Blue Abyss: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 3 (The Timewalker Chronicles) (38 page)

She wanted him hot and out of control. She wanted him with water falling over them and her back against the wall.

Apparently, he was coming around to her way of thinking.

Raiden grabbed her wrists and held them in place above her head. “Behave, Mari.”

She laughed and used his strength against him. Trusting that he’d never drop her, she hung from her wrists long enough to wrap her legs around his hips. He groaned and pulled back, but the move shifted him right where she wanted him. With a slant to her hips he slid inside her. Hard. Hot. Hers.

“Gods be damned, Mari.” He kissed her because he didn’t know what else to do. She owned him. And he didn’t have the strength or the will to deny her, not with her hot body devouring his and her mouth drinking him in like she’d die if he stopped kissing her. She hung in his grip, so hot, so trusting.

He’d wanted to go slow this time, to make sure she felt the difference. He wasn’t going to fuck her again. He was going to love every inch of her body, light her on fire, and make damn sure she never, ever doubted his love for her again.

But her hips twisted and bucked, and her mouth opened in an invitation to heaven. He couldn’t stop the sharp beat of his hips as he withdrew and filled her up, over and over. Her breasts bounced with each thrust, an undeniable feast for his eyes. And his mouth.

He stopped his hips, held still long enough to take first one, then the other ripe peak into his mouth and suckle until she begged him to stop. Then begged him for more. Begged him to move.

Just begged.

He thrust slowly, reveled in the sweet way she whimpered his name as he nibbled on her collar bone, then her neck. In. Out. He stroked the fire between them as his mouth wandered down her neck to her shoulder. To her Mark.

He kissed it, traced it with his tongue and groaned as a bolt of heat seared through his body. His skin burned for her. His cock was about to explode. But he held back, maintained control. For her.

He’d not rut like a stag between her legs. He’d love her. Leisurely. He’d make love to her. Worship her. Even if it killed him.

Mari whimpered and shrugged her shoulder just hard enough to force him to lift his head. He did, pulled out. Thrust in. Looked in her eyes, those beautiful whiskey colored eyes, and pressed his forehead to hers.

“What are you doing, Raiden?” Her question came out between gasps for breath.

“Making love to you.”

“Let go of my arms.”

“Why? I like you spread out like a feast before me.”

She leaned forward, her lips a hot whisper of wet heat against his ear as she made her demands. “Let go of my arms so I can ride you like I want to.”

No sane man could refuse that request. He put both hands over her head and held one of her delicate wrists in each as he guided them over his shoulders. “I’m all yours.”

“Thank God.” Mari kissed him, explored his mouth and wrapped her hands in his hair like he was the only think that held her to Earth. Perhaps he was.

She shifted, took control, rode him hard and fast, a wild thing in his arms until they both exploded.

After, she lay limp and sated against his chest, a soft trusting woman who was far stronger than he’d ever be. He traced her curves with his hands as the warm water poured over both of them. Feathered her brow, her eyes, her neck with kisses. He’d never get enough. Never love her enough.

She’d loved him through a nightmare, through death, and been strong enough for both of them. “I love you, Mari. I need to know that you know that.” His arms tightened around her of their own accord and he no longer trusted his voice.
I love you. Do you understand?

Yes.

One word. Her love and acceptance in the answer. And it healed cracks in his soul he hadn’t even realized were there.

He kissed her again, a kiss meant to thank her, to cherish her. It lit them both on fire and he grew hard again. Needed her again.

She broke the kiss and looked him straight in the eye. “I love you, but I’m going after the Triscani. I want to search every single cave. Every single one of them.”

“I know.” His next kiss was hard, a small punishment for the question in her words. “And I’ll be right there with you, helping you ash the bastards.”

“Deal.” She smiled, a radiant, loving smile he’d never had a woman bestow on him before. Her heart and soul was in that smile, in her eyes.

Raiden thrust upward, his reward was a gasp of pleasure from her beautiful, perfect mouth. “Now, doesn’t this house have a bed? I’m not finished with you yet.”

