Blood In Fire (Celtic Elementals Book 2) (21 page)

“Nae. Only three times, three nights. Three birthdays. Starting on my fourteenth and then every third year after.”

Heather stared at him, her mouth open. She sat up, looking sick. “Happy fucking birthday to you.”

He laughed without humor. “Indeed. The first time was…very bad. I had nae idea of any of this, mind, until the night of me birthday. My da…my father, he told me everything, told me what to expect. It was hard on him.”

“Harder on you, I imagine.” Heather mumbled through her fingers, which she’d pressed against her lips as she regarded him.

“Oh, I donna know, love. Canna ye imagine leaving yer child lashed to a tree knowing that something like tha' was coming for them?” Aidan slid his hands into the grass so she wouldn’t see how his hands had curled into fists and how white his knuckles had gone.

“But he just left you there?!”

“What choice did he have?”

“You were only fourteen, for god’s sake!”

“Aye, and what did tha’ matter?”

She scooted forward and eyed him in a way that made his breath catch. The sunlight glowed over the top of her dark head, making it look like she was wearing a crown of spun gold.

Gods, she was too beautiful by half.

“It mattered. Don’t say it like it didn’t. Jesus. What about the next time? You would have been seventeen then, right?
Still so damn young
.” She whispered the last, almost to herself rather than him.

“Mayhap in your world tha's young. In my world, back then, no’ so much. I had seen several battles by tha' age, Heather, and had the scars to prove it. I was nae a tender child anymore. I was a warrior—I had taken lives. A great deal of them.”

“Don’t tell me that made it easy.”

“Nae, no’ easy. But easier.” Aidan looked down at the grass, brushing it this way and that in the light. Sunlight on a meadow. The warmth of the sun on the back of his hand. The smell of things growing, stretching themselves to that wonderful light. He closed his eyes and lifted his face again. Inhaling that wonderful smell.

It made that second time with Abhartach seem almost distant, like maybe for a brief moment he could pretend it had all happened to someone else, a tale he was spinning. Just like his Unc Ruad used to do for him by that river so long ago.

The night of his seventeenth had been awful, no matter what he said to Heather. He’d been so full of anger, furious anger that he could do absolutely nothing about. A full-grown man and blooded warrior, wild with rage. Bound by duty to give in. The demon had loved taunting him. Abhartach had tried to force him to kneel that night, but he had refused.

“Blood is all yer due, and blood is all ye’ll ever get from me.”
He could hear the echo of his own words rolling down the centuries.

That had infuriated the demon and again he had savaged Áedán in spite. Once again he had suffered pain that could have avoided with a little restraint. His temper back then had been fierce. Nowadays he was positively staid in comparison.

Aidan smiled softly.

Besides, could he really be sorry he hadn’t bent his knees to Abhartach then?

No.

Later, of course, he had
.
But that had been only for
her.

Aidan sighed. Opening his eyes to find Heather staring at him, her eyes bright.

“Oh, donna be sad for me. Nae now.” He smiled at her and yanked her into his arms, so that her back was to his front.

“What about the third time? Was that when…when he changed you?”

“Nae. 'Twas…
nae
.” A tendril of darkness curled along the back of his neck like a cold finger. He didn't want to re-visit that night. The night that took his soul and everything he loved away.

He shook his head sharply. “Tha' is enough about my demons, I think. What about yers?"

“Mine? I don’t have any demons in my life, Aidan. Ordinary human, remember?” She tried to twist away, surprised and obviously not pleased at the abrupt change in the conversation’s direction. He held her fast.

“Bullshit. Not all demons are of the flesh. Ye were about coming out of yer skin when we meet up in Istanbul. Ye think I couldna see tha'? Tha'
I
donna know darkness when I see it? Come on, love. Share and share alike.”

“Oh seriously.” He felt her tension peak and then she slumped in his arms. “It’s stupid.”

“Stupid doesn’t scare me.”

“Nothing scares you. Badass.
Warrior.
Vampire.”

Was that really how she saw him? As something invincible? Even after what he’d just told her? Aidan blinked and stared down at her bowed head. Not that that wasn’t pleasing, in its way, but—

”Ye forgot psychic. And everyone is scared of something, nobody. Stop skirting the question.”

“Fine. But it really
is
stupid. I don’t…I don’t even know how to explain it. Ever since I was a kid I get these damn…moods. ‘Spells’ my dad calls them. I get kind of…kinda lost. When I met you I was running from one of the worst ones in awhile.”

Aidan flashed back to Istanbul in a heartbeat. Her so far away in that purple twilight. Untouchable. Alone.

Ah.

“Depression then?” His voice was low.

She laughed, but it was a laugh like ice creaking in winter. “Depends on which headshrinker you listen to, now doesn’t it? Anxiety, depression, panic disorder…I have no fucking idea. I just know I hate it. There is no reason for it. I don’t have an awful past, Aidan. Not like you. Not like Lace.

"It’s just fucking silly. Crazy, privileged, white-girl bull
shit
. I know that. But no matter how much I tell myself that, when it comes over me, I can’t…I can’t push it away.”

“Maybe because ye need to stop trying to.”

She stiffened against him. “What?”

“Why do ye beat yerself up for something ye canna control? Stop marginalizing it. Accept tha' it's there, tha' it will likely
always
be there. 'Tis a part of ye.”

“But it’s
ridiculous
.” Her tone was patronizing and bitter. So much self-loathing there that his stomach knotted. She hated that part of herself, absolutely
hated
it. He could relate. As he had told her, monsters were monsters, no matter what form they took.

“Really? Does it feel that way when ye’re in it? Ridiculous?”

