Tournament of Fire

by Toni L. Meilleur

  “Hold on, shanzah, I will take you on a wild ride.”

  He groaned, already pulling slowly out of her and then slamming back in. When he was satisfied she was wet enough and stretched enough, he quickened his pace, his balls slamming against the entrance to her ass. He balanced his upper body on one arm, using his free hand to massage the breast beckoning him to attend to it. Her nipple, hard and pronounced, looked like fruit. He licked his fingers and then rolled her nipples in between them.

  Kegan clenched in response. The harder he rode her, the more she moved her hips to meet him thrust for thrust, taking him as deep as she could. She was wonderfully responsive and not just in taking but also in giving. Da’rak, if ever he was undecided, knew beyond all reasoning she was meant to be his.

  And now it was the time to make her officially his. He averted his face, knowing that at this stage in his arousal, his eyes had switched from gold to lavender, a mark of his sorcerer’s birth. He let his power flow from him into her. It was not fair he knew, what he was about to do, but she was his and clearly he would do anything to keep her.

  “Do you accept me, shanzah?” he asked her, knowing that in the throes of passion she would not be thinking clearly.

  “Oh yessss!” She moaned, coming upon another orgasm.

  “Do you take me as your shanzahn forever?” he murmured softly in her ear.

  “Oh hell yeah!” She screamed as her orgasm began to overtake her.

  “Then I bind us forever,” he said softly, letting his power soak through her, connecting their souls and binding it as one. Then, on one final deep stroke, he allowed his seed to spurt deep within her, groaning at the exquisite sensation of his release. His breathing labored, his heart racing in tune to hers, he felt only a small twang of guilt of what he had done. He looked down at the side of her neck, knowing the tattoo of his royal clan would singe itself upon her in seconds.

  “Oh, that was wonderful.” She laughed softly, trying to come down off her sexual high. Da’rak could still feel her walls contract around him in residual waves.

  “It was wonderful for me as well.” He looked into her eyes, wanting to know the exact moment the pain would hit her, so he could take it away.

  “Da’rak I’ve never… Holy shiiiit!” she bellowed in pain, her gloved hand instinctively reaching for her neck. “What the hell…?” Tears sprang to her eyes.

  Da’rak refused to let her touch the spot, knowing it would only increase the pain. He closed his eyes and brought her pain into himself, not wanting her to suffer anymore than she had to. When he fully absorbed her pain, he felt small taps on his back. Curiously, he looked behind him to see the source and saw her small hand pummeling him. He smiled at the thought of this small woman inflicting any pain, but the fury in her eyes made wise counsel and he pretended it hurt.

  “That hurt, shanzah!” He tried to sound convincing, but even to his own ears, it was a rather poor attempt.

  “You bastard, you barely felt that! What the hell did you do to me? What were you saying to me earlier and what the hell is a shanzah?” She screamed at him, bucking her hips to get him off of her.

  He reluctantly pulled out of her warm tunnel and sat back on his haunches. Kegan scrambled to cover as much of herself as possible. She finally settled on pulling her legs under her and using her hands to cover her breasts, while still maintaining an intense glower. True talent for anger this one had. He decided to get this over with in one fell swoop.

  “A shanzah means life companion in my language. I married us in the way of my people, binding our souls together forever, and that mark on your neck is the symbol to let others know you belong to my clan, to me.” He let out the breath he did not know he’d been holding. He knew he gave her a lot to handle and he waited. She squinted those beautiful earth-colored eyes at him and pursed her lips in anger.

  “You branded me like a fucking slave?” She was on the verge on hysteria.

  She was certainly taking this better than he first believed, Da’rak thought sarcastically to himself.

  Chapter Five

  Kegan could not believe she let this man, if that’s what he was, to seduce her. What was she thinking? Clearly not with her brain came, the acerbic reply from within as she felt his semen trickling over her legs. “You branded me? What the hell is wrong with you? Do I look like a cow?” Indignation and anger competed, complete and utter anger won out. He had the nerve to look slightly sheepish.

  “Are cows a bad thing?” he asked tentatively.

