04 Shadow Blood - Witch Fairy (7 page)

He looks even more worried than before.  “I think that’d be a good idea.  I should leave you alone so you can actually get some sleep.” 

He starts to get up but I pull him back.  “Stay, please.  I want to take a nap with you.”

A smile touches his lips but does nothing to move the worry out of his eyes.  He lies down again and puts his arms around me, pulling me close.  He kisses my ear softly.  “Sleep well,” he whispers and about a minute later, I’m fast asleep.

Chapter 7

“Mmm, he’s yummy,” I whisper to myself.  “I bet he tastes as good as he looks.”  With just a slight movement, I’m able to connect my lips to his.  As he slowly wakens, he returns the kiss with more and more fervor.  I have goose bumps running down my body as his kiss turns me on more and more.

Rolling him to his back, I crawl next to him and trace my fingers along his strong chin.  He needs a shave but that’s okay, he looks great all scruffy.  “Beautiful,” I whisper as my finger leaves his chin and travels to his chest.  I’m annoyed by his clothing.  It needs to go.  With that thought, his shirt and shorts disappear.

Now he looks startled. “Xandra, we need to be careful.”

With a sexy grin, I trace my fingers down his torso, stopping just under his navel.  “I will be very careful.”  I lean down and kiss him again.  As I do, my clothes disappear as well, as I set the magic holding them free.

Kallen growls deep in his throat and his hand goes to my hair, deepening the kiss.  Bodies pressed together, I can feel that I’m not the only one with goose bumps over being this close.  I need more.  I want more.  Slipping my hand lower, I shiver at the thought of how intimately we’re going to touch.

As soon as my hand starts to move, he breaks the kiss and grabs it.  “Xandra, what is going on?  You know that if we go farther, we will have to immediately be hand-fasted.”

I smile as I bite my lower lip.  “Mm, a lifetime of being in your bed.”  Rolling onto my back, I stretch my body out and I feel his eyes feast on my bare skin.  And then I’m dressed.  And so is he.

“Hey,” I practically shout.  “I didn’t ask you to do that.”  I dissolve the clothes he just made for me.  “Are you telling me you do not want this body?” I ask as I run my hands down my sides in emphasis.

His growl is louder now.  “Xandra, you know I want you, your body, every single piece of you.  But this is not like you.  I think you may be unwell from your trip to the Shadow world.  Perhaps we can finish this conversation when you have had more rest.”  And again, I’m fully clothed.

Good lord, he’s no fun at all.  With a huff, I roll onto my side so I’m not facing him.  He puts his hand on my arm, but I shrug it off.  I close my eyes once again.  Sleep is better than rejection.

Chapter 8

I don’t know how long I slept, but I wake up feeling refreshed.  I smile when I roll over and see Kallen asleep on the other pillow.  I snuggle up next to him and give him a soft, light kiss.  I don’t expect his reaction to be pulling away and scooting closer to the edge of the bed.

I bring my eyebrows together.  “What’s wrong?”

He sighs.  “Xandra, you know I want you.  Please do not make this harder.”

“Um, okay.  What, exactly, am I not supposed to make harder?”

He cocks his head and looks at me evenly.  He has his poker face on, so something is definitely wrong.  “Are you ready to be left hand-fasted?”

Now it’s my turn to scoot farther away from him.  “No.  You know that.”  Where is this coming from?

His poker face slips a little as he says, “Then I would appreciate you not tempting me beyond reason.” 

Wow, he looks like he’s angry with me.  Why is he trying to pick a fight?  “Kallen, what did I do to make you upset with me.” 

He looks at me incredulously for a moment.  I look at him expectantly.  After a few minutes of silence, his expression changes to confusion.  “Do you truly not know what I am talking about?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.  You weren’t mad at me before our nap, were you?”  Maybe he didn’t want to bring whatever is bothering him up until after I rested.

He stares at me a minute more and then he starts laughing.  Now, that’s just annoying.  “I’m glad you find whatever this is amusing.”

