by Ann Gimpel
A familiar sadness flashed through her. For the first time, she dared to acknowledge it. Before, she’d always shoved it aside as an indulgence. She scrubbed the heel of her free hand up her forehead. “I suppose I never expected to live out a witch’s four or five hundred years.” She winced, but kept going, determined to tell Duncan the truth. “I didn’t even think I’d live long enough to risk becoming a mother.” She leveled her gaze at him. “Today was hard. Harder than it’s ever been. I’m not certain I would have had enough power to teleport Bubba, the demon, and me into Hell and fight with it too. If you wouldn’t have been there, today may well have sealed my doom. Depends how generous the gatekeepers were feeling. Sometimes they’ve helped me.”
He nodded solemnly. “We’re not certain quite why, but the Irichna have gotten much more aggressive—and stronger too. That’s one of the reasons I searched you out, although I was shocked by how few you were once I found you. We, witches and Sidhe, need to work together. I’ll impress that on the Sidhe council. The days when witches alone could hold Earth have passed.”
“Yesterday, I might have argued with you. Today, not so much.” She paused for a beat, so used to being alone, it was a struggle to ask for help in any form, let alone consider accepting it. When she’d hatched up her idea to bring Duncan along on today’s journey, she’d simply assumed he’d decide dealing with demons was too hard …
He quirked a brow. “So you set me up to get rid of me?”
“Yes. No. For God’s sake, stay out of my head!”
“But it’s instructive to know what you’re thinking.” He tightened his hand around hers and she started. She’d nearly forgotten he was touching her.
“My thoughts are a jumble. I’m not sure what I’m thinking.”
Duncan narrowed his eyes. “I know what’s in your head—and heart.” She opened her mouth to protest, but he shook his head. “Let me finish. You’re a lot like me. Stubborn, willful, determined. I’ve never been one to let anyone close enough to either help me or hurt me. You’re the same way. It’s why we’ll make a good pair. We understand one another.”
She did a quick soul-search and recognized wisdom in his words. Colleen glanced up and was snared by his gaze. She tried to look away, and then realized she didn’t want to. Being lost in Duncan’s beautiful green eyes was exactly where she wanted to be.
“You’re right that I’m torn,” she murmured. “Part of me wants to snap up your offer and another part is scared to death that once I do, I’ll be vulnerable and lose the edge I need to be effective against the Irichna.”
“Maybe we’ll be stronger as a pair.” Something danced behind his eyes: a challenge.
She rose to it instinctively. “I’m willing to find out.” Colleen clapped a hand over her mouth. “I can’t believe I just said that.”
He grinned. “I can.”
•●•
Duncan scooted closer and wrapped his arms around Colleen; she leaned into him. The feel of her firmly-muscled body was unbelievable. He buried his face in her rich auburn hair and inhaled the jasmine-rose scent of her. He held her for long moments, letting the rest of the world drop away. They’d have little enough in the way of time to explore one another until the demons were banished. She wrapped her arms around him and turned her full lips up for a kiss. Because he couldn’t resist, he closed his mouth over hers and explored her mouth with his tongue.
His cock hardened, reminding him of his earlier fall from grace. He wanted Colleen with all his heart and soul, but he wanted their first lovemaking to be perfect, not a byproduct of having survived by the skin of their teeth. He chuckled. Nothing like a near brush with death to drive libido.
She pulled away from his kiss. “What’s so funny?” Her mouth was soft, eyes dreamy with heat-lust. She reached between them and cradled the bulge of his erection in her hand. He groaned and pushed against her, wanting nothing more than to strip off her pants and bury himself deep inside her body.
“I’m just happy.” He reached down and uncoiled her fingers from him.
She quirked a mischievous brow. “I could make you happier. This time, I’d let nature run its course.”
He swallowed hard. Her offer was damn near irresistible, but… With enormous difficulty, he moved a few inches away. “I want you. Never doubt that.”
Her eyes clouded; the line of her mouth hardened. “There’s a but in there. But, what?” She drew back, pale blue eyes never leaving his face. He sensed a truth spell hovering between them.
