“No.” He shook his head heavily and got off the table. “I’m sorry, but I need to get my affairs in order.”
“So that’s it? You won’t even try?” Elaina looked at him in disbelief.
“Please understand, if I thought there was even a tiny bit of hope I would try.” Terex rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ll be honest, Elaina—when I started this mission, all I hoped for was revenge and an honorable death. Meeting you…loving you…has made me wish for more time. But no one can contravene the will of the Goddess.”
“I don’t believe it,” Elaina declared. “I don’t believe it’s her will for you to die, anymore than it was her will for my sister to die. Please, Terex—”
“I need to get my affairs in order,” he repeated. Taking her by the shoulders, he kissed her gently on the cheek and let go. “I will be…in my quarters later if you wish to…to say goodbye.” He cleared his throat. “Until then, I must leave you.”
And before Elaina could say anything else, he left the room, shutting the door behind him.
Elaina turned back to Commander Sylvan, whose face was filled with sympathy.
“Elaina,” he began. “I’m so sorry—”
“Stop it!” she snapped. “I’m tired of everyone around me telling me how sorry they are and then just giving up! I never gave up on my sister and I’m not giving up on Terex either.” She held out a hand to him. “Give me that address, please. I need to speak to Kat.”
* * * * *
A familiar face answered the door at Commander Sylvan’s suite.
“Oh, Elaina! You’re back!” Sophia smiled broadly and gave her a spontaneous hug which Elaina returned briefly.
“Yes, I’m back. But listen, Sophie—I don’t have a lot of time. Is your friend, Kat here?”
“Right here, doll. Come on in and get acquainted.”
A tall, full figured girl with long red hair stood up from Sophia’s couch where she had been sitting with Kate, who also had long red hair—though hers was extremely curly. It looked funny to see the two redheads together, mainly because of the size difference, but Elaina scarcely had time to think about it right now.
“Hello,” she said, striding forward to take Kat by the hand. “I’m Elaina. Please tell me how you were cured from soul poisoning.”
“What?” The tall girl looked startled. “Well, I…it’s kind of a long story.”
“Could you tell it quickly, then? I’m in kind of a hurry,” Elaina said.
“Honey, do you have soul poisoning?” Olivia, who had been standing beside the couch, came forward, looking at Elaina with concern. “I don’t see any green markings on you.”
“It’s not me—it’s Terex,” Elaina said. “He doesn’t have much time—can you please help me?”
“I’ll try, doll,” Kat said, frowning. “But I have to tell you, it wasn’t any medicine that cured me when I got soul poisoning—it was the will of the Goddess. There were no drugs or any kind of treatment involved—it had to do with a sacrifice my man, Deep, was willing to make to save me.”
“But Terex has already sacrificed so much!” Elaina exclaimed. “During our mission we found a plant that can cure almost any disease if you have enough of it but instead of using it for himself, he gave it to other people who needed it. He knew he would probably die but he did it anyway. What other sacrifice does the Goddess need?”
“I don’t know.” Kat still looked concerned. “Maybe you should go to the Sacred Grove and consult a priestess.”
“But they always talk in riddles,” Sophia said, frowning. “And Elaina doesn’t have much time!”
“Maybe I can help,” Kate spoke up for the first time. “I mean, my sixth sense—my Knowing—has been a little off since I got pregnant but, well…” She trailed off uncertainly but Elaina was already at her side.
“It’s not off,” she said urgently. “Your other prediction came true. You know—when you told me that Terex would inflict physical pain on me but wouldn’t hurt me? That came true.”
“What? How?” Liv demanded curiously.
“I don’t have time to explain,” Elaina told her. She was already reaching for Kate’s tiny hand. “Please,” she whispered. “If there’s anything you can tell me, anything at all…”
“I’ll try.” Kate took Elaina’s hand in hers and closed her eyes, apparently concentrating hard. After a moment, she began to speak. “You fear for the life of the male you love and rightly so, Elaina. Go and be with him and all will be made right.”
