Rogue Magic

by McKenzie Hunter

  “Stay down.” His voice was rough and cruel. A huge contrast to the eloquent and alluring way he’d spoken before. He’d been charismatic and kind, but at that time, he’d been trying to seduce me into his world, to convince me to see things his way and eventually to be with him so I could bear his children.

  I didn’t like being on my knees looking up at him, especially since he looked like he wanted to take my head off. My eyes widened at his appearance. He was unmarred, as if he’d never felt the claws of a cave lion and been left for dead.

  I made another attempt to stand, and once again my legs were swiped from under me. I tightened my grip on my sai and prepared to engage. “I’m not going to stay down,” I hissed angrily.

  “You’ll stay where I put you,” he bit back with so much fiery anger it sent shivers down my arms.

  I narrowed my eyes on him and looked at him with defiance. Lifting the twins, I lowered my gaze to his crotch. “Are you sure you want me down here? It gives me perfect access. You know I won’t have a problem using these.”

  Oddly, that brought a smile to his face. “Anya, it’s your wit that leaves me torn between wanting to taste your lips”—his voice dropped to a sultry purr—“and ripping out your tongue.”

  “Do I get a vote? Because I’m going for the tongue-ripping option as opposed to kissing you,” I sniped back.

  His throaty laugh filled the small space. It stopped abruptly as he looked at Gareth, who was beating against the barrier. Conner rolled his eyes. “Your cat annoys me.”

  More than just annoyance reverberated in his voice; there was a tinge of hate as well. Conner didn’t stop me when I came to my feet. Standing face to face, we gave each other matching assessing looks. Conner shot a quick look over his shoulder as Gareth continued to try to break the barrier.

  “I plan to kill Gareth,” he said matter-of-factly. His emotionless, level tone scared me more than anything. “But not before making his life a living hell. He will rue the day he ever challenged me.”

  “‘Rue the day’? Are you fucking kidding me? Why don’t you just wear a cape and dramatically wrap it around you as you disappear into a cloud of smoke? That has supervillain written all over it. ‘Rue the day.’ Oh. Come. On.”

  My words were cut short when I was swept up in a cyclone of magic and then tossed against the luminescent barrier. “I will not be mocked by you.”

  No, but you will be killed by me. Sai in hand, I lunged at him, and was met with air. I whipped around to find him standing behind me. He wasn’t angry anymore; he looked bored. I was treated to another of his assessing gazes. His voice had dropped to a chilly timbre. “You ruined it all,” he accused. “You’re a fighter, a true warrior. We could’ve had something great. We would have achieved greatness together. Superior to anything anyone could have imagined.”

  Oh no, he’s starting to monologue. Why do they always monologue?

  “You’re naïve. You think you are going to reveal us without consequences. Harrah knew what you were. How did that work out for you?” He was upon me so quickly magic had to be involved. As he leaned into me, I could see into the opening of his shirt: He hadn’t been left unscathed from Gareth’s attack. Light rake marks ran along his chest.

  “Conner, remove the spell from Savannah and go away. You lost.”

  “I only lose if you come out of this alive.” His voice was laced with ire and ice. The shell shattered and he disappeared. Gareth was upon me in seconds, his eyes running over me as he looked for injuries.

  Satisfied that I wasn’t hurt, he pressed his palm lightly against my cheek as he exhaled a sigh of relief. He kissed me lightly on the other cheek and then on the lips. With effort I pulled away, aware that his kiss was a distraction—one we didn’t need.

  Gareth and I looked around for Lucas, but he was gone. I hadn’t expected him to stay and I wasn’t very confident that he would let me see Savannah, but I was going to try.

  CHAPTER 8

  “I’m in here!” I snapped at Gareth as he eased himself into the shower. I’d assumed he would use another once we’d entered his home and he’d directed me to the shower in his room, which reminded me of the waterfall he had in his pool.

  “I need a shower, too,” he said, a small miscreant smile curling his lips.

