The Destined and the Deathless

Part 2

"Come back to me..."

Marya jolted awake in her own bed, back in the palace. It had been over a year since she looked at this ceiling. Her shoulder ached fiercely and she reached to touch the bandages.

A healer swatted her hand away from it. "Don't you dare ruin my hard work. You should rest some more."

"No, I need to get back to the front."

"Tsaritsa, the war is over. You defeated them. All of Russia is celebrating."

Marya remembered the final battle, her shoulder, dying—no, nearly dying in Koschei's arms. She wondered how she got to the castle. Some of her men must have saved her.

"You can join them, in time. Your body needs rest. Drink this."

Marya took the drink. It eased the pain and sucked her back into the darkness.

* * *

Marya awoke during the night. The fire in her hearth had almost gone out so the room was nearly black.

Koschei's eyes glimmered from the shadows, watching Marya.

"Is this a dream?" Marya rasped.

Koschei approached the bed and poured her water from the pitcher on the bedside table. She bent and held the cup to Marya's lips. "No."

Marya drank deeply. "What did you do?"

"What was needed," Koschei smiled and smoothed Marya's hair back, putting the cup aside. "I meant what I said. I love you too much to let you go. I am a selfish, evil creature. You have heard the stories."

"Why are you here now? Be honest with me. I don't—" Marya's voice cracked. "No games. Not now."

"I wish to be with you, for as much time as I have given us." Koschei slid into bed with Marya, careful of her shoulder, to curl around her. She traced the scar that bisected Marya's eyebrow.

Marya was unsettled by the sudden tenderness. Her body didn't know whether to lean into her touch like a contented animal or inch anyway from it.

"What does that mean?"

Koschei captured Marya's chin and turned her head towards her. She pressed a soft kiss to her lips. "Let me make you feel better."

Marya gave a muffled sound of protest under Koschei's lips, but she was already peeling the blankets back.

"I can be gentle," Koschei whispered when she finally broke the kiss. "Let me do this for you."

Marya's body was already awake. She swallowed back her shame and nodded.

Koschei eased Marya out of her shift and kissed Marya on the mouth, insistently, her tongue gliding against Marya's. She kissed her jaw, down her throat, and spent time at her breasts, kissing and sucking her nipples, taking them between her teeth, flicking them with her tongue.

Marya moaned.

Koschei glanced up at her face to watch how it was transformed by pleasure and continued until Marya was squirming and rubbing her thighs together.

Koschei's hand at her thighs stilled her, and then Marya parted them. Koschei's fingers met Marya's cunt and explored the wetness she found there. She used it to slick her fingertips, slowly massaging Marya's folds, up her warm seam, onto her bud.

Marya's head fell back to the pillows as Koschei began circling and caressing it slowly. Heat and pressure began to build in her abdomen, her legs shaking, chest heaving into Koschei's mouth. She angled her hips forward, rocking them against Koschei's fingers to encourage her. Needy sounds erupted from her throat as Marya got close.