Dark and Deadly: Eight Bad Boys of Paranormal Romance (127 page)

The medic continued to work on Zephyr, holding one hand to the chest wound and the other to his severely burned hip. She could see that he was healing quickly. But the fae part of her told her that without her blood he’d die.

As instructed, Alesia stroked Zephyr’s throat and coaxed him. “Drink, Zeph, please. Take what you need from me. Let me heal you.”

He was so pale, so close to death, that she could hardly bear it. Tears streamed down her cheeks.

Gerrod spoke quietly from behind her. “You’re doing fine, just be patient. Once he catches your blood-rose flavor, well, you’ll see. His body will take over and he’ll do what needs to be done.”

Though most of the blood that seeped from her wrist fell into the dirt, enough pooled in Zephyr’s mouth that his entire body jerked suddenly. He brought his hands forward and grabbed her forearm, pulling her wrist tightly to his mouth. Though his eyes remained shut, he began to feed.

Alesia barely held back the sob that caught in her throat. Gerrod patted her shoulder and told her she’d done well. He then ordered three of his Guardsmen to stay with her until Zephyr was fully healed and could return to his house.

But before Gerrod left, he caught Alesia’s gaze. “He’s one of our finest, you know. And he’s saved my life more than once. You would do well to complete the bond with him.”

Alesia nodded. “You’re right. You’re absolutely right.”

With that, Gerrod wished her well and took to the skies. Alesia continued to feed Zephyr until at last the wound in his chest closed up and his eyes opened.

“Thank the Goddess, you’re alive,” he whispered, drawing back from her.

That those were the first words he said to her, not caring about his own condition, would forever fix in her mind just how much he cared about her, how much he loved her.

An hour later and fully healed, Zephyr held Alesia’s hands in his. He stood in front of the bedroom fireplace where they’d been arguing earlier. Only this time Alesia had just told him she’d come to a decision.

Zephyr had never been in this place before. He was nerved up as hell and all because Alesia had said she’d bond with him, a blood rose bond, and that she wanted a permanent relationship with him.

At that same time, joy moved through his chest like a strong wind so that he smiled way too much, enough to feel like an idiot.

“Are you sure?” he asked. “I know I pressured you earlier tonight, but I don’t want you doing this unless it’s exactly what you want your life to be.”

Alesia’s green eyes glowed with new determination. “I’m sure, Zeph. More than sure. I’m astounded by how much I want to. I also have this terrible fear that if I don’t, I’ll lose you forever and I couldn’t bear that.”

“How would you lose me forever?”

“I don’t know. It’s not rational. But after all that happened near the tunnel exit, I saw you in a light I’d never seen before and I realized that more than anything I wanted to bond with you.”

He shook his head slightly as he thought about the battle with the wraith-pair. “You saved my life when you fired at your own mother.”

“And you deflected the shot just enough to save her. She would have died otherwise, but I still don’t know how you did it.”

“Lots and lots of practice in the field.”

She released his hands and slid her arms around his waist, hugging him tight. “Don’t remind me.”

He embraced her fully, caressing her, savoring this moment in time when they’d truly come together with one mind. “I want to do things differently, Alesia, and I’m wondering if you’d be interested in joining with me.”

She pulled back, her brows raised. “What do you mean?”

He chuckled. “I guess I didn’t make myself clear. I want you in the field. I want you to join me in the field, at night, when I battle wraith-pairs.”

“You want me to become a warrior? Battle like you?”

“Not exactly.”

“You’re not making sense. For one thing, I’m not warrior material.”

“Actually, yes you are. You just don’t know it.”

He could see that she meant to argue, but he lifted a hand and said, “Hear me out.”

“Okay.” But she looked extremely doubtful.

“You’re fearless, you fight when you need to, you don’t hesitate once you make the decision, and you have a lot of power. I’ve trained dozens of recruits in my day and you’ve got what it takes.”

“Maybe you’ve misunderstood, but I have no intention of going out and killing wraith-pairs.”

