Tempest of Vengeance

by Tara Fox Hall

  I was quiet, considering his words. There was truth in them, but Dev was also painting me a picture of the best case scenario, because he badly wanted me to say yes. Yet that didn’t matter, because I wanted Lash too much to refuse, even though I felt a chill at giving Devlin power over me again. I had faith in Lash, that he would step in on my side if things got even a little out of hand, as he had last night.

  “My answer is yes. But give me this week to plan,” I said finally. “I would like you to arrange for some special food and wine for us. I also want to be with Lash as a snake one time, probably this Friday, if Terian can get the potion made fast enough. On Saturday night, I’ll give you your Oath, with him present. And you will give me yours.”

  “Wonderful!” Devlin said in rapture, squeezing me tightly. “That is acceptable to me. I will also get you something suitable to wear, for Saturday.” Then he stopped. “Sarelle, we cannot do it on Saturday night,” he said, his voice annoyed. “Your mother expects you for holiday celebration, doesn’t she?”

  My God, how did I forget Christmas? And I do have to be there Christmas Eve. There is no way around it. None. “Sunday night, then,” I amended.

  “Sunday it is,” Devlin said, his expression pleased, and reached for me.

  I got out of bed, eliciting surprise mixed with annoyance from the man I’d just agreed to bind myself to. But when I explained that I had something to do that could not be put off he just nodded, and told me to get going.

  * * * *

  I went first to the main house, and knocked at the door. No one answered. I tried my key in the lock, and realized that in the short time I’d been gone, the locks had been changed. Finally, I called via my cell, and got no answer.

  Furious that I could not see Elle, I stalked to the werecompound, looking for anyone to give a piece of my mind to. I encountered only Cia, who told me stonily that Elle had Jenny watching over her, and had asked that no one disturb them. Angry that Theo was using this situation as yet another power play between us, yet comforted that Elle was not alone, I asked Cia to please have Elle call me at Hayden later, then headed to Terian’s lab.

  Asking the half faerie-half demon sorcerer for the shapechanging potion was awkward in the extreme, especially telling him exactly why I wanted to be a snake. “This is for sex?” Terian exclaimed, incredulous. “To have sex as a snake with Lash?”

  “I can pay if you’d like. Otherwise, I’ll go to Titus or one of your competitors,” I said bluntly. “You said you owed me one, though, so I came to you to ask.”

  Terian looked at me, his glowing red eyes bleeding through his tinted contacts, and stayed silent.

  “I trust you, though. I’d rather you were the one who made it.” That and going to Titus for it would result in a huge fight, because he would know immediately what it was for. I’d never had my stepfather tell me he hated my choice of men; Chris just wasn’t like that. But Titus would do that and more. He might even go after Lash with some of his magic. I didn’t want Lash hurt, just because we wanted to be together.

  “You never asked me for a potion to make you a lioness, so you could be with Theo,” Terian said, turning his back on me. “You always said you loved him, Sar, yet you—”

  “I’m sorry I came. Forget I asked,” I said curtly, and left his lab immediately.

  Terian caught up with me as I left the building. “Stop, Sar!” he called, but I kept walking.

  Finally, he teleported in front of me, and I ran into him. I tried to go around him, but he grabbed hold of me, and wouldn’t let me go. “I’m sorry, Sar. It’s not my business to judge you.”

  “No, it’s not. But it’s true that I made it your business by asking you. So forget it.”

  “I’ll make it. What kind of snake is Lash?”

  “A cottonmouth.”

  “What type?”

  Type? “Florida type, I’d guess?”

  “All right,” Terian said, writing that down on a piece of paper from his pocket. “I’ll have it ready for you to pick up Saturday morning. It will take that long to make it.”

  “How much?” I said with more than a little gratefulness. “I’ll pay you for it.”

  “About five thousand dollars,” Terian said softly. “That’s the lowest I can go, Sar. I hate to charge you anything, because I told you I owed you. But the ingredients are really expensive. It retails for about thirty grand. I can eat the cost of the demon blood, but I need a few...other things I’m going to have to buy, and that is how much they are going to cost. You’ll really be a snake, for about three hours or so. You’ll be able to move as one, though I wouldn’t recommend eating anything. But I don’t think you’ll have time to, with Lash.”

