Last of the Temple Line Page 10

  Alvin came to the old woman's side, panting. "Bless this gem!" he yelled at her.

  Paelia nodded, and quickly added her blessing to the gem. The dull sparkle of the dead gem flared to life. She prayed as he threw it to land at Emersyn's feet. The red jewel glowed brighter and brighter as Alvin recited his spell of containment.

  Dalaric's lip curled. A foreign power tried to steal control of the mana his Ki guarded. Standing in the center of the lightning of his Ki and the conflagration of her mana, Dalaric held Emersyn tightly against his chest. He crushed the gem beneath his clawed foot. He forced his Ki to surround her so completely it crackled upon her as a second skin.

  Obey! he snarled mentally at the incandescent inferno. Her flames flared violent sparks, defying him and inflaming his desire to burn hotter than ever. He curled around her and his lips crashed down upon hers, stealing her breath and sealing her fate in one fell swoop. Her gasp fed his passion and his arms tightened around her small form. His tongue swept inside her mouth and claimed her as thoroughly as his cock ached to. Her fingers tightened on his biceps and he slanted his head to get a better angle to deepen the kiss.

  That taste.

  She tasted of magnificent power and vulnerable innocence. The dichotomy sent shards of white heat straight to his already engorged cock.

  His instinct to claim her grew beyond painful. He ground his hard length against her soft stomach. She was so small, so delicate compared to his massive frame that he felt the underside of her gently sloped breasts touch the head of his cock that already wept breeding oils in preparation of a claiming.

  Her mana winked out. She blinked once. Twice. Then she fell into his arms in a dead faint. He pulled back and stared down on the female in his arms. He was breathing as hard as if he had just battled an army of red dragons in his two-legged form. He licked his lips. He could still taste her desire, could feel the heat of her through the thin trousers that called to be filled.

  He growled low, a warning, when the elder witch and the sage moved forward as if to take Emersyn from his arms. He could not allow it at present. His cock still ached, and his blood was heated unbearably.

  “Father,” Caelwin called from a safe distance. Caelwin knew better than to approach a male so lost to a claiming lust as his father had become. “Shall I call for Aegwin?” he asked.

  Dalaric lifted the sleeping woman into his arms. He slowly forced his body to calm enough to breath and not want to fall upon the female in his arms. Her mana was tamed for the moment, but she would need rest to recover from such a torrential outpouring. He swallowed his instincts that demanded he yet claim her. Even if she was an Akkadian female, he was not an animal. He would not take an unwilling female.

  With the calm came many questions. That Dalaric desired her he could accept based on the power she held but there was more to it than that. His instinct had not risen to lust alone. His Ki wanted her marked. Claimed. Could she even survive it? Why had she awakened within him such a desire when no females of his own species had managed it in the many thousands of years he had walked the earth?

  He willed the last of his erection away and forced himself to hand the woman to the sage. The male looked at him with new respect. “Guard her,” Dalaric ordered. “I have matters to attend to and will return in a few days’ time to allow her to recover from the overuse of her mana.” And to find answers to some of his questions before he made a grievous error of judgment in the heat of the moment.

  “Caelwin, find Aegwin. Send him to the palace. I will be there shortly,” he ordered his son. Caelwin nodded and ran into the woods. He had an uncanny connection to Dalaric’s second and would locate him with ease. Aegwin had served as a surrogate father to the young male from the time Caelwin had hatched, as was Aegwin’s right and responsibility as Dalaric’s second.

  Dalaric looked down on the crumbled heap of his nephew. “Do not allow him near Emersyn,” he demanded of the male and the older witch. “If I return to find her harmed by word or deed by my nephew I will not be pleased. Do not betray this trust I am placing in you.”

  “He won’t,” the forgotten human woman his nephew had married promised. She kneeled beside Bannon and brushed a hand over his cheek. She looked up at Dalaric. “He isn’t normally like this. I don’t know what has gotten into him. But he won’t talk to her like that again. I promise it. I won’t stay with a man who can be so cruel and will tell him such. I don’t care if I become a pariah. I will not have my daughter raised to hate her aunts. I have claimed Jaela as surely as Emersyn has. We will raise my daughter together if Bannon cannot remember the man he once was.”

