Firewalkers: Dreamer

by Shiloh Walker

  Sage…love…

  The soft whispered voice wrapped around both of them, but Sage winced painfully. He slid his eyes to Caris who was now watching him carefully as she rose to her feet. I didn’t give you permission to speak of me, for me, about me. Let it go.

  Jax couldn’t hear Sage’s response, although he knew there was one.

  Caris inclined her head gently, and then she smiled, a sad, slow smile, before she shook it negatively. No. It just wasn’t meant to be that way, babe. You win some, you lose some.

  What exactly are you talking about? Jax demanded, sliding into her end of the mental link with a deft touch.

  But Caris slid out, evading him, breaking the link with a mental brush against Sage that infuriated Jax. Thanks, babe, for caring. But I’ll deal. And stay out of my business.

  Jax broke away, furious, seething.

  She would tell him what he wanted to know.

  Chapter Eleven

  Brooding, angry, plotting, he waited until later in the day before he moved in on her. When he saw that she was weary, but not to the point that she would drop exhausted the moment she hit the bed.

  “Why are you so exhausted? Are you taking ill?” he asked cordially as he led her away from the group, his hand splayed protectively over her back as he guided her to their room. Anni had cooked dinner for her and the scents of it wafted appetizingly from the hallway even before he opened the door.

  “No,” she said shortly. “I am not ill. I am not taking ill.”

  “You sleep twelve hours every day. That is not the normal pattern for an adult human.”

  “Studying up on the humans now, are we?” she asked dryly as she slid past him into the room, narrowly eyeing the lone table setting, the candlelight. “What the hell is this?”

  “Dinner, love,” he murmured against her neck.

  “Fine.” She shrugged his hands away and moved off, leaving him standing there staring at her. Taking a deep breath, closing his hands into fists and then flexing them, he reminded himself there was a purpose to tonight. And spanking her sweet little ass wasn’t it.

  She picked through the food while standing, settling on the bowl of soup, which she ate while roaming the room and ignoring him, occasionally going back to the table to munch on bread or sip at the wine. When she finished, she set it down and turned, facing him and folding her arms across her chest. “Now what?”

  “Eat the rest,” he growled as he struggled to rein in his temper. Oh, she was pushing it.

  “I’m not hungry. I’m tired, and I still have work to do. There’s tons of clothes to wash now that you’ve invaded my home and let nearly a hundred people onto my land without my permission. And even more on the way. Housing is being built, I’m told. Without my permission—” her voice broke and she closed her eyes, swallowed. “On my land. And what the fuck am I supposed to do about it? There’s nothing I can do. Nothing.”

  Jax reached for her as she turned, only to have her jerk away. “Don’t. I don’t want you touching me right now,” she hissed. “Damn it, you helped him do this to me. Morgan knows, damn it, part of him knows what this will do to me, and he doesn’t care. And you helped him.”

  Jax heard none of it though, he only saw his mate, his woman, pulling away. That wasn’t allowed. That wasn’t acceptable. Fisting one hand in her hair, the other an iron clamp around her belly, he pinned her against the wall and licked her neck, growling softly, “You are mine, Caris…remember?”

  His hand slid down her belly, under the loose tie of her pants, cupping her in his hand. He pushed one thick finger between the bare lips of her sex, the scant dampness there resisting his entrance as he rocked his cock against her ass. “Mine…to feed on, to fuck, to love…do not ever pull away from me.” He pulled his finger out and pushed it back in, shuddering as a wave of her sweet cream greeted him this time, easing his passage.

  “I’d never place you in direct harm. You will trust me. And you will tell me what you were speaking of with Sage. Or you will pay…” he whispered in soft sensual threat as he licked a trail down her neck, feeling a long slow shudder rack her body. Gripping the fragile, gaily colored, flower-patterned pink pants at her hips, he tore them away, then went back to rocking his cock against her ass. He took two handfuls of her bright pink shirt and rent it away, leaving her naked, her hair spilling down her pale back in a golden river of silk, her entire body shuddering.

