by Nora Ash
His movements became more uncontrolled, more erratic, but he kept his promise not to hurt me as he fucked my mouth with low growls and mewls of pure pleasure.
Even though I’d been ridden beyond fatigue, his obvious enjoyment made my own, otherwise thoroughly satisfied, libido start to wake. The thick cock still buried deep in my pussy didn’t help matters, especially not as it was beginning to inflate again, pushing against my battered walls with increasing demand.
Maybe the unexpected spurt of desire was why I dug my nails into Lightning’s hamstrings when he tried to pull away.
“I can’t hold back any longer,” he growled in warning when I clung to him, refusing to let him slip out of my mouth. My jaws ached from his size, but something wild and unhinged deep inside of me craved the taste of his seed, and it currently had control of my brain. Instead of pulling away like I always had when giving a guy head in the past, I tightened the seal of my lips as much as I could and sucked harder on his pulsing head.
Lightning came with a deep groan. He thrust forward, almost reaching my throat again, but managed to steady himself against the top of my head.
The first taste of his cum sent my mind spinning. It was slightly salty, I noted, and then I flew.
Eleven
I tore up through the roof of my apartment, ripping a jagged hole that let me look down on the bed I’d just left deep down below me. Two men were bent over a collapsed body in the middle of the tangled sheets. I laughed at how small they looked and flexed my shoulder muscles with sheer joy.
Powerful wings beat behind- and around me with the motion, and I realized they were a part of me. I had wings!
The night felt like a velvet caress around my scaly body. I swung around and saw the lights from the city spin underneath me, growing ever smaller and dimmer as I continued to soar higher and higher. There was nothing holding me back, nothing tying me to the ground—I was strong and powerful and free.
With another joyful laugh I lifted my gaze to the stars above. The night was endless. Feeling nothing but exhilaration I continued upwards. I could fly forever.
“Kathryn.”
I frowned. Where did that voice come from?
“Kathryn, you need to wake up now. That’s enough flying for tonight.”
Wake up? What? I shook my head, irritated with the interruption. How was a girl meant to get lost between the stars like this?
Someone unseen grabbed my shoulders and shook me, and suddenly, my wings were gone.
I screamed as I dropped like a rock, flailing in the empty air for purpose, but there was nothing to grab on to. Down, down, down I fell, until the lights of the city were once again visible deep below me. Then my high rise appeared directly underneath me, with the gaping hole I’d ripped in it when I took off, and there was the bed with the three people still in it.
The girl was sprawled out spread-eagle, with a naked man on each side.
It was me.
The familiar sight of my own round face and blonde hair sent a jolt of shock through me. Then I crashed through the roof to my inescapable death.
Waking up was like being drenched with a bucket of cold water. I sat up with a yell, panting and gasping as if I’d narrowly avoided my own death. Which I suppose falling from several miles’ height and miraculously surviving would class as.
“What the heck was that?” My voice was hoarse and panting. Someone handed me a glass of water, and I grabbed it blindly and gulped down half its contents.
“That, my dear, was a high.”
“A what?” I twisted my neck to look at The Shade, who was sat next to me on the bed. He was still gloriously naked, save the mask, and my frazzled brain took two full seconds to remember exactly what I’d been doing before suddenly sprouting wings. I glanced up at the ceiling. The white paint was crack-free, without the slightest hint of an impromptu skylight.
“Supe sperm. It gives mortal women a high, it would seem.” Lightning reached out from behind me and planted a kiss in my hair. “Sorry about that. I did try to pull out.”
I blinked. “I… You drugged me?”
“Yeah.” He sounded way too relaxed for someone who’d just gotten his lover high.
I turned around to glare at him, only to be met by a peck on the tip of my nose.
“It sounded like you enjoyed it, though.” He said, smiling mischievously. “You kept laughing manically and muttering about ant-people.”
“I think you should lay back down,” The Shade rumbled. “Your pupils are still blown.”