  Dalaric nodded, granting her that small respect, and with a last look at the slumbering witch, turned around to follow his son’s path into the woods. Every step was leaden as he fought the instincts that clamored at him to turn around and rip the female from the others and mark her for himself.

  His eyes darkened at the thought of sinking his Ki into her skin, claiming all she was for himself. Dalaric breathed deep of the woods, seeking to clear his head of the scent of warm female flesh that still clung to his robes and teased his nostrils with promises of how good other parts of her would taste upon his tongue.

  Caelwin had better find Aegwin swiftly or Dalaric would not be able to resist returning to Gilvern to seek the answers to his many questions in a more direct fashion.

  Aegwin

  “There is no record of the first Sydae-Ta to be claimed. It is a system that began before we walked upon the legs of men. The manner in which they are claimed has been altered, yet warriors continue to seek seconds to their Sydae to protect their mate and bring honor to their clan.”

  -Akkadians: Past, Present, Future

  Dalaric followed the scent of his second to his private suite of rooms hours later to find Aegwin waiting for him inside near the door. He had taken the long route to the palace over land rather than through the sky in the hope that the exertion would further calm his blood from the encounter with Emersyn. Instead, the time had only managed to assault him with the memory of how right she had felt in his arms. His instincts did not care that she was human. His Ki wanted her ferociously.

  “Caelwin said you-” Aegwin began, only to be cut off by Dalaric slamming him into the wall.

  Only slightly shorter than Dalaric and of a muscular build well-honed by centuries of tending the land and sparring with the male now crushing him, Aegwin only grunted from the impact. He drew in breath then groaned when Dalaric pushed against him, crowding him to the stone at his back. Dalaric’s mouth slammed against Aegwin’s with rabid hunger.

  Forgetting all thought of questioning Dalaric, Aegwin tilted his head to better accept the bruising kiss. He devoured the hunger of his leader and lover in one, his Sydae-Ra, tongue dueling with equal fervor to Dalaric’s desire, greedy for it all. It had been too long since Dalaric had last needed him with such ferocity. The scent that clung to his Sydae-Ra teased Aegwin’s nose and brought him to stiff readiness.

  The sound of fabric ripping barely registered to Aegwin’s ears and then he was on his knees before Dalaric. Sharp fangs pressed into the back of his neck then Dalaric was inside him, filling him with almost painful speed and strength. His passage was well lubricated by the claiming oils all Akkadian males exuded from their cocks, but it was a tight fit given how long ago Aegwin had last known his Sydae-Ra.

  Still, his cock ached and his back bowed under the intensity of the Ki that flowed over his skin, seeking to reclaim what was rightfully Dalaric’s. Aegwin’s essence rose to caress his Sydae-Ra’s power and the sparks that flared where the two met caused Aegwin’s flesh to crawl in need and his engorged cock to spit seed onto the stone floor.

  “Fuck,” he breathed out between the powerful thrusts that pushed against the hot spot deep within him that made his eyes roll to the back of his head. Then a calloused hand wrapped around his cock and Aegwin was beyond words. The firm fist squeezed him from root to tip, over and over, milking him to swift orgasm.<
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  Aegwin shuddered against the stone floor, gasping, when Dalaric came with a loud roar that shook the windows. He felt his Sydae-Ra’s cock pulse deep inside him, filling him with his seed, marking him by scent and power.

  Dalaric slowly pulled out and, with a squeeze to Aegwin’s shoulder, he left his second on the floor to make his way to the bathing basin in the center of his sleeping chamber.

  Helpless for a few moments to do little more than gather his breath and bearing, Aegwin’s gaze followed Dalaric as the white dragon stepped into the waters. “Caelwin had an interesting tale for me, though I think he left out a few details,” Aegwin finally managed to drawl. He slowly regained his feet and paced thoughtfully to the basin to stare down on the closed eyes of his Sydae-Ra. Every muscle in his body ached delightfully. What would have been a painful experience for another male had been tempered by his healing Ki into a quick but satisfying fuck, as Dalaric had known it would be. Besides, Aegwin thought to himself while a wide grin shaped his lips, he had needed that just as much as Dalaric had.

