by Romi Hart
“I got it from Daddy’s liquor cabinet, of course.”
The New Breed around the fire hooted encouragement. Victor lifted the bottle, but before he could put it to his lips, Conrad sang out, “Toast! Give us a toast!”
The circle of glowing faces shone. Shouts echoed into the Quag. “Toast! You’re the man, Victor.”
He hoisted the liquor aloft and surveyed the ring of gleaming countenances beaming at him. “All right. Here’s to allies, new and old. May we all live to fight together for many years to come.”
“Here, here!” everyone called back.
Victor tipped up the bottle and took a shot of the amber liquid before he passed it on. He held it out to Finn….and stopped. He glanced across the fire at Lincoln and a charge of understanding traveled from one man to the other.
Victor shoved the bottle into Finn’s hand and heaved to his feet. He lumbered out of the firelight into the trees. His big, booming voice drifted to Claire’s ears. “You boys come on over and get something to eat. No need for you to stay out here in the dark.”
He came back with the Special Forces guys in tow. The men slunk into the ring and the New Breed made room for them. In a second, the soldiers were all sharing food and drink and conversation with their former enemies.
Claire cuddled closer to Finn watching the barriers fall all around her. Maybe the fate of Anarock wasn’t so desperate as they thought. If the New Breed and the military could come to an understanding here, maybe the rest of the world would come to their senses sooner rather than later.
19
Victor shook hands with Damien. “You boys take it easy. I would tell you to have a safe flight home, but I don’t think you’ll bump into anything that can stand against you.”
“You’re right.” Damien grasped that hand and pulled Victor into