The Princess of Wands (Villainess Book 3)

by Alana Melos

  “Bingo was his name-o,” Hal said with a brief smile. He’d edged a little further back from me, my silent snarl having made him uncomfortable. “You can see why I was excited about that, yeah? I mean, if I can figure out how to duplicate Origin’s negation effect, I’d be a billionaire!”

  My hand went to the hilt of my sword as I murmured, “You’d be the most influential man on the planet.” There may have been more artifacts from Origin, but they would be all locked up. If any were on the loose, they were carefully hidden, secreted away. I thumbed the end of the hilt absently as Hal turned back to the notes the machine had spit out. A lot of very bad people wouldn’t stop at anything to get something like this if they knew it existed and wasn’t under lock and key.

  I drew my blade out with hardly making a sound, but Hal turned at the movement anyway. His face went slack for a moment and he shook his head. “Hey, I helped you,” he said, his voice trembling.

  “I can’t let this get out,” I said. The terror rolling through his mind shone like a bright yellow beacon, urging me on. Invading his mind, I swept it, looking for any indication he uploaded the data or statistics anywhere. He hadn’t.

  Hal pedaled backward in the chair, not getting up. Stuffed so full of equipment, his apartment didn’t allow him to escape me. I made it quick; he had helped me after all. When I stabbed him through the heart, I continued to read his mind, savor his emotions. His last thought was simply ‘why’ and the last emotion confusion rather than pain.

  I tasted the death, letting it fill me up. It felt thin and unsatisfying. “I’m not sorry,” I told him. “But you helped me, so… this is as painless as I want to make it.”

  As I withdrew my sword and wiped the blade off on his clothing, I studied him, and studied my own emotions as well. He didn’t mean anything to me and the death meant nothing save for a quick taste of the darkness I craved. Yet it hadn't been as filling as it should have been. It was business, not pleasure. Troubled, I sheathed my blade and busied myself around his apartment, ransacking it. I didn't want to dwell on the implications.

  I picked up a few things--including his wallet; I wasn’t above petty theft--which looked like they might be useful or interesting, then grabbed some paper. I lit it from his stove, and set other stacks of paper and the curtains alight. Just in case my quick scan had steered me wrong, I burned the place down. A burned hard drive would give no data. Once the place burst into flames proper, I flew out the window and took a vantage point on the building across the street to watch.

  The flames danced and shifted, looking so much like my mindscape which slid around out of my grasp. My thoughts turned to those people I knew in conjunction with the murder. If I had to kill any of them, could I? And what would I feel about it?

  Nosferatu came first and I very much doubted I could kill him. Michael, on the other hand, stood vulnerable. I would miss them both, but it was Michael I’d feel bad for. It wouldn’t be his fault. Nosferatu spoke the language of betrayal, but Michael was Michael. Gerard… without a doubt I could stab him. A sharp pang reminded me of how good a lover he was, how well he knew my body, and to what heights he could take me. Yet I wouldn’t miss him. I’d miss the fucking, but that was about all. Rebekah….

  She, I would miss. Earnest and honest, with her smile. She wasn’t suited to the darkness she had as she carried a light with her wherever she went. I frowned deeply, thinking of Rory and Adira as well. The pang came again, for real this time and not imagined. I missed him. Sure, I didn’t know him that well, but I did all at the same time. His broad grin and eagerness for a fight had charmed me. He would have made a good partner. Adira must be suffering, as well as all the pack… which reminded me to tell them of the wolves we had found, those which Richter had twisted and used. Anger burned through me at the thought. The bastard got away, but he wouldn’t next time.

  I shook my head as I heard sirens blaring. As the fire department arrived at the scene, I left it, troubled by these feelings yet comforted by them as well. I felt… fuller. The constant yearning for sensation had lifted somewhat. I wanted to kill. I wanted to feel the deaths at the end of my blade, revel in them, laugh at my victims, but it wasn’t an all consuming need as it had been at times before. Perhaps, in time, that would change. For now, I contemplated the idea of being more of a whole person, and where they had all come from. Obviously, the block in my mind was not as inviolable as I had imagined. They had to come from there.

