Burned (3 page)

Queen Dubheasa stepped forward until her breasts brushed his chest. Aldric straightened to his full six-foot six frame, bowing his head so that he hovered over the sidhe’s slender form. The puckered flesh of her nipples tickled his chest as she turned her body ever so slowly against him. The sensation sent tiny sparks of pleasure over his skin and he smiled his approval. Her dress was not just decorated in shadows—it was made of them.

He let his gaze travel down her body as his hands danced just over the illusion of her gown. He wondered what it would be like to plunge his hands into the queen’s dress, to feel her slender naked body under his palms even as her voluminous skirt of shadows billowed around him. It had been so long since he’d had a woman climb willingly into his lap, had a female give herself over to him without any domination, any breaking of her will. Dubheasa seemed so willing . . .

Desire curled in his belly, awakening his flesh until he stood hard and firm against her belly. He fed the rush of pleasure with images of the beautiful queen of the Unseelie writhing in his lap, her pale hands dragging blood tipped nails down his chest as he warmed the chill of his body deep in the wet depths of her pussy. If not for the image of his true goal burning like a branding iron in his mind, he may have turned his efforts to the monarch before him.

“Oh, my,” the queen murmured. She lowered one hand to caress the stiff length of him, reaching up with the other to stroke his cheek. The friction of her nails grating against his cock sent sparks of pleasure along his flesh. He allowed the heat in his eyes to shine as he looked at her, letting her see the effect she had on him without making a verbal offer. Dubheasa smiled.

“Such a gleam in your eyes, Aldric. You tempt me to take what is offered in that look.”

She stepped back, her skirt swaying around her and drawing his eyes over her body again. “Enough play. Let us proceed to your true goal.”

The abrupt shift in her thinking nearly took him off guard. The pisky had warned him that the Queen of the Unseelie was known for following whatever urge took her mind from moment to moment, but he had expected a monarch to have an attention span slightly longer than a gnat’s. Aldric kept his face blank as he beckoned his men to follow him as he trailed after the queen. Every sense sharpened as they moved, wary of any other surprises that may leap from behind a blood red curtain.

“When you finish here, do not forget your promise to the poor little pisky,” the queen spoke up suddenly. She continued walking without pause. “No matter what excitement may follow your visit, you must keep your word.”

Aldric’s steps faltered as cold shock cracked over his spine. His men halted behind him as he stopped and stared at the queen. She didn’t glance back, didn’t continue to speak. She didn’t give him a single clue as to how she’d known of his prisoner.

Alarm bells went off in his head and his hand swept behind him to his long braid of hair. It would take him only seconds to rip the iron bar from it’s plaited prison, though he had no idea how he and his men would escape even if he could subdue the queen. Cold resolve stiffened his muscles and he forced a calm over his body. He returned his hand to his side. Rash behavior was never rewarded.

“Your majesty?” he asked calmly. “To what pisky do you refer?”

The queen spun around, a smile splitting her face like a demented jack o’ lantern. “Why the one you’ve got buried in your little iron cage, of course.” She frowned. “I don’t recall his name. He’s not one of my subjects after all, the piskies belong to Tatania’s horde.”

Behind him, he could feel the currents of air shifting as his men fanned out ever so slightly. It took all his self control not to reach behind him again for the iron bar.

“Oh, Aldric, calm yourself. I could care less if you imprison a pisky. And it doesn’t bother me in the slightest that you inquired so vigorously about me and my court. Why, I should have done the very same thing in your position.”

“It seems I was not as vigorous in my inquisition as I believed,” Aldric said slowly.

“Oh, no, you were quite enthusiastic,” the queen assured him. “He just assumed you knew my title. I’m sure it never occurred to him to spell it out for you.”

“The Queen of Air and Darkness? Is that the title to which you refer?” As much as he hated admitting ignorance, playing it cool would only put off the inevitable. He needed to know right now what it was he had missed. Before he went any further into the belly of the Unseelie sithen.

“That is the one,” the queen nodded. She smiled. “Poor Aldric. How were you to know that every word spoken into the soft embrace of the darkness is mine to hear as I will it?” She chuckled. “Even if you had known, what are you to do about it? You’re a vampire, your options are dreadfully limited in that area.” She scowled. “Not like Tatania.”

The circle of her thoughts led him in a dizzying dance. Aldric couldn’t be certain, but it seemed as if Dubheasa was toying with him for amusement’s sake. There didn’t seem to be much threat in her at all.

“Tatania, the queen of Light and Illusion?” he asked politely, gauging the queen’s reaction.

“Light and Illusion,” the queen echoed, rolling her eyes. “Yes, yes. Everything around her is full of light. Not a single shadow to carry a whisper.” Yearning filled her eyes for a moment. “Oh, what I would have given to see her face when Oberon turned his attentions to Saule. It was delicious enough to see her expression when she called to offer Saule to me for punishment. She looked so delightfully enraged!”

Her laughter bounced off the walls and Aldric stepped back toward his men. He had always hated monarchs, and now he remembered why.
Bloody insanity
.

“She is beautiful, I’ll give her that,” the queen continued. “Of course what do you expect? She is a sun goddess after all. Even in human form one wouldn’t expect less than radiant beauty from a sun goddess, yes?”

Cold hatred sent painful splinters of ice prickling through his veins. “One wouldn’t expect much
more
than beauty from a sun goddess.”

Queen Dubheasa raised her eyebrows. “Such venom in your voice. What did the goddess do to earn such poison?”

