Hidden Jewel (Heartfire Series) (33 page)

"Then we'll make you. Both of us, together...
leoday
," Jacob growled into her ear.

Feeling long fingers snake their way over her thighs, Ailill clamped her legs together tightly, shaking her head in disbelief, vaguely wondering where he had learned
that
word. "Don't call me that, Jacob! I don't tease anything! I am only one," she hissed, becoming angry. "It isn't possible."

"Oh, it's possible," Jacob drawled, mocking her. "You've delivered babies, darlin'. Y'all know full well it's possible." He clamped his fingers into the sensitive flesh of her inner thigh, laughed darkly at sight of her clenched teeth. "A woman's ability to stretch is... astounding. Don't y'all agree, Brother?"

Micah answered by acting in kind. Together they parted her legs, proof of their own strength, too easy despite her efforts to struggle away; as if she were a weakling, a mere lass. "After all," he breathed. "You are the one that says we can't divide our blood. But we
can
divide
yours,
if that's what it takes...mmm, well."

Still weak, feeling unaccustomedly vulnerable, her arms beginning to shake from the constant up and down motion each still managed to force upon her, Ailill stiffened her spine; her fingers gripped the hot shafts tighter and, using rapid movements, finished what she had so innocently started, the feeling of power that had filled her earlier gone completely as each young man shuddered with his release; together, as one.

Relaxing their hold, Micah and Jacob had to literally remove her fingers before she would stop; once they did, she sat with her head bowed low, forehead resting on her knees, completely silent as she tried to control the shaking in her limbs from exertion, a weakness caused by days of deep slumber, her own great strength given so that these two men would be hale. Perplexity was mirrored on the faces of both when their eyes met over her head; laying a large, tentative hand on Ailill's sweat dampened shoulder, the gentle touch caused a breathy sob to escape from behind her lips that made Micah feel instantly contrite. He looked at Jacob with wide eyes but his twin only shrugged, shocked and not a little disconcerted by her reaction. They had only been teasing; neither had any intention of acting on their threats. It was not in either man's nature to force himself on anyone, especially a tiny, helpless woman, no matter how attractive she happened to be. The satisfaction of Ailill's handiwork fell away like the shedding of a plaid, leaving him suddenly chilled; flashing his twin a look that very clearly said
dosomething
, Jacob got up and stalked away. Reaching out, full of compassion and love, to gather Ailill onto his lap, the soft words of apology died on Micah's lips when she knocked him back with a violent slap across the high arch of his left cheekbone; surprise flitted across his handsome features, followed quickly by anger; his eyes filled with painful tears, her aim right on target.

"Don't touch me again, Micah, not ever!" Ailill's voice rang out in the clearing, hoarsened with fury. "Ye fuckin' prick, are ye happy now? Are ye pleased wi' yourself, ye radjy bastard?" Jumping to her feet, she drew back, kicked him hard in the thigh. He slapped a large hand round her ankle, yanking her easily to her knees; she jumped right back up, fists resting on her hips, nostrils flaring, the gem there glittering like a tiny icy flame beneath eyes of fire.

"Don't strike me again, Ailill," he warned, suddenly furious. "I put up with beating's from one man far too long. I ain't gonna take anymore, especially not from some flirt who can't sort out her own desires."

"Och, nay,
toll-toine
, ye think ye can just do as ye please to
me
to make up for all yer troubles, whether it be striking with fists, or an o'ersized cock, or drainin' my body o' its own lifeforce with wolf fangs! I trusted you, I gave myself to you,
all
of me, and then ye sit here makin' vile threats to my person! How dare ye use me so!"

"Aw, come on," Micah said, a vain attempt to calm her, to calm himself. "It ain't like that and you know it. We were playin' is all, we didn't mean nothin' by it. Hell, Ailill, for being so smart, you sure as hell are naive; you
definitely
take everything too goddamned literal. You can't just go touching people, especially without any clothes on... it makes a man crazy. Not good for such an innocent little girl, I can tell ya! You're lucky it was us; no other man would be as nice, you'd have easily been raped by now. Did ya ever stop to think of that?" He glared at her, furious, wanting to get back at her for almost leaving tonight; she glared right back.

"For thinkin' me a little girl, Micah, ye certainly don't have any problem at all with takin' what you want, anytime ye want it; that's as close to rape as any would ever come with me. What's next then, a bit o' gammy?
Ceann la
? Because I have been raised to accept it all, aye,
a druisealachd
... perhaps I should be on my knees, Micah, so you  might prove your virility a wee bit more tonight... ye ungrateful shit; and
you
, ye minging hoor!" She spun around, eyes ablaze as they settled on Jacob's freshly clad form five feet away; his eyes were widened with shock at her reaction, the color visible through the shadows.

