by Kira Brady
“I’m going to regret this,” she said.
“Say no then. It is in your power. Regret is such a wasted emotion.”
“No.”
Leif stopped moving with her and stood still, only holding her to him, letting her body warm the frozen draft through his empty shell. His muscles tensed with the need for release. His cock throbbed. He ignored it. It was enough to hold her to him. Enough to touch her without her flinching away. She accepted his embrace, and he sensed no fear.
He could also smell her wet heat, her growing frustration. He grinned into her hair. Grace wiggled in his arms, trying to move closer.
Still Leif waited. “I’ll outlast you in this,” he said, his voice gravelly. “I might go mad with wanting you, but I will wait. Patiently, feverishly, letting the anticipation build. When I have you I will have all of you. Not just your body or soul. I want your mind, your spirit, your passion. Your very breath. I want your heart, Grace. It will be all or nothing. I can’t accept anything less.”
She let out a frustrated breath and pushed at his chest. He set her down.
“My heart? You bastard!” She shoved him, and the force of her anger took him back a step. Her touch packed a jolt of power. Some of her hold on Tiamat’s Heart must have loosened. “Whose heart do you want? Mine? Tiamat’s? Do you just want to own me to use this thing inside me? There is a fucking dead god inside me, controlling me. You can’t have my body or my whatever. There is nothing left of me. Gods.” She wrapped her arms around herself.
“Grace. Do you hear yourself? No one has ever been able to control you. Point out one time—”
“Fuck you. You’ve done it. You forced me to talk at the hearing. You ordered me to stop fighting—”
“By the blood magic of that bond, yes. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. But the underlying contract in that magic is your will. Yours. Not mine, not Sven’s, not Tiamat’s. You handed your will over to the ring’s use.”
“Don’t remind me!”
“No, listen. You’re so bloody strong, you trapped a Babylonian goddess. Do you think my brother’s little ring could keep you trapped if you really put your mind to breaking it?”
Her face blanched.
“Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying you could have freed yourself at any point in the past. You’ve come a long way from that shattered young girl. My brother—” He took a deep breath, hating Sven all the more. “My brother used sex and runes to keep you bound and emotionally ensnared, because it was the only way he could control you. He must never have realized the true nature of what is inside you, but he recognized your potential for power. He bound you and waited for you to come into your own. You are the strongest woman I’ve ever met.”
She stared furiously at the floor. A deep gash in her arm slowly leaked blood. He ached to hold her, but she needed to know she could stand on her own two feet. She needed to believe in herself. If she saw the gorgeous, powerful woman that he saw, she could seize her own destiny. It was the only way to save her.
“Every woman has a goddess inside her. You just need to believe in the power of your own awesomeness.” He caught her as she sagged to the ground. “Grace, Grace.”
Tears trickled down her cheeks. She was too upset to wipe them away. “Oh, so now the mad scientist thinks he understands magic? You don’t know anything.”
“Of course not. But I understand there is more to the world than I see with my own eyes.”
“I can’t—”
He kissed her, stopping that protestation at her lips. Warmth flooded him. She might be strong, but he was weak. Weak for her kisses. Needy of her touch. Addicted to her energy and presence. To her prickly, pugnacious, generous, giving spirit. He could feel the struggle in her own mind for a beat before she succumbed to his invasion. She needed this comfort as much as he did.
You don’t have to be a one-woman army. Let me hold you. Let me help you. Asking for help does not make you weak, he thought at her, trying to tell her with his tongue and lips all that he couldn’t speak.
He sank down with her onto the threadbare couch. The springs complained beneath his weight, but held. Smoothing his hands over her tight shoulders and back, he soothed her. Slow circles across her lower back. Long caresses up her spine. He felt her give way like a trestle bridge in a windstorm. First the bridge swayed, then buckled; then the ropes began to snap, one by one, until the whole thing plunged into the deep blue water of the maelstrom below. He tunneled his hands beneath her shirt. He was greedy. He wanted skin-to-skin contact. Running his tongue along the sensitive inner edge of her lower lip, he distracted her while he removed her shirt and pants.