“Nothing,” Aldric said bitterly, not bothering to hide the truth from the inquisitive queen. “She did nothing when it mattered most.”

“Is that why you raped her daughter?”

Aldric hissed. “I raped no one. Valkyrine submitted to me willingly.”

“After you kidnapped her and held her against her will for several full moons,” the queen pointed out. “I dare say anyone’s will could have been broken under the . . . attentions you lavished on her. Incidentally, what made you turn your vengeance to seduction? That’s quite an unusual punishment, I’m curious as to what made you think of it?”

Aldric brushed off the pang of regret that stabbed at his heart. The past rose like a ghost in his mind, reminding him ever so briefly of who he used to be. “As a human, I was a loyal follower of Saule. I held myself back from the pleasures of the flesh, dedicating myself completely to her service.” Cold anger swirled through his veins, chilling the pain that threatened to close his throat. “My years of complete dedication meant nothing to her. My self-denial meant nothing.” He turned his head to face the queen, only half seeing her through the shade of the past. “What better revenge than to compensate for those years of lying alone in a cold bed than to warm my sheets with the warmth of her daughter’s golden body?”

A brush of fingertips on his erection startled him out of his daze. He stared at the queen as she caressed his hardening manhood. He had allowed himself to get too wrapped up in thoughts of sweet revenge. The queen had startled him with a caress, but it could just as easily have been a stake to his chest. Such mistakes were unforgivable—his emotions would get him killed if he continued to let them run roughshod over him.

Steeling himself all over again, Aldric refocused his attention on the queen. Just because the female he wanted waited for him in the bowels of the sithen, didn’t mean he could afford to take his focus off the female currently running a fingernail over his erection.

“It seems answering my little question has left you in the perfect mood to meet your fair lady.” She whirled around. “Come. This is a show I must see.”

Before Aldric could process her most recent change in direction, the queen walked up to yet another red curtain a mere ten yards away.

“Don’t be shy, Aldric.” She gestured toward the curtained alcove. “Pull aside the curtain and meet the entertainment that you have been so eager to find.”

A soft clink of metal from behind the curtain rang in his ears, drawing his attention to the thick red material. The picture he’d received with the queen’s invitation floated back into his mind. Saule. In chains. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. Half the work was done for him. Moving with all the severity of the grave, he stepped forward and pulled it aside.

Saule raised her head as he stepped inside. If he’d had breath in his body, it would have left him at the sight of her. Long hair fell in golden waves nearly to her ankles, the light from the wall torches glistening like tiny fires in the twisted curls of her locks. Her pale yellow flesh was bared to the room, without a scrap of clothing to hide her delicately curved form. Her arms stretched over her head, held in place by silver chains that sparkled like starlight. Her legs were spread, chained to the floor to keep her that way. Open, vulnerable . . . inviting.

Anton, Kurt, Vincentas, and Bron filed into the room behind him, spreading out like proper body guards. Despite their dedication to his protection, he could sense their gazes being pulled toward the woman on display in the center of the room. He couldn’t fault them for their distraction. Her beauty was rapturous, even in her human form. She had a face that inspired love, inspired faith. It was a face to be worshipped. And now it was his to do with as he pleased.

“Did you wait all these years just to have it over in an instant? If you kill her here, her mortal form will die, but her spirit will merely return to the heavens where it belongs.”

The queen’s voice pricked at his ears, distracting him like the buzzing of a particularly annoying insect. Aldric startled as he realized he was standing before Saule, the sun goddess’ throat caught in his hands. He didn’t even remember moving. His eyes widened as she struggled to swallow past the death grip he had around her neck. Her crystal blue eyes sparkled as she stared at him, a strange combination of surprise and dismay in their icy depths. Tremors ran through his fingers as he ever so gently released her.

A thousand emotions swirled inside him with the energy of a wild vortex. All the anger, all the despair, all the hatred that he had kept under tight control for the past two centuries pulsed through his muscles, urging him to reclaim her throat and squeeze it until her blood christened his arms and her lifeless flesh sagged to the earthen floor of the Unseelie chamber.

He stepped back reining in his temper. The queen was right—he had waited too long for it to be over so soon.

“Saule?” he said softly.

She swept her gaze over him as if she was sizing him up, contemplating him like doctor examined a wound. Her gaze bored into his and for a split second he could have sworn he saw something akin to regret in her face. A moment later the emotion vanished, and he found himself once again looking at a deity in mortal skin, haughty and distanced. She straightened her spine until she stood at a full five foot ten.

“You know who I am, Aldric,” she said evenly.

He searched her face for some sign of fear or panic. Even hatred would have been expected. But she just stared at him, cold and seemingly detached from her surroundings. She managed more dignity, nude and spread out in chains, than some people did in full battle armor. His hands curled into fists. He didn’t want her calm. He wanted to see panic before he tamed her. He wanted her to feel the anger and desperation he’d felt when she betrayed him.

“You remember my name.”

“Of course. It has been many years since I’ve seen your face, centuries since you turned away from the light to live in eternal darkness, but I do not forget my people.”

Hot anger exploded inside him like lava from the depths of a volcano. He surged forward and grabbed her chin in his hand, forcing her to meet his eyes. A little sound of pain escaped her throat, reminding him in the nick of time to ease his grip lest he break her jaw. He dragged his hand away from her face, struggling to control his temper.

“You gave up the right to call them your people when you left them to die at the Russians’ hands,” he hissed.

“Still blaming me for that, are you, Aldric? You were my priest for so long. Have you forgotten that I am forbidden from interfering in the fates of humans?”