by Angel Lawson
“I do not get tired of seeing this,” she says, running her hands over his smooth skin. He shivers and claims her mouth again, while her hands wander, exploring the line of hair beneath his belly button. He gasps and she laughs into his mouth.
He retaliates by removing her shirt in a hard yank over her head, then taking his time with her pants, tugging them down inch by inch, kissing every spot of her skin before dropping lower. By the time he’s pulled them over her feet her body is on fire and his heart thunders. Astrid’s races to match it. When he pushes her back on the bed and climbs over her body, their skin feels electric. She doesn’t know if it’s him, and what he can do, but he ignites something within her that she can’t resist.
His tongue teases her skin, running over the curve of her breast, lingering on her nipple. She runs her fingers into the soft fringe of his hair, tugging him closer. She wants to feel his weight and wraps her legs around him, using her heels to push off his shorts.
“Impatient much?” He snorts and helps when the fabric gets caught on his erection.
“You know it’s my one true weakness.” On the street, that’s true. In bed, there are probably more. Seeing his cock hard and ready makes her knees weak and stomach churn with want.
His fingers trail down her thighs, nudging them apart, feeling the dampness between her legs. Taking a chance, she reaches for him, stroking the soft tip of his cock with her thumb. In reaction he pulls her to him, dragging her hips down the bed. A grunt makes her smile and he doesn’t wait any longer, entering her in one quick move.
Different men fuck differently, or so she’s learned over the last few weeks. Owen is silly, horny and all in. Quinn, like with everything else, brings a level of intensity. He’s confident. Assured. He always treats her like an equal, in the ring or in the bed (sometimes that’s the same thing) but tonight he thrusts slowly and kisses the sensitive skin next to her ear. His quiet voice whispers little thoughts and she has no problem hearing him, not even over the sound of her ragged breathing. You’re strong, you’re beautiful, don’t second guess yourself. You’re not alone. His fingers link with hers and she’s caught by the blast of his echo. A ripple rolls through her body, unsteady and trembling with a flash of blinding, hot energy.
Her back arches and his thumbs dig into her hips, eyes meeting in the middle of it all. She’s coming when it hits her, what the energy is, what the feeling amounts to, why it’s so much more than every other time, why she feels it in her gut and heart.
His grunts turn erratic, his body hammers into hers and she’s lost to the feelings crashing over her. His thoughts, his words—spoken and unspoken—dance in her mind, and he kisses her at the same time he fills her body with his seed.
Quinn loves her, she thinks, cresting over the wave. Truly loves her, there’s not a single doubt in her mind or body, and instead of that being the most terrifying thing about the day, it’s the best.
Chapter Nineteen
Astrid
The announcement is scheduled for nine a.m. She’ll be finished by 9:07. Dressed in her full suit, she refuses to answer questions, even though the press has many. The conference is held on the steps of City Hall and informs Crescent City that she and her team will step down.
“For the sake of the city, we realize that more harm is being done than good. In an effort to maintain peace and safety, we will no longer patrol the streets or assist the community. The mayor’s Task Force is sufficient.”
The final words barely come past her grinding teeth.
Back at the Lair, she knows this may be the final time she puts on the leather suit. Her cuffs and mask rest secure on their stand. She hopes Atticus understands she’s doing this for the right reason.
Distraction comes easily and she takes out her frustration on the recruits. They run through the parkour gauntlet, each trying to better their time and skills. Owen is doing pretty well; he’s not the leader of the pack, but close. That title goes to a woman named Clarissa Taylor. She’s six feet tall, face like a supermodel, made of solid muscle and disturbingly fast. She’ll be the number one choice out of the recruiting class. Jensen will be thrilled.
Speaking of, the agent strides across the gym floor. He obviously got her call.
“Came to see the recruits?” she asks.
“You know that’s not why I’m here.” His eyes skim the participants anyway. He lingers on Owen, longer than a heartbeat, but she knows his disguise manipulation works. He glances at her. “I think we need to talk.”
