Embrace the Mystery [03] Blood Rose Series (17 page)

She’d never allowed a man to take her in this position before, not once. Now here she was letting the big hulk of a warrior vampire ride her hard, command her, and soon he’d drink, taking, as he said, his fill.

At the same time, and with great practice, his fangs sliced into her vein, then he began to suck. He sent another vibration through his lips on her neck so that chills rained down her side and over her breasts. He pumped his hips hard.

Mine, cha.
His deep voice rumbling through her head, his body draping over hers, his mouth sucking down her life-force, his hips working her hard—all brought her mating frequency forward in a way it had never been before.

He had all of her, something no man had ever taken before.

And it felt so damn good.

His movements became brisk, even rough. She wanted to move.

Let me move, please, mastyr.

You’ve asked nicely. Move with me now.

She pushed against him, her hips rocking. The drums in the distance fed the rhythm. Ecstasy built as a wave pulsed through her, then another and another, catching her up as Quinlan thrust hard into her, fast now, the beat of the drums quickening, his vibration at full-bore. He was so hard and her body gripped him. She cried out as pleasure streaked through her well, her abdomen, and rushed upward, filling her chest, her heart.

Suddenly he released her neck, rising up behind her, grabbing her hips hard as he thrust quicker still, then shouted into the open air. Her screams joined him as the rhythm of the drums pulsed, finally stopping just as her own cries eased down and Quinlan’s hips pushed in slower, final thrusts.

Her arms crumpled and she half-fell, half-tried to ease herself down onto the bed, her face pushed into the mattress, but she didn’t care. She felt so damn good.

Quinlan followed her and because he was so big, he managed to remain inside her, his hands catching her hips so that he lay on top of her. He spread his arms out on top of hers, breathing hard.

In the distance, a new drum rhythm began and the lyre played the prettiest melody. Batya couldn’t imagine anything more perfect.

She’d forgotten the difference in the realm-world and for a moment, a very brief moment, she thought she could live here forever.

Chapter Seven

Something felt very wrong to Quinlan, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what rubbed his instincts the wrong way. With his blood needs satisfied for a brief period and so many feel-good chemicals tripping through his veins, he should have been at ease.

Instead, as he rose almost groggily from on top of Batya, he secured the overhead protective sun-shield with a nagging sense of something critical left undone. He brought Batya a hand towel for cleaning and glanced around.

Finally, he slipped his leathers back on, as well as his boots, then stepped outside. He walked the entire perimeter of the tent.

The brigade’s music had ended at last and most of the men headed toward their tents.

His vampire vibration, peculiar to his species, sent a warning straight up his spine and a shot of pain into his head.

He turned to the east. The horizon, even through a dense forest, showed gray. Dawn was coming.

If he stayed out here much longer, the pain would intensify, but he had to have one last look around. His body seemed to know exactly where Batya was and not just because she lay on the tent bed. A powerful call within his gut, demanding he protect this woman, seemed fixed on her like the needle of a compass always aiming true north.

He wondered if it was her faeness, or that she’d come from Davido’s powerful troll stock. He didn’t know. But she had a call on him that both energized and irritated him.

He tried to imagine the moment, after they succeeded in delivering Lorelei to the Ferrenden Peace, when he said his farewells to the woman. But the idea of parting seemed impossible, which also grated on his bachelor proclivities. What was it about this woman that called to him as though she was the moon and he the tides, that he’d always respond to her, always turn in her direction, always say yes?

When the sun broke through the forest skyline, his head throbbed and his shoulder blistered, he finally left his vigil, unsatisfied at having failed to draw even one conclusion, and reentered the tent, securing the flap behind him.

He lit up his vision, seeking out a tear in any part of the dense canvas, and at last satisfied, he drew close to the side of the bed.

Batya lay as he’d left her, on her stomach, naked, her arms and legs spread. She was already asleep, her back rising and falling. He got rid of his boots then his pants, but took a long moment to stare down at her.

