Dangerous Lovers (192 page)

“Well, it doesn’t. How can that possibly make sense? I had no idea you were even the fucking king! For the love of God, someone help me knock some sense into this man! Ugh!” Liasare noticed her arms had begun to tingle so she started to rub her hands against them, and something caught the corner of her eye. Glancing down, she realized the tips of her fingers were glowing and turning a pale shade of violet.

“Oh, holy shit! What the hell is happening to me now?” she yelped as she extended her hands. Long thin bolts of violet light began to shoot out from the tips of her fingers.

In a soft, calm voice, Jurek suggested, “Sweetheart, close your hands very gently. Curl your fingers within your palms. That’s right. Don’t be afraid because it’s
your
power and it can’t hurt you, only others. It won’t hurt me either, because it recognizes me. Let’s test it. Give me your hand, love.”

“No! I don’t want to hurt you,” she cried.

“You won’t hurt me, love. I promise. That’s what I want to show you. It’s
my
power that’s within you. It will recognize me and will come to me if you hold out your hand. Please Liasare. Do this for me.”

She opened her hand and Jurek saw it quivering. The streaks of light shot forth, almost like they were searching for something. He held his hand out and the light headed straight for it and entered him. As it recognized him, Jurek’s power rose from him and met Liasare’s and the two streaks joined right above his palm, where they danced and merged as one.

“Oh my God! Aren’t they beautiful?” she asked in amazement. Their colors swirled within each of them, blue and green for him and violet and rose for her. Then the tendrils of power blended together, creating a masterpiece of indescribable beauty.

“Hold out your other hand,” Jurek told her. She did as he asked, and the second bolt of energy shot directly toward Jurek, hovering around him, waiting for him to offer himself to it. He finally held out his other hand and the second streak mimicked the first, doing a beautiful dance as their powers played together.

“Liasare, what do you feel?” he asked, his voice deep and husky.

“My arms tingle and it sort of tickles.”

Jurek turned his palms outward so they faced her and the power from him seemed to increase. She sucked in her breath at the sensation it began to create in her body. “Look at your markings now, love.”

She looked at her arms and her markings were nearly glowing. Instead of being black, they had taken on an iridescence, picking up blue, green and violet hues, shining bright as the stars in an inky sky.

“Gods, you’re so beautiful. This sharing of power ... we can do this sexually too. All over our bodies, Liasare.”

“Can I kiss you?” she whispered.

His voice raw with emotion, he answered, “Since when have you had to ask for permission?”

Still joined by their power, she touched her lips to his, and their energy erupted between them as they kissed. The current soared through their bodies, leaving them desperate with need for each other. She was naked and in his arms before she could even form the thought.

“Slowly, Liasare. I want you to see as much as feel this. It’s an amazing thing, much like the first time when you gave yourself to me. Everywhere our bodies meet, our power will be visible. It will waltz together, as if it has done this a thousand times before. See?” He motioned with his eyes and when she looked to where their torsos touched, light erupted between them, making them glow.

“Alaric...” and as soon as she said his name, his power flared all the brighter. “Whoa!”

“It’s obvious I like when you call me that,” he smiled. And then he said, “Liasare, I love you, with all my being.”

When the words left his lips, her energy filled the room with a brightness that nearly blinded them.

“Oops!” she laughed. “Alaric, I love you too. Will it always be like this, with our energy?”

“I suppose so. As long as we live.” He lifted her then and entered her, swiftly, without any hesitation, and their bodies became more alive than either of them ever thought possible. The sensations coursing through their veins, their nerve endings, every cell, were astounding. Their breaths mingled as every possible inch of them pressed against each other, wanting to merge themselves as much as physically and metaphysically possible.

“Liasare, open your eyes for me. I want you to look at me when we share our love like this. I want you to see what happens.” She did as he asked and was stunned by the exquisite beauty of his silver eyes and the color of their merged energy. Moments later as they climaxed together their power emerged from their bodies, surrounding them in its rainbow of colors until finally everything receded, leaving them breathless and damp with sweat.

Still joined, Jurek walked to the bed where he lay down and placed Liasare on top of him, unwilling to release her. She nestled her head into his neck, inhaling his spiciness, and tangled her fingers in his hair.

“I thought the first time we made love was the greatest moment of my life, but I’m going to have to move it down a notch. This was epic Alaric.”

Jurek shifted her so he could look at her. Smoothing her hair back and running his thumb across her lower lip, he said, “I have to tell you a thing or two. I will agree with you. I have always thought that making love with you was an extremely pleasurable act. This transcended everything I have ever experienced before. This was spectacular. Liasare, I am deeply in love with you.” He rolled over so he was on top of her. “I loved you from afar at first, and then, well, you know the rest. Today moved my soul, Liasare. You are a part of me. When you said my name, I could feel my energy surge from me, almost as if it wanted to hold you itself. And I
want
you to call me Alaric. It brought me such pleasure hearing my name roll off your tongue. But perhaps, only on special occasions, or behind closed doors. I’m afraid of what my reaction to your use of my name will be in front of others.” He laughed.

“Damn Alaric, for such a hard ass, you sure have become a softie.”

“Only where your heart is concerned, but Liasare, I can assure you there’s nothing soft about me,” he said as he started moving his hips.

She had to agree with him on that.

Chapter Thirty-Two

They were naked, sitting in bed facing each other and she was going over everything he had just told her.

“So what you’re telling me is that Apollyon, or The Destroyer is Abaddon and I’m the one that’s supposed to take him out, right?”

Jurek sliced his head up and down once.

