Rapture: The Shadowdwellers

by Jacquelyn Frank

  Magnus thrust as deep as he dared in one strong move and Daenaira sucked in a wild gasp of pain, her hands going from grip to push as she suddenly tried to shove him away from her.

  “No! No, stop! Sua vec’a!” she cried.

  Magnus reached to grab her wrists, pinning them to the bed and using her wrenching attempt to escape him to sink into her the rest of the way.

  “Jei li! It’s done! Stop. Stop!” He let go of her, bracing for the strike he knew was going to come. He figured it was fair play, after all.

  “Don’t you call me that, you lousy bastard!” she sobbed, tears spilling from her lashes. “I told you not to call me that!”

  To his surprise she didn’t hit him. She just lay limply against the bedding, crying until she just about broke his heart with it.

  “I’m sorry, K’yindara,” he soothed her softly, bending to kiss her tears away. “I didn’t want to hurt you. It was the only way. It will be better now.”

  “It’s already better,” she sniffled, reaching to stroke his temple. “I’m a virgin,” she explained at his perplexed look.

  “Uh…” Magnus laughed and glanced down between their tightly joined bodies.

  “Shut up, you know what I meant.”

  “All right, so long as that’s clear.” He chuckled.

  “I must seem pretty silly to you.” She giggled.

  “No, baby. Not at all. You seem…”

  Tight. Gorgeously, beautifully, really damn tight.

  Dae saw the expression that crossed his face and she watched with fascination as he shuddered and took a deep breath.

  “Magnus?”

  “Just…one second, Dae. I need a second.”

  Now that the worst of the sharp pain had passed, and with the relief of realizing Magnus had been correct about the sanctity of her body being intact, Daenaira’s attention began to return to the same exact place Magnus’s was coming back to.

  “Mmm,” she hummed. “I think you’re beginning to feel nice.”

  “Well, that’s good,” he said a bit breathlessly. “Because I think I’m going to have to move very soon. Drenna, you feel amazing, Dae. And it’s been a very long time since I’ve done this. If you hadn’t made me come earlier, I would have probably climaxed already. Gods, did I mention you feel fantastic?”

  “Yes.” She laughed. She didn’t realize she jarred him when she did that, but she discovered it quickly. Magnus groaned deeply, his forehead thumping against her breastbone.

  “Right. You said something about feeling better?”

  “Yes, baby,” she purred teasingly.

  “I get the feeling you’re mocking me,” he growled.

  “Because I am.”

  “Mmm. Okay then. Let’s try this.”

  He looked up, his golden eyes flashing wickedly at her before he dipped to the left and snagged her nipple between his teeth. Magnus reveled in her cry, nipping and flicking her until she was chaining out soft, mewling sounds of pleasure. Gods knew it was going to be a test in his endurance from that instant on, because every time he touched her she tensed up or shivered, the feeling shuddering through him cock first. He reached for her where their bodies were joined, his thick fingertips plucking at her clitoris, then soothing it with stimulating swirls. Before long, she was bathing him in fresh wet heat, her legs clinging tighter to his hips and her brutally tight channel loving him in strangling hugs of muscular contraction.

  Oh yes, he absolutely had to move now. If she came around him too soon, he was going to completely lose it.

  Daenaira had lost all sense of time and focus, her whole world swimming under the mastery of Magnus’s torturous touches. She slid her hands down the flexing strength of his back, dipping into that place where his tattoo so beautifully accented his waist and the flare of his backside. She traced smooth skin over hard muscle, grabbing hold of his ass just as he drew away from her almost to the point of leaving her body completely. She felt a twinge of soreness ricocheting through her, but she didn’t as much as flinch, knowing it would make him hesitate and stop all of the magic he was creating. She admitted to herself that she was afraid of the return stroke, but at the same time she knew there would be a point when it wouldn’t hurt any longer. After all, so many people couldn’t be wrong. The man who had taught so many people to love sex couldn’t be wrong.

