“Let's go back up to my bedroom in case they come home,” Dymphna suggested, pulling away a little.
“Sure.” He grabbed her hand and squeezed, holding it as they went back upstairs. “What are you thinking?” He asked as he sat down on the bed.
“I'm thinking that there's a powerful physical component to all this.”
“There sure is from my standpoint.”
“Then what's holding you back?”
“Honor, for one thing. I promised not to take advantage, and I won't. This is your life.”
“I do appreciate that.” She sat down beside him, and he pulled her to rest her head on his shoulder. “I've seen each of my brothers go through this.”
“And how did it turn out?”
“Each of them is happily in love with their wives, I will admit. But I've always doubted I could be in a relationship like that.”
“Why not?”
“I'm not relationship material. I've never done well with the opposite sex. And I'm afraid I'll take after my mother.”
“But what if you don't? What if you are perfectly capable of having a good strong relationship like your brothers have?”
“What are you saying?” Dymphna asked, pulling away from him again.
“I'm saying that there's a reason we're together. There's a reason we found each other in a time of need. Mine's physical. Maybe yours is emotional. Are you willing to take the risk? Are you willing to try a relationship?”
“Are you challenging me?”
“Maybe I am, Counselor. What I am saying is that, while I don't know who I am or what I can offer you, I will promise to give everything I have to try to make something lasting between us. What I'm asking is if you're willing to do the same. This is your choice. Are you going to take the risk that you'll be like your mother and try for it anyway?”
“You know, it is my only chance. If I told you that I don't think I want to be alone anymore, would you laugh?”
“No.”
“I've been so jealous of my brothers and their wives. I didn't want to say it, but I am.”
“Then you want to do this?”
“Yes. Do you?” She wasn't certain it would go well, but she did want to try. It was the least she could do if she really wanted to be happy in the way her brothers were.
“Yes.”
“Then I have a secret I'd better share before we do this. Have sex, I mean.”
“Tell me quickly. Because knowing I can have you makes me want you even more, if that's possible.”
“I'm a virgin,” she blurted out, afraid she'd lose her nerve.
“What?” He stopped up short.
“Don't make me say it again.”
“How?”
“I had three protective older brothers, and that scared all the boys away through high school. And my undergraduate degree with Leo at the same school went much the same. In graduate school, I was too busy. After that, I never saw the point. So then we got where we are today.”
“So this is a bigger thing for you than usual?”
“Yes. It's part of why I've been so shy about the whole thing, admittedly.”
“And you trust me?”
“Yes. Inexplicably, yes.”
“I'll be as gentle as I can. I'm quite honored to be your first.”
He kissed her again, and she felt how much she wanted him again. If she wasn't confused, she seemed to think he wanted her pretty badly too. Without breaking contact with her mouth, he unbuttoned her shirt and pulled it off her shoulders. Still keeping her mind on the kiss, he unclasped her bra and slid that off as well. Then he reached up and palmed her breasts, one in each hand. Gage squeezed them and played with her nipples, and it felt so good she moaned.
“We're just getting started now honey,” he whispered as he broke the kiss. Then he moved down her torso to suck one of her breasts into his mouth while his hand remained on the other. It was crazy, like nothing Dymphna had felt before. She was starting to realize why people got so worked up over sex. Especially if this was just the prelude.
She wasn't able to even be nervous when he switched breasts and used his free hands to shift her out of her jeans and panties. Then one of his hands started to massage her there, and she bucked at the startling sensation. He gave her a self-satisfied grin.
“You're pretty wet, but we're going to have to do better than that,” he said, still whispering. Dymphna had read enough in books that she knew what he was likely going to do, but when he actually brought his mouth to her core, she jolted.
“Oh my god,” she managed. She felt him chuckle, but he didn't move from his position. She started to feel impending tension working through her, and again, academically, she knew what that meant. But then he slid a finger into her and hit a certain spot inside her, she shattered with a scream. She thought she had known, but it didn't compare to the rush of feelings going through her right then. That was crazy.
While she was still reeling from that, he came back up to kiss her mouth again, and she passionately returned his kiss, tangling her tongue with his. He pulled back a little, just a breath between them.
“Alright, honey. This might hurt for a moment, but it'll get better. I promise. Just try to relax and breathe.”
She felt him guide himself to her entrance, and she really did try to relax. Then he pushed in, one hard shove, and she felt a strong jolt of pain. But it was over in a moment, and she tried to get used to the feel of him inside her.
“Are you alright?” Gage asked, sounding strained.
“Yes.” Startlingly, she really was.
“Good.” He began to move, beginning with a slow rocking motion.
Dymphna could tell he was trying to restrain himself, trying not to hurt her. That wouldn't do at all. Emboldened by the new experience, she reached up and bit his shoulder lightly. Apparently, that was enough to make him lose his control, and he started to push and pull harder and faster. He was going like he couldn't fight it anymore, and she was glad to be the one to make him lose it like that.
But when his fingers reached between them and found her clit, she couldn't think anymore. Very shortly, she exploded again, the world going technicolor before her eyes, and she cried out. Moments later, he found his own release and groaned with it as he shot into her.
