Three Kings for Sarah (6 page)

Ged’s fingers sank into Duncan’s hips, holding him still.
Sarah’s scorching mouth enclosed him whole and she released tiny, wet-sounding
whimpers of delight as she devoured him. He could feel her damp, slippery hand
sliding over his balls in delicate caresses, exploring them, taking in their
weight, rolling them…until she moved forward. He knew the exact moment her
silky hands reached Ged’s balls. The vampire tensed and slowed his pace a bit,
his claws extended, piercing the skin at Duncan’s hips, taking a firm hold on
him. In the next moment, the vampire’s pounding became wild and feral, and his
hoarse cry resounded in the silent forest.

* * * * *

Sarah stopped on the threshold. The lights were out but in
the fireplace, flames danced magically, bathing the cabin in a cozy, warm,
orange-colored glow. In front of the hearth stood an exquisitely carved copper
bathtub she’d never seen before.

She closed the door and hesitated. Ged had taken Duncan to
the waterfalls, which were almost half a mile away and had asked her to return
to the cabin until he was sure the wolf was again under control. She checked
the cabin. Xiu was nowhere to be seen. From the steaming water a delicate
fragrance of mandarins, cinnamon and jasmine wafted through the room,
assaulting her senses.

She walked slowly to the fireplace. The only sound in the
room was the crackling of the fire and the brush of fabric when she began to
undress. She let her robe fall onto the chair, tossed her blouse on the couch
as she walked past and left her G-string in a tiny puddle on the floor,
creating a careless trail of clothing behind her. The warmth of the flames
caressed her nude skin, making her feel sensual, free, aware of the woman she
was. As soon as she spotted the white flowers floating on the bath’s surface,
she also knew the woman she wanted to be.

Immersing herself in the hot water, she closed her eyes in
absolute bliss. She inhaled deeply, filling her lungs with the sensuous,
relaxing scent. “Xiu?”

Nobody answered. She didn’t make the effort to open her
eyes; she knew she wouldn’t be able to see him.

“Shadow… I know you’re there; I can sense you.”

“Can you?” His deep voice surrounded her, as if his essence
was spread through the whole room, as if he was embracing her.

Sarah smiled to herself. “Mmhmm!”

“Do you want me to leave?”

“No. Stay… Please!”

She could feel him standing next to the bathtub, watching
her. Some part of her mind told her she should be embarrassed, that she ought
to sink deeper into the water and try to cover her nudity in front of the man
who was still a stranger to her. Another part of her, the strongest one, told
her to keep her eyes shut and relish in what fate was offering her.

Her stomach fluttered as she sensed him kneeling down beside
the tub. He caught her foot to rest it on his warm, muscular chest, poured some
of the scented gel in his palm and began to lather her leg with long, slow
strokes, massaging her calves and caressing her thighs. Sarah let herself
become lost in the pleasure his hands gifted her with as they slipped over her
sensitive skin.

“Do you like it?”

“More…” She moaned as his fingers stroked along her inner
thighs.

Instead of ascending to her aching pussy, his hands returned
leisurely back to her ankles, rinsing her with warm water. She protested when
he took her foot from his chest. Her eyes snapped open and a cry escaped as he
wrapped his lips around her toes, taking his time to suck, lick and nibble each
one of them. She had to grip the edge of the tub so as not to sink under the
water and drown like her sanity had already done. Her lips opened to breathe,
moan, gasp and ask him not to stop. Somewhere in her mind, she heard someone
pleading for him not to quit. Was it her? It didn’t matter as long as he kept
doing what he was doing.

“More?” he asked huskily, compelling her to look at him.

His dark irises seemed ravenous, almost feral. Sarah nodded,
transfixed, unable to speak. The corners of his mouth rose ever so slightly.
Holding her leg with one hand, he traced an intricate trail with the help of
his lips and tongue. His other hand submerged in the water, discovering a path
between her thighs where it began to explore on its own.

She felt as if she were drowning…not in the water but in his
eyes and in pure bliss. Her thighs fell open and her inner muscles contracted
rhythmically, preparing themselves for him. It was impossible to control her
urge to writhe under his expert torture.

