Dancing Dragon (20 page)

“Did you really need to stop me from doing my job, Lutin?” I countered through gritted teeth. Two could play at the answering questions with a question game.

“I could not let you kill him. He is still valuable to me.”

“And I am valuable too, right?” I said sarcastically, if my words had been weapons they would have been layered in spikes. Shame I couldn't just talk him to death.

“You are my
elska
, I would not let any harm come to you. Ever.”

“Even if I don't want nor intend to be your
elska
?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him and feeling my nails dig into my palms.

His returning smile was disarming, totally. The world brightened the moment his lips curved. It was the thick of night, but I felt like the sun was shining on me, dazzling me, wrapping me in its heat and warmth. I shook my head, vehemently and willed the unwanted reactions away. I hated fairy magic. I hated and feared it in equal measure.

He stood fluidly and gracefully stalked toward me. I tried to take a step backwards, I tried to pull my eyes from his, but realised he hadn't released me from their grip yet. And I acknowledged with dawning horror, that I hadn't even been trying to get away. I did now, I tried to close my lids, to turn my head to the side. Nothing worked and a small sound of complete and utter terror slipped from my lips. Like a deer in headlights, I was frozen to the spot. Enchanted by the creature, the man, who walked toward me. But not in a fairy tale kind of way, purely caught in the spell of his eyes, an unwanted participant in his games. Anger boiled inside me, but it was drowning in my fear.

My breath caught, my heartbeat stumbled and I found myself reaching up towards his gathering Light. My mind was racing, my inner monologue screaming a warning, but still I reached for his Light. Fuck! He lifted me off the ground and wrapped his arms around my body, pressing me hard against the firm length of him.

His mouth whispered light kisses across my cheek - my stomach lurched - his lips coasted down my jaw, my neck - bile rose up my throat, burning a path - his breath heated the skin along my clavicle - a tear escaped my eye and trailed down my cheek. I tried to turn my body away, but it was a futile attempt at avoidance. And then, as if my life couldn't have been fucked up enough on its own, the spell erupted in a ball of fire, deep in the pit of my body it burst into unrelenting flames. Licking up along my skin, making me feverish, dancing beneath my flesh, sending wave after wave of electric shocks throughout my body. I moulded myself to him, my mind screaming,
no!,
my hands fisted in his T-Shirt, my inner monologue shrieking in panic. My mouth trying to mimic its cries, but no sound breached my lips.

He whispered against my teeth and tongue, “Tell me you want to be my
elska
.”

I could feel his Light all over my body, his breath against my skin, his tongue tracing wet trails across my flesh. Flashes of white were blinding my vision, shots of adrenaline were thundering through my system, shocks of electricity were sparking under my skin and the fire was raging out of control.
I
was out of control. Or at least my body was, it was no longer mine. I clung to that thought, tried to disassociate myself from what Lutin was making me feel. Concentrated on that inner monologue screaming to fight back. But there was no fighting back from this, Lutin was the master of the charm, it responded to him in the same fashion that it had responded to Michel. Except with Michel, my mind and heart had acquiesced, with Lutin it didn't need their consent.

“Tell me,” he demanded softly, his teeth delicately scraping down my neck. “Say it.” He licked above my pulse, like a vampire homing in on my life force, bringing my blood to the surface, letting the fire heat it to boiling. All I could hear in my head was a whimper, even my inner monologue was about to give up the fight. “Now,” he said.

“I want to be your
elska,
” I heard myself say from a distance, my legs turning to jelly, bile already up my throat and in my mouth. I was mortified at the words spoken, but the fire just continued to burn out of control.

“That is better,” he whispered. “You are mine.”

He pushed me back against the marble façade of a shop building. His body trapping me, his Light engulfing mine. Panic had morphed inside me, already burst apart within and the shrapnel it created just causing a numb kind of pain. My mind was a seething cesspit of emotions, my body was a cauldron of heat about to explode. I felt torn in two, the jagged edges sharp slices through my psyche, piercing pain accompanying every single emotion that raged within.

"Play with me,
elska
. Share your Light, dance with mine. We could create such beauty, you and I. All it would take is our Light."

My mind said defiantly,
No!
My body just craved release, Lutin's spell had me in its grasp and was not letting go. But despite those fervent desires; one to escape, the other to seek my own pleasure, the part of me that is all Light sang with unbridled joy at how close to Lutin's I was too. If I had been torn in two before, now I was simply fracturing apart. Multiple rips in the fabric of my soul. My mind screaming in defiance and fear. My body writhing in a need for release. My Light singing a song of bitter-sweet magic, called forth by someone other than me, completely out of my control. I did not want to meld my Light with his, but the call of his Light was too strong. Something had to give.

I desperately searched for an answer. I tried to separate myself from the physical onslaught of Lutin's spell and continuing magic. I knew somewhere inside there was a part of me that is still all hunter, refusing to release my Light when so close to his. I sought it, I stalked it, I used every ounce of my strength to find it. Maybe it was Nut, looking out for me, protecting me. Maybe it was just my time for some luck, but I found it. I almost whimpered in sheer delight. I clung to that hunter side of me, that part of me that knew if I shared my Light with Lutin all would be lost. I almost relinquished all strength again at that very thought. The need, the fervent hunger for his Light cried out in alarm that I wasn't satisfying either of us. I forced myself to concentrate on my new found hunter side, on my inner monologue instead, it had never failed me before, and all it was saying now was to
fight the spell
.

“Remove the spell,” I managed to murmur to Lutin, my voice raw with conflicting emotions.

“Why would I do that? It was a gift. Do you not enjoy seeking gratification?”

I frantically raided my mind for a viable answer. “I'll sleep as soon as I come.” I hoped that was the case. At least when Michel had helped me out back at Samson's and I had orgasmed, sleep had been unavoidable, as though it was part of the charm.

