Eternal Embrace

by Billi Jean

  “Absolutely.” He stared at her face, then with a tender expression, kissed her nose. “You most assuredly were meant for me, firecracker. Now, rest a bit then I’ll give you another go, huh?”

  “Mmm, that sounds wonderful,” she whispered, tucking her leg between his warmer ones and easing her hand over where his heart beat steadily.

  They settled on the couch, enjoying each other and exploring the newer, deeper bond. Jaxon held nothing back, letting her in as deep as she wanted to go. In turn, she relaxed under his light, but curious exploration of her mind.

  Almost asleep in his arms, she jumped when another spark popped loudly from the fire. “It’s so pretty here, Jaxon. I love this place.”

  “Do you?” Jaxon asked, sounding curious.

  “I do, it’s wonderful, so ancient-looking but modern. Has it always been yours?” she asked, tipping her head to smile at him.

  He nodded, but his expression was far off. Through their link, she knew he was only half-awake, and the knowledge made her happy for some reason.

  “Yes, it’s always been mine. Since I first took off on my own, I suppose.” He trailed off and his soft, warm caresses along her arm slowed until she thought he’d actually dozed off. A moment later though he said, “It was ancient even then, and with time, I’ve managed to work on it, updating things, but keeping the soul of the place.”

  “Yes, the soul of the place. That’s what it feels like, here, as if…well, as if it’s a part of you.”

  “That’s because it is. Did you notice that when you left that night, that you ended up in London?”

  “Ended up in London?”

  He lifted his upper body and anchored his head on his palm, looking at her curiously. “Did you think we were in London?”

  “Well, I kinda thought…” she paused and thought about what he was saying. “Well, I was in London. I mean, I had to go out the gate, then turn and walk a bit, but London…” She covered her mouth in surprise. “But there was no sound of traffic, then…”

  “Then there was,” he said for her. “What? London?”

  “But…you mean we’re not in London?” Jaxon grinned and tapped her nose with his finger. “How is that possible?” she asked.

  “I did a favour for the Scarlet Coven a long time ago,” he said with a shrug. “They paid me with a spell. The spell hides my home, but it also makes anyone coming here disorientated when they leave, and always leads them back to London. If you’d turned around, you would have found the same gate, and the ruined grounds, but inside not the same house.”

  She took that in and shook her head. “Amazing. So all this time, vampires, witches, all these immortals have been side-by-side with people.”

  He snorted. “We are people, wildcat.”

  She gave him the look that deserved, and his grin grew wicked. She knew a second before he landed a heavy hand on her butt he was going to do it. She still jumped.

  “Brat, mmm…harder,” she purred, running her nails down his muscled shoulder.

  He grimaced and buried his head in her bosom. “Shit, baby, you’re too much.”

  “Mmm, I thought you said I was just right?” she asked, hugging his head.

  “Joey—”

  “Shh, and tell me more about this—how immortals lived so close, yet were never discovered. I mean, come on, that sounds…impossible, right?” She tugged his hair to get his attention, and reluctantly he lifted his head. He looked flushed and the stiff hardness of his cock swelled against her stomach, tempting her when she knew better. “Oh, no, not yet, wild man.”

  He tossed his hair off his face and sighed like she’d ruined his night, then flashed his cocky smile. “Fine, but you’re duly warned.”

  “Yes, sir,” she teased, earning another light tap to her butt. She batted her eyes and he flashed his fangs at her in mock warning. She laughed hard enough to make him pin her against him. He was so strong, she couldn’t stop. “Okay, okay, I’m trying here. Stop making me laugh!”

  “Impossible wench,” he growled, which only made her giggles worse. “Now why is that funny?”

  “Wench? Who says that?”

  He snorted mentally, which was even more hilarious, but she controlled her mirth and pressed kisses to his face and sexy chest until he stopped making fun of her. “Now, tell me about the immortal world.”

  He sighed as if she’d asked the impossible, but grinned and started. “Not all witches are immortal, but yes, magical folk have learned to blend in, adapt at blending in—” His phone ringing cut into their conversation, and he grimaced at the side table where they’d dropped it hours before. “And use technology.”