  “Will you tell me, as I worship your body?” he asked, fondling a breast with one hand while he tormented the hard nub of her clit with the other hand. “Or do I make you tell me?”

  “My conversations are my own,” she said roughly, breathing in ragged pants, reaching up to knock his hands away, only to be caught up against him, her arms pinned against her chest. Jax breathed in the sweet jasmine and vanilla scent of her, the feel of her against him, and worried about the coolness of her body.

  “You feel too cold against me. I want to know why. If you are not ill, then tell me why you feel so cold.”

  “Kiss my ass,” she rasped, jerking her head aside as he craned around to buss his lips against hers.

  Slowly, he turned her stiff body around in his arms and carried her over to the bed, tossing her down on it and looming over her, waiting to see if she would try to run. Her eyes, that peculiar golden brown, the same color as her hair, met his unyieldingly, and she lifted that stubborn, arrogant chin.

  A smile tugged at his lips even as the challenge and refusal in her gaze made his blood boil, made his heart pound in fast, heavy beats, calling to the predator that he kept leashed inside. “I’m going to fuck you mercilessly, for every time you refuse me, Caris. Until you scream my name over and over, until you cannot think for want of me. Be careful that you do not ask for more than you can handle. I will take you everywhere you have ever dreamed of…and I will make you want it, I will make you crave it.”

  “Oh, go screw yourself,” she snorted, rolling onto her belly and starting to crawl away.

  Jax stared hungrily at the exposed ass, and lunged, pinning her under him, between his body and the bed, raking his teeth down her neck as he caught her arms, stretching them over her head and gripping her wrists in one hand. Rising to his knees, he tore at the material of his shirt, scowling at the unfamiliar fasteners and shredding it, tossing the torn material to the side. Holding onto two longer strips, he released Caris’ wiggling, furious body, and flipped her around on the bed so that her head was up by the posts.

  Before she could open her mouth to hiss at him, he had one wrist neatly, firmly but safely restrained, with her flat on her belly. He was reaching for the other when she snaked onto her back and scissored out with her leg, delivering a damaging blow right to his balls. Jax doubled over, gasping, falling back and wishing he hadn’t taken to wearing the human’s clothing. His light armor would have protected him from that blow. By the suns…

  And the little witch was fast. He was slowly rising from his bent position, not thirty seconds later, when she was nearly through the first series of intricate knots. Bending low over her, he ran one hand up the length of her back, then down before lifting his hand and delivering a sound smack to the firm, toned flesh of her ass. “Do that again, beloved, and I shall turn this pretty tail of yours red as roses, red as the soft flesh of your sweet pussy, do you understand?” he purred, as he caught her free hand and forced it down to the mattress, tying it to the other post.

  Then he bent low and murmured, “I’ll fuck that virgin ass this night. That shall be your punishment, and your reward for telling me what I wish to know. And pleasure for both of us. You will know a painful pleasure like none you have ever experienced. And you will crave more of it.”

  “Go fuck yourself, Jax,” she hissed, jerking her head away from his soft, crooning voice.

  “Tell me no, and I shall go,” he offered. “Scream for help, if you are truly frightened.”

  “I am not afraid of you,” she hissed indignantly, totally forgetting the first words he had w
hispered against her cheek. He stared into the golden fire of her eyes, and saw nothing but challenge. “And I don’t owe you any damn explanation. Now untie me and leave me the hell alone.”

  Jax smiled, a hot, slow curl of his lips. “You did not say no.” Pulling back, he jerked her to her knees and used his thumbs to spread the pouting lips of her sex. Staring hungrily at the glistening wet flesh, his aching fangs descended from their sheaths as he lowered his head and licked her pussy. He eagerly probed the damp folds with his tongue, listening to the scream she muffled against her arm.

  The sweet, sweet beckon of her blood filled the air as he pushed his tongue further into her passage and reached between her thighs, circling his finger around her clit until she was shuddering and quaking under his hands.