Lutin growled against me, but it wasn't the same growl as before, this one had a different musical accompaniment, I was beginning to understand the tones. This growl was appreciation, mixed with a little frustration. He knew I was right. I wasn't sure what removing the spell would do in the present situation to help me, but the need to be free of his influence in some form was so deeply seated within me, it was helping me find the strength within to override his current control of my mind and fight the desire to meld my Light with his. I relished that fact and clung to it even as my hands continued to scrunch his shirt giving the impression I was after so much more than just his Light.

He didn't do anything straight away. I knew he had desires that went well beyond sharing Light. Sure, sharing Light was at the top of that list, but whatever sharing Light actually meant, it meant more to him than just a melding of our core selves. I shuddered at that thought and swallowed back my fear, it tasted bitter. I did not want more, even if a part of me - against my will -
wanted
to have his Light.

One second.

Two.

Three.

An eternity.

His growl grew louder, more musical, more divine, like a tuning fork it thrummed through me, the vibrations chasing the electrical impulses and fuelling the flames of the spell's fire.

“The spell, Lutin,” I whimpered, adding for good measure, “One orgasm is not enough.”

I had him, I knew it. He didn't want me to sleep so soon either. He wanted me to want more and my words had hit him hard. But they were just words. I was still fighting, still trying to claim ground, to get in a better position to escape, land a blow, end this. But it was as though there were two entirely different persons within me warring to gain control. The one: a girl desperate for personal relief, desperate for the Light inside this man in front of her to be combined with her own, even if against her mind's desire. And the other: a hunter, a fighter, who didn't relinquish control without a battle, without throwing the last of her soul into surviving at all costs. I was praying the hunter would win.

“Tell me again,
elska
. How much do you want me?” I vaguely thought Lutin might just have confidence issues, but then quashed that with the knowledge he just wanted to preen under my words. To make me repeat it, to reinforce his control. I could play the game. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, I could see my escape.

“I want you, right now and I... I want your Light to wash me, to bathe me, to smother me, until I can stand it no more. I want all of you, Lutin, now. Remove the spell.” Despite how close I felt I was to ending this, I was still so desperate, it came across in my voice, I only hoped he thought it was desperation to have all of him.

The growl had turned to a chiming, an unusual combination of sounds that ricocheted off the walls around us and drummed into my body bringing me higher and higher and closer and closer to the spell's final crescendo. I whimpered against him, using all of my strength to deny my Light release, to remember exactly who and what I was. Sweat beaded my forehead, a raging headache had started behind my eyes, my stomach was in a knot of gnarled twisted tangles. I felt like a wreck, but I clung to that light at the end of the tunnel. To the possibility of my escape.

I pictured Tewkesbury Abbey, the gravestone of my ancestor, the words written in a shining light. I am a
Child of Nut
, I am a
Child of the Light
. I told myself I would not sully that Light here and now with this creature. It was not his to command. It was given to
me
by divine right.

“Lutin!” I cried, feeling a strength of conviction from the images in my head.

He muttered some words in that strange language he uses, his Light weaving around me, while I still fought with all my strength to not release mine. Not to dance with his. Not to give in to a desire that could be so dangerous, even though it appeared, falsely, so beautiful, so right. The part of me no longer under my control defiantly whispered,
what would be wrong with sharing Light?
Another part, the hunter, the survivor, the warrior, screamed in anger and fear, that I would heed that seductive call, that I would give-in to this fairy, who was so obviously not human, who used magic to fulfil his desires. That I would not be strong enough to stand my ground.

I am the
Sanguis Vitam Cupitor
, the
Prohibitum Bibere
and the
Lux Lucis Tribuo
. I do not cave that easily.

I slumped against his body, cradled in his arms, as the last of the spell and his Light left me, leaving me feeling so naked and raw and bereft. I had been riding the thin edge of lust for so long, the fact that I had denied myself release just left me breathless and giddy. The resultant look must have been convincing, because Lutin sucked in a breath and let out a low groan.

“Oh,
elska,
” he husked, his arms holding me still, his eyes taking all of me in, every emotion that flashed across my face as I tried to find equilibrium in his hold. “You are so beautiful.”

I forced myself to look at him and sucked in a breath at what I saw. Hunger. Desire. Power. It was a mistake, his vivid green eyes trapped me, held me still in their gaze. When would I learn? How fucking stupid can I be? I had no idea of what was around us, it didn't matter, somehow I knew that both Lutin and I were in an altogether different place. Not physically, but psychologically we weren't on a paved street in Knightsbridge. We were simply in each other's arms, him about to satisfy a need so strong it overcame all reason and thought. I tensed, a small amount of clarity seeping into my brain. With it the fear that threatened to immobilise and the anger that  pounded uselessly in my head.

One minute I was breaking free from him, the next being drawn inextricably further in. I had to get away. I had to get away. I had to get away. I don't think I had ever felt as scared of an opponent as I did right then. Nor have I ever felt so alone.

He continued to just look at me, but the hunger was escalating, the desire about to breach the edges of his control. I knew what would come next. I knew it, I feared it and the part of me that was trapped, just waited for it to arrive.

“You are mine,
elska
. You will give me an heir.” His voice was rough and guttural, yet softly rasping with a longed for need.

I felt his hand brush over my hot cheek - my heart stuttered to a complete stop - slide down the length of my over-sensitive body - I no longer dared to breathe - and then come to rest at the top of my skirt. This was it and I had nothing left to fight with. His fingers began to undo the top button -
No! -
his Light began to accumulate again -
No!
- and
one beautiful swirl of apple green and chartreuse in his eyes and I was neck deep in trouble - again.