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“Why? Are you afraid you can’t keep up, spectre? Are you so enamoured with death that you can’t even remember how to live anymore?”
you earned your reputation; partying harder than all the big boys and using those gifts of yours to make sure everyone in the room was looking at you at all times because stars forbid you ever went unnoticed.
“If you think I’m filthy now, imagine how dirty I could get if I liked you.”
“How disappointing. I suppose you’re the boring, ‘fuck me in every hole until I come enough times to trick myself into believing my pain doesn’t exist’ type then?”
“Then it sounds like you aren’t doing it right, spectre. Because if I fucked you, I assure you, you’d forget every other star-damned thing. From your name to mine, to every star in the sky and drop of water in the ocean. Nothing would exist aside from you and me.”
“So are you telling me the play here, spectre, because I hate to burst your bubble but I’m not going to fuck some Blazer asshole just to keep your cover safe. It’s been a long damn time since I got my dick wet and I’m not wasting my return to the pleasures of the flesh on just anyone.”
I have a feeling, we’ll make quite the potent cocktail you and I, spectre.”
Mercury ruled Gemini and Virgo, and Gemini was first in the astrological calendar, so I started there. Next was Venus which ruled Taurus and Libra, so using my initial logic, I twisted the wheel to them in turn. Next of the ruling planets came Mars, so Aries and Scorpio were my following choices.
His eyes widened in alarm as he started to slip into the chasm behind him and I swiftly caught hold of his tunic, yanking him back onto firm ground.
How long had he really been held prisoner beneath the ground, trapped in his animal form, cut off from his magic? And on that note, why hadn’t he been driven to madness by lack of connection to his elemental power?
The beard which had formed from the stubble on his jaw was gone, though he hadn’t shaven his face entirely clean, a dark shadow still clinging to his skin. His hair was cropped shorter too, tangled strands falling over his forehead into his eyes but no longer matted and trailing down to his shoulders. The difference it made to his face was stark. His eyes were brighter with the water clinging to his dark lashes, the silver shot through them glinting at me as he moved to stand at the foot of my bed, leaning his forearm against the post and looking down at me.
Physical dominance was the power wielded by small-minded men and it wasn’t a game I had any likelihood of winning unless I was willing to change the rules.
“The crystals they used to force me into my Dragon form did more than just that. There was power in them which held me in a kind of…stasis. I remained just as I had been the day they drove them into my flesh until the day you ripped them free of it.”
Though the lack of it is rankling now that I’ve been free of them for some time. I’ve managed to gain and use nominal doses of power but without having anything which can recharge me properly I remain eager for the return of my magic.”
“Treasure,” Bastian admitted after taking a moment to weigh his response. “I need to spend time with gold or jewels pressed to my skin – ideally a whole heap of them and for an extended period of time.”
“But if all you need is to hold it in your hand so that you can gain a sliver of magic from it then you can do that. The last thing I need is you fading to insanity because your magic is corrupting you from the inside out.”
I warned and he smirked at me in reply, causing a dimple to appear in his cheek which made my heart flip over itself.
“We’re a fucked up pair, you and I, aren’t we?”
I was born from the land of Cascada, the power of water had never been destined for me but it had belonged to my parents. And despite the shame of that, I could admit to myself that I had sometimes wondered what my life might have been like had I only been born a day later than I was.
“How did a creature so full of defiance ever survive in the rigid hold of Stormfell? Or have they loosened their leashes on their pet soldiers in the time I spent in captivity?”
“Do I need to throw you off of me with magic or were you planning on making my time down here worthwhile?” I taunted, driving my ass back against his crotch once more and pushing my gifts at him, seeking out the lust I knew I’d find there while his cock grew hard behind me.
“I’m not fool enough to fuck a Succubus,” he growled. “I’ll not be ruined for all others, spectre, even for a ride as thrilling as I’m sure you’d be.” “Fine. You can stop wasting my time then.”
“Do you think anyone is even coming?” I asked, making it sound as though I was disappointed. “I so wanted to get fucked in every which way tonight.” Bastian snorted. “Is that so? You wanna go ahead and describe some of those ways for me then?”