  He’d said that last bit with pointed humor. “That’s fine!” I said irritably. “I have some savings. I’ll bring you the money—”

  “Forget what I said earlier, Sar, about Theo and you,” Terian said gently. “Even if I could have made you a cougar, you wouldn’t have been were. Theo would have been a lot stronger. Lash won’t hurt you as a snake, it’s not forceful or anything, having sex as a snake. But Theo would have probably hurt you, having you like that as human.”

  I flushed, remembering sex with Theo in his lion form.

  Terian saw my flush, and went a deep crimson.

  I left him immediately and teleported back home to Hayden, because I couldn’t say anything, and by then, I was red as a beet myself.

  * * * *

  I got back just in time to run into Lash as he was walking in the front door of Hayden. “Where were you?” he asked curiously.

  “Looking for you,” I lied, unwilling for some reason to tell him the truth about the potion, and Terian. “Ready to shower?”

  Lash pulled me close to him, and kissed me, groaning. “More than ready. Come on.”

  Lash and I showered, but I mostly stood there. He wouldn’t let me do anything, after I washed my hair. In the time it took me to take care of that, he had completely gotten clean.

  He soaped my torso up slowly, caressing my skin in long possessive strokes, and kissing me. Before long, he was pressing me to the shower wall, kissing my mouth over and over so hungrily, as if he were trying to crawl inside me. I ran my fingers over his body, loving the feel of him under my hands.

  “Do I feel good to you?” Lash hissed, breaking the kiss.

  “You always felt good,” I groaned. “Always.”

  “So did you,” he groaned, slipping his hand down to cup my thatch, and push two fingertips inside.

  “Feel me,” I breathed, taking hold of his hand and pushing his fingers deeper into me. “That’s all you, my desire for you.”

  Lash let out a groan. “Teleport us to one of the guest rooms as soon as we’re dry. I want to scream, and to hear you scream, and we do it here, we’ll wake Dev for sure. I want you all to myself.”

  Lash shut off the shower, and we hurriedly dried off. I threw aside the towel and grabbed his hand, teleporting us to the green and gold room. Lash gave me a knowing grin on my choice of rooms, then eased me back on the guest room bed, spreading my legs.

  “I love to feel you beneath me,” Lash said passionately, as he pushed inside me. “To feel your skin against mine, your heart beating so fast, to hear you scream my name. God, you don’t know how often I fantasized about you like this in jail, Sar.” He began pumping into me immediately in long, deep strokes as I wrapped my legs around him, my hands on his ass keeping him deep within me as he moved.

  We didn’t last long. I came first, screaming his name, and he came a second later, screaming mine. I looked up at him, breathing hard atop me, and my mouth opened without even thinking. “I—”

  I clamped down on the words before I uttered them, realizing I was afraid to tell him I loved him. I’d never been afraid to say it before in my life, but for some reason, I was now. I felt like I’d been here before with him, like a sense of deja vu, and that the previous time it had not ended well. But that was crazy. I’ve never been in thi
s room with Lash, though I’d fantasized about it once or twice.

  “What?” Lash said, immediately alert, holding my face with his hand. “You what?”

  “I...I’m glad to be like this with you again,” I stammered, kissing him gently. “I missed you very much. You weren’t the only one who had fantasies.”

  “I missed you, too,” he said, grinning widely.

  “Do you want to eat lunch?” I offered

  “You making it?” he said hopefully.

  “I was thinking of soup—”

  He grabbed the closest bed pillow and gave me a light whack with it. I laughed, and went to run off, but he grabbed me with a growl, and pulled me back to the bed.

  “I’m going to kiss you until you agree to make something else,” he teased, hugging me tightly. “No matter how long it takes. I never want to see soup again, ever! Especially not vegetable soup.”

  “That’s not much incentive for agreeing,” I laughed.

