by Cassi Carver
To Kara’s surprise, Gavin laughed and slowly released her foot. “I’ll take my chances with you and the spell casting. You see, I know something you seem to be confused about. Only witches can cast spells.”
Kara lifted her chin, attempting her most intimidating stare. “That’s right, and I am one kick-ass witch. You don’t want to mess with me. I’ve got spells you can’t even imagine.” Please, please, let this crazy man believe her.
“Demiáre don’t need spells, Kara. Power flows through our blood. You have it in you. I can teach you how to use it.”
Kara shook her head. “Demi-what?”
Gavin slowly rose to his feet and adjusted his crotch. Another grimace contorted his handsome features as he ran a hand over his balls. “Dem-y-ar-ay. Your people. Your father was Aniliáre, but he wasn’t half bad for one of his kind. He gained my respect in the years I served him before he died.”
“Died?” Kara heard the words, but she couldn’t accept them. Gavin only nodded in response.
She blinked, her jaw slack, until the ludicrousness of what he was saying struck her. Gavin didn’t look much older than Kara. How could he have “served” under her father? What would that make her old man, some military leader when Gavin was an infant? “I don’t believe one word coming out of your mouth. If you knew my father, prove it.”
“Gladly.” He opened a soft leather pouch at his waist and pulled out a sparkly gold sphere.
“My ring!” Kara gasped. “How did you get that?”
She lunged forward to grab her ruby ring. It was the only thing she had from her parents. It had been on a chain around her neck when she was dumped at the hospital as a newborn, but she couldn’t bring herself to wear the gift of someone who would abandon their own child. Over the years, she’d seen different foster parents eyeing the expensive stone, so she’d taken to hiding it in her underwear drawer. That Gavin had it proved he was not only crazy, he was a thief.
“Look at it, Kara.” Gavin held the ring out to her and she plucked it from his hand.
It was on the tip of her tongue to verbally smack him down for stealing the ring, but the words died in her throat as her eyes caught on the new band fitted perfectly on either side of the old one. She held it between her fingers and inspected it. Every marking on her gold band locked perfectly into the newer band, forming strange words where before it had only been odd shapes. “What is this?” she whispered.
A moan echoed through the room, causing Gavin and Kara to turn toward the sound. Julian’s wings unfurled against Kara’s carpeted floor and he opened and closed his fists, as if testing whether his body still functioned. Gavin arched a brow at Kara. “Hold that thought. Don’t move…please.” He marched across the room and pulled the leather cord from his waist, using it to secure Julian’s hands.
Kara swallowed at the sight of her new lover being bound. Even if he did have silver-gray feathers like a flippin’ metallic pigeon, she didn’t want Gavin to hurt him. “What are you doing?”
Gavin tugged on the knot and looked up. “Hedging my bets. If he wakes up in his right mind, I’ll unbind him. If not, I’d rather not let his shadowy friends suck out my soul.”
“Okay, then.” What could she say to that? “Don’t hurt him.”
Gavin walked back to Kara and regarded her carefully. “Are you already growing attached to him? Did he come in you again tonight?”
Her breath hissed in through her nose. “That’s none of your business.”
“It is my business. Julian is a lord of his clan and I can’t have him bond to you. If you’re not sure about what I asked, come closer, princess. Let me put my hand between your legs to feel you.”
Kara had to laugh. “You wish.”
He smiled. “I do wish. I wish you would have allowed me to pleasure you and finish what I started. Instead you’ve gotten yourself and Julian into quite a mess. He could have killed me tonight.”
“What are you talking about?” Kara fisted the large ruby ring until it cut into her palm. “Who the hell are you?”
“Careful.” Gavin stepped toward Kara to gently pry open her hand. “You don’t want to cut yourself. We’re not ready for you to feed your blood to this ring.”
She frowned. “What happens if I get blood on the ring?”
“I’m not sure. Your father never told me.”
