She went to lean against the wall, but before she could deal with the heavy, thick-soled combat boots, Rip had his mouth on hers.
She would have laughed in delight but he was kissing her like their very lives depended on it.
Shoving her hands into his hair, she arched against him. The pants around her thighs kept her from wrapping her body around his the way she wanted to. He slid a hand down her belly and shoved a hand inside her panties, thrust two fingers through her curls, sought out her wet, waiting heat. She groaned and cried out, clenching around him.
He rasped his thumb against her clit, stroked it over and around—then he tugged.
She bucked against him.
Rip turned his face toward her ear. “You can’t ever scare me like that again. Ever. Ever. Greta…”
“Rip, please…” She sobbed out his name, desperate for release, but he kept her hovering, right there on the edge.
Abruptly, he withdrew his hand.
She moaned in denial, her release hovering so close.
The room whirled around her and then she was pressed against something hard. The table. It was cool against her cheek and her nipples pebbled in reaction.
Rip shoved her pants to her knees, her panties tangling with the material. “Now,” he muttered, his voice thick. He fisted one hand in her hair.
And then—
She cried out as he drove inside.
His entry was merciless. She arched her back and shuddered and when he withdrew, she tried to brace herself for the next thrust. It was useless. She wiggled and went to boost herself up, but Rip caught her around the waist. “Be still.”
He was almost possessed, driving into her hard and fast, and she couldn’t get enough.
The orgasm tore into her with vicious claws.
Behind her, Rip stiffened.
“Mine, Greta,” he said, his voice thick. “Mine.”
Chapter Three
Sina had made me a promise.
If she learned anything, she’d tell me.
She probably hadn’t realized it at the time, but there were weird things taking place inside me that meant she was going to have to keep that promise—whether she liked it or not.
She wasn’t the only one who’d undergone some strange power upgrades lately. All of us had, and mine were freaking me out. Mine had actually started within a few months of Will taking over my training. That had been…a few years ago. Time had begun to blur together a while ago, but I think he’d trained me for close to ten years.
Ten years.
It wasn’t enough time.
But those years had changed everything inside me. I wasn’t even remotely like the other Grimm out there. I could do things that I wasn’t supposed to be able to do yet. I think it had to do with being around Will.
My heart ached just thinking of him.
It ached even more as I stood in front of the big, sprawling chateau.
It was Luc’s home, our base of operations, more or less.
And somewhere inside there was Sina—she had news.
I didn’t know what the news was or how I knew it. I just knew she had news. Will’s strange little grapevine that had cued him in on all the strange things going on in his strange little army…I’d somehow developed my own strange little mental version of it. It had led me here.
The winter wind slapped me in the face as I trudged up the hill.
I could have taken a quicker route—I’d covered the distance from the States to here in moments. I didn’t exactly have the odd portals that Will had used—that Sina now used. I couldn’t even define my crazy way of traveling—it was almost like I just…bent time. Time froze and I moved and things blurred and it took no effort for me to go from here to there. But if I was going to a place a few hundred yards away, it was better to just walk the distance. I’d figured that out after I’d busted through a brick wall.
Luc had the door open before I’d cleared the steps.
He smiled at me and offered to take my coat.
I looked down. “I didn’t remember to bring one.”
“Mandy,” he said, sighing. Then he wrapped an arm around me. “You need to take better care of yourself.”
“Why?” I wouldn’t deny the warmth of his embrace felt good. “It’s not like I’m going to catch pneumonia or anything.”
“You should do it because Will would have wanted it.”
I wanted to hurt him for using Will against me. I could even see myself doing that—it’s not like I considered myself a nice person. But before I could force myself out of the numb state his words caused, the soft brush of a foot on wooden floors caught my attention. I looked up.
Sina stood there.
She’s…not beautiful.
She’s striking. And she’s oddly scary.
Gold-dusted skin stretched over high cheekbones and her wide-set, dark eyes are penetrating. You’d think she could see straight through you—and you just might be right.
She’s got a wide, full mouth and when she smiles, she’s almost beautiful, but in all the time I’d known her, those smiles had been rare.
Lately, she smiled even less than normal. Even Luc didn’t bring her to smile the way he once had.
Some people say she parted ways with sanity a while back.
I can understand why they’d think so, but Sina isn’t insane.
She might end up there at some point though.
“Mandy.” She blew out a breath. “Why are you…?”
I lifted a brow. “I told you when there was news, I’d be here.”
“And just how do you know there’s news?”
“Are you telling me there’s not?” I asked.
“No, I’m not.” She glanced up the stairs. “I just…” She fell silent as Rip and Greta appeared at the head of the stairs.
A couple of years ago, I would have been happy to see them.
Greta had been the one to save my life. More than that, they’d saved my soul. I would have been just demon fodder if they hadn’t come along. They’d brush it off if I tried to thank them—I know, because I’d tried to do it more than once, but next to Will, they meant more to me than anybody else on this planet.
Even now, seeing them grounded me.
