– T A Y A H –
I ran. I sprinted across that sunbaked plaza without thought.
Without thought of the citizens I threw myself through to get to her. I closed the distance faster than anyone should be able to. I slipped past a joyful couple easily. Then didn't stop as I launched myself at her chest and took her with me clear over the edge of the fountain into the water with a huge splash.
"You bastard!" I shouted at her face that became starkly shocked when the water came over us both. I pinned her shoulders heavily and dragged her head up by the collar only to dunk her head into the fountain's water again. "You selfish bastard! You were here–you were right under my nose in that shop and you said nothing!" I snarled, slamming my palms back into her chest and feeling her catch my wrists this time.
She started smirking again past the water streaming over the lines of her face making me want to drown her further. My knees were on either side, straddling her in the shallow water and I was fairly sure every citizen in Yascalla now stared at the display but I did not care.
"What in hells do you have to say for yourself?" I growled, pulling up her face sharply to my own and breathing down heavily on her. She calmly regarded me as droplets of crystalline water bounced off her features.
"I missed you equally." She murmured, taking in every detail of my face. I watched her back for a breath before dunking her head below the water again for no reason other than the fact that I was speechless. She sputtered out the water again and grinned at me before capturing my wrists and pulling them off her chest. Her eyes flashed down my body quickly before she spoke.
"Tayah–that garment is starting to become see through–" she murmured with a dark look filling her eyes, "–and secondly, just about every member of this town is aware of us. Not that I care in the slightest." She added with a shrug.
My eyes burned into hers endlessly and my breathing slowed. She watched me back intently with a thousand unsaid things floating between us in a blink. Her death. Our loss. Our separation. Her touch. The feel of her heat beneath me in the water–actually here. Not in our dreams.
"Teayah?" Yanu asked behind me unsure.
It ripped my head from the goddess and the world around us came crashing into focus. The eyes of the Valkyrie always seemed to draw me into our own private, heated realm where things were more intense–more powerful...
"Yanu." I muttered, shaking my head out of her mind. I pointed to my immortal below me and said, "Kára."
To which Yanu grinned and looked to her saying something in the foreign tongue. She laughed below me and returned it with another series of words. I sighed heavily, this was going to grate. I lifted myself off her slowly, watching the water rush off my legs and looked down at my very revealing attire. The eyes of my immortal did not miss a thing and ran up my body slowly as she replied to Yanu in something I couldn't understand.
Despite it all, it made me smile darkly. I wrapped the red cloak over my chest and offered her my hand. She ignored it and rose to her feet swiftly before standing close to me and slipping a hand quickly under my cloak. I sucked in a breath already feeling the rush of blood to wherever her hand lay but then realised the smooth tunic had dried instantly below me.
She held my gaze briefly before stepping from the fountain dripping and not bothering to do the same for herself in front of so many witnesses. It would dry in this heat soon enough.
John and Kaden then rushed into the fray among the crowds who had grown less interested and started back with their own conversations. Kaden barged through despite it and suddenly stopped short with a stare of disbelief.
"Immor–Kára." He rumbled, glancing at her soaked, dark clothing and wry smirk.
"Kaden Nafferion." She quipped, before flicking her eyes behind him and catching John's heavy scowl. "–and his loyal dog."
John swore in her direction and puffed out his chest. She chuckled and turned before Yanu not bothering to drop to a knee but speaking like he were of equal status in the other tongue. Yanu nodded his head eagerly and pulled on her dark cloak in response. He said something else quickly before she sighed and dropped to a knee before him. I frowned watching the exchange curiously as he patted his hand along the soaked furs on her shoulders and giggled profusely.
She rose quickly and nodded in the direction of an alley between orange sandstone. Yanu nodded back and pulled me forward by the cloak leading us. The men threw questioning glances but followed without delay.
"You're lucky I don't kill you now." I grumbled in her direction.
She dropped back behind Yanu to stand alongside me and slipped her arm casually behind my back, under the cloak. Her hand rested on my hip. It tore fire through every inch of me and made me want to lean into her touch forever. But I gave nothing away.
"Nothing is stopping you." She murmured with a grin.
I refused to meet those eyes and held my ground as we walked under the shade of tall structures and floating cloth tied above.
"You're late." I muttered instead.
She chuckled and her grip under my cloak tightened making my heart skip louder. "And you look tempting." She stated bluntly, making my body feel the heat all over again. I glanced at her face keeping my expression neutral and seeing the water had already dried off it. Her silver eyes practically glowed as they watched mine. "Was that the purpose of buying such... a garment?" She drawled.
