by Ashur Rose
He watched her beautiful figure reach out to him. “Iain,” she moaned.
Fuck, she wasn’t making it easy on him.
He gripped himself tighter. He had known other females. He hadn’t gotten to his age without bedding a few. But it had been so long and not one had had the power to undo him with only her voice. If she said his name like that again, she would be the first.
He went to her, carefully absorbing the extra weight of his bones on his elbows as he bent over her body, taking her nipples into his mouth and sucking them. Her hands anchored into his hair and at her touch, the face he’d obsessed over since first seeing it came back into focus.
So did the first slivers of day.
His Dryg eyes were far too sensitive not to see the spectrum of sunlight in the darkness. He would have to perch soon, but not before he got a taste of her.
He took in her body again. So many places to kiss, but only one place would do for now. He groaned and lowered to her. He pulled her pants off and slid her panties down her legs, placing the damp lace into his pockets as a keepsake. He grinned at the thought. He really was enjoying himself too much.
She remained quiet until he hoisted her legs over his shoulders. “Wait,” she breathed.
Not a chance, he thought and he ran his tongue all over her sex. He sucked her clit into his mouth until she let loose the moan he’d been waiting for. She squeezed her thighs around his head while arching her back off the floor. He angled himself in a way so that he could look at her and saw that she covered her face with her hands.
“No, della,” he said against her wet lips. He pulled her hands down from her face and held them at her sides. “Look at me.”
He made sure she watched him stroke her pussy with his tongue, grazing the sensitive flesh with his teeth and drawing on her lips. He worked her over, lapping her wetness and devouring her scent until she threw her head back and cried out with the orgasm quivering throughout her body.
And then Iain forced himself toward the window, leaving her on the floor, jerking and shaking.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
LILITH
LILITH OPENED HER EYES to the harsh light of day, a cool breeze passing over her body and the obnoxious yells of her landlord. She lay on the floor so out of sorts that she could have sworn last night was a dream. Looking down at her half-naked body, she knew it was not.
She scrambled behind the couch, the only object blocking her from her landlord’s view. She searched the floor around her, pulling on her shirt to cover her bare ass.
Where in the hell were her panties?
“Lilith Harper?”
She couldn’t find them but spied the bag she’d packed near the window. Had she left it open last night?
“Damn, what the hell happened here?” someone said.
“Cops kick the door in?” said another voice.
“The Fair Housing Act, that’s what happened,” said her landlord. “She’s not here. Start in the bedroom. Anything of value, keep. The rest you can throw in the Dumpster ’round back. Call me when you’re done.”
Wincing from her sore ankle and sensitive sex, she scooted her back against the couch as footsteps cuts across her living room. God, just the thought of what had made her sensitive in that way gave her full body chills. When the men went into her bedroom, she made a dash to her bag, snatched the tablecloth from her dining table and ran out the door on tiptoes.
She fumbled in her bag for her tip money and paid the ticket agent, leaving her with only twenty dollars.
“Here you are, Miss. Your bus boards at 5:30.”
“And that’s the earliest departure you have?”
“It’s the only departure we have going to New Mexico.”
Lilith looked at the clock on the wall behind the attendant, grimacing. “Thank you.”
What was she going to do for six hours? She was effectively homeless and broke. She found an empty row of seats near the back wall of the station. She sat in one and placed her bag and tablecloth on another. She ran through her mental to-do list. The first thing she would need to secure was housing. She knew nothing about New Mexico but hoped it had a decent number of shelters. Food shouldn’t be a problem. Ramen noodles were cheap. Scary cheap, actually, when she thought about it. She’d have to check on their nutritional value later. She was almost sure there was no value, but it filled her up just the same. Spending ten of the twenty dollars she had left, she could buy two cases. If she only ate twice a day, no snacks, the ramen should keep her from the backdoors of restaurants begging for scraps until she found a gig.
She rubbed at the burning in her chest.
Now that she wasn’t half-naked and fleeing her apartment, she had a chance to think about the man who’d left her a hot mess on the floor. An image of him came to her mind: tall, dark and terrifying. Her toes curled in her shoes remembering how easily he’d kicked in her door and overpowered her. He’d done things to her body she’d never experienced in her twenty-two years, things she’d been too ashamed to even watch. Just thinking of them made her clit tingle.
She traced a finger along her lower lip, swearing she could still feel his warmth there. She crossed her legs. She certainly felt the aftermath of his heat in other places.
And that’s why she needed to get away. Far, far away. Anyone with that much influence over her was a definite security breach of her protective wall. She stretched out over the chairs and used the tablecloth like a blanket. She closed her eyes and was damned if the sight of Iain’s head buried between her thighs wasn’t there. This was going to be a long six hours.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
IAIN
IAIN GRIMACED AS HE descended into his loft. His spectra burned him deep and unrelentingly. There was only one cause for that and she was on the other side of town. He thought to jump straight from the roof and fly to her, but it might make sense to pull on a pair of jeans first.
He pressed his knuckles across his breastbone, where the burn had started to pulse in his chest.
