Paladin (Graven Gods Book 1)

by Angela Knight

  I recognized several of them, particularly the huge white wolf with eyes like sapphires. His name was Nix, and he was sprawled at the feet of a gorgeous dark haired woman I belatedly recognized as Opal, Zanos-James’s daughter. She bore a marked resemblance to her father in the shape of her face and vivid green eyes, but she also radiated an air of tough competence that suggested the resemblance was more than skin deep. She’d always been serious and intense even as a kid, mostly because her avatar mother had died when she was very young. To make matters worse, her mom’s goddess had been devoured by the dark god who killed her. Zanos-James never got over her death, and Opal had grown up worried she’d somehow fail him and Zanos.

  Opal noticed me watching her and came over, Nyx at her heels. “I heard you two finally broke that spell. Good.” She shook my hand, her grip firm and sure as Nyx and Calliope exchanged murmured comments. “He’s been worrying about that for months. Especially since Valak started actively stalking you a couple of nights ago. He was terrified the bastard would hurt you when he couldn’t do anything to help.”

  “Thanks for watching his back for me.”

  She smiled. “He’s a good partner. I’ve been lucky to have him.”

  The note of affection in her voice sent a knee-jerk jolt of jealousy through me.

  “You’ve got nothing to worry about,” Paladin told me. “Opal doesn’t swing that way.”

  “Opal’s gay?” I asked, surprised.

  “Other way around. Our plumbing’s female, remember?”

  Opal laughed. “I’d love to know the conversation you two just had. That’s a really interesting expression you’re wearing.”

  I felt my cheeks catch fire, and knew I was blushing like a cherry tomato. “Umm. Yeah.”

  “And you’re not going to satisfy my curiosity.” She sighed. “I’m used to it. Occupational hazard of hanging around avatars.”

  Before I groped my way out of that one, white wings fluttered overhead. Zanos-James’s hawk, Rizoel, came in for a landing as he held out a forearm for her. The bird apparently made a habit out of it, because he wore a thick leather bracer to give her a place to perch. “Opal,” Zanos-James said, and gestured her over.

  “Looks like you’re off the hook.” Opal waved two fingers. “Later.” She knelt beside her father, giving the hawk’s head a stroke.

  I’m not sure I’d have had the guts to do that. Rizoel was the biggest fucking bird I’d ever seen, with plumage white as a snowbank. Her crimson eyes had a tendency to glow, either from reflected firelight or her own raw magic. I wouldn’t like to be on the receiving end of her claws or vicious beak. She looked like she could disembowel a bear.

  “You’re not far wrong,” Paladin told me. “Rizoel can do a hell of a lot of damage for something that only weighs about fifteen pounds. Then again, she’s also got a seven-foot wingspan. Impressive as hell.”

  Just then a unicorn filly ran past the campfire, delicate cloven hooves thumping on the leaves, spindly legs flashing. Her white coat seemed to glow, her spiral horn glowing with a pearlescent luminance. Magic streamed in the little beast’s wake, along with a gaggle of kids in hot pursuit.

  A moment later, the kids shot past again, this time going the other way, shrieking with laughter. The filly chased after them, head down, horn inches from one kid’s backside. The kid in question arched his hips forward, yelping in alarm.

  “Watch it with that horn, Hannah!” a striking platinum blonde called from the other side of the campfire. I recognized her -- Diana Sanders, part-time unicorn and full-time magical doctor. “If I have to heal some kid’s butt because you accidentally gored it, I’m not going to be happy.”

  The filly slowed to a trot as her desperate prey accelerated to safety. “I’ll be careful, Mama!”

  “You’d better be.”

  Ulf-Mark rose from his seat across the fire and approached me. “Would you like to take a walk?” he asked, then dropped his voice. “Maybe talk a little more privately?”

  No, Paladin thought, though he didn’t say it out loud.

  Mostly to get under his skin, I gave Mark a smile. “Sure.” As I started to rise to follow him, Calliope scrambled up onto my shoulder and balanced there with feline ease.

  Ulf-Mark gave her a look, and I wondered if he’d prefer to do without the furry chaperone.

  Calliope just looked at him, and I felt her tail metronome against my shoulder blades. She was definitely not happy about something. I wondered if it was the same thing bugging Paladin.

