Chapter 3

Ariel’s eyes widened in shock, confusion, as her back met the drenched trunk of the tree, and the stranger’s lips came down on hers. She could have fought him. She would have fought anyone else. And he was more dangerous than any who had tried. But suddenly, the crystal stilled. The raging heat that had lain against her chest as she fought her way through the storm, cooled and the hard, rain-wet lips that moved over hers stilled something within her as well.

It was irrational, unexplainable. She fought to break free of the web of sensations that held her in its grip as strongly as the man before her held her to the tree. Shifting shadows in her mind had her reaching for reality as she fought the shift that slammed around her. She hated this, hated the moments of terrifying knowledge that came and then were gone just as quickly, leaving only remnants of the knowledge she knew she needed.

She whimpered beneath the conflicting impressions, unable to make sense of them, unable to fight him. One moment she was herself, the next she was another, and yet not. But no matter which she was, the kiss was flavored with such passion, such need and a familiar driving hunger, that she couldn’t resist it.

Was she crazy, just as her father had always claimed? What else could it be but insanity?

She stared at his closed eyes, feeling the fierce, heated possession of his kiss as his tongue forced her lips open and pushed arrogantly against her own. She whimpered at the onslaught, her lips softening beneath his, accepting his kiss, his touch, as though she had known it forever.

One hand twined in the hair at the nape of her neck as he jerked her head back, restraining her, holding her still for a kiss that possessed, that whipped through her system like a supernova. And all she could do was stare back at him in shock as his lips moved over hers, as she felt the pleasure burn through her body and fought to make sense of it.

She had never known this. She wasn’t a sexual person, experimentation had never interested her. No man had ever incited passion or pleasure within her. But this wasn’t just passion. This wasn’t just pleasure.

She could feel every cell in her body straining toward him. Her head bent back as his hold tightened on her, a strangled groan echoing from his throat as he licked at her lips, nipped them, then returned for another deep, all-consuming possession that had her shuddering with a whiplash of hunger.

“Kiss me,” he growled against her lips then, a rough, gravelly sound that had her stomach clenching in pleasure. A man’s voice should never sound so sexual. It should never stroke the flesh like invisible fingers of a lover’s caress. Yet it did, trailing insidious wisps of sensation through her body that had her staring back at him, dazed, as she ignored the rain still pouring around them.

For a moment, she fought for strength, her utter disbelief that he would dare to attempt to restrain her in this way. That he would use her passion, her need for him…

She pushed her head back against the tree as a frustrated growl of fury tore from her lips. No, dammit to fucking hell, now was not the time to remember things that were not real!

“No…” She bit at his lips as the hills echoed with the clash of thunder and sizzling bolts of lightning tore through the sky.

Her hands balled into fists, one driving into his hard abdomen as her knee drove upward but missed its intended target.

“My warrioress…” Male laughter stoked the fires of anger and lust pouring through her now.

The tight muscles of his stomach deflected her blow, just as he moved with a grace and speed she wouldn’t have expected as he lifted her, insinuating his body between her quickly spread her thighs as the hardened length of his cock pressed against the rapidly moistening mound of her cunt.

She was wet, damn him, and not just from the rain.

His teeth flashed in the night, startlingly bright as he pinned her to the tree, his broad hands framing her face as he took her lips in a kiss that drove the breath from her body. Deep, controlled, his tongue tangled with hers as his thumbs pressed her jaws open, keeping her teeth from clamping down on his tongue. Tension, albeit a less violent sort, tightened her body now. She could not smell the stench of evil, but what she did smell made no sense. Passion. Arousal. And something so subtle, so unexplained she could make no sense of it. Something natural, elemental, honest and pure. She trembled at that thought just as she trembled with the pleasure suddenly whipping through her.

