Dream of Me (27 page)

His lips peeled back in a snarl as he felt others move closer to the circle. The weight of their pitying gazes hung around him. Tightening his arms around his mate impossibly tighter, he continued to seek her light through their link. But all he encountered was darkness. The bond was gone with his beloved mate. It wasn’t supposed to end this way, it was him that was meant to die, not his courageous mate. His soul refused to admit that she was gone. Deep inside his being, he could still feel her presence.

Moving to press his forehead against hers, his hand gently cupped the back of her head. A flicker of light caught his attention close to Elena’s face. Slowly, his hand that tenderly cupped her head began to glow with the light of his life force. His eyes widened with hope. The Malrai Hin had not taken all his life force yet, there was still a chance. Not wasting a moment, he repositioned Elena until she was supported with just his arm around her upper back. Covering her still chest with his glowing hand, he covered her parted lips with his own. A heartbeat passed and then another before he felt his spirit open up and release what was left within him through his hand and lips.

Gasps sounded around him as he felt Elena’s chest bow out as air filled her lungs. He felt as if his chest would burst with joy, but he couldn’t stop. It was too late to turn back now. As she coughed and struggled against the rushing hot sensation, he held her tight until the last of his life force poured into her. The familiar pain in his chest suddenly receded as the last of his life force was taken.

He fell back from her as she shoved free from his arms. Her wide green eyes stared at him as a small hand fluttered against her chest. She winced in pain as her chest felt like it was on fire. With weak movements, Kieran reached out to tenderly cup her face as she stared down at him with bewilderment.

“I thought I lost you,” he breathed out. Inside his chest he could feel his heart taking its final slow beats. He accepted it; at least he got to see her one last time.

“Kieran?”

Elena crawled toward Kieran as his eyes closed and he crumbled to the ground. She reached down to cup his cold face in between her hands. What had happened to him? She couldn’t explain the hot pain in her chest but she knew that something had gone wrong the second she connected with the Kelithian energy. She remembered wandering in darkness until suddenly a blue fire burned through her, dragging her back to the light.

Looking over her shoulder helplessly, she met the solemn eyes of Cian and Arlen. “Do something!” she shouted. Why were they just standing there? “Help him!”

“We cannot,” Arlen whispered in a low voice. “It is the Malrai Hin. It has taken his life force since the mating was not complete. What he had left, he gave to you.”

Horror had her face paling. “What? No! We did complete the bond. I claimed him and so did he!” Whether she was arguing to assure herself or Arlen, she didn’t know. Kieran couldn’t die. Not after everything they’d come through.

“The Malrai Hin can only be completed if the female accepts her mate with everything she is. Without it, the bonding is a death sentence,” Cian said grimly. Pressing her lips together stubbornly she turned back to Kieran’s still form. He was still breathing, but it was weak and each breath had her fearing another wouldn’t follow. So Kieran wanted to die a martyr, she’d see about that! Pressing her lips together in a firm line she glared down at her dying mate.

“You listen to me, Kieran,” she said in a scolding tone. “First you make me think I’m insane by entering my dreams and then appearing in my world. Then you kidnap me to bring me here and you purposely make me fall in love with you. So you don’t get to get out of this so easily. I plan to make you pay for every moment you nearly gave me heart attacks by forcing me to fly with you. And for every time you withheld information about this mating rite of yours. Do you hear me? I accept your claim.”

“Kieran?” Moving her hands down to grip his shoulders she lightly shook him. “Kieran!” she shouted as cold dread filled her. Was she too late? Pressing her ear to his chest, she gasped in agony as his heart no longer beat. Ignoring the burning tears that fell from her eyes, she shook him harder.

Gasping for air she shouted louder, “Kieran! You big jerk! Wake up!” Falling against his chest she closed her eyes as her fist clenched beside her face. Burning tears fell onto his cold skin as she felt her lips moving in a whisper with the memory of Kieran’s vowing words from the night she claimed him.

“I claim you as mine, until my last breath leaves me and even then I will always be yours and you mine.”

Instantly she felt a strong beat beneath her cheek. Then another, after the third she was nearly thrown off him as his chest expanded with his first breath. His eyes never opened as he began breathing steadily. Already his normal gray complexion was returning. It was the words! She shouted in her mind with happiness.

“Impossible,” Cian whispered. As he took a step forward to knee at Kieran’s other side. “He’s alive.”

Rising to his feet, Cian pointed to the remaining warriors that had rounded up the remaining Kelithians. “Keep their hands bound and escort them back to the stronghold. I want them
all
under lock and key until I say otherwise.” Once the warriors moved to do his bidding, Cian turned to Arlen and Dajran as they stepped closer. “Find Zyaid and Rurik,” he snarled before turning to follow his warriors.

