Dawning of Light (10 page)

She stared at the steaming omelet while Finn dropped into the chair next to her and filled a glass with freshly squeezed orange juice. As he snagged a piece of toast and shoved it into his mouth, he said, “Eat,” in a tone that suggested he was a father and Cecilia was an insolent child.

“I’m not hungry.” She pushed the plate away, even though her stomach rumbled and the smell made her mouth water.

Finn shoved the plate back into place. “Eat, or I will force-feed you,” he threatened.

Olivia snickered and hurriedly took a bite from her own piece of toast to cover it up. With a frustrated sigh, Cecilia picked up her fork and took a bite of the omelet. Not surprisingly, it was delicious, and even after only one bite, her roiling stomach felt better. She was really beginning to hate the fact that Finn was right all the damn time.

Tanner joined them a few minutes later, and Cecilia ate in silence while the two men discussed training the lightbearer guards. Finn did not even look at her, nor did he acknowledge what happened last night—the kiss or the way she had drunkenly thrown herself at him. Part of her was relieved because she was so utterly embarrassed by her own behavior.

But a small part was disappointed. Obviously, the kiss meant nothing to him. Obviously, he felt none of the same overwhelming emotions that she felt. Clearly, this annoying attraction was one-sided.

She felt a distinct sense of relief when he and Tanner pushed away from the table and announced that it was time to head to training. When Tanner leaned over Olivia’s chair and kissed her for far longer than was necessary, given they had an audience, Cecilia purposely avoided looking at Finn at all.

After they left, she stared out the window at the snow-covered lawn. “Perhaps I will move downstate to join that pack of shifters myself,” she muttered miserably.

* * * *

Samuel was at practice. For the first time since last night, Finn felt his spirits lift a little. Finally, he had an outlet for all this pent-up energy that was swirling around inside him like a damn tornado. Samuel gave him a stiff nod and then stepped into formation, and Finn let his thoughts wander back to the night before.

Let
his thoughts? Hell, he couldn’t stop them if he wanted to. Cecilia. That kiss. He had been so wrapped up in the sensations caused by kissing the damned lightbearer that he’d been a hairbreadth away from fucking her up against the wall, right there in the open. In fact, the only thing that had stopped him was that his shifter hearing had detected Samuel when he stepped out of the tavern and began wandering around outside looking for them. Finn had forced himself to pull away from Cecilia, out of her embrace, to detach his lips from hers. He’d been so disoriented, so overwhelmed, that he’d only been able to stagger a few steps before he dropped his hands to his knees and focused on just keeping upright, let alone not rushing right back into her embrace.

The damned woman had him by the balls, and she didn’t even know it. At least, he thought she didn’t. He hoped she didn’t. Otherwise, he was in trouble. If she had any inkling whatsoever of the power she had over him…

What would be so bad about sleeping with Cecilia?
He asked himself that question as he waited for the rest of the disorganized, haphazard guards to fall into formation. Dismally, he realized he had plenty of answers.

For one thing, he needed to focus on getting these guards whipped into shape, so that in the event of another shifter attack, they would be able to defend themselves, and the coterie. Now that Tanner was in charge—even if it was from behind the scenes—and was due to become a father in just five months’ time, he was determined that the guards truly lived up to their station.

Before Tanner came along, the lightbearers had relied on the magical wards surrounding their exclusive little community as a form of protection. Although they referred to themselves as guards, in truth, they were more responsible for maintaining the peace inside the coterie, rather than protecting the inhabitants from the dangers that lurked outside.

Things changed when Quentin Lyons figured out lightbearers still existed. While he had not been able to get through the wards, he knew the general coordinates, and even that little bit of knowledge was too much, in Finn’s book. Quentin might be dead, but he’d left plenty of shifters behind who had blindly followed him for decades. Finn had no doubt at least some of them would try to band together and carry on his legacy of hate. The lightbearers needed to be prepared for anything.

