Hi. Back after half a year. I'm sorry. My father that was diagnosed with cancer, died in his sleep. Peacefully and with the entire family around him. He was... well loved... and will forever be missed.
But getting things settled has been... trying. I'm going to finish the story I promise but it might take me a little longer than I had originally planned... if you couldn't tell by the long absence. Again I'm very sorry. I would like to thank all of my very patient and understanding readers. Updating weekly like I was before might not happen again for a bit but I will continue to work diligently at it until you have the entire story.
I'm also looking for a new Beta. TheBlackPages, while a wonderful person and a fantastic Beta has given notice due to my sketchy life and updating plans. So please forgive me, I'll probably be more than a little rough and rusty with my writing until things settle down again.
In the meantime, please read, enjoy and tell me that you think. Also if you see any annoying little boxes and then a sentence that feels like it's missing part of it, please let me know. My computer is messing up. I think I caught all of them in editing but I may have missed some. *Sigh* Jonah days. When it doesn't rain it pours.
Chapter 9
Recap:
Kai gasped, breaking the spell as her lips left his, ending the feverish madness that motivated them.
In a blink, Nuada threw himself off her and across the room.
Nuada's Bedchamber Living Area Floor
"Well that was highly disappointing." Kai muttered as Nuada disappeared down into the tunnels. "Never thought he was the skittish type." She pushed herself up on her elbows as Beriothien smirked, leaning against the great staircase, his shoulders shaking as he laughed. As silent as the night and just as black, he shook as laughter at his friend rolled through him. "Don't you dare laugh at me."
Beriothien pointed down the hall the fleeing prince disappeared within, barely holding himself upright as his mirth continued.
"Him you can laugh." Kai allowed. "Help me up." She thrust out a hand which he took gingerly, knowing that he had to stay on his toes around her. Prepare for the unexpected, as she loved to throw curve balls at the least expected moment. "No tricks. My arms are still killing me from pulling away from that wall."
Beriothien pulled her up, setting her upright as gently as he could. He had seen the effort Kai put into not showing the recent injury to her father. When she was standing, he turned her gently around and raised her arms to shoulder level. She winced painfully as he probed the joint.
Beriothien hissed seeing the bruises that littered her arms like confetti. He felt like punching the prince. Gods! If the king sees this, Beriothien thought, that idiot prince signs his own death warrant.
"I'm fine." She asserted. "Nothing bad but the shoulder. The wrists don't even hurt any more. I swear the Brownies should bottle what ever was in that healing salve. They'd make fortune." She laughed, turning her arms over so he could continue his inspection. "Nothing like that time. Do you remember? We went hunting, camped for three days I think. We tracked a boar. But my aim was off." If you bothered looking, you would see the eight inch scar just beneath her breasts, across two ribs.
She nearly died that time, because she stepped in front of the enraged animal that was charging at him. She had led the animal over a cliff, barely hanging on to the edge by her torn and bleeding fingernails as her life slipped away in red rivers down her torso and legs. She was just about to fall as he caught her arms. He had never been so happy to see her cocky, arrogant smile, as when she looked up at him. Her hair in tangles, dust and sweat painting her skin in muddied furrows, exhaustion and agony etched into her features. She smiled and said in pants, "always knew you couldn't stay away, Big Guy."
And he knew, because of that smile, that everything would be okay. That smile said everything was going to be fine, always and forever it would hold that meaning. He wished she would smile that way now.
"I need to stay in shape." She kept talking, the grim set of her lips saying more than her words did. "So, feel like sparring?"
B.P.R.D. Headquarters Abraham's tank room
"Abraham!"The princess shrieked as Abe, unseen in the water beneath her, kissed the small of her back. He had found that spot quite by accident, and was pleasantly surprised to find out the effect it had on her. She was ticklish. That one spot sent her into fits of giggles. "We are supposed to be swimming."
Nuala had lit up like the sun, when Abraham told her about his tank and its indoor beach. The gentle waves had lapped at her ankles until she was tempted beyond the waters edge. She stripped out of her heavy dress, keeping her shift on in case someone walked in as it seemed everyone knew the code to the team member room doors.
Abe looked somewhat guilty as he broke the water's glass like surface. "But it called to me." He reached for her hand, taking it between the sponge like skin that covered his hands. "I'm sorry if I startled you."
