Chapter 33

Chapter Thirty-Three

T allon regained consciousness again as I was maneuvering his body to remove the shirt and inspect the damage. "Why are we on the floor?"

"Because you are heavy." I reluctantly pulled my hands away from his bare torso and settled back on my heels as I looked at him. "I couldn't move you to the bed."

He was quiet as he looked me over, his eyes bright and alert in a way they shouldn't have been given how recently he'd lost so much blood. "We are in the Beyond, Odyssa."

"Yes, I've been meaning to ask you about that," I replied, my voice far too casual. "How did I transport us here when I've never been here myself?"

His eyes were fixed on my face, a look akin to wonder in them that sent the silver there swirling. He reached up to cup my face, wincing as he did so.

"Will you please stay still?" I asked with a sigh. When he still didn't reply, I tugged at the open side of his shirt. "Take this off, please, so I can clean and stitch your side."

"If you wanted my shirt off, there were far easier ways to accomplish that," he said, though he assisted in getting the blood-soaked fabric off his body. It fell to the floor with a wet sound.

"Why did you step between us?" I asked, picking up the damp cloth I'd brought with me and setting about cleaning the blood away from the wound. His muscles twitched beneath my touch. This was hardly the first time I'd seen his torso, and now was not the time for my body to be reacting to the feel of the hard muscle beneath the warm skin. Not when the warm skin was covered in blood.

I focused on my task and gently wiped away the worst of the blood in silence, waiting for his answer.

He shifted, grunting softly until he was sitting up straighter, and then his hand was on the side of my face again, his fingers splaying across my cheeks and down beneath my jaw. His touch was warm and sticky with the remnants of his own blood as it transferred to my skin. For whatever reason, I didn't mind. "You need to ask?"

"Yes," I said. I gently pulled his hand away from my face and took the rag to it, using it to wipe uselessly at my own hands before I finally raised my eyes to his. There was still blood on his hands, as well as over the rest of his torso, but the rag was already saturated with blood. "You stepped in front of a knife for me, Tallon. Of course I need to ask."

He chuckled, the sound falling off into a groan as the movement tugged at his side.

"You're going to hurt yourself even more," I scolded, bending to poke at the skin around the wound. The bleeding had slowed some, now sluggishly leaking, and with most of the blood washed away, it didn't look nearly as bad as it had seemed at first. It was deep, though, deep and jagged at the edges.

"Odyssa, look at me." He tugged my hands away from his side and held them with one of his own in his lap. The other returned to my face, his thumb stroking along my cheek. "I told you no more harm would come to you in that castle, and I meant it. Do not worry about me; I will heal quickly. You would not have."

"I—"

His hand moved to my throat again, grip firm but not tight. His eyes sparkled as my breath caught. "And I may have been bleeding at the time and trying to calm you down, but don't think I didn't notice how this affected you."

His words should have stoked the fire in my belly back to blazing, but they drenched it in ice-cold water instead as the Beyond came back to my mind. He seemed to notice the change and let his hand drop slowly. I let him, but was quick to add it to the pile of hands in his lap. "We need to get your wound cared for, Tallon, before you ruin everything by bleeding on it. Can you stand?"

"I can," he said quietly but made no attempt to move.

Swallowing down a sigh, I stood, holding my hand out to him. I was surprised he took it, but he did, and together, we got him on his feet, though he still leaned heavily against me. The atmosphere in the room had changed, still charged with the aftermath of what we'd just done, but it was colder now, awkward. I hated it, even though it was likely for the best. Even though I had caused it.

"Where do you want me?" His words were rushed out on an exhale, and looking up at his face, I saw he'd grown pale again.

"Gods above, Tallon," I cursed, shifting to take more of his weight and tugging him towards the bed.

"Wrong god," he said, dragging out the last word into a groan as I settled him on his back against the pillows. He panted for a moment before attempting a smirk that was more a grimace than anything else. "Mine's just down the hall most likely, though, if you truly want to meet him."

"I don't think that would be wise." I pulled the plush bedding onto the floor, trying to keep from ruining it more than I already had just by touching it with my bloody hands. My mind kept trying to throw images of the Beyond back at me, but I pushed them away and focused on the still-weeping wound in Tallon's side. The bloody mess should have made me hesitant if nothing else, but apparently, the sight of his naked torso and his tensed muscles overcame that just slightly, and I found my cheeks flushing again and my fists clenching to keep from reaching out to touch him. "You need stitches."

