didn’t have to say anything. Kristair grasped my cock, guiding it against his entrance, and drove back hard. He cried out, head falling back, eyes closing in ecstasy, throat corded as he began to ride me with abandon.

  Kristair had never been so beautifully wanton. Nothing remained hidden. It was so fucking hot I would’ve come on the spot if only Kristair hadn’t taken the same hold on my mind as I now held on his.

  I grabbed his hips, driving up hard to meet each rock of his hips. “Fuck, you’re so beautiful, Kristair.”

  He didn’t say a word, his elegant features drawn in tension and concentration. He leaned back, the muscles in his stomach and thighs taut. Then he crouched back over me, hands fisting in the sheets for balance, and our eyes locked. The power of the connection jolted through me.

  I started stroking his cock as he clenched around my own. It was mindless and ferocious and all consuming. Kristair’s pleas continued, half moans and half whispered thoughts. All sense of time and place disappeared as we lost ourselves in each other.

  The need to come became painful. Kristair’s voice was hoarse. Sweat dampened my body. “Jacob….” He repeated my name again like a prayer and I nodded, wetting my dry lips.

  We released our hold on each other’s minds at the same time and I sensed his orgasm hit as hard as my own. I wrapped my arms around him, yanking him close. He slid his arms underneath me as I struggled to catch my breath.

  “Don’t move. Please don’t move, mo chroí.”

  “Don’t plan to, love.” Not until I had to.

  WE HELD onto each other, our foreheads together, my hands clasping the back of his head as I breathed in the essence of him. Through Kristair, I sensed those fuckers hovering in the background, watching the scene, watching our goodbye. In that instant I hated them like nothing I ever had before. They watched like some diseased, arrogant spider gloating over our feeble efforts to avoid our parting. I wouldn’t let them force Kristair anymore, or to cause him any grief by worrying over me.

  I opened my eyes and stared hard up at Kristair. He looked back at me, his dark eyes troubled, anguish stealing over his face, sudden fear striking his heart. “Jacob, I—”

  “No. It’ll be okay.” I buried my own doubts, shoving them deep where he wouldn’t be able to sense them through his own turmoil, and gave him a fierce kiss. “Go…. Now.”

  When Kristair hesitated again, I gave him a mental push. “Go, before I change my mind and insist we take these motherfuckers out.”

  Kristair nodded and seemed to be at a loss for words. He didn’t need to say anything though, because I could sense everything in his soul, mirroring my own. In a hoarse voice he began to speak words in a language long since extinct, words whose meaning were dead to everyone, except the two of us. I didn’t pay attention to the meaning, just the timbre as he spoke, locking the rich sound in my memory.

  Then the words faltered and I slid my hands gently down his scalp and over his shoulders. “Do it, love.”

  A new color began to creep in the sky, becoming a shade lighter. I didn’t have to look out the window to know. All it took was the sense of the Ascended gathering their will to strike. Kristair’s features hardened and his dark eyes flashed.

  As the last words of the ritual fell from his lips, his heart in my chest went silent. There was a sudden wrenching sensation and an explosion of pain in my psyche as the room spun and I tumbled into darkness. When I managed to drag my eyes open again, he was gone.

  Chapter 29

  THE ASCENDED kept me waiting. And as hard as I tried, I couldn’t find a chink in the leash they’d put on me. Not being able to sense Jacob made me restless. Knowing he was waiting made it worse. Not knowing what was going to happen eroded my patience until I was hanging onto it through the sheer effort of my will.

  I had done everything they’d demanded and still they kept me apart from them. I should be the same as the rest of the Ascended now, with no invisible shackles holding me back. I should be able to exercise my will to the fullest extent, yet still they blocked me.

  They were watching, linge
ring to see what I would do next. I could play that game very well. I was tempted to explore, to bide my time by sinking into the wonders around me, only it would be too easy to fall into the seductive lure of that life. I knew my weaknesses well. And I suspected, so did the Ascended. In all likelihood they were gambling on my curiosity.

  It was hard not to second-guess my decisions. Was I being shortsighted by not accepting the hand that had been dealt me? I kept telling Jacob it wasn’t possible to go back, yet wasn’t that what I was trying to accomplish? Would I only be making myself less than what I could be?

