Before I had a chance to feel embarrassed about being so exposed before him, he leaned forward balancing his weight on one hand next to my head and possessively cupped my womanhood with his other. A rush of heat bloomed beneath the welcome warmth and pressure of his palm. Then he lowered his head, his silky hair brushing my cheeks as he kissed me slow and deep and wet. I lifted my pelvis to grind the part of me that was throbbing in conjunction with my rapid pulse into his hand. He let me show him what I needed, eventually breaking the connection between our mouths so he could watch me move.
“Gods, you’re beautiful,” he praised before bringing one of my hands up to one of my breasts seeing what I did, what I liked, how I plucked and rolled the aching peaks between my thumb and finger so he could mimic my actions on the other side. My lips parted for my rapid pants. I arched. I writhed. The ache grew impossibly hotter. And all the while I moved against his hand, he observed me with eyes as dark as the black velvet of the dreamscape until it was too much. I threw my head back and closed my eyes.
Then he was over me. There a slight unexpected pull around my neck and a strident clang like steel on steel.
I opened my eyes to see the satisfied look on his face and felt the corresponding rush of cool air around my neck. He had sliced through my slave collar with one of his sharp talons.
“You are no longer bound, Cecilia. No one may claim you now unless you will it.”
“Then take me,” I agreed, gasping when he moved again, positioning and I felt the hot velvety tip of his hard cock poised at my entrance. I lifted my hips to receive him. A moment later my maidenhead was breached. There was an unfamiliar fullness and a little burning. He stilled to let me adjust to his size, then that little sting disappeared like a distant memory as he started to move, slow easy strokes at first, and then long purposeful ones.
“You feel so good. So hot. So perfect,” he groaned.
He felt so good, so hot and so perfect that I couldn’t speak. An urgent need that centered where we were connected rose within me. I felt myself being swept away rising higher and higher upon the crest of an irresistible wave. I started to move with him lifting my hips seeking more of everything that he was giving me.
He slid in and out through my heat again and again. I glided my hands over his perspiration soaked back and flexing buttocks urging him on, needing him to continue, to go deeper and faster until I couldn’t fight it anymore, until I found what I sought and I let it take me higher than I had ever imagined, the beautiful iridescent glitter of a dream exploding behind the closed lids of my eyes. And then he took me beyond even that as he stiffened within me and his wings snapped open. The whoosh of them as they completely unfurled lifted my heavy damp hair from my face. His dream musk rained down on us and then his hot seed filled me, his body shuddering with his climax. I moaned his name and he groaned mine into my neck as he collapsed his spent weight on top of me while his wings settled softly around us.
Wings curled around her shoulders, I leaned back against her headboard and sifted through her beautiful two-toned hair. My heart felt full and everything felt blissfully right in a way it never had before. I had just made love to my Fated One. I wanted to say the words to her to seal my commitment, but I didn’t think she was ready to hear them. I didn’t want anything to ruin this perfect moment.
“I don’t see the mark.” I stroked her cheek but couldn’t see the Sun King’s brand Leo had mentioned.
“It only shows up in direct sunlight.” She lifted her head, gave me a sad look and touched the lighter skin around her neck where her collar had been. “Does it bother you that it’s there? That it always will be? Will you be able to forget it and everything else he has done to me?” She tried to rise but I held onto her.
“Yes, it troubles me.” She started to rise, the sheet sliding down to her waist but I held onto her by her upper arm. I could tell that she misunderstood me. “Only because he hurt you. Because you cannot forget those things. If I could I would erase from your body and your heart every harm he has done.” Her stiff shoulders sagged and her chin dropped but she didn’t turn around to face me.
“Do you even want to make love to me again?” she whispered.
