Chapter Ten
Lord Fionn
I didn’t sleep well that night, after hearing Braden’s story.
If I’d had any doubt before that he had some demon blood inside him, I had none now.
I knew it wasn’t much—he was far too good or perhaps his Fae half had protected him in some way from the full force of whatever was in his bloodline.
We had a natural resistance to demonic possession.
But there was something there, something hidden deep inside him that he must have inherited from his mother’s side of the family.
Braden told me how the demon had appeared to him on the riverbank that evening, trying to persuade him to come into the water with him. He told me that he suddenly realized he wasn’t one of my men and had yelled at him, demanding that he leave and go back to hell.
When I asked him what exactly he said, he got a confused look on his face and said he didn’t quite remember.
But at the second or third retelling of the story, his eyes glazed over and he looked vacant for a few moments.
It was a few fractions of a minute, but then he told me what he said to the demon, and some of it was in Latin.
The problem was that Braden didn’t speak any Latin, as far as I knew.
His education had not been exactly extensive, and he had rarely gone to church, where he might have heard it.
So where had that come from? And the other language he’d used, like “infernal adversary,” “satanic power” and “unclean spirit.” He’d never spoken like that. And since when did Braden “rebuke” demons? He was certainly no priest or exorcist to have power over them.
I thought I knew what kind of demon it had been— Braden had called it a kind of water spirit or said it was pretending to be one, but I thought it might be a shapeshifter.
I thought perhaps it was a nixie, to employ the term used to the south of us, in the mortal kingdom known as East Francia.
They typically inhabited freshwater lakes or rivers, and one of them could take various shapes, either male or female and pull his victims to the bottom to drown them.
I greatly feared that had been the fate of my three missing soldiers.
“I’ll have guards watching all night, and working in pairs, in case the demon comes back. I think you pretty effectively routed him, though, and sent him back to hell.”
He shuddered, and I took him in my arms to draw him inside the tent and soothe him to sleep.
When we got inside, I picked him up and put him on his back on the blankets we had spread on the ground, and then I attacked my own clothes as he began to wiggle out of his.
I needed him like I needed to breathe, and that burning need swept over me like wildfire.
I managed to kick off my underclothing by the time he was ready for me, laid out like an offering, his beautiful cock standing up proudly, his face still a mess of tears.
I fell on top of him, and his legs wrapped around me right away, his thighs squeezing my hips.
His cock, like the rest of him, was always perfection, and by this time, I knew it almost as well as I knew my own.
It was long and hard for me and a ruddy shade of pink, standing up proudly from the white-blond curls.
Taking both of our cocks in one hand, I fisted them together, starting an urgent stroking.
He arched up into me, pressing his forehead to my chest. “Fionn!” he cried, shamelessly thrusting his hips upward, and seeming not to care if anyone heard his cries.
And there was no reason for him to. What the king and his consort did inside their tent was nobody’s business but their own.
When I picked up the pace even more and added a little twist to the downward stroke of my hand, he sank his teeth in me, and bit down hard on my shoulder.
I took his mouth again and again, crushing it under mine, and he made a sound so sweet it made me groan even louder.
It was a kind of plea, half-moan, half-whimper, his cock hard and leaking, so I rubbed my thumb over the head, sliding the tip of it inside his slit.
He suddenly came harder than he ever had with me so far, and I lowered my mouth to his and kissed him long and deep.
His slim hips jerked and thrust, and his climax went on and on, like it would never stop.
He yelled out his pleasure in a voice that was hoarse and exultant.
“Are you all right?” I asked him after a few moments, and he nodded, burying his hot face in the hollow between my shoulder and neck.
I dropped my mouth to taste him again and worked my way down his chest, nibbling as I went.
He groaned and pushed up into my hand. Even for a magical being, that may have been a bit optimistic.
“So beautiful,” I murmured and rolled him over to lie on his stomach, far from being done with him yet.
I used my knee to spread his legs wide then settled myself inside his spread thighs.
He writhed beneath me and tried to arch up to get closer to me.
I held him down easily and told him he was mine, and all that he was, every part of him, belonged to me now and to me alone.
He nodded his head throughout my litany and made mewling promises as I stroked his ass and fondled him.
The possessiveness I thought Braden might not like outside of sex now seemed to drive him wild, and he rubbed his ass against my hand, begging me for more, hissing with pleasure as I stroked along his cleft.
I eased a finger into him and then another.
He whined and bucked up against me even harder, his head turning to blindly seek my mouth and whimpering when he couldn’t reach it.
I found a place inside him he loved and gave it a good massage and watched him come apart.
He managed to come so hard a second time that it soaked the blankets beneath him, and I milked him through his release until he groaned and seemed near collapse.
It was how I wanted him, too exhausted to think about what had happened that evening.
To be so tired he couldn’t do anything but sleep.
He’d been through a traumatic experience and he needed to rest. When I finally released him, he sagged bonelessly, but I was far from being through with him.
I coated my cock with a small bottle of oil I’d brought along in my pack.
I dribbled it over him, rubbed it in and then drove my cock into him in one, hard thrust. He arched his entire body and shouted, tremors vibrating all through him.