And here was the biggest change for him. “And I’m not talking about killing them. I’m talking about doing the very thing you’ve been pushing me to do since I first met you.”

“You mean capture-and-rescue followed by rehab?” Lips parted, she looked stunned as she stared back at him with unblinking eyes.

“I mean exactly that. The vision I have is that we’d work in tandem, as a team, but we’d be selective about which wraith-pairs to try to bring in.”

Alesia’s eyes went wide. “But how would we do that in the field?”

“With great care and I think I’d want to talk this over with Ethan, the Mastyr of Bergisson Realm. His blood rose, Samantha, has the power to separate the wraith-pairs, to sever their bonds, and I know they’ve been working to train his vampire Guard to assess which pairs to save.”

She shook her head slowly. “I never expected this. I never thought it would be possible. But, I trust you, Zeph. That’s the one thing I learned tonight, just how thoroughly I believe in you, that you’ll do what you say. And not only do I think this could work, but I want to be part of it. I mean, maybe that’s been my purpose all along. I’d want a lot of training, though.”

“Absolutely.”

She searched his eyes. “I never thought to see this level of compassion from you, at least where wraith-pairs were concerned.”

“Well, that’s because of you, that you’ve consistently pushed me this direction. More than anything I want to move out of warrior mode enough to start developing a rescue operation. I suppose until now, I never thought such a thing was possible and I was too lost in my fighting ways to see anything else.” He took a deep breath. “But there’s one thing you’ll need to be prepared for before you decide to take this on.”

“What’s that?”

“Things don’t always go as predicted in the field and there will be times that I’ll have to choose between your life and the life of a wraith-pair. I know myself well-enough to say with certainty that I will always choose you, which means I won’t hesitate to destroy an Invictus pair if it means I can save your life. Do you understand?”

She grew somber. “I do. I get it now. Before tonight, I’d never been up close to a battle before. And when I realized I had to choose between you and my mother, caught as she was in her vicious killing mode, well, it was probably one of the worst experiences of my life. But my choice seemed so simple. It had to be you. So I’ve already proven myself in the situation you’ve just described.”

He relaxed a little in that moment. His biggest concern about bonding with her, about engaging in a different kind of war against the Invictus, was over that issue. But it was clear she did understand what might be required as they moved together down this road.

He kissed her then, slanting his lips over hers, savoring that she tasted of berries soaked in wine. He slid his hands down to her waist and surrounded her fully, then squeezed.

She drew back. “I love it when you do that.”

His hands dropped to caress the luscious curves of her bottom.

“And that.”

He chuckled softly, but sobered almost as quickly. “And you’re sure you want to bond with me?”

She hugged him. “With all my heart.”

He kissed her again for a long moment, only drawing back because he needed to discuss the bonding process with her. “I know from talking to Gerrod and from listening to general Guard gossip, that there’s more than one way to complete the blood rose bond. But one thing for sure will absolutely help the process along, or rather two things.”

She smiled again. “Let me guess, your fangs in my neck, your naked body pressed against mine. Am I right?”

Desire for her heated up, and he lifted her into his arms. “Yep. Exactly right.”

When he reached the bed, she put a hand on his chest. “There’s just one thing. I need you to know that I’m really nervous about doing this, about bonding with you because I have no idea what’s going to happen.”

“I am, too, but I want this more than anything. I’ve missed being with you so much over the past few months.”

“That was my fault. I know it was. All this time I’ve been afraid of losing you. Then I almost did, you almost died, and all I could think was how much time I’d wasted being apart from you.”

“We both needed to shift our positions. I know that now. I was stuck in a rut of rage against the Invictus. I refused to see how those abducted, and forced to forge a wraith-bond, had lost their lives as well.”

She leaned up and kissed him. “But I refused to acknowledge how brutal the battling of these pairs really is. So for that I apologize. I never properly honored you for your service. But I do now. And if there comes a time, that you need to go back to fighting as you do, I promise you I won’t be so belligerent in my viewpoint.”

“And I’ll promise to keep finding ways to rescue wraith-pairs.”