  “Scream for me…” he whispered into her mind. Only to be blocked. He pushed against those shields as he had done before, expecting to feel them fall, but they didn’t. Ramming himself against her mentally, he shifted lower, flipping to his back and catching her clit gently between his teeth so he could finger-fuck her as he worked against the shields surrounding her heart, her soul—Caris.

  “You hold yourself away from me,” he whispered, pulling back, murmuring it against the silken naked flesh of her mound. “I will not allow this. Open yourself to me.”

  “This is what you forced me into,” she said, her voice quivering as he pushed two thick fingers deep inside the slick, wet channel of her cleft. Jax lashed down the urge to drive his cock inside her until she screamed his name, until those thick impenetrable walls fell in shatters around them and he could warm himself in the fire of her soul…but she was so much colder now than he.

  “I will break down those damned walls,” he growled, sliding out from between her firm sweet thighs and rolling off the bed, staring down at her exposed, lifted ass, running his tongue over his fangs before stalking over to the bedside table and jerking it open. “You will scream out my name. You will yield to me. You will tell me what I need to hear.”

  “What about what I need?” Caris snarled, whipping her head around and glaring at him, her cheek pressed against the pillow as she tracked him with her eyes.

  “I know what you need. I also know what you want. To be alone, safe and alone.” He opened the small glass jar of lubricant, the rich scent wafting to his nostrils as he took a generous amount and stroked it over his cock, staring at her as he did. “Safe and alone, that is what you want. And need? You need this…me.”

  “Want… You think I enjoy being away from people all the time?” she said thickly, staring at his cock, almost as though entranced. Her eyes followed his hand up and down as he stroked himself, and Jax closed his eyes, enjoying the warm slippery, silken feel of the lubricant under his hand, imagining the way her tight little ass was going to feel, in just seconds. The hard, rigid length of his cock jerked under his hand and he opened his eyes, closing the distance between them, moving behind her as she tried to close her legs. He wedged one broad thigh between hers as he mounted her.

  “Tell me what I want to know, open yourself to me, and I will lay you down and worship you as though you were a queen,” he whispered, lowering his lips to her back.

  “Kiss my ass,” she snarled furiously, jerking away from his touch, trying to twist out of his reach.

  “I’d rather fuck it,” he replied, slapping it lightly before probing the tender pink hole with his slick, lubed finger and pushing it in even as she gasped for breath. “You will scream my name.”

  “No…”

  In response, Jax pushed a second finger inside the snug passage and groaned as it writhed and spasmed around him, struggling to accommodate him. Pumping his fingers in and out, he settled on his heels, watching her, as she started to rock back against him.

  That was when he pulled his fingers away and gripped her hip with one hand, and his cock in the other. Pressing the broad, ruddy head against the tender pink hole, Jax pushed deep, slowly, watching as it flowered open around him and listening as Caris sobbed. Her breath was coming in deep ragged pants, the scent of her blood rising and becoming thicker on the air.

  Pulling out minutely, he pushed slowly back in as a flood of her cream washed down to coat his sac and fill the air, making him ravenous. “You’re hot…finally your body warms,” he crooned. “I can taste your want on the air, hear how fast your heart pounds. Scream for me, let me hear it.”

  Caris shuddered, her spine bowing down, her hands closing into fists as she jerked against the cloth strips binding her wrists and he pushed deeper and deeper inside her. The tight, hot, silken grip of her ass hugged him, writhing around him, had him gritting his teeth and arching his head back, his hair falling down his back, the ends of his hair caressing his spine, his every last nerve ending hyper-sensitized…

  The scent of her blood…whipping his head up, he stared at her, the way she had her head turned, her silken, amber and gold locks covering her face as she squirmed under his slow, deep possession. Pushing her hair aside, he snarled as he saw her teeth sinking into her arm, smothering her moans in her throat, as she shuddered under his hands.

