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Witchbane (Book 5 in The Twilight Court Series)

Page 35

by Amy Sumida


  “Oh,” I cleared my throat. “Tiernan used to tell me he wasn't an elf because he didn't have pointed ears. But you can't be an elf either since you're so tall.”

  “I can't?” he began to smile.

  “Holy god twins, are you an elf?” I gawked at him.

  “Yes, of course, Princess,” he chuckled. “I am Lord Dagur of the Dark Elves,” he bowed. “It's an honor to meet you.”

  “Dark Elves?” I asked. “I had no idea there were actually dark elves. Are there light elves too?”

  “Yes, of course,” his smile widened, brightening his face with more white. “We dark elves are unseelie fey, and we tend to stay underground. The stone,” he sighed and laid a hand to the smooth wall, which was encrusted with cabochon jewels, “it soothes us.”

  “Huh,” I cocked my head at him. I guess that explained why I hadn't seen a dark elf up close before. But light elves... “The Light Elves, they're seelie then?”

  “Yes, that's right,” Dagur nodded patiently. “They prefer the light, thus their name.”

  “So it has nothing to do with your coloring?”

  “Oh,” he blinked and looked down at himself, as if he'd just realized that his skin was black. “Not at all. Some dark elves have moonlight skin. My coloring is simply unseelie, a happy accident of birth. It's prized among my people for obvious reasons.”

  “You like to blend in with the shadows and get run into by oblivious women?” I teased him.

  He burst into laughter, earning us curious glances from passerby.

  “Yes, well,” he cleared his throat, “I admit that I enjoyed our collision. It's not everyday that I get to touch a princess, much less the fabled Twilight Star.”

  “Oh now you're just shining my ego,” I laughed.

  “Ah, well,” he shrugged, “perhaps. Or perhaps I was trying to flirt with you,” he gave me a sexy wink. “But don't tell your lover. I wouldn't want to end up as a dragon snack.”

  “No you wouldn't,” I chuckled.

  Then we'd both gone back to our own business, and I was left to wonder what other fey I'd yet to discover. Back in Twilight, I'd been reading up on all the different races in our extensive library. But as much as I'd read, it had evidently not been enough. Fairy kept surprising me.

  After I'd roamed Craos-Teine several times, I considered heading back to Twilight, where there were responsibilities awaiting me. Lazing about doing nothing just wasn't my style. But Raza and I had the Halloween party to attend soon, and I didn't see the point of going home just to return in two days. Plus, there was the logistics of our relationship to work out. Raza and I had begun to talk about how we'd continue things once I returned home. He had thought I was staying, moving in with him, but I had quickly divested him of that notion. I couldn't just leave Twilight. I was still settling into my role as their princess, to abandon my people now would be insensitive. Raza, of course, understood. How could he not, when he was in the middle of cementing his bond with his own people?

  Raza had been very disappointed though, stating that we would be separated too often for his liking. Then I'd reminded him that I was a twilight fairy, and I could use the In-Between to travel to him in an instant. I would just have to wait for twilight to do so. Either that or ride out to a rath with Cat. That lightened his mood, and made our relationship more manageable. But we would still have to work out the kinks. So I remained, instead of beginning our long-distance romance immediately.

  “There you are,” Raza grabbed my hand and pulled me into a kiss. “I've been looking for you.”

  “Here I am,” I agreed.

  “I want to show you something,” he started leading me down the hall.

  “What's that?”

  “Just wait,” he cast me a secret smile and walked me through the corridors of Craos-Teine, until we came to the grand, double doors of the throne room.

  “I've seen the throne room before,” I reminded Raza as he pushed the doors open with one hand.

  “I know,” he closed them behind us, and locked the doors using his master key, which always dangled from his belt.

  “Why are you-”

  “Come with me,” Raza strode down the center of the empty room, drawing me along with him.

  Our footsteps echoed off the soaring walls of gleaming, white chalcedony. The stone was carved to look like giant scales, so that it felt as if you were within the arms of a dragon. The floor was a seamless piece of polished jet, a sharp contrast to the walls, and it swept up to the base of a crystal dais. The dais spanned the entire width of the room, sweeping back to a dramatic point at its center. Windows three times my height were set into the walls which angled towards that point, framing a breath-stealing view of the Unseelie Jungle.

