by Sarah Fine
He nearly came just from the sight of her, head thrown back, hair spread across the table, her full lips. Saying. His. Name. Her inner muscles contracted around his fingers as she cried out again. Desire crashed over him like a brutal wave, pulling him beneath the surface where no rational thought could survive. He rose above her. She was laid out like a feast before him, and his pulse hammered with his one thought—Take her take her take her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The look on Eli’s face as he loomed over her was everything Cacy needed. It reminded her that she was worth something and made her determined to take back what was hers. Before he’d come to her door, she’d thought Moros had wrecked her forever, but as soon as she’d seen Eli peering into her door camera, his jaw set and his eyes full of concern, the cracks in Cacy’s torn heart started to close. His fierce refusal to leave was the thread that started to stitch her up. Each kiss, touch, and caress helped knit her back together. And now, with his hands firm on her thighs, his body shaking with need for her, the rigid column of his flesh evident against the front of his pants, all she wanted was for him to claim her, completely, nothing held back. To help her reclaim her life, her future.
While Eli’s green eyes searched her face, she slid her ankles around his hips, trapping him against the table, then unbuttoned his pants and slid down his zipper. She sat up, pushing his boxer briefs and pants down over his thighs. His cock sprang free, the hot flesh nudging her belly. He closed his eyes and lowered his head. “Be sure,” he whispered, his fingers stroking down her cheek.
Her hand closed around him, and he drew in a sharp breath. With her other hand, she pushed his shirt up until he reached over his head and pulled it off. His beautiful, hard body was still bruised from his encounter with Len and his minions, but he looked no less strong for it.
“I’m sure.” More than sure. She kissed him, guiding him until the tip of his cock breached her. She gasped at the sensation. Relief—this was something she’d been craving since she’d met him. Pain—just the sweetest edge streaked through her as her body stretched for him. Surprise—it felt even better than she’d expected.
Cacy flexed her hips, her legs contracting around him, forcing him to lean on the table as he sank into her, pulling a groan from deep in Eli’s chest. She hung her head and closed her eyes, focused only on the feeling of fullness. Eli’s hands held her hips in a vise grip as he watched her with half-lidded eyes hazed with need. Once again, he was in control, holding back that wild creature she knew he kept chained inside.
Needing to break his composure, she reached down to stroke his balls, drawn up tight and hot between his legs. Then she slid her fingers further down, to the smooth strip of skin just behind. One stroke and Eli jerked against her, his jaw clenched. His kiss turned fierce and metal-edged as his stomach muscles trembled.
“Don’t you dare hold back, Eli,” she whispered against his mouth. “Take what you want.”
His eyes opened, and he pushed her back onto the table. His gaze predatory, he thrust into her, hard and deep, one stroke she felt all the way inside. Cacy cried out as he hooked his forearms under her knees, his fingers clamped over her thighs, pinning her against him. The pressure was intense and overwhelming. She gripped the table as he pulled back and drove forward again, hitting her in just the right spot and sending waves of molten pleasure crashing over her. Eli growled as his grasp on her tightened, keeping her trapped and vulnerable and begging for more as he breached her body over and over.
Cacy hung on as Eli took control, setting a devastating rhythm that had her rocking against him, taking him deeper, sending helpless moans rolling from her throat. The table creaked beneath the force of his movements.
Eli had ignited a fire in her core that was burning away everything but him, melting her bones, fusing her soul to his, and branding her forever. She reached for him, and he leaned closer, releasing one of her legs so he could brace himself with his palm, which only added weight and depth to his penetration. She whimpered as his tempo increased, keeping time with their hot, panting breaths. She clutched at him as he flexed and pulled back, every thrust sending her higher. It was ecstatic, this feeling of being completed and whole, no longer fragmented, no longer torn. Just filled, healed, chasing an ocean-deep pleasure that was almost in her grasp.
“More,” she gasped.
