Wicked Rage of the Moon: Book Three of the Airendell Chronicles (14 page)

When she joins her mate at the small table in their bedroom.  He is chatting quietly with Auggie.  Morna notices that he looks right at the bandage on her arm, but doesn’t say anything.  Morna greets Auggie with a smile.  She looks at the food on the table and says, “Thank you Auggie.” 

The ancient cook smiles and hands Morna a tall glass of blood first.  “Drink, my lovely.  This is probably what you need more than my old slop.”  Morna tries to disagree but Auggie gives her a look that brooks no argument.  Morna drinks the blood, and smiles at Auggie.  Auggie takes the empty glass and then hugs Morna.  “You are a fine woman to risk so much for someone you just met.  Nora and Ganessa are both confident that you will be fine and the treatment works, but I still can’t help but worry, just a little.  Not all seer‘s visions are totally accurate.”  Auggie brushes a few stray hairs from her own face, and tidies her neat bun.  “I am leaving now, so you two can be alone.  Do you mind if I go wake the little lass up for lunch?”

“Please do,” says Morna as she sits down to her meal.  “I could have waited and ate with the rest of the family.”

“No ma’am,” Auggie asserts.  “Mordir instructed me to feed you every four hours, send you blood every two hours, and not to allow anyone but your mate to disturb your rest.  He said you need to recuperate and replenish your supply of antibodies quickly so that you can repeat the process tomorrow morning.”

Morna sighs and nods.  She removes the cover from the plate and smiles happily.  There are three grilled pork chops on the plate, a generous serving of mushroom and wild rice stuffing, as well as a large salad of mixed greens that has been lightly wilted and served with bits of crumbled bacon and sautéed onions.  “Let me guess, these things are high in the nutrients I need?”  Auggie nods, and Morna smiles and says, “Well, they are also some of my favorite foods.”

“I know Morna.  Kyle and Aideen have made sure that I am fully aware of the foods you enjoy.  I will bring you a large piece of lemon meringue pie for your snack in two hours.  Now, I will get out of your hair so that you might eat in peace.” 

As soon as Auggie leaves their suite Morna feels Luca’s buffer spell go up.  She raises an eyebrow but doesn’t say anything.  She finishes eating in silence and is starting to feel a little unnerved because her mate is watching her so closely without speaking to her.  Finally she can’t take it anymore.  She pushes her plate away and wipes her mouth with the napkin.  “What?” she asks her mate feeling uncomfortable under his intense scrutiny.

“Did you look in the mirror Morna?”  When she shakes her head no, he picks her up and carries her into the bathroom and places her before the mirror.  What she sees really surprises her.  She looks very, very tired.  She is incredibly pale and there are dark circles under her eyes.  And she can detect the jagged scar on her face from the car crash that nearly killed her in her final mortal incarnation.  It’s faint, but it is plainly visible.  She quickly removes her sweater set and her jeans.  The scars on the rest of her body are also visible, including those from when Morna battled the vampire-troll hybrids, known as a spirit cannibal. 

Morna looks at Luca and shrugs like it is no big deal.  “Morna how can you be nonchalant about this?  Your body isn’t healing like it should.  The ravages it has suffered in the last year are all clearly visible, and the wound on your arm is still open.  The very integrity of your uterus is weakening.  My spell is having to work double time.  I am very scared for you my love.”

Morna wraps her arms around her mate and snuggles into him.  She kisses his chest through the material of his shirt.  “Baby, I am going to be fine.  It’s just going to be tough for the next three days.”  She steps back and puts her hand on her belly and says, “Madigan will be fine too.  Trust me, my love.”

“Morna, I do trust you,” Luca says as he picks her up and sits her on the bathroom vanity.  Darling, if I didn’t trust your judgment I would not have consented to you curing Rodrigo in the first place.  I am just worried about you.  I hate to see you suffer.”

Morna reaches up and kisses him gently at first, but quickly the fires of her passion for him ignite and she wraps her legs around his hips.  “I guess I am not too weak or ill, I desperately want to love you, right now.”

Luca laughs and says, “Mordir said that you would.  It’s your body’s way of healing itself.  He gave me some pretty specific instructions.”  Luca smiles and kisses her again and then cups her breasts through her bra.“And what were those instructions?”  Morna asks quietly, but she suspects she knows the answer.

