Windburn (Nightwing# 2) (13 page)

“That’s right.
I
am your lord and master.” He wrestled the dagger from my hand and spun away, his scarlet cloak billowing. “Bring her! It’s time.”

With an iron grip, Vawn dragged me roughly through the tunnels and into a high-domed chamber, dimly lit by torches in sconces along the walls. A dozen Morgon men, cloaked and hooded in scarlet, bare-chested with black tunics like Fallon, circled a stone altar. They were chanting in a low, steady rhythm, their voices more hisses than words.

Fallon placed the dagger on an altar table, draped in red, velvet cloth. The old book and a glass decanter of oil sat alongside the sharpened blade.

Vawn set me on my feet, snapping an order to someone behind him. “Lift her legs.”

A smaller Morgon grabbed my calves and lifted me. I squirmed and struggled, but all was useless. How could I possibly fight and escape this many Morgon men? For the first time in my life, I was absolutely helpless. Trapped. Terrified to the point that the world slowed, like time stretching to hone in on their every movement, focusing in on my demise with painful clarity.

“Bearers, take your places,” commanded Fallon.

Two more men stepped up to the head of the altar and grabbed my wrists, pinning them above my head. Vawn took hold of my left ankle, bending my knee and planting my foot flat at the end of the altar. The smaller Morgon mimicked him on the right. Shorter than the others, his hood slipped back where I could make out shadowed features. Excitement shone in his eyes. My stomach roiled.

Fallon’s mantle covered most of his face, but silvery hair fell from beneath the crimson cloth. The chanting continued.

He spoke over them. “Thousands of years have passed since our forefather, Larkos, freed us from the tyranny of the dragon. He showed us
we
are the superior race,
we
are meant to dominate,
we
must claim our rightful place as masters on this earth.” He circled behind the altar, walking along the line of chanting Morgons. “With this Larkosian rite, we sanctify our power, our supremacy, with flesh and blood.” He stepped to the bottom of the altar next to the table where I could see the glint of ice in his eyes. He held the heavy book open in both hands like a sacred relic. His voice boomed. “Together, in the words of Larkos, we pledge our creed—”

All at once, the chanting stopped. In unison, the eerie words of a long-dead madman reverberated off the cavern walls.

“We bear the bones of the great and strong.

We are the hunters by air, night-long.

Flying far above the world of men,

Superior by right, all our kin,

with Morgon might, we stake our claim,

with flesh and blood, we smear the name

of dead land-walkers on our caves,

their men our prey, their women our slaves.”

With every word, palpable evil filled the place, snaking through the chamber like a mist. Fallon moved to the bottom of the altar, a sinister smile creasing his face. He took the hem of my gown and ripped it up past my navel. He moved his fingers up the fabric, gripped higher, and tore it open the rest of the way, laying me bare to all eyes. I shook my head, my heart pounding a frantic beat against my ribcage. He grabbed my hips and jerked my bottom down to the end of the altar, scraping my back against the stone. I screamed in pain. His grin widened. Pouring the oil from the decanter in his palm, he rubbed it between both hands.

A tear slipped from my eye. I whispered, “Please, Fallon. Don’t.”

He gripped my knees, opening me wide. “This is a privilege. You’re our first in centuries. And I must say, you are as lovely as I imagined my blood bride would be.” He leaned forward. I squeezed my eyes shut when his fingers roughly touched my most intimate place. He smeared the oil in my folds, like a lover would, sickening me. Violent lust thickened the air, a tangible evil licking on my naked skin.

No! I couldn’t die like this. I was Sorcha Linden. Anger flared, strong and fierce.

I opened my eyes. The chanting began again. The tunic gone, Fallon rubbed the oil vigorously on himself. My stomach churned, acid burning inside. I glanced away at the younger one holding my right ankle, whose greedy eyes flicked up and down my body. I heaved my breasts on purpose, drawing his eye upward. It worked. I licked my lips. The boy’s eyes drifted up to mine, just as I wanted. I lured him with a smoldering look I’d used time and again to ensnare a man, to heighten his longing. Distracted, his grip loosened, and I jerked my ankle free, hauled my knee up, and kicked as hard as I could at Fallon’s crotch. My blow barely missed the mark, landing hard enough on his pelvic bone to knock him to the ground.

The chanting suddenly stopped. I kicked and writhed and screamed.

Fallon’s voice bellowed in anger. “Flip her over.” He shoved the young one to the side, pointing at another Morgon. “Danoc! You take her other leg.”

