Magic's Love

by Alexandra Von Burg

  “They who?” Adam asked.

  “Lila-I mean the Chosen One- and the shifter. He’s...he thinks he’s her mate. I can sense confusion from both of them, and his determination to get her somewhere safe.”

  Adam, Sebastian, and Evan looked at each other, confusion plain on their own faces.

  “So,” Sebastian said, but then he lapsed into silence.

  Evan was a mess of emotion. He was glad that Lila got away, and happy that she had help, but frustrated and angry that she was not here and he had more searching to do. He still could not pinpoint the direction she had gone. Did the shifter put the collar back on her, or was something else blocking her magic? Did she hurt herself with the force it took her to ruin the building?

  “Give me one shifter to follow her trail,” Adam said to Guerra. “We’ll follow Lila, and you can do your thing here.”

  “Okay. Check in an hour from now. I’m gonna clean up here and set up camp for the night.”

  “Thanks, man.” Adam shook Guerra’s hand and followed Sebastian around the jailhouse and into the jungle following the panther and Evan who were already on Lila’s trail.

  An hour later, Lila’s trail got confused. The panther paused, sniffed, and pawed at the ground. It was dark, but Evan could see the t-shirt the cat had found.

  “What is it?” Sebastian asked.

  “Lila’s shirt,” Evan answered. “A false trail.”

  Evan put his hands to his head and turned in a circle. He was frustrated, panicked, and worn out from worry.

  “Why can’t I feel her?”

  Sebastian put a hand on his shoulder, hoping to calm him.

  “The bond is new, Evan. It probably needs more time to be permanent. Let’s go back and start again in the morning. The rain stopped, so it won’t wash any more of the scents away.”

  “Yeah, Evan,” Adam put in, ”You’ve been running on empty all day.”

  That was true. Evan was hungry on top of everything else. He needed blood, and Lila’s was the only blood he wanted. He remembered what it was like to feel starved and weak from lack of blood. This feeling was worse. It was tied up with longing and fear for his mate.

  The group turned and started back to the camp. Adam radioed Guerra, telling him what they had found.

  “Okay, tomorrow we all search,” Guerra radioed back.

  Tomorrow. Tomorrow every soldier would search for Lila.

  Lila woke before dawn feeling soggy. Her fingers were pruned, and her shirt-Lash’s shirt, stuck to her wetly. She was hungry, sad, and ready to go home to Evan. Life in the jungle sucked.

  “Hey, Baby, have some water,” Lash’s gentle voice was like a caress. He handed her the half empty canteen.

  Lila pushed herself off of Lash’s chest and drank. She could barely make out his face in the darkness, and she missed the comfort of his skin as soon as she no longer touched him. That sucked too. She didn’t want to feel anything for Lash, but she had to admit that she did, even if she resented the feelings.

  He was a bad guy, wasn’t he? A kidnapper. A captor. Just because he was handsome and kind, and smelled good, didn’t mean she should give him a pass for being bad. But crap, he smelled so good. Lila sank back onto him and breathed him in. His arms went around her again, and they both sighed.

  “How did you become a bad guy?” Lila asked.

  Lash snorted.

  “I’m not. I’ve just been playing one while undercover.”

  Now Lila snorted.

  “Can you prove it?”

  Lash wondered if he could.

  “A call to my boss from the right person probably could.”

  “Why do you say ‘probably’?”

  “I’m not really sure if he’d vouch for me. I’ve been here for eighteen months, trying to find out who the big boss is, where he is.”

  “So Ramirez is just a middle man? Maybe you should have let him keep me. Maybe the boss would have revealed himself.”

  “I told you I stopped working for them as soon as I laid eyes on you.”

  Oh yeah, he had said that.

  “When was that?”

  “On the plane. When I put the collar on you. You were asleep, and…”

  “And what?”

  “I touched you...I knew---recognized you.”

