Hard hands fastened onto her arms and she reared up, determined to be free. She stilled as she met the burning glare of Keelan’s anger. Exhaling, she folded against him and he lifted her into his arms.
“Headstrong as ever,” he muttered before he turned and sped off at full tilt, back up the mountain.
Chapter Thirteen
“Why did you go back?” Safe in their apartments in the Vampyre Falls, Keelan used a soft cloth doused in antiseptic, and patted at the thin bloody line lacerating Morganna’s neck. “It was foolish.”
“How did you know?”
“You mean before I found that damned note?” His gaze seared her. “Daffyd told me you saw us.”
“I should have known.”
“I came after you because I thought, after what you saw, you might never come back. I followed you to be certain you were all right.”
She stilled. “You wouldn’t follow me into the Realm. Tell me you wouldn’t try to do that. You would have been killed.”
“And it looks to me like you almost were. What happened?”
She winced as he pressed the wet cloth against the injury on her neck. “There were things I needed to get.”
“You should have done without. Nothing was worth your life.”
“After I saw you and Daffyd it was even more important that I go. I knew there was an entrance close by so I took it.”
He looked down at her bandaged hands, brushing his thumbs across her palms. “And your hands? It’s apparent to me that your life was in danger. And your neck. Who used the iron on you?”
“Syril confronted me at my cottage.”
Keelan frowned. “He did this to you? I’m going to finish this once and for all. No matter what the laws demand. He needs to be stopped. I should have said to hell with the Faerie Court and their edicts long before this.” He started to turn away and Morganna grabbed his arm, hissing as her damaged hand tightened around his hard bicep, determined to stop him.
“No, Keelan. There’s no need.”
He whipped around to glare at her. “What do you mean?”
“I-I killed him. That’s why my hands are burned. It’s from his blood.”
He leaned down and cupped her face. “Are you certain he’s dead? Do you realize what that means? What they’ll do to you if they find you?”
“I only went back to retrieve my books and some of my herbs and potions.” She pointed to the bag at her side. “For this. I didn’t go back there to stay—to get away from you and what I witnessed. There were things I had to get so I could help you. Help the people in Vampyre Falls.”
He sat down and gathered her into his arms. “Do you have any idea how close you came to dying?”
“I’m sorry, Keelan, but I had to do it.”
“He used the iron necklace to bind you. It could have killed you. He didn’t know about the real danger of the iron to you, did he?”
“No. You’re the only one I’ve ever trusted with that knowledge. I love you, too, Keelan, and I’ve made my choice. I’m going to stay and help you fight. And somehow I’ll come to terms with…the other.”
“You mean what you saw.”
“Yes. I don’t know what happened to you, but I won’t be left out of any part of your life. Even if it means I must accept Daffyd. I’m willing to do whatever it takes.”
His grip on her shoulders tightened. “Are you certain? Some of what I’ve become, what I need, is dangerous. The one thing I don’t ever want to do is hurt you. Nor do I want to see disgust for what I need in your eyes.”
She cupped his jaw. “I just want to understand. Help me to understand what’s happened to you.”
Keelan stared at her for long moments before nodding. “I’ll talk to Daffyd. We’ll figure something out.”
“What do you mean? There’s nothing to talk about. I told you, I’ve made my decision. I’m staying here with you—as one of you.”
“Are you certain, Morganna? It’s not that simple. It will require you to accept Daffyd as part of the deal.”
“You’ve said that before. What’s so complicated? You make me what you are. That seems simple enough to me. Daffyd has nothing to do with that.”
“Say it, Morganna.”
It wasn’t easy. Her kind had always been taught to fear and hate vampires, and now she was practically begging to become one. She was an outcast of her people. She’d killed one of her own kind, compounding it by doing it on her home ground. Were there any laws she wasn’t breaking?
“Make me vampire, Keelan. I don’t want to be separated from you any longer. If I stay, it won’t be a half measure. I want to share your life with you. I don’t want you to be a shadow in my life. I want us to be equal. That can only happen if I become like you.”
