Sentinel: A Light Mage Wars Novella (The Light Mage Wars)

by Northcott, Nancy

  A good PR piece could work on her brother's behalf someday. Could he get her to cooperate with one?

  He knocked on the door. From beyond it came the faint sound of her footfalls as she approached. A Mundane probably wouldn't have heard them.

  She opened the door smiling, but her eyes were bleary, with dark circles under them. She hadn't slept any better than he had. Had she spent the night reliving the attack and jumping at every sound? The thought kicked Rick in the gut, hard.

  "Good morning, Sunshine." He kissed her, savoring the return pressure of her lips. Gently, he stroked his thumb under her left eye. "Rough night?"

  "I've had better, but, hey, we're both still alive and whole, right?" The bright tone in her voice didn't hide a note of strain.

  "Right." Did she realize how much grit she truly possessed? Or was she only now discovering it? She had too much backbone to hide from the world the way she apparently had been. "You ready?"

  "All set." She grabbed her purse from a table by the door, sliding the strap onto her shoulder, and picked up her cane.

  When she'd locked the door, they walked down the stairs together. He would wait until they'd eaten to broach the difficult subject of Griffin.

  When they reached the sidewalk, Caro tipped her face up to the sky. "What a beautiful day," she said.

  As she drew in the sunlight, his magical senses picked up on her recharging. He hardly noticed, though, because he was focused on the slender column of her neck, remembering its softness and the rose petal scent of her skin.

  "Caroline Dare," a woman's voice behind him said.

  Rick and Caro turned together. A tall, tawny-haired woman strode toward them, hazel eyes intent. She was out of uniform, in a green shirt with tan slacks and a matching, boxy jacket, but he needed only a moment to recognize the Southeast Shire Reeve, Valeria Banning.

  This could not be good.

  Rick touched Caro's arm. "Good morning, shire reeve," he said.

  Banning acknowledged him with a nod. At twenty-four, she was young for a shire reeve. She had a girl-next-door appeal, with attractive, classical features and an athletic but curvy frame. His tastes, though, ran more to willowy brunettes these days.

  Caro tensed. Her walls slammed up. "I'm Caroline Dare."

  A moment later, Banning reached them. Had she seen Caro's defensive response?

  "I need a few minutes of your time," the shire reeve said.

  Rick replied, "We're on our way out for lunch." Banning wouldn't postpone, but he wanted to buy Caro time to compose herself.

  Had the reeves caught Griffin? If Rick wondered, Caro surely must not only wonder but fear.

  "I'm sorry to interrupt," Banning said, "but this won't take long."

  Caro gave her a cool nod. "Let's go inside, then."

  Home field advantage to Caro. Good choice.

  The trio returned to her apartment. Closing the door, she said, "Please sit down. Can I offer you something to drink? Lemonade, coffee, water?"

  Smart. Civilized and yet buying more time.

  "Lemonade would be good, thanks."

  "Rick?" Caro asked. "Anything?"

  "Whatever you're having." He watched the gentle sway of her hips as she walked down the long room to the kitchen area, skirting a glass-topped table with four chairs on the way. Really, there were much better ways for him and Caro to spend their morning than having the shire reeve grill her.

  Banning chose a wing chair by the loveseat. She glanced at Rick. "And you are...?"

  "A friend. Rick Moore." If the name rang a bell from the raid where he and Jason had been busted, she might say something about reporters that would blow his chance to make his pitch to Caro.

  Banning only nodded.

  Whew. He settled on the floral-printed loveseat.

  Caro returned and served the lemonade. Then she perched on the loveseat beside Rick, her hands folded in her lap.

  Banning said, "As part of assuming the shire reeve's duties, I'm looking at all the cold cases. Griffin Dare's is one of the most compelling."

  She paused, but Caro didn't react. Rick had never seen that lovely face of hers so blank.

  Banning continued, "I have to ask whether you've heard from your brother."

  "I have not." Caro clipped off the words. "Let me save you some time, shire reeve. I have not heard from Griffin or had any contact with him. I don't even know if he's still alive." Her voice quavered, but she firmed it again. "I have no idea where he is or what he's doing."

