He hazarded a guess that he would be fully healed within less than a day. His body at least. His mind and soul were a different matter. The darkness twisted tendrils tighter around his consciousness, sinking poisoned thorns into him and stirring black desires.
He shoved them from his mind, and pushed away from the wall, and cool air swirled around his bare legs as he walked.
She looked back at him over her shoulder, something glittering in her eyes that he couldn’t quite decipher, and then turned away again.
Her voice flickered in his mind, shocking him more than the fact she was on a mission to kill her sibling.
If I told him I did not steal the blade, would he believe me? I have been such a fool. I should not have tried to protect Tenak by taking the sword and the blame with it… no, the elves are to blame too. They should not have turned on me when I tried to give the sword back.
Everything she felt flowed through him too, backing up her words as he experienced her guilt and sorrow, her fear and her anger.
“You were bringing it back,” he said in the dragon tongue and she gasped and whirled to face him.
Her legs buckled.
He was across the room in an instant, catching her in his arms and stopping her fall. Her hands pressed against his bare chest as he drew her closer to him, her eyes leaping to meet his, her soft pink lips parted.
“You were bringing it back?” he whispered, transfixed by the electric feel of her touching him and the way she was looking up at him, her beguiling eyes filled with shock but other feelings too, ones he was coming to learn as they filtered through the bond to him. Desire. Hunger. Hope. Fear.
He wasn’t the only one afraid of what was happening, convinced that it was impossible.
That gave him strength.
Courage.
Made him brave and a little reckless.
He dropped his gaze to her lips, narrowed it on them. They parted further, a tempting invitation. Gods, he wanted to take it.
He wanted to devour her.
He dragged his eyes away and exhaled hard, purging those desires and restoring balance again. He wanted her but now wasn’t the time, and it certainly wasn’t the place. He needed to get her away from the castle, get his strength back up and then deal with her brother and reclaim the sword. Once he had done all that, then he could think about asking her whether she might consider falling in love with him.
Like he was falling in love with her.
“Yes,” she murmured and he frowned, again convinced for a moment that she could hear his thoughts before he realised she had been answering the question he had posed to her, not the one he had been thinking about.
She had tried to bring the sword back and his men had attacked her.
She had taken the blame for her brother and he knew deep in his heart that wouldn’t have changed if he and his men had given her a chance to return the sword. She would have covered for her sibling, pretending she had been the one to take the blade. She would have taken the punishment in his stead.
Brave little female.
Her loyalty and courage only strengthened his growing feelings for her.
Feelings that had started in him centuries ago and he had been denying ever since, but he was too tired and drained of strength to deny them now. With her in his arms, resting gently against him, her eyes settled on his, he couldn’t pretend they didn’t exist.
She was so beautiful.
A blush crept onto her cheeks again and she dropped her gaze to his chest, the innocent edge to her behaviour only stirring his desire for her, his need to protect her and claim her as his mate.
That blush deepened as she lowered her eyes further.
She slowly pushed out of his arms and fidgeted with the bottom of her corset where it met her violet leathers, her gaze locked on it. Avoiding him. He frowned at her behaviour and was about to ask her why she had pulled away from him again when she murmured.
“M-my magic is weak. My brother received almost all of it… but perhaps I can… um… I-I might be able to…” Her cheeks blazed and she pointed towards him, flicking her finger up and down his body.
He looked down at himself.
He had forgotten that he only wore a ridiculously small cloth around his hips.
Bleu closed his eyes and focused, testing the limit of his abilities. The drug the dragon had given him to unleash his darker nature was different to the one that had been in his system when he had come around in the cell. That one had faded, unlocking more of his gifts.
Including the one that allowed him to teleport a pair of black leather trousers from his apartments in the elf castle onto his legs.
Taryn gasped. “Your magic is strong.”
“It isn’t magic,” he said and pulled the scrap of cloth out of his trousers, tossed it away and then fastened the lacing over his crotch. He looked up at her as he finished tying the string. “I think it is something like telekinesis.”
“You are not sure?” She frowned at him and he shrugged, shooting for casual but it came off stiff.
He had never really cared about people questioning his knowledge or his intelligence.
For some damned reason he cared that she was looking at him as if he was an idiot though.
“I don’t think anyone is sure how to classify our teleportation abilities,” he grumbled and held his hand out to her.
She stared at it as if it was going to bite her.
Or maybe as if he was going to bite her.
“I only intend to teleport you away from this place to somewhere safe.” He rolled his fingers, silently ordering her to take his hand.
She didn’t move, even though he could sense she wanted to go with him. Something was holding her back.
Her brother.
“I will not allow him to use the sword. As soon as I am strong enough, I will return with my team and we will deal with him.” Bleu looked down at his hand and then up into her eyes. “So come with me.”
“I changed my mind.” She shook her head. “I cannot go. Leave without me. You are strong enough. If my brother discovers I am gone, he will be furious. He will use the sword. I have to stay.”