  “Yes,” she snipped out, not giving him an inch of understanding. She damn well wanted this to be as uncomfortable for him as it was for her.

  “Then you are not a cow and nothing is wrong with me. It is common on Paa’eva for a man to mark his life companion—”

  “Does this look like Paa’eva, asshole?” Kegan snapped again, cutting him off. He in turn cut her off just as swiftly before she could began another tirade.

  “It is for your protection.” A slight lie but she need not know that. While it did give her some means of protection, he wanted to mark her as his simply because he wanted to. “On Paa’eva, if a woman of marrying age is not marked, she is considered open game. Trust me, little one, you do not want fully aged sexually frustrated Paa’evaian males competing for your hand. There have been a few unfortunate incidences when the female was fatally wounded during the right-to-mate battles.” Da’rak watched her closely, hoping his description would render her compliant. It did not.

  “First of all, I don’t even want to go to Paa’eva. Why don’t we solve this by simply admitting I am no danger to you.” Her brown eyes watched him closely. Da’rak shook his head; she truly believed they were doing some sort of bargaining.

  “Kegan, you are going with me—we settled that already. I am sorry for your discomfort, but the truth of the matter is you belong to me now. If I left you on this primitive planet, that tattoo would be like a honing device to my enemies. They would find you, and if you are not lucky enough to be instantly killed, they would use and sell you like a whore. Even you must agree that is not worth the price for freedom.” Da’rak rose and let her ponder his words, his nakedness not given a second thought.

  Kegan, however, waited until he was completely turned around before searching for her clothes. He might look like some Greek god undressed but she sure as hell didn’t look like a goddess. She thought her thighs too skinny. Even her chest felt too flat. An abundance of curves she did not possess. She spotted her underwear there yonder on the cave floor and counted them a casualty as she watched Da’rak picked them up and ball them in his hands—after that they seemed to just disappear.

  “Thinks he’s Merlin.” she muttered, also counting the bra as a casualty and her top… Oh well, she had a pair of jogging pants to cover her whole body—not! Darak immediately summoned the pants to him, with a few words they ignited, burned and left ashes fluttering softly to the ground.

  “Uh, Da’rak, what am I supposed to do for clothing?” She tilted her head in his direction and tried to sound sincere, because it now occurred to her befuddled brain that she was still at this man’s mercy, whether she’d just slept with him or not. It really did not raise her status as slave.

  “Why do you need clothing?” he asked absently, fully dressed she noted, tucking his weapon almost affectionately in between vest and skin. How did that damn thing stay put without a scabbard?

  “If I arrive on Paa’eva,” she began still hoping for a miracle, “not saying that I’m going. I certainly do not want to arrive naked.”

  Da’rak frowned, not a good sign.

  “You do not need clothing on Paa’eva, women’s bodies are displayed in their natural glory for men to enjoy. So when you arrive on Paa’eva, you will not be an oddity.”

  “I’m already an oddity.” Kegan looked down at her gloved hands.

  Da’rak felt her sadness engulf him. He wanted to take it away, but alas that was something Kegan had to do. He knew she did not fully apprecia
te the gift bestowed upon her, because she did not have the right teacher to teach her how to control her gift. Sometimes he wondered how the primitive blue planet even managed a steady spin.

  “Seers on my world are revered. You are not an oddity, you are a goddess.” His voice was even but fierce. Kegan gave a laugh that sounded more bark than not. “Kegan, you will see the value of your gift. We must prepare to leave, little one.” He said the words carefully but in a voice that brooked no argument. He did not want to have to force her into sleep again; he remembered how angry she was the last time.

  “Fine, but grant me this at least…” She waited until he fully turned and looked in her direction. “When we get to Paa’eva and you find no evidence whatsoever that links me to your enemies, then you must return me.” She raised her chin at him, challenging him to be a gentlemen.

  “I cannot guarantee that, Kegan, you bear my tattoo.”

  “I am willing to take that risk.” Kegan let her breath out slowly, so he would not catch that she was but a minute from hyperventilating. She had to make him return her some way. She seriously doubted anyone would give her enough thought to come looking for her.

