Lured From the Path (4 page)

“I was deep in the woods with my very best
friend. We were strong young men, full of arrogance. We heard the
wolves singing, but it was not natural. It was so much more, it
called to us, our souls, led us deeper into the trees.”

“Like the swan did to me.” David understood
completely. Understood the compulsion to push past the underbrush,
to seek out the hidden trails that would take him to his obsession.
He recognized it then, the unnatural need to find the swan, the
instinctive knowledge of its uniqueness. It could have been a bird
startled from its nightly roost, but somewhere in his subconscious,
David had known it was more.

“That is what they do.” Henryk rubbed a
gnarled hand over his chin. “We wanted to find the wolves, so we
hunted through the trees. We found a woman, instead.”

David snorted. “Was she tall, with long honey
hair, green eyes and legs that go on for miles? Did she have big,
beautiful breasts that tempt a man beyond all rationality?”

Henryk smiled as if he couldn’t help himself.
“She was tall, yes, with lovely legs. Hair black as pitch and eyes
as pure as violets.”

“Not Willa, then. Not my girl.”

“Your
girl?” Henryk sat back in his chair, his eyes
darkening. “Listen, my friend, she can’t be yours. They are
killers, they lure men deep into the trees and take their lives,
their souls, their sanity. You must try to forget her.”

David shook his head helplessly. “She was
perfect.”

“No! The female who found me and my friend
was also perfect, but with no human heart, she is too dangerous.
She stared us both in the eye, David, and she judged us
mercilessly. What vengeance could she have taken when we did
nothing to her? With one swipe of her hand, she took the heart from
my friend’s chest and tossed his corpse into the lake.”

Shock slowed his thoughts. David could only
sit and stare at the old man. His brain was completely unable to
draw a parallel between a woman who would rip out a man’s heart
with her bare hands and his Willa.

Willa was all that was beautiful, delicate.
No spirit could sing so sweetly yet act so viciously. Not his
Willa, who gave him such ecstasy that even now, hours later, his
cock remained hard with craving and his nose still held her scent.
Not his Willa, who had danced so gracefully under the moonlight,
pressing pleasure on him first, even knowing she would have to wait
to find her own.

She was too generous to be a killer.

“Your female sounds very different from my
Willa, Henryk.”

A spasm went over the man’s face. “Do you not
hear me, David? The female who found you is the same type of
creature that found me all those years ago. They kill, it is their
nature to take. You must put her from your mind, not claim her as
your own!”

A hot streak of stubbornness blazed down
David’s spine. Anger tried to push into his chest. “You don’t know
her.”

“I know enough!” Henryk banged a fist against
the table. “I know how terrible they can be as well as how
glorious. I know how it is to be dragged to the ground and taken
with such heat as to set your skull on fire. I know their lust, the
way they pour their bodies over a man’s, filling him with such
passion that obsession comes dangerously close to stealing your
wits.”

David was surprised, considering Henryk’s
adamant warnings. “You had sex with your Vila?”

“I lost all sense of myself, consumed by the
need she sparked in me. Her hand was still coated with my friend’s
blood when she took me,
ruined
me for all time.” Shame and anger filled his
tone as Henryk wrenched at his shirt, buttons popping to roll
across the floor. He yanked the halves open to reveal old scars,
faded by time.

Two handprints marred the skin of his
chest.

“What she did to me was worse than death. My
friend’s life, my confidence in the night. I’ve not had a woman
since, as no human could possibly compare!”

“You survived. Were you strong or did she
like you?”

Instead of answering, he said, “She had no
right. We’d done nothing to her.” Anguish was a physical presence
at the table as Henryk folded his shirt over his chest. “Others
have become obsessed like you, David. They try to search for the
women, they read the tales that tell them how to control one, keep
her for all time.”

David’s spine snapped straight. “That’s
possible?”

Henryk sighed, shaking his head wearily. “No.
The Vilas don’t want to be kept. They don’t want to be hunted. If
you go back into the woods to look for Willa, they will surely kill
you.”

