by Harley James
One eyebrow rose. “Now it’s Katherine?”
“I’m trying to get you in a more agreeable mood. You owe me a month, remember?”
“That was only if you got rid of Siolazar. You didn’t. Leviathan did.”
“In case you forgot, the terms of my deal were ‘if we get out of this.’ And we did. Doesn’t matter how,” he replied. His fingers crept along the front of her waistband, her stomach jumping with each advance as he unbuttoned her slacks. When they puddled at her feet, she lifted first one foot, then the other, freeing them from the fabric. Then she stood there in nothing but her bra, thong, and high heels. Bond. Make her mine. His gaze fixed on her navel in the mirror to find a center of control. To go slow.
His eyes closed. Breathe. Her body shuddered slightly, and a rush of electricity arced through him. His eyes snapped open to find hers in the mirror.
She’d reopened their intimate pathway.
“I’m too tired to fight or play games. And I’m damn tired of being alone. Care for me once last time so I may face death with strength and honor.”
He turned her around and lifted her in his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist, staring deep into her faded blue eyes. “You will not die while I have breath,” he whispered.
Skin against skin, his blood sang. Her fingers threaded through his hair, the sweet sensation making him groan against her lips. His fingers curled into the soft skin of her bottom, moving her up and down in a slow, delicious grind against the front of his jeans until she was breathing heavily.
“Your jeans have to go.”
Helvete, her voice could slay him. “Not yet.”
She slid down his body, slow like molasses upon a wall. They were both shaking by the time her heels sank into the carpet. “Ari,” she protested.
He settled her into the wing-backed chair, placing a pillow behind the small of her spine. “You’ll get everything you want and more. I promise, skjaldmær—my shield-maiden.”
His chest felt so tight he could hardly take a full breath. He knelt between her legs, her skin an almost surreal shade of rose in the height of her arousal. She leaned up and reached for him then, vanquishing his control. Their mouths met, hot and seeking. Her fingernails scored his back. He unhooked her bra, then cupped her breasts. “So perfect.”
Her hands bracketed his face, pulling him away to look at her. “Y-you can’t say that.”
“What?” A rich blue-green was returning to her irises. “Your eyes are the color of Sognefjord on a foggy morning. Have I ever told you that?”
She blinked at him. “No. I…no.”
“It reminds me of my family in happy times, and of all things that have a good soul in this world.”
“Really?”
The naked vulnerability in her expression was so at odds with the polished, acerbic side of her. “I would never lie to you, Kat.”
She laid her forehead against his, wrapping her arms around his neck. “I know. But calling anyone perfect is too much pressure.”
Of course she would think that. “Okay, no more perfection.” He eased her back against the gray cushions to nuzzle her belly. “No more thinking either.” His fingers slid the edges of her lace thong down, his lips following his fingers to press open-mouthed kisses along the way. “No thinking. Just pleasure.”
Her hands tunneled through his hair, her sighs weaving around them. His shoulders pressed into her legs as his tongue sought her softness. She squirmed on the chair, her hips shifting, rolling against his mouth with increasing strength. Sweat beaded at his temples, slid into his eyes. He hooked her legs over his shoulders and sucked harder, then pulled back before she lost control, blowing and kissing her swollen labia. Up and back down that erotic slide he took her, over and over until she was panting, cursing at him, demanding release, the claws he craved fully unsheathed.
He loved her in all her facets, but he hungered for this raw side. The way she threw off her cold veneer. So rare. But she did it for him. Came…
Undone.
“Yes, Ari. God!” His head rang with her intimate scream. His mouth, his fingers, his arms holding her in place. Riding out the orgasm with her. So beautiful.
“You are mine. You can’t deny me anymore, Kat.” A shadow passed through his mind. Don’t let her think. He scooped her out of the chair, pivoted toward the bed, and laid her diagonally across the covers. He studied her as he unzipped his pants, erection pulsing when she leaned up on her elbows to watch him. He pulled her up to stand, kissing her mouth when she opened it to complain. He swept her into his arms once more, then turned and sat himself on the edge of the bed, bringing her spread legs around him to hook about his waist. Let her lead.
