by Lina Jubilee
“But you have powers,” he said. “For the first time in tens of thousands of years, your people are developing powers of their own—and a much wider variety of them than the Nelians. Why not take over from the people who do these stupid things for greed?”
Maybe he and Zander would get along more than they thought. “It’s not… It’s not that simple.” I bit my lip, then thought about changing the conversation. “So all your people have powers? More than just the vine growths?”
He bristled. “The vine growth—vine life—has helped us cultivate a beautiful and rich planet for millennia, I’ll have you know.”
Sooory.
He swallowed. “But yes, not everyone has that power. Most do, but… Quite a number can create portals to your world. Our people were flummoxed as to the point of such powers, but eventually, we knew it was because we must have been destined to watch over your baby planet. To nurture it when its own residents might not.”
“Then why, if you’re so disappointed in us, did you wait until a few months ago to attack?” I asked quietly.
“I thought it time,” he said. “Before your race became overrun with power-users…”
“Natches,” I said.
“Natches,” he said, his mouth curdling at the word. “Before you could effectively fight back.”
“But we’ve been fighting back anyway,” I said.
“True,” he said. “Though I cannot imagine you’ll win.”
That had gotten dark fast. “So there’s the truth-getter, too,” I said. “And your sister can take away powers for a time.”
“Yes, there are rare cases when elves are born with powers that don’t match either the vine life or the portal creation.” He sneered. “They get treated as rather special anomalies, sent from the mother goddess for specific purposes.” He looked me up and down. “My mother and father wondered what could have been the purpose of a child like Alanna,” he said, and the way he phrased it seemed so cold and calculated, “but when I became king, I knew. That is… Xerxes had an idea.” He swallowed visibly. “If she could take away our powers with mere proximity, perhaps she could do that with your planet’s Natches—give us the edge we needed to fight before your numbers became too great.”
I seemed to remember him being quite disappointed she’d turned up during an assault the first time we’d met, but I decided not to push him on the whole Xerxes-and-Alanna thing. I knew enough to report back to Veras—if I ever got a chance to report back anything. Alarik went quiet, the perfect image of a brooding man as he stared off into the darkness of the cavern, and I decided to lighten the mood. I patted my leggings-covered hips for pockets where there were none. I kept forgetting my phone wasn’t there. “We have little tools like that player you like now—maybe a bit bigger—that play music, allow you to talk to someone on the other side of the planet, and act as a way to send written messages—and look up almost any information on Earth.”
His eyes widened and he looked contemplative as he sunk back against the wall.
“Though I don’t think all of those functions would work here anyway,” I said. “You have to have satellites.” I pointed to the star-like glittering of the cavern ceiling. “Tools we put amongst the stars.”
He gasped and his nose wrinkled as he looked up. “You would defile even the stars themselves?”
“Well, not me personally,” I said, swallowing. Why on Earth was it up to me to defend my people when I knew we hadn’t exactly done the right thing a lot of the time? Maybe even most of the time. “Look, I can’t explain to you the entirety of human innovation or even try to defend any damage it’s done—both to the planet and to other people—in a cold cavern in the side of a cliff with no hope of rescue. I just… can’t. But for all the bad our technology has done, there’s been good, too.”
Alarik flicked his palm out in front of him and focused on it, but nothing happened. “Once Alanna’s nullification powers wear off me, I’ll create us a vine to climb up,” he said.
That harrowing prospect was a kick to the stomach, even if the knowledge we might move on at some point was a bit of a relief. “Climb up?” I asked. “Not down?”
He pointed up. “My village is up there,” he said. “And if I’m presumed dead, Alanna and Xerxes may be taking over. That… would be even less beneficial for you and your Earthlings.”
I clenched my jaw. Worse than destroying city blocks with vine growths? I shuddered to think.
“They won’t send someone to rescue you?” I asked. “Their… king?”
