Pure Healing: A Novel of the Pure Ones (Pure/ Dark Ones Book 1)

by Aja James

  She closed her eyes and released a pent up breath. It had been a long second day in the three-day Rite of the Phoenix, a day she looked forward to only slightly less than the third and final day. Today, she had pushed the males almost beyond their endurance. She was surprised they hadn’t decided to withdraw their application.

  The Phoenix Cycle would be much worse.

  As she prepared to leave the chamber, Wan’er came forth with a nonplussed expression.

  “My lady,” her handmaiden said haltingly, “it appears you have one final applicant.”

  “What?” Rain responded reflexively. She heard her handmaiden perfectly well, but the words didn’t make a lick of sense.

  Wan’er shifted a bit nervously, as if indecisive about how to break some bad news. “Your final applicant is waiting in the antechamber.” She bit her lower lip and blurted, “It is my lord Valerius.”

  Rain’s eyebrows shot up in shock. Surely she had not heard correctly.

  “Shall I show him in and prepare him for the test?” Wan’er asked tentatively, uncertain of her lady’s mood.

  Without answering her handmaiden, Rain marched angrily to the antechamber and threw apart the double doors.

  “Just what do you think you’re doing?” she demanded of the warrior leaning against the back wall. She braced herself against the welcome sight of him in full health. She’d been on tender hooks all the previous day, wondering whether she’d been able to heal him completely, whether she should have checked on him. She could barely concentrate on the first day’s tests, she’d been so distracted. But now that he appeared fully recovered, her anger overrode all concern.

  He straightened from the wall and stood tall and alert before her. “Applying to Serve you, Healer.”

  “I will not allow it,” Rain retorted immediately. “We have had this conversation and that was my final word.”

  “I don’t believe you can disallow an application,” Valerius said quietly, slowly, as if giving her time for the words to sink in. “I can fail the tests, but I have every right to apply.”

  “Well, you are disqualified,” Rain pushed back. “You missed the first day of the Rite. That is an automatic fail.”

  Wan’er cleared her throat behind her, interjecting awkwardly, “Actually, my lady, the Protector does not need to attend the first day since he is one of the Elite and, therefore, already proven in his strength and vitality.”

  Rain turned toward her traitorous handmaiden with a sharp glare.

  Wan’er bowed her head at the force of Rain’s displeasure, but did not back down. “Shall I prepare him for the test?” she repeated the offer, all but taking the decision out of Rain’s hands.

  Rain turned back toward the warrior with narrowed eyes. “You will fail,” she assured him ominously. Then, as if she couldn’t bear to be in their presence a moment longer, she spun on her heel and retreated to the inner chamber to await Wan’er’s preparations.

  The handmaiden sighed exhaustedly and led Valerius to the Rite Enclosure.

  “I hope you know what you’re doing,” she muttered as she closed the double doors behind them.

  Ten minutes later, Valerius stood with legs spread wide, all but nude, save a thin towel that Wan’er had given him to wrap around his waist, between two thick steel poles that extended from the floor, his hands cuffed to the handle bars on top of the poles, his ankles secured to the bottom. Thus restrained, he awaited alone in the silence and dimness of the Rite Enclosure for the Healer to begin her trials.

  Valerius closed his eyes and breathed deeply.

  He’d promised himself a long, long time ago that he would never let himself be tied down, never be vulnerable and helpless again. Yet here he was. Exposed. Powerless. At the mercy of someone else.

  The only saving grace was that in this instance, he chose his fate. He chose to be here, to submit himself to Rain.

  He did not know what the trials involved, but he was certain he could pass any test for pain and endurance. He’d gone through enough hell in his human lifetime to last an eternity. And that was before he had the magnified healing abilities as a Pure One.

  What he fought against was himself. His aversion—no, phobia—of being touched. If the trials did not involve direct contact with the Healer, it would be simple endurance. But if they did… Valerius’ jaw clenched as he fought off a wave of nausea.