“What? How?” Elaina asked. “How will my being with him help?”
“I don’t know.” Kate opened her large green eyes and shook her head apologetically. “That was all I saw except, well…”
“Well, what?” Elaina asked anxiously.
Kate cleared her throat, looking a little embarrassed.
“Well, when I said you have to be with him, I’m not saying you two should just sit around and play cards. I mean you need to be with him. In the Biblical sense.”
Elaina frowned. “So you want me to go seduce him?”
“Exactly!” Kat came forward eagerly. “Maybe what Commander Terex needs is literally sexual healing.”
“Are you joking?” Elaina looked to see if she was laughing but Kat’s pretty face was completely serious.
“I’m not kidding,” she told Elaina earnestly. “You’d be surprised what a good session of bonding sex can do.”
“Bonding sex?” Elaina frowned. “That’s what ties you permanently together with a Kindred, right?”
“Exactly.” Liv nodded. “ And Kat’s right—I think it’s clear nothing short of bonding sex will help.”
“And since he’s a Blood Kindred, he’ll have to bite you at the same time—that’s part of bonding sex for them,” Sophia added. She looked troubled. “Of course, if this doesn’t work you’ll have formed a life bond to a male who’s dying. And, well…” She bit her lip. “If you’re bonded to Terex, you might not survive it if he dies.”
“I don’t care,” Elaina said recklessly. “I’m willing to take the chance—to do anything I have to. I love him!”
“Good for you!” Kat’s eyes blazed. “I like your style, doll.”
“It’s good to be determined but you need to realize you’ll be fighting an uphill battle,” Olivia said cautiously.
“Liv is right,” Sophia put in. “The problem is, Terex will know you might not survive if the two of you get bonded and he dies. So he’s probably going to be reluctant to bond you to him, no matter how much he wants to.”
“We just have to overcome his fears with sheer sexiness. We have to make you irresistible,” Kat said decisively. She eyed the oversized coat, made for a Kindred warrior, that Elaina still had draped around her, and made a face. “Now if only we had something really sexy for you to wear to seduce him in.”
“Actually…” Elaina cleared her throat. “I think I have the clothes covered.”
“Oh yeah?” Kat looked at the coat again. “What—are you naked under that ugly thing?”
“Almost.” Elaina gave her a small grin.
“Then what are you waiting for?” Liv asked. “Get going!”
Chapter Thirty
Terex wasn’t surprised when he opened the door and saw Elaina standing outside looking both beautiful and defiant. He wasn’t surprised but he was unhappy—he didn’t want her to get her hopes up when there was nothing to hope for.
“Hello, Elaina,” he murmured, stepping aside to let her enter his suite. “How are you?”
“You know how I am and I know how you are, but I’m here to change that.” She lifted her chin and looked him directly in the eyes. “I think I have a cure for your soul poisoning—you have to bond me to you.”
“What? And drag you down with me when I die? I don’t think so.” Terex shook his head firmly.
“You won’t be dragging me down,” Elaina argued. “Kate had a vision with her Knowing—you know, her sixth sense? She said that you need to bond me
to you—it’s the only thing that’s going to work.”
“Elaina, would you listen to yourself?” He shook his head. “That sounds like a lot of nonsense and you know it.”
“No, I do not ‘know it,’” she exclaimed, frowning at him. “Why won’t you at least try this?”
“Because I don’t want to see you harmed!” Terex growled. “And because…no, never mind.”
He wandered back into his living area and settled heavily on the oversized couch. There was a fire in the small hearth across from it—he’d built it for warmth. The soul poisoning seemed to be chilling his blood. Now he stared into the crackling flames, trying to think of a way to go on.
“Because why? Tell me your second reason,” Elaina demanded, coming to sit beside him. She was still wearing the large coat she’d found in his ship. Terex wondered if she was cold as well.
