Dark Love

Part 34

"I aught to tan your hide."

The body slammed into hers with some heat. Her breath left her lungs in a rush and her laughter fell silent. Tackling her down, Darr wrestled with her until she rolled across the endless bed in helpless laughter.

"Are you guys done?" The sharp reprove was accompanied by a lift to the corner of his lips. A dimple peeped out of a cheek, as Svennett did his best to hide a grin.

"She's incorrigible. I only just spanked her bottom for flirting with guys and now she's laughing at us," grumbled Darr, as he reached down to caress the ass he spanked earlier. "She has no respect for her betters at all."

At that Saera burst out with more hilarity. Darr should be thankful he was that cute, cute enough to turn a girl's head she didn't mind hi talking so much shit. "Betters?" She gasped out between laughter. "Really?"

"Enough," said Svennett firmly, "Don't you want to know the rest."

There was more? At that she sobered up enough to listen. "Tell me."

"Hiding what Darr became from the rest of the world became the next challenge. Vampires as you know can't do magic. He would have been dethroned. There couldn't be a pallid royalty, a prince, who couldn't do magic," Svennett continued, moving to sit beside her still form laying strewn across his bed with reckless abandoned. She shifted then in an attempt at some decorum. But Darr only reached out, gathering her up tight against him as he burried his nose into the crook of her neck  spooning into her.

"I couldn't be away from him for that to happen. Our bond is not like yours. We don't share a combined soul, I own Darr's soul. He only borrows it back from me. Without the links forced onto him, his soul would be lost to him, cast adrift and his powers with it."

The severity of his condition had Saera reaching out to clasp her hands about Darrs' wrapped about her waist. Svennett reached out with a comforting caress, running his fingers over her hair then allowing it to ruffle through Darr's.

"You were friends," murmured Saera with sudden understanding. That was the part of his story that hadn't made sense. Darr had painted them out to be rivals. Enemies even. It was only expected considering they presided over rivaling factions. But that couldn't be the truth. It wouldn't make sense if it did. Svennett wouldn't have gone out of his way to save him if that had been the case.

"We became friends that first year. Our rivalry reverted to friendship, at least in private. In public we kept up with general expectations in line with ruling rival factions." Svennett smiled.  "It was mutual respect for a game hard won that did it. That and an understanding over the difficulties we shared in leadership. We were the same." Svennett shook his head."I couldn't leave Darr to his fate."

"But my sacrifice required on going intervention," said Darr, his melodic voice so close to her ear sent a ripple of awareness down her spine. "It was taking too much out of Svennett. We devised a plan, I would initiate an unprovoked fight in public and resolve it with an excessive display of flash magic. The kind that proved I not only had an abundance of power but the ability to wield it. Svennett had to be near me for that to happen. Svennett did the same as well, putting out the occasional incident to impress his lot of people. Then we would both go without magic till we recovered enough for the next large display of power."

Svennett exchanged a glance with Darr. "While this worked to some degree, it was taking a toll on the both of us. We needed a wife. But we were bound in such a way that a marriage with another witch would not be possible for either of us. Not separately and not together either. A normal wife cannot have two normal husbands for one reason, Saera. They would drain her dry. We have never been normal wizards even before our bond. We were powerful and combined this way, even more powerful than we were before. Marriage wasn't possible for us. It wasn't even an option. Unless the witch was strong enough to join our binding. Unless the witch was strong enough to survive us."

"Me," whispered Saera.

"You," agreed Darr. "Our research into witch history listed the Shores as top candidates. Our further research into your family line took time to put together. Tracking the whereabouts of the Shore family grimoire that was repossessed when the shunning was executed took longer than expected. But I got a hold of it in the end. It proved without a shadow of a doubt that you, the last remaining Shore and direct descendant of the first Shore witch, was power enough to not just sustain the bond and power it up, but provide us with more power then we could ever dream possible."

"We didn't know about that later, until we were married," whispered Svennett. He lifted a hand to caress her cheek. "I felt it that night when we bonded. We both did. I knew then we were you were beyond anything we expected. You were special."

Darr breathed heavily in her ear. His voice seemed to rumble out directly from the pit of his stomach."But with the shunning in place we couldn't openly claim you. And without knowing the reason behind it, we couldn't undo the shunning either." His lips caressed her ear. "You were driving me wild."

"But you still refrained from excess magic," she reminded him of their brutal hand to hand battle that they'd fought so carelessly all around her.

"It's safer for us, and you, if we continued to display the level of power we could handle before our marriage changed things," explained Darr.

"But you instigated those fights on purpose," accused Saera, suddenly understanding.

"We instigated this whole thing, the unification of darklings with pallids, the co-ed dorm rooms with claimed mates. And more importantly, you thrown in with us, serving our every sexual fantasy." He breathed out that last almost provokingly. Saera reached a hand behind her him and land a loud smack on his tight ass.

Squinting an eye up at Svennett's, Saera had to ask. "The grimoire, could I see it."

Svennett shared a look with Darr before pinning his gaze on her. "It's yours."

Saera sighed, while she had her family's historical records at the mansion, the grimoire had been sad missing limb. "It say anything about why the Shores were shunned?" She questioned again, wanting to be sure.

Svennett shook his head. "That was not listed in the book."

Saera groaned, that information was proving elusive as hell. Retrieving the grimoire had been on her wishlist of things to do once she got her magic. But it hadn't ranked the top ten. Ridding herself of the shunning had scored numero uno.

The only way to do that was to know the reason behind the shunning in the first place. The real reason. she'd pinned her hopes on the grimoire to contain that information. It was back to the drawing boards for her now. And the sparks knew she could draw a straight line for the life of her.

"I think, it's enough talking for now. How about you purty lady give us a little kissey?" Darr whispered with a fake slur, his husky tone belying his attempt at mocking humour.

"Careful, brother, " admonished Svennett, "our forays into Shore's past here found her out to be a cunning lady. One with nimble fingers when it came to getting what she wanted."

Nimble fingers, that sounded a lot classier then simply calling her out to be a thief.

"He's right to warn you," saera couldn't help agreeing. "Someone famous once said, kiss a thief, count your teeth. Now don't ask me who, I don't give recognition where it is deserved, but think about that for a second. You kind of need your blood suckling canines, don't you? We wouldn't want you to lose it." Saera made her lips into a pouty mou and made kissy kissy sounds at Darr.