David sat still, thoughts and emotions
rioting inside him. Confusion mingled with fear, but both were
suppressed by his need to see Willa again. It was imperative, an
ache he couldn’t live with. Henryk stared at him for a long time,
his face hardening, his eyes flashing. David said nothing, simply
stared mutinously at his host.

What happened to him was nothing like what
happened to the other man.

Finally Henryk stood up, grabbing the empty
dishes from the table. “You will do as you please, I can see it.
The obsession has caught you already. Let me offer you a bed today,
though, so you can rest and recover.”

David raised a skeptical brow. “So you can
talk me out of going back into the woods, you mean?”

“Yes, that too, foolish American. Give me
time to show you the error of your ways, eh?”

David gave Henryk three days.

Three agonizing days where darkness descended
over his mind and refused to let go. Where pressure clamped down on
his skull, sending fire racing down his spine until he was
feverish, the sweat rolling down his back, his stomach cramping.
There was a constant throb in his chest, matching the one in his
cock, beat for beat. His need for Willa had burrowed under his
skin, stretching his nerves to the breaking point, agonizing him
until his muscles were ready to shatter.

He was close to the edge of his sanity,
pushing at the limits.

Three days he stared out Henryk’s window into
the woods. Day after day, he stared between the cool, quiet depths
of the forest and the blurry image of a swan he’d taken by the
pond. The picture wasn’t good, his aim had been completely off and
there was an odd distortion warping the frozen scene. But, except
for the handprints on his chest, it was all he had for proof.

At night, he closed his eyes to relive the
moments in his dreams. Innocent green eyes imploring his help. Her
sweetness and her song. Her hot, dripping pussy sliding down his
cock, closing him tight in her convulsing depths. The shifting of
her honey hair over his belly, his thighs. The velvet of her tongue
and the deep pulls of her mouth over his length.

More than once he’d woken up screaming her
name. Yelling out as his dick flexed, releasing his pleasure over
his navel as phantom sensations of cool hands stroked over his
heaving chest. Henryk would come running, embarrassing David. But
the old man would only shake his head, promising that the pain of
addiction would pass soon enough.

The old man was gone for the moment, but he
would be back by sunset. He never stayed out past the light’s end,
rushing home as night descended, his eyes darting around the little
cottage until they came to rest on David. Then Henryk would sigh,
his shoulders would drop in relief. It was difficult to know if the
feeling came from David’s presence, or if Henryk was terrified of
the dark.

He had reason to fear the dark woods outside
his window. David didn’t.

The compulsion grew, minute by minute. It was
torture, shuddering through him as he stared out the window,
watching the light fade, his fingers clenched around the photo of
the swan. David’s lungs seized, breath was impossible to find. A
wave of need nearly took him to the floor and his decision burst
through him like a blade, bringing cold clarity. Determination.

Spinning from the window, staggering around
the furniture, David rushed to the door. He threw it open, letting
the breeze caress his cheeks and fill his chest with air. The woods
hummed, sung softly, whispering for him to dive into the trees and
find his Willa.

Relief closed around him the moment he
stepped between the branches of the pines guarding the entrance to
the path. Without a pang of regret, knowing in his heart Henryk
would understand, David didn’t hesitate. Every step eased the
hunger of his addiction, his heart lightening, his lungs loosening.
His fevered skin cooled, the vise around his head eased. His feet
took him deeper unerringly, his sense of direction honed by years
of nature photography in remote, unmapped locations.

The sun abandoned the forest long before it
gave up its hold on the sky. David’s eyes strained as he pushed on.
His thoughts became muddied, difficult to remember as mechanical
determination set in and destroyed all logic. Blindly, he followed
the distant song of wolves calling to him, telling him what paths
to take.

The moon was high overhead and his legs ached
by the time he stumbled into the clearing. Ringed with twisted
pines, the circle’s grass grew over his calves at the edges, but
was flattened toward the center. He was drawn to the open area like
a lodestone, remembering the one where he’d shared such pleasure
with Willa.

