“Go ahead.” Allana held her arms out. “Shoot me. I need to die. That’s what you’re feeling, isn’t it? Can’t have the Confessor’s daughter running around free. That family is evil.”
“No.” He shook his head. “No, of course not. I would never hurt you.” Not me. But Verity, yes.
She dropped her arms. “Then, what? What now? I’ve lied to you, how can you ever trust me?”
“Right now, we need to escape. Because Verity will kill you if they get the chance.”
“We’ll never get out of here. This place is in the middle of nowhere.”
“We’ll manage. As long as we’re together, we’ll be okay.”
She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek and warmth spread throughout his body.
“Why Maddox, that sounded almost romantic,” she whispered.
“I can be romantic.” He straightened. “I care about you, Allana.”
She stared at him then looked at the ground. “I guess now is not the time, but I care about you too.”
“Definitely not the time now. I wish it were. But soon. I promise.” He rubbed her cheek. “And I keep my promises, too.”
She smiled, and then scowled. “I had to kill my father. He was a monster.”
“I know. It’s okay. It’s done.”
She heaved a sigh. “And I’m glad. After what he did to me and my family.”
“It’s okay.” He hugged her to him. “It’s going to be okay. But we’ve got to get out of here before everyone wakes up.”
“Yeah.”
“Looks like you took out most of the camp. Guess they trained you well.”
“The best.” This time, the smile reached her eyes.
“You are. Now let’s put that skill to the test. First, we need to get rid of these.” He popped his wrist screen off. “We aren’t going to be using them and we don’t want Verity to track us, either.”
She yanked hers loose and dropped the little square to the ground. “Smart thinking. To be honest, I’m glad to be done with that screen.”
He tossed his beside hers then stomped on both. Feeling the screens that had been his lifeline to Verity—his connection to everything—crush beneath his foot was liberating. And frightening. Whatever happened now, they were on their own. Verity had no link to them any more. They were free. “We’ve got to get away from here now.”
She wiped at the rain. “Escape Verity? To where? I’m not going back to the city.”
Maddox adjusted his pack and stuck his Lancer into his boot. “We have some rations left, and the water purifier bottle. Let’s just go—get as far from here as we can. See where the roads lead us. We can worry about a long-term plan tomorrow.”
“How? We can’t walk that far. I’m already tired, and Verity will catch up to us quickly.”
“No, they won’t.” Maddox grinned. “I know just the thing to get us out of here. You’ve got to trust me, remember?”
7
The warm wind and rain rushed into his face like a curtain, but he drove on. Allana held him around the waist, laying her head on his back as they rode; the vibration of the bike had lulled her to sleep. The scoot cycle had a long range on a single charge, thankfully. They’d been riding for a few hours along a fractured stretch of highway that hadn’t been used in fifty years. Crackly weeds had grown through the cracks in the pale pavement and they slapped at his legs as he maneuvered around them, sometimes having to slow to almost a crawl to get around debris. Mostly, though, the ride had been smooth.
And invigorating.
And no sign of Verity following them.
Allana slept, her warmth a comfortable weight against his back. They had to be more than a hundred miles from the city, and there wasn’t a person in sight. The rain was intermittent and the ground around him looked like it wasn’t always wet. Patches of dry land spread out along the land in increasingly larger areas.
They might actually escape. The thought both thrilled and scared him. He pulled the throttle and opened up the scootcycle to push the bike to go faster. The terrain changed to rolling green hills with patchy lakes and huge twisted trees. Old barns and houses scattered the landscape. Some looked as they must have before the city war, and some crumbled under the rain. He and Allana had nowhere to go, nowhere to be. How would she feel about that when she woke up? Would she be scared, too? Would she leave him too? She’d already lied to him. Bile crept up his throat and he swallowed it down.
No.
He had to trust that she would stay with him, that they had something together that they would build on. Being the Confessor’s daughter was not her fault. She was nothing like that evil man. Would he have killed the Confessor if he were his own father? Maybe so. Evil ran deeper than bloodlines.
The road curved and bent, taking them into the foothills. The road was in better shape and he was able to push the bike harder. Once the charge ran out, it’d be useless. He needed to find a place to stop for the night soon.
Maddox wasn’t sure when he realized it, but the rain stopped. It had gradually gotten lighter and now it was gone completely. He pulled the bike off the main road and drove into the remains of a small town in a secluded valley. He took a deep breath of the fresh, dry air.
Allana must have noticed the change in terrain under the bike because she sat up. In the rearview, he saw her push her hair, now dry, out of her face.
“Where are we?” She hugged him from behind.