He kissed her and she wrapped her arms around his neck. He pushed her blouse off her shoulder and nibbled along her flesh. She shuddered with desire. Arousal and need bloomed immediately.
“When, Keelan?”
He lifted his head to look at her. “I have to speak with Daffyd first. He must be the one to turn you.”
Her hands fisted in the cloth of his shirt. “But I want you to do it. Why can’t it be you?”
He shook his head. “He’s my sire, Morganna. If you truly mean to fight with us, the connection must be strong between the three of us. At a certain level the shared blood links us with Romulus as well because he is Daffyd’s sire. Being faerie, you can block any intrusion by him into your mind. That’s something humans are unable to do. But the bond with Daffyd must be strong. It magnifies our defense. It’s dangerous, but it’s also the only possible way we have of tracking Romulus, of being certain he doesn’t get to us first when we are in his vicinity.”
“You’ll be there with me, won’t you?”
He leaned forward and kissed her eyelids. “I wouldn’t leave you alone. I’ll be right there with you. And then I’ll teach you how to use the new powers you’ll have, and how to control the increased intensity of your own abilities…and your emotions.”
There would be no turning back once she did this thing. Desperately, Morganna reached for the fastening of his trousers and undid them. “I want you to make love to me, Keelan. Right now.” Releasing him, she enclosed his stiff erection, curling her fingers around his hardened length, stroking, swirling the tip of her finger over the broad, flared tip. She needed him inside her, to connect with him.
Slowly, he undressed her. When she was naked, she shifted to kneel on the floor and removed his boots and his trousers as he pulled his shirt over his head. Once he was naked, she again took his cock in her hands and looked up at him. Her fingers brushed across the glistening slit, circled beneath the ridge, feathered along the silky hard shaft. “I love you. I never stopped aching for you all these years. If only I’d known.”
He stroked her hair. “If you had known, you would have tried to come after me. The life here is dangerous enough.”
She gazed at his cock, noted the littering of tiny scars across the hot, tight flesh and stroked it lightly. Another drop of fluid breached the tiny hole. She glanced up at him. “How much pain is there? If I touch you, does it hurt?”
He cupped her face. “Nothing you could do would hurt me. What pain there is, is now filled with pleasure at your touch. Daffyd has made that possible. It’s difficult for me to explain the difference, what it feels like. How the intensity of the pleasure is altered and magnified because of my relationship with Daffyd. He releases something dark inside me that allows me to make love to you without the fear I might hurt you.”
She swirled the tip of her finger across the head and watched as more pre-cum leaked onto her skin. Lowering her head, she sucked his cock into her mouth and licked him clean. She glanced up as her tongue swiped one last time across the glans. “I want to understand what Daffyd gives you. Why you need him.”
He shuddered at that last lick. “I can’t explain it. He needs me as much as I need him. We give to each other. There’s some balance I can�
��t relate to you that you would understand. Most likely because he also suffered Romulus’s sadistic tortures.”
Morganna settled herself between his legs. “I want to be there the next time. You can’t shut me out. If he gives you something that I can’t, I want to know what it is. I want to be a part of it.”
He was silent for a long time. “I don’t want you to despise me for what I now require.”
“That won’t ever happen.” She climbed onto Keelan’s lap. Reaching down between them, she positioned his cock at her slick entrance. She needed him filling her, needed the intimacy of connection with the man she loved. He thrust upward and buried himself to the root inside her.
Closing his eyes, he leaned his forehead against hers. “I’ve missed you so much. I’ve needed your light. When I’m inside you it’s like being bathed in starlight, wrapped in gossamer wings.”
She tipped her head and then she felt the sharp rasp of his teeth trail along her neck, pressing against the pulsing vein.
“Do it,” she whispered, desperately wanting him to be the one to take her blood.
