by Eden Rivers
Having Sorren explain Skyler’s freakishly strong telepathic abilities did nothing to prepare Zach for how easily she slipped into his head. The two of them didn’t share any history. Had never met before he traveled to Mexico to escort her back to the States. And yet, he felt her in his mind, as if they shared a link to rival the one he’d forged through years of sex and friendship with Alec.
Sky glanced at Zach and reached out to touch his thoughts. Who’s overanalyzing things now?
Zach watched her slide down Alec’s body with easy, sinuous movements and settle between his legs.
A shadow of a frown tugged at Alec’s full, sensual lips. “I hate to ask this, Sky… I know your magic got scrambled. But what about…?”
For a moment, she froze, as if trying to discern what he meant. “Oh.” She shook her head. “Only my gifts got short-circuited. The healers did exhaustive tests, and the other witch traits ‑‑ resistance to disease, and my ability to control my monthly cycle ‑‑ that part works fine.”
Alec flushed in the shadowed half-light, and before the mood could be lost in endless awkwardness, Sky trailed her hands along his chest. When she took Alec’s cock into her mouth, he jerked as if he’d received an electric shock.
Not sure what to do next, Zach rubbed his hand against his friend’s forehead, brushing back sweaty tangles of wild brown hair. Alec’s eyes shone with eerie intensity, feral and frightened, the flecks of amber brighter than the surrounding pools of deep brown. Nothing of the smooth, polished senator remained. Damned if Zach didn’t prefer the wild man to the slick politician, but it tore his heart out to see his friend frightened.
“Just hold him, Zach. He’ll be all right.” Sky’s voice shook with emotion. “You will, Alec. Only good things are going to happen here tonight.”
Keeping her movements steady, Sky made soft sucking noises as she moved her mouth along Alec’s swollen dick, forward and back, slow and easy. Zach eased down onto his side, burrowing into the surrounding pillows so his body pressed along Alec’s right side, plastered against his chest, hip, and leg. When Alec grabbed Zach’s head, he held on like a drowning man.
“Easy does it. We’re here for you, friend of mine.” Zach tilted his head, wincing as Alec managed to grab a fistful of hair.
Alec looked like a dark angel, a cloud of brown hair framing his face, glowing like a fucking halo with the fierce white yellow light arching and crackling overhead. The unusual energy of the circle Alec had cast around them made little hairs stand up on the back of Zach’s neck. Cupping his hands to each side of the half-panicked witch’s face, Zach kissed his friend for all he was worth.
Pain and fear melted away under the gentle strokes of his tongue, and when Alec started sending hungry vibes across the link, rather than near panic, Zach wanted to stand up and do a fucking dance.
Rather than break the kiss, Zach reached out for Alec’s thoughts. Good to have you back.
I, ah, I want you both… Alec’s thought came galloping across their shared connection, urgent and hungry. Bless it, will you just get down there with Sky and make me feel so good I forget about anything else?
Zach’s gut did a quick turnover, and his balls crept up a few notches higher against his skin. After ending the kiss with a gentle nip, he moved down beside Sky. The dark-haired witch released Alec’s glistening cock and moved lower to take one of his balls into her mouth, moving it back and forth inside her cheeks, making little wet noises guaranteed to drive any man wild.
Alec’s hips curled forward, all but rising off the mattress, and he groaned, long and low. As Zach got comfortable, his head resting on Alec’s warm belly, Sky opened her eyes and looked right at him. Gods help him, the fire in her pale blue eyes scalded away what remained of his sanity.
As he took Alec’s thick cock into his mouth, Sky never stopped watching, her gaze hot enough to devour them all. And she never stopped cradling Alec’s balls on her tongue, first one, then the other, sucking and teasing, gentle and wet and warm.
The link between him and Alec tightened, and he felt the silky caress of Sky’s mouth, as if on his own balls, so wet he thought he’d melt. Or explode. Or scream. Or at least spill all over the sheets before anyone even touched him.
As he slid his tongue along the thick vein running down Alec’s cock, gods help him if his own dick didn’t leak a few tears in sympathy. From the noises Sky was making, purring around her mouthful of flesh, she shared more than a casual telepathic connection with Alec herself.
