by Aidy Award
Ace opened his mouth to protest, but Neo gave him that Wyvern look, and he shut the hell up.
Neo looked over his shoulder at Kady, who was talking to the gnomes. Ace thought he saw Mr. Gunderson wink at him. “Look, Kady would probably kill me if she heard me giving you this advice, so you didn't get it from me. Got it?”
Jerkwad gave a shrug accompanied by a raise of an eyebrow like he didn't care, but Ace could tell whatever Neo was about to say mattered. He knew, because this advice could mean the difference between redemption or sinking back into hell.
“Kady made me watch the War of the Stars movies and I believe Ash is your Princess Leia. You both have feelings for her and she for you. You must prove through actions that you are the right one for her. Both Luke and Han kiss Leia, but she knows all along who her true mate is. But she needed him to prove himself to her. I suggest you do the same.”
Ace held up a hand. “You want us both to kiss Ash, like at the same time?”
“You two figure out the details. And do it quickly.” Neo waved them off and walked back to his own mate.
Well, fuck. At least Trip wasn’t around to harass them, or egg them on. He still hadn’t returned from their meet up that morning. Probably off dicking around.
“I guess we'd better start by finding our girl.”
“Don't call her that.” Jerkwad shoved Ace in the chest.
Great. Now he was looking for a fight? Fine. “What do you want me to call her?”
“She is not ours. She is either yours or mine.” Jerkwad pointed with his newly sprouted talons. His dragon was taking over. “I won't share her.”
Two could play at the partial shift game. Ace let his protective scales ripple across his skin. “Unless that's what the White Witch and the First Dragon want us to do.”
Jerkwad stopped his huffing and puffing and stared at Ace for and uncomfortably long time. “Maybe not even then.”
Ace noticed the red fire in Jerkwad's soul shard flicker and then felt a buzz in his own chest. “She's nearby. Let's go.”
They both scented the air. Dusk had fallen and the twilight time when shadows were long, turning into night was a shadow dragon's power hour. Ace's small use of the shadow back at the Cult's compound had been tempting fate. But how he longed to slip into the realm between light and dark, stretch his wings, and use it to find his mate.
He couldn't do that. But he could send wisps of shadow out searching for him. Ash reappeared about a mile away. She was outside some kind of food service place. Aha, the pie shop above the wolves' not so secret bar.
“I've found her. Let's go.” It took only a few minutes for Ace and Kurjerkwad to get the Sleepy Folk. Ash stood in the doorway, her arms wrapped around herself, her face dejected and scared.
Ace swallowed a lump in his throat. He'd done this to her. One more piece of evidence that he was not her true mate. But even in the darkness crawling up around them, the light from his soul shard glowed, reflecting back in her eyes.
He walked toward Ash and saw her flinch, so he slowed his pace and stared up at the sky instead of at her. She didn’t need to be pushed.
Jerkwad too held himself back. “Do you think she will refuse to mate with one us? That will kill me.”
His brother’s fear struck all the way to Ace's core. “Neo’s story gave me an idea.”
“I’m glad someone has a fucking clue what to do with her. Her body responds to us, but her heart and her mind are a complete mystery to me.”
If their lovely human had no experience with the pure carnality of mating that he felt, he and Jerkwad would have to show her exactly how hard that pull was to resist. “We will have to work to make her fall in love with one of us. Her logical mind is what's rebelling. We need her to act on instinct. She needs... us. I can scent her arousal. If she'll give in to that, we'll have won the first battle.”
“Fine. But how?”
“Exactly what Neo said. We'll both kiss her.” Again, Ace's dragon rebelled at the idea of letting anyone else touch his mate. He had to remind himself, it was her choice, and she hadn't chosen yet.
“Yes, and we have the help of her body’s need. I will use that advantage to the fullest.”
Great. Like he needed to give Jerkwad an advantage.