“Stay?” His eyes leaped between hers. “Have you lost your mind?”
Her eyes blackened and he had the feeling he had prodded a very tender nerve.
The last time he had seen her flashed across his eyes, a replay of a dark arena and a black wooden stage, and her fighting on it, attacking her captors like a wild thing. Crazed with a need to hurt them.
His eyes fell to her wrists and she quickly put her arms behind her back, hiding them from him.
She couldn’t hide the scars around her neck though.
How many times had she been captured and sold? He wanted to ask her that but her turbulent feelings and her striking eyes pleaded him to keep that question to himself, told him that she wasn’t strong enough to answer it right now.
He would give her the time she needed, but she would answer it. He would know the things she had been through, and the faces of those who had done them to her, and he would track them down and butcher them all.
They would pay for hurting his female.
A sharp bang came from above, echoing down the spiral stairwell to them.
“Go,” she whispered, a frantic edge to her gaze as it leaped from the stairwell to him. “Now.”
“No,” he barked and stepped towards her, caught her arm and growled at her. “Not without you. I will not leave without you. I will not leave you here so that madman can hurt you. Never.”
She jerked free of his grip and snarled at him. “I cannot go. Tenak will be furious. He will take up the sword and turn his gaze on those he believes are his enemies.”
“From what I have heard, that is the whole of Hell. The sword will give him power but he will need an army to back him if he expects to conquer Hell.” Bleu grabbed her arm again, his grip tighter this time. Her eyes turned wild, fear lancing her, and he softened his grip, instinct scream
ing at him that he was terrifying her. He growled low in his throat. By the gods, he would know the things she had been through and he would kill everyone who had harmed her, who had scarred her. “We have time, Taryn. I will not leave you here.”
“I will not go with you.” Conviction shone in her beautiful eyes.
He felt like a bastard before the words even left his lips.
“Then you give me no choice.” He dragged her against him, banded his arm around her waist and pinned her against his chest. “I will kidnap you.”
She wriggled and pushed against him, palms hot against his bare flesh, sending a fierce fiery current through him. Her startled gasp said she had felt it too. Her breath hitched, her pupils dilated to devour the white around the centre of her irises, and his heart raced in unison with hers.
“Let me go,” she whispered, voice distant, telling him that she was as lost in the sudden rush of emotions and feelings as he was.
Bleu shook his head. “Never.”
Her eyes widened.
“You are coming with me whether you like it or not.” He growled down at her. “I will not leave you here.”
“But my brother will—”
“I don’t care,” he snapped and she stilled. He softened his tone and searched her eyes. “I don’t care… all I care about is getting you out of harm’s way. I will deal with the consequences when they happen.”
Her throat worked on a hard swallow.
She blinked.
“Take me to the dragon realm then,” she said and wrapped her arms around his neck, frazzling his ability to think. He could only feel, and gods, it felt too good to have her this close to him, curling around him, holding on to him. He never wanted her to let go. Her low spoken words reached his ears, shaking him out of his stupor. “Tenak will think I went flying or perhaps pursued you. I will use the time to regain my strength and when I am strong enough, I will return to my brother and tell him that you overpowered me and escaped and I went after you. I will make him believe me.”
She would get herself killed.
He tightened his grip on her, willed his portal to open, and focused on his destination.
CHAPTER 22
Darkness swallowed them, cool against his skin, and then separated to reveal the green valley. The grasses swayed in the gentle breeze and sunlight warmed his skin and made the stone of the stronghold look more cream than grey. Beyond the hill where it stood, mountains rose, a range of peaks that were green with trees on the elf side and black as night on the side of the First Realm of the demons.
Taryn looked away from him, incredible eyes scanning the sweeping landscape, and shook her head.
“No,” she whispered and snapped back around to face him. Her eyes gained a wild edge again. Panic swept through her and rushed into him. “Not here. It is not safe here.”
He opened his mouth to tell her that it was.
Leif, Dacian and Fynn appeared a few metres away from him.
Bleu instantly pinned Taryn to his chest, keeping her face hidden from them so they wouldn’t know she was aware of them. She stiffened against him, heart thundering against his chest, causing his own to race.
“Play at being unconscious,” he whispered in the dragon tongue, keeping his lips as still as possible so his men wouldn’t see he was speaking to her.
Her fingers tensed against his bare chest. He took it as a sign she would do as he asked and raised his head, looked at all three males where they stood opposite him, their eyes on Taryn.
He had hoped they would be away from the garrison, giving him a chance to use it as a safe house for Taryn, a place where they could clean up and rest while he figured out what to do, and came to terms with what she was to him.
Leif drew his blade out of the air and Dacian and Fynn followed suit, arming themselves. All three changed clothing in unison, their uniforms of a long black jacket and black trousers and riding boots disappearing, replaced by their figure-hugging black armour.
