Rowena Through the Wall: Expanded Edition (21 page)

"Here." She swung down from a tree.

I ran to her and she clung to me fiercely.

Cedric nodded to her. "Come, ladies. We must leave. It's not safe here." To his men, he said, "Take their weapons and any spoils you want. Go quickly."

He helped me atop Lightning.

"How did you know to find me?" I asked. "And
where
to find me?"

He looked at me sideways. "I was nearby. I followed your fear." He raised a brow. "Where is the Roman coin?"

I hissed in a breath.

So it was true. I hadn't been dreaming. My dream lover had been Cedric.

"I put it in my pocket," I said. "Here, next to me."

"Smart girl. Keep it with you always."

We rode with vigilance out of the forest.

"We go to Huel," Cedric said. "The way back to Sargonia is not safe tonight. That wasn't all of Willen's band."

"Thank you."

With a nod, he kicked the palomino and we galloped away.

Chapter 23

At the castle, I hurried to my old room, with Kendra at my side. I threw myself onto the bed and willed my heart to slow.

"Let me see your burn," Kendra said.

"It hurts like hellfire," I said. "More now than when I was scared."

She bared my shoulder. "I've got antibiotic cream in my backpack."

"Not yet." I groaned. "I don't think I could stand it."

Kendra sat on the bed and crossed her legs. "You were so brave. I could never have acted as you did." Tears ran down her face.

"It's only a burn," I assured her.

"No, I mean what that man was going to do to you."

"Oh, that." I winced.

We both knew there was a good chance I wouldn't have survived the night.

"Good thing Cedric showed up when he did," I said.

Talk about understatement.

Kendra wiped her nose on her sleeve. "I wonder how he knew."

I wondered that myself.

"Did you notice his men and the horses, Row?" Her eyes flared. "I had a good chance to see them from the tree. They looked as though they were all twins. The horses too."

"I don't know these men," I said. "They must be from the south."

"It's funny we didn't hear their approach."

Not so funny to me, since I had been rather distracted.

After a while, Cedric appeared in the doorway with two goblets. "I have something for your pain," he said to me. To Kendra, he ordered, "Leave."

She looked at me, alarmed.

"It's okay. Cedric, can she have the room next door?"

He nodded once.

Kendra leaned over and kissed my cheek. "Call if you need me." She left with reluctance.

Cedric handed me a goblet. "Sip this. It will dull the searing."

"Oh, good," I said, gulping the whole thing down. It tasted like sweet mead. "Bring three more of these and I'll be fine."

"You hide it well," he said with approval.

"Stick a fork in me. I'm done," I quipped, settling back on the bed.

He strode to the door, closed it and watched me with hooded eyes. As he sipped at his goblet, I noted that he had washed and changed.

"What?" I said. "You never seen a woman nearly raped to death before?"

His expression shadowed. "I've seen worse."

I gulped. "I'm sorry. I'm shaking inside really. And trying to cover it by being flippant. You don't want to know how I really feel."

He took my hand and kissed the palm. "You are safe here now with me."

This wa
s a new Cedric―one I hadn't seen before. One I kind of liked.

"Cedric, why are they so wary of you?"

His brow arched.

"There in the forest," I explained. "Everybody. Ivan―even Richard." My mouth felt numb. I was having trouble pronouncing the words.

"They
fear me because I practice the dark arts."

Ah, hoo boy! The jigsaw pieces fell into place. Things said by others repeated in my mind.

"The Dark Lord!"

"Sometimes I think he has made a pact with the devil himself."

Cedric stood and removed his belt and tuni
c. He was wearing nothing underneath―and that
nothing
looked more than plenty.

"Sweet Jesus," I said hoarsely. This was the old Cedric back again.

"You surely knew I'd be with you tonight," he said, taunting me. He put a finger to my chin and lifted it. "S
o frightened and so sweet. You have nothing to fear from me."

I tried to stand, but stumbled. "Did you put something in my drink?"

He caught me. "Drugs to make the pain subside. And to give you an excuse for Sargon."

"Why do I need an excuse?" My voice was fuzzy. "You drugged me." My head fell onto his chest.

"I didn't expect you to drink it all down at once, foolish girl. Lie down."

"Are you going to―you can't―"

"Of course. Don't you think I deserve a reward for all I did today?" He was lying beside me on the bed now.

"A reward?" I slurred. "The Dark Lord cometh." I giggled at my own joke.

"Ha!" He smiled "And you will too." He unlace
d the back of my dress and slid it over my head. I slumped back on the bed.

No, we mustn't. We really mustn't.

Did I say that out loud?

I wiggled my tongue. It wouldn't work.

Minutes passed.

I opened my bleary eyes.

Cedric gazed down at me. "I couldn't see you well that night. I couldn't see these."

He covered my breast with his huge hand, fondling, squeezing. Then he leaned down and his hot mouth covered my nipple.

"Mmm..." I murmured.

I was floating on a sea of pleasure.

His hand trailed down my stomach and between my legs.

"Cedric…" I whispered.

"Yes?"

"Sargon will kill you for this." My legs opened to give him better access.

"Not if you don't tell him," he said.

"I won't if you won't." Why had I said that?

He chuckled. "You are flying like a seagull right now, aren't you?"

"S-stoned." I slurred the word. "That's what we call it." I sighed. "Can you hurry this up?"

