She couldn't take without giving herself in return. She didn't know how to withhold her heart.
Deal with it, she told herself. You're alive, You get to have hot, sweaty, mind-bending sex with five supernatural studs whenever they call, separately or in combination. And you never have to pick up their dirty socks.
It didn't make her feel better, but the way Ronan tied her up did. He bound her hands behind her back with something soft and strong, then had her kneel in front of him while he put a jeweled collar around her neck and fastened a long velvet cord to it.
“Walk with me.” The cadence of his voice could seduce her all by itself, she thought. She stood and followed him through oak graves and starlit meadows under twin moons.
Fragments of old poems filtered through her mind. All of them having to do with faerie mounds and time. She'd entered another world on the back of a dragon. She'd been with each of the guardians a day, but how much time bad really passed? How many hours had she danced with an elf? How long had she been a wolfs submissive mate, a dragon's prize, a demon's lover, a vampire's source of blood and sex?
Ronan led her back to his bower and tied her leash to one post of an ash bed. Then he tore her shift from neck to hem and stripped it away. He made a fist with one hand in her hair and pushed her down to kneel in front of him, His jutting penis brushed her lips. “Take me in your mouth.”
She opened for him obediently and angled her head to allow more of his shaft to thrust between her lips. He tasted of sex and magic. She laved him with her tongue, sucked him deep, felt anticipation coiling tight and low in her body.
His hips worked as he fed himself into her hungry lips. He held her head fast while he spilled himself on her tongue and she swallowed all he gave her.
When he pulled out of her mouth, she saw that they weren’t alone. They'd been joined by a wolf and a vampire. It struck her as funny that the sidhe had chosen both the most and the least complicated of her lovers. He'd probably done it on purpose for the contrast.
She ran her tongue along swollen lips, looking from Kenric to Adrian, then up at Ronan, wondering what was next. She didn't have to wonder if they'd enjoyed watching her performance. They were naked and the state of their bodies said it all. She took it as a positive sign that she didn't feel an overwhelming urge to fling herself at Adrian and beg him to pierce a vein. She might be hooked on five lovers, but at least she wasn’t hooked on vampire venom.
“On the bed,” Ronan ordered her.
Sybil stood up and climbed onto the broad expanse, then sat on one hip with her legs curled beside her. The three of then joined her, Kenric settled on his back. Adrian kneeled at the head of the bed, Ronan took the foot.
It wasn't hard to guess what Ronan wanted her to do, how they planned to share her, but the rules were as easy to remember as the erotic punishment she'd earned already. So she resisted the urge to touch Kenric's body with hers and waited for Ronan to say the words.
“Straddle the wolf and offer the vampire your mouth.”
She moved on top of Kenric and wanted to sigh in contentment at the feel of him under her, hard and male, so right, so welcome. She leaned forward and Adrian shifted to meet her. His hand circled the base of his shaft and brought the head of him to her lips. She opened wide and he thrust in to fill her mouth.
Kenric's hands stroked from her hips to her breasts. His palms covered her nipples with pressure she welcomed and arched into. Her sex brushed the hard length of his penis. The contact made her yearn for more. She sucked Adrian with eager lips and rocked her pelvis forward to align her core with the broad head of Kenric's cock.
The two of them petted her with familiar hands. Adrian's tangled in her hair and caressed the curves of her curves of her throat and neck. Kenric's teased her nipples into aching points as he pressed slowly, steadily between her thighs.
When Ronan spanked her, her sex tightened convulsively around Kenric's thick shaft and heightened the sensation of being deeply penetrated, Ronan's palm smacked her bare butt repeatedly, making the skin sting pleasurably and arousing her almost beyond endurance.
Kenric's wide shaft filling her pussy wasn't enough. Adrian feeding his length into her greedy mouth wasn't enough. She groaned out loud when she felt Ronan fit his penis, slick with lubricant, between the round globes of her ass. The contact of his head against her sensitized anus made her wild. He began to thrust inside and her body stretched to take him. Inch by inch, he pushed into her tight anal opening from behind while Kenric stroked into her from below and Adrian glided between her lips.
