by Eliza Gayle
“Maybe. But if there’s another woman, according to my brother, we only have until our birthday to find her and sort this out.”
“What?”
“That’s right. The final clue that was received just before they contacted me for my help said that each twin had to find his woman before the youngest reached the age of thirty. My thirtieth birthday is in two days.”
Jessie sprang from her chair, unable to sit and listen any longer. Everything had changed in the blink of an eye and the surprises kept on coming. What would be next? Her big revelation? No. She couldn’t tell him, wouldn’t do that to him. Not yet. Her mind swirled with all the possibilities and implications of everything around them.
“Jessie, I know this is hard to hear. Hell, I haven’t been handling it very well myself. But something is happening here. I feel better this morning than I have since you left. Less consumed with dark thoughts and compulsive needs, at least when it comes to my magick.”
He hadn’t moved from the table, yet she felt the caress of his words sliding against her skin, like threads of silk trailing across her body. Did he understand the effect he had on her?
“We can’t do this, Noah, it’s a really bad idea.”
“What is?”
“You. Me. Us together. It will never work.”
“Why? What are you afraid of?”
She looked out over the water of the bayou, longing for the sensation of peace that she saw every time she looked out over the marsh. Even here in the quiet solitude she couldn’t escape who or what she was. A demon. Born of evil. A vessel of destruction.
As if on cue, the coil in her chest unfurled a fraction or two more.
“I’m broken, Noah.” She wrapped her arms around her middle, comforting herself. “I’m not sure if I can be fixed.”
Noah’s chair scraped against the wood of the deck as he rose, his boots pounding with each step he took towards her. He rested his hands on her shoulder and her body shuddered underneath him. “What did he do to you, Jessie? Tell me about it.”
She took a deep breath, filling her lungs, holding the air until her chest ached before exhaling with a slow hiss. “There was a ritual he performed.” She hesitated, unsure where to start or how much to tell. She didn’t want to relive the painful process again. “The night I was brought to him, a coven of witches joined him there. In order for him to steal and use my magick against my will I had to be branded.” She recalled the men who stripped her clothing and held her down as the witches chanted around her and Scott pressed the branding rod to her shoulder. The searing pain and burning flesh had made her violently ill through the entire process.
“Do you mean that figuratively?”
“No, he physically branded me. It made it easier for him to transfer my power to him for every raping after the first.”
Fury beat at Noah as he pictured her body being burned. If he’d entertained thoughts of killing his uncle before it was nothing compared to what he felt now. Darkness erupted inside him, the heat building under his skin until tiny flames licked at his veins. He lifted his hands from Jessie, not wanting to burn her.
“Where? I didn’t notice a brand.”
“My shoulder.”
“Show me.” When she didn’t move he insisted. “Please.”
Her hands moved in front of her body where he couldn’t see them to unbutton his shirt he presumed. Her shoulders lifted slightly as she allowed the left sleeve to slide partially off her shoulder. The bandage. Of course. He’d noticed it the other day and had forgotten about it in their rush to get here and then well, he just forgot.
He lifted his hands to the gauze and gently lifted the tape to reveal a section of branded skin in the process of healing. Pulling the bandage completely to the side, he made out exactly what the symbol was. A Pentacle, burned deep into her shoulder. With fire as the element he could wield, he fully understood the intense agony that kind of heat and pressure in a branding had to have cost her. But a pentacle? The irony of the whole thing was beyond twisted.
A well of protectiveness overwhelmed his thoughts as he gathered her in his arms. Before he even realized what he was doing, he bent his head and pressed his lips to the tender flesh of her injury. He had to soothe and heal them both before she got carried away with her fear and shut him out. He couldn’t let her go again.
When his lips traveled her neck and back a deep sigh vibrated under her skin, a sound that went straight to his groin. As sexy as she looked dressed in his shirt, he wanted her naked and bare to him, so he peeled the rest of the shirt from her shoulders and arms and let it fall to the ground to pool at their feet. He continued his sensual assault on her body by kissing and touching every inch of honeyed skin he could reach.
