Summon (6 page)

“I am.”

“To the others it appears we stare at each other.”

“What can I say to them?” I grabbed a hank of my
hair and tugged. “Hai. You unleashed godly spirits whilst bringing me back and
undid the sacrifice of my life. You’ve shoved the balance out of whack. Again.
Oh, and the Vodoun these wrathful gods possessed gives their intangible
essences unimaginable power.” I paused. “Shall I say this before or after I ask
them how they’re doing?”

Discomfited, he rubbed the faint scar marking his
jaw. “You hate me.”

“If I hated you, we wouldn’t be talking. I’d ignore
you.”

“This is not you.”

“Allowing an irresponsible ritual isn’t you.” Our
gazes locked. “You’re not reckless. What the hell were you thinking?”

“
You died
,”
he bellowed. “You left me here. Your love made me immortal then you died.
Imagine how inconceivable that is. I told you our future together was it for
me, all I wanted and you–” He gritted his teeth, and turned red. “There
was no thinking. I acted on instinct, and my instinct told me to find, and
protect you. Can you say you would not do the same if you were me?”

“I’m ashamed to admit what I’d do to bring you
back.” The admission was quiet with sincerity. My heart thumped painfully at
the thought of Breandan dying. “I’d commit the same wrong and feel none of the
guilt I know burdens you.” I balled up a fist and pounded my stomach,
overwrought, and hurting for him. “The reality is that such action is wrong,
and against nature. Nature that is my birthright to defend not defile.”

Stiff-necked, he nodded. “That is why there are
consequences
. I accepted them willingly. We all did.”

I thumbed the scar over my heart where he’d stabbed
me. “What did you agree to?” The words escaped garbled. “What was your
consequence?”

A tremor wracked his frame. “I live.”

“I can’t believe you. There was balance, and it’s
ruined again.
Ruined
.” My voice was
hoarse. I hated rebuking him for a wrongdoing I’d do in a heartbeat if our
roles reversed. “Do you know how badly I wanted to run away? Don’t you
understand that I stayed and damned the Source
for you
? I suffered for
nothing
.
And they expect me to do it again.” I scrubbed tears from my flushed cheeks.
“You were wrong, and selfish.”

Breandan reared back. His lips twisted, and he
leaned until he loomed. “Forcing me to live, undying, without you was selfish.”
His eyes burned. “You gave me no choice.”

My eyes bounced from his to glare at the middle
distance. The guilt from his actions and mine was suffocating. “I did what I
thought best.”

“You did what was easy.”

“Dying isn’t easy.”

“Neither would living like this alone be.”
Breandan’s head jerked. “I–I am–” He stuttered and rubbed his jaw,
eyes narrowed. “I am not a fairy anymore.”

“I know.”
Strange
how this saddens me.
“Neither am I.”

“They fear me. My brother looks at me as if….”

“There’s nothing wrong with you. With us.”

“Something
is
wrong. The resurrection did something.”

The air stirred as he tried to touch me. Losing his
nerve, he stroked the star shaped flower at my hip. The bloom shrivelled and
died as his fingertip brushed the velvety petals. They turned brown and crispy.

Breandan choked a harsh sound and hurriedly
withdrew.

The conflicting desires to hold yet protect me
reached through my miasma and shook me to the core. His pain was earthly to me,
an enemy I felt compelled to defeat.

I grabbed his hand.

He froze. “I’m scared, Rae. I need you.”

Entwining our fingers, I cupped his cheek. My
acknowledgement of his worries ignited hope beneath the sadness misting his
eyes. He stared at our joined hands in wonder, and I felt relieved it chased
away the horror, an emotion rarely seen darkening his expression.

Gentle despite his physical urgency, he pulled me
into his arms.

Tilting my head, I didn’t hesitate to lean into his
strength, accepting whatever he felt able to give at so impossible a reunion.

Inhale.
Blink. Exhale.

Brow furrowed, gaze fixed on an end no further than
his lips mating mine, Breandan lowered his head.

His mouth covered my own, a glancing contact.

Left in its wake was a pang of dissatisfaction I
struggled to hide since his eyes were open. We stared at each other. Measuring
our reactions with inept curiosity.

Fire heated his gaze until my cheeks flushed.

Placing my palms on the wider backs of Breandan’s
hands, I moved them lightly up his bared forearms, pausing to rub the edges of
the leather cuffs encircling his wrists. He tensed. I traced the contours of
his elbows. The skin beneath my hands tightened then broke into goose-bumps. I
followed the curves defining his biceps. The smooth column of throat I peered at
in fascination bobbed as he swallowed. Breathing was difficult when I finished
this thrilling study of flesh by smoothing my palms over the unyielding
roundness of his shoulders.

Lashes lowering, Breandan cursed.

I retreated half a step, vehemence at the intimate
moment startling me.

Exhaling in a rush, he swooped in and caught me off
guard with the intensity of his second kiss, a devastating crush of lips.

His arms tightened and pulled me against the firm
resistance of his stomach and chest.

Tail wrapped around my waist, tugging me closer,
his wings swept open and fanned out. Rather than a blinding beam of silver
light, a soft iridescence bathed my skin. He explored. One hand travelled down
the middle of my back, and the other ran up to cradle my head. His thumb rubbed
behind my ear. The teasing, soft circles made me dizzy.

Short of breath, I gasped. Sank deeper as he came
at me from a different angle, adjusting the positioning of his head until I
tumbled into a chasm shaped by the shell of his body.

My wings and tail twitched. My emotions rioted too
madly to get them under any semblance of control. My heels lifted to offer more
body to consume, willing to sacrifice the lot to nourish desire’s blaze.

