Through the Veil

by Walker, Shiloh

  Lee groaned, but reached back for the branch, locking her fingers around it. He smiled and lowered his mouth back to her sex, rewarding her by pushing his tongue inside. It was heat. It was bliss. It was heaven. He teased, taunted, pushed her ever closer to climax, and, mindless, Lee lowered her hands again, this time clenching her fingers around his shoulders. “Kalen—please . . .”

  But he stopped. Again. Looked up at her. Looked up at the branch. She tried to pull him back to her, but he wouldn’t budge. With a cry, she resumed her former position, arms stretched high overhead, naked from the waist down, feeling totally exposed and so damned hungry, she thought she just might die if he didn’t let her come.

  His mouth came back to her and he circled his tongue over her clit. One hand stroked down the outside of her thigh and caught her behind the knee. He pushed it high, leaving her exposed and open as he pushed his tongue inside her. Lee bit her lip to keep from screaming.

  Closer and closer he took her, and Lee squeezed the branch so hard the bark cut into her palms. Terrified he’d stop again, she didn’t dare move, but when her climax hit, her body bucked and shuddered. She let go then, reaching for his shoulders in an effort to brace herself. She sagged back against the tree and sobbed under her breath as the orgasm rippled through her body, each spasm stronger than the last.

  Her breath lodged in her throat and her vision narrowed down and she could see nothing but his face. That harsh, compelling face. His eyes gleamed like molten silver as he stood up, pressing his body to hers. Layers of cloth still separated them, but she could feel him through it. His cock pressed into her belly and, hungrily, she rocked forward. Desperate to have him inside her, she reached for the waistband of his pants, and this time, he let her touch him.

  She tore them open, her hands clumsy. He was naked under the pants. She made a little humming sound of approval as she closed one hand around him. His cock was hard and thick, his skin as soft as satin, his erection hard as steel. She dragged one hand up and down his length. From under her lashes, she watched as a clear bead of fluid welled from the tip. She caught it on her thumb, lifted it to her mouth and licked it away.

  Kalen groaned. With one arm, he lifted her. His free hand fisted in her hair and tipped her face to his. He covered her mouth with his and muttered against her lips, “Wrap your legs around me.”

  Mindless, she did as he ordered, and she whimpered as the action pressed them together, heat against heat. He shifted position, dipped his knees, and then he pushed inside her.

  She arched against him, clenching around him. As one, they cried out. “I need you,” he whispered. He bent his head and pressed a kiss to the curve where neck and shoulder joined. “Every day you weren’t with me made me die a little inside.”

  Her heart melted. Winding her arms around his neck, she pulled him closer and murmured, “I’m here now.”

  “Just tell me you’ll stay. Stay here. Stay safe.”

  Safe . . . Damn it, what a fairy tale. He was asking her for a promise that they both knew she couldn’t possibly make, not when the road before them was still so damned uncertain. “I’m here now,” she whispered. Lee brushed her lips against his. “I’m safe now . . . here with you. Make love to me.”

  His hands stroked down her sides, cupped her ass and pulled her tight against him. “I want you safe,” he muttered, his voice harsh, guttural. “Look at me, Lee.”

  Her lids were so damned heavy, it was an effort just to open her eyes, but she couldn’t resist that harsh, guttural command. Tipping her head back, she stared at him. “Kalen . . .”

  Her lashes started to flutter back down over her eyes, and Kalen growled. “Look at me,” he repeated, his voice still harsh and demanding. “Watch me . . .”

  A slow, seductive smile curved her lips. “I’m looking. I am watching you, Kalen. You’re all I see—even when I thought you were just a figment of my imagination.”

  Hunger twined with the gut-deep need for her, a need that went beyond love, beyond lust, beyond anything and everything he’d ever known. Kalen straightened away from the tree and pivoted. “I want a bed in which to lay you,” he whispered. “A real bed with pillows and silk sheets.”

  She smiled at him. “I don’t need a bed. Just make love to me.”

