Burn the Night (15 page)

To my surprise, Rowe continued to stare at me with his piercing gaze roaming over my face. “I always suspected that I married the wrong sister.”

I tried to form the words that Cynnia would have been a wise choice, but the words grew stuck in my throat because I knew without a doubt that he was talking about me. I knew by the softened gaze and his hand lingering on my face. Also through the infusion of power from the earth that I had given him, he now fully knew my feelings for him.

“You look at me with the same compassion in your eyes that you always have. You don’t see the monster that I’ve become. You don’t treat me like an outcast like the rest of our kind.”

“Because you’re not,” I argued, cupping his cheeks with both of my hands. “All I see is a man who has sacrificed more for us than anyone else. You only wear the scars to prove the trials you’ve been through.”

“And you wear your scars on the inside. We are a pair.”

Rowe pulled my face closer to his and kissed me gently on the lips. My eyes fell closed, basking in the feeling of being touched by another; to feel such warmth and intensity toward another creature was new to me. No naturi had ever touched me in such a way. They had used weapons to hurt, but I’d never been touched with compassion and what could only feel like love.

Threading his fingers through my hair, Rowe pulled me tighter against him, deepening the kiss.

My hands slid from his cheeks to his chest as his tongue slipped into my mouth, tasting me. I moaned against his mouth, enjoying the feel of his warm chest pressed against mine. I traced his scars with one hand, trailing from his shoulder down to the top of his pants.

Rowe gave a soft chuckle as he slid his mouth away from mine and down my neck to my shoulder. “You taste sweeter than honey and your hands are driving me more than a little mad.”

“Should I stop?” I whispered, stilling my hands where they rested on the sides of his stomach.

“I don’t think there is any stopping now. We owe each other this after so many years,” he admitted. “You’re not the only one who has been watching from afar, admiring but remaining silent.” This time I leaned in and pressed my lips to his mouth, kissing him deeply. We had done our duty to our people. We were owed this moment, no matter how brief it might be. Without breaking the kiss, Rowe scooped me up in his arms and carried me out of the stream to gently lay me down on the soft earth of the bank. He pulled back and looked at me laying beneath him in the pale moonlight. My black wings were thrown out to either side, like two dark glistening sheaths of night, while my pale white body shone like a grounded star. A small sharp pain intruded into the moment from my wounded wing, but I paid it little heed as I focused on him.

“I’ve watched you grow as a warrior,” he said. “I’ve admired your determination and your strength, but I never for a second expected you to be so beautiful.” Kneeling beside me, careful so his knee did not crush any of the feathers on my wings, he drew his hands slowly over my naked body. His fingertips danced over my thin waist and cupped my breasts, drawing a soft moan out of me as my back arched.

Rowe pulled away from me for a second to remove the last of his clothes and then gently spread my legs so he could kneel between them. My heart pounded in my chest as a mixture of fear and longing raced through my veins. I had never been with a man. I wanted his touch more than I wanted my next breath, and yet at the same time I feared what was about to happen. What if I couldn’t perform as he hoped? What if I disappointed him? What if . . .

Everything will be fine
. There was a slight chuckle of amusement lacing his words, but there was also warmth and concern.

His hands resumed their roaming on my body, but this time there was a new sense of urgency.

His mouth followed close behind his fingers, washing my body in a series of long wet kisses that left behind a trail of fires. My legs shifted around his waist, pulling him closer to me. His hand finally dipped between my legs as one of his fingers slid deep inside me, wringing a low moan from me in the sound of his name. My body writhed beneath him as he moved his finger slowly in and out of my body.

“I’m trying to take this slowly for you, Nyx, but you’re breaking what little willpower I have,” he said in a rough voice.

In response, I reached out with one hand and slid it down his body until I finally reached his hardened member. My fingertips grazed the tip and his whole body jerked between my legs.

Yes,
he hissed in my mind with near desperation.

Rowe put his free hand beside my head, moving his body closer to me so I could more easily reach him. I wrapped my fingers around him, slowly stroking him, drawing a low groan out of him that seemed pulled from his very soul. He was rock hard within my hand and yet the skin was velvety soft.

