“And we can’t go back on our oath,” Liam murmured. “The Summit would never allow it. We would all be killed.”
“So… what? We do nothing?” Rage hardened Octavian’s features. “We just sit back and watch her die or hand her over to the Summit to be torn to pieces because of something I did?”
“Of course not!” His mother leapt to her feet. “How dare you think we would ever let anything happen to Riley?”
Gideon moved to touch his mother’s trembling arm. “Every contract has a loophole. We just have to find one for this.”
“These are angels we’re talking about, Gideon,” Kyaerin replied. “They don’t have loopholes.”
“Doesn’t hurt to look,” Magnus said from across the table where he sat with his boots crossed at the ankles on the table and his arms folded over his chest. Riley wanted to protest that she cleaned the tables, but couldn’t seem to be able to do more than blink sleepily from one to the other.
Kyaerin glanced at her husband. “What do you think, Liam?”
He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “The ascension gives us maybe six months? Eight at the most. But the Guardians could arrive at any moment for her and if they see she’s been marked and we haven’t informed them…”
Octavian raised his head and looked over the group. “This is my fault. I put Riley in this situation. She’s my responsibility now and I won’t ask any of you to shoulder this with me.”
Reggie and Gideon burst out laughing. Even Magnus snickered.
“Aw, you’re so cute when you get all noble,” Magnus snorted.
Octavian’s forehead creased. “I’m serious!”
Magnus dropped his feet off the table and rose. “Yeah and so are we.”
“We’re not leaving you alone in this,” his twin agreed. “Whatever we decide, we’re doing it together or not at all.”
The harsh lines on Octavian’s face softened. “You guys suck.”
Gideon shrugged. “Quien mucho abarca poco aprieta - he who takes too much upon himself can't do justice to all of his assumed duties.”
Magnus threw the salt shaker at him. “You and your damn quotes.”
Gideon caught it, smirking. “Haters be hatin’, bro.”
“Boys.” Kyaerin put up a hand to still the impending argument. “Can we please get back to the topic at hand?”
Yeah, Riley thought. She was beginning to get a headache from all the nonsense everyone kept rattling off. She wished someone would just sit down and tell her what the hell was going on. She’d ask them, but she’d lost her will to want to speak. It was oddly blissful being so numb.
Kyaerin turned to Octavian. “You need to silk speech her, make her forget.”
I don’t want to forget! Riley wanted to protest. How was it even possible to forget so much crazy talk?
“I can’t.” Octavian glanced at Riley. “It doesn’t work on her. I’ve tried. I tried to get her to quit when she first started. She completely shook it off.”
Liam touched his wife’s back. “You know mates can’t silk speech each other, love.”
Kyaerin sighed. “I forgot. I guess I’ll do it. But I want you to stay away from her, Octavian. Don’t touch her again. I know it’ll be hard—”
“Impossible,” Octavian corrected with a grudge.
Kyaerin ignored him. “But we don’t know what will happen if you do. It could speed up the ascension or worse.”
This seemed to strike a cord with Octavian. He gave a nod.
“What if we try to reason with the Summit?” Reggie piped in.
“We might as well kill her now and save them the trouble,” Magnus muttered.
Kyaerin shook her head. “They can’t know about this, not yet. We’re supposed to be unable to imprint on humans because of the oath we took. I have no idea how Octavian managed to do it.”
“Does this mean we could imprint, too?” Reggie asked hesitantly.
Liam jerked his shoulders. “We always knew it was a chance. The Summit forbade us to imprint on humans, not that we couldn’t imprint at all ever.”
“Lovely,” Magnus muttered.
“So we can imprint on a Demon?” Gideon asked.
“That’s disgusting,” Magnus muttered. “I’d rather die alone then imprint on one of them.” He gave a visible shudder.
“I have to disagree,” Gideon broke in. “She-Demons are… amazing in bed. I mean, wow.”
“It’s not like we have very many options to pick from,” Reggie chimed.
Gideon narrowed his eyes on his twin. “If not Demon, where are you—?”
“None of your damn business,” Magnus snapped. “I’d rather castrate myself then let a She-Demon near me.”
“You won’t have a choice,” Octavian murmured slowly. “There’s no avoiding the pull. The second she’s near you, you’ll feel her like a heartbeat. It’s like getting sucker punched in the gut with a bowling ball.”
“It’ll never be a She-Demon,” Magnus bit out through his teeth, the abhorrence hot in his eyes.
“Good luck with that,” Octavian said. “Look how that turned out for me.”
Kyaerin ignored them, turning back to face Riley. She regained her seat. “You poor thing.” She smiled tenderly at Riley. “It’s going to be okay.”
“What’s going on?” Riley breathed, feeling an invisible weight cutting off her oxygen, making it difficult to inhale.
“Shhh,” Kyaerin leaned in close so they were eyelevel. “Look at me, Riley. You’re safe. Nothing’s going to hurt you.”
