7. Bree

7

Bree

I was aware of Riggs leaving.

It was as though the room suddenly became a little dimmer.

Well, that is certainly dramatic. The sun likely just vanished behind a cloud. Caliel sounded more out of sorts than usual.

I hadn't wanted Riggs to go. The air itself had seemed filled with possibilities.

No. That most certainly is the accursed Satyr's pheromones, Caliel grumbled . He definitely has more than a bath in mind.

Was that why my body ached?

You have barely interrupted your cycle with that brief dosing of powder. You need to get more of that into you.

An emotion ran beneath the words—frustration? I couldn't peg it for sure. At least he could mention Rafael now without sounding as though he wanted to rip him apart. But he was likely right about the powder.

As I reached for another meatroll, Dani leaned toward me on the table. "How did you guys do that thing with the ice?" she asked.

"They did it at the eruption, too," Marcus cut in. "Raz—I mean, Riggs—held the water in the air, and then Bree froze it, and I sent it toward the ash cloud with the wind. It saved us."

His tone was grudging, but I shot him a look, surprised that he'd given us that much credit.

"I thought you said he was a Shaker," the other Watcher, Mandy, questioned.

Cara sat down at the table. "I thought so, at first. But now I'm not exactly sure what his talent is," she confessed. "I will be working with him at the academy to explore it further. But it already has come in handy a few times."

"It saved us, too," Dani stated. "That fire would have had us."

The Matriarch stepped into the room. "I have many to thank for rescuing my family."

Cara rose and went to her. "If you are not going to rest, at least eat something." She gestured to a chair.

Eriana refused to sit. "I heard that everyone will be leaving, and I wanted to thank you all before you did so." She let her gaze travel among us. "Words cannot express how grateful I am. If there is any way I can repay you, I most certainly will."

"I have much to atone for," Rafael said quietly. "And I am honored to be of help." He rose, sending a cloud of scent my way that tightened every fiber of me. "At the moment, however, I would love a bath." He waggled his brows at Riley.

Marcus rolled his eyes. "Satyrs," he complained.

"I'm only half Satyr. And you'll be singing a different tune in ten minutes." Rafael snorted a laugh.

"Take the first path," Cara said. "When it forks, the right one leads to the showers. The other goes to the heated pool."

Riley's eyes were flashing like mad as she stood, and her face had taken on an intense red hue. "Um… that sounds wonderful."

I got the feeling she wasn't talking about the directions. They filed out with something less than casual decorum, and I grabbed one last meatroll, giving them a bit of space before I followed.

The Matriarch stepped closer to me. "Was it really the Fire Drake that started the blaze?" When I nodded, my gut twisting into a knot, she continued. "Was he alone?"

I heard the dread in her voice. "He was with his own pinions," I answered truthfully.

Her eyes were dark with pain. "Did you know them, then? Are you sure they were underworld Dragons?"

I told her what she needed to know, without admitting that they'd been my friends. "Yes. I knew them. They were from his underworld empire."

She closed her eyes. "I know their presence in that time and place—there had to be a connection to my son. But knowing it, and accepting it, are two different things."

Driven by her pain, I offered, "Victor could have staged such a coup to weaken the Empire…"

She nodded, but I didn't think she believed it. And a part of me didn't want to think that Victor was acting alone.

Caliel agreed with me. In this case—I don't think he was.

Cara guided the Matriarch to a chair, and I slipped out the door. By the time I got down there, Riggs would likely be done with the shower. And I really did want to get the smoke stench off me. The sooner I could put the memory of that fire—and Vic's part in it—behind me, the better.

Caliel was quick to pounce. He has become a monster. And he has connections that threaten the realms' stability.

I didn't want to think of Vic as a monster. But then, he was now a different being. I no longer saw any signs of the Centaur I'd known.

I think Brock is alive and well inside him.

I hesitated. Did I really believe that?

Caliel seemed satisfied with my lack of immediate denial, because he subsided. I pushed the thoughts away as I took the stairs down to the ground level.

The air was redolent with the aftermath of Rafael's passage, and the scent remained powerful enough to boost my awareness of everything around me. As I stepped out into the new day, every sound was beautiful, each color more vibrant, and the slight breeze drifted over my sensitized skin like a lover's touch.

