He grinned, “Yeah that happens around here.” The way he said it made me wonder if Snick’s duties stretched to the barracks floor and how that might look to some of the newest recruits. Especially those he might not like.
“Would you like something to drink?” I asked, leading him down the hall and into the kitchen. He nodded and I got a couple of glasses of water. “So I need to tell you there are some things I can’t tell you, but most of my life is an open book. I can tell you that the things I won’t tell you could get you killed, and I know that’s not fair, but knowing these things might get you killed faster than you not knowing them. And hopefully you’ll respect me enough to trust that.”
“And if I can’t.”
“Then I’ll ask Areth to pay you a visit. Given what she did upstairs, I’m certain she could remove the knowledge that there’s something I haven’t told you so you won’t be burdened by the thoughts anymore.”
He mulled that over for a moment as we wandered out to the living room and seated ourselves on the couch. “Sounds like there’s not much I can do about this. Take you at your word or have my mind wiped.”
“Hardly wiped,” I said as I sipped my water, but I got his meaning, just as he’d gotten mine. “Let me tell you the rest, I think you’ll agree there is more than enough to worry about.” And I did. I told him everything, including who my Mother was and how I’d grown up. I told him about my abilities. I might have misdirected him slightly when I told him I was half Elf and half Dragon and that it had caused me to exhibit some strange powers. And I might have fibbed when I inferred that no one knew about my Mother because we didn’t want to embarrass her family. After all, a Dragon and an Elf… very taboo.
I explained about my training and my education. I even told him I’d never had sex before Jace and Gareth, something I thought he should know since I didn’t want him thinking there were any ex-lovers who might rear their ugly heads. The one thing I didn’t tell him was that I’d been lab enhanced. That little tidbit I kept to myself. I hesitated over telling him my hunter status, but in the end I explained that I put in my time and had simply moved to San Francisco, and had not been contacted since. He didn’t seem unduly surprised, so perhaps it wasn’t that uncommon, or perhaps he just thought they were monitoring me and now that I’d ended up here it wouldn’t be a problem. Either way I was happy he didn’t press the issue.
We chatted for about half an hour, he asking questions and me answering. At the end he seemed satisfied and then the conversation turned to training, and as Jace suspected, he asked if I would assist him. A little give back to the community, so to speak. I gladly accepted and he went away promising to put together a schedule for me if I’d come to the cavern tomorrow so we could go over it together. When he was gone I put away our glasses and headed back to my room.
I wandered around wondering what to do with myself. Noticed that my watch had been relocated to my nightstand and put it on. Hard to believe it was already after eight and Jace and Gareth had probably already opened the club. Hunting seemed to be off my list of things to do so that was no help. I considered making dinner but nixed the idea immediately; I couldn’t see Jace or Gareth thanking me for burning down their kitchen. I considered mediating, but the thought nearly put me asleep. I’d spent too much time in water lately to want to soak in the tub and I wasn’t really one for reading or movies. Although I suppose if I was forced to I could sit through some mindless comedy. I moved from picture to picture while I was trying to figure out how to occupy my time and ended up standing in front of the picture with the Elves.
Jace had said no flute playing, but I’d been playing the flute since I was a child and nothing had ever happened. I glanced over my shoulder at the bookcase and the flute shining back at me like some forbidden fruit, all pretty and begging to be plucked up. I proceeded to argue with myself for several minutes but in the end boredom won out and I lifted it from its display and carried it to my bed, pulled up my full skirted dress and settled it around me as I sat cross legged in the middle, then lifted the flute to my lips.
I took several minutes and warmed up, playing scales to loosen my fingers. And then I played, and the music that came from the flute was pure and sweet and filled the room and hall with golden sound. At first the music was slow and almost tired, reflecting perhaps, my boredom. But as I continued to play I let myself think back over the past two days and the music changed, became more powerful, alluring and seductive. I filled the rooms with the sound of my feelings of discovery and intimacy, pouring into each note the sweet rapture of Jace and Gareth’s arms as we lay entwined. I closed my eyes and played as I relived the first touch, the caress of skin on skin, of breaths mingling in the dark, building to crescendo only to fall back to start again. And the music became joyfully wistful as I imagined the nights to come and the promise of shared pleasures yet unknown.