  Atop the dais were three thrones in three different sizes. The smaller thrones flanked the largest. They were made of solid gold and shaped to resemble a collection of dragon horns. Horns comprised the feet, arm rests, and the back of the thrones, with two, little, upward tilted horns uniting the massive back rest at the top. On the central throne, a silver disc was set precariously upon the apex of those top horns, right on their pointed ends.

  “The Dragon Thrones of Unseelie,” I murmured as Raza led me up the dais steps. Seeing them always sent a shiver down my spine. They were the most aggressive looking thrones in all of Fairy.

  They were also the reason the Unseelie Court had been moved. The Thorns couldn't sit in those thrones, within this dragon belly of a room, without the memory of the dragon kings haunting them. So these thrones, with their open backs, perfect for dragon wings to weave through, had been left empty for years. Raza helped me down into the medium sized throne, set to the left-hand of the largest.

  “Raza,” I shook my head.

  “Just humor me,” he smiled wickedly as he knelt before me, and began to lift my skirts.

  “What the hell, Raza?” I hissed.

  “The door is locked, remember?” Raza kept sliding his hands up my thighs until he reached my hips. Then he grabbed my panties and pulled them down my legs. I moved to stop him, but he gave me such a sexy look, I couldn't. “I want to show you all that's yours for the taking.”

  “Raza, I-”

  He pushed my knees up, and hung them over the cool metal of the armrests. I slid down a little, my ass coming to the edge of the seat, and my entire world went on display for Raza. He licked his lips and descended upon it like an alien invader. There was nothing more I could say, I was instantly lost to the pleasure of his tongue and lips, my hands sliding up the horns of the backrest in search of some kind of stability. But then Raza lifted his head and set his glowing eyes on me.

  “It's time you learned what a dragon-djinn can do,” he declared. “There's so much more to us than our beasts,” he lowered his head and took a long lick. “As djinn, I understand desire better than anyone. And I can fulfill yours for you, mo shíorghrá, every one of them. I can be anything you wish.”

  Raza's body started to fade, turning into black mist. Everything except for his glowing, golden eyes. I tried to jolt upright, but the mist still had substance, and it held me down. It flowed around me, seeping under my clothing and touching me everywhere. I threw back my head and moaned.

  The mist kneaded, licked, fluttered, kissed. It moved over me with multiple sensations, making my skin shiver uncontrollably. And still, those eyes remained where they were, staring at me with burning intensity.

  Djinn were the reality that genie myths were based upon. I knew there were three types of djinn; the winged (dragons), the ones who resembled snakes or dogs (like Killian), and the travelers who must constantly be moving (I haven't met one of those yet). I knew that all types could take any shape they wanted, and that they could grant wishes... in exchange for service. But that was the extent of my knowledge. Not because I hadn't researched djinn. I had. There just wasn't a lot of information to be found on them. Especially not about the dragon-djinn.

  “Raza?” I admit, I was a little concerned about whe
re this was heading.

  “Relax, Seren,” his voice surrounded me. “I want to share my magic with you.”

  The most sensitive places on my body were suddenly under attack. A sensual assault I couldn't see. I felt something slide inside me, mimicking the feeling of Raza's shaft. Then a tongue filled my mouth, and hands stroked my hair. Mouths sucked at my breasts, and fingers roamed over every inch of my flesh. My legs began to shake, the apex of ecstasy within my reach. Then I tumbled over it, screaming against an unseen mouth.

  As I shivered through the aftershocks, those glowing eyes rose, as if Raza had lifted his head. The mist coalesced and he reformed, his cock already inside me. I cried out as he began to grind himself into me. A slow, gentle movement. His wings stretched out behind him and his hands gripped my hips as he pulled me tighter to him with each thrust.

