“Are you jealous?”
She glared at the light dancing in his eyes.
“All right, all right! Save the dagger like stares. I haven’t actually participated but I know it is done. Many religious traditions try to transform sexual energy into creativity with the hope of facilitating a mystical awakening. They call it sexual sublimation or sex magic. It is simply transforming the crude sexual energy into a carrier of the spiritual essence.”
“I am familiar with sex magic from some of my research. It can be used in spells. Witches visualize their desired result, hoping the energy produced through the sexual union will manifest what they want.”
“Exactly. So, we have accomplished our task, and you should be very proud of yourself. You endured a lot.” He lowered his forehead to hers and shook his head back and forth ever so slightly, letting his own skin brush briefly over hers with each pass.
So, it is truly over? The portal is cleared?” she asked, just needing to hear him say it again.
“It is. We did it.”
“So, the Mastema?”
“In the next hundred years or so they will see themselves as failure. The demons they summoned are gone. The evil energy they lived off of is cleared. Since they have no real power, whatever they do, whatever ritual, it won’t work.”
“Oh, I want to think on this, picture their faces of defeat in my mind,” she said with a laugh, only his face hadn’t changed from very serious and somber, his jaw tense and his eyes dark.
“So, what is bothering you now?” She knew, but she wanted him to lead the way for what was to come next.
“This could be our last night together. These could be our last moments together. We must let go and live as if this moment is our last, because it very well could be.”
She nodded her head almost imperceptivity, allowing it to push gently against his to indicate her agreement. She held her breath, urging him desperately with her mind to kiss her as she pulled up on her toes to reach his mouth. When his lips connected with hers, some of the darkness beginning to flicker inside of her was doused with light. His energy poured into her, making her feel free again. She welcomed the necessary magic from this stranger who owned her whole heart. Releasing his hands, she let hers roam to his face. Pulling him deeper into the kiss, she took from him like a hungry animal, desperate and wild until all of her unfavorable thoughts were silenced.
Advancing her lips against his, not able to get enough, she forced her tongue through his lips. His hands grasped her back, crushing her in a fierce embrace. She moaned her approval. In this moment, he felt like a solid wall she could cling to. Her body cried out to be touched, and abruptly she found his hands were on her hips.
“I want you right now more than I can explain.” He sighed out a jagged breath, “But I have to hear you say it, even if it is the last time. I have to hear the words. Tell me how you feel about me.”
His shaking fingers brushed gingerly over her lips, and she sighed. He was so close to her she could feel the heat of his body through her clothes. Their breath blew out in succession, repeating a pattern that played out their desires.
“I love you.” Her feet left the ground, and she wrapped them around his waist as she was lifted up. She kissed him despite the huge smile he had on his face. The kiss was broken by the sensation of falling, and she realized they were falling back onto the bed. Her feet hit mattress as she remained straddling his lap. Using her arms as leverage, she thrust her damp sex into his groin. His groan was feral, hushed only by her mouth finding his again. His denim-covered cock pressed its hard length up along her folds.
“I love you, too.”
“I have to have you.” She clutched for him frantically, feeling for the button and zipper on his jeans. The bulge under her hands made her stomach quiver.
He met her intent by rolling her off of him. The same time her back hit the cool, crisp sheets, he was pulling at the waist of her skirt.
She felt the slight tickle of his fingers on her mound. Instinct had her pushing up against him. His hands moved in a frenzy to undress her, which blew on the flames within. She reached out her hands to touch him, but he brushed them aside.
“Let me.”
She knew he hadn’t meant to sound harsh. She was sure he felt like she did, like they were racing a clock to get him inside of her. When his hands followed the departure of cloth from her body, there was a second of delirium where she felt empty, even in spots where his touch had only ventured for the briefest instant. She sat up to help him in the removal of her shirt.
A welcome distraction, she watched as he ripped his clothes from his body. Once the shirt flew and his pants were kicked aside, there was a pause that left her holding her breath in anticipation.
“Lie back,” he instructed, suddenly calm. When she did so, he continued, “You are exquisite. I will always remember you just like this.”
His fingers grazed her again. Down over one nipple, then down over her stomach until the digits met with her core again. He slid his hand along her moist folds, increasing the pressure as he went. She let her legs fall to the sides, allowing him free access not only to her body, but to her heart and soul as well.
When his fingers easily slipped inside her, he said, “Confirmation you do want me.”
She would have answered but he leapt up onto her, letting his wet fingers slide up her stomach as his mouth met hers again. The brief brush of his lips left a whisper of sensation awakening a deep longing, contracting the opening he had left vacant. She shoved away the soon to be symbolic feeling. When his lips stilled against hers, this was her confirmation he was overwhelmed by it all, too. She wanted to go slow and relish every inch of him, and at the same time she had to have him quickly, lest he disappeared from her life.
His next kiss was far from gentle, impassable and unyielding in its commands. His unmistakable act of possession made her stomach clench, and she pulled her thighs tight around his waist, pushing up against his erection to satiate the hum of desire at her opening. He pulled at her bottom, cupping each cheek with one of his hands, and she wiggled her hips until his straining member was enfolded fully within her.
