– K Á R A –

I had countless opportunities to hold Tayah in my arms while we slept in the past. But last night's was especially memorable. The kind that scorched into your mind so that you could draw back on it again and again. Even before when I had tried to keep myself from getting attached. When we had acted out our desires on that horrific boat journey... I took longer than I should have to leave that bed in the morning before her breathing became lighter and she woke.

Presently I couldn't see myself ever letting her go. Seeing her chained to that dark wall before those mortals–the first thing that gripped my heart was cold. That I had somehow been too late, that I had lost her down there entirely. 

I'm not sure what my actions would result in if that had happened. I tried not to think on it but I somehow pictured myself doing something far worse than Anselle ever has. My fingers subconsciously tightened around her and I felt her sigh beneath my chin. A light smile touched my lips as I traced the strands of her dark brown hair down her face with my eyes.

She had always looked so innocent in dreams. I could practically see the woman she would have become had it not been for the horrors in her beginning. Young farmer's girl with the stern and stubborn nature who found the tales of the Valkyrie so impossible yet wonderful. She would have likely gone onto the King's army and respectable royal guard in no time.

She mumbled something in her sleep into my skin and pushed her arm further into the sheets. I pulled them higher over her exposed back before continuing to watch the morning sunlight play on her skin.

Perhaps she would have found someone with less death in their path to have a life with. My thoughts flashed back to that Lara Rensbrooke mortal and I smirked ahead.

Something else told me that reality would never play out. That there was a fire in her born long before the mercenaries had burned it hotter. Staying in one place and not moving forward were two things Tayah Ashrive's nature went against. One of the many reasons I loved her so.

"What are you giggling at." She mumbled into my neck without bothering to open her eyes.

"Nothing. Sleep." I ordered her.

She opened one eye and smiled. "Now you have my attention. Was it something naughty?"

I sighed and pushed some hair out of her face before answering. "It was about the past. Yours in particular."

"I guess it is laughable at the best of times." She agreed, closing her eyes again.

This made me smile and flick her on the nose. She scowled before seeing my own smile and returning it with a kiss. But she didn't linger on it.

"Tell me then."

"I thought of what your life would have been as a farmer's daughter... or a king's guard." I admitted, hoping her reaction didn't linger on the darker parts of that past.

She took it well of course. Propping up on her elbow and leaving her other arm draped across my stomach under the sheets. "Well, I certainly wouldn't have the two kids and chickens to look after as I can see where your imagination went."

I snorted and she took on a devilish look. "Farmer or not I am quite demanding of my life and this sense of humour wouldn't be going anywhere."

"The world would truly suffer without it." I answered dryly, earning a slap on the arm. My eyes burned brighter in response and she rolled her eyes.

"I wouldn't want it anyway." She finished, taking me off guard. "I was running on borrowed time as a mortal. Not only do I get a lot longer now, I also get stuck with you. It's just a shame that you get that face for eternity–"

I pushed her off me and slapped a pillow over her face without hesitation. It made a satisfying poof  along with her protest under the feathers.

"When are you ever going to learn that insulting me never goes your way like it does with your mortals?" I responded, tucking my hands behind my head and looking at the ceiling. 

She sat up, puffing out pieces of dow and hair. When she tried another comment it seemed to die on her lips and I tore my eyes towards her in question. She seemed to be staring at my uncovered body entirely at ease and losing every part of her brain in the process.

"You were saying, Tayah?" I murmured with a slow smirk.

"That your–probably completely right–I totally agree." She got out and met my eyes innocently.

I drew up and leant back on my elbows, continuing to watch her with a challenging look. "So what exactly did I say to you just now?"

Her eyes raked over me again, darkening and losing a battle inside her head. "Something–insult–Tayah, I love you." She finished uncommitted and drawing up to grab my jaw. I laughed as she kissed me intently and we fell back into the pillows.

"Why are you–still such a mortal?"

"Because–you look like–a god." She groaned into my lips.

I pulled her face away enjoying the complaint on her features. She looked far closer to Athena to me with beauty even before immortality. "Seconds ago you were saying how I was stuck with this face–"

"Do they not have sarcasm in eternity?" She demanded, trying and failing to steal my mouth again. I was having too much fun toying with her anyway.

"No but they have patience." I told her with a dark look.

"That sounds great. You exercise that while I go ahead and don't." She finished, pinning both of my arms with immortal strength and meeting my eyes a few inches away. "Before I make you." She whispered, making shivers break out from my skin.

The patience ended pretty quickly after that.

Her lips were invading every inch of my skin and I returned it at every possible moment. Her breathing matched my own and our desire was not something easily contained after so long apart like this.

The feel of her hands running over my hips, my stomach and then my chest was making my mind feel hot and my body like a living torch. I grazed my teeth along her neck and bit down a bit too hard when her fingertips brushed the peaks of my breasts. 

She sucked in a breath but didn't protest when I drew back and saw a mark forming already. I didn't have time to give it more thought because her lips were finding my own and her tongue was running a line over my lower one.

"I thought that felt a little different." She said breathlessly, licking her tongue across the corner of her lip. No doubt tasting a faint drop of blood.

I returned it with a dark look. "No harm done, trust me immortal." 

"Maybe I should return the favour." She whispered, dropping her face down.

"I'm not stopping you–"

The words died and her body met mine in burning perfection. Our legs tangled and her hands now moved through my hair. When I felt her nails drag through it a groan left me. She smiled into our kiss and trailed her lips down my neck. They didn't stop until they reached my chest and she started torturing me with her tongue.

My breathing was more than ragged. "If you–bite me as hard–there–you'll regret it." I got out.

