by Joey W. Hill
Regrettably, she suspected Ben would not be on board with the idea. The male would disembowel any customer unwise enough to touch her. An unfortunate stumbling block.
A smile touched her lips. Financially inconvenient, but not emotionally so. Since they’d been together, Mikhael had made it clear she would not intimately entertain any of her clients. Despite his advanced age, the Dark Guardian was emphatically monogamous. Something she’d come to appreciate more than she’d ever expected possible.
“So, is he a normal guy in some ways?” Marcie wanted to know. “Socks left out of the hamper, toilet seat left up?”
The question surprised another laugh out of Raina, and she didn’t balance the surge of energy in time. Admittedly, it gave her a wicked spurt of pleasure when she heard a couple glasses get fumbled in the bar area. Mikhael was right. She did love to misbehave.
“He tells me I can choose. He can focus on getting socks in the hamper, or rescuing me from fiery abysses.”
Marcie rolled her eyes. “Why does it have to be one or the other with guys? We manage to save their asses and keep toothpaste out of the sink.”
“Hence the reason we are considered the superior gender. I think you and Ruby should spend more time together. You have her dry sense of humor. She also owns a gun store. She used to manage it, but she’s turned the day-to-day operations over to John, one of her employees, to raise her son and help Derek. Regardless, firearms are a passion. From the comfortable way you handle yours, I suspect the two of you would have much to discuss in that area.”
“Mmm.” Marcie glanced toward the window. Her profile showed her expression had become pensive once more.
“Marcie.” When the young woman looked toward her again, Raina met the gaze squarely. “As much as I’m enjoying our casual chatter about our men, I sense there’s something deeper on your mind you’re working toward. If I hadn’t convinced you to take this time, it might not have sought the upper hand, but since it’s just the two of us, it’s starting to occupy your mind. So speak of it.”
Marcie studied her. Between one blink and the next, Raina saw that her instincts were correct. When Marcie’s gaze cooled, Raina saw what kind of police officer she would make. The young woman’s back straightened, her hand tightening unconsciously on Raina’s feet.
Raina didn’t have the best relationship with law enforcement, whether they were from the mundane or magical realms. It had made her and Mikhael’s initial relationship somewhat volatile. Yet over time she’d learned to be more appreciative—at least of his brand of authority.
She’d even learned to appreciate Derek more, for the most part. As a result, she didn’t become immediately defensive as the girl spoke.
“When he didn’t annihilate Elagra down there, I started thinking about it. And just now, you kind of confirmed it, the way you have to look at the big picture. I get that, but the big picture to people like you and Mikhael…it’s a lot bigger than what we humans think about.”
Marcie nodded to herself, as if approving her own choice of words, but then she lifted her gaze to meet Raina’s again. “You’re not human. Not fully. Not the biggest part of you. I know what you all told Matt, but he’s as human as we are. Are Ben and I expendable?”
Raina blinked, startled. Marcie inclined her head stiffly, lifted a hand before Raina could say anything. “Ben has seen a lot of bad things in his life. Facing something like what we saw tonight, things come to the surface. Fatalistic things that scare me. He’s tough, brave as hell, and will do everything to protect a woman or child, or one of the guys. Anyone who needs it. Or doing what he thinks is right. Whether he’ll survive it…”
She shrugged, her own face getting more brittle. “That concern doesn’t cross his mind. Deep inside, he never figured he’d survive to be where he is now, so every day since then has been borrowed time. He’ll fight for me, for you, for whatever you’re trying to accomplish, but I don’t know if he’ll fight for his own life.”
She set her jaw, and now Raina drew her feet back as Marcie planted her own and leaned forward, those brown eyes sharp as drawn swords.
“So if your answer to my question suggests you aren’t willing to fight just as hard for him as you would one of your own, I will do what’s needed to get him to step back from this, and I’ll fight as dirty as need be to make it happen. Because my life doesn’t work without him in it. And yes, I will sacrifice New Orleans for it if I have to do so.”
