He blinked, then asked, “But what are you protecting?”
Now for the white lie. She stepped back and gestured to the beautiful hanging vines. “For decades now, I’ve guarded several wraith families who live on my land behind these vines. Pure blooded wraiths.”
He met her gaze, searching her eyes. “Holy shit. And you’re absolutely serious.”
His words surprised her. “Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be? Why would I say something like that and not mean it?”
He turned toward the vines. “How many families?”
“A few.”
“Where did they come from?”
“They were always on this land.”
He drew close to the vines and touched them. “I can feel your frequency where my fingers connect.” He continued to touch and pat the vines at various intervals. “And the entrance is somewhere nearby, isn’t it?”
She released a heavy sigh. “Yes, but please don’t ask me to take you inside. I’ve taken a vow to keep their presence in your realm a secret.”
He shook his head. “You said these are full-blooded wraiths?”
She nodded.
“Shit.” She felt his despair all over again as he added quietly, “No wraith is safe in Ashleaf.”
“And that’s why they stay hidden behind my shield.”
He turned toward her, his frown deepening, his expression full of concern. “Is this why I always feel that you’re focused on something else whenever I’m around you?”
She nodded, grateful that he was finally coming to understand. “Yes. I’m constantly streaming energy to the shield.” She almost told him about Axton’s recent attempt to breach the entrance, but was afraid of revealing too much. Besides, if she stayed on alert, she felt certain she could deal with Axton herself. “Mastyr, I can’t be distracted and this is why I’ve brought you here. It takes tremendous concentration to sustain the shield.” She didn’t go into how this had worsened in recent years. “Do you understand?”
“I’m familiar with the feeling.”
“I know you are. We’re alike in that way.”
He nodded, but his frown had deepened. “Critical duties to fulfill.”
She felt grateful that he’d understood her so readily.
“Willow, I think you should know that I’ve come to a decision to begin the relocation process. You’re aware of the controversy?”
“Of course, and I’m staunchly opposed. Why let Axton and his kind win?”
He pressed his lips together. “Because I won’t have another death on my hands. Not one more. Not after witnessing the Birchingwood murders.” He waved a hand to encompass the vines. “And I think these families should be part of that relocation.”
She shook her head. “No. You mustn’t attempt to remove them.” Her gaze dropped to the ground. She felt the heart of the Nine Realms beneath her feet, a soft frequency that also protested his decision. Lifting her gaze back to him, she added, “The wraiths must stay here. I believe there have always been wraiths in Ashleaf and that they serve a purpose here.”
“Children died, Willow. Babies, really.”
She drew close and put her hand on his shoulder, letting waves of compassion flow. He turned toward her, eyes wide once more. “Sweet Goddess,” he murmured. “You have so much power.”
As she stared into his eyes, the affection and admiration she felt for him rose once more. He was such a worthy man and maybe because she’d made physical contact, she couldn’t seem to suppress the desire that swept through her. What went through her mind as her body heated up yet again, was that more than anything in the world she wanted to ask him to come home with her.
And it would involve a lot more than just talking things through.
She opened her mouth to speak and tell him he should leave now and to forget about relocating any of the wraiths and half-breeds in his realm. Instead, other words tumbled out, “Would you like to come home with me, just once? To be with me?”
~ ~ ~
Malik felt Willow’s mating frequency flowing over him in heavy, needful waves. The invitation was clear. And as he stared into her beautiful, hazel eyes, he knew what his answer would be. “Yes, I’d love to be with you.”
For the first time ever he’d be inside her house.
The metaphor wasn’t lost on him, and desire surged all over again. What was it about Willow that had him mad with need?
Without her knowing, he’d made more than one circuit around her treehouse dwelling, but he’d respected her privacy, refusing to cross the threshold when she wasn’t there. He would never do that.
But now he had an invitation.
She put two fingers to her lips, and her eyes widened.
“What is it?” He stepped toward her, closing an already small gap.
“It’s, I don’t know. The way you smell. You have this lush forest scent, like the streams and the rocks, and the fragrance of the trees and the leaves — everything.”
Her lips parted and her eyes closed as she drew a very deep breath.
What returned to him was an answering scent, so full of rain-in-the-forest and sex that his knees almost buckled. He couldn’t prevent the groan that escaped his throat.
This was not exactly how he’d imagined this meeting would go. He’d intended to finish this insanity between them. Instead, she’d invited him back to her house and apparently he intended to go with her. “Won’t you be distracted?”
Oddly, she looked down at her feet again. “I feel certain that it will be all right. In fact, I know it will, which makes no sense. But my power is flowing better than ever right now. The col—that is, the families will be fine.”
Malik was grateful for his Guard coat because right now it covered a multitude of sins. But he stood tottering on the fence. He should break with Willow. He should leave her land and never look back. She would be better off and so would he.
Yet he couldn’t make his feet move.
What he’d desired for two years was right here in front of him with an invitation.
“Malik?”