He grunted. “They’d assume I couldn’t have used my own vine since Alanna had robbed me of powers,” he explained. “And probably doubted I could control the one we were using well enough. Xerxes and some of his followers would be happy to leave well enough alone, call it destiny and dwell no more upon it.”
I had so many questions, I barely knew where to start. He stood, leaning against the wall to steady himself and wincing a little. Then he walked toward the front of the cave and the muted, misty light outside. “Where are you going?” I asked, getting to my own feet. “Are we leaving?”
He looked over his shoulder at me and drank me in with his eyes, following the curve of my hips in particular. “Patience, starlight. I need time.” I hung back as he reached his good arm out the cavern entrance, fishing around the edges. I hesitated, knowing I couldn’t hope he’d fall since he was my ride out of here. I slipped my arms around his abdomen from behind.
The smile that appeared on his face as he glanced over his shoulder at me was like the grandma-eating wolf coming across Little Red Riding Hood. “Is this really an appropriate moment?” he asked.
Rolling my eyes, I puffed out a blast of breath to keep the lock of hair that had fallen across my face out of my line of sight. “Just don’t want my ride out of here to fall into the abyss, thanks.”
He chuckled even so, stretching and then grunting as something snapped. He shifted back around and tossed a handful of small branches on the ground. “Just gathering material for a fire,” he said. He shifted entirely so that it was his back my hands were clasped around, my chin coming up to his clavicle. I stepped back probably a little too late and he wrapped his own arms around me, pulling me back against him tightly and guiding my cheek to rest on his bare shoulder—the one without a wound. “Or we can stay warm in other ways,” he whispered—darkly, promising.
I dropped my hands and pulled away, bending to pick up the sticks. “A fire will do,” I said, heading back to the depths of the cave before another gust of wind toppled us both over. His laughter echoed down the cavernous opening and I tossed the branches down, slamming my butt on the ground beside the stone wall. I pulled my thighs up against my chest, telling myself that if he fell out of the cavern entrance, it was just my destiny to die at this point. Maybe that would teach my libido to get over itself already.
Another gust of wind brought a chill and Alarik back to my side, more branches in his hand.
I kept my chin parked atop my knees as I watched him gather the branches together and place them in a small alcove surrounded by walls on three sides.
“The fire won’t even last with this wind,” I pointed out.
“It should here,” he said, striking a rock against the cavern wall. Sparks shot out from the friction. “If we both sit on this side of it and block the wind.” The sparks set the branches alight. He had a far easier time of it than I’d ever had. Before I’d met Nash and his instant fire fingers, of course. I sighed at the thought of maybe, just maybe, never seeing my horny best friend again.
But he was more than just a best friend to me. I just hadn’t ever been able to reconcile the fact that I was in love with more than one person with what society expected of me. Even without my weird Natch power excuse.
“Come,” said Alarik, gesturing toward me before crossing his arms tightly across his bare chest. I wondered if he really was freezing and too macho to admit it. Shivering, I somewhat reluctantly obeyed. The fire immediatel
y sent waves of relaxation across my body, loosening stiff muscles and curling my toes.
“Our backs may be exposed, but I still propose we solve that with a little body heat.” He slipped a hand under the jerkin and around my waist, pushing up the tank top to put skin against skin.
I shrieked—at the coldness, at the boldness—but Alarik just leaned closer and rested his forehead on the top of my head, his lips hovering over my ear. It took a moment more, but the iciness of his soft skin faded and I felt warmer than I had before.
“We’re alone here,” he said. “Stop talking your heart out of what it wants—what it needs. There is nothing to do just now but wait.”
Sighing, I tried to focus on my breathing, my eyes fixed on the fire. Ignore the temptation. Ignore it.
He pulled his head back, but not his arm. “I may need your help regardless,” he said. “I may need to be inside you before we escape.”
That was a slap of cold against the warmth. “What are you talking about?”