Her moan escaped, and he knew he had her. She ripped his shirt down the front, popping the buttons and scattering them to the hideous couch cushions. Her tongue wrestled with his. A fight. A dance. A duel for supremacy. In this he wouldn’t yield. He would conquer her reserves until he unleashed every bit of her passion. Until he freed every inch of the beautiful goddess he saw within her. Not Tiamat. Grace. She might not believe his words, but he would show her with his body how amazing he found her.
He rolled her to her back. “You’re injured. Let me heal you.”
Wrapping her arm around his neck, she dragged him back down, sucked his tongue into her mouth, and bit him.
The shock was followed by arousal. Christ, how she tied him in knots. He groaned. His cock turned to iron, pain and pleasure melded into one, and he ground it between her thighs. He wanted to take her from every angle until the last black memory was burned from her subconscious.
But he forced himself to take it slow; he had this one shot to break down years of Sven’s conditioning. He needed to tear away every chain of self-doubt and sweep away the cobwebs of her soul. She could do the rest. She just had to believe.
He kissed a path down the runes on her chest. He swirled his tongue out and over them. Finding Algiz, he traced its shape. “This one focuses your will?”
“That’s the idea—”
“Good. Focus your will on this. Feel the power of the rune as I touch you. There is magic in sex.”
“Sex magic? Coming over to the dark side, Mr. Scientist?”
“When the experiment calls for it.” Algiz curled across her breasts. He followed the path and kissed each one. “Sex can be used to control another person, but it can also be used to heal. And modern scientific studies have shown that it is impossible to feel fear and anxiety at the moment of orgasm. I want you to let go. Let us conduct our own study, shall we?”
Turning her to her stomach uncovered the trail of runes along her rib cage and to her spine. Her hands curled at her sides, so he took them and placed them on the armrest of the couch. “Hold on.”
“Why?”
“Concentrate on how you feel as I touch you.” And not on the anger, betrayal, and shame that kept you prisoner. At her lower back, Algiz danced with another rune. Over the last bone of her spine—the apex of her power—he kneaded the muscles. He kissed each dimple in her lower back, then slid his hands over the curve of her ass. The skin here was pale as the stars. Coaxing apart her thighs, he slipped his fingers between her silky folds.
“What are you—?”
“Concentrate!” he ordered, and the invisible tether snapped like a whip. If she needed her anger to take back her will, he knew exactly how to piss her off. Tilting her pelvis up off the couch, he replaced his fingers with his tongue. Ishtar be praised. Her taste sent flares through him. Cinnamon and iron scented the room as his arousal grew. He traced the lips of her femininity to the tight nest of nerves at the crux.
Moaning, she writhed beneath him, her body tightened like a winch. He cranked her higher until the wave broke through her with a long scream. Without giving her time to come down, he pulled himself up and slid into her. A second orgasm shook her on the heels of the first. Her knuckles were white where they gripped the couch.
“Leif,” she breathed.
His name on her lips threw him over. The
world narrowed to green and blue. Stars danced across his vision, and he touched heaven.
Grace thought her world had exploded in a blaze of flashing lights. Quakes rocked her body from her core outward to her fingertips and toes. She was pinioned; Leif, huge and hard, speared through her center. The rough fabric of the couch abraded her nipples. Two hundred pounds of hot muscle pushed her down, like a butterfly in a scientist’s observation glass.
She couldn’t imagine moving, but Leif pulled out and turned her over.
“Good thing about dragon’s blood,” he said conversationally as if sweat didn’t drip from his brow and his chest didn’t heave, “it heals a man up right quick.” His wicked grin flashed, and in that moment she saw the mad under the scientist facade. He wasn’t as staid as he pretended. Now that he’d turned his attention to dissecting her from the inside out, there was a crazed gleam in his eye.
Good Freya, he excited her. She should be afraid as he peeled away her defenses like the thin membrane beneath the eggshell, but all she could think as she looked up into his slit dragon eyes was, Yes, again, more, please.