Nuala pulled him closer, wrapping her arms around his neck. "And what proof do you offer of your regret?"
"What ever you ask."
Nuala smiled, kissing him. "I may have a few ideas."
Nuada's Bedchamber. Living area. Shadows.
It was the clang of metal that drew him back from the recesses of the tunnels to the flickering shadows of the fire lit living area over an hour later. And what he saw was nothing like what he expected.
Kai's shirt was now torn over her ribs, slices on her back looked like claw marks as blood beaded at the edges of the shreds. Tendrils of hair worked their way out of the massive braid that she had pulled her hair into. Her face was flushed and covered in sweat as she concentrated on the dark male she faced off with. Her tan arms were as taunt as live wires as she danced with a blade in her hand. Under, over, around and through the air as if it were a living thing.
Always in motion and in perfect harmony with her partner, or so he thought before her sword tasted blood. Beriothien's arm began trickling drops of red from the shallow kiss of her blade. No words were spoken as the dance continued. How long this went on as he watched, Nuada would have no hope of telling. He could tell both combatants were tiring from their exertion, but neither was willing to quit it seemed.
Kai caught Beriothien's sword hand with a boot sending the metal skidding across the floor. The dark male went after it knowing that he had only three options, concede defeat, reclaim his weapon, or continue without it. He fell to his knees, skidding, to collect the blade and came up swinging. He deflected high to block a vicious swing he expected, only to have Kai fall to the floor, her sword out before her, rolling over her shoulder onto her back, tucking her legs into her chest as she tumbled over the stones, mere inches from the unfeeling cutting edge of his sword, and propelling herself unscathed to her feet beyond him.
Beriothien spun on his knees, kicking out behind him, catching her on her Achilles tendon, landing her flat on her back.
Kai tucked her chin into her chest as she felt herself falling, to protect her head and neck. It didn't stop the air from being forced out of her lungs. "Draw." she rasped, her musical voice hoarse from exhaustion. "Help me up."
Beriothien struggled to his feet and braced to pull her up. His muscles ached from nearly an hour and a half of fighting Kai. A mix of bare knuckles and weapons had reduced him to a pile of aches and cuts.
Kai eased to her feet with her friends help and took his weapon from his weakened grasp, turning to place it carefully on the raised platform to be cleaned and oiled later. "How is your knee?" She asked, referring to a kick that nearly ended their sparring session.
The dark elf grunt noncommittally. He touched his shoulder and pointed at her.
"Sore. And my back itches." Kai touched her nose, feeling the break just underneath the skin. It was only then that Nuada realized that the feature was crooked and her eye had a good chance of being swollen shut within hours unless the Brownies worked their magic. "Could you set my nose again before we wash?"
Beriothien shrugged, reaching a hand over to her face and swiftly jerking her nose back in place.
Contrary to popular belief, Kai was not immune to pain. The sudden eruption of agony on her face without the accompanying adrenalin of a fight, sent her crashing to the floor. A split second before she hit, Nuada was at her side. He caught her just before the hair that wiggled its way out of her braid touched the floor. He glared daggers at the dark male. Only he was supposed to hurt her. As twisted and as sick as that sounded. Only he was allowed to touch her, hurt her, give her pleasure, anything.
That realization rocked him to his core. He was possessive, and it angered him. Both that he was possessive, and that he was furious another person touched her, even if it was only in training, even if no permanent harm was done. He pulled her up, surprised at her solid weight, and pulled her toward the platform where his tinkering tools were laid. A small cushion made it's way under her head, cradling her as she slept, unconscious from the over load of blinding torture. He pushed her gently back from the edge so she didn't roll off.
Beriothien purred consolingly, brushing hair from her lips and face. He may be a hard pain in the rear, and he may never give anyone any slack, but Kai was his friend, even if they started out as enemies.
Nuada caught his arm as he went to brush the backs of his fingers gently across her jaw. A smile that mixed Jack the Ripper with Attila the Hun crept across Nuada's face. It was similar to Kai's, only slightly less psychotic than hers. Her smile had no limits, just as she had no limits. Apparently he did. Interesting, Beriothien thought, as he went flying.
"I am going to say this only once," Nuada growled as Beriothien got to his feet, "touch her again, and each injury will be applied ten fold on you."
