“You should have tried something else.”
“I did. Nothing worked. I had nothing left in me.” He rubbed her stinging knuckles. “I almost lost you.”
She stroked his cheek. “About Zanera, I—”
“I killed her,” he whispered. “I had no choice.”
“I know. She touched you.” Because of her, Drake had to suffer the horror of that woman’s touch again. Tears filled her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. “I’m sorry. Oh, Drake. I’m so sorry.”
He wiped her tears away with the pads of his thumbs. “It’s alright. It wasn’t like last time.”
“You didn’t… she didn’t…” Jelena caught her bottom lip with her teeth. He coaxed that lip free with his lips, but she was only sidetracked by his kiss for a few moments. “Drake?”
He sighed and pulled back. “She only laid hands on me.”
“I heard what she said, saw what she did.” And saw him touch the woman’s breast. “You didn’t want her?”
“I only want you.”
Jelena smiled and kissed him—a long, lingering kiss. When it ended, Drake was ready to start all over again. A kiss and then some. Instead, she moved her gaze across the room. “Where are we?”
He shrugged and reached for her. His fingers slid across her hip as she slipped from the bed. He sighed, and watched her pad to the window. The silky lavender shift she wore only reached mid-thigh, and enticed him with every step. “You’re killing me woman. Come here.”
She glanced over her shoulder and smiled. The little imp knew exactly what she was doing to him. She pulled the window covering away and glanced out. “The university. We must be at Enola’s,”—she turned toward him— “but I don’t remember this room.”
His mother’s room.
This time, the thought of her didn’t bring the knife-twisting pain he normally felt. She gave up her life for him, as he’d tried to do for Jelena. He still didn’t believe he deserved his mother’s sacrifice but he loved her for it and, somehow, he sensed she’d finally found peace.
“How did we get here?”
“I don’t know.” He didn’t remember anything after starting the transference. “Do you want to find Enola and ask?”
She slid her hands down her silk-covered shift and back up, ensnaring his gaze with her hemline as it slowly inched up her legs. “No. I want to see what you’ve got on under those blankets.”
Drake forced his gaze to her face, to her wicked smile. “What if I don’t want to show you?”
She faltered for a second then forged ahead. “Don’t you?”
Absently, he shook he head, his attention once again held prisoner by her torturous strip-tease. His breath caught in his throat and held as her shift rose over her head and sailed into the corner of the room. He swallowed, a difficult thing to do with a mouth dry as the Chulan desert. “Gods, you’re beautiful.”
She even blushed pretty. Every inch of her honeyed skin flushed pink, from the top of her head to the tips of her small toes.
“Come here.” He sat up as she knelt on the bed and crawled to him. He slipped his hand behind her neck, under her silky-soft hair, and drew her close for a kiss.
She sighed and leaned into him.
He eased her onto her back and loved her with his hands and mouth, loved her until she was ready for him, loved her until he couldn’t wait a second more. Then he entered heaven.
A shudder ran through his body. Gods, the feelings were so strong, so overwhelming, he was ready to jak just sliding into her moist heat. The sensations flooding him, sensations coming straight from her, nearly overpowered the exquisite tugging, squeezing of her warmth around him.
Jelena gasped. “Why is it like this? Why do I feel what you’re feeling?”
“Bonding affects each couple in a unique way.” The struggle to stay in control made his voice tight. “This sharing is our way.”
“Incredible.”
He slid deeper inside her, drawing a low moan from her. Gods, this is what having him inside her felt like to her.
Wait, there was something more, something much more.
He withdrew.
“What’s wrong?”
“I can’t do this.” His body trembled from the effort it took to hold back. “If I do, you’ll conceive our son.”
“A son?” Joy lit her face, making his heart ache.
“I can’t do it, Jelena. I can’t make my past go away, and I can’t bear to watch it destroy your love for me.” He slipped from the bed and strode to the window. He stared unseeing at the closed draperies.