With that said, he pulled the comforter back, then laid her out on the bed. This coupling would be different from all those that came before. And as he helped her out of her clothes, then stripped out of his, the nerves were back, that edgy feeling that always arrived in the face of the unknown.

Like Alesia, he had no idea what would happen right now.

Already firm and ready for her, he planted himself between her knees. He kissed her on the lips, then drifted a series up her cheek, afterward using his tongue to tease her ears, first one then the other. He licked and sucked, just the way she liked so that before long her body writhed beneath his and her hands were busy below his waist, playing with the crown of his cock and stroking him.

She knew what he wanted, so it wasn’t long before she guided his thick stalk to her opening and keeping him steady, helped him find his way inside. The whole time, she moaned as he took the slightly rounded point of her ear in his mouth and sucked.

“Oh, Sweet Goddess, that feels so good, Zeph.” His name came out on a breath of air, full of desire and need.

Slowly he began driving into her, stroking her deep as he plunged his tongue in and out of her ear. Her hands found the muscles of his arms and she dug her nails in, a sensation that sent a lightning strike of pleasure straight to his testicles.

He moved faster now, only this time he added a vibration the full length of his cock. She moaned heavily, and cried out. “That’s incredible. You’ll make me come soon.”

“Good.”

The faster he moved the more powerful the vibration he sent through her so that pretty soon she was undulating in synch with him as he slammed into her.

He dipped lower and licked a line up her throat.

“Yes, Zeph, please take from me. I need you to.”

Still moving, he pinned her opposite shoulder down with his hand in order to hold her steady. Letting his fangs descend, he struck swiftly.

The first hit of her blood exploded in his mouth and he almost came. He breathed through it though, knowing he needed to save his release for the moment of the bond.

When he was more in control, he began working her throat steadily, sucking down her wine-and-berry blood, as he thrust into her.

She panted now and to her mind, he pathed,
I’m going to open my mating frequency. Are you ready?

Absolutely. I want this. I need this.

From deep within his body, what he’d call the seat of his soul, the most essential part of him came to life, vibrating heavily. He slowed the thrusting of his hips and the suckling at her throat and focused on sending that frequency into Alesia.

“Zeph, it’s the most amazing feeling.” She opened to him at the same time, a blossoming of her own mating vibration. The moment their frequencies met, a surge rose within her, then passed swiftly into him, moving through his chest. He felt lit up from within and pleasure boiled.

He could see the frequencies together in his mind’s eye, rolling and swirling together, moving in tandem.

He began to thrust harder again, pushing his cock deep inside her and sustaining the vibration low as well. His was a miraculous world of vibrations and never had the experience been more profound than in this moment.

Her well tightened around him. She moaned heavily.
I’m so close.

He loved her voice in his head.
Me, too, and I’m feeling something else.

That our mating vibrations are turning together, tighter and tighter. This has to be the bond forming.

It must be.

He moved into her faster now, but released her neck so that he could meet and hold her gaze. Passion darkened her green eyes and her lips were swollen.

She breathed hard now. “It’s amazing, our mating vibrations together.”

“They’re locking into place. Can you feel that?”

She smiled. “Yes. Oh, sweet Goddess, yes.”

The release came at the same time that he bonded with his blood rose, a powerful streak of intense pleasure pulsing through his cock, but rising as well through his abdomen to play like erotic fingers over their joined vibrations.

He roared, the pleasure igniting his body so that he felt as though ecstasy had lit a fire through every part of his being.

She screamed as well, her hips meeting his in hard thrusts, her nails digging into his back, her voice turning slightly so that she sounded like a hunting bird high in the sky.

Time drew the experience out, until the last drop of his seed passed into her body, and the entwined mating vibrations finally relaxed.

Euphoria followed, a sweep of sensation that brought him down onto her chest, her full breasts the sweetest pleasure against his pecs. She surrounded his neck with both arms and held him tight.

“I love you so much, Alesia.”

***

Alesia held heaven in her arms. She drifted her fingers through his coarse, wonderful hair, and savored the oak scent of him. She’d never known such happiness, such peace.