Burning sensation sang through her veins. Her tongue twined in carnal hunger with his even as she fought against him. Her hips bucked against the erection between her thighs as her hand clenched at his wide shoulders, holding tight as she ground herself against his hardness. She didn’t know if she was protesting or encouraging the licking flames building in the core of her body or the hard hands rocking her against him.

All she knew was the sudden shift from violence to passion. A stranger, one so tall and broad that her femininity was forced ruthlessly into her mind. He cradled her to him, keeping her back to the wet trunk of the tree as his lips raided hers, and she could do nothing to stop the answering desire surging through her body. She wanted him. God help her, his kiss was like a fire racing through her veins, her need for him confusing, terrifying, but there all the same.

Before she could stop herself, her hands were buried in his hair, her fists gripping the wet strands. She wasn’t trying to force him from her, though; she was trying to bring him closer. Ever closer.

His taste was incredible. Fire and heat, dispelling the icy fist of terror that had tightened in her chest and turning it to a blazing firestorm of need instead. His tongue wrapped around hers, licked at her teeth, her lips, tasted her in turn and she knew, found her pleasing. As pleasing as she found him.

“God help me,” he muttered at her ear as his lips slid over her cheek, his breathing rough and raspy as his chest labored against her breasts. Or was it her fighting for breath, fighting for an anchor amidst the chaotic storm of terror and passion whipping through her system?

Though it had lessened, the rain still fell rapidly above them, the drenched leaves of the tree spreading out above them providing little protection against the fall of moisture. She could feel it dripping from her hair, from his, and it should have chilled her. The heat of his body warmed her instead, a heat that curled through her, heating parts of her body, her mind, which she would have preferred remain cold. Like her common sense…

“Let me go.” She struggled against his hold, though her voice wasn’t as strong, or as demanding as she would have liked.

Her ankles were locked behind his back as she unconsciously rode the thick shaft rubbing against her swollen clitoris, bringing it to blazing, fiery life. For all the protests her head was screaming, her body was telling a different story. It loved being held against him, loved the heat and hardness of him. It welcomed him.

“Not this time,” he growled in response. “Never again, Ariel. Never will I let you go again.”

She started to protest, would have protested virulently if he hadn’t bent his head, stroking his lips over the flesh of her chest between the edges of her blouse. The rough velvet feel of his lips over the upper mounds of her breast shocked her to silence. Her nipples became electrified, the fabric of her bra a rasp against them that she wanted gone.

She wanted to feel his lips covering the tormented peaks, sucking them into his mouth, licking and nipping and…

“What are you doing to me?” she cried out then, her head falling back against the tree, her eyes staring sightlessly into the misty, fog-enshrouded night, fighting to make sense of the impressions and sensations roiling within her. He drew back then, his eyes blazing down, shocking her as the gunmetal sheen glistened within his dark face. He looked like a predator, a hunter, a hungry savage intent on sating the lust that threatened to overwhelm both of them.

“You’re crazy,” she charged, breathlessly. “Aren’t you supposed to be trying to kill me, rather than fuck me?”

A chuckle stroked her senses as she watched the struggle for control in his expression.

“I never was into a dead fuck, baby, so I think I’ll keep you alive,” he retorted sarcastically as he moved back from her, though his hand wrapped around her wrist like a living manacle.

Stooping, he retrieved her sword from the ground before staring around them with narrowed eyes.

Only then did she notice the small communications device at his ear. It was small, almost undetectable. He tilted his head slightly as though listening to the voice on the other end.

“This way.”

She gasped as he gripped her wrist and began to pull her along behind him.

“Are you crazy?” she hissed, raising her voice to be heard above the storm. She could smell the enemy at her back, feel the wind pushing her along with the barbarian.

“I might be,” he called back. A flash of a smile, his gaze dark as his pace picked up.

“The cycles are just below on the interstate. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

She could hear them now. Voices raised in the dark, the demons intent on spilling her blood.

“Joshua, Derek, cover our fucking asses,” he called out then, his voice furious as he pulled her along. “We have a whole pack following here.”