I glared back and shrugged. "Maybe I have other suitors now." I quipped.
She grinned wickedly and the light in her eyes brightened a touch. "This again. Is it another mundane mortal with a name like Rensbrooke?"
Despite it all she got a laugh from me, easily dancing around my lie and mocking it. I prodded her side under the cloak and became more serious. "What took you so long this span?"
"I made some friends upon docking in this ridiculous land." She said in a low voice with a lethal glint in her eyes.
"Do those friends still breathe?" I asked lightly.
She gave me a flat look. "They were wasting my time–but no I did not send them to the Underworld."
It made my body relax under her and she threw me an amused look. But my mind was still in a strange state. I stared at her more openly as we made our way down the dusty paths between sandstone and foreign tongues. Her heat, her eyes, her hands–she was really there next to me. The last time I had seen those eyes they had grown flat and lifeless.
I tore my eyes off her and she noticed my discomfort. It made her pull me to a stop and call something to Yanu. The boy rushed over and she spoke quickly and assertively before glancing in the direction of John and Kaden who closed in towards us. He nodded his messy hair up and down before pressing a little fist to his chest in the Uccellon custom making me stare in disbelief.
Kára gave him a small smile before Yanu turned to the men and started pulling John's hand away. John cast me one knowing look with a small smile before giving my immortal the finger and sauntering off with Kaden. I shook my head staring after them.
"Come." She told me.
She dropped her hand from me and took my fingers in her own. Leading us through a maze of orange stone and dust. Through smells of spices and herbs. But the only scent I really noticed now was that pure and wild scent of her. The one that had haunted my dreams and teased my being. I stared at her hand in mine then watched her dark hood with the furs on her shoulders that had almost dried.
She finally shoved through a heavy door knowing what she was looking for and proceeded through the shaded room casually. A man spoke something quickly behind the desk and she threw a sack of coin on the desk without even looking his way. His eyes widened and he fiddled quickly from a set of keys. She swiped it from the desk with another word in the foreign tongue.
My heart beat just as fast as I'm sure the confused inn owner's did behind the desk.
When we ascended the stairs that were lit from numerous patterns in the wall bleeding in sunlight she released my hand and found the door for the key. It slotted in easily and she pushed it open holding it for me. I did not meet her eyes as I walked past and went straight for the balcony on the far side of the room. I heard the door shut behind me and leant against the hot stone in the sunlight.
She moved behind me but did not dare to touch me.
"Tayah." Her voice was smooth and soft all at once. It broke me in many ways. Hearing its nearness. Sensing its existence in my presence again.
"I demand you from a god. Demand you in my dreams. Have you burned into my mind at every span." I murmured, to the breeze beyond. "–yet cannot bare to look at you when you are truly here."
"I understand." She said so quietly I thought I almost missed it.
I spun towards her. She leaned at the edge of the arch in the balcony with a sadness that broke me all over again.
"Do you?" I demanded, frowning hard.
"Because of what I am. I was used against you in the most horrific way possible. Because of my power, you had to watch me die. Right before your eyes at your own hand." She whispered, staring past me to the sky beyond. "How could you look upon me now? I cannot seem to blame any other than myself."
The shock was plain on my features before I realised how wrongly she had taken my words.
"You think I blame you for any of this?" I demanded, finding my voice suddenly grow. The power inside me hummed in response and her eyes flashed down to my hands briefly. "Let me make this crystal clear for you." I murmured, watching her eyes finally drop to me. "Every time I see your eyes, I see those eyes as I did that night. When it was I–not you–that plunged a dagger through your heart. There's not a night that I have not seen it, and every time you tell me the same god damn thing!" I growled, feeling my eyes grow hotter and the energy build in me, "–I do not blame you, Tayah." I grit out.
I dragged a hot breath inside me as she stared in shock. Her expression falling away and being replaced by bewilderment.
"But I do." I snarled, turning back to the sunlight beyond. "I do and I broke my word to a god that owes me nothing now. If my own mistakes led to that outcome again–" I cut myself off and clenched the stone tightly.
But she finally stepped beside me and leant her arms against the stone inches from my own. Her hood dropped back and she watched the side of my face. I couldn't meet those eyes that loved me endlessly–I just could not.
