by Brindi Quinn
He was playing with my nerves and pulse, tenderizing his meal before devouring it. He kept my head tilted back, his hand supporting my neck and chin, while taking in a smell of me from ear to shoulder nape.
Phoooo. Never, did I EVER imagine how arousing it would feel to be… sniffed. Perks of dating a predatorial species, captive ones. I know how it sounds, but I suggest you try it at least once.
In olden times, this is where he could have drained me. Even without using his power, I was magma in his hands—an apple with his teeth around my waxy skin, asking to be bitten.
Windley was dangerous.
“I can feel your heartbeat,” he whispered darkly. “Are you afraid?”
No. I might have feared him and his ability to work me into submission if I didn’t trust him so much. Instead, I felt almost lucky to be chosen as his prey.
“My chest is racing, but I like it.”
“You give me dark thoughts, Merrin. Thoughts I could never tell you.”
It was all I could do to keep from shivering, for he was close enough that he would have felt it.
I was saved by Rafe’s footsteps returning through the brush. Windley heard them too, for he released me, returning my hair to its resting place and sliding both hands down my shoulders before standing and sauntering away to take a swig from his canteen.
Rafe looked from me—a tidbit mousy—to Windley—clearly wolfish—and folded his arms. “I take it you’re starting your seduction now?”’
“Was that you offering yourself as bait? My, what a surprise! All right, chap, shall we?”
“You’re dreaming.”
Besides, Windley’s eyes were firmly on me when he said it.
Rafe shooed us away with the back of his hand. “Go do it somewhere else. That’s the last thing I want to see right now.”
“Obviously that’s why I pitched the tent. Stay out of it for a while, capisce?”
Rafe gave the fire one of his classic deadpan stares. “Say the word, Your Majesty, and I’ll come gut him for you.”
“Don’t worry, Rafe. I’ll gut him myself if he doesn’t behave.”
An utter lie and Windley knew it, for his eye held an amused gleam, his mouth a smug bend, as he stood at the edge of the tent in the cockiest of postures.
If he had ever looked more desirous, I wasn’t witness to it. His hair was swart and tousled, his eyes lined darkly, the sleeves of his shirt rolled and the topmost button of his collar undone. Was this his power at work, amplifying his looks? Making him like honey to a fly?
It’s possible I had never experienced the full extent of his devilment until that moment.
He coaxed me to him with his finger, saying only: “Come hither.”
I don’t think I could have resisted if I wanted to. I was already entrapped, though the beguiling had yet to start.
I went to him over plushy sand, trying to combat his locked gaze with my own deepest, darkest stare—deep and dark enough to send a common man running, but not deep nor dark enough to have any effect on an incubus like him.
When I reached him, he took my waist with the sultriest of intents. “I am going to enjoy this, lion queen.” Then he kissed the tip of my nose and drew me inside.
It was dim in there, with only the fire showing faintly through the canvas of the tent. It was cool, too, near the autumn water.
“First things first.” He touched his lips to mine, turning them momentarily numb, and when he drew away, his hair was turned scarlet. Next he kissed my neck in three separate places, numbing each and pulling away to reveal eyes of shimmering emerald. “This is how you like me best, yes?”
How could I respond? He was a creature more captivating than any I had ever laid eyes on. More striking than Sestilia. More enrapturing than any of the other Spirites. More attractive than any man or woman I had ever seen.
Windley could tell I was struggling.
“Hey.” He squeezed my hand. “I’m still me, Merr. I’m a little pent up, so I might get carried away, but I’ll try to pay attention. Tell me to stop if it gets to be too much. I can always dial it back.” It was something of a phenomenon to hear Windley’s normal words coming from what appeared to be a powered-up form of him.
Or, if we are throwing coyness to the wind, a sexed-up one.
“I didn’t go all the way with the eyes, see?” He pointed to show that they weren’t as vibrant as the other times he had turned them green. “I don’t want to entrance you… yet.”