Her breath caught in her throat. She could hear the rage vibrating in the sound of his voice as the voices drew closer. Curses. Demands. The cry for blood echoed on the wind around her.

“Maybe you should have been more concerned with fighting than pinning me against a tree,” she snapped furiously, fighting to keep up with him.

“Not near as much fun,” he laughed back at her. “Move those long legs of yours, woman, or Jonar’s warriors will have Wind Mistress’ ass for dinner.”

He was crazy. Crazier than her father could have ever imagined she was. She raced behind him, not that she had a choice the way he was pulling her along with him. Before her was the clean scent of freedom, behind her, the smell of death. They would be cut in two. The wretched stench that followed them was thickening, massing. There would be more than they could fight.

“Son of a bitch, they’re getting too close.” His expression was savage in the brilliant arcs of lightning flaring around them as he glanced behind. “Call to the wind, Ariel,” he demanded forcefully. “Delay them now!”

Shock resounded through her. What the hell was he talking about?

The wind whipped around them, growing in force as though preparing itself…for what?

“Do it, Ariel!” He screamed back at her again as the winds moaned around them more forcefully than before. “Call the wind to your aid.”

“Are you insane!” she screamed back. “Kiss them, maybe that would stop them,”

she snarled furiously a second later.

“Do I look insane?” he yelled imperatively, glancing behind him a second before a wide smile flashed across his face. “Forget I said that. Just call the winds, dammit, or you may never know another kiss.”

She had a feeling he wasn’t crazy, no matter how he looked, or acted. She could feel a demand rising inside her, the crystal calling out to her as the weak violet aura began to pulse around them. She fought to keep up with his longer stride, running as fast as her weary body would allow, feeling the wind at her back. If only it were pushing the enemy back rather than pushing her forward.

“Command it!” he screamed imperiously, something he saw behind them reflecting in the fury of his dark expression.

Knowing she shouldn’t. Knowing she didn’t really want to see, Ariel looked back at well.

Demons’ eyes, dozens of them reflected in the inky darkness behind them. Glowing red, fiery hot and moving closer.

“Oh God! Oh God!” the prayer was on her lips as the winds swirled around her again.

“Ariel, command those fucking winds before we both die.” The impossibly commanding male was lashing out in fury as his pace suddenly increased. Ariel knew there was no way she could keep up. She would get them both killed. How did she do this? How did she command the winds?

The swirl of forces gathered in strength.

“Push them back!” She screamed out the command as the crystal blazed in heat, as demanding as the man pulling her along. “I command you to push back my enemies…”

The winds screamed, they howled. Like demons from the pits of hell, reluctant to tear themselves from her, furious with the need to do so, the sound rose in volume, a crescendo of fury as it suddenly whipped around her, behind her. There was no breeze before them, but she could feel its power at her back as they broke the edge of the forests and ran for the nearly deserted interstate below. At first, she knew nothing but the darkness as the winds, lightning and rain stayed concentrated at her back. Then, slowly, other shapes began to emerge. The presence of two others running from the tree line on each side of them, the large black motorcycles below and the figures revving each of them into throbbing life before jumping on their own.

“Get on!” He threw a leg over the nearest crotch rocket as she preferred to call the ultra-fast, streamlined ZX10 motorcycles. They were big, sexy machines, designed for speed and maneuverability.

Gripping his shoulders she threw her leg over the back, crowding in close and gripping his waist as he lay along the front rest and kicked it into gear. She wanted to scream in exhilaration as the machine powered away, closely following the lead cycles. She could feel the wind at her back once again, pushing them along, adding to the aerodynamic effect of the powerful beast between her thighs. The night zoomed by alongside them as she felt the horsepower increasing beneath her body, throbbing, purring as it was kicked into top speed as it was meant to be. Rocketing through the night, pushed by an unnatural wind, held in place by the strength of the man before her and guided to safety. Finally, safety.