Crystal Shadows Read online

  He built a round shelter a short distance from the firepit. It was larger and afforded more headroom than the hasty lean-tos he and Gina usually constructed. He sunk saplings into the ground, forming a circle and lashed them together with strong vines. He covered the frame with overlapping sheets of bark, leaving a smoke hole in the center of the roof.

  When he had finished, he turned to find Gina eying his handiwork. “This camp’s a bit more elaborate than usual,” she commented.

  “We’ve been traveling at a fast pace. I thought we’d stay here for two or three nights.”

  Gina threw him an amused glance. “A honeymoon, Derrin?”

  “A what?”

  “A marriage trip,” she explained dryly. “Taken after a wedding so the bride and groom can have some privacy.”

  “You can call it that if you like.” Derrin settled himself on the bed of cut grass and stretched out with his hands behind his head. He grinned up at her. “By all means, take advantage of our privacy.”

  But Gina was already turning away, and he caught only a glimpse of her back as she disappeared into the trees. “Where are you going?” he shouted after her.

  “I’ll be back.”

  He considered following her, but the sun’s warmth on his bare chest made him comfortably drowsy, and the bed of grasses was soft and fragrant. He closed his eyes and drifted between slumber and awareness.

  A rustling noise sounded in the brush. He opened his eyes in time to see Gina emerge from the thicket. Every muscle in his body tensed.

  She was completely naked, wet from a swim in the stream. Water dripped from her braids. His gaze followed the path of a droplet as it rolled down the curve of one breast and crested the tip of her nipple. Another danced over the swell of her belly and disappeared into the dark curly triangle between her thighs.

  He watched the movement of her legs, the placement of her bare feet as she moved closer. Her shadow fell across him. A wren called from the brush. Its mate answered, distant.

  Gina looked down at him for endless moments, measured only by the faint rushing of the water and the soft roar of the wind in the treetops. Then she gave a slow, secretive smile. Her gaze swept down his body, alighting on the bulge under his kilt. Her smile deepened and she moved closer, close enough for him to touch. He reached for her.

  “No,” she said. Her eyes were dark. “Don’t move.”

  His hand fell away. She knelt beside him and leaned forward, brushing the tips of her braids across his chest. His breathing quickened.

  “Kiss me,” he said.

  She covered his mouth in a deep kiss, stroking with her tongue. She bit his lower lip, gently at first, then harder. He groaned and caught her about the waist, pulling her atop him. She fell astride his torso, palms braced on his chest. Her arousal moistened his skin, and his cock grew even harder.

  He locked her gaze in his. Her pupils darkened. She scored his flesh with her fingernails, dragging them down his chest to his stomach. She followed the trail with her mouth, painting him with her tongue and with droplets of water as her body shifted back. When she was astride his thighs, she tugged at the knot of his kilt. His breathing quickened and his fingers tightened on her shoulders.

  Her hand, warm and damp, closed around his swollen flesh, stroking upward over the sensitive ridge, sending shockwaves through his body. He closed his eyes, lost.

  The sensation of her mouth on his cock, scalding, tight and alive, caused his eyes to fly open again. Gina flicked her tongue across the tip of his shaft. She glanced up, her expression wicked, her red lips framing his head. He watched, fascinated, as she drew him in completely. She worked him with her teeth and tongue, leaving him gasping, hurtling toward the precipice.

  He endured it as long as he dared. With his breath coming in short gasps, he gripped her upper arms and hauled her off him. He captured her lips with bruising force. A feral, primitive enveloped him. He wanted Gina under him. Wanted to mark her with his scent, brand her as his mate. Giving her no chance to escape, he turned her in his arms, pressed her to her knees. A low growl rose in his throat. Caging her with his arms, he covered her body, his chest pressed to her spine, her round buttocks nestled against his groin. His breath bathed her neck. He inhaled deeply and scented his mate’s surrender.

