by Linzi Baxter
The man huffed. “I’ll leave, but remember, no sex, or it won’t work. You have two minutes to get dressed. We’re already an hour behind.” The door slammed a couple of seconds later.
Gideon slowly lowered Diem’s legs to the ground. They felt like jelly.
“You didn’t have to be so rude, Gideon.”
“Nobody sees you naked but me,” he growled.
“Silly man, you know I’m a shifter, right? That’s going to be almost impossible.”
“Nobody sees you naked but me, Diem. I will kill anyone who lays an eye on you.”
She thought about arguing but knew from the way his eyes were trained on her that it wouldn’t be an option. Instead, she pulled away, already missing the feel of his touch. She threw on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. The ritual could last for eight hours. Nobody had told her what to expect, but she’d seen TV shows where people went on spiritual journeys. She hoped she wouldn’t make a fool out of herself and talk to a rock for eight hours.
When they opened the door, Ethno stood on the other side with a hemp sack. He frowned at Gideon. “You should know better. To get answers, you sometimes have to sacrifice the things you want.”
“Okay then, let’s go and get this done because I’m not going to wait too much longer to sleep with my mate.”
The shaman nodded and walked down a dirt trail. Gideon grabbed Diem’s hand, and they walked in silence. It gave her time to clear her mind. At the end of the tree rows, a large circle was carved into the ground. Around the ring were a few logs on the ground. Gideon walked her over to one, and she sat down next to him.
“What are you looking for, Diem?”
“I can’t remember how I got from where my sister was to West Virginia. I want to know where she is.”
Gideon reached over and squeezed her hand.
“The ayahuasca ritual will help you break down the walls your mind has put up. Today, you will be plunged into something deeper. This is your first time, so it might not send you to the point you want to go to. Tomorrow, we will do this again. You will learn to navigate your way through your mind. Your conscious mind keeps you from seeing what you want.”
“Why are we doing this during the day?” she asked. From the pamphlet, she’d read this was supposed to be done at night.
The shaman let out a sigh. “It’s different with shifters. For humans, it doesn’t take much time. Sometimes with shifters, it won’t take much time either, so we need to start early just in case, and if it goes to plan, we can rest tonight and start again tomorrow.”
A woman she hadn’t noticed before walked over and handed Diem a cup. She handed one to Gideon and then to the shaman.
“Who are you?” Diem asked.
Ethno answered, “We have people watching to make sure we’re okay. We want answers, and we don’t want something to happen to you.”
That made her feel slightly better… until she got a whiff of the drink in her hands. It smelled like vomit, and she could barely hold back a gag.
Next to her, Gideon drank from his cup, and she did the same. It was worse than it smelled. The dark liquid was thick with a splash of water. It coated the inside of her mouth.
“Now we wait. Rest your back against the log,” Ethno said.
Nothing happened. She glanced down at her watch to see that thirty minutes of pure silence had passed. This wasn’t how she’d expected the ritual to go.
Another fifteen minutes passed, and she started to feel a little dizzy. The woman walked back over and handed her another glass. Diem downed the dark liquid like a shot. Drinking it fast didn’t help with the horrible taste. Gideon did the same next to her.
It wasn’t long after the second glass that things started to feel strange. Colors changed. Gideon said something, but his voice sound miles away. The rock in front of her started to spin on its own. She reached for it, but her hand went through the hard object.
Her stomach felt like it was spinning as fast as the rock. When she lay back, she looked up at the stars. She didn’t know how much time passed. She could only see the bear in the stars. Two bears. And that was the last thing she remembered before her stomach gave in to the nausea.
11
Gideon
The early morning sun came in through the floor-to-ceiling glass doors. Diem's hand rested on his chest. The memory of her crying on the ground made him want to punch something. Her trip had lasted most of the night until she finally fell asleep and he carried her back to their villa.
His trip didn’t last as long. The shaman wanted him to take more of the liquid, but he’d wanted to watch over Diem. He would work his own demons out that night or another time. They were going to do another ritual after they visited the waterfall. He hoped she would get a vision, because he wasn’t sure he could watch her go through that too many more times.
He leaned forward and pressed his nose into her golden locks. She smelled so good. His magic wanted to envelop her and bind them together forever—a conversation they still hadn’t had, not because she hadn’t tried but because he was too chicken to hear what she really thought. Will she agree to spend her life with me? He was one of the true immortals in the world. Only one sword could kill him, and when he bound her as his mate, she would become immortal. She would have to learn to watch the ones she genuinely loved die around her. It was easier not to make friends than to lose the people you cared about.
She stirred in his arms. Her pretty green eyes opened, and she frowned before putting her hand over her mouth. “I think something died in my mouth.”
He chuckled and gently pulled her hand away from her face. “How do you feel?”
“Like I went to the bar and drank a bottle of vodka and then kept drinking.”
Before they’d gone to bed, he’d placed an order for room service. Food would be arriving shortly. Like the previous day, he’d ordered one of everything on the menu. She would need the food, especially for the second night. Some might think it would get easier the second time, but it didn’t. It almost got harder.