The females are even worse than the males
, Finn mused as he ran the group through a series of stretches. Sander Bennett, the king of the lightbearers, was a sexist ruler who believed females should be protected, not learn to protect themselves. Thankfully, Tanner had put a stop to that practice almost immediately.

Three hours later, after the guards had been dismissed and an entirely different group of lightbearers lined up for training, Finn found himself wishing Tanner had
not
put a stop to that practice. Finn was in charge of overseeing defensive training for the entire village, including the females, who were now given the directive that they too had to learn to protect themselves. Unfortunately for Finn, Cecilia fell into this group.

She wore a dress, like all the women did. Finn had wanted them to wear slacks at first, but then when he realized that most only ever wore dresses, he changed his mind and determined that they should learn to fight while wearing their normal clothing, so that they would be more comfortable.

The lightbearers were a beautiful group of magical beings. Most had pale hair and brightly colored eyes that sparkled like gems. Thanks to their magic, the females could fix their hair, add a little enhancement to their faces, hide an unsightly bulge, without so much as a spare thought. Finn was faced with rows of handsome young females, all made up as if preparing for a night on the town, rather than the opportunity to get down and dirty and learn how to fight.

Even with all the viable competition, though, Cecilia stood out as if she were a beacon, the lone lighthouse at the tip of a jutting piece of land. But instead of warning off sailors so that they would not crash their ships into the rocky shore, she was a damned siren, summoning Finn, calling to him. Instead of proper defensive techniques, he was thinking about various bedroom positions. None of the other women existed. Just Cecilia.

“You going to teach them anything today?”

Tanner stood slightly behind Finn, his arms crossed, a smirk on his face. His mate had determined that despite her pregnancy, she was more than capable of going through Finn’s training. Tanner had not wanted her to, but she’d won that particular battle, and now stood at attention next to Cecilia, waiting for Finn to tell her what to do. As a result, Tanner felt obligated to attend the training as well. Just in case.

Finn kicked himself into gear. As he paced in front of them, he gave them a lecture about safety, about being aware of their surroundings at all times. He deliberately looked at Cecilia when he gave this speech. She glared back at him. Was she pissed about last night? Was she angry that he’d pulled away, or angry at herself for kissing him in the first place?

Probably the former, he decided. He and Cecilia could barely tolerate one another under normal circumstances, and since she had gone to the tavern with Samuel in the first place, Finn supposed it was entirely possible that she had intended to go home with the male lightbearer last night. The overabundance of wine she drank had obviously confused her, and she’d hit on Finn, when she meant to hit on Samuel.

Not that he would have let her change directions, he thought, as he ran them through a series of stretches, like he had with the males. That was why he took her to the beach house last night, because he knew damn well that if he left her to her own devices, she would have gone home with Samuel. While he tried to convince himself he didn’t want her, he sure as hell didn’t want Samuel to have her either. Something about that particular lightbearer struck him as off, although he had no proof to back up his suspicion.

He thought about the brutal training he’d given the lightbearer guard, and he couldn’t help but smile. Samuel would regret his decision to join today’s training for at least a week.

He went through a series of demonstrations, showing them how to kick, how to punch, how to extract themselves if someone had hold of some part of their bodies. When it was time to demonstrate with a partner, he deliberately chose Lisa, who had joined the training just for kicks. Lisa already knew all this shit. She’d been raised in the same pack as he, and Quentin had excused no one from learning hand-to-hand combat.

He and Lisa expertly demonstrated everything Finn had just explained, and then he had everyone pair up and practice. He walked through the practicing duos, correcting as necessary, offering words of encouragement, suggesting ways to do something just a little bit better or faster or smarter.

He deliberately avoided Cecilia and Olivia, who had paired up together, even though they were both very clearly doing a certain kick incorrectly. Tanner finally scowled and walked over and showed them what they were doing wrong.

When practice was over and everyone was dismissed, Finn wiped his face with a towel and headed toward the staircase built into the cliff, so that he could go back to his cottage and take a steaming hot shower. He was contemplating shifting into a bird and flying down to the bottom, rather than walking, when he heard someone call his name. He turned and bit back a groan as he watched Cecilia wade through the snow, heading in his direction.

