Ethan let out the breath he’d been holding, relieved the others would be spared. “I am her champion.”
“Of course you are, troll.” The revenant’s lips drew up in a derisive snarl. “You reach beyond your birth. Born a troll, you should have been satisfied to crawl out from under your bridge.”
Ethan’s back stiffened with anger blasting hot throughout his body. “I am a troll, and proudly so. I stand as champion for the witch and her sisters. Should I prevail, you will leave us alone. All of us. The women will have their choice of mates. The Others in this circle will stand outside your rule.”
The old one’s gaze swept the circle. “If he wins, you will be dead to us. Outside our protection. Banished forever. Should you cross paths with the righteous, there will be no sanctions should they kill you.” He drew back his head, lifting his chin. “Should you lose, troll, the witches will be returned to their masters. Your friends will be made slaves. All that you have achieved for yourselves will be lost.”
Ethan sucked in a deep breath. He glanced around him at his friends. Their faces were drawn into harsh lines, but to a man, they gave him nods. “So be it. Unleash your hound.”
Before he had a chance to move away and brace for the impact, the hellhound lunged. Ethan was too close to the circle, too close to Bryn and the men next to him. He roared and grappled with the hound’s fur, afraid to release the hellhound in case it hurt those around him.
The hound went for his throat, teeth bared and snapping. Ethan gripped its neck and held it back, rolling with it away from the circle. His grip gave.
A snap ripped into his shoulder.
Ethan bellowed with rage.
The hellhound leapt away, and Ethan pushed up from the ground, felt blood roll down his shoulder. He tried to curl his left fist, but it dangled there.
Fury beat inside his chest. He was far enough away now. Bryn, close your eyes! He roared and shook his head. Beat his chest with his good fist and wakened his inner demon. As quickly as he summoned it, his mind drew away, looking down on his body as he lumbered toward the hound.
“Water, Fire, Earth and Air,
Elementals, hear our prayers.
Wash away our warrior’s pain.
Make his fists as swift as licking flame.
Let the ground shake beneath his mighty frame.
Let winds blow, the sky bellow, and his mighty hammer crush.
Water, Fire, Earth and Air…”
He glanced toward the women, but their mouths weren’t moving. And yet he heard the chanting, felt it inside him, growing louder.
Liliana screeched and rushed past the old one, who caught her with one of his slender hands. Again, she shouted and jerked against his hold. “They’re interfering!” she said, pointing at the women. “They’re helping him.”
The old one lowered his face to hers. “They are praying to your Goddess. Why can’t you do the same?”
She jerked again, pulled free, and rushed past him, her arms raised, light shooting from her fingertips.
Ethan felt searing heat explode against his side. He jerked and was instantly back inside the beast, facing another lunge from the hound that took him to the ground.
From the corner of his eye, he watched the old one grip Liliana’s long blonde hair, halting her. Her eyes grew wide. Her lips drew back in a snarl as she gave Ethan a lethal glare. Again, she raised her hand, pointing fingers.
The revenant behind her, gave her long tresses a violent shake, using it like a whip. Her neck broke. She fell like a ragdoll to the ground.
The hellhound standing on Ethan’s chest raised his head and bellowed, letting loose a deafening squall.
Ethan swatted him aside, flipped upward to his feet, and launched himself at the hound who was writhing now on the ground. He might only have a few moments before the hellhound recovered from the painful withdrawal from Liliana’s power.
“Water, Fire, Earth and Air…” The men’s voices joined the chant inside his head. He felt lighter, his steps no longer leaden. He balled his good fist and hammered down on the hellhound’s skull. A sickening thud sounded as it gave.
All was suddenly silent. Lightning raced across the sky, and a moment later, rain pelted him. He sagged to his knees beside the large, furred body, all strength gone.
Arms surrounded him. Bryn hugged him, burying her face against chest. It was over. Rain was Thor’s blessing. Thunder cracked but lightning never touched the field.
