by Kim Knox
I flexed my fingers against his forearm, relaxing them—and fought the very real need to form a fist and jab him in the ribs. “Do you enjoy being cryptic?”
He slid his glance to me, and I didn’t need the wraith’s heat to appreciate the hunger lurking in his gaze. “Maybe?”
The smoothness of his voice rolled over me. The urge to push him against the shadowed wall and ravage his mouth rioted in my flesh. And the bastard knew.
I saw the inner gleam in his eyes sharpen.
I pulled in a tight breath, ignoring the curl of flame curving across my breast, blocking out the fierce image he had placed there, of me needing him, aching for him. The police would be tracking us. I couldn’t afford to give in to the desire. However much I wanted to.
Light arched, filling the end of the alley. The street beyond was crowded, the pavement bustling with people and opening shops. Fear turned a tight knot in my stomach.
Blake pressed his fingers over mine. The frisson under my skin forced me to suck in a breath. His eyes narrowed. “Stay calm and relaxed. We’re simply a couple window-shopping.”
I held down a snort. “This is never going to work. Your face and mine were plastered over every screen, downloaded into every tech-wearer. People know us like they know their own family.”
“Probably better.”
I glared at him. “Do you do this to annoy me?”
“Yes,” he said, and a rare bright smile broke out across Blake’s mouth, transforming his grim features from starkly handsome to simply...beautiful.
My heart missed a beat, my stomach hollowed, and all thought dribbled from my brain. I was already having dangerous reactions to him. Now that smile? Wrong in every way.
I pulled my gaze away from him, down to my hand, and realised his palm still sat warm against my knuckles. What game was he playing? Was his touch, his—for want of a better word, charm—an attempt to gull me? He had managed to pull my thoughts away from my earlier question. “I’m a candidate for what?”
Blake ignored the question and tugged me forward into the busy shopping street.
I silently cursed him. Adrenaline surged, riding the edge of growing panic. Nearly every individual over sixteen had our image at the forefront of their brains, and Blake had us happily strolling through the middle of them.
My gaze fixed on my feet. Slyly, I watched the shop owners as they arranged their wares in stacked crates or waiters as they planted tables and chairs with a loud clatter on the flagged pavement outside of cafés. My attention darted over strangers’ faces, my nerves tight. They seemed preoccupied, probably catching up with tech-updates that streamed into their brains.
I could never tell. The old insecurity twisted my anxiety. I was a part of the 2 percent. The few for whom wearing tech in our flesh was impossible.
I was set apart from the people in the South Bank and had never shared in the network that linked them. Could never share in it. It was probably why my obsession with magic grew as the magicians rejected modern technology in all its forms.
I couldn’t make a scene, but I would have answers from Blake. My voice became a tight whisper. “A candidate for what?” I repeated. “However much you try to deny it, you work magic. I don’t. I would love to...” I paused. I was not revealing that need to him. “I would. But my entire family for generations have been null. Super nulls,” I added for emphasis. “So I can’t—”
His hand closed over mine, and the heat of contact silenced me. I hated my reaction to him, hated it. He stroked my fingers. “When we’re safe, I’m sure you’ll get your answers.”
I counted my breaths. It didn’t help the burn of anger in the pit of my stomach. “Could you be more patronising?”
Blake glanced at me, and a ghost of smile touched his mouth. “Oh, yes.”
My gut tightened, and for a hazy moment, more than anger burned there as his smile touched the wraith deep within me. Heat flowed. Shit, my legs wobbled.
“This is insane,” I muttered.
His gaze snapped away, and his profile became stone. Damn it, answers were obviously something Samuel Blake did not give. I just got looks that turned my legs to jelly.
I focused on the long street, slowly coming to life. Sunlight slanted over the old stone facades, gleamed against wide windows, and cast thick shadows as it hit coloured awnings. Everything looked normal, until I followed the line of the street as it sloped down to the river.
