White Witch (Haven Book 1)

by Lil Hamilton

  “Yes.”

  I ran a hand down his shirt. His button up shirt. Perfect. I began to undo the buttons slowly. “I suppose then, I should feel safe to indulge myself, given your intentions are so pure.”

  He actually closed his eyes and shivered when I touched his skin. Again I admired the contrast between our skins; something was appealing about his golden tan compared to my ivory. My skin had the pearl sheen to it since my glamour was gone and my outer shields released. It felt good to have my true essence released; knowing it would not affect him like it would a mortal. He groaned when I smoothed my hands over his abdominal muscles. He was more muscular than fae born and the definition of his form was entrancing. I snapped open the button on his pants deftly and then slowly lowered the zipper, brushing slightly against his aroused flesh. When I slid my hand into his pants to feel his erection and to slide over down that silky smooth skin covering hot hard flesh, he growled, a hand snaking out to take me by the back of the neck and drag me close. “My intentions are getting quite a bit less pure,” he said.

  “Finally,” I said.

  With a low primal growl he had me against the wall. My corset was soon pulled off and tossed. He brushed his lips across the mounds of my breast. I moaned and dove my hands into his hair. When he lightly bit a nipple through my barely there bra I arched into him with a moan. Foreplay would be completely unnecessary at this point. I was more than ready. He hooked a clawed finger over the bra within my cleavage and yanked, cutting it in two. He drove me crazy with one hand caressing and plucking one breast and his mouth laving and nipping the other. He sucked and then swirled his tongue around my nipple and then switched to the other.

  I pulled him up to kiss him, pulled him close to feel him up against me. He slanted his lips to mine, desperate and passionate. His hand flicked my pants open and slid in, cupping me and then teasing. He slid one finger into my slick heat finding that one bundle of nerves that made me cry out as he circled it and rubbed. Once foreplay reached that point my will power usually halted. That was an on button that demanded to get off. A moan escaped from me again and I helped slide my pants off and kick them away. He slid a finger up and in causing an arching shot of pleasure. His restraint snapped and he lifted me against the wall, while I hooked my legs around him. He positioned himself, I felt his arousal press against me and he paused. “This battle is not over. I can’t control myself. I will not. But I vow to get those shields down.”

  With a thrust he was inside me and I arched forward, clutching his shoulders as an orgasm rippled through me. When my nails dug into his skin I realized my demon side was showing as my claws dug into him. He plunged in again, hard, causing me to dig my hands into his back. He set a pace that had hard and deep, never letting eye contact go. “You will be mine. I’ve marked you,” he growled and I couldn’t argue with his savage intensity.

  I matched his rhythm with my own and soon I was screaming in wild raw abandon. His pace became more frantic and demanding as though he could not get close enough to me or deep enough into me. I wrapped around him tightly and pulled him deep, feeling the raw power of our union build in the both of us. The second orgasm was a slow build but when it hit my body convulsed, my aura sank into his and for a moment we were blended together as one. He thrust fast and his orgasm hit him and I felt it through him. He rested his forehead to mine, panting as much as I was.

  “That was wonderful,” I said breathlessly, slowly sliding to my feet and finding them wobbly. It was not a leisurely bout of lovemaking, but rather a crashing flash storm. Brilliant. Fantastic. And very likely a mistake. But a glorious mistake.

  “Yes, but still your barriers are there.”

  I kissed him gently. “I’m sorry. I did warn you. They stay up under all conditions, as they were designed. Not that I don‘t enjoy this particular exploration tactic.”

  He smiled; curving those sensual lips. “You’re not so sorry. We will try again.”

  “Soon?” I asked and grinned.

  He laughed and picked me up in his arms. “Soon it is, princess.”

  ***

  Chapter 8

  All blood suckers are annoying be they mosquitoes, lawyers or vampires.

