Terran Times 18 - Emerald Envisage (19 page)

“Yes,” she sobbed because he was sucking on her ear again and the twin areas of pleasure being teased together was almost more than she could bear. “Please, make love to me again.”

He thrust into her so hard that she had to grab two fistfuls of bedding to keep upright. A scream tore from her throat as he drove into her, going so deep he buried himself to the hilt. Although he had yet to move again, another orgasm ripped through her body. She knew after being with Hunter, she would never be able to be with anyone else because there was no way anyone could compare to the passion they created together.

Hunter started to pound into her fast and hard, showing he was out of control with passion
,
too. She tipped her rump up so he could go even deeper in her and thrust back to meet him halfway. Korin didn’t think it possible, but she could feel herself getting ready to come again.

“You’re mine,” he declared hoarsely. “I’m never going to let you go.”

Fine with her, she didn’t want to let him go either. She had no idea how her brothers were going to react to her bringing home a stray elf, but she never wanted to be without his touch. Leave it to her, the first male elf she’d seen besides her brothers and she had fallen instantly in love with him. She could almost hear her sisters mocking her already. Let them though, just so long as she got to go to bed with Hunter and wake up every morning in his arms.

After a couple more stokes, another orgasm rocked through her. She could feel him tensing behind her as he came
,
too. Hot semen shot inside her willing body, the walls of her vagina tightened around his cock, milking every drop out of him. After it was over, he lowered his head and breathed heavily in her ear.

After a few seconds, he whispered, “More.”

A smile came to her lips as she felt him get hard again. “More,” she confirmed.

* * * *

It was dark outside by the time Korin had showered and got dressed into a green T-shirt and old pair of black sweat pants Hunter had found for her. Since they were his, they were baggy on her, but they were better than her own clothes that had blood on them from the battle. Running a hand through her wet hair, she looked in the mirror at herself. The image that met her was one of a female who had been thoroughly loved. Her lips were swollen and red from kissing and there were several love bites on her neck. With a small frown, she flipped her hair over her shoulder to hide the worst of them. The last thing she needed was her brothers to see them before she could explain the whole situation to them. All three of them were hotheads and they would piss kittens if their youngest sister came home with hickeys all over her.

When she left the bathroom, she found Hunter sitting on the couch in the living room. He was holding her dagger, a worried frown on his face. What was it about that weapon that concerned him so much? She wished, not for the first time that day, she had even a shred of knowledge about her people. Before now she had never truly realized how little she knew about her heritage.

“Thirty years ago, one of our princes fell in love with a Water Elf,” Hunter began, showing he knew she had been watching him. “There was a problem though, not only was it forbidden for him to take another species of elf as a mate because he was royalty, but the female in question was just a commoner.”

She stood fixed in place. Shock making movement impossible. “Was that my father?”

Hunter nodded. “It must have been, this was his dagger. The markings on the hilt say so.”

She had often wondered about the strange letters etched on the handle of the dagger. But there had never been anyone around to teach her the language of the elves. Her oldest brother, Loredean
,
had a vague knowledge of it, but it was so remedial he had never been able to translate.

“Your father loved this Water Elf so much he gave up his kingdom for her,” Hunter continued. “They both left their clans and nobody ever heard from them again.”

Korin brought her hand to her throat as she thought about how much her parents must have loved each other. They gave up everything to be with each other. “I don’t even remember them,” she confessed in a whisper. “They died when I was still a baby.”

He raised his gaze and she was struck by the sadness she saw in his eyes. “What happened?”

“Some Red Ones, or rather some Fire Elves attacked our house.” Tears came to her eyes. “They held them off long enough for us to escape. I was so young I couldn’t even run yet so Loredean had to carry me.”

“That’s why the Fire Elves still attack your family.” He sat the dagger down on the table and walked over to her. “They know you are of royal blood and they want to wipe you off the earth because of it.”

It all of the sudden became too much for her. The tears started to fall freely from her eyes. “So where does that leave my brothers, sisters and me? From what you say, neither the Earth Elves or the Water ones will accept us because we are of mixed blood and if we stay among the humans, we will be open to attack from the Fire Elves.”

He put his arms around her and pulled her to his chest. “I’ll take care of you. You’ll never be alone as long as you have me and I won’t let anything harm you.”

Funny, she somehow believed him. Burying her face in his chest, she breathed in his scent and savored the comfort he was offering.

“Get your hands off my sister and step slowly away from her,” a harsh voice commanded.

Korin gasped as Hunter’s body tensed. She looked around him and saw her three brothers standing there, all of them armed with swords and mean glares. Loredean was pointing his sword at Hunter, the tip pressed into the small of his back. They must have snuck in while Hunter and she were talking. Or at least she hoped that was when they broke in. She would die a thousand deaths if they saw her while she was having sex.

Then her embarrassment suffered a quick death and the familiar feeling of aggravation took its place. Her brothers were always butting into her personal life and she was getting sick of them suffocating her with their over protectiveness. With a low growl, she pinned each of them with an angry glare. They, in turn, ignored her.

All of her brothers had the same blond hair as she did, although each and every one of them had green eyes, like their father. Loredean had a hat on and
,
though the brim was pulled down low, hiding his eyes, she knew they were dark with anger.

“How did you find me?” Korin asked, clutching at Hunter’s arms. If she kept enough of her body against his, then maybe they wouldn’t try to run him through with one of their blades.