His hand against hers shouldn’t have felt so right, but her confusion beat against the inside of her skull and Gavin was so solid. His skin radiated warmth and safety. The same sense that told her when evil was present told her this man was good. Honest. Noble. She allowed him to take the ring from her grip and slip it on her right hand.
He ran his thumb over her finger and looked into Kara’s eyes. “There. At least that’s one promise I’ve kept. Your father said I would know you and you would know he’d sent me when I united the two halves of this ring. Do you believe what I’ve said?”
The aura of truth enveloped him like a warm cloak in a storm. She didn’t understand, but she did believe. “Yes. But I shouldn’t. You moved in here pretending to be a normal guy, but there’s nothing normal about you. I don’t let men make a fool out of me, but I haven’t been able to keep my hands off you or Julian—and I think you know why. I don’t like being lied to, Gavin.” She laced the last words with warning.
He placed his hand on her shoulder and leaned closer. “I’m sorry. I wanted you to trust me first. I wanted to tell you of this slowly. I should’ve foreseen what being in close proximity would do to us. I never wanted Julian to mate with you. I wanted it to be your choice once you fully comprehended who you are. The end result may be the same, but it should be your choice.”
Kara couldn’t breathe, and her skin was damp with perspiration. Nothing mattered but the fact she adored Gavin Cross—ached for him in the most primitive place in her heart. She wanted him to kiss her and make everything else go away. His dark golden hair curled at his temples, framing the most exquisite hazel eyes she had ever seen, deep green with flecks of gold and bronze. She’d had Julian inside her, and now she wanted this man—thought she might shrivel to dust if she couldn’t have him. “Gavin…” she breathed.
He stilled, seeming to read the desire in Kara’s eyes, then he licked his lips and slowly leaned toward her when a vicious snarl shattered the silence. Gavin stepped back with a sardonic smile. “I think your lover is awake.”
Kara spun to see Julian glaring at them, his two long fangs fully extended again.
“Oh, for the love of Pete, Julian! Put those things away! You don’t own me,” she snarled back, her cheeks burning. It would be convenient to pop out some fangs every time she got pissed at someone, but witches couldn’t do that. She had to use the bad-ass glare.
Julian sat up, his hands still bound before him. “No, I don’t own you, Kara.” Then he looked to his friend. “But I will defend my claim until the time comes.”
Understanding only bits and pieces of what they were saying, Kara shook her head and turned back to Gavin. “The ring. Tell me how you got it. Tell me about my father.” She unconsciously gripped her ring finger with her other hand but pulled her fingers away when she felt a strange heat flowing from the ruby.
“Your father was Aniliáre—a true fallen angel. We—” his gesture encompassed himself, Julian and Kara, “—are Demiáre. The offspring of humans and fallen angels.”
Kara took a step back. “My dad was an angel and he knocked up my human mom? That’s not possible.”
Gavin frowned and rubbed his knuckles across his chin. “Technically, your father was a demon—that’s the fallen part, princess. And your mother, of course she had a little bit of human in her. The Aniliáre are a race of men. Females came only through the human lines, but after thousands of years of breeding, your mother’s blood was so pure, it was almost indistinguishable from the fallen angels themselves.”
Kara sucked in a breath. “My mother bred for thousands of years? How old is she?”
The rustle of Julia
n’s wings caught her attention. “You’re doing a piss-poor job of explaining this,” he grumbled to Gavin. “Untie me and let me up.”
Gavin cocked a brow at Julian. “Can you handle being in the room with her when she’s in this condition, Jules?”
Kara’s breath came out in an angry huff. Gavin’s tone made it sound like she was sick or something.
Julian lifted his chin, but his tan cheeks went ruddy. “I’m fine. I give you my word.” With that, his wings folded down and retreated into the slits in his back. Kara couldn’t see how they fit under his sleek, tight muscles. There wasn’t room for them.
