He got her out of her jeans and then into his arms to walk her to the kitchen island and stretch her out on the surface. With one taloned finger, he traced a line in the air from the middle of her chest to her pubic bone. She groaned, feeling the magic move from him to her. After tracing a few more lines, he went straight for her core. Her hips arched toward him. She smelled good, tasted good, was wet for him and salty, and he worked her with his mouth, keeping one hand on her bent knee with a gentle outward pressure and using the other to brace himself against the island. He didn’t let up until she came.
She didn’t have her breath back when he bent over her and kissed her breast. She hissed and arched toward him. Her hands landed on his upper back, and he had to be careful not to scratch her. She completely let herself go, and he dedicated himself to finding out what she liked best about him touching her in this form. Just about everything, it seemed.
He pushed up enough to meet her gaze while he brought her hips closer to the edge of the island. “You know what this means,” he said. She nodded. “There’s no going back for either of us now.”
“Xia—”
He slid inside her, and she adjusted herself until he was there, all the way, all of him inside her body. Heaven. The impulse to mate threatened his control. He was closer to his physical urges now, and when one of the kin was with a human like this, the instinct was all about reproduction.
“You know, right? If I’m in you like this?” He pumped once and about lost it. “Tell me now if you don’t want the risk.” He shivered from head to toe as he levered back. “I want this with you.” In again. Slowly at first, then faster until he was inside her all the way and feeling the pressure of her around him.
“Xia, please.”
“I want you. It’s you, Alexandrine,” he said. In this form, his voice was deeper, rougher. “You’re the one.” Because she was. Alexandrine Marit was the woman for him. She accepted what he was; hell, she embraced what he was. She got her hand between them again and stroked his cock. He grabbed her wrist and stopped her long enough to say something that not so long ago he’d have thought was impossible: “You’re the only one I want.”
He saw her smile, soft and a little sad, even, and his breath hitched, and that was it for him. He was gone, and the issue of risk became moot.
Chapter 24
Alexandrine woke up with her face flat on the mattress. Not even a pillow. The bedroom was dark, and beside her the place where Xia should have been was still warm. Her connection with him was in place. This wasn’t the same connection she’d felt when her dependence on the talisman was messing with them both. Her link with Xia came strictly from that left-behind magic, and it was as unmistakable as it was foreign.
According to Xia, she’d always feel an awareness for kin who weren’t mageheld. Now that her magic was gone, she was realizing just how thoroughly even her meager ability had affected her. An entire level of background noise was gone from her life. The talisman’s magic wasn’t completely unfamiliar to her; it was just that without her magic, there wasn’t any interference between her and what had been left behind. She had a lot to adjust to.
Without opening her eyes, she knew Xia wasn’t far away. And yet, something was wrong. The air felt wrong as it came into her lungs and felt wrong on the way out, too. The center of her bones vibrated with a sense of the world being out of step. They hadn’t resolved the issue of his big confession; that was one problem. You’re the one. Human men said stupid things all the time when they were getting hot and heavy. She figured things probably weren’t much different with Xia. He’d gotten worked up and out came words he hadn’t meant.
She didn’t want to put him on the spot by asking if he meant it. Assume the negative. That was much safer. So, she just hadn’t ever acknowledged what he’d said. The tactic hadn’t been a resounding success. They weren’t square anymore. Maybe she should have made a joke so he would know she hadn’t taken him seriously. They’d have been better off if she had. But she hadn’t and now things were all messed up between them. She hated that.
Without moving, she opened her eyes. Her side of the bed faced the closed bedroom door, which meant she could make out Xia standing in front of it with his head tipped to one side. Through their connection—always on it seemed—she knew he thought something was wrong, too. There was a lot for her to learn with the talisman’s magic. Not that she could do much with it, but she did have this unfamiliar and foreign link with Xia. That was something else to deal with, no lie. He took a step toward the door.
“Xia?”