  I woke up curled onto the smooth, warm expanse of Lan’s chest. I had no regrets only that it seemed to solidify this sort of metaphysical connection I had to him. I wondered if he could feel it as well, or if it was just normal for him. A link between us from his demon mark had been enhanced by our intimacy, elevated to a hormonal or pheromone level that was intoxicating. I somehow knew it was going to cause more troubles than I wanted. I rolled out of bed and padded into the bathroom, hearing a disgruntled growl from behind me.

  ‘Do you wish me to join you?’

  ‘Do you want to get shot?’ I asked, a little miffed he used the mental connection we seem to have permanently established, despite my shields. Which I had to find a little amusing since Dill was always so disgruntled I did exactly the same thing. Karma retribution for messing with him. Yet, I felt free to not like it, even if it was hypocritical.

  ‘You do not have a gun in your bathroom.’

  ‘Something to remedy I suppose. I could put it with the tampons; no one would look there.’

  I indulged in a gloriously long hot shower complete with citrus shampoo and a shower gel that smelled like tropical fruits. Every hygiene product had a scent to it and in the end it meant everyone had a sort of collective of scents that did not match on them every day. Drove werewolves nuts. When I came out Lan was sprawled on the bed, flaunting his flawless body. He flashed a lazy grin and stretched. I had no idea what the hells I was going to do with this demon. Other than the obvious. Which I had already done. And done well. “Do you feel the strength of our link?”

  While I hunted through my less than organized drawers for pants I ignored his question for a moment.

  “I feel it,” I admitted. I was still getting used to the feel of it. I was aware of him.

  I found a pair of well-worn midnight blue dyed leather pants, a light blue form fitted cotton shirt and would put on my rich purple fedora hat after I loosely braided my hair. To finish off the look I would wear a long jacket; it was slim, fitted to the waist, purple velvet on the outside but had a good layer for warmth and had midnight blue stitching long the lapels. “It has latched onto me. Able to get beyond my skin level shields. It is disconcerting because I can feel you through it, like a hovering presence.”

  “Intimacy always makes such a link more tangible,” Lan murmured, confirming my thoughts on it. “It is nothing compared to the mating bond.”

  He wanted to experience me without any protections. To truly merge our essence. He just didn’t want to say it out loud, knowing I would baulk. If this was a mild and normal connection demons made then, hell yeah, I’d baulk right out the damn door.

  “This link is natural. A mild merge. Now that you know my essence has not consumed yours and my will is not trying to control yours perhaps it will ease your mind about the bond.”

  Not likely.

  I glared at him with some cool, fierce fae expression. “So you know me so well.” He had the right of it, but damned if I was going to admit it. I didn’t want to be tied to anyone. To need anyone. The bond seemed to allow an influence I couldn’t control and I didn’t want my reality of him or anything manipulated, even if it was my body manipulating me. Perhaps that was even worse, like my body was betraying my mind.

  “I begin to understand what it is like to be raised in Faerie.”

  I laughed at that and he scowled. “I wish I had been raised in the Hells. I truly do. From my experience of it, it was so much more than I ever had. So different. It frightened me a little. I was so very used to holding my shields secure, my mind guarded. So used to battling wills with others. Fighting to gain my own patch and hold it. Being always on my guard. Protecting my own internal reality from influence. And in the Hells, they are expressive, emotional, and temperamental. I thrived in the freedom to expres
s myself. But they are so tactile. Always so open with touch and with their essence. And they have clan families, with close family ties. It was all too close. Too much of an invasion of my privacy. How crippled you must think I am when I can’t offer the comforts you are used to.”

  I could honestly say I was crippled for a demon. I wondered what it would feel like to relish the connection to another. To engage in the mating dance with anticipation. To seek out a bond that would make me feel complete.

  He stood up and approached me slowly, our essence tendrils merging smoothly. He approached me like he would a cornered animal. “You’re doing well. The rest will come.”

  I stood frozen for a moment. Somewhere between terror at being linked to someone else and a surge of emotion created from the fact that I was wanted by him. I didn’t belong in either realm, among either people and I had been alone for a long time. Even if I was not his mate, he still valued me for what I was. A long time dimming myself with illusions and playing nice for the humans. My fae side said this was good, this meant I had no one to be used against me, to turn on me. The demon side, which I had repressed as best I could when I was younger, had a strong desire to make attachments. Had in fact made too many as it was.

