Chapter 15 #2
“Aye.” She nods. “Cursed for centuries.”
“Why? Or, I mean, how?”
“Lenka, I think Vander should—”
“That’s your problem, wolven,” Lenka snaps.
“Too much thinking.” She turns back to me.
“When the War of Dragons broke out, King Onivern was able to defeat the vile DaySilver Clan and bring peace back to the DragonLands. But he made a mistake when he allowed the conspirators to keep their heads attached to their bodies. He should’ve killed every single traitorous dragon.
He didn’t, and his mercy led to his, his queen’s, and their eldest son’s death. And it led to the curse.”
“How—”
“That’s enough.” Vander’s voice is cold, slicing through the air like a blade.
“I don’t see why we should be keeping secrets when—”
Brin stands quickly. “Lenka, if you’d like to accompany me to the kitchen, I’d be very interested in seeing how you prepare these vegetable dishes for our friend Larellin.” He’s already around the table and pulling back Lenka’s chair.
It doesn’t take someone with immortal eyesight to see why. Vander stands in the door, steam rising from his shoulders as the snow along him melts. His pupils are slit, fury in his gaze.
“Fine.” Lenka smacks Brin’s hand away from her. “I’ll go, but that doesn’t mean you can shut me up, Sire. Some things are best put out in the open.” She waggles a flaming finger at him, then allows Brin to half escort, half shove her into the kitchen.
Vander stalks toward me, his eyes flickering from slit to round and then back again. “None of this concerns you.” He pulls my chair out and leans over me, his hands on the chair’s arms, caging me in. “It’s not—”
“Was it your family?” I ask softly.
His nostrils flare.
“You once told me you’d lost your parents and a brother.
” I should be terrified of him, of the way he looms over me.
The spikes along his shoulders have returned—I haven’t seen them since the first night he brought me here.
But in his changing eyes I see something other than anger, other than violence.
I see pain. It mirrors my own in ways I can’t explain. “Was it them?”
He studies my face. I study his right back.
The golden skin, the full lips, the almost too sharp nose.
His eyebrows slant at an angle that almost make him appear cruel, but I’ve seen him when he’s amused, when he’s smiling at me or laughing with his brothers.
He’s fierce but not vicious. Not to me, anyway.
“Yes.” He hisses the word, his eyes going fully dragon.
I reach up, my hand shaking slightly, and press my palm to his cheek. Warm. Always so warm. “I’m sorry.”
He leans into my touch, his eyelids fluttering closed.
We stay that way for several moments, time stretching out and meaning nothing as we simply exist with each other. I’ve never felt this closeness with anyone. Never felt the need to touch. But his pain is a thorn in his side, one that has somehow managed to prick me too.
“It was long ago.” When he opens his eyes again, the pupils are back to normal. “We need not speak of it.” He leans closer, his mouth only a whisper from mine.
I freeze, unsure of what this is. I’m his guest, his prisoner, a mortal stolen against her will. But he doesn’t treat me like any of those things. He treats me like … like treasure.
When he kisses me, the uncertainty fades.
He isn’t gentle, isn’t anything except raw and wild.
His tongue slides between my lips, forcing me to open for him.
Then he delves deeper, his hands going to my waist. Before I know it, he’s lifted me to him, clutching me tightly as he continues his searing kiss.
I twine my arms around his neck, my body craving his warmth, craving him.
I know what I’m doing is crazy. I know it, but I can’t stop.
When he touches me like this, when his tongue slides against mine, when his smoky sweet scent envelops me—every single rational thought evaporates.
I want him. There’s nothing for it, no way to stop it.
He slides a hand down to my breast, cupping it gently as he ravages my mouth.
It’s wanton and foolish. Anyone could walk in.
Anyone could see. Heat blooms along my skin at the thought, at the thrill of it.
Gods, what would they think of me in Raingreen?
My banishment would be immediate, and I’d be lucky if that’s all they did to me.
“Vander,” I gasp when he relinquishes my mouth and kisses to my throat. His thumb strokes my hard nipple, my skin rife with goosebumps as my lower belly goes molten. “We can’t.”
He meets my gaze, his eyes so green that I wonder where he ends and the dragon begins.
“This isn’t right.” It’s weak, as weak and breathy as my voice, but I feel compelled to say it.
