by Scott, Amber
Within a blink, she charged him. Making contact, she scraped her nails over his cheek. Elijah flashed his arm out, grasped her wrist and stopped her from passing him. She was fast, he’d give her that. But this time, he wouldn’t let her disappear.
He pinned her arm against her back and locked her head into a chokehold. “You’ll tell me the truth this time.” He tightened his hold. “Or I’ll see to it you never have the chance to lie again.”
Sadie’s face raced through his thoughts unbidden. Her eyes, filled with hope and desire. He had to protect her.
“Who says I lied?” she asked, not a lick of fear in her voice.
“I can see it for myself. You’re still after her.”
She twisted in his arms, untangling with an agility Elijah had never witnessed. She faced him, one hand smacking out to claw his chest. Elijah growled and sped forward. He tackled her feet, gripped her ankles then soared into the air. Some hundred feet up, he flipped her. She screeched as he caught her waist and suspended mid-air.
“Okay, okay. Whatever you want to know, okay? Just don’t drop me.”
He liked that. “Start with what you really are.”
“I am what I told you. A changeling.”
He let her drop several feet, caught her again. “Try again.”
“I used to be human,” she screamed. “Now I’m not. I can camouflage. Like a Chameleon. I can take on my environment, use it. But I’m not very good yet. All I’ve done in the last five months is try to find someone else like me. I won’t give up trying to find her. You don’t know what it’s like.”
“What is your connection with the Illeautians?”
“The who?”
Again, he dropped a few feet. She screamed. “I swear! I don’t know. I wanted to find another changeling!”
Elijah flipped her body again so that she faced him. “Wrong answer.”
Her eyes widened. Elijah let go. She scratched and clawed, falling down his body, screaming so piercingly that it tore through his anger. He shot downward, the dusky dirt spiraling up at him, a backdrop to her flailing body. Seven feet before hitting ground, he snatched her back into the air.
“You bastard!” Her fist connected with his right eye, sending shooting pain inward. “How dare you. She deserves to know. Once she becomes like me, she’ll need to know.”
“Enough!” he shouted. “You’re going to make me crash.”
She stopped fighting.
“Look, I believe you,” he said. “How long have you been following her?”
“Since I found her. A few weeks is all.”
“Who else knows about her?”
“How should I know?” Her mouth set in a firm line. “Okay, okay. There was this freaky chick but she could have been following me. There are some freaks that find me and like to follow me. Okay?”
“Define freak.” Elijah set down to the ground. He released her.
She stepped back and for the first time didn’t face him in a battle stance, merely crossing her arms and jutting a hip out. “To be honest, I thought you were one of them,” she said. “If it means you aren’t, I’ll tell you whatever you want. But in exchange, I want protection.”
“From?”
“If I stay in one form too long, like pale like the desert or dark like the night, I can feel one getting close. Close like they’re coming for me. Like a pull in my chest, some sort of invisible hook, you know?”
Charity. “Why do they want you?”
“I don’t know. Aside from my new little freak show talent for hiding in plain sight, I’m nobody. No family. Only a couple friends I lost when I became this. Whatever they want, I don’t like it. And I don’t want to face it alone.”
Elijah’s neck hair rose. A strange foreboding and awareness ran over his skin. Two human changelings? Charity after both? Why?
The prophecy of realm lines collapsing whispered in his mind. The Illeautians wanted lines collapsed, humans gone. If humans were on the brink of evolving, what would that risk for them? If they had kidnapped Crusoe, or worse, converted him, could two changelings double their chances of finding him?
He knew one thing, the idea of leaving this girl to her own devices filled him with icy dread.
“Don’t take it personally, but until I know I can trust you, you’ll have to settle for protection by default,” he said, preparing to transport her with him back to Holly. “As my hostage.”
*
Two cold barbeque chicken sandwiches later, Lyric’s head snapped up from his food. He licked his fingers. “They’re back.”
Adrenaline shot through Sadie. She chased her chewed food down with ice water. She couldn’t help wondering if things would feel different between her and Elijah. Her stomach clenched.