She didn’t make him wait for long. She accepted him, then took him deeper into her body on successive grinds. Each motion of her hips brought them closer together, hearts beating in rhythm, breaths stirring each other’s hair, sweat mingling.
“Lean back into my arms.”
The freedom—the power—she felt with this man was a gift.
And a blade.
So much pleasure. So much pain. So much life.
So much everything.
Ari.
Everything was so dark without him. He brought the light.
How she’d missed him, the effortless vitality he wore like his own skin. When they were together like this, she could almost forget something tainted was inside her, consuming her.
Tears sprang to her eyes as ecstasy rose up. She grasped at her Viking’s broad shoulders and buried her face in his warm neck, the forceful pulse of his life echoing the ripples of the orgasm rolling through her. His arms banded around her, his deep voice whispering ancient words in Norse and Latin as his body continued to claim her.
She could feel his spirit reach for her. Her soul jumped in response, but she blocked the connection before they could merge.
She held on to her Viking’s shifting back muscles. Wishing…
I’m sorry. If only you could stay, it might be different.
Chapter 15
Kat came awake with all her senses online—the murky and curious pre-sunrise energy suffusing the atmosphere beyond her windows, the waves eternally crashing against the rocks outside her bedroom, and the cool ambient temperature of the room contrasting sharply with the heat radiating off the body beside her.
Ari. The way he moved, the scent of him, everything about him…so full of mystery. Exuberant, dauntless, free.
Everything she was not.
He would tire of her so quickly.
Yes, he would be drawn back to her over and over because of their artificial pairing. Maybe she could have lived with that if she had the lifespan of a mortal woman.
But an eternity of watching him leave?
You don’t have an eternity. Sure, she felt good right now, but this vigor would fade as the sickness inside her came creeping back. She could sense it during quiet moments like this. Feel it under her skin and in her mind. Watching. Waiting. For what, she didn’t know. It had gotten worse since her first meeting with Leviathan. Maybe the archdemon had cursed her with the dark sleep? But an archdemon had to be powered up by a holy relic to infect a Guardian, and she hadn’t heard of any relics going missing. Neither from her Unholy Inc partners or from any free-agent Guardians.
Then again, maybe she was simply losing her mind. Going insane like her notorious father.
Alexios would eventually be forced to end her. Or maybe Michael would blitz her into nothingness. That would probably be the most merciful way to go.
Whatever was causing her physical and mental malaise, it was already coming back—an awful heaviness thickening her blood, making her heart work harder to pump vital oxygen through her body.
As ardently as he’d tried, Ari’s healing was becoming less effective.
She blinked back the moisture rising in her eyes as he rolled onto his back, naked and spread-eagled on the bed. Then he went completely motionless again. His lips parted slightly, soft in
repose. He slept the sleep of the guileless. Lucky bastard. She’d resisted him for so long now. Once she’d thought he was hers.
Silly girl.
Silly, sad girl.
She ached to brush the sun-kissed locks from his brow. To wake him with kisses along each glorious, sculpted plane, and start the healing all over again. But one person—especially one full of shadows like her—couldn’t expect to hold a lightning bolt like Ari. He was laughter on the wind, a shout of triumph standing on the bow of a warrior’s ship, a living example of fight hard, play harder.
If only he could stay.
Stay, stay, stay.
She shivered and touched her lips, remembering how his skin had warmed her through the long hours of the night. She never thought she’d have another experience like that again.
All that focused attention was overwhelming and magnificent.
Her heart drummed against her chest, her legs shifting in the sheets. He would probably try to stay. Might even be able to by sheer force of will. But his spirit would die like a bird with clipped wings.