He shook his head, reaching for me as I turned away to go fetch clean water. "No."

"Tallon, there's a stab wound in your side. I promise you, it does need stitches." Did he not want me to touch him, to care for him this way? I tried to ignore the way my stomach knotted at that. This was about him and the fact that he'd thrown himself in front of a knife for me while I'd been frozen in shock. If he wanted someone else to care for him, I could do that much for him, at least. "I can find someone else to do it if you don't want me to, but we need to stop the bleeding. I have done this before. I promise I won't injure you further."

"That isn't what I meant," he said, his brows furrowing. He took my hand in his, tugging me up to stand by his head. "It will heal on its own soon. I merely need to rest. You cleaned it, and that will be enough. Here, my powers are stronger. Trust me, please, Odyssa?"

I searched his face, but again, there was no sign of a lie, not like the first days at Castle Auretras. "Fine, but I am still going to bandage it. Your bedding might already be ruined, but it doesn't need to get any worse."

"I'm not bothered by a little blood." He cocked his head. "Are you? I didn't consider what memories this might bring?—"

"Don't. I'm fine," I said abruptly, moving away from the bed to collect the bandages from where they sat in the entryway floor. I hadn't even considered it, the similarities between this and my mother, myself, and Talyssa. "Blood doesn't bother me. Not anymore, not like this."

"When does it bother you?"

I returned to his side and chewed on my lip, debating how to answer. My voice was quiet when I spoke. "When I can taste it."

He winced, closing his eyes. I berated myself; I should have been taking care of him, not making him feel guilty. I picked up the cloth to wipe away the lingering blood, but he grabbed my hand with such quickness I couldn't stop the flinch. "Odyssa, you will never taste blood again. I swear to you."

I couldn't look at him, focusing instead on cleaning the wound and pressing the bandage into place. "You can't promise that, Tallon."

"I certainly can promise it will never be yours ," he said, the smirk much less of a grimace this time. He ducked his head, catching my eye and making a show of looking me over from head to toe. It ignited the heat back in my belly and my fingers itched to run over his skin. To feel his hands back on my skin. The smirk widened, mischief sparkling in the gray of his eyes. "Besides, I think I quite like you covered in my blood."

Of all the things I'd been waiting for him to say, that certainly hadn't been anywhere on the list. My head spun, racing through the implications of his words, and I struggled to comprehend the feelings they sent through my body. "I don't… What?"

He shrugged, trying—and failing—to hide the wince when it pulled at his side. "Perhaps it's more knowing the bloody handprint around your neck is mine, but whatever it is, I quite like it."

My breath caught in my throat, my thighs clenching together involuntarily. Apparently, I quite liked it too. It didn't matter, though, because there was nothing either of us could do about it now, while he was bleeding still. If we made it through the rest of the day alive, perhaps I would explore this more on my own in bed. The heat thrumming through my veins dimmed some, knowing that living through the night wasn't guaranteed.

"Can Eadric come after us here?"

"We are safe here in the Beyond. He cannot come here, but we cannot stay here indefinitely," he said, reaching out to take my hand again. "If you want to bathe, you can use the tub here. After I rest, we can talk about what to do next."

I didn't want to do that. The last thing I wanted was to address how I'd failed and how despite thinking I had nothing left to lose, I had lost my chance at a family with Emyl. I focused on a different part of his sentences. "Do you want me to bathe?"

His eyes darkened, and his grip on my hand tightened. "Don't toy with me, my wolf."

My heart lurched at the heat in his gaze. It felt so irrevocably similar to the heat in my blood. "You are hardly in a position to do anything about it if I did."

"Would you want me to do something about it?" Hunger dripped from every word as his eyes searched mine.

"What would you do?"

"Would you like me to tell you?" He released his hold on my hand and raised his hand to my face. The marks on his forearm, the ones that spiraled up his arm and spilled down onto his chest, shifted, pulling away from the skin and reaching out to caress my cheek. Their touch was warm and left a trail of tingling energy in their wake. Tallon pushed himself up on his other hand and his hand moved to my throat, placing his fingers one at a time over top of the bloody handprint I knew was already there, gripping just firmly enough that I could feel my pulse pounding against his hand. "Or should I show you?"

