by Ella Summers
She felt a jolt in their Blood Magic bond, like a strike of hot liquid lightning pulsing inside of her. Her skin prickled and sizzled. She was suddenly very awake, very alive—and very aroused.
One quick movement, and Logan had relieved her of what remained of the shirt, leaving her in only her lacy red-and-black wedding lingerie. Another rip, and she was naked before him.
Logan picked her up and carried her across the room. Alex twisted her legs around him. She ran her fingers all across his back. Something hard hit her back. The wall. She didn’t care. She didn’t care about anything but Logan. She rubbed herself against him in desperate anticipation.
Logan’s hands tightened around her hips. “Alex.” His voice cracked with impatience.
“Me too.” She kissed him deeply.
A deep, inhuman noise rumbled in his throat, then he thrust into her. He moved fast and slow, hard and easy, impatience tempered with sweetness, desire fortified by love. Alex couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak, couldn’t think of anything but this one perfect moment. Something cracked. His rapture melted and mixed into hers. They were truly one, bonded in blood and magic.
“I love you,” she gasped.
His response was drowned out by her screams as she spiraled into ecstasy.
Several minutes passed before she was fully self-aware again. During that time, Logan had carried her from the kitchen island to the soft carpet in front of the living room fireplace. The flames pulsed out, bathing her naked skin in heat.
Alex noticed the cabinet near the kitchen island now stood crooked. One of the shelves was broken. She chuckled. But that wasn’t the only thing she saw in the kitchen.
She tapped her fingers across Logan’s chest, the heat of his skin warming her fingertips.
He kissed her head. “You’re very restless.”
“I’m contemplating trekking across the room to finish the remaining pizza slices in the box.”
“You are incorrigible,” he chuckled.
She flipped over and smirked at him. “Of course, I’d be happy to lie here while my husband fetches the pizza for me.”
He sat up.
“I’m kidding, Logan,” she laughed, snatching his hand. “I can get it for myself.”
“No need. If it makes you happy, I will bring you more pizza. I’ll even heat it up for you if you want.”
Alex pulled him toward her, kissing him deeply. She poured everything she had into that kiss. “I love you.”
He took her hand in his. “And I love you, Alex.” He kissed her fingers. “Even though you smell like pizza.”
“I thought I smelled like you,” she laughed.
He lifted her hand to his nose, inhaling deeply. “Yes.” A satisfied smile curled his lips. “You do.”
His mouth closed over hers, his kiss so insistent, so wild, that it made her head spin. He rose to retrieve the pizza box, but Alex pulled him back down to her. She wasn’t hungry for pizza anymore; she was hungry for him. His hand trailed down her stomach, parting her thighs.
The doorbell rang.
“Go away,” Logan said gruffly, loudly.
“Sorry to disturb you, sir,” a timid voice said from behind the closed door.
“That sounds like Bernard,” Alex whispered to Logan.
Bernard was the head of Kai’s household staff.
“There’s a delivery for you, sir,” Bernard said.
“Later,” Logan replied curtly.
“But, sir—”
“This is my wedding night. I’ve just married the most singularly spectacular woman on the planet. And ever since I saw her step down the aisle in that dress, I’ve been waiting to ravish her in a hundred different ways. And you are interrupting.”
Logan’s voice was so cold, goosebumps rippled all across Alex’s skin. But his eyes were hot as they turned toward her. The tingles she got were decidedly hotter this time.
“Sir—”
“Do you know who I am?” Logan demanded. “And what I do?”
“You are Slayer. An assassin.”
“That’s right.” Logan’s hand traced up Alex’s inner thigh. “I can kill you without even opening this door.” His fingers slipped between her legs. “Which I will do if you don’t piss off this instant.”
Alex moaned as his fingers began to stroke her in slow, light circles. A savage, searing heat burned inside of her.
“So what should we do with him?” Bernard asked from behind the door.
“Him?” Logan’s eyes didn’t leave her, and he didn’t stop stroking her.
