by Megan Morgan
Lorena grabbed her phone. “I don’t have much time. If I can’t convince Dr. Winston to come, I have to try to do something myself.”
She got up and walked to the bathroom. When she returned, Deacon was hunched over, his head in his hands. She rubbed his back.
“She’s still alive,” he murmured. “She’s still out there.”
“Yes. But if I can save Dafydd, maybe they’ll all go away for good.”
She walked to the kitchen. Clem wasn’t there to follow her around, as he was still at Deacon’s parents’ house. She pulled some leftovers out of the fridge and stood at the sink counter, staring out the window. The tree line loomed at the bottom of the yard, a thick and ominous wall.
She was being watched. Neala warned her of that, too. If she tried to leave, or get Deacon’s family out of Blue Ditch, the Wolvites would strike. Lorena feared a small fringe group with nothing to lose much more than a massive force. A small group could also move with more stealth.
She called Dr. Winston while her food heated in the microwave.
“I can fly out in the morning,” he said, much to her relief. “But Lorena, this sounds like an extremely dangerous situation. You should get out of there. Especially if the virus spreads, they could become volatile.”
“I can’t leave. If I don’t help them—if we don’t help them—they’re going to harm Deacon’s family. And they won’t lead anyone but us to their encampment.”
“You said you collected samples?”
She knew his scientific curiosity would outweigh his good sense.
“I didn’t have a field kit with me, so I just did the best I could. I don’t know if you’ll be able to use any of it.”
“You realize, I don’t have a cure? I’ve been studying the virus and I’ve conducted a few experiments, but that’s all. Not to mention, we haven’t outlined any sort of plan to inoculate Wolvites in the wild. With all the new information we’ve learned about them, I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”
She pushed her hair back. “I know. But you’re the expert, much more than me, and I have to try something.” She glanced toward the hallway. “They’ll wreak havoc on his family, I have no doubt about that.”
Deacon stepped out of the bedroom and came to the kitchen.
She turned back to the window and lowered her voice. “And please, don’t involve the agency yet. An eradication squad can’t be sent to handle this. It’s mostly witches out there, anyway.”
“I wish you would leave, Lorena. I never meant for you to be in harm’s way doing this work.”
“It’s more dangerous for me not to do this.”
Deacon placed his hands on her shoulders and rubbed. Her tight muscles eased under his touch.
“If I go into the woods to examine this Wolvite,” Dr. Winston said, “I will be fully armed and so will you. In fact, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to demand they bring him to a secure location of our choosing.”
“Maybe I can negotiate.”
Deacon kept rubbing, deeper and harder.
“I’ll let you know my itinerary.” Dr. Winston paused. “In the meantime, there is something you might be able to offer them.”
She perked. “What?”
“While nothing I’ve tested has fully cured the virus, I did discover something that lessened its virility. It’s an acid derived from the bark of Carya ovata, the shagbark hickory. It’s indigenous to that area.”
She grabbed a notepad and pen and scribbled down the information.
“It hasn’t destroyed the virus, but if you put together some sort of potion with the bark, maybe it will ease the symptoms. That would be a very useful field experiment, actually.”
Stacy could probably help her find the bark and mix something up.
“I’ll try it.” Lorena put the pen down. “If nothing else, it’s a gesture. Maybe it’ll make them trust us and give us some leverage in negotiating a safe place to examine him.”
Deacon stilled his hands on her shoulders.
“I’ll email you tonight. In the meantime, please be careful.”
“I will.”
She hung up and turned to Deacon. She took one of his hands, kissed it, and walked to the microwave to retrieve her food.
“He wants you to cure the bastard too.” Deacon’s voice was gruff.
She pulled her plate out of the microwave and set it on the counter. “I already told you what’ll happen if I don’t.”
“We’ll mow them down. They won’t get to us. We been fighting them for years.”
“Not this way, you haven’t.” She walked over and gripped the front of his shirt. “They’ll kill all of you. Even the kids.”