“I was wrong,” Raina said after a moment. “I think you may be more like me than Ruby.”
Before Marcie could get impatient and suggest she was dodging, Raina leaned forward, a mirror image to the young woman’s resolve.
“I would burn the world down to protect what is mine. Mikhael. Sweet Dreams, and my family there. Ramona, Ruby. Cathair. And I do not bluff. I also will not lie to a woman who understands that feeling. Understand?”
Marcie nodded, a muscle flexing in her delicate jaw.
“Good. So listen and believe me. Mikhael and Derek are Guardians. One Dark, one Light, but they share a similar goal and mission. To protect the innocent. That includes those who are not-so-innocent, but who are fighting for the same purpose they are. Neither of you are expendable to us. That would be true even without us getting to know one another better, but,” Raina let herself smile, though she knew her gaze remained hard and steady, “I am already very fond of you.”
She sat back, her expression easing as she waggled a finger at Marcie. “And you should have figured that one out for yourself. Because even if none of that were true, Mikhael will not allow Ben to fall. It’s a matter of male pride.”
Marcie digested that. “Because Ben would be standing next to Death, talking trash like ‘Yeah, the Dark Guardian acts like such a badass, but he couldn’t keep me from getting dead.’”
“Exactly,” Raina’s smile deepened. Then she sobered. “We will work hard to keep you all safe, Marcie, as we would anyone else helping to protect others, as you are doing. You have my word. And Mikhael’s.”
“Okay.” Marcie took a breath. “I needed to ask you that, because I expect Mikhael’s not the kind to answer it straight out.”
“Yes. Men over a thousand years old become even more monosyllabic than normal males. But be assured, it is felt to his very core. He is a cop, in your words, and Guardians are the purest, most uncorruptible face of that role. Sometimes both of them are so ‘by the book’ I want to hit them in the head with it.”
Yet that quietness had a delicious side, Raina knew. As she’d said, it was the quiet of time, and the beat changed in the moment right before his lips were on hers. In that second, the universe experienced a dense, expectant pause. When Mikhael put his hands on her, he made her very aware of how powerful that one moment could be.
She’d once asked him how their relationship couldn’t seem the same as any others he’d experienced over all those hundreds of years. The truth had unsettled her to the core. He hadn’t had a significant relationship before her. Something about his one-quarter angel blood directing him to one lifetime mating, and one only.
Marcie sent her an impish look, back to that side of herself. “You’re thinking about him. It’s kind of comforting to know an all-powerful witch can get moony-looking over her guy, same as me.”
“Yet I can still turn you into a frog for annoying me.”
Marcie chuckled, ignored the threat. “I’ll bet you can overlook that straight-laced behavior of his if it’s balanced by other things. Thirteen hundred years of experience is a lot of time to get certain things right.”
And then some. But Raina shrugged, studied her nails with a mock indifference that had Marcie grinning more widely. “That’s what I tell him. He’s far beyond having any valid excuses for ineptitude.”
“What does he say to that?” Marcie asked, her expression one of female fascination.
“The challenge of learning all of a woman’s needs, changing as constantly and unpredictably as they do, requires an immo
rtal life span to conquer.”
Mikhael had answered the question. Raina’s mate was standing behind Marcie’s chair. The young woman twisted around, startled. Mikhael looked down at her with an impassive expression that made Raina want to pinch him.
“But I do my utmost to keep up,” Mikhael added gravely.
Her Guardian’s wit was sometimes lost on the recipient, particularly when it made them think they had to run for their lives. Fortunately, Marcie was made of sterner stuff, and adept at picking up nuances.
“A humble man,” she managed,
“He is many things,” Raina said. “Humble is most definitely not one of them.”
Mikhael’s eyes glinted at her, but he nodded to their drinks. “Refill?”
“Absolutely. Don’t make Simon piss himself. He’s been kind to us, made us laugh.”
