Fiery arms wrapped around her back and shifted her up his body to a more secure position.
Her thighs hooked on his slim hips and her head rested on his left shoulder.
Fangs trailed her neck in warning before piercing, no priming telling her that this wasn’t a typical feed or taste.
“Victor!” hissed his twin.
He growled, his fangs still in her neck, so the deep sound of it vibrated against her skin.
“Can you hide us from my grandfather?” Jill asked.
“He’s busy with Jaeson,” Victoria admitted. “Your mother’s not back.”
Normally, Jill would be in the middle of a panic attack right now, worrying about her mother.
If it wasn’t for the strangely reassuring feel of Victor’s fangs in her neck, connecting them, she would be less grounded.
Instead, Jill tipped her head back and welcomed the growly vampire to drink her blood to strengthen them both.
“Uncle Jaeson will take care of my mother,” Jill told Victoria.
“Fine, I’m leaving if you two are going to keep necking. Alexander is doing his best not to look, but you two are embarrassing him. You were apart for five minutes. Get a damn room, for Maeren’s sake,” Victoria said, taking off with a huff.
Alexander was staring. Victoria took off, but Alexander’s eyes met Jill’s the moment that the princess had left them alone.
The adults were busy. It was the three of them and a lot of tension.
Victor eased his fangs from her neck a minute later, lapping the mark he’d left in her skin.
Alexander still stared.
“I had to go,” she said.
Victor’s grip tightened. “Not without me,” he grumbled against her neck.
“What?” she asked, barely able to hear him.
“Never again, without me by your side,” he said, giving her ear a nip. “You’re under my protection, Jill. I won’t tie you down, but I will leash you.”
Alexander sighed and walked over to them. He surprised her by grabbing a handful of her hair and pulling her head back.
Victor growled, low and deep.
“Let me taste her. I won’t bite,” Alexander said.
“Are you asking me or my leash holder?” Jill bit out.
Alexander’s hold on her hair was very firm. He had earth-strength that felt like it was barely being restrained.
“She’s not ready,” Victor answered Alexander.
The earth-lord released her hair, although he didn’t back up.
She shifted and gave Victor’s neck a little nip, sucking the hurt she made in a small hickey before releasing, as she contemplated his words.
“I’m stronger than you think,” she finally said.
Didn’t he trust her?
Didn’t he realize she was a powerful witch?
“Fine, add another leash to her stubbornness,” Victor said.
She hadn’t meant that she’d wanted Alexander to bite, but it seemed incongruous to refuse now.
Alexander had his hand back in her hair and his lips on her neck between two thumping heartbeats. He sucked on Victor’s bite.
She embarrassingly moaned, making up for it by grouching at the vampire taking her blood.
Victor must have primed her earlier without her realizing it,
“I don’t need to be leashed to anyone! Witches are strong, too. I can fight!”
“A leash connects us, ties us together,” Victor said.
Alexander lifted his head.
“You are potent,” he grumbled near her ear. “Much too powerful for a headstrong witch who wants to fight. Soldiers don’t go to war alone. Why would you be any different due to your pretty tits?”
Jill flushed.
“What’s with the obsession over my breasts? They’re a regular rack.”
Victor scoffed.
“Liar. Your work your body hard through all of your training and it shows. Seems Alex likes breasts. I prefer your ass. It’ll make it easier to share, eventually,” Victor said.
“But not now . . . ?” Alexander asked, trailing off. He released her hair.
“I told you, she’s not ready,” Victor said.
He reached a hand out, suddenly, raking a finger across the skin exposed over one of Alexander’s clavicles, not covered by his loose shirt.
Alexander grunted and pushed closer. His lower body pressed against her and his upper body leaned toward Victor.
“You’re bleeding,” Jill said, taking a quick glimpse beside her at Alexander.
“He doesn’t get my bite yet,” Victor said. He held his finger with a little blood on the tip at her. “Do you want a taste?”
Jill opened her mouth.
Alexander groaned as if she has sucked from his chest when Victor painted her lips with the smidgen of blood. She licked her lips clean.
“Go, I need to talk to Jill,” Victor said to Alexander.
He left them alone without protest.
Victor walked over to the rock Jaeson had brought up for a seat earlier. He sat down, with her in his arms.
“I’m heavy,” she said, realizing how long Victor had been holding her.
He chuckled and she tried not to be offended.
“Are you trying to insult me?” he asked, sounding a little more lighthearted.
She lifted her head off of his shoulder and looked him in the eyes, slightly taller, now that she was straddling his lap.
His eyes were full of fire, but the anger was banked, like embers compared to the lust burning in his gaze now.
Victor smirked. “It’s difficult to stand with a soft, sweet witch squirming all over my body after throwing herself in my arms.”
She dropped her pelvis a little, finding evidence of his hard problem.
“Doesn’t this make it worse?” she asked.
He groaned quietly, torturing himself a moment more, pressed up against the vee of her thighs, before adjusting her legs, so she was sitting sideways on his lap.
“Everything makes it worse,” he whispered to her.
“So, you want to tie yourself to me?” she asked, hiding her face against his chest again.