“You won’t find them,” Elena said in a hollow voice. Stopping, Cian turned to look over his shoulder at her. Elena now cradled Kieran’s head in her lap as she shifted her gaze from Cian’s.

“Why?” With slow movements he turned to face her as her teeth bit down onto her bottom lip.

Reluctantly she allowed her eyes to meet his, “I saw them escape through the rift to my world along with a handful of warriors.”

Arlen’s face held a dark scowl, “With the rift gone, there is no way to follow them. Zyaid got what he wanted then.”

“At least our people are safe now. Without their leader, the remaining Kelithians will fold to the Gu’an will,” Dajran stated with a shrug of his shoulders.

Elena’s eyes narrowed as her hands tightened against Kieran’s shoulders with anger. “At the expense of
my
people,” she hissed out.

Lowering his head with shame, Dajran avoided her gaze, “I didn’t mean that.”

“Regardless, what’s done is done. Although it means good fortune for our kind, Elena is right. The humans will suffer from Zyaid madness.” Turning to Arlen, Cian continued, “Summon Sera; tell her to meet us here. There is a possibility that she may know a way to help.”

“
Here
, Gu’an?” Dajran asked perplexed.

Cian nodded, “We won’t be returning to the stronghold tonight. Li’r, have half of the warriors remain here and fortify this fortress. Sweep it top to bottom if there is even one Kelithian left here, imprison them. I will not take any chances.”

“What about Kieran?” Elena asked fearfully. Though he seemed to be only sleeping, she wasn’t about to take any chances.

Nodding in acknowledgement to her question, he turned to Dajran, “Help her find a place for him to rest his head. Once Sera arrives she can take a look at him.” Without another word both Cian and Arlen left without a backward glance.

Kneeling next to her, Dajran offered her a friendly smile. “He will be alright,” he assured. When she never so much raised her eyes to him, Dajran’s smile fell. “I know you are worried about your people. But Cian will not allow Zyaid to terrorize your world.”

Raising her pale face, she shook her head in denial, “Your kind left the human world for a reason. Cian won’t risk your people’s safety for that of mine.”

“You are Kieran’s mate, which makes you one of us now. We protect our own.”

Nodding, Elena pursed her lips as she fought against the feeling of helplessness. “I hope you’re right. Without help, my world has no chance of surviving Zyaid’s wrath otherwise.”

* ~ * ~ *

Gasping, Kieran’s eyes shot open as he became aware of his surroundings. Above him his eyes took in the startling sight of a heavy jeweled ceiling. Where was he? From his surrounding he could conclude that he was at the Kelithian fortress. The crackling of the thriving hearth across the enormous room chased the shadows away, replacing it with a warm glow. His lips curled in distaste at the bed he laid upon. It was overly cushioned with silk coverings. Already he was missing his simple bed of dark furs.

Moving his eyes around his eyes fell on Elena. She stood near a wide open window. Crossing her arms over her chest, she sighed appearing lost in her thoughts. She was the most welcoming sight he would ever see. She had changed from her torn dress into a Kelithian garb. The tan and gold vested tunic and matching embroidered pants molded to her every curve. Never before had Kelithian clothing looked so alluring. He felt his chest warm at her nearness.

Happiness that he never thought to ever possess filled him. With the flow of emotion he sensed something else. He felt strong once again. The Malrai Hin bond had been completed. Elena had completed it. Already he felt their souls bound to another as well as their minds. He could feel her emotions as though they were his own. A few particular ones that he was feeling right now didn’t bode well for him. Worry and irritation flowed off her in heavy waves.

He must have made a sound then, because not a second later his mate’s head turned toward him in surprise. Seeing he was awake, she moved toward the bed. Coming to sit on the edge of the bed, her braided hair fell forward over her shoulder as she leaned closer to him. Unable to resist touching her, his hand reached out to trail over her cheek. She smiled at the caress. Her hand reached up to hold his against her face with a look of warmth shining in her eyes.

“How long was I out?” he inquired, moving to sit up. Elena looked as if she would argue with his movement, but she shut her mouth without uttering a word.

“About a day,” she answered lowering his hand to the bed sheets. “You nearly died, Kieran.”

“I am relieved that I didn’t,” he replied playfully.

“Don’t be so sure,” she warned as her warm gaze turned stern. “Zyaid escaped through the rift to my world,” she whispered woefully.

