Last Ride of the Umbra Fae

28. Ryder

28

Ryder

I hadn’t fully grasped what I’d been doing when I’d pushed away the last payment from End’s Wrath, but seeing how much he valued Vessa had broken me a little. I’d never seen End’s Wrath show any sign of desperation, but the amount of nara coins he’d been willing to pay was enough. For all I knew, maybe this was one of his tests, one I wasn’t sure if I’d failed, but as I strode toward Vessa’s door, I felt like I had won the biggest prize of all.

I saw what the city was doing to her. All the sounds, the people, the reality of how fast the world was changing around us; she was drowning in the center of it. Like her, I wanted to escape. It was strange that every time my mind drifted, all I wanted was to be in her arms and hold her in mine.

I hesitated for a moment as I stood outside her door. I should have just left and slipped out of sight, never to be seen again, but I was a stupid fucking bastard.

Finish the job.

My heart was trying to shred apart my plans, and I was still walking the finest line, knowing there were flames chasing at my heels.

If I did leave, I would always have someone on my trail. I would never really be at peace.

When she opened the door, I somehow found that in her. I deliberately yanked her against my body to hear that little yelp I’d hoped she’d make when her hips pressed against mine. She did just that. The sound sent my cock swelling, and it did more as she reacted to the sound of my voice.

We both wanted to forget, and we were both running out of time. Between passionate kisses, I wanted to learn as much about her as I could, because there was this never-ending, overshadowing awareness that this could all end at any moment.

Fuck this city and this life. I wanted to get lost in her enchanting lavender eyes and kiss each luminous freckle across her face. To taste the magic of her darkness and lick it off her body like honey until the two of us were one. Then I would consume every part of her and drive her to the brink of madness with my cock.

She took my hand in hers and led me to my room. Like the desperate dog I was, I followed. She strode in as if she owned it, tossing her hat and gloves onto a settee and noticing my balcony had doors.

“Nice.” She threw me a wink before disappearing into the washroom. I assumed she’d pieced together that I’d made sure her balcony had no doors or windows, just a stoned balustrade so her feathered bodyguard could perch. I might not have liked the pasty prick in his male form, but he was bound to her.

I heard her shuffling around, which made me raise a brow. I waited a few moments, assuming she might have to relieve herself, but my heart nearly melted out of my chest when she walked out with the top few buttons of her shirt undone, exposing a sliver of the pale-blue undergarments I had surprised her with. She draped her leather vest over the knob of a chair and noticed the bag of black licorice ropes on the table. She smirked, plucking one from the sack, and took a small bite. Her eyes closed in a soft flutter as she moaned, casting a hooded gaze my way with a smile, knowing I watched her every move. A soft chuckle hummed in her chest as she closed the distance.

The roped candy hung from her mouth like a cigar, and her hair cascaded in soft waves. With every stride, they swayed with the curve of her hips.

“I’m starting to believe you’re truly the devil, looking the way you do,” I said, feeling the hollowness inside my chest swell. “Here you are, striding into my life, stealing away every breath I take along with my candy.”

The corner of her mouth twitched in amusement, maybe satisfaction.

“A man willing to give his last breath to me?” She took another small bite. “Sounds intriguing,” she teased, draping an arm over my shoulder.

“Don’t get too ahead of yourself, darlin’. Who said I’d let you get away with it?” I grinned, draping her other hand over me as I plucked the licorice from her soft, supple lips and stuck it in my mouth with the other. I couldn’t help but wonder at the thought of those perfect lips wrapped around my cock and how they’d feel as she sucked me into oblivion.

We saw each other as something we wanted to claim. That was the side of her I strived to chase. No matter how far or dark it got, I was ready for that ride.

My hands had killed, but so had hers. For the time being, maybe they both could be tender for one another. As I slid one around her waist, the other slowly roamed down her thigh until she lifted her leg, allowing me to grip the back of her knee. Another yank, and her body was flush against mine.

I lifted her up, taking a firm hold as my hands cupped her ass. Her legs straddled my hips as she took my hat and placed it on her head.

“Looks like your hands are tied, cowboy. What are you going to do now?” She then stole back the roped licorice and tossed it behind herself onto the bed.

I couldn’t give two fucks about the tug of war with that rope anymore, because now she was in my range.

“The very thing I’ve been wanting to do since the moment I first laid eyes on you.” The vow I’d made pushed to the front of my mind. The one where I would cross every line with her until I could claim her as mine.

The anticipation hung in her eyes, a hooded stare as I moved us over to the edge of the bed. I gently placed her onto the mattress, watching the way her dark hair fell away behind her shoulders, making those soft streaks of highlights disappear.

“You have been a disturbance in my mind, invading my every thought since I met you,” I confessed, slipping my hat off her head and placing it somewhere to the side. Then I removed her boots, massaging her legs and ankles. I knew she had been sore, and alleviating some pain was the least I could do.