“Gods, yes.” I picked her up gently and turned her to face me. Her pretty grey eyes were softly glowing with strong emotion. “Why would I not? You are everything that I desire. Beautiful. Smart. Courageous. My other half. My Fated mate. Of course I want to make love to you again. But though you are stronger now, it is not safe to remain. We…”
“How can I be stronger?” She touched her hand to her cheek, cocked her head to the side, then frowned as realization dawned. “Did you just make love to me because you felt sorry for me, Morpheus?” Her voice rose with each additional word. “To comingle our gifts? To try to fix me?” She threw back the sheet and scooted off the bed grabbing a robe that was draped over the back of a nearby chair.
When she had it belted on and turned around, I was admittedly disappointed. Not just that we were arguing so soon after we had made love but also because she had just hidden all those beautiful curves of hers.
“I made love to you because I am in love with you.”
She pulled in a shocked breath.
“Creator’s breath, I did not intend to admit that under these circumstances. I feared you would not believe me. But you make me so irrational sometimes.” I stood up not caring at all that I was naked and that her gaze drifted down to my ready to go again erect cock. Maybe that would offer some proof that making love to her had nothing to do with pity. In truth I felt sorry for me. I had no idea how things had so quickly gone wrong. I reached for her but she stepped around me crossing to a desk and turning around with the poetry book of Thyme’s in her hand.
“Let me give you what you most desire, what you came for in the first place. Then we’ll see how long you stick around.”
My gaze grew hard. “You are not hearing me well. What I most desire is you. I hoped to share my strength by making love to you. I had no motive beyond that. But if you could find Thyme I would truly appreciate it. I could certainly use a woman’s counsel at the moment.” Only another female could possibly follow Cecilia’s logic at this point.
Hugging the poetry to her chest Cecilia’s eyes suddenly blazed brightly. Her lips parted but she didn’t speak. Her eyes darted side to side as if she were watching events unfold before her. Afraid to touch her, afraid to speak, I held my breath and waited. It didn’t take long.
As soon as her gaze focused she looked at me and her face crumpled. “Why keep it a secret from me?” I could hear the hurt in her voice. “Did you truly ever trust me?” My heart froze on its next beat. “You told Thyme they were your parents.” She had not foreseen. She had only witnessed the past. “Why didn’t you tell me about Nyx and Hemera?” The door to her room burst open before she could go on. She scrambled backward. I tried to grab for her to put her behind me but I was too late.
Too late for many things.
“What about Nyx and Hemera?” Eyes narrowing Phoebus looked back and forth between the two of us. His crossbow bearing escorts had bolts nocked and aimed. I regretted many things in that moment.
I regretted that I hadn’t listened to my instinct to take her far from his place the moment I had landed on the balcony.
I regretted squandering what might have been our last minutes together.
After seeing how it hurt her, I regretted that I’d kept even a single secret from Cecilia.
And I definitely regretted that I hadn’t put on some pants.
“Please, Phoebus. Stop it.” I swiped a trembling hand across my eyes trying to clear my double vision but it didn’t help. Morpheus and I were so connected I had felt everything he felt for the past couple of hours. He was seeing double after all of the lashes he had received and so was I. I felt the pain of each bite of the obsidian threaded whip Phoebus wielded against my Fated. Though our cut flesh quickly mended, just as quickly Phoebus laid another wound open.
/> Phoebus needed no other evidence to understand what Morpheus and I were to each other.
The monarch brushed me aside as I tried to wrap my arms around his legs to impede him. I was so weak and had gotten that way too fast despite all of Catonia’s training and conditioning that Phoebus didn’t even consider me enough of a threat to restrain me.
His sole focus was on hurting Morpheus.
Hands locked together over his head dangling from obsidian chains Morpheus stood proud and erect, defiantly glaring at Phoebus each time he struck a new blow.
“Is that the sum of your efforts?” He lifted his chin. “If so you are the weakest immortal that I have ever encountered.” His Adam’s apple moved as he swallowed to try to moisten his throat. I don’t think it worked. Neither of us had been offered water since we had been escorted to the bottom level of Phoebus’ dungeon.
