Waking Her Tiger (6 page)

Teal bustled around and finally turned, looking for her.

Maddy lazily raised her hand. “Are you ready?”

“Yup. The guys are out back and waiting for you. Suran is appropriately attired, for a djinn.” Teal shrugged helplessly as if she had no idea what it should be.

Curious, Maddy got to her feet and launched herself in a slow arc to land next to Teal.

“Um, is that a new thing?”

Maddy laughed. “No. Since I can’t hunt, I jump. I do it very well.”

Teal grinned. “Any other odd habits?”

Maddy fluffed out her gown. “I also sit up like the rest of my family does when I hear a sound.”

The laughter from the guardian was unstoppable. Maddy didn’t blame her. A tiger sitting on its haunches with its front paws resting on its belly was an image that few folk had seen in their lives.

Teal shivered, and her clothing turned into a dress of soft blue. “There. I think we should get going. The last thing that I want is for Suran to come in here looking for you.”

“You don’t like him?”

Teal took her arm. “It isn’t that. The Crossroads are a dimensional space. We exist here in a balance of power and energy that should never be overwhelmed. Suran could blow it up in seconds.”

“Well, then, I guess we should get us out of here. I don’t want to endanger anyone.” She smiled brightly.

“You are comfortable with that thought.”

“I am a tiger living with prairie dogs...I have that thought a lot.”

Teal nodded and walked her into the afternoon light where a large Y-shaped platform was waiting. A small human woman was waiting on one blade of the stage; Suran was on the other.

“Oh, so that is djinn formal wear.” She said it absently as she walked onto her own segment where a podium waited with palm braces for her hands.

The wind fluttered her gown, and she stared at Suran. The tattoos on his chest were rising and fading as she looked at him. He was wearing a set of loose trousers, knee-high boots and a heavily embroidered sash at his waist. A calf-length vest covered with more designs and patterns in gold and gems left his arms exposed. Cuffs of precious gems, silver and gold from wrist to bicep banded his arms.

His dark-purple hair was free, waving down his back and tucked behind his ears. He looked splendid.

His smile as he looked at her was purposeful. There was something in his gaze that she recognized from her own. If she ran, he would be on her in seconds.

The mage looked up and smiled nervously. “Ready?”

Suran nodded. Maddy nodded.

“Right. A few words while I start the process.” The woman took a deep breath.

Maddy felt her beast stir and her magic come to the fore. It slowly trickled out of her, and she could see the brightness glowing in the flat surface of the platform.

On Suran’s side, she could see energy coursing along in a bright wave, circling in the joint where the legs of the platform connected.

“This union of bloodlines and power lines is a new feature of the Crossroads in an effort to increase the chances of the fey surviving in one way or another into the next generation. The addition of the djinn to this process is an ancient one but one that has not been pursued with the thought of balance. Suran, you have agreed to balance with Madeline and share her life.”

“I have.”

“Madeline, you have agreed to balance with Suran and share his life?”

“I have.”

The mage smiled. “Then, with the power granted to me by the mage guild, the shifter guild and councils, and the fey courts, I now set the balance.”

The magic pooled together until the different energies combined and power split down the centre and moved toward them equally.

Maddy held her breath as the power touched her palms and pushed into her, using her own magic to bind the djinn magic to her system.

She stood silent as her body fought the intruder. She had never liked getting inoculations. This was no exception.

The sun was baking her through the soft silk of her dress when she finally pulled her hands away from the podium.

It would be nice to say that she floated up the path to Suran, but she staggered. If there was ever a moment that her normal grace deserted her, this was it.

He caught her when she met him in the centre, and his hands on her elbows crackled with prickles of energy and her body matched him spark for spark. He leaned down and kissed her. She closed her eyes at the wave of energy that ran through her, and she moved her hands up his chest, placing her palms over his sternum and feeling the heartbeat under her hands.

Power swirled around them, and she felt air caressing her calves. Suran wrapped his arms around her, and she was flattened against him as his tongue teased at her until she mimicked him, flicker for flicker.

