Sinful Magic: A Wing Slayer Novel

by Jennifer Lyon

  This, he thought, was what home felt like.

  Roxy was languid and sated. Her heart was full; Kieran hadn’t rejected her love. She refused to wish that he loved her, that he’d say the words. He was opening himself, willing to try, and that was enough. She wanted to enjoy this new intimacy, both mind and body, that she had with him. She’d never had it before, and she didn’t want to let go of it now.

  Key rolled to his side and pulled her against him. She closed her eyes, letting her mind drift in the afterglow of pleasure while safe in her hunter’s arms. Thoughts came and went lazily, like leaves on a stream when one image finally took hold. Visions of Dyfyr filled her mind and suddenly she wanted to know, “Will you get wings?”

  “Probably. They seem to come out when our witches are in danger, though, so I’m not in any hurry.” He traced his finger up her stomach, following the underside of her breast.

  “Do you think I’d be too heavy for you to carry while you fly?” She would love the feel of that, soaring over the earth, just the two of them.

  “Depends,” he said, his finger trailing around her right breast.

  Turning, she opened her eyes to look to him, and asked, “On?”

  His eyes gleamed in the moonlight. “If you’re wearing clothes or not.”

  She laughed at the idea. “I’m not flying naked! Where everyone can see me!”

  “I’d shield you, Roxy.” He shifted his gaze down her body. “You’re mine. No one else will see you like this, soft and full from lovemaking.” Looking up to her face, he said, “You’re mine.”

  She felt claimed and smiled. “Hmm.”

  He dipped the pad of his finger between her breasts. “What?”

  “If I’m naked then you have to fly naked, too. And I’d have to wrap my legs around you to hold on …”

  He leaned close to her face, his eyes filling with blue heat. “And slide down on my cock?”

  A ripple of excitement went through her. Amazing, she’d been so afraid of her sexuality, and yet with Key, she felt free and strong in her magic and lovemaking. Between them, there was no shame, just pleasure and sharing. “Yes.”

  “Hell, yeah.” He leaned back on his elbow watching as he drew some pattern over her chest. “I think we’d better practice. Flying sex could be …” His eyebrows drew together and a line appeared between his eyes. He looked down to her breasts.

  A faint tingle of alarm went through her. “What?” She angled her head down to see. Key ran his finger over the fine silver chain holding the Tear. She felt a twinge as the chain pressed against her skin.

  “The Tear,” Key said, his voice sharp, all signs of sexy playfulness gone. He shoved up to his knees and loomed over her. “Don’t move!”

  “Why?” Her heart started to race, her skin getting hot, but she stayed perfectly still. Panic clawed at her, but she held tight to the fact that Kieran was with her. He’d protect her, she knew it, so she tried to draw on his innate strength.

  “Hold still, Roxy,” he whispered. “I have to get the Tear off you.”

  “What? Why?” She felt his entire body coil. Then he shot out his hand, aiming for the Tear.

  A shaft of pain shocked a cry out of her. Key jerked his hand back before he touched her. Yet it felt almost like when Liam cut her. Sick fear exploded in her stomach. She looked at the spot where the Dragon Tear had been. A bubble of blood welled there, but she couldn’t see the crystal Tear.

  “Damn it, no!” Key lunged to his feet. “No!”

  Roxy looked up at him. His face was a tight, vicious mask of rage. But he wasn’t looking at her, he was looking at his hands.

  Claws. Razor sharp claws, two or three inches long, protruded from the ends of his fingers.

  But he hadn’t touched her. He’d jerked his hand back, Roxy was sure of it. Yet she had felt a sharp pain on her chest. She looked down and saw a fine line of blood flowing from the inside swell of her left breast. She wiped it away and there, she saw a scab was forming. The spot hurt like a healing cut.

  But the strangest of all were the muted beams of colored lights pulsing beneath her skin. Roxy reached up and touched the spot. She could feel a strange vibration.

  “Fuck!” Key roared, low and vicious.

  Roxy looked up and saw his jaw bulging and the cords on his neck standing out. “What’s happening to me?”