The two of them had forged a link, no doubt about it. To test his conclusion, he swallowed deep, sucking strong enough to take the whole damn length into his throat, and Skyler groaned right along with Alec. He didn’t waste time thinking about the pang of regret ‑‑ fuck, jealousy, might as well call it like he saw it ‑‑ that hit him deep in his gut.
Face-to-face with Sky, her breath brushing his face like a wet furnace, he loved Alec with every bit of skill and affection he could muster. Fuck, he tasted good. Salty and musky, like nights spent rolling around on a bed of leaves under the stars. Alec bucked so hard that Zach held him to the mattress with both hands.
Zach’s dick ached, and he didn’t know how much more of this he could take. But still Alec held back, refusing to let go. Sky lifted her head, looking up toward where Alec thrashed around on the pillows, and grabbed his hand.
Both of you! Alec’s silent plea exploded across Zach’s senses. Please. Both!
Bless it, if this didn’t count as both, Zach didn’t know what did. But when Sky grabbed his face and pushed until he released Alec’s cock, then rested her head on Alec’s hips, facing Zach across Alec’s straining, wet, purple-veined dick, he finally got it.
Sky licked her way up one side while Zach licked his way down the other. Then they reversed, one moving toward the base while the other lapped the head. Alec let loose a string of obscenities and shook so hard, the light of the circle around them flickered with the psychic impact. But still he refused to give.
Chapter Four
When Zach’s aura flared around them, wrapping them in a cocoon of rich green light, tears beaded on Skyler’s eyelashes, but she didn’t miss a stroke. She’d thought she might never feel the healthy, clean brush of a witch’s aura around her again. She kept hers suppressed, tamped down deep to hide its dirty, battered holes and weak glow, like tattered cloth shining sickly purple under black lights.
Alec’s aura flared and swirled around them so hot that sweat broke out on Sky’s forehead. She blinked at the blinding white-yellow light, then gave up and closed her eyes, losing herself in the rhythm of her tongue on Alec’s skin. Nudging Zach back, she took Alec’s cock deep into her mouth, then deeper, so the head pressed into her throat. After a few strokes, she released him, and Zach took over.
They kept that pattern as Alec strained and groaned beneath them, and her heart broke at his struggle. She’d felt the same earlier, up in the bathtub. Afraid to relinquish that last bit of control. Hesitant to trust even that much ‑‑ to allow a few seconds when she couldn’t defend herself if necessary ‑‑ to let heat carry her under and claim her soul.
The more he struggled, the hotter his aura flared. In all her life, she’d never been around a witch whose aura generated actual heat. His energy seemed to be trying to burn away something inside of him ‑‑ perhaps cleansing the remnants of horror he suffered under the dark witch’s hands. Even his skin felt hot, slick with sweat, as she ran her hands over his stomach and chest, trying to soothe him.
Power itched along her back like a rash, as if her aura meant to tear out of the path along her spine. Cradled by Zach’s energy and rocked hard by Alec’s, her own rebelled at not being allowed to come out and play. Soon, the discomfort became pain, and she let Zach take over working Alec’s cock, trying to drag an orgasm from a man who fought surrender with all his might.
Panting beside them, Sky closed her eyes as knives sliced along the base of her skull.
“For the sake of all that�
�s sacred, Sky...” Alec panted for air, and his words ripped free in a long groan. “Just ‑‑ let ‑‑ it ‑‑ free.”
“Might say the same to you.” Her breath rasped in her throat, and cramps ripped across her back and shoulders.
“Right. I will ‑‑ if you will.” With a tremendous yell, Alec shook so hard, the headboard rattled against the wall.
Unbidden, Sky’s aura ripped free and merged with the healthier light of the others’ to lock them into a circle within a circle. As Alec cried out again and again, fierce and unintelligible, she pressed close, covering his chest with her breasts and nestling her head under his chin. Through her connection with him, she felt his balls pull up so tight they hurt and then the surge of liquid fire through his cock.
Her heart hammered against her ribs in the same rhythm, and she gulped for air as oxygen whooshed out of his lungs. Her pussy clenched and released, spasming as Alec spilled into Zach’s mouth.