“I am to, now these are his words, engage you in sexual activity whenever you are not sleeping or eating,” Luca says with a chuckle.

“I knew I liked Mordir for some reason.”  Morna says with a laugh as she unbuttons his shirt and kisses his perfect chest.  “There was more, wasn’t there?  Something you are not so comfortable with?”

“Yes.  He said that I should do everything that I can to help you unleash your inner beast,” Luca says quietly.  “He thinks it will help you produce more antibodies.”

“Well, I am a little embarrassed about that prospect.  Every empathic for miles around will be able to sense us.”  Morna says quietly as she buries her face at the base of his throat.  She raises her head suddenly when she feels a foreign spell go up around them.  “What?”

“Collingwood,” Luca supplies.  “I asked him telepathically to put his version of a buffer spell around us.  No one will be able to sense our emotions through it.  So that problem is solved, but there was more…”  He looks tight lipped, reluctant to finish.

“Mordir said that you should bite me, didn’t he?  Probably more than once.  Am I right?” Morna asks softly.  When Luca nods, Morna says, “The same thing had occurred to me.  Releasing my inner beast will help me make more antibodies faster, and the venom in your bites will heal my body.  I was going to suggest it, but suspected you would refuse.”

“My first instinct was to do just that, but Mordir made a convincing medical case for it.”  Luca kisses his mate and lovingly strokes her face.  “I feel like such a fiend for planning to do such vicious things to your precious body,” he confesses quietly.

Morna laughs and says, “Once we get started, I am sure I will provoke, entice, and outright goad you into things you would never do on your own.”  Morna continues kissing his chest and abdomen as she unsnaps his jeans, and starts to peel them off of his perfectly formed body.  “Hey, I just thought of something.  We should move the furniture out of our bedroom.  I will be mortified to have anyone besides Ingrid clean up after us like she had to do last time.  I specifically told her that waiting on me is no longer part of her duties.  So I refuse to go back on that and ask her to clean up my messes.”

Luca kisses her and chuckles.  “Good idea.  Take a shower and I will move the furniture.”

Morna laughs, “Do I stink?”

“No Morna, but I can smell Rodrigo on your arm.  And I can smell Rinda on you,” Morna gasps and he continues, “I can smell Breena on you too.” Luca says quietly.  “Don’t look like that… Baby, I am not threatened by the scent of that man or Rinda on you.”

Morna‘s eyes open wide in uncertainty.  She pulls away, “I am so sorry, love.  I didn‘t think of that.  I should have showered as soon as I came home.”

“Nonsense, Morna.”  Luca picks her up and gently lies her on the bathroom floor and proceeds to make love to her.  Afterwards he is kissing her face and stroking her belly gently.  “I should have done this when you first came home, you already look less pale.  Now shower, or take a bath, whichever would be more relaxing for you while I move the furniture out of our bedroom.  I don’t want you to be embarrassed because we damage a few things.”

Luca chuckles as he strides into the bedroom.  Morna laughs too and starts to run a tub full of hot water, and scents it with her favorite lavender and eucalyptus.  She eases into the hot water and rests her arm with the still oozing incision on the side of the tub, out of the water and leans back and closes her eyes and recalls her dreams of her mate from earlier.  She smiles happily at the memory but wonders why the dreams were so vivid, so realistic.             

Luca comes in a little later and kneels by the tub.  He unwraps the wound and examines it.  “I don’t understand why it is still bleeding.  Your scars have faded, you already look amazingly vital again, so why is this wound not healing?”  He picks up her arm gently and lowers his mouth towards it. 

“No darling!  I think the wound is supposed to remain open until the healing is completed.”  Morna says gently.  “The venom in your mouth would heal it, and I think that would somehow interfere with the process.”

Luca nods and gently kisses the area around the wound.  “Your understanding of this kind of magic supersedes my own.  I will follow your lead.”  He gets up and goes to a cabinet and retrieves the first aid kit.  “I always wondered why we had this.  Now I am glad that we do.”  He cleans the wound with hydrogen peroxide and wraps it securely with fresh gauze.  “It may need to stay open, but I don’t want it to get infected.”  He caresses her arm and inhales deeply over the open wound and sighs heavily.