“Goddess damn, Windley. I mean… I’m always attracted to you, but now…”
I could only bite my bottom lip by way of finishing the sentence.
Windley watched the nibble carefully and as he did, his lips parted slightly before closing again with a bobbing swallow. “Yet all you have to do is something like that to gain the upper hand, my lioness.”
He might have turned into the most desirous figure I had ever seen, but in some inexplicable way, I still had power over him. Knowing this, my hands found his second topmost button and began to undo it.
“W-wait. You’re putting me off my game, Merr. I need to use my powers on you. Not the other way around.”
“So I’m to stay submissive for this?”
Yet my hands were already working his third button, compelled by his heightened aura.
“No. Well, sort of.” Taking my hands from his collar, he thought to stop me by slowly lowering to his knee while keeping his glimmering eyes firmly set on mine.
To see him kneel for me… it always had the same effect, making me feel particularly royal, as if I were his secret queen and he my most dangerous subject.
“You’re my queen, and I will submit to you whenever you ask me to.” He kissed the tip of each finger, sampling me, drawing my spirit enough to chill my skin. “But the taste of you is already almost too much for me to handle, and if I’m going to exploit as much of my magic as possible, I need to keep from giving in to ecstasy. So just… try not to be too forward for the first part, until I’ve exhausted a fair amount of power. After that…”
His jaw flexed as if imagining the thought of me ripping him open.
Now I was imagining ripping him open.
Not in a murdery way, mind you.
From where he was, he put his hands to my sides and slipped up my shirt with his thumbs, feeling the finest hairs of my skin as he did. “The last time I did this, it wasn’t pleasant for you. I’ve been meaning to replace that memory with something more pleasurable.” With that, he pulled me close and kissed my stomach, sending waves of warm, throbby Spirite power through me, starting at the center and pulsating outwards through vein and tissue.
I uttered his name and he froze momentarily, exhaling just below my belly button.
I placed my hands over his as he moved them the rest of the way up my ribcage and rose to his feet.
I played obedient, denying my instincts and keeping composure as best I could with him beguiling me more intentionally than ever before. Each pass of his fingers over my flesh sent new tingles through me, making it harder and harder to resist his call.
The thing about all this was that it was as sensual as it was sexual. Every slide of his skin against mine was filled with a thousand emotions. Energy flowed back and forth each time we connected—my collarbone in his mouth, his hand clutching my wrist, the goosebumps of my back as he dragged his fingertips along it from top to bottom.
Did you know? A shiver, once begun, is nearly impossible to disrupt.
We took to the ground around the time his eyes were becoming brighter and my hands were becoming freer. He crawled over me, holding my cheek in one hand, my wrist in the other, and tasted my neck.
This is when we began to stop caring about why we were doing what we were doing.
He kissed me, first as a lover, then as a predator, stealing my lifeforce through my lips until they were icy numb. When he realized it, he stopped himself, kissing me deeper to return my warmth.
As Windley’s shirt became discarded near the tent’s entra
nce, I rolled over him, feasting on him the way he had feasted on me, squeezing his muscle and biting his shoulder like the lion I was.
“O-ow, lion queen!”
He punished me by taking back the reins, pressing down on my shoulder to hold me in place beneath him as he drew his mouth along my jaw, turning it cold in his wake.
At some point, his breathing had changed. He was taking shorter inhales through his nose, as if concentrating on holding himself in place. I released his name again because I couldn’t keep it down. His ears took it in hungrily, and his eyes seared brighter in response.
This was indulgence, us tiptoeing lust and love, exchanging breath and heat, passing off vitality, and drinking of one another’s souls. Our monster swelled.
Until it became big enough to break free of its leash.
The last thing I did before Windley forced me into a trance was take his lip between my teeth in rapture.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “It’s too much. Any more and I’ll break my promise to you.”
My wrists fell limp around my head, over wild curls of hair that lay here and there.
