by K. F. Breene
“It doesn’t change anything major, though, right?” I asked.
He shrugged as I wrapped my arms around his middle, his eyes softening and his breath dusting my face. “Not your friendship, anyway. Or her annoyance of another person in her house.” He smiled. “As for our lives down the road, who’s to say? I thought my life would be over by now. And yet…” He bent to kiss me, running his lips across mine.
“I love you too,” I said against his lips, and my stomach flipped over. “It’s deep, it’s constant, and it will never go away. I can feel that as strongly as I feel the nature around me. It’s a certainty. I don’t know that I believe in fate, or soul mates, but…”
“I do.” His lips curved. “Or, I should say, I do now.” He went in for another kiss.
The pounding ache was back, deep in my middle, and then lower and lower. Heat unfurled within my body as our kiss deepened. I pulled him by the neck toward the bed before settling on it. He lay on top of me, the weight of his body pushing me into the soft mattress.
“Will you make love to me, Emery?” I asked, my voice filled with lust and longing. I couldn’t hide the quiver of doubt, though. The fear of what was to come. Of how this might change things.
“Are you sure?” he asked softly, his hips pushing forward, applying pressure where I needed it most.
My body responded eagerly, desperate and needy. A glorious fever broke across my skin, and suddenly I’d never been so sure of anything in my entire life.
“Yes.” It was spoken on a sigh, and he didn’t hold back any more. He pulled up the bottom of my shirt before tugging it over my head. My bra went next before he fastened his hot mouth on my budded nipple.
His fingers worked at my pants and I struggled with his belt, ripping it open before sliding his pants down. He yanked his shirt away and I marveled at his hard chest, corded with defined muscle. Power and strength in a gorgeous package.
Skin on skin, frenzied kissing. Then his frame went taut, signaling a struggle for control. No, I wouldn’t let him hold back now. I took hold of his face, kissing him more deeply, my heart pounding as hard as my core.
“No, wait,” he said, out of breath. “Wait.” He leaned his forehead against mine. “Are you still…” He licked his lips. “Will I be your first?”
“Yes.” I stroked the side of his cheek.
He shuddered softly. “I love you.” He captured my lips before backing off again, his body tensing. “I need to be completely in control for your first time. I’m scared I’m going to hurt you.”
“That’s kind of how it goes, isn’t it?” I said, my voice breathy. “You can’t really get around that.”
“I know, but…”
I felt his heat against me. Yearning made me reach out for him.
And then my mother’s obnoxious voice sounded in my ear.
“Hold on,” I said, and he practically jumped off me.
“It’s okay. We can wait. I know this is a huge decision—”
“Would you relax?” I laughed, letting out a little pent-up nervousness, and dug through my nightstand drawer. I checked the date on the foil packet before handing it over with a burning face. “I thought you’d be back sooner. But they last a while, so we’re good.”
His eyes, so deep, so full of emotion, watched me settle back onto the bed. He ran a hand up my thigh, over my belly, beside my breast, and up to my chin before lowering himself over me. Softly, he touched his lips to mine.
“You are a dream come true in a life full of nightmares.” His lips traced my jaw. “You’re my savior, Penny, and I’m honored you have chosen me. That you had enough faith in us—in me—to wait for me. I am completely undeserving, but I know how lucky I am to have found you.”
He drifted down my body then, stalling in various places before gliding his lips to my apex. I arched and gasped, relishing in the tremors the warm pressure of his mouth sent through my body. My knees drifted wider and I clutched at the pillow, soaking it in. My loud moan saw him headed back up, his kisses soft but urgent. Needy.
“Here we go,” he said under his breath, and I heard the foil crinkle.
His body was shaking, and it wasn’t from pent-up need.
I smiled as he took my hands and lifted them above my head, entwining our fingers. Crinkles of skin folded at the corners of his eyes.
When I smiled, he shuddered out a laugh. “I’m really nervous,” he said.