She nods at Mick, who is helping the recruits, handing him the score sheet and pencil. They head to the office.
“I’ve known you for a long time, Astrid,” Jensen says from the seat across from hers. “You’re stubborn and determined, a little naïve at times, but you’re not a quitter. If you were, you’d still be wearing that pink hat.”
“I’m not quitting because I want to, Jensen. I’m quitting because the threat is too great. My actions have placed a target on the city.” She eyes him. “Why are you worried about it? I gave you the intel and told you my team is backing off. You should be happy.”
“I am,” he says. “Suspicious, but happy you’ll be safe.”
“Did you give Rowe the details?”
“Yes.” He rubs his chin. “It wasn’t much to go on.”
“You guys have to decide if it’s credible but my gut tells me this is real. If it were up to me, I’d cancel the soccer match. Claim some problem with the stadium or whatever. Anything to keep people out of there that night.”
He exhales. “I’ll try with the Mayor but he’s more stubborn than you are. And you still won’t tell me who your source is? That may encourage him.”
“Nope.” She gives him a tight smile. “Can’t. Sorry.”
Astrid feels a piece of tension drain out of Jensen. He was worried about her, no doubt about that, and for all their head-butting, she can’t fault him for caring. “Let me know if you hear anything else, okay?”
“I will, but part of being out of the game is being fully out of it. You can’t have it both ways.”
He stands and holds out his arms. She steps into them and they embrace. “Atticus would be proud of you, got it?”
“Yeah,” she says, fighting back the tears. She doesn’t think this is how he would have liked for her to end her time as Echo, but he never would have wanted her to risk her life.
“So,” he says, pulling away. “What are you going to do with all your free time, now that you’re not patrolling the city?”
The thought hadn’t occurred to her but the memory of being with Quinn last night and the visual of Owen’s ripped body out on the parkour run flits through her mind. “I have a feeling I’ll stay busy.”
Chapter Twenty
Owen
There’s an agreement in the house that they need to keep busy, away from the news and off the streets. Astrid’s been doing this long enough that separating herself from Echo is a challenge.
“Kill that guy!” Astrid yells at Quinn. He’s playing a video game with Casper while bossing him from the sidelines. She’s covered head to toe, a sign of her anxiety. Cat hat on her head, gloved hands in her hoodie pocket. He wants to cuddle her like a teddy bear but Harry has planted himself in her lap, and even though they are (reluctant) buddies now, he’s not brave enough to move him.
Draco sits on the floor, digging through the books on the shelf. When they moved up here, they all combined their libraries. It’s a mixture of workout books, comics, romance novels, and engineering. The bulky guy awkwardly flips through a comic book with a busty red-head on the front. Owen isn’t sure he really wanted to come but Quinn asked him to have dinner—help Astrid adjust to her new life. He agreed and showed up with four boxes of pizza and a case of beer.
“Hey Draco,” Quinn says from the couch, “who was your roommate at the group home?”
“I didn’t have one.”
“What?” Owen perks up. “How did you manage that?”
He
shrugs. “Guess Miss Rosalie liked me.”
Owen grumbles. “It took me a while to remember mine, you know, with the memory loss, but it finally came to me. It was a kid named Sebastian.”
“Oh, Sea Bass,” Quinn says. “I remember him. Small, big ears.”
“Yeah. He was younger. Cried a lot. It drove me batshit.”
“Of course it did,” Quinn says. “You’ve got a heart of stone.”
“Not true,” Owen says, darting his eyes at Astrid. She laughs. “You think so too?”
“As someone with empathic abilities, you’re not always the most sympathetic.”
“Ugh,” he runs his hand through his hair. “Just so much crying. I mean, sure I feel bad about it now. He was just a freaked-out little kid.”
“What could he do?” Draco asks. “What was his gift?”
Owen shakes his head. “Not sure.”
“What about you?” Draco looks at Quinn. “Who was your roommate?”
“A kid named Rex. African-American? He was only there for a few weeks before shit hit the fan.”