Jelena’s warm hand touched his. “I’ve been thinking a lot about your past, about the lives you’ve taken.”
He snorted, but the damn thing caught in his throat.
“Do you know what really bothers me? That after all you’d suffered in your life, you were forced to kill people to stay alive. I know those deaths don’t rest easy on your soul. If they did, you wouldn’t fight so hard to protect the innocent.”
“You didn’t feel like this when I met you,” he whispered, forcing himself not to get his hopes up. Gods, she couldn’t finally understand, could she?
“You’re right. I had big dreams, and I was more than a bit disappointed that the star of them was an infamous assassin.”
Drake faced her.
“I was unfair to you. I should never have built my expectations around fantasies, and I should never have expected you to live up to them.” She curled her hand over his fist. “It’s you I love, not that figment of my imagination. Compared to you, he’s quite boring.”
Drake chuckled. He couldn’t help it, especially when she turned that impish smile on him.
Her expression turned serious. “I know you don’t trust easily, and that I haven’t earned it yet. That’s fine. There is no rush for us to marry. We can take all the time we need to let our friendship grow as deep and as strong as our love and our bond. A day, a month, a year, whatever you need to see that I will not give up on you.” She cupped his cheek with her hand. “I love you, Drake. All of you.”
Gods, no one could love him that much. He swallowed the lump in his throat, but couldn’t find his voice. Her loving expression blurred. He looked away, refusing to let her see the tears in his eyes.
“You’ve entrusted me with your mind, body and soul. You can trust me with your heart. I won’t betray you. I swear, I’ll die before I let that happen.”
“No”—he framed her face with his hands—“there will be no dying. Not now, not ever.” He kissed her lips softly and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. “Gods, I don’t deserve you.”
“No, I don’t deserve you, but I intend to hold the gods to their promise. You’re mine, and I won’t let you go. Not ever.”
“I hope you don’t live to regret it,” he whispered.
“Never.” She slid her arms around his neck and stared into his eyes. “You’ll give us a chance?”
He nodded, and her tense body relaxed in his arms. “I don’t think my fear of losing you, of being hurt, will ever leave me, it’s rooted too deep, but the thought of living without you is tearing me up. I can’t do it. I need you, Jelena.”
Drake Durand, the man who didn’t need anyone or anything, actually admitted he needed this sprite of a woman. He did. Gods help him, he needed her more than he needed air, and it felt good.
He gathered the anxiety building inside him, bound it tight and let it go. This moment was all that mattered. This moment and the woman in his arms. She was his now, and he didn’t intend to lose another precious moment of it.
Jelena sniffled and gave him a teary smile. “Well, now that that’s settled, I believe we left something unfinished.” She stroked her palm down his bare chest.
Drake swept her into his arms and carried her to the bed. He settled her on the soft mattress and covered her body with his own. “Is this what you had in mind?”
She slid her fingers into his hair. Her nails lightly scraped his scalp, sending a s
hudder through his body, as she pulled his head down to hers. “This is exactly what I had in mind,” she whispered against his lips.
“I love you, Jelena.” He kissed her. And when he joined his body with hers, the words became insignificant compared to the sharing. Passion, ecstasy, and love. Enough love to last many lifetimes.
Epilogue
Three months later….
DRAKE PULLED his gaze away from the crowd gathered at the bottom of the temple steps and shook his head. “This isn’t necessary.”
“Of course it is.” Jelena stroked his arm. “The induction of a new Executioner is always call for celebration, especially in your case. You’ve returned to the fold, and you’ve been chosen as the next Master. They want to celebrate with you.”
“One excuse for a party is as good as another, but that wasn’t what I meant.” He gestured toward the ancient doors in front of him. “I don’t want to know my future.”
“This is a gift we all receive when we come of age. You were denied yours.”
“Yeah, well I didn’t miss it.” And he sure as frak wouldn’t have wanted to know years in advance that his life was going to go to hell. “I don’t believe anyone should know too much about their future. Look at the trouble it caused you.”
