Possessed by a Dark Warrior (26 page)

“Holy fuck, Female,” Bleu snapped and pulled back, releasing her and shooting to his feet. His legs wobbled but they didn’t collapse. He pressed his palms to his groin, keeping the small scrap of black cloth over it to give himself some dignity, and paced away from her.

He needed to breathe.

No.

What he needed to do was fulfil every damn fantasy running rampant through her mind.

Bleu stalked back towards her and caught himself at the last second, right before he was about to yank her up into his arms and kiss the breath from her, and snarled as he spun on his heel and walked away again.

His blood pounded.

He couldn’t do this. Whatever this was. She wasn’t his. They weren’t meant to be. It didn’t matter that she was his fated one. There was no future for them and the quicker he got that message, the better.

He needed more than a biological connection to her to make him belong to her. He needed something that she could never give him. Their history was too dark, too filled with pain and hatred.

She could never love him, and as much as he despised how weak it made him, love was what he needed, what he had always craved from his mate.

He stopped near the back wall of the cell, pressed his forehead against the black stone and exhaled hard.

All of his dreams of his ki’ara had been centred around her loving him.

Taryn had made it clear more than once that what she felt for him was quite the opposite.

Her trying to help him meant nothing. It was probably just her instincts as his fated female making her behave that way. Not her feelings for him.

Gods, his bottom is incredible.

He gritted his teeth and pretended that thought didn’t rub his ego the right way. It didn’t prove that she felt anything other than hatred or that it wasn’t her instincts making her protect him.

But then… every inch of him is incredible
.

That sultry low whisper in his mind, almost a purr of approval, rubbed him the right way so hard that he was solid as a rock and tenting the tiny piece of black material around his hips. Holy fuck, he was either weak from everything he had been through and had no control over himself because of it or she had a wicked way with words that worked magic on him. He looked down at his raging erection and huffed when his heart supplied that it was the latter. He was stronger now, his wounds already knitting back together thanks to the siren’s and her blood, and very much in control of himself.

Scratch that.
She
was very much in control.

My throat feels better. I am stronger. I should tell him and ease his concern… but I think I would rather remain here admiring the view. Perhaps I could say something to make him look around… then I can take in all that masculine beauty he wears so well.

Bleu whirled to face her, hands dropping to cover his groin as the piece of black cloth threatened to fall off.

“Empty your mind,” he snapped, because her thoughts were both a wicked pleasure and sheer torture.

Her eyes gradually widened.

A fierce blaze burned up her pale cheeks.

Dear gods he can hear me!

She scooted backwards, her embarrassment flowing through their link to him, and didn’t stop until she was far away from him, her back pressing against the bars of the cell near the door.

As far from him as she could get.

That seemed to be the story of his long life.

The moment whatever was happening between him and a female stopped, they distanced themselves.

He couldn’t remember ever spending the night with a woman tucked in his arms. Maybe it had happened. Maybe not.

He felt sure he would have remembered it though, that it would have been special and would have seared itself on his mind forever.

What would Taryn feel like in his arms?

Would she feel as good as she had a moment ago, her body cushioning his, tucked close? Her soft breaths filling his ears and telling him he wasn’t alone?

Gods, he could easily imagine passing the long hours of darkness watching her sleep peacefully, safely tucked up in his arms.

He kept his right hand over his groin but shoved the fingers of his left one through his hair, yanking it back. What the hell was wrong with him?

He smiled wryly. Wasn’t that the perfect question to sum up his life?

What was so wrong with him that no one could love him?

He wanted to slide down the wall to sit with his back pressed against it but if he gave in to the urge, he was liable to flash his private parts at the female. He wasn’t sure whether it would please or shock her.

He wasn’t sure of anything anymore.

He just wanted to find his feet again. His place, if he was honest with himself. His purpose.

He stared across the cell at her, a sea of blood-soaked black flagstones separating them. Her violet-to-white eyes locked with his, the rosy hue on her cheeks grew darker, and she dropped her gaze to her knees.

“I’m sorry,” he said in her language and she jerked her head back up, her eyes enormous and sweet heart-shaped lips parted. He cast his gaze down at his bare feet. “I’m sorry I hurt you.”

“Tenak drugged you,” she whispered and it felt so good to hear her voice again that he wanted to moan.

All that came out was a growl as he thought about what her brother had done to him.

She grabbed the bars of the cell and pulled herself onto her feet, held them as she tested her legs, moving a few steps back and forth along the wall. When she looked across at him, she was a different female. Stronger. Darker. Her anger rolled over him, swept through his blood, and he had to wonder.

Could she feel the connection he had forged between them?

Was she aware of what he had done by biting her?

A sound came from above and her head snapped up, eyes scanning the stone ceiling, breath stilling as she searched for the source of the noise. He lifted his eyes to the ceiling too and listened hard, the pointed tips of his ears twitching as he tried to pinpoint where it had come from.

“Tenak will return,” she said, her voice stronger now, a commanding edge to it that he found he liked too much.

It stirred wicked thoughts, memories of his dreams of her, and he had to fight to keep his feet planted to the ground, stopping himself from crossing the room and making those dreams come true.

A frown flickered on her brow, her cheeks darkened another shade, and she slid her eyes down to him.

Pierced him with a look that said she didn’t need to be telepathic to know his thoughts.

Damn.

Maybe she was aware of the connection between them after all.

“We must go.” She shuffled to the unconscious female, crouched and checked her pulse.

Bleu just stared at her, sure he had heard her wrong. The cold that stole over him, pushing all of the softer feelings from his heart and hardening it, said that he had heard her right.

“I cannot leave.” He shook his head and shifted his focus back to the ceiling. “I have to retrieve the sword.”

