The Nightshade Guild: Mage You Look

by Abigail Kade

  Then he went still.

  There was no more tossing and turning, no more tears. His face was smooth in a serenity I’d never seen on him other than my vision of him walking among his trees and forest. Had I done it? Had I healed him?

  Only time would tell.

  I checked his leg and saw the wound was closing up. My blood had saved him. Now he had to heal the rest by himself. I walked to the bathroom, catching sight of myself in the mirror on the way to the shower. I’d looked at myself in this exact same mirror earlier tonight, feeling sorry for myself and planning to run back home. Now here I was mere hours later, naked, covered in blood after saving Finn’s life. Multiple slashes on my arm were in various stages of healing, making it look like I had given in to my depression from earlier and decided to end it all.

  The irony that my death was impossible wasn’t lost on me.

  Starting the water in the shower, I let the cold water beat down on me, washing the blood off my skin to swirl pink down the drain of the white tub. I needed the feel of the water and the sound of it falling to clear my mind. I could have cleaned up with a thought, but there was nothing as good as a shower to help you order your thoughts. As the water warmed, my mind began working through the day, and I thought about the rarity of immortality.

  Some paranormal beings could live a very, very long time, but few were actually immortal. I was one of those few. I had lent my essence to Finn in order to save him, which would have ramifications for him, I was sure. I didn’t know the specifics, but I’d ask when I got home. It didn’t really matter, though. No matter the consequences, there was no way I would have let Finn die when I had the means to stop it.

  He was important to me.

  The realization of what I’d just done and what it meant, hit me as hard as I imagined that arrow had hit Finn earlier. This arrow wasn’t poisoned, but it had the potential to be just as destructive. I didn’t know how I would deal with my revelation, but it could wait another day. I turned off the water, dried off, then walked back into the bedroom and cleaned up the blood. A wave of my hand had everything clean and perfect once more. Another thought and Finn was disrobed and under the covers in his bed. I checked his leg and was pleased to see it was healing, and those angry lines were disappearing slowly. It had worked. I created some gauze from thin air, then bandaged his leg loosely.

  Too tired to go out to the sofa and my makeshift bed, I put Finn’s robe back on, then crawled into bed next to him. I told myself it was just so I could check on his recovery in the middle of the night more easily, but I knew the truth. I cared about him and wanted to be near him—as I’d realized earlier in the shower. Finn had become important to me over the last year, and the last few days had solidified that into something much less ephemeral and much more solid. I couldn’t pretend this was mere friendship anymore. Nope, it was much more than that.

  I loved him.

  Damn.

  Chapter 7

  Finn

  I’m not dead.

  This was the first coherent thought that made it through the cobwebs in my mind. I remembered pain, dreams, nightmares, and bone-deep sadness, but as I drifted up through the gauze draping my thoughts, I remembered more, and it became more clear.

  Henry, the scratch on my leg, my weakness, and did I pass out?

  Stretching my muscles, I didn’t feel weak or stiff or even tired. Taking inventory of my body and then my magic, I didn’t feel bad. I felt great! What had happened last night?

  I went to roll over onto my side, but I felt something next to me when I shifted to the right. No, not next to me, on me. Opening my eyes, I looked down to see a mass of glowing blond curls on my chest.

  Henry.

  Slipping my hand up, I gently circled my arm around his sleeping form and pulled him closer. His weight next to me felt right somehow. I had never liked sleeping with anyone. If I was in bed, I wanted to sleep, not cuddle. I’d never been a snuggler by any stretch of the imagination. In the times I’d had a physical relationship with someone, they’d always been expected to leave for the night.

  But this with Henry? This felt so natural. I could get used to feeling his solid more petite body draped over mine.

  My busy mind went from that serene thought to something much more physical. Henry, leaning over for a good morning kiss, then straddling me for a very good morning for both of us. My cock was all for this scenario, but I had to tell it to calm the hell down. Henry wasn’t here forever and he was human. He was strictly off-limits.

  His soft hair caressed my chest, teasing my nipple that was already perked up with my last thoughts, causing me to groan in a combination of need and frustration.

