Caged Magic: Paranormal Romance Book (Iron Serpent Chronicles 1)

by Sadie Jacks

  Sweat broke out on my brow. “Deeper, baby. You’ve got to take me deeper or I’m going to go off before you get there.”

  She sank down over me, covering my cock in all of her creamy heat. “Fuuuuck.”

  I reached forward, finding her clit with my thumb. As I circled it, her hips finally found a deep, fast rhythm.

  Both of us were panting as sweat misted our skin. The rippling of her pussy was pulling at my own climax. Remembering her pulling on her nipples, I reached up and pinched her left nipple. Hard.

  Her head fell back as a scream ripped from her throat and her body pulsed and clenched around my cock.

  My orgasm swept through my body in waves of heat. Her pussy so full it leaked out around the base of my cock. The sight of my semen trickling from her body renewed my own orgasm, wringing another groan from me.

  She sank, like a wilting flower, against my chest. Sweat drenched skin sealed with sweat drenched skin. Her tongue lazily flicked against my pec before she became a heavy, purring blanket.

  “Ransom.” Saint’s voice was hard in my head.

  “What?”

  “The camera was still on.”

  I stilled. “Were you guys watching?” I could feel the rage building, taking over the lethargy of excellent sex.

  “I only saw the last minute or two. But Xander was recording in case something happened while everyone was sleeping.”

  “Fuck.”

  “How do you want me to handle it?”

  “Has Asher seen it?”

  “No. He’s not here yet. Neither is Xander.”

  “Well, that’s good at least.” I sighed. For some reason, it didn’t bother me that Saint had seen us. At least not like it would have had it been either of the twins. “Do I tell her?”

  “If she were mine, I would. She deserves to know she was recorded. I’ll encrypt that section of the video. If she wants to delete it, I’ll send her the password.”

  “Thanks, Saint. Don’t let Asher get a hold of it. No one gets a preview. Not without her express permission.”

  “Lock and key, Ransom. We’ve got some updates about the book and some of Xander’s research about OTIS finally came through. Although you’re going to need to talk to Taryk about some of it. He had to use off-book sources.”

  “Shit. They’re that bad?”

  “From everything we’ve been able to find, they’re worse than bad, bro. I doubt you’d want your parents involved with them.”

  Damn. That said everything right there. “Damn it. Okay. Give me some time to get up and around. It’ll take a hot minute to get Kiema fixed up with that ankle. Kill the feed, will you?”

  “Already done. The twins just arrived. We’ll be standing by.” Saint broke the mental connection.

  Not that I didn’t believe my friend, but I checked to make sure the computer screen was blank and no lights were flashing before I moved the slumbering Kiema to the side.

  My body was still sore, but that endorphin rush had helped cure most of my ails.

  I got to my feet, swayed with the sudden change in position. I grabbed my head, it felt like it was about to pop off my neck.

  Water. Lots and lots of water.

  After quenching my thirst, I walked back across the room.

  She was still sleeping, curled into a little ball. She reminded me of a kitten I’d rescued as a boy. The kitten had been striped black and gray and had three white feet. The last leg had been deformed. No paw had ever formed.

  Like most of the rescues I’d taken in as a child, my father destroyed it. Perfection is the Kolefni heritage.

  I shook off the family motto. I was a Kolefni, and nothing about me was perfect. But I’ll be damned if I’m worth throwing away. I’m just lucky I hadn’t been destroyed a long time ago.

  Shaking my head, I bent down and picked Kiema up into my arms. She grumbled, her brow and nose wrinkling. As she cuddled into my chest, a low snore—almost a purr—slid from her throat.

  “I’ll protect you, kitty.” I kissed her head and made my way to her bedroom.

  Chapter 37 – Kiema

  “Thank Gaia your ankle healed while we were sleeping,” Ransom said as he slid breakfast over the island to me. “By the way, I’ve got something I need to tell you before we hook back up with the guys.”

  “Okay.” I smiled at him in thanks. Breakfasts had never been an important part of my day. But since spending time with Ransom, I could begin to crave them. Or maybe it was just the man who cooked for me in nothing more than a sheet and a smile.

