Uleni's Gamble (4 page)

Trina answered the door and said, “Do you need something highness?”

Nicole waved her hand, “Please, call me Nicci. I wanted to tell you that it may not be safe here in the near future, you may consider returning to the temple for a time.”

She watched as several emotions flashed across Trina’s face before the acolyte asked, “Why, what’s going on?”

Nicole summed up what happened, and what they believed. She also said that they would protect her and keep her safe if at all possible if she decided to stay, but it was much safer to leave.

With wide eyes Trina said, “I will stay, the high priestess sent me here and I won’t run from danger. The goddess will keep me safe.”

Nicole had the strange feeling Trina was suppressing laughter, but she told Trina to have a good night, and went back downstairs.

*

Nora felt fidgety. All the paranoia about keeping Justin safe that had gone away, was back. She had still been wary of course, keeping out an eye to make sure he was safe, but she had started to feel safe about not being glued to his side. Now her head swam with all the possible ways an assassin could reach him. It was much harder to protect against, enemy soldiers were easy, silent killers not so much.

It was her turn with him tonight though, and she was looking forward to it. It was the one place she could always release all her worries, and just be with the man she loved. In that place she was completely submissive to him and his desires. It was an escape, a short time without responsibility.

She took his hand, squeezed it, and led him into the second bedroom. When she turned to face him he dropped to one knee which almost made her giggle. Wasn’t that her position?

He said, “It is a tradition on my world, that when a man asks a woman to be his mate, it is done from one knee. Nora, I love you and I always will, will you be my mate and have my children?”

Nora’s eyes widened and she felt tears in her eyes. She asked in a weak voice, “Why are you asking me now, when there is danger coming.”

He sighed. “I have wanted to ask all this past week, waiting for the perfect time. I realized tonight, my life will always be in danger. There will be no perfect time to ask, a safe time for you to accept. I am the hero to the church, and Abelaweth, no matter how uncomfortable that makes me feel.

“But men who crave power will always see me as their greatest enemy, the obstacle that must be removed. Perhaps it is selfish for me not to wait, but what if there is always a threat, and it is never the right time? It is a risk, but I love you, and want you as my mate.”

She was struggling with it, what if she got pregnant? She would have to choose who to protect, him or their unborn child. The idea of it made her throat close up in a panic. Wasn’t this supposed to be her relaxation time? A vacation from reality? She gasped in a breath when she started to feel dizzy. Perhaps safety was an illusion, but it was one she needed before she could say yes.

At the very least, she needed time to sort it out, what if it was just her paranoia? But the idea of him being without her, for at least a few months before giving birth, and fighting battles, terrified her.

She collapsed onto her knees and hugged him close.

She whispered, “It is my greatest desire to be your mate and raise our family. Every part of me wants that. But illusion or not, I can’t do that until we aren’t being threatened. Vague threats I can deal with, but what we know is coming? If I got pregnant, I could never choose between you or our unborn baby, leaving you to fight without me or leaving to protect the baby would drive me mad.

“I love you more than my life and will never leave you in this life, but I can’t be your mate, not yet, though my heart cries for it.”

She wondered how he would take it. Would he be angry? Understanding? But she couldn’t even see his face through her tears.

He kissed her softly and she heard him whisper, “Our children will wait for us love, just tell me when you are ready.”

Despite the understanding in his voice, she felt bad for saying no, especially since she wanted it so badly herself. She deepened their kiss desperately and started pulling at his clothes, needing them off of him. They were very much in her way right now. All her conflicting emotions were turning to passion inside her, she needed to give herself to him in every way possible, in every way except that one.

She was truly his, she just couldn’t give him a child, not yet. Not until Uleni had been dealt with.

She heard his gasp as she finally got his pants out of the way and teased him expertly with her hands. Her lips locked with his as she explored his mouth with her tongue. She felt him pick her up and carry her to the bed where he put her down gently. They had always either made love, or she was extremely submissive to him, she was his perfect little slut and she loved being that.

But this time, she needed to be the aggressor. She took her tunic off as he pulled down her breaches, but when he moved to mount her she wrapped her legs around him tightly and rolled to the side, plunging herself down on him, impaling herself with abandon when she reached the top.

He looked momentarily surprised, but moaned in pleasure and closed his eyes a moment when she ground herself against him. This wasn’t about playing and being his slut, or making love to show she was his love. This was about her, Nora, simply being his. No games. She started to rock her body faster, rising off his pole a little farther each time.

She gasped as he grabbed her nipples, pinching them softly. She felt shocks of pleasure running from her perky breasts down to her core. Then he burst into white fire and the pleasure doubled. She started to ride him even faster, gasping each time his length filled and stretched her body as she took all of him in her hot wet sheath over and over again.

She screamed in pleasure and managed to get out, “I love you Justin, so much,” as her center coiled and exploded in bliss. He felt so big as her walls tightened around him, undulating against his manhood as her love juice bathed his length… When she felt him start to fill her it was almost bittersweet. A part of her wished so badly that she had said yes, that she could get pregnant from him.

He held her tightly after and they just petted for a while. After a while, they did make love. She didn’t know what was in his head, but for her it was a promise she would never leave him, and that one day when they weren’t threatened, she would have his children.

She swore to herself she would.

*

Trina was having a crisis of conscience. Something she never imagined she actually had. She had never had doubts about an assignment before, but then, most of her assignments were assholes that had it coming in her opinion.

She was an assassin with training on manipulation and infiltration, she always knew what to say, or how to act to complete her mission. Yet earlier she had gaped like a fish as the Flame of Cytherea actually apologized to her, humbly, as if she was important and her opinion mattered. Something so far out of her experience and definitely not covered in her training.

