Carla sat on the coffee table facing them, with Sutton standing behind her. Ram stayed back, as far from the magic as he could manage without leaving.
Carla took Risa’s hand, then frowned. “I feel the souls. They’re disturbed. Are they screaming?”
“No.”
“Did you use your shield magic?”
She shook her head. “I have to use my hands and weave the magic to shield.”
Linc remembered the way her hands had moved when she cast the shield to save them from the hellfire. The entire time, she had kept her hands up.
“The blackness is fading now,” Risa said. “I’m seeing shapes.”
Relief cascaded over him. Wrapping his arms around her, he slid his cheek across her silky hair and inhaled her scent. “Carla, what happened?”
Gently, the other witch said, “I’m guessing, but I think so much magic and desire at once made the souls feel threatened. You’ve never allowed sex to feed your magic before?”
“I didn’t know that sex and magic could work together like that.” Risa rubbed her forehead.
Linc took over. “We’re practicing harnessing her desire into her magic.” Pride filled him. “As soon as she connected with Falcon she was amazing.” Nothing was as gorgeous as Risa, covered in desire and her witch shimmer, working her magic. He’d have given anything to spread her thighs and sink into her as she gave herself to the magic.
Except that he’d hurt her. Pushed her too far, too soon.
Sutton glanced over Carla’s head at Linc. “You’re throwing pheromones the size of baseballs.”
Linc stared back. “Can’t be helped.”
“You’re going to lose it.”
“Eventually. When I let go of her.” He had no illusions. It was a constant battle between him and the curse, and every day the bloodlust got a little closer to kicking his ass into becoming a rogue.
Risa whipped around, squinting to see him. “Damn it, Linc. You shouldn’t have stopped. We have to seal the bond to free you.”
She’d been practically blind just minutes earlier, and she was worried about him?
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Not now,” Carla interjected. “The souls are too restless. Somehow, they got control of enough of your magic to temporarily blind you.” She touched Risa’s knee then frowned. “I can feel their anxiety. I’m worried they’ll interfere with the soul bond.”
“Because I’m going insane,” Risa said quietly. “And if that happens, Kendall will have no one.”
The hopeless tone in her flat voice ignited dark rage within him. Frustration ground down his control. The craving for witch blood simmered in his veins while sexual lust pounded in his groin. The feel of her ass pressing against his hard-on wasn’t helping. Linc could barely think over the buzzing of raw animalistic need for blood and sex.
“Easy.” Sutton moved around the back of the couch and laid his huge hand on Linc’s shoulder. “Carly, go on.”
Carla flicked her gaze up to her mate, then back to Linc and Risa. “When I was on the astral plane last night, I could see the souls were fighting Risa for control of her power. When they are awakened, they’re angry, confused and reliving their deaths. They fight Risa for her magic because they instinctively know that magic is keeping them alive. Correct, Risa?”
“Sounds right. But I don’t know what would happen to the souls if I died. They’ve been trapped for a long time. I think they’re confused, believing that being in my magic is their afterlife.”
Carla nodded. “That’s a better explanation. But now they have a new invader who is helping you with your magic.”
“Falcon.” She sat up on his lap. “It feels weird to me, so yeah, I can understand why they’d see him as not belonging there.”
“Right, and as your familiar, the falcon is your protector. He sees the souls hurting you and deems them a threat.”
Sighing, she rubbed her palms over her T-shirt-covered thighs. “Well, that’s a punch of sucky irony since I need my high magic so I can free the souls, and my high magic requires a familiar.”
How did she endure it, always carrying those souls, feeling the responsibility? Respect for his witch notched up. She’d borne this burden for years. A need to care for her thrummed in him. He tugged her back to his chest and looked down at her. “Can you see any better?”
Risa blinked then settled her gaze on him. “It’s improving fast, almost normal.” She faced Carla. “I feel a thread of your magic.”
