The Soothing Scent Of Earth (Elemental Awakening, Book 2) (27 page)

"There's one more," I said, swallowing down the tears. Gramps didn't deserve them.

Theo moved to pick me up off my chair, then promptly sat down again with me in his lap. His hands stroked my sides, my arms, up into my hair. Trying to soothe, to calm, to help me get the last saying out.

"What is it?" he whispered in question.

I cleared my throat.

"
Let Essence give you the courage to sacrifice your soul.
"

Theo tensed, so did I. Because as a child I'd never understood it. The others made sense, but this one, always said with a grave face and sad eyes
,
held little meaning. That's why I'd never tried to repeat it to myself. That’s why I'd confused 'Essence' - something remotely understandable - with 'Quintessence' - something that a child had no hope of reasoning through.

"
Let Quintessence give you the courage to sacrifice your soul,"
I corrected. It had to be said, I needed to acknowledge it.
We
needed to hear the words aloud.

"Fuck," Theo murmured, a word he rarely used, but when he did, he meant it.

"I've got Earth to ground me. I've got Fire to guide me. You know what will happen next," I said into the stunned silence that followed his expletive.

"Air to wash away your fears," he murmured.

"Water to revive me," I added.

"Quintessence," he said, but didn't go on.

So, I did. "To give me courage..."

"Don't," he whispered, pulling me closer. "For all we know, he was a crazy old man."

I'd agree with that sentiment, but I'd met an Alchemist since. And although Noah had been strange, he'd been clearly focused.
She is ours to protect
. Committed in a way that made you pause.

I didn't trust Noah or the Alchemists. Or my grandfather for that matter. Even though I was beginning to fear they were tied up in what I had become. And for what was to yet happen to me. There was no way I could turn to them for answers.

"You know it was the Alchemist doctor who helped us escape that diner," I said, while Theo remained silent. "Perhaps Isadora helped too, I don't know. But it was his voice I heard in my head when the
Basilissa
had the mind talking channel open. She had been furious with
his
interference. They know something. The Alchemists. They have the answers. But Theo, I just can't go there."

He let a relieved breath of air out, as though he'd been worried I'd suggest heading to wherever they based themselves.

"So that leaves the
Aeras
and the
Nero
," I added. "And as much as I can't trust the Alchemists, and feel I can't trust my grandfather, there is something to what he taught me as a child."

"What's that?"

"Earth does ground me. And Fire has guided my path."

"Oh, Casey," Theo murmured, burying his face in the crook of my neck.

"I'm scared, Theo," I repeated, feeling his whole body jolt on those words. "Air could take away my fears."

Left unsaid was the obvious. What would Water need to revive me from? And God help me, but what did sacrificing my soul entail?

"We need answers," he finally said, voice devoid of any earlier playfulness. It was flat and slightly defeated and a little worried too.

"We could run, but whatever is happening would catch up with me," I pointed out, receiving a nod of his head on my shoulder. "
Pyrkagia
is out.
Gi
is out. The Alchemists are out. What does that leave?"

"I know, I know," he murmured. "You're right." A long breath of air exhaled, a hand through his hair again. Then a small smile when his eyes met mine. The smile didn't reach them. "Peru," he announced.

"Peru," I replied.

His hands came up and cupped my cheeks, he stared into my eyes for a long moment.

"Go run a bath," he instructed, out of nowhere. "I'll contact Aktor and make sure he's arranged safe passage through
Aeras
territory."

I had the distinct impression he didn't want me in on the conversation with his old friend. For a second I considered arguing. If we did this, it needed to be together. But then one look at his worn out façade, his tired and anxious face, and the depth of love that shone in those golden hued eyes, I decided he needed this moment alone. He needed his confidant to bolster him. And he needed to be able show a side of himself he didn't want me to see.

I was sure that side was similar to the one he'd shown Aktor when I admitted through that Fire in the Amazon that I was indeed in trouble and had been harmed by the
Gi
. I'd give him his privacy to grieve, knowing I'd be doing something similar in the tub when alone too.

I nodded, leaned forward and kissed him softly, sweetly, then fell into the deeper kiss he turned the clinch into with the next breath. We pulled apart breathing heavily and for the first time in what felt like hours our smiles reached our eyes.

"Don't take too long," he insisted. "I still have plans for you, even if those plans are just watching you fall asleep in my arms."

I laughed as he helped me to my feet, a sound so out of place in our world right now. But I welcomed it. God alone knew what lay ahead for both of us. I'd take every second of reprieve I could get.

Even if I missed out on much needed sleep tonight to get it.

I walked to the attached bathroom knowing his eyes were on my every move. Soaking me up. Devouring my body by a look alone. One glance over my shoulder and I was certain we'd both be lacking sleep again tonight.

It took a while for the hot water to make it through the pipes, but finally after staring at myself blindly for several long minutes in the mirror, steam began to climb up the single window in the room. Over the sound of water falling into an enormous cast iron tub I heard the crackle of the fire out in the other room change pitch.
Pyrkagia
filling the cabin, even making its way into the small bathroom.

I dipped a toe in the water, as Theo's
Stoicheio
brushed against my side, seeking a tactile touch he was incapable of physically achieving from where he sat talking to Aktor through the flames. I sent my own back down the strange connection that sprang up between us whenever we entwined our
Stoicheio
like this, and in the next instant heard his words. Spoken to his old friend and confidant. Spoken in private, not meant for my ears.

