Endre: Brothers Of The Dark Places Read online

  “Me. I flew you.” Her eyes went impossibly round as I waited for her response.

  “You?” She breathed the word as she stared at me, her eyes looking for a lie.

  “Me.” I pursed my lips and looked away. I hadn’t mentioned the being a dragon part yet.

  “Okay. You flew me.” She looked at her hands and I thought I could see tears in her eyes. Before I could speak again, she interrupted. “And how did we survive that storm, the cold, if it was only you flying us.”

  “With magic, of course.” I gave her a non-threatening smile, and almost wished she’d take it as a joke.

  “Of course. And you’re name is Endre?” She didn’t seem sure.

  I gave my head a positive shake and she sat back against her moss-filled pillows. “Okay. Where are we?”

  “In my home.” She gave me a look that said ‘thanks, Captain Obvious’, and I felt my skin flush. “Oh, Antarctica.”

  “What?” She sat up again, her face a picture of shock.

  “Yes, a bit hard to wrap your head around isn’t it?”

  “Mm, yes. It is.” Her eyes were tearing again, and I felt anger at myself rise in my chest. I had caused that feeling she had.

  “Look, perhaps it’s best just to start at the beginning. I know most of this is going to seem like a hallucination, or that you’ve perhaps escaped to a lunatic asylum, but, if you’ll listen, I can explain.” I wanted to distract her, to take away that fear or hurt she’d felt. She seemed like a woman that appreciated directness anyway, so I gave it to her.

  “That sounds like it would be a good idea, Endre.” Her lips were pursed now and she sought out my eyes with her own. She was so beautiful.

  I shook myself and took a deep breath as I settled back in the chair once again.

  “Our world, my world, used to be a part of the light, a part of that which we now call the outside world. Our magical world used to rule over all of it, but the Earth decided to warm up, continents shifted, warm lands became deserts of ice, and our power waned. We used to be lands of dragons, shifter, fairies, and a variety of other magical beings. Now, we rule only the dark places, the places where the unmagical humans could not go, unless we brought them into it.

  As the waters rose we went underground, hiding from the unmagicals. They had spread all over the world by then, and we had few places to choose from. This led to wars in many places as nations fought for room, in what came to be known as Europe, and even in America. The waters rose everywhere, coastlines disappeared, the world was in turmoil.” I paused, letting my words sink in. I wasn’t just talking about world history, or the history of my people, but my own personal history.

  “How old are you?” She finally breathed, staring at me with acceptance. I knew that would last as long it took her to recover, then she’d start picking it all apart, logic would set in. Then she’d look at me much differently.

  “I don’t know. I saw the birth of man in its current carnation, thousands of years ago? I don’t really know. We didn’t really measure time, only seasons for planting and harvesting, little more.”

  Her eyes were wide again, the warm brown pools unblinking, and I knew she was shocked. “There’s more isn’t there?”

  “There is, Thyra, but it can wait. You need to rest.” I moved to tuck her back under the covers, but she pushed them away, unashamed of her nudity.

  “I’ve been in that bed for hours now, Endre. I need fresh air, I need to know where I’m at, I need out.” She looked at me with a growing fierceness, and I knew she was a survivor. If I hadn’t known it already, well, I did now.

  “Fine. I’ll get you some clothes.” I tried not to stare, but my mate was a beautiful woman. Very beautiful. I couldn’t look away.

  “Endre?” She asked, her lips quirking along with her eyebrow as she looked at me. I’d brought a candle into the room so she was perfectly aware of how I was looking at her.

  “Hmm?” I murmured, my gaze fastened to her hips, to the round belly button. Why did that fascinate me so much? All I could do was picture kissing her there and I just couldn’t look away.

  Her stomach wasn’t totally flat; there was a roundness there that I knew no amount of exercise would ever eliminate. It was just her shape. A shape that would fit in my hand perfectly.

  “Endre?” This time, her voice was full of laughter and I looked up.

  “Yes?” My eyes immediately drifted back down to her stomach.

