“Don’t give me that crap about, ‘I don’t lie!’ You totally do. Care to tell me again about the whole mate thing, or are you sticking to your story about, ‘we’re the only race who waits?” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared.
“Who spoke of this to you? Bodhe? He’s not allowed to discuss anything with you that concerns me.”
“It wasn’t Bodhe, and the who doesn’t really matter, you jerk! I happen to know from a very good source that Elves can and do in fact, sleep with others for pleasure; that they don’t all wait for a freaking mate! Not that the mating habits of the races are strictly forbidden to hear about from what I’ve been told by one of the few people that I do trust in this whole sordid mess. You lied to me, and I want to know why.”
He glanced at her and shrugged. “I’m very short pressed for time, Beauty, and I thought that you’d want to know that I’ll be faithful. There’s only one mate for me, and you’re her.”
God help her, he looked like he was telling the truth. She wanted to scream. “So you’re telling me that you’ve never been with another woman? That you’ve been waiting for me all this time?” she scoffed.
He seemed to calculate his words for a moment. Yeah that’s right, come up with something good. These words may be the last I hear from you.
“You’re a spoiled brat.”
Her mouth dropped open and her eyes went wide. “What? You have the nerve to call me that? You’re the one that lied! All I wanted was a good answer and you call me names? How old are you again? You’re even worse than I thought, and now I want to go...”
“Stop!” he raged, “Don’t say those damned words or so help me I will bind you like an animal until you hear me out.”
She tried to move her mouth but it didn’t work. She was stunned. Could Amele get to her here if she covered the ring? Fire blazed in her eyes and her heart was blasting a rapid fire succession in her chest.
“Isabel, I have something to give you,” he said, all composed again. The grass stirred gently beneath his feet as he approached her. “It will explain better than I can. I’m not very good at all of this, and I’m sorry for yelling at you. Please, just give me some time. Don’t waste what little we have right now.”
She looked at him, her stance still firm and unmoving but her resolve melting a little. His blue eyes pleaded with her and tore at the strings of her heart.
“What do you have that I could possibly want?”
His body noticeably stiffened with the rejection. “Other than that which only I can give you, the most senselessly mind blowing orgasms of your life…well there is one other thing, for today.”
“I’ve already had one of those. What’s the other thing?”
His face fell into a darkness that made every fiber of her being jerk to life. With a quiet tone that seemed to shout his words, he whispered, “Don’t taunt me, Isabel. I will break you and piece you back together with my tongue if you do, and make you beg me to take you right now. Over and over again. You. Are. Mine.”
Words wouldn’t come, but the heat did. Oh hell, did it. Her chin barely had time to raise in indignation before she was flat against the floor of the pavilion.
He held her hands above her head roughly with one of his, the other gliding over her too hot skin. If his mouth hadn’t been covering hers, she would’ve been able to mouth the words to get home. As it was, the searing kiss consumed her and she couldn’t speak if she wanted to. She wasn’t sure she wanted to. She could hardly breathe, but in an oddly good way. A low growl came from his throat as he searched her flesh with his free hand and she realized that she was actually beginning to moan with him. God help her, but he felt good. Why did he have to be so destructively handsome? She couldn’t deny the anger she felt toward him, or the fact that it all disappeared as soon as he touched her. If Bodhe’s touch was a bolt of lightning, Morkain’s was an exploding fire.
“Open your mouth, Beauty,” he commanded from above her, his hand holding hers above her head in complete submission.
She complied. Of course. Weak, weak, weak little halfling that she was.
The warmth of his tongue was so aggressive and bold as it explored her mouth. He tasted her with a fervor that made her melt from the inside out. She began to tremble beneath him and he broke the kiss, smiling a victorious grin. Stretching up languidly on top of her, an image that would always be burned in her mind, he smiled and stroked his warm hand down the side of her face tenderly. Hair was falling from his braid and he had such a smug look on his face, but dammit to hell if even that look didn’t suit him.
“Are you done with your fit now? I do have a gift for you, after all. So help me though, if you utter those words before it’s given, you’ll truly see my beast. And I do bite.” He grinned, nipping at her chin slightly.
“Oh, alright,” she huffed. “But, don’t think that just because you can turn a virgin’s body into a melting pot that I’m suddenly yours. I still don’t trust you, Morkain.”
He smiled and it seemed like stars came out to glitter in the sky just to witness this rarity. “I don’t need your trust at the moment. I’m going to give you a gift that will earn your eternal heart. Come, we’re going for that walk that you wanted.” He stopped and looked at her deeply. “Really? A virgin?”
“Yes, really,” she grumbled, her traitorous cheeks flaring their telltale crimson, she was sure. “It just so happens that every time a man tried to touch me in my world—er, realm—he was nearly struck down by lightning, or worse. It’s humiliating, so don’t even think about laughing.”
He pulled her up and stared at her with a half-smile. “A virgin. She protected you well then. This pleases me.” He brought his lips down to hers and gently stroked her mouth with his tongue until she was vibrating with him again. Her lips were swollen from his kisses already, she was sure. Isabel’s eyelids were heavy, half closed with a dreamy haze to her vision. He took her hand instead of her lips again however, much to her chagrin, and began walking through the field to a nearby cave.