“I won’t let him hurt you again, Jessie, I promise.”
She turned in his arms and he was met with a gaze shadowed with pain. A look that would haunt him for a very long time. “Oh, Noah.” She flung her arms around his neck and pressed her face to his chest. His heart lurched at the way she clung to him as he struggled to restrain himself, but when she tilted her head to look at him once again the sheen of tears at the corners of her eyes did him in.
“Don’t cry, baby, it’s over now.” His kissed the corner of her eyes, tasting the salty wetness there, taking the tears away.
“I’m not so sure about that.”
His hands roamed down her back until his fingers massaged the soft skin of her ass. His cock beat against his zipper, needing to be buried deep inside her. Possessing her. Loving her. He pushed her back against the railing, his hard body pressed against the length of her soft, sweet skin. Heat ignited between them as his lips crushed hers, his tongue thrusting deep inside her mouth to tangle and taste every inch of her.
Jessie’s fingers dug into his shoulders and back with an almost desperate intensity, surprising him with her own need. She needed this as much as he did, if not more, and he wanted her to have it all. He wanted to wipe away her fear and pain with every kiss or touch, even if only for a short while. He could chase away her demons.
She squirmed in his arms, her marble hard nipples poking him through his shirt until he ached to feel her skin against his. As if reading his mind, she pulled her mouth away from his just enough to speak. “Too many clothes, Noah.” Her fingers shook slightly as she struggled with the buttons of his shirt until he gave her some space and she got it open. Noah sucked in a sharp breath at the first touch of her cool hands on his heated skin, such a delicious feeling.
He cradled her head in his hands, watching her small, pink tongue dart out and touch her lip nervously. He kissed that spot. “You are an incredible woman, Jessica.”
“No one calls me that anymore,” she murmured.
“I will.” He crushed his lips on hers, drinking in her eager, open response. His fingers threaded through her hair with a gentle tug, angling her head for him to plunder her mouth with his tongue. The silky, thick strands caressed his hands, making him yearn for even more of her. With her tongue forcing its way inside him he wondered how her aggressive little mouth would feel on his hard as steel cock, licking around the tip. Noah moaned in her mouth at that thought as her hands grazed over his nipples, squeezing the tips as she did.
* * *
Goddess, she loved the way the soft hair sprinkling across his chest tickled her hands as she touched him. Just looking at him made her sex ache with want, but oh, when his heat, his fire, touched her, her nipples ached with desire. His husky moan shot straight to her pussy where her juices coated her slit, waiting for his touch. As if knowing exactly what she needed, his hands trailed down her sides until he pulled back enough to slide them between her thighs, cupping her mound.
“Oh…Noah…” She needed more. Wanted his hands caressing her breasts and clit, feeding her his heat.
When his fingers slipped through her wet folds she looked up and caught his gaze. Her breath hitched from both the incredible sensation of his hand as well as the intensity of his blue
eyes as he watched her reaction. He stopped just short of touching her where she needed and Jessie bit down on her lip to stop her cry of protest. Instead he delved a finger deep inside her, sparking delicious sensation along her sensitive tissue. Jessie arched her back over the railing and let out a low keening cry of appreciation, pushing her hips into his hand forcing his finger even deeper.
“Oh, yes…please.”
“Please what?”
She gulped in air. “Please—more—harder.”
Noah added a second finger and thrust them both harder into her passage, setting off an electric shock that traveled the entire length of her body. Pleasure soared through her as an orgasm built and her body trembled with the force to hold it back. She could wait for him. But when his thumb circled around her clit, she wavered in her resolve, trying to fight it. His fingertip swiped and pressed against her sensitive nub with an insistent pressure that forced her body to explode in his hand as she fell headlong into the dark abyss of pleasure. Her hips rolled against his hand, riding out the pleasure through one shock wave after another.