  "None at all?" Banning raised an eyebrow.

  "None."

  "No temptation for you or your parents to slip him some money, give him a place to hide?"

  Rick tensed. He needed to know that, too.

  Caro paled, but fiery red washed over her cheekbones. "If you truly think that could happen, Ms. Banning, you know nothing about my family. My father takes his oath as an officer of the court, in both our system and the Mundane one, seriously. He would never condone any of us hiding or helping Griffin."

  "Surely he would want to."

  "When that would make our whole family criminals? Not likely," Caro bit out. "My father would insist that Griffin turn himself in and appeal his conviction. As Dad has done with numerous clients in his career."

  A knot inside Rick eased. Her words, so obviously sincere, were the death knell of his story. Of his hope to clear his dad. Yet he was glad he wouldn't have to be the one who brought her brother down. Who hurt her that way.

  God, he'd gotten himself into a muddle.

  "With your brother already condemned, Ms. Dare, temptation would be understandable."

  Caro's fists clenched in her lap. A long moment later, she said evenly, "You're wrong about Griffin. All of you are. If he lives long enough, he'll prove it."

  Banning's face softened. An expression much like pity gleamed in her hazel eyes.

  "I'm sure you want to believe that," she said, rising, "but my job is to look at the evidence. Give me some that shows he's innocent, and I'll look at that, too. Meanwhile, I have to remind you that you're required to report it if you hear from him."

  Caro shrugged. She looked irritated, with the color still blazing in her cheeks and her eyes like slate.

  "I'll walk the shire reeve to the door," Rick told Caro.

  Despite her apparent composure, the references to her brother's possible execution had to be tearing her up. Whatever else Griffin was or wasn't, he'd been a good brother. Rick's throat tightened with longing to fix this.

  Not your job, dude.

  No, it sure as hell wasn't, but damn it, he wanted to anyway. Even though that meant his objectivity was in shreds. Hell, after what Caro had just said, not to mention what he'd learned from Jim Todd, his story was blown anyway.

  By the time he and Banning had crossed the twenty feet to the door, he couldn't keep his peace any longer. He could offer Caro something, at least.

  "If you want evidence, Ms. Banning, you should consider some things that have been shoved aside in the rush to judgment. Like Dare's record."

  Regret shadowed the shire reeve's face. "He was a hero, granted, but even heroes can flip."

  "I don't mean that." Rick waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. "Griffin Dare graduated sixth in his class at Wade Washburn High. He was quarterback of the football team, top overall scorer on the basketball team, and third board on the chess team–where he might've been first board if he hadn't spent so much time on art and sports. He earned a criminal justice degree magna cum laude from Georgia in two and a half years and was a rising star on the Savannah PD roster."

  He could see Caro from the corner of his eye. She'd gone pale again. Was he making things worse? He was committed to his course now.

  Banning shook her head. "We'll all agree he was a superb student-athlete," she said, her voice dry, "but that's not relevant."

  "In itself, no, but think about what it indicates." She frowned, and he plowed on. "The man knows how to read patterns. If he said Chief Councilor Al
thor was a traitor, he was very likely right. Besides, if he'd set out to assassinate the Chief Councilor, he wouldn't have done it in front of a room full of mages and armed reeves. He was too smart for that."

  Realization clicked in Banning's eyes. Rick had scored a point. But she shook her head.

  "I'd like to believe that," she said quietly. "I trained under him. But that's not the only charge against him, and while you draw a reasonable inference, it's not evidence." She paused. "I'm sorry."

  Banning walked out. Rick shut the door behind her. Caro still said nothing. Had he shot himself in the proverbial foot?

  Chapter Eleven

  Stunned, Caro listened to Rick reel off Griffin's accomplishments. Rick sounded earnest, as though he were truly trying to convince the shire reeve. Did he mean it? Or was he simply taking pity on her?

  He's only an outsider if you won't let him in. Could she risk it?

  "Sunshine? You okay?" He walked toward her, but she couldn't get any sense of him through her own roiling emotions.

  Nodding, she held out a hand to him. He took it in a warm grip and kissed it. For once, churned up inside as she was, she scarcely noticed.