  Sure enough, as he slid slowly into place inside her again, Dae completely forgot it was supposed to hurt. This was because of the unexpected wash of joy that hurried over her as the hand toying with her button of nerves and the mouth at her breast combined to send overwhelming messages of pleasure to all of her brain cells all at once.

  After a couple more testing thrusts, Magnus lost all sense of reserve and purposeful finesse. His mouth came up to Dae’s so he could devour her with soul-wrenching kisses and his hand gripped her hip and thigh as he got his knees under them both. He found a rhythm of quick, easy surges into her that rapidly deteriorated into something far more urgent and deeply primal.

  “K’yindara, gods, how you feel. It’s like Light, how you burn me!”

  Dae felt the powerful flex and rush of his body within hers and also the scorch of the heat he was talking about. But it wasn’t her that caused it, and she would swear to that to M’gnone. He was breathing in a rush into her mouth, his big chest rubbing tauntingly over her breasts until she wanted to scream from the stimulation. His cock was thick and like a rod of pure fire inside her. So hard that she felt full to bursting, yet he still drew himself under rein, just barely. A last thread was all that needed to snap, and Dae knew she would discover the brute that hunted sin so mercilessly. The defender of realms and faith would be unleashed if she could just figure out…

  Why her vision from those long days of sleep returned to her just then she would never know. They weren’t even having sex in the same position. But she reached between their bodies and wrapped her fingers around his wet erection as he slid free of her and then returned with a push that now took him past two tight clutches. Fingers. Virgin pussy. Lush wet heat that smoldered.

  “Ah, Dae!” he ground out. “Gods, baby, you shouldn’t have fucking done that!”

  Yes, she thought slyly, I should have. Especially the way he ignited into feverish, near-violent thrusts. After barely sixty seconds of her torture he was catching her hands, holding her down, and slamming his hips into hers with a wild, savage canting need. Dae’s whole body rushed with those wicked hot chills only he could create, and her nipples went rigid as her clit throbbed out a countercadence.

  “Magnus?” she gasped, her whole body short-circuiting and feeling as though it were falling away from her.

  “Hang on, honey. Just remember I’m here and…Drenna! Baby, I’m going to come really soon, and I want you with me, you hear? Just let it happen. Just feel it.”

  Oh, she was feeling it all right. It was the pounding pulse of his cock burrowing madly for her core, and she could swear he grew fatter and fuller inside her by the second. Then, out of nowhere, her whole body seemed to unravel all at once, everything turning weak and then tense and then sharply raw with sensation just before she detonated in orgasm so brilliant she swore she saw sunlight flash beneath her closed lids. She soared, crying out his name over and over.

  Magnus lurched forward as she clamped down on him like a vise, his system locking with a level of ecstasy he could never have imagined. The force of his climax alone took his breath, but the pleasure returned it and drove him to cry out for her.

  “Yes! Gods, Dae! Dae! You’re mine, Dae!”

  Daenaira dug her nails in for purchase as she writhed beneath him and bucked to take his savage release. He frothed inside her body in burning waves of ejaculation, and a whole new surge of culmination ran amok through her body. She keened for him, seizing and grunting out moans of sexual oblivion.

  Magnus was shaking head to toe as he remained braced over her. They were both gasping for breath, and Daenaira slowly pulled her nails free of his flesh and soothed t
he stung areas with gentle strokes of her fingertips in apology.

  “I don’t deserve you,” Magnus uttered in spite of himself, knowing it was a moot point because he wasn’t about to let her go. “Drenna blessed me and I don’t know why. Darkness knows I’ve screwed up everything I’ve touched lately.”

  “Well, you’ve touched me and screwed me, yet I’m still smiling,” she pointed out with a snicker.

  “That you are,” he noted, smiling very softly, though he didn’t laugh. “I’m sorry for what I said. That day, I—”

  Dae stopped him with the touch of her fingers against his mouth.

  “I am rather an expert on saying things I don’t mean when I’m afraid,” she pointed out. “It just took me a while to realize you weren’t being cruel, just chicken-shit.”

