Protector of the Flame (32 page)

“That’s not what I meant. You never come up to the library.”

He hauled in several deep breaths. “I was supposed to work with the sentinels this week, but my detail was changed at the last minute because you wanted soap or shampoo scented with some damn flower. I came to find out which one and to see if you wanted any other fragrance while I was trapped in another hut for the week.”

Her heart sank. She’d asked Neith if it could be arranged to have plumeria-scented soap. She had no idea Cyrus would be forced to make it.

“Cyrus,” called Neith. “A word in my office.” Her voice resounded with unyielding command.

He stood glaring at Serenity, chest heaving. She wanted to hug him, to kiss him, to calm him, but anything she did or said right now could tip a delicate situation beyond the point of no return.

The strain was eating away at him and the only way to fix it was to sever the unnatural tether to Adriel by any means necessary.

Chapter Thirty

Seething with a crazed fury, Cyrus stormed by Serenity into Neith’s office and slammed the door.

“Please sit,” Neith said.

He paced back and forth in front of the desk. He should have broken the boy’s spine and torn it from his body. No—such a death would’ve been far too quick.

“Cyrus, most of my life I have endeavored to see Kindred freed from the curse which plagues us. I have risked everything to bring you here and give both you and your
kabashem
a safe haven in the hopes we will be redeemed through the birth of your child. Nothing is more important to me. But I will not, under any circumstances, allow you to harm Adriel.”

At the mention of the boy’s name, Cyrus froze and met Neith’s icy stare.

Four sentinels flew into the office from the open air outlet. “There was a disturbance. Is everything all right?”

“I will let you know in a moment.” Neith’s gaze swung back to Cyrus. “Do not force me to choose between your welfare and Adriel’s,” she added.

Cyrus turned his back to the sentinels, put both palms on Neith’s desk and brought his eyes level with hers. “Do what you must, but if he touches my mate again, I’ll chop off his hands.” He kept his voice low, hard. “If he looks at her again with those sickening puppy dog eyes, I’ll pluck them from his head and stuff them down his throat.”

Neith didn’t blink or appear startled in the slightest. She merely leaned back in her chair. “Your
kabashem
probably hoped there’d be no need for you to know, but she has obviously miscalculated.”

“I know the boy shares some of her memories.”

“And the repercussions when he heals someone, the unfortunate nature of his secondary gift?”

Standing erect, he asked, “Repercussions?”

“It’s not their fault. Neither Adriel nor Serenity can help the unnatural bond that has formed between them. And nothing can be done to break it.”

Liquid fire rushed through his veins. “What unnatural bond?”

Serenity helped Adriel sit at a workstation. Two historians, Rabi and Dante, rushed to his side. Rabi rubbed his head and Dante stared at the office.

None of the other historians said anything, only stared.

Serenity brushed the hair away from Adriel’s forehead. Cyrus could’ve killed him. If he’d hit the bookcase at a slightly different angle, his spine would’ve snapped. “Are you okay?”

Rubbing the back of his head, he groaned. “I’ll live.” He looked up at her, squinted eyes as if in terrible pain. “Might be best if you’re not touching me when he comes out of there.”

“What!” Cyrus’s booming voice rattled her spine, making her heart quake.

A moment of silence, then shouting.

Cyrus swung the heavy office door open, tearing it from the hinges and hurled it into a wall. He emerged from the office, fists shaking at his side, eyes cobalt infernos setting his face ablaze.

Serenity staggered away from the others.

A gust of wind swirled around Rabi’s ankles, her long hair flowed back in the conjured breeze. Dante’s hands glowed bright red like two hot iron pokers as they moved to block Adriel.

Cyrus stalked by the terminals, spearing her with his gaze. “I want to talk to you in our room right now.” His voice was tight, strained.

Three sentinels flew into the library near Adriel.

“Serenity, come into my office.” Neith beckoned.

Cyrus brushed by one of the shifted warriors and looked back at her. “Don’t keep me waiting,” he said through gritted teeth.

As he stormed out of the library, their connection severed and her energy stream lashed out in pulsating tendrils, clawing after him, desperate to plug back in. Grasping a stone pillar, she steadied herself. After a deep breath, she entered the office.

A sentinel nodded at Neith, then flew out of the room.

Neith leaned against the front of her desk, arms crossed. “You must fix this situation. I won’t allow Adriel to be hurt.”

“I can’t deal with a lecture right now.”

“I told Cyrus about the endearment link between you and Adriel.”

Serenity pressed her palm against her forehead to stop the pounding ache building. “That’s the last thing he needed to know.”

“When a lie collides with the truth, there is always damage.”

“What kind of damage do you think there’s going to be now?” Her stomach did flip-flops to even think of it.

“Pheromones are clouding Cyrus’s judgment and he must sense the connection you share with Adriel, which is only making it worse.”

“What pheromones? He didn’t act like this before.”

“My dear, you must be in
esuratus
again. Your fertile time will heighten your
kabashem’s
primitive territorial instincts and sense of possessiveness. It will also draw Adriel closer because of his bond to you. I had hoped by some miracle you’d be pregnant by now.”

“
Esuratus
again?” Her cycles were always far apart by months. She’d never bothered to keep track. Their lives depended on having a child, yet she dreaded the responsibility of bringing a life safely into her insane world.

“Why do you think Adriel left of his own accord before? He couldn’t resist your smell. I thought he would take it upon himself to stay away longer on this trip. He knows the danger of being near you at such a time.”

That’s why Neith had given her and Cyrus two days off and room service. Too caught up in her sexual need for Cyrus and her guilt over what happened with Adriel, she hadn’t considered Neith’s ulterior motives.

