Fall (Hero Society Book 6)

by Jessica Florence

  “Selene.” His voice was thick with the pain of denying us.

  “As long as you have someone to lean on, the darkness doesn’t feel so heavy. That’s what you said. So lean on me, Jude. Let me be the one to hold your hand and follow you into the dark.” I lifted our joined hands up to my lips and pressed a kiss to his warm skin. His lips parted, as his eyes darted to my lips, then up to my eyes wistfully.

  “Just tell the Hero Society to meet here tomorrow morning. 9:00 a.m. I’ll see you then, Selene.” He gently used his other hand to unwind our joined connection, then took a step back, giving me his answer.

  He was afraid. Instead of flinging hurtful words at him, I nodded once and left. I’d made my case, and the ball sat waiting in his court. He had to decide what he wanted and what he deemed worth enough to damn everything else. The chilled wind bit against my face as I cried unexpected tears. The pain increased as the gates opened for me this time as I exited the Mallory property. Jude must have been watching me leave. He wasn’t going to run out of his house to tell me that we’d walk hand in hand in the darkness. He’d rather shoulder his burden alone. I could yell and scream at him all I wanted, but the choice had to be mutual.

  The hitchhikers were gone as I walked to my car and started it up. The silent drive grew heavy on my emotions all the way back to my apartment. As soon as I got inside my warm home, I lit a fire in the hearth and called Phillip.

  “What’s shaking?” he answered, while a police siren wailed in the background.

  “Hey, is everything OK over there?” I thought about getting back in my car and rushing to help but there most likely wouldn’t be anything I could do unless someone died. I didn’t have super strength or speed like Leo or spy skills like Lilith. I talked to the dead and took them to the afterlife, not exactly save the day material.

  “A robber knocked over a candle at the hippie shop. He thought there would be pot there, but he was wrong. All is good here. What’s going on with you?” I heard the curiosity in Phillip’s voice, maybe wondering what words I would say to determine the future.

  “Jude wants the Hero Society to meet at his house tomorrow morning at nine. The gates to the other world are falling apart, but he has an idea and wanted to talk to everyone about it.” At least that was my hope. Something needed to be done about the problem. If he didn’t have an idea, then maybe one of the others would come up with one.

  “Sounds good, I’ll let everyone know. Gwendolyn and Arthur will stay behind. I’m pretty sure Gwendolyn would have a heart attack if she saw his place.” Phillip laughed.

  Gwendolyn had Asperger’s and was the smartest of the group, but she was OCD and did not like messes. She was always organizing something at the Hero Society headquarters. She couldn’t help herself. I know she tried hard to restrain her obsessions when she came to my cottage, but sometimes I found her reorganizing my pantry.

  “Very true. Well I guess I’ll let you go, then we’ll meet up tomorrow.” I glanced around my empty home and thought about what my next move would be. I needed to do something to get out of my head, anything to keep my depression from collapsing over me like a weighted blanket.

  “Selene, are you doing OK? My turn to ask you. Everything is good here. You can talk to me.” Phillip’s offer made me smile. We got along really well, so when he had the time to talk, I almost always took the opportunity to do it.

  “I think I’m falling for Jude, which seems crazy since we haven’t known each other long, and he is destined to die in seventeen days. I tried to plead my case to him that we should enjoy the time we have, but he wouldn’t budge. Everything is happening so fast. Ghosts can do real damage, the gates to the other side are falling apart, and I miss him.”

  My long-winded ramble silenced Phillip on his side of the phone. Only the sound of sirens echoed from the speaker.

  “I put myself out there and it didn’t help.” I plopped onto my sofa and pulled my legs in close, wanting to curl up into myself and cry some more.

  “You did the right thing, getting your feelings out. If you would have kept them in and he died without knowing you wanted him, then that regret would have haunted you longer than you realize. He is at a crossroads in his life. One way is the easy way, the other not so much. It’s up to him now.” If Phillip was with me, I’d give him a big hug. Despite feeling hurt and rejected, I knew I made the right choice.

