Sleeping with the Beast: an Adult Paranormal Shifter Romance (The Conduit Series Book 2)

by Conner Kressley

  I laughed. “Same old Briar.”

  “Queen Briar to you,” she said, but there wasn’t any bite in her words.

  It was weird. Almost dying actually helped us to move past our differences. Which was a good thing, given how childish they seemed now.

  “And who do you have to thank for that, your majesty?” I asked, winking at her.

  “Do you really have to go?” she asked, stepping away from Ramsey and taking my hands in her own like we were long lost best friends who hadn’t been reunited not nearly long enough.

  “I do.” I gave her a quick hug and stepped beside Abram, wrapping my arm around his waist. “I want to get out of here, maybe take an actual vacation.”

  The airport buzzed around us. Well, as much as an airport on some obscure island could. I peered up to Abram and gave him a knowing smile.

  “And New York is the best place to do that?” Briar asked. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve had my fill of that city.”

  “I did have my fill of it,” I said. “And I had amazing times there, too. That’s the thing. I want Abram to get to know that part of me. I want him to know all of me.”

  I felt his hand at my back, and felt the rush that came with knowing he was mine forever.

  Nothing and no one would change that.

  “What about me?” Briar asked, nuzzling up on Ramsey’s neck. “You want to know all of me?”

  His hand slipped below her waist to give her butt a squeeze. “Ask me again tonight. I’ll be sure to remain interested in every piece of you.”

  “Moron,” she answered, kissing his neck.

  Ramsey turned to me, and I could see how grateful he was. Somehow, it had taken this—almost losing everything—for the two of them to realize what they had together. And that was a beautiful thing.

  “You know I’m always around, Charisse,” he said. “If you ever need lessons, or even the answers to questions, I’m here to help. It’s what a mage does.”

  “Given that Satina’s disappeared again, I might take you up on that,” I said.

  Satina had disappeared the day after we took down Ameena. Part of me wondered where she had gone off to. But a bigger piece of me was happier not to know. The last conversation we’d had before she left didn’t go over very well. Mostly because knowing Briar was related to the real Sleeping Beauty wasn’t the only thing she’d been keeping from us.

  As it turned out, Satina knew all about the Company. Had since before we ever even stepped foot on the island. In fact, half of the snooping she’d encouraged me to do wasn’t to stop the Conduit, but to see what more I could learn about them.

  She’d known the Company and the Brothers were one and the same. She knew the Conduit’s magic had been contorted by a magical provision granted by the Company. That was how she was able to use stored Supplicant blood, as if the shelf-life rule didn’t apply to her. Satina had known from the onset that the Company was putting Ameena and Archibald against each other, and that the provisions they had granted each of them was causing the magic to mutate.

  She played it off saying she didn’t want us focused on the wrong thing, but Abram and I didn’t see it that way. It wasn’t her place to decide what information we should base our decisions on, no matter what she thought.

  We’d insisted she tell us everything she knew about the Company, but all she would tell us is that they were causing magic to mutate in ways we wouldn’t understand—which would explain Ameena’s bull-like appearance. People were selling their souls to get help from the Company without realizing the Company was the one fabricating the problems to begin with.

  We’d asked Satina why, and she’s said, “That’s what you need to find out.”

  And that’s about when Abram snapped on her about keeping things from us. She took a hint and stormed off, but unfortunately, I still doubted that would be the last we saw of her.

  “Come on,” Abram said, giving me a nudge. “They’re boarding.”

  I said goodbye to Ramsey and Briar, looked one last time at this island that very nearly became my final resting place, and headed toward the gate.

  As we stepped into line to board, Abram gave me a nudge. “I think he wants to see you.”

  Following Abram’s finger, I spotted Huntsman standing off in the distance. His ax was strapped to his back, and his hands were in his pockets.

  “Do we have a minute?” I asked. “I think I need to talk to him.”

  “Of course.” Abram kissed me on the lips. “I’ll get our seats settled on the plane. Take all the time you need. And Charisse.” He squeezed my hand. “Thank him for me.”

  I smile as I neared Huntsman and, though he didn’t return it, I could tell a cloud had been lifted from him.

  “I don’t think that’s allowed here,” I said playfully, pointing to his ax.

  He laughed easily. “Oh, come now. Surely you realize no one else here can see it.”

  I raised my eyebrows, certain I would never get the hang of this whole magic thing. “I’m not sure what I know anymore. Like why you’re even here right now. Don’t tell me you still plan to off us for the king.”

  Another laugh, and this time with a lasting smile. He was so handsome it was making me uneasy—I was in love with Abram. Though I supposed it was only human to still notice when someone was hot.

  “Not here to end you,” he said, dimple peeking out from beneath his shadow on his jaw. “The opposite, in fact. I wanted to make sure you got away unscathed.”

  “You know I have someone for that,” I said. “And a pretty badass set of super powers of my own. I’ll be fine.” I stared at him for a few beats. “Why are you really here?”

  “My brother,” he said quietly, the smile slipping away. “I want to apologize to you for the part he played in all of this. What you and your lover went through was horrific, and if I could have stopped it—”

  “Stop it.” I shook my head. “You’re not your brother, and you didn’t do anything wrong. In fact, I think you did most of it right. You’re one of the good guys, Huntsman. Don’t forget that.”

  “There’s much I won’t forget about my time here, Charisse. You among them.” He gave me a nod. “You’re quite special, quite spectacular.”

  “Well, you’re not so bad yourself.” I bit my lip, my eyes flickering to the ground. “You know, I saw you in the castle. I saw what Ameena did to you.” I looked back up at him. “Who was in the casket?”

  “Someone who shouldn’t have been,” he said evenly. “I told you, there are many facets to my story, many wrongs I have to right if I have any chance at redemption.”

