by Quinn Loftis
“It didn’t seem that unfortunate,” interrupted Anna.
“Excuse me?” Peri narrowed her eyes.
“I just mean, she seemed pleasant enough. I mean, now that I remember it, she was a bit abrupt…”
“Regardless of whether she was playing the Molly Manners routine,” continued Peri, “she is a high fae like me, but she has allowed darkness to infest her heart and soul and she has chosen to seek selfish ambitions. She teamed up with the aforementioned evil warlock and tried to kill off some of the Romanian pack mates.” She motioned to Sally. “Sally was one of the ones she actually succeeded in killing, and I myself was also defeated.”
“How is that possible?” Anna interrupted. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rude and I’m not calling you a liar but even seeing a man turn into a wolf before my eyes doesn’t have me believing in the dead coming back to life.”
“Well let’s just say it’s good to know a deity,” Peri smiled knowingly. “Again, there are things you will learn in time. For now, you need to understand that Lorelle is dangerous and if she is interested in you, it isn’t because she wants to be your BFF. She got away after Reyaz, that was the warlock, was killed and I had planned to go after her, but the Great Luna informed me that first I needed to seek out five Gypsy healers that needed protection. That is why we showed up in your store. You,” she pointed at Anna, “are the first of those healers. You are important. You are unique and you have powers that you don’t even know about. You have a place in the supernatural world and we are going to help you figure out where that place is.”
Anna stared at the woman who had just informed her that not only was she another species all together, but that Anna was a part of that world as well. Her mind was grasping for reality, for truth, because she desperately wanted everything Peri had just told her to be true. Up until this point her life had been page after page of disappointment. Call her pathetic, but she was in need of something extraordinary because ordinary just wasn’t cutting it anymore. Before Peri had even begun telling her all the crazy crap she was spouting, Anna had decided to just dive into this mess head first without a lifejacket and sink or swim she would take it. She was 18, her mom had taken off, so she was alone and she was so very tired of being alone.
“Okay.”
Sally’s brow furrowed slightly. “Okay? Are you for real this time?”
Anna laughed. “Yes, this time my okay is for real. I’m not saying that at some point I won’t just have a toe curling melt down, but for the moment I’m where I’m supposed to be. I don’t know why I know that, but I just do.”
“Psht, please, you haven’t met Jen yet,” Peri scoffed. “Take your worst melt down then add about fifty 2 year olds, a few dozen female cats in heat and the crowd at the water amusement park as they watched that whale, Shampoo have a snack on his trainer―then you can picture what a Jen melt down is like.”
“Damn,” Anna muttered.
“Exactly.”
“And I think you mean Shamu” Anna said.
“I tell you that you’re going to meet a girl whose tantrums are comparable to twenty-four female cats in heat and you’re worried about the name of the whale, really?” Peri asked dryly.
Chapter 8
“I’m beginning to wonder how much longer we can live in secret alongside the humans. The darkness that we thought we had contained in our realms is seeping into this one. I felt it as I stood in the forest of my homeland. Like a tiny crack in a large dam, it’s just a trickle. But that would change over time. We would be fools to believe that it won’t affect the humans. But then we might be bigger fools to think they would accept us as we are.” ~Perizada
The gentle rumble of deep voices and occasional laughter floated through the house as the group relaxed after a stressful day. Peri sat next to Lucian on the back porch staring out into the night sky. He slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him so that all of her left side was pressed to his right side. She shivered and blushed when he chuckled.
“In fifty years will that still happen?” She asked him.
“In fifty years will I still pull your body close to mine?” He asked, purposely misunderstanding her.
She cut her eyes at him with a coy smile. “You know what I meant. Will your touch still affect me like that?”
“How does it affect you?”
Peri could tell that he wasn’t teasing this time. He truly wanted to know, was eager to know exactly what it was his touch did to her. “It’s like electric current flows through me and the point of entry is wherever your skin is against mine. I can feel the heat from your body soaking into me and it’s like my cells can’t get enough of you so they try to absorb quicker as if they were dehydrated and you were the tiniest drop of water.”
He leaned closer to her so that his lips were close to her ear. Peri tried to remember to breathe as she felt his breath on her as he talked. “In fifty years when I touch you, that feeling will be multiplied by a hundred.”
“Then it will probably kill me,” she said as a breathy laugh escaped.
Lucian rotated until he was kneeling in front of her, pushing her knees open to slip his large frame in between them. He put his hands on her hips and pulled her to the edge of the seat as he stared deep into her eyes. “No, because your need of my touch will have grown to match your reaction. You will absorb it just as you do now. You will shiver, your lips might tremble, and your face will feel flushed, but you will be very much alive.”
Peri held his gaze as she reached up and ran her fingers through his blonde hair allowing the strands to slip through her fingers. She was so attuned to him that she could feel each silky strand as it brushed her skin, could hear the subtle whoosh and smell the masculine musk of him. Her hands slid down the back of his neck to his shoulders where they rested.
