Aftershocks

by Marie Harte

  “The bottom line is that part of you is Djinn too. What happens in Tanselm concerns you as well.”

  She shook her head. She’d been over this with him, with her father, hell, even with Cadmus.

  “Fine.” Jonas blew out a breath. “Be as stubborn as you like. But you’re not done with the Earth Lord yet.” He grabbed her arm and they shimmered through space. Ellie didn’t quite know how he did it, but Jonas enveloped them in a wave of black energy, like moving through the murky warmth of a bath in the dark. Pleasant but cloying, and a bit off-putting to find oneself in another place altogether.

  In a heartbeat, she stood in the middle of her small apartment in Queen Anne with Jonas, and they weren’t alone.

  Cadmus stared at Ellie Markham, aware of the hunger that once more pulsed through his body. He smiled broadly, more than amused at her shock that quickly turned to anger. Her brilliant blue eyes that he couldn’t seem to forget narrowed, like twin beams of sapphire. Her breasts heaved, making his mouth water and his fingers itch to touch. Hell. Two seconds in her presence and already he wanted to taste her, to take her.

  “What the hell is he doing here?” she growled at Jonas.

  “Things got a little too…interesting in Foreia.”

  “He means I pissed off one too many Djinn,” Cadmus explained, pleased at Ellie’s ferocity. Damn but he’d missed her, more than he’d thought he would.

  “So why bring him here?”

  She still hadn’t asked him a direct question, but he didn’t mind. He’d have his hands full as soon as she realised he meant to stay with her for the foreseeable future. Though screwing with the Djinn had been entertaining, if not smart, Cadmus knew he’d pushed the Darklings too far. Had Jonas not been present to teleport him out of Foreia into this plane, Cadmus had no doubt he’d be lucky to be alive. Yet his pranks and insults only reinforced how devoted the damned Sarqua Djinn were to their Dark Mistress. Like Jonas, the Djinn he’d spent time with were loyal to Lexa, and just as unforgiving.

  Jonas sighed. “I can’t take him to his place.” He frowned at Cadmus.

  Good. About time the Dark one felt some of the irritation he’d been causing Cadmus for the past few weeks. “The Netharat is swarming around his house. And as much as he’d like to return to Tanselm, Arim won’t let him back until he’s got an affai.”

  Cadmus didn’t bother to stifle a grimace at mention of a bride. Jonas knew how much he detested the thought of marriage, and Cadmus had made his views known to Ellie all too well. His amusement vanished. He’d told her about his brothers and their affai under her Dark influence.

  Clearly sensing his irritation, she turned her back on him, as if by not looking at him he might disappear. He forced a chuckle, drawing her reluctant gaze. “Nice try, honey. You don’t have to look at me if you don’t want to. But I’ll be right here for the next few…what, Jonas? Weeks, months?”

  Ellie stared, horrified, from him to Jonas and back again. When her eyes met his, he thought he detected a hint of fear and wondered at its source. For the short duration he and Ellie had been together, fear had never been one of their shared emotions. Lust, anger, need, those they knew intimately. His gaze wandered down her womanly curves.

  “Look,” she said between clenched teeth, her hands fisted aggressively in what gave him a perverse sense of satisfaction. “I did what was asked of me. I told you, I have a life to return to.”

  “Me too, Ellie.” Cadmus sank onto her comfortable leather couch and crossed his arms behind his head, propping his feet up on her coffee table. “But thankfully, time passes much more slowly at home. So I could be here another year and it would only be a month or two in Tanselm, right Jonas?”

  He couldn’t help the pleasure he felt out of irritating the male Djinn. It was obvious Jonas didn’t like Cadmus staying with Ellie, and Cadmus had to wonder what Jonas really knew of their involvement. Glancing from Jonas to Ellie, he decided to put it to a test.

  “It’s funny you’re so upset with me being here, Ellie.” He gave her a sly grin, noting her sudden alarm. “The last time I was here we seemed to really hit it off.” And he couldn’t wait until they hit it off again.

  “Not one word or I’ll personally invite ‘Sin Garu to flame your ass while you sleep.” Ellie’s words filtered into his mind, and that deep thrill of connection startled him for a moment.

