Gideon grabbed her shoulders and pinned her to the bed, looming over her. “They’re going to try to take you from me, Lily. I have to bind us to keep you safe. It’s the only way I’ll be able to find you.”
“Damn you, Gideon! Let go of me!” Lily tried to bring her knee up between his legs, but he blocked her easily, not releasing her.
“No, dammit!” He could smell her panic, and guilt hit him. “Listen to me, Lily! They’re going to take you! Do you want to be kidnapped again?”
His words seemed to register, and she stopped fighting. She stared at him with her chest heaving and her eyes wide. “I can’t be kidnapped again,” she whispered. “I can’t.”
“I know, babe.” He softened his grip. “If we do the blood bond, I’ll be able to find you anywhere, no matter how far away we are. No matter how well hidden you are.” He smoothed her damp hair off her forehead, letting his weight settle on her. “It’s the only way I know I’ll be able to find you.”
“How could Frank get me here? How could he get past all of you?”
Gideon hesitated, having difficulty admitting it was the Order who’d been planning to take her, that it had been his own team he was planning to screw with. He’d been ready to risk the Order’s vitally important plans to use Lily to keep Ezekiel from getting free. Where was his loyalty? Fuck. Fuck. Was he really going to make that choice? No, he wouldn’t. He would find a way to fulfill both his missions. “I can’t let you die,” was all he said instead.
Lily’s eyes held a wisdom he hadn’t expected. He’d expected anger, retaliation, and fury that he’d planned to tighten their bond without her consent. But Lily wasn’t that kind of woman. Logic was her tool to survival, and he saw her rapidly assess their situation and analyze it. “It’s not just Frank, is it?” she asked. “You’re worried about the Order as well. They’re the ones who want to take me from you.”
Gideon said nothing, feeling that any answer was a betrayal to his Oath. To his team.
“Is it because I’m your sheva?”
“That, and more.”
She pressed her lips together and let her head flop back on the pillow, staring at the ceiling. “You could have discussed it with me.”
“I wouldn’t have done it if I’d let myself think about it.”
“Why not? Because it’s a stupid idea? Because it’s not necessary?”
He hesitated.
She lowered her gaze to look him.
“Because it scares the shit out of me, Lily.” He rubbed his finger over a bruise on her shoulder, as if he could wipe it away. “But I won’t make the same mistake twice.” His voice hardened as he met her gaze. “No way in hell am I going let another sheva die for me.”
“Well, at least you’re smart enough to be scared about tightening the bond.” She gave him a small smile. “And I do have to admit that I’m really kind of fond of your protective instincts.”
He grinned. “Good, because they’re not going anywhere.” He had no clue how Lily could accept his dominance after she’d been the victim of it from others. How the hell could he be worthy of this woman? But as hell was his witness, he was going to try his damnedest.
“I know.” Lily took the axe from him, turning it over in her hand. “I never thought you’d be the type to admit that.”
“I’m not. I don’t get scared.”
“I do. Monsters sleep under my bed.” She flicked her finger over the blade, testing it sharpness. “You swear you’d find me, no matter what?” She looked up at him. “You swear?”
Gideon’s heart rate kicked into overdrive, both with fear and anticipation. Even though he knew the danger of tightening the bond, he couldn’t stop the rise of male satisfaction at the thought of binding her tighter. “I swear on my Order Oath that I’ll find you. I swear on the oath I gave my first sheva that I will find you,” he said fiercely. “I promise I will not let you down. Ever.”
Lily looked up at him, her green eyes determined and scared. “I get protection from Frank and the Order and I get bonded tighter to you in exchange. Trading one evil for another.”
“I’m not evil.” Other things…yeah. Evil? No. He’d seen evil, and he wasn’t it.
“Not at the moment. And the moment is what I have to live in.” She pressed the blade to the side of his neck, her grip steady. “Okay, let’s do this.”
He raised his wrist. “I already made the cut—”
“I don’t want blood from your old scar. This is about us, not her.” She pulled the blade across his neck and hot warmth slid down his skin.
