Richard: Blood Brotherhood – Erotic Paranormal Dark Fantasy Romance (9 page)

“If you think so. So if you won’t invite me within your home, perhaps you can come out here on the pretty deck. There are some chairs here that we can rest upon. See them?” Lucia started to go out the door, to step over the threshold, when she realized that was as bad as inviting her in. The woman laughed again, actually threw back her head and did so. “You cannot stay in here forever, Lucia. When you come out, the army that you once ruled with a heavy hand will take you.”

“They belong to me.” The woman just smiled. “You know as well as I that, as the eldest living child of my father, the horde belongs to me. And that I rule them.”

“But you are not the eldest child, are you?” The woman smiled as she continued telling her what she thought she knew. “Have you begun to believe your own lies, Lucia? Are you so mired in your own version of what has happened that you can no longer tell the truth from fiction? You are no more the oldest child of Howard the Warrior than I am his child. And I am much too old to be the child of anyone that ever was. If you wish to believe such things, things that you have muddled in your head, then you do that. But know that eventually things will catch up to you, and it will be Ryiah who is there when it does.”

“Go away. I don’t want you here anymore. You’re…you’re messing me up.” Lucia looked behind the woman at the faeries there. Christ, there were more than she’d ever seen when she’d helped her father. “What trick is this? How do you make them seem so many?”

