Possessed by a Dark Warrior (21 page)

“Leave!” Her eyes were glassy when she looked back at him, her breath coming faster, soft pants that caused her chest to heave against the white leather corset. Her fear rose, swamping her delicate scent with the bitter note of it, and she whispered, “Too late.”

Too late?

A roar rolled over the valley, rumbling around the black sky like thunder, and wind beat against him, causing the female to sway forwards, her hair whipping around her face.

A huge violet and white dragon landed hard behind her, shaking the ground, and reared up onto its hind legs.

Bleu leaped into action, launching himself towards the female, muscles burning as he reached for her, filled with a need to pull her out of harm’s way and shield her.

A flicker of guilt crossed her incredible eyes, a brief flash of sorrow, and then her right hand came out of nowhere, the back of it catching him across his face. The world flew by in slow motion as he stared at her, mind numbed by one single question.

Was she on her brother’s side?

Bleu’s spine hit a boulder and he grunted as his arms flew out at his sides and his legs kept going, the impact bending his body like a bow being drawn back.

His head spun, senses swirling together and breaking apart, and he could only breathe as he struggled to piece himself back together.

When his faculties were functioning again, the pain dulling to a fierce throbbing, he looked back at the female.

The dragon loomed behind her.

Not hurting her.

The look in its eyes warned that it wanted to hurt him.

It snarled and lunged at him, and the female stepped into its path without hesitation, whirling so her back was to Bleu, and raised her hand. Bleu opened his mouth to scream at her to run and those words fled his lips as the dragon stopped dead, its beaked snout pressed against her outstretched palm, and its massive teeth bared on a growl.

Words swam in his head, spoken in her soft voice, the ringing in his ears making them impossible to decipher.

The dragon eased back.

Bleu could only stare.

She had just saved his life, which, as Sable would have said, was the biggest mind fuck of them all.

He pulled himself up into a sitting position, his aching back pressed against the rock, and tried to make sense of everything that had just happened. She had saved him. She had risked her life to spare his.

He wasn’t sure he should be thanking her when she looked back at him though, her violet-to-white eyes dull and cold, devoid of any light.

He had the sinking feeling he should be praying to his gods to save him from whatever horror awaited him.

Taryn couldn’t shake the heat that rippled through her whenever the elf gazed at her. It had always been this way, from the moment she had met him. Whenever his eyes settled on her, she was intensely aware of him. She felt it even now as she faced her brother. A shockwave of fire blasted through her, burning her up inside, making her yearn to look back at the elf male.

Her gaze turned hazy as that feeling flowed through her and she barely noticed her brother shifting back into his mortal form and clothing himself. He was nothing more than a blur of purple and cream against a fuzzy black backdrop. All of her focus was on the elf male, and on controlling the dangerous feelings rising inside her.

She felt possessive of the male and it was becoming impossible to deny the desire to cross the short span of uneven black ground to him, haul him onto his feet and kiss him, staking a claim on him.

She cursed her species and her gender, aware that it was her dragon instincts that were pushing for control over her. Instincts that would not only land her in trouble, but the elf too if she allowed them to seize command. Females of her kind always had trouble denying their desires, feeling them more keenly than the male of her species. Normally those males were all too happy to satisfy any female who came to them, sating their needs with no strings attached.

They couldn’t satisfy this hunger for her though.

No one but the male at her back could scratch this itch and she was sure he wouldn’t want to help her with it, and she couldn’t allow the thought that he might to sway her. She had to remain strong, in control, even when it felt impossible.

Desire ran strong in female dragon blood, but the possessive brand of desire a female dragon felt for her fated one was a powerful force of nature so potent that their history books were filled with accounts of females igniting wars, fighting legions of warriors, just to get to their mate.

Gods help her. She wasn’t sure she was strong enough to deny that sort of need.

Tenak moved towards her and she shook as she kept her booted feet pinned to the spot, resisting the sudden urge to step into his path and stop him from reaching her fated male. She turned as her brother passed her and wanted to close her eyes, wasn’t sure she was strong enough to watch what he was about to do.

What she had requested he do.

A growl rumbled through her as he stopped before the elf male, and every muscle in her body tensed to a painful degree as Tenak grabbed the elf by his throat and hauled him onto his feet. She silently bared her fangs at her brother’s back as he shoved the elf forwards, slamming his back into the boulder, and her male grunted in pain.

Pain that tore through her and had her stepping forwards, her breaths coming faster as she fought the instinct that whispered at her to protect her fated male.

Tenak muttered black things about elves in the dragon tongue as he tightened his grip on the male’s throat.

The whispering became a roar in her mind and her heart as the elf’s purple eyes slid her way, a flicker of awareness in them. She willed him not to fight her brother, to relax and let the darkness take him gently into its arms. His eyes slowly grew wild. In a sudden burst of movement, he scrabbled against the boulder, wriggling and managing to seize hold of Tenak’s bare forearms. Panic flooded the male’s handsome face and she had to force herself to keep looking at him, aware that her brother would know if she looked away. She couldn’t appear partial to the elf. If her brother thought she had feelings for him, he would kill the male to eliminate any competition for her affection.

It hurt to deny the powerful instinct to protect the elf and watch her brother hurting him though.

The elf’s eyes dulled and his struggles slowed, his fingers slipping from her brother’s wrists as he tried to grasp them, each futile attempt taking more effort than the last, until his hands fell limp at his sides.

Gods, she couldn’t watch anymore.

“Brother,” she whispered softly when he showed no sign of releasing the male. “It is done.”

Now, she would subtly manipulate her brother’s actions so he would incarcerate the elf, and then she would find a way to free him from her brother’s claws.

Tenak didn’t release the male.

He raised those claws to strike him down and she launched forwards, unable to stop herself from intervening, and caught his wrist, holding him fast even when he growled at her.

