Slayer's Kiss: Shadow Slayer, Book 1

by Cassi Carver

  “Clouds look fluffier from a distance.” Trying to form a coherent sentence with him nuzzling and nipping her throat wasn’t easy. “Inside, they’re damp and foggy.”

  “Yes, but there are advantages to the fog.” He rolled to his back and sat so she was straddling his lap.

  From underneath both shoulders spread his wings, more powder gray than silver in the milky light filtering in through the clouds. They were thicker at the base, but then tapered to fine points. If she could have reached, she would have run the final feather of each wing between her thumb and middle finger, just to memorize what it felt like. Being up here with him, feeling the power of his body under hers as he suspended them in the sky by his will alone, it was intoxicating.

  He slowly leaned up and kissed her. He was gentle this time, staring into her face as if he was memorizing every line. “I’ve been wanting to do that since you stepped foot on the island.” He kissed her again, his tongue so soft and sweet as he explored her mouth.

  She pulled back while she still could. “Julian…”

  His lips were swollen and his eyes feverish—kind of like how she was feeling. “Yes?”

  “It means a lot to me…what you shared about your mother and yourself. But that doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven you for hiding things from me in the first place.”

  “I understand. I’ll give you as long as you need.” He gathered her to him, chest to chest, and simply held her.

  Despite how much he wanted her and the evidence of it pressing between her thighs, she felt his easy resignation and his contentment just being with her. It was strange how she was beginning to sense Julian’s emotions in a way she never had with any other man. She shifted restlessly against him as he stroked her damp hair.

  After a few minutes of cuddling, the scent of his desire and the feel of his hard muscles under her fingertips were driving her insane. She was quivering with need and her skin was hot and sticky by the time he spoke. “It’s probably time to get going.”

  She ground against his erection. “Okay.”

  “I think it would be best for you to rest now,” he said quietly, his eyes closed as she pressed into his lap.

  “Sure.” She tightened her hold around his waist and leaned up to lick the rim of his ear.

  “We should probably go, then.” But he made no attempt to move.

  “Probably.” She carefully shifted to her side and reached between them, untying his pants and freeing his shaft.

  When she ran her hand up and down his length, he hissed in a breath. “Kara…I’ll give you as long as you need. I want to make this right.”

  She squeezed his crown, using the moisture there to slide her fist over him. “This is what I need.”

  As though she’d loosed his chains, Julian spun her around and draped her knees over his shoulders. Her breasts rubbed over the sparse hair covering his abdomen through her thin white shirt as he hiked her skirt higher. He pulled her panties to the side, and the next thing she knew, she was moaning as his tongue plunged through her wet folds.

  She licked the pearl of moisture from his crown, then ran her tongue over him as if he were an exotic delicacy. His responding groan against her heated core sent shivers racing through her. She took him in her mouth, opening wide to fit his massive girth past her lips and tongue as he nuzzled his face against her throbbing clit.

  Suddenly, the beat of wings and the hush of voices brought her head up. “Is somebody there?” a man called.

  Julian’s head dropped away from the juncture of Kara’s thighs. “Hellfire and half-cocks,” he ground out.

  “Huh?” she murmured, sounding as alert as a drugged camel. “Julian?”

  He turned her in his arms until her head was again on his chest and put his fingers to her lips. “Shhh, love,” he whispered. “Not here.”

  When he wrapped his wings around her, blocking her from view, she had an instant of panic again, thinking they would fall at any moment. And then they did.

  Julian plunged from the sky, streaking past two curious warriors who seemed to be out for a leisurely stroll through the clouds.

  As they rocketed toward the earth, Kara gripped Julian’s shoulders, digging her nails into his flesh. She was pretty sure she’d left her stomach somewhere above them. Just when she thought they were going to crash into the side of what looked like a massive white box, Julian’s wings unfurled and caught the wind, whipping them horizontally through the air to land on the marble steps of what had to be the palace.

  “Here,” he said, then crushed his mouth to hers.