Maddy felt hot, cold, heavy, light, shadowed and exposed, all during that kiss. When she pulled away, his eyes were bright and blinding, even with the sunlight glinting off his skin. His eyes blazed like two stars.

A feminine voice cleared her throat. “Madeline, I have something for you.”

Teebie was standing with a box tucked under her arm. Her face was all smiles.

Suran slowly let her go, and the glow in his eyes was banked. “Go on; I will be here when you have received your gift.”

Teebie took her hand and pulled her aside. “In djinn culture, it is common for the bride to bring a dowry. In this case, your dowry is provided by the fey, but I think you still need a physical representation, so I brought these along for you.”

A pillar rose from the ground, and Teebie set the box down on it. She opened the carved wood box, and a brick of lead was inside. At her touch, the lead eased apart and became a treasure trove of gold jewellery.

Teebie put a necklace around her neck then another and so on until Maddy was wearing twenty-five pounds of gold on wrists, ankles, neck and waist.

Maddy looked at Teebie in amazement. “Is this so I won’t run away?”

Teebie laughed. “It is so that if you do choose to escape your mate, you can live among the human societies without raising the attention of your magic entering the world to track you. It is a resource to support yourself under the radar.”

“Why did you start with lead?”

Teebie finished sliding the last chain around her neck. “It is molecularly close to gold, so it is very easy to transform. As you master your new skills, you will gain an instinct for it.”

“So, the turning lead into gold was someone seeing a djinn?”

Teebie laughed. “They invited an alchemist to a wedding a few thousand years ago. The rest is now an urban legend or alchemist’s goal.”

Spike came forward and nudged Teebie aside. “Enough now. One hug and then they head off to their honeymoon back in the human world.”

Spike hugged her, congratulated her and wished her peace and self-control. Teebie wished her the same, adding, “You will get the hang of the skin tone eventually.”

Surprised, Maddy looked down at her hands for the first time, really looked. Deep blue was blooming under her skin and spreading across her body. “What the hell?”

Spike sighed, “He gets half of you, you get half of him. His tiger stripes look pretty, don’t they?”

Maddy turned to look, and sure enough, Suran was marked with the pointed bands that she wore when she was on four feet. He was admiring the change, and he grinned at her as she walked toward him.

She put her hands on her hips and looked him up and down. “You look stunning.”

“And you look beautiful beyond words. Are you ready to leave?”

Maddy looked around at the tiny gathering, and she nodded. “I am. I don’t want to injure anyone when we come together, and with the way my body is shaking, that is more likely than not.”

His eyes started to glow again. “This way, Lady Yffa.”

“Oh, I get to be a lady? That is new.”

He kept his arm around her and walked her to the transport area of the Meditation Centre.

Teal and Tony came with them, took their charms and had them sign the djinn and prairie dog registers. The documents would provide them with official authorization to be together.

With everything legal, recorded and all congratulations administered, they wrapped their arms around each other and were returned to the human world.

She looked around and gasped at the view. They were standing on a wide balcony overlooking the pounding waves. “Where are we?”

“In a shielded estate locked behind nine barriers of wards. Nothing that escapes our control can harm the environment.”

His hands tightened on her, and she squeaked as magic wrapped around them and transported them to the roof where a bed was covered in white sheets that rustled in the wind.

She grinned and held up her metal-clad arms. “Do I take this off or what?”

Suran smiled and kissed her softly. “The beauty of being our kind, the fabric melts away and the metal doesn’t get in the way.”

As he held her, she felt his skin press against her from her breasts to mid-thigh. He wasn’t kidding. The fabric of her gown just floated away and his sash and trousers were nowhere to be found.

She traced the stripes on his skin. “I like your markings.”

“I like your skin.” He stroked her spine and cupped her buttocks.

