Slowly the attackers were gaining more and more ground and were penetrating deeper into the castle. Aerios also managed to force his opponents further back and he entered the castle. He eliminated two more of Exesor‘s warriors and he suddenly had the corridor ahead of him free of enemies. He had no idea where Coreena would be held prisoner, and he was just as clueless as to where Volcan was now. He had to rely upon his instinct. Maybe his friend needed his help. He had a feeling, and he had always been able to rely on his gut instinct. He quickly decided to run along the corridor, and he let his instincts then guide him through the innumerable corridors.
Suddenly he heard a blood curdling scream. It was a woman’s scream. Coreena. Then his friend’s roar. That did not sound good. He stormed onwards and reached a large hall. In the middle of it he saw Volcan who had leaned right over into the well. Coreena‘s screaming stopped. Aerios‘ skin crawled. He hoped that this did not mean what he thought it did.
*
Volcan’s heart stopped beating for a moment, as the cage suddenly stopped with a jolt. Coreena’s screaming stopped.
“Coreena!” he shouted into the depths.
“I’m OK!” she called back. “But it’s damned hot down here and the metal on the cage is getting hotter and hotter. I don’t know how long I can stand this. I feel like a hamburger on a grill.”
“I’m going to pull you up! Hold out a bit longer!”
Volcan grabbed the chain and pulled. It was heavy, but he gave it everything he had. Suddenly two hands grabbed the chain next to him. He turned his head and saw Aerios at his side.
“Together!” said Aerios, and they exchanged an intimate look from friend to friend, then he nodded and they began to pull together.
When the cage was hovering over the rim of the well, they took hold of it, pulled it to the side and lowered the heavy metal monstrosity carefully to the ground.
Volcan uttered a sigh of relief and Coreena swung between laughing and crying. Aerios also seemed visibly relieved. He wiped the sweat from his forehead.
“That was damned close,” he panted, out of breath.
“Thank you, my friend. I don’t know whether I could have done that without you.”
“What are friends for. Anyway, I’m looking forward to a wedding and that can’t happen without a bride.” He winked at Coreena.
“First you’ve got to get me out of this bloody cage,” Coreena pointed out. “We still haven’t worked out the damned lock.”
“What combinations have you already tried?” asked Aerios.
“The coordinates of the well and the date of the ceremony. I have no idea what else it could be.”
“I can’t plummet any more. So you’ve got time,” Coreena interjected.
“Whilst we’re on the subject of plummeting, why did the cage stop half way? I can’t believe that Exesor miscalculated,” thought Volcan.
Aerios shrugged his shoulders.
“I have no idea. But we should just be glad. Otherwise she would now be... Of course!” Aerios slapped himself on the forehead. “We’re so stupid. He didn’t miscalculate. He just couldn’t kill her. He wasn‘t allowed to kill her because the time of the ceremony has not yet passed. He’s made fools of us.”
“You mean, I was never in danger of losing my life?” asked Coreena. “Damn it! I nearly wet myself and now you’re telling me that I couldn’t have died?”
The two guardians nodded.
“Great!” snorted Coreena. “If you would now be so kind as to work out the bloody code, I’d be grateful. I desperately need to go to the toilet and I’d rather not do it here.”
Aerios looked at Volcan.
“Which date for the ceremony did you enter?”
“310812,” answered Volcan, irritated. “What else would I have entered?”
“That’s the human date. Have you considered that you should perhaps have entered the date of the ancient worlds?”
“Damn it!” exclaimed Volcan. “What an idiot I am!”
“I don’t wish to contradict you,” said Aerios, grinning. “Try it with the correct date.”
Volcan entered the code: 250767 for 25.07.9067
The lock opened and the door of the cage swung open.
“It worked!” shouted Coreena in disbelief and relief.
Volcan took her into his arms as she jumped out of the cage. He held her tightly and both of them trembled with relief. He put his mouth to hers and kissed her. All the tension of the last few days since her abduction lay in this kiss.
“I don’t like to interrupt you turtle doves, but we should get on out of here. The sooner we leave Abyssus, the better.”
Chapter 17
“Are you nervous, daughter?” asked Cynthia, Volcan’s mother, gently, and she put her warm hand on Coreena’s shoulder.
Coreena nodded. She was looking forward to becoming Volcan’s wife more than she was able to express, but she was also horribly nervous about the ceremony.
In the mirror, she looked at the woman who had, during the last few days, become a friend and surrogate mother.
“Were you this nervous, too?” she asked.
Cynthia laughed.
“Of course I was. I was so nervous that I didn’t want to leave this room. I thought I was going to be sick at any moment, which of course could have been because of pregnancy.”
“You were pregnant, too, before the wedding?”
“Guardians are very fertile in the courting stage. It usually happens the first time. Fortunately this fertility diminishes later. Otherwise we’d have produced a whole load of children in all these years together.” She laughed.
“But you still had seven children,” said Coreena.
Cynthia sighed.