With his free hand Noah reached for the button and zipper of his jeans. He savagely tore at them until he freed his thick, swollen flesh. His fingers continued to stroke at a slow leisurely pace, spreading her moisture around her opening before pulling them free and bringing them to his mouth. She watched him lick and suckle all of her juice, groaning with a husky deep tone.
“So, so sweet, baby. I can’t ever get enough of you.”
Jessie reached between them and wrapped her hand around his stiff cock, squeezing with a tight and steady pressure. With every pulse of him in her hand, her own inner walls clenched, driving her insane. He let his hand fall as his head fell back. “Fuck, Jessie. That feels so good. Too good even.” He returned his gaze to hers. “I want to fuck you.”
His hands grasped her buttocks so he could hoist her just enough for an easier entrance. “Guide me in, baby, surround my cock with your tight little pussy.”
She did, too. She swirled his head through the soaking wet outer lips and paused just as his tip started to move inside. She moved her hand from between them and Noah slid deep, penetrating her to the hilt. Jessie exhaled into the humid air as the sensation stole her breath, his cock stretching and filling her. Noah rested his head against her shoulder, his heart beating a quick and unsteady rhythm against hers until he slowly withdrew to the tip before slamming inside once again.
With each deep stroke he bumped against her plumped up clit, sending jolts of electricity shuddering through her. Her legs trembled with each stroke and she gripped his bulging biceps to steady herself. Sweat broke out on her brow as her body hurtled toward the second orgasm building inside. “Yes—yesss.”
His fingers dug into her ass with a bruising force as he fucked her hard and deep. Stealing a glance at him, her nerves jumped at the look of being lost in lust on his face. At that moment, when she wanted to remember that look of joy forever, his eyes popped open.
“Come for me, Jessie, come now.” His urgent and throaty words sent that extra shock of electricity through her body until she hurtled over the cliff, free-falling into a wave of emotion and pleasure. In that moment she was nothing but a woman that Noah desired and needed, not a creature for him to hate.
His own words had faded to grunts and groans as he, too, succumbed to the pleasure and exploded inside her, splashing her womb with jets of release. For her it was a primal meeting of two people desperate for some sanity in the craziness that surrounded them both, each providing shelter for the other. When he collapsed against her, she listened to sound of their lungs sawing the air in and out of their chests as they fought to bring their heart rates to a normal level.
The anger he had felt was now floating around inside her, something she no longer had a defense for. Her demon side loosened but never broke free, not strong enough to rebuild from the damage. Nausea roiled through her belly as Noah slid from her body and released her to the ground, holding her arms to steady her. She turned her head away, avoiding Noah’s knowing gaze, not wanting him to see or feel her distress.
“No, Jessie, you can’t pull away from me now. I’m here and I’m sticking.” She wrapped her arms around her waist, willing her stomach to calm. “Talk to—” Noah pulled her arm and brought her around to face him. “What’s wrong with your arm? Does it hurt? Holy hell, it’s glowing, the branding…”
Alarm ricocheted through her as she looked down to see the now familiar orange glow of the pentacle on her shoulder, with one distinct difference than all the other times. The Reverend wasn’t here performing his ritual and stealing her magick piece by piece. The heat in her brand continued to build and burn, the pain close to an unbearable level. What was going on?
“This isn’t right, Noah, it’s only been like this when Scott performed his ceremonies with me, when he took my magick, under extreme duress, I’d like to add.”
“My magick maybe? Whatever it is, I don’t like it and have a damned bad feeling about it.”
