by Linsey Hall
When he began to draw on my blood, I moaned.
He mirrored the noise, a groan escaping his throat. His strong hands gripped me, one at my waist and one at my head, holding me pinned against him. I felt like prey, but…
I liked it.
Ecstasy streaked through me as he fed, his tongue laving and soothing the faint burn of his bite. I moved against him, craving friction and heat.
As he drank, his strength returned. I could feel it in his grip, in the warmth of his skin and the pounding of his pulse. He rolled me over and pressed me down into the mattress with his weight.
Fear flared, briefly, but it gave my desire an edge. I reached up and sank my hands into his hair, clamping my legs around his waist. He moved against me, thrusting in a rhythm that made pleasure coil deep within me.
It tightened, threatening to take me over the edge.
Instead, a vision flashed in my mind: Grey, drinking me to the death.
Not now, but in the future. Sometime soon. Fear chased away the heat.
The bite that brought such pleasure would also bring my end.
13
Grey
The world had become a cocoon of lavender and heat. My head spun as Carrow’s blood spilled over my tongue, hot and delicious.
She was pinned beneath me on the bed, writhing as her thighs gripped my hips. The heat and softness of her was such an incredible contrast to the cold austerity of my life.
I wanted to sink into her. To stay here forever.
I drew more deeply on her neck, grinding myself against her, wanting more of her soft whimpers in my ears.
When the cries became more frantic, a beast arose inside me. She began to struggle, trying to push me off her. For the briefest second, the monster inside me wanted to pin her harder, draw more firmly.
Sanity returned. Horrified, I heaved myself off of her.
No.
Disgust surged through me, sickening me, and I nearly vomited.
What had I done? What had I nearly done?
I leapt from the bed, putting distance between Carrow and me. Hazy memories flashed through my mind. I’d been partially conscious, but I remembered.
The beast within me had almost risen.
I turned away, unable to look at her with the memories still swirling in my head.
“Grey? Are you all right?”
“I’m—” I cleared my throat, wishing it were as easy to clear my head. “Fine.”
I stalked to the window, past the grand piano that I no longer played, and stared out at the mountains. The Carpathians—my home. Full of bears and wolves and other monsters like myself.
I was better suited to that place.
I heard Carrow climb out of bed, and I drew in a deep breath, forcing myself under control. I turned to her, my gaze going to the bite marks at her neck. The wound was already closing, but her blood gleamed dark red in the moonlight.
“Are you better?” she asked.
I forced my mind to the present, away from the fear of what I had almost done to her.
Drink her to the death.
“Yes. Thank you.” Gratitude welled within me, followed by awe. “You saved me.”
“Anyone would.”
“Hardly.” I shook my head. “And it doesn’t matter if they did. Not all blood can heal me like that.”
“Really?”
“Only yours.”
Shadows crossed her face, followed by fear. The memory of her struggling beneath me surged to the surface, and the queasiness returned. “Did I…force you?” I asked. The idea made me want to throw myself back into the sorcerers’ tower and let them barrage me with killing blows until I was no more.
“No.” She shook her head, eyes wide. “You didn’t. Not until—”
“You started struggling.” I leaned back against the window, nearly lightheaded.
“You stopped right away.”
“I took too much.”
“No…no, that’s not it.” She chewed on her lip. Her eyes were dark as they searched mine. “I didn’t struggle because of what you were doing. I had a vision.”
“A vision? I thought your power didn’t work on me.”
“Normally, it doesn’t. But this…it was so powerful, I was forced to see it.”
Her dark tone worried me. “What did you see, Carrow?”
“We’re Cursed Mates.”
“I’ve heard that.”
“I didn’t know what it means, but now I have an idea.”
“And?” I clenched my fists.
“Sometime in the future, you will drink me to death.”
“I would never.”
“If you won’t, then you will die.”
“Then I die.”
She blinked at me, surprise flickering briefly in her eyes. It was there and gone so quickly that I almost wasn’t sure if I saw it. “You would, wouldn’t you?”
“I’ve lived a long enough life.” I wasn’t keen to die. After centuries of immortality, the idea was almost absurd. But if the alternative was her death, it wasn’t a question.
“You took the killing blow from the sorcerers for me,” she said. “Why?”
“You really can’t guess?”
“Um—”
I shrugged, not keen on elucidating. “Don’t be too concerned with it.”
She looked at me like I was insane. “You tried to sacrifice your life for mine, and I’m not supposed to be concerned with it?”
“We have bigger problems.”
She scowled. “In the immediate future, yes. After that? This is the biggest one, as far as I can see.”
Damned Cursed Mates. At least the name finally made sense. “It won’t happen if we don’t fall for each other.”
I turned back to the window, unable to look at her anymore. My words were ridiculous, and if I’d had to look into her eyes while saying them, I’d never have got them out.
“Right.” Her voice sounded odd, but I couldn’t place it. “Good plan.”
A knock sounded at the door. Miranda and the healer rushed inside.
Miranda pulled up short, her eyes widening. “Devil. You’re…standing.”
