by Michele Hauf
“Jack,” Mersey gasped. One hand kneaded against his shoulder, while the fingers on her other dug across his scalp, pulling as she pushed herself up his length and gave herself over to him. Drawn deep, the world grew silent and vast and began to glitter with all the enchantments he had imagined to live within Mersey Bane. And together they touched that dark magic.
“You smell like Morocco,” Mersey said as they lay twisted in the sheets and within one another.
“A country?”
“Yes, like incense, musk, and a bit of cinnamon.”
“My aftershave.”
She stretched her arms above her head and made a satisfied noise as she snugged her body up against his. They’d shagged for hours and a scythe of white moonlight crept through the blinds to light her flat belly. “You have shown me the world, Jack.”
An arch of her back slid her breast across his chest, the soft, heavy globe nestling against his arm. Jack sucked in a breath and let it out as a sigh.
“And you have shown me that a world I once found dreadful can be just as gorgeous as my own.”
“You mean because I’m a familiar?”
“Yes. But you’re just like me. Real, warm, loving.”
“Satisfied.” She snuggled her head against his shoulder. “No man has ever treated me so well, made me…” She giggled and said, “Come so much.”
“My pleasure.” He reached high and drew down one of her hands to kiss the knuckles, one after the other. “So tell me why you wear all these rings?”
“Protection for my future.” She splayed her hand to show two rings on the littlest finger and two on the ring finger. “Dash, I lost another.”
“Why on just the one hand?”
“My left hand represents my past—which doesn’t need protection. These rings on the right are protected by a spell.” Mersey sighed. “So many have broken in the past few days.”
“You can get more.”
“Not like these. They are common, but…Well, it doesn’t matter right now.” Curling closer, she blew softly along his collarbone. “Tell me about these scars on your shoulder. Demon attack?”
“Rifle kickback.”
“Better than a demon, I guess.” She glided her palm across his pecs, drawing out the hard curves, and down his tight stomach. Not nearly as satiated as he felt, Jack’s cock reacted, tightening. “How does a man get abs like this?”
“Upside down pull-ups.”
“I’d like to see you hanging upside down. Naked.”
“That could be arranged.”
“Wicked.” She traveled lower. “And this big boy? I’ve never studied one closely before.” Her hair sifted across his stomach as she took the study of his cock to heart. Each trace or touch zinged at his pleasure core, strumming him tightly. “It’s thick and strong, and I do love it.”
“You know you can’t touch me without then expecting to pay the price.”
He slid his hands down to curve over her buttocks and lifted her onto him. They moved silently, masters of the rhythm that had become theirs exclusively. There was a lot a man could learn about a woman during hours of sex, but the most basic, her natural rhythm and that moment when she was ready to fly, were paramount.
Curling a palm around her neck, Jack coaxed Mersey forward, sharpening the angle of their exquisite connection. This way, every time she slid along his cock, her clitoris would also receive the benefit of the motion. And that contact quickly brought them both to climax.
“Oh, Jack, that was so good.” Mersey’s shoulders tilted back and her body arched upon him. Shuddering with orgasm, she bent forward and met his gaze, deepening the moment with a stare that reached into his soul. “Oh, my goddess. There!”
She peered at him intently, while her body contracted and hugged him in the wake of the orgasm.
“I see it,” she said, clasping his face to hold his head still. “Jack, it’s there, in your eyes.”
He’d almost forgotten the reason they’d come together in the first place. Who could think when shagging? “You’re serious? What does it look like?”
“I’ve seen it before in books. A…dread demon?”
“Ba’al Beryth?”
“You know it?”
“Sod it.”
The truth stymied him, but he could believe. Had he been expecting this result? While amazingly easy to accept, it didn’t make the news any more welcome.
He, a demon hunter, had been tapped by the very prey he stalked.
Chapter 17
“D on’t worry about it, Jack.” Mersey stroked his cheek. “It obviously happened without you being aware. Demons can tap innocent mortals without them ever knowing.”
“You know a lot about demons.”
“Training. I don’t understand how you couldn’t have noticed?”
“I get it. All right?” What to do with a gorgeous bit of naked perched upon his cock, and he—blimey, what a way to spoil a good shag. “Fine, I believe you. And I know the exact moment it happened.”
There had been pain, but he’d never associated it with being tapped. How could he? It had never happened to him before. When he was eight? That had been different.
Mine.
What a fool he had been.
“So now what do I do?”
He wasn’t sure he wanted an answer. Hell, just looking at Mersey’s body, glowing with perspiration and her breasts rising and settling heavily with her breaths tested all restraint. So he plunged forward for more of the good. The woman purred like a cat when he licked her nipples. Could he get it back up? Come on, Jack, avoid the truth. Take more of the good!
“Though you’re tapped,” she murmured, adjusting her shoulders to direct his attention to the other breast. “I believe you didn’t open the passage that’s admitting the demons to this realm.”
“Like I said before, wouldn’t have a clue how to do that.”
“And because I believe you, I have to assume it was opened from the dark realm. Perhaps by the very demon who then tapped you, in order to remain here in the mortal realm. It will require a skilled adept to close the passage, but it’s got to be done.”
