“Olivia,” she said, the words on her tongue sizzling and cracking.
“Elder Edana,” I said, bowing my head slightly and lowering my eyes in respect. “I’ve retrieved Benedictus, The Sword of the Dawn. It is the only blade that can cut through Vincent’s wards. I can finish him this time.”
“We know all this Olivia,” Edana said, waving her arm, her red kimono-style robe brushing through the air. “I came to tell you that you are reinstated as an Executioner.” I gasped with joy, but she shot me a look to be quiet. “On a probationary basis. But your assets and Executioner powers will be released to you.”
“What is the condition of my probation?”
“You are to stay in Portland. If you defeat Vincent, you will be taken off probation.”
“How am I supposed to defeat him while I’m stuck here?”
“We have reason to believe that Vincent is here in town. The wendigo attack was strange enough. But we have word that at least four college-aged girls have disappeared in the last four days. It wouldn’t concern us usually, but these girls were all regulars at a local vampire club.”
“You think the vamps ate them?”
“It would seem that way. The local coven is led by a vampire named Stefan Cutov. He’s about two hundred years old, and was turned in native Romania. He came to America about a hundred years ago and has been gathering vampires on the West Coast for all that time. Stefan is no stranger to the rules. It leads me to believe something else is at play besides lawless vampires. I want you to investigate him and his club. I want you to find out if there is a connection between the wendigo and the missing vampire groupies.”
“Sounds like a long shot.”
“Creatures like the wendigo don’t just appear. We haven’t had one in this plane for over a hundred years. The last time it was because a portal had been opened to the other side.”
“That’s what my sister Margery suggested.”
“The realm of the fae, angels, and demons. And everything in between. A portal between this world and the other must be opened before that kind of magic can get in or out.”
“You think that’s how the wendigo was created?”
“It is a dark power that does that to a human. Go to the vamp club. Look into these missing girls. Meet with Stefan.”
“You want me to kill him?”
“No. This will require a gentler touch. Do you think you can handle that, Executioner Fanning?”
“Yes.”
“We have to find Vincent. Hunt him down and kill him. I must go Olivia. Get ready for your shipment.”
“What?” Edana strode off down the street like it was her personal runway, and disappeared into the darkness. I was turning to walk back inside when a massive trunk plopped down at my feet from midair. I gasped, jumping, then put my hand on my hip. My stuff!
I bent down to lift the reinforced rubber case and hefted the end. Dang it was heavy. As I began to cart it up my mother’s porch steps, I was blinded by light and sound.
My powers. My Executioner’s powers. They flooded my mind and body like a dam had burst inside me. Dropping the trunk, I doubled over on the porch and threw up.
Heaving as impressions bombarded me, I saw my mother’s shoes. She tapped her foot on the door frame.
“Have you been drinking?” she asked.
I stood, wiping my mouth with the back of my arm. “Of course not, Mother.” I rolled my eyes and glanced down at the puke, cringing. Gross.
“Sorry about the puke.”
“What is going on with you?”
“I’ve been reinstated in the Executioners. Edana came out here herself to let me know. I’m just getting my powers back and it was… a little overwhelming. I’m fine now.”
“What kind of powers make a grown woman throw up on the front porch?” my mother tsked. Why did she have to judge me so harshly for everything?
“They heighten my senses. So my entire sensory system was bombarded with a massive amount of information all at once. I was disoriented. I said I was sorry.”
“Well. You need to clean that up. Don’t let the cats eat it.”
She turned and closed the door behind her. My shoulders slumped. Apparently the Council of Elders respected me more than my own mother. Whatever, Mom would probably treat me like a red-headed stepchild for the rest of my natural born life.
I slid the trunk through the front door and then went to find a hose to clean up my own puke. When I got back, there were no less than five cats gathered around my pile. Gross!
I hissed at them to go away. Just no. Pets were disgusting. I turned on the hose sprayer just enough to spray the mess off the porch.
When I was done, I went back inside the house. The first thing I heard was my mother yelling, “Get that trunk out of the hallway!” from the kitchen. She hadn’t even asked me about the wendigo.
I hefted my trunk upstairs, feeling much stronger than I had just an hour ago. The power running through me put me on a kind of high that I’d missed since the second they’d taken it away.
Back downstairs, I went into the kitchen. A few witches from the coven and my sisters Twyla and Margery still sat at mother’s table.
“I killed the wendigo if anyone cares,” I said, slipping into a chair at the table. I poured myself a cup of tea to clear the taste of bile out of my mouth.
“We know,” Mother said. “Raven texted over the witch network.” Damn him. He stole my thunder. After getting in my pants and giving me the best orgasm I’d had in five years, this was just the last straw. I seriously wanted to give him a piece of my mind. Once and for all.
Chapter 23
I drove across town to Raven’s house in an older neighborhood in town. He had mature vines snaking up his porch and a well-maintained yard in front of the ranch style blue house.
You’d think a raven would live in a nest or something. I made fun of him in my head as I strode up the steps to knock on the door. He opened it before I could knock, leaving me standing with my fist up in the air like an idiot.