  He braced himself on his hands as he leaned over the countertop. “The camera was still on this morning.”

  “Okay?” It took me a minute, then all the blood drained from my face. “Were they there? Were they watching? Shit, shit, shit. I’m such an idiot. I didn’t even think. They we—”

  “No,” he barked at me. He reached across the island, grabbed my hands. “No one was there. Saint came in at the very end. He’s the one who told me about it. He’s already locked that section of recording away. It’s your decision on whether you want to keep it or not.”

  Keep it or not? Of course I was going to…my cheeks flamed as my eyes widened.

  A sexy smile pulled at his mouth. “You want to watch it?”

  “Is that weird?” I whispered.

  “Not at all, baby. I admire your openness to everything sexual. If you want to keep it, you can keep it. But you’ll be the only one with the password. Saint set up remote access to that part of the file. Once you reset the code, not even he’ll be able to get back in.”

  I nodded, took a deep breath. “Thanks.”

  “Of course, Kiema. I would’ve wanted to be told as well. No problem.”

  I stopped his turning back to the stove with a squeeze of his hand. “Not just that, Ransom.”

  He watched me, a puzzled look on his face.

  I grabbed my courage in both hands. “Thanks for teaching me about all of this. Not everyone would’ve been so nice. They might have laughed at me. Or worse. You made me feel sexy and smart. Treated me like a goddess. Rocked my world, turned me inside out.” I shrugged. “Thank you.”

  Ransom looked like he’d been slapped silly. “I’d say you’re welcome, but, Ki…” He shook his head. “You rocked my world as well, turned me upside down and spun me around. This has honestly been the best sexual experience of my life. Thank you for trusting me.”

  I smiled, my heart in my throat. I was so glad I could impact him the way he’d impacted me. Even in this baring of my soul, he treated me with respect, as valued and worthy of dignity. Tears gathered in my eyes.

  He came around the island, grabbed me up into his arms. Without thinking, I wrapped my legs around his waist. With a groan, he lowered his lips to mine. Sipped at my mouth.

  The tears I was trying to hold back overflowed my lids and slid down my cheeks. He kissed each one.

  “Your mouth is so soft when you cry,” he said softly. “But, angel, you’re killing me with the tears.”

  I sighed. Reining the emotion back in, I pushed back the tears.

  “You guys there?” Saint asked calmly from the computer at the other end of the kitchen island.

  I wrapped my arms around Ransom’s neck and clung for a couple more minutes.

  “Coming, Saint,” Ransom called as he squeezed me back. He kissed my hair as he settled me back into my chair.

  He brought the computer to our end of the kitchen island.

  “Good morning, Kiema,” Saint said. He looked around his space. “Before the boys get back in here, I just wanted to reassure you that the file is locked away. I didn’t watch it, I swear. I did have to back it up so I could lock down the appropriate section. But that was easy to find because the sensors told me each time movement happened.” His dark brown eyes were serious, his brow furrowed.

  Oddly, I didn’t feel embarrassed. I felt…all kinds of things, but embarrassment wasn’t one of them.

  “Tha-,” I had to clear my throat
of more tears that wanted to fall. “Thank you, Saint.” I kissed my fingers and touched the screen.

  The quiet, calm man ducked his head. Rubbed a hand over his neck. “Of course, Kiema.” His words were directed to his chest.

  Faint laughter could be heard from his end of the connection.

  “My sexy lady here yet?” Asher asked from off screen.

  Saint’s face resumed its restrained lines. “Yes. They’re both here.”

  Asher’s animated face joined Saint’s. “Morning, Ki-Ki. Sleep well?” His face was so open and honest.

  I looked to Saint, a faint smile on my face. “I slept like a queen, Asher. Thank you for asking.”

  Saint smiled at me, shot me a wink.

  “Good, good. We’ve got to review the feed. The sensors went off a couple of times, but only for a couple of seconds. So there’s probably nothing but you and Ransom sleeping or changing position. We’ll get it analyzed.” Asher bobbed his head. I wondered what he heard in his mind. Was he playing music in there?