  “Ah, Ellie. If you really knew how terrible that sorcerer is, you’d never threaten me. I don’t think you could live with yourself if you hurt any portion of my perfect ass.”

  She glared but didn’t reply. Though not telepathic like his brother Darius, Cadmus had been able to share thoughts with Ellie since the first night they’d slept together. Whether it was a Djinn thing or some wacky skill he was just now coming to possess, courtesy of his scarily powerful mother, he didn’t yet know.

  Jonas crossed his arms over his chest and fumed at Cadmus. “What exactly does ‘hit it off’ mean?”

  Cadmus looked to Ellie. “I’ll keep quiet if you welcome me properly.”

  She gritted her teeth so hard he was surprised she didn’t crack her jaw. Funny how his infamous sense of humour was returning the longer he was in her presence. He knew his brothers had sensed his despair these last weeks. Reunited with Ellie, however, and his bad mood vanished. Needling her was even more fun than irritating Marcus, his arrogant older brother—older by all of two minutes.

  “We were friends once,” Ellie explained with a false smile. “I’m sorry for my temper, Cadmus.” She clasped her hands in front of her, to resist from throttling him, he assumed. “It’s been a long day, and I’m going to miss working at Outpour.”

  The little liar. He smirked and held back a laugh when her blue eyes fairly sizzled.

  “You are?” Jonas didn’t sound convinced. He kept staring from Ellie to Cadmus, as if waiting to see something between them.

  “I am. And I really am glad to see you again, Cadmus.” “You stupid, self-righteous Light Bringer.” “You’re welcome to stay as long as you like.” “You’re out of here as soon as I can make it happen.” “And I hope you’ll be comfortable.” “Bastard.”

  He scratched his chest and nodded. “I’m glad we can catch up. Jonas, don’t you have some place to be?”

  The Djinn scowled, his expression causing him to physically darken. Cadmus was entranced. Despite having seen the Djinn in truth more times than he could count in the past few weeks, a Djinn’s natural state never failed to instil awe. Jonas’ golden skin glowed brighter and brighter, until all that remained was a mass of energy with the outline of a man’s face. Eclipsing much of his brightness lay an aura, a visible and ever-present black flame, over his entire body. The dark fire licked at the shadows in Ellie’s small apartment.

  “What the hell are you looking at, Light Bringer?” Jonas snapped and deliberately turned to Ellie. “Keep an eye on him, from a distance. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He glared at Cadmus. “You treat her with the respect she deserves. Behave, Earth Lord.” He grinned with evil intent. “Or I’ll bring my brothers back to play with you again, and this time I won’t save your sorry ass.”

  “She’d never allow it.” Cadmus shrugged, as if unconcerned. His disinterest made Jonas’ skin glow brighter under the outline of black flame.

  “There’s a lot you don’t know about her. If you play your cards right, you won’t learn her rules the hard way.” Muttering under his breath, Jonas nodded to Ellie and then vanished.

  After a few tense moments of silence, Ellie cleared her throat and met Cadmus’ gaze. “Who is ‘she’?”

  “I’ve been sworn to silence. Ask your cousin, if that’s who he really is. Talk about a secretive bunch. You Djinn take the cake.” Cadmus looked quite amused with himself, and as much as she wanted to throw him out on his ass and never see him again, that hint of boyish humour began to melt the ice which froze her affections.

  Sensing it wouldn’t be wise to allow Cadmus back into her wounded heart, she hardened
it against him. “Yeah, we Djinn really take the cake.” She yanked his dirty work boots off her coffee table. “Let’s get something straight, Your Highness.” She leaned over him to poke him in the chest. Pleased when his smile disappeared, she continued, “You’ve got more Darkness inside you than I’ve ever had, so cut the crap. You need a place to crash, and apparently I’m the only game in town. Keep yourself out of my business and you can stay. I’ve got things to do with my life. Things that don’t involve Tanselm and Storm Lords and freakin’ Djinn.”

  He stared at her, his brown eyes so deep she could drown in them. She could almost hear him thinking and purposefully strengthened her mental defences.

  For years, she’d tried to live a normal life. No magic, no Dark versus Light, and no Dark Lords and their minion Netharat threatening death and dismemberment. But within a short span of time, she’d become involved in a life full of magic, excitement and bitter heartache.

