by Dee, Bonnie
“But now what?” Lily stroked his chest, soothing and inciting him at the same time.
“Now I can read the power. Can sense how and even help direct the excess to balance the earth.”
“We’re a good team.” Lily slid closer and rubbed her breasts against his chest. “Fuck me, Carr.”
His cock came to attention. “I’m so there, baby.”
Lily inserted a hand in between their bodies and stroked his hard-on. “I can tell.” She swiped a finger across the tip, spreading the pre-cum. “Want me to suck that big ole cock, big guy?”
He groaned at the feel of her fingers grasping his hard-on. “Fuck!”
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Releasing his cock, she moved away from him. “Lie flat on your back.”
He complied, liking this bossy side of his gentle little Earth Talisman. He lay against the pillow, his hands interlocked behind his head. “This work for you, baby?”
“Oh, yeah. Just keep those hands where they are. Spread your legs.” She knee-walked her way in between them. Taking his throbbing dick in her hand once more, she captured his gaze. “Don’t touch me until I tell you.”
“Your lead, little Talisman … but if I sense the quake or volcano is getting ahead of us, I’ll be taking over so you can concentrate on directing energy.”
“My thoughts exactly—it’s as if you can read my mind.” She winked.
He laughed. “Funny how that works.”
“Watch me suck you.”
His gaze followed as she lowered her head to take him into her hot mouth, as her lips, rosy from all their love play, slid over just the head and stopped. He groaned and arched upward, seeking, begging for more. “Baby, take it all.”
Letting him pop out of her mouth, she shot him a fiery green glare. “My pace, not yours, big guy. And I do mean big.” She licked him like a lollipop, then smacked her lips. “Yummy. Now be patient.” She gave him a little squeeze. “I want to generate the maximum amount of … pressure.” She slid her hand up and down his turgid length, cuddling his balls with her other hand. “You with me?”
“Oh, yeah. All the way … all the way. Suck me, baby.”
And she did. Fast. Slow. With teeth. Without. And all the while she massaged his balls and stroked his shaft with a firm, but gentle hand.
As the pressure built in his testicles, the earth around them erupted in a mini-swarm of small quakes. Their sexual activity dissipated just enough energy to keep the lid on the volcano. The magmatic intrusion attempted to burn through their joined essences, seeking, fighting for a way to defeat them and to do what it did best—to erupt.
The battle between his little Talisman and Mother-Earth-gone-wild was vicious. His body was one giant pulsing well of pressure as he absorbed kinetic energy and stored it for use in shutting down the seismic activity once and for all.
The turning point came when a powerful temblor deep in the earth began a speedy ascent to the surface. The magma followed the path of slippage, oozing its way into cracks and crannies, seeking the ancient crater at the top of the South Sister.
Their essences felt the heat, felt the surging triumph of the bitch volcano as she sought to win this last fight.
“Carr!” Lily arched her back and screamed. “Fuck me … now!”
He flipped her over onto her back and thrust into her velvety tight channel in one smooth move. As he pistoned his cock, they joined their astral bodies and sent their merged essences more deeply into the ground to battle the seismic tsunami of heat and pressure.
“Carr, help me!” Lily cried out when a particularly vicious L-wave of energy powered through her body, refusing to be dissipated.
He hooked Lily’s legs over his arms, angling her pelvis so he could reach her rear entrance. Pulling out of her vagina, he took her ass. As he thrust, he rubbed her clit with the heel of his hand and he finger-fucked her pussy. His ass cheeks clenched as he thrust steadily and powerfully, creating the energy to give Lily the strength to quell the quake once and for all.
Lily was a creature of beauty and power as she strained for her pleasure. Her head thrown back, her moans echoed his grunts. They climbed toward their sexual peak in tandem. No other sexual partner had ever met him thrust for thrust. No other woman made his heart melt, his soul desire, his body need as Lily did. She was the only woman he could imagine in his future. Only Lily. Just Lily.
