Curse Of Blood: Gods & Monsters

Chapter XLVIII - Heida

Roth waved his hand dismissively. "That can wait, serves him right." He then patted the blankets beside him. "I have something for you."

She smiled and narrowed her eyes at his crotch, becoming suspicious of his motives.

"Not there, woman," he said with a chuckle, patting the space beside him again. "Here."

"What could you possible have to show me now? I have already seen and sampled it all." Her racing heart belied her affected calm as she stepped forward, for she knew full well that his provocative smile was the foretaste of pleasure.

When she was close enough, he caught her arm and pulled her to him, rolling over her to place languorous, heady kisses on her lips. "Now keep your eyes closed," he commanded, having plied his talented lips so effectually that her lids had shuttered under his sensuous assault.

Anticipation coiled in her belly. She felt the bedding shift under his weight as he retrieved something from beside the bedstead. Soon his lips were back where they belonged, pressed to hers. She raised her arms to fold them behind his neck, but he stayed her left hand and pushed it to the pillow.

Whatever he was about, she knew not, could only feel the delicious sensations erupting all over her body from this stimulating kiss. When his tongue caressed hers, she felt it in her core, and when he dragged his sharp teeth over her underlip, her blood spiked hotly beneath her flesh. He had her so consumed with torrid desire that the cool metal slipping onto her left wrist was completely unexpected.

He released her to sit back on his haunches, watching her keenly. She too sat up so that she could examine the ring he'd placed on her arm.

It was an exquisite-looking arm ring. The body of the wolf was as long as a snake's and coiled lovingly around her wrist. The two wings that lay folded against its coiling back could very well have belonged to a swan or a raven.

"It is us!" she cried, radiant tears welling at her eyes.

It was the commixture of their blood — of two life mates — typified in a golden armband, and the red stones that made up its eyes symbolized that lifeblood more completely. She pulled it off to better appraise it and soon realized that he had inscribed runes on the inside of the body in such a way as to lie always against her skin.

Two bodies. One heart.

"Roth!" She practically slammed her body into his. "I love it!"

She felt his arms envelope her, pretty nearly stealing her breath with the force of his embrace. "Will you promise never to leave me?" he asked, quietly.

That his son had only just extracted a similar vow from her was not lost on Heida. It added far more weight to the moment than would have already been there. Lifting her cheek from his chest, she faced him, brushing her fingers lovingly over the scars at his jaw.

"I could sooner cut out my own heart than leave you."

Fingering the amulet that hung between her breasts, he contracted his lips introspectively. "That you have this to protect you from me is good. I wish I could have thanked Brynja myself; I should have liked to have known her."

"No you wouldn't, she did not approve of you." She laid her hand over his against her heart. "She does not know what it is to love and so she could not possibly know what I feel for you. I am nothing like her, Roth," she thought to assure him, glad of the fact that she had not inherited Brynja's coldness of heart.

"To know you is to love you, Heida." Then, ostensibly having done with glum reflections, he sought to alleviate the sobriety, "I only wish I could promise not to eat you."

"You won't." She was certain of it.

A brief silence followed in which his lips twisted wickedly. When he did answer, it was with a suggestive wink. "Do not be so sure, wife. There are other ways a man may taste and devour a woman..." And with that said he lowered his mouth to hers, clarifying exactly which appetite he meant to slake.

❅

"There's my grandson!" said Aila, rinsing Freki's hair as he sat sullenly in the tub by the fire. "I had feared of never finding him beneath all that muck!"

The dubious scowl she then received from her youngest grandson elicited Finn's snickering, but his father swatted him playfully and so he returned his attention to the playing pieces scattered around the board. Hnefatafl, the game was called.

"Protect your king," Roth said, moving his pawn into a fatal position.

"Enough, granny!" Freki complained as Aila lathered and rinsed his hair again.

Granny! Heida nearly scoffed at that, watching Aila lift the boy from the water, for her mother looked nothing of the sort. Veritably, she looked only a little older than Heida herself, let alone like a woman that had borne two sons who were now full grown, and giants besides.

One son, Heida reminded herself. Only one son had lived beyond a score of winters.

Aila passed a squirming Freki to Heida and then turned to grab his clothes, but walked straight into Brenna who had silently come up behind them with balls of dough. The younger woman's hands shot up reflexively. The dough was therewith dropped as she planted her palms directly at Aila's chest.

"Oh!" Aila chuckled, steadying them both. "You're like a stealthy cat!"

But Brenna was not laughing. She had snatched her hands back with a gasp and frozen instantly, her eyes distending with alarm.

"What is it child?" Aila's brows knit with confusion. "You look unwell."

Brenna finally blinked and closed her mouth. "I ... I ... forgive me." And she bent to retrieve the dough.

"Don't be ridiculous, there's nothing to forgive." Aila brushed at the flour prints on her overdress that had been transferred from Brenna's hands. "It is only a bit of dough."

Aila's eyes shifted askance to Heida, unsure of why Brenna appeared so distraught by the mishap, but Heida only shrugged, as confused by Brenna's reaction as she was.

Passing the dough to her mother, Brenna immediately turned on her heel and, with another muttered apology, fled the hall.

"Perhaps she recalled leaving a pot boiling down in the cottage?" Heida lifted her shoulders again and continued drying Freki's hair.

Epona, however, had narrowed her eyes, and after deliberating a pensive moment, she too left the hall, the bread baking now forgotten. Roth looked up only briefly at the commotion, his brow quirking dismissively, before he moved an ivory figurine strategically across the board.

It was a peaceful moment, despite Brenna's hasty departure, the evening meal simmering in the pot as it hung from its hook above the fire. The steady notes drifted from Ívarr's bone flute as the logs snapped beneath the flames.

But, unbeknownst to them, it would be a peace of short duration. The storm that had been brewing on the horizon was now upon them. Olaf burst suddenly into the hall, his face red with exertion as he rushed to Roth's side.

"He comes! Thorgny's comes! And he brings an army!"

🌟Happy New Year, guys! Be safe wherever you are! And I wish you all the very best for 2017!🌟