He kissed her with more urgency even as his hands began a slow ascent up her torso. She squirmed and cried out until she felt him smile against her lips.
He walked his fingertips up her ribs to find her breasts. Rubbing his thumbs over her painfully tight nipples, he muttered an oath.
She ground her hips into his.
His muscled form molded into her soft curves. Her breathing was as restless as her heartbeat while he strummed his hands like a frantic musician over her body. She could feel his hot breaths on her skin. His scent was intoxicating, overwhelming. She moved her legs further apart and arched her hips toward him in offering of the deepest parts of her, to be fully joined.
However, he left her gasping for composure when he removed his mouth from hers. He pulled from her, leaving her inner muscles to pulse and ache momentarily until he came a crouch between her thighs. With a smile of deviant pleasure, his mouth finally found her. His tongue teased her folds with proficient, drawn out strokes, and she wished for a way to open up for him more. As if reading her mind, the pressure of his fingers on her sent warm light ripples to make her abdominal muscles shudder. Her opening tensed, waiting for the release his tongue would provide. The needs of her body were unrelenting, demanding and as anxious as she was.
Only no relief came. The urges grew with each swipe of his tongue. She ached to be full of him. However, the torment increased as the tip of his finger ran lightly over her clit, leaving her gasping with want until his mouth found her tender bud. With each bump of his tongue and pull of his lips on her engorged flesh, the air burned into her lungs. The contractions in her stomach built. She was right on the precipice of release when he released her.
“No,” she cried out with a piercing shriek, making vocal the demands of her abandoned and aching body.
At the edge of her cry
, he grabbed her ass to boost her up over his thighs, and she saw stars as he pushed his hard cock into her. He slid in without reserve, and the pulses left behind in the wake of his entry almost pushed her over the edge. He stopped, and she felt him tremble almost violently. He let his body fall to cover hers. His head fell to her shoulder, and he breathed raggedly into her hair.
His thrusts increased in power and rhythm. After a swift contracting of muscles, the rush of her orgasm swept through her. Her fingers were gripping into his shoulders, finding great resistance against his muscles there. She felt the hot flood of her wetness as her own muscles gripped around him. He grew just a little more, sending another ripple of pulses through her.
The warming of her nether regions became a fire that shot through her clit. It erupted into her stomach only to boil up through her chest and neck. Her legs began to tremble. When the trembles and heat joined together to consume her, she felt her whole body, no her whole being, go slack.
As her head fell back down to the pillow, simply because she no longer had the strength to keep her cheek up against his, he was smiling down at her. The feeling he was happy with what he had done melted her heart. She had never in her life felt so completely loved.
She saw the smile on his face sparkle in his eyes just before he took her mouth again. His lips pressed against hers with the strength of his passion.
When the phone rang, Kamillia heard Luca gasp. “Answer, I see a sign,” he said, his tone fading with each word.
She followed the direction of his gaze quickly in a futile attempt to see what he did as she picked up her cell phone. Her heart sank knowing they were going to have to do whatever this call requested of them.
Chapter Thirteen
Only minutes after they had entered her Poppie’s house and said their hellos, the door flew open, and two men in dark black cloaks stepped into the kitchen with their hoods and guns drawn. They must have been watching the house, just waiting for their moment to attack. Or, they had used Poppie as bait. The last thought in Luca's head before Kamillia gasped was to ask why she had been lead to clear the portal just to be killed by the Mastema.
The men aimed their guns toward the old man, and as she leapt toward her grandfather without a pause, Luca followed like his body was an appendage of hers.
Time crept, seeming almost to stand still. He heard the shots fired and felt her body hit against his with the power of the bullets ripping into her. Warm blood filled his hands where they clasped around her waist.
Out of the corner of his eye, he had seen her grandfather fall right before the firing stopped, and the men disappeared from the house. He looked down at Kamilla, shook her lightly and yelled her name, trying to get her to open her eyes. Finally, she blinked her eyes open but for only brief seconds at a time.
As they closed for the final time, she whispered, “I love you, Luca… always.” He could feel the life go from her body, and there was nothing he could do to save her this time. She was gone. He lifted his head toward the heavens to cry out, but nothing came from his mouth.
“I failed her,” he said to no one, to his empty world.
“No, Luca, you did not. This was her fate, their fate.” The words came to him an instant before Ahti appeared.
“Why, why did she have to die?” The tears were there, but he could not find the will to even cry. For the first time in over five hundred years as a Watcher, he felt only pain and anger except for the stunned parts of him, which were yet numb.
“We don’t get to ask why.”
“Fuck that! She went through hell to clear that portal, and then raced over here only to throw her body in front of a bullet aimed for her grandfather. I deserve to fucking ask why! Why did Alessandrina get sent back for more lives when Luca was made a Watcher? Why have we been separated all of these years only to be given a few days together? How am I to do my job now with the memory of what I lost? How can I live forever when this woman who has my whole heart died in my arms?” He left off his throat burning from the extent of his raised voice.