The other witch nodded. “The souls are starting to recognize me a little bit since we’ve circled our power a couple times now. I’ve only been sending a trickle of calming energy, keeping it as nonintrusive as possible so they don’t feel threatened.” She tilted her head. “What that tells me is the souls can be coaxed into trusting. Linc, you and the falcon need to slow down and build trust with these souls before you finish this bond.”
Risa turned to him. “We don’t have time. Linc needs to break the curse, and I have to find Kendall.”
“If you want to find her, you’ll take the time.” Carla leaned forward, seriousness radiating from her. “It’s a fragile balance—your mind seems to be able to handle the souls in your daily life. But the soul screams are creating too much internal pressure on your psyche. You need to keep the souls calm and get them to accept the falcon to prevent another full on attack or next time, you might break entirely.”
For a second, he struggled with the urge to push Risa despite the risk to her. No, damn it, he wouldn’t do that to her. Even if they weren’t going to do the whole love-story thing, it was his job to protect her. To calm himself, he pulled in a deep breath.
Mistake. The lingering scent of her cinnamon-hot magic and arousal stoked the fires of his lust, ramping up his need to drag her to a room, spread her thighs and bury himself in her. The urge climbed until it pounded in his spine and drowned his brain.
“How long?” It came out a snarl. Shit. His control was slipping with every breath, the need eating into him. Right now it was sexual lust. But the second he let go of Risa, the curse would slam him into madness. He shifted his gaze to her eyes. “I’m barely hanging on. I’ve got men out there, hunters, looking for your baby, and I promised them a big reward if they find her. I’m doing my part.” Shut up! But the craving dug in. Hard. “How fucking long do you need to calm the souls down and do your part?”
Goddammit, he heard himself being an asshole, reverting to the animal he’d been for six years in that cage. Damn near growling at her.
Risa froze.
Apologize before this goes bad.
She exploded off his lap, breaking contact.
“Shit. Don’t run.” He swallowed, the burn of the curse igniting through his veins. Adrenaline stormed his muscles, making them twitch. Buzzing roared in his head. Linc slapped his forearms on his thighs and fisted his hands. If she ran, it’d unleash the predator in him. He hung on through sheer will. Wing Slayer, don’t let me hurt her.
Sutton’s grip tightened on his shoulder. “Risa, take Carla’s hand. Move around the couch. Get behind me.”
“No. You stay out of this.”
Snapping his head up, Linc got the full force of Risa’s defiant eyes as she glared at Sutton then him.
“Let’s go, Dillinger. You want this done, we’ll do it.” She turned and stalked across the room, ignoring the elevator for the stairs. Her long, lithe legs climbed the treads, his T-shirt swishing around her thighs.
His predator instincts surged. Jackknifing off the couch, he went after her. Have to touch her. Need her. Ignoring Sutton and Ram yelling at him, he took the stairs three and four at a time, moving so fast even Sutton couldn’t catch him.
Just steps ahead of him, Risa rounded the landing to hit the second flight. A dangerous mix coursed in his blood—fury, lust, madness. His veins swelled as if injected with acid. Agony seared him. Only witch blood would cool the burn. No. Don’t hurt her. Touch her. He just had to—
He slammed i
nto her, cushioning her face with his hand before he pressed her into the wall next to the stairs. “Stop.” Growing red need roiled inside his mind. Images flashed like a crazed neon sign.
Risa on that bench, her nude body shimmering as he tasted her.
Another image of him chained to a wall, witch blood dumped on him as his body seized with the violent pleasure.
The cage he’d lived in.
Risa’s tears.
Wait. What the fuck? A vicious scream ripped through his head, shoving back the madness of bloodlust. Full awareness snapped into place. Two things dominated his attention.
His palm cupping her face was wet with goddamned tears.
And her magic, that beautiful cinnamon-candy magic, had gone cold.
“This what you need, Dillinger? To force me? Put on a show for your friends? You’re just like the others.” Risa shuddered and added in a choked whisper, “Just like them.”
