Mist Revealed (11 page)

She moved her hands to his ass. He rocked into her, pushing his trapped cock against her belly. His muscles under her palms flexed, and the memory of how it had felt while he’d thrust into her returned.

Her intense need for sex wasn’t natural. She’d questioned the draw to him from the first moment she laid eyes on him. It hadn’t stopped her from wanting him. It still didn’t. Nothing did, not even knowing what he was.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

She turned her head. Her lips brushed over his stubble-covered cheek. “Let me go.”

“No, you’ll run from me.”

Hell yeah, she wanted to run and not look back. Something was seriously wrong with her reaction to him. She wouldn’t flee though, not yet. Not until she had her answers.

She faced him. His hungry gaze skimmed over her face, warming and arousing her. She ignored the reaction and focused on her need to uncover the truth. “Who’s infecting people?”

“The
eldjötnar
, the fire demons, are the ones who’ve caused the deaths.”

She stared at him for a long moment. The words repeated in her head. “That’s what Irene and Ivan had said.”

“Yes. They are the children of fire, one of the essential elements necessary for Ragnarok.”

She sucked in a breath. “The end of the world?”

“Not exactly.” He drew her bottom lip into his mouth and nibbled on it before letting it slip free. Her pent-up air escaped in a rush. “It marks the cycle of rebirth. It’s also not meant to occur for a very long time. They shouldn’t have escaped from their tombs.”

She tried to drag up what she remembered of the myth. It was a Norse legend. She knew that much, but beyond the basic definition, she didn’t have a clue what it entailed. “Why did they?”

“The ice melted and released them.” He rubbed his thumb across her jaw. “They are evil. It is in their very nature to destroy, and they will. The demons have no sympathy for the humans of the world. They will feed whenever the mood strikes them and leave infected victims.”

“They’re the cause of the UP-33?” She had to be sure. Her rational mind resisted the direction of their conversation, but she also recognized the clues that hinted at the truth in Rune’s words. It was what she’d hypothesized—the virus’s appearance was tied to the glaciers’ melting. Never had she imagined supernatural beings were the source of the disease, however.

“Yes, they carry the virus.”

Her heart raced. If she could figure out how UP-33 worked, she might be able to find a cure. “Were they infected? Or is it part of their nature?”

Rune pushed away. The abrupt move startled her. She stumbled forward. He strode toward the window near the front door, then shoved the curtain back and gazed into the night. After a moment, he let the drape fall into place. He didn’t face her. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

“This is one of those questions I fear answering.”

She grabbed a flannel shirt from a hook on the wall and slipped it on. It hung to mid-thigh and smelled of Rune, but the fabric covering her body gave her a semblance of control and helped settled her nerves. So too did the knowledge that Rune hadn’t hurt her. She fingered the hem of the shirt.

Could she trust him? She worried her bottom lip and let her gaze travel over him. He had the body of a warrior. The analogy, though odd for her to use, fit him. Maybe it was the patience he’d shown. He’d lusted for her from the moment they met but hadn’t pushed for anything until she initiated sex. Hell, he’d even walked away.

Her initial guess as to why he’d left her half-naked on the couch had been right. He didn’t want her or at least he didn’t want a consort, whatever that meant. Yet, he hadn’t left her. She suspected it had to do with honor. Why she felt so certain of that, she wasn’t sure. She simply knew. He would protect her. Against what, she didn’t have a clue. She’d find out, though.

She swallowed hard and went to him. Her hand trembled, but she placed it on his back, right over his eagle tattoo. “Please, Rune. I’m taking a leap of faith here. I deal in facts, not myth, but I’m willing to try to accept what you’re telling me.”

He turned and pulled her into his embrace. He wrapped his arms around her and laid his cheek on the top of her head. For a long moment, he simply held her. Finally, he sighed. “They are the children of fire. We are the children of mist. After the gods are awakened and the final battle plays out, the two elements will renew the world. The gods will form life from the chaotic mass, and then return to their slumber unless awoken. That is Ragnarok.”

“Okay.” What he’d described went against everything she’d ever held true. She pushed her disbelief aside and allowed the impossible concept to take shape. If it helped her find a cure to UP-33, she’d be willing to believe anything. “But it doesn’t answer my question. How did they become infected?”

He settled his hands on her hips. “The children of fire and mist are essential. We are immortal. There is only one way we can die.”

She tensed. He skimmed his fingertip down her back. She appreciated the comforting caress but anxiety didn’t cause her heart to pound. Excitement set it to race. If she could find the bastard who’d bitten Janice, she’d take his life.

“How?”

