The Chilling Change Of Air (Elemental Awakening, Book 3) (33 page)

It wasn't listening. I hadn't expected it to. But I sure as hell hadn't expected the flames in the fire to flare even higher as though
Pyrkagia
was about to join in the fun as well.

We couldn't battle one
Stoicheio,
how the hell would we fight two at once?

I lifted a heavy arm, reaching my hand out towards the flames and called Fire.

It had been instinctive. A desperate action to stop the inevitable.

Air swirled around me, lifting the hair on my head off my shoulders, while Fire spat and hissed in the brazier licking heated fingers over my skin.

Earth
, I called, needing more strength to fight them. Knowing I couldn't hold them off much longer like this. I was down to one knee, just a short distance from Theo, unable to touch him, unable to save him, unable to stop this.

The ground shook, the arched columns swaying but not crumbling. The massive springs at their bases absorbing the shudder and shift of the soil. Dust rained down. A bottle smashed behind me. The scent of full bodied red wine met my nose as the high pitched scream of wind whistling assailed my ears and the touch of heated flames lashed at my skin.

Mark shuddered. His back arched. And then somehow, I don't know how, maybe I'd distracted Air enough to give him a reprieve, maybe the bitch had actually revived him, but somehow he sat up, and stared me in the eyes.

"What do you need?" he yelled, but I could only read his lips. The sounds in the cellar were deafening, the roar of Fire, the rumble of the Earth, the howl of Air.

Three
Stoicheio
couldn't stop this. Could four?

"Water!" I shouted back, my words whipped away in the frenzy.

I could hardly see anymore, a black shroud covering my eyes, or that could have been the dust we'd unsettled in this mini battle of wills. Because I knew this was small, nothing like Genesis and its power to upset the world. This was me and them and a test to see if I had what it took to contain them.

I didn't. I was sure of it. I was on two knees now, no longer breathing, no longer moving, about to pass out.

And then Sonya appeared, the glass of water in her hand that she hadn't quite managed to finish, and she threw the bloody thing in my face.

Er, not what I'd been thinking. Water hadn't Awakened, and right now when it might have been helpful, it sure as hell wasn't going to accommodate me.

But Mark was there, touching my cheeks, calling Water, making the drops of liquid rise up in a funnel and swirl around our heads.

And something else was there, that I couldn't quite identify but I knew it was not of this world. A presence, a show of support. Something that felt missing, but filled the emptiness inside. It made no sense, but I reached out to grasp it, hold it tight, and willed myself not to black out just yet.

Then screeches and bangs and crashes and even the odd flare of lightning, all in too small an enclosed space. People shouted; it sounded like hundreds of them, but there was only seven of us here. But I could hear the roar of many voices, all raised and shouting and trying to get me to do something.

I whimpered, not understanding them, then the dust devil parted and there was Theo, still out cold on the hard stone floor. And I had to reach him. I had to reach him. I just had to reach him.

So I clasped Mark's shoulder, used him to haul myself closer to that prone form. He realised what I was doing and dragged me a step nearer. The wind picked up, the flames in the brazier flared, somehow not being snuffed out in all of this, the ground shook beneath our bodies, and the water dripping from my face danced a dazzling twirl around us.

And something sparkled. It could have been inside my head. It could have been stars in the night sky.

Then, thank you
Aetheros
, my hand wrapped around Theo's ankle; he sat bolt upright and stared at my face. Gold blazed. Matched by my green and white and Mark's ice blue. And then everything lifted, rose up off the floor, and came crashing back down again in a final sonic boom.

Ringing resounded in my ears. My vision blurred. My jaw felt locked tight. My muscles trembling. But Theo stood before me, Fire dancing from the tips of his fingers, and hopping across the distance between us to land on my nose.

I sneezed, the ringing turned to crackling, and Mark threw his hands towards Theo and snuffed out the flames with what appeared to be a bucket of water.

The last crackle and pop sounded, and then noises came rushing into my ears, as I heard Theo say, quite calmly, "My
Stoicheio
is back, Alchemist. Try that again and I will burn you to a crisp."

"Go ahead," Mark growled in return, moving to his feet and puffing out his chest. "But I'll steal your oxygen and cut through your flesh with the power of a water-blaster."

Theo took a step closer, his large chest butting up against Mark's slightly smaller one. The fury, though, in both of their eyes pretty much matched.

It was Theo who opened his mouth, but I managed to stumble to my feet, and pushed my way between their Neanderthal bodies.

"Stop," I gasped. "Just... stop."

"Cassandra," Theo immediately turned me into his body. "Are you hurt?"

I tipped my head back, feeling all kinds of exhausted but otherwise OK, and lifted my hand to his cheek infusing my touch with
Pyrkagia
. Oh, blessed return of
Pyrkagia
.

He closed his eyes, groaned low as he hauled me hard against his chest, and then rasped, "Fuck," under his breath as his body shuddered.

"Um, what are you doing?" Sonya asked, eyes wide, a pink flush up her cheeks at what she was watching.

"Sonya!" Nico exclaimed and rushed over, as Aktor gingerly stood, and Isadora discretely hauled Mark away from my side and out of possible Theo blasting range.

"Alone," Theo instructed, quietly in my ear. "Now," he added more urgently.

"We need to check that everyone else got their
Stoicheio
back," I argued, half-heartedly.

"No," Theo argued back, much more forcefully than me. "I need to be inside you."

Oh.

"Now."

There was no freaking way I wanted to argue with that.

He grasped my hand, flicked a cursory glance over everyone else, and then marched us down the closest corridor into the darkness.

And all I heard, getting quieter the further we went, was a tired sounding Aktor chuckling quite contentedly, as the rest of the room went about recovering from our latest Elemental encounter.