  She was momentarily stunned by the flight and the taste of her own juices on his lips, but then she pressed into him with a growl. He quickly lifted her in his arms and stalked through the entrance.

  There weren’t many doors, just sheer curtains blowing in the breeze that opened to the lush landscape beyond. Huge potted plants added green to the stark white interior. No wonder Julian had marshmallows on his mind earlier—he practically lived in one. But still, it was awe-inspiring. The overall decorating theme seemed to be sparse, wide open and sultry.

  He carried her past the entrance hall and laid her down on a bed of soft white animal skins draped over a collection of cushions. “No one comes to the palace without permission. We won’t be disturbed here.”

  He slowly unzipped her skirt, then brought her knees together and slid the garment down her body. Next came her panties. When her lower half was bare before him, he parted her legs on the white bed of furs, opening her to the light streaming in through the gossamer fabric covering the high windows above.

  Kara swallowed and arched her neck into the cushions. She wanted this so much she wasn’t sure she could survive being interrupted again. “Are you sure it’s okay?”

  “Let me worship you,” he breathed, an instant before his tongue found her creamy slit and licked her into oblivion.

  Aiden had been busy with a human companion when a messenger brought word of the commotion in the square. If Julian and Gavin didn’t have the decency to warn him they were bringing Kara Reed to visit the Mercury Clan today, he wasn’t about to give up his pleasure between the legs of a beautiful woman to greet them.

  After he sent his bed-servant on her way, he descended the steps from his room with the intent of finding the trio in the square and pretending he gave a damn. Though, these days, no one really believed his act anyway.

  But when he walked into the main hall, to his utter shock, a clothed Julian had his head buried between the legs of a female Aiden had never seen before. Even after all the years—the orgies, the women—the erotic vision flattened him like an oncoming freight train. His flaccid dick, replete and satisfied, roared to life.

  The scent of this Demiáre female, even from across the room, was the most delicious thing Aiden had ever encountered. She was different somehow from the other females, her fragrance pure and sweet and unaffected.

  This, then, was Kara Reed.

  Gavin had reason to be concerned if Julian was seeing to her pleasure instead of his own. The lords had never fallen. They did their duty and serviced a lady of the clan from time to time, but never the same lady often enough to worry about becoming attached—or heaven forbid, bonded.

  But with the way Julian’s head bobbed between Kara’s legs as he groaned out his lust, the way she ground her hips hard toward his mouth as if she already owned him—Aiden knew the Mercury Lords had a problem. Deanna’s daughter could be the beginning of the end for them.

  Aiden’s form melted into nothing more than a wisp of shadow as he watched Julian work her with his tongue. His mind swam as her scent came to him on the slow breeze wafting through the hall. Then he detected something else. Not solely Julian’s arousal—the precome no doubt staining his pants—but something more of Julian coming from Kara herself, as though the other lord had already branded her with his essence.

  Aiden’s blood pounded in his temples like fists beating a drum when he saw Julian pull back and fumble with Kara�
�s shirt, peeling the T-shirt over her head then unclasping her bra to free two perfect, round globes.

  “You’re my goddess,” Julian whispered as his fingers sank into the tender flesh and squeezed. Then he left his spot between her legs and ran his tongue in circles over one large, pebbled peak before latching on to her nipple fully as his fingers traced a path back down to the triangle of dark hair beckoning below.

  Aiden swallowed. He’d never been a good or noble man, but he wasn’t sure he should be watching this. It was true their females delighted in exciting and torturing the men of the clan with what they couldn’t have, and exhibitionism was a favorite pastime on this island, but he’d never met Kara Reed. Gavin made her sound almost human in her temperament.

  When he saw Julian ease two fingers into Kara’s tight sheath, the air left Aiden’s lungs like a dying man’s last slow breath. He could see the way her pussy devoured Julian’s fingers as her hips thrust against him.

  “Julian!” she called. Her voice was at once feminine and demanding.