“I’m not.” My smile melted away as a strong, deep feeling took over me. “I’m not even remotely nervous. I’ve been waiting for this moment. For you. For this life. I was always going to end up here. My path was full of zigzags, but there’s no one else I could’ve ended up with. Or you. The proof is all around us.” I let my head fall to the side, and his gaze followed.
Magic jumped and danced within the room, all different colors and patterns. Swirls and mini-explosions, it was beauty in movement. I felt his body against mine, the silk at my back, the heated air between us and the chill beyond. I felt connected, utterly. Balanced, completely. At one with him and my surroundings.
“Look at me, Penny,” he commanded softly.
Our eyes met, and he thrust.
41
A bang sounded at the door and Emery awoke immediately, lifting his hand to weave a spell.
“No, no, no,” Penny said sleepily, pulling down his hand and wrapping it back around her.
“What the hell?” Reagan shouted through the door. “You get a boyfriend and suddenly I can’t kick open your door without breaking shit? That ain’t right, Penny. That ain’t right. Wake up! It’s time to kick some ass.”
A glance at the clock said it was ten a.m. Light glowed around the curtains in the room.
Emery dropped his hand to Penny’s bare shoulder and turned his head so he could breathe in the fragrance of her hair. His heart swelled and he closed his eyes, soaking in the feeling of her body curled around his and her leg splayed across his thigh.
A fierce protectiveness surged through him, followed by a sense of humbled honor.
How the hell had he gotten so lucky? What trick of the universe had landed him here, with her? Lying with her like this, after the experience he’d shared with her last night…he never wanted to leave her ever again. Not for a moment. She was his, and every fiber of his being was absolutely hers.
But then, he always had been hers. He knew that now. He’d just been fighting it.
She stirred and pulled back enough to peel open a blue eye before offering him a sleepy smile and settling back onto his chest. “Morning.”
Another thud on the door. “Get up,” Reagan called. “They have to repair the front door anyway. What’s one more door? That’s a warning. Heed it.”
“She’s not kidding. She will come in here.” Penny rolled to her back, grimacing. “Ow.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Sore. It sucks that women have all this drama with losing our virginity. Kind of a dick move on the creator’s part. No pun intended.”
He turned and propped up on an elbow, watching her slowly wake up. “Regrets?”
She rubbed her eyes, blinked another few times, and met his gaze. Her eyes sparkled with emotion and a smile tugged at her lips. “Obviously no regrets, but with all the hubbub the world makes about losing your virginity, you’d think there would be balloons and dancing monkeys or something. But nope, just some pain, eventually followed by soreness.”
“So I was terrible?”
She laughed and snuggled into him. “I think you know better. Those sounds weren’t made by a bored or unhappy woman.”
He kissed her shoulder. “I’d say you could’ve been faking it, but I do know better. If you hadn’t been into it, you probably would have told me.”
“Last warning, you filthy buggers,” Reagan called through the door. “I imagine by now that the Guild has gotten a tip about what we’re doing today. I told Callie to mention it to her people in passing. Someone is bound to have leaked it. The Guild is su
rely readying for an attack as we speak.”
The moment faded away as reality seeped into Emery. He softly rubbed her back. “I only have a vague knowledge of what Reagan’s magic should be able to do. Very vague. This sounds like a suicide mission.”
“Yes, it does.” Penny sighed, patted his side, and rolled away. “But that’s kind of how she rolls. Besides, my mother said this was the way. We know to listen to my mother. Man, did you just hear what I said? And to think, I thought one day I wouldn’t have to. Congratulations, universe, you win.”
He laughed and pulled the sheets away, climbing from the bed. His clothes lay on the floor where he’d left them, dirty from the day before. “I don’t suppose we can go to the Bankses and get another change of clothing before we storm the castle?”
“Doubtful. Reagan’s will probably be dirty—”
“Five, four…”
“Hurry up,” Penny said, pulling on her shirt.
