by E. M. Moore
“Better?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Not really. Liam’s gone. Someone is stealing witches’ magic. It may even be Liam, but not Liam because he has a familiar on him, Travis. A familiar.”
Travis took my shaking hands in his. “You were trembling when we laid you on the couch, so I sat here with you. That seemed to calm you.”
Why was he telling me this? Why did he care?
“I lost a friend once, Norah. I know how this feels.”
“Jax?” I asked, curious. He’d never talked about it with me before. I dared a glance at him. His face was pale as he stared out at the breaking waves.
He nodded, an almost invisible movement. “He was my best friend. Him leaving us was—” He broke off and shook his head. “When you think you’re going to have someone forever, the thought of not having them doesn’t even enter your head. I know what Jax did was wrong. I know he had to be punished, but stripping him, sending him away, was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. Sometimes, I still wish he was here.” He looked away and blew out a breath. “I’m telling you this because I won’t let the same thing happen to Liam. We’re a coven. There are five of us. You, me, Randy, Gabe, and Liam. Nothing is happening to any one of us like it did with Jax. I won’t let it.”
“How can you be so sure, though? I mean, it happened to Jax, and you were a coven then.”
Travis wiped a hand down his face and then squeezed my hands again, staring me straight in the eye. “I’m not blind. I’m not dumb. It kills me to admit this in one way because Jax and I were so close, but the coven didn’t feel the same with Jax as it does with you.” He swallowed, his green eyes drawing me in, and the tug in my stomach tightening. “With you, Norah, it feels complete. I don’t know how else to describe it. You know I feel it. From the other night in your room…”
Yeah. That. My heart lifted up through my throat and my fraying magic bubbled at the surface. It was shimmering and aching.
“Listen, I know I’ve been a dick. I can be a dick. It’s kind of my thing. I was—”
“Broken,” I offered, moving closer to him. “Losing Jax broke you.”
He nodded. “And with my sister on top of that, and…” He trailed off, troubled, looking like he didn’t know what words to say.
“There’s something else?” I asked. “The rest of them, they say you won’t talk about it, but they think something else happened when you were with your sister.”
A small smile lifted the corners of his lips. “It’s so stupid. It seems even ridiculous to say anything right now, but yeah, something did happen.” He took a long pause and then stared at me. “I thought I was in love with this girl.”
My heart constricted. I tried to pull away, but Travis held on tight.
“I thought I was in love with this girl. I was broken up about it because she didn’t choose me, Norah, and it wouldn’t have mattered anyway because of the Order. Then, you came. You came and there was an immediate attraction. I resisted it because I was mad at everything. Mad at Jax. Mad at the Order. Pissed at the girl. But she doesn’t even matter anymore because it hasn’t been about her since you showed up.” His throat worked. “It’s just you now, Norah.” His gaze burned into mine as my heart did flips. “I hate that it’s taken me so long to figure any of this out because I was so fucking stubborn, but I—”
“You want me?” I asked, my eyebrows raising.
He half laughed. “Not just like that.” He swallowed. “When you had a knife sticking out of you, I thought I knew what it felt like to lose someone, but I didn’t know a damn thing until then. That was the moment I realized what a fucking ass I’d been this whole time.”
A smile worked its way to my face. “I could’ve told you when you were being an ass.”
“You actually did tell me, a lot, when I was being an ass.”
“There were plenty of times when I didn’t tell you.”
He chuckled. “I’m sure that’s true.”
His hands roamed up my arms and over my shoulders to my cheeks where he cupped my face. “I’m sorry.”
The magic inside me pulled taut. His touch sent shivers throughout me, tingling my skin and sending goosebumps over my body. The longer we stared at one another, the more intense the pull became until I didn’t want to resist it anymore. I leaned forward, pressing my lips to his. Finally.
It was as if a balloon popped. Restraint was gone. He pulled me closer, deepening the kiss, and I loved every second of his sure lips moving against mine. My body stopped shaking as Travis filled me up. All the while, my magic brimmed at the surface, oozing happily through my veins as it stitched us together. A new tremor shook my body. It was from something way different than magic fraying my nerves. This was from complete and utter pleasure.
Travis pulled a breath away. “My God.”
Sounded about right. My hand snaked around his neck. “You’re sorry you resisted for so long?”
“Am I an asshole if I say yes?”
“Yes,” I said, pulling him toward me again. His lips were like heaven on mine. He took control, burying his tongue in my mouth, taking the breath right out of me. Our relationship had been like drilling a tiny hole in a dam and waiting for the water pressure to break down and crack the rest of it until a big rush of water engulfed us. The little touches, the long looks, all of it was a small crack, another fissure. This was the outcome, the barreling water of us coming together.
I pulled back and reached for the hem of his shirt. He helped me take it off and then I sat back and stared at him. He was beautiful. Hard lines, chiseled. I didn’t hide the fact that I was ogling him. It had been too long until we’d gotten to this point.
He smirked. “My turn.”
He tugged at my shirt, but I slapped his hands away playfully. “You’ve already seen me.”
His jaw hardened. “I know. Too many times without it being my hands on you.”
