by Jamie Magee
Shade had been turned on before. It was an old vice that got him through crazy shit. And yes, no woman had ever turned him on as richly as Gwinn and all her innocent ways, but this right here—it was a new level.
He picked her up wrapping her juice-laced body around his, only so he could take them both to the ground. Gwinn’s reach grabbed handfuls of grapes from the vines around them, she squeezed them in her fists coating their flesh. Shade was more than game. As the fruit fell from Gwinn’s hands, he rubbed the remains across her chest before his kiss fell to her hard nipples devouring the rich taste, feeding on the fruit.
Responsive as hell Gwinn started to pant the word “volcano” before he ever got going. She wasn’t lying, a beat later she was convulsing underneath him as the scent of desire amplified the sweet grapes. He was not one to waste a good orgasm. With little caress at all, his kiss soared down to her mound as he hooked her legs over his shoulders.
Gwinn yelled out so violently that he was sure someone would come to investigate. Fuck ‘em if they did, they would not live to tell about it. This woman was his, all his. What he knew and felt inside made him lose all his reservations. Something primitive and noteworthy had taken over. Shade could feel the pulse of their souls just above the flesh.
The sweet flesh. It had never tasted better, felt smoother. It was the highest of highs, and as Gwinn released again, he found himself even more driven to wrench the surge of passion out of her. His powerful shoulders rocked forward, he drew his knees up as one hand fell to his hard length. One touch and he was growling, needing a release like he needed his next breath.
One beat he was devouring her flesh the next he was pulling her hips up and angling her entrance to thrust in. Gwinn fought to sit up, but he held her back arched. Tight and slick is how he found her as the angle of her body gave him no choice but to rut against her g-spot. Inside, his length was hard and raw next to the delicious sweet spot. Outside, his thumb was pressing her clit as his other hand gripped her ass and held her in place for him to take as he wanted.
When she came that time, he was sure he felt her pull his orgasm out of him as they both roared. Hummed by the vibration, his grip loosened on her enough that Gwinn did sit up, pushing him back to give her the seat of power. Her hips angled forward as her core clenched him, her back was arched giving her reach that she used to slide her juices over his tight balls. His growl only pushed her to rock forward on him, quicker and harder, as her stare struggled to find the most tantalizing part of him to stare at. His glowing violet eyes locked on hers, or the glistening chest that flexed each time she moved.
“Holy fuck,” he bellowed as she felt his cock spasm inside as he spent his seed once more.
Twice! Her ego thought as she pushed harder and harder, but then her glory of power shattered as her orgasm enveloped her so suddenly that her legs shook, and her entire body joined in. Shade rose encircling his powerful arms around her as he cradled her next to his chest and their thrusting slowed.
Satisfied? Not even close. The desire was so rich and consuming that Shade was sure he was in hell. Where else could he come twice in one bout and only want more?
Limp in his arms Gwinn mumbled some of her witchy words and the next thing Shade knew vines did not surround them but the suite they had claimed, more importantly, they were in the bath chambers. Gwinn had landed them under the flow of water falling from a lion’s mouth.
As the water washed down over them, clarity started to come to Shade, but not much. He was still inside Gwinn, still hard, still hungry. He moved just so and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and answered his thrust with one of her own.
Slowly, they glided back and forth until a quiet yet amazingly satisfying orgasm stole them at once. Shade fell lax against the side of the bath sure that he had never once been grateful to be so limp or ever would be again. With what little clarity he had, he braced Gwinn against himself then pulled her out of the water with him. Panting, with the spray of the water still rinsing them, Shade stared at the now purple bath not sure how he should feel.
“What did you do to me, female?”
When she didn’t answer, he looked down and found her sound asleep on his chest. Waking her seemed like a crime, he’d give her a second he told himself.