  His whole body went rigid immediately as soon as I made a noise, and he popped up wide-eyed, hands on my chest and gaze on mine.

  “Are you okay, Finn? What’s wrong? What do you need?”

  He placed a hand on my forehead.

  “You don’t feel clammy anymore, and your fever broke a few hours ago.” He shifted down the bed and began pulling the covers down as he went.

  “Are you feeling all right? Let me check your leg.”

  As he pulled the covers down, I realized that I was utterly commando and my cock was very perked up to say good morning. Mortified, I pulled the covers back up before he could get them below my waist.

  “No, I’m okay; it’s fine.”

  Henry huffed with an adorable pout and put his fists on his hips. He was wearing my robe again, but when he’d moved down the bed, it had shifted. The collar was off his left shoulder, showing creamy skin and his chest lightly dusted with soft blond hair. His small nipple was exposed to the cool air and drawn tight. Gods, I wanted a taste. I lowered my gaze to avoid the temptation, but the next sight was even more enticing. The lower part of the robe had twisted around, and his whole thigh was exposed all the way up to his groin. Looking closely, I could make out the outline of his own hardness under the fabric. Dear gods, how was I supposed to stay away from him?

  Henry noticed me giving him a once-over, so his pout turned from aggravated to lusty in a split second.

  “Yeah, you do seem to be feeling better. But I better check anyway.”

  As he spoke, he reached for the covers and slid them down slowly, taking his time uncovering me for his own intense gaze. When the covers caught on my raging hard-on, Henry leaned down and, while keeping my gaze trapped with his, he opened his mouth, bit the sheet with his pearl white teeth, and pulled the sheet over my cock and down to my knees.

  “Wow, Finn. You’re a big boy all over, aren’t you?”

  I tried to hide, to move, but one firm hand on my hip stilled me. I fell back on my pillow and just watched to see what he would do next. I was completely in his control. His hand trailed over my hip bone, across my lower belly, then wrapped around the base of my cock, giving it a squeeze and few pumps up and down.

  “Henry. What are you doing to me?”

  With an angelic smirk, Henry leaned down and licked the head of my cock that was already leaking for him. His own groan matched mine, and then he leaned up and gave me a quick kiss. “You had a lot of pain last night, Finn. I think you need a little pleasure this morning,”

  Without another word, his mouth went back to my cock, and he engulfed me in the heavenly wet heat of his mouth. Fuck, it felt so good. I licked my lips and loved the naughty feeling of tasting my own pre-cum on my lips mixed with his unique taste. I wanted more, but I didn’t want him to stop what he was doing.

  In no time at all, I was close to coming. It had been a long time since I’d had anyone do this for me. I tapped his bobbing head and told him, “I’m so close, Henry. You don’t have to…”

  Henry stopped for a second, locked his gaze with mine, and rocked my soul with his words. “I’ve been wanting to do this for longer than you know, Finn. This and so much more. No way am I stopping now.”

  And he didn’t.

  His mouth created the perfect suction on my cock, his hand squeezed me ju
st right, and when he started moaning, the vibration pushed me over the edge, and I felt my orgasm start at the base of my spine and push every nerve in my body over into pure bliss. He swallowed every drop, then licked me clean before sliding up my sweat-soaked torso to kiss me long and hard.

  I would never forget that passionate kiss. His tongue demanded entry, and I let him plunder my mouth while I did the same to him. We were frantic, each trying to get closer to the other. The flavor of my cum on his tongue was the hottest thing I’d ever experienced. Wanting to return the favor, I eventually pulled him up, and with all my strength, I positioned him, straddling my chest so I could taste him this time.

  Henry’s cock was shorter than mine, but the girth was impressive. I swallowed his hard length and width, both hands going to his perky ass cheeks, kneading them in my hands to get him closer, deeper.

  “Fuck, yes! Finn, feels so good. Finger me and make me come for you.”