  She’d be damned if she’d let Cadmus—a royal Light Bringer—see how much he’d hurt her with his prejudices, his casual sex and his meaningless compliments. What an utter asshole. She didn’t prevent that thought from leaking to him.

  He shook his head and sighed. “What did I do now, Ellie?”

  “Nothing. Just keep it that way.” Storming from the room, she entered the only bedroom and slammed the door behind her. It was going to be a long night.

  Chapter Two

  The next few days passed slowly for Ellie. At ends now that she’d finished her job at Outpour, she created things to do that would keep her out of her apartment until late at night when she’d stumble into bed. She’d spent Sunday hiking up in Snoqualmie, Monday hanging around her mother and visiting with friends, catching up on what she’d missed the past six months at the university. Yesterday, she’d walked until her legs felt like they’d fall off, window-shopping downtown and through Pike’s Place market. She’d visited her mother again, seen a movie, bought and read a book…

  Staying busy was hell. She wanted to relax, to use this downtime to recuperate from her nightmarish stint as a bartender. The money had been great, but the hours had started to suck her back into a place she didn’t want to go—Dark.

  Due to her heritage as a Djinn, Ellie thrived at night. She could tolerate the sun well enough, but her body and soul flourished during the dark hours. Yet another black mark against Cadmus. Taking the job at Outpour had thrown her entire chemistry out of whack. She’d spent the last three nights staring at the ceiling, still not used to sleeping in the early a.m.

  Those damn Storm Lords. They should have stayed in Tanselm, in a parallel world humans had no idea existed. Were it not for their unwelcome presence in this place, in her world, Ellie would even now be sleeping peacefully, resting up for her job teaching English 101 at the university. A job currently taken by Jane Rascoll, that miserable suck-up.

  As if losing the teaching position to Jane weren’t bad enough, Ellie’s nights had been restless with erotic thoughts, memories and fantasies of the Earth Lord who’d broken her heart. She couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep—all because of him. Sighing at the expectation of another long, uneventful day, she stared at the ancient ceiling light, aware that one bulb needed replacing. Right on that thought trailed the question of what she’d do today to avoid Cadmus.

  Her door crashed open, interrupting her troubled mind.

  “That’s it.” Cadmus, wearing a pair of low-slung denims and nothing else, stalked into her room and stopped at the foot of her bed. His eyes were a dark brown, mirroring his irritation. On Cadmus, annoyance looked too damn tempting. He breathed in deeply and drew her gaze to his sculpted chest. She swallowed audibly, blinking up at him. Had any man ever looked so fine? He could have posed for any fitness magazine, or better yet, for designer underwear, showcasing those tight, smooth abs and rock-hard thighs.

  A sucker for a muscular body, she was having a hard time hanging onto her mad as she stared at him.

  “It’s been three days. I’m going out of my mind with boredom.” He held up a hand to stop her reply. “Not your problem, I know. But until I’m back at home, I’m making it your problem.” Breathing hard, Cadmus let his gaze trail down her face to linger on the hollow of her throat, where her pulse wouldn’t stop racing. “I’m open to suggestions,” he murmured, drawing nearer. “Maybe we could work off some of my energy together.”

  She scrambled to a sitting position, not wanting to be prone with Cadmus anywhere near. “Hold it! I agreed to let you stay here, but that’s all I’m agreeing to. What the hell did you do that they kicked you out of Foreia, anyway?”

  He flushed, and she waited, more than curious.

  “I got a little rough with Jonas’ brothers.”

  She frowned. “Jonas doesn’t have any brothers.”

  “Well, that’s what he called those giants he pals around with in Foreia.”

  “Oh, the other warriors.” Jonas had no siblings, but he did have several cousins. She was his favourite, and the feeling was mutual. But from what he’d told her about his fellow Djinn warriors, the bond between them was unbreakable. The rebel Djinn acted like family, and she could only imagine what Cadmus had done to interrupt that.

  “Was it a woman?” she asked wryly, having no problem believing that.

  He scowled. “No. I’m not into Dark—ah,” he stumbled, picking up right where they’d left off.

