The Event

by Scarlett Grove

  “Are you hungry?” Lucia asked, offering a plate of cookies to Bridget.

  “I’m starving. I haven’t eaten since yesterday.”

  She took the plate and sat down on one of the armchairs near the fire. Orion offered Bridget a cup of tea that she accepted and sipped in between bites of cookie. Lucia sat across from Bridget and took her own teacup in hand. Now that she had another witch to talk to, maybe she could better understand what was going on.

  “I felt like I was going to have a heart attack too,” Lucia said. “I had no idea what was happening. I probably would have been stuck in San Francisco if Orion hadn’t found me,” Lucia said, cocking her head toward the dragon.

  “How did you get out of San Francisco? I was in Sweet Hill, a small town just ten miles from here, and it was like hell on Earth. People are going crazy. Violence. Looting. Rape. Murder. There are strange things happening out there. I swear I saw a vampire suck someone’s blood out on the highway. That’s when I took to the woods.”

  “We flew out of San Francisco,” Orion said. “I’m an immortal dragon. I’ve been living as a human man for two thousand years. But the Dark Sun brought magic back to the world, and with it, my ability to shift into my true form.”

  “Dragon?” Bridget said, blinking at him with wide eyes.

  “Nothing we knew before the Dark Sun is the truth,” Lucia said.

  “Why couldn’t you shift for two thousand years?” Bridget interrupted, fascinated.

  “The veil stifled the dragons’ shift and the vampires’ ability to walk in the light.”

  “And the Dark Sun destroyed the veil? But why?”

  “The same immortals who sought to dominate and destroy mortals and immortals alike built the Dark Sun Machine. It caused a solar flare that created an EMP. It took down the power grid and the magic veil. The particle beam that is cooling the surface of the sun is also preventing human electronic devices from working. I think it’s Xander’s way of terrorizing the entire planet.”

  “What is the endgame?” Bridget asked, looking nervously at Orion, clutching her teacup.

  She’d taken off her fleece jacket and was sitting on the red couch in a yellow t-shirt that said North Coast 5k across the chest.

  “To take over the world. Control everyone. I’m sure he’s enjoyed a good feed on the people of Denver with the rest of his depraved immortal legion. His minions are pouring into New York and Paris.”

  “Will anyone stop them?” Bridget asked, standing to grab another few cookies from the tray.

  “Our army is attempting to destroy the Dark Sun Machine and bring back the sunlight.”

  “Why aren’t you there?” Bridget asked.

  Lucia looked at him, surprised at the question for the first time. Orion had been sticking around the fortress with her rather than going to help in the fight against darkness. Suddenly she felt guilty for monopolizing him. Yet still she kept her distance from the man who professed to desperately love her.

  “I wish to protect my bride,” he said flatly.

  “Isn’t this place enough protection?” Bridget asked.

  It was true, the entire estate was surrounded by a twenty-foot wall. Lucia had everything she needed to remain safe, yet he stayed.

  “The immortals will be after women like you. To…breed. To create the next generation of immortal heirs. Breeding with witches is the only way to create immortal dynasties. Every immortal male will clamor to gain access to the wombs of the daughters of Gama.”

  “Who is Gama?”

  Orion explained to Bridget just what he had explained to Lucia about the mother goddess. She listened intently and then replied.

  “Let me get this straight. Women like me were created by some mother goddess who had three lovers. Two of which were aliens. And then the aliens’ sons and Gama’s daughter all had more babies? That sounds pretty incestuous.”

  “Things are different for immortals and gods. The female blood lines do not dilute when they mate with human males. There has been much diversity through the many centuries of immortals who were born on Earth since the arrival of Dahaki and Tartarus one hundred thousand years ago. Humans themselves have changed much in that time.”

  “This is so much to take in,” Bridget said, sitting back in her seat with a sigh.

  “Are you tired?” Lucia asked, feeling the woman’s fatigue wash over her.