“Come out and talk to them, Lucia. I’m sure that they’d be able to give you a first-hand look at how many they really are. Perhaps you can order them to kill Ryiah.” Backing from the doorway, Lucia knew that she’d never set foot from this house. Not until she came up with a plan that would bring her sister to her. As soon as she slammed the door shut, cutting off the magic that the woman held her there with, Lucia dropped to the floor. Weakness brought the darkness, and she could no longer fight it.

~~~

Master felt the heat even before he got to the top of the mountain. The trees were scorched and there was no snow, which had been falling since he’d awakened on the ground surrounded by mooing cattle. Moving slowly, not wanting to see what ruin had become his home, he thought of his stones, all his lovely stones.

“I told you not to leave them all in one place.” He nodded at the sound of Ward’s voice. “Now you have nothing. They cannot stand the heat like other stones can. Even now, if you could get to them, they’d be useless to us.”

“I must have left the fire too high when I cleaned my place.” He felt the warmth of the hot stones and wanted to curl into it. He sat down, the wound in his chest making him feel lightheaded and weak again. That was when he saw the paper, held down by one of his stones. The pretty green one with a white stripe down the middle of it. Picking it up, almost afraid to see what was there, he saw the drawing of dragons as they sprayed fire at an opening of a mountain. “Ward, what does this mean?”

Master held the note still so that Ward would be able to see it. There were the two dragons with the fire, but there was a monster too, his head being held down by a great man. A man that looked a great deal like Rembrandt the last time he’d seen him.

“I think he is telling you that he has taken your stones and set fire to your home. See the bags there?” He looked again where the note had been and there they were, neatly folded with a large rock upon them. “Rembrandt also seems to be mimicking your picture, the one on your wall that you drew of him under your feet. You remember that, don’t you, Benton? You used several stones to draw it that day.”

“
No! This cannot be!”
Even as he took to the sky, the note still within his hand, he knew that what Ward was telling him was true. Going to the ground below him, landing near the line where he could not cross, he screamed for Rembrandt. Ordered all that were there with a smallish wolf in the yard with them to bring his enemy out to him. While he waited for Rembrandt, he looked at the picture once again.

“You want something, Benton?” Master roared at him that he was Master, not Benton. “You are only Benton to me. Never Master. And I see that you’ve found my note. It took us a while to figure out how to make you understand, since you’ve never learned your letters. But I guess you got it. Oh, and we have your agates. It was very good of you to have them ready for us to simply pick up and take. Saved us a great deal of time in gathering them from you.”

“You will return those to me posthaste, Rembrandt. Those are not yours to take from me.” When Rembrandt crossed his arms over his chest, Master saw stars he was so angry. “You will come to me now and let me kill you. You are nothing to me and I wish you to be dead. I have been very nice to you until now, and I think it is well past time that you are gone from my life. I will wait here for them, but that bitch of yours, she must bring me my stones and I will kill her quickly. You? I think not. I have a need for you to suffer greatly.”

“I’m not going to be killed by you, Benton. You have it all fucked up in your head should you think that. When the time comes, and it will be soon, I will take you down and piss upon your feet.” Someone leaned to him and whispered. Before Master could demand that he tell him what he said, Rembrandt said he was sorry. This was more like it. “What I meant to say was, I shall piss on your head. Since they look so much alike, I forgot the words.”

He felt his darkness spread over him like a blanket. He would almost welcome it to take him, but he feared that if it did, Rembrandt would not play fairly and harm him again. Instead of sliding into it, he fought it by standing up straighter, spreading out his wings behind him. He thought himself impressive until he looked at the creature standing just behind Rembrandt. It moved in a way that made him sick to his belly, to and fro, from side to side like it was a liquid person.

“I would like you to see our army.”

He didn’t heed what Rembrandt said. Master was too busy watching the thing change with sickening speed. First it was a man, then a monster. A long blade was next, with jewels at the handle and the point. Over and over it moved, changing as quickly as it formed. It was too much, yet he could no more pull his eyes from it as he could remove his broken and injured arm.

“What have you created, Rembrandt? I should like for you to hand it over to me. I will make good use of this sort of magic. It will help me in my quest to kill you.” Rembrandt laughed, and Master looked at him. “You will do as I say, Rembrandt. I think I have been more than generous with you. Especially after all that you have done to me for no reason.”

“Generous, you say? How so? When you killed my family? Burned my home down around them? Or when you set fire to my barn, killing defenseless animals while they screamed out their misery?” Master told him that was it exactly. “I see. But there are other things as well, aren’t there? Such as when you’ve attacked innocent people, had monsters take their lives when they did no more to you than I have done. Less actually. I offered you my hand in friendship. You shoved it back at me.”

“I’ve never wished for your friendship. What good would it have done me? How would it have gotten me anything that I wanted? Besides, you would have given it all away had I not taken it from you.” He watched the magic and then looked at Rembrandt. “You will do as you’re told. I no longer wish to play these games with you. For some reason you have it in your head that you are superior to me, and I will not listen to you anymore. Come now, it is time that you die. And if you bring me my stones,
my stones,
I will not harm the others with you but kill them quickly.”

A woman came to stand beside the second man. The look upon her face was hard and unforgiving, and he wondered how he could get her to kill Rembrandt. But before he could come to terms with her, she lifted her arm up and pointed at him. He thought for sure that she was giving him a signal, that she was telling him in some way that he was welcome, when the magic behind her suddenly moved at him.

It occurred to him in that moment what they were. Not magic at all, but bugs. They were the creatures from the building. As he backed from them, their number much larger than it had been at the building, he knew that they were set to hurt him. Why was it that everyone wanted to harm him when he’d done not a thing wrong? But for creatures so small, they were well armed and very practiced at doing it.

The blades in some of their hands cut deeply into the parts of his body where the scales had fallen off. The burning of it had him thinking that there was more to the tiny swords than just metal and leather. Even when he tried to swipe them away from his face and mouth, they moved as one to blind him. One of them, the one that had told him he was stupid, hit him in his eye, and he knew a kind of pain that told him he would never see from that socket again.

Falling back, grabbing anything that he could hold onto, which wasn’t much, he hit the dirt. Trees broke under his weight, barely missing stabbing through him. When he looked up, the sky blotted out for a moment as he saw the dragons as they came at him, their beauty nearly making him miss that they were sent to hurt him. Him? They would dare hurt him?

The creatures left him as the dragons came down upon him. Master thought that he was getting help, that Rembrandt had seen reason and was now helping him by having the monsters with flame burn them away. But the fire hit his bad arm and he knew it would never help him now, that flying might not ever be an option for getting away from such meanness. They were hurting him by blowing their heat at every part of his body. As he tried to back away, crawling like a crab would on the sand, his fear doubled when he saw Rembrandt and his bitch coming as well. Turning to his belly, holding his wound at his chest, Master ran. And when he was sure that he could take to the skies, he lifted himself up only to fall back to the earth. Master screamed in pain when he felt Rembrandt drive his blade into his back.

