Chapter Four

 

 

 

Noemi really hated disturbing him, the poor man had literally fallen asleep on his feet. He was leaning against a wall and visibly jerked at the sound of her voice. “Orion? Mr. Hunter?”

The eyes that fluttered open were impossibly blue, deep and haunted. Odd, normally white men with blue eyes didn’t seem mysterious to her. But he was. And his love for the other man was painfully obvious. It made her aware of the little hollow spot in her chest where a heart should live. Not the beating muscle, but the warmth of love for others.

It had been many years since Noemi had felt love for another. She’d been too busy surviving. First it had been the death of her mother, then medical school.

And then other things.

A slight twist of guilt ran through her. The reservation wasn’t considered federal lands, but her ethics as a doctor still demanded that she obey the wishes of the patient, even if their wishes put them at further risk. In her opinion, her patient wasn’t in the proper frame of mind to make medical decisions for himself, and legally, his lover didn’t have the right to sign off on a procedure.

“Mr. Hunter…let’s sit down.” She led him to a lounge with a little round table. It was actually for staff use, but she didn’t want to bother taking him back out to the waiting room.

He sat, his face heavy with exhaustion and fear. God, but he was a gorgeous man. Even with shadowed eyes and a weary face, he was as near perfection as could be. His oval face was sculpted, with high cheekbones and a strong jaw balancing each other. His nose was straight and strong. He probably had the most beautifully kissable lips she’d ever seen on a man.

She blinked, shocked at the arousal rising in her belly, ashamed that she was lusting for this man who was already so clearly in love. He looked steadily at her, waiting for her to speak.

“I’ve stitched up the cuts that needed attention and did butterfly bandages on others. I’ve also strapped his ribs. He’ll need to keep his arm in a sling… Maybe six to eight weeks for the rib and the collarbone.”

He blinked and she realized that he was also in shock. Now Noemi began to worry in earnest. How would this man manage the drive to a motel? The nearest she was aware of was at least twenty miles away, if they were even open.

“Mr. Hunter…”

“Rion. Call me Rion.”

“Rion, he really should have a surgeon look at that leg. I understand his objections, so I’ve agreed to set it, but it’s going to be incredibly painful.”

Rion turned his head toward the exam rooms. His profile was straight and classical. His dark-red hair was pulled back in a thick braid that dropped just past his shoulders. When he looked at her, she blinked in surprise.

“What are you asking?”

“He passed out. I’m asking your permission to put him on an IV and get him sedated before I try to set the leg. He’s broken both the tibia and the fibula.”

“You bullied him into an X-ray that he didn’t want. Now you want me to give you permission to do something else he’s refused?” He lifted an elegant, arched eyebrow. Noemi flushed with embarrassment.

“He’s in shock. Shock can kill, Rion. I just want to support his health the best I can. I do respect his beliefs—”

“Do you?” Rion stood, and though she was fairly tall, he towered over her. “If he’s unconscious, let’s get the leg set. When he wakes up, ask him again about the IV. If you explain what’s in it, he’ll probably accept it. But don’t try to talk me into taking his choice from him.”

Noemi felt fatigue flow over her. It was early to be so tired, but she hadn’t adapted well to sleeping during the day. And now she was wrestling with an uncooperative patient, his obstinate lover and her always difficult nurse all at the same time. She reached up and fingered the pendant she wore on a leather loop around her neck. Even under the nubby fabric of her shirt, it brought a familiar sense of comfort and safety.

This night felt off. Strange.

“Can I come in while you do it? He might want me there afterward.”

Good, the man wasn’t afraid to witness pain. She nodded and led the way out of the door to the small room where they did minor surgical procedures. Cynthia had cleaned up the mess left from cleaning and suturing the man. Noemi stood next to him, briefly checking his pulse.

He appeared to be sleeping but she wasn’t sure.

“Mr. Clark? Rex?”

Impossibly thick, dark lashes fluttered open. She glanced up at the other man and noted he was similarly blessed.

Why was it that men always had the best hair and lashes? Well, they had male pattern baldness too, so she shouldn’t complain.

“I’m going to set your leg. Before I begin, I want to ask again if you’ll take something for pain.”

“No. Thanks.” His dehydration had her nearly as concerned as the leg.

“An IV? Saline only, for the dehydration. No medicine.”

“It’s just fluid, Rex. Nothing else.”

She watched as their gazes locked. So much communication there. The patient looked at her.

“Okay. Just saline.”

She didn’t bother to call the nurse. Noemi expertly inserted the needle into his arm, starting the life-giving hydration. Okay. One more hurdle out of the way. Cynthia would be pissed, but frankly, she was a bit rough with needles in general. Noemi would rather do it herself.

Briefly, she explained the procedure and the risks, and called Cynthia join her. “I won’t put a plaster cast on right now. There’s a risk of swelling, so we’ll use a boot instead.”

