By the Magic of Starlight (The Forbidden Realm) (6 page)

“I know. I feel it, too,” she whispered, stroking him slowly. “The protection from the dust must be wearing off. I know we’re in danger and don’t have any Sizing Dust, but I can’t seem to think about anything except you, Kyne.”

He traced the form of her body, her breasts, the curve at the small of her back, the heated juncture between her legs. He moaned when she pressed herself against him, fisting his cock as if she would drag him to release right here and now. She was up against the warm rock; its weathered, flat surface provided perfect leverage for him to explore every inch of her. He found her lips and he kissed them. Then her neck, then her shoulders, then lower to tease her invisible nipples.

“I think I’m on fire, Kyne. You’ve got to do something, please. Come inside me; I need you.”

“You know I can’t do that. But by the Skies, I can do this.”

He slid down her, his hands skimming her hips and her thighs until his mouth was positioned just right where he wanted to be. He nuzzled her there, burying himself in her scent. Her legs parted and he tasted her core. She groaned in surprised pleasure.

“I can totally do this,” he repeated.

*     *     *

She was glad for the huge, solid rock behind her. If not for that monumental support, she would have crumbled into a sagging heap right on top of Kyne. By the Clouds, what he was doing to her! He was kissing her, nipping at her, sucking her most sensitive spot. Whether her riotous response to him was caused by the strange energy they were encountering here or whether it was simply her own body’s passionate reaction to Kyne’s eager ministration, she didn’t know and didn’t care. She simply wanted more of it.

Her fingers dug into his shoulders, pulling him closer, using his strength to keep herself upright as he suckled and lapped at her essence. The passion was stronger than ever and she was rasping loudly, moaning into the quiet night air.

“Take me, Kyne,” she offered between breaths. “Take all of me.”

“I’ll take everything I can get from you, Raea.”

She knew it was no idle threat. His hands stroked over her with power and possession. His wings folded around them, embracing her and holding in the heat they were both generating. His lips conveyed passion and urgency and a tenderness that made her want to scream for all the world to hear.

It wasn’t simply lust that she felt from him, though. His touch was demanding, yet gentle and sometimes even cautious. His hands lingered over her as if memorizing the feel of her every contour. Somehow, as he touched her body, a part of him seemed to be reaching to caress her very soul.

She reveled in the sensation. It was almost as if this was more to Kyne than simply feeding their passion, satisfying the burning desire that roiled inside of them both. Could it be that he felt something for her, something more than the physical? The mere thought of that shot through her like an electrical bolt.

Did Kyne honestly care for her? Could she be more than just a willing partner in this desperate joining they both craved so instinctively? She had no answer for her question. She couldn’t even let herself contemplate it further. What did she know of such things? All of this was beyond any of her experience and she refused to try to make sense of it.

She’d already spent too much of her life focused on what she already knew. All the senseless years she’d denied herself this… all the time wasted avoiding the searing pleasure she felt now, here in his care. It seemed horribly tragic. To walk away from this pleasure would be maddening. Never again would she pretend life could go on without Kyne, without this.

In consummation of her unspoken vow, her body gave in to the waves of glorious sensation. She clung to Kyne, arched her body for him, and cried out to the darkness. Release roared over her, rolling as a thundercloud and hot as a wildfire. She thrashed against the rock, letting the flood swamp her again and again as he devoured her, not giving her peace until the last remnant of her climax had faded into whimpers and panting.

“You are amazing,” he said, sounding every bit as breathless as she was.

“I am nothing without you. Please, Kyne. Let me find a way to give you release now.”

“I want you so badly, Raea,” he said.

She could practically feel the pain in his words. He
did
want her. He needed release, she could see that. Her heart ached for him even as much as his body must ache. How could she leave him this way? He’d brought her to ecstasy and she wanted—more than anything—to do the same for him. This was no longer merely about tending their desires. Her own pleasure meant nothing to her if he wasn’t sharing it with her. She had to find a way to give him the same contentment that he’d given her.

“Let me touch you,” she said, sliding down the rock until she was able to kneel before him.

Now she could reach out and she felt for his cock. It was not difficult to find—she could feel the warmth radiating from him, smell the sweet, musky scent that was his alone. She cradled his heated mass in her hands. The rough groan that escaped him was all she needed to hear to let her know just how much he enjoyed what she did. So she did more of it, loosening and tightening her grip on him, intimately exploring every enticing contour. She pushed him back, taking the space she needed to stoop down and gingerly put her lips to the salty skin she wished desperately she could see.