He even loved her voice, a delicate melodious sound that wrenched his heart.
But when she placed her hand on his shoulder again, as though to gentle him down, things went completely haywire. He’d been holding back for two years and now here she was touching him.
Without thinking, he dragged her into his arms, slanting his lips over hers, all but bending his massive Guardsman body over hers.
She cried out, and he should have stopped. But the cry caused her lips to part, and he slid his tongue inside, moaning his need, his desire, the depth of his longing for her.
He kissed her as though this was the first kiss man had ever given woman. He plunged his tongue in and out, savoring the warm wet nest that made him hunger for what resided between her legs.
He was so lost in the experience, of finally being able to take her in his arms, that only after a full minute did he come to an awareness that she was into this as much as he was.
Her hands had dislodged his Guardsman clasp, and she’d sunk her fingers into his hair. At the same time, she made odd warbling sounds like an Ashleaf night-bird.
The knowledge that she wanted him as desperately as he craved her and was savoring the kiss as much as he was, encouraged him. Willow, I’ve longed for you, for this, to be close to you. Tell me it’s been the same with you.
You know it has, Malik. But I’ve been without companionship for so long, though, that I fear what I’m feeling is more about repressed need than about you.
He didn’t care the source, only that she wanted him with a passion that matched his own.
He slid his hand down to her buttocks, pressing her against what was so hard and ready for her. She whimpered, then drew back. Her lips were swollen as she clung to him. “I want you to see my home. Do you want to come with?”
He nodded, knowing he’d just fallen into the hopeless category.
As she drew away from him, the light forest-
rain scent of her sex flooded the space between. He could tell she was about to turn away from him in order to begin the trek, but he caught her up in his arms, cradling her. “I know the way. Let me fly you.”
She put her arms around his neck. “I would love that.”
Even though this vine-covered monolith was new to him, his destination was as familiar as the night sky above. Using his vampire homing senses, he quickly laid out the best route.
As he levitated, Malik began to feel just how much of Willow’s land held her fae magic, as though she’d somehow connected with the earth itself. Miriam’s words came back to him about exploring the realm-ness that seemed to be in constant motion between himself and Willow.
He could have flown her up above the forest canopy, but he didn’t want to. Willow was the forest and everything wild that grew and thrived on her land.
He flew slowly at first, then more quickly, taking care not to let any wayward branches slap at Willow or cut her arms or legs. His chest swelled at having her so close, this woman who shielded several wraith families.
Now that he understood her focus, he appreciated her all the more. But he wondered why she’d kept this a secret from him? Surely, she understood that he damn well knew the difference between the Invictus wraith-pairs and those innocent wraiths who had lived in the Nine Realms from the beginning?
Maybe in time, she would tell him. She’d spoken of a vow, but why had it been necessary?
As he turned his attention to her more and more, he started to feel the layers of her. His desire had so dominated his male drive that only now, as he flew toward the ridge where her treehouse had been built, could he feel the enormous responsibility she carried in protecting these wraiths.
He slowed as the trail in the oak wood opened up and her primary residence came into view. She’d built her home on the side of a small ravine, as many of the Ashleaf inhabitants did. Open pasture land was rare in his realm and most of it commandeered for the raising of goats and sheep. More than once, he’d tried to talk to her while she was at her house, but she took off from there and he gave chase. And if he had to give chase, he preferred meeting her first at the pool, bastard that he was.
The first of her five treehouses that made up her complex looked completely deceiving, since it was on the level of the path. But he knew the land dropped away sharply, at least thirty feet to the stream and small waterfall below.
But the curved walkway with a protective wood railing and a cut-out diamond on every other oiled panel, had a charm familiar to the mountain forests of Ashleaf.
As he set her on her feet, he could feel that the protective spell was stronger this close to her house.
She glanced up at him, her hazel eyes glittering as she took his hand. “I’m glad you’re here, Malik. I’ve wanted to speak with you, to be with you for such a long time.”
“And I’ve wanted to be here.” He then made his confession about having spent time on this part of her property.
“But you never went inside?” Her brows rose, but she didn’t seem upset.
“Of course not.”
At that, she smiled. “I wouldn’t have minded. Anyone else, probably, but not you. I trust you because I’ve watched how you govern your realm and I knew of the laws you instituted when you took Axton’s place.”
“That’s kind of you to say so, but until I rid Ashleaf of The Society, I’ll never be at peace.”
“One day you will. I’m confident of that.”
He stared into her hazel eyes, wondering yet again what this was between them.
He moved to the railing near the front door and looked down. The entire hillside had been planted and grown lush with ferns. Below, a mature vegetable plot in stone supported terraces, ranged in the direction of the stream. “You haul the water?”
She chuckled. “No. Do you see the far tree and the pipe? I have a small electric pump.”
Solar power had made a lot of things possible in his realm in the past few years.
“It’s very peaceful here.”
