Razor's Edge, Book 3, The Horde Wars

by Sherri L. King

  “My life wouldn’t matter much if I just stood back and let these things run around killing people. I have to do something. I have to help.”

  He shook her there against the wall. “If you died your life wouldn’t be worth much anyway.”

  Her sapphire eyes bored into his, seeming to steal past every shield he possessed, to see into the depths of his very soul. “What about you? You could die just as easily as I could…or can’t you die?”

  “I’m not immortal. But it is my duty to fight these things. You have no business here. I do.”

  “I have more business than you. I’m a human and I am protecting my fellow humans. It’s my duty too, now.” Her eyes were as stubbornly hard as the jewels they resembled.

  The rain beat down on their heads. Edge bowed his head, knowing he would never be able to gather his thoughts if he kept looking into her eyes and was surprised to note that he held Emily completely off the ground. Her feet dangled. Neither of them had noticed, it seemed.

  Her hands caught in his wet, tangled hair and pulled his face back up to hers. Heaven didn’t possess the blue color of her eyes as her gaze roved over his face. He felt the firm press of her bulletproof vest as she drew him slowly closer. Her intent was clear. That childlike mouth pressed against his, feeling softer than down, smooth as silk. Lush and full, its weight was exquisite against his.

  He gave in to her allure.

  Emily wasn’t thinking; she was only feeling. The need to kiss him was so great that she had no hope of fighting against it. Heart pounding, knees weak, she kissed him with all the passion that was in her. He tasted like danger. Like sex, pure and wet and hot. And he tasted like man. So much man that her senses swam. She was drunk on lust. On desire. On him.

  Slanting his lips down upon hers, he ravaged them. He sucked their fullness into his mouth. He licked and bit and nuzzled against them. His hands almost shook as he drew one of his long, razor-sharp foils down the front of his suit. He wanted to be nude against her, wanted his skin against hers the soonest. It was easy work to peel the remnants of his covering away.

  Drawing her to him in a crushing embrace, he deepened the kiss. Pressing his body against hers made them both gasp in pleasure. Emily wrapped her legs around his waist, and he cupped the fullness of her buttocks in his large hands. His tongue touched hers, slid deep within her mouth to get a better taste, and feasted.

  As aggressive as he, Emily put her hands beneath his coat, to stroke and test his bare muscled chest. She undulated—hard—against his cock as it strained against her heat. Moans escaped her mouth only to be swallowed by his. She used her teeth to nibble and to bite, against his lips and tongue. Emily wanted to eat him in her passion.

  At last she broke away from him and pressed desperate kisses to the strong line of his jaw and neck. His skin was so smooth, so firm as if he’d only just shaved. The rain slicked them both, but it did nothing to dampen his scent. She breathed it deep and moaned. He smelled so glorious, so delicious. Spicy and woodsy and clean and sweet—all separate and together at the same time. It was an orgasmic experience just to breathe him in.

  Her fingers clutched him to her. His hands kneaded and separated her buttocks, bringing her against him in thrusting motions that mimicked coitus perfectly. Emily wanted him inside of her and she wanted him there now.

  Pulling back, she went to work on her clothing as best she could while still in his arms. He followed her, reclaiming her mouth with his, blanking her mind. He hitched her more securely against him and held her with one hand. The other moved around to her front. His mouth released hers and they looked down.

  He moved the tip of one long finger down the middle of her chest. There was the flash of a blade. Her nipples hardened as they were exposed to the air. He had cut through her shirt, through her vest, through her bra. Her skin was unharmed as her clothing fell away in tatters and she arched her breasts up against him shamelessly.

  The blade that protruded from his finger stroked erotically against her, though how he kept from cutting her she couldn’t have guessed. The thrill of that danger was there, between them, heightening her desire. He traced the pout of her breast and nipple until it swelled and trembled. Emily moaned and ground her hips against the heavy heat of his erection, hopelessly caught up in the most basic of her sleep-deprived instincts. The need to mate.