She looked at him as he brought her around to the back of the rock wall and through a small entranceway, never letting go of his hand. Thank God it wasn’t as dark in here as it looked to be from the outside. When they passed through the narrow passage and came to the large center of the cave her breath got lodged in her throat.
“We call this the Cave of Illuminations, Beauty. I think the name says it all.”
She looked around and saw crystals of every color jutting from the walls and ceiling…even coming out of the floor. There were hundreds of glowing spheres surrounding them like faery lights—if faeries existed in the way she’d always thought, which they don’t. Water dripped from condensation that hadn’t seen the light of day in who knew how long, creating prisms of light within the light of the stones.
Before all of this happened—in her normal, before immortal realms life—this would be her version of a faery forest. She shuddered when she even thought the term in the new, not so normal world though, remembering the reaction to the word from…an inner growl silenced that thought. She needed to be present with Morkain right now. It was the only way she was going to be able to even try to do the right thing. Is there such a thing as that? Right and wrong? Or is it just different shades of moral compass? She didn’t see an immense difference so far between a human and the immortals she’d encountered or learned of, but she was ridiculously inexperienced, even as a human. What was right and wrong in the realms? She was in a crystal cave with the most beautiful Elf she’d ever known—the only Elf doesn’t change that fact—and he’d just had his tongue in her mouth. And she was worrying about moral compasses than her own? She tsk’d herself in her head.
Just then, she noticed something else, though. There was a slight vibration here in the very air…it made all the hairs stand up on her arms. An almost audible humming surrounded her that seemed somehow wrong in this space. Was that the human in her freaking out over small, dark spaces, or the immortal coming to be
that was sensing something? Isabel took a calming breath and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, the humming was gone, and only the normal sounds remained.
“Holy shit,” she stammered.
Morkain just stood there looking at her curiously. “You know, you have a very foul mouth for such a young girl.”
She looked at him incredulously. “Young girl? I’m twenty-two years old, thank you very much, and my mouth is quite tame compared to most girls my age. Most of them f-bomb the hell out of every sentence. I don’t, though sometimes I want to, like now. So, do you want to fight some more, critique my choice of words, or are you going to tell me what this is all about?”
As he gave her an agitated glare, she walked up to the small pool of water that was in the center of the space they were in. The water glistened because the moonlight swam in from a hole in the top of the cave. It reflected like luminous diamonds beneath the surface of the water. The blood moon was not far away at all, if it was the same here as her world.
He stalked up behind her and put his hands around her waist, pressing his chest to her back.
“What are you doing?” she asked, still as a statue. Brushing her hair aside, he kissed the nape of her neck and ran his rough palms along her bare stomach. He had the hands of a warrior, calloused and rough. It felt…nice.
“I’m touching my mate. Don’t tell me that you don’t enjoy it.”
She shivered and couldn’t speak. She was supposed to be angry with him. Why was anger the furthest thing from her mind then? His lips burned her where they touched, making her ache for the tender morsels he was giving. This was different than the animal—this was a gentle creature.
He turned her around to face him and began the slow climb from the nape of her neck to her newly pointed ears and then moved to her mouth. Sucking and biting her lips gently, he teased her until she was nearly whimpering for his tongue on hers. He wouldn’t let her have it though. He taunted her into submission, making the world spin. Her skin pressed against the bare muscles of his chest and it was absolutely divine.
Asshole? Check. Incredibly fierce and hot? Check. Makes me melt when he touches me? Check. Could this chewing out go any worse? Anger gone? Check.
Morkain backed away from her slightly so that she could see into his eyes. “Look into the water, Isabel and tell me what you see,” he whispered. “You have to concentrate, so I’m going to stand aside for just a moment. But I’m right here if you need me.”
She groaned and opened her eyes, seeing his own blazing blue fire staring back. “Morkain, I…”
“Just look,” he said softly. “This is a gift of yours. I’m only offering this to help the decision you have to make easier for you. I want you to trust in yourself, in what you see. So that you can in return, trust me. I already know what’s right, but this must be terribly difficult for you.”
Searching his eyes for a moment for some hint of dishonesty, she saw a flicker of something that she doubted she would ever know fully. Not even if they really did have eternity together. Deciding that what she saw in his eyes was sincerity, she let her gaze travel over the Elven male that stood before her a moment. He was no doubt a fine warrior too, and just the thought of him out in the field, fighting for his home made her heart clench. Would he fight for her too?
“Isabel, you should at least try. We can leave if you want, it’s only my intention that you have some peace.”
She sighed and kneeled on the ground, staring into the water. What’s the worst that could happen? No magic could be used against her, right? If her mother truly was one of the finest Foresayers in Loveryn, then why couldn’t the gift be hers, as well?
She gazed into the water, watching the moonlight dance across it. Nothing stirred beneath its glossy rim. She tried to think of her mother and then she tried thinking of nothing, which, if you’ve ever tried to do, you’d know it’s almost impossible. Especially with a scantily dressed Elven God looking down at you.
“There’s nothing here. It’s just water!” she exclaimed, frustration rising up.