She wouldn’t change her restless Viking. She probably wouldn’t even lov—
She snatched back the hand that had nearly caressed his face. Oh, you stupid girl.
She would always love him.
He didn’t think she understood why he’d left to find Jade, but she did. His pride refused to accept that he couldn’t fix her grief. And the Viking code that forbade any show of weakness denied him the solace of acknowledging his own grief. He did the only thing he knew. Went in search of a salve for both of them.
She loved him all the more for it even as it broke her heart to realize that what he needed, she couldn’t give: her soul, bonded eternally.
The connection they both craved would eventually rip them apart.
Stop thinking about it.
And she needed to stop looking at him.
She rolled carefully away and slipped from the bed, quickly dressing in yoga pants and a thin cotton shirt. She froze when he turned and reached toward her side of the bed, but he only grabbed a pillow and pulled it to his chest. She stared at him for a few more bittersweet moments, then grabbed her phone off the nightstand and quietly left her big, beautiful warrior slumbering alone.
5:17 a.m.
She stepped onto the tiled lanai, skirting around the pool toward the beach. She needed sand between her toes. The spray of surf on her skin, the wind in her hair.
All permanent things. Things she could count on.
She kept her distance from the waves, gathering shells that gleamed milky white in the hazy light, trying to block thoughts of Ari.
And Mary. Her sweet face. How she’d loved her younger sister.
How jealous of her she’d been.
The ugliness of it twisted and burned in her belly even now.
Father had loved Mary best. No, Father had loved only Mary.
“Enough!” She crushed the shells in her fist and threw them back toward the ocean. “I don’t care! Do you hear me, Father? I can’t keep doing this.” She plunked down onto the dry sand, staring at the waves.
So tired of it all.
Tired of keeping the wall fortified. Keeping the bad memories away.
The few good ones, too.
Nothing felt right anymore. All of the pieces were torn, and she didn’t know how to fit them back together. Maybe she could try to take happiness where it came. Would that be so bad? Her heart had been broken before, and she survived.
A sound reverberated above the thrash of the surf. She focused her auditory senses to the south where the muted noise originated. A woman in distress?
Kat stood and moved along the beach where the sand broke to rocky outcroppings, keeping well away from the water’s edge. The rising tide surprised her ten yards from the cliff, swallowing her ankles in shocking wetness, shifting the sand around her toes as it retreated. She backpedaled, skin crawling, sweat beading between her breasts. Go back. She turned toward home, but a woman screamed louder this time.
Kat swallowed and tested the potency of her water element by pushing the tide out further into the ocean, away from her. The surf foamed, curling back upon itself. She exhaled shakily, knowing she shouldn’t use up her resources like this for long. I’ll just check it out, then go back.
She climbed the slippery boulders. It wasn’t long before she saw the source of distress. A Rephaim—his back to Katherine and his red bodysuit obscenely tight over his musculature—stood over a body on the rocks, holding something in his arms. Siolazar. She couldn’t tell if his prey was human or demon.
The being on the rocks screamed once more. A black mist swirled above it, waiting to invade its body. The Rephaim son of a bitch. Why couldn’t he sense her presence? And how dare he help another demon possess someone so close to a Guardian bastion?
She marshaled her power element, feeling the expansion inside her body, but then…
She tempered it, frowning.
If she used her powers now, she might not have the strength to face off with Siolazar and the untethered demon. Siolazar continued to stand with his back to her. Something in his arms was big and lumpy, but she couldn’t make out what it was from this angle.
A great gust of wind surged around her, lifting her off her feet briefly. Ari. No sooner had his air element tracked her, he was behind her.
“The next time you want to go for a dawn adventure, nudge me. I profoundly dislike waking without you beside me, North,” he whispered in her ear.
She looked up at him. “North?”
