The Bastard (36 page)

“
Ek ann thér
, Lace.
Ek ann thér
,” he echoed.

Broad shoulders filling the mattress, Erik tugged her atop him. He cupped her breasts, lifting and bringing them to his mouth for tender, gentle kisses. Every stroke, every caress, every touch was snow-soft and steeped in longing. His hair feathered through her fingers and she flashed back to that first day, when he’d leaned over her in the truck and she’d touched it for the first time. Had it only been weeks ago? Surely she’d known him for a lifetime, loved him for a lifetime.

“I’m never going to find love like this again.”

“You will,” he whispered, “with a good man.”

“He’ll never be my hero.”

Pain swam across his eyes before he pinched them closed. He bowed his head, burying his face in the curve of her neck. A staggered breath washed along her skin followed by his tongue. His thumbs circled her nipples, drawing them to hard points that ached for his mouth. The slow-stoked hunger grew and he skimmed his lips across one peak, flicked it with the tip of his tongue then sucked it deep. Wet emptiness pulsed inside her and she arched back, giving him more access and pressing her hips firmer to his thighs. Thick-corded muscles dug into her ass, intensifying her need.

The rock-hard plane of his chest smoothed under her traveling hands. Hot, smooth skin over iron-hard muscles shifted as he dragged his mouth from her neck to her mouth. The warm marble of his shoulders provided a solid anchor and she clung to him, desperate to drink in every drop of his kiss. The hard length of his cock caught between them and she rubbed her belly along his shaft. A gasp opened his eyes.

Strong hands stroked down her back and gripped her hips, rocking her against him. The lips of her sex grew wet and soft, needing his driving hardness. She sat back, rose to her knees and gripped his shaft, slicking along the seam of her pussy.

“Lace, my wallet.”

Lacy froze. She didn’t want barriers and latex. She wanted him, all of him, skin on skin and heart to heart. They had fourteen days, could make love ten times a day and she’d be responsible, but just this once, out here in the middle of endless black waters, she wanted this. Just once, one time to be with him with nothing between them. Although disease was out of the question, she knew the risk she took as she seated his broad cockhead at her entrance. The chances of conceiving his baby were slim, but she wouldn’t be sad if it happened. At least that way, she could keep some small part of him.

“Lacy.” His fingers dug into her hips.

She locked her eyes with his and sank slowly down, engulfing each hard velvety inch. The sensual glide of hot flesh on flesh parted her lips with a moan. The muscles in his jaw twitched but he didn’t move. When not a whisper of air separated them, he released a shaking breath.

“Oh, Lace, babe, please.”

The first rise of her hips ricocheted pleasure through her. The descent tweaked her sensitive bud against him. He twined his fingers with hers, supporting her as she rode them both toward climax. She rocked and he bowed, she ground and he thrust. The boat swayed in rhythm with the sea and they caught it, used it, mastered it. A slick sheen coated them as they moved as one, each striving for the same goal, unable to make it alone.

Release coiled tight in her belly. Lacy moved faster, urging him to join her. Too tall for the bunk, Erik used his feet against the wall for leverage and pushed into her. Her hands squeezed his and her nails gouged into his skin. The muscles in his stomach trembled.

“Lacy.” Her name was a warning she ignored, taking him over and over, never wanting to let him go.

A spark ignited, vibrating along her spine and rippling out to every nerve ending. A sizzle surged through her with electric crackles. Her body clamped around him as her thighs quaked. A cry tore from him and he bucked upward. Lacy couldn’t make a sound. Everything centered on the deep pulse of him perfectly fitted inside of her.

Gulping breath and letting tensed muscles relax, she sank into the welcome space of his arms. She pressed a light kiss to his chest as his words rushed back to her.
Love is the deadliest weapon out there
. It certainly was. Her love for him had killed any chance another man might have had.

His heart thumped beneath her cheek. In a hundred years, that heart would still be beating and she’d be long gone from the Earth.

“Remember me,” she whispered.

His arms tightened. “How could I forget the woman who made me warm when I’d been cold for centuries?”

Chapter Nineteen

“What is that?”

Daybreak streamed in the tiny cabin windows and bathed her in pink. Vike listened, letting his hand glide up Lacy’s back. A poignant call rang out again. “Whales. They’re singing to their mates.”