Nodding grimly, he sighed, “I know. I saw him cross through during the height of the battle.” Casting a look around him, he struggled not to show his distaste. “Why are we still at the Kelithian fortress?”

“Cian has taken over. Most of the Kelithians that survived the battle have been taken back to the stronghold for questioning. You were in no shape to return to the stronghold. Sera came and looked in on you once she arrived.”

His lips pressed into a flat line at the mention of Sera’s name. The painful memory of her deception still haunted him.

At his silence, Elena spoke, “I think you are being too hard on her.”

“She lied to all of us about everything, Elena. That is not something I will just get over.”

“Maybe, but did you ever think that she lied for a good reason?”

His nostrils flared at her words, “There is never a good reason to lie about something that important.”

Laughing, her eyebrows rose while looking accusingly at him, “Oh really? What about when you didn’t tell me there was more to the bond than what Sera told me?”

Just like that, her words washed away his resentment for his old friend. Guilt washed over him as he recalled that even though he had spoken the binding words to her, he had never told her that she would need to repeat them. It wasn’t a simple mistake. His decision nearly cost him not only his life, but a full life with his soul mate.

“At the time we had just mated. I wanted you to feel at ease with my wooing you, not rushed. I didn’t think you were ready,” he admitted.

“My people will never be ready for the consequences of Zyaid being in my world or your kind once we discover a way to get to him and stop him. Your people weren’t ready to know the truth. Now they are. All we can do is move forward.”

“I plan to.” Without warning, he used his hand clenched around her wrist and pulled her to him. Once she fell against him with a gasp of surprise, he rolled them until his mate lay beneath him. Staring down at her, he lifted her captured hand to his mouth as his lips moved against her knuckles. “I plan to move forward in every way.”

Drawing a single digit into the warm cavern of his mouth, Elena gasped with pleasure at the teasing stroke of his tongue. His eyes never left hers as he slowly released her well loved finger. Releasing her hand, his bent down and claimed her lips with a driving need that heated her blood. His fingers clenched around her braid with a possessive hold, preventing her from moving as he took her lips. Finally breaking away, both stared at each other with heaving chests and heavy lidded eyes.

Through the newly formed bond between them, Elena couldn’t help but marvel at the desire that flowed between them like a raging flood. His desire only fed her own until she felt like she’d go insane if he didn’t touch her.

Careful of his healing wounds from days earlier, her hands moved with a mind of their own over the hard muscles of his chest. A gentle growl vibrated his chest as her fingers teased his skin with light strokes. Looking teasingly up at him, she whispered husky, “Now that you are mine, there are going to be some rules you will have to abide by.”

Smirking, he bent to feather kisses along her jaw and down her neck as his hands roamed down the front of her tunic. “Oh, is that right? And what rules would you be thinking of?”

“No more withholding information from me.”

He didn’t comment, but simply nipped at her jumping pulse at her neck. Taking a breath, she struggled to remember what else she had planned to say to him, but all thoughts were driven from her brain as his hands made quick work of the front fastenings of her tunic. Kissing a path over the exposed flesh of her collar bone and the slope of her breast, Kieran struggled against the need to claim his mate in that instant. As she moaned with need, he shifted over her. Pressing her down into the mattress, he smiled as her hips moved against his desire for her.

“Do you need me, my little mate?” he teased.

Her hands found their way around the back of his neck before she pulled his face close to hers. “Always,” she whispered against his lips before nipping playfully at his bottom lip.

For the next hours the fortress walls echoed with their combined cries of ecstasy. He knew without a doubt that his fellow warriors would later comment, but the thought did nothing to erase the joy that sang in his heart and soul. Later that night, as he pulled his sleeping mate into the shelter of his arms, he smiled at how the goddess had smiled upon him. Elena was finally his and he was never letting her go. He had set out to claim his mate and she had ended up claiming his heart and changing his world forever.

* ~ * ~ *

Later that night, Elena found herself swimming with happiness. Turning to glance over her shoulder, she smiled at Kieran. He laid next to her with his chin resting against her shoulder as he held her close in sleep. Her heart still ached with the memory of feeling his cold body just days ago. Her eyes burned at thinking that she’d nearly lost him. She couldn’t let that happen again, she vowed.

Turning back around, her thoughts began to dwell on the woman — Viper in the dungeon. Yesterday as Kieran had yet to awaken; Cian and Arlen had come with Sera to check on her. It was then that she remembered the strange woman and her family still in Zyaid’s prison. Instantly she begged for their release. As Sera stayed behind to watch over Kieran, Elena had rushed down to the dungeon before anyone could stop her.