A second later she could pull in a full breath. Then the pain eased. Her magic flowed, the wings helping her control it. She felt only a fraction of the return before Key siphoned off the pain and smothering blackness. But now Key was feeling it—was he okay?
“Keep going, Roxy,” Key said. “I’m fine.”
She hadn’t spoken out loud … had she? With her hand pressed to Linc, she kept the magic flowing, pulling in the extra power from Darcy, Ailish, and Carla. She looked over at Linc’s face. Sweat dotted his upper lip, and his color was splotchy. That strange light in his eyes was flickering. “Head’s spinning,” he said.
“We’re trying to pull out the bloodlust, Linc,” Key told him.
“Remember it. The blood on me. Felt so fucking good. More … blood.” His body twisted in the throes of some internal cramping.
“His shoulder popped,” Axel said. “More, Roxy. Force in more sex magic.”
She sucked in a breath and tried. So much power winging through her began to make her skin hurt. Key kept his hand over hers but moved behind her, wrapped his arm around her middle, and settled her on his lap. She just let him, concentrating. She didn’t know how to sort her sex magic from her power. It had something to do with the goddess.
He reached his hand down between her thighs.
“Key!” Her magic stuttered with thick embarrassment. What was he doing?
“Just touching your schema. That’s all.” Through her jeans, he settled his palm over the inside of her upper left thigh. His other hand rested on top of hers pressed to Linc.
His touched ignited a firestorm in her. Rich, thick waves of desire blossomed outward. Filling her body. A roar of need saturated her womb and clenched through her. Her core ached, her breasts ached, her cleft ached, she … needed. And she summoned all that, every little bit of it, and poured it through her magic.
Into Linc.
“Jesus,” Phoenix said.
“What the hell kind of magic is that?” Linc asked.
Roxy felt the voice rumble through Linc even as she heard the words. She blinked, and then lifted her head to look at him.
The spottiness was gone. His skin was tanned except for slashes of red over his cheekbones. His gold eyes were clear but the pupils were dilating. He seemed to be panting. She didn’t want to look down to his hips.
She already knew he’d be hard.
“Sex magic,” she said.
He groaned in a low, throaty voice. The violent twisting of his body slowed into an undulating rhythm. “You have nice hands, love.” He rubbed up against her palm. “Little lower …”
Key roared behind her. He jerked her hand away.
Linc ignored him, his eyes on Roxy. “Undo my pants. Touch me,” he arched up, angling toward her.
Another roar behind her, and Key’s chest vibrated like a fast-approaching train. It all happened so fast! He stood, lifting her with him, then pushed her behind him toward the witches. Then he whipped around and demanded of Axel, “Let him go!”
Roxy watched in total shock. His back bunched, the muscles popping and twitching. Key was just over six feet and packed 210 pounds of raw strength. All of it rippled now, expanding his back. He held his arms out at his sides, opening and closing his fingers. The threat in him so vivid, it made her mouth go dry and her heart hammer.
“Stand down, Key!” Axel shouted. “Now!”
“Let him go!” Key yelled back.
“Come back, little witch,” Linc said. “Give me more of your hot sex magic.”
Another current went through Key. He flexed his fingers and claws burst out, spraying blood. Then his back rippled, the shoulder blades bulged, and a sudden whoosh filled the room.
Then silence. Even Linc shut up, and stopped rattling the chains.
Wings. Magnificent wings that spanned at least six feet on each side, and at the top curve had to reach eight feet, maybe more. They were different from the other men’s wings, made from a membranelike substance and covered with iridescent scales of emerald green and sapphire blue. The bottoms of the wings were scalloped. Stunning.
“Roxy,” Axel broke the silence. “Move where Key can see you.”
She walked around and realized Phoenix had glued himself to her shoulder. “He’s not going to hurt me.” Dyfyr hadn’t hurt her last time his claws came out in the gym. Roxy really was coming to believe something else was going on.
Key looked down at her. “Probably not, but he’s going to kill Linc. The dragon is jealous. It’s going to be funny as hell as soon as he calms down.”
