The door flew open and Talon walked in...almost. He gaped in the doorway for a moment before clearing his throat. “Umm…I see you found her.” He pointed over his shoulder. “I’ll just go tell the guys we can stop searching now.” Then he backed out, shutting the door as he went.
Kitrina chuckled. “I think we may have traumatized your friend.”
Zander resumed his stroke, but slower this time, more methodical. “I doubt it. Not much surprises Talon. But if we did, he’ll get over it.” Leaning down, he licked a path up her spine and between her shoulder blades.
She shuddered.
He feathered kisses along the path he’d just licked, then nipped her, hard.
She gasped and wiggled her ass. “Quit playing around and get back to the real fucking, barbarian. You know what I want, what I need.”
Zander slammed his cock just once, hard and deep into Kitrina’s pussy before leaning forward and whispering into her ear. “As always, my lady, your wish is my command.”
He gripped her hips tightly and gave freedom to his lust. Faster and faster, he ground his cock into the hot, wet sheath of her pussy. His balls smacked her sweet ass as her inner walls caressed, massaged, and squeezed tight his shaft.
Pressure built up behind his sac and deep in his belly. Only moments at most remained before the ecstasy would drive him over the edge and into oblivion.
He quickly slipped his fingers between the lips of her pussy, finding her clit. Rolling the hard nub between his thumb and forefinger, he flicked, rubbed, and stroked.
No more than the dropping of a single grain of sand before his semen shot forth and coated her insides, he felt Kitrina convulse around his cock and quiver in his arms.
Just as his cock produced its last spasm of ecstasy, Zander pulled from her pussy. He lay beside her and tugged her protectively into his arms. Her head lay on his chest, close to his heart, her legs entwined with his. He stroked her back and kissed the top of her head.
Taking in a huge gulp of air, he let it out slowly. “Well, my lady, you have now been soundly and thoroughly fucked, so it’s time to talk.” He glanced at the hourglass. “It’s almost time for the midday meal, and I doubt you bothered to break your fast this morning before hand-to-hand combat class, so out with it. You can’t afford to miss another meal.”
Kitrina leaned up on an elbow until she looked him in the eye. “What would you like to know?”
He sighed. “You know precisely what I’m asking. Why did you run away and where did you go?”
She lay back down and snuggled against him. Her breath puffing softly against his chest sent spirals of pleasure shooting straight to his cock. Oh no, no, no, not this time, you little minx.
He cupped her chin and tilted it upward until not only could he look her in the eye, but she couldn’t look away. “Kitrina?”
She took a deep breath. “I had to get out of that room. I felt like I was suffocating. I came here, changed my tunic, and…umm…walked the halls for probably a quarter turn of the hourglass, then came back. I was just getting ready to take a quick nap before midday when you…found me.”
She’d looked just slightly downward both times when she’d hesitated, and then again when she’d said the word found. Zander’s spiritmaster sensibilities awakened, and he wondered what she wasn’t being completely honest about. But he decided not to pursue that line of questioning…just yet. After all, she was female. They were known to be prone to keeping secrets. Instead, he schooled his thoughts on how better to explain her need to stay close to her guardians.
“You mustn’t run away again, Kit. Give me your word you won’t.”
She closed her eyes and shook her head. “I can’t do that. I don’t want to make a promise I might have to break.” She opened them once more, and Zander’s heart skidded to a stop at the pain he saw in their depths.
“Why, Kitrina? What would tempt you to break a promise to me?”
She swallowed hard, but her gaze didn’t waver. “There is nothing I wouldn’t do to safeguard my family, or you, or my friends, Zander. Nothing. I’m no longer the same naive little lass you knew three years ago. I’m a grown woman, a rogue, and a good one. I know how the world works. I will lie, I will cheat, and I will kill without hesitation to see those I care about kept safe. And I will lay down my life if need be.”
He started to speak, but she held two fingers to his lips. Zander waited.
“I know all of you want only to protect me and my family, but you are going about it the wrong way.”