  “I haven’t slept since it happened. I don’t even know how long it’s been.”

  “Forty-eight hours of darkness and counting,” Orion said. “I will show you to a guest room if you are ready to retire.”

  He guided Bridget and Lucia up the stairs to the third floor and opened the door to another spare bedroom. The layout was much like Lucia’s. A warm fire burned in the fireplace across from the bed. Wide windows looked out at the darkened view.

  “This is nice,” Bridget said, walking inside.

  “There is a bathroom through there,” Orion said, pointing to a door.

  “Sleep well, Bridget,” Lucia said as Orion shut the door.

  Out in the hall, Lucia started to her own door. But she stopped before going inside. Orion stood beside her, waiting to see her safely to her room.

  “Why haven’t you gone to fight Xander?” she asked.

  “I can’t leave you vulnerable to other immortals, Lucia. I must claim you before I leave you here without me.”

  “Claim?”

  “A mark an immortal can give to his witch bride. It protects her from all other immortal males. They cannot take her if she’s been marked. It is a sign far stronger than a diamond ring or a marriage certificate. It is binding to all immortals, even the evil ones.”

  “You want to mark me?” she asked, nearly breathless at the thought of it.

  She didn’t know him. Not really. No matter what the strange new memories told her or what he said. She might feel something for him, but to be marked by him and bound to him by some magical ward? She didn’t know if she was ready for that.

  “I can think of nothing else but putting my teeth to your flesh and giving you my bite.”

  She gasped and took a step back. Her body throbbed at the sound of his words. The growl in his voice made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Her panties dampened when she looked in his smoldering eyes.

  “I don’t want to stop you from fighting for the sun,” she whispered, gripping the doorknob to her room.

  “I will go as soon as I know you are safe.”

  “That means marking me?” she said.

  “Yes.”

  “What if I refuse?”

  “You cannot.”

  “And why not?” she asked indignantly.

  “You are my Selene. My eternal bride. Our love would blossom in the dead of a nuclear winter. We are meant to be, beloved.”

  “Orion. This is too much.”

  “You have seen the darkness over take the light, Lucia. You have seen the horrors rise from the shadows and take to the streets. You’ve ridden on dragon wings across California. Why does the question of our love baffle you still?”

  “Orion…”

  He stepped closer, his hot breath on her cheek. He was so close. The scent of his skin wafted into her nose. He smelled rich and clean and magnificent. The heat of his body radiated into her, and she felt herself grow warm from within. She bit her lip and looked up into his darkened eyes.

  “What, my flower?”

  “I want to believe this is real.”

  “Then all you must do, is let go,” he whispered into her ear.

  His hot breath blew over her sensitive skin, tingling down her spine and into her core. She wanted to let go, but she wasn’t sure she ever had. She worked. She studied. She talked to her cat when she stayed in on weekends. She was a librarian! Even if her eyes no longer needed glasses, the nerd inside her couldn’t believe this was happening.

  “I’m not sure I know how,” she whispered, his arms enfolding her waist.

  “Of course you do
. Just look into my eyes and feel the truth of my love for you, my priestess.”

  She gazed up at him, his face close to hers. His breath blew over her lips, and she could taste it, spicy from the tea. Her core clenched as he pulled her against him. She slid her hands up his biceps, feeling the rock-solid muscles of his arms.

  “Orion,” she managed to say as his lips met hers.

  His tongue slid between her lips, tasting her depths. It sent a shock wave of desire through her. Lucia took a sharp breath and wrapped her arms around Orion’s neck, kissing him back. His shaft rose hard against her stomach and the feeling made her gush heat from head to toe. She knew then that she could let go.

  Chapter 11

  She ached so painfully for Orion that she let out a desperate cry as he pulled her against his hardness. His tongue slid into her hot mouth. She moaned as the flood of desire tightened her pussy and nipples. The heady scent of Orion’s skin made her weak in the knees. Orion was her husband. Her long lost soulmate.

