by Tessa Cole
“I would have thought Left of Lincoln would be easier to get to,” Cassius said.
Sebastian skidded down a sharp incline in the path with the ease of someone who’d done that before. “We’re coming in the back way. There’s parking and easier access if you arrive by the main roads, but also a lot of people just hanging around. I’d rather avoid that kind of notice.”
Cassius huffed. “So you actually can come up with a plan.” He followed Sebastian down the slope then held out his hand to help me.
I contemplated not accepting his help. The way he looked at me was still verging on that same look of worry and pity he’d had all those years ago, and every part of me screamed that I needed to look stronger, be stronger.
But his look would only get worse if I slipped and landed on my rear end. And with my luck as of late, my skirt would fly up and I’d end up flashing all of them.
And then Sebastian would have something else to tease me about.
I took Cassius’s hand and half skidded like Sebastian and Cassius. But the skid quickly turned into a slip, toppling me forward, and I crashed into Cassius’s firm body.
His arm wrapped around me — it had to have been instinct, nothing else — and he held me close.
Unable to help myself, I melted into his embrace. I always felt safe in those rare instances when he held me, and I wanted to savor this moment, wanted it to last longer than I knew it would. It wouldn’t come again anytime soon, even though I needed it.
“You okay?” he murmured, making my pulse pick up… because Sebastian had teased me and now I craved a connection with anyone, even Cassius. Except…
Was his faster too?
It couldn’t be.
But before I could figure that out, he gripped my shoulders and took a step back, putting an appropriate amount of distance between us.
Sebastian rolled his eyes and for a second it looked like he was going to comment — probably say something snide — but he snapped his mouth shut and continued down the path. Maybe he, too, realized we all needed to play nice with each other to get through this.
I bit back a huff of frustration. It was more likely he was just waiting for a better opportunity to make a stinging remark.
A few minutes later, we stepped out of the woods into an alley of sorts running between the forest and behind a row of tents, trucks, and trailers.
Even at this early hour, standing in the shadow of a large red nylon tent, my senses were assaulted with the rumble of many voices and the smell of cooking food and pungent spices, reminding me of the Middle Eastern bazaar I’d visited — modern tents and vehicles aside — a few years before my abduction.
My impression didn’t change when we made our way between the tent and a blue van and stepped onto a narrow street half full with people. It was almost hard to see that the area originally had been a small parking lot — most likely for access to the forested ravine — across the street from an unusual V-intersection where one street ran parallel to the ravine and two other streets met it in a V.
At the center of the market, standing in the point of the V, was an intact narrow three-story building with a sign advertising blood bunnies — for any vampire who’d managed to purchase a rare and expensive charm against the sun or were visiting after sunset — and prostitutes for everyone else. A few other buildings — a couple of small houses and three small store fronts — also remained standing, while the rest of Left of Lincoln were tents and vehicles crowded down the streets and around rubble creating a maze of passage ways.
Sebastian held out his elbow and flashed me his wicked smile, making my pulse frustratingly stutter. “Remember who we’re supposed to be, Angel Arm Candy.”
I took his arm and he tugged me close, reigniting my desire, while Cassius glowered, and Titus focused on the area around us, his gaze darting over everything, his body tense.
“Hawk keeps a tent on the edge of the market. It’s usually this way,” Sebastian said, heading toward the three-story building.
“Usually?” Cassius asked. “I don’t particularly want to be wandering around. It’s bad enough that we’re already drawing attention.”
And we were. People were looking at us with a mix of curiosity, suspicion, and jealousy. I felt like I was on display, and in a way I was. I didn’t know how many people here knew or knew of Sebastian Bane, but he was still a rare faekin, and at the moment, he had two angels and a massive shifter with him. And while there were a few men with bodyguards and pretty young women hanging on their arms, there weren’t a lot, and none in as an unusual combination as us.