He smirks, his gaze flicking to my mouth. “It’s right, Larellin. You’ll see just how right it is once I’m inside you, filling you with my come while you beg for more.”
“Vander!” I stiffen, the sheer audacity of him snapping me out of my lust-filled stupor.
“You’ve never known the touch of a male, have you?
” He smiles, wickedness in the glint of his eyes.
“You will know me, pet. Every inch of me. You will feel me for days after I’ve mated you.
You will taste and swallow, suck and lick.
And I will devour you whenever I wish, feasting on your body and sating your every desire.
Isn’t that what you want?” Back and forth, his thumb grazes my hard nipple.
I swallow hard, my heart pounding, my entire body going up in flames from his filthy mouth.
“I know you want it.” He inhales deeply.
“I can taste your honey even now, your cunt weeping for me, begging for what only I can give you. Hard. Deep.” He drags his nose up my throat, and I feel his tongue, now forked, tickling along the shell of my ear.
“Your screams will ring through this keep, pet. My name on your delicate lips. My cock in your hot cunt.”
My insides are molten, my body attuned to every single syllable, every movement of his maddening thumb. He’s turned me into a lustful harlot, my body reacting to him in private ways, in ways that he shouldn’t be so aware of.
“Tonight, you shall have all you desire.” He slides me down his body, keeping me tightly to him until my feet hit the floor. Then he steps back. “Be ready, pet. I’ll come for you at nightfall.” With that, he turns on his heel and strides out.
Breathless, I stare after him, my gaze on the doorway for long moments after he vanishes. He’s going to ... Tonight. He said he’s going to … My skin is hot, my heart still beating a tattoo on my ribs, my head spinning. I’m not ready. What we did last night was … it was madness. I’m not ready for—
“Finally gone. Stubborn, these dragons. All dragons, really.” Lenka’s voice makes me jump. I hadn’t realized she’d come back into the dining room.
“Is there a town nearby?” I ask, my voice edged in what my mother would call ‘hysteria.’ “There is, isn’t there?”
Lenka’s fiery eyebrows lower in suspicion. “Why?”
“I want you to take me.”
“What? Why?”
I can’t exactly say, “I need a weapon to fight off the DragonKin who’s angling for my maidenhead even though I’m not entirely sure I don’t want to give it to him” so I shrug and say, “I feel like these dresses are nice, but they don’t fit.
I want to be able to look pretty for Vander.
I’m stuck here. I might as well make the most of it, right?
Do they have clothes in the town? Maybe a dressmaker?
” I’m reaching. I know it. In Raingreen, my mother did seamstress work for the poorer townsfolk.
The nobles’ clothesmaker would never deign to venture into our part of the village.
What if the villages in Oblivion are even more primitive and poor?
There won’t be any chance of making this ruse work.
She watches me for a while, no expression on her face other than slight suspicion. “Dresses, eh?”
“Yes.” I give my best smile, hoping it’s convincing. “Something that fits better. Makes me look more like a guest than a prisoner?”
Hands on her hips, she stares at me a little while longer. “Churlytown can be dangerous, especially for a mortal. I can’t take you there. Vander might try to douse me out for even considering it.”
“Please,” I plead. “I’ll do whatever you tell me to. I won’t wander or anything like that. Just there and back, okay? Just for some clothes.”
“I can bring you clothes, child.”
“I want them to fit perfectly.” I try to seem earnest.
“I don’t know.” Her flames lower, sticking closer to her skin as she considers my request.
I sigh heavily, laying it on thick. “You’re right, I guess.
Vander wouldn’t want you to do anything without his direct say-so.
You saw how he acted when you were innocently trying to tell me things about Oblivion.
You wouldn’t want to make him angry again.
He’s the master around here. I guess we should obey him, right? ”
She glances around the dining room, her flames now growing and turning a darker orange, then grumbles something about, “thinks he can shush me and shoo me away from the truth. Thinks he knows better when I used to bounce him on my knee.” Clapping her hands once, she says, “We’ll go.”
I hop up on my good leg and yelp with excitement.
“Shh.” She holds her hands out, palm down then gives me an appraising look. “We need to turn you into something else entirely.”
“Hmm?” I stop my celebration.
She smiles slyly, her fiery eyes glittering with unspent mischief. “I have just the thing.”