  “Are we going outside?” Her voice was calm, not surprising. She was a calm woman. So calm, she walked up to me without a single blush.

  “Of course we are.” I looked at her, but my eyes kept drifting down, even as her fingers clutched at my biceps.

  “Do you want to touch me, Endre?” She asked her voice as bold as her actions. I looked into those dark pools I wanted to drown in, looking for some hint that she was serious.

  I was a bit concerned about her. She was way too calm. Yes, we’d been dreaming together for quite a long time now, that’s why I knew her name without her speaking it once, why I knew her so well, but she wasn’t a magical, she should, by all rights, be freaking the fuck out. Instead, she was calm, accepting, almost scary she was so accepting of it all.

  “Are you sure you’re alright?” I asked as I ran my fingers into her golden hair. “Maybe you hit your head harder than I thought.”

  She gave me a rather sexy smile, one that held far more invitation than I’d ever seen from a woman, and she pulled me close, her hands around my hips.

  “I don’t know if you’re a Viking, a ghost, a dragon, or just my imagination, but whatever this hallucination is, I’m going with it. I’ve dreamed about you for far too long, Dream Man, I’m just going to go with it. Besides, the way you’re dressed means I probably don’t want to go outside anyway.”

  I forgot the fact that I was wearing thick denim jeans, a black thermal shirt, and a flannel shirt beneath a thick dark blue cable-knit sweater as her hands dove beneath my plethora of shirts to find warm skin. Need burned through me the instant her skin came into such intimate contact with mine. I forgot the people outside and all of the reasons I shouldn’t do it, and kissed her.

  I’d wanted to since I’d pulled her from the ocean, and now, I lost myself in the heat of her skin as our lips clung together for the first time. Her rosy lips were silky, full, and soft as we explored each other. She was all that was sensual and beautiful I decided as I inhaled her clean scent and my lips brushed against hers. When her tongue came out to tangle with mine I inhaled sharply, and then I pulled her up into my arms before I put her right back on the bed.

  She blinked up at me, her grin contagious, but I didn’t want to make her smile, I wanted to make her moan. That grin reminded me of long nights of longing, of good Irish whisky, of sex that left you breathless and that’s what I wanted to give her. My right hand ran down her body, from the indentation of her collar bone, down between her breasts, to spot that had so fascinated my only moments before. I gave her soft stomach a kiss, using my lips to scoop up her taste, my hand splayed over the left side. I felt her hips give a slight push, and I looked up at her.

  I leaned over her body, between her thighs, as she sprawled on the bed. With a growl, I took both of her hands in one of mine, pushed them over her head, and leaned down to kiss her as I held her hands there. My body pressed into hers and she gave the most deliciously naughty laugh I’ve ever heard. It made me hard, hot, and demented.

  I took her lips with mine, my tongue swooping into her mouth to explore, to tease, and to arouse. I pushed my hips into hers, letting her feel my full length, the jeans doing little to hide what I was packing. Thyra gasped and pulled away, her eyes wide with desire.

  She was going to say something, but I stopped her by taking a nipple that matched the color of her lips perfectly into my mouth and sucking it to hard bead. Her hands dove into my hair, her fingers gripping the strands to hold me in place. Her words trailed off into a gasp, my tongue darting at the peak until she moane
d my name.

  “That’s what I wanted, Thyra,” I murmured before swiping her flesh once more. I felt her hips flinch against mine and moved, feeling the way her skin responded to my touch by heating up. I left a trail of heat across her chest, skimmed fire down her stomach, before I finally came to rest by kneeling between her thighs. I breathed fire over her skin as I breathed her name.

  Her scent filled my mind, and I took a shuddering breath while I used my hands to part her thighs completely. She was totally open to me, totally mine, all I had to do was lean forward and lap my tongue up her silky softness. Then I would truly know her taste. Her hips arched as I stared at her, tempting me, begging me, demanding I ease her ache. I didn’t want to just ease her ache though, I wanted to enflame it, I wanted her frenzied and shaking beneath me.

