Darach (13 page)

Ceithin was rock hard, as hard as he was. With a quick push of his own pants and an awkward shimmy,
finally
they pressed their dicks flesh to flesh. Ceithin
groan
ed low in his throat, breaking the kiss and moving to breathe
against
Darach
'
s throat, kissing the pulse there and then resting at the juncture of neck and shoulder. Blue Fire teased at Ceithin
'
s dick, touching with a tendril, and red was falling out of control, skimming Darach
'
s skin, dancing from his face to his lower belly
,
and the rhythm they set up was erotically charged.

"I want you," Ceithin whispered. Over and over, he breathed the words into Darach's skin. "I want to be inside you. I need you."

They wouldn't last long. Just the thought of Ceithin inside him, where no other man had been, taking him higher, reaching for his dick, breathing words of passion, tipped Darach over the edge. Orgasm and Fire boiled inside him, scarlet-tinged, violet at the core, blue teasing him, retreating, advancing, and then he couldn't stop himself. He was coming so hard he closed his eyes to the sensation, begging Ceithin to come with him, and only moments later feeling Ceithin's release on his bare belly where his shirt had ridden high. They moved a little while longer, each desiring touch more than anything.

"That was—" Darach wished he had Eoin's handle on poetry, or Kian's soft innocence, but all he had was the middle child feeling, offering nothing as a thank you.

"Intense," Ceithin offered, not with a smile but with genuine shock and surprise coloring his voice.

"Gods, what did we—" He still had no words.

Ceithin took pity on him, finally. He stole another kiss and then lifted his head with a smile. "I'm thinking you may be the one."

Violet shimmered around them. Darach agreed.

Chapter 9

They lay still on the soft earth for some time, staring up at the night sky, exchanging memories from childhood, learning more of each other. Darach was still serious, and Ceithin was still snarky and irreverent, but they were finding some common ground. Darach, for the first time since Eoin had died and Kian had left, was at peace. It was a nice feeling. Lying side by side turned to touching, which turned, quite nicely Darach thought, into more kissing. Ceithin had rolled so he was half lying on him, concentrating on the kissing, and both were hard from the instant their bodies had contact.

"My Fire—" Darach wasn't sure how to phrase what he wanted to say. He didn't want to come off as a girl, or some kind of idiot. Shyness crept up on him unaware, and he flushed under the cover of darkness.

"Your Fire?" Ceithin prompted, nuzzling with warm lips at Darach's chin and then nipping and kissing a path up to each eyelid.

"It's beautiful." There he had said it. "It's changed; it's not wholly blue—" Ceithin captured his lips in a deep kiss, and as Darach's tongue met and twined around his lover's, every other thought was swept away. All Darach could focus on was the desire for more, wanting to go further.

"It won't be the same," Ceithin whispered against heated skin. The hand he wasn't using to balance himself kept touching Darach's body from head to hip. "You are seeing what it would be like with scarlet for a while."

"
It
won
'
t stay?
"
Darach started at the instant,
verging on
childish, tone of his reaction, realizing
that
losing the warmth of red was
not
something he would ever want.

"It would if we bonded fully." Ceithin said this so matter-of-factly Darach didn't even see it for the question it was until suddenly, blindingly, he did.

"
Not if…
when
we bond
.
"
H
e had
never been so certain
of anything in his entire life.

"Darach, there is so much I need to tell you, we shouldn't bond, it will put you in danger—"

"Don't try to talk me out of it." Darach wasn't going to let Ceithin ruin things, but all Ceithin did was chuckle his stupid, annoying, sexy chuckle. "Doesn't matter what you say about the Cariad and City—"

Ceithin silenced his words with a kiss; deep, heated, eloquently expressing precisely what he wanted. "I don't have anything here." Ceithin's voice was tinged with regret, and it took Darach a minute to understand what Ceithin meant. When he did put two and two together, he went from blushing to resourceful in a second.