Anticipation licked through him as she handed the axe to him without a word, her green eyes huge and vulnerable.
He clasped her wrist and brought her arm up, laying the spiked handle of his axe against the brand coming to life on her skin. There were many marks now, so many lines. Silver and faint, but growing stronger. He realized that when he’d told her truth about his first sheva dying, he’d satisfied the trust stage as well, by revealing his darkest secret to her. He tapped the silver lines on her skin. “I want blood from here. From my brand that you carry.”
Lily nodded.
Gideon couldn’t stop the dominant growl deep in his throat, and he kissed her hard. She grabbed his hair and held him tight as she kissed him desperately. He plunged deep and hard with his tongue at the same moment he sliced the blade through her skin. He caught her cry of pain with his mouth as carnal desire rose within him, tightening every muscle.
Lily shuddered beneath him and broke the kiss. For a moment, they simply looked at each other. He could feel her heart thudding against his chest, and her body was trembling.
Her gaze went to his neck, and the blood dripping down his skin suddenly became hot, searing him. He waited, unwilling to force it on her anymore, wanting her to be the one to make the choice.
She took a deep breath, then slipped her hands around his neck and pulled him toward her. The instant her lips closed over Gideon’s wound, he felt his head spin, and the world began to blacken around him. His body flamed with desire, passion, and something so intense he could feel it pressing at him from all sides. Consuming him. Taking control of him.
Gideon clasped Lily’s wrist and sank his mouth onto her skin, drinking in her lifeblood. His body sang with vitality as her blood slipped down his throat. The electricity took over his mind and uplifted his spirit as the words ripped out of his subconscious, as his hips began to move against hers. Mine to you. Yours to me. Bonded by blood, by spirit and by soul, we are one. No distance too far, no enemy too powerful, no sacrifice too great. I will always find you. I will always protect you. No matter what the cost. I am yours as you are mine.
Lily’s response was instant, her soft voice filling his mind and his soul with her words, echoing with strength and conviction. Mine to you. Yours to me. Bonded by blood, by spirit and by soul, we are one. No distance too far, no enemy too powerful, no sacrifice too great. I will always find you. I will always keep you safe. No matter what the cost. I am yours as you are mine. There was a slight pause, and then she added his name. Gideon.
That addition, that personalization, that commitment to him tore through Gideon and he felt brilliant warmth in his gut that spread to his chest, his head and his soul. He couldn’t hold back and his hips began to thrust in earnest. He fumbled for the fly of his jeans. He tore his zipper free and yanked the denim down over his hips, needing to get closer to her, desperate to claim her and make her his.
I’m yours already.
Something exploded inside Gideon at her three simple words. He felt his world shatter, and everything he knew came crashing down around him. I need you, Lily. His jeans hit the floor, and he moved on top of her, skin to skin, nothing between them. He reared back to plunge himself deep inside her. To bind them so tightly they’d never be able to be apart.
Yes. Lily lifted her hips to meet him and suddenly there was a crash of music in his head, so loud his head felt like it had shattered.
Gideon felt Lily
’s magic leap into his body and ignite him. He froze, his erection hovering at the tip of her entrance as his Calydon powers lunged for her magic. “Hell, Lily,” he croaked, his body shaking with the effort of trying to fight off his need to take all of her, to plunge deep and own her, to strip her of all her magic and suck it all into his body, giving him strength and power no Calydon had a right to have. “Pull it back.”
“I can’t,” she gasped, her hips writhing beneath him. “I can’t stop it. It needs you.”
“Shit!” Her magic was feeding on their lust and their bond, getting more intense with every second. In another second, Gideon would be lost, just like in the woods.
No. He would not betray her again.
With a roar, Gideon pulled his hips back and slid his hand between them, his mind burning with the haze of magic, need and lust. God, let this work.
He pressed his palm against her folds as his fingers plunged deep. Lily shouted as she gripped his shoulders and her spine bowed under the force of the orgasm. Her release flooded his mind and body, but instead of her satisfaction lessening his need as he’d hoped, it catapulted him over the edge and snapped his control.
