Alaric was temporarily lost in those dark eyes. But reason intruded, and he grasped her hand gently. Giving her knuckles a kiss, he said, “There will be plenty of time for bed sport once we deal with Hector and end his reign of madness.”
He thought that would have been the end of it, that she would have agreed, however reluctantly. Instead, she lowered her hand and rubbed her palm along his cock. It immediately roared to life with a frisson of lust. “Marlene.” He groaned her name, enjoying the feel of her stroking him, but he forced himself to place at her a distance. “I thought I said—”
“I know what you said,” she crooned, as she started to lift her skirts. “But that doesn’t mean I shall accept defeat lightly.” As her own hand disappeared beneath her skirts, he could only stare as she started to pleasure herself. He had never seen her act this way before. He might have expected something like this from Lady Catharine, who was insatiable when it came to sex, but not from Marlene. He could only imagine that her new powers were to blame for this sudden, sensual nature.
As she started to grind her hips, he reached out and grasped her arm. He pulled it up and saw that her fingers were wet from her desire. “My God.” He reached out and sucked on the evidence of her arousal.
Her eyes flared with passion. “I want to be alone with you. Now.”
Although Alaric knew he should fight these carnal urges, he found himself lost to her persuasion. He bowed to her will in all things.
Taking her hand, he pulled her behind him, down the terrace steps and into the garden. He was grateful that it was a warm night, so that he wouldn’t have to worry about either of them catching a chill during this wicked rendezvous.
Anticipation coursed through his veins as he took her into his arms just behind the hedge row, concealing them both from view from the merry goers inside the manor. He kissed her with all the desire and yearning that was inside him. He allowed it to bloom from deep inside and flow into her.
Never in his life had he experienced such an all-consuming need to possess another—not just body, but her very soul. Marlene was the reason breath still flowed in his lungs and his heart continued to beat steadily within his cavernous chest. He had never loved with such passion, nor would he ever find such oblivion again.
She was his beginning and his end.
She was everything.
As Alaric held her close, his eyes closed, because he also knew the truth. He had always known, had been prepared for the eventuality to come.
Not only was Marlene his salvation, but she was also his demise.
He waited for the deadly strike, knowing that his time was drawing to its bittersweet end. His only regret was that he couldn’t make love to her just one more time.
Chapter 24
Marlene was standing in the midst of the meadow, her mind absent, while her body was still present. She could see what was happening, as if it were being played out like some sort of twisted play for her torture—and Hector’s amusement.
Her hands yearned to curl in anger, vowing to rid him of his miserable existence when she escaped this place. But something told her it could very well be too late.
At this moment, she could feel his senses start to change, altering with the inevitability of his fate.
She could not let that happen. At long last, she had finally found her path to happiness. She wasn’t about to let anything destroy it. She would save Alaric, if she had to give up her life in exchange for his.
She just prayed that the plan Lady Catharine had explained would buy her enough time to accomplish what she intended.
She knelt down in the midst of the flowing grass and flowers in the warm meadow. If she didn’t know better, with the crystal clear, blue sky overhead, she might believe that nothing was amiss. But her heart told her otherwise.
With Alaric’s pentacle cradled against her chest, she removed it and held it in her left palm. Then she withdrew the key from the pocket of her skirts and held it within her right hand. Holding them next to each other, she closed her eyes and repeated the Latin chant she had struggled to memorize from the Book of Magical Charms. The one that offered divine protection. “Depart from me, thine enemies. Save me from who would wish harm upon those I love. Combine the strength of a thousand witches, bring forth the intervention of God, so that I might conquer and prevail when others have failed. Grant me the ability to fly when I might only stand upon the ground. Give me the power of healing when I might know only loss. Offer me destruction when I have only lived with chaos. Bring these two talismans together so that the just might survive, so that we might forever keep these truths.”
There was a gust of wind as Marlene opened her eyes. The clouds had rolled in and covered the illusion around her in darkness. Her hair escaped its pins and flew about her face in wild disarray. The ground beneath her shook and started to crack, great chasms opening all around her, as the destruction she had prayed for became reality.
She rose steadily to her feet as a face appeared in the heavens above her. It was gruesome, the most horrific thing she had ever beheld. And it was familiar to her. It was one of the visions she had often witnessed as a girl. The dreaded apparition that had frightened her so very often.
It was the devil himself.
She held the two talismans ahead of her and stared directly into that nightmare. “I send you back to the fires of hell from whence you rose! Be gone from this earth until the hour of God’s judgment and terrorize those here no more!”
With that, she slammed her hands together.
Her hands burned as the two objects started to become one. The fire within her grasp was almost more than she could bear, but she would not falter. To admit pain was to admit defeat, and that was not an option.
Opening her mouth on a scream, her voice whipped around the meadow, until the clouds vanished and a light shower began to fall around her.
Marlene fell to her knees once more. The evil was diminished for now, but it would return if she didn’t deal with Hector. Slowly, she opened her hands to reveal the imprint upon her palms. It glowed with the fierce power of magic from the key she had forged with the pentacle. Together, they had created the final element.