Chapter Six
“It’s burning, Noah, it hurts—I can’t—” She wavered in front of him, her eyes rolled back in her head.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
She was going down and fast. He scooped her into his arms and ran for the door, using his power to yank the damn thing off the hinges in his hurry. He rushed into the bathroom and turned on the cold water, shoving them both underneath the frigid spray coming out of the showerhead. The cold liquid splashed directly onto the glowing brand, popping and sizzling with each drop. It didn’t seem to have any affect on it and he didn’t know how long she could stay like this before something tragic happened. He sat her down on the seat behind him and dropped to his knees in front of her. With the multiple showerheads in the stall, water still cascaded onto her arm, but this way he would have his hands free to try and help, too. He concentrated on the heat as he laid his bare palm across the wound, taking it in as his own.
He gasped at the shot of darkness that struck through him, fighting for breath as his lungs contracted. What the hell was this? His own vision blurred as he concentrated on removing the heat, desperate to relieve Jessie of her pain. The magick fought him, not wanting to let go of her. Noah put his second hand on top of the other and pulled every shred of power up that he could, chanting an amplification spell as he did. Long painful minutes later the struggle eased and the heat leapt to his hand forming a small sphere in his palm when he turned it upward. But, unlike the blue clean magick he was expecting, he was faced with a sizzling red flame ball. Demon magick. Holy Hell what had his uncle done to her?
He needed to get rid of this shit, but he didn’t want to leave her like this, slumped against the wall unconscious, water pouring over her. Assessing the seriousness of the burning, growing entity in his hand, he decided she would be okay for a few minutes while he did what he had to. He ran through the house to the back deck. Once there he quickly flung the red ball in the air above the water with his right hand while his left shot it with a blast of his stronger white magick.
The sphere sizzled and burned larger than before until exploding in a flash of white light that engulfed the house and cove. Noah guarded his eyes and held his breath until the fine ash of the destroyed demon magick drifted down on him. Now he needed to figure out what demon he was dealing with and find the link between the demon and his uncle. Finally, something tangible to sink his teeth in—demon hunting, his specialty.
He strode back inside the house, grabbing towels on his way to the bathroom. He turned the water off and inspected her shoulder. It was now cool to the touch, but it had darkened to a smoky black from the heat. He pressed his fingers to her wrist, finding her pulse thready but strong, and when he peeled her eyelids up to get a look at her eyes he found them still dilated. Her body was stressed but she would be fine, he would make sure of it. Taking her too thin body back into his arms, he carried her to his bed. After toweling her dry he tucked her between the sheets, relieved that her
body had a pink and healthy tinge to it with some color returning to her cheeks.
The wet strands of her hair fanned out across his pillow, so beautifully. She looked good enough to eat all snuggled in his bed, and he couldn’t wait to curl around her and bury his face in her hair, breathing in her scent as he fell asleep holding her tight. His shoulders sagged on a regretful sigh. The simple pleasures would have to wait, he needed to talk to someone familiar with ceremonies that can transfer demon magick to a witch. That kind of thing was against nature and it amazed him how many people did it anyways, be damned the consequences.
Unfortunately at the moment there were few people Noah could trust not to be connected to his uncle. He would call Denn, there was no one he could trust more and he would know someone with some information. Peeling his wet clothes from his body, he hastily donned a pair of running pants, scooped up his satellite phone from the chest, and headed to his office to make the call.
* * *
“Seriously, Noah, what you’re describing is dangerous. Only a crazy person would want to deal with a demon like that.” Noah had been talking on the phone with Rena for over an hour now and discovered that his brother Graelen’s mate had an incredible amount of demon knowledge but a penchant for debate that made him unsure whether he would hug her or hide from her when they finally met in person.
“Well, if I hadn’t been holding the demon magick right in my hand after extracting it from her I might tend to agree. But it happened, so now I need to know what kind of demon I might be dealing with and how I keep her away from it.”
“This is new territory for even me. Normally a demon is summoned with a witch’s power and the demon lends his much more powerful magick if a bargain can be struck. You know they are quite selfish, but since they love spending time on this plane, wreaking havoc, they are eager to negotiate. But in nearly every recorded case, something always goes wrong. I can’t understand the arrogance of the stupid witches that keep trying.” She sighed.