  I loved him telling me what to do. Most men had thought that I would always want to be in charge because of my size. That was definitely not the case. Doing as told, I reached further along his ass and traced a finger over his hole. Just touching him there caused his cock to twitch in my mouth. Good to know.

  “Finn, please. Don’t tease me. I need this so bad. Give it to me, please!”

  His hands were buried in my hair, pulling me closer to get as deep in my throat as possible so I couldn’t answer, except for a deep moan. I was lost in the lust, so I swallowed around the head of his cock. At the same time, I carefully pushed one finger into his hole. That was all it took for him to explode down my throat. I swallowed all he had to give, then licked him like a lollipop to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

  Henry fell back onto my chest, then launched himself forward to kiss me deeply. Now our flavors mingled together, and there had never been a more perfect moment. It was heaven. My cock was already rousing again for round two when a very distinctive sound traveled through the cabin.

  Henry and I both groaned as we still lightly kissed, then his head fell to nestle against my neck. Between words, he licked or nibbled the sensitive skin there, making me shiver.

  “I’ll go get the little miss. She’ll just get louder if we wait. We can pick up where we left off later, okay?”

  “Sounds perfect, but, Henry, we need to talk about some things. I didn’t mean to…”

  Henry sat up and slapped a hand over my mouth, none too nicely to shut me up.

  “Don’t you dare try to say this was a mistake and we can’t do it again, Finn. Don’t you dare make this anything less than the perfection it was. Now, go get a shower, and I’ll go get Ameria. After breakfast, you’re taking me for a walk. I need to get out of this house for a while. Understand?”

  Shocked silent, I nodded. Once satisfied with my answer, he gave me one more quick kiss, then bounded off the bed, walking to the stairs while straightening his, no my, robe.

  I heard him talking to the baby from the stairs, telling her he was coming, then both of them laughing and singing the ABC song they sang while changing diapers.

  I got up slowly, thinking that I would still be sick from whatever had affected me last night. But I felt fine. Better than fine. I went to the bathroom, showered, and then, having put it off long enough, looked at the wound I knew would be on my leg.

  It wasn’t there.

  No matter how closely I looked, the scratch, the infection, the scary red ring, all of it was gone. How could that be? What had happened last night? Had my body healed itself after all?

  With no answers, I got dressed in a clean shirt, kilt, and my favorite soft fisherman’s sweater. I’d just have to ask Henry what happened. As I rounded the corner to the kitchen, I saw Henry leaning over Ameria, and her hand rested on the side of his cheek like it did when she was speaking to me. He didn’t seem freaked out by it—just the opposite. He seemed to listen or watch what she was saying, then gave her chubby cheek a kiss. “Yes, ma’am, princess. Oatmeal and fruit it is for your breakfast. I’m so glad you like it. It was always my favorite too.”

  Having experienced what I had this morning, I was thinking there were obviously depths to Henry I wasn’t aware of yet. That needed to change. I walked into the kitchen, gave the baby a kiss, making her giggle, then grabbed Henry around the waist and pulled him close with his back to my chest and whispered, “I think you have some things you haven’t told me, don’t you, Henry?”

  Chapter 8

  Henry

  Oh, crap!

  Snuggling back into Finn’s broad chest, I decided to deflect and deny. It had always worked for me before. I focused on the oatmeal I had made and was stirring the baby food peaches into it while I answered, “I don’t know what you mean, Finn. I’ve told you all about me.”

  My fingers were in sight, so I crossed my toes underneath the hem of Finn’s gigantic robe. I really needed to go down and get my clothes out of the drier. A lightbulb went off, and I knew how to get out of this. I dripped some of the baby food on the front of the robe on accident and put my plan in motion.

  “Damn, look what I did.” I turned around and looked up at Finn through my lashes while licking the peach sauce off the spoon I was holding. His gaze followed my tongue caressing the spoon, and I watched his Adam’s apple bob up and down when he swallowed, his interest obvious. Sex was always the perfect distraction.

  “Finn, would you feed our little princess while I go get cleaned up and changed? I seem to be very, very dirty this morning. I can’t imagine how that happened, can you?”