“Lincoln never stays the same,” Sebastian said as if he didn’t notice the stares. “Hell, two months ago it was on the other side of town near the old arena and last year it was about ten miles out of town.”
Cassius harrumphed. “We should ask for directions.”
“I agree,” Titus rumbled.
“I’m not asking for directions.” Sebastian tugged me even closer to avoid running into a monstrously large ogre with thick, grayish-green skin who was even bigger than Titus.
“The sooner we find Hawk, the sooner we get out of here,” Cassius pressed.
“Asking for directions will just make us more memorable,” Sebastian replied, leading us past a food truck with whole plucked chickens and skinned rabbits hanging from the metal awning. “Surely you’re smart enough to know memorable is bad.”
“So is spending more time than necessary,” Cassius said.
For the love of—!
“This is Sebastian’s turf. He knows the area and the people best.”
Sebastian flashed me a satisfied smile, and Cassius’s glower deepened.
Yeah, I don’t think so.
“If you can’t find this Hawk person in ten minutes,” I added, “I’m going to ask for directions.”
Sebastian rolled his eyes at me. “That’s not—”
“Nine minutes and fifty seconds,” I said. “Or do I start asking now?”
I started to step away from him to talk to a heavyset woman selling…? I had no idea.
But Sebastian tightened his grip on my arm and tugged me back to his side. “Fine. Ten minutes.”
“Nine minutes and thirty seconds, now,” Titus rumbled.
Sebastian glared at him. “You, too?”
We hurried past the unofficial blood house/brothel down the narrower of the two streets that made up the V-intersection and made our way past a pickup truck with — probably stolen — electronics, a tent with colorful lady’s clothing, and a cube van with a complicated glyph painted on the side. The van’s back door was open, revealing stacks of old-looking books, and wooden and metal boxes of various shapes and sizes.
If I was magically sensitive, I was sure that van would have been glowing like a sun or pulsing like a pressure wave with all the magic inside… if the woman standing at the open door selling the magical items wasn’t trying to cheat her customers. But by the sudden tightness in Sebastian’s body and the way he picked up his pace to move past the van, I was certain the woman was selling the real, magical deal.
We left the road two trucks and a small still-standing house later, moving into a tent city with even narrower passageways. Here the smells of cooked food, smoke, sweat, and urine clashed with each other in a strange mix of appealing and disgusting. People talked in hushed voices, stared at us as we passed, or hurried inside their tents.
The tension in Sebastian’s body didn’t ease and neither did his pace.
“You okay?” I asked softly, although I was pretty sure Cassius and Titus were still able to hear me.
“Yeah,” he said, “just a lot of magic in this area. Not really a fan of letting it all hang out like this.”
“You never were,” an incubus said, stepping out of a large white canvas tent, far too similar to the tent I’d been kept in all those years ago.
I shuddered and the gorgeous demon slid his attention to me, hellfire simmering in shockingly gray-blue eyes — a rare c
olor for a demon.
He radiated raw, unbridled sex that stole my breath, and he made no attempt to hide it like the other incubus I knew. It made me ache to run my hands through his jaw-length sandy blond hair, tease the base of his small horns fully knowing they were an erogenous zone, and let him do whatever he wanted to me. Like all incubi, he’d be perfection under his T-shirt and shorts, all sleek, sculpted muscle, and I instantly needed to see him naked, run my hands over him, have him pressed against me, inside me—
“Hawk,” Sebastian said, making my pulse pick up.
This was who we were meeting? An incubus? I was already having trouble closing the floodgate on my desire. How was I going to hold myself together sitting near sex incarnate and not look like I was affected while Sebastian conducted his business?
Chapter 12
Amiah
Desire throbbed between my thighs as if proving the point that I no longer had any restraint, and the hellfire in the incubus’s eyes swelled.
“You moved your tent,” Sebastian said.
“I got pushed out by a blood witch.” Hawk gave a sensual shrug, his gaze never leaving mine. “You here on business?”