  Flying to Gerard’s new apartment--I landed on the balcony. The blinds were open and I saw him on the couch, reading a book. He looked up at my arrival and I waved. Slowly, he eased himself up and limped over, bruises still covering his handsome face, giving him a mottled look.

  “Hi,” I said as he opened the door. “Can I come in?”

  “You know I don’t like that,” he said, but stepped aside. When I entered, he closed the door behind me, then shut the blinds.

  “It didn’t stop Richter or those other people from tracking you down,” I replied and I peeled off my gloves and tucked them in my trench. “You still look like shit.”

  “Don’t feel that great either, but it’s better,” he replied, moving back to his spot. He flexed his hand, “Doctor healed the worst of it. What do you want, Reece?”

  “Did you smooth things out with Rebekah?” I asked. It’d been a few days. They had to have talked by now.

  He nodded his head, blond locks bobbing with the motion. “Yeah… I told her it was to protect her,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. I took my long coat off and sat down on the couch next to him. He eyed my outfit--a scoop cut blue shirt with a black miniskirt and heels--appreciatively. “I saw them coming, and tried to get her to leave.”

  “Saw them coming?” I asked, raising a brow at him.

  He laughed lightly. “You think I don’t have feelers on half the building here? Yes, saw them coming, Reece, through someone else’s eyes.”

  I should have known he would have his little spies where he lived, people bent by him to keep a look out surreptitiously for danger. “And the bracelet?” I asked. “What possible reason could you have for stripping her of her powers?”

  Gerard’s gaze sharpened at my tone. “The guardian--the thing all in black--can sense power,” he replied, slowly. “They don’t travel without one.”

  I pressed in, brushing my breasts against his arm. “You know who they are? Or were, I should say.”

  The slightest contact made my nipples hard and he turned more fully to me. His fingers, bruised but healing, slipped across my cheek. I leaned into the touch. “Yes and no,” he said. “I know where they’re from, what they do… not them in particular.”

  My own fingers traced a path from his neck to just under his ear. “You know about Origin then,” I stated.

  Gerard gave me a warm smile and leaned in. As his lips brushed mine, I felt the familiar stirring of arousal. “Yes… from the old days,” he murmured as he planted kisses along my cheek to my neck. There he bit, and my breath caught in my throat. When he released the skin, I relaxed against him, my hands wandering slowly and gently over his bruised body as he continued to neck with me. “They don’t come around often.”

  “They were coming after me, Gerard,” I said. My hand caressed his clothed thigh, teasing its way up towards his stomach. “Do you know why?”

  My lover peeled back a little and gave me a ghost of his ‘good old boy’ smile. “Mistaken identity, wrong information,” he said with a shrug.

  “I would still like to know what that wrong information is, Ger,” I told him, my voice firm as my hand found his stiffening cock.

  He shifted, pushing more into my hand. For all the bruises on his face, he wasn’t any less handsome, save for the swollen eye. He looked hardened and battle worn and the delicious thoughts of hurting him more danced through my head as he gazed at me, his eyes clear and sharp.

  “I don’t know, Reece,” he said, enunciating the words very clearly. “I have theories, but nothing to confirm
them. It’s not like they were talking to me.”

  I stroked him through his slacks and tilted my head to the side. “What theory, then?”

  “Your… ah, that’s good… heritage,” he said, softly. “Genetics… some places are… stroke me a little harder… yes… always looking for specific genetic material.” He closed his eyes to soak in the sensations I gave him, breaking the gaze between us.

  I couldn’t tell for sure if he was lying, but it had the ring of truth to it. The woman had said he would have been a suitable prize and he was as strong as I was now. I had more potential to yet grow into. My hands continued tracing the length of his hardness while I thought it over. It was the truth, but it wasn’t the whole truth.

  “What else?” I asked, dipping in to kiss his earlobe. “I know there’s more….”

  “Your mother…” he said, voice uncomfortable. “She was from Origin.”

  There it was and that clicked. It made sense. She was the most powerful psi in this dimension, though her whereabouts were unknown to everyone save for me. Even if they couldn’t find her, her genetic legacy lived on in me. Now that I had the answer I suspected, it was time to move on to other matters.