“I’m outta here.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Liasare scraped her teeth across her bottom lip and bit it for a minute. “Do you remember when we first met and I acted like I was all brave and everything?”

“Yes, and I thought it was so sexy of you too.” He reached out to caress her breast, circling it with the pad of his thumb.

“If you keep that up, I’ll never tell you my story.”

“I find I can’t be near you without touching you, Liasare.”

“I understand,” she agreed, as her hand rested on the markings on his hip. “Well, I was shaking in my boots. Literally. I was scared to death. I pretty much have been since day one. Do you remember that night Tak found me outside the warehouse?”

“How could I forget? I was pleasantly surprised to see you again, but I didn’t want you to know that,” he confessed. He moved his hand from her breast and began brushing the backs of his fingers across her ribs.

“I was so scared, I didn’t even have the nerve to come inside. I had gotten chased, and I still don’t know how I lost those stinking Xanthians, but the only place I knew to run was back to you. You scared the crap out of me too. When I got back to the warehouse, I paced outside the door, too chicken to open it or to even knock. So I hid across the street, behind those trashcans, seriously frightened to death. For some reason, being that close to you made me feel safe. It was like you frightened the crap out of me, but made me feel safe at the same time. It confused the hell out of me. Anyway, then Tak found me and hauled my ass inside and you accused me of spying. I thought I was going to die.”

“I remember.” He cupped her face and was sliding his thumb back and forth across her cheek. “Your face looked as white as a sheet.”

“What I’m trying to tell you here is that I’m nothing but a chicken shit. I always have been, ever since all the kids made fun of me when I was a bundle of scars. I’ve tried to put on a brave face, but it’s nothing but a facade. Hell, why do you think my language is so nasty? That’s all part of my facade too. I don’t have what it takes to do this. I’m nothing but a clump of nerves as it is, but being expected to kill Satan, or whoever the hell he is, is way out of my league.” She clutched her hands together, trying not to look like the huge ninny she knew she was, but it was too late. Jurek had already seen her hands trembling.

He gave her a long hard look and then asked, “Do you think I’d send you in there alone or expect you to do this by yourself? You’ll have a team of Praestani at your disposal, including myself. I’ll not let anything happen to you.”

“We’re talking about the anti-Christ here Jurek. Get real. How strong is this dude? We need God and his army of archangels or something like that! Not a team of Praestani. No offense, but we’re not enough,” she argued.

“Okay. First things first. I need to teach you mind control. That’s our priority now. Once you have that mastered, we can move around freely, without worrying about Mr. A showing up and trancing you into following him in your sleep. He’s nothing but a mindfuck anyway.”

Liasare flew out of the bed and jumped up and down doing some sort of a jig.

“What the hell’s wrong with you?” Jurek wanted to know, chuckling. “I didn’t think you liked to dance.”

“I didn’t think you had a sense of humor,” she sassed. “I just remembered something,” she shouted as she slapped herself in the head. “Ouch! That hurt!” She hit herself a little too hard.

He rolled his eyes. “So what did you remember?”

“My dream. He came again and tried to get me, but I pushed him and the monsters away.”

“Good girl! How’d you do it?”

So she explained in detail and concluded with finding Jurek on the floor. He coaxed her into trying it again, but this time in her mind. The block for her, it seemed, didn’t come in the form of a window shade. It came as a fence or a shield. She had to imagine pushing it out with her hands and it seemed to work that way. They practiced for several hours, until her head started to pound.

“Tomorrow, we’ll try this with the others. We’ll see if Tak, Ludo and Marik can get to your thoughts. Liasare, I’m going to tell them to put you through an endurance test of the mind. You won’t like it and your head will be throbbing at the end of each day. We’re going to do this for at least three days. Then I’ll bring in Naroo. She’s an expert in mind control. When you can block Naroo, I’ll feel comfortable in going back to the way things were, but not until then. Okay?”

Liasare nodded, although she was not looking forward to it.

***

As promised, the next three days were torture. Tak was especially brutal. For some reason, their relationship had deteriorated to the point of open hostility. Everyone noticed it. When Jurek questioned her about it, she shrugged it off and wouldn’t give him a clear response. Tak did the same when Jurek questioned him.

There hadn’t been any opportunity for Liasare to question Tak, but she fully intended to find out what was going on in that mind of his. The following day, Tak, Ludo and Marik put her through the steps again. Her mind felt like it was stretched, pulled, torn, shredded and everything in between. At the end of the day, she crawled into bed with a cold cloth on her pounding skull. She didn’t even want to converse with Jurek.

He brought her a tray of food and she tried to refuse to eat.

“Liasare, I’ll force you to eat if you don’t do this on your own. Your strength is extremely important and you can’t afford to skip any meals. So what’s it going to be?”

She ate, albeit begrudgingly. After the first few bites, her appetite soared and she felt so much better when she finished. She sheepishly thanked Jurek, and actually had the decency to blush. He grinned and preened like a silly peacock.

Men! Can’t they ever be humble?

Two days later Naroo made her appearance. Under any other circumstance, Liasare would have been overjoyed to see her. Today, however, she was shaking like a stupid leaf flapping in the wind. She tried not to show her nervousness, but it was no use. Tak made several snide remarks, which she chose to ignore. That was unusual, but her anxiety level was sky high and her heart was hammering so loudly, she couldn’t think clearly enough to come up with an adequate riposte.

Once Naroo began, she understood what Jurek had been talking about. She was powerful. Liasare’s mind felt raped and pillaged when they’d finished. She was certain every secret, every emotion she had safely locked away in her box of unshared memories had been discovered by Naroo. Her mind felt like it had been flayed, dissected and left open to bleed to death.