  Lash was talking more to himself and stroking Lila’s hair. It sounded as if he had had the same reaction that Evan had had the first time he had seen her, but why didn’t Lila have the same reaction. Was she just being stubborn?

  “Aren’t you put off by my mating scent?”

  “Hmm, not really, not any more. It was more of a shock than off-putting. I’m starting to get used to the idea.”

  “To what idea?”

  “To sharing you.”

  “Well I’m not.”

  Lash sighed sadly, and they both fell silent again.

  Lila felt so conflicted. She still resisted the idea of having multiple mates, but Lash did feel good to her. It felt right to be with him, in spite of the fact that she missed Evan terribly. Did that mean that she had to like the feelings? No! The feelings were unwelcome. Lash was unwanted---no, another mate was unwanted, that was her problem. She actually did want Lash. Com’on, Lila, get your head on straight. But that was her other problem: confusion. Why did it have to be this way? Stupid prophecy. She wanted to blast the first oracle or whoever spoke the prophecy in the first place. Couldn’t she do her job without all the love life drama? Why did the Chosen One need more than one mate? Why did she need to “bind herself to the other three elements”? She was plenty powerful, who needed more? Tears of frustration welled in her eyes.

  “What’s wrong?” Lash whispered.

  “I don’t want to be the Chosen One anymore. I just want to go home,” Lila whimpered pathetically.

  “You are home, Baby.”

  “No.”

  The tears fell, and Lila hugged Lash closer even though she denied him.

  “You are. You just can’t see it yet.”

  His words were said so gently that Lila almost believed him.

  “My home is where Evan is.”

  Lila began crying harder, missing her mate more because Lash was holding her and he did feel right. Lila’s guilt consumed her as she cried.

  Lash didn’t know what else to do to comfort his mate. He wanted to tell her that it was all right. That everything would work out the way it was meant to be, but her tears and denial had him worried that she would continue to resist. That would make the situation harder to accept. He would have to find a way to convince her that not only were they meant to be mated, but that it would be good for both of them---all three of them, in the long run.

  Lash wondered what it would be like to be mated to Lila and Evan. He didn’t know any vampires personally. They always struck him as standoffish. Maybe the vampire would reject him too. That thought depressed him. He’d already been rejected by his birth family. He couldn’t take being rejected by his mates too. Please God, or Oracle, or whoever controlled the universe, help them accept me as their mate. Lash closed his eyes and dozed.

  Lila stopped crying, and slept for a bit. She woke again when the light started filtering down through the leaves.

  “Com’on, Babe, time to move again,” Lash said, and he gently nudged her off of his chest.

  Lila silently followed him down the tree. She accepted the power bar he gave her to eat, and let him take her hand again when they started walking. She seemed listless and sad to Lash and he wanted to raise her spirits.

  “Tell me about Evan,” he said, hoping she’d be distracted by talking.

  Lila remained silent for a few minutes before she began to tell him of Evan from the first time they laid eyes on each other to the happy family reunion in Florida.

  “So you grew up around big cats?” Lash asked, liking the connection to himself.

  “Yeah.”

  Lila told him all about Jerry’s sanctuary and the cats who lived there. She told him about growing up wi
th Bernie and how every birthday she wished for a big cat of her own. Lash stopped in his tracks and turned to face her.

  “Your wish came true. You have me.”

  His eyes were full of hope as he searched her face for the acceptance he craved.

  Lila smiled at him sadly.

  “I guess that’s why they say ‘be careful what you wish for.’”

  Lash dropped his gaze to the ground and his face heated with embarrassment. He should have kept his mouth shut. Lila saw his discomfort and regretted saying anything. There was something about Lash that was troubling her. Like he’d had a hard life or something. She caught his hand again when he turned his back, and she wouldn’t let it go when he tried to pull his hand away. She gripped it tightly, her fingers intertwining with his, and pushed more of her magic into him than just what passed between them naturally. Lash started as if jolted by the surge of magic and stopped again. When he looked at her, he had a comically lustful look on his face. Lila began to laugh.