"You have got no right to
me
unless I invite you into me; you burn for all lasses in general, as well a couple lads, from what I have learned, and yet you want
me
, the most accomplished woman you will ever know, aye, the best fuck in the
mortal world
! Och, didn't think I kent all about that, did ye?" she fairly spat. Her face split into a maniacal grin as she took a step toward him. "Ye believe I am
buidseach
, after all, Jacob, you arrogant, slutty man! What you don't want to believe is that I am far more than some piddly wee witch.
Imbas Forasni
is naught in comparison with all that I am, all that I know, and you insult my intelligence simply by callin' me a witch! Why should I want for either of you in my bed? In
mo piseag
? Why? So you can sully me with your filthy minds, using my body as a piece o' meat, or better yet,
bloodypie
? So you can drain away my lifeforce with yon hidden canines whilst ye fill me with your perverted seed, tear me asunder with two wicked stonners?
Hell! No!
" she all but bellowed. "I didn't ask for this! I didn't want you, neither one. I only ever wanted Tiernan, and I can't lie with him 'til I've lain at least once with both of you, and even then I must take you again, all of you in a day, produce from your seed as proof that I carried out yon
fucked-up
requirement laid upon
my
by my own kin, my own people! The seed of the tierce, the reborn triple aspect, the bairns o' three different men growin' to term as one in my own belly so that
you
may live everafter! It is sick, I tell you, and I would never ask for such punishment in a million cursed lifetimes. Ye may as well force me now, Jacob
Morna
, take me right here on this unhallowed ground because I can tell you, you'll not win my heart, not with the way ye treat the lasses. I am not just some
little girl
." The words came out in a hateful sneer, her cobalt eyes gleaming with an ageless quality that was evident, the darkness of night, the whites no longer visible.

"I am aulder than ye'd e'er believe, laddie; far too intelligent to waste anymore time wi' daft
little boys
as yourselves," she went on, her voice thick with a plethora of emotions, eyes dry, gleaming hatefully. "I am goin' home, back to the Highlands, where I am treated with more respect by every single person there than
you
could come up with in a lifetime. 'Tis worth the risks I will take in doin' it, worth losing everything, if it means gettin' the hell away from you. Ye can both just... just,
focailleat
!" Yanking her discarded nightgown up from the grassy bank, Ailill stalked away, more furious than she had ever been, hurt enough by their actions, by Micah's, to take a chance at losing all she had worked so hard, for so long, to earn. Both men watched her go; beautiful, vibrant, enchanting even in her rage; their eyes following when their feet could not, meeting with twin looks of consternation when Ailill Bascna-Morna, Princess of
Sidhe
, suddenly vanished into the shadows.

Ailill

In the dusky blue basin of the twilight sky, a half moon rose slowly, the pale, luminescent disk slit down the center with a perfect precision that could be seen through the deep green leaves along the tops of a stand of oak trees, the trunks each as big around as two fully grown men. Uncluttered by cloud cover, the path of starshine shimmered brightly across the night sky, twinkling here and there with the last breaths of planets long dead before their light burned all the way through the galaxy; satellites, no longer of use to the nearly decimated population of the earth, orbited silently through the heavens, winking intermittently as if they were in on the last cruel joke played on a shattered world even as they roamed through space on a never ending watch, awaiting mankind's signal that they would once again be useful.

The licking flames of a small, nearly smokeless fire burned through the bottom layer of deadfall stacked in the shape of a cube, sending a shower of vermilion sparks up through the lower branches of the tree that Ailill reclined against. Her eyes followed the trail automatically, noting where the few that did not fizzle out in the still air landed in the mouldering leaves along the ground, watching to be sure that nothing ignited before turning her attention back to the highly polished wood in her hand.

The feel of the steel strings under the toughened pads of her fingertips was a familiar one, the vibration through the hollow, effeminate hourglass shaped body comforting as she plucked out a tune, humming along under her breath; one tiny, leather clad foot tapped soundlessly upon the soft bracken beneath her, keeping time to the rhythm with a natural ability, her mind full of the melody, her feet playing imaginary drums even as her fingers stroked the notes from her guitar.

She was completely relaxed; at ease in a way that did not come easily to her. Being alone in the forest was nothing new; much of her free time had been spent out of doors, exploring for miles around whatever area of Scotland she happened to find herself in. In twelve years her child sized feet had tread a path along every mile of the isle; as she had done in this same forest as a very little girl.  She feared nothing of nature in either of the lands in which she had lived during her short lifetime. She had not been raised a weakling; so many young women often were. If she was afraid of anything at all, it would have to be something made by mankind, such as the ravaging, desolate sickness which had killed off so many of the weaker people whom she had known. The fact that the disease had spread to her own kind two years ago, to her own love, the healthy, vibrant, abnormally strong Tiernan MacDuff, filled her with dread. She knew in her heart that she would see the likes of the never clinically named illness again, someday. He had been in her mind often; every time she felt that urgent desire to forget him and threw herself into getting to know the two men left to her, even temporarily, it was usually because of him. Her knowledge of a secret visit he had made to all but herself, kindly disregarded but still a fact which her cousin had felt she needed to know, had only managed to reopen a still raw wound. He had not wished for her to see him, though it would have been as simple as a walk through the wood; the man could find her in the midst of a raging blizzard, if he had so desired. The knowledge of it made her wonder if there was something wrong with him still; something, perhaps a physical disability, which he did not want her to see? Her imagination clung to that question; the lack of any real answer, and the seeming loss of her own ability to connect with him that she had always taken for granted, filled her with self-doubt; woke her in the night, drenched with sweat, trembling with the desire to cross over into that other realm just to see for herself. She had to know, to see for herself that he was truly healthy, as he had said; as he had seemed. But the thought of leaving without Micah and Jacob was enough to stop her from going anywhere, because she had fallen in love with them both, almost as deeply as she loved Tiernan.