He huffed. “They’re bluffing. If they could get to us like that, why ain’t they done it already? Why haven’t they come sneaking up on us and took us down one by one? Cause they can’t, that’s why. There ain’t enough of them and they ain’t strong enough.”
She let go of his shirt. “They’ve never been this desperate.”
“They’re blowin’ smoke.”
“There were a lot of witches. More than the Wolvites. They’ve lost their mates, they’re weak and suffering. They’re victims.”
“Who gives a goddamn?” He raised his voice. “Let them suffer. They supported their mates when they tried to kill everyone in town. They share their beliefs. They ain’t no victims.”
She turned away.
“Just like that rotten sister of mine.” He kicked one of the stools at the island counter and she flinched. “She wants us dead. She ain’t innocent. Ain’t none of them innocent, witch or Wolvite.”
Lorena turned to him. “I know.” Her voice came out strained. “And maybe their threats are empty, but what if they’re not? If they kill you and your family and I could have prevented it…”
His eyes blazed. “What if her mate dies anyway? What then? They still gonna kill us?”
“I don’t know.” She pressed her fingers to her temples. “I don’t know, Deacon. I just know if I don’t try something, it’ll end badly. Whether you can fight them off or not, it’ll be a massacre all over again. And what if she comes forward and tells your parents who she is?”
Deacon’s face sagged, but his eyes remained angry.
“I can’t risk your life, Deacon. I have to help her. Even if the threat is minimal, it’s real, and desperate people are very dangerous. They can be driven to do insane things.” She turned to the counter.
Deacon said nothing.
She picked up her fork and stabbed at the food on her plate. “Do you know where any shagbark hickory trees are?” She shoved a bite in her mouth, her stomach aching for sustenance.
After a tense, quiet moment, he came over and wrapped an arm around her waist. Arguing was pointless, and this was all such a huge mess. They both had to stop freaking out. She leaned against him, chewing.
He took a deep breath. “I might. But that aside, you ought to let me make you something fresh, instead of that day-old chicken.”
“I’m so hungry right now it doesn’t matter.” She placed her hand over his on her hip. “And you’re exhausted. You need rest. We both do. That’s why we’re at each other’s throats right now and can’t think straight.”
“The family will be over soon.” He slid his hand around and patted her panty-clad bottom. “Which means you better put some britches on.”
“Maybe they’ll take it better if I don’t.”
“Reckon I’ll have to pluck my cousins’ eyes out, though.”
She finished her food, trying not to scarf it down like a starving animal. Once her belly was full, she felt much better but even more tired. She brushed her teeth and attempted to get dressed, but ended up sitting slumped on the edge of the bed, staring across the bedroom in a daze.
“This is going to suck,” she said.
Deacon sat down next to her. “I’m dreading this. Especially when it comes to Jack.”
“Yeah, me too.”
They were sil
ent. After a minute, Deacon leaned over and cupped her jaw, his hand so big he could nearly hold her entire head. He kissed her.
“I love you,” he murmured. “I know you’re scared right now and trying to do what’s right.”
She kissed him again and deepened it, gripping the front of his shirt as she had in the kitchen, but harder this time. Tired or not, her body awakened to his touch.
He wrapped his arms around her and hauled her back on the bed. His energy sang to her, and the tumult in his mind called out to her. She felt his emotions. He was relieved, grateful, and at the same time, so very anguished. He covered her with the reassuring weight of his body and kissed her so hard it almost hurt.
Her senses flared in a burst of need. Not just need for him, but an insistent urge to prove to him that she was whole and all right.
She wasn’t sure which she suddenly wanted more: to get her clothes off, or to get Deacon’s off. She ended up trying to do both at the same time and didn’t make much progress with either.
Deacon stilled her with a hand on her chest. “You sure? I know you’re tired after the night you spent.” He was pressed tight against her, up between her legs. Hard. Ready.
