“How soon can you find them?”
He let out a sigh of relief. “A few hours at most, High Master.”
Dark, hard eyes considered him. The large Kakodaemon leaned forward in his chair. Even sitting, the man’s presence was intimidating, overwhelming.
“You have one.” The words came out harsh and low. “Find out who did this and bring them to me. And do not make me regret allowing you this reprieve.”
Cory shifted beside him. “Reprieve?”
Ian slammed his heel down on Cory’s foot, stopping the idiot girl from saying more. She still didn’t understand how things worked around here. She still didn’t understand when to align with the High Master, accept the risk with the power. She didn’t know.
She soon would if she wasn’t careful.
“Thank you, High Master. I will not fail you again.”
“See that you don’t.”
He dismissed them with a wave of his hand. Ian sprang from his chair, grabbing Cory’s arm and practically dragging her from the room. Once outside the closed doors, he turned on her.
“Don’t ever speak to the High Master like that again. You stupid fool! Do you know how close we came to losing our lives in there?”
She stared at him like he was crazy. “Dude, calm down. We’re on the same side here. I don’t understand why you’re so afraid of that guy. He’s after the council and all those do-gooder Enforcers. Why would he kill his own people?”
She scoffed at the notion and headed back downstairs. He watched her go. So sad. She really had no idea what she had gotten herself into. Yes, the High Master wanted to take the council and kill the Enforcers. His long-term plan encompassed so much more than that, though. So much more than she knew. The High Master would do anything, anything at all, to make that plan a reality.
Even kill his own men.
One man’s life wasn’t important in the grand scheme of things. Examples of strength kept people in line. Fear motivated far better than loyalty. Fear was power and the High Master was all powerful.
Ian quickened his steps down to his room. He had less than an hour to find the person responsible for breaking his spell. May the gods have pity on them once found, because the High Master surely would not.
Chapter 17
Celia woke to an unfamiliar sensation. Someone lay with her. Not only with her, but surrounding her. Large, strong arms, thick with well-defined muscle, wrapped around her. She felt the heat of another body pressed along her back. And against her backside, she felt the distinct hardness of an aroused male.
“I’ve been waiting for ages for you to wake up.” Damien’s deep, husky voice rumbled in her ear.
He kissed the bottom of her ear, gently nibbling on the tender lobe. A warm, delicious shiver wracked her body. “Why didn’t you wake me sooner?”
“You looked so beautiful. Lying there in such a peaceful sleep. I didn’t want to disturb you.”
She pushed against his erection, giggling. “Seems to me like you want to do a lot more than wake me up.”
Where did this playful flirt come from? She had never acted this way with anyone.
“Oh, I want to do plenty to you, Tira.”
The word, spoken with such heavy emotion, dropped like a cannon ball in the silent room. She turned, glancing at Damien over her shoulder. Misty gray eyes stared intently at her. The iris rimmed with a thin silver band, so brilliant in color it stood apart from his eyes’ silver-gray color. She had yet to look at her own eyes, but she knew they held a matching band.
It was true.
They were mated.
Celia knew all about the different species of supernaturals. As a student of science, she loved knowledge. Filling her brain with as many facts as possible was a hobby. It made her a nerd, but who cared? Nerds were in now.
In her years of study, she learned some supernaturals had intended mates. For Daemons, they were Tiras and only discovered after a Daemon had sex. When a Daemon had intercourse with his or her Tira, both the Daemon and the other being developed thin silver bands around their iris. Although invisible to the naked human eye, beings with enhanced eyesight could see the specific pattern in the silver that each mated Tira shared. Like a wedding band, only permanent.
Once mated, the couple had the same life expectancy. Whichever supernatural possessed the longer life span, the other Tira now matched. As a Witch, she had a few more decades than a normal human. She had no idea of Damien’s age, but most Daemons lived for an eon. A thousand years…guess I have a lot more time to perfect my potion-making skills.