  I broke off from stroking his stiff cock and moved to straddle him. The feel of him underneath me aroused me, as it always had. I wanted him. I knew how good he was in bed, how well he played my body, but that wasn’t the purpose for me sitting on him. I let my hands roam his torso, feeling every inch of his lean, cut body through his clothing as I searched for weapons. I kissed him gently, mindful of the cut on his lip, as I undulated against his hardness. Gerard’s arms encircled me, drawing me closer to him as his own hands greedily traced the path of my spine to my ass. He slipped his hands underneath my short skirt and fondled me, pushing and pulling me on top him, making me ride him.

  When he stretched his telepathic senses to me, intent on joining our sensations as one, I partitioned my mind. On the surface, we writhed together, feeding off of each other’s sensations. It was a drug, the most powerful one I could imagine. I hungered for feelings and he fed them to me, sexy and sweet, hot and kinky. His desires became mine and vice versa. The path we had walked so many times left an imprint in our heads, a connection of sorts which wasn’t ever truly broken. We’d been in telepathic contact for too long, too intensely to ever truly be alone again inside our own heads. We’d always have an echo of each other roaming about.

  Below the surface, I completed my assessment of the weapons nearby. He wasn’t armed, but I knew he had a gun or a knife somewhere near. He almost always kept it within a step or two of where he was. My quick scans showed a few likely spots and I noted those.

  His kisses grew more insistent and I couldn’t help but to moan into his mouth. My want rode part of me with mindless passion, the need for more consumed the part of me which was connected to him. I had to have him. The cooler part prevailed. I had to stop before I lost myself. It was too easy with him and while I did want him, I didn’t want him like this.

  I slipped my hand down to his neck. At first, I caressed him. My fingertips traced the side of his neck and down to his clavicle, just reveling in the feel of his skin. I splayed my fingers out, then squeezed as I broke the kiss. At the same time, I broke the telepathic connection between us, lest he use it to distract me. The two actions disoriented him… but only for a moment.

  “Reece…?” he asked quietly, testing the limit of his voice. I held his throat with a firm grip, looming over him. “Is there something else?”

  “Rebekah,” I said, my lip curling up. Gerard didn’t move beneath me and he kept his breathing shallow. He remained calm, cool, and collected even while being not-so-obliquely threatened. I imagined a hand where mine was now and lifted the real one, keeping the phantom hand in place. I tightened the grip. “You are going to be the perfect father for her.”

  One of his brows went up, as if silently asking me ‘Really?’. “What’s that to you?” he rasped, unable to speak any louder. Even in the precarious position he sat in, he kept his hands firmly on my ass. That was just as well. Whenever he tensed or moved, no matter how minutely, I pushed the hand a hair tighter until he got the message to just sit there and relax.

  “I don’t want you to hurt her,” I said. “What you tried to do… what you did! Unforgivable, Ger. I can’t believe she let it go, but I won’t.”

  “It was for her own good,” he said, his voice no louder than a whispered heartbeat. “They would have sensed her power, followed, and possibly disabled her. I knew they were coming. I had to get rid of her fast and she wouldn’t leave with a simple ‘get out’.”

  I slapped him hard on the side with the swollen eye. “She might buy a lie like that, but I’m not. You had the bracelet made in advance,” I said, hissing the words. “If you do anything again to hurt her, I’ll fucking kill you.”

  Gerard moved his jaw back and forth before speaking. “Why do you even care, Reece?” The derision in his voice angered me, even though he asked it without the sneer he usually had.

  “Because she’s my friend,” I answered. She was the first friend I acknowledged as one, but he didn’t need to know that. “Think of me like karma. Any hurt done to her will be repaid threefold.”

  “Does the converse apply?” he asked, the corner of his lips tucking back in a smirk. I scowled and tightened the hand, taking pleasure in strangling him by inches. He upnodded a couple times and opened his mouth. With no air, he couldn’t speak. After letting him stay that way for a few seconds to get my point across, I loosened the telekinetic hand again. “If you take me at my word, I promise I won’t.”