“I’m exhausted.” She yanked his jeans open. “But I want you, right now. I was so afraid last night I’d never see you again.” She locked her thighs around him.
He dropped his forehead to hers and drew a shuddering breath. “I was even more afraid, if you can believe it. I couldn’t think about nothing else.”
“I could feel your panic.” She touched his cheek. “I was wishing I could tell you I was all right.”
He dragged his hand down her side, to her hip, then inward. He smoothed his knuckles over the crotch of her panties and pressed in.
She lifted her hips with a groan. “We don’t have much time. Your family is coming over. But I need you first, before them.”
She pushed her hand inside his jeans and gripped him through his underwear. He grunted against her lips.
“I need you,” she repeated.
“I need you too, woman. So damn much.”
She pushed his jeans down. He took over and worked them down his legs, at the same time sliding down her body, kissing as he went. His warm breath seeped through her t-shirt and made her flesh tingle. His t-shirt, that she had worn to bed.
He raked his teeth across her hipbone, then hooked them under the elastic of her panties and tugged down.
“Not much time,” she reminded him.
“I know, trust me. I got one eye on the clock.”
He slipped her panties the rest of the way down with his hands, then buried his head between her thighs. She gasped at the hot caress of his tongue.
He stopped and looked up, eyebrows raised. “Sure you don’t want just this right now? Cause I need a taste of you.”
She brushed her toes against his leg. “Yes, but no. You can eat all you want later. Come up here, now.”
He sat up. His cotton-encased cock jutted in front of him, his jeans pushed down to his knees. She clenched inside, full of want, and wished he would hurry the hell up before she either melted or exploded.
“You smell so good.” He wiped a hand over his mouth. “I thought I’d never smell you again.” He leaned over and pressed his face to her throat, and breathed in.
She shuddered. “I had to make my way back to you. I couldn’t give up. I couldn’t let them keep me.” She reached down and collected him in her hand. “I’m yours, that’s all there is to it. This is where I belong.”
She kicked her panties the rest of the way off. He didn’t waste any more time, shoving his underwear and jeans down a bit farther, and then settling between her legs.
When he pushed into her, she moaned more with relief than pleasure and gripped the headboard above her. He met no resistance, she was so slick he slipped all the way in with one thrust. She wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him in even deeper.
“Jesus.” He breathed against her neck. “Lorena, woman. I love you so much.”
She clung to the headboard and braced herself. “Show me.” She didn’t want gentle, not right now. She needed to be reclaimed.
He slid out and slammed back into her, jerking her against the mattress. She wailed in joy. He pumped into her, faster and harder.
They paused long enough for him to struggle out of his shirt, because Lorena wanted to feel his skin, wanted to drag her nails across his flesh. He pushed her shirt up as well and squeezed her breasts as he resumed thrusting. When he hooked an arm under one of her legs and hauled it up nearly to her shoulder, she shrieked. The sweet sharp pleasure of him hitting her deep inside made her head go fuzzy.
He growled in her ear, his scruff rubbing across her cheek. “You’re mine.”
She snarled in return and dug her nails into his hip. “Don’t stop.”
“Oh, I won’t.” He pushed a hand between them and rubbed exactly where she needed the stimulation, making her squeeze around his thickness.
When she came, it was consuming and magnificent. She sobbed as she writhed helplessly beneath him. Feeling so good after such a long, torturous night was a flood of sweet relief.
He sighed against her ear. “That’s what you need, ain’t it?”
She did, she needed it so much.
He was close as well, she could tell by the tightness in his muscles, by the way he started fucking her with short, shallow thrusts. He held his breath and grunted.
She clutched his hair, her hands trembling. “Yes, Deacon. Give it to me. Let me feel it.”
He let out a helpless, urgent gasp, and a moment later plunged deep inside her and held steady. He throbbed and filled her with a rush of wet heat, moaning out her name.