Eli was nothing if not accommodating. He buried himself inside her, every muscle taut with effort and emanating heat, ready to explode. She could feel it in him, the wildness, the desire, as powerful as an avalanche, more explosive than a volcano, and yet controlled somehow. She wanted him to let go. She wanted him to lose himself in her.
She wrapped her hand around the back of his neck and pulled him down until his bare chest touched hers. Her teeth scraped his skin at the junction of his neck and shoulder, and her name burst from his lips, a warning. He was so close. She could sense him trying to hold himself back again, but he didn’t have anything to worry about. She was right there, hovering at the precipice of an orgasm so raw and powerful she knew it would change her forever.
As the tension inside her ratcheted to its final, almost painful degree, she closed her teeth over his skin, biting the rigid muscle of his shoulder. He slammed against her, all of his muscles contracting, filling her with throbbing heat. It was all she needed. She screamed with her release, all systems melting down, every cell sizzling, every nerve ending sparking and flashing. Her body convulsed around his, milking him dry, and, over the rush of blood pounding frantically in her ears, she heard him saying her name.
After he picked her up and carried her, boneless and panting, back to her bedroom, Cacy lay on Eli’s chest, listening to the powerful, steady beat of his heart. Amazing. After Moros had touched her, she’d been certain she would never feel whole again, but now, just two hours later, she’d never felt more complete. It was like Eli’s touch filled in the gaps, reordered the chaos. It almost made her forget the pinprick memories of her future, and that Moros had already felt everything she would ever feel.
She ran her hand up Eli’s muscled arm and rested it on his chest. His skin was incredibly warm. She turned her head and kissed him, right over his heart.
His fingers were tracing lazily along her back, outlining her raven tattoo. “This is beautiful,” he said softly. “What does Fatum Nos Vocat mean?”
She tensed. Pure reflex. He sighed and shifted like he was going to get up, but she wrapped her arms around him and refused to move. “It means ‘Fate Calls Us.’ It’s our family motto.” She raised her head. “Eli . . .”
His expression was a mixture of hurt and hope. “You don’t have to tell me everything, Cacy. I know there’s a lot. But—”
“I want to tell you everything.” Ferrys were allowed to tell those they trusted most, those who were permanent parts of their lives. Eli hadn’t told anyone about the things he’d seen. He was a good man. And in her heart, she knew she wanted him to be in her life. So he needed to understand a few things about the life she led.
His vibrant emerald eyes grew wider. “You do?”
She looked down at their bodies pressed together, as close as two people could be. “Don’t you think I owe you that?”
The corner of his mouth curled up ruefully. “Not necessarily. I came into this without expectations. Only hope. I’ll take whatever parts of you you’re willing to give.”
She reached up and stroked his face, then scooted up his body and kissed him. “This meant something, Eli. A lot. You mean a lot to me. It’s just that I’ve never told an outsider about my family before, and after a lifetime of keeping it to myself, my first instinct is to keep the secrets.”
He touched her lips with the tips of his fingers. “You mean a lot to me, too. Which is why, if you need some time, I can wait. But you can trust me, Cacy. I would never hurt you, or your family.”
Cacy’s eyes lingered on his face, the heat of his
expression, the set of his jaw. Just looking at him made her heart fill with gratitude. “I want you to know me. And I know I can trust you. But it’s all going to sound strange.”
The depth of his laughter shook her. He took her face in his hands. “I’ve seen you heal from a fatal throat injury. I’ve seen you walk through some sort of portal into a parallel dimension. I’ve been hijacked by your jewelry.”
“What?” Now she was laughing, too.
“Your pendant. When I touched it that night, it turned into a ring that just kept growing. Like a window to another world.”
She blew out a heavy breath. “You shouldn’t have even been able to open it.”
“What is it, exactly?”
“It’s called a Scope, and it’s only supposed to open for those devoted to its service. It’s a portal to the in-between, the Veil.” She laid her head on his shoulder and slipped her forearm under him, her fingers hooking over it and holding on tight. What would he say when she told him everything? Would he think she was evil?