  His gray gaze slid to her, and she felt the chill of it. The warm, sexy lover she’d been with only moments ago was gone, and a steely-eyed hunter stood in his place. “The Dragon Tear. It’s locked on to you somehow. When I tried to get it, it burrowed into you and,” he lifted his hands, “these claws sprang out.”

  She looked down again, too stunned to comprehend it. She could see the fine silver chain pressed tight against her skin. She ran her finger over it; the chain was embedded so tightly she could feel it but not move it. The apex of the chain, where the Tear dangled, dipped into her skin. “I don’t understand. The dragon is supposed to help us get rid of the Tear.” She looked up. “You drew the picture of me wearing the Tear!”

  Key stared at her with cold and dead, gray eyes. “He lied. The dragon tried to kill you.” He stormed toward the maze.

  “No!” She jumped to her feet.

  Key stopped at the first block of concrete and smashed the claws against the wall over and over. Roxy was transfixed in horror when she saw the red stains of his blood spreading over the concrete in the silvery moonlight. She heard his bones cracking. “Kieran stop!” She ran to him, throwing herself at his back and locking her arms around his waist. “Oh God, stop!” She felt the raging heat pouring from his skin, his unyielding muscles, and the emotional pain ripping him apart. He pulled her off her feet as he kept slamming his hands against the wall. She hung on to him, her chakras flinging open, and her magic rushing to him. “Please!” Hot tears trailed down her face.

  He went still. “Don’t touch me. How can you touch me?” He pulled her arms off him and turned to face her. “That Tear is inside you, it’ll kill you!”

  The torment in his eyes was unbearable. “Kieran, we’ll—”

  “Don’t you get it yet?” he roared at her. “I’m destroying you.”

  Key got Roxy to the warehouse next to the nightclub, Axel of Evil, that served as the Wing Slayer Hunters’ headquarters. For the entire drive, he couldn’t even look at her. At what he’d done to her. What they’d done to her, he and that fucking dragon. Why had he trusted Dyfyr? All these years, he’d felt the cold rage of that creature. Seen what happened when he partially woke.

  Blood happened.

  God, he was every bit the freak of twisted, perverted magic that his father accused him of being. He wished the old man had done the job right and killed him.

  Roxy had to live. She couldn’t die. There had to be a way. He’d called ahead and told Axel the situation. He took Roxy through the garage door, past the pool table in the center. He was heading toward Axel, Sutton, and Ram, but Roxy had stopped.

  Key turned to see her standing by the pool table, her hair tousled, her eyes wide and haunted as she looked around. He dropped his gaze to her chest. She wore the green shirt with the row of buttons, and through the material, he could see the pulsing lights of the Tear lodged beneath her skin. The skin on his chest burned. The dragon had been burning his chest, raising blisters, off and on since it happened.

  Did Dyfyr hate her that much? Key didn’t understand; he’d thought the dragon loved her. But when Key tried to grab that Tear, his claws had sprung out—so lethal sharp, Key knew he would have sliced right through to her heart and killed her.

  Roxy was staring at something to the right, then she walked around the pool table over to his drafting board and tattoo station. Key followed her, aware that Sutton, Axel and Ram were all by Sutton’s high-tech computer area in the far corner. Moving up next to Roxy, he stopped.

  Didn’t touch her. He didn’t dare trust the dragon not to make another attempt.

  “That’s Tyler’s drawing of Dy
fyr crouched on your shoulder. He showed me a similar one right before I was kidnapped.” She turned to look at him. “You hung it.”

  It was just thumbtacked to the wall for now. “Kid’s got talent. I’ll have it framed when I have time.” Why were they talking about this?

  “Who did these other pictures?” She studied the various framed art; puppies that could fly, superheroes, one a sketch of Key himself.

  “The puppy and a couple others are by Axel’s little sister, Hannah. The others are kids I’ve met.”

  “Fans?”

  He shrugged. “Just kids. This isn’t important, Roxy. We need to see if Darcy—”

  She settled her gaze on him. “They are important to you. So important you framed their art and hung it where you’d see it. These kids matter to you.”

  Key fought the sizzle of impatience. “We are here to get you help. That’s all that matters!”

  Her eyes filled with dry pain. “I thought the dragon loved me, I thought it was real. I was so stupid. Maybe I’m not her, that woman he loved, and he’s just mad. I had no right to wake him. I had no right,” she said, her voice cracking like brittle twigs.