He pressed his lips to her temple. “Do you think me a fool? You might’ve captured me, but I cannot tell you all of my secrets. It is too dangerous for my brethren. We must play this game for now.”

“Must we?”

“Yes. Neither of us wanted to walk this path.” He caught her earlobe and gave it a slight tug. She arched into him. “But I will not turn away from it or you.”

“How did I capture you?”

“You bit me and swallowed my blood. Doing so made you my consort.”

“What does that mean?”

He tipped her chin up and caught her gaze. “In days gone by, it was the initial step in taking a mate. The first offering of blood is a sign of a male’s favor. It makes the chosen female immune to mind control. The second is your acceptance of my claim. The third…” He closed his eyes and swallowed hard. “The third ensures I can never leave you.”

She gave a shaky laugh. “So I guess I shouldn’t bite you again.”

He opened his eyes. A look she couldn’t describe flared in them. Longing, maybe?

“Not until we are both ready.”

She licked her lips. “Umm, you make it sound as if it’s a done deal.”

He made a noncommittal noise and captured her mouth, stealing a kiss she wasn’t sure she wanted to give. The finality in his tone worried her. A few strokes of his tongue with hers and her concern faded on a wave of desire.

He pushed her shirt up and ran his hands over her back. Each pass sent tingles across her skin. On and on, he kissed her. The sensual seduction left her weak. Her convictions wavered. Thankfully, he broke the kiss before she succumbed to his charms completely.

“It is a done deal. I want you to be mine, and I won’t relent in my pursuit of you.” He grinned. She felt the curve of his lips against hers. “You might as well give in. I am a stubborn male.”

“I don’t have time for a relationship.” Never mind the fact that he wasn’t human. She leaned back to meet his gaze. “I need to focus on UP-33. Tell me more about the
eldjötnar
, please.”

“I don’t either, but this attraction we feel will only grow more intense. We won’t be able to resist the pull.”

She suspected as much. It also comforted her to know they both felt it. She’d have to get away from him if she wanted to kill her fascination with him. Not yet, though. She wasn’t done with him.

“You’re avoiding my question.”

He sighed. “The
eldjötnar
too must feed on blood, and it is their bite that spreads the infection you call UP-33.”

“Yes, but how did they become infected?”

“They were punished by the gods.” He tightened his grip on her. “The children of the mist are not like the
eldjötnar
. We would never commit the sin they did.”

She took a deep breath to settle her nerves. It didn’t help. His tone set her on edge. “You’re scaring me. Just tell me.”

He stared at her a long moment, then sighed. “After their sons were born, they drained their consorts of blood and feasted on their females’ hearts, breaking the mate bond.”

Rune’s chest squeezed at the look of horror on Cat’s face. “They do not feel love or honor. We do. We treasure our consorts.”

She shoved against his chest. “Let me go.”

He pulled her struggling body closer. “No, not until you understand that you are safe with me.”

“Safe?” The word came out shaky. “If you have to make a point of telling me you’ll never rip my heart out and eat it, then I most definitely will never be safe.”

“Did you miss when I said they are heartless? We are not.”

He buried his face in the crook of her neck. She froze, and a whimper that had nothing to do with pleasure escaped her soft lips. He ignored the sign of her fear and pressed kisses to her skin. She remained stiff, but her breathing deepened. The frightened sound stopped while the scent of her desire grew. The mating drive riding them both took over. He wanted to lay her down and bury his cock inside her. After watching her responses to his touch, he knew she suffered from the same urges. He would use it to his advantage if it came to that, but for the moment, he restrained himself.

“
I
will treasure you. Protect you.” He brushed his lips over the sensitive spot right beneath her ear. “You are special. You are mine.”

“I’m not—”

He nipped her earlobe. Her words turned into a moan. “Not yet, but you will be.”

“I don’t understand what’s going on between us.” She turned her head. Confusion pinched her brows, but lust darkened her eyes. “I
ache
for you.”

He lifted her. She automatically hooked her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. “We are evolving. Our species has always risen to meet the challenges of our environment. It is necessary to ensure we will survive and endure until it is time for Ragnarok to occur.”

She bent her head and licked up the length of his neck. His dick jerked. At his ear, she eased back slightly so her breath bathed his skin in warmth. “Evolution is something I can comprehend. It makes understanding your existence easier. I can conceptualize the triggers that would cause your species to develop a certain way. What I don’t grasp is what it has to do with us.”

She deserved answers, not that he had definitive ones. He suspected his earlier theory hit fairly close to the mark, however. They were meant to rebuild their species’ numbers. In the age between the earth’s death and rebirth, balance was as essential as the children of mist and fire. The demons had tipped the scales.

