9. Lexa

Chapter 9

Lexa

I woke with a groggy sense of my surroundings. The last thing I remembered, Jonas had been visiting. After my shock and disappointment that Sava had clearly shared my whereabouts after I'd explicitly told him not to, I'd welcomed Jonas with a grudging "make yourself comfortable."

He had, and he'd informed me of the goings-on in Tanselm. After that… I rubbed my temples, surprised when I felt the rustle of soft cotton over bare flesh. I realized I lay naked on my bed.

"What the hell?"

I sat up and put my hands to my head to steady myself. How had I gotten in here? I'd spoken with Jonas, shared his concerns about the encroaching Church of Illumination, tried to gauge Sin Garu's next move, and tossed ideas about his possible whereabouts. Jonas had made me a cup of my favorite Earl Grey tea. Then we'd relaxed and popped in a movie.

A touch of normalcy to give the illusion I was only a tired working woman taking a holiday. And then I'd woken up to this. Whatever "this" was.

A groan made me start, and I looked around me but saw nothing. Another groan, deep, as if from a man. The sound came from the floor to my left, so I leaned over the side of the bed.

The sight of a naked man left me breathless and had my heart racing. Arim Valens, my ex-lover, ex-friend, and the man I couldn't stop wanting even after several centuries, lay on the floor bound in Dark-hide rope.

I blinked several times and leaned farther over the bed, trying to validate the incredible sight before me. "Arim?" I didn't expect him to respond. But as I pondered how the heck I'd gotten into this predicament, only one idea came to mind. Jonas must have drugged me.

A knockout with hallucinogenic side-effects. Perhaps a Djinn poison? But I was immune to most toxins. Perhaps the demon's hold on my soul had made me more than magically weak but physically ill as well.

"Sava, you bastard," Arim slurred, struggling in his bonds. He looked uncomfortable, though scrumptiously naked. Sprawled as he was on the floor, and at an awkward angle from the chair, I figured he'd been tied up in it and had fallen out of the leather recliner onto the floor. His current position allowed a view I hadn't seen in way too long.

A creature of Light, Arim had a sun-bronzed complexion that highlighted the muscular contours of his form. Though a sorcerer, Arim had the physique of a warrior. He had powerful shoulders, a broad chest, and ropy arms thick with strength. His legs were both long and well-developed, and the flesh between his thighs was thick, long, and growing as I stared at it.

Shocked, I glanced back at his face and saw the Killer of Shadow staring up at me with a look of hunger I hadn't seen in what felt like forever. His response to me made me wonder, again, if I was experiencing odd effects from the drug Jonas must have fed me.

Because Arim only ever looked at me with hostility or rage, never with lust clearly riding his dark brown eyes turning black with desire.

"Blue?" Arim licked his lips, his gaze leaving my face to linger on my chest.

Blue. What he used to call me when we'd been in love. And later, what he called me to remind me of how much we'd lost. It had been some time since I'd heard my nickname uttered in such a raspy, sexual tone.

To my mortification, my nipples hardened, and I felt uncomfortably aroused. Had I not known better, I'd think Arim had cast a spell. Unfortunately, my body always reacted in his presence, and today was no exception.

"Where are your clothes?" He seemed taken with what he could see of me as I leaned over the bed.

Not embarrassed about my looks, I nonetheless backed up onto the bed and lay belly-down, giving Arim no more than a view of my face. Bad enough, my magic was all but gone. I needed at least the surface protection of the bed to gain a psychological edge against such a powerful opponent.

"What are you doing here?"

"Here?" Arim tried to sit up but could only lift his head before he gasped and leaned back. "The damn Dark-hide is stealing my energy." The minute he admitted his weakened state, he froze. "Are you behind this?"

The lust flaring between us faded as his suspicion took hold.

"I might ask you the same." I scowled at him, wondering why he couldn't have stayed silent longer. At least give me a minute or two to enjoy the sight if not the sound of him. But no. He had to ruin it by opening his big mouth. "Why are you here? How did you find me?"

"I didn't." Arim swore. "Sava duped me. Set me up and brought me to you. Said Jonas —" He halted, his jaw clenched so tight I wondered if it hurt.

"Jonas what?"

Arim's eyes burned a bright red, making him look very much like his fire-starter nephew. I was reminded again of his ties to the Storm Lords, his royal nephews so close to restoring Tanselm to what it once was.

Thanks in no small part to me .

The smug look I sent him had him snarling, and he roared as he tried to break free of the magical ropes. Such a temper. A pity it made him that much more attractive. For all that Arim was one of the most powerful Light Bringers I'd ever met, his anger had always been incredibly Dark, and one of his more attractive features. Too bad it had taken a terrible tragedy to show me his true colors.

