I wake up to a hand on my thigh. I blink and mumble something incoherent and then lips are covering mine and I’m suddenly awake. "What the fuck?"

"It’s me."

Oh. Jalkyn.

I try to summon a light to my hand, but, predictably, it doesn’t work. "Can you make one of those snazzy faerie lights?"

He rolls his eyes and a moment later, a soft green ball of light appears over his shoulder, putting him in shadow.

Suspiciously, I grab the little ball of light and hold it up to his face. But it’s really Jalkyn. I blink up at him. "What time is it?"

He looks really pretty in this light. My skin where I can see it looks sickly, like I would imagine most people would in this light. But he looks good. Maybe it’s because of his hair. The green light makes his skin match.

"Just before dawn," he says softly.

Okay. Good bye attraction.

"Why the hell am I awake before dawn?" I snap. "The only time that’s acceptable is when I haven’t slept yet!"

He snorts and perches on the bed next to me. "I think you might like this interruption of your sleep."

I snort. "Doubt it."

He glares at me and turns quickly so he’s on his hands and knees. He pushes me down and straddles my hips before leaning down, bringing his face perilously close to mine. "I’m trying to catch up," he whispers, his warm breath ghosting across my lips. "Wanna fuck?"

Oh wow. That is the only good reason to get woken up.

"Yeah."

He brings his face down that final inch and kisses me.

--

We keep going this time past the once. He pulls away twice and finds his own release. The second time, as soon as he’s done, I pull him back into my arms and begin to wipe up the cum on him.

"Are you sure you don’t want me asking about the orgasm issues?"

Jalkyn snorts. "Fine, I’ll tell you."

There’s a long pause as I wait. I finally glare at him and he smirks at me. "Some other time."

"Bastard," I grumble. I stop his smirk by kissing him again.

He doesn’t get out of my bed until the usual knock on my door sounds.

I sigh gustily as he climbs off me. "There goes all my sleep."

He snorts and reaches his hand towards me. I’m thinking I’m about to get smacked when he brushes his hand softly against my arm. Suddenly, I’m incredibly energized.

I blink up at him. "Wow. Nice. You’re better than coffee."

He snorts, but smiles at me, looking pleased.

I slide out of bed finally as well, looking at him quizzically. "But aren’t you trying to…" I wave my arms vaguely. "Catch up?" I finish, quoting him.

He shrugs. "I’m caught up." He grins at me and swoops in to brush his lips against my cheek. "Honey, you’ve got more endurance than anyone I’ve ever met."

He raises his arms skyward and spins, giggling a little. "I feel awesome."

I can’t help it; I laugh. Oh yeah, go demonic endurance. "Are you a little power drunk?"

He grins at me and drops his arms around my neck, gesturing at me to bend down so I’m at his level. "A little," he whispers into my ear before giggling maniacally.

I laugh. "Nice." Apparently ainmhain faeries can get a power drunk off sex. Cool. I guess it does make sense though; sex is the source of most of their power…

He giggles at me and tugs me towards the bathing room. "Let’s take a shower together."

I snort but let him pull me in. "Do you have to do anything today?"

He shrugs. "Magic with Meara and fencing with Midir."

He giggles suddenly. "Midir won’t make me fence," he whispers conspiratorially. "He wants to do me in the weapons room while the weapons master is out practicing with Iain and Cayden." He giggles. "I haven’t actually had to fence for ages."

I frown a little and Jalkyn pauses and looks up at me, suddenly serious. He looks quizzical, but it’s such an exaggerated expression I have to struggle not to laugh. "What?" I ask instead.

"I can’t feel you."

My hand tightens where it’s wrapped around his. "What?"

"I can’t feel you. You just frowned and I can’t tell why." He suddenly looks a little panicked. "I couldn’t feel you yesterday either. This isn’t normal. Are you-"

"Jalkyn." I try to cut in, but he ignores me, looking slowly more and more panicked as he babbles.

I finally cover his mouth with his hand. "Janie taught me better ways to shield."

He looks up at me, eyes wide. Cautiously, I take my hand from his mouth. He doesn’t say anything.

"Is this really the first time you haven’t been able to feel anything from someone?"

He nods, pauses, shakes his head. "Other ainmhain faeries can shield at least partway and I’ve taught two people."

"So everyone else…"

"Everyone else I can feel every little shift unless I spend an insane amount of energy shielding."

"Oh," I murmur. "That must suck."

He shrugs, looking cheerful again. "I’m used to it." He bumps against me lightly as he moves to the bathing room. "But it is nice not to feel everything," he admits, pulling me into the room.

I snort and let him mess with my hair while in the shower. Luckily, that’s almost identical to what it is everywhere else, except there’s no spout. You turn a knob and a little rain cloud forms. Which is really cool, but would have been a lot more awesome if Myda hadn’t always done it for me when I was a kid. Good times, man. She’s a weather witch too, so there was wind and everything. She even added lightning and thunder a couple times.

Jalkyn stays until Cayden knocks on my door. Then, he disappears. I wouldn’t have seen it if I hadn’t been looking for it, but I see a mark on the floor as he leaves, one damp footprint in the hallway before Cayden shuts the door. He’s holding a platter of food. "Eat," he demands, handing me the platter.

I sit down and obediently start to eat as he gives me another hurried etiquette lesson. More bows.

I manage to go the entire lesson without starting a fight. Then, he leads me through the halls and back out to the practice yards. But instead of starting the lesson, he nods to Midir, who is waiting, and leaves.

Midir smiles at me, flashing dimples. Dimples! The only other person I know with honest-to-god dimples is Lonny. Man. I melt, just a little bit. Lonnie’s smile makes me do the same thing.

"I’m going to be taking over your fencing lessons for a while," he says, voice as soft and sweet as it usually is. "You’ll have a magic lesson from Cayden in the afternoon."

I nod, a little unsure if this is a good thing or bad thing.

"He seems to think you need less free time."

I flush. It takes me awhile to realize Cayden’s probably referring to my little jaunt to Border Town yesterday, not my accumulated, like, four hours of sex with Jalkyn. Good. That’d be bad.

I take the wrapped sword from Midir and he launches into his lesson. I can’t help but be a little disappointed. I was half hoping he would try to take me into the weapons room when the weapons master wasn't in.