  “Resistance is futile,” she said in her best imitation of a Borg.

  Lash stared at her. His expression had gone soft though his body remained ridged. He stepped very close to Lila, his face an inch away from her’s. When he spoke, she felt his breath on her lips.

  “I’m not the one who’s resisting.”

  Then he turned away abruptly and continued walking, leaving Lila a bit breathless, her heart pounding. They walked in silence for a while, Lila mentally reviewing everything that just happened. Lash was so strong and competent, but also so...lonely.

  “Tell me about you.” She said.

  “What do you want to know?”

  “Everything. Where were you born? When? Do you have a family? What’s your favorite color?”

  "I was born in 1960, in Washington State, the youngest of four sons. My mother died birthing me, so my father hated me from the start. My Brother Leo also hates me, he was twelve when I was born, so I guess he blames me for taking Mom away. Luther hates Leo, so the enemy of my enemy, etc. He doesn't hate me, he's just indifferent. Laramie is only four years older than I am and we used to be close, when we were little. He used to tell me stories about Mom. I think he mostly made them up for both of us. We were raised by a parade of nannies. Women paid to care for us but not enough to love us.

  "Over the years I learned that my father had been a kind and empathetic man before my mother died. Afterward, he grieved for a while and then found a new love, ambition. He became active in politics, and gained support quickly. His work kept him away from home most of the time, but when he returned, he only gave affection to my brothers, and any indiscretion was my fault in his eyes. He never hit me, he just...shunned me."

  Lash closed his eyes to the tears that were long gone, and breathed through the pain of memory.

  "When I was ready for high school, he sent me away to a military academy. I graduated in 1974 and followed my classmates into basic training and Vietnam. Lucky for me, the ISF found me. I spent eight years with the ISF, and when my tour was over, I left. I tried to reconnect with my brothers, but the two oldest were not interested, and Laramie was in Med School, and too busy. I drifted for a couple of years, the club scene, doing odd jobs, not all of them legal. One night at the end of '84 I watched an acquaintance get beaten to death over a fifty dollar drug debt, and I decided to go straight.

  "I called an ISF buddy living down in LA and he invited me to couch surf. When we got reacquainted, he introduced me to the mercenary world. I was ISF trained, and if my morals were loose, I could work as much as I wanted, or as little, and still survive.

  "As it turned out, I was good at spying. Apparently, these good looks are good at fooling people into trusting me. I became a regular 007, just not internationally. You would not believe how much a low level politician will pay for dirt on his opponent. And forget about creating a scandal. I've made my share of home porn vids."

  "TMI, Blondie." Lila said.

  "Sorry, Baby."

  "Continue.”

  "I was well ensconced with LA's underbelly, and their tentacles extend both north and south when I discovered that my father was crooked. At first there were just hints. Dates and parties that coincided. Later I ran across familiar names. Family friends, Dad's golf buddies, I started making mental connections between projects looking for funding and which ones got the funding, and my father's opinions."

  "A corrupt politician? How cliche.”

  Lash nodded in agreement.

  "I got a long term job in Seattle, and used the excuse that I was trying to reconnect with my brothers to investigate my father. As details revealed themselves, I found that my father was heavily involved even though he was careful to leave no trail. He knew that I knew, but he also knew that I couldn't tag him, at least not publicly. Before I could denounce him in his personal social circle, he pulled out an old porn video I had made to nail someone down south. It wasn’t hard to make it look real. It was me and another man.

  “Shifters are crazy homophobes, so it was easy for him to publicly disown me, and turn all family and friends against me. I was completely disowned by my family, and the council delivered a notarized letter addressed to 'Lash, formerly the son of Leonard Westin.' The very next day I was in the council offices legally changing my name to Sawyer. It's my mother's maiden name. I don't think a name change has ever been done that fast. I mean, I know that women do it every day when they marry, but I didn't need to show anything more than my ID. It was as easy as renewing my drivers license, but faster than the DMV."