I shouldn't have felt so desperate. So hungry for his touch. For him. Something miraculous and totally unexpected had just happened. Something that I was sure had returned
Stoicheio
to at least Theo, Mark and myself, maybe the rest. I couldn't think clearly enough to work out the mechanics, though.

All I could think about was Theo's hot hand in mine, the
Pyrkagia
he was throwing around with abandon, and my body's own eager response.

Pyrkagia
are sensual beings. Part of what makes them Fire Elementals is their call to all things heated. Passion and lust are forms of heat. Something a
Pyrkagia
can manipulate, feed off and fuel. They need it. They can be blinded by it. It can rule their actions and thoughts, direct them, almost control them. Especially if it comes back in a rush off adrenaline and takes them unaware.

For several days we'd been without it. Theo, a prince who commands his
Stoicheio
with regal perfection, was completely at its mercy right now.

He pulled me down a series of narrow corridors until we must have been as far away from the others as we could get in the cellar. It was cooler here, which was a relief because my skin was burning. The light from the candles and fire didn't reach this corner either, but the glow from our eyes was all we needed to see.

Theo stopped in front of a large wine barrel, and then turned and picked me up, placing me down on top of the surface, spreading my legs and stepping into the V. His lips found mine, his hand fisted in my hair, the other working its way under my t-shirt and wrapping around my breast.

He made a sound, a desperate, hungry, needy sound, then pressed himself deeper into my groin, rocking his hips. His erection was already impressive, but when he felt the dampness through the layers of clothes that separated us, I felt him swell and harden even more.

It was like placing petrol on an open flame, heat flared between us, becoming uncontrolled.

In an instant he had my jeans undone, and encouraged me to lift my hips enough to pull them and my panties down my legs, then threw them all to one side. The t-shirt was next, then my bra. I was left in socks, which felt ridiculous, but right then with Theo's tongue dancing with mine, and the furnace that was igniting between us stealing all thought, the socks were soon forgotten.

My hand roamed freely over his top, and then with a pained moan I began hauling it up and off. He accommodated me, pulling away from my bruised lips and lifting his arms, baring the sweat soaked glory of his torso. My tongue lapped at his nipple, while my fingers followed the contours of his muscles. I realised distractedly that I was squirming on the barrel top, unable to assuage that consuming need to find friction.

Theo's hand slipped between my legs, a thick, long finger running up between the soaked folds and dipping in. I bit his pectoral muscle, digging my fingers into his obliques. He groaned, pumping his hand between my thighs, flicking just in the right spot inside.

Starbursts before my eyes, my head tilted back and I let out a muffled cry. Muted because Theo had placed a hand over my mouth to contain my release, even as he sought more from me with his fingers and the pad of his thumb on my clit. The reminder that we were in the same room as the others had an unusual effect on me. I am not experienced, Theo has been my one and only lover, yet in that instant I had never felt as turned on as I did right then.

I whimpered against his hand, then bit down gently on his palm. He made a rumbling sound, deep inside his chest; appreciative, eager, encouraging.

"Lean back," he growled low, a sexy, roughened whisper.

I obliged immediately, finding a wall behind me to prop myself against as Theo pulled my butt to the edge of the barrel's top, spreading my thighs wider, opening me up to his perusal. He licked his lips, gold eyes I couldn't stop looking at flicked up to mine, and then he was down on his knees, his face at just the right height, his tongue delving between my folds and making me shudder.

One hand held firmly to my hip to keep me pressed against his mouth, the other pinched one of my nipples, making my back arch, a sound escape which wasn't muffled and my hips to begin to rock, seeking more, needing more, desperate for more.

The hand at my breast reached up until he could cover my mouth - I hadn't realised I'd started to moan loudly - and the other at my hip moved between my legs and two fingers slipped inside. He sucked and licked as he pumped and flicked, and then just as I thought I couldn't take anymore, he gently bit down on my swollen nub and sent me skywards.

His lips replaced his hand at my mouth and the taste of me and him on my tongue made me jerk and twitch and then he was there, just at my entrance, his trousers somehow gone, his hard, broad head pressing in, seeking entry, stretching me deliciously as he slowly slid inside.

I was so wet he met little resistance, and within seconds he was buried deep, holding himself still as a breathless grunt escaped his lips, swallowed by my mouth.

"
Oraia
," he groaned against me. "I'm going to make you come around my cock now," he added, still not moving, but I could feel his hard length twitch inside me and my walls clench in response, stroking him wickedly. "Oh,
Aetheros
," he exclaimed and started to rock his hips steadily.

I was thinking that maybe it would be Theo who came next, the desperate thrusts he made were evidence of his heightened arousal. His hands moving feverishly over my skin, his lips brushing, kissing, tongue licking, soft noises escaping on each pump and grind.

But as I rocked back, meeting him on each forward thrust, pulling him deeper and deeper with each quiver that rolled through my centre, I realised I was once again so very close to that edge. Skin smooth against skin,
Pyrkagia
burning between us, tangling together in a way that I'd forever crave, making our movements frantic, our heartbeats desperate, our touch scorching and beautiful at the same time.

His lips wrapped around a nipple and with exquisite perfection he timed each pull with every single thrust, until I wasn't sure if I was being fucked or being sucked to orgasm, and that decadent thought sent my skin blazing with a flush of embarrassment, or maybe that was arousal as my mouth opened, I sucked in a breath of air, and Theo's hand clamped down hard over my lips again and held my scream of release inside.

Holy freaking sparks of blissful sensations. My entire body shuddered, not just my centre where I climaxed, but everywhere. My skin tingled, Fire licked up my arms, sweat rolled down my back, my joints locked, my chest threatened to burst apart, and then Theo's golden eyes were right there.