I waited a moment for him to get used to me deep inside him, and then I rolled my hips and thrust into him fast and hard, again and again.
He screamed again, and this time there was little doubt that he alerted the whole camp as to what I was doing to him.
But none of my soldiers would dare interfere.
I drove into him again and again, moving one hand to his flagging erection and stroking him relentlessly until his cock began to sluggishly refill.
Getting fully erect again after two orgasms proved to be too much for him after the night he’d had.
Still, I enjoyed trying to make him. He matched the thrust of my hand to that of his hips, and when I climaxed a few minutes later, it was no less spectacular than Braden’s orgasm had been.
The feelings I had for him washed over me, filling me with pleasure and deep satisfaction, but I still didn’t want to look at them too closely.
Neither of us had a good representation of any kind of love in our lives, especially the lasting kind, and it was too soon to speak of any of that anyway.
In reality, I barely knew the boy, though I admit I was growing attached.
It was hard to think of leaving him there to rest alone, with only the guards to keep him safe.
Then again, though his skills with a sword were lacking, I began to believe he was not without protection of another sort.
When I’d recovered a bit, I slipped reluctantly from the tent and stood outside, surveying the camp. Satisfied that all was quiet, I went down to the river to wash and see if there was any sign of the demon. I wished he’d show himself. I had a score I needed to settle.
****
Early the next morning, the body of one of my missing men was recovered, though the other two were not.
I sent the body back to my kingdom under guard to receive proper burial and decided to keep moving on to Gorias.
The other bodies would have surfaced by now if they were going to.
They had either washed farther downriver or had been taken to hell by the demon.
We were, by this time, only a few hours away from the Gorian border.
We needed to get there as soon as possible, considering the message I’d received from the king’s council, saying that things in Gorias were still “unsettled” since Callum’s death.
I could well imagine they were, and I was glad I’d brought a full troop of cavalry with me, or roughly a hundred soldiers.
Relations between Gorias and Murias had been good in the last few decades, and I didn’t anticipate any trouble, but it was better to be ready, just in case.
I kept Braden riding next to me, probably out of an abundance of caution; however, considering the things Branwyn had told me about his fighting skills or the lack thereof, I felt better having him near me.
We rode across the border by mid-afternoon, and shortly thereafter, we were coming through the capital city gates.
Their capital city, where the king had resided, was called Goriana, and it was typical of the larger Sidhe cities.
All roads led eventually to the king’s palace, sitting on a rise overlooking the city.
It was a fairly typical palace, with white walls, turrets and battlements.
The red and white Gorian flag hung at half-mast, signaling the death of the king.
As we passed through the streets on the way to the castle, they began to fill up to an almost alarming degree, as everyone apparently knew who we were and why we were there.
No one cheered us as we rode in, but then the Sidhe are a dignified, reserved group of people.
They didn’t look angry either, which I took as a good sign.
They mainly seemed curious about us and especially about Braden, who looked radiant as always, his platinum-colored hair shining in the sun.
He was making eye contact with them, smiling occasionally if someone called out a greeting to him and waving back at the children who waved to him first.
We rode directly to the castle on the hill, winding up a steep road of about a half mile, affording a nice view of the city below and the surrounding countryside.
When we got to the gate, Braden and I, along with my captain, Darragh and about three of his lieutenants approached first, having left the other soldiers I’d brought with me at the foot of the hill with orders to remain vigilant but to rest and let their horses do the same.
I wouldn’t have allowed that many armed soldiers inside my gates and figured that it would make the council nervous too.
They might even deny them entrance, which would start us out on bad terms.
Because our remaining party was so small, the six of us were allowed to pass through the gates right away and rode up to the front doors where several distinguished-looking gentlemen had gathered to meet us.
We dismounted and walked up the steps to greet them. As I was coming to expect these days, they mostly had eyes for Braden, though they cast nervous glances at me as well, being careful not to stare. A man who must have been the chief councilor bowed low to both of us.
“Your Grace, thank you for coming on such short notice.”
“Not at all. We were most grieved to hear about King Callum. My consort had hoped to have a chance to visit him.”
“Our deepest condolences, sir, and of course to you as well, Your Grace. It was a terrible tragedy. I am Counselor Oisín. Please, come with me to our council hall. We have other council members and a few special guests waiting to greet you.”
I took Braden’s arm and we followed the council members inside, accompanied by Darragh and his lieutenants.
The members led us through the corridor of the castle into a large meeting room where a group of perhaps fifteen or more nobles rose to their feet at our entrance.
Oisín rattled off a succession of their names, which I didn’t pay much attention to—I had Darragh for that.
And apparently, I had Braden now too, as he was paying avid attention to each man, accepting their bows with one of his own and giving them the benefit of his beautiful smile and a cordial greeting.
They looked at his face and his body and glanced down at my ring on his finger, and I could see that whatever doubts they might have had already fled. He left them all looking a bit dazed.
Councilor Oisín showed us to seats at the head of the long table once the niceties had been taken care of. Darragh and my other officers stood behind our chairs, and the initial “meeting” began.