I didn’t resist as he maneuvered me back down between them. The room did seem a little off kilter.
Both men stretched out next to me, one on each side, resting on an elbow so they could look at me. They way their identical, blue eyes followed my every move made a vague note of self-consciousness set in behind the remnants of my drug haze. I bit my lip and glanced from one to the other. “Sooo… what does this mean, then? I take it I’m not too presumptuous in assuming that the fact that you two are naked and in the same bed could suggest that we need to have The Talk soon?”
There. I did it. I brought up the potential for a boyfriend-girlfriend… boyfriend talk. My nerves were surprisingly calm. Again, probably because of the lingering effects of Lightning’s super juice. Christ.
The Shade smiled wryly and let a couple of fingers dance over my stomach, on top of the duvet. “Oh you assume so, do you?”
I huffed at him. “Well, what do I know, you two may be having threesomes together every other Saturday.”
“Yeah, no, not exactly,” Lightning grunted from my other side. “We’ll talk, Kathryn, I promise. But not now. You’re still high, and we need to figure out… some stuff before we talk to you.”
There was always something, wasn’t there? With a defeated sigh I closed my eyes and let the exhaustion crawl in over my body like a heavy blanket. Maybe once the mayor and Bright had been defeated we would actually be able to sit down and work out what exactly was going on between us, but until then, I’d be best off pretending like my heart wasn’t glowing with happiness from the way both men wrapped their arms around me as my mind started to drift. Saying out loud how badly in love with the two mortal enemies I was would only make everything all the more complicated.
The sky above St. Anthony had just started to brighten ever so slightly when I woke up again, this time to a dull but pleasant ache between my legs and joints so stiff I thought I might need to have them oiled in order to ever move normally again.
I twisted my neck to glance out through the window nearest my bed, and had my line of sight obstructed by a large, male figure. I frowned and squinted at my bed companion in the still-darkened room. It was The Shade, and he was fast asleep, with one bulging arm resting casually around my waist.
I would have never thought he would let his guard down enough to actually fall asleep around me. Or his enemy, for that matter. I looked to my other side, and saw Lightning laying sprawled out next to me, with his hand on my thigh underneath the duvet. He was also completely gone.
So, what, one night of debauched sex with the same woman and they now trusted each other enough to pass out cold in the same bed?
I stared at the sleeping hero’s masked face, and felt a strong urge to sneak a peak. I already knew that the masked man on my other side pretended to be a rich tycoon by day, but Lightning… I had no idea who he was. And if I would even recognize him.
I leaned in a little closer and let my fingers hover over his mask. He would never have to know that I’d looked.
But I would know. And I would know that, when Lightning had allowed himself to be vulnerable around me, I had broken his trust.
With a deep sigh I removed my hand and sat up. I couldn’t do that to him. Even if all his “my woman!” hollering turned out to be rooted in nothing more than the odd sexual attraction between us. Yeah, that talk really couldn’t happen soon enough.
An urgent reminder that I hadn’t visited the bathroom after our escapade
s last night made my thoughts turn to more immediate concerns. Carefully, so to not wake the sleeping men, I extracted myself from the bed, wincing for every painful movement. The Shade growled disapprovingly when I slipped out from underneath his arm, but didn’t wake up fully. He was breathing deeply and evenly again before I was more than two steps from the bed.
Even superhumans fell victim to sex comas, it would seem.
I made my way to the bathroom on wobbly legs, and my muscles’ weakness didn’t feel like it was entirely down to the thorough fucking I’d received. Perhaps there was still a small bit of whatever high I’d been on after swallowing Lightning’s semen left in my system. Narcotic sperm. Jesus-effing-Christ, there should be a manual for humans embarking on any sort of relationship with a supe. I’d been so convinced I was on a wild flight toward the stars, and all because I’d felt like tasting the goods.