"Wait," he breathed, easing out from under Ceithin and rolling to his feet.

Ceithin lay where he had been pushed, pillowing his head on his hands and smiling up at Darach. "What?"

Darach ignored him, narrowing his eyes and casting a look around for what he needed
. He
finally locat
ed
the wide
leafed
plant
he
knew would provide an interim solution to their problem. He hesitated, giving himself time to think. The
idea
of bonding fully with
his
Cariad was overwhelming, and he had to focus to pull his Fire closer
and
rein
it
in. He looked back at Ceithin
,
who was lying there, so damn sexy, a look of confusion on his gorgeous face. Darach smiled
. H
e had put
that
expression on his lover
'
s face, and to have a moment where Ceithin couldn
'
t
control a situation was priceless.

He loved Ceithin. Pure and simple. In the short time they had been together, with the call of their Fires, he had fallen irrevocably in love with the Cariad.

He rummaged in the low undergrowth around the waterfall pool and pulled at the foliage he needed from the short-stemmed plant that loved the mists and water of the river. The leaves of the Aloan plant were thick and fleshy, pale green, and his Fire could feel the energy of the creamy moisture retained inside each leaf. Eyes glinting blue, a smile on his lips, he looked at Ceithin and cocked his head.

"You're so resourceful." Ceithin smirked as he rose to his feet and reached for Darach's free hand. Unhesitating, Ceithin led Darach along the edge of the river, following a narrow path near the bank. The path split near the falls, and Ceithin pointed to a spot behind the curtain of water.

A hollow in the stone had been carved by falling water. It wasn't really a cave but it was near enough. Water murmured as it cascaded, individual drops hissing and spattering, a mist fanning from the falls back into the recess.

Ceithin pulled Darach into his embrace and kissed him, tender and strong at the same time. "How can something so right be such a short time…" he murmured. Darach didn't understand his lover's words, but looked into Ceithin's eyes and saw the love there, he released his blue Fire to dance with Ceithin's scarlet.

Darach had never, ever felt more at home.

They slid to the floor, a tangle of hands and legs and laughter, a lot of laughter, which changed quickly into sighs and moans as they lost the course of time and joined as one. When Darach peaked, looking up into Ceithin's face, his lover buried deep inside, it was all he could do not to pass out. The Fires—violet, purple, sparking white—danced around them, inside them, and when Ceithin came inside him, words of love spilling from his kiss-bitten lips, for Darach the universe sat in complete balance.

* * * *

They held hands when they made their way back to the village, a slow walk from the waterfall through trees to the place Darach named aloud, as he had named silently before, home.

"So this is what bonding feels like," Ceithin began. "I wonder…" Ceithin started the conversation Darach knew they needed to have.

"Wonder what?"

"Wonder if the stories are true. About eternal connection, and love, and lust, about forever?" Ceithin asked the question and then squeezed Darach's hand.

"I hope so, although I bet your Cariad stories are better than mine." They walked on in silence, both lost in thought, and entered the village with fingers still entwined, fires lingering together.

Darach, less able to hear the sounds of footsteps, didn't register the approach of another person, but Ceithin did and slowed his pace, easing slightly in front of his lover, protecting him. Darach stepped clear, able to protect himself. His Fire snapped a bit under his skin, and Ceithin grinned at him.

"Ceithin." Brigid's voice barely cleared the distance between them and where she stood, waiting for them. Darach wondered if Ceithin would drop his grip. He didn't.

"Is everything okay?" Ceithin asked, and Darach sensed his unease.

Darach reached out to sense what Brigid was feeling. Fear, concern… What had happened?

"Father wants to see you."

Ceithin wrapped his left arm around Darach and nodded to his sister. No one spoke as they strode through the dark.

All too soon they stepped into the family cabin, where a fire burned brightly in the hearth and shadows chilled the rest of the room. Llewellyn glanced up from staring at the logs burning on their grate.

