I opened my mouth to ask a question, but he held up his hand.
“In the morning,” he repeated himself, before walking forward, through a low entryway that was dwarfed by twin staircases that led to the upper floor he had mentioned. His footsteps receded into the darkness, and wherever he had gone, he didn’t bother to light a path for himself.
He must’ve known the house like the back of his hand. That thought made me wonder.
“Rest is good,” Cash said, sneaking me a distinct look that made a curl of heat spiral in my belly. Landon had his arm around Levi’s waist, propping him up. The other man, or demon rather, was sagging and looked gray at the edges of his skin.
“Don’t you all be up all night fucking,” Landon said bluntly. “We’ve got a debt to settle tomorrow, and the witches of this council are going to be made to pay what’s owed.” Levi laughed, a watery and thin sound before Landon started hauling him up the stairs. The step-step-shuffle of the two of them together clumped off to the left.
“Let’s go to the right then, let the two lovebirds sleep off their hangover,” Charlie quipped before pinning Frank with a stern look. “Don’t do anything I would do.”
“They’re old enough,” I argued because Daria’s cheeks were blushing, and I didn’t want her to feel embarrassed any more than she already was. We’d had enough struggle. I started to climb the stairs, the guys following me. Warm light spilled into the foyer hallway, about five sets of doors all down the one wing. Behind me, a mirrored set of doors went to the left, where Levi and Landon had disappeared off to. A faint, muffled peal of hysterical laughter worked its way toward us, Levi and I shivered. He must’ve been in horrific pain.
“This one?” Eli asked as he tried the second door in, pushing it open. “Kids, this is for you,” he called quietly over his shoulder. Daria brushed past me with a smile, and I peeked in. A king bed stood at the far end of the room, flanked by windows with the shades drawn. I could just see a bathroom, marble flooring gleaming in the low light from lamps on the side tables, off to one side.
“Better than some hotels we’ve stayed in,” Ace said, before moving onward, skipping a door and going to the next. I followed him and sighed in relief when he opened the door. The suite was more extensive, two king beds next to one another, and if they weren’t rooted to the floor, we could push them together.
“So, five bucks say he owns this place,” Finn laughed quietly as he entered the room, and I followed him. The sense of peace fell over me like a heavy blanket, and I realized I really need to pee.
It’s those little body functions that I’d forget about when terrified for my life.
“Gimme a sec,” I said, stepping into the bathroom to refresh myself. Washing my hands a few minutes later, I tried not to be taken aback by how beautiful it was. And it was just one bathroom. My parent’s home had always been pretty grand, but this was a step above anything I expected.
Wolfe had to own it. How many properties did he have? I didn’t want to ask. I dried my hands off on a soft towel laid on the bathroom countertop and eyed up the walk-in shower. I was covered in dust and dirt from my earth-surfing experiment. It was time to get clean. I shrugged out of my shirt and popped my jeans open, kicking the grubby clothes to the ground. Walking into the shower felt like stepping into an abyss. It was deep, with a curved wall to keep the water in, made of stained, leaded glass. Below the shower head was a simple panel with a touch-button to turn on the water, and a plus and minus sign, probably for the temperature. Steamy spray filled the shower, and I walked under it, groaning as the water pounded over my sore muscles.
Exactly what I needed.
A low wolf-whistle echoed in the room, bouncing off the tile, tugging a laugh out of me as I turned. Cash leaned against the entrance of the shower, a towel wrapped around his waist, and a determined smirk lining his lips.
“Well, that’s exactly what I need,” he said, and I turned back to the shower, dunking my head under it as he dropped the towel and stepped in behind me.
“I was thinking just that a few seconds ago,” I replied, leaning into him as he pressed his body to mine, his height dwarfing me.
“About me?”
“About the shower,” I teased, reaching up and back to curl my hands around the nape of his neck. He was hard already, but I wasn’t at any energy level to do something about it, that and I’d just, y’know, seen a guy lose half his arm, so I probably wasn’t going to be eating anything for a few days at least.
