by Tessa Cole
Hawk nudged Sebastian to sit back and withdrew his hand from Sebastian’s heart, his expression tight with worry. He opened his mouth to say something but Sebastian’s eyes darted to me and Hawk gave a tight nod.
Gasping, Sebastian leaned back against the table, his breath still too fast, and poured himself a glass of wine. He emptied it in one gulp and turned his gaze, heavy with desire, toward me, making me think of how much I ached for him—
No. Anyone. I ached for anyone, not Sebastian specifically.
“You really should drink yours,” he said, his voice husky, sending a thrill racing through me.
I yanked my attention away as Hawk turned to Titus, who watched the incubus with the eyes of a predator ready to attack.
“May I?” Hawk asked.
Titus grunted and nodded his assent, his body stiff and his expression hard.
“You might want to relax.” Hawk pressed the charm over Titus’s heart like he had with Sebastian, and closed his eyes.
Now that I was aware of it, I could feel Hawk’s sensual magic whispering against my skin as he released his power. It made my insides heat, but seemed to make every muscle in Titus’s body tense.
“Take a breath,” Hawk said. “Don’t fight me.”
Titus drew in a huge breath, expanding his massive chest, and released it on a shuddering growl.
Hawk’s magic swelled and Titus’s growl turned into a strangled groan. With another groan, he tipped forward, his breath suddenly fast, and Hawk caught Titus’s forehead on his shoulder like he had with Sebastian, cupping the back of Titus’s head. The tendon in Titus’s neck flexed, and his face scrunched in pain as another groan, a strange mix of pain and pleasure, tore from his throat, sending more heated desire sweeping through me.
“How much longer?” Titus gasped, his back heaving with ragged breaths.
My breath picked up, matching his, and I fought to regain control over myself, but that only increased my fear. Hawk hadn’t even touched me yet, and his power already made me ache for him.
“Just…. a little… more.” Hawk’s power swelled, stealing my breath, and Titus slammed his fist into the tent floor, his whole body shaking.
“And we’re done.” Hawk’s power snapped off leaving me cold.
He withdrew his hand from Titus’s heart and urged him to sit back like he had with Sebastian. With a snarl, Titus jerked away from Hawk, his eyes still closed, his body even more tense than before they’d started.
Then Hawk turned to me and my pulse stalled.
I didn’t want his magic to affect me like Titus or even Sebastian… Except Sebastian had said Hawk’s magic was going to affect me more.
Oh, God.
I downed the wine.
Hawk’s lips quirked and he held up the charm. “May I?”
A part of me wanted to say no and run out of the tent. I didn’t want to risk losing control, and without a doubt, Hawk’s magic was going to make me want sex even more than I already did. But saying no wasn’t an option. I had to be free. Now. I couldn’t hold back my fear for much longer, which meant I had to suck it up and let Hawk touch me.
Please, touch me.
No! Don’t.
I nodded, afraid I wouldn’t be able to get any words out. Hawk lifted the charm to place it over my heart and I realized with horror that I didn’t have the protection of clothing that Sebastian and Titus had. The neckline of my dress was too low. His flesh would be touching mine and that only enhanced an incubus’s connection with his lover.
Hawk shifted closer. Heat from his demonic body temperature radiated from his hands as he raised them to set the charm over my heart, and press his hot palm over top of that.
My mouth went dry and I wished I’d had another glass of wine. I wasn’t relaxed enough for this. I didn’t think I’d ever be.
“Just take a breath,” Hawk murmured, his tone like silk against my senses.
I forced myself to inhale, and as I released it, he released his magic. It unfurled hot and slick and sensual, and I instantly ached for his touch. I needed to be caressed and kissed. I needed to know what it felt like for a man to move inside me and I was tired of waiting.
I can’t be patient any more. Please release this ache. Please, please touch me.