****
A second turned into hours, or so Shade assumed. It’s not like the hell of illusion had a clock or could be measured in time. But he knew how long he could lay on a marble floor with a hundred-pound woman, or there about. Gwinn was still sound asleep when he gently rolled her to the side and stood up letting all the blood flow where it needed to as he stretched and made his way to relieve himself.
He eyed the pool. It was only barely pink now instead of the deep red wine it had been when he drifted to sleep. It was hard to know if he should’ve been disappointed or relieved. Just thinking about their time together had given him a nice chubby and a chill down his spine.
“You better be thinking of me,” he heard Gwinn rasp sweetly.
When he glanced over his shoulder, he found her lying on her stomach as her fingers glided through the water at the edge of the pool.
“You have a confession I need to know about?” he asked shoving out of the jeans that were now dry and stiff around his lower thighs.
“Product testing,” Gwinn said with a wicked grin. When she rolled into the pool, he almost went after her on reflex but the whole ‘product testing’ had his defenses up. He’d gladly spend his days tucked deep and tight inside of Gwinn, but if it was all the same to the universe, he’d like to get there on his own and not with some bewitching.
Gwinn came up seconds later, glistening as the rivulets of water raced down her body. If Shade’s willpower had ever been tested, it was then. Gwinn paid him little mind as she moved to the steps and slowly exited leaving a beckoning trail of dainty wet footsteps as she moved into the bedroom part of the suite.
With a grunt, Shade followed her. By the time he reached her, she had already donned one of her simple, sexy summer dresses and was holding out a pair of jeans for him. Until then, Shade had taken off the jeans he wore there, washed, dried and put them back on. He knew they were real. Not appearing and disappearing like all the other shit in this place.
As he eyed the jeans in Gwinn’s hand, he had visions of the Sons finally breaking them out of this place only for Shade to step outside and his clothes to vanish. He wasn’t a shy one, but he was wise about what he could never live down. This was one of them.
“They will see me naked, too,” Gwinn chided reading his thoughts and trying to take the argument they’d had over this in the past seriously. Shade would never see magic the way she did. Half the power is in belief. She believed, he didn’t.
“They’ll all lose an eye,” Shade grumbled as he pushed his long legs into the perfect fit jeans. “What kind of product?” he demanded as he pulled a black t-shirt over his head.
“Well,” Gwinn said going about her way, moving into the living section of the suite where she kept all her books ‘that called to her.’ Not surprisingly most were about Voyagers. “There are some traits that can not be changed with a bump on the head, or I guess a stab in the back.”
“Speak clearly, female,” he said as he fell into a feather chair that was so soft it threatened to race him off to his dreams. His mind was already doing the math. Sleep, go to the garden, shower, sleep. Yeah, the Sons can take their time coming to get him. Or hell they could just come and get the rude ass house guest and leave him be.
The place wasn’t so bad, kinda familiar in its own way.
“I mean, you have more than likely always been an asshole.”
Shade’s eyes had already drifted shut, but he managed to open them both into a glare. “You weren’t calling me an asshole upstairs.”
Her shiver at the memory only stroked his ego more. Who the fuck needed a nap? Let’s roll baby...
Gwinn stayed his effort to stand with one hard stare. “A one track minded asshole.”
�
��You’ll like the track I’m on,” he said with a sly wink as he settled back down and stared at her. Gwinn was a lot of firsts for him. She added another to the list last night. He didn’t even know it was possible to come twice. Yeah, he’d heard tall tales about it from guys across the ages, but now he knew they weren’t bullshitting him. It’s an experience you just can’t put into words. Sacred even.
“She said you offered her wine. You were with her the night before she died.”
Shade rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms. “If you believe that, you have lost your shit. It’s not even worth me getting mad over. That is how far from the truth me getting with that woman is.”
“I didn’t say you got with her,” Gwinn said with a playful glare. “I was there too.”
Where Gwinn fell when it came to Voyagers was a mystery. Shade knew she was with him at one point. But she died, and he lived on. Not without help, but still. Shade was positive he landed where he did on purpose. Why could he not have landed Gwinn the same way? Why did she have to be reborn? He didn’t like to think about any of it. Thinking about it would mean he believed it all.
