He had to shut down for a battle nap.
But how could he rest with Brina still gone?
Turning his head, he stared at the hologram.
Another section the size of a silver dollar vanished right before him.
His heart had never hurt like this. He'd thought losing her to another man would be impossible to survive.
He'd been wrong.
Losing her this way would destroy his world. He'd have first hand understanding of the way Quinn suffered. Next time Tzader saw Quinn, he owed his friend better than he'd given him so far.
As Tzader's breathing calmed, the aggression that had been chewing at him backed off. Not entirely gone, but diminished.
With his eyes closed, he pictured his Brina running through the forest and swimming at their special place in the lake on Treoir. She was so pretty. Red hair flying behind her. Laughing.
She used to laugh all the time.
Four years of being locked in the castle had stolen her joy.
He loved to see her smile. Loved the way she kissed him. Just loved her period.
A soft voice whispered, "Miss me?"
Tzader jolted at the touch, and sat up straight, coming awake instantly. No one was in the room.
He could swear that had been her voice. The hologram showed no signs of life. In fact, a piece of her index finger blinked out.
Hurt threatened to crush his heart.
He was losing his mind. He dropped back onto the cushions, closed his thoughts to everything except sleep. The sooner he got some shuteye, the sooner he'd be back on duty watching over her form.
Scattered thoughts tumbled through his mind for all of a minute, then he drifted into a dark vortex of boneless sleep.
"Where are you, Tzader?"
"Brina?"
Cool air swirled around his face and arms. "Come to me, Tzader."
Where was she? "I can't find you."
"Remember our tree?"
That simple suggestion was all it took for sunshine to pierce the darkness and beckon him into the light. He strode forward through a field of wildflowers dancing in a gentle wind. When he reached the other side of the field, he entered the forest of trees a hundred feet tall and with trunks too large for him to reach around. Walking beneath the canopy of thick leaves and branches, his shoulders relaxed. He'd missed this place where he and his da had spent hours tracking game.
"Find our tree and you'll find me," whispered close to his ear.
Tzader paused, looking around. That's why he'd come here. Brina was calling him. Not the eighteen-year-old Brina he'd once shown his favorite areas so many years ago. No, the one calling him now had a woman's voice. She should be in the castle. Not out here where danger could find her.
Had the Noirre majik pulled him into its web of deceit?
If it did, Tzader hoped to be sent to Brina, even if it meant being trapped there forever.
He rushed to the tree that stood at the end of a spring-fed lake, as imposing as a centurion watching over their special private area. His blood burned in his veins as he ducked to search beneath sprawling limbs. Branches reached thirty feet from the tree, clothed in wide leaves that had once been a private shelter for their loving. The tips fanned the ground far from the trunk.
But no heart-stopping young woman waited for him.
Tzader felt the pain as sharply as a blade shoved into his chest, slashing his heart into pieces that would never match up again.
Where was Brina?
This was the spot where they'd pledged themselves to each other. A place and time carved into his memories. From that moment on, he'd never wanted another.
"Tzader?"
He shoved up and took a step back at the sound of her so close.
There she was, with her lush red hair spilling down around her, shoulders covered with a silvery-blue, hooded cloak. She looked more like the forest nymph he'd once called her instead of the Belador warrior queen.
Light spilled through tiny gaps in the trees, shifting and moving. Brina faded and came back.
This couldn't be real.
Brina never left the castle.
Wait. Why did she never step out of Treoir Castle?
Something tugged at the back of his mind, trying to tell him this was important. There was a reason she stood out here in the woods alone.
He should ask, but his heart was pounding too loud in his ears for him to hear his own thoughts. His body took over all decision making. The need to touch her was the only thing that mattered.
Brina stared at him with eyes full of disbelief and murmured, "I've missed you, mo gradh." My love.
She stayed solid this time.
Real or not, in that moment, his world narrowed down to holding this woman again.
Tzader closed the gap between them, reaching for her.
She lunged into his arms and kissed him with the same reckless abandon that had ended with clothes being shed the last time they were in this spot.
He was onboard with that idea.
His mouth hungered for hers. He kissed the lips that fed his soul and tasted like all his tomorrows. Her hands clutched at him, touching his face, neck and shoulders, begging more from him.
For the first time in too long, nothing would prevent him from meeting that request.
Holding her soothed the bone-deep pain of missing her.
She made a sound in her throat, sexy, hot and demanding.
That was his little warrior who never wanted half measure in anything. She reached down and ran her hand over his chest and lower until her fingers touched his hard length.
Memories of their last time together flooded him, lighting his skin on fire. She was all he'd ever want.
All any man could ask for.
And she was his.
Brina nipped his lip and licked, murmuring his name over and over. Her fingers gripped his shirt, wrenching it up until he stopped long enough to yank it over his head.
Her mouth was on his, her tongue playful at first then turning serious.
Grasping her hair, he gently tugged her head up and back. He kissed her soft cheeks then her neck, and on down until he had her draped over one arm. He took that moment to stare at her delicate skin, so pale against the dark brown muscles of his arm.
He gave her the words he'd told her that first time they made love. "Ta mo chroi istigh ionat." My heart is in you.