He touched his forehead to mine, holding himself weakly over me with locked arms. “There’s so much more, Merrin. There’s so much more I’ll do to you.”
I couldn’t answer him, just stare lost into his swimming pools of emerald rhapsody.
“I want to be the one to make you feel the things you’ve never felt. You’re everything to me… my queen.”
With me now in a vulnerable state, he cradled me protectively to his chest and kissed my cheek, giving me the last of his power until we both drifted off into the abyss of sleep.
I had a dream that the sky was falling.
Chapter 21
The Hurtful Truth
“Wake up, Merrin.”
In the morning, I was alone, disheveled in a mess of whatever blankets we had accumulated along the way to the coast.
None of last night felt real.
But my skin was sensitive and shivery, my chest floaty—a lingering symptom of Windley’s power inside my blood. I could tell that he had consumed a considerable amount of me this time. Was it his power making me want to give him even more?
I was lucky to no longer be normal by human standards. Without the echoes fueling me, I might have needed a day or more to replenish all the lifeforce he had spent.
Speaking of the echoes—
“Merrin!”
Exitium was busy trying to get my attention, but I wasn’t in the mood for scoldings about how I shouldn’t offer myself so freely to one of the beastlings.
No group of people should be branded by the actions of a few. Besides, whatever Exitium’s thought on the matter, I regretted nothing.
The feel of him devouring me was worth it.
My Windley.
My devil.
I was nervous to face him, excited too, after seeing the extent of what he could do, and I had to remind myself that the whole event had served as a beacon for our enemies. Despite what my fluttery stomach would have me think, this wasn’t a honeymoon or lover’s retreat. This was a trap for our nemeses.
And our prey was likely already en route to it.
Goddess-willing, Ascian wouldn’t just send a proxy this time. Goddess-willing, we would defeat him alongside his followers before another day fell to night.
Outside, I found Rafe sitting beside a dying fire and Windley standing a short distance off, arms folded and looking up at the sun.
The day’s brightness was reassuring—a reminder that Soleil could see us and would aid us if we needed her. The plan was for me to cast my echoes over the area so that we would be given warning when our enemies arrived, though it was likely to be some time before that happened.
“Uh, Windley, your girl’s up,” said Rafe.
My, my, the magician was sounding awful informal this morning. Maybe our talk from last night had finally loosened him up—you know, after only weeks of travel and tireless efforts trying to get close to him.
Windley spun to face me, wearing a wide, dare I say sinister, smile. “Merrin.” His eyes gleamed. “I’ve been waiting for you to emerge from your little nest.”
I couldn’t help myself. I ran to him like someone returning home from battle and threw my arms around his neck. “Last night was…” I didn’t know how best to voice it while still maintaining dignity. “You did a good job.”
“You think so?” he purred.
“Very much so.” I nestled my face into his warm, pheromone-riddled neck and noticed instantly that his hug was imbued with something other than tenderness. “Oh! Th-that’s a lot of magic, Windley. Don’t you need a break?”
He heaved a laggy sigh. “I guess you could say you’re difficult to resist.”
Rafe made an amused sound from the fire.
“Shut up,” said Windley.
Well, he seemed to be feeling normal.
“Windley, you haven’t felt any of them yet, have you? Any of Ascian’s rogues using their power?”
“I haven’t caught even a hint of them. The rogues.” He was squeezing me tighter now, letting in enough power to turn my back numb.
“Okay, that’s enough,” said Rafe.
“Jealous?” spat Windley.
“Ha! I hardly think Rafe would be jealous. Don’t you mean disturbed?”
“It was a joke,” said Windley.
“Your delivery is getting worse.”
“Blame what you did to me last night. I’m not my sharpest.”
What I did to him last night? It was hard to focus on anything else.
You might call it giddiness.