“Once we get food in your stomach, you should feel better.”
Diem rested her head on his chest and ran her finger over his family symbol. He was the last one in his line still alive, unless he had a kid that he didn’t know about.
“I’m not sure I can eat anything,” she mumbled.
“You’re going to have to try.” He traced her cheekbone with his finger, moving the few strands of hair away from her face. “As soon as you’re done eating, we can go soak in the healing pond.”
“Do you think Emma hates me?” she mumbled against his chest.
“No.”
“I think she does. Nobody would ever send a friend somewhere to go through what we did last night. I’m not even sure I would make an enemy go through that. And for what? The only thing I was fixated on was the stars.”
He hadn’t taken enough of the ayahuasca to have a vision or get sick. While he sat next to Diem and watched her go through her trip, he listened, seeing if he could pick up anything. But her words had been mumbles and incomplete sentences.
“Did you see something in the stars?” he asked.
She was quiet for a few seconds. “Bears. I kept seeing two bears.”
She sat up, the sheet falling from her chest. An hour into the trip, she’d puked on herself, so when he’d brought her back to the room, he’d bathed her and put her to bed naked. Now he didn’t think that had been the best idea.
“I’m naked.”
He cleared his throat but couldn’t look away from her beautiful tits. “I bathed you before bed.”
“Oh. Thank you.” Her cheeks turned the pink shade he loved to see.
He ran a finger down the side of her face, tracing her collarbone. “You got sick, and I didn’t want you to sleep that way.”
Her skin was so soft. A trail of goose bumps followed as he touched the top of her breast and someone knocked on the door. “I swear they keep cameras in here.”
Diem g
iggled as she grabbed his shirt off the ground and threw it over her head. Her nipples poked through the white material. Her eyes followed his, and she smiled at him.
The butler wheeled in two carts full of food. Gideon and Diem sat out on the balcony and ate as a dolphin jumped in the clear water. He enjoyed the peace of the waves.
“I can’t eat anymore.” Diem patted her flat stomach.
“You want to go to the waterfall and the healing pond?”
“Absolutely.”
While he worked to put their breakfast plates back on the cart and wheel it out into the entryway, Diem walked out of the bathroom in a tiny red bikini. When she turned to grab a cover-up out of the suitcase, he groaned at the sight of the small red strip covering her ass crack.
“What the hell are you wearing?” he grumbled. Diem hadn’t been the one to pack the bags. Hers were still in the car at his house.
Diem turned, her lip ticking up. “Swimsuit. Don’t you like it?”
“You sure as hell know I like it. What I’m trying to figure out is how I’m not going to fuck you when we get to the waterfall. Or kill someone for looking at you.”
She walked across the room and placed her hand on his chest. “As long as I can kill any woman who looks at you.”
“That’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever heard.” He brushed his lips against hers, and she wrapped her small body around his. Her fingers tugged at his hair, and their tongues danced together. When he drew back, they were both panting.
He grabbed her hand and walked out of the room. The waterfall was a short walk from their villa. His mind wandered back to what Diem had said. She’d seen two bears in her vision. The ritual cut through the fog of the brain and highlighted the things that people hid. He wondered what two bears meant.
When Diem gasped next to him, he smiled. She was looking at the double rainbow in the water.
“This is so cool, I might never want to leave.” Diem frowned. “I shouldn’t think that way. Who knows what’s happening to my sister?”
He tugged her hand until they were at the water's edge and swung her into his arms. Before she could figure out what he had planned, he jumped into the water, taking her with him. She tightened her grip around his neck.
When they came to the surface, she glared at him. “What the hell, Gideon?”
“I promise to help you find your sister. But you deserve to have a little fun. Every time you really start to loosen up, you feel guilty.”
“You’re one to lecture about feeling guilty.”
Ouch. She’d made a valid point. “Okay, we both need to work on things,” he said.
He loosened his grip, and she swam under the waterfall. He followed her to find her sitting on a rock. Her gaze was focused farther back in the cave.
“What’s going on, Diem?”
She let out a sigh. “My dragon pushed me to come back here. I think I need to figure out more about my dragon and a place to hide the things it wants to collect.”
“Have you denied your dragon something it wants to keep?”
“The dragon wants to put the trinket you got me in a safe place. It can wait until we get back home. But I don’t even have a home.”
“I told you before, I have a cave for your dragon. Is there something else your dragon wants?”
She blushed and looked away. “Yes.”
“What is it?”
“You.”
His heart stopped for a second. Her declaration chipped a piece off the wall he’d built up. Suddenly, she was in his arms, and his lips were against hers.
Gideon heard a throat clearing. Again. He might not make it out of Costa Rica without killing someone.
“You really need to figure out how to make this taste better.”
“This is an ancient ritual. It’s not something to make taste better,” Ethno said.
“Says the man not drinking it,” Diem muttered.