  What Aiden would have given in that moment to trade places with his friend. Anything. Everything, to be the one to sink into her heated depths and bury his face in her fragrant core. His dick was so hard, it hurt, begging for relief.

  “I need you,” she told Julian, clawing his arms, trying to pull him closer. Then her hands frantically grasped at the thin suede covering him, pulling it down around his hips.

  Julian put a hand over hers. “I need to explain why this might be a bad idea, but I can’t think when I’m near you.” His voice was a plea for mercy.

  She cast his hands aside and yanked harder on his pants. “Think later. Fuck me now.”

  “Kara…”

  “Please.” Her strong voice cracked with vulnerability.

  Aiden didn’t like to get involved with their females, but if Julian wouldn’t ease her suffering, Aiden would shove him aside and do it himself. And from the look of her deliriously needy gaze, he would bet his best sword she would welcome his long shaft with open legs.

  He caught himself when he took one involuntary step toward the couple, but then, to his irrational disappointment, Julian kicked off his pants and freed his ready cock. “Whatever you want, love, I’ll give it to you.” Julian fisted his dick in his palm, giving the shaft a good rub. “You want me?”

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  Without further hesitation, Julian brought her feet around his shoulders, placed himself at the entrance of Kara’s channel and plunged inside. When Aiden saw him sink to the hilt, balls wedging into Kara’s ass, he almost called out in protest. Julian was going to hurt her, and he hadn’t even had the decency to soothe her first.

  But only seconds later, Aiden realized the fiery look in Kara’s eyes had nothing to do with pain. She took all of Julian’s length and wanted more, grasping his ass and pulling him deeper.

  Julian moved her legs aside so he could press closer to her body and began kissing her hair, breathing her in with every pant and thrust. “That’s it, love, take me.”

  Kara groaned, arching her breasts into Julian’s chest as her scent flooded the room. “More.”

  He pounded into her with a ferocity Aiden couldn’t fathom, Julian’s groin slapping against her skin, as though his rod wasn’t too much for a young female to handle. He wasn’t gentle, he rammed her as she clutched his back and whimpered his name. Her nails left perfect moons of blood on Julian’s dark skin. When he saw his friend grasp her shoulders in a rough grip and moan her name, Aiden wanted to moan it, too. Kara.

  Tremors racked Julian’s body as he threw his head back and bellowed her name. Kara’s face contorted with pleasure as she screamed, pumping herself frantically against Julian’s hips before her head lolled to the side, her breath exploding out of her lungs in fevered pants.

  Aiden held Kara’s face in his gaze as she came, never looking away from the perfection of her sensual, brown-haired beauty.

  Julian was right. She really was a goddess.

  Never had an orgasm been so all-consuming as the one Kara had just had—and she was becoming an expert on orgasms. How could it be getting better with Julian every time? As good as it was, better shouldn’t have been possible.

  She snuggled deeper into the cushions, pulling Julian tighter against her sensitive nipples. Her legs were still wrapped around his waist and although she’d felt his climax flood into her, his penis actually felt like it was growing inside her instead of shrinking—and the damn thing was big enough as it was. It didn’t hurt, exactly, but it was uncomfortable, as though Julian’s flesh was expanding into her and holding firm.

  “Julian,” she whispered. From the sound of his breathing, she wasn’t sure if he was awake or asleep.

  “Kara.” His head popped up. “I thought you might have fallen asleep.”

  She frowned. Why did he look so guilty? “I’m wide awake. I decided I’m not going to sleep ’til I’m back in my own bed. This island gives me the creeps. Every man here acts like he’s ready to whip his yardstick out for review and have me measure it with my tongue.”

  She thought that would get a snicker out of Julian, but instead, he looked deeper into her eyes. “I bet you’re tired, Kara. Relax, love. Don’t move. Sleep.”

  She grimaced when she felt his hard shaft twitch inside her, tugging at her insides as he shifted his weight. But at the same time, her limbs grew heavy as his essence warmed her. Everything felt right with the world. She’d known this man for no time at all, but she wondered if she’d finally found “the one”. She’d heard it was like that sometimes when it was meant to be.