“Breathe and relax, it will come.”
She took a deep breath and tried again, and slowly, the water began to shimmer. Gasping, she watched a scene unfold. The blood moon was high in the sky and she stood on a hill with blood on her white dress, a sword in one hand, and her dagger in the other. Bodhe stood to her back, both of them fighting the beasts that came from all sides, in all forms. The scene changed and light drowned out the shadows, and her and Morkain were being crowned. A woman with the most beautiful long, blonde hair and green eyes walked up to her and hugged her.
“Keiren?” she whispered tentatively, as she fought the urge to reach out and touch the water.
Again the scene changed and she saw the same woman sleeping in a cavern somewhere, alone in a lightless place. She and Bodhe walked hand in hand in the chamber, tears running down the imaginary Isabel’s eyes as they sealed it shut from the demons outside. A deep growl came from Morkain at the sight of this from behind her.
“Gods, Isabel. Stop this vision now! I had no idea you would be able to see so much. A glimpse perhaps, but this…this is beyond what you should be capable of. I don’t trust this, Beauty. Something isn’t right!” A growl erupted from him. “Come away from the waters, you’ve seen enough.”
But she refused to look away, shock and fear coursing through her veins as surely as her blood was. Her heartbeat seemed so loud she thought it was echoing in this cave. Or maybe that was just the thundering of it that she heard in her ears? The images turned to black and the water was just water once more.
She crumpled down in front of it, more unsure of everything than she’d ever been. A real tear fell in the cave from her eyes then, the ripple in the water as it splashed was the only sound other than the sob she choked back. This is what she would create? This darkness? And with it, she would condemn her mother to immortal life in a sealed cave somewhere? Everything sunk in then. The curse hit her hard, maybe for the first time, seeing it play out this way. Right and wrong seemed so simple, and so wrong. She was devastated.
Just then water sprayed up from the little pool and her mother’s face reappeared. “The signs, Isabel, look for the signs of my curse upon you.”
Morkain gasped and Isabel lunged forward to hear more but it went completely black then, and not even the moonlight illuminated the water. Her forearms splashed down into the pool, but silence answered her outburst. “Keiren? No! Come back, please!” she screamed, “What the hell do you mean!?”
She fell back on the stone floor and began to cry, the image of a mother she had never known and worlds she would destroy, too much for her heart to take. Is it so awful to ask for just one decision to be simple?
Morkain rushed to her side and placed her head in his lap. “Please don’t cry, Beauty, I only wished to give you some clarity. I don’t want to see you suffer. I had no idea that your power would be so developed. The length of that vision, even for a much older Foresayer, is unheard of.” He growled lowly, “Unless someone is interfering and breaking elemental pacts.”
“Elementals? I’m not a damn Foresayer! And is that where my mother is? The darkness? Oh God, I’m going to destroy everything,” she whispered, tears falling down her cheeks. “She’s in some lightless place? And what does this all mean? I thought only the Sidhe had the waters that could see?” She looked up at him, scared and confused.
“We have our magic too, we always have,” he stroked her tears away tenderly. “You’re going to do what’s right, my beautiful mate. I know you will. The darkness will be burned by the beautiful light of your heart. We’re all counting on it. I’m sorry. I didn’t think you would see…all of that.” Raising her up to his chest, he just held her there.
“I’ll make the right choice, Morkain. I must! Where are the damn signs! She keeps mentioning that but the only signs I’ve had so far, is equally matched lust and whether or not you want to hear it, it’s the truth.”
He
bristled with anger, but remained calm with her. “Hush now, it will all be okay in the end. The signs are right in front of you. Keiren is a Foresayer and it seems you’ll be following in her path. You will make the right choice, Isabel, and come home. I have faith in you. In us.”
She looked up at him, tears still flowing freely from her pain filled eyes. “Princess, don’t cry. I’ll always be here for you.” He wiped away the tears from her cheeks and kissed her head softly.
Princess? Bodhe’s smile danced in her head and then the image of her mother being sealed in from the demons came crashing in too.
“I wish to go home.”
He roared as she disappeared.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Elementals Like to Play
~REALM OF the Air Elemental Goddess-Isura
“He found a loophole, that tricky little immortal. I’ve gone over my curse again and again and I did not mention anything about her using magic. I shall have to think of an appropriate punishment for him.” She floated down to a ravine and tapped her long slender fingers against the wall of ice. “Really, Nikolai, must you turn everything to ice? I happen to like things warm.”
With a wave of his blue tinged hand, the wall of ice flowed steady into a stream. “Happy now, Sister?”
“I would be happier if all the fish were not floating on top of it, dead. Water Elementals...so dramatic.”
“Well, at least I do not go around setting hurricanes and tornados in the realms for fun, picking off mortals and immortals alike,” he grunted at her.
“I can’t help it that I get bored, Brother. We have been here for so long and really this little curse has been the most fun I’ve had in forever. Do you think we can get some more of them to summon us again? What could we tempt them with?” She pondered this as she brushed the boughs of the massive oaks with a flick of her wrist.
Immortal Dreams (Immortal Realms Book 1) Page 14