I nodded. “Thanks to Carrow.”
Miranda’s gaze flashed to Carrow. “But how? You’re not a healer.”
Carrow shrugged. “I’ve got the touch.”
She didn’t mention the bite, and I was glad. It was personal. As much as I liked Miranda, we didn’t have that kind of relationship.
“Am I not needed?” The old healer frowned, his bushy brows drawing close over his pale green eyes. The white cloak he wore was a relic from an older age. But then, so was he.
“No, but thank you, Doratio.”
The healer nodded and backed out of the room.
Miranda gazed at Carrow and me in confusion, but she swallowed her questions. “Can I bring you anything?”
“Dinner, please.” I looked at Carrow. “Something in particular?”
“Um, no.” She still looked faintly shell-shocked, and I couldn’t blame her.
Miranda disappeared
“There’s more to this Cursed Mate bond,” I said to Carrow. “There must be. But we don’t have time for it now.”
“I agree,” she said. “I like your plan. There’s no reason we should…fall for each other.”
I nodded and tried to keep my expression placid.
I’d spent so many years feeling nothing that it was easy to tell when I was going off the rails. I was well and truly gone over her. No question.
I shoved the thought to the back of my mind.
“For someone immortal, you sure almost die a lot.” She tried to make it a joke, an attempt to change the tone of the room.
It didn’t work, but I played along. “You’re dangerous.”
“True.” Her gaze dropped to my shirt, and I realized that it was blackened and charred from the sorcerer’s spell.
“Let me change clothes.” I strode away from her, desperate for a moment to myself. A
moment to gather my wits and return to the coldness that kept me in control.
Carrow
Head reeling, I watched Grey walk toward a closet. As he neared it, he stripped his shirt off over his head and disappeared inside. I got the briefest glimpse of hard muscles and scarred flesh and had to turn away.
Shocked, I stared out the windows at the impossible view.
That vision had been real.
We truly were Cursed Mates. I’d seen no details—just the two scenes and a deep understanding of what was to come.
I thumped my head against the glass. “God, I wish I were a witch.”
The witches had it so good. They created spells and potions and sold them for beer money while partying in their tower. None of this visions-of-the-future shit.
Seeing my own future was just too much.
Especially when it was deadly.
Shake it off, honey.
Cordelia’s voice sounded from down below, and I turned to look. She sat a few feet away in the shadow of the huge piano I hadn’t even noticed. A massive wall of bookshelves sat behind her, stuffed to the brim with books. Another thing I hadn’t noticed.
“How did you get in here?” I asked.
How do I get anywhere? And you need to knock that look off your face. Moaning doesn’t become you.
“Do you know what I saw in my vision? What lies ahead of me?”
No. And I don’t need to. You’ve got real problems staring at you now, so you’ve got to deal with them. Don’t go borrowing trouble.
“Don’t go borrowing trouble.” I stared at her, liking that phrase. “You’re right.”
Of course I’m right.
Deep in my soul, I knew that I’d have to confront the vision I’d had, but not now. I needed to focus. We had twenty-four hours to save Guild City.
“Thanks, Cordelia.”
She nodded. You can owe me a kebab.
“Sure.” I made a shooing motion. “Now, you should scram. We don’t need the Devil knowing you can get into his place.”
She tapped her head with a little claw. Good thinking.
She disappeared, and I pulled out my mobile to call Mac.
My friend picked up on the third ring without bothering with hello. “You find anything good?”
“Yeah. Can you meet?”
“Not yet. Almost got some info, though.”
“Really?”
“Yep. Tracking this one last guy. He’s supposed to get off work in a couple hours, and we can nab him.”
“Shall we meet in the morning, then?” That would give us a day to stop this thing. I’d rather get started right away, but we didn’t have enough info. And I needed some rest. So did Grey. We’d be staggering to the fight at this rate.
“First thing, your place. Sound good?” Mac asked.
“Sounds good. And hey, be safe.”
“Always.”
We hung up, and I turned to see Grey enter the room. He’d put on a clean shirt, and his expression looked less stunned. He’d shown more emotion after that bite than I’d ever seen, and I wanted to get to the bottom of it.
As if he could see what I was thinking, he swiftly changed the subject. “You called Mac?”
“Yes. They’re on the trail of something, which is good, since I only got the words of a spell and nothing else from Mariketta.”
“We still don’t know about the key or how they plan to do it.”
“We should know in the morning if Mac is right.”
He nodded.
A knock sounded at the door again, and Miranda entered with two servers carrying massive trays. They set them on the table in the main living room and disappeared like ghosts.
“Go to the Sorcerers’ Guild,” Grey said to Miranda. “Try to convince them that we meant no harm and have them contact us.”
She grimaced. “I’ll do my best, but I’m not sure my charm is going to do any good there.”
“Try. If anyone can do it, you can. And keep working on the various guilds. See if you can get the more reticent ones to evacuate their people from city.”
“I will.” She departed silently.
