Chapter 9
CHAPTER 9
Elliot flew us to the top of the castle and landed on the roof, where we instantly shifted and fell into each other’s arms.
The greatest thing about shifting?
Also, the worst thing?
Instant nudity.
This time, unlike last time, definitely worked in my favor.
The sight of Elliot’ s body took my breath away, but before I could revel in the sight for too long, he was backing me up against one of the turret walls, where he proceeded to strip me naked while kissing me senseless.
His wings cocooned us in our own world, so the heat trapped within that cocoon just built and built until I could barely breathe through my desire.
“Elliot, please!” I gasped, not sure what I was asking for, just more, more of everything. He needed to be closer. I needed to be closer.
I clutched his shoulders and tried to pull myself up.
He hooked an arm beneath my ass and lifted me so that I could wrap my legs around his hips as we continued kissing.
He lifted me again, just enough so that his cock lodged right at my center. He pulled back from our kiss, set his forehead against mine and eyes locked with mine, slowly pressed forward.
“Mate,” he growled, his dragon in his voice.
“Elliot,” I groaned as the ridges and scales on his cock rubbed everywhere inside me, lighting fires deep within.
I writhed, impaled on his cock as he sank deeper and deeper still.
His eyes burned a fiery red, flames from his dragon lighting their depths, and the heat from his fires and mine began to swirl around us, heating the bubble we were in to unbearable degrees.
The heat just ratcheted up my desire and I squirmed, the wall behind me scratching at my back, the ridges of his cock pressing hard against the walls of my pussy, the rubbing and friction there making me clench hard in response.
I threw my head back, gasping for breath and he growled, “Mikaela mine.”
Those words blasted through me with the force of a freight train, sending me careening into the most intense orgasm of my life.
Elliot pulled back, his cock withdrawing, each drag of its ridges wringing another shudder from my body. He surged forward again, those same ridges scraping me raw as they powered back inside and shattered me.
I screamed as the second orgasm rolled over me and again as a third rippled on the heels of the second.
He paused, filling me to overflowing, and I gasped for breath, dropping my head to stare into his eyes again, which was when I realized he hadn’t yet come.
His cock seemed to swell even more inside me, pressing harder against my walls, wringing aftershocks from me.
I whimpered and shuddered and gasped for breath, caught in the web of our desire.
Finally, my breath evened out and I fell silent, legs still wrapped around his hips, still excruciatingly aware of the heat blazing from his cock, softening my pussy even further, so that when he finally began to pull away, he moved smoothly in the lubricant my body had provided.
“Ready?” he rumbled when just the tip of his cock remained lodged inside me. His eyes blazed a promise that made me catch my breath, knowing that we had barely begun.
“Ready,” I whispered, wondering if that was the truth, if I could take what was coming. Then I had no thoughts at all.
He powered forward, his ridges scraping my already highly sensitized flesh and wringing every ounce of pleasure possible before retreating in a slow glide, then powering forward once more.
The slow retreat and the powered thrust forward hurtled me right back into passion so fast, I couldn’t catch my breath.
We were caught in a symphony of movements that had no time or place, just an endless dance that sent us spiraling, over and over again, into exquisite, devastating pleasure.
We eventually sneaked down to my dorm room where we indulged our passions throughout the rest of the day and into the evening hours.
At some point, the power came back on, but we didn’t even notice.
Eventually, when the hunger got to be too much, I got dressed and sneaked next door to steal some of Jahrdran’s clothes from Kasi’s side of the closet for Elliot. Then the two of us sneaked down to the cafeteria to scrounge up a midnight snack.
We ate in the kitchens, standing up, just talking.
Miki-Leopard, who had been surprisingly quiet during our sexual escapades, was awake and in rare form, flirting with Elliot and his dragon, whom she now called Elli-Dragon .
Elliot rolled his eyes at this moniker, but he confided in me later, when I assured him that Miki-Leopard had fallen back asleep, that he was pretty sure his dragon liked the name because every time Miki-Leopard said it, his dragon preened and radiated smugness.
I couldn’t help but laugh at that because it sounded exactly like something I’d say about Miki.
We eventually went back to my room, where we indulged in more sexy times and fell asleep in each other’s arms.
With such a truly wonderful end to my day, I wasn’t prepared when I woke the next morning in the Shadow Realm.
I didn’t remember going there, but Miki-Leopard had proven she had the ability to shadow-walk when she was playing with Shadow, so I assumed she’d brought us there.
Miki-Leopard, where are we?
She didn’t answer, which immediately caused some anxiety as I realized how alone I was in this Realm. Worse, I didn’t know how to get back since I wasn’t sure how I’d arrived in the first place and as far as I knew, I’d never shadow-walked before, so I wasn’t even sure I could.
I turned in a circle, but all I saw in every direction was a gray darkness. It shouldn’t really be possible for shadows to exist somewhere without light, but that’s all the Shadow Realm was—shadows upon shadows, with no light anywhere.
I could see because it wasn’t pitch black, but all I saw were the swirling grays of smoky mist and shadow.
I stepped in one direction, then stopped, uncertain if I should move at all. Did I stay where I was in the hopes someone would find me or did I walk and possibly get further from my way home?
Miki-Leopard, are you there?
Still no answer.
I tried to remember what Kasi had told us about shadow-walking, something about picturing a shadowy place, someplace familiar, and throwing herself there.
Remembering that she often used the closet in their dorm room, I tried to picture mine. Once I had it in my head, I tried to envision myself just moving there, but when I opened my eyes, I was still in the Shadow Realm.
This sucked.
I’d just found my mate and had the most epic sex of my life and now I was stuck in this crappy place.
I stood there, hands on hips, glaring into the distance when I heard the voices.
He’s coming, they whispered.
Oh, fuck.
He’s coming. Hide. He’s coming. Hide. He’s coming. Hide.
Where did one fucking hide in a world of shadows?
He’s coming. Become the shadows. Hide. He’s coming. Become the shadows. Hide.
What the fuck did that mean? Become the shadows? I wasn’t a shadow-beast. I wasn’t even supposed to be there!
He’s coming. Hide. The whispers faded to silence, then the gray nothingness that surrounded me exploded into a thousand shadows that erupted from everywhere, the ground beneath me, the very air around me, and reached toward me.
“No fucking way! Not again!” I yanked the flames from my core, every little bit of magic I had and let it loose.
It streamed from me in waves of frozen fire, crackling and snapping and freezing shadows where they stood.
She stopped him, she stopped him, she stopped him, he’s coming, he’s coming, he’s coming.
“Shut up!” I shouted.
As if in response to my voice, one of the frozen arms shattered and out slithered an oily darkness, a shadow so unrelentingly dark that I knew if it touched me, it would corrupt me forever.
I backpedaled quickly and shouted as loud as I could, Miki-Leopard, wake up!
Mikaela? Her voice sounded so far away, faded. Where you?
The dark shadow came hurtling toward me and I kept backpedaling, afraid to turn my back on the horror that approached. Shadow Realm. Where are you?
Something inside me reached out and I felt Miki-Leopard doing the same wherever she was, the two parts of myself reaching toward each other.
She grabbed hold of me and yanked hard just as the darkness reached me.
One smoky, shadowed hand raked claws down my arm, dragging a scream from me, even as I was yanked back to my dorm room.
I opened my eyes to see Elliot leaning over me, terror on his face and Jasmine just behind him, looking worried.
“You’re okay,” Elliot said. “Just lie still a moment.”
“Was it another nightmare?” Jasmine asked.
I shook my head. “No way. It was too real.” I struggled to sit up. “I know I said that last night, Jasmine, and I know you said I never left the room, but I’m telling you I was in the Shadow Realm, both last night and tonight.”
“You were lying right here beside me the entire time,” Elliot growled.
Shit. Maybe I was going insane.
“But somehow, even though you were right here, someone managed to attack you, make you bleed .”
That’s when I became aware that he was pressing a sheet to my arm, which was pulsing in pain.
“Holy shit!” Jasmine whirled and raced into the bathroom, only to return a few moments later with a first aid kit. She tossed it to Elliot, who set to work cleaning and wrapping my arm, which boasted five bloody, claw marks.
Remembering how far away Miki-Leopard had sounded, I checked in with her. Are you there, Miki-Leopard?
I here.
Thank you for saving me.
Not save. Wake.
Yes. Thank you for waking me.
Welcome Mikaela.
“We need to figure this out,” Elliot said. “It’s one thing if these are just nightmares, but given your nightmare just left you bloody, we need to make a plan. ”
“Agreed,” Jasmine said. “I’ll go wake Kasi and Jahrdran.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “How are you going to wake them if they’re in the Shadow Realm?”
“We have a signal. I just bang on the bed. Somehow Kasi feels the vibrations. Let’s meet in the cafeteria. We can eat and brainstorm at the same time.”