Gavin pulled a small knife from his waistband, cut the strap around Julian’s hands and helped him to his feet. Julian immediately shouldered past him and came to Kara, wrapping her in his strong arms before she could even protest. He rained kisses down on her head and pulled her face against his chest. His bare skin under her cheek smelled like a pine forest after the rain. “Forgive me,” he whispered into her temple, then began to kiss her again.
His lips pressing against her hair over and over melted something inside her. She’d told him there was nothing between them. Sex was just sex. But the tender affection radiating from him held her even more snugly than his embrace.
She pulled back and squeezed his hand. “Just don’t do the nasty claw thing again, all right?” He seemed so fragile at the moment, like he was barely hanging on to his sanity where she was concerned, so she decided to leave the discussion for a better time—such as a time when he wouldn’t try to kill Gavin.
Julian leaned down, his sleek black hair falling across his tan brow, and tenderly took her mouth. She loved the heat in his rosy lips and the taste of him on her tongue but had to pull back when his naked erection pressed against her.
Her head swam and the juncture of her thighs tingled. A moment ago she’d wanted Gavin, but now she was ready to fall to her back and spread her legs for his dark-haired friend. In light of what was going on and all she’d learned about these men and her ties to them, it wasn’t logical. And yet, as Julian stroked his hands up and down her arms, he fanned embers in Kara’s body that were igniting like a brushfire.
“What’s wrong with me?” she whimpered, pressing her palms against her cheeks. She didn’t know whether to slap them or screw them. “Gavin?”
She risked a glance at the larger man, expecting to see anger, but instead saw compassion. “Julian, please,” he said. “I affirm your claim. Please, brother, don’t make this harder on her than it needs to be. You don’t really want me to leave you here to fuck yourselves into a stupor.”
Julian raised his head. “I don’t?”
“You can’t protect her like that. You need to clear your thoughts and keep your vows—to the clan and to her father.”
Julian released Kara and stepped away, grabbing the bloody sheet from the floor and wrapping it around his waist. His shoulders slumped in what looked like shame as the sheet tented over his groin.
He turned to Kara and searched her eyes, choosing to stay on the other side of the room. “Gavin didn’t mean your mother had been bred for thousands of years. The poor woman died when she was only fifty years old—barely a child for one of our kind—and you were her only offspring. He meant that every time the Aniliáre breed with a young Demiáre female, the next generation becomes more pure.”
He smiled then and a melancholy sadness settled in his eyes. “You are your father’s daughter. I imagined you would grow to look like Deanna, but I can only see her in the swell of your hips and the rise of your breasts. My Aniliáre king looks back at me from your eyes, Kara. You have his strength.”
These men knew her father and her mother. The revelation rocked her. She’d always wanted to know what happened to her parents, why they had abandoned her, but now she had more questions than answers.
And the two people she wanted to hear those answers from were dead.
She would never feel what it was like to have her hair braided or be squeezed tight against her mother’s breast. She would never be able to scream at them for the shitty life they’d handed her. Dreams of walking down the aisle on her father’s arm…well, that wasn’t going to happen.
Kara swallowed and her eyes welled. She’d be damned if she would cry in front of these bastards over broken dreams she shouldn’t have been stupid enough to wish for in the first place.
She clenched her fists and swallowed again, trying to clear the lump in her throat. “Do you have pictures? Letters? Anything?”
Gavin smiled and walked to Kara. Two broad silver wings extended from his back and poised above him like a bird in flight. “I do have something you might be interested in seeing, but first, I want to introduce you to your kin.”
“My kin?” Kara frowned. She couldn’t be related to people with wings.
Gavin’s gaze ran over Kara’s black sweater and the sides of her breasts peeking out from the torn fabric. “You might want to put on a shirt for the occasion. The Mercury Clan has waited twenty-six years to welcome you home, princess.”
Chapter Eleven
If not for her own strange supernatural outings with Abbey, Kara wouldn’t have believed it was real when Gavin wrapped his arms around her and lifted them into the sky from her living room balcony.