“Got a little bird shit on your left wing.”
Iain turned around to find Raze peering down at him from the roof hatch.
“Could be worse. Could be on my face.”
Raze jumped down into the loft, bypassing the steps. “We need to talk.”
“About?” Iain walked to the kitchen sink, soaked a dish sponge, gave it a squeeze and tossed it to Raze.
“The Phyrss.” Raze walked over to Iain and began wiping the bird droppings from his wing. “I want you and Cree with me.”
“I take it you haven’t run this by Steele?”
“Steele is a liability in front of the Phyrss. I don’t want her distracted by the things he’s done.”
“Fair enough.” Iain winced from the pain in his chest. “What’s the plan?”
“After we let the Phyrss know what Zorn’s spawn is up to, we take the fight to the shades.” Raze tossed the sponge on the counter and walked over to the kitchen island, sitting on top of the counter.
“And by ‘take the fight to them,’ you mean…what? Finding a shade den in the city? Destroying it?” Iain folded his arms, feeling a sting of anger at Raze’s implication prickle along his skin. “Because I know you can’t mean what I think you mean.”
Raze angled his head, hiking a brow.
“Raze, you know I respect you—”
“But.”
“That’s a foolish move.” Iain remembered what it was like the first time they’d entered the under realm to imprison Zorn. His flunkies hadn’t been too happy about it. Outnumbered, the Banes had barely made it out alive. “There’s got to be another way. We don’t even have a lead on a portal. And if you can somehow convince us all, which I doubt, how exactly are we supposed to get there?”
Iain groaned, holding his chest.
“We’ll find a portal. Lean on a shade long enough, and it’s bound to give it up.” Raze hopped down from the counter and walked over to Iain. “You don’t look well, brother.”
>
Iain felt Raze pushing his shoulders back. It was then he realized he’d been hunched over. “I’m fine.”
“You’re worse,” Raze said, looking into his eyes.
“I’m not,” he lied. He hated for his brother to see him in such bad shape. He took a deep breath and pulled away from him. “I can’t risk going to the underworld. Not now.”
Raze nodded, assessing Iain on a level beyond human perception. “Where is she? I’ll go get her and bring her to you.”
“No.” Iain shook his head. Raze could reach into his mind and Iain was sure he saw his need for Lilith there. He couldn’t risk his life in the under realm because he had her to live for now. He wished he’d change the subject because even though he felt like he was burning alive from the inside out, talking about Lilith made him hard. “I appreciate the offer, but she won’t come with you.”
“She’s human. She’ll come.”
He would have laughed if not for the ache in his chest. Iain made it to his couch and slumped down onto the cushion. “It’s a little more complicated than that.”
Discussing his pure was the last thing Iain wanted to with Raze. It had not been long since his brother had lost his own due to pregnancy complications.
“Does she know?”
“We didn’t make it to the specifics last time I saw her.” He could smell her on his lips still. He looked in the direction of his coat, thinking of the thin fabric inside the pocket laced with her scent. “My burn is worse, which means she’s probably running.”
“At least you know she won’t get far.” Raze sat next to him on the couch. “Marissa ran. She was diune and didn’t understand.”
The woman could transport herself instantly. She could be anywhere. It was his hope that her burn would stop her.
“Marissa was sensible. This female,” Iain said, thinking of Lilith, “is pure wildfire. She can’t be tamed.”
Raze leaned forward, elbows resting on his thighs and hands clasped. “You sure she’s the one?”
Clutching his chest, Iain met Raze’s gaze, the sweat forming on his brow hard to ignore. “Look at me and tell me she isn’t.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
LILITH
“Hey, Joe.”
Lilith groaned and opened her eyes to something poking into her ribs.
“Hello? You awake in there, guy?”
She pulled the tablecloth away from her face and scowled at the security guard prodding her with his baton.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were a woman.” He cleared his throat. “Look, you can’t sleep here. There’s a homeless shelter a couple of blocks up the street if you need a place, Miss.”
Lilith sat up, rubbing her eyes. “I’m waiting on my bus.”
“Well,” he said, adjusting his pants around his waist, “pardon me.”
“Do you have the time?”
“Oh, sure.” He looked over his shoulder at the clock his large mass blocked from Lilith’s view. “Five twenty-five.”
Shit.
“Thank you.” Lilith scooped up her things, ran to her terminal and boarded her bus with one minute to spare.
She took a seat in the back across from an elderly woman who didn’t have any personal demons to speak of.
The bus started its way out of town and Lilith rested her head against the cool glass, nodding off again. Ten minutes hadn’t even passed before she bolted awake, gripped so tightly by the burning in her chest that she slumped down to her knees in the aisle.
“My God, are you all right?” the elderly woman next to her asked.
Lilith couldn’t get a word out, too caught up was she in the pain threatening to split her breastbone in half.
“Stop the bus!”
Lilith gripped the armrest of the seat next to her as the bus came to a halt. She heard the footsteps of the driver thudding down the aisle. It took all of her strength, but she managed to climb back onto the seat.