  “I think you need to make some tea. Start the water for the big bathtub of yours, and don’t forget to check your mail. Might be something important in there to cheer you up.” I heard Phillip’s conspirator grin through the phone. Whatever letter or gift waiting for me was bound to make me smile.

  “Alright, you doing ok?” He wasn’t asked that question often, knowing all the futures made life sometimes a little easier for him but I understood the strain it caused on his mind. Constantly paying attention to the scenes playing out in his head and making difficult choices that sometimes led to people getting hurt. It wasn’t an easy gift to have, but he made the most of it.

  “Yeah, I’m good. Ready to get home to my girls.”

  “I’ll let you go then and get started on those orders you gave me,” I said. While tea and a bath sounded relaxing, along with a good book, it wouldn’t soothe my heart completely. However, it would help for now.

  I put my teapot on the stove, and then put Epsom salts and lavender essential oils in my bath water to help calm my nerves. While I waited for the bath and tea to be ready, I opened the door to get my mail, only to see Jude standing on my porch with his hand raised, ready to knock.

  Chapter Twenty- Four

  Jude

  I knew I made a mistake as soon as I saw Selene walk past the gates to my home. My chest hurt so bad I thought I was having a heart attack. I had been ready to suffer alone, take on the weight of my morbid destiny on my own, but as I watched her walk away with her head hung low, I knew I couldn’t do it. Having Selene as mine was worth the pain in the end, even if we only could be together for a short time. I’d grabbed my keys and ran to the car after staring at the road for a few minutes while I thought about how I’d make it up to her.

  Seeing her now, with those wide eyes and shocked expression, every word I’d rehearsed in the car failed me.

  “I missed you. Immensely.” I took a step closer, daring to reach out and touch her cheek with my thumb as tears swelled against her long lashes.

  “You were right. We are worth whatever hurt in the end as long as while I’m alive, I can call you mine.” Selene’s shoulder quivered, and those tears flowed freely down her cheeks. I hoped it meant she was overwhelmed with joy, but I was afraid I had showed up too late. I had been a dick and a coward. But I hoped she knew it wasn’t easy for me to let someone else in and share the load of my destiny. I’d been avoiding this type of connection all my life, and now with only seventeen days left, I was willing to let my walls down. All for her.

  I caressed her cheek and waited while she released whatever emotions she felt so she could speak to me. “Should I go?” I half-teased, as my other hand cradled her face, her glistening eyes staring at mine with something I didn’t understand.

  “No, you jackass. Get inside here and kiss me.” She laughed and I stepped into her house and lowered my lips to hers.

  The barrier between this undeniable pull between us broke, and I sure as fuck wasn’t stopping it now. Her hands buried themselves in my hair, pulling me closer as her body writhed against mine. My touch moved to her breasts, to her waist, then to her ass, lifting her up against me to move somewhere more comfortable.

  “Bed’s that way.” She pointed while her lips roamed my neck. Her hot mouth and tongue against my skin caused me to growl from a primal part of me.

  “Fuck,” I cursed, as I flexed my hips against hers. The need to bite, to claim, to fuck constricted all my thoughts.

  “Too far.” The thirty feet to her bedroom was way too far. I needed her now, against the wall, bent over her couch.

  “J
ude, please . . .”

  I set her down, sandwiched between me and the wall close to her bedroom. Our hands franticly yanked and gripped at the clothes in our way of what we wanted. I’d thought about her body so often, and despite the desire to lick every inch of her, nibbling and leaving my marks, the need to claim was too powerful. I ripped her bra off with a snap, and her black panties were the next to go. My hand went to her sex. She moaned as my fingers found her wanting and ready. A guttural growl reverberated from my chest, as a shiver broke over my skin as her delicate hand wrapped around my cock, once it was sprung free from my denim. The kisses I had been pecking on her bare shoulder turned into a bite on the sensitive flesh, and her knees went out with a moan on her lips.

  “Jude.” My name on her lips was a plea, and I wouldn’t be denying this woman a damn thing. Not anymore. I wasn’t going to let my shitty hand at life stop me from giving Selene the best seventeen days of our lives.