“That was trouble of my own making.”
“It’s trouble I’d just as soon do with out.” His life was complicated enough, being split between two worlds, spending half his time here and the other half on Trakis. But it was working, and he’d never been happier. He didn’t want to know if that was going to change.
“Please? I promise you, it’ll only be a peek. You won’t see too much. Besides, refusing would insult the gods.”
Drake snorted. “Well, we can’t have that, can we?”
“You can take someone with you as witness to what you see.”
She wanted to go in with him. He was about to take her hand, give her what she wanted, when he noticed Enola beside Jelena’s parents. Enola, always so quietly in the background, afraid to force herself on him, yet wanting to be a part of his life.
She and Jelena’s parents had brought them home from the temple. When Zanera died, the spell she’d cast to keep others away had died with her. Enola had healed him, opened her home to him, yet was still afraid to push him.
Gods, he was such a bastard. He’d taken his aversion to the past out on her. She didn’t deserve that. But he would repair the damage he’d done. He was her only living relative, and he’d be damned if he’d let her spend the remainder of her years completely alone. She’d been alone too long already. “Jelena, I—”
She placed her finger on his lips. “I think that’s a wonderful idea.” She smiled at him, tears sparkling in her eyes.
He kissed her soft lips, lingering for a long moment. “You are too damned understanding.”
She laughed, smacking his arm lightly. “Go on. Tell me all about it when you come out.”
Drake strode down the steps to Enola. Her surprise at seeing him approach made him feel guilty for not putting more effort into getting to know her. “Jelena said I could bring a witness.” He kept his tone low, private. “Come with me?”
“You want me to attend you?”
“Very much.”
“I would be honored.” She took his offered arm, then he led her up the steps and to the doors of the temple.
“Good luck!” Jelena whispered.
Drake winked at her then guided Enola inside. He saw an all too familiar round stone and stopped abruptly. “Damn,” he whispered. This was where Miranda died. Where Jelena had almost died.
Enola squeezed his arm. “Everything will be well.”
He nodded and strode forward, seeing nothing but the big ball of crystal. A green-robed priest approached as he neared it.
“Kneel here, please.” He pointed to a plush green kneeling rug placed within touching distance of the crystal. When they’d done what he asked, he turned toward the crystal, his arms raised toward the heavens. “Honored Goddess Anesma, Seer of Destiny, your son Draken has come to accept your gift of vision. Grant him a glimpse into the Oracle so that he may find comfort in his fate.”
Not drekking likely! Want to comfort him? Let him get the hell out right now. He was only putting up with this frak because it was important to Jelena.
A dark spot appeared in the center of the crystal, spinning, roiling, growing, then spread like liquid across the inner surface of the stone, changing it from icy clear to soothing lavender.
The voice that spoke in his mind was every bit as soothing, obviously as She intended. {Do not despair, Draken. I know that your unknown future disturbs you greatly, but knowing too much disturbs you more. I have chosen an image that will put some of your fears to rest, but will not raise more.}
Drake glanced at Enola. Do I really have to do this?
She nodded and reached out to give his hand a comforting squeeze then froze. He met her the rest of the way. The teary smile she turned on him made him feel damned guilty for avoiding her all these weeks.
{Touch the Oracle, Draken, and receive your gift.}
Enola nodded, urging him to do as the goddess asked, then moved her hand to his shoulder. Her eyes drifted shut, as if in a trance. This was how she would witness his vision.
“This will be my future?”
{A glimpse into the path Destiny has chosen for you.}
“And if I choose to follow my own path?”
Enola gasped.
{If you follow your heart, they are one and the same.}
He took a deep, slow breath and raised his palms to the liquid-smooth crystal. “Show me.”
The vision came instantly. A black-haired little boy with violet eyes, holding his hand, peering at the babe nestled in Jelena’s arms. She gave him a tired but joyous smile and pulled the blanket away from the babe’s tiny face. A daughter.
