“Aine, are you worried for me?”
She pulled her gaze from his wings and met his eyes. “It’s just that they’re so…out there. If your wings are that important you’d think they’d be better protected.”
Tegan laughed. “You’d be surprised. I’m not usually this helpless.” Still chuckling to himself, he continued down the narrow path.
They hadn’t gone much farther when Tegan told her, “You’ll have to bend down to enter the cave, but it widens soon.”
She watched him crouch and then disappear into what looked to be nothing more than an ordinary niche in the side of the mountain base. She ducked and went after him. After only a few feet the entrance spilled into a large, oblong room. There was a round opening in the ceiling, but it only let in a weak, indirect light. Mostly it served as an escape for the smoke from the well-banked fire that gave soft light and ample heat. She heard falling water and saw that the rear wall was wet with a steady waterfall which ran out through a crack in the rock floor. Along another wall were strips of smoked meat interspersed with drying herbs. The cave smelled pleasantly of pine smoke and spice.
“How long have you been here?” she asked as she began to unload the urn.
Tegan was gingerly lowering himself onto a pallet of furs. “Two full passes of the seasons.”
She blinked in surprise. “And no one knows?”
“Only you. I rarely go out into the Partholon forest, and was only there yesterday because winter is coming and the hunting there is better than the Wastelands side of the mountains.”
Aine began examining his leg. “So there are really no other Fomorians here with you.”
“You said you believed me yesterday.”
“I did. I do. It’s just that this is all so incredible.”
He sucked in a sharp breath as she poured a cleansing solution over his wound. Aine grimaced, but didn’t pause until the leg was clean and dressed. Then she sat back, breathing as heavily as Tegan. She studied him with Healer’s eyes. His wound was better today, but he looked worse. There were bruised shadows under his eyes and his skin had lost much of the luster it had the previous day.
“I’ll be better now that you are here.”
She frowned at him. “Stop reading my mind.”
“I’m reading your face, not your mind.” Tegan smiled. “Sit beside me and tell me about yourself.”
Aine sat, noticing that the tip of his wing was almost touching her knee. “I’m a Healer,” she said, trying to keep her attention from his wing. “I grew up at Laragon Keep. The women in my family have been Healers for generations.”
“A legacy of kindness and strength.” Tegan covered her hand with his as if it was a completely natural thing to do. “I have been given such an amazing gift in you.”
Aine was going to pull her hand away, but then she felt it. His pulse against her skin. And in that pulse she also felt the beat of his need for her.
“You want to drink from me again.” Aine’s voice trembled.
“I do. I will always want you.”
“Your need is especially intense now because of your injury.” She concentrated on him, staring into his eyes. “It would help you heal, wouldn’t it?”
“Your blood has the power to heal me, body and soul.”
She did pull her hand from him then, rubbing at the spot that was still warm from his touch.
“Aine, I gave you my word I would not drink from you against your will.”
“What if it isn’t against my will?”
Chapter Fourteen
“I want you to drink from me and be healed. Then I want you to return to your people,” Aine said.
“You want…” Tegan began, trying to reason through the haze of desire her words had caused to pulse through his body. Then all of what she’d said broke past his need. “No. I won’t leave you.”
“You have to. It’s only a matter of time before the Guardian Warriors find you. They’ll kill you. They won’t care that you’re not a monster-a monster is all they’ll see.”
He touched her cheek. “Then I am not a monster to you?”
“How can you be? You’re in my blood. I feel what you feel. I’d know if you were a demon, and you’re not.” Aine pulled a small knife from within the urn. Without looking at Tegan she drew the blade down the inside of her forearm. Then she turned to the winged creature beside her, offering him her arm. “Drink.”
“You don’t know what you’re doing to me.” Tegan’s voice was rough, but he cradled her bleeding arm gently in his hands.
“I do. I can feel it, too.”
With a moan of ecstasy, Tegan leaned forward to touch his tongue to the narrow slash in her skin. At the first taste of her, his wings shivered.
“So beautiful…” Aine breathed the words. She ran her fingers along the soft down that covered the underside of them.
He gasped her name. Pressing his mouth against her arm he sucked and licked, causing pleasure to ripple through her body. She lost herself in sensation, thrilled by the power in the wings that were unfurling over her. Tegan continued to drink from her as he pulled at her clothing. Dizzy with need-both his and hers-Aine helped him, until she was naked.
Tegan took his lips from her arm. Reverently, his hands glided over her body, pausing to cup the fullness of her breasts.
“I’ve never known such sweet softness.” He touched his tongue to the pink tips of her nipples. As Aine moaned with pleasure he sucked the delicate buds into his mouth, gently grazing them with his teeth.
“Tegan, please.” Aine’s hips lifted to rub herself against the hardness sheathed in his pants.
Tegan pulled away from her so that he could look into her eyes. “I can stop now. I will if you wish it. You must know that if we do this-if we join-then we will be fully mated, and I will not, can not leave you.”
Aine tried to think, but all she could do was feel. She felt his passion and need, along with the heat of her own desire. Then she realized that she could feel something more than raw lust. Aine could feel Tegan’s kindness, and along with it she sensed a soul deep sadness born of loneliness and isolation.
“How long have youbeen alone?”
“Longer than you’ve been alive.”
“No more,” she whispered.
She felt his despair before she saw it reflected in his eyes. He pulled out of her arms and turned away from her.
“You don’t see me as a demon, but that does not mean it is your wish to be mated with me.”
“You misunderstand.” Aine sat up, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and drawing him back to her while the tips of her fingers splayed across the inside of his wings. “I meant that you will be alone no more.”
Tegan kissed her with such fierce joy that it made her cry out. He released her instantly.
“Did I harm you?” He smoothed her hair back, peering anxiously into her eyes.
“No, love. Always remember, I’m stronger than I look.”
She smiled as she worked the ties of his breeches, finally pulling the throbbing heat of him free. Aine stroked him with her hands, marveling at the thick stiffness and length of him.
He moaned her name and she straddled him, slowing impaling herself. Aine closed her eyes and arched back, taking him fully within her. With a snarl, Tegan wrapped his arms around her and shifted their bodies so that he was on top of her. Aine bared her throat to him, pulling his mouth down so that he could drink from her as her hips thrust up to meet his again and again.