Chapter 9
Rykr’s home, Earth
He was a bastard.
There was no other reason for what just happened. Rykr had needed her so badly he’d subconsciously allowed her to touch him. That was the only explanation. He should have gotten the hell out of there the second she slipped through his wards. He hadn’t been sleeping. He’d been thinking of her, fucking his own palm, wishing she was there.
He mentally cursed himself as he caressed her back. She was so damned small and soft in his arms, against his chest.
The demons silenced at her arrival, and he was finally questioning their calm. The fact that he’d taken her with them still inside him made him an even bigger prick. His soul wasn’t free.
“You’re not a prick, Rykr.” Her soft words stilled him. He cursed again while quickly erecting a shield to his private thoughts. He hadn’t even thought about their new telepathic bond leaving him wide open. Obviously, she had, because he couldn’t hear a single one of her thoughts. He ran a hand over his face, wondering how logic fled the second he was near her and how much of a bastard he was to have put her in harm’s way now. His gut was twisting with the need to fix this.
He was dealing with all the rabid thoughts churning in his mind when she rose, using her small hands as leverage against his chest.
“Rykr, stop it. And as for you ‘letting’ me catch you? That’s insulting as hell.” She sent him a withering glare before continuing. “I know you. We played as kids, and your eyes have always given you away, big guy. And you obviously didn’t remember how dirty I fight. When I distracted you by speaking in your mind, I knew I had you. This wasn’t you. I did this. If you want to blame someone, blame me. It was a dick move, but you gave me no choice.”
She was so fierce, gorgeous… and by the way her eyes flickered, he knew she was also guilt-ridden. She even chewed on her full lower lip. Comforting her felt like a damned compulsion, so he agreed. “It was a dick move.”
Her tension eased a little as her pale-green eyes searched his. When her lips twitched, he felt like a king. Damn, but she wrapped him in knots. She always had.
Before they said anything more, her gaze slipped to his tattoos. A flash of power slipped from her, and suddenly the lamps on either side of the four-poster bed turned on. The light sent a golden glow over her soft skin, but he couldn’t take his eyes off her face as she studied him. The ink was done in dark green murals that weren’t easy to see fully unless you were studying them like she was doing now.
Her questing fingers ran over his arms and chest, then down his stomach, sending sensation straight to his dick, but he let her look. He let her see it all, even the ones on his legs.
His cock was hard against his stomach. Even that innocent touch lit him on fire.
“You had your memories. I had mine,” he admitted as he slid his fingers over one of the big red blooms on her shoulder.
“They’re versions of me… and the mating symbol.” Her swollen lips were parted when her eyes met his.
The one over his heart was her face in profile, her hair as wild as it was now. The twin dragons in figure eights, held together by their tails, were usually done in a mating ceremony, but he’d had his cousin do them on his twentieth birthday. They were directly under her image against his heart. Most of the others were different versions of her, of her long hair, the sexy curve of her back, all running in one swirling mass over his body. They even covered the runes that ran down his back.
“Except this one.” Her tone was thoughtful as her fingers stroked the side of his neck. He took her hand in his, not liking her hands anywhere near the mark of his curse.
“Except that one,” he agreed.
“The demon mark?” she asked.
“Yes.” That killed a fraction of his renewed arousal, enough that he said, “Lucy, we can’t finish this. I have to try to find a way to get rid of them first.”
Her green eyes sparked. “Don’t fight against us, Rykr. You know as well as I do that we’ll stay in the frenzy until we finish this.” His cock twitched just thinking about all they’d do to finish the bond. The soul connection wasn’t complete until he’d claimed every last inch of his female.
He closed his eyes and sucked in a breath.
“I want it all, Rykr.” Her whisper was seductive as hell, telling him what she wanted. He growled. His mate was pushing him for something he couldn’t give. He could finally hold her, touch her, but he could never be the one to curse her unless there wasn’t another option. Unfortunately for him, there might not be. His parents’ frenzy was accelerated because of biology. If that was the case with Lucy and him, they might only have hours, not weeks. She might be assailed with pain either way, because that was what came when the frenzy pushed a couple to finish the bond.
“Come here.” He pulled her back against his chest, wanting her there for just another minute before he figured out what to do next.
She felt perfect in his arms. She felt right. This was what they’d been meant to share.
“I can feel you thinking.” Her grim tone gutted him.
He needed to figure out how to get rid of the demons before the frenzy drove them insane. The bastards were oddly silent. He felt his soul reacting to her presence, reaching for a connection they couldn’t have. Not yet.
He ran his fingers through her long chestnut hair, reveling in how silky it felt draped over his chest and hands. “Who told you about this place?”
“Your mother.”
He shook his head. A part of him wasn’t surprised. The pain from his curse had been excruciating when it first hit. He thought it was going to rip him to pieces until he found ways to mentally suppress it. His mother knew the agony he’d gone through. He’d been too young to stop it from going through his family bond.
“What did she tell you?” Now that his family was free of the vow he’d gotten them to take as a kid, it seemed all bets were completely off.
“Everything you should have told me.” There was a hard edge to her tone.
She rose again, gazing at him with harsh determination. “My power is starting to come back, Rykr.”
The hand in her hair stilled. “When?” He was glad, but surprised. She’d been so miserable when it left. He wondered why it had come back now.
“Earlier today.”
He thought about that. “So you’re hoping it’s fate? That the power will release my connection to the demons?”
She sighed. “Yes, but I’m honestly just happy it’s back. I do hope it releases the demons, but that’s not why I’m here.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “I don’t care either way. I can deal with the pain, Rykr.”
He sighed. “You came to save me.”