“Are you upset by this?” Damien asked when she remained silent.
He looked so worried at the prospect she couldn’t help but smile.
Reaching out, she stroked the stubble on his jaw. It was rough and scratchy. Completely male.
“No. I’m just surprised.” She shifted to her back and he loomed over her, not caging her in, but surrounding her with his comforting presence. “I never imagined I would tolerate, let alone crave the touch of another person. Then to discover these…feelings led to something more, well. It’ll just take a little getting used to.”
He smiled, revealing perfectly straight teeth. The man was too good looking for words. “You crave me?”
Her face flushed with heat. Lifting a hand, she playfully swatted at him. Laughing, he caught her hand in one of his. Pulling them above her head, he stretched her out. With her arms high above her head, her chest rose, displaying her breasts like an offering. The way Damien stared at them; it looked like he might take that invitation. Fire and hunger lit his gaze.
“I crave you too, Tira. I see you and I want to be inside you. I smell you and my fingers itch to touch you. I simply think of you and I’m hard.”
Whoa.
His voice dropped an octave. The deep words rumbled out of his chest like velvet sin. “I burn to touch you again, slip inside you again and lose myself.”
Celia arched against his hold, but his grip did not loosen. “Damien,” she cried. “I want to touch you.”
He shook his head, short white locks of hair falling across his forehead. “Not this time. I’m hanging on by a thread and I want to be inside you.”
“Next time,” she agreed. There would be a next time. Many more next times. “Hurry.”
Her body burned with heat. He had barely touched her, but after last night and waking up to him holding her, she was already primed and ready to go. She felt the thick hardness of his erection pressed against her belly. Tension already gathered between her legs. Her nipples were hard little points begging for the attention of his hands, mouth, anything.
Damien didn’t touch her. His gaze swept over her body and came to rest on her face.
“How do you feel?”
“Needy,” she whimpered, twisting beneath him.
A smile curled the corner of his mouth. “Me too sweetheart, but I was talking about your wound. How is your back?”
Her back? Her back was fine. Presently, she was more concerned with her front. Specific parts of her front demanded attention from a certain sexy Euadaemon intent on tormenting the hell out of her.
“It’s fine, now make love to me.”
She spoke the truth. It barely hurt. Of course, likely because the endorphins currently racing through her body blocked her pain receptors, but she didn’t care. At the moment, all she cared about was Damien inside her again. Racing with him to that peak of pleasure. Joining with him in the most intimate of ways.
No wonder Tabitha and Kiernan went at it like bunnies—as Krista so eloquently put it.
“With pleasure,” he said. One hand still holding her arms above her, he trailed the fingers of his other hand down to her core. “Let’s just see how ready you are.”
She was ready five minutes ago. Now, she bordered on desperate.
His fingers found her. They touched, petted, and rubbed causing her to let out a moan of delight.
He chuckled. “Yes, you’re ready.”
&n
bsp; One finger dipped inside as his mouth came down on her breast, capturing the nipple. She cried out, arching against him as waves of pleasure coursed through her body. A second finger joined the first. His lips kissed a path to her other breast. So many nerve endings on high alert, she didn’t think she could handle much more.
“Damien!”
She hooked one leg around his hips and tried to pull him to her. She was close, so close, but she wanted him inside her. He ignored her request. Continuing to pump his fingers inside her while lavishing attention on her breasts. She felt her orgasm building. She tried to hold it back.
“No,” Damien growled, pulling away from her breast. “Don’t hold back. Come for me, Celia. Now!”
And she did. She came in a blinding, hot rush of pleasure. Screaming out his name. His fingers slipped out of her and she cried out at the loss, until he placed the head of his cock at her entrance and thrust himself deep inside. He pumped his hips. Filling her so deliciously. The wave of ecstasy rose again and soon she came a second time.
Damien plunged into her twice more before he joined her in rapture. Her name slipped from his lips like a prayer.
