Helia dropped her head into her hands at her father's desk and sank her fingers back into her hair. How had this all happened? Pyre hadn't said anything about him being detained by the Alliance when he'd left, and from what Horus had told her, this had all been a set up by their own people to unseat her father. Where did that put her? Even if Pyre was absolved of wrongdoing, there was already dissent in the ranks and this would push any stranglers to support Blaze's lead. That left no place for Helia or Horus within the Cinders. Blaze would stop at nothing with this power grab. They'd have to go into hiding even if Rodney managed to save her father from this issue.

Thinking about Rodney brought tears to her eyes, and she shook them away. Rodney had walked to his death for her family, and Helia'd had to sort out that meaning while Horus went to the lower training room and demolished anything in sight. If the vampire-mage alliance had a death decree out on Rodney, than he was from one of the fallen houses. Horus had known, but she'd been oblivious, which made Rodney a lot stronger than she'd assumed. The man certainly wasn't a bum from society mooching off her brother.

"Helia."

Helia near jumped out of her chair to her father's voice. They had so few scouts left that no one had informed her of his return, and she jumped into his arms like a child. That lasted only a second before she leaned back to inspect her father. Rips and blood marred his mage attire, and she poked and prodded him to find him uninjured. The mages must have healed him when they'd detained him, but that didn't do much for his long, disheveled red hair that stuck to his stained garb in places. Pyre needed to clean up and get fresh clothes before the generals saw this, if they hadn't already.

Pyre couldn't look weak.

"Helia," Pyre said her name when she didn't meet his eyes, too busy crumbling under a poorly placed mask of strength. Fighting vampires, she could do without flinching, clashing with magic that tore her flesh, sure why not, but watching her family fall apart from the inside out wasn't something they'd trained her for.

"I can't," Helia said, biting her lip as she stared at the anti-magic tiles below his desk. "Can you just put yourself together and let me try and compartmentalize."

Pyre's sigh seemed sad rather than disappointed in her lack of poise, which almost had her tipping to tears. Not now. Not now.

"All right. Where is your brother?" Pyre asked, tugging again at her heartstrings.

"You don't want to bother him now," was all Heia could manage to say to his feet.

"I know. I saw Rodney at the complex. Where is he?"

"The training rooms." Helia gave Horus up just so that she herself could escape. Pyre seemed to understand and shuffled around her to sit in his desk. Drawers opened, papers fluttered, and Helia knew her father was getting his affairs in order before the rest of their house asked him to step down. With any foresight, they'd be gone before then. "I need some time to myself." It seemed wrong to just walk off and leave him there when she knew what sort of night he'd suffered.

"Go, Helia." Pyre's voice was commanding as it was soft, a feat only he could manage, and she headed out of the office with quick desperate steps.

It took all the self-control she had not to slam the door to her room, but Stone lying on the bed like a corpse helped. The sun had yet to set, but he'd been out for hours. If he'd woken, he would have planted himself in her personal space, and she dropped to her knees by the bed again. This was the last time he was going anywhere with her brother. Pyre could eat his tongue and deal with him around. If it meant Stone would live, she'd handle her father's ire.

Helia lifted one of the towels she'd stuck against the deepest cut on Stone's side to check on it, and she dropped it to the ground with a gasp of relief as the skin had closed. A dozen towels piled on the floor as she removed them from various holes in his mage top and found him healed. There had been so many injuries, she hadn't been sure if he'd live the day out, but something must have healed them. Ghost wasn't around to give her a vile of his blood, but maybe that small connection had been enough to keep him alive.

Placing her hand against Stone's face, she did her regular check, waiting for it to warm to prove he was still alive. The contact had Stone's mouth snapping open, and his eyes followed and focused on her so quickly that she jumped. She smiled, but it faltered as Stone pinched his lips and moved his jaw before sticking his tongue out.

"Rodney did not listen to me again," Stone said, pulling half of himself up on a hand.

It dropped the blankets back, and had Helia face to face with half his chest below the missing buttons of his ripped mage attire, but her eyes were anywhere but on his abs. Stone lifted his face, she slid her hands up the side of it into his hair, and yanked him down to her lips. A protest died on Stone's lips because when he opened his mouth, she darted her tongue in to shut up anything he was going to say.

Being a leader among the Cinder grand mages required her to have a certain distance from everyone, Stone included, but that was crumbling. The last thing she wanted was her reservation to hold her back from what she felt inside. Everything was falling apart around her, and she needed Stone to ground her in this mess.