  “Anything you desire, Seren,” he purred. “I can be a sunlight seelie,” his skin paled, taking on a golden tinge as his hair lengthened and went entirely red. His body thinned, his wings vanished, and the talons withdrew into his fingertips. “Or I could be a moonlight unseelie,” the gold left Raza's skin and he paled even further, his hair seeping back to black. “Or I could be both.”

  Suddenly, hands reached through the back of the throne and slid over my breasts. I jerked, my head thrashing to the side, to find the golden skinned, seelie man Raza had first shifted into. He smiled blankly at me, more puppet than man, and pressed himself against my back. He was hard and ready.

  “Stop,” I whispered in horror. “Raza, no.”

  The extra man vanished and Raza became himself again. But he was frowning, leaning forward to lay a hand to my cheek.

  “Why does this scare you?” Raza asked gently.

  “It doesn't scare me,” I swallowed hard. “Okay, maybe a little. That man-puppet was weird, Raza. But that's not the issue.”

  “What is the issue then?”

  “I don't want you like that,” I slid off the throne with him still inside me, wrapping myself around him. “I want you as you are.”

  “But don't you see?” Raza turned us to the side, and laid me out on the floor before the thrones. “They are me. You can be with anyone you want, without ever being untrue to me. If you desire to make love to a merman, I can be him for you. Or maybe you'd like to know what it feels like to be the object of a gancanagh's affections, and hear what the love talkers say to their women. I could be a riksha or even a sylph. Whatever you want to experience, I can give it to you.”

  “What if I just want my dragon?” I took his face in my hands and kissed him gently, easing my hips up to him so he slid deeper. “What if I want you here, on the floor, instead of on a throne? Will that still be exciting enough for you? Or do we have to play dress up?”

  Raza's eyes flashed, then went wet as his whole body shuddered. I stared up at him in shock as a tear slid down his cheek and fell on my breast.

  “Raza?” I whispered as he laid his face to my neck and pulled me in tight.

  “You are the first woman to say that to me,” he whispered into my throat. “The first who still wanted only me, after I offered to be anyone they desired.”

  “You're what I desire,” I rubbed my cheek to his. “Why is that so hard to believe? You know you're beautiful.”

  “That out of all the forms I could offer you, you'd choose this one?” Raza pulled back to stare at me in wonder. “It's impossible to conceive of. I may be beautiful, but there are other forms finer than mine. No one ever chooses me. ”

  “Then they didn't love you, as I do,” I whispered. “Honestly, Raza, it doesn't matter what form you take. I'll love you in all of them. I've just gotten used to this one,” I tapped the tip of his long nose. “This is who you are to me. This, and maybe your human guise. Anything else doesn't feel right.”

  “Mo shíorghrá,” he swallowed hard, “you've done what no other person has ever managed to do. You've granted my wish,” he kissed me then, slow and sweet, and began to move inside me once more.

  When the pleasure reached its limit, we both came together with deep moans and shuddering flesh. No thrones or crowns were needed, and no other faces were wanted. Just my dragon and me, in love.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  We went into HR a few days early, to do some shopping. Raza put on his human glamour and we headed out among the humans. I was surprised to find him to be an avid explorer. Raza had a curious nature that made every outing into an adventure. Instead of just purchasing costumes, as the extra days had been set aside for, we spent our time roaming San Francisco and enjoying all it had to offer. We did the tourist thing; the bridge, the park, the spiral road, and Chinatown. Then we strolled the Haight, and ate lunch in a small Mom and Pop Mexican restaurant. Raza was comfortable anywhere.

  And he attracted attention everywhere we went.

  In his human guise, Raza's body was just as muscled and massive as it usually was, it just wasn't that pure shade of black. He lightened his skin to a human bronze, softened his features to sculpted instead of dragon-ridged, and toned his eyes down to topaz. His talons disappeared, as did his wings, but his hair remained the same. In Fairy, as far as hair went, Raza's was at the bottom of the unusual scale. But in HR, his raven locks, sharply cut into points and striped with blood red on the right, were more note worthy. Especially on a man who looked like a cross between a football player and a runway model. The end result screamed rock star, which was perfect for San Francisco.