But I couldn’t say I was happy to see them.
I managed to smile though.
That smile wobbled, then fell at the sight of Greta’s face.
She stared at me with stark, haunted eyes.
The pale blue seemed to hold a thousand tortured secrets and before I even realized I’d moved, I’d closed the distance. She blinked, looking startled, and I realized I’d done it again, used whatever strange gift I’d developed since Will had…left us.
She had her hand on the bannister and I covered it with mine. “What is it?” I asked.
“Greta.”
I could hear Sina on the steps below us, moving up.
I ignored her.
So did Greta.
“What?” I demanded.
My heart started to pound in harsh, near-brutal beats. It hadn’t beat like this since I was mortal and I hadn’t felt like this since the day I’d died. We all do it. Even the Grimm. We die and then we’re brought back. I’d felt like this, on that day. Killed in brutal, spectacular fashion. I’d known fear and pain then, just like now.
“Greta, you’ll be silent.”
Greta curled her lip, but the sneer on her face wasn’t directed at me.
“Sina.”
I didn’t spare Luc a glance, although I knew where he was. I’d come to realize we all had that weird ability to sense the location of another—I’d teased Will about it. The force is with us, I’d told him. He hadn’t understood, so I’d made him watch Star Wars. A few months later, when I’d messed up during a training session, he’d told me that I needed to study more if I wanted to grow in the ways of the force. It had taken me nearly an entire minute to realize he’d made a joke. He’d been gone by the time I’d figured it out.
Thi
nking of it now made me hurt in ways I couldn’t describe.
As Luc placed his body between me and the other woman, I kept my attention on Greta.
She was staring at me, hard, as though she could communicate whatever it was she had to tell me through the power of her gaze alone.
“Luc, get out of my way,” Sina said softly.
“You can’t deny she’s got a right to know.”
I sucked in a breath and my heart exploded. Too many emotions exploded through me even as Sina snarled at Luc from a few steps behind and below. I didn’t really hear her, but I caught the gist of it. This is my show now, Prince Charming. Step aside and let me do it.
Yeah, well…Snow White could kiss my ass.
Barely able to speak, I tightened my grasp on Greta’s hand. I closed one more step and stared at her, our eyes now level.
“Will,” I whispered.
She closed her eyes, and then, slowly, her lashes lifted.
Then, a faint smile curled her lips and she nodded.
“Tell me again.”
Sina stood off to the side, still looking mightily pissed. Luc had given up trying to console her. I suspected they’d have an epic fight and I didn’t give a damn.
Rip was subtle about it, but I had noticed that he’d yet to remove himself from between Greta and Sina.
He took his job seriously.
Sina wasn’t going to do anything that would hurt one of her soldiers.
I knew that.
Greta probably knew it too. Her gifts were fairly similar to mine.
Rip was a warrior though. A fighter through and through, and everything in him was designed to protect.
Sina was pissed and more than a little of that fury was directed at Greta.
She ought to be mad at herself though.
She should have known I’d never rest knowing there was news about Will.
Greta caught my hand, drawing my attention back to her. “There’s nothing much left to tell, Mandy. You already heard what happened.”
“I need to hear it again,” I said.
She sighed and then nodded. “Okay.”
And she started over, from how she’d fallen through—no, how she’d been torn through, and then how she’d come to awareness in the middle of a melee. She’d been tucked behind a dark-haired man, his skin swarthy, clad in clothes that had clearly come from our world but had been worn to rags—jeans and a filthy shirt. She’d known him, Greta had said. She knew she had. The fighting style, the skill, the speed. But she had never seen him, she didn’t think.
Then he’d killed the last of the demons and he’d looked at her.
Will.
“Time moves differently there. Everything is different. The air is…thick, oily and hot. It burns the lungs and stings the skin. It felt like I was there for days. I could watch the second hand on my watch and in my head, I could count the seconds…but they dragged by.”
She paused a moment and when she looked away, I asked her, “You said he knew you?”
“He knew me.” Greta licked her lips. “He hugged me. I…” Greta laughed sadly. “I’ve never known Will to hug anybody.”
He’s hugged me. I didn’t say it. I knew the man in ways the others didn’t, although I don’t know if they would have understood that, or believed me. But there was more to him than the icy wall he presented.
“But he hugged me. He asked how the battle fared and if the rips in the wall between our worlds stayed sealed once they closed. He asked…” Greta glanced at Sina and shrugged. “He asked how Sina was doing and then…” She stopped.
“He asked about me.” When she’d first told me, my heart had damned near cracked straight down the middle.
“Yes.”
Chapter Four
“Tell me where I can find you.”
Will and I were outside his cabin in Germany.
My cabin now.
I hadn’t been there in so long. It was too hard to be there without him.
Too hard to look at the trees and know that when I went out hiking, I’d come back to an empty building.
He was quiet for so long. Was the dream already over? Had I already woken up?
But when I looked, he was there, naked still.
