by Michele Hauf
“I’d come after you and kiss you,” Kelyn managed, “but I can’t even see straight!”
“Ha!” Valor rolled off the couch and landed hard on the floor. Turning onto her back and gazing up into the constellation of chandeliers that blurred and turned into a massive cloud of muted light because of her inebriation, she decided that the witches in Paris knew how to party. Big time.
The music switched to something sensual, and CJ called out, “Lover, oh, Mistress of the Faery Dust Bomb!”
Vika popped her head up from the kitchen fridge, where she’d been looking for more ice. A snap of her fingers spun a flame into the air and it floated toward CJ, who caught the amber ball on his palm and then, with a sip from his glass, blew the alcohol through the flame, creating a magnificent burst of blue sparkly flames that alighted into the air.
“Don’t burn the place down!” Vika called. “I don’t have enough ice for that!”
Kelyn reached out to catch a falling blue flame, and as it lit onto his fingers it alchemized into liquid and glided along his skin, finding the silvery scars at his wrist and, for a moment, lighting up the sigils that had once been there. “Sweet. Whoever said dark witches were evil?”
Meow!
Valor lifted her head from the floor and spied the black cat with the white star on her chest chase the blue flames rolling across the floor as if they were marbles.
“CJ,” Vika called admonishingly. She tried to look stern, but she wobbled drunkenly, too.
CJ called out a Latin word and all the flames fizzled.
“Aww...” The war demon pouted. “They were so pretty.”
“Who’s up for naked limbo?” someone shouted.
* * *
The airplane hadn’t even left the tarmac at Charles de Gaulle, but both Kelyn and Valor sat in first class with heads bowed toward each other, snoring. Still on a high from the Dust Bombs, Valor had glided onto the plane, arms held out and making noises like a kid would were she playing at flying. She’d been hyped with exhilaration and when Kelyn had followed with a staggering gait—yet he’d managed a perfectly sober stride through customs—she hadn’t felt an ounce of the usual nervous anxiety.
Once seated in the confining tin can, Valor had yawned and whispered a spell for sleep. It might have been the faery dust coursing through her system, or it could have been a lucky magical moment, but the spell actually worked.
It had been a long adventure, and but one ingredient remained. And then to Faery.
* * *
Nine hours later, Kelyn sat in the back of a cab with Valor, cruising from the Minneapolis airport to the northern suburb of Tangle Lake. Both were still a little drowsy, but whether it was jet lag or dust lag they couldn’t be sure. They didn’t need to talk now. Holding hands? That was some kind of awesome.
They’d come down from the high and he was thinking he should have gotten a drink recipe from Vika. Angel dust? That had been some good shit. He’d seen in a range of colors he’d not even imagined before. And while his senses had seemed to increase to what they had once been, it had all been a crazy rushed blur of dancing, laughing, avoiding the war demon’s challenging taunts, chandeliers—and, yes, naked limbo.
Chandeliers? He still didn’t get it, but he didn’t care. They’d had a great night to say goodbye to Paris.
Now he could feel Valor’s energy flowing into him and it didn’t so much invigorate him as exude through his body with a reassurance that she was the right woman for him. He’d not felt this way with a person before. So trusting. Completely at ease. Relaxed.
Was he too relaxed? Should he be more cautious of her magic and the forthcoming spell? A spell that could change his life. Would she perform the spell right? What if it failed? He needed to get to Faery and find his wings.
But even more? He wanted to finally set foot in Faery. It was a home that had always called to him, a place where he belonged. Growing up, he’d felt as if he lived in the wrong world. Sure, his family and home felt right. And the forest surrounding his home, along with the Darkwood, were what he imagined freedom must feel like. But they could never be Faery. Right?
So when finally he did make it to Faery, and found his wings, would he then be able to turn away from all that it offered and return to the mortal realm?
Why would any man do such a thing if given the opportunity to stay?
* * *
Kelyn walked Valor up to her building door, but she noted he’d told the cab to wait for him. Back here in the United States it was midafternoon, and she was no longer tired or high, though she couldn’t promise her aching bones she wouldn’t crash the minute she saw the bed. Travel had whipped her good. And even though Vika had said there’d be no hangover from the Dust Bombs, she wasn’t so sure the throbbing in her temple wasn’t just that.
Yeah, a few winks of rest felt necessary. But she wanted to crash with Kelyn by her side. Didn’t he want to come in and stay with her? They could make love until they fell asleep together from jet lag and adventure withdrawal.
She opened the door to the building, and Kelyn put a palm up on the door frame and leaned in to kiss her. She grasped at his shirt, pulling him closer, wanting to feel his body heat against her breasts, wanting to jump inside him. To make him stay. He couldn’t leave her now.
How could he leave?
“I’ve got some things to check on,” he said as he broke the kiss. “Call you soon?”
“Sure. Uh...”
He lifted a brow, waiting for her to say something.
“It’s good,” she decided. “Right. Uh, back to business. I’ll talk to you soon and we’ll make plans for stage two of the operation.”