Yes, now Dymphna could see why people made such a big deal about sex. It was a big deal.
As his seed took hold in her body, she felt nauseous. From what her sister-in-laws had told her, this was a normal sign of the bond taking hold. It was too late to fight it now, that's for sure. Gage picked up on her discomfort and pulled her to spoon against him, her back to his very well-muscled front.
“Shh,” he whispered into her shoulder. “It's going to be alright. You just need to sleep it off, and things will be better in the morning. Now go to sleep.” He tucked a tendril of her hair behind her ear, and she let sleep overtake her.
35
CHAPTER FOUR
Gage, however, wasn't sleepy. It was still early afternoon, after all, and while the healing process took some of his energy, he still had plenty left. He looked down affectionately at the woman who had bared her soul and her fears before him. He knew that wasn't easy for her. She had a hard shell for a reason, but she let him in. Then, with less of a fight than he had expected, she let him claim her as his own. They were bonded now, and he felt her in his magic already.
Fiona could do her spell now and save his life from the blood magic's pull. But he knew with a good amount of confidence that he was going to need Dymphna to give his new life meaning. He had seen into her soul, and he had already begun the slide towards falling in love with her. And Gage knew that the inevitable end to that would be falling irrevocably in love with Dymphna. But he wasn't afraid, at least not for himself. If anything, he was afraid for her because he wasn't sure he could be everything she needed him to be.
Without waking her, he slid out from behind her and covered her up with her blankets. In his boxers, he called
Fiona's cell from the bathroom.
“Fiona Ward.”
“Fiona, it's Gage.”
“Am I right in assuming you have good news?”
“The bond is in place. She's sleeping it off now.” Fiona heaved a sigh of relief. “But I still am not sure it's what's best for her. If I'm what's best for her.”
“Don't get too worked up about it. If you take her brothers as an example, your magic and whatever makes it so aligned is a good indicator that you're good for each other. I love Dymphna, but I can tell she's been lonely. She hasn't even fully realized it yet, but she was getting there. Hopefully before she does you'll be ingrained into her life and she won't have to worry about it anymore.”
“I'm starting to feel it already, Fiona. Not the bond, I mean. The blood lust. It's not strong, but I can feel a nagging sense of it in the back of my mind,” he confessed.
“I understand,” she said, serious. “I'll be over in the morning with all the runes for my spell. If it's possible to overcome the blood lust, we'll do it.”
“Thank you.”
“It's no problem. After all, you're family now through your new bond with Dymphna.”
“Speaking of, I'd better get back to her. She's sleeping, but I wouldn't want her to wake up without me there.”
“Good idea. See you tomorrow.”
“Alright.” He hung up and returned to the bedroom.
Back holding onto Dymphna, he fell asleep fairly quickly, despite the early hour. But he had dreams all night of blood. He saw the runes etched in blood that would do a particular spell, then another spell. He tried to fight it, to shake off the nightmares. But it didn't work. He couldn't even wake up to get rid of the constant pressure.
Dymphna woke up before sunrise. She usually didn't wake up this early, especially if it wasn't a workday. Then she remembered the bond, right about the time she became aware of Gage. He was asleep next to her, but he was tossing and turning violently. It was like he was trying to throw something off of him, though he had already gotten rid of the covers. Not knowing what else to do, she shook him by the shoulder.
“Gage! Wake up; it's just a nightmare!”
It took a few shakes, but he woke up. And when he looked at her, his eyes were unfocused and raw with an emotion she couldn't place. Then he realized who she was and where he was, and he sighed, closing his eyes again.
“I'm sorry,” he said, eyes still closed.
“For what? The bond? The nightmare?”
“Both, I suppose.”
“Well don't be. What was the nightmare about, if you don't mind me asking?”
“Not at all. I'll try to describe it as best I can. It was a kind of pressure to use blood magic, as if it were reminding me what kind of power would be at my fingertips if I ever chose to use it.”
“No wonder you were distressed. When can we do this spell to get the taint of it out of you?”
“I called Fiona yesterday while you were sleeping. She said she'd come by this morning with her gear.”
“Good. If it can be done, Fiona is the one to do it. Her sheer force of will can make a weak man break.”
He laughed. “Good that she's on our side.”
“That's for sure. Let me go see if Skylar's awake and if I can get you some fresh clothes. Then we'll see what Fiona's plan is.” Dymphna got dressed, trying to hide a little from his scrutinizing gaze. She may have just had sex with him, but she wasn't entirely comfortable being naked around him yet.
Skylar had left clothes beside the door, and Dymphna passed them to him before going down. Despite the early hour, Skylar and Leo were eating breakfast in the kitchen.
“Morning, guys,” Dymphna said, trying to be light.
“Good morning,” Leo responded. “I see you took advantage of your alone time last night.” After bonding with someone, both people had a change in their magic to indicate it as such. Leo would have no trouble seeing the difference in her as soon as she walked into the room.
Dymphna blushed bright red. She stammered. “Yeah, I did.”
“Good for you. Congratulations,” Skylar exclaimed. “You deserve to have someone in your life. He seems like a good person.”