  “Yes, I suppose I was,” he said, narrowing his eyes on her as he moved forward to cover her with his weight, caging her between his elbows. “I didn’t recognize it either. I haven’t felt fear in quite some time.”

  “I can’t blame you, though. Between Karri and the way people are betraying what you are trying to have here, I think you have a right to feel insecure.”

  “What I feel is anger. No,” he corrected, “deeper than that. It’s a holy fury, Daenaira. But I am going to ferret out this mess if it is the last thing I do.”

  “I know you will. And I will do everything I can to help you.”

  That made him frown. Easing himself away from her, he sat up on the edge of the bed and rubbed at the tension in his neck that had been so blissfully relieved for a moment there, but was now returning with a vengeance.

  “I would rather you just try to avoid trouble, Dae.”

  She laughed incredulously at that. “You’re kidding, right? You plunged me into trouble the minute you brought me here and told everyone I was yours! And thank you, by the way, for the warning. You shouldn’t have told me I was safe here when you knew I wasn’t.”

  Magnus knew her condemnation was well deserved. But he had to defend himself. “I didn’t think they would go after an innocent girl. Certainly not within hours of her arrival. I was trying to gain your trust and I didn’t want you to flatly refuse to stay with me.” He sighed. “It was selfish, I know. I’m sorry for that. I didn’t want to bring you here. I ignored my visions as long as I could tolerate them. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I wanted you more than anything, even in spite of Karri, but I didn’t want to bring you into a den of danger knowing I had already been targeted once. However, Drenna saw to it that my life became total chaos until I capitulated and accepted you. I could only find peace by obeying.”

  “Some peace.” She laughed. “I am not a relaxing individual. So, uh…” Dae licked her lips nervously. “What were these visions about?”

  “Sex and violence.” Magnus smiled wanly when she startled at the bald honesty of his reply. “In my dreams I was either making love with you frantically or watching you, me, and all of Sanctuary be destroyed by violence. I can’t be more specific because the visions themselves are unspecific. Worst part is, they’ve begun again. I dream what you dream, K’yindara. That vision of making love to you from behind—it’s uncanny you would describe exactly what I myself have seen. Now I have to ask you if you dream everything that I dream. Do you see violence as well?”

  She nodded slowly, staring at him. “I thought it was just flashbacks. Nightmares. Even though I saw you and Sanctuary, I just thought…” She paused. “Does this mean those things can happen or that they will happen?”

  “Visions are possibilities. Actions are the only thing able to determine our futures.”

  “Oh.” She fell quiet, but then that sly little smile appeared as she looked him over with a slow and steady hunger. “What actions do I have to take in order to get you to do that thing where you throw me up against the wall?”

  Chapter Ten

  “No! Don’t touch me!”

  Malaya sharply shrugged off her twin and walked away from him, shivering at the unnaturalness of the act itself as much as from her unmitigated outrage.

  “Laya,” Tristan begged softly.

  “Don’t you ‘Laya’ me! Six months! Six months you have known this!” She rounded on him, her entire body shaking with the fury seething in her whiskey brown eyes. “Leave me. Leave these rooms, Tristan, before I say something I do not mean and will come to regret. Drenna damn you, you go!”

  Tristan swallowed hard. Malaya never swore using the names of their gods. It wasn’t a good sign, and the surety of his misery was heavy and terrible. He turned and walked toward the exit as requested.

  “Is this what it’s all been about?” she demanded sharply before he could even touch the knob of the door. “All of your insensitivity? The cavalier attitude? The nonstop sexual orgy?”

  “Yes,” he said simply, not bothering to turn around.

  “I was worried about you!” she accused him. “Worried sick, you selfish bastard! Not to mention I feel like I have been running this species on my own for the past few months! We’re surrounded by enemies, our friends are being targeted for death and you…you’re…you’re…” She turned to Guin harshly. “How did you put it, exactly?”

  “Dick deep in pussy,” Guin supplied softly for her.

