The Sentinel Keeper (Forest Series) (9 page)

Beth felt her hands rise, as if in dream, as she ran her fingers through his hair. His mouth found her nipple as she arched up into him. Her body was boneless now, a molten pool of need. His fingers knew where to move as they moved lower over her stomach, dipping lower each time. They slipped between her legs and he buried two fingers inside her. Beth arched against them, feeling the twin sensation in her breast and deep in her core.

He pushed her legs open, his movements rougher now as the slow movements quickened.

Melchior moved against her now and she felt his arousal press between her legs. The scent of his sweat was all over her now as he moved above her. Her legs fell open of their own accord as the heat rose inside her.

She had never wanted a man like this.  Sure, she had lovers before. But none had made her feel this way. Nothing had ever felt this way.

She was drunk on him, she thought as he slipped another finger inside her tight sheath. She gasped out loud as his thumb moved over, stroking her as his fingers drove her wild. He could hear his breath sawing in and out now, as his thin veneer of control started to slip.

In the dark he rose above her like a dark god, a moving mass of flesh and hard muscle. She was ready for him, her core screaming for him to fill her. He moved above her, positioning his tip just at her entrance. Then he buried his face into her neck as he pushed inside her in one long thrust.

Beth came in a wild rush of pleasure, her body contracting around him.

He moved inside her, his massive girth filling her completely as she rose up to meet him, her hips pounding as he moved. He drove into her again and again.

Then the dark lust he had set aside flared in his veins. His control snapped and with a roar he moved like the wind, slamming into her in desperate, aching, primal need that rocked her. This was the wild man she had craved. His hips were wild above her, driving deeper and deeper into her in a mad possession she had never imagined.

His eyes shot open as his green gaze met hers. Then his body bucked and strained as he let out a roar that stripped her to her very core. And when her release came, she felt him buck inside her and join her in the mindless pleasure as he roared her name.

*****

Beth felt his massive weight on her as they both lay stilled. He groaned as he rolled to the side, taking his weight off her and allowing her to gently breathe again. His hand was still holding her hair tightly as he lifted himself onto one elbow and ran his finger down her cheek.  Beth let her eyes close as she felt the warmth of his hand, allowing herself to lie in his warmth for a while longer before she faced what was going to happen that night.

Melchior leaned down and brushed a kiss over her lips.

“I can’t be with you ever again,” he said.

Beth’s eyes flew open. It felt as if he had doused her with cold water. A stabbing pain tore through her heart. She pulled away from his touch, sitting up in the bed.

“Why is that?” she asked, deceptively cool. All her defenses were rearing back up. The ones he had stripped away, leaving her raw before him. But he caught her hand and held it to his face.

“Beth,” he said. “Look at me.”

She lifted her gaze. His face was stricken with pain. Beth cursed. This was a man who suffered. It was a small relief. This was not his choice.

“Tell me everything,” she ordered.

Melchior sat up now, pushing his long back hair back from his face.

“I am cursed. It is my punishment from the Gods. It has been this way for thousands of years. I was cursed to rule alone, and never to have a mate. We can never lay together again.”

Beth frowned.

“Why, what will happen if we do?”

“You will die,” he said.

Beth felt a cold dread through her. No, she wanted to cry out. This is not possible.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“It only happened once, many centuries ago. Since then I have never risked it. And I would never risk your life.

Beth.” He looked at her. “If things were another way I would never let you.”

“Is there no way you can change this,” Beth asked as tears sprung into her eyes, hot and burning. He didn’t answer as he pulled on some clothes.

“Don’t make it harder than it already is for both of us,” he said. “By the Gods Beth I want you,” his voice was hoarse. “I want you like I have never wanted before. But this is my fate. I will go now and kill the Dark Lord. Tonight I will keep you safe. But you will leave in the morning.”

Beth stood up.

“Just go now,” she said, running her hand down his cheek “Go and finish this. I will be waiting for you. I am not going anywhere.”

He pulled her into a tight embrace. Then he turned and left the room.

Beth slipped the deep emerald green robe from the back of the wardrobe over her head and stared at herself in the mirror. It fitted her perfectly, like its silk folds had been made for her alone. Her deep black rings had gone, and her face looked more alive than it had in months.

Her lips were swollen from Melchior’s kisses, but most of all her eyes blazed with a feeling she never knew could come to her. Belonging. She had never had it as a child, never had a family. As an adult she had never needed it, nor wanted it. But now it surged inside her. She had never belong anywhere until that moment she had stepped into the forest. Now she knew where she belonged, and to whom.

She ran a finger over her lips and she could still taste him there. His dark and spicy sent that drove her wild. This was all new to her. Both the strange and wonderful world that he came from, and the feelings her stirred deep inside her.

She was not going to lose him now, not when she had just found him.

She opened the door and padded out of the room. She knew what she was going to do.

She had dreamed of it her entire life.

She walked down the long staircase in the now-empty tower. Outside she could hear the roar of thunder as an almighty storm slashed across the sky. The fight had begun. Her fight was about to start too.

