Angel Seduced

by Jaime Rush

  He raked a hand through his hair. “Because of the Concilium’s involvement, we don’t know who to trust. We’re on our own with precious little to go on. Remembering our captivity might help us figure out who’s behind this. Will you do the Cobra with me? I’ve done the Essex enough to know how to control it. Once you set your magick in place, we touch, back off, and hope it’s enough to trigger the return of my memories. I promise not to take in your essence.”

  She thought of the boy, of children in danger, and found herself saying, “All right.”

  “Tonight. Now.”

  Her fingers curled in the fabric of her skirt. “I always perform it at the Caido’s residence so he’ll be comfortable. The bombardment is pretty intense. I have to monitor that part. His girlfriend stays with him through the night in case anything happens. Is there someone who can stay with you?”

  Kasabian shook his head. “I’ll handle it.”

  Kye would have argued further, but she could see that he wouldn’t be swayed. Or maybe he didn’t have someone who could stay with him. “All right, let’s go then.”

  She followed his yellow Lotus all the way to SoBe—South Beach. Why am I doing this? Her fingers tightened on the steering wheel as she pulled into the parking lot of an old Florida-style apartment complex. Children. I’m doing this for children.

  Kasabian gestured to a parking spot, then pulled his Lotus into one farther down. Kye slid out of her jacket, folded it, and laid it in the trunk of her BMW coupe. The black-and-red patch with vampire fangs was on top, an ominous portent. She quickly shed her fishnets and black boots and changed into black and red flip-flops.

  Kasabian rested his hand on her shoulder as he guided her through a gated entrance into a lush courtyard. The pool was lit, and a few people lounged around. They all greeted Kasabian and gave her a curious look. One couple was getting all kissy-face in the corner of the pool. The woman’s nervousness glowed a pale yellow and made Kye’s stomach churn a little as it reached for her. It was not dissimilar to her mother’s gift of mediumship, as she described it, the way spirits sensed and migrated to a receptive soul. Kye closed the psychic door.

  They took the stairs to the second level. Kasabian unlocked the door and gestured for her to precede him. He flicked a switch, and three corner torchieres threw soft light over the living area. Nice place, with polished wood floors and moss-green walls. Plants in dark wicker baskets accented the natural feel.

  He waved toward a dry bar in the corner. “Want a Whis-Kye?”

  “Maybe just a splash of whiskey straight up.”

  Her gaze went to a picture of a little boy held by an alligator magnet to his fridge. He had haunted brown eyes and a smile he was obviously forcing for the photographer’s sake. She walked over to it. “Who’s this?”

  Kasabian stepped up behind her, his presence nearly overwhelming. “Jonathan. He’s the younger brother of one of the kids at the youth home where I volunteer, and he went to one of these supposed camps. The mother said he was later adopted, but Lyle is suspicious. And hurting. He hasn’t seen his kid brother in a year.” He stared at the picture, anger and pain in eyes that were now more hazel than green. The shade of whiskey. “The need to find him is eating at my soul. Maybe it’s because I imagine my mother looking at my picture the way Lyle looks at his.”

  “You volunteer at a youth home?” The thought gave her a whole different impression of this sexy bartender.

  He handed her a glass of amber liquid, dark gold in the ambient light. “It’s where I lived for a few years. I like to give back.” He shrugged, downplaying it.

  She took the glass, inhaling the smoky scent. He started making an absinthe, pouring water over a melting sugar cube into a glass of opaque green liquid. The menthol aroma filled her nose and made her eyes water.

  She leaned against the black granite counter and watched him. “Every Caido who’s done the Cobra had one of those first.”

  He lifted his glass up, and when she touched hers to it, he said, “Here’s to liquid courage.”

  Kye felt no speck of courage as she threw back her splash and a half. You have control over this.

  He finished his drink and came to stand in front of her. “Tell me what to do.”

