The Tempting Touch Of Fire (Elemental Awakening, Book 1) (24 page)

It was unbelievable. It was mind-blowingly good. It was... everything I thought Theo would be.

I felt his body tighten, he grew larger inside me and then as he let out an erotic sounding roar on his release, I followed. I hadn't expected to come again, but Theo was simply too sexy, too virile, to ignore. The orgasm rocked through me and I cried out his name as I came. Shuddering beneath his body as he lay himself down my back, hot skin to hot skin. He kept murmuring words in Greek, which I had no hope of understanding. His lips interspersing each muttered sound with a kiss along the back of my neck.

I felt so sated, so relaxed and yet so very, very alive. I could do this forever and never tire of it. I would crave this for the rest of my life.

"Sweet little
Gi
," Theo murmured, English finally finding its way into his vocabulary. "You
are
a dream; a delicious, addictive dream." He kissed my neck softly, trailed his lips around to the side and rested his head on my shoulder. I think he was exhausted. I think I'd worn him out.

A smile graced my lips as one of his arms wrapped around my stomach and held me tight. Then slowly, as though reluctant to do so, he pulled back, slipping out of me and sending an additional shiver through my body. He turned me in his arms and ducked his head down to look me in the eye. The gold had receded, but the hazel was still more gem-like than normal, a shine that did not exist in humans' eyes, but looked perfect on this man.

"So," he said, a cocky look touching the corners of his lips. "Do you like stretching yourself, Cassandra?"

I huffed out a breath, but there was no way I was up to playing games with this man. He'd just reached down into the very heart of me and seen everything there was to see. I lifted shy eyes to his and smiled. I couldn't deny what he already knew. I couldn't deny it even to myself.

"Yes," I whispered and watched as his lips parted slightly to suck in a deep breath, and as his eyes closed for a brief moment, savouring my answer.

"The things I could show you, Casey," he murmured, eyelids slowly lifting to hold me in a heated gaze.

It was a simple statement, one that should have excited me with the promise it held. But there was a note of sadness to his tone. As though he only wished for it, but couldn't believe it would actually happen. Oh, I was sure he wanted to show me all those delicious things, but he knew, like I knew, that our time was not our own.

When had we both started to doubt this could last? When had we begun to give up?

The elation of moments before was replaced with a fearful sorrow. He caught the shifting emotions on my face and reached forward to cup my cheeks with both hands.

"Nothing is set in stone," he whispered, lowering his lips to rest on my forehead. "Dreams can come true."

But if he thought that, if he truly believed we could go against all the opposition to me being here, against his centuries of defending
Pyrkagia,
against those who mean me harm, then he would have proven it. Nothing would have stopped him from claiming me again.

I wasn't sure, I certainly had a lot more to learn about
Ekmetalleftis
, but something told me that if you held your
Thisavros
in your arms and feared you'd lose her, you'd mark her again and again. Cling to that claiming, show the world she is yours. I couldn't see an
Athanatos
not doing that, if they felt their claim was being threatened at all.

And yet Theo hadn't bitten me again.

The need to reach up and touch his fading mark on my neck was atrocious in its desire. But I fought it, just as I fought my tears.

Theo left me to dress in my room. He'd attempted to lighten the mood with little teases and his now familiar touch, but although I'd tried my best to hide my unease at what lay ahead, I was sure he'd sensed it. That didn't stop him from kissing me mindless before he left the room.

In a perfect world, Theo Peters would be perfect. But my world was far from being as good as it could possibly be. There were still too many unanswered questions. Still too many people wanting me either gone from Auckland or just wanting me. Who were the trees whispering about? Who meant me harm? The
Pyrkagia Rigas
? The
Gi
?
Or the Alchemists?

And underlying all the uncertainty was the one question that meant
everything
. Why had I become what I am now? Why?

I sat down on the bed once I'd donned my borrowed clothes and stared numbly at the floor. Aktor had been in the room while we showered and taken my dress. No doubt to wash it for me. It was a lovely gesture, but it also meant he'd been aware I was showering in Theo's bathroom and not the attached ensuite. Strangely, I didn't have it in me to react to that revealing thought.

Fear encased my heart and sent icy tendrils throughout my body. But there were no answers to quell the angst. Only more questions to fuel that dread. And to top it all off, the palms outside were restless. Their whispered words of warning making no sense at all. I couldn't even depict a language anymore, just nonsensical sounds that left me feeling raw with apprehension and alarm. I wrapped my arms around my body and stood up from the bed, heading out to the main part of the house.

