by Lizzy Ford
“If I come after you, I’m not letting you go until I’m ready.”
Her breath stuck in her throat at those words. She’d hoped he’d give up when he realized she wasn’t falling for his magick. The idea he’d pursue her thrilled her and terrified her. He wasn’t going to let her go, if she didn’t meet his challenge.
She eased away from the back of the couch. With more calm than she thought she had, she lowered her legs to the space between his and met his gaze. His magick was warring with her self-control; he’d win soon. He knew it.
“I dare you to kiss me once and walk away,” she said.
“Nice try.”
“Not for my sake,” she said carefully. “I don’t think you can do it. Fire, water, spirit … you thrive on impulse.”
He appeared amused. Autumn felt herself slide into his magick. Drawn to him, she leaned forward when he did, anticipating the kiss.
“I’ll accept your dare on one condition,” he whispered. “Next time, it’s on my terms.”
“You seem confident there will be a next time.”
She was aroused before he took her face in his hands. Fire tore through her, evaporating what was left of her control and making the furnace in her lower stomach blaze. In that moment, she knew she’d not just let him do what he wanted, she’d beg him to. Her skin felt raw, the cool brush of his shadows tickling the sensitive areas at her neck. Her eyes closed, and she waited with a hunger that needed to be sated.
His lips were hot and soft against hers, his kiss much gentler than she expected. He teased her with the light pressure. His velvet tongue slid between her lips as his kiss grew deep. He tasted as mysterious as he smelled, a mix of man and night, of danger and magick. His scent, taste and fire filled her, made her forget everything from her pain to where she was. Autumn never thought she’d want anyone to claim her, not if it meant giving up her control.
Right now, she wanted nothing else than to be consumed, to feel the heat and strength of his body pressed against hers.
Mine.
As his magicks spread through her body, some part of her knew she belonged right here, with Decker. Her own restraint no longer seemed …natural, not when Decker was meant to claim her.
He released her face first then broke off the kiss. Autumn opened her eyes, gazing at him. She was breathing quickly, and his gaze was dark with desire.
“There will be a next time.” The huskiness and need in his voice thrilled her. “One-one. We’re even.”
No part of her was able to rein in what she felt. Even without his touch, she was lost to him. Some part of her was triumphant to see him affected as well. It was a small victory, one she wasn’t certain was a victory at all, especially not if it meant he was going to ensure there was a next time.
“We’ll finish this later.” He winced suddenly.
Autumn shifted back as he rose and strode away. She didn’t hear the door open, but she sensed his magick leave.
Her body shook from the effects of his fire. It took her a few minutes before her head returned to her and the passion coursing through her body began to fade. She closed her eyes and concentrated on breathing deep to steady herself and reinstall her self-control. When she did, she realized how close she’d come to crossing the point of no return. She’d been willing to do anything, go anywhere, let him consume her with his fire and water, no matter what the consequences.
Mine. Was it her thought or his? It came at the point when she’d convinced herself she was meant to be claimed. Or maybe, when he convinced her?
Autumn shook her head, unable to shake off the sensations lingering after his kiss. She couldn’t tell what part of her reaction to him was caused by his magick and what part was natural attraction. He’d seduced her. But she’d wanted him to since the first time they met. She’d wanted to be absorbed in him, because she belonged with him.
Decker’s kiss. A fire. A cabin.
A headache hit her hard as the memory almost formed, yanking her out of the lingering fire. Autumn gripped her head with both hands.
Touched by the kindness he showed this night and that of the football game, she couldn’t quite swallow the idea that he killed people or that she’d let herself fall for his strange game of seduction. She was stronger than that. She was stronger than him. She thrived on their interactions. He didn’t back down. He didn’t hold back. He didn’t treat her like others did, like she was someone who should be pitied.
The combination of his fire and the chilled air magick in her blood was enough to drive her crazy. What was it like to surrender to something that wasn’t pain? To truly feel alive without worry or fear? She felt it in his kiss, a promise of what awaited her. She’d felt something else in him: a struggle, not for control with her, but an internal battle.
Maybe with the strange presence she’d sensed on the cliff?
Her migraine grew stronger, until she was ready to throw up. It took all her strength to force herself to stop thinking about him. Exhausted, exhilarated, Autumn reached for the remote and lay down. She couldn’t walk with this headache. She’d rest until she could return to her room.
She prayed he didn’t mean to return tonight. She didn’t have the strength to resist. Uncertain if she should when the kiss was so natural, she nonetheless wanted to be with him by her choice, not because the shadows influenced her.
Chapter Eight
Decker returned to his dorm room and reached for the knife on top of his dresser. His hand trembled hard. He knocked the weapon to the floor. The voices in his head were at a scream that threatened to drop him to the floor. The sense that a soul had gone bad slammed against his brain.
The blond girl was right: he had no control over the elements, not when it came to her. As much as he wanted to think he’d walked away, he knew the call-out was all that saved either of them from what he’d wanted to do to her.
There was something about her he hadn’t quite figured out. Something hidden, like a pearl in a clamshell. The sense was too fleeting. He’d thought he misread her the first time they met at the cliff. This time, he was certain the girl was more of a mystery than he’d thought. He just didn’t know what that meant.