“Yeah.” Sebastian drew closer — and as a result, drew me closer.
My pulse beat even faster and I struggled to get myself back under control. I’d been around incubi before. This shouldn’t be that difficult.
“Well, then.” Hawk raised the flap on his tent and gestured for us to enter.
A whisper of fear fluttered through my chest, chilling my desire. I didn’t want to go inside even though I knew it wasn’t that tent. Cassius had burned it almost a hundred years ago, and if he hadn’t killed the human who’d enslaved me, that human would still be long dead, not here in Left of Lincoln.
The thought made me furious.
All these years later and that human was still controlling me. How many times was I going to have to tell myself I was strong, I was in control, I was free, before my soul believed it?
And maybe yesterday I would have believed it.
But today, I wasn’t free.
I was magically bound to Titus and soon I’d be magically bound to someone else if Sebastian couldn’t remove my mating brand.
Well, the first problem I could take care of. It was just a matter of going inside that tent. And the sooner I dealt with the leash spell, the sooner Sebastian could get to work on my brand.
Sebastian frowned and tugged gently on my arm, urging me forward and making embarrassment heat my cheeks. I’d hesitated for too long and now he knew something was wrong.
Fighting the urge to straighten my back — that would give me away even more — I made myself enter with him.
Inside was completely different to the traveling faith healer’s tent from my past. That man had tried to portray a pious nature — even though he was nothing of the sort. He’d kept a clean tent with a simple cot for my patients during the day and him at night, a table with his bible, a wash basin, clean rags, and a locked chest filled with stones that was too heavy to move, which he chained my ankle to during the night.
Hawk’s tent was stuffed with multi-colored pillows, Persian rugs, and gauzy curtains. The morning sun shone fully on the tent top, providing more than enough light to see clearly, and yet the space still had a soft, intimate feel. The temperature was also comfortable — most likely cooled by magic. A large chest with an intricate design carved into its wooden surface sat at the back, and a low table sat in the center. At the edge of the table, on a metal tray, was a pitcher of pale yellow liquid with condensation beading on its glass surface along with two delicate wine glasses beside it.
Hawk gestured to the pillows in front of the table, but walked to the chest at the back and pulled out a third wine glass.
Sebastian sat on one of the cushions, drawing me down to sit beside him, and glanced at Cassius who gave a tight nod, his expression icy. He stayed at the entrance, just inside the flap, while Titus took up position kneeling at the side of the tent halfway between Cassius and the table — since he was too tall to fully stand.
“You don’t usually come with muscle,” Hawk said, oozing sexual grace as he eased into a cushion across from us and poured the yellow liquid into one of the wine glasses. “You also never come with a companion. Have you decided on an alternative payment this time?”
He flashed me a heart-stopping smile and Sebastian huffed.
“No,” the fae said.
“Too bad.” Hawk handed me the glass, brushing his index finger along my baby finger as I took it and sending his sensual magic rushing straight to my core. “I find angels intriguing.”
I fought to keep my expression the same and not shift to ease the heat and pressure building low within me before remembering that it didn’t matter what my outward appearance was, the incubus could sense my desire.
My cheeks heated and Hawk’s smile deepened.
“Very intriguing,” he purred, the hellfire in his eyes flaring.
“Are you planning on doing business today?” Sebastian demanded. “There are half a dozen Sensitives in Lincoln who can do what I need done.”
“We both know you’d never go to those hacks.” Hawk turned his attention to Sebastian, releasing me from his captivating gaze, and his smile shifted from sensual to friendly. “What do you need?”
Sebastian pulled the resonance charm from his pocket and set it on the table. “I need a three-way alignment.”
Hawk cocked an eyebrow. “You can do a three-way alignment.”
“I wouldn’t be here if that had worked. The spell I’m breaking is warped and I need the charm aligned with more precision than I’m capable of.”
“How much more?” Hawk asked, his expression becoming serious, all sense of sensuality or even warm friendship gone.