The tips of my fingers trailed the hollow of her neck and brushed away a rogue strand of hair. With a light touch, I traced her arm along her scars, loving the way her bronze skin slipped into a star-filled darkness as my hands linked with hers. A touch that was made of shadow and light. She clasped my hands, biting her lower lip as the anticipation hung in her eyes. I leaned down and tilted my head, licking the column of her neck as my hair brushed against her collarbone. She moaned, rolling her body, a move that drained all thought and flowed straight to the swell of my cock.

I kissed and nibbled on the soft flesh just beneath her ear, eliciting another moan from those perfect lips. I caught her moan with my mouth, stroking my tongue inside in abrasive perusal. We became nothing but clashing tongues and teeth.

“I’m going to take your breath as mine, Desert Rose. When I’m done with you and we are both spent from expelling every power that makes us the monsters we’ve become, you’re going to be mine. I don’t think any forced bond could take that away from us.”

She pulled away, staring at me long and hard with burning desire. I knew it was a bold move. I was ready to take a dagger to my heart for wanting to claim such a thing, but the way darkness ignited in her eyes as she grabbed a fistful of my shirt and pulled me down for another bruising kiss, it was enough for me to know that, by the end of the night, she would truly belong to me. She was not gentle about it, meeting me with the same abrasiveness as her tongue swept across my lips, deepening the kiss, and gods-damn, she was wickedly talented. I was ready to take everything she had to offer me and more. She was the remedy for my deprivation.

Time didn’t exist with her, and I nearly lost track of how long we stayed in that position, though a subconscious part of me knew it must have been nearly midday. I ran a greedy palm down the length of her thigh as she linked her legs around my back. I groaned, exhaling her name and something else—words that fell away as she pulled me in for a deeper embrace. My hand dragged across her top and pulled it down, circling my thumb around her nipples that were firmly pressed against the mesh fabric of her undergarment.

“All I’ve been thinking about is who I’d have to kill to see you in this color, and here I am, wanting to rip your clothes to shreds.” I licked against the fabric in desperation, cupping my mouth around her breast because it simply wasn’t enough. She gently nudged herself up and removed her top. I sat back on my knees to watch her every move. My length bulged and throbbed against my pants. When her top fell away, the sight was nearly painful.

I tugged my shirt off, tossing it far from reach. Her eyes went to the plains of my chest. She slowly reached forward. She seemed to like the chest hair as she ran her fingers through it, gliding her thumbs along the raised flesh of my nipples. Her gaze flicked to mine. With a flirtatious smirk, she gently pinched them. My heart nearly leaped as she dipped her head, running her warm, soft tongue over them, licking and biting. I exhaled deeply and tipped my head back as I combed a hand through her hair, caressing her working jaw with the pad of my thumb. My fucking heavens, the things she could do with it.

Vessa kissed her way down, swirling her tongue along each ab before those perfect hands began to unfasten my belt. I watched the curve of her back as she worked the latch with her ass sticking in the air. It was a shame she was still wearing pants. She could see my desire leaking through the fabric, and with a smile, she tugged them down.

My heart thrummed like a feral beast when my entire length flung out, hard and beaded with pleasure. Her cheeks heated seeing my desire for her. The thought of her pretty little mouth wrapped around it caused an ache. I wanted to be inside her more than ever.

As she leaned down, I stopped her midway, pulling her back a little with a gentle caress across her shoulder. “Naughty girl, you still have your pants on. If you’re going to wrap those lips around my cock, the least you could do is grace me with the sight of that beautiful ass, nice and arched.”

She gnawed on her bottom lip and smiled.

My heart thundered as she leaned back and removed those pants. I sat back on the mattress and watched as she clumsily took them off, discarding them to the side. A rush of hunger surged through me seeing that little bush of hair atop her mound as the memory of my nose buried against it flashed across my mind.

She leaned down, and that beautiful face was inches from my cock. She inhaled my scent and moaned. Something I hadn’t been expecting her to do. I chuckled, probably sounding a little insecure, and thanked the fucking heavens I’d bathed this morning. While her lips brushed along my length, I soon forgot that feeling, because in the next breath, they were wrapped around the tip, then she slid her mouth down.

A feral moan rumbled in my chest as I bit my lower lip, holding back another untamed sound that wanted to escape. I leaned back onto my heels, gripped the sheets, and tilted my head back as my eyes widened when I felt her slide down to the base.

Gods-damn. She was everything I could have asked for.

I fell into her snare as she worked my cock and bobbed her head. I felt the power of wind emerge from my flesh in warm, calming orbs. It was a call for hers, touching on the edges of a bond that wanted to be formed.