Riley stared, drawn by the soft harmony of Kyaerin’s voice. It bubbled over her the way a stream flows over smooth stones or the wind toys with wind chimes, harmonic and soothing.
“You’re going to forgot everything that happened tonight. Can you do that for me?”
Riley felt herself frown, or at least, she was sure she was frowning. “Why?”
Kyaerin blinked, surprise shining in her eyes. “Pardon?”
Behind her, Gideon cleared his throat, stifling a chuckle. “Losing your touch, Mom?”
“I told you, she’s not easy to influence,” Octavian said with just a hint of pride in his tone.
Kyaerin straightened her shoulders. “Riley.” She gently pushed a tendril of hair off Riley’s face. It was such a motherly gesture that she nearly turned into the touch, longing to feel even an ounce of it, but the hand was gone. The room was gone. Kyaerin and Liam and everything else vanished. It all melted away with just a blink, and when she opened her eyes again, she was in her room, surrounded by her walls and her things and Octavian was standing over her as she lay in her bed.
“I’ll be right down.” He told someone she couldn’t see. Then his gray eyes were on her, warm and sad and filled with something she couldn’t decipher through the mist. “Riley?”
She blinked, the gesture feeling so slow, like blinking in syrup. “Yeah?”
“You’re going to be okay. I promise I won’t let anything hurt you.”
She smiled. “That’s good. Hurting sucks.”
“I’m sorry, baby.”
She tried to shake her head. “Why?”
She heard the rustle of his clothes and the pop of his knee as he crouched down beside the bed. “For everything.” He reached as though to touch her cheek, but he stopped himself instantly and drew back, a look of longing darkening his face.
“What is it? Why won’t you touch me?”
A muscle tensed in his jaw. “I can’t.”
“Why?”
He sighed, the sound torn from his very soul. “Sleep, Green-eyes. This is only a dream.”
“But you always touch me in my dreams.”
His eyes darkened. “Not this time, baby.”
She pouted, rolling onto her side to face him. “Sucky dream.”
His face softened and the corner of his mouth quirked up. “Why’s that?”
She felt her eyes beginning to droop, to close on his beautiful face. “I like it when you touch me.”
The last thing she heard being murmured huskily into her ear was, “I would like nothing better than to set every inch of you on fire and watch as you burn in my arms.”
Chapter 10
The dream was one that had plagued her for weeks. It had haunted and tormented her every night, working against her sanity like an ocean against a cliff side. At any moment, she half expected herself to go crumbling into the churning abyss and every morning, she came awake gasping, her body hot and restless and aching, and for weeks, she ignored it, too embarrassed to deal with the problem.
It wasn’t as though she didn’t know what her body wanted or how to fix it. It wasn’t as though she hadn’t done it before, but there had never been a face in her mind when she’d done it. There had never been a name on her lips when she reached the point of no return. It was different this time, because this time, every time she closed her eyes, she saw and smelled and felt, Octavian. He was in her mind and under her skin like some drug that wouldn’t quit. Damn it, but there was a good chance of insanity if she didn’t do something soon.
She sucked in a deep gulp of air, shivering when the hard points of her breasts brushed the lace cups of her bra. Her bare legs shifted beneath the cool sheets as a slow fire began to build at the junction of her thighs, dampening the flimsy material of her panties. Her near nudity surprised her, a fleeting mystery, but one she tucked away to solve later.
Her hands worked the familiar lines of her body, paying special attention to all the places that sent her mind reeling and her blood pumping hot. Her body writhed against the sheets, frantic for more as her fingers trailed a path down to the elastic of her panties. Her teeth caught her bottom lip as the tips of her fingers brushed over the bundle of nerves, sending a jolt of heat rushing to the moist pool beyond it. Her breathing quickened, her hips bucked into the touch. She closed her eyes and imagined Octavian’s face, his hands and lips as they were in her dreams. The way they moved over her, demanding and powerful, and the way his weight felt pushing on top of her, his naked skin like hard steel wrapped in silk. She could still almost feel his greedy mouth moving over her. Riley gasped as the memories flooded through her, mirrored by her own hands following the path of his.
But it wasn’t enough. The stroking was only adding gasoline to an already roaring inferno. Desperation propelled her fingers in, something she’d yet to explore and her eyes rolled back into her skull. Her hips tore off the mattress. Her cry was quickly caught by her teeth and released in a low whining hiss. The heel of her hand pressed against her mound as she pushed as deep as her fingers would go. The building pressure was blinding. She couldn’t breathe. Terrified of what would happen next, but more of stopping, she twisted onto her stomach, mashing her face into the pillow as she quickened the thrusts, sending stars sparking. Her moans became cries, then muffled screams as she clutched the pillow with one hand and ended her own suffering with the other.
When the world finally righted itself and she opened her eyes to find she’d survived the implosion, Riley giggled weakly, lying slumped and sated across her mattress. Her sheets were a tangled mess, roped around her legs. The cool air kissed her bare skin, gelled the sweat. She closed her eyes, only to snap them open and dart a quick glance at the alarm clock.
