Ultimate Warriors (3 page)

     
A chill
wind shifted over me, tangling my hair over my face in loopy tendrils that
caught at my eyes and mouth. I pushed it away, unable to look from the
darkness.

     
"Nari,"
something whispered close by, raising chills on my arms and neck like an abrasion.

     
I wanted
to close my eyes and cover my ears, to will it away. Will it all away. This was
a dream.
A nightmare.
I knew it, and yet I was no more
able to control it than I’d been able to any other time since the dreams had
begun. I was paralyzed, both mentally and physically. Something held me here,
wanted me to see this.

     
He
locked one arm around my breasts, pulling me back against his chest. "They
come for you, Nari. For the chance to fuck your sweet little pussy" he
said, cupping my femininity for emphasis, curling his fingers into my fabric
covered slit. I bit my lip, struggling not to moan. He loosed his hold and
grabbed my arms, trapping me as effectively as manacles. "Do you want them
fighting over you? I’ve held them back this long, but I can take my protection
away if you crave a gang bang. Perhaps that is what’s needed to break
you."

     
I didn’t
struggle. The edge was too close for me to risk it, and I couldn’t be sure he
wouldn’t throw me off if I fought him. But I would never let him break me.
Never.
"Why should I believe anything you say?" I
said, fighting back the swarming urge to shudder at the implication of his
words.

     
"Believe
or not. You cannot change my will, wherever it may roam."

     
"Then
why ask me at all?" I gritted out.

     
He
laughed, tightening his hold.
"Perhaps simply because I
enjoy taunting you?"

     
He
manifested. One moment, I could see nothing, and the next, I saw his hands.
They locked around my biceps, black as ebony. His skin gleamed as if he’d oiled
down, and each finger ended in a short claw that just cleared the end of each
finger. They looked like glass.
Black glass.
Sharp
enough to slice me open.

     
A
strange calmness settled over me. I had to find out more about him if I was
going to fight him. I knew he wasn’t real, that he was some part of my
subconscious fighting against me, but if I could now see just a small part of
him, it told me that I was beginning to be able to face him. "Who are you?
What do you want with me?"

     
He
laughed,
a deep, gravelly sound that grated on the nerves
more for its cockiness than its sound, which would’ve been pleasant under other
circumstances. "I enjoy your growing bravado, Nari," he said,
stroking my skin with his thumbs. "Is my seduction so unexpected that you
no longer know me?" He rubbed against my buttocks, his cock a hard
insidiousness that nudged the cleft like a hot poker. His hands shifted to my
breasts, squeezing them, pinching my nipples as he kept me trapped against him.
He bit my neck, lips locking against my flesh, sucking at the crook of my
shoulder until I cried out in pain.

     
He broke
away, only to fierce my skin as he dragged the edges of his teeth up my neck to
breathe hotly in my ear. "I am called Onyx," he whispered, grinding
himself against me. "And you are mine."

     
"I
don’t belong to you or anyone else," I said, my voice monotonous. I felt
drugged, even stiffer and unable to control myself than I had been before. Had
he done something more than bite my neck?

     
I
couldn’t support my weight anymore. My knees gave out. He caught me as I
crumpled, lowering me to the ground.

     
I looked
at him between my lashes, but he was indistinct as a shadow, a dark outline
marring the starry sky above us. I wanted to open my eyes more, but they
wouldn’t budge. My body wouldn’t obey any of my commands. I lay, limp and
malleable, for whatever pleasure or pain he intended.

     
Grasping
my clothing, he pulled until it ripped open, exposing me until I was naked and
at the mercy of his raking gaze.

     
He
stopped a moment as if studying me. I could practically feel his eyes touching
my every curve. A prolonged silence ensued, broken only by my own harsh
breathing. "I far prefer your struggles, Nari, but your complacency makes
our joining easier."

     
"Fuck
… you," I managed to whisper, willing my body to move, to flee.
Nothing.

     
My
thighs parted beneath his hands. He settled between them, his skin oddly
hairless and smooth, warmed within by an insatiable heat hot enough to sear me
by touch alone. "In a moment, I will oblige you," he said on a husky growl,
lowering himself over me.

     
I tensed
infinitesimally, preparing for invasion. Where arousal had been before, now
there was nothing but pervading fear. I was completely dry. He would hurt me.

     
This
couldn’t happen. It was a dream. A dream! I wouldn’t allow myself to be taken
in a dream. I couldn’t.

     
The
knowledge couldn’t save me, however. Where was Doctor Savage when I needed him?
How could my own subconscious deny me the hope to escape?

     
As if by
only thinking about a savior had conjured it, a light pierced the darkness
beyond my closed lids.

     
Onyx
hissed and thrust himself away. I felt the loss of his heat replaced by the
warmth of the sun. It invigorated me, broke the paralysis I’d been under.
Opening my eyes, I blinked against the blinding light that surrounded me,
wondering what the hell had happened.

     
Sitting
up, covering my eyes with one hand, I reached out with the other, feeling
around for the source of the brilliance. I connected with flesh and jerked
back.

     
"Who’s
there?" I asked, tensing up again. Had I just gone from the pan into the
fire? Those things were out there. Had they broken through whatever barrier
kept them trapped in the deep?

     
"I
am no foe for you to slay," a deep, amusement tinged voice spoke.

