by Zoe Forward
“I’ve got you,” he whispered with an arm locked around her waist. He supported himself by a hand flat against the wall. When he felt like he could move, he turned her and lifted at the same time. Her legs wrapped his waist, and her hands loosely looped around his neck.
“Bedroom,” he muttered and glanced up. “It’s upstairs.” He got a foot on the first step.
Her hands found the edge of his T-shirt and yanked it from his pants. Her palm pressed against his abdominal muscles. His skin tightened. Hoarsely she said, “I can’t wait. I want my mouth on you… everywhere.”
The husky desire in those words stole the strength from his legs. He managed to catch himself before he dropped her on the wooden stairs, but couldn’t continue his ascent. “Astrid…I…” Whatever else he’d been about to say slid from his mind when her fingers slid beneath his waistband and wrapped him. She unfastened his belt, button, and zipper to have full access.
He dropped to his knees at the bottom stair, holding her tight. She leaned forward and kissed him, her tongue thrusting deep inside his mouth.
One stroke of her hand, and his entire body jerked with pleasure. “Christ, Astrid.” He opened his eyes. She rested two stairs above his knees. That couldn’t be comfortable. “We should go upstairs.”
“Forget upstairs,” she said and pulled him in for a deep kiss.
His arms shook as he supported himself. He pulled back long enough to pull off her shirt and his. He pushed down her lacy bra to appreciate her pink-tipped breasts. He sucked hard on one tip. She clutched his biceps to the point her nails dug in. With a ruthless tug, he pulled off her pants and panties, nearly dragging her down and onto the floor in the process. He lifted her nearest thigh over his shoulder and pushed into her. Just a little.
Don’t tease, she ordered in his brain.
He pushed deeper.
Astrid laughed deep in her throat and bucked upward. He surged into her with a groan.
“Sooo much better,” she purred. She opened her eyes, which widened as if she didn’t expect him to be staring. Her cheeks flushed and breaths quickened. She ran her hands over his face and down his neck. Then removed her thigh from his shoulder and pulled him in for a deep kiss. She lifted her hips, and he slid inside her all the way.
His entire body lit up with energy. He thrust while watching the expressions change on her face as her pleasure built. A second later a fractured cry tore from her as he thrust harder. Her head fell against his shoulder as she shuddered a sound of deep pleasure. She cried out his name. Twice. And didn’t he feel like he’d won the lottery.
She kissed his neck. Then, the blast hit him in a spine-searing pleasure that went up through his belly and chest and down his thighs. He murmured her name over and over, having no control.
As the spasms subsided, he stroked the soft skin of her back and breathed in her scent. She was his. And he wanted to do that again. Now.
“Me too,” she murmured as if he’d heard her.
“This telepathy thing is…I’m still not used to it,” he whispered.
“Upstairs,” she said. “But I can’t move.” She gazed at him through heavy eyelids. “You wore me out, Langford.” Her head fell against his shoulder where her breath tickled his neck.
“Not yet. I’ll show you worn out.” Kane stared up the long staircase. He’d make it. Had to. Just as he pushed to a kneel and lifted her, his cell phone rang. Astrid’s phone followed within seconds.
“That can’t be good,” Astrid murmured.
“We earned a hiatus, goddamn it,” Kane cursed.
“Do we check or pretend we were busy?” Astrid stared at her discarded pants where the phone started into its second ring series. Then it dinged. Twice. “Two texts.”
“Damn it.” He set her down and pulled on his pants. He pawed through his discarded tactical vest to find the ringing device. “What?” he barked into the phone.
“This is Ashor.”
“I know. I’ve got caller ID. What do you want?” Kane gripped the phone tight.
“We need you both back here now.” Ashor disconnected. Kane stared at the phone for a few seconds and then announced, “That was Ashor. He ordered us back.”
Astrid stumbled from the stair step to gather her discarded clothing. She dressed and shuffled to the sofa in his rec room. “Before we go, we need to talk.”
Kane buttoned his pants. He collapsed onto the sofa next to her, not bothering with his shirt. “How about we never go back? That’s a subject I could discuss.”