  “Yes, and that.” She grinned at his frown. “We don’t need phones, you know. Maybe we should throw them out.”

  He looked so stunned and hopeful she hated to tell him she was teasing. But with a sigh, he shook his head. “We can’t do that, darlin’, they need us.”

  “Us? Mmm, I don’t know that I’ve done much.”

  “What?” he demanded. “You’ve kicked ass. And the more of my blood you take, the stronger you’ll become. You’re already stronger. Can you sense your power?”

  She considered his words carefully. She did feel stronger, but—

  “No buts, you have done more than most ancients, and you’re not even a year into your immortality. Trust me, okay?”

  “Trust you? I trust you.”

  “In this.”

  “You’re tricky.”

  “I’m not tricky, I simply love you, Joey.”

  “Oh, Jaxon,” she breathed, and gasped when he bent and captured her lips in an erotic, heartfelt kiss. The phone ruined it though, and even Jaxon grumbled but released her mouth.

  “This had better be—”

  “Jaxon, if you don’t answer that phone…”

  He kissed her once more, sat up, easily holding her with one arm, and grabbed the phone to settle back down with her on his lap. He pulled the cover around them and circled her with his arms. They both looked at the caller ID to see Hunter’s name on the screen. “Hunter.”

  “Can’t be good news, can it?” she asked.

  “It could, but I think she’s already allowed us our honeymoon, mmm?”

  Joey caressed her hand through his silky hair. “Not nearly enough. I want years.”

  “Of a honeymoon?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said quickly. “With just you and me, but I suppose…you’d better answer, knowing Hunter, she knows we are here.”

  “Ha, the witch does not know where we are. She might try, but I’m not stupid. No one, not even Hunter can trace where this phone is.” He flipped it open with a wink. “Hunter, what’s the urgency?”

  “No urgency for once, just good news. Sorta.”

  Jaxon lifted a brow, sharing his doubts on that silently. “Come then, but count on pissing me off if you track your coming here. Keep it low and don’t try to backtrack. Use the—”

  “Dude, like I’m a spy or something. Besides, Agni’s been to your pad and he’s here, awake again and ready to come over.”

  They both heard Agni’s grumble, but Hunter went on to say, “Yeah, we can be there in ten, okay?”

  Joey shot upright, but Jaxon grinned. “Dudette, if you can get here that quick, you’d better be waiting at the front stoop, because you’re not old enough for the porn show inside.” He clipped the phone off with a wink at her.

  “Jaxon!” She punched him lightly on his shoulder. “Porn show?”

  He laughed and tried to kiss her.

  “I can’t believe you said that!”

  “No one doubts we’ve been busy, Joey,” he said, grinning as if he’d just won the lotto.

  “Well, we don’t have to announce how we’ve been busy to everyone,” she said, and added, “unless you don’t want to be busy any longer.”

  He rubbed her head, ruffling her hair, and bent to kiss her. “I’ll remember next time not to tease about all the fun we have, okay?”

  “M
mmph. What we do is for us, alone.”

  Laughing, he held his hands up in surrender. “Shit, sugar, I am all yours. Can I help it if you’ve made me the happiest damn vampire on the planet? I’ll remember next time though.”

  She tried not to smile at his teasing, but ended up pulling him down and kissing him thoroughly.

  “Ah, damn, you are a mean, mean woman. Now, clothe yourself, they’ll be here shortly.”

  She grinned at his bossy tone and flicked him on the nose with her finger. He nipped at her, but shifted her to their bedroom and kissed her until she didn’t want to dress in anything but him.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Agni lounged back on the same couch he’d called his own the last time he’d been here, but instead of Markee keeping him balanced, he had a witch perched next to him on the arm. Hunter’s hair was blue now, with dark chunks of black mixed with the white blonde. She laughed and threw Joey a small package tied with a silver and blue ribbon.

  “This is from Aubrey. A wedding gift, she said. I told her all about the difference, but she didn’t think you’d see one.” She nodded to Joey and her grin flashed a dimple. “I don’t either, but”—she shrugged—“I don’t plan on marrying or bonding, so…”

  “You’re young still, give yourself a few hundred years or eons,” Agni grumbled, sipping his Scotch on the rocks. “Maybe you’ll think differently then.”