“You’re mean,” Cash murmured, lifting the wet tanks of my hair off my neck and planting a kiss on the rounded slope of my shoulder. “But I kinda like you like that.”
“Mean?” My voice hitched, not at all because his hands were smoothing their way down my wrists, fingers dragging over the backs of my hands. His touch was rough and perfect, and I melted into it.
“I still got questions about what happened out there tonight,” his voice burrowed its way inside me, all sparks of light and heat that tingled along my spine and through to my fingers.
“Me too,” I murmured back, tilting my head so I could look at him, the underside of his chin, the angles of his cheeks.
“You and Wolfe better stop playing with weird magic before one of you gets blown up,” he added like he hadn’t heard me. “Maybe it’d be better if I reminded you what happens to silly little girls who toss around lightning bolts and-”
“I’m not tossing around any lightning,” I snapped and tugged away from him. Instantly his expression changed, from naughty and playful to remorseful.
“Hey, shit, that’s not what I meant.” He ran a hand through his damp hair, the strands sticking up at odd angles away from his face. His eyes darkened. “I was just playin’. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
I took a shaky breath. The loss of my powers was hitting me harder than I realized. It was weird to be without something that had wound itself through my soul and spirit for my entire life, like losing an eye. I felt half-blinded by it, the world losing some of its depth and shadow. It had been fucked up to tap into that whatever type of magic that Wolfe had talked me into trying, but for a second, it had felt- I had felt, alive.
“Sometimes you say stupid shit,” I said to Cash, and he cradled the side of my face with his hand.
“I’m a dumb fuck,” he agreed and then bent to kiss me. I let the warmth of it fill me up, from the toes to my finger-tips. “I meant,” he breathed out, the steam rising around us, “you scare the shit out of me with how powerful you are even when you’ve got nothing left in you. And sometimes, I think you’re so caught up in needing to protect us that you’re willing to explode yourself just to save us. And you gotta stop, sweetheart, you gotta stop… just… take a breath, and know that we’ve got your back now like you keep having ours.”
I let my eyes close as he held me, the soft beat of his heart under my hands as I slid them over his chest. The water dripped over his skin, warm along the edges of my fingers.
“Please help me stop feeling,” I asked, the words begging right out of my throat.
“Oh, fuck, sweetheart,” he groaned, and my world rolled under me as his hands hitched under my thighs. He lifted me up, the steam swirling around us, my wet hair sticking to my back. I clench my legs around his hips, panicked for a moment that I’d slide right down his body, but his muscles flexed, and he grinned at me. “I’m not gonna let you drop,” he murmured.
“Don’t you dare press me up against that cold tile,” I hissed at him because there was pure mischief in his half-lidded eyes, and I knew with Cash, anything was possible.
“Nah, that’s what I’m for,” Finn’s voice interrupted a split-second before his warmth sandwiched me from behind. Hot, dry kisses spread across my shoulders as he lifted my hair away. I felt weightless, my muscles going loose and tense at the same time. Cash used Finn’s body as leverage to get his hand down between us, stroking over the swell of my stomach and dragging lower. Tiny flares of sparks erupted inside of me as he
spread me with his fingers.
It was like coming home, new and comforting all at once. Every time it felt like it could never be as good as the last time with them, but it was, and more. Was it possible to fall deeper in love with a person, more than one person, the longer you were with them? I had no idea, but my heart, my whole body, felt full to glowing.
I bit my lip and felt like I couldn’t look Cash in the face, the smirk that teased on his lips too much, too intense, as his fingers stroked over my pussy.
“You shy all of a sudden?” Finn asked into the shell of my ear, his hands joining Cash’s to hold me. I shuddered and shook my head. It didn’t matter anyway.
“So wet, doll.” Cash’s hand lingered over the rise of my clit for a moment, making it throb, before he gripped his hard cock, slipping it between my lips. I dropped my head back onto Finn’s shoulder as Cash fucked up into me, the feeling of fullness doing everything I needed.