She looked spitting mad. When she was close enough, she stabbed him in the arm with her finger so hard that magic flared for an instant.

“Don’t you
dare
do that again,” she said, her stormy blue eyes reflecting her anger.

“Do what?” What the hell had he done this time?

“You purposely ignored me for that entire training session,” she accused.

“There were a hundred other females there. I couldn’t possibly talk to every single one of you individually.”

“I was deliberately doing those moves incorrectly. You knew I was doing them wrong. And you purposely avoided me. I need to know how to defend myself just as well as any of these other females. Your job is to teach me.”

“You need it
more
than any of those other females,” Finn shot back at her. “No one else feels compelled to sneak out of the coterie, despite having already come face-to-face with the very real danger that’s out there.”

“Then
teach me
.”

“Fine. You want me to teach you?” He swiftly looked around, then nodded at the nearest stand of trees. “Let’s go. There’s a clearing over there. It’s plenty big enough for me to kick your ass.” He turned and stalked toward the trees. He knew she followed, because he could actually feel her. Her magic, her anticipation, her excitement. He could even smell her arousal, and it pissed him off because now he was getting aroused too.

When they reached the clearing, he rounded on her. “What the hell is wrong with you?” he demanded. “We’re practically screaming at each other and you’re fucking turned on.”

Her face pinked. She narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. “I am just excited about actually learning something for once. So far, I haven’t been terribly impressed by your teaching skills.”

“I have a few things I’d like to teach you,” he muttered.

She lifted her chin a notch and gave him a challenging look. “Go ahead.”

Neither one of them was thinking in terms of defense at the moment, and they both knew it. Finn struggled with maintaining control, but it was useless. He didn’t want to be in control. No, wait—yes, he did.

“First of all, you need to learn when a guy wants a woman to be submissive,” he said. He circled his arm around her waist and pulled her tightly to his body. Her eyes grew wide as they stared at his lips. The anticipation was so thick in the air he could scarcely breathe.

“I have never been submissive a day in my life,” Cecilia growled, an actual, legitimate growl that would have done a shifter proud. She licked her lips, and then she twisted both hands in his hair and pulled him to her, kissing him with such exuberance that he didn’t even realize they’d dropped to their knees for a good, solid half a minute.

Okay, maybe he didn’t want to be in control.

“Damn, Cici,” he murmured as he broke the kiss so that he could nibble a trail across her cheek to her ear.

For once, she didn’t snap at him for using the intimate nickname. Instead, she dipped her head and nipped at his shoulder. He growled and pushed her down onto her back on the snow-and leaf-strewn ground. They wrestled for a few moments, until she successfully rolled him over onto his back and straddled his hips. Her hands fisted in his hair, and her lips demanded he respond. She was a hell of a dominant woman.

He never knew he liked dominant women before.

He was so caught up in the experience that he didn’t hear the slight sound of an arrow being notched, didn’t notice that someone else had joined their intimate party, until the arrow came flying toward them. Luckily, he heard it at that point and reacted purely on instinct. He rolled over on top of Cecilia and flattened them both to the ground. The arrow zoomed over his head, barely two inches away.

Cecilia pushed at his chest. “I can’t breathe,” she gasped. “Get off.”

“Shh. There’s someone out there.” He shifted slightly, so as to relieve the pressure on her sternum. She sucked in a breath but mercifully fell quiet.

He listened and sniffed at the air, forcing himself to block out the tantalizing scents of Cecilia’s arousal. Now was not the time. Damn it.

He scented magic, lightbearer magic. That wasn’t surprising, considering they were inside the coterie, but also considering the arrow that just missed his head had been steeped in lightbearer magic.

He heard the sounds of someone moving through the underbrush, the sounds growing fainter and fainter, indicating that whoever shot at them was moving away. Finn wished he could shift into the form of an animal so that he could chase after the person and figure out who the hell had just tried to kill him, but he was not willing to leave Cecilia alone in the middle of the woods.