Heart racing, he gripped the edge of the dresser with both hands to support himself. She’d silenced the voices and the Dark side of him with her passion. He’d wanted to lose himself in her soft skin and scent, the taste of her honey. Worse, he’d wanted to claim her as he had Summer, to make her his, and not for a single night. For every night of his life.
She felt like Summer! How was it possible?
He couldn’t get over the sensations remaining from the incredible kiss or his horror. Summer died three months ago today. It was supposed to be his day to honor and remember her. Instead, he was compelled to someone else and considering replacing the love of his life with a girl whose name he didn’t even know. Was he so weak that he fell for the first pretty face that tempted him?
You must not make the same mistake you did with Summer. We will protect her from you, but you must let the Darkness control you, Bartholomew told him.
With a frustrated roar, Decker shoved his school books onto the floor.
“I can come back.”
Was this voice inside his head? Unable to tell, he sucked in deep breaths. The wild magick in his blood began to settle. When his limited control return, he snatched the knife from the floor. Straightening, he noticed for the first time that someone was in his room.
A girl was under the sheet of his bed. By the outline of her body, she was naked. It took him a moment to register the familiar face of an ex-girlfriend.
“Alexa,” he said. “What’re you doing here?”
“I heard you’ve got an open invitation to your bed for Dark girls. Thought I’d take you up on the offer.”
The call-out was demanding his attention. He grabbed a jacket from the closet. He’d need the brief comfort he found in a woman’s body tonight. He wanted it to be the blond girl. With her in his bed, he’d never
need anyone else. He’d never want to leave, either.
His final act of failure: betraying Summer. There was no other line for him to cross. He was weak, broken. Maybe it was better that Summer died. She deserved so much better than him. The blond girl did, too. She deserved someone like his brother, who had already staked a claim at the football game.
Decker hated himself more this night than most.
“You want me to come back later?” Alexa asked, disappointment in her voice.
“No. Stay here. I’ll be back in a bit,” he said then paused, gauging the level of fire in his blood. “You got any friends you can invite over?”
“What?”
“I’m gonna need a couple of you.”
“I … I guess.” She sounded pissed.
Decker didn’t care. He summoned his shadows and let them take him to the call-out. The Darkness didn’t claim him as it had most nights. Instead, he remained wired and hyperaware, his emotions at a scream with the voices.
The Dark side of him roared for blood. Like sex and drugs, it was a temporary fix and a high that got him through a few more hours.
The shadows took him to the bad soul across the world. It was dark, balmy and warm where they left him. He smelled the ocean on the breeze.
Music blared, and the scents and smoke from marijuana and cigarettes rolled into the street from the party in the apartment overlooking the alley in which Decker stood. He sought the entrance to the building and walked through the hallways, until he found a stairwell to the fourth floor. Down another corridor, he found the party. People, trash and alcohol spanned across several apartments.
Using his magick, he reached out to identify where the newly Dark soul was and followed his instincts. He jostled his way through the humans, unconcerned with them, when the prey he hunted was nearby.
He sensed several witchlings here, both Dark and Light. The Darkness was creeping into his mind again, ready to take control of his body. He wanted … needed it to help him this night, after kissing the blond girl.
The soul he sought wasn’t in the main room. He walked through the first hallway and opened one door. The couple within was in the throes of sex. The sight left him aroused, the fire in his blood adding to his agitated magick. They were humans, not witchlings.
He went to the second door and opened it. Five witchlings – three Light, one Dark and one newly Dark – were gathered around a pentagram. In the center of the pentagram was the pale, naked body of a brunette. Two of the Light witchlings – both girls – were crying. He sensed by the Light Law broken that someone had tried blood magick to help the human girl in the center, who had overdosed.
She was dead. There was no bringing her back. His eyes took in her pale skin and the dark hair fanning around her head. She was built much like the soul mate he’d lost. An image of Summer’s naked body in the moonlight flashed through his thoughts. He’d spent a weekend with her in his parent’s cabin, making love to her and learning more about the girl meant to be his mate.
The vision in his head changed. Summer was replaced by the blond girl whose kiss destroyed what little Decker held sacred: the memory of his time Summer. He shouldn’t have kissed the blond. He’d failed Summer in life. He’d betrayed her in death.
Tonight is the night you choose. Bartholomew-the-Terrible said. If you kill enough Light witchlings, the Darkness will take away your pain.
Guilt rose, followed by resolve. Decker stared at the body then turned his gaze to the three Light witchlings. All eyes were on him. Judging by the glazed looks, they were drugged. Only one had the sense to look terrified when she recognized that the Dark Master stood in their midst.
Decker hesitated. The Light witchlings were innocent, their eyes already red with tears from crying over their friend.
You’ll have peace at last, Bartholomew told him. Everyone you love will be protected from what you are. All you have to do is kill them.
With a deep breath, Decker turned to close the door and lock it. He stretched his neck and rolled his shoulders. The Darkness was at the edge of his mind, waiting to see what he chose to do.