He lifted a hand, a signal for quiet. But their connection got wider, richer. She knew his thoughts and even some of what he was experiencing. Her skin crawled, and the base of her spine turned to ice. She clenched her fists as, through Xia, one of the premonitions she’d been having her entire life shook him hard. She wasn’t at all confused about this, even though the sensory information wasn’t coming from her. She was getting it through Xia, who owned her magic and knew even less than she did about how it worked.
She sat up. In a low voice, she said, “Get away from the door, Xia.”
Xia turned his head toward her. He was in human form, wearing his jeans and nothing else. A splendidly awesome sight, to be sure.
He replied in the same low voice. “Why?”
Was he pulling? Either he wasn’t or she didn’t know how to identify the signs of him accessing her magic. How completely bizarre to think she was having one of her premonitions but having it filtered to her entirely through her link to Xia. “When I feel like that, something’s going to happen. Trust it.”
“For real?” His eyebrows lifted and he nodded. Guess he was learning, too.
“It’s not a joke, Xia.” From Xia, the sense of urgency doubled. “Something’s going to happen. Move it.”
Wrong approach, she thought. Xia was prickly about being told what to do. So, no surprise, he didn’t move. He just crossed his arms over his chest and went back to listening or whatever the hell he was doing. The flow of her premonition ceased.
“I’m ready for whatever it is,” he said.
Alexandrine threw off the covers, and Xia turned just enough to give her an eyebrows-raised look. She ignored him. No way was she going to face whatever was happening when she was buck naked. She fished around in the dark for her clothes and managed to find her jeans and Xia’s shirt.
“How can you tell what’s going to happen?” he asked.
She shook her head. “How would I know? You cut me off.” Her connection to Xia returned, and so did her ice-cold spine. Alexandrine concentrated on what she was getting from him. “It’s hard, getting this through you. It’s like trying to walk through a house of mirrors.”
The magical spigot opened wider. Icy fingers squeezed her heart. She opened herself wide, and wow, it hurt her brain. She had a pinhole to her magic. Xia had the Grand Canyon. Impressions came at her so rapidly she couldn’t process them fast enough. She concentrated harder on what she did recognize. The images and impressions coalesced.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know how it works anymore.”
Xia held up a hand. This time, she felt him pull. A thread of magic that echoed in her. At least this little amount didn’t make her dizzy. Whatever he was doing, her premonition didn’t go away. In fact, another chill crawled up her spine, a regular iceberg this time. Her fingers shook, but she got her jeans pulled up and fastened and his T-shirt over her head. She tied the shirt in a knot at her waist. Shoes. Where were her shoes? She found them and jammed her feet in her sneakers. Her premonition went off again, bigger. More intense. Something bad was going to happen any minute. If they weren’t ready for it, the outcome was going to be dire.
Alexandrine walked to Xia and pulled his knife from its scabbard. He pulled off his scabbard and handed it to her. “Don’t hurt yourself, babe.”
“I won’t.” She snapped the scabbard to her jeans and felt better. Not enough, though. Xia went back to li
stening and working with his thread of magic. If Xia was feeling anything like she was about the remnants of the talisman’s magic in her, which was disoriented and confused, then he had no idea what he was feeling and, likely, had missed most of the information her premonitions could provide.
There wasn’t a sound out of place. Nothing that didn’t belong. No footsteps. No eerie creaks. But someone was breaking into the house; she was sure of it. Xia continued to pull just that strand of power, a wisp of energy that raised the hair on the back of her neck. He cursed softly.
Her inner ear went off kilter. It was here. Whatever it was, it was here, right now.
“Xia, get away from the door!” Her warning came in a low, harsh whisper. At the same time, she moved toward him. She lurched, off balance because she didn’t know how to deal with the different kind of magic that flooded into her from Xia. She landed hard on the floor. So much for being quiet. Xia, however, maintained silence. The man was a total freak of ice-cold nerves. Her hand shot out and wrapped around his ankle. She yanked. Hard. Xia landed on his ass away from the door.
Which exploded inward, sending splinters of wood into the air where his head and chest had been.