  He stepped right up to me and pulled me into a hug. Just a hug and his arms ran down my sides, just for contact and touch. I didn’t hug back. I wasn’t sure how to react but to me a hug was an awkward thing. Just one demonstration on how unlike demons I was. “I’m not used to this. To having someone around.”

  “You have Dillian, who is protective of you like you were his kit. You have Vivica and Chera.”

  “Dill is a close friend, true. Powerful enough I need not worry he would be used against me. Viv works with me because she wants Chera and she is a master without an estate. Chera is… broken, loyal to me, but doomed to a fate I can’t save her from. They are my team.”

  “They are your family. Your desire to make attachments when you have none. You could easily manage your job without them, but instead you took them in to work with you. They are useful, which is very fae. And strong, also very fae. Yet you respect their individuality and boundaries. You know as well as anyone that the fae idea of freedom and power is being able to will their reality on everyone else, even if it breaks them.”

  “I have learned the hard way to not make such attachments and I will likely regret it again. Such a war I have with myself.”

  “Yes and you need a truce.”

  “Well, we need to get ready to get some Intel,” I said lamely.

  I shied away from thinking about the sureness in his tone and the solidity of this link. It was better to think I could walk away from it, and I could; there was a place in Faerie all my own I could retreat to. I didn’t think the bond was possible for me. I understood it was possible, but not for me. I was beginning to think I was simply too emotionally crippled to willingly accept such a deep connection and such a willing vulnerability. For fae, it was all about will. All about belief. If any part of me would not accept such a deep connection then my belief in it would will it to be true. Maybe that was a profound realization on my part, but it was also something that even if I desired to fix it wouldn’t change any time soon. While I was beginning to like Lan and certainly his bedroom skills were up to par, I didn’t think he was the one that would change my perspective. There was no intensity with him, which actually made him easier to play around with. I avoided relationships that had any potential intensity.

  Lan dressed as he usually did, in supple leather pants, long sleeved shirt, with knives strapped to his side and back. Pity regulations denied him a sword. Just seeing a male demon, with all that compact muscle and intensity, braced with a sword, was a total turn on. Spartan hot. Maybe I should suggest he lose the shirt and oil up a bit?

  “I don’t see why you fear to insult vampires. They are but diluted demons. What does it matter if you insult them, when you have the power?”

  “That’s so arrogant, my friend. I don’t have the power, not the mundane sort anyway. I need to get along with Vincent and his hierarchy. Their hierarchy is very solid. A master gathers to him those he thinks will be of use to him, binds them to be his court. Then the court binds to them fledglings, or converts useful humans. That bond is one of complete obedience and control. You piss someone’s servant off and you piss the master off. While I don’t argue with the loose usage of the term immortal when applied to our people, the fact is, we are not. Long lived, sure, but not immortal and I would sure like to live up to the long lived part of it rather than dying prematurely to a raging mob of blood-suckers. They love fae blood. Love it. They will hunt Unseelie fae if they can get away with it, although in my city, they don’t. That would not be the case if I bruised Vincent‘s ego. I have not survived this long on the mortal plane, where we do suffer the true death and are in weaker form, by rampaging around, pushing everyone‘s buttons and pulling the ‘my race is inherently superior to yours’ routine. Which, by the way, my race is inherently hated for.”

  Then I smiled widely. “Not to say it isn’t fun to poke the bears. I’m a self-respecting fae and that means I have to live up to my rep.”

  “They are a power in the city, so I understand your position, since the fae you guard are allies of them. It makes sense to not stir things up. I don’t understand how you could be willing to give Chera over to Vivica. You would give her back, to become bait, to be turned, and linked forever to another.” There was no accusation in his tone, just a sort of curiosity. He was trying to understand me. All that insatiable demon curiosity. I wished him luck with it, as I never had any luck understanding myself.

