But the cool stream had revived him well enough. Soon Vaspara would be here, and he’d be fully rejuvenated by the time she left him at dawn.
Thinking of all the ways he and Vaspara could spend the night, Sorac walked back up the slope toward his nest while half in a dream. He’d almost reached his destination when a loud whistle rang through the air. He grinned and turned to where Vaspara was leaning against a tree along the side of the path.
He’d been so distracted by thoughts of her, he hadn’t even realized the object of his imagination had arrived.
“How long have you been there?” he asked, pretending boredom.
“Long enough to see you strip and walk into the stream.” Vaspara grinned, her gaze traveling up and down his body.
“I was just heading back to the nest for a clean pair of pants and a bite to eat.”
“Mmm. Don’t get dressed on my account.” Vaspara fell in beside him as he climbed the sloping trail.
Grinning, he glanced sidelong at her but had to wait a few moments for her gaze to travel back up before he could catch her eye. He recognized her look of hunger.
Pleasure that it was for him washed through his mind and body.
“I’m not going to make it back to the nest, am I?” he stated with a wink.
“Smart lizard,” Vaspara purred.
Between one step and the next, she pounced, her hands reaching for his shoulders, fingers digging into his scales and gripping the short spikes. She used her considerable strength to shove him up against a tree. A moment later her lips were crushed against his in a heated kiss while she tore the clothing from her body.
He enjoyed Vaspara’s fire and dominance. It was a part of her personality. But had he wanted, he could have put up a fight, the two of them wrestling for control—a contest where he wasn’t sure which of them would win—but that’s not what he wanted this time.
Later, once they’d both taken the edge off, there could be gentleness. Or maybe a wrestling match, he mused with a grin. But Vaspara soon drove thoughts of anything but this moment out of his mind.
She was fierce and wanton this time, touching him everywhere, pressing her curves against him, using her considerable strength and skill to demand he give her everything. When he was too slow, she climbed him and impaled herself on his aching length.
He groaned and arched up into her, his head falling back to smash against the tree trunk behind him. The slight pain only made what he was feeling that much clearer. Vaspara must have felt his rising desperation for she wordlessly demanded his surrender.
With a growl, he gave her what she asked for, as hard and fast as he could.
“Sorac,” she purred his name, her emotions suddenly flooding into him. “So perfect.”
As the wave of her love and desire swamped him, he snarled and pushed off from the tree, carrying her to the forest floor where he pinned her to the ground.
Something else rose up within him, a power born of his fiery elemental magic. This was a firedrake’s need. The strength of it surprised him, nearly obliterating higher thought, but he retained enough wherewithal to know what this was.
Firedrake mating instincts.
This had just crossed from sex and feeding into something much more life-altering.
“Vaspara, do you want me?” he asked as he hunched over her, driving deep.
“Goddess, yes.”
His lust-fogged mind realized she might not understand what he was asking. “Do you want this? Do you want me forever?”
“Forever might just be long enough for me to get my fill of you.” Her fangs flashed and then she was biting down on the vulnerable spot just above his shoulder spikes where the scales were thinner.
He jerked, his entire body tensing and trembling, but he managed to hold back his release as Vaspara found her peak.
She didn’t understand what he was asking. He needed to make her understand.
A moment later she purred and licked at the few drops of blood beading up on his skin, the compound in her saliva already working to heal the small wound. “You taste divine. Must be your father’s blood.”
She started moving against him again.
He needed to tell her, but he realized he feared her response. It was why he hadn’t pressed the issue during the other feedings, but now his firedrake nature was making him face this head on.
Divine Ones give me strength and please be merciful.
He was out of time and just blurted the words. “My mate. Do you want to be my mate? Mother to my drakelings?”
“What?” Her startled response sank in slowly. If that hadn’t been enough for him to understand, her horrified look would have done the job.