After getting his laughter under control, he says, “I guess I should have known from your use of magic that something was not right.”

I close my eyes and breathe deeply as he starts laughing again.  “I’m waiting.”

He has tears in his eyes, he’s laughing so hard now.  Finally, he says, “Do you remember waking up an hour ago?”

“What are you talking about?  Did I say something in my sleep that you didn’t like?”  This is getting more frustrating by the minute and I’m starting to draw magic without even trying.

Kallen must sense that because he sobers up pretty quickly.  “I believe you were sleepwalking.”  He purses his lips as he thinks a moment, and then says, “Well, not walking per se.  More like sleep seducing.”

I cock my head and glower at him.  “I don’t sleep walk.  Or anything else.” 

“Oh, you most certainly do,” he says as he pushes a strand of hair from my cheek.  “And I must say, you do it very well.”

I sigh in frustration. “I do what very well.”

He props himself up on his elbow as his thumb continues to stroke my cheek.  “You woke up, or at least, I thought you had, about an hour ago and you attempted to seduce me.  You even removed both or our clothes.”

My face is instantly red.  “I did not.”

He smiles.  “You did.  And you seem to have much more finesse with your magic when you are sleep seducing.”

“Stop calling it that,” I whine.  I am so embarrassed at the moment.  I can tell from his expression that I must have done what he’s saying, but I don’t remember it at all.

He smiles broader.  “You were difficult to resist.  I wanted nothing more than to finish what you were starting.  I am glad that I had restraint now that I know you were not awake.  We were very close to having to become right hand-fasted.”

I close my eyes.  I can’t believe it.  I don’t want to believe it.  I crack one of my eyelids just a little and I can see he’s still smiling.  “Did I really make us both naked?”

Now, he’s grinning.  “Yes, you did.”

I want to crawl back under the covers.  Yeah, I wanted him to see me naked at some point, but I thought it would happen when I was awake and fully aware of what was going on.  It was supposed to be something special.  I close my eyes again.  “I’m going to crawl under the covers and not come out for a year,” I say, even though I don’t think that a year will be enough time to get over the embarrassment.

Pulling my chin towards him, he says, “Xandra, open your eyes.”  Reluctantly, I do.  “You have nothing to be embarrassed about.  You are absolutely beautiful, and the fact that you want to be with me as desperately as I want to be with you is the greatest thing that has ever happened in my life.”

I give him half a smile.  “I’m glad.  Do you think we could keep the whole sleep seduction to ourselves, though?”

He  chuckles.  “I think that is the wise thing to do.”  Yeah, because Isla would have us married in no time.  “Now, unless you want to finish what we started before, I suggest we rise and go downstairs.”

I sigh.  I’m still pretty embarrassed.  I don’t know if I’ll be able to face everyone else without guilt showing all over my face.  I’m about to get up when Mom calls softly through the door.  “Xandra, are you awake?”

I look down to make sure Kallen and I are both dressed appropriately, and then say, “Yeah, come on in, Mom.”

Mom floats through the door and stops when she sees Kallen.  A frown scrunches her forehead into wrinkles.  “I thought Isla had a strict ‘no sleeping together’ policy.”

Oh.  Crap.  I haven’t told my parents yet.  If anymore blood rushes to my face, my feet are going to shrivel up into foot raisins and have to be amputated.  “Um, Mom, there’s something I forgot to tell you.”

Her eyes narrow and she looks prepared to blow if she doesn’t like what I say next.  “And that would be?”

I try to take a deep breath but even my lungs are too nervous to work right.  “Um, Kallen and I are left hand-fasted.”

Apparently, when ghosts get really, really mad, they can grow to twice their normal size.  A giant Mom is looking down at me and she looks almost as scary as Rashnu – just minus the obsidian eyes and fangs.  Well, she is snarling, and she’s doing a pretty good job without the fangs.  “You are what?!” she bellows.  Looking at Kallen, she says, “How dare you marry my daughter without permission.  She is seventeen years old and in
our
realm, she still needs a parent’s permission.  This marriage will be annulled
immediately
!”