Jack paused, settling his head back on the pillow, and peered into her gorgeous green eyes. Mixing business and pleasure was never easy, but the more she mentioned bits and snippets of things he decided were Cadre related, the more he needed to know.
“You’re not making this easy, Mersey.” He couldn’t avoid the truth. And he did have a mission to consider. “I want to dive inside you again and never surface, but there’s a very obvious white elephant splayed out on the bed, and it’s me, the bloody familiar.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being a familiar, Jack.”
He sat up, putting space between himself and Mersey’s body. Tugging the sheets around his waist, he caught his forehead in his palm.
“Except now,” she said, “maybe you’ll start to acknowledge that there is fallout.”
“I still don’t know what you mean by that.”
“I’m the fallout, Jack.” Her tone wasn’t soft and sex-tinged; now it had become resentful.
“Don’t you know that every time you blast a demon, you take out the familiar, too?”
“That’s not true.”
“Oh, please, you can’t be that naive. Kill the demon, and you obliterate its familiar. Some demons slip through open passages, so they may not be connected to a familiar.”
“But I couldn’t…”
He’d killed familiars? Others…like Mersey? Why hadn’t he learned this in training? Did P-Cell know that familiars were collateral damage?
“No. I only hunt demons.”
“Get a clue, Jack. Just because you don’t witness the familiar die doesn’t absolve you.”
He glanced over her naked body. High breasts with pointed cherry nipples. Flat stomach and the sweetest dark curls. Every inch of her looked normal. Human.
But not human.
“Does that make me…” he wondered, “not huma
n, too?”
“What? Jack, I can’t believe you’re still hung up on that! I thought we’d moved beyond our differences. And no, you’re still a bloody inconsiderate human—who just happens to be tapped by a demon.”
With a huff, Mersey slid out of bed and began to shuffle the kneelength black pants up her legs. She tugged the T-shirt back on.
“You’re an arsehole, Harris. I can’t believe I had sex with you.”
“You were doing it because someone ordered you to.”
“What?”
“Admit it,” he said. “This was a job tonight. The Cadre and P-Cell have been after each other for decades. They saw opportunity for you to…”
“To what, Jack? To sleep with P-Cell? That is so idiotic. You followed me. This is my home. You think far too highly of yourself, you know that?”
She stomped out of the bedroom. “On second thought, yes it was!” she called. “It was business. And now I’ve the information required. You are a familiar. And you’re the cause for the leak. You will be dealt with.”
Dealt with? Grabbing his boxer briefs and trousers, Jack slid them up and stalked out after his angry familiar.
“What are you going to do?” he asked as Mersey struggled to release the chain lock on the door. Was she going somewhere?
“I need to get back to that warehouse.”
“Mersey, you’re not going anywhere.” Jack pressed his palm over the door to keep her from opening it.
“Oh, I know I’m not going anywhere.” She tramped back into the bedroom and returned with his shirt and shoes, which she shoved at him. “Don’t let the door hit you.”
“Right then.” No sense in arguing this endless merry-go-round of emotions. He’d been on this ride before and knew the drill. Jack clattered down the stairs to the foyer of Mersey’s building. The night was cool and he tugged up his shirt and buttoned it. Sitting on the curb, he pulled on his shoes.
You continue to label her something that isn’t right, undesirable to you, and yet you want her even more now that you’re away from her. “Bad, Jack.”
God, he was an arsehole of the highest degree. He should have never said anything about P-Cell and the Cadre. He’d blown his cover. A cover he should have never wielded before crawling into bed with Mersey Bane. He’d been so concerned that they have sex for the right reasons, and then it was he who’d pulled business back into the mix.
“Bloody idiot,” he muttered as he stalked down the pavement to his Range Rover. The night was dark and the roads were empty. But instead of driving away, Jack waited.
He didn’t have to wait long. Mersey slipped out of her building and into the stairs leading down to the car park.
Where was she headed so early in the morning?
Chapter 18
T he forest wrapped thickly along and over the road. Mersey liked entering the protected borderlands surrounding the St. Yve manor. This ancient land was magical and steeped with myth. She had grown up here, and had known nothing of the busy city until she’d taken a flat in London. To her, London was the unreal, paranormal world. Returning to the Cadre gave her peace and it managed to settle her ire over that impossible man.
Jack was upset? He was the one who had lied to her and was responsible for the leak of dozens of demons. He should be apologizing to her, not cringing.
“The nerve,” she muttered through a tight jaw.
So the forest hadn’t settled her anger quite as much as she’d thought. She was endowed with the frustrating ability to bridge demons here from the dark realm. And to shift shapes to a cat. Other than that, she was completely normal. Depending on whose viewpoint. And if she were completely honest with herself, she couldn’t remain angry with Jack. He was being truthful; he hadn’t opened a passage, and could have nothing to do with the flow of demons into this realm. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to be angry with him for his reaction to her.
Five miles from the entrance to the Cadre, she decided enough was enough. Headlights followed closely. Jack had followed her out of London.