“No!” I screamed and fought. Still, in an instant, they had my stomach and breasts pressed flat against the stone. My wrists gripped hard, my thighs spread and held wide. Fallon’s fist clenched in a knot of my hair. He yanked back, my neck arching unnaturally far. He muttered biting words in my ear. “Know this. I will fuck you and gut you like the animal you are and take great pleasure in the deed. But you, bitch, will feel nothing but pain.”

“Do what you will, asshole, but you’ll never truly have me.”

He released his hold enough to wrap my hair around his wrist, raising my head off the altar. The weight of his body lowered to mine, the front of his thighs pressing against the back of my own. The man holding my right wrist wore a grim smile, his focus entirely on what Fallon was doing. I tried to block what was about to happen, readying myself for the pain when a streak of flame burst from the darkness, engulfing the head of the Morgon holding my wrist. He screamed and let me go, falling back and flailing, beating at his burning face.

Bellowing yells erupted all at once. The hands holding my other arm and legs vanished, but Fallon jerked me off the altar with his fist in my hair. Clutched against his body, I watched the horror unfold around me.

Black-clad Morgon men swept into the chamber with brutal force, slicing through the air with sharpened steel, spraying the blood of the red-hooded Larkosians. A russet-winged Morgon with auburn hair lifted Vawn straight up into the air, breaking his neck in flight and tossing his body aside. A fast flyer with blond hair slammed the smaller Larkosian into the cavern wall. I heard the crack of his skull before he slumped to the floor.

Some of the Larkosian fighters were better than others. Still, they were no match for these men I knew instinctually were the fighting force of the Morgon Guard. One streak of blue and black fought two at once, slicing out with a blade in one hand. Kol. One of his assailants shot a ball of orange flame. Kol ducked and punched him square in the face, knocking him backward. The other Larkosian attacked. I was nearly kicked in the head by two Morgons fighting off the ground, punching and grappling while wings flapped and beat wildly in the air.

“Get him!” yelled Fallon to the four remaining men at his side.

My gaze followed Fallon’s pointing finger. My heart soared. A sob of relief escaped my lips.

Lorian.

Stalking like a demon with two razor-sharp blades in his hands, he strode straight for me and Fallon. Glinting silver with hell in his eyes, he moved like the beast I knew and loved, murderous rage lining every plane of his face. The four Larkosians marched forward. One puffed up his chest and blew a stream of flame. Lorian leapt and flipped in the air, his wings setting him down unscathed amidst the four of them. With two deft moves, he sliced the throats of the men at his back and front, twisting to face-off the other two. He side-kicked one square in the chest, while the other attacked from behind.

Before I could see what happened, Fallon grabbed the sacrificial dagger, clamped my mouth, and hauled me back down the tunnel, the ripped gown hanging off my body in tattered shreds. I kicked and flailed, but he was so much stronger than me. With a vise-like grip around my ribcage, the dagger in his hand, he carried me back to the room where I’d awoken on the pallet. I hadn’t noticed there was a narrow opening on the far wall in the corner. He pushed me through, pointing the dagger in my face.

“Move.” He ground out. “Fast.”

I followed the passageway, my fingers trailing the walls, the darkness close and oppressive. He gripped the back of my neck, shoving me along faster. I felt a cold draft up ahead. I shivered.

“Faster!”

I tripped on purpose, hearing footsteps pound the pavement behind us. He yanked me up by the hair and thrust me forward. I screamed, “Lorian!”

The tunnel ended abruptly, the black cavern walls merging with the night. We stumbled onto a snow-swept escarpment, the wind swirling flakes along the stone. Like shadows appearing out of nothing, two of the Morgon Guard descended onto the cliff’s edge. One shook his head at Fallon as if to say there was no escape. They must’ve been circling, waiting for those who would try to flee the scene.

Fallon pulled my body flush against his, arm around my neck, and faced the cavern exit. Two seconds later, Lorian stepped out onto the cliff, bloody blades at his sides.

“Drop your weapons.” Fallon pointed the blade above my heart, nicking the skin. A trickle of blood slipped down over my breast.

“Gladly.” Lorian dropped them with a clang, still moving toward us, fury fixed on Fallon. “I want to use my hands when I tear you to fucking pieces.”

“Stop. I’ll kill her before you reach me.” He pressed the dagger, slicing the skin deeper. I winced. “I’d planned to kill her in a much different manner.” Fallon’s lips brushed my ear, his nude body rubbing through the sheer fabric of my gown.

