Cael evened out their flight, and the shadow of them dragged across the fields, causing the wingless people working them to shield their eyes, gazing upwards.
“Humans,” she realized watching them with interest. They were dressed as if they belonged in a renaissance fair, she thought, as if they existed in a world centuries before her own.
“Yes, human slaves. I contemplated hiding you in one of their villages, but a stranger appearing amongst them would cause comment, and eventually one of my people would come to investigate their gossip.
“It is forbidden to bring slaves from other realms here. There are those who would have us cast all the slaves from this realm into yours,” he scoffed at the idea. “And so, for the sake of peace, we have an agreement that we will retain those we have but not bring in more.”
“Why not just free them all?”
Flying was very similar to the motor bike, she thought as Cael shifted against her, in that the movements of the body guided the direction. It took a lot of core strength, however, to hold her body straight without support other than Cael’s arms around her waist and hers around his shoulders.
“We rely upon slave labor,” he replied as if it were obvious.
“You could always do the work yourselves,” she suggested.
“I could always let go,” his grip loosened. “But I prefer to hold on to you.” She gripped his shoulders tighter, and he chuckled. “There have always been my people, and yours, and mine have always been superior in every. It is the natural order for your people to serve us. Why change what works?”
“Because it only works for you.”
“Again,” he angled his wings, bringing them down, and shifted his body so that their feet touched the ground lightly upon landing. His wings folded against his back, but he did not release her. “This is the natural order of things. It is the same in every world. The predator and the prey. The strong and the weak. The food chain. Even within your precious wolf pack, there are alphas and there are omegas. You do not question the fairness of their hierarchy, do you?”
They had landed outside a ring of stones, the surfaces pocked marked with age and green with moss, the stones leaning drunkenly against each other, reminding her revellers who had shared too much wine and propped themselves up at the bus stop waiting the last ride home for the night.
“We have stone circles where I am from,” she said pulling back against his grasp. “On a different country, but still…”
“Yes, they are common to all realities and worlds,” he replied, his tone patronizing, and his lips curled as he deliberately resisted her attempts to free herself, enjoying her efforts and the demonstration of his strength that resulted. “They mark where they overlap, and my people may transfer easily. It is possible to cross over elsewhere, but harder and requires skill.”
“Alright, then, let’s go. I want to go home.” She wanted to find Raiden and ensure that he was safe.
“Stop fighting me, Cecelia,” he said. “Kiss me, and I will open the door.”
“Cael,” she wedged her hands between his chest and her. “Thank you for saving my life. But that does not mean… I am in love with Raiden.”
“You could love me. You are meant to love me. We are tied.”
“I don’t understand what you mean by that.”
“The first time, you were a child, trapped in a burning car. I felt a… a pull. Something unlike anything I had ever felt before. I have only felt it once more since. It opened a doorway between your realm and mine and tugged me through as if I were thistledown on the wind,” he looked down at her, his blue eyes holding hers.
“It was my first time in your realm, and I did not know a car when I saw one. We have nothing like it on our world. But you were there, your light growing dimmer as you choked on the poisons. I reached through the flames and tore you free of the contraption that held you, and I healed you. I would have taken you then, but another vehicle was coming, and I did not know what I would do with you. You were just a child, after all. I did not know your world, and I could not bring you back here…
“I stayed in your realm, and tried to find you again, but that tie between us had vanished. I have returned to your realm frequently since, searching for you, but it was as if you were hidden from me…” He stroked her hair back from her face. “Until, one day you weren’t.”
“The day in the academy.”
“Yes. I had hoped you would remember me and come to me willingly. When you did not recognize me, I adjusted my plans. And then you started f-king that dog,” his expression shifted into a scowl. “You have no appreciation of what I have been through in order to find you, or the risk that I am taking for you.”
“No, I don’t,” she felt her heart pick up under the ferocity of his scowl. “I don’t know anything. I remember you from the accident, but it is a child’s memory. A scared, traumatized memory of a face surrounded by flames. It wasn’t until I saw you again, that eventually I even remembered that much. I don’t remember the accident at all, or what happened around it, except for that one moment.”
“Well, you know now,” his expression softened, and his hold on her lost its ferocity, became the coaxing of a lover. “You know now, and when you were dying again, you pulled me to you, so I know that I was right, about us being tied. You belong to me. You know it, or you would not call to me when you most need me.”
“It is not something I do by choice,” she protested. “I wouldn’t even know I had done it if you didn’t tell me. I don’t feel a tie, Cael. Not to you. I am sorry. I can understand how that would be… Confusing and hurtful. To be pulled to me like that, and not have me even know. But I cannot help it. Please, please, Cael. Take me home. I don’t belong here, and if I understand rightly, it’s dangerous for you. I don’t want to hurt you further by placing you in danger.”
“I will take you back to your world,” he repeated. “For a kiss.”
She sighed heavily. It was a small price to pay to return to Raiden. “One kiss?”
“One kiss,” he smiled.
She lifted her face and closed her eyes, feeling the touch of his breath on her lips a moment before his lips caressed hers. His kiss was gentle, the barest touch, almost sweetly innocent, before his tongue stroked over the seam of her lips, and his mouth against hers became more determined.
She was not sure how it happened, but his tongue found entry, tangling with hers, the kiss changing tone and becoming heated, as he pulled her against him, his body leaving no doubt that he desired her, his hand stroking along the line of her leg, lifting it over his hip. He stepped in close, gathering the material between them as if he intended to f-k her standing, the press of him intimate, separated only by the finest barriers of cloth.
She felt magic and recognized that he was using his power against her, and she pushed it away as she sought to free herself from his grasp and place distance between their bodies, but he held on, and pushed harder, until she felt her defenses crumble.
She had made a mistake, she realized. She had given him an opening to use his magic against her through consenting to the kiss. His kiss now seemed to pull her thoughts from her, fogging her mind as densely as the cloud cover they had passed through in their descent, as effectively as the blood bond that Lucian had used to control her. The two men were so similar in their selfish pursuits, she thought with desperation, using and using up those that stood between them and their desires.
She tried to cling as fiercely as she had before to the memory of Raiden, hoping that her bond with her werewolf would save her again. Raiden, she held the image of him in her mind’s eye. She held him with the purity of her love, tight to her heart, even as she felt Cael’s magic pull at her edges, wanting to drag him away from her, even as she felt that clarity sift away beneath her grip, like sand pulled away by the tide.
Cael kissed her until she ceased to fight and then eased away.
“There we are,” he murmured, stroking his fingers down her cheek. She stared at him baffled, her thoughts scattering. “It is time to go home, Cecelia. Are you ready?”
“Home?” She repeated, looking around them in confusion. “Yes, Cael, I am ready to go home. Where are we?”
“Nowhere important,” he took her by the hand, leading her easily between the stones and reached out to touch one, activating the magic so that it traced through the mineral lines, and ran from stone to stone, creating a circle of light.
He put his arms around her, and she leaned into the embrace. “Let’s go home. My Cecelia.”