by Avery Duncan
Jamie stared up at him, heart pounding not only at how close they were, but because of what he was asking of her. Was she meant to reveal everything to him? To tell him how weak she had been?
She realized, right then, that if it meant keeping him then she would tell him everything, do anything, to keep him. They had been through so much together, it seemed impossible to be anything without him. To live a day where he wasn’t watching over her. To go to bed at night without his arms around her.
“He... You know how you’ll read about abuse cases in the papers?” she asked thinly, realizing it was a lot harder than she had thought it would be.
Talon nodded mutely, tightening his arms around her until it felt like she couldn’t breathe. The only good thing about it was the fury that was settling in his eyes.
“You had bruises. All over.”
Her face drained of color. She couldn’t remember what she had looked like that long ago, but it still made her feel naked. Like she had been stripped bare and laid before him, baring all of her secrets and pain and hopes that had died miserably.
Her voice was only a whisper when she said, “I know.” What else could she say? Honestly, there wasn’t much she could defend herself against anymore. Would Talon turn out to be like Chris after all? Not physically, but mentally?
Tears blurred her vision.
Jamie covered her face with her hands, trying to stop the shaking and the crying and the weakness. It didn’t seem like he noticed.
“Were they from him?” he demanded. She looked up at him.
Her throat closed up, too tight for her to speak. It took several seconds for her to nod, and when she did, he let out a curse so foul and explicit that she flinched, standing from the bed and moving to the bathroom door.
“Where are you going?” Talon asked, fire in his voice. His hand caught on her shoulder, stopping her movements. She looked over her shoulder, or tried to. It wasn’t like she could see anything in the dim light.
Hues of browns and blacks reflected off of his hair. His hair was dark and wavy, catching the lights from the room. His jaw was dark with a day’s amount of five o’clock shadow. His shoulders were tensed and his lips, so kissable and firm, were pressed together.
And his eyes…
In all her life, that look had never hurt her so much. She had gotten it from her father. From Chris. From her family when they realized that she had lowered herself and whored herself out. In their eyes, and almost everyone else’s, she wasn’t needed or wanted.
Right now, Talon was staring at her with a look that she had seen numerous times. So much hate and anger in just two eyes, so familiar it was painful, but so much more potent that it was soul wrecking.
Jamie shivered, dropping her gaze. She couldn’t look into them and not cry.
His hand on her shoulder burned her, affected her in ways she never thought possible. It hurt, to think because of Chris he would never look at her the same way. Right now, it seemed as if her word were crumbling down around her and there was no way to stop the loss that she felt was inevitable.
“I think it would be better if I just…left,” she said quietly, praying that he didn’t hear the quiver in her voice.
“I can’t let that happen-- no I won’t that happen,” Talon said, moving in even closer than before, pushing her back against the wall. Jamie felt the feathery tendrils of fear mixed with desire waft over her as she stared up at him, their bodies pressed together.
“When I heard that you left… Jamie, I died inside. I thought Auro would get you, or you would get hurt. Losing you isn’t an option I’m willing to accept.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks with complete abandonment. “You don’t….mean that,” she whispered, wiping her cheeks with a trembling hand.
“I don’t say stuff that I don’t mean,” Talon said darkly, eyes flashing down at her. She couldn’t stop the tears, and she really had no idea why she was crying in the first place. He had just said words that no one had ever spoken to her. Never in her life had she been so…relieved. Happy. Grateful.
The hand that had been wiping at her cheeks was engulfed by his larger one. He brought it between them and kissed her knuckles, staring into her eyes the whole entire time.
Man, he was acting so different. So much more caring. So much more...romantic. Her face flushed at the thought, but she couldn’t look away from him, even if she tried. Was it wrong of her to care so much about him after such a short time of being with him? It felt like they had known each other for their whole lives, but maybe that was because of the danger that had bound them together.
Whatever the reason was, she didn’t want to dwell on it. Right now, there was finally someone who cared for her and wasn’t afraid to show her -- at least for right now.
His lips left a fiery kiss on her skin, and it spread through her arms. She grasped onto his shoulders and, deciding to throw her feelings and body into the fire, dragged his lips to hers for a scorching kiss.
The only outward reaction he gave for several seconds was a grunt, and then his arms came around her waist and she was being pushed into the wall. Her foot left the ground to hook around his waist, pushing his lower body into hers.
Fire spread along her kiss. Pleasure and bliss surrounded her. His groan of arousal was enough to have her moaning in reaction and it only got more intense as their kiss turned deeper, hotter, more dangerous.
Jamie whimpered against his lips, tasting her own tears. His fingers dug into the small of her back and drew her closer, his hard-on pressing against her stomach and making her moan with desire. He pulled back, sucking on her lip for a brief second and then moving lower, pressing his mouth to the hollow of her neck. “Did he kiss you like this?”
Jamie’s head fell back against the wall, shuddering and threading her hands into his hair. “No,” she whimpered, not realizing in her desire-ridden state that she had wrapped both of her legs around his waist and now touched the floor in no way.