"I repeat. Jonas what?" I asked again, my attraction to the stubborn idiot under control.

"Did Jonas fuck you in here? On that bed? Is that why you're naked and I'm tied up? To watch while that traitor takes what's mine?"

I gaped in shock. I didn't know what surprised me more. The insane tripe Arim was spouting, or the notion that he considered me his. "Are you out of your mind?"

He glared up at me. As he stared, I realized what it was about him that was different. Not his nudity or even his presence in my home, but the absence of his aura. I focused on the magic inherent in his being. To my astonishment, I saw nothing.

"Arim, what's happened to you?"

"What? Besides the fact that I'm naked and bound in front of you? Blame that bastard of Shadow, Sava. He and Jonas conspired to toss me to the enemy. But hear me, witch. I'm not helpless. Not at all." Power flared in his gaze, and I was taken aback, not sure what to make of this odd situation.

I rose up on my elbows, careful to keep myself shielded by my hair. Flexing a hand, I tried to call forth blue flame, familiar Dark Lord energy. Nothing. Focusing, I called upon my weakened power to clothe myself. Again, nothing. What the hell had Jonas done?

"Lexa?" Arim's gaze narrowed on me in what might once have passed for concern. "Explain this," he ordered in a deep voice.

"You already did," I answered coldly, scared and determined not to show it. My magic was all I had. Without it, I would surely fall to the demons, and I couldn't imagine an eternity anywhere near the Pit. "Obviously, I had Sava and Jonas bring you here. Now shut up while I try to think about what to do with you. Should I kill you first or torture you slowly?"

The untrusting bastard. Peering closely at him, I saw a flicker of his energy constrained yet still there. He hadn't lost a part of himself. He hadn't sacrificed one iota of his stern, stupid moral principles to do the right thing.

Angry and hurt when I shouldn't have been — really, what did I expect from a Light Bringer? — I scooted backward off the bed.

"Lexa, come here." He sounded weary, no longer furious.

I, however, still was. "Screw you. I have better things to do." The first order of business was to throw on some clothes. With no other alternative, I showed Arim my naked backside as I walked to my closet. Throwing the doors open, I found empty hangers. Same with my dresser.

After I'd stormed through the house, I found nothing with which to clothe myself. No towels, sheets, drapes, or loose fabric anywhere. I could only thank the Dark that large trees blocked my windowed living room from the neighbors.

"What are you doing?" I heard Arim yell from the bedroom as I stalked around my living room.

Thoroughly confused, I tried to think. What did I know?

Jonas had drugged me. Sava had drugged Arim. I had no power, and Arim was bound by Dark-hide in my bedroom. Yet even limited by the magic rope, he should have had the power to call a few spells. Instead, he bellowed at me. So, Arim must also be unable to summon his magic.

I turned the focus of my mind inward, a trick I'd learned as a young child to circumvent magic I didn't like. To my consternation, I found what I was looking for. An Aellein spell meant to cloak those within its confines.

Apparently, Sava and Jonas conspired to put Arim and me together, sans clothing, for the unforeseeable future.

"Shit." I gnawed on my lip and sat bare-assed naked on the couch. It was then I noted the scrap of paper on the coffee table. In precise handwriting with a masculine slant, I read, "The Mountain has come to Mohammed, as they say. Enjoy yourself and work out your differences. I'll be back to collect you both soon. You're safe here from outside influence. But I can't guarantee how safe you'll be from each other. You're both magic-free, at least. So try to fix what's been broken. Because one way or the other, I'm dragging you both back to Tanselm. Sava."

The minute I dropped the note from my hands, it dissolved into nothing.

Damn you, Sava. And Jonas, you interfering Darkling. When I get my hands on you…

A noise alerted me that Arim stood in the doorway of my bedroom. Standing, he was that much more imposing, his head brushing the top of the doorframe. As before, his gaze traveled slowly over me from head to toe.

"I gather you're as clueless about all this as I am."

Not anymore, thanks to Sava's note. "Sava's a dead man."

"On that, we agree." Arim strode forward, having somehow managed to break free from the rope holding his ankles together. But his arms remained tied snugly behind his back. He continued toward me, his impressive body taut with muscle as he closed the distance between us.

Like clockwork, my body lit up like a firecracker. Arim's reaction, a thickening erection, showed he was likewise affected. His black eyes glittered with need. He stopped a hair's breadth from me, his shaft so close I could reach out and touch it.

My mouth dry, I licked my lips and leaned back, not caring how weak I might appear. If he leaned one inch closer, I was going to grab him. And I didn't want to touch him lest I lose all sense of why I should avoid him in the first place.