  What the hell was all of this building up to?

  When we were out of the immediate hearing of the campfire, Ulf-Mark turned to me, pointedly ignoring the cat. “I was wondering if you’d like to go out?” It was definitely Mark doing the asking -- that intimate little purr sounded nothing at all like Ulf.

  I gave him my best flirtatious smile, in part to see what Paladin would do. He growled. I pretended to ignore him. “What do you have in mind?”

  Mark smiled back, his mouth an intimate curve. “Dinner? We can talk about old times.”

  I was willing to bet he wanted to talk about a lot more than old times. In fact, I was pretty sure he wanted to talk about that arranged relationship our parents had once discussed.

  I hesitated, but I knew my responsibilities, no matter how late I was getting around to them. “I’d love to.”

  “How does Olivier’s sound?”

  I blinked. I had eaten there exactly once. “Sounds delicious. I’d love to.” It would also probably set him back a couple hundred bucks; Olivier’s was not cheap.

  I’d have to go shopping for a dress, I decided after a quick mental review of my closet. My wardrobe ran more to hipster and cosplay then the kind of casual elegance that would be expected at Olivier’s.

  Mark smiled at me, flashing pleased white teeth. They were as straight and perfect as the rest of him. “Friday at seven?”

  “I’ll be ready.”

  “Hey, great. I’ll see you then.” He gestured toward the clearing where we’d left the others. “In the meantime, we’d better get back before Zanos-James sends out a search party.”

  Before I could start in that direction, Paladin said, “I’m feeling a little restless. I think I’ll walk for a bit before tonight’s patrol.”

  Ulf-Mark hesitated. “Ah. All right, then. Until Friday.” He leaned down and gave me a chaste little peck on the cheek that I thought probably came more from Ulf than Mark.

  With that he strode off. I had to admit, he had a very nice ass. The rest of his body had felt just as strong and temptingly hard against mine. And yet…

  “Don’t ogle that puppy.” Paladin spoke out loud, something he rarely did.

  I blinked. “Ogle? I wasn’t ogling him.”

  “Please. You may be able to fool yourself, but I know differently.”

  “She could do worse,” Calliope put in her two cents from my shoulder. “Mark has excellent bloodlines. His magic is strong even without Ulf’s considerable power.”

  “There’s plenty of time yet,” Paladin said. “She needs to adjust to being an avatar before she worries about that.”

  “Summer’s the last of her line, Paladin. She needs to start producing the next generation. And how long do you think Ulf-Mark’s going to just wait around? If we’re not careful, someone else is going to snap him up.” She leaned in, staring deeply into my eyes. I realized she was no longer talking to me. “No matter how much you enjoy what you have, no matter how rich it may seem to you, it can’t go anywhere. You’re going to have to back off, Paladin. You’ve got to let her marry Mark -- or someone like him -- and get on with her life. And you know it.”

  At those words, a wave of rage and fear flashed through me. And it wasn’t mine. Paladin was definitely not happy. “Go back to the fire, Calliope.”

  The cat’s tail lashed. “Paladin…”

  “Now!” His voice came out of my mouth far deeper and louder than I had ever heard it, even in battle.

  “D
amn it, Paladin, you know better than this.” But she jumped down from her perch and stalked off into the brush.

  He was suddenly just there, blocking my view of the retreating cat. Towering over me, he stood with his big feet braced apart in an aggressive male stance. Heat blazed in his eyes, boiling off him like a forge. I could almost feel it on the skin of my face, a prickle as sweat broke out along my upper lip. My nipples hardened in helpless reaction.

  He made Mark look like a boy, unfinished and too young. Lust stabbed me, and I swallowed, knowing exactly what he wanted. It was a lot more than a walk in the woods. “Do we have time for this?” I thought at him.

  Paladin grinned, fierce and wolf-feral. “We’re going to make time.”

  “But Zanos-James said we need to patrol…”

  “We will.” He bared his teeth. “Later. Now, run.”

  Which was ludicrous, and I knew it. It wasn’t as if I could outrun him -- he was me. Yet my body insisted otherwise, feminine instincts purring in response to his sheer erotic threat.

  So I ran.