Her heart pounded against her rib cage, making her whole
body pulse. She arched her back as his mouth found her wet, aching nipple and
an expert tongue lapped at the brilliant water drops hanging from the small
nub. He blew it dry with his scorching breath, only to moisten it again when he
enclosed it whole within his mouth.

When his forearm appeared at her back to support her she
accepted, leaning her head on his shoulder, indifferent to the water spilling
over the rim in waves while she writhed in his arms. Her moans and cries echoed
in the cabin. She watched him between half-closed eyes, searching for the
telltale signs that would tell her he needed her as much as she did him. Their
eyes connected. His fingers kept exploring her inner core while his thumb
traced slow circles over her swollen, sensitive clit. She wished he wouldn’t
just wait patiently for her to come. She wanted him to cede to the hunger
reflected in his eyes, to lose the iron grip over his desire and to fill her
with his warmth. She wanted him to claim her the way he’d told her his people
had claimed their
Centehua
for centuries; but instead, he simply waited,
stalking her approaching explosion of pleasure.

Her pussy clenched around his fingers. Her muscles tensed.
Her breath came out faster and faster, sounding like little whimpers. Her
fingernails sank into the skin of his smooth, dark wrist, inciting him to go
deeper, harder… To rush!

“Shadow!” She gasped out his name.

He took her mouth with his, smothering her cries.

“This is the only way I can claim you, my
Centehua
…for
now!”

While her body calmed down, pulsing with the aftereffects of
her orgasm, she kept her head on Xiu’s shoulder and relished in the protection
his sturdy arms were offering. She wasn’t sure if she’d heard him in her mind.
The words had been merely a faint whisper…maybe he hadn’t even meant her to
hear them.

“I’ll admit I’ve never thought the name ‘Shadow’ could sound
that sexy.”

Startled and concerned, Sarah whirled around, spilling water
all over the floor, to look at Ged. He stood leaning against the open door,
arms crossed, displaying a lazy smile and what seemed to be his eternally hard
cock.

“You’re back!” She swallowed, feeling embarrassed. How long
had he been there? “Where’s Duncan?”

“He had to go out again.”

“You…you saw… Is he angry?” She couldn’t avoid her
stammering.

“Angry? Nah! Just horny as hell again.” Ged chuckled.

“And you left him alone?”

“It’s Xiu’s turn with him,” he answered with a shrug.

Bemused, Sarah regarded the shadow-walker, whose dark pupils
stayed fixed on Ged.

“Xiu’s turn?” she asked.

Ged showed a crooked smirk. “They need to explore
their…limits,” he explained, approaching the other side of the tub with a
fluffy towel, offering her his hand.

Sarah glanced insecurely from him to Xiu, not sure if she’d
heard a low growl coming from Xiu’s direction.

The shadow-walker stood up and went slowly around the
bathtub until he stood dark and menacingly in front of Ged. Sarah didn’t know
what to do. She didn’t want her men fighting and the way they stared at each
other, assessing each other, seemed to indicate that was exactly what was going
to happen. However, neither one of them moved.

“Take care with your games, vampire. I don’t think you want
me to play with you.” Xiu grunted huskily.

“That’s something you’ll have to test another time. Duncan’s
waiting for you. Dawn will break soon; you’ll need to hurry. We should be back
in our bodies before sunrise.”

Xiu clenched his jaw, standing still for what Sarah thought
was an eternity, until he suddenly vanished in the air.

“Fuck, he’s good!” Ged turned around to scan the cabin but
the shadow-walker hadn’t left the slightest trace.

“You’re going to leave tonight?” Sarah asked slowly,
studying a foam mountain still floating on the water.

“Come here, honey.” He offered her his arm, noticing her shiny
eyes filled with unshed tears.

“No, it’s okay. I knew you had to return. It’s just…” She
didn’t finish. Tears started to run down her cheeks and she began to sob.

Taking her out of the water, Ged wrapped her cup carefully
in the towel and carried her to the bed, lying down with her.

“Shhh! It’s okay, little one. We’re only going to our world
for the day. Xiu will stay here with you until Duncan and I are back in the
evening.” He waited for his words to sink in, but when she didn’t stop crying,
he pulled her closer to his chest. “Sarah, baby, we’ll return each and every
day, all three of us.”