  “Go on,” she said coolly. “You’re not into Dark, evil Djinn. Women like me, hmm?”

  He ran a hand through his hair, the action showcasing the corded muscle of his biceps. “That’s not what I was going to say. The few women I met in Foreia were Djinn warriors. The only thing those women were selling was anger, and all directed my way.”

  “Poor Cadmus.” Ellie chuckled, pleased when his eyes narrowed. “So much Earth Lord and no one to share him with. You should have just stayed in Seattle where you could have screwed as many human women as possible. I think Beth’s still pining for you at the club. Maybe you should look her up.”

  He said nothing, staring at her with a quiet intensity she found more than unnerving.

  “What?” she snapped, crossing her arms over her breasts, thinly clad in her nightshirt.

  He smiled, the expression not reaching his eyes. “You seem awfully interested in my sex life for a woman who’s gone out of her way to avoid me. Could it be you’re afraid of what’s between us?”

  Fury filled her, pushing aside her fear that he was right. Ellie pushed off the bed and clenched her hands into fists, barely refraining from socking him in the mouth. She didn’t stop moving until she stood within punching distance.

  “Afraid? If anything, I’m afraid I’ll forget why I got involved in this in the first place and throw you out on your fat, conceited head. I’m avoiding you because I can’t stand being cooped up with a man who’s made no bones about his distaste for ‘my kind’. I still have trouble believing you may one day be king.” She poked him hard in the chest, glad for the anger that darkened his face. “After all the Djinn have done for you, if you do become overking, you’d better not forget them.” She forgot for the moment that she had no interest in Djinn affairs. “Jonas and my father put their lives on the line for you, as have the others. So try to have a bit of princely decorum when you get back. Recognise their efforts at least, even if they are just, and I quote, ‘unclean, Dark deviants’.”

  He stared at her in silence, and she wondered if she’d gone too far. But when he replied, he spoke calmly, his voice husky with apology. “I said those things to you in anger, and for that I apologise. I certainly never meant that you were any of that. The Djinn I’ve met since being stuck with Jonas are different from what I’m used to. I can’t—I won’t—in good conscience ever call them evil or unclean.” He cleared his throat. “When you first confessed what you were—”

  “Who I was helping,” she corrected.

  “—okay, who you were helping, I felt betrayed. I trusted you, Ellie. I told you things I’d never
told anyone else, only to find I’d given vital information on the Storm Lords to the enemy. To a woman I thought was the enemy,” he amended before she could protest her allegiance once more.

  She squirmed under his regard, knowing he’d had every right to distrust her. She’d done a favour for her father and, in his defence, what would be best for Foreia and the Storm Lords in the long run. But Cadmus only knew he’d confided in Ellie Markham, a human woman who smiled and talked with him.

  “It was a bit more than smiling and talking.” Cadmus reached up to caress her cheek, reading the stray thought. “I’m sure your father never asked you to go so far distracting me.”

  She inhaled sharply when his finger grazed her lower lip. “Ethim il Ruethe would no more allow his daughter to touch a Light Bringer than make love to one. Cadmus, stop touching me.”

  “No, Ellie. Don’t forget what we once shared. I don’t.”

  Before she could protest again, he kissed her. Possession. Inhumanly hot, dark possession. She could barely think as he buried her in feeling. His hands clenched her shoulders, spearing through her thin nightshirt so she could feel his callused palms as if on her naked flesh. Her breasts pushed against him, her nipples prodding through cotton to feel the hard wall of muscle under sprigs of dark, silky chest hair.

  “By the Light, Ellie,” Cadmus breathed as he pulled from her lips to stare down at her. “I can’t stop thinking about this. About you,” he admitted and kissed the curve of her cheek.

  His hands slid down her shoulders, caressing and stroking before moving towards her breasts. Ellie wanted to stop him, but he found her nipples and toyed with them until she could barely think.

  She could feel his erection straining at his jeans. With every squeeze, every touch of his lips and tongue, he thrust against her, his urgency increasing. She gripped his thick hair to hold him close. Slanting her mouth under his, she slowly took control of the kiss, causing him to groan her name.

  “Ellie, baby, more,” he gasped when her mouth left his to trail down his throat.