Magic at Midnight

by Gena Showalter

  Just then Romeo appeared in front of Godiva, claiming her attention. “There’s my good boy,” she said, reaching out for him. He dropped an arm bone at her feet as if it were the greatest prize in the world and nuzzled her with his nose. She luxuriated in his soft black fur as his tongue flicked out and licked her collarbone. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

  “Eww.” Glory balled her fists on her hips. “I know I’ve said your boyfriends were dogs in the past, but hello. This one is a dog. Don’t let him lick you like that. Have him neutered, at the very least.”

  “He’s my special sweetie.” She rubbed her cheek against his. “My hero.”

  Glory turned on her heel. “I’m outta here,” she called over her shoulder.

  “I’ll walk you home,” Falon said.

  She didn’t bother glancing in his direction. “No, you won’t.”

  “I wasn’t asking. I was telling.” The determined man strode to Glory’s side, keeping pace beside her.

  “I don’t need your help, jerk-off.”

  “I’m giving it anyway.”

  Their voices faded. Romeo growled at Glory’s retreating back, then looked up into the sky and howled. As he howled, his body elongated and his fur fell away. Godiva gasped and jerked away from him. Skin and muscled ridges were forming. Ribs, fingers, and toes. Bronzed skin.

  “Romeo?” she asked, frightened. Her mouth went dry, and her heart pounded against her ribs. He was… beautiful. “Romeo?” The name emerged on a breathless catch of air this time.

  Dark gold human eyes were suddenly staring down at her, and she drank in the most beautiful face she’d ever seen. Perfectly chiseled cheekbones, perfectly sloped nose. Full, lush pink lips made for kissing. Her gaze traveled downward, taking in the rest of him. His chest was wide and muscled, like velvet poured over steel. And his— “Sweet mercy.”

  “I’ve been dying to do this all week, but was afraid you’d stop coddling and petting me.” He grinned wickedly. “You are not mad?”

  His voice was rough and husky, and so sexy she shivered. Gulping, she blinked up at him. “Not mad. Promise.”

  “I would like a chance to coddle you. Let me take you home.”

  To bed, echoed in her mind, unsaid. “Yes. Take me home.”

  •Six•

  YOU’RE here,” Genevieve said as Hunter slid her down his body. “You’re really here.” She circled him, disbelief, joy, and sexual hunger eating at her. Pink pollen twirled around them.

  Hunter remained utterly still. He was as harshly gorgeous as ever, only somehow more savage looking. Her heart thrummed with excitement, even as confusion rocked her. “How are you here? You aren’t a corpse and you aren’t a spirit, but you’ve been gone for three days.”

  Trees swayed around them, and the scent of moon-magic and jasmine wafted headily through the air. Rays of muted light illuminated the clearing.

  “I… didn’t die,” he said. He stared at her neck, his eyes red. “I should leave.”

  “No! Stay.” She bit her bottom lip. Never had she been more overjoyed, more confused. “Why are your eyes red? Wait, the red is fading. I don’t understand. What happened to you?”

  He didn’t answer.

  She forgot the question, anyway, as she reached out, hands brushing his jacket to the ground. She was already naked; she wanted him naked, too. Nothing else mattered really. Next she unbuttoned his shirt. It, too, pooled at their feet. Her fingers met his chest, paler than before but strong.

  “I missed you so much,” she told him. “When I thought you were dead, I wanted to die, too.”

  “Genevieve,” he said, the sound of her name a moan of pleasure-pain. He squeezed his eyelids together. “I should go. You’re safe now.”

  “Don’t leave. Stay with me. Please.”

  “Something happened—”

  “However you survived, I don’t care. I just want you.” She flattened her palms over his chest, his nipples deliciously abrasive. “Mmm. So good.”

  His hands tangled in her hair, and their gazes locked. “I want to kiss you.”

  “Do it. Kiss me.”

  He leaned toward her and nuzzled his nose over her neck. “You smell so good. Better than I remembered.” The more he spoke, the more slurred his words became.

  “Kiss me, Hunter. Please.”

  He paused only a moment before straightening and crushing his lips against hers. His tongue slid into her mouth, already heating, already slick and flavored with passion. He tasted like urgency. They’d been apart so long—days that seemed to have stretched beyond eternity.

