by Tessa Cole
But that only made my beast more excited, and I was glad I’d covered up before Seireadan had noticed my raging hard on. Because if she wasn’t Seireadan’s female like her scent implied — along with the fact that I couldn’t smell the woman he’d been betrothed to on him or anywhere in the room — Amiah was surely the other angel’s given how enraged he’d been to see me on top of her.
And my beast didn’t give a fuck about that. Its desire for Amiah— No any female, Amiah was just an easy target, made my cock so hard it hurt.
This was going to be a problem. The best I could hope for was that getting myself off along with the promise of finding an appropriate female soon, would satisfy my beast.
I gripped my cock, and brought to mind the last female I’d had sex with. My female. She hadn’t been my true mate, but not every dragon found their soul’s mate. I’d won her affection and she would have been mine to the end of our days or until either of us found our soul’s mate or another dragon challenged me for her and I lost the fight. She’d been a fire dragon like me, with red hair slightly paler than mine, gold-green eyes, and a powerful body — both in human and dragon form.
I pumped my hand up and down my length, remembering the intimate times we’d spent together, her hot flesh against mine, her lips teasing my body, and my cock sheathed in her tight heat. Except the moment I thought about driving into her, the image in my mind’s eye shifted. The woman wrapped around my cock turned into delicate Amiah, with her blue glowing eyes partially hidden by lids lowered with pleasure, her long blond locks splayed on the pillow behind her giving her a shimmering halo, and her lips parted on a sensual moan.
My balls tightened and I tried to turn her back to my long-dead mate, hell, to anyone else, but couldn’t. My beast wanted to be wrapped in her tight sheath, wanted to feel her come around my cock. Wanted to hear her moans and screams of pleasure.
My fantasy Amiah locked gazes with me as I drove into her, the look in her eyes said she understood me, understood the fear and hurt of being enslaved, and still wanted me, craved me as much as I craved her. Then her body tensed, her head tipped back exposing her delicate neck to my canines in invitation to mark her as mine, and she screamed her released which set off mine.
I came hard, biting back a roar, and digging my claws into the shower tiles to keep steady… and not to go storming out of the bathroom to find Amiah and make the fantasy real.
Fuck. This was really going to be a problem.
Chapter 10
Amiah
I lay on the bed in Sebastian’s guestroom, staring at the ceiling, exhausted and dizzy. Healing my cracked ribs and the bruise around my neck had taken everything I’d managed to regain with last night’s meager sleep. All I wanted was to crawl into bed and sleep, but that would put off breaking the leash spell, and the panic of being trapped that had eased when I’d thought I’d be free in a few hours had returned with a vengeance.
I had to be free. Now.
Now now now.
Cassius was already back to looking at me like I was fragile, and I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to get him to see me as an equal again, able to stand on my own just as much as he could. I shouldn’t have let Titus hold me. But I was weak.
And now they all knew it.
The sooner Titus and I were separated the better. Cassius’s honor wouldn’t let him leave my side until he knew I was safe, which meant he wouldn’t go after the men, and that would delay Sebastian in finding a solution to my problem.
A problem which I was now acutely aware of. With the pain from my ribs and throat gone, there was nothing distracting me from the warm ache running from the bottom of my ribcage, over my hip, and down my thigh. The pain in my not-yet-awakened mating brand felt stronger than before, but I had to be imagining that. It hadn’t gotten worse. I was just more aware of it because I was trapped — trapped trapped trapped! — by the leash spell.
I drew in a slow pain-free breath, fighting to steady my nerves and to get the room to stop spinning.
I could handle this. Just a few more hours and I’d no longer have to act like I was strong and calm. I would be.
With another deep breath, I turned my attention to the scrubs sitting at the foot of the bed. I’d feel more like myself if I was dressed like myself, but that just seemed like too much work, especially since I was going to have to change again to go to Left of Lincoln. Better to have breakfast, regain some strength, and then change into whatever Sebastian’s assistant was bringing over. Cassius had already seen me in Sebastian’s clothes and hadn’t said anything, so my irrational worry that he’d be upset had been unfounded and our friendship, the friendship I desperately needed right now, wasn’t on rocky ground because of that.