“You can’t…if you’re here…when I die…you could…get
trapped…for good…here…in this…place…with him,” she sobbed.

His muscles went rigid. She hadn’t said “if she died”—she’d
used the word “when”, accepting her fate, the fact that she was going to die.
“That’s not going to happen. I…
we
won’t
let
it happen!”

She took a deep breath and reached for a tissue. “You
can’t…do anything…about it.”

I’ll die trying!
Gedeon clenched his teeth together.

“I want you to promise something.”

“Whatever you want, little one.”

Her immense eyes shined full of sadness. He’d promise her
the moon if she just asked for it.

“I want you to promise you’re going to stay at Duncan’s
side.”

If his heart were still pulsing, it would have stopped right
then and there. “Done!”
If I don’t die with you.

She nodded, staring down at his chest. “And you’re going to
take care of Xiu too. I’m aware he’s going to fight you. But he needs someone
in his life. I can’t go in peace if I don’t know someone is watching out for
him.”

“Sarah, baby?”

“Yes?”

“You’re rambling.”

“Yeah… I know.”

He gave her a delicate peck on the forehead. “I promise that
as long as one of us lives, I’m going to stay at Duncan’s and Xiu’s side, take
care of them and watch out for them; if they want me to or not, if they’re a
pain in the ass or not. Better?” he asked gently, pushing up her chin with one
finger to look at her face.

She threw herself over him, pressing her lips to his.
Surprised by her actions, he kissed her back, putting all his love into the
task. He wanted her to know what she made him feel, how she completed him. The
intensity of their kiss escalated even more when she answered full of passion.

With a heavy sigh, Gedeon finally separated himself from
her. He wouldn’t be able to keep kissing her and control his urge to take her.
For a while, they stayed silent, snuggled together. The slowing pulse of her
blood had a calming effect on him. He struggled not to think and instead just kept
his senses tuned in to her heart’s beats. He could have stayed like that for
the rest of his life.

“Are you aware that earlier…when you were facing off in
front of each other… Xiu and you, I mean… Your enormous cocks were hard… And
they were touching…”

Coming out of his stupor, Gedeon laughed loudly. “Enormous?”

“Well, yes. They are, aren’t they?”

“Mmhmm, I suppose we could say so if we compared them with
human standards.”

“Oh! All night breeds are well endowed? Larger than humans?”

Gedeon’s jaw tightened. “That’s none of your concern.”

“Of course it is! I’m a woman and I’m curious!”

“I’m not ready to talk with you about other men’s cocks.
You’ll have to make do with that with which destiny has gifted you!”

When she showed him a cute pout he rolled his eyes.

“No, not all night breeds are as well-equipped as we are.
You can consider yourself a really, really lucky girl.”

“So you’ve been paying attention to Xiu’s cock too.”

He glanced at her with raised brows.

Sarah smiled smugly. “Come on! Were you or were you not
aware of his hard-on brushing against yours?”

His lips trembled slightly. “I was fully and absolutely
aware. Satisfied?”

“Then… What was that all about? I mean, the menace and your…
You know what I mean.”

“Do you or do you not want all three of us together?”

“Yes, but—”

“Leave the ‘buts’ for me and shut up.”

“But—”

“Sarah!” He looked her deep in the eyes. “Don’t worry about
it now. Things are going to work out. Come here and sleep, baby. I want to feel
you.”

She snuggled closer to him. “Ged?”

“Yes, little one?”

“In case…we don’t see each other again…”

He tensed and she paused a moment.

She cleared her throat. “I just wanted you to know this was
the best night of my life. Thank you.”

Gedeon didn’t answer, although his arms tightened around her
waist, anchoring her to him.

Xiu appeared out of nowhere to stand just in front of
Duncan, which didn’t surprise him nearly as much as the change in the warrior’s
normally calm, stable demeanor. Xiu seemed as grouchy as Duncan felt. Well, maybe
a little bit more. After all, he’d had his good three hours of fantastic,
steaming-hot sex with the vampire and Sarah to help alleviate some of his
painful urges, whereas the shadow-walker stood in front of Duncan with a raging
hard-on, which obviously nobody had helped to calm down.

“Seems as if you could use a hand with—”

Before he could blink, he was pinned against a tree.