She closed her eyes and drank in the sensation, let his essence wash over her and wrap her in a warm protective embrace.
“Yes…yes…” She kept her legs locked around him until he stopped shuddering, then dropped them against his sides with a soft groan.
He tangled his fingers in her hair and kissed her, his mouth soft and wet. “If I lost you, I’d die. I couldn’t go on.” He dropped his forehead against her shoulder. The slickness on her neck could be sweat or tears, or both.
She closed her eyes, a few of her own slipping out across her temples. “You’re not going to lose me, not ever. I promise, Deacon.”
Chapter 6
“I knew it had to be some sort of scheme,” Deacon’s Daddy said. “I just had no idea it would be this harebrained.”
Deacon sat on the couch, Lorena snuggled against his side. He held her hand in both of his. He’d kept his mouth shut and let her do the talking, let her tell them the details of what happened to her out in the woods and what those monsters asked of her. Hearing it a second time, he was still gobsmacked.
“I really believe they’ll hurt you if I don’t help,” Lorena said. “She wasn’t bluffing. They’ll find a way to kill all of you.”
Zeke, in the chair across from them, rubbed his hands together. “If they can sneak up and kill us, how come they ain’t done it yet?”
Deacon was glad he wasn’t the only one to bring that up.
“I don’t know.” Lorena’s fingers twitched in his palm. “Maybe they’ve been biding their time. Maybe the fear of retaliation has kept them from doing it. Most of the Wolvites who survived fled and the ones still out there are mostly injured and weak. There’s a lot of witches. Maybe they’ve been afraid if they took any kind of action you would wipe them out once and for all. But I don’t think that fear will hold them back much longer, because they’re getting more and more desperate.”
“You can’t go back out in them woods,” Deacon’s Daddy said. “You told us Dr. Winston ain’t got no cure, so what can you do? You can’t give them what they want if you don’t have it.”
“But if I try, if I at least make a gesture, maybe they won’t hurt anyone.”
“I say we kill ‘em all.” Zeke looked around at the gathered group. “Go out there and
take care of this right now.”
“I don’t know how to get back to their camp,” Lorena said. “They had me blindfolded.”
“We’ll just burn ‘em out, then. Take care of this the way we always did, show no mercy. It ain’t my aim to kill no witches, but if they get in our way, we’ll take care of them too.”
Stacy sat on the arm of her husband’s chair. She looked down at him. “They could have killed Lorena, but they brought her back instead. That tells me they really do need help.”
“You could call your agency.” Deacon’s Daddy nodded to Lorena. “Get them here to search the woods.”
Lorena stiffened. “I know it’s hard for you to see it this way, after everything they’ve done to you, but the agency massacred a species that we know very little about. They’re intelligent, they even have humanity.”
Deacon hated this conversation every time it came up, mostly because he wasn’t so sure of his convictions anymore. It was easy to hate Wolvites, hate them for all they’d done, but knowing they were human left him feeling a whole mess confused about something he’d once had great certainty in.
“Humanity?” Zeke leaned forward. “Were they showing their ‘humanity’ when they tried to kill us? Were they acting human when they menaced this town and threatened to swarm over it?”
“You went into their territory, time and again.” Lorena didn’t wither a bit at his outrage. “With guns, hunting them down. It’s a vicious cycle, you provoke violence in each other. We need peace instead.”
Zeke narrowed his eyes. “You’re starting to sound like another sympathetic woman I used to know.”
Deacon glared at him. “You watch your mouth.”
Zeke glowered at him.
Stacy stood up. “Listen, we all got opinions, but right now we also got a situation. If they want Lorena to help them and she doesn’t, they’re gonna come after us. I believe that too.”
“Let them.” Zeke still eyed Deacon.
Stacy shot him a silencing look, the kind only a woman could put on her man. “Whatever else is going on, a threat’s been made, and we can’t take that lightly. We need to be on guard.”