  The enormity of what they meant to each other, and what they would forever be to each other, burst in her heart. She grabbed at him but couldn’t get him close enough. Her hands roved his body, gripping, pulling, needy. He growled and picked her up in his powerful arms. Lucia wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him hard.

  He carried her across the threshold into her room and set her on the bed. Orion knelt before her on the floor, enveloping her waist. Lucia looked down at him as he held her reverently. She ran her hands through his hair and let out a soft sigh.

  She cupped his cheeks in her hands, feeling his stubble under her palms. He reached up and kissed her. His full, hot lips pressed against hers, eliciting little moans from deep inside her. He slid his hands up her legs, under her dress and hooked his fingers in her panties.

  On one hand, she couldn’t believe this was happening. On the other hand, she knew that this had to happen, right now. He pulled her panties down her legs and threw them aside. Orion lifted her skirt and looked down at her sex, his cock pressing hard against the fabric of his jeans.

  “I have waited two thousand years to taste you again,” he growled, hiking her skirt up around her hips. “Your cunt smells like honey dipped fruit.”

  She gasped and lay down on the bed as he drove his tongue into her pussy. The flat of it cupped her sex, rubbing over her as the tip dipped slightly inside her core. She gasped and ran her hand through his wavy dark hair.

  Of all the things that had occurred since she’d gone to work two days ago, Orion’s mouth on her had to be the best. The electricity of his touch vibrated through her and she arched her back. The man knew what he was doing, that was for sure.

  His deft tongue and fingers worked her sex like a master at sleight of hand. It was either the thousands of years of experience, or dragon magic. Whatever it was, Orion had Lucia on the edge of orgasm within seconds.

  “Orion,” she whimpered.

  Her wet thighs rubbed over his stubble covered cheeks as he pulled her legs tighter around his face. She let go to him and the waves of pleasure rolled over her like an electric tide. The memories of a lifetime in the distant past reminded her that this man was her husband. Her soulmate. They’d had children together and knew each other and the mysteries of life in ways she couldn’t even comprehend with her current mind.

  It was all too much for her. But that didn’t keep her from coming, screaming like a banshee, over and over again against Orion’s skilled tongue. After pushing her over the brink, no less than four times, he lifted his face from her sex.

  With a wave of his hand, his clothes disappeared. She gasped, and her mouth dropped in shock both for the effortless magic he’d done and for the impressive cock that stood to attention against his stomach.

  Orion pulled Lucia out of her clothes, his cock bobbing right in front of her face. She shivered, even though the air in her room was warm from the fireplace. His hard-muscled body was too perfect to be real. Every curve and dip of his chiseled musculature called out for her tongue to taste it. Gooseflesh rose on her arms and legs as he lowered himself to look into her eyes.

  “Selene,” he said, cupping her cheek in his hand. “You are so beautiful.”

  He leaned in and kissed her, pushing her back onto the bed. He descended, resting against her sex. His massive cock pressed against the slick slit between her legs. He kissed her cheek and whispered in her ear.

  “Beloved wife,” he said. “I have waited so many centuries to find you again.”

  “I wish I knew who she was,” she whimpered.

  She might have some memories, some vague half-remembered sensations—video images on a strange computer screen, but none of that was real to her. Not the way her life back in San Francisco had been real.

  Her work at the library. Her years in college. Her childhood in southern California with her parents. Those memories were what was real. No matter how much she wanted to be the wife Orion loved so very much, she knew she wasn’t that person.

  “You are my Selene. We both know it,” he breathed into her ear.

  His hips tilted back and the head of his cock throbbed against her slick opening. She sucked a breath through her teeth as Orion pushed inside her. Pleasure exploded through her nipples as her body took his thick length. The sensation of him stretching her radiated through her core, exciting all her senses.

  She groaned as he pressed his wet tongue into her mouth. His cock slid deeper, filling her body and soul with the knowledge of a man she’d once loved. She was so wet that Orion’s girth, which would normally have caused her pain, only filled her with the most intense pleasure she’d ever experienced.

