by K. F. Breene
“In battle, you can create one of these and send it floating. If you have sufficient energy, you can take down a few unaware or distracted fighters.” Toa gestured her forward.
Sasha’s eyes flicked to Darla’s chair. The other woman winked, her smile smug. Taking a determined breath, Sasha stepped forward slowly. As her face and torso drifted into the bubble, she gave a huge jolt.
“Holy—ˮ
She stepped back quickly, rubbing her arms. “Dang it, Toa. That hurt!”
“Yes, it is not pleasant. Now you try.”
Charles suddenly did not want to be in this room. If she managed to do the spell, he’d have to test it because Jonas ranked higher than him in the violence department. If Toa’s spell hurt, hers would probably blast his face off.
For all the work Jonas did with this detail, it was a wonder heʼd come with them at all. Charles had no idea what the Boss was thinking on that score. Jonas hated Sasha, didn’t want to be here, but wouldn’t let her out of his sight, thus being a hostile nuisance to everyone else. Plus, he didn’t help with any of the unpleasant stuff. If he wasn’t so damn hostile and wound up, Charles would have mentioned it.
They all needed to get laid. That was one of the problems right there.
“Okay,” Sasha said as the white sphere melted back into the air. Her brow creased.
“Show me, please,” Toa instructed in his sing-song voice.
Sasha put up her hand, palm toward the ceiling. A colored wisp drifted above her skin, deep red. Now orange. Quickly to gold.
“Slower, please,” Toa said.
Sasha’s lips parted, her breath falling out of her open mouth heavily. Her other hand clenched at her side as the wisp eased past burnished gold and into white. She was trying to slow the draw, but based on her rigid body, having a hard time of it. Finally, the wisp was a deep, bottomless pit of black, sucking in the light around it. Full power.
“Good. Now…” Toa gave her a sweeping hand gesture.
Jonas stepped out through the doorway, an orange shield blocking Sasha's magic. Toa flicked up a white shield as red wrapped around Darla. Charles was last, nearly having forgotten to raise his shield. If the Boss trusted Jonas, there was no reason Charles shouldn’t. Especially in the face of whatever was coming.
“Okay,” Sasha said again, her brows dipping down her nose in concentration. “I’m trying to create a moving sphere to sideswipe people who aren’t paying attention. I’m aiming for pain, not death. Okay…”
She put her hands up, palms facing each other. Blackness materialized in front of her like pixilated smoke. Her brow started to glisten as she concentrated, her fingers trembling. The black took shape, ball-like, though too dense. Then denser.
“Not so much,” Toa warned in a gentle voice.
Charles started to cringe.
Perfectly round now, outsides glistening like it was coated in oil. Charles’s skin started to tingle furiously, magic crackling the air. The ball started to wobble, losing shape but not density.
“I’m losing it,” Sasha said through clenched teeth.
Toa stepped forward. White frost enveloped the black, freezing the oil slick. Another moment had the outside cracking like ice, both Toa and Sasha now battling with flexed bodies and grim faces. In a whoosh, magic flooded the room, pounding against Charles’s shield, threatening to erode it away. Darla shrieked as her red was sandblasted, her hands in front of her face in a defense posture, pain lacing her expression.
In another second it was all over, Sasha and Toa left panting in the middle of the room, Darla with a crazy mask of rage.
“This is what you’ve learned?” Darla spat, standing up with a red face. “You’ve been here for two weeks! You’ve been in classes for weeks before that, and this is all you can do? You can’t even control your magic, let alone contain it. You’re dangerous, human. No wonder the Boss sent me. There’s no way you can lead our people. You can’t even look after yourself!”
“She is working with more than twice the flow you are,” Toa said calmly, completely unruffled by her tirade. “You could not possibly understand the effects of drawing that much power, since you reside in meager red. I will only say that it is slippery and dangerous, and you will never experience it no matter how much, or whose blood you take. You, simply, don’t have the ability to hold it. Now, Sasha, letʼs chat about what went wrong as we ready for bed.”
