mythean arcana 06 - master of fate (18 page)

Her eyes flared wide. “What? I can’t.”

“You’re going to do it. And I promise that you’re going to like it.” The command in his voice came naturally, as it had at the temple. It was instinct.

He lay on his back and reached out to grab her hips, grateful that she was so much smaller than he and thus easy to maneuver. He pulled her over until she sat upon his upper chest, her knees bent on either side of his head.

The view above him was divine. The smooth swell of her belly gave way to the curve of her breasts and finally to her face, looking down at him with desire and surprise. Her golden hair fell around her breasts, curling against her pink nipples.

“Grasp the bed frame and doona let go,” he said, knowing that she would obey, not just because she liked it this way, but because she sensed what it would do to him if she touched him.

Immediately, she gripped the bed frame.

He grinned, then grasped her arse in both hands, his fingertips sinking between the full globes. He lifted her, delighting in her gasp, and pulled her forward until the rich smell of her sex enveloped his senses. When she hovered just over his mouth, he lowered her, groaning when her slick pussy pressed against his lips. 

She cried out and bucked her hips. He growled his approval and delved his tongue between the lips of her sex. He held her, adjusting her so that he could lave her clitoris, making her shudder and grip his head with her thighs.

“Felix,” she gasped.

He alternated between driving his tongue into her channel and stroking her clitoris, watching her moan and writhe above him. The sight made his cock press hard against the front of his trousers. 

When she started moving against his mouth, controlling the rhythm of her motions, he let go of her arse and undid his pants, freeing his aching erection.

He shoved down his pants a few inches and gripped his shaft hard in one hand, groaning against her pussy. He stroked as he lapped at her sex, desperate to watch her come.

Aurora began to shake, her thighs tightening around his head. She was close to orgasm. He reached a hand up to support her back as she shuddered and cried out. The sight of her coming spurred his own orgasm, an intense pleasure that streaked through every muscle in his body.

He tried to hold off, wanting to give her one more orgasm, but he’d waited so long, wanted her for so long, that he couldn’t stop. He kept his gaze on Aurora as the orgasm tore through him, making him arch his back as his cock shot warm semen over his abs.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Aurora collapsed over Felix, the wooden bed frame biting into her chest. She shifted off him, her thighs trembling so hard that she could barely support herself.

 No doubt sensing her lack of ability to move so much as a muscle, Felix gripped her around the waist and shifted her so that she lay next to him on her side. Blearily, she opened her eyes. His hair was mussed and his lips swollen and he looked so damn good she swore her heart was going to jump out of her chest.

“Thank you,” he said as he bent his head to gently undo the ties at her wrists. He rubbed them, then kissed each one.

She wanted him to stay with her, to hold her, but instead he climbed out of bed and used Aurora’s discarded towel to wipe the gleaming fluid from his abs. She’d thought he’d been coming, but hadn’t been sure.

“That was amazing,” she said.

His gaze met hers from where he stood by the door. “More than. Thank you for making exceptions for my... issues.”

She shrugged and glanced at the candles. “We’ve both got issues.”

“True enough. Though I wish mine didn’t influence the ways I can touch you.”

She didn’t dare say it, but she thought he was becoming a little less hesitant to touch her.

“Hang on a moment,” he said and went into the other room. He returned with her clothes and gave them to her. “I’m going to leave and find some food. There’s nothing here since my past self has been gone a week.”

“Thanks.”

He left the room and Aurora dressed, then got up and looked out the window. The view was the same as it was in the present. Sure, the trees were a bit different, but otherwise, the rolling hills and the hulking stone buildings in the distance looked the same. The full moon glinted on Mouse’s fur as she stalked something through the grass below. She’d let herself in later.

Felix returned in ten minutes bearing meat pasties, apples, and a jug of beer. It smelled amazing and she realized she hadn’t had anything since their paltry breakfast.

“Thank you,” she gushed when he handed her one of the pasties, not caring that she sounded like she was thanking him for giving her a kidney. The pastry pocket was warm in her hand and smelled heavenly. He must have gotten them from the university kitchen, an enormous facility that cooked for those on staff who weren’t in the mood to fend for themselves.

The first bite was divine—buttery pastry and savory beef and potatoes. She watched him search for cups in the tiny kitchen and gratefully accepted the beer he handed her. She took a sip.

“Oh, damn,” she said. “That’s as bad as I remember. Though these pasties are amazing.”

“Agreed. Beer has gotten better.” He bit into his pasty and chewed. She watched his strong throat as he swallowed, marveling at how all of him seemed so strong. “Pasties have no’. Hard to improve on this.”

Aurora nodded her agreement. “You don’t miss the past at all?”

His gaze shot to hers, his face twisted in disbelief. “Seriously?”

She shrugged.

“Hell, no. The past was nothing but worrying and searching for you, then quiet misery when I realized I would no’ find you.”

The bite of pasty she’d taken didn’t seem as though it would go down her throat.

“I know it hasn’t been an easy reunion,” he said, his pasty forgotten in his hand. His gaze was intense. “I’m no’ the same as I was. Neither are you. But make no mistake, I want you as much as I ever did. You’re it for me, Aurora.”

