Earth's Blood (Earth Reclaimed) (3 page)

“Point taken. Come here.” Fionn held out an arm, and Bella fluttered to him. The two bent their heads together. Aislinn figured they were probably talking in their private mind speech.

The wolf howled and then whined and licked every inch of skin he could find. “Hurt? Where are you hurt, bond mate?”

“Ankle and ears. It’s nothing. Aw, Rune. I never thought I’d see you again.” Gratitude swelled inside her. Her throat thickened until it was hard to breathe; tears rolled down her face. The wolf licked them up.

Still cradling Rune, who was bound to her through the Hunter Covenant, Aislinn raised her gaze. Fionn and Gwydion sat across from her on the wooden floor, passing a mead bottle back and forth. Bella perched on Fionn’s shoulder. “Why aren’t you at the table?” She jerked her chin toward the round oak table, with its comfortable chairs, in a corner of the kitchen.

Fionn shrugged. “I doona know. We just sort of ended up here—right along with you.”

Aislinn held out a hand for the mead. “Hey.” She winced against the ringing sound in her ears. “I need that more than you do.”

“The lass speaks true.” Gwydion smiled and then handed the bottle over.

“Aye, and if she’s asking for spirits, I figure she’ll survive.” Fionn grinned. “Of course, I’ve an idea or two that just might speed the healing.”

Gwydion poked him with his staff. Fionn laughed. Aislinn took a large swig of mead and looked hard at the two of them. Something had changed. An ease lay between them that hadn’t been there before. She wondered if they’d finally found a way to let her mother’s ghost rest.
Hope so. Maybe if they can let her go, I can, too.

“Lass?”

Aislinn looked at Gwydion, alerted by something in his tone. “Sorry, did I miss something?”

“Aye, I asked you what happened. Ye had this vacant look. What were ye thinking about?”

She shook her head. “Nothing.” Her face twisted into a grimace. “As for what happened, it’s simple enough. Travis sold us out. That fucking prick had the nerve to tell me, ‘You belong with humans.’ Right after that, Regnol told him he’d done well, and then Travis and his bond civet left. So it was all a setup.”

“We intuited as much,” Fionn muttered, using American English for a change. Aislinn found it fascinating that he could drop in and out of Celtic brogue at will. “But we weren’t certain.”

“He’s mine if we ever find him,” Aislinn growled.

Rune snarled. “No, he is mine. I want to tear his throat out.”

“Looks like we have ample candidates to annihilate Travis.” Fionn scanned the homey kitchen, with its warm oak cupboards and stone countertops. He looked briefly at Aislinn and Gwydion. “My, what a bloodthirsty lot we are.”

“’Tis kill or be killed.” Gwydion looked grim. “Ye know that better than any. ’Tisn’t only the Lemurians that need killing. Doona forget the dark gods. Travis was nothing but a pawn. The lad is scarcely worth wasting a jot of energy.”

Aislinn rubbed the sides of her face. The conversation sounded as if it were coming from the bottom of a well.

“Would ye like for me to heal you?” Without waiting for an answer, Gwydion scooted next to her, displacing Rune. The wolf snapped at him. “Still angry with me, laddie?” Gwydion stroked Rune’s head. “I had no choice. Fionn couldna take you with him. He barely made it back here with Aislinn as it was.”

“But it was me who found her,” Rune protested. Bella flapped around the kitchen, cawing her support.

Fionn beckoned the wolf over and laid a hand on either side of his head. “Aye, and I couldna have found her without you. Were it not for you, Aislinn might be dead now. I dinna know what I might face in Taltos. I had to split my power to both shield us and bring us back. I wasna certain I’d have enough for three of us. As ’twas, we barely escaped. Another second or two, and I doona think we would have made it.”

Aislinn’s head snapped up.
Ach, Christ. It was that close.
A shiver ran down her spine. It wasn’t easy to chase the might-have-beens away.

“I could have found my own way back.” Rune jerked his head out of Fionn’s hands.

“Mayhap,” Fionn spoke evenly. “Mayhap not. Imagine how Aislinn would have felt to be safely returned with ye missing.”

“Aye”—Gwydion, who’d been chanting softly over Aislinn, half-turned to look at the wolf—“and we would have had the explaining of why we dinna keep a closer eye on you.”

