Revealed (23 page)

“Absolutely.” Taking her hand, he led the way.

Inside the privacy of the small tent, she settled herself onto the tiny padded bench barely big enough for two and looked up at Rast. “Are you ready?”

His eyes, which had been blazing with possessive rage at Y’dex just a moment before, were suddenly half-lidded with desire. “More than ready.” He produced a small silver ceremonial knife about as long as her palm. It was intricately carved with a curving blade. “Just tell me how you want to do it.”

Nadiah bit her lip. “I’ve only shared blood once before and that was when I was a child, with Y’dex. Thank the Goddess they just had him bleed into a cup and made me drink it—at least I didn’t have to take it from his arm.” She clenched her fists. “I’d sooner eat a live mud worm than taste his blood again.”

Rast made a face. “I wouldn’t be too quick to say that if I were you. Have you ever tasted one of those things? They’re not exactly fine dining.”

Nadiah put a hand over his. “I saw the look on your face when you took the challenge. I know how distasteful it was to you.”

“That’s all right, sweetheart.” He cupped her cheek gently. “Anything for you. I mean that.”

Nadiah flushed with pleasure. “I know you do.” She looked down at her hands shyly. “I…I think we’d better get going. They probably won’t give us much time for this.”

Rast sighed. “Unfortunately not. Okay, how does this go?”

“I…I believe you cut your wrist and let me drink of you,” she murmured.

He raised an eyebrow. “And that’s going to form a bond between us?”

Nadiah nodded. “But it will be fresh and young and the bond I have with Y’dex is old and hardened. Sort of like the difference between a sapling and a fully mature tree.”

“But if I’m the sapling and he’s the tree, how the hell—”

She squeezed his hand. “Don’t be discouraged, Rast. Trees can rot away from the inside out and saplings can have more strength than you can imagine.”

“I’m sure.” Rast smiled and squeezed her hand in return. “So that means Y’dex and I are going to put you between us and do a psychic version of tug-of-war?”

“If you mean that you will both be pulling on me, trying to draw me to you then yes, you’re right,” Nadiah said.

He frowned. “But won’t that
hurt
you?”

She took a deep breath. “It will be agonizing. But not nearly as painful as spending the rest of my days with Y’dex. So please, Rast, pull
hard
.”

“I will,” he promised grimly. “But first I’ve got to get something to pull with.” Raising the tiny silver knife, he sliced firmly across the blue bracelet of veins that ran along the underside of his wrist.

Nadiah bit her lip when she saw the rich crimson begin to flow from his skin. “Oh Rast, you shouldn’t have sliced so deep!”

“Don’t worry about me.” His deep voice had taken on a soft, sensual tone that made her feel like her skin was prickling all over her body. “Just drink of me, Nadiah.” He held his bleeding wrist to her lips, his eyes half-lidded with lust again. “Drink deep.”

Feeling hot and cold at the same time, Nadiah flattened her tongue and pressed it to the warm flow, lapping long and slow as she took his blood into herself. She’d expected the salty, metallic taste she remembered from the time she’d been forced to drink Y’dex’s blood but somehow, it wasn’t like that. The scarlet ribbon that flowed from Rast’s arm into her mouth tasted sweet and spicy and hot at the same time—as though he had fire wine flowing through his veins. It went to Nadiah’s head at once, as though she’d been drinking a rare and expensive liquor and made her feel warm and tingly all over.

She drank for what seemed like a long time but Rast didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he stroked her hair and murmured encouragement, urging her to take more, to take as much as she needed. Somehow Nadiah found herself in his lap, with her mouth still locked to his wrist. If she’d had any doubt about how he felt about this, the hot hard lump of his cock pressing against her ass erased it. Rast wanted this as much as she did and he was getting just as much pleasure from the intimate act, if not more.