My tongue darted out to wet my suddenly bone-dry lips, and my voice was a ragged whisper. Standing beside his bed, him holding me by the throat and clad in only his pants, it made me want , but I saw when he shifted and a fresh trickle of blood oozed out of the wound on his side. "You said you needed to rest, Tallon."

More of his marks pulled away from his skin, dancing across my collarbones. Electric warmth hit my shoulders, sending shivers down my arms into my fingers as I felt the straps of my dress snap, and then the fabric was falling. My body was frozen as his magic followed the silky fabric down my body until both puddled at my feet.

"Utterly devastating," Tallon breathed. His eyes followed his magic's path back up, taking in every inch of my body before him. His hand tightened minutely around my throat and he pulled, not aggressively, but a suggestion that I move closer towards him. It was a suggestion I gladly followed as I moved with him until he was lying flat on the pillows once more and I was leaning over him. His thumb stroked over my pulse. "You're stunning, my wolf. Would you let me touch you?"

There were a dozen reasons I should have said no, should have backed away from him and retreated to the safety of the bathroom behind the locked door. But none of those reasons mattered when I looked at the swirling silver of his eyes staring at me as if I were the most delicious treat he'd ever laid eyes on. When he looked at me like that, after all we'd been through together now, there was only one answer I could give.

"Yes."

Hands and magic surged. His lips crashed to mine as he pulled me over to straddle his hips; all in one movement that left my head spinning. He swallowed down my gasp and devoured me, claiming and exploring and leaving my mind empty of everything except for him.

I was aching for him by the time we separated, panting for breath. Blood still streaked both his torso and mine, stained from where it had soaked through the fabric of my dress and left smears across my skin, but it was hardly a deterrent for either of us. From the way Tallon's eyes darkened as they roamed over my body and how his fingers dug into the skin of my thighs, I was more apt to call it an aphrodisiac instead.

Tallon fell back into the pillows, running his hands up from my thighs to rest at the curve of my waist as he stared up at me. "What do you want from me, my wolf?"

His voice was hoarse and the knowledge that I had done that, our kisses had done that, sent a thrill down my spine. I rocked in his lap, gasping when the seam of his pants, stretched across his hardness, caught just so between my legs. He grinned and his hands were back at my hips again, tugging me forward and backward on him.

My head fell back as I fought through the haze. "What will you give me?"

Quick as a snake, Tallon sat up, twisting us so I lay beneath him now. The muscles in his arm bunched as he kept himself aloft, and I didn't stop myself from reaching out to touch him, to trace over the warm skin and follow the thick lines of black that covered his body. He wedged one of his thighs between mine, pressing forward as he lowered his mouth to my ear. Slight as they were, the kisses he peppered along my ear and down my jaw and neck were far from gentle. He nipped at my collarbone where my own marks spilled over onto the skin there. Pulling back, his eyes were no less heated, but held a tenderness that made me want to hide. I felt far more naked under that gaze than I had before.

"Everything," he murmured. I was powerless to look away, no matter how his stare made me want to squirm. He kissed down my chest, stopping to lave at the bud at the peak of my breast. "Everything you want, everything I have, is yours."

"Quite an offer," I gasped out as he continued leaving fiery kisses down my stomach, sliding down my body as he went. His hands roamed my waist, dipping down over my hip and thigh. My legs fell open in silent invitation as his fingers grazed closer inside my thigh. "What do you want in return?"

"Your honesty," he said, sliding down even further to settle his broad shoulders between my thighs, pressing them apart even further and gifting an open-mouthed kiss to the inside of my thigh that made my heart jump in my chest.

"I've always been honest with you." My hands went to rest in his hair, gripping the silky strands as his mouth grew closer to my center. I could feel my heartbeat pounding against my chest, my head spinning.

"Good," he replied. "Then tell me how you like this."

His head disappeared between my thighs and the wet, slippery feel of him licking me erased all other thoughts from my mind. There was no reprieve from the wave of sensation that crashed down around me, pulling me teetering to the edge of a cliff of pleasure. A groan vibrated through me from Tallon's mouth straight through my center and up my spine, leaving me panting and clutching at his hair. He pulled back long enough to press another series of wet kisses to my thigh.

