Heat in the Air

by Serenity Snow

  “Later.” She found the zipper and dragged it down. Then, Tylor peeled the fabric down, letting it pool around Camille’s ankles. She traced her finger along Camille’s collarbone as she attempted to slow things down a little.

  Camille watched her with eager eyes, anticipation spilling from her and perfuming the air in the form of her juices. The enticing scent made Tylor’s mouth water.

  Tylor pushed Camille onto the bed, wanting to take this slower, but knowing she wouldn’t. Camille’s legs fell apart and a small bluish heart decorated the inside of one thigh with a bolt of lightning through it.

  She stared, knowing without a doubt that Camille was hers for she’d burned that mark into Camille with a single touch.

  “Sexy little tat, you have there,” Tylor said. “Someone brand you, baby?”

  She laughed and rubbed the mark. “It’s a birthmark.”

  ****

  Camille rose up on her elbows and Tylor dragged her eyes from her to toe off her shoes before pushing her pants down. She ate her up with her eyes, savoring every supple inch of brown skin that seemed almost translucent in places, especially her swollen nipples.

  Her panties were black and crotchless, revealing the hairless pussy at the apex of her thighs. Camille was thrilled. She waxed and hated going down on a woman who didn’t at least shave.

  “Hurry up, beautiful,” Camille ordered softly. “I’m getting lonely.”

  Tylor chuckled. “Seriously?” She released the hooks of her bra and Camille caught her breath.

  The ink across her left breast—a scythe and a bolt of lightning were exquisitely done.

  “That tattoo is amazing,” she murmured as Tylor reached down to peel her panties away before kissing up one of her thighs.

  “Thank you.” She put her knee on the bed and leaned toward her.

  Their lips met and Camille gripped Tylor’s hips and moved beneath her, aligning their bodies. Her clit brushed Tylor’s and she groaned into the kiss. She arched up wanting more, needing it. Camille cupped Tylor’s firm ass and thrust up.

  “Ty!” The delicious friction tore a cry from her. She was so wet and hot it wouldn’t take much to push her over.

  “Oh, yes.” Tylor braced one hand on the bed and glided her other hand down the seam of Camille’s pussy and thrust two fingers inside as she pressed her thumb to the cleft. Then, she drove her fingers in and out as she worked her clit.

  Camille mewled as pleasure raged out of control inside her, and sweat dewed her skin.

  “Tylor!” she screamed as her lover’s fingers shuttled inside her. “God, I’m going to—” she caught her breath as she began to come.

  Tylor withdrew her fingers and ground her clit against Camille’s and rocked her through the climax.

  Camille reached up to stroke Tylor’s nape. “You feel so good, Ty,” she murmured. There was a distinct smell in the room—heat, rain, flowers.

  Tylor licked over one nipple, jerking her from the thoughts, sucked it and then the other before she began thrusting against Camille. Camille threw one leg over Tylor’s and moved with her as pleasure began anew in her. And she was surprised that her sensitive clit was engorged again.

  Tylor rubbed against her, cupping Camille’s breast and working the nipple with her thumb. She pinched it as Camille arched up against her. Their bodies came together hard and fast, their breathing rough.

  Rapture took Camille over, slammed her into a wall of color as she came again.

  “Camille,” Tylor cried as she came, their juices warm as they mingled. A breeze caressed Camille as she collapsed on the mattress.

  Tylor dropped down next to her and a gust of wind ranged around the room causing the curtains to dance. Camille tensed and tried to sit up, but Tylor kissed her, stroking her stomach.

  “Mmm,” Camille moaned.

  Tyler’s hand dipped to stroke over her stocking-clad thigh. “So sexy,” she murmured. Her fingers darted between Camille’s thighs. Camille caught her hand, her clit a little sensitive.

  “Tylor, you could easily become an addiction I can’t fight.” They shared another kiss and Tylor climbed out of bed.

  “That will make this all the more interesting,” Tylor murmured and headed for the bathroom.

