MOONDOCK (13 page)

Revelations

Jagged scars tore across the blackened sky as lightening rumbled in shuddering protest on its ragged path.

It seemed an eternity since she’d stood here watching the storm ragging outside Majok’s compound. A sad laughter ripped through the severe line of her lips. She honestly felt the storm was the enactment of the Gods’ displeasure over her betrayal.

Another flash streaked in the darkness, whipping her dress around her legs. She held little awareness over the vicious wind that reached out to pummel her chilled flesh. There was no sheltering comfort to be found in her surroundings and she sought none.

Closing her eyes, she failed again to call his image up before her tortured sight. Shouting out, her pain was lost in thunder’s roar. “Am I to be denied my memories, as well?”

Unable to stand the desertion, Melane began pacing within Majok’s chambers.

It was the waiting that threw her into such an unstable state.

Dragon’s escape into the caves mocked all their attempts to root him out.

Melane still shuddered over Wylan’s rage.

Taking control of the army he turned ruthless in his assault. The hours she’d waited in shamed silence remained a horrible memory. Dawn struck before Majok had been allowed to return and escort her to his home. Melane felt too numb to suffer her body’s protest during the return trip. It wasn’t until she woke in his bed that she realized Majok rejoin Wylan immediately after leaving her in his servant’s care.

An angry smile creased Melane’s lips. He’d taken Rolley with him to insure her presence remained.

Strange, but she lost all feeling for what her future held. Majok would probably be furious to know she cared not when he returned. Melane’s devastation was complete and nothing could make it worse or mend the destruction.

Another flash sent its blinding light throughout the room. Spinning about her movements froze, stunned by what her disbelieving eyes couldn’t dismiss.

Everything grew still around her, expect the pounding rhythm in her heart. There at the balcony, outlined against the brilliant storm, stood Wylan!

In longing, her ardent gaze flowed over every virile contour of his vibrating muscular form. She wanted to memorize it all before he vanished from her hungry mind. Melane thanked the Gods for their mercy in letting her mind if only for a moment envision him again.

As if an invisible shield surrounded them, Melane captured his very soul. He cursed the weakness that drew him to her and the woman that bewitched him. His chest heaved under the truth of her betrayal, but still, he came to her.

He told himself, he stood before her because of his hate. His reasons were right. Coming to take what she stole from him was just. He heard nothing except his conviction to claim what belonged to him. He cared not that he’d leave her to Majok, but first she would know what she carelessly turned away from.

When he stepped into the room she felt the air burn in her lungs, never quite sating her need. Reality shook the ground around them. Glistening raindrops coursed down his bold frame, encasing his jeweled body in their heavenly glitter.

The truth of his presence passed in breathless wonder over her dry lips. “Wylan…”

He came closer; holding Melane’s rising panic in place with the power surrounding him.

The warnings against what was really happening should have sent her fleeing for the first time in her life, but Melane couldn’t make her legs move. A wild calamity of fear and a frightening desire to face the rage now stalking her, held her fast before his advance.

“Always the brave warrior, Melane? Too bad your training failed to instill honor in its Captain.”

Halting her silent tears of defense proved impossible. No words could vanquish the hatred that brought him to her. Melane’s heart cried for what she saw forever encased in his features against her. The coldness that stole the lights from his dark eyes would not be warmed by her pleas.

Revenge carried Wylan to breech Majok’s claim. She didn’t have the strength to save herself from his wrath. Even as her eyes pleaded with him to go, she suffered the touch of his hands taking hold of her, of her body leaning into his. Nothing, no mystical gift nor warrior training could shield her from what he came to take. Only her broken heart held the truth of his assault.

The crushing possession of his lips and body over her own bruised her fragile fortress and Wylan became the ravaging conqueror. She was his!

The roar of victory growled deep within his chest as she rose against him in passion’s flames. Anger’s force swirled and gathered into blazing desire for the woman denied to him, but Wylan refused to leave without claiming what he’d come for.

The mound of furs he took them to didn’t gentle the power he held her in. If only he realized she no longer possess the will to stop him and no desire to combat the battle he couldn’t let die.