  No. She might not need one, but he wanted to give her one. Wanted something soft and beautiful for her, something like what she’d given up to come to him. Instead, he carried her to the riverfront. Huge rocks jutted out over it, and he found one that was smooth and flat. It was too early in the morning for the dim light from the sun to have warmed the rock, and when he laid her back against it, she shivered from the chill. She gasped, arching into him, and Kalen rolled so that she straddled him.

  Cupping his hands over her hips, he rocked her against him. She stared down at him, her hair falling in a tangle around her shoulders. The long curls flirted with her breasts, her nipples playing peekaboo through the hair. She tipped her head back to the sky and arched as she moved against him.

  Slick, silky and wet, she clenched around him. Soft and strong, she rode him until sweat broke out on their bodies and their breathing was harsh and ragged. Kalen’s cock jerked inside the snug satin of her sheath, and then he swore as she smiled down at him and slowed her rhythm. He could feel the climax burning inside his balls, and from the look on her face, she knew what she was doing to him. He reached up, fisting a hand in her curls and winding the long locks around his wrist. He used his hold on her hair to pull her mouth to his, and as he kissed her, he flipped them over, putting her body under his. He came into her hard and fast, pushing deep, deeper, until she had taken all of him.

  Then he pulled out, slow and easy. He thrust into her hard and fast, then followed each thrust with that slow, gentle withdrawal, and soon she was clenching and bucking and whimpering underneath him. Soft, ragged little pleas escaped her lips, and Kalen swallowed them down, crushing her mouth under his.

  They climaxed together, arching into each other. Kalen tore his mouth away from hers and shouted out. Beneath him, Lee cried out his name, and when he kissed her again, he could taste tears. Shaken, he lowered his head and pressed his brow to hers. “I love you.”

  She pressed her lips to his. “I know. Your love is what brought me here.” Lee skimmed a hand down his side. Her lashes lifted and her eyes glowed warm and blue as she stared at him.

  “You’re here because you belong here.” He rolled off her and onto his back, bringing her with him. She automatically curled up against him, pillowing her head on his chest.

  “Yes. Here with you.” She glanced around them, her gaze sad. “Everything that’s going on here, it’s hard, it’s heart-breaking. But memories of this place aren’t the reason I’d wake up and want to cry, without even understanding why. When I woke up, empty and so lonely it hurt, it was because I needed to be with you. The where of it didn’t matter.”

  She meant what she’d said. Although she was still struggling with her memories, she wasn’t struggling with how she felt about Kalen. Admitting how she felt about him was actually the easiest thing in her life right now. Going back to face that battlefield was hard. Admitting to herself that she loved Kalen wasn’t—she just hoped she was going to live long enough to see how this all played out.

  He had left her alone after he’d checked the area and made sure it was secure. “Don’t trust me to take care of myself?” she asked with half a smile.

  “Don’t trust anybody enough to make sure you don’t get hurt.” But he’d softened the words with a kiss, so she let him investigate, and when he’d left her, he had made her promise to hurry back to the base camp.

  That was one thing she didn’t want to do, but she couldn’t hide in the forest forever. It was safe enough where she was at, for now, but that could change too easy and too fast.

  Way too fast. Lee felt the ripple in the forest and her breath froze in her lungs. Everything inside her went cold as she sensed the threat whispering through the air. Instinctiv
ely, she lowered her shields and reached out, searching for the source of the threat, but the minute she did so, she yanked them back up, hard and fast.

  The threat wasn’t here, per se. It was on the other side of the Veil, but whoever it was, he was searching for her. That thought had barely finished forming in her mind when her skin started to crawl.

  Well, damn it all to hell, Lee thought as she watched the dazzling blue of the Veil rippling into place right in front of her. She braced herself for the worst. A powerful Warlord could force up small gates, enough for one or two people to pass through, and all they needed to do it was enough energy rumbling within the earth.

  There was plenty of power here.

  But no gate formed. She could see through the Veil, but if she reached out and tried to touch it, all she would do was grasp at air. There was a man on the other side, and he was watching her with a wide, pleased smile.

