Firebrand (13 page)

“It lies over the brachial artery that carries blood to and from the heart.”

“Why there?”

“The ancients say to remind each Guardian of both his duty and his death.”

Amber traced a path from the mark to his chest. “Loves also resides in the heart.” Her gaze locked with his. “A better suggestion for the mark. Let love reside next to the cross on the sword, not death.”

David smiled his agreement and took a step back. Retrieving the sword from the dresser, he swung it in front of him in a wide arc. “It’s the prefect weight and size for the fight. The craftsmanship is exquisite.” He took another step back and then pivoted, slicing through the air with power and grace. “Many of my ancestors have used it to defend those bent on stopping the Triad.”

He let the sword drop to his side but kept his hand firmly on the grip. His eyes glistened. “And I will carry on the code and use it to protect you.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You’d kill for me?”

“If I must.” He kept the ancient weapon in his hand, twirling it at his side as if it had been made just for him.

He wore a dark polo shirt and pressed jeans but Amber couldn’t shake a mental image that formed of him in full armor, sporting a knight’s long hair and brandishing the sword against his enemies. She could almost see his biceps contracting as he wielded the weapon

“You should let your hair grow,” she said, instantly feeling her face warm when she put words to her vision. She looked up at the tapestry. “If you did, you’d look like him.” The knight woven there had long sandy hair that curled out from beneath a silver helmet. He was clad in full armor and mounted on a horse, sword held high, fighting a troop of smallish, misshapen warriors riding wild boars. Behind him, a woman with flowing red hair waited in a gray tower for rescue.

“Perhaps the tapestry is a prophecy as well,” he said.

She waved off the thought. The knight in the picture was covered in blood. She did not want to speculate whether or not the weaver had intended it to be his or that of the enemy he fought.

“No. It’s just a picture.” She held out her hand and reached for the sword. “May I?”

David released it, half-wondering if it was the right thing to do.

“The weight of ancient weapons always surprises me,” she said. “I don’t know how men used to fight with them for such long periods of time.” She looked at him. “Show me?”

He moved behind her, curling his arms around hers. Her back brushed his chest and the scent of her hair floated up to him. He fought to keep his instant arousal in check. From the time Amber accepted her fate, he knew there could be nothing between them. But his newly imposed celibacy didn’t mean he was immune to the memories.

“Grab it tighter,” he instructed.

She flexed her hand around the hilt, her body moving even closer to his. “Like this?”

David silently prayed for strength and not the kind needed to hold the sword. Wrapped in his arms, if he wasn’t careful, he’d be kissing her in a minute, taking her on her bed shortly thereafter. He could feel his arms trembling with barely contained control as they enveloped her.

“David, are you all right?” Amber turned and met his gaze, her whisper-soft lips beckoning to him. His eyes moved to her exposed neck. He licked his lips and swallowed back the desire that welled in his throat.

He started to lean to her but then pulled back, jarring the sword from her hold. He stared at her for a heartbeat and then sword dropped from his hand, clattering to the floor.

Amber jumped at the sound and let out a surprised gasp.

“Amber, I’m so sorry. Are you hurt?”

“No. I’m fine. Just startled.”

He bent to retrieve the sword. “It slipped out of my grasp.” He twisted it in his hand, demonstrating that he had better control this time. “Let’s start over. Here.” He held the gleaming blade out to Amber.

She backed away. “No. I have many things to learn and, while sword fighting is probably among them, my head is splitting.” She sat on her bed and rubbed her aching temples with her fingertips. “Just give me a minute.”

David slipped the sword into the scabbard, set it on the dresser and then sat next to her. “Whatever you need, honey.” With trembling fingers he touched her cheek. “You are the bravest person I know.”

Amber felt caught in his eyes, mesmerized by them. “Don’t think of me as one of the ancient do-gooders that you’re used to. I couldn’t stand that. Think of me as a woman.” She decided to shock him. “A woman who wants you.”