There was no way that he could leave it in the hands of her brother. The male was a maniac. Far worse than Vail had ever been. With the sword in his possession, he could fulfil his twisted fantasy of bringing all of Hell to its knees.

“Neither of us are in any fit state to battle my brother,” she snapped and rose to her feet, turned and glared at him. “Deny it if you dare.”

He couldn’t because it was true. While drinking from the fae and from Taryn had restored some of his strength, the drugs her brother had dosed him up with had yet to leave his system. It wasn’t the healing wounds his body bore that posed a threat to him either.

It was the darkness.

He could feel it trickling through him still, a deadly undercurrent in his blood that stirred dangerous thoughts that would pierce his mind from time to time, black urges that pushed him to do things he found repulsive whenever the darkness’s hold on him faded.

It was only Taryn’s blood keeping it at bay right now, restoring the light in his soul whenever the darkness rose to steal control.

The effect she had on him could shatter at any moment and he knew without a doubt that the darkness would seize command again if it did. He needed time to master it again and purge it from his soul. Fighting her brother would do the opposite. He would need to draw on his full strength in order to win against the dragon male, and that meant tapping into the darkness.

He would end up giving it a stronger grip on him, giving it more control over him, and he wasn’t sure whether he would be able to come back from that.

Or whether he would end up tainted.

Possibly even
lost
.

Taryn turned towards the open cell door and paused there with her back to him.

“I will have to bide my time,” she whispered and her fists clenched at her sides. “When I am stronger, I can return to free the others and deal with my brother.”

Bleu stared at her as those words sank in and he realised that she hadn’t come to this place to join forces with her brother.

She had come here to destroy him.

He couldn’t believe it.

“Was taking down your brother the reason you stole the blade in the first place?” His voice was surprisingly strong in his ears, no longer rough and scratchy. He rubbed his throat, found it no longer hurt to touch it, and then looked down at his body, expecting to find it battered.

The wounds on his torso were healing fast. Thanks to Taryn’s blood? He had heard that a mate’s blood could swiftly restore an elf’s strength, but he hadn’t expected it to be this powerful. It was incredible. Far better than the wretched medicine most elves had to take when in this condition, a concoction that could instantly heal but rolled all of the pain the person taking it would have felt during the course of naturally healing into one excruciating blast.

He hazarded a guess that he would be fully healed within less than a day. His body at least. His mind and soul were a different matter. The darkness twisted tendrils tighter around his consciousness, sinking poisoned thorns into him and stirring black desires.

He shoved them from his mind, and pushed away from the wall, and cool air swirled around his bare legs as he walked.

She looked back at him over her shoulder, something glittering in her eyes that he couldn’t quite decipher, and then turned away again.

Her voice flickered in his mind, shocking him more than the fact she was on a mission to kill her sibling.

If I told him I did not steal the blade, would he believe me? I have been such a fool. I should not have tried to protect Tenak by taking the sword and the blame with it… no, the elves are to blame too. They should not have turned on me when I tried to give the sword back.

Everything she felt flowed through him too, backing up her words as he experienced her guilt and sorrow, her fear and her anger.

“You were bringing it back,” he said in the dragon tongue and she gasped and whirled to face him.

Her legs buckled.

He was across the room in an instant, catching her in his arms and stopping her fall. Her hands pressed against his bare chest as he drew her closer to him, her eyes leaping to meet his, her soft pink lips parted.

“You were bringing it back?” he whispered, transfixed by the electric feel of her touching him and the way she was looking up at him, her beguiling eyes filled with shock but other feelings too, ones he was coming to learn as they filtered through the bond to him. Desire. Hunger. Hope. Fear.

He wasn’t the only one afraid of what was happening, convinced that it was impossible.

That gave him strength.

Courage.

Made him brave and a little reckless.

He dropped his gaze to her lips, narrowed it on them. They parted further, a tempting invitation. Gods, he wanted to take it.

He wanted to devour her.

He dragged his eyes away and exhaled hard, purging those desires and restoring balance again. He wanted her but now wasn’t the time, and it certainly wasn’t the place. He needed to get her away from the castle, get his strength back up and then deal with her brother and reclaim the sword. Once he had done all that, then he could think about asking her whether she might consider falling in love with him.

Like he was falling in love with her.

“Yes,” she murmured and he frowned, again convinced for a moment that she could hear his thoughts before he realised she had been answering the question he had posed to her, not the one he had been thinking about.

She had tried to bring the sword back and his men had attacked her.

She had taken the blame for her brother and he knew deep in his heart that wouldn’t have changed if he and his men had given her a chance to return the sword. She would have covered for her sibling, pretending she had been the one to take the blade. She would have taken the punishment in his stead.

Brave little female.

Her loyalty and courage only strengthened his growing feelings for her.

Feelings that had started in him centuries ago and he had been denying ever since, but he was too tired and drained of strength to deny them now. With her in his arms, resting gently against him, her eyes settled on his, he couldn’t pretend they didn’t exist.

She was so beautiful.

A blush crept onto her cheeks again and she dropped her gaze to his chest, the innocent edge to her behaviour only stirring his desire for her, his need to protect her and claim her as his mate.

That blush deepened as she lowered her eyes further.

She slowly pushed out of his arms and fidgeted with the bottom of her corset where it met her violet leathers, her gaze locked on it. Avoiding him. He frowned at her behaviour and was about to ask her why she had pulled away from him again when she murmured.

“M-my magic is weak. My brother received almost all of it… but perhaps I can… um… I-I might be able to…” Her cheeks blazed and she pointed towards him, flicking her finger up and down his body.

He looked down at himself.

He had forgotten that he only wore a ridiculously small cloth around his hips.