Nectar of War: The Song of Verity and Serenity (The Nectar of War Series Book 1)

LAVEN HEPHAESTUS ARVENALDI, II

NADREXI — SOUTHERN COURT OF QUAMFASI

I HAVE READ SOMETHING like this.” I smile at Maivena as she leans over the stone railing of the balcony.

“Have you?” Her voice is a low hum traveling from so high up all the way down to me.

“I have. Except, you and I are quite different from the lovers written in the pages.”

Maivena shakes her head and a grin grows on her face. “How so?”

I ascend from below and up to her. As I latch onto the stone she gazes at me and her nose gently caresses mine.

“She saves him.”

Her laugh echoes in the night. “Our love is not for books.”

“Why is that?”

“Because it is real.”

“That is exactly why it is for books.”

Heat exudes from her skin as her eyes lighten. “What about the part they do not write of?” And her finger trails over my cheekbones.

“What part?”

“The part when you are in my bed.”

That familiar fire chases behind her touch. “They would burn books if they wrote of what I will do to you in your bed.”

Her hand curves around the back of my neck and through my hair. I ascend us to the hard ground of the balcony, and she giggles in my ear. “They would burn it twice.”

“Why?” I groan, licking up the curve of her neck.

“Because I begged you to do it again.”

Ascending to the bench in front of her bed, she stands before me. I lean back, spreading my legs wider and Maivena smiles as she tilts in. Wrapping my fingers around her neck, a playful smile appears as she rubs a hand up my thigh, gripping my length.

“Take off your clothes.”

Standing up straight, there is nothing short of defiance in her eyes as she slowly tugs one tiny strap of her silk dress down her shoulder. And just as slowly, if not slower, she glides her hand across the bridge of her chest to the other strap waiting to be pulled.

“Do not be so cruel.”

She diabolically laughs, as if to say, ‘I can be crueler’. The dress catches around her hips, with a gentle push the dress circles around her ankles and she steps out of it.

A thing of vivacious beauty, from every curve and line around her hips.

She turns and I tilt my head as she bends over to undo her heels.

Vivacious indeed.

The dimples in her thighs are like pivots for diamonds over her skin.

A woman made from a goldmine.

“Fuck,” I writhe about staring hungrily at every inch of her.

Reaching out for one touch, she pushes my hand away and I lazily grin as she stands facing me again.

She ascends and I can feel her nearing closer behind me as she crawls across the bed.

Her teeth bite down on my ear and I fall into her shoulder as her hands caressingly move up and down my chest and abdomen.

To be touched and cherished by the person you love the most has a way of pulling you deeper than you ever thought possible, some days it turns twisted how dirtily you want to take them in every corner of a room.

Her fingers play with the laces of my trousers and the warmth of wetness moves up my neck as her tongue finds my ear. “Still lacing your trousers wrong?”

I smile.

‘Lorena,’ Maivena exhales while smiling. ‘She is lovely.’ She says as she unlaces my trousers and then perfectly relaces them together.

‘Do not let her trick you,’ I watch her fingers as they work on the laces. ‘She can ruin someone’s day if she chooses.’

Maivena quietly laughs, nodding.

‘There, you always have the laces improperly crossed. This is correct.’ She tugs at the waistband, and I lean down.

‘Someone likes to pay attention,’ I lowly speak the words as I move nearer.

“Purposely.” I try to laugh but it only turns into a deep groan. “Teach me to tie them again.”

“I want to teach you something else instead.”

Naturally, I lift my hips at the suppleness in her voice as it gravitates from my ears and downward.

She snakes around me and goes to her knees.

This is what will declare me mentally insane again.

With a lift and tug, she removes my trousers and her eyes darken before she greedily leans in.

Instantaneously, it all becomes too much, but overbearingly perfect.

I want to feel unending hysteria.

I want to feel debilitated.

I need to feel everything and not know what to do with myself.

I need to be crippled by the magic between her legs.

I pull her up and our lips fight.

Deepening the kiss, she goes back down and continues to give me everything I want until I can no longer handle the grace of pleasure, and even then, she does not stop.

“You are trying to kill me.”

She giggles and comes to a stop.

Each touch sends tingles through every body part. Then she touches my scars with her supple lips and slowly stands in front of me.

“As much I would love to go on with this all night my love, I am getting rather impatient with this tease of your body while I am not pleasuring it.”

