Chapter 26: Bodyguards and Such

I took my time. I didn’t want to ravish her, I wanted to worship her. I kept a chokehold on my beast and treated Ellery with the veneration she deserved. I wanted her to feel every ounce of pleasure she could possibly feel.

“I was right,” I said when my power of speech returned. I knelt between her thighs admiring her and what now decorated her breasts. “It is stunning. You’re stunning.”

Ellery, for her part, seemed only capable of making incoherent noises. Her breasts heaved with every breath heightening my viewing pleasure. She trailed the fingers of her right hand through my cum, brought them to her mouth and licked them. I swear my heart stopped.

“Ellery, are you trying to kill me?” I asked in a strangled voice.

“I love the way you taste,” she sighed and repeated the process with her other hand. “How you smell, how you feel. How you make me feel.” She cupped both of her breasts with her hands. “Rub your cum into me.”

“I’ve never heard that request before,” I said as I reached for her. “Like this?”

“Mmm…just like that. Alexander?”

“Yes, Princess?”

“Let me drink it all next time.”

I bent and kissed her. “Next time needs to wait or I’m going to die from sexual exhaustion. You do realize that we’ve had sex three times since we woke up? Aren’t you sore, baby?”

“A little,” she admitted, curling beside me. “It’s just I can’t seem to get enough of you. As soon as we’re finished my body starts singing for you again.”

“Singing for me?”

“That’s the best way I can describe it. It’s more than a craving. It’s almost like a humming within my blood stream. The longer I go without touching you in some way the louder the humming gets. I think it’s a Fae thing.”

“I’m a simple creature. I look at you and get hard. I smell you, I get hard. I think about you and get hard. Unless, of course, I have just emptied myself inside or on top of you. Then it takes a little bit longer to reach that state.”

“While we wait, why don’t I answer your questions?” She curled into a comfortable position on her side.

It was my turn to be confused. “My questions? What questions?”

“The ones you asked me to make me laugh. They’re all valid.”

I leaned on my elbow as I reclined next to her. “Hell, Ellery, I don’t even remember what I said.”

“I do. To begin with, you will not need to get a face tattoo. Only the personal Fae bodyguards of the Unseelie royal family have those. “

“Well that’s a relief. I wasn’t looking forward to that.”

“Even if they wanted you to get one, it wouldn’t work. Your healing factor would eat the ink.”

“Oh, that’s good to know. Glad I never wanted one of any kind. Wait, am I going to have to have a bodyguard?” I asked, discomfited by the idea.

“Eventually you will, if Ethan hasn’t already assigned you one, that is.”

“Wow.” My brow wrinkled in thought. “I’m not sure how I feel about that.”

“You’ll get used to it. I have, like twelve or something at this point.”

“You’ve got twelve bodyguards? Isn’t that overkill?”

“I think that’s the current total? I honestly can’t keep up with all of them. But I only have that many because of school. They knew it would be suspicious to have the same individuals go everywhere with me. So what I am doing determines who will be guarding me.”

“Why the hell weren’t they there on Friday?” I was seriously irritated. Of all the times when one would have come in handy that game was it and no one was there.

“Two of them were. Billy and Lee are two of my bodyguards. And Lee’s dad and uncle are in the royal guard and they were there as well. Personally, I agree it’s a bit of overkill, considering I’m capable of defending myself.”

“I saw you when all hell broke loose at the game, so I will stick with you having bodyguards everywhere, please and thank you.”

“Do you mean when Billy shoved me into your arms to take me out of the gym?”

“Yeah, you could barely stand.”

“Billy did that to stop me from protecting you.”

“Say what?”

Ellery fidgeted with her hair. “Alexander, I want you to think about what I told you regarding what Jones and his brothers can do, and then I want you to think about what you’ve seen me do.”

“Okay. You and Ethan are both empaths, and you can regulate the emotions of others like Jones. That’s not surprising considering he’s your dad. You seem to have a knack for healing or at least helping injuries heal faster, so that’s like Fitz.”

I scrunched my face up in thought. “What did you say the other two could do?”

“Emerson has the gift of persuasion and Elliott can detect supernatural beings.”

I processed what she’d told me and nodded at her. “Okay, you can do variations of all of those things, but that doesn’t explain how you could have defended yourself or me. I was there. I saw you; I carried you out of the school.”

“And Billy pushed me into your arms so that I would stop what I was about to do.”

“What were you going to do?” My voice went quiet as my mind churned with the possibilities.

“My mother passed along her power to me. I can take the powers of anyone I want and make them mine without them realizing I’ve taken them. They don’t lose their abilities; I just mimic them and bend them to my purposes.

“When I was little, I had no control over it and copied everyone who came near me. Billy’s dad is the one who realized what I was doing when I was three and I cast a spell the way Billy does.” She cracked her neck and smiled. “I made myself a stuffed fox.”

“So that’s what you were going to do at the game?” That didn’t seem bad, all things considered. She’d probably have just stolen the coyote Shifters’ speed or something.

“No. I was losing control of my temper and myself. Billy could sense what was coming and he stopped me by putting me in your arms. Had he not done that, had you not been there….. I would have sucked the life out of everyone within a fifty foot radius.

“The minute I touched you I realized you were safe and I didn’t want you to get hurt so I shut down. It’s like a controlled fainting spell.”

I sat there stunned, staring at her for I don’t know how long until she looked away. “I’ve scared you now, haven’t I?” she muttered.