Eventually there was no more busy work, no more prep. Rion Hunter stood at the patient’s head while Cynthia stood ready to help. Noemi took a few deep breaths and touched the patient’s hot, swollen leg.

She worked in silence and, for the most part, Rex tolerated the pain quite well as she manipulated the bones into position. Now that his face was clean, she saw his skin was tanned, though he’d gone sickly pale. His bruises and injuries stood out in stark contrast. His companion was white as a sheet.

Finally she finished, but continued manipulating his leg. She kept one hand steady under his muscled calf, calling up every reserve of energy she had.

Normally, Noemi would never use healing on a patient in front of others, but Cynthia had left the room and the redhead was focused on his lover. She didn’t dare channel all of her energy to the injury, just enough to assure herself that the nerves and vessels were cleanly joined.

At the moment, it was the best she could do.

“My leg burns.” Rex loosened his good hand, reaching down toward his leg.

“I’m sure it’s just the circulation returning. The pain will let up soon.” She turned and found Cynthia waiting with the splint, a speculative expression on her face. Had she seen? Noemi set that concern aside as they began bracing his leg.

“Not bad burning, not really. It’s just odd.”

She didn’t look up at him. He really shouldn’t have felt anything, they never did. From the corner of her eye, she saw Rion watching her. He was astute. He came off as naïve, but Noemi was uncomfortably aware that he saw far too much. Had they noticed her funneling energy into Rex’s wounded leg?

Once they were finished, she and Cynthia easily transferred him from the gurney to the bed in the other exam room.

“When can I take him home?” Rion hovered anxiously, his attention divided between the doctor and Rex.

Noemi glanced at a clock. “It’s pretty late. I’d like him to stay overnight and then check him again before you leave.”

He nodded, looking around for a chair. Oddly, it was the nurse who took pity. Cynthia was usually slightly hostile to men in general, white men in particular. Noemi had experienced her own share of trouble with men, but she didn’t carry a chip on her shoulder like Cynthia did.

“There’s a cot in the break room. I’ll bring it in if you’d like.”

Rion started to protest but the nurse was out of the room, quickly returning with the folding cot. She set it up and turned to the supply closet, pulling out a pillow and blankets. “Here’s an extra in case he gets cold.”

“Thank you.” Rion’s voice was soft and harsh and melodic at the same time. Noemi wondered if he’d had an injury to his vocal cords. He ignored the cot and pulled a chair close to the bed, reaching up to grip Rex’s hand. The patient was again seemingly unconscious.

“Did he tell you what happened?” Noemi paused by the door, looking back at the two men. Her throat felt tight and her chest ached. Watching them made her feel lonely. As Noemi had spent most of her life on her own, loneliness had become a comfortable companion. This feeling was not so comfortable.

“Car wreck. And then some people stopped. They pretended they were going to help him, and then jumped him instead. I found him down the embankment of Highway 7, nearly to the river.”

She winced. Those canyon walls were brutal. He was lucky he’d survived the fall.

“What caused the wreck?”

“He probably swerved for a rabbit or something.”

“Fox.” Rex’s voice was harsh and sleepy. “He kept me company till you came.”

Noemi smiled as she left. He’d swerved for a fox. You never knew who that fox or coyote might really be…a shifter or a trickster, or maybe just a fox. You never knew. She shook her head and closed the office door behind her. She’d make a call to the sheriff to report the accident and the attack, then try to catch a nap before her late-night patients started.

 

* * * *

 

Rion lay on the cot, looking up at Rex, and oddly enough, down at himself. He was clearly not awake, but even for a dream, this seemed strange.

He looked at himself in detail, seeing the long, muscular body with a subjectivity that did not belong to him. At the same time, he watched Rex’s still form, his limp hand lay over the side of the bed, the slender fingers still blood-stained. As soon as he got Rex home, he’d give him a sponge bath.

When he saw himself again, Rion knew what was off about this dream. He was seeing himself through the eyes of another. He wanted to be angry, to curse her and run. That was always his reaction to the succubus. But he owed her this time. A debt he’d never be able to pay.

“Thank you. Thank you for finding him.” That statement cost him a great deal. His pride stung and fear still tinged his perception of the succubus. Anahita. He remembered who she was now, she was the Fallen who’d truly fallen, and locked herself into an icy grave to save others from her dangerous needs.

For all these years, no one had known the true fate of Anahita.

“That night all those years ago, when you first attacked us… You were breaking free, weren’t you?”

Before his eyes, she began to take a red, shadowy form, just as she had all those decades before. She didn’t have features, but somehow, she seemed to look at Rex with longing.

“I was called forth… By a demon. He took my place in the ice.”

“You killed him?”

“No…I don’t take life…” The form turned to him once again. “I was saved.”

“You were saved once before, when you first fell.”

She didn’t answer, but Rion felt the heat of her anger. Literally. It crawled up his arms and face like an invisible flame.

