Artistic Vision (20 page)

Shane stood and immediately grabbed his arm. The pain there was intense, the fire he’d been basking in missing. The cold was a burning pain. From a shallow cut on his arm black ooze gushed forth, the last of the darkness trying to escape its fate.

The darkness gathered itself and leapt for Akane, landing on her stomach and began trying to claw its way in. Akane hissed and batted at it, but it clung to her fingers. She breathed at it, but it dodged her flames, no longer shackled by skin and bone.
 

When it leapt for her beautiful, vulnerable eyes, Shane lost it. No one,
nothing
would take his mate from him.

No one.

A strange roaring sound filled the air as Akane tried to bat away the black goo reaching for her eyes. The ground beneath her feet began to tremble. There was a faint, feminine gasp, Jaden’s throaty laughter, and Akane looked up, hoping to see what had surprised everyone.
 

Multicolored strands of light whipped around Shane’s body in a strangely erotic, lethal dance that entranced her. Within those lights she could see Shane’s visions appearing and disappearing like smoke. His Seeming had dropped, and a snarl was on his face as he glared at the black ooze.

“Oh fuck.” Akane had heard of this. If anyone attempted to touch Shane in that moment they would die a grisly death, whipped to shreds by the fury of Shane’s Sidhe half.

This was either going to hurt like hell or be the most sensual experiences of her existence.

Shane stalked out of the fire pit, the flames of her fire still glowing on his skin and hair. The others stepped away from her at his possessive display, all of them intimately aware of what was coming next. She resisted the urge to back up. It wouldn’t do her any good if she did.

Her mate was pissed as hell, and he had decided to Bind her.
 

“I vow that from this day forward you shall not walk alone.”

One of the whips of light darted out, decimating the darkness trying to wend its way inside her. Akane gasped at the touch of that light, her whole body on fire for her mate.

Gods above. No one had ever warned her that he would be able to bring her to the edge of orgasm with
light
.

“My strength is your protection, my heart is your shelter, and my arms are your home. I shall serve you in all of those ways that you require. I pledge to you my living and my dying, each equally in your care.”
 

Akane could feel his power wrap around her, and she gloried in it. Her mate was strong, strong enough to tame the dragon, strong enough to banter with the Hob. The warm caress of it was like bathing in liquid gold, and she longed to lap it up.
 

“Yours is the name I whisper at the close of each day and the eyes into which I stare each morning.”

Akane opened her eyes to see the last of the darkness fall to Shane’s light and smiled. The Vow was almost complete. Now was the final step. When Shane finished the Vow his Sidhe magic would kick in, binding their life forces together for all eternity.

“I give you all that is mine to give. My heart and my soul I pledge to you.” He lifted his hands to cradle her face between them. “You are my Chosen One. You are my Mate, and you are bound to me for eternity.”

The bands of light surrounding them reared back, then speared into Akane’s body in a rush of power so dizzying she almost fainted. She could feel the joining of their souls as Shane’s magic twined around hers, completing her. The rush of power tingled along every part of her, pushing her into one of the most intense orgasms of her life. She shuddered in Shane’s arms, her dragon song winging through the night sky. When he kissed her, drinking down her pleasure, it merely added fuel to the fire.

Akane rode the wave, barely hanging on to consciousness, Shane’s soul and hers now forever one.

Robin watched Leo Dunne sleep and smiled. The man’s wounds had been easily treated, painful but not life threatening. Bres had fled, his tail between his legs, his redcaps decimated by one man. And that man had
not
been the Hob. He almost gave in to the urge to laugh out loud at the memory of the look on Bres’s face when he realized what, and
who
,
had taken out every single redcap save one.

Gods above, he loved this family. Would Aileen consider adopting him? He tried to picture what it would be like to have someone so loving and overprotective of someone like him, but he couldn’t seem to wrap his brain around it. No one, not even Oberon, felt the need to
protect
the Hob. At best, to most he was a carefully honed weapon.
 

Small arms wound around his neck from behind. Robin held perfectly still, unsure of why Ruby was choosing this moment to hug him. She rested the point of her chin in his shoulder and gently kissed his cheek. “You know, I saw something interesting tonight.”