Holly and Elijah entered with a bang. Immediately, both called out for Lyric, which sent the feeder rushing out to the foyer. Sadie followed, but fell short when Elijah came into view. His clothes were tattered, claw marks covered his arms and exposed abdomen. He spoke so quietly to Lyric that she couldn’t make out the words.
Sadie forced her feet to move, coming to stand beside Lyric and listened. Waiting for Elijah to acknowledge her. To notice her. Instead, he looked past his shoulder and nodded. All four followed his gaze where a woman materialized out of thin air.
Sadie gasped.
The woman looked at Elijah uncertainly but stood her ground. “This is Monica,” Elijah said.
Sadie’s heart sank to the floor. Had she thought Holly beautiful? Or Astrid? The woman before them had the loveliest, creamiest skin she’d ever seen. Wide-set, pale lilac eyes stared at them. As though aware of her stare, her gaze turned proud as she leveled it on Sadie.
She smiled.
“Holly, can you get her settled?” Elijah asked.
Holly nodded and led Monica away.
“Are we starting a collection?” Lyric’s admiring gaze left no mystery as to his meaning.
“I need to speak to Sadie.”
Lyric tipped his head and a lazy smile spread over his face. “Don’t mind me,” he said. “I have more interesting things to attend to.” Clearly meaning Monica.
It took Lyric’s departure for Sadie to finally find her voice. “Elijah, I want to go home.”
~ ~ ~
Chapter Eighteen
“You can’t go home,” Elijah said.
Her cheeks flashed hot. “Watch me,” she said, stopping short when she realized Holly had taken Monica to Elijah’s room and she didn’t want to follow.
“Sadie, please. You can’t.” Elijah took her by the shoulders, turned her back around. “It isn’t safe.”
“I’m not sure I care.” Of course she cared. But she hated this jealousy chewing her up. She wanted to be home. She wanted to take a shower, stare at the TV, gossip with Jen, ditch phone calls from Heather. What was she to him anyways? Some stray puppy? Is that what he did? Take in strays? “I need to check in. I need my own things.”
“Absolutely,” he said. “Whatever you need.”
His voice so intense she finally met his stare. Three scabbed scratches marred his cheek. The care in his expression mounted Sadie with guilt. What had happened to him tonight? She couldn’t seem to find the words to ask.
Elijah closed his eyes a moment and she realized he was in pain. She stepped toward him. “Should I get Astrid?”
He shook his head. When he opened his eyes, a riot of emotion stared back at her. Her pulse hitched.
“Will you follow me?” he asked.
Anywhere, she almost said. But recalling Lyric’s warning, Elijah’s too, she merely nodded and followed him to his room.
“Where did Holly take Monica?” She could swear it had been here.
Elijah closed the door and approached her. “Not here.”
Was it from all they’d shared in this room or simply being alone with him that awakened her body? Was it the stupid lust, still drenching her thoughts?
“Tell me what you need,” he said, gaze intent.
It took her a moment to understand and seconds to completely deflate. “Oh, okay. A change of clothes. And I should talk to Jen. Maybe Heather. But my cell phone died days ago.”
He nodded. “I’ll try to gauge how worried Jen is.”
“Once I have my charger, I can call her. And Heather.”
Again, he nodded. A moment passed. He closed his eyes tight and she reached out involuntarily. Was he in that much pain? He stood too far away to touch and before she thought to ask, he was gone. A flash and then nothing, not even a breeze.
Sadie collapsed onto the bed. Where was the relief over his return? Her big plan to seduce him? Who was this Monica? What was she to him to bring her here? And worse, what was Sadie to him if this woman existed? She tried not to jump to a hundred conclusions, but something had changed in him. In how he treated her.
“Perhaps the bed isn’t the best choice.”
Sadie shot upright. “You scared me!”
A grin curled Elijah’s lips. He regarded her, eyes at half-mast. “If you would like a bath….” He motioned to a door behind him, handing her a bag of her things.