“Stop. Fucking. Playing. With. Me!” the shadow-walker
growled.

Duncan’s wolf went wild, rising against the unprovoked
aggression.
Fight! Play with him! Fuck him!

Duncan let out a slow breath.
There’s no time to play the
alpha macho crap right now. We must hurry.

The wolf growled.

We need to protect our mate
, insisted Duncan.

The growls transformed into soft rumbling noises. Duncan
relaxed his fists and stretched his fingers.

One down, one to go
, he thought dryly, looking into
Xiu’s dark, stormy eyes.

“Okay, big boy, here’s what’s going to happen…” Duncan took
both their shafts in his hand—or at least he attempted to do so. After an
unsatisfying moment, during which he struggled to move his hand, squeezing them
both together, he decided one hand wasn’t enough to handle them both. He’d
always considered his little Dunc big, but hell…Xiu’s cock was huge!
Shit,
that must hurt…good!
“No foreplay, no fucking around… We’re going straight
to the matter… We’re men, after all! We don’t need it!”

Xiu froze, his bewildered eyes staring down to where Duncan
was pressing both cocks tightly together. Tiny drops of pre-cum appeared on
their swollen tips. Duncan used them in a fluid motion, spreading them along
their shafts. His focus seemed to shrink until only the feel of steel against
steel and velvet against velvet existed, leaving the shadow-walker’s murmured
protest floating somewhere in the background while Duncan jacked them off.

“Are…just going…to let off…some steam…” Duncan added, his
tight throat making his voice sound gruff and breathy. “Fast and…easy…
Understood?”

“No foreplay…fast and easy…” Xiu mumbled distractedly.

Duncan’s muscles tightened and a sheen of sweat covered him.
“You know…a little…help…would be welcome!” He ground out the statement.

Xiu’s head jerked up. Their eyes connected. The
shadow-walker’s expression cleared and his brow arched.

“Your wolf doesn’t like it easy?”

“Go to hell!” Duncan snarled, stopping his motion.

Xiu’s hand intertwined with Duncan’s, spurring him on to go
faster, harder…

“Fast is good… But I need more than just ‘easy’!” Xiu
grunted between clenched teeth.

The shadow-walker used his free hand to seek out and play
with Duncan’s balls, making him moan.

Yeah, forget easy!
Duncan thought, aware of how even
now, as they touched each other in an intimate way, with only inches separating
them, they still stood menacing in front of each other. Their muscles were bulging,
their lips pulled back to show their sharp teeth, their skin glistening with
perspiration, their only contact their hands and cocks. They kept looking each
other in the eyes without hiding their feral hunger, the challenge… If an
outsider had stood there watching them, he’d probably have guessed that they
were preparing to fight. Perhaps at some level they were. It didn’t really
matter right now.

This wasn’t about intimacy—it was about need. Their
interaction had nothing to do with the sweet way he wanted to make love to
Sarah, or Gedeon’s sophisticated play. This thing with Xiu was something
absolutely different. Wild, powerful, even primitive in a certain sense, but
Duncan’s connection with Xiu was there.

Their breaths came out laboriously, mixing between them,
heating up, making them share the air the same way their bodies were sharing
their heat. It was a torment to feel Xiu’s body without touching it, denying
the potent magnetism. Duncan relished in the torture, in the overwhelming
sensation.

“Not…going to…last… You?” Xiu’s words came out between
gasps.

“Right there!” Duncan whispered shakily before he threw his
head back with a long, tormented, “Ahhh!”

His hands were bathed with hot white lava. Xiu came
immediately afterward, his whole body tensing, his teeth pressed together in
what seemed a painful grimace….

Their hands never stopped. They barely slowed their rhythm
while the warm cum was smeared over their shafts, blending their scents. The
awareness that they were unconsciously marking each other was what finally made
Duncan pull back his hand in shock. What the hell were they doing? He concealed
his disconcertion, forcing himself to act nonchalantly.

“Done. Now let’s do our work.” Xiu took a step back,
breaking their contact.

“What? No sweet kissing? No cuddling?” Duncan asked with a
wry smirk, letting himself fall against the tree trunk.

