Sky reached down between them and tried to guide Julian’s cock into her, but he pulled away.
“No,” he said. “Not like this.”
Not waiting for a response, he picked her up as if she weighed nothing and laid her down on the bed. Its silky crimson sheets were soft under her. Below Sky was the ocean full of moonlight. Above her was Julian, looking down at her, his palms pressed into the bed on either side of her face. He was holding himself up on his arms, rigid with muscle. The heavy weight of his cock lay between her spread legs. She rubbed her nub against his cock, moaning.
Lowering himself closer to her, Julian kissed her breasts, licking at her nipples, tugging them between his lips. Sky, intoxicated with the feel of his hard body so close, writhed under him. She tried to slide her hand down to guide him into her, but Julian, quicker than lightning, caught her wrist and stopped her.
“Not yet,” he said.
In the candlelight, his gaze was hot with desire, but he was holding back, controlling himself.
“Why, Julian? I want you inside me,” Sky protested, raising her hips, rubbing herself against him, feeling his cock grow slicker and wetter.
“I have to wait,” he said and kissed her, gently this time. “This isn’t my dream. It isn’t right. I shouldn’t be here. I can’t do it like this. You’re my mate.”
His mate?
Yes. Now that he’d said it, Sky knew it was true. She’d known for a long time. Just like she knew Julian’s will was unbending. Even if all she wanted was to feel him inside her, filling her, stroking hard into her, she would have to wait.
He rolled away from her and pulled her into his arms. He was behind her, his hard cock nestled against her ass, his arm over waist. He slid his hand down between her legs, found her nub, and rubbed gently while he kissed her neck.
“Doesn’t mean I can’t pleasure you,” he whispered.
Sky, already hot from Julian’s teasing, tossed her head, feeling her body convulse as Julian rubbed harder, faster, all the time whispering, “You’re mine, Sky. Mine.”
Julian’s whisper a promise in her ears, his heated breath on her neck, Sky’s orgasm rocketed through her, and she…woke to the sound of crashing thunder. She sat up and actually looked to see if Julian was there with her. But of course he wasn’t. She’d been dreaming. She couldn’t remember all of it, but she remembered his whisper—“You’re mine”—and it aroused her, made her shiver with desire.
She shook off the dream, slipped into her jeans, and went out into the living room. All four walls were there. No ocean where the window looked out on the street. No white walls. No Julian.
She sat at her desk and booted up her laptop. While she waited, she brushed her fingers over her neck where Julian had kissed her in the dream. His teeth had been sharp…like fangs. She thought back to the night she’d been waiting for Julian in Aunt Millie’s, trying to remember every detail of the man who’d smiled at her. All she knew for sure was that he’d had fangs. And there’d been something else. When he walked away, his hair hung down his back in thick pale whorls. He had dreadlocks. Then she’d seen him again and—
A soft knock came at the door. Sky’s heart hammered. With the hours she kept, no one visited without calling ahead. Julian would have told her if he was in town. Maybe it was a delivery to the wrong apartment.
She waited, then heard soft footsteps retreating. She counted to thirty, her ear pressed against the door, listening for the slightest sound. When she heard nothing, she opened the door cautiously, ready to ram it into the face of anyone who tried to get at her.
The still hallway was deathly quiet. She was closing the door when she saw them on the floor. Unthinkingly, she bent to pick them up, then flung them all the way into the kitchen, revolted. She slammed the door shut so hard, tiny splinters of wood flew off the frame. Her hands shaking, she shoved the bolt home.
She curled up in the armchair farthest from the door, glaring at it as if the door had offended her. Her fingers were sweaty where she was gripping her phone. She wouldn’t call Julian and act like a frightened girl who’d found an ogre under the bed.
She wouldn’t.
Fear kept her immobile in the chair for so long, she actually considered calling CJ.
Throat dry, heart thudding, Sky touched speed dial and put the phone to her ear.