David smiled slowly. “We can’t be intimate, Amber. We just don’t know if you need to be a…” A soft hand reached out and touched his forearm. He stared at it, unable to move.

“There are other ways.”

He held her gaze and he knew she was doing something to him with her mind. Or trying to. But he could not want her more if she planted a thousand seeds of lust. He ran a fingertip from her temple down her cheek to her chin. “Yes, there are.” A long silence came and went before either of them moved.

“David.” She whispered his name into the tension building between them, her voice a blend of yearning and tightness that matched his.

He stood and urged her to join him. He slid his arms around her waist and pulled her hard against him so his hips were pressed to hers. His hands slid down her backside, holding her to him. He lowered his head and nuzzled her neck before sliding his lips around her jaw to her mouth. He kissed her and she opened for him, allowing him to lick and taste and probe.

He held her even as he let himself fall onto the bed, taking her with him. Shifting, he straddled her, his knees bracketing her hips, careful not to put weight on her. He placed his palms on either side of her head and lowered his lips to her mouth.

He was strong but so was she. She threaded her fingers in his hair and kissed him back as deeply as he was kissing her. He made a little growling sound and lowered his body onto hers, pinning her to the bed.

His hips moved against her and she mirrored his movements. Rising a little, he reached down to her blouse and button by button freed her from it, smiling in the kiss as he did.

She gasped as the air hit her naked breasts but it was his eyes on them as much as the air that made her nipples harden and ache as he moved alongside her. He put a hand on her then, flicking a thumb over her nipple, making her suck in a breath with each touch.

He lowered his head so his mouth could taste her. At the touch of his lips, she cried out his name. She arched and moaned as he moved from one breast to the other, his hand sliding down her stomach, down the front of her jeans. Not waiting, he pulled them open and slid his hand further down.

Shifting as he kissed her, he was on top of her again, urging her legs apart with his own. In tune with the thrust of his tongue in her mouth, he slid his fingers into the wetness he found between her legs. Slowly he stroked the fire he found there.

Then suddenly the hand was gone. His mouth left her breast cold and wet in the air and he was kneeling between her legs, pulling off her jeans before shedding his own clothes. He tore her panties off before she could object and returned to the rhythm be began.

“I can feel your need,” he whispered against her lips as he continued to stroke her.

Her hips rocked forward seeking more of his touch. “I want to feel you inside me, David.”

“You will, I promise but this night is only for touch.”

He heard her screaming his name among the sweet moaning sounds she was making. His fingers entered her over and over again, faster, deeper. He rubbed the nub of her womanhood, his own passion mounting, mirroring hers, The air seemed charged with magic, pulsing and primitive.

“Feel it, Amber,” he whispered into her ear. “Let it come.”

Sweat poured off them both, the breath leaving their lungs in straining bursts. He shifted and bucked his hips on her thigh in harmony to the tempo he was creating with his hand. Their bodies quivered in unison. Then Amber gasped and arched, spasms racking her as she came by his touch alone, taking him with her.

His relief drenched her thigh like warm rain. Release spread through his blood, a deep peace replacing the tension. He moved his hand from her wetness and kissed her gently. He rolled onto his back and pulled her with him, kissing her as she shivered in pleasure.

“That is definitely another way,” he whispered.

She lifted her head and smiled at him. “Next time…”

He cut her off with a finger to her lips. “There won’t be a next time.”

Amber’s smile grew. “Don’t waste your breath. We both know that there will be.”

Chapter Ten

Amber lay naked on the bed wrapped in David’s arms. Her head lay on his chest. He was still asleep. Time was slipping away for them. She knew that.

She closed her eyes and used everything inside her to try and make it stop. Surely someone as all powerful as she was supposed to be could stop time so they would never have to leave. She wanted to stay just the way they were right now, through the rest of the night and all the next day and the day after that.

Her eyes opened slowly. It was not meant to be. She knew that too. She could use all her emerging powers to do all sorts of things except one — change her fate.