Sasha’s gaze had fallen, now focused on the floor in front of her feet. She stuffed her hands in her pockets, following behind Toa like a kicked puppy. She didn’t raise her eyes in defiance as she passed Darla and out the door. Toa might not have been worried about Sasha’s lack of material progress, but Sasha clearly was.
Charles wished he knew what to say to her. She would learn control of her magic, Charles was certain—that girl rose to the occasion when she had to. But she wouldn’t believe him if he told her that.
That bitch Darla didn’t help matters by throwing it in her face, either.
As Sasha disappeared, Jonas stepped to the door to follow, having entered the room again after the magic was diminished.
“You got it, bro?” Charles asked as he dropped his knitting into the basket beside his chair. “I might get a quick workout before I tuck into bed. I didn’t get to kill any of Sasha’s creations today.”
Jonas spared him a glance before nodding. When he turned back, he ran smack into Darla.
“Running away so soon? I thought maybe we could—ˮ
Jonas’s hand came up…and wiped Darla away as if she was a curtain covering the doorway. Limbs flailing, she went staggering out of the way, Jonas already strolling out. Charles couldn’t help laughing.
“What is his problem these days?” Darla muttered as she straightened herself out. Her heat-soaked eyes hit Charles, now the only one in the room, almost as an afterthought. She paused for a moment, and then her body seemed to lose all its bones and kinda slink down into a shrine of sex.
Oh, no.
Charles tried to stand in a hurry, but his hard-on got painful when her dress gave in to gravity and shimmered down her nude body. Perfectly round breasts stared him in the face. This was the absolute worst time to be sex starved.
“You’ll do,” she purred with a sultry smile, crossing the room.
“No, no—I have stuff to do. And I don’t like giving blood. I’ll just…”
Her tinkling laugh filled up the room as she stopped right in front of him. Her knee bent forward and nudged his legs wider apart. She stepped closer, his legs pushed out to accommodate her body. She bent low, her breasts passing by his vision as her beautiful face leveled with his. Her tongue slipped across his bottom lip.
“Feel how wet I am, Charles.”
She raised her leg and braced it to the side of his groin, just barely putting pressure on his pounding dick. Her hand grabbed his and directed it to the middle of her thighs, the tips of his fingers brushing her wet slit.
The pounding got ten times harder to ignore.
A breast graced his lips, its budded nipple nudging. “C’mon, Charles, I won’t bite if you really don’t want me to.”
He rubbed deeper, working the wetness, not needing guidance anymore. His tongued her taut nipple, causing a low moan from Darla. She was crazy, and vindictive, and unpredictable, and would definitely bite him if he stopped paying attention, but…
“What’s a little sex among friends?” Charles muttered, opening his mouth and sucking in her breast. Two fingers worked into her, feeling along the inner wall, as she pushed into him with a groan.
“I underestimated you. You know exactly what you’re doing,” Darla breathed, pumping her hips into his hand.
She leaned back, popping her breast out of his mouth. Grinding into his hand now, she fed him the other breast, her hips swooping into him expertly. He wasn’t the only one that knew what he was doing. She might give him a run for his money.
But he’d rise to the occasion like a champ.
He massage
d with his thumb as his fingers plunged, working the suction at her nipple just right. Her breathing started to get labored and her movements more frantic. She clutched his hair in two fistfuls and yanked, screaming while she orgasmed in giant body spasms.
“Oh, yes, Charles!” Darla slowed and languidly took her knee off of his leg.
She smiled down on him. “My turn.”
Her hair swished over her shoulders as she bent, her deft fingers working the fly of his jeans. Cool air assaulted his erection, giving him the best kind of shivers. Before he could acclimate, her hot hand had his shaft and she was running her palm against him firmly.
“Nice and big. My kinda toy.” Her body bent further as she knelt between his legs. A warm, wet tongue licked up his sack before she sucked it in.