“I love your touch,” he whispered hoarsely to her as his eyes slipped closed. “To any Canis lupis touch is paramount to being healthy, but to me who went so long with no touch from another living being,” his eyes suddenly opened and the wolf stared back at her with glowing eyes, “I truly am ravenous for it. I crave it, not just touch Peri, your touch. Like a starving beast whose body is devouring itself from lack of nutrients searches for the tiniest morsel, I look for your touch. No matter how small, I find myself constantly bracing for it. Every time you get anywhere near me I have to bite back the whine of my wolf, who is just as frantic for you. I truly fear for my control when we’re close, and yet I can’t make myself stay away from you.”
Peri sat speechless, looking at the broken man before her. His body was tense, his muscles bunched up beneath her hands. His eyes were so full of pain that she felt the hurt of it in her own soul. He had been deprived of one of the most important things in a pack, touch, for centuries and now that he had a mate he felt as though he was mentally begging for her to touch him all the time. And Peri was so wrapped up in her own crap that she hadn’t even thought of his needs. As she stared into his eyes, an idea formed in her mind and she quickly blocked it from him. She took his hand and stood, pulling him up with her.
“Come with me,” she told him gently and pulled him off the porch and deeper into the forest. She walked, pulling him along with her until she found the spot that she had often come to when she needed to think. The trees had grown tall with their branches stretching out to each other creating a canopy, a secret cove.
Peri let go of his hand and then raised her hands and began to whisper. Little sparks of light shot from her palms, floating all around the hidden cove casting a soft light over the area. When she stretched her hand out over the ground and began chanting, she could admit she was showing off just a tad, thick grass shot up from the ground creating a mattress of plush vegetation upon which to recline.
She slipped her shoes off and stepped onto the thick grass. She took a seat and then looked up at Lucian. “Lie here,” she motioned to a soft patch of grass.
Lucian didn’t ask why, he just did it, without q
uestion, trusting his mate and needing to be near her regardless of the outcome. Once on his back Peri positioned his arms alongside his body. She slipped his shoes off and then his socks and wasn’t surprised to see that he even had sexy feet.
“Do you trust me?” She asked him.
“Without question,” he responded.
“Good, close your eyes,” she instructed. Then she took the hand closest to her in her own and closed her own eyes. There were perks to being a high fae with more power than one being should be given, and her touch starved mate was just about to get a crash course lesson in those perks. She pushed her power into him, similar to the way the gypsy healers could get inside of their patients to see what areas of their body needed healing, Peri’s spirit slipped into her mate. She spread her power throughout his body, over all of his nerves, his muscles and tissue. She literally draped him in her. She heard his intake of breath and felt his wolf stirring. She pushed deeper until she was in his mind and there she poured her essence into him. As her power pulsed inside of him she used their bond to communicate not just with words, but also with thoughts. She pictured touching his face, his lips and knew he felt it when he returned the favor and used their bond to touch her.
“How?” He asked her.
“I’m not like other women, mate,” she teased.
“I feel you, everywhere, all at once.” His words were choppy with emotion. Peri felt the tears slipping down her own face as his emotions rushed over her.
“Is this okay?” She asked hoping she hadn’t over stepped her bounds.
“There are no boundaries for you, beloved. You, and only you, have open access, all the time, any place for any reason,” he reassured her having felt her doubt.
“As do you,” she told him and realized just how much she wanted him to realize that she understood him. She understood the touch thing, that was something she had seen with the mated pairs, and pack mates and she knew it was vital. She would never refuse him her touch, would never take away something that he lived without for so long. She might not be quite ready for the Blood Rites or completing the mate bond, but she was getting there. Admitting that she needed his touch and being willing to give him the touch he needed was getting one step closer to being ready.
Her eyes popped open when she felt his arms around her and his lips on hers. He pulled her down on top of him, running his hands up and down her back as he explored her mouth with an expertise that was both alarming and exciting. He caught her by surprise but she was quickly catching up and giving as good as she got. He rolled until he covered her, his firm body pressing her smaller form into the soft grass. His hands trailed up her neck and into her hair, pulling a groan from him as the silky strands caressed his deprived skin. When he finally pulled back to look at her, Peri was breathless and drunk with desire.
A slow smile formed on his lips as he brushed a few wisps of hair from her face and then used that same finger to trace the swollen lips he had just tasted. “You look ravished.”
“Do I?” She asked innocently.
“Mm-hmm,” his chest rumbled as he continued to stare down at her with unabashed want.
“Well you look hungry,” she teased.
“Oh I am, beloved. I am famished.” He kissed her forehead and then her cheeks and then her chin. “Lucky for me I find that there is feast before me.”
“Is that so?” She asked as he tilted her head back and kissed her neck and then her collarbone and then lower still at the swell of her breast.
He felt her tense. “Relax, Peri, I’m not going to bite you.” He didn’t hide the disappointment in his voice because he wouldn’t lie to her. He wanted to bite her about as much as he wanted to do other things to her, but he would wait until she was begging him, every bit as desperate for him as he was for her.
When she started laughing he propped himself on his forearms over her and stared down at her beautiful face. “What is it that you find so funny?”