“I remember him,” Astrid says. “African-American? Dark skin and big eyes? He had a scar over his eye.”
“Yeah, his parents died in a bridge collapse. He survived.”
“Really?” Draco asks, intrigued. “How many survivors?”
“Just him.”
They all understand the implication of that. Rex must have been very powerful.
“Do you wonder how many others are out there? We didn’t know about Blaze. He wasn’t on Atticus’s list.”
“It freaks me out to think about it,” Owen confesses. “We don’t even know where Blaze was that whole time. Who he was with.”
Other than the video game, the room grows quiet thinking about it.
Astrid unscrews the lid of her Mountain Dew and tosses it on the table. It bounces off and skitters across the floor. Harry perks up and watches it roll away, assessing if it’s worth his time to investigate.
With the flick of a hand Owen shifts the green lid into a little green mouse. Four legs, a pointy nose, and a long tail. He wiggles his fingers, forcing the animal to move. Harry moves to a sitting position, ears alert. He’s definitely interested.
Amused, Owen forces the mouse to skitter along the floor, dashing back and forth to keep Harry’s attention. The cat watches for a moment, hunching down in Astrid’s lap. She’s not paying attention, too busy yelling at Quinn to “kill the fucking dragon” but when Harry Styles leaps off her lap to attack the make-believe mouse, the entire room watches wide-eyed.
“Are you harassing my cat?” Astrid asks, watching the cat play.
“Just having a little fun.” He shrugs. “What? You don’t ever just use your gift to mess around?”
“No.” She and Quinn answer at the same time.
“Seriously?” He looks at Quinn. “You’ve never just lit a match or a candle?”
“Well,” he glances at Astrid. “Okay maybe. But that’s not messing around. It’s practical.”
Owen rolls his eyes. He picks up his beer bottle and gestures at Draco. “What about you? Woo the women at the park saving their kids? Flash those perfect teeth and muscles for a free dinner?”
“I, uh.” He shifts uncomfortably.
“You’ve never paid for a drink in a bar in your life, have you?” Astrid asks.
“They just appear! It’s not like I want them to send them over, but then it seems rude to refuse it.” He blushes and Astrid cackles in delight seeing him so flustered. “I never took advantage of anyone, though.”
“Just their booze.”
He smirks and lifts his shoulders in a shrug.
Owen turns to Astrid. “What about you? You’ve never screwed with someone’s emotions just for kicks?”
The look she gives him is one of absolute horror. “I would never. That’s like a violation of ethics or something.”
Casper, who has apparently been listening this whole time, says, “Wait, we have an ethical code?”
“Dude,” Quinn says. “You’ve looked all of us up, haven’t you?”
“Social security numbers, medical, banking…” When everyone shouts out in horror, he adds, “It was part of my job to find you!”
Owen leans back in his seat, enjoying the commotion. “Okay well, I say before the night is over everyone has to do one trick. Something big.”
“I don’t want to be accused of violating anyone,” Astrid says, shooting a look at Casper. The two of them can do the most emotional damage.
“We all have to agree—anything goes. As long as no one gets hurt—”
“Or blown up,” Draco says, eyeing Quinn. He nods in agreement.
“I’m in,” Casper says.
“Of course you are, you aren’t even here!”
“I can still play.”
“What about you?” Owen asks Draco.
“If you all want to buy me beer, I’m good with it. I’m just not sure what I can do.”
“That makes you our pawn,” Astrid says. “You willing to take that risk?”
They stare at one another for a moment and Owen gets the sense that the stakes have just been raised.
“Yeah,” he says, swallowing the last part of his beer, “I’ll play.”
Quinn stands. “I’m game but we need to move to the training room.” Owen smiles, rubbing his hands together, and Quinn glares at him. “No snakes.”
“I promise.” Owen has something way better than snakes in mind, and he hops off the couch and follows the others down the hall for a little fun.
