Embrace the Magic (The Blood Rose Series Book 2) (21 page)

She needed rest.

She fell asleep almost immediately, so he moved into the living area nearest the bedroom door and from which he had a view of the oak grove beyond a thick pane of bullet proof glass. His vampire vision shifted subtly as it moved through the dark of night, through the trees, the black shadows of trunks and branches, but he saw nothing. Nor did he feel either Ry’s presence or the fae entity, as he’d come to think of this ancient woman, as an entity, something different from normal realm-folk.

He stood with his knees apart and his arms locked behind his back, restraining the rage he felt that Ry had almost taken what Ethan had come to believe belonged to him. It was a realm thing, a vampire thing, and a very male thing that he wanted Samantha
in that way,
like something his cave-residing ancestors might have done on principle, hauling a woman to his vampire lair, keeping her, making her his repeatedly until her stomach was swollen with his child.

His body trembled with exactly that kind of need and a matching rage that Ry had attempted to force and to trick Samantha into bonding with him.

Sweet Goddess, a few seconds more and he would have lost her, that’s what he understood as he stared out into the night, a breeze whipping the leaves and shadows around. The fae entity would have seen to it, would have confused her, and she would have acquiesced.

He’d almost lost her.

The idea of it sickened him. But how was he going to keep on in this way, without binding himself to her? Yet neither was ready to make that level of commitment. They’d barely known each other two nights.

He didn’t know what else he could do except stick close until he found a way to confront Ry and either arrest and imprison him or defeat him in battle for good.

*** *** ***

When Samantha awoke late the next evening, she put a hand to her chest, aware first and foremost of her heavily beating heart.

Ethan.

Ethan?
She called to him, knowing he needed to be fed.

I’m coming.

She sat up in bed. She wore his t-shirt, the black fabric soft against her skin, his grassy, hillside scent sweet in her nose. She lifted the bottom of the shirt to her face and breathed deeply as desire swirled.

But right on the heels was the need to offer up a vein, so that when he opened the door to the suite, she held out her arms. “Come and take what you need.”

The look on his face, of sudden desire and relief mingled, made it an easy decision to take the shirt off and throw the covers back, baring herself to him.

He cried out, closing the door with his foot once more. He got rid of his jeans and long-sleeved tee in a flurry of movement, arriving beside the bed with his gaze fixed to hers.

Thank you
, slid from his mind to hers.

She nodded and glanced down at what was firm.
It’s okay. I’m ready. I want this. Take it all and take it now.

I hadn’t thought…I hadn’t expected…

The words drifted away because he kissed her and positioned himself between her knees.

But she pathed,
You keep forgetting that I’m a blood rose.

He groaned heavily, plunging his tongue in and out of her mouth.

This coupling would be swift, only as long as it took for him to plunder her vein, but her body ached for him as well, from deep inside to the tips of her fingers and toes. Her fae frequency ignited at the same time reaching for his frequency.

As he slid his cock inside and began to push, he released his frequency and met hers, entwining.

She cried out. Passion flowed and she writhed beneath his body, pulling at the woven clasp to release his long hair, then losing her fingers in the thick curly strands.

She shifted her head on the pillow to expose her neck. He leaned down and with fangs fully emerged he struck to just the right depth and began long pulls.

His hips moved into her then drew back, only to return with heavy thrusts, arching and pushing each time.

Samantha slid from one extraordinary sensation to the next, to the feel of a warrior’s muscled body pulsing over hers, his scent in her nose, his frequency stroking hers, working her up, his cock hitting her just right and setting pleasure on pleasure, to his lips sucking her neck and her vein, drawing from her the supply meant for him, meant for a mastyr, meant for Ethan.

Only for you.

Yes, only for me. Mine, Samantha mine.

Yes.
She didn’t want anyone else to take her like this, to drink from her as Ry had, powering him to hurt the man she…

Samantha drew in a breath and his drinking slowed.

What is it?

I…that is…nothing.
She caressed his back, his shoulders, his arms.
Keep taking from me. I love this so much.
She’d almost said she loved him, but how impossible was that? She’d only known him a handful of days.

Yet with all they’d been through, it seemed so much longer. And because she felt his frequency, that she touched what was so intimate in him, in his realm-world, she felt she knew him better than she’d ever known her human boyfriends in the past.

But what did it mean to ‘love’ Ethan? What could it mean? She would have to give up her life in Shreveport and she wasn’t ready to do that. She’d have to become fully ‘realm’ and she wasn’t ready to do that either.

He left her vein and with blood on his lips he looked down at her and caressed her face with his hands. “Where did you go? You were right with me. I want you back.”

She nodded. “I want to be back.” The movement of his hips had slowed but he still pushed into her and pulled back, in and out. He felt so good and the connection was extraordinary. She wanted more, more of him, more of all that they could be together. She wanted him entangled as he was right this minute with her fae frequency.

She leaned up and grabbed his neck pulling him down to her. “Fuck me, Ethan. You’re what I want right now, right this minute. I’m here.”

He growled softly and held her gaze as he began to push inside her, heavy thrusts once more hitting her just right so that she began to clench. She could hardly breathe.

“That’s it. That’s what I wanted. To see you like this, your lips parted.”

He drew close and rimmed her lips with his tongue then pistoned his hips and kissed her hard at the same time.

Crying out against his mouth, she came, pleasure rising to a sharp crescendo, streaking through her body, up her abdomen and tightening her fae frequency to join in more pleasure so that she arched her neck and she screamed.

He pistoned hard, his cock ready. He shouted as he came, which brought her again, another flare of sensation that caused her body to writhe beneath his, her hands gripping his muscled arms, her well tightening around him, making him twist over her as the last of his pleasure flowed.

She breathed hard as he eased down on her and as her own body let go and relaxed into the bed.

