Scent of the Heart (12 page)

“I want to feel you in me. Just go slow, okay?”

***

Sev stared at his mate. He’d never expected this would happen. He wasn’t going to ask, and he thought Casey would never offer.

“Are you sure?” He cursed his hesitation. They were bonded now, and he could feel Casey wanted this, despite his nervousness.

“Yeah, I’m sure.” Casey’s words held more desire than fear.

Sev loved Casey’s body. He’d changed in the time he’d been in the enclave. He had been working hard, and his efforts showed. His body was toned and muscled, not as powerful as the Protector, but he was still a force to be reckoned with. That he was giving himself over to Sev was a wondrous thing.

Sev prepared Casey slowly. He took his time playing with Casey’s hole, teasing it, lapping at it, until Casey writhed and clutched at the blankets. When Casey was able to accept three fingers, Sev took him. Casey quickly adapted to Sev, as a mate should. He began pushing up to meet Sev’s thrusts, begging for more. Sev gave his beloved everything he could, slamming in deep over and over. Casey cried out his name, which was all Sev needed to hear. He began spending inside Casey, loving the way the tight muscle milked him.

They curled up in each other’s arms in front of the fire, sharing kisses and soft strokes. Neither had to say anything. They simply reveled in the depth of their feelings for one another.

***

The dawn of a new day broke with bright sun and sore butts. Casey snickered as Sev sat gingerly on the hardwood bench, wincing as he did. His laugh faded when he tried to sit, too, and realized how strenuous their nighttime activities had been.

“Okay, maybe I should make the cream I gave to Zak in bulk, because I’m thinking we’re going to be needing it.”

Sev smiled broadly. “If you prefer, I would be willing to receive your pleasure.”

Casey’s cheeks heated and he stood to turn away from Sev’s loving gaze. “If it’s all the same to you, I think we should keep doing it the way we did last night. It was weird, but I won’t ever say I didn’t enjoy it. Well, I won’t go into the enclave proclaiming my love of it, but…you know.”

Sev’s arms encircled Casey. “I enjoyed it, too. Much more than I thought possible. I never expected my mate to be male, but when I saw you, I realized I was the luckiest man in the world to have one such as you.”

Sev kissed the back of Casey’s neck, snickering at the goose bumps that shot up. Strong arms spun Casey around and Sev claimed his mouth. Gentle hands cradled Casey’s bare butt and pulled him in tight.

“When I saw you on my doorstep, I felt the same attraction. I didn’t know what it was, but I tried to pass it off as loneliness and being perpetually horny, but when I touched you, a surge of something passed through me. I don’t know how all this works, and I don’t really care. You’re mine, I’m yours. Nothing else matters.”

Casey stroked his hands down Sev’s sides, marveling at the sinewy muscle. So very different from a woman, but every bit as beautiful. He was about to say as much when a loud rapping at the door interrupted them. They darted for the bedroom and gathered their clothes.

“Sev! Sev! I need you!”

The panic in Vadim’s voice was evident. They rushed for the door just as Vadim pushed it open. “It’s Mikhail. He’s sick,” he choked out.

Sev took off at a full run before Casey could grab his bag. When he arrived at the hut, he found Sev cradling Mikhail in his arms. The boy was pale, his breathing ragged. His eyes had rolled back in his head, and only the whites showed. Tremors rocked his body as he gasped for his next breath.

One of Zak’s servants stood nearby, fluttering her hands. “I don’t know what’s wrong. He was fine, then he fell to the floor. He didn’t say he was sick. What happened to him?”

She leveled her gaze on Casey, imploring him to console her. “I don’t know. I need you to go find Zak. Tell him I need him and Jake here right away.”

She hurried from the house, calling for their Alpha, even though she was still a distance from his compound. Casey knelt next to Mikhail, opened his satchel, and grabbed a small clay pot. He pulled the lid and the scent of menthol filled the air. He dabbed his fingers into the container and wiped some viscous gel under Mikhail’s nose.

“It should help him breathe easier,” he said to no one in particular. He dug through his bag, mixing ground herbs into a small glass dish to which he then added some of the gel and a bit of water, swirling them around until the liquid turned a greenish tint. “Sev, I need you to hold his mouth open. He’s got to drink this and you have to help me get it into him.”