“Not possible. You she likes—the rest of us, not so much.”
“She likes Bastion.”
“She sees him as a child, which is foolish. I’d bet she was the same age as him when she died or whatever.
“In her time what I did would not have mattered as much as what you did.” Gwinn leaned forward. “She said you were charming. That once her family retired you gifted her a bottle of wine, well you gave it to Draxous moments after you spotted him sneaking into her room.”
“A love triangle,” Shade groaned.
“I told you, I was there. You gave the wine to Draxous and told him it was from your homeland. Rich with luck and prosperity.” Gwinn leaned forward and whispered. “You told her your land was phaino—unseen.”
The inscription on this castle was long and complicated, half in runes, but phaino was in the mix.
Shade pointed at the ceiling. “You think I gave her the wine from up there? Not possible.”
“Why?”
“Why? Do you feel like hating anyone right about now? I don’t. I’m in a pretty damn good mood. Best in a while. That chick makes PMS on steroids seem blissful.”
Gwinn raised one eyebrow. “I don’t think it was the night that had her bothered, but the morning. It was when a surge of power ripped her home opened and killed her and her lover.”
“Who should be glad to be rid of her, if you think she is rude to me you should hear her when you and Bastion are in the library. I swear if she ever sees her ex she’ll cut his balls off, at least that was one of the options. The other was slicing them, one for every whore he’s touched.”
“You’re missing my point,” Gwinn said moving to her knees just before him.
Shade looked down and reached his hand to cradle her face, “Well, now I don’t have any idea what we were talking about.”
“This is your home, Shade. You didn’t explore it, you already knew it.”
“I did not,” he vaguely argued. “Do you know how many places are like this in the old world. I may have landed here, but the Sons did not stay here until recently. They are all set up the same way.”
“There is no place like this, and you know it. It is full of every desire either of us could have.”
“Not freedom.”
“You don’t know that. If it is your home, then you may simply have to remember how to leave it.”
“Gwinn, you’re stretching. I didn’t send us here.”
“You could’ve. You don’t know the power you have or understand how magic works. Your intent was to keep us safe, get us home. This arrived.”
“It arrived because those asshats outside drove us into it.”
“I sensed the coven’s magic at play. I know I’m right.”
“The coven’s, not mine,” he quickly pointed out.
“Jamison could’ve asked for safety to take us out of Akan’s reach, but your intent was the strongest in the courtroom that day. So strong you couldn’t keep your cool.”
“No one could keep their cool under those circumstances.”
“You could. I’ve seen you pull off crazy power plays with the Sons. No one sees it coming until it’s done.”
“Gwinn, if I knew how to get out of here, I would. There is no telling what has happened since we left. For all I know, there is nothing to go back to.”
“I think that is part of what is keeping us here. Jamison could have set the terms when he sent us to ‘safety,’ sure. But it is your intent agreeing with the terms of what is deemed safe.”
“Why us?” Shade asked, moving his thumb across her cheekbone. “We were targeted, that is how we got here, that is the reason anyone had any kind of intent.”
“You, I understand,” Gwinn said.
Shade furrowed his brow.
“A Voyager who can seal time. You have the power to hold an action in place for all of eternity. It’s a dangerous power, Shade. One moment could curse a universe. The last thing anyone like Akan needs is access to you.”
“I’ll kill that fucker.”
She stared deep into his violet eyes. “You don’t think I’m wrong, do you? This does feel like home, doesn’t it?”
“It’s not a swamp house,” he chided.
When she looked down, he leaned forward as his hand lifted her chin so her lips would meet his. After a sweet brush of his lips against hers, he stared into the dark pools of her eyes. “Home is with you. This place is as good as any.”
“You mean, ‘yes, Gwinn, you are SO right. I built this place for you. It will take us lifetimes to discover all the hidden powers in these walls.’”