Rune snapped his jaws shut. Bella fluttered to his shoulder, and the two of them stalked out of the room.

“Rune,” Aislinn called after him. “When I tried to use my Hunter magic, it bounced back at me. I couldn’t find you, and it made me so sad, I almost couldn’t stand it.”

The wolf didn’t answer.

Aislinn met Gwydion’s gaze. His eyes were nearly midnight from the healing magic running through him. “He’ll get over it,” she murmured. “He was just scared.”

Fionn made a sound midway between a snort and a grunt. “
He
was scared? If ye wouldna have dropped your wards—”

Aislinn rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t sure it was you.”

“And who else would it have been?”

“Stop.” Gwydion held up a hand. “Fionn, go draw a bath, or turn down your bed or something. Let me finish here. I need her still, not trading barbs with you.”

“Hmph.” The sound of Fionn’s footsteps receded as he moved down the long hallway that led from the kitchen to the back of the house.

Aislinn’s eyes closed. Whatever Gwydion was doing felt wonderfully soothing. Her ears didn’t hurt anymore, and her ankle was about halfway back. “God bless magic,” she mumbled.

“Aye, lass. Except I am using goddess magic. Best ask her blessings, too, but quietly. ’Twill go more quickly if I can concentrate.”

She tried to follow the spells Gwydion wove around her, but gave it up for a lost cause. They were far more sophisticated than any of her workings. It was easy to lose herself in the peaceful cocoon that supported her while it mended her injured places.

Her warm, dreamy drowsiness lessened as Aislinn felt the spell recede. She eyed him speculatively. “Did you and Fionn, ah, bury the hatchet around Mother?”

The mage’s gaze latched onto hers. “And why would ye be asking that?”

She shrugged. “The air between you seems cleaner. That’s all.”

“Aye and we did.” Fionn’s voice sounded from the hall. “Are ye about done with my woman?” He strode into the kitchen. No longer in battle leathers, he’d changed into a faded pair of jeans and his tattered Go Bears sweatshirt. Blond hair hung to his shoulders. His blue-tinged mage light hovered off to one side, illuminating the strong bones in his ageless face. Concern radiated from his sky blue eyes.

Aislinn cocked her head to one side. “Are we done?” she asked Gwydion.

His full lips curved into a salacious grin. “Aye, off with you.” He flowed to his feet in a supple motion and dropped a hand on Fionn’s shoulder. “As a favor to you, I will take first watch. Ye’d not be worth a damn since all ye can think about is sinking yourself into yon lass.”

Fionn nodded his appreciation, eyes twinkling warmly, and helped Aislinn to her feet. Once she was standing, he wove an arm around her waist.

She weighted her foot and smiled. “Thanks,” she said to Gwydion. “Feels much better.” Something he’d said registered. “First watch?” She looked from one of them to the other. “I don’t get it. We’re safe. Why don’t we all get some sleep?”

Gwydion’s eyes looked sad. “’Tis war, lass. None of us are safe. Nor can we afford the luxury of believing we might be. Mayhap the others will be here tomorrow. Hopefully with Dewi.”

A growl, punctuated by a snarl, sounded from the hall. Aislinn sighed. Rune didn’t like the dragon. He saw her as competition for Aislinn’s affections. “Do you mean Arawn and Bran?” She realized she hadn’t asked about the other two Celtic gods. Hadn’t even realized they were missing. She chided herself for being sloppy and unobservant. Sloppy got you killed.

“Aye.” Gwydion inclined his head. “Plus any reinforcements Arawn could scare up in the Old Country.”

Reinforcements?
Aislinn’s blood chilled a notch or two. Fionn was close to a thousand years old, Gwydion probably much older. If they were that worried, they must have good reason. “Since we’re taking turns,” she said, “I want to be in the rotation. Rune can watch with me.”

The wolf bounded to her side and licked her hand.

Bella landed on Fionn’s shoulder. “Yes, yes.” He turned his head to look at his raven. “Ye can watch with me as well.”

“That willna be necessary tonight, lass,” Gwydion said. “Tomorrow, after ye’ve had a good rest, then ye’ll be part of the lineup.”