"You torture yourself for something you had no hand in." She spoke low but clearly without any room for doubt. It made me grip the stone tighter. "You think it is your burden to shoulder alone when it is not. You think what you did that night was your action but not even that is true." She kept that burning gaze on my face and everything became harder. "There has not been a moment without my wishing that I could bare this nightmare for you, Tayah. But I stand before you now not as a victim of fate. There is no where else I will go without you beside me. Not ever again and I do not give a damn what the god thinks of me for this." She told me more quietly as the breeze brushed the strands of my hair against me.
I felt her fingers carefully loosen my death grip on the stone and turn my palm upwards. I stared down as she sent a small spark tangling down into my hand and my own power, letting it dance with hers. Her power called to my own. Drew it out and I watched as lightening tangled with flames in our hands. I watched the two forces of beautiful, chaos war along side each other and burn on.
I raised my eyes to hers.
"I cannot see the light leave your eyes again." I whispered, letting the power die from my hand. "It would break me–completely." My voice cracked and so did the neutral expression from her face.
One moment she leant on the stone and the next I was surrounded by the deep embrace of her arms. My face pressed against her chest and dragged in broken breaths as her warmth surrounded me and held me together.
"I will always keep you whole, Tayah Ashrive." She told spoke into my skin, into my very bones and I shuddered against her. "From the first moment I entered your realm I have fought for you. I will never cease to do so, to be with you for the rest of my being."
My tears soaked her exposed neck and her grip tightened around me and I held onto her. I didn't care I wanted to melt into her embrace for eternity. To inhale her scent and feel her warmth against me for the next life and the one after that. She was the other half of my soul that filled the void and then some. She was where I began and ended.
My lips parted slightly with my ragged breathing but I pressed them tightly to her neck feeling her body only hold me closer in response. I just needed her with me. Needed the feel of her warm skin that was so real and present. I kissed up her neck desperately needing to know that she was here with me. She sensed the change in my heart and bent down to meet my lips. Our kiss was stained with my tears but I did not care.
I drew my hands to the back of her neck and pulled her closer to me. She did not resist my touch and felt the urgency in it. Her scent surrounded me and made me forget the pain and loss for a moment. It took me far from a scorched desert and the death that surrounded us. She pulled me back against her until we hit the stone arch of the balcony and I could feel her heat against every inch of my body under the smooth silk. But it was not enough. It was never enough.
My need for her always burned as hers electrified.
"I need you." I breathed onto her lips. Her silver eyes opened slowly to meet mine.
"As I need you." She kissed me slowly and surely, capturing my lower lip and making my thoughts fall away. "With every breath in me." She finished, leaning into me again and dragging my body across hers.
I ran my hands up through her golden hair and dragged my nails more intently before kissing her again. Her low moan only sent my body further into the depths of need. My body moving with a mind of its own dragging delicious lines across her. Her own body responded to me and her hands sunk low to my thighs drawing my legs up around her. I sucked in a lust filled breath as she turned me and pressed me against the stone with little effort.
The heat between my legs grew as she pressed her hips against me and made a moan sigh from my throat. I wrapped my legs around her more tightly and wanted the feel of her bare skin beneath the clothing. She seemed to read my mind and dropped my legs only to rip her tunic and furs over her head. I watched intently as I saw the muscles of her stomach first and then the swell and heavy moment from her chest as she breathed before me.
My clothing was much easier. All I had to do was unclasp the cloak and let it drop to my ankles as she watched me with dark eyes. Then I slipped my shoulders out of each side of silk and it dropped from my body like water.
Her body unfroze and pulled my naked skin to her without hesitation. The sensitive softness of our chests met and made my legs weak from the pressure. Her firm arms drew my bare legs up against her stomach now and I could feel my arousal slick against her. I heard the low growl in her throat and she was already walking for the bed. My own blood pulsed against every part of me in anticipation.
We hit the bed heavily and she was pressed perfectly under me. Meeting my gaze with more black in her eyes than silver. It made me slip my hands to the waist of her last remaining garment and pull her trousers lower. I dragged them off her legs slowly as I watched her eyes grow more impatient and savoured it. But she did not stop me. Even when I pulled them off her and nothing was between us she held my gaze and I slowly sank myself on top of her body.
The breath seemed to leave her lips more loudly as I straddled her hips and ran my hands along the lines of her stomach. Her hands traced smooth lines along my ribs and down as I gazed down at her hungrily.
"No where left to run, Valkyrie." I whispered, intently watching her eyes darken and I rocked my hips slowly and deliciously against her. She grit her teeth and watched me back, grabbing my hips more tightly.
"There is no where. I would–rather be." She seemed to struggle to say as my body rocked against her slowly and I smirked thinking of another night she had teased me endlessly.