  Tristan narrowed a deadly look on the bodyguard, but Guin just shrugged one big shoulder and gave him a little smile. The smile, however, was cold and quite deadly. The Chancellor was given the uncomfortable feeling that Guin would have given away a critical body part for the opportunity to have a go at him, whether it earned him a date with an executioner or not. Just how many people have I pissed off? he wondered.

  “I don’t think you want to hear me make excuses, so I won’t,” he replied softly. “I’ll just remind you that, in my own idiotic way, I wanted to protect you. I kept thinking I could figure this out; come up with a solution, and make it a nonissue. I thought that, when the danger was past, I could tell you and we’d laugh it all off. But…” Tristan swallowed noisily. “I don’t want you to marry because you have to. I want you to marry because you are in love. I want you to be happy. Even more than that, though, I want you here. With me. Just as it’s always been. You and me against the world; undefeated, untainted, unbroken.” He looked at her with angst in his eyes, knowing she would see his fears. “I guess you’re right. That does make me selfish. But I always have been when it comes to loving my sister. It’s childish, I know, but I don’t want anyone to share what you give me.”

  Tristan shut up with a snap of his teeth. He knew how bad all of this sounded. He knew how unforgivably spoiled he was. None of this was supposed to be about him. His sister was being hurt and made a victim of circumstance, and all he kept thinking about was how it would affect him. He didn’t blame her for her fury. Gods knew he was furious with himself.

  “Tristan, you share what I give you with an entire species! What do you think motivates me to put up with all that is asked of me? Without devotion and love and loyalty, you cannot do what we do. And sacrifice, Tristan,” she said sadly, her disappointment in him so sharp he could taste it. It made him wince. “We make sacrifices for the ones we love. Even if that means I will have to marry, I will do it to keep my people safe and happy. And if it meant letting you go to get joined, I would do that, too, no matter how much it would break my heart to put others between us. But, Tristan, we can’t claim a perfect love if we are never willing to put it to the test, or are never willing to share it out.”

  “I know. K’yan Daenaira said something very similar. It made me realize what an ass I was being.” He turned back to her cautiously. He knew better than to make any quick presumptions when his sister was this angry. “Magnus convinced me it was important we be prepared for this when it happens. I think we need to figure out how to protect you. Fast. We are the absolute power in the end, Laya. We can force them, but they can’t force us, remember? I want you to stand against this. Demand your rights as a free, modern ruler and woman. No one will blame you for that.”

/>   “That isn’t true and you know it,” she snapped. “We are a society of tradition. I cannot thumb my nose at that and neither can you. Especially in the political climate where treachery against us foments! And I am not talking to you about this right now. You have had months to consider all of this and I have had barely fifteen minutes! Get out, Tristan. Go find some woman to play with and leave me to think.”

  Malaya turned her back on her brother and marched into her bedroom. She knew, even before Guin slammed the door behind them in reflection of her anger, that she was hurting her twin purposely, but she was angry and now she needed the right to be angry. She paced her bedroom sharply, ignoring the sound of her brother’s departure, biting on a nail in her upheaval.

  “Bituth amec,” she heard Guin utter gutturally.

  She paused to look at him, seeing the giant leaning back against the door, his thick arms folded with barely leashed strength across his chest. The rigidity of his muscles and the darkly dangerous look in his granite eyes were more than enough to tell her how incensed he was. Just what in Light did he have to be so mad about, she thought irritably. He wasn’t the one with an ass for a brother who had completely screwed up!

  She was just mad enough to say that out loud. Malaya watched with some fascination as his fists curled tight, and she could hear the grinding pop of his teeth clenching brutally together.

  “Don’t you worry about me,” he said tightly through his teeth. “You just figure out how you’re going to get around this edict when it comes.”

  “You know, I really would like to know when I gave the impression to the men in my life that I needed them to tell me what to do!” she spat. “What makes you think I want to ‘get around’ it?”

  That seemed to take the wind out of him for a moment, and Malaya could swear she saw momentary panic filter into his eyes.

  Panic?

  Guin?