My stomach roared, and I went to the table, ravenous. It was laid with an enormous spread of incredible variety. Steak pie, curry, pasta, and even pasties with gleaming golden crust. Grey joined me, and we ate in silence, finishing quickly and efficiently.
When I’d downed the last bite of my fish and chips, he said, “Your magic is changing.”
“I know.” I thought of the way I’d been able to zoom in on the vision of Mariketta’s crypt, and then of how I’d had a hard time getting the information I needed from her memories. My powers were totally unreliable. “But how do you know?”
“I can feel it.” His jaw tightened. “And that’s dangerous.”
My shoulders slumped.
“It’s one thing not to be able to control your magic,” he said. “That’s bad enough. But you have magic that is constantly growing and changing. That is unheard of.”
“I can’t let the Council know.”
“You can’t.” A deep frown cut across his face. “I can control them to a point, but I can only do so much. I can’t force them to obey my every command. Impossible to control so many. Not forever.”
I nodded.
“Learning to use and control your magic is going to take time,” he said.
“Time we don’t have.”
“But we can teach you to suppress your magical signature so that they think you have control.”
Hope flared. “I like the sound of that.”
“Every supernatural learns to do it. Normally, it’s easier. Less power equals less of a signature to control. But you have a lot of power.”
“It’s like trying not to stink when you sweat, isn’t it?”
He chuckled. “Essentially.”
“I can’t even imagine how to do that.”
“I’ll help you. We started out the wrong way at La Papillon. I was trying to train you to use your magic—to compel it to do your will. But we need to start with something more attainable.”
“And this is it.”
“This is it.”
“Why are they so interested in me?” I asked. “It seems overly aggressive.”
“It is. They’re normally intense about this kind of thing. But with you…there’s something more to it.” His gaze dropped to the crystal around my neck. It was tucked under my shirt, but I could feel its weight. “It likely has something to do with your ability to hold that.”
“They want Orion’s Heart?”
“Or they want you. You’re strong enough to hold it, not anyone else.”
Part of me wished I’d never grabbed this thing, but it had saved a woman’s life. It had also marked me as a weirdo. Just like my actions at Police College. I’d used my powers too much then and made everyone suspicious.
Same here.
I pushed the chair back and stood. “Okay, let’s get started. I’m going to learn to lock down this signature. I want to appear as powerful as a mouse.”
He grinned. “That’s the spirit.”
I smiled back, liking this moment of camaraderie. We’d had a strange acquaintanceship so far, full of mistrust and attraction and life-saving deeds. Yet no dates or talking or normal stuff.
And I was still falling for him. Not in a normal way, as a product of normal experiences. No—in a strange way, one built of huge moments with mistrust in between.
I shook the thought away and looked at him. “What do I need to do?”
He stood and went to the window, then gestured for me to approach. “Come here.”
I joined him, stopping a few inches away.
“Press your hand to my chest,” he said. “I’m going to release my magical signature, and you’ll feel it. When I draw it back into myself, try to focus on what that feels like. Use it as a guide for yourself.”
More touching? I wasn’t sure I could handle it.
I wasn’t going to jump h
im or anything, but it certainly wasn’t going to help me keep my distance from him.
He looked at me expectantly. There was no way I could say that in front of him, and so I raised my hand and pressed it to his chest, feeling the firmness of his muscles.
He drew in a quiet, unsteady breath.
His magic flared fiercely, and my knees nearly buckled. The firelight and whiskey scent of it swept through the room, followed by the sound of thunder. It was so loud it nearly deafened me, and I stumbled back.
“I’m sorry.” He winced.
“I don’t mind thunder.”
“Thunder?” He looked outside.
The night was clear and bright.
“Your magic. It sounds like thunder.”
“No. It sounds like the screams of the dying.”
My eyes widened. “The screams of the what now?”
“The dying. And it feels like the icy grip of death.”
“No, it feels like a warm…caress.” I could feel it even now, stroking over me. This was one signature of his that I hadn’t felt yet, and I wanted to lean into it. “And it smells like fire and whiskey.”
“That’s impossible. I know what my signature is. Everyone knows what it is.”
I shrugged. “I know what I smell and hear, and it’s not what you’re describing. But if everyone thinks you feel like death, then I can see why you aren’t the most popular guy in town.”
A surprised laugh huffed out of him, and he met my gaze. “My magic really feels like that? Sounds like that?”
I nodded. “I like it.”
“Strange. Signatures shouldn’t be perceived differently by different people. They are what they are.”
We were different. Our bond was different.
But I didn’t say it.
I could see that he knew it—the way the knowledge flickered in his eyes and his jaw clenched.
Neither of us knew what to do with the bits of information we had. It didn’t matter. The Cursed Mates thing had to wait. We had bigger problems, and I needed to practice controlling my signature. I also needed a long, hard nap if I wanted to survive and save Guild City.
“Let’s get back to work,” I said.
He nodded.
I pressed my hand firmly against his chest and focused on his magic. Again, he released it, and this time, I was ready. I still swayed slightly but didn’t jump.