Chapter Three

F
ionn tightened his arm around her waist. Aislinn leaned into him as they navigated the hall. Her musky, wildflower scent surrounded him, making his groin tingle in anticipation. He nuzzled her neck. The weight of her against him felt so good, he flirted with dragging her to the floor and taking her right there. She had a dreamy, otherworldly quality, though, rather than sensual. Probably a byproduct of Gwydion’s healing.

Rune was right behind them; he bumped his snout into Fionn’s legs. Bella’s talons flexed against his shoulder. She had moods, his bird. He’d gotten fairly adept at reading them through the tension in her claws. The raven was worried about something. He’d tried to ask her about it earlier, but she hadn’t been inclined to confide in him. Though Fionn didn’t want to dwell on it, he had his own set of qualms. He and Aislinn had escaped the Lemurians by the skin of their teeth. He wished there’d been an opportunity to chew things over with Gwydion because he was nearly certain it hadn’t only been Lemurians chivvying them in Taltos.

Fionn moved aside to allow Aislinn through the bedroom door. Once the wolf was in, he kicked it shut. Bella fluttered to a nearby chair. Silent for once, she tucked her head under a wing.

Aislinn turned to face him, her heart in her eyes. “You took an incredible chance in Taltos—”

“They canna kill me.”

“No, but they could imprison you. Or torture you. Or force you into that place in the
Dreaming,
where you go so deep, you trap yourself.” She pounded a closed fist into her other hand; her troubled gaze never left his. “I thought I’d lost you in the labyrinth beneath Slototh’s lair. I never want to go through that again.”

Fionn cocked his head to one side, unsure of what to say. He was unwilling to placate her with a soothing web of lies. He’d figured they’d simply fall into one another’s arms the second he got her alone, but apparently she needed to talk. “Aye. I took a chance. I would do the same again,
mo croi
.”

A tear rolled down her dirty cheek. “I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you or Rune.” Aislinn averted her gaze and swallowed hard. “Especially if you sacrificed yourself for me. How could I live with myself, knowing you’d bartered your freedom for mine?” Her golden eyes blazed; fury mingled with hopelessness was mirrored in their depths.

He held out his arms, but she shook her head. “Not yet. I need to know how close it was in Taltos.”

“Why? What earthly difference will that make, lass?”

Aislinn folded her arms over her chest. Tears flowed freely, but she didn’t wipe them away. She snuffled. “I… I don’t know. It’s just… Shit, I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m a maudlin mess.”

Fionn kicked off a pair of slippers that had probably belonged to Marta’s husband and sat on the edge of the bed. He patted the coverlet next to him. “Sit,
leannán
. I will tell you…things.” The bedsprings shifted as she settled next to him. He turned toward her, reached out, and tilted her chin so she had to look at him. “Once I am done, ye have two choices.”

“And they are?”

Thank Christ, she’s smiling.
“Ye will take off your clothes and bathe afore we make love—”

“Or?”

A corner of his mouth turned downward. “Ye can skip the bath.”

“I pick door number two.” Warm laughter washed over him. She scrubbed her jacket sleeve across her wet face and then bent to untie the laces of her boots so she could tug them off. Her socks followed, landing on the floor next to her worn boots. She looked at him and furled her brows. “Start talking. I’d like to get to the bedding part before Gwydion comes to collect you.”

“Good to hear. For a moment there, I was beginning to wonder.” He cupped a breast through her jacket and sweater and leaned in for a kiss.

“Uh-uh.” She shook her head and pushed his hand away. “Come on, Fionn. There’s something you’re not telling me. I deserve to know. Lovers share everything. Not just their bodies.”

“Guess I don’t know much about that part…because I’ve never been in love before.” Listening to his words fill the silence of the room, Fionn wanted to say them again and again. He wanted to shout his love to the skies and to the netherworld. Though it seemed a weak substitute, he settled for, “Ach,
leannán
. I love you with every fiber of my being,” and then grinned like a besotted fool—but a happy one.

“I’ve never been in love before, either, but that’s neither here nor there.” She smiled fondly at him and gestured with two fingers for him to spill what had truly happened in Taltos.