He reached for the bottom of my shirt. He pulled it over my head and dropped it on top of his. I didn’t give him any time to look, I just plastered myself on him, soaking up the way his body fit to mine. He reached up to cup my breast, and I sighed. “Fuck, Travis.” His cock already strained against me. I pitched my hips over it, feeling its hardness between my legs.
He unhooked my bra, then slid the straps off, revealing my breasts. His gaze locked there as he swallowed. I continued to rub against him as he took one of my nipples in his mouth, showering it with attention while playing with the other. I stared down at him, taking this all in. I was with Travis. Finally. My panties were already coated. “God, Travis, I’m going to need you inside me.”
“I thought that’s what we were doing.”
I pulled on his zipper and yanked his pants down. “I’m going to need it faster.”
His face darkened as he slipped his hands down the front of my jeans. He hooked his fingers under my panties, feeling how wet I was. “I see.”
He rubbed me, and I undid the clasp on my jeans to give him more room. “Travis, please.” I rubbed against his cock while his finger played with my clit. His face was serene, determined. “Damnit. I’m going to come,” I moaned, unable to stop myself from moving against him.
“Again, I thought that’s what we were doing.”
“I want you inside me.”
He ignored me, arching down to draw a nipple into his hot mouth. His finger teased and played with me, egging me on. My whole body shook.
“But—”
“But I’m going to make you come like this, Norah. Then, I’m going to take your pants off and push inside you. But not until you come on my finger.”
God, why did he have to be so hot telling me what to do? And his tongue as he played with my nipple. Son of a bitch. I moaned. “Yes.”
He smirked. The asshole smirked.
“You’re so fucking beautiful. You’re practically dry humping me, you know that?”
“I’d be fucking you, but you’re stubborn.”
His fing
er moved faster. “And you love it.”
I gripped his shoulders as my orgasm hit. “Fuck yes.”
His finger worked over my clit until it was too much. I pushed him away. He went to work on my jeans, doing exactly what he said he was going to do. He pushed them down, taking my panties with them until I was naked. I worked on his next, pulling one leg down, then the other. It was almost like opening a present. I hadn’t seen Travis’s cock. I’d felt it. I’d felt him. I peeled his boxers down and the silky head stood at attention. He helped me take his boxers the rest of the way off because I got sidetracked looking at him. My stomach tightened, the little string tethering us together pulled us closer and closer.
Travis beckoned me forward, placing one of my legs in between him and the couch cushions and the other on the outside of his hip until I was poised just above him. He pulled down on my hips and I lowered over him, slowly, at his guidance. Every last rigid inch of him pushed inside me. My mouth dropped, the feeling of completeness took over. Hot shit, I wanted him. I wanted him to come inside me. I wanted to strangle him with my climax. He knew he had me at the end of my rope. He lifted his hips, sending a shiver up my spine, then he pulled me down, sealing our lips together as we came together, our hips moving in sync against the others. He sucked in a breath as I rolled my hips into his over and over and over again. It wasn’t just me that was affected. He was shaking, too. With need. With a fullness we’d both resisted.
“Jesus, Norah. Fuck me, this is amazing.”
God, I couldn’t get enough. I rolled my hips, taking him in as far as he would go. “I can’t believe you made me wait for this. I fucking hate you,” I said, breathless.
“I know. I told you I’m an asshole.” His hands squeezed my ass, and I let out a low moan.
He did it again and again as he set the pace, faster and harder. I was going to show him what he’d been missing though. I’d promised myself I’d make him beg for it.
I held onto his hips to keep him down and then rocked into him hard before retreating again. His eyes widened as he moaned.
I pulled away until just the tip of him was inside me and then did it again, pushing us both to the edge until we let out short cries.
“Fuck, Norah.”
I retreated again, swirling over his tip until I felt my orgasm coming, and then rolled into him hard, putting an exclamation point on my orgasm. It ripped through me, and I screamed. Travis’s fingers sank into my ass, urging my hips up and down and right into his own climax. He locked eyes with me as it hit him, and I took control sliding over him as he emptied everything into me. Fuck that was hot. When we were both spent, he pulled me down and kissed me, not letting me get away.
My magic brimmed at the surface, teasing my skin. It wasn’t just the two of us that had come together, I now felt closer to all of them as a unit as if we’d just been waiting for Travis to stop being an ass this whole time. But as we came together, there was a little lost piece where Liam should have been. He was faint. The bonds around all of us strengthened, but I still couldn’t feel him as much as I could the others.
“Is it going to feel like that all the time?”
“It has so far,” I said, nipping at his lip and kissing my way down his neck.
“How do you guys ever leave the fucking house?”
“It’s a daily struggle.”
He tipped my chin to make me look at him. His throat worked as his eyes shone a dazzling emerald. “In all seriousness, it’s us now. All of us.” He wound my arms around his neck and pulled me close. With him still seated inside me and encased in his strong arms, I believed him. With everything that had happened, how could it not be true? I was exactly where I was supposed to be.
15
A long finger with a sharp nail poked me in the shoulder. I tried to ignore it at first, but it became more incessant. Then, a voice pierced the air. “Norah Girl, I know you are not laying naked with that boy.”