None of his scars reached past his waist, leaving him perfect, but only for me to see.

“I can’t wait any longer,” he moaned as he once again shifted his position between my legs.

Grabbing both my wrists, he held them over my head as he slowly guided his body toward the entrance of mine. He pressed slowly inside and then pulled out again, bringing a whimper of need from my throat. I didn’t want slow. I wanted him inside of me. I needed this feeling of desperation to be squashed and his body deep inside of mine.

“Rowe,” I moaned, shifting beneath him in an attempt to press more of him inside of my body.

“You’re going to be the death of me,” he groaned before plunging deep inside me. There was a flash of pain as my body struggled to expand enough to accommodate his size. He paused, unmoving inside me, as he leaned down and kissed me. His tongue swept through my mouth until I was moaning again. It was only then that he started moving, sending the first waves of pleasure through my body.

“Release my hands,” I pleaded, squirming beneath him as I raised my hips to meet each of his thrusts. It took me only a second to catch his rhythm, driving a fresh moan from his body.

Rowe forced out a chuckle and shook his head, sending his long black hair cascading around his face. “If you start touching me, I’ll lose what little control I do have.”

“I need to touch you, Rowe.” My breathing grew heavier and my eyes closed as I concentrated on the feeling building between my legs. “Rowe?” I said in a fractured voice.

“Just let it come,” he whispered in a husky voice. At the same time, he picked up his speed, pounding inside of me a little harder. He released my wrists and let his hands sweep down my flushed body. Each touch only added to the feeling, until the dam finally seemed to break. A scream was ripped from my throat and my body arched beneath him. Muscles clenched around him as he slid in and out of me, sending fresh waves of pleasure through my frame.

As the last ripples of pleasure ran through my frame, Rowe let out a low groan. I could feel him expanding within me before he finally exploded with a gush. He fell forward, his hands on either side of my head as he finally grew still inside me. His breathing was heavy and a bead of sweat trickled down from his temple. A slow grin grew across his face as he leaned down and pressed a slow kiss against my lips.

“So that’s what sex is like,” I murmured, feeling completely relaxed.

“You haven’t been missing much,” Rowe teased, kissing me again before slowly pulling his body out of mine.

I sat up as he sat beside me, flexing my wings. The pain was gone from my right wing completely, allowing me to slowly and carefully dissolve them into a fine black dust. I reached across and touched his arm with my fingers, drawing him out of thought. I wasn’t sure what this meant between us, if things had changed forever or if this had simply been a release of built-up tension.

“Things are different,” he admitted.

“Do you just live in my thoughts?” I demanded, pinching his arm.

A crooked smile lifted his lips as he looked over at me. “That time I wasn’t in your mind. It was just a guess because I was wondering the same thing. Things are different between us now. I’m not sure what’s going to happen, but I do know that I’m not going to let you out of my sight. Unfortunately, for now, we have a new duty before us.”

“Cynnia,” I murmured.

“And the defeat of Aurora. We can’t be free until Aurora is gone.”

“I know. You’re right.”

Rowe reached over and took my chin between two fingers, turning my face toward him. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t steal a few moments to ourselves when we can.” I smiled as I leaned in and pressed another kiss to his lips, my fingers straying across the scars that crisscrossed his beautiful face. The Fire Starter was right. There was something evil about this one-eyed naturi, but I welcomed that sinister grin and his nimble fingers.

W
e finished dressing but lingered by the side of the stream, watching fractured bits of moonlight dance across the water as it splashed within its banks. We talked softly of our time apart, of the years that had passed, separated on two different worlds. Unfortunately, there was one reoccurring thought eating at my mind. I was reluctant to bring it up and spoil our companionable moment but afraid that it had a bearing on what we faced.

“What happened to Nerian?” I found myself softly asking when a long silence settled between us.

“The Fire Starter killed him.”

“I know how he died, but I am more concerned with how my brother lived. I spoke with a couple survivors of the first trip to Machu Picchu those many years ago. They told me how Nerian tortured Mira, and deep in my heart I can’t fault her for wanting revenge.”

