“Well, I do trust their judgment and my own skill at spellcasting. But there’s something about you.” She chuckled at Zachary’s automatic leer and eyebrow wiggle. “Something beyond the sex. I feel comfortable and safe when I’m with you. Does that make sense?”
His heart clutched in his chest only to race a moment later. “Oh yes. That makes perfect sense.”
He leaned forward and kissed her. Not a kiss filled with ravenous hunger. Not a passion-filled foray. A gentle meeting of the mouths. A soft touch that sent an arrow of gut-wrenching emotion darting into both their souls.
It was Renee who pushed it further. Renee who whimpered and crawled on top of him.
Zachary pulled his lips away. “I thought you wanted your day with me to be filled with more than just sex?” he teased.
“And I thought you were all about the sex. Plans change. I say go with it.”
Wrapping his arms around her, the joy inside Zachary built and built until it burst out as the purest laughter of his life. He rolled her, chuckling the entire time and stopping only when her voice joined his.
He lay on top of her, nestled between her thighs. He cupped her dear face in his hands. “So damn beautiful. I want to see you here with the sunlight dancing across your skin. Want to take you under the open sky.”
“Please,” she sighed, her fingers curving over the skin of his back. It must have taken quite a bit of energy to cast her spell but there was something to be said about clothing built from illusion.
Renee must’ve had the same thought. She arched and rolled him to the bottom. She jerked her t-shirt over her head, catching her ponytail clasp and freeing a cascade of hair in the process.
He cupped her breasts, thumb gliding over her nipples as she struggled with the catch on her pants. A puzzled look crossed her face.
“What?”
“It doesn’t feel the same.”
A moment of worry struck Zachary as he rose up, sucking her nipple and nipping at the tip. Damn, she tastes sweet. “It’s just you and me this time. The only magic here is what we make ourselves. That okay with you?”
“Just you and me. I think I can handle that. Not that I don’t appreciate your wild ride but a girl likes a little slow and easy sometimes.”
“As long as she gets the hard, fast fuck she wants other times?”
“You got it, babe,” she answered. A quick jerk and a muttered curse at her shoes and her bare skin met his. Her mouth nibbled at his, teasing his tongue out to play. Zachary shivered, a slow burn growing at the base of his spine with each playful lap and curl. He petted her back, grabbing her ass in both hands. She groaned as he arched his back and rubbed himself against her soft stomach.
“I want in you,” he whispered. “Wanna feel you surround me in your moist heat. I want to lose myself in you, forget everything. Everything I’ve ever seen or done. Be reborn inside of you.”
“Please.”
Zachary slid his hand down, parting her cleft with a single finger. So wet. She was already so wet for him, without using a bit of his sex magic. She wanted him. Him. Not easy sex. Not the claim of fucking a satyr. She was wet for him.
A gift from the God and Goddess. She could be nothing less.
And she was impatient. With a growl, she clenched her thighs and grabbed his ass with both hands. His eyes rolled back as she impaled herself on his hard cock.
“Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about.”
Zachary would’ve laughed at her self-satisfied tone of voice if she’d left him any breath. As it was, for once in his limitless life he found himself hanging on as someone else took him for a ride.
Hot, tight flesh rose over him, milking him. He bit his lower lip as he struggled to gather back his control. But she’d have none of that. Her eyes glowed with wicked pleasure at the struggle in his face. She knelt up and slammed down on him harder.
“Fuck, love. I can’t. You have to slow down.”
“No. You have to keep up.”
“I can’t hold back.”
She gave a wild laugh, slinging her head back to whip the hair from her face. “I don’t want you to. I want to take everything you have to give. I want to know that I can make you lose control the same way you turn me inside out. So come already.”
Zachary slammed his head back into the ground. His eyes rolled back in his head as he felt that lightning shock of pleasure building at the base of his spine. His balls ached, tightening that last little bit before he shot his seed deep inside her.