“The male might have valuable information for us,” she said in a gentle voice, one she had perfected during her time with her brother. He responded best when she was tender with him. It seemed to help him temper the madness that infected him, drawing him back to her. Her grip on his wrist tightened and she eased him back, away from the elf. His other hand remained locked around the male’s throat. She placed her hand on that one, covering it, hoping the action would help convince him to loosen his hold, and looked up into his eyes. “I recognise the male. He is a commander from their warrior legions. We have crossed paths before.”

Her brother didn’t look convinced.

Taryn did the only thing she could to show him that she was telling him the truth.

“Three centuries ago, in the dragon realm, our paths crossed. He questioned me about you and the sword, and I struck the male, wounding him. My claws raked over the left side of his neck,” she said and Tenak still looked sceptical. “I will prove it to you.”

This time, when she pulled on the hand he had around the elf’s throat, he released the male and stepped back. Taryn let go of both of her brother’s hands as the elf slumped to the black ground, falling on his right side.

She waited until she was sure her brother was calm, and then turned and crouched beside the unconscious elf. His armour was still out. She wrestled with it, managing to wriggle her fingers beneath the collar after a few minutes’ fight, and then growled as she used all of her strength to pull the tiny metal scales down. Damned armour. She hadn’t thought it would be so troublesome.

Her brother shifted foot to foot, his agitation flowing over her, mingling with her own as she fought the armour. What was it made from? She had never really bothered to learn much about the elves. She wanted to find whoever had created it and give them as much hell as the armour was giving her.

She panted hard, heart labouring as she wrestled with the armour. It kept snapping back into place the moment she let up on the fight. If she couldn’t expose his throat and therefore that she was telling the truth about the elf, then her brother would probably kill him.

Her gaze fell to the male’s black clawed fingers.

She dimly recalled hearing once that elf armour was weak against its own material. The male dragon who had said it to another had been laughed out of the tavern. What if it was true though?

She glanced up at her brother, finding him standing close to her, eyes pinned on the male, filled with malice and dark intent.

It was worth a try.

She grabbed the elf’s hand, wrapped her fingers around his, and began sawing at the neck of his armour with his own claws, careful to keep them away from his skin.

Her eyes widened as the claws sliced through the scales.

If she ever saw that male dragon again, she would tell him that he had been right. Elf armour was vulnerable to its own material.

Taryn cut a line down from the side of his throat to his shoulder and released his hand, letting it drop to the ground again. She peeled the black metal scales away from his skin and slowed as they revealed not perfect skin but dark bruises, some of which had already changed colour to show they were healing. Her brother hadn’t caused these marks. Someone else had tried to strangle the elf recently. Who?

Her eyebrows knitted together and her heart pounded harder as she stared at the deep bruising, her hands shaking as a need to find whoever had hurt the male and make them suffer surged through her. It was little wonder the male had become panicked so quickly when her brother had caught hold of his throat.

Gods, what had she done?

She had asked her brother to render him unconscious but not harm him. She had known he would choose to suffocate the male, a sure fire way of sending him into the waiting arms of darkness without inflicting great injuries.

She looked down at the male where he lay at her side, his face slack and lips parted, strands of his blue-black hair brushing his brow. She wanted to sweep those strands away, ached to flutter her fingers over his sculpted cheek and apologise for what she had done. She hadn’t known what he had suffered recently. She had only thought of saving him.

She felt her brother’s eyes on her, sensed that she was taking too long and he was growing impatient, and suspicious of her. She forced herself to sit back so her brother could see the three jagged scars that ran over the elf’s neck.

She couldn’t resist touching them, placing the fingers she had used to create them against the start of each line and stroking down them to his collarbone.

She lifted her eyes away from the marks and up to her brother.

His eyes had turned cold. “Why did you not kill the male then?”

Taryn kneeled beside the elf, her fingers still against his bruised throat. His pulse beat steadily against their tips, reassuring her, and she silently swore to him that she would keep him safe and find a way to set him free.

“He had other elves with him then,” she said in a calm, detached tone, revealing none of her turbulent feelings to her brother, afraid Tenak would hurt the elf if she showed even an ounce of remorse or concern about his welfare. “A trio of warriors. There was no way I could have won against them, so I fled. Those elves will be with him again. I am sure of it. They will be hiding somewhere, lying in wait for their commander’s return. We must question him and find their locations so we might eradicate the threat completely.”

Tenak lowered his eyes to the elf and darkness filled them, infinite ice that warned he was thinking terrible things.

Horrible things.

Her instincts pressed her to bare her fangs at him and warn him away from her male, and it took every shred of her will to stop herself. She couldn’t obey that dark territorial urge that compelled her to attack her brother in order to protect what was hers. If she gave in to it, she would sign both hers and the elf’s death warrants.

Tenak shifted his gaze back to her and she knew she hadn’t won him over yet. He was still unconvinced. She had to do something more to make him do as she wanted, sparing the elf from death, and she knew what that something more was.

Cold crept over her exposed skin and she rubbed at it, running her palms and fingers up and down her arms. It didn’t stop the cold. It sank deeper. Grew colder. Became ice in her marrow and penetrated her heart and her soul.

“They might not be alone this time,” she whispered and stared off into the distance, falling into the white frigid abyss and unable to do anything but watch walls of sheer ice rise over her. She clawed at them, trying to gain a hold to stop herself, her nails digging in.

Warmth bloomed beneath them, hot against her freezing fingertips.

“Taryn!” Tenak barked and the white walls shook, shattered and tumbled around her, revealing a black valley and her brother where he crouched before her. His hands were warm on her shoulders, his grip fierce. His eyes searched hers, a touch of fear in them, concern that had her following them as they fell to her arms.