Dark Sidhe Claimed (2 page)

Bile rose in Tama’s throat at the scent of the charred skin and hair. One soldier’s wing hung uselessly from his shoulder, bent at an unnatural angle as he tried to drag himself to his feet. More than ever, she needed to get away from this place. She hadn’t spotted Dahire yet, but she was sure he was there somewhere—likely lurking close enough to keep an eye on the battle, but far enough away to be safe. Perhaps she could use the Seelie soldiers’ arrival to her advantage. As long as the Dark Sidhe were distracted by them, she might be able to get free long enough to teleport safely away.

Instead of continuing to struggle, she went limp in her captor’s arms, hoping he’d be forced to drop her deadweight in order to defend himself. Her hope crumbled as he pulled her closer and whispered in her ear.

“Nice try, Princess.”

She peered at him through her lashes in time to see him nod at the other man. Then there was nothing but darkness as his wings folded around both of them, blocking everything from view. A sudden rush of magic shook her, followed by the unmistakable sensation of her physical form dissipating. She’d gravely underestimated her opponent. She hadn’t expected him to have the strength or the skill to transport more than one person at a time.

If she could have felt her body, her heart would have lodged in her throat. She could only hope that the effort of carrying her would weaken him enough to give her a chance to escape. Of course, that would depend on how closely behind the other man followed. She had no idea how far they’d traveled or even in what direction. Without warning, they slammed into the magical equivalent of a brick wall. Still wrapped in his wings, she crashed to the ground, her body whole again. The impact of the cold earth beneath her and his warm body on top of her forced the air from her lungs.

For several long moments, they lay panting as he immobilized her with his bright, dark eyes. Pinned nearly face to face, it was impossible not to notice his wild beauty. Firm, sculpted lips, slightly parted, begging to be kissed. His warm breath bathed her skin as his rapid breathing slowly returned to normal.

He stared at her mouth for what seemed like a year, finally raising his thumb to trace the line of her lips. A tendril of desire knotted in her middle as his thumb rasped across her skin. The urge to draw the digit in her mouth and taste him was nearly impossible to resist, but somehow she managed. Just.

*****

Kier stared at the woman beneath him, resisting the need to grind against her supple body like an untried youngling. Nestled in the cradle of her thighs, he found the impulse almost painful to ignore. Gripped with the sudden need to see her—to truly see her—he brushed the tangle of brown hair from her face. “Drop your glamour,” he commanded.

Her lips tightened as if she were about to argue, but then she shrugged slightly and her eyes fluttered closed. At once, the spell receded. Her wings were visible. In muted shades of greens and browns they lay spread beneath her like the finest silk.

Her eyes opened, brilliant green replacing the brown that had been there earlier. Her hair brightened as red and gold strands now threaded through the brown, reminding him of windswept autumn leaves. A dusting of freckles remained, though, highlighting the bridge of her nose and her cheekbones.

Her mouth was still the same—full and luscious looking. At the moment, her teeth were sinking into her lush lower lip. Gently, he pulled it free, carefully running his thumb over the abused flesh. Her eyes widened as she watched him as if waiting to see what he’d do next. He swallowed a grim chuckle, feeling as if he were doing the same thing.

He shook his head. What he needed to do was figure why they hadn’t passed through the barrier between the human and faery realms instead of wondering how she’d taste if he kissed her, how she’d feel welcoming him into her body, welcoming Rylan. His cock jerked at the thought of filling her slowly, sharing her with his brother. He could tell she’d felt it. Her body stiffened and her cheeks flushed. He could practically feel the heat radiating from her skin.

Stifling a growl of frustration, he pushed to his feet and hauled her up with him. Holding her wrist in one hand, he prodded the invisible barrier with the other. Tugging her forward, they again bounced off the magical barrier.

“What do you want with me?” she demanded.

“Kier! What are you waiting for?” Rylan’s voice sounded from the other side of the veil.

“Kier?” she asked. “That’s your name?”

He glanced at her and nodded sharply, turning back to the barrier. “I can’t get through,” he muttered.

“Well, Kier,” she began. “Now would be a good time to let me go. Sooner or later Dahire’s men are going to find you, and unless you can get back to the Unseelie Court, you’re going to be toast.”