Chapter Eleven
Deep in a labyrinth of tunnels, miles below the Montana ghost town of Fasting’s Folly, two Shadow Worlders fought. Both were shirtless; one was battered and bruised. The combat-training chamber was a wide rectangular cavern with a vaulted roof of craggy stone. Candles and lanterns burned along the bare walls in niches, or hung in metal cages from thin black chains. The floor was gridded like a checkerboard in black-and-white squares, about fifteen feet to a side.
Harli, the former vampire who was now Julian’s ward, watched from a stool near the entrance. Inside a square near the center, Julian was fighting, what he’d loved best before he met Sky. Marek was the only Shade Julian didn’t have to hold back with. In the centuries they’d been sparring, he’d hurt Marek only once. Usually Julian’s mind dropped into the fight, and everything fell away except the flow of muscle, the thudding sound of flesh hitting flesh, the cool rush of air as they blocked each other’s blows. But today was different.
If he’d been mortal, Julian would have had a broken nose, two black eyes, and a few shattered ribs. Every time pain exploded somewhere on his body, he realized he’d been thinking about Sky. He’d been wondering what she was doing, thinking of a good time to call her, wanting to know if he could—a smashing blow landed on his shoulder.
“You’re distracted, brother,” Marek said. His heavily muscled body was bent in a crouch, his scarred hands raised, ready to fend off Julian’s answering blows. Julian swept at Marek’s feet. But he’d misjudged. He crash-landed on his back and found his brother’s knife pressed to his throat.
“Phone for you,” Harli said, careful to stay off the square that marked the fighting ground. He offered Julian his phone in one hand and a stack of towels in the other.
After rolling free of Marek, Julian took his phone and a towel. He glanced at the screen. It was Sky. Something was wrong. It was too early for her to call. “Hey,” he said.
“Did I wake you up?”
One question was all it took for Julian to hear how scared she was. He glanced at his brother and walked away from the sparring square. “No.” He wiped sweat off his face and took the clean shirt Harli brought. “I was working out.”
Sky’s voice was unnaturally quiet when she said, “I just wanted to talk you.”
Hours on the phone with Sky had taught Julian not to push if he expected answers. “Here I am,” he said, keeping his voice even. “There you are. Let’s talk.”
Too much silence went by before Sky said, “Seen any good movies lately?”
He hated the fear in her voice. He should have found a way to bring her to Montana. “Haven’t seen anything worth writing on my tombstone about.”
Sky had found that hilariously funny the first time Julian had let the Shadow World version of the nothing-to-write-home-about slip. Tonight, it spooked her. “You shouldn’t talk about dying like that,” she snapped.
“What’s wrong?” Julian asked quietly. “Talk to me.”
All her misery came out in three words. “I found something.”
Protect her, his beast snarled.
“Where did you find it?” Julian was being as indirect as he could. He had to Sky to keep talking.
“Outside,” she said.
Had she been at the park? He couldn’t ask without it sounding like an accusation. Julian gave her a few seconds to add more before he asked, “Outside your building?”
“Sorry.” She hesitated. “I shouldn’t have called you. I’m fine.”
The last two words came out in a shaky whisper, and Julian’s beast ripped at him—defend her. “Where are you?” Julian asked in as even a voice as he could manage.<
br />
“My apartment.”
“I’m on my way. I’ll be there in”—Julian glanced at Harli, who held up two fingers—“a couple of hours.”
“This is stupid.” Julian could almost see Sky running her fingers through her unruly hair. “You don’t have to do that. They were just plastic. I’m okay.”
“What was plastic?” Julian asked.
“One CJ in my life is enough,” Sky said. “I told you. I’m fine. You don’t have to drop everything and come look after me.”
“Don’t go anywhere, Sky.” Julian made himself sound calm for her. “Please. Just wait for me.”
“It’s storming,” Sky said with a sigh.
If the rain kept her in, a storm was good. “Keep your door locked, okay?”
No answer.
“Sky?”