Xiu turned to the south. “Shift! It’ll be faster if we both
change. We…”

By the time Xiu blinked at Duncan, he was already in wolf
form. He waited to watch Xiu’s reaction. Not everybody accepted a man whose
other half was an animal, and a large, dangerous one, at that. Some people
weren’t able to see beyond Duncan’s fangs, his fur or the fact that he trotted
on four legs. Usually people’s reactions didn’t matter to him. He cherished
being a wolf, relished in it, in the freedom, the power, the sense of being one
with nature that came with shifting. However people saw him, he wouldn’t
hesitate to protect them with his life if they were innocent, or to tear them apart
if they deserved such a fate. But with the shadow-walker things somehow were
different. Duncan wanted Xiu to accept the wolf.

Xiu stood motionless, staring at Duncan, so he drew closer,
moving slowly, not wanting Xiu to think Duncan was going to attack. Sitting
down, he waited, giving Xiu time. To Duncan’s surprise, Xiu crouched down to
run his fingers through the wolf’s fur and scratch him behind the ears,
admiration written all over the shadow-walker’s face. Elated, Duncan licked
Xiu’s cheek in response, making him back away, obviously startled.

“Just for the record… I’m not the kissing type,” Xiu
grunted, giving Duncan a last scratch under the snout before standing up.

Duncan grinned. Okay…not everybody would consider him
showing his sharp teeth a smile, not even with his tongue hanging out! And the
cackling sound he made wasn’t quite a laugh either, but Xiu rolling his eyes
meant he’d caught the message anyway. Duncan spun around to run to the south
but then stopped and looked back. Xiu let his corporeal frame dissolve into
shadows and followed Duncan. In human form, he’d never be able to detect the
shadow-walker but as a wolf, Duncan could discern the man’s essence. Soon, he
ran through the woods in unison with the shadow, allowing the wildness to embrace
and guide him while his human thoughts receded to the background, freeing his
senses.

After a bit, the smell of moist earth began to acquire a
hint of ashes that irritated Duncan’s nostrils and made his mouth dry and
pasty, as if he’d stuffed it full of cotton, and the shadow-walker and he
reduced their speed. Still, they kept running. The landscape transformed,
colors fading into grays and blacks, majestic, leafy trees replaced by charred
and blackened stumps…thick, dense vegetation giving way to a lifeless desert.
Their pace became slower and slower until they shifted and stopped to inspect
the barren darkness extending in front of them.

“The old woman was right… She’s dying,” Duncan whispered.
“That motherfucker is draining her to death.”

At his side, Xiu clenched his fists. No words were required.
Not now.

* * * * *

“Hey, sleeping beauty, are you gonna wake up or not?”

Keeping his eyes closed, Gedeon grinned and stretched his
sore, stiff muscles. “Hi, princess! What’re you doing here?”

The princess threw her whole weight over him before she
delivered a loud peck on his cheek. “I came to replace Samgar and keep watch
for a while, but, damn, is it boring here!”

“What the hell are you doing!”

Gedeon groaned silently at the furious outburst. He didn’t need
to open his eyes to imagine Duncan with his golden wolf eyes, glaring at Ged
from the still-open door.
Shit!
This wasn’t going to be nice but he
supposed it had to be done sooner or later.

“Good evening, darling,” Ged said. “Do you mind if I take
two seconds to fully wake up?”

“What. The. Fuck. Are. You. Doing. With. My. Sister?”

Ah well, that’s a good question!
Especially since he
was still in Sarah’s bed, with her lying unconscious at his side and Deborah
sprawled all over him. As if that wasn’t enough—and if his ears and nose didn’t
betray him—Duncan was jealous as hell and Xiu had begun to emit a low growl
from his sitting position at the end of the bed.
Shit! Shit! Shit!

“What do you think we’re doing, brother heart?”

“Deborah!”

Ged shouted the warning at the same instant his eyes snapped
open to see Duncan leaping at her. Gedeon jumped up to throw her from him and
then situated himself between sister and brother just in time to stop the
impact with his body.
Damn, that hurt!
Sharp teeth snapped just inches
from his face.

“Duncan! Stop! There’s nothing…nothing sexual between
Deborah and me!”

“She’s my sister!”

“I know!”

“She was in the bed with you!”

“She was only greeting me.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen the way she was greeting you! You’re a
fucking cheater!”

