Elam (6 page)

“Yes. Oh yes, please. All of you.” When he slid into her, closing his eyes against the onslaught of pleasure, she wrapped her legs around him tight enough that with each of his strokes, she moaned. “Elam, I’m coming. Oh yes, I’m coming.”

He pounded her through her climax, his own body so close that he hurt with it. And when she bit down on his shoulder, he cried out, his entire body bowing back almost double as he came as hard as he’d ever come before in his entire life.

“Elam?” He looked at her, standing there before him now, and tried to get the urge to take her against the closest hard surface that he could find out of his mind. When she took a step back from him, Elam wasn’t sure what he was going to do, but he stood up and moved toward her. “Don’t touch me.”

“I didn’t hurt you.” She said she knew that, but didn’t want him to touch her. “Why not? Am I suddenly not good enough for you? You only want me when we’re behind closed doors where no one can figure out that we’re fucking? Or have you finally had your fill of me? Are you moving on to some other sap?”

He didn’t know why he’d said that, but the slap to his face made him feel justified for some reason, and when he lashed out at her again, she turned and left. Then she just disappeared. As he sat back down, not sure what the fuck had just happened, Asher jerked him up from the rock and knocked him back on his ass with his fist. Within seconds, it was a free for all, and they were all fighting like animals.

The shrill whistle had him stop in mid punch to Gideon. Asher had Simeon down and was beating the shit out of him, and the rest of them were fairing no better. But they all stopped and stared at Essie when she whistled again.

“Now, we’re going to be grown adults about this.” Asher growled low, and Essie turned to him. “Did you not understand me? I said that we’re going to be adults. Let him go.”

“He hit me.”

She took a step toward Asher, and he let Simeon drop to the ground. The dragons, all of them, had been fighting as well, but they’d taken it to the sky and were landing now. Essie, their queen, had spoken. His dad was sitting on the same stone he’d been on, but he was smiling, not arguing with anyone.

“As I was saying. Would someone like to tell me what the fuck is going on? You have been snapping and biting at one another for two days, and I will not stand for it any longer.” No one moved, but it did occur to Elam that he’d been short with everyone, not just Ariannona. “I’m waiting.”

“Since she’s been here.” Everyone turned and looked at him and he felt stupid. “What I meant was, since Ariannona got here, I’ve not been able to be in the room with anyone but her without wanting to rip some throats out.”

“I noticed that too. Not just on Elam here, but all of you.” His dad looked at him. “But you and Casdon, you got no problem with your mate. Asher? Jed? You mad at your mates too?”

“No. Just...everything about these guys makes me want to...hurt them.” His dad nodded and looked at Essie, asking her if she was mad all the time too.

“No. I’m pissed off because this shit is going on, but I’m not wanting to kill anyone.”

Elam sat down on the ground and felt sick to his stomach. It was profound, the feeling, like he was going to puke and turn his belly out while doing it. When he felt a cool hand on his face, he put his hand over it and knew it was Ariannona.

“What are you doing to us?” She stepped back from him as if he’d slapped her. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, and it’s only been since you’ve been here. It has to be you. You’re doing this.”

“You think I’ve put some sort of spell on you or something? That I’ve come here to kill you off?” He nodded, then leaned over and did empty his gut. When he rolled to his back, she was on his chest then and holding his head with her hands. “Look at me.”

“I’m sick.” She said that she knew that. “I can’t...what’s wrong with me? I feel like I’m dying.”

“You are.” As he rolled to his side again, knocking her off, he felt like he was throwing up all the way from his toes. And when he glanced up, he saw that Casdon was sick too, his dragon lying on the grass with his brothers all around him.

Elam closed his eyes only to have someone yelling at him to open them. It was Ariannona again, but she was so out of focus for him that he was sick all over. Twice she screamed at him to wake, and both times he couldn’t do it without a great deal of effort. Finally, he gave up and let his body slip away.

Chills, then fire, racked his body. One minute he was so cold that he was sure he’d been put in the freezer. The next he was so hot that he asked if Casdon was trying to kill him. At least he thought he had. His mind was as fuzzy as his body hurt.

People came and went in his vision. His mom, then dad was there. Someone was holding his hand. Then another time he was being dangled from one of the dragon’s claws. He felt his skin crawl with bugs, flaying his skin off him as they ate their way to his heart. He heard someone saying his name, but he shied away from it, knowing that danger was there for him.

“Elam.” He looked then, his body so weak that he could no longer shiver. His head was sick with trying to think, and he knew that he was as close to dying as he’d ever been. “Elam, can you hear me?”

“Yes.” He felt the pain in his throat, like a torch had been set to it and was still burning brightly. “I hurt.”