A large, hot hand slid under her shirt, pushing the material up enough that his fingers were just feathering over the underside of her breast. “Did he make you this hot?”
“God... No, Talon...”
A pleased smile came from him then, but not the good kind. His eyes were dark, no longer silver but black and hot and completely hers. Her stomach jumped at the carnal look in them, mixed with longing and need. He gave her another kiss before stepping moving away the wall and bringing them to the bed. She fell into the downy bed and he hovered above her, a complete change overcoming him.
His hands played with the hem of her shirt, and the small brush of his fingers against her skin had her shiver, aching.
And then he stopped, bringing his hands up to cup her face. “Jamie, I need to ask you something.”
She nodded mutely, staring up at him with glazed eyes, wishing he would just make love to her.
“Did he make you feel...good?” he asked, obviously struggling for the right word. The question drew her up short, made her stare at him with now-solemn eyes. “Well?” His thumbs brushed over her cheekbones lightly, waiting for her answer.
When she shook her head, his face drew into a frown so fierce, it made her toes curl. Seeing the look in her eyes, he leaned down and nipped her neck, then her jaw. His hands slid down her body slowly, cupping one breast while the other moved farther down.
“Good. Because I plan on making you feel as beautiful as you truly are.”
Chapter 14
He licked his cracked lips, watching with rapt attention as the dark cloud came before him, settling into a seething ball of smoke and then forming into soft curves a woman. He was standing outside of his house, in the thick of the forest with candles surrounding him in a circle.
A line of lavender was slit through the middle, signaling relaxation and entrance. With the lavender, it was easier for the woman to appear and form.
He stared with awe as the chiffon settled with a soft movement, the Greek, earthly clothing billowing o
ut behind her as the wind died down, spoke dispersing around them in an ominous fog.
“You have called upon me.”
The hair on the back of his neck rose at the deep voice. The woman stared at him with silvery eyes, almost white in their appearance. Auro held a hand to his chest, and respectfully stepped forward.
“Talon has matured into his powers,” he murmured, praying that he injected enough respect into his voice.
A slight twitch of her white-blonde eyebrow was the only outward reaction she gave. Soft winds pushed and pulled at her hair, whipping it around her hair despite the gentleness of the flows. He assumed it was her powers, her resurrection affecting the earth beneath their feet in ways he could not begin to imagine.
Her face was composed of elegant lines and slopes, with soft angles and a beautiful, pale complexion. Her beauty was unmatched, which was not something unknown. Any man that was graced with her presence, which had not happened in centuries, was immediately enraptured.
Which was why the memory of his brother now dimmed, and was replaced by her hauntingly pale eyes and slender hands, which rose to fix the lapel of her chiffon dress with slow grace and finesse.
Auro again wet his lips, bowing his head as her stare turned indifferent. The blow to his libido went unnoticed when her deeply seductive voice murmured, “And where is your twin?”
Pain and heated anger flared in his chest. “Dead,” he spat, feeling his eyes sting at the reminder that he was now alone. The only consolation he had was Talon. Killing Talon. Killing his woman.
His lip curled, imagining their blood seeping through his hands.
“That is a shame,” she said archly, lifting her hand higher to brush her hair away from her face. “Although I am loath to say this because of his wrong towards my sister, I will consent that I am...sorry for your grief. I assume that this is the reason you have requested a meeting with me.”
Auro nodded his head, looking her straight in the eye. “I know you have the power and the desire to find Talon. Help me kill him,” he suggested, smiling at her with dead eyes. Nothing he could do or say would ever be lively again. Without his brother, he was nothing but a shell that was filled with nothing but the need to avenge and kill.
“Because of your timing, I will consider your request. I have given Talon enough pain to recompense for his wrong against me. I must ask; has he found his lady love?” A soft brush of the chiffon against the ground, sifting through the dead grass, signaled her movement closer to him.
Her voice, more melodic than before, carried over him, lulling him. He watched her with fascinated eyes. Was she coming so close to him, to brush her hand along his arm? To give him a taste of her earthly power? His heart, if he had had one, would have been pumping with anticipation.
A soft light surrounded her. Everything about her was soft, he realized dimly. Her hair, her eyes, her skin, her movements. She was as old as the earth, as graceful as the wind.
And right now, her hand was on his shoulder. His body froze as tendrils of power and amazement surfaced, rising deep within his deadened body. Nothing had ever been so fulfilling, so real -- nothing except his brother.
He let out a hoarse cry as her hand began to burn, seeming to go through his clothing and straight to his non-existent soul. “What... what are you doing to me?” he gasped, breaking every rule that had ever been given to them about the witches and grasping her wrist. As it became unbearable, a bloody tear streamed down his cheek -- and still, she did not let go of him.
“I am doing what I should have done so long ago. You and your brother will have eternal rest -- I will take over from here. But I will need your body...” A peaceful smile lifted her lips, and it was so becoming and beautiful, that he almost smiled back.
That is, until, her eyes shot to black and nothing but a white pupil remained. It was then that the great Auro, so fearless and unbreakable, began to sob and, ultimately, die.
“You have taken my kindness to you for granted... You wish to bring a man that has already been cursed with loss and pain... And most of all? You wish to use me.”
