Aroha. She remembered the name. The Bug Lady.
The smile on Aroha’s face spread, tilting her lips in a way that spoke of some delicious secret. A word was spoken. It shimmered in the air between them, releasing other words inside Danii that scurried to their places…telling her things, warning her of Heketoro. She reached down and wrapped one arm about Heketoro’s neck and chin to hold him, cleanly slipped the GLOCK from the holster and inserted the muzzle in his ear.
He jerked. “What?”
“Do not move, Heketoro,” said Aroha as she strolled toward them. “The bullets are enchanted. I thought it best not to rely on the iron alone to kill you.”
“Aroha. There is no need for this. We can all return. Together.”
Why am I doing this? wondered Danii. Though she tried to follow that thought through to a conclusion, the words got in the way.
Because…because…because…because.
She stared at Aroha, knowing she must wait for instructions, for more words.
“Danii! Danii, don’t do this! This is a geas, it sets up a compulsion. Put your hand over your ears. You must not—”
“Silence!” snapped Aroha. “I tire of your gibbering, Heketoro; you know she won’t obey you. You insult me. I’m not an amateur. When I say to, shoot him, dear. If he moves, shoot him.”
Danii nodded slowly. Yes. It must be so, but beneath the storm of Aroha’s words in her head she heard the echo of other words, and they cried out to her, telling her, this was wrong. Wrong. She shook her head and pressed the muzzle into Heketoro’s ear even harder.
“Thank you, my lovely.” Aroha circled Danii, trailing long fingers across her breast, arm and back, then down her spine. “Now, I think the duty of removing the egg has fallen to me. Yes?”
Danii nodded again, shivering as Aroha crouched behind her and delved fingers into her cleft, twisting and sliding in.
“Nice, hmmm?” Aroha’s fingers sank deeper and deeper. Though Danii bent her elbow and crumpled a little onto Heketoro, groaning, the gun stayed in position.
Heketoro ground his teeth. “Aroha…”
“Getting jealous, Heketoro?”
Knowing she wasn’t allowed to move, Danii gouged the fingernails of her left hand into Heketoro’s hard-muscled shoulder and breathed in short, sharp pants. She kept her eyes open, watching him, and found him regarding her also. Green eyes, impassive, yet holding hers somehow. He mouthed silent words of reassurance. You can do this. You can.
With a last excruciating thrust, Aroha’s hand was inside up to the wrist. Pain and pleasure clawed at her. The stretching of her tissues was at the very edge of what she could bear. Danii whined as she felt Aroha’s fingers move into position around the egg—carving fire in her womb wherever she touched—and again at the slow withdrawal of her hand. The egg slid out in her moist grasp. Glancing down and to the side, she saw blue light radiating from between Aroha’s fingers.
“Now,” said Aroha, soothingly. “We must do that again, soon.” She pressed a kiss onto Danii’s spine at waist level.
A droplet of sweat meandered down Danii’s nose. She levered herself off Heketoro, careful not to move the pistol from his ear and listening for more orders from her new mistress.
Cautiously, Aroha stood and moved to the side. At her gesture, a squelching, rustling noise erupted from the ground beneath Heketoro, and hundreds of tiny green tendrils writhed and swarmed their way up his legs.
“Hmm. How nice to have more power. If I could trust you, Heketoro, I wouldn’t have to do this. But I must. Shoot him, dear.”
Danii’s eyes widened. The muscles of her hand strained, and her finger began to close on the trigger. More sweat ran down from elbow to wrist, making the trigger slippery. The tendrils had reached his chest, wrapping his arms into the green cocoon. The fastest wriggled across his chin.
“Danii.” Heketoro’s voice was steady. “Stop. You must not do this. I love you.”
It was enough to sow the smallest seed of confusion in her mind, though the words crowded in on her again. Because…because…
Her finger slowed.
Aroha crouched, a grin spreading wide across her face. “Love? Ahh.” She sighed the word. “How delicious. No matter how she struggles, her finger will close enough to fire that bullet. But you know, she hardly comprehends what she does.”