“I know you do. I’m trying to fix it.” He nodded once, then stopped. It was too hard to move, much less be sick again because of it. “Do you know who I am? Can you see me?”

“Mom.” He had no idea why he knew it was her, but he felt a little better knowing that she was coming for him at his death. “I’m so sorry about the cookie jar. I wanted to replace it, but you got sick.”

“I did. But I knew that you’d had help in breaking it.” He nodded again and felt his belly burn again. “Don’t move. I’m looking you over. My goodness, child, why are you still alive? Just die already.”

That made him stop and think; even through the pain he knew that wasn’t right. He wanted to ask her if she thought him ready to pass over, but he felt her touch on his skin and pulled away from it. When he opened his eyes, even for the briefest of moments, he saw Ariannona there.

“That was you. You made me think that my mother would say that I should just die.” She shook her head and he could see the tears on her face. “She’s looking me over and said I should die already. But it wasn’t her. It was you. All this time, it was you.”

He closed his eyes again and felt another touch to his brow. Cold and hateful, Elam tried to get away from it. On some level he knew that he was hurting someone, and he thought that it might be someone important to him. But he was sick again and tried to shut the pain off by letting himself slip away. The next time he woke he was being tied down, or so his fevered mind thought.

Elam lashed out at the person trying to hold him. He had no idea what they thought they were doing, and he wanted to tell them to just let him die. His magic was useless now. He was too weak to call on it, and even if he did have the ability to, he had no idea what he was supposed to do.

“Elam?”

He didn’t answer the voice this time. He knew that whoever it was, they were not going to be helping him. He was tired. Too tired to think any more. As he drifted off, he heard a voice, low and full of authority.

“Elam Benson, you’ll pay attention to me right now.” The king. Elam had no clue how he’d known who it was, but he was sure that it was the old king. “You going to let my son die too? You want your mate to be alone? You cannot die, do you hear me? A great deal is depending on the two of you getting better.”

“I’m sick and no one cares.” The king laughed and Elam asked him why that was funny. “You have been here, lying about in this, for five days now, and no one has left your side but for moments. No one cares, my foot. Get up from this pity party.”

A peace came over him. The touch to his face was no longer scary but comforting. As he let his body go, not in death as he’d wished for but in sleep, he wondered if Casdon was getting better too.

“You hurt her. You’ll have to fix this if you wish to move on in this world.” He said he didn’t want anyone in his life; it was fine the way it was. “And having no children is fine with you? Not having someone to love you and Casdon, no matter what, that’s good as well? You’ll live a very sorry, sad life, Elam, if you do not get your head out of your ass.”

Chapter 5

Ariannona adjusted herself on the chair again. There simply wasn’t any comfortable way to sit in the chair, especially not after sitting there for nearly a week. When she’d had enough, Ariannona snapped her fingers and moved deeper into the chair she’d conjured. Izic laughed at her when she sighed heavily

“You should have done that days ago, mistress. I did tell you that it was most uncomfortable to even look at.” She nodded and looked over at the two men on the bed. Elam’s fever had broken last night, Casdon’s the day before. Both men had been too near death for her to want to think about.

“Have you told the others what has poisoned them?” Ariannona shook her head. She said she was afraid to. “The young master, he blamed you for this. He does not know yet that he was right.”

“None of them do. I had no idea either until I moved into their bodies while they slept to see how I could fix this. I saw it in his mind, Elam’s. He hates me and all that I stand for in his life.” Izic nodded and came to sit on the arm of the chair beside her. “They’re not going to be happy that I did this to them. I could have killed them all. But I will take care of it.”

“You had no way of knowing either, mistress. It was not explained to you that it would harm them.” Ariannona said nothing but watched the two men in slumber. They would be all right now, and once they were awake and she told them what had happened, they’d tell her to leave. Not that she wasn’t going to go anyway, but it might make her feel better should they tell her to go. She was tucking memories in her heart, or what was left of it, to look at later.

When Essie came in and sat across the room from her, Ariannona thought it was well past time to explain things. If she had her leave now, she’d not have to endure the pain of one of these men telling her to get out and to never return.

“The blue rose, have you heard of it?” Without looking in her direction, Ariannona explained to her when Essie said that she’d not. “It’s of my design. I bred it to be my signature flower, I guess. When the king and queen changed me, gave me what powers they could, I was in nothing more than rags and decided that I wanted to stand out. The white of my hair, it came with the magic. I think that I was showing off. No, I know that I was. They, the great king and queen of the kingdom, had given me a part of themselves.”

“Are you trying to tell me that this is an allergic reaction to a rose that you made?” Ariannona said something like that, but not purely. “I want you to explain that to me then. Why a flower that you made has anything to do about any of this. They were about dead, and something like that cannot kill men like these. They’re immortal. They have to have their heads removed to be killed.”