I played until my brow became damp and I could no longer feel my feet or legs. And still the music poured from me and there was a strange sense of urgency, as if I was racing toward something and I played faster, though my arms shook and I had trouble filling my lungs, yet the music spilled from me until there was nothing but the wanting and the needing for more. And finally I was done. The flute rolled out of my numb fingers fell to the bed. Eyes still closed, I hung my head and tried to remember how to breathe.
As I sat there gulping air, a sound intruded. Something that shouldn’t be there pulled my eyes open and lifted my head. It was a small sound which caused Goldy to open an eye and raise her head. And it was such a small sound to have come from someone so… imposing. A certain someone I appeared to have conjured straight out of the portrait that hung to the side and just behind him. A someone that looked not quite Elf, with long dark hair and very dark almond shaped eyes, who was currently leaning one booted foot on my desk chair, arms crossed over his well developed and mostly bare chest, staring at me with a look of complete annoyance. He looked… like he’d stepped off the cover of a non-human romance novel. All high cheekbones, pointy ears and sculpted muscles, wearing tight leather pants tucked into high boots with a matching vest that was only partially tied closed. Did people actually dress like this in real life?
I stared back at him and straightened my legs while hot needles exploded in my calves and I wondered if I would be able to defend myself if he decided to attack me. Note to self, don’t cross legs while playing the flute. He neither moved nor spoke, just continued to glare at me and I couldn’t determine if he was being polite, or perhaps he just couldn’t speak?
“Hello,” I finally told him. He continued to stare at me and made no comment so I tried again. “I’m Lexi, and you are?”
He heaved an annoyed sigh. “Cursed,” he finally mumbled, then dragged his foot off my chair and took a step to the side so he could bow deeply to me.
Figuring that was his state of mind and not his name, I wasn’t sure how to respond, so I picked up my flute and edged toward the side of the bed. I didn’t wish to seem forward and sitting on my bed with a strange man in my room seemed almost an invitation. Not that he wasn’t yummy looking, or that I hadn’t had sex with total strangers before, I just didn’t think any of us were going there at the moment and decided it might be prudent to prevent him from getting the wrong idea.
“And how can I assist you?” I asked, as I stepped down to the floor and realized he was nearly as tall as Owen was, though not quite as broad through the shoulders. He must have topped Gareth by at least three inches.
His lips pressed flat and the skin below his eyes grew tight as he watched me walk to the bookcase and lay my flute in its holder. I didn’t quite turn my back to him but it was a near thing. He moved fast, faster than I’d ever seen anyone move. I know this because I was suddenly pressed up against the bookcase with a knife at my throat. Lucky for me I don’t typically panic or I might have impaled myself. Actually I was busy wondering where he’d hidden the knife, in his boot or down his back maybe?
His eyes were
huge black pits filled with a near hatred, yet I stared calmly up at him. My hands hung at my sides and while I should have been frightened, I just couldn’t find it in me. “You will not hurt me,” I told him and smiled serenely into the maelstrom of his emotions.
He grimaced and stepped back from me, his look of rage slowly being replaced by one of confusion and…almost despair. “I could kill you,” he hissed and I noticed he had a slight lilting to his voice, a strange sort of accent.
“Too late,” I told him abruptly and I just knew that what I said was the truth. That we were now bound together, somehow our fates entwined. A premonition? Perhaps. I stepped away from the book case and my eyes drew his to the picture he had been standing in front of. I tilted my head to the side and told him. “When you first appeared, while I played… that was the only time you could have freed yourself. But only had you struck at that moment.”
His face went blank as his gaze followed mine and he looked at the picture of him kneeling at my feet. “Though I hate this, I could not,” he growled. Turning back to me, he immediately dropped to one knee and bowed his head. “My Lady,” he choked out, his voice sounding rather harsh, his fist clenched tightly around the hilt of his very sharp blade. “I have been sent by your Grandmother the Queen, and I am yours.”
