SWNOVELS Queens and Monsters: Chapter 40
I woke up sometime in the middle of the night in Dray’s arms. The stars twinkled outside his windows.
“Hey,” he said.
“I had the craziest dream.” It was so wild I barely believed I could imagine something so…unlike me.
“It wasn’t a dream.”
I froze, looked around, realized I was stiff in several places. “No.”
He chuckled lightly. “You are something else, Rhysa.”
“Were there…” I couldn’t believe I was about to say what I was about to say. “Were there two of you?”
He took a slow, steadying breath. “Yes. Yes, there was.”
I only felt one Dray near me. “Where did the other one go?”
He began stroking my hair. “When you passed out we slammed back together. Apparently you need to be awake to keep the Magic working.”
I sat up, checking his naked body for signs of trauma. “Are you okay?”
He chuckled again, looking like he was flabbergasted. “I feel better than I’ve ever felt in my entire life. I can’t sleep. I have too much energy. I think I could run a marathon and then run another.”
Sure enough, I found nothing but miles of muscles under the sheet. “Did it do anything else to you? Psychological trauma from being in two places at once?”
“I will gladly be traumatized like that again and again. I’m fine.”
He was fine. I was fine. And now that I was awake…yeah, I was also strangely energized. And hungry. “I don’t know what time it is, but can we have breakfast?”
“That sounds like a great idea.”
While Dray got started in the kitchen, I took a quick shower then snuggled up in his robe before I joined him at the counter. Yogurt waited along with orange juice. In the pan I spied eggs and pancakes.
“Do you need coffee?” He stood naked beside the stove, clear of the heat.
“No, not at all.” The blood pulsing through my veins had me more than awake.
“Same. But I could devour the contents of this fridge.” He flipped everything in the pan and then met my gaze. “How did you do it?”
I spent a minute in the shower trying to figure it all out. One minute I was fantasizing something I thought completely impossible and the next…it was real. “It’s like the first time I shifted. I just thought it. Dreamt it. Fantasized. And then it happened. One minute I was in my bedroom in wine country and the next I was on your porch at sunrise. One minute you had your hands all over me and the next there were two of you.” I shrugged.
“Can you do it again?”
When I shifted the second time it was like I’d always been able to slide through the Plane from one point to another. I just repeated the same feeling and desire, and bam! It happened. Maybe this was just as easy.
So I took a nice long deep breath and thought about how nice it would be to have two Drays making my breakfast. My hands tingled so I waved one, indicating I wanted them to split, and bam! There were two Drays on the other side of the counter, stunned and blinking at me.
“Yes. Yes, I can.”
One cocked his head, the other nodded. “It’s incredible how my mind can be in two bodies at once. I can see from both sets of eyes, but it doesn’t confuse me.” He stopped to empty the pan onto a plate and handed it to me while the other grabbed an egg and cracked it into the now empty pan.
“Do you think you can do this to someone else. Someone you’re not…having sex with?”
I shrugged. “I don’t see why not. The emotional heat of the moment prompted the ability in me to manifest, but now that I know what it is, I think I can do it any time. Why?” I had a feeling this was not a sexy question.
Although I was very down with more sexy times with these delicious Dray twins.
“Does it do anything to you? I only ask because after you passed out it all ended. Are you seeing or feeling any of this?”
I closed my eyes and paid attention because earlier, I was not paying attention to jack squat. “I feel nothing.”
“Huh. I wonder…” While one Dray thought, the other kept cooking. “What if you could do this to some of our warriors. Instead of one Dray going into battle…what if there were two?”
“I guess my question would be, what would that do to you? Sex isn’t exactly fighting on multiple fronts. And what if one of you is hurt or killed?” There were way too many variables to be thinking about using this in two days’ time. I was all for experiments, but not risking anyone’s life for a war between Houses.
“All valid questions I think we should explore. We have many things to worry about in our future. Having more options at our disposal would be nice.” He flicked off the stove and plated his breakfast. “Can you put me back together?”