Beriothien smirked. Jealousy prince. Already? He thought, analyzing the royal. You're going to love the date she got asked on. And accepted. This will be entertaining. He looked blankly a the prince before striding away toward the shower, laughing silently as he did. This would be very entertaining, indeed.
Kai kept her breathing even, trying not to aggravate her nose. Yeah, that's going to be fun breathing through, she thought, listening to every word spoken around her. It was shocking, what she felt pouring off the prince like a waterfall swollen with seasonal flooding. It was strong like moonshine and it hit her just as fast, this feeling of ownership. At the surface it felt like the feelings of a master toward a slave. But she had learned some time ago, that the surface never told the true story. It only showed emotions that people were comfortable expressing, comfortable having others see.
It was the feelings that ran underneath, that at the moment felt like the barest trickle, sluggish but steady and tasting of the sweetest honey kissed by sun, that left her feeling warm and her palate greedy for more. He may not even realize they were there, she thought suddenly, pulling quickly from his mind. Sometimes the thought of being an empath sickened her, like now when she knew and understood his feelings better than he did. It was an invasion of the basest kind. Space and bodies, once invaded could be repaired or healed. Minds, with time and effort could be rendered whole once again, but stripping a being bare the way she did? Sometimes Kai couldn't bare to look at herself in the mirror. And now would be one of those times, she knew.
"Why do you play at things that could ruin what few good features you have, human?" Nuada asked the silence, brushing her thick braid off her shoulder. "Kai," corrected softly. Ocean, it meant ocean, he mused. Jada Kai. Wise Ocean, or was it Ocean of Wisdom? Fitting for a seer. If she truly was one. She certainly didn't act like any seer he had ever known. She was loud, opinionated, unbending, irritating. She seemed to rush headlong into danger without thinking and... and... And, yes he was having difficulty finishing that thought.
It was her blasted scent that seemed to fill every space and embed itself into his pores that clouded his senses and seemed to confuse his mind. She was everywhere. She wasn't even very pretty. Sure, her eyes were stunning. But they were in, by elven standards, a plain face. By human standards, she may have been decent to look at, he supposed. She was slender but well muscled, obviously from fighting and training of almost any kind by the look of the scars that littered her skin. Each one sent a jolt of anger through him. Her hair would be considered unusual among his kind. Brown that changed color depending on the light.
No, she couldn't compare with the courtiers he knew who prided themselves on their looks and anything else that would entrap a male. Couldn't? No, that wasn't the right word. Wouldn't. Even if she was in Elven silk, which he was willing to bet she would have to be forced into, she would refuse to compare to them. Refuse to sink to their level. Refuse to bow to the expectations and trappings that kind of life would entail. She was like him in that way. A fighter. One who rejected the rules. He liked that. Nuada shook himself, forcing that thought out of his head.
Why, he wondered, was he even considering her in that life? She wasn't elf, or even fae. Was she? Seers among humans weren't unheard of. But they were very rare.
She was paler than when he had first seen her. Probably from the pain and lack of sunshine. Her dark coloring wasn't natural. When she was sleeping, and naked, laying on top of him, her hair draped over her just brushing the top of her hips, he saw clear tan lines left by the sun. The feeling of her hair grazing across his skin sent shivers through his body like nothing he ever felt before.
He had slept with a few of the better whores in the market, but last night was more soothing than any time he spent with them. And all he did was sleep, granted he was trussed up and uncomfortable, but the sound of her breathing and the throb of her heart against him were more calming than he realized until the next morning.
The markings on her arms and legs that he had seen were confusing though. The Claddaghs were straightforward enough. But the runes and tarot? Something about them rang distant bells within his memory. Nuala would remember, but she was too far away for him to pick the information from her mind. Whatever it was, he had known it nearly a thousand or so years previous to now. It was something from before or just after the last war with the humans. There were two treaties from around that time, other than the one with the humans. One with the Lower Fae Court and King Auberon, and the other he couldn't member who it was with, and either one he couldn't remember what it was about.
Beriothien walked back into the room rubbing a towel over his bare arms and chest as he directed his steps toward his friend.
Nuada growled, stepping between them.
Beriothien cocked an eyebrow and jerked a thumb over his shoulder down the way he had just come.