“Jealous. Of Linc.” That meant he really did care about her.
Phoenix rolled his eyes. “Elf, unless you want to watch Linc sliced up into bloody strips of jerky, you’d better go tell the dragon to knock that shit off.”
Too many feelings crowded her chest. She moved in front of Key. His gaze was gray like wet cement, and his wings twitched in fury. “Get up,” he snarled at Linc.
“Tell them to let go, lizard, and I will.”
Lizard? He called her dragon a lizard? “Oh, shut up!” She snapped at the hunter, then turned back to Key. Her breath caught in her lungs. The tattoo on his chest was gone. He had massive muscles in his shoulders, arms, and chest, and even down his flat, ripped stomach to handle those wings. And the inside of the wings gleamed a light amethyst that changed shades with each movement. Then she looked up to his face.
Lethal.
“Key?”
“Out of the way, Roxy.”
She didn’t know how to talk to the dragon if he was gone from Key’s chest. Instead she reached up a hand and touched the inside of a wing. Soft and warm, and she wanted to burrow herself into the feel of them.
Key shuddered.
She said, “Kieran.”
He looked down at her. “Going to kill him.”
“No,” she said softly and put her other hand on his chest. “He’s reacting to the sex magic.”
He pulled his face tight. “Still want to kill him.”
“But you’re not going to.”
The wing curled around her, stroking her back. “You’re mine.”
Warmth spread through her. In this moment, Kieran wasn’t afraid Dyfyr would hurt her; he was staking his claim. It was stupid, Neanderthal and primitive, yet her magic, and her heart, danced in joy. She stroked her fingers over the inside of his wing. Blue smoke misted his gaze as he added, “He can’t have you.”
She smiled at him. “No. I only want you and Dyfyr.”
He closed his eyes and dragged in a breath. “You’re our treasure.” He opened his eyes, passion burned in his gaze. “You have to live.”
She felt the change as the wing locked around her. Where it had been soft and secure like a blanket, now the wing was hard and unyielding. A second later, Kieran’s left hand came toward her, so fast that all she saw were the three-inch claws coming at her.
“No!” Key yelled, his face contorting and he managed to slow the trajectory of his strike.
Roxy couldn’t move! Dyfyr’s wing held her frozen.
Then Phoenix dived into Key. The impact loosened the wing’s hold on her. Key and Phoenix hit the mat, while she was grabbed and shoved into the group of witches, Darcy clasping her arm so she didn’t fall. It all happened in the blink of an eye!
Her heart pounding, fear coating her mouth, she looked over to see Sutton help Phoenix pin Key to the mat. Phoenix’s leather vest was shredded, claw marks raked his chest and face. Key’s lip was split, and he had fist-sized welts around his ribs. The wings were still out, and twitching. “Dear Ancestors.” Roxy slapped her hand over her mouth as the horror began to sink in. Dyfyr had tried to kill her. Everything inside her wanted to reject the idea, to deny it. But she’d seen the claws on Key’s hand coming at her, had felt the wing trap her so she couldn’t escape.
She turned her gaze to see Axel still holding the chains binding Linc’s hands, his face rigid with anger.
Loud breathing echoed in the gym.
“Stay back,” Sutton said.
She ignored him and kept going until she stood two feet from Key’s ear. She looked down at him. Blood ran down the side of his face from his mouth. “Get away from me!” he snarled.
“I want to talk to Dyfyr. I want to know what the hell I ever did to him. Why one minute he loves me and then the next he’s trying to rip out my throat! I have a right to know!” God, she was mad. So mad. And beneath that anger was pain like she’d never felt before. The kind of hurt that eats through any hope and leaves only black despair and loneliness, and the dawning realization that Dyfyr didn’t want to save her; he wanted her dead.
Key stared up at her. “I don’t know! I was furious at Linc, then there was this overwhelming feeling that you can’t leave us. Then I was struggling with Dyfyr. He was going for your heart.” He closed his eyes, exhaustion seeming to weigh him down.
She replayed it in her head. “You have to live. That’s what you said, you and Dyfyr.”
