Awaken to Pleasure

by Lauren Hawkeye

  “On second thought…” Narrowing her eyes, Shiloh waved her hand and Moira felt a gentle stir of the air.

  And then Gale Grocer burst into flame. Moira waited for the screams, but he was eerily silent as the fire consumed his body, leaving behind nothing but ash and the stink of roasted flesh.

  Terror gripped Moira by the throat—Shiloh had done the exact same thing to Moira’s parents, and Moira still didn’t know why she’d been left alive.

  Maybe she wouldn’t have to wonder very long, because surely she would soon go up in flames herself.

  Shiloh turned her gaze, her icy-cold stare, on Moira. “It’s been a long time, child.”

  “What do you want?” Moira asked, her fingers and toes growing numb with despair. “How did you get in?”

  Shiloh clucked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “Now, Moira, when you start a simple conversation that way, it doesn’t make me feel terribly welcome.” She glided closer to Moira, who tried to still the trembling of her limbs. This was all wrong, she thought. Just wrong. She wasn’t supposed to have to fight anymore, not here in the haven. She was supposed to be safe.

  It appeared, however, that she was not, as Shiloh’s thick yet silvery voice continued. “Gale Grocer came to me today with a very interesting story, Moira. A tale of a handsome man who just happened to make his appearance along with a sapphire lamp. Do you know anything about that?”

  There was clearly no point in denying it. Shiloh already knew.

  And Boone had magic, after all…which put him on the same side as this awful creature in front of her.

  Even if he was her mate.

  But he had once saved her.

  What the haven was she supposed to do?

  “I may.” Moira’s chin tilted up, toward the sky. Once again, Moira found herself frantically weighing the odds…what did Shiloh want? If Moira gave up Boone, could she save the haven? If she chose to keep Boone safe, what would Shiloh do?

  Shiloh’s laugh that sent shivers crawling down Moira’s spine tinkled again. “So feisty! I love it.” The artificial smile then slipped, and with it Shiloh’s beauty, revealing the true ugliness of the beast within. “Take me to the lamp, Moira. Now.”

  After a split second hesitation in which Shiloh bared her teeth and growled, Moira began to walk, but it wasn’t because she was a lamb being meekly led to slaughter. She needed time to think, to put in place a plan of action, and so she moved as slowly as she dared, even with Shiloh prodding her from behind with her staff. “Hurry up, girl! I want that lamp!”

  “How did you get in?” Maybe if she kept Shiloh’s brain occupied, she would have more time.

  “You humans and your dependence on science.” There was genuine bafflement in Shiloh’s voice. “It was one of the reasons we witches took over the earth—we could do so much more, so much faster, without you.”

  While your magic eats up the earth’s resources until we have nothing left, Moira thought, but knew that saying so would only provoke the beast.

  “Everything in this world is connected.” Shiloh’s voice was amused. “And so things can be carried along the wind. Someone we both know has been searching for you for many years. And when he found you, I knew.”

  Boone.

  He’d been searching for her? Why? What had he saved her for?

  “Hurry up, girl.” Shiloh prodded her again, and Moira wished desperately for her knife. “No one crosses me and lives.”

  “What do you need with an old lamp?” She was desperate, reaching, and didn’t dare to remind Shiloh that she had never crossed her, at least not of her own doing. “It’s worthless. Gale Grocer wouldn’t even take it.”

  She felt the hand on her neck, stroking through her hair and shuddered.

  “You know why I want it.” The hand stroking through her hair suddenly fisted in the long strands and pulled. Moira let out a shriek of pain.

  “I need to have a little chat with our mutual friend. I’ve been looking for him for just as long as he’s been searching for you.”

  But why?

  She had a choice to make, and she had only precious seconds in which to make it. She could take the easy way, could simply turn Boone over to the witch. She’d spent most of her life not caring if she lived or died, so what would it matter if her mate met an end?

  But even though Boone had simply stood by, had let her parents burn…

  She wouldn’t have his death on her conscience. She wouldn’t risk the fallout to the haven.