“Three, two…”
“Go, go, go—” Penny reached the door, threw the lock, and opened it in harried, panic-stricken movements.
Reagan paused with her foot in the air and her hands balanced to the sides, ready to kick. A smile graced her face and she lowered her foot. “Barely. Just barely.”
Penny huffed at her and turned back to finish getting dressed.
“Hurry up,” Reagan said. “I want to get the show on the road.”
“Have you told Darius about this?” Penny asked.
“No.” Reagan filled the doorway, wearing her standard uniform of leather pants, a tank top, and her hair in a ponytail. “Let’s see how he likes secrets. And it’s day, so when the shenanigans wake him up, he’ll be half panicked, knowing I did something stupid.”
“You two have such a strange relationship.” Penny pulled on a sweater before bending to her utility belt. She slowed, then cocked her head. A moment later, she stood up slowly, her eyes on me and her brow furrowed. “We do need to go to the Bankses’ house. There is something there we need.”
“I don’t need to—”
She held her hand up. “No, it’s…” Her eyes went distant. Then she shrugged. “Something has arrived. We need to pick it up. I feel it. It’s important, whatever it is.”
Reagan cocked her hip. “I didn’t think you had any of your mom’s talents.”
“I don’t really.” Penny bent to the collection of stones, loading some into her utility belt. “Not where it is actually useful. I only get vague inklings every now and again, and plenty of questionable intuition.”
“Well, super. In that case, sure. To the Bankses’ we will go,” Reagan said sarcastically.
Despite her tone, she hadn’t been lying. To the Bankses they did go. Penny dashed out of the vehicle (a new loaner from Darius—a Mercedes SUV), rang the bell, hugged her friend from Seattle, and brought back a plain brown package that looked awfully familiar.
“I sent that,” Emery said, something in him clicking in a hollow, strange way. Like Fate’s hand had reached through time, pushing him to take the risk to collect that stone and send it so that it would be back in time for this very fight. He knew it was a coincidence. It had to be. But…
Only dimwitted fools believe in coincidences.
Oh great, now he had Ms. Bristol’s voice in his head. That couldn’t be good.
“Here.” She handed up the package from the back seat.
“We stopped here to get a rock?” Reagan said, backing out of the driveway as Callie came to the door with a frown. They hadn’t filled Callie and Dizzy in on what we were doing, knowing they’d insist on coming.
“Yeah.” Penny didn’t elaborate.
Emery tried to hand it back. “I sent this for you. I hadn’t realized I would be coming back myself when I mailed it. Or that it would take so long to get here. The mail is really slow overseas.”
“Open it. It’ll be faster.” She waggled her finger at him.
“Right.” He shook his head as he took down the layered spell and then handed the package back.
She tore through the paper, a hungry gleam in her eyes. Clearly she liked presents. He had to remember that. After opening the package, she stared down into the box for a second, a blank look on her face. She cocked her head. Then handed the package back.
“I know it’s not the best looker of the ones I sent,” he started.
“No, it is not,” Reagan said after catching a glance.
“You must’ve known you were coming back on some level,” Penny said. “It’s not interested in me. It’s interested in you.” A line formed between her brows and she put her palm on one of the compartments on her utility belt. “And Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky wants to tango with it. Seriously, Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky is high-maintenance. Thank you for the gift, but I’m not so sure I’m liking it.”
“Holy crap are you weird,” Reagan said.
Penny’s brow furrowed as she harrumphed and looked out the window. Emery laughed at their antics while taking the rock out of the package. It felt good to have it back. He felt its pulse vibrate through his hand and then burrow deeper, into his body. It echoed outward, joining the bubble of magic within the car, and reacting to the connection he felt with Penny with a fizzing sensation. As soon as he got out of the car, he had a feeling his connection with the natural world would be enhanced too.
“I really did send this back for you,” he said in a wispy voice as they exited the highway.
“Or maybe for my safekeeping,” Penny said, unperturbed.
