Darius
Icarried Samantha with ease, her desire to be strong of no consequence.I felt her pain, could sense her near the end of her tenuous hold on control.Cursing my stupidity for not allowing for her comfort first, I placed her gently on the bed.
Onmybed.
When she made no move to get up, I knew she’d reached the end of her endurance.Staring down at her, a spiral of tenderness blossomed, surprising me with the amount of feeling I experienced for the lovely Samantha Brooks.
Though just having her near made my cock ache and my heart jump, I had no plans to seduce her.With any other woman it would have been easy to get my way, to use every means available to press my suit for protection.
But Samantha made me conscious of a sudden softening in attitude.Her eyes fluttered closed, the rise and fall of her chest slowing as she slept in my bed, under my watch.Thoughts of Tanselm paled in comparison with the need to keep this woman safe and by my side.
Thoughts of Tanselm paled…
As I suddenly understood how much Samantha mattered to me, the crystal embedded in my skin came to life.Blazing with heat, the Knowing Crystal seared through my flesh, rising to rest on my chest in flashing lights of blue and silver.
I fell to my knees on the bed and toppled on the covers next to Samantha, anger at the pain in my chest fading under a sudden alarm.The crystal’s power shook me.
For the first time in my life, I was unable to control the fire within, the flames burning me from the inside out.
Chapter16
Marcus: The River Prince
“Do you think Darius has been drinking?”Cadmus grinned, his eyes on the doorway through which our brother had recently left.
“If I hadn’t heard it with my own ears, I wouldn’t believe it.”I shook my head.“Darius actually apologized to a woman for being too high-handed.He did do that, didn’t he?I’m not dreaming?”
Aerolus appeared amused as well, which was saying something from my soberest brother.
But hell, I couldn’t blame him.I’d been hoping something like this might happen.Finally.Darius had found someone to penetrate the shield encasing his heart.Affection, maybe even love, was there in the way Darius looked at Samantha, in the way he said her name.
I wasn’t known for being the most insightful of us four, though I should have been.I had a habit of doing more, being more, than most of my brethren.But I could tell ouroldestbrother, as he liked to constantly remind us, lost some of that stubbornness when he gazed on the pretty human.
“What do you think, Aerolus?”Cadmus asked.
“I think Darius has finally met his match.”
“Hot damn.”Cadmus shot to his feet and threw his fists in the air.Not a lot of subtlety when it came to the fourth born.“I can almost feel the black earth of Tanselm running through my fingers.I can almost smell the sweet aroma of leraffes in bloom as the onset of spring beckons me home.”
I rolled my eyes as Cadmus continued to wax poetic, despite feeling the same.Truth to tell, I missed the sweet scent and taste of leraffes myself.The closest I’d come in this world was a mix of apple, cherry, and mint.
Aerolus beamed with encouragement, never embarrassed at spiritual enthusiasm.Meh.It could have been worse.Darius could have joined in, extrapolating on the blessings of fire and that hot core of the Earth, which he found delightful about this world.
“You might not want to get too happy just yet,” Aerolus cautioned, always a realist.“Whether Darius succeeds with this woman or not is no sure path back home.”
“He’s right.”Arim’s quiet voice surprised us.
The sorcerer stepped from the far wall of the room, separating from the paint and plaster, a misty haze of man that coalesced into flesh and blood.“There’s been a disturbance between the planes, a darkness pocketing the realms where there should only be waiting space.”
His black eyes glimmered into blue, then purple, turning a rainbow of colors, all blazing with a rage I’d only seen once in all the time I’d known him.
Oddly enough, he reminded me of my mother.
Arim looked grim when he growled, “I need to see Darius right now.”
Sudden fear for Darius had my pulse racing.
“He just went upstairs with Samantha.”Cadmus frowned, not liking Arim’s tone either.