Seducing her, touching and tasting her body would push the fundamental, base demand the mating frenzy was already exerting on her. She would only be able to resist for so long. When she was ready to let him take her body, he would have proven to her mind that they belonged together.
Or not and that she and Kurjerkwad belonged together.
They slowly approached her, and Ash watched him warily but didn’t disappear or run from him. That was already a win. She held up her hand. “Stop right there. I don’t want any more kissing.”
Ace continued to get closer, but slowly, sauntering with his hands in his pockets, as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “I understand.”
She backed up another step, pressing her back against the brick facade around the door. “You do?”
“Yes. I won’t kiss you again until you ask me to.” She would.
If she was a scared little bunny, he needed another reason to get close to her. She'd be here whether he was her mate or not. They'd been sent to get a scientist who had information they needed. He could distract her mind with that. “We didn’t liberate you from the Cult simply to mate with one of us. We need your help to defeat the shadow demons.”
Kurjerkwad caught on fast to Ace's plan. “Our team says you're developing a way to contain them. That would go a long way in our battle to stopping them from stealing more souls.”
She thought about that for a minute and Ace saw the instant her thoughts moved from one subject to the other. “Why would you bring them into being? You had to know they would get out of control.”
“Little flame, we didn’t. We don’t know exactly who first created them, but since they are destroying families.” His voice wobbled more than he wanted it to. He had to stop and clear his throat. “My brothers and I have fought to protect others and find a way to destroy the scourge.”
He continued to inch his way to her side and only needed one last step to be within touching distance of her. She gasped when he closed the space between them and the arousal she wanted so much to deny wafted over his senses. Fuck, how he wanted to touch and caress and pleasure her.
She wasn't ready and He took her hands in his and squatted down before her so that she was looking down into his eyes. “Will you help us?”
Her touch electrified him, but he very carefully kept his face blank, searching only for her answer. Was this what it was like to be a mate? Pushing aside his own needs for hers gave him a much more intense surge of honor than thinking he could give her multiple orgasms.
She swallowed and frowned with one side of her mouth. “That’s what the Men In Black that recruited me to the Organization said too. I don’t know what to believe, who to trust.”
Kurjerkwad reached out and stroked her arm. “How can we prove to you what we say is true? We are...the good guys.”
They didn’t have the empirical evidence her scientist brain would want. If he hadn't seen how devastating the effects of the shadow demons were on his own people, he might be suspicious too. That was it. The proof she needed was at his fingertips.
“Let me show you something.” He pulled out his phone and flipped to the picture app, holding it up so they could all see the images. A hollow place inside that he usually kept covered with long hours of work and hunting for the shadow demons opened like an old, fettered wound.
Ash stared at the photos, while Kurjerkwad looked away. The first few were of Jett and Yvaine at their birthday party at the castle. Yvaine was happy and clearly having a good time. Ash couldn’t tell, but Yvaine had just given Jett a t-shirt that said something inappropriate about going off to ride his unicorn.
He swiped the image to the side and brought up the next one. Yvaine laid in a hospital bed, her eyes gl
azed over, her mouth hung slack, and the healthy tone of her skin now gray. The shard at her neck, hung dark as an average river rock. “This is our Wyvern's mate after the shadow demons and the Cult of the Dead stole her soul.”
Ash frowned and studied the image, pushing her glasses up her nose and leaning in to examine it closer. She reached out to touch it and pushed it away, bringing up the next one. Her eyes flicked back and forth over the pictures.
Ace had thought they were all invincible back then. Especially Yvaine. She was the one who'd saved and healed them all. He thought he could protect anyone he wanted to, which was a joke. He couldn’t even keep his own family safe.
Would he be able to keep Ash from harm? A whisper from his soul said maybe she would be the one to shield him from all that was dark and soulless in his life.
“I am sorry for your loss.”
His loss. He couldn’t swallow past that phrase. He hadn't lost anything but his right to call himself a warrior. Yvaine wasn't the only one who'd had her soul ripped from her. There were families of supernaturals spread across the US who had to be cared for in their mostly vegetative states. The ones who the Brotherhood would have to murder if they couldn't find another solution to destroy the shadow demons.