He drew away and gazed down at her. “You have no idea how much willpower I must exert not to do it, Morganna. Daffyd must be the first, he must be the one to turn you. He needs the reinforced magic your first blood will provide.”
Her eyelids fluttered closed. If she was going to stay here, she knew she must adhere to the laws that were set down before her arrival. If she wanted Keelan, she must agree.
Keelan lifted her and then thrust up, sending delicious tremors through her body, filling her, reaching into all those dark recesses, healing the impact of their separation. She rode him, lifting up and dropping down, again and again, reveling in his body.
He was not the same dark elf she had fallen in love with so long ago, but he was more. Mysterious and complicated, without the same devil-may-care attitude he’d had back then. He was a vampire elf honed by sacrifice and pain. A strong man she was honored to be loved by.
She ground against him, feeling his heat ride against her channel, frictioning deep, and she felt the orgasm bloom through her.
“Yes, Keelan, yes,” she cried as she exploded, spilling her pleasure over them both. He stiffened and his seed filled her as he came with equal force, his head thrown back, razor sharp teeth exposed as the pleasure enveloped him.
This was something Morganna could give him. Her whole being, everything she was, belonging to him. Bringing him the light in her magic that he needed.
Chapter Fourteen
Morganna moved into the vacant cabin and made the space her own. Keelan came and went, helped her get settled. On occasion disappeared late at night for long stretches of time. She tried to understand, she tried to be patient. She tried t not to fear what the future might hold. Finally, on the night of the full moon, Keelan came for her.
“It’s time.”
Her choice had been made. She placed her hand in his, trusting him implicitly. His grip tightened. She rose up to place a kiss on his lips and his tongue burrowed inside her mouth. They clung together for long minutes before he pulled away.
“He’s waiting. Are you certain you want to do this?”
“I have no regrets,” she responded without hesitation.
They followed the darkened tunnel for a short distance, then he led her up a set of narrow stone steps carved into a thick, sturdy column. They ascended higher and higher until reaching a tunnel buried within the lacing of intricate passages near the summit of the caverns. Keelan led her along the tunnel, finally stopping at the entrance of a chamber. Looking inside she saw it was illuminated by what seemed like a hundred candles resting on ledges, on the floor, high in recessed areas above them.
There was a wide opening above them and the full, yellow moon looked so close, as though all one had to do was reach out to touch it. The loud thunder of pounding water filling her hearing, so this chamber must be on the same side of the caverns as the giant falls.
Daffyd awaited at the center of the room. Dressed all in black, his long, ebony hair tied back, he seemed to blend into the shadows. His eyes glowed red in the darkness and Keelan led her toward him. The firm grasp of his fingers wrapped around hers, reassured her and enforced her determination to accept whatever was required to remain with him.
“It’s all right, Morganna. You have to trust him.”
“What if it’s just my blood he wants, Keelan? What if he’s been duping you all along and it’s just the faery blood he’s after?”
“I realize you haven’t had a chance to get to know him yet, but he’s not like that. He would never take you away from me. He knows how much I love you. And besides, your healing is needed here. He isn’t like Romulus, or what we’ve been brought up to believe about them. Only time will help ease your concerns.” He turned her to face him, framing her face with his strong hands. “Do you trust me?”
She looked into his eyes and knew, even if it did mean her death, she had to trust this vampire—for Keelan’s sake. Straightening her spine, she walked to Daffyd.
“I don’t know anything about you, but I love Keelan. If he trusts you, then that has to be enough.”
Daffyd’s lips curved into a half smile, yet his eyes retained the intensity of demand, forcing her not to look away.
“That is enough. I’m not asking for your love, simply your obedience if you choose to remain here. Do I have it?”
Morganna knew she didn’t have much of a choice. If she wanted Keelan, she had to agree. “Yes.” She lifted her chin. “But I won’t stay in these damp caverns. I don’t know how you stand it. I want to remain in the cabin in the village. If I’m to be a healer here, I need to be near the people. I need to have a garden.”