Melane’s hands found their own course as she strived to memorize every virile contour of his glorious form, knowing she may never be this close to him again. No, Wylan came to conquer and he would vanquish her willing soul and leave with his victory.

He wanted to shake her, order her to fight…to stop him! And in the same breath he knew he would use all his strength to crush any fight she waged. The woman in his arms, beneath his mastering body, held no barriers up before him.

Staring down into those mystical blue pools, Wylan cursed the warm beauty they gloried in. Everything inside him moved forward to halt her silent conquest…he was the conqueror, not this wisp of a girl that didn’t even know her own power!

And in rebellious defense Wylan stripped away the final barrier, leaving her ivory flesh exposed to his plunder. His large palms captured the opulent globes of her breasts. What began in anger, gentled in the taking as she rose, offering him all he came to possess.

In wanton surrender Melane gave herself over to his masterful caresses. Her fingers caught and held his head, drawing him down to take from her what his fierce warrior gaze wanted. The warm touch of his lips covering the tight nub of her womanly breast tore a surprised moan of defeat from her lips and Melane became shameless as she arched against his powerful body. Touching a part of him that she instinctively knew could rule her, forever, Melane lifted her hips up in abandoned victory to his warrior’s force.

Wylan’s body vibrated against her, his hands moved over her, staking the claim she tried to escape. The surge of male power seized him as he took his ardent pillage of her beautiful flesh, where no other had ever touched. She turned into all warmth and softness, gentling the rage that directed him. No words passed their lips, yet his were insatiable upon her flesh, suckling and nipping every exquisite inch.

She grew wild beneath him, a warrior out of control in the heat of a battle she never engaged in before. Wylan ruled her in ways that went beyond the flesh. Melane drifted between realities, clinging to the only one she ever wanted. “Wylan!”

Gripping her thrusting hips he answered her call, plunging his shaft deep within the sable folds until her hot flesh captured and held him in their sheltering heat. Like a surrendered arrow her cry tore through his heart, lodging itself there at the core of his being. He feared he would never be able to pull it free. In breathless defeat her name sealed his lips over her own. And like a starving man he drank of her essence as their bodies parried and battled until they joined together in perfection, racing to the ultimate victory.

The delicate quivers still assaulting her exquisite form rippled against his heated flesh. Like the sorceress he knew her to be, Wylan felt his defeat to the base of his soul. What he came to steal she gave over to him as a gift.

Pushing away from her, he fought the internal war taking life inside him. Melane was his as no other. No lies could deny the truth. What he came for no longer felt to be enough and Wylan cursed the weakness that brought him here.

Melane shivered against what she saw coming from him. His warrior pride was rearing in denial against her. She tried to call on her own, wanting desperately to combat the rage still burning between them, but Melane’s heart failed, she wasn’t strong enough.
Go…run far and fast Wylan before we destroy each other!

Feeling him stiffen at her side she wondered again if he could sense her thoughts.
If you can, why can’t you see the truth behind the lie?

When he moved to rise, all of Melane’s internal warnings came to life, telling her to shield her heart from this man!

The rage he came to her with was back and set firmly in place against her. In silence, she bemoaned the injustice that made him turn away from her, from what they just shared. No! She’d not let him destroy the beauty in that memory. She refused to feel any shame or let him humiliate what she knew to be true. Melane’s pain came because Wylan could believe she still betrayed him after what they just shared together.
Stubborn pride blinds you, Wylan!

Melane refused to pull the furs about her and let his penetrating gaze devour her. So fierce were they upon her she believed he could burn her flesh. It was the unveiled hate he refused to cover that rocked her body before him. Something deep inside her reached out of the destruction he left in his wake, it stirred and moved until Melane could no longer deny its presence. Instincts driven by both sects joined together for survival against his final blow.

How she managed to stand before him she didn’t remember. Every slaughtered piece of her courage and pride came forward before him, refusing to let him see the depth of his destruction. Her voice betrayed none of the raging emotion holding her on her feet. “Be gone Wylan…there is no longer any reason to remain.”