*
At the door he stops the group and says, “I’m not going to be a dick, okay? No mice. No snakes. Just a little happiness to get us through the night. Sorry dude,” he tells Casper. “This is one experiment you have to be here to experience.”
The goblin scowls and blinks out.
“I’ve been telling him to get out of that bunker,” Astrid says with a shrug to Draco.
Owen opens the door and steps in first. With his eyes shut, he thinks about where he wants to be and he hears the small rip in the fabric of reality, and slowly it begins to spread.
“What is that?” Draco asks, having never seen him do this.
Owen hears Astrid reply. “That leads to another place.”
“He better be serious about no snakes because I will bomb this place.”
Astrid’s laughter tickles his senses and he opens his eyes. “Follow me.”
“Through that?” Quinn asks nervously.
Owen goes first, feeling the ripple of energy over his skin as he bends the physics of time and space. He’s been working on this more and more after the dragon with Demetria. Sure, he got the parade-goers to safety, but it was nothing more than lights and a warm glow. With this skill he can actually get people out of danger. He never wants to feel that scared again.
Astrid doesn’t hesitate. Just steps through and follows him. A smile lights up her face. She marvels at the soft sand squishing under her feet. Astrid removes her socks, and when Draco crosses over he looks up. A million stars dot the night sky and the sliver of a moon hangs among them.
“Real or not real?” Mr. Perfect asks over the roar of the ocean.
“Real enough,” he replies. “I read an article about this place. An island off of Fiji.”
“You thought it, opened a door and here we are?”
“Pretty cool huh?”
The article he read was a resort, and although the beach is empty, lounge chairs surround a fire pit. Torches are staked into the sand. Thick blankets hang over the backs of the chairs. Owen nods at Quinn.
The man stands in front of the fire pit but stretches his arms wide. There’s a pop and the strong scent of sulfur as a dozen torches light in a flash. His final move is to snap toward the pit and a blazing fire appears.
“That was pretty cool,” Owen says, feeling the heat from the flames. Combining their gifts is epic.
“What about you?” he asks Astrid. The gent
le breeze rolling off the ocean blows her blonde hair, and what he’d give for her to be in a bikini right now. A vision he never knew he needed until this very moment.
He trusts this woman, on the street and off, but the glint in her eye makes him nervous and he wonders what the hell he’s gotten them all into.
Chapter Twenty-One
Astrid
“I still don’t feel right manipulating your emotions. It’s too personal.” She studies the three of them and Owen shifts nervously in his seat.
Owen sits in one of the soft lounge chairs and rests his hands behind his head. “Add to it, bring on those happy, pleasant holiday feelings.”
“He’s right,” Quinn says. “All I want on vacation is to relax and have a good time. Holden and I went to the beach when I was about fifteen and together we built a huge sandcastle. It had tunnels and moats and we decorated it with shells we found on the beach. It was pretty awesome.”
She feels the warm glow of the memory and latches onto it.
“Okay, so, fun time at the beach. I can do that.” With a twist, she thinks. Owen eyes track her every move. There’s zero doubt that he’s always hungry for her and she always feels it. But this isn’t about fulfilling his sex fantasy, although she could if she wanted. Nope, this is about exploring their gifts, having fun and messing with each other. She may not be a snake, but she can still bite.
With her bare hand she touches his cheek and feels an instant shift in Owen’s emotions—the constant horniness vanishes.
He looks at her, at her chest, her legs, and her gorgeous face and feels nothing.
“Hey!” he cries. “What did you do?”
She shrugs. “Just testing the waters.”
“So what? You took away my hormones?” His eyes are a little panicked. She’s done nothing to him but wipe away his feelings for her. He hops out of his seat. “And why do I have all this energy?”
She ignores him and walks over and grabs Quinn’s hand. He doesn’t fight when she drags him over to where Owen now stands. She takes his hand too and channels a rush of emotions into both of them. The two men look past her and at each other. Both have wide smiles on their faces, two seconds later they’ve pushed her out of the way and are alternatingly hugging and play fighting.