  Her hands tore at the button on his pants, and in seconds, he was naked. All the while, he rained little kisses over her entire face. Desire rushed through her blood. “No more waiting,” she said breathlessly.

  “No more waiting,” he agreed. Something dark blanketed his expression, his eyes suddenly going red again. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said, his voice rough, filled with determination.

  “I know.”

  “Good.” He tumbled her to the ground. His lips clamped around her hard, aching nipple, and his hand trailed down her stomach, raising gooseflesh. He stopped at the apex of her thighs, dabbling at the fine tuft of dark hair.

  “Yes, good,” she moaned.

  She kneaded her hands down his strong torso, reveling in the hard muscles hidden under male skin. Power radiated from him. My lover, she thought dazedly. My man. Mine, all mine. The passion, the desire, the pleasure he gave her surpassed her wildest imaginings. And he hadn’t even entered her yet.

  He began sucking her nipple, his teeth surprisingly sharp, wringing another gasp from her. He licked away the delicious sting. “I’m not going to hurt you, I’m not going to hurt you, I’m not going to hurt you,” he chanted.

  “You can’t. As long as you’re with me, you can’t.”

  “How did I push you away all these years?” His voice was strained, laden with carnal intent, heavy with arousal.

  She arched into his fingers, silently begging him to move them inside her. No, wait. She stilled. Before she forgot everything but his touch, she wanted to fulfill the fantasy that had been floating through her mind for years. “I want to take you in my mouth.”

  Like a sea siren of long ago, she rose over him, her hair falling like a dark curtain. She walked her fingers down the muscled ridge of his chest. Scars slashed left and right over his ribs, jagged badges of past pain. This was not the body of a bar owner. This was the body of a warrior.

  He sucked in a breath when she licked each of his nipples. He moaned when she cupped his testicles.

  “You aren’t just a bar owner,” she said, voicing her thoughts and blowing a hot puff of air on his abdomen. His muscles quivered. “You’re much more.”

  “Yes, but I don’t want to talk about it. Move a little lower, sweetheart, and help me forget.” He growled, and hearing that desire-rough growl made her shiver.

  “Besides running the bar, what is it you do?” she persisted. She wanted to know him. She didn’t want to simply be his lover, she wanted to be his confidante. His… everything.

  A muscle ticked in his jaw. “Hunt vampires, demons, and other creatures of the night. That’s how I got my name.”

  She circled his navel with her tongue. His hips shot toward the sky.

  “Have you destroyed very many?” she asked.

  “Many.” An aroused breath shuddered past his lips, and his eyes closed. “Then I met you and decided to settle here and now I think it’d be a really good idea if you moved a little lower. I don’t want to talk about the past anymore.”

  Shock brought her to an instant halt. “You settled here because of me?”

  “Yes.”

  Surprised, happy, she sucked the entire length of his penis into her mouth. He was so big, her mouth stretched wide.

  He began to babble. “I was afraid another gnome would try and hurt you, couldn’t let that happen, had to stay near you, damn you feel so good, I need to get inside you. Oh
, that feels good. Your mouth. Heaven.”

  “I love you,” she said, never ceasing her up and down strokes.

  His hips shot up, and he growled low in his throat. Hoarse. Animalistic. She worked him, savoring every sensation, every taste.

  “Holy hell, I can’t stop,” he managed to gasp.

  She sucked him dry.

  When he lay limp, collapsed against the dried leaves and twigs, she crawled over him. Feminine power filled her, and she grinned slowly, wickedly. “I’ve wanted to do that for a long time.”

  “Not nearly as much as I wanted you to do it.” Twin circles of pink painted his cheeks. “I didn’t mean to go off so quickly. That just felt so good, and it’s been so long, and it made me forget—” He cut himself off and pressed his lips in a thin line.

  “How long has it been?” The question sprung from her before she could stop it. She didn’t want to hear about his other women. Wanted him only to think of her. Her body, her mind. Her heart.

  “About a year,” he admitted sheepishly.

  He pushed her to her back with quite a bit of force, and she smashed into the ground with a gasp.