“I’m here because I missed you. It killed me a little every day not to be near you. I wanted to talk to you. When you stayed away, I thought you liked the independence.”
“I stayed away to protect you. Period. The demand you made was ridiculous.” He scoffed. “Nothing but this could have kept me from you the second I turned twenty. The last decade has felt like a lifetime.”
She shook her head. “We’re quite a pair. Each thinks they know what’s best for the other to the point where we walk all over each other’s choices.”
He laughed at her derisive tone. In that moment, it felt like they were back to how they used to be, back when they were friends who loved each other, when they could tell each other anything. Damn it, he’d missed her, too.
Her gaze softened. “In all the images I convinced Ophelia to share with me, you were never laughing.”
He cocked a brow. “I didn’t exactly have a lot to laugh about.” He couldn’t stop touching her hair or her soft skin.
“Then let me try it my way.” Her eyes were so damned beautiful and so serious. “It’s done, and I’m happy no matter how wrong my tactics were, Rykr. I want all I can have of you.”
He pulled her back down to his chest. He loved having her against his skin.
After a minute, he spoke. “When the pain hit me, it was like I was being torn apart, Lucy. For a long time, it felt like that. I’m a grown male. I can push it back now, but when it started, it was excruciating.”
“It’s only pain, Rykr.” She sighed in frustration. “It’s not death. I can take whatever it is because you’d help me figure out how to deal with it. What are they doing now?”
“They’re silent,” he admitted. He could feel them, but they weren’t clawing and furious.
Her eyes were bright and hopeful at that.
“It could be a bad sign,” he said. Nothing good came from the fiends.
“But it could be good. You should have come for me, Rykr.”
“What would you have done if our positions were reversed, Lucy?”
Her dark brows knitted in a sweet, thoughtful frown. “Point made.” But she wasn’t done. He could feel it, and he smiled when she continued. “At least consider that my power may have come back for this. There’s an even larger possibility that the soul bond alone will end their hold. Most races can’t hold multiple bonds. You know that.”
She was up again, looking down at him.
He growled. “The healers can’t guarantee that, Lucy. Not with my mixed biology. If it’s not the case, you end up cursed. By. Me.”
“Listen to me, Rykr. You don’t trust this David. Neither do I. He might want the demons free, but that doesn’t mean he cares if you live through it. Anything associated with Artemis has to be evil. You know that. Her existence was devoted to causing and basking in the suffering around her. So if this medallion he’s trying to find is hers, it won’t be linked to anything good. I don’t want you anywhere near it.”
How could she make him smile even now? She sounded so damned protective, and he liked it. He agreed with her about David, but at the moment, he couldn’t figure out an alternative. Not one that didn’t end up hurting her, anyway.
“I’ll figure it out. We can deal with the frenzy for a while.” He hoped they were in a normal frenzy and not the accelerated version, but the fact that his cock hadn’t softened didn’t bode well.
He stilled. His senses picked up on something outside, familiar and not a threat. He cursed, wondering how long she’d been out there.
“You brought Ophelia?” He groaned.
“There’s a threat, and we’re in the frenzy,” she pointed out with an edge of irritation. Her fingers were moving over his chest and stomach, and he groaned. She was starting to squirm, and he was more than ready to have her all over again.
“Ophelia, though?” He ran a hand down his face, knowing exactly how his grandfather would feel if he ever learned his baby girl was playing guard for them when there was a demon on the loose.
He needed to get them both back to the manor. Even thinking the words felt wrong. He needed Ophelia to go back, yes. But he would keep Lucy with him. How the hell did he plan to deal with David if he wouldn’t let her leave his side? His bed?
“I need to get her back to the manor,” he said, not wanting to be away from her, but he wasn’t letting her leave this damned room. Already, her sweet scent called to his dick.
She sat up on her knees, and he noticed how flushed her skin was. Her chest was rising and falling as she murmured, “I think we need her out there a little longer.”
His gaze shifted down to her gorgeous, swollen tits. Soft strands of her long hair obscured them some, but her hands slid up her side to cup them. He growled as his cock bobbed against his stomach.
His eyes caught on the small trace of her virgin’s blood marking his blankets, and his wings nearly released on their own again. He’d never lost control of his powers. Not before tonight.
Her eyes went to that mark on the bedding, and then they slid to him, heating before she parted the thighs she knelt on. He snarled when he saw the matching smudge of blood between her creamy legs, evidence that she was all his. The primal part of him reveled in it.
Before he knew what he was doing, he’d pulled her into his arms. If the need was this relentless after less than an hour, they wouldn’t last the night.
“Are you hurting at all?” he asked. When the frenzy was at its worse, the female felt painful need.
“Not when we touch.”
He stood up, easily carrying her to the bathroom. With a thought, water cascaded in his oversized stone shower. He didn’t need to wait long for it to heat. Steam was already filling the space when he carried her inside.
He’d deal with Ophelia after. He wasn’t sure who he’d get to replace his aunt, but he’d make sure they had someone out there.
He set her down, allowing the steamy water to slide over her skin as he reached for the soap to clean her. She groaned and turned her face into the spray.
A harsh growl slipped from his lips when he caught sight of the golden markings running down her delicate spine. “Lucy.” He knew exactly what he was seeing, powerful protection runes that looked beautiful on her skin.
“Your mother put them there for me. Does it make you feel better that I have protection already?” She turned her head to gaze up at him through wet eyelashes, and he felt his breathing turn rough in response.
He ran a hand down his face, hoping she wouldn’t need the protective runes. All ability to think was gone as he spun her and lifted her, not satisfied with just washing her.
He’d let her screams of pleasure drown out his fear for her.