She was nervous though, if the Princess was right, they would probably send a whole assassination team, she hadn’t known she was being monitored, they wouldn’t understand why he wasn’t dead yet, or at least that one of them wasn’t dead yet.

For the first time, she wasn’t sure her target deserved it. He hadn’t been nice to her at first, yet he had given her a room, and apologized while looking genuinely guilty about it. She needed to make a choice soon, she either had to kill him, or go to ground. If a team was sent, she had no doubt she would be added to the list, especially if that snake Riese had anything to do with the orders.

She had listened to them from upstairs all afternoon as she struggled with her conscience. She knew she didn’t want to kill him. He didn’t deserve the death as far as she was concerned. But was that enough to actually stop her from doing it? To put her life at risk and go on the run from her masters, when he would probably die under another assassin’s blade anyway?

In other words, could she live with it? Kill a man who treated women as equals, and apparently was good enough for the goddess to give her greatest power? What did that say about her masters anyway, that they would kill such a man?

It really came down to a simple question, could she live with herself if she did it? She wasn’t sure, but she thought she had until noon tomorrow before she would need to worry about another assassin showing up. Once that happened she was screwed either way.

*

Mage Riese growled at the mage kneeling before him.

“You ran away?” he asked incredulously.

“Yes master, I thought if they caught me it would further compromise the assassin’s mission.”

He closed his eyes, “I suppose it’s just as well. The bitch has been in place long enough though, it should be done by now. Send the team now, if they suspect something we need to strike quickly before they can prepare, or run to the safety of the palace.”

“Yes master, I’ll have them there by morning.”

He dismissed the travel mage and frowned. He had wanted to destroy the man for cowardice, he could have tried to kill a couple of them before running. But travel mages were rare, so he would let it go this time.

He brooded about the king. The kids father had been weak, hadn’t wanted to expand as he just knew they should have. They would have been in charge of the continent by now. His old king’s son was weaker still, though had until recently been easy to manipulate. He had noticed the young king looking more and more dubious about the things he had advised recently, though he hadn’t objected yet.

Still, he made plans just in case the whelp needed to be removed. He could always rule in name as well as in fact. He couldn’t wait for the Flame to die, he could taste his victory already. He would also make sure once conquered they would follow the current laws in Uleni. The females were kept well in Egeria, but the ones in Abelaweth had too much freedom for his taste.

*

Justin’s eyes rolled back in his head as he woke and he couldn’t help thrusting his body up a little. Katrina was humming softly, the sensations on the head of his manhood were intense as her throat hugged it tightly and vibrated. He could also feel tight suction of her lips milk the base of his manhood as she took him whole in her mouth.

He wasn’t even sure how to describe the sensation of her tongue as it massaged his length. A few more seconds and he bit his hand and stopped breathing as his body pushed up, trying to get further into the wet warm heaven of Katrina’s mouth as he emptied his seed deeply into her throat.

He was sure all the other women knew about her doing this every morning by now, and he was pretty sure that just made it more exciting to her. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy it as well. She crawled up his body and snuggled against him, she felt so good in his arms. Nora was snuggled into his other side, and her breathing was not like one asleep, he didn’t imagine she could have slept through his body moving around like that.

She was silent though, not giving up the game.

That was when he heard a huge crash and sound of bone cracking in the main room of the tavern. He jumped up and said loud enough for everyone to wake, “Trouble!” and went through the door, raced through the kitchen and then stopped at the doorway, his mouth dropped open.

There were two men on the floor with necks way out of position, their eyes looked dead. Three others surrounded Trina and were attacking. She was wearing almost skin tight black clothes, and her hair was up in a tight bun. The guy behind her threw a dagger while the other two shot air and fire.

Without looking behind her, she rolled backwards and to the side, somehow catching the dagger while evading the fire and air, then threw the dagger at air guy taking him in the eye. Then she pulled her own dagger, while dodging another fire attack, and put it in fire guy’s throat.

He finally broke out of his surprise and exploded into white fire. He wasn’t sure what the last guys talent was, but he could no longer us it.

Still, he wasn’t sure she needed his help at all when she did a back flip, gracefully and effortlessly avoided another knife throw, and took the guys head between her thighs and twisted her body sharply, snapping his neck and taking him to the ground. All in all, what he had seen had taken maybe three seconds.

She looked up and scowled at him. He actually took a step back and looked at her questioningly, she smirked and winked at him. She picked up her dagger, cleaned it and made for the door.

As the other women came up behind him he asked cautiously, “Who are you really?”

She looked back at him, then at the dead men and whispered, “Death,” she shook her head as if in baffled amazement and walked out the door.

Chapter 5

He sighed. “Breakfast?”

He wasn’t sure who, but he got whapped in the back of the head.

“Okay, so how did they get in here, past the wards? I’m going to take a guess and say one of those two was a silence talent, which is why we didn’t hear anything until he died. But who was the other? Is there a magic sucking talent?”

Sally said thoughtfully, “No. Perhaps a mage could have done it, and left once they got them in here. What I am wondering is who Trina is.”

He shrugged, “Does it matter? We probably could have taken them anyway, but she did just save our lives, at least in intent. We’ll have to be more careful though, not to accept people at face value.”

Nora growled, “It is odd though, it doesn’t make any sense.”

He nodded, “Let’s talk over that breakfast I mentioned…” He was really hungry, especially after that nice morning wakeup.

Nicole snorted. “Feed the man, I hear they get grumpy when their hungry.”

Sally and Katrina snickered.

Nora sighed and said, “Fine, I’ll take care of the cleanup.”

Nicole said, “Wait, let me try something.”

He watched in surprise as a ball of flame appeared, then it went corpse to corpse, incinerating the flesh in seconds. The part that freaked him out was Nicole was in the kitchen while most of that happened.