At least Phoebus had let Morpheus put on his jeans before we had been marched through the city to the prison like criminals. I don’t think it was because Phoebus had one ounce of compassion. I think he just didn’t want everyone to see Morpheus’ obvious endowment and make unfavorable comparisons to him.
“Let her go, Phoebus. The blame rests solely with me. I forced myself upon her.”
“That isn’t true.” I couldn’t let him take more punishment for me. I already reeled with guilt. This was all my fault. Why had I ruined what we had shared with my accusations? If we hadn’t argued maybe he would have left before Phoebus arrived. Second guessing had plagued me the entire time since. “He is the Dream Falcon. He’s the most handsome man I have ever met. Por supuesto, I wanted to sleep with him. I practically begged him.” Phoebus backhanded me, his hand aglow. I slid backwards across the stone floor.
“Cecilia, don’t,” Morpheus ordered.
Skin burning from where his hand had come into contact with it, I pushed myself up and wiped the blood from my mouth. I looked my falcon straight in the eyes. “I would sleep with him again right here if he would have me. He’s the best I ever had.”
Phoebus came at me. I didn’t have time to dodge the next blow or strength to dodge the one after that. Blackness descended.
When I came to I lay in a crumpled heap in the corner. I brushed the hair from my eyes. Phoebus was gone, the solid obsidian door locked behind him. But Morpheus was watching me. His iridescent eyes were dull, his features tightly drawn. “Why did you anger him?”
“To keep him from you,” I explained.
“I feel everything you feel, mi corazón. A blessing usually. A curse at the moment.”
“Where did he go?”
“A guard came with news. I think he needed a break, as well. Even a Progeny’s strength has limitations. Apparently Fiori has gone missing. He has the entire palace searching for her.”
“Why? Where?”
“I was hoping you might have some clue?”
I shook my head and the movement almost made me pass out again.
“Come here. Come closer.” I noticed Morpheus was no longer bearing his weight. The manacles that suspended him were all that kept him upright.
“I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have said the things I did back in my room.”
He closed his eyes. When he reopened them they reflected my regret. “I too am sorry. I should have told you that Nyx and Hemera were my parents. It was not a matter of distrust.”
“I understand, Morpheus. You didn’t want Phoebus to know if he tortured me.”
“Yes. But I would have you know the rest. Nyx and Hemera had three sons. Billy is my younger sibling. Shane my older.” He exhaled raggedly, and I wondered about Shane. I didn’t remember Morpheus ever mentioning him. “Now there are no more secrets between us.
“None but that I am the head of Cypress.”
“This I already knew, Cecilia. Leo told me all of it. I am so proud of you. That you are mine is unfathomable.”
“Am I still yours?” I reached his bare feet and kissed the tops of them, not thinking twice about it. I was not subjugating myself to him. I was expressing my love, the kind of love I thought I would never have, a love that was a light even in this dark place. Millie had been right.
“You will always be mine,” he whispered just before the door popped open.
“Interesting conversation.” Phoebus strode inside and my heart sunk. He looked healthy and refreshed, whereas we were barely holding on. He wore new clothes. He had showered. I could smell the soap and see that the ends of his hair were still wet. He scooped me up by the elbows and moved me away from Morpheus while making a tsking sound in the back of his throat.
“Don’t want you too close, my pet. Can’t give you the opportunity to heal one another.” He slapped the whip across his thigh. “Now where were we?” He moved closer to Morpheus. “Ah, yes. Nyx’s spawn. Convenient to acquire that information without even having to work for it. Now you will tell me more of Billy Blade and exactly what you two and the god of wine have been up to.”
I closed my eyes and jumped as the whip bit into Morpheus’ torso. Again.
I sensed no sentiment except hatred between uncle and nephew. I didn’t think in Phoebus’ madness that it would even register if I pointed out that it wasn’t just the blood of Nyx, whom he despised that flowed through Morpheus’ veins, but also that of the sister he had once adored.