Bleu barely bit back the growl that rose up his throat, every primal instinct firing and telling him to protect his female. These males meant to hurt her. They wanted to take her from him.
She trembled against him.
Leif stepped forwards and pointed his sword at Taryn. “Set her away from you. She is dangerous.”
Fynn closed in and reached out to grab her arm.
To steal her from him.
A red mist descended and Bleu hissed at the younger elf, his pointed ears flaring back against the sides of his head. He flashed his fangs and narrowed his gaze on the male, warning him to back off and forget any ideas he had about taking his female from him.
She was his.
No other male would touch her.
None would take her from him.
“I will deal with her,” he snarled and struggled with the dark urges running rampant through him, the hunger to lash out at these males and kill them all in order to protect his female.
Dacian’s eyes narrowed in a way he didn’t like. The warrior had remained at a distance, his focused fixed on Bleu, not the female, gaze cool and just a touch too inquisitive. A touch too knowing.
The larger male lowered his broadsword and stabbed the tip of the black blade into the earth.
His eyes didn’t leave Bleu.
“The female is dangerous,” Dacian said, voice a deep rumble. Testing him. The male pointed, ran a finger up and down in the air. “She certainly worked you over.”
Bleu cursed under his breath and realised why two of his men had reacted so strongly to her presence.
He looked like an unholy mess.
He had forgotten that the moment Taryn had been in his arms. He had forgotten all about his wounds and the blood that covered him when she had nestled close to him. Her breath washed across his bare chest, soft pants that tickled his skin. Gods, he was sure he would forget his own damned name if she acted on those desires he had heard running through her mind back in the cell when he had been touching her.
Tasting her.
His cock twitched, hunger rising again, stirred by his thoughts and by the feel of her against him, her warm body pressed close, bare skin caressing his.
Fynn foolishly took another step forwards.
Bleu snarled at him, baring his fangs, and tightened his grip on her.
Dacian’s eyes narrowed further.
“The female is not the one who took the sword, and not the one who did this to me.” Bleu forced his voice to work, shoved his out of control instincts back in place and faced off against Dacian.
The bastard knew what he was trying to hide.
Bleu shot him a look that he hoped conveyed that the male wasn’t the only one who knew a secret someone was trying to keep—another secret related to fated females.
It took a male who had found his fated one to know one.
Dacian’s violet eyes slid towards Fynn and then he looked down at his boots.
Bleu hadn’t failed to notice the way Dacian had acted around Fynn’s younger sister. He felt wretched just thinking about it, but if Dacian dared to mention the reason why Bleu felt so overprotective of Taryn, then he would turn the tables on him and tell Fynn that his little sister was Dacian’s fated one.
That would buy him enough time to escape with Taryn at least.
“I must take her to the castle so we can question her.” It was the safest course of action now. He could speak with Loren about her and perhaps clear her name.
Bleu slid his hand lower on her back and she tensed against him, a little gasp escaping her.
He tried to tune into her thoughts, hungry to know whether she was thinking wicked things again, was enjoying being in his arms. Her thoughts were hazy and he couldn’t make them out. The effect of the siren’s blood was wearing off. It was probably a good thing, but he still wanted to curse it.
Those thoughts she’d had back in the cell had given him a clearer picture of her feelings and had made him realise that she didn’t hate him, and that whatev
er she was feeling, it wasn’t born of her instincts. She desired him.
Gods, he desired her.
He needed her so badly that he felt sure he might go mad if he didn’t catch a glimpse of her face soon, didn’t look into her eyes and see them bright with a hint of affection.
He gritted his teeth and resisted the need to look down at her, to catch her under her chin and make her look at him so he could fulfil that desire. He had to keep his head if he was going to get her through this unscathed and without him attacking his own men. If he showed her any tenderness, the two males watching him with their weapons at the ready would question his authority, believing him under her influence and unable to perform his duties.
“We should take her into the stronghold and question her there. It is the safer course of action and will not endanger anyone at the castle. Is that not the reason why we came to this place?” Leif lowered his gaze to the female and flexed his fingers around the leather-bound hilt of his black sword.
“She is not a danger to anyone,” Bleu said and all three men looked sceptical. He frowned at them all. “I said she did not harm me. It was her brother. The sibling we heard about from the dragons.”
None of them looked as if they believed him and Fynn edged closer again, moving in time with Leif.
“We will take her to the stronghold first and if she offers any valuable information, then we will transfer her to the castle.”
Bleu barely bit back the growl that rumbled up his throat as the two elves closed in, their eyes flickering between him and Taryn. Dacian remained at a distance, his eyes fixed on Bleu, never straying to the female in his arms. Wise male. He knew that any attempt to take her from him would incite his rage and he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from attacking in order to protect her.
“We should listen to our commander,” Dacian said and Leif and Fynn both halted and looked back at him. “He has not steered us wrong in the past. We saw the way those dragons reacted when pressed to speak of her brother… and the female is injured too.”
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