Malakai (10 page)

His hand slid between her legs, and she
pressed her thighs together. He growled. The wolf wanted a treat.
He wanted to bond, to feel her against him, within him, surrounding
him.

As did she feel those same longings. So
desperately.

She loved him. It had not been long since she
had picked him out at the reenactment festival as a potential
source to feed her unending need for life, yet in that short time
she had seen inside this man, learned him, and yes, given all that
she was for him.

She could not fathom living without Malakai
Saint-Pierre. And yet, to remain…

"I'm going!" She pushed him hard, and he
landed on the bed. Naked, his erection sprang up, fierce and
wanting. "I have to." She shivered, afraid her feet would not move
her the short distance to the stairs.

And so she did what she rarely did on this
mortal plane.

As Kai lunged toward her, Rissa slipped into
glamour and her body instantly shifted to bird-size, her wings
flapping and a trail of dust spilling in her wake. She flew
downstairs and toward the open back door. She hadn't shifted like
this in years, and could not sustain the glamour overlong.

A wolf's howl alerted her. Had Kai shifted?
She paused mid-air above the work shed and spied the wolf prancing
out the open back door. A huge black wolf that scented the ground,
searching. The wolf lifted its head. Could he track her by air?

Rissa's heartbeats stuttered. She couldn't
hold the glamour much longer. Years spent in the mortal realm
tended to drain that skill.

The wolf wandered around the perimeter of the
work shed. Immediately above him, Rissa struggled with the decision
to dart away into the thick forest or to remain and face the man
she loved as bravely as she could.

Too late, she realized her dust shimmered
down, sparkling in the air as it landed the wolf's fur. The wolf
jumped up, its front paws clawing the air. Kai put forth a long and
challenging howl. Or was it a cry for her return?

She loved him. That big, burly Casanova of a
wolf. They were perfect together, in and out of bed. And now that
the curse had been lifted… Could she possibly exist in his life,
while taking other men to sustain the vampiric needs of her curse?
She'd have to have sex with others—no, it was unthinkable.

Rissa's wings stopped beating. Exhaustion
curled about her shoulders. She began to plummet. When she felt the
summer breeze whisper through her wings, and her heartbeats
stutter, she dropped the glamour.

Landing beside the stream on a bed of fallen
leaves, Rissa returned to full height and size. A slip of Faery
glamour remained as a fabric about her breasts and torso. The usual
covering she wore when once in Faery.

An angry growl cut the air and Rissa's thick
hair was gripped from behind. She felt the sharp edge of a blade
dig up under her jaw. She lost her footing and faltered, landing
her body against the solid yet lithe form of the woman who held her
captive.

"You've convinced Malrick to drop the curse
against the werewolf, thus stealing his heart from me. So now I
will take your heart, leanan sidhe."

The wolf's howl echoed through the
treetops—and was abruptly cut off.

The blade left Rissa's throat. Crystal
flashed as the warrior Ooghna slashed her arm through the air and
plunged the weapon toward Rissa's chest.

The wolf charged the two figures by the
stream. Its paws left the ground and it soared through the air,
landing the shoulder of the dark-haired faery. The wicked one that
had intended harm toward the paler figure. The wolf only knew the
pale one meant something to him. She was family. And he would
defend her.

The crystal weapon clanged across the stones
staged before the snaking stream. The wolf bit into the warrior's
arm, and her ichor came up and spilled down the wolf's throat. Acid
in taste, the wolf released the faery, snapping its maw at the
horrid substance, yet would not back down. It growled and barked at
the enemy.

When she made to grab the weapon, he leaped
onto it, standing over it defiantly.

"Bedamned shifter!" The warrior rose, defying
the wolf by standing taller and daring to meet its gaze. "Assume
your were form and fight me like a man."
Human words were sometimes
intelligible in the wolf's brain, but it need not know the meaning.
The intention and tone of the warrior's voice issued challenge. And
the wolf could not battle the thing with its teeth and talons if
the insides of such a creature tasted so fowl.