  I tore through the woods, bounding like a deer, far faster than I’d ever run in my life. Far faster than I’d known I could run. Thanks to the restrictions of Paladin’s spell, I’d had no idea what I could do. It was exhilarating -- and terrifying.

  And I loved it.

  Adding to the excitement was the thud of booted footsteps behind me. Paladin, chasing me. Relentless in his erotic hunger. If he caught me…

  When he caught me. Even if he’d been flesh and blood, he was so much taller, so much stronger, I didn’t have a prayer of outrunning him.

  Still, I was determined to make him work for it, if only in fantasy. Besides, I wanted to find out what my Demi body was really capable of. Though how did I know any of this was actually happening anywhere but inside my head? Chances were good it wasn’t.

  Just Paladin, playing with me again.

  He was so damned good at playing with me. Playing me, with those magic fingers dancing on my strings. I was his instrument -- or maybe puppet. Hell, both. Helpless as he swept me up and wrapped me in sweet illusion until I didn’t know what was real anymore.

  And didn’t really give a shit.

  All I cared about was Paladin and the games we played. And the way he made me feel. I knew I’d never experience anything like this with Ulf-Mark.

  And I was going to enjoy every minute of it -- whatever the hell it was -- as long as I could before it ended. Before I was forced to give up my beautiful illusion.

  I stretched out and ran, ignoring the slap of the brush I raced through. My clothes had disappeared. When had that happened? No idea, but I was definitely naked now.

  Briars should have chewed me to hamburger as I bounced through the bushes like a giant jackrabbit. And yes, I did feel the sting of long branches whipping my ass and flanks as I plunged along, but I was just masochistic enough to enjoy that bite. Especially since I had the feeling Paladin was using it to build my arousal.

  “My wicked master.”

  “My wicked slave.” A deep male laugh echoed in my mind.

  I darted around a trio of trees too closely packed to permit me to pass, jumped a fallen tree, and…

  Almost ran head-on into Paladin.

  I skidded in the leaves, twisting aside as he lunged for me, one big hand reaching. How the hell had he gotten ahead of me? I’d heard him behind me a second ago… I whirled, shot back the opposite way…

  And there he was, right in front of me. “God damn it, no fair!” I yelled, half laughing, as he snatched me off my feet and into his arms.

  “Who said anything about playing fair?” And his sensual mouth swooped down on mine in a hard, claiming kiss, tongue sweeping inside, one hand curling in my hair to keep me still.

  I twisted in his arms, more on general principle than out of any real desire to escape. Bracing one foot down on the ground, I curled the other against his calf, and jerked one way while simultaneously pushing the other, trying to knock him off his feet. Only to feel another hard, half-naked male body press against my back, trapping me between him and Paladin. I yelped, startled, and pulled free of the kiss long enough to jerk my head around. Had Ulf-Mark…

  Behind me, another Paladin grinned, his wicked expression precisely matching the grin the first one wore. “Now this,” he purred, “has possibilities.”

  I gasped, staring wildly from one handsome face to the other. “What, you’re your own evil twin now?”

  “Well, you always did have that threesome fantasy…”

  “And I’m far too possessive to share,” his twin finished, his tone wickedly suggestive.

  One of them cupped my breast, thumb brushing back and forth, sending bright sparks of pleasure up my spine. The one who had his fist in my hair swooped back in for another long deep, luscious kiss, tongue swirling and teasing. The other went after my ear, nibbling teeth making me shiver at the delicious sensation. He worked his way downward along the ridge of a tendon, licking and biting gently, finding every exquisitely sensitive nerve, even as his fingers tugged and twisted my nipple.

  “Palaaaaaadiiiinnnn,” I moaned, as both of them stroked, licked, tasted, until I jerked my head back in order to gasp in a desperate breath.

  “Mmmm,” one Paladin said, “She’s so ripe, so delicious…”

  “So wet.” The other dragged in a deep breath and grinned like a devil. “Smell that pussy.”

  “I’ll bet we can get her wetter.” He snapped his fingers, and light flared. Something small and metallic filled his palm. He displayed the objects -- a pair of clamps with long needle jaws. I sucked in a breath. Despite my taste for kinky reading material, there was a lot I’d never actually experienced. Paladin opened the jaws of one clamp, and let them close over the jut of my right nipple.

  I yelped at the stinging bite. “That hurts!”