As she cried out her own pleasure, he watched her eyes again. So much there, open for him to see. A clear shining soul and a possible future that held many centuries for them both together.
* * * * *
Hours later, near dusk, Zachary laughed as Renee skipped backward down the tree-lined walk leading to her house, chattering the entire time.
“I wish we’d had time to go see my shop. I’d like to know what you thought.”
“Really?” asked Zachary. He let a lascivious smirk play across his mouth.
Renee clapped a hand over her lips but couldn’t hold back the giggles. “Well, I would’ve liked to know what you thought of my place but I liked how we spent our time more.”
“Just liked. Guess I didn’t do my job right.”
“You’ll just have to make sure you come back and work harder next time.”
Zachary’s heart lurched at the reminder. He stayed silent the rest of the way to Renee’s house. The moon rose high in the night sky as they stepped on the porch of her neat little cabin on the outskirts of town. An unlit jack-o’-lantern grinned up at them and the words “Magic Happens” greeted them from a sign on the door. Renee struggled with the key.
Zachary gasped as he felt a tug deep in his chest. A familiar pulling dragged at his soul.
Renee stood in the half-open doorway, staring at him. “What is it?”
Hand at his chest, he glared at the moon just rising over the horizon. “My brothers. They’ve noticed my absence and call to me.”
“You have to leave,” Renee said in monotone as she followed his gaze.
Zachary stepped closer, taking Renee’s face in his hands. He kissed her, hard and deep, imprinting her taste and feel on his senses. “I don’t want to but I have to. I will be back.”
“You’ll try,” Renee murmured, tears choking her words.
“I will.” He reached up and took the medallion from around his neck and slipped it in her hand. “Keep this safe for me. I’ll need it when I get back.”
Staring at the cool metal lying in her palm, Renee said, “It’s a one-time spell.”
“Then recast it and have it ready for me,” Zachary growled, shaking her until she met his gaze. “When I come back it’ll be to stay.”
She nodded and fought back tears as Zachary stepped away from her. A dark void opened behind him. The last thing she saw as he disappeared was the golden sparkle of his eyes.
An hour later Laurel found Renee curled on her steps, her sobs racking her body.
Chapter Six
Zachary’s scream shattered the darkness, endlessly. Yet his voice hadn’t broken, much less his determination. Most of his endurance had disappeared after the continuous months of trials. No sleep for more days than he could count. Only eating what food he could scavenge. No sex at all, devastating for one of his race. But he’d never lost sight of his goal—Renee.
Until now.
The elders brought him here to this dank, stone-lined room for months more of “tests”. They finally accepted that he meant to have her, that maybe the God and Goddess had a hand in their meeting. Now he just had to survive the creation of the ambrosia to make her immortal and get the answer to his question of why they were mated. That was it. But that was so much more than he could stand. Tied to a stone slab with deep gouges cut into it, pain became his constant companion—pain and the voices.
“Are you certain this witch is worth it, brother?” a tempting voice whispered in his ear as flames se
emed to lick through his every nerve. His constant companion during his trials, this voice didn’t want him to succeed. Hatred laced its every word. “Are you certain you want to go through with this, all the agony? Ambrosia never comes without great cost. It would make your mortal witch more powerful than any other of her kind. That is dangerous. Are you certain you can trust her with such a gift?”
“I’ve seen her soul.” Zachary tried not to flinch as his bindings tightened and cut into his flesh. “It belongs with mine.”
“Does it? Does she?” another voice asked, ever taunting. “Or has her spell blinded you? Is it only lust you feel, the need for variety? Are the wood nymphs no longer enough for you?”
“Do you think I would come this far, let you tie me up and rip out a piece of my soul, if I weren’t absolutely certain?” Zachary growled in return. “When I made love to her I saw my future in her eyes. She is my mate, the one I will live with forever. I’m a satyr. That shouldn’t even be possible. But I saw it.”