“No. I’m sorry I said that. It’s a stupid phrase. You didn’t lose anything, it was taken from you.” There was a new vehemence behind her words, like she was angry that this happened. Another reason to love her. Which he shouldn’t do.
He put his hand around hers and squeezed gently. He did his best not to notice the shimmer of magic around them when he did or the way the light from his shard lit up her skin.
Jerkwad growled out, “Is this enough to convince you to use your skills and knowledge to end this war?”
Ash looked between the two of them and shook her head. “No.”
Good Guys In the Dark
Ace
Fuck.
“You could have faked any of these images. This isn’t science. This isn’t proof. Like at all.”
He knew his evidence was nothing more than an anecdotal story from a wounded soldier. He’d stupidly decided to show her a part of himself he hadn’t even meant to reveal.
She’d seemed so vulnerable and he’d responded in kind, thinking that was what his mate needed. Not kisses, not seduction, but the emotions that pushed them to do what they had to every day. Ace stood to take a step back and regroup. Maybe they should go back to plan A where they seduced her. That had been a better idea.
Ash stopped his retreat with a palm pressed to his chest, scant centimeters from his soul shard. A new spark fired from within, reaching out for her. ” But I didn’t need the science to know that the spectrals destroy lives. I needed to know that working with you wasn’t a mistake.”
He pressed his hands over hers, holding her to his heart. “It’s not. I vow to you we want nothing more than to end this plague on the world.”
“That’s not entirely true.” Her eyes flicked between him and his brother. “I think you want something else from me that I’m not quite ready to give.”
He leaned in, watching her carefully to make sure he wasn't scaring her, and brought his lips as close to hers as he could without actually touching them. He already knew her taste, his mouth watered with anticipation of having her again. “I will wait forever for you, little flame.”
His gaze flashed from hers down to her lips and back up again. Her brow wrinkled, and he saw her brain go back to work. Not good.
Should he kiss her to pull her back into this moment, or would that push her away again?
Ash took the decision out of his hands and closed the miniscule gap between them pressing her mouth to his. Scarlet light flashed and glimmered around them as her magic took the spark of his soul and caressed it, until he was on fire for her.
Ace sensed Jerkwad before he saw him. His dragon roared inside. No one else touched his mate. It took everything he had not to tear his brethren's head off. The only thing keeping him from going ballistic was the fact that if Kurjerkwad turned out to be Ash's true mate, his death would destroy her like Jett's life had been destroyed when Yvaine's soul was taken.
At Ash’s back, Jerkwad gently stroked her up from her wrist to her shoulder, then back down to the small of her back. His touch made her arch into Ace’s kiss even further. She moaned, and her tongue tangled with his own with more frenzy.
He could feel himself losing his tightly held control and soon they all would. He interrupted her kiss even though it made her whimper. A beautiful needy sound. His voice came out lower and huskier than he meant it to. “Ash-ling, tell me you want this. We can seduce your body, give you pure bliss, but only when you are ready, when you want one of us to take you.”
She blinked up at him, the hazy lust and need there making him regret keeping her pleasure from her. “I…I don’t know. I'm not sure how to choose, I've got feelings for both of you and I don't know why. Do you want this?” She bit the very edge of her lip.
Kurjerkwad pressed his lips to her ear and answered for them both. “More than anything. But we will stop if you say so.”
Yes. They would. Even if it meant a permanently hard cock and vice grip on his balls.
She nodded. “I don’t know what I want for the long term, but I know I don’t want you to stop now.”
Ace gently slid his cheek along her soft skin, pushing her head to the side and exposing her neck. “Thank the First Dragon.”
“Hey, you guys need to get a room.” A group of pie-eating revelers pushed open the front door to the shop and taunted them.