But that wasn’t why I was in Hawk’s tent. He was using his magic sensitivity to reach deep into my soul to attune the resonance charm to my resonance. That was it. Not to mention I would hate myself if I begged Hawk — like all but a small part of me wanted to do — to take me with Sebastian, Cassius, and Titus watching. Cassius would never look at me the same and it would just become more fodder for Sebastian’s teasing.
My heart pounded faster and my body throbbed with need. I had to hold on until Hawk was done. My yearning would ease up once he withdrew his magic. Surely I could last for the few minutes it took for Hawk to get my resonance.
But his power swelled, and I released an embarrassingly sensual moan, and another one as he slid his fingers into my hair and urged me to rest my forehead on his shoulder.
Except I didn’t want to just lean on his shoulder, I wanted to rip off our clothes and take him deep inside me.
Now. God. Please now.
“So much desire,” he whispered, his breath feathering across my neck and his magic swelling in my core. “Wound so tight. I can help you release it.”
Yes. God, yes!
My breath grew ragged, each inhalation reminding me that Hawk’s hand was on my breast and I desperately wanted it to move lower, to tease my nipple, taunt me in the best way before satisfying me.
I slipped my hands inside his shirt, trailing my fingers over his six pack, making him hum with pleasure. The sound twisted my desire tighter, and I reached for the button on his fly when my brain finally caught up to my need.
Cassius, Sebastian, and Titus were in the tent! Watching. Had they noticed I was about to undress Hawk?
I glanced at Sebastian through a veil of lashes afraid of seeing that wicked smile that said he was never going to let me live down that I wanted to have sex with an incubus I’d just met. Surely he saw where my hands were. He was the closest.
But instead of mischief, his gaze was heavy with raw desire, his pupils dilated. He was turned on and I got the sense he wanted to watch Hawk pleasure me.
And that idea excited me even more. My muscles clenched and my body trembled on the verge of an orgasm.
“Sweet Jesus,” Hawk groaned, his voice so low I could barely hear him. “When you’re free of the leash spell come find me.”
He shot a hot spike of magic straight to my core and ignited my orgasm. My breath caught as the pleasure swept through me and I clutched the waistband of his shorts — only because that’s where my hands had been when he made me come.
“That’s just a taste,” he murmured in my ear and his sensual magic melted away, leaving me panting and trembling and craving more.
I clung to him, fighting to catch my breath and regain my composure before I lifted my head and faced the guys. Embarrassment heated my cheeks that I’d orgasmed with everyone watching, but so, too, did excited desire for the same reason. And while it could have been Hawk’s magic influencing me, I had a suspicion it wasn’t.
“We need to go,” Cassius said, his tone sharp, jerking my attention from my still trembling body. Something was wrong.
Hawk chuckled, the sound thick with male satisfaction. “Pretty sure Miss Angel can’t walk yet.”
“Then Bane, carry her,” Cassius commanded. “It’s gotten too quiet outside.”
I drew in a ragged breath and forced myself to sit up.
“What do you mean too quiet?” Hawk asked.
“You might want to close up shop for a month or so,” Sebastian said to Hawk as he stood and held out his hand to me.
“I can’t afford to close up shop for a—”
A sharp rip came from the back of the tent, and with a yell, a wiry man with a knife leaped inside through the large slit he’d just made
.
Chapter 13
Amiah
Sebastian grabbed his left forearm and hissed a soft sibilant word as two more men leaped through the slit at the back of the tent. The glyph on his arm lit up and a moderately powerful force-wave shot from his left hand and knocked the men over, tumbling them into the tent’s canvas back.
“Grab Amiah and let’s go,” he said to Hawk and staggered toward the flap at the front.
Hawk threw me over his shoulder before I could tell him I could manage.
The three assailants, all human males with similar builds to Sebastian and all with foot-long knives, scrambled to their feet and raced after us.
We ran out of the tent, and Hawk dropped me to my feet and shoved me into Sebastian’s arms. “You should take her.”
He then turned to face the men, and I pushed away from Sebastian before he could get a good grip on me.
“I can stand,” I said, even if I was still a little unsteady.