  I was practically purring when I spoke. It worked like a charm. When he just nodded and said, “Um, sure.” I kissed his cheek, loving the way his beard whispered over my skin, then walked away, making sure to sway my hips a little as I went.

  I took my time getting cleaned up and dressed. By the time I was done, they were done in the kitchen and ready to go out for a walk.

  “Oh, good, you have on the baby harness you ordered. Want me to get her bag?”

  Finn gave me a once-over, tilting his head to the side in thought before answering, “No, I’ve got all her stuff here.”

  He motioned to the backpack he was wearing. It didn’t look like it held anything but air to me, but it was probably a magical thing he didn’t think I should know about. After this morning, I was rethinking my decision not to tell him about what I was. Finn’s next words caught me off guard.

  “What the hell are you wearing?”

  Looking down at my outfit, I whirled around and struck a pose with my hands on my hips and hoped it would speak for itself.

  “I’m wearing lumberjack wear. It’s perfect for a hike, isn’t it?”

  I looked down at my outfit and loved it even more than when I got dressed. Seeing the disbelief in his face, I decided to explain further.

  “The tight jeans are perfect for not catching on limbs and stuff. The boots have thick soles to protect my feet and grip the ground. My tee is to keep me warm under this plaid quilted shirt. Don’t most lumberjacks wear plaid?”

  Finn was trying to hide his laugh and doing a terrible job.

  “Yes, lumberjacks do, in fact, wear plaid, but it’s usually not neon pink and aqua.”

  “Well, I like bright colors, and plaid is plaid.”

  “Sure, whatever you say, Henry. But where did it come from? You’ve been here over a week, and that wasn’t in your bag.”

  Damn, he noticed.

  “It was in there; I just didn’t feel like getting dressed up if all I was going to do was be in the house all the time babysitting.”

  “Oh, okay. Well, if we’re going to go, then let’s get going. I don’t want to be out long.”

  I picked up the baby and whirled her around before getting her situated in the carrier on Finn’s chest.

  “We’re going for a walk outside, princess! Yay!”

  “Yayaya! Tees, tees.”

  “That’s right! We’ll see the trees!”

  Ameria clapped her little h
ands together and kicked her tiny feet back and forth. Finn had dressed her in an adorable overalls outfit with a red and white plaid one-piece long sleeve tee and a red cardigan with ladybugs on it. Her feet were in the cutest little white canvas sneakers. I’d never seen her in shoes before.

  “Look, you have on shoes!”

  I picked up her feet and showed her the shoes. She squealed and kicked in my hands.

  “They’re so cute, princess. Maybe you can walk in the forest too.”

  Finn harumphed, turned, and walked to the door, pulling the baby away from me.

  “We’ll see about that. We’ll never get to the forest if we don’t go ahead and go.”

  “Okay, Mr. Grump, let’s go.”

  Finn didn’t know that the main reason I wanted to go out was to survey the land and find out if we were safe here or not. He didn’t seem to be worried about how sick he’d been last night at all. I had seen him glance down at his leg once or twice like he was wondering what could have happened, but he didn’t question me about what had happened last night.

  After thinking about it while getting dressed, I figured it must be because of my tears. The tears of my people had the ability to affect memory in paranormals. Sometimes it would be mild, and other times, it could be catastrophic. With humans, one tear could wipe their entire lifetime of memories away forever.

  There was no way to recover them if that happened.

  Finn didn’t ingest my tears, but a few might have fallen when I was healing him with my blood. If that happened, it might not have affected his memory exactly, but maybe he didn’t remember enough to be concerned about the situation. In this case, it wasn’t a great thing overall. If he had all the facts under normal circumstances, then there was no way he would have been leading us all into the woods without a care.

  Good thing I was more than up to the job. I just needed to know what all I was dealing with.

  “So, let’s walk where you went yesterday. Okay?”

  Finn looked concerned a moment, then shook his head like he was dislodging a thought and nodded. “Sure. I’ll take you to the old-growth forest. Some of the trees there are over four hundred years old.”