Silence was his only response. It seemed he’d given his tormentor something to consider. Maybe they did think he was that shallow, that led by his own lust. Even knowing the reputation of most satyrs the accusation almost hurt. Or at least it would’ve if every part of his body wasn’t already in agony. No room remained for emotional pain.
Yet with the silence cold filled the stark room. The fiery pain that bowed his body slowly eased under the cool breeze. His shallow, labored breathing smoothed. He glanced to his side and watched as his blood and sweat traveled through the gouges in the stone to pool in a small crystal vial.
One of the ancients stepped out of the shadows, shape and form hidden in a purple, hooded robe. He took the vial in hand and muttered an incantation over it. The words were unfamiliar to Zachary but set the hair on the back of his neck on edge. The vial glowed as the liquid inside bubbled. Steam poured out the top as the contents turned a sparkling amber color.
Others released his bindings and help him sit up. As he rubbed at his abused wrists, the ancient one stepped forward again.
“You may take this and go back to her. But you must do so under a geas.”
Zachary’s heartbeat kicked up a notch but a slow grin spread across his sweat-soaked face. “Whatever you wish, I’ll do it to be with her.”
“It isn’t my wish,” the ancient intoned, his slitted eyes glittering beneath his hood. “It is the greater plan of the God and Goddess. They are not happy with their people. They wanted us to learn our lesson from the war but not die out because of our prejudice. That is where you and your mate come in. It will be through your connection with lust magic and her skill with love and calling spells that the God and Goddess shall bring us all to peace once more. They have a job for you to do.”
Chapter Seven
A half hour to midnight and Samhain again, Renee thought as she placed three chairs and three empty plates on a table near the door, two for her parents and one for Zachary. Another fucking lonely day. And this time I don’t even have the hope of finding true love. No, I found love only to have it ripped away before I even got used to the feeling. Not even the cute costumed kids could to cheer me up this year. Great way to spend one of my favorite sabbats.
One night and one day, all the fates let her have was one stinking night and day. Then they tore him away from her. If Zachary didn’t return tonight, what little hope she had left would die.
She’d been waiting a whole year and damned if it didn’t look like a hundred more stretched out in front of her.
She pulled a tissue out of her sleeve as her eyes teared up again. It wasn’t right and she knew that no amount of magic would make it right. Still, while she’d promised Zachary not to try to bring him back or go searching for him, she couldn’t help but cast a few minor spells to encourage his return. She burned dragon’s blood on her window again and wore another wreath of myrtle around her head.
And she’d prayed to the God and Goddess every night. Every invocation she made through the year she dedicated to him. The possibility that they didn’t listen because they blamed her for giving back their gift terrified her.
After turning off the lights and putting the leftover candy in the cupboard, she sat on her window seat looking out over the few sparkling lights still shining downtown and waited. Again. Arms wrapped around her knees, staring off into the darkness, just like every other night for the past year. Waiting for someone who might never come.
She didn’t even realize she’d fallen asleep until strong arms swept her up and carried her to her bedroom.
Renee’s eyes flew open and she reached back to claw at her attacker.
“Really, lover, you’d think you weren’t happy to see me,” a warm voice laughed close to her ear.
Renee gasped as she stared into sparkling golden eyes.
“Miss me?” he asked.
She threw her arms around Zachary’s neck and held on with the strength of all her pent-up emotions. “Where the hell have you been?”
“Been there among other places,” he grumbled, a new bleakness shadowing his much thinner features only to be chased away by his innate merriment. “Back now though and I get to stay. Talk about it later. Now I want you. It’s been too damn long since I’ve had you.”
Renee smiled, eyes misting as she wrapped her arms around Zachary’s neck. Swept off my feet. Damned if the fool man hasn’t swept me off my feet.
“Omph,” she gasped as the satyr dropped her in the middle of her bed. She still bounced on the mattress as Zachary followed her down, sealing her lips with his own. Oh Goddess, she’d missed his rich intoxicating taste.