“Okay,” she managed, taken aback by his intense expression.
She walked past him, aware of his gaze following her. Inside the bathroom, she plugged in her phone and called Jen, leaving a detailed message about staying over at her new boyfriend Elijah’s house.
When she closed her eyes, it might have been her own shower. A sense of normalcy enveloped her along with the steam. The water peppered her skin, soothing her. The pain had receded so much that only her shoulders pinched now and only when she moved certain ways.
She stepped out feeling grounded.
Dried off, she left a message for Heather and texted Ben back, replying to his thirtieth attempt at getting her to answer his “WTF, be-yotch?” text. Now, to face Elijah. He had something to tell her. She just doubted she wanted to hear it.
In fresh yoga pants and a tank top, she combed her fingers through her hair and took a steadying breath. Whatever he had to say, she had to hear at some point. She opened the door and came up short.
Elijah stood leaning against the bathroom doorframe, his head in the crook of his arm.
“Jesus, Elijah,” she said. “You scared me.”
His ragged sigh answered her. “Sadie, I don’t know how well I can manage this.” He didn’t move his face. “I need you to be the strong one for a little while. Long enough for me to bring you up to speed.”
“Okay,” she said, touching his arm, taking care to avoid the scratches there. “Are you hurt? What happened to you?”
He laughed hollowly. “I found Monica. She’s transformed, too. Another changeling is what’s happened.” He laughed again, humorlessly. “She did this to me.”
“Why did you bring her here then?” Another surge of jealousy licked at her.
“Because she’s been following you and others have followed her and my instincts told me to, though how accurate they are now, I can’t say.”
“You’re talking in circles.” She tried to make him look at her, but his body was immovable.
“I won’t lie to you, Sadie. I won’t tell you something that isn’t true out of good intentions. I want to right now, believe me. More than you can ever know.”
“I don’t understand.” This wasn’t like him.
He snapped his head up. “My tracing is off. My senses are skewed. All I can think of…all I seem able to focus on…is you.”
Sadie’s mouth fell open. His eyes were no longer the brown flecked midnight blue, but the cerulean of the sky on a summer day, the color from her dreams. His wings opened behind him and her dream painted her memory. “Me?” she whispered, her heart a hummingbird inside her.
“Your transformation appears to have completed.” His voice cracked.
She shook her head. “I don’t think so.” She had no powers whatsoever. Not yet.
He dropped his arm from the door and walked toward her. She backed up, at once enthralled and wary, her legs coming up against his bed.
“You need rest,” he said. The finality in his tone triggered her internal alarms.
After that? Every cell of her being thrummed with awareness of him. “I’m rested. Elijah, tell me what you mean.” Was he saying goodbye?
“Tomorrow, Lyric and Holly will continue your training. You’ll be safe.”
“Where will you be?”
He drew closer, his gaze fell to her mouth. “Gone.”
“Why?” How did she get him to stay? To reveal what she could see warring under the surface? “Because I keep trying to kiss you?”
A ripple of silvery blue passed over his wings. “You don’t understand. I refuse to exploit your mortal vulnerabilities.”
Tentatively, she touched his chest, fearful he would storm away if she tried more, though his gaze on her mouth consumed every other thought. His hand covered hers and drew it away. But rather than pushing her away, he pulled her close.
His gaze glittered as it met hers. “I’ve fought, Sadie. Truly, I have. It’s too strong.”
His other hand raked into her wet hair and, as her mind grasped for enough sense to ask what he meant, his mouth descended to hers. He kissed her. Rapture flooded through her. Her knees threatened to buckle.
A low sound of need escaped from deep in Elijah’s throat. The guttural, primal sound spoke to Sadie’s body. His lips pressed hers. His tongue wound a seductive path over her lips, into her mouth, sending shivering pleasure down her spine and skin. Time tilted so that each breath became a whisper, a song, for her soul alone to hear. She tasted him, kissed him, but in truth, was too stunned to do more than receive his attentions.
This was her dream.