Alex twitched. Her fingernails clawed the carpet in wild, fervent need. Logan’s deft fingers slipped in and out of her. Pleasure clutched her, desire devastated her. She bit down on her lip to keep from screaming out.
“Your delivery, sir,” Bernard said.
Alex couldn’t take another second of it. Delirium gripped her. She pounded her fists and feet against the carpet. Tears wet her cheeks. Her body contracted—then released. Logan swooped his mouth over hers, swallowing her screams.
“There’s a man chained to the tank outside,” Bernard said.
Alex could hardly hear him. Her ears rang with the drumming of her own heart.
“Sir, the man has your name written on his forehead in permanent marker.”
15
Daemon Grimoire
Alex sighed as she and Logan stepped into their walk-in closet to get dressed.
“Disappointed that you didn’t get to finish your pizza?” Logan teased her.
“No, silly.” She grabbed a black tank top. “Actually, I’m disappointed that our wedding night has been interrupted.” She looked at him, wiggling her eyebrows up and down.
“No one has ever called me silly before.”
“I’ll add it to the skill set on your assassin profile.”
Logan met her gaze for a moment, then shook his head. “You don’t know my account password,” he said practically.
She smirked at him. “Are you sure about that?”
Logan’s brows drew together as he mulled that over.
Alex pulled on her badass black battle leather. It seemed like the thing to do when someone was delivered to them, chained to a tank.
“Ok, let’s see what this is all about.” She put on her outfit’s final touch—her leather jacket—then stepped outside.
They followed the path to a courtyard just beyond their property, at the edge of Sera and Kai’s. Kai had parked a gigantic German military tank there.
And Logan’s ‘gift’ was chained to the front of that tank. Alex blinked twice when she saw him, just to be sure. He was Daemon Grimoire, former television personality. At least, that’s what he’d done before he’d gone into hiding. Even after all these years, Alex recognized him.
It was hard not to. The fairy was wearing one of his typical garish outfits. His bright orange leather pants were so shiny that Alex could see her reflection in them. His cream-colored dress shirt had long sleeves—with lots and lots of ruffles. And to top it all off, Daemon was drenched in so much cologne that it was sweating out of his pores. The deep, musky scent—with an added touch of orange blossoms—burned Alex’s nose.
Daemon struggled against his chains. “I demand to be released at once!”
Logan broke the chains like they were made of breadsticks. Then he removed Daemon from the tank. Daemon’s eyes twitched manically from Logan’s face, to the broken chains in Logan’s hands.
“Try to escape, and I’ll break you too,” Logan warned him.
“I don’t doubt you,” Daemon rasped, his eyes wide.
Daemon looked at Alex. “Hey, I remember you. You were younger back then. And you didn’t have an assassin boyfriend.”
Alex smirked at the fairy. “Actually, he’s my husband.”
Daemon swallowed hard. The stench of fear and sweat broke through the cloak of his heavy cologne. “Ah, well.” He rearranged his besieged expression into a weak smile and lifted his hands amicably into the air. “No h
arm done, right?”
“No harm done?” Alex repeated, aggravated. “You poisoned my father. I’d call that a lot of harm done.”
“But he survived that,” Daemon said quickly.
“Sera and I cured him, but no thanks to you. And thanks to your mess, the trouble you caused for us, my family had to flee our home. Because of you, rumors spread of two Dragon Born sisters living in rural Oregon, not far from Portland. Which led to an assassin following us when we fled, tracking our father down, and killing him.”
Daemon smile faded. “So you don’t forgive me?”
Alex glowered at him. “Let me put it this way: if we didn’t need you right now, you’d already be dead.”
“Need me? For what?” Daemon didn’t look like he enjoyed imagining the possibilities.
“This way.” Logan gave him a nudge down the path. “We’re going to borrow Drachenburg’s dungeon for a bit.”
When they got to Kai’s dungeon, Daemon gasped in horror. “What is this monstrosity?”
“I told you. Drachenburg’s dungeon.”