All four of them, joined. All of her filled, taken by three lovers. She loved the fit of Kenric between her legs, the taste of Adrian on her tongue, the dark thrill of Ronan's possession. Most of all she loved that Kenric was there to share the experience and heighten her enjoyment of it.
Adrian came first, a hot rush of salty sweet fluid she drank down as she continued to suck. She ran her tongue over his head and loved the way he shuddered in reaction.
Then she let him slide out of her mouth and lowered her torso to Kenric's. The heat of him against her bare breasts and the musky scent that was uniquely his made her head spin. My wolf, she thought, and tightened around him.
Ronan rode her hard and fast. She was stretched exquisitely tight and the ring of delicate tissue he penetrated ached from the sensual delight of his demands.
The counter-rhythm of two men thrusting into her had her teetering on the brink.
First Ronan filled her, then Kenric, each posing as deep as she could take them. Finally Ronan gripped her hips hard and pumped his cock into her ass while he spent himself in short, fast strokes. He withdrew, then Kenric rolled her underneath him.
She looked up at Kenric from beneath heavy lids. His eyes burned gold as he gave her a look of fierce possession that her whole being reacted to. “My turn,” he growled.
He didn't loot away as he plunged into her again and again. Her hips rocked up to meet his until the force of her orgasm froze her into immobility. Her release triggered his. With their bodies locked tightly together, buried as deep in her as he could go, Kenric's shaft pulsed as he spent himself into her womb.
*
“I think you enjoyed entertaining my guests, pet.” Ronan settled beside her when they were alone again. He curved his palm over the swell of her mound and felt the slick proof of her pleasure with the pads of his fingers. “They certainly enjoyed you.”
“Do you guys do this often? Share your women?”
“Never.” Ronan stroked his hand up her belly, over the slight rise of her breasts, higher to stroke the sensitive hollows of her throat just below the collar she wore.
Oh. So she offered them novelty value. That wasn’t likely to last long.
“Your face is so sad.” Ronan pinched her nipple between his fingers, hard enough to gel her attention. Aren’t you enjoying your time as my pet?”
Too much. But she struggled to smooth out her expression. “You are the goddess's gift to women.”
“Would you like a gift?”
Something in his voice made her frown in concentration as she tried to decode his meaning He pinched her nipple a little harder and her body pulsed in reaction.
“I'd like to give you a gift for pleasing me.” Ronan released her and shifted to unbind her hands. She stretched her arms, then found herself unable to resist the pull of his body. The feel of him under her palms. She touched him with hungry hands, half-expecting him to retaliate with some erotic punishment for her daring.
But his hands on her gave only pleasure, awakening every nerve, plying her with sensual delight. Knowing that could change at any moment kept her on edge, braced for anything. The tension that resulted deepened the intensity of her physical response.
He touched her everywhere. The sensitive hollows at the backs of her knees. The delicate arches of her feet. The nape of her neck. Every touch built on the one before, wrapping her in his spell, until she was drowning in sensation.
/> The taste of him. The slide of his body against hers. His scent. The light and color and fragrance in the air. The sound of music she almost knew but that at the same time was so strange to her ears that it underscored how alien he was to her.
“What is that song?” Sybil asked, her voice a hushed whisper.
“Listen.” Ronan kissed her, a long and thorough melding of mouths that eroded any thought of self-preservation. She could only open m him and offer herself for anything he might want of her.
When he rolled tier onto her back and rose above her, she felt a surge of exultation.
He slid his legs between hers. His demanding male flesh sought feminine surrender and found it. She was slick and welcoming, easing his entry as he trust deep.
Flesh mated. Magic pressed her down along with the weight of his body. She smelled demon smoke and fairy flowers combining in some exotic perfume, and wondered if it represented their mingled magic.