Aktor had the fire roaring and Theo stood resting an arm along the top of the hearth. Despite the feeling of impending separation, I immediately crossed the space and tucked myself into the front of his body, making him wrap his arms around my frame so we could both stare at the flames. I heard him chuckle behind me, clearly amused at my sudden boldness. But if time was running out, I sure as hell was going to take every opportunity I could to touch the man, to be in his embrace.

"You smell of vanilla and raspberry," Theo murmured in my ear.

"So do you," I whispered back.

"We make a fine pair," he murmured, making my heart flip over painfully and my eyes sting with wretched tears. He couldn't see them and the fire soon burned them away, but I wondered if he knew they had been there anyway. Theo seemed to be able to see right through me, to the deepest parts of my heart and soul.

"Ah, Cassandra," Aktor announced. "You look refreshed."

I smiled at the old butler and watched as he brought a tray of dishes into the room. He set them down on the table, which was just off to the side of the fireplace where Theo and I stood. The scent of roast pork, tomatoes and tzatziki reached my nose. Aktor returned to the kitchen and then reappeared with a plate of toasted pita bread.

"Gyros," he announced. "One of Theodoros' favourites."

"Don't tell me you cooked this especially for me, Aktor," Theo announced, pulling me closer to the table. "You just want to see if Cassandra likes the same foods." He leaned down and nuzzled my ear to whisper, "He's such a matchmaker."

I huffed out a laugh and took the offered chair he pulled out for me to sit in.

"I'm sure it's lovely," I said, looking at Aktor, who was giving Theo a dark look.

"Now she'll never give an honest response," Aktor muttered, serving up the Gyros and offering me a pita from the plate.

I couldn't help smiling at their little dispute. I could imagine they continually teased each other, probably had done for centuries, both men so relaxed in each other's company. A part of me wondered what it was like, to be alive for so long. Aktor had hinted at the weight of so many memories. But this affable atmosphere hinted to something else as well. Something precious, yet familiar. They were family, these two, and even the stretch of millennia did little to hinder that.

I wanted to ask, but I wasn't sure I was ready to accept the eternity, or near eternity, of an immortal life. Asking seemed like that line in the sand again. If I did it, I crossed it, and there was no going back. I realised I wasn't ready to place myself in that category yet. Maybe once I had some answers to the bigger questions, the immediate questions, then I could work on admitting I was one of them.

Instead I said, around a mouthful, "Mmmm, delicious."

Aktor huffed, clearly not believing me, and Theo just outright laughed. It didn't take long for me to join him, despite my efforts to insist the meal was lovely. In the end we were all laughing, enjoying our food, sipping good wine and just forgetting, for a moment, that we were fugitives.

When Aktor served up a Baklava for dessert and we retired to the fireplace with after dinner drinks, the mood shifted. The brief reprieve was over. We had serious things to discuss.

"Have you decided your next move?" Aktor asked, sipping a clear anise-flavoured drink. I was sticking with my wine.

Theo's eyes shifted from the fire to my face, he just gazed at me for a moment, making my cheeks heat in a different manner than the flames had been doing.

"My first instinct is to try diplomacy again, but in my heart I know it would fail," Theo finally admitted.

"We can get you both out of the country," Aktor suggested. "It wouldn't be easy, but not impossible either."

I let a disgruntled breath of air out. This was exactly what I had wanted to avoid, being bullied out of my home, my life. What would I tell Sonya? My family? Could I even tell them anything, or would that put them all at risk? Sonya must have been wondering where I was, I hadn't been in touch since asking her to run the shop for a few days. My family could go a week without contact, busy with their own lives. But Sonya was different. She was my best friend, my colleague. She knew I had been trying to work out what had happened to me, but she didn't know the latest. I wanted to phone her, I desperately wanted to hear her voice, to know she existed and confirm that she had been my friend for ten years. Even if I denied the accusations, I still needed to prove my side of the story - to myself.

But part of me was too scared to pull her further into this. The less she knew the better. And if I disappeared, Sonya would still be cared for. The building was on a lease, and there was money owing on the business, but I'd made sure that Sonya's name was on everything as well. She'd be OK, she'd still have a job and she'd get on with her life. Even if she cried a tear or two for me in the process, Sonya was a survivor. More so than I had ever been.

The conversation went around and around in circles, we ended up in the lounge, sitting on more comfortable chairs. And at some point, I drifted off to sleep, my head resting on Theo's chest.

I'm surprised he didn't shift me to the bedroom, but I woke some time later, my head in his lap, my body covered in a blanket and the television on, volume down low. I blinked a couple of times to bring the screen into focus and sucked in a breath of air at what I saw.

"You're awake," Theo said in a flat voice. "I wanted you to get some rest before you faced this."

I sat upright and shifted to look at the TV. Aktor was sitting in an armchair, the bottle of Ouzo empty at his side, a glass still hanging between his legs in his hands as he leaned forward to catch the announcer's words.