“Most of the time, yes. But I was wearing the blue rose.... Let me start at the first. King Anthony was upset that night. I think he was stressed out. I know that his lady wife had just given birth that morning, and perhaps he was a little on edge. When he spoke to me, he told me that he had a favor for me to do. And I, of course, wanted answers before I would agree and.... Well, you understand.”

“Yes. I think I do. He was in a hurry as well, I would bet. It’s my understanding, from the timeline you have mentioned that they were close to being murdered. And they knew it.” Ariannona said it was three days later that the castle came down. “And this favor, it was to come and give this whatever to Casdon, and they set you up as his and Elam’s mate.”

“The mate part I wasn’t aware of. I’m pretty sure they might have, but they didn’t tell me anything about it. More than likely because they thought I’d not do as they asked. But when they touched me, the two of them at the same time, I got a little more than they meant to give me, I think. Not only did I know where the children were, but I knew that Sally and Jacob would have six sons, and that Jacob would be brought from his entombment to be with his boys. Sally is there too…I’m not sure how, but she’s dimmer in my thoughts about them, like maybe they weren’t quite sure what part she played later in their lives. I’m not sure how, but I knew it.” Essie asked if Sally was going to be freed from the grave. “I don’t know for sure.”

“Okay, they gave you magic, and a great deal of it.” Ariannona said that they’d not given her all of it, but she’d grown into some of it as well. “Much like Caroline did, with age and experience grows more magic.”

“Yes. That’s it. But unlike Caroline, I’m not either white or black, so I wasn’t able to take from the ones that I killed. And I did have to kill a great many witches to survive.” Ariannona had no idea why, but she’d expected Essie to be horrified at what she’d said. But instead, she asked her to go on, like it had not been that big of a revelation. “The blue rose. It was the only colored flower that I wanted to feel on my person. The royal chambers where we were that night were of the richest blues and purples. That might have been the reason. Really after all this time, I’m not sure anymore.”

“And you’re telling me that this flower is the thing that felled these two men.” Ariannona nodded, then shook her head. “Yes, that is very helpful.”

“After I left the castle that night, I ran into Helena. She was evil, even then, but there was something about her that made me more than fearful. It made my skin crawl. When she saw me coming from the castle keep that night, she asked me what I had been doing there. I told her, stupidly, I now see, that it was none of her business. She hit me, with a cane that she sometimes used when she was trying to make people see things her way. And with the power of the king and queen still buzzing along my skin, I wanted to kill her. My anger was so strong that it was everything I could do not to use my newfound power and end her miserable life. But I’d been told, several times, not to interfere. And I had a feeling that something she was doing or about to do would be why I was asked to come to see them.” Ariannona looked at the two men, then back out the window. She’d caused this, the men in her life to be so ill. “The flower was...I would guess you’d think it was vanity on my part. They had changed me, you see. Given me a great deal, but I knew even then that they’d taken as well. And when she saw it, the only color on my body, she....”

She remembered it like it had only just happened. That she’d been hurt not just by her cane, but by her magic as well. But she’d done nothing. Held onto her temper because she had an idea that things were not as they seemed. And the meeting with the king and queen was something that she could not share. Especially not with Helena.

“What did she do to you, Ariannona?”
What didn’t she do to me would have been a better question
, she thought, but Ariannona moved back to the chair and sat down. “She cursed you.”

“Yes. And these men in a way. The rose that I’d made for me made her angry for some reason. Its purity, she said, but I think it was more. Like perhaps she thought that it had been a gift from them. But she cursed me, for whatever her reasons were, because of it. ‘Your blood is poison. Your heart will be black. Until you meet a man that trusts you fully, gives you his heart fully, you will kill what you love.’ Then she plucked the flower from my chest and blew over it, turning it as black as her own heart. She returned it to me and the thorn pricked my finger, sealing the deal, I guess.” She stood up then and moved to the door. There wasn’t anything else she could do here. “I was going to wait to tell them goodbye, but I think this is better, don’t you? To leave while.... None of them trust me, and they never have. The arguments will stop now. The two of them will be getting better quickly now that...well, once I’m gone. My inability to have them trust me for whatever reason is the reason they were near dead.”

“What did the king give you to give to Casdon? How did it save him that night?” She smiled then at Essie. Of course she’d want to know that. “I understand that you feel you must go. But the gift, what was it? Will they be harmed by it as well?”