Behind him Cassius and Titus fought with at least a dozen more assailants, a mix of men and women, humans and shifters, while people screamed and ran away, tripping over each other, tent lines, and knocked-over merchandise.
Cassius side-stepped a jab from one of the men, snapped a small fire whip around his neck — mindful of all the flammable tents and people around us — and wrenched him into a shifter behind him. Another shifter leaped at him, her claws aimed for his back, and he jerked around to face her, blocking her attack with his forearm and pushing her claws away from his body.
Titus snarled and slashed at a man with a sword, tossing him into a small red tent, as another man, a shifter, took the man’s place. Inside the damaged tent, someone screamed and a woman scrambled out the front flap as the man Titus hit staggered to his feet then dropped to his hands and knees, gasping.
My magic surged to my palms and locked onto him, even though I’d only recovered a little magic from this morning.
Oh, no. My pulse stuttered. I didn’t want to go running into a fight to heal someone let alone someone trying to hurt us. But my magic didn’t care if that man was trying to hurt us or not. He was gravely injured and I had to try to save him.
I strained to stay where I was. I wasn’t a reckless fool. The worse thing I could do was run into danger. That could distract Cassius and he could be killed. But the burning pressure to go to the injured assailant jerked me forward despite my desires.
Sebastian grabbed my arm. “What are you doing?”
“Keep me here,” I gasped.
“Keep yourself here.”
Behind me, someone yelled, and Sebastian yanked me out of the way to the other side of the narrow path by a pair of tall metal trailers. Hawk and the man who’d first entered the tent tumbled onto the ground where I’d just been standing, and Hawk rammed his elbow into the guy’s face while Sebastian shot another small force-wave at a man about to stab Hawk in the back.
“What the hell have you gotten me into?” Hawk demanded, as more men hurried out of the tent.
“You really want an explanation right now?” Sebastian shot another force-wave, but my body jerked me away before I could see the results.
Weak light radiated from my palms, visible only to me, a testament to how little power I had, but the pressure to use it on the dying man was just as ferocious as if I was at full.
I stumbled, fighting the pull, but I had no idea if I’d be able to resist long enough for the fight to end and Cassius to drag me away.
Someone yelled and a woman tumbled to the ground beside me unconscious. Not dead. All around me, people yelled and screamed. Cassius had released more of his fire, his whip almost full size now, hissing and crackling as it struck flesh. Titus snarled and slashed someone else. Both Cassius and Titus were bleeding, their T-shirts cut, and blood splattered the hard-packed dirt at their feet.
Ahead, the injured man, still on his hands and knees, panted short shallow gasps, each breath coming farther and farther apart. Blood gushed from the wound Titus had inflicted with his claws, and from the amount on the ground, he was losing it quickly.
Pressure screamed through me with the promise of an excruciating backlash if I resisted much longer.
The man sagged to his side and I lurched forward another step. I was now at the edge of the chaos. There was no point in fighting the compulsion now. I was already in danger.
I scrambled to the fallen man’s side just as the pressure inside me vanished, releasing me, replaced with anger and frustration. He was dead and I’d been forced to run into danger for no good reason.
A woman landed beside me with a thud and a heavy oomph. Her attention jerked to me and I froze. But a tall muscular man with a stern expression yelled at her and she scrambled back into the fight, only to be replaced by another man with a compound fracture, the bone protruding through the flesh of his right arm.
My magic flickered and I lunged for Titus. He was the closest, and if I wanted to get out of danger, I needed to use up my magic so it wouldn’t lock onto someone else.
Titus jerked around to swipe at me, but froze, and I slapped my palms against his side and released my magic. The sudden surge drew a wild howl filled with pain and Cassius wrenched around to face us.
“What are you doing?” He grabbed my arm and yanked me away before I’d given Titus all my power.
A slice of backlash cut through me, stealing my breath, and I grabbed Cassius’s wrist and gave him the rest, all but the little bit that was always in the core of my being deep in my palms, a flame of magic that never went out.