I blinked, my eyes resisting opening. Sex with Travis was…just wow.
Fingers snapped in front of my face. “And get that dreamy ass look off your face.”
I blinked harder, and the room came into view in front of me. Granny bent over Travis and I, but the rest of the room was awash with colors straight out of the Impressionism Period. Nothing in the room but Granny, Travis and I looked real. “Am I dreaming?”
Granny shook her head, her tongue clicking off the roof of her mouth. “My goodness but you just don’t know what you’re doing, do you?”
“Granny…” I whined, sitting up now, taking the small blanket Travis must have pulled down on top of us with me.
She shook her head again after watching me trying to situate myself.
“Well, maybe if you didn’t just pop in, you wouldn’t have to see me like this.”
“Well, maybe if you didn’t need help all the time, I wouldn’t just be popping in.”
True. There really wasn’t anything I could say to that. “What is it?”
“You,” she said nodding toward Travis. “You’ve done something, Norah Girl.” She placed her hands on her hips and started to walk around the room. “He was the last one, right? The one you hadn’t connected with?”
I sputtered out an awkward laugh. Connected? That made it sound so formal. What I did with the guys was nothing like that. “I don’t think we need to talk about that.”
“I really think we do because the strength of the magic coming off you is no joke. If that Dupre guy is half as powerful as he said he was, he’ll be able to find you. Find you all. The only thing saving you right now is that the one with the glasses is gone.”
“Liam,” I said, my heart wrenching all over again. “Granny, it’s the familiar. It’s done something to him.”
“Well, of course it did. We can’t just walk around with familiars and pretend everything’s okay. My goodness but you’re lost without me.”
“Trust me, I’m not without you,” I said, almost begrudgingly.
“That better not be sarcasm I hear. I’ve done saved you now more than a few times and I’m here to help again.”
I glared at her as she wore a path into the carpet in front of me. I loved the woman. I just needed to remember that, and that only. It may have just been me, but I think she was getting surlier in death. Weren’t dead people supposed to be all-knowing and all-caring? Her attitude had only about tripled since crossing over. I took a deep, relaxing breath because she was my grandma and I really did need her. “Please tell me you can find Liam for us. We’ve been searching.”
“Oh, you’ve been searching alright,” she said, motioning toward Travis. “You’ve been playing ‘hide the pickle’, that’s what you’ve been doing.”
I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing. Along with getting surlier, she’d learned new terms, too. I bit down on my lip until it was safe to talk. “Granny, we need to find Liam. He’s not himself. He ran away because the familiar is getting too strong for him. We can’t leave him alone like that. He needs to know there are people out there who care for him.”
Granny stopped, her forehead wrinkling as she gazed at me. “The only thing that ruined that nice sentiment is the fact that you called me Granny. I know, Norah Girl. Liam—the one with the glasses. He needs you now more than ever, but I can’t help you with that.” She held her hand up when I tried to interrupt her. “I’ve tried. Believe me, I’ve tried. It’s the serpent. It’s blocking him from me.”
I ran a hand through my hair and laced my fingers behind my neck. Next to me, Travis still snoozed, looking peaceful as ever. All his asshole tendencies were gone when he was asleep. Maybe because there was no possible chance of him opening his mouth and ruining it all.
Granny snapped her fingers in front of my face again. I reached out to grab them, but my fingers went right through her. My heart lurched. When she came to me like this, she was so real, so true-to-life. It made me forget for a moment that she wasn’t really there. Granny had known me my whole life. She knew me
deep down into my soul. What made me tick. Each and every thing that happened to me, she knew it. We loved to push each other’s buttons, but that didn’t mean we cared any less. We only pushed each other’s buttons because we knew how to.
Granny sat. A piece of magical furniture appeared just behind her before she fell through the coffee table. “I know, Girl. I know.” She reached out to brush my hair back but took her ethereal hand away. “You can’t afford to lose someone else. I get it. I tried, Norah. As soon as I saw him leave, I tried to keep track, but that familiar is a tricky one. He’s clouding him from me. I can’t get a read on him other than that he’s not so far away. He’s not so far away that you’ve lost him, baby. That much I do know.”
I pulled my legs up to my chest and placed my chin on my knees. A worry tugged at my heart. Gabe had thought Liam might be responsible for the girls drained of magic. I didn’t want to believe it. I looked up to find Granny still staring at me, her hard edges gone. “Have you seen what’s going on? With the drained witches, I mean?”
She nodded, her shoulders hunching over.
“Is it…him?”
Her eyebrows raised in a familiar gesture. “I don’t know. All I know is that the quest for power can destroy you. That much has always been true with those who wield magic. For some witches, what they have is never good enough. Magic has always been seen as power, not the gift that it is. Whether you can save the whole world or save one person, you should be happy with what’s within you. You determine the type of person you are, not the things around you or the magic within you. Some people, though…” She shook her head as she trailed off. “Some people never get it. Be satisfied with yourself, Norah Girl. Always.”
“I know, Granny.”
I’d heard the speech before. Not that it meant any less. Each time she said it, a spark of acknowledgment always formed in my belly. That was a truth nugget. A truth nugget not everyone believed in, but one all the same.
