Nightshade (46 page)

Darry’s body shook with startled laughter.

“Did I not say I wanted your mouth?”

Darry was at Jessa’s mercy and liked it. “You want me to fuck you with my tongue?”

Jessa smiled at the deliberate words. Darry slipped her fingers inside her, slow but certain. “Is this how you talk, Princess?” Jessa took a heated kiss from her. “Is it?”

“Sometimes.” Darry searched for more when Jessa pulled away.

“I like it,” Jessa said. “Yes. I want you to fuck me with your tongue.”

“If I start, I’ll not stop until you beg me.”

“Fair enough.”

“Until you can’t even scream. Until all you know is my tongue.”

Jessa thought she might spend then and there, all her senses locked tight upon the slow touch within her body. “You really need to stop talking now.”

Darry freed her hand and took Jessa with strength, throwing her onto the mattress as Jessa laughed in surprise. She propped herself onto her elbows and watched as Darry stood, stripped from her clothes, and dropped to her knees beside the bed. She grabbed Jessa’s booted ankles and pulled her toward the edge. Jessa smiled as her head bounced against the blankets and her braids scattered.

Darry’s hands smoothed up her thighs and Jessa swallowed roughly, catching hard at her breath. Darry placed Jessa’s legs over her shoulders and began to taste her way along Jessa’s inner right thigh.

“You’re right,” Jessa said within a gasp. Darry gave her exactly what she had asked for. Jessa grasped one of the spindles of the headboard and the wood creaked at her violent pull. “This might not…” She let out a glorious cry of pleasure that turned into a wild laugh. “Might not,
Shivahsa
!” Darry’s mouth was like a red hot flame. “Not…not
end
well.”

Jessa let the panther have her way. She let Darry have her way until she had no idea how many times she cried out; she only remembered that she had not begged. She could not remember how many times they both came or even when Darry’s blood finally relented. The Vhaelin within her was sated and she hummed with approval that she had tamed the panther into submission. And with the taste of Darry’s spirit on her tongue Jessa let her sleep. Darry lay thoroughly defenseless and yet never more protected along Jessa’s body.

Jessa held her with reverence, caressing the strong arm that was thrown lax across her stomach, unable to refrain from still touching her in some way. She sensed the slumbering force of Darry’s body and knew the softness and heat of her breath. Darry’s breasts pressed against her and the lean muscles of the leg draped between her own.

Darry was more pure in her essence than Jessa could ever imagine being herself. Darry let her see everything, not only giving over her body, but her heart and soul as well. Jessa had seen it as they had made love, so furious and with such utter abandon. Jessa had seen it in Darry’s eyes.

Jessa understood that she was inexperienced at such things, at love, but she was not innocent. From the first throat Jessa had seen torn out by Sylban’s dogs, she had not been innocent. She recognized the fragility and the wasteful, cruel nature of life. She had known no mystery since witnessing that first violent act, and she had no illusions as to what life could be. Without reserve and caution one’s chances of becoming a casualty were extremely high. Or so she had thought. Now she was not so certain.

Radha had been wrong.
What need do people have for dreams that don’t come true? Every need, old woman. Vhaelin essa, there is every need.

And even the Waters of Truth had not shown her this, and there Radha had been right. The truth of her heart had been hers to discover.

Darry stirred against her, and Jessa closed her eyes in quiet joy as Darry’s body shifted smoothly, skin against Jessa’s skin. Darry’s arm tightened about her waist and she opened her eyes and lifted her face. She was still caught within her sleep. Darry’s eyes were nearly black within the now-fading light from the lamp, her face serene yet filled with a fierce beauty.

“Majik?”

“Yes, my love. My majik is more than yours,” Jessa said softly, shifting and kissing her.

She studied Darry’s face and pushed a strand of her hair to the side. She placed the softest of kisses on Darry’s left cheek, knowing very well where the dimple hid in wait for Darry’s roguish grin.

“
Nessa-ahna allah sheetun, tua de
Akasha
…my love.” She held her face against the heat of Darry’s, breathing in her beguiling scent.
You are the wish, Akasha. The wish that I never knew enough to make.

The tantalizing smell of strong
karrem
filled Jessa’s nose and she woke slowly. She lay sprawled upon the sheets of her bed in only her torn shirt, her disheveled hair scattered across her face. She moved her head along the pillow and spied the cup of steaming
karrem
on the bedside table.

“You look satisfied.” Radha’s voice was rough and she laughed, sitting in the chair beside the bed and studying Jessa with amused eyes.

Jessa turned her face into the pillow, her laughter rising.

“I suppose I should scold you for arriving so late last night, or should I say early this morn?”

“Leave me be, old woman,” Jessa said as she shifted about and pulled up the sheet.

“Perhaps I should ask what bit you?” Radha pointed out the bruise of a kiss on Jessa’s right breast and another near the base of her neck.

Jessa pushed onto her right elbow and rested her head against her hand, her hair falling in a black tumble down her arm. “And if I were to say a cat did?”

“I would ask what sort of cat?”

“A golden mountain panther.”

Radha laughed, the sound like someone scraping on stones. “You have no modesty,” she chided her. “Lying about half-naked in the middle of the morning.”

Jessa considered her open shirt. “I feel very tired still.” She fell forward into the pillow, her voice muffled. “
Vhaelin slova tu an
hezza
, Radha.”

“Yes, and while you were off being eaten by your panther,” she smiled as Jessa laughed, “I was sitting here waiting, wondering where you were. I even went looking for you.”

“I’m sorry, Radha.”

“It’s all right. I found other things during my search to make it worth my while, a few things for my scrolls. This place, this land even, is rich in secrets and new knowledge.”