“Crap!”
Untangling herself, Riley shot out of bed, nearly tripping as she darted into the bathroom for a quick shower. She had twenty minutes to get dressed and get to work before she was late. It was her first day shift in weeks and after all the drinking and partying she had to clean up nightly, it was a nice break.
Dried and wrapped in a towel, she hurried to the counter and squeezed moisturizer into her palm. She rubbed it hastily up and down her arm, slowing as she reached her forearms, but she wasn’t sure why. Something in her mind warned her to be careful or to expect pain. Baffled, she checked her arms, twisting them this way and that and finding nothing.
Brushing it off, she dashed back into her bedroom and quickly dressed. She left her hair down, spending the time instead doing her makeup. Satisfied that it was the best she could do in ten minutes, she grabbed her coat, her purse and bolted out of the apartment without a single word to her father.
Reggie was at the front counter when she burst through the doors, out of breath and sweaty.
“I’m sorry I’m late!” she huffed, hurrying towards the kitchen doors.
“You’re not.” Reggie checked his watch. “You still have five minutes.” He gave her a grin and wink, which made her chuckle as she pushed through the doors into the kitchen.
Gorje glanced up, gave his usual grunt and went back to cleaning out the ashes from the fireplace. Riley called a quick good morning to him anyway before hurrying into the staff room.
By the time she had her apron on and her pad and pen tucked into the pocket, she was nearly composed.
“Hello Riley!” Kyaerin was leaving the door leading to the back of the house when Riley left the staff room. The blonde smiled. “How are you feeling?”
“I feel great. How are you?”
Kyaerin sighed dolefully. “Feeling my age.”
Which was like what? Thirty? Riley guessed. The woman barely looked out of her twenties, never mind the fact that she had four grown boys. But Riley just smiled in return.
“Do you have anything for me to do today?”
“Inventory,” she replied, jabbing a finger towards the stock room. “Gideon should be in there already. If he’s not, let me know and I’ll kick his butt.”
Laughing, Riley set out towards the room in question. “Will do, Boss.”
“Oh, and, Riley?” She waited until Riley had turned to her again before continuing. “Don’t let him talk you into doing all the work. He’s lazy like that.”
Agreeing, Riley stepped into the storage room and paused. Unconsciously, her hand went to her forearm where an itch had begun. She rubbed the spot through the material of her shirt, wondering what the hell was up with her today.
“Riley.” Gideon poked his head out from behind a stack of boxes and waved at her. “Back here.”
Carefully, she wove through the maze to where he stood, holding a clipboard in one hand and an mp3 player in the other. Something very loud and full of screeching buzzed from the headphones dangling from around his neck.
He grinned at her when she got closer, but it didn’t reach his watchful gray eyes as they took her in slowly. “Hey, how are you feeling?”
Riley shrugged. “I’m good. So, inventory, eh? That sounds like fun. What can I do?”
“You.” He thrust the clipboard at her. “Get the honor of counting and writing down the numbers.”
Riley took the clipboard, looked over the stack of papers attached and frowned. “What are you going to do?”
“I am going to take a break.”
“Oh no you’re not!” She stepped into his path when he tried to sidestep. “Your mother warned me you would try to flake off.”
Gideon’s eyes widened, they blinked with feigned disbelief. “Flake off? I’ll have you know I have never flaked off a day in my…” He sighed when she arched an eyebrow. “Darn you, Mother. She’s no fun. All right.” He took the clipboard back and detached half the papers. “I’ll do that end, you do this end. Deal?”
Riley nodded, not bothering to suppress her smirk as she spun on her heels and skipped over to her side of the room. Carefully, she untied her apron, set it aside before folding her legs beneath her on the floor and getting to work.
Part of the way through, Magnus joined them, or rather, he leaned a shoulder against the doorframe, folded his arms and watched them with smug amusement.
“What are you smirking at, dickhead?” Gideon flicked his pencil at his twin, who caught it effortlessly and flicked it back, hitting Gideon in the forehead with the eraser end.
“Nothing.” He rolled his tongue over his teeth. “Just marveling at your ability to count that high.”
From her corner, Riley smothered a laugh behind her ha
nd.
Magnus’ gaze roamed over the room to find her. His features became somber. “How are you feeling?”
Riley chuckled. “Do I not look fine or something? Why does everyone keep asking me that?”
Magnus just shrugged, turning his attention back to his brother. “Hey, Dipshit, where’s the meat order form?”
Gideon glowered up at him. “How the hell would I know? Octavian had it last. Ask him.”
Magnus huffed. “I swear nothing’s safe in this place.”
“Don’t leave your shit lying around,” Gideon suggested smartly, earning the middle finger from Magnus before he turned and left.
Octavian's Undoing (Sons of Judgment) Page 13