Elusive Hero

  "I haven't done this. Not in so long."

  "What's that?" He could follow the words in her mind, like subtitles on the screen, and he thought her voice sounded like velvet. His pleasure about that hummed through her blood. God, she loved them being in one another's minds. She hadn't realized how alone she'd been all these years. Yet she knew what a miracle this was. This place, this male. It wouldn't have worked if Garron had been a different kind of Master or man.

  "Simply enjoyed a lover. Being with him. Talking as if there was all the time in the world, as if time has stopped, just so we could spin this out and enjoy it forever. There's a magic feeling to it, like floating in clouds. I had it for such a short time, and it was so long ago, I shouldn't remember it, but being with you, it seems so vivid."

  "I'm sorry you lost him, Kaela. And the life you planned together."

  Her chin dipped, her eyes coming back to him. Her hands moved from his shoulders to his face, the scars. "I'm sorry for the losses you have suffered in your life, Garron Rand. And the pain that made you take refuge here so you could heal. Have you healed?" she asked softly.

  She could tell it surprised him that she'd figured Eden was a haven for him. But it shouldn't. Intuition, being two steps ahead of everyone around her, was part of what had kept her alive. Him as well, she expected.

  "Yeah," he said briefly. "You can slide into hell so fast. The trip back is a long road on foot. That's the only way out of it, though."

  She nodded. "And every footprint can be marked with blood and tears, such that you feel like there's a trail following you wherever you go from there, ready to pull you back. I'm glad we both found our way."

  SS

  That was all that needed to be said. It was more than the mind-to-mind connection that made that possible, but God above, it sure helped. Garron had never felt such a comfortable silence with a woman. It was like sitting by a river of their entangled thoughts and memories, watching them flow by as they sat on the bank, hand in hand. Or as they stood among them, as they stood together in the water now.

  "So going back to that third mark thing," he said casually, "you just release some chemical inside me, like the first and second one, only I have to take some of your blood as well. Isn't that the way it works?"

  Her gaze came back to him, and he saw her weighing it in her mind. Could she do something as forbidden as fully mark a servant who wouldn't be part of her life after these ten days? The thunder of need rising in her mind like primal drums, just from him bringing up the topic, told her yes. Yes, she could. Her fingers curved into claws on his chest, into the muscle.

  "It's temporary, my lady. You can trust that. I asked Vardalos when I called him. He said it works on the same premise as the second mark."

  He saw her flash of regret over the word "temporary", quickly quelled by her rational nature. He schooled his expression to neutrality, hoping she didn't catch any nuances from his mind that told her just how much he wanted it to be permanent, too.

  "How does Theodosius know all this?"

  "I've learned not to question his sources. He only lets you know what he wants you to know anyway. But he's never told me anything that's not true. He doesn't bullshit. If he's not sure of something, he'll tell you that. He was sure of this."

  "Yes, you also take some of my blood," she said at last. "Before or after, it doesn't matter. Some feel taking it before helps guide the serum, like a marker."

  "How would you prefer it done, my lady?"

  Her eyes grew more luminous, her mouth fuller as her lips parted. He felt her thighs press harder into his hips, her fingers grip his shoulders. "Are you sure that..."

  "I'm sure."

  She might have been asking once more if he was sure the third mark would only be temporary, part of the island's magic. Or she might have been asking if he was sure he was okay with the binding of that third mark. Either way, the answer was the same. Yes.

  "I would prefer my Master choose how he wants it done."

  "I've been wanting to take a healthy bite out of you since you got off the plane," he said with a feral grin, and got an answering spark out of her gaze.

  "That would have made the porters' mouths drop open for sure."

  "They can mind their own damn business."

  A good Master did his homework, prepared as much as he could for what his sub would need, and this was no exception. When Vardalos had told him how the final mark was done, Garron knew if the issue came up, he wanted to do it without stumbling, without gnawing on her like a dog on a rawhide. So though he was sure she'd laugh if she saw it in his mind, he'd used an orange, the theory of it the same as for medics who practiced injections, because it replicated human skin the best. While biting through the rind was a bitter experience, doing so now with his lady was going to be anything but.