“I don’t know why. None of it is for us to know. We can only trust it was all done for the good of The River of Light in the end. She has been called, Luca. Bring her to the realm.”
“Called, as in…”
“Yes, she will be a Watcher, and because of the depth of your love and what you both did for The River, she will be posted with you.”
He stood with her body still in his arms, and the tears burning his eyes dripping onto his blood soaked shirt. “I don’t want her dead. I didn’t want her to miss this life.”
“It is not your choice.”
In seconds, they were transferred to The River of Light, to the section he remembered waking up in hundreds of years ago with no memory and no pain, only peace.
“Lay her body down, Luca.”
As he followed Ahti's instruction, carefully lowering her deathly form to the bed, his heart felt like it was being wrenched from his chest.
“Her grandfather?”
“I have not been informed. They will decide if in the best interest of The River, he may best serve them with another life or as a Watcher. He was chosen long ago, Luca. Eventually, he will become one of us. Soon, she will be awake and with you again. You will find peace in that.”
“But, she won’t remember me. I will remember it all, and she won’t even know who I am. I can’t work beside her and not be able to touch her. What have I done to deserve this? She won’t know who I am!”
“No, Luca, she will not remember you, but her soul will know.”
Luca found himself actually fighting the peace washing over him. Negative energy quickly dissipated here. At The River, any pain wrought of compassion didn’t last. It was swept away by the full force of its flow, here, closer to the Divine.
He watched as Ahti finally went toward the bed, covered in a billowy white like a mattress covered with a cloud.
Luca felt the wash of peace as a light blinded him. When it faded, he found himself back in the robes he wore at The River, with Kamillia reclined on the bed wearing the same. All of the blood was gone from her body now, just as he knew the pain of her death had been erased for her, too, along with her memories.
He looked to Ahti, who smiled down at Kamillia, and then he looked back to her. Her fire red hair stood out even more as it blanketed over the white bed and the white of her robes. Her skin held the same fair complexion it had in her life. It was once again vibrant, like it had been the first day he had seen her when she opened her door to him. He wanted to hold her, but he felt as if he couldn’t move.
Then she opened her eyes, a darker green than they had been in her life. A beautiful mix of deep green with numerous flecks of black sparkled brightly. She sat up, but easily. He remembered the peace of awakening here, and he knew that no matter what they told her she would just accept it as a result
She wouldn’t want for the life ended, because the flash had erased it from her mind. It had erased him from her mind. The twinge of pain came and went as negative emotions did here. He grappled to claim purchase upon the ache, but it evaded him nonetheless.
He listened, watching her every reaction, as Ahti explained to her where she was and what she would do. She kept looking over at him, and each time she did he longed to rush to her and touch her just like he had on Earth. The pain came with a sharper edge this time, before it went.
“Who is he?” He heard her ask.
“That is Luca. You two will be posted together here. You will work side by side. He will teach you what you need to know, and he will be able to answer any questions you may have.”
She stood then, and walked to him. When she stopped, he could smell a faint scent of what she had smelled like before. He sucked in a deeper breath, trying to catch it and hold it with him, to lavish in the familiarity of this, once again, stranger. Her body would work a bit differently here. It wasn’t dependent as much on air, as thin as it was in this realm. Nor, would she have need of food or sleep.
She just continued to stare at him. He kept his arms to his sides to give her whatever time she needed to get to know him.
After a brief few moments, she turned her head toward Ahti.
“Why do I feel differently next to him than I did by you?”
“Because, even though you don’t remember, you loved him when you lived on Earth in more than one of your lives. You two were soul mates, and therefore, you will always carry the love with you." Ahti spoke his last two sentences directly to Luca. "Now, you will have an eternity to be together. Nothing else should matter.” She reached out and took Luca’s hands in hers, and he almost felt it would be all right. She was here with him, even if she couldn’t remember their time together. He could remember it, and he still had her. She still loved him. Now, with his negativity from watching her die almost gone, he realized this was more than he could have hoped for.
“Now, let me escort you to your post, as there will be someone else there Kamillia will react to. A couple Luca has worked with for about a decade.” Ahti spoke to them, but she never broke her stare on Luca.
He gestured toward the man and woman who had turned when they showed up. She easily embraced them both.
“Who are they to her?” Luca asked Ahti.
“They were her parents. All they know is the call of their souls to be together.”
“All this time I worked with her parents.”
She glanced toward him, and her face lit up with her love.
Luca was finally overwhelmed by it.
Ahti, following her lead, turned to face him then, too. “You are free to be with her now, Luca. You are free to love her forever.”
Read on for a preview from another enchanting witchy paranormal romance by USA Today's Bestselling duo of authors Kiki Howell and Gina Kincade...
Excerpt
What Lies Within Us
Ominous fanfare greeted her arrival in County Monaghan. Lightning shred the fall of dusk as a grisly storm surrounded the car Her every nerve vibrated with electricity; the well read letter in her hand trembling in the heat of her clenched fist. Her last minute research of this part of Northern Ireland had not done the place justice. Beauty, that of a rolling and majestic nature even in the dark downpour, stole her already shallow breath.
A Cursed All Hallows' Eve Page 163