Xiu echoed Duncan’s growls. The shadow-walker had his glazed
stare directed at Gedeon, proving that, even when he wasn’t fully here, he was
aware of the events happening around him.

Gedeon went stiff. He narrowed his eyes and adopted a
stone-hard expression. “I don’t cheat. I’ve never slept with your sister and
never will.” He kept his voice low and controlled. “Are you okay?” he asked
Deborah.

“Was that really necessary?” she asked, looking at her
brother from the floor, her face reflecting her pain as she rubbed her butt.

“You’ve never been this friendly with him in the past, why
now?” Duncan kept studying them with clenched fists and taut muscles.

“I’ve stayed with him every weekend over the last five
years—”

The low growls started again.

“Deborah, it’s time to tell him everything. Everything!”
Gedeon ordered, without taking his eyes off Duncan and Xiu.

“Mom’s with him,” announced Deborah.

“What?” Duncan’s jaw dropped and his wolf seemed to recede.

“When he rescued her, he took her with him and he has protected
and cared for her since then. She’s still living at his home and I visit them
each weekend.”

“Mom’s alive…with him?”

“Yeah!”

Duncan stared at Gedeon, obviously baffled.

“Yes, she’s with me. She makes me go to mass each Sunday
evening and I have to mow the lawn myself because that’s my role as the man of
the house,” Gedeon said with a grimace.

“Yeah, that’s Mom.” Duncan smiled faintly. “Is she all
right?”

Gedeon searched in his pocket and took out his mobile phone.
He made the call before he passed the phone to Duncan. “Here, you can ask her
yourself. She’ll be elated that she can talk with you again,” Ged added when
his lover seemed to hesitate.

Turning to Deborah, who now stood beside the bed with her
arms crossed, he just said, “Behave while I’m out. It’s not a good time to
provoke him.”

“Where are you going?”

“I must feed, and while I’m gone I need to check out…some
things.”

Deborah nodded but kept her mouth shut. She’d known him long
enough to recognize when he didn’t want to share information.

* * * * *

When Gedeon returned two hours later the room was in
semi-darkness, illuminated only by what little light came through the windows.
Xiu was still in the same position he’d been in when Ged had left and Duncan
sat broodingly in the armchair. Gedeon felt exhausted and worried. The
atmosphere at the hospital was tense, as if something was happening, but he’d
been unable to find out what. He approached the window, gazing out at the
street lamps’ weak glow.

“Did you discover anything?”

Gedeon shook his head. “I don’t like it. There are too many
people controlling their thoughts. They’re not blocking them. They just direct
their minds toward artificial reflections. Currently, outsides our door is a
young wizard counting the stripes on the tiles while he’s mopping the floor. If
he was nuts, I’d be combing his mind; but I have access only to his conscious
mental activity—the rest is protected by magic wards.”

“I’ve managed to detect the scent we detected yesterday in
Sarah’s world. It’s all over the place. But whoever was here yesterday to drain
her was already gone when we arrived this morning. I lost the trail in the
parking lot.” Duncan’s voice sounded as strained as Ged’s did.

“We ought to talk to Samgar, tell him what we’ve discovered
and ask him to restrict the access to this floor… Even the number of hospital
staff they allow in here should be limited.”

Duncan nodded absently. They stayed silent for a long time
before he took Gedeon’s mobile phone out of his pocket, glanced at it and then
threw it to him.

“You never returned to tell me what happened. Why?”

It was the question Gedeon had been expecting. “At first, I
couldn’t.” He shrugged, looking out the window. “I had more than enough skill
to fight with your pack mates, but when the vampires arrived your mother was
already down. They realized how I protected her and used it in their advantage.
They overpowered me. When Samgar appeared, I was already half dead. It took
weeks for me to heal.” He turned around and leaned back against the wall. “By
then, we had been informed by the Elders Council that it had been a trap. It
seems those vampires wanted to take me out with the help of your pack mates and
you were the next one on the list. The Council wasn’t sure why, or maybe they
just didn’t want to tell what they knew. They provided no more reasons or
explanations. By then, you had just become the new alpha of your pack. Your
mother decided she wouldn’t be used by whoever was trying to take you out. So
we just disappeared.”