by C. M. Owens
She runs her fingers over the metal, and she smiles down at it. “You’re obviously the protective type. It’s admirable, but you’re crippling me. I can do this, Gage. I’m not weak.”
Letting my eyes run the length of her body, I remind myself that she’s off-limits. Then I remind myself again when my body doesn’t seem to take the damn hint.
“I’m sure you’re not, but you’re not cautious. You’re reckless. You rush in without concern for your own life. If you won’t keep yourself safe, then someone has to do it for you. I happen to enjoy my life, despite the mountain of bullshit that comes with the years I’ve lived. I have this thing inside me that is called self-preservation. It’s a quality you lack.”
She rolls her eyes as though I’ve said something ridiculous. “Gotta die some time. Dreading death doesn’t do anything but make the end scary. I’m not reckless. I just know I can’t always play it safe when people’s lives are at stake.”
“You’re not convincing me to do anything besides shove you in a bubble,” I mumble around the lip of the bottle.
“Why?” she asks earnestly.
I look over at her with confusion. “Why what?”
“Why do you care? You barely know me.”
That’s a damn good question that I’m not sure I can answer. “I’ve seen enough people die. I don’t feel like watching more death.”
She looks a little disappointed by the answer I just pulled out of my ass.
“She wasn’t the love of your life, you know,” she says randomly, but it’s not a question.
“You can’t already be drunk. We’ve just gotten started.”
She laughs while looking up. “I had a bottle of vodka on the way here. But I didn’t say that because I’m drunk. I said it because you need to know it.”
She’s drunk. Just great.
“Oh? And how do you know she wasn’t the love of my life?”
I’m not sure who she’s referring to. I have a horrible track record.
“Alyssa and this Elaine girl… Neither was the love of your life. Couldn’t have been. The love of your life may care about someone else, but they never truly fall in love again. And they love you back. It’s earth-shattering, and there’s nothing strong enough to keep you apart for long. You lose your breath, your sanity, and your ability to even think. If they chose someone else when there was nothing stopping them from having you, then they weren’t the love of your life.”
That has me laughing bitterly for so many reasons. “I take it you’ve learned this from Alyssa and Kane?”
She smiles weakly while looking away. “Their love is powerful and it does set a bar for what most people should expect, but I was talking about Drackus and Calypso. They only gave each other up to keep their daughter safe. But Drackus would slaughter a village and start a war just as a distraction to keep Calypso safe.”
“Romantic,” I mutter dryly, wondering how I let myself get sucked into this conversation.
“In its own twisted way, it is.” When she smiles fondly, I realize she has spent way too much damn time with Drackus.
I can’t help but puff out a laugh while shaking my head. “You might seriously be a blood Devall.”
She snickers while leaning back and taking another sip of the already almost empty bottle. Then she reaches over beside the bed and picks up another bottle I never saw her bring in. She definitely came prepared.
Then her smile falls. “I don’t remember my real parents, but I’d like to think they would have loved me just as much as Drackus and Calypso have. If not, then I don’t want to know about it. The illusion is sometimes better than reality. I want to believe the illusion.”
With her badass guard down, she looks vulnerable. It’s a look that I really don’t need her to have, because I’m barely refraining from doing something stupid. She settles against me comfortably, and without thinking, I brush a stray lock of hair from her cheek.
When she sucks in a breath, I stupidly fall prey to her blue eyes, unable to break the eye contact. But then she leans in, and those pretty blue eyes fall to my lips. Her aura assaults me with too much lust, and I take a shaky breath while looking away. It’s almost painful to not turn back.
“Keep the illusion,” I tell her at last. “It’s safer and smarter.”
She sighs while sinking against my side, and I groan internally while looking up to the ceiling and taking another breath.
“Tell me something about you that no one else knows,” she finally murmurs.
My lips twitch upon hearing the request. “Fine. I’ll bite. I’m fascinated with… birds.”
Her confusion is followed by disappointment, and I can’t stop myself from laughing when her brow gets a cute little wrinkle.
“What’s wrong, Kimber? Expecting some major insight into me instead of a random admission?”
She looks up, and once again, I find myself staring without the ability to break the contact.
“What about birds?” she muses.
Well, I hadn’t planned on her actually showing interest in that. But it’s a far less probing subject than my past.
“Birds are beautiful, graceful, and fierce when they have to be. They fly in flocks, and they fly in formations that look to have been created by an artist. They don’t break the formations, they keep their bodies separated enough for flying, and they shift directions as a united unit with one mind instead of as a commanded unit that is being led. It’s an effortless trust and uniformity unlike anything that doesn’t exist anywhere else in nature. In all other species, there is a clear and distinct leader. But not with birds. They just fly and trust.”
Her head settles against my chest, and her finger starts tracing the lines of my enchanted ink. What the hell?
“How are they fierce?” she asks, her lips brushing my pectoral muscle.
My whole body tenses when she does it again, and I’m forced to clear my throat before speaking.
“What are you doing, Kimber?”
She grins against my skin, then she presses a delicate kiss on the spot her lips have been brushing.
“Just keep talking. How are they fierce?”