His great form shook against the rage her declaration instigated. He felt a wildness overtake him and his fist clenched tight to combat the primitive urge she drove him to. Did she not feel what passed between them?

There was no mistake in her belief over the battle he waged with himself at that moment. Be it self preservation or the very love she wanted to protect from their mutual destruction, she needed to prevent what he was going to do. A stranger to their way she may be, but Melane knew Wylan just broke his own law by coming here. Letting him destroy himself by not leaving her here was forbidden. Melane consoled her own fate by telling herself he was still ruled by anger and the taking would be no more than that on his part.

How I wish your heart ruled you my fierce warrior. For then I might not have to reinforce my lying betrayal to save either of us!…
“The storm has ended Wylan…Majok will soon return.”

For a second the pain she glimpsed in his glaring stare made her conviction waver. Alas, it was gone too quickly, replaced by the angry flames of his dark eyes.

“Get dressed, Melane!”

Her back stiffened against his order. “Your commands no longer affect me, leave me.”

She prayed the right side would win over the battle she witnessed before her. Dare she help him? The fleeting stab of her conscience against using her powers on Wylan was firmly pushed aside. Schooling herself not to show him anything Melane focused her thoughts against him.
Leave her, go now, you are King Wylan of the Selams, she is but another elamie.

Melane repeated the words, over and over, delivering their vile message to the man before her as her eyes brimmed with unshed tears.

The fire slowly left his eyes, telling her how effective she’d just been. He himself would realize the truth once he left her.

Without another word or backward glance Wylan left as quickly as he appeared.

Melane’s arms wrapped about her naked waist to still the violent shaking overtaking her. Her heart cried out to call him back, her jaw firmed with the effort she used not to let his name pass her lips. Sending him away cost her more than she could let herself admit.

No longer able to withstand the assaulting destruction he left in his wake, she fell upon the furs and let the wracking sobs tear open her heart. “It is love, if only your own heart could have admitted it.”

If he had, Melane’s surrender before him would have been complete. Never could she have sent him away, together they would have faced what ever came. “Without truth Wylan, your anger would turn to hate…I couldn’t live with that betrayal.”

Destruction!

The cooling breeze against her body finally penetrated Melane’s mumbled senses. Pushing herself up in the darkened room, she forced back the weakness, refusing to let it rule.

He was gone from her life, all her tears and pain couldn’t change the ugly truth. To stay and face Majok sent a rebellious quiver through her. Maybe Melane would have accepted her fate if Wylan never claimed her, but after being held in his arms, feeling the depth of what she forfeited. “No, never Majok!”

She rose and gathered the remnants of her tattered gown about her. Moving on unsteady legs to the balcony her eyes searched the south, across the open coastline. With her fingers on her temples she closed her senses to all but her thoughts, letting her call take to the wind.
Rolley! Rolley my friend, come to me…break free old friend. Be like the wind and come to me!

As if she could feel the beast’s own struggles to obey, Melane’s body staggered against the rail.

“No!” Her denial rang out and she knew before she felt the separation of her spirit from her body that she was going to Rolley.

The campfires were blinding as her senses came back to her. Standing in the middle of the Selam camp, Melane forced herself not to panic.
They can’t see me.

She moved cautiously through the sleeping warriors, her eyes and senses scanned the perimeter to find her Kaymog. The low muffled growls drew her forward. Nearly collapsing at the travesty she discovered, Melane groaned over what they had done to Rolley.

Great links of chain bound his hind legs and massive neck to a boulder. Leather thongs locked his front paws together, rending them useless. Her heart cried over the beast’s exhausted state, knowing her calls made him struggle against the chains.

“Poor Rolley, can you ever forgive me?”

Those large brown eyes stared into her own as if in understanding and regret. Melane’s arms flared in anger at the cruelty. Projecting all her internal force, a low unearthly moan emanated from her as the chains snapped and fell away from Rolley. Falling to her knees with his release the Kaymog crawled over to her. In gentled strokes she comforted Rolley.

“Melane?”

Her hand stayed at the beast’s great neck to prevent the shaking violence Rolley wanted to release against Majok.