There was no reason for this, his mind screamed at him. Rembrandt should just let him kill him and this terrible nightmare would finally end. But over and over he was hurt, giving him such pain that he knew should he not get away that they’d surely kill him. And even though he could not fathom why they’d do that to him, Master knew he had to leave, and now.

Running again, trying to get away, all he could think about was that Rembrandt was not playing fairly. That the man was not right in the head to do these things to him. Not just harm him, but to drive a sword through him and end his life. Whatever had he done to have the man hate him so? Nothing. Nothing at all. When he lifted his big body up this time, he was able to get away, flying quick and hard until they were all left behind…or so he had thought, but they followed.

The big body of water seemed to call to him. Diving into it, the pain of it took his breath away, and he inhaled sharply. But the water instead of air filled his mouth and lungs, and he struggled to breath. His head was spinning and he felt weighted down. Grabbing onto rocks as they sped by him, all he could think about was breathing. When pain exploded in his head, he knew that he was dead and closed his eyes.

Chapter 8

They’d been searching for hours. The only thing that they’d been able to find was an arm, and that had been so badly decomposed that no one had wanted to touch it. It had been beaten against the rocks so much that it looked like a mass of raw meat. Putrid meat at that. Rick landed near the shoreline to the fast moving river and stood behind Ryiah, wrapping his arms around her.

“Hunter just heard from the queen of the faeries. She would like to meet with us at midnight.” He asked her why midnight. “I asked as well. She told me that it is the bewitching hour. And she also said that there is less going on that needs her attention at that time.”

“All right, we can do that. Have you any word on your sister?” She turned in his arms and held onto him as she put her head on his chest. “I’m sorry to have brought it up, love. I only meant to ask so that we could be prepared should she come here.”

“Hunter has a few of the people that now work with us watching the house that she is in. I guess she’s been shopping too.” Rick said nothing. He’d met women like that. A crisis would mean little to them if they could shop it away. “She has no magic. It’s been stripped away. Lucia is to stand before the Gathering soon as well.”

She nodded. “Have you ever been brought before them?”

“Yes. Many times, but not because of anything that I’d done. Lucia would call me there as her assistant on matters that she’d be in trouble for. She had me pretend to be her so many times over my lifetime that I would sometimes forget who I was. But she had me do it so when asked, she could tell them that she had paperwork showing that she was doing good. My honors and rewards would have her name on them. A faerie must return to the earth and its inhabitants more than they take. I don’t know that Lucia ever did her part.” He asked if it was a big deal. “Yes, very. They take their jobs very seriously. And her magic, while gone now, the things that she’s done could come back to her. The saying that you must give back ten times what you take is true. And if you do not, the penalty for not helping, the magic that you borrow, could take from you ten times ten times ten.”

Rick wasn’t sure how that worked out, not in terms of magic. He knew that they used a great deal of it here. And he knew that as magical as they all were, they did give back to the earth and land around them, such as planting flowers and trees. Hector told them that for each tree they planted, a great deal of nutrients were put back into the soil. Rick decided that perhaps they needed to do more. He looked at Skylar when she came to them.

“I cannot tell if he died or not. The earth is sort of confused. Even Vicki said that while they can’t find the body, they know where parts of him are. Kinda gross if you ask me. Finding that arm will give me nightmares for months.” They all laughed. Rick was pretty sure they’d seen worse shit than most did. “We’re going to go back to the compound and hope for the best. Remy and I were wondering if you two could show us a bit more of what is on our bodies. The things you’ve shown us already have been helpful.”

“I can do that.” Rick tightened his grip around Ryiah’s waist to let her feel his cock. “I have to have a meeting tonight with the queen. I was wondering if you could give me some time first. I need to gather homage for her.”

“Great.” As Skylar turned to walk away, she smiled as she looked at them again. “Also, I’m guessing that you want to fuck like bunnies in the woods. Sounds like a plan too. I might go and find nice quiet woods for Remy and I while there is little going on.”

When she was gone, Ryiah looked up at him with the most shocked look on her face. It was all he could do not to laugh at her, but he was a little afraid of her right now. She also looked like she could do some serious harm to someone.

“She is forever saying things to make me embarrassed. I believe that she does it to.... Well, I have no idea why she does such things. She is…she is a wonderment to me.” He kissed her on the nose. “You do that a great deal. I think you think it distracts me from what I’m thinking.”

“Or it could be that I want you to think of me and not whatever it is that’s going on in your pretty little head.” She told him she was forever thinking of him. “And I you. I would never have thought it was possible, but I love you so very much.”

“I love you as well. I never thought to have a mate. Never. Lucia worked so hard at keeping me safe. Or her version of being safe. I don’t really think it was that she was keeping me safe as much as she was trying to keep me from knowing the truth. I was more like under her thumb. Hunter told me that so long as I didn’t have my mate that I’d never come into my own magic. Do you suppose that’s why she wanted me dead?” He said he was sure that was it. “I think there is more to this. I mean, what did I ever do to her other than be older? And not by much, only an hour. And you know, had she only asked me, I would have gladly given her all that I had.”

“Had you done that she would only have wanted more.” He picked her up in his arms. “Now, there was a matter of homage. I would very much like to take you to the woods and pay homage to your body. Tasting it first, then showing you just how good having you wrapped around me feels. What say you?”

“I say that sounds like an amazing idea.” As he thought of flying, he took to the skies. He’d not been able to fly before, just move quickly between space and time, but he could see the added advantages of having wings. It was wonderful to be able to see down into areas before taking a mate there to have some fun.

He was kissing her as he landed. Making short work of her clothing and his, he pressed her against the tree that they were near and lifted her up so that she was at his cock. He wasn’t ready to take her as yet, but the feeling of her heat touching him so intimately was nearly as good as being inside of her. He set her down on the ground and was startled when she jerked him around so that his back was to the tree and not hers.

“I want to take you into my mouth and feel you coming this way.” He nodded, his cock hurting now at the mere thought of her suggestion. “Then when I’ve had enough of you, which might be a long while, I would like for you to eat me. I think I could come like that all day.”

“I have a better idea.” She pouted and he laughed. “You can still take me into your mouth, but I’ll lay down and you can lay across me.” She told him she didn’t understand.

Lying on the ground was a little chilly, but the ground warmed almost as soon as he thought of it. When he told her how to lay over him, her pussy at his mouth, her mouth at his cock, she nearly unmanned him in her haste to get into positon. He started to explain what they were going to do, but he nearly came when she took him deep into her mouth and wrapped her hand around what wouldn’t fit.

“Christ.” This might have been a bad idea, he thought suddenly. She was going to kill him and he’d never get to taste paradise. When she rolled her hips over his face, he suckled her clit into his mouth and was rewarded with a flood of her cream, and cupped her ass to bring her closer. Okay, he thought again, this might be the best way to die, with this woman sucking his cock like a professional and a pussy to feed from.