"One thing that's never changed, Blue. How you make my body ache." His voice was thick with raw desire.

My pulse reacted on cue, racing toward a disaster waiting to happen. "So what?" I cleared my throat and glanced away. Anywhere but at the solid flesh so dangerously near. "Lust is an easy affliction to salve. It's the hate and mistrust that keep us apart. I see no reason to change that now."

His silence disturbed me, but I refused to look at him again.

Until he stepped so close our legs touched, his body heat bleeding into mine.

"Don't you?" His quiet question snapped my gaze to his with lightning speed, despite my intention to will him away. "Why did you step in front of the blast meant for me, Blue? Because I've had a lot of time to wonder about that. I still don't understand."

"And you never will." Because I don't understand it myself.

"You had the chance to kill Sin Garu. To end his plague upon our worlds. And a bonus, to end my life as well. Instead, you saved me to let your bro — to let the enemy go free."

I stared at him, wary since he hadn't referred to Sin Garu as my brother for once. Arim was usually predictable, to the extent that I knew he would say and do whatever he could to irritate me. So why was he being so Light-smacking easy?

"You took a hit meant for me, Blue. A blast of green demon fire."

Oh hell. Arim's gaze was softening.

"So what?"

"So why did you do it? Why did you save a man you've been fighting with for three long centuries?"

"I did it to help Tanselm. That's all I've ever cared about." After you turned me away.

"So your racing heart, your wet heat, none of that's for me?" He stared at my breasts, centered on my stiff nipples.

"None of it," I snapped as I crossed my arms over my chest, betrayed by my body. "I was drugged, if you must know. Jonas set me up."

Arim smiled, a dangerous grin of seduction that made me twice as wary. "What is the Djinn to you?"

"Why do you care?" I shifted to move around him and stand, not comfortable with his looming presence or how close his erection was to my face, my mouth… But he blocked me with his body.

"Untie me, Blue."

"Do I look stupid?"

"You look aroused. Sexy, beautiful, and needy."

"Fuck you." Needy? Lexa Van Norsen needed no one and nothing, despite my body's flesh and blood demands.

"Lexa." He shook his head. His shoulders flexed as he struggled with the rope behind his back, Dark-hide he'd find impossible from which to break free. "Just answer the question. Or are you afraid of me? Scared I'll do something to your precious Djinn?"

I ignored the hard look in his eyes, the one that always turned my bones to jelly. "I'm as afraid of you as I am of your nephews." I snorted and crossed my arms back over my chest, wishing again I was standing. But I met his gaze, unafraid. "Storm Lords fresh out of the nursery. They're barely into their powers, and you think they can defeat a Dark Lord as powerful as Sin Garu?"

To my surprise, Arim chuckled. "Hell, no. I'm going to take that bastard out myself. My nephews are tasked with guarding Tanselm, and they will. You know this, or you wouldn't have helped them protect their affai. For a woman so opposed to Light Bringers, you seem to have helped them."

"Them? Don't you mean ‘us'?" I reminded him, wanting him to acknowledge he was in my debt.

"Of course. Us. Your sacrifice was remarkable, Blue. Taking a demon's blast when I could smell the fear rolling off you. All to save me." Arim suddenly straddled me on the couch, his weight impossible to budge even as I struggled to be free.

"Get off of me, damn it." Oh shit. I could feel myself leaning into him, hungering for the sensations only Arim could arouse. None of the pathetically small number of my lovers had even come close to encouraging such joy within my body.

His cock — hard and hot and moist at the tip — nudged my belly. He smiled and placed a hand on either side of my head on the couch. Burns marred his wrists, where the Dark-hide had chafed. Yet Arim had broken through it, once again accomplishing the impossible.

"What's wrong, Lexa? Don't you like how my body feels against yours? Don't you remember what it was like with me inside you?" He lowered his head to whisper into my ear, his hot breath making me quiver, "How wet you grew, how deeply I sank inside you, coming with such force we saw stars together?"

Our breath mingled, the sound of harsh panting increasing as we sat so close, nearly touching all over yet not.

"Get off me," I repeated weakly, not meaning a word of it and wishing I did.

"Sure. Just tell me why you saved me." He nipped the spot below my ear, pressing into my belly with an erection I wanted desperately between my thighs. "You would have given your life for me. Why?"

He leaned up to stare into my eyes. His own narrowed, concern replacing the passion flaring in the black depths, as if he could see that part of my soul now missing. "Blue…?"

Not wanting pity any more than I wanted to explain to him, or myself, why I couldn't stand the thought of his death, I did the only thing I could to distract him.

I grabbed him by the hair and yanked his mouth to mine.

Within seconds, all questions ceased, and then nothing existed between us but honest, carnal need.