He glanced back to the gathering army. But the field was empty, except for Merrick’s furry corpse and Liliana’s body, her pale eyes unblinking. Ethan rose on unsteady legs and pulled Bryn away from the gruesome sight.
The torches hissed and went out one by one. The moon was cloaked by clouds. The witches and his demon friends stood silently in the darkness.
Aoife cleared her throat timidly. “Does anyone remember where we left our clothes?”
Bryn stood near the bedroom door as Radha worked her healing magic on the wound to Ethan’s shoulder. The hound had ripped through muscle, torn the troll’s cross on his arm. Radha had stitched him up, because Bryn’s own hands were still shaking too much to hold a needle. And now, Radha laid her hands on the wound to seal the edges of the laced skin, her head lowered.
Ethan hissed, but when her sister pulled back her hand, the raw skin was closed and a healthy pink.
“Make a fist,” Radha said and then smiled as Ethan complied. “All better. Too bad I don’t have a SpongeBob Band-Aid to cover it with.”
Ethan snorted and a tired smile revealed a flash of his white teeth. “Thank you, Radha.” He lifted his head to take in the entire group. “Thank you all. I wouldn’t have survived without your help.”
“Liliana lost the battle,” Darcy said. “The moment she tried to enter the fight against the council’s wishes, she lost.”
No one mentioned her horrible death. And Bryn hadn’t asked what had happened to the bodies on the field. She didn’t want to know. “Yes, thank you all,” she said, “but he needs rest now.”
Covered in bits of grass, mud and blood, Ethan sat with a towel over his privates on the edge of the bed. He’d been in too much pain to dress on the field, and Renner and Sigurd had carried him back between them. The journey back had seemed a crawl.
The women stopped to give her hugs as everyone headed out. Bryn’s shoulders lowered. She was exhausted. Beyond tired. And at the back of it, she was also numb. Where did they stand now? Would the men regret the fact they had sunk their futures within the demon realm by siding with them?
“Bryn, come here.”
She hurried over to Ethan. “Do you need help to get into bed?”
He quirked an eyebrow. “Radha has me well on my way to healing. And the tea she forced down my throat before she started sewing me like a quilt took away the pain. I’m fine. But you look spent.” He patted his knee. “I need you here.”
Gingerly, she lowered to his knee, careful of the many scratches to his neck and shoulders as she wrapped her arm around him. It was a strong knee. Thick, powerful. She leaned her head against him, breathing in his musky scent.
“I know. I need a bath.”
She shook her head against his skin. “A shower. She closed the wound, but I don’t trust you might open a stitch all the same.”
“I’m not sure I can manage a shower on my own.”
His tone gave his intentions away. There was a hint of passion and humor in the deep rumble.
She smoothed her hand down his belly and beneath the towel to cup his cock.
He ringed his fingers around her wrist and pulled it away. “We bathe first. I don’t want to fuck you with his blood on me.”
“I’ll help you—seeing as how weak you are,” she drawled.
They shared wry smiles before she slid off his knee and headed to the bathroom where she gathered towels and washcloths. She started the water, letting it shower over her fingers until it warmed.
“It’s ready,” she said and turned
, bumping into his chest because he stood so close.
He skimmed her robe upward. She raised her hands. The garment went sailing. She stepped into the shower with his hands cupping her ass, and the water fell like a gentle rain, wetting her hair and face. She went to the back of the tiled shower, away from the spray, and waited for him to enter. Ethan’s large frame crowded into the space, and he stood with his back to the falling water, staring down at her.
This was a new experience for her. Bathing with a man. Merrick hadn’t been romantic. Hadn’t wanted her except when he was hungry, and she was the only one near to give him satisfaction. Ethan seemed to crave her company every bit as she hungered for his.
When he reached for her and began to roam his hands over her skin, she stepped away. “Let me bathe you. Please.”
Ethan’s expression was set, impossible to read, but he dropped his hands.