“Yes, seven lots of worry. But also seven lots of joy. And today I’m particularly happy because I’m getting another daughter, and soon even a grandchild.”
“Are you ready?” asked Volcan’s sister, Sunita, popping her head in at the door.
Coreena felt Cynthia’s encouraging grasp on her shoulder and nodded.
“Yes, I’m ready!”
She got up and was lead out of the room by her mother-in-law to be. Outside the great hall they met with King Volcan who looked very formal in his uniform. He smiled cheerfully at Coreena and took her hand, putting it on his lower arm.
“Ready?” he asked gently.
Coreena nodded and smiled at him bravely.
“You look absolutely beautiful. We are very proud of you. And now, come, my daughter. Let me lead you to your bride groom. If he is even half as nervous as I was when I was waiting for my queen back then, then he’ll now be suffering the tortures of hell with every long minute of waiting.”
Coreena laughed uncertainly.
“I don’t know whether anyone can suffer more than I am right now,” she sighed as she was lead through the corridors by Volcan’s father.
“Just have courage,” said King Volcan, and he patted her hand. They entered the hall in which there were so many people that Coreena would have most liked to have fled, but then she saw Volcan and she knew why she was here. For him she would put up with much worse things. She hadput up with much worse things. She would also manage this for him. King Volcan patted her hand again as he sensed her uncertainty.
Volcan was standing with his back to them, in front of a beautifully dressed woman sitting on a golden stool with her eyes closed. Through Cynthia she knew basically how the ceremony would run. The woman on the golden stool was the wise virgin. She would read the hearts of the bride and the bride groom and decide whether the ceremony would be performed. Although Cynthia had called this a mere formality, Coreena was still afraid that the wise virgin would find fault with her and would cancel the ceremony.
She was aware of Volcan’s shoulders tensing when he registered her presence. The protocol forbade him from turning to her. Coreena’s heart was beating anxiously.
“Everything will be fine!” murmured Volcan’s father quietly into her ea
r. “Have courage, daughter, and trust your heart.”
She nodded a little, but her heartbeat would not calm down. Then she was put next to Volcan and the king stepped back. The impulse to take hold of Volcan, to reach out for his hand, was so huge that her hand was shaking. But she fought the impulse and, instead, put her hands into the folds of her dress to hide the shaking. She was not allowed to touch him until after the ceremony. Coreena found these rules of protocol barbaric. She had not seen him for three days. She had lived, isolated, in the so-called bridal wing of the castle, and only women had been allowed to visit her. Now she was finally standing next to the man that she so desired, and she was not allowed to touch him.
“Volcan,” sounded the quiet, melodic voice of the virgin, her eyes still closed, and she would not open them throughout the whole ceremony, “Where is your heart?”
“With my chosen one,” he answered, according to protocol.
“Coreena, where is your heart?” the virgin now put the question to Coreena.
“With my master,” uttered Coreena, her voice shaky.
The wise virgin put her right hand on Volcan’s heart and her left one on Coreena’s. Coreena could actually feel the powers of the wise virgin penetrating her innermost being to search her heart, her soul.
“Volcan, will you protect this woman with your life, uphold her love and delight her body till the end of your days?”
Coreena’s heart leapt with relief. They had passed the test and the actual ceremony had begun.
“Yes, that is my wish,” Volcan swore, his voice firm.
“Coreena, do you wish to obey your master, uphold his love and delight his body to the end of your days?”
“Yes, that is my wish,” answered Coreena, full of conviction, and she felt his hand briefly brush hers.
“Then take one another’s hand and seal your union with a kiss,” concluded the wise virgin, and she opened her eyes.
Coreena had not seen the wise virgin before and looked in amazement into the radiant, golden eyes of the woman. Then she felt Volcan taking her hand and she turned to him. The love that spoke to her from his eyes filled her heart. Slowly he lowered his mouth to hers and her heart began to beat wildly. She felt the tip of his tongue and let him in. She felt as though she were floating. Her whole body was tingling and the desire that seized her was stronger than ever before in her life. She leant against her husband. His hands were on her waist and he pulled her closer to him, deepening his kiss, until jubilation and applause filled the hall and, slightly out of breath, they separated.
Coreena was beaming. She looked into the faces of her friends. How many new friends she had gained. She would not miss her old life. Nothing about it. Not with these new friends, her new family and the man at her side who had literally been through hell for her. She looked up at him and gave him a happy smile.
“Tonight you belong to me alone,” he murmured in a whisper, and she felt a pleasant tingling of anticipation between her thighs.
His look promised her that it would be the night of her life. Her first night as the wife of a guardian. He had already told her that sex would now take on completely new dimensions. She was no longer a normal woman. She would only age very slowly, and her powers and her emotions were strengthened several times over. The kiss just now had just been a foretaste.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you much more,” came the whispered answer, then the music began to play and the celebrations commenced.