  He could not fail. He would not fail.

  The Healer entered with Wan’er a few steps behind. Without looking at him, head held high, back ramrod straight, she stepped before him until she was merely two feet away and closed her eyes.

  Without warning, she stretched out her arms until her palms faced his chest and blasted him with a shock of energy so powerful, he would have fallen on his ass if not for the restraints. Even as his torso felt as if it’d been struck by lightning, relief washed over Valerius in a soothing rush.

  No physical contact. He could do this all day.

  And then the Healer seemed to levitate from the ground, as if supported in a magnetic field that radiated from her body. Her loose robes flowed in the air, rippling with the currents of energy around her. Her hair stretched away from her face, each tendril extending outward until it formed a white semi-circular halo behind her back.

  She floated closer to him, her extended hands almost touching his skin, the pressure and electric shock she exerted increasing until Valerius felt as if every nerve was on fire.

  His breath quickened as he tried to free his mind from the pain, and just when he thought he’d disciplined his senses, the countless needles of her hair inserted deeply into his skin.

  He felt torn asunder.

  Never had he felt such acute, incredible pain. Not like this. This was continuous, ever increasing, mind bending agony. And it went on and on and on.

  Just when he thought he’d break his jaw from clenching so tightly against the screams that were building in his throat, he heard a distant gasp.

  “My lady!” Wan’er entreated, watching horrified as the warrior endured ten times the level of pain Rain had ever used in the Rites for already twice as long.

  Abruptly, the needles retracted and the pressure released, leaving Valerius doubled over in a fit of coughing as he tried to find his center of balance again, as his nerves sucked in oxygen and his muscles slowly unclenched.

  Rain descended slowly to the ground and lowered her arms to her sides. Eyes still closed, she ordered her handmaiden, “Leave us.”

  Wan’er looked at her with alarm. This was simply not done. The handmaiden always attended the Healer in the Rite, more because of tradition than anything else. But given where Rain had taken this particular trial, Wan’er was seriously worried for the warrior. Surely her lady would not go too far, she thought, but just the same, she’d like to ensure—

  “Now,” Rain issued the command with enough force to send apprehensive shivers down the handmaiden’s spine.

  Wan’er took one last look at the Protector, who had recovered enough to stand tall once more between the two steel poles, and decided that she could not interfere even if she wished to. This was between Rain and the warrior.

  It was their time of reckoning.

  When the handmaiden left them and closed the doors behind her with a soft click, Rain opened her eyes and gazed fully upon the Protector.

  “It is no surprise you surpassed the other applicants in this test,” she said quietly. “I would expect nothing less.”

  Holding his gaze, she closed the short distance between them until they were almost toe to toe, barely an inch separating their bodies. Had Valerius not been secured to his position, he would have stepped back immediately. As it was, his heart began to pound harder, faster, his breath breaking into rapid bursts, as if he couldn’t get enough air into his lungs.

  And then he felt her palms on his chest, lightly grazing his ultra-sensitized skin. The thick muscles jumped reflexively, and Valerius could not hold back a gasp at the contact, his face contorting in
a different kind of pain.

  “But we both know the test you would fail,” Rain continued as if they were having a casual conversation. “So why wait until tomorrow to meet your fate? Let us end the madness today.”

  Her eyelids lowered in a sleepy swoop, and her hands spread wide on his pectorals. Slowly, leisurely, they roamed over his naked flesh, around his shoulders, his collar bone, his throat, jaw, cheeks and brows. By the time they were winding their way back down again, Valerius had forgotten how to breathe.

  It did not escape Rain, as she delved into a detailed exploration of the Protector’s body, that he was in excruciating pain. His body gave off waves of anguish far greater than when she’d literally set him afire. But she would not relent. This was not simply a point to prove. It would be better for them both if he withdrew his application.

  She didn’t know why, but she feared the consequences down to her very soul if he didn’t.