“Can we see them?”

“Maybe. It depends on how close we are.”

She sprang from the bunk, grabbing his shirt and yanking it over her head. He tugged on his jeans with a chuckle as her feet bounded up the ladder.

She was kneeling on the bench, peering over the side with the curve of her ass shining in the dawn’s light. Her freed hair snapped in the easy wind as she pointed off the port side. “Over there! I saw one.”

“Keep watching,” he called, sliding into the wheelhouse. “If one is singing, there are others around.”

Nothing blinked on the screen and the wind was steady. He made a slight course adjustment. Not enough to disturb the whale pod but just to give them several more hours before they’d encounter any other human life. He joined her on the bench. Settling her slender shoulders against his chest, he joined her in watching the sea.

“There, Erik, look.”

Five rounded backs breached the surface, dark spots in the glowing waters. The pod kept a leisurely pace and flanked them for several minutes, their chorus like bellows echoing in the quiet morning. Vike tightened his embrace and rested his chin against the crown of her head. The sea, Lacy and the song of nature’s giants filled him with a tranquility that seeped into his marrow. For once in his life, he wasn’t going to be a selfish bastard. He was going to do the right thing and let her go. But fuck, it hurt.

A rumble from her stomach made him laugh. “You’re hungry.”

She laid her head back on his shoulder. “Sorry. We burned a few thousand calories. I can’t help that I require food.”

His teeth ground together. He didn’t have anything on board. “Lucky for you I can Leap anywhere. What do you want to eat?”

“Mmm, French fries, the saltier the better.”

He dropped a kiss on her crown and peeled himself away. It took only a minute to grab a new shirt from the below deck and slide loafers on his feet. With one last check of the instrument panel, he sent her a cocky grin. “Just keep watching. You might catch sight of a straggler. Sometimes mothers and their calves are slower than the rest of the pod. Be right back.”

With only a thought, he Leaped into Brighton, England. Bright daylight made him blink, his Leap carrying him backward across time zones that he rarely thought of any longer. Street vendors sold paper wrapped fish and chips and he aimed toward one. He had to wait behind two men kissing. The scene didn’t bother him in the slightest but the smaller man’s green Mohawk did raise his brows.

“Ya have a problem with it, mate?”

Vike shrugged at the man beside him. “Nope. My country has an old saying,
svá ergisk hverr sem eldisk
.”

“Meaning?”

Meaning some men on long sea voyages didn’t care who was beneath them and, in old age, no one cared
. “Basically, whatever floats your boat.”

A flirty finger stroked his arm. “So what floats yours and do I have a chance at getting on board?”

Biting back a laugh, Vike shook his head. “Don’t think my girlfriend would like it.”

“Never know. Some gals like to watch.”

The young man’s hand reached to touch Vike’s chest, but the kissers had collected their food and moved away. He stepped to the vendor and ordered two servings, forgoing the vinegar but adding extra salt to the chips, then tucked tall bottles of Minute Maid juice into his bag.

The man behind him watched with interested eyes that slid from the food to Vike’s lips. “Don’t have a shot, do I?”

“No, sorry.”

The man shrugged. “All the good ones are straight.”

The salty, greasy smell hung heavily as Vike rounded a pub, escaping from people’s sight with a grin. Lacy would get a kick out his getting hit on by a man after the way they’d spent the last few hours. Picturing the laughter in her eyes, he Leaped back to the
Sunstone
. His raw Mark burned as he materialized.

The sack crashed to the deck as he screamed her name. Lacy lay in a pool of blood, her chest ripped open, lifeless eyes staring at the early morning sky. Above her, Galina crouched, soul-bag in her hand and an evil malice curling her mouth.

“I win, Forsaken.”

He lunged with a battle cry but the bitch Leaped and his fingers closed around nothing. The salt-rich air now carried the pungent odor of copper and death. His knees crashed to the deck, Lacy’s blood soaking into his jeans. A ravaged scream ripped from his mouth. He failed. He lost her.

Tears streamed from his chin as he cradled her. Galina took her soul and he’d let it happen because he’d been so consumed with love, he hadn’t stopped to think of the dangers. Misery gutted him until he felt as shredded as her chest. Ice formed in his chest, a frost that burned. He was soul-cold and it hurt with a pain he’d never felt before. That place that Lacy had warmed was silent.