“Awesome.” He kissed her again. It was too quick. Not even long enough for her to kiss him back. “Thank you, Valor. This adventure has meant a lot to me.” He clasped her hand and kissed her knuckles. And with a squeeze of her hand, he strode down the sidewalk to the waiting cab.
As if he’d said goodbye for the last time.
Fingers clutching at the door pull, Valor stood in the doorway, watching the cab drive off down the street until it turned the corner at the end of the block.
Gone without a care? Her heart pulsed. It felt as if she’d received a blow to all the feels. She gasped as sudden tears spilled from her eyes.
She missed the man already. And it felt as though he’d taken a piece of her heart along with him. He hadn’t looked at her as the cab rolled away. Not even a goodbye wave.
Why hadn’t he looked at her?
Touching the tears on her cheeks, Valor had a sudden, devastating realization.
“Seriously? Oh, my goddess! By all the television doctors!”
She slammed the door shut and dashed up three flights. Once inside her loft, she aimed for her spell room and found an empty vial.
Chapter 20
Kelyn waited for his brother Trouble to open the front door, and before his oldest sibling could manage a grin, Kelyn swung up his fist and laid his brother out with a right uppercut.
Mostly.
Trouble wobbled, stepped backward, put out his arms to balance, then landed on the easy chair behind him with a grunt. “What the...?” He rubbed his jaw. “Dude, you really have lost your strength. That punch should have knocked me flat. Good try, though.” He smirked.
Kelyn strode inside and closed the door. He had gotten that out of his system, but he still felt dissatisfied. As if his lady’s honor required defending. So he bent before his brother. “That was for making me think you and Valor had something going on.”
“Me and the witch? Of course we did. We used to get together for Netflix and chill all the time.”
“You made me believe you’d slept with her.”
Trouble shrugged. “A guy can’t have too many notches, can he?”
“But you didn’t earn a notch from her.”
Another shrug. Yeah, so Trouble had a habit of boasting about his conquests. Real and, apparently, imagined. Kelyn had always figured his brother padded the number and the experiences with his own ideas on what that total should be. But Kelyn had always believed he and Valor had had sex. It was the very reason he’d not pursued her and had such a tough time initially trusting her.
“So what’s the deal?” Trouble shoved Kelyn backward. “You and the witch getting it on now? She’s the one who stole your wings, man!”
“For the last time, she did not steal my wings. And yes.” Kelyn fiercely stabbed his brother’s chest. “She. Is. Mine. Got that?”
Trouble put up placating hands. His smirk was a constant. But for once could the guy move beyond the childish teasing and boisterous grandstanding and attempt to show some understanding?
“She means something to me,” Kelyn insisted, “so you stay the hell away from her.”
“I have been walking a wide circle around that witch. As you should be. What happened on your trip that changed your mind about hating her?”
“I’ve never hated her. You know I don’t hate on women. I sacrificed my wings for her, Trouble. She had nothing to do with that decision. It was all my doing.”
“You sacrificed your wings because you are a good man and you could never let a woman suffer or die. Which would have happened had you not made such a selfless sacrifice. But she meant nothing to you at the time. You meant nothing to her. She played you, man. You were a sucker!”
Another punch was due. This time Kelyn managed to clock Trouble up under the jaw, shifting his skull on his spine. That knocked him out.
“She’s always meant something to me. It just took me a while to figure out what it was, exactly.”
Standing over his silent brother, Kelyn heaved out a frustrated sigh. This was not his way. He didn’t beat on his brothers. Not unless it was a friendly fight. And such scuffles had happened often growing up in the Saint-Pierre household.
Why now was he so defensive over what he had with Valor? He knew he didn’t have to protect her from Trouble. To defend her honor. A simple stay away would have sufficed.
He rubbed his fist, coming down from the anger.
What an asshole to come here and do such a thing. He turned and opened the front door.
Behind him, Trouble roused and muttered, “My little brother is in love.”
Fingers clenching the door frame, Kelyn tightened his jaw. Was that it? Was he in love?
Maybe he was.
Yet the witch gave no clue that she felt the same way. So what was he going to do about that?
* * *
An hour after Kelyn had left Valor alone at her loft, her door buzzer rang. Tossing aside the towel with which she’d been scrub-drying her hair after a long shower to erase the travel from her skin, she checked her reflection. The soft pink velvet sundress she’d slipped on because it had been conveniently hanging on the back of the bathroom door hung to her thighs. She slept in it, but it was a dress, so she could answer the door in it, as well. Wasn’t like she had abundant cleavage to worry about flaunting. She was flat chested, but never too pissed over that. Especially since lying on her stomach was the only way to sleep. Suck it, big-busted women.
Dodging Mooshi, who was sprawled on the floor beside the sofa, belly up, she glided up and slid the massive rolling door open. Kelyn stepped over the threshold, cupped her head with both hands and gave her the most sudden and delicious kiss she’d ever gotten. It stole her words. And it erased her anxiety over his earlier abrupt departure.
Wrapping her legs about his hips, she tasted mint on his tongue as it danced with hers. He clasped her thighs, kicked the door shut and carried her in toward the kitchen and beyond, not breaking the kiss.