  Methodically, her small hands glided back over his sweat-dampened chest, her thumbs pausing to rub softly over his pebble-hard nipples. His stomach sucked in at the touch, then pushed back out as he released a shuddering breath.

  She drew a path over his ribs, counted the iron ridges of his abdomen, trailed a finger down the deep groove bisecting his middle to his navel and further down to the fold of towel tucked low around his hips.

  Like a hunted animal caught in a trap, Valerius’ pupils dilated with fear and pain, but he could not shut his eyes against his impending doom.

  He could not fail. He would not fail. Please, Goddess, don’t let him fail!

  With a gentle pull, his last covering fell away, and his body was bared completely before her. There was a moment of hesitation as she drank him in, and then her hands were back on his body, one hand sliding up his torso to the back of his neck, the other resting lightly on his hip.

  “Shall I give you a taste of what’s in store?” Rain asked softly, her breath warm against his skin. “Will a glimpse of your life for the next thirty days convince you to retreat?”

  The hand on the back of his neck exerted only the smallest pressure, but it was enough to bend his head down closer to hers.

  “Shall I show you what it means to Serve me, warrior?” she whispered against his ear, as the hand at his hip curved inward to grasp his penis, already painfully erect.

  Valerius could not prevent the moan that escaped.

  He was on fire. He was on ice. His body vibrated with tension as he struggled to control it. His muscles strained so hard the steel restraints creaked in protest.

  She stretched upwards until she was on tiptoes and brushed her lips against his throat, once, twice, wetting the throbbing vein there with her breath.

  “It is not too late to back out,” she tempted him, grazing her elongated fangs over his tender skin the same time that she squeezed his staff firmly in her fist and pumped it once hard.

  Valerius’ breath came in harsh bursts, and to his utter shame and defeat, his eyes blurred with tears. They would not fall, he thought fiercely. He would not fall!

  “Just tell me to stop,” she urged him, the hand at his neck kneading the bunched muscles there in silent persuasion. “You can end your torment right now.”

  He never knew what it cost him, but somehow he turned his face closer to hers, pushing the vein at his throat tighter against the sharp tips of her fangs.

  “No,” he answered her, his deep voice quiet but firm. He would not back down. Not then, more than two millennia ago, and not now.

  “So be it.”

  The words hissed from her lips a moment before her fangs penetrated his skin, inserting deep into his vein. With her first long pull, Valerius’ body began to transform.

  His muscles seemed to enlarge and tighten, standing out in stark relief, each sinew and line sharply defined. His veins pushed out against his skin, as if vying for her attention, volunteering to be drawn upon. His penis elongated and thickened further, to the point that he was sure he would explode from the pressure within. It pushed against the slender fingers that held it, the fingertips far from meeting around the swollen girth, as if fighting against the confinement, yet begging to be held even tighter. He felt a trickle of moisture seep out of the narrow slit in the enormous head, and despite himself, his hips bucked awkwardly, desperately against her hand.

  She seemed to know what his body wanted, even as his mind struggled to distance itself, horrified by what was happening to him. She gripped him tighter and brushed her thumb slowly, continuously over the head of his penis, back and forth, back and forth, until his entire length was wetted and the tip became so sensitive he had to bite his tongue on a plea for her to end this merciless torture. All the while she drew steadily from his vein, at once draining his strength yet filling him with renewed vigor. The undeniable drive to Mate.

  Abruptly she withdrew her fangs and licked the two small wounds closed, though her hand increased the friction around his penis.

  “Shall I see what else you have to offer, warrior?” she asked on a languorous sigh, like a feline awaking from a long, satisfying nap.

  His helpless gaze followed her as she went down before him on her knees, now both hands gripping his staff covetously. His monstrous erection jerked in anticipation, his body shuddered in fear, and his mind recoiled against the vision of her before him.

  Please. Please please let him withstand this, he begged the Goddess. He could not fail. He would not fail.

  But memories of the past assailed him, as real as physical blows. He closed his eyes briefly and prayed for strength, then opened them wide and stared at the woman between his legs.