“I have no words for how he used me.” And the story became vivid in Rion’s mind. The fragile, confused angel had been poorly treated by her rescuer. He’d ignored her when it had suited him. His words and actions had been harsh and cold. Dyffyd had left her behind when he’d gone to harvest the dead from the world’s battlefields.

Alone and unprotected, she’d fallen victim to the rapacious attentions of the men who’d inhabited the medieval landscape in which she’d dwelt. Rather than take Anahita to the Other Place where his people resided, Dyffyd had left the broken angel alone on a tiny, poorly provisioned farm while he was gone. Instead of seeking magical assistance from his people, he’d dealt with her wings by keeping their stumps burned to prevent them from growing back.

No wonder she’d become succubus.

“I was reborn to another protector.”

“You are still truly Fallen, Anahita. You embraced evil by choosing to become demon- kind.”

“The choice was not mine, Kokabiel. I have never embraced evil.”

Her attention was now fully on him. The heat that engulfed his body was no longer anger, but something else entirely. Something he rejected, and yet embraced. It had been years since he’d felt her touch, and like an addict, the moment of submission to the drug was the sweetest pain imaginable. He didn’t want to want her, but he did, with a fiery need that rivaled any sensation he’d ever experienced. It was a need he’d fought all these years, even when he woke at night to find Rex deeply in the grip of her embrace. He hated that he felt this way.

“You’ve missed me,” she whispered. He closed his eyes, his chest rising rapidly. “Open your pants, Kokabiel.”

“Rion. My name is Rion.”

Even as he denied her, his fingers followed her bidding. They trembled as he fumbled over the buttons, but soon he lay naked beneath her touch. He knew she had no physical substance, yet he luxuriated in the familiar drag of her fingers on his belly, the sweep of her tongue across his achingly tight balls. He closed his eyes, feeling tears trickle from the corners, running down his cheeks to pool in his ears.

Why? Why did he crave her so much? Why did he welcome her, even as his mind sought escape? The beating of his heart signaled his mounting arousal, but something else as well. Panic. His lungs pumped, his belly and chest heaved as though he’d been running. It was his conditioned response to her.

Her mouth melted over his cock, finding places that he didn’t even know existed. She tested the weight of his balls, a shadowy finger rimmed his ass.

“He fucks you here.” He gasped at the sensation. “I should be angry, jealous. But I’m not. I wouldn’t know which to be jealous of.” Her kisses ran up his inner thigh. Her hands stroked his flanks, then the wet heat that pressed over his shaft was no longer her mouth.

He sought a grip on smoke. She was over him, fucking him, but he felt only air in his clasp. She rose and lowered herself, and his hips bucked to meet her. Phantom hands stroked his skin, the whisper of kisses on his lips.

“You have missed me.”

“Yes.” The admission was painful. She was fucking him, extracting confessions of his need while Rex lay unconscious just feet away.

“Don’t feel bad, Rion. This is for him.”

He remembered that sensation of longing he’d sensed from her.

“Do you love him?” he asked.

Their hips churned together and she did not answer. Rion gripped the side of the cot, and in his mind he saw her above him, her delicate, beautiful face twisted with unmet need. Because truth was truth. She was a succubus, a phantom who drained the sexual energy from men. Her physical needs would never be satisfied.

“Do you love him, Anahita?”

She didn’t answer. She drove him into a harder pace, and all of Rion’s focus shifted to the fiery-hot grip on his cock. It had all changed again. He was being pumped in a vise-like hand, heat and pleasure coiling into his ass. His balls went tight and his back bowed. White-hot streams of his semen spewed onto the bare skin of his belly.

It didn’t stop there. As before, she coaxed him on, long past the point of satisfaction. Another climax roared through his body and his hips pumped and thrust into her ephemeral grip. Rion shuddered, dragging his gaze to look up at where the shadowy form hovered over his body. He was limp, drained from the two powerful orgasms.

As he watched, she drifted closer to Rex. “Please… No, Anahita…he’s not strong enough.”

He felt the sensation of her tolerant amusement, which was surprisingly reassuring. Rion lay back and watched in wonder as the succubus suddenly became luminescent. The light from her form grew and intensified, and gently rained down on Rex like a shower of rainbow-colored energy. The beauty of it took his breath.

“You can take, but you can feed others as well.”

“One does not need to be perfect to be…beneficial. That is nature’s law.”

Slowly, the light display came to a gentle end. Rion rose weakly on the cot, trying to see his partner in the dim light of the exam room.

“Let him sleep, Kokobiel. He’ll grow stronger with rest.”

Rion reached for Rex’s hand, feeling it warm and alive in his own. The form of the succubus began to dissipate.

“Anahita…”

Lips brushed against his. “Sleep, angel. He will survive this night.” She floated like mist to the top of the room. “I’ve missed you too, Kokabiel.”

The loneliness in her voice squeezed his heart. “Thank you, Anahita.” There was no answer. “Thank you.”