  "You defended Griff." Saying it, acknowledging it, cracked the defensive wall she'd built around her heart. She drew a deep, shaky breath. "Did you mean it?"

  Opening her magical senses, she fought to focus, to see for herself. His hand gripped hers tightly. Honesty flowed from his touch as he said, "Every word. No matter what he did or didn't do, your brother got a raw deal, Sunshine."

  The crack widened. Her eyes teared. Caro choked out, "Why?"

  Rubbing her tears away with his thumbs, Rick said, "His conviction went against all the rules of our kind. Trial in his absence? A death sentence when he wasn't there to answer the charges? That's never been our way."

  "Dad tried to stop it, but he couldn't." Her chest hurt. She couldn't breathe. "You don't think–you don't want Griff to die."

  Rick drew her head down to his shoulder. "Four deputy reeves died trying to arrest him that day, and he's the prime suspect in three other deaths. Plus there's Althor, of course. Whether your brother's guilty of a crime, I don't know. But I see plenty of room to doubt."

  The wall crashed into pieces. Hope blazed in Caro's soul. She gasped and tightened her hold on Rick. This man she cared for so much was not her brother's enemy.

  "You defended him to the shire reeve," she repeated. "That could put you on her radar, and not in a good way."

  "Banning has bigger fish to fry." Rick stroked her hair.

  "Yeah." He was holding her closely, but it wasn't enough. It no longer had to be. If he could be fair to Griffin, to her family, she could give this thing between them a real chance.

  God, she wanted that.

  Caro sat up and tugged Rick's face around to hers. When she kissed him, surprise flared from him, then desire. He plunged his hands into her hair and deepened the kiss.

  Their tongues fenced. Their bodies pressed together. Their hands explored. He was solid, lean muscle, physically so much more powerful than she was, but she felt safe with him. Caro sighed and nibbled the strong column of his neck.

  Kissing under her chin, making her quiver, he cupped her breast in his palm.

  Heat lanced into the depths of her body. With a moan, she arched into his touch.

  Rick groaned. He dropped his hand to her waist and rested his forehead against hers. "Sunshine, if we're going to stop, this is the time."

  He sounded breathless, his voice rough with frustration and desire. She knew how that mix felt. Smiling, Caro caught his fingers and drew his hand back to her breast.

  A flash of need speared through her, and she gasped. Rick made an inarticulate sound as he captured her mouth.

  His fingers found her nipple through the cotton shirt, and Caro's brain blanked on a flash of hot pleasure. Arching up to his hand, she stroked her palm down his lean, firm back until she reached his jeans.

  She slid her fingers under the denim, caressing him, and gloried in the sudden jerk of his hips.

  "Hang on a sec," he said.

  Rick pushed himself up. Before she could stand, he scooped her off the couch. Caro looped her arms around his neck.

  "Where am I going?" he asked

  "Through the kitchen, then turn right."

  Rick strode away. Being carried felt weird but, in an odd way, sexy. "I could get used to this."

  "So could I." He punctuated the words with a light nip on her earlobe. Caro shuddered with pleasure.

  In her room, he sat her on the edge of her bed. Standing between her thighs, he kissed her again while working on her buttons.

  Caro found the hem of his shirt and tugged. He made an impatient sound, shrugged out of the shirt, then pushed the sides of her blouse apart. She ran her palms over solid pecs and a flat, segmented belly. When she scraped her fingernails through his dusting of golden brown chest hair, Rick shuddered.

  "Just so you know," he murmured in her ear, his breath teasing the sensitive canal and making her shiver, "Pink lace turns me on in a heartbeat. Especially when I get to take it off."

  He didn't yet, though. Instead, he unfastened her jeans, kissing her neck and sending quivery delight through her all the while.

  Caro's fingers traced the line of hair down the center of his belly until she found the snap on his jeans. A tug popped it open, but the zipper wouldn't budge.

  "Your fault," Rick said. "Let me." He nipped his way down her stomach before he straightened. A slide of denim signaled his pants going.

  "Shoes, too," Caro told him. "I want you naked."