  Her hands shook, with both desire and excitement, upon the fastenings of her jeans. But again his hand was there to help. A few swift motions and she was naked against him, her jeans in tatters around her ankles. The rain soaked her flesh but she was too full of hot desire to feel its chill. Emily reached down between their bodies and grasped his thick sex in her hand. He was large, heavy, and long.

  And she wanted every last, thick inch of him.

  “Fuck me. Please fuck me,” she moaned against his mouth.

  He needed no more urging. His long fingers came between them, testing her readiness, finding her nearly dripping with her own need. The broad head of his cock slipped into position between the swollen lips of her cunt.

  Their eyes met and burned.

  He thrust home in one long, smooth move.

  Emily screamed her pleasure-pain aloud in the rain. But she did not pull away. With desperate hands she clutched him more tightly to her, clawing him until not even the rainwater came between their skin. He was still within her, stretching her, penetrating her to her very heart. And he waited patiently, seeming to be waiting for her to adjust to his strength, to the wicked depth of his penetration.

  Emily was far too impatient to wait. Tightening her legs around his waist, she began to ride him. It was rough and awkward at first—she’d never been with so large a man—but it was exquisite all the same. And when his hands came around to help guide her movements it seemed she would die from the pleasure, it was so great. But it still wasn’t enough.

  “Harder. Harder. Bruise me. Make me feel…” she wailed brokenly, in between the small screams that escaped her lips each time he thrust home.

  His body slammed into hers. Her teeth jarred from the force of his deep thrusts. Her nails dug into his broad shoulders and she kissed him with deep, licking strokes of her tongue into his mouth. She wanted to swallow him, with her mouth and with her body, until they were truly one being. Never in her life had she felt like this, in thrall to her most basic emotions and needs. The unrelenting force of them should have frightened her. But she felt only the rage of her desire as it burned through her veins like the headiest of drugs.

  She let it take them both in a rush that could have drowned them.

  The wall at her back scraped with delicious pain against her flesh. The deep wet well of her body trembled around his length and he must have felt it because his movements grew fiercer, faster. With his thumb he found her clit and rubbed it with expert caresses. She pressed herself more tightly against him and she felt the strong pounding rhythm of his heart like some primitive drum in his chest.

  When she came, the pulses of her orgasm matched that rhythm perfectly.

  “Ohgodohgodohgod.” She cried unintelligible words into his mouth as he brought her.

  It was so powerful, her release. Her orgasm was so strong that her teeth would have clenched against it if his tongue hadn’t been filling her mouth. The whole length of her body shuddered and bucked and undulated against his in wild abandon. An entire army of monsters could have attacked them in that moment and she wouldn’t have cared, for she had found heaven.

  And heaven would not be denied.

  When at last she came down from her dance with the angels, she again felt the aches and discomforts of her weary body. Her eyes grew heavy, so heavy that she couldn’t keep them open. Her head was a dead weight that she had to rest against his strong shoulder.

  Sleep came at last, stealing over her like a thief in the night. There in the arms of a man whose name she did not know, but whose body had given her such a sweet oblivion, she at last found her rest.

  And it was the sw
eetest she’d ever known.

  * * * * *

  Emily’s eyes felt gluey when she finally managed to open them. The sun was setting beyond her bedroom windows. The man in the black coat must have taken her home after she’d fallen asleep in his arms—she certainly didn’t remember making her own way back. Amazingly, she’d slept the whole day through—the first decent sleep she’d had in more days than she cared to number.

  As groggy as she was it took her several long moments to remember all of the events of the previous evening. When she did, she groaned with embarrassment. Had she really been that aggressive? Had she really begged the man—a stranger whose name she still did not know—to fuck her? She had. And though the interlude had been glorious, the most amazing sex she’d ever had, she couldn’t help feeling chagrined by her own uninhibited behavior.

