“You’ll be fine as long as the sunlight doesn’t touch you. I’ll keep you safe,” he promised.
She believed him. He would keep her safe as long as it was within his capabilities. But Raven could remember her father promising the same thing. She had known that he would give up his very life to protect her, but in the end, it hadn’t been enough. But what choice did she have? She draped the blanket around her shoulders. It was big enough to wrap around her body and cover her head.
“So what’s the plan?” she asked.
“We’re going to walk right through the castle.”
Her mouth dropped open. “What?”
A smile curved his lips. Then, as she stared at him in disbelief, he vanished and before her stood Grieffen, the fire-demon. He was huge, his skin dark red, like burnt hide, his eyes cruel slits. Even his scent changed, and Raven shuddered at the dark, smoky smell. As he reached for her, she had to force herself not to step back from his touch as those vicious claws gently drew the blanket up over her head, plunging her into darkness. A low chuckle rang in her ears, and then she was lifted and slung over his shoulder as though she was weightless, his huge hand resting on the curve of her bottom.
“Well, my pretty,” she heard him murmur, his hand squeezing her buttock, “shall we go?”
She held herself frozen against him, quite unable to move. Logic told her that this really wasn’t a fire-demon, that Kael was under there somewhere, but logic didn’t have a lot to do with it. He felt like a fire-demon, he smelled like a fire-demon.
The journey seemed to go on forever. Even under the blanket, she kept her eyes tight shut. She gnawed on her lower lip, body tense as she waited for Kael to be stopped, questioned. The blanket would be ripped from her, exposing her to the deadly light of the sun. Sorien had told her that this was how he planned she would die when the time of the sacrifice arrived. Staked out on the altar in the great hall as the sun rose. Burnt from the outside in, until no more than a pile of cinders remained.
Think of other things.
Her dreams and visions of Kael…
She’d wanted him in those visions, now she finally admitted she wanted him still. She wasn’t ready to believe in that happy ending, but at least she would have the chance to experience something good before she died. And once the deed was done, the prophecy could no longer come to pass, and her worst fear could be laid to rest. She would make it happen. Her body tightened at the thought. Heat flooded her. She tried to tell herself that anyone would be hot draped across the shoulder of a fire-demon. But it didn’t help; she was burning, turning molten, melting.
Finally, a door slammed shut behind them, a bolt rammed across and she was lowered onto some sort of a chair.
“Stay covered for a moment,” he said.
She sat very still, listening as he moved about the room. After a few minutes he came back to her and tugged the blanket from her head. She blinked in the dim light then glanced up at him. He had changed back; it was once more Kael who stood before her, the loathed fire-demon banished. And her breath left her in a sigh of relief.
Kael had drawn the blinds down over the narrow windows, limiting the daylight to a dim glow; now he leaned across and switched on a lamp and she looked around. They were in a circular room lined with bookshelves. She was seated in a leather chair in front of a large wooden desk.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“At the top of the east tower in some sort of office, but it looks as though it hasn’t been used in a while,” Kael said. “We should be safe in here. Soon, they’ll be too busy worry about anything but keeping out the enemy.”
She turned back to him. Her eyes lingered on the broad shoulders, the wide chest, and the swell of muscle. As she watched, he slowly unbuckled the shoulder holster and shrugged out of it, dropping it carelessly on the desk. His eyes never left her as his hands moved to his waist, unbuckled the black leather belt that held the knife sheath and pulled it free, dropping it beside the gun. The faded jeans hung low on his hipbones; and she could see the bulge of his manhood, swollen, pressing against the soft material. He really did want her. Slowly, she licked her lips.
***
All the way up here, Kael had been mentally lecturing himself. Telling himself that this was just part of the job, trying to convince himself that sex with Raven was just something that had to be done, not something he was starting to crave with all of his being. But the feel of her so close, the swell of her bottom beneath his hand, the way she occasionally wriggled her body against him, the press of her soft breasts against his back, made that an impossibility.
The truth was, he wanted her with a desperation he hadn’t thought himself capable of. But he needed to stay in control. He couldn’t let her see the extent of his desire. She was already frightened, and who could blame her? After all, all she knew of sex was what she had witnessed in the great hall and that was no doubt enough to put anyone off.
But she wasn’t making it easy. Her eyes were fixed on his groin in what appeared to be fascination. He tried to tell himself it was only wishful thinking on his part, but his cock refused to listen. It twitched and pulsed inside his jeans. Then she licked her lower lip, and he almost groaned. He remembered the feel of her feeding from him, the sensual tug as she sucked his blood, and his cock pulsed again. What would it feel like if she fed while he was buried deep inside her?
She caught her lower lip with sharp-pointed teeth. A small bead of blood oozed crimson and she licked it away. This time he couldn’t restrain the groan, and her gaze darted to his face. Her eyes seemed to stare straight through him, into his very soul. She clearly didn’t like what she saw there, because a frown tugged down the corners of her mouth. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he muttered. Then he shook his head. “Hell, Raven. I’m trying to do the right thing here. I have to do this. It’s something that needs to be done, but I don’t want to frighten you any more than I have to. Jesus.” He ran an unsteady hand through his hair.
She stared at him. “I’m not frightened.”
He studied her closely. No, she didn’t appear frightened. As he watched she shrugged out of the blanket, letting it pool around her waist. She was perfection—luminous skin, long slender limbs, her breasts full beneath the thin cotton. The ragged grasp he had on his control slipped a little further.
He took a step closer. “Perhaps you should be.”
***
Raven could see his fierce control in the way his fists clenched at his sides. His whole body pulsated with tension.