Astrid chuckled. “I give you one hour, and then you’d be so eaten up with guilt over skipping out on duty that you’ll beg me to take us back.”
He trailed a thumb along the seam of her lips. “But I could think of so many things we could do in that hour.” He fused their mouths.
She pulled away. “I really do need to get this out there. Oh, God. Please, don’t do sexy eyes. You do that, and I will need more than sixty minutes to do what I want to you.”
“Sexy eyes?” He grinned when her cheeks blazed. “I like making you blush. Happens so rarely.”
She playfully punched his shoulder.
He leaned in to catch her earlobe in his mouth. “So, what’s on your agenda for our sixty minutes?”
“This is what I’m considering…” She sent him a mental montage of fantasy images.
“I always knew you were my dream girl. Let’s skip talking.” He kissed down her neck.
“I’m a goddess,” she choked out.
“I know you are, Bella,” he mumbled as he smoothed his hand over the soft skin of her belly trekking upward to her breasts.
“No, I really am a full-blooded goddess. My father is the god Seth and my mother is the goddess Taurt. When I was an infant, another goddess, Seth’s real wife, cursed me to be human. At least, this is the story Seth gave me.”
When her words penetrated the desire haze in his brain, shock set in. Everything in him stilled. The lust pounding through his balls cooled. “What?”
“I just found out. It’s why I could kick Ashor’s ass. It’s why the gods are popping in and out of my life. Amun-Ra isn’t sure what to do with me. He can’t control me. He can’t kill me. Okay, he could, but he won’t so long as I obey a few rules and I’ve got his grandson on board. Seth thinks I’m a riot and gets a kick out of me being out of control since chaos is his domain. My son is supposed to be part of some prophesy that they won’t divulge. And—”
“There’s more?” His brain shorted out after the goddess revelation, not quite coming to grips with her being an immortal deity. That made her so far out of his league that he didn’t want to accept it.
“You can’t tell the others about this, and definitely not your brother. The gods allowed me to tell you.” She chewed at her lower lip.
“How gracious of them,” he shot sarcastically.
“Crap, you’re freaked. I’m sorry.”
He pulled away from her, putting a foot of air between them on the sofa. “Does that mean that you and me…that we can’t?”
“We just did and I don’t see anyone coming for us. We’re, uh…we got the thumbs up on this.” She tucked a hair behind her ear and bit her lip again.
“Good. Because I guarantee if you and some other guy…I would rip him to shreds.”
“I don’t want anyone else.” She reached for his hand. Her anxiety transmitted in that tight clasp.
“But you slept with that other magus. And ended up…” He waved his free hand at her stomach.
“We were bonded. This is going to be hard to understand, but I’m pretty sure he was you. That he and you are the same soul. He was from ancient Egypt and lived many centuries ago. You were partially reincarnated into this time, but part of your soul remained with him. It’s why everything about being near you and wanting you, tore me up. I wanted there to be an us every time you brought up the subject, but a part of my soul belonged to Zannis—the you of the past. So, I couldn’t give you all of me. I didn’t want to
give you only a piece of myself. You deserve all of me. Now that he’s dead, and your soul is united, I’m not…I don’t know… split?”
He grumbled, “That’s a mind fuck and a half.”
“There’s more.”
“Oh, Christ. Am I going to have to hurt you or something? Because I won’t.”
“Nothing that twisted, but this is serious. Despite my ancestry I can die, but not through fighting like you or any of the other magi. A daemon can’t do it. Another magus can’t do it. My crazy, as you like to call it, proved injuries can’t do it. And I cannot suicide. But I do have one weakness…” She gazed at him in silence and chewed her lip.
He connected with her mind, now familiar with their shared mental path.
“Me,” Kane finished.
She nodded. “Amun-Ra prevented me from following Zannis when his soul went to the afterlife. I wanted to. He forced me to stay here until that part of your soul, the one that Zannis owned, made it back into this world. Back to you. But if you die…” She whispered the last part, “I’ll follow you, Kane. And based on a long conversation with Kira about this whole magus-senariai bond, unlike the other magi who can get reincarnated with their soul mate in each lifetime, I don’t think I can come back. I know you guys get reincarnated, but I don’t think that’s for me or at least it was implied as such. We get one shot at this. It…we could last a long time or we may only have one more fight.”
