Possessed by a Dark Warrior (43 page)

Gods, he imagined her fingers running over the peaks and valleys of his torso like that, a light maddening touch that would only serve to fuel the fierce craving he had for her.

Her violet-leather-clad thighs pressed against the edge of the map, the front of her white corset touching the mountains of the Devil’s realm, and her violet-to-white hair swung away from her shoulders, falling like a veil to hide her face from him.

She brought her right hand up and tucked her hair behind her ear, as if she knew he needed to do such a thing, ached to see her face again.

“It is the easiest route to the elf kingdom, but it would mean travelling through the free realm and would bring him into the kingdom at the furthest point from your castle.”

Her soft voice was music in the room, a light and airy sound that soothed him but clawed at his insides.

Fuck, he had missed the sound of her voice.

He had missed the sight of her, the feel of her near him, the scent of her.

Everything about her.

Two whole days caught up in arranging squad movements, planning routes across the elf kingdom, and holding meetings with his senior officers, had pulled him away from her.

But it hadn’t pulled his mind away from thoughts about the time he had spent with her after returning from the Third Realm. She had looked so beautiful in the dress that he hadn’t been able to keep his hands off her.

Now he couldn’t keep his eyes off her.

He needed her and he could feel that she needed him too. It was there in their link and in her eyes whenever she risked a glance at him. Every time their eyes met, the entire room fell away, everyone but her disappearing, and all he could think about was crossing the room to her, pulling her into his arms and kissing her.

How the fuck had he convinced himself that his being away from her, caught up in his work, was a good thing, giving himself some much needed space to think and time to pull himself together to stop his mind from spinning whenever they were near each other?

He found himself staring at her as he paced, unable to drag his eyes away from her.

That time apart hadn’t helped him at all. It hadn’t allowed him to act more professional, treating her as a guest of the castle and an ally in the coming war. It hadn’t dampened his feelings for her or weakened them at all.

It had done the damned opposite.

Their time apart had increased his need of her, strengthened his feelings for her. He had spent two damn days stuck in his offices in the garrison pining for her.

Fucking
pining
.

He had spent every damned night standing in his room, staring at the wall that divided them and aching to tear it down. Only the fact that she had felt still on his senses had kept him from barging into her room. He hadn’t wanted to disturb his little dragon. She needed her rest. Still needed it if the dark circles beneath her eyes were anything to go by.

Were thoughts of her brother and what was to come keeping her awake?

Gods, he wanted to cross the room to her, draw her into his arms and tell her that it would all work out in the end. That everything she feared would never come to pass and he would protect her.

It would be a lie though.

Her biggest fear was something that had to happen in order to end the threat to his kingdom, and the other realms of Hell.

Her brother had to die.

Even if they managed to get the sword back.

Tenak would always be a threat and his dragon instincts wouldn’t allow him to let go of his treasure. Taryn’s behaviour in her room had made Bleu see that. If they took the sword from him, Tenak would keep coming at the elf kingdom until he had razed it to the ground and the blade was his again. Even capturing him and placing shackles on him that could inhibit his ability to shift and stop his magic wouldn’t be enough. Eventually, he would gain his freedom and all of Hell would pay for it.

Taryn glanced at him again, sending a hot shiver through him that stirred his need to pull her into his arms, growl ‘mine’ and then kiss her breathless so she knew it.

Fuck. He scrubbed a hand over his hair, tousling the longer lengths, and ran it around the back of his neck.

He hadn’t lied when he had said that she was his treasure, and the way her eyes sparkled whenever she looked at him, that same light that had shone in them when she had protected her ‘treasure’ she had discovered in her room, said that she felt the same way about him.

He smiled at that and how she had hoarded the knick-knacks she had found. Mere trinkets. Nothing fine among them.

Bleu frowned as he grew aware of another’s eyes on him and looked across at Loren, finding his prince watching him with a touch of curiosity mixed with satisfaction in his expression.