  Something dark passed over Da’rak’s face before he answered. “If you wish to return after the tournament, then I will see you home personally.”

  Was it her imagination or did she see a slight slump on the shoulders of this proud warrior. It was at this moment she truly wondered if she wanted to come back at all. Why she was fighting so hard to get back to a life that wasn’t exactly making her happy was beyond her. But the thought of him taking over her life scared her and she needed to stay in control of something.

  “How will we give to Paa’eva?” Better to change the subject somewhat than continue down that road of thinking.

  “The chamber is fit to travel through what your people call a worm hole. It is how I travel from planet to planet.”

  “I feel like I am on a very bad episode of Stargate.”

  “I do not understand.” Kegan waved her hand for him to go on. “Wormholes,” he pursed his lips together to keep from smiling at such an idiotic term, “are a natural occurrence and my people travel in them like you would one of those metal contraptions.”

  “Great, and how is it that you, me and that, uh, leva are supposed to fit in that box?” She shifted her weight, now that her legs were almost asleep. Seeing as how he was not going to give her any more clothes and she had to get up sooner or later, she might as well do it now. Painfully she got up, shaking her legs out alternately trying to stop the feeling of ants crawling through her bloodstream. Da’rak’s eyes lingered on her swaying breasts as she shook her leg, and when she looked him dead on, he did not blink.

  “You are but a small thing you and I will fit comfortably. The leva while in stasis is considered an inanimate object I can capture his essence and release it on Paa’eva”

  ‘You mean like a genie in a bottle?” Kegan’s mouth hung slack-jawed at his matter–of-fact explanation. Did wonders never cease with this guy?

  “I have a vague understanding of that.” He fell silent as if he were receiving more data in his brain. ”Yes, that’s exactly what that means.”

  “Can you do that to me as well?” Kegan wondered if it would hurt.

  “No, it does not work well with living things, now we must go.” He went around to the side of the chamber and did one last systems check. At least that’s what it looked like to Kegan, who of course knew nothing about wormhole travel.

  “What do you call your method of travel if not a wormhole?” She wondered how long she could stall; the thought of getting back in that small confined box had her hands sweating in her gloves.

  “We simply refer to them as the Tunnels. Now please stop stalling.” He stretched his large hand outward, beckoning her to come.

  Kegan took a deep breath and took the necessary steps forward until his larger hand swallowed her gloved one.

  “One day, Kegan, I would like us to touch hand to hand, skin to skin.” he murmured, looking down at their clasped hands.

  Before she could fully comprehend what he said, he swung her up and laid her in the chamber. He then turned to the leva and opened a pouch Kegan had not spotted before and chanted words she knew she could not repeat if her very life depended on it. The air grew cold suddenly, causing her nipples to harden and pucker. She put her hands across her chest in embarrassment. The air seemed to swirl and then the leva was not there anymore. Da’rak closed the pouch with a quick pull and attached it to his waist. She wondered if her underwear was in that pouch as well. She knew she didn’t want them back if they were mingling with slobbery leva essence.

  For a large man, he seemed to not know it when he was displaying his grace. He moved so quick and silent she knew why many of his enemies fell to him. He glided into the chamber beside her, and with a grin she knew was supposed to be reassuring, he cradled her to him like she was the most precious thing ever. A quick swoop of his head and he suckled on her hardened nipple a moment before going to the other one then releasing it. Kegan felt the touch of his lips all the way to her bare feet.

  “Sleep well, shanzah,” he whispered in her ear, and then Kegan felt herself tumble into the sweetest sleep. Before she was completely under, her last thought was how she was going to put his balls in between a nut cracker for making her sleep against her will again.

  Da’rak stared at Kegan’s naked form that lay beside him in deep slumber. She was going to try to kill him when she awoke. He smiled at her. Such a temper this one had. He would surely have to tread lightly at times, but still, something about the way her eyes flashed in anger made his cock twitch at times. He frowned slightly when his gaze landed on her gloved hands. He would definitely have to find a seer with the right knowledge to teach her how to control her gift so that she might touch at will, such as he. His fingers wrapped around one of her soft curls. He did not know how he would handle the ability not to touch bare skin to objects of his affection.

