Guardian (27 page)

Merlin turned to him, the grin he’d shared with me fading. “Angel?”

“Small, dark haired…extremely annoying.” I added helpfully.

Merlin shook his head. “No angels have visited me of late.” He said. “Except of course the angelic creature sitting before me now.” His purple gaze sparkled as it landed on me.

I couldn’t help grinning back at him.

Ian fumed quietly.

~ ~
*
~ ~

“Maybe we should have stayed in town.” I said helpfully.

Ian ignored me, striding through the quickly darkening meadow ahead of me.

I bit my lip and lengthened my stride to try to keep up.

Suddenly I realized I didn’t need to hurry anymore. With a gleeful chirp I looked at my wrist and flicked my fingers. A wrinkle opened up in front of me. I stepped into it and easily caught up with Ian, striding alongside him with no effort.

Ian finally stopped in the center of the meadow. The flattened grass beneath our feet looked familiar. He stood glaring off into the distance, his brown gaze sweeping the horizon intently.

I stepped out of the travel layer and stood next to Ian. Looking around I took note of the extreme quiet of the place, and wondered if we’d stepped inside some kind of magical place. “I could get us back without the transporter you know.” Ian looked up at me. I lifted my hand and wiggled my fingers, grinning at him.

He shook his head. “We need to follow their signature to find out where they’ve gone. Can you do that?”

I frowned. I could get us back to RiverIsle in the correct time period. But I wasn’t sure I could set a path along someone else’s signature. “Probably not.”

Ian nodded as if he’d already known that and returned his gaze to the ground around us.

“How do we know if we’re in the right place?”

Ian bent down suddenly, examining the ground. He pulled at tufts of grass until his fingers found what he’d apparently been looking for.

I leaned over him to see what he’d dug up. It appeared to be the pointed top of a submerged rock. He moved a few inches to the right and pulled at the grass there, quickly uncovering another jagged point of rock.

Realizing what he was doing, I crouched to his left and started digging in the dense grass. An hour later we had the circle exposed around us.

I swiped my filthy fingers over my tunic and looked at Ian. He seemed more at peace and his chocolate brown gaze had settled onto my face, more warmth in their depths than I’d seen for almost twenty-four hours. He reached out and flicked a speck of dirt off my nose. “I could use a bath.”

I nodded, suddenly realizing how grimy I was. “Is it safe to leave the circle?”

Looking up at the sky above us Ian frowned. “Probably not. Without a conducting archway in the circle I can’t tell how far away the moment of transference is.”

I sighed and settled to the ground, lying back in the thick, fragrant grass with a groan. I hadn’t realized how tired I was until I’d stopped moving.

Ian sat down next to me and leaned back, supporting himself on one elbow so he could look down at me. He reached out to brush a piece of my hair off my cheek. The spot on my skin where his warm finger touched me flared into awareness and the tingle his touch created slid quickly through my body. “You certainly made an impression on the wizard.”

I shook my head smiling. “He was just trying to annoy you.”

Ian grinned. “It worked.”

I laughed.

Ian lowered his head and settled his soft lips on mine. I sighed against his mouth and reached up to clasp his head, pulling him closer. The short hair under my fingers was soft and bristly.

He slid one hand under the hem of my tunic and rubbed my belly with silken, heated strokes. I felt my sensual core clench with need in response.

My lips parted and Ian slid his tongue into my mouth. Our tongues tangled and danced as the air around us heated and sparked with building fire. Ian’s body slid to cover mine, his knee nestled between my thighs and initiated a gentle pressure on the throbbing core between my legs. I lifted my hips and gasped as the pressure he was exerting there found my most sensitive spot and sent splinters of pleasure strobing through my body.

I reached down and stroked my hand along the long, hard ridge at the front of his soft pants. Ian groaned against my lips. “Let’s get out of these clothes.”

My response was to slide my hand into the waist of his pants and wrap my fingers around his throbbing length. “Gods!” He groaned.

I had to let go for a second as he pulled my tunic off, over my head. My soft tights followed quickly. I lay naked and shivering with desire beneath him as Ian divested himself of his own clothing.

Suddenly the full, hot, hard length of Ian Lavelle rested along the entire length of my body. He held most of his weight off me with his knees but he allowed a gentle pressure that melded our most sensitive places together in a very nice way. Our toes tangled and danced and our bodies pressed closer, all but creating real sparks with the need building there.

Ian tangled his fingers with mine and pressed my hands to the earth on either side our my head. He lowered his head again and claimed my mouth. I drew his essence in like an addict, unable to get enough, still hungry for more.

My Elfaery feasted at my lips as he pressed my legs apart with his knee. I wrapped my legs around his hard, round buttocks as I felt the fat head of his shaft nudging at my slick folds.

I gasped, throwing my head back in shocked pleasure as he slid into me, deep and hard. I arched up to meet him.

Ian nibbled down the column of my neck and gently captured an earlobe as his body began a gentle assault of mine.

His thrusts were quick and hard, giving me no time or space for anticipation as my mind wrapped completely around the incredible pleasure radiating from my core and sending waves of heat swirling through my body.

I grasped Ian’s buttocks in both hands and pulled him hard against my body, begging him wordlessly to quench the nearly painful heat of lust that was consuming my body.

I sensed the razor edge of release and strained toward it, using Ian’s willing body to get me there. As my intensity built, Ian recognized my urgency and did his best to help me reach my release. He reached beneath my body and grabbed my buttocks, tilting my lower body higher and driving deeper, taking the power of his driving thrusts to the next level.