He frowned at her. His confusion must have been evident, because she waved her hand.

“Toast is a human expression. Essentially, there’s no way you can fight off all of them—even with the other guy. You’ll be destroyed. The best thing for all of us is if you let me go. I’ll disappear, you can go back to wherever you came from, and Dahire and his soldiers can freeze their asses off in this snow.”

The veil shimmered, and she jumped back as Rylan walked through it, appearing next to her. “We’re under strict orders to find you and bring you to our king. Oisin wishes to have a discussion with you.”

“That’s super. Then he should come and talk to me instead of attempting to have me abducted.”

Rylan frowned. “He has no wish to sully himself with the human world.”

“Well, I have no wish to enter the Unseelie Court. I’m not stupid. I know what goes on there.”

A wicked grin split his brother’s face, and Kier couldn’t contain his chuckle.

“Let me guess,” Rylan said. “We practice unnatural magic, upsetting the balance of earth and sky. We roast Seelie babies for supper and ravish every Seelie maiden we can get our hands on, willing or not. Is that about the sum of it?”

Kier glanced at Tama. Her lips pressed together as if she were trying desperately to keep from speaking.

“Granted, I think I can speak for my brother when I say we’re more than tempted to ravish you.” He ran his fingertip along the upper swell of one of her wings, watching intently as her eyes closed on a shudder. “But, something tells me you wouldn’t be unwilling.”

 Her eyes flew open. “I don’t even know your name, and you think I’m going to let you anywhere near me?”

“It’s Rylan. And I do.”

Bright color stained her cheeks, and she looked about to retort when her gaze darted beyond Rylan. “They’re coming. Let me go.
Please.
I can’t go back with them.”

“They won’t take you,” Kier growled against her ear as he glanced toward the east.

“There are too many of them,” she whispered, her voice harsh.

“She’s right,” Rylan muttered. Stepping back, he spread his arms, whispering an incantation. Kier felt the effort as if he were the one pulling on the barrier. His muscles burned with exertion as Rylan drew the veil between the worlds around them like a bubble, sealing it with a murmured spell.

In times of heightened emotion, it wasn’t unusual to experience what his twin felt. It was the same for Rylan. With the combination of the Seelie horde searching for them and the intoxicating nearness of the woman pressed between them, Kier’s senses were ready to burst.

The pursuing warriors swept toward their makeshift shelter. Kier didn’t have any doubt it would hold, but whether or not the Seelie sensed their presence was another matter. Tama trembled with fear. Oddly, she seemed more frightened of her own people than she did of them.

“You’ve gotta be kidding,” Tama whispered. “Like they’re not going to notice this giant bulge in the veil?”

Keeping his gaze on the horizon, Rylan answered. “The barrier between the worlds is neither straight nor smooth. They won’t notice.”

“I hope you’re right.”

He spared her a brief glance. “I do, too, Princess.”

Chapter Three

Muffled voices filled with anger and frustration drifted to them through the protective shield as the Seelie soldiers searched the border. Tama froze as Dahire alighted next to their hiding place. Her breath caught in her throat as he turned to look at her, but she realized he couldn’t see her. He only saw the vast expanse of the veil.

Rylan slowly stepped closer and rested his hands on her shoulders. Comfort trickled into her body at his touch. She couldn’t believe she could find reassurance at the touch of an Unseelie fae, but one look at Dahire’s icy blue gaze and she knew she was safer with these two than she would ever be with him.

Dahire stepped closer, and Tama had to close her eyes. Rylan’s lips brushed her ear, his hushed words stirring her hair. “Silence. No sudden movements.”

Opening her eyes, she nodded once—slowly—to show she understood, her gaze fixed on Dahire as he stalked around the area, berating his troops for not besting the Unseelie scum and failing to capture her. Her hands tightened into fists at her sides, her short nails digging into her palms.

No matter what happened, she wouldn’t return to court with him. She missed her home in the faery realm, but not enough to sacrifice her freedom. Life with Dahire would be no better than slavery. He would dress her in the finest of gossamer silks and shower her with jewels, but she would be nothing more to him than a tool, a means to control their people. A means to defeat the Unseelie and bring them to heel. He planned to use her power against anyone who crossed him. He’d told her as much before she’d run away.