I stumbled back and had to grasp the bookcase because my legs refused to hold me. What could this mean? I slid to the floor and stared back at him in horror. And that was how Gareth and Jace found us when they ran into the room with Owen and Nick at their backs.
Chapter 19
How do you stop a grizzly bear, a polar bear and two Dragons from charging? Answer… you don’t. You simply get out of their way. At least that’s what I would have tried to do. Apparently my newest acquaintance had other plans. One minute he was kneeling before me, the next he was standing in front of me holding his knife at the ready while I watched disaster approach at lightening speed. How do I get myself into these situations I wondered, then simply solved the problem by shifting. I don’t believe my new friend was expecting my reaction and the process shoved him forward, then nearly off his feet as I placed my head and neck between him and his charging doom. “Halt!” I bellowed and twisted my head nearly into Jace’s chest. The move got the required reaction as all four men skid to a halt. None of them was looking very happy with me. I hesitated a second just to make sure they were paying attention, and then shifted back.
“Out now,” Gareth growled. Owen and Nick glanced between me and the stranger but turned immediately for the door. Owen let out a startled sound as his eyes landed on the picture with him kneeling at my feet. He hesitated a second but continued to the door, tossing me a confused, almost wistful, look over his shoulder.
“Come here, Lexi,” Jace demanded, then narrowed his eyes at me when I shook my head. He might as well have said ‘step aside while I kill the man standing behind you’, for that was what he really meant. His face had gone flat and hard and he looked… jealous. If possible, Gareth’s looked even worse. I knew the only thing keeping them on that side of the room was me standing between them. And they did not like it.
“Lexi,” Gareth growled, and again I shook my head. There was movement behind me and I threw a quick glance over my shoulder. No wonder Jace and Gareth were growling. The man, or whatever he was, had dropped to his knee again and there was a look of wonder, no… rapture on his face as he stared at me. Now what? I wondered. A moment ago he was practically snarling at me and holding a knife to my throat, now he looked like I was his last hope on this or any other world.
Jace and Gareth both jerked and I realized they were listening in. I glanced back at them and shrugged. “Before you do anything,” I told them calmly, “you may want to look at the picture over there,” and I pointed to the wall behind them.
Gareth refused to take his eyes off the man on the floor behind me, but Jace frowned as he turned slightly, putting his back to Gareth so he could look behind him. “Damn it,” he muttered, and I could tell his teeth were clenched. He turned back to us and this time he looked more frustrated than jealous, and was clearly unhappy with the situation. Gareth bared his teeth and walked toward me. A slight breeze fluttered my hair and a leather covered back suddenly stood between Gareth and me. Ah so that’s where he kept the knife, I thought, as I noticed the sheath under his hair between his shoulder blades. I didn’t have time to admire it as I realized this time I’d be too slow to prevent the inevitable as the two of them struck each other with what felt like the force of two speeding trains.
Hands reached for me and were swept away before they could connect and Jace was pulled into the fight, his forearms bleeding from knife wounds. I watched in shocked horror as Gareth was sliced open across his chest the blood streaming down him. I cried out in anguish just as scales rippled across his skin and he partially shifted, healing the wound completely.
“Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!” I shouted and threw myself into the middle of them. The knife clattered to the floor and three sets of hands grabbed for me, trying to push or pull me out of the way, but I refused to go by wrapping myself around as much of the three of them as I could. It was extremely undignified, what with my skirt bunched nearly to my waist and the four of us rolling about the floor, but it effectively stopped the fight as none of them wanted to hurt me and I refused to be gently pried off of them.
“I’d love to continue this later,” Jace commented in his sarcastic voice. “But for now could you please let go?” I had somehow managed to wrap my thighs around his neck and held him in a head lock. My right arm was wrapped around Gareth’s neck and in my left hand was a fistful of black hair, held close to the scalp at the back of the neck. I literally had all three of them by the scruff of the neck.
“If I let you all go, will you behave like adults instead of juvenile delinquents?” I asked, making my voice sound syrupy sweet.