  I ran a finger over her wet heat, she was spellbinding and I could not look away. I moved, my lips brushed against her sex, my tongue darted out to capture a taste, only a taste of her. My brain exploded with the liquor of desire she gave me to imbibe. Thyra was honey, whisky, desire, all of the things that are pure indulgences.

  She danced beneath my tongue and lips, her hips clasped in my hands to try to hold her still, but she would not stop moving. I blew against her heated depths, an attempt to cool her off, but that only made her insistent movements more pronounced. I parted her folds with my lips, I promised her appeasement with a swipe of my tongue, and sent her into heaven as I sucked the pearl I found within her folds.

  I drank in her cries as my breath, I swallowed her quaking spasms as my food, and inhaled her scent as my energy. She gave me all I needed, all I desired, as she found a place where only languid pleasure resided. I wanted to go there with her, but held myself back. She thought this was only a dream. I wanted her fully aware of who and what I was before I all of me.

  I listened to what her body told me, I pressed deeper against her most sensitive skin as her stomach undulated before my eyes. When her thighs clamped around my head and she stopped breathing I let my tongue dart over her in tight little stabs that made her breathe in sobbing gasps. When her hips relaxed and her breath turned into erratic gulps for air, I pulled away, her thighs falling open in total abandon.

  I knelt there; looking at her in the light of the flickering flames, and drank in my future. Thyra was all that was beautiful in the world. I wanted her more than I wanted my next breath, but I waited, and watched, drinking in the sight of her. Nothing more. There was time for everything, if only I was patient. Nothing could take her from me, not even Wruin.

  4

  Thyra

  I felt the world spin away, Endre’s agile tongue creating the cyclone that drove me. It was only a dream, but damn, what a dream! I’ve had sex before, I was married, but he’d never even tried to do this to me. With him it had all been about submission, and being his good little wife, things I’d slowly come to realize I was never going to be. Especially when he started to follow me, and track my every move.

  I wasn’t thinking about any of that now, though, not when my Dream Man was causing things to happen, things I’d only ever been able to achieve by myself, in very private moments. I dismissed the thought about it being a very lucid dream, afraid I’d start the process that would wake me up. I needed this; after all of these years of dreaming about him, I needed this. It was the only time I really found any kind of fulfilment. Sure, this was more real than it normally was, but life had been weird lately.

  Something began to intrude into my delicious world of pleasure, a steady thumping that was annoying. It needed to go away. I clenched at the furs on the bed as Endre moved from me, my thighs damp with my own juices that cooled in the frosty air. That fire was doing a good job, but not good enough. Now his eyes, his eyes that looked at me with so much desire could set the whole world on fire and keep it warm.

  Endre went to the door, and I watched, understanding dawning. There’d been someone at the door. For a naughty moment I wondered if someone was joining my fantasy world, but I wasn’t normally that kinky. I waited, though, breath held, as he spoke with the person on the other side. What exactly was my brain dreaming up now.

  “I need to leave you for a bit, Thyra. I’m needed outside. You’ll be brought clothes if you’d like to come outside and join me.” His eyes promised me this would continue later, and I felt a shiver of awareness pierce my spine, low, around my tailbone. Oh yes, this would continue later. If I didn’t wake up.

  “Of course.” Or maybe I was in a coma, I wondered as I pulled the fur over my body. This was different from my normal dreams, and it seemed to be continuous.

  There was no way this was real, even if I did feel the cold, and the urge to relieve my bladder was suddenly almost unbearable. That was weird. Oh damn, if I peed in my dream, would I wet myself in my bed? That would suck on a boat, especially out in the ocean where fresh water was a limited resource. Damnit.

  I got up and paced, hoping it would relieve the problem, but it didn’t go away. A knock came at the door and interrupted my pacing.

  “Hello? Thyra? I am Ingrid, I have brought you clothes.” A lovely young woman came in from behind the door, a bundle of clothes in her hands.

  “You said my name properly.” I observed, noting she had the same kind of accent as Endre, something similar to my father’s Norwegian accent but slightly different.

  “Teer-ah? Why? How else would it be pronounced?” She gave me a sunny but confused smile and I brushed it away.