  “He means I’ll get it analyzed. He’s almost worthless with computers,” Xander said as he popped his head in from the side. “Give him something with an engine, he’s your man.”

  “I’ll remember that. Good morning, Xander.”

  “Morning, Kiema.” He ducked back off screen.

  “Ransom said you guys have some information about the book and OTIS.”

  The energy in the room dropped like a bomb had gone off.

  “That bad, huh, guys?” I asked. “I guess we should start with OTIS.”

  Asher, happy and irreverent Asher, growled low in his throat. “The Order of the Iron Serpent. You were right on the last two, Ki-Ki.”

  “So technically, it should be TOOTIS,” I said with a straight face.

  Ransom laughed behind me.

  Asher’s serious face lightened briefly. “I guess even big scary secretive groups want to have cool sounding names, too. TOOTIS doesn’t really spark fear in my heart.”

  “But OTIS does?” Ransom asked.

  Asher nodded. So did Saint. Even Xander came on screen to share his nod of doom.

  “Fuck.” Ransom almost breathed the word.

  “Xander did the research, he’ll fill you in,” Asher moved back from the screen. Waved for his twin to take his spot.

  Xander glared at his brother as he came on screen. “I had to go deep to even find a mention of them. Dark web,” he explained, looking at me specifically. Apparently, my face had shown my confusion.

  I nodded.

  Xander cleared his throat and continued. “They had some postings on boards about wanting to meet anyone with magic. Didn’t matter how small or useless. If you have magic, they want to meet you. They’re even willing to pay to study it.”

  “They find any takers?” Ransom asked.

  “Some. Most people assumed they were a trafficking site. They got more bashing than anything else. A couple people responded though.”

  “Are they trafficking?” I felt the bottom of my stomach drop out.

  “I don’t know. But honestly, considering Taryk’s information, I wouldn’t be surprised if they have their fingers in that pie as well.”

  “Shit.” Ransom and I responded together.

  “Believe me, if that were the worst of it, I wouldn’t be this freaked out.” Xander swallowed noisily from an energy drink can. “I couldn’t find anything about the user on the boards. No one had ever heard of him or her. Uses the handle IronSnake. IS pops up every couple of weeks. Makes the same request. Disappears. I was able to track the people who responded to IS though. Tracked them through IP addresses. Mostly they were scared people who discovered they had some funky kind of magic and couldn’t get the answers from the centers or MagCorp.”

  “How was their magic funky?” I asked.

  “Bringing stuff back from the dead, mostly plants and animals. Ability to hurt others. Influence or change someone’s mind. One kid from Olon said he could move his truck with his mind.”

  I stared at Xander. Those kinds of magic would be terrifying. “What happened to these people?”

  “Either disappeared, chose to leave, or were approached, tested, and then let go.”

  “For those that disappeared, was there any investigation? For those that chose to leave, has anyone been in contact with them?” Ransom asked.

  “Disappearances were investigated by local law enforcement. After a couple of weeks, each of the files were closed as cold cases. The leavers were heard from once or twice after choosing, but no contact has been made in the last six months.”

  “How many disappeared?” Ransom asked.

  I rubbed my hands up and down my arms, trying to warm myself against the chill invading my body.

  Xander hit a couple keys, the clicking sound just barely audible. “Twenty-seven. Leavers register in the hundreds. The earliest I could find any link for IS was five years ago. The boards are constantly changing, the links and protocols migrate and shift. I got what I could, but it’s not a comprehensive picture.”

  “Does OTIS use any legitimate internet sources for recruitment?” I asked.

  “None that I’ve been able to find. I did every search I could think of. I even set up a bot to scrub pages while I was doing other things.”

  “So Kiema’s father is part of OTIS?” Ransom asked.

  I turned and looked at him. “Shit. I didn’t even put that together.”

  He kissed my head. “We’ll figure it out.” He looked back to the screen. “Xander?”