“Yes,” he simply answered.
“I thought it might be temporary. Once you have your revenge—”
“It’s not revenge, never was,” he interrupted and corrected. “I don’t kiss my enemies, Jill.” A little of his dominance had slipped back into his voice, deepening it. “I’m training you,” he said, a touch more wicked.
“We’ll see who trains who,” she muttered to the chest.
“Don’t think risking your life against my orders will be forgotten. I’m planning to remind you with those clamps I had made for your pretty, pink nipples.”
She glanced up, worried somebody might overhear him.
Possibly Alexander.
“I thought you were making that up,” she whispered back.
“You presumed wrong,” he said. “Everything I tell you . . .” he whispered back, his fingers dancing along his bite on her neck, “. . . all the perverted fantasies I have with you bound in my bed.” She shivered. “I’ll make them all come true if you consent, Jill.”
“I don’t know if I’ll l-like it,” she said, fighting back the shivers his dark, sexual promise and touch aroused.
She might be able to meet him head to head when it came to magic and strength, but in the bedroom games, he was the master.
“You know how I check for your response,” he said.
She squeezed her thighs together at his dark chuckle, already wet.
“Now, take a few deep breaths and prepare yourself to get up to greet your mother. She’s coming back, dusty and angry, and she’s not alone.”
Her first instinct was to look for her mother, but the dominance in Victor’s command made her obey him to the letter, taking a few deep breaths to ground herself first.
“Kaila, change your mind about interrogation?”
Jaeson drawled the question, not mention
ing anything about the blood splattered over her mother’s face.
A young witch, perhaps a few years younger than Jill, trailed behind her mother, wearing even more blood and dirt, or at least she appeared filthy, at first.
As they neared, Jill could make out the purpling and green of bruises on the witch’s skin that were of various ages.
“She was coerced,” Kaila answered. “I found her levitating, which is why you didn’t count her.”
The young air-witch stumbled forward to drop to her knees, and then, face-down in the dirt.
Jill would have thought the witch had fainted, except that she had thrown her arms forward, making a very subservient bow to Torsten.
“Forgive me, my Lord. I beg for your mercy,” she pleaded.
Jill wanted to rush forward and pull the poor, tormented witch off of her knees.
“Stay,” Victor said, stopping her.
“My daughter has already shown you mercy. Do you dare beg for mine?” Torsten asked, not sounding grandfatherly at all.
The witch said nothing back to him, keeping her face in the dirt.
“Alexander, I expect you to treat this witch’s wounds and to ensure her security,” Torsten ordered. “She is to submit to a mark and cuffs if you deem necessary.”
Alexander walked over to the prostrate witch. “Come here,” he spoke over her body, not bending or offering a hand.
She slowly rose, clearly in discomfort.
“I’ll carry you,” Alexander offered, sweeping an arm under her knees to pick her up.
“She guided the arrows to try to kill your mother,” Victor reminded Jill as she trembled to move.
“Alex is a softy,” Victoria whispered, putting a hand on her twin’s shoulder. “Why do you think the general picked him?”
“Because Jaeson has his hands full with my mother?” Jill answered, watching the way the older earth lord looked at her mother after the nonchalant way he had greeted her.
He noted every speck of dirt, each drop of blood on her mother’s body. Nothing escaped his careful notice, once her mother was distracted from his personal exam.
Jaeson had gotten his wish totally wrong.
It was the mind he wanted to understand, the subconsciousness, with its instincts and id-driven desires that most people could hide.
Her mother had an admirer who wanted to know what drove her very badly.
Had Jaeson misunderstood her mother in the past?
“Jaeson and Kaila? Really?” asked Victoria, still keeping it quietly between them.
“Stay out of it,” Victor ordered. “Both of you mind your own business,” he added.
“Shouldn’t I at least offer to heal the air-witch? My mother and I are more qualified than a brute earth-lord,” Jill insisted.
“That’s rather sexist,” Victoria pointed out. “Earth-lords can be amazing healers as well. Just think of William.”
Jill gave Victoria a perplexed look.
“Why do you think Prince William has extraordinary healing abilities? He left you with more wounds than it seems he healed.”
“What is Jill talking about, Tor?” Victor asked, snagging his sister’s wrist and pulling her closer for their intimate tete-a-tete.
“Is this a twin sandwich?” Jill joked, trying to wiggle off of Victor’s lap.
Jill realized—too late—she shouldn’t have revealed Victoria’s secrets, but it hadn’t seemed like something Victoria would have kept from her twin.
“Go, offer your skills,” Victor said, letting her free. “I need to discuss these wounds with my sister.”
She mouthed ‘sorry’ to Victoria and skedaddled.
Their voices rose behind her. Victor’s temper had already been on edge. Now his twin was going to sharpen it further.
Someone had to tell Victor he couldn’t control everything—just not Jill, not today.
She still needed him to keep her grounded.
The Challenge
Alexander
The general had done it on purpose.
That arrogant fire-prince had grown on the general, though it wasn’t something either of them would admit out loud.
Gruff and hardened by life, the general kept his feelings close to his chest.