  He wrapped his hand around her hair in that way that engaged her attention instantly, his other arm banding around her waist to hold her fast. His cock was already hardening against the soft give of her pussy beneath the thin suit. "Last time I did this, I got thrown into a mirror. Good thing I'm in the water this time."

  She gave him a haughty look. "The circumstances were different. For one thing you were trying to make me attack you. Plus you didn't break the skin."

  He stroked his thumb along her pulsing artery. "So is my lady saying she'd welcome me being even rougher with her this time?"

  Her pulse fluttered, all the answer to that he needed. He yanked her head back and struck.

  He bit through her flesh to the artery, the taste of her blood telling him he'd done well. That and the extra bite of her nails, the gasp, her involuntary movement on him. While a mortal woman might have been alarmed to have someone take a healthy bite out of her carotid, a vampire took it as an erotic overture. One of those lovely moans slipped from her lips as her hips moved in invitation against his cock. Yeah. He wanted that, too. He wanted everything she had.

  As he took her blood, surprised at how enticing the flavor was, he reached between them and slid two questing fingers beneath the crotch of the swimsuit. Though the water didn't provide a natural lubricant, once past the outer labia, he stroked and found her natural slickness waiting for him. She clutched down on him hard.

  That's it, my lady. Make me your Master in all ways.

  She gripped his head, telling him to pull back, that he'd taken enough. He began to lick the spot on her neck, providing the pressure needed to staunch the flow, if vampires clotted like humans did. Her hands cupped his bare skull, petted him as she rose and fell on his fingers, making him want to replace his fingers with his cock. If it had been a natural lagoon in the middle of a jungle, he would have rutted upon her on the banks until they were both covered with grass and mud, smelling of blood and earth. But he was just as good with manicured grass and a concrete lip. Whatever got him inside her sooner rather than later.

  He brought his hand to her face, and she turned her mouth against the heel of his hand, then dipped lower. He saw the flash of her fangs, and she bit into his wrist, sending a swirl of fire through it, along with something else. Something that ratcheted up his desire tenfold, not that he needed any help with that when it came to her. Unlike those burning second and first marks, the pain this time was intense but irrelevant. He tore away the bottoms, pushed his own suit out of the way, and sheathed himself inside her in one brutal stroke that wrested a cry from her lips, even sealed over his flesh.

  Cleansing fire, painful and yet fulfilling at once. He backed her up to the zero entry slope of the lagoon so he could lay her down, her head just above the water, and began to hammer his hips against her spread thighs. He kept her pinned there, his hands on her waist, making her take everything he was giving. She'd broken free of the hold on his wrist, the task done. He glimpsed a flash of ethereal blue on her fangs, a drop of it falling into the water and expanding like a tiny, fragile spider. That must be the third mark serum. In the real world, it would bind them together irrevocably. Here, it gave them enoug
h of a taste of the possibilities he only wanted to demand more.

  Putting a hand flat on her chest, he pushed her back as he straightened over her, keeping her in place as he worked her relentlessly. It was then that he felt it--the third mark taking hold.

  That door inside her shuddered, the one under which she'd always disappeared like smoke.

  Open to me, my lady. You no longer get to be anywhere I'm not. Surrender to your Master, now and forever.

  She threw her head back, another cry breaking from her lips as a wave of near climactic pleasure seized them both. Not quite there, but so close it was too fucking good to leave the razor's edge. Framing her breasts, he leaned down, nipped and sucked, thrusting and thrusting. He wanted to fuck her to death. Wanted to fuck them both to death.

  Open to me, my lady. In all ways. Refuse me nothing.

  He dropped down over her, bracing one hand by her head, and grasped her throat. Her lashes flickered up, her lips parted, eyes wide and sparking with all the possibilities of the universe.

  "Now," he growled. "Before I kick that fucking door down."

