Bean? “You named your niece or nephew Bean?”
This time the smile was real. “She didn’t want me to curse, and I told her the kidney bean wouldn’t know the difference. Then she ordered me not to call the baby Bean.”
“Ah.” Bean it was, then. “Don’t talk about the demons. It might bring their attention to you again.”
Her eyes widened. “Really?”
What the fuck did he know? He wasn’t a warlock. “I’m not sure, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.”
“Good point.” She blew out a breath. “How are we going to get all of this work done? Set up a school slash orphanage for kids, take care of the teens you and Zach found, get my magic under control and take care of Arthur?”
“One step at a time.” He hugged her tight, rubbing her back when she sagged against him. “It’s all we can do. We ask our family for help and we git’er done.”
She chuckled, but it was broken. “Your family, not mine.”
He rubbed her shoulder, right where his mark would go. “I wouldn’t be so certain of that.”
She clutched his shirt tightly in his hands. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
She looked up at him, her weariness visible in the circles under her eyes and her quivering lip. “For not running away the moment I arrived.”
“Pfft. As if you wouldn’t have run me to ground.” He rubbed his cheek on top of her head, scent marking her to appease his wolf.
“Like an injured llama.”
“Llama?” Where had she come up with that one?
“Don’t wolves hunt llamas?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“You have something against them?”
He pulled away and stared down at her. “You’re crazy.”
She shrugged. “Llama haters gonna hate.”
“Bed, crazy person.” He turned her and nudged her gently toward the door. “We’ll deal with your powers tomorrow.”
She saluted smartly and marched out the door. Daniel followed, careful to lock his workroom door, and their theories, behind him. Even if he trusted Mac and the rest of his family, he wouldn’t take any chances that others could get into his apartment and rifle through his stuff.
Call him paranoid, but he’d rather be called that than right.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Kerry shook her head as the fog lifted. In front of her was a pair of double doors she’d only seen in passing. She was pretty sure they led to the ballroom, but why would she be there? She was supposed to be somewhere else, but she couldn’t quite remember why.
Her hair was pulled up into a complicated knot, and she wore a dress of deep green silk that brushed the top of her silver heels. The silk was warm against her skin, but still she shivered in the cold chill that seemed to seep from beneath those double doors.
She could hear laughter and music on the other side, the sound of dozens of voices having a grand time. Kerry cautiously placed her hands on the doorknobs, ready to open the doors and find out what the hell was going on.
The freezing knobs made her gasp and pull her hands back, but the doors opened anyway, revealing the ballroom of the wizard king. Purple drapes, the color of wizard magic, hung from the windows. The blazing purple crown of the king was embroidered on white silk banners hung between the multiple windows, high above the dance floor. A live band played for the dancers, a soft waltz that made conversation possible. The riot of color against the black evening wear of the men was stunning.
But it was one person in particular who caught her eye. She walked over, confused as hell. “Kelly?” Why was she seeing Kelly laughing and chatting away in a ballroom, surrounded by the wizard court? Kelly wasn’t supposed to be here. “What are you doing?”
Kelly simply laughed, her red silk dress rustling as she bopped Kerry on the head. “Silly, we both belong here. Remember?”
Kerry blinked, staring around the room in confusion. Something definitely wasn’t right. “Where’s Dennis?”
“Who?” Kelly laughed again. “You need to lay off of Lana’s Mai Tai’s.” She turned back to the man she was chatting with, a tall, blond man with stunning dark gray eyes. “As I was saying, finding out I was a warlock was just as shocking for me as it was for Kerry.”
Kerry swallowed hard. What the fuck? “She totally freaked out,” she found herself replying. The memory of how Kelly had gone ape-shit before bonding to a fire elemental suddenly popped into her head.
“But now Kerry and I can be together again, so it worked out for the best.” Kelly put her hand on the man’s arm. Her fingertips gently caressed his forearm, tangling with his fingers. “Now, about that dance.”
The man bowed. “I’d be delighted, Lady Kelly.”
Kelly waved a cheery good-bye. “Find a partner, Kerry. This ball is for us, after all.”
It was? Why? She wasn’t part of the wizard court, not if she was a warlock.
“Perhaps you’ll accept me as a partner, hmm?”
Kelly gasped as warm, familiar arms wrapped around her waist. She wanted to bask in his body heat, her mind betraying her as it shut down at his touch. “Sure.”
He turned her, bowing as the music slowed. “My lady.” He twirled them onto the dance floor. His hand on her waist was so hot it burned. She wouldn’t be at all surprised to find scorch marks on the silk when she got back to her room.
His twinkling brown eyes showed possessiveness no one had shown her before. His hand in hers felt more real than anything else in that ballroom, even Kelly’s presence. Nothing had prepared Kerry for the depth of her attraction to this man with the deep brown eyes and hair so dark it was almost black. “Who are you?”
One dark brow rose in surprise. “Who do you think I am?”
She glared at him, unwilling to play games even with someone so handsome. “Your name.”
He flinched. “Ah, sorry, my lady. I thought you knew. I am Ryder Mastema, a friend of King Gareth’s.”
Gareth? The wizard king? Why did that name make her feel guilty? “How do you know King Gareth?”