“You are killing my joy.” As Mikhael strolled toward the bar, Marcie stared after him.
“He has a sense of humor,” she noted.
“Also something one needs to get through so many years. Or to deal with me. So he tells me.”
Marcie sobered. ‘I think it’s pretty vital from the first moment of breathing, actually.”
Raina noted Marcie joined her in visual appreciation. The two of them watched the tall male place the drink order and lean against the bar, exchange some conversation with the bartender and Simon. “Don’t stare too hard,” Raina said.
Marcie shot her a look. “You were outright ogling my man when he came down that rope. Quid pro quo.”
Raina smiled, showing teeth. “Ribbit, ribbit.”
Marcie grinned.
Though the conversation at the bar was casual, Raina noted a reserve to the men’s responses to Mikhael that said they didn’t feel the same relaxed rapport with him that they had the two women. They might not know consciously what he was, but the deepest layers of the human psyche always knew.
She turned her attention back to Marcie when the girl spoke again, slowly. The question she had this time wasn’t about life-and-death issues, but things far closer to the heart.
“When I first was with Ben…as much as I pursued him, when I got what I wanted, I worried if I’d be enough for him, for how much he needed and wanted, because of what he is.”
The succubus side of Raina understood. Ben’s appetites and needs were almost as deep as that abyss Raina had fallen into. The young woman had an overwhelming desire to please her Master, and he was not an easy one to please. His sexuality was shaped by his darkness, and it had the clear stamp of sadist on it.
Mikhael had no little amount of that himself, though the darkness was something with which he had a far more organic and balanced relationship than Ben did.
Marcie had a boundless sexual energy, with an intriguing mix of both dark and light to it. She was willing to stretch herself considerably, both physically and emotionally, to meet Ben’s own astounding appetites.
“Were you worried that you might not be enough for him?” Marcie asked, looking toward Mikhael briefly. “I mean, he’s a zillion years old. You won’t…will you live as long as him?”
“No,” Raina said softly. “I will live longer than a human, but not significantly so. He is immortal.”
“That will matter not.”
Mikhael had returned, the four words he uttered embossed with a heavier Russian accent. He put the drinks on the table but then closed his hand on hers, drawing Raina out of the chair. He took her place, bringing her back into his lap, nestling her down so she felt the promise of his always ready-to-be-called arousal against her backside.
She played it casual when she put one foot against the arm of Marcie’s chair, the other back in Marcie’s lap, under her ready hand, but her toes curled under Marcie’s touch when Mikhael did what he did next.
Dipping his finger in the drink, he painted the liquid in a light reddish line along Raina’s throat, trailing sensation there. She tipped her head away from him, lips parting as he sucked the fluid off of her flesh. Her eyes half closed. Though she’d tried to look at Marcie as he did it, offer the girl some pleasurable provocation, there were times the way he touched her took her deep into her head, into a world of heat, crimson swirls, honey sweet dampness.
When he lifted his head, he showed a hint of teeth and touched her chin to guide her face back to him. He caressed her lips with possessive pleasure.
“When you travel behind the Veil, vedma,” he said, “I will find you. The afterlife is no barrier to me. You will never escape me.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” she said, somewhat unsteadily. She couldn’t think about being without him. She pushed that worry away and instead gave him a look every bit as uncompromising on the point as his was. He brushed her chin with firm fingers, but then he turned his attention to Marcie. Raina could tell it surprised the girl, that Mikhael would answer her question directly.
“The vastness of time doesn’t matter, not when it comes to love. It happens when it happens, and there is never enough time to explore it the way the heart wishes.”
Desperate need, insatiable hunger, and a fierce, overwhelming love were things he always gave her, making her believe he would always demonstrate them, in all he did for her.
His gaze came back to her. He’d heard the essence of that thought, because he answered her as well. “You will be the center of my universe, koldunya. My enchantress. In every moment we are given.”