He’d rather bark orders at Alexander than admit his granddaughter had chosen a worthy suitor without his help.
Not that Alexander was exempt from his duty to Jill.
The general wasn’t forcing them together—in fact, he’d saddled Alexander with another troublesome witch to slow his efforts with Jill down—but Alexander would only have this one chance at winning the right to claim their clan’s version of an earth-princess.
Victor could keep Jill’s fire.
Alexander wanted her kindness and healing. He wanted to nurture her earth-strengths, even the brute power that could cleave his heart in half if she kept throwing herself in front of danger.
The general might have meant to keep Alexander mindlessly busy with the grunt work of watching over an injured prisoner—so Victor could make his moves on Jill.
It was fine. Alexander could be patient.
There were plenty of interesting things happening to keep him busy while Jill and the prince danced.
Alexander would cut in the moment the prince made any missteps.
Switching
Elizabeth
“I’m never drinking dragon’s blood again,” Elizabeth swore.
“It was the tea,” Pan reminded her.
The dragoness hadn’t been offered the liquor due to her youth, but she had fallen prey to the same drugged sleep as Elizabeth when she’d stolen some of the tea.
“Trust me, laudanum does not mix well with dragon’s blood. I threw up enough chicken to start my own coop,” Elizabeth lamented.
Geer had helped take care of her while she’d been ill afterwards.
Raphael had done the same for Pan.
Their dragon caregivers had simply told the rest of the clan that their ‘guests’ were recovering from the onerous journey they’d undertaken to reach the caves and deliver Daemon’s offer.
It had allowed Geer time to explain a few things to Elizabeth in privacy, plus fit in a ‘magical side trip’ so they could talk with Phillip.
When Elizabeth had awoken from passing out for the second time with Phillip and Geer, it had been to find out that Geer had already delivered whatever message he’d said was of life or death importance to Phillip.
She’d tried to prod Geer for the information, but he told her that he couldn’t tell her, for her own good.
Ha. As if.
Of course, she was familiar with that excuse.
It had made her feel guilty, thinking about all of the things she was hiding from her family, running off to the dangers of Dragos.
Her mother would call her behaviour reckless.
Jill would say Elizabeth had to always be the hero, then complain about being left behind.
She missed her family.
The best thing would be to try to contact them—especially Jill. Their last conversation had left a lot of unresolved questions.
Elizabeth had promised to try again soon, after George had helped her amplify her telepathy in the Wastes to communicate last time.
Well, she’d left George behind.
She tried to ask Geer about helping her connect to her sister to make up for his refusal to tell her what had happened between him and Phillip when she’d been unconscious.
He told her that it wouldn’t be possible to communicate from within Dragos all the way to the edge—Or the human realm!—without a two-way circle like they’d used on Phillip.
Telepathy and transportation were different.
It would be easier to just do what she’d set out to in coming to Dragos first, then to go find her family.
Hopefully, Jill had found their mother, and Victor was behaving himself.
Elizabeth would have to rush the dragons to do their part, so she could be reunited with her family.<
br />
While she had been busy fretting over wasting time, Pan had simply slept her sedative off.
The young dragoness fit in well, here. She looked more relaxed, probably knowing she was safe under her royal cousin’s care.
Raphael had kept to his promise and assembled his clan soldiers into a respectable battalion, ready to free the light clan.
The dark caves had almost completely emptied out, everyone ready without much fuss.
It made her wonder if the dark clan had already planned to fight before this—and who had been the target?
Wisely, she kept that question to herself.
Don’t look a gift dragon in the mouth! They breathed fire.
What she did tell Raphael—when pressured—was that she’d ‘run’ from Daemon and George—as well as the Dogs—leaving them all in the Wastes.
Elizabeth kept quiet that Pan had technically kidnapped her to hold as a hostage to gain the help that the light clan desperately needed.
No need to get the dragoness in trouble, when it had been mostly Elizabeth’s plan to come to Raphael on their own.
Geer could have ratted her out by reading Elizabeth’s mind, but he kept his silence—at least, in front of Pan.
George, Daemon, and the Dogs had to be scouring the mountains by now, punching faces and asking questions last.
Time was of the essence if the dark clan dragons wanted the glory of bringing down King Rael by themselves.
She was sure the light clan was where the others were headed in their search for her. Pan had practically ensured it when she’d kidnapped Elizabeth after telling the princes all about her hidden clan.
Geer had laughed at the idea of vampires raiding the light clan and told Raphael to hurry up. Not so they could stop the others, but to watch.
Hence, Elizabeth and Pan were marching with the dark clan warriors. Nobody knew who would reach the doomed light clan first.
All of them were anxious—although, likely for different reasons. Even the soldiers marched quieter than she’d expected.
The dark clan dragons were a ragged lot. They had strong magic by their auras, but they dressed like poor miners and townsfolk with only a thimbleful of power.
Nobody would be impressed by their battalion. Elizabeth had her doubts about their chances of success, although she hoped for Pan’s sake that the dark clan would come through.
Witch Darkness Follows (Maeren Series Book 3) Page 26