“Well, Olivia. Still here I see.”
“Yes. I need to talk to you.”
He stood back and swept his hand out, dramatically inviting me inside. I walked past him, pursing my lips and crossing my arms. I could feel his eyes on my ass before I turned and stared at him. He closed the door and stood there silently examining me.
“Something’s different about you,” he said, squinting his ever-observant eyes.
“I’m back in the Executioners. I got my powers back.”
“So you can totally kick my ass now,” he said, stepping slightly forward.
“I could kick your ass before. Don’t test me.” I put my hand up, palm out in front of him.
He stopped, raised his eyebrows and snapped his teeth mockingly. “What is it? Why did you come here? Didn’t get enough in the woods?”
I opened my mouth, about to object. But I closed it again, the words not forming. I bit my lip and looked at the ground before remembering what I’d come there for.
“The Counsel warned me about a club of vampires. Those missing college girls you told me about. Those girls were vamp groupies.”
He sat down on the couch, a thoughtful look in his sharp eyes. “They do all seem the type. We hadn’t found any connection to the vamp club. We just knew they were typical college girls who liked to have a good time.”
“The Council suspects a connection to the wendigo as well.”
“How? Both things seem completely unconnected.”
“Some kind of portal to the other world, spilling into this one.”
“The portal hasn’t been open since the night your father died,” he frowned, clearly not wanting to believe what I was saying.
“They also think Vincent is here.”
“Why are you telling me all this, Olivia?” He stood and moved into the kitchen at the back of the house. I turned to see him moving around behind the counter that opened into the living room/dining room area. He pull
ed a beer out of the fridge and popped the cap off with a bottle opener.
“Want one?” he asked. I thought about my sick stomach from less than an hour ago, but I felt fine now. Might as well.
“Sure.” He handed me an open bottle when he walked back into the living room and sat on his gray-green couch beside the brick fireplace. I sat across from him in an easy chair and swigged the local artisan brew.
“So they think Vincent is here?”
“I’d expected him to follow me, not just so fast.”
“The girls have all gone missing in the last few days.”
“The wendigo first appeared the day I got here.”
“How often do college girls go missing in Portland?”
“Not often. Not like this. It’s pretty significant.”
“And you’ve said yourself that you haven’t had paranormal activity like the wendigo murder in your whole time on the force.”
“No. Not at all. The paranormals here are pretty well-behaved. I have to give the vamps a reminder every once in a while to not to take too much from their groupies. These girls don’t even remember it’s happening to them, but they can’t resist going back. It can cross the line pretty quickly.”
“It’s the treaty we have to make with vampires so that they don’t go around killing people,” I said.
“It just seems wrong that they take the blood without the human’s consent.”
“The groupies do give consent, they just don’t remember it afterwards. It’s… subconscious after that. Some people like some sick shit. You can’t judge them for it.”
I sat back in my chair and drank another sip of beer. It was weird drinking with Raven, in a house that he owned. The last time we’d had beers together, we were poor college students still living at our parents’ houses. We’d snuck out and drunk in the forest.
We’d made love that night. My face flushed red at the memory and Raven cocked his head at me. His black eyes examined me and a smile spread over his face.
“Remember the last time we had a beer together, Olivia?” He mocked me with his acute observational sense. He knew I was turned on and had instantly put two and two together.
“Yes. I was just thinking about that.”
He stood and crossed the room, the tight jeans he wore showing off the thick length below his belt. He stood before me a second too long, looking down at me with that mocking smile in his eyes.
Then he sat, too close, and leaned toward me, setting his beer on the table beside me. He had to put his arm all the way around my body to reach it. But in his mock gesture, he’d managed to wrap himself around me before I could react.
For all my training, native ability, and Executioner’s magic, I was no match for Raven when he wanted to touch me. He lifted his other hand and tilted my face toward him, forcing me to look into those black, searching eyes.
I opened my mouth to protest. I was angry at him. He’d been playing with me all along. Mocking, teasing, tricking. Fuck. I loved it.
I mashed my lips against his, pulling him toward me in an uncontrolled burst of desire. He moaned with surprise and tightened his grip around my body, pulling me onto his lap.
I could feel his shaft under my growing heat, still moist from what he’d done to me in the forest. “Fuck you, Raven,” I said between kisses. He grabbed my ass, squeezing it hard with both hands over the supple leather. He rubbed me over his hard cock, making me moan.
“No, Olivia, I’m going to fuck you.” He lifted my shirt up over my breasts and squeezed my breasts. “So gorgeous,” he said, pulling my shirt and bra the rest of the way off. He ran his tongue over my nipple in slow and torturous circles as he kneaded my ass in his strong, dexterous hands.
I ground against his hardness, feeling my precarious control slipping away. God, I’d missed him. I’d missed the way his arms felt around me, the way his skin felt against mine, the feel of his long thick cock inside me.
He ran his hands over my body, up my sides and slid them around my breasts, pointing them up at his face while he went from one nipple to the other, licking, sucking, and biting.
“I missed these,” he mocked. “My titties.”