“Guess I can’t sugarcoat anything.”
“That was the idea.” She curved two fingers and waggled them. “Out with it. I’m a big girl. I can deal with the truth—whatever it is.”
He took a steadying breath, and then another one. “I want to court you, make you my mate—”
Joy lit her face, followed by uncertainty. “But you hardly know me.”
“I know you better than you think. More importantly, I know myself. I’m slightly over a thousand years old. If I haven’t come to a level of self-knowledge where I recognize my life’s mate when she finally shows up, then I should be ashamed of myself.”
She cocked her head to one side. “There’s an, um, mutual attraction between us. A damn strong one. So we need to spend time together to figure out if it’s real and has the stuff to go the distance.”
“There are those elements,” he agreed, “and a few more you’re not aware of.” The truth spell deepened; it pricked him. “Hey! I’ve told the truth.”
“Not all of it,” she prodded.
No, not all of it. He glanced down, and then shook his head and looked at her again. “Sidhe don’t tend to look on matings outside our blood favorably.” She gestured for him to go on. “I have to return to the Old Country for two reasons. To try to secure assistance with the demons, and to lay my heart at Titania’s feet and ask for her blessings on our marriage.”
“Don’t you think you might want to wait on that last until we’re certain we want to get married?” A corner of her mouth twitched. “For one thing, you haven’t asked me, nor have I accepted.” She sucked in a breath. “And I wouldn’t right this minute. Not until we’ve put in more time together.”
Heat swept from his chest to the top of his head. For a moment, he felt like a bumbling youth. “I want to do this right. I want to be free to court you.” He shut his eyes for a moment and then opened them, begging her to understand.
She didn’t disappoint him. “What if Titania refuses?”
“Then I have some hard decisions to make. It would mean I’d have to walk away from my people, be an outcast. It would also end my immortality. Not immediately. I’d still have a few hundred years, give or take.”
“Kind of a lot to give up.” Her eyes shone with unshed tears, but she blinked them away. Her truth spell scattered like so much dust.
Fierce possessiveness rocked him. He never wanted to be a source of pain for Colleen. Never. He leaned forward and crushed her to him. “No matter what. We’ll work something out.” He stroked her hair. “Believe in me.”
“I want to.” Her voice was muffled against his neck. “It’s hard. I’ve spent years only believing in myself.”
“That would make two of us.” He tightened his hold on her. “I don’t know why we found one another now, but it feels like a gift and I’ll do whatever I can to hold onto it.” He peeked into her mind and answered her next thoughts. “Despite the fact we barely know one another, you’re who I’ve been waiting for. You’re the reason I don’t already have a mate.”
“I want to believe you so much, it’s scary.” She drew away, her eyes shiny with unshed tears, and squared her shoulders. “Enough emotional stuff for now. We need to firm up our plans. You’re going to the U.K., and I’m going back to Seattle with Bubba.”
“Will you stay there?”
Her forehead creased in thought. “I’m not sure. I’m not overly fond of Mathilde, but it would be political suicide to shine her when she’s asking fo
r our help. Witches stick together.”
He swallowed a snort. “Yeah, just like the Sidhe. We’ll tear one another to shreds, but let an outsider say one disparaging word…”
“…and everybody jumps him.” She offered him a crooked smile.
Her mouth looked so inviting, he kissed her, but lightly. She was correct, it was past time to leave. He tapped the tip of her nose with a finger. “How about if you give me your cell number?”
“What? No telepathy?”
“All magic draws attention—”
She grinned and rattled off a string of numbers he committed to memory.
Chapter Seven
Colleen hugged the sleeping changeling closer. For once, she’d left him a gnome during teleport because she hadn’t wanted to wake him. They’d just come out in front of the Witches’ Northwest compound, an impressive restored Victorian, complete with turrets and a tower. Thank God it was dark. No shrieks, so her sudden appearance hadn’t startled any mortals. From the position of the moon and stars, she guessed it was long past midnight. She’d planned to emerge inside the building, but she was tired and her casting had gone slightly awry.
At least I got us to the right place—sort of.