Melane knew she was visible, but her anger over what he’d done to Rolley kept her there before him. “How dare you make him suffer like this?”

Taken back by the viciousness in her attack, Majok stilled his advance. That she was but a dream vision didn’t make what he saw in her any less volatile.

“What are you doing here, Melane?”

She looked wild and unreal, he thought a breeze could destroy her image.

“I came for Rolley.”

The defiance and meaning behind her declaration vibrated the night air between them.

She sensed his outrage and his intension to stop her. But the anger and hurt of another gave her the strength within her reach, one she’d not experienced before. “You won’t stop me Majok.”

“You are my lifemate, Melane!”

“No! I am no man’s property. Your bargain caused too much heart break, Majok.”

Melane signaled Rolley to rise. “Go Rolley!”

The great roar that came from the beast sent Majok stumbling back in caution. Melane’s heart soared with the freedom rippling through the great furred muscles that spun in lightning speed to vanish from sight. With his leave she faded from Majok’s gaze.

Melane watched as he searched and cursed the vacant air. “Goodbye Majok.”

“Melane, don’t you dare leave me!”

His demanding tone cut across her pride. “Should we meet again Majok, be warned, I will likely kill you.”

Melane didn’t wait to listen to his tirade.

The shock of returning to herself was as staggering and defeating as all the other times. Melane couldn’t let the weakness rule, to give in meant she would not escape. The prospect of facing Majok’s fury gave her the strength to fight.

“Rolley?”

The answering cry from the yard below brought a smile to her trembling lips. She started to go to him, but stopped. “My leaves…”

Frantic, her gaze searched the room, cursing the weakness that left her nearly unconscious. “Where did you hide them Majok?”

He knew what they meant to her and his knowledge made her groan. She hadn’t the strength to search his house, they could be anywhere, even still with him like he took Rolley.

Staggering against the weakness that was overtaking her Melane half fell, half crawled down the steps to the waiting Rolley.

Feeling the fur beneath her hands she pulled herself onto his great back. “Go Rolley, go fast and far from here…”

Her body betrayed her, giving into the payment she owed for using her powers. Before her mind joined her body, she used its remaining strength to entangle her fingers in Rolley’s mane so she’d not fall off.

The whipping wind against her flattened form cooled the fever taking hold of her as Rolley raced up the silver streaked coastline.

~*~

“Bella! Come back, your father said to go no further than the rocks.”

“I see something, come, Tremer.”

Bella hid her smile as her guard gave up his struggle and followed her. She searched the rocks again for the movement she spied before…
there! Near the cove!

Clamoring over the rocks, Tremer’s cries of warning were lost under the sense of discovery driving her on. Not even Bella’s child spirit could be prepared for the huge, angry beast that rose up to face her arrival.

Frozen before the red giant, her gaze took in the full size of the beast. Hearing Tremer’s cursing efforts to join her and the beast’s low growl of warning, “Stay back, Tremer! And what ever you do don’t make him angry.”

Tremer’s voice shook behind her, “Bella? Step away.”

His fear only echoed hers, but for some reason Bella couldn’t pull herself away. It was as if the beast were trying to talk to her. “What is it fella? Are you lost?”

All of Bella’s senses came alive, she saw the bleeding cuts about his legs and paws, and there was a rein over his great, thick neck. The sound coming at her now was not one of anger, not even threatening, more of a whimper. “Show me great one.”

As if he understood her the red bulk moved down the rocks, looking back and stopping until she followed.

“Bella! What are doing? Move away before he changes his mind and eats you!”

Ignoring Tremer, Bella moved cautiously to follow the beast, deciding if he wanted them for dinner they would have already been shredded.

Going down the cliff took all her concentration to keep her footing. It wasn’t until the sand cushioned her steps that Bella focused on the beast and exactly what he stood guard over.