  I wiped the water off of my face. Multiheaded showers had their advantages, but I felt like I was being pummeled from all directions.

  “Oh I’m sorry, I thought the four other bedrooms would have showers as well. It’s a pity that you have a five-bedroom house and just one shower. Must be hell when you have guests,” I retorted.

  “Well, this is my favorite one,” he said, nestling in closer to me and letting the water spill over him to wash away the grime and blood from our run-in with Conner. He eased me out of the way and squeezed earthy sandalwood-scented bodywash onto a cloth and lathered. I averted my eyes as he ran the washcloth slowly over the hard muscles of his chest, abs, and back. Stepping back to give him room, I smiled.

  “Look at that. I’m getting a shower and a show,” I teased.

  “If you have a problem with what you see, close your eyes.” He grinned and inched closer to me. I could feel the warmth of his body and the steam of the water as he leaned down and kissed me. His tongue explored my mouth while his hands did the same to my body. The distraction wasn’t enough. “Conner’s insane,” I said.

  Gareth nodded, the water beating against us as his fingers trailed along the lines of my body. “He was always crazy, now he’s just unhinged. Revenge makes people a little more impulsive. The desire for it overrides logic.”

  “He’s not impulsive. His behavior today was calculated. What he did to Savannah was a well-thought-out plan. He may be emotional and unhinged, but his behavior isn’t.” Inhaling the various scents that coursed through the room, I leaned into Gareth. His arms circled me, pulling me closer. His head brushed against my hair, and when I looked up at him he kissed me. “We are going to fix Savannah.”

  Whether not we could do that wasn’t the real question: How many things would we have to deal with before we could get to Menta Island? He brought his fingers to my chin and lifted it so my eyes met his. Giving me a reassuring smile, he said, “Trust me, we will fix this.” His lips covered mine, gentle and warm. Breaking the kiss, he pulled away, enough to look me in the eyes again. I nodded.

  Commanding hands ran along the curves of my body, kneading my skin. The lingering warmth of the shower was replaced by the heat of his lips. I eased into the languid pleasure as he explored my body with his mouth and tongue, coaxing a shudder from me. He kissed my lips again, fevered and rapacious. Pressing me against the wall, he curled his fingers into my thighs as he secured my legs around him. He coaxed a moan of desire from me as he sheathed himself in me. The weight of his body secured me to the wall, my legs wrapped around his. Our kisses became more passionate and the need for more blazed in me. I nipped at his lips and entwined my fingers into his hair.

  Smiling, he pulled out, teasing me. Shifting forward, I felt him again, hard and ready against me, delighting in my frustration. He chuckled lightly.

  “Gareth.” My breath wisped against his lips as I breathed out his name in a beseeching pant, needing more. I was treated to light, feathery kisses against my jaw and cheek and neck before he sheathed himself in me again. We moved in a steady rhythm until it wasn’t enough to slake the growing desire. My back hit the tile of the shower in a constant beat as Gareth’s thrusting became more intense. Our kisses were as fiery and frenetic as our movements as we achieved the peak of pleasure. Gareth felt like a blanket of warmth as he rested against me. For several minutes we stayed entwined and connected to each other.

  I slept longer than I expected and awoke to find Gareth dressed, sitting on the living room sofa with his computer.

  “Did you enjoy your nap?” Amusement and arrogance coiled over his words.

  “I took a nap because I was tired. I haven’t slept in days,” I asserted. His aloof
arrogance forced me to be more belligerent with my protest.

  The smug smile would not disappear. “Yeah that’s the reason.”

  This guy.

  I frowned at his lingering assessment of me that moved over my uncombed hair, his shirt that I’d borrowed since mine was bloodstained beyond repair, and my bare legs. He didn’t share what he found so amusing and simply returned his attention to his computer.

  On my way to the living room, alluring smells from the kitchen stopped me in my tracks. Not only was I tired, I was hungry, too. I needed to decide where to go first: the kitchen for food or the living room for Gareth.