“What?” She sounded startled, as if she’d forgotten Julian was on the phone.
“Is your door locked?”
Her answer made his heart beat twice in three seconds. “I think the man from the park was here, Julian.”
“Two hours,” he said. “Go in your bedroom.” There were no windows in there. “Lock the door. Stay inside. Promise me.”
“I’ll wait for you,” she said.
Julian ended the call and said to Marek, “I want sentinels outside her building. I don’t care if she’s my mate or not. I want them there now.”
The small part of Julian that could still see reason knew what he was asking went against Shadow World law. A mortal couldn’t be taken into protection without their knowledge and consent.
“On your word, brother,” Marek said.
Meaning that Julian had until sunrise to end the danger or get Sky’s consent for protection. “Given,” Julian said.
Marek gave a bare nod to Harli. “Do as my brother asks. Tell the Watchman of the Guard you speak with my authority.”
Before Harli could put his phone to his ear, Julian stopped him. “After you do that, call and get the jet ready. You’re driving me to the airport. We’re leaving in ten minutes.” His phone pressed to his ear, Harli walked so fast, he faded even to Julian’s eyes.
“You’ve made no preparations to take SkyLynne into our world,” Marek said, his voice carefully neutral. “How long do you think it will be before an investigative reporter finds out what you are?”
Julian let his body relax into a fighting stance. “How is that your business?”
Marek stepped away, keeping his moves slow, trying to damp Julian’s warrior instinct. “Admittedly, it isn’t,” he said. “But I can delay the contract only a short while longer, brother. With the contract in negotiation, I cannot allow you to claim SkyLynne as your mate. But at least consider a bonding. That will give me leverage.”
“The council doesn’t hand down decisions at Mid-Year,” Julian said. “And you called for a scroll vote. She’s safe from Vandar for now.”
“Kraeyl has demanded an audience before me and the council,” Marek said. “He will argue for extenuating circumstances.”
“Like what?” Julian’s hands fell to his knives, felt the cool comfort of steel beneath his fingers. “Vandar needs red gold so he can stop draining?”
“There is no proof Vandar is the drainer,” Marek said quietly.
“At night, there’s no proof of sunrise, but I don’t see you taking long walks before dawn.”
“As you well know, brother, Kraeyl could argue the sun from the skies at midday. He will find a way to prevail in moving the contract through the council.”
“She’s mortal,” Julian said, venting the frustration he always kept hidden from Sky. “I can’t just tell her, ‘Hey, Sky, I’m a Shade, and you’re my Forever Mate. Let’s go bond and make babies.’”
“There are ways to lure her, brother, and lure her you must.”
“I won’t dishonor the one I’ve chosen for my mate by tricking her into being with me.” Julian’s voice was nearly a snarl.
“There is no dishonor in bringing the female who will bear your offspring to safety at your side,” Marek said. He avoided Julian’s eyes, presenting no threat to his beast. “The haeze clings to you, brother. All your instincts scream to protect her.” He paused. “Even as I speak, your beast claws at you to attack me, does it not?”
“Was it like this for you?” Julian asked.
Marek took a towel from the stack Harli had abandoned and wiped Julian’s face. “Yes,” he said. “She was mine. Not to be spoken of. After I told her of what I am, my beast was relentless. The only way to protect her was to mark her, make her mine.” He retreated, giving Julian the space his haeze demanded. “Much the same way your beast will drive at you when SkyLynne finds out.”
Marek’s long-ago chosen mate had refused to join the Shadow World. Honor demanded that he obey her wish. Time had swept the mortal into oblivion, but Marek had never forgotten her.
“I can’t fight it,” Julian said. “She’s all I think about, even when I’m not thinking about her.”
“And that is as it should be. She will soon be yours.” Marek slid his hands behind his back, clasped them together. Whatever came next, it would be the Lord of the Creed speaking. “Hear me well, brother. End this playacting. Give SkyLynne knowledge of the Shadow World. Offer her a bonding. Or I will be forced to sign the contract and let Vandar have her.”