Perfection.

Couldn’t agree more.

He was breathing hard as well.

She surrounded him with her arms. Even their joined frequencies had relaxed but remained connected. She loved this, all of it, the giving of her blood, their frequencies joined, and sex with Ethan.

She didn’t want to give this up, but how far would she need to go from all her previous heartfelt plans and dreams, to stay here with him? She didn’t know if she could do it, not deep in her heart.

The superficial part, the simple desire to keep making love with him, understood exactly what she should do.

But she was old enough to understand that relationships were anything if not complicated, that pure desire, of any kind, couldn’t cut it for the long haul. And by everything she’d seen in the world of the Nine Realms, life would become increasingly complex, not less so were she to fully embrace her fae-self.

“You’re thinking hard.” His voice came out muffled, pressed as he was against the side of her head. She felt his lips kissing her hair.

“I woke up with a lot on my mind. So tell me about Bergisson, why you love it here.”

He took her on a journey of his childhood and how for the first fifteen years of his life, he’d explored every cranny of his world, every mountain and vale, every river, even the oceans between the realm, a world apart from earth, just somehow conjoined.

He spoke of traveling the next fifteen years from realm-to-realm, of meeting each of the mastyrs and knowing from an early age that he would one day be a mastyr and possibly rule a realm, but he’d never really believed it. Ry had ruled Bergisson for a long time. No one could be more powerful than Ry, but so Ethan had proved.

He stayed with her in bed for a long time, naked, sharing his life with her, his thoughts, his memories. Later, he brought them a platter of food, and a bottle of wine. His evening patrols wouldn’t begin for a little while longer, though he wasn’t sure he’d be leaving her because of what happened the night before.

Samantha treasured this time as Ethan shared with her. He’d never exchanged histories with any woman before, that much he told her. A strange kind of magic surrounded the sharing, and the entire time, he kept his personal frequency open so that though their bodies had disconnected, even when he’d gone to the kitchen, she’d remained joined to him.

So, this was what it would be like, she thought, as she pushed a strand away from his face, tucking it behind his ear. Juice from a ripe peach he was eating, dripped down his chin. She leaned close and quickly caught it with her tongue and the moment seemed right again.

He pulled her on top of him and she rode him to the pinnacle, as once more he took from her vein.

When she lay in his arms, she laughed at the site of all the disturbed fruit and cheese and thought she could stay this way forever.

*** *** ***

Ethan held Samantha in his arms, his cock still inside her though only half-erect now. He’d come again and again. He was fired up because of her blood, and eased at the same time. His stomach no longer cramped; he was satisfied.

He didn’t want to let her go, not now, not ever. He wished he understood the mystery of what was happening between them. The logical part of him kept calling him away from his house. By now, he would have been down at the training camp with his Guard, going over the terrain of Bergisson once more, devising new strategies, taking charge, ordering the patrols out, watching his men fly.

It was almost full-dark and still he didn’t leave. He just held the woman, half-fae, half-human, tight in his arms, almost unable to release her. Definitely, unwilling.

He’d never experienced a connection like this before in his entire life, although shades of it felt very much like his birth family, the closeness he’d known with his sister and with his mother and father, now long gone.

Was that what Samantha had become to him in only a few short hours, his family?

That’s what she felt like, something he must protect with everything in his body and soul, to his dying breath.

He loved…

Sweet Goddess, did he love her?

He lay with her quietly for a long time, even as he watched day give way completely to night.

Finally, his compulsion to be with his Guard, to protect Bergisson became a pulsing weight in his chest and he sighed heavily.

*** *** ***

“You need to contact Finn. I can feel it in you, like a boundless drive, stronger than any other part of you.”

“Yep. Exactly. I’m sorry, Samantha.”

She rose up and smiled down at him then kissed him once on the lips. “Never apologize for that. It’s your finest quality, your loyalty and service. I value that about you. Remember that, Ethan.”

He nodded.

She grabbed for a washcloth he’d provided and caught their shared wetness as she rolled off him, away from the platter of food. But she stayed in bed, letting him go about his business, taking the food away and putting it in the living area of his suite then heading into the shower.

The sight of him was beautiful and for that reason alone, to get to watch such masculine perfection walk around naked in a room she shared with him, was sufficient reason to stay.

She lay on her side enjoying the show as he showered, lathering up, his brow growing more furrowed by the second.

The connection of frequencies grew thinner and thinner until at last they dissolved, almost naturally, which was nice except now she didn’t have the warmth of his spirit caressing her abdomen, because that was the only way she could explain what now felt cold and almost empty within her body.

She pressed a hand there, wondering if Ethan felt it as well.

I thought it for the best.

His voice in her mind startled her.
Were you reading my thoughts?

No. But I was feeling the loss of your fae frequency and figured you might be experiencing something similar. Were you?

Yes. Such a strange emptiness.

He paused and she watched him turn into the spray so that the water hit the back of his neck. He parted his long hair and she had the best view.

I love what I’m looking at.

He shifted to look at her over his shoulder, to meet her gaze and for her benefit he smiled and flexed his butt-muscles a couple of times.

She laughed, her fingers now pressed to her lips. And for some reason, tears touched her eyes. How could she ever let a man like this go? But how could she stay?

*** *** ***

As Ethan toweled off, he tried not to think about how all he wanted to do was climb back in bed with Samantha and stay there for a decade just enjoying her.

But Finn tapped at his pathing frequency and he responded.
I’ll be on my way in a few. Are we good out there?

We’ve had a red-wind sighting at a community dance over at Caldwell. I’m sending two patrols over there now. I’m going with.

I’ll join you.

You sure that’s a good idea?

Ethan’s gaze shifted to Samantha, whose eyes were closed. She looked so peaceful.
I have no idea anymore.