He laughed out loud and moved over me. "Not so gently tonight, I think."

Without wasting a moment, he made us one beast in the night. I moaned and was pulled along with him. The drugs were great, except I had no governor on my mouth. As he moved, I cried out, first moans and then animal grunts. Then words I can't remember. I know I screamed.

My fingers clung to his back as he controlled my body and then my mind. Like a demon switch turned on, the world reduced to him, the scent of musk, the feel of his skin, the arms that kept me imprisoned...too much. I wanted to break away, to breathe, but a force kept me there, drowning in his power.

I was gone, rolling with the waves.

Then as abruptly as it had manifested, the switch clicked off. I had my mind back.

He panted beside me.

There was a knock at the door.

"Row? Are you okay? I heard you scream."

Cedric marched to the door and flung it open.

Kendra gaped at him and then at me over his shoulder.

"She's fine," he said, standing there in all his naked splendor.

"Row?"

I nodded, my mouth dry.

Cedric shut the door and he and I were alone.

I tried my mouth to see if it would work. "You didn't even kiss me."

He laughed. "You're right. All we did is mate."

I moaned. "Don't say that word."

"Why not? Too animal?" He was back on the bed again.

"No," I said, yawning. "It gets me going."

Why was I saying these things?"

He grinned. "I like it when you lose your inhibitions."

"And you are going to give me back to Sargon tomorrow."

"Must be done," he said with a shrug. "I'm not ready for war yet and if I don't give you back, I'll have to fight him in the courtyard tomorrow. He's pretty good. So am I. We'd probably kill each other."

"Don't," I said through the haze of drugs. "No more killing."

"Oh, I'll kill him soon. But not tomorrow. And maybe I won't be fair about it."

"The dark arts," I murmured.

"That's right."

"If he wants to make love to me tomorrow night, I'll die," I said in a dream voice.

"Don't say that."

"Why not?"

"Just don't. I don't want to hear it."

"Why would you care? You don't love me."

"Oh, I see," he said, frowning. "Norland loves you. He's raising an army to take you back. Sargon loves you, He fought for you to the death against my worthless brother. I only faced a band of brigands and killed them all like so much rubbish."

"But now you're giving me back to Sargon like a borrowed soup tureen."

"A what?" He snickered.

"Never mind. You don't care."

"You don't know anything," he snapped.

I was nearly asleep.

"How's your shoulder?" he asked.

"Hurts. Can I have some more of that drug stuff?"

"Just a little." He held his goblet up to my mouth. "Whoa! Stop there."

I fell back onto the bed and sighed through the haze. "I don't mind if you don't love me, as long as you do it all over again."

Good God, did I say that?

He snorted. "My own cousin, to talk so randy."

"Distant cousin," I reminded him. Very distant. "I won't be randy when I'm sober."

He stroked my face. "I must say this is a pleasant surprise. I thought women only tolerated sex."

"I'm a bad girl. Very bad. I don't know why."

Guilt. It was there again, haunting me. I shouldn't be enjoying these sexual encounters. I may have to do these things for my own survival, but I shouldn't enjoy it.

Cedric said something strange. "We are uniquely suited. The master has done very well by me indeed."

I drifted off to sleep, one filled with disturbing images. I awoke in the middle of the night, sat up sharply and winced.

Beside me, Cedric moved. "How is your shoulder?"

"Hurts."

"Have another drink." He held the goblet to my mouth and I drank voraciously. "You're a greedy thing."

The air around me swirled darker and I was enveloped in a shroud of heat. Strange noises started to come from Cedric. Chanting in an ancient language, one that sounded familiar but foreign. I couldn't take much more of this dizzying rocking, but the drugs I'd taken sent me off on another voyage, a dark voyage into an unfamiliar place of disturbing dreams and one endless orgasm.

"Don't move," he whispered in my ear. "I need to stay in you."

I didn't move a muscle. I'm not sure I
had
muscles anymore. I moaned. When he withdrew, I was relieved.

"You still haven't kissed me," I murmured.

He did so once.

"You sleep. I've things to do." His green eyes blazed at me and I trembled as I gazed upon the red-gold hair that covered his taut body. "I sent a messenger to Sargon last night. They'll leave at first light and be here with a party by midday."

"Sargon frightens me," I whispered.

"It won't be for long," he said. "I've seen the future. The Rampant Lion will have his mate." He leaned forward for one last kiss. "You may taste another, but you will come back to me."

I hoped not. My drug induced fog made me realize something. I was tired of being passed around from one man to another. Tired of unemotional connections. Hadn't I had that with Steve?

I wanted love, respect. Not sex.
Love!

But where would I find it? In my world…or this one?

"Keep the coin close," Cedric said before he left me.

Chapter 24

It was mid-morning and I was already dressed when Kendra came into the room. I couldn't look at her.

I moaned. "I feel awful."

"He drugged you," she guessed.

The night came back to me in splendid Technicolor. The drugged wine in the goblet! I drank it down like a desperate creature in the sweltering Arizona desert.

I was stunned, ashamed. How could I have behaved like this? Yes, Cedric saved me from those miserable thugs, but did that mean I owed him?

He'd said the drugs were for pain, but they had the effect of muddling my mind. And Cedric took every advantage of that. Damn and blast. He'd tricked me.