  He was at her mercy. It gave her a weird sense of power she’d never felt before. “The Caidos dropped fast once the process was complete, so you want to be on carpet. The bombardment lasts anywhere from one to two hours and then you pretty much pass out for the night. The Caido who recovered his memories woke with them the next morning.”

  “Hopefully it won’t be as bad for me. I haven’t stuffed away my emotions as much. In fact, I crave them: joy, heartache, jealousy, anything. That’s why I work in a club, so I can soak them all in.”

  “But don’t they hurt you?”

  “I have to do the Essex every night to manage the pain.”

  Now she understood that strange twist of emotions she’d picked up from him that first time. “So you’re an Essex addict?”

  “I’m an emotion addict. But I guess since I need the Essex to manage the emotions, that assessment would be apt. Working in a bar gives me an array of people who need healing, and who can ease my pain as well.” He gave her a soft smile. “And you want to know why I crave emotions.”

  She started to say no, that it was none of her business. Might as well be honest. “Of course.”

  “I think it has something to do with what they were doing to me while I was being held captive. Hayden feels the same.”

  “So that’s why you’re forty ways fucked up.” Finally, she had an answer.

  His smile darkened. “Part of it.”

  Great. Part of an answer.

  He led the way to the living room, where he moved the coffee table away from the thick, contemporary-style rug beneath.

  “Get comfortable,” she said.

  He raised an eyebrow. “That usually means being naked.”

  The mental picture of him standing naked in front of her sent an odd tingling right down to the core of her belly. She blinked, pushing it away. “Stop that,” she said to both him and her wild imagination.

  “Just saying.” He stripped out of his shirt, which made his pecs and biceps move in all kinds of interesting ways, and tossed it on the couch. His torso was golden tanned male perfection. He undid the top button of his jeans, kicked off his shoes, and stood in the middle of the rug. “You going to catch me when I fall?”

  Her gaze, which had centered on the faint hairline that went down to those undone jeans, snapped to eyes with a smile in them. She almost said, I could ask the same of you. She blinked. Whoa, where had that thought come from?

  “I’ll try.” With a hard swallow, Kye stepped up in front of him. “How does the Essex work on your end? Can you see the exchange?”

  “No, I feel it. I pull in a little of the essence of the person I’m doing the Essex with and send mine into her.” He demonstrated, weaving his long fingers through the air and making her think of an orchestra leader. His actions, along with his words, sent a shiver through her body.

  She cleared her throat. “You’ll send your essence out to me. Then I’ll take over. Get into the same state that you’re in right before you do the Essex.”

  He held out his hands. “We need to connect physically.”

  His hands slid against hers, his fingers locking around her wrists. Why did his touch always jolt her deep inside? He blinked, obviously feeling it, too.

  “Close your eyes,” she ordered, completely unnerved and unable to tear her gaze from his. When he complied, she studied him for a moment, the planes of his cheeks, the thickness of his lashes, a mouth made for sin. Frigging gorgeous. It seemed surreal, him standing in front of her like this, them about to do this.

  She closed her eyes and summoned her magick. In her mind’s eye, it manifested as a beautiful column of dark pink. Then she pulled her own deep yellow essence toward the column. “Send your essence to me.” Cool, silvery smoke floated tow
ard hers, and she directed it toward the column as well. “We’re going to start with the Essex, our essences barely touching.”

  Even that mere brush took her breath away. She focused on the pink column, sending it to wrap around their essences. It required a part of her, that small extension of her essence, but nothing too intense. Here was that sought-after addictive state where a Caido could feel without pain.

  But Kye was beginning to feel something, too.

  Kasabian’s essence was powerful, his magick strong and compelling and…sexy. It spiraled in languid, sensuous circles, and her essence began to wind around his of its own volition.

  A slow smile spread across his handsome face. “Damn, I wish we were doing this for different reasons.” His eyes opened for a moment, glowing brightly with such blatant hunger that it made parts of her ache. “This feels incredible with you.”

  Better than with anyone else? she wanted to ask. No, don’t ask.

