The Fallen King: The Bellum Sisters 4 (paranormal erotic romance) (29 page)

Let it be his sister’s name.

He released his grip on her and
started building a fire.

Just like that. Back to work, and
back to ignoring her questions.

“Alrik, I swear that if you don’t
start really answering my questions, I’m leaving.”

His jaw clenched, and he slammed
the wood in his arms down to the ground. She jumped at the violent action. “You
threaten me now?” he growled.

“I don’t see it that way, but I
guess...in a way, yes, I am.”

He shook his head in disbelief.
With a rushed spell and a flick of his fingers, a spark caught and the wood
started burning.

She almost thanked him for giving
her heat and light. She could see his dark face so much better now.

He took a seat by the fire, set
his swords on either side of him within easy reach, and then he pulled
something out of his pocket and tossed it to her. She caught it without
thinking and instantly groaned at what she saw. A hunk of meat. She tore into
it with relish.

How did he do that?

Here she’d been contemplating,
no,
planning
to leave him and he managed to stride back into her life
and dominate it. He’d manage to give her heat, light, and food within five
minutes. Damn, she didn’t know if she loved or hated him right now.

“I was going to mate with her.”

And…. just like that she felt
like she’d been socked in the gut with a massive fist. Her stomach churned, threatening
to spew up the little bite of food she’d taken. “What’s mating?” She had a
pretty clear idea from the word, but she had to be sure.

“I was going to bond myself to
her. I had her previous engagement annulled so I could have her.”

“What happened?”
To her
,
she left off the question. Something had happened, something bad, she could
feel it in the waves of tension surrounding him.

He let out a hallow laugh. “She
died. What do you think happened? She died trying to save me. That damn woman!”
He scrubbed a hand across his face, then threaded his fingers through his hair
tugging on the hard locks.

She winced, half-expecting to see
the strands snap under his harsh grip.

“You loved her,” Abby said over
the tight grip on her heart. Each word hurt to say. It hurt even more to think
about. “She must have loved you to do what she did.”

His eyes met hers and an odd look
rolled over them. A flicker of doubt maybe? “I don’t know if she did or not.
She must have cared enough or she wouldn’t have jumped in front of me to take
the spell that would have killed me.”

He didn’t even sound certain. Abby’s
eyebrows flew up. “Who was casting the spell to try to kill you?” she asked
gently.

“My brother.”

“Oh,” she said quickly, not
knowing quite what to say to that.

He waved his hand at her shaking
his head. “I don’t blame him now. I did. I did for a long time especially after
he dethroned me from the crown and banished me from my homeland. No, it was
only once I was out in the endless wastes of this forsaken place that I was
left to my thoughts. Maybe I did too much thinking, but it wasn’t his fault.

I would have done the same thing
in his place. Arianna was the only loose end. She should have been up above in
her room. Stupid woman...what was she thinking? I couldn’t even save her,” his
voice drifted off becoming soft and hoarse. “I should have but I couldn’t.” He
sounded so lost she wanted to do or say anything to get that ragged look out of
his voice.

“There’s nothing you could have
done, I’m sure.”

Distaste twisted his lips into
snarl. Suddenly he slammed his feet to the ground and stood in a rush, his
hands balled tight at his sides. “I could have saved her! I could have fixed
her!” His shout probably could have been heard halfway across the rift.

Abby swallowed hard. “How?” She
kept her voice gentle and soft as if she was talking to a hurt animal.

He held his hand out in front of
him watching it. Turning it over, he gazed at his palm with an eerie look in
his eyes. A wild, crazed look came over him.

“The blood, the royal blood in my
veins touches my magic. It heals.” Slowly, he kept turning his hand over and
over, over and over.

She could feel the chill of his
magic emanating from his hand. “How can you heal?” Healing magic was a
tremendous and rare gift, or at least among witches it was. It usually required
a variety of tools at the witch’s side: herbs, healing potions, and spells. Of
course, what did she know? She stopped practicing a long time ago and both she
and her mother considered themselves ‘grey’ witches—that left them somewhere in
the middle on the magic scale.

Abby thought back, but couldn’t
remember ever meeting a ‘white witch’. They must be rare. But in Alrik’s case
he was demon. She’d already learned that the magic differences between humans
and demons were great. Even some of the rogue demons, well, all of them had
magic powers. However, Aidan the vampire did not.

“How does your healing work?”

He laughed as if she said
something funny.

That’s it. She’d had enough of
his moping. Abby stood and waited until his eyes met hers, then slowly walked
up to him. He eyed her warily. With a quick move, she sat in front of him,
right on his thighs with her back to his chest. He tensed beneath her, but as
she leaned into his strong chest his body slowly relaxed. She could feel the
tension leaving him.

“Spread your legs,” she
whispered. Heat flared inside her at her own daring.

But, he did. He spread his
muscled, hard thighs letting her fit between his legs. Strong arms wrapped
around her waist, pulling her further into his strong, warm chest. A soft sigh
escaped her.

“You shouldn’t have left me,” he said
in her ear. His voice was deep, husky. A shiver raced down her body.

“Why? It’s not like you didn’t
find me anyway.”

His cheek pressed up against
hers, warming her cold one, and creating an ache inside her. An ache to turn
her head so their lips would line up and he’d be kissing her. Her heartbeat
picked up, rapping faster against her ribs. She was suddenly rather warm in his
arms.

“You can’t ever leave me,
Abbigail.”

The sincerity in his voice made
her heart skip a beat. “What?”