  Her hand left my cock, and I lifted her up, ready to slam home inside her.

  “I’m clean. Trust me?” I held her body over me, waiting, wanting to hear she was OK with this before I buried myself within her heat.

  “Me, too. I trust you, Jude. Please, please . . .” she murmured against my lips, and I didn’t need another please from her. Without hesitation I impaled Selene on my cock. My body tensed as her teeth bit into my lip. The taste of blood tinged with the pleasure of her warm sex squeezing my cock almost made me come.

  “You’re my heaven.” An admission that felt stronger than any declaration of love. My fingers gripped her ass as I pulled back slightly, then slammed home, over and over. Her tits bounced and I was torn between watching her hooded eyes on me and my body as I lifted her up and down or watching my dick as it slid into her pussy, disappearing like a new magic trick. My favorite magic trick.

  “You are my Jude. I don’t need heaven. Just you.” She groaned as her hands went to my face and pulled me closer to connect our lips, her body flushed against mine, every thrust became slower and harder. I’d never felt this level of intimacy before. Her words sliced me open, and my heart beat solely for her. With her wrapped around me, I felt forged anew, and I would fight for this . . . for us. Selene was worth everything, even if I had to raise an army of the dead to take on the world.

  Tendrils of my power broke free and curled around her like a dark smoke.

  “Oh yes!” she cried out, as my tendrils of death caressed her skin. Being near death had euphoric sensations for her, and when she kissed me, it was like she kissed death.

  Death ran in my veins, and only she could handle that from me. I flexed my power more, sending a flare of its strength into her house. The pulse of it hit her as I fucked her harder. She screamed and her pussy clamped down on me as her release hit. Every muscle in my body tensed from the sudden sensation and I came with a roar that shook the wall behind her writhing body.

  Our breathing echoed around the hall as I lowered us to the floor, her body tangled around mine like an octopus.

  “I . . .” She couldn’t form words, and I knew the feeling.

  “Yeah.” After a few minutes of recovery, I’d be lunging for her body again.

  “I’ve never had anything like . . . Wait. Why is my leg wet?”

  I felt something wet touch my ass.

  “Oh my God! I forgot to turn off the bath water!” She rose off my cock and scrambled for the bath that had overflowed into the hallway, soaking her floors and us.

  Chapter Twenty- Five

  Selene

  “Oh that feels so good.” I moaned at the bliss being massaged into my body.

  “Don’t do that, or you’re going to make me attack you again,” Jude warned as he massaged my foot in the tub. After I’d turned off the water, I grabbed some towels to clean up the mess that had spread into my hallway. Jude saw me bent over with my ass in the air and couldn’t help himself. Apparently, my ass called to him.

  My water bill was going to be high for this month so once we were done with round two of mind-blowing orgasms we decided to soak in the bath together. It was the right cozy temperature and we fit OK for a tub with two people in it.

  “What do you dream of, Selene?” We’d been asking each other questions for the past ten minutes, trying to learn everything there was to know about the other. The way his eyes lit up and how he smiled was nice. He cared what I said and he was easy to talk to. I liked it.

  “I don’t have big dreams. Maybe that would be appalling to some people, but I just want to live a happy life. Be around people who get me, smile, help those in need as best as I can. What about you?” As soon as I asked, I wanted to take back those words. Jude didn’t let himself dream, not with his looming death. His head dipped, and he focused on his masterful fingers on the arch of my foot.

  “When I was younger, when I thought I still had a chance of living past thirty, I wanted to get married, have a pet, and do something meaningful. All the other bullshit made me feel joy for a short time, like skydiving and traveling. I did all that because when you know you are gonna die, you try to knock stuff off your bucket list, but you tend to stay away from the deep stuff. You know?”

  I understood him, but I felt the opposite after my own experience with death. Life was short whether you knew when it would end or not. You had to live and do what you wanted now, even experience heartbreak from falling in love.