Looking up at me, his hands curled around my thighs, his eyes bright with his own arousal and his lips shiny from my desire…he was breathtaking. His lips curled up into a smirk. "Do you know what you taste like?"

Words escaped me as I fought to keep from plunging into the endless well of pleasure he threatened to drown me in. I managed to shake my head, running my fingers through his hair and tugging slightly to pull his face back towards that aching spot between my legs.

He followed my guidance, ducking his head to lick another stripe across my heated skin. "You taste like mine."

Lips pressed firmly to my body, and he sucked, sending me writhing on the bed and unable to reply. A finger pressed inside me, slowly, deliciously. Another joined, and they curled inside me, stroking that spot that sent echoes of lightning up my spine. I squeezed my eyes closed against the onslaught.

And then everything stopped.

My eyes flew open, panic the first thing bubbling in my chest as I searched out Tallon, afraid that something had happened. But he was still there, his wound still oozing blood slightly on the bedding, and the smirk still firmly on his face from his place between my thighs. "Eyes on me, my wolf. Watch how I take you apart."

He continued, his lips sucking at the pleasure point between my thighs as his fingers curled inside me just as they had before. And also just as before, he brought me to the brink, poised to tumble off the cliff into a sea of pleasure created solely by him. I watched every move, relished every groan he made against my skin. Bit by bit, he drove me to madness, and then he slowed, his fingers stopping but never leaving, even as his mouth did. A quick kiss rasped against my inner thigh and he pulled back entirely.

He sat back on his heels, looming over me as silver churned in his eyes and his marks pulled away from the skin of his hands, reaching for me. He did not wipe my glistening arousal from his face as he looked down at me. The warm tingling sensation did nothing to temper my arousal as they roamed up my stomach, pausing at my breasts long enough to leave my chest heaving before pressing firmly against my collarbone. Tallon's own fingers returned to seeking out every inch inside me, relentless in his pursuit of my pleasure.

Gasping, I reached for him, wanting to touch him as well, to feel him beneath my hands and explore his body as he explored mine. He came willingly enough, our lips crashing together as I chased the taste of myself on his tongue. I wanted every inch of him pressed against every inch of me to seal us away from the horrors waiting for us outside that bedroom door and escape for just a moment. To feel for just a moment. I tucked my fingers into the waistband of his pants, tugging at them. "Take these off," I whispered, the words pushing against the pressure of his magic around my throat.

"As you wish." His smooth departure from my body left me feeling empty, aching, but more of his magic peeled away from his skin and took his place. It never entered me, but it caressed my body, mirroring his touch just enough to leave me writhing as I watched him remove the last of his clothing. He returned to the bed, his magic not sinking back into his skin, but hovering around us.

Wrapping my hands around the back his neck, I pulled him down to kiss me again. I wasn't sure what I would do next—too many options were flitting through my mind—but now, emboldened by desire, I would take what I wanted. He pressed himself back between my legs, settling his weight atop me and his erection catching the wetness pooling between my thighs. We both gasped and he pushed forward again, my own hips rising to meet his.

"Once I have you, Odyssa," he said, pulling back from our kiss just enough to speak, "I will never let you go. Eadric and his castle be damned, you are mine now."

"Then take me, Tallon." My desire was making my head swim, and in that moment, I had truly never wanted something as much as I wanted him. Heat flushed my face, and his touch ignited my blood. I wanted more. I wouldn't be satisfied until every inch of me was claimed by him, and every inch of him was mine in return. I would accept nothing less.

He'd let me in, taken off his mask and shown me who he truly was. And I'd let him see my true self in return, whether I'd intended to or not. Tallon was under my skin, in my blood, and I had a feeling not even the plague could rid me of him. I reached up to cup his cheek, letting him see all the things I could not put into words.

"You are perfect," he breathed. His lips met mine again, and his length slid against my core once, twice, three times. "I will try to be gentle. If I lose myself…" He looked down where the wound was still healing on his side, smirking yet again. "I'm sure you will think of something."

"You said before that I could not be broken," I said, pushing back against him and delighting in the way the grin fell from his face. We both moaned as the tip of his length slid inside me, stretching me just slightly. I wanted more, and he did too. My neck arched against his hand and I relished in the way his fingers tightened. "Do not take back your words now."