  “Maybe that’s the idea. I win, either way,” Lash said. He let out a laugh, then kissed me hard, exploring my mouth with his tongue. I reached down for his prick, and felt him hard and ready.

  “Answer me a question,” I said, pulling back to look in his face, but not releasing him.

  “Sure. What?”

  “Why can weres go so many times in a row?” I said, stroking his erection with my hand. “Dev said he learned to, with practice, but—”

  “But Danial wasn’t like that, and neither were the human men you knew before,” Lash finished, his tone husky. “But Ol’ Theo was, right?”

  “Yes,” I said, flushing.

  “Because we are part animal,” Lash answered. “Animals mate for hours sometimes, when it’s the right season to rut, depending on the species. A were female needs that from a were male, not just to have that much sex, but in that way, repeatedly. Were females often can’t get pregnant from being with human males, though the opposite happens quite easily—”

  I grabbed the pillow to hit him again, but Lash stopped me, laughing.

  “It’s a proven fact! Anyway, that’s why we can. But because we are part human, too, we don’t have a specific season, like animals do. The result is that weres are very sexual creatures, we think about sex a lot, and we need it a lot, to be content. So, that’s why Serena has her job, and also why I’m going to have you again, right now.”

  Lash rolled me over on my stomach, and slid inside me with one continuous motion, uttering a long low moan of contentment. He slipped his hands under me, squeezing my breasts in his hands. He bit down lightly on my neck, gently sucking, and began moving fast almost at once. In a minute, he was spasming again within me, holding me tightly as he screamed out my name.

  “God, Sar, you felt good,” he said, kissing me as he withdrew. “Do you want to go again, or have lunch?”

  “If I say ‘no’ now, can I say ‘yes’ later?”

  Lash almost fell off the bed, he laughed so hard. “Yes!” he gasped out finally. “We can be together like this whenever you want. Just tell me, when you’re with me, or call me on my phone, if you aren’t. I’ve been leaving it on all the time lately.”

  “Then lunch,” I said happily. “But really, breakfast for lunch. How about bacon, eggs, toast, sausage, and pancakes?”

  Lash was salivating by the end of my sentence. He handed me a silvery grey terry robe from the back of the bathroom door, and got into one himself. I took it from him, but didn’t put it on. Holding it, I remembered I’d bought these for guests, and each guest room had two. I looked at him uneasily.

  His eyes shifted to snake in response. “There’s no one out there to see us together, or scent us,” he said flatly. “I hear no one. I won’t say anything, if you prefer I not, though there will be talk if I keep spending my nights in Dev’s room.”

  “It’s not that,” I said, putting my hand on his arm. “I just don’t want to run into Venus. She’s old enough to have questions, and you remember Elle, what happened with her...”

  I trailed off, because Lash was looking at me skeptically in obvious disbelief.

  Maybe he’s right. Why should we be embarrassed, to walk around in our robes? This is my home now, or shortly it’s going to be, for good. Everyone has to know where he’d spent last night, and even if they are slow to catch on, Lash is right that it’ll be obvious to everyone in a week where he’s spending his nights. They’ll know he isn’t there for sex with Dev. They’ll know we’re lovers again.

  This wasn’t like it had been with The Lust, when I’d had a torrid affair with him. There wasn’t any shame on my part. I was going to be with him and Dev, to live here with them. And Danial, if he ever woke up, though every day that possibility seemed less likely.

  “You’re right,” I said decisively, nodding, putting on the robe. “Everyone will smell that we’ve been together, including her. Maybe it’s better to let her see us together when she’s younger, so she accepts you and me being together. It’s not like Elle, in that V likes you very much.”

  Lash just looked at me with his cold snake eyes.

  He thinks I’m embarrassed to be seen with him, to have Serena and the others at Hayden know he’s my lover again. Does he not get why I was embarrassed the first time, that it was because I was married, and also because I was compelled, that it wasn’t been my choice? That that is the reason I’d asked him to keep our being lovers then a secret?