As Lily’s vaginal muscles gripped his fingers, she screamed, arching her back, forcing his cock into her ass up to his balls. Her tight channel rippled and undulated, massaging his cock, triggering his climax. “That’s it, baby” he shouted. “Come hard. Give me everything. I’ll keep you safe.”
He’d never experienced an orgasm so strong—nor one lasting so long. Multiple peaks and dips rolled over and through their physical and astral bodies. As they began a slow, rippling descent, their joined essences beat back the quake and magmatic intrusion to shut down the South Sister once and for all.
As the last wave of energy dissipated, he pulled out of Lily and collapsed next to her, tugging her into his body, snuggling her head under his chin. With his last bit of strength, he covered them both with a blanket and then curled around her protectively.
“Sleep tight, baby,” he whispered against her hair. He quickly followed her into sleep.
* * * *
Darcy gripped the ground, riding it as if he were an urban cowboy and the earth was a mechanical bull.
The fucking quake had to be a 5.0 or better, the epicenter too close for comfort. Good news was it had promised to be much worse and hadn’t been.
His gaze went immediately to the South Sister. His elemental senses had told him it was ready to erupt. But now, it merely steamed. The area rumbled in a swarm of shallow after-quakes, dispersing any remaining energy from the fault slippage. Strong winds caused by the released heat and electromagnetic waves swirled the leaves, pine needles and dirt around him. He buried his face in his arms to protect his eyes.
Sending his senses deeper, he sought and found the magma pool, now leaking into the bowels of Earth rather than blowing the top off the volcano.
Although he’d acknowledged Lily was the Earth Talisman, he hadn’t believed it until that moment. She’d taken a disaster in the making and turned it into a survivable seismic event.
As the S-waves died down, the winds died with them. He took a deep breath and chanced sitting up. Lily had accomplished something no other Earth elemental had ever done—she’d created multiple subterranean drains for the magma. That feat, coupled with her dispersal of energy, had silenced the angry Earth.
“Damn.” He let out a breath he hadn’t known he held. A smile twisted his lips at the thought of all the riches he could extort using Lily’s ability. A power that could knock down a volcano could also incite one.
Standing under the cover of some pine trees, he glanced toward the KOTE trailer. The scientists scurried around with their instruments. They would be distracted for a while, verifying the miracle Lily had wrought. Giving him time to take out Winbolt and Madoc, and snatch Lily. He approached the tent, sticking to the shadows. He stopped behind one tree and peered around the corner. He was close to the back of the tent. Close enough to hear male voices at the front.
“They’re sleeping, Donovan.” Winbolt was the speaker.
“Keep an eye on them, Mark. I’ll go back to the command center and check in with Claire about the Gulf storm situation.”
Darcy waited a minute until he was sure Callahan had left the area. Taking a pocket knife from his jeans pocket, he cut a slit in the back of the tent. After cutting off some excess rope from the anchor ropes, he slipped inside.
Rage boiled through him at the scene awaiting him, threatening to overcome his need for stealth. Lily lay naked in the arms of the bastard Madoc. She was his. He’d seen her first and no prophecy was going to keep him from her.
Looking around for a weapon, he found a mallet, probably the one they used to set up the tent. Grabbing it, he hi
t the back of Madoc’s head. Hard. The thunk sounded loud in the quiet of the tent.
His gaze shot to Lily. She was so out of it, she hadn’t even moved. He pulled her away from the unconscious man. He eyed her naked body, noting the marks of Madoc’s lovemaking. She reeked of the bastard. He couldn’t do anything about either at the moment, but later he would be sure to take her and eradicate all evidence, all memories of Madoc’s possession of her. He tied her hands behind her back and gagged her with a strip from Madoc’s shirt.
Turning back to Madoc, he wanted to kill him. It would be so easy. One slice across the carotid and he’d bleed out before anyone came to check on him. But Darcy was not a cold-blooded killer. He could kill in the heat of the moment, but it wasn’t sporting to kill an unconscious man.
He also did not anticipate Madoc being a problem in the future, because Darcy planned to hide Lily away from the rest of the world. He also couldn’t see Madoc wanting Lily after he’d had her.
