by Amy Sumida
“Yes?” I started to get anxious.
“He didn't feel right, Your Highness.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“My mór is a type of storm magic,” Felix explained. “As such, I can recognize other storm-related mórs. There's a... tingle that registers with my magic, even if that other mór is of another element. I didn't feel it when I touched Baron Drostan.”
“Oh.” I blinked as I relaxed. “Well, he had just expended a lot of energy, perhaps that's why.”
“That shouldn't matter but it does bring me to another issue,” Felix said. “I didn't see lightning when he attacked the shooter, did you?”
“It was so bright, I wasn't able to concentrate on it,” Raza said thoughtfully.
“What else would it have been?” I asked.
“I don't know,” Felix murmured.
“Did you feel anything at all when you touched him?” Raza asked.
“No. Nothing.” Felix shook his head.
“Wait, hold on.” I held up a hand. “Before we left, Drostan told me that his mór didn't have to be flashy.”
“Right,” Raza agreed. “You told him that he couldn't go flashing lightning in front of humans.”
“So, he changed his mór to just light?” Felix asked dubiously.
“I've seen Drostan on the battlefield, Felix,” Raza said. “I can attest to his mór being lightning-based.”
“And we saw the result of his lightning tonight,” I added.
“We saw a charred corpse,” Felix argued.
“Lightning burns, Felix,” I said. “It's a fire-based mór.”
“Hot enough to melt a gun?” Felix shot back.
“Yes,” Raza said confidently, “when that lightning is the Dealan. As I said before, Drostan brought down my cousin. The Dealan is a powerful mór.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Felix bowed. “You're right, it's probably nothing. I just thought I should report what I sensed to you.”
“Very good,” Raza said. “We'll remember your words, but I think you're just a bit tired and overly sensitive.”
“Is Verisande's mór storm-related?” I asked Felix.
“Yes, the Osag is a blasting wind,” Felix said.
“Interesting,” I murmured. “I wonder if Drostan and Verisande were drawn together by their mórs?”
“I'm sure there was more to it than that, but it could have played a part,” Raza said. “They probably recognized each other's mór as Felix does with other storm-related magics.”
Felix blinked and suddenly looked relieved. “Yes, you're right, Your Majesty. And that means that I'm probably mistaken. I'm sorry to have bothered you.”
“Not at all,” Raza said magnanimously.
“Goodnight,” I called after Felix as he left.
“Goodnight, Your Highness.” As a Twilight Fairy, Felix called me highness instead of majesty in acknowledgment of my status as Princess of Twilight.
I looked at Raza after the door was shut. “This case seems to have us all jumpy.”
“Only one solution for it,” Raza drawled as he pulled me close.
“I'm exhausted.”
Raza leaned down and kissed me.
“Okay, maybe a quickie.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
I awoke awhile later, dehydrated and unsettled. I pulled on a T-shirt and went to check the guest room next door. Killian wasn't back yet so I grabbed my phone and texted him as I yawned. He texted back a few seconds later. He was fine and the investigative team had arrived, but he wanted to stay a bit longer. I sent him a kissy-face emoji but frowned as I set the phone down. If Killian was fine, why was I feeling so unsettled?
Killian had psychometry but I had a touch of premonition and I'd learned early on to pay attention when I got feelings like this. Something was... no, not wrong but... I couldn't put my finger on it. It felt like a building storm. As if energy were gathering around me. Lightning was about to strike.
I padded quietly downstairs to get myself a glass of water and pondered my strange feeling as I went. I walked through the dark kitchen, the moonlight bright enough to find my way by, and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. I gulped a bit and headed back to the stairs via the living room, still distracted by that odd feeling. A soft sound stopped me on my way past the door to the gazebo. It was only open a few inches but that was enough to give me a glimpse of movement. I shuffled to the door with a frown, leaned against the wall, and opened it further. Then froze.
Bodies writhed on the Persian rug inside the gazebo—one pale and feminine and the other masculine with a honeyed tinge. Under the moonlight, they both gleamed, nearly as much as the fall of snowy hair that swept over broad shoulders. Deep, male moaning tightened something low in my body and jerked me wide awake. A feminine sigh shivered through the night.
Verisande laid on her back, her feet toward me and her legs spread wide. Drostan was bent over her with his head between her thighs. Wet sounds slipped beyond the veil of his shining hair. My throat constricted before the gasp could leave it. I should have walked away, but I couldn't move. I became very aware of every sensation. The sound of eager tongues. The scent of sex. The feel of water condensing on the bottle I held. It dripped down my fingers. I would have lifted it to my flushed face if I hadn't been paralyzed with shock and lust.