  Her pussy and nipples were ablaze with erotic intensity. Her mind jolted like a roller coaster, trying to comprehend the pleasure coursing through her. Orion had barely filled her and she was already on the edge of yet another climax. She didn’t know if she could take another so soon. Orion’s tongue had played her body like an instrument of which he was a virtuoso.

  She grasped his back, clinging to him and pulling him as close as she could get. He licked her neck and sucked her earlobe, tilting back to thrust into her again. She groaned on impact, her body exploding in orgasm. When he felt her clench around his cock, he growled into her ear and picked up his pace.

  “Beautiful Selene,” he whispered as he took her.

  “I’m Lucia,” she begged him.

  “My little Lucia. My darling.”

  “Yes, Orion. Yes,” she moaned as the orgasms continued barreling through her.

  His hips thrust hard and fast into her. The power in the hips of a man who was a demigod could not be expressed in mere mortal words. Lucia had never experienced anything even remotely as erotically forceful as the thrust of Orion’s hips as he sank into her core.

  His hot tongue dipped into her mouth, sliding over her tongue in a liquid fire of arousal. She ran her hands down his broad back, marveling at the enormity of his masculine form. She cupped his ass, holding on as he moved into her in waves.

  Lucia abandoned herself to Orion, giving up any thought that there was a way out or a way back. There was only through; through this cluster of memories and past relationships. This man loved her. He loved the memory of the woman she once was, and with him pumping into her, harder and harder with each thrust, she wanted to be that woman. She wanted to give him the life he’d lost. She wanted to return herself to the man who had once been her husband.

  “I need to claim you, Lucia,” he growled. “I must make you mine again.”

  Whatever he desired, she wanted to give it to him. She groaned, holding him tighter.

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  His sharp teeth brushed over her neck. Lucia gasped and the reality of what it meant to be claimed by a dragon solidified in her mind. His sharp teeth pressed against the soft flesh of her neck. She squeezed her eyes shut, her arms tight around his waist. His jaws widened and he bit down, hard. Her entire reality flashed before her eyes and she was lost in a
haze of memories, pleasure, and pain. He clamped down on her neck, thrusting harder into her soft core.

  Lucia felt Orion there, in the depths of her soul. Even though the full meaning of it wasn’t quite clear. She loved him. Through the majesty of time, they had come together again. She clung to him, between pleasure and pain as their souls met and merged into one.

  He climaxed inside her. At the same time, Lucia’s body squeezed on this throbbing rod. His teeth held fast to her neck, blood dripping from the wound. She felt his tongue slide across her flesh, between his teeth, as he came.

  She let out a loud moan, gasping for air as his teeth eased out of her neck. Her lips parted as he slowly moved from inside her. Wet and close, he kept her there, holding her tight as their bond slowly unfolded between them.

  Chapter 12

  Everything was different since he’d given her his mark. He could smell it on her skin and sense it in the tang of her magic. She was his once again, and the bond between them deepened with each passing moment.

  She sat across the table from him in the breakfast nook off the dining room. Usually, the big bay window let in the morning sunlight with a view of the eastern slopes and peaks of the mountains.

  Bridget had joined them for breakfast and was eating her second helping from the buffet along the wall. Orion sipped his black coffee and his glass pad pinged. He lifted the device into view and swiped the screen. He’d received a message from his brother Titus, pleading with him to come to Denver.

  “The Silverdrake clan and our allies are descending on Xander’s labs. The zombie like vampires are flowing out from every corner of the city. Our forces cannot make headway. They urgently request my presence,” Orion announced.

  “You have to go now, Orion. I’m safe here at the fortress. Bridget and I will hold the fort while you are gone,” Lucia said.

  Bridget looked up from her plate of breakfast with a fork of scrambled eggs in her hand.

  “Lucia said there’s videos of the past. Can I see those?” Bridget asked.

  “Yes. You may access my workshop.”