He’d loved commanding her, savored how her fae vibrations had flowed over and around his, how she’d taken to his slaps and bites, his domination of her body, the intensity of her response.

His cock responded appropriately, despite how much he’d already left of himself inside her. He took his shaft in his hand. He fondled what had been pocketed between her legs, her strong nest that had pulled on him. He let the memory play out in his mind and somewhere in all of that, his vibration began to hum.

That’s when he realized he was still joined to her, vibration to vibration. She awoke and turned her head in his direction. Her gaze fell to his cock and his hand rubbing up and down.

“I wasn’t enough?” But she smiled.

His lips curved. “I’m just remembering.”

She stretched and slowly rolled onto her back, her arms over head, her large breasts rocking as she turned. His gaze drifted the length of her.

She looked around. “It’s dawn.”

He nodded and took his time stretching out beside her. “We’ll be stuck in here all day.”

“And we won’t have to think twice about the she-devil out there.”

He shook his head, his fist still busy as he leaned over her body and drew a nipple into his mouth.

She made an encouraging sound, using a string of m’s.

Then he was torn. Should he leave his cock so he could touch her breasts, or keep fondling what was hard and ready once more.

Her breasts won out and for the next several minutes he gave all his attention to both breasts until Batya was writhing and begging for more.

He made love to her again, taking her to the heights, falling back to earth. He dozed and she sprawled.

Once, he took a hard slap to his face as the woman turned in her sleep, so he woke her up and punished her with his mouth between her legs for a good long time.

When at last he woke up, with the sun waning in the west, he lay on his side, spooning Batya, his arm wrapped tightly over her chest.

And in that soft moment before coming fully awake, he felt her vibration laying over his. They’d never completely separated, not in all this time, something he’d never done with another woman. Ever.

But because he wasn’t fully awake, he did something unexpected. He left the entwined vibrations alone, sinking into them and exploring all along their curved ridges.

He sent a heavier vibration along the joined frequencies and Batya moaned, grinding her hips against him.

“That’s nice,” drawled from her lips. “Do it again.”

But he didn’t because he came fully awake as shouts from the camp, of a desperate nature, brought him sitting bolt upright.

At the same time, he disconnected from Batya and it was a sudden painful moment that had her crying out as well.

“Sorry, but something’s going on.”

He jumped from bed and dressed fast. Batya wasn’t far behind him.

The problem was he couldn’t leave the tent, not yet. The sun hadn’t set behind the horizon.

But Batya pulled her enthrallment shield close around her as she slipped beneath the flap. “I’ll see what’s going on.”

She returned shortly. “Henry’s coming. I’m going to bathe in the stream—a minute only.”

He felt the strength of her shield, that she’d wrapped herself in a force as powerful as what had kept Margetta out the night before, so he nodded.

Just as he secured the belt over his shoulder, buckling it in place at his left hip, Henry begged entrance.

“Come.”

Quinlan could feel the scowl on his own forehead and had his fears confirmed at the sight of Henry’s three ridges drawn tightly together, a look of dismay in his eyes. “We lost a scout and the other has come in bloodied and half-dead. I’ve sent the healers on the trail to the northeast, carrying him out. Invictus wraith-pairs attacked them at the ten-mile western-most outpost. The survivor said there were twenty pairs, that one of the bound fae bragged that Margetta had brought a hundred with her, that she’d catch us in the Dead Forest, if not in the meadow.”

Quinlan glanced skyward then folded back the upper flap. He squinted against the fading light. He had just a handful of minutes before he could safely leave the tent. He’d have to stay behind with Batya, but he trusted her enthrallment shield would get them to safety.

Glancing back at Henry, he frowned all over again. “How’s Lorelei?”

“Good and she has all my men doing her bidding. One of them had just brought a bouquet of late-blooming wild roses to her, when the scout returned. We’ve rigged a harness that two trolls wear and she sits between them as they fly. We’ll carry her at the front with several Guardsmen in the lead.”

“I can always rely on you.”

“Hell, yeah, you can.”

