The Ritual (30 page)

Shani slid to the ground as I let go of her, and she fell asleep almost immediately – four fireballs had drained her to the full. I sagged against the rock wall. Then Zash stumbled around the outcropping with Mior slung over his shoulder, and he dumped him unceremoniously onto the grass next to Shani before striding over to me.

“Gods-fucking-dammit, woman, now you’re coming here,” he growled, and then I was in his arms, he was kissing me like there was no tomorrow, and I finally felt safe.

CHAPTER TWELVE

I could have spent the rest of Eternity standing there in his arms and kissing him, and for a long, long time that was all I did. His body was solid, warm and comforting, and so familiar that it finally made me understand what people meant when they used the word ‘home’. I had never had a home, but I knew I would be happy wherever I was, as long as Zash was with me. His lips caressed mine and I could feel his heartbeat thunder against my chest as his tongue explored my mouth hungrily. When he withdrew it I explored his mouth in turn, and felt relief wash through me when I found him whole.

“Your teeth… They grew back,” I whispered, and felt him smile.

“The water fixed everything,” he said. “I’m fine. But you…” He took me by the shoulders and looked at me. “What have they done to you, my Little Firelocks? Your hair all slick, paint on your face, this…” He plucked at the gauzy, see-through fabric covering me from neck to ankles, then buried his face in my hair and inhaled deeply. “You even smell different… of fruit and flowers. That’s quite nice actually. But where has my thief gone under all that?”

I gave him a quick smile, but couldn’t sustain it. “It’s not a monastery, Zash, it’s a whorehouse,” I whispered. “They’ve got a whole room full of half-elf women to use whenever they want.”

He stiffened and his fingers squeezed my shoulders painfully. “They dolled you up to be a whore for them?”

“No, they dolled me up for the abbot,” I replied, and heard my voice tremble.

He squeezed me again, then cupped my face in both his hands. “Did he do this to you?” he asked, running his thumb across the cut on my cheek. “Has he had you?” He took a deep, shuddering breath. “If he has, I’ll kill him. I’ll get back inside somehow and I’ll kill him for you.”

It was no idle threat, no macho talk to make me feel better. I could hear that he meant it, and I felt his hands shake as he caressed my cheek again. “No need,” I whispered. “I already killed him.”

Now that the fury and the fear had worn off the memory came back – of the blood, the sickening crunch as I pushed the knife into his throat, of his cold eyes breaking. The memory also of the other two monks, especially the horrible feeling of my dagger sinking into the second man’s eye. “Oh Gods, I killed them,” I moaned, pressing the back of my hand against my mouth as I retched, and Zash folded me into his arms again.

“Shh, I’ve got you, it’s alright,” he soothed me, stroking my hair and rocking me gently. “I’m here, you’re alright. Your first kill? It’s hard, isn’t it? Are you sorry you did it?”

That brought back a flash of anger. “No!” I said vehemently, then again with more composure. “No. Never. He deserved it, the sick, sadistic bastard.”

He kissed me again. “That’s my girl. Tell me what happened, all of it.”

In the safety of his arms, I could. It came out haltingly at first, but I got through it all. The interrogation, and how I had used the Oath to my advantage. Tiziel and the pillow room. And then the abbot with his sick toys, and how I had escaped. When I finished he gave me a long, intent look, then pressed his lips against my forehead.

“You, Little Firelocks, are the cleverest, most amazing woman I have ever met. You’ve been brilliant,” he said with such obvious sincerity that it gave me a lump in my throat, and I buried my face in his neck when he pulled me close. “I was so worried about you… Why did you do it? Why did you let them take you?”

“Because I had to get you out, Zash. You were hurt and they’d have left you to die in that gibbet. Besides, I said I’d come and get you, didn’t I?”

“Yes. Yes, you did.” He drew back and looked at me, his eyes unreadable. “Why did you tell them that you love me?”

Because I do,
I thought, but there were still too many secrets between us, too many lies and uncertainties. “Because I needed them to believe that you weren’t important, except to me,” I said instead. “That I was just a weak, silly woman who wanted to save her lover. I wanted them to underestimate me.”