No. It was because I’d never experience such pain before and had given in to my weak, base need for physical comfort.
I pushed that thought aside. Regardless if Cassius thought I was weak or not, he’d be there for me. Just like he always was.
I drew in another breath. All right, Amiah. Time to get up and be a professional. Just a few more hours and you’ll get your life back
At least until my mating brand awakened.
My panic surged and I pushed that thought back.
Strong and calm. No one is supposed to worry about their physician. You can do this.
Another breath and I slowly sat up.
The room stayed at its ever-so-slight spinning, but didn’t get worse. That was the best I was going to get, so I squared my shoulders, and made sure my mask of cool professionalism was in place and didn’t reveal how exhausted I really was.
With my guard fully up, I carefully stepped into the hall, and was met with the rich aromas of freshly brewed coffee and frying eggs.
Oh, thank goodness. Someone was making breakfast. I could only hope I could convince them to share since I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stand at a stove long enough to make something at the moment.
I followed the smell to Sebastian’s sleek high-end white and stainless-steel kitchen, where I found all of the guys.
Titus, sitting at the small kitchen table tucked into a corner by a tall window with the purplish hue of UV-blocking glass, was the first to notice me. He sat with his back to the wall with a towel, barely big enough to cover all of him, wrapped around his hips. His attention jumped to me the moment I stepped through the wide opening, his gaze filled with a confusing mix of emotions.
At first glance, he looked… hungry and not in the way a beast looked at dinner but in the way a man looked at a woman he desired. But that quickly shifted to a banked anger, which I couldn’t blame him for. I’d been angry at everyone for a long time after my rescue even though I knew I had no reason to be angry with them.
Sebastian sat beside him, dressed in beige summer slacks and a light-blue button-down. His lips were quirked in their perpetual mischievous smile as if he knew a dirty joke, most likely about me, and was dying to share it in front of everyone to embarrass me. The grayish hue to his complexion was gone, and he looked like he always did, with a blue-white glow emanating from his skin at the soft, almost imperceptible levels of a faekin, not the more powerful glow of the full fae that he really was.
Cassius, much to my surprise, stood at the stove frying up a big pan of scrambled eggs. He had his back to me and didn’t notice my arrival, and I took the moment to appreciate his broad shoulders, narrow waist, and firm glutes. A part of me was surprised he hadn’t settled down in a serious relationship by now. He was a good, handsome man who cared deeply, or at least he’d cared before the war. Now I was sure he still cared, but the signs were harder to notice and he hid it behind an overbearing protectiveness.
“How can I help?” I asked, the idea of Cassius making me breakfast without me at least helping suddenly making me uncomfortable despite my exhaustion. I could probably lean on the counter and make toast or something. Really.
Cassius glanced at me and his eyes narrowed. “I’d rather you sit and eat before you pass out.”
“I’m not going to pass out,” I said, old habits making me square my shoulders as I headed to the sleek, single-serve coffee machine. But Sebastian stood, blocking my way, and held out his chair for me.
“I need a refill,” he said, his cup still half full. “I’ll make yours while I’m up.”
“I—” I bit back my sharp response. I couldn’t afford to alienate him and risk him refusing to remove my brand, but I also didn’t like him doing something for me that I could just as easily do myself, especially when it was clear he was just getting up for me.
He cocked an eyebrow as if daring me to finish what I was going to say.
This wasn’t the conversation I wanted to have so I pressed my lips together and sagged into the offered chair.
“Atta girl,” he chuckled, as if he’d just scored a point, making me bristle because he had. I’d just given in and sat like he’d asked.
“She takes a little sugar and a lot of cream,” Cassius said, dividing the finished eggs onto four plates. “What’s the ETA on the clothes?”