“I like—”

He lifted her in his arms and carried her to the bed, his lips locked to hers. Apparently, the courtship was over and foreplay had begun. Maddy wrapped her arms around his neck and held on. She could use some relief from the pressure under her skin; it was part lust, part magic, and all needed to vent. He was offering her what she needed.

She felt the length of him along her thigh as he kissed her and slowly moved down her body, paying special attention to her breasts as he moved toward the joining of her thighs.

Maddy closed her eyes and arched her neck, reaching for his hair and holding him tight as he parted her thighs and ran his tongue along her slit.

Her folds opened, and the pulsing heat answered the slide of his appendage along her skin. He slid his hand under her thighs, wrapping his hands around them, the cold metal of his cuffs pressed into her skin as his mouth worked on her.

She moaned, and her voice rumbled low in the sunset. She pulled him against her and tried to rock her hips, but he held her still. Maddy hissed, and as arousal built in her sex, magic started to build up.

She released his head and clutched the silk on either side of her hips, watching her now-blue skin shimmering with power.

His tongue flicked into her, lapping at her before he moved and grazed her clit in a slow pattern of torture that pushed her toward release at a minute pace.

Suran’s hands on her thighs heated as she struggled to gain a firmer contact on her clit or deeper inside her. It was a fight. She wanted release, she wanted to roar satisfaction to the stars, but he had her pinned and was holding her tight.

Her power started to swirl around them, and the bed pitched and tilted. Wind whipped the bedding and tugged at her hair. To her shock, she felt strength invade her limbs, and she made up her mind.

She focused and bucked hard, dazing him. She flipped Suran to his back and straddled him, running her nails down his chest. She could see the light of her eyes casting shadows across his skin. He smiled and cupped her hips.

She reached between them and stroked the long and thick column of his cock. Looking into his eyes, she rose up and positioned him at her opening and eased down until she engulfed the head.

His body shuddered under hers, and the glow covering her skin bloomed inside his. His hands cupped her hips and worked her onto him. She narrowed her eyes and raked his skin again, seeking the response that his tiger would have.

His face showed his surprise as the instinct kicked in.

Instead of pulling her down, he lifted her off him, sat up and positioned her on her knees. Moments later, he slid two fingers into her with a hard and fast pulse before he withdrew them and pressed his cock into her to the hilt.

She grunted and clutched at the bedding, holding fast as her mate took her. There was no slow build up. He pounded into her with short jerks of his hips. The chains around her neck scraped against her sensitive nipples with every incursion. She felt the roar building, and when her orgasm struck, she let it go.

Suran’s own roar accompanied thrusts so hard, she fell forward and braced herself on her arms. Maddy gasped for breath and groaned when Suran crushed her into the bedding.

The bed itself thudded to the top of the home a moment later.

Suran wrapped an arm under her and pulled her to one side. His voice rumbled in the growing darkness. “That was not what I expected.”

She laughed. “The tigers have pretty basic reactions when clawed. Fight or fuck are usually the only options.”

“You seemed fairly confident which one I would pick.”

She turned her head and smiled. “I had you inside me and was in possession of your full attention. I knew which one you would pick.”

“I am still inside you.” He pressed a kiss to her neck.

“I noticed that.”

She had also noticed that he was recovering quickly.

“This time, I want to see you.”

She turned to him and kissed him, running her thumbs along his pointed ears. To her shock, he returned the caress, and she felt a new connection running from her ears to her groin.

She gasped and pulled back. “Did my ears get pointy?”

He leaned forward and ran is tongue around the edge, far up beyond where her ears used to end. She shuddered at the caress. It was nearly the same sensation as his tongue between her thighs.

She shook as he worked his tongue around the tip, taking it into the heat of his mouth before moving to the other side and doing the same thing.

She had been wet from their previous coupling, but she could feel the slick heat around him as he worked her newly sensitive ears. If anyone had told her that that would be an erogenous zone, she would have laughed in their faces.

In response, she ran her fingers up and down the rack of rings on each ear. He shuddered and his cock flexed inside her.