Breathing Fire (Heretic Daughters) (44 page)

“Everyone out!” he roared, his voice going from human to beast in an instant.
 
They obeyed.
 
All except for Siobhan.
 
She sat where she was, as though she were immune to his order.
 
He turned to her slowly, growling in his throat.
 
“Did you hear me?”
 
Menace inundated every word.

She swallowed hard.
 
“There’s nothing you can’t say to her in front of me, Dom.”
 
Brave woman.
   

“OUT!
 
You don’t want me to remove you myself!”
 
She was gone in a blurred flash, door slamming hard behind her.
 
She cursed colorfully on the other side of it as she stormed away.

I drank in the sight of him.
 
He was enraged, but I felt no fear.
 
Perhaps it was my other form’s hold still on me, or maybe I had just never been afraid of his rage.

He studied me closely, visibly shaking.
 
His voice was calmer than I would have expected when he spoke.
 
“I didn’t think you were coming back.”
 
Abruptly he turned and sat.
 
I sat to his right.
 
He had his head in his hands, rubbing his temples wearily.
 
His hair had grown since I left.
 
He obviously hadn’t cut it.
 
It hung nearly to his shoulders now.
 
Druids grew things back quickly;
 
hair, nails, limbs.
 
He looked wonderful.
 
I drank in the sight of him, starved to the point of pain.

“Me neither.”
 
My voice was getting stronger.
 
“I thought I was flying north to perish, to tell you the truth.”

“But you didn’t perish.”

“No.”
 
I surprised myself by laughing.
 

He looked up, startled and angry.
 
“Something funny?” he asked coldly.

I shook my head, but a little smile still lingered on my lips.
 
“No, it just feels good to know that I’m not going comatose or crazy for the foreseeable future.”

“So what have you been up to for the last seven months?”
 

“I thought it was closer to six,” I mused out loud, though I was sure he had tracked it more closely than I had.

“Trust me, it was seven.
 
You know, we raided that place they were holding you in.
 
I even let the slayer and the mimic in on the action.
 
We got there just one hour after you had escaped.
 
We were so close to rescuing you.
 
But you never were one to wait around long enough to be rescued.”

My eyes widened in surprise
 
This was all news to me, of course.
 
“Did you see the other captives?
 
Where they okay?
 
Was Lynn in there somewhere?”
 
I still felt bad about that, about leaving them, even though I’d had no control over it at the time..
 

“No signs of Lynn.
 
The slayer believes a different group of dragons took her.
 
But we found the other captives, and they are fine.
 
The dragons left in too big of a hurry to take them.
 
They were both orphans, so they’re in druid custody now.
 
They are acclimating as well as can be expected, considering all that they’ve been through.”

I shut my eyes, laying my head back against the large, comfortable headrest of my chair.
 
The elaborate chairs at the banquet table were closer to thrones.
 

It was a relief to hear that those girls were okay, and hardly a surprise that they hadn’t found Lynn in that place.

It felt like at least one huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders.
 
I hadn’t realized what a burden of guilt I had been carrying for that.
 
My desertion of those girls hadn’t been deliberate on my part, but that was little reassurance when I knew first-hand what the monsters who held them were capable of.

“The dragons were in such a hurry, in fact, that we captured one of them mid-flight.”

My eyes snapped open, and I leaned forward to look at him more closely.
 
I had been trying to avoid looking into his eyes up to that point.
 
Those mercurial, mis-matched eyes had such power over me.
 
“Who was it?
 
What did you do with him?”

He smiled at me enigmatically.
 
“At last, I have the answers and you are the one asking the questions.
 
Perhaps we can bargain, then.
 
Let us trade information.
 
I ask you again.
 
What have you been up to for the last seven months?
 
We’ve been looking for you.
 
I’m sure that’s not surprising to you.
 
I feel like I’ve spent most of my life chasing your trail.
 
So I must admit to some curiosity as to your whereabouts these past seven months.”

I licked my lips nervously.
 
Where to start…
 
“That’s why I’m here actually.
 
I have a favor to ask you.
 
I have something very important that I need you to protect for me.”

He raised a brow at me.
 
“Let me guess.
 
You’ll ask me for a favor, I’ll agree, and then you’ll leave in a rush, giving me no information, as usual.
 
Whatever you were up to, it didn’t change you much.”
 
Bitterness dripped from every word.
 

“Actually, I plan to tell you everything.
 
I’m just trying to figure out where to start.”
 
I could tell I’d surprised him, but he was still wary.
 
“I went north because of something that happened years ago, back when we were together.”

He removed his jacket suddenly, throwing it at me.
 
“Put on some clothes, for god’s sake.
 
Why the fuck are you naked?”

“Sorry, that wasn’t intentional.
 
I forgot about clothes.
 
I’ve been my other form almost since I left.
 
My mind doesn’t work the same when I’m changed.”
 
Still, I let his jacket fall to the floor.
 

Suddenly, his nostrils flared, as if picking up a scent.
 
Before I could blink, he had me on my back, on the table, his weight pushing me down.
 
“You provoke me, as always.”
 

“Wait.”
 
My voice made him freeze.
 
His body started to shake as he straightened up.
 

I ran my burden to the corner, turning to smile radiantly at him.
 
“Sorry, it’s delicate.”
 