When I took the right fork, a groan echoed through the forest, deep and low. It was coming from the other path, and it reverberated straight through me. It was followed by splashing, and a growl, as if someone was being teased beyond an acceptable level…

I experienced a brief tingle of envy. Riley and her guys seemed so happy. They belonged to each other.

I'd left my family behind.

Or maybe, they'd left me.

You are not alone, Caliel breathed.

Lost in my melancholy, I came around a curve in the path and found the showers.

As well as the Dragon prince.

He stood within a cascade that fell from a rock ridge about twenty feet above. The dawn's golden rays lit the steam rising from the water as it hit the cooler rocks beneath his feet, and it curled seductively around him.

He was naked, and he had his hand rhythmically stroking his shaft.

Partially screened by the dense foliage, I froze.

He was magnificent. The water splashed against the leather skullcap, and over his powerful shoulders, before streaming over contours so perfect they could have been carved from marble. The cascading water brought to vivid life the Dragons he had tattooed across his skin.

His eyes were closed, totally focused on the sensations his hand was producing.

As the muscles in his arm flexed with each stroke along that glistening shaft, heat flushed through to my core. My knees trembled, and my pulse throbbed between my legs. I pressed my thighs tight together, seeking pressure, but it wasn't enough.

I wanted him with a desperation that robbed me of breath.

Then every muscle went rigid, and with a cry, he exploded.

He very nearly took me with him. I stood there, trembling on the very verge, as his head dropped back, his hips thrusting into his hand. In another moment, his eyes would open, and he'd see me standing there, trembling with need.

Caliel saved me. He seized control and backed us up the path. The moment I was out of sight, I took a shaky breath and turned. I leaned against a tree trunk with my pulse thundering in my ears.

Meanwhile, Caliel spun rapid, agitated circles in my brain. I couldn't form any words suitable to ease his angst. My mind was spinning like a top, and my entire body burned.

I'd just got my breathing back into a rhythm when Riggs appeared around the bend. He held his wet shirt in one hand, and he'd clearly rinsed out his torn pants before yanking the damp fabric partway up his hips. His exposed skin—and there was a lot of it—glistened with water droplets.

Not helpful in the least. He was beyond delicious.

He stopped when he saw me. For a moment, we simply stared at each other. Then, the intense purple flared through his unnaturally darkened eyes.

His mouth opened and closed. Then he managed, "Hi."

Mine did much the same thing. "Hi." I cleared my throat. "All done?"

When his eyes flared again, I winced. Did he know I'd seen him? "Nothing as refreshing as a good hot shower," he said. "The water's a perfect temperature."

I took a breath. Sort of. My voice was high and squeaky. "Think I could use a cold one."

He tweaked a brow. "You might be out of luck."

Yeah, that about summed it up. Unless I climbed up onto him, right on this path. Which was what I desperately wished to do.

He also seemed unable to look away. Finally, he lifted the hand holding his singed, but dripping shirt. "Everything I'm wearing still reeks of smoke. I hope Cara has some ex-Dragon-sized replacements handy. Or we'll be giving ourselves away with one sniff."

I was immediately grateful that he'd at least decided to pull on his sweatpants. Or I'd be a goner.

I hadn't managed anything other than the opening salvos, and now he eyed me a bit uncertainly. He settled for, "Enjoy your shower." And then he smiled.

Which effectively guaranteed my inability to speak. It was like the sun had suddenly emerged from the clouds, turning him from broody and handsome to drop-dead gorgeous in an instant. I trembled all over, and only the tree trunk held me upright. I couldn't have moved if my life depended on it.

Something chose that moment to rescue me by crawling across my foot. With a yelp, I stumbled backward—and looked down at a creature the size of my fist determinedly marching along the path, regardless of who might be attempting to stand upon it.

Suddenly I screamed. Not a full-out shout of fear, but a high-pitched girly squeal, accompanied by a full hoppy kind of spin, and hysterical waving of arms.

As I wondered what the heck was happening, Riggs stared at me in astonishment. I could well understand his reaction—I had never, in all my life, done such a thing. Certainly not over something that I could get rid of with one swift kick.

It was like I'd been temporarily possessed.