Shifting to were form, Kai came upright from
four legs, the lush brown fur receding into his skin and his maw
and teeth shortening. His spine cracked and with a twist of his
shoulders, he stood—again, naked—before the one he knew as
Ooghna.

Behind him Rissa crouched on the stone. He
could feel her fear permeate his skin, and it felt as awful as the
warrior's ichor had tasted. He put back his hand, staying the one
he loved.

"How dare you hurt her?" he defied the faery
warrior. "Your quarrel is with me, Ooghna."

"Malrick has taken the curse from you," she
hissed. "Now I have nothing, so I will take away the one you
love."

"You'll do no such thing. She is mine."

"Her love will kill you," the faery taunted.
"I should be content to watch you wallow in a slow death. But. I
want what is due me. Now. A heart, if you please." She had the
audacity to thrust out her hand, in wait.

"Foul faery." Kai gestured that Rissa stand,
which she did. She stepped up behind him, and her trembling fingers
touched his back. If he could take away her fear, he would. And he
knew exactly what was required to do that. "I will fight you for
her heart," he declared.

The warrior lifted a gleaming sneer and
looked down her nose. Her eyes traveled down Kai's chest and
lingered at his waist and lower, where he was not aroused. The
preening look only angered him.

"Now." He growled and stepped forward. "Right
here."

"Will you fight as the Picts did so many
centuries ago?" Ooghna teased at his nakedness. "Where are your
woad markings, such as mine?"

"I will not give you the pleasure," he said,
guessing his nudity did little to appeal to the wicked faery, but
finding the tease an easy reply. "I've clothes in the shed. And a
weapon. Stay right here, Ooghna."

"I wouldn't leave if Great Herne commanded me
to his side. Hurry along, wolf. I've not all day. I cannot wait to
taste her heart!"

Kai gripped Rissa's hand and strode toward
the shed. She shuffled alongside him, and when she started with a,
"But—" he quickly cut her off.

"You've no say about who I fight, or for what
reason." They entered the cool shed and Kai tugged on a pair of
work overalls, tucking the upper straps in at the waistband as he
so often did. A shirt would only get in the way and impede his
swing. "And you will stay out of harm's way while I fight
Ooghna."

She shook her head. "I don't want to watch
you die."

"You have so much faith in me then?" Kai
sighed.

"She is a faery champion, Kai."


"Yes, but she is also a woman."

"Means nothing."

Instinctually, he knew she was right. Male.
Female. It mattered not when matched in battle who was strongest or
most skilled. Endurance would see the winner of this fight, and he
wasn't sure who possessed it most. He was not full strength thanks
to his and Rissa's love making. But after a shift, he always
experienced renewed vigor. He hoped it held out.

He wrapped his fingers about the sword that
hung on the wall above the doorway. The first sword he'd forged. It
was not perfect, nor was it a thing of beauty. Faded leather
wrapped the grip. Yet the blade was sharp, and made of iron, a
faery's bane. It was all he had. It would serve.

"Please." Rissa rushed to him and put her
head against his chest. Kai swung the blade outward to avoid it
touching her. His lover's heartbeats fluttered against his,
pleading for his resignation in the face of what she must expect
his sure death.

He tilted up her chin and kissed her,
burnishing her mouth with the intensity of love he felt for her.
Marking her as his. The wolf inside him howled. And the man he was
would not see this day end with tears in her eyes.

"Wolf!" the faery champion called from
outside.

Rissa clung more desperately when he took a
step toward the door.

He smoothed a hand down her hair, remembering
how he'd initially thought it like a spun candy treat. "Malrick
promised your freedom if I defeat Ooghna. It will be done. And you
will be mine."

And he walked away from her, and out onto the
stones before the stream. The faery champion wielded but the short
crystal blade, but Kai suspected she would utilize it in remarkable
ways. He'd studied for years with his father, learning the ways of
the medieval knight and fashioning those moves into modern methods.
Yet he'd never faced an opponent beyond playacting on stage.

This fight would test his mettle.

"Bring it," Kai said.

His sword soughed through the air. The faery
cackled at sight of the pitiful weapon. She cracked a wicked grin.
“I will take your challenge, wolf.” The Unseelie champion
approached Kai at a run.

