Possessed by a Dark Warrior (30 page)

He couldn’t see her in any direction. Not a single sign of her. He would find her though.

He couldn’t let her disappear from his life again, and he wouldn’t leave her out there to go through whatever was hurting her alone, not when he knew he could help her.

Bleu closed his eyes and focused on his blood and their incomplete bond.

He turned his thoughts inwards at first, seeking the thread that connected them, and seized hold of it. The slender ribbon of red shimmered in the darkness of his mind and he focused on it, using his psychic abilities to enhance and strengthen it until it glowed. He wavered on his feet, strength draining from him, but he pushed onwards, pouring all of his energy and his power into locating her.

The darkness faded, hazy black rock replacing it, cragged and grim. He frowned and pushed harder, forcing the images to focus so he could discern where she was. Long minutes passed, a tiny span of time in the life of an elf but one that felt like an eternity to him. He needed to find her.

He needed to be with her.

The image came into sharp relief.

A cave.

He clung to that image and teleported, willing himself to go to that location. The darkness swallowed him and when it parted, the cold that had engulfed him didn’t go away. Frigid wind battered him, scouring his bare torso with icy fingers, stealing all heat from him. He shivered and wrapped his arms around himself, and scanned his surroundings. The cragged black rock dropped sharply below him, plummeting into a valley before it rose up again into another sharp peak. Similar mountain ranges filled the distance as far as he could see.

The western border of the elf kingdom.

This was no place for his female.

This patch of no man’s land between the elf kingdom and the realms beyond was dangerous, the battles between the fallen angels and gods that took place in those lands often spilling over into it. He needed to get Taryn away from this place.

He looked across to his right as wind whistled past him, the wailing noise created by the cave mouth there. Taryn’s fear continued to flow through his blood, stronger now that she was close to him again. His little dragon had been afraid and her instincts had driven her to find a cave, a place where she could hide.

He curled his hands into fists at his sides, turned on his heel and strode towards the isolated cave.

He wasn’t sure what to expect as he stooped and entered the cave, his eyes adjusting to the near-darkness, but seeing Taryn huddled naked in the corner, holding herself and rocking, hit him square in the chest.

In the heart.

Bleu couldn’t stop his feet from carrying him to her or his instincts as her male from teleporting a blanket from his quarters and into his hand, together with a small battery-operated lantern. He twisted the top to turn it on and pale light chased back the darkness.

Taryn looked up at him through the tangled strands of her violet-to-white hair, her eyes bloodshot and wide, tears streaking her cheeks together with a smear of blood that darted upwards from the right side of her mouth, and his heart ached behind his breast.

She tensed when he stopped in front of her.

He slowly crouched before her, set the lantern down and carefully placed the blanket around her shoulders.

“What is wrong?” he whispered in her tongue, his voice as soft as he could manage when part of him was filled with fury, with a dark hunger to seek out whoever had harmed her and make them suffer as she did.

He focused on tending to her instead, using it to keep that hunger under control. She was all that mattered right now.

He drew the blanket closed around her while he waited for her to become accustomed to his presence and find her voice. When she didn’t speak, he carefully combed her hair with his fingers, removing the crusted blood.

Blood that was his fault.

He had hurt his mate and he had to live with that, but he didn’t have to let her suffer now, when he had the power to help her.

Heal her.

Since the dark moment forty-two centuries ago when Vail and Fuery had shattered his world, he had built a wall around his heart, determined to never allow anyone into it again. He had refused to feel deeply for anyone. He had kept them all at arm’s length so he wouldn’t be hurt again. He had purged all weakness because he had wanted to be strong.

Invulnerable.

He had done his best to guard himself and his heart, and it had worked for so long.

Or so he had thought.

When he had seen Taryn again and as he looked at her now, he realised that he hadn’t been invulnerable.

He had only been in denial.

He had carried pain for four thousand years, letting it fester in his heart, and those open sores had allowed darkness to grow inside him. That darkness made him more vulnerable and weaker than ever, susceptible to it.

He had refused to deal with what had happened to him, had convinced himself that it hadn’t hurt him or affected him in any way, and now it might ruin him.

He could feel the darkness inside him, a terrible living thing that Tenak had set free and that he was still struggling to control even now.

Taryn’s eyes locked with his, soft and tender despite the hurt he could sense in her, the fear and the despair, and gently cast the shadows from his heart, expelling them and cleansing him.

If anyone in this world could help him come to terms with his emotions and the things that had happened in his past, it was her.

It had always been her.

She had held back the darkness inside him from the moment he had met her. He knew that now as he looked down at her, his fingers tangled in her hair, feeling her warmth on his skin. She had given him purpose, and he had mistaken it for a mission, conditioning himself to view her as nothing more than an enemy because he had been too afraid to risk his heart.

He wasn’t afraid anymore.

This feeling inside him wasn’t a weakness. It didn’t make him vulnerable.

It made him strong.

He was falling in love with her, with his mate, and he would do whatever it took to make her fall in love with him too. He would do whatever it took to make her see that he could be a good male, the right male for her, if she would give him a chance.

That he cared about her above everything else and would never let anything happen to her. He would protect her, cherish her, would love her forever if she let him.

He brought his fingers closer to her cheek and frowned as he felt her trembling. His little dragon was suffering and he would do for her what he knew she could do for him.

He would do his best to take away that pain by helping her come to terms with her emotions and her past.

“He is coming,” she murmured and began rocking, eyes darting beyond him to the cave mouth and back again.

Bleu nodded and kneeled in front of her. She caught the edges of the thick black wool blanket and tugged it closed, clutching it so tightly her fingers paled.