  “I’ll marry you.” Jude’s fingers stilled and his head flew up instantly upon hearing my three little words.

  “Jesus, Selene, you don’t waste time.” He laughed and shook his head.

  “It’s your dream, and you only have this life. Why would you not do something that you truly want?”

  I would marry him, not because of pity but because I enjoyed him. I missed him like hell in the week we didn’t talk. His presence gave me a peace I never knew before, not to mention the amazing things he does with his body to mine. One life. That’s it.

  “You don’t want that.” He couldn’t wrap his head around the idea that I was telling the truth, which was fine, I guess some people wouldn’t leap that quickly.

  “I do, but that’s OK. I’m fine just being with you.” I pulled my foot from his slack grip and maneuvered my lips toward his. We needed a distraction from the thoughts of his death and I could think of a few things that would empty my mind quickly.

  “Siren,” he murmured as my lips pressed against his, my thighs straddling his hips as his growing cock bobbed up to meet my core.

  “I’m not the kind of siren that will lure you to your death, I’m the kind that lures you away from it.” I tried to give hopeful thoughts, as I kissed my way down his neck, and then to his wet chest.

  “If you’re the last thing I feel when I die, I’ll die a happy man.” He groaned as I bit lightly against his nipple.

  “No dying. No more talk of dying. Jude, we’re gonna figure this out, and then you are gonna bang me on the hood of your sexy car the day after your birthday. Do you understand?” I sat up and rubbed my core against his considerable length, teasing him.

  “Yeah, I do.” His hands kneaded my breasts and I positioned him beneath me, then sank down slowly.

  Sex with Jude was unexplainable. Maybe it was stupid to fall for him, especially if I couldn’t deliver on saving him, but I wouldn’t stop until I exhausted every option to make sure this curse broke before his death.

  “If you’re thinking in there, then I’m not doing a good job.” Jude kissed my lips, the scab from my bite earlier tickling the sensitive flesh and I smiled.

  “Thinking of you now.”

  “Never stop.” He lifted us up and out of the water, then walked to the bedroom.

  For hours we explored each other’s bodies and souls. By the time we fell asleep, I knew Jude’s heart and character, and I wanted to protect him. He had so much to give this world, and I hated that he’d hid himself from it for the vast majority of his life. His power, his shows, hell his smile could make life better for many peopl
e.

  He held me close, his arms curled around my torso like his favorite teddy bear as he slept peacefully. I wished I could have said the same. I slept, but as the light began pouring through the window, I laid there in his grasp, thinking about what could be done.

  I tried to live in the moment, but my brain wouldn’t shut off as the journalist in me came out to play. I had been presented with a curse, a challenge even, and now the stakes were someone I loved. I needed to solve the puzzle and save him, along with the world.

  “Do we have to get up?” Jude’s husky voice broke through my thoughts and I smiled. He sounded sweet and youthful, like the weight on his shoulders didn’t feel too heavy. I hoped I helped take some of the load off of him.

  “Someone wanted to have a meeting with the Hero Society early in the morning. I didn’t make the rules.” I giggled and his fingers explored my naked body.

  “Someone didn’t know they’d be fucking all night and have the opportunity to continue in said morning.” He pressed kisses to the back of my neck and I realized I enjoyed waking up with a sweet, sleepy Jude.

  “Someone should have been more optimistic.” I wiggled against his body behind me and felt him grow with every wiggle. Oh yeah, I definitely enjoyed waking up with Jude in my bed.

  “I’ll show you optimistic.” He pressed his length against my ass and all thoughts that plagued me moments before disappeared.

  Chapter Twenty- Six

  Selene

  “It smells like dead people in here.” Echo’s nose scrunched up on her face, with Asher laughing at his woman’s expression.

  “There are dead people here. Be nice, kitten.” The warlock teased her as he wrapped his arms around her body and kissed her cheek. I always liked them; Asher’s magic came from the wild magic of the Earth, probably the same as Madam Tully. Echo and Asher both wore matching leather jackets and jeans with boots. It was cute that they always looked like a couple even without trying.