He smiled, his perfect teeth brilliantly white against his dark-toned skin. “We went to college together.”
Ah. “So you know his brothers as well, then?”
He frowned. “Brothers? King Gareth has no brothers.”
Now she knew something was off. She pulled away from her partner, ignoring the anger that flashed across his face. “Fuck this place.” She whirled around on her heel and headed for the double doors, ignoring the calls of those around her to stay. She placed her hands on the doorknobs and pulled, but nothing happened.
She pushed, and still nothing happened. She was locked inside this stupid dream, more than likely playing hot and cold with a fucking demon.
“You can’t leave, not yet,” that seductive, deep voice whispered against her neck. His hands wrapped around her waist, trying to pull her back against him. “We haven’t finished our dance.”
Kerry’s eyes narrowed. “Take your hands off of me.”
“Shh.” His hands caressed her hips as his lips barely touched her neck. “We have a lifetime to argue. Let’s just enjoy the moment.”
“I said, get your fucking hands off me.” She clenched her fists, ready to do whatever was necessary to bring him down.
“Tsk.” Kelly stood next to her, blue eyes blazing in fury. “You’re making a scene, Kerry. Get back on the dance floor and stop embarrassing me.”
Kerry had every intention of hopping on her nopetopus and nope-ing her way right the fuck out of there. “I warned you.”
“Kerry—”
Kerry didn’t need to listen to one more damn thing any of the demons in this dream had to say. She’d beat them all down if she had to. She was getting out of here, and returning to…wherever the fuck she was supposed to be.
&nbs
p; She slammed her heel down onto the top of the man’s foot. She waited a moment for him to howl and hop away from her before she spun and kicked him right in the balls. As he fell to his knees, she held her arms over her head. “Goal!”
“Kerry!” Kelly went to slap her, but Kerry wasn’t having it. She grabbed Kelly’s wrist and twisted, dropping Kelly to her knees right beside the dark-haired man. “You’re not my twin.”
Kelly hissed, her lips widening obscenely, her mouth filled with sharp, needle-like teeth that oozed a clear liquid. “You belong to us.”
“I belong to me, and you can’t have me.” She kicked the fake Kelly right in the mouth.
Kelly fell to the floor, howling in pain and rage.
Kerry spun, kicking the dark-haired man in the head before he could get up, but the heels didn’t have as much impact as she’d hoped. Ryder Mastema stood, his body and limbs elongating, stretching until he was towering over her. His spindly arms swept in front of him, barely missing her when she ducked.
“The bigger they are, the harder they fall.” Kerry ran right into the middle of the crowd, desperately trying to kick off her heels. They were less than useless now that she’d balled him; he was too tall for her to repeat the kick anyway.
Kerry was stunned as the people she ran through smeared together like sidewalk chalk in rain, their colors mingling until there was nothing left but a brownish pile of ick. The tattered curtains, no longer royal purple but blackened by fire and age, swayed in a breeze that smelled of death. The banners of the king were smudged with soot and gray with time, the purple crown’s colors darkened and running down the silk. Cracked tiles tripped her as she ran, the demon chasing her scratching its claws along the walls. Its arms had stretched so wide that its claws were shredding the drapes and banners.
“Shit shit shit.” Kerry abandoned her need to get rid of the damn shoes. She just kept running, aware she had no real weapons to fight something like this.
Was this how the demons won when seduction failed? Scare the victim into acceptance, or run them down to the point of exhaustion where the only reasonable option was to say yes or die?
Kerry would die first. She would not submit, not now, not ever.
Behind her the demon howled its rage, the sound shaking the foundation of the world. The castle tilted and cracked, part of the walls falling away to reveal a dark, endless void of pain and despair. It pulsed against her skin as she ran, thick and cloying, slowing her down despite her best efforts to keep on going.
She would not be beat. Not like this. She had to get free, had to get to…
To who? Damn it, if she could only remember!
The floor behind her began to crumble, the stones falling into the darkness. If she didn’t keep running, she’d fall too, consumed by the lake of despair, lost forever inside her own mind.
She had to keep going. No way in hell would the demon get her body.
She stumbled again, her shoes catching on another crack. Behind her, laughter filled the bubbling air as the darkness closed in on her, trying to drown her. Kerry’s life flashed before her eyes, her fight with her sister, her job taken from her, her life nearly destroyed by warlocks. She’d been unbound, her powers freed, but without a source Kerry couldn’t touch them. That wasn’t the way to save herself.
Or was it?
Kerry began to focus. If this really was a dream, then she could control it. It was her mind, not the demon’s. And this was going to stop now.
Kerry whirled around, picturing a solid floor beneath her feet, a floating disk that would stay above the lake and away from the darkness. To her surprise, it worked. A flaring disk of clear, green light appeared beneath her, solid as anything she’d ever stood on. Kerry stared at the demon as it once again howled in rage, shaking everything but Kerry. “I told you. Let. Me. Go.”
It hissed at her, it’s long arms stretching, reaching for her.
Kerry held up her hand. It sparked with green light, ready to fire at the demon if it got any closer. “Let me go!”
