She’d been with me every step of the way, her actions and sensuality in tune with mine. Light’s breath, but a woman didn’t get that hot for a man she didn’t desire. And I knew she hadn’t been acting. What, then, was she hiding?
I went over it in my mind, stopping when I remembered that odd sensation during orgasm. Lexa had been missing something. In retrospect, I’d thought it was her magic. What if that bit of her lacking wasn’t because of Sava’s spell, but from something else? She’d been attacked by demons, after all. The only person who’d survived a demon attack and lived was Sava, an Aellein king much older and more powerful than many knew. And he had always refused to discuss that bleak time in his past.
Then I realized something else. When I’d lain with Lexa, all had been right with the world. She’d let me touch her and hold her against me, our hearts beating as one. Then I’d blown it by asking about Jonas.
I wanted to kick myself. I was almost as bad as Darius, the least charming of my nephews. Needing the word “tact” tattooed to his forehead, Darius often had to be reminded to consider others before he spoke. Yet he’d found a woman to love him.
I only had the dream of a perfect love. Who could love a man with such Dark secrets, with a past as sullied as my family’s?
Time passed as I pondered Lexa’s strange state, as well as our inability to get along. We still hadn’t discussed what had set us apart to begin with. Aggravated, I continued to ignore Lexa and stepped through the bedroom into the bathroom. I took a shower to refresh myself. After finishing, I was pleasantly surprised to find a towel under the sink. I dried myself off and wrapped it around me.
As soon as I stepped out of the bathroom, the towel disappeared into Shadow.
The Aellein bastard. Did Sava really think remaining naked with each other would solve all our troubles? Trust that idiot to think sex cures all. But a look at Lexa’s naked and bound body had me rethinking the notion. The woman had a small yet curvy frame with breasts that filled my palms and a waist I could nearly span with one hand. That was to say nothing of the moist heat between her legs and that round, firm ass begging to be ridden…
My grumbling belly diverted me. I avoided Lexa’s intense stare by stomping back into the kitchen. The refrigerator, fortunately, had plenty of food. Moments later, I stacked two plates of sandwiches, chips — my favorite creation in this mundane world — and carried two cans of cola.
“About time you got back,” Lexa grumbled as I approached. I set the food on her dresser. She flushed and continued to complain, but the sulky tone, and the fact she couldn’t stop staring at me, buoyed my mood.
“I have to go.” She nodded toward the bathroom.
I leaned over and released her. She suffered no burns since the Dark-hide only hurt those with Light magic. I still felt a tingle of painful cold where the burns lingered.
Lexa flipped me off as she scurried out of bed to the bathroom and slammed the door shut. Since she couldn’t see me, I felt free to grin. When I was halfway through my sandwich, Lexa reappeared, looking refreshed and alluring.
Okay, so maybe Sava was on to something about nudity and forgetting the past, because all I could think about was getting inside Lexa again, and the sooner the better.
I cleared my throat and tried to act less intimidating. “You know, I’ve never seen you look bad.” She blinked at me in surprise, and I added, “Well, just once. Taking a shot from those demons turned you a little green.” Not to mention seeing her covered in her family’s blood. But I thought it best not to mention that time.
Like the girl I’d once known, Lexa blushed, embarrassed at the compliment, and muttered, “Beauty is a simple spell, and one every Dark Lord is born knowing.”
I found her contradictions intriguing.
I chased the sandwich with a drink and prodded her with her plate. When she began eating, I decided to ask a few questions nicely. I fairly choked on the thought. “You weren’t born knowing spells, though, were you?”
“No. I instinctively knew some things. That I was different than my mother and father — Muri and Esel. That Sercha couldn’t harness Dark energy like I could.” Her sad, soft voice irritated me because I couldn’t help caring. “I had to learn how to cast spells. And to walk in the Light.” She took a sip of her drink and paused, as if thinking. “I could always grab hold of blue flame. Its coldness is a part of me.”
A part, but not the whole of you. I dug into my chips and asked with a casualness I was far from feeling, “What was it like living on the Isle of Frigia?”
She stared at me in surprise, no more astonished than me at my curiosity.
I’d always wondered but had never had the opportunity to ask. “After it happened, you disappeared. It wasn’t until years later that we learned you’d moved to Dark Lord lands — Malern, then to the Isle of Frigia.” I added in afterthought, “Where the Malinta Demons live.”
She paled, and I knew I needed to follow up with questions about the demons. My instincts told me the truth would be vital to us both at some point.
Lexa took another long sip of her soda. “Malern is nothing like Tanselm. Lots of Dark Lords are concerned only with themselves and what you can do for them. The beasts of the Dark aren’t friendly, though they love the taste of wraith.” She smiled with cool satisfaction. “I started my ‘new life’ in Malern with Ini, my biological mother.” Her voice evened, and she continued to talk, much to my surprise. Even more shocking, she maintained eye contact, her gaze both dispassionate and slightly challenging, as if daring me to pity her.
“I know about Ini.”
She laughed, a hard grating sound that bothered me. “You know nothing. That woman made Sin Garu look like a saint. Ini found me and beat me to make up for leaving her as a babe. She had it in her warped mind that I’d willfully walked away at three months of age.” Lexa snorted. “Most Dark Lords aren’t as bad as Sin Garu. They’re just selfish creatures out to satisfy their own needs at the expense of everyone around them. Ini…she was a twisted soul. The things she did to Balen and Sin Garu don’t bear repeating.”
The things she did to Balen and Sin Garu…and you, I added mentally.
“She wasn’t anything like Muri,” Lexa continued. “No warmth or compassion. Just icy vengeance for anyone who stepped in her way, blood relation or not.” She gave me a lopsided smile. “I took her lessons to heart. I used my brothers and turned them against each other. Balen’s vanity was his downfall. Sin Garu’s single-mindedness will be the death of him.”
“Why does he lust after Tanselm so much?” I had always wondered.
“Because you have it.”