Key opened his eyes. “What?”
Excitement began bubbling deep in her pelvis and moving up through her chakras. “I don’t think he was trying to kill me.”
“She has a point,” Carla said as she came up next to Roxy. “We were all shocked and reacted, but we don’t really know what the claws were going to do.”
Key shoved the two men off him and rose to his feet. “I know what the claws do, they kill.” He stared at her. “You can’t keep denying the obvious.”
Phoenix and Sutton stood and kept close watch.
Roxy held his gaze. Was she in denial? She shook her head. “You’re our treasure, that’s what you said.”
Key lifted up his hands with the three-inch claws. “The dragon is insane then. When your mother called his soul into me, something must have broken in him.”
She couldn’t bear this anymore, the constant Tear on her heart. He loves me, he hates me. She had to know, and there was one way to find out. She took a step.
Phoenix and Sutton blocked her path instantly with their huge bodies.
She looked up at them. “Move. We need to see what happens if I touch him.”
Sutton looked away from her. “Carly?”
“Let her try.”
“No!” Key snarled. “Roxy, don’t be stupid.”
She glared up at the two men. “Get out of my way, or I’ll unleash so much sex magic on you two, you’ll forget your own names.” She was so drained, it was a bluff, but they couldn’t know that.
Phoenix winced. “You’re wicked, Elf.” He and Sutton both shifted positions to give her room.
Roxy looked at Key six steps away from her. The wings fluttered, the scales twinkling in the lights. Key’s muscles tensed. His hands with the claws hung at his side. Her mouth went dry, her heart hammered, and her magic hummed. She was afraid, but her magic wasn’t. She took a step.
“Roxy …” it came out a growl.
She looked up to his face and thought about the way he took care of her after his brother cut her. The picture he drew of her, making love with him … all of it. “I’m not afraid of you, Kieran.” She took another two steps.
“You should be.”
She felt all eyes in the gym on her, including Linc’s. The hunter was sitting up and Axel was removing the manacles while watching them. She glanced down at Key’s hands. “Dyfyr, I don’t want you to claw me. Or cut me.” She raised her gaze to her hunter’s wary eyes and took another step. She was two steps away. Over her breathing, she heard a noise. Several plops.
“Look at that,” Darcy said. “The claws are falling off!”
Key raised his hands. The claws were gone.
She looked down and saw the ten claws on the mat. Dyfyr dropped the claws for her. He listened to her! Wild hope soared through her, and she shot her gaze to Key’s face.
He stared at her. “Come here.”
She went into his arms.
Roxy waited for Key down in the warehouse. Phoenix was showing him how to use his wings, taking off, flying, landing, and folding them up. She’d gone back with Darcy and Axel. Axel and Sutton had closed down the club next door. Now they were drinking beer and playing pool with Ram and Eli.
Linc stayed at Ailish and Phoenix’s with Dee.
Axel made a shot, then said, “Eli, we’re going to do your Induction Ceremony tomorrow night.”
Darcy handed Roxy a bottle of water and sat next to her on the couch. “That’s the ceremony where Wing Slayer accepts a witch hunter as full Wing Slayer Hunter. Key did the outline of Eli’s bird, a griffin, right, Eli?” Darcy asked.
The hunter looked over his shoulder, his light green eyes standing out in his darker face. “Yep.”
Darcy returned her gaze to Roxy. “During the ceremony, if Wing Slayer finds him worthy, he’ll finish the wings.”
She twisted off the cap on her water bottle. “Wing Slayer marked Key’s knife.” Just thinking of Key made her schema hurt. The need inside her was churning and getting worse. Her magic was hungry. And damn, she was tired.
“Axel told me.” Darcy looked over. “That was incredible tonight the way the dragon claws just dropped off of Key once you told him not to claw you.”
“He’s not trying to claw me to hurt me,” Roxy said. When it happened, she’d been startled, and seeing wicked-sharp claws coming at her had frightened her. But now looking back … “Dryfr was aiming for the Tear. He’s trying to save me.” Then all the hunters reacted, stopping the strike. “I have to talk to Dyfyr. Maybe his magic can safely cut the Tear out of me.” And to get the strength to do that, she needed to feed her magic.
