Shine (Mageri Series: Book 5)

by Dannika Dark

I hurried forward and the moment I stepped into the cell, the door slammed behind me.

  It was the most basic confinement imaginable. A mattress lay on the floor to the right, a metal sink straight ahead with a bar of soap, and a toilet to the left.

  Logan had his back to me, standing between the mattress and the sink, his forearm against the concrete wall. He wore a pair of dark blue pants, a loose cotton shirt, and no shoes. It reminded me of the uniforms that technicians and assistants in hospitals were required to wear.

  It reminded me of the night we met.

  “Logan?”

  He slowly turned around—eyes wide and unbelieving. Then without warning, he lunged at the cell door and gripped the bars. “What is this? I demand to speak to the Overlord; she is innocent!” he yelled vehemently.

  “Yes, of course she is, Cross. It is by her request she’s here, and the Overlord has granted permission. We’ve had the occasional overnight stay, but I’m not comfortable with this arrangement any more than you. It’s allowable within our facilities, as long as you have approval from the highest authority on your Council. You know the hours we walk the floor, but you’ll have privacy otherwise.” The guard’s eyes skimmed over to mine and he lowered his chin. “If you need anything or decide you want to leave, let me know.”

  I backed up until I felt the cold sink press against my back. What if he blamed me for all this? What if being here would cause him more grief? The guard slammed the main door and Logan peered over his shoulder, his anger palpable. He spun around and stalked forward with molten eyes.

  “Why would you do this, Silver? Why would you allow yourself to be treated as a prisoner? You of all people!” He placed his hands on either side of the basin and I winced. “Why!”

  “Because I love you,” I said through clenched teeth. “Because I’m not going to sit at home and watch television while you’re in a place you don’t deserve to be. You’re here because of me, Logan. And I’m here because of you.” I slipped my arms around his neck and nuzzled against his cheek. “Please don’t. This is so unimaginably difficult for me; please don’t yell. I’m not leaving your side, no matter what happens.”

  I felt his head drop against my shoulder and the warm press of his hand on my lower back, pulling me closer. “Silver,” he whispered. “This is retribution for my sins, not yours.”

  I placed my cheek against his. “I’m not letting anyone keep me away from my male. Don’t even try to force me out because I’ll tie myself to this sink.”

  He laughed and put his lips against mine. I felt the sorrow in his kiss and I wanted to savor every moment.

  “Have you been fed?” he asked.

  “I’m not hungry.”

  Logan leaned back and noticed my outfit. “These aren’t the clothes they issue.”

  “Quaid didn’t think they’d have anything that would fit me properly, so one of his men bought me these sexy sweats. You like?” I asked with a naughty smile.

  “I am grateful to him,” he muttered in a conflicted voice.

  “Are we alone on this floor? The cells looked empty.”

  “No. There are two men to our left. The one nearest me has gone for his shower. The man farthest down the hall never speaks; he only whistles.”

  I smirked and straightened the ends of his shirt. “Sounds like a real party you’ve got going on here.”

  “Are you being a wise guy?”

  “Just a wiseass.”

  Logan brushed his fingers gently across my cheeks. “This is better than where they kept me before. I wouldn’t have allowed you to stay if they’d kept me on that floor.”

  “I heard. The guard said something about the cells being filled to capacity and because I’m a woman, they couldn’t allow anyone directly across from your cell.” I glanced at the toilet and realized why.

  Logan cupped his hand around the back of my neck and drew in a long breath.

  I’d never felt more alive than in that moment, never more aware of how warm his skin felt and how taut his muscles were beneath my fingertips. The way his scent changed so subtly in my presence. A Chitah marking a female exuded a powerful and inviting scent that staked their claim. He kept it contained, but sometimes it sifted from his pores like a heady fragrance caught in the summer wind.

  There was no reason for him to mark me—I was already his. But he smelled indescribably wonderful, like a mixture of spring storms and something familiar. I loved the way he reverently stroked my right arm with his knuckles—I hadn’t even noticed he’d been doing it because of how gentle his touch was. I loved the way he’d end some of his sentences with a soft growl. And I especially loved hearing his purr, the one at such a low decibel that it was only audible when he held me in a lover’s embrace.