Though he wanted to shake his head and demand she listen to reason, he didn’t. Instead, he captured the hand she held at his mouth within one of his and kissed her fingers. “Then, my lady, tell me what you see as the right way to do what must be done.”
She chewed her bottom lip a moment, and looked so vulnerable he had an almost undeniable urge to kiss her. He didn’t, though. This discussion was too important to allow his lust to interrupt.
“Correct me if I’m wrong,” she said, “but we have three ex-commanders coming to The Academy with the sole intention of taking the Dragon Heart Opal from me any way they can, right?”
He nodded.
“And since surprise is our only true advantage, how are we to keep them from realizing we know their intentions if I’m constantly followed and guarded, pulled out of class every time I get a little bump, bruise, or scrape? Trust me, they will know.”
Zander kissed the tip of her nose, stalling. He didn’t want to admit she was right, but she was. “Okay, my lady, I see your point. Perhaps we have been slightly…hyper-vigilant. So, what would you suggest? Within reason, that is.”
She rolled her eyes. “I am nothing if not reasonable. All I ask is back off just a little bit. Have the men stay on guard but not right on my ass. I’m the only one who can draw those commanders out. You have to give me the breathing room and trust in my abilities to do what only I can do.”
His heart hammered in his chest at the thought of putting her in danger, and he hugged her close, inhaling the musky fragrance of the love they had just made that clung to her skin. “The thought of you hurt scares me more than you can ever know. But you’re right.” He pulled back enough to look her in the eye. “I’ll make a deal with you. If you agree not to run away from me ever again, I’ll relinquish the leadership of this quest into your capable hands and follow you. I’ll make sure everyone else does also. Do we have an understanding, my lady liege-lord Dragonheart?”
If he had known that offering to let her call the shots while he did the grunt work would make her eyes glow brighter than the sun, he would’ve insisted on it from the very beginning.
She smiled brightly and hugged him tight. “You’ve got a deal, my first-in-command Sir Hammerstrike. You won’t be disappointed in me, Zander, you’ll see.”
He chuckled and squeezed her back. “Oh, and Kit? No more secrets between us either, okay? If this campaign has any hope of succeeding, we must be completely open, and trust each other emphatically.”
He not only heard her gulp but felt it against his chest. “Of course, no problem. No secrets here. Just openness and trust.”
But her answer didn’t ring quite true to his ears or his spiritmaster senses.
Zander closed his eyes and concentrated on calming the pounding of his heart deep in his chest. What the VoT had he just agreed to?
****
Though the hallway was crowded due to the fact it was now midday and between classes, Kitrina was acutely aware of every face, every body, every sound, anywhere near her and Zander. Her eyes searched for anything out of place, and her ears sought any unusual nuance of sound. She found none. Still, her fingers lightly gripped the steel handle of the dagger resting beneath the edge of her right sleeve, and the coolness of its razor-sharp blade against her wrist comforted her. A good rogue was always prepared, a careless one soon dead.
Slowly, they made their way through the crowd and toward the cafeteria. Her stomach grumbled, and she hoped Za
nder hadn’t heard it. No such luck, though. He smiled down at her and gave her an I told you so look before chuckling. She swatted at him playfully, and he laughed out loud.
It was no wonder she was hungry. She hadn’t eaten a thing since last evening’s meal. And considering the exercise session she’d gotten this morning with Zander, it was no surprise she found herself ravenous.
“Don’t do it,” Zander calmly stated.
Out of the corner of her eye, Kitrina saw the gnome and dark elf no more than a heartbeat before they jumped out directly in Zander’s and her path.
“Surprise,” Pierced yelled, and Steve grinned.
She sighed and shook her head. She had to be more attentive, or she was going to be dead. That fact didn’t sit well with her, and she glared at the gnome and his boyfriend.
Pierced was dressed in an all-black ninja costume. Except some of the material had been cut away in the back and his pasty white ass cheeks stuck out of the holes. He balanced precariously on the naked, except for a pink cape, dark elf’s jutting cock, and he held a blade almost bigger than himself in his hands. He swished it back and forth menacingly. “On guard,” he shouted.