He stroked the soft black tuft of hair on the top of her head. She yawned then opened her bright blue eyes. Her little body glowed with newborn life.
The vision didn’t end there. It panned back, showing his family around him. All of them. His father, Morgan and his family, Morgan’s twin sister Sabina and her family. Galen had his arms wrapped around a very beautiful, very pregnant woman.
“Ah, gods,” he whispered, his vision blurring. “This is my future?” Enola squeezed his shoulder, giving him comfort.
{If you choose it to be.}
Nodding, he pulled himself to his feet and offered Enola a hand up. He’d do whatever it took to see that future happen.
“Did you see the glow?” Enola asked, tears in her eyes.
He nodded.
“Miranda’s spirit. She will live on in your daughter.”
He knew it. He knew it the moment his mind focused on her beautiful little face. Ah, gods. Family. He’d have a family. And love. He felt so much love from that vision. Now, all he had to do was make sure he didn’t drek it up.
He strode out the door and immediately spotted Jelena, so beautiful in the sunlight, her hair shimmering like golden threads, and his throat tightened. His sight blurred as she sprinted to him and wrapped her arms tight around his waist.
“Are you all right? What happened?”
“I saw Tremaine and Miranda.”
“Your parents?”
“Our children,” he whispered.
“Oh, Drake.” She pressed her face into his shirt and hugged him tighter. “Blessed Anesma, thank you.”
“Hey, I thought this was supposed to be a party.”
“Galen!” he whispered, and whipped his head around. The cocky scamp grinned at him. Ah gods, they were all there, even Morgan’s new baby. He looked at the mischievous little sprite in his arms, a question on his lips.
Jelena silenced him with her own lips then smiled at him. “They wanted to be here, tali. They’re proud of you.”
He hugged her close to his heart. “I love you,” he whispered in her ear, then took her hand and led her to his family.
<
br /> “I think we surprised him,” Galen said.
“Yeah, we definitely surprised him.” Morgan’s eyes twinkled. “The runt’s not easily surprised. Extra points for us.”
Sabina elbowed her twin in the side. “Leave him alone, brats.” She hugged Drake and kissed him on the cheek. “It’s so good to see you. It’s been too long.”
Drake greeted them one by one, kissed the queen’s cheek, listened to her scold him for staying away so long, then stood face to face with his father. His smile faded as they stared at one another.
Tremaine looked away first. “I’ll go.”
“No.” He grabbed Tremaine’s arm before he turned away. “Please stay.”
His father’s gaze flew to his. “You’re sure?”
“I am.” He held out his hand.
Tremaine immediately clasped his forearm, his eyes turning glassy. “I’m proud of you, son. More proud than I can say.”
Drake nodded and swallowed past the lump in his throat. “Why don’t we get on to the party?” He gestured toward the crowd. The noise level was rising by the second. “Half the city turned out for this, and every one of them with some form of magic. I’d hate to see what will happen if we keep them waiting too long.”
Galen nudged him, that damned cocky grin on his face. “And here I thought you’d never believe in real magic.”
Drake shook his head. Jelena stiffened beside him, but she held her tongue. “I said magic for lack of a better word. What these people have is a gods given talent. A gift. Real magic is in here.” He tapped Galen’s chest. “Everyone has a bit of that.”
Galen pushed Drake’s hand away and shook his head. “Not me. I’ve been there, remember?”
You’ll be there again, brother, sooner than you think, and she has hair black as midnight and eyes as deep blue as the Jokar Sea.
Drake slipped his arm around Jelena’s waist and pulled her close, not caring what his family or anyone else felt about it. He was never one to hide the obvious, and it was obvious he loved her.
She relaxed against him. “You almost got yourself smacked.” Morgan chuckled behind them, making her smile.
“I know.” Drake grinned and kissed her soft lips. “Since everyone’s here, what say we make this party a little more interesting?”
Real Magic Page 29