Danii felt her finger squash onto the metal a little tighter, her finger’s flesh bulging with the pressure.
“Hmph. The moment lacks some artistry, some finesse.” Aroha waved her palm in the air and spoke a sequence of strange words.
Fragments of Danii’s mind reassembled into awareness. He loved her. He did. And yet, she watched, horrified and mesmerized as her finger moved of its own accord. One part of her mind knew, while the other part of her, remained oblivious and in control.
“Better. Much better,” Aroha declared, her words heavy with loathing and victory. “Finish it, darling. Tighten your digit. Move that metal. Send the bullet into his brain. I want to see you do it, see that you know you’re doing it, as he watches his beloved kill him. I did tell you I’d enjoy this, didn’t I. Revenge is so deliciously sweet.”
Heketoro’s green eyes looked up at Danii. He mouthed words. I forgive you.
Danii felt tears prick at her eyes. His face blurred. A single tear overflowed onto her cheek and swam its slow, cold way down her cheek.
Now she recognized the true aim of this exercise in betrayal. Aroha allowed her the knowledge without the power to change the result. Her pistol would fire a bullet into Heketoro’s head. With the excruciating precision of years studying scenes of accidental and deliberate gun deaths, she could see the end…the massive wound from the escaping distorted projectile, the spray of blood and brain. She would kill her love, her Heketoro.
She smelled her own fear and tasted salt from the tear seeping into the corner of her mouth and blood from where her clenched teeth bit down on her tongue. She gasped at the strain as her finger, shaking, burning with pain, pressed down and reached the tipping point. The trigger moved.
Killer burst into the clearing, growling, barking and dancing around Aroha as if she were the biggest lizard he’d ever found.
Killer never growled at friends. Ever. And with that thought, the memory of Aroha in her house flickered into her mind, of her seductive words, of how they’d wormed their way into her mind.
Deluged with visions, Danii stared at Heketoro, frozen in a millisecond moment. He loved her? She remembered. He’d warmed her when she was cold, pulled her shivering from the depths of the lake, held her close and kissed her, conjured rose-petal rain in her bedroom. They’d made mad, glorious love on the bridge with her sari wrapped around her. He’d warned her, tried to shield her from this, his half sister…from Aroha.
In one smooth sequence of moves, she released Heketoro’s neck, swung the GLOCK to the side, stabilized her wrist, aimed, and shot two bullets into Aroha.
A double crack and thud sounded, then a small gout of blood leaped from Aroha’s chest, and she crumpled to the ground, limp, mouth gaping. Her orange eyes gradually closed.
She’d killed this woman. Sadness filled Danii. Her stomach lurched with nausea. She swallowed, feeling a roiling pressure as liquid threatened to heave up her throat. She’d killed someone. My God.
She blinked to clear her eyes, getting her thoughts in order and trying to make sense of everything. This woman had almost gotten her to shoot Heketoro. If she’d succeeded—a horrific picture flashed to her, of the blood blowing out the side of his head—she’d never have forgiven herself. The GLOCK fell from her fingers and landed with a thump, engulfed by dead leaves. When she rested her hand on Heketoro’s shoulder, tendrils shrank and squirmed under her fingers.
How do I get these off him?
Gloriously happy he’d found her again, Killer ran round and round, barking.
“That’s your half sister, isn’t it? I’ve shot your sister.” And ugh, she’d had Aroha’s hand up inside
her. Not nice. She sucked in a long breath and stilled the trembling in her limbs. No time for nonsense like that.
“I don’t blame you, Danii. You had no choice. You broke a woven-word command—a geas.” There was both awe and grief in his words. “I don’t know how you did that, but you did.”
The green tendrils shriveled to a dead, fragile brown, crumbling away as Heketoro moved. Having covered his face with his hands a moment, he rose to his feet, fetched the knife and cut the vines at her ankles.
“I’m so sorry.” She placed her hands on his shoulders, feeling hard muscles shift as he glided a hand up her leg, only to stop and hold her knee. “Oh, Heketoro. I’m so sorry!”
“I know,” he said quietly. “Come.”