Sure, this could have been any one-night stand—most fae could fuck without any strings attached—but this felt different; it was a calling only she could quell. One I couldn’t have fully understood until I’d kissed her for the very first time. While the power of Nai , my wind, drifted in the space around us, the constant flutter down my arms sensed her opening that thread.

She loosened her grip around my hilt and lifted her head. Lips swollen, she took in the magical sight while she gasped for air. “Blue, just like your eyes.”

She took my hand in hers and pulled me up until we were knee-to-knee on the mattress. Naked and bare with my magic weaving around us.

“I wouldn’t have expected a cowboy so rugged and brash to have a touch so soft.”

I felt the same about her. A double-edged sword, and I was a mindless fool for pulling myself into her blade.

Shadows twined around her hands, a darkness matching my own that was a reflection of the horrors and pain she hid behind her eyes. She reached out, cupping her hand against my face as if she were cradling everything that made me wretched. I closed my eyes unexpectedly, as I exhaled a deeper breath.

“So this is what it feels like to be less broken,” I whispered, opening my eyes to find her already lost in mine. I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about a woman having such a powerful effect on me, but the threads of my magic weaved with hers, responding to its call with a soft, shimmering light, moving with us as she led me down on top of her.

“You don’t have to hide from me, cowboy. I see all your demons. Let them reign while we enjoy this moment.”

I had so much I didn’t want her to know as panic rushed down my spine in a lick of cold sweat. With all the power I had, I locked it all up, tucked it far away, and fucking destroyed the key.

As I wedged myself between her thighs, my length rested between us.

“Who we were before won’t matter if you will have me for who I’ll try to be from here forward,” I whispered. The unexpected vow sounded more like a longing plea as I looked into her eyes, studying each luminous speckle atop the bridge of her nose.

She caressed the back of my neck and pressed her lips against mine, searing in the answer. My hips gently moved, and she opened her legs wider as I nudged at her entrance.

Every moment that passed was an eternity as she seemed to sift through every thought.

Without warning, I slid inside her, all the way to the hilt.

She gasped.

Suddenly, the most beautiful light appeared around us from the shrouds of her darkness. A bond, one that shimmered like the essence of the moon with threads across a night sky.

She blossomed, and my gods, it nearly ended me. We stayed in this position for a few moments, allowing her to adjust to my size. Her slick heat was warm and welcoming as both our hearts thundered against our chests. I brought her hand to my lips.

“You are the perfect storm. One I’d gladly chase into the night,” I said, kissing her palm. I had yearned to enter the eye of her storm, to find a quiet calm within the madness that was to be me. As I began to slowly move inside her, I was finding that quiet place.

The weight of my body pressed her into the bed, and she welcomed it by running her nails down my back. I leaned my weight on an elbow, watching the way her hips rose to meet mine. It was a struggle not to lose it all when I felt her clench around my cock; the gentle throb nearly sent me to move deeper with every stroke.

“I told you being pretty was going to be a problem,” she said, casting a mischievous smirk my way as she gently brushed her hands along the scars on my ears.

I leaned my forehead against hers, half grinning. “I’m pretty, and you’re the devil. It’s quite an interesting match.”

Her laughter caused her to squeeze around my hilt once more.

“Fuck,” I grunted. “Keep clenching that pretty pussy of yours, and you might nearly end me right here and now.” I thrusted deeper, cock throbbing before I pulled back out, causing her to whimper.

I kept my pace, moving inside her as desire burned in our eyes. The light surrounding us intensified the deeper I dove through her center and mind. The gravitating force pulled me through every thick-ass wall, one by one, in flashes of light.

It was maddening.

I saw the beat of her heart at the very center of my thoughts. This kind of feverous love could make anyone lose their gods-damn mind, and I would gladly lose it all for her.

She was not only the last of the Umbra, but she was everything around us at once. I couldn’t explain it. All I understood was that, as my mind moved forward, every thrust inside her body brought me closer to her. She was revealing parts of herself I didn’t think she knew she was exposing.

My heart nearly stopped seeing Vessa connected to the Eternal stone. This was the reason Fang wanted her.

She was the secret who harnessed the power to enter Earth’s Fall, the hidden realm that lay at the edge of Blightstone Hollow.

He wanted to kill her. She could not only restore the lands but stop the blight from spreading.

My breath stilled until I felt her touch startle me back into her gaze.

“Are you alright?” she asked.

Words evaded me momentarily as I realized I would never let Fang have her as long as I was breathing.

I smiled faintly before nestling into the crook of her neck, my body moving with hers as I kissed her soft bronze skin. “Yes,” I said, thrusting harder, “my Desert Storm.”

I whispered against her mouth, curving a hand beneath her lower back. Without leaving the warmth of being inside her, in a quick motion, I moved our bodies so she straddled me.

“Now, show me how you like to ride.”

She lifted herself off my body, hovering inches above the slick and wet surface of my cock. She was on full display, a dark angel in the midst of our bond across a night sky. A wicked grin curled her lips as she slid all the way down, claiming me with such a vibrant, deviant gaze, I thought I was flying.

