16. Perfection

The world vanished in the taste of my soulmate”s kiss, the bliss of orgasm overwhelmed by the rapture of being truly seen. It was the moment of loosing an arrow with the bone-deep knowledge that it would fly true. It was the sensation of a Court blooming into life beneath my bare foot, and the absolute relief of my fingers touching the skin of my face after millennia of separation. It was the first breath taken after ages of suffocation, the first step in a dance with a partner who knew me better than herself, the home I hadn”t had since my headwaters had been stolen from me by the one I”d loved.

It was all of those things and none of them, the love of a woman who had seen the worst of me and who still wanted me with her whole heart, giving me a place in the world to simply be. I hadn”t even known I”d been searching for it since Boenn had betrayed me, but in Lexi”s kiss I found the paradise I”d longed for all those endless years.

We”d found our perfect balance as soulmated trueloves, our lives linked indelibly. I would never be alone again. I would always have Lexi, and Lexi would always have Key, my deathless power linking the three of us in an unbreakable chain.

I started laughing, helpless before the joy that sang in my chest like brightly-colored birds, my hands cupping her face and my forehead resting against hers. She laughed with me, tangling her fingers in my hair and pressing her warm body up against mine.

”Thank you for goading me into the chase,” I said, unable to stop smiling at her. ”I was breaking into pieces trying to keep from harming you.”

She wiggled underneath me, making me voice a low growl. ”I”m a resilient sort of gal,” she said, all but glowing from happiness. ”I like the adrenaline rush, and I don”t mind wearing a few scars. If you”ve wrecked my pussy, though, we”re going to have words.”

I kissed her again, melting into the sweetness of her mouth, letting the perfection of those red lips chase away the world. Lexi looked up at me with soft eyes when I broke the contact, her brown eyes still with a mare”s slot pupil. I decided not to tell her, pleased that our mating would leave such a mark on her, and pulled out of her with a quiet groan.

The sight of her open pussy with my seed dripping out of her sent a shock of desire through me despite my softening cock. With my tongue running along the sharp point of my canine, I slid three of my fingers into her, my breath quickening at the grip of her channel on me. ”My power is yours,” I said, pumping my fingers slowly in and out of her. ”Change what I”ve done to you, if you desire it. I”ll merely do it again… and again… and again,” I added, my voice dropping to a growl as her lashes fluttered and the walls of her cunt tightened on my fingers, her body clenching down around me.

”Oh, fuck,” she moaned, canting her hips up against my fingers, creamy thighs spread for me and a wash of my seed sliding out of her as her core clenched down.

My Lexi looked beautifully ruined, her hair mussed and with streaks of blood on her soft sides. She had a bruised welt on her left hip, the cruel kiss of my whip leaving its love-mark. I hadn”t chosen to heal it, and neither had she. Even with the sensation of balancing with her fresh in my soul, that expression of tenderness took me by surprise. She wanted me—everything I was, from the love of a healer to the brutal bite of a killer.

”Love that is red and sharp and wet,” I murmured, drawing my fingers out of her and tracing them down her woad-marked skin in wet lines.

”Is that a quote?” she asked, giving me an exhausted smile.

Keilain jumped down from the rocky outcropping in his four-legged form, startling me enough that I didn”t catch myself until I was crouched over Lexi in a defensive posture, my teeth bared and a spear in my hand.

He gave me a canine grin, tail wagging and ears cocked. ”Part of one,” he said, sounding amused. ”Though I don”t think we”ll need the latter half, will we, Nuada?”

I lifted my lip at the hound prince and sat back on my heels as I dismissed the conjured spear, offering Lexi my hand when she pushed herself up. ”You need not sound so smug about being right.”

”I like being smug,” he replied, stretching luxuriously.

Lexi took my hand, smiling at me as I helped her to a seated position, then leaned against my side with the ease of long companionship. My expression softened, all my attention on her again, my bold palomino mare. Moving with care so I wouldn”t jostle her, I settled myself onto the ground next to her, plucking a leaf out of her tangled hair with a smile warming my face.