How was she going to let him go, especially now that she had felt his power, his passion. He had been right. They should not have been intimate. She should not have encouraged him.

But then, trying not to love a man like David would be impossible.

She took a deep breath and pictured herself standing next to the bed looking down at him. The image of her reached down and took David’s hands and gently opened his arms. The physical Amber then rose from the bed and stepped into the image she had formed. Lightly she lowered David’s arms back onto his chest.

She looked down at him and smiled. He looked incredible. An artist would have a field day painting a body like his.

Extending her hand she let it hover barely an inch above his forehead. She could feel the heat of his skin on hers as she slowly moved her hand down his face, across his shoulders and over his chest. She never touched him but could feel the rock solid muscles beneath her fingertips as she moved lower. She flexed her fingers and traced the perfectly carved muscles of his stomach, caressing each ridge as she continued her journey of his body. He shifted and arched his back as she made a circle in the air above his belly button before following the line of dark hair that began just underneath.

She stopped before going any farther. She was beginning to get turned on. It wouldn’t be fair to him for her to continue. She couldn’t let him love her again, couldn’t let him get used to the feel of them together. If everything he and Teezal had told her was true, her time was nearly over.

A tear slid down her cheek. How would she be able to leave someone she loved so much? God how she loved the smell of his skin, the feel of his body. Her mind shattered. How was she ever going to do what had to be done knowing she’d never see him again if she succeeded?

“Don’t leave me, David,” she whispered.

“Never,” he replied from beneath closed lids. Slowly his eyes opened. Amber’s tender gaze left him aching. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” she lied.

“No, you’re not,” he countered, rising and taking her in his arms.

“There has to be some way around this.”

“No there isn’t Amber.”

“I can’t believe that between the two of us we can’t make it all work out somehow.” She tightened her hold on him, not knowing who had it worse. The one who would save the world and go on to wherever it would take her or the one who would be left alone when it was saved.

She didn’t want the night to end. Unable to help herself, she captured his lips. She would take his taste with her to her death. “I love you, David.”

“I love you too honey. With all that I am and more.”

But she knew nothing could prevent her from facing her destiny. Not even love. So she gathered everything what was inside her and stepped away from him. Knowing that if she looked into his eyes, she would fall apart. She turned away from him and wiped the tears from her eyes.

“We should get dressed,” she said, her voice low and shaky. She heard him take in a quick breath.

“I know.”

They showered and dressed without talking. David slipped his arms into his shirt and shrugged it over his shoulders. “Teezal will be here soon,” he said, quickly doing the buttons. He slipped the sword into its scabbard and then secured it to his belt. “She’ll take us on the next phase of our journey.”

A voice came from behind them. “That I will.”

“Teezal!” They spun to face her.

Her eyes moved to the sword at David’s side. “I see you have secured the sword.”

While she chose not to speak of their clothing or lack thereof, the tightness of her lips left no doubt of her displeasure of what she might have witnessed had she come in but moments earlier.

His hand brushed the hilt. “It will never leave my side again.”

“Teezal nodded. “We have to go. Time is spiraling ever closer to the end and there is still much to do.”

A feeling prickled along Amber’s spine. Something was wrong. Teezal’s almond eyes held wariness Amber had never seen there. She closed her eyes and searched Teezal’s psyche, finding urgency as well as guardedness.

“I have to find my father first,” Amber said, squaring her shoulders and preparing for a fight.

“Your father is in no imminent danger for the moment,” Teezal assured.

“You know where he is?”

“Part of the reason we went to the club was to find out that information,’ Teezal admitted.

“Where is he?” Amber pressed.

“He is being held captive by the trolls in the great ice cave at the place of origin. He is forced to search for the Sword of Shadows alongside the other humans taken there.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Amber asked. “Let’s get him back.”

“You need to talk to your grandfather first.”