Goddess,
she thought, as the new bond began to form inside her, like a sapling putting down roots.
He feels so good, tastes so right. If only we could seal our bond after this as a bonded couple is supposed to.
Of course, to seal the bond with Rast, she would have to let him change the color of her eyes and Nadiah knew they couldn’t do that. But, gods, how she
wanted
to. Wanted to feel that hot, hard ridge of his shaft thrust deep inside her pussy, filling her up, making her Rast’s forever…

“One minute. You have one minute remaining.” Magistrate Licklow’s pompous voice through the curtain shattered her sweet fantasy. Nadiah sighed and, with a final lick, released her beloved’s wrist. “Oh!” She looked at it in surprise—now that she was finished sucking, the slice was already beginning to seal itself. “It’s already closing.”

“I’ve always been a fast healer,” Rast said dismissively. He shifted her on his lap, allowing her to feel his throbbing cock pressed against her once more. “Uh, are you sure you got enough? I’ll be more than happy to cut myself again if you need me to.”

“I got enough,” Nadiah assured him. “But there is
one
more thing I’d like to do,” she added with sudden inspiration. “Give me the knife.”

“What for?”

“Hurry—we don’t have much time!”

Rast handed her the small silver knife hilt first. “All right. Sorry.”

“It’s all right.” Bracing against the pain, Nadiah stabbed herself in the pad of her right index finger and watched as a single crimson drop welled up.

“Wait a minute.” Rast turned her so he could see her face. “What are you doing?”

“I want you to drink of me too,” Nadiah told him breathlessly. “To remember me always in case…just in case,” she ended lamely.

“You think I could
ever
forget you, sweetheart?” Rast’s voice was low and demanding. “Because I’m telling you now, that’s not gonna happen. You’re burned into my heart forever.”

“Oh, Rast…” Nadiah had to blink back tears at his sweet words. “That’s wonderful but I still want you to. Please?”

“As you wish,” he murmured. Taking her hand in his, he brought her finger to his lips. Then, keeping their eyes locked the entire time, he slipped her wounded fingertip into his hot, wet mouth and sucked gently.

Nadiah’s breath caught in her throat at the erotic promise in his eyes and the soft suction of his lips.
I want you,
the look on his face said.
You and only you.

Goddess, Rast, I want you to,
she wanted to say.
Want you and love you so much. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, showing you how much…

“Time,” Magistrate Licklow declared, once again interrupting her
 
fantasies. “You must now exit the tent.”

Rast didn’t stop sucking at once. He took his time, swirling his tongue around her finger and lapping gently at the wounded tip before slowly letting it slide from his mouth. “Delicious,” he murmured, placing a soft kiss on her finger before giving her back her hand. “I bet all of you tastes good. Sure would like a chance to find out.”

Nadiah blushed when she realized what he was talking about.
He wants to taste me,
she thought, her cheeks getting hot with pleasure and embarrassment.
Wants to taste more than my finger—wants to taste me
there
, between my legs.
Gods, how she wished it could be so. That they were together alone after their bonding ceremony and Rast was about to change the color of her eyes.

But the sound of Magistrate Licklow clearing his throat impatiently popped her bubble. With a sigh, she realized there was no escaping the harsh reality of the situation. She was about to undergo the most agonizing process a Tranq Prime female could be subjected to, aside from childbirth. And some who had endured both said even childbirth was better. But since there was no way to the end of her road except through the fiery curtain of pain, Nadiah resolved to grit her teeth and go through it, no matter what the cost.

“We have to go,” she told Rast.

He sighed. “I guess we don’t have a choice.”

“Unfortunately not.” Reluctantly, Nadiah rose from his lap. “Do you feel the bond between us?”

He nodded. “It’s like…like someone tied a rope around both of us but the rope is somehow alive. Maybe more of a vine than a rope…” He shook his head. “I can’t describe it but it’s there, all right.”

“Good,” Nadiah felt a surge of relief. Up until this moment she hadn’t been completely sure if his human blood would allow them to form a bond or not. It was good
 
to know that it was possible to forge a psychic tie between the two of them. Now if only she knew if it was strong enough to defeat Y’dex…

“I like it,” Rast said in a low voice. “It feels…right somehow. Like we’re, I don’t know, plugged into each other.”