When she screamed, Zach moaned along with her, and she tasted Alec’s seed, as if she were the one who cradled his cock on her tongue. Then Zach came, and the heady pressure left her dizzy. She grappled to make sense of the unfamiliar sensations of hot liquid racing through his cock, and the delicious ache of his sac as he rubbed against the wet, tangled blankets. How could she have forged such an intimate connection with Zach, when she hardly knew him?
At some point, she teetered on the edge of faintness when she tried to sit up, and she gulped big breaths of air as the room tilted around her. Too much. Pleasure. Emotion. Pain. Exhaustion. But Alec grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled hard enough to call her back, grounding her as air returned to her lungs. She lay across him, as limp as a wet towel, exhausted, all but helpless.
Alec stroked her eyelids with his thumb, traced her lips with his fingers, and slid them into her mouth for her to suck. And somehow, he kept her glued together. Zach moved up beside them, his chest still heaving as he sucked air into his lungs. He lay stretched across Alec’s other shoulder, his face pressed close to Sky’s.
The riddle of links between them hummed with so much emotional static that she couldn’t separate out the various currents. When Zach stroked his hand along her aura, almost, but not quite, touching her breasts, she wanted to absorb his cool, pure energy into herself and somehow use it to mend her own tattered cloak of power.
Holy goddess, how it hurt. Wanting to be whole. Ashamed, she wished she could hide the damaged echo of power riddled with dark holes and sickly shadows. Streaks of light purple laced through the eerie blue light shimmering around her. The faint, healthier shades in her aura were just enough to remind her of the pure violet she used to take for granted.
Still stroking her face, Alec hummed a bit of a tune under his breath, something vaguely Celtic. Images of his Irish grandmother wound through his thoughts, warm and reassuring. Something deep inside recognized the tune and associated it with comfort. Safety.
“See, always there with a bit of a song, or a poem, making things right.” Zach sounded drowsy, though satisfied. “Reminds me of my dad’s sister, with her Celtic lullabies. I forget sometimes that you’ve got a touch of Irish in you, too.”
When Alec paused, she pressed her hand to his chest in a silent plea to continue. But this time, the tune he hummed held the warmth of the Mediterranean and was laced with memories of summers spent in Greece with his relatives. The notes took her away to a place where no one could touch her. Beyond pain. Beyond fear.
Sky huddled closer, even though the small movement caused them both pain. Their prison was sealed tight enough that she couldn’t tell night from day, and Jaimis’s dampening spell prevented them from kindling glow spheres to break the absolute darkness. She could feel the slick drip of blood when Alec lowered his face close to hers, and she reached up to touch the gash on his forehead.
He’d hit hard when Jaimis flung him back into the room, his head contacting the stone wall with a sickening thud. But his thoughts seemed clear enough, and at this point, blood loss from the lashes on his back presented more of a risk. If they didn’t starve to death, or more likely, die of dehydration first.
Near as she could tell, they’d been there three days ‑‑ brutal payback for what Jaimis perceived as her betrayal in helping Lena, her kidnapped roommate, escape. She shuddered, disgusted at the thought that Jaimis had once been her lover. Fuck, if he hadn’t kidnapped Lena in a misguided power play, when would she have figured out what a sick fuck he was? The first time she saw him carry out a blood rite, when he bled a witch to death in order to gain the extra power?
She tried to swallow but couldn’t seem to manage the simple motion. Guilt choked her as she thought of Alec bleeding out at Jaimis’s hand ‑‑ simply because he’d gotten caught up in this mess when he’d tried to rescue her.
As she worried this through her thoughts, Alec continued to press back with images of Greek islands, white structures and achingly clear blue sky, endless ocean, warm wind. Far away. Beyond where the dark witch could hurt them.
The melody lulled her to the point where the tearing pain along her spine seemed almost bearable, and her parched mouth became a torment she knew she could survive. The damp chill of the room ‑‑ somewhere underground, that’s all they knew of their location ‑‑ faded away as she and Alec pressed chest to chest, careful not to touch each others’ ravaged backs.
As he continued to hum, she knew their suffering would most likely end in death. But she also knew that at least one person cared enough about her to hum a lullaby, even when his throat and mouth were blistered and parched, just like her own.