  Instantly he frowned. “I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t mean to push so hard.”

  “Don’t be sorry. I’m not hurt.” Smiling seductively, she stretched her arms toward him. “I like it when you’re rough.”

  His expression softened, and his gaze raked over her. Desire blazed all the hotter in the blue depths of his eyes. No longer red, she realized happily. Why did they turn red? Was he a demon now? If so, she didn’t care. He bent between her legs, his warm breath fanning the very heart of her. Her mind blanked. Already she trembled for the first stroke of his tongue, for the ache she’d always dreamed about, for the completion she’d always wanted. Needed.

  He tasted her. His tongue circled her clitoris, an erotic dance that spun her through madness, through heaven. “Hunter,” she cried, arching against him.

  “That’s it, baby.” His voice was strained. “Go all the way over the edge.”

  Her legs wrapped around his neck, locking him in place. The pressure… the building… an unstoppable crescendo. When he brought his fingers into play, sinking them deep inside her, she realized the pleasure had only just begun.

  “I won’t hurt you, I won’t hurt you, I won’t hurt you.” His voice vibrated through her. “You taste so good.”

  She continued to arch, writhing, screaming her pleasure to the twinkling stars. Her magic acted as a live wire, shooting fireworks in her blood. Then, everything crested. High, so high. Her inner walls spasmed; heat exploded inside her. So much sensation, more than she could bear, yet not enough and somehow everything.

  She must have squeezed her eyelids tightly shut because Hunter was suddenly hovering over her. His eyes were red again, and sweat trickled down his temples. Lines of tension bracketed that sweet mouth of his, as if he’d endured all he could and needed satisfaction.

  “I’m going to enter you now, but I won’t hurt you. I’m going to fill you with me, but I won’t hurt you.”

  “Yes. Please, yes!”

  “I won’t hurt you.” Slowly he slid inside her, his cock stretching her, filling her as he’d promised. He moaned. She gasped. Tension tightened his features. “You’re so tight. I didn’t expect you to be this tight.”

  “More. I need more. Do it, take me the rest of the way.”

  He required no further encouragement. He pushed the rest of the way home. Her legs tightened around him. Squeezed his waist. Her virginity tore. Destroyed perfectly. Wonderfully.

  “Virgin,” he said, shocked. His eyes closed. Pleasure blanketed his expression. “Never felt this… good. This right. I can smell the blood. So good.” He licked his lips as if he’d never experienced anything so delicious and wanted to savor the sensation. “So good.”

  “Only you would… do. Harder,” she rasped.

  “No, savor,” he intoned. “I won’t hurt you. Won’t… hurt… you.”

  Her hands gripped his butt at the same moment she rocked her hips upward, “Savor,” she allowed, barely able to get the word out. She wanted him inside her forever.

  His teeth bit into his bottom lip. “No, harder.”

  “Yes, yes. Harder.”

  He slammed inside, pulled back, and pounded home.

  “Yes!” she shouted, loving the feel of his in-and-out penetration.

  “Not. Hurt. Not. Hurt.” He moved so quickly his balls slapped her. She threaded her fingers in his hair and jerked his face to her. Her tongue thrust into his mouth. Taking. Giving. Pushing her even closer to the edge.

  “You can’t hurt me, I swear.”

  He reached between their bodies, rubbed his thumb over her clitoris, and that was it. The end. She erupted. Spasmed. Arched. Screamed. Her ecstasy vibrated into his body, propelling him to the end, as well.

  “Genevieve,” he howled. His features tightened further and he pounded into her a final time.

  Minutes passed, perhaps hours, before their breathing settled. His eyes were so red they lit up the entire forest, and he was staring at her neck. He licked his lips. She didn’t move. Couldn’t, for that matter. Satisfaction thrummed and swirled inside her, the madness gone, delicious lethargy in its place. “I love you,” she said.

  Hunter suddenly jerked from her as if she were poison. “I have to leave, Genevieve. I’m sorry.” His expression was tortured. “I’m beginning to lose control. Barnabas was right. When the hunger hit…” He spun away from her.

  “What—what are you talking about?”

  “Good-bye. I’ll never forget you.” He jolted into a lightning-fast run, never once looking back.