  “Where are you gonna go now?”

  “To do what good guys do, Charisse Bellamy. To right wrongs. Some of them my own.”

  “Well, if there ever comes a time when you feel like your brother needs to be freed—”

  “I’ll find you,” he finished. “Until then, be safe.”

  I gave him a smile and patted him on the shoulder in parting.

  “Oh!” I said. “Before I forget—because if I don’t ask you, I’m never gonna forgive myself—under that shirt of yours is a pretty righteous set of abs, right?”

  “Most definitely,” he answered, offering another of those heart-melting smiles.

  “Thought so,” I said, and I twirled back toward the plane, back toward Abram and his righteous set of abs. No one would ever compare.

  * * *

  Landing in New York was a world away from the tropical and airy atmosphere of Grimoult, but I loved it. It felt like coming home. The obscenely crowded streets, the graffiti lining the walls, the way people were way too rude for no reason; I was in my element.

  “Are you sure this is the right place?” Abram asked as we walked down 2nd Avenue.

  An old woman—the sort you would imagine baking cookies and knitting quilts in her spare time—had just bumped into him and screamed, “Hey, watch where you’re going, flat ass!”

  “You’ll get used to it. It’s sort of th
e flavor of the city. And don’t worry,” I said, giving him a kiss on the cheek. “It’s not flat.”

  “Where are we headed first?” he asked, a small smirk playing at the corners of his lips.

  “There’s a pizza place right around the corner. Antonio’s. I had a lot of great nights there, and a lot of awesome slices. I figured we could head there, order a pie, and have a good old time.”

  “Or, we can get it to go, head back to the hotel, and I’ll show you what a good old time really is.”

  “You are a beast,” I said, giggling.

  And the sad part was, he was still a beast, and not just in the bedroom. I thought giving his curse away would change that, but apparently he’d done little more than share his curse with Ameena. He still had to fight the pull of the moon, and he still had to leave me come midnight. Although, he was happy about that—happy he could still protect me, even though I’d already proven I could do quite a bit of the saving myself.

  “We protect each other,” he’d said. But I still hated it.

  As we made the left toward Antonio’s, cars sat deadlocked in traffic, and for the first time in ages, I felt like me…and not the Conduit/Supplicant me. I was the Charisse Bellamy from before. But I was better, because I had Abram at my side. I had returned here complete.

  “Took you long enough,” came an irritatingly familiar voice ahead of us.

  I gulped, knowing who it was before my gaze even set on her. Satina stood in front of the door to Antonio’s, a pizza box in her hand, dressed in long coat with mink at the neck and sunglasses even though it was dark out. Of course, she didn’t look like the first two Satinas, or her real self, but I knew it was her. “I hope everyone likes mushrooms.”

  “What the hell are you doing here, Satina?” Abram growled. “Also, you know I hate mushrooms.”

  “I was waiting for you.” She scoffed as though feigning hurt feelings. “You don’t think these missions just set themselves up, do you? I’ve been here for two days now getting the pieces into place.”

  “Oh, no.” Abram shook his head. “No more missions, not right now. We’re here to relax. We’re here to enjoy each other’s company. We’re not here to fix something.”

  “Not something,” she answered with a grin. “Someone. And it just so happens he’s headed this way right now.”

  We both turned and, as soon as I saw him, my heart fell.

  He looked nearly exactly the same as he had the last time I saw him. The same shaggy hair, the same light eyes, the same crooked smile that had melted my heart and kept me with him for entirely too long.

  “Charlie…” I muttered before he got close enough to hear me.

  “Charlie?” Abram asked. “Charlie Prince, as in your old boyfriend?”

  The second Charlie smiled at me from up the sidewalk, it was as though a spell lifted from my mind, flooding me with memories of him that seemed impossible to have forgotten. And yet, I had. Somehow, the most crushing reality of my relationship with Charlie came hurtling back into my mind, and I instantly wished I could erase it again—both from my mind and from reality.

  “Listen,” I said, turning to Abram. “There’s something you don’t know about him…something that happened here, things that I should have told you about.”

  Abram’s expression fell. “What are you talking about, Charisse?”

  “Charlie and I—”

  “Well, if it isn’t Charisse Bellamy,” Charlie said, reaching us. He smiled his crooked smile and batted shaggy hair out of his light eyes. His voice was as deep and free as it had ever been. “As I live and breathe. I didn’t know I was coming to meet you.”

  I couldn’t speak. Suddenly plummeting off that cliff didn’t seem so bad.

  “Charlie Prince?” Abram asked, extending his hand.

  “I see my reputation precedes me.” He took Abram’s hand and gave a firm shake. “I assume you’re the guy banging my wife?”

  The End

  * * *

  Continue the Conduit Series with Book 3, Charmed by the Beast.

  http://amzn.to/20DPFHZ

  ABOUT THE AUTHORS

  Conner Kressley is a USA TODAY Bestselling Author represented by Rossano Trentin of TZLA. He is an avid reader and all around lover of storytelling. His book “The Breaker’s Code” is the first in the epic “Fixed Points” series that pits free will against fate and true love against good intentions and bad situations. You can learn more about Conner and his books below.

  View More on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1q58TJA

  Visit His Website: http://connerkressleybooks.weebly.com/

  * * *

  Rebecca Hamilton is a USA Today Bestselling Paranormal Fantasy author who also dabbles in Horror and Literary Fiction. She lives in Florida with her husband and four kids. She is represented by Rossano Trentin of TZLA and has been published internationally, in three languages. You can learn more about Rebecca and her books below.

  View More on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1Sa6jZn

  Visit Her Website: http://www.rebeccahamiltonbooks.com/