Her fingers keep tracing, and I fight like a damn warrior to refrain from pinning her to her back and slamming my mouth against hers.
Off limits. Off limits. Off limits.
My mantra seems to be pointless, because the more she touches me, the more turned on I become. And my self-control is fraying. Fast.
“Well, they defend their young no matter what beast or person toys with their nests. They attack without regard for their own lives. It’s heroic.”
She grins again, and as an award for my admission, she kisses me in a spot just above her last kiss. My hands turn to fists, and she starts getting closer, forcing my arm to wrap around her. I keep it limply to the side, refusing to touch her, even though the temptation is almost overwhelming.
“They’re also puckish,” I say quickly, stalling as I try to get myself under control.
“Puckish?” she muses, grinning again. “How are they puckish?”
She lifts a leg, sliding it over my waist, and my fists clench tighter. “Kimber, what—”
“How are they puckish?” she repeats, sliding her leg over more until I feel her center firmly pressed against me, her heat touching me intimately against my jean-clad leg.
Swallowing, I finally answer, “Numerous ways. Once I witnessed two sparrows pestering a cat while it walked across the yard. They would swoop down and flick the cat’s tail, crisscrossing and flying back up, then doing it again. They took turns actually hitting the tail. As they passed, one would fly high and one would fly low, as though it was just known which route to take. Mesmerizing. I couldn’t stop watching.”
She smiles again, but then suddenly she slides over on top of me, straddling my waist until she slides over the painful part of my pants. My cock is already straining to get out, and I’m still trying to wrap my mind around what the fuck is going on.
&nbs
p; “Kimber,” I groan, but she leans forward.
The second her lips brush my neck, my hands involuntarily go to her ass, grinding her against me. Her heat feels too good, too tempting, and I move one hand up to grab the back of her head as she flicks her tongue against the skin of my neck.
“Damn it, Kimber,” I growl, finding my resistance faltering. “You know we can’t do this.”
“Why, Gage? It’s obvious you want to as much as I do,” she whispers, grinding herself harder against me and gyrating her hips in a way that has my head pounding back against the pillow.
“Talking about birds shouldn’t have you this hot for me,” I say jokingly, trying to break the fucking spell between us, because that’s exactly what it feels like.
She leans up, and my eyes go wide when she pulls her shirt off. No bra covers her bare, perky, fucking perfect tits. As she drops her shirt to the floor, her eyes meet mine, and her devilish grin comes out to play.
“You’re so passionate about something as mundane as the trust and instinct of a mortal creature. I can only imagine the depths that passion can reach. And I want to know.”
Surely to God that’s not the alcohol talking. She went from zero to sixty in…
That thought trails off as I take in her aura that is shining too bright. It’s intoxicating—a heady, strong, powerful draw that has me running my hands up her like I can’t stop myself. Realization sweeps in, and I curse loudly while pounding my head against the pillow over and over.
“Fucking Dice!” I snarl.
I should have known better. At least it’s the eye-opener I needed to snap out of this haze.
“You’re yelling Dice’s name at a moment like this?” she asks in a teasing tone while leaning over and brushing her lips against mine.
That incubus better be happy I like him just enough to not kill him.
“He fucked with you. You don’t want me, Kimber. You’re being manipulated.”
She shrugs carelessly, still topless on top of me and driving me out of my damn mind. “I want you without the influence of an incubus. And you want me. It’s powerful. Whatever draws us to each other, it’s very, very powerful.”
Yeah… I might still kill the meddling incubus.
My coldness creeps in, and I shift under her, spinning her to the bed and landing on top of her. Unfortunately, I also end up between her legs and they clamp against my waist.
Staring into her blue eyes, my mind battles with my body. “You’re the kind of girl I have to stay away from, Kimber. I told you once I’m nothing more than a pretty distraction. Though I can promise you’d love every second together, it’s not worth it. I’ve let enough women break me.”
She starts to speak, probably to make promises she can’t keep. She’s powerless against the strong influence Dice has.
“Sleep, Kimber,” I whisper softly, casting the spell with just those two words.
Almost immediately, her body goes limp, her eyes flutter closed, and her legs drop from my waist. After putting her shirt back on her, I carry her to the room she’s sharing with Karma, and then I head to the one place in the house I need most. The bathroom. I’m going to need one hell of a cold shower, and I’m going to have to cast a spell just to let the cold strike through my skin.
Chapter 9
KIMBER
I’m going to kill him. Then I’m going to revive him and kill him again.
Looking over, I almost leap out of the bed when I see Thad next to me. A shriek escapes my lips, but it quickly dissolves into a gasp. Thad opens his eyes, smirking as he pulls his hands up behind his head. Thankfully he’s fully clothed.
“What’s wrong, Kimber? Worried about me after all these years?”
His blonde hair rests in disarray on top of his head, his shirt is strained against his expansive chest, and his muscles flex as he studies me.
“No. You just scared the hell out of me. Why are you in my bed?”
“Because Dice stole the couch. Karma refused to screw him while you were in the bed, and I wasn’t going to let them move you. You looked like you had been spelled asleep. You didn’t once stir during the godforsaken noises the two of them were making.”