Her voice became indifferent, so opposite of her previously caressing voice. He could no longer feel the pain -- there was too much of it to account for. Instead, he listened with tears streaming down his face, body crumbling before her.
“Do not worry,” she whispered, hair falling around her glowing face as she knelt before him, touching a tear of his. Her polished fingernail raised to her lips, and a pink tongue darted out to taste it. His body convulsed as fire flashed through him. “I will grant your request -- with a price. The woman will die, but Talon will have the choice of what to do with you. He will either give you rest with your brother, or a lifetime of torture at his own hands.” A small smile had her flawless face shining even brighter.
Smoke started to curl around his limbs and hers, once again cloaking her in a black mass of swirling tendrils. Her face was the last thing he saw before she vanished from his view completely, the only thing remaining a single black diamond. It was what he had used to call her, and it was what she left behind -- only when she had the intention of returning.
Except, her lilting voice remained in his head, even as the will to live faded. “But I doubt he will be so generous once he learns that you are the reason his lover has perished...”
Auro’s flesh burst into particles of smoke and dust.
“I can tell you where she is...” a voice whispered, caressing his cheek and ear.
Chris jerked awake, grasping the covers. He looked around the room, eyes frantic and wide. “Who’s there?”
“The woman who scorned you for another man... I can help you with the revenge that you seek...” Shadows curled around his body, tendrils and wisps of smoke running gentle, airy fingers along his skin. It became a trance, holding him still as a dark, streaked light entered the room.
Before him, forming out of thin air, was a woman. A beautiful woman. He stared at her in awe as she seemed to float to his bedside. Curls of smoke flowed from behind her, and he stared with horrified yet astonished eyes as one of her hands came to touch a curl of his blond hair.
It was as if he were still dreaming. A light was in his room, and not from the natural rays of the sun. No, it was because of the woman. She was so...beautiful, unique. Angelic. Unreal. Everything that he had found in Jamie, and then have taken from him...
“Would you like my help?” she whispered, her voice but a soft caress against his pale skin. Chris stared up at her with eyes as large as baseballs. He gasped lightly, reaching up to touch her cheek. She pulled back with a graceful movement, stilling his hand with her own.
“Answer me, Christopher Smith. Do you want my help? I know that you love to be the bigger man, that you like to take control of her... I can give that you to, Christopher.” He shivered at the note in her deep voice. It was so persuasive, so beguiling.
Chris didn’t know exactly what she was saying, only how she was saying it and how much he loved to listen to her. Her eyes were a pale white, cream and calm and bright. He nodded numbly, dimly aware that he might be agreeing to something that would change his life completely.
But how could he say no? She was so beautiful, so...charming and convincing.
“You will find her with her lover at the Alley Cat,” she said softly, pushing her hand into his hair in a massaging motion. He should have moved away, pulled back from her. Something was different. “In a weeks’ time, you will go to her and you will kill her. Do not take her from the building. Lead her to a small room in the back and kill her there.”
He was nodding mutely, completely enchanted. He would listen to anything she wanted to tell him. He would do anything she wanted him to. If she asked, he would walk off a cliff with a smile on his face...
“Go to sleep, Christopher. You will remember all of this within a weeks’ time, and you will know what to do and will have your revenge. In the case that you fail me, I will be very....displeased with you. Please do not let th
at happen,” she said in a lilting voice, her fingers trailing down his cheek and to his jaw.
“If you fail me, you shall die.”
All he could do was nod.
God, she was beautiful, he thought, tracing her lips with a light touch. His other hand was holding her hip, trying to make them come together even closer.
At her soft sigh, and the flush of red that came over her delicate face, desire rose within him sharply. He leaned down and kissed her, opening her mouth and delving in deep. One hand grabbed her wrists and help them above her head while the other pushed down her shorts.
Jamie moaned softly, making him shudder above her. It was such a delicate sound, so soft and beautiful.
And then her nails dug into his back.
He gave a soft growl and nipped her lip, moving down her body and pulling up her shirt. Her pants were thrown to the side, now all he had to do was take off the rest of her clothing and then he’d make a feast out of her.
Fire curled in his gut before dropping straight to his groin. Heavy, thick, and ready to take his female, it was all he could do not to rip the clothing from her body right then.
He had every intention of being gentle, of worshipping her -- he really did. But when her fingernails scored his back and left a burn that was spreading all over his body, it became apparent that that might not happen. At least not for now. He slid his hands up her waist, under her shirt, and to the underside of her breasts.
Talon didn’t stop there though. He pushed up the shirt gradually, kissing up her stomach with feathery touches, palming her breasts and then reaching around to unclasp the damn bra. When it snapped softly, her back arched as if she was silently telling him to take it off and replace it with his mouth.
He was all too happy to oblige. This time, he didn’t stop himself from tearing off her shirt and throwing the remains of the soft fabric to the side. With no barriers between them, he pressed his lips against her collarbone. Her little mewl that came from the back of her neck was enough to make him want to ravage her - with his lips. They curled in anticipation, and kissed their way down her chest, to her breast.