  She would destroy the lamp, and herself if need be. But no one else would be hurt.

  The decision seemed to turn a key in her memory. Even as Shiloh shoved Moira up her own front steps, a curtain that had been hanging over that day in her past lifted.

  The flames were everywhere.

  They were consuming her parents alive.

  “No!” she screamed, running forward. The woman with the red hair cackled, raised her hands to the sky, chanted.

  Then thrust magic strong enough that the earth moved at Moira.

  Moira saw the blue eyes only instants before she was slammed into the ground. The searing heat of magic sizzled along her skin as she struggled to catch her breath.

  “Boone. What are you about?” The woman—the witch—had a voice filled with fury. “Step aside. I will be queen of the whole world this night.”

  “You won’t have her.” Moira’s small body was able to slide out from beneath the man’s—the witch’s—body as he threw up a shield of blue light that pulsed in the air, surrounding them both.

  And then it surrounded only her. She screamed, the cry of a child, as she found herself lifted into the air.

  Slamming her fists against the walls of the bubble that she was enclosed in, she watched, horrified, as she was forced away from her parents.

  Below her, they disappeared into flame.

  The witch howled, her arms raising a storm of magic.

  And the man looked at her with eyes filled with regret, his face as familiar as her own.

  “I’m sorry.” His words held strong, even as the witch’s magic ensnared him in a net of green light. “I had to choose one. And you will save them all.”

  The extra details to her memory flooded Moira’s brain like a slap to the face. She halted where she stood, only to be prodded forward by Shiloh.

  Boone was once a witch. A full witch, like Shiloh.

  And yet he had saved her. And he hadn’t saved her parents…he hadn’t been able to. He hadn’t even been able to save himself.

  What an idiot I’ve been.

  She considered calling out a warning to Boone as they approached the steps that led up to the door of her hut, but Moira suspected that he would be able to take care of himself. She prayed to the haven that she was right. As for herself, she would die before placing power of any kind into the wrong hands. Funny, death had never scared her in the past. But it seemed that she had now found something to live for.

  Boone wasn’t evil. Not all magic was evil.

  It depended who wielded it—such as someone who wanted to be the earth’s queen.

  Hesitantly she opened the door; after delivering a great shove to the small of her back, Shiloh rushed in after Moira, so eager for her treasure that she panted heavily. When the witch who had torn Moira’s world apart laid eyes on Boone, Shiloh quite literally frothed at the mouth.

  “The djinn. Vengeance for the queen.” Spittle flew and Shiloh’s beautiful facade slipped a bit more. She reached out a grasping hand and both Moira and Boone watched in stupefied horror as the talon-like red nails morphed into the gnarled fingers of a crone and then back again.

  In one smooth movement, Boone drew Moira back in his arms. She felt the beating of his heart against her cheek, felt that snap of connection.

  Felt his body jerk slightly as it pulled tight, and she knew.

  This was her mate, and while he might have magic,… how could he be all bad?

  He had saved her once, and been cursed for it
. She could feel it in the arms that held her now that he would do it again.

  But it was her turn—her turn to save him.

  “Hid this well all those years, didn’t I?” The witch woman cackled, a high, keening noise, at Moira’s repulsion. She twisted her lips into a sardonic grin that showed once pearly teeth gone yellow and jagged. “I had to—we all had to. Humans once burned us at the stake, persecuted us, forced us into hiding. And now the tables have turned.”

  She continued, even as Moira’s stomach rolled over. “Don’t fret, you beautiful things. You don’t have to touch me…yet.” Moira swallowed past the bile that rose in her throat. She watched as Shiloh turned to Boone and snapped her fingers in impatience. “You! Djinn! I have my first wish!”

  Moira opened her mouth, eager for a chance to tell the old hag of her error—that there was no first wish, there was in fact only one wish in total. But a quick squeeze on her flesh from Boone warned her to keep her mouth shut, and when he inclined his head, just the tiniest bit, to the side, she strained and saw the barest glimmer of the sapphire lamp peeking out from beneath the edge of a blanket on the dirt floor.