He strode to where Aroha sprawled on her back among the leaf litter and tree roots, stooping to touch her brow and concentrate. Something surprised him. He snatched the egg from her limp hand, crouched by her to whisper a word that sent a rosy haze crackling across Aroha’s body.
“That will help her, for a while.” He looked up at Danii. She knelt by him, put an arm about his waist and rested her head on his chest, soothed by the regular rise and fall. “What is it, princess?”
“The geas, that you say I broke…it was because of you, and Killer’s barking too.” She lifted her head and looked at him. “When you said you loved me.”
“Ah, well, I admit I spoke the truth,” he said, smiling. The baritone depths of his voice mesmerized her. “And why not when you press these against me?” He cupped her breast where it swayed against his arm, then grazed both nipples with his palm.
Her cheeks heated, but so did her cleft. With this man, this faerie, she never seemed to get enough of being touched. She snuggled closer, and let the flare of lust soak into her, before speaking again, softly, “I…er…” This was so difficult to say. She’d never imagined saying it to anyone, not since her crazy teenage years. She breathed in that reassuring scent of his, let her smaller hand curl across his skin. “I love you too, Heketoro. I do.”
He kissed her, lips curving in a smile as he did so. “I knew that. I knew it when you said you’d do anything for me even though I was pushing you away.”
“I suppose that was a bit of a giveaway.” She searched his eyes, hoping to see what she so desperately wanted. “But, you didn’t say you loved me then. Now you have. Back then you said I couldn’t come back with you. This changes things, doesn’t it?”
The deepening crease between his eyebrows awoke a curl of dread. She froze.
“Ah, Danii. If anything it only underscores what I already said. My world can be so dangerous, my enemies powerful, and right now, I’m not even certain who they are, or how many of them are waiting for me. You should not come with me.”
“Should not?” That was…new. Not will not or cannot, but should not. “So, does that mean you are giving me the choice now?”
He scowled in a mock angry way, then stood, drawing her up with him and pulling his arms in so tightly around her, she could barely breathe. Warm, hard, wonderful arms. “I don’t want to lose you, but I still don’t know if I should take you with me. Yes, you may choose.”
She could choose? Heketoro, uncertain about something? It rocked her. She peeled out of his grasp and stepped back, balanced herself evenly on her feet. Naked or not, she needed to understand what was happening properly, to not allow distractions. He’d definitely not said no—which meant a maybe, and he was looking at her as if she was some new, perhaps tasty form of prey that had crawled from under a rock. Like he wanted to eat her up and squash her underfoot all at the same time.
She swallowed. He was challenging her to really think this through. She’d said yes, but did she really mean it?
Oh God. She looked from the glowing egg, to Aroha, and back to Heketoro’s face. If she were to follow any man, it would be him, and only him. Yet…another world… Had she already decided this? Half her memories seemed hazy, as if they belonged to another or had been told to her in a story. Perhaps she had decided, but it was a strange and distant memory. Moving into someone’s house or apartment barely rated a mention compared to this.
The silence between them lengthened. She studied his face, wondering if she could survive without seeing him ever again. She thought not. Besides, there was danger here every day she went to work. Only here, there was no Heketoro.
She loved him. She’d never tire of looking at him and, oh, just the thought of not seeing him made her grieve, made her heart feel empty. Yet, there must be reason for his hesitation?
“What is it that I don’t know?” Her heart knocked madly—she could feel the thump in her flesh.
He laughed. “Everything. How can I describe my world in a few words?”
“I love you. I don’t need descriptions, not today. Not if you’ll tell me you’ll try to keep me safe…as safe as you can. And I’ll promise to fight tooth and nail for us both, if I have to.”
“And I love you,” he replied fiercely. He took a step closer and spoke quietly. “If you need no descriptions, perhaps you can decide based on love alone. But there’s something you need to know about love in my world.”
She quirked an eyebrow. “About love, or sex?” She’d figured this out already. The clues were there.
He tilted his head. “Will you kneel for me?”
She swallowed, then slowly went to her knees before him.