A heavy bank of cloud shifted grey and brown over the fast flowing water. Wait. This street led down to the piers, and that meant the river. He couldn’t be thinking of going back there. That would be insane. “Where are we going?”
“The river.” He was insane. “Why?”
“Too many questions, Leona,” he murmured and patted my hand again.
I knew he was fucking smiling.
I gritted my teeth and tried not think about the heat of his palm against my hand. I failed, and the...thing he’d planted in me shifted hot under my skin. I let out a short, quick breath, fighting the need pulsing through my flesh.
Blake’s hand snapped back, untangling his arm from mine, and he shoved his hand into his trouser pocket. “It’s where I have to take you.” He sighed and straightened his shoulders. “This has become overly complicated. If you hadn’t run at the dock...”
He was blaming me for this? The cheeky bastard. I willed myself to stay calm. Just. “That...”
I risked a look around. The thick run of pedestrians wove past in varying streams, all of them oblivious to us. Damn it, arguing was dangerous. Why didn’t he simply tell me what the fuck was going on and have done with it?
“You told me to run. Tobias had won. I had thought that you would...”
The rest of the words soured in my mouth. I wanted to bite my tongue before I gave the bloody man a compliment. I already gave in to him too easily. But I had thought he would take the magician apart.
“What?”
Seemed he wanted me to say it. I lifted my jaw and stared off into the morning crowd. He didn’t seem to be taking the threat to our lives seriously. Practically every person on the street had our faces inside their skulls...and he played. And I’d be damned if I would join him in his game. He walked silently beside me, a hulking presence I was determined to ignore.
He leant in close, and his breath brushed my ear. “Thought that I’d…what?”
The deep smoothness of his voice slid through me. I cursed yet more reaction as heat pooled low in that place I didn’t want to think about, and a flicker of fire curved against my hip.
Fuck— The pulse of sirens thickened the air, churning into familiar rising screams with each passing second. Soon cars would pile men onto the street. My gaze flicked up, but the air was still clear of vehicles. It didn’t help my straining nerves.
And what the fuck was he doing?
I pushed my mind back to questioning him while I still could. “Nothing.” Damn, the man made me crazy. “What about the cult?”
His stride didn’t falter, but there was a hesitation before he said, “Questions are for later.”
“You’re in the cult, aren’t you?”
“Leona...” My name was a growl.
It licked heat through me and stirred the wraith into a slow twist over my breasts.
Shit. There, striding toward us, hands gripping holstered weapons, were four police officers. Riot helmets shadowed their faces, and antimagic bristled over the armour plating of their black uniforms.
Had they seen us? Did the antimagic shrouding them pierce whatever the fuck Blake’s spells did? I wanted to panic. I wanted to scream, and declare this was all a massive mistake…
But the wraith would not be denied. Not for a single heartbeat.
The slight curl against my forearm and my hip I could handle, but now it wasn’t playing fair. Just like Blake.
And damn it, I had to clutch at him to stop my knees from buckling, my fingers digging into the soft material of his sleeve. I couldn’t help myself,
but contact made it worse. So much worse. I groaned against the fire twisting hot and fast through my flesh.
“Get this bloody thing out of me.”
“What is it doing to you?”
“You know what—”
I bit off the rest of my words, the sudden searing intensity scattering my thoughts. Ripples of pleasure rose in heated waves through my body. Fuck. Fuck.
The wraith slid slow across my belly, licking its liquid fire through my muscles, sinking deeper, sinking down…
“I need...” I swallowed in a parched mouth. “I think I need somewhere...private.”
I glared at him. “Now.”
Chapter Eight
“We don’t have time for this,” Blake grated, his gaze fixed on the approaching officers.
My hand bunched into a fist, dragging at his sleeve. I needed something to stop the relentless tug of wraith-driven desire. Dragging Blake closer to me didn’t help. Not at all.
He smelt cool and fresh with the scent of the ocean. Biteable. So fucking…lickable. I moaned and wet my lips. “Tell that to this...this thing.”