“You think I will beg,” she said through a ripple of laughter that was shaking her stomach and in turn shaking him.
He nipped her chin and then leaned down and gently bit down on the flesh on her neck below her ear, where his mark would be very soon. He tugged gently and her laughing abruptly stopped and was followed by a gasp. Her hands gripped his biceps, holding on to him as if she would fall into oblivion if she let him go. Lucian released her and said through his own increased breathing, “There is no shame in begging your mate for what you want, what you need.”
“Would you ever beg me?” Her voice was a whisper.
He stared into her pale green eyes, captivated by an ancient beauty that revealed glimpses of an even more beautiful soul. “Perizada,” her name rolled off of his lips in a tone he had never used before, because no one but his mate would ever hear him beg. His hands slipped up her sides until one cupped her face, his thumb stroking across her lips and the other ran gently through her hair. “I need you. I need to feel your skin against mine, I need to smell your scent dancing around me,” his voice shook as spoke, his eyes drinking her reaction to him in. “I need to taste you, your flesh, your desire, your blood,” he paused and let his warm breath fan over her face. “Peri,”
“Yes,” she answered quickly.
“Beloved, please, I beg of you, let me taste you.”
Peri decided in that moment that he would never be allowed to call her beloved in that tone of voice again, ever. She knew that he was just trying to make a point and she heard him loud and clear, the man was not too proud to beg and damn if he wasn’t good at it, really, really good.
“You’re good.” She wasn’t too proud to tell him. “And when I say good I mean I would nearly let you rip my clothes off and have your way with me.” Okay so maybe now she was sounding a little desperate, sue her.
“Is that a request?” He asked with want and need pouring off of him.
As she stared back, her lips parted with indecision, she could see the glow in his eyes beginning to dim and felt a small pang of regret as his wolf slipped back unsatisfied and unfulfilled.
“Don’t do that,” he told her gently.
“What?” She asked innocently.
“I told you, we wolves are patient hunters. He will wait.”
“We should probably get back to the house. I need to find out who our next mark is.” She tried to sound matter of fact like, but even she heard the reluctance in her voice.
“Next mark? You do realize we aren’t assassins right?” He teased as he helped her up from the ground.
“How do you know what I do in my spare time?” She asked coyly as she wrapped an arm around his waist letting him tuck her in closed to him as they walked back.
“Do I need to be worried that I’ll be your next mark?”
She laughed, oh he walked right into that one. “You’re definitely my next mark handsome, but killing you is not what’s on the agenda.” And then she added because Jen was rubbing off on her. “Unless death by pleasure is the way you want to go.”
∞
Lorelle knew she had stalled for long enough. She knew that she would have to answer the magic that Volcan had put inside her and she wasn’t too keen on the idea of seeing what would happen if she just ignored it. The problem was, no matter how many times she told herself to get moving, she couldn’t. All she could think about was what the human had said. She didn’t have to see Perizada to know that she was alive. She girl had said that the woman she had met looked like she could be Lorelle’s sister—that was confirmation enough. Then, to add fuel to the fire, the healer Sally was certainly alive and Lorelle knew for a fact that she had been very dead not too long ago. Since she had left the human in the coffee shop talking to the healer who was supposed to be dead, Lorelle had been pacing on the edge of the dark forest fighting the pull of the magic inside of her that demanded she go find the next healer.
She reasoned that she needed to consider what it meant that not only was Peri alive, but she was also seeking out the very
same gypsy healer. Did that mean that Peri knew about all the healers? And if she did, was she going to be taking them to the wolves?
“Dammit,” Lorelle huffed into the silent forest. “Why couldn’t she just stay dead? Is that too much to ask after you’ve killed your sibling? I don’t think it’s unreasonable of me to expect her to do me the courtesy of keeping her too perfect self in the damn ground!” Lorelle let out a slow breath as she composed herself after her brief, but much needed rant. She still had a job to do if she wanted to break free of Volcan.
She closed her eyes and felt his magic moving inside of her, pulling on her will to go in the direction that it demanded. She fought the urge to cringe away and instead let it lead her to her next target. She flashed, letting Volcan’s spell direct her path. When she felt herself become still, she waited several heart beats before she opened her eyes.
“Okay,” she said slowly as she looked around. “This is not what I was expecting.” She stood on a sidewalk at the edge of a lawn that looked as though it hadn’t seen a lawn mower since before Lorelle was born. The house beyond the jungle of a yard was dilapidated and Lorelle wondered how a stiff wind didn’t just blow the shack right over. She looked left and then right and saw that the houses on either side where in the same sad shape as the one before her. The entire neighborhood was like a forgotten ghost town. The only signs of life were the cars that littered the street and driveways and the slight noises she could hear coming from inside some of the pathetic dwellings.
Letting out a loud sigh, she made sure to cloak herself as she crept up the walkway. Dry weeds burst through the cracked cement like bony hands reaching from the grave. She couldn’t imagine a healer living in these conditions, but then she couldn’t really imagine anyone living in these conditions. Lorelle’s own life had always been a one of privilege and ease. How quickly things change when you decide to off your sister and join forces with evil.