 
His
lips sought my neck. Callused fingertips traced the edge of my collarbone then
stroked the hollow of my throat. The corner of his mouth quirked as echoes of
my erratic pulse pounded there. The trailing pecks along my shoulder stoked the
fire burning me alive, and irrational as it was jealousy had me hating my own
flesh for stealing his attention.

Heeding my silent plea for more, or appeasing his
own urge, groaning, Breandan’s mouth ascended back to mine.

Spine arched, my hands cupped the clean cut of his
jaw. I coveted. Grappled his fierceness with my own, and sighed gladness at the
kiss’ return.

His thigh thrust between my legs and took more of
my weight. My feet left the ground. Body bowed taut, fast skidding to
incoherency I clung to him. My hands slid back to grab fistfuls hair. Silky
locks tickled my wrists. Curls he savagely cut as if beautiful hair wasn’t
meant for him.

My senses engaged, stimulated to greatness only he
engender
ed. Prism like lights danced behind my eyelids.
And heat. It poured from his palms and seeped into my skin. Rolled across me in
sweltering waves. Ebbing to gather strength then hunting unscathed flesh to
scorch. The aroma of warm leather and chilly rain was heady, and mixed with a
lower note of clean musk. I became giddy on it. I forced my panting to abide,
and inhaled his unique scent. Blood rushed in my ears, snuffing all sound apart
from his harsh breathing, and the rasp of teeth raking my bottom lip. An
experience this sensually assaulting, an encompassment to the point of physical
weakness was perilous. I was convinced. Succumbed. The danger of wandering lost
in this kiss until the world stopped spinning was very real.

He took me to explosive magnitudes that left no
doubts, not when his hands roved, and his lips roamed lyrical with love’s
avowals.

Breandan was home, constant, a Source that would
never fail me.

The hair on my nape lifted because sensation
fluttered with claw-tipped wings in the pit of my stomach. My heartbeat marched
all over the place. Need coiled until my fingers mimicked the raw feeling in
action, curling into ropes of muscle cording Breandan’s back. I dug in, a hold
to anchor me in the storm. Pleasure erupted from the inside and rattled my
bones until I fairly quivered.

This ever-deepening embrace offered no reprieve,
Breandan’s lips brutal in tender onslaught. Predatory. The pressure exerted by
the solid length of his body grinding against me, and hips thrust into mine
felt mystic.

He’d
reached beyond the veil separating us and dragged me to safety.

I ached; I wanted; I needed him.

Our heartbeats raced to the pinnacle, charging
until the thumping at my breast became so painful I stifled a whimper.

The kiss reached zenith when his tongue flicked
wetly at the seam of my lips. Darted past their soft borders in a hard jab. He
tasted rich, honeyed spices. I hummed my delight and stroked him in response.

I urged him with soft moans. Subjugated his control
with questing hands and a wild tongue. Begging him to lose himself inside me,
as I was lost in him.

Achingly slow, his head lifted, and our lips broke
apart. His arms released me. His ragged breathing turned into desperate gulps
for air that racked his body with shudders.

The ground at my feet rocked.

My nature flared as I settled back into my body.
The vague disconnection keeping me calm shattered under the forced awakening of
Breandan’s kiss.

I noticed the lack of magics’ burden first, the
changed bond. Less volatile, but no less powerful, the gut-wrenching tug I’d
fought against then eagerly succumbed to at Temple transformed.

The bond no longer confined me, but I was shackled
nevertheless.

The ferocity of my emotion scared me to the point
of speechlessness. I was terrified to reveal how I cared. How deep I loved. I
swayed, keenly reminded why I’d died for him. Why I’d be destroyed if he
attempted the same in return.

A dazzling smile curved the lips that enslaved me.
The smile died when his eyes dropped to the dead leaves and vines shrouding my
trembling limbs.

The consequence.

Life wilted by his touch. Paradoxically, his touch
revived me.

I stroked the vines and flowers until they were
lush again.

“Sorry,” he mumbled.

Pushing him away would leave him alone. I’d never
do that.
Nothing he’s done or will do
could ever make me leave him.
“You’ll be alright, Breandan. I’m here.”

Head bowed in shame, he averted his gaze. “There
are three. Marinette, Malice and Damballah.”

“I know.”

Breandan stared at his palms. They clenched into
white-knuckled fists. “Marinette is a necromancer. She summoned Tomas’ soul.”

Blinking back tears, I rubbed my tingling lips and
nodded. “I know that too.”

The angst that tinged our kiss returned to torment
him. Breandan pressed his fists to his forehead and breathed hard. Tension
wound his body so tightly I feared a touch would shatter his control. “It
wasn’t meant to be like this.”

Inhale.
Blink. Exhale.

I wondered how he’d forgive me for giving up, for
denying his choice to follow me to the Otherworld.

How will
he survive the death touch foisted upon him?

CHAPTER FIVE

Cael

Sleet
pelted the concrete cliffs of the Northern City.
My city.
Safety. The icy rain melted and drenched the buildings.
Ran down the brick sides in dirty rivulets to form oily puddles that quenched
the thirst of overgrown weeds and scavengers. The pitted grey roads were
stained with the blood of fresh kills. Bones piled high in shadowed corners,
and broken glass glinted in the dark. Rubble crumbled from the upper structures
and crashed into those below. The reek of decaying flesh and putrefied remains
wafted from the back alleys.

Similar spots of hell were scattered all over the
world. This particular rat infested cavity I’d once been proud to call home.

It was a disaster of my own making,
and for what?

I gagged stumbling past a particularly fetid break
in a roadblock of loose bricks. Whatever ventured into that alley never came
back.

My legs turned watery, and I rolled along the wall
until my clock-covered back pressed against it.
Why didn’t I notice there’s no fresh air here?
The high collar of
my tunic stifled. I ripped the sodden material down the middle to my navel.

Breath sawing harshly, I conceded I needed a short
rest.