Zander growled. “Not now, Lumpy.”
The gnome lifted his chin. “Those are fighting words, barbarian. I’m Pierced, and I can prove it.”
Zander simply shook his head.
Kitrina closed her eyes and counted to ten, not wanting to hurt Pierced’s feelings, but at the same time, not wanting to stand in the middle of the hallway and chat with him either. She was hungry. She still had two classes to attend after midday meal. She didn’t need this right now.
The gay-Goth gnome suddenly giggled. “Ah, come on, Zander. Lighten up. Have some fun. Smile once in a while. Ya take life much ta serious.”
A flash of something metallic in her peripheral vision caught Kitrina’s attention, and she turned toward it at the same time Zander did. There stood Ray, not five feet away. In his hand, he held his usual orange, knobby dildo, but there was something different about it and about him.
“Ray loves cock,” he said.
Her spine tensed. Ray’s voice sounded gravelly, as if he were suffering from a cold. And something wasn’t quite right about his eyes. They weren’t as dull as they normally were. As a matter of fact, they shone with more intelligence than she had ever seen before. Her gaze traveled down his length, all the way to his feet, and every nerve ending in her body roared to life.
With a flick of her wrist, she buried the blade of her dagger straight into his heart a mere second before Zander completely removed his head with one swipe of his broadsword. Blood poured onto the hall as Ray’s body slumped. His tongue lolled out of his gaping mouth, and his lifeless head rolled across the floor.
Pierced jumped off Steve’s cock. “Oh, my God Draka, you’ve killed Ray.”
A high-elf female and her two dwarf companions screamed, a troll debutant fainted, and Steve stopped grinning.
Kitrina shook her head and was about to respond, but she didn’t get the chance.
“What the sticky snot balls stuck deep in the pockets of an over-indulged ogre panty sniffer getting high on the crotch rot of a troll transvestite’s week-old thong are ya talking about, son? They didn’t kill Ray.”
Leeky walked over and kicked the headless body over until it lay on its back. The body began changing, morphing right before their eyes. He pointed to the still very hairy left big toe. “Yep, that’s Bugger the ogre, all right. And if ya check that dildo he was carrying, I’d bet my favorite nut sack ya’d find a pair of knives hidden in it. That was his way.” He winked at Kitrina. “Nice job. One down, lass. Two ta go.”
She cringed and couldn’t stop shaking.
The warmth of Zander’s arms wrapping around her helped alleviate some of the cold that had seeped into her soul the moment the dagger left her hand. She’d never killed a real live person, not even someone who’d left her no choice. She didn’t like the feeling.
Zander leaned in close and whispered, “The first time is always the hardest, my lady. But, God Draka willing, you’ll never have to take a life so often that it gets easier.”
She shivered, and her stomach rolled, any thought of food or enjoying a pleasant midday meal with Zander a thing of the long forgotten past.
****
“The lacing of cerebral toxins on the tips of arrows or daggers can be especially useful in…”
Kitrina tried her best to concentrate on the lecture that Professor Daymeon Nightstrider, her dark elf poisons instructor, was giving. It wasn’t much use, however. His indigo-blue skin and shoulder-length snow-white hair still became nothing more than a blur before her eyes.
She shuddered in her seat.
She’d killed a man.
It didn’t matter that she’d almost convinced herself it had been a case of simple self-preservation or even that she was duty bound to protect herself and her family from harm. She’d taken a life. She’d killed a living, breathing person who, a moment before she’d released her dagger, had been going about his business of thinking and hoping and dreaming like everyone else on Albrath. It didn’t even matter that his business had included doing her bodily harm. All that had really mattered to her was that Zander could have been harmed trying to protect her. God Draka help her, she really was still in love with the barbarian. And not simply in love with him but deeply in love to the point she hadn’t given a second thought to taking another’s life to protect his.
Not that the thought of killing was new to her, for it wasn’t. On many occasions, she’d joined not only her father but also both of her grandfathers on hunting excursions. She’d even brought down more than her share of Alarian water buffalo, Kuropkat elk, and even Dak Forrest pheasant with both arrow and dagger. And she’d done it with a sense of pride and accomplishment.