  “What did he tell you?” Dalaric asked without moving instead of volunteering the relevant information Aegwin sought.

  Shaking his head, Aegwin stepped into the water. He barely winced at the tepid liquid, already well-accustomed to Dalaric’s damnable habit of preferring it that way. “You found a witch for the Rite, but she was overwhelmed by her power and you had to force her submission.” Aegwin grinned at the striking countenance of his Sydae-Ra. “He found me in Tranton and told me that you would need to discuss the matter. I must say, I do prefer your manner of conversation.”

  Dalaric cracked open his eyes to meet Aegwin’s gaze briefly before closing them once more. “You were unharmed?” he asked, almost too casually.

  Aegwin huffed. “I am almost insulted. I may not be of a warrior breed, but neither am I a scrawny youngling, Dalaric. You are welcome to push me into as many walls as you like if I end up on the floor with your cock up my ass and your fist around me. Though,” Aegwin added with a jaw-cracking grin, “if you are feeling guilty I know how you can make it up to me.”

  “Not in this lifetime,” Dalaric drawled, knowing exactly what Aegwin desired. “The once required every mote of my willpower to resist ripping your cock off for the insult to my instinct, Aegwin. This you know.”

  “Then claim another second,” Aegwin griped. “My cock enjoys your hand greatly but would like to feel something hot and tight as well. Surely there must be one other male out there you won’t kill for the need to submit once.”

  Dalaric snorted. He leaned forward to claim the bottle of cleansing oils that sat on the low table next to the basin and caught another whiff of Emersyn’s scent that yet clung to him. He growled when his cock twitched and threatened to rise again.

  Aegwin’s brows rose. He moved closer to his Sydae-Ra and brushed his nose against Dalaric’s muscular chest. A tantalizing aroma caused him to echo Dalaric’s growl. “What or who does that belong to?” he asked, nose following the scent to the crook of Dalaric’s neck. He could not place the smell, but it was enough to stiffen him again in record time. A place on the bottom of Dalaric’s chin scented strongly and he licked it, enjoying the taste of his Sydae-Ra combined with the exotic, unknown flavor.

  “The witch,” Dalaric stated. “Emersyn.” His clawed hands gripped Aegwin and moved him away to duck beneath the cool waters. He emerged to slather the oils over himself, hoping to regain control if he removed the scent from his person.

  Aegwin groaned and fisted himself harshly at the root to kill his erection. Clearly Dalaric did not intend on another round. He thought on many things to take his mind off the delectable body bared right in front of him. Loren’s reports on the inept clans who had applied for seedlings but would need training in how to care for them. His brothers’ penchant for trouble. Meghara lecturing him once more on becoming a proper second to her son.

  The last did the deed. Meghara was a delightfully horrid shrew on the best of days. His cock deflated.

  By the time he had managed it, Dalaric had also helped the cause by rising from the water and pulling on a new robe from the wardrobe. Aegwin claimed a luxurious towel from the marble bench that served as a storage for oils and such and rose from the water after swiftly cleaning himself as well. He sighed upon seeing the sorry state of his clothing. The servants could use them as rags to clean the floor of his release, he decided. Dalaric had ripped both tunic and short pants to shreds in his haste.

  Dalaric arched a brow at him and held out a robe a match to his own. Aegwin grimaced but he would not walk around in the buff. Robes were comfortable but Aegwin hated what they represented. He had left his clan to join Dalaric’s to escape a life of limpid nobility. That Dalaric favored robes for their convenience and ease of removal was not lost on Aegwin.

  Aegwin dearly adored his Sydae-Ra, but Dalaric was sadly ignorant of the changing times amongst other clans on foreign continents. Though, contrary as his Sydae-Ra was on any given day, Aegwin imagined that even if Dalaric knew he would not alter his mode of dress if he learned it had become popular amongst the warrior breeds of other clans to wear leathers and armor. Only wastrel un-blooded younglings and females still wore robes.