“I’m going to set out a blanket of the echoes to alert us if anyone draws near, like I did at those ruins. I’m not overly worried about it now with Soleil watching. It’s nighttime that we’ll have to be careful.”
But when I started to tip my head into the dark realm, Windley stopped me:
“Before you do that, let’s go have a talk.”
“A talk?”
He answered only by taking my hand and escorting me down a beach trysted by wind. It was charming, the way the gale created ripples and dunes in the drier parts of the sand.
I saw Rafe get up and follow at a distance, trying to be inconspicuous by poking at the sand with a stick. Searching for breakfast? No, more likely he didn’t want to let us stray too far alone with danger on its way.
With feet to the foamy coast, I let Windley lead me. Meanwhile, the sea’s salty breath misted us with bits of water and grabbed at our clothes like a playful imp.
“The scent of the beach is strong today,” I observed. “It reminds me of home, all that salt and brine.”
Windley positioned us near the water’s edge and put his arm around my shoulder, as if setting me up for a romantic heart-to-heart. I expected he was about to release some great, amorous confession, though I couldn’t imagine what. We had already confessed all there was to confess.
“Do you ever think that maybe you shouldn’t have left your home?” he started.
“Never. Do you?”
“All the time.”
Clearly a joke, but again, his delivery was suffering. I didn’t mind it. Maybe he deserved an off day after being gifted with impudent wit his entire life. Plus, I relished the thought of him being out of sorts over what we had done last night.
The elements were testy about it all, the coastal wind hitting us with salt and sand, the clouds on the horizon threatening to move in on our protective sunlight.
Windley was staring at me.
I pushed my windy hair out from my face. “What? Do I look a mess? It’s your fault, you know.”
“A mess? Arresting might be a better word. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a creature more… repulsive.”
“Yet I could never compare to your own putridity,” I teased.
Windley’s voice flattened: “That wasn’t a joke, Merrin.”
He was being weird—our chemistry was off.
His arm around my shoulder was tight. “Well, I suppose I can finally be myself… now that I’ve gotten what I wanted out of you.”
I knew he was joking—my trust in him was sound—but he was going about it in an odd manner, and something small was feeling unpleasant inside.
Oh yeah, it was the pit acting up again. The pit of my stomach.
“Merrin!”
And Exitium wasn’t making matters any better, buzzing at my ear like a mosquito.
“And what is it you wanted from me?” I humored.
“Isn’t that obvious? Your virtue.”
My virtue? But that hadn’t happened. He had been very clear about not wanting to take it on the floor of a tent. I studied him for signs of play but found none. Was he trying to show off in front of Rafe?
That wasn’t like him at all. Besides, Rafe didn’t look to be paying attention. He was yonder, prodding at the sand.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but if your aim is to make me irate, you’re doing well,” I said quietly.
“No, no.” He gave me a forceful shake. “Not to make you irate, Merrin. Just to unload the truth, you see. My kind? We’re masters of seduction and deceit. So it will come as no surprise that I was able to convince you of a fantasy. I think it’s high time we shattered that fantasy, don’t you?” Windley unsheathed a villain’s laugh. “I mean, can you imagine taking a human for a mate? That would be like courting a dog!”
“Stop it, Windley. This game isn’t amusing, and we should be preparing for battle. Keep away from me until you’ve regained your sanity.” But when I tried to shrug him off, he only tightened his grip.
“It isn’t your fault, really, for being so gullible. Fact is, I’m good at what I do. I always have been. It may have taken a hell of a long time, but I’ve accomplished what Master sent me out to do: I’ve bagged a royal. And now that I’ve ensnared you as deeply as I possibly can, it’s time for my reward.” He put his mouth close to my ear. “I’m going to break you until you’re irreparable. Then I’m going to feast from your fragmented pieces until your soul is dry and cracked. How does that sound, sweetheart?”
The tone he used was one I had never heard escape his throat. It was callous and cold and cutting, and each word was delivered intentionally, like a knife to the skin.