He felt the shudder that worked its way down her spine. “No.” Her voice was softer than the breeze through the grass. “No. It feels awful, like being wide awake and drowning minute by minute.”

“So stop fighting it so hard.”

“But it scares me.”

His arms tightened at the forlorn
anger in her voice.

Gods, he could be listening to himself. Him and Ronan, when Ronan found him in those woods so damme long ago. Fuck. This was their conversation that night, replayed. Instead of ending him, Ronan had been the one who had convinced Aidan that he
could
live with his monster. That he could co-exist with the darkness and even control it.

Being at war with a part of yourself was a madness few people understood better than Aidan. The nature of their struggles might be unique, but not so different in the end.

“Sure. Yer scared of losing control.”

“Yes.” She sucked in a breath. He’d surprised her. Aidan brushed her hair with his lips.

“And so ye struggle and fight and flail like someone caught in a rip current. ‘Tis a good way to drown indeed, nobody.”

She turned around to stare at him, those big violet eyes wide. “But you can’t just give up!”

He stared back, this answer had been hard for him, too. “Sometimes tha' is exactly what ye have to do, love. Sometimes ye have to give up to win.”

“I think you're a little crazy.”

“Oy, innit ye sitting in the sunshine discussing demons with an eleven-hundred year old vampire? Donna throw stones and all tha'.”

She smiled and then pulled back as if in shock. “What in the hell are we doing wasting your day talking!”

Aidan might have pointed out he didn’t feel it was a waste at all—not that
any
moment in the sun could be less than amazing—but he enjoyed talking to her. Which was surprising as hell, yes, but hardly a waste.

Heather, however, was already pulling him to his feet. And pushing him back against the tree. That look in her eyes was plain as the day on his face.

Damme.

"Oy—Ronan is 'round here somewhere.”

“Sure, 'somewhere'. Giving you some space, like you said.” She waved her hand vaguely. “If he gets too close, I am sure he’ll figure out what is going and back the hell off.”

“And just what is about to be going on?”

“Well…,” She gave him a slow smile and eased up his shirt, her fingers dancing over his lower stomach in a way that made his throat go dry and his balls tighten. “It occurs to me this is quite the opportunity. In so many ways.”

She dropped lightly to her knees, pushed up his shirt and kissed the skin she'd exposed with her open mouth. Fuck. Warm mouth, sucking lightly as she ran a hand between his legs.

Just like that he was hard.

He knew what she was doing here. It was easy to recognize the MO as it was one of his own. Their conversation had scared her and instead of processing it, she was reaching for sex as a distraction.

That was perfectly fine with him. He could use the head clearing himself. Shake all those nasty bats out of the belfry. Both of them needed it. Both of them deserved it.

But they were going to do it his way.

“Say please.” He twisted his fingers through her hair and yanked her head back, forcing her mouth from his skin.

“Oh for god’s sake, Aidan, really?”

“Aye, really. I broke my promise once, I willna be doing it again.”

She stood up abruptly, shaking her hair free of his hand. Her full lips had twisted up in a wicked smile. Those deliciously full lips. “Fine then. You want to waste an opportunity to get a damn fine blowjob in the sunshine, you go right ahead. As a vampire, I would think such chances would be a little thin on the ground for you, but what the hell do I know?"

Well,
fuck
.

“I don't feel like begging today, Aidan. In fact, I think
you
should be the one saying ‘please’ for once.” Heather tossed her hair over her shoulder, her eyes dancing at the pained expression on his face. “I like the idea of
you
begging for—“

“Tha’s just about enough, nobody.” Out of patience, Aidan moved.

Finding herself up against the tree in a finger snap, Heather could only blink at him, her violet eyes wide.

“I
hate
when you do that!”

“Nae, ye donna.” He leaned down so that they were nose to nose. “I did warn ye about disobeying me today,” his fingers played with the neckline of the pretty white dress.

Her eyes got even wider.

“You
wouldn’t!”
She hissed.

“Oh, love, have no' you learned anything yet?” The next second, Heather was upside down, her dress thrown up, bent over his lap.

Aidan leaned back against the tree and examined the tantalizing curve of her ass, scantily covered by the sheerest bit of lace, which he got rid of immediately. He ignored her cursing a blue streak as he tossed the shredded fabric to the grass. Her wrists he braceleted lightly with his fingers, pinning them to the small of her back with one hand.

The other he used to caress her silky, bare skin, squeezing and cupping her firm cheeks until she fell silent. He had a strong urge to bite her there, to sink his teeth into the sweet flesh and—

She struggled violently against his hold as if sensing the direction of his thoughts and Aidan sighed. Back to the business at hand then. “Consider yerself lucky I am no' wearing my gloves.”

He brought his hand down, once…
twice
. And again.

The sharp slap of flesh against flesh loud in the forest, ringing over the bubbling sounds of the nearby river and the chattering of the birds. Heather never cried out, not even once. He only stopped when her ass was as dusky pink as Moiré’s impatiens. Her breathing was ragged and heavy but she wasn’t struggling any longer.

Aidan ran his palm over the heated flesh and heard her suck in a breath. He slipped his fingers between her thighs, teasing open the swollen lips of her sex, unsurprised to find her slick and hot. She choked back a moan at his touch and he smiled. His girl liked being naughty and liked the consequences. He had found that out in Istanbul.

He slid one finger inside her, just a scant inch, playing with her, using her juices to glide back out and up almost to her clit. Then back inside her again, a little deeper. He could feel her muscles tighten on him, sleek and hot.

He swallowed. She better break soon, or he would.

“Say it, Heather.”