Wild Magic

by Sadie Jacks

  “And again,” Ransom said through clenched teeth. “Fuck bro. You got to hurry. Neither of us are going to last much longer you keep that shit up.”

  I stuck my finger in her mouth as I shifted down to lay on the floor.

  “Hands on the couch, baby. I want your breasts to hang above me like ripe melons.”

  She nipped the tip of my finger, pulling a laugh from my chest.

  “Open.”

  I pulled my finger from her mouth, her saliva drenching the digit. I scooted down a little farther.

  Ransom helped her keep her balance with his hands on her hips. He widened her knees as she bent over to reach the edge of the sofa.

  Her cream was dripping down her thighs. I gathered some of it up on my finger, and reached back to her ass. Rubbing at the puckered hole, I began a slow but steady pressure against the opening.

  She wiggled and pushed.

  “Relax, angel. Push back into it. It’s going to feel so good. I promise you,” Ransom said, his voice tight.

  She slowly did as he instructed.

  My finger pushed past the first ring of muscles. The nudge of Ransom’s cock against my finger was…interesting. I waved the thought away.

  Something to think about later.

  Lifting my head, I sealed my mouth over her clit. She bucked and writhed in Ransom’s hands.

  “Now,” I ordered through our implant.

  He began thrusting inside her. I twisted and pulled with my finger.

  Kiema panted heavily as we both worked her.

  I felt her clit harden under my tongue as Ransom pushed deep into her sheath.

  Just as I was reaching down a hand to stroke over my dick, someone else beat me to it. And it definitely wasn’t Kiema’s dainty one.

  My body erupted before my brain had time to process. My orgasm heralded Kiema’s long scream as I fluttered my tongue faster and faster over her stiff clit.

  Ransom’s prolonged grunt of satisfaction made me smile.

  I barely dodged out of the way before Kiema and Ransom came crashing down on top of me. All of us were sweaty, panting, and moaning.

  “Was that okay?” Ransom asked me over the implant.

  “No.” Kiema slapped both of us. “If you’re going to talk about anything that just happened, I get to be part of the conversation too.”

  I felt blood rush to my cheeks.

  Ransom’s body went still.

  Kiema, sandwiched between us, began pushing and shoving. “Let me up. I want to see your faces.”

  Ransom grabbed her in a bear hug, trapping her body down against mine. His face was resting no more than the length of my arm away.

  “He asked me if it was okay that he…” my voice trailed off.

  He gave me a wicked grin. “That I rubbed his dick while you and I were taken care of.”

  Kiema quit wiggling, her face popped out into the small space between Ransom’s and my head. Caught as she was, she only had to turn her head a little in either direction to see each of our faces.

  She looked down at me. “And was it?”

  She turned to look up at Ransom before I could answer. “That wasn’t discussed. I thought that was against the rules.”

  Her silver gray gaze caught mine again. “Are you okay?”

  I nodded, a smile pulling at my mouth.

  Woman killed me without even trying. Standing up for me—well, not exactly standing, but defending my honor.

  “It was okay.” I looked past Kiema’s startled face to Ransom’s. His expression, which had been closing down, stilled. He waited for whatever I was going to say next. I don’t even think he was breathing. “I don’t want to suck your cock or anything, and I’m certainly not taking you in my ass…but it was okay.”

  His dark blue eyes brightened. “Yeah, same here, bro.” He gave an overly dramatic shudder. “Especially with that monster you’re sporting after gaining your dragon.”

  Kiema slapped his shoulder. “It’s mine, don’t call it names.”

  We all burst into laughter.

  I loved these two.

  Chapter 34 – Taryk

  I tipped back against the wall on the opposite side of the Hold. I remembered when we’d dubbed the cell as the Hold. Good times. My government had decided I was too wicked to play with anymore. Suited me down to the fucking ground.

  My current prisoner was held against the floor under a net of electromagnets. He wouldn’t be going anywhere. Unless I wanted him to.

  “Hello, Juan. Imagine my delighted surprise when I came back to my place to learn that you had been beaten unconscious by the woman you yourself had beaten.”