  When he spoke, it was in that same, hissing, guttural language she had overheard in the forest just a few days ago. The language she shouldn’t have been able to understand.

  And right now, it was a language she didn’t want to understand. Right now, she would have given anything for his words to be nothing more than gibberish.

  “Hello, daughter.”

  Lee blinked. The man on the other side of the Veil looked tall, although it was hard to tell for sure. His hair was the same unusual blond as hers, shot through with strands of every shade of blond imaginable. He had wide, wide shoulders and big hands. Long-fingered hands, and it wasn’t any stretch of the imagination to picture him wrapping those hands around the hilt of the sword she could see peeking over his shoulders.

  He looked like a fair-haired cross between the Sheriff of Nottingham and William Wallace. A series of intricate braids on each side kept his hair out of his face, and the rest of it fell down his back, even longer than hers. However, there was nothing at all feminine about his appearance.

  He wore a thick, short chain around his neck with a big blue jewel set in filigree. The stone was about the size of a baby’s fist and it pulsed. Distantly, Lee realized she’d seen a stone like that before. Just a few days ago here in the forest.

  This one was bigger. Darker. And it sang—Lee could hear it. It sang to her, calling her. It was a sweet, lyrical beckoning, and if it hadn’t been for the man, she just might have reached out to see what happened if she tried to touch the stone.

  But the man was there and he was staring at her expectantly. Lee shook her head. The words felt weird on her tongue, and her throat wasn’t used to making the words. The trills, followed by deep, almost growling syllables didn’t feel natural, and her voice shook a little as she said, “Who are you?”

  He smiled a little and his austere, almost cold face warmed just a bit. “I wouldn’t expect you to remember. You were but a baby when she stole you away from me.”

  Lee said quietly, “I don’t know you. I don’t know who you are talking about.”

  “Your mother never told you?”

  “She’s dead.” Lee clenched her hands into fists and fought not to let the old pain rear its head, but it was hard. Damn hard. She couldn’t understand it. She hardly ever thought of her mom. It had been twenty years since Lee had been abandoned—or since her mother had been killed. Lee didn’t remember which, and she usually didn’t spend much time dwelling on it. Her childhood hadn’t totally sucked, and she’d moved past the hurt feelings a long time ago.

  But for some reason, staring at this man brought that forgotten pain back. Whether she had been abandoned or her mother had been killed, Lee had been left alone.

  “Dead . . .” The man’s gaze lowered. Something moved across his face—it almost looked like sadness. “Neve— dead all these years.”

  Neve. For a minute, she stared at him blankly, and then the knowledge plowed into her like a sledgehammer. Neve—oh, shit. Neve—Aneva. Lee’s mother. Eira had given her the emsphere of her mother and she’d spoken of her daughter with love and pride. Aneva—my Ana. When Lee had looked at the emsphere’s image of her mother, it had stirred memories. Vague ones. Fleeting images and little snippets of song were all Lee had been able to remember of her mother, but looking at that young, smiling face seemed to bring back memories long forgotten.

  Neve—Aneva. “Aneva,” Lee repeated in a hollow voice.

  The man looked back at her with a sympathetic expression. “Aneva was her name from offworld. All slaves are given new names to go with their new homes. The less they have to remember their previous lives, the easier it is to accept their new ones.”

  Shock had her voice shaking as she whispered, “Slave?”

  “Not for long, my Daisha. Neve was a powerful witch, a beautiful woman—and she bore me twin sons. I took her as my mate, and for two years, she lived with me and was afforded all the luxuries my wife deserved. She was respected, cared for. My Tiris—”

  Tiris. Lee closed her eyes. That word reverberated through her, touching some odd chord for reasons she couldn’t quite define. Tiris—a woman mated to a Warlord. She knew that. She didn’t know how she knew, but she knew. The same way she knew that Daisha meant daughter. Daughter—

  “She took you from me one night while I was with my men. You were so small, so delicate—so precious. I was so proud of my little daughter and the woman who bore her. Then she took you,” the Warlord murmured. His eyes darkened with fury, and Lee flinched as sharp, discordant chords started to splinter through the air. The ethereal, haunting music turned into something ugly and violent, and the wispy edges of the Veil became darker. The lines of his face got deeper, and the rage coming off him made the air go icy. “I was fond of Neve, but in that moment, when I returned home and came to the nursery to see you . . .”