Bubba stirred in her arms. She placed her mouth against his ear and told him to be quiet. He nodded against her chest and wrapped his arms around her neck. After a rocky beginning when she’d first coaxed him into joining her, the changeling had come to trust her. She laid her cheek against the top of his thick hair and inhaled his clean, earthy scent. Bubba was like a cross between a protective pet and an adolescent child. They had the occasional tense moment, but she hoped he didn’t harbor misgivings about throwing in his lot with her.
Colleen sent what little magic she had left spinning in a rough circle and breathed a ragged sigh when she didn’t sense a demon. Maybe the pair Roz found had left—or they’d been captured while she was gone. That would be even better, so long as one of the other women escorted them to Hell.
“Pssst.”
Colleen spun around; her gaze raked the darkness and settled on the open front door of the huge Victorian. “Roz. You scared the crap out of me.”
“Get in here,” the other witch snapped. “What the fuck are you doing outside our wards?”
“It’s a long story.” Colleen trudged up the wooden staircase to the front door. Christ! There must be fifty steps. Some of them might have been illusion, but she was breathing hard when she got to the top.
Roz grabbed her arm and almost chucked her inside, slamming the door behind them. Bubba snarled and Colleen set him down. He immediately latched onto Roz’s tatty jeans with a grimy hand and said, “You should be nice to Colleen. We had a hard time.”
Roz cocked her head to one side and nailed Colleen with her dark gaze. “What happened?”
Colleen shrugged. “What didn’t? Do you mind if I sit down?” Without waiting for an answer, she pushed past the other witch into a well-appointed living room that matched the building’s Victorian exterior, and fell onto a plush, padded sofa with needlepoint upholstery. Bubba followed her, staying close. Her head spun from weariness; she bent to unlace her boots and toed them off so she could lie down. She’d no sooner plumped an occasional pillow beneath her head when Roz dragged a chair close, but she didn’t sit.
“Be back in a minute,” she said.
Colleen must have dozed because there was a gap before Roz returned bearing a tray with a bottle of whiskey, two glasses, and fruit and cheese chopped into uneven pieces on a china platter. The corners of Colleen’s mouth twitched as she wondered just what Roz’s foray into domesticity had cost her. Of the three of them, Roz was most likely to buy all her meals out.
“Don’t say anything,” Roz warned as she dropped the tray onto a nearby coffee table.
“How about just thanks?” Colleen made a sleepy grab for a cheese wedge and stuffed it into her mouth. Bubba closed a grubby fist over several food items, all of which found their way to his mouth.
“Hmph. I’d forgotten how much you eat.” Roz patted the changeling’s shoulder and trotted away. “I’ll be back with more cheese and some bread.”
“Double thanks, Roz,” Colleen called after her. “Bubba saved my bacon. He deserves anything he wants.”
“Got it.”
In less than five minutes, Roz was back with enough food for a small army. She set an overflowing plate in front of the changeling, along with a bottle of beer. Colleen poured herself a couple fingers of whiskey. The liquor warmed her. She was just as wiped out, but didn’t care as much.
“Where’s Jenna?” she asked.
“Asleep,” Roz said shortly. “Good thing. Mathilde and her crew are pretty hard to take.” She shook her head. “Tell me how things went with the demon—and the Sidhe. I notice he’s not with you.” She shot a meaningful glance at Colleen.
“Great observational powers.” Colleen winced at the acid in her voice. “Sorry, Roz. None of this has been easy.” She pushed to a sit and raked her fingers through her tangled hair. “Let me start at the beginning…” Half an hour later, the platters of food were picked down to nothing and she’d drunk another few fingers of Irish whiskey. Colleen was a bit tipsy, but she felt decidedly better than she had when she and Bubba first arrived. After a total pig-out, the changeling had fallen asleep in an overstuffed chair, with his long fingers intertwined over his belly.
“So you’re what? Engaged?” Roz’s normally deep voice cracked on the last word.
Colleen threw her hands into the air. “I don’t know.” She gathered her scattered thoughts. “I thought it would be better for us to spend a bunch of time together, decide what we want… But he just sounded so formal. Said he wanted to do things right, to court me, and that he needed permission from Titania, or something like that.”