“I like it too,” Nadiah admitted, blushing.

He frowned. “But aside from being newer, isn’t it the same as the bond you have with Y’dex? I remember Sylvan saying that if your blood bond came loose and you didn’t have a soul to anchor to you might…might die.” He cleared his throat. “Of course that can’t happen now, can it? Now that we’re bonded too?”

Nadiah bit her lip. For a moment the truth almost came out…but no, she didn’t want Rast bonded to her permanently out of a sense of duty. “The bond between myself and Y’dex is very old and very strong,” she said carefully. “It’s difficult to replace such a bond.”

In fact, it was impossible but she didn’t want to say that. The weak, new bond she had with Rast was only surface deep—like a plant which had rooted itself in loose, sandy soil. Her bond with the hated Y’dex was more like a mighty giant of the forest, a tree whose roots went miles underground. Trying to fill the gap those roots would leave when she pulled out his half of the bond with a newer, weaker connection would be like
… It would be like trying to seal a gaping hole in my heart with one of Rast’s tiny human Band-Aids,
she thought grimly.

The only solution was to anchor
her
half of the stronger bond to another soul, to put those same roots deep down in the soil of another being, but she could not do that without Rast’s permission. And she wasn’t about to tell him that.

“Difficult but not impossible, right?” Rast frowned. “Just tell me you’ll be all right, Nadiah.”

She shook her head. “I can’t—not absolutely. But please, Rast, don’t let that stop you—pull on it as hard as you can to bring me to you. And while you’re doing that, I’ll be trying to rip the roots of Y’dex’s half of our bond from my soul.”

He looked at her doubtfully. “Can you do that?”

“I hope so,” Nadiah said grimly. “I certainly intend to try.”

“Good.” Rast pulled her to him suddenly and gave her a long, hard, hot kiss, his mouth demanding and receiving entrance to hers as he claimed her for his own. At last he pulled back. “Don’t worry about anything, sweetheart,” he murmured, looking into her eyes. “We’re going to get through this together.”

“I know.” She smiled at him gratefully and then lifted her chin. “I know we’ll get through it because I’d rather die than be bonded to Y’dex. No matter what it costs me, I
will
be free of his bond. Even if it means my death.”

* * * * *

Seeing the set of her chin and the grim determination in her eyes reminded Rast again of why he loved her so much. On the outside she looked so fragile and feminine, so delicate and lovely. But inside she had a soul of steel—a cool determination to do whatever it took to get the job done. He admired that in a woman—admired the hell out of it. But he still didn’t like her fatalistic attitude toward breaking the blood bond.

“Hey, don’t talk like that,” he protested as they exited the tent together. “Everything’s going to be fine and nobody’s going to die. Except that idiot fiancée of yours if he dares to lay a finger on you again.” He gave Y’dex a glare as he said it, letting the other male know what was coming.

“I hope you’re right,” Nadiah murmured but there was still something in her dark blue eyes Rast didn’t like. Something that looked like a mixture of determination and resignation. But that didn’t make sense, did it?

He wanted to ask her about it but they were already taking their places for the final part of the blood challenge. The line-up of rocks had been cleared away and Magistrate Licklow had Y’dex stand on one end of the challenge floor and Rast stand on the other. Nadiah, he positioned exactly between them.

Well, maybe not
exactly
between them. Actually, Rast saw, he put her a foot or two
closer
to Y’dex. But she shook her head firmly and said something to the magistrate under her breath. Frowning, he nodded reluctantly and called for one of the male attendants.

The male ran up, bringing something that looked like a tape measure only instead of tape, it laid down a long, thin, glowing blue trail marked at intervals with vertical red lines. He ran between Y’dex and Rast, obviously taking measurements and when he was finished, Nadiah went to stand in the exact center of the blue line, on the widest red marking. Turning to Rast, she gave him a wink and he grinned and gave her a thumbs up. Leave it to Nadiah to keep the magistrate from cheating any way she could.