I flicked my wrist and then there was only one Dray left in front of me. And, as much as I enjoyed what happened earlier in the night, I preferred to spend my quality time with one Dray.
We devoured all the yogurt and juice, pancakes and eggs, and then shared some bread and cheese before we finally felt full again. “The sun is nowhere near ready to rise and I can’t sleep.”
Dray grinned. “You want to do something a little different?” There was an unmistakable glint of mischief in his eyes that got me excited.
“Absolutely.”
“Get dressed. We’re going for a night hike.”
Fifteen minutes later I had my hair braided, boots on, and a borrowed flannel from Dray over my t-shirt and jeans. We took the rope down to the forest floor below. It was dark but that full moon was still lighting up the sky, making things eerily visible, even below the trees. Dray led the way, knowing these paths far better than I did, and as we got closer, the roar of the falls grew louder.
“Are we going skinny dipping?”
He grinned back at me. “Only if you’re brave enough.”
Oh, I was brave enough. More than that though, I was excited. It felt so good to look forward to something, even if it was just five minutes from now. The bite of anticipation was nothing like the anxiety of a looming battle. The carefree simplicity of stumbling around in a dark forest with Dray, stripping off our clothes and diving into the chilly mountain water, soothed my soul in ways I didn’t realize I needed.
Dray gave out a Tarzan yell as he climbed a rope, swung out over the moonlit water and plunged in. We swam and teased, chased, and I let myself get caught. Because getting caught by Dray was fun. Especially when he held my mouth captive with his. Even better when he grew hard between us.
“Before everything changes,” he whispered, “I want to be with you. Not because we’re hiding or trying to forget. Really be with you. In the moment.” His eyes moved over my face as he held me against him.
When the dawn came this would be over. Everyone would focus on preparations and moving to the rendezvous point. We wouldn’t be alone like this maybe ever.
So I moved my fingers into his hair and stroked the stress away. “Right now, it’s you and me. And some waterfalls. Let’s enjoy this moment. Drink from me.”
His eyes grew dark as he pushed my hair back and licked my neck, sinking his teeth into my skin. Each pull made my body shudder. I plastered myself to him.
Then he licked away and offered me his neck as well. I nuzzled him first, the fog of arousal overwhelming me already, then sank into him, his blood heating my veins all over again, making me feel even more powerful than I already did. As I drank he stroked my sides, cupped my breasts, ran his thumbs over my nipples until I was grinding against him, hot, wet, and ready.
“I love you, Rhysa.” He moved my legs around his waist.
“And I love you, Dray.” I pressed up as he positioned his cock at my entrance. We slid together slowly, made the sweetest love in that cool water. I memorized every breath, every moan, the way the moonlight glistened off the water droplets on his broad shoulders and cheeks.
He was strong and capable. He would survive this battle. I knew this in my soul because I had to believe it was true, but also because I needed him for what came next. He had to be there, therefore he’d survive.
But it still felt necessary to make every moment count. To take his orgasm from him the way he so skillfully took so many of mine. As he began to struggle I was filled with great pride at my ability to please him. I let my own orgasm wind to the surface, and happily joined him as he called out my name to the darkness around us.
“I need to sit,” he breathed, stumbling toward the large smooth rock.
As he leaned on it, I slid away, my feet falling down to the silty floor below, and rested my head against his heaving chest. “That was beautiful.”
His hand came up to my cheek and held me against him. “A perfect memory to take with us tomorrow.”
The first hints of the coming dawn began to lighten the black sky to navy blue. “Come swim with me.” Tomorrow wasn’t quite here yet.
“I’ll follow you anywhere,” he kept hold of my hand, letting me pull him deeper into the water.
The sky kept brightening and soon everyone would be awake, but for now no one existed except Dray and me. For now I could pretend there was nothing to life but late-night fires and all-night sex, but in a few hours I’d have to face the reality that none of this was real.
Tomorrow we went to war.