“Yeah, but I think that’s understandable don’t you?” I squeaked.

“Yes, but I don’t want you to be afraid of me or what I can do.” Ellery kept her eyes on the bed while she spoke.

“I’ve never completely sucked the life out of anything but plants before, and I’ve worked very, very hard to never let that happen again. I destroyed our rose garden which had been one of my favorite places.

“I was six and something hurt you, something dark and vile, and I panicked. I don’t remember what happened beyond standing in the garden screaming. The next thing I remember is waking up in the ruins of the rose garden and vomiting. Then I passed out again. I was unconscious for a week.”

She plucked at the sheet for a bit before continuing. “Jojo and Billy’s dad Henry were the only two who dared come near me for a month. And I smelled of roses for six months. Henry made me practice for a year after that.

“He wanted to see if I could summon it on demand or if it was an emergency response. It appears to be a final emergency response for when you’re in danger. I can control it in the sense that I can pick what I drain, if I’m not in a state of panic.”

She rubbed her face before she looked up at me. “Do you remember when you fell into Lake Inglewood?”

“When I was ten? Yeah, I remember that.”

“What do you remember?”

“My friends and I had been playing around with a football and I ran to catch a wild pass and fell off the dock.”

“Anything else?” she asked with trepidation which made me nervous. I thought about that day.

“For a bit I wasn’t sure which way was up and it felt like my foot was tangled in something, but then I was able to kick free and get to the surface.”

“You didn’t kick free. My family brought me to the lake that day so I could see you from a distance. They thought it would help me bear up against the onslaught of emotions I went through every day. Your foot didn’t get tangled in anything.

“It was a female Kelpie trying to drag you down. I dove in and drained her until she couldn’t hold onto you anymore. I don’t know what happened to her after that other than she was arrested and interrogated.

“I only know that much because Billy told me, and he only told me because I kept asking if I had killed her. I wanted to at first, because she was trying to kill you, but once she let go of you and looked at me, she was so confused and in such pain that I stopped.”

“Fucking hell.” My brain went into overdrive processing everything she just told me.

Ellery took a deep breath. “So yeah, that was…”

“Incredible,” I finished for her.

“I was going to say bad,” she countered with a wince.

“No, it was incredible. You were what, nine? And you dove into a lake to fight a Kelpie for my life? And you stopped yourself from killing her despite how furious and frightened you must have been? That’s an incredible act of bravery and self-control. There are adult Alpha Wolves who can’t control their rage like that.”

“I was livid. I spent the next year convinced that I was the only one capable of keeping you safe. Every time you got hurt or injured I had a fit. Papa started using your parents’ law firm in order to appease me. It was his way of keeping an eye on you and your family without being invasive or controlling.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “Why would your divinities pair you with me?”

“What?”

“Why would they pick someone like me? You’re like the most powerful being ever and I’m just a common fox.”

“There’s nothing common about you, Alexander.” Ellery almost sounded angry.

“Not compared to you. You’re like…an avenging angel or something.”

“No, just a very powerful Fae, one in a long line of powerful Fae. You, on the other hand, are simply remarkable.”

“I fail to see how. I’m pretty normal all things considered.”

“Shall I tell you what I see in you? You’re quick and agile with stamina to spare. You love a challenge and set personal goals even if it is only how close you can get to the bell before you get to class. You’re intelligent, curious, tenacious, and funny.

“You’ve got a strong work ethic, and can follow or lead depending on the situation. You don’t get intimidated. You don’t have an ounce of snobbery in you. You might be cocky and full of yourself at times-”

“Hey!”

“But you aren’t conceited. You’re charming and adaptable. You help me see beyond myself. I need someone with all of these qualities, Alexander. I need someone like you in my life. That you’re sex on legs is a bonus for me.”

Her last comment made me snort. “I’m sex on legs, huh?”

“You know you are.” The look she shot me was a mixture of amusement and exasperation.

“And you saved my life.”

“I did.”

I pressed my forehead to hers and breathed in her scent for a moment or two before drawing back.

“What the hell was a Kelpie doing in Lake Inglewood? It’s not nearly cold enough for them. And why would she have targeted me when there were so many people there?” I couldn’t get over it.

“Alexander. I’ve known who my Other was my whole life. Given what happened to my mother, and the fact that I’ve almost been kidnapped twice I think it’s safe to say that you were targeted because of that fact.”

That shocked me into silence, but only for a moment or two. “Right, then we’re back to where we started. Bodyguards. For me, for you, for the whole team. And self defense classes. Pepper spray and mace. Maybe you should have a taser. Maybe I should have one.”

She chuckled. “The forces that oppose us are not human. Human self defense tactics and equipment won’t do much to deter them. Only magical abilities will. Just as you’d rip the throat out of anyone who tried to hurt me, I can literally rip their life away from them should they try to hurt you. And that’s as a last resort.

“I have plenty of other things I could do before it gets to that point. I’m used to having bodyguards, so I will keep them, especially if it puts your mind at ease. But I doubt they will attempt to come for either of us in the ways they have in the past, not now that we’ve claimed each other.”

I stared at her in admiration. “I should be terrified of you, Ellery, I really should, but I’m not. And I should be terrified of whoever or whatever is trying to hurt us, but I believe you when you say that everything is going to be okay.”

This made her grin. “Shall I answer the rest of the questions?”

“Are the answers as disturbing as this last one?” I replied.

“Possibly?”

I sighed. “Let it rip then, Elly. I can take it.”