Bella moved very slowly, saying a silent prayer that the beast wouldn’t think her a threat to his…mistress. Yes, there was no mistaking the crumpled form at his feet. Reaching the girl, Bella looked from her to the beast, who again issued his whimpering plea. She dropped to her knees, Bella’s hands shook as she reached to touch the unmoving form. Bella pulled the girl onto her back, her gasp of awareness made the beast jump about. “Melane! Oh no, what has he done to you?” Tears burned Bella’s eyes as she felt the coldness in the woman she met in Moondock. Lowering her ear to Melane’s exposed chest she almost cried in relief over the faint, but steady heartbeat. Bella pulled off her cape and covered Melane as best she could. “It will be alright now, Melane.”

The renewed movement of Melane’s protector reminded Bella to move slowly. “Rolley, yes, that is your name. I remember Wylan called you that when he said ‘Rolley will guard her.’”

Looking up at his massive form she held little doubt the beast did just that for his mistress. Only danger would have driven her from Wylan…unless he…no, Bella refused to believe her cousin could be so heartless, even if she were still angry with him over Gorman.

“She will be fine Rolley.” His eyes lowered, almost as if in gratitude.

“Tremer! Go quickly and get my father, tell him to bring a litter, it is Melane!”

Thankfully, Tremer didn’t argue and raced off towards the castle.

Bella kneeled beside Melane, groaning inside over the destructive shiver overtaking the girl. The cloak did little to warm her, Bella thought she should lie over her and give her some of her heat, but Rolley moved faster. It took all her willpower not to run when the great beast slowly and with obvious care placed himself about Melane, cupping her cold body. Having his head hovering above her own lap made Bella gave in to his sympathetic eyes; she began stroking his furred cheeks as she crooned soft words to still his trembling. Strange how she felt his trust in her.

It seemed like forever before she heard the men’s voices. Rolley heard as well and turned instantly on guard. A beast that trusted only women? Bella sensed she was right. When he rose from Melane she also felt and saw the fighting stance he took to protect…them? Yes, his from Melane to her was all encompassing. Seeing her father top the cliff she knew she must act before blood was spilled.

Jumping up she moved directly before Rolley. “Down Rolley, stay your anger, they come to help Melane!”

Ignoring her father’s call Bella never dropped her gaze from Rolley. “Down boy! Stay as I say!”

The sudden drop of the beast was almost comical, if the situation hadn’t been so dire. Hoping he stayed down she returned her father’s frantic summons.

“I’m fine father, you may approach now, but slowly and no weapons!”

She saw him take in the situation and relayed the order to the others. Bella moved to Rolley’s side and laid a reasoning hand on his massive head, the nudge she received in return earned a relieved smile. He’d not attack, but she felt every coiled ounce of his restraint as her father and his men surrounded them.

“Bella…”

“It is Melane and she is very sick, father.”

“Wylan’s woman? But how…” Gallen’s shock grew as his gaze lowered to Melane, earning a round of curses and orders to the men.

Once Melane was on the litter and lifted to return to the castle Rolley rose in all his commanding grander.

“Move away from him, Bella!”

“No, he will listen to me…watch.”

With only a raised hand Bella stayed Rolley’s protective advance. “You go on father and we will follow.”

“Bella, I don’t like it.”

“He is her protector and more than likely saved her life, do we kill the beast for that?”

Gallen’s concern for his daughter’s welfare waged a fierce battle. Remembering their last night in Moondock and what he’d seen of Melane’s beast, he knew Bella spoke the truth. Gallen heard only Melane could control the beast, seeing the huge animal rub his head over his daughter’s shoulder as if to say ‘let’s go’ Gallen relented. “Come on, but if he changes…”

“He won’t, he only wants Melane cared for.”

The going over the cliff was slow because of the gentle way the men handled Melane’s litter. Many of them witnessed Melane’s actions that night in the palace. Bella felt they were in awe of the girl or maybe envious of Wylan. As she followed with Rolley, she couldn’t keep the questions from forming as to why Melane was here and in such a state.

There was no mistaking that her gown had been torn from her body. Bella’s anger rose over the truth all saw. Wylan never impressed her as being a vicious or cruel man. Something terrible happened to Melane. She noticed the concern look her father kept on the girl. When they neared the castle, she heard her father’s order to all that no one was to mention who they found this day.