  But that would be assuming that just because I was limited to Earth there was nothing left to learn or explore. No, I refused to believe that. If I did then I would truly become blind. The Ascended, with all their power, forgot, I think, the beauty of the sometimes seemingly insignificant.

  Besides, Jacob had faith in me. He was blind sometimes, but I wouldn’t betray that faith.

  So I waited, left with my constant questions and roundabout thoughts.

  How time passed while I was with the Ascended did not concern me. Time ran differently among them. It wasn’t linear. Centuries could pass and I was content to wait if that’s what it took. What did concern me was that I didn’t know how much time had passed for Jacob. Had it been days? Weeks? Had no time passed at all?

  Time was fluid for me. Once I regained my powers I could go wherever I wished, when I wished, but I couldn’t affect what had already passed for those it affected. I could only observe. Whatever life he had lived without me couldn’t be reversed. That was one rule I couldn’t break, no matter how much I wanted to be with Jacob.

  To do otherwise would be pure selfishness. I had no way of knowing how many ripples I’d cause if I did or how much damage they would do.

  And I waited and paced and railed against the silent voices of the other Ascended who never answered my demands.

  EVERY ASCENDED who had ever existed arrived for my hearing. I had to give them credit for intimidation. The immensity of their whole was awe inspiring and a not-so-subtle reminder of what I’d tried to give up. All because of Jacob. Maybe that wasn’t entirely fair. I shouldn’t lay the blame on him. More so, all because I wasn’t willing to give up the bond I’d unknowingly searched for my entire existence.

  “Isn’t this all a trifle dramatic?” I stood in the midst of them, calm and ready. If they had thought to wear me down with the wait, they were wrong. It had only strengthened my resolve.

  “You are arrogant.”

  They spoke as one, choral voices swelling the air as a single, immutable chord. Still, I swore I could hear my Mistress’s voice threaded in amongst them, so I concentrated on her as I answered.

  “Shouldn’t that be we? We are arrogant. To deny that fact would be a lie. You accuse me of your own flaw… or strength, depending on how you wish to view it.”

  “So you are saying that you now fully accept being one of the whole? You consider yourself to be one of the Ascended and not look back on your former life with longing? We find that difficult to believe in light of your actions since you’ve returned. You could’ve made yourself a part of the whole as you were before, yet you kept yourself separate. You could’ve shared in our explorations, yet again you held yourself apart.”

  I paused. Had I miscalculated? I tried to read them, only to find them as inaccessible as ever. Could I have merged with them and regained my powers and only been blocking myself this entire time? Had fear of losing my sense of self blinded me so much? Shaken, I gathered myself together again.

  “It doesn’t matter what I consider myself, as you’ve pointed out several times. After all, as you have made clear, I cannot go back, only forward. Nor does it matter if you believe me. I have done as you wished. The link between me and Jacob is broken. What you do now is nothing but a farce. Release me.”

  “It is not so simple anymore.” The choral song turned steely and cold.

  “We had an agreement.” I tightened my hold on my rising anger. I never would’ve agreed to break the link if I hadn’t believed their word to be binding. “Have you so little control that you think it necessary to trick me into doing your bidding?”

  That stung them. It gave me no small measure of satisfaction to break through their calm. The air became heavy with the sharp pressing edge of their pique. “You were to go back for one reason and one reason only.” The ethereal voices were stern. “To break the link with your human lover. We did not send you back to make war on the vampires. We did not send you back so you could reveal our secrets to those who had not earned them.” The weight of their rising voices became almost too much to bear.

  I searched the massed minds of the Ascended for Jacob’s friend Tony, trying to find something positive to cling to. Some comfort I could bring back to Jacob. But if he was there, a part of them, I couldn’t pick him out. Still the search helped me to cope with the vastness of those standing against me.

  “I warned you it would take time and you put limits on me, forcing me to reside in Jacob’s mind. He was being targeted by the Syndicate, thus I had no option but to participate in their war. They sought the fight from the beginning, not us. Thus, both you and the Syndicate left me with no other choice.”

  “And the secrets? You have a ready answer for that as well?”