Kane popped off the sofa, unable to stay still. And paced. His mind whirled.
She planted herself in front of him, and slid her hands around him. His naked skin sang at the contact, but his mind churned.
She whispered, “It’s not me that needs protecting when we fight. It’s you that I must protect. I won’t be psycho like you’ve been about being careful, but swear to me that you will take me with you when you go fight daemons.”
“I cannot...” He gritted his molars tight and forced out, “Allow that. The you-protecting-me bit. That’s not in my code.” He smoothed a hand over the back of her head and pressed her tighter against his chest. “With you…” He choked out the word. “Pregnant…I don’t want you in danger especially when you’re further along.”
“I’ll let you do your overprotective routine to a point. I need for you to value your life. Put it above mine when in battle.”
As if his need to protect had a button he could flip to off. “I’m not sure I can do that. Let’s go back.”
“Told you that you wouldn’t last an hour.”
He chuckled. “Smartass.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Kane pushed Astrid in front of him through the portal into the magi conference room. She bumped into the semi-circular table in their rush through the magikal doorway. One step back landed her flush to Kane’s solid body. His instant response swelled against her butt. She thought to Kane, You sure you don’t want to go back to your house?
“What’s the crisis?” Kane asked, ignoring her question.
Astrid tried to focus on the combative yelling around her instead of how much she wished to drag Kane back through a portal for a repeat.
Ashor and Dakar were at each other’s throats yelling in a foreign language that sounded Greek or maybe Arabic. Christian and Khyan argued nearby. No one recognized the arrival of her and Kane.
Astrid screamed, “What’s the damned crisis?”
Ashor and Dakar halted their argument. Ashor said, “Do you not understand the word now?”
Oh, hell no. He did not get to pull alpha leader bullshit on her after what she just did for them, leading a team to destroy two daemon shits. She stepped away from Kane, tense and ready to attack.
Kane grabbed her arm and pulled her back against him. One glance upward and she bit back the fuck you she planned to hurl at Ashor.
Chill, he thought to her. “Astrid has opened a lot of doorways today. She needed a break,” Kane said diplomatically. “What happened?”
Ashor scowled at Dakar and announced, “Shay and Cy were kidnapped.” He faced off with Dakar again. “Perhaps, you care to explain her actions? Why did she take Cy? Unprotected!”
“Like she paused to think beyond her need to follow whatever clue she found to locating Cy’s ring,” Khyan mumbled. “That woman and impulsive are synonymous.”
Dakar punched Khyan with a cringe-worthy nose crack.
Khyan griped his hemorrhaging face. “Fuck, Dak. You broke my nose.”
“Why did Shay take Cy somewhere? Who kidnapped them?” Astrid asked.
Ashor replied, “Hashishins have them. Shay dragged the kid off to some town south of here over some bullshit that has to do with Cy’s ring and a library. She’s an archaeologist by training and promised to help Cy find his missing totem, his ring.”
Astrid forced a deep breath, aware of the suffocating urgency of this situation. Cy was not only the key to all their spells, but also the little twerp had wriggled his way into her give-a-shit category. Then there was Shay. She’d come to like Shay after a few ladies’ nights. What had she been thinking? Certainly the girl was rash, but from what she’d gathered from Shay, she’d only just gotten her life in order after a multiple-century fuck-over curse from Djoser. If Shay died, then so did Dakar.
Astrid noticed she wasn’t the only one on hyper alert. A tick beat a fast tempo in Kane’s jaw. These two kidnapped ranked high on his list of victims that he would go to the end of the earth to find—a kid and a woman. God, she loved him even more just for that.
Kane asked, “How exactly did this happen? We haven’t been gone even an hour.”