He had to take her. Now.
Gideon shifted into position above her, preparing to plunge deep, her magic filling him with greed and power and strength and…
“Shit!” He wrenched himself off her and threw himself off the bed.
He hit the floor hard and was on his feet in an instant. She was stretched out on the bed, glistening with sweat. His blood was streaked across her chest, his mark strong on her arm, the scent of her arousal driving through him, her music still ringing in his ears. One of Lily’s legs was bent, and her back was arched. She was gloriously naked and still undulating from the climax. Her hair tousled in sexy waves, Lily turned toward him, her eyes decadently sensual. Her left hand opened and stretched toward him, calling him…
Gideon hands fisted, his cock jerked, and he took a step toward the bed, desperate to bury himself in her, to take all that she was, to feed on her…
Then he saw a mark on her wrist. The faintest white line encircling her arm, visible only because of his enhanced senses. It was a scar from when she’d been tied up when she was seventeen, from when she’d been raped for her magic.
I won’t do that to you again, Lily. I won’t be that man.
He had to get out of there. Now.
He grabbed his pants off the floor and bolted for the door, as every instinct he had screamed at him to go back and finish what he’d started. To take her and claim her body, spirit and soul, as he was meant to do as her mate. To steal her magic, as he was meant to do as her chosen—
He lunged out into the hall, colliding hard with Quinn who’d been sprinting for the bedroom door. Quinn was the only male alive who might be strong enough to stop Gideon from going back in there. Gideon grabbed his friend’s shoulders. “Help me, Quinn—”
“I’ve got your back, man,” Quinn said calmly as he took Gideon to the floor with a move that sent brutal pain ricocheting through Gideon’s body. “It’s all good.”
*
Ana hugged her knees to her chest as she sat on the small hill overlooking the fields that stretched to the south of Dante’s estate. The ground was muddy from all the Oregon rain, so she’d duct taped a garbage bag to her cast and hobbled out there. It had taken her over an hour to walk that far, but she hadn’t minded. It felt good to clear her head, and after being Nate’s prisoner, it was a gift she’d always appreciate now, being able to go where she wanted, whenever she wanted.
Ana needed space from the hovering of her sister, from trying to pretend she was happy and recovering, to hide the nightmares that haunted her and try to find her way around all the noise in her head. She wanted a break from the visits by the Order members asking about Elijah. She didn’t want to have any more serious conversations about Ezekiel and Nate in which the Order asked her to recall every Calydon who had died at her hand, including Elijah. She needed a respite from reliving the nightmares of the last two months of her life when Nate had dragged her all over the Pacific Northwest, using her to kill warriors so Nate could strip their weapons out of the arms the moment they died. She needed time to process them without all the intrusion of everyone else.
Now that Lily was back, the Order would learn about Frank. They would want to know why Ana hadn’t mentioned him when she’d told them about Lily and the stone.
Why had she kept Frank a secret from them? She didn’t know. She had no answers for those questions.
Ana rested her chin on her knees and stared out at the lush greenery. She watched the sunshine peek through a break in the dark clouds. A sucker hole, her mom used to call them. Just when you think the sun’s coming out and head out for your picnic, the rains come and flood you out. Sucker.
That’s what her rescue from Nate felt like. A sucker hole. She’d felt such relief and had thought her ordeal was over when she’d heard Grace’s voice and Gideon had lifted her out of the mud.
But it wasn’t over.
She sighed and rubbed her arm over Elijah’s mark on her skin. She hadn’t slept since she’d gotten to Dante’s. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Elijah die again. She relived the look of true horror on his face when he’d found out she was an Illusionist, a magical being who could create dark, twisted images that brought terrible things onto those who were exposed to them.
Yes, granted, Ana used to the aberration who generated beautiful, happy moments, but Nate had destroyed that side of her. She had become exactly the monster Elijah had recoiled from. She wondered again what had been done to Elijah to make him react like that to an Illusionist. Who had hurt him? Yet despite whatever brutality he’d suffered from her kind, he’d stayed to protect her, and it had cost him his life. She’d killed him for protecting her. Not on purpose, but it was still her fault.