He shouted, “I’m not sure, but we need to find a place to stay the night and figure out what we’re going to do tomorrow.” He eased off the throttle even more, till they were barely rolling through what must’ve once been the town’s Main Street. Quaint but dilapidated homes lined the street, the yards overtaken by weeds and overgrowth. The Confessor had rounded up all the people within two hundred fifty miles and brought them to the city after the war. The houses were left to rot.
“Let’s try one of those houses over there.” Allana pointed and Maddox directed the bike over, driving into the tall grass in front of a two-story home that looked more well preserved than most.
Once grand, the house’s blue paint peeled and chalked and several of the windows had been smashed out. Who knew how long ago the last person had lived here? When everyone was relocated to cities, no one was allowed to stay, though a few people escaped into the hills. Ghost towns like this one were all over the deserted farmlands.
“This one okay?” he asked.
“Perfect.”
He turned the scootcycle off, grabbed his pack from the back and set the stand.
“Maddox?”
“Yeah?”
“It’s not raining.” She hopped off the bike and held her arms up.
“I know.” He grinned.
“Oh, my god! It’s not raining!” She twirled, arms out and shouted, “It’s not raining!”
Maddox laughed. “I guess the rainmakers are only over the city and the vicinity.”
“I can’t believe it! I never thought I’d be outside without rain!” She put her arms around his neck and hugged. “If we die today, I die happy.”
He held her close. “Shh. No talking like that. You aren’t going to die today.”
“Let’s go inside.” She looked up at him. “I’m tired. I’m ready for bed.”
“You are? You took a nap.”
“Yes.” She smiled. “And I haven’t forgotten.”
“Forgotten?”
She leaned in close and whispered, “What I promised you. To fuck you hard.”
His dick twitched. “You still want me?” He couldn’t help the stupid grin that tugged at his face. After all they’d been through, he wanted her even more than he had the day before.
“Oh yes, and I don’t want to wait any longer.” She dashed up to the porch. “So let’s go.”
Maddox followed. Yes, they had lots to discuss, but right now, he needed to feel her under him. Fuck her like she was his. Make her his.
She pushed at the door and it jolted open. No
t even locked. She ran inside.
He stepped over the threshold and turned to look out the doorway. No sign of anyone, not Verity, not Sentinels. No one. The tall grasses concealed the scootcycle, so no one would even know they were in the house. For the moment, they were safe.
“Up here…” Allana called.
He turned to look up the stairwell. She stood at the top, completely naked in the half-light. He growled and slammed the door shut, flipping the deadbolt.
She laughed and held up a square packet. “I’m ready this time. If you are.” She dashed into the nearest room.
He raced up the stairs, wondering how he’d gotten so caught up with her in just a couple days. So much that he’d turned on Verity. No, Verity had turned on them. And she’d flipped his world upside down in more ways than one.
He peeked into the room. Light from the window illuminated the small bedroom. Allana lay sprawled across the bed on her stomach, her bare ass tipped up at the right angle…
On her in seconds, his clothes shed in record time, he lay over her back, his dick resting in the crevice of her ass. She pushed back against him and he leaned in and kissed the nape of her neck. He rolled off and stroked her back, softly. No reason to rush. They had all night.
Hopefully many nights.
“That feels so good,” she said.
“I want you,” he murmured. “So badly.”
“Even after I lied to you?” She sat up and looked him in the eye. “I didn’t want to lie, but I had to. For the job. For Verity.”
“I know.” He scooted closer, his dick pointing at the ceiling. “I understand.”
She rubbed his arm, her breasts sweeping across him. “Can you ever forgive me? I’m so sorry.”
“Already done.” He spun her to face him.
“They have the information I got.” She sighed. “They’ll use it to take over the city.”
“What was in the files?”
“I don’t know. I dumped all the data I could. But I’m guessing everything the Confessor needed to keep a tight grip on the city is on the microdisk I turned over to them.”
“Verity will be hard to stop.”
“But we’ve got to try.” She pushed her hair behind her ears. “Don’t we?”
“We do.” He nodded. “For Meera, and everyone like her. And for us. For all the city residents. But not tonight.”
“Not tonight.”
“Tonight, I’m ready for you to keep your promise.”
She smiled. “I’m ready and willing.”
He pulled her to him, the warmth of her skin sending shivers through his body. He kissed her, gently at first then more strongly as he moved his hands up and down her back, reveling in the smoothness of her skin and the softness of her curves. He squeezed her hips.
She moaned and he laid her back on the bed. God, she was beautiful.
“Are you ready?” He opened the packet and rolled on the condom.
“You’d think Verity would have made a better condom.” She giggled.
“Well, it disintegrates within two weeks.”