  A muffled groan was my reply.

  I leaned forward, hand cupped around my ear. “What was that? I didn’t quite catch it.”

  “’m gon kill ‘at ‘itch.”His lips were so swollen his words were mangled.

  I tipped my head back, belly laughing until my cheeks ached. “Oh, Juan. You jokester, you. You’re going to tell me exactly what I want to know, then I’ll heal you. You’ll be allowed to go on your merry way.”

  He looked at me through swollen lids. The barest slit of bloodshot eyeball was visible. “Really?”

  “I’ll heal you now if that helps you make up your mind faster. I’d like to get to bed. Long day. Pretty tuckered.” I gave him a huge yawn.

  “How heal ‘e?”

  “The power of technology.” I pulled a vial out of my pants pocket. “These little guys are nanites. I inject them into your bloodstream, they do their business, you piss them out. Clean as a shiny new coin.”

  He thrust his hand through the slats on the wall.

  I tsked. “No, I said I inject them into your bloodstream. Not the other way around. Besides, I need a good faith gesture to make this worth my while.”

  “I know where ‘ontague is hiding and why he wants—”

  I snarled low in my chest.

  “- the ‘itch.”

  “Where? I’ll verify the info, you get your magic pill.”

  He shook his head.

  I shrugged, put the vial back in my pocket and pushed up from the wall. “Talk to you after Kiema has another go at you, then.”

  “’ait!”

  I smiled coldly. Wiping it off my face, I turned back around to the man I was going to kill. “Change of heart?”

  “He’s using our u’town warehouse.”

  I nodded, turned back to the door. I shut the lights off, turned the temp down so low that a polar bear would freeze his nuts off, and hit the switch that would snug him down to the floor with electromagnets.

  The sound of heavy sobbing reached my ears.

  “Ah. I love that sound in the evening,” I said. I stepped through the door at the end of my floor. Where the other guys had living spaces, or in Xan’s case a wall of computers and consoles, I had the Hold.

  “I’ve got the address pulled up. I’m just bringing the mobile satellite into range,” Xander said.

  We waited until the second computer’s screen went from a blinking light to a wide angle shot of the warehouse district not too far from our own headquarters here.

  “Thermal?” I asked.

  “Coming up.” He tapped some buttons, ran his fingers over a couple of slider bars. “Here. We’ve got, shit, at least fifty—maybe more—heat signatures.”

  I leaned down towards the screen. “I want the one off by himself. He might have one or two standing directly opposite him.” Montague wasn’t going to be milling about in the crowd. Especially not if he thought himself important.

  Xander pushed the thermal radar through its paces. An automated program cycled through the bodies until it landed on one configuration that suited my requirements.

  “This one?”

  I leaned down. “Can you tell me what floor this is on?”

  “Just a second.” He switched to a third computer. His fingers flew over the keyboards, his brows scrunched over his nose. “Schematics say third floor.”

  “How m
any floors available?”

  He looked again, nose almost touching the screen. “Four.”

  “Yeah, I’d say that’s probably him.”

  “Why so?”

  “Megalomaniac obsessed with magic and his own greatness? He’s going to have the top floor, or as close to it as he can get. He’s also going to make sure he’s not easily accessible. Builds mystery and the sense of being untouchable by the rank and file. The two he’s got with him? Those are going to be his generals. I’m willing to bet one of them is the lady in charge we ran off this morning…afternoon. What fucking day is this?” I wiped a hand down my face.

  “Thursday. That was yesterday—technically.”

  I nodded. “Fine. Yesterday. He’s up there planning. Strategizing.”

  “What are we doing to make sure we can counter those plans? Those strategies?” Xander asked.

  “I’m going to heal this jackass and send him back to Montague.”

  Xander looked up from his screen. A wicked light entered his eyes. “You perfected it?”

  A fierce grin pulled at my mouth. “I got the call two days ago. Mr. Feuer is going to be my guinea pig.”