He smiled, the stubble on his cheeks shadowy in the glom. “Tell you later.” He looked at Siolazar. “Now, what kind of mischief—”
Her gaze darted back to the Rephaim at Ari’s arrested words. Siolazar had turned to the side to focus on the ocean, holding a limp creature with a hunched back and a smooth, white bulbous head.
What the hell? A dead Nephilim? The Rephaim and Nephilim avoided one another, gravitating toward different forms of evil.
Ari’s body had gone completely still except for the tensing of his fists. “I don’t sense Leviathan anywhere around here, but this has something to do with her…and what’s going on with you.”
“How would you know?”
“The Rephaim and Nephilim have no reason to go to war with each other. In a thousand years, I’ve never seen anything like this.” He bracketed his hands around his mouth. “Let the human go,” he yelled out, “otherwise we’re going to have problems, demon.”
Siolazar’s attention finally snapped toward them. He smiled as he dumped the Nephilim’s white body to the ground. “Tell me, Guardian, just how useless are you going to be today?”
The air pressure built around Katherine. “What do you want me to do?” she asked.
Ari started to respond until Siolazar grabbed the human woman by her hair and forced her to her knees in front of the crumpled Nephilim.
“Fy fæn!” Ari materialized his ax, body shifting to lunge.
“Ari, wait!” Katherine streamed forward and latched onto his back pocket. Siolazar yanked the woman’s head back, opening her lips in a wide yawn. The black demon mist spun into a long, tall funnel and shot down her mouth while the Rephaim laughed.
Ari raised an arm to send his ax wheeling through supercharged air manipulated by his element. Siolazar raised his left hand with a snarl and the ax thudded to the ground. “Ah, yes, quite as useless as I suspected. How disappointing.”
The hairs shot up along Katherine’s arms. Jesus, now what? They needed to get the woman away from the Rephaim while they could still exorcise her. Katherine took a step away from Ari’s side so she had room to manipulate her water element, but he pulled her back. “Something’s not right,” he said, telepathically.
“No shit, Ari.”
“We need to bail. Now!”
“Wait!”
But he’d already gathered her into his arms as the Possessed shrieked and sunk her teeth into the dead Nephilim’s neck.
Chapter 16
Fucked. Up.
This was so fucked up.
But at least now he understood why Kat was so sick. And since he knew, he could fix it.
Please, Thor, Freya, Jesus, and whichever other Gods are listening…help me fix this.
Ari tore around Kat’s house, warding the windows and exits on hyper-speed after streaming the two of them out of the Rephaim’s presence. He wasn’t one to run from a fight, but watching a newly possessed human cannibalizing a Nephilim corpse was one of those situations that required a clear head.
Kat grabbed him out of hyper-speed, spinning them head-over-heels to the sofa in her living room. When they landed, her head was at his crotch, her sweet ass inches from his mouth, and just like that he morphed into a horny bastard, imagining her hair in tangles, her head thrown back, her lips wet, open, moaning for him…
She pawed and swiveled on him, trying to sit up, but only managing to make his cock stiffer than his forged-iron sword.
“North, stop. For the love of Odin, just stop,” he ground out, gripping her arms and rolling her to her feet.
She placed her hands on her hips. “That’s what I was trying to get you to do, you big oaf. Let me help you set these damn wards.”
He readjusted himself as much as he was able to without unzipping his pants, then looked up to see her smirk. “I don’t want you using any of your resources. You’re getting sick because of what we saw. Doesn’t it make sense?” But he could see she wasn’t connecting the dots. “When Healer Guardians exorcise humans, we draw their entire essence into our bodies, flush out the evil, and then return their souls back intact. Or at least as intact as they were before the possession. Now think about the consequences of exorcising humans who’ve drank Nephilim blood.”
Her lips parted and eyes widened. “I’ve been mainlining poison.”
He nodded, beating back the urge to go berserk. “Exactly. I couldn’t understand why you weren’t regenerating. I mean, even without bonding, you should have been able to rejuvenate to moderate levels and then maintain that for days.”