He brought a finger to tap his jaw. “You know what? I’m not sure you’ve found your focus yet.”
“You might need to repeat the experiment, Doctor.”
“Right you are. See if we draw the same conclusion.”
“I’ll just lie here and let you get back to work, okay?”
His grin sprang back. It was fucking unfair that a man could be so beautiful, and inside he was loyal, kind, and smart as a whip. There was nothing keeping her from falling headfirst in love with him, and that scared the shit out of her.
“I see you thinking,” he said. “You’re tensing up. You’re supposed to be concentrating. Work with me here, Grace. Algiz is tattooed all over your body. One hundred and three times, to be exact—”
“You counted?”
“I want you to feel every single one of them as I fuck you. And as you find that transcendental place beyond all fear and self-doubt, beyond all the conditioning of my damned brother, you will find your moment of power. Use it. Trust me.”
“I trust you.”
His smile was radiant. “I’ve never heard three sweeter words.”
She scowled. She’d take them back, but the words had slipped out too quickly. He could smell a lie. “So you’ll turn my body to a pile of molten nerves, and then the bond will magically snap, is that it?”
“No.” He kissed her, and she sank deeper into the cushions of the couch. Gods, she made it too easy for him. “Trust your body to me, take whatever power you can from me, and then you’ll be free to seize the slave bond and break it yourself. There is magic when two people come together. You lose a little piece of your soul every time, but it’s an exchange. In that moment of vulnerability there lies the power of the universe. Use it. Fry the blasted ring. Concentrate your will through the Algiz runes. Use the Aether. Use me. Damn it, use the Heart if you have to—”
Fear washed through her. She tried to sit up, but his large hands pushed her back into the couch. “You’re crazy—”
“No. These other symbols? They’re helping you hold her, but you don’t need them. Not really. Not if your indomitable will trapped her in there when you were nothing but a scared sixteen-year-old with not a mark on you. I believe in you.”
Leif climbed off the couch. He swung her legs to the edge and knelt between her spread thighs. They were face-to-face. His hands burned on her skin. The cool air made her nipples peak. He believed she was strong enough to tap into Tiamat and keep her from taking over. Swallowing, she put her hands on his shoulders to ground their connection. She wanted to know that she wasn’t alone. This was worse than facing a pack of aptrgangr. She had to face down the zombie queen herself and let the goddess’s power fill her soul.
Grace took a deep breath and felt out the invisible tether. It sparked. She found the iron box and grabbed hold of the rivets with her mind. “I’m ready.”
Determination was etched in the grim line of Leif’s mouth. He took a firm grip on her hips and slowly, so slowly, began the long glide into her. Every millimeter sparked a thousand nerve endings. Ripples ran along her flesh. Her inner muscles clenched around empty air, waiting, waiting, for that hot shaft to pierce her through. She wanted to impale herself on it, but his hands kept her still.
“There is power in giving up all control,” he ground out. The tendons stood out on his neck. “I will wring every conscious thought from your body.” He slid in another inch.
“Is”—she inhaled sharply at the sensation of his cock inside her—“that a threat?”
“It’s a promise.”
Her fingernails dug into his skin. Desperate need consumed her, stoking the deep ache in her womb. Painful, this absence, this need to be filled. Her inner walls gave in another slow millimeter to his intrusion. How could she be so tight, so needy, when they’d just done this not five minutes ago? But it was like the first time and a hundred times more sensitive than the last time. He kneaded her ass and slid in farther. Her eyes crossed in her head.
“Concentrate,” he ordered. The whip of the slave bond brought her back to consciousness. His voice was the scrape of claws on rock. His eyes glowed. His ripped body—so strong, so beautiful—trembled like a feather.
She did this to him. She, Grace. She held the power to bring the Drekar Regent to his knees. She held the power inside her to slay aptrgangr and banish wraiths. Who cared what had been done to her or what evil power fueled her strength? She had been beaten and she’d gotten back up. She had been broken and she’d put herself back together. She had not let the evil inside her tarnish her soul. The strength to fight, to win, had been inside her all along.