He raised an eyebrow at that, and how Loren leaned to his right and pressed a kiss to Olivia’s shoulder where she stood beside him, talking to him about something. Olivia lifted her dark eyes away from the map, settled them on Loren and smiled. When she leaned over for a proper kiss, Bleu looked away.

His gaze snagged on Taryn.

She walked away from the map, drifting towards the tall doors on his side of the room beside the windows.

A messenger entered the room.

An unmated male.

Bleu closed the distance between him and his little dragon, but the threat the unmated male posed to his position as her mate wasn’t the reason he wanted to be closer to her again. He needed her near him.

He felt empty when she was so far away from him.

It was only a small distance, a few metres at most, but fuck it felt like a league to him.

Loren looked at him again as he spoke with the messenger, and this time his prince looked concerned. His violet gaze shifted from Bleu to Taryn where she stood near the doors onto the balcony and back again before returning to the messenger.

The male saluted and left the room.

“The First Realm will arrive soon, and our other guests are en route. Perhaps we should take a break until they arrive and we can begin our meeting in earnest?” Loren was meddling again. Bleu didn’t need to catch his pointed look at Taryn’s back to know it, nor the not-so-subtle jerk of his chin in her direction as she stepped out onto the balcony.

Bleu glared at him and followed her. He didn’t need his prince telling him to go after her. It wasn’t as if he could keep away from her, would follow her to the ends of Hell just to be near her.

How had he managed to stay away from her for so long?

He found Taryn on the balcony, her hands braced on the pale stone balustrade, eyes scanning the vast panorama. The entire elf kingdom stretched before them, green hills rolling into the distance where they met mountains. A glittering blue river snaked between them. Her head tilted downwards and he looked there as he came up beside her, watching the troops moving around the orchard.

Dacian stormed along one of the pale grey paths that led away from the central portal, heading towards the garrison.

Bleu’s right eyebrow arched when the portal flared and Fynn’s sister strode out of it, looked around, spotted Dacian and went after him. Interesting.

“It is beautiful,” Taryn whispered in the dragon tongue and Bleu tore his focus away from Dacian, returning it to her.

He looked out at the view she admired, leaned on his elbows on the railing, and frowned.

“I prefer the one from my balcony at the rear of the castle.” He looked to his right, at Taryn. “It is the same as yours since our rooms are adjoining.”

“I know… I can feel you there… close to me but so far away.” She smiled but there was sorrow in it, hurt that clawed at him, sinking talons deep into his heart.

Bleu cast his gaze down at the courtyard and picked at the lichens on the stone with his right hand. “I’m sorry. I was busy and whenever I finished with my work it was late and I feared I would wake you if I came to you.”

Her eyes didn’t leave the horizon and her hurt didn’t lessen, and he wanted to soothe it away. He just wasn’t sure how.

“I wanted you to come to me,” she whispered. “I do not like it here.”

He frowned and looked across at her. “You are safe here, Taryn.”

Her eyes closed. “Am I?”

Bleu pushed up, resting his palms against the balustrade, and growled, “Has anyone made you feel threatened?”

She shook her head.

“Of course not… because…” She opened her eyes, fixing them straight on him, and the coldness in them froze his blood in his veins and chilled his heart. “Because I cannot leave my room without you… I am locked in there… in a gilded c-cage… in a ca—”

Bleu caught her wrist.

Her dull eyes dropped to it, brightened again, and then sharpened and she yanked her arm free of his grip. Wrong move on his part, one he should have known would upset her. She was feeling confined again, a captive, and he had only worsened that feeling by seizing her so tightly. Gods, he needed to learn the right ways to handle his little dragon. It was hard when his instincts said to hold her when she was hurting though, to touch her to bring her back to him and shatter the hold of her memories.

“I need to fly,” she whispered and her hands shook, her breath coming fast, causing her chest to heave against the tight confines of her white leather corset. “I need to fly.”

Bleu hunkered down, lowered his head to her height, and carefully reached for her. He placed his hands under hers, not taking hold of them, just allowing her palms to rest against his. Her pain flowed through him, rife with fear and desperation.