Eyes as bright as a spring day and shining with love met his. She answered just as she had before. "Graim thu." I love you.
Then her eyes lit with challenge. "I'm missin' all of ya, Tzader. Not just that sweet tongue of yours."
He yanked the tie loose on her cloak and flipped it away.
The material stalled in the air, stretching out flat then floating to the ground as if ordered to become a blanket.
"Let your arms fall away," he whispered.
Watching him from where she hung with her hair cascading to the mossy ground beneath the tree, she lifted her arms and let them fall slowly.
Her gossamer gown shimmered when she trembled.
He lifted the thin strap at her shoulder and slid the material slowly over the peaked tips of her nipples, taking his time to unveil the pert beauty.
Every muscle in her body was taut, waiting, anticipating.
He lowered his head and took her breast into his mouth, sucking.
She arched and let out a painful cry that picked up volume when he raked his teeth carefully over the hard bud. He moved to her left breast, biting the material and dragging it out of the way. Then he brushed the rough skin of his tongue across her nipple and used his free hand to tease her right one.
Her body strained and quivered under the erotic attack.
It felt like forever since he'd held this treasure.
While he tormented her breast, sucking and nipping, drawing sexy sounds out of her, he eased her dress up and massaged his way north to her wet heat. No panties.
Dear goddess.
One touch and she grabbed her head
, calling out, begging him. "Please..."
He'd intended to take his time and turn a deaf ear to her demands to end this torture. But two strokes over the sensitive skin and she bowed, crying out. Power zinged around him, buzzing his skin. He smiled.
Brina had no control over her power when she climaxed.
She was half-dressed so he finished the job, leaving her filmy gown in a pile and lowering her to the cloak. "You are magnificent."
He whispered words he'd held inside for too long. "I missed you. Missed us."
"I refuse to wait ever again," she vowed.
"Never. You are mine and no one will keep you from me." He'd never survive another four years.
Four years? That couldn't be right, could it?
He dug for how long they had been apart and drew a blank.
Brina's chest rose and fell with deep breaths, lifting her sweet breasts each time. The nipples were soft again, looking ignored.
He could remedy that.
But first he wanted another kiss. It was as if he searched for water as a dying man thirsts in the desert and her mouth was a clear spring. Leaning over, he rained kisses from her forehead down her cheeks to her lips. Full, abused lips that he would take care with, but fully planned to abuse some more.
Her hand fluttered down to cup him and he hissed. "Careful, mo gradh. I want you so much you'll end this too soon."
She smiled at him. One simple smile and his entire world came into focus. "If it ends too soon, we'll just have to be startin' over then won't we?"
"That's a promise."
"If I can't have you inside me soon, I may have to resort to majik to be gettin' what I want," she warned in her sweet Irish brogue.
Tzader sat back on his knees and unzipped his pants. He must not have been moving fast enough, because they flew away as if snatched by an invisible hand. He gave her a loaded look. "So it's like that, huh?"
"Oh, aye. It's time you finish what you started."
"Demanding and beautiful." He scooped her bottom and dragged her to him, lowering his head.
Now he'd get a true taste of her.
He made one slow brush of his tongue through her heat and she clamped her legs tight over his arms. He pointed the fingers on each hand toward her breasts and used his kinetics to play back and forth across the sullen nipples, teasing them back into action.
"Tzader, what are you ..."
Plunging his tongue inside her then stroking the tense flesh ended any conversation. At least he couldn't understand anything intelligible coming out between her moans. When he had her at the very edge of oblivion, he lifted his head, drawing a sound of loss from her.
He said, "Look at me."
She did and said, "Don't make me wait any more."
Stretching forward to cover her, he eased inside her and the look on her face was pure heaven. Chills ran up his chest at the first stroke. He clamped his teeth, determined to hold back.
When had control been so damned hard?
He'd given his pledge of love in the past, but they came out in a primal vow, yanked from within. "I love you, Brina. I always have, always will. Never doubt that."
"I love you more and forever," she proclaimed.
Her body lifted off the cloak, moving up and forward until she faced him and he sat back on his knees. She was using her kinetics to push herself down, driving him deeper on the next stroke. He shuddered against the surge of power he held back, waiting to give her more.
She put her hands on his shoulders and they flexed under her touch. "Don't hold back. I want all of you."
Her voice was enough to push him over, but he gripped his control with a ruthless will. He moved a hand to touch her, finding that spot where he'd left her teetering. She was panting and moving in rhythm with him.
One well placed stroke and her inner muscles clenched him.
He dove off that edge right beside her.
Power exploded around him, bursting with colors.
He was lost to everything, blinded by the force of his climax and lost in her love.
Time had no meaning. The world shifted and warped, images flashed through his mind, too confusing to grab onto one and hold it still. Darkness smothered him until he opened his eyes.
He floated in ether, lulled by more than being sated. By joining with the other half of his soul. His Brina. No one would ever take her from him.
To try would be to welcome death.
Gradually, the air chilled his skin. He felt a soft cushion beneath him ... not the forest floor.
No warm body touched his. No fine hair fell across his chest. He couldn't draw a breath that didn't burn with painful reality.