  “Jacob already knew the secrets before I was taken by you in the warehouse. He was linked with my mind at the end. Though he chose not to access that information for a long time, it was still there.”

  “And Anthony Hodge?” They persisted. “He should not be a member of our ranks, yet he is because of your interference. He is too raw, a lost babe.”

  Lost among the wolves, in my opinion, and his involvement was the one regret I had. Not only for the pain his passing had caused but because, as a youngling, he would find it as difficult as I had to become one of the Ascended. Who knew how long it would be before his mind could accept what he had become, before his will would become strong enough to handle such power?

  “You know I intentionally gave Tony no secrets. I had not realized how deep his friendship with Jacob had gone. I had not trusted their bond when I should have. If I had, I would’ve recognized the risk. No one regrets more than I what happened to him, but the danger is gone now. Jacob will never give up that information and all those who searched for the secrets have been destroyed.” I paused then allowed myself a slight smile. “In that war you chastised me about. The secrets are now secure with him and only him.”

  “And Kayla? You were not to make contact with your daughter.”

  “Do not dare to accuse me of breaking that rule.” Anger whipped out and I turned the force of it toward them. “Do not dare. I made no effort though it cost me. True, I did not fight Jacob when he wanted to tell her and that may have bent the rules. But it did not happen.”

  “Only because we took measures to prevent it from happening.”

  “No, you interfered. Something you keep saying you don’t do. You merely observe. It would’ve made no difference to your existence if Kayla knew there was a part of me still alive. It would not have altered or threatened you in any way. You blocked it merely because you enjoyed exercising your own powers.”

  The choral voices died down into a sibilant whisper, the thousands of voices talking in layers, the shifting patterns obscuring what they were saying. Whispers that were so very familiar. At one time, I’d thought their sound was a sign of impending insanity. How wrong I had been.

  I forced myself to wait and not demand answers and before too long, I sensed their full attention return to me again. “Kristair, it is our judgment that you obeyed the strictures of the agreement. Though you tried to twist out of it, you caused no lasting harm. In truth, we expected you would try some trick. However, you did break the link. You no longer carry your lover’s emotional taint.” They paused. “Though it is strange, you somehow carry a piece of him with you, in that part of yourself that has been missing.”

  “We will foreve
r carry a part of each other. Breaking the psychic link and destroying my heart was the deal, not separating our souls. That cannot be broken.”

  The Ascended gathered closer, crowding around me, and I steeled myself, unwilling to give them the satisfaction of showing any weakness or worry. “Based on the loss of that connection, we will release your full abilities. Though your thoughts are still consumed with him and your feelings for him still color your decisions, obscuring the full measure of what you could be. Still, an agreement is binding and we have no choice but to unblock you and accept you as one of us.”

  As much as I wanted to rejoice, I was wary instead. This was far too easy. It couldn’t be this easy, despite their interrogation.

  The air shimmered and Nerissa appeared in front of me, a physical representative of the Ascended. She was terrible and beautiful in her power and I was dwarfed by her immensity.

  “We know you, Kristair. You are stubborn and willful. We will excise Jacob from your mind.” Horror dawned and I tried to bolt only to find myself frozen as she loomed, blotting out everything but her, as the voices grew to a painful crescendo. “By the time your memory returns he will have ceased to matter. Then you will be one of us.”

  Chapter 30

  POOH CORNER was just as crowded as ever, though this time the stares of its denizens didn’t faze me. I walked alone up to the bar where Deke stood and he nodded. “Hey, kid. Congrats on being invited to the combine again.”

  “Thanks, Deke.” I grinned; it still gave me a thrill every time I thought about it. The timing and testing sessions brought me one step closer to my dream and kept me too busy to brood after Kristair was taken. In two more months I’d be in front of the NFL officials with all the other hopefuls, and I was gonna blow their minds.

  “Why didn’t you go last year?” Deke asked, starting to put together a beer order on a tray. Seeing him do something as prosaic as work a barroom tap was a little surreal, but I guess even vamps had to have some downtime from all the fighting and hunting. “School’s not your thing. I’ve seen you play. You could’ve left it far behind you last year.”