Drostan straightened and rose onto his knees, flinging back his hair like a sea god surfacing. His hair draped down his sculpted chest like cream, waiting to be licked away. It led me to the line between his abs and I followed that down his stomach to the thatch of white hair between his thighs. A piece of proud, thick flesh stretched straight out from him, its pale length crowned by a flushed tip. Skin rolled over that plum head and back as a feminine fist worked Drostan's shaft frantically. It wept under Verisande's ministrations, the eager drops catching the light and glinting like diamonds.
My legs clenched together as my sex wept as well.
Drostan threw back his head and let out a deep groan. My nipples tightened in response. His elegant hand reached behind and down to grab Verisande's hair as he lowered himself further onto her face. When he lifted his head, his teeth were bared in vicious passion. Verisande had been clutching Drostan's muscular thigh with her free hand but it moved forward to massage his sacs even as she continued to work his cock. Slick sounds gave evidence to what she did below; their sexy music grew louder as she licked him furiously in that place that Raza didn't even like me to touch. Drostan, evidently, had no such reservations.
“Just like that,” Drostan drawled as he bent forward again. “Fuck, woman, your tongue is magic.”
Drostan went down onto one elbow and spread Verisande's pink lower lips. His hair fell forward as he bent to lick her and he made an annoyed sound before he shoved the fall of white over one shoulder. As his mouth covered her, Verisande angled his cock into her mouth and grabbed Drostan's ass to pull him into her. Drostan's moan was deep and feral—more beast than man. It brought to mind dark caves and savage mating, and it made me shiver again. I just wasn't sure if I shivered from desire or fear.
With another brutal cry, Drostan wrapped his arms around Verisande's hips. He yanked her up until her hips came off the floor and her knees bent to fall onto his shoulders. Verisande made a delighted sound, muffled by Drostan's shaft, and he began to ferociously suck at her. The sounds were vividly erotic.
Drostan began to pump into his lover's mouth as he shoved his tongue into her wet sex. Verisande's desire dripped down her ass and Drostan rubbed the liquid into her puckered lower hole. She writhed. He rubbed his face into her. She clutched at his thighs. He worked his finger slowly into that other place. Verisande began to tremble and Drostan's body tightened. Skin shivering and muscles clenching. She screamed around his pumping cock, but he held out until she had made it through her climax. Then Drostan lifted his face, his eyes popping open to fill the darkness with a bright glow, and his burning gaze met mine.
Drostan cried out, his lips pull
ing back to bare his teeth as the primal sound left him. His body bucked, muscles tightening and releasing in a rippling display. I still couldn't move—couldn't look away—and neither could he. Drostan held my gaze as he came violently, his fingers and cock deep in his lover, and on the tail end of his rapturous cry, he groaned my name.
It shocked me out of my paralysis and I went running for the stairs. Lightning had struck, all right, and I'd just been burned.
Chapter Thirty-Five
I didn't sleep well. Gee, I wonder why.
Early morning found me standing under a hot shower, the heat loosening my tight muscles and the steam clearing my head. I shouldn't have stayed. I shouldn't have watched. Why had I watched? I wanted to dig a hole and hide my head in it like an ostrich. I kept humiliating myself in front of Drostan. Dear Danu, what he must think of me. Anyone else would have run off as soon as they noticed the couple making love but not me. Oh no, I stood there and watched until the climactic conclusion like a giant pervert.
“What's wrong with me?” I whispered into the water. “You'd think I was hard-up for some sexin' or something. Ugh! What a perv!”
I wanted to knock my head against the tiles as one does when they've done something so embarrassingly dumb that the memory of it can only be driven away with repeated smacks to the brain. I was mortified. I couldn't face him again. I had to crawl out the window and escape. Oh, wait! I could twilight away! Yes, I'd do that. I'd twilight back to Fairy and pretend that I'm not such a perverted freak.
“He said my name,” I whispered to the wall. “He came saying my name.”
Maybe humiliation was not an appropriate response. Maybe I should be running for another reason entirely. But I couldn't run, not out of embarrassment or self-preservation. This was only my second job for the Council, if I left it like a lunatic, they'd never want me to handle another one for them. And then there were my husbands. What would I say to them? Hey guys, I watched Drostan screw his girlfriend last night and it was so exceptionally hot that I was aroused by it. Oh, and he came saying my name so I have to go. Yeah, that would go over great.
I blame it on hormones. When I'd gotten pregnant, my hormones had gone nuts. I cried for stupid reasons, got clingy, got horny, shouted a lot, and generally became a woman I didn't want to be. Most of that had disappeared when the kids were born. But I still had moments of lunacy and hysteria. Hormones are no joke but they were a good scapegoat. Yep, I was blaming it all on my mommy hormones.
“Babe,” Killian said as he opened the shower door.
I shrieked and flailed back, knocking into the tile and nearly falling. Killian grabbed and steadied me before I brained myself on the faucet.
“Sheesh, you're wired,” Killian noted. Then he frowned. “Are you all right?”
“I just didn't sleep well,” I murmured as I turned off the water. “Sorry, I got you wet.”