David moved to Amber’s side. “The Mage wants to speak to Amber?”

“He demands to. Another piece of her destiny must be set into place.”

Amber raised her hands in a defensive posture. “Listen, you just told me that my father is stuck in the ice like some sort of cryonic experiment. I’m not going anywhere to listen to anyone tell me anything until we get him out of there.”

Teezal walked to the door. “We have allies in the troll world, Amber. Not many but some. One watches over your father. He will not let any harm come to him.” Teezal did not add that this ally would also do anything to be sure that, if the sword was found, it would not be delivered to Gorash. Under any circumstances. “You need to understand that there is supremacy in play that is far greater than any of us.”

“I understand that my father is freezing in an ice cave somewhere and we’re doing nothing about it.”

“He makes sacrifices for the Triad, as we all must. But until you come to terms with your ethereal side, there is a danger you may not fully understand the sacrifices you must also make. Beginning with this one.” She swept back the curtains with one hand. “Take a last look, Amber. You will never see this place again once we ride the trod to the place of your birth.”

* * * * *

In the bedroom of his penthouse apartment overlooking Central Park, Eric Sinclair arched his back and stretched as the sun began to rise. Back in his human form, he slipped easily into a red silk robe with matching boxer shorts. He closed his eyes and reveled in the way the fabric caressed his body. It felt like Barbara’s long dark hair moving across his stomach when she used her mouth to pleasure him.

He felt his organ stir with the thought and reached for it. With his other hand he grabbed his solid gold Rolex and angled it to his eyes. Maybe he should call Barbara into work early.

He laughed aloud. Work. What he would have her do in three hours would definitely be a task. Pleasing Gorash the troll king was tedious but pleasuring Eric Sinclair the human was mind-numbing. He knew his driver would be waiting to take him to the office in the custom Crown Victoria he’d had specially outfitted for his personal use. Taking a last look at his reflection in the only mirror in the penthouse, he smiled, satisfied with what smiled back at him.

The irritation began almost as soon as he entered the building. Shrugging it off he went to his private elevator that would take him directly to his suite.

As he walked by the panoramic window in his office and looked at the morning sky brightening over the city, he felt an emptiness grow inside him. Spiraling away like a vanishing eddy, the void expanded until it felt as though he were falling into it.

Racing back to the elevator, he feverishly stabbed at the button until the door opened and he entered. As it rose to the roof, he paced the small compartment like a caged lion. Something was wrong. Providence had been disturbed.

When the doors opened on the rooftop, he sniffed the air and searched for the unseen with the ferocious eyes of the beast inside him. He could not feel her any longer.

She was gone.

Anger crawled up his spine like a line of fire ants and he threw his head back and howled.

The sound of the door opening behind him made him turn toward it. Barbara stood outlined against the awakening sky.

“What are you doing here?” he growled, making no attempt to hide his agitation from her.

She took a step toward him. “I came in early to get some work done. I heard a loud noise coming from your office and then a clamor on the roof. I thought someone had broken in.”

“And you were about to save me?” His grin was almost feral.

She shook her head. “I — I just thought…..” She stammered then turned to leave.

“Wait!. Come here.”

Taking small tentative steps Barbara approached him. Her face did not hide her fear or confusion. “ I didn’t hear you come in did you slept in your office?”

Sinclair laughed. “No, I did not sleep at all.” His hands were on her shoulders as soon as she was close enough to him.

“Do you need anything?” she asked, her eyes locked with his.

“There certainly is,” Sinclair replied, pushing her to her knees. He loosened his belt and shimmied his pants down. He removed his right hand from her shoulder and let it slide slowly down his body, stopping at his throbbing groin. “I think it’s time you went to work.”

* * * * *

“Amber. Amber Drake.”

The voice seemed like an ordinary echo to her, strong at first and then fractionating. Slowly the tone solidified and she found herself sitting on the ground, hands clasped around her knees. Teezal stood over her, David a step behind.

“Amber.”