  His tongue flicked over the swell of flesh where Gina’s neck joined her shoulder. The taste of her sweat-slicked skin intoxicated him. He caught the soft mound of flesh at the base of her neck between his teeth and bit down, hard. She whimpered and ground her ass into his cock. He slid his hand around her torso and plucked at her nipples, first one, then the other. He loved the feel of her bare skin under his hands, loved the sounds of Gina’s submission. He passed his fingers between her legs and found her wet with her body’s juices. Ready for his possession. She was so soft, so accepting of his brutal passion. Her surrender went beyond his wildest imaginings.

  He could think of nothing but the need to be inside her welcoming core. To hold her helpless while he took his pleasure and gave her pleasure in return. Panting, he caught Gina’s hips. His fingers sunk into her flesh in a punishing grip, holding her steady, slightly away from him. She ground her buttocks frantically, trying to move closer. He did not allow her that satisfaction.

  He filled her slowly, deliberately, thrusting forward as she writhed until his full length was embedded deep in her hot, slick passage. Holding himself motionless for several heartbeats, he savored the rush of sensations that flowed from his cock to his body. Gina’s inner muscles were alive, clamping down on him, milking him with tiny spasms. He’d never felt anything like it.

  He withdrew and surged into her again, pausing once again at the peak of his stroke to feel her response.

  “Oh, God,” Gina groaned. She tried again to move her hips.

  His grip tightened.

  “Fuck me,” she gasped. “Oh, God, just fuck me.”

  He granted her wish. He withdrew and thrust himself back inside her, over and over, moving with increasing urgency as Gina moaned her acceptance. Waves of intense pleasure swept over him, burgeoning upward from a well of need so profound it threatened to consume him.

  * * * * *

  Gina let out a shuddering sob. Derrin’s passion had broken her open, swept her past any coherent thought. He drove deeper, his cock hard inside her body, invading her, marking her as his own. Flexing his hips, he urged her up the spiral, following her as she climbed. She braced her arms on the ground and met each thrust gladly, savoring the fevered growls of her mate, the power of his rut, the painful grip of his embrace.

  Her climax rushed at her. She threw herself into it and heard Derrin’s shout as he followed. He fell atop her, pressing her into the bed of cut grass, his chest heaving against her back. She welcomed his possession, welcomed the earth caressing her body. She lay still beneath him until she felt him move.

  He rolled to one side and gathered her into his arms. He kissed her, then drew back and met her gaze. His gray eyes were soft, with a touch of an apology.

  “Did I hurt you?” he asked.

  “No.” She traced one finger along the angry scratch on his chest, where she had marked him. “Did I hurt you?”

  Derrin chuckled. “I love you, Gina.” His tone grew serious. “I was afraid my need to possess you had become too great for you to accept.”

  She touched his cheek, looked into his eyes. “Never think that, Derrin. I love you. I love the way you need to be with me.”

  She lay with her head on his chest for a long while, listening to the steady beat of his heart mingle with the sounds of the forest, no longer fearful of the power of their physical joining. It was a part of them, part of their love, and she gloried in it. The past and the future receded. Her peace was complete, perfect in that moment.

  Sometime later, she pushed herself to a sitting position. She thought of her clothes, drying on a boulder near the stream, but the sun was still warm and she felt no need to retrieve them. Derrin lay with his eyes closed,
one hand resting on her leg. She’d never been so close to another person, had never trusted anyone so much. They’d be parted soon, but even if she left this world tomorrow, she wouldn’t regret her decision to become his lover.

  She would give him more, if she could. “Derrin?”

  “Hmmm?” He opened one eye and focused on her.

  “The Na’tahar. How is it done between lovers?”

  Derrin thrust himself into a sitting position and regarded her seriously. His eyes were troubled, and Gina knew he was remembering the trauma he’d inflicted on her when he’d entered her mind to destroy Balek’s control.

  He looked away. “I wouldn’t ask that of you.”

  “And if I asked you? If I told you I wanted to feel you inside my mind as I’ve felt you inside my body?”