  It was not blind loyalty that told Aegwin Dalaric would believe such to be an admission of weakness to require armor. He had done his fair share of traveling before meeting Dalaric and had briefly toyed with the idea of becoming a second to other Sydae-Ras. None had ever managed to claim his loyalty, however. Not until Dalaric had come to see his sister about an egg.

  It wasn’t the Ki Aegwin had felt to his bones that had called to him two centuries ago. It had been the restrained discipline Dalaric wore like a second skin. The cool regard that had been thoughtful rather than dismissive of a male most warriors viewed as a convenient hole without true purpose.

  Aegwin had been determined to be more than what another would see him as given his breed. Most clans claimed greens to their Sydaes simply to have a healer around. Only green essence could be accepted by any Akkadian without their Ki refusing it. Aegwin had studied land development and farming techniques for the majority of his life despite his parent Sydae refusing to support his desire to one day manage a portion of land.

  Then Dalaric came to bargain for an egg from Kylara. She had already contracted eggs to other males, but he was not particular so long as he would be granted one before she took a mate. It had astounded Aegwin that Dalaric had declared his intention not to claim a mate which necessitated buying an egg off Kylara. Aegwin had made a rash decision and approached the taller warrior male with a bargain. Take him as a second, guaranteeing that all Dalaric’s lands would be Aegwin’s to manage as he saw fit given the warrior had neither the patience or training for it, and Aegwin would build the wealth Dalaric’s heir would need in the future.

  Aegwin had never regretted his decision despite the derision he faced from the un-blooded who viewed him as little more than a paramour to his warrior Sydae-Ra. There were worse fates even if that had been his only purpose, but Aegwin was never left in doubt as to Dalaric’s respect for his worth beyond the bed chambers.

  “She calls to my instincts,” Dalaric finally admitted once Aegwin was dressed and had claimed a seat on the bench before the window. Dalaric sat down on the bench that faced Aegwin’s. His eyes were hard but not with anger.

  Aegwin had never seen that particular look on his Sydae-Ra’s face before. Rampant confusion. “Is there something in your library that can explain it?” Aegwin queried. “I recall my Ascension. The temple witch had been young enough. I had not felt anything for her aside from relief that I had finally been freed. Nor have I ever heard of other marked witches inciting lust in us.”

  The only males Aegwin knew to seek human women had been un-blooded drunk on mana wine. They woke from their stupor to find the woman dead or pregnant. Aegwin knew of a few female Akkadians who dallied with humans. Some females in recent centuries had changed and not for the better.
Even the blooded ones had begun to run from their clans and the strong males who courted them to seek weakness they could control or exploit. His sister, Kylara, regularly took human lovers.

  Dalaric shook his head in the negative and leaned against the stone backrest. “I have read every book and scroll on the subject of the marked witches since finding her. There are only references to the Rite and notations on each temple that had once existed and the younglings who had Ascended from them.”

  Aegwin hummed in thought. “Tell me about her. This woman who has your head clouded.”

  Dalaric recounted his meeting with Emersyn and every moment since to his second. Aegwin nodded in the appropriate places and held his silence until the end. Then, Aegwin asked, “What do you feel when you are around her? You gave me a proper history but from your re-telling I would assume you felt nothing for her, but I know that to be untruth. You told me once that I am your only true lover because you do not fuck what you do not own. Yet you were almost to the point of taking her, this human witch, that you have not claimed.”

  Considering his words carefully, Dalaric scowled when Aegwin rolled his eyes.

  “Enough,” Aegwin demanded. “No, do not growl at me,” he said when Dalaric’s eyes narrowed. “Listen to me. Do not think about what you are going to say and just tell me honestly what is in your heart.”

  “She reminds me of the nobility of character our females used to aspire to. Gentle. Of a nature that begs to be protected from harm yet rises to shield those she loves from the damage she suffers willingly in their place. Emersyn houses a power that refuses to bow its head to mine without proof of my greater strength.” Dalaric paused, staring at the calloused palms of his hands as he turned them over. He met Aegwin’s eyes. “I have never met a female who holds such power inside her yet also retains such an innocent desire to please others. Emersyn claims two women for sisters not her own and has born the scorn of my nephew for the sake of one. She said she would help Caelwin not only for his sake but for my own. To ease a father’s heart.”