Ashor said, “Right after your team left to take care of those daemons in the northern U.S., another daemon appeared south of here. Dakar and Khyan left to deal with it. The plane hadn’t arrived back when you returned from your excursion. She must have dragged Cy out minutes after you returned.” Ashor asked Dakar, “Why couldn’t she have waited? Twenty minutes and then this wouldn’t have been an issue. Or come talk to be me about this?”
Dakar mumbled. He paced.
Khyan uncovered his nose to say, “You try dictating to that woman what she can and cannot do, especially when she gets her mind set on a plan.”
“Okay, moving beyond the whys of this, did the Hashishins make a demand?” Astrid asked.
“No. No communication from them,” said Ashor. “We know it was them because Shay told Dakar telepathically. You got anything new from her, Dakar?”
Dakar shook his head. “I believe they gave her a potion.” His wild gaze darted to the door as if about to bolt.
Khyan gripped Dakar’s upper arm. “We will find her. I can track her bochnori.” He wiped at a bit of blood still trickling from his nose. “I can’t believe you broke my nose.”
“What’s a bochnori?” Astrid whispered to Kane.
No clue. Then he asked out loud, “What’s a bochnori?”
“Ensorcelled tattoo-thing,” Christian explained.
“What does that mean?” Kane asked.
“It’s their special thing. Their mojo. You got dragons. They got living tattoos. I don’t get it beyond that,” Christian said.
Dakar said to Khyan, “We do not even know to where they are traveling. You can track her bochnori, but that might take days. We do not have days.” He slammed his fist against the wall with a force that rent a deep divot in the plaster.
“True.” Khyan whispered something in a language Astrid didn’t recognize.
“Where’s Scott?” Astrid sighed, wondering why men always lost their minds when a woman was in trouble. Six magi and none with a plan.
“What’s he got to do with this?” Ashor roared. He whipped out his phone and scrolled. “Nothing. No demands.”
“I need to speak to Scott. Then we can find out where Cy is.” Astrid met Ashor’s rage-smoldering gaze, which intimidated the shit out of her, but she refused to let her apprehension show. She folded her arms across her chest.
“Get your son up here, Eric,” Ashor bellowed.
; Eric stepped from the shadows in the doorway and nodded.
“Tell him to bring his computer,” Astrid yelled as Eric departed.
In the silence that descended as they waited, Kane moved close enough to Astrid to bring her back into contact with him again. That connection soothed her. Despite his confusion, he was still her number one.
You better shut down whatever’s going on in your brain, Bella, ’cause I’m about four seconds shy of saying fuck this and dragging you upstairs, Kane rumbled in her mind.
She smiled up at him. That sounds way better than this.
“What’s funny about this?” Dakar yelled.
Astrid shook her head. Her cheeks burned.
It’s so cute when you blush, Kane rumbled in her mind. And I’m getting good at causing it.
She play-punched him on the shoulder. “Stop it.”
Christian smiled broad enough that a dimple highlighted each side of his face. “So, you guys finally…” He winked.
Astrid narrowed her eyes at him, threatening punishment for his teasing.
“Maybe both of you will be less prickly.” Christian chuckled.
Dakar rounded on Christian. “You jest at time such as this? Shay is your daughter.”
Christian scowled. “I’m here. I’m worried. But what can I do? This is probably the gods mucking with us again. I’d think you, of all people, would realize this. All we can do is see where their bullshit leads and hope we get to keep going in this life.”
Dakar backed against the wall with a curse.
Scott glided in. A sweatband restrained his long, limp blond hair off his face. He set a closed laptop down on the conference table and faced Astrid. “Whatcha need?”
“Where’s Cy?” Astrid asked.
Scott slow smiled. “Yeah, I figured you guys would eventually ask. Based on how quickly he’s headed toward the southern U.S., my guess is he’s on a plane.”
“Have you magikal abilities? How would you know that?” Dakar demanded.
Scott rolled his eyes. “Astrid had me implant a transmitter into him. Beneath the skin. So, even if whoever kidnapped him stripped him naked and took his prosthesis we could still find him. I found this mega-cool unit out of France that most scanners won’t pick up.” Scott beamed.