Through the maelstrom of sensation racking her body, she pulled her mind inward to the iron box protecting her heart. Her body sparked with sexual energy. She drew on that power and released the first rivet.
A blast of blue flame shot out from the box. It was like an atom bomb going off inside her: her spine snapped straight and her hair stood on end. Energy burned along every nerve out through the tips of her fingers. A silent scream ripped from her throat, and in a flash, panic. The Heart would escape; she wasn’t strong enough.
But Leif sensed her inner battle and drove himself home. “Grace!” he breathed. “Sweet, Grace.”
The shock to her core broke the Heart’s hold on her. The iron lid slammed back into place, and she drove the rivets in to lock it. Sweat dripped from her hairline. Her limbs shook. “I can’t do it,” she sobbed. “It’s too powerful.”
“You can. You are stronger than you know.”
Grace took a deep breath of his calming scent. Leaning forward, she kissed him, drawing in his strength. He was solid and steady, wading into the battle with her.
“You aren’t alone. Lean on me,” he begged. “Let me bring you higher.”
With her hips she urged him into a faster rhythm. She concentrated on the feel of him inside her, stoking her. Of the smooth slide of his cock. Of the shivers of need he sent rippling through her body.
She rallied in her mind and seized on that sexual energy zinging through her. With each thrust, she felt her body string higher. The Heart was no match for her. She would fry it with the immense power rippling up from her womb.
This time she pulled out the rivets with the full force of her will behind her. The Heart’s blue flame shot out. Instead of fighting that terrible power, she rode it like a leaf on Niagara Falls. The Heart threatened to consume her, but she focused on her mind, on her own heart, on her inner muscles clenching around Leif’s penetration.
The slave bond was a weak glow next to the Heart. She seized it. “I take my will back!” she shouted. “Hear me now. You will do as I command.” The invisible tether writhed in her hold, but she forced it through the blue flame of Tiamat’s Heart. She belonged to herself. She took her will back. The slave bond was no match for the Heart. It caught fire and broke. Flame singed down its length, straigh
t back to the ring on Leif’s hand. Leif inhaled in pain as the malachite cracked and the smoking ring fell to the carpet. His finger was burnt black.
The Heart’s anger shot out, and Grace tapped into it.
Pure unadulterated power. Hotter than the hottest fire, it burned out of her, a beacon of energy and malevolence. Ye gods, what power! It filled her mind with seductive images she could have if she handed over control. It found her deepest fears hidden in that iron box and projected them in Technicolor across the backs of her eyelids: Her parents’ deaths. The aptrgangr who’d killed them in that dark alley. The memory loss and fear she’d felt as she woke up covered in blood. The survivor’s guilt.
She saw it again from the Heart’s point of view. It had slipped into her like it had done billions of times to billions of people before her. It drew the aptrgangr to it. She saw her parents throw themselves in front of her and tell her to run. She ran, blinded by the fire of the Heart, stumbling down the dark alley. A glance behind showed her parents’ last stand, and the shock of their violent deaths slammed up her natural shields as her mind tried to protect her from that terrible pain. The Heart had been trapped. It was enraged.
The Heart flipped the visions forward in time to Norgard. It played every humiliating detail, dredged up every shameful secret from that chapter of her life. Hate filled her chest. May hellfire damn him.
You were cheated of your vengeance, the Heart hissed inside her mind. You were denied your right to flay the scaled skin from his bones and raise his severed head on a pike. The Heart showed an image of her as Saint George with Norgard’s dragon skin hanging from her lance.
Together, the Heart crooned, we can retrieve him from the Gate and slice him and cut him and—
“No!” she shouted. She wrapped her arms around Leif to ground her to reality. The image was tempting. The Heart knew how to lure her in, but she would never give up her will to another again. Besides, the image of her as Saint George was just ridiculous enough to bring her back to reason.