“Missed you,” he echoed her thoughts into her mouth and lapped at her lips. “Hasn’t been anyone else since you. You got any idea what that does to someone of my breed? I’m fucking going out of my mind. I have to have you now. Can’t wait. Sorry.”
Renee sank her fingers into Zachary’s thick hair, reveling in the silky texture wrapping around the tips as she pulled him down for another kiss. “Don’t wait. I don’t want you to wait. I want you now.”
Zachary sat up. A flick of his hand had Renee naked.
Renee blinked, staring down her nude body before giggling. “Gotta love that satyr magic. Damned handy. You have to teach me that.”
He grinned back and gave a negligent shrug. “If it has to do with having sex or getting down to sex, I can do it. Don’t know if that’s something I can teach.”
“Then show me. I’m a quick study,” Renee said, a half-smile curling her lips and a wicked glint in her eyes.
Zachary grinned, moving back to give himself more room. He didn’t allow Renee any time for second thoughts. Focusing all his pent-up angst and repressed sexual energy in his hands, he put his palms on her stomach and shoved it into Renee.
She gasped and gave a high-pitched little cry, her entire torso bowing under the pressure of intense arousal. Her clit swelled to a hard little kernel and her pussy wept for attention.
Zachary pushed her back down on the bed, letting his hands run a glowing trail from her shoulders to her waist. He paid particular attention to her pert breasts. Renee tossed her head as the power rolled over and through her. She muttered incomprehensible words, the tone alone signaling her intense pleasure.
“You gonna come for me now?” Zachary asked in malicious delight. He pushed another wave deep into her. “Without me ever touching you where you want me most, you gonna come? You’re feeling every second of need I felt over the last year. I denied myself even the comfort of my own hand. I had to prove to the God and Goddess how much you meant to me. No one for a full year. It’s enough to make a satyr go mad. But I did it for you. Now it’s your turn. Take everything I have to give. Are you gonna come?”
“So close, please,” she whimpered, rubbing her thighs together. After a year, why the hell wasn’t he fucking her already?
“Do you want it?” he taunted, grinning.
“Yes, yes,” she begged. “Please, yes.”
&nbs
p; “Did you miss me as much as I did you?” he whispered as another rush of magical arousal slammed into her body.
Renee moaned as her senses became swamped beneath his erotic assault. She didn’t understand his question at first. Why did he always expect her to be able to think after he got her so damned hot? “No one. No one but you. I haven’t even been tempted since you left. No one was you.”
Zachary knelt between her legs and breathed softly against her aching pussy, pushing a sliver more power into her aroused flesh. “Then come for me.”
Renee screamed, heels digging into the mattress as spasm after spasm racked her body. Zachary smiled, pushing his face into her, licking her cream and bathing in her scent and pleasure.
Zachary pulled back and licked his lips. “Mmm, missed this. Missed the taste and smell of you—my mate.”
“Fuck,” was all Renee could manage to say between shivers.
Zachary chuckled. “Not yet, but soon.”
Renee couldn’t have moved if she’d wanted to. She lay spread across the bed. Zachary made a place for himself next to her and Renee snuggled into his side. “Seems like you’re always taking care of me without my returning the favor.”
“I wouldn’t put it that way,” he said with a self-satisfied smirk. “It’s not like I don’t enjoy the hell out of myself when I’m with you. And you’d be surprised at what I get out of sharing my power like that. Almost as good as the real thing. Better in other ways. So don’t feel bad for me.”
Renee came to her knees between his thighs to stare down at her lover. “But a whole year is a long time. Practically an eternity to a satyr without a touch of his lover.” She slid a single finger down his chest, stopping to rub back and forth across his pelvis. “What say I return the favor?”
Zachary’s abdomen twitched but he held himself still under her touch. “Gonna fill me with your magic and make me explode?”
“Something like that,” was all the warning she gave before taking Zachary’s cock straight down her throat.
Spells at Midnight Page 4