The night was still and dark as his strong wings pushed off and rose on the light current sweeping through the clouds. His arms around her felt like straps of steel, but she clung to him fiercely, locking her arms around his neck. Her white-knuckled grip dug into his skin as they soared higher. She wasn’t taking any chances if he got preoccupied with flapping and forgot he was carrying her.
Even before dawn, cars bustled through the Gaslamp. “They’re gonna see us,” Kara called, probably a little louder than she needed to with her face pressed against his neck.
Gavin laughed, the deep sound resounding through her. “No, Kara. Our power of will extends as our wings do. Only others of our species can detect us.”
“Oh.” She grudgingly buried her face against his throat again. She didn’t like Gavin laughing at her. It wasn’t as if anyone had given her a manual about how this all worked. She had been Demi-whatever, for like, what? Ten minutes now?
As he traveled higher and higher, Kara’s stomach felt as if it were dropping out from under her. Flying should have been the most supreme thrill, but in reality, it was scary as hell. “Shouldn’t you slow down? What about Julian?”
When the thrust of Gavin’s wings slowed, Kara shrieked and clutched him tighter, sure they’d lose altitude at any moment.
“Faster!” she urged, swallowing back the bile in her throat as she waited to plummet toward the roof of some skyscraper a thousand feet below.
Gavin barked out a laugh as his wings stilled completely—and yet, they hovered where they were, not even moved by the breeze. “You are a demanding woman. Higher, lower, harder, faster. You can’t let a man take the wheel, can you, princess?”
Her cheeks flushed with the heat in his voice, reminding her of how demanding she could be. It was hard for her to let go, but when Julian had taken her up against the wall tonight, he’d also taken some of the control she always tried so hard to hold on to. The worst thing was, she wasn’t sure she minded. Even after seeing him winged and scary, she still needed to know he was all right. “Where’s Julian?”
“He’ll catch up once he gets some trousers on. Trust me, he doesn’t want me to have you to myself for long.”
Gavin lurched into motion again, swooping down through the clouds, his face glowing with pleasure. The cool mist clung to Kara’s skin, mixing with the odd perspiration that had taken up residence there. She wanted to relax and enjoy the ride, but it was too surreal. “So, we won’t fall even if you stop beating your wings?”
Gavin made a sharp turn and dropped to the nearest cloud. Kara gasped and pressed herself closer to the shelter of his body. Then his wings stilled, and he rolled to his back so Kara was lying on top of him, chest to chest. The wa
y the cloud billowed under him, he looked as if he were reclining on a mountain of air-spun cotton candy. “We won’t fall. At least, I won’t fall, not if my wings are out and it’s my will to be suspended here. But you…” He smiled and started to ease his arms from Kara.
“Gavin! Gavin!” she shrieked, wrapping her legs around his waist in a death grip.
She could have smacked him—had she been willing to spare the hand—when he erupted in laughter and moved his grip to her waist. “I would never let you fall.”
Kara squeezed her legs together harder and placed her hands palms-down on his chest, sitting upright on his horizontal form. “You asshole! You sure seem to be enjoying yourself at my expense.”
He pulled her tighter against him, fitting his growing erection into the notch between her legs. “Would you like to enjoy yourself, Kara?”
When he rocked her against his hard length, chills swept down her spine and sent a shock through her core. As her short denim skirt rode up around the tops of her thighs, she felt herself moisten against his bulge, and she wasn’t sure if the wetness was what Julian had left behind or her own body’s primal reaction to having Gavin under her.
She attempted to swallow back her desire, but the soft suede covering him felt like a thin layer of skin between her wet panties and his engorged shaft. She could have come with a few thrusts against him, but she wanted all of Gavin Cross or nothing at all. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of thinking he’d pleasured her again without even taking his pants off. “I know what happens if I say yes, Gavin. Nothing.”
The desire in his eyes flickered to frustration. “Not yet. But someday.”
“Whatever,” Kara grumbled. “Are you finished? Can we go? I have other things to think about right now besides your package.”
Gavin’s eyes narrowed. “Like Julian’s?”