He nodded slowly. “So you don’t love me?”

I almost smiled. In this at least I understood him so well. Whatever his true feelings for me were, whether he loved me or merely cared for me and enjoyed my body, the thought that
I
might love
him
scared him more than many other things could. So I told him what he wanted to hear.

“No, Black Eyes, I don’t love you,” I murmured, and kissed him.

I felt him relax, heard him sigh, and then his passion flared up. His mouth became hungry, demanding, and the sudden intensity of feeling he evoked in me swept me away and set me on fire.

I moaned and started tugging at his shirt with trembling fingers, smoothing my hands over the skin underneath it when I freed it from his trousers. He gasped when I skimmed my fingertips along the bottom of his ribcage, and when he shrugged out of his shirt I ran my lips and tongue across his shoulder, tasting the salty residue of his sweat. His breath was coming faster now, and his hands plucked at the fabric covering me, searching for somewhere to undo it and failing to find it.

“How the fuck is this supposed to come off?” he muttered, running his hands along my body.

“They sewed me into it. I think you’ll need to cut it off me,” I replied, still nipping at his collarbone.

He drew his knife, then hesitated. “That’s what
he
was going to do to you,” he said, uncertainty in his voice.

“What? Zash, don’t be a fool.” I put my hand against his cheek and kissed him. “It’s the only way it’s going to come off, and you’re
nothing
like him. Just get it off me, please, get this hateful stuff off me. I need to feel your skin against mine,
please
.”

He looked at me with heat in his eyes and gave me another hungry kiss, then took a deep breath. “He was going to hurt you, so I’m going to make sure that I won’t,” he said, taking my left wrist in his hand and carefully inserting the tip of his knife between my skin and the fabric. He lifted it and I felt the pressure he exerted to cut through the hem, after which he drew the blade upwards to my shoulder with a steady, meticulous movement. The cool steel of the blade tickled my skin and made me shiver, and the intent look in his eyes as he performed the action made my body flush with desire.

When he reached my neck he pushed my head aside and cut through the hem at the top, and the fabric fell away and exposed my naked shoulder. After a few heartbeats he bent over and pressed his lips against my skin, and I moaned when I felt his tongue dart across it.

He repeated the process with my right arm, so that I was now naked to the waist but for the tiny gold triangles covering my breasts, trembling with need and with my back pressed against the smooth, sun-warmed rock surface. He raised his eyes to mine and gave me a lazy smile, and I swallowed hard.

“Do you think you can speed up a little?” I managed to ask, and his smile widened.

“No,” he said, cupping my face and kissing me lightly. “I’m rather enjoying this. It’s like unwrapping a present.” He nipped at my bottom lip, but I buried my hands into his hair and pulled him to me.

“This present is getting impatient,” I breathed, and kissed him hard.

“Tough, I’m doing this my way,” he said when I let go again, though he was breathing fast. I could see his erection straining against his trousers and lovingly cupped my hand over the hard ridge so he moaned.

“Gods, Rin, I’ve missed you,” he gasped, inserting his knife into the top of my sheer trousers. “Missed holding you, missed kissing you, missed fucking you… I’ve even missed hearing you talk.” He sliced down more quickly this time, and I sniggered.

“Missed buying me new trousers?”

“I’ll buy you two pairs this time,” he promised with a chuckle, slicing through my other trouser leg. He tore the fabric away and tossed it aside, then took a step back to get a good look at the remainder of my attire. “What in Eternity is
that?
” he enquired, his gaze moving from the one triangle at the bottom to the two at the top.

“Inconvenient,” I replied. “Come on, get naked, I want you.”

He met my eyes for a moment, then let go of his knife and dropped into a crouch to untie and take off his boots. When he stood up again he undid the buttons of his trousers, and I held my breath as I watched him free his cock and step out of the garment. I stretched out my hand to its hard length and felt the hot, silky smoothness when I stroked it, and he groaned and let his head fall back when my palm enclosed him tightly.

“Please, Zash, I want you
,” I begged, yearning for him to fill me. He shuddered and nodded, dropping into a crouch again to pick up his dagger.