Reaching the middle, he paused. The breeze
blew against him, a wolf howled. Both were physical sensations
against his skin, licking over quivering nerves as his anticipation
swelled to uncontainable heights. Lust pulsed through his cock,
overloading his senses as they fought to take in the slightest
changes in the air around him, in spite of the haze clouding his
mind.

There was a sound from beyond the trees,
shadows shifted.

Women stepped into the clearing. One by one,
a dozen beautiful maidens surrounded him, all tempting, all tall,
though some towered over their sisters. They circled him slowly,
standing between him and the trees, the moonlight highlighting
their naked bodies. None of them were Willa. One stepped forward,
the moon laying silver swaths over her black hair and catching in
her violet eyes.

Henryk’s Vila.

“You have come for Willa?”

Her voice was filled with the promise of
sensual delight. The tone of it reached out to wrap David’s spine
with liquid heat, pouring craving into his groin. He stared at her
dumbly, barely able to nod in response.

She laughed and he heard the melodic lilting
of a flute. “Do you come to capture her? Think you can take a
strand of her hair to tie her to you forever? A piece of her skin
you will burn to kill her?”

David licked his lips. “No, I just want her.
I want to be with her.”

The black-haired Vila stepped so close her
heat seared him through his clothes. “Why just her, when you could
have us all?”

Her words released the other women from their
silent wait. They surged forward in a rush of swinging hips and
graceful glides. Their bodies were beauty in motion with the silver
light licking over them, sexual intent screaming from every smooth
shift of their muscles. He scanned their faces, still not seeing
the one he wanted.

Hands reached for him as bodies pressed
close. David stood still for them. The rending of his clothes
echoed in the night, freeing him to the breeze. Strong arms held
him as one delicate beauty went to her knees, yanking at his shoes
until the cool grass tickled his soles. The women bared him in a
way that went beyond clothing, laying his vulnerability and need
out for all to see.

A dozen mouths teased a dozen points on his
body, spearing him with lust. Nerves rose to the surface of his
skin, his muscles pulled taut. The silken glide of hair cooled him
even as it heated. Strong fingers massaged down his spine, others
dipped between his ass cheeks. A tongue swept over his nipple,
another rimmed his navel.

He was overrun by sheer sensation as soft
palms stroked over his chest, dragged up his thighs, cupped his
balls. Someone fisted his cock, squeezing and kneading until his
length was fully unfurled and fire blazed through his groin. He
heard a groan of feminine appreciation a moment before he was
sucked into a hot, wet mouth.

Another tongue found the puckered opening of
his ass. David jerked, but he could not pull away, didn’t know if
he wanted to. Two mouths worked at his nipples with wet swipes and
sharp nips, fingernails raked his ribs. Hard hands pressed his
thighs until his legs threatened to give out, but another set of
strong arms held him upright.

Deep inside him, some filmy substance began
to boil. Evaporating in the cauldron of his own lust, it rose to
seep past his skin. Something twisted in his chest, oxygen grew
scarce. Feminine moans echoed on the breeze.

The pleasure was intense, too intense. He
couldn’t focus, didn’t know where to turn his attention. Fear
climbed from the ashes of his sanity, prodding him with flashing
punches of adrenaline. He pried his eyes open and looked down at
the bevy of Vilas licking over him, kissing, sucking.

The black-haired witch was on her knees, his
cock stuffed deep in her mouth. Heat and friction clawed his senses
to ribbons. She stared up at him with mocking violet eyes and David
swore he could see Henryk’s friend’s blood on her hands. It
couldn’t deflate the lust pumping through his length, but it was
enough to clear some of the fog in his head.

“No, I want Willa.” It took everything he had
to force the words from his throat.

The other women slowed their manipulations,
giving him another inch to think. The ethereal substance halted its
leak from his body. Tongues withdrew from his skin, leaving only
the soft brushing of lips behind. The finger circling his asshole
paused.

Henryk’s Vila pulled back from his dick with
a pressure that threatened to send him back into the madness he’d
just won free of. She held him, dropping her gaze to examine the
flushed crest of him, laughing softly as a drop of semen welled up
before her eyes.