He gripped the iron sword, not wanting to
actually fight a woman. But she wasn't a real woman, he chided his
conscious. A faery charged him. So it wasn’t the same. Was it?

Hell, Rissa was as real as they came.

The meeting of swords was unlike anything Kai
had experienced in his previous matches. Crystal blade clanged
against iron. The weapons screamed as if banshees claiming their
dead. A flicker of brilliant light glinted at the connection
point.

And the power behind the thrust? Immense.
This woman was stronger than any man he’d stood against. Which
meant he could not afford to let his guard down.

She was his height and her eyes glowed
vibrant violet. Faeries loved the fight, and went at it with
vicious acuity. They did not blink to shed blood or ichor. Bending,
Kai dodged a return swing of the deadly crystal blade. Yet he had
the advantage of distance.

“Rissa's heart will not be yours,” he
declared, and swung up his arm to slash the blade under hers. A cut
at her elbow sprayed iridescent ichor across the stones. The fairy
hissed as iron burned her painfully.

Tracking the slippery ground with ease, the
champion managed to slip around behind Kai. He turned and shifted
his hip to avoid taking a cut. The move set him off balance, and he
managed to turn into his opponent and grip her shoulders. They both
went to ground at stream's edge. Water splashed up around them. Her
weapon slid across the wet grass.

She laughed, but did not try to escape his
clutch. He shook his head, flinging the wet hair from his face. She
kicked him off and soared through the air, hovering below the
treetops with her reclaimed weapon. Ooghna had the advantage of air
and speed and of coming at him from, literally, any angle.

“Well met, fine warrior,” she called, before
zooming toward him, her blade aimed for his throat.

***

Rissa winced as she held vigil, watching the
two battle it out before the stream. It had been hours since they'd
started, and now moonlight beamed upon the stones. The pale
illumination glinted in the blood that spilled from Kai's chest,
his arm, and the corner of his eye where the faery champion had
delivered a bone-crunching fist.

Yet the faery bled as much as her opponent
dripped blood. Her body glittered with the spilled ichor, and a
gaping wound at her hip seemed to give her trouble, as she limped
on that leg when she was not in flight. The iron was weakening her,
or so Rissa hoped.

Kai managed to defend himself against air
strikes as easily as he did the ones from the ground, but he was
also tiring. Most fights lasted a few minutes, maybe ten at the
most. Opponents generally tired that quickly, and their wounds
weakened them further. If the killing blow had not been delivered
or a winner hadn't been determined by now, Rissa couldn't imagine
how much longer they could last.

Kai must become the victor so she could truly
be his, and not have to worry about draining away his life.

But would it be worth it? He was suffering,
straining to stand upright, to swing the heavy sword. He grunted
more now with each swing. And the moments between metal-singing
clashes were growing longer. Yet neither showed signs of dropping
or walking away.

***

Well past midnight, Rissa yawned and settled
against the log wall of Kai's house. The combatants stood in the
knee-deep stream, their blades clashing intermittently. Since
landing on his back and going under the water, Kai had emerged with
new vigor. He'd needed that drink and the cold water to re-energize
his waning strength. Ooghna's wings were fading and hung down now
instead of out and erect.

Rissa nibbled her lip, anticipation keeping
her from falling asleep.

"I love you," she whispered to her werewolf
warrior, hoping he would hear those heartfelt words and take them
into his soul.

By dawn, she wandered to the stones that
edged the stream. Across the water the opponents knelt in the long
grasses before an oak tree whose massive canopy of leaves hung over
the stream. They huffed and groaned from their wounds. Kai's face
and chest were streaked with his blood. His blade glistened with
ichor.

In a flash of blue, the Unseelie king
appeared at Rissa's side, sporting Glamoursiege tilted over one
shoulder. "They could go on for eternity."

"Make it stop," she pleaded. "It's not right!
They'll both die from exhaustion before they manage to finish off
the other."

"I don't wish my champion dead, merely
defeated," Malrick said. "I've the eternity such a task might
require to wait."