  “You might want to refuel first,” he said, noticing my dilemma. “Leslie made lunch. It’s in the refrigerator. She also baked you some bread.” Apparently, she believed that I had an appetite like a farmer, and I’m sure she held that opinion because of Gareth. When I entered the kitchen and opened the fridge, I found two sandwiches, a large salad that I had no plans to eat, and a pasta salad. There were several bags of chips on the counter, along with a loaf of sourdough bread and a cheese and olive tray. Quickly finishing off one of the sandwiches, I grabbed a bag of chips, a few slices of bread, and a small stack of cheese and took a seat next to Gareth.

  He moved his eyes from the screen to me and then to my purse, placed on an accent chair. “Your phone’s been vibrating for over two hours, you have a message.”

  I grabbed it quickly hoping it was a message from Savannah, which I knew was unlikely, but at the very least it could be Lucas. There were three messages from Elijah asking me if I’d found my friend. Instead of texting him back, I called in the hope that I could gauge his plans. I wanted him to stay, not only because of the magic he could teach me, but because the idea of having another Legacy, or rather Vertu, close was comforting. For too many years I’d distanced myself from them, and now we were going to let ourselves be known by more than just the SG and I didn’t want to do it alone.

  As the phone rang, I wondered if I was being selfish, expecting so much from a stranger.

  Elijah answered on the first ring. “Levy, are you okay?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is your friend safe?”

  She was away from Conner but as long as her memories were compromised and he knew he could use her as a pawn in his games, she wouldn’t be safe until he was gone. I hesitated too long before I spoke. Elijah repeated his question.

  “She’s safe.”

  “But still the same as before?” he inquired.

  “I don’t know. She’s with a friend and was asleep when we retrieved her.”

  “You haven’t called her?” he asked with strained incredulity. I’d called Lucas on the way to Gareth’s and he’d informed us she was still asleep. Reluctant to wake her, he’d asked for a couple of hours to see what happened. His voice had been tight, anxious. I knew he didn’t want me there when she awoke.

  “Then I doubt he did anything else to her memory. That’s good, less to be undone.”

  “You wouldn’t know how to undo it, would you?”

  “Unfortunately, I don’t. Cognitive manipulation on that level is difficult and requires a surgical touch. So much can go wrong, it’s frowned upon.” From the heaviness of his voice and the tight delivery of each word, he didn’t have a high opinion of anyone who would do it. “I do hope you can help her. All magic that can be done, can be undone. Even the Cleanse was stopped.”

  Yes, but that was because of the death of the initiators, who’d had an active spell in progress. Contrary to what the fairy tales would have people believe, all magic wasn’t undone once the conjurer was dead. Even if that was the case, I wasn’t a fool to think that killing Conner was going to be easy. If a big-ass lion mauling him in the chest hadn’t, what could?

  “What are you looking for?” I asked after ending the call, returning my attention to Gareth.

  “Based on where the island is located, we’ll have to take a plane as well as a boat.”

  “How did you find the coordinates? I spent hours researching it. I was starting to think it was a rumor.”

  “Most people know about it; it’s just not advertised.”

  “I’m most people and I didn’t know anything about it.”

  Gareth flashed a grin. “There are benefits to my position.” Finding me unamused, he let his smile falter briefly. “Think about it as Area 51. People know about it—not too many people have the privilege of visiting it. The same with Menta Island. We don’t want people visiting, and the location is guarded.”

  “Why?”

  “That island has existed for hundreds of years. It’s where many of the original supernaturals decided to live when the human population exceeded ours. They prefer not to be around humans, and because of that they are the purest form of magic because they never mixed with humans.”

  It was similar to what the Legacy and Vertu had done. We’d lived in our world. Since I hadn’t read or been taught of a Great War that involved the Mentas, I assumed they were satisfied with seclusion and had no intention of world domination. They just wanted to live away from the humans and other supernaturals who had been tainted by humans. And now we were planning to go to their island to find a plant. Great.

