The Druid Series 9: Baird (A Druid Novel) (6 page)

Siana presses her hips against his hand, and he withdraws his talon, scraping against her sensitive insides. She cries out.

It is not painful but more pleasure than she can stand.

A single throb deep within her pulses, and she whispers, “Take me, Kael.”

His talons retract as he grasps her hips, the tip of him against her entrance. Siana blinks at his nakedness, and he grins.

“
I did away with my clothes quickly.”

Siana gives a low laugh. “In stealth.”

He nods, and her smile fades as he enters her. Being filled with a male when she is not in fear for her life is so different. The painful barrier of her innocence is an obstacle no longer.

Kael fills her gently. Completely.

“More,” Siana whispers.

He pumps harder. She is slick and ready.

“Open your womb so I might blast my seed into the ripeness.”

“
Yes,” Siana says. This is her calling, to breed with a male of Exotic blood.

He presses forward, rocking in and out of her. “I want... I want to...”

“Harder—faster,” Siana moans beneath him.

His hips pull and swivel, picking up speed in a blur only the vampiric can obtain.

She catches him perfectly, her hips matching his speed.

Siana feels him harden inside her. Though she is Druid, he is much too keep inside.

When Kael releases, he kisses her, his pleasure captured with his lips, and she spasms around him in answer.

They lay locked against each other, breaths slowing, bodies losing the tension of stolen attention.

Kael rolls Siana astride him, her body tucked against his much larger one.

Siana finds she is content. Protected.

Kael is a magnificent lover, and every part of her has just been adored.

His hand trails down her back, and she moves her face to look at Kael.

“What we have done is not enough to wipe that look from your eyes.”

She is silent for a moment. “What look?”

Kael gives her a sad smile. “The haunted one.”

Siana snuggles closer, and Kael lifts the thin sheet, covering them both.

“I will never be the same after what happened,” she says.

“
I would hope in time...”

“
Yes.” Siana cups his face. “Time will make a difference. For now, I have only fresh memories of the horror of the undead.”

Kael looks conflicted, and Siana frowns as she asks, “What say you?”

His light eyes darken. “I do not know if this be the right time to tell you.”

Siana sits up, the sheet falling to her waist. She does not cover herself again but narrows her eyes upon Kael.

“What is it? Just speak plainly. I deserve that.”

“
I know.”

Siana almost shouts at him, but he says, “I asked you to open your womb, and you did not.”

Siana's brows come together. “I appreciate... I—”

Kael shakes his head. “It is not a poignant expression; it is a reality. When a Druid female is ripe for the seed of her male, the womb will open, so we may enter and more deeply impregnate her.”

Siana nods. She's heard this bit of lore, though she thought it a fanciful turn of phrase. “I thought it an expression.”

His eyes meet hers. “It is not.”

“All right?” Siana asks, throwing out her hands.

“
Your womb is closed, Siana.”

“
I am not ripe?”

Kael's eyes drop. “No, it is not that.”

“Baird and I bred you on the sacred slab.”

“
You were not breeding me, you were
saving
me,” Siana says, wishing he would get to the end of it.

“
Your womb is closed because you are with child.”

Siana's hand covers her mouth. “No.”

“I am afraid it is true.”

“
Baird,” Siana says in a word that sounds more like a sob.

Kael nods. “It could be mine.”

They look at each other.

Siana tries for a smile. “Even if it were his, he would care not.”

Kael stares solemnly back.

“
He will know nothing.” Kael takes her into his arms.

She hides her tears.

Baird

Baird's lungs beg for oxygen, more on fire than not, and yet he keeps running. Punishing himself.

He cannot get the image of Kael and Siana's locked hands out of his mind.

Though he has not seen them since then, he knows they will fuck.

The knowledge makes his blood boil.

And it serves him right. If Baird could not declare his true feelings for the Druid queen, he did not deserve to have her. If he is so unwilling to face his own truth, it is selfless for Baird to let another have her.

Then why do I feel like I've swallowed glass?

Baird makes a sharp left as he ascends the familiar hill.

He is familiar with the location of the Druid priest's lair, as many of the Faction,
rogue
and his own kind—are also privy.

The female Druids still need saving. If Siana chooses Kael, then let the entire
rogue
take care of her.

His self-delusions sit ill within him.

At least with fifteen warriors and no females, she should be safe.

And well-fucked.

He growls without realizing it, putting on a burst of speed as he jumps the moat to the priests’ temple.

Baird needs neither key nor a strong leg to kick in the door.

It hangs like a tooth by a thread in the jamb like a yawning mouth.

He tips his face to the sky, flaring his nostrils and catches the one scent he hoped to never smell.

Faction.

Baird tenses.

He runs in a blur of speed, descending the ten stories into the bowels of the temple.

Cell doors stand open. Dead priests are missing their throats, and guts like glistening skinned worms litter the floor in squiggly ivory piles. Baird's gaze bounces around frantically.

They are gone.

All the Druid females.

The Faction are proof against Druid magick. They are not enough Reaper to hold sway, but they are enough Druid for the mixed-blood of the criminal vampire element to want.