****
“It worked. It worked!” Celia jumped up from her desk in excitement.
After spending most of the morning in bed, wrapped in Damien’s embrace, they had dressed and joined the rest of the Enforcers at headquarters for lunch. She was eager to listen to the Kako recording again to see if her spell worked. After lunch, she went immediately to her office and discovered it, in fact, worked. The confusion spell was broken. She could translate the Kako language.
“You can translate it?” Damien asked, from his seat in the chair facing her desk. “Clearly?”
“Yes,” she said. Excitement nearly bursting from every pore. “With the confusion spell broken, the words don’t jumble around anymore. The patterns in the code are clear.”
She glanced up to find her own excitement reflected in Damien’s silvery gray eyes.
“I can translate every word. It’s simple really. It’s a numeric pattern using the Brines principle. Five languages all combine to create one new one. The language is structured in a five-word cycle. Latin, German, Demon, Italian, and Russian.”
“That’s a lot of languages.” Damien said, rubbing a hand through his short hair. “How do the Kakos know that many languages? Wouldn’t it take years to be fluent in so many?”
“Normally yes, but I believe whoever created this Kako language and cast the confusion spell, also made a tincture of Transtuli. It’s a potion, when drunk, bestows the knowledge of all languages on the person for a short time. Like a magic every-language-to-English translator for your brain.”
“Is it permanent?”
She shook her head. Magic rarely was. “The effects are temporary. My best guess is whoever this High Master is, has cases of the stuff and regularly gives it to his followers.”
That had to be it. She seriously doubted many Kakos spoke multiple languages. Two maybe, they did live for centuries after all, but not five, especially when one of the languages was ancient Demon. Very few people, outside Demons, knew Demon language. Those guys weren’t real big on sharing with others, even with other supernaturals. The only reason Celia knew some Demon was through diligent study with some black-market texts she had acquired.
“I need to call Racine.” This was so exciting. Their big break. They finally had a leg up on these nasty Kakos.
Damien nodded. “Yes, I’ll call the other heads. You tell Racine and have him send your things here.”
Wait, what?
“Send my things here?” Her brow drew down in confusion. “Why?”
Damien mirrored her look of confusion. “It wouldn’t do much good to have all your things back in Colorado. Unless you want all new things? I can buy you a whole new wardrobe if you’d like, but I’m sure you have books and items in your old lab that will be hard to replace—”
“Wait, wait, wait.” She cut him off. “Old lab? Damien, what are you talking about?”
He huffed out a breath of impatience. “I’m talking about you staying here with me. Permanently, Tira.”
Her eyes widened in shock. Okay, so she admitted to being his Tira, but that didn’t mean she was ready to pack up her life and move in with the guy. She had only known him a short time. And where did he get off deciding something like that without even talking to her about it?
“Who said I was moving here?”
He scowled, his impatience appearing to inch toward annoyance.
“I just assumed you would want to live here, with me. Your Tira.”
He kept bringing that up.
“So you didn’t think to, oh I don’t know, ask me?” The thing said about people who assumed, yup, Damien was barking right up that tree. “You demand I tell my boss I’m quitting the job I’ve worked hard to get for so many years. You thought I’d just give up my home, my life, and stay here because we are mated now?”
“Yes.”
Wow. The guy didn’t even sound sorry. Probably because he wasn’t. Damien obviously didn’t see what was wrong with his assumption.
“We have a lab here you can work in.”
“Yes, but it’s not my lab.”
“Neither is the one in region seven. They all belong to the council. You just work there.”
She sucked in a hard breath. Astounded he would say something like that. He just kept digging the hole deeper.
“You’re controlling side is showing again and I have to say, I still don’t like it.”
“I don’t understand why you are being so difficult about this.”