With her eyes shut, she could imagine him there, his body shuddering from his reaction, and his cock, dark and pulsing, in her hand. She licked him carefully, gently. Salty yes, but so much more. He was sweet like fresh honey and a little bit spicy, too. He made her think of sunflowers and wheat fields and hot, syrupy mead that her people drank for special occasions. She wanted to drink him now, to fill herself up with him and then go back for more.

Her mouth closed around him, taking the fullness of his hot cock into her. He groaned, his fingers closing over her shoulders and his body going tighter, more solid in every way. He pulled her closer. Her tongue toyed with this giant plaything, this tantalizing treat she wanted to consume and make part of her. She wrapped her arms around him, finding the taut muscles of his butt. She pushed his clothing aside, slipping her hands in to press against his velvety skin, holding him so he wouldn’t pull away and deny her this meal.

She raked her teeth lightly against him, gliding her mouth up and down his length. Now he was clinging to her much the way she had been to him. His breath came hot and moist, blowing over her and making her own sweat-damp skin prickle against the night air. Whatever she was doing to him, she could tell she was doing it properly. Her own body could feel the release building up in him, the passion raging nearly out of control. It transmitted through the energy in the air like static electricity, making her own passion rise up and threaten to overwhelm her.

But she was enjoying her work too much to let herself get carried away. There was such a sense of power to know that she had brought him to this, that she held him captive by her simple movements, the feel of her lips against his most intimate part. It felt as if her actions were drawing life from him, enriching her own in a way she could never have imagined.

“By the Stars and the Moon, Raea, I can’t hold off much longer. You’re going to make me come,” he warned.

But she wanted to do that, wanted to bring him to climax. It was the only goal that mattered right now. She wanted to give that to him, despite what it might mean. She needed it for herself as much as for him.

His hands roamed over her, his touch sliding down past her shoulders and grasping her butt much the way she’d grasped his. And then his fingers slipped between her legs, dipping into her for more of what he’d already given. It was her turn to groan. Another climax took her over and she nearly bit him.

He shoved her away, pushing her against the warm rock and leaving her there. She was gasping for breath as he suddenly became visible in front of her. Her eyes fixated on him, on his massive, dark cock. It throbbed and glistened in the night. His sounds of passion grew loud as his body grew, too.

She had done it for him; she’d brought him release. And now he fell back onto the earth, his body changing before her. He was human; huge, terrifying, and pulsing with the passion she had dragged out of him. He was apart from her, but it was as if she could still feel him with her. She leaned into the rock, waiting for her own breathing to become normal and her fear to take over. He was human and she had been with him.

But as his body relaxed and his head dropped back to rest, his eyes pinched tightly closed and his enormous cock plainly displayed, she felt no fear at all. His clothing had been violently ripped from him and he was ten times her size, yet she had no inclination to fly. He was still Kyne, still reeling from what she had done to him.

“I can see you now, Kyne,” she said when she finally could.

He was sprawled on the ground before her, totally spent, yet he pushed himself up on his elbows. His eyes searched the air. “Are you… are you all right, Raea? Where are you?”

“I’m here. I’m fine,” she assured him. “You brought me to climax again, you know.”

He smiled, his head dropped back down onto the soft layers of the forest floor. His chest still rose and fell rapidly but he wore a smug, lethargic smile of satisfaction. “I told you I’m something.”

She studied his huge, human form and realized it truly made no difference whether he was a fairy or a human. She wanted him. She wanted him for
who
he was, not simply
what
he was. This was a new feeling for her, and one she rather enjoyed.

“If we had Sizing Dust, you could be something again,” she said, only half teasing.

His laughter rumbled low in his chest. “Give me a few minutes, okay?”

“I’m afraid I can’t get any more dust until tomorrow,” she admitted. “But I will. I’ll say I need it for some special task or something. I’ll get creative.”

“You’re certainly good at that.”

“And we can come back here! We can meet by these rocks and do this again.”

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea, Raea.”

“Of course it is. You still want me, don’t you?”

“By the Skies, how can you ask that? It’s just… we have to think of the future. Our future.”

“Do we have a future, Kyne?”