No, he was worse. Risa had begun to trust him, and look what he’d done. Sick regret twisted through him, and yet his cock throbbed against her back. Animal. You belong in a cage. Feeling movement behind him, he glanced over his shoulder.
Ram and Sutton closed in on him, both moving silently. Sutton had his blade in his fist, while Ram held a gun.
“Get out of here.” Jesus, it was bad enough he’d done this to her. He didn’t want the men to see her crying and add to her humiliation.
Sutton’s stare pierced him. “Risa? It’s up to you.”
Her body shuddered beneath his, but her voice came out strong. “Go.”
The bald man nodded, and both of them turned and vanished down the stairs.
Silence pulsed around them, just their labored breathing filling the landing that led to the staff apartments. The full contact of her body against his pushed out his craving for witch blood, leaving the deep ache for sexual release. Tough shit. He pressed his face to the wall next to hers. Her eyes… Christ.
Naked pain magnified by unshed tears. Using his thumb, he brushed away the few that had fallen. She’d been so strong and tough for two days—enduring being shocked and tortured by the rogues, casting her shield to save the four of them from the hellfire, the agony of soul screams—but it had been Linc who made her cry. He knew why—she’d let herself be vulnerable with him, trusted him.
“I’m sorry, Risa. I had no right to say that.”
“I’m acting like a girl.”
He had no idea what to do with that. “You are a girl.”
“So was my mom.”
“Usually how it works.” He wanted to draw her out, get her to talk to him. Anything but crying. He’d rather she hit him or cut him with his own knife.
Her mouth twitched. “Yeah, but Harmony thought that just because my dad gave her orgasms she was in love. Even worse, that he loved her. She turned her back on her heritage as an earth witch to be with a hired assassin. Her family cut her off. The witches shunned her. But she didn’t care. All that mattered was my father. My mom refused to see that he used her love to manipulate and control her.”
“You’re not doing that. It’s not the same thing.”
“No? One orgasm and I’m suddenly upset because you’re telling it like it is? Yeah, not doing that.”
Protective anger built in his chest. “You know the difference between you and your mom?” He didn’t give her a chance to answer. “From what you told me, she sold out for a few orgasms and a fantasy of love.” For whatever reason, Risa had let him keep his hand on her face. He tunneled his fingers into her silky hair. “While you’re demanding respect from the man sharing your body. You called me on my bullshit, and my friends were ready and willing to stand up and protect you. They’d have dragged my ass down those stairs and out of this building if you’d told them to.”
Shock widened her eyes.
Linc pushed on. “And you’re doing this for your baby. I’m going to help you find her and get enough magic to release the souls so you can take care of her. That’s how you’re different from your mother. That’s not a foolish girl, but a strong woman. You have every right to insist I treat you with the care and respect you deserve.”
Hope swam through her eyes then drained as guilt and regret took over. “I don’t deserve respect or care. You know that, so don’t lie. I’m not backing out because you said what you meant.”
Damn it. He had to tell her. “It was the sex magic talking. I’ve never gone this long without sex, and it’s taking control.”
A furrow carved between her eyebrows. “I don’t understand.”
“A few months ago, I was captured by rogues, chained to a wall and doused in blood from witches to force me to turn.” Just saying it caused his body to shudder with the memory. “I was so far gone in bloodlust by the time the other hunters got there to rescue me, they had to tranquilize me or I’d have gone after any witch I could find. Axel should have killed me.”
She leaned into his fingers massaging her scalp. “He obviously didn’t.”
Linc lowered his finger to the base of her skull, trying to ease her tension. “No. He took me to the witches. Roxy Banfield, you met her on the video conference. She’s a fertility witch with the gift of sex magic. Using her magic, the witches worked together to push enough sex magic into me to shove out some of the curse.”
“It worked?”
“Yes. The original curse is based in blood and sex. The witches basically forced the craving for sex over the craving for witch blood. But I have to feed the sex magic to keep it going.” He ground his jaw, fighting the burn in his spine and balls, that constant need to ram his dick into a willing woman.