He pushed his tongue against his teeth, wondered where to begin, and mentally threw his hands up.
Best to plunge right to the heart of things.
“We were agreed to wait until everyone was here to attempt to free you—”

“Who’s we?”

“Och aye, and ye’re going to interrupt every thirty seconds?”

“No, only when I need to know something.”

“We is Gwydion, Bran, Arawn, and me. Bran went after Dewi. Arawn went in search of more Celtic gods. The plan was to meet here, draft a plan, and then go after you. Gwydion and I had only thought to do a small reconnaissance—to assess the lay of things, ye understand—when your wolf bolted.”

“Ingrate,” Rune growled from the corner where he’d settled. “The minute I was fully into Taltos, I sensed my bond mate. I had to find her. Good thing, too—”

“So you and Gwydion followed Rune?” Aislinn drew her brows together into a worried line.

“Aye, that we did. Not that we had much choice in the matter.” Fionn glared at Rune.

The wolf snarled, hackles at half-mast. “Be sure to tell her what happened next,” he muttered through a growl.

“I was planning to.” Fionn inclined his head. It was a struggle not to oust the wolf from the room.
It’s no wonder he and Bella get along so well. They’re cut from the same cloth.

He turned back to Aislinn. “The wolf located you almost at once. I understood ye were being marched to some sort of interrogation chamber. For once, Gwydion and I agreed we couldna afford to wait for the others. So he took yon wolf—”

“Against my will,” Rune noted stiffly. “That will
not
happen again.”

“—and I went after you.” Ignoring the wolf, Fionn sucked in a breath. The ground they’d just covered was the easy part. He turned over the next bit in his mind.

“You’re trying to sugarcoat something,” Aislinn snapped, sounding nearly as surly as her wolf. “Just spit it out for chrissakes.”

He nodded. “All right, then. Keep in mind, I doona know any of this for a fact. It is all conjecture. I suspect the reason ye were able to run from them is because the Old Ones had discovered my presence and turned their attention away from you. I sensed something dark behind their group intelligence orchestrating things. Mayhap Perrikus. Mayhap D’Chel—”

She gasped, and then her mouth formed a hard line. “I knew it. I couldn’t figure out why they sat back and let me pull magic so I could run from them. They had the power to flatten me. To kill me where I stood. I’ve seen them do it…” Her voice ran down. The hand she laid on his arm shook ever so slightly.

“Aye. If the dark god—whoever it was—instructed them to target me, that would explain things. And lass, it was close. I felt their magic closing about me. We had seconds to spare. If ye had hesitated the second time I told you to drop your warding…”

A shudder ran through her. Fionn pulled her against him and buried his lips in her hair. Love welled within him, along with a savage protectiveness. “
Mo croi
. If ye’re gearing up to tell me I should have run when things got dangerous, save your breath. I was not leaving without you.”

“You should have.” Her voice sounded muffled against his chest.

“Hmph. Not a chance.”

“Because I’m the MacLochlainn?”

He pushed away from her and laid a hand on either side of her face. “Nay,
mo croi
. Because ye’re you. I love you. I doona think being a MacLochlainn has aught to do with it. After all, I dinna love your mother. I couldna, no matter how hard I tried.” He twisted his mouth into a crooked smile. “There were no other MacLochlainn women for me to practice on.”

The corners of her mouth twitched. “Borrowing from your earlier conversation with Bella, point taken.”

She slid off the bed and started shucking clothes. When she was down to silky wisps of panties and bra, he said, “Not that I’m complaining, mind you, but I thought ye wanted to talk.”

She waved her hand nonchalantly. “You’ve told me everything important.”

Surprise wafted through him. “How can ye know?”

“Two can play that mind-reading game.” She shot him a smile worthy of one of the Sirens. “What? Isn’t the sight of my near nudity driving you crazy? I know I probably don’t smell all that good, but there was a time—”

His feet hit the floor. He pulled her against him, bent his head, and settled his mouth over hers, desperate for the taste of her, for the feel of her against his body. She sucked greedily on his tongue when it parted her lips. He inhaled the scent of her like a drug, drawing it deep. She tasted of honey and wildflowers, spicy, exotic, and alluring. Aislinn wove her arms around him; her fingers clutched his shoulders. The peaks of her nipples pressed into his chest. He pictured them, strawberry circles tipping her full breasts. His cock hardened and throbbed where it rubbed against the junction between her belly and thigh.