"He's coming here," Llewellyn stated simply. "Guardian has passed the wards." Brigid was crying, Ceithin stood with his mouth open, and Darach didn't know what to say. Guardian? The keeper of the amber Fire, the greatest Fire, and the leader of the Council, had crossed the wards safely and neared the village?

"Why?" Darach finally asked.

Ceithin released Darach gently and started pacing, the confines of the small front room curtailing his stride.

"It was only a matter of time," Llewellyn looked sad, "but no Guardian has ever approached the Cariad directly. We are normally called to appear on neutral ground."

"It's me." Ceithin seemed to push the words out. "My fault. I should never have…" He stopped in mid-step. He straightened his spine, an intense look of resolve on his face. "I'll go and meet him. If he wants me to appear before the Council for entering the City then I will."

"Wait—no!" Darach didn't even realize he had spoken, and when Ceithin turned to face him with an incredible sadness on his face, Darach wanted to plant himself between his lover and the door. "We don't need to see him; we can leave. You said I was strong enough."

"I won't have Guardian hurt my family, Darach."

"He is benevolent, Ceithin. If we go, he'll leave. He won't hurt your family." Darach had faith in the faceless Guardian.

"He is also the voice of the City and the maintainer of the laws. Someone has to pay, Darach. If it isn't me, then it could be Brigid."

"
What do mean
pay
?
W
hy does he want you?
"
Ceithin wouldn
'
t meet his gaze
.
"
S
omeone tell me.
"
Desperate, increasingly angry over the threat to his Bondmate, Darach looked from Ceithin to Brigid and then
to Llewellyn.

It was Llewellyn who began to speak, his tone calm and careful. "Centuries ago, when the Cariad moved away from the City, a pact was drawn up to assure our safety in this Valley and anywhere else we chose to live. A set of rules prescribed our interactions, and we vowed not to set foot in the City. When Ceithin went to seek out Trystyn, he broke the earliest law."

"No! That isn't right. He was just looking for his brother. What will they do to him? Ceithin!" Darach took Ceithin's hand and refused to release it.

"Someone has to answer for my actions, and I won't let anyone else answer for me." The dark grief in his eyes indicated Ceithin had closed himself off, his only passion, it seemed, reserved for the moment he threw himself on Guardian's mercy. Ice cold shivered through both of them, physically and emotionally, as Ceithin consciously attempted to separate them, his scarlet retreating reluctantly from Darach's thoughts. Pain sheeted where scarlet had been removed, pain so deep he wondered if he would ever feel normal again. Abruptly, Darach reached and stopped scarlet's ebbing and forced blue-white fire into their connection. He wasn't letting go!

Darach searched through his memories of Guardian, a benevolent presence in the City, keeper of the amber Fire. People in the City thought of their Guardian with awe but not fear. He was the magik, the one who dispensed justice, who kept the city at peace. Another thought crossed his mind. "Wait! You said he had passed through the outer wards. Is there nothing we can do to keep him from here?"

"No magik is strong enough to keep him out, Darach." Llewellyn sounded so damn calm. No, Darach realized a heartbeat later, not calm, resigned. Baffled by Ceithin's acceptance and his father's lack of response, Darach lost focus for a moment, and Ceithin released his hand, staggering a little when the sudden separation sent pain through him. The sharp shock snapped Darach out of his confusion.

Ceithin didn't stop to offer goodbyes. He simply opened the main door and stepped out into the dark. Darach didn't hesitate either, darting out after him before anyone could stop him. If Ceithin went to face Guardian, Darach would go to face Guardian with him. Separation from his Bondmate would kill him anyway. If he was going to die, he wanted to be at Ceithin's side, and he wanted it to be quick.

The night's blackness hit him hard, and for a second, he had to look to see where Ceithin had gone. His Fire snaked out into the shadows and slipped past Ceithin's defenses. He stood by the horses that grew skittish, startled by Darach's Fire. Darach stomped to him quickly and purposefully. He slid in between the horse and Ceithin.