Damien rose from his seat. He placed his hands on her desk, leaning in, surrounding her with his large presence. It should have been intimidating, but Celia didn’t scare easily. Ever since she escaped that cold, dark basement, she never let anyone force her to do something she didn’t agreed with. The sad part was, if Damien had just talked to her, asked her instead of demanding, she might have said yes. She had feelings for the jerk. Strong feelings that grew deeper every day.
“You are my Tira. You belong by my side.”
Something inside Celia snapped at those words. “I don’t belong to anyone, Damien.” She pronounced each word with stark clarity. “Just because the gods, or fate, or whatever determined this.” She pointed to the silver in her eyes. “Said we are Tiras, does not mean you get to dictate my life for me.”
“So you’re just going to leave then? Leave me? Leave us?”
He looked hurt. Damn it, she didn’t want to hurt him. She just wanted him to realize she was her own person, capable of making her own decisions. No one would lock her away again. No one.
“I’m not putting you in a cage, Celia,” he said, as if reading her thoughts. “I’m offering you a home. A home with me. It’s where you be—it’s where I want you.”
Where he wanted her. Because she was his Tira. His mate. His lover. She had to admit the idea was a nice one. She liked her home and lab back in Colorado, but it never really felt like home, a place of her own. She had no strong ties to the place. She did care for her pseudo family there, Bucky, Krista, Tabitha, Racine and the rest.
Her gaze drifted to Damien. The only man she had ever let inside her body. The only man she ever let inside her heart. He knew more about her and her past than anyone. She trusted him, cared for him. If being truly honest with herself, she loved him. Yes, she loved Damien. Had from the first moment he came to her in the darkness and held her. The moment she shared her pain and he hurt for her.
She loved this man. But did he love her?
Yes, they were Tiras. Mated by fate’s design. But fate did not equal love. Damien never said anything about loving her. He hadn’t uttered the words. He just demanded she move here because that’s what he wanted. Well, what about what she wanted?
She wanted someone who loved her. Someone who respected her and treated her like an equal. He may be the head of council for region eight, but that didn�
��t give him reign over her. And it never would.
“I need some time to think.”
Her glasses slipped down her nose and she pushed them back up. She skirted around the desk, brushing by him on her way toward the door. Damien grabbed her arm gently, causing her to stop.
“Celia, wait. Listen to me.”
She didn’t want to hear what he had to say. Her emotions were too raw right now. Her heart too bruised.
“I need some time alone, Damien.”
When he refused to release her arm, she glanced up into that handsome face and her heart nearly broke. How could he have treated her this way? After all she shared with him. Why did he try to take her power from her? Didn’t he realize how much that hurt her?
“Please. Let me go.” Her voice cracked, but she refused to let the tears fall. She would not cry in front of him.
“No. We need to talk about this.” He frowned. “You’re not leaving.”
She shook her head sadly. “How are you going to stop me? Throw me in a cell? Are you going to lock me up, too?”
He pulled back as if she’d slapped him, dropping her arm, mouth falling open with shock. Celia supposed she kind of did. A slap of words. A cruel and unfair thing to do, but right now she didn’t care. She had to get away.
Turing her back on him, she left the office. Heading down the hall, she ignored the call from Alex asking her if the spell worked. She ignored Cuthbert eyeing her with boredom. She ignored the stare she felt on her back from Damien. She ignored everything, even the breaking of her own heart, and headed out the front door.
Chapter 18
Nature always soothed her soul. Witches shared a connection with nature. Their spells used earth magic: herbs, flowers, elements of Mother Nature. From the earth, they came and from the earth, they returned. Comforting, calming. She needed a little comfort.
Celia made her way out of headquarters and straight into the woods surrounding them. Though she had only been to the glen once, she instinctively knew the way. It called to her. Waiting for her to come and mend her broken heart.
Making her way through brush and low hanging tree branches, she muttered to herself about the stupidity of men. In the few minutes it had taken her to get to the clearing in the middle of the woods, she had worked herself up all over again.
Daemon Deception Page 13