"She's scared," he said, voice subdued.

"Of course she is," Aktor replied, through Theo's connection. Not quite as loud or clear as if I had been sitting there next to the Fire with them. But enough for me to make out his words.

"I have to admit, I am too," Theo added, and my hand pressed against my chest, trying to still the ache his confession awakened.

"But you will be her pillar, won't you, Theodoros?" Aktor replied in that voice he adopts when he's giving you sound advice. Advice you'd best heed.

There was too long a pause between Aktor's remark and Theo's answer. For a moment I thought he'd severed our connection, realising I was eavesdropping when I shouldn't. But in the next instant his
Pyrkagia
stroked down the side of my neck, over his
Thisavros
claim mark, then surprisingly dipped between my breasts, slipping beneath the water.

Ah-oh. I'd been found out all right, and he was letting me know in typical
Pyrkagia
fashion. I tried to pull my
Stoicheio
back and heard Theo chuckle, then wrap his around my retreating Element, holding me trapped.

"Theo?" Aktor asked, puzzled at his lack of response and inappropriate laughter.

"Just a moment, Aktor," Theo murmured. "I'm dealing with a little stowaway."

"I didn't mean to," I muttered.

"Oh, Cassandra," Theo purred, sounding like he was breathing in my ear, making me glance over my shoulder, but see nothing. And then abruptly get pushed back into position in the bath by a firm
Pyrkagia
hand. "You show such delightful promise. Your
Pyrkagia
is growing by the minute. Soon you will pass even me."

I wondered if that concerned him. I wondered if he was jealous of my increasing skill at all. Which made me wonder if he felt uncertain about things to the same degree I did. Uncertain about things to do with us. I wondered...

"But for now, sweet little
Gi
, I must concentrate on Aktor. And you," he husked, "Must get ready for me."

His
Pyrkagia
slipped lower still in the bathtub, well beneath the water level, smoothing over wet skin, slinking between my closed thighs. I'd been rubbing them together, knowing exactly where he was heading. But it hadn't helped. Within seconds he was where he wanted to be, and I had lost control of my
Pyrkagia
. No longer hearing his conversation, just succumbing to the bliss he was creating between my legs.

I'm not sure how much time passed, but I was panting, breathless, light headed, moaning, reaching, needing,
wanting,
and then suddenly finding release. I gasped, then groaned through the sensations Theo had elicited, thinking his touch was far more delicate and skilled than mine.

And then having it confirmed when the door opened, signifying the end of his conversation with Aktor had already passed, while he'd simultaneously brought me to climax.

Oh, he was good all right. Way better than me at this, I was sure. Hell, he'd been doing it for three thousand years, but I don't really think that was the reason why he'd been able to do two intricate, subtle and highly intimate things at once.

Theo Peters was just that good. He didn't have a reason in the world to be jealous of me.

"Now," he said, as he came to loom over me in the bathtub. "You owe me a debt."

Then he preceded to strip bare and slipped into the tub with me.

"Time to pay up,
Oraia
," he murmured. "And this time, I want to be buried deep inside you when you use your
Pyrkagia
to tip me over the edge."

"Is this another lesson?" I asked, a little too eagerly.

He laughed, delighted at my enthusiasm, I should think.

"Oh, Casey," he purred. "You love my lessons, don't you?"

I raised an eyebrow at that cocky statement.

"Hmm, guess what?" he said, settling himself between my thighs, his erection already exactly where he wanted it to be.

Well, almost. With one thrust of his hips he seated himself
exactly
where he wanted to be.

"I love teaching you, too," Theo finally said on a breath of heated air. "Oh,
Aetheros
do I," he added, and then started to rock those delicious hips.

And I didn't argue with him, because he was right.

I
loved
his lessons. But I loved more, that he loved them too.

I woke feeling refreshed and aching in all the right ways. Heat washed down my side, and it wasn't
Pyrkagia
, but all hot, sexy man. I stretched, arms out high above my head, toes pointed straight down, and rolled over to my side to face Theo.

"Good morning," he said, a smile evident in his tone.

I opened my eyes and stared into brilliant hazel, long lashes dipping down as he surveyed the woman beside him. A curve to his sensual lips as he took in what he could see of me above the sheet. I was naked, and the hint of what lay beneath, flush against his side, was obviously appealing.

"Eyes up top," I instructed, my hand already stroking over his arm as it lay above the covers.

He flicked his gaze up to my face and my stomach dropped. He looked more tired this morning, than he had last night. Shadows clung doggedly to his cheeks, a furrow etched across his forehead. The corners of his eyes drooped. He was exhausted.

"You didn't sleep at all, did you?" I asked, sounding a little angrier than I had intended. I knew why he hadn't slept, and he should have woken me so I could take over.

"
Gi
have been travelling up and down this stretch of road all night," he murmured, with a casual shrug of his shoulders. Confirming my fears. "I kept our shields tight."

A frustrated and concerned sigh escaped me, as I sat myself up, sheet covering chest, and leaned back against the headboard. My head thunked against wood with purpose. If it had been a brick wall it would have been perfect.

"Why didn't you wake me?" I asked, managing to not sound too horrifically angered this time.

"You needed sleep,
Oraia.
"

"And you didn't?"

"I have slept well enough up until two days ago, one more night won't be too detrimental. How well have you slept the past three months?"