  “Hush.” He dropped to his knees and scooped me right off the ground. The other Paladin steadied me as he draped my thighs over his shoulders. Instinctively grabbing the first one’s shoulders, I looked down to see him duck his head, his mouth covering my pussy. His tongue found my clit in a hot lick that made me gasp as I fought to balance on his shoulders.

  Perversely, the vulnerable position only made my situation more arousing. As if it wasn’t already kinky enough.

  The Paladin behind me caught my jaw, turned my head, and kissed me, deep and fierce. I kissed him back, closing my eyes, the better to appreciate the swirl of his tongue twirling around mine as his twin suckled my clit.

  The Paladin holding me on his shoulders managed to thrust his thumb into my pussy, working it in and out as he ate at me with delicate greed. I gasped into the mouth of the one kissing me as he played with the clamp, releasing its grip only to let it close again, open and close, open and close. Stinging little bites that maddened me as the first one pumped his thumb in my cunt and ate me as if I was something juicy and impossibly delicious. I panted against his lips, half crazed.

  “You like that, don’t you?” he murmured, cradling my jaw with his free hand, his thumb brushing my lower lip.

  “Yes! Oh, Elder Gods…” Breathless, dizzy, I clung to him as sensation stacked on sensation.

  A hand slapped the outside of my thigh, making me jump on Paladin’s shoulders, grinding my pussy against his face.

  The one behind me studied my face. Grinned, dark and predatory. He gestured, painting sparks through the air, and wide steel cuffs appeared around my wrists and ankles. Before I could even yelp, his magic hauled into the air with a rattle of chains.

  “Bend her over,” the Paladin who’d been eating me told his twin. He rose, shaking out a light cat-o’nine whip that had appeared in his hand between one blink and the next.

  The twin grinned like a like a fox, making another of those sweeping flicks of his fingers. A padded barrel appeared under my hips, lifting my ass higher than my head as the chains pulled tight.

  “God, I love that rump,” one of them murmured.

>   “Shaped just like a peach,” the other agreed. “A very ripe peach.”

  “Needs a few stripes, though.”

  I craned my head around to watch the muscle work in the Paladin’s powerful chest as he drew back the cat and flicked it across my helplessly upturned ass. The sting made me yelp, my head snapping back, my hair flying around my face.

  The clamp that still clung stubbornly to my nipple suddenly morphed into a mouth. Or what felt like one, anyway, suckling, tongue swirling, the sensation so vivid I looked down in surprise, half expecting to find a third Paladin down there.

  But no, there was only the clamp, dangling from my erect nipple. It should sting, but all I felt was the gentle nibble of teeth and the swirl of a tongue over the hard peak. Which made no sense whatsoever, considering the clamp had no lips, tongue or teeth.

  Then again, what difference did that make? Paladin could make me feel anything, see anything, hear anything.

  “Exactly,” he rumbled, his voice a velvet brush over my skin, whiskey on my tongue, cool wind across my nipples. “Your body, your senses, your mind obey my will. I’m going to give you pleasure you’ll never know with a human man, Demi or not.”

  The whip hissed, and fell between the cheeks of my ass, feeling like the wet stroke of a tongue running between lips to clit, only to finish with a sharp sting that made me jerk.

  “Fuck!” I gasped.

  “We’ll get to that,” he told me, “But not just yet.”

  He began to stroll around me, his twin keeping pace in long, lazy strides. Both of them held cats now, their falls made of soft deerskin. Lazily, they started peppering me with strokes, across my shoulders, ass, the backs of my thighs. Sometimes the blows landed as hot impacts, but just as often I tasted chocolate or some ripe, juicy fruit, heard musical notes or the stroke of feathers swirling over my skin. Pleasure and pain, ice and warmth, unpredictable and delicious, until my mind was lost in a jumble of delight, straining for the next lovely sensation.

  Paladin gestured, and the chains hauled me upright until my bare feet touched the forest floor and my arms stretched helplessly wide. He stepped in close, flicking the whip across my erect nipples, stings alternating with the brush of mink or ice or feathers. At the same time, his twin moved behind me to ply his whip between my thighs, beating gentle tongue-strokes and fire flicks, hot and unpredictable, pain that only made the pleasure more intense.