~~~

His cock was thick with his need, and he was hard in her hand, yet soft at the tip. The different textures of his body, the hardness of his muscles, the buttery feeling of his skin. He was like a walking art exhibit to her. Her very own sculpture that loved her very much.

The tip of his cock fascinated her. The small eye could bring her so much pleasure when it released its hot juices on her. The way that it curved just right inside of her, making parts of her scream for more. Cupping his balls, she realized how hot they were, full as well. Taking one of them into her mouth for just a taste, she was nearly bucked off when he cried out. She smiled, knowing that someday she’d do this again and hope to make him come.

Riding his mouth and his talented tongue, all she could think about was how his cock filled her the same way. Much more fully, of course, but his mouth could do so much more. When he suckled her clit into his mouth and bit down, Ryiah came hard and fast, pressing her pussy over his mouth harder so that he’d not stop what he was doing. And when he slid his fingers along the seam of her bottom, her body tensed up, waiting for what things he’d do to her now.

I’d like to take you here sometime. Slide my cock into your tightness. Fuck your pussy with my fingers as you come for me.
To have you bent in front of me, your pretty ass tight with need. I’d have to spank you then. Put a print of my hand on your tight ass until you scream out your release.
She rode him faster, pressing her pussy faster and faster to his mouth.
Come for me, Ryiah. I want to drink from you this way.