  I blame Raza's conspicuous camouflage for my dulled senses. The stares and whispers were becoming normal and I had grown accustomed to the feeling of being watched. So I didn't sense that we were being followed until the second day of our visit.

  We were strolling through Golden Gate Park, heading to my favorite place, the Japanese Tea Garden, when I sensed it. That chill down the back of my neck. I almost stopped walking, but Raza tightened his grip on my hand and pulled me along.

  “Just keep going,” he hissed. “I feel it too.”

  “Who is it?”

  “I don't know,” Raza cast a casual look around us, pointed to a flowering bush as if it had interested him, and steered us over to it. “It's to the right,” he whispered as he leaned in to kiss my cheek. “Can you see the aura?”

  I glanced up at him, he had positioned me so I could simply look forward in the correct direction. When I eased my gaze down, I did so slowly, as if admiring the view. And I saw it, a haze of angry red bruised with indigo. Someone didn't like us. A lot.

  “I can't tell who it is,” I whispered back. “I've never seen that aura before.”

  But that wasn't really surprising. I didn't check out a person's aura unless they were acting strange or happened to be invisible. Mainly because I had to delve into my psychic abilities to do it. Tiernan had told me once that it was one of the few things an extinguisher could do better than a fairy. We could see colors in a person's aura, the energy field which surrounded everyone. This gave us an indication of the person's emotions and, if we payed close enough attention, we could learn the base aura of an individual. If you knew someone's base aura, you would be able to recognize it, even if they were glamouring themselves invisible or were tinted with extreme emotion.

  Fairies couldn't see the colors in a person's aura, all they could see was a shimmering outline if they concentrated hard enough. Still, whether you were fey or human, if someone was using an invisibility glamour, you'd need to focus intently on looking for them, to see anything at all.

  “Whomever it is,” I veered us back onto the cement path, “they're upset. Very upset. We'll have to be extra wary while we're here. I think they might attack us.”

  “As soon as we find a discreet corner in the Tea Garden, we will glamour ourselves invisible, and then we will hunt them,” he declared.

  I smiled. It was an excellent suggestion. Turn the game around on the predator. They really should have known better than to go dragon hunting all by themselves. But after we went invisible, we couldn't fin
d the aura again. Our stalker had either dropped their glamour or left the park entirely. We searched for over an hour and never found a trace. Finally, we gave up and left. At least we'd been warned.

  We didn't let the incident ruin our mini vacation. Instead, we soldiered on, roaming the city freely. It wasn't entirely a vacation though. Our sightseeing was interspersed with meetings. The Head Councilman of the SF House, Councilman Alan Murdock, wanted to discuss a few things. Mainly the recent revelations of Anu and the Caster Coven. Killian had already filled him in, but Murdock had known me since childhood. His son and I had gone to school together. So Murdock wanted to hear things from my perspective.

  Then I had to spend some time with Killian, to go over some details with his new position and how we were handling things with the Casters. He had taken up his own personal ambassador role between the Casters and the Councils. Things weren't calm enough between the Casters and the Coven for him to do much ambassadorial work there, but he actually thought it was headed that way.

  Killian and I were able to get a few moments alone, during which he brought up the elephant in the room, which was actually a dragon. Killian of course expressed his distaste over my choice of boyfriend, but was surprisingly unconcerned about Raza. In his opinion, Raza and I were too different to make it work. When I told him once more that love was about differences, Killian shook his head and amended the statement. Opposites attract, but what keeps people together are their similarities, common ground to stand on. Without that, Killian declared, you have nothing to build upon. It was sensible enough to make my belly twinge with panic. What if he was right? And what if, deep down, I knew it? Was that why I hadn't made a commitment to Raza?

  Then a calm settled over me, and I remembered lying across the dais in the throne room with Raza. Pale, dragon scale walls around us, golden thrones gazing down upon us, the weight of thousands of years of fairy royalty heavy in the air. Yet my heart had been light when I looked at Raza, and I would never forget how he looked at me. Like I was everything, his entire world condensed into one person. Those hallowed walls, so important to Raza, could have fallen around us and he wouldn't have cared. Not as long as we endured.

 

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