The sky was growing lighter when I came out from the bathroom, teeth cleaned and certain areas washed free of sticky reminders of my wild night, but the sun had yet to rise. I had every intention of slipping back into bed between the two gloriously naked men still passed out on it, and maybe see if I could catch a few more hours of sleep before we had to get up and deal with the whole mayor-Bright problem, but just as I passed my desk, my phone lit up.
A new text.
I frowned at the display as it went dark again. Who in the heck would think to text me this early in the morning? It wasn’t like my phone usually blew up with incoming texts and calls, and certainly never at this time of day.
It was too odd to wait until later, even though I wanted nothing more than to crawl back into bed, so I snatched my phone up and checked the message.
It was from Trish, and simply said: “Are you alone?”
I frowned and typed back: “No, but they’re sleeping. What’s up?”
A few moments later, her response ticked in: “Remember the reporter I said was interested in the case? He wants to meet you, now. Without your boyfriends knowing. Can you get away?”
I glanced at the bed. They’d both be absolutely furious if I just took off, but getting a big-time reporter Trish obviously trusted from the biggest network in town would be a massive boon. And as much as I appreciated the supes’ protection, I hadn’t signed up to be the designated damsel in distress, whose only contribution was to faint in the corner while the men worked everything out. I needed to meet this guy, and if he was leery of superhumans, well… I couldn’t blame him. And I also couldn’t drag The Shade and Lightning along.
“Okay. I’ll leave his name on a note for them, though, or they’re gonna tear the city apart if they wake up before I’m back. Who is he?”
The pause before Trish texted back this time was considerably longer.
“It’s Nick Coleman. Meet us down by the harbor, by Macnillan’s old steel factory. And Kat, you can’t tell your ‘friends’ where you’re going, or Coleman will bail. He doesn’t want anyone there but you and me.”
I gaped at my screen for a full minute. Nick Coleman? Nick-freaking-Coleman? As far as reporters went, he was as much of a rock star as they came. Everyone who ever took a single journalism class in college wanted to be him. He was the embodiment of justice, was famous for always getting the story, and had even won a Pulitzer for his work. If St. Anthony had a non-superhuman hero, it was Nick Coleman.
A sliver of relief found its way in past the awe. Maybe it was a bit ridiculous to have more faith in a human reporter than two supes, but somehow having Nick Coleman on my side made me feel like everything was going to be fine—it was a bit like if the president called up to say he was going to personally deal with harassment in your office. Shit was going to get done.
I got dressed as quickly and quietly as I could, because I made myself no delusions that if either supe woke up, I would be going anywhere—and then pulled out a piece of paper and a pen from my desk.
* * *
Shade, Lightning,
Trish called. She got Nick Coleman to help us. I’m off meeting him now. I’ll be back before midday.
Kathryn
* * *
There. While they would undoubtedly still get pissed that I’d taken off, at least they knew who I was with and when I’d be back. I was being responsible, without also being completely useless.
When I snuck out of the apartment and closed the door quietly behind me, they were both still sleeping peacefully. With a little luck, I’d even make it back before they ever woke up.
It was fully daylight when I made it to the harbor, but the sun was hiding behind a thick layer of gray clouds, setting a gloomy ambiance.
Macnillan’s closed-down steel factory was located at the edge of the industrial quarter, and I couldn’t suppress a shudder as I skirted the empty, looming warehouses. I would never be able to see the run-down buildings here again, without remembering what it felt like to be running for my life and knowing there was no out.
“Kat!”
I looked up at the shout, and smiled when I saw Trish step out from behind the steel factory. Her black hair danced in the wind, and she looked tense as she huddled in her coat against the cool winds blowing off the river behind her.
“A nice, warm cafe would have been a lot more pleasant,” I joked as I walked up to her and pushed my hands into my pockets. “Just sayin’.”
She returned my smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Yeah, sure. Nick didn’t want to be seen with us, though. He’s afraid Bright might figure out he’s involved, then.”