“In between what?”
Here goes. “In between life . . . and the Afterlife. Like a no-man’s land. Regular humans are not supposed to be able to go there. Unless they’re dead.”
He rolled to his side and propped himself on an elbow, looking at her carefully. “And what you’re saying is that you’re not human?” His voice was very even, like he was trying to stay calm.
He didn’t seem angry or scared. But she’d never seen a look so intense. “I am human. Mostly. I just have a few extra features. It’s part of being a Ferry.”
“Like, you pay enough money and you can be immortal?”
She shook her head. “No, like, I’m an intermediary between life and death, like the rest of my family. I guide souls in the Veil to the Afterlife. Heaven or Hell. The Scope shows me which one, and I . . . help . . . the person get there.”
He chuckled. “Oh, I get it. Ferry.”
Her mouth dropped open. “That’s all you have to say?”
He grew serious again. “What do you want me to say? I’ve known there was something up with you from the first night I met you. It didn’t stop me from falling for you.”
“What I’d like to know is how you ended up in the Veil yourself. Only souls of the dead are solid there. Live people are transparent, like shadows. Like ghosts.”
His expression didn’t change, but his skin grew a shade paler. She watched his throat move as he swallowed. “Would someone be solid there . . . if he had died before?”
“What are you talking about?”
He fell back onto the pillow and stared up at the ceiling. “A few years ago, Galena and I were attacked by a street gang while we were walking home from a movie theater. They took our money. And they . . .” His jaw clenched. “That’s not all they took. A bunch of them held me down while they raped Galena, and when I got loose to try to help her, one of them jabbed me with an electroshock baton. Over and over again.”
Cacy laid her head on the rock-hard, tense muscles of his arm. “Oh God, Eli.”
His eyes stayed riveted on the ceiling. “It stopped my heart.”
She stayed very still. Thinking of what he and Galena must have gone through reopened the chasm in her heart, and she was sure it would hurt to move. “Do you remember what happened next?” she whispered.
He shook his head. “I don’t remember anything but the worst pain of my life, and waking up in an ambulance. The paramedic was still holding the defib paddles and leaning over me. He said ‘I guess it wasn’t your time.’ ”
Eli turned to her, and the raw honesty in his face intensified the ache in her chest. “For a long time after that, I wished it had been my time. Galena was beaten up really bad and totally traumatized.” He shifted beneath her and turned his face away. “They hurt her so bad. And I couldn’t protect her. I could barely face her after that, even after we’d both physically recovered. I failed her.”
Cacy touched the side of his face, bringing it back toward hers, rubbing her fingers against the light stubble on his cheeks. “I doubt she thinks that. I’ve seen how she leans on you.”
He closed his eyes and set his forehead against hers. “I wasn’t strong enough to keep her safe. I’ll never live that down.”
Cacy wrapped her arm around his neck and pulled him to her, burying her fingers in the thick golden hair on the back of his head. “You’re human. You did your best. You died for her, Eli. You laid your life on the line. And you know what? That doesn’t surprise me one bit, because that’s who you are.”
He kissed her shoulder. “I guess the one good thing about having died is that it made it possible for me to help you that night. That’s it, right? It’s because I’ve already died. I’ve already been in the Veil.”
She tightened her grip on him. “I think so.”
His lips brushed against her neck, feather-light. “Then I’m okay with it.” He raised his head. “Seems like a big job, being a Ferry.” His forefinger brushed over her Scope.
The icy prickle at her neck told her that the Scope had responded to his touch. His gaze flicked up to hers. “So when people die, you’re who greets them?”
“Me or one of my family.”
His hand closed around one of her breasts, and his thumb skimmed over her nipple. He smiled at her sharp intake of breath. “I don’t think I’d mind dying too much if you were waiting for me.”
“Stop talking like that,” she said breathlessly. “You’re not going to find out for a long time.”