  Xander popped up from his chair, wrapped me in his arms. He slapped me on the back a couple of times before pushing away from me. “Hot damn, T.”

  I clapped his shoulder. “Be right back.”

  “Fucking A.” He slumped back down into his chair as he pumped his fists heavenward in victory.

  I pushed through the far door, not bothering to turn up the heat or let him up from the floor. “It’s your lucky day, Juan. Your info checked out. I’m going to come in there and inject you. You pull any shit, even look at me wrong, I’ll stomp your face into nothing. Get me?”

  The slightest shift of his head in an up and down motion.

  I hit the code to let me into the Hold. I crouched down, stabbed the needle into his arm, depressed the plunger.

  “Where is the magic you took from the cabin?” I asked.

  He laughed at me.

  “I already gave it to ‘ontague. He’s ‘robably dissecting it right now.”

  “Well, damn it. Looks like you got one over on us.” I stood up. “Shucks. Whatever are we going to do?” I lifted my foot, jerked it down on what was left of his dick and nuts. With a sharp twist, I ground them into the floor.

  Juan’s high pitch squeal was music to my ears.

  “I’ll give Montague a call. Tell him to come pick you up.” I walked out of the Hold, shutting the lights off as the nanites went to work repairing this monster’s body.

  “We’ll need at least two days for planning,” Xander said.

  I nodded. “It takes the nanites at least four to get his body up and mobile again. IV nutrients until then.”

  “I’ll make a note for your tech.”

  I nodded again. “Do that and go to bed, Xander. You look a little like hell.”

  He looked up at me, a smile pulling at his mouth. “You know. I think I’m actually going to get to sleep tonight.”

  My heart clenched. “That’s awesome, bro. You let me know if you don’t.”

  He nodded. “I will, but I won’t need to. This time, I’m sure of it.” He punched me in the shoulder before bundling up his equipment and walking from the room.

  Thank Gaia for you, Kiema.

  Chapter 35 – Atlas

  “Again, you pansy-assed healer. Kiema can dance rings around you,” Lukas sneered as I attempted to shift from wolf to man and back again as quickly as possible.

  I snarled at him, the sound carrying from human to wolf form. I leapt at him. As soon as he touched his hand to my fur, I fell to the ground, a gasping, wheezing human once more.

  “Fucker,” I said, my face smashed into the mat of the workout area in our labs.

  “Now my feelings are hurt, mate.” He nudged me with his foot.

  Quick as a snake, I grabbed his foot and tugged him down, wrestled him under my body. Unprepared for the physical attack, he was slow to react. I had him in a headlock before he could gasp for his next breath.

  “What was that, Lukas? Sorry, I can’t hear you.” I wrenched my arm closer against his throat.

  A garbled noise was his only reply. He scratched frantically at my arms.

  I pushed the pain away like they were small annoying bugs biting at my flesh. “Bitch, that doesn’t even hurt.”

  He gurgled.

  I loosened my arm, threw him across the mat. “We can do this the hard way, or you can learn some fucking manners, you asshole. Your choice.” I popped to my feet, dancing from foot to foot in case he tried to attack me.

  He was on hands and knees, head hanging low. He coughed as he attempted to get air through his abused trachea. I didn’t mess around when putting people in submission holds.

  He waved his hand in the air. A sign of defeat?

  His arms gave way as his chest finally expanded. “You win.”

  Too right I do, fucker.

  “Instead of yelling and denigrating my efforts, tell me what I’m doing wrong in an adult manner. I will fix the issue and we can proceed.”

  “Your magic should be at your fingertips. You shouldn’t have to wait. It should be like breathing.”

  “Either like it’s at my fingertips or it’s like breathing. It can’t be the same. The analogies are not synonymous.”

  He shot his middle finger up in the air at me.

  I snarled but stayed out of his striking range.

  “Then it should be like breathing.”

  I took some deep breaths, settling myself to try these ridiculous exercises again. I could feel my wolf inside me. Like a favorite memory, he was always right there at the edge of my mind. We were having difficulty shifting conscious control.