  What must he think of her? Would he, like any other man might in his position, feel she’d given free access to her body indefinitely? Would he expect more of the same from her when next they met? Would he be angry when she told him, in plain terms, that she hadn’t been herself last night? That their coupling had been a mistake on her part, never to be repeated again? Her mind was a storm of such questions.

  Emily fully intended to meet with him again. She wanted to learn more about him, about who and what he was. Not for personal reasons, she reassured herself—deliberately ignoring the excitement she felt at the mere thought of meeting him again—but for professional ones.

  It was obvious to her now that wherever the monsters were he would no doubt be nearby. So her nightly hunt would now have two purposes. Find and kill the monsters before they caused harm to anyone else. And find the man in the black coat before he could disappear again. It was from him that she would learn the most valuable lessons concerning the monsters.

  She now had a concrete purpose. Feeling better than she had since the first night she’d discovered that evil was running rampant in her city, she rose and made ready to make her first contact with the mistresses of the Voyeurs website. Through a vague email, would these ladies realize what she’d really been up to the past several nights?

  It would be interesting as hell to find out.

  Chapter Four

  “Are you sure it was the same woman?”

  Edge gritted his teeth and answered once again. “I’m positive. It was she.”

  The Traveler turned and regarded The Elder from the shadows of his cowl. An unspoken message seemed to pass between them and Edge was hard-pressed not to ask to be let in on their secret conversation.

  “What was she doing there, I wonder?” Tryton murmured, as if to himself.

  Edge took a deep breath, knowing he was about to open up a Pandora’s box that might haunt him for the rest of his days. “She was hunting the monsters. And doing a fair job of destroying them outnumbered and alone as she was when I came upon her.”

  “Another human warrior? It seems I’ve greatly underestimated the courage of humans of late. And their prowess in battle.”

  “What shall we do about her?” Edge asked the question even as he hoped for and dreaded the answer he felt sure would come from his leader. He didn’t have long to wait.

  “Perhaps she can be recruited, as Cady was. But only if she has the talents that will help us, of course. And only if the Council will allow it. She is, after all, still human,“ Tryton said. “What did you think of her, Edge? What were your first impressions of this human woman?”

  That she had the eyes of a goddess, the body of a nymph and the voice of a siren…but these things he wouldn’t share with Tryton. That she had the tightest, hottest, wettest sex he’d ever known seemed an inappropriate answer as well. But it was nonetheless true and it was all Edge had been able to think about since he’d left her in her home as the morning had dawned around them. She’d been beautiful in her exhaustion. Fragile. Sexy.

  By the Horde, his balls ached and tightened just thinking about her.

  He recalled the questions at hand and strove to keep his libido under tighter control. “She seems to have learned on her own to take the Daemons’ hearts and to burn the evidence they leave behind. That tells me she is by no means dull-witted. And after having spoken with her, I’ve discovered that she deliberately pursues the Daemons. This tells me that she does not lack honor. Or courage. Perhaps she has Hunter Caste skills, as Cady did.”

  “You spoke with her?” The Traveler asked quietly.

  “Yes, but only briefly.” That was true enough, in a literal sense.

  Again the two exchanged looks. Edge clenched his fists but held his silence.

  “You may leave us now, Edge. Thank you for the news. I will no doubt have further instructions for your patrol tonight.”

  Edge bowed respectfully and left Tryton’s antechamber, wondering what The Traveler and Tryton would discuss after he left them. Wondering if he’d just sealed the human woman’s fate…or his own.

  * * * * *

  “Keep an eye on the Territories of Earth tonight, Grimm. And keep close to Edge. He will no doubt be looking for the human woman as doggedly as he will be looking for signs of the Horde.”

  “No doubt.”

  “I’d like to speak with her. Take her measure. Though first I will have to speak with our Watchers. I mean the Voyeurs.” Tryton rolled his eyes and then smiled. “I still can’t believe Steffy has them calling themselves by that ridiculous moniker. I hear they’ve actually received word from this human woman on their own end.”