“More philosophy, my Radha?” The traveling trunk that carried Radha’s things was more precious than all of their baggage combined, even Jessa knew that. All of her life she had lusted after the spells and scrolls that marked Radha’s immense wisdom, but though Jessa desired to know what secrets they might contain, she respected Radha’s rank. Radha was a High Priestess of the Vhaelin, and she was still but a student. “You will let me read them now, yes?”

“You may read them when you are ready.”

“I am ready
now,
” Jessa said.
I am more powerful now than even
you
had imagined, my sweet. Can you not feel it?

“Do you think so?” Radha’s voice took on a hard edge. “Now that you have a lover, is that it? Now that you know love, you are wise in all things? But even so, little girl, what other than that has changed?”

Jessa narrowed her eyes. “I have come into my power, old woman.”

“Have you?”

Jessa hesitated at the rigid words.
Have I?

“Do not live so fiercely in the moment, Jessa, though it is sweet. And yes, I smell your power. It is like the pepper spice seeds beneath my nose and it makes me want to sneeze. But power without control is disorder and ignores the structure of things. We have yet to test your new strength, and we have no safe place within these walls to do that. So I ask you, when does the song of the lark become silence?”

“When the hawk is near.”

“Yes, and we are in more danger now than ever. If I can smell your power so easily, then Serabee will find your scent with very little trouble. But that does not mean that you cannot savor this moment.” She smiled, her words losing their edge. “You can still feel her kiss?”

“Yes,” Jessa whispered.

“And her touch?”

“Yes.”

“And so life is good,
ashanna essa
?”

Jessa smiled almost shyly. “She loves me.”

Radha chuckled. “Yes, I know. And where were you? Were you safe?”

“I’m not sure that I was safe, exactly…but the place was secure from prying eyes so you needn’t worry.”

“She did not hurt you in any way, did she?”

“
No
.” Jessa spoke firmly and gazed down the length of the bed. She felt the blush rise along her neck. “She would never do that, Radha.”

“I only mean that
Cha-diah
can be very dangerous, child. Remember your place in the order of things. Blood majik can turn quickly, and no doubt she’s been pushed by what was done to her. You must mind the strength and the nature of the animal that is within her and have a care when her power is high. The panther is a wild creature, always remember that. Do not
ever
forget that, Jessa, or you might both regret it.”

Jessa took note of the counsel and rolled onto her back, stretching her entire body and groaning as her muscles shuddered. She smiled yet again at the sensations humming through her body. Her shirt fell open and slid down her arm as she pushed onto her right hip.

“
Chindonna!”

Jessa followed Radha’s gaze and laughed, for yet another bruise from Darry’s mouth was on the inside of her left breast. She closed her eyes for a moment and remembered the getting of it, and her stomach flipped over in a very pleasing manner.

“I hope you gave as well as you received.”

Jessa remembered the scratches on Darry’s back and how she had laughed in astonishment, only to find another along Darry’s neck. Jessa could still hear the sounds of their lovemaking and her heart beat fast. “Yes, I believe I did.”

“Do you have any idea what time it is?”

“No. And I don’t care.”

“Today you meet with the Lady Emmalyn and her dressmakers, and have a late lunch with the Lady Alisha and her mother to discuss her wedding.”

Jessa cursed and threw back the sheet, sliding to the edge of the bed. When her legs flopped over the side she sat still, considering how sore her body was in any number of areas.

“You need a bath,” Radha said.

Jessa narrowed her eyes.

“You smell like your lover.”

Jessa laughed and stepped to the chair, kissing Radha soundly on the cheek. She received a hard slap on her bare thigh for her troubles and stepped away quickly. “Do not be jealous, old woman. It doesn’t suit you.”

Radha marveled at how Jessa moved, seeing the difference in the way she held herself—with a blatant confidence Radha had long prayed for. She could, in fact, smell the Vhaelin swarming like a maelstrom in Jessa’s blood, unleashed at last and singing like nothing she had ever encountered before. The power was unlike any she had even imagined and beyond her most fervent hopes.

It was Jessa’s passion that had set it free, and Radha chided herself for not seeing it sooner. Often the greatest power was buried the farthest out of reach, demanding something primal for its release.

Radha gave a curious grunt and then laughed. “
Cha-diah
.”

Jessa stuck her head through the door of the washroom. “What?”

The volume of Radha’s amusement intensified as she glimpsed Jessa’s disheveled beauty. “
Cha-diah
!” she barked.

“What of it?” Jessa demanded, her eyes smiling. “You have no idea, love, none at all.”

Radha tried to catch her breath. “I might.”

Jessa shook her head and disappeared within. “
Essa tua nessa
…I can barely walk, Darry.” She stepped naked to the tub and climbed in, cringing as she sat in the steaming water. “
Shivahsa
!”

Radha appeared in the doorway. “Too hot?”

Jessa moaned her pleasure as she stretched back. “
No
.” She sighed. “No, it’s perfect, my sweet…absolutely perfect.”

Radha’s curiosity won out. “Does
Cha-diah
taste as pleasing as its scent?”

Jessa took a breath, sinking beneath the surface and refusing to answer.

“Ungrateful child.”

*

Joaquin sipped his
karrem
and watched the soldiers in the courtyard as they prepared for the day’s hunt. One of the private balconies of the expansive Blackwood Lodge gave him a wonderful vantage point, and he considered the amount of timber that went into its construction. Such a building in Lyoness would be for the richest of the court alone, though even then, few could afford it.
I shall have to build one myself.
He gave a slow smile.
And let them fight to be invited to my door.

The day was becoming hot and it was not yet noon, and he pulled at his silken dressing robe. He was naked beneath it and wondered if he should bother with a bath. He could still smell the spirit of the kitchen girl he had fucked before dawn, and though it was an amusing scent, he doubted if his new peers would approve.