“We’re going to run out.” She laughed.
“Don’t worry about it now.”
She nodded and held her arms out to him. He lay over her, positioning his dick at her entrance and pushing in slowly.
She opened to him with a gasp and he moved deeper. So hot. So wet.
“Maddox, that feels so good.”
He couldn’t respond with his mouth, so he moved his hips, making love to her. When she put her legs up over his shoulders, he growled and moved faster. Her whimpering told him she was close to release and he reached between them to rub her clit. A few strokes and she was coming, hard.
He followed, closing his eyes and riding the passion as he felt her unravel beneath him. He wanted her with him forever, and he realized he’d do anything to make that a reality.
No matter what it took.
After exploring the house, Maddox was reassured it was a safe place to spend the night as long as they locked everything up before they went to sleep. Still no sign of anyone in the town. They could use the biolumen lights in his pack, but would need to cover the windows so no one would see the light—in the unlikely event anyone happened by. He leaned against the counter in the old kitchen. Whoever had owned the house had most likely planned to return. The Confessor had made all sorts of promises to get people to comply. Everything was put away and stored in good shape. The food in the pantry was way past expiration, but a small garden in the backyard had grown wild and contained a few vegetables they could harvest.
“Maddox come out here,” Allana called from the porch. “You’ve got to see this.”
He headed out to join her. When he pushed the screen door open, she grabbed him by the hand and pulled him outside. “Look!” She pointed up.
He craned his neck to look up and around at the millions of stars bright against the night sky.
“Have you ever seen such a thing?” She slid her hand into his. “I’d only read about so many stars. I don’t know if I ever really believed there were so many. Beautiful!”
“Yeah, we were lucky to see a handful all season in the city.”
She squeezed his hand. “It’s like a new world out here, almost enough to make me believe that we have a chance to escape and start a new life. And one day we’ll take on Verity.”
Maddox squeezed her shoulders. “We do have a chance. A good one. We’ll live out here beyond the city’s perimeter, and hope that Verity has better things to do than come looking for us. When they least expect it, we’ll take them on.”
“Sounds like the adventure of a lifetime.”
“It is.” He hugged her to him. Our adventure.
“And we’ll be together?”
“Always.”
“Good.” She sighed against him. “So, is this how it was…before?”
“Before what?”
“Before the rain. Did the people get to see stars every night?”
“Definitely. And they made wishes on them.”
She looked at him like he was crazy. “Really?”
“Yeah. People wished on stars.”
“Let’s do it!”
“Well usually, they wished on the first one they saw in the night sky.” He brushed a wisp of hair away from her face.
“We can wish. It’s the first time we’ve seen a sky full.”
“True. What will you wish for?”
She closed her eyes. “I’m not telling.”
He laughed and closed his eyes. “Me either.” I wish for a long and happy life with Allana.
“Do you think we’ll make it out here alone, so far from the city and from Verity?” She put her arms around his neck.
“Yes, we will.” Maddox looked down at her. “And we aren’t alone. We have each other.”
He bent his head and leaned into the first kiss they’d ever had under a starry sky.
* * *
The End
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Kerry Adrienne writes in many genres. From shifters to science fiction, witches to monsters, she loves to write it all. In addition to writing, she loves music, especially Green Day and Marilyn Manson. Live music really makes her happy and so does driving her convertible, top down, music loud. She’s also a proud nerd, cat mom, and homeschooler. To say she stays busy would be an understatement, but she wouldn’t have it any other way.
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Charmed and Dangerous
Debbie Herbert
Charmed and Dangerous © 2016 Debbie Herbert
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means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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CHARMED AND DANGEROUS
Apples and oranges, dogs and cats, everybody knows witches and immortals don’t mix.
* * *
Teen witch Callie returns home from exile after a traumatic Ouija board incident seven years earlier. She falls for classmate James MacLauren and struggles to keep her magical abilities a secret from him. Then there’s the even trickier problem that her rogue warlock father and his coven will kill anyone who prevents Callie from joining them in dark magic. Someone like James . . .
But James has a secret of his own. He’s part of a hidden race of immortals living in the Appalachian hollows and the last thing he needs in his life is a witch who could imprison him with a binding spell. Besides, Callie is way too young. Even though James looks eternally 19 years old, he has lived over 150 years and once served in the U.S. Civil War.
On top of everything else, Callie must find a way to overcome the instinctual hostility between immortals and witches in order to access James’ guarded heart. Only then can they join forces to stop Callie’s father in his efforts to seek dominion over all witches and immortals. Should they fail, they face either death or utter domination by the power of dark magic.
Wicked Legends: A Dystopian Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Collection Page 51