That hard, long body, pale and perfect, gleaming under the moonlight that filtered through the clouds. Finally, he turned his head and looked at me. “You can’t find me, Mandy. I’m gone. Beyond your reach. Just let me go. Move on.”
“Let you go?” I wanted to hit him in his thick head. Then I wanted to climb on top of him, sink slowly down on his cock and remind him that neither of us could let go of the other.
But…I was dreaming. He was right. I wasn’t letting go.
And yet…I crawled to him and lay down, tucking my head against his shoulder. His arm came around me and he brushed his lips over my brow. “Tell me where to find you. I don’t care if you say I can’t. I’ll look until I find a way.”
“The door is closed to such as you, love.”
Then he spilled me onto my back and before I could ask again, he kissed me. Then he kissed me again…and when that didn’t do it, he kissed me again.
Just…lower.
I was moaning when he finished and distracted enough to forget I’d needed anything from him but the hard, driving force of his body into mine.
He made love to me, desperate, clinging to me as though he thought it was the last time. The only time.
What a lie…we didn’t even have a first time.
I sat at the edge of the river, replaying that dream from months back. I could recall each of the dreams, with complete clarity. I’d written them down, made notes about the things he’d said, looked for hidden context, searched for clues…all for nothing. He told me nothing and I felt like an idiot. They were just dreams.
I sighed when I heard the soft brush of sound behind me and closed my eyes, resting my forehead on my knees.
Rip settled next to me.
Back in the distance behind us, I could hear Greta, fighting with Sina. It had been Greta who had sent him out to find me. Not in words, but those two had long since developed that unusual, silent means of communication so many long-time partners have.
They were partners, in so many ways. Not just in the field, but in bed, in life.
“I envy you,” I said as we sat on the shore of the small lake. Moonlight fell across it, painting a rippling stream of white. It wasn’t completely dark. I’d stopped seeing complete dark after my rebirth into my “new” life. You might think it was new and improved.
Lately, though, I could only think of how much it sucked, looking ahead at the years that stretched out before me. Empty, miserable years.
Rip said nothing.
That’s one of the things I like about him. He offers no empty words of comfort and he doesn’t pretend to misunderstand.
He has what so many people long for. Why shouldn’t I envy him?
We listened to the water lapping on the shore and pretended not to hear the sounds of the argument raging nearly a half-mile away. The house’s walls were thick, but somebody must have left open a window because we heard every word.
“What are you going to do?”
I looked over at him. His golden hair fell to shield his face, but I could see the dark brown of his eyes through the strands. He was watching me with the intense patience of a hunter.
“Right now, I’m just going to wait until the dust settles,” I said, shrugging. Lying to somebody like Rip wasn’t wise.
“That’s not what I meant.” He pushed his hair back as he turned to me and I braced myself. “You’ve been planning something ever since Greta told you. I want to know what your plan is.”
“I don’t have a plan.” I lifted a shoulder. That, at least, was true. I knew what I was going to do, but I had nothing so organized as a plan. I suppose, if we had to put a label on it, what I had was a goal.
I was going to find one of the rips left over. There weren’t many left. But I�
�d find one. And I was going through it.
Will had told me something in the dreams that I thought were only dreams.
What if they weren’t?
“The door is closed to such as you, love.”
So maybe the doors were closed. Can’t do anything about that. Can’t force them to open. But if I found one of the rips, one of the windows…well, then I could squeeze through. After that? I didn’t know. Once I had that figured out, then I’d maybe have a plan.
Apparently, I’ve either got a very bad game face or the goal was pretty easy to figure out.
Rip blew out a hard, heavy breath and I looked up to see him shaking his head. “That’s all kinds of stupid, Mandy. You got no idea what the other side is like.”
I gave him my best innocent stare.
Sadly, I have never been able to do innocent well.
“Don’t bother,” he said, jabbing a finger at me. “I know you. I can practically see the wheels spinning in your head and it isn’t going to work. This is just plain…”
“Stupid?” I offered. “Fool-hardy? A certain death wish?”
“All of the above.” Rip folded his arms over his chest. The wind kicked up, sending the long leather coat he wore rippling around his ankles. Some of the material just didn’t flow well, but that was because it was laden with weapons, a few of which mankind had never even seen. Rip wasn’t just a fighter—he also crafted weapons. Some of his designs, I’d been told, were actually the forebearers of weapons being used now. One of them was a rather popular knife.
But I’d never asked him if there was any truth to those tales.
“Dying doesn’t scare me,” I said softly. “What scares me is the idea of living like this for the rest of my life.”
His face twisted and he looked away.
I caught the hair that blew into my eyes and reached back, gathering everything into a knot and tying it back at my nape. “Rip…”
I sighed and looked away. The wind was getting stronger, making my eyes water now. “To be honest, I’ve been dead inside for more than two years. You’ve got Greta. Think how you’d feel if she was torn from you.”
“I’d be dead inside.”
I looked over at him and gave him a tired smile. “Then you understand.”
Grimm's End: Grimm's Circle, Book 9 Page 3