  He met her gaze. His eyes were gray smoke, concealing a smoldering fire that threatened to erupt at the barest touch of wind. “I would give you anything you asked of me, Gina, even my soul, but are you sure? We have shared our dreams and our bodies, but the Na’tahar is so much more than that. When it is freely and completely accepted by a man and a woman, it is a true joining of souls. More intimate than anything we have experienced. Partners often mated for many seasons before they trust each other enough to join in that way.”

  “We don’t have many seasons. Or even many days, for that matter.” Gina fought back the grief that accompanied the thought. She wouldn’t give in to it until they parted. “All my life I’ve hidden in my lab and my work, wondering how other people could plunge into love with so little regard for the pain it could bring. I couldn’t do it. I wanted to be safe more than I wanted anything else.”

  She paused, searching for the right words. “Now I realize every moment, every breath of life is a leap of faith.” She touched his hand. “I love you, Derrin. I never imagined loving anyone this completely. When I return to my world I don’t want to wonder what the Na’tahar would have been like. I want to know.” She drew a deep breath. “Even if it hurts to remember it.”

  Derrin covered her hands with his, then lifted them to his lips and kissed the back of her fingers.

  “Then let me show you, Gina.”

  * * * * *

  Derrin brushed Gina’s mind with the lightest of touches. He felt her soften, inviting his entry. A fierce longing gripped him. Na’tahar. To know and be known in the deepest recesses of being. Gina offered him that bond in love, even after he’d forced her to accept it in terror. The thought humbled him.

  He opened his mind and let his love for Gina flow toward her, holding nothing back. No secrets, no longings, no dark corners of his soul. He exposed every flaw, every shortcoming, and offered it to her. She accepted his gift and sent him her own love and fears in return. Their life essences touched, retreated, touched again. They danced in this way for a time, learning each other, discovering nuances that had until now gone hidden. Finally, Derrin gathered his will and extended it toward Gina. He felt her surrender.

  He pulsed on, and they were joined.

  They had joined in Na’tahar once before, but that first, hurried joining was but a pale shadow of the union they experienced now. Gina’s emotions flowed over him in waves. Joy, wonder, trust, surrounding him in a willing embrace. Her spirit touched each of his memories, each emotion, knowing him in the essence of his inmost self. He immersed himself in her, floating through a tide of dream images, seeking to know, to understand.

  Gina’s mind poured into his soul, filling it with endless love. The power of it overwhelmed him. She surrounded him, touching every part of his mind as thoroughly as he touched hers. No thought, no emotion lay hidden. His soul was stripped to its bare essence, revealed in all its imperfections. Letting go of his last fears, he shared all of himself, letting Gina see him for what he was. He allowed her to feel all of his life—the wonder of a boy who had sparked his first fire, the shame of a youth who had failed the test of his manhood. His brotherhood with Ariek, his sorrow at Niirtor’s death.

  He had never imagined the power of such a surrender.

  In return, Gina opened the gates to her deepest emotions. The pain of losing first her mother, then her father. The shame inflicted by her marriage to a selfish, manipulative partner.

  Once their pain was shared, it vanished. Only love existed. Derrin filled Gina with his passion, reaching deep within himself to draw out that which was most pure. She did the same for him.

  Then the dream images faded, leaving them swathed in darkness. A blankness lay ahead of them, a huge field of nothingness. Derrin advanced to its edge, uncertain.

  When he would have pulled away from the void, Gina urged him forward. Joined as one, they gathered courage and plunged ahead.

  Together, they fell into the place beyond the mind, into pure emptiness. They surrendered their joined souls to a force beyond their bodies, beyond their emotions, beyond every uniqueness. The white center of the hottest flame engulfed them, burning away everything. Only the essence of their love remained.

  They touched infinity and shattered.

  A force beyond anything Derrin could comprehend flung them back into the physical world like a crashing sea disgorging a scrap of jetsam onto the shore. He fell back into his body. Gina was wrapped in his arms, her legs encircling his torso, her emotions still tangled with his own. He sensed her wonder of the lingering rapture.