He placed his hand on her head, caressed her hair and her neck as he walked around her. She felt as if every inch of her body was being handled. And if it wasn’t for the warmth in his gaze and the way her lower body had turned to liquid mush so that she felt sure her knees wouldn’t hold her…if it wasn’t for that she might have run. Might have.
He was back standing in front of her. “Will you accept my command in all things to do with love, if I wish it so? Will you accept me as your master?”
Ah. This was it. Not a written contract, but in his world, this might be as binding. She shut her eyes tight, opened them.
“Yes.”
“Then give me your wrists and say that.” His voice shook as much as hers.
She reached up and put her hands in his. He gripped them tightly enough to remind her of the way he’d restrained her, spread-eagled, with the vines. She gasped at the rush of arousal between her legs. He smiled, stroking the back of her wrists with his thumbs. When she merely knelt there swaying with her lips parted, he prompted her. “Danii?”
“My love,” she said huskily. “I accept you as my master. Your enemies are my enemies. I want to be there with you whether things go badly, or well. You said, once, that we should take whatever life gives us and try to enjoy it.”
She ducked her head. “May I come with you?” Then she looked at him.
He chuckled. “A few more words there than I asked for, but yes, you will come with me, because I agree we should not let my enemies determine our future, because I doubt I could survive without you at my side and in my bed, and because now…” His smile showed teeth this time. “You are truly mine.”
Relief flooded her, and lust swirled thick and potent in her depths. “Thank you.” And…am I mad?
He pulled her to her feet, and holding her hands trapped at her back, nuzzled at her neck, then her jaw, then bore down on her and kissed her forcefully enough to make her gasp into his mouth. The only reason she still stood was because he held her and kept her from falling.
No, I’m not mad, she thought, dazed, yet ready to kneel at his feet all over again, to maybe even kiss them.
“My first command, is that you will no longer drink large amounts of spirits when you’re unhappy.” He fisted her hair and tugged. “Understood?”
“Yes,” she whispered, with his lips only a half inch away. She flicked her gaze to meet his emerald one. “Though if I’m with you, I doubt I’ll need that anyway.”
“You won’t,” he growled. “Say it.”
“No. I won’t.”
“Good.”
She leane
d her head on his chest, and found herself studying Aroha. The rose-tinted haze made her look like a strangely preserved museum exhibit. “Tell me, why did she want to kill you?”
Embracing her, Heketoro settled his chin beside her ear. Warmth from his body soothed every renewed ache as if he were some universal medicine made just for her.
His words were hoarse with sorrow. “I think she blamed me for the curse. In truth, it was her folly that led to it. I admit though, I stupidly played my part in our downfall. The decades of our exile have warped her sanity. Danii…you understand she’s not dead. Not yet. To save her I must take her to a healer in our world.”
He raised his head, pulling away a little with a question in his eyes. “She’s my half sister, and blood means a lot to us. I won’t desert her, no matter what she’s done. The curse was a hard punishment even for us. Do you agree to this? A healer? I ask because she hurt you, as much as me. She violated you in more ways than one, and that can’t be easy to forgive.”
For a not dead person, Aroha looked very dead indeed. Her chest wasn’t moving. But then, she wasn’t human, and Danii guessed, the rosy glow was doing something to keep her alive. The woman was a homicidal bitch.
“Hurt you? She meant for me to shoot you in the head!” And in the cruelest possible way too. Yet, was she evil, or just so far gone in her madness she’d lost sight of what was right? Danii sucked in the edge of her upper lip and nibbled on it. In this, Heketoro was offering her the role of executioner. Wrong to even imagine she could be Aroha’s executioner. If she couldn’t stick to what she knew was right, what sort of law officer, or person, was she? Hmph. Definitely no better than Aroha, if I condemn her.
She nodded. “Yes, do that. Take her to a healer. I’m glad and thankful you asked me. But…” She frowned. “I’m not likely to be punished for shooting her, am I? Or is she going to be before one of your courts for attacking you?” Killer licked and nudged her leg. She bent to pat him.
“No. What has happened here is very likely to be ignored by our courts. Until I return, I’m not recognized as a fae lord.”
Three Days of Dominance Page 17