Ronan on her, in her, filled her with Wonder and hunger in equal measure. He stroked in and out of her, levered himself up so their eyes could meet while their bodies melded, and the sight of him rooted between her legs made her breath stop.
Vines twined around his arms and hers. More wrapped around their hips, binding them together. His white skin took on a green hue. A Crown of leaves sprouted in his hair.
Green man. She didn't say it out loud. She couldn't. An ancient symbol of an ancient power, a force of nature. “Is this real?” Sybil found herself asking.
“What do you see?”
“Viridios.” She named the Celtic god.
“Witches see through glamour.”
Sybil laughed at his answer, amazed instead of afraid. And gave herself to the ancient magic that called masculine in feminine.
*
Much later stir opened her eyes and found herself alone in the meadow of flowers she'd fallen asleep in, waiting tor Ronan to appear. She was naked except for a wreath of flowers around her neck where Ronan's collar had been, and where Kadar's necklace stilt resided. The pennant felt cool and heavy between her breasts. To one side of it, the eight-pointed star inside a circle was complete and stood out in stark relief on her pale skin.
The whole episode might have been a dream, except for the tattoo, the necklace, and the collar of flowers. And the loss of the garment Adrian, had dressed her in.
Sybil sat up and rolled to her side, trying to see if her butt and thighs showed signs of Ronan's surprisingly enjoyable form of discipline. Her skin was unmarked.
She settled back into the bed of grass and flowers and took physical inventory. Her body tingled pleasantly in some places and ached enjoyably from exertion in others. All in all, she felt an incredible sense of well-being. Maybe that was Ronan's gift, a surge of vitality. Thoughtful of him.
“If Ronan is really your name,” she said out loud. The other name had been his at least temporarily, though. He'd been the green man of legend. That had been more than unexpected.
The whole episode had been filled with the unexpected. The sheer joy of dancing.
The shock of discovering she didn't find Ronan's sexual tastes at all unpleasant. He'd cherished her, bound her hands, put her on a leash, ordered her to submit to the orgy, and treated her like a favored mistress.
All of them treated her like she belonged to them. It was like being in some sort of backward harem where instead of many women for one man, there were five men and one woman. She tried to imagine explaining that to anybody from her old life and couldn't.
Not surprising, since she didn't understand it herself.
A sound made her look up. It seemed oddly appropriate to see Kenric there.
“I'm surprised you're not on four feet,” Sybil said.
“I'm surprised you're alone.”
“I don't think I like your tone. I'm not the one who decided sex with all five of you was the answer.” She stood and stretched, displaying her naked body with deliberate insolence.
“Why are you here, anyway?”
“Abaran is missing.”
Seventeen
A chill went through her at Kenric's stark, words. Sybil wrapped her arms around herself. The reflexive action triggered the memory of wings cocooning her in safety. The sense of loss staggered her. Abaran was supposed to be a casual bed partner. Her feelings were anything but casual.
“It's my fault something's happened to him,” she said, stricken. Her eyes stung. “I put you all in danger by being here.” Kenric raked a hand through his mane of hair. “I don't have time to listen to you pining for your lost lover. I need to follow his trail, and you need to be watched.”
“So I don’t go trying anything stupid,” Sybil said, feeling her temper rise. She didn’t try to tamp it down. Anger felt better than loss and worry.
“That, and so whoever took a guardian doesn’t take you, too. You are going to Kadar’s cave.”
You. The emphasis wasn’t lost on her. She might have the mark, but she wasn’t part of the team.
But then, what was she?
Sybil walked beside Kenric, matching his rapid strides without effort, “Listen to me.
I've been practicing. I can control my power now, and you need my help. It might take all of us together to save Abaran.”
“I know you want to help. But you can help best by staying out of the way and under Kadar's protection.”