“Mom!” I yell over her.  “We’re not married.”

“What’s going on in here?” Dad asks as he floats through the door.  He looks between Mom and me and edges away from Mom in my direction.  “Julienne, what’s wrong?”

“Your daughter got married!”  I have never, ever seen her this mad.  I think Kallen’s trying really hard to blend into the wall about now.  If he could teleport, he’d be so out of here.  Me, too.

Dad turns to me with disbelief written all over his face.  “Xandra, is this true?”

“No, but Mom won’t let me explain.”  Yeah, I sound whiny, but I always get more sympathy from my dad when I do.  What can I say?  I’m a daddy’s girl.

Turning back to Mom, he says, “Julienne, why don’t we let her explain so we can get this all sorted out.”

Mom crosses her arms over her chest.  I’m pretty sure some really wicked spells are running through her head as she shifts her gaze back and forth between Kallen and me.  I wonder if she would actually use a spell on me.  Probably.  “Talk,” she demands.

“Perhaps, I can help,” Isla says from the doorway.  I didn’t even hear her open it.  Not surprising she heard Mom yelling, though.

Mom swings around to her.  “Yes, I would like to know why you thought it would be fine to let my daughter get married.”

Only the tightness around Isla’s eyes give away how badly she’d like to respond in kind to Mom’s rude tone.  “Has Xandra explained to you that she is not actually married?”

“I tried,” I mumble and Mom rounds on me with fire practically shooting out of her eyes.  I close my mouth.

“In our realm, courting is not as…,” Isla hesitates a moment.  “As uncomplicated as it is in your realm.”  You can tell she’s a diplomat. 

“Meaning?” Mom grinds out.  A lesser magical being would have backed out of the room by now.

Isla inclines her head.  “Meaning, the rules for interaction are more stringent here.  It would be completely inappropriate for two Fairies not hand-fasted to be in each other’s company as these two are.  And as you have already experienced, their desire to be in each other’s company is great, and apparently, unstoppable, but it defies the rules of this society.  Therefore, a compromise was needed.”

“How is marriage a compromise?” Mom asks.

“Julienne,” Dad says laying his hand gently on her shoulder, “we need to be patient.  I’m sure Isla did not let the kids do something they may regret in a year or two.”  He gives Isla a look that clearly sends the message that that had better be true.

Isla gives a slight nod of her head.  “Of course.  In order to circumvent the rules of society that the two of them were constantly flaunting, they agreed to a left hand-fasting.”

Mom looks confused now.  “What’s a left hand-fasting?”

“It is a ceremony that allows two young people to be as close as they desire with the understanding that if the union is consummated, magic will force them into a right hand-fasting.”

Dad looks thoughtful.  “It’s like an engagement, then?”

Isla inclines her head again.  “Yes, it is similar to that Cowan custom.”

“They’re not married?” Mom asks, a little bit calmer now.

Isla shakes her head.  “No, they are not.  Either may walk away from the agreement at any time.  They have simply made an agreement to follow the rules of this society if they choose to consummate their relationship.”

I wish they’d stop talking about us consummating our relationship.  My cheeks are burning at the thought of how close we came earlier while I was sleeping.  A quick peek at Kallen lets me see the color in his cheeks, as well.

“Then nothing has actually changed,” Dad says carefully.

“No,” Isla says.  “It was simply necessary to perform the ceremony to abide by our laws.  They are doing nothing more than they had been in your care.” 

Hmm, there may have been some implications there, but I think my parents are going to ignore them because Mom’s back to her normal size again.  Her blue eyes have stopped erupting in bursts of flames, and she doesn’t flinch this time when Dad puts his hand on her shoulder.  “Julienne, this has been a stressful time for all of us.  But, I don’t believe our daughter would make a lifelong commitment without consulting us first.”  He raises his brows in my direction.

I take the cue.  “No, absolutely not.  If I ever do get married, I would want you both there.  I’d never do it behind your back.”