  “It will be as you wish.”

  Tryton smiled. “I have every faith that it will.” Arrogance fairly dripped from him. It was the ancient warrior’s well-earned right.

  “There is one thing,” Grimm was moved to add.

  “What is that?”

  “I have a strange feeling about the human woman. You will have to tread carefully with her. All is not as is seems. I fear she is not like Cady or Steffy, even if she is a human and, as such, their kin.”

  “Grimm, you have ever been as useful as an oracle in our greatest times of need. I trust in your judgment…but I will meet her. And I will try to recruit her. Our ranks need this new blood, this human blood she brings. It has ever been so, though I’ve been too stubborn to welcome the addition in the past. You, more than anyone, know this.”

  Grimm was silent in the face of Tryton’s will.

  “As I said, try to meet her. Try to ascertain what it is about her that cautions you so. I’ll learn what I can from Desondra and her group. But I still want you to arrange a meeting between she and I so that I, too, can study her. Perhaps it is nothing.”

  “Perhaps. You may be right,” Grimm agreed, but in his thoughts he already knew differently.

  Chapter Five

  Emily rubbed her mucky hands negligently against the seat of her jeans. Killing monsters was dirty, smelly, tiresome business. No matter how hard she tried, she always seemed to ruin her clothing, and pretty soon she’d have to go out and buy more jeans and T-shirts for the task. Of course she’d purchase everything in dark colors this time to hide the stains of violence more easily.

  One thing was preying on her mind more and more often now as each night came to a close. Pretty soon she’d have to return to her job. Much as she might wish it she couldn’t afford to quit, but now that she had a nobler duty to perform each night she couldn’t help wondering what to do about her police work. More and more she was beginning to lean towards the idea of switching to the day shift—the monsters were nocturnal after all—but that would stretch her thin as far as sleep was concerned. And forget having any kind of a social life, not that she had much of one in the first place.

  Was she ready to sacrifice so much? Absolutely. But was she physically and mentally capable of keeping such a rigorous schedule? Emily wasn’t too sure about that. What precious few hours of sleep she’d gotten had done much to recharge her, but there was no telling when next she would be able to sleep so long or so deeply again.

  Insomnia was a fickle and tri
cky bedfellow and by no means could she count on banishing it from her life simply because she wanted it gone. If that were the case she’d have been free of sleepless nights—or days as the case may be—many years before this.

  But she couldn’t, in good conscience, give up this new fight she’d become embroiled in. To do so would smack too closely of cowardice or negligence for her liking. And if she turned her back on the horrible acts these beasts seemed intent on committing she’d be no better than they and no less evil. So the only answer seemed to be switching to the day shift. Perhaps even taking up a desk position within the department in order to keep her nights free for this more dangerous work.

  Emily wandered the streets, searching for any signs of her quarry. She’d only killed two tonight, a far sight fewer than normal. But it was early yet, barely an hour past midnight and she had high hopes of finding and destroying more before her tour of duty was done.

  There came the fall of footsteps behind her and she whirled about, raising her shotgun up before her as she did so. Luckily for the man in the black coat, she was able to stay her finger from pressing too tightly on the trigger before she recognized him in the murky darkness.

  “You shouldn’t sneak up on people like that. Especially people who might shoot first and ask questions later.”

  “I didn’t sneak. I stepped heavily enough for you to hear me. You should be happy for that much of a warning from me.”

  “You’re too cocky by far.” She rolled her eyes.

  The man in the black coat stepped closer, stalking her. “You’re awfully brave behind the barrel of that gun. Shall I show you again how ineffectual that weapon is against me?”

  Emily lowered the gun, but otherwise ignored his goading words. “You owe me for that, by the way. These things aren’t cheap, I’ll have you know. And a police officer’s salary can only be stretched so far these days.”