  His gaze locked with hers, and the punch of his rage reached across the Veil, striking her with painful intensity and freezing the air in her lungs. She wheezed out a breath. The world swayed around her and she had to lock her knees just to stay upright. “When I found your crib empty and your nurse unconscious and bound, I could have killed Neve.”

  Lee believed it, too. She believed he could have killed her mother, but more, she believed every single word he said. Believed him when he said that her mother had been a slave, and that he was her father. A man who had kidnapped her mother. A man who came from the bastards that were trying to take over Ishtan—he was her father.

  Lee didn’t want to believe him. She wanted to discount all of it. She couldn’t, though.

  “You . . .” Her voice trailed off, a weak, breathy little sigh. Lee swallowed, cleared her throat and then tried again. “You are my father.”

  The fury leeched out of his face, and his glowing blue eyes no longer looked so malevolent. A smile curved his lips and Lee shivered. “Yes. I am. I’ve been searching for you for a long, long time, Lenena.”

  Lee’s voice shook as she whispered, “My name is Lee. Or Lelia, if you must.” A mean smile curved her lips. “Apparently when my mother took me away from you, she wanted no reminders of our past lives, either. Lelia is the name she gave me.” Her heart was pounding hard and fast inside her chest, and she wanted to scream. Her mother had been a slave. This bastard had kidnapped her mother, raped her—the thoughts spinning through her head slammed to a halt and she stared at him. “You said sons. Does that mean I have brothers?”

  He inclined his head. “Indeed. The twins are powerful, strong men. They will do you proud.” He studied her with that eerie, possessive little smile. “You will do us proud. It’s time to return to your home, Daisha.”

  He lifted a hand as though he was going to reach out for her, and Lee felt a ripple in the Veil. The power inside it strengthened as it started to shift the gate energies and reshape the Veil into a true portal. She backpedaled away as fast as she could, drawing the blade she had tucked into her boot. It felt awkward in her hands and, at the same time, completely natural. “I am home, you arrogant bastard.”

  She tripped and ended up on her ass, and fear
wrapped a chokehold around her throat as the gate energies continued to work their magick. As the Veil transitioned into a portal, she could feel the heat of the desert winds blowing, she could smell something exotic and sweet, and the intensity of the man in front of her reached out to wrap itself around her. It was an insidious magick. He hadn’t said a word, but she had the oddest urge to reach out to him. To go through the Veil and let him take her away. Someplace safe. Someplace where she would be cared for, pampered and protected—

  She could see herself rising, moving toward him with her hand outstretched. Her foot brushed against something, and she looked down, realized she had dropped her blade. A knife Kalen had given her, made of some dense, dark metal that glinted blue under strong light. The sight of that knife stilled something inside her.

  The weird urge to join the Warlord faded, and instead of the safe, pampered existence his presence offered, she saw it for what it was. A silken prison. Yes, she’d be cared for, pampered and protected, but she would also have men paraded before her until she claimed a husband, and then she would spend months on her back as he tried to impregnate her. Any male child would be taken away and sent to warrior training. Females would be allowed to remain with her for a time, but even they would be stolen away and groomed to become mates for the Warlords.

  The rush of fury cleared her head, and she took a step back just as he reached out. She watched clinically as his hand pushed through the barrier. His flesh was pale and his hand looked strong. Scarred, calloused and hard. Had he used those hands to hurt her mother?

  Slowly, Lee looked up at him and shook her head. “If you want me, you’ll have to do more than that.” She drew her arm back like she was launching a fastball and watched as silver fire went hurtling toward his face. She heard him yell, and even as she launched out, part of her whispered, That was a bad, bad idea . . .