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Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 84 Location: middle of nowhere, pa, usa Karma: 100 |  | Tascryn Royals 2: Blood Reign « Thread Started on Jan 19, 2008, 6:20pm » | |
Blood Reign excerpt
Sixty-four years, three months, two days, six hours, twenty-one minutes and sixteen seconds later
Niflheim, 1625 AD
Pahele shuddered as his realm of Niflheim shifted and came into balance once more. The returning balance could only mean one thing.
His Queen had returned at last.
“Master?” Sadrina entered the throne room and knelt before him in absolute submission. She was as beautiful as ever. Her sensual presence filled his senses. The mere fact that she knelt before him in the realm she had once called home told him she was desperate.
Hell simply wasn’t the same without her, but what had finally brought her back to him? He reined in his physical response and opened his mind to her. As always, the connection supplied all that was lacking in his soul. His essence pulsed with power. He couldn’t let her leave him again. No matter what brought her back, he would bind her here, to his side.
Her love, hate and fear crossed their tendril thin bond and filled him. She came for the sake of her son. The boy dominated her thoughts, filled almost all of her mind. Almost, but not quite.
She also feared being enslaved. Her fears filled him with regret. Not much of a surprise considering that was exactly what he had allowed to happen before.
Another slippery fast thought crossed her mind. This one gave him hope. She liked his hair long. Her thought about his hair caught him by surprise. If he had known that, he would have grown it out long ago.
“Sadrina, finally you’ve returned to my side.” He reached toward her and used his powers to pick her up. She should never be forced to kneel, not even to him.
She allowed him to draw her into his arms.
What had changed this time? In the beginning she had welcomed his touch, but in more recent millennia, she had flinched away from him. And the part of her mind that might have explained the mystery remained silent.
Her skin was warm and scented like the flowers he’d long dreamed of her dancing in. His body hardened while he wrestled for control. She felt so good pressed against him.
She struggled slightly, succeeding only in rubbing against him, arousing him further. His powers surged and her human clothing melting away. Sadrina should take her true form here in their home. Her skin darkened from olive to bluish black. Her silken wings flowed the full length to the floor.
She needed something only he could offer. Why else would she return?
“If you wish to have the answer you seek, you must convince me of your desire to please.” He stroked his hand down her back, his fingertips trailing under the softness of her wings. Would she ever accept him without being forced? Perhaps someday, but not yet. “Please me, and your son will know the truth.”
She would do anything for Grant, for the son that should have been his. Damn the politics of the gods. And damn the Norns and Fates who played them all like pawns. They had kept him and Sadrina apart long enough. But their control was limited. Sadrina was bound to him by destiny, and nothing they could do would change that one truth.
For now, the child, Grant, would be his hold over her, but soon she would be given a choice. He begged the Creator that this time she chose him.
He was demon lord over all the Tascryn demons, holding more power than most gods. Yet, staring down at the woman who had always been the second half of his heart, it all meant nothing without her. Their immortal years had been passages of pain, while a world of misplaced loyalties separated them. Perhaps this time they would be allowed the love he’d long yearned for.
He tipped her chin up, forcing her shuttered gaze to meet his. “Your weakness does nothing to please me.”
Sadrina’s eyes flashed fire bright red. “You know why I am here. Nothing but desperation would bring me back to my prison.”
He wanted to apologize for his mistakes and beg her for forgiveness, but he bit back those words. Instead he offered her only the truth. “You will never be imprisoned again.” He would see to that promise.
“What is a place, but a prison, if I cannot leave or choose to do as I wish?”
He closed his mind to her wasted anger. He could not afford to let her leave him again. Her years of freedom had cost him too greatly. “Then for now, call it a prison, but before you choose your path, be aware that I can use any being in my realm without question. I have no need for an unwilling partner.” In a way it was the truth, but it was also a lie. He had no need or desire for any other. Only Sadrina’s body held the promise of ultimate satisfaction.
END EXCERPT Buy Blood Reign at http://www.cobblestone-press.com/catalog/books/bloodreign.htm
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