     
For some
reason, it was soothing to me, eased my fear. The light dimmed enough I could
uncover my eyes without going blind.
Before me crouched a
man--no, not a man.
He was a monster, but he was more beautiful than any
monster had the right to be. This was the kind of demon that could tempt saints
to sin.

     
Hair
trailed down his chest nearly to his belly, stirring in the wind created by the
massive wings moving at his back. It was nearly a pure white, broken only by
contrasting streaks of dark gold. His skin was gold too, almost a metallic
shade and too surreal to ever be considered human. His body was all muscle,
massive, hard and defined, sculpted by the hand of a master. The angles of his
face were pure, beautiful symmetry, broken only by the arch of his brows as he
stared at me. His eyes were gold too, a glowing gold that rippled with hints of
red and orange, like metal heated to the melting point. Out of his forehead
sprang two curled horns, spiraled and twisted like ram’s horns but reaching
toward the sky. And his wings … they gleamed like polished ivory, marbled with
golden threads as they stirred the air in a gentle current.

     
He
reminded me forcefully of Doctor Savage. Not in form, which wasn’t human, but
in face. Enough so, that it startled me at first, and then I realized it had to
be thoughts of him just moments before that must have put him into my mind.

     
There
was something inherently carnal about him, aside from his near nakedness. He
looked at me with a hunger so intense it radiated from his pores. I covered
myself, bringing the edges of my clothes together, uncomfortably aware of how
long his gaze had lingered at my breasts and between my legs. If it was
possible, I’d swear my nipples and cleft blushed.

     
As it
was, they tightened, coming to achy, needful awareness.

     
"Who
are you? Why did you come?" I finally
asked,
my
voice so husky it didn’t sound like me.

     
He
stood, looking around warily before turning his gaze back to me. "You need
to protect yourself against him and the others. I cannot protect you."

     
I hadn’t
asked for his protection, but I wasn’t about to argue with that logic. I did
need to learn how to protect myself. Running had only prolonged the torment,
and I couldn’t escape him--Onyx--any longer. "I can’t fight what I can’t
see."

     
"You
cannot see him because you don’t want to."

     
Tired of
looking up at him, I stood. I still had to look up to meet his eyes. "I
don’t understand," I said, tightening my hold on the scraps of clothing
covering me.
This close, I could feel the heat of his body,
breathe in his scent.
There was no describing the intoxicating effect it
had on me. He was more potent even than Onyx, and I wondered if it was a result
of my attraction to Doctor Savage. Who knew? Not me, and I didn’t really relish
the idea of exploring my theory with the object of my attraction.

     
"This
is your world.
Your rules.
We can but obey them."
He turned to go.

     
"Wait!"
I said, grabbing his arm, stopping him. He looked down at my hand and then back
up to my face. "Could you teach me?" I asked, feeling almost
breathless with the tension between us, and the strong muscles flexed beneath
my hand.

     
Turning
fully, his body rubbed against my chest. "There are many things I could
teach you, Nari," he said, his voice soft, seductive. I felt the deep tone
vibrate in my bones, warming my muscles, making my body heat to the point of
combustion.

     
He
inclined his head, bending even as I tilted my own to meet his lips. He stopped
just shy of satisfying my sudden craving to kiss him. His breathing was
harsh,
warning me his control was on edge, that he felt as
frantic for the connection of our mouths as I did.

     
"Now
is not the time. Wake up, Nariko…."

     
Nariko
rolled over in bed, pounding the mattress with her fists. "Dammit!"
she cursed, collapsing into stillness, squeezing her eyes shut and willing
sleep to return. It wouldn’t, of course, not now that she wanted it … and
wanted to begin that kiss.

     
She rubbed
her thighs together, feeling the slippery arousal there. Who’d made her feel
that way?
Onyx,
or the stranger?

     
"Damn."

     
Nariko
rolled out of bed, wincing when her head and neck felt like they were going to
seize in a charley horse. She brought her hand up to it, grimacing as she
connected with tender flesh. Jeez, she felt like she’d been--Nariko stopped at
that thought, jumping to her feet to rush into the bathroom.

     
She
flipped on the lights, leaning over the sink to stare at herself in horror. At
the crook of her shoulder and neck was a circular bruise. As she moved closer,
she could see darker, smaller bruises within the edges of the circle. Like the
marks of teeth….

     
The
creature … Onyx had bitten her. It’d hurt, hurt like something really happening.

     
She
covered her face with her palms, as if it would make the bruising disappear,
slowly dragging them down her face but coming up against the same sight.

     
"How
is this possible?" she asked herself.

     
Dreams
weren’t real. How then had she been marked in her sleep?

     
Had her
mind created the bruise? Could she die in real life if she died in her sleep?
What else could happen to her?

     
No one
knew the extent of the human mind, however. She’d heard stories of people healing
themselves by the power of thought alone. If she’d been raised in the tradition
of her ancestors, would she know more about this? Would she be able to protect
herself?

     
To think
that it was something else was nearly as unbearable as the thought of
her own
body at war with itself. It was enough to make her
never want to crawl into bed again and never go outside.

* * * *

     
Nariko
felt none of the nervousness she’d felt the first time she’d visited Doctor
Savage. She was really scared now.

     
As soon
as she took her seat on the couch, she began to fidget, waiting for him to
finish glancing over the file and give her his attention.