  Another cackle snapped her attention back into place. Repulsed, Moira watched as Shiloh’s hand trailed up her still transforming torso to stroke over her breast, which caused her breath to come in quick, short pants. “Djinn!” she spat, and Moira couldn’t quite control the shiver that ran down her spine. “Djinn! My first wish! I wish to watch you mate with this woman! I will watch you debase yourself with a human.” Having spat out her desire and rid herself of the tension it wrought, the ugly crone slipped away, and the beauty that Shiloh usually showed the world was replaced. Moira stood still, frozen in Boone’s arms, unsure of the best course of action.

  Shiloh wouldn’t—couldn’t—understand that such an action wouldn’t be seen as debasement between herself and Boone. He wasn’t the same as the queen. And with this realization came fury at the impudent, condescending request. She was not an animal who would mate simply because she was in heat. Nor was her mate.

  Gritting her teeth, her muscles tensed, she prepared to launch herself at Shiloh, to claw at her with teeth and with nails. But Boone again squeezed her arm, communicating his desire that she stay still. And though it went against every fiber of her being to do so, she did as he silently asked, for somewhere during the long, life-altering day, she had come to place implicit trust in him.

  As he turned her, ran his hands up and down her sides, he left a trail of flame in the wake of his touch. Moira shivered, fighting it.

  But as she began to melt beneath his touch she realized that flame had held magic, and it drugged her, let her relax. She sighed, and, letting her head fall back, gave herself over to Boone’s care.

  Giving in to magic for the first time in her life.

  Turning so that their faces brushed, Moira drew into herself, doing her best to shut out the world that surrounded them, the world that included the monster whose eyes had glazed over with lust. Though Moira schooled her features into a question, Boone’s face remained impassive. But she saw strength in the dark depths of his eyes, and what he offered she took, gladly.

  His lips found the sensitive bit of skin at the base of her throat and paused to taste. She murmured at the touch, though she still felt stiff and awkward with Shiloh’s raspy breath grating away at the air. Boone stroked a finger under her chin, tilting her head so that all she could see was him. Though he spoke no words, she understood. Focus on him, only him, and make it through.

  And she would. She’d be damned if she’d grovel, begging for mercy. Shiloh wanted a show? Well, then, she’d damn well get one.

  Feeling her heart pounding in her chest, pumping blood to every exquisitely sensitive inch of her flesh, Moira leaned forward and caught Boone’s lower lip between her teeth. Twining her arms around his neck as her skin flushed with heat, she swallowed his soft sound of surprise and threw herself into the kiss. It wasn’t difficult. With her eyes closed, she could easily imagine that they were all alone, as they had been earlier. All alone with nothing but time to explore each other’s bodies.

  This would be different. But it would only debase them if they allowed it to.

  Noticing the incredible bulge in his pants, Moira rotated her hips, eliciting a groan from his lips, which were still fastened to hers. She took great joy in knowing that she could arouse him to such an extent, even if he had been forced into the situation in the first place.

  Boone slid a hand between their bodies to cup Moira, his hands extracting yet more sweet cream from between her thighs. When his finger quested, found the hard bump of her clitoris, Shiloh’s raspy breathing and overbearing presence faded to nothingness, and Moira’s world brightened and narrowed until all she could see was Boone.

  Tucking a foot behind hers, Boone lowered Moira to the floor, their bodies dripping, melting slowly as they melded together. Cool air wafted in from the wooden door, which hadn’t been closed properly, and its light kiss contrasted so sharply with the fevered heat of her skin that she whimpered. Her eyes flew open as she did so, and over Boone’s shoulder she again caught sight of Shiloh. The malevolence that glittered in her eyes was clear as the night stars visible through the pulsing blue shield of the haven’s dome. When Shiloh’s hand rucked up the heavy silk of her own cloak and tangled in the thick thatch of coppery curls that rested between her legs, Moira attempted to press her own limbs back together tightly, her body shuddering with disgust.