A part of her, the dangerous part that sickened her and threatened to demolish her life, felt compelled to protect the connection with Adriel, but the rage that had burned in her
kabashem’s
eyes demanded it end. “How do I break the tether between us?”

“It cannot be broken.”

“I refuse to accept that.” Serenity stood in front of her. “There must be a way. I can’t be tied to Adriel like this anymore.”

Neith unfolded her arms and walked to the lion-headed statue. “Only death can sever the bond, but it can be managed.”

Hope withered. The pull to Adriel was insidious and strong, but his life was too high a price to cut the tether between them. “I’ve tried to manage it and only failed.”

“You know little of males. I suggest you speak with your mother. She can provide better instruction than I.”

“She doesn’t want anything to do with me.”

Neith swiveled to look at her. “I do not believe she will refuse to assist you in this matter.”

Serenity glanced at the door lodged in the wall. “I have to go.”

When she left the office, Rabi and Dante stared, but Adriel was gone. She realized how easy it must have been for them to overhear her conversation with Neith and the embarrassment he must’ve felt if he had. But now wasn’t the time to worry about Adriel.

Serenity rushed down the hall, her mind a flurry of scattered thoughts. She had to find a way to salvage this mess. If she chose the right words, she might be able to repair some of the damage.

Turning the knob, she pushed the door to their room open and after hesitating a fractured moment, stepped inside. The door slammed shut behind her, and she whirled.

Cyrus had been waiting in the corner. Eyes a roiling blaze, he barreled toward her.

All of his dark, savage beauty twisted in a raging storm. He was her love, her life, and he had the power to tear her apart with his bare hands if he wanted.

Stumbling back, heart punching at her sternum, she opened her mouth to explain.

He wrenched her from the floor by the shoulders, stealing her breath. His fury scorched to her core and she feared she’d lost him. She’d played with fire, hidden too much, and deserved to burn. He glared at her as if deliberating whether to shake her or scream at her or worse. She braced for anything, but he seized her lips in a ruthless kiss, crushing her against his body.

Locked in the steel embrace of his arms, she fastened her legs around his waist.

He rotated, spinning their bodies, and smashed into the wall. She gasped in his mouth. His arms and hands had safeguarded her from colliding with the concrete crumbling behind them.

Sliding along the wall to an undamaged section, he fisted his hand through her hair, forcing her to look up at him. Her heart throbbed in her throat as he thrust his tongue into her mouth. He kissed her with cruel lips that sought to ravage and possess. He kissed her, hot and fierce, searing her with his rage, branding her with his passion. He kissed her until all thought burned to ash, until she melted in the blistering fire of his body, until she swooned in the ache of needing him.

As he allowed her to draw in air, he tore the tunic from her body with two fingers and yanked her bra off, flinging it behind him.

She pulled his shirt over his head and kissed his chest.

He grasped her wrists and pinned them over her head.

His fiery gaze held her captive, demanding complete surrender. He ripped off her pants, exposing her moist sex, and roughly spread her legs. His chiseled thigh pressed against her wet nether lips and she quivered against the cold stone wall.

Ravenous arteries of her energy stream coiled around him, sucking on his pool, lapping at his very soul. A charged thrill washed through her and she raised her leg, tightening it around him, stroking his buttock with her calf.

He invaded her in a single, merciless thrust.

Crying out into his mouth, she wrapped her other leg around him. Pleasure seized her in a savage grip and she shivered from the scalp of her head to soles of her feet.

Their bodies undulated in unison, wicked desire driving them hard.

He released her hands and clutched her hips. His flesh blazed with molten passion, and she was happy to be consumed.

The thick length of him rammed deep. “You’re mine,” he growled in her ear.

“Yes,” she sighed.

“Say it.” He clasped the nape of her neck and squeezed as he grinded into her.

Growing wetter, she shuddered and tried to spread her legs wider. “I’m yours. All yours.”

He lifted her buttocks, drilling deeper, stretching her, filling her. He pumped hard and fast as if he wanted to punish, to conquer. Panting, he kissed her, his mouth on fire with desperate need. He bit her neck and chest, licking and sucking.

Breathless, she lost all sense of time and space. His rough hands covered her breasts, thighs, stomach, back. She didn’t recognize the gleam in his eyes, feared it even, as he plunged into her again and again, unhinging her soul.

Her body rocked against him, climaxing in a torrent.

Tugging her hair, he moaned into her mouth and punched a hole in the wall with the other hand as he pumped his essence deep inside with ferocious thrusts until he was spent. Still hard, he kept forcing her body down onto his shaft as if this was only the beginning.

Ecstasy flayed her, tears streamed from her eyes.

Drenched in sweat, they slid to the floor, pelvis to pelvis, rocking as one. He sighed in her hair. His heart hammered against his chest.

He cupped her cheeks and brought her face close until their foreheads touched. “This link with Adriel…”

“He’s my—”

He silenced her lie in a savage kiss and tightened his hold on her body. “Brother or friend—” he shook his head, “—there’s more between you. The way he looks at you.” His fingers entwined in her hair, fists shook against her skull. He shut his eyes and his face contorted in pain. “The way you look at him. I won’t abide it. I swear I’ll kill him first, regardless of the repercussions.”

His words yanked the taut tether that bound her to Adriel. It reverberated through her, the aberrant hold resounded in her core, wrenching her heart.

“You’re my husband and the only
kabashem
I could ever have. He respects our union. He’d never try to come between us. Nothing can change or even put a dent in what we share.”

“It only takes a scratch to ruin some things,” he said in a whisper.

No matter how much she cared for Adriel or how tempting his scent, she would never violate her vows to Cyrus. She could only have one sun, one moon, and his place was indelibly fixed in her heart and soul.