Sev clutched Mikhail’s jaw and pulled down. Casey drizzled the cool liquid at the same time as he massaged Mikhail’s throat. Mikhail coughed and choked, but Casey managed to get enough down to satisfy him. “It’s a natural muscle relaxant. It’s going to help him sleep until we figure out what’s wrong.”

The door to the hut burst open and Jake entered, his large form backlit by the bright sun. “What happened?” he demanded, his lips pulled back into a fearsome snarl.

“Don’t know. Don’t have time to talk. I need you to kneel here next to me.”

Without another question, Jake dropped to his knees. Casey placed a hand on Jake’s face. “He’s dying,” Casey whispered. “I need help and Hakiim is the only one I know who can tell me what I need to do.”

“Do it.”

Casey was the conduit to the spirit world, but Jake’s raw power gave him a needed boost when they worked in tandem. They slipped the borders between light and shadow, which Casey understood intimately by now. This time was different. Thick dark clouds covered the ground, clutching at their limbs like tar. Casey could sense a hunger in them, a desire to pull the living energy from their bodies.

“This is wrong,” he whispered. “Nothing should be like this.”

The spirit realm was normally a hazy place, a washed out image of reality, where those who passed on waited until they were judged worthy of acceptance into the next life, whatever that was. It was believed that those who were deemed honorable would be allowed to be with their family, while those who had done harm to others were doomed to wander until they truly repented. Overall, it reminded Casey of a dream. Something ephemeral, intangible.

This place was more of a nightmare. Colors bled into the landscape, turning it from a gauzy gray to a blood red. Where there should have been people wandering, Casey saw nothing. He called to Hakiim, praying to the spirits to let him speak with his mentor, though the only answer was a howling wind that grew in intensity.

“Something’s coming, Case,” Jake muttered, shifting to his jaguar form. In this realm, Jake was impossibly larger. The truest form of the Protector. His roar silenced even the wind for a moment. Then laughter bubbled up, surrounding them.

“You don’t have any power here, Protector. It’s nice to see you again. It’s been a while.”

The voice oozed with condescension and hatred. It sent a ripple of fear through Casey, and Jake regained his human form, his lips curled back in a fierce glower. “Elizar.”

“You remember me. Lovely. I’m glad my death didn’t leave me forgotten.”

Casey began a quiet protection chant. The air shimmered around him and Jake, solidifying into a thin layer around them.

“That won’t do you any good here, Shaman. I control this place. And it’s all thanks to your friends.”

“Explain,” Jake snarled.

“No, I think not,” Elizar said, a note of finality in his tone.

“I need to speak with Hakiim.” Casey tried to be defiant, but could hear the quaver of fear in his voice.

Laughter boomed, threatening to deafen them. “Hakiim? You don’t remember your last visit here?”

“I haven’t been here in months.”

“You visited my realm after that fool Hakiim gave you express instructions not to. You died, and I sought your body for my own. Something tethered you to it, though, and I could not break that bond. This one, he whom you are trying to save? He will be mine. Soon he shall breathe his last, and then I will be reborn, ready to assume my place as the rightful ruler of the enclave.”

“Over my dead body,” Jake hissed.

“If that were the case, Protector, I wouldn’t need this whelp. Your body would suit me perfectly.”

Jake whipped around to face Casey. “He’s got some kind of an artifact that was supposed to grant him the ability to take over a dead body while trapping the soul here.”

“Yes, until that fool Kell lost to you in the arena. When you found us in the cell with Hakiim and the shaman, I was trying to find a way to take one of their bodies. The shaman was my first alternate, but his magic protected him. I settled on Hakiim, and was in the process of preparing him when you found us. I thought I could make it to the upstart Alpha, but you were much faster than I anticipated.”

“Where’s your buddy Kell?” Jake’s growl vibrated through Casey.

“He made an excellent meal. So full of rage and hatred, especially for you, Protector. He was the first one I consumed. It’s his anger that fuels me. The dark emotions are like nectar. They make me thirst for more.”

Casey went silent for a moment, then exploded. “Where’s Hakiim?”

The ground shuddered as Elizar sighed. “That one was such a disappointment. Almost no anger to sustain me. I doubt he would have been much use as a body if his spirit was this weak.”

