And, to get that chance, I’d do whatever I needed to do.
Grabbing the slipper’s hilt, I drove it deeper into my gut. The pain was without mercy, but I had no choice.
Edwin’s eyes went wide at my display, but I wasn’t trying to show off.
This power was killing me. The only way to stop it would be to redirect it, as Edwin had done with my energy. But to do that, I needed to join it with my energy. And it needed to be close for that.
Extraordinarily close.
Struggling to breathe through the pain, I pushed the power outward. Miraculously, the slipper obeyed. It blasted Edwin and knocked his sadistic ass clear off the roof.
I wished it had killed him, but I knew better.
A man who could survive a building collapse could survive this.
I’d have to get back to him later.
At the present moment, I needed to get this thing out of me. Biting my lip so hard it bled, I pulled the slipper out.
It fell against the roof, and I collapsed alongside it.
Chapter 25
With what little energy I had left, I crawled across the rooftop, nails scraping against the concrete.
As the energy soothed and fixed what was broken in us, I breathed a sigh of relief. But that relief was soon replaced with dread. I’d bought us time, but how much? And did it even matter? Was any amount of time enough time to fix this?
I closed my eyes, trying to summon up…something. A plan? Hope? The energy to not give up?
Strong hands wrapped around my arms and pulled me to my feet. The world was hazy as my body was lifted into the air. But it was Abram who was holding me, and that meant that he was okay.
Thank God for that at least.
“Charisse?” Abram’s voice was in my ear, coaxing me out of the exhaustion that threatened to overtake me as a result of what I had just been through.
I made a small noise of acknowledgment, but I couldn’t muster the energy to respond.
“Charisse, the slipper. I need you to grab it.” He shook me a little, forcing my eyes open.
Abram was sweaty and worn, but he wasn’t frantic. How did he do that? The world was literally falling down around us and here he was, stoic and as put together as ever.
“I…I…” I was too weak, too tired, to talk.
“Sweetheart, I can’t touch it. Without the beast, it’ll burn through me. And we can’t leave it here. Edwin will be circling back for it.” He leaned in closer. “It’s right there, darling. Just reach down and grab it.”
“I can’t,” I whispered, my voice barely audible. I didn’t have the strength to even think about picking something up, much less fight the immense power that would run through me the instant my skin touched that damn slipper.
“You can,” he answered, his breath brushing gently against my cheek. “You’re the strongest person I know. You can do anything.” He leaned in and touched my lips with his own, sending sparks through me with his closeness. “You can do anything.”
I pushed through the exhaustion, fighting past the waves of hurt and sleep that threatened to crush me. I had to do this. I had to fight for him. For us.
Mustering as much energy as I could, I flung my eyes open and reached for the slipper. I didn’t have the strength to brace myself before I grabbed it, but I should have.
The second my fingers wrapped around it, the blaze of its power shot through me, tightening my muscles and setting my entire being on fire. It felt as if it would burn right through everything I was—body, mind, and soul. When it was done, I would be more than dead. It would be as though I had never existed at all.
“You’re strong.” Abram voice found its way into my head, past the torrents of pain and heat. “You’re stronger than this.”
But I wasn’t. I knew I wasn’t. No one and nothing could be stronger than this.
For him, though, I would try.
As soon as I made the decision to fight, my power began to work against the slipper. With every heartbeat, the burning subsided and the pain grew less. Soon, I could think. After that, things became almost bearable.
My grip tightened on the slipper, and wind floated through my hair.
We were moving.
Abram was taking me somewhere. My breaths slowed, and my chest relaxed. The pain was still there, like a toothache you had to live with until the dentist made time for you. When Abram laid me down, my surroundings too dark and vague to make out, the pain was lessened enough for me to sleep.
Sighing away the last of my energy, I drifted off to slumber with the slipper held tight against my chest.
* * *
I woke slowly, but I knew from the ache in my body and the sluggishness in my head that I hadn’t been asleep for long.
Still, it was enough for me to be able to move, think, and even speak.
“Abram,” I said weakly, sitting up and keeping a tight hold on the slipper. Its power still flowed through me, but instead of threatening to burn me up from the inside out, now it seemed to complement me, to steady my hand.
“I’m here,” Abram said, walking toward me.
As my eyes adjusted, I could see that we were in a small room. I was lying on a bed, and the television played an old baseball game at full volume.
“Is this a fleabag motel?” I asked, leaning against the headrest.
“It’s a safe house,” he said. “Or it is now…Satina spelled it.”
“A safe house?” I asked, narrowing my eyes. “Are we hiding out?”
“Seems a little unnatural, doesn’t it?” Abram asked. “At least that’s what I told Satina.”
“And I told you to shut your mouth!” Satina’s voice boomed throughout the room.
Abram’s eyes lifted toward the ceiling. “She’s connected to this place.”
“What exactly is this place?” I asked, setting the slipper on a nearby counter and standing. My legs felt like jelly beneath me, but I managed to keep standing.
“Technically, it’s a motel in Queens.”
“Ew,” I answered.