This was the adoration she awoke from so many fevered nights, awaking bereft without. She would cry except every touch felt so thoroughly exquisite. His arms wrapping around her, his mouth softly devouring her.
“Elijah,” she groaned, breathless. His mouth moved to her throat. His name was a prayer, a blessing. He was her every dream come true. Finally. “Elijah.”
“Sadie, love, I cannot stop.”
Love. “No, please don’t stop.”
He carried her to his bed, laid her there so carefully she couldn’t help smiling up at him. He looked far too serious for grins, though. Somehow, she would have to change that.
“Understand me, Sadie. I am unable to stop this.” His mouth returned to hers. He broke away again. “You’ve changed and I want you like nothing I ever have.”
Sadie traced a finger over the surface of one wing. He shivered above her, his eyelids fluttered.
“Sadie, I ache for you.”
“Oh, God, Elijah. You have no idea,” she whispered. “I do, too. I have dreamed of this and now you’re here, really here, and I want you, too.”
God, she was babbling like an idiot. But he didn’t seem to care. At least she hadn’t said she loved him. She wanted to. The words were there, on her next breath. She sucked them in. He groaned and kissed her and his hands squeezed her breasts. Sadie arched into them. Her nipples hardened under his thumbs’ caress.
He yanked her tank top down, cupped her bare tits. Her hands went into his hair and—God—his mouth was hot and wet, but the air was deliciously cold. Her thighs ached between to feel his weight. Need blossomed in her core, deep and wide.
She wanted more. She would not let him turn back now.
His hands tugged her pajama pants down, grazing her hip and trailing a tantalizing line down her leg. He pulled away from her and tossed them aside. Sadie reached for him. Fearing the torrent of emotion on his face meant he’d changed his mind, she said, “Don’t you dare stop.”
“I won’t,” he said, lifting her ankle to his mouth. He suckled the skin there, closing his eyes ecstatically. His wings tickled her knees. “I can’t. You’ve cast a spell over me, Sadie. You’ve transformed and I am powerless to my lust for you.”
His words spun her into dimensions of emotion and
sensation she never knew existed. She understood what he meant. She too felt the magic enveloping them. Like they’d entered some dream state. Elijah slipped his tongue up her calf, biting it, up behind her knee, sending delicious shocks up her thighs.
He wet a lengthy path up her inner thigh, sucking and nipping her flesh. An inch from her throbbing, wet sex, he paused. Sadie writhed forward, moaning, ready to beg him to kiss where she needed to feel him most. His breath came so hot, his mouth loomed so close. Desperation for more tore at her. “Elijah, I need more.”
“Shhh,” he said. He kissed her fingers when her hands tried to pull him closer. “I’m not going anywhere, love.” He laid her hands at her sides. “If I’m going to do the unforgivable, I’m going make every moment worth my soul.”
She tried to hold still and tried to make sense of what he was saying, but in truth, she didn’t care. She cared that he quench the desire firing through her. Cared about his hard muscled body, his stiff cock, his sweet tongue saving her from this inferno.
Sadie met his heavy-lidded gaze, prepared to demand what she needed. But the plea in his cobalt orbs hushed her panic. He was right.
This magic was worth the wait.
A few steadying breaths helped her panting slow. He grinned at her. She grinned, too, until his mouth kissed her sex. Her eyes slammed shut. She gasped. Pleasure rocked through her. Elijah licked into her, his tongue soft and wet. He kissed and suckled her aching flesh, driving her to the edge. Slowly, he delved his tongue in, jutted and curled it upward. Sadie jerked, moaned. “God, yes.”
His tongue retreated and laved up her clitoris, two long fingers teased in where his tongue had been. She cried out and parted her legs wider. She dug into his hair. The sublime promise of climax spiraled closer as his fingers stroked in and out of her slick pussy. “Yes, oh, yes.” God, yes. Like that. She undulated her hips, matched his rhythm, sinking into a stupor of bliss. Elijah delved his hand deep, so deep that his knuckles pressed her perimeter.
Sadie moaned in approval.