He tightened his arms around her
as if to prove a point. “The seer should have told me. I had no idea it’d be
like
this.” His arms tightened more, nearly cutting off
her air. “Do you know how hard it’s been watching you crawl into a space inside
me that even Arianna never touched?”

Her breath hitched. “What?” Her
vocabulary had apparently diminished down to one word questions.

“I-I can’t go through with it. I
can’t do it. I can’t risk it.” He sounded as if talking to himself.

“Alrik, what are you talking
about?”

He shook his head, knocking hers in
the process. “I can’t do it. I can’t put you in danger. If I did it, again...I
could never live. Never, ever.” He was whispering now, his voice hoarse.

Abby spun around in his arms,
plastering her chest to his, her hands in his hair, bringing their lips close.
She stared into his eyes. The raw pain she saw made her heart ache.

“What are you talking about?” He
shook his head and she tightened her grip in his hair. “Answer me, honey,
please.” Something big was happening here, she just didn’t know what exactly.
But, she was finally going to find how what had guilt eating him up inside.

“I can’t do it. You’ve made me
care.” Wetness formed at his eyes.

She couldn’t have been more
shocked if he struck her right now.

A single tear slid down his dark
cheek. Yet his expression was stoic and distant, his eyes not meeting hers.
“You’ve made me love again, and I can’t do it. I can’t put you in danger.”

Her heart leapt flying high as a
bird, but still the words were surrounded in agony. “Honey, what are you
talking about?” She wrapped her legs around his waist, looped her arms around
his shoulders. She pressed kisses to his cheeks and along his straight nose.
“Please, just talk to me.”

God, something huge was happening
but she didn’t know what to say or do to take the pain out of his voice. She
wanted to focus but she was still floating on high after his subtle
declaration.

He loves me.

One strong arm snaked around her
waist and his hand slid up under her shirt. Her breath caught at the skin on
skin contact. “Alrik?” She held him tighter as she pressed her face into his warm
neck.

“She wins. I’ll never be who I
was. She’s won. I can never lift this curse.”

He sounded defeated, and she
winced.

“Why not? Isn’t that why I’m
here?”

“Not now. I won’t put you in
danger. I won’t risk it.”

Abby squeezed her eyes shut. She
supposed now was the time she’d get the other answer she wanted. Just what did
he have planned for her after she killed his mother?

“You have to tell me what you’re
talking about, Alrik, because I don’t get it. Why don’t we just go and kill the
old bitch?”

Tension filled his shoulders. She
could feel them harden beneath her grip.

He pulled back forcing her to
meet his eyes. A long moment dragged out between them and then he spoke and
shattered her world. “If you kill her you’ll die.”

She blinked, swallowed, and
tilted her head in confusion. “What?” Now she tensed. Her throat struggled to
work.

“The seer says that you are the
only one who can kill her, but if you do then you’ll die with her.”

“How?” she croaked.

“I don’t know. He didn’t say. So
now do you see?” He grabbed her shoulders and shook her to make his point. His
crazed eyes beseeched hers.

Oh, she saw a few things. All the
pieces finally fit together, she just wished that maybe they didn’t because she
didn’t like how the puzzle looked after it was put together. It wasn’t a pretty
one.

He would have let her die for
him. He would have sent her to her death to remove his curse. Inside it felt
like two hands were tearing her heart in half. One part of her understood. He
hadn’t know her then and neither of them felt about each other like they did
now. However, the other part didn’t care. The other more emotional part wept
with white-hot pain in her heart that he’d see her die.

How could he?

Pain sat in her chest like a
heavy weight. Pain at what he’d kept hidden from her after all that they shared
and pain for him.

Fiery emotions tore at her. It
shouldn’t be like this. He didn’t deserve to have to live with this curse. It wasn’t
his fault. If she didn’t kill his mother then it would be her fault that he
lived with this curse.

Then Abby might as well be the
one who cursed him, because by not helping him she was making sure he stayed
cursed. She’d be the reason why every time he looked in the mirror he saw
somebody else’s reflection. The only one who could fix him, who might have a
shred of hope at saving him from the curse, was her.

But, she’d have to die to save
him.

Tears pools in fill her eyes and
slipped down her cheeks in streams. Only by the strength inside her did she
manage not to burst into sobs like she wanted to. Never once had she sobbed and
cried hard before but right now, she did. The burning pain in her needed
release. It had to go somewhere.

She wanted to scream her rage to
the heavens at the unfairness of it all.

However, she didn’t do either of
those things.

Instead, she embraced the demon
in her arms, the demon she loved, and kissed him with every ounce of that
beautiful love inside her.

The kiss was raw, wild, and a
little unhinged. His lips moved against hers as if trying to memorize the feel
of them. A soft sob escaped her at the thought.

Somehow it felt as if she was
losing him. They went at each other like ravenous beasts…like people who didn’t
have much time left together.

Tongues stroked in hot, wet strokes,
hands clung and teased. Both of them moved, reaching under each other’s shirts
and pulling them up and off.

With an irritated grunt, Alrik
struggled over the clasp of her bra.

That one little action made her
giggle. The hot poke of pain in her chest lessened as his strong fingers
fumbled over the three little hooks. He didn’t find it so funny and cursed in
Demonish. Another fit of giggles swept over her that dried away her tears and
left her feeling light as feather. As he finally got one hook open, then
another she took the opportunity to run her hands over his round shoulders, and
down the warm skin of his back. So strong and hard. She loved the way he felt,
loved the dips and contours of his muscles.

“Fuck!” he cursed. Finally, the
bra straps slid down her arms then he ripped away the offending material.
Without missing a beat, he grabbed her by the waist and lifted her until one tender
nipple was at mouth level, and then he sucked it hard.