Still he drew out the moment, still he made me wait. He knelt before me and kissed my stomach as he sliced first through the string on my right hip, then the one on my left with quick motions. Then he pulled the triangle away, and with an almost desperate moan he buried his face between my thighs.

I cried out when I felt his tongue, warm and searching, and spread my legs wider as he nuzzled my folds then sucked and nibbled at the little swollen nub buried inside. “Zash, please!” I called, and he stood up and with a few swift slices removed the last of the fabric clinging to my body.

I wanted him, needed him, tried to pull him against me, but he had frozen where he stood, his gaze riveted on my breast. “Bite marks,” he growled. “The fucker
bit
you!”

“So have you, at times,” I gasped, still tugging at him. “Just get on with it!”

He finally came closer, but his eyes were still stricken. “Not like that. Please, Rin, say so – never like that.”

“Of course not.” I sighed when his skin touched mine and slid my arms around him. “I’ve already told you to stop being a fool, and that you’re nothing like him. Now will you
please
fuck me?”

He groaned and pressed his mouth on mine, then lifted one of my legs to his waist. I felt the searching heat of his cock, then he sheathed himself inside me, slowly and deliberately, until his body was pressed against mine from hips to shoulders.

“Ahh, finally,” I breathed, and lifted my other leg, wrapping them both around his waist. He groaned again and pulled out, then sank back into me deeply, his breath quick and hot against my neck.

“Gods, Rin, I needed this,” he whispered after a few moments as he started thrusting into me, slowly and with a steady rhythm. “You’re so warm, so moist, so responsive…”

“All because of you,” I murmured, caressing his back with one hand and threading the fingers of the other into his thick hair. “No one has ever made love to me like you do.”

He sped up his movements a little and I held on tighter, nipping and biting at the skin in his neck. With every thrust of his hips he rubbed past my centre of pleasure, and I closed my eyes and rode on the bliss of it, moving my own hips to meet him and my fingers to stroke him and increase his pleasure. He was moaning now, a low, seductive sound that reverberated through me and drove me wild, and I gasped every time his hips met mine at the deepest point.

The wave of ecstasy started to crest, and I clamped him tighter against me, rubbing my nipples against his chest. He felt it, saw my need, and began to pump faster, wrapping an arm tightly around my buttocks to keep me steady. Then his mouth was by my ear and his tongue caressed the shell, and I cried out to him.

“You’re mine,” he growled into my ear, and his lips found the rim, travelled upwards and closed around the tip just as his hand closed around my breast and he shoved into me deeply.

Rapture washed through me, spread through my body in waves so I screamed his name and clasped my sheath around him, bucking against him and shivering in his arms. He gave another deep thrust and echoed my cry, then lifted me away from the rock wall and staggered back, sinking to his knees and sagging on top of me in the grass. I felt him twitch and licked at his ear, pulling his head down by the hair and suckling his ear tip to prolong his orgasm.

He cried out again, shuddered in my grip and rolled onto his back, flinging his arms wide and clawing at the grass. When I moved my head for a moment to kiss his temple he relaxed, but I gave him no respite and nibbled his ear again, slowly, until I reached the tip once more.

He arched and reared up, clasping his arms around my waist. For a few moments his mouth opened in a silent scream, then he found his voice again. “Rin! Enough, please, stop!”

I gave a low chuckle. “Make me,” I murmured, and for a few heartbeats he stared at me, uncomprehending. Then I blew into his ear, making him shiver.

“Oh no, you don’t,” he muttered, and with a quick motion he rolled us over again so he was back on top, then nuzzled his nose into my ear. “This round’s mine,” he breathed, and I felt the bliss wash over me again as he claimed its tip.

“There,” he said with satisfaction when I had stopped twitching. “Had enough?”

“No,” I replied, grinning widely. “Never.”

His eyes widened, then he smiled. He pulled out of me and stretched out beside me, and ran his hand caressingly along my body, all the way from my shoulder to my toes then back up along the other side. When he reached my breast he stopped and cupped his hand around it, then bent his head to suckle it gently.