Ethno ignored her comment. “Tonight, don’t fight the medicine. Just listen to the surrounding earth.”
“The earth is going to speak to me?”
“It helps clear your mind,” Gideon said. “Just for tonight, do what Ethno says, because if it doesn’t work, we will be back here again.” The words came out a little harsher than he’d planned.
But seeing her get sick the night before was one of the worst experiences he’d been through. He wasn’t sure he could take another experience like that. Especially if something went wrong.
“I can do this—not fight the medicine, let the earth in,” she said.
In the distance, he could hear the drums of the earth. Gideon was always close to the surface of the earth—his magic came from the elements around him. The previous night, he hadn’t been focused enough, but that night, he would let the world around him in.
The same woman as the night before walked over and handed them each a glass with the dark liquid. The air was cooler tonight than the previous night but not cold enough for a long-sleeved shirt.
Unlike the first time, he could feel the effects of the drink within twenty minutes. Diem was next to him, staring up at the stars, and he wondered if she was looking for the bears again. The woman walked over and handed him another cup. He wasn’t sure how far he wanted to go. Ethno wouldn’t do anything to hurt Diem, but Gideon still worried about her and wanted to protect her.
A distant voice cut through the fog. “Don’t think—drink.” His hands felt strange. The woman placed the cup to his mouth, and he tilted his head back to take the liquid.
Colorful streams of light came out of the earth, all meeting at one point. And at that point was someone he never wanted to see—someone who was supposed to be dead. The person’s face twisted into a snake. The form of Kael stood there—the man who’d controlled Gideon’s mind for a hundred years, making him do things. The worst part was the fact that he didn’t know all the things he’d done.
The image of a lab flashed through his mind. Diem was in a cage, and someone who looked just like her stood on the other side but not behind bars. The harder he tried to see, the farther away the vision was. He was forcing it, not accepting what the spirits wanted him to see.
A cry next to him brought him out of his vision. Diem was on her knees, hunched over, bawling. Gideon tried to stand and get close to her, but his legs felt like they were cemented into the ground. Kael stood above her, laughing at him for failing again. He would never be enough for her.
For another few hours, he watched Diem cry and laugh. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t do anything. His body was frozen.
When Diem fell asleep on the ground, he finally started to regain the feeling in his legs. He stood and took her into his arms and walked back to the room. Gideon went straight for the bathroom and pulled them both into the shower. His visions hadn’t proven anything except that Kael had won.
After they were clean, he drew back the covers and tucked Diem into his side. When he closed his eyes, Kael came back to him, promising to seek vengeance by taking Diem away from him.
12
Diem
Gideon’s grunt woke her from her fog. She was naked in bed with him, her hair still damp. She didn’t remember him carrying her back to their place or bathing her. The old warlock had a kind heart.
He tensed under her touch. His eyes were squeezed shut, and his brow was furrowed. Something was wrong.
She gently pushed on his side, trying to wake him. Nothing. “Gideon.”
“No,” he ground out. “I’m going to kill you again.”
It was a bad dream.
Gideon’s eyes flashed open, and they glowed in the moonlight. “Diem.” His brows drew together. “I’m sorry I woke you up.”
“You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”
He ran a hand over his face. “Go back to sleep, Diem.”
“What was the dream about?”
Seconds passed by before he laced his fingers in her damp hair and pressed a kiss to her lips. The action caught her off guard at first, a
nd then she relaxed into his body. He tilted her head to the side before swiping this tongue across her mouth. His touch made her mind go blank, and she wanted to be closer to him. She’d already lost her heart to him. Hopefully, he wouldn’t walk away at the end.
“Gideon,” she whispered against his lips. Her control was hanging on by a thread. He didn’t give her time to think. His mouth opened, and she was lost in his touch all over again. A faint whisper in the back of her mind told her to stop, but the need in her body overran every bit of common sense.
This could all ruin her chance of getting her sister back, but something about the raw look in Gideon’s eyes made her want him even more.
Her fingers trailed down his chest until her hand encircled his hard member. Gideon’s breath hitched as she ran her fingers across it. When he tried to turn her on her back, she didn’t move but instead worked kisses down his chest. Then she placed a kiss over his nipple.
“Diem,” he groaned.
She loved how much control she had over him. With each swipe of her tongue, his cock pulsed in her hand. Her mouth watered, and she thought about wrapping her lips around him.
She slowly lowered her lips around his cock, and she glanced up at Gideon, who watched her. For a split second, green magic swirled around them. Then the air changed, and she could feel the magic.
“God dammit, you’re like an angel.”
He gathered the blond locks as they fell around her face. He didn’t push her to go faster as she took him deeper. Blow jobs weren’t something she’d ever enjoyed doing, but she wanted Gideon to love it. She tightened her lips around him and started to hum. Her hands rested on his thighs, and he tensed under her control.
“Stop,” Gideon ground out.
She didn’t. If anything, it made her want to please him more. Breathing through her nose, she took him in as far as she could and hummed.