A fluttering gasp escaped me, the spray of water on my skin making me shudder as Cash rolled his hips, Finn bracing me from behind. I could feel Finn’s cock, hard and rocking against the small of my back, the head of it dragging on my skin.
Cash didn’t say anything as he fucked me, his gaze determined and hot on my face, his mouth finding the curve of my jaw and then my neck. I cried out; he bit me, softly, his teeth sinking into the skin, like he was trying to mark me as his, again.
Didn’t he know I was already his, forever?
Cash’s thumb flicked through my folds, right above where he was fucking me with slow, steady, perfect rhythm. His breathing matched his pace until he grazed my clit, and I clenched down on him out of habit. His eyelashes fluttered, and he fucked me harder, the feeling flooding me. If Finn hadn’t been holding me, I would have slipped right down Cash’s body, my thigh muscles going loose and liquid with how badly I needed to come. It swelled inside of me, each rub of Cash’s fingers over me, setting me closer to the edge. I wanted it so bad, my whole body arched toward him.
His eyes closed, and he groaned, tilting his head back, just as his touch became too much, and I shuddered into a hard orgasm, light sparking up my spine. Finn’s fingers dug into my legs, holding me still as Cash fucked me harder, his rhythm faltering as he came hard, filling me up.
His forehead fell forward to lean on my shoulder, his breathing hard and wet against my neck. I shivered.
“You two,” Finn grated out, sounding strained. He was still hard against my back, and I reached between us with a shaky hand, wrapping my fingers around his cock. His groan echoed off the tiles, and it didn’t take more than once, twice, three times of stroking down his length before I felt the wet heat of him coming between my fingers, a shudder rolling up his abdomen into his chest behind me.
“Slut,” Cash teased Finn, still out of breath as the two of them let me down. My feet landed solidly on the tile floor, and Cash tugged me into the spray of the water so I could get clean. I felt heavy and floating at the same time, and I leaned into him as he soaped my skin slowly, his hands travelling over my body with warm comfort. Finn leaned against the wall, watching us both; his eyes were half-closed.
“Whatever,” he breathed, “as long as neither of you kicks me out because I could watch you for hours.” I lifted my gaze to meet his and couldn’t help the tired smile spread across my face. He was still half-hard, and I knew with a little encouragement… I needed to sleep, but first… I took a step toward him and fell to my knees slowly. Finn’s eyes widened.
“Don’t move,” I said, running my fingers up his thighs before wrapping them around his cock. He groaned, and his head hit the tile. I wasn’t going to leave him wanting.
Thump… th-thump…
My eyes cracked open. The soft sound of the guys breathing, slow, deep and at different intervals, filled the room.
Th-thump.
There it went again, the deep noise, vibrating right through me. My throat tightened, and I sat up, the covers slipping off of me. Beside me, Finn sighed, rolling onto his side. I bit my lip and untucked myself from the blankets, sliding out of bed. I wrapped myself up in the robe slung over the bench at the end of the bed and crept toward the door.
Thump.
The sound was pulling me, right in my core, toward something. The hallway was dim, faint light from the chandelier in the main entryway spilling over the thick carpets.
THUMP.
It filled my ears, reverberated in my chest. Down the hall, down the staircase, the chandelier throwing tiny gray rainbows everywhere. I glanced up.
TH-THUMP.
The crystals hanging in the dim lights seemed to shiver. To the left… I wasn’t sure if the words were whispered or if they came from my own thoughts, but my feet moved over the marbled floor, and I ducked through the arched entry to a long hall. Doors lined it to my left and right as I ran, a sharp corner taking me by surprise. The thudding was so loud in my heart that it felt like it’d shake the walls if I stopped, the floor might buckle under my feet and crack open, and I’d fall, tumbling down like Alice, into the nothingness of the earth.
