And as he looked down at the human female cradled in his arms, feeling her weight and warmth against him, he knew he had finally found what he had been secretly searching for.
NINE
Cecelia woke abruptly when Rixavox hoisted her up in his arms.
Her throat felt scratchy and her eyes stung when she blinked them open.She saw that it was dark outside, even though she’d assumed they would be arriving at their destination around the middle of the afternoon.Overhead, she saw black clouds, fogging the sky.For a moment, she thought something was wrong.Why was it so dark?
But then she heard Rixavox murmur down to her, “We have arrived atVelraxa, female.I did not mean to wake you.”
Cecelia tried to shake the fog that wrapped around her sleepy brain, but found that her body relaxed even more at Rixavox’s voice.For once, she didn’t question why she reacted this way with him.She didn’t know why his presence was a comfort, like a warm blanket on a snowy winter day.Instead, she accepted it, if only for a little while.She was just too tired to fight it.
She perceived him walking.She felt the vibration of his strong stride in her back.She was cradled in his arms and she let herself rest her forehead against his chest.
It was cold, she realized belatedly, but his body was warm.He’d draped a heavy fur over her and she snuggled more deeply inside, letting her eyes flutter closed.She lolled in and out of sleep, only half awake, dreaming for brief stretches before resurfacing.
Suddenly, she heard a creak, like a heavy oak door being opened on rusty hinges.When she opened her eyes, she saw it wasn’t an oak door, but a stone one.Rixavox shouldered it open and then shoved it closed when they stepped across the threshold.
It was dark, wherever they were.The air felt still, like it had been waiting.Rixavox tinkered with something in the entryway and then a gentle golden glow illuminated the room.Cecelia squinted against the light, but saw that they were in a house.Rixavox’s house?
It must be, she decided, eyelids lowering again.The house smelled like him and she couldn’t stop herself from taking a deep lungful of air.It smelled so wonderful that it made her dizzy.
He began walking again.While it was still chilly inside the house, it was much, much warmer than the outside.
“Is this where you live?” she found herself whispering, trapped once again between sleep and reality.
“Tev,” was the response she received.
“Do you live here alone?”
A slight pause, before he said, “Tev.”
“I figured,” she murmured back.
“Why?” he asked softly, more softly than she’d ever heard his voice.
“Because it’s much too quiet.”
He didn’t say anything to that and she slipped back under for a brief moment.She woke again when Rixavox lowered her body onto a comfortable fur-lined pallet on the floor of what she could only assume was a bedroom.And, strangely enough, once again, she didn’t feel threatened.She felt it in her chest that he wouldn’t do anything to her.It was maddening, but shephysicallyfelt the truth of it.An odd sensation…
“Frixavir,” he said down to her, his voice gruffer now.She felt his broad, calloused palm stroke her forehead once.“Rest, Sessela,” he translated.
As if Rixavox controlled her body, she did as he commanded.
* * *
Rixavox sat on the edge of his sleeping platform, his knees tucked against his chest, watching hisluxiva, his fated mate, sleep.Nothing had ever felt more right.Nothing had ever felt so natural.
Yet, he couldn’t touch her.Not in the way he wanted.She would be his ward only, to protect and to heal, until she was returned safely to the Golden City.Here, she slept on his sleeping platform, her dark hair against the soft furs of beasts he’d hunted himself, her scent mingling with his own, his Instinct on the verge of madness, and he could only watch from a distance.
Perhaps it wasn’t so natural after all.Perhaps this was the most unnatural thing he’d ever experienced.
She’d spoken to him as he’d carried her to his quarters.She said it was quiet, that he must live alone.He didn’t know why those words struck something in him.He had never given too much thought about his mostly solitary life, interrupted only by pleasure partners and battles and long journeys to and from the Golden City.
Yes, his dwelling had always seemed quiet to him.He thought that he hadn’t minded.But having hisluxivain his home—theirhome—was…something indescribable.It was something he thought he’d never experience.It was a…fullness, an answer to a long-asked question.
Even though Rixavox wished to watch over her as she slept, he knew he had matters to attend to, like informing Vaxa’an that he’d arrived back atVelraxa.He’d also promised to contact Privanax.He would let hisluxivarest for now, but later that night, they would travel to theRillirax, the sacred pools of the northern lands to begin her cleansing.
The sooner, the better, he thought, touching her forehead once more.She seemed warm.Too warm.With regret, he drew the furs away from her, hating that she would feel the bitter cold that seeped into the dwelling.But her body was overheated.He couldn’t risk it.