After soaping a washcloth, Bryn skirted around him. She started with the back of his shoulders and washed in small circular movements down his back to the tops of his buttocks, avoiding any raw scratches. Shy of touching him there, she moved around him, letting the water wash away the soap on his back and keeping her head ducked because her cheeks were heating. She gently washed his chest, moved the cloth over his ribs and lower abdomen and then, taking a deep breath, she knelt at his feet.
Ethan leaned back and put his head beneath the water, letting it sluice down his chest. She watched the fat rivulets trace over the ridges of muscle, snaking downward to the hair at his groin.
She set aside the cloth and leaned toward him, following instinct. She needed to touch him, to kiss him, to hold him in her mouth. Her tongue followed the downward curve of his semi-flaccid cock. She gathered him in her hands and opened her mouth, taking as much of his sex inside as she could hold. Then she slowly drew on him, backing away as he filled, her lips sucking, drawing on him, coaxing him into a full erection.
He made no sounds, but she couldn’t help the whimpers she emitted, the ragged sobs that began to shake her as she pleasured him. He might have been lost to her forever. They both might have died. The child that might be growing inside her would have been another casualty.
He bracketed his hands around her face and held her away. “Don’t, Bryn. Don’t think about it. We’re both here. Safe. Together.”
She bent her head, and her soggy locks trailed toward the tiled floor. “I had doubts. I thought that if you lost it would be because my belief in you wasn’t strong enough.”
“I had doubts, too. He was stronger than I’d expected. Larger. But the moment I felt you inside me, heard you in my head, hope grew. You gave me strength.”
She glanced up, past his thickened cock to his smoky-dark eyes. “I need you.” It was all she could manage to say. She wanted him, needed that fundamental connection, the locking of their bodies together in a lover’s knot.
Ethan reached down his hands, slipped them under her arms, and drew her upward. They stood beneath the water, warm and wet, cleansed of blood and dirt. New.
He cupped her cheeks, stroked a thumb over her bottom lip, and then bent and pressed his mouth against hers.
She opened, inviting the slide of his tongue. She coaxed him deeper, sucking on him, grinding her mouth against his. When he pulled away, they were both breathing hard.
He reached for the faucet and gave it a whirl, not tearing his gaze from hers. He slid back the glass door and walked her out, gripping her waist to set her on the counter.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and leaned back on her hands, glancing down to where he was fitting himself against her folds. So thick. So strong. More beast than man there. Perfect.
“Troll,” she whispered.
His gaze darted to her face, his brows pulling together in a questioning frown.
“I love you. All of you.”
His expression darkened. His nostrils flared, pupils enlarging to consume the irises, and then a greenish glow began to pulse. “I love you too, witch,” he growled.
With his strong hands clutching her hips to hold her still, he filled her with a single, thrilling thrust.
Bryn tossed back her hair and squeezed herself around him, daring her green-eyed troll with her eyes to give her everything he had. She could take him. All of him.
Epilogue
‡
Bryn and her sisters were hurrying. They’d promised to provide the food for the celebration of the bridge opening, but wrangling witches was like herding cats—impossible.
Aoife arrived late at Bryn’s. She was having a hard time that morning figuring out which dress made her look less fat, the blue or the green? Then she worried that both matched her eye color too closely. “Will they think I’m vain if I match my dress to my eyes?” she asked, holding up both hangers beside her face. “Maybe I should go back home and get the pink.”
“No!” Bryn said, gripping her waist and turning her toward the bathroom. “Wear the blue. Guys won’t notice the color of your dress—just that your ass looks nice. The blue hugs it.” As the door closed, Bryn closed her eyes. “Did you even remember to bring the deviled eggs?” she shouted through the door.
“They’re on the front seat of my car.”
Bryn went to the parlor door and pushed it open. “Renn!” she shouted.
He came at a lope. “What do you need?”
“Aoife left a tray of deviled eggs on her front seat.”
“Got it.” He loped away.
“I hope like hell they’re still cold.” She turned back to the women still moving franticly around the kitchen that seemed to grow smaller by the minute. “Radha, how’s that chicken?”