  He lifted his arms to reach for her and caught himself. Don’t touch her! What if his claws came out again?

  “Don’t,” he begged her, uncaring of who heard them. She was killing him. All Roxy had wanted was to be loved, to have a family.

  She sucked in a breath. “I’m going to die, aren’t I? I just need to know, because then it won’t matter.”

  Why not just shove a hot poker through his heart? “I don’t know, I just … I don’t know.” But he did know. What he’d done to Vivian had been more merciful than this. Viv had died in minutes. He couldn’t stand looking at Roxy, seeing what he’d done. “Come on,” he snapped, turned, and strode toward the others.

  Roxy followed and halted next to him.

  Ram stepped forward. “Hi, Roxy, I’m Ram. Sutton and I grabbed some clothes and your laptop from your apartment for you. I put them in the condo.”

  “Uh, thanks, Ram. I appreciate it,” she said tonelessly.

  Sutton leaned back in his chair. “I checked the computer; it had been booted up but there was no activity. And I ran a scan on it just to be sure. It’s clean.” He leaned forward, picked up a BlackBerry, and held it out. “Here’s a phone. I hacked into your number and got all your contacts and added our numbers for you.”

  Roxy blinked, then reached out and took the phone without touching the other man. “Thanks.”

  Key was done with the niceties. “Where are the witches?”

  Axel jerked his gaze from Roxy, anger simmering in his eyes. “Darcy’s waiting upstairs in your condo, she’s online with Carla and Ailish.”

  “Let’s go.” Key turned and led the way to the condos. He could hear the music and voices from the nightclub as they went up the stairs. “This is Axel and Darcy’s condo here on the end.” Turning right down a hallway, he added, “The second door on the left is the one Phoenix and I share. Ailish, too, now that they are mated.” He reached out and opened the door.

  He watched as she walked in, her gaze traveling over the spacious living room done in black leather and chrome on marble floors, taking in the wet bar across the room, then settling on Darcy. The witch sat on the leather couch with a laptop opened and her phone out.

  Darcy set the laptop aside and stood up. She had her hair clipped up and wore a pair of cropped pants and a T-shirt.

  Key shut the door and asked, “Have you found out anything yet?”

  “No.” She walked over to Roxy. “I’m sorry, if I’d had any idea, I’d have warned you. It never occurred to me that the Tear would lock on to you.” She paused, lowering her gaze. “I see the chain, and the soft lights flickering. Do you mind showing me where the Tear went into your skin?”

  Roxy reached up and undid two buttons, pulling the left side of the shirt open.

  Darcy grimaced. “I’ve never seen anything like that. It seems to be over your heart.”

  Key came up behind Roxy. “Can you get it out?”

  Roxy pulled her shirt closed, her movements slow.

  Darcy said, “I want to look with my third eye. Try to see what the Tear is doing.” She reached out and took Roxy’s arm.

  Roxy looked down at her hand. “Is it safe to touch me?”

  A renewed tremor of rage went through him. Key fisted his hands to keep from pulling her into his arms.

  Kindness filled Darcy’s gaze. “I’m sure it is.” She led Roxy to the couch. “Carla and Ailish are on the computer. We’re going to join our powers.”

  “Hi, Roxy,” Carla’s voice floated out.

  “Hang in there, Roxy,” Ailish said, “We’ll figure this out.”

  Key stood a few feet back, and crossed his arms over his chest. He saw only the back of the laptop, but he was used to the way the witches often worked through the computer.

  “We’ll get started,” Darcy said and her magic began blooming, her witch-shimmer coloring her skin with gold lights. Roxy’s witch-shimmer rose and warmed her too-pale skin. A part of Key noticed the incredible beauty of the two witches, his artist’s eye catching fingers of gold slipping through Roxy’s sunset shimmer. Their magic was joining as Darcy used her third eye to see what the Tear was doing. He saw tiny flares of Carla’s and Ailish’s witch-shimmers, too, so they were circling their power or whatever they did.

  Then he felt Roxy’s magic as it streamed through him, the dragon flared to life, and the resulting thrum inside him was incredible. Hot arousal and life-giving light mixed and grew. He was acting as Roxy’s familiar, he realized. They’d sealed their souls, and their intimate bond was coming to life.