Whoa. Karma and Dice? Never mind. So not the important part.
Oh shit. Gage had to spell me because I was like a desperate, horny, unstoppable mad woman. Yep. I’m definitely going to kill him.
“We’re leaving in five,” Gage announces while walking into my room.
His jaw tenses when he looks over to see Thad lounging on my bed. Thad merely smirks, and Gage rolls his eyes.
“Glad I chose right,” he mutters under his breath while walking out.
Glad he what?
“Not what it looks like,” Thad says loudly, even though he’s grinning like a fool.
“Not my business,” Gage says in a low rumble from somewhere else inside the house.
I glare at Thad who finally hops off my bed, shrugging as though he didn’t just make things even more awkward than they already are.
“You have a thing for the dark user. Well, isn’t this going to be fun?”
He smirks before walking out, and I drop my head back against the wall. I take a breath, then I blur through the motions of changing clothes before grabbing my bag and walking out. Gage is propped up against his car, looking bored and uninterested in whatever Thad is whispering about. I can only imagine.
I wish I could blame everything on Dice. But there’s something about Gage…
“There’s Sleeping Beauty,” Dice taunts, reminding me of the task at hand.
With barely a sideways glance, I throw my hand out, forcing a portal open enough to unleash some fun.
“Fuck!” he yelps, screeching when he gets attacked by the buzzing abominations who are not happy about being forced off their plane.
The tiny ash-colored blurs look like dust mites flying in a whirlwind pattern around him. Thad bursts out laughing, and Gage covers his smile with his hand, while Dice begs for mercy.
Jackass.
“Pixies, Kimber? Fucking really?” Dice yells.
A daring smirk crosses my lips, and I walk toward Gage’s car. It’ll be awkward to ride with him, but I refuse to take a chance of being left with Dice again. That incubus is determined to humiliate me. Even though I don’t really know why.
Dice starts rolling on the ground, and Karma laughs wildly as he curses and flops from side to side, his whole body turning the dusty gray color as they attack without mercy.
“You going to send them back?” Thad asks, amused.
I wave it off as I climb into the back seat of the shiny Phantom. “Nope. They’ll go back on their own within an hour or two.”
Gage salutes Dice playfully, but the incubus is too busy writhing on the ground to notice.
As Gage climbs into the front seat, my eyes immediately glue themselves to him. Dice may have propelled me into throwing myself at the sexy dark user, but these feelings are all my own. And I’m not so sure I want to fight them anymore.
Our world is full of sex and fun, but I can’t remember a time when I’ve ever wanted anything the way I seem to want Gage. It’s terrifying and exciting at the same time, and that’s a thrill I’ve only gotten when brushing against death’s fingertips.
“You’re smiling very big,” Thad says, looking over his shoulder at me. That snaps me out of my stupid trance, and I look out the window.
“Just thinking about Dice battling pixies,” I lie.
Gage’s eyes meet mine briefly in the rearview mirror, but he looks away almost as quickly.
“How far until our next stop?” I ask, shifting uncomfortably.
“Ten hours,” Thad says, his damn cheeky grin still intact.
It’s going to be a really long drive.
***
KIMBER
Between Thad drumming on the dash, Gage silently brooding, and me picking at my cuticles, this has officially become the worst road trip ever.
“Where exactly are we
going?” I ask on the eleventh hour of the trip. It was supposed to be a ten hour drive.
“Well,” Gage drawls, “we were going to go to another safe house. But Alyssa sent a text. Reese has a werewolf/witch hybrid that just showed up.”
“That’s an impossible combination,” I say, confused. “Were can’t have children—no bitten fey can. And a witch can’t be turned into a werewolf, even if she is immortal. Only creature gods can be affected by bitten fey.”
Thad sighs while stretching in his seat. “It’s a brave new world, Kimber—one that has been evolving without our knowledge since you and I were forced to open purgatory and unleash a lot of nasty little consequences. She was born werewolf and witch. There’s no evidence of a bite ever having transpired. Bitten fey are apparently having children now. At least werewolves are.”
Head trip. Major head trip.
While I’m trying to wrap my mind around everything, Gage continues with more information that only sends my mind reeling farther.
“She’s fresh out of the slave ring. She’s a little out of it and definitely going a little crazy, but she escaped because she’s almost immortal. Her strength doubled under the red moon we had a few weeks ago, and she busted out.”
My eyes widen. “Did she shift? Before immortality?”
Thad answers, “Yeah. That’s how they knew something was up when they found her. She was in severe pain, and she almost died because her bones broke during the shift back to human. It took a lot of healing to get her back to good.”
Leaning back, I take that in. “Reese is an alpha dick. I’m surprised he hasn’t killed her for being a blasphemous creature. He’ll see her as a lesser being or a threat.”
The guys exchange a look that tells me they’ve thought this very same thing. But then Gage’s eyes go back to the road.
“Reese is the one who saved her from the wrath of the pack. They wanted to shred her because her witch powers escaped her grasp. She’s not supposed to exist, and were are old school creatures,” Gage says, squashing my concern. “But Reese is definitely an alpha dick, so I’m curious about his motives for doing this.”