Her heart thundered in her chest. He was deadly serious. It’s what she’d always wanted to hear, but now, it could never work. She’d been trying so hard not to steal souls, but she’d almost caved so many times. Eventually, she would. Not only would that crush her, but what would it do to him? What if it were
his
soul she took?

She could never let him get close enough to see that part of her. 

She had no idea what to say to him now. It seemed he recognized that, because he said, “What do you do at the university? For work, or fun.”

He wanted to know about her life? She grabbed the lifeline of a subject change that would get her mind off her worries. “I work with my sister Esha. We hunt rogues.” 

She told him about their nights hunting those who ignored the university’s edict to stay under the radar of mortals. As a soulceress, she could see the shadows around a person’s soul if they were truly evil. She was guaranteed to kill only those who deserved it, which made her perfect for the job.

They spent the next hour talking about the university and life. She was surprised to learn that Felix had taken up environmental science, which was unusual for a Mythean, as it was normally the pursuit of mortals. He’d separated himself from Mythean life as much as possible. Most of his days were spent out on the ice or writing academic papers about how the changing climate affected the glaciers.

She stifled a giggle at the idea of this hulking man who looked like a lumberjack being an academic. “So you’re a nerd? I’ve seen TV. I know what those are.”

He sighed, then grinned at her. “You could put it that way.”

She continued to tease him, delighted by how things were becoming more normal. At some point, Mouse returned and they gave her a meat pasty. Eventually, Aurora yawned.

“It’s getting late,” he said and rose to his feet.

Bedtime. And there was one bed.

He would share it with her, she hoped. Aurora nodded and got to her feet, then went into the bedroom. She shucked off her pants and sweater and climbed into bed in her panties and shirt. Felix stripped off his shirt and pants until he was in only his tight boxer briefs and climbed in next to her. 

She wanted desperately to climb over and cuddle with him, but she didn’t want to invade his space. He’d held her last night when she’d been scared, but that wasn’t an invitation for a second time, nor proof that he was better. 

It took her a while, but eventually sleep took her.

A soothing hand wiped sweat from his forehead with a cool cloth. He tried not to enjoy it, the only kind touch he’d known in more days than he could count. Once, he would have. But now, the tension in his shoulders couldn’t dissipate.

When the pain came, he wasn’t surprised. He roared as blinding agony welled at his bicep where the burning knife traced its evil pattern. The cool cloth was gone, replaced with misery that would feel unending.

“You’ll tell me where she is,” the voice hissed as she dragged the blade toward his shoulder. 

Hot blood trailed down his arm as the wound refused to close. Poison. Always a new poison. It burned like fire, searing across his skin. The pain wracked him, making him shudder. He tried not to yell. Didn’t want to give her that satisfaction. But he couldn’t help it.

“Felix! Felix, wake up!”

Aurora’s frightened voice dragged him from the nightmare. He bolted upright, his skin burning with the memory. He rubbed a shaking hand over his face as his eyes adjusted to the dim light thrown by the sunken candles and the full moon that gleamed through the window.

Damn it. The moon. It was full tonight. He’d hoped he wouldn’t have the nightmares if Aurora were sleeping next to him. Her mere presence comforted him, proved that the torture had been worth it. Though he didn’t shift into full wolf form at the moon like a full-blood wulver would, he was affected by it. Nightmares and bad memories were always worse at the full moon. It might be from the way the wulver part of his soul interacted with the timewalker part of his soul, but he’d never been sure. He was the only one of his kind, so there was no one to ask.

He glanced at her to see her eyes wide with fear, her hand hovering at his shoulder as if she wanted to touch him but didn’t dare.

“I’m fine.” His voice was rough. From screaming?

She flicked her hand and a glass of water appeared. She was trying to conserve her power, so he appreciated the expense. 

“Here.” She handed it to him and he drank, then put the glass on the floor.

“Nightmares?” she asked.

He nodded. She just watched him, clearly curious but unwilling to ask. Her patience made him want to tell her all of it, to spill his guts and perhaps purge some of the terrible memories. Might as well get it over with—he’d have to tell her eventually.

“In 1684, I was captured by a Mythean of incredible power. I think she was a seer—she kept talking about visions. But she had powers a seer does no’ normally have.”

“What?” Surprise flashed over her face.

“I doona know what she truly was. She kept me in a tower in the Alps. It was specially enchanted to negate the powers of my wolf, who would normally protect me. It was the only one of its type in the world, a rare place with unusual magic. I don’t know how she created it.”

“What did she do to you?” The worry in her voice suggested she already knew.

“She tortured me because she wanted information she thought I had.”

“Did you have it?”

“Aye. But I dinna give it to her.” He hesitated, unsure how to continue.

“Is that why you don’t like touch?”

He nodded. “She liked to combine mental torture with physical. If it’d only been physical, I could have borne it. But she was clever. After a few years of just the knives and poison, she improved her methods. She kept me in a dark, dank cell. Normally I was recovering in misery from whatever wounds she gave me—wounds that wouldn’t heal because of the poisons she coated the knife with. But eventually, she’d send me the feeling of a comforting hand on my brow.” The words caught in his throat. This was the hard part. “It was just part of my mind. The idea of ultimate comfort in my darkest hour. It was you. The Seer sent me images of you to make me feel comforted.”