The repetition of her name made her blink, as though she was rousing herself from a dream. She looked around. “Where are we?”

“Home.” The puzzled look on Amber’s faced made Teezal clarify. “Ireland. On the edge of Everwood where you were born. We rode the trodway to get here” Amber did not react. “Are you all right?”

“I feel nauseous and my head feels like it’s going to split in two.” Amber said, rubbing her temples with her forefingers. She ran her fingers across her brow and down the sides of her nose. When she looked at her fingertips, there were traces of blood.

Teezal took Amber’s hand and helped her up. “You’ve had another vision when you used the trod. A revelation vivid enough to draw blood.”

Amber nodded and wiped the back of her hand under her nose. The bleeding had stopped.

“What did you see this time?” Teezal asked.

“A grove of huge spears surrounded by a hillside filled with whitethorn and a girl in a white gown, and a man in a hood with a dragon brooch on his shoulder. There was a knee-high mist that rose all around and a fire casting a strange light, but no heat. Then the woman vanished, shattering like a falling raindrop hitting the ground.” Teezal drew in a long breath. She reached down, took Amber’s chin and lifted her face. “Sometimes those with mixed blood
and
the sight are said to have magnified visions when they ride. I feared that you might have this type of reaction.” She paused as though not wanting to ask what had to come next. “Did you see the woman’s face?”

Amber nodded.

“And the man’s?”

Amber’s gaze locked with Teezal’s, her eyes intent and fierce. “I did,” she replied.

Teezal released Amber’s chin, turning sharply. With her back now to Amber, head bent, she said. “I didn’t want it to be like this.”

Amber rose. “How long have you known?” she asked.

“Almost since the beginning.”

In two strides David was beside them. “What have you known, Teezal?”

She held up a hand to silence him. “Is this the first time you had this vision?” she asked Amber.

“I’ve had flashes of things before but never like this. Now it seems strange to me that I never questioned why, never suspected I was different.” She felt the muscle along her jaw line harden. “And you never told me. Why?”

Teezal said nothing in response.

Amber stood silent for a moment. Her disbelief came out in a nervous chuckle that sounded more like a sharp exhale of held breath. “There’s something quite liberating to not know who or what you really are. You’re free to imagine your mother and your father, they can be anyone or anything. You can invent parents for yourself depending on the moment, devise a life. You can be the best or the worst. But,” she looked up, fear becoming so real that it seemed a living thing that would break out of her chest at any moment, “but in doing all that I could have never imagined such an end to it all.”

David stepped between them and took Amber in his arms. “What is it, Teezal?” he asked, the tone of his voice edging on anger, “What the hell else have you been keeping from me?”

Teezal sighed and shielded her mind from Amber. “Nothing.”

David shook his head. “I don’t believe you.” Placing himself in front of her so Teezal could not interfere, he took Amber by the arms and looked into her eyes. “Tell me, Amber. What did you see?”

She returned his intent look, her gaze darting around his face. She bit down on her lip, searching for the words. Her shoulders slumped and her voice came out in a rush of breath. “My death, David.” A tear trailed a salty path down a pale cheek. “And the man I saw, was you, standing there, just watching.”

* * * * *

Finally they were at the fairy ring. “From here we ride the fairy trod to Everwood.” Teezal announced.

“This is as far as I can go,” David said softly dropping Amber’s hand.

“You aren’t coming with us?” Amber asked.

“He can’t,” Teezal replied. “The fairy ring is protected, the plane between worlds cannot be crossed by outworlders, especially pure bloods, without a guide. If he enters the ring without someone to anchor him to his world, he risks being taken by imps and sprites. Even if he escaped them, he might never find his way back. David needs to stay outside the ring and keep guard. Watcher trolls are everywhere. I’m sure it won’t be long before Gorash knows you are here. If some of his minions try to enter Everwood to follow you, David knows what he must do.” Teezal nodded at him. “You have the sword?”