  She trembled, and it opened, so suddenly it was as if he fell into her, even as he felt her step across the same threshold in himself.

  To truly know one another, inside and out. Understand everything about how they had been born, how life had sculpted them, every thought and feeling that governed them. Because this woman was a mystery even to herself, for him it would be a delicious, chaotic tapestry that continually altered. He'd found his way inside a submissive's subconscious before, but it wasn't like this. He was standing fully inside Kaela's conscious and unconscious self, surrounded by the treasure that was there. Tears and anger, rage and joy, intellect and intuition, blind faith and measured calculation. Death and life, blood and healing.

  There was so much detail, he closed his eyes to help him focus, even as his body continued on without any guidance, the rueful blessing and curse of being male. His cock didn't need any direction to do what was needed, what it wanted. God, yes... Balls deep inside her, fully locked together physically, was the best way to experience this complete meshing of hearts and souls.

  Her own body rose and fell to his, small sounds of physical stress and pleasure coming from her lips at the force of his taking. She was so wet, he was sure he would have heard her cunt sucking on his cock with every stroke if they were on dry land. As it was, the lagoon waters lapped over his thighs and ass, along her shoulders, across her breasts, like an additional stroke by sensual hands, urging them onward.

  "Christ...you feel..." There were no words. He brought her up to him in one forceful yank, wrapped his arms around her, felt hers wrap around him and they became another of the lagoon's melded silhouettes, meant to always be merged like this. Her life was cruel and unpredictable. He knew how to deal with that. What's more, so did she. He'd never experienced such strength from one person, man or woman. Yet he felt her longing to have a port where she could set down the sword and shield, not have to wield that strength every moment of every day.

  He knew how to deal with that, too. That cagey bastard Vardalos. God bless his dark, mysterious soul. He'd known Garron needed a purpose as demanding and meaningful as the battlefield he'd left behind. She was it.

  Ever since he'd nearly lost his life, hearing and sight, he'd had to fight his way back. During the endless torturous rehab sessions he thought might be the way to go for CIA interrogations instead of waterboarding or fingernail pulling, during the adapting to different ways of seeing and hearing, he'd tried to find himself again. Standing inside her soul, her standing inside his, was the reward. There was no need to strain to hear, to see, to feel. It was all here, within her. There was more waiting for him in the silence and the darkness of her soul than in every voice and sight in the whole wide, blessed world.

  Thank you, my lady.

  Did any vampire allow his or her servant at least one delicious breath like this, this deep inside their Master or Mistress? He doubted it. From what she'd implied, it was a one-way thing, the door to the vampire's mind forever locked, while the servant's mind could be plumbed to the soul if the vampire so desired.

  Based on what he knew she needed from him, it made the thought he sent to her all the more critical.

  This is our contract, my lady, the only non-negotiable condition for me being your Master. That you never close me out of your heart, soul and mind. Not now, not ever. Everything else we figure out. Day by day, moment by moment.

  SS

  It was entirely possible for a woman's heart to be sliced in half. Kaela felt all he was feeling, even as she experienced her own reaction to seeing who Garron Rand was to the depths of his soul. She'd never had that pleasure with a servant, but she'd certainly been told about it. No words could describe it. He was entirely hers. She could crush that soul in an instant, destroy his mind and heart with the power she had in the third mark binding. Yet her mind kept returning to his words. Make me your Master in all ways... It's not about physical strength...

  In the end, it would be about physical strength, though. It would be about what happened after she left this island. No matter what he thought, she couldn't take him with her. She certainly couldn't stay, no matter how addicted she was to what he could offer her. There were those who depended on her protection. The Vampire Council would come after her. Fran would be destroyed. Feeling like she'd betrayed the Council and her Mistress, the InhServ would commit suicide in her monastic cell back at Council headquarters, her shame and failure leaving her no other conceivable option. Vardalos and Garron would die as well, for knowing too much about vampires. Garron would die.