He closed his eyes. He wanted to tell the tale once. The memories hurt. “In the years after the
eldjötnar
killed their mates, the unmated males of our species struggled to contain the spread of their destruction. It was a never-ending battle. They can’t die. Still, we fought. Each one we struck down offered a short reprieve to the humans. It took months, sometimes years, before the fallen demon was rebirthed from its element.”

She rested her fingertips against his cheek, a sign of comfort he savored, but didn’t say or do anything else. He cracked his eyelids open and found her gaze on him.

“Fire?” The word was laced with disbelief, but she watched him with inquisitive eyes.

“Yes.” He offered her a smile, grateful she tried to accept his tale. “This went on for many years. The
eldjötnar
grew bitter. They resented the gods’ punishment and us as much as they had their females. They saw nothing wrong with what they had done. Their mates were selected to birth their sons. Once that occurred, they lost their importance and became a weakness.”

“That’s…” She cringed. “That’s cold.”

“Exactly.” He sighed. “Their leader, Surtr, devised a plan to stop us. Once the gods returned to their slumber, they lured first the unmated males from our home, then the mated ones by kidnapping our children. When we returned after finding our young ones slaughtered, our females had been infected. Their mates followed them into death.”

She clamped a hand over her mouth. “Oh my God.”

In an effort to calm her, he ran his hands over her back. “I led our remaining males into a battle against them. Instead of taking their heads as we had normally done, we lashed out at them. Each wound weakened them. We then imprisoned them in cells of ice where fire could not reach them to rejuvenate their bodies.”

“And because of global warming, the ice has melted.”

He’d heard of the phenomenon but hadn’t investigated it. The term the humans applied to the earth’s rise in temperature mattered little to the end result. “Yes, and released the fire demons. We had not awakened in time to stop it. Had we known the ice was melting, we could’ve manipulated the elements to reinforce their prison.”

He nudged her chin. She bent her head for him, no hesitation. She might doubt his words, but she wouldn’t deny him. He held the knowledge close. “I too lost a female, one I had planned to mate. I won’t lose you, Cat.”

She cradled the back of his head and held him close. “I’m sorry for your loss, but I can’t take your dead consort’s place.”

He pressed his lips to her neck, teasing and torturing himself. She didn’t show any sign of fear. “You are nothing like Malin. She didn’t affect me the way you do.”

Her pulse quickened. “How do I affect you?”

He clamped his mouth over her throat and allowed his fangs to descend. He was testing her. He knew it but couldn’t help it. She needed to accept him and quickly. She tensed but didn’t push him away or scream. Pleased with her response, he willed his teeth to recede and kissed her throat.

“I feel possessive of you. I want to protect you. Treasure you.” He slid his hand over her cheek and rubbed the corner of her mouth. Emotions choked him. He didn’t understand them, didn’t know what to do with them, but he had to tell her.

“Cat, I want…” He swallowed hard and forced the words out. “I want to worship you. Make you the center of my life.”

She stared at him for a long moment. A whimpered cry escaped her throat, and tears welled in her eyes. Unsure of what he’d done wrong, he tensed. She gripped his nape and tugged his mouth to hers. The kiss she delivered him tore his control to shreds. The needs riding him took over.

He reached for the button on his jeans. Maybe he was making a mistake by pushing her so soon after revealing what he was, but he needed to be joined with her. The memories he’d recounted brought back the loss.

The zip of the fastener releasing sounded overly loud in the room. His dick sprang free and brushed over her wet cleft. She tipped her head back, breaking the wild melding of their mouths. Her eyelids fluttered on a low moan, but she didn’t move, not in an effort to get away or to take him inside her body.

He held her face between his hands and waited for her to say something. She watched him with guarded but lust-filled eyes as if waiting on the same from him. He couldn’t come up with anything, not with desire hazing his mind.

“Cat?” It was all he could muster.

A tear slipped from the corner of her eye. He bent his head and licked it away.

“Rune.” She whispered his name against his mouth and darted her tongue inside. It was the acceptance he needed.

He tilted his hips so the head of his cock slipped between her lower lips. Her muscles gripped the small invasion. He pushed farther into her center, and her breath escaped on a soft exhale, one he took into himself.

They rocked together, slowly at first. Desire built and so did the urge to fuck her until she dragged every drop of his seed free. He gripped her rounded bottom and used his hold to slam their bodies together. She grunted and moved with him. The smack of her wet lips to his groin and their moans filled the room.

The flannel shirt she wore rubbed against his chest. He wanted to feel her naked skin but not enough to stop. He couldn’t. The wet slide of his cock along her muscles felt like heaven, one he never wanted to give up, but the ache in his dick grew. Each stroke demanded he move faster.