“Okay.” Reagan turned off the radio. “We’re getting close to the warehouse now. Here’s the situation. It’s a day like any other. As far as they know, we’re going to the warehouse to train. Of course, what we’re really going to do is load up with some spells. I have a bunch of herbs and crap out there, plus color-coded casings. I don’t care what spell goes in what color. I won’t be using them. You do what you want. Don’t use all your energy. Oh, and we should set up some wards and tripwires or something, I don’t know. We’ll play that by ear—”
“Play that by ear?” Penny leaned around the seat in an effort to see Reagan’s face. “Are you kidding? That’s one of the first things we have to do if we’re going to do it. Not to mention we’ll have to make sure they didn’t beat us there and set traps of their own.”
“Yeah, I know. So when we get there, we should have a think. Then we do the spells, and eventually they’ll feel like they’re ready to make their attack, and the show will begin.”
“What—” Penny fell back against the seat. “I don’t think there is a worse planner in all the world. I really don’t. Why turn off the music for that? You’re basically saying we should get out and wander around like dopes.”
“Yes. Perfect. I’m in,” Reagan said. “Let’s get there, get out, wander around like dopes, and see what grabs us.”
“Unreal,” Penny muttered from the backseat.
Laughter bubbled up through Emery, light and joyous, which was very strange, because the three of them were about to challenge an entire host. They were basically going up against all the king’s horses and all the king’s men, and trying not to end up like Humpty Dumpty. It was madness. All of this was madness. Their probability of success had to be so low it was negligible. And yet…
He blew out a breath and looked out at the slightly overcast day. Up ahead on his side stood the warehouse, waiting for them like a great, empty beast. “Madness,” he murmured, the first traces of uncertainty worming through his gut.
“That’s how you know you’re doing the right thing. When the odds are severely stacked against you,” Reagan said, turning into the small lane leading up to the warehouse.
“I think you’ve got the wrong idea about how math works,” Penny muttered from the back.
“Did you talk to Red this morning?” Emery asked as they parked, trying to hunt out any glimmering spells around the area. Nothing jumped out, but wards without additional spell work woven in would be invisible.
“Yeah, that good-
for-nothing dog turd.” Reagan parked and pushed the door open. “He’s thinking the mage count must be in the eighties.”
Emery’s joints stiffened and fear bled through him. Suddenly, he couldn’t seem to force himself to open the door. He had his hand on the handle, but it refused to move.
“Are you okay?” Penny asked softly.
“What are we doing, Penny?” he whispered, his body starting to shake. Eighty? That was madness. Madness! Last night he and Penny couldn’t defeat a comparatively tiny host.
Eighty? It was impossible. They would never make it out.
She would never make it out.
After his parents had died, he’d loved exactly three people in his life. Real, honest-to-God love. One as a brother, one as a surrogate son, and now Penny.
He’d lost his brother. He’d helped kill his surrogate father after the man betrayed them.
He could not lose Penny. He couldn’t send her in there to die. It wasn’t in him.
“We need to leave now,” he said, taking his hand away from the handle. “We need to run.”
42
I stilled in the back seat, never having seen Emery like this. Even in the dire situations, when all hope was lost, he hadn’t once panicked.
For some reason, that calmed me. Chased away my own panic.
“What’s up?” I asked, reaching forward to lay my hand on his shoulder.
“Even with Reagan, we don’t have the power to go up against eighty people. It’s impossible.”
“It could only be fifty. Red must have been guessing.”
“Or it could be a hundred.”
I squeezed his shoulder. “My mother is backing this idea. That means there is a real chance we’ll come out ahead. And your foresight didn’t go off— Wait, did your foresight go off?” He shook his head, his face pale. “Right. There you go. It does sound impossible, that’s true. But look, you have your new power stone, and it has faith in you. And a lot of power, actually. We have Reagan. She’s incredible, she really is. And we can get hundreds of casings stored up. She brought a bunch with her from her secret stash at home, remember? Some are probably even ours. She stole them from the vampires.”