It wasn’t growing weaker. It was growing stronger.

“I’m sorry. I should have considered how you would feel. I should have known and I should have taken you with me… although I am not sure how much you would have enjoyed being shut in my office with me for hours on end.” He risked curling his fingers over to press against hers and she looked down at their joined hands, her eyebrows rising high on her forehead, a faraway look shining in her striking eyes. He was losing her. He could almost feel her slipping away. “I’m sorry… it is not a cage, Taryn. I was only trying to protect you.”

“I know,” she murmured, distant and quiet. “I tried to bear it… but I need air. I need to fly.”

“I will take you out when the meeting ends. I will take you somewhere far away where you can feel free.” He looked back inside at Loren, found his prince still watching him, and then looked in the other direction, towards the hills and the river.

It was only a short distance from the castle, and Loren would be able to keep an eye on their guest, reassured that they would return and Bleu hadn’t gone rogue with her or lost control of her. He caught hold of her hands and willed his portal.

Green-purple light chased down his arms and up hers. She gasped and darkness swirled around them. When it receded, they were standing in the long grass by a bend in the river.

Her violet-to-white eyes widened and she looked around them, drawing back and slipping free of his right hand. He kept his left hand on hers, twisted it to slip his fingers between hers, and watched her as she took it all in. The fingers of her left hand brushed over the tips of the swaying grass that reached past her knees. A smile played on her lips.

“You cannot fly. Promise me that, Taryn. I will take you somewhere to fly soon.”

She looked across at him and nodded.

Bleu led her down the slope to the water, where the grass was shorter, and released her. He sat on the bank of the river, leaned back and propped himself up on his elbows. Taryn looked down at him and then slowly turned around, her eyes scanning everything, bright and wide as she took it all in.

“It is even more beautiful from down here.” Her smile blew him away.

He had never seen her so happy.

“I agree… the view is even more beautiful from down here.” He didn’t take his eyes off her and she looked at him, her eyes widened a little further, and a blush climbed her cheeks when she caught the meaning behind his words.

She was more beautiful.

She turned her back on him, crouched and reached out to touch the water. Her hand shot back to her before it hit the surface and she looked over her shoulder at him.

“Will it hurt me?”

Bleu laughed. “No. Of course not. It is only water.”

She frowned at him. “There is a substance like it in the dragon realms and some of the demon ones that is poisonous.”

“I suppose that is true… but this is only water. Nothing here will hurt you.”

She muttered as she turned away from him again, “Nothing but the elves.”

He sighed. “I swear they will not touch you. Is my word not enough?”

Her head dipped and she idly ran her fingers through the crystal clear water, her sorrow flowing through him. “It is… I am sorry.”

“You do not need to apologise to me, Taryn.” He sat up, bent his knees and rested his forearms on them. “I know my kin have not treated you well… I have not treated you well. I have given you no reason to trust me.”

He lowered his right hand, plucked a blade of grass and twirled it in his fingers, his eyes on it. Hers roamed to him, heating his skin, but he kept his locked on the grass as it spun, a green blur against the pale blue of the water.

“I do trust you, Bleu,” she whispered and he smiled as those words warmed him, chasing away the rising hurt before it could seize hold of him.

She sighed, the sound soft and melodic, and kneeled beside the river. The hurt he had feared would take hold of him gripped her instead and he rose onto his feet, walked over to her and sat opposite her.

“You think of your brother,” he said and she nodded. He reached out and caught hold of her right hand, drawing it away from her purple leathers, and brushed his thumb over the back of it. “I know this is hard for you, Taryn.”

She lowered her head and let her left hand drift back down to the water, stared at it as the river rushed between her fingers, glittering in the light. “You left me alone and all I could think about was my brother and everything we have shared… how he changed… how it drove us apart… and now I must end it all… I must end—”

Bleu leaned over and pressed the fingers of his free hand to her lips to silence her because he couldn’t bear the pain. He couldn’t allow her to keep hurting herself. She lifted her eyes to him and the tears that trembled on her lashes tore at his heart.