"I'll take her." Nuada murmured so softly that he wondered if he said it out loud. "I'll take her," he said louder, stunning himself by picking her up and cradling her gently to his chest. "I would rather not sleep with someone who smells worse than pigs."
Kai covered her chuckle with a cough, muttering "pigs," before shifting in his arms, forcing Nuada's hold to tighten, pulling her tighter into his chest, her mouth barely inches from his neck. Her warm, moist breath on his breath made his heart beat slightly faster, but her hand that limply fell to his rear and her other hand that pressed against his torso sliding down, steadily to just over his groin, sent it racing. So innocent and so distracting.
Nuada shifted her in his arms only to have her hands fall in even more intimate places. Cupping him gently. Nuada struggled not to groan as her hold tightened in what must have been a dream. Kai smiled against his neck, unseen. And when he thickened in her hand, it took everything she had not to moan with want.
Kai was disappointed when Nuada set her down on the edge of the recessed floor tub, uneven stones biting into her back and side. Her eyes remained closed even as she fought not to smile upon hearing his clothes whisper to the ground. Water splashed against her arm and side of her face as he sank into the soothing liquid, turning to face her.
"Let's get you out of these clothes." Nuada mumbled to himself unlacing the pants at her waist. Her honey toned skin gave way to her pale milk white Irish tones making him catch his breath, realizing two things. One, she wasn't wearing underwear, and two, he was seeing something no one else did, and that made him smug. Inch by inch he worked the leather pants down, her scent filling his nose making his heart thud just a little bit harder.
"What have you done to yourself?" Nuada asked quietly, tracing the patterns on her legs, that looked like anklets, delicate and lace like over the tops of her feet and up the back of her calves. All in gold, only a shade brighter than her tan. "Why do humans decorate their skin like this?" He wondered out loud, pulling her shirt off, nearly groaning after seeing that she had no underthings on. Was she intentionally trying to test his patience?
"They're the marks of distinction for a seer among my tribe." She said, coming "awake," groaning as she tried to sit up.
"How long have you been awake?" Nuada snarled, pushing up on the edge of the sunken bath, stepping out, water washing over the side, pooling at his feet as the fluid dripped from his skin onto the cool stone beneath.
"Long enough." She admitted. "Look I don't mean to be a pain in your backside, but I can't move my arms." She looked tied and in need of a stiff drink. "So if you don't help me send in Beriothien so he can wash these cuts out."
Nuada's head snapped toward her with a growl thundering in his chest. She wanted someone else to touch her. The idea snapped something deep inside him, perhaps irreparable. It felt animal and visceral. It wasn't logical, or even reasonable. It was deep and unabashed. "I'll stay.
He sank back into the water, giving Kai a small chance to ogle his backside. She had to admit, it was even better than she thought, without his clothes. She groaned in pain as Nuada pulled her up by her arms. "Watch the shoulder you blasted elf!" She yelled. "I dislocated it getting off that wall you had me on! If you hadn't been such an ass, you could have just asked me to come down here." She ended bitterly. "I would have come." Tears sprang to her eyes as he pulled her into the water, not that he was any gentler as he went about it.
"Stop talking." He ordered, settling her underneath the warm water. He ran his fingertips over her injured shoulder, checking the damage. It was minimal, but it would take a while to heal fully. She would still be able to use it to fight but it would hurt. She was foolish to test it's limits, he thought, adding some of the Brownie's concoction to the water, until it bubbled the surface, its fingers working into their skin, massaging the muscles beneath. "So you are the seer, Kai?"
Kai smirked. "You had a doubt?"
"Not really." Nuada cracked a wry smiled. "You play games all too well." He guided her to sit on the ledge that lined one of the sides of the bath, her back toward him so he could examine the cuts on her back. Only then did he see the tree. Branches, as thin as filament twisted over the skin of her back and shoulders. Odd. He had a similar tattoo, much smaller, of course, on his hip. They were supposed to be small, so that they were easier to hide if the need arose. And only the elven royal families had them. Anger began bubbling within his chest.