Batya returned, naked, unbeknownst to Henry. Quinlan could easily see through her enthrallment shield now, maybe because of their recent connection. When she started to dress, even though she was invisible to Henry, he stepped between his brigade commander and all her female beauty.

“Where’s Batya?”

Henry glanced around, his gaze skating past her. “She’s bathing, cloaked with enthrallment.”

“Oh, okay. That’s right. She made it possible for the three of you to escape from Lebanon.”

“Yes, she did.”

“She’s special, Quinlan. I can’t put my finger on it, but she’s got something”

“I would agree with you.”

“No, I mean she’s got something. Maybe it’s her power or a layer to her faeness that hasn’t revealed itself, but something’s there, hidden maybe even from her.”

He felt Batya go very still behind him.

Several more shouts from the direction of the camp set Henry hurrying back outside, but he called over his shoulder, “We’ll be ready to fly in three.”

“I’ve got a couple more after that inside. Set your men on the trail at will.”

“Yes, mastyr.”

Once, he was gone, Batya lost her shield and now, finished packing her satchel. “What do you think he meant, about me having another layer of power?” She glanced up at the open sky. A thin stream of clouds overhead caught the last pink-violet and quite deadly rays of the sun.

“I have no idea.”

“Do you sense anything like that?”

He stared into her hazel eyes, searching. “I sense so many things, but I’m not sure what Henry meant. Did you know our realm vibrations remained joined all through the night?”

Her arched brows rose. “No. Are you serious? But I swear … Wait, you must be right because I felt the disengagement just a few minutes ago, and it hurt. I can’t believe I wasn’t aware. It all felt so natural.”

“It did.”

He drew back the overhead flap, the sky now moving to gray and darker. Each second that passed felt like an eternity.

He heard Henry’s sharp call-to-the-air. The flapping of a hundred long coats as the brigade took flight, sounded like geese rising suddenly from a pond.

He glanced up. “Two more minutes but we’ll need your enthrallment shield.”

“Absolutely.”

* * * * * * * * *

Batya felt Margetta’s presence and before a split-second had passed, she surrounded herself and Quinlan in a tight enthrallment shield.
She’s here.

I can feel her, too.

What’s the plan?

Straight up into the air.

Got it.

He slid an arm around her waist and because he was so strong, she didn’t bother with planting a foot on his boot. She simply wrapped her arm around his neck and leaned into him.
You smell like wood-smoke.

He chuckled.
Let’s go.

She closed her eyes, but extended her senses outward, her realm vibration that mapped the location of Margetta and her forces. At the same time, she kept her enthrallment shield tight.

The swift rise into the air, the downward pressure on her head while her body lifted higher and higher, teased her stomach into a knot of excitement. She’d always enjoyed flight and wished it was one of her gifts.

But this, at least, was second best, flying at a terrific speed, straight up, in Quinlan’s arms.

“I see them.” Margetta’s voice rolled through the enthrallment shield, but Quinlan kept rising. The air grew colder and colder. The shrieks from the Invictus pairs followed them.

Batya held on, knowing something was on his mind and sensing that to communicate at all, even telepathically, could somehow jeopardize their location.

Just as the tip of her nose started to freeze, he arced northeast, leveling out first, then beginning a slow descent.

She opened her eyes, startled to see that they’d entered a lower layer of clouds. But the mist broke and because she faced forward, she saw the strangest sight, a line of green forest, broken abruptly by a line of bright golden trees that went on for miles.

At first, she didn’t understand what she was looking at, but the closer he brought them to the phenomenon, the demarcation point began making sense.

We can talk now.

I felt it as well, that Margetta would have located us with the telepathy right then.

Exactly.

Quinlan, we’re looking at the point at which the Dead Forest begins, aren’t we?

Yes, and I’ve already pathed Henry. They’re only a few hundred yards away.

I can see them now. Lorelei’s in the front. Is any of this going to work?

Sweet Goddess, I hope so, but Batya, they’ll be on our trail. Can you place a shield around the entire brigade?