I felt her grin against me and she only continued to run her tongue along my skin and over the peaks of my chest. When her teeth started grazing against it I moved my hands from her waist and raked them down her back making her shudder against me.

"You sure you're–the patient one?" She asked with a dark smirk.

I rolled her faster than she anticipated until she was below me. I then ran my hands down her stomach until her smirk disappeared. My hands trailed the inside of her thighs and her breath seemed to struggle all together. 

I was now the one smiling and I was not going to make anything easy for her now. She seized my lips under me when my hands started teasing her. Moving her body impossibly closer to me to try and get exactly what–

"You know I think I'll bite–you somewhere else if–those hands keep doing that."

"Doing what?" I murmured innocently, trailing lines of fire even closer to the most sensitive part of her. She dragged in a breath through her teeth when they taunted even nearer. 

I kissed her deeply and she threaded her fingers through my hair again. Her soft moans made my own body heat and I finally moved my hand against her.

Our bodies grew relentlessly hot and I wouldn't have noticed if her power was burning the whole room down. Neither one of us could have cared less. Every time we touched each other we seemed to unlock a new level of desire. Of pure need for the feel of our skin, the taste of our lips and every breath that rushed in and out.

In the next few hours we stole for ourselves I couldn't even remember the others waiting outside this room or even why I was on the mortal realm. I was wrapped in a realm that tasted and smelled of the woman I endlessly loved. The rest didn't even matter.

* * * * *

I left the bed silently. Her breathing had evened out and I knew she slept... Tayah would need the rest now that my immortality had left her.

I drew my furs over my shoulders and grimaced slightly at the smell of wine on them. But that was for another time. I took my armour without a sound and slipped the damandium weapons back in place on my back and hips. I did however leave a dagger the length of my forearm in its black sheath for her.

I briskly pulled out a strip of parchment and began to write. When the note was complete I left it on top of the blade and strode on silent steps to the door. When it shut behind me I exhaled. Then started moving quickly.

I crossed the plush hallways of the centrally located inn and was down the stairs before the maid could even glance up from her cleaning. I dumped a small pouch of silver on the front desk while the man read a thick book and nodded disinterestedly. That would cover another week if needed.

When I hit the cold air of winter on the cobbled streets I inhaled and set off in the direction of the last hideout of killers. The sun was low even for midday. But each step was burned into my memory. Carrying Tayah away from that place had been the only thing I could process last night. But now I could think on much more... I would find each and every one of them and create a pain that no mortal could–

"You're slapping that nail like a whore's arse! Give me that!" A heavily armoured royal guard yelled across the main market square. I wouldn't have given a second thought but the sigils that far from the king's own castle only meant another annoyance.

These were the same buffoons the Three Lions had once stolen from. Countless gold pieces and they had not been identified. Until now.

Even from across the courtyard I could make out the poster and crude black inked picture below it. An offering of one hundred gold pieces for the capture or killing of The Three Lions. I blew out a heavy breath through my nose before slipping into the shadow of an alley and scaling the house. I danced over rooftops to get closer to the guard.

I scanned their faces quickly not recognising one. It was rare they left them exposed under the scrutiny of that insufferable Captain–

"It's a fookin' poster not your wife's knockers!" The other guard snickered before getting a punch to the chest plate. It clanked loudly before the two creatures burst into cackles.

"Let's ditch the last lot of these and tell Captain they're up. I'd rather be scratching ma balls in the Grey Fox with an ale." The shaven headed guard with the sword on his hip grunted as he pulled the leather satchel off his shoulder with the posters.

They sauntered off down a secluded alleyway. Any residents quickly moved from their path or changed direction altogether. They were so rarely away from the King's home so it was not a surprise.

They dumped the rest of the posters in a heap under a broken wagon. When they finally turned heel and went in the direction of some unsavoury tavern I dropped from the roof and landed in a crouch.

I pulled a posted from the pile and analysed it properly.

W A N T E D 

For acts of murder, high treason, theft from the crown, horse theft, weaponry theft, boat theft–gods could the mortals not just leave it at theft–assassination, illegal trade and battery. 

By order of the King, THE THREE LIONS have been sentenced to death. Any caught harbouring or assisting those above will be strung before the King.

Those responsible for their kill or capture will be rewarded with
ONE HUNDRED GOLD PIECES

I couldn't help but smirk at the artist's exaggerated impression of John and Kaden. The grossly squared jaws and hardened eyes with matching glares that neither man ever wore. But it was the entirely hideous drawing of Tayah's beauty that left me biting down hard on my tongue.

This was not the time for jest but gods mortals really did push the boundaries.

The King may not know the faces of these three but the members of the city damn well did. It would only be a matter of time before the Captain herself started kicking down doors.

I sighed and turned my face to the dark clouds above. They never made it gods damned easy. Every private and paid killer in the city would be after a prize like that. Not to mention every guard under the King's command. I slipped the poster into my cloak and incinerated the rest with a glowing hand.

When I scaled the building again and sat on the rooftop I weighed my options.

The bell tower clock rang in the distance as I sat with my arms resting on my knees and my hood drawn low. I had to see that immortal Anselle dead–this was a priority. But there wasn't a chance in hell I wouldn't be at Tayah's side while every mortal with a blade went after the three of them. It complicated matters but it was not impossible.

We had four Valkyries in Vayleron. A record in its own right. If Tayah and I stayed together to look after the other two mortal buffoons, Revna and Astrid could then go forth with my relic to put an end to the rogue immortal. We could be done with this task and back in the immortal realm in no time. I just had to make sure no one dies.

This was all still possible.

I stood from my position and ran across the tiles once more. It was time to get The Three Lions back together in one place–however suicidal it would make me–I thought with no small irony.