Robin’s heart pounded. Dear gods, no. If Ruby had seen what he truly was, that would put paid to the rare, uncomplicated friendship the human had offered him. “Did you now?”

“Uh-huh.” And she whispered into his ear
exactly
what she’d seen.

Robin closed his eyes and waited for the rejection sure to come. He’d lived through it before, many times, but never had the thought of it hurt more.

Instead of the rejection he’d anticipated, the little human pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. “You look like hammered shit. You need to get some sleep, Rob.”

He drew in a breath he didn’t even know he’d been holding, the relief almost dizzying. She wasn’t going to send him away, protect her family from him. He was giddy with the knowledge that, for once, he could stay. “Didn’t you know Robin Goodfellow never sleeps?”

She chuckled. “Yup, and pigs are going to fly out of my behind any minute now.” She glanced behind her at her rear end. “Yup, aaaany minute.”

He laughed softly. “Your mate is extremely lucky his is a true bond, or I’d steal you away from him.” He would, too, if he didn’t know pretty Ruby would wither and die without Leo Dunne. The thought sent a shaft of pain through him.
 

He would have loved her so well.

“No, you wouldn’t.” He turned to contradict her, but wound up speechless at the tender look on Ruby’s face. “She’s out there, waiting for you, and she’s going to be everything you ever dreamed of and more.”

He swallowed, unwilling to show even Ruby his vulnerable side. He reached for arrogance instead, never far from him. “Yes, she will be.”

Ruby just tugged his hair. “Get some sleep before your head explodes.”

He winced. She had no idea how close to the truth that simple statement was.

Shane barely managed to close the studio’s outer door before Akane was on him, kissing him like she’d been starved of his touch, his taste for weeks instead of hours. Her teeth worried at his neck, drawing blood. Her purr thrummed against his skin, drawing a groan from him. Damn, he wanted her purring while she sucked on him, taking him deep inside her mouth. He wanted to feel that vibration, that absolute sound of
want
she was making right now.

“Gods, Shane.” She lifted her head from his neck, her dragon eyes wide, her pupils blown. “It was like bathing in liquid gold.”

Uh oh. Shane slung his new wife over his shoulder and padded to the bedroom. “Claws to yourself, woman.”

She huffed out an offended breath. “You’re not the one I want to rip to shreds.” She reached down and cupped his ass cheeks, her talons cold against his skin but her palms warm. “I just want to eat you all up.”

He repressed a shiver. His cock twitched, hard as a rock. He placed her on the bed, careful of her wings. “That can be arranged.”

Shane hissed as she darted forward, her tongue enthusiastically lapping at the head of his cock. Endearments and encouragement in the Sidhe language began pouring from his lips when she finally took him inside her mouth.
 

Then she began to purr.

Shane couldn’t stop himself. He grabbed both sides of her head and began to thrust in and out of her welcoming heat. Her fist wrapped around the base of his cock, stopping him from accidentally choking her, but otherwise she let him have his way, purring encouragement around him until his head fell back and he poured himself down her throat.
 

Akane leaned back and licked her lips, very much the dragon that got the gold. He had to laugh at the satisfied expression on her face. “Dare I ask, was that good for you too?”

She snorted, smoke curling from her nostrils. “Get your ass down here, Jethro.”

He grinned. He loved it when she called him that. “Anything for you, Miz Akane.” He lowered himself over her, forcing her onto her back. It was too soon for his cock to rise, but he was going to see to it she enjoyed herself thoroughly before he took her. He stroked one finger along her golden horns, enjoying the ways he shuddered beneath him. “Can I get you to come just by doing this?”

She turned dazed eyes up to him. “Wanna find out?”

He gripped both horns and began stroking up and down, enjoying the hard, cool feel of them between his fingers. Akane moaned and writhed under him, her hips jerking up against him. She bit her lip, her hands clutching at his ass in desperation.

Shane began to rise to the challenge. His wife wanted to get fucked, and Shane was more than willing to oblige her. He bent his mouth to hers, kissing and nipping at her fullness, loving the way her pupils dilated in sheer pleasure. The only thing his little seer was seeing was him and what he was doing to her.
 

Akane spread her legs, enticing him into her wet heat. She grabbed hold of his wrists, stilling his fingers on her horns. “Do it, Shane. Fuck me.”
 