Even with no memory of himself, Stone constantly put himself in danger or endured horrible situations just for her and Horus. The original reason she'd called him from the void didn't even matter when she weighed it against him getting hurt or killed. Every time they separated, he came back to her worse than before, and she wasn't wasting another moment of hesitation.

Stone's lips trembled under hers but only for a moment before he ran an entirely too gentle hand across her chin and returned her affection. The delicate press of lips didn't satisfy her, and she climbed onto the bed to straddle him with her knees, all the while tangling his tongue with hers until he started to fight his way back into her mouth.

"Helia," Stone gasped when she leaned back just enough to pull the strings on her mage cloak and drop it to the side. Before he could voice another objection, she shoved him down on his back and split the rest of his shirt open like a starving person unwrapping a sub. That's what Stone was, delicious, tanned, man meat wrapped in deceptive mage clothing.

Helia pressed her warm hand to the center of Stone's bare pectoral muscles, and a hiss gave her pause as he propped himself on his elbows. Stone's grey eyes met hers with an emotion she hadn't seen since the first time he'd touched her—a hunger for her that went beyond physical. All of the time, he hovered in her space but kept that distance between them, and Helia wanted it gone.

Still, he hesitated.

"Are void emissaries not allowed to have sex?" Helia prodded as she drew shapes on his smooth chest with a finger. Stone's head fell back, and he panted as she ran warmth through the lines of his muscles before scaling he ridges of his abs to pull on the edge of his pants.

"I'm not sure they have a handbook of rules and regulations," Stone said, but the words ended in him biting his lips and closing his eyes as she unbuttoned his pants. "Your father is mere rooms away, Helia," Stone cautioned, his focus drifting to no doubt sense Pyre's magic and heartbeat.

"We'll just have to be fast and quiet," Helia said, ignoring his objection as she undid the laces of her inner mage wear. It popped open like a strained corset, snapping the thicker protective material to the side and baring her white lace bra below.

"Standard grand mage attire, I'm sure." Stone's chuckle had her covering her chest self-consciously as he crawled his eyes all over the frivolous lingerie.

So maybe she'd played around with dressing in fancy undergarments after Stone has laid his deft and desirous hands on her last time. With all his prodding, pandering, and alluding to how pleasurable she'd be with him, she'd wanted to be ready when he finally stripped her. Or she stripped him, she guessed. Stone wasn't much for first moves.

"Helia, you needn't cover yourself," Stone spoke softly, brushing her arms away, and she dropped them to lean more on his chest, tickling his skin with her long curls. "You are breathtaking with or without such accoutrements." Stone paused and licked his lips as his gaze ran the rise and fall of her breasts before capturing her eyes. So much desire poured from him as a smirk climbed his face to show his fangs on one side. "Say they were for me."

Helia's mind blanked until she understood the unasked question. The lingerie. "Of course, they're for you. I'm not even remotely interested in anyone else," Helia sputtered with a blush.

Stone inhaled her with a long breath, and a low growl as he cupped her breast in his hand, gently gripping to feel their softness under his fingers. The touch had her nipples stiffening to draw attention to themselves, and Stone rolled his fingers over the yearning nubs as they stretched the thin wisps of lace.

"I truly wish you would pursue me outside of the mage complex if you want me like this, Helia."

Her name came from his lips in a breath of desire, echoed as his thumb pressed into her nipple with intent. It rolled along the edges, urging it harder and higher before he pressed down with a firm squeeze of her breasts that had her face falling on his shoulder from above.

"Somewhere we'd have time and space to truly explore our desires. This won't be enough for me." Stone rolled her nipple between two fingers before he pinched with just enough pressure to push a whine of desire out that she failed to stifle. "Shhh," Stone put a finger to her lips, and before she knew it she was on her back. "If all we have is this fleeting moment, I will not waste it, Helia Cinder."

Pressure hit her core so abruptly that she cried out and nearly suffocated as Stone muffled it with a hand covering her mouth. It reduced to a moan as Stone rolled his knee against the softest place between her legs, pressing and receding until she couldn't take any more. A whimper escaped her as he removed his knee and spread her legs to fit his body between.

"Stone," Helia whispered against his hand, and he removed it to lower his face to hers.

"Yes, love?" That single word was wrought with such reverence that Helia's heart melted right there.

Since they'd met, Stone had used nothing but the full name scrawled on her driver's license, like he was taking her to court for a ticket. The departure from the wall of formalities that divided them had her desperate to peel off more layers. So much stress and uncertainty clouded her mind, and she wanted Stone to wash it all away with his presence. Helia needed him now, on her, in her, all over her with that damn adoration and lust.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Word Count: 1998