“Are you okay, ma’am?”
“I’ll be ok,” she managed through a string of ragged breaths. “Have really bad heartburn.”
“Heartburn?” the bus driver said.
Lilith nodded, unable to speak from the strain of holding breath. It was the only thing that made the burning bearable.
“All right,” the driver said, turning to the other passengers. “She’s fine. Nothing to see here. We’re moving on.”
Lilith gripped her armrest and focused on the geometric pattern covering the seat in front of her when something thumped against her hand.
“Try these,” the old woman said, smiling at Lilith beyond bifocal glasses that made her eyes appear huge. “They always help when I pile on too much Sriracha.”
Lilith nodded her appreciation and opened the pack of Rolaids with her teeth. She chewed two as the bus pulled off. At least this time she made it to the next mile marker before she wailed in pain again.
The bus driver didn’t bother coming to check on her. “Ma’am,” he said, looking into his rearview mirror, “I don’t know what’s going on, but it seems like you need medical attention. For your sake and the sake of my schedule, I’m taking you back to the city.”
Lilith, in so much pain that her teeth were clenched, didn’t bother protesting.
Evicted from her apartment with no place to go, Lilith sat in the bus terminal thinking of her next move. She felt better now that she was back in the city. She burned in her chest still, but it was tolerable. The station had refused to refund her ticket, so she was stuck with just the twenty dollars. Chicago wasn’t the best place to be poor or homeless. And she was both at the moment.
She went into the bathroom to empty her bladder. She could barely wipe from being so sore where Iain had sucked her too roughly. But she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t enjoyed it. She wondered briefly where he was right at that moment. Was he looking for her? What would he do if he found her? More importantly, what would she allow him do?
She washed her hands, scrubbing away the thought of seeing him again. She had more pressing issues at hand. For one, she was starving. And two, her money problems weren’t going to go away on their own. She grabbed her bag and headed to the one place that might fix both.
CHAPTER TWENTY
IAIN
IAIN WAITED IN THE shadows of the alley for her to show up. His burn had lessened, so he knew she was still in the city. And judging from the way her apartment door was boarded up, she wouldn’t be going back there any time soon. The woman lived in poverty; he hadn’t needed conventional vision to see that when he’d been inside her place. She’d need money to make her next move and there was only one place she would get that. So he stood outside of her job at the club, away from the view of the bouncer at the door, and waited for her to show up.
It didn’t take long. The Chicago wind stirred up her black currant scent before she rounded the corner. He swallowed, savoring the sight of her white glow before she ever came into view. And when she did, need slammed into his chest so viciously, he held to the alley wall for support.
He stepped from the hiding place to intercept her before the bouncer looked their way.
She’d been looking down with the hood of her jacket pulled over her head when he called out to her.
“Lilith.”
She froze and locked eyes with him. He walked toward her slowly. It took all his restraint not to run to her. She glanced to her right toward the street. Maybe she wanted to run, too, but thought better of it after glimpsing the oncoming traffic. To her left was a building blocked by street vendors.
He reached her but then forced his hands inside his pockets to keep from grabbing her close.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
Her voice made his cock jump. Trying my best not to take you on the street, he thought. “How are you?”
“How am I? Where was that concern when you stalked me, kicked in my door and used whatever supernatural charm you have to…” She paused and exhaled a shaky breath. “Do I rea
lly have to remind you?”
She didn’t. The panties she’d worn last night were in his pocket and his fingers smelled of her. She was upset, and he hated that he was the cause of that. But her anger turned him on.
“So this is funny to you?”
He didn’t realize he was smiling. “Forgive my forwardness last night. I can see that I’ve upset you.”
“That’s an understatement.” She pushed past him and he grabbed the arm of her jacket. “You’ve got a real bad habit of touching people, don’t you?” She snatched her arm away.
He put his hands back inside his pockets, trying his best to recover the conversation. The last thing he wanted to do was push her away. “Della, please—”
“Who’s Della?”
Iain sighed, forgetting that much of his language would be lost on her. He sought the English equivalent but gave up when he saw her form shift impatiently. “It doesn’t matter. Can I take you someplace? You must have questions.” He was losing ground with her. He combed through all his human experience these past few months, remembering there was a thing the males did when their females were upset with them. “Are you hungry? We can discuss this more over food. Anything you like.” She moved away from him. “Please? I must talk to you.”
Maybe it was the desperation in his voice that softened her, or the fact that she was hungry, but either way, after a few solid seconds, she walked off, giving a quick glance over her shoulder to say, “Fine. But you’re paying.”
The woman could eat.
He’d followed as she led them to a small ramen shop in the shady part of town. Across from her, he sat quietly as she sucked down her second bowl of noodles. He enjoyed the wet, slurping sounds her lips made, enjoyed that she’d allowed him to buy her meal. But more than anything, it soothed him to be in her presence.
“Thanks for buying me dinner, but the fact that you’re not eating and keep staring at me like that makes me uncomfortable.”