  Her Master made a surprised noise as she pulled him even closer, not measuring her strength, only knowing she needed to hold him as tight to her as possible with arms and legs, him buried inside her, so she could dispel the image of him dead at the hands of the Council.

  No. This was what she could have. If she could have Jared back for only ten days, knowing she would lose him again after that, she'd still do it. As horrifying as that pain would be--and it would probably be ten times as much, because she'd know what it felt like ahead of time--she wouldn't even hesitate.

  So she would accept this binding for the next few days, and afterward she would leave. There were things that had nothing to do with fear of the aftermath.

  Did he hear all of that? He could have, and was choosing not to spoil this moment with disagreement. Or he could still be getting accustomed to the many intersecting lines of communication a mind-to-mind connection included, overt as well as passing thoughts, some directed, some random. Either way, she was glad for the focus to remain elsewhere. Suddenly, ten days felt like the shortest time ever.

  Garron lifted and took them out of the lagoon, past the cobbled path around it to a patch of grass screened by ferns and more of those exotic red flowers. His eyes on hers, his mind inside hers, he removed the remainder of their clothes and put himself upon her again, slid back into her. Her legs twined over his hips, his muscular buttocks, and she reveled in his strength, his fierceness. When his lips met hers, she opened her mouth to him, making a soft plea as he explored her mouth with his tongue, with teeth. He stretched her arms out to her sides, made her leave them there, expecting her to obey his will. Every part of her, inside and out, inside him--because that was also where she was--capitulated.

  He stroked inside her, watching her face, and then he pulled out, working his way down her body. His mouth teased her clit, played at her pussy until she was gasping and squirming, grabbing handfuls of grass to anchor herself. Turning her over, he pulled her up onto all fours and covered her. He slid back into her pussy, taking her over again as he pushed her to her elbows, dominating her physically, mentally. She had no need for thought or will beyond what he desired of her, and that thought alone was enough to bring her to climax, especially when she heard his voice, the thought echoed inside his mind.

  "You'll come now, my lady."

  She cried out
despite the nearby bathers, because he just felt so damn good, stretching her, his thick cock filling her so deep. His hands closed over her breasts, cradling and gripping them hard as he reached his own climax with her, hips slamming against hers so she was driven against the ground, the heels of her hands creating furrows in the earth. He loved looking down at the slim line of her back, her buttocks quivering, her head down as she took all of him, as she gave all of herself to him, her cunt squeezing down on him as if it knew her Master's cock was the only one that was supposed to be there, now or forever.

  Best keep that in mind, my lady.

  When he finished, he was breathing hard, running on the emotions as well as the physical exertions. Which took another spike when he coiled his fingers in the heavy links of the choker around her throat and twisted a loop in it. Her whole body rippled at the constriction, her pussy giving him such a strong contraction his balls spasmed with the pleasure of it, especially as a short scream wrenched from her throat, an aftershock as strong as a mini-climax.

  He rocked her through it, pushing in short strokes as she made tiny sounds of delight. Not until he'd wrung every last sensation out of both of them did he finally ease that hold and drop down over her. Bracing his palm beside hers, he coiled his arm around her waist. "Good," he murmured. "Good, my lady. You've served me well."

  She shuddered, her forehead to the ground, and her hand moved over, hooked his fingers, gripped hard. He put his lips on the back of her neck, over the heavy chain, and stayed there. He breathed against her, his chest rising against her back, keeping that connection as she pulled herself back together. But she couldn't. She just kept shaking.

  It seemed like every time he took her, she ended up back in this place. She didn't know what was wrong.

  Not a thing, my lady. You've just hungered for this so long, whenever the gateway opens, you go into the deep end. It's a beautiful thing to see. A total gift for your Master.

  Making another soothing noise, he pulled out of her, put on his swimsuit so quickly there was barely a breath before he was touching her again. Garron turned her over, scooped her up, and her arms went around his neck as if he was her last hope before falling off a cliff. "I've got you, my lady," he whispered, staying there on the ground, holding and rocking her.