“I thought you wanted me to make you come like this?” He stroked her horns again, grinning when she gasped. “Well?”

She snarled and yanked at his hair, the sting strong enough to bring tears to his eyes. “Fuck. Me. Now.”

“As you wish.” Shane slid into her, his hands gripping her horns to hold her steady. Or so he told her. “I wouldn’t want you to think I was trying to disobey and get you to come just by stroking them, right?”

She growled. “Stop and die, Shane.”

He kissed the tip of her nose. “
Tá mo chroí istigh ionat
.”

She didn’t even know what it meant, but she looked up at him with love. “
Tá mo chroí istigh ionat
.”

Shane began to move inside her, desperate now to feel her come around him. “My heart is within you,” he translated. He wanted her to know exactly what he said to her, what she meant to him.

She cupped his jaw. “My heart is within you.” She gasped, shivered and came, squeezing his cock like a vise.
 

He kept his movements smooth, nowhere near ready to come. “
A grá, mo saol
.”

She panted beneath him, a small smile on her lips. “
A grá, mo saol
.”

He shuddered as the Gaelic phrase dripped effortlessly from her lips. “My love, my life.”

Akane’s eyes cleared. She gazed up at him, her expression fiercely possessive. “My love. My life.”

Shane jerked, startled, as his orgasm tore through him, blinding him to everything but his wife’s brilliant, loving gaze.

Akane held Shane as he panted, exhausted, above her. His back was slick with sweat, his hair, that beautiful red-gold hair, darkened still by his run-in with Black Court poison. Her jaw clenched, cold fury overriding everything else. Shane belonged to
her
, and someone had almost taken him. “I almost lost you.”

“You didn’t.” He lifted his head, the weariness he’d fought to pleasure her deepening his blue eyes nearly to black. Dark circles ringed them. He’d made love to her without his Seeming, but his vibrant colors were dulled. A faint scar remained from where Jaden had first cut him, a vivid reminder of what had almost happened.

“Sleep, love.” She caressed his hair, smiling when he leaned into her palm. “Rest. I’ll protect you.”

He smiled against her hand. “I know.”

The utter confidence in his reply, the complete faith in his gaze almost undid the fury.

Almost.

“When do you go hunting?”

She blinked. “After.” He tilted his head, but the yawn he’d been fighting ever since he came broke free. “After I’m sure you’ve rested.”

Shane kissed her gently. “I just Bound you. You should be exhausted.”

She allowed her brows to rise arrogantly. She was a dragon. She could go days without sleep if she absolutely had to, but she’d pay for it by sleeping for days on end.

It was worth it, for Shane.

“Ruby was out for days when Leo Bound her. From what my parents tell me it was one of the strongest Bonding rituals they’d ever witnessed. Akane? I think ours was just as strong.”

Ruby was human. Akane was not. “Our lives are one now.” She could feel him inside her, his exhaustion threatening to drag her down too. “I need you to rest, Shane.” She licked his chin, tasting salt and Shane. “Rest for us.”

For just a split second his expression was shocked before carefully blanking once more. “Oh.”
 

“What?”
 

“I just understand what something meant, that’s all.” He rolled off of her, leaving her cold. “Good night,
a ghrá.
”

She sniffed. “You’re evil.” Now she was going to wonder all night what he was talking about.
 

“I know.” He pulled her into his arms and she curled around him, kept her mate warm when exhaustion proved too much for the hybrid to hold off any longer.

Akane almost blew a raspberry, but the man had finally fallen asleep, truly asleep, for the first time since he’d been taken. She rubbed her hand up and down his side, enjoying the feel of his warm skin. He’d been so cold when she’d first found him she’d been afraid he’d never be warm again.

Akane stopped, frowning when she noticed something on her arm. She lifted her hand and had to stifle a gasp. On her forearm was a golden spiral triskele, three joined, glittering swirls of light bound in the center by a single symbol. The center of the triskele was a dragon curled around a golden human form. The arms of the triskele rotated away from the dragon and her mate, the golden spirals glittering in the light like a Sidhe’s skin. Akane smiled at the sign that her mate accepted her protection until she got a closer look at the figures.