“You can have me whenever you want.” She dances her finger through the dark flood of hair above my length and that is all it takes.

I quickly pick her up and our lips dance at a leisure pace. I kiss down her neck as I get into the bed pulling her up to the pillows. As I straddle between her legs I marvel at the way I fit so damn perfect. “You were made for me. And me only.”

I uniformly move with her touch as she gently bites my neck and I grip her thighs.

Her body is like a map marked with trails that lead me to all the ways to pleasure her, but I have a favorite path of my own.

“Laven. . .” her fingers tangle through my curls and I smile.

I slowly rub over her clit and her body rocks as she turns her head and pushes into the pillow as I carry on the glorious act of making her come. I push one finger inside of her, curling and edging. Then, I add a second, searching for that sweet spot that will make her go–

She lets out a quiet cry and I grin looking up at her.

She quietly mumbles while forcing her head into that pillow again. I push it away. I want her screaming for me.

As I taste her, she grips my arm and her moans become uncontrollable.

“Yes, come for me.” I beg.

I quicken the action of both my fingers and mouth, like a gradual rise and fall, I slow and quicken repeatedly—teasing her in the most dreadful way possible to build her orgasm to explode.

I want her to feel like she has never felt.

“Oh–” her voice catches as she claws at my arm.

I flatten my tongue against her rubbing up and down and she gasps.

In one swift motion, I sit on the bed and fling her over me. Grabbing her hips, I turn her around and her legs hook beneath mine as I drag her closer.

She reaches back, perfectly angling us together and I escape to the place where magic is made.

Groans of relief flood through the room as she eases down, then back up, repeating this until I am blinded by the ecstasy of pleasure again.

The winding of her hips grows harder as she rides me into oblivion.

Her ass moves in ripples, tempting me to touch. As I grip, her riding slows and I rub my thumb just over another secret place. Her moaning has no restraint as I continue and the feeling of her dripping down my cock is answer enough of where I will take her body next.

So slowly, I can feel her tightly pulling with each stroke.

“Who knew a pretty little thing like you enjoyed such lascivious ways to have love made to her.” Her thighs are shaking again as she still moves at this slow pace, trying to move faster. “Slower,” my voice comes out in a low growl, gripping the curve of her ass. “Feel every inch made for you.”

A strangled sound catches in her chest as her hips stutter, reaching, I pull her arms behind her back and hold as I thrust my hips up.

Deep, long, strokes.

Slightly shifting to the right, I can see us through the mirror, her body ricochets as I thrust harder and I can see how captivating she looks as everything bounces. “God you take it so well.”

And she withers. “Laven,” she harshly shouts.

“Come all over me,” I need to feel her orgasm just as much as she covets for it.

As the words leave, she messily topples over that peak I bring her to, but I do not stop. I continue riding her through it as she too watches us come undone in the mirror.

The rise and fall of my chest is heavy and rapid as she pulls one of her arms away and reaches between her legs, touching her clit and then gently groping me as I move through her.

“Please come inside me,” she begs and in those few words, one more gentle squeeze, I now make more of a mess over us than she did.

She giggles as she presses her hips down and I jerk at the aftershock.

Again, she continues, and I now wither beneath her as her moans are soft, enjoying making me cry out at the hysteria of unending pleasure. Now, she is just enjoying the feeling of us combined, sweet, slick sounds.

My eyes roll. “All right,” I pant.

She lifts and I see all things sin.

Sin all over an angel.

I pull her into the bed and she laughs. “We need to bathe.”

Wrapping around her, I cuddle in. “Mhmm.”

Letting me rest for only a few moments she sits up. “Come,” she pulls me along with her.

“I already did.”

She smiles and pushes me into the bathing water.

“Do not worry, you will dry.”

*  *  *

There is rustling within the sheets and then the padding of footsteps.

I maneuver around the bed, I open my eyes when all I feel is the leftover heat of her body in the bedding.

“Mai?” I sit up.

Dressed in her white night-shift, she continues to walk away and quietly mumbles.

“Maivena?”

She exits through the doors of the chamber and down the hall.

Leaving the bed, I find my trousers and quickly haul them up my legs as I chase behind her.

“Mai?” I call out once more, and still, she does not answer me.

The closer I get to her the more unaware she seems of her surroundings as she walks unevenly through the hall.

I slowly pass by her as we proceed.