She stood beside him, also looking down at her garden and the stream, as well as a small waterfall twenty or so yards to the north. Ashleaf had thousands of similar waterfalls.
“I’ve worked hard to make my home a haven. It’s been necessary because of the work I do on behalf of the wraiths.”
He turned toward her. “I can only imagine, and I’m amazed that you’ve sacrificed so much to help them.”
At that, she smiled again. She had beautiful even teeth. “Well, I don’t do anything that you’re not doing, Mastyr.”
He shook his head. “Please call me Malik. Like you did before.”
But she placed a quick hand on his arm. “It’s my way of telling you how much I respect what you’ve done as Mastyr of Ashleaf. You inspire me.”
“I do?” He was surprised. He just didn’t think of himself in those terms.
“Of course. Your dedication of service keeps me committed to protecting my wraiths.”
The air between them shifted once more, especially since she still had her hand on his arm. Desire for her raged all over again, and he was stunned how quickly even just a touch or a word of praise could make him want her so much.
A blush covered her cheeks, and her fresh forest-rain scent rose in the air. “Why don’t you come inside?”
Maybe it was her choice of words, but he almost attacked her again.
Instead, he restrained himself, and as she headed toward the door, he quickly moved around her, pulling the door open so that she could go in before him.
This part of her treehouse complex housed her living room, kitchen, and dining room. Two separate doors led to different rope bridges, one leading up into the oak canopy, the other to a lower level.
She gestured to the one leading up. “My bedroom and bathroom are up there. I saved the highest space for sleeping. The lower level is for meditation and has a porch where I spend a lot of my time. I often have tea out there. Sometimes a beer or two.
“I like that.”
She smiled. “Then off the kitchen, is a third door that leads to my lower workrooms, one for storage and canning and the last for my gardening equipment and anything else pertaining to the function of my home.”
Malik approved of the overall craftsmanship. “You had some excellent workers on this project.”
“The best trolls. Every finish is superb.” A smooth, stained branch ran from floor-to-ceiling, supporting the kitchen island.
She’d built the house on larger lines than most, so even his Guardsman body felt comfortable in the space.
He felt something new coming from her however, and turned once more in her direction. She leaned against the supporting branch, her hands behind her and he caught her looking him up and down.
Then he saw something that both startled him yet made his leathers tight across the zipper. Small white fangs appeared and were now pressing onto her lower lip. Fangs smaller than a vampire’s.
He knew what they were at once: Wraith fangs.
“Willow?”
She lifted her gaze. Her hazel eyes were dark, her pupils dilated. “Yes?” Because of her fangs, she had a slight lisp.
She covered them quickly with her fingers and her cheeks flamed a dark peach color.
He went to her and took her hand away, so that he could see the sharp points again. Very carefully, he thumbed her lips and rubbed the edges of the fangs. “I don’t think I’ve seen anything more beautiful than these.”
“I didn’t mean to … it’s just that …”
“I know.” The time had come. “Why don’t you show me your bedroom, and I’ll happily let you tap in anywhere you want to.” Bold words.
In response, she almost fell, but he slid his arm around her waist, supporting her. “Knees buckled?”
“Uh-huh. It’s been a long time. Way too long. But please know nothing permanent can come of this.”
“I know, and I’m with you. We both need to stay focused on our se
parate duties. But right now, I’m going to focus on you.”
She whimpered softly, leaning her head against his shoulder.
He picked her up and flew her slowly out the door toward her bedroom. The fresh smell of the oak wood spilled over him.
When he crossed the solid wood bridge and reached the open doorway to her treehouse bedroom, he paused on the threshold. He didn’t usually attach a lot of meaning to sex, or even to where a woman slept. But something about this moment felt sacred. Once more he experienced the vibrations from deep in the earth as though Willow and now he had a connection to the land.
Miriam had been right; everything about his relationship with Willow felt very realm.
The room had windows on each side. And just like that, vines suddenly appeared at the long, open window above the bed. He had no doubt he was looking at Willow’s magic, and that the vines that grew at the base of the central oak, had just climbed into her room.
She moved in his arms and he set her down.
“Your vines are here.”
She glanced back at the bed. “Yes, they are, but don’t worry; they’re part of me.”
“I’m not worried, Willow, not on any level. You spoke of trusting me, but I feel the same way about you.”
She turned back to him and caught his face in her hands, kissing him once on the lips. “Will you let me do something for you? It would mean a lot to me, a sort of ritual.”
He’d known many fae through the years and knew that they placed great value on the order of things. “I’d be honored.”
She drew a deep breath and he felt how nervous she was. But what she said surprised him. “Take off your clothes.”
~ ~ ~
Willow felt her cheeks grow warm, having just told the Mastyr of Ashleaf to essentially get naked. She added quickly, “I’ll be right back.”
She moved into the small adjacent bathroom and filled a white ceramic basin with cool water. Afterward, she removed her clothes then donned her thin, white, floor-length robe. She took a moment to brush out her long hair.