“Because my death is fair payment for the way I treated Solange…and you,” he said at last, casting a significant glance at her leg. Though it was covered by the coat, he knew exactly where his brand was—high up on her inner right thigh where it must be hurting her even now.
“Oh, will you stop with that!” Elaina sounded exasperated. “I know the Kindred have a strict policy about the way they treat their women but I don’t believe you did anything wrong—not to your wife and not to me either!”
“How can you say that?” Terex demanded. “I fucking branded you, Elaina! I burned my initials into your flesh! It’s the thing I regret most—the one thing I wish I could change before I die.”
“Krumf made you do that!” she exclaimed. “And…” She got a sudden light in her eyes. “And if you’re so damn worried about how you ‘hurt’ me, then why don’t you heal me? Didn’t you say that Blood Kindred could do that? Could heal their females with their essence?”
“You don’t know what you’re asking.” Terex turned his attention back to the flickering flames of the fire. “I’d have to bite you again to do that—to heal you with my essence.”
“Couldn’t you just lick me?” she asked softly, some of the anger leaving her lovely face to be replaced by pleading. “I mean, the way you did when you…you know, healed my nipple?”
Terex felt a bolt of pure lust shoot through him when he remembered that—taking her taut peak between his lips…sucking and licking while she moaned and begged for more…
No, he told himself. You shouldn’t do it—shouldn’t risk it. You might go too far…
“Elaina,” he said in a low, controlled voice. “I can’t do that.”
“Why not?” She rose and let the heavy coat fall to her feet, revealing the Nixian outfit she’d been wearing all this time. Terex had seen it before, of course, but he hadn’t had much time to pay attention when he was rescuing her from the harem. Now he bit back a groan at what he saw.
Elaina was wearing a little red dress which was cut low—past her belly button—to reveal the rounded inner curves of her breasts. When she shifted, the top of the dress gaped open, revealing her perfect nipples, which were still a very dark pink, though no longer the red which had signaled her infection with the Need.
Terex couldn’t help noticing her nipples because she had weights on them—much like the ruby ones Krumf had sent her to wear the first night. These were gold, however—dangling golden charms that encircled her nipples and tugged at her tender peaks, making them look achy and hot. As though they needed to be sucked, whispered a voice in his head, but he pushed it away.
“Elaina,” he began but she wasn’t done yet.
Raising the short skirt of the deep red dress, she bared her inner thighs and revealed a tiny triangle of black which barely covered her smooth mound and pussy slit.
Are those supposed to be panties? he thought, his mouth suddenly dry with lust. Gods, they barely cover anything at all…
“Please, Terex,” she said softly, spreading her legs to show him the place where his initials were burned into her flesh. “Heal me. Make it better…it hurts.”
Terex struggled briefly with himself but it was a struggle he lost. He might have been able to turn down her other requests but he couldn’t ignore the pain in her soft voice or the look of need on her lovely face.
“All right,” he murmured hoarsely at last, unable to help himself. “I’ll heal you. But that’s all I’m going to do.”
“All right,” Elaina agreed. She spread her thighs a little wider, causing the tiny black triangle of her panties to tug lower, revealing the top of her pussy slit. “Where do you want me…Master?”
“Lie on the couch and spread your legs for me,” Terex ordered, frowning. He rose so she could lay down and pointed demandingly to the cushions he had vacated.
“Yes, Master.” Obediently, Elaina lay down on the large couch and spread her legs for him.
Terex nearly groaned when he saw how the new position opened her pussy as well, showing just the edge of her slippery pink inner folds which the little triangle of fabric was wholly inadequate to cover. He knew he ought to make her stop calling him Master, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to stop her. The way she addressed him brought back their time together on the Nixian home world and the way she had submitted to him so willingly, giving him everything he asked and more…
“Please, Master—it hurts,” she whispered softly and he realized he’d just been standing there looking at her, watching as she opened herself for him.
“Very well.” He dropped to his knees before her, kneeling beside the couch. Reaching under her thighs, he pulled her sharply towards him, making Elaina gasp, though she made no move to stop him or close her thighs.