“No harm will come to any of them now, not from me or from anything else. Casdon and the rest of you will now be able to take iron into your body. Before, as a magical creature, iron would kill, as I’m sure you know. Even the dragons that come here, each of them you touch, they will survive like they couldn’t before. I think...it’s what made them so weak, the king and queen, giving me this to share with their sons.” Essie asked her why Casdon, and Ariannona laughed before answering her. “You may not believe it, but the lady queen thought him to have the purest of hearts.”

As she made her way out of the house she pulled shadows around her. It was not that she was sneaking out or that she thought anyone would try and stop her. Ariannona simply did not want to speak to any of them, or to hear them tell her to leave. This way, she figured, she’d leave with just a little of her heart. Shattered as it was.

“My lady.” Izic landed on her shoulder as she continued to walk across the fields. As they made their way to the outer skirts of the land and the magic, she felt her body begin to change again. Magic left her. Not a great deal, but it was enough to make her stumble slightly. And even her clothing, white still even after all these centuries, began to fade; the color, so brilliant before now, was graying. “You will die now? Your love for them, it cannot hold you here forever?”

“No, I don’t believe so.” He said nothing to her but stayed with her as they made their way to their home. “When I pass, would you do me a favor, my friend? Go to the dragon savior and live among them. I wish for you to be safe from harm. Even if you do not want to live where they see you, you will be safe on the land of the king, I think.”

“I shall do this only because you have asked me so prettily.” She could hear the pain in his voice and felt it all the way to her broken heart. “I will find me a mate, have children, and name them all for you. Will that make you smile, my lady?”

“Nay, your lady wife will be most upset with you. You should name them for her. Not someone who nearly killed the saviors of our creatures.” He said nothing, but she could feel his pain like her own. “Izic, I have another favor to ask of you. A small one, but one I would take to my heart as I die. Would you please not tell them? Not let them know my fate or what has become of me?”

“You wish me not to tell them of your death?” She nodded, the tears blinding her for a few moments, her pain so great that she leaned against the tree. “My mistress, you love them. Why do you leave them?”

“I must, as you know. I hurt them. Yes, they did not trust me as they should, but I have given them no reason to do so. I have been tainted and they paid the price.” If he answered her, she didn’t know. “Will you make me this promise?”

“Yes, mistress, I give you my word. I shall not tell anyone living of your death, my lady.” She started to ask him what he meant by that but didn’t. “When you pass, I will call to the earth to make a great faerie circle that will rival even that of the great dragon, Dawod. Humans will stand over it, marveling at such a miracle of life, and wonder a great deal who had done such a thing.”

“Thank you.” She knew that he had no power to do such a thing, but was touched to her toes that he’d said it. “Tell me what you know of the slayer. Perhaps we can do more harm to him before it’s time so that they might heal just a little more. The castle, it will need to be completed soon. And once it is, the magic will be much stronger there.”

As he told her what he knew, what he’d done, she laid down on her pallet of soft down and cotton. It was the one thing that she’d brought with her when she’d come here…the soft cotton to sleep upon. A pillow made of the softest material, too.

“He is most upset with me. Well, not me but what he has found. I only stepped in the pen flow for a moment and took only a step or two. But I so loved how it looked that I made several more tips to the well of it. The ink is most smelly, by the way. I loved how it made me appear to be all over his house, but I suppose in a way that I was. But only on the counter did I leave my prints. It was—” She only said his name and it brought him back to what she’d asked of him. “The slayer has a weak mind, easy to turn. I think that will be useful in the future in dealing with him.”

As her magic depleted, much faster than she thought it would have, she plotted and planned with Izic. Keeping him on task was harder than she thought it should have been, but they got it done. When she could no longer hold her head up, she closed her eyes and let sleep take her. Tomorrow she’d have to make notes to have Izic take to the new queen. She, Ariannona knew, trusted her enough to listen to him.

~~~

Elam lay as still as he could. He hurt, but he knew that for some reason he wasn’t going to be sick again. And even though his belly felt a little tense, he thought it was just empty and not sick that made him feel this way. He looked over at Asher when he said his name.

“You’re well now?” He said that he thought he might be. “Good. I’m so pissed off at you right now that I could gladly pull you from that bed and beat you until you cannot walk again.”

“Because I got sick?” Asher said nothing but got up to pace. His body was hard, his forehead furrowed in concentration, and each step looked as if he were trying his best to break the board beneath him. “Perhaps you’d be in a better mood had I died. I’m sure that whatever befell me will come back to finish the job.”

“You don’t trust her. Even though twice she has saved Casdon, and now you, you have no trust for her.” He asked him what he was talking about. “Ariannona. You might love her, but that’s all you have for her.”

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about.” Elam sat up. His body was weak but not rebelling any longer. “Where is she? I thought she’d be here. With me. And where is Casdon?”