Risa dropped her gaze. “So what do you do if there’s no woman around? Take care of it yourself?”
His engorged cock strained against his pants. Grasping her hair, he tugged her head up. “Jacking off used to work. Now it makes it worse. I can’t release that way anymore.” It was getting harder with a partner, but this was between the two of them. He didn’t want to bring any others into the conversation.
“Oh.” Color climbed up her neck and spread.
Linc’s breath caught. “Are you embarrassed?” The sweet vulnerability in her touched something long dead inside of him.
“A little. Everything feels bigger with you, more vivid and intimate, personal.” She sucked in a lungful of air, her nipples pressing against the soft cotton of his shirt.
“And the thought of me masturbating?” He wanted to understand.
Her eyes brightened, and her nostrils flared. “Not just embarrassing.” She dug her fingers into the wall they leaned against.
Linc covered her hand with his. “It turns you on.”
She glanced down at their hands, then up. “The thought of it never did before. But you…” She trailed off, visibly swallowing. “Is that wrong?”
As badly as she’d been used and abused, she’d still retained a sexual innocence that tore past all his defenses. But even more, she hadn’t questioned anything out on the patio, rather she’d trusted him to help her with her desire. He didn’t want her holding back now as he was discovering new feelings and yearnings.
He took a breath, catching the scent of her magic sliding out in a light, fragrant mist. “As long as it’s something we both want, nothing is wrong between us. Nothing. Are we clear?”
“Yes.”
Heat blasted his nerve endings, and his cock throbbed painfully against his pants. “You want to watch me, baby? See how it looks when I stroke my cock, then fist it and pump?” Jesus, the thought of her eyes on him made him burn.
“But what if you can’t, uh…”
A dark laugh spilled out. “Everything is different with you. This connection between us goes both ways. I damn near came when I was on my knees with my mouth between your legs.”
Her full lips parted on a soft gasp.
He looked around the hallway. “We’re not having this conversation here.” Quickly he led her into the elevator, up to his fifth-floor suite. Once there, Linc l
ocked the door for privacy.
Unable to think beyond Risa, he slapped his hands on the closed door, trapping her between his biceps. “Now we’re talking about it.”
She swallowed, her eyes flaring. “We are?”
Did she know how gorgeous she was, wearing nothing but his shirt and enough trust to let him hold her between his arms? That wasn’t fear dilating her eyes and quickening her breath. Fear smelled cloying and sick like a dying flower. This scent? Warm, sexy female desire with traces of cinnamon magic.
Risa needed time for her and the souls to acclimate. No sinking his cock into that sweet heat between her thighs. But they could do other things, very sexy dirty things that made his dick beg.
She’d been vulnerable in front of him, trusted him. He could give her the same thing. “Do you want me to strip naked and stroke my cock until I lose control and come?”
~ 13 ~
Risa sucked in her breath at the intensity rolling off Linc as he loomed over her. His eyes locked on her, his chiseled face tense, huge shoulders and chest filling her vision, making her feel small and delicate. She dropped her gaze down his ripped belly to the massive bulge in his pants.
Her mouth dried. The idea of him naked and aroused enticed her.
“With your eyes on me, I’ll come. Hard.”
His voice flowed over her skin and seeped into her body. Her magic stirred and buzzed with fizzy excitement.
“But there’s a price.”
She jerked her gaze up. “What?”
He lifted her hand to his mouth, his warm lips sliding over her knuckles. “You’ll let me kiss you first. A deep, owning kiss.”
Her heart started to pound. “You want to kiss me?”
“I want to kiss you so hard you’ll go to sleep and wake up with the taste of me. No one else, Risa. Me.”
Intensity. She’d never experienced this pull, this inability to emotionally distance herself from another person. He had a magnetic effect, tugging her into him. “Is this the soul bond?”
Caged Magic Page 15