Daemon did a little turn on the spot. “The interior decorating here is appalling.”
“Actually, I rather like the look. In fact, I think I’ll build a dungeon too.” Logan glanced at Alex. “What do you think, love?”
“Whatever makes you happy,” she chuckled. “I just don’t know where we’re going to find the time to build a dungeon.”
“We are indeed busy,” agreed Logan. “Drachenburg is fortunate that his house came with a dungeon already built in.”
A fact that really made Alex wonder how the house’s previous owners had spent their time.
Logan was still cuffing Daemon to the wall when Sera and Kai stepped into the dungeon cell.
“Alex, I heard there was a man chained to the tank outside with Logan’s name on him and…” Sera stopped moving. Her eyes hardened when they fell upon the prisoner Logan was securing. “That’s Daemon Grimoire.”
“Yep,” said Alex.
“How did he get here?”
Alex looked at Logan. “Actually, I was hoping to learn that too.”
Kai’s eyes locked on to the bright red bow tied around Daemon’s neck. Then they darted up to the text drawn across Daemon’s face in thick black letters: For Slayer.
“A gift from another assassin, Slayer?” Kai asked.
“No,” he replied. “After our recent experience in Zurich, after I found out what Daemon Grimoire did to Alex, I decided to track him down. I reached out to my contacts, and one of them had seen Daemon around. I couldn’t go after him because I was busy rejecting pink table runners—”
Alex and Sera chuckled.
“—so I asked another contact to go fetch him and deliver him here. Daemon Grimoire poisoned Alex’s father. The least I could do was give him to her so she could decide what to do with him.”
“A wedding present for your bride.” Kai shook his head. “How romantic.”
“Don’t be sour that you didn’t think of it first, Drachenburg.”
Kai frowned. “So where was the fairy hiding all these years?”
“He’s been living in eastern Europe with his sister Elodie.”
“How did you find Daemon?” Alex asked Logan.
“He wasn’t exactly living a low-profile life. Daemon worked as a magic show performer in a circus. He’s been hiding in plain sight, all this time. Though he does have a few flimsy magical disguises.”
“The Magic Council has been looking for him for a while.” Sera poked one of Daemon’s sleeve ruffles. “It’s a wonder they haven’t found him yet.”
Kai clenched his jaw, his teeth scraping together. “Yes. It is a wonder indeed.”
Daemon flashed him his pearly-white teeth. “Don’t be such a sourpuss, Drachenburg. After all, it was because of me that you two lovebirds even met.” He smiled at Sera. “And now you’re married. So as you can see, everything happens for a reason. You really should be thanking me for everything I did for you.”
“Oh, please.” Sera rolled her eyes. “Kai and I didn’t meet in real life until years after Mortal Coil. In fact, until a few days ago, we didn’t even know we’d both been in that game together. So stop trying to pass yourself off as some kind of matchmaker, Daemon, just to get out of the big pile of trouble you got yourself into.”
“But he is right about one thing. Everything does happen for a reason. What happens to him next is a direct consequence of what he did to you.” Kai stepped forward, magic crackling across his whole body.
Logan moved into his path. “Don’t step on my prisoner, Drachenburg.”
Kai folded his arms across his chest and favored Logan with a cool glare.
“We still need him,” Alex insisted.
Kai backed down. “To help us find Nightstar.”
“Right,” Logan said. “Nice to see the dragon testosterone has cleared enough for you to think clearly.”
Kai looked like he was about to speak, but he was cut off by the thunder of an explosion and the blaring of alarms.
16
Unspeakable Magic
“Outside,” Logan said.
They all turned away from Daemon.
“Hey!” the fairy protested. “You’re not just going to leave me alone down here, are you? What if the basement collapses on me?”
“Stop being such a prima donna,” Sera told him. “The basement won’t collapse. And you’re not alone; there’s a drunk mage asleep in the neighboring cell.”
“I will not die like this!” Daemon shouted hysterically.