“My firedrake nature wants more than sex. I want you to be my mate, mother to my drakelings. Please, I know it isn’t fair to ask you this now, but I can’t pretend anymore.”
“No,” Vaspara said weakly. She’d stopped moving, stopped touching him with passion. The lack left him both aching and cold. The look in her eyes was now a mix of terror and horror. It matched the earlier tone in her voice. “No! I don’t want to be a mother. Never.”
She pushed at his shoulder, shoving him back, scrambling out from under him.
“Tell me you didn’t just impregnate me!” She backed away from him.
He shook his head. “No, you’re safe from that.”
“Good.” She leaned down and swiftly gathered her clothing. “I don’t want that, Sorac. I’ll never want that. I’m sorry if you didn’t understand that. I wasn’t trying to lead you on. Perhaps I should have made myself clearer in some way, so there was no doubt in your mind. I’m sorry.”
She turned and walked away, and he was sure she’d just taken some vital part of him with her.
Drawing his legs up under him, he just sat for a few moments, wondering how everything had gone so horribly wrong so quickly.
“Why didn’t I just keep my mouth shut?”
But he already knew the answer. He couldn’t lie to Vaspara, couldn’t take her as his mate without giving her a choice. If he had, in fifty years, when his fertility cycle was upon him again, his firedrake nature would overrule his control and seek out his mate to start their next clutch. And Vaspara wouldn’t be able to resist his power.
His fertility god heritage would seduce her into compliance.
He would never willingly harm Vaspara. Now all he could do was watch as she fled him, taking a piece of his heart with her.
Sorac glanced down at his hands and started to grieve for what he’d lost and what he’d now never have because he’d failed to win the heart of a succubus.
Was such a thing even possible?
Chapter 13
SHE’D NEVER RUN FROM an opponent in her life, Vaspara mused sourly. Yet, she now fled, if not an adversary, then something far more dangerous to her wellbeing and peace of mind.
Bloody plagues and blight! He’d asked her to be his mate, to be the mother to his drakelings, and she’d turned into a coward at the mere thought.
“They’ll just hatch into little ones. Not some monstrous soul-sucking monstrosity. Why can’t I just stand and face this challenge with dignity?”
It wasn’t like she hadn’t trained thousands of youths, turning them into warriors. The drakelings couldn’t be that different, could they?
“Goddess, I’ll break them, or ruin them, or fail both them or Sorac in some other fashion.”
“What is this?” asked a male voice rich with humor. “Is this the normally silent and stoic Vaspara I see talking to herself as she flees through the forest? Fleeing from a certain Firedrake and his brood?”
Vaspara skidded to a halt and sought the direction of the voice. It echoed from all directions at once. She’d spent enough time with the djinn to have grown familiar with his habit of speaking before taking solid form.
She waited for him to show himself.
Her patience was rewarded a moment later. Bright light with a molten metal quality shifted and shimmered in
the air a few body-lengths in front of her. Magic continued to spin outward from a dense point in the center, increasing in quantity. Soon the vague shape took on the djinn’s familiar and cruelly handsome features.
She and the other island residents had grown somewhat accustomed to the djinn, and Vaspara fisted her hand against her hips. “You were watching Sorac and me?”
The thought of him watching their mating didn’t bother Vaspara. It was the conversation afterward, and her shame, she would have kept private.
The djinn shuddered. “Listening actually. Most unwillingly. But since Sorac insists on keeping my bottle near his nest, I didn’t have a choice. A djinn hears all that goes on outside his bottle.”
“Well, you can just go and pretend like you didn’t hear anything.”
“It might go against common beliefs about my kind but simply wishing to unhear something doesn’t make it happen, not even for a djinn.”
Grunting, Vaspara continued down the path on her way to the beach, fervently hoping the djinn wouldn’t follow.
Of course he did. She tried to ignore him.