  “Julian,” she whispered, her eyes still locked on to his.

  “Yes, love?”

  “I think I…like you. I really like you.” Did he know how much the admission cost her?

  He smiled softly, his tan skin crinkling slightly at the corners of his eyes, yet somehow his expression was bleak. “I love you, Kara.” He sighed, staring down at her for a long while before finishing, “Sleep now.”

  And she did.

  Aiden’s face contorted in disbelief as Julian soothed the unaware female, lulling her to sleep so he could continue to pump his seed into her womb.

  Aiden wasn’t easily shocked. He’d waged war. He’d fought and killed. He’d had sex with countless women for so many centuries all the events ran together in his mind—one face morphing into the next, one cunt as good as another, some prettier, some tighter, some who liked it rough, some who wanted to pretend it was love.

  The only thing he’d never been allowed to witness was a coupling.

  His powerful father had been an indulgent bastard, giving Aiden access to his stable at a young age, even instructing him on how to wring the most pleasure from a woman. But the act of coupling and the subsequent vulnerability of the pair was something Ailexon shared with no one.

  Aiden hadn’t even known Kara Reed had been in season, much less that she’d reached maturity, but the power washing over their joined forms left little doubt that the two of them were coupling. It reached out to him with the purest form of energy, like electricity in the sky before it coalesced into a blinding flash of lightning.

  Julian had known her little more than a day, and she gave him the greatest honor a lady could bestow upon a man. She’d allowed him to truly join his body to hers. Allowed him the chance to create a legacy, something that would endure when his numbered days at last came to an end. Julian was willing to turn his back on clan law for a woman who had no fucking clue what was happening. And Aiden wanted to throttle him for it.

  It was hypocritical, true, especially when Aiden was a bastard himself and hated the idea of ever being tied to a woman or child. So why did he want to shake Kara awake and ask her if she’d intended to breed with Julian Mercés? Why did he want to take Julian by the throat and ask him if he meant what he said about “love”, or if the word was yet another payment for services rendered? But he couldn’t do either to the man he considered a brother. Julian
’s reckoning would come soon enough.

  But he could tell Gavin. No, he had to tell Gavin. This was no easy matter now. They’d vowed the clan came first for the Mercury Lords and that they’d never let a female control them. But in truth, Kara Reed had hold of his brother by the groin, and the heart.

  Aiden found Gavin by the bonfire, sorting out a disagreement between two demibreeds as to who deserved the first night with a new camp companion. Evidently, the woman didn’t enjoy taking more than one man to her bed in a night. As Aiden listened impatiently, waiting for Gavin’s attention, he had to wonder why they’d brought a woman like that back to Mercury Island in the first place.

  “She won’t make it here,” Aiden interjected. “Have one of the silver-wings wipe her memory and take her back where she came from.”

  “But, my lord…” one of the men protested.

  “He’s right.” Gavin glanced over his shoulder to frown at Aiden. Even when he agreed, he liked to settle disputes himself. “She’d be better off with the humans if she has such mild appetites. Put some money in an account for her and get her off the island by morning.”

  “Morning?” the other man echoed. “Yes, my lord. But who gets her until morning?”

  Gavin sighed, apparently thinking it over. “Who does she want?”

  Holy Mother of Eve. They’d be here all night if they waited for Gavin to make one of his famous rulings. Aiden would have settled it with a backhand across the man’s face.

  “She doesn’t seem to have a preference, my lord, which is why we came to ask you,” the man explained.

  Aiden shifted, trying to quell the growl in his throat. “Gavin, I need to speak with you.” He turned to the men. “Dragons, witches and jewels. Go.”

  The men blinked. “Excuse me?” the shorter of the two said.

  Aiden narrowed his eyes and spoke clearly. “I said ‘Dragons, witches and jewels’. One…two…three…cast it!”