  "Back atcha, Sunshine." He tugged off her shoes, then eased her back on the bed. In one smooth motion, he pulled her jeans and panties off.

  When she felt him lean over her, she caught his shoulders to draw him down to her. Running her palms over the sleek, hard muscles of his chest, she mapped them in her mind, savoring the feel of them. He was warm, smooth skin over hard muscle with that sexy dusting of chest hair to make it interesting.

  He rolled to bring her above him, kneading her breasts so that she gasped and arched into him while his mouth took a leisurely survey of her torso.

  "So damn beautiful," he muttered, and the words lodged in her heart.

  Straddling him, she slid her open mouth over the hard plane of his pec and found the flat, tan nipple. When she flicked it with her tongue, Rick made a choked noise. His hands tightened on her shoulders.

  Caro scraped the tiny, hard bud with her teeth, drawing a groan from him, and then licked her way to the other one. She stroked her palm down those hard abs, reveling in the way they tensed and released at her touch, and found his erection.

  When she wrapped her fingers around it, Rick's hips jerked. "Too fast," he ground out, rolling to bring her under him again.

  He kissed her quickly before he slid down to press his mouth into the vee of her thighs.

  She cried out at the pleasure of his lips and tongue moving on her sensitive flesh. Needing something to cling to, she caught his head as he sent her rocketing into a spiral of pleasure and craving.

  The spiral tightened. Her hips moved against his mouth. He slid a finger into her, and she shuddered.

  Close. She was so close...

  Rick slipped a second finger into her and flicked his tongue over the sensitive bud between her legs. The spiral exploded. Caro cried out as the world went brilliant red, then purple, then black.

  Panting, she struggled back to awareness. She'd never come so fast. How had he done that?

  Rick knelt between her thighs. When she moved, his fingers stroked her bared breasts. He'd removed her bra, and she hadn't even known it.

  She arched into his hands, wanting more, and whispered his name.

  His sigh brushed her sensitized flesh before he planted a kiss on her belly. "Hey there, Sunshine." He kissed the same place again. "Don't move."

  Since she still felt as limp as overcooked pasta, she didn't argue. His mouth on
her skin, his hands on her breasts, stirred a new wave of need within her.

  The bed shifted with his weight as he rose over her and braced himself on his arms. "I'm wearing a condom, so you know."

  "Thanks." Mages didn't get sexually transmitted diseases, but unplanned pregnancy was still a risk.

  His wet, warm tongue flicked her nipple. Caro caught his shoulders as her back bowed, pushing her breasts toward him. His big body pressed down on her, heavy in a good way.

  His chest hair teased her nipples. Rick tipped her head back and licked the sensitive skin under her jaw.

  Caro's hips rocked upward. She ran her hands down his ass to tug him toward her.

  "Not yet," he murmured. Then his mouth covered her left breast. Rick suckled hard, and she felt the pull through her entire body.

  Caro thrashed under him. "Now," she panted. "Rick, I need y–"

  "I need you, too." With one smooth, hard stroke, he filled her.

  Caro lifted her hips, drawing him fully into her. "Yes," she managed to say against the sensual tide blurring her brain. "Yes, Rick."

  He groaned. "Caro. My Sunshine."

  Slowly, he began to move, withdrawing, thrusting, building a rhythm that possessed them both. The magic they shared swirled around them, and she knew he reveled in this as much as she did.

  His muscles flexed under her hands. With each inward stroke, his entire body rubbed over hers.

  It was too much, yet not enough. Caro locked her legs around his waist.

  "Damn, that's good," he muttered, and thrust hard.

  She lifted to meet him. To speed him up. She was on the edge. So was he.

  "Rick," she whimpered, thrashing.

  "I know," he gritted out. He withdrew slowly, plunged in hard. Did it again.

  The world narrowed to the melding of their bodies, to his movements. Close, so–

  The next thrust burst the tension inside her, flooding her with heat. Rick shuddered above her, his hips pumping with his climax.

  When Caro surfaced, his rough breathing brushed her neck. His heartbeat thundered in time with hers. She locked her arms around him and caressed his hair.