He gagged Madoc with another piece cut from the shirt, then bound him hand and foot with the tent rope.
So far he was in the clear.
Winbolt was almost forty yards away and hadn’t checked inside, but he couldn’t leave the human conscious to raise an alarm. Darcy didn’t want anyone following him right away. He’d like to be on the jet and on his way to Brody’s estate to rescue his mother before they discovered Lily’s absence.
With the mallet in hand, he lifted the flap of the tent and peeked out. Perfect. Winbolt’s back was to him. He left the tent and silently approached the human. For the second time, he rendered the man unconscious. He dragged him into the tent where he bound and gagged him also.
Still unconscious, Lily lay where he’d left her. He snatched a blanket from the makeshift bed to cover her nudity. The blanket smelled of sex. Of Lily. Of Madoc. Yes, he definitely had to change that scent and soon. Just their blended scents made him see red. It would be his and Lily’s scents on the next set of bedding. For now, he’d have to use this to keep her warm until he could get her into the clothing he’d brought for her and left on the plane. He had to keep his meal ticket, his bedmate, healthy.
He snickered. Finally he’d have Lily right where he wanted her, under him, taking him into her body. And the best part of it all, the sex would pay as they created and destroyed seismic events for money.
But before he could begin to extort the world, he had to get his mother back and eliminate Brody. While the old Destroyer was alive, no one in his family—or Lily—was safe.
He wrapped Lily in the blanket. Lifting her, he rubbed his cheek over her silky fall of hair. “Soon, Lily. Soon you’ll be mine alone.”
Angling out of the slit in the back of the tent, he made his way through the forest to where he’d left the rented Hummer.
Placing Lily in the passenger seat, he belted her in, then lowered the seat until it lay flat. He had to get past the roadblocks without having to kill anyone. He had a story all ready if he were stopped, of a medical emergency and taking her to a hospital in Eugene.
After one last stroke to her hair and a kiss on her pale, still lips, he circled the vehicle and got into the driver’s seat.
As he drove along the road leading from the Sisters area, he smiled and cast one rage-filled glance back at the mountains. “So long, Father. I pray Callahan or Madoc kills you, you son-of-a-bitch.”
* * * *
Tuesday, 5:15 PM (PST).
“Carr? Lily?” Brenna approached the tent. No one answered. She turned in a circle, surveying the surrounding area.
“Mark? Where are you?”
Again, no answer. She frowned and a hollow feeling in her stomach had her searching the area once again. Mark wouldn’t leave his post without securing backup. And where was the second Protector who was supposed to share guard duty?
The sun on its descent into the western horizon shone weakly through the filter of pines shading the tent. Birds chirped in the trees now that the seismic danger was over. The air smelled slightly of pine as the sulfur from the once-threatening volcano was blown away by a northwesterly breeze.
Everything should feel calm and in balance, but even to her human senses, Brenna felt something “off” in the atmosphere. She shivered. Going with her instincts, she screamed, “Donovan! Donovan! Come quickly.”
Trusting she wasn’t over-reacting, she ran to the tent and slid through the flap with no further warning. The sight was like something out of a bad B-movie. Two bodies on the ground. A hole in the back of the tent. And a bloodied mallet. “My God! Mark! Carr!”
She ran to Carr who writhed in his bonds. His head bleeding. His wrists raw from trying to escape. His nude body scraped and dirty from his manipulations to get free. His eyes frantic and face red from exertion.
She ripped the gag from his mouth. She then turned her attention to loosening the bindings on his wrists. “Where’s Lily? Did you see who took her?”
“I didn’t see anyone.” Carr stood up and wobbled slightly. He reached for her shoulder to brace himself. She blushed at his nudity and was relieved when he began to dress.
She turned her attention to untying Mark who’d begun to moan behind his gag.
“Brenna!” Donovan rushed into the tent, a gun in his hand. He quickly scanned the tent. She could almost hear his sigh of relief at finding her safe. “Where’s Lily?”
Carr opened his mouth, winced and touched the back of his head.