Radha set a huge pan topped with foil on the butcher block. “Marinated, ready for the grill.”
“Get it out of here.”
Radha opened the door onto the porch. “I need muscles!”
Khan popped into the opening.
She pointed at the pan. “Make sure this gets to the grill. Don’t let that foil slip. I don’t want flies or dirt in the meat.”
Khan strode to the counter, hefted the pan, and paused to bow over it as he locked his gaze with Radha’s. “Your wish, as ever, is my command.”
Radha rolled her eyes even as her cheeks blushed a fiery red. When he was gone, she glanced at Bryn. “I think all that jinn eagerness to fulfill my wishes is getting to me.”
Bryn didn’t have time to spare a laugh. “Ladies, gather the salads. We’re late.”
Darcy stacked three dishes and leaned them against her chest, but the moment she stepped onto the porch, the dishes were lifted away. “Hey,” she called after yet another tall, handsome demon. She glanced back at Bryn, her frown easing as a wicked smile curved her mouth. “It’s a little unnerving how they wait around every corner to lend a hand.”
Miren snorted. “It’s because they want to slip their hands under our clothes.”
“No harm in that,” Darcy said, stepping down the stairs. “So long as there’s no echoing goin’ on.” She waggled her eyebrows and sauntered toward the cars.
Miren glanced at Bryn. “Her dance card is full. A different date every night, and sometimes more than one at a time.” Miren shook her head. “She’s asking for trouble.”
Bryn only smiled. “Well, if it’s trouble she wants, let her enjoy it.”
The barbeque beside the river was a huge success. Children ran across the newly completed bridge. Parents tried to keep them from crawling on the girders, but it was too new, too impressive not to be the focal point of everyone’s attention.
“You did yourself proud,” Bryn said, leaning back against Ethan’s chest.
The bridge was a swing bridge, one that moved to the side to allow tall watercraft to pass, something Miren was very appreciative of. If the bridge had been fixed, some of her trawlers would have had to take a longer route through the canals to reach Barataria Bay. And during storms, when the waters rose, the bridge could be moved out of the way of floating debris, making it less likely
to ever be swept away again.
“Not still worried that the outside world might find you?”
“I have you. Why should I be worried?”
He moved his hand down to her belly and flattened his palm against the almost imperceptible bump. “I’ve been thinking.”
“Sounds dangerous. Trolls thinking…”
He chuckled. They were both well past taking any affront. Troll and witch were true terms of endearment. “I’ve been thinking, we should marry.”
She angled her head to look up into his face. “We’re already bound. Why do we need a human ceremony?”
“Our child will be going to school with human children here in Bonne Nuit.”
Bryn snorted. “Bonne Nuit doesn’t have a school. It’s not big enough.”
“It will be.” He turned her and looped his arms around the small of her back. “The town’s about to experience a boom.”
“One child is not a boom.”
“Vindlér Construction is moving its headquarters here. That means more houses, more families…”
Her eyes widened. “But you talked about commuting.”
“I don’t like the thought of working so far away. And the rest of the men like it here. We’ve set our sights on a certain plot of land.”
Her eyebrows rose. “The clearing?” The plain was the only place large enough to hold it. “What about our oak?”
“It stays. We won’t encroach too closely. You’ll still be able to dance in the moonlight.”
She smoothed her hands up his chest, around the back of his neck to touch his hair. She dragged her fingertips through it. “You’d do that for us?”
“If you’d like that. If you don’t think we’ll change what this place is to you.”
She lifted on her tiptoes and kissed his mouth. “We’ve talked. All the women were worried about the men drifting away. We didn’t know our isolation was so lonely until you came. I know they’ll be happy. You make us feel safe.”
He held her gaze for a long moment, and then nodded. “I’ll make it happen. And you’ll all have a say in how this works. You and your sisters are the center of life here in Bonne Nuit. There’s not a soul, demon or human, who doesn’t know that.” He cleared his throat. “So back to the subject. We should marry.”
Beaux Rêve Coven 01 - Once in a Blue Moon Page 7