Logan unhooked his chains from the wall. “I’ll bring him with me.” He grabbed the end of the chain and yanked Daemon toward him. “This fairy is slippery. Wouldn’t want him to escape.”
They all hurried up the stairs and ran outside. There, Lara and Riley were fighting off a band of supernaturals. Alex recognized them from Nightstar’s crowd, the ones from the simulation last week. Those three mages had been joined by a few others with similar bad taste in battle wear.
Daemon watched the battle, his eyes wide. “On second thought, I think I’ll just duck back into the dungeon…”
Logan tugged him back. “You’re staying.”
“Nightstar’s people opened up a portal here,” Lara told Alex as she came to fight beside her. “They just popped out of nowhere. And then they went straight for me and Riley.”
Alex shot a fireball at the mages. She might as well have thrown a feather. It didn’t hurt them a bit. She tried ice next, but that didn’t work any better.
“Have you figured out what works against these guys?” Alex asked Lara.
“Not yet.” Lara scowled. “Nothing seems to hurt them. Riley’s shadow magic works the best against them, but even that only seems to annoy them.”
Alex saw what she was talking about when Riley unleashed his magic on the invading mages. The shadowy glow of his spells flickered out almost as soon as he’d cast them.
“They’re strong,” Sera said, sliding in beside Alex. “Too strong. They’re using spells I’ve never seen before.”
A nearby lamp post exploded.
“Hell, I’ve never even heard of those spells before,” Sera added.
“They are ancient spells from ancient magic books,” Kai told her.
“Yes.” Makani had joined them. “I’ve seen this kind of magic.”
“So how do we fight it?” Alex asked him.
Makani shook his head. “I said I’ve seen it, but that doesn’t mean I know how to fight it. These spells were old and powerful when I was young.”
Makani had been around for seven hundred years. These spells truly were ancient.
“If this magic is too old for Makani to know how to fight it, then who would know?” Sera asked.
A blast from the invading mages blew a hole in Sera’s house. Another shot a bunch of shingles off her roof.
“We just got the new roof tiles in a few weeks ago,” Sera complained.
But they h
ad bigger problems than roof tiles. To say they weren’t faring well in this fight would have been a total understatement. If they didn’t turn things around fast, the house would be the least of their casualties. They’d lose people too.
“First chained to a tank, then shot at by crazy mages. This is simply not acceptable!” Daemon whined.
“Well, I’m sorry, Your Majesty, but you were the one who complained about staying in the dungeon,” Alex snapped at him.
“And the one who poisoned our father,” Sera added.
“Seriously?” Daemon nervously wrung out his hands. “How long are you going to hold that over my head?”
“I don’t know.” Alex looked at Sera. “Like forever?”
Sera nodded. “Sounds about right.”
One of Nightstar’s mages shot a particularly potent spell at them. Daemon squealed and ducked behind an overturned truck that had once been one of Kai’s monstrous black SUVs.
Alex looked at Marek, who’d also been drawn here by the fighting. “Get Gaelyn. He is the oldest person alive. If he doesn’t recognize this magic, no one can.”
“That’s precisely what I’m worried about: that no one knows how to counter it.”
But Marek ran off to find Gaelyn anyway. Alex and the others covered his retreat, all shooting at the enemy mages at once.
Of course their spells had no effect, except to annoy the invading mages—at least if their returning fire were any indication.
Alex just kept fighting. There wasn’t anything else to do. She wasn’t giving up. She tried every spell she knew and some she didn’t really know at all. She tried mixing spells together. Even Naomi’s spirit magic, sucked straight out of hell, did nothing against the mages.
Naomi frowned and just kept muttering, “I don’t get it. This should work.”
“Try getting close enough to push some of them into the spirit realm,” Makani suggested. “That will drain their magic.”
“Good idea,” she said and started crawling, keeping her head low to avoid the mages’ spells.
She was back a minute later.
“I can’t get to them,” she said. “Their magic is laid out too thick. If I try to get through, they’ll just knock me out of the fight before I make it two steps. We all need to get closer to them.”