“Here, let me see,” Brenna said. Donovan went to check out Mark, who hadn’t moved from the ground since she’d untied him.
“Someone really did a number on your head.” She went to the tent opening and yelled, “We need medical help here.” Someone in the small crowd that had gathered after her initial cries for help came forward, a med-kit in his hand. She waved him inside, closing the flap on the gawkers.
“Mark’s worse than me,” said Carr. “Help him first.” He sat down in an awkward movement, belying his words.
“Who took Lily?” Donovan asked, searching the tent.
“I didn’t see or hear a thing.” Mark moaned as the paramedic dabbed something on the bloody wound at the base of his skull. “One minute … oww … one minute I was watching the scientists doing their post-quake readings, then bam … nothing.”
“Whoever took her entered and left from here.” Donovan examined the large rip at the back of the tent. Carr joined him, a fierce look on his face. His anger was palpable within the confines of the tent.
Brenna went to her husband and burrowed into his arms. “Do you think there was a Destroyer on Morrissey’s team? No true Terran would assault others or take the Talisman.”
“Let’s ask Morrissey,” Carr suggested. His tone of voice hinting the old Earth Keeper had better have answers or there’d be bloodshed. “The only people I can absolve are the four of us. Everyone else is a suspect.”
*
Carr walked to the front of the tent with the paramedic on his heels. He stopped and looked down at the man. “I’m fine. Trust me, if I need you, I’ll ask.”
He opened the flap and spied Morrissey standing a few feet to the side of the tent. Another older man stood next to him. The stranger hadn’t been present when he and Lily had entered the tent several hours ago. Something about the man was “off.”
His senses flared and he took in the scent of spoiled meat. Destroyer! He approached the man in two long strides. “Who the fuck are you?”
“This is my old schoolmate Ben Miller,” said Morrissey. “He and his son came to help with the quake.”
“Darcy Miller was here?” Carr fisted his hands at his sides. Grabbing the older Miller by his shirt, he lifted the traitorous bastard to his toes. His nostrils flared at the scent of treachery and guilt poring off the man. “You reek of Destroyer! Where the fuck did your damned son take my woman?”
“I-I-I don’t…” Miller choked and began to turn blue, “…please, I … can’t breathe.”
“Carr,” Donovan’s hand was warm, calmin
g, on his shoulder, “let him down. He can’t talk if he can’t breathe.”
Donovan’s logic cut through his rage. He loosened his grip, but didn’t let go completely. The older man gasped several times. “Where is she?” He shook Miller “Where did the fucker take her?”
“Brody…” Miller’s voice quavered.
“What about Brody?” He snarled and let go of Miller’s shirt only to place both hands around the old man’s neck. “Your scum-sucking son took her to that dickless traitor? I’ll kill him—and you.” He tightened his hands, and the old man tried to pry them from his neck.
“Carr, stop it!” Donovan and a pale Mark wrestled him away from Miller.
Carr held a hand up, taking several breaths; he signaled to the men to let go. When they didn’t move away, he turned his head and eyed each man in turn. “I’m fine. I promise not to kill the son of a bitch—for now.”
“I don’t understand what’s going on?” Morrissey supported his old friend, his worried gaze traveled from Carr to Miller and back. “Why would Ben’s son take Lily to Brody? The man’s a known Destroyer and the cause of our current problems, from what I’ve been told.”
“I’m so … sorry,” Miller said, his face deathly white. His head bowed, his eyes closed, he shook like an aspen in the wind. “Brody has … my wife. He demanded the Earth Talisman in exchange for Molly’s safe return. Darcy was just trying to protect his mother.”
“Liar.” Carr snarled, his hands aching to slap the old man for his deceit. “Darcy attempted to rape her the night before the Indiana quake. You smell of Destroyer. I’m betting your son is one also.”
Donovan sniffed the air and his face turned grim. “The smell is there. It is strong now, but I could swear he did not smell this way during Council meetings.”
“Maybe he hadn’t done anything overt until after Lily arose as the Talisman,” Carr suggested. “I don’t care what he was, but what he is—and what he can tell us.”