I took care to focus on my own lust as I realised what he was. Sirens weren’t so very different from me in the way that their gifts sensed emotion but they didn’t have to rely on desire. They could sense lust, joy, sadness, anger and everything in between.
Bastian closed in on me, the scent of iron and smoke coiling around me as he placed his hands on my hips and slowly brushed them around my sides then down the fronts of my thighs.
Bastian groaned in turn as the weight of the Siren’s gifts fell over him, his body tensing behind me as he drew me back against him and the press of his muscles surrounded me. I could feel the hard length of his cock driving against my ass and my mouth watered at the feel of how big he was.
“You are the most beautiful creature I’ve ever laid eyes on,”
“From the first moment I set my gaze on you I’ve been plagued with fantasies of having you at my mercy like this. Of bending your body to my will and making you gasp my name as you shatter for me.”
“Do you like it gentle, spectre?” he asked, pressing against me harder, his cock driving against my ass, and I pushed back against him, wanting to feel every solid inch. “Don’t ask stupid questions,”
In moments I could be screaming his name, begging for every inch, and I knew I’d come hard and fast within seconds because I had never wanted anyone to fuck me the way I was aching for him to in that moment.
“You are my most ruinous fantasy,” he told me. “You’re like the sun drawing me to your orbit at all times, there is no light when you aren’t near, no joy outside of your company, no point to my existence at all. You found me in the dark and set me free so that I could dedicate myself to worshipping you for all of time, and I want to spend every second I have making you feel just a fraction of the bliss you offer me with your mere existence.
Bastian’s hand closed around my arm and he whirled me towards him, his gaze fixed on my mouth, nothing but determination in his expression as he leaned down to claim a taste of my lips. But before he could land that kiss,
“Besides, I don’t know why you’re complaining – aren’t I your sun, drawing you into my orbit at all times?” “Curse that Siren,” Bastian growled.
Despite the fact I’d known his words were just sweet tales designed to draw me into his bed, fully fuelled by Zayad’s gifts, Bastian’s words shot straight through my chest and stung a deeply aching wound where my battered heart had once beat solidly for the lies of another pretty Stonebreaker.
I can sense footsteps in the stone and if you really are serious about creeping down into those tunnels then I can probably feel their location with my magic too.”
was already trusting him to lead us through this place so it seemed pointless to object. Vesper.
Moraine had once told me that the similarities between the nations dated back to the time before the war when trade and commerce were a part of everyday life. It was why we all used karmas and kismets as currency – though the coins from each nation differed slightly in design these days. But when the war had broken out, no one had been willing to give up their claim on the currency and allow another nation to take ownership of the terms to define the coins so they’d all kept on using them.
Vesper.
Vesper.
“And I promise I will cast the best illusion possible of you down in Obsidian Cove so your bothersome Fury will chase right after me instead of the real you.”
“Promise our forked paths won’t tear us apart. Promise you’ll be my friend before you’re a Reaper, Harl. Promise you’ll never choose them over us.”
“I promise, Ever. This cloak will never mean more to me than you do.”
“Go, Ever!” Harlon boomed and I turned, hating myself for leaving but having no choice. “You will make the stars hail your name, Everest Arcadia,”
But the deeper I ventured into the mines, the more I felt a discomfort in the pit of my stomach. Something wasn’t right in this place. There was rot at its core.
I tried to focus on him but the call of that power was overwhelming me, tying itself in knots around my soul and demanding I give in to its call. Even the hold of a Dragon couldn’t deny such fervent power.
I sprinted towards them, some deep energy urging me on, wanting me here, needing me to see. That
Vesper. Vesper. VESPER!
“Something…raw,” I said slowly, inching forward in the dark, my hand outstretched before me as I felt rather than saw what I was headed towards. “Something old… Something which is calling my name.”
“Ether is more than just the root of the land’s power,”
“It is the current which sweeps us all along in its path. We may access the bounty of its river through rite and sacrifice. But we cannot control its flow.”