  “You wouldn’t believe how many people call my Thy-rah. Nevermind, it’s not important. What have you brought me?” The girl was dressed in a gray sweater and a long almond colored dress, a thick beige shawl around her shoulders that looked almost like grass woven together caught my attention.

  I walked up to her; the fur wrapped around me, and inspected her clothes. They were rather old fashioned and simple looking, but she didn’t seem to be affected by the cold so they must be warm.

  “What is this made from?” The grass looked wooly, almost like a yarn, but I couldn’t place it.

  “Just a sea grass we’ve adapted to take the place of flax. This yarn has been adapted to make a thick thread, for shawls such as this. My dress and sweater are made of the same, it’s just a different yarn style, you see, look here at my top.” She paused as I inspected the material to see that it was indeed the same, only far finer than the yarn of her shawl. “Now, I’ve brought you a pair of pants, some socks, boots, and a sweater. If you’re going out, I’ll have to find you a coat.”

  She was quite pretty, with ice blue eyes, and a wide smile. Her eyes were curious as she watched me dress, but she didn’t say anything more. As it was only a dream, I didn’t turn away, just dressed in a hurry and stood up, pounding my feet into the boots as I did so. They were made of more of the odd leather and fur, with a thick sole designed to keep me from slipping. I’d inspected the soles, also made from leather, and wondered at just how well they were made.

  This is one awesome and creative; dream I decided as I followed her out of the room.

  I think that’s the part where my jaw just dropped and stayed open, gaping like a kid plunked down in Christmas land. Women, men, and children crowded into a small kitchen and great room, laughing, talking, repairing broken items, doing inventory from the looks of it, and generally making noise. The walls and furniture were made from rough wood, plugged with some kind of mud, and ran parallel with no side rooms.

  I could see a large fireplace in the kitchen and at the other end of the hall, for lack of a better word, and utilitarian furniture that appeared to be handmade. There were thick blankets in some parts of the walls and I wondered if there were windows in those places. I walked out into the midst of noise and bustle and stared rather openly at all of the people speaking in a language that seemed familiar, but was strangely spoken. I realized it was similar to my own father’s language and tried to catch more of it as I passed by people.

  “We need to get those last tents up....” One man wa
s saying to another. “Keep the children under control. Endre has been alone for centuries, we’re probably driving him mad already,” a woman in her 40s said to a teenaged girl with fear in her eyes.

  The woman soothed the teenager with a soft hand against her cheek and a smile. “Don’t be frightened, my love, he’ll get used to it and all men growl. It will be alright.”

  The girl smiled a wobbly smiled and I moved on, understanding now that these people had only just arrived to Endre’s land. What an odd thing to dream.

  I moved around the room, looking for Endre, but heard someone mention he was outside so found my way to the door. That’s when my wonder turned to something else, an itchy feeling in the back of my neck that crawled up and down my spine. Ice cold air blasted me as I opened the door, but then settled down to something that wasn’t so face-freezing. I stepped out into a world in a bubble.

  High overhead there was something that looked like a huge bubble instead of a sky. It was bright, like the sky, and light filtered through, but there was something odd about it. It looked like, I squinted as I paused to figure it out, it looked like ice that was very thin. It couldn’t be though, could it?

  I stepped out to look behind the house on a hill, and saw that the bubble spread far behind us, for miles perhaps. I turned back to the front and saw that a green field was covered in tents, cooking fires, and even more people. I didn’t see Endre, so I took a step out into this very strange world. Where was I exactly?

  I heard the sound of pebbles beneath my feet and looked down to see that black pebbles peeked through the green moss that seemed to grow on everything. Only a few moments before I’d been safe, in a cave of darkness where the world could not intrude. Now, I was in a very real world, and I felt the idea that this was all part of a dream start to crumble.

  Those pebbles were too real, Endre’s lips on mine were too real, the smell of cold and what I could only assume was smoke and the natural scent of the moss was too real. It was all too real. I felt my knees start to give way and found a larger pile of rocks to plunk down on. This was real. All of it.