He nudged the Scope with two fingers, and it opened a little wider, raising goose bumps all over Cacy’s skin as she felt the chill of the Veil seep through. She lifted it from her chest to compact it again.
A flash of orange in the shimmery center of the Scope immobilized her.
Eli frowned. “What’s wrong? I’m sorry if I—”
“No. No no no no no.” She gasped, her heart beating against her ribs so hard that it hurt. She held up the Scope and looked through it again, praying she’d been seeing things. But it was still there.
A neat X in the center of a circle.
On Eli’s chest.
He’d been Marked.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Cacy was staring at Eli the same way she’d stared at her father just before he died. She sat up and scooted away from him, pulling her Scope from its chain and stretching it wide. Her hands were white-knuckled as she clutched the thing and scanned the room.
Eli sat up. “What is it?”
“You’ve been Marked,” she choked out, nodding at his chest.
Eli looked down at his chest, which looked like it always did. “What are you talking about?”
The Scope snapped shut, and Cacy clipped it back to the chain. She blinked and wiped her eyes. “The Ferrys aren’t the only ones who roam the Veil. We work with creatures called the Kere. Moros is their leader, and he has some serious explaining to do.”
She jumped from the bed and began rooting through their discarded clothes. “Did you talk to him back at the bar?”
Eli swung his legs from the bed, trying to decipher what she was saying. “I did. He told me to come to you, that you . . .” Are mine. He shook his head. Now didn’t seem like the time to get into it. She was already half-dressed, and he was still sitting there naked, staring at her like an idiot.
“That bastard. It’s just the kind of thing he would do.” She yanked her shirt over her head. “Did he touch you?”
As he reached for his pants, Eli remembered how Moros had poked him in the chest. “He did, but only for a second—”
“That’s all he needed. This is all just a fucking dirty trick. He lied to me. He’s used what he knows about me to design the ultimate distraction.”
Eli had never hated another word more. His hands shot out and closed around Cacy’s arms. Her eyes went wide as he
pulled her to him. “Is that all I am to you? A distraction?” he asked.
After what they’d just done together, after she’d screamed for him, after she’d shaken in his arms with the aftershocks of their lovemaking, after they’d shared secrets neither of them had ever told another person, he’d been pretty damn sure he was more than that.
Her face crumpled. “No. That’s why his plan is so evil.” Her palms flattened against his chest, but she didn’t push him away. Instead, she kissed him, right over his heart. A tear landed on his skin and slid down to his belly, a tiny river of sorrow. “I don’t want to lose you. I can’t lose you like this. Not now,” she whispered.
Her hair was silk as he stroked it. “You won’t lose me. I’m not going anywhere.”
“You don’t understand.” She sucked in a breath. “You’ve been Marked, and now I have to figure out what to do.”
His arms tightened around her. “Don’t you mean we have to figure it out? Tell me what’s happened. I don’t understand half of what you’ve said in the last five minutes.”
Her hands skimmed around his waist and locked behind his back. “The Kere are like the grim reaper. They Mark the people fated to die. They choose how they’ll die, and then they cause their deaths.”
Eli’s heart beat with a new urgency. “Wait. Wait. Are you saying I’ve been marked for death?” It didn’t make sense. He felt fine. In fact, he’d never felt more alive.
Cacy nodded stiffly, her hair brushing his skin. “Why would he do this now? I thought we had an agreement!”
He nudged her chin up so he could see her face. “What did he agree to?”
She bit her lip. “To keep Galena safe.”
“What?” He stepped back from Cacy, alarm bells sounding in his head. “What does she have to do with this?”
As Cacy explained how his sister could present the single biggest threat to the death industry since the discovery of antibiotics, Eli got dressed, nearly ripping his shirt as he pulled it over his head. His rage grew with every word she said. “Are you telling me you’ve known about this?” he snapped. Galena was his responsibility. Cacy had prioritized her family’s secrets over Galena’s life.