Once her cuts were cleaned he moved down to her arms, noticing for the first time the three small symbols, one each on her shoulder, elbow, and wrist, all in the same gold that nearly blended with her tan but seemed to glow in the low light. He swallowed nervously, as much as he could be nervous, those were blessings given by the gods themselves. Thurisaz meant the giant or titan, and sat on her shoulders showing her strength, that she was considered to be of the gods, not quite one of them, not far closer to them than others. The sign of Odin, given to warriors allowed to enter Valhalla, usually only given after death, graced her elbows. The fact that she had it, was alarming. It meant that the gods had blessed her, accepted her, viewed her as worthy. Jera meant the good harvest, on here it meant may everything she does be blessed, and rested on her wrists.
The combination was what made him nervous. But add in the marks on her back, legs, and feet?He knew humans got marks on their skin for various reasons but mainly to prove they were different, and it only showed how much they were alike. But only the ones on her feet were put there by mortal hands. The one on her back was etched there by her blood, he could smell it just beneath her skin. The ones on her arms? Those did not smell like human inks or even her. He could feel the power in them. She was blessed by the humans, the fae, and the gods. She bore their marks.
"See anything you like, Silverlance?"
He tapped the mark of Jera on her wrist. "How did you come by these marks?"
"The runes appeared by themselves. Odin I was born with. Thurisaz I got when I was in the training arena at the camp. That day I was training with the older ones in a mock battle. My side took heavy losses. We were being pushed to see just how much we could take. It was the point of the exercise. My team was falling around me, we were down to just Beriothien, my friend Shandor, and myself against, if I remember correctly, twenty," she answered simply, no attempt made at guile. "We were about to be pinned down when Shandor took sword strike meant for me and I simply lost it. By the time I calmed down the field was leveled."
"The children watching said it was like the gods guided me. That night when I washed the dirt and sweat off Thurisaz was there. And Jera," Kai smiled softly, "I was helping my mother, she's a healer and witch, but she also mediates disputes and sits on our tribal council. I was being trained to do the same, and a case came up, a territory dispute that had been going on for centuries. A farming tribe wanted land that was unclaimed and a war-like tribe wanted the land for training. It had been suggested that they divide the territory equally but it never worked neither side was happy. But the war-like tribe was starving and the farming tribe was having problems with wild animals and guarding their territory. So I asked them to share all the land, their own and the unclaimed area. I asked the warrior tribe to guard the farming tribe, and the farming tribe to feed the warriors. It was rough at first, they argued, but eventually they decided that the trade of food for protection was worth it. The day the fighting stopped I found Jera on my wrists."
"If only all things could be settled as easily."
Kai turned to face him. "If a peaceful resolution cannot be found, the parties aren't looking hard enough." She took his face in her hands. "Now unless you tell me not to, I'm going to kiss you."
"Don't." Nuada growled, his voice husked by lust that coursed through his veins like acid, burning within him, unknown at first but now boiling within.
"What's wrong Nuada?" Kai asked, nipping gently at the joint of his neck and shoulder. "Afraid I'll bite? Or afraid you'll like it?"
Nuada didn't bother to answer. His lips crashed against hers with the force of a tsunami and was just as devastating. His fingers tangled in her mass of wet curls locking her in place sending waves of desire through her, wreaking pleasurable havoc on her mind, until she didn't know which direction was up and she no longer cared if her lungs had the oxygen they needed. She surrendered to it, feeling alive and burning within.
Kai flicked her tongue across his lips teasingly, nearly moaning as he responded, tangling her tongue with his own, drawing her into his mouth to explore to her hearts content. When his arms twisted and pulled her closer, she moaned softly into his kiss, being placed gently in his lap. Her arms felt weak and unresponsive without the adrenaline from earlier as she struggled to touch him, nearly desperate to feel his skin beneath her fingertips.
Nuada nibbled at her lips experimentally only to hear her gasps of encouragement, that egged him on driving his lust to higher heights, till it throbbed in his veins like a unending drum beat.
Kai finally gritted her teeth against the pain, resting her hands on the prince's pale chest tracing every scar and defined muscle until she grazed the tips of her fingers across the skin that covered his heart, causing him to jump.
Startled he pulled away, pushing her quickly back to her seat. "I'll call the Brownies to help you dress." Without another word he fled the room, shamed with his behavior. Which part of his behavior that caused him shame, he wasn't quite sure. She still heated his blood. Her kiss, even in retrospect, tasted intoxicating on his lips and tongue. Her body against and on his made him ache with need. After nearly a centuries, absence maybe it was time to visit the brothel again.