  For one second, fierce joy soared through him. The curse was truly broken, and he had a mate!

  Then he looked at Roxy and saw the pulsing colored lights, muted from the layer of skin and clothing. The crystal Tear was in her and would kill her if they didn’t get it out.

  The magic began to recede. Key heard the door and turned to see Axel stride in, then walk over to stand at Darcy’s shoulder. The two of them often communicated through their bond. Had the witch called him into the condo? Key had to know. “What did you find?”

  Roxy laced her fingers together, turning her knuckles white. “It’s bad, isn’t it?”

  Darcy’s witch-shimmer faded to pale distress. She glanced at Key, then focused on Roxy. “I’m afraid it is. The pulses of light in the Tear are wrapping around your life force. If we pull it out, with magic or force, it’ll kill you.”

  Key’s hands fisted. “And if it stays in?”

  Darcy bit her lip, then reached out to cover Roxy’s joined hands. “It’s draining your life.”

  The skin on Key’s chest burned and blistered beneath his shirt. What? he thought darkly, now the dragon was pitching a fit that he’d failed to claw her to death? He wasn’t satisfied with the Tear draining off her life?

  Roxy was dying. Because she’d chosen magic. She didn’t belong here with these powerful witches who had men who loved them. Darcy sat facing her on the couch, Axel standing at her shoulder. Carla and Ailish were on the laptop screen. She couldn’t even look at Kieran. He blamed himself. But she’d been the one who bought into the stupid fairy tale, reciting a story about Dyfyr that she’d probably just imagined, convincing herself that the ancient dragon loved her. Or maybe her schema had fueled the fantasy to get her to Awaken her magic.

  Hurts. Dyfyr had told her down in Phoenix’s gym. Had that been real? If it had, he must have meant it as a warning, that it hurts to be awake, so leave him alone. Her eyes filled with tears, and she looked to the left, over the back of the couch at the wet bar. Dyfyr … he felt so real to her, like the part of her that had been missing for as long as she could remember. “Why does he hate me?” God, she was so pathetic. She didn’t want them to see her like this. Didn’t want Kieran to see her broken by a pain so profound that breathing hurt.

  Hurts.

&nbs
p; Her chakras shivered and swelled, her magic streaming out with a will of its own. Roxy didn’t care. She had an inkling now of how much Dyfyr suffered in losing his lover.

  Something brushed her arms. She jerked her gaze back, but Darcy touched only her linked hands in her lap. Key was still across the room. Yet she felt something, like buttery-soft leather stroking her bare arms.

  Hurts.

  That voice! It triggered a déjà vu so powerful, Dyfyr’s image filled her mind. Was it the dragon? Or was her sanity breaking?

  “Roxy.”

  Carla’s voice. She turned, looking at the witch on the laptop.

  “I don’t think that’s it,” Carla said.

  “What?” Her head was filled with the dragon.

  “I don’t think Dyfyr hates you,” the witch said patiently. “I saw the way he reacted to you when he partially woke in Phoenix’s gym. That dragon did what you told him to and went back to sleep.”

  “Then why did he try to kill her?” Key demanded. “You weren’t there, Carla. I tried to grab the Tear, and razor-sharp claws sprouted out. If I hadn’t pulled back, I’d have pierced her heart.”

  “Something’s going on, but I don’t think Dyfyr is trying to kill her. I asked the Ancestors, and they believe Roxy is the reincarnation of the dragon’s lover, too.”

  The brush of wings on her arms was still there. Confused, she said, “I feel him,” Roxy said, looking over to Key. “Dyfyr, I feel his soft, leathery wings.”

  Key stood unmoving in his shroud of anger and self-recrimination. “Don’t trust him. It’s a trick.”

  Roxy slid her hands from Darcy’s and stood up. “Then what should I do, just give up and die?” Rage erupted inside her. “Come on, Kieran. Everyone is always telling me what to do, everyone knows what’s best for me, so tell me what the hell am I supposed to do?”

  His left eye twitched, then he exploded with, “I told you not to wear the goddamned Tear! But you wouldn’t listen to me! You had to wear it! And now you’re dying!”