“I hope so, Raea. Don’t you? Haven’t you thought about what this means, what there is between us other than the raging hot sex?”

She smiled, then remembered he couldn’t see that so she let a nervous giggle escape her. “I don’t know, all of this is so new for me. How can I trust what I feel when I don’t even know what’s real and what is caused by this strange machinery and its effect on us?”

“What do you feel right now, Raea? What does your instinct tell you?”

“I don’t know; I’m all jumpy and tingling inside. It’s probably from the machinery; it must be transmitting some kind of energy through this outcropping here.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, sitting up and running his hand over the smooth surface of the large rock.

“I don’t know what it is, but the energy warms the rocks and…” She ran her own hands over the rock as she spoke and suddenly realized something had changed.

“Kyne… the rocks. They’re not warm anymore.”

“I know. And the sound we noticed before seems to have stopped, too. Maybe that’s why I’m feeling so clearheaded again, but—” He paused, cocking his head to listen for a moment.

Then he swore. “Someone’s coming this way again.”

Raea was glad her invisibility wish was still working. She could hear the footsteps crunching through the leaves. It sounded painfully familiar, but this time she wasn’t weak and helpless. She was ready to zip up into the trees. Unfortunately, she realized Kyne would not be able to join her.

He was still human.

True, he still had his wings—they were a part of him, after all—but given his size and his bulk and his apparent lack of magic, there was no way he could use them for actual flight. He was stranded on the ground, fully visible to anyone who might come by here.

And he was naked. He was beautifully, temptingly naked. She flew to him and perched on his arm, tugging at his hand and shoving at him, trying to get him up.

“Come on. Get out of here. He’s going to find you.”

He laughed at her feeble attempts to move him, but he did as she commanded. He sat up and shifted position. By the Skies, but he was remarkable. She had been half afraid the sight of him as a human would destroy her craving for him, but it didn’t. She still wanted him. Perhaps even more!

First, though, she wanted him safely away from here.

“All right,” he said, as she tried to push him up to stand on his feet. “Watch out. I don’t want to step on you.”

“I’ll stay clear,” she assured him, buzzing around his head. “But you need to hurry. He sounds close!”

He moved quickly, but not nearly as silently as she would have wanted. Humans were such clumsy creatures. Fortunately, due to his size, he could cover a lot of ground. One bound with his long legs and he was hidden behind the rocks. Not that this would do much to protect him if the approaching human thought to look there, but for now he was out of sight.

“Why can’t you just make me invisible?” he questioned when she followed and began tugging at the undergrowth, hoping to cover him with it.

“I don’t have enough dust for that,” she explained. “Look at you, Kyne. You’re huge.”

“I told you this would be a problem.”

“Shh. He’s right there. See his light through the leaves? I’m going up into the trees. He’ll probably have that device again and I can’t have my magic nearby, giving you away. Stay hidden.”

She hoped he would be smart and follow her advice. She had barely made it up to the lowest branches when Baylor came crashing into the clearing nearby, waving his flashlight and his device.

“Kyne, is that you?” the man called out.

She held her breath and willed Kyne not to answer.

“Damn it, I know there’s magic here,” the man said. “I can detect it—I have sensors all through this part of the forest. They’ve already automatically alerted the council, you know. Whoever you are, show yourself now before it’s too late.”

Nothing answered him but the night breeze and a distant bird call. She could tell the man was frustrated, but at least he had stopped walking and was standing still, safely away from Kyne’s hiding place behind the rocks.

“I need to know what you did to my equipment!” Baylor called out. “Whatever you did, it isn’t going to make them happy.” He paused, waited, and waved his device around, then gave out a frustrated growl. “You don’t know what you’ve done. You’ve just put your entire Realm in great danger.”

Something rustled behind the rocks. Raea cringed as the man’s head jerked toward that direction. She started scanning the branches around her. If only she could find an acorn or something and throw it, distract the man. No luck. She’d taken refuge in an old maple tree. Only the tiniest buds of thin little seed pods grew anywhere close to her. The chances of getting any of them to spiral down and make enough noise to catch Baylor’s attention were nil.

And he was moving toward the rocks, just steps away now from discovering Kyne.

“Kyne, talk to me. I don’t want to harm you.”

Suddenly Kyne darted up through the brush to hover in the air a safe distance away from the man. He was small again, and not naked. A fern frond was wrapped around him, making him seem wild and untamed. He glared at the human, and if spite alone were a weapon, he likely could have struck him down where he stood.