Baird pivots, racing back the way he had come.

He will return to the Reaper stronghold. Maghnus can bring a plan to fruition.

The Reapers will infiltrate the Faction.

They will regain the females and kill as many of the scourge as they can.

He rushes through the door and catches sight of Kael and Siana at the other side.

He smells Kael all over her, marking her.

Baird smirks. He wasted no time in fucking Siana.

She wasted no time in letting him.

Goddess help him.

Baird does not bother with a greeting, or a deeper scent flare. He paces backward, and with a sprinting head start, he leaps across the moat, running as he lands.

He does not look back.

Only her image, like a sun that never sets, burns in his mind.

It does not leave him no matter how many times he closes his eyes.

*

Maghnus scowls when Baird appears bearing tales. There are no females, and the Druid queen is with a
rogue
, of all things.

Baird reads Maghnusʼs displeasure on his face.

“Why, as a Reaper warrior with Exotic blood, could you not do the simplest of procedures and bind the Druid to you?” Maghnus asks.

Baird does not have a ready answer.

“And how was it the
rogue
managed to snatch her virginity from underneath your nose?”

Baird ties his hair at his nape in an irritated jerk. “I thought she had already been with other males... I did not realize her—”

“Oh Baird, that is daft.”

Baird's brows dump above his eyes. “I have been blinded by many things.”

“Clearly.”

Baird grunts. “You are not helpful.”

Maghnus points at Baird. “You are the one who allowed a Druid queen to slip between your fingers. You could have pierced her cherry and closed her womb with your seed as you did with Imogen. Even now she could be with the Reapers.” He closes his fist and brings it to his chest in a swipe of anger. “Yet no. You allow jealousy to insert itself.” He sighs in disgust. “I am leader here. You are important to our species. A supreme warrior, virile breeding stock, enough Reaper's blood to throw true with just enough Exotic to have a chance at something rare.”

Baird scowls. “Siana has chosen the
rogue
.”

Maghnus's eyes narrow. “Has she now?” He puts his hands on strong hips.

No.
“Yes.”

Maghnus sighs with disgust. “She is one in a million, Baird. Sent from the south for the express purpose of mating with a male of Exotic descent in the hopes of daywalking offspring. She is the finest stock of Druid female in existence.” He spreads his hands, brows rising.

“I apologize I cannot force a female to be a breeding machine for the Reapers,” Baird replies sarcastically.

Maghnusʼs eyes find Baird's. “I will not pat your ass, Baird. You fucked up because of who you are, despite
what you are. You have to make it right. Go to Carrig and Quinn. Assemble a war party to deal with the Faction, and reacquire the Druid females—and Siana.”

Baird grunts in anger, turning to find his Reaper brethren.

He hates that Maghnus is right.

He hates Siana for choosing Kael, and for never leaving his mind.

*

Laughter finds its way to Baird, and he follows the musical sound.

Imogen, Carrig, and Quinn sit at the banquet table. It does not see a lot of use.

The table is meant to hold the laughter of many females.

That is the promise Jessamine made to the Reapers who live here. She promised to trade the females for the rite of magick.

But now she serves another purpose: taking the cock of the undead.

Though her end is a just one, the unfulfilled bargain has left them with a single Druid female. Though Imogen is with child and magick is strong within her, the Reapers need more Druids.

I need Siana.

Quinn looks up just as Baird's face is raw with his memories. He stands. “My brother?”

Carrig hears his concern and stops speaking with Imogen.

Imogen says the things her mates are unwilling to voice. “Is it Siana?”

Baird's sharp tongue begs to be let loose.

Her face is earnest and he slowly walks to the table and lowers his weight into the nearest bench.

He nods, saying nothing.

“What has happened?” she asks.

Then, against his better judgment, he tells them everything.

Imogen does not berate him with words, voice, or body. “Baird, it is not that you do not care about Siana.”

She pulls Quinn and Carrig closer to her, and they look on her with adoration.

It seems so simple for them.

“
It is that you love her too much,” Imogen adds.

Baird stands. “I do not love Siana. I care about her protection.”

“Yes...” Disbelief is plain on Imogen’s face.

“
Get thoughts of love out of your head, Imogen.”

Her brows pinch together. “You say that Kael partook of her body first—upon the Sacred Stone?”

“Yes,” Baird replies curtly.

Quinn scowls. “It is not Imogen you are angry with, brother.”

Baird sighs. “Yes, I am sorry. Siana makes every nerve ending I have scream like a raw wound.”

Imogen and Carrig look at each other.

Quinn says, “Perhaps you can make amends. You have saved Siana’s life twice. You have rutted with her...” Quinn spreads his hands, palms up in supplication.

Baird studies them for guile. Finding none, he nods. “Yes. But first, we must rescue the Druids from the Faction.”

Imogen releases Quinn and Carrig. “Go, bring your brothers and save my sisters. I will be safe here with Maghnus.”

They scowl, and Baird laughs. He is not the only one with jealousy issues, a Reaper mainstay.

“Do
not
fuck him, my Druid.” Quinn tips her head back and mauls her with a possessive tongue.

Imogen circles his neck with slender arms.