  Lila smiled at the joke, but couldn’t help feeling sorry for Lash, for the way that his family treated him.

  They walked for a while longer, until Lash stopped at a large tree.

  “Climb up here and rest, Baby. I’m going to hunt you some meat for dinner.”

  “Okay.”

  Lash stripped and gave Lila the backpack and his boots. This time Lila couldn’t help glancing down at Lash’s naked sex. She blushed when she saw his endowment. It was proportionate in size and beauty to the rest of him, and his pubic curls were the same golden color as the rest of his hair. She wondered if he would be larger than Evan when he was erect.

  “Need a photo?”

  Lila blinked and looked up. Then she blushed again realizing that she’d been staring at his dick. At least she hadn’t drooled. She smiled guiltily, but was she feeling guilty because she had looked at him, or guilty because she had admired him?

  “Give me a boost,” she said, deciding to ignore the issue.

  Lash smiled at her and laced his fingers together for her to step into. When she touched his shoulders to steady herself, a bolt of desire shot up her arms and fluttered into her belly like a dozen butterflies. Lash groaned, no doubt feeling something similar. He swayed the littlest bit, and Lila bit back a snicker.

  “Sorry.”

  Lash didn’t say anything, just bent his knees and launched Lila up into the tree. She caught a branch and hooked her foot over it. Then she hauled herself up and over the branch, straddling it. When she looked down at Lash, his cock was standing straight at attention. Oops, my fault. She smiled weakly at him.

  “Go high enough that you can’t be seen,” he told her, and turned to walk away.

  Lila watched him another minute, glad that they were no longer touching. The view from behind was just as good. Then she wondered why he hadn’t shifted yet. Inwardly shrugging, she stood and began to climb.

  She only climbed up about fifty feet this time, guessing that it would be high enough that shifters would not scent her, but not so high that she would not be able to hear if anyone walked by. She wanted to be able to scope out who was tracking her. Maybe Evan wasn’t so far behind her. Maybe Alexander had sent a platoon of soldiers after her. How would she tell the difference between good and bad guys? Lila got as comfortable as she could, expecting a long wait.

  Lash walked away from the tree, his cock aching with desire for Lila. He wanted to ravish her. To thrust his tongue
deep down her throat while he thrust his cock deeply into her cunt and fuck her until she screamed his name. He wanted to lay under her and watch her tits bounce as she rode him and then throw her head back and cry out an orgasm as they came together. He wanted to do all the dirty sexy things they could think of and then start at the beginning again. Instead, he walked a hundred yards away, leaned against a tree, and pumped his cock until he came, shuddering with the force of it.

  Two hours later, maybe more, Lila heard a strange sound below her. There was an animal making a lot of noise. It wasn’t the snuffling of something small rooting for plants in the underbrush. It was more of a wounded animal moaning and grunting, and possibly dragging a limb. Lila looked down not really expecting to see anything, but listening to the noise, trying to figure out what, exactly, was making the noise. She climbed down a few limbs to see if she could get a look.

  Fifteen feet down she still couldn’t see anything, but she heard more noises. There was a plaintive moan, and then it sounded like the animal had fallen. Great, that’s all Lila needed, a dying or injured animal attracting attention to her hiding spot. She climbed down another fifteen feet and finally saw a large blond cat collapsed at the base of the tree. Shit, was that Lash?

  “Blondie?”

  The cougar tried to lift its head at the sound of Lila’s voice.

  “Shit!”

  Lila climbed down as fast as she could, jumping the last twelve feet a little recklessly, unintentionally rolling when she landed. She caught her breath and turned to look at the injured cougar. He had a long gash on his hind quarters, and a bunch of deep slashes around his head and neck. The wounds oozed blood. Lila had no idea what to do for him. She thought that shifters had natural healing magic. That all he had to do was shift from one form to the other and he would heal. Why hadn’t he done that?

  “Lash, dammit! Shift!” Lila cried, not knowing what else to do.