“More importantly, with Satina’s power shielding us, no one will glean that we’re here or that the slipper is with us,” Abram explained.
“Yeah, that’s the thing,” I said. “We’ve got one of the fiercest weapons the world has ever seen. There’s an argument to be made that we should put it to use.” I moved closer to Abram. “We could put an end to this.”
Satina snickered. “Or you could once again find yourself outmanned and end up hand delivering the slipper to one of our quickly multiplying enemies. That is, if you don’t get yourself killed first.” I couldn’t see Satina, but I could practically hear her shaking her head. “I know that every fiber of both your beings is aching to throw yourselves in harm’s way like some sort of millennial masochists, but if you can fight that feeling for a bit, we might be able to get through this.” A long pause preceded the next word. “Maybe.”
“That’s great conjecture, but do we actually have a plan?” I asked.
“We do.” Abram settled in front of me and placed his hands at the small of my back. “We don’t get killed. We stay here, with each other. And we figure the rest out as we can.”
“I’m not sure that I’m any good at that,” I admitted, biting my lip as Abram’s hands moved from the small of my back and rested on my ass.
“Me either, Charisse. But we’re going to have to try.”
“Fine,” I said on the edge of a sigh. “But on one condition.” I lifted my hand. “Satina is going to have to give us a little privacy.”
With a flick of my wrist, I shielded the connection between Satina and this place. Abram might have been battling a bit of a voyeuristic streak lately, but I had no interest in giving Satina a front-row seat to what was coming next.
He smiled as he peered down at me. “Sounds like a plan.”
“Lay with me,” I said, running my palm along his cheek and feeling the day’s stubble that had begun to shadow it.
“For
ever if you want.” He swept me up off my feet and laid me on the bed, careful to miss the slipper still on the counter.
“Are you afraid?” I asked as he slid up to me, wrapping his arms around my chest and pressing against my body.
“You might be powerful, Miss Bellamy,” he growled, “but you don’t scare me.”
“That’s not what I meant,” I purred. “But I’m happy to know that I’m accessible.”
“I’ve had a long life, Charisse. A good one,” he said, the light draining from his voice. “The best pieces of it have been the latest, but if they’re also the last, then I’m okay with that. As long as I’m with you, I’m okay. And nothing can scare me.”
“You’re lying,” I whispered. “I can feel how fast your heart is beating.”
“That’s not fear, my love,” he answered, kissing along the nape of my neck. “That’s just you.”
I turned toward him and ran my foot along his leg. The familiar hunger that always came when he was near swelled inside of me. But it was different now. It was strong and peaceful, a quiet kind of roar.
“Ever since this started…” Abram said. “Ever since I met Charlie, ever since I lost my powers—all I’ve wanted is to prove something to you. It’s the reason I’ve been pushing your limits, the reason I’ve been broadening your comfort zone.”
His lips found mine and shot sparks through me. But then he pulled away. “You were a girl when you were with him. You’re a woman now. One who’s capable of things the girl never was—never could be. The girl you used to be might have belonged with Charlie Prince, but the woman you are now…she belongs with me.”
He pressed closer, and I felt him once again about to test my limits.
“You didn’t have to prove that to me, Abram,” I said, so close to him now that my body pulsed along his. “I’ve known it since the minute I saw you, since the first time I touched you.” I pushed my fingers through the dark curls of his hair. “Is that what this was about?”
“It was,” he said, almost sounding abashed. “But now it’s…different. I’ve never been with someone more powerful than I am. You’re the one in control, and I want that. I want you to give that control to me sometimes. I want you to give yourself to me completely.”
His breath puffed hot against my neck, and his sweat moistened my skin. My whole body was on fire, but that couldn’t begin to compare with what was happening to my heart.
“I am completely yours,” I whispered.
His lips rubbed against mine, teasing. “Not yet,” he said as if he knew something I didn’t. “But one day soon, you will be.”
Abram’s chest heaved as he settled over me, and the low growl to his breath reminded me of that old side of him. The Beast. The part he would never get back; the part he didn’t need as much as he thought he did.
My legs parted and wrapped around his waist. Pulling his face to mine, I kissed him passionately as his hands searched my body. He reached for my skirt, pulling it over my waist and letting it sit uselessly around my stomach.
His lips were still on mine as he slipped out of his pants. My palms roved his back, and my heart raced as his body pressed closed to mine.
“I love you,” he said against my lips as he slowly inched inside of me, allowing my body to adapt to his.
He knew every inch of me, every corner and secret place that my body had to offer. They were all his. I was his. And that was what mattered.
“I love you back,” I murmured against his lips, my legs tightening behind his back.
Once he had worked his way inside, his thrusts grew faster, harder, and more intense. Every time my thighs quivered with the nearing of a climax, he changed pace, always keeping me at bay, intensifying every movement.
Finally, he let my orgasm crash through me, but he didn’t stop until he’d sent me over the edge so many times I had to beg him to come, too.
His hands were on my breasts. His lips were on my lips, and his shaft was hidden deep within me when the sweetest of explosions sent my body to shivering.