“Watch out for the—”
Mooshi meowed angrily and scampered off while Kelyn managed to double-step to avoid a stumble. And then he resumed the kiss, which was so greedy and demanding it felt as though he was begging for her without words.
Just when she’d been bumming that he’d walked away from her without wanting to stay, he returned. And without a word he was proving how much he wanted to be here now.
Setting her on the big round table before the windows, which she generally used for cleaning auto parts, Kelyn moved the kiss from her lips to her jaw. A few hungry nibbles with his teeth and lashes with his tongue had her cooing and squirming upon the table. He glided those teasing kisses up to her earlobe, which he suckled. Drawing his teeth along the shell curve, he tickled the top inner cove of her ear. That was a new erotic spot.
“Mmm, I was hoping to see you again. I didn’t think it would be tonight.”
“Need you,” he muttered and pushed up her dress. “Right now. Wait—a dress?”
“Don’t read too much into it.”
“Not a problem.” He unzipped and shuffled down his pants. Commando was his style and his cock sprang up at attention. “Yes?”
So he was a man of few words? Worked for her.
Bracketing his hips with her legs, she turned her feet inward, pushing him toward her with her toes. He bowed over her, one hand guiding his hard-on into her while the other gripped her wet hair as he kissed her breast none too gently. The hot, searing heat of his entrance granted Valor a rush of giddy pleasure. She gasped and pulled at his hair and then pushed up his T-shirt so their bodies could be skin on skin.
His intensity was off the scale. He thrust roughly inside her as if he were trying to pin her to the table. This pinning she could handle. Digging her fingers in at his shoulders, she moaned and whispered, “Yes.”
A nip to her breast deepened her pleasure and then she muttered an actual swear word. He pinched her other breast, and the shock of it increased the high of this wild and wicked coupling.
When dust exuded from his skin, it put off a sweet, tantalizing scent. And maybe she got a little high from it, too. Not as high as she had been at the dark witch’s home in Paris. But it added another element to their coupling that pushed all sensation high up the charts.
Licking his shoulder, Valor bit him, testing his reaction.
“Oh, yeah?” He bit her breast but kept his lips over his teeth, and then toyed with her nipple until she pumped her hips roughly against his, demanding, seeking, wanting.
And when his body began to tremor above hers, Valor reached down to tighten her fingers about the base of his cock. But he thrust too rapidly for her to keep a good hold, so she let him come inside her. His loud, short shout sounded like a yes mixed with a sigh.
He hilted himself within her, pushing up and lifting her derriere from the table, the fingers of one hand still at her breast as he tilted back his head and rode the orgasm. “Dr. House!”
Valor laughed and snorted, which sent him into a delicious growl. With a slip of his finger over her clitoris, and as she ground her mons up against Kelyn’s torso, she, too, reached orgasm and shuddered beneath him, her elbows knocking the table. She almost slid off until he caught her and bowed over her, laying his head against her chest.
Somewhere in the loft a cat meowed, with judgment.
“Just needed to be inside you,” he said. A jerk of his hips tightened his erection within her. He groaned and rocked his hips, the move further rubbing him against her clitoris, which prolonged the exquisite aching giddiness. “Feels right here.”
Gasping and breathing heavily, she clasped her hands over his head, holding him there as they experienced a long and delicious gaze into each other’s soul. Their sweat-sticky bodies melded skin against skin. So much in his violet eyes. Could it all be hers?
With a kiss to her breast, Kelyn collapsed on top of her and they lay there for long minutes in a silence that harmonized with their breaths and sighs.
* * *
Valor sat on Kelyn’s lap, and he sat in the big wicker chair placed before one of the tall windows overlooking the street below. This end of town was mostly residential apartment complexes and some old factory buildings that housed hip restaurants and coffee shops as well as a quilting store and a couple art shops.
She licked the cherry Popsicle she had suggested they share to cool them down. She hadn’t pulled up her dress, and her tiny breasts hugged his bare chest. With a bite of the Popsicle, Valor pulled away from Kelyn as she giggled and teased him with the red frozen treat.
He bit off a big chunk and let it melt in his mouth. Then, before the juice was completely swallowed, he kissed her, dashing his cherry-sweetened tongue with hers. She curled into him, and he cupped her ass to hold her tighter to him. He’d pulled off his pants, and his cock was hard. Valor’s foot toyed with it absently, but when she noticed, she turned her attention to stroking the side of it with her toes.
“So we have all the ingredients, then?” he asked. “You got the fifth and final?”
“Yep. I had it in stock like I thought I would.”
“So that was tears of love or something?”
“True love’s first tears. Silly stuff.”
“Right. And tell me why or how a witch keeps something like that in stock?”
“I had it right next to my frog’s bellow and banshee’s scream.”
“Of course. How stupid of me not to know that is standard witch’s gear. So, when are we going to do this?”
“We have one more thing we need.” She hooked a thumb over her shoulder, pointing to the paper lying on the kitchen counter under a yellow highlighter. “I had a chance to read over the whole spell that Certainly copied for me, and it looks like I’ll need a familiar.”
“You mean like a cat shifter?”
“They come in all breeds, but yes, cat shifters are the most common familiars. My best friend Sunday is a familiar.”