“Over there.”
Blake pulled his arm free and snaked it around my waist. He took a firm grip of my hip, and his touch burned hot through the layers of my clothes.
The wraith sank lower.
Not good, so not good.
We wove across the street, sidestepping those rushing to work and those ambling outside a nearby coffee shop. The wraith flared as I recognised the place as the one Blake had threatened, promised to fuck me in.
Walking became almost impossible. How could my day get worse? Now we couldn’t even escape because I had some sort of magical creature twisting through me, intent to work my flesh into a frenzy.
I’d never read of such a thing. It had to be high, restricted magic, because if the average magician knew a wraith existed, they’d have charged every client a fortune for a few minutes with it.
To my relief, Blake pulled me into the dark slice of narrow alley cut into the long terrace of shops. I had to lean against him, my legs losing strength. Bricked-up windows and doorways sank back against the high walls. The bustle of the street faded away, and the alley seemed to fill with my hoarse breathing.
This smacked of madness. Complete madness. The police would find us. But my body teetered on the edge of—
No, I wouldn’t think the word, because if I did—
Heat flared between my thighs. The wraith twisted there, endlessly shifting and slithering. I twitched and shuddered and tried to hold it together as Blake hustled me farther into the dank blackness of the alley.
“This isn’t supposed to be happening,” he muttered.
“Tell that...to your wraith.”
My back hit a wall, and the chill only intensified the fire burning tight and hot in my belly. Blake stood close. So close I drew in his scent with every breath. Clean, sharp, with the tang of the sea, and I ached to taste him: his lips, his skin, hell, any part of him I could have. My head dropped back against the cold brick.
My eyes closed. I didn’t understand the need I had to kiss him, just knew it would somehow bring us closer. Which was a strange thought as we’d done so much more, but the wraith ached for my mouth on his, echoing something deep and buried within me.
I could sense Blake. His outline. A burning shadow against my flesh. I almost expected the brush of those large hands over my breasts, slipping, sliding lower…
“Leona.”
The growl of warning in his voice danced sparks behind my eyes. A moan escaped me.
“Damn it, Leona. Be quiet.”
What the hell had he done to me? I burned with the need for him to touch me. And the wraith twisted faster, fire searing through my tight flesh. It held me. My blood pounded.
So close… So close, I could almost taste my release.
I just needed—
Frustration and desire surged through me. I just needed—
Him.
Without thought, I dragged Blake to me. I thrust his hand between my thighs while my mouth found his. Hot and wet, our tongues fought. He tasted...
I couldn’t help the little escaping mewl of satisfaction.
He was everything I wanted. Everything. And his fingers... Oh his fingers curled in exactly the right way. I gripped his hand, urging him harder, faster.
Little splinters of light burst through my brain. My release pushed closer. His fingers and mouth and the relentless twisting of the wraith pulsed my body with a delicious ache. Just a few seconds more. Just—
“Come for me, Leona.”
The heat of his thoughts, of Blake touching my mind burned through me. My spine arched, pressing me hard against his hand. The orgasm shattered over me in a joyous burst of heat and light.
Blake swallowed my cry, his kiss easing me down, down as the rush left my body weak and sated. His hand curved around my hip, gently stroking. Kissing my lips, my jaw, he drew me tight into his arms, buried his face against my neck. I closed my eyes and breathed him in. Safe. I finally felt safe.
“Leona...” The hot whisper of my name stirred the sated wraith. I slid my hands beneath his shirt to the smooth heat of his skin. The wraith teased my fingertips, and Blake groaned, his arms tightening around my body. Could he feel the pinpricks of fire that burned my fingers? “What are you doing to me?”
That question had me grinning. I slipped my hand down, breaching his trousers, working my way over the smooth, hard muscle of his backside, around to his hips, and then finding the rough curl of hair below his abdomen.
My fingers closed around the solid length of his erection, and he growled against my skin. I ran my thumb over the sensitive head. “I’m doing…this.”