Raina’s heart twisted. She curled her fingers against his nape, caressing his thick hair. They knew so much about one another, and yet there was still so much to explore. She’d never tire of it, and he wouldn’t either. If he did, she’d turn him into a frog. She’d warned him of that, more than once.
His lips curved, and he brushed them over her mouth. He rose and turned, settling her gently back into the chair. He caressed her face before he straightened.
“Derek and Ruby are here. You have a few more moments, but come join us when you’re done with your drinks.”
He held Raina’s gaze an additional moment and then left them, striding from the bar with a glance toward Simon and the bartender. He injected the look with a clear message. While Raina and Marcie were in their domain, he expected the men would watch over them. It made both of them snap to attention as if they’d been given an order by a commanding general.
And that was likely quite accurate.
“Wow,” Marcie said, her eyes wide and mouth soft. “The vastness of time.”
“Well, that’s his take on it. I’m just using him for sex until I’m tired of him. But he’s really, really, really good at it, so I think that will take a while.”
Fire flitted across Raina’s fingertips, a quick burn that threatened her manicure. It made her swallow a yelp and douse her fingers in the drink before it was ruined. She shot a narrow glance along the path he’d taken.
Marcie chuckled. “He also has really good hearing.”
“Far too good.” But then she yielded, giving in to her feelings for one precious moment. “There’s no need to question it or doubt yourself, Marcie. If every time he touches you, it feels like the very first time, then you know. He touches you like that because he feels the same way.”
Chapter Twelve
When they returned to the room, Derek and Ruby were there, in deep discussion with Mikhael at the dining room table. Raina moved to join them but gestured to the balcony, drawing Marcie’s attention to Ben’s presence there.
Taking the cue, Marcie left their new friends to their planning.
Ben was on his feet, in front of the railing but not leaning on it. He had his hands in the back pockets of his jeans. One hip was cocked, along with the angle of his broad shoulders, and he seemed to be studying the city, which was outlined by a rose and gold sky limned with blue. Dawn had arrived. Maybe Raina had some kind of spell that would give Marcie an extra day’s worth of energy, because she had a feeling the day ahead was going to be busy.
New Orleans was one of those cities that woke up
at night and went to sleep in the morning. Maybe it was all the talk about magical energies that made Marcie notice it more than usual. The sense of vibration and electricity that had flavored the New Orleans night had faded away, replaced by a lazy hum, like bees going to roost in their hive. Bees probably didn’t roost, but it worked in her head.
Ben turned at her approach. His smile didn’t quite reach his emerald green eyes, but it came closer as she slid her arms under his, around his taut body, and pressed her cheek to his chest. He took his hands out of his pockets and folded his arms around her. In that one movement, he gave her his heat and strength, his clean male smell, the faint scents of aftershave and soap she knew. He’d showered, eradicating the smell of Elagra’s world.
He put his lips to the top of her head, then tipped up her chin to settle his mouth on hers. The curve of his lips deepened.
“Diablo,” he said. “Appropriate.”
He had a drink sitting on the railing. When she reached for it, still standing in the span of his arms, and took a sip, she found it was a Jack and Coke. Mostly Coke, with just a splash of Jack, for flavor.
She put it down, rested her head on his chest again. “You know how you can do an Irish accent, or a Cajun one?” And when he spoke with either, it made her toes curl.
“Aye, lass.”
She smiled. “I think you need to cultivate a Russian one, too.”
He snorted. “I think you need to spend less time around bad influences.”
She tightened her arms around him. She didn’t say anything else for a little while. They just held one another and looked out at the city. Though, after a while, she did lift his left hand, tangled the fingers of it with her own. He had a big, strong hand, with fingers he called thick, but she thought of them simply as powerful, gentle or ruthless by turns. As their fingers locked, the morning sun flashed off her wedding rings. They were still a new enough accessory to catch her up, dazzle her in a silly way that would make him chuckle at her. It would also make something soften in his eyes, a confirmation that he felt it, too, in a male though equally wondrous way.