Ana squeezed her eyes shut as she heard his voice again in her head. Whispering her name.
Ana. Ana. Ana. Elijah’s voice filled her mind, a desperate calling for her. What did he want? To save him? It was too late. She’d already condemned him. He had already died because of her.
Ana.
She pressed her hands to her ears, wanting to scream at him to stop haunting her, but at the same time, so desperately needing to hear his voice. It was as if he were still alive…calling to her…
A branch broke behind her and she tensed, not wanting to deal with Grace and her sisterly worries.
There was the sound of footsteps in the soft ground, coming up behind her, but she didn’t turn around.
Then they stopped.
She waited, and when nothing else happened, her heart began to race. “Grace?”
“No.”
She gasped and lurched to her feet, whirling around.
It was Frank Tully. He was wearing sunglasses, a pair of black pressed cotton pants, a button down shirt and an ankle length beige raincoat hanging loosely around his calves. There were gray flecks in his dark hair, and his lips were thin, stretched in an empty smile over his flawless teeth. “Ana.”
Her heart started to race, and she glanced toward the house. It was over a mile away, perched on the knoll. So far away. Too far.
Frank followed her glance. “This is as close as I can get. They’re waiting for me.” He looked at her. “Why are they waiting for me, little Ana? What have you told them about me?”
“I didn’t tell them—” She stopped herself before she told him that Lily was the one who’d revealed his secrets. She sensed he didn’t know Lily was at Dante’s mansion, and she knew she had to protect Lily. She couldn’t let him know Lily was there, knowing he meant Lily harm. True harm.
Yet at the same time, Ana felt the same pull toward him she’d felt the other two times she’d seen him. Like she knew him. Like he was safety. Like he was home. Granted, he brought to mind the image of a home perched on the edge of a steep cliff, swinging in a wild wind. Familiar and safe, but also dangerous and unknown.
Frank reached for her cheek and traced his finger down it, his touch so gentle. Kind. “My dear Ana, I’ve been waiting for you for so long.”
“You do know me,” she whispered. She’d known it in her core since the first moment she’d seen him. His allure to her was something deep inside her, something that had been hidden for years and years. “Who are you?”
“I need Nate’s knife, Ana.”
She blinked. “What?”
“The knife. You took it from Nate. I came to get you and the knife.”
Goosebumps popped up on her arms. “You came to get me?”
Frank smiled again, and this time there was warmth. “Of course I did. I’ve been waiting for you for years.” His finger brushed over her cheek again, over a dark bruise from where Nate had punched her. “I wish I’d had the chance to kill Nate for hurting you,” he mused.
Ana stiffened against the urge to press her face into his hand. What was wrong with her? She knew what Lily had said about him. She knew he was evil. She could feel it just standing this close to him.
But a part of her didn’t care. He had answers for her. She knew it, somehow she knew it instinctively. Frank had something she wanted and needed.
It was something in the way he tilted his head, the secrets held in those merciless blue eyes. Frank Tully was what she’d been waiting for. Not just since she’d been rescued from Nate’s.
For far, far longer than that.
And Ana knew, with absolute certainty, that he would never hurt her. Ever. Lily, yes, he would hurt her badly. Others, yes. Many others, yes. Ana, no. Whatever monster he was, he wasn’t there to do her harm.
A slow smile spread across his face, as if he’d heard her thoughts. “You will come with me.”
Ana didn’t hesitate. “Yes.” He had answers to questions, questions she couldn’t think of right now, but she knew she needed them answered. Questions that would come to her…
“With the knife?” he asked.
“I don’t have it. I gave it to the Order.”
Frank dropped his hand, and there was a tic of aggravation in his cheek. “I need the knife, Ana. Bring it with you. I’ll meet you here. An hour? Can you get it that quickly?”
Darkness Seduced (Primal Heat Trilogy #2) (Order of the Blade) Page 19