  “Look at me,” Boone whispered, his teeth grazing the tender lobe of her ear. “Look at me. Just at me. This will be okay.”

  Look at him she did, sharply. Was he or was he not acting under the duress of the other woman’s wish? His face still gave no sign, instead focusing entirely on Moira, on the creamy inches of her flesh that were revealed as he slowly lifted her cloak up over her head.

  Moira relaxed a bit in the knowledge that his large frame covered her, hid her from Shiloh’s view. She quivered beneath his touch as he skated his fingers, featherlight, over the sensitive tips of her breasts. Her nipples pebbled under his fingers, begging for more than the teasing sensation he had granted them so fleetingly, but it wasn’t to be. Instead, Boone moved lower, and lower still, until his movements began to stroke at her belly and the triangle of gossamer hair that rested beneath. The arousing pattern drawn onto her skin had her hips bucking beneath his, desperate for him to release his cock from the loose cloth of his pants and slide it into her waiting heat. Since he seemed in no rush—though she’d have thought he might have been in more of a hurry to get the awkward scene over with—she settled for the increased friction that the rough fabric of his pants wrought as it rubbed over her clit.

  The sudden rough thrust of his fingers into her cunt had a startled cry careening from her lips, one that echoed throughout the room. Boone took advantage of the added noise to whisper in her ear.

  “Do you know where the lamp is?” Startled, Moira stopped her frenzied movements, but he seemed to have anticipated it, for he seamlessly had her hips bucking again as his fingers found and rubbed the small, fleshy bump that resided high inside of her. As her breath flew out of her on a startled gasp, she tried to focus on what he had said, but found that she couldn’t pay attention to the meaning of the phrase when his fingers played her sex so expertly. So she nodded her head wildly and rode the short, hard orgasm that melted from her belly.

  She did know, at any rate. She had seen it under the blanket by the bed. She had assumed that it had fallen there, but now she wondered if perhaps it had been placed there on purpose.

  “I’m getting impatient.” The rasp of the mistress’s voice was hung with icicles by this point, even though the flush on her face showed that she was anything but cold.

  Moira hoped, as Boone pulled himself up off her that he, at least, knew what he was doing, because she certainly didn’t. Her question was answered when he pulled her close and placed his lips by her ear.

  “Touch the l
amp and wish this away,” he told her, so quietly that she almost didn’t hear him. As he spoke he kneaded her ass firmly, his fingers dipping between the cheeks, but for the first time since the nightmarish yet perversely pleasuring scenario had started Moira noticed that his actions were over-the-top, designed to make an impression as well as arouse.

  The calculation continued. She was maneuvered onto her hands and knees, her ass quivering, exposed, in the air. Aware now that something else was afoot, she widened her eyes to take in her surroundings. She was facing away from Shiloh, and toward the blanket where the lamp was buried. But she still didn’t understand completely. Why did she need to get the lamp to wish? If he could grant her wish, then she should just do so now.

  She closed her eyes tightly and wished with all of her heart to be out of the situation. The silent plea ended on a moan, and Boone slid into her from behind. But when she opened her eyes she could still see Shiloh’s reflection in the glass on the wall. The wish hadn’t worked, but as she heard Boone murmur, “Touch the lamp,” she understood.

  It wasn’t enough to be the owner of the sapphire lamp. The wish had to be made while the lamp was held in the hands of its master, which was why Shiloh’s wish hadn’t brought Boone under her command.

  She had to get the lamp. If she could get the lamp, then the nightmare would end.

  She readied herself, her muscles tensed. Boone seemed to sense her intentions, for he pulled back, far back, until Moira heard his cock slide out of her wetness with a small popping noise.

  That was all she needed. She dove forward, sliding toward the blanket. She heard Shiloh’s sharp questioning as the dirt from the floor was disturbed, rising rapidly to clog her nose, but she made herself stay focused as she scrabbled beneath the blanket for the lamp.

  A cry of triumph escaped her lips when her fingers curled around the cool silver.

  “I wish for vengeance.”

  The words were on the tip of her tongue. She could almost taste it.