  Maybe he didn’t. But it was my choice now, to be with him. He was my choice. The time for secrets was finished. “Come on,” I said, kissing him chastely. “I’ll make you lunch, Lover.”

  Surprised, Lash took my hand, walking me to the kitchen. He got out the meat and eggs, and I began cooking the bacon and sausage, glad I’d made a run a few days ago with Titus to restock the fridge. The supplies I’d gotten in November had lasted a while, but nothing lasted forever.

  “You joining me?” Lash asked in surprise. “You’re making more than you did last time. Or am I remembering wrong?”

  “I lost some weight this past month,” I disclosed. “I can afford to splurge a little.”

  “I’m sorry about your son, Devon,” Lash said gently. “I’m sorry, too that I haven’t said it before now. But I didn’t know how to bring it up, and Dev told me how upset you were over it. I didn’t want to bring it up out of the blue.”

  “Thank you,” I said, brushing away my sudden tears. “I miss him very much.”

  Lash put his arms around me, and I leaned back in to him, his closeness easing my sadness. As soon the meat was done, I removed it, stuck it in the oven below on the lowest setting to keep warm, and put a new batch in. As I got ready to turn the meat again, Lash kissed me lightly down my neck. “Once more?” he hissed with ardor.

  I put down my spatula, turned around, and stared at him. “Here in the kitchen?”

  “Why not?” His voice was easy, but the undercurrent running through it was like a live wire, sparking with energy, desire, and a little rampant naughtiness.

  We’d just had sex twice earlier this morning, and a few minutes ago, twice again! What had I gotten myself into, becoming his lover?

  “I’ll be quick, like last time, if you’re embarrassed,” Lash assured. “And I’ll be quiet, too. I give you my word there’s no one here, Sar, except Devlin above us, sleeping, and the one prisoner in his cell in the dungeon. No one will walk in on us.”

  Well then, why not? I turned to him and kissed him. Lash wrapped his arms around me, and slowly lowered me to the floor, kissing me hungrily as he untied my robe and his, and I slipped my hand between us to guide him into me. Lash closed his eyes in pleasure when he felt me wrap my fingers around him, and once I had him in position, I grabbed his ass and pulled him down on me, driving him into me as I groaned. Two minutes later, he was crying out my name again, but much more softly this time.

  He helped me up, and brushed the back of my robe off. Good thing I’d picked the dark gray color for the robes, and not white. Dev was going to have to
hire a housekeeper. Or maybe I would see to that hiring myself, now that I was going to be something like his wife. The thought was both pleasing and unsettling.

  I flipped the bacon and the sausage just in time, and told Lash to mix up the pancake batter. He gave me a blank look.

  I cracked up laughing, and he laughed too, even though it was at his expense. I got the ingredients in a bowl, and handed it to him, and he mixed. Then we traded again, and I gave him some bacon and sausage to eat.

  “Put in the bagels or toast, please,” I said, pouring the pancake batter into the hot frying pans. Lash did it, and then he was easing up behind me again, putting his arms around me.

  “You make me so happy, Sar,” he said softly, moving my hair with one hand so he could kiss my neck. “I never thought—”

  I heard a low growl, and looked up to see Theo and Terian in the doorway.

  Chapter Six

  Theo’s eyes were yellow, and Terian’s were red, as they beheld Lash and me in our robes, him holding me as I made us breakfast. I could smell the scent of sex on myself, and I knew they could both smell it, too, and also probably that it had been only minutes before they arrived.

  “I told you we should have driven here, not teleported right in,” Terian said, rolling his eyes. He didn’t look surprised, likely because I had just asked him for that potion.

  Theo seemed unable to take his eyes off Lash and me. I went crimson under his steady gaze and looked down, but Lash just gave them both a wide grinning smile.

  “Sorry, we didn’t know we had company,” Lash hissed gleefully, resting his head on my shoulder, holding me as he looked at them. “As you can see, we weren’t expecting any visitors.”

  I took the opportunity to flip my pancakes, bacon, and sausage, and to thank God they hadn’t arrived a few minutes before, to see us making love on the floor.