“Anytime now.” Sebastian grabbed a mug from the cupboard above the coffee maker and set it in the machine. “I’d like to get to Lincoln as soon as possible. Titus is going to stick out like a sore thumb so the fewer people who see him, the better.”
My stomach tightened. That meant I’d be free soon. Likely within an hour or two.
“You honestly think less of a crowd will be better?” Cassius asked going to the fridge and pouring a glass of orange juice. “There’ll be less people to blend in with.”
He set the juice, a plate of eggs, and a fork in front of me as the tightness in my stomach turned into a cold stone. Waiting until there were more people in Lincoln was the better plan no matter how much I wanted to be free. Right now.
Sebastian rolled his eyes and jerked his thumb at Titus. “Don’t tell me you think he’s going to blend in with anyone. He’s as big as a greater demon or an ogre but with the wrong essence and the wrong coloring. It doesn’t matter how big the crowd is, everyone is going to notice him.”
I took a bite of the eggs not really tasting them. “We should get a glamour and a concealment spell on him first.” If Titus was going to draw attention, magically changing his appearance was the most logical first step. It was illegal for anyone except the military or the JP to cast those spells but we were trying to hide from dangerous men. We were going to have to break the rules.
That thought made my stomach churn, adding to the worry that getting concealment and glamour spells on Titus meant putting off breaking the leash spell for even longer.
I glanced at Titus, fighting to keep my expression calm. “Can you handle being leashed a little longer to get a proper glamour put in place?”
Could I?
My heart raced at the thought. But disguising Titus first was the safest plan.
“Sure,” he said, his voice gruff, his gaze dropping to his breakfast.
“A glamour first would be logical if you two weren’t bound with a leash spell.” Sebastian set my coffee on the table and slid into the chair beside me. “The glamour, along with a concealment spell, needs to be strong and long lasting. The leash spell will suck power during the casting, making it harder to cast and set the spells. I’m not sure whoever we get to set the spells will be able to do it while you two are connected. At least not someone I completely trust.”
“You can’t set them?” Cassius took the last chair between Sebastian and Titus and shot me a worried glance. He was still looking at me like I was fragile and a part of me feared he’d never stop. At least he wasn’t freaking out over the conversation about casting illegal spells… which only spoke to how serious the situation was.
“I can do a lot of things,” Sebastian said, “but I can’t set a spell in someone.”
Cassius sighed. “And there isn’t anyone at Operations right now who’s strong enough to set one.”
Which left us with the risk of Titus being seen or waiting until a strong enough witch flew in to Union City to meet us.
Cassius pinched the bridge of his nose and a wisp of smoke curled from his hand. “This is a terrible idea. We’re just going to walk around Left of Lincoln without a glamour or a concealment spell. That’s almost as bad as putting up a billboard saying where we are.”
“Jeez, I’m not that stupid.” Sebastian took a sip of his coffee. “Yes, we’re going to be walking around Lincoln without a glamour, but I have a group concealment glyph. I can keep it active long enough to get the charm attuned to our resonance and get back here, so they at least won’t be able to track us with magic.”
The muscles in Cassius’s jaw twitched, likely at Sebastian’s confession that he had an illegal spell tattooed on his body. “That’s another issue. Those men saw you. They’re going to start asking about you and someone is going to point them here.” He frowned and shoved his fork into his eggs with an angry thrust. “I’m surprised they haven’t shown up by now.”
“They haven’t because I have a look-away spell on the apartment. Yeah, people know I do business in the office I keep downstairs, but only a select few know I actually live here.” Sebastian drained his coffee mug. “Anyone who shows up looking for me will find my office closed and leave.”
“What about your landlord?” Cassius asked. The master vampire who owned the building wasn’t the most trustworthy and wasn’t on the best of terms with the JP.