I frowned. Surely he was going to anchor the story, so why would he not want to risk Bright finding out? I was about to ask, but then shrugged it off. Maybe he just wanted to wait until we had some definitive proof. He didn’t have two superhuman protectors, after all.
“Is he on his way?” I asked, squinting up at the gray sky. “The sooner I’m back, the less chance I’ll get grounded like a kid. I’m telling ya, as thankful as I am for Lightning and The Shade’s protection, they aren’t half overbearing.”
“He is indeed,” a deep voice sounded behind me.
I jumped and shrieked, then giggled at my overzealous reaction. “Sorry, you startled me!”
I turned around to face Nick, smile still plastered across my face, but where I’d expected to see the famous reporter’s trademark wide jaw and golden head of hair, a feathery mask met me instead.
My smile faded as I knitted my brows in confusion. Mirome stood in front of me, as flamboyantly dressed as ever, with an arrogant smirk on his thin lips.
“Are you… Nick Coleman?” Even as I said the words, they made little sense. If he was, then why was he revealing his disguise to me? And to Trish?
Mirome laughed—a cold, mocking laugh. “As if I would have the time or inclination to infiltrate your human society like that. Why don’t you explain the situation to your little friend, Patricia?”
I frowned deeper and turned back to Trish. Whatever was going on, I had the distinct impression that I’d somehow missed something vital. “What’s going on? I don’t understand?”
Trish no longer looked nervous. She looked at me with calm and… distaste? The shock that went through me when I recognized the look of loathing in her gaze jolted me out of the confusion. Cold, instinctive fear gripped me instead.
“You never did have any clue. Not back in college, and not now. Poor, slow Kat never understood much of anything,” she spat. “You picked the wrong side. Maybe if you would have grasped how powerful Bright is, you would have supported him rather than try to help those two glorified action figures you let into your bed.”
It was obvious what she was saying, but even through the chilling clarity of her confession, my heart refused to believe it. There had to be some other explanation, some rational reason for what she was saying—
“He picked me, you know. Me.” The disgust in her expression turned to pride. “I suppose I should thank you. He discovered me when I was looking into your claims about the mayor. If it hadn’t been for your
little story, maybe he would never have found me.”
The confusion dispersed with a near-audible snap, making way for crispy-clear and chilling understanding.
“Bright claimed you.” It wasn’t a question. I stared at my best friend and finally saw her. She wasn’t the same girl I’d stayed up late nights revising with back in our college years. She hadn’t been the same girl for years, but now… now there was darkness in her eyes. I remembered Mirome’s human, the one who had been so very proud of his servitude, and knew I had lost her.
“I am to be his bride,” Trish said. She seemed lost in her fervent dreams of the future Bright had undoubtedly manipulated her into believing in. “I will be by his side while he rules this city. There will be no other woman with as much power as I.”
I wanted to cry. To scream. To somehow fight the superhuman who was pacing beside us, that arrogant little smirk plastered across his face as if he knew how delusional she was being while only letting her sink deeper and deeper under her superhuman master’s spell. But I didn’t have time. I needed to figure a way out of this mess, and I needed to do it now, while Trish was too busy ranting about her powerful new master to stop me.
Only I knew I couldn’t escape. Mirome would be able to catch me within two steps if I tried to run, and I wasn’t strong enough to fight off a superhuman.
If only I had a way of contacting Lightning or—
My heart skipped a beat when I remembered that I did have a way of contacting them.
At the mayor’s ball, when Elias Shaw had asked for my phone number, he had given me his in return. And I’d typed it into my contact list. Only… even if, by some miracle, the Shade kept the same phone on him when he was masked as he used when he was in his human disguise, then… then he would realize that I knew who he was.
As much as I saw something good in him that no one else in the city did, I wasn’t entirely sure that he would let me live with that knowledge. He might like me, but allow a loose end that could end him by spilling his secret to the wrong person to walk around freely? That didn’t sound like something the infamous criminal would ever do, no matter how fond he may be of my body.