“Do you need to hunt?”  Morna asks out of concern for her mate’s comfort.

“No baby.  The scent of your blood no longer just makes me thirst, it excites me.”  Luca confesses and ducks his face as though ashamed of it.

“I am glad it makes you excited,” Morna says wickedly.  “Now help me get my fat ass out of this tub and I will show you just how glad I am.”

Luca smoothly lifts her out of the tub in one quick motion.  He kneels behind her and nuzzles into her wet buttocks as he roughly caresses her yielding flesh with his strong hands.  “Baby, you ass is anything but fat.  It is perfect!  It is soft, yet firm, yielding yet resilient.  It is perfectly shaped.  It is one of the most beautiful parts of your body.” 

He moves around to kneel in front of her and takes her hands into his, meets her eyes, and continues; “Along with your powerful, long legs that you wrap around me with such enthusiasm. Your full, luscious breasts.  Your shapely, strong arms that hold me with such love.  Your powerful, hardworking hands that love me with such skill and grace.  Your lovely face and gorgeous eyes.  Morna I have been guided, enticed, encouraged, reassured, and empowered by those eyes for seven hundred and fifty-two years.”  He gently rubs his face along her distended belly and moans in joy.

“Morna, your lovely belly, whether soft and yielding as it was in Oklahoma or swollen and full of life like it is right now.”  He gently releases her hands and strokes the patch of sparse strawberry blonde hair between her legs, before he gently pulls the outer lips of her labia back.  “And this, crown jewel of womanhood.  Baby do you realize that you have smelled and tasted exactly the same here in every single incarnation?  The smell is so rich and musky, much like your blood.  Your taste is so luscious and sweet.” 

Luca groans and buries his face between her legs just as a massive orgasm rocks her body.  Her body had been vibrating with desire and sexual excitement as he spoke and now that he is touching her there, she can bear it no more.  She roughly grasps handfuls of his hair to steady herself as the waves of pleasure and sexual release tear violently through her body.  She screams his name as his tongue darts out to tease her engorged flesh.  She roughly pulls his head closer as he laps at her juices with enthusiasm.

He stands just in time to catch her in his arms when she faints dead away.  He quickly carries her into the bedroom and lies her on the soft blankets and pile of pillows he had left on the floor in their bedroom.  He conducted a healer’s reading and knows that she is fine, but he still is considering summoning Mordir or Gullveig when her eyes flutter open.  Her eyes are still glassy looking and she smiles with intense satisfaction.  She reaches up and caresses his face.  “I knew it!  I knew you could do that to me without even touching me!  I knew it!  Luca, my love, my heart, I had no idea that you see me that way.  Am I truly all those things to you, beloved?”

“All that and so much more,” He affirms earnestly.  “Are you alright?  I was terrified for you when you fainted.  Do you feel ill?”

“No baby.  I do not feel ill.  I feel strong, invincible, and oh so satisfied.  I have never felt more loved or healthier.”  Morna assures him.  Suddenly she sits up and says, “But I am very thirsty!”

“For a coke or something or for blood?”  Luca asks as he rises to his feet.

“Blood.”  Morna chuckles when he disappears.  He is back in seconds with a tall, clear glass full of blood.  “Please tell me you didn’t go to the kitchen like this?”

Luca throws his head back and laughs.  “Of course not.  Our daughters might have seen me.  I put a store of blood in the mini refrigerator that I had installed in the study.  He helps her to sit up and watches as she quickly drinks the life sustaining blood.  He sets the glass aside when she is finished and captures her mouth for a deep kiss.  Finally he releases her lips and smiles because she is breathing hard and struggling to straddle his body.  Luca stops her from straddling him and says, “Morna, my love, Rodrigo was right.  I do burn hotly to kiss you each time you drink blood.  But not as hotly as I do when I kiss you and your own precious blood still lingers in my mouth.  I am truly a beast because I find my deepest sexual satisfaction when I taste your exquisite blood and plunder your body like the beast that I am.”

“If that makes you a beast, then I too am a beast.  I burn for you to do those things with me,” Morna admits breathlessly.