“Fuck, Raven. Shut up. Don’t ruin it.”
“They’re my tits. You took them away from me.”
“Right. But the rest of me doesn’t matter?” I rolled my eyes.
“The rest belongs to me too,” he said matter-of-factly as he tossed me over on the couch. For all the power and supernatural strength I had, I was still light and small compared to Raven. As a man, he could move and manipulate my body with ease. He was six inches taller than me in my bare feet, and had at least fifty or more pounds on me. And that was all pure muscle.
My back slapped down on the couch and he pulled his army-green T-shirt over his head as he looked down at me. His dark tanned skin glistened over those gorgeously defined muscles. Raven was big, and muscular, but he was lean, taut, and agile. It made my pussy clench just looking at him.
He grabbed my crotch. Even over the leather of my pants, my body jolted into awareness from his touch. He’d made me come just a few hours ago.
“This,” he said, that mocking look in his eyes back again. “Belongs to me.” He ripped at the zipper on my pants and pulled my boots and pants off, flinging them on the floor. He had me naked under him, and part of me felt as vulnerable as the girl who had fallen in love with him so many years ago.
“Shut up, Raven, or I’m leaving.” I grabbed at his belt and pulled it and his pants open. “Take your clothes off and fuck me if that’s what we’re doing here.”
He knelt above me, finally naked, playing with my soaking-wet pussy. “You want me to fuck you, Olivia?”
“God, just…” I threw my head back as he pushed his fingers inside me, making me eat my words. He started to thrust and leaned down to lick my nipples with his hot tongue.
“Just what, Livi?”
“Just…”
I put my arms around him and pulled him to me, wrapping my legs around his slim waist. He gazed into my eyes, the mocking gleam gone from his dark orbs. He kissed me gently on the cheeks and forehead. “You can’t resist me,” he said flatly. Then he bit my ear. His cock pressed against my wetness, pushing through my ready entrance. I gasped, pleasure coursing through me.
I couldn’t resist him. It was impossible. The love that led us to cast the bonding spell might be gone, but the spell remained. If I got within a yard of him, all I wanted to do was drop on my back and open my legs.
As he moved over me, pushing my pleasure higher with each thrust, I tried to convince myself it was all just the lust induced by the spell. I was free. I didn’t need him or anyone else.
But when he tilted my head back to look into my eyes as he made me come, I could no longer believe it. Holy shit. I was still in love with him. The knowledge burned in my mind as my body contracted. I opened my mouth and let out a silent moan.
“That’s it, Livi. Show me how much you want me.”
I couldn’t speak. He didn’t stop. He just kept going, pushing my orgasm on and on. I was a ball of mush under him when he turned me over on all fours and pushed me down over the couch. He knelt behind me and a hand came down to slap my ass, hard.
I moaned in pleasure and pain. Confusion and desire clouded my mind. I loved him and I hated him for it. I couldn’t think. Couldn’t react. Raven had taken over my body, thrusting inside of me from behind. I let him have me, move me, operate me like the shapeshifting shaman he was.
There’s something special about making love with a man with magic in his hands. Raven possesses the power of wind and electricity aside from his avian form. He could use those powers to push me further into the heights of pleasure than any human, or even a vampire, ever could. Raven had been my first love. We’d learned each other’s bodies together. We’d figured out everything about what turned each other on during a time in my life when I was still willing to be open and vulnerable. Raven remembered. And so did I. My
body certainly did.
My head in a fog of lust, my body climaxed like some kind of nymphomaniac succubus—down on my knees, bent over the couch, Raven slapping my ass and fucking me hard from behind. He shocked my clit and nipples with his electric power.
My head clearing, I gained control of myself and pushed away from him, throwing him down on the couch. He looked up at me, his eyes hooded. He reached for me as I climbed on his lap, sinking over his cock with my slick channel. Eye to eye, I moved on his lap, slowly sliding up and down on him, driving him crazy.
He sucked a sharp breath through his teeth and leaned into my breasts, worshiping them as I gripped his shoulder and then ran my hands through his dark, thick hair.
He wrapped his arms around my waist and gripped my ass, pulling me into deeper, harder thrusts. I tilted his face back to look me in the eye and with three more hard thrusts, he came with blinding heat inside me. Our bodies jerked together with mutual release, but I held him, forced him to look at me. Did he know what I’d become? Did he even care? Was it just the bond that held him to me as I was held to him?
When we’d been spent, we lay down on the couch together, panting and sweaty in each other’s arms. “Livi,” he breathed, stroking my hair.
I sat up and began to pull my clothes back on. He reached out for my hand after he threw a blanket over his sex. “Stay,” he said.
Moving out of reach, I pulled my shirt on over my head and slipped my leather boots back on. I buckled the sword around my waist and looked down at him. He rubbed his face and sat wide-legged on the couch with his elbows resting on his thighs. He looked up at me, disappointment in his eyes.
“That was really sexy, Raven,” I said. I meant it. I’d come like a motherfucking banshee. But I still had things to do. I couldn’t get all into this. Whatever it was.
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