His smile was filthy as he surged forward, entering me with one long, smooth thrust that had us both groaning as we were finally, finally connected. Ragged breaths came from both of us, and Tallon squeezed his eyes shut. "I wouldn't dream of it."

Slowly, he rocked into me, stealing my breath entirely at the delicious twinge that meant he was mine now. My body bowed off the bed, seeking every inch of his. I barely managed to keep my hands from grabbing his waist, exactly where his injury was. At the last second, my mind cleared enough to direct one to his hip and the other to his shoulder as I clung to him. Each movement spurred something inside of me, building and building. Tallon watched, his mouth open and panting as his eyes darted between my face, my breasts, and where he plunged into me. Sweat beaded on both of us, his palm sliding against the skin of my throat.

It was everything.

"You feel so damned good, Odyssa," he breathed. His next thrust was more forceful and I couldn't stop my gasp, even louder than before. He'd been watching himself enter me, but at the sound of my pleasure, his eyes went to mine, that confident smirk falling upon his lips. "Did you like that, my wolf?"

"I think you can do better," I said, taunting him despite the lack of breath in my lungs and the burning pleasure along each and every nerve in my body.

Narrowed eyes spoke of a challenge accepted, and any sign of restraint—out of either misplaced concern for me or caution for his injury—was gone. Tallon slammed into me with abandon, taking us both higher and higher as our pleasure spiraled together. My heart was pounding; every sensation, every touch was that much more than before.

The hand around my neck tightened at the sides as his thrusts grew faster and impossibly deeper. "You are mine, Odyssa."

I nodded eagerly. Yes, yes, I was his. And he was mine. The edges of my vision blackened, but I was powerless to look away, to pull away. "Yes," I breathed.

"Say it," he demanded, his pace faltering. "Say it, my wolf."

"I am yours." Removing my grip from his hip and using the leverage of his shoulder, I pressed myself up to sitting. The change in position had us both writhing in pleasure, but I continued my path, kissing across the marks on his chest and up to claim his mouth. "And you are mine."

He stopped altogether; his chest heaved as he stared at me with wild, silver eyes. The disbelief, the vulnerability, the awe there… "Odyssa."

"You are mine, Tallon," I repeated. I kissed him again, squeezing his wrist and moving my own hips against him. A reminder of what we were doing, as if he needed it.

"I am yours," he murmured. His body pressed me back to the bed, the hand on my throat moving to my breast where he squeezed and groped on his way down to grab my thigh. Hoisting it up around his hip, he dug his fingers in as he drove somehow even deeper inside me. Faster, harder, until my own climax shuddered through me and my nails dug into his skin, no doubt drawing even more blood than already covered us.

He thrust into me for a moment more, his mouth open in silent rapture as he spilled inside of me. Panting and sweaty, he hovered above me. He was the image of a god, not his herald.

My hip ached in protest as he lowered my thigh from around his waist. He shifted back, unable to hide the wince as his hand flew to his injured side. Cursing both of us, I slid from the bed, ushering him to lie down instead.

"Foolish man, you've started bleeding again," I muttered. The bandage was spotted with red, and I cursed myself for forgetting his injury, for seeking my own pleasure in him while he was injured. I should have known better. Ignoring the feeling of his release trickling out of me and down my thigh, I peeled the bandage back, intent on replacing it with a new one.

His hand caught mine, affixing the bandage back in place. "I will be fine, Odyssa. Come lie with me, please."

"Let me change?—"

He shook his head and pulled at my wrist until I was back in the bed with him, settled against his side. He wrapped his arms around me. "Let us enjoy this moment, my wolf, while we have it. Please?"

"Rest, Tallon," I murmured. My mind still warred with wanting to slip from his embrace and care for him, but that wasn't what he wanted. And if I was being honest with myself, this right here—lying in his arms and reveling in the pleasure we'd found in each other—this was what I wanted. His breathing evened out, growing deeper as his arm around me grew heavier. "I am here."

"Stay with me, Odyssa. Please?" he whispered into my hair as he finally drifted off. "You are all that I've been searching for."

I bit down on the inside of my cheek and embraced the stinging pain as I curled deeper against his body, seeking out the warmth and comfort I'd likely never feel again. Our time here in the Beyond was running out. We would have to return to Auretras soon, and Prince Eadric and his cursed castle would never let us both out of it alive. That much I was certain of.