The Taming of Taylon (5 page)

The screams were getting louder. Someone needed to shut that fucking woman up.

That’s when she realized she was the one screaming.

Bracken looked down at Taylon’s broken body. No human could survive such injuries. She was going to die. Even if she survived the fever and infection, she might lose her arm, and she would never walk again. His heart lurched at the idea. Less than twenty-four hours ago she’d brought color back to his world. He wasn’t strong enough to give her up so soon. He needed her in his life.

“Leave us,” he told the servant who was bandaging up her leg.

The woman looked from her to him and shook her head. He read the sorrow in Ashta’s eyes.

He was doing the right thing. He was. He took a step toward her and suddenly her sister was there. Kylie. How had he forgotten that she was here? Which meant he’d forgotten Rriodan too.

“Don’t touch her,” Kylie screamed at him.

“She will die if I don’t.”

“She wouldn’t be here now if you’d just let her go this morning.” She didn’t like him. No, Kylie did not like him at all. From the look of her, she wanted to kill him right now. Rriodan stepped forward, clamping a hand on Kylie’s arm, and pulled her from the room. Bracken could hear her screaming insults at him. He would owe Rriodan.

He sat on the edge of the bed near Taylon’s head. “I just can’t let you go.” He elongated his fangs and ripped his wrist open. His blood flowed down his hand, and he pressed the wound against her mouth. She sucked it down at first then tried to spit it out. He held her head in place and rubbed her throat to make her swallow. He had to make her take enough. He wasn’t sure what long term effects his blood might have on her, but he was sure she would heal. Anything else they would deal with later.

* * *

Taylon woke up with a start. Bracken? Where was he? Then she remembered Kylie, the gate, Rriodan and the fight. She moved her leg. Last she remembered, it had been broken, and sliced to the bone. She wasn’t feeling a lick of pain now. What the hell was going on here? “Bracken? Kylie?”

“Kylie is with Rriodan.”

“What?” How could he let that animal take her sister?

“Taylon, how is it that you and your sister can resist us?” Bracken asked.

“I don’t know.” Was Kylie immune? Not that she ever wanted to test it to find out. “Can you get Kylie? I want to see her.”

“She can’t stay long.” Bracken stood from his chair. He went over to the door and opened it. Kylie rushed in and Rriodan followed close behind. “Now are you ready to tell me how you can resist me?”

“I don’t know and I don’t care. Kylie is all I have in this world. And I won’t let Rriodan touch her.” Taylon stared at him defiantly.

“She isn’t all you have.” He motioned Kylie inside. Rriodan followed close behind her. Even as his muttered words reached her she wondered if she’d misunderstood.

“Why do you resist me?” Rriodan moved closer to Kylie.

“Conceit, no manners, all around obnoxious attitude -- really not that hard to resist.” Kylie’s flippant words wiped the smile from Rriodan’s lips.

“Look, Kylie and I don’t belong here. Let us go and I swear we’ll leave. You don’t have to worry about seeing us again.” Taylon watched as Bracken’s eyes morphed from gold to red. She suddenly realized just how close to the surface his beast lurked. Kylie slipped her hand inside Taylon’s.

“You still have four weeks of punishment.”

He still wanted to punish her? She could have left him to his fate, but no. She’d stayed and nearly got herself killed trying to save him. How could he not forgive her debt? “Can my sister stay with me?” Taylon tried to keep pain out of the words. Tried making it sound more like a request and less like begging.

“No.” The sound came from Rriodan as he moved closer to Kylie.

“No one asked you.” Taylon shot a chilling glance his way before turning back to Bracken. “Can Kylie stay with us?”

“If she goes with me, I will forfeit your punishment,” Rriodan said.

“Fuck that… you will never touch my sister.”

“I won’t lay one finger on her.”

“Like I believe you.” He was so close to Kylie. “Get away from her.” Taylon pulled Kylie down onto the bed.

“Can he really punish her?” At Bracken’s nod, Kylie pulled in an audible breath.

“It doesn’t matter, Kylie. You are more important than --”

“I accept.” Kylie’s softly spoken words silenced everyone.

“Kylie, no. He is a lying bastard. He will pounce on you the second you leave.” Taylon watched her sister’s mouth tighten into a firm line.

“Nothing will happen that she…”

Sucking in a breath, Taylon shook her head. “I won’t let you do this.”