“Sky, oh gods, please, Skyler! Come back!”
When Alec shook her, she let out a startled gasp. Zach held a soft, green glow sphere on his palm, but the light of their combined auras no longer surrounded them, and the dome of light no longer shimmered overhead.
“How long…?”
“About eight minutes.” Zach got up and went into the adjoining bathroom. Before she could think to beg him not to leave, he returned with a paper cup full of water. “Felt like fucking eternity.”
“I’m so sorry.” Alec’s face presented a mask of unchecked panic, and tears streaked his cheeks. “I forgot ‑‑ that I hummed the same songs when ‑‑ oh, gods, how could I be so stupid?”
“No.” Words felt heavy in her mouth, and she shook her head in frustration.
Striving for another way to show him, she called her aura again, letting the energy rise like sap through a tree, until it spilled out of her and added its own light to that of Zach’s glow sphere.
“See?”
For the first time since she staggered out of Jaimis’s prison, she tasted hope. Sweeter than honey, and wilder than country roses, it spilled over her tongue and into her soul. Her aura still shone mottled purple, like a bruise, but the ugly black tears ‑‑ disturbances in the field of energy ‑‑ were fewer now.
“In back, too. The light’s less interrupted. Not whole yet, but better than before.” Following the path of her spine, Zach ran his hands over her aura, and she shivered at the pleasurable feel of his energy brushing hers.
Alec’s breathing came short and ragged as he sat back on his heels, leaning into the mound of pillows, and he studied her until she blushed under his scrutiny. Even with some of the gashes mended, she knew how hideous her aura must look to him.
“I thought we’d lost you. You just ‑‑ went away ‑‑ and we couldn’t call you back.”
“I remembered. Not a scene of Jaimis torturing you. That’s all the dark witch left me with from our days in captivity, when he wiped my mind clean ‑‑ the horrors he subjected you to. I just recaptured one of the memories Jaimis had stolen ‑‑ of you and me. When you comforted me. Hummed that song.” When Alec and Zach stared at her, their faces set in identical masks of confusion, she shook her head hard enough to send her hair whipping out against their chests.
“I. Remembered.” She grabbed Zach’s hand, pulling him down beside her, and dug
her nails into Alec’s thigh. “That’s what’s wrong with my magic. Why my power’s damaged. What he took from me, if I can get it back…”
“I can’t, Skyler. Gods help me, I can’t! Not that. Not even for you. If I go back there, even for a moment, I don’t know if I could survive it. Not sane, anyway.” His words shook with pain and rage, and his loathing for the dark witch battered her with its intensity.
“I know.” Her heart ached for him. Alec had taken more than his fair share of Jaimis’s brutality, distracting the rogue witch a number of times when he’d intended to go after her. “I won’t ask you again. I’m sorry I did earlier.” Hope bled away as she stroked his shaking shoulder, and she let her aura fade until only Zach’s glow sphere lit the room. “Maybe just being around you, like with that bit of a tune you hummed, maybe the memories will start to come back.”
Swallowing hard at what that entailed, she crawled over and curled onto Alec’s lap. For the past year, scenes of Jaimis flaying the skin off of Alec’s back and then raping him as he bled, begged, and screamed for mercy, had haunted her nightmares.
On some level, she knew the same thing had happened to her. The small, half-moon scar on her thigh served as a reminder. But even if she could remember, fill in more patches in her shattered aura, how could she find the strength to absorb the horror? Zach moved closer, sandwiching her in their embrace, and she knew they’d hold her like this all night, if need be.
* * * * *
Still bleary-eyed with sleep, although it was late morning already, Sky paced the length of the living room and eyed the military-style packs Zach had assembled near the door. One for each of them. Enough clothes, first aid supplies, food, drinking water, and blankets to get them through if they had to rough it in the woods for a while. At least her own clothes had finally arrived.
She’d chosen a pair of threadbare jeans, and she wore a dark sweatshirt over her tank top, despite the muggy June heat. Her instincts had been jangling on high alert ever since Zach went out to talk to Sorren’s guards after the three of them finished a hurried, exceedingly awkward breakfast.