I was as stupidly, gloriously, devotedly in love as Keilain. If the world vanished and I only ever had Lexi to chase, I would never even notice the loss.

”C”mere, Key,” she said with her head resting against my shoulder, holding out one hand and beckoning to him.

He relaxed, the tension going out of his spine as he trotted to her side and buried his face against her breasts.

”That”s my good boy,” she murmured, rubbing him behind the ears while he rumbled in pleasure.

After a moment, I added one hand to the fray, my other arm slung across Lexi”s shoulders. Key”s coat was longer than it had been and almost silken, with long guard-hairs that gleamed in the sunlight. He wasn”t one of mine any longer, but that didn”t mean I couldn”t love him any longer.

The thought made me remember the other beasts I”d brought with me and that Lexi had left across the river, my attention snapping back towards them. If they”d gotten caught in a different time—

”I brought them home while you were with Lexi,” Key said in a blissful voice. ”Your horse, too. I assumed you”d be… oh, gods, that feels so good… oh, distracted.”

The tension in my shoulders eased, affection warming me with an unfamiliar fire. I gave him a good scratch at the base of the tail, making him moan in pleasure. ”I was indeed distracted,” I said, casting a glance at Lexi, who smirked back at me. ”It”s something of a long walk without a horse, though. I would have preferred you to leave him here.”

”M”not perfect,” he moaned out, one leg kicking as I dug the silver bones of my right hand against the base of his tail. ”Fuck, that”s so good—”

Lexi giggled, a girlish sound that startled another smile onto my face, and redoubled her efforts. The corners of my mouth were starting to ache from the constancy of the expression. I”d had so little joy in my life for so many eons. How could I ever have anticipated the vivid delight of this moment—of the rest of my eternity?

I suppose you”ll get used to it, Nuada, I told myself, basking in my soulmate”s happiness. I gave Key a pat on the haunches, chucking Lexi under the chin instead. ”Shall we get you home?”

”Only if you can carry me,” she said with a self-conscious laugh, doing a shy little wiggle. ”I don”t know that I can walk however many miles back barefoot, but I”m not exactly a featherweight.”

I gave her a bemused look, one corner of my mouth tilting up. ”Do you honestly think so little of me to imagine that I cannot carry you?”

She flushed, the blood rising under her freckled skin in a way that made me hungry for more. ”I didn”t mean it like that,” she said, looking down at Key instead of at me. ”I just know I”m not an easy girl to carry around. I”ve always been chubby. Pretty enough, I guess, but I”m no supermodel.”

Key cut her off before I could, lifting his head and kissing her, his body sliding towards his fae form as he did. Lexi made a soft sound, her lashes fluttering closed as Key brushed his fingers along her cheek.

”You”re beautiful,” he said in a throaty voice, breaking the kiss to say the words. ”If anyone”s said otherwise, they were wrong to think it. We love your body, and Nuada is easily strong enough to carry you home. Even I wouldn”t struggle to carry your weight.”

”You”ll have to tell me that more than once,” she said, making a face. ”I”m not used to people thinking that, or being carried around.”

”Let”s put some action behind the words, then,” I suggested, brushing my thumb across the bare skin of her shoulder before getting up. I picked up my discarded clothing and belted it on, closing my eyes for a moment to soak in the warmth of the sun and the utter certitude of Lexi”s love. It had been a long, long time since I”d believed someone loved me, and now it was so wonderfully inescapable.

I was a monster. A killer. A thing of nightmares and tales told to frighten children. And yet… she”d come for me. Invited me. I could still feel the echo of her touch—see the look of lustful challenge in her eyes when she”d said, ”make me.”

I went to her and I picked her up, feeling like I”d been born to hold her weight in my arms. ”Heart of my heart,” I said, looking into her mare”s eyes with total devotion. ”You once asked me what would keep me from carrying you off again.” A slow smile curled my mouth as she leaned her head against my shoulder, her expression one of sleepy contentment. ”I have a new answer for you.”

”And what”s that?” Lexi asked.

My smile sharpened into a smirk as I promised, ”You”re mine, Alexis Sharpe. Nothing can stop me from having you.”