“Come on. We don't really know him since he doesn't really even know himself.”
“He may not have his memories, but he still has the same characteristics. His magic is compatible with yours, which means he is compatible with you. Since you're a good person, he must be as well. Besides, he's shown that even under torture, he still refused to use blood magic.”
Dymphna looked for a flaw in Skylar's logic, but was having a hard time finding it. Then Gage came down, and her mouth watered as she watched him. Apparently the physical attraction hadn't really eased after sating the bond.
“Welcome to the family,” Leo said, calmly eating his breakfast.
“You're not even going to threaten him? Like, take care of my sister or else?” Dymphna asked, horrified. She had waited on having sex for years for fear of her brothers' retaliation on her boyfriend. Now he wasn't even going to threaten him?
“No. I'm not. We've established that he's a good person, and his magic is tied to yours. Besides, I shouldn't have to state it explicitly for him to know that if he ever hurts you, he will want to flee to the ends of the earth to avoid retribution.”
That was more like it, though Leo's voice was still calm and nearly uninterested. But Gage didn't even seem worried. He took the plates out of the oven, where they were staying warm, and passed one to Dymphna before sitting down next to Leo.
“I'm not worried. I'd rather hurt myself than hurt her. As I told her, I would have gone through the blood magic withdrawal rather than force her into a bond with me. Luckily, that wasn't necessary. Aren't you going to eat, Dymphna?”
She was still staring at her family, aghast. They just accepted him, no muss, no fuss. They had an easy attitude around him, as if they had known him for years. She closed her mouth and ate her breakfast in silence. She just watched while Gage thanked Leo for the clothes. Leo made some kind of joke, and they all laughed. Then it was just easy conversation. What a weird turn of events.
Fiona rang the bell shortly after Dymphna finished cleaning up the dishes. If Skylar cooked, the least she could do was clean up. Skylar let her in, and they all convened in the living room. Fiona spread papers across the floor and put her considerably larger than usual bag right in the middle.
“I'll need to draw these out with my enchanted powder. We should do it outside or somewhere that will be easier to clean up.”
“Sure,” Skylar said, and she and Leo went to clean up the back porch for that purpose.
Fiona rounded on Dymphna. “Now that you're bonded to him, you'll need to take an active role in this. I'll start the spell, and I'll feed it with my magic. Seb gave me some of his earlier, so I'm on a little bit of a high. I'll take care of the cleansing myself, but that will take most of my magic. So you'll be doing the recovery. I've got the runes set up so I can guide you into his mind. From there, you'll need to find his spirit yourself. I'll leave a kind of trail of breadcrumbs, and you'll follow them back. Now, I don't know how it'll all go down. But there's a chance that when you look for his spirit that you can find where his memories are hidden as well. If you do, you can forcibly bring them back. It'll work a lot like your healing magic. If you don't find the memories, we'll search for them again later.”
“Alright.”
“Are you ready?”
“Yes,” Dymphna said. She wasn't totally sure, but she had to do it. For Gage, and for any possibility of a future between them.
“Yes,” Gage echoed.
“And you know that there's a strong chance your coloring will end up like my own?” Fiona asked, indicating her brightly white hair and purple eyes.
“I'll take the chance.”
“Good. Let's see if Skylar and Leo are ready for us.”
They had completely cleared the porch. The four of them watched on as Fiona drew her ru
nes in some kind of powder, chanting something. She sprinkled a mix of herbs in a circle around the whole thing. Then she spritzed the whole area with some kind of liquid in a spray bottle. All the while, she never stopped her chanting.
“I'm ready. Gage, sit there in the middle. Right on top of that rune. Dymphna, on that rune. Be careful to disturb them as little as possible.”
“What can we do?” Leo asked.
“Skylar's job is to make sure no one interrupts us. I don't care if it's Seb himself, no one but Leo can stop the ceremony. Leo, you need to use your air magic to monitor our magic usage. If we get into dangerous levels of magic left, you need to stop it. Use whatever means you can, from magic to physically moving us out of the circle. Understand?”
“Yes,” they both said.
“Good.” Fiona settled herself, then joined hands with Gage and Dymphna to make a triangle. “Let's get started. Remember, this probably will hurt Gage because it's going to strip him down to his soul and perhaps farther. Don't stop if it hurts or if he makes a noise.”
Everyone went silent, and Fiona began. Dymphna wasn't involved in this, but through the link, she could feel the edges of the spell through her bond with Gage. She was ready for it to be time for her part. Dymphna wasn't used to sitting in the passenger seat, and she didn't much like it. Especially not when it came to her own bond-mate. Even in the early days of that relationship, she felt it strongly.
The spell built and built until it became nearly palpable. She felt it moving around between Fiona and Gage for what seemed like a very long time but was probably only a few minutes in real time. Then it exploded, shattering like glass that dealt hundreds of little cuts as the explosion rocked the world. Gage screamed. Fiona had warned them that he would, but when it came time that Dymphna heard it, she was still surprised. It sounded like a keening wail of agony. She didn't like that at all.
The Responsible Witch (The Ward Witches) Page 5