“God, I love you.” She sighed and tightened her legs, taking him deeper into her body, into her heart.

“I love you, Mari.” Forever. It was forever. And he was exactly where he wanted to be.

Epilogue

Tavanier, Florida Keys

Teagh stared out over the Atlantic, toes teased by the edge of the water. Raiden and Mari were most likely in his house now, doing the horizontal mambo. Or the vertical. Or the up-against-the-wall. He’d stopped at a beach a few miles from his home to think, and mourn the loss of possibilities. He’d been Marked for a matter of minutes.

It had felt like a miracle, right up until he’d had to walk away.

The sound of the waves always helped clear his head. He’d leave in a moment on his latest hunt for answers. He’d have to relocate now that the enemy had discovered his beachfront home. Relocate. Run.

All he ever did was hide. But one male against a thousand Triscani weren’t odds he was stupid enough to take. For seven hundred years he’d been hiding from the Triscani, ever since the surprise attack by the Triscani had cost the Itaran’s their King and Queen, and the fucking wormhole had brought the ship he was on here. To Earth. In the wrong damn time, over seven hundred years into the past.

Seven and a half centuries was a long time to be away from home.

Speaking of home, it was time. He pulled the communicator from his pocket and pressed the button that would summon Celestina. He didn’t wait long.

“Teagh.” He looked up with a start to see the bane of his half brother’s miserable existence walking toward him. He bowed deep. He hadn’t seen the Seer, Celestina, in nearly two centuries. She was still beautiful. Still in pain. Trapped in this time, just like he was, along with the other twelve Archivers sitting at the council table up on her ship. He didn’t consider that orbiting vessel home any longer. He’d fled the twelve bastards, including his own half brother, Bran, over two hundred years ago. Always fighting. Trying to control him, and tell him how to do his damn job. If it were anyone but Celestina walking toward him now, he’d open a portal and disappear. After just losing his connection to the Timewalker Marina, he didn’t have the heart to refuse the lovely Seer who approached him now. And he’d promised to deliver Marina’s message.

“Celestina.” He turned to face her and opened his arms.

“My friend. It’s been too long.”

“It has been many years, my lady.” Celestina walked right into his embrace and wrapped him in a hug. Some things never changed. Thank the gods.

“Too many.”

He held her for a full minute. Perhaps longer. It had been a very long time since he’d seen her or anyone else from that gods forsaken ship. Not that he cared to see any of the others… “How is my brother?”

“Angry, full of secrets, stomping around the ship ordering everyone about, as always.”

Teagh would have laughed, but his brother, Bran, loved Celestina with a depth that was downright terrifying, not that it did his brother any good. Bran would’ve done anything for her. Kill kings. Destroy entire planets. Yet Bran kept her always at arm’s length. He had to.

Celestina appeared to be oblivious to his brother’s torment, which was just as well. Bran’s secrets were not his to tell. But Teagh knew the lady well, perhaps knew more about her than even his obsessed brother, yet he had no idea what drove her. The Seers, Celestina and Helene, were mysteries better left untouched. The only two females to come back on the battle ship with them had both spent centuries riding the strands of time, searching. Always searching. For who or what, he never knew. But perhaps, now he did…and his suspicions were not reassuring.

The Immortal, Droghan, wouldn’t be idle prey. He was vicious and smart, and, as one of the true Itaran Immortals, damn near impossible to kill. When the bastard had shown up in his home hours ago, he’d been beyond shocked.

More than just surprised, he’d been worried that the Archivers and Seers who came through the worm hole with him seven hundred years ago might be up against a hell of a lot more than they’d bargained for. Droghan was legendary in both cruelty and power. And he was supposed to be dead, reduced to nothing by the Angel’s Fire of the Itaran Queen herself days before the final battle. A
future
battle.

Which meant Droghan would still be alive. Now. In this hellish version of Earth’s past.

Fuck.

