Сюзанна Бэк - Desert Storm

“What is this?” she murmured, barely aware that she had even spoken aloud.

“The heart of darkness itself,” the priestess purred, coming to a stop next to her guest. “Power. Hunger. Hatred. Yours for the taking.”

Kael’s gaze sharpened as she turned her head and pinned Ianna with her icy eyes. “Explain.”

Ianna laughed, a deep, throaty sound that Kael’s body responded to. Reaching up, she threaded strong fingers though the thick mass of the priestess’ hair and brought their lips together with crushing, brutal force as their bodies pressed and glided against one another roughly.

Darkness flowed strongly through the American, and she welcomed it, opening the deepest parts of her soul to its overwhelming seduction, becoming one with it. Her body jerked and writhed as passions unknown even to her exploded within, carrying her effortlessly along their dark, twisting currents.

The sounds she made were those of a rutting animal, and when her climax roared through her with a force more powerful than she’d ever known, her neck arched back and she screamed her release to the heavens, her lips and teeth stained and glistening with Ianna’s blood.

When sensibility returned once again, she found herself crouched on all fours above her willing victim, her chest heaving, her body still spasming with the power of her release.

Ianna was grinning wildly, still writhing beneath the weight of her captor. Her once pristine shirt was rent down the center, and both breasts were bleeding freely from the bites she’d received. “You’re all I have hoped for and more, Kael Androstos. Join me. Join me and I will make you invincible.”

Growling, Kael rolled off the priestess’ enchanting body and stood, straightening her rumpled clothing and dragging a hand through her sweat-drenched hair. Her eyes became shadowed and wary as she attempted to process what had just happened to her.

Ianna rose more slowly. Still smiling, she didn’t even bother to try and pull together the tatters of her clothing. She wore her bloodied nakedness like a brand. She reached out to touch Kael, but wasn’t surprised when the American jerked away, snarling. Her spell had fully unleashed the animal hiding inside the beautiful woman; an animal she knew would refuse to be tamed, and could turn on her without a second’s notice unless she was very, very careful.

Closing her eyes, she deliberately relaxed her muscles, and allowed the darkness to slip free of her, as if shedding a coat or a second skin.

“Come back into the house with me,” she said finally, in tones meant for soothing and gentling. “I’ll explain everything there.”

After a very long, dangerous moment, Kael finally nodded and led the way to the door. She left, but not without looking back at the darkness within, her eyes glittering with a light that fell just short of madness.

*******

Freshly showered and clad in a simple dress with enough buttons undone to show tantalizing glimpses of her generous cleavage with every indrawn breath, Ianna half reclined on one of her sofas, a long-stemmed glass of blood red wine resting easily in one perfectly manicured hand.

Opposite her, in a plush recliner, Kael perched, a dark and sultry energy rolling off of her in waves. Though the grip of whatever it was in the outbuilding had lessened its hold on her, she could still feel the dark passions it had engendered, and she reveled in them just as one might when under the spell of a particularly powerful drug.

Ianna smiled and chose her words with care. “There is one thing in all the world, one thing undiluted by time, which has the power to bring entire nations to their knees. It has existed since the very beginning of the world, and will go on existing, unchanged, until long after humanity ceases to be. It is the greatest force in the universe, yet only a chosen few can control it.”

“Fear.” Kael said into her glass of scotch.

The priestess’ smile grew. “Fear,” she echoed. “The ultimate power.” She swirled the wine around in her glass, then took a sip, enjoying the heady flavor as it slid smoothly down her throat. “What you felt today was just a small taste of what fear, properly controlled, can do. It can take you places you’ve never dreamed of going, and you can stay there for as long as you wish. It gives you power over the mightiest and the weakest of men.” Taking another sip of wine, she narrowed her dark, glittering eyes at the woman opposite her. “I have the ability to take fear and distill it into its most natural, most pristine state. I consume it, like a starving child consumes a crust of bread. And in consuming it, I become the face of fear itself.”

Kael snorted in derision. “All that, huh? From a few parlor tricks. You’re more insane than I thought.”

Ianna straightened, swinging her legs off the couch and to the floor, her eyes narrow and flashing. “Parlor tricks? You felt the darkness. You know it was there.”

“I felt somethin’ alright.”

The priestess felt anger, hot and bright, flare through her at the American’s taunting. Her fists clenched and her teeth ground as Kael’s bright eyes mocked her from across the room.

The realization came quickly to her that Kael was cleverly baiting a trap for her to fall into. “Very good,” she purred, releasing her anger and smiling to display a twin row of carnivore’s teeth. “Very, very good.”

Kael simply smirked and watched the ice in her scotch-rocks swirl slowly around.

Knowing she was a hairsbreadth away from losing her audience, Ianna silently

ran through a handful of scenarios before coming up with the only one that stood a chance of working. “If you’ve nothing else pressing for this evening, why not spend a night out on the town with me? A few drinks, a little fun, perhaps find a less than willing victim to terrorize? I can show you, if you like, exactly how I do what I do.”

Kael’s smirk became more pronounced as she raised her gaze from the amber fluid in her glass to the deep caramel eyes of the woman seated across from her. “And here I thought I a magician never revealed his secrets.”

Ianna returned the smirk with a sultry grin. “Given the right …incentive …a magician might be willing to share almost anything.”

The American tilted her head just slightly. “What’s in it for me?”

“Learning the secret to ultimate power isn’t good enough for you?”

Kael kept silent for a moment, taking a healthy sip of her drink and enjoying the pleasant burn as it made its way down to her belly. “No.”

The priestess could feel her anger surge again, but fought hard to keep it at bay. Explode now, and she’d loose this delicious woman forever. No questions asked. And with her would go the one chance she had to pay her family back for their betrayal of her. She had within her grasp a way to overcome that brutal humiliation which she had never lived down. And she was damned if she was going to let it go.

“What more can I offer?”

Kael smiled full out then. And to a casual onlooker, it might even have looked genuine. If they didn’t look into blue eyes which were colder than the arctic tundra. “When the time comes, you’ll know.”

It was then that Ianna realized that in trying to evade the American’s trap, she’d fallen neatly, even eagerly into it. Her awe of the woman before her rose another notch, and she bowed her dark head, gracefully conceding the round.

*******

Kael stepped out of the convertible and straightened the clingy fabric of her dress, inwardly cursing herself for allowing herself to be talked into wearing such an uncomfortable excuse for clothing. Not that she couldn’t, or wouldn’t, dress to the nines when the occasion warranted it, because she had, many times.