“You are mine, warlock, as are all of your kind.” Any seduction was gone from its voice. Rage and possession filled the demon’s tone, its face a twisted mask of hatred and arrogance. “Nothing you do can save you from me.”
Kerry smiled. “Think again.” She lifted her hand and fired at the demon, watching in glee as her fire sent it tumbling into the black abyss.
She fist-pumped, roaring “Yes!” as everything around her settled. The palace, both light and dark, were gone, only the white mist of her dreaming mind left behind.
“Now.” She put her hands on her hips as she looked around. “How the fuck do I get out of here?”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Daniel gasped and sat straight up in bed. He’d dreamed that Kerry was lost to him in a white mist, running from demons who would enslave her soul. He’d tried to find her, following the brief sightings of golden hair and a green gown, but in the end he hadn’t been able to catch up to her.
He’d lost her. She’d never stand by his side again, smiling and joking and driving him insane with her antics. He couldn’t breathe over the feeling of loss, his heart pounding as his wolf cried out in despair.
“Bad dream?”
Daniel’s eyes widened as his heart stopped. Slowly he turned to find Kerry standing next to him, his robe over her shoulders and belted loosely around her waist. Her hair was rumpled and defying gravity. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her hands were shaking as they clutched the lapels of his robe.
She’d never looked more beautiful. “Fuck, sweetheart.” He tugged on the belt, dragging her close so he could hug her tight. “I thought…”
“What?”
He nestled his face against her stomach, breathing deeply. Her scent and his mingled in the fabric. If he’d been a cat, he would have been purring. Instead, his wolf wanted out, wanted to check their mate and make sure nothing bad had happened to her in the moments they’d thought her gone.
“Daniel?” Her hands ran through his hair, soothing his chaotic thoughts. “What’s wrong?”
“I dreamt I’d lost you.” She stiffened, and he knew, deep inside, it hadn’t truly been a dream. He lifted his head and pulled her down onto the bed, holding her gaze steadily while she fidgeted. “I almost did, didn’t I?”
She nodded. “I won though.”
“By how much?” Because from what he saw, it was almost a total loss.
She held up her hand and pressed her forefinger and thumb together. “This much.”
Daniel’s howl was filled with outrage. The demons had invaded her dreams, almost taken her while she lay next to him. She hadn’t been safe, even in his den.
“Daniel!”
He realized he’d truly been howling, the sound still vibrating off the walls. “We finish the bonding tonight.”
“Yes, Daniel.” She tilted her head, baring her neck to him. It was a surprisingly submissive move from his strong-willed mate. “Make me officially yours.”
Daniel bent, biting gently down on her offered flesh. “Right here. The wolf will go right here.” He licked the area, his wolf rumbling in his mind, the two of them joined by one thought. “Mine.”
She blinked up at him, those gorgeous blue eyes of hers darkening with want. “Yours.”
Daniel claimed those full lips in a kiss that sent his senses reeling. Sweet and hot, her taste exploded on his tongue, driving him even closer to muttering the final words of the spell.
Kerry was his mate, his love. No demon would claim what was his. They would perform the binding in the morning, placing his magic in her delicate hands.
She would be safe, and Daniel would forever have her in his soul.
Kerry cried out when Daniel moved down her body and sucked her clit into his mouth. He traced her delicate hole, dipping inside her for a taste before stroking across her clit, tea
sing her with light touches as she bucked against his mouth. Her fingers tangled in his hair, holding him steady as she rode his mouth. He lapped, sucked, nipped and nibbled until she was drenched and panting.
“Please, Daniel.” She sounded desperate, her voice breathless, her hands trembling as she tugged on his hair. “Fuck me.”
He began nibbling on her clit, sucking it into his mouth and stroking it with his tongue. Her groans drove him on, the desperate need to make her come driving him to continue no matter how much she begged.
She was getting close. He could feel it in the trembling of her thighs, see it in the way her toes were curling. He pulled his tongue from her pussy, holding her steady with one hand while he nipped at her clit and pressed a single finger inside her wet pussy. He kept a steady suction on her clit, tonguing it until she was screeching around him, her orgasm shuddering through her, damn near squeezing his finger off.
“No one else can have you.” Sinking into her wet heat he rode her hard, more than eager to spill into her warm depths. “You are mine and only mine.”
“Yours.” Panting, she tilted her head, exposing her neck to his heated gaze.
“Yes.” Bending down he nipped her neck, biting through the skin, tasting her blood on his tongue for the first time. He damn near spilled into her then and there, but Kerry needed to come one more time. He needed to feel her spasm around him, know he’d brought her pleasure beyond anything any other man had ever given her.
The desire to hold her, claim her, mark her as his own was driving him to pound into her. His wolf was almost completely in charge. The only thing either of them regretted was the inability to knot their mate, tying them together to prolong her orgasm.
He lapped at the mark on her neck, where the shadow wolf would appear. He was desperate to speak the words, but the feel of her distracted him. She was clenching down on him, forcing him to focus on Kerry rather than the spell.
“Mine.” It was all he could say as he fucked her. Her cries filled the room, matched only by his growls.
Warlock Unbound: Heart's Desire, Book 4 Page 17