When she reached the beach, she wasn’t the only person with that idea. Mattis was sitting next to a bonfire, watching the ocean waves crashing into shore. Feeling less social than usual, Vaspara was tempted to turn and vanish back into the tree line, but Mattis glanced up and waved her over before she could make her escape.
Besides, she already had the djinn trailing along beside her. Perhaps she could scrape him off on the human. The djinn often spent time with the elder, the two of them telling each other stories.
With a new motive, Vaspara joined Mattis, intent on getting the human and the djinn talking. Later, Vaspara would sneak away while they were distracted.
She glanced over her shoulder at the djinn to behold a delighted glint in his eyes. Instantly, her expression turned sour, her lips compressing into a thin line of unhappiness.
“Mattis, I think we need to sit Captain Vaspara down and have a talk with her. She’s on a path to create an enormous rift between herself and Sorac.”
Mattis looked up at the djinn. “You don’t say?”
Next, the elder leaned back and studied Vaspara without a hint of surprise. Somehow the human knew of her problems. How? Vaspara had been very careful to keep her relationship with Sorac the same as always. Well, except for the feedings.
Vaspara tried to ignore Mattis’s attempts at catching her eye.
With a huff, the human pointed a finger at her and then one of the three smooth, bark-stripped tree trunks they used as temporary benches around the fire. “Sit and talk. The night’s not getting any younger. Neither am I.”
“It’s not your concern.”
Nor is it yours either, Vaspara thought as she aimed a glower at the meddling djinn.
“Of course it is. I’ve known you all my life, and I think I speak for us both when I say we are old friends. Friends help each other. Speak. Perhaps there is something I can help you with.”
Deciding it was better to get it over with, she sat.
The djinn settled on a log on the opposite side of the fire. “Perhaps there is some bit of wisdom I can share as well. Speak succubus.”
“Why do you care?” Vaspara bit out, her comment directed at the djinn. “You aren’t even mortal.”
“No, but love transcends all three realms. Being of the Spirit Realm doesn’t exclude me from that condition, and even I know love isn’t finite.”
“What’s he droning on about?” Mattis asked.
“I don’t have a clue,” Vaspara lied.
The djinn’s grin only grew broader. “The captain is afraid of motherhood for two reasons. First, she doubts if she has enough love for all of them. Which is foolish. Haven’t I already stated that love isn’t finite?”
Mattis just shook his head at the djinn.
For his part, the djinn ignored the human and continued his explanation. “Second, she thinks she’ll somehow damage the young drakelings emotionally if she agrees to become their mother as Sorac hopes.” The djinn laughed. “Raising children can’t be that difficult compared to life within the Battle Goddess’s kingdom, surely?”
“Have you ever raised even one child?” she snapped back.
He looked startled for a moment before the light of amusement reentered his eyes. “I have not yet had that ordeal thrust upon me.”
“Hah. Your words speak volumes. You know even less about children than I do. Go sit this conversation out.” She made shooing gestures, but he didn’t take the hint.
The djinn’s amusement grew. “Perhaps I shall help you and the firedrake raise these little ones.”
“Three more unprepared parents the universe shall never see,” Mattis muttered.
“See, Djinn! Even the human thinks I’ll be a disaster.”
Mattis just rolled his eyes. “That’s not what I said. You can learn. Just like you’ve learned other things since coming here, you’ll learn from your mistakes. Children are resilient.”
The djinn laughed, mirth making his tattoos flare hotter and brighter. “We’ll either raise stunningly brilliant offspring, well versed in the universe's lore—”
Vaspara cut him off. “Or we’ll raise the greatest tyrants the universe has ever known.”
The djinn shrugged. “There is always that possibility if you wish that to be their path.”
Her lips compressed. Was he joking? She couldn’t tell.
“Gods,” Mattis snorted and chuckled. “If you want them to be good, merely lavish them with love and teach them right from wrong to the best of your abilities.”