Blake lifted me, pushing me hard against the alley wall. I lost myself in the endless black of his gaze. The wraith burned between us, a surge of flame and rising desire. Cool air washed over my suddenly exposed skin, and I watched a smile curl Blake’s mouth. My trousers had undone themselves and pushed down my legs. My underwear, trousers, and boots dropped to the alley floor.
“No, I’m still not a magician.”
Returning words dried in my mouth as his cock pushed against my clitoris. My spine arched, and the action slid him farther against my sensitive flesh.
Almost, almost...
The wraith twisted wildly, pulling us together. This was right. This would seal the touch of our minds, the strange telepathy that our kiss had instigated.
His hands tightened against my backside, and the first push of him into my body flared a rush of bright joy. I clung to him.
Groaning, I found his mouth, biting his bottom lip, my tongue eager to tangle with his. Blake deepened the kiss, mimicking the slow, deep stroke of his cock. The wraith burned between us, the feel of it connecting our minds, our flesh, bringing such incredible desire and the promise of even greater satisfaction.
I didn’t care. Didn’t care that we could be caught with me half-naked, that the police would see Blake fucking me up against an alley wall.
I needed him. Needed to pull him hard against me, taste him, kiss him, fuck him, have the fire wraith within me bind our flesh, make us one.
Blake moaned, the sound rumbling from his chest, and his fingers flexed against my arse. “We shouldn’t do this.”
The burn of his thoughts across mine shocked a gasp from me. I hadn’t imagined it.
My mouth broke away from his and I almost sank into the shadowed darkness of his eyes, the feel of a heavy, satisfying warmth filling me. I blinked. “You’re letting me look at you.”
Blake rolled his hips, and the push of hard joy through my flesh arched me against him. A sharp smile curved his mouth. “And you’ll have to accept what you see.”
“What—”
My thought cut off as a dark shadow fell over him and something other lived in his features. A great spread of wings arched behind him, and the salt-sharp scent of the ocean filled the air, wrapping around me. Had magic done this to hi
m? Had following the Sea-Dragon twisted his flesh? “What are you?”
Blake grinned, the blur of the creature moving with his harshly handsome features. “That would be telling.”
“Damn it, Blake—”
His sudden thrust, deep and hard, broke my complaint. He pulled me toward him, and the great cool curve of his wings wrapped around my body, cocooning us. The strange touch of the taut skin of his wings over my bare thighs ran a shiver through my flesh. But Blake held me, his fierce grip urging me against his cock, the angle finding my clit with each thrust.
I buried my face against his shoulder, the mix of realities riding my thoughts. My cheek rubbed against the smooth material of his suit, but there too, I felt the silk-smooth press of his hot, bare skin, the taste of it spiced on my tongue. I clung to him, and whatever intoxicating magic he spun, my fingers, my breasts, stomach, and thighs found the same duality. I didn’t question the feel of my naked skin against his. I wanted it. Craved it. Craved him.
Yes, my life was officially insane.
His low growl rumbled through his chest. “So sweet.” Blake’s thoughts caressed mine, and the wraith surged, driving a bright curve of flame-heated desire up from my pelvis. “I wanted you. The hunger to take you, to taste you.” His wings tightened, the sensuous slide of warm skin against my spine, my arse, my thighs making me push hard against him. “I couldn’t deny you.”
The rush of sensations, of his form, his nakedness, the twist of fire and arousal of the wraith through our flesh surged over me. The fierce pulse of my release throbbed just on the edge of my awareness, tightening my body, making me meet every wild stroke of his cock, glory in the hard grip of his hands on my backside.
“You make me think bad thoughts.”
There was an undercurrent to his words that made me breathless, a promise that if he followed his desire, it would be…glorious.
I took his mouth, his raw, powerful taste sweeping over my thoughts. I pushed down on his cock, and need flared. “How bad?”
“Very bad.”
“Then think them.”