“How do you know who I am?” Kyne demanded.

“You think you are the only one who’s been curious? I know you’ve tracked me, Kyne. You’ve watched me; you’ve studied me. You know who I am just the same way I know you.”

“You don’t know me. You know nothing about me.”

“I wish we had time for this, but we don’t. They’re on their way back here already and I need to get this machine running again. You can’t be here when I do. Its effects will harm you.”

“It’s here, under these rocks, isn’t it? What does it do? What are you and the council creating out here in this forest?”

“The less you know of it the better,” Baylor replied. “Just trust me.”

“Trust you? After what you did to my mother? Where were you while the council accused her of terrible things? While I was ridiculed and mistrusted every day of my life? No, I’m not about to trust you, but I do want some answers. What is this mechanism, and what does it do?”

Baylor paused and glanced around nervously. At first Raea thought he would refuse to answer. After a heavy sigh and a heartbeat of silence, though, he did.

“It is a hybrid device—human and magical. It collects magic and regulates its distribution through a network of other similar devices positioned in remote areas. This is just part of the grid that keeps the Veil strong.”

“The Veil is a magical thing. We have never needed human technology to provide our protection. You’re lying to me.”

“I wish I were. The Fairy Council has been aware for some time now that magic just isn’t enough. The Veil has been losing power. It’s in danger of total collapse.”

*     *     *

Kyne had to make him repeat those words twice before he would let them sink in. Could it be true? The Veil was in danger? It didn’t seem possible. Baylor must be lying about this.

But why? What would he gain? It just didn’t make sense that the council would actually work with humans, share sensitive secrets of the magical Realm with someone like Baylor. There had to be more to this than Kyne knew.

Baylor refused to say more, though. He wouldn’t even listen to questions.

“They’re coming, so you have to leave now,” the human ordered.

“No. Explain yourself, Baylor. What’s really going on here?”

“What’s going on is they’ll be furious if they find you here, Kyne. You pose a threat to them. They want to be rid of you and I’m beginning to think they don’t really care how they do it. Now tell me how you made my machine stop working and then get the hell away from here.”

“I didn’t do anything to your machine. It just stopped.”

“I don’t believe that. You did something and it’s important for me to know what. If this network goes down…”

He didn’t get to finish his statement but glanced off into the distance. Kyne knew why—he’d heard it, too. Voices. And now he could make out the faint glow of magic coming their way.

“Damn. They’re here again. I warned you the sensors would alert them. Here, take this and hide yourself, Kyne.”

As if running into his own despicable father out here wasn’t surprise enough, Kyne watched as the man extracted a tiny bag from his pocket. No, not a bag. It was a pouch. A fairy-sized dust pouch. And it didn’t look empty.

“How’d you get that?”

“It doesn’t matter; you don’t appear to have any on you and once I get this thing running you’re going to need it. Quick, resize yourself so you can be protected from the effects of the equipment and get out of here. I’ll make some excuse if the sensors pick up your magic, but you need to be gone.”

Not for all the depth of the seas did Kyne wish to stay here any longer. He did, however, have a problem. Where was Raea? He couldn’t leave without her.

Snatching the pouch that Baylor held out for him, Kyne darted up into the trees. He found a safe spot in a deep gash left by a lightning strike to the trunk of a tall maple and hid himself there. Feeling inside the pouch he found it did indeed contain dust. He was just about to use it when Wain and his partner came into view, flapping angrily through the brush and into the slight clearing around the rock formation below. They glared suspiciously at Baylor and scanned everything around them.

“What happened?” Wain asked. “Where’s Kyne?”

“He’s not here.”

“Then why were we alerted?”

“It’s a malfunction,” Baylor said, waving his device around, moving away from the tree where Kyne hid and looking closely at the rocks.

“What sort of malfunction? Intentional sabotage?”

“No, nothing like that. This is complicated technology. It isn’t as if we can just expect it to run flawlessly. Something must have simply shorted out.”

“Well, why were we summoned?”

“An energy surge probably triggered the sensors. Trust me, I’ve checked the place out. There’s no sign of anyone.”

“It’s quite a coincidence that Kyne was just here a short while ago, and now this…”

“His energy trail dissipated quickly. When he came through here before, he didn’t stay long and he didn’t come back. I see no sign that anyone tampered with anything.”