  “Like a sensual dance,” she heard herself saying. She was a Zensu Deuce, versed in sexual pathos and magick. She knew the chemistry between them was rare. But that was a path she could not tread. She caught herself physically leaning toward him and pulled back her body and her essence with a soft inhalation. “Which it shouldn’t. Close your eyes and focus.”

  “Don’t worry, love, I won’t be forgetting that this isn’t about sex. Or about us. It’s about those kids.”

  “It’s not as though we’d forget. Right? Get caught up in this and lose our minds.” She shook her head, sending her hair washing across her shoulders. “Of course we wouldn’t. Right now our essences are resting against each other, the way my fingers laid on top of each other. We’re going to the next step now. Our essences are going to slide together like my fingers did, but remain straight like an X.” She felt the sensuality of the two colors sliding against each other throughout her body. Lord, but she wanted to let them intertwine, the way her body wanted to intertwine with his. “We can’t go to the final step. Let’s stay here for a few seconds and see if that will trigger the bombardment.”

  Mmm, it felt good in a way that it shouldn’t. Like lying naked in bed with an achingly beautiful man and not being able to touch him. Heat began to generate wherever their essences met, slowly filling her entire being.

  “I think it’s beginning,” she said on a soft breath. “I don’t know exactly how it feels, since I haven’t done it myself, but my subjects reported heat right before things started.”

  His fingers tightened on hers. “I feel it, too, heat and pressure building inside me. And…” His voice changed to a puzzled, concerned tone. “Something else.”

  Like a sudden storm, his essence darkened and whipped into a fury. Its tendrils grabbed on to her, wrapping her in a tight hold. She tried to pull back, but he surrounded her. In the same moment, it felt seductively powerful and suffocating. Heat exploded between them, and she lost all sense of where he ended and where she began. No! She struggled, both psychically and physically, to free herself. She stumbled back, landing bottom-first on the coffee table. She was free of him. Except…no, she wasn’t. She felt him inside her.

  He’d bonded them.

  Her eyes flew open. He dropped to the floor, caught up in the bombardment. She wanted to demand that his essence release hers, but he was lost to her now. But she wasn’t helpless. She slapped her hand on his chest and summoned her magick again. Come on, come on. The pink column formed in her mind’s eye, but her yellow was twisted with dark silver and then it vanished. She groped for it, but she couldn’t muster the power to pull it back.

  He had broken his promise!

  As much as she wanted to run, she couldn’t leave him alone. She watched him arch in pain, fingers digging into the carpet. So many emotions roared through him that she couldn’t single any one out. She sank down beside him, her hand on his shoulder for support even as she wanted to scratch his eyes out.

  She had never seen that darkness in a Caido’s essence before. It scared her, even more so because a mystifying want pulsed through her. Part of what made him very different and, no doubt, forty ways fucked up—the part he hadn’t told her about—was now bonded with her.

  Chapter 4

  Kasabian paced, phone clutched in his hand. He almost called Kye fourteen times to tell her he was sorry for bonding with her. And that it had worked, holy hell, his memories had returned. He could barely wrap his head around all of it, which was why he hadn’t dialed her number.

  He vaguely recalled waking early that morning and finding her asleep on the couch. Then he’d plunged back into oblivion, and that’s when the memories had played in his mind like a movie. He’d watched through the eyes of his younger self, stunned, disgusted, and shocked by the identity of his captor. When he woke, she was gone.

  A sharp knock on his door startled him out of his dark thoughts. Had to be Hayden, whom he’d summoned immediately. Kasabian snatched open the door to find Kye.

  Fury and hurt emanated from her, so clear and sharp that it was like the difference between regular television and HD. “We need to talk.” She pushed her way past him, stalking into the living room and spinning around to face him.

  She wore jean shorts and a tank top, her hair loosely bound in a clip that left tendrils snaking down the center of her back. The scent of soap wafted from her, some light, flowery fragrance. With no makeup other than eyeliner, she was a totally different Kye than he’d seen at the club. A version he liked even more.