Lorian stopped and gazed into my eyes for the first time, crippling me with the emotion welling there. My body trembled. Warm tears slipped down my face. I made not a sound.

Fallon’s hand spread across my stomach, sliding to my hip where he squeezed possessively. He whispered in my ear, knowing Lorian could hear. “I wish we’d had a few minutes more, my love.”

The dark look of death on Lorian should’ve shut the dumb fucker up.

I found my voice despite my fear. “I hope you burn in hell a long, long time.”

Fallon let the blade slice a little deeper and raised his voice. “I’m afraid she proved more difficult than I expected.”

Lorian’s eyes noted my hands clutching Fallon’s arm. “Yeah. She can be a bit of a
cat
when she wants to be.” Lorian’s hands flexed.

I glanced at my hands, well-manicured as always, long nails. A cat. In a flash, I reached back with my claws and sunk them into the soft flesh hanging between his legs, gouging and yanking as hard as I could.

Fallon let out a piercing cry. I lurched sideways, the dagger slicing my arm. A whipping sound. A biting, chill wind. I blinked snowflakes from my eyes.

Lorian had Fallon on his knees, one hand on his throat, the other on his wing. Lorian shook his head, glaring at the Morgon bent backward in his grip. “Wrong woman.”

Fallon choked out a laugh, blood spewing from his mouth. Lorian must’ve done some internal damage to the Morgon in the split-second I fell to the side.

“It doesn’t matter. There are more of us. And there are more women for the taking. Even if you kill me, we pave the way for
him
. The Larkosians will rise.”

“I don’t give a fuck as long as you’re rotting in hell.”

Without taking his focus off Fallon, Lorian spoke to me. Soft words, filled with restrained rage. “Baby, turn your head away.”

I did, curling into a ball.

Fallon’s high-pitched scream would haunt me forever, but the sound of cracking and crushing bone filled me with the most primal satisfaction. The need for vengeance had swelled in my breast with fierce desperation when Fallon had held me against that altar. But the sound of his death echoing into the night at the hands of my lover, of my love, would never bring me anything but peace that justice was done on the most fitting scale. When there was only the hiss of fire igniting, I uncurled myself. Lorian pulled me into his arms, a violent conflagration consuming what was left of Fallon Greyclaw.

I never saw him, but Kol was suddenly there, holding out a blanket to Lorian. With trembling hands, Lorian wrapped me. He cradled me in his arms and leapt off the cliff, winging away from the nightmare. I buried my face in his neck, shivering violently. Fear replaced terror when I realized what might have happened had he not come. I cried, a shaking, aching cry like never before. Lorian held me tighter, saying nothing.

We landed and I opened my eyes. We were in dense woodland, still cold, but not snowing as it had been on the mountaintop.

“Lorian, why are we here?”

Carrying me through a line of trees, he set me down on the edge of a steaming pool. He removed the blanket and the tattered, torn gown from my body. He lifted me again and carried me into the pool, then set me down on the marshy bottom. My trembling subsided. Warm water lapped against my body. He dipped into the water, splashing his face, rubbing his arms and hands, ridding himself of blood splatter.

“Lorian. Your clothes. You’ll be freezing.”

After combing his fingers through wet hair, he cupped my face in his hands, his gaze burning, frantic. “I don’t give a damn about anything but you, Sorcha. Don’t you understand?” Voice cracking, he ground out passion-filled words. “I almost lost you.” His thumbs stroked my cheeks, eyes searching every line of my face, fingers shaking despite the warmth. “I want you. I need you, now and forever. Fuck! Sorcha,
please
. Say you’ll be mine. Only mine. Forever.”

Those otherworldly eyes—one bright blue, one amber-gold—were glassy with emotion, so heavy was his heart. I curled my fingers over his hands to calm him, nodding furiously. “Yes, Lorian. I’ll be yours. Only yours.”

He brushed his lips gently at first, then more firm, prying my lips apart with his own. The moment his tongue touched mine, a shocking sizzle licked down my throat, pouring into my body. I clutched at his shoulders. He didn’t pull away at my slight resistance, but delved deeper. There was no turning back. The burning flowed, melting me on the inside. I gave Lorian my heart as soulfire streamed through my body, binding me tighter to the man I loved. Coiling my arms around his neck, I licked into his mouth, wanting more of him. I could hear my pulse pounding harder. Finding the rhythm of Lorian’s heartbeat, the two thumped in perfect harmony. His mouth possessed me, branding me with soulfire, making me his for eternity.