Wait a minute…

Did you do that? I demanded of Caliel. As I waited for an answer that didn't appear to be coming, the little creature that had caused all the fuss marched right between Riggs's legs. He leaned down to pick it up by its shell. It waved four stubby limbs and tried to bite him, which confirmed that light-footed leaping had been an excellent survival strategy. Not so much the girlie scream, though.

"Easy there, little guy," Riggs said as his grin broadened. "Think this is a turtle."

I peered closer. "I don't even know where we are, let alone what that is."

He waved a big finger in the turtle's face, which initiated another snap. "We're in a remote area of the human realm."

"You know that?" My mouth dropped open. "Did Cara tell you?"

One brow wavered. "She must have."

The confusion in his tone had me redirecting. "I've never heard of a turtle. Is that as big as it gets? He looks fierce."

His eyes flashed at me. "I doubt he could do more than nibble your toes, but it could be just a teenage one."

My reaction embarrassed me. Some warrior woman I was, afraid of a fist-sized reptile. But then I considered what he'd said. "A teenage turtle?" Somehow, the concept seemed a bit off.

He frowned down at it. "Why am I thinking mutant? Is that a type of turtle?"

Now I assessed him with more care.

He has lost his memories. Maybe he is also losing his mind? Caliel suggested, less than tactfully.

I ignored him and went with it. "A teenage mutant turtle?"

He looked right at me with an unreadable expression—then, with exaggerated care, he bent to set the turtle down. When he straightened, he rubbed his hand over his skullcap.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeppers, I'm fine," he answered. His hand dropped to his side, and he sketched me another smile. "I'll see you back at the treehouse."

As I watched him go, I was not yet ready to move. But then, suddenly, I was. Or not me, exactly. The grumpy Gryphon who lived inside me took over. He walked our body past the turtle, around the bend, and toward the showers.

Without seven feet of muscular distraction, I now saw that the shower was a series of ledges projecting out over a creek, with water falling from above. The hot spring flowed around the rock ridge and no doubt filled the pool on the other side, where Riley and her team bathed.

Caliel dropped the fur, feather, and scale clothing off me, and stepped us into the waterfall.

It was sinfully warm and wrapped around us like a lover's embrace, flowing over my shoulders. Twin rivulets leaped off my nipples, while more flowed around my breasts and over my midriff to tickle between my thighs.

Close your eyes. Caliel's voice was a seductive purr, and my heart leaped in my chest as I obeyed without question. I ached like I had a fever, and I wanted—what did I want? I sought a meeting of mind as well as body. For my spirit to feel embraced as well…

The pulse of emotion from within wrapped around my heart and sang to my starving soul. My hands moved of their own accord—no, it was my inner partner. I'd yielded him this control, and now, he took it. He bent my body to pick up a soaproot from where it rested upon a small ledge. Fingers not quite my own massaged it through my hair and over my face, the sensation cranking every nerve to exquisite awareness. Then the hands cupped over my breasts and rubbed the soaproot over stiffened nipples until I gasped, arching into the pressure.

In the disassociation, my fingers' touch was as erotic as though another stood before me, tracing their way over my breasts, along my ribs, and across my midriff.

You are so beautiful. His mindvoice was a hoarse whisper, as though he were driven to speak as the fingers drifted between my thighs, and then deeper…

It might be my physical hands that were there, but Caliel used his healing ability to light up every nerve ending I possessed. It was as though I had a dozen lovers, not just one mental specter, running tongues and teasing fingers over my face, lips, throat, breasts, and midriff.

I opened for the real fingers, eager, seeking the slick slip and slide, the friction and non-friction over the most sensitive of places. They circled and rubbed, and then, with the thumb working over the most sensitive part, the fingers eased inside.

My knees almost buckled, and I craved fulfillment with near-silent desperation.

Come for me, my little wind dancer. The fingers, real and imagined, increased their tempo, and my body tightened.

And then, shattered.

As the waves coursed through me, I was wrapped in hot, panting warmth from within my mind. Caliel, as aroused as me, was forced to ride it out.

It wasn't anything I could help. He was part of me.

It is okay, he husked as the waves subsided. None of this is your fault.

The forgiveness flowed from him into my mind. Along with something more that filled my heart until it hurt.

Because laced through it was an awareness. That despite his ability to bring me to panting completion, he could never do more than pretend.

It was my fault. And nothing I could do would make it better.