  Camille heard her peeing and then water running. She continued to lie on her back. This wouldn’t last long. The sex was too hot and when it was, passion burned out much too quickly.

  “Aren’t you worried about Wells?” Camille asked when Tylor reappeared.

  “Why would I be?” She frowned. “He’s a jealous little prick. Besides, I think he’s going to continue to mind his own business.”

  “You put a spell on him?” Camille asked incredulously.

  “A little one.” Tylor shrugged. “There’s nothing wrong with a little defense magick.”

  She chuckled. “How’d you come to be working at Thorne?”

  “I was looking for a change of pace,” Tylor told her.

  “Grace said you grew up in a deaf home?” she asked, and Tylor’s serene expression remained unchanged.

  “I spent time in a deaf and blind home,” she said, but Camille could tell she was hiding something. “And you, you’re partially deaf?”

  “Yes,” Camille replied. Her hearing had been slowly returning since she’d gone to work at Thorne. She didn’t know why but assumed it had something to do with the fact that she was connecting with her power and becoming aurai.

  She still wore the small hearing aid in her ear though without the battery.

  “You don’t really seem to be that impaired,” Tylor murmured, studying her, and Camille squirmed a little beneath her intense stare.

  “Actually, I’m not. My hearing’s improved a great deal,” she admitted. “I didn’t know you still taught.”

  Tylor’s expression changed to something almost knowing, leaving Camille a tad disconcerted. Being deaf wasn’t a prerequisite for teaching at the academy.

  “French, Spanish, and German.”

  “Wow, that’s amazing,” Camille exclaimed.

  “Not really. I’ve lived in several countries in my brief life,” Tylor told her.

  Camille frowned as she sat up. “So, what happened last night with the dark breed?”

  “I killed her, but that’s sometimes necessary with the breed. They don’t attack like that unless they’re trying to feed. She didn’t look like she was feeding.”

  Camille swung her legs over the side of the full-size bed. “She wasn’t, but I’ve never seen her before,” she murmured. It was surreal to be discussing magick and the witch world with someone. She hadn’t talked about this part of her life with anyone since her aunt had been killed six years ago.

  She’d been left alone with no family support and felt it best to distance herself from her magical heritage—in public, at least. The witch world could be a dangerous one for a witch alone.

  “Okay then, that only leaves one theory.” She reached for her pants and pulled them on and Camille headed for the bathroom.

  “What theory is that?” she demanded defensively. “I must be a lying dark witch?”

  How dare she? She slammed the bathroom door closed and turned on the water in the sink before grabbing a wash cloth. Camille cleaned up and tossed the towel into the hamper noticing another towel in there as well.

  “That’s not exactly what I had in mind,” Tylor replied.

  “Then, what did you mean?” Camille asked quietly when she stepped out of the bathroom to find Tylor dressed. She frowned. She was just going to leave?

  “Things are about to get a little complicated,” Tylor said into the silence.

  “Don’t worry about it. At least we don’t have to worry about doing anything stupid at work and getting caught.”

  “That would be unfortunate,” Tylor said with a hint of amusement in her tone.

  Camille faced her then, curious. Frowning she said, “If sex was all you wanted, why this ruse about having dinner?” She had to know if that
was all this was intended to be in Tylor’s mind, a distraction.

  “What gave you that idea?” she asked.

  “For one thing, you dressed instead of getting back in bed and I’ve heard enough lines to realize when someone is trying to give me the brush off.”

  Tylor cocked her brows at her, but her eyes held a subtle hint of emotion, too delicate for her to decipher. As she extended a hand, a soft wind lifted Camille a few inches off the ground and drew her to Tylor.

  Tylor touched two fingers to Camille’s jaw, caressing her so softly it dissolved the fear churning in her stomach.

  “Sometimes, all a woman needs is a little distraction, but that’s not my intent,” Tylor told her in a low voice that whispered over her.

  “What do you intend?”

  Tylor kissed her, a butterfly kiss, a bare brush against Camille’s. Her warm breath licked her face and Camille shivered as she put her hands on Tylor’s sides.