“Is that why you didn’t fuck him yet?”
Colleen’s cheeks warmed. Roz had a forthright aspect that took some getting used to. “Let’s just say it wasn’t because I didn’t offer.” Tired as she was, heat licked at her nether regions and she pressed her thighs together.
Roz drew her dark brows inward. They looked like startled bird’s wings cutting across her tanned face. “Do you love him?”
“I think I could, given time. God knows, he’s hot enough to set any woman’s blood on fire. He kisses like an angel. And I can’t wait to run my fingers over his body. Between those shoulders and that high, tight ass—”
Roz grunted and made a chopping motion with one hand, but she was smiling. “TMI, even for me. Does he have any traits that make you think he might be useful out of bed?”
“Now that you mention it, he made a good recovery after that inauspicious start I told you about. I was really proud of him.”
“Sounds like he did a hell of a lot better than you did the first time you faced an Irichna.”
Colleen rolled her eyes. That was the trouble with family and close friends. They remembered all of your faux pas. “Thanks. As if I needed a reminder. I actually told him the same thing.”
“You admitted you squalled like a Banshee and took off as if all the dogs of Hell were after you?” When Colleen nodded, Roz said, “Son of a bitch, must be love if you’d disclose something like that.”
“Enough about me.” Colleen stretched out full length on the sofa again, sighing with pleasure at being prone. “Tell me what happened here and then I need to catch a couple hours’ sleep.”
Roz pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. “Mathilde pretty much ordered us to chase down the demons I’d sensed. Jenna refused. Said we’d be better off waiting until you got back. They got into a hell of a shouting match.”
“Not good.” Colleen narrowed her eyes. “I’m surprised you’re still here.”
“We wouldn’t be except some of Mathilde’s witches dragged her off to God-only-knows-where and drummed some sense into her. She didn’t exactly apologize to Jenna, but she did allow as to how we could remain here until t
he current problems were resolved.”
“We could, or we have to?”
“Yeah.” Roz drained her glass and reached for the whiskey bottle to refill it. “I saw it as more of an order than a choice, but we don’t answer to her.”
“Probably not how she sees it.”
Roz blew out an exasperated breath. “No shit. In Mathilde’s world view, we all answer to her. Mortals, witches, hell probably even Druids, changelings, weres, and the Sidhe. Switching gears here, I have a room a couple of floors up. There’s an extra bed in it.”
Colleen stretched her arms over her head. “I’m pretty comfy right where I am. Looks as if Bubba is too. Just kill the lights.”
“Will do.” The other witch extinguished her mage light. She got to her feet and laid a hand on Colleen’s shoulder. “You did good today, sister.”
“Thanks. See you in the morning.”
Roz’s heavy tread faded as she crossed the room and mounted a nearby staircase. Colleen was certain she’d pass out immediately, but her thoughts turned to Duncan. In a drowsy twilight of not quite asleep, but not quite awake, either, an image of him floated before her in the darkness.
She drank in his white-blonde hair and emerald eyes. In her vision, his hair was unbound and came halfway down his chest. He extended his hands to her in a clear invitation to join him and she understood he walked the Dreamers’ Paths. Some witches, those with strong precognitive ability, had access to the dream world. Because of her demon stalker blood, she hadn’t had the time, or energy, to fine tune other parts of her magic. From the time her power had first risen, in conjunction with her menses, she’d been closeted with other demon stalkers, except there had been a whole lot more of them then…
“Colleen. I don’t want you to be sad. Come walk with me.” A dream, yet not. Duncan smiled just for her and crooked a finger. “There’s a moonlit glade not far from here.”
She gazed at him and realized he was naked. His golden-hued skin shimmered as if lit from within. Hard and proud, his cock jutted from a mat of golden curls. Desire, sharp and shockingly present, speared her. She got to her feet, unzipped her jacket, and dropped it onto the sofa she’d just vacated. Next, she pulled her sweater over her head and unclipped her bra. Both slithered to the floor. She thought she heard him gasp, followed by, “Hurry, darling. I need to feel you in my arms.”