“Damn,” someone said. “I don’t usually miss.”
“Fuck,” Xia said at the same time.
She was on her feet in one fluid motion, Xia’s knife in hand. Light reflected off the blade with a dull blue sheen that wasn’t natural given the lighting in here. She got a hum in her fingers that worked its way up her arm. Magic to which she hadn’t been sensitive before. She stayed where she was with Xia’s knife balanced in her hand. “Next time,” she said, “listen to me, would you?”
“We have bigger problems now.” Xia grabbed her arm and backed them both away from the door.
“Let’s talk about this, Xia,” said their as-yet-unseen visitor. “May I?”
Someone walked in. A tall, dark someone with a voice that shivered her insides. Once he was in the room, with the door blasted to slivers, there was enough light for her to see it was the man from the grocery store. The man who’d attacked them at her house. Her father’s mageheld, Durian.
“Take another step and you’re dead,” Xia said.
Alexandrine shoved Xia behind her, or, more accurately, she pushed herself in front of him, because if Xia didn’t want to move, he freaking didn’t move. Instinctively, she judged the distance between her and Durian and what it would take to put the knife in his heart.
The other fiend took a step back, hands raised. “All I want is the talisman,” the fiend said.
Of course. She was a witch, and magehelds were not allowed to harm the magekind unless ordered to do so. Like the shaved heads, that was a fact of their condition. Alexandrine’s spine flashed hot, and this time she was able to identify the magic Durian held, though again, filtered through Xia. If she had her own magic, she’d be feeling Durian’s power directly while Xia would feel nothing. Instead, she had this bizarre reflection of her magic. Xia pulled harder, which sent the air around them vibrating. That she felt all on her own. By herself, she could only feel Xia pulling.
“It cracked, Durian,” Xia said. “And assimilated. Your mage is shit out of luck. So how about you go deliver the bad news and leave us alone until we can get Carson after you?”
Durian’s lip curled. “Rasmus will be so disappointed.”
“Xia,” she said. Her premonition fired off again, subtly changed because even with Durian right here in front of them, Xia’s revelation had shifted the parameters of the danger. “It’s you he’s after.”
Durian glanced at her once, then returned his attention to Xia. He looked menacing in black. Black jeans. A black sweater. Black Vibram boots. His black hair was shorn close to his skull. Of course, being six foot and then some with a dancer’s lines kind of added to the elegant bad-ass mystique he had going. Hell, from what she’d seen so far, all fiends were physically gorgeous and scary as heck.
“Are you quite sure, Ms. Marit,” Durian said, “that you don’t wish to see your father again?”
“Not interested.”
Xia turned his head. Damn him, he’d stepped aside so there was once again a clear line of sight between him and Durian. She didn’t like this. Not even a bit.
“I’m not letting you take her.”
With a chillingly dead smile, Durian cocked his head and said, “What a pity.”
She concentrated on processing what she was getting from Xia. She had a new worry now. What would happen if her magic went off the way it sometimes did when she was stressed out? Even when her magic was hers, she wasn’t any good at dealing with it, and Xia sure as hell wouldn’t know what to do. The entire situation was too new for either of them to know how this worked or affected them.
“Perhaps you’ll change your mind,” Durian said to her. “Your father finds you far more interesting now than when you were a child. Xia may accompany you, if you like.” He inched closer.
“Back off, buddy,” Alexandrine said. She could tell Xia was working up to something big with his magic. He wasn’t the only one. Unfortunately, Durian was doing the same thing. The pressure in her head kept ratcheting up, a sign, she figured, that her magic was close to boiling over. Durian was pulling; she was getting that from Xia, too, while he ignored what was going on with her magic. Her mouth went dry as a bone.
“It’s a shame,” Durian said, “that Carson Philips isn’t here.” He put a hand to his chest and grimaced. His gesture wasn’t idle. He frowned and moved his finger up and down the midline of his chest. “Our meeting tonight might end quite differently if Magellan’s little witch were here.”