“Your co-worker, Tammy, called and wanted to know if you were feeling any better,” Loredean supplied. “When we realized you had pulled a disappearing act, Avery tracked your path.”

At the mention of his name, Avery waved his hand sarcastically. He wasn’t wearing a hat, preferring to grow his hair longer in the front and sides in order to hide his ears. “I believe you were told to get your hands off our sister,” he drawled.

The third brother, Jace snorted in disgust. He was wearing a hat
,
too, but he wore the brim backward, revealing his eyes. Usually they were dancing, since he found all situations humorous. Not today though, they were full of fury. “Maybe we need to cut them off for him. Then he might take us serious.”

Not moving his hold on Korin, Hunter growled. “And maybe he needs to take those swords of yours and shove them up your asses.”

His body tensed as his hand shot for his waistband and she knew he was moving to draw a weapon. With a gasp, she wrapped her arms around his chest and plastered her body even closer to his. “No, they’ll hurt you and I couldn’t stand that.”

“No they won’t,” Hunter declared, but he relaxed.

“Then you will hurt them and I couldn’t stand that either.”

The anger melted from his face. “I meant what I said earlier. You’re mine and I won’t give you up.”

“Ewww…” Jace called. “Is your boyfriend always this nauseating?”

“I do know he’s stupid,” Loredean said, his voice hard with rage. “Almost as stupid as you, Korin. After all I have taught you, I would expect you to know better than to make nice with a strange elf.”

“Don’t you talk to her like that.” Hunter spun around, pulling a dagger out.

“I’ll talk to her anyway that I want,” Loredean shot back, getting into a fighting stance. “She’s my family and I am not about to see her get hurt by some male that’s looking to use her.”

“Stop! Both of you.” Korin put herself between the two of them and placed a hand on each of their chests. The hostility between the males was so thick it made it hard for her to breathe.

She realized then that there was no way her brothers would ever accept a strange male in their mists. No more than there was any way they would willingly let her leave with Hunter. The only way out of this without bloodshed would be for her to leave one or the other of them behind.

Her heart seemed to seize in her chest at the painful revelation. In the span of a few hours, she had grown to love Hunter. How that was possible, she had no clue, but the awful ache in her stomach told her it was true. Yes, she would have to walk away from him, but it was going to devastate her in the process. She must have shown her thoughts on her face because Hunter was gazing at her, panic in his eyes as he shook his head.

“No, you don’t have to do this. I can handle myself.”

“It’s the only choice I have right now,” the words came out ragged because there was a lump in her throat.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her close so he could whisper in her ear, “If you do walk out that door, don’t look back. Because if you do
,
then I will know you feel the same way about me as I do about you and nothing will stop me from looking for you. No matter how far away they take you, I will find you and make you mine forever.”

Goose bumps went down her arms at his words and her heart started to hammer in her chest. Judging by the intense look on his face, he wasn’t kidding. There was a raw possessiveness in his eyes. Giving him one last lingering kiss, she left the comfort of his arms and started toward the door. Her brothers didn’t move, keeping their weapons trained on Hunter.

“You touch him at all and you will lose me forever,” she vowed to them. After a tense moment, Loredean gave a slight nod and they lowered their swords. Korin spoke the next words low so only her eldest brother heard. “I will never forgive you for this.”

She walked away from her brother before she could see what his reaction might be because at that point she frankly didn’t give a damn. All she knew was that with each step she took she was getting further away from Hunter and she felt as if she were losing a piece of herself.

She could feel him staring at her. Willing her to look back, willing her to acknowledge their connection, willing her to admit that she loved him. As she reached the threshold of the door, she paused. Almost in slow motion, she turned her head and met his gaze. A look of triumph went over his face and she smiled in return.
Come for me,
she mouthed.
I’ll be waiting.

MYSTICAL RAPTURE

Stephani Hecht

“Get over here you little bugger.” Jorvin bent closer to her patient’s arm and tried in vain to find…well a vein. So far it had been a useless hunt, the blood vessels were much like her patient, non-responsive and lifeless.

“Damn,” she muttered when the chamber on the IV failed to show the flash of blood that would tell her she had achieved her goal. An errant hunk of her brown hair fell from its clip and she started to tuck it behind her ear, only to stop short when her fingers grazed along its pointed tip.

She looked around, guiltily, afraid someone had seen her slipup. Relief flooded her when she saw that it was just her and the comatose Mrs. Motgomery still in Trauma One and nobody had witnessed her massive mistake. The last thing she or her siblings needed was for her co-workers to find out what she really was.

An elf.

Since she was an elf passing herself off as a human, Jorvin had always lived by the motto
no attention is good attention.
Her brothers had been uttering that phrase to her since she had been old enough to repeat it back to them. Orphaned and separated from their own kind, she and her five other siblings had learned long ago they could only trust one another.

So in the six months that she’d worked as a nurse in the Flint city hospital, Jorvin had made sure to do nothing to attract attention to herself. She wore baggy scrubs to hide her lithe frame, kept her brown hair in a sloppy bun so the tendrils on the side shielded her pointed ears and, most of all, kept her mouth shut.

The door opened and two of her fellow nurses came sailing in, already in an animated discussion.

“Did you see the two new paramedics?” the taller of the two said. She had beautiful blonde hair that Jorvin would give her hind teeth for.

“You mean the brothers?” the shorter one responded.