Before Julian could answer, his phone jittered in his hand. It was a text from Harli. He was outside in the car, waiting.
“I’m a reaper, Sky,” Julian said, going for the door. “Let’s fuck and bond, or you’ll end up blood slave to a vampire.” He cleaned his face one last time and threw down the stained towel. “I’ll let you know how that goes.”
* * * *
The Jeep soared, then crashed to the road as Harli raced to the airport. Sandy ground ran out to skeletal trees, black against the night sky on either side of the road. The bleak landscape whipped by at better than fifty miles an hour.
Julian didn’t know how long they’d been driving when Harli asked, “You okay?”
“Where’s Sky?” Julian asked.
Harli glanced at a dashboard GPS display. He pressed a button on the dash, and the display shifted to a map of Manhattan with a glowing red dot in the upper left-hand corner. “In her apartment,” Harli said, “unless she didn’t take her phone.”
“She wouldn’t do that,” Julian said.
It was nearly Mid-Year for Shades, the traditional time when commoners brought petitions to the king. The shafts and caverns under certain ghost towns across Montana, all of them Shadow World property, were filling up with civilians, the ordinary people of the Creed.
Julian had been forced to come back and coordinate security, make sure mortals didn’t see things they shouldn’t. He’d called Sky once a day and never asked her the kinds of questions that might make her feel he was checking up on her. Julian had tried to let that be enough. But not knowing where she was, especially after sundown, made Julian’s bonding instinct itch deep in his brain. He couldn’t fight it any more than a mortal could fight a fever.
Julian didn’t know that Harli, who would have done anything for him, had noticed. About three days after he’d been home, Harli came to him with a square that looked like a phone. It had a map on the screen. The moving blue dot, Harli said, was Sky. As long as she had her phone with her, Julian would know where she was. A gadget just like it was hooked up to the Jeep’s GPS system.
If Marek knew Julian was tracking a mortal like this, he would be facing exile, probably to the Gobi Desert.
Rattling around in the Jeep, Julian nearly dropped his ringing phone when he pulled it from his pocket. As soon as he saw Private Number on the screen, he knew who it had to be. “Hello, Christian,” he said.
“You have a hell of an unlisted number.”
Sky’s brother either had an instinct for when his sister was in danger, or he had near-perfect bad timing. Focusing on keeping his voice calm, Julian said, “Didn’t think it would be a problem.
I hear you’re good at finding things.”
“I told Sky I wouldn’t check up on you,” Christian said. Julian could feel the roiling anger under his even tone. “And I don’t break my word to my little sister. You understand?”
The engine whined as Harli raced around a curve. “This call never happened.”
Christian shot his first question at Julian like a barbed arrow. “Why don’t you have a last name?”
Because he was an immortal with no credit cards, no driver’s license, and no one in his life who questioned it. Until now. “It’s a long story, Christian.”
“Tell me the short version.”
I’m fallen. I’m undead, Julian thought. I’m a reaper. To Christian he said, “I’m a soldier. Just like you are.”
“You’re not like any soldier I fucking know,” Christian said. Anger made his words come out in staccato bursts, like gunfire. “You don’t fucking exist. You were never fucking born. What the fuck do you want with my little sister?”
Christian talked like a warrior. Julian smiled at that and gave him the honor of addressing him like one. “I’m in love with Sky. If I ever do anything to hurt her, I expect you to come after me and rip my insides out.”
“I wouldn’t ever stop looking,” Christian said, “and when I found you, I’d make sure the last thing you knew was how loud you can scream.”
Christian was honorable, Julian saw, a good brother to Sky, not the overprotector she’d made him out to be. “Wouldn’t want it any other way,” Julian said.
“I have to get off the phone,” Christian said, sounding a little less like he’d kill Julian on sight. “But I’m not done with you. When I get back, you and me talk face-to-face. It’s up to you to find a way to keep Sky out of it.”
The connection went dead.
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