  “Who’s that?” a man said from the hall as someone walked by. I couldn’t see around Logan but heard a cell door slam and lock.

  “Keep your nose in your own business,” the guard ordered in a flat voice. “Your time is almost up, so don’t go stirring up trouble. Unless you like it in here.”

  A clatter made me jump and we both turned to look at the guard. He tapped his baton against the bars and gave us a friendly smirk. “I’ll bring in a bag of cookies. It’s against regulations, but I don’t know when the last time you ate was. You’re a female, and despite what Cross has done to ruin his life, I won’t have you going to sleep hungry.”

  “My gratitude,” Logan replied with sincerity.

  The Chitah’s eyes locked on Logan and I could tell he harbored no goodwill toward him. Logan was incarcerated for assassinating a Lord, not a minor infraction of the law. It made me realize that Logan’s family name would forever be tied to this crime.

  “If you eat one of her cookies, I’ll put you on food restriction,” he said.

  Logan stalked forward and I grabbed the back of his shirt. “If you continue to stand there and accuse me of taking food from my female—”

  “Logan, please,” I urged. “What he thinks about us doesn’t matter.”

  The guard looked between us and shook his head, making his way out.

  Exhausted, I collapsed on the firm mattress. It was clean with a dark sheet tucked around it and a thin blanket on top, folded neatly at the bottom.

  Logan knelt on the mattress and turned over on his back, his feet hanging off the end of the bed. “Lay with me, female. Are you warm?”

  With the wall behind me, I curled against his side and rested my head on his left shoulder. Logan slid my hand beneath his shirt and held it over his heart.

  “I want you to promise me that we’re not going to argue about why I’m here,” I said. “If I had alternatives, I would have stayed on the outside to help you. Just accept that I’m your stubborn female and I’m not letting you sit in here alone.”

  He kissed the top of my head and his deep voice rumbled. “I cannot deny the pleasure it brings to feel you in my arms. This beats dreamwalking any day.”

  “I tried to talk to the Overlord, but it was useless. He said the only thing that would exonerate you was written evidence of what I am. When I found out they allow one-night stays, I didn’t see why they couldn’t extend it. I don’t mind. This isn’t so bad compared to my last house,” I said with a warm chuckle. “Justus doesn’t know the concept of central heating.”

  He splayed his fingers across my hip and pulled me tight against him. “It was worth it,” he whispered.

  “What?” I looked up and his eyes were fixed on the ceiling.

  His jaw flexed and I admired the strong contours of his face.

  “Accepting the job from Nero. Hunting you down. Taking you to my cave. I had a choice that night, Silver. I could have handed you over to those men and called it a day like I’d done a number of times before. I knew from the moment we met that you were my kindred spirit, but you were also a Mage—my enemy. I was conflicted.”

  “Is that why you asked for a kiss?” I softly laughed. “You wanted to make sure I was worth it?”

  He
pursed his lips as if in deep thought. “Male curiosity. I’d never felt anything but animosity toward a Mage. And there I was, having impulsive feelings to protect you. I was stalling, but it wasn’t until the Mage leered at you in those woods that I made up my mind.”

  “Are you still carrying the debt for Nero?”

  He quieted for a moment. “The debt is null and void. My instructions were precise and he deviated from our arrangement.”

  “Why were you in his debt?”

  “He’s a man who collects favors. I was in a bind years ago after a job and his money bailed me out. Little did I know… I don’t regret the decisions I’ve made, Silver. No matter what happens to me, I want you to know that.”

  My lip quivered and I felt his embrace tighten.

  “No tears, female.” Logan touched my cheek, calming me in a way that only he could. I’d never felt more protected than when he touched me, and I began to dread the absence of his touch and all the things I’d taken for granted. “Save those for the years ahead when you look back on this moment, but don’t spoil what we have now. If you want to know the truth, I always saw this fate for myself. I’ve slaughtered men in cold blood, tortured people, and handed over lives to those who fattened my pocket. It was only a matter of time before justice caught up with me.”