Xia lunged and Alexandrine grabbed his arm. “No!” She shouldered her way in front of him again, and he crashed hard against her back. She stumbled toward Durian. The air was so hot around them she practically fried. “Xia, it’s a trick. He’s up to something.”
“Am I deceived?” Durian’s eyebrows rose. “A witch protecting a fiend?” He laughed. “Remarkable.”
“Fuck off, Durian,” Xia said.
“You’ve gone to the dark side, Xia, haven’t you? Letting a witch protect you.” Durian put his hands on his hips. “Or has she so emasculated you that you can’t take care of me on your own?”
Xia shook off her hand, and everything after that was a train wreck. Durian released his power. As she expected, he feinted at her. Xia stepped in front of her, and that’s when Durian let him have it. Of course, she was caught up in it, too. A bonus for Durian.
She might not be able to directly feel the mageheld pulling, but she sure as heck felt his magic when it hit her. She reeled under a concussive shot that short-circuited her brain. A flash of light blinded her, but not before she saw Xia blown off his feet and Durian hurl himself after Xia. Magic lanced through her, bone-deep and so dark and terrifying a scream burst from her. She couldn’t move. The world went black and soundless.
When she opened her eyes, or maybe when her ability to process vision and hearing came back, she was on her ass on the floor, facing the blown-out door and surrounded by slivers of wood. The doorknob was near her left shoulder, a mass of melted brass.
She got a deep breath, and her relief at breathing was replaced with panic. Her sense of Xia was gone and so was any echo of her magic. The lack of it knifed through her heart. She peered hard into the darkened room and saw Xia sprawled on the floor with Durian bending over him. Every muscle in her body protested when she tried to move.
Durian looked over his shoulder at her and said, “Don’t you ever give up?”
“No,” she said, hunched over and gasping for air. With Xia out, she didn’t have a link to her magic, but she also didn’t have any of the confusion, either. Right now, she figured her best hope was a reprise of what she’d done to Kynan. No magic and take him by surprise.
Xia’s knife was still in her hand. With the effects of Durian’s magical blast still bouncing around in her head helter-skelter, she was off balance and nauseous. But,
hell, she’d felt way worse the time Kynan blasted her. Compared to that, she was in the pink. Even if she’d had her magic, she couldn’t take down a mageheld like Durian, but she could slow him down. Sometimes brute force got you what you had to have. The hilt of Xia’s knife burned her palm, and she rushed at Durian as hard and as fast as she could.
Unfortunately, Durian’s mind was even faster than his reflexes.
She got stopped with the mental equivalent of running into a wall. Her arm froze before she started the down-stroke to Durian’s spine.
The mageheld’s fingers gripped her wrist. He snarled. “Stupid girl.”
Durian’s magic churned in her, burning the inside of her head. She tried to focus on the talisman’s power, because she wanted to blast Durian to heck and back, but nothing happened except that the inside of her skull continued to sizzle. The power to stop Durian remained horribly out of reach. Without Xia, she couldn’t get to her magic, and she didn’t understand the magic from the talisman, let alone how to use it.
“You’re not taking Xia.”
“Yes, I am.” Durian laughed, but not as if he were amused. “This is your fault, you know. If he hadn’t been so intent on protecting you, witch, I’d never have gotten him down.” He put a hand on Xia’s forehead. “Here’s another one for you. Information free of charge. Rasmus doesn’t give a shit about you.” The fiend hauled an inert Xia to his feet as if he wasn’t dead weight. He pressed a hand to his chest and grimaced. “What he wants is Xia back in the fold.” The scent of blood welled up, sharp and intense. Was Durian bleeding or was it Xia? “I’ve been told to make that happen.”
Her stomach clenched. “Take me with you, then.”
“If you had enough power to make you worth training, Rasmus wouldn’t have given you away all those years ago.” He draped Xia over his shoulder. “Sorry, witch. But Xia’s going back to his master.”
My Forbidden Desire Page 24