He'd feared few things in his life as much as opening his eyes, but only a coward would avoid the truth.
When he turned his head, he blinked and there was Brina's hologram. One hand was now missing.
It had been nothing more than a dream.
"No. Brina."
He covered his eyes with his arm, unwilling to face the truth behind what he'd just glimpsed-a future of being left with nothing more than her memories. The pain of losing her would eventually consume him, leaving nothing but a shell. He'd only thought he knew how Quinn felt.
He'd just opened the door to Quinn's living hell.
Chapter 11
"Maybe we should bring Nicole back," Evalle said, wiping her damp palms on her jeans and staring at the altar. Did this really have to happen out here in the woods with sixty-six candles? Creepy, which was saying something considering that she fought demons on a regular basis.
"You don't want to do that to Nicole," Adrianna said as she prepared her ceremony.
"Why? She'd just be here to watch."
The Sterling witch paused from lighting one of the fat red candles spread around the clearing on a piece of property that belonged to someone Adrianna knew in north Atlanta. She explained in the same quiet way someone told a first grader that play time was over. "Allowing Nicole to remain in Storm's living room earlier while I called for Kai was fairly safe since Kai is of the light and Nicole shielded herself, but being anywhere near this ceremony might leave a mark on a white witch that would be easily identified. Nicole would have no way to avoid admitting that she'd been here. You don't want to do that to her."
"No, I don't," Evalle admitted quickly, then suspicion bubbled up through her next question. "But why do you care?"
Adrianna normally maintained an even keel, never showing an emotion or letting on about her thoughts, but her blue eyes flared with insult that boiled through her angry words. "You know, just because I'm a Sterling witch doesn't mean I'm an evil, inconsiderate bitch. I healed your wound when that Medb-influenced ghoul stabbed you when we hunted for the Ngak Stone. I watched over Storm for three weeks and pulled out every trick I knew to keep him alive only to catch a backlash from Sen for being gone so long. Now, I'm helping you locate Storm. So I want to know. What did I ever do to you to deserve all this grief?"
Evalle opened her mouth, then closed it without saying a word. Put that way, she didn't have an answer.
She'd been angry with Adrianna from the first moment the Sterling witch walked into the mission room at VIPER headquarters just because, well, Adrianna was the epitome of female perfection.
Crud. That was rotten.
If Evalle forced herself to admit the truth, Adrianna had never been anything but nice around the teams. But Adrianna stayed on Evalle's bad side because the witch had a habit of smiling at Evalle as though she knew something Evalle didn't, which she did.
Adrianna could probably fill a library with what she knew about men when Evalle couldn't fill a pamphlet.
Storm had never shown any male interest in the witch, but Adrianna was the walking vision of what Evalle would never be.
Graceful, elegant and confident in a room full of men who were ogling her.
Now that Adrianna had called her out, Evalle owed her an honest reply. And hell, maybe an apology.
After months of c
arrying around this grudge, it now felt unfair and Evalle was tired of spending the energy required to stay angry. "You're right. I should be thanking you for the times you've helped all of us. I'm sorry I haven't exactly shown my appreciation."
Adrianna lifted one eyebrow at the understatement, but allowed it to pass.
Evalle would never be besties with Adrianna, but she could treat her with the same consideration Evalle tried to give everyone. She could treat her like a teammate as a start.
Storm would be all over Evalle for this, because he'd told her that you never touch a dark witch voluntarily, but she extended her hand and said, "Thanks for your help tonight. I would do anything to bring Storm back. When it's time to pay his debt, we'll both be there."
Adrianna stared down at Evalle's hand. The surprise in her gaze gave more weight to the significance of Evalle's offer. Adrianna clasped hands and shook, the entire moment registering strangely in Adrianna's face as if touching-let alone shaking hands-was actually unfamiliar. When she withdrew her hand, she said, "Your offer is accepted and held in great esteem. So let it be spoken, so let it be done."
Things didn't automatically turn chipper after that, but the hostility hovering between them settled to a guarded acceptance.
As long as they were on friendly terms, Evalle wanted to find out where Adrianna stood with the Medb infiltrating the city. "Have you heard about the Medb showing up in Atlanta?"
"Yes."
When Adrianna didn't expound, Evalle said, "Are you on friendly terms with them?"
"No. I don't associate with all dark witches. In fact, I associate with very few."
Fair enough.
Once Adrianna had everything in place, she pointed to the stone slab. "Please take your place."
Evalle eyed the slab that just so happened to already be here on the ground when they showed up. Asking Adrianna if she'd been out here sacrificing chickens would likely put a kink in their tentative ceasefire. "Do I have to lie down?"
"No." Adrianna had that irritating smirk back in her eyes. "That's only for virginal sacrifices."
"Very funny." A dark witch comedienne.
Evalle stepped on the smooth stone and it might have been her imagination, but she could feel vibrations coming up from beneath her feet. "Are we on some kind of fault line here?"
"That's the energy you'll need to reach Storm."
"I don't teleport well."
"It's not teleporting. This is more like astral projection. Your body will remain here, but you should be able to speak and see things in another realm. However, you will be able to speak only to Storm, because of your connection to him."