  Suddenly, it was unbearable their minds were joined when their flesh was not. He shifted and slipped into her body. Into his home. He fell back, pulling her atop him, guiding her movements as she rode his cock to her peak.

  He met her in the darkness.

  * * * * *

  Two nights later, the weather turned frigid.

  Gina edged closer to Derrin. They sat by the fire after dark, sheltered by a nook in the canyon wall. The night winds had chilled her to the bone, but her heart was even colder. Each step she took brought her closer to her own world. She was no longer certain she wanted to return, but if her presence was, as Derrin believed, harming his world, she had no choice but to go back.

  She hunched as close to the fire as she dared, seeking comfort. The wind whistled through the hidden cracks in the rocks of the canyon walls, calling out threats she couldn’t name. Bottomless shadows crept from the stone, sprung to life by the flickering flames. She shivered. Derrin’s hand stroked, firm and comforting, on the back of her neck.

  “It sounds like evil spirits are all around us,” she said.

  Derrin gave her an odd look. “For the Baha’Na, there are no evil spirits, but the Servants of Lotark have dealings aplenty with them. Do they exist in your world?”

  Gina gave a short laugh. “I’m just jittery. There are plenty of evil people in my world, but evil spirits? I think they’re a matter of people projecting their fears outside themselves.”

  “What are you afraid of, Gina?”

  She chewed on her lower lip. “That’s the problem, Derrin. I don’t know. All day I’ve felt unsettled, as though something important had changed.” She cast about for words to describe the fleeting tendrils of fear. “Something isn’t right, or… someone’s in trouble.” She raised her head, her heart suddenly pounding. “That’s it! Someone’s in danger! But who? It’s not you or me. Or anyone of the clans.”

  Derrin was regarding her intently. “Someone from your own world, perhaps?”

  “I don’t know.” She shook her head. “Just listen to me—I can’t believe I’m talking like this. It’s my overactive imagination.”

  “Perhaps,” he allowed.

  A piercing wail tore through the night, sending Gina crashing into Derrin’s arms. She pressed her back into his chest, gripping his arms.

  A second cry came close behind the first. Starting low, it rose in pitch, passing through the notes of a mournful scale. It peaked, then descended, fading, slipping into the night.

  “What…what was that?”

  “Direwolves.”

  “Wolves!” A paralyzing panic poured into her limbs. �
�Will they attack? Oh, God—where can we hide?”

  Derrin’s body shook. Several moments passed before Gina realized he was laughing.

  She twisted in his arms. “What’s so funny?”

  “They won’t harm us. The People don’t hunt direwolves.”

  “What has that got to do with it?”

  “Direwolves are the brothers and sisters of the Baha’Na. They taught the clans how to hunt. To kill a wolf is unthinkable, and the wolves know this. They don’t threaten their human relatives, but neither do they seek us out. They are cunning and elusive, difficult to track, rarely seen.”

  Gina didn’t feel reassured. “Are they close?”

  “Yes.” He shifted back onto his heels, easing Gina from his arms. Cupping his hands around his mouth, he threw his head back and let out a howl. He added a series of short yips at its end, just before the call faded into a whisper.

  Her scalp prickled. The minutes stretched out before her, silent and intense. Derrin peered past the circle of firelight. A breath of smoke drifted past him. Gina held her breath.

  The direwolf call came again, beginning so subtly it seemed it hadn’t been born at all, but had sprung fully alive from the darkness. It rose to a crescendo, then subsided, ending with a series of short yips identical to the ones Derrin had uttered.

  Gina gasped. “It answered you!”

  Derrin flashed her a smile, his eyes sparkling. He tipped his head back and repeated the call. They waited, but no second reply came. Gina supposed the animal had retreated. She breathed a sigh of relief. Despite Derrin’s nonchalance, she couldn’t shake the image of a slavering beast ready to devour a helpless pig or a little girl in a red hood.