Abram swept my mouth with another kiss. “You all right, Miss Bellamy?”
I stared up at the ceiling. “More than all right. But tell me something.”
“Hmmm?”
I tilted my head to face him. “Why do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“You know exactly what.”
Abram grinned, propping himself up on his side to stare down into my eyes. “Because I love being with you. Because I never want it to end. And because I know everything in life is more gratifying when you have to wait for it.”
I raised an eyebrow at him, and he smirked.
“Tell me otherwise,” he said, challenging me.
But I wouldn’t dare deny it. It was better this way. Better when what I wanted wasn’t easy to get.
That was when I realized just how satisfying it would be to defeat The Brothers.
* * *
When Abram woke a few hours later, he found me in a near panic.
He jumped from the bed. “What’s wrong?”
“Satina,” I said, running my hands frantically through my hair. “I lifted the shield hours ago, but she’s not there.”
“What?” he asked, wrapping a sheet around his waist and narrowing his eyes. “She’s probably doing something.”
“No.” I shook my head hard, trying to keep the squeak out of my voice. “I’ve scanned for hours. She’s completely silent!” I rubbed my hands down the side of my face. “I cut her off and now they’re gone. Everyone! I can’t get a read on anyone.” I slumped against the wall and slid to the floor. “They could all be dead. As far as I know, the entire world outside of this room could be annihilated. And it’s all because we did nothing!”
Chapter 26
“Calm down, Charisse,” Abram said, an even keel to his voice. But I knew him well enough to know that, right under the surface, the same panic was bubbling up in both of us. “We don’t know anything yet.”
“We know the connection is broken,” I said, eyeing the door. “We know that there are at least two homicidal maniacs after us, and we know, from experience, that homicidal maniacs will attack the people you care about to get what they want.” I ground my teeth together. “Since you’re safe in here, the closest thing I have to people I care about are them.”
Lulu flickered through my mind, but there was no way Satina’s father or Charlie would be after her. After what happened with Dalton, she hadn’t spoken to me in months. Besides, I had done my best to keep her and her very full family away from this world I had found myself in. No, she wasn’t in any danger, but the others certainly would be.
“What are you suggesting?” Abram asked, slipping his clothes back on. It was strange and almost tragic how quickly things had gone from beautiful to utter shit.
That seemed to be a running trend in my life.
“I’m suggesting that we do something,” I said, throwing my hands out to signal that, at least in my mind, that should have been obvious. “What if all of them are hurt? What if it’s worse? I can’t do this, Abram. I thought I could, but I can’t. I can’t just sit here and let things happen.”
“Listen to me, Charisse,” Abram said, setting his jaw. “I’m not about to let you go off on some suicide mission just because we can’t reach Satina. Why don’t you try calling one of them?”
“Don’t you think I already tried that?” I scoffed. “There’s no answer from Ramsey, Satina, or Cindy. With Charlie being possessed by that Conduit serial killer and me having absolutely no idea what Timmon’s number is, that leaves me without many more options.”
Abram stared at me for a long while. Something danced across his eyes that I couldn’t quite pin down.
“What do you want to do then?”
The fact that he would broach the subject, that he would even consider listening to what I had to say on the matter without objecting to it as being too dangerous right out of the gate said a lot about the severity of the sit
uation we found ourselves in right now.
“I…” I actually wasn’t quite sure. So I said the only thing I could think of, the only thing we could do in the position we were in.
It was also the thing that would prove the hardest for me.
“I think we need to split up.”
I braced myself, waiting for Abram to explode with indignant rage. There was no way he was going to go for this. Throwing ourselves on a live grenade in an attempt to save the world was one thing. Him letting me do it while he stood by and watched was something else altogether.
But he didn’t. Surprisingly enough, he seemed to actually consider it as he replied, “Go on.”
“Oh, okay,” I said. “But I don’t think you’re going to like it.”
“That’s all right, Charisse. As much as I adore that mouth, I’ve learned that I don’t always like what comes out of it.” He straightened his stance. “Tell me what’s on your mind.”
“We have exactly one thing going for us, and it’s crackling on the counter.” I motioned to the slipper. “We need to make use of it. There are a lot of people after us, and I think we can use this thing to thin the herd.” I stepped closer to him, ready to deliver the part he wouldn’t like. “It has to be me, though. I’m the only one who can hold it.”
Abram scowled. “So we’re back to this. Someone’s in danger and you think risking your life is going to change that.”
I firmed my stance and pinned him with my gaze. “It’s worked before.”
The next few minutes turned into a staring contest of whose will would break first. Finally, Abram dropped his hands to his side.
“You’re right,” he said, although I could tell he still didn’t like it.
Were things this bad, that Abram was actually considering letting me do things he would have once ripped someone apart for even mentioning?
“I’ll be going after Edwin,” I said slowly, wondering if that would change his mind. Abram didn’t flinch, so I continued. “I know how to find him now, and—”
Charmed by the Beast: an Adult Paranormal Shifter Romance (The Conduit Series Book 3) Page 16