  “But those you killed were criminals,” I protested. “You told me they were guilty.”

  “And you’re correct. They were the vilest men imaginable. But perhaps a higher power agrees with your views that a life should not be taken.”

  I sat up and brushed my hair away from my face. “That’s not what I meant. I’ve never judged you, Logan. But what I saw at Club Hell that night was you making a choice to end two lives instead of turning them over to the authorities. I’ll defend your actions with killing Tarek, because there was no other choice. That’s the only point I’ve ever tried to get across. Maybe I haven’t been an immortal long enough to think of a life as disposable, but I didn’t want to love a man who did.”

  “Our laws would not have punished those men because they did not commit a crime in the eyes of our leaders. In mine, all they had to do was slap you one time.” Logan rubbed his face and his arms flexed. Every muscle beneath his thin shirt was defined and perfectly proportioned for his svelte physique. Logan had the body of an athlete, and yet all that power couldn’t help him out of this situation.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, sitting on my knees. “I don’t want to sound judgmental. That’s where my head was and it’s not easy for someone like me to understand. You have to remember I used to be human, and I didn’t see this kind of violence on a daily basis. I had a regular job and—”

  Logan propped up on his left elbow. “Perhaps you did not know immortals were a reality, but you were not naïve to the violent nature of men. That is not unique within the Breed.”

  Logan touched the rib my ex-boyfriend had broken as a reminder.

  “You didn’t change me, Silver. I changed the way I saw the world because I began to see it through your eyes. I have no desire to toughen your disposition—it is the very thing that has altered my course. I’ve always known the life I led wasn’t a moral one. I wasn’t always a violent man but once led an ordinary life. I’ve dishonored my family. I can scent a guilty man, so the blood on my hands was not innocent. But perhaps you are right in that I played God for too many years, and regardless, my hands are stained.”

  “I never said that, Logan.”

  I realized he had been sitting in this cell, thinking about his life to determine what led him here. He didn’t blame me. He blamed himself. Logan felt he hadn’t atoned for his past sins, so the universe was giving him a hard shove.

  “Cookies,” I heard the guard say and then a loud smack as something hit the floor. Seconds later, the door at the end of the hall slammed shut and I peered at Logan.

  An intense, magnetic pull began to thread between us.

  I lifted his hand and brought it to my shirt, sliding it beneath the loose fabric. The moment his fingers touched my bare breasts, his body went rigid.

  Without a word, I curved my left leg over his hip and straddled him, never breaking eye contact.

  His hand massaged my breast, and when I felt the pad of his thumb roll over my nipple in circular motions, I released a ragged breath and rocked my hips.

  “Silver,” he whispered in protest as if he didn’t deserve my affections. The hell he didn’t.

  I gripped the ends of my shirt and pulled it off. It was the first time Logan had seen my naked body, and this time he didn’t shut his eyes.

  Sorrow had never felt so sweet, knowing this could be the last time we would be together.

  His fingers circled the contours of my nipples, and every nerve ending in my body fired off from the complexity of his experienced touch. His eyes drank me in and the sound of desire rumbled in his chest. Awareness burned in his smoldering eyes as his hands trailed down the flat of my stomach and rested on my thighs. God, the feel of his touch. I decided that Logan’s hands were the sexiest thing about him because he knew just what to do.

  When his thumbs circled over my sex, I let out a whimpering moan and my entire body ignited.

  Sexual energy flooded to my fingertips and I found myself moving my hands over my head to keep him safe.

  Logan hissed between his teeth as I did this and rubbed the palm of his hands over my breasts, the contact of skin becoming torturous. His eyes hooded. Every brush of his finger across my nipple, every pinch, and every maddening stroke made me respond with a gasp, a whimper, or a rock of my hips.

  In a motion too fast to track, Logan sat up and flipped me onto my back. His mouth laved at my breast and the familiar stroke of his tongue was everything my body craved as it dragged across my flesh.