“If you’re going to pity Mira, then you should know that Nerian wasn’t alone in her torture,” Rowe stiffly said, looking over at me with a stern expression. “We needed her to be our protection when the nightwalkers came. And as it turns out, we needed her more when it came to opening the door.”

“I know about your role in Mira’s torture as well,” I replied in a soothing voice. “You and I are no different in the duties we’ve had to fulfill during our long lives. However, the others spoke of the twisted joy that Nerian took in Mira’s torture.”

Rowe heaved a heavy sigh and his shoulders seemed to slump under a new weight. “I know where you are going with this, and I have to admit that your suspicions are correct. Nerian had gone mad. At first I thought it was just an obsession with the Fire Starter and getting her to do exactly as he commanded. I thought it was just a need to break something that he perceived as weaker than him. But even after our defeat at Machu Picchu and we became more concerned with simple survival, his obsession never waned. In the last years that I knew him, he no longer followed orders; he mumbled constantly to himself and accused others of helping Mira to escape him. I was finally forced to banish him from the rest of the group that remained under my command before he killed someone.” Pulling my knees up to my chest, I rested my chin on them while wrapping my arms around my legs. “During the brief time that I knew him before the wars, I could see flickers of moments where I knew his thoughts were in a dangerous place. He looked at Aurora with envy and I heard him utter traitorous words about our father. I think if he had remained with the royal family, he would have tried to kill Aurora in an effort to steal the throne.”

“It is a possibility,” Rowe said, slowly scratching his jaw.

“And now I’m only left to wonder,” I sighed, letting my eyes fall shut.

“Wonder what?”

“Has the same madness that struck down my older brother come to claim my sister as well?

During the past century, Aurora has come to see conspiracy against her around every corner. People were killed by me in the name of treason, and there are some that I struggle to believe would harbor a single treasonous act against her. And then she turned on Cynnia, who wanted nothing more than to find a peaceful solution instead of pursuing a route that will ultimately lead to our extinction.”

“She also turned against you, her one and only true champion through it all,” Rowe added.

“Is this madness that is eating away at her brain? She was always a cold, distant person, but in the past years I’ve seen her act in the name of sheer cruelty. Has the same madness that afflicted Nerian taken hold of my sister?”

Rowe reached out and ran his hand down my back in a soothing caress, wiping away some of the tension that seemed to be growing in my shoulders. “Aurora is not the woman I remember or the person I agreed to be consort to. She is power hungry and obsessed. While I have no love for the humans, you are right that she will lead our people to extinction if she continues this course of action.

She’s not thinking clearly.”

Rowe paused abruptly, and I lifted my head to look over at him. He was staring into the woods but I don’t think he was actually seeing the world around him. Without reading his thoughts, I could feel the pain of him reviewing that night on Machu Picchu when his wife-queen rejected him despite everything he had done for her. I could feel the heavy weight of that rejection and his own self-doubt over his appearance, though he hid both very well from the world around him with a thick veil of confidence and sarcasm.

“I think you’re right,” he whispered, still not looking at me. “I think she has gone mad.” Reaching up, I placed my hand against his cheek, startling him back to look at me again. “Then we have to stop her. We have to protect what is left of our people before she kills us all.” A crooked smile crossed his lips and then he turned his face and pressed a kiss into the palm of my hand. “I may not agree with the idea of giving the throne to someone as inexperienced as Cynnia, but she will be better than the madness of Aurora.”

“I wouldn’t worry about Cynnia,” I said with a smile. “She may be young and inexperienced, but she will have us as counsel at her side during her first few years. I feel confident that between the three of us, we will find a way to rejuvenate our people.”

“And what of her new consort Locke?” Rowe asked, arching one brow at me.

“I am hoping that he proves to be more than just eye candy for Cynnia.” Rowe lunged at me, knocking me on my back while grabbing my wrists with both of his hands so he could properly hold me down. “Eye candy? Where would you learn such a phrase as that?” A soft giggle escaped me as I stopped struggling against him. “Cynnia has made a friend with a human witch. I overheard them talking and they used the word eye candy when referring to the man Cynnia has chosen to be her consort.”