Her pussy was already wet and hot—he could smell her sweet, feminine scent, enticing him from behind the tiny scrap of fabric which was supposed to cover her sex. Terex did his best to ignore it and turned his attention to the brand instead.
It was red and angry looking—the initials of his name raised on her flesh, very high on her inner thigh. The sight gave him shame all over again but he tried to push it away. Right now he had to concentrate on healing Elaina.
Letting his fangs come out, he ran the tip of his tongue over their sharp points, gathering some of his essence before leaning down to lap softly over the raised brand. Almost at once the redness and swelling faded, though the brand was still clearly visible on her skin.
“Mmm…Master! That feels better already,” she moaned softly, reaching down to thread her fingers through his hair.
Terex shivered at her gentle touch, his fangs aching to sink into her tender flesh and claim her, though he knew he should not.
Elaina seemed to know what he wanted.
“It could feel better, though,” she murmured, shifting on the couch a little. “If you, you know…bit me like you did at the Baths.”
“Biting leads to bonding,” Terex growled, knowing it was true. Already his shaft was achingly hard in his leather flight trousers and all he could think about was sinking balls deep in her tight, wet pussy while he drove his fangs into her unprotected throat and claimed her as his own.
“Not always,” Elaina protested. “It didn’t in the Baths.”
“Only because we were in public,” Terex informed her. “If I’d bitten you back at our room, I don’t know if I could have stopped.”
“But I don’t think it’s going to feel completely better until you bite me,” Elaina protested. “Unless…” She bit her lip, looking uncertain.
“Unless what?” Terex growled softly. “Say what you want, Elaina. After everything we’ve been through together, you don’t have to worry about offending me.”
“Well…you know how sometimes pleasure can help you forget about pain?” she murmured. “Like if something feels really good, you barely notice anyplace else you might be hurting.”
“What do you want?” Terex repeated. “Just say it.”
“You know how we, um, put on a show to get Krumf’s attention and, uh, get him to invite us into the Private Baths?” She was nibbling her lower lip
in that distractingly erotic way of hers, making Terex want her more than ever. “Remember how we did it?
“You want me to lick your pussy?” he asked bluntly, making her blush. “Is that what you’re asking for, Elaina? You want me to tear off these flimsy panties and lap your sweet little cunt until you come all over my face?”
“God!” Her eyes blazed and she shifted her hips as though she was so hot she couldn’t hold still. “I never said…I just meant maybe…maybe you could lick me just a little. Just on my…on my clit. It feels so achy, Master.”
Master. That title again…and all that went with it. Terex couldn’t help acknowledging that it turned him on—made him so fucking hard he ached. The implication that Elaina belonged to him—that she was his to punish and to pleasure, to heal and to hold—it roused the protective, possessive instincts in him like nothing else could.
It made him want her.
And she knows it, he realized. She knows what it does to me when she calls me that. Should make her stop… But somehow he couldn’t. Instead, he turned his attention to easing her pain.
“Very well,” he murmured, stroking her inner thigh. “Let me see if I can spread some of my healing essence to your clit, then, Elaina.”
“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, please Master.”
He couldn’t help himself any longer. With a hungry growl, he bit through the tiny strings holding the tiny black triangle in place and peeled it back from her soft pussy. The thin fabric was wet with her juices—juices he couldn’t wait to taste again.
“Hold still, now,” he commanded Elaina sternly. “My fangs are out and I don’t want to bite you accidentally.”
“Yes, Master.” Obediently, she stilled her restless hips. But then one small hand slipped down between her thighs and she spread her pussy lips for him, revealing the throbbing pink button at her center.
“Elaina?” He looked up at her, frowning at her extremely forward display.
“Just…helping you out.” Her cheeks were pink with embarrassment but she had a determined expression on her face. “Please, Master—make me feel better. Make me feel better by…by licking my pussy.”