  Logan sat up and hooked his fingers around the hem of my sweats, pulling them all the way off. While he took off his own pants, I closed my knees. I was bared to him and feeling a little bit shy all of a sudden.

  Darkness swirled in his eyes but the amber constricted it as he kept his animal in check. His heated gaze fell upon me and I’d never felt more aroused than when he centered his eyes on mine in that moment. His tongue swept across his bottom lip.

  “Spread your legs for me, female.”

  My heart raced as I parted my knees and opened myself to him. Logan’s fangs punched out. All four of them. His possessive eyes rolled to black as he battled the inner animal with him—the gold finally won.

  His lustful eyes drank in every inch, every curve, and every secret place of my body he’d never seen but only felt. Now I belonged to all his senses—I was truly his. Logan had never been a shy man, so I’d seen him in all his glory, including once when I had tried to join him in the shower and he’d shut his eyes. But fully aroused, Logan was an impressive man. So much so, I wondered how I’d been able to take him.

  When he caught the direction of my stare, a ripple of spotted patterns flashed across his skin. The main breakers suddenly switched off and plunged us into darkness. Dim, yellow bulbs in the hall provided subtle illumination, but all I could make out was his silhouette.

  “Sorry,” I whispered, thinking they would have kept them on all night.

  His hands were not gentle as they firmly ran up my inner thighs, forcing my legs apart even more. “I can see better in the dark than you,” he growled, stroking my core with a brush of his fingers.

  I gasped and bucked all at once, but Logan’s hands firmly pinned down my hips.

  “Be still, female,” he said in a caged voice, awakening every nerve in my body as he draped himself on top of me. I immediately pulled away his shirt, careful not to touch him with my hands. But oh God, the heat from his chest against my skin had me unwound.

  I put my hands behind my head as my sexual energy spiraled out of control.

  The weight of his body settling on mine had me tasting his neck greedily. Logan groaned when I locked my legs around his and lifted my hips.

  He chuckle
d darkly and murmured against my ear. “You are a greedy lover, Little Raven.”

  “Don’t wait,” I said in a desperate breath. “I want you inside me now.”

  “You don’t know what that does to me,” he said, his voice rough and sexy. “Don’t speak that way or I’ll take you hard.”

  Logan savored a slow seduction, but my body writhed and trembled beneath his, unable to control the craving. My stomach tightened and tingles roared through me as I gently stroked his hips with my calves, sliding them up and down the length of his legs.

  My mouth was against his ear as he kissed my shoulder. “I want my male to take me.”

  A deep roar filled his chest and Logan thrust himself inside me with one penetrating stroke.

  I gasped but had no time to catch my breath as he pounded his hips against mine in the most animalistic, turbulent way. Logan had given in to instinct, no longer holding back, no longer teasing or seducing me with words.

  He pushed himself up with his hands so he could look down the length of my body, and I lifted my hips as he rocked faster and harder.

  I knew we were on a floor with Sensors, but I didn’t give a damn.

  I gripped the sheet behind me, wishing I could touch him. I was beginning to adjust to the dark and I could see his nostrils flare. My eyes roamed leisurely over the outline of his body and I released a soft, guttural moan.

  He suddenly slipped his hands behind my back and pulled me up on his lap. I threw my arms over his shoulders, keeping my hands at a distance as I kissed his neck and stroked my tongue across his Adam’s apple.

  Logan responded with a vibration in his chest that tickled my tongue and sent an erotic spike of desire through me. As we stared into each other’s eyes, I began rocking my hips against him. He placed his hands on my backside, coaching me on how to move. A man’s touch shouldn’t feel so wicked, but no one’s hands lit a fire in me like Logan’s.

  “Where do you want my mouth?”

  My thighs clenched at the animalistic lust that clung to his words. “On every conceivable inch of my body.”

  I arched my back and he leaned forward, sucking on my nipples. His tongue worked a frenzied magic as he enveloped me with his heat. Logan lazily dragged his tongue across my breast and pulled me upright once more.