He dragged his mouth from hers. “I assume this means no bath?”

She laughed, a husky, passionate sound. “Told you that earlier. Door number two.”

“I dinna know what ye meant.”

“That, my love, is because you probably never watched television.”

“Och, but I—”

She rolled her eyes. “Never mind.” She plucked at the waistband of his jeans, undoing them with nimble fingers.

His throat was dry. His heart thudded so hard it echoed in his ears.
Och aye, I’m like a lad about to lose his virginity.
Fionn stopped thinking. Nothing beyond their bodies twined together mattered. He helped her push his pants down, and then he stepped out of them. She closed her hands around his cock. He groaned from the pleasure of her touch. Electric, it sent jolts of pleasure to every nerve ending.

He unclasped her bra and had just bent to take one of her nipples into his mouth when she slithered down his body, running little, lapping kisses across his chest. When she trailed her lips down his stomach, all his muscles tightened in anticipation. He didn’t have to wait long before the heat of her mouth closed about his shaft, and she began a slow, sensual licking around the head of his cock while sliding her hands up and down him. The sensations were so incredible, it was all he could do not to come. He got harder and harder until controlling himself was almost painful.

Without warning, she moved her hands behind him, grabbed his ass, and pulled him farther into her mouth. Fionn pumped his hips and thrust deeper. He buried his fingers in her hair and heard himself cry out. An orgasm spooled deep inside his belly, almost past the point of no return. She pushed a finger between his legs and rubbed the base of his balls. They tightened against his body, and control fled like so much fairy dust. His climax developed a mind of its own and raced outward in burning jets as he drove into her again and again.

The sound of his ragged breathing was loud in his ears. Cock still buried deep in Aislinn’s mouth, he gazed at her hair cascading down her shoulders like a curtain of living flame and was overcome by how much he loved her. Tenderness nearly overwhelmed him. Hot tears pricked behind his lids, and he tightened the fingers twined in her hair.

Apparently feeling his gaze on her, she moved back, releasing him. The sensitive skin of his cock felt cold where her mouth had been. “So.” Her eyes twinkled as she looked at him. “Was that what you had in mind earlier?”

“Nay.” Seeing her worried expression, he hurried on. “’Twas a million times better than my imagination.”

Fionn smoothed her hair back from her face and reached for her. He lifted her easily and placed her on the bed, then bent his head to kiss her, tasting himself on her tongue. The salty tang of his semen made him hot all over again. She arched toward him. He flicked his tongue into her mouth, withdrew it, and teased her lips with nibbling kisses.

She pulled away. “Come here.” She wrapped a hand around his cock and tugged. “Or are you going to stand over my bed worshipping me from afar, like a vestal virgin?”

“What would you like,
mo croi
?” He loved looking at her. With her long legs, flared hips, and full breasts, she was as close to perfect as a woman could be. He took a strand of her wonderful silky hair and let it play through his fingers.

She captured his hand and guided it between her legs. Her panties were soaked. Liquid slicked her thighs. He pulled the lacy fabric down and settled next to her. Fionn lay on his side, propped on one elbow. He took a nipple in his mouth and sucked, while cupping her pussy under his hand. The heat of her seared him. Her hips bucked. He knew what she wanted, because he wanted her the same way. Their lovemaking always ended up the same, bodies crashing against one another, frantic with need.

She mewled low in her throat and spread her legs wide. Aislinn pushed insistently, positioning him to enter her. Fionn knelt between her legs and drank in her beauty. Sometimes, like now, he wanted her so much, it humbled him. As hard as if he hadn’t just come, his cock jutted in front of him. She snared him with her golden gaze.

“Now,” she cried. “I need you now.”

He touched the head of his shaft to the wet, magical spot between her legs. She wriggled against him, and he sank slowly into her while she wrapped her legs around his waist and dug her hands into his shoulders. Her back arched as her hips ground against him and she sank her teeth into his neck.

Fionn threw back his head and laughed. “Bella pecks me. Ye bite me. Must be something ye picked up from the wolf.”

“I resent that,” Rune growled from his corner.