I didn’t know how long it went on. There were no windows, no light to mark the passage of time. No one came to interrupt, and Phoebus seemed tireless. He was half an Heir after all. I began to wonder if even at full strength and together Morpheus and I could ever have succeeded in defeating him.
I stopped crying and begging, losing track of the number of lashes. I even stopped flinching as they made contact. But though Morpheus began to sag against his restraints he never broke and didn’t waste his breath trying to beg Phoebus to stop.
A blessed rap on the door finally stayed the Sun God’s hand. I rolled into a ball on the floor. I didn’t really care who it was I just wanted to check on Morpheus. I turned my head. His multihued eyes were unfocused. His cuts were beginning to close but they were doing it so much more slowly than they had before. I worried most about the ones on his wings. There were a startling number of ebony feathers on the floor. I would never forgive myself if he lost the ability to fly because of me.
When the door opened, I heard them. Not the lesser alarms that signaled a prison break but the louder ones that last sounded during the insurrection against Roderick in the Dark City.
“My liege.” Giles said his eyes widening as they swept over me. “Your daughter has been found.”
“Well, where is she? Speak quickly. I am far from finished here.”
Giles gaze darted around nervously. “She has opened all the passages between the two cities.”
That wasn’t part of my plan. Mine involved intrigue and one obsidian dagger, not direct confrontation. What could she possibly be thinking?
“For what purpose?” Phoebus’ eyes flared.
“Not a good one, I fear. She has the vampire Catonia at her side.”
“The Dark Immortal leader?”
“One of them. Yes.” He nodded and I wondered where Evercy could be. They were usually inseparable.
“Well, stop them. Bring them here. She will pay dearly for her betrayal. They both will.”
“I wish it were that simple, my liege.” Giles twisted his hands. “They are not alone. The entire population of the Dark City seems to be behind them.” That represented a formidable force though spears were not much use against crossbows. “The god of wine is with them and the piper who summons spirits,” he continued. “The gargoyle Fissure and Leonardo stand with them as well. I have sent most of those few who remain loyal to you outside to engage our enemies but I fear that they will not suffice. We are also low on ammunition. I have withdrawn our troops back to this side of the Soleil River.”
Looking furious his desert eyes glowing bright orange like a flare, Phoebus cast a last wrathful glance back at the two
of us before he stormed from the room.
The door clanged ominously shut.
I let out a relieved ragged breath, stretched my hand toward Morpheus then passed out.
She sucked in breath sputtering like after a near drowning and blinked open her pretty moonbeam eyes.
“Thank the Creator,” I pulled her off the floor and into my lap hugging her to my still bruised and battered chest. Her robe in tattered strips like my jeans, it barely covered her nakedness anymore. But she was alive. That was what mattered. Leo had been wise to suggest we consummate our union. If we had not the wounds we had suffered at the least would have left permanent marks. If Phoebus had continued his relentless assault there was every chance that we would have both died, a slow painful death without our recently gained benefit of mutual healing.
“Morpheus.” She searched my eyes, hers softening as I think she picked up on the direction of my thoughts. She lifted her hand toward my face to comfort me with her touch but her trembling arm betrayed her. I grasped her hand gently and brought her fingers to my cheek where I pressed them into my flesh while keening to her softly. “How did you get free?” She glanced at the chain and the manacles that still dangled from the ceiling.
“I had to dislocate a finger to get the right angle for one of my talons, but that is a small matter. The larger one is how to leave this place before Phoebus returns.” I stroked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I tried the door but the obsidian is too thick.” She turned her head and saw the deep grooves I had left in the imposing obstacle.
“Do you think our friends are ok?” she asked softly.
“They are providing just the distraction we need.” I nodded. “Arla is more than capable in a fight and Billy’s spirits are immune to normal weapons. Nevertheless, I’m sure they would appreciate our help.” I took her chin gently and turned her face toward me brushing a soft kiss across her dry lips. “Mi corazón, think hard. You know this prison well. Do you know a way out?”
Dream Magic Page 35