  Idly, he uncurled her hair and stroked her belly, letting his hands travel slow and deliberately to her womanhood. His nostrils flared at the scent of her budding arousal. He grunted in male arrogance, knowing he could arouse his shanzah even in deep sleep. Making slow, sensual circles around her clit, he let his mind drift to the journey at hand.

  It was good he was awakened early; they would not expect him so soon. He could use this to his advantage. No doubt in another Earth day or so, assassins will be stationed around the Tunnel mouths to kill him on sight. He sighed heavily, watching Kegan’s hips undulate under his ministrations. He definitely thought it wise to land on the other side of his lands. While it would be true he could not rendezvous with Keir as planned so many years ago, it could not be avoided.

  Perhaps if it were just him, Da’rak would surely chance such a situation, knowing the outcome would more than likely be in his favor. Kegan’s breathing became shallow as she began to near her peak. But with the discovery of his shanzah, he could not take such a brazen chance. At that moment, Kegans’ hips bucked wildly and she sighed heavily, feeling the reward of orgasm as she settled deeper into sleep. No, he could not take such a chance, he thought as his lowered his head to her breasts. He gave each one a final kiss then settled comfortably next to her, preparing himself to sleep through the journey.

  Chapter Six

  If he were a young warrior, he would have given in to the strong desire to lower himself to his knees and kiss the blue-tinged soil of his home. He would have let loose a roar of happiness at breathing the clean, sweet-scented air. But he was a warrior, a king by birth. Such actions were for the low-ranking males of Paa’eva—it was a fleeting but small moment of envy that he could never be free like that.

  Instead, he breathed deeply and crouched low, taking a handful of dirt and running it through his fingers. He was home at last. All of his senses alert, he scanned the area slowly, taking in everything and realizing with great joy nothing had changed here in five hundre
d years, at least nothing that could be seen with the naked eye. Satisfied he was alone save for the natural wildlife, he summoned his precious cargo from the waiting Tunnel dock and watched as it carefully landed. The Tunnel shut with a snap. He gathered nearby vegetation by the handfuls and piled them until he had a nice sized bundle, then he released the leva from his pouch, watching it take form until it finally settled on the ground. The Paa’evaian air immediately revived the creature, which bound around like an Earth dog.

  Da’rak laughed at its antics. “I know how you feel, I wish I could do the same.”

  After the leva partook of the food gathered for it, it stretched its green-marbled body lazily and looked at Da’rak expectantly. Da’rak had easily mastered this otherwise dangerous creature, and it readily accepted him as his master. Such was one of the talents of a sorcerer.

  “You are named, Nuka. Nuka, you shall guard my shanzah until I return. Guard her with your life.” He let his voice drop to almost a growl to let the creature know the importance of its job.

  Nuka flexed its heavily muscled body and bared its gaping jaw to let Da’rak see its impressive set of deadly teeth. As another display of its ability to guard, it let its claws flex and shoot into the dirt then pulled back the earth.

  Da’rak laughed at its display, impressed with the large hole it had made. “I believe you more than capable, Nuka.”

  Da’rak patted it on the head and watched as it spread its almost transparent wings, which when retracted could not be detected, and used its powerful hind legs to soar into the air. Nuka took one long careful look at the perimeter then landed in the tall tree behind Da’rak, insinuating its body into the tree branches and leaves so that it became lost to Da’raks sharp eyes.

  “Well done,” Da’rak whispered, and willed his traveling chamber into the copse of trees. With a few simple words, the chamber too was camouflaged, but Da’rak knew there were those whose eyes could not be fooled by his sorcery. He could not travel this route with his shanzah until he was sure it was safe. He hated being in such a position, but it could not be helped. The leva would be a formidable guard, and Da’rak planned to move quickly enough that he would not leave her for long. He knew traveling through the Tunnel would send out alerts. Every time someone arrived or departed without appointment, it was recorded and investigated. He had little time. Da’rak took off to find someplace safe for him and his shanzah.