“I know how your powers work, remember?” he said, studying me. I turned away. “We’re both weak. We can’t make a climb like the one we need to, even when I can create vines again.” He grabbed another lock of my hair and shifted it to the side of my face. “I want to see if your boost will work on a Nelian as well.”
I didn’t like that idea. Not one bit. It might have proved necessary to get us out of here, but if my boosts worked on the Nelians, what hell was in store for Earth? Maybe—just maybe—I could keep him occupied enough for one day afterward so my boost wore off, then get Roulette and hightail it before he could test his boosted powers on Earth.
But what if I failed? Or worse, what if I liked it? I thought—I knew—that I would. Would I be sane enough to stay away from ever giving him a boost again? Would he let me stay away or would he… Would he take what he wanted from me?
I swallowed as another burst of wind flew through the cavern and Alarik used my distraction to force me closer to him. His lips pressed against mine and I felt the buzzing rumble of the apex between my legs.
I pulled back. “I’ve probably lost my powers regardless,” I said. “Your sister’s power seems to work on mine.”
“I don’t care,” said Alarik. “Not right now.” He kissed me again and this time, it was greedier, taking my lips between his teeth just roughly enough so it didn’t do more than sting. “I need you,” he breathed. “And you’re going to give yourself to me.”
Chapter Eleven
I wanted to laugh, to show him what a joke his words were. If he truly needed my boost—assuming it worked on him—to get us out of here, that was one thing. But I wasn’t going to give myself to him happily.
Right?
There might have been a small part of me that was glad for an excuse. But my brain knew that boosting an otherworldly invader wasn’t a good thing, libido be damned.
Can’t you be satisfied with two? Some people don’t get half as many.
Instead of laughter tumbling out, though, I opened my mouth and my throat just went dry.
Alarik slid his hands around my cheeks, cupping my face. “Do humans taste better than elves?” he asked—which should have made me laugh. Damn, that should have made me laugh.
But the tip of his tongue went sliding over my lips, and I moaned.
“Why are you so excited about making love to your enemy?” My voice was raspy and quiet. Almost as if afraid someone might overhear us.
He leaned back somewhat, his grip still gentle—but firm—on my face. “I told you,” he said. “I knew the instant we met we were compatible—more than compatible. Meant to be.” There was a slight twitch in his jaw as his gaze drank me in. He moved in to kiss me again—hungrily—as the small fire crackled beside us. He pulled away, dropping his hands and wiping his lips with the back of one like he’d just gorged. “Since discovering what you can do, I know precisely why the mother goddess made us as one.”
I shook my head. “I have to disagree. My powers are precisely reason number forty-eight why I shouldn’t go anywhere near you.”
“You can’t have that many reasons.”
“Slight exaggeration, then.” I tucked my hands between my thighs, squeezing hard, both to warm them and to attempt to focus on something other than the feelings stirring inside me. I stared at the diminutive flames, crying out as another gust of wind blew through the cavern.
Half-naked Alarik didn’t even flinch. As I brushed my hair out of my face, he watched me, bringing his knee to his chest and resting his wrist over it. He leaned forward, tracing the tip of his thumb over his lips.
“If your powers haven’t returned yet, then mine haven’t either,” I said, stiffening and moving to tuck my hands back between my thighs. “So this”—I gestured between us—“is pointless.”
He caught my hand before I could slide it between my legs and yanked me forward. Stumbling, my other hand shot out and landed between his legs, my breasts skirting his raised knee as he lifted my arm high above his head. He moved his lips toward mine with the promise of a kiss, but he stopped just short. “I don’t need your powers to enjoy this. And I will enjoy it, the moment you do as you’re told.” He shifted his mouth to my ear. “Remove your clothes.” The husky tone of his voice sent shivers down my spine, my arm holding up my body weight beginning to quiver, the slight ache being overrun by the adrenaline of desire.
He let me go and it took me a moment to pull back, scrambling to sit up again. “It’s cold,” I whispered, meaning to be louder. “If we need to do this, I’m keeping as much on as possible.”