  “When you share a body with a beast, it is best to give yourself to it in order to change.”

  I turned. Saint came in, Ten holding the reins by the shape and color of the eyes.

  “Finally! Someone who knows what he’s talking about. I didn’t want to wake everyone so soon, so Lukas has been attempting to teach me to harness my wolf.”

  Ten tipped their head to the side. “But he has no beast. What good would his teaching be?”

  I laughed. “So fucking true, Tennotith.” I laid a hand over my heart, bowed my head to the spirit who cohabited with my brother.

  “I’m still here, you bloody savages.” Lukas didn’t bother moving from the floor with that proclamation.

  “And you should be helping my Mate harness her magic. You should at least be able to help her. Shoo, go on now.” Ten clapped Saint’s hands together, like trying to get a disobedient pup to follow his owner’s commands.

  Lukas flipped Ten/Saint off as he slowly got to his feet. “I’m going to hang out with her and tell her that you guys are being mean to me.”

  “Go be a little bitch, Lukas. Maybe she’ll let you cry on her shoulder.”

  “To use his phrasing, not bloody likely,” Ten/Saint said.

  We both laughed as Lukas hauled his ass out the door.

  I turned back to my friend. “Everything going okay?”

  Saint filtered to the surface, his eyes glowing a dark chocolate. “I’ve never been this happy. Even in all this shit, I’m content, Atlas. Probably for the first time in my life.”

  I nodded. “I’m happy about that.”

  Even if it did sour my belly and rip at my insides. I wanted that for myself. Not at his expense, but I wanted to belong like he did. To someone. To someone who saw me, loved me, and still wanted me.

  He clapped a hand to my shoulder. “She’ll find you, Atlas. I know she will. And I’d be willing to bet, she leads you on a fucking merry chase when she does.”

  I nodded slightly, stepping back from the contact. False platitudes did not interest me. Facts, evidence, proof. These were the tenets of my life. The basis for opinion and belief.

  Ten floated back to the surface of their shared body. “For our first lesson. Forget everything that s
oulless idiot with the red hair told you.”

  A laugh lifted from my throat. “Already done. Next?”

  “Sit on the mat with me.” Ten/Saint lowered their body to the floor, sat with legs crossed.

  I mirrored their position. I felt my heart rate slow, my body unwind from the adrenaline rush of battling Lukas. I inhaled once through my nose, pushed it slowly from my mouth. Lukas’ scent still wafted through the room. I brushed that thought aside as well.

  “Good. Now, close your eyes,” Ten/Saint said.

  I did.

  “You and your animal are not at odds. You do not have to beat him in competition. He is you, you are him. Every time you inhale, you nourish your shared lungs. Every thought you have, you both hear it. Every belly clench, heart ache, joyous bubbling, and anything else you experience, is shared by both of you.”

  I could see my wolf inside me. The color of his fur matched the bright white blond of my hair. His green eyes I saw every morning in the mirror. He looked back at me steadily. In his eyes, I saw us as one entity. One being. One mind. One heart.

  “Now, instead of forcing part of yourself to do something, simply ask it to help you.”

  I need your help.

  A whoosh of movement inside me. The bright sparkles of painful pleasure. With my next breath, I inhaled through a long snout.

  No longer was I sitting cross legged on the floor; I was laying on my belly, all four legs at rest and comfortable under me. I looked up at the man across from me.

  “Perfect,” Ten/Saint said. “As you communicate and interact with your animal, this process will become second nature. There will be times when the wolf will be better than the man. And its opposite true as well. Do not hate or disparage one side over the other for both are you. Love your wolf, your wolf will love you. Hate or hurt your wolf, the same will be your reward.”

  Thank you for helping me, I said to my wolf.

  Deep inside us, his head dipped in a regal bow.

  With another gloriously awful transition, I was back in my seated position, human.

  “It doesn’t hurt,” I said to Ten/Saint. “I mean the transformation is that beautiful torture, but I don’t feel like I need to eat a ton of calories or take a nap for the next fifteen hours.”