“Oh!” Charles didn’t know whether to push forward, or fall back with his eyes rolled back in his head. He didn’t have to worry about it. The next second had her tongue licking up the back of his shaft and tickling along his crease, just about to take it all…
“Ohh, shit.” He leaned back, his eyes rolling back. Her hot mouth sucked his brain out of his dick, reaching through his body and wiping out all his thoughts. Not that he had many to begin with. He felt his tip reach deep down, all the way to the back of her throat, as her chin met his ends.
Maybe he wouldn’t rise like a champ. This female made him feel like a novice.
Charles held onto the chair with all his might as he watched his erection pump in and out of her mouth. He could barely stand it. He was already close.
Reading his situation, she straightened up suddenly and draped a long leg over his lap. With her hand, she took his shaft in a firm grip and worked his tip along her slit. His shaking hands gripped her hips as she sat down with all her weight.
“Oh, gods. Oh, holy gods. Holy moly.” Then speech ran out as she bounced on top of him, her breasts jiggling in his face merrily, her sex stroking his.
His balls tightened up and his stomach clenched. His whole body compressed, magic leaking out.
“That’s right,” she purred, gyrating over him now, leaning those glorious breasts against his chest. “Fall into it.”
The friction got more intense. She reached between them and ripped at his shirt, tearing it down the middle. Her taut nipples rubbed his skin. Her hot breath soaked into his neck.
So close now. Just about…
He felt the pinch right before one glorious, deep pull through the center of this body.
“Nooooooooohh!”
He shook her off his neck as his body erupted, exploding into her. He shuddered so hard he might’ve been sitting on a fault line in an earthquake.
“Oh, gods,” he said, panting. He pushed her away again as her lips aimed for his neck.
“No biting.” He leaned back against the chair, holding her shoulders. “Against the rules.”
He barely registered her pout. “You’re not done yet, are you?”
He groaned. “You want more?”
“Of course. I hear you’ve got great stamina.”
This was the first time in history he hated that rumor.
Her mouth licked down his bare chest, her tongue circling a nipple. Her hand started working him again, light and tickling. Playful. Expert.
Just as he was reviving, putting his all into the recovery, he felt another pinch. Like a tug through his pec, down through his stomach, and pulling on the inside of his balls, his dick became a live wire, deep and intimate. And she was the last female he wanted to share this kind of intimacy with.
“No, no—no blood. I’ll stop right now, I swear to the gods I will.” Charles pushed her face away again, a dribble of blood dripping down his chest.
With a smile, she licked at it before continuing down. And down. Her mouth took in his almost hardness, sucking so hard he yelped.
“Hang in there, it’ll be worth it.” She winked at him.
He wasn’t so sure anymore.
Another swallow, sucking hard and deep. He butted the end of her throat. Completely hard now and in his stride. He palmed her head and helped push her down, grinding in there good and deep. She took to it in greedy gulps like a pro.
Before he had to tell her he was nearly there again—so he didn’t have to start from scratch with the hard-on, because that might kill him—she pulled off, his erection bobbing in the air. Moving quick, not losing momentum, she sucked at his balls. Very nice.
The pinch was in his inner thigh this time.
“Damn it, woman. You’re like a piranha.” He jerked away.
With an evil smile, she crawled back into his lap.
“Last time, though. I need to hit the sack,” Charles warned, dropping his finger to the top of her slit to make sure she got where she needed to go. He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but she was a bit above his caliber. The Boss was a real man to deal with this all the time.
Facing him, she clutched his shaft again, this time directing it to the opening in the back. Slowly she sat, his tip working into that tight hole.
“Oh, my…oh. You’re into that, huh? Oh!”
He couldn’t focus. That hole was so deep and tight. So hot. Lips nibbled at his neck. His finger worked her nub. That glorious friction had his dick tingling already, needing to orgasm so hard all he heard was white noise.
And then the pinch came again on his neck.
The pull sucked through his whole body, sweet and deep and so-fucking-good. He couldn’t back her off this time. Not with that deliciously tight hole. And the friction. And the blessed pull.
“Oh, holy gods,” Charles moaned, lightheaded and delirious. He pumped into her, that suction on his neck pushing him higher, her ass muscles clutching him like a fist.
