“We cannot defeat the darkness entirely,” Kaliq said. “There must always be a balance between the light and the dark, Lara.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Because there has always been a balance,” he replied.

“That is not an answer, my lord. Would not a world without avarice and cruelty be good? A world whose inhabitants actually cared for each other rather than were jealous of one another, and sought to do harm to each other.”

“Mortals have not yet reached that strata, nor have those of us in the magic kingdoms, though we are much further along,” Kaliq said. “If there were no temptations, no reasons for striving or improvement, what would be the point of it all, Lara? Even the magical kingdoms must have a balance of dark and light.”

“Are you saying we shouldn’t prevent Kolgrim from siring a son?” she asked him.

“Your son has kept the peace for more than a century, Lara, and yet do you see an improvement in either Hetar or Terah?” Kaliq queried cleverly. “Have the mortals inhabiting those kingdoms grown kinder or more thoughtful of each other?”

Lara shook her head in the negative. “I despair,” she said.

He laughed, wrapping an arm about her. “You are too serious, my love,” Kaliq told her, and then he pulled her close, his mouth taking hers in a soft and sensuous kiss. He smiled against her lips as his kiss drew the tension from her body, and with a sigh she relaxed against him. Pressing her back against the colorful pillows the Shadow Prince undid the row of tiny pearl buttons that held her caftan closed. His lips wandered down her slender pale throat to bury themselves in the valley between her breasts. His tongue plunged between the twin orbs, licking slowly as he inhaled the fragrance of freesia, which she now favored. He adored her. He always had.

Lara actually purred with delight as he began to make love to her. She had not been with him in several months, and she could not now remember why that was. Reaching out, she caressed his neck with her fingers, encouraging his rising passions. She had loved other men in her lifetime both physically and emotionally, but none was like the great Shadow Prince. Kaliq’s love for her was pure, and burned with an unquenchable fire as did her love for him.

He lifted his head, and his clear bright blue eyes starred into her green ones. “I could be with you like this forever and a day,” Kaliq told her.

Lara smiled. “I wish it also, but it seems we have mortals to look after, and the darkness is seeking to escape the bounds of Kol’s kingdom.”

“There is time,” he told her, smiling back.

“No, there isn’t,” she said. Then adding, “Well, perhaps a little time. Cadi?”

“Is quite busy grooming Dasras, and afterward will fall asleep by the waterfall, my love,” Kaliq murmured as his dark head bent to find the tempting nipple he wished to nuzzle and savor. He began to suckle upon her, and as he did Lara realized that they were both quite naked for he had divested them of their garments. She stretched herself to her full length beneath him. The tug of his lips on her nipple was translating itself into a ripple of excitement that spread down her torso, culminating in a tingling deep between her nether lips. His teeth nipped at the very sensitive tip of the nipple, and Lara shuddered with relish, anticipating more delights to come.

A hand kneaded her other breast strongly, pinching its nipple hard, and she squirmed slightly beneath him as the action sent a jolt of enjoyment through her. Her fingers insinuated themselves into the thick dark thatch of his black hair, digging into his scalp. His mouth found hers again, kissing her deeply, their tongues fencing with one another until she sucked hard on the fleshy organ. Pulling away, he began to trail a path of kisses down her torso while her fingers traced a delicate pattern across the warm flesh of his smooth back with gentle nails.

He shivered when her finger sensuously stroked the dimple that lay above the crease separating his buttocks. His tongue encircled her navel, dipping into it briefly. Then Kaliq’s dark head moved lower, positioning itself between her milky-white thighs. His tongue ran slowly again and again along the shadowed slash between her plump nether lips. She hissed softly when it poked between the soft flesh, now glistening with new moisture, to find the tempting nucleus of her sex. Slowly he encircled it, then his tongue flicked it back and forth until she was squirming with her excitement. He held her hips in an iron grip until she was whimpering with her need for him.

Raising his head he knelt between her legs. Taking his massive love rod in his hand he ran up and down her wet slit, pushing it between the flesh to touch her already-quivering and swollen love bud. He pressed the tip of his cock against it hard, watching the fierce desire filling her beautiful face. Beg! he commanded her in the silent magic language. You have kept me waiting for months, my faerie witch. I have a need to punish you for it, Lara, my love.