  “Your promises are worth shit, and we both know it, Ger,” I said before releasing the hand entirely. “I just wanted you to know what would happen. Simple cause and effect. There are no actions without consequences.”

  “You’re right about that,” he said, one hand massaging his throat while the other renewed rubbing my ass. He smiled and my heart thumped. It was as if I’d never threatened him. Everything washed away and I was charmed by his smile. I knew it was a lie, but oh… didn’t we all prefer the beautiful lies over the ugly truths? “I’d watch yourself, Reece,” he said, leaning up to kiss me. “You’ll end up like me.”

  I kissed him, hard. All of my bloodlust channeled into plain old lust. During the entire encounter, his erection hadn’t wavered at all. If anything, he got harder, as hard as I’d ever felt him. Without thinking, I reached out to him and he met me halfway. Message delivered, now I could enjoy. I wasn’t afraid of reprisal, not when he wanted me so bad. And if he hurt me? I liked it. He knew how I liked it.

  As if reading my mind, his fingers dug into my flesh. Our frantic kissing turned hard, but hot. In his threads I saw the red of anger that I’d dare to give him commands, but he turned it useful, twining it around the anger I carried with me always, stoking the fire of my heat until I broke the kiss with a loud gasp and ripped his button up shirt open.

  Down we spiraled together, his fingers finding their way underneath my panties and sliding along my wet sex as I savaged his neck with my mouth. My nails clawed light grooves in his chest and back as I drew him closer. When he ripped my underwear, I grunted. Unlike the movies, it took a few tries, but it was the primal need in the action which made it delicious despite the pain of the tugging, or perhaps because of it.

  As he stood up with some difficulty, I clung to him, wrapping my legs around him to steady myself. He lurched, but managed to carry me even with his wounds. Gerard pressed me up against a wall hard, and pushed into me. Our lips met and we tasted each other. Nipping, licking, kissing… every sensation spread through me, soaking me with fire. Every touch inflamed my passion even more and the urgency of my need spread to him. My dark mirror reflected the heady sensations back to me, driving my urgency into liquid need. He stopped holding me only for a moment to unzip and pull his length out.

  I thought you would have been pissed, I sent to him as the tip of his cock slid against my
wetness.

  I am, he replied, his blue eyes alight. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want you, Reece. He paused and the savagery in his eyes died for a moment, leaving something warmer in its wake. Brushing the backs of his fingers over my cheek, he leaned in for a kiss. Tender, warm, yet still laced with need it was quite unlike his normal kisses. I told you: I’ll always want you.

  A second later, the kiss turned deep and hard as he thrust into me. I moaned into his mouth at the feel of him, so hard and ready. He held there for just a moment as we both savored the sensations from both sides. I was wet and hot, burning with insatiable lust. As my pussy engulfed him, the heat threatened to overwhelm his control. My lover managed to pace himself still, as he always did, stretching out the encounter until I begged him with my body harder, faster, more. When he withdrew, he thrust into me hard and without mercy. The hard glint entered his eyes and the sneer returned to his lips even though he had to look up to me. I raked my nails across his clothed back, urging him on. I wanted it hard, as hard as he could make it.

  Gerard obliged and fucked me with animalistic passion. He rocked me back and forth, slamming into me and slamming me into the wall rhythmically. Desire surged in me as he hit all my right spots, over and over again. I panted as my climax came upon me. My eyes caught his and we watched each other, as open and unguarded as we ever got while I came. Pleasure rolled through me and Gerard stroked it with his mind, bringing me to ever greater heights of inhuman ecstasy until my mind could bear no more. My orgasm triggered his own. With one final ferocious thrust, he pinned me to the wall. His pleasure coupled with my own, changing it, twisting it, driving me further on as the delicious sensation of being squeezed by my own pussy, feeling my heat bear down, pulsing around him drove me crazy with want.

  It wasn’t enough. It was never enough with him. He was my drug and I was his. A few heartbeats later, we both breathed ragged breaths as our hearts pounded in harmony. I leaned down to kiss him… and the cycle started all over again.