"Aiyah, Rain, yes. As you are mine, so I am yours." She wanted him, all of him, only hers, forever hers, from the skeins of night-black hair swirling like silk torment across her skin to the wild, whirling purple blaze of his eyes to the hot groan of breath panting from his lungs and the searing hardness of his body wrapped around her like ropes of steel.

Hands and mouths of flesh and magic moved over her body, caressing every inch, laving her in moist, erotic heat. She cried out again as his teeth closed over one taut nipple and his tongue flicked out, teasing the sensitive flesh to diamond hardness. She screamed as he bit down just hard enough to send her shuddering towards the crest of orgasm. His hand dove between her legs, fingers delving into her curls. Fire exploded, flooding her with hot moisture as the flick of his nimble fingers sent her over the edge.

Rain went to his knees before her, his mouth tracing a burning path down her belly, the flare of her hip. A deep growl rumbled in his chest, vibrating in his blood. The threads of their bond pulsed with energy. The wild, fiery magic of their newest, sun-bright thread cracked like whips of lightning in his flesh as he gazed up at her, naked, her arms locked above her head in bonds of magic as if she were one of the virginal sacrifices ancient mortals made to the immortals they once considered gods.

Trembling. Naked. Helpless.

His.

The tairen roared in triumph, and this time when the primitive, savage rush of power filled him, he allowed it. "Ve sha kem" he snarled. You are mine. His teeth nipped at her thigh. His fingers continued to flick and torment, her flesh already enticingly slick. The scent of her arousal filled the air with musky sweetness, making his sex swell to painful hardness. "Bern." Ours.

She sobbed her agreement. "Aiyah, Rain. I am yours. Only yours."

It wasn't enough. Not nearly enough. His hands cupped her bu**ocks, and his mouth dove to claim the soft, heated flesh between her legs. He held her mind and gaze locked to his and devoured her until she screamed his name and flew apart in his hands, her body shaking in helpless abandon.

He rose in one swift motion, discarding leathers and steel with a flash of Earth. His hands closed around her hips. His own hips thrust close, and the long, hard column of his sex pressed against her belly. She gasped and bucked her hips. Already his fierce hunger was calling to her again, rousing her own.

Her eyes squeezed shut, but in the darkness, her other senses only seemed more acute, and threads of multicolored light flickered against the backs of her lids. Fey vision, she realized instantly, the magic sight that did not need eyes to see. Instead of black hair and blazing lavender eyes and the graceful beauty of Elverial, she saw the glowing threads of magic that made up all things, Fire, Water, Earth, Air, and Spirit—and the blinding, burning flame that was Rain standing before her, enveloping her in fire and light.

And all around him, emanating from him and lit by threads too bright to identify, the incandescent form of a tairen spread wide its wings in a fearsome show of strength and dominance. Its eyes were the same glowing wells of power that Rain's were. As she watched, it roared, and golden red flame erupted from its mouth and swept over her.

Her eyes flew open as heat and hunger whipped through her body. Magic and need swelled inside her, so hard and so fast her skin burned, as if stretched to the breaking point.

"Rain…Rain, please … I need—" Her voice broke off.

"What?"

She squirmed, wriggled, the ache so fierce, her need so great. But he would not relent until she gave him his answer. She cried it in desperation, "You!"

"Then take me, shei'tani." His fingers dug into the soft swell of her hips, lifting her high, then bringing her down hard and fast. Her legs locked around his waist, and she flung her head back on a scream of pleasure as his body surged into hers in one powerful, claiming thrust.

"Ver reisa ku'chae. Kem surah, shei'tani. " The driving rhythm of Rain's hips punctuated the growled words of shei'tanitsa claiming, and with each hard pulse, Ellysetta cried out his name as his sex swelled inside her, stretching her, filling her.

Ah, gods, with Rain inside her, his skin pressed tight against hers, she felt his every shuddering pleasure as clearly as her own. The breath was driven from her lungs as wave after wave of heat washed over her. Fire danced behind her eyes, and searing blue-white flames mingled with a sea of billowing red-orange heat as another shattering orgasm consumed her.

Rain groaned as Ellysetta's body clenched tight as a fist around him. Her inner muscles gripped him like steel, rippling so forcefully the pleasure bordered on pain. Thought dissolved in a fiery wash of sensation, and a cry ripped from his throat as his own release tore through him. His legs trembled and he staggered back, barely staying on his feet.

A quick weave released the bonds holding Ellysetta's hands, and she slumped against him, clinging to his neck, her body still quaking. Two steps brought him to a long chaise covered in dark purple velvet, but even before he could lower Ellysetta to her rest, the tairen growled again and a shaft of rekindled heat speared through him. The arms holding Ellysetta tightened as his spent body filled with renewed strength.

Throughout the night, the tairen drove him, relentless, ravenous, refusing to release him. Time after time, bell after bell, with an insatiable passion that outmatched even the night of Ellysetta's carnal weave, he staked his claim. He took her on the chaise, on the floor, bent over a small table, on her knees leaning back against his chest so his hands could have unfettered access to her br**sts and the soft, slick folds between her legs. He took her until there was no finger span of flesh she had not surrendered to him, until her voice was hoarse from her cries and her body so sensitized a single flick of his tongue or the slightest breath of Air could make her sob his name and start to shake.