Epilogue
Coreena breathed deeply. The night air was pleasant. Warm, but not too close, and a light wind was blowing. She looked up at the stars, which at first sight did not look any different from those in her world. Only she would not see any of the constellations known to her here. A small trace of nostalgia took hold of her. She longed a little for the town, the many lights and the pulsating lifestyle. But there was something that was still much more important to her, and that was Volcan. Whereas she might miss the town, she could live without it. If she had to give up Volcan, she would not only simply miss him, she would not be able to exist without him. He was her life. Furthermore, she had a family here. Friends. She would never be alone again.
“Are you missing New York?” said a deep voice behind her.
“Yes. How do you know? Can you read minds, too?” she asked, without turning around.
Merlon laughed quietly.
“No. But you’re not particularly good at hiding your feelings. I could tell by the way you were looking up at the stars that you were longing for something. As Volcan has hardly left your side the whole evening, and you will soon be sharing his bed, I don’t think this longing was for him.”
“You’re right,” answered Coreena quietly. She turned round to the elf and looked at his face. “And what longing has brought you out here?”
“For a woman. Her name is Cherry.”
“Volcan has told me about her. She called Aerios when you were injured, didn’t she?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Why haven’t you brought her here?”
“She’s not that far, yet. She has …” Merlon sighed.
Coreena could see the pain in his extraordinary eyes. She put a hand to his cheek and looked up at him full of sympathy.
“Volcan told me that she’s with someone who hurts her?”
Merlon nodded. Under her hand she could feel him clenching his teeth. His pulse was throbbing and without looking down, she knew that he had clenched his fists.
“The man isn’t the main problem. He’s in prison right now. But Cherry…” Merlon sighed.
“Does she have feelings for you?”
“I think so. We… we’ve…”
“Slept together?”
“Hm”
“What do you want to do now?” asked Coreena gently.
“What can I do? Force her? Like hehas?” he snarled. “She’s told me clearly that she wants to be free. She’s left New York. Left him – and me!”
“Do you know…” said Coreena, smiling. “… sometimes a woman has to be forced into happiness.”
“What do you mean by that? I’m not the type of man to take a woman by force.”
“Is it true that you can render a person unconscious with your eyes?”
“Yes, that’s right.” Merlon was looking at her sceptically.
“Why don’t you find her, render her unconscious and bring her to Amarantus. As you’ve slept with her that means that she’s not immune to your charm. So use it. Seduce her. Convince her that she doesn’t want anything other than to enjoy, forever, what you can give her.”
A sensual smile appeared on the full lips of the elf and Coreena knew that if she did not love Volcan so much, that she could fall for this sexy prince. She was sure that once Merlon had Cherry in his palace he would succeed in conquering her heart. This woman would have to have a heart of stone and the libido of a block of ice to resist this man for long.
Without warning Merlon suddenly pulled her into his arms and kissed her exuberantly. Before she knew what was happening he put her back on the ground and grinned at her like a Cheshire cat.
“Thank you!”
“You’re welcome,” she answered, laughing, then he was already passed her and he disappeared into the darkness.
“Didn’t I just see Merlon with you?” came Volcan’s voice as he stepped through the patio door.
“Yes,” she answered, chuckling.
Volcan took hold of her hips and pulled her to him. He sniffed her.
“Merlon kissed you,” he declared, but he was amazed rather than angry.
“Yes, he did. To thank me.”
“To thank you? For what?”
“Because I gave him some advice.”
“What sort of advice? Does it have anything to do with the fact that he’s left so suddenly?”
“Yes! It has! I advised him to abduct his Cherry.”
“You did what?” asked Volcan in disbelief.
“He loves her,” explained Coreena.
“I know.”
“He deserves to be happy. He’s our friend and I’d like him to be as happy as we are.”
Volcan pulled her even closer to him and bent down to nibble on her ear.
“Are you happy then?” he murmured huskily.
“Very!” she answered hoarsely.
“Just wait for our wedding night. I intend to make you still much happier. To tell the truth, I intend to make you happy so many times tonight that you’ll want to sleep for one or two days afterwards to recover.”
She chuckled quietly.
“That sounds like a threat.”
“It is a threat!”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too. Coreena. My queen!”
THE END
The Guardians of the Elements
Further books planned in the series about the Guardians of the Elements:
Volume 2
Naios’ Desire
The story of the Guardian of Water and his human chosen one, Michelle.
***
Volume 3
Aerios’ Longing
The story of the Guardian of Air and his human chosen one, Serena.
***
Volume 4
Humos’ Passion
The story of the Guardian of Earth and his human chosen one, Lilian.
***
Elven Lovers
A further fantasy romance series planned:
Volume 1
Tamed by the Prince
This is the story of Merlon, the elven prince from ‘Volcan’s Fire’. From the very first moment Merlon is bewitched by the beautiful Cherry.
But she is involved with the leader of a dangerous gang and he has robbed her of any trust in the male sex. Merlon can only see one way of gaining her for himself. He has to abduct her and bring her to Amarantus, the world of the elves. But the taming of the wilful Cherry proves to be more difficult than expected and someone has it in for his beautiful prisoner
Volcan's Fire (Guardians of The Elements #1) Page 14