"You remember your game that night?" I asked slowly. Innocently.
She watched me silently with dark eyes that knew exactly what I meant. Eyes that were lit in challenge but also something else.
"I think I am going to enjoy playing one of my own." I murmured, dipping down to her slowly and being sure to press my burning core against her more purposefully. It had a satisfying effect and I watched her huff out a tight breath before I met her lips. While I assaulted her mouth with my tongue and her breathing became more erratic I slipped my hand lower between our bodies and finally pressed against the centre of her legs.
Her teeth bit my lip and she groaned heavily against me. I smiled into her lips and circled as painfully slowly as she had done that night she played chess with my mortals. Her own pleasure was clear to me as I moved my fingers easily against her. But her legendary patience seemed to wear out quickly.
She ripped our lips apart and I felt rather than saw her energy pulsing around us like an electric current. "You've. Made. Your. Point." She growled low.
I shook my head at her before pressing against her harder and watching her drag in a more uncontrolled breath beneath me. I took her free hand from my hip and pinned it above her head as I looked down on her and drank in her desire.
"Now you feel the pain of wanting something so badly. Sitting on the edge of it. Feeling me but not yet having me." I whispered, watching her eyes take on a bright sudden light when I dipped my fingers into her and she writhed under me. I grinned, watching her need build.
She yanked her hand from my grip and took my jaw in her hand drawing my face close as my fingers continued to play havoc inside her. "I already feel that–when I am not–with you." She almost snarled back. I dropped my lips from her face and kissed down her neck until I could meet one of the hard peaks of her breast.
"Tayah." She breathed heavily.
I ignored her and my mouth and tongue drew hungry circled around her sensitive skin. I was still surprised she let me go so far with no retribution. Something deeper and more sadist must have driven this–maybe even the long separation to give me anything I desired this span. But something in that resolve finally broke when my teeth grazed the hard peak again and she stopped my game in its tracks. She dragged my face up to hers with nothing but pure desire in her eyes. It made my stomach clench. Another part of me heated more.
She rolled me off her and took the breath from me as she pressed me deeply into the bed. Her need for me consumed everything else as my own did for her to touch me.
Her hungry lips tasted down the length of my body and did not stop at my stomach. She parted my legs and kept kissing a fire trail below my stomach until her lips found the part of me that made me suck in a tight breath. I wanted to torture her but it seemed like her true profession. I felt her tongue glide across my burning centre and moaned into the pillow. It was too much as a mortal to bare but as an immortal it just seemed more impossible. Every caress of her perfect tongue against me, every slick movement, each burning rub against the throb of my core made me rush towards an edge I couldn't see over.
I gripped the sheets tightly below us and writhed below her as her mouth claimed every inch of me relentlessly but she did not send me over my edge. She wanted something more. I groaned into the soft fabric of the pillow as she would feel my body tighten and tease it closer to a burning peak only to run a different line across my wetness.
I felt her move from me then, dragging her lips and tongue away as I groaned out her name in protest. But then I realised her intent. I felt her leg come tightly between my own and I cried out as her face hovered breathing heavily over me. I dragged her jaw down and kissed her between ragged breathing–barely able to hold the kiss as she moved against me and brought us both relentlessly close. Our heat was too much and our skin felt slick as we moved against each other in need. I wrapped my other leg around her and felt the low sound in her throat as it gave our bodies an extra inch of intimacy.
It quickly became enough to feel a peak rushing. The intense feel of her against me, all over me, filling every part of me, our breathing tangling faster and our movements becoming quicker–I cried loudly into her shoulder as my body released under her and she could no longer hold onto her own end, I felt before I heard a crack of pure energy surround us and she moaned my name into my skin. Our bodies finally released their tension and she breathed heavily above me as I did under her.
I left my lips against her shoulder as I dragged in air and finally moved my head to take in her breathless expression. Then I saw the scorch mark in the wall behind her head and I stared at it before I started laughing. She frowned at me before turning her head and looking up at the large black and smoking mark.
Then cast her eyes back down to me without a care.
"My mind has never been more lost in you. I did not even notice the power." She breathed out, watching my eyes again and taking in every detail of my face.
I took her face in both my hands and laughed again. "I truly am destroying the perfect Valkyrie."
"You make me love imperfect." She growled before stealing my lips again.
She could steal anything from me she wanted. She was mine and I was hers again. We had been lost to each other for so long that I needed to know we were found. I needed every inch of her to be mine again so that I could never lose it. There was no higher power that would steal her from me again.