Her core quivered. Small waves danced along the length of his erection. He quickened his pace, refusing to let her release take hold. He didn’t want to lose the sensations of her willing body conforming to his thrusts. She molded to him, a silken caress he was sure he’d never experienced with another.

“Cat, my Cat.” He couldn’t get any other words out. He didn’t know what they’d be, anyway.

She moaned and dug her heels into his ass, pushing at the jeans still partially covering him. They slipped and pooled at his feet. He kicked them away.

“Rune. Need you.” She ground her hips over his. The head of his erection reached the end of her with each thrust. She whimpered. “Yes. More. Need all of you.”

He grabbed her hands and tugged them above her head. He paused the steady pumping of his hips. With his dick lodged deep, he glanced into her face. “Soon, Cat. Soon you will own me. All of me. Forever.”

“No.” She shook her head “I don’t want to own you. I just want this, you, loving me.”

Her words smacked him as if she’d struck him with a palm across his cheek. She would deny him? No, he wouldn’t let her.

He pulled his dick back so only her lips held his length. Her lashes fluttered.

“You don’t get one without the other.” He drove into her on a hard thrust. Her eyes rolled back. A shaky moan fell from her lips. He waited until she met his gaze. “I’ve lived for over a millennium, slept for another. I am ready to embrace the role I’d resented before. And I want to face the future with you.”

She jerked at her hands to free them. He grasped her wrists in a loose hold so as not to harm her and tugged them higher. “This isn’t—”

He kissed her before she could reject him. She resisted for only a moment before giving herself over the lust consuming them. He led in a quicker dance of tongues that matched the pounding of his cock into her core. The door shook behind them with each smack. The scent of sex filled his nose. He slid his free hand down her side. His fingertips met soft skin at her waist. He shoved the material away and traced the curve of her hip.

She squeezed her inner muscles over his shaft and growled. For a moment, he wondered if she’d bite his tongue, but she didn’t take their wild kiss too far. She captured it and sucked. The pull of her mouth connected with his dick.

He groaned. His seed rushed up. He slipped his cock free before he lost it. He wasn’t done with his consort yet.

“Rune, please…”

He unhooked her legs from around his hips and spun her. Once more, he tugged her wrists up. The curve of her spine tempted him to dip his head and lick her smooth skin, but he needed to be inside her. He settled for touching her, resting his hand on her side. In one quick move, he thrust into her center. Her orgasm caught him by surprise.

She moaned his name.

He’d never heard anything better.

Her release threatened to pull him with her, but he bit his cheek and rode out the clenching waves, reveling in the massage she gave him—so tight, so warm, so perfect.

His.

Never giving her up.

He flexed his hand on her hip and moved. Her muscles clamped down on his sensitive dick. He dragged his length free and parted her tight folds on a forward thrust. He moved slowly, steadily and rebuilt her desire. She writhed over him as much she could. He kept her immobilized and open for his possession.

He set a steady rhythm and took her back to the edge. “Keeping you.”

“Rune, I—”

He drove deep once more and let the orgasm he’d been fighting take him. She followed. Her silken muscles clamped hard over his dick. They massaged his jerking length, milking him until he had nothing left to give.

Once more, snow formed. More mist surrounded them. Again, it seeped into her, quicker than the last time. It rushed into her open mouth.

He didn’t know what to say. He only knew she was special. The mist loved her.

He dropped his forehead to the door next to her face and tried to ponder the knowledge, but he sensed Jaron outside. His presence reminded him of their situation and that he didn’t have time to indulge in sex with his consort or dissect what was happening between them. Rune breathed deeply to calm his racing heart. Later. He’d consider the mist’s acceptance of her later.

Finally, his rough panting slowed. He became aware of her gaze on him. He turned his head. She watched him with guarded eyes that held no warmth as they had a few moments ago. He clenched his jaw.

I’m a fool.

He’d made a horrible mistake giving in to his body’s needs.

How do I fix this?

No answer came to him. Unable to delay any longer, he slipped his dick from her body. The loss of her warmth shocked him. He wanted to tug her back to him but didn’t. “Jaron is waiting for me. There is much we need to discuss.”

She nodded. “I need to think on everything you told me, too.”

“Do you believe me?”

She snorted. “I don’t know what to believe about your tale or us. You’ve dropped me into a world I never knew existed. I’m not sure I like it.” She shook her head. “Actually, I’m positive I don’t like it.”

He studied her a moment more. Her intelligent eyes bored into him. “It is unbelievable, my tale and our attraction. I understand that.” He cupped her face in his palms. “But do you believe me when I say that you are safe with me?”