  “Feuer has an encrypted file on his secure server. I was able to access a backdoor from the server host. While there’s not a lot that stands up and says, ‘I’m a member of this douchey group,’ there’s enough to infer that he is at least in the outer ranks of the organization. He did upload Kiema’s MagCorp profile and testing results. I can’t tell you who else accessed those records, but there have been at least forty requests for access since it was uploaded when she was three.” He looked at me, a sad look on his face. “I’m really sorry, Kiema. I wish I had better news for you.”

  I smiled at him. So different in personality than his brother, but looking like mirror images. “Not your fault, Xander. Thank you for looking into all of this.”

  “Of course,” he said, as a rush of pink brushed his ears. “I’m glad to help.”

  “What kind of info did Taryk get?” Ransom asked, pulling the discussion back on track.

  Saint spoke up from the back. “There are some interested parties in the top levels of government. More interested in weaponizing magic for special groups. They’ve been doing some backchannel communicating with OTIS, sending them black ops money, that kind of thing. His contact said there are some rumblings of labeling them terrorists, but the contact doesn’t have hard proof on that yet.”

  “Does anyone know what they want as a group?” I asked.

  All the guys on screen shook their heads.

  “We’ve found nothing concrete outside of the call for magickers to contact them.”

  An awful idea floated through my mind. “Xander, could you tell me the last time someone accessed my data from my father’s server thingy?” I swallowed. “Please.”

  “Yeah, sure. Give me two.” He shot me a look I couldn’t quite decipher.

  “What’s going on, Ki? You’re shivering.” Ransom rubbed his hands over my shoulders.

  “It might be nothing. Let’s wait to hear what Xander says.” I rubbed my hands together, fingers gripping each other.

  Xander looked up. “You have two on the same day, Kiema. Within a couple of hours of each other. One has been accessing the other information for years. The last one was brand new.” Xander raised his eyebrows. “Does that help?”

  My belly dropped. “The one who’d accessed it before. How often had they looked at it?”

  Xander’s brow furrowed, but he looked at his information without speaking. “They’ve accessed the information at least once a year since initial upload.”


  “And the last unknown accessor?”

  “Twenty-nine days ago.”

  My eyes closed, my heart lodged in my chest.

  “Honey, what’s wrong? You’ve gone pale,” Saint said, his husky voice curling around me like a warm blanket in the sudden chill.

  I felt Ransom lean down and look at me. “Kiema?”

  Shit, shit, shit. Did I take the risk that my contact was part of OTIS? Did I trust these men enough to tell them my plans? I looked at the three men on the screen. Their faces were pinched, worry in their eyes. Saint especially looked like he wanted to crawl through the connection and cuddle me on his lap.

  Ransom squeezed my shoulders again. The heat from his hands sank into my muscles. The ache from his bite still zinged through my system. If I trusted him enough to touch me, and allow me to touch him in return, couldn’t I trust him with my plans? My future?

  “Ki-Ki?” Asher asked.

  I took a deep breath, straightened my spine. I was tired of other people being in control of my life. At least this way, with these men, I would get to help decide the course my life took after this time with Ransom was done.

  All three men on screen leaned forward. Ransom looked like he was about to shake me until I started talking. I took another deep breath. “I was contacted three weeks before I met Ransom,” I began.

  “What the fuck?” Ransom said.

  “I had to get out, Ransom. I couldn’t stay there anymore. You were going to be my ticket to freedom.”

  “Why is someone contacting her so important?” Saint asked.

  “She’s essentially a prisoner. Constant surveillance, locked into an apartment and office, escorted from Point A to B. Even fucking bathroom breaks, for Gaia’s sake. Someone else has the codes. No outside contact.”

  “Fuuuck,” Asher breathed.

  “So when someone basically answered my prayers by offering me a way out, I leapt at it. Hell, I would have done more.”

  “You didn’t think it was suspicious that someone managed to find you?” Ransom asked, his tone biting.

  I glared at him. “Of course, I did. I just didn’t care anymore.”

  He sucked in a breath. He took his hands from my shoulders, walked in a tight circle behind me a couple times. “Fuck.”