You might have eased your lust on another, she told him.

Never! he swore to her. From the moment I pledged myself to you, I have not given any part of myself to another. There is no pleasure without you, my darling faerie wife, he declared passionately.

She was surprised. Nay, she was astounded by his use of the word wife. Aye, they had pledged themselves to each other a century ago, but Shadow Princes rarely gave the title of wife to a lover. “Oh, Kaliq!” she exclaimed aloud to him. “Yes! Yes! Love me, my dearest lord, my magical husband and mate! Love me!”

He withdrew his cock from her flesh replacing it with his lips, sucking hard on the swollen bud until she cried out. When she did, he mounted her and drove himself deep into the wet heat of her tight sheath. He groaned with delight, and her cries told him all he needed to know. He thrust deep and hard until Lara was screaming softly, the tears slipping down her face as he gave her the intense pleasure that only Kaliq could offer.

They clung to each other, their fierce need rising, rising with each wild thrust of his mighty cock. Neither of them, it seemed, could quite get enough of the other. But slowly, slowly, their passions came to a sharp peak. Lara cried out as she reached the culmination of her desire. The world erupted before her eyes. She shuddered so hard she wondered that she did not explode. And Kaliq cried her name aloud as his juices burst forth to flood her hidden garden. “Lara! Lara, my love!” Then the pleasures receded slowly, leaving them both weak, their skin damp with their exertions, but content beyond all measure.

They slept for an hour, and when they awakened, stretching lazily, the ebony table which they had somehow in their hungry lust managed not to tip over, filled itself with a beautiful meal. Upon it were icy-cold raw oysters, a juicy capon that sliced itself at their command, fresh green asparagus with a tart sauce, a warm round loaf of bread and a dish of butter. Kaliq gobbled most of the oysters, although Lara did manage to eat a few. They ate thin slices of capon. She teased him with the asparagus, dipping the vegetable in the piquant sauce, then licking the tip of the stem suggestively, sucking the stem slowly until, seeing his manhood begin to burgeon, Lara giggled wickedly. Then she fed him some asparagus, too, lapping the sauce when it drizzled from the corners of his mouth.

The food disappeared when they were finished, replaced with a bowl of strawberries and a pitcher of thick cream. Kaliq amused himself putting a berry upon each breast, and lining several down her torso. Next he poured the cream on her breasts, plucked each berry off with his teeth and licked up the cream, sucking her breasts. Then he drizzled the cream down the line of berries upon her torso, and one by one nibbled the strawberries off her quivering flesh, licking the cream away, as well.

When he had finished, Lara made him stand up. Then, kneeling before him she dipped his swelling cock into the pitcher, which had magically refilled itself. The cream was quite thick and clung to his dense length. Like a cat, Lara slowly, daintily, licked the manhood before her. Pushing his legs farther apart, she pushed the pitcher up between them to cover his jewels in the cream. Setting the pitcher aside, now she positioned her head so she might lick the cream from his sac.

When she had finished, sitting back upon her heels, he fell to his knees and turned her about so that she knelt before him, her buttocks raised and facing him. Kaliq took Lara’s hips between his hands, guiding his throbbing cock into her female channel. Her submissive position allowed him to delve deep. He pumped her hard until she was yearning with her need, pleading with him to give her pleasures. As filled with lust as she herself was, he complied. Lara screamed with her delight, and he howled like a beast as this time they met with perfect timing upon passion’s plain. Finally exhausted with their mutual satisfaction, they fell into a deep sleep amid the colorful pillows wrapped within each other’s arms.

Lara woke to find Kaliq staring down at her. His blue eyes shone with such love she felt humbled by him. Outside the sky was light, but they instinctively knew it was not quite yet dawn. Without a word they arose and walked from the tent into the warm waters of the pool. The pale gray sky morphed slowly into a light blue, and then a richer blue. On the horizon, tendrils of color began to reach out. Pink, rose, peach and gold oozed out, staining the blue background. Kaliq and Lara watched as a ruby-red sun burst forth briefly, staining the rippling sand dunes of the desert bloodred.

“I have never seen the sand crimson before,” Lara said softly to him.