“All of what you said—that’s the part I think I’ll fail at.” Vaspara braced her hands on either side of her hips and dug her claws into the smooth surface of the stout trunk that served as her seat.
“Listen here,” Mattis said, his voice changing to the one he often used on misbehaving younglings. “I’ve raised enough children, grandchildren, and soon great-grandchildren to be a bit of an expert on the subject. I will ask you some questions, and you will give me honest answers. Afterward, I’ll tell you if you’ll be a good parent or not. Do you agree to my terms?”
“I... Fine. Ask your questions.”
“Good.” Mattis poured himself some tea. He took a swallow, rolled his eyes, and muttered about what dastardly fate had brought him to this point of counseling a succubus. “Do you love Sorac?”
Frowning at the fire, she only now realized how hard this would be. After a long sigh, she answered the human’s question. “You know I do.”
“Do you wish to spend your life with Sorac?”
“Yes.”
“And I know you’re aware it won’t just be Sorac you will spend your life with.”
“Of course. That’s what I’m terrified of mucking up. That’s why I’m here.”
Mattis took another gulp of tea. “I’m aware. Just making sure you truly know what’s at stake. Now you have a decision to make. One only you can make. Sorac will be a father. The drakelings are a part of his future. You must decide how much you want to be a part of Sorac’s life. Do you want to be his friend? Or his mate?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I ran tonight.”
“You’ll find it very difficult to run from the drakelings once they hatch. We live on an island.” Mattis laughed and then turned reflective. “Perhaps you can still keep something of the deep bond you share with Sorac with no need to also be the drakelings’ mother, or perhaps you can’t. What is between you and Sorac may not survive if you can’t love something that is so much a part of him.”
That hadn’t even occurred to Vaspara. It should have. They were now deep in firedrake territory. If she shunned him, he might go seek out one of his own kind.
“You need to decide if your fear of motherhood is greater than your fear of losing Sorac’s love. Can you live without that deep bond? And last, can you accept that he’ll love them as much or more than you?” Mattis paused and looked at his cup, mumbling ab
out needing something stronger than tea. With a grunt, he looked back up. “If you can’t share him, then you would be better to break things off with him now. Don’t make him be the one to choose between the woman he loves and his little ones. That would be cruel, and as harsh as your life has made you, you were never cruel.”
A chill raced down her spine at the thought of losing what she and Sorac shared. Oh, she’d known they would likely die in battle one day, but when it happened, she planned for them to be fighting shoulder to shoulder. They’d face what came next together like they always had.
But what if their deep bond faded and their bodies lived on, existing day to day? A hollow pit opened in her soul at the thought. She couldn’t face a long existence without her firedrake partner.
That new fear swiftly eclipsed every other doubt she’d had in the last few days. She was on her feet and striding away from the beach before she’d fully formed a coherent thought.
Mattis raised his voice and called out after her, “If you love Sorac enough to love his drakelings as well, then you will make a fine mother.”
The nesting area was just coming into view when the haunting song of the drakelings singing started up. Her heart did that strange little flip at hearing the melody again. As she hurried toward the nest, she realized they weren’t singing to her this time.
Sorac, having returned to his firedrake form, had curled his body around the eggs, his head pressed against them, eyes closed. Everything about his hunched position spoke of his pain. A firedrake might not cry, but he was suffering.
Vaspara continued to stride forward. Once she reached him, she pressed herself against his warm scales and wrapped her arms around as much of his tapered muzzle as she could reach.
“I’m sorry that I’ve been an idiot. I love you, and I’ll love your drakelings, too.” She fought back a wave of foolish tears and muttered, “I’m already starting to love them, and I haven’t even met them yet. That scared me, and I ran. I’m sorry I was such a knobheaded coward.”
She was mumbling now but didn’t care.
Sorac rumbled happily as one of his massive hands closed around her to hold her in place while he nuzzled her gently, bathing her in his warm, steamy breath.
The Complete Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset (Books 1-9) Page 156