The scent of almonds rose up to surround me and waxed floors, as I stopped in front of a pair of french doors, their panes coloured and lead-lined, a beautiful stained glass picture of green trees lining a winding river. It glowed from within.
I pushed one door open and peered inside. The smell of old leather and bound paper greeted me.
The house seemed to relax, the walls breathing out slowly as I stepped inside. Tall bookcases stretched toward a domed ceiling, lining the walls of a library. The world seemed to fall away, and when I blinked, it shifted, everything going translucent. I inhaled sharply as the stars poked through the ceiling above, shining a low, blue light over everything and muting out the dim yellow light from lanterns that hung in the center of the round-shaped room. It was like my magic had switched on again, the way Wolfe had shown me how to do it earlier, and I could see everything in the distance, although it was shadowed and dull.
The quiet glow of my guys sleeping was off aways as if they were suspended in mid-air, and I blinked. It looked terrifying.
A crackle of noise echoed through the room, and I jerked back as a bright flame erupted in front of me, floating inches from my face.
It was her. Again, right there, in front of me. She crackled, her core so bright that it whited out and hurt my eyes. I squinted into it, wondering how she’d come to me and why. My eyes watered at how intense it was and the ache in my chest.
“Max,” her name came out like a whispered moan from my dry lips. She pulsed, flickering, twisting and turning in the air before she started moving.
Holding my breath, I followed her, wishing she could talk back to me, that she was real, at the same time trying not to collapse to the floor that she had come to me and yet was still out of reach.
She couldn’t talk back to me, turn to me and smile, or laugh at a dumb joke like the ones we used to tell each other when she’d crawl into my bunk.
The tears that had threatened started to drip down my cheeks. I couldn’t move, my legs locking up.
Ahead of me, the flame I knew was my best friend flickered and then twisted, turning back toward me. She flared, once, impatient and have no time for my emotional display.
I just knew it. I could feel her feelings, how she needed me to pull myself up and follow her. I took a heavy step, then another. She floated along, toward one particular stack of books, and hovered, shivering, in the semi-darkness of the library.
“Books?” I asked and put my hand on the shelf. The polished wood was dusty under my fingers, coated thick with it, untouched for how many years, I had no idea. She flared again, muted this time, as my fingers grazed along the spines. Their words were faded, and I gulped back a sob when she crackled loudly as my index finger hit the side of a book, thin and tall, it’s black leather binding crumbling at the edges.
She flared, so bright it made me cry out when my fingers wrapped around it. I closed my eyes against the brightne
ss, the crackle of her flame fading, and when the spots cleared and I was able to open them again, she was gone.
The faint scent of burning smoke hovered around me, dissipating into the darkness as I stood there, hand on a book.
I shivered and tried to blink away the tears. Although I didn’t remember pulling it off the shelf at all, the book was in my hands. Whatever was in it was important enough for Max to manifest herself on this plane so that I could see her. My knees bent, my muscles like cut strings, and I thumped to the ground, all the energy run out of me. The world had solidified again, and I could no longer see the stars through the ceiling or the distant glow of the mansion’s other occupants.
She was gone again. The grief was raw and fresh, all over again. I took a deep breath and shoved it down. There were bigger things at play. I cracked the book open, a shower of dust falling from its pages and into my lap.
Whatever was in it was important.
Max would have never come to me if it wasn’t. I needed to pay attention and not lose myself in my grief. For once, I needed to be bigger than my feelings. I swallowed hard and let my fingers trace over the wisp-thin vellum pages, hand-written in someone’s cramped style.
Of the soul-magic, one thing is sure, we cannot measure it nor can we master it, for it remains beyond our control at all times…
My heart skipped a beat, and I folded my legs and leaned back against the bookshelf. Finally, answers, maybe, to what I had tapped into earlier, and information that I badly needed.
Thank you, Max, I thought.
Twelve
The rising sun crept along my skin, and I blinked, my mouth dry and tasting dusty. I closed my eyes back up, my whole body one big ache. Someone loomed over me.
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