"Turn it up," I whispered and Theo reached over and hit the button on the remote to bring the volume up.

The announcer was halfway through a news report,
Breaking News
, scrolling across the bottom of the screen.

"The fires seem random, but evidence suggests they are the work of arson. The Fire Service is at a loss to explain how they have started, but in some situations there were witnesses who have suggested the flames erupted from out of nowhere."

"Oh no," I whispered, my fingers pressing into my lips, one arm wrapped around my middle.

"Pyrkagia,"
Theo said evenly. "Fighting for their lives."

Oh no.

"The largest concentration has been in the Eastern suburbs near Howick,"
the announcer calmly explained.
Pyrgos
, it had to be the
Rigas'
home. My head turned so I could look at Theo, his face was set, jaw firm, lips in a thin tight line.

"Not only have fires been reported, but minor earthquakes have been felt throughout the city, making several large trees on Mountain Road in Epsom, collapse in on themselves."

I stood up from my seat and clenched my fists. My trees. Theo's forest on his property. The ones who have my blood. I felt sick to my stomach. The
Pyrkagia
were fighting the
Gi
. There was no other explanation for it. Fire against Earth. Because of me.

"What do we do?" I whispered and felt Theo smoothly glide to his feet at my back. He didn't reach for me, he didn't offer to hold me. No soft touch to soothe my ragged nerves.

"I'm heading back in to see what I can do to help. You'll remain here with Aktor." Aktor looked pained at that suggestion, no doubt wanting to be there to defend
Pyrkagia
as much as Theo did, but he didn't offer up an alternate plan.

"But I can help," I argued and received a chilling stare in return.

"You will be safer here," Theo said, already walking toward the front door.

"Theo," I said, taking a step after him and inordinately relieved when he stopped at the sound of my voice. "This is because of me, I need to help."

His eyes scanned my face for several seconds, but there was no softening in his.

"We don't know how many there are, Cassandra. If it is the full
Gi
scout regiment or even more. If I take you with me and they get you, then what point is the sacrifice my people have made?"

"But that's..."

"No! You will stay here, I will find out what we are up against. Await my call." The last was said to Aktor, effectively dismissing me even before he'd left the room.

I watched stunned and I believe, infuriated, as he walked out the door.

The news presenter kept on speaking in the background about the fact that luckily no lives had been reported lost, but that even as he speaks more and more fires were erupting and a rumble could be heard through the earth.

"Aktor," I said, but he shook his head, returning his now empty glass to the table.

"He has given me an order, Miss Eden," the old man said. I was beginning to understand when he used my surname and not called me Cassandra. That realisation was not well received.

"Well, I'm still going to talk to the Earth," I said through gritted teeth and headed to the door.

"Do you think that is wise?" Aktor replied, making me turn around to look at him. He was standing, several feet closer, as though he was getting ready to launch himself at me to keep me inside.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"If the
Gi
are controlling the Earth here in Auckland, then communing with your
Stoicheio
could give your whereabouts away."

Oh freaking hell. He had a point. My shoulders slumped and I started to breathe too quickly, feeling trapped and helpless and full of guilt.

"Perhaps a fresh bottle," Aktor said softly, walking across the room to the a drinks trolley in the corner. He picked up another full bottle of Ouzo and a clean glass and returned to the lounge, pouring the liquid as he walked. Then holding it out to me.

"I'm not sure I like aniseed," I admitted.

"This will change your mind," the old man promised.

I took the offered glass and sat back on the couch feeling a little defeated. The first sip was jarring, but the heat that rolled down my throat and made me feel anything but numb, was welcomed. So I took another. And by the time I'd had half a dozen sips I found Aktor was indeed correct. Ouzo, and aniseed, rocked.

The TV report became more and more alarming. Lives were now being rumoured as lost. Aktor looked devastated at the news, downing a full glass in one shot when a particular location was mentioned where unidentifiable bodies were allegedly found.

"If they're
Athanatos
then they won't be dead," I pointed out.

"If they are fighting another branch of
Ekmetalleftis
then their heads will undoubtedly be lost." He turned his saddened eyes to mine. "You learn to use a killing blow from an early age, because your opponent will do the same. Aim for the neck, Cassandra. Sever the head before they sever yours. Do you understand?"

I nodded. What else could I do?

We sat in silence as fires burned out of control and trees toppled over and crushed houses and cars and anything else that happened to be in their way. And just when I couldn't take it any longer and I was about to risk everything to talk to the Earth, there was a loud banging on the door. I jumped up, but not as quickly as Aktor, who was already sparking the odd flame from his fingertips.

"Theo wouldn't knock," I whispered and Aktor shook his head, showing his agreement.