“As much as you can manage,” Sebastian replied, just as seriously.
Hawk poured another glass of the pale yellow liquid and took a long sip. I watched the muscles in his neck flex as he swallowed, unable to help myself, fully knowing that was the effect of his magic.
“That’ll cost you,” Hawk said.
“I expected it would.”
Hawk’s eyes widened. “You’re a better haggler than that.”
Sebastian leaned forward, his expression hard. “Which should tell you how serious I am about you doing your best work.”
“It tells me you’re rattled.” Hawk took another sip and closed his eyes. “Let’s just see what you’re up against—” He sucked in a sharp breath. “Shit. A leash spell?”
“You’re familiar with it?” Sebastian asked, his voice grim.
“Yeah.” Hawk opened his eyes now fully consumed by hellfire and turned his attention to me, his expression fierce. “Whoever cast that should be shot. Keep your money, Bane, and let’s free the angel and the—” He glanced at Titus then turned back to Sebastian, his eyes wide. “Are you shitting me?”
“Nope,” Sebastian said. “What’s your usual order for the alignment?”
“You first. You’re the one breaking the spell. Then the—” Hawk shook his head as if he still didn’t believe what he was going to say. “Then the dragon, the origin of the spell, and finally Miss Angel here.”
He finished his drink, picked up the charm, and stood.
Sebastian jerked his chin at the wine glass still in my hand as Hawk knelt behind him. “You’re going to want to drink that.”
I brought the glass to my lips, took a quick sniff and a sip. It was wine. One with a nice light slightly sweet flavor, but wine nonetheless. “It’s the middle of the morning.”
“Trust me.” Sebastian turned to face Hawk. “You’re going to want it.”
“If it’s that bad, why aren’t you or Titus drinking?”
Sebastian quirked an eyebrow at me as if I should have already figured out the answer. “This isn’t going to affect me or Titus as much as it will you. Guys aren’t our thing.”
My thoughts tripped over that.
R
ight. Hawk was an incubus.
Heat seared my cheeks again and my pulse picked up. I was about to get firsthand experience with an incubus’s sex magic, and Sebastian wanted me to drink first. Of course he wanted me intoxicated. That would offer the best opportunity for me to embarrass myself and give him more fodder to tease me with.
“One drink isn’t going to release my inhibitions,” I said, putting the glass on the table.
Sebastian drew in a deep breath and rolled his shoulders making his glow undulate down his body. “No, but it might relax you.”
“And it’s always better if you don’t fight me,” Hawk added, using his palm to press the charm against Sebastian’s chest over his heart. “You ready?”
“To get blue balls? Oh, yeah,” Sebastian said, his tone dripping with sarcasm. “Always.”
Hawk chuckled and closed his eyes. “Pretty sure you’ll be able to remedy that soon enough like you always do.”
Sebastian shuddered and bit back a sensual groan that made my pulse pick up.
“Jeez, man,” Hawk hissed. “You’re spun so tight, it’s painful. Take your own advice.” He slid his free hand to the back of Sebastian’s head and urged him forward to lean his forehead against his shoulder. “Just take a—”
Both of them stiffened and Sebastian’s soft glow flickered, revealing that sickly gray pallor for a second. Then Sebastian groaned again, but this one sounded more like pain than pleasure.
“Shit, Bane.” The muscles in Hawk’s jaw flexed, and a surge of sensual desire brushed against my senses. “What the hell did you do?”
A husky moan escaped Sebastian’s clenched jaw the sound back to pleasure and starting a slow throb between my thighs. “It’ll be dealt with tomorrow,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Then use the charm before then. That shit has messed with your resonance.” Hawk drew in a deep, slow breath, and the heated desire that had been caressing my skin without me really knowing it, vanished, leaving me cold and aching. He must have released his power.
That thought made my pulse race even faster. If that was what his magic felt like without him touching me, what would it feel like to have his hands on me?