He grunted against the pain of suddenly being healed and his gaze met mine, hard and icy with understanding.
Exhaustion flooded me and the world lurched and darkened, but at least I wasn’t going to heal the enemy.
“Bane,” Cassius yelled, seizing the assailant between him and Sebastian with his fire whip and slamming him into the side of a pickup truck. “Get her out of the way.”
Bane’s attention jerked toward us and Cassius shoved me toward him.
I staggered, fighting to stay upright and conscious. The weariness would pass. I just needed time to recover.
Sebastian yanked me to his side. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
I opened my mouth to respond but he jerked his gaze away from me.
“Fucking crazy angels,” he hissed and sent another force-wave into two shifters barreling down the path toward Hawk.
I swept my gaze around the chaos. There were dozens of assailants, and they were making no attempt to go unnoticed. The stern man yelled something else and two more men scrambled back into the fight. “I thought you said they wouldn’t make a public attack.”
“That was the Shadow Court. My glyph would light up if they were shadow fae.” Sebastian pointed to a small glyph on the inside of his wrist, which flared to life with a brilliant white glow. “Oh, come on!”
With a curse, he shoved me back, hard. I lost my balance and fell onto my rear end, the impact jarring up my spine and sending darkness shuddering across my vision, but it saved my life as the fae with the shadows writhing under his skin darted out from between the two trailers his blade slicing the air where I’d just been.
He swiped his knife again, this time at Sebastian, who jerked out of the way. The blade cut through Sebastian’s shirt, but thankfully didn’t draw blood, and Sebastian grabbed the shadow fae’s wrist and twisted it in an attempt to disarm him. But the shadow fae rammed his heel into Sebastian’s knee, knocking him off balance, and wrenched his wrist free.
I staggered to my feet and scanned the area for somewhere to hide. The best place for me was out of the way. Even if I had combat skills, I was in no condition to fight, but a shifter, who’d been knocked to the ground by Hawk, noticed me, and bolted toward me.
I glanced at Sebastian. He was busy with the shadow fae. And while Hawk had managed to get one of his assailants’ knives, he was still fighting with four of them.
No one was going to help me, so I squeezed a t
rickle of magic out of the core of my being and released my wings. Up was the best place to go. Everyone would be able to see me — and up my skirt — but at least they wouldn’t be able to get to me.
I leaped, caught the wind, reached the top of the trailers, and the nightmare from the park ring lunged out from behind one of the trailers and grabbed my ankle. He wrenched me down, slamming my back against the hard-packed dirt and knocking the wind from me.
For a second I was drifting in quiet darkness, then my vision partially cleared and the sounds of the fight roared back to life around me.
“No flying away and going for help,” the nightmare sneered, capturing me with his hellfire gaze.
Icy fear seized me. The faith healer’s tent materialized around me and he smashed his Bible against the side of my head, making the world spin. I’d displeased him. I’d been unable to heal as many people as he’d wanted before I’d run out of magic, and he hadn’t made the profits that he’d wanted.
With a snarl, he seized my throat and pushed me onto the table. Would this be the time he raped me? I’d told him I’d lose my magic if I wasn’t pure, but I had no idea how long he’d believe that lie.
Tears streamed down my cheeks and his grip tightened, cutting off my air. Please, don’t. Please—
Except the faith healer had never raped me and I wasn’t in his tent. Cassius had freed me. This wasn’t real. It was the nightmare’s magic.
I gritted my teeth and felt for his magic in my mind. There. A sour, nauseating darkness.
The faith healer squeezed tighter and reached for his belt buckle.
No. Please no.
My thoughts stuttered, my fear swelling, and I heaved my focus back to the nightmare’s magic. With a scream, I mentally shoved him out of my mind and the faith healer’s tent vanished.
The nightmare snarled and lunged at me, but the demon-vampire, now beside him, grabbed his arm, stopping him.
“Not our target,” he said to the nightmare, his voice so soft I could barely hear him above the roar of the fight.