Decker withdrew the knife and wound his fingers through the hair of the nearest Light witchling, pulling her head back to expose her vulnerable neck.
Was he ready to cross the point of no return?
He paused. The Darkness seized his body without taking his mind. It made his wrist flick. Blood spurted over his hands, the scent and warmth making him shudder with pleasure- and horror of what he’d done. The witchling sank to his feet, the light in her eyes dying.
The others began screaming, but not for long. Decker killed the newly Dark witchling before the Darkness seized his mind and took over the slaughter. Decker fell into the calm, gentle depths of his mind. The pain, fury, frustration, shame … all disappeared. He relaxed in the quiet place, unconcerned with what the Darkness did with his body.
Suddenly, it returned his mind and body to him. Decker jolted back into himself and the emotions. Blood soaked him, calming him. He looked around, taken aback by the carnage the Darkness committed. The knife was clenched in his hand and dripped with blood.
He couldn’t help feeling uneasy. Was Darkness really his only escape? Sometimes, when the voices in his head were quiet enough, he was able to hear his own instincts. They didn’t always agree with Bartholomew.
Someone knocked at the door. Decker collected the amulets and destroyed them all, one-by-one. Claiming the souls made him high. He ordered his shadows to take him back to the dorm. They complied, and he materialized in his room.
“Oh, my god,” Alexa breathed from the bed. “Are you okay?”
His gaze fell to her, a new hunger rising hard and fast. He stripped out of his clothing and strode to his bed.
“I thought I told you to bring a friend,” he growled.
“I can handle you,” she said, a mix of fear and desire on her face.
She’d never outlast him. That much he knew. She pulled her to him, and he went willingly, losing himself in her scent and warm skin. Within moments, she was writhing and crying out in ecstasy beneath him. His lust wasn’t so easily satisfied, and he licked, nipped, touched and buried himself inside her over and over. She was exhausted long before he was ready to quit, but he rolled away at last. She kissed his face and sank into sleep.
The fire still burned too strong. He didn’t bother with the valium tonight. Nothing was going to take the edge off. The blood high wore down, followed by the sex high. He waited for both to settle before taking a long shower.
He’d killed Light witchlings. There was no going back.
Beck would know. As Master of Light, he’d sense when a member of his herd was threatened by magick just as Decker knew when a soul went bad. He let the hot water wash over him then shut it off.
He had one more important thing to do before his brother declared war on him for killing innocent witchlings. Decker wiped his face, dried off quickly then dressed in dark clothing. He’d wanted to visit the cliff all day to honor Summer, only to have his efforts disturbed by call-outs and a certain blond girl that kept appearing at all the wrong times. If Bartholomew was right about the Darkness coming for him, there wouldn’t be another anniversary. He had to go tonight.
Decker materialized on the cliff. His eyes went first to the disturbed snow where he’d found the blond girl earlier in the day, spouting nonsense about second chances and flat out defying him. His gaze followed the footsteps that led her from the forbidden corridor to the cliff. Her cane made little holes in the snow, and he dwelled upon how strange it was that the girl who stood up to him was the most fragile of anyone he’d met.
Small and slender, her blue eyes arrested him the first time he saw them. There was something soulful there, the knowledge of what it was to feel pain deeper than life. Her body was toned despite her injuries and the pronounced limp. She wore her blond curls down, and they framed her heart-shaped face. Pillowy lips, delicate features …
The desire in h
is blood burned hot again at the memory of her spirit. The blond girl hadn’t melted at his seduction magick. She’d known she was in danger this night and dared him to walk away. She’d been sharp but also innocent, her blushes and timid kiss convincing him she’d probably never been with anyone.
After Summer, he wasn’t about to be the first for anyone else. He was purposely not thinking about how the blond girl’s touch quieted the clamor of his head and repelled the Darkness. What he felt now didn’t matter. He’d taken another step towards the Darkness, one he didn’t think it was possible to recover from.
Decker fingered the delicate ring he wore next to his amulet. He’d given the promise ring with a pink sapphire to Summer the day before she died. Guilt and sorrow filled him. Today was supposed to be about Summer, and he was thinking about – no, desperate to claim! – another girl.
If only he hadn’t returned to find her where he stood now, slumped over her cane. The shadows told him how much pain she was in. She wasn’t going to make it back to the school by herself. She pissed him off – and intrigued him. Every interaction with her left his body humming with awareness.
His mistake was carrying her back to the school. Holding her against him opened a connection between them that compelled him to stay when he should’ve left. He admired her ability to master her mind. It made him want her more.
That kiss…
Anger replaced his guilt. Anger at Summer, at himself, at the fragile blond girl that called out his weakness.
She’s Beck’s, he told himself again, not wanting to be interested in any girl for more than physical pleasure. He didn’t want to remember the girls he took to bed with him. He’d been trying desperately to replace the memories of his nights with Summer.
The more girls he slept with, the stronger his memories of Summer. The release the women gave his body was too temporary, and they did nothing to quell his mind, like Summer had. He’d had an oasis with her, a place where the chorus in his head was silent.
Like he did when he kissed the blond girl. He’d be able to lose himself in her like he did Summer.