  “How did you know Vivica has claimed her?”

  He cocked his head. “It is quite obvious. The vamp is very possessive and protective of her.”

  “It’s her choice,” I said.

  “Will it really be her choice, or do just want to think that?”

  “Don’t piss me off. I haven’t even had my tea yet and am not in the mood,” I said, aiming for the kitchen. Why did he have to get under my skin by asking such questions? He did not know Viv or understand Chera. I may not be entirely comfortable with the situation but I was seeing what would develop from it before I made any judgments.

  Lan began cooking of all things. Scrambling eggs and frying bacon. I watched him with some amusement. It was very domestic of him. Honestly I was not sure where the bacon came from so he must have picked it up. “I don’t eat breakfast. Unless fudge is a normal breakfast thing.”

  “You need your strength. I see that you are tired. You will eat it.”

  I laughed at the demand. So bluntly stated. It was absurd that such a man was forcing me to eat breakfast for my own good. When he placed the plate in front of me and watched me intently I said, “I can just tell this is another demon thing.”

  He shrugged casually, but there was a serious look to his eyes; a heaviness I recognized when I flared one of his demon instincts. I suppose I was lucky he didn’t throw me over his shoulder and drag me back to the Hells for my own good. Not that I would let him. “Is it wrong for me to pay attention to your wellbeing?” he asked lightly.

  I huffed but began to eat. I made an attempt at it anyway and glared at him when I pushed the unfinished plate away. Perhaps it was a good thing my father was inflicting me with these potential mates. I was getting to understand demon nature better than I had when I had been in the Hells, where everything had been a little too much for me at the time. Chera showed up looked all groggy and rumpled, but determined. She muttered a bit about baby-sitting warlocks, grabbed some coffee, tossed me a box of Tim Horton’s donuts and disappeared into the basement.

  I engaged in my usual three cups of Earl Gray tea ritual, loaded down with so much sugar it was practically syrup, and ate three donuts. Even though I felt this demon in the core of my essence, like he had made a home there and was content to stay, I wasn’t comfortable with him or his casual acceptance. It was annoying that he was so easy goi
ng about the situation and me. And I did not like him being at home in my home.

  Since I could do nothing much more at the time I went to my office to work. Mostly I had a stockpile of Accords reports and documents to read that I had been avoiding for months. Total yawn. Then I had to contact some of my spies I had on the payroll to see if they had tabs on any of the fae on my naughty list. I read up on Nemnae’s file and read up on Bianca as well. The woman seemed to be sponsoring all new nymphs and since the Dryad was herself a breed of nymph, just a far stronger one, that made sense, but so many was unusual. I didn’t like that she was making herself such a strong immigrant power base. Lan let me pretend to work while he puttered around my domain like it was giving him some intimate insight to my nature.

  After spending way too much time forcing myself to do paperwork I took a long break to play a Wii dance game and eat an ice cream sundae for lunch. Lan enjoyed watching me, like I was his own amusement, but he could not play even if he wanted to. No way would my Wii or the TV endure close contact with his essence for long.

  Lan left first on foot and I checked to make sure Chera was all right then left about an hour later. I was going to walk to Bianca’s then meet back at my car with Lan to drive to the vamp bite bar. I walked down my street a ways, which followed the river for a bit and then went deeper into the District to the area of acreages we held for the fae who needed nature sources directly around them. It was vital for some of our new immigrants who had no landed status but needed to be attuned to nature. Also vital to some who lived in the District like the Dyrad. Dryads were strong Unseelie nymphs who often, when working for a Lord of a Realm, would be the one directing all sprites, feeorin, pixies, brownies and organizing their resources. Seemed to me Bianca was trying to do the same thing, but without having to deal with a Lord. She must have believed coming to the border realm would enable her to become a force to reckoned with, when such a thing would not be in Faerie. The dryad lived on one of the acreage residences by the river. There was always a house of some sort, or a cabin, but the forest around them is what gave them comfort.