Her body responded to his command as if he owned her. In a way she supposed that he did. And when she suddenly found herself on her back, she only had a moment to wonder what he was about before he turned her again and brought her ass up to his body. The moment his cock touched her tight hole, she was afraid.

“Don’t, baby. It will only hurt for a moment.” He slammed forward, the pain of it making her sick to her stomach. When he leaned over her, speaking softly in her ear, she felt her body begin to stretch for him and she listened to him. “I’m sorry. I should have…I shouldn’t have hurt you. I’m so terribly sorry.”

Moving to take some of the pressure off her knees, Ryiah moaned when his cock moved inside of her. He begged her to stop moving, but her body had other ideas. Lifting her hips up just a little, feeling him shift inside of her, the pleasure outdid the pain of the first invasion and she begged him to finish her.

His hand came down on her ass almost as soon as he sat up and pulled her hips back. The pain pleasure of the slap made her pussy ache and her ass burn more. The second time his hand came down on her, she did come, a short punch to her system that had her needing more. As he fucked her this way, his cock filling her ass as he never did her pussy, Ryiah slid her fingers down to her clit and pinched it as he’d done.

“Christ, yes. When you come, I can feel it all the way to my fucking feet.” He slammed forward again, pushing her head to the dirt more. “Again. Come for me now.”

She did, sliding her fingers in and out of her pussy as quickly as he was his cock at her ass. Every time she came, too many to count now, she would feel his hand come down harder and harder. And when he leaned over her, his mouth at her shoulder, she knew that he was ready to come, to fill her, and she was excited. As soon as he sank his teeth into her flesh, Ryiah screamed out her release, the pressure of it just too much to hold inside of her.

When she woke, not even realizing that she’d been out, she was in their room and she was alone. Not that she wasn’t used to being alone, but it was somewhat disappointing to wake that way after having such a lovely time in the woods. When the gentle touch of his call to her entered her mind, she stretched out and waited for him to speak to her.

How are you?
She told him she would have been better to have had him there.
So greedy. But I’m helping Remy and the others with their marks. I guess because we’re bonded I have the same abilities as you in being able to make them out.

Yes. You will have all that I am. And your abilities, they will be shared with me as well. You’re very young compared to me. Were you aware of that?
He told her that he’d figured that she was older, but was not positive
. I have been around thousands of years. More than three times as long as Remy. Not as long as Kate—I think she has been around since the beginning of time—but nearly so.

She’s the Keeper of Records.
She knew that as well but said nothing.
Okay, the reason that I have disturbed your beauty rest, something you do not need by the way, is that I have found a marking on Remy that I don’t understand. I’m not sure if you will either, but it’s all wrong.

I’ll come to you now.

Ryiah was dressed when going to the door, and found Hunter and five other faeries there. When she came forward, she could tell that something had gone wrong. Asking her what had happened, Ryiah watched closely when Hunter only shook her head as she flew to her shoulder and landed there. The others came with them, but at a distance this time. “What is it you’re not telling me?”

“There is trouble brewing. We can handle it, my lady, but I don’t want you to be alarmed.” Ryiah asked her to just tell her. “Your sister, my lady. She is causing some issues with the Gathering. She is telling them falsehoods about you.”

“I think we talked about this before.” Hunter said that they had. “And you know what we must do. I know that you don’t agree with me, but it is the only way to keep peace. And there is enough going on without more strife in our ranks. Ask for volunteers to go and help her out. There will be no magic for her, but she will have some help. Perhaps that will calm her a bit and she can think clearly, and maybe she’ll tire of this and move on.”

“You believe that no more than I do. Lucia will forever want more and take what she does not get. I don’t think she will go away without a fight. You know this too.” Ryiah said that she did. “I’m sorry, my lady. I know that you are happy, and we are all very glad that you are. But Lucia will need to be dealt with soon. And this will only make her angrier.”

“I know. Then I don’t know what to do. Tell me, Hunter. Tell me how to make it so that I can go on being happy and have her out of my life.” Hunter said that she would think on it, but thought that Lucia needed to be told that she was alone in this war. “All right. But you don’t go. I think if she were to have you anywhere near her, she’d try and kill you. And while you’re a faerie as I am, you know as well as I do that she can harm you enough that you cannot survive. And that would kill my heart.”