He studied her for a long time. “It always comes down to barter with you people. Very well. But if summoned, you will answer. If your presence is required you will submit, as necessary.”
“Okay then.” She tilted her head and offered her neck, watching him closely. “Do it and let’s get this over with.”
Suddenly, he pivoted away from her and sauntered over to a red velvet-covered table. Lifting a crystal decanter, he poured a shimmering green liquid into three cut glass goblets. He turned to look at her.
“I’m not a savage, Morganna. I’m not about to rip out your flesh and gorge myself on your blood.” He glanced at Keelan, who stood behind her. “He thought much the same thing, especially after his encounter with Romulus’s clan.”
He crossed the room and offered her the glass. “A bit of absinthe to toast our pact. It’s laced with three drops of my blood to show good faith.”
With a trembling hand, she accepted the goblet.
Keelan moved to the table and picked up the other two glasses. Returning, he handed one to Daffyd and kept one for himself.
They formed a circle, the moonlight illuminating the center of the room. Daffyd raised his glass. “To our new association. May many lives be saved.” He drank down the glimmering green liquid. Keelan followed suit. Inhaling, Morganna lifted the glass to her lips and drank deeply. The liquid raced through her liked the heated path of a comet had just entered her system. The heat of lust blossomed, traveling through her blood. She could almost feel the path raze hot and fiery throughout her body.
Once the glasses were emptied, Keelan took them back to the table. Daffyd shifted closer to Morganna. He cupped her neck, staring intently into her eyes. She saw herself mirrored within them. It seemed like molten mercury had been injected into her bloodstream. At his touch her body turned pliant and sensitive, heartbeat racing. Her sigh was one of passionate surrender. It was as though she could smell the aroma of Keelan’s blood running through Daffyd’s body, stroking her aura, demanding entrance. That sense of Keelan wove a spell around her, drawing her to the vampire.
“The taking of blood is a very intimate act, Morganna. The turning will make you a part of me as we share blood. Are you truly willing to accept that level of intimacy with a vampire? Are you ready
to submit to your sire?”
His words sounded melodic to her ears, seductive and inviting. Like a breath of cool, starlit night brushing across her skin. She was intoxicated by the sound. No wonder he had seduced her lover so easily. She yielded, bending toward him caught up in the dark magnetism of his eyes. She was like the bewitched snake responding to the charmer’s flute. He kneaded her shoulders as he stared into her eyes. He stroked along the column of her neck, his fingers curled around her throat, pressing lightly against the throbbing pulse of her artery. She surmised the strength he held at bay as she looked deeply into his eyes. His thumb stroked over the pulse, a cadence of seduction swirled around her. Her breaths turned deep and cleansing, as though he drew out her old life, to replace it with something new, preparing her to accept what he was about to offer.
She felt Keelan behind her. She hadn’t seen or heard him move, but now he was removing her dress, undoing each of the tiny buttons along the back. And then she felt the cool, moist air as he shifted the dress down over her arms and it dropped to the floor. She stood naked between the two vampires.
She should have been afraid, but instead Morganna was mesmerized, excited, her body awakening in ways she didn’t understand. She was drawn toward darkness, almost floating, pressed between them. The call of Keelan’s blood was strong, undeniable. It sang to her both from the man standing before her and the one behind her. She’d felt that same response when she’d first met Daffyd. Inside him was a part of Keelan, and that was the part that seduced her now, the part she answered.
Daffyd wasn’t really touching her intimately, but Keelan’s hands now cupped her breasts, brushing his thumbs across her nipples, drawing circles over her areolas.
And Daffyd’s hands still encircled her neck, his thumbs rhythmically stroking her flesh. There was an erotic intimacy to that simple, repeated touch. It connected her to him. Keelan’s hands moved down across her ribs, smoothing slow circles over her skin, pressing a palm to her mound, sliding ever lower, until two fingers pressed between her thickened, wet labia lips.
Morganna's Sacrifice (Vampyre Falls: Blended Species Book 1) Page 6