  “Damn it, Caris,” he swore, pulling out and surging forward, spreading the cheeks of her bottom open and staring down, watching as her eyes flew open then fluttered closed. Reaching around her hip, he pinched her clit as he started to shaft her deeply, burying his cock inside the tight, silky, virgin passage completely as the musk of her need filled the air. The scent of her blood and her body drove him insane.

  “Scream…scream…”

  She shuddered, she shook, and she sobbed against her arm, but she didn’t scream. Reaching down, he twined his fingers in her hair and tugged her head just slightly, until she pulled her mouth from her arm. Jax swore heatedly when he saw the bruised, red bite mark on her arm, drops of blood trickling down her smooth ivory flesh. With a savage growl, he ripped the cloth binding her, sliding his hands around her waist and lifting her up against him. Craning his head around to lick the bleeding wound he wrapped his arms around her and swiveled his hips against the soft curves of her butt.

  “Do not ever mark yourself, Caris,” he said, pressing his cheek to hers, shuddering as she started to clench and spasm around his cock. “Do not do it. Scream for me, give it to me…”

  Her eyes opened and he heard the catch in her breath as he started to jackhammer his hips against hers, ears pricked for the scream as she started to come. His cock jerked and he started pumping wave after wave of come into her willing, tight little ass.

  A soft, muffled sob was the only sound that left her lips. And when Jax forced his heavy lids open to stare into her eyes, she turned her head away as she came in a long, pulsating wave around his cock.

  Stubborn little wench, Jax swore hotly as he lowered her body to the bed, bracing his hands on her hips before gently pulling out.

  Flipping her onto her back, he sprawled between her thighs and spread the lips of her sex with his thumbs before lifting his eyes to stare at her over the length of her still quivering body. “So sweet…” he muttered, inhaling the heady scent of warm, hungry woman as he lowered his mouth to her pussy. “Scream, scream my name. Tell me you love me…”

  Stiffening his tongue he probed the folds hungrily, moving up and flicking it against her clit. Her thighs stiffened against his cheeks, and she arched up, gasping and sobbing for air, whimpering deep in her throat. “Jax, stop,” she finally whimpered.

  “Scream,” he growled. “I want to hear you scream my name.”

  Instead, she sank her sharp, white little teeth into her full lower lip as she arched up against his mouth, shuddering her way through another climax as he started to work two fingers in and out of her sheath.

  Jax groaned and pulled his mouth away from her sweet, wet cleft and rested his head on her quivering belly. His back bowed up as he forced his fangs back up into their sheaths, reining his body under control, even though his hunger still gnawed at his belly, his cock, his soul. “You belong to me—I’
ll hear my name on your lips again. Our souls are one,” he murmured, stroking one hand up and down her hip.

  Long moments later, he moved away and lay on his side, drawing her up into the cradle of his body, stroking his thumb up and down the curve of her hip as the shudders racking her body slowly faded.

  Into the silence, she whispered, “Our souls can’t be one. Your soul doesn’t know mine.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Caris glanced up at Anni as the younger woman slid into the room where she was practicing with Rebecca. Becca was fifteen, sassy, smart, and a projecting empath. She could project her emotions onto any one person…or persons. The problem was that she couldn’t control it when she was too angry, too scared, too hurt.

  She had been twelve years old and listening to her parents fight when her gift emerged. Becca hadn’t meant to hurt anybody, but she had. The backlash of her emerging gift had destroyed her mother’s mind. Granted, it was no big loss. The selfish bitch had never wanted anything but to be free of her family, her job, her obligations…everything.

  Her father, once he recovered from the shock, had taken Becca and fled. He had met up with Morgan two years ago, but the poor, loyal father had died during one of the many attacks against the Firewalkers. He had taken a strike aimed for his daughter, and died with a smile on his face, knowing she was in good hands.

  The trauma in Becca’s background resulted in uncontrolled bursts that sometimes resulted in chaos wherever Becca went. Hence, her being with Caris. This girl was going to learn basic shielding, though she’d never need to learn shielding on the level that Caris had to shield. She didn’t need to filter out all the random bits and pieces that could drive Caris to the extreme.