  Tylor ran her hands up Camille’s back and leaned closer to whisper, “I want all of you, and that you’re aurai-marked makes this a precious gift I’d given up finding.”

  Camille drew back eyes wide. Wary, she pushed away from Tylor. “I-I don’t know what you mean.”

  A gentle breeze blew around her, brushed up against her back, and Camille’s breath escaped on a surprised breath. “You’re aurai?”

  She’d never thought she’d meet one until her powers activated, which was obviously happening. That’s why she was spraying air when she was upset. Her powers were growing stronger.

  “Did you know that being wind-marked means you’re meant not only to have a strong affinity with the wind, but marked to belong to an aurai?”

  Her mind worked through the statement and reconciled it with the stories her grandmother used to tell her. Before everything went to hell and her life became a nightmare for several long months.

  Being aurai-marked had meant she was a thing, a tool to be used by her mother’s dark witch lover.

  Camille shook her head. “No. My grandmother told me about the first part, but not the second.” She’d known nearly all her life that she was different, meant to be powerful, but she’d hidden that after her mother’s vicious murder and her grandmother’s death.

  “That is one of the reasons humans hated us,” Tylor told her quietly. “They feared the order of warrior wind would claim too many of their female witches. Not only were the men, the venti, warriors and controllers of the wind, taking human women, but so were some aurai.”

  “I didn’t know that.”

  “Anyway, there is a new conflict that has been steadily growing in the underworld. They’ve newly decided to drag the aurai and their marked into it.”

  “How?” she asked, her hands shaking as she recalled the stories her grandmother had told her of the wars that had wrought betrayal of the aurai and much loss of life, both human and supernatural.

  The rift between those meant to keep the balance of good and evil and the witches had been a deep chasm by the end of the Inquisition.

  “I don’t know enough unfortunately, but there is chaos in the underworld, the creation of a dual Congress—”

  “When you say dual, what do you mean?” Camille cut in, her stomach knotting. She didn’t live according to the rules of the supernatural world, but she was a supernatural who could get irrevocably drawn into it.

  “The underworld leader and the Light Congress are working together to even the playing field, so to speak, so that good and evil live by the same tenets.”

  “Ingenious, but impossible,” she exclaimed. “The demons would never agree to that.”

  “Hence, the upheaval occurring in their world, which will inevitably bleed into this one.”

  Camille blew out a harsh breath and went to her dresser to tug a slip from a drawer and pull it on.

  “That is no doubt part of the reason for the invitation you’ve been issued for this weekend.”

  “I haven’t received any invitation.” She frowned.

  “A coven is interested in you. They want to meet with you this weekend and if you don’t go, you’ll lose your job.”

  Anger fired in her gut, and Camille clenched her fists as she tried to tamp it down at the thought of someone ripping her choices, any of them, from her hands.

  But how could they know about her? She knew this was about her power, about who she was, because she’d managed to live under the radar without attracting witches’ attention for years.

  Camille shrugged. “Did you tell them about me? Is that why you’re here?”

  “I’m aurai, Camille,” she replied evenly. “Keeping balance is what I do, but I didn’t tell them about you. In the last few weeks, you’ve been growing stronger and your aura is leaking past your shields and your lightness has been detected.”

  “By who?” she demanded, wondering when she’d been so unguarded and careless.

  “A member of the board belongs to a powerful coven, and we’ll both lose our jobs, more than likely, if we don’t go,” Tylor responded softly. “They’ve been trying to get me to join for a long time.”

  “Why haven’t they fired you then?” Damp air sprayed around them, but Tylor showed no notice of it. “Exposed you to the Witch’s Congress?”

  “She knew getting me fired wouldn’t gain her anything either, because I could very well kill her and her entire coven, her family. But she’s patient, and she’s smart enough to have realized there is one way she might be able to snare me now.”

  “What’s that?” Camille demanded, cocking her hip and propping her hand on it.