He pulled back and held Celestina’s tiny hands in his giant ones. She cared for him, deeply. It was easy for him to read the emotions in her darkness. But friendship and compassion were all that lay between them. Events were spinning now, moving faster. The Immortals on her ship quickly approached the time of the final battle, when their present would finally catch up to the future they’d all left behind.

If Droghan was here, the battle was even closer than he thought. He needed to know if his new suspicions were correct. How could a Seer as powerful as Celestina not know such a dangerous enemy was here, on Earth? That bastard, even alive, should have been on Itara. Not here, in his fucking living room.

“Droghan was here, in my home.”

“Droghan?” Celestina pulled back with a gasp, a frown on her face. So, she didn’t know. “That can’t be. He was destroyed.”

Teagh nodded. “Yes. In the future. A future that has not happened yet. But he was here, in my home, with the Triscani under his command. He claims to know where Ajax is being held prisoner.” Teagh had yet to confirm the bastard’s claims, but he would find out the truth soon enough. He just wasn’t sure what he could do about it.

Celestina whispered, so faint he barely caught the words. “The dream…” Pacing now, Celestina wrapped her arms around her waist, the flowing blue of her gown a perfect match for the sky above her, her tiny feet in delicate sandals that looked to be made of spun copper. “What did he say? What does he want? How is this possible?”

“He claims to know something about Ajax. And he hunts for a new Queen. A human Timewalker. Not Angeline.” He looked away from her, out over the crashing surf, avoided her astute Seer’s gaze.

She refused to allow him a moment to consider the ramifications of a human Queen, of a Queen that his King, Ajax, wouldn’t even know. “And?”

“And the Timewalker, Marina, asked me to give you two things. The first is this stone.” Teagh placed the soul stone with the Timewalker’s mark in her hand, shocked when a flash of power nearly knocked Celestina from her feet.

“By the gods.” Celestina stared at the stone as if she’d just been struck by lightning. He wanted to ask what had just happened, but knew the question would be a waste of breath. “What is the second thing?”

“A message. She said to tell you that she was successful, and so you would not remember that there is a traitor on board your ship.”

Celestina stopped in her tracks and stared out to sea for several minutes. Thinking. Her aura flashed from confusion to clarity to rage. When she looked up at him, her face was once more composed, serene. A lie only he seemed to be able to see. If only Bran possessed his power. But Bran was his half brother, born of the light, not the dark. Bran wouldn’t be able to see past the mask she wore, couldn’t know that the Seer was in trouble. In pain. And afraid.

Teagh felt a tight band of worry wrap his brow. In seven hundred years he’d seen her afraid a mere handful of times. Celestina was the greatest Seer among the Immortals. No one knew her true age or the limits to her visions or power. She’d been in the forward command post, with the King and Queen, when everything had gone wrong. They’d evacuated the council, lost the King and Queen, and boarded the ship that brought them here. His ship had been tracking a Triscani vessel and followed them into the wormhole.

They’d been stuck in Earth’s past ever since, trying to figure out what happened. After seven hundred years, they were still trying to figure out a way to win that battle this time around. Droghan’s arrival didn’t bode well for any of them.

“Please, Tina. Talk to me. Tell me what is going on. I can help you. If not me, talk to Bran.”

“No. I can’t put either of your lives in any more danger. I won’t. I have enough sin to carry already.” Celestina looked away, stared out over the water, her long golden hair lifted by the soft breeze. “Thank you, Teagh. You know I love you both. Droghan? Yes. I will inform Bran immediately. We need to find him and figure out how to destroy him. We must find Ajax. Find the human Timewalker before Droghan kills her. We’re running out of time.”

“I know.”
Running out of time
. That was a cruel joke. They’d been stuck here, in the past, for centuries, waiting for the day of the battle to once again approach. Now that it drew near, the Archivers were screwed. They hadn’t found the Lost King. The future Queen had no idea who she was, and she was being hunted by one of the most powerful Immortals to exist. They had a traitor on board the Archivers’ ship and the lovely Celestina keeping secrets from them.