Warning bells went off, but he couldn’t focus. Or function. All he could do was close his eyes and pump like an animal. Beyond reason. His balls screamed to let go. His body flexed. His fingers dug into her hips.
Blessed release. Hard and fast. He slammed into her, groaning in ecstasy. Unable to help calling her name in bliss.
His head lolled, his body totally spent. She backed off his neck.
“Thanks, pet. Your blood hit just the spot.” She wiped her face with a smirk. As she left, she swooped down and snatched her dress off the ground.
He hated her laugh as she left the room.
Well. That happened. He’d given a nasty bitch a bunch of blood. Fantastic.
He swore at himself as he stood, swaying slightly as his body registered the amount of blood sheʼd stolen. He walked across the grounds with his dick dangling. No sense in trying for decorum now—he’d given up his pride to the top of the sexual food chain. So much for no means no.
He kind of felt like one of those human chicks in the movies after she got used like a tool. Kind of manhood stripping, he’d say that much.
He entered the cabin he shared with Sasha and Jonas. As he walked down the hall to his room, knowing there was no way he was working out right now, Sasha stepped out of the bathroom. Her eyes did a quick assessment before her face fell.
“You didn’t.”
“Don’t want to talk about it.”
“With her, though, Charles? She sucks.”
Charles stripped off his shirt and threw it in a ball into the bathroom. “I know this. I was outgunned.”
Sasha’s eyes snagged on the quickly healing cuts on his neck. “You gave her blood? Charles, what the hell is wrong with you?”
“He’s a young twerp that barely knows how to use his dick.” Jonas passed by without a glance. “Lets every species he sees bowl him over. And this is my partner.”
“Oh, great, yes. Rub it in, everybody. Even better.” Charles wiped spit off his chest. “Can you two just shove off? I need some alone time.”
“Is this because I won’t do you? Is this spite?”
Charles turned to Sasha, stared at her for one second, and then slammed the door in her face. They just didn’t understand. Until you were in the lion’s mouth, you had
no idea how sharp the teeth were.
He felt like a schmuck.
Chapter 8
The next day, I sat on a plush leather couch in the common room. A few other people within the room cleaned, read, or relaxed, each doing their own thing. A book lay open in my lap, staring at me as I stared back at it. All I saw were black letters on a white page, blending together as my eye focused and unfocused. I couldn’t stop thinking about Stefan protecting his interests. I logically knew he had to, and Toa had explained it in depth, but it still stung. It meant he didn’t have the utmost faith in me like he said he did. Being that I had never had faith in myself, it left me feeling empty and forlorn.
“It’s going to work out, seriously.” Ann leaned against the bookcase, supposed to be off doing something, but when she saw me mope into the room, she followed. “Just as soon as you get your head around the magic, you’ll wipe the floor with Miss Runway.”
“So you say.”
“I do say. Sasha, listen to me. You need to have a little faith. You need to walk before you sprint, you know? Just--ˮ
“Alpha.”
I looked up in time to notice Tim enter the room, his eyes gleaming with that predatory light this group of Shape Changers was known for. The man at the desk came out of a shallow bow, continuing whatever paperwork he had been contemplating. A woman, young and spry, closed her book, stood and offered a slightly deeper bow, her eyes shining with stars, and her face flushing a desire-ridden rose. “Alpha.”
Ann’s face went bright red, caught somewhere other than at her post. She bobbed her head in jerky movements. Busted. “Alpha.”
She glanced my way, her eyes riddled with panic. “Gotta go, Sasha. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
“Aren’t you supposed to be working the perimeter?” Tim asked, flaying Ann with a hard stare.
“Yes, Alpha. Just headed there now.” She very nearly sprinted from the room.
Tim watched her go before stalking through, not offering an acknowledgement of the respectful diffidence of the others in the room. His eyes burned into mine as I tried to rip my gaze away from the power in that stare. I was used to Stefan, however, and if my backbone wouldn’t allow me to drop my gaze before his, which was stronger and more forceful than this guy, I certainly wasn’t going to drop it for a near stranger.