But never before had she taken the life of another person. To kill a two-armed, two-legged child of God Draka with a soul was completely different than hunting animals for food.
No matter if it was justified, it felt wrong.
Her stomach turned and bile rose in her throat. Tears stung the backs of her eyes, and Kitrina wanted her…mom. The thought startled her. She’d never really been a momma’s girl. She’d always preferred the more blatantly honest, non-syrupy masculine company of her father.
But right this moment, she’d give almost anything on Albrath for the feel of her mother’s comforting arms about her shoulders and to hear that gentle voice telling her all would be well even if it wasn’t the truth. And she longed for the touch of her mother stroking her hair, rocking her back and forth slowly, kissing her brow, and healing her soul as only her mother could.
“Hemotoxins on the other hand must be used very sparingly as they are known to…”
She sighed, wishing this class and the next were already over and done with so she could return to the small room she shared with Zander.
And do what...hide away?
That thought more than any disturbed her.
Kitrina wasn’t a coward, had never been. Or was she? If not, then why did she want more than anything to slink quietly away, unnoticed? Why did she wish the leadership of the quest to protect the Dragonheart Opal rested back upon Zander’s shoulders instead of her own? And when had she become such a whiny little sissy lala? For that’s exactly what Pierced and his ever-present sidekick, Steve, would call her if they could see her face right now. They couldn’t, though. They were sitting directly behind her, assigned guard dogs for this class.
The thought angered her, and she drove back the threat of tears, stiffened her spine, and sat up ramrod straight. She very well may have killed a man today, but it wasn’t without good reason. And, God Draka willing, she’d never have to repeat that particular action again. But deep in the recesses of her heart, Kitrina knew she would kill again, without a second thought if left with no other choice.
She wasn’t a coward, she wasn’t a sissy lala, and she didn’t need constant guardian
s shadowing her every move. She was the daughter of Sir Uthiel Dragonheart, for God Draka’s sake, the leader of the Paladins of Albrath, and she was a damn fine rogue in her own right. It was high time she started acting like it.
The last grains of sand filtered through the hourglass, and poisons class ended. Kitrina rose from her seat, squared her shoulders, and headed for the last session of the day, elemental wizardry.
****
Kitrina pushed yet another student, this time a halfling, out of the path of a flying ball of fire. Graydon and Gareth Sunwalker could both go straight to the Valley of Torment as far as she was concerned.
Weeding out the weak…really? A class tradition from the past when their father, Sarco Sunwalker, Lord of the Elves, had been the wizard instructor here? Whatever.
What her two dark-haired, pointy-eared, mostly high-elf, identical pseudo cousins were really trying to do was decrease the number of students they’d have to contend with in their class. But instead of just coming out and saying there were way too many wanna-be wizards interested in learning how to control and use the magic of fire, they’d devised this totally unfair little exercise and had called it weeding out the weak.
In reality, though, what the co-instructors of elemental wizardry were doing was unfairly matching their skills against the poor unsuspecting throng of students and…and…enjoying it way more than they should.
The twins both took turns throwing low-level fireballs at random intervals. Any student unfortunate enough to receive a direct hit was then immediately tossed out of the class.
She wanted to throttle them.
They were supposed to be aiming at all of the students. They weren’t, though. They were cheating, and it was obvious to anyone with eyes and the time to spare a look in her direction. Even after twelve fireballs being thrown in rapid sequence, not one single flaming orb had come anywhere near her.
So much for discretion in their task of keeping her safe. And so much for not showing apparent favoritism.
Gareth grinned at her as he angled his arm off to the right. Kitrina glanced sideways and saw who he was aiming for. It was the troll female from this morning’s hand-to-hand combat, and if she wasn’t mistaken, the girl had also been in her poisons class. With a quick jump and lunge, Kitrina knocked her to the ground a heartbeat before the fireball would’ve hit her square in the chest.
Tamed by the Fire Page 10