The finality in his tone told her his mind was made up. Arguing with him would be a waste of breath. But Kadar might be another matter. Kenric delivered her and left her seething in frustration.
As soon as he was out of earshot, Sybil turned to Kadar. “What am I now?”
He regarded her thoughtfully. “Who we are is largely defined by our actions. What do you want to be?”
“More than a guardian groupie.” She made a gesture. “Not that I see any groupies in residence. But as much fun as the five of you are in the sack, I don't want to be defined by my sex life. Or who my lovers are. I have the mark, too. Doesn't that make me part of the team?”
“You till a long-absent part of the team. Once, witches were our allies. I told you before, your power can serve more than your own goals. We need you.”
“To close the gate.”
“And to guard it afterward, to see that it remains dosed.”
She looked down at the eight-pointed star. “Kenric made it clear that he wanted me to stay put while he went after Abaran.”
“Kenric does not speak for us all.”
“Abaran said the five of you didn't want to need me.” She touched the mark she wore with a fingertip.
“And what do you want?”
Sybil drew in a deep breath and let it out. “I want Abaran back. I want to go after him.”
“Even though you're a target.”
She raised, her eyes until they met his. “I intend to be a moving target. But I don't want to be the loose cannon that causes a disaster. I want to help, not make things worse. If I'm a member of the team, I should act like one. Not rush off on my own. So let's make a plan.”
Kadar produced clothes and handed them to her. “First I'll answer more of your question. What are you now? You're an immortal.”
For some reason, that part of it hadn't crossed her mind. “You mean, this isn't just for life, it's forever?”
“We play for keeps in this league.” He moved away, stood, stretched, and disappeared into the haze that marked his transformation. When it cleared, a bronze dragon looked at her, “You're an immortal witch holding power coveted on both sides of the gates. By demons in the shadow realms and by a coven in the world you know.
You'll have to deal with both. Are you prepared for that?”
Sybil remembered the atavistic fear that had gripped her when black flying things swarmed in the sky. She thought of trusted faces who had been her friends, as close as family, and who might now be the enemy. Who might have been all along.
She finished dressing, drew a shaky breath, and squared her shoulders. “Maybe not
prepared, but I'll face whatever I have to. I found the stupid book. I fell under its power.
I opened the gate. I’ll undo what I did.” She would have added or die trying, but apparently that was no longer possible.
“Then step into my office.” The dragon led the way through the caverns to the world outside. Sybil followed. They emerged into daylight she blinked at the sight. It seemed like a very long time ago that she'd entered the guardians' realm.
“Just out of curiosity, is that Sol?” She waved at the sun in the sky.
“It is.” The dragon's tail wound around her calf like an affectionate arm. “We're in a magically protected place on earth. Scientific instruments don't detect us. Humans can't stumble across us.”
She snorted. “Explain the poet, then.”
“Poets defy explanation, Let's hear you try.”
She imagined a stoned Coleridge blundering around the place. How? He'd been in an altered state . . . “Astral projection?”
“Go to the head of the class.”
“Does that sort of thing happen often?”
“No.”
Sybil reached out to rub the dragon's flank. “You sound disappointed.”
“I used to get a lot of visitors.”
“I'll bet.” She leaned against him and ran an idle hand over his neck ridges “Mostly female.”
“Yes, but that was long ago. Over time, there was more and more trouble between humans and other races. Then finally there was the great war that removed us from the world and made us guardians of it.”
Her hand stilled. “When the witches betrayed you and you died.”
Eighteen
Do you trust me? Sybil asked bluntly. “I have what you were betrayed for. Aren’t you afraid I’m going to turn to the dark side?”
“You didn’t go looking for power,” Kadar pointed out.
“Yes, I did.” She stood as tall as she could. “I wanted to wield magic. I didn’t want my gift to go to waste.”
“The key words being gift and waste. Your intentions were good,” the dragon said in a gentle voice. “And you fought being made a tool of dark power, even when you were most helpless.”
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