  “You.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Camille’s eyes flared, and her jaw dropped as stunned confusion washed over her like a wave, and she threatened to flounder in it.

  “W-why, me?” she asked carefully as she took a step back.

  Tylor’s brows flicked up and those strange beautiful gray eyes that intrigued her, watched intently, but she couldn’t read Tylor’s expression.

  “She suspects what I am, and she’s certain she knows what you are. She knows I’d never allow her a chance to get to you.”

  “It’s my decision not yours,” Camille snapped.

  “The marked are being hunted, and members of the Congress are attempting to track you down as well to gain an alliance with aurai. In that way, they’ll have a stronger chance of defeating the evil stalking you.”

  The air went out of Camille. Being hunted wasn’t new to her, but she thought she was past that. “I—why?” Her fingers went to her lips as the old fears returned.

  “They want your power.”

  “I was hunted by dark witches when I was a child,” she said. “My mother was indiscreet and told one of her boyfriends about me. He and his coven stalked us for months, terrorizing us at every turn until they killed my mother.”

  “My goddess, honey.” Tylor went to her, rubbed her arm.

  “I was attacked, but I managed to escape.”

  “Where did you go?”

  “My grandmother found me, protected me with her coven’s help. They knew what I was, but they never tried to use me.”

  “I’m sure this coven won’t be as benevolent, so we’re not joining it.”

  Camille glared at her. “You can’t tell me what to do.” She ached to be part of a coven again, but she wouldn’t be forced into one any more than she’d allow anyone to take her right to decide.

  She’d been victimized as a child when she’d had no say. She’d been backed into a corner as an adult by those who thought they could treat her as a pawn, but she’d always pushed back or come out swinging, win or lose.

  “I can and I will,” Tylor told her. “You’re aurai, a novice, which puts you under my rule and guidance.”

  Camille fisted her hands. Having a lover who was her boss in more ways than one was a little bit of a problem right now. Maybe in the light of day, when she’d had time to think, she’d see things more clearly.

  “Maybe you should go,” C
amille told her.

  “I guess I confused you with someone who wanted a relationship with me,” Tylor replied coolly. “I’ll see you tomorrow at work.”

  “My grandmother exercised almost iron control over my life out of fear that I’d be found, that I’d say too much and expose myself or the coven,” she said softly. “I had few friends, and was consigned to a childhood of loneliness.”

  “She was trying to protect you.”

  “She suffocated me!” Camille snapped. “I can hide who I am and follow the rules on the job because I’m so good at it, but in my personal life I refuse to have anyone lording over me.”

  “I understand—no, actually I don’t, but I suppose that’s one of the perks of age. With more experience comes more wisdom. I’ll send you a questionnaire to assess your skills, so I can best decide what you need to work on most.”

  Camille hugged herself as she watched Tylor exit the room on a chilly breeze and tears of frustration filled her eyes.

  She’d thought when she found someone who might be the one, being aurai wouldn’t be a threat to that relationship. Feelings would keep their egos in check, but it seems she’d been a little delusional.

  Come lock the door, Camille. With danger stalking your kind, you can’t be too careful.

  The words were in her head, but Tylor’s voice was so clear it was as if she were right in front of her. “Tylor?”

  I’m not in the house, but don’t let independence stop you from being safe. It’s a flaw you can’t afford right now.

  The words were like ice and almost froze her, but she forced her feet to carry her to the door to lock up.

  ****

  Selene slowly unclenched her fists as she made her way to her car. This meeting hadn’t changed a single thing. She was not going to work for Necron and Voltaire. What they were trying to do didn’t matter to her and in the grand scheme of things she was nothing of importance to either side, merely a pawn.

  “Selene,” Necron called after her. “We need to talk.” He caught up to her and grabbed her arm bringing her to a halt.

  “There is nothing to talk about,” she told him coolly.

  “We need to all be together on this,” he said in a reasonable tone and she almost laughed in his face. There was nothing truly reasonable about him. “We don’t live our lives the same way good witches do. We hunt, we feed, we take their powers and that’s who we are.”