  “Yeah, probably,” Hunter said with a ‘duh’ look at Agni. “Anyway, so, want the scoop first or boring stuff?”

  “Oh…scoop?” Joey said, her hazel eyes glowing with amusement. She opened the little velvet pouch, and stiffened next to him. “Oh, Jaxon,” she murmured, and his body automatically went hard as a rock at the sound.

  He anchored his ankle on his opposite knee and adjusted his jeans to bring back the circulation to his dick. In her hand, she’d spilled two perfectly formed rings with intricate whirls etched onto the outside to form their names. Inside was one word, ‘always’, in a flowing script.

  “How did she…how do you think she knew?” Joey asked him.

  “I don’t know, but they’re beautiful,” he said. He reached down and picked up the smaller one, examining it from all sides. “This one is amazing, look at the detail,” he told her, turning the ring this way and that. She did the same to the larger one, smiling with delight, he noticed. He had to get her more jewellery. He had many pieces he wanted to give her over the rest of their lives, but these were truly elegant.

  Agni sat forward and frowned over at them. “She’s a powerful witch, but…” He sat back and shrugged.

  “But what?” Hunter demanded. “You don’t like her. Why is that?”

  “I don’t know her, there’s a difference.” Agni examined his drink too casually. “Witches from her time period, they had powers that are forbidden now.”

  Jaxon nodded. “She’s not one of those, Agni. Didn’t you see the swirls of blue?”

  “Many of them wore those, Jaxon.”

  “But they were also shadowed in black. Hers weren’t. Besides, she smells right.” He shrugged at the still-doubtful look on Agni’s face, but explained to Joey and Hunter, “Agni thinks she’s a demon binder—a witch, or any magic folk for that matter, who once used spells to draw demons to their will, using the demon’s power to make themselves stronger.”

  “Like the witch in Scotland? You think Aubrey is one of those sick freaks?” Hunter demanded, looking offended.

  “Scotland?” Jaxon asked, slipping the small ring on Joey’s finger. “Fits,” he said rubbing his fingers over her tiny knuckles.

  She slipped his on his finger and grinned. “Oh, Jaxon, it looks wonderful.”

  “Darlin’, you need to save that for the bedroom.”

  “Or kitchen, or living room…”

  “Or alone time.”

  “Yo, love birds, come on, now.” Hunter laughed. “What gives, are they always like this?”

  “Yes, we are always like this, I don’t know about everyone else…” Joey said with a grin. She perched on his lap, happy as could be and not the least shy to show her affection in front of the others. He was happy as he could be with her exactly where she was. If anyone had ever told him such a thing would happen, let alone be welcome and damn near needed, he’d have laughed until he split a gut. He pulled her closer and stared at Agni. Something more was bothering his old buddy than his mistrust of an ancient witch.

  “Most are, I guess. Now, what about Scotland and this witch?” Jaxon asked.

  Agni swallowed his Scotch, not answering, so Hunter shrugged and flipped her hair off her forehead. “Sorcha—you knew she was missing, right? No? How is that possible? Seriously, you all have been alone way too long,” she laughed. “Well, she was missing and whaddya know? Now she and…wait for it, wait for it…Alex are mated.”

  “What the shit? You’re joking. That stiff-necked wolf is Sorcha’s bonded?” Jaxon stared at Hunter, then Agni, until the demon gave him a curt nod. “What the fuck.”

  “Who is Sorcha?” Joey asked.

  Jaxon couldn’t resist the urge to kiss her so he didn’t even try. “Well, she’s head of the Jade Coven, the one—”

  “Nope, that’s the next dish.” Hunter took Agni’s glass and walked over to fill it, grabbed a Coke and brought them their bottle of wine. “Ready?”

  He nodded, and Joey grinned. “You’re enjoying this,” she accused him in a whisper, with a subtle elbow to his side.

  “Shit, yeah, no one ever gives me the dish.”

  Agni snorted but took his drink. “That’s because you’re a damn recluse.”

  “Yeah, yeah, don’t get jealous of the pad, man,” he said. “So what’s the next dish?”