“Third eye, Roxy,” Darcy reminded her. “And after what you did tonight, you should be able to reach your sixth chakra. You and Key can work on it now that you know Dyfyr will listen to you.”
Thinking of Key and Dyfyr made her magic try to surge, causing another cramp, and her schema started to burn. Roxy shifted on the couch and watched the pool game. Ram called his shot, bent his long frame over, and made it with military precision.
Sutton laughed. “You lose, Axel. Again. Ram’s the only one who can consistently beat you at pool.”
Axel glowered.
“I can beat him,” Darcy said next to her.
“Yeah, but you cheat.” He looked up, his green eyes heating.
Darcy shrugged. “I prefer to think of it as creative winning.”
Axel stared at his mate. “Those pictures you put in my head while I’m trying to make a shot are very creative.”
The sexual tension was so thick, Roxy felt like a voyeur. But it also gave her a glimpse of the intimacy the soul-mirror bond created. “You can send mental pictures back and forth?”
Darcy looked over at her. “Yes. It takes time to build the bond, but yes.”
“Cool.”
“Unless,” Ram said, “you’re undisciplined like Axel. He loses his concentration when Darcy’s around. And he owes me fifty bucks.”
Axel turned his glare on the man. “Let’s spar and I’ll win the fifty bucks back by throwing you on your ass.”
“I’ll put money on that,” Sutton said.
Eli laughed. “I don’t know, Ram’s a machine. Think I’ll put my money on him.”
Roxy shook her head as the four men debated who would win. Then she heard the door to the garage open, and Key strode in. She forgot everyone else as his gaze landed on her. He walked around the pool table straight to her. “You’re still up.”
Her chakras squeezed at the sound of his voice. “I … thought I’d wait for you. You said you were coming back.” The need in her cramped right down her center. “Did you learn to fly?”
He smiled. “Yep. One crash landing.” He held up his left arm. “Then it was easy.”
Her magic tried to surge at the sight of the four-inch gash. She leaped to her feet and reached out to touch the wound. Her chakras
squeezed but she forced the magic up and began healing the cut. As the magic left her, she felt emptier than ever. Her goddess mark sent out long, deep threads of desire, trying to fill the emptiness.
A flush rode up his face; heat poured off him as he covered her hand with his. You’re doing sinful things to me, green eyes.
She felt the whisper of his words in her head and realized he hadn’t spoken aloud. She knew her eyes widened in surprise, while warmth spread through her. His touch, both physical and mental, helped ease her chakras.
He smiled. Soul-mirror bond. I started hearing your thoughts tonight when I was helping you with your magic while healing Linc.
His voice was a gentle internal caress, almost more intimate than when he was inside her body. She tried to project her thoughts to him. I remember, I was worried how much pain you were feeling. Lifting her hand from his arm, she said, “It’s healed.”
Heard you.
She summoned more of her power to answer him, but she gasped with a cramp. It was like squeezing out toothpaste, creating that vacuum that pulls in the sides of the tube.
“Roxy, what’s wrong?” Key put his hand on her shoulder.
She opened her eyes and looked up at him. “Nothing.” I think my magic is depleted. Her head started to pound.
Sex. You need sex. He brushed her mind with the words. He pulled her against his side. You should be able to pull some energy from me now.
In just seconds, the cramping stopped, and her magic fluttered.
Key stiffened. Your magic is calling me.
All four men stopped talking and turned toward them. Darcy looked at them, too. Oh damn, Roxy knew her schema was pounding out the sex magic to call Key.
“That’s s-shit,” Eli sputtered. “I’m leaving. Later.”
“Right. I’d better go, too.” Ram followed him out the garage door.
I’m sorry. Roxy pushed the thought with her magic, mortified.
Axel put his arm around Darcy. “Roxy.”
She lifted her gaze to Axel. “I’ll get better control.”
Sinful Magic: A Wing Slayer Novel Page 26