“Do you want to know something?” I asked, thrusting my hips as I enthralled her into my essence.

She pulled me up until our chests were touching. Her voice was nothing more than a low murmur, as she was purely hypnotized and hanging on my every word. Darkness swirled around our hips, a shadow slithering around my waist, over our thighs, and the swell of her ass.

“When we are one, as we are now, I can manipulate your power, Desert Storm,” I said as it solidified into a lasso, her body tied and bound to mine.

Her eyes narrowed in on me as she bit her lower lip. In a whisper, she called upon my nai , and it kneeled to her every whim as I continued to stare in a daze. The scent of licorice filled the air. She summoned the piece of candy into her mouth and sucked on the remaining length before pulling it out and slipping it into my mouth. I chuckled as I bit off the end piece.

This was pure ecstasy.

“I have a little secret too,” she said, honing my gift as hers as she wrapped a thread of my power around my neck, tightening it around my throat.

“I want every part of you, Ryder.” She tugged on the rope. “Give it to me,” she demanded, slowly riding the length of my cock. Her eyes churned like lavender-honey magic, starlight in the way she made my own fucking power bow to her.

“I am yours, Desert Storm. Take everything from me as I will from you.”

She pressed her palms against my chest, gripping me and riding at such a punishing pace that every ounce of my power was a star caught in her orbit. She took the reins and rode the fuck out of me with the same pace as she lived her life.

Hard and fast.

We watched the bond form before our eyes, the both of us riding a dangerous path, not knowing where it would lead us. I felt her pussy clench around the base of my cock as I moved my hips with hers. Together, we chased that high, searching for the brightest star, uncaring if we burned in the process. She gasped, leaning down and burying her hands in my hair. I had a firm hold on her hips, helping her keep that pace.

“Ryder, please don’t stop,” she moaned.

I loved hearing her beg. “Say that again, and this time, look at me.”

“Don’t stop or I’ll kill you.” She smirked before deepening the kiss.

I plunged deeper. “You are so perfect in every fucking way,” I said, making sure every thrust rubbed against her bundle of nerves. Another groan rumbled in my chest, rendering my next thoughts useless as her moaning intensified.

She found her orgasm at the end of my words, and it all came crashing around us as I followed right behind her. Those sweet moans calling my name unleashed a primal growl within me. I grabbed onto her, holding her against my chest as my swollen, throbbing cock slammed and came inside her. With every thrust, I felt her clenching and pulsating around me, and together, we rode that high until it slowed.

She collapsed onto the bed, nestling herself into the crook of my body as I pulled her into my embrace, trailing my fingers against the scars on her arm. Her palm rested against my beating heart.

We were spent, and I was nearly gone.

“I told you I would make you mine,” I said, still trying to catch my breath.

Vessa and I spent the rest of the day exploring one another’s bodies, weaving our magic together and smoking the blended herb she’d gotten from End’s Wrath’s pouch from her pipe made of bone. She was a killer with grace as she sat in the center of the bed, naked and tucking a loose lock behind her hair before wrapping her lips around the pipe’s ivory tip, inhaling until she felt the burn. Everything she did was beautiful. We ascended upon that high together, clothes no longer a necessity as I sat on the edge of the bed, strumming a faint melody on my guitar while we spoke about our pasts between drinks, peeling back the layers we’d kept hidden within ourselves. The memories hurt less in one another’s presence. She watched the strain of my forearms as I plucked every string. Before I knew it, I was placing the guitar off to the side and moving inside her again.

In the back of my mind, I wondered what bone she would rip from my body if she ever caught wind of who I really was. And as her nails dragged down my back, I realized something...

I was less of a villain with her, but I would become any monster for her.

She might be the devil, but she was also dancing with one.

Nighttime fell. I didn’t hear the last words she spoke as sleep claimed her, but I knew I would be haunted by what was to follow.

“If she isn’t delivered at my feet by the time the sun sets tomorrow…” Fang’s words echoed in my thoughts as I dozed in and out of sleep for the rest of the night. It was a blended sense of worry as Vessa’s threats seared deeper. Every time I watched her sleep, the more of a bastard I felt.

My thoughts roamed over different scenarios of what to do.

I woke before dawn. Hell, I didn’t think I’d ever slept. I had to kill Fang before he got to her.

Vessa would be safe as long as she stayed here; I had paid a great deal to hide our presence. This was the one place in Donia I could trust. The place was family owned, and they never cared to dabble in the politics or the quarrels of warring differences. Nara coins would always have a sway, and so would I as long as enough lined my pockets.

Watching the rise and fall of her chest, a peace was settled in her expression. I draped the sheets over her naked body, pressed a kiss to her temple, quietly got ready, and slipped out the door.