Kurjerkwad growled at them so dark and menacingly, that they should have run in terror. Instead, they giggled and pointed. Drunk humans. Didn't have any sense of preservation.
“Follow me.” Jerkwad summoned the shadow and stepped inside.
Fuck. Fucking fuck. This was risky as hell. Traveling through the shadow was the fastest way to get away from here and someplace they could be alone with Ash, but they also ran the risk of the warrior demons sensing them and attacking. “We cannot expose her to the demons.”
“It's safe, I swear it. Come.” He reached out of the darkness and held a hand out to Ash. She tentatively took it and stepped into the place between light and dark, into a path to Hell.
Ace had to trust that Jerkwad wouldn't put Ash in danger. What other choice did he have? He wasn't going to drag her into the alley and have his way with her like a damn pig in heat. He should have thought of that before he began seducing her. Shit. He opened his own link to the magic of the shadow and joined them in the beautiful realm of his element.
“Where are we?” Ash stared at the endless expanse of glittering darkness.
Ace wanted to ask the same. This wasn't like any shadow he'd ever been in. He narrowed his eyes at Kurjerkwad.
“We are inside the element known as shadow, fiery one.” Jerkwad stood at her back and whispered in her ear. He raised his eyes to Ace and answered the unasked question. “With a layer of protection, courtesy of a fire witch named Fallyn. We'll be safe and hidden here for a while.”
Mother fucking asshole. “Have you been able to use the shadow all this time and didn't share that tidbit with the rest of us?”
“There are some advantages to being the former King of Hell. But yes and no. The spell is temporary and can only be used in a static space within the shadow. We cannot use it to travel, only to escape. Now, where were we?”
“King of Hell?” Ash squeaked the words out.
Jerkwad's dragon flashed in his eyes and the pain in his soul pinched at Ace's skin like a thousand carpenter ants eating him alive.
Ash spun in his arms and wrapped her arms around him and as soon as she did, the pain dissipated as if her hug was a soothing balm.
If that wasn't a sign that Ash was Jerkwad's soul mate, Ace didn't know what was. He took a step back, ready to slip out of the shadow and leave them to it.
Don't lose her now, dumb douchepotato.
Ace
whipped around looking for who else had snuck into the shadow with them. He found no one, only a prism-style reflection of a rainbow sparkling on the wall. But someone or something gave him a shove from behind so that he was standing right up next to Ash and he couldn't keep himself from reaching out and touching her one last time. The bare skin on the back of her neck, above the collar of her jacket called to his fingers and he promised himself just one caress.
As his fingers glided across the small, soft hairs, Ash groaned and tipped her head to the side.
Maybe just one touch and one taste.
Ace scraped his teeth across the pulse in her neck, and even though his dragon's teeth weren’t touching her he felt the draw to mark her.
“Oh God. Do that again.”
Ace licked over the same path in reverse and when he reached that soft tenders spot where her neck and shoulder met, he nipped at her skin, holding it between his teeth but not biting down.
Ash’s eyes fluttered shut and her knees wobbled. The scarlet aura of her magic lifted from her skin in swirls surrounding them all in its soft light.
“You feel the draw, the need for him to bite and mark you, don't you?” Kurjerkwad rumbled to her in a whisper. The longing in those words matched the feeling in Ace's soul. They were both ready to sacrifice her to the other if that's what was best for her.
“Ooh, yes.” Her words were a soft moan.
A low growl rumbled in Ace's chest at her words. He had a tenuous hold on his dragon. It shimmered to the surface, urging him to take her and make her his now.
He could, right here, right now. But this was only her body talking. Ace didn’t think she was ready for anything more than kisses and touching. Too much too fast and it could threaten their fragile bond.
But that didn’t mean he couldn’t bring her pleasure, show her what mating held in store for her and her body. That part he could do.
Ace reached for the fastening of her pants and slid them open. She wore another covering underneath them. He ran his finger across the top of them and then slid his thumb inside until he caressed already wet curls. “You can tell me to stop at any time.”