  It was Rain, he reminded himself.

  She needed him. He could see that even a few draws upon his vein had brightened her countenance, infusing her cheeks with a rosy glow. It was in his power to revive her completely, return her to her original vitality. She wouldn’t have suffered as she did if he’d been her Consort ten years ago. For the past few years, he’d stood by and watched her slowly waste away. He could have prevented her pain. He’d been too selfish. Too cowardly.

  No more. He would not fail her again.

  “Take me,” he urged in a rough, husky voice, pushing his hips forward, the wetted head of his cock grazing her closed lips.

  Stunned at the blatant offer, Rain raised her eyes to meet his.

  This was Rain. His body shuddered in recognition. He was giving himself to Rain. As the thought washed over him, his muscles seemed to relax, his inner battle subsiding, and a potent musk filled the air.

  Rain’s pupils dilated, her nostrils flaring at the sudden fragrance that filled her senses, permeating her very pores. It was a combination of sunlight and earth, fresh rain and clean man. She grew heady from the scent and felt her core throb in recognition.

  This was Valerius. The warrior she had wanted for so long, the Nourishment for which she starved. On a sigh of relief, she gave in to her deepest desires.

  With both hands she brought his cock to her lips and opened her mouth around the plump, hot head. His gasp as she did so fueled her passion further. Slowly she began to suckle him, only the very tip of him fitting in her small mouth. But it was enough for her as she lapped up his milk greedily.

  The taste of him was ambrosia to her. Tangy, salty, wondrous. Vaguely it occurred to her that all others before and after him paled in comparison. She would go on to have many more Consorts over the ages, but there would be no other such as he.

  She moved one of her hands to the heavy sacs beneath his penis and squeezed ever so lightly. On command, the flow of his Nourishment became stronger, filling her mouth with a thin stream of cream. It was not nearly enough. But she knew she was already taking this trial too far, even farther than the trial of pain and endurance. But she was addicted. One taste of him and she could not stop.

  Just a little longer, she thought as she continued to suckle him hungrily. She’d been starved for far too long.

  Valerius’ body strained for release. The pres
sure within him was so intense every cell ached. Even the roots of his hair hurt. Instinct had taken over, and all he wanted was to get inside of her, fill her to the brim with his blood, his seed. He’d never, ever, felt this way, not even in his dreams. For the first time in his long, stoic existence, he yearned for something more. Not for his people, not for the world he protected, but for himself. He wanted to matter.

  To her.

  On a shuddering breath, Rain withdrew from him all too soon, her hands and lips reluctantly releasing his still swollen cock. It bobbed in protest when she took her touch away and jutted toward her as if begging her to suckle some more.

  Shakily, she stood up but kept her head bowed, her hands held demurely in front of her as if she were suddenly embarrassed.

  He could see that her face was flushed from passion, and her body all but hummed for more of him. But before he could offer himself once more, she said quietly, “I choose you.”

  With a flick of her hand, his restraints came undone. He rubbed his wrists absent-mindedly, barely registering that they were raw and chafed from his struggles as his body conformed to her needs.

  Her head still bowed, she said in the same soft voice, “I choose you, but on one condition.”

  Slowly, she raised her eyes to meet his. “You must never fall in love with me, for I will never fall in love with you. Over the course of the Phoenix Cycle you will Serve me as a Mate serves his female. But I will not return the same to you. You will feel ever unfulfilled, even when you find sexual release. You will always hover painfully between want and completion. You will grow weaker with each passing day, as if you are dying, but at the end of the thirty days, you will gradually recover.”

  She moved away from him to take a long white robe from a side table and handed it to him to cover himself. The soft terry cloth of the robe felt oddly abrasive against his still sensitized skin as he shrugged into it and tied the belt at his waist.

  “With your healing abilities, I imagine you will recover far more quickly than others.” But even as she said so, Rain sounded hesitant and worried. “As long as you don’t fall in love,” she added so quietly he almost didn’t hear.