There is distance in her eyes and she keeps on as if not seeing me.

Sleepwalking.

‘You think I wanted to wake up to a note instead of you? I wanted you to stay with me and you did not and I woke up in the–’ she abruptly stops and shakes her head, she is fighting the urge to speak with me.

Just as I have with her.

‘Let us just leave.’

‘No,’ I jump in front of her. ‘What do you mean you woke up in–’

‘I mean nothing by it.’ Her tone turns harsh. ‘I am leaving now, you know your way to Provas.’

‘Ivella, please–’

‘No!’ Her voice reaches its peak and I see pain begin to ruin her face. ‘You–’ she struggles to speak and she searches for the words before she can say them. ‘You lie in bed with me and then you left me!’

I flinch at the porosity of her voice, but mostly the terrorized expression taking over her face that was once so happy.

She slowly inhales and her eyes close for a moment before reopening.

‘I am sorry, I tried to wake you but you were already sleeping so deeply that even when I moved you you did not wake. You looked peaceful so I wanted you to stay that way.’

She looks down at the floor between us and takes a single step backward.

That distance, that wall she builds guarded by the strongest Warrior known, has returned.

When I see, or believe that I see we are moving forward, we take ten steps back.

‘Peaceful,’ she hums. ‘What is that?’

‘Something is the matter, Mai. And you need to tell me.’

This is exactly what she meant.

She is frightened to be left alone in her sleep, not just sleep, but sleepwalking into who knows what when she is alone.

The dangers that lurk due to sleepwalking are horrifying. Nonetheless, I should not wake her.

‘I will never try to wake you from sleepwalking ever again.’ Amias grumbles as Axynth places a cold compress to his son’s eye.

‘I told you to never do that.’ The last time my father tried waking me from sleepwalking I accidentally hit him too hard and he went into the wall. ‘You are never aware of the outcome that can come from it.’

There are low words she speaks, words I cannot make out even as I walk right next to her.

Maybe, if I try, I can gently guide her back to the chamber and no harm will come.

Directly down the hall the doors to the balcony sit wide open.

She comes to a complete stop and eerily, her head tilts. “The woods,” she whispers.

I look over the balcony and towards the woods. In a flash, she is running directly to the open doors.

“Maivena!” I shout, frantically racing behind her.

Just when she reaches the railing I catch her and swing in the opposite direction, she begins to fight and I hold her tighter.

“Mai, you must wake up!”

Out of pure shock and terror, I force us to sit on the ground as the deep fear I had of heights returns because of this exact moment.

Soon, she goes limp and her eyes close.

Every possible place she could have ended up while alone ransacks through my head.

Watching her nearly fall to her death is enough for me to not allow her to be alone ever again.

Languidly, she blinks, barely making out my face as she looks up.

“Laven, darling,” she says in a silent gasp. “I am having the strangest dreams.” And just after the words are spoken, she faints, falling back into the sleep she was in before we ended up here.

I hold her closer and stand from the ground.

Far out, I hear the rattling of the trees. When I turn, I see nothing.

“Amias,” I say through the bond.

Surprisingly, he responds. “Are you all right? It is late.”

“I am fine. I need you to come to Nadrexi, Maivena’s home. Something is out here and I cannot leave her.”

“I am coming now, give me a moment.”

Laying Maivena down in the bed, I touch her cheek and the stress between her eyebrows releases. This goes beyond sleepwalking, she was nearly taken to what could have been her death and I can feel that whatever was in those woods was luring her.

Something so monopolizing is holding her hostage.

I have always been told all my life how secretive I am, but her–Ivella is a level of secretive even I cannot bear.

‘You know, do you not?’ I urge him as he continues to watch the two women very far ahead of us speak. They know exactly what she is not telling me.

‘I do,’ he nods. ‘And so do you. She just has not told you to what extent.’

‘Stravan, if she is in some form of danger, you need to tell me this instant.’

Knowing they are listening, he answers. ‘She is fine.’ But below he signs with his hands six letters.

N-E-S-Y-R-A

“Who is Nesyra?” I whisper as Maivena turns in her sleep and her head lays in my hand against the pillows.

Outside of the house I hear a sonorous howl echo in the night.

Amias.

“Someone was here,” he says. “I can smell them, the scent still lingers strong.

“Search until you find them. What happened tonight cannot happen again.”

“Is Ivella all right?”

“She will be.”