“No, you’re not,” he said. He wasn’t angry when he spoke, and his voice didn’t even quiver.
Cocky, this asshole. Why did that rev me up? He stood then, taking slow, soft steps toward me, dragging the fingertips of one hand along my back, then grabbing hold of the jerkin and yanking it off my shoulder, the fastener keeping it tied at the top ripping at the seam, not allowing me to fasten it again, not even if I wanted to. My body palpitated at the force of his movement. He bent down, moving his lips toward my ear. “Show me your breasts, starlight. Make me shiver in anticipation of fucking them senseless.”
No one had ever fucked my breasts before. There’d been no reason to when my cleavage offered no way to boost.
I squeezed my legs harder together, taking a deep breath of cold air into my lungs to try to ignore the tingling moisture escaping my pussy. The thin yoga pants may as well have been made of paper for what good they were doing me at this point.
Alarik stepped behind me, his back to the fire. In the dim cavern light and the glow of the flames, he looked every bit a king. One arm rested akimbo on his hip as he gazed down on me through lidded eyes. “Starlight,” he said, his chin jutting upward slightly. “I will take you to realms of pleasure you could hardly have imagined existed. But I want you at my feet first. I want you begging for me.”
That cocky son of a bitch. If he thought for one second I would beg for this—from him… A gasp escaped from between my lips.
“Take the jerkin off,” he said. There would be no arguments. “Do as I say and I promise you won’t be cold for long.”
With shaking hands, I slid the other sleeve off my shoulder, then pulled first one and then the other arm out of the jacket, tossing it to the side, away from the fire.
“Good girl,” he said, leaning forward to take a strand of my hair in his hand. He let it slip from between his fingers like grains of sand through an hourglass. His other hand remained on his hip as he thrust his pelvis toward me. “Now the shirt.”
With the touch of nullification, there was no hope of Zander reaching me, though my boost that allowed him to reach this far would only last so much longer. No, nothing. No sound from my constant brain companion.
We were here alone, and no one need ever know…
My heart hurt at the thought of keeping it from Nash—if he’d barely been okay with Zander, what would he think of this? And there’d be no keeping it from Za
nder, not for long. I could already picture the disappointment on Jayden’s face, and after I’d finally tasted his kiss.
My pinky traced my lips as I stared straight ahead, right at the bulge in the form-fitting leather-like pants.
He grabbed the back of my head—just rough enough to get my attention, and not so much that it hurt me. “Shirt. Off,” he said, letting go.
Grabbing the bottom of the tank top and rolling it up, I flung it up over my head and tossed it beside the jerkin. Shivering, I pressed my forearms against my breasts, my mind racing with the fact that I’d just done that, had just willingly exposed myself on his say-so.
The fingers on one hand lightly traced down my cheek to my neck. Trembling, I felt a fire roar up from below. “Drop them,” he said, his fingers pausing atop one of my arms.
I hesitated.
“Did I tell you to cover yourself?”
My hands dropped.
His voice went low. “That’s better.” The warm tips of his fingers moved to circle the top of my breast. “On your knees,” he said.
I was sitting on my calves already.
He took my left breast tightly into his hand, the flesh spilling out between his fingers.
My heart hammered. I didn’t—I couldn’t. I wanted to blame some power for all of this—after all the Natch powers I’d seen, seduction couldn’t be out of the realm of possibility—but I knew there was nothing more to it than I just wanted this.
Despite everything my brain knew to be true. Right now, away from it all, I would turn off my thoughts and just feel.
He jerked a knee in place as he gave my breast a squeeze. “I said, on your knees.”
I sat up, balancing on my knees and bringing my face up to his abdomen, my breasts in line with his crotch.
“Good girl,” he said, softer. His hand wove through the hair on the back of my head again, soft, but possessive. The other loosened its hold on my breast somewhat, shifting, running a careful thumb in circles around my nipple, caressing it to stand erect.