Beth let her feet lead her lower as they moved across the floor as if they had done this a thousand times. Before her stood a great door, so high its top seemed to reach up to the heavens. She pushed it open and stepped into the cathedral. She had been in this room before; it was the one Blane had taken her to before he had carried her up into the tower. But she had not seen the full beauty of it. Before her was a marvel of colour and light, as plants and trees grew up the walls, creating a massive space out of their bows. Huge trunks reached upwards to a roof that had no end. Just the stars floated above in the empty space. But not any stars she knew. These were different, huge globes that hung in the sky aeons away.  Lights from another realm, one she was now part of.

Beth moved across the floor as if in a dream. There in the front of the room was the stone dais. She walked quickly now, feeling the power of the space urge her forward. She could feel Melchior in this room and she knew that this was his domain. It made what she was about to do easier.

She climbed up onto the stone and lay down, resting her head on the raised end.

Taking one last deep breath, she fixed her eyes on the gentle lights above her and closed her eyes.

“Come and get me,” she breathed into the vision as it ripped her sight away.

Melchior’s fury knew no bounds as he tore across the sky with his army.

The Dark Lord had wasted no time. He had roused his entire army of half-demons to take on this battle. It raged in the skies above the forest. But Melchior knew with a surge of pride that these fighters were no match for his forces. Shara shimmered across the sky, her flaming hair blazing out behind her and sizzling the enemy with its single touch. Behind her stood the army of soldiers as they slashed and fought their way through the waves of attackers.

Aslan and Blane were moving so fast no human eye would ever see them as they tore through the demons and commanded the wind and thunder.

Melchior knew he should feel something, some triumph in his victory. But he just felt the familiar emptiness.

But something was wrong. The Dark Lord. Melchior scanned the battle for him, but he knew that he was not there. He would have felt his heavy presence if he was around. His eyes flashed over the horizon. Then dropped to the forest below. He felt something there, a darker, heavier feeling as his focus moved through the trees and plants.

But it was too faint for him to grab hold of.

He frowned, shaking off a feeling of dread as Shara stopped before him. The goddess was like a serpent now, her skin green and shimmering as her long red hair snaked around her with fangs. Melchior had to use every inch of his self-control not to leap back away from her. She was pure terror.

“He’s not here,” she hissed. Her eyes yellow with rage.

He shook his head.

“I sense that too.”

She threw her head back and let out of high scream, then turned and dived back into the fight like a mad, avenging demon.

Melchior drew higher now, floating above the melee as he hung silent and watching over the chaos. Then he felt him. Close by. He stilled, focusing all his attention on the pulse. The Dark Lord was concealed, but he was nearby. Not in the forest as his life pulse was weaker. He was inside.

Melchior froze. He was inside the tower.

The knowledge hit him like a physical blow.

He had come for Beth.

He turned and dove for the ground.

Beth lay on the cold stone waiting. She did not have to wait long. She knew the second he had emerged from the earth. He rose from the forest floor in the centre of the Cathedral like a whirl of dust that took form. His red eyes glinted as he glided across the floor towards her.

The Dark Lord Niyan. Night after night he had tied he to that stone and cut her until the very life drained out of her. She had fought him her entire life in her sleep. The weight of the realisation flooded her. This was her destiny. For 26 years she had lived in her own world, all alone with only her night visions to keep her company. She had never known the love of parents, or the touch of a mother. In a twisted way she knew this creature better than any other person.

Finally she knew what all of it meant. The thought of it brought her peace. She was meant to do this.

He moved towards her through the space, a tiny dark creature shrouded in a hood. She knew he was evil, the rank smell of it washes off him in waves.

His black eyes raked her flesh. Beth shrank back against the cold stone, trying to crawl inside herself, save herself from the waves of putrid hate coming towards her.

She knew just a single touch will contaminate her, poison her forever. He was evil. Disease.

Dreamwalker. He said, moving above her.

Flesh of my flesh. You are finally mine. The last one.

And you have brought him to me.

Soon a great dagger of stone was going to descend, slicing her torso open as her lifeblood runs down the altar and into the earth below.

She was helpless, about to die. Great hot tears ran down her face.

No frikking way I will die here tonight, she thought.

Her fingers moved into the loose skirt and closed on the dagger. She held it tightly as he moved closer, so close now she could feel the icy breath coming from the hole of his mouth. She watched as he lifted his arms, the stone dagger in both hands.

Her hands were steady and focused as her eyes flew open. With a scream of rage she sat up and plunged the dagger straight into his chest.

The Dark Lord froze and the stone dagger fell from his hand, clattering onto her legs. Beth did not wait around. Whirling she launched herself off the altar and hit out for him with a bone-shattering kick. But the little guy was faster than her and in a puff of air he moved beyond her grasp. A deafening shriek filled the cathedral. The tiny figure grew in size as the scream grew louder, filling the air with its rage. Beth shrunk back covering her ears. She knew she needed to grab a weapon, but the deathly pitch of the rising sound froze her.  It ripped into her and stripped all though from her mind, and all movement from her limbs. It was making her blood run cold. It was a deathly, dread horror of a noise, and Beth felt a warm spurt as blood ran out of her nose and down her lip.