  “Well, Sorcha’s handed the reins back to the rightful head of our exalted coven,” Hunter said with mock severity.

  Agni snorted again. The dude looked like hell, not at all like his normal smartass self. “And who’s that?” Jaxon asked, only half-focused on Hunter.

  “Trouble.”

  “There is?” Joey asked. “Where?”

  “Wait, are you saying—” Jax stopped Joey from rising with a hand on her thigh and cut off his thoughts in mid-sentence to stare at Hunter’s happy-as-shit smile to Agni’s miserable face. “What gives? Did you think—I mean, were you thinking that Sorcha was yours?”

  Agni speared him with a pissed-off glare. “Of course the fuck not. What makes you say crazy shit like that?”

  Joey sighed heavily and patted his thigh. “I got this one.” “Well, you look like…well, Agni, there’s no way to say this without sounding bad, so, yeah, you look like shit,” Joey told him. “What’s wrong then?”

  “Nothing’s wrong. Everything hunky-dory. Trouble is the new head of the Jade coven. Viktor is off after some human that bombed the cell in Russia. Oh, yeah, Aubrey found a way to remove the collars on the Lykae, but Vik had already ditched the plan to stay together and headed off like the Lone Ranger. Big surprise there. The Jade is moving to Scotland, everyone is fighting the Death Stalkers and all we have to do is somehow hunt down Gerald, free your buddy Evan and it’s a happy fucking holiday for everyone.”

  Jaxon examined his wine, and soothed Joey through their link. “Something happened to Agni, but I’m not sure what.”

  “Mm, maybe you should ask him—like alone.”

  “Yeah, that might be best.”

  “He looks so miserable.”

  “Well, it sounds to me like no one’s missed us, then,” Jax said aloud, and silently sent Joey a warm flood of his love. She scooted closer, admiring their rings and settling in with the others like discussing immortal shit didn’t freak her out. It did, a little, but not enough to frighten her. She trusted him and his judgement—the weight of that responsibility she shouldered with him though, and he loved her even more because of it. “So, why the house call?”

  Hunter sipped her Coke and shrugged. “Just to say hi, you know, like friends do from time to time.”

  Joey n
odded. “I’m glad. If you move to Scotland too, does that mean we’ll be neighbours?”

  “Nah, I’m not moving. I might visit, but I won’t go to Scotland with the coven. Aubrey is already there, by the way, but your horses are good, and she has the kitten. The thing wouldn’t let her go, I hope you don’t mind.”

  “Not at all. She was my granddad’s, but I’m sure she’ll love Scotland. Is Aubrey like moving back where she’s from?”

  “Yeah, kinda, but farther north. Not much left of what she remembers, so, yeah, she’s not happy with the new and improved Scotland. Hates it, you might say, but she was from way back, before there was a Scotland. When there was like families all bunched together.”

  “Clans, you mean?” Joey asked.

  “Yeah, sure, whatever.” Hunter shrugged. “She’s deadly on technology.”

  “I thought that was your thing,” Jaxon asked, intrigued in spite of himself. He wanted to know what bugged Agni, but more, he wanted the two of them gone so he could continue to keep Joey in his arms.

  “I am in your arms.”

  “Naked, sneak. Naked.”

  “Oh, I like naked. Can we try some of that vanilla oil body rub stuff?”

  “Woman—” Jax broke off his mind speech and shot to his feet just as his alarms rang through the house.

  “Yeah, well, she breaks—what the fuck is that?” Hunter asked, also rising to her feet.

  “That’s Jax’s alarms. Someone is here,” Joey whispered.

  “That’s my signal someone has broken past the spells, Joey. Get to the –“

  “Jaxon!”

  At Joey’s yell, Jaxon spun in time to see a flash of black then Gerald stood in the entryway. At his feet, he had Evan on a collar. Jaxon lifted his arm to push Joey behind him and Evan leapt over the couch and landed on him, knocking them both over the coffee table and into the mantel. Joey immediately shifted and he sensed her on his left side now, still close, but out of the danger Evan posed. Jaxon grappled with Evan’s arms, trying to keep him far enough away from him that he could break the man’s hold without hurting him. Not that Evan seemed to notice. He fought like an animal, not a man.