Not caring if a cargo ship swept in and shattered his prized
Sunstone
to splinters, he picked up Lacy’s shell and Leaped, every thought in his head of safety. Safety that was too late for the woman he loved.

The sun hadn’t risen this far west and the mountains gripped the last hours of night like a blanket in winter. Ice crackled on the dead grass beneath his feet as he took form in H2Q’s Quad, Lacy’s blood dripping to stain the frost. A light shone like a beacon through the kitchen windows. Framed by Lacy’s ruffled curtains, Rex looked out the window. His mouth pulled back into a soundless yell then he disappeared from sight only to reappear seconds later running from the patio door.

Myth and Dray followed. Nomad and Omen entered the Quad from the medi-room side. They all stood, gaping at the lifeless body in his arms. The dog whined, so like a human cry that it shattered the quiet air. There was a beep of a cell phone and someone murmuring in a low voice. Before the phone went dark, Sela and Zale hurried from an entrance on the left.

Vike’s knees gave out. He fell to the ground still clutching her. He wouldn’t let the pre-winter Earth steal what little body heat remained. He needed her to stay warm a little while. He needed…

Sela knelt and stroked the hair from his eyes. “Where is Lacy’s soul?”

“I went to get her food. Five minutes maybe. Galina got to her.”

Defeat echoed on exhales and floated on curses from all around him. Vike couldn’t look from Sela’s gaze. “Dust me.”

Horror parted her lips.

“Please Sela. I can’t do this. I let her die First Death. I can’t face her one day as a Chief and have to kill her with steel. I love her. Put me to sleep, please.”

Compassion turned Sela’s lips inward, her teeth biting down. She shook her head. “No, my warrior. I need you too much. I’ll find her soul-dust and put her at ease, I vow to you.”

“Sela, no!” The volume in Zale’s words shocked them all.

Her fingers stroked down Vike’s cheek as she looked deep into his eyes. An apology and a promise bloomed in her gaze then she pressed a chaste kiss to his forehead. Erasing all emotion from her face, she donned the mask of a warrior. She stood and faced her general. “I swore to give all that you need to fulfill your vows to me. Vike needs Lacy.”

“Don’t do this,” he warned.

“Take Lacy’s shell to the Hall of Infamy and wait for my word.” She Leaped and Zale growled.

“Where’s she going?” Rex asked. “How does she know where Lacy’s soul is being kept?”

“She doesn’t but she knows who does.” Nomad raked his hands through his hair and dug at his beard in irritation, then let loose a string of curse words in six languages, heavily peppered with the word
fuck
. Omen buried his nose in his paws.

“Want to lay off the shit-spewing and toss me a clue here, Blue?” A dark vein in Dray’s forearm bulged with his knotted fists.

Myth groaned. “Oh shit, she went to Michael, didn’t she?”

“Why is that bad? He’s a shithead but he’s Vangeli. He’ll help her right?” Dray’s eyes flitted between Nomad and Zale. “Won’t he?”

“Doubt it. I wouldn’t put it past him to deny her just to hurt her.”

Nomad’s pronouncement brought another round of cursing. Zale knelt and reached for Lacy’s body. Vike held fast, dread drying his tears. “Now what happens?”

The team leader’s jaw clenched. “She’ll go for the
Eyts Vangelus
herself to discover where Lacy’s soul rest.”

Fear soured in Vike’s mouth and the same horror registered on every Forsaken’s face.

“She can’t go there,” Rex shouted. “That’s like dropping a bloody carcass into a shark tank.”

“The Watchers can’t kill her. They can only trap her and torture her in a place we can’t reach.” Zale pried Lacy from Vike’s numb grip, lifting her with ease and glaring down at him. For the first time in Vike’s recollection, anger flushed Zale’s face. “I hope Lacy is worth it, Viking, because she may have just cost us our commander.”

Sugar-sweet air permeated her skin. Sela stood, letting the scent wash over her. Salty tears rose as she fought a wave of homesickness. It had been so long. She pushed the melancholy away with force and steeled her jaw. A bitch-blank mask fell over her face as she strode into Michael’s Hall of Glory. Like her own Hall of Infamy, the floors were white, the handprint rimmed in gold. Unlike her own, it teemed with warriors. She stopped on the threshold and let every eye fall to her.