“You saw him in a vision?” he said in a low voice, the most soothing one he could manage. At least he hoped it was soothing. He didn’t have much experience with this sort of thing. He wasn’t sure he had ever taken care of anyone. Not like this. Not even his little sister.

She slowly nodded and her eyes leaped back to him. “They only come when you are near.”

He frowned. “Me?”

She nodded again.

His presence triggered her visions. She had mentioned that she had limited magic because Tenak had received most of it. He had thought that meant she couldn’t have visions, but she could.

When he was near to her.

As much as he wanted to know more, he had to focus on her and not satiating his curiosity. He would ask about it later, after he had calmed her and eased her fear.

“Are you afraid because your brother is coming?” he said and her eyes darted back up to his.

They dulled.

She rubbed her wrists and began rocking harder, and he turned his frown on them. Her slender fingers unerringly followed the lines of the scarring around her wrists. His eyes dropped to the matching scars around her ankles and then jumped up to the ones around her throat.

He cursed in the elf tongue, the foulest one at his disposal.

It had been being placed in captivity that had terrified her.

Gods, he was going to kill Leif and the others.

He was going to hunt down whoever had placed shackles on his beautiful female and destroy them.

“Taryn,” he husked and she blinked, her eyes brightening again but not enough to satisfy him. They were still distant. She was still locked in her thoughts, caged by her memories. He reached out to touch her hand and she flinched away and snarled at him through teeth that were now all sharp points. He withdrew and held his hands up at his sides, showing her that he meant her no harm. “You know me.”

He couldn’t bring himself to add that he wasn’t going to hurt her, because he had hurt her just hours ago, and in her current state she was liable to remind him of that. He wasn’t sure he could bear hearing her say what he had done, not when merely thinking about it left him raw inside, hollowed out and sick to his stomach.

“I know you?” she murmured and canted her head, causing her hair to brush her right cheek. She frowned. “If I know you… why do I not know your name?”

Her eyes darkened and her lips flattened, and the sense of power she always emanated grew stronger, rising to a level where his instincts warned she was a danger and was about to attack him.

“You are a liar,” she snarled and her eyes shone vivid violet and white, almost glowing in the low light.

He couldn’t argue against that. He had lied a hell of a lot in his lifetime. To people he cared about, to her, and to himself.

“I never told you my name,” he said and forced himself to remain relaxed even as his instincts roared to prepare for a fight.

Her eyes narrowed.

Silence stretched between them, thickening the air in the cave as he waited to see what she would do. She remained tensed, coiled and prepared to strike. His heart beat harder, pumping blood to his muscles as his body disobeyed him and he readied himself. If she attacked, he wouldn’t fight back. He would defend himself and find a way to calm her, because he felt sure that she would feel terrible when the past lost its grip on her and she realised what she had done.

Just as he felt terrible that he had hurt her while lost in the darkness.

She finally eased back, the tension flowing from her and from him at the same time. He let out the breath he had been holding and sank back onto his heels.

“What is your name, Elf?”

“My name is Bleu,” he said and sat still while she studied him, raking her eyes over his bare torso and his leather-clad legs, right down to his knees where they pressed into the black ground before she pulled them back up to his face.

He would answer whatever question she posed to him, no matter what it was or whether it made him feel vulnerable, exposed to her. He would do that for her. He would make himself vulnerable so she wouldn’t feel alone.

He needed to do it and it had nothing to do with his instincts as her mate and everything to do with his growing feelings for her.

Her dull eyes flitted over his face and a hint of a smile touched her lips. “You are beautiful… but that is your most terrible weapon. I have seen the other side of that beauty.”

She caressed the left side of her throat.

Bleu looked away, pinning his eyes on the ground beside her. “And I have apologised for what I did to you… but not well enough.”

He sighed, pulled down another breath and lifted his head, locking gazes with her again. She needed to hear it and he had to stop trying to hide his feelings from everyone. From her. It was time he allowed someone into his heart.

“I am sorry, Taryn.” He reached out and brushed the blanket aside, revealing the ravaged side of her throat, and stared at it, his heart throbbing madly behind his breast. “I should not have hurt you like that. I should never have hurt you at all… I cannot excuse what I have done and I do not expect you to forgive me for it. Condemn me, do whatever you must to punish me for what I did to you. I deserve only that. I deserve your retribution.”

Her face softened, eyes leaping between his, clearer now. “You wish for me to punish you because you did something I did not like… because you disobeyed me?”

He frowned at the words she had chosen and the way the brightness in her eyes faded again. Her breathing came quicker, his heart racing in time with hers, and her pain and fury flowed through him like ice and fire, numbing him and making him burn at the same time.

“I am not like them… do not
ever
think I am like them,” she snarled and knocked his hand away, her expression darkening as she flashed sharp teeth at him. “I will not punish you for something you did that displeased me.”

Displeased. Disobeyed.

She began rubbing her wrists again, frantically scouring them with her fingers.

“Taryn.” He reached for her.

She shot to her feet, the blanket falling away from her to pool at her ankles, and he looked up at her. She towered over him in the dimly-lit cave, naked and beautiful, but terrifying too. Darkness reigned in her eyes, the same madness that he had seen in them back when she had stopped her brother from killing him on the mountainside.

He was losing her to her memories.

“Taryn,” he whispered and her eyes narrowed on him. “I take it back. I do not want you to punish me.”

I want you to love me
.

It beat in his heart with every powerful thump, ran in his veins like a relentless wave, and he couldn’t deny that desire as it filled him, opened his eyes and stripped away his strength, tearing down the barriers around his heart and leaving it open to her. Vulnerable.

He had never felt so weak.

So afraid.

It felt as if his very existence depended on the female towering over him.

She started shaking her head, her eyes widening and her fear flooding the link between them. Her hands came up and she shoved her fingers into her hair, dragging it back from her face.