Didn’t they teach P-Cell methods of trailing cars? Rule number one. Never trail a suspect in a vehicle you’ve previously given them a ride in. And rule two? Never stalk a dissatisfied date!
Mersey slammed her palm against the steering wheel. “Oh!”
The pieces of another ring fell between her knees to the floor mat. She now had but three left.
“I can’t believe they’re breaking. I’ve had these so long.”
It had to mean something. But what? Was something destroying the spell? Could her relationship with Jack be the cause of it? It didn’t make sense, but then her life didn’t make sense, either. Falling for the enemy? That was akin to mooning over bad-boy faeries even after they’d given you the snub.
Pulling over to the narrow gravel verge that sloped into a deep ditch, Mersey slammed on the brakes, put the Beetle in Park and stepped outside.
A chill fall breeze tickled up under her long coat. She reached inside and retrieved the aviator cap and pulled it on. A gift from her father. He’d gone his way, and Mersey understood he was a man who could never be content in one place. The world was home to Caractacus Bane. Yet before venturing off, he’d neglected to show her how to find her own home. Was it a place, or, as she’d being thinking more and more, a feeling?
The Cadre provided family. A family that felt as absent as her father had been. But if the Cadre got wind that she’d led a P-Cell agent this far…Well, they would never find out because she’d put a stop to it right now.
The Range Rover stopped fifty yards up.
“Yeah, I can see you, hotshot.”
But Mersey smiled, despite herself, and rubbed her arms against the chill. What had happened back at her place had been unavoidable. The sex had been amazing. He’d said things to her she’d always dreamed of hearing from a man. That he could be true to her.
“Can you be true to a familiar, Jack?”
Deep inside, her feelings toward him had not altered, and their making love had only made her…
“Want more,” she said on a sigh, her breath misting into the night. The Rover slowly approached, until Mersey had to shield her eyes from the bright headlights. They didn’t blink out as the car stopped. Jack stepped out and leaned against the bonnet, arms crossed high on his chest.
Waiting for her to go to him.
“Oh, I’ve got your number, Mr. Macho Familiar.”
How could a demon hunter not know his violence also affected the familiar?
Stomping purposefully over to Jack, Mersey stabbed him in the chest with a fingertip. He reacted by rubbing the spot and groaning, much too loudly for the poke.
“You have a thing about following me. And none too sneakily, I must say.”
“It’s a free country. I figure you got what you wanted from me, now it’s my turn, little girl.”
“Stop calling me a little girl.”
He bent a look down at her, and Mersey avoided looking up at him. All right, so he was tall. She was short. In the grander scheme of height he won.
She stopped herself from reacting to the affront by stomping back to the car and peeling away. Little girls did things like storm off in a pout. She was a grown woman who could take care of herself, thank you very bloody much.
So maybe she had been overly emotional with him. Was it because he was such an arsehole? Or maybe it was because he’d stirred something awake inside her. Stirred it up and he’d entered her, filling her, becoming her…
He’s not an arse. But right now the defensive accusation worked for her. When was the last time she’d cared what a man thought of her? Taken the time to dress to seduce? She was acting like a teenager with a crush!
“You going to lead me onward?” he prompted. “I don’t have all night, and I’d really hate to return to P-Cell with nothing.”
So that was all she meant to him now. “Just where do you think I’m leading you?”
“Cadre headquarters.”
; “Well isn’t that rich.” She toed the wheel of the car, still avoiding his gaze. “P-Cell sending in a man to seduce his way inside the Cadre.”
How to read him? Was he using her, or fighting the attraction as much as she should be?
“You were the one doing the seducing, Mersey. And you admit it, then? You’re with the Cadre.”
“I’d be stupid to deny it. Unlike you, who insists upon lying about being tapped by a demon.”
He clenched his fingers into his chest. “I’m still trying to wrap my brain around that one, but give me credit for not freaking about it. I can go there. I can accept that it may have happened—”
“Did happen.”
“Did happen while I wasn’t aware.”
“To be tapped by a demon is very painful, Jack. Your whole musculature clenches and you can feel the demon enter your body with its tongue.”
“Yes, it happened,” he said quietly. “But that’s not what I’m focused on right now. Why do you keep running away from me?”
Mersey shrugged her fingers through her hair and tugged. “I don’t know! I need to think, Jack. So just go. I won’t show you the way, even if you ask nicely and made love to me again.”
He slid up close and whispered in her ear. “You want to make love again?”
The touch of him, his arm dusting her nipple, instantly aroused. “Not tonight.” Liar.
“But you’re not ruling it out for the future.” He gripped her fingers, and despite her struggles, kissed her knuckles. “These rings aren’t protection from me?”
Mersey tugged away from him and shoved her hand under her opposite arm. The protection spell should put up her hackles to danger, yet the rings hadn’t so much as tingled since meeting Jack Harris, death merchant. Which was an odd realization, now she thought on it. And yet, her protection was slowly, methodically breaking away. Was the demon doing it through Jack? Beryth. She knew that name. Could it be the very same one that had tormented her mother?