The grin she was after spread across his lips as he leaned in for one more kiss. As he gathered her in his arms he hesitated, they both did. A surge of power waved through the castle like a bolt of lightening striking home.
“What the fuck was in that garden, Gwinn?” Shade said as he stood and put her behind him as he pulled her to a secret passage behind a mirror on the wall, he didn’t bother to look back and see the knowing smirk on her face. It didn’t matter that there very well may be some dark god showing up for a brawl in Gwinn’s world. What mattered is he instinctively went to a passage that neither one of them knew existed moments before.
Shade was waiting for the rumble of the castle falling, for the smell of fire, for anything.
Instead, he heard, “It’s about fucking time,” bellowed from Thrash.
“Hey, I was looking for you,” from Bastion.
Minutes later, he heard the scream of Zosime and the breaking of glass. Shade moved double time through the back passages busting through the wall behind a painting twenty steps from the great room. There, Dagen stood in the middle of the great room with his hands up. Zosime was in front of him with a broken wine bottle in one hand and a sword, she was too small to lift, in the other.
Thrash was looking out every window he could, struggling to hear the roar of bikes he was sure were coming. Bastion was having a hard time not glancing down at the grimoire before him.
“Did you do this shit,” Shade asked swatting Bastion’s book closed.
“Me?”
“Yeah you, smoke boy. What did you pour him out of?”
“Nothing, he was bound to show on his own.”
“Where are they?” Thrash demanded ignoring the well-armed Goddess in the room. “What the fuck is going on out there?”
“What do you mean he was bound to show,” Shade said focusing on Bastion. No one else was here but this dark angel. Shade could feel the truth of that hard fact in his bones.
Bastion stood and moved toward Zosime like she was a puppy who had begun to play too rough. A flick of his hand sent the heavy sword back to its mount, startling Zosime enough to drop the wine bottle that Gwinn’s magic caught and did away with before it ever hit the ground.
“Draxous,” Bastion said pointing at Dagen like the
obvious was right before them all. “Revelin took him. Fucked him up real good—,” he winced at his own words. “Literally. I’m guessing Dagen figured that out when they killed Ambrosia—had to be her. If it was Akan, I’m betting Pops would be on the back of his Harley by now.”
“Speak. Clearly,” Shade growled.
“He’s telling the truth,” Dagen said lacking all the charisma he was known for. “Talon is restored. Ambrosia is dead.”
“And you are the wine drinking Draxous?” Shade retorted.
At once, Dagen and Zosime looked at each other and then at Gwinn and Shade.
Not a single one of the light bulbs going off in Dagen’s head looked all that promising to Shade. Apparently, not to Thrash either because he came to Shade’s side in a heartbeat. Of all the fucked things that could have happened to them next, now they were trapped with a Dark Angel with untested powers who had some serious woman issues and clearly needed someone to blame.
Fucking great.
Volume Two
Season Three: Episode Eight
Chapter One
Reveca’s prison would put some of the cities she had lived to shame when it came to the size and luxury, but it wasn’t big enough to outrun a dead man.
The worst place for any witch to be was staring at the empty bag of her tricks. Reveca was there at least a sunset ago. She’d tried everything, even let pure terror take over her emotions sure that once she did King would show up instantly. No such fucking luck.
Now the tiny creak of a chair rocking back and forth on the platform in the center of the kingdom felt like a knife jabbing into her brain. Calm patience is what it promised. No way out. No compromise. Only a lesson Reveca knew she was overdue to learn but would be damned if she was ready to face.
Die insane?
Fuck. No.
She’d had enough. Well, she’d had enough long ago, but now she was ready to do something about it. In a beat, she appeared at Pricus’ side and kicked the chair from under him, once she had, what was left of her magic engulfed the wood and stone with flames.
Pricus didn’t fall on his holier than thou ass as she’d hope. He stood with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Good of you to come,” she said facetiously.