Sebastian’s expression hardened. “She won’t be a problem,” he said, and I didn’t want to ask what that meant. It was probably something illegal, and while I might be able to look the other way, Cassius would have a harder time doing so.
More smoke curled around Cassius and he shifted, clearly coming to the same conclusion, but his phone chirped, saving him from having to decide if he should push for more details or not.
He answered and had a quick conversation, most likely with Chris, then hung up. “Chris lost the trail of those men in the middle of the Quarter near Winfield, and Summer is still working on the forensics they found in the park ring—”
“Tell her not to bother. She won’t find anything useful,” Sebastian said. “Those were professionals. They probably cast a spell to remove all trace of themselves and Titus. The only DNA she’s going to find are yours, mine, and Amiah’s, which means the JP won’t be able to cast a tracking spell. This can’t be handled in your traditional ways. The only way to get these men are for them to come to us.”
“Which we’re not going to let happen until Amiah is free of this situation,” Cassius said.
Yes, free. Now. I had to be free. I took a large sip of my orange juice, grasping the glass in both hands to hide the fact that I was shaking.
Come on. It’s just a few more hours.
And while I logically knew that, I couldn’t convince the rest of me of it.
“You say that as if we have a choice in when they find us.” Sebastian met Cassius’s glare, all mirth gone from his expression. “Like I’ve been saying from the beginning of this clusterfuck, the first priority is separating Amiah and Titus.”
“So long as we understand each other—” Cassius stiffened and held up his hand for silence. “Someone’s here.”
“Sebastian,” a sultry alto called, the word punctuated with the sharp click of heels on the marble floor.
“It’s my assistant.” Sebastian stood, and took his empty plate and mug to the dishwasher. “In the kitchen, Nova,” he called as a stunningly beautiful demon with the onyx skin of a babaus stepped into the archway between the living room and the kitchen.
She wore a vibrant green pantsuit, but only in the pretext of appearing professional since the skirt was obscenely short, showing off her long, shapely legs, and the form-fitting top under her jacket showed an equally obscene amount of cleavage.
But despite that, she didn’t come across as cheap. It was more like she oozed sex as if she was a succubus, even though babaus didn’t possess sexual magic. And with her lingering gaze o
n Cassius and Titus, she knew how alluring she was.
Cassius drew in a sharp breath and gave her a tight nod, before turning his back on me to go to the sink, so I had no idea what he thought of Nova. She wasn’t like any of the women he’d dated in the past, but then as far as I knew he’d only ever dated angels, and angels, no matter how beautiful, just didn’t have that kind of sexual magnetism. And really, Cassius could be attracted to her. He had needs, just like everyone else.
Which made me think of Titus and the hungry look he’d given me when I’d first entered the kitchen.
My gaze jumped to him of its own volition. As irrational and ridiculous as it was, I didn’t want to see his desire for this woman, and yet I couldn’t help looking. The man had spent a long time in captivity where I doubted his needs had been met. He was going to look at every woman that way. Except instead of the hunger I’d seen when I’d first entered the kitchen, his expression was pained. Then he shifted and grunted and his banked anger returned.
“You’ve come right on time,” Sebastian said with a hint of his wicked smile, his inflection turning his words dirty.
“Don’t I always,” she purred, and his smile deepened, making embarrassment heat my cheeks.
To think I’d actually considered accepting his proposition for sex… if he ever propositioned me again. But of course he wouldn’t. He wasn’t interested in me. Why would he? Not when he had someone like Nova in his life. He probably had dozens of Novas at his beck and call, and I was a naive, inexperienced angel. All I had was research and self-exploration. No firsthand experience, and that was probably clear as day to someone like Sebastian, which was why he teased me in the first place.
And jeez, why did that even bother me?
Because I’d been a fool to even entertain the possibility of releasing my own pent-up needs with him.
Nothing more.
Nova prowled to the table and set a full cloth bag in front of Titus. “I take it you’re the big and tall—” Her gaze dipped to the towel around his hips. “—and extra large.”