I cried out, nearly mad with desire, and clenched him hard with my legs, willing him to finish it. “Now, Ian!”

He growled, driving even harder and faster into my body. I screamed, falling hard over that precipice into joyous release. My body shook uncontrollably as wave after wave of heat and pleasure swamped me.

Ian followed quickly in my wake. His body stiffened and he groaned, capturing my bottom lip between strong, white teeth as he drove into me one last time and slid over the edge of release with me.

I lay beneath him for long moments afterwards, enjoying the quiet aftershocks rolling thorough my sated body with his softening flesh still heavy and warm inside me. Ian touched my throat with soft kisses, feathering my sensitized skin with wisps of heated air and making me shiver.

Around us the night spread silent and deep. Only the gentle rustling of the vibrant grass of the meadow, waving softly in a passing breeze, disturbed the silence. I sighed as Ian rolled over and pulled me tightly against his body. The weariness I’d ignored through the events of the long, long day swept over me.

I closed my eyes and dropped into a deep and dreamless rest.

~ ~
*
~ ~

I woke up with the distinct feeling that someone…or something was staring at me. I opened my eyes and felt my pulse pick up with instinctive alarm. Ian’s long, hard body was still draped over mine. A soft snore tickled my ear.

Our bodies were slick with sweat. The air around us was hot, muggy, and tinged with smoke.

My eyes scanned the area around where we lay, working to pick out shapes in the smoky light.

The first awareness that filtered through my groggy thoughts was the fact that we no longer lay in the meadow where we’d fallen asleep. The second thing that hit me was the smell, which managed to penetrate the smoke.

Demons.

I hit Ian hard in the ribs with a bony elbow.

He came awake with a snort, rubbing his ribs groggily. He focused a bleary chocolate gaze on me. “What?”

I tried not to move even my lips as I said, “We’re not in Merlin’s time anymore and as far as I can tell we’re surrounded by demons.”

Ian stared at me for a moment without moving. Then his nostrils flared and he swore.

“Where are the weapons?”

He grinned. “About five feet away. Behind me.”

“Great.”

“On three?”

I gave him the briefest of nods.

“One…” We moved away from each other just the tiniest bit.

“Two…” I planted my hands on either side of my body in preparation.”

“Three!” We were off the ground, standing back to back before Ian’s scream cleared the air.

The first demon landed on my chest the second the soles of my feet hit the hard, black earth. It was a pig demon, and it smelled like it had been rolling around in offal for about a year before it landed on my poor, naked chest.

Long, black claws raked my tender skin and the ooze coating them entered my system like poison, sending coiling ribbons of agony through my chest and making it hard to breathe.

Long, curved husks, razor sharp and gore covered, pressed into my arms. Blood pooled around the tips as they penetrated my skin. I shoved hard at the thing to buy myself some breathing room and it landed on its four hooves in front of me. The demon snorted mightily, sending warm snot to spray my legs. I grimaced and stared into its beady, red eyes, looking for signs of intelligence.

Nope. Nobody home.

The demon launched itself at me again and I caught it. But this time I was ready for it. Placing my palm over its throat, I sent a kill level of power into the nasty thing.

The demon squealed just like a pig as it died.

Another demon landed on my head as the first one fell. I went down, landing hard on the dead demon and narrowly missing being impaled on the thing’s nasty tusk.

Something large, black and squealing flew over me, handily knocking the second demon off on its way by. Ian’s hand appeared in front of my face. I grasped it and he pulled me to my feet, shoving my long knife into my other hand.

Cool, hard flesh wrapped itself around my ankle and I looked down into a wide-spread maw filled with several rows of curved, deadly looking teeth. A snake demon had wrapped itself around my ankle and was rearing back, prepared to strike my calf.

If even one of those deadly teeth pierced my skin I was dead. The poison from a snake demon traveled directly to the brain and melted it. There was no anti-venom known to man or god and there would be no time to administer it anyway.

One swipe of my long knife removed the danger and the demon’s head. I jumped away from the demon’s blood, which spread in a thick, black pool of poison toward Ian’s bare feet.

I extended my hand toward the poisonous puddle and sent enough fire power into it to turn it to dust.

Ian flung another pig demon into the trees and looked around for more.

The ring of black stone where we stood was empty.

Beyond the ring, eyes glowed through the darkness but nothing moved.

Tossing Ian his pants, I grabbed my tunic and pulled it over my head. “Where are we?”

Ian’s gaze never stopped swinging around the area as he dressed. “I don’t know, but it’s damn hot, wherever it is.”

I finished dressing and looked around. Off in the distance an orange glow filled the sky. Civilization?

I nodded toward the light. “Let’s go that way. Maybe we can find somebody who can tell us where we are.”

Ian nodded, glancing around one last time. “Don’t let your guard down. Wherever this place is, it seems to be filled with nasty things that go bump and chomp in the night.”

Chapter
Sixteen

A Visit to Hades…and Persephone

I
swiped my sleeve over my face and punched a blood sucking bug that was as big as my fist. The thing gave a tiny squeak and smacked into a scrub tree. A moment later I heard the insistent buzz of its wings as it shook off my attack and took to the air again.

Robo bugs. Demons that buzz.

Though we’d been walking for what felt like hours, the glow in the sky didn’t seem to be coming any closer.

The smoky aspect to the air around us never abated, in fact, it seemed to be getting thicker. Ian walked just ahead of me, his long strides determinedly eating up the unending distance and his shirt nearly soaked through. The back of his muscular neck was shiny with sweat.