  Her gray eyes flared with anger. “Oh, no. You don’t get to look at me like that. Because if you lied about those kids to trick me into—”

  Kasabian had heard of fires that rushed in and destroyed everything in their path. That’s how it felt now, desire—and the thrill of experiencing it without pain or the muffling effect of the Essex—roaring through him and drowning out her words.

  He pulled her to him and covered her mouth with his. She was protesting and trying to push him away. He told himself she already hated him. Might as well seal the deal and experience a taste of heaven. He plunged his tongue in and gave hers something better to do than lash out at him.

  Her outrage, then shock, pulsed through him. He would give in to feelings he usually kept a rein on until she pushed him away.

  Which she should be doing, oh, about now.

  Which she wasn’t. Her hands had flattened against his chest but stopped.

  Whoosh. Just like that, fire erupted between them. That cool, fully controlled woman vanished, leaving a hot, hungry vixen in her place. Her tongue met his, and her fingers curled against his chest, nails dragging on his skin. He pulled her heat into the cool places inside his soul. His hands drew down her back and over her tight, round ass, pressing her fully against him. He drowned in the ecstasy of sensations, his hard cock aching with the need to drive into her. So this is what it felt like for everyone else. Gods, he wanted this. Wanted her.

  She rocked her pelvis against him, as though she couldn’t get enough contact. Don’t do that, love. Push me away before this lust feeds the Shadow too much. Before I tear off your clothes and take you right here on the living room floor.

  The moment he touched the bare curve of her breasts, the Shadow would take over. He sensed it, knew it, even though it had never happened before. Because he’d never felt this way before. And he would be a double asshole, not only letting the Shadow fuck her over by bonding, but also literally fucking her.

  “No,” she said, shaking her head. “No, no, no.” She gave him a hard shove and stumbled back, looking shell-shocked. “I came here to light into you! To demand an explanation. Not to…to…” She rubbed her fingers across her red and swollen mouth. “I thought Caido promises were ironclad. You promised not to bond with me. Then your essence turned black and grabbed mine! Did you lie so you could get me into bed?”

  The floor would do just fine. Thank gods he hadn’t spoken those unbidden words. He should let her believe he was a snake. She would call him names and stomp out, hating him forev
er. That would be good. But what he said was, “I didn’t initiate the bond.”

  Her laugh sounded caustic. “You’re telling me it was, what, your evil twin?”

  “I suppose that’s as good an explanation as any I have.”

  She gave him one of those nods that meant I don’t believe you. “And that was the evil twin that just very inappropriately kissed the daylights out of me?”

  “I think that started with me, but the evil twin kicked in quickly after that.” She seemed so angry, he had to throw in, “Was it your evil twin that had your tongue dancing with mine?”

  She narrowed her eyes, even as he could feel her embarrassment. “No, I think it was some kind of Thrall trick. I am so pissed at you, but it was like I had no control over myself. Do you even realize what you’ve done? We are bonded.” She jabbed her finger at him. “I could frigging feel your bombardment last night. And when I was in the shower a little while ago, I felt some mix of feelings I don’t know how to describe. Damn it, I can feel you right now. You’re…” She clamped her mouth shut and took a step back. “You’re serious about the evil twin thing, aren’t you? It scares you. And since I don’t think much scares you, that scares me.”

  He leaned against the back side of the maroon chair. “That dark part of my essence you saw is something I call my Soul Shadow. It’s hard to describe because I don’t know what it is. I’ve had it in me for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, I dreamed of this black creature inside me.” He forced out words he’d never uttered to anyone. “It rears up when I’m enraged or aroused. But I am rarely either, so it’s usually dormant.”

  She shivered. “Like a demon? I know they can possess people.”

  “It’s not a separate entity, and I’m not possessed. It’s as much a part of me as my angel is.”

  She rubbed her arms. “That’s why you warned me to run away from you that first night we met.”

  “A pity you didn’t heed my advice. And no, I’m not blaming you. I came to you, after all.”