“She already accepted.” The need to wipe that damn superior smile off Rriodan’s face burned through her hands.

“Stop. I can take care of myself. I know --” Kylie grasped Taylon’s shoulders.

“No, baby. You are worth so much more. Don’t do this.”

“Stop!” Kylie shouted loud enough to silence her sister. “He said I have a choice, and I won’t be choosing him.”

“Enough!” Bracken’s command echoed in the small room. “I cannot force Kylie to go with you, Rriodan. And yes, he does have the right to punish you, Taylon, if he chooses.”

“He can punish me? You would let him?” Every nerve in Taylon’s body stood on end. The thought alone made her throat burn with bile.

“No, not the way I punished you.” Bracken stared at Rriodan before turning his gaze to Taylon.

“I will not let you be punished for protecting me, Taylon,” Kylie argued. “You didn’t raise me that way. We take responsibility for our actions.”

If she stood her ground she would push Kylie away. Sharp pain stabbed through her chest as she nodded her head in defeat. Tears welled in her eyes. “You promise not to hurt her?”

Rriodan nodded his head.

“No matter what she does?”

“I am no monster.”

She’d be stupid to believe that.

“Let’s go.” Wasting no time, Rriodan ushered Kylie from the room.

“Four weeks, Kylie. Four weeks, and I will come to get you.” The door closed on her words. In four weeks they would leave this place behind.

There was no way she would be able to stay once Bracken discarded her. He’d said there were worse things than Changelings in the world. After four weeks of binding her life to him only to be discarded in the end, she doubted much could be worse.

* * *

Taylon spent the next three days putting up as big a barrier between her and Bracken as possible. She refused his every overture, every nicety. She might not be able to deny him sex, but she fought him each time he touched her. She could not bear the thought of him guessing her feelings, or worse, of her accepting him only to be cast aside for another woman when her time was up.

“Do you know how old I am?” Bracken asked as he turned in bed to face her.

What? How old he was?
She shook her head.

“I am over three hundred years old. And do you know how many women have desired me?”

Taylon grunted. No way did she want to find that out.

“Now I want you to guess how many women I have truly desired.”

She shook her head.

Bracken held up one finger. “I have lived over three hundred years and in all that time no woman has inspired desire within me. I have done what I had to, to survive. I have shared their blood, but not their desire… Until you.”

Until you. Until you
. The words resonated in her head. She was special to him?

“Each time I look at you, I want to touch you, taste you, fuck you…” He pulled her into his arms. “Seeing you for the first time, just the smell of you drove me crazy. I had to have you no matter what the cost.” He rubbed his hands against her hips and down the contours of her thighs.

“Why are you telling me this?” She took in a calming breath, determined to quiet her pounding heart.

“So you will understand why.” He let out a heavy sigh.

“Why what?”

“Why I will never let you leave me.”

“I’ll never be as you are. I’ll always be human. Eventually I’ll age, and die…”

“I gave you some of my blood to help heal your wounds. I’m not sure you will die anytime soon. But when you, do I will join you.”

“You’d give up eternal life to die with me?”

“No, I would give up this half life to live a full one with you.”

“What about Kylie?”

“I think if you have room in your heart for me, then I might have room in my home for her.”

“You know she doesn’t like you?” Taylon snuggled into his warmth and let the happiness she was holding tight to her chest flow through her.

“I’ve got a secret weapon,” he whispered against her skin.

“What?”

“Rriodan.”

“She’ll kill him.” She laughed at his innocent face.

“Or he’ll kill her. Either way I come out ahead.”

Leila Brown

I’ve been an avid reader since the fifth grade. As I aged I read everything I could get my hands on from horror, to mystery and finally stopping in romance.

While in college studying computer programming and electrical engineering, I realized what I wanted to do when I grew up. I wanted to write those stories that entertained me through more nights than I could count. Of course my first attempts were less than remarkable and have been destroyed to protect the innocent. :)

As the years have progressed life kind of took over. I got married, had a son, changed jobs several times. But one thing remained constant -- my desire to write.

Currently, I work a normal 9 to 5 in the IT world. I write during my lunch hour and at home after 9 pm when everyone in my house is asleep.

Is it easy?… Yes -- and No! Coming up with the stories is easy. Getting the words out of my head and onto paper is HARD! But I couldn’t live without it!

Website: http://www.leilabrown.com

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