  “How close can we get with a commercial flight?” I asked, leaning in to look at his screen.

  “We aren’t going to take a commercial flight, we’ll use my family’s plane. They’ll be able to get us here.” He pointed to a spot on the map. “Menta Island doesn’t have a place to land a plane. We’ll have to take a ship and crew.”

  I was stuck on the fact that his family had a plane. “Do you even have to work?”

  “Of course, what else would I do with my time?” he offered breezily, dismissing my question.

  His job was dangerous. Why would someone like him take a job where he had to risk his life constantly? Was he some type of adrenaline junkie? He relaxed back on the sofa. “What’s on your mind?” he asked softly.

  “Nothing.”

  “Do I have to go over the heart rate, breathing thing again?”

  “Stop listening to my private information. It’s invasive.”

  “Reading your openly available vitals is invasive?”

  “When it can be used against me, then yes, it is,” I shot back. I didn’t want to discuss his family or whether he was an adrenaline junkie. He was trying to help Savannah and that was all that mattered. “Thank you.” I kissed him on the cheek. His brow furrowed with confusion.

  “What are you thanking me for?” he asked.

  “For this.” I waved my hand at the computer and the little notepad he had next to him with ideas of how to get to the island.

  “Levy, you don’t have to thank me. I want to do this for you. I want to help Savannah.” Giving me a coy smile, he said, “I kind of miss her. After everything that happened today I kept expecting her to call and tell me how disappointed she was, what I did wrong, and the next time something like that happened I’d have hell to pay. You know, the typical Savannah drill.”

  I laughed. Sadly, it was something she would have done. I fondly recalled his first dealings with Savannah when she’d shown up at the Supernatural Guild ready to launch a one-woman protest to get me out of the Haven, where I was being held after being accused of murder. Savannah was daring and stubborn. She possessed a lot of courage—too much for a human. And she didn’t possess a healthy dose of fear. I didn’t want her to be a coward, just demonstrate a functioning fight or flight response.

  “Should I call Lucas again?” I frowned at the idea of Lucas being an intermediary between Savannah and me because she saw me as her enemy. Whether it was one day or ten I doubted the hurt feelings would lessen.

  Pulling out his phone, he scrolled through his contacts and then handed it to me.

  “Just the person I was about to call,” Lucas said, his voice sounding hard and strained. I wasn’t sure if vampires could actually become fatigued but there was a weariness to his voice.

  �
��You were going to call me?” I asked.

  He made a sound. “I thought you were Gareth. I need to speak with him.”

  “About Savannah?”

  “Yes,” he said tersely. There were several beats of silence as I waited for an explanation that never came.

  “What about her?” I probed. Anything that had to do with Savannah needed to be shared. “Did she not wake up?” It had just dawned on me that she was under a spell or maybe drugged; there had been enough activity going on around her that she should have woken up. Her being spelled into sleep wasn’t the worst idea. At least we wouldn’t have to worry about her running again.

  “I must speak with Gareth,” Lucas asserted with the same cool, withdrawn voice. I quickly realized it wasn’t fatigue in his voice but irritation. Who was he irritated with?

  “Go ahead and talk to Levy, I can hear,” Gareth said from his position next to me. I knew I wouldn’t have to relay the information because Lucas heard him as well. That was something I’d undoubtedly never get used to.

  Lucas didn’t need to breathe, so his sigh of annoyance was for my benefit. “Savannah came to, and let’s just say she wasn’t very happy with my involvement with you trying to spell her. She left.”

  “You let her!”

  “What exactly would you have liked me to do? I wasn’t going to hold her against her will.”

  “Compel her,” I snapped and immediately felt a wave of filth wash over me as if I’d been wading in mud or slime. What I was suggesting wasn’t just morally wrong, it was illegal, although I wasn’t convinced vampires had stopped doing it. They’d just become savvier about it. But in this case, I wanted Savannah safe and was willing to take extreme measures to make her so.