Sparks flew from Casey’s eyes, his hair standing on end as rage whipped through him. “You can’t destroy a spirit. Where is he?”

“You’ve still so much to learn,
Shaman.
The spirit realm grants the dead time to reflect, to accept their fate and move on. I don’t give them that opportunity. I pull them out of this place and keep them inside me, where their hatred and fear continue to feed me, allowing me to insinuate myself further into your reality. The turmoil of the enclave? My doing.”

Elizar sounded so proud of what he’d done. Casey hated the fact that he was gloating.

“Each death nourishes me. I crave more and found that I could influence people enough to override their innate attitudes. I can almost literally drive them to kill. If I can’t return to the land of the living, I’ll bring them all here, where they’ll sustain me for all eternity. Out there, I was human. In here, I’m a god.”

“If you’re a god here, why do you want a body to return to the enclave?”

“I miss flesh and the joys of the body. I want to feel again. To know that someone shudders when I enter them for the first time—”

“When you raped them, you mean. No one ever went with you willingly,” Jake sneered.

A sharp pain radiated throughout Casey as Elizar’s anger swept through the realm. “Hit a soft spot, did he? How does it feel to know that the only way anyone would ever touch you was when you forced them?”

An enforced calm spread out, blanketing the area in a soft haze. Casey could imagine Elizar gritting his teeth when he spat out, “This new body will be whole and virile. Few will say no to me.”

“And those who do will be taken against their will, right?” Casey could feel Jake’s anger as a tangible thing. A pure hatred that caused Elizar to purr.

“Protector, you would serve me well. Between you and Kell, I could live for eternity in a new body.”

Darkness oozed around Jake, swallowing him into its depths. As he disappeared, Casey sensed his fear and desperation. He plunged his hands into the inky depths, fighting the urge to pull away as numbing cold crept through Casey’s arms and into his body as it chilled him to his very soul.

“Yes, Shaman, your fear is delicious. I would take you as well, if it wasn’t for that damnable tether. What magic resides in you that makes you immune to me? Perhaps if I tear your mind apart again, I will find out.”

Casey recoiled from the slimy dark tentacles that were trying to worm their way into his mind. They reeked of decay and death. Souls cried out for release, including Jake’s. Through the touch, Casey sensed Jake’s anguish as it fed Elizar. He sought the tether that Elizar claimed he possessed, something to anchor him. A slender silver cord, no thicker than a hair, jutted out from his chest, and traveled into the distance. He grasped it and pulled with all his might. Relief shot through him as the ooze pulled away. He reached out wildly, desperate to feel Jake. When fingers touched his, he grabbed and jerked on the cord again, tearing them both free.

Elizar screamed in what seemed a combination of pain and fury. Strands of oily black dripped from Casey as he huddled Jake’s shivering body to him. Casey kept a tight grip on the cord, wrapping it around his wrist. He prayed to the spirits to help them and rejoiced when the tether began to warm, slowly turning into a brilliant light that caused the shadows to fall back.

Jake’s skin was like ice. He shivered harshly as Casey continued to follow the tether line, hoping it would bring them both to safety. Whatever Elizar had become, Casey had little hope of stopping him if Jake was powerless. The winds raged, buffeting them, and Casey was barely able to inch along as he pulled Jake with him.

“Run, Shaman. Know that I’ll have the boy, and that his dying thought will be that you failed him.”

Casey gritted his teeth. Sev was counting on him, and he had been powerless to stop Elizar.

***

Sev chewed his finger as he and Zak stood guard over their mates and Mikhail. The last time Casey and Jake went to the spirit realm they thrashed about and cried out. Now they sat deathly still, sweating profusely. Zak had gathered Sev up in his arms and stroked his back, murmuring soft words of encouragement. Sev never realized how much the enclave had lost out on by not having a true Alpha until this very moment. Even though Zak was not raised in this world, he had stepped into his role like a man born to it.

“It will be all right,” Zak said softly. “Jake knows that if he does not come back to me, I will find him and hurt him.”

Sev snuffled. He knew Zak was every bit as worried as him, but he put Sev’s feelings first.

“I can’t lose any of them, Alpha.”

“We will not. I give you my word that everything will work out.”

“Thank you for trying to comfort me, but we both know that you can’t promise something like that.”