I was back to him in a flash.
 
Just the smell of his neck made me shake with need.
 
“I missed you,” I whispered in his ear, and felt him tremble.
 

He splayed me on the table, more carefully this time.
 
He set to work on my body slowly with his lips, tongue, and teeth.
 
I gripped his hair in both fists, it’s silken texture a wonder to me.
 

I tried to guide his head lower, but he just ignored me, chuckling softly against my skin.
 
The sound was sinister, and it drove me crazy.
 
He always took control in this fashion when we made love.
 
He would take no orders, and I could refuse none of his.
 
He was dominant to his very core.
 
I doubted there were any truly powerful druids that weren’t.
 
They melded their souls with the beasts.
 
It was the nature of their power.
 
And I had never seen a druid more powerful than Dom.
 
Or more controlled.
 
He could tamp down his dominance when needed, but when we were like this, letting go completely, he didn’t even try.
 
I would have hated it if he had.
 
His power spread over me like a mist, and every part of me loved it.

He buried his face in my neck, biting down hard.
 
I whimpered, but not in pain.
 
He kissed the bite marks he’d made, soothing me, then kissed his way from my throat to my breasts.
 
He kneaded one in his hand while his mouth set to work on the other.
 
He sucked my flesh into his mouth so hard that it would have left a lasting mark, if I was human.
 
He gave the other one the same attention, then moved south, kissing across my ribs, and into my naval.
 
“Stroke your breasts,” he ordered roughly into my skin.
 
I obeyed, but made a sound of protest in my throat.
 
I didn’t want to stop touching him, didn’t ever want to let go of him again.

When he finally buried his face between my legs, I was sobbing with need, begging for it.
 
He licked me, and thrust three long fingers into me with one smooth motion.
 
He had me coming in moments.
 
I screamed loud enough to have someone knocking on the door.

“Sir?”
 
An uncertain male voice called from the other side.
 
“Is everything all right?”

Dom straightened, unbuttoning his severe black robe as he answered.
 
“Yes, I am fine.
 
Do not interrupt us again.”
 

He made short work of the heavy buttons.
 
I’d been so wrapped up with the sight of him, so lost in his enchanting eyes, that I hadn’t even noticed what he was wearing.
 
It was some sort of druid ritual robe.
 
They had been either coming or going from something very important.
 
Druids wearing anything other than three piece suits meant serious business.

I bit my lip apologetically as I asked, “I came at a bad time, didn’t I?”

He laughed, and it was the most carefree sound I’d heard come out of that beautiful mouth in years.
 
My moody Dom.

I released my right breast and raised a trembling finger to his lips, tracing his soft lower lip in wonder.
 
“Oh, Dom, how I’ve missed your smile.”
 
I was horrified when a tear slipped down my cheek.
 

He nipped my finger playfully, smiling into my eyes as he wiped my tear away.
 
“Perhaps you shouldn’t work quite so hard at running away from it, then.”
 

The hand on my face traced down my body swiftly.
 
He parted my thighs wide apart with sure hands.
 
“Don’t move,” he ordered, as he parted his robe.
 
He was gloriously naked underneath, and I drank in the sight of the body I had missed so desperately.
 
He didn’t bother removing it completely, just opened it enough to bare his tanned, muscular torso, and his heavy arousal.
 
Just the sight of it made my insides clench.
 

“Please, Dom, I want you naked.
 
I want to see you.”
 

He just grinned at me.
 
His wicked grin.
 
“Maybe next time.”
 
He thrust to the hilt in one perfect motion of his hips, his masterful hands holding my legs wide apart.
 
“Keep your hands on your breasts,” he ordered, and started up a hard rhythm.
 
He had my legs pinned so that I couldn’t even wiggle against him, holding me in perfect stillness for his penetration.
 
The sensations were nearly too intense, and I screamed again as I came.
 
“Don’t look away,” he told me roughly.
 
“Maybe I should fuck you ’til you can’t walk away tonight.”
 

He finally leaned his chest against mine as he grew closer to his own release, and I plunged my fingers into his hair with relish, pulling his face to mine in a fierce kiss.
 

I lay with my ear over his pounding heart when we finished, stroking his hair.
 
I knew this was far from a reconciliation, but I still felt a raw part of my heart heal.
 
“I haven’t been with another man since long before I met you.”
 
I felt him freeze at my confession, his heartbeat jackhammering.
 
“I know you think that doesn’t matter now, since we’re over,” I continued hurriedly, not letting him speak.
 
“But it’s significant because it pertains to what I have to show you.
 
You see, the thing I need you to guard belongs to us both.”

He sat up, dragging me upright by my arms to look him in the eye.
 
“Tell me what it is,” he demanded, his voice hoarse.

I brought the satchel to him, unwrapping it carefully.
 
I cradled the large bronze egg to my chest as he stared at me in shock and confusion.
 
“He says he’s not ready to be born for a while yet,” I whispered as I stroked the egg of our unborn baby.
 
“He told me there are some things I need to do in the time before he’s born.
 
He’s our son, Dom.”

“He?”
 
His voice broke on the word.
 
His eyes were softer than I’d ever seen them as he stared at the egg.
 
His hand was trembling as he touched it ever so softly, with just the tips of his fingers, tracing the intricate patterns etched along it’s surface.