“Yeah, that's supposed to go the other way around,” Killian teased. He frowned again when I didn't laugh. “Seren? That was a joke. You're supposed to express amusement at it. The traditional form is laughter.”
“Right. Sorry.” I grabbed a towel and started drying off. “I need coffee.”
“Well, maybe this will wake you up.” He grinned. “I found something.”
I straightened. “What? Evidence or a vision?”
“A vision.” Killian grinned. “I was about to give up. We were leaving and as I walked through the parking lot, I saw this.” Killian pulled something out of his pocket and held it up.
“A button?”
Killian nodded. “A button that one of the Alp Luachras pulled off a human.”
“So, you saw the human?” I asked.
“At first, all I saw was the Alp Luachra's hand as he grabbed the human's shirt. He was being forced into a van and was fighting back.”
“Good for him,” I growled.
“Yeah and good for us too. The Alp Luachra had held the button too briefly to make a dominant impression. My vision went back further, showing me what the human had been looking at before he'd loaded the Alp Luachras onto the van. And the human happened to be the driver. I saw him type an address into his phone's GPS.”
“Killian, this is what we've been looking for!” I exclaimed.
“Yep. We got 'em.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Drostan was sitting at the dining table in a set of classy pajamas and a robe, reading a newspaper and drinking coffee from a teacup when my husbands, my guards, and I stampeded downstairs. Williams and the extinguishers were just crossing the patio, all geared up. It looked as if the extinguishers who'd stayed behind with Killian had notified their buddies of Killian's button-vision.
“What's happened?” Drostan set his paper down and straightened.
“I found them,” Killian said excitedly.
I tried to avoid Drostan's stare but I could still feel it on me.
“How?” Drostan asked.
“My psychometry. I found a button, of all things,” Kill said. “It came off one of Alicia's thugs and he happened to be the driver. I saw him enter an address into his GPS.”
“That's...” Drostan stood up suddenly. “Give me just a moment to change.”
“You don't have to come with us,” I protested, finally looking at him.
Drostan's stare flared with intensity as it met mine. There was no anger or shame or even condemnation in his eyes, only need—lust so sharp that it practically slapped me.
“I insist. I want to see this through,” Drostan declared and then hurried off.
“Sorry,” I said to the extinguishers as they came into the house. “Drostan wants to join us. He's gone to get dressed.”
“Get dressed? He was sitting here naked?” Murdock joked.
Everyone chuckled, the excitement of getting a good lead making the joke funnier than it was. I, however, didn't laugh. The word “naked” instantly brought to mind a visual of Drostan in that very state, kneeling over his lover's face. It was all I could do to keep from blushing.
“Nah,” Conri said. “He was in his pajamas like fucking Hugh Hefner.”
“Coffee?” Ana offered as she came into the room with a laden tray. She set it down on the table and started unloading everything. “And there are fresh scones.”
“You're an angel!” Conri declared as he dove for a scone and then a mug.
The rest of us descended in Conri's wake while Ana went to get another carafe of coffee with a pleased grin on her face. Drostan didn't take all that long to change but by the time he returned, dressed in deep brown fighting leathers of fey make, there were only crumbs left.
I eyed the gun Drostan had strapped to his belt—so out of place against the fairy clothing—and lifted an eyebrow at him.
“Just in case,” he said grimly.
“You've been among humans too long, Your Excellency,” Felix said.
“Magic can be drained, Sir Felix,” Drostan replied as he headed for the door. “I don't want to be caught—as the humans put it—standing there with only my dick in my hand.”
We streamed out of the house after him and climbed into the SUVs. I said a prayer of thanks to Anu when Drostan climbed into a different SUV than mine. Killian gave the address to all of the drivers before he slid into the seat beside me. We screeched away from the house just as sunrise began to burn its way into true day. We quickly left Drostan's wealthy neighborhood behind but then drove for long enough to set my toes tapping. Finally, we pulled up to a curb and parked in an industrial area near the train tracks. It had a bleak look to it, even with the bright blue sky overhead, and the only people around were the homeless, sleeping in the alleys between the towering brick structures.
I got out of the SUV and looked around. “This feels wrong.”
“Yeah.” Killian had lost all of his excitement and stood staring around warily. “This goes without saying but everyone be on guard.”
“It's that one.” Williams pointed at a building directly beside the train tracks at
the end of the street.
Sloane sent a few extinguishers around to secure the back of the building while the rest of us located the front door. It had been boarded up but someone had pried the boards off and left the door ajar.
The extinguishers went in first, silent and graceful—every step placed carefully. My guards went next and should have had no problem maintaining the silence. But Conri let out a low growl—a warning sound that made gooseflesh rise on my arms.
“What the fuck?” Sloane hissed over his shoulder at Conri.
“Blood,” Raza said grimly as his eyes flared gold.
