Chapter Four #4
“Won’t be necessary.” She grinned. “Five… Four… Three…”
The dragon’s roar was astonishingly loud. So was the griffin’s screech of alarm.
Wings beat the air like huge sails, accompanied by thundering blasts of dragon fire. Two minutes later, we felt reality rip as a dimensional gate opened.
“Get back here, you pussy!” the mayor roared. “Or are you only brave with sleeping poets, you piece of shit?”
Another gate boomed -- she was trying to follow him.
Silence fell.
“Ooh, she’s mad.” Iona stared, wide-eyed, up at the ceiling. “If she catches him, he’s going to find himself barbecue before he knows what hit him.”
“What if he turns the tables on her?” I asked. “She did say he might be a demigod.”
“My money’s still on Vildra.”
A communication spell bloomed in the air showing the mayor in flight, looking pissed.
“I followed that yolk sucker through a dozen gates before he finally lost me.” Every word was accompanied by a tongue of flame.
Yeah, she was definitely pissed. “I’m headed home.
Stay behind those wards. If he shows up again, call me.
By Cachamwri’s Great Egg, I’m going to eat that bastard. ”
“We’ll do that,” Iona said. “Thanks for coming to the rescue.”
“De nada. Watch yourselves -- he’s fast, he’s powerful, and he’s sneaky. Almost nailed me with magical blasts four times. The prick.”
She cut the spell.
“Sounds like the fun is over for the night,” Iona said.
I gave her my best toothy grin. “Oh, I wouldn’t go that far.” I reached for my power.
Pain bit at my bones and the room seemed to expand around me. When I was Sidhe again, I found Iona staring at me, her gaze warming with a return of our earlier sensual awareness. She looked down, flicked the sword back into a baton, and holstered it on her duty belt.
Still, I didn’t want to be caught with my pants literally around my ankles, so I asked Breath, Do you feel him?
Doubt he will return before dawn. I will keep watch.
“Dragon’s Breath doesn’t think the feathered asshole is coming back tonight. I agree -- I doubt he’ll want to risk the mayor’s wrath a second time. Breath says he’ll keep an eye out.” I sheathed the big blade, dousing its green glow.
“So we made it through another one,” Iona sighed.
I spread my arms and waited. She wasn’t the only one who wanted to make sure whatever we did was what we both wanted.
“Now that you mention it, I could use a hug.” Iona stepped into my embrace.
I sighed in pleasure at the feeling of her body settling against mine, soft in some places, firm in others.
One slim hand reached up, slid behind my head and pulled me down.
I growled in eager lust and covered her soft mouth with my own, kissing her with all the passion I felt.
Was the vision of us together true? Could we fall in love? Be together?
“Don’t let her power sweep you into doing something unwise. Guard yourself.”
Shut up, Dad, I told the memory, lifting her off her feet to feast on that lush mouth.
* * *
Iona
Dearg tasted of heat and darkness and magic, laid over the deep, urgent thrum of Cachamwri’s magic. I groaned against his mouth, and he purred back at me, his hands cupping my ass.
Excitement shot through me, sweet and feral. It had been too long since I’d felt a lover’s touch, much less a man with the power of Dearg Galatyn. None of my other lovers had ever felt like this -- all overwhelming passion barely contained.
Gripping his neck, I lifted first one leg and then the other, wrapping them around his narrow hips. There was something infinitely solid about his strength, as if he were planted deep in the earth. As if he could have supported me forever.
Our tongues swirled and tangled, his hot mouth demanding on mine. Demanding everything, infinitely hungry for everything I could give him. Until at last we had to break apart just to breathe. Our eyes met, his glowing with his magic.
A soft green glow flashed and faded. Seemed Breath approved. We panted, staring at each other until Dearg dropped his forehead against mine as if fighting for control. His cock pressed against my crotch between my gripping thighs, stone-hard and radiating heat. “I probably smell like gore.”
“Occupational hobby of working a crime scene. Which is why I have a sanctuary beneath the house for days like this when I need a good, hot bath.”
His eyes met mine from inches away, passion leaping in those beautiful irises, luminous with flecks of magic. “Sounds” -- his lips curled in a sensual, wicked smile --”intriguing.”
“Let’s find out.” I untangled myself and slid down Dearg’s hard, intriguing body until my toes touched the floor.
Catching him by one of his big, sword-calloused hands, I led him through the house.
With every room we passed, his head turned, taking everything in.
He must have liked what he saw, judging from the way his stare lingered on the beautifully carved furniture I’d bought from Summerwood craftsmen, the tapestries Maeve and I had made, the weapons and armor she’d given me.
But what made him stop was one of my own paintings.
“You did this by hand,” he said, pausing to spread his fingers just above a piece I’d done of a Demisidhe flitting around a garden. “I can feel you -- the essence of you -- humming through the paint. It… glows.”
I smiled, feeling the heat of a blush spread across my cheeks.
Shyness? The mayor would laugh her scales off.
“My grandmother always says the things you make with your hands are more powerful than those you conjure because of the focus and effort they take. That’s why she forges and engraves her weapons personally instead of conjuring them. ”
He turned to give me a Big Bad Wolf smile full of straight white teeth. None of them were sharp. “I’m good with my hands… but not like that.”
The next words emerged before I could think better of them. “I tried to paint a portrait of my mom once when I was nine. She ripped it up. She did a lot of stuff that hurt me, but for some reason that stung more than most.”
Dearg’s smile faded. “I can’t imagine a mother doing something like that to a child. My folks…” He broke off, as if realizing he might sound insensitive.
“Yeah, you’re a lucky man.”
“That I am.” He relaxed, studying me thoughtfully. “I’d like to watch you work -- see you lose yourself in creation.”
This was starting to feel too intimate for reasons I didn’t understand, so I gave him a cheeky grin. “Sure -- if you’ll pose.” The grin widened. “Preferably naked.”
He laughed in a deep, happy bark. “If you insist.”
“Oh, I do!” I said. “I definitely do.”