“I make no guarantees,” Jace replied bluntly.
“And you?” I asked, giving the handful of hair a tug. “I’m sorry, your name is what?”
“Cursed, My Lady.”
“Really? I thought you were… I don’t know, describing your situation, not that that was your actual name.”
“No, My Lady, it is the name I was given at birth, he replied in his lilting voice.
I wasn’t sure what to say to that so I turned to Gareth and kissed him hard and full on the lips, while my mind whispered … he did not touch me. Well he had but not in that manner and only because he had been sent here by my Grandmother and was furious over the fact that he’d been… given to me. In my arm, Gareth relaxed, then tensed again as I fed him that last little bit. Between my legs Jace turned his head and nipped my thigh, letting me know he was becoming annoyed with my strangle hold on him and that he’d like to be let go.
I released Jace first, standing from the heap we’d become and pulled Gareth and Cursed up to a kneeling position with me. Next I kissed Gareth on the cheek and slid my arm from around his neck. Cursed was now on his knees beside me, his head level with my ribs, and I quickly used my spare hand to smooth down my dress. My hand in his hair was firm but wasn’t causing him any pain. I gently tipped back his head so I could look into his face. He looked, a lot happier about the situation than I would have if someone was holding me on my knees by my small hairs. I needed to do something quick before it escalated again. “Why did you attack them?”
“Forgive me, Mi Lady, they were angry and I feared for your safety,” he replied, his eyes holding mine as he stared up at me. I wanted to believe him but there was just something that told me it wasn’t just duty and I’d need to keep my eye on him.
“This is Gareth and this is Jace,” I told him, pointing to each of my men in turn. “They also have concerns for my safety.”
“And strange creatures in her bedroom,” Jace muttered. “Just what are you?”
I grimaced, even for Jace it was a terribly insensitive question. One did not go around demanding answers of creatures from Faerie…
it was just rude. “Jace...”
Gareth’s voice was low and nearly vibrated with anger. “Let him go,” he told me.
I glanced between Jace and Gareth and frowned. This was so ridiculous. Didn’t they know I’d much rather be making love to them than standing here arguing over some other man? I mean, give me a break. I’d just been playing my flute and the guy shows up out of nowhere saying my Grandmother sent him. Wait … if my Grandmother sent him then he must be part of the court. If he was part of the court then he was at least partially Elf. Cursed, he’d said his name was and understanding dawned as I looked down at him. “Cursed….like me,” I whispered, and watched as pain filled his black eyes, quickly replaced by anger and then a strange kind of wonder. “Aren’t you? No wonder you hate me.”
His torso swayed toward me and his hand slipped around my knee. Gareth hissed and Jace made a sound deep in his throat but I ignored both of them. “I thought…” he began, and tried to shake his head but my grip prevented him from doing so. I noted his reaction but refused to release my hold, a move that earned me a small smile.
“I’ll release you when they feel less threatened,” I informed him curtly. “I’m not in the habit of restraining men by their hair.”
He gave me a look that raised my eyebrows and had both Gareth and Jace bristling. “Too bad,” he murmured and I think I actually blushed.
Oh this was so heading into dangerous territory. “You,” I told him bluntly, “are making it difficult to feel sorry for you. In fact I haven’t known you ten minutes and already I begin to see why you were exiled. You’re just a wee bit of a trouble maker, aren’t you? Is it the half breed status or are you just generally a pain in the ass?” He just grinned at me, a nice white perfectly even smile, if you didn’t mind that all of his teeth from the eyeteeth back were actually pointed. Inside me Goldy thumped her tail and whispered, Goblin. Well that would explain the name Cursed. A mixture of Elf and Goblin! It was surprising his head wasn’t bashed in at birth. His Mother must have hidden him away until he could fend for himself. That he had survived childhood said much for him and I couldn’t help wondering how old he was. I’d never seen a Goblin before, but according to Mi they didn’t tend to be this attractive. His looks obviously took after his Elf half. Fortunate for me, since I seemed to be stuck with him.
Dragon Lust Page 21