“Then what happened?”

“That’s what I’m trying to find out.”

Baylor put his device on the ground and began feeling around the rocks with his hands. Kyne pressed more tightly into the gnarled bark of the old tree, but he had a fairly clear view of the proceedings below. One of the rocks shifted under Baylor’s hand and revealed a hidden compartment behind it.

A panel of lights blinked in the darkness. So the rocks themselves did hide a secret machine. Maybe they were even magically altered to better obscure whatever was in there. All of this was more than foreign to him—human technology had never been coupled with magic before. He couldn’t see anything good to come from a union like that. No wonder everyone here was on edge.

“How long before you can get it working again?” Wain asked.

“Everything seems fine. I just need to reset it.”

“How long will that take?”

“Not long. I’ll just wait for you to get a safe distance away.”

“No. Start it now. We used our Sizing Dust; we are protected.”

“Not for very long.”

“Long enough. We just need to reassure ourselves that your efforts are diligent, that you’ve been telling the truth. If the machine doesn’t work and you have no proof that someone else tampered with it, you will be held liable.”

“And what will you do, lock me in one of your tiny buildings somewhere? Throw dust at me and turn me into a frog? How will that help your cause any, Wain? No, just trust me on this.”

“I don’t trust you, Baylor. Remember that.”

“Well, then at least acknowledge that I know more about this machine than you do. When I turn it back on, it’s going to go through an initialization cycle, and that tends to heighten the Regulator’s effect. That Sizing Dust you love so much won’t hold up long, and if you start throwing more of it around, you’ll only succeed in setting off the sensor alarms. You don’t want to be the cause for sending yet more faulty readings back to the council, do you? No, I didn’t think so.”

“We are not leaving until we know the cause of this malfunction. Period.”

The larger of the two fairies moved in on Baylor, hovering over him and giving off the most menacing aura that a human-sized lavender-colored fairy could. Baylor seemed unaffected by it. He simply rolled his eyes and pushed at some of the blinking lights inside that panel. The blinking pattern changed and he seemed satisfied by it.

“There, you see that? This indicates a simple energy surge. All I need to do is activate the starting sequence and we’ll be back in business.”

“You are certain of that?”

“Yes. This is experimental technology; there are bound to be a few bugs that need to be worked out before we have the magical integration perfected.”

“So it will run as needed now?”

“In a matter of minutes, it will be back up to full capacity. You can go tell your superiors all is well.”

“You have no doubt it was an energy surge?” Wain asked.

“One hundred percent certain. No sign of anything more than that; sorry to disappoint you.”

“Very well. We will go and tell our partners in this that things appear to be under control. For now.”

“Yeah. You do that. And tell them if they’re going to want me stalking fugitive fairies for you, as well as keeping all this equipment humming along nicely, then I’m going to need a boost in my funding.”

“Just do your job and you’ll get what we’ve agreed on,” Wain said, leaning toward his companion to mumble something.

The large lavender fairy gave a dull-witted chortle, but backed away from Baylor. It appeared they weren’t as bold as they sounded, inching away slowly when Baylor began poking around more inside that panel. Kyne had the distinct impression Baylor wasn’t really accomplishing anything, just toying with the thing for the sake of his unwitting audience.

“Yeah, whatever. I’ll keep a close eye on this tonight, and tomorrow I’ll head to the other side of the mountain and check out the machinery there. If I find anything unusual, you’ll know about it immediately.”

“Make sure that we do,” Wain ordered. “Very well, then. We’ll return to Council Hall and continue efforts to locate our fugitive. You will notify us if you see any sign of his return.”

“Of course.”

Wain scowled and gave one last look over the area. Kyne ducked deeper into the gnarled tree. Wain apparently saw nothing unusual, so he gave an order to his companion. They rose into the air. A torrent of dry leaves was stirred up around them, forcing Baylor to turn his head and shield his eyes. The fairies appeared not to care, enjoying their larger-than-usual size and flapping off in a faint glow, pushing through underbrush until they were gone.

“Assholes,” Baylor grumbled once the forest was silent again.

“You don’t have to work with them, you know,” Kyne called, coming out of his hiding place but not descending from treetop level. “Why do you?”

“I’ve got my reasons. Now get out of here while I turn this thing on. I wasn’t kidding about the start-up effects being stronger than normal.”