Of course, at the moment, her power was practically non-existent. The constant exposure to iron had seen to that. After such a long time, she might never recover her abilities. She could still communicate with animals and plant life, the same as any faery, but she’d had additional, more specialized powers.  Unlike others of her race, she could also control the elements. If Dahire had that skill at his command, he could force his will on anyone he chose.  She could refuse, but she’d seen him torture the loved ones of other Sidhe who had refused to do his bidding. There weren’t many people she was close to, but she refused to let them suffer because of her.

Dahire screamed his frustration at the sky, drawing her attention back to the present. In a fit of rage, he directed an energy bolt toward a group of his soldiers. A bright flash tore through the ground in front of Tama’s hiding place, scarring the earth and startling a strangled sound from her throat.

Rylan slid his hand from her shoulder to cover her mouth. “Shh,” he whispered. She nodded, but he didn’t remove his hand. Instead, his other arm circled her waist, drawing her firmly against his body. His warmth soaked into her, and inexplicably long, dormant desire slowly radiated from where his hand rested on her belly and outward though her body. His fingertips traced lazy figures over her abdomen, and her head lolled back against his shoulder.

Barely noticing as the Seelie soldiers left the area, she squirmed against the growing ridge pressing into the cleft of her ass. Her breasts felt full, almost swollen as her nipples hardened to tight, aching peaks. Her sex grew slick, and the threat of Dahire and his men faded from her mind, replaced by thoughts of Rylan or Kier touching her. Or, better yet, both men touching her at the same time.

Kier turned to look at them, lust burning brightly in his dark eyes. His heated gaze followed the motion of his brother’s fingers as Rylan woke the need within her. Kier moved closer, looking mesmerized by the sight of his brother’s hand on her body. His broad chest skimmed her breasts, effectively trapping her between them as he leaned forward and brushed kisses along her jaw line.

She shouldn’t be giving in to this. She should be fighting to get away.  Rylan had said that their king wanted to have a discussion with her, but in her experience, ‘discussion’ was nothing more than a euphemism for an order. The last thing she needed was to end up with another king who planned to use her for his own ends. Besides, who knew when Dahire and his men would be back? Whether she stayed with Kier and Rylan or not, they needed to leave this place. And she was fairly certain the iron in her pocket was preventing her from crossing the border into Faery, but she wasn’t willing to let it go. It was one of her few weapons against Dahire.

“I need to leave,” she whispered, pulling Rylan’s hand from her mouth.

“You need to stay,” Kier murmured against the side of her neck. “You need to stay with us.”

“I thought you wanted to bring me to your king,” she breathed as he nipped the soft flesh with his teeth.

“We want to keep you safe.” Rylan punctuated his words with open-mouthed kisses along the sensitive curve of her wing. “We can do that more efficiently from within the court.”

She closed her eyes at the onslaught of sensation and tried to focus on her argument. “I’m Seelie. You’re…not. Why do you even care?”

Kier frowned. “You can’t tell me that you didn’t feel the connection between us the moment we touched. Even through your fear, you sensed that there was more between us than hunter and prey.”

The rough timbre of his voice slid unapologetically down her spine to throb in her womb. Though her instinct was to deny it—to deny them—she couldn’t. She’d felt something in them that defied definition. It defied explanation. She was drawn to them in a way that she’d never been drawn to anyone else. Part of her wanted to believe it was the rush of fear and excitement, but part of her wanted to believe it was something more. And another, rather large part of her wanted to stop analyzing everything and simply experience this moment with them.

Kier cupped her face and tilted her head back, capturing her mouth with his own. Her lips parted on a gasp, and he wasted no time delving inside to taste her. A whimper escaped her as he pressed himself fully to her body. She barely had a moment to register the fact that there were two, hard cocks pushing insistently against her when Kier suddenly pulled back.

Tama forced her leaden eyelids open to see him clutching his thigh. “What—?”

His eyes narrowed, and he dropped to his knees before her. Rough hands tugged at the button and zipper closure of her jeans. With a sinking feeling, she knew he’d discovered her only protection against other Sidhe.