  •Seven•

  IF not for her witchy powers, Genevieve never would have caught him. He moved unbelievably fast. As it was, she uttered a transport spell under her breath. One moment she was lying on the forest floor, the next she was standing in front of Hunter.

  He snarled in his throat and ground to a halt. “Get away from me!”

  “Tell me what’s going on,” she commanded. Moonlight shimmered between them, painting the forest in a magical golden hue. “Are you part demon?”

  Hunter shoved a hand through his hair and turned away from her—exactly like he’d done in the past. “I lied to you earlier, Genevieve. I did die. After the fight with the demons, Barnabas Vlad took my body to an underground cave. He—he turned me into a vampire.” His voice was laced with pain and sounded… tortured.

  Ah. Now she understood the red eyes. She owed Barnabas a smorgasbord of human delights dinner, no doubt about it. “This is a good thing, Hunter. We can be together now.”

  Gaze rounding, he whirled on her. “I’m a monster. I want to drink your blood.”

  “Well, I’m a witch and you accepted me for who I am.”

  “Stop. Just stop. It’s not the same. I could kill you, but your powers can’t harm me.”

  “Yes, they can.” Determined, she raised her arms in the air and summoned forth a small beam of light. Not enough to burn him, just enough to prove her point. Golden rays began to ribbon from her fingertips.

  He raised his hands to shield his eyes. “Fine. Your powers can destroy me. You, at least, can control them.”

  She dropped her arms to her sides and the light dimmed completely.

  “Even now I’m close to jumping on you and sinking my teeth into your neck, Genevieve. I’m thirsty, and I can smell the sweetness of your blood. I’m vile and disgusting and terrible.”

  “Hunter,” she said, exasperated. She threw her arms in the air. Men—correction, vampires—could be so foolish. “If you want to drink from me, I don’t mind.” She flicked back her hair, revealing the sensuous line of her neck. “I promise.”

  “Argh.” He spun away quickly, his body stiff, his hands clenched. “Don’t do that again.”

  “Or what?”

  “You don’t know vampires like I do. Once they get a drop of blood in their mouth, they can’t stop. I could take too
much. I could kill you.”

  “You won’t hurt me,” she said in utter confidence. “You said so yourself, a thousand times. Bite me. Do it. Blood, blood, blood. I’ll keep saying it until you get over here and bite me. Blood, blood, bl—”

  Hunter pivoted on his heel and closed the distance between them. He captured her face with his hands, his eyes fierce, but he didn’t bite her. He bared his teeth, sharp and white, but still he didn’t bite her. “Shut. Up. I would rather live eternity without you than to know I drained you.”

  She saw the depth of his concern for her, and desperation churned inside her. If she didn’t show him the error of his thoughts, he was going to leave her. Forever. “If you walk away from me, you’re going to hurt me.”

  A pause.

  A heavy, sickening pause.

  “Genevieve.” His fingers traced her mouth, then dipped to her neck. He fingered the pulse hammering there. “I won’t allow myself to become a killer.”

  She wrapped her arms around his waist, locking him in place. “I barely survived our first parting. How am I going to live without you?” The idea alone filled her eyes with tears. After all the years she and Hunter had been apart, they deserved a happy-ever-after.

  “You’ll live. That’s all that matters.” He spanned his hands around her waist, holding her with such fervency she had trouble drawing in a breath, but she didn’t care. What was breath without Hunter’s scent? What was life without her reason for living?

  “Bite me,” she commanded him. As she spoke, she arched her head to the side. She had to prove to him that he wouldn’t kill her. “Blood, blood, blood, bloo—”

  With a pained growl, he swooped down as if he’d reached the edge of his tolerance and sank his sharp teeth into her vein. There was a stinging prick, and she gasped. A minute passed, then another, but he didn’t stop. The sensations began to feel good, so good. He drank and drank and drank, and her mind began to grow foggy. Her limbs became weak. Black wisps twined around her thoughts.

  “Hunter,” she gasped. “I’m…”

  He jerked from her as if she’d screamed. She slumped to the ground. Panting, he stood over her body. Blood dripped from his mouth and guilt filled his eyes. “I’m sorry. Sweet heaven, I’m sorry.”