Chapter 3 #2
“You’re going to have to do better than making up bullshit like that, you miserable piece of shit. Following me into the woods and threatening me with what? Lies that you can’t prove.” She laughed, leaning into him this time. “That’s pathetic even for you.”
“Oh, I think it would be pretty easy to prove.” The smile returned to Shiva’s face, his teeth white in the darkness.
“Once I showed them where you stash your bow, I think the council would be all too willing to check your stores. And I bet they’d find contraband in your little human friend’s house, too. ” He tutted, shaking his head slowly.
Aelia didn’t reply; she just stared at him, as if her whole world was crumbling around her and she had no idea how to stop it. Keeran did. Shiva was the problem, and oh, how he longed to solve it for her.
Savouring her silence, Shiva grinned round at his friends.
“Have any of you heard her lost for words before?” That elicited another laugh and a few murmured encouragements from the sycophantic morons.
Shiva returned his attention to Aelia, his eyes lingering on her face for a moment, savouring the fear she was failing to hide.
“You’ve always been such a cocky little bitch, not knowing how to treat your superiors.
Maybe if you showed a little respect, I could turn a blind eye to your illegal little ventures. ”
This time, she succeeded in yanking her arm free, the anger in her eyes melting the fear that had been there moments before.
“My superior? Just because you can Shift and I can’t?
” she scoffed, her face twisting into a snarl that had even Keeran blanching.
But what did she mean she couldn’t Shift?
She was no human, of that he was sure; the ring of magic in her eye was unmistakable.
He’d never heard of an artemian that couldn’t Shift before.
“Don’t mistake me for some human you can push around, Shiva.
You’re just a limp dicked prat hiding behind a bullshit macho facade.
Well, guess what, buddy, you aren’t fooling anyone. ”
Shiva snapped. With all the speed of an artemian predator, he struck her right across the face, whipping her head round to the side.
Keeran saw red.
He was on them before they could register he was coming, blurring through the night to grab Shiva by the collar and throw him to the ground hard enough to hear the air whoosh out of his lungs. That winded, he wasn’t going anywhere in a hurry.
That gave him time to deal with the others.
They rounded on him at once, but he was ready.
As one of them ran at him, he took hold of his throat and used his momentum to launch him into two of the others, sending all three sprawling.
The one left standing tried to stop in his tracks, his confidence failing now that Keeran wasn’t outnumbered. Fucking coward.
Keeran had to really rein himself in, keeping his blows light enough not to kill him, landing a few easily past the man’s sloppy defence.
Bored, Keeran angled his fist with calculated precision, smiling when he heard the satisfying crunch of ribs breaking.
He swiped his leg round, sending the man crashing to the floor in time to face the three others who’d staggered to their feet.
Keeran longed for a challenge; it had been so long since he’d really lost himself in a fight, since he really settled into the blood frenzy of his people. This was all too easy.
He sank into a crouch and beckoned the three over. After an uncertain glance at each other, they charged.
One ended up on the floor with a broken arm, one lost enough teeth that he’d never bite an apple again, and the last might find he had a fertility issue in the future if the crunch beneath Keeran’s knee was anything to go by. All before Shiva had caught his breath enough to stand.
The four men didn’t wait for their fallen leader; they staggered and stumbled through the undergrowth as fast as their assorted injuries would allow them.
Keeran had his back to Shiva and Aelia, making sure the walking wounded really did leave, and allowing the terrible black he knew would have filled his eyes to settle before he turned to her. It transpired he needn’t have worried; her attention was firmly fixed elsewhere.
Aelia had Shiva pinned face down in the dirt, his arms wrenched at a horrible angle behind his back. Any harder and she’d dislocate his shoulder. She leant in close from where she was perched on his back to whisper in his ear.
“If you’re going to threaten someone, you really need to prove you can back it up,” she hissed.
“Like when I say, ‘if you or your friends so much as breathe a word to the council I’ll cut off that limp little dick we mentioned earlier’, I make damned sure you know I mean it.
” She moved a knee between his legs and shifted her weight back onto it.
Shiva screamed, and even Keeran felt like squirming as she squashed it against the hard ground.
“We won’t, we won’t,” Shiva cried, the desperation in his voice pathetic, albeit understandable.
“You sure?” Aelia didn’t let up, seeming to enjoy herself.
“I swear.”
“Alright then.” She shifted her weight and climbed off him, letting Shiva roll into the foetal position to clutch between his legs. She stood over him, legs wide in a power stance that had Keeran’s stomach flipping. Who was this woman? “What are you waiting for? Off you fuck.”
Aelia shooed him away with a lazy flick of her wrist. Shiva scrambled to his feet, crashed to all fours as his legs gave way, and half crawled, half ran in the direction his friends had gone.
Aelia watched him go with a smug smile, only turning to Keeran when Shiva had disappeared completely from sight.
“Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for an excuse to thump that prick?
And the first chance I get for years, and you swoop in and steal it from me,” she said, and he honestly couldn’t tell if she was joking.
A hint of a smile pulled at her lips, but there was an annoyed glint in her eye that surprised him.
She looked up at him with her hands on her hips, taller than he’d guessed she’d be from a distance, but still having to arch her neck back to look up at him.
Not many people had the guts to talk to him like that, especially not after they’d seen him wipe out four grown artemians without breaking a sweat.
But here she was, scolding him as if he ought to be the one terrified of her.
“I’m sorry.” He kept the smile out of his voice, knowing full well it wouldn’t help the situation. “Had I known, I would have left him to you. I just thought you were a little outnumbered.”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong, I appreciate you stepping in. But you could have shared,” she countered, looking genuinely put out.
“What? Were you waiting for an invitation?” He cocked his head, raising one brow expectantly, hiding his smile. “I was waiting for some help, to be honest.”
Aelia rolled her eyes at his obvious lie, crossing her arms and cocking her hip.
“You didn’t give me a chance. One second I was handed a golden opportunity to break Shiva’s nose, the next, you had them all running like a bunch of scolded schoolboys.”
“Well, in my defence, they needed to be taught a lesson,” Keeran said, still suppressing a smile. “Ganging up like that on one person…” He shook his head slowly, tutting. He didn’t miss how her gaze darted to his mouth.
“I think if anything, you just taught them that they need even more backup next time.”
Keeran huffed a breath through his nose. “I concede that you might have a point there.”
She looked in the direction they’d run off in, the slight irritation in her face slipping to reveal the worry underlying it.
“I don’t think they’ll go to the council,” Keeran said, guessing where her thoughts had disappeared to. From the way her eyes snapped back to his, he’d guessed right.
“You don’t?” Aelia uncrossed her arms, subconsciously twining her fingers together and twisting them nervously. “I do. Those men are all ego, and we just seriously embarrassed them.”
Keeran fought the darkness rising in him with every fibre of his being, knowing how it would infiltrate his eyes. If he needed to pay them each a little visit before he left, he would, but now was not the time to think about it, not when Aelia was standing right in front of him.
“I think that’s why they’ll stay quiet,” he said, looking for any sign of fear in her face, any sign that the evil in him was visible. “Shame has a way of sealing the lips of cowards.”
Aelia’s eyes narrowed at him, but he didn’t mind. He’d take sceptical over fearful.
“And what about you?” Her fingers had stopped their nervous fidgeting, a hint of steel in her eyes once more. “You obviously heard what they accused me of. Do I need to worry about you, too?”
“After I saw what you did to Shiva?” Keeran opened his eyes wide and shook his head. “I wouldn’t dare.”
That elicited a smile. At last. It sent a shock right through him, and it was all he could do not to stare. She was so beautiful; fierce, reckless, and perhaps a little violent… but absolutely fucking beautiful.
He stepped closer and her eyes darted round, as if just now realising she was alone with a complete stranger. Keeran knew how people saw him, knew that they picked up on the monster that lurked just beneath the surface, no matter how hard he tried to control it.
His eyes roved over her, trying to read what she was feeling.
Her pupils were so wide the green of her irises almost merged with the black ring of magic, and he could see her pulse beating hard at the base of her throat…
but was that fear? Or did she feel the same draw he did, the pull that made him loathe the distance between them, as though it would be the most natural thing in the world to take her in his arms and never let go.
Only one way to find out.
He tried to quieten the darkness he knew lived in his eyes, to soften them as best he could before taking another step closer, testing her.
Her breathing hitched, but she didn’t step away, her chin tilting to keep her eyes locked onto his.
“I saw you yesterday,” he said, his voice low. “In the crowd.”
“You did?” He didn’t miss the way she swallowed heavily, the way her eyes seemed unable to leave his.
His heart pounded as he took a gamble and raised a hand, running his fingers lightly over the bare skin of her arm, praying to the gods that she wouldn’t run, that he wasn’t misreading this.
Because just the brush of her soft skin against his fingertips had his blood racing, his mind a tumultuous mix of desire and trepidation.
He couldn’t scare her away, he must not frighten her.
“You know I did,” he said, letting his fingers glide higher up her arm. “You saw me nearly drop the pole when I spotted you.”
Her lips twitched, and some of the tension in his chest eased.
“I saw.”
His fingers stopped their gentle caress, grabbing her arm and pulling her so close her chest pressed into his.
Her gasp would have made him panic were it not for the way she pressed herself into him, the feel of her breasts against him sending his thoughts spinning.
He lowered his head so he was whispering in her ear, the scent of her skin hitting him in an intoxicating rush.
“I’ve spent every moment since wondering how to get you alone,” he admitted, pulling back just enough to read her expression, mere inches from his own. She didn’t hesitate.
“And now that you have, what do you plan to do with me?” Her words were cocky, as brash as everything else he’d heard her say, and yet there was the unmistakable trace of apprehension in her eyes.
So he moved slowly, a predator earning the trust of its prey.
He kept his grip on her arm, raising his other hand to trace the line of her jaw, tilting her head up until her mouth was level with his own, holding her steady as his eyes burned into hers.
Her lips called to him, his body alight with the need to crush into her, to taste and claim, but he held himself back, terrified of scaring her off.
Time seemed to slow as he lowered his lips closer to hers, every breath she took pressing into him as she arched backwards, lifting away from his fingers beneath her chin as she leant into him.
A scream pierced the forest, and their heads snapped towards it in perfect synchronicity. The music, faint as it was, collapsed into silence with a discordant clash of panicked notes.
Aelia didn’t even pause to look at him. Without warning, she was sprinting through the trees towards the village centre like a creature possessed.
He took off after her, arms pumping as he caught up. Gods, she was fast. In a matter of moments, they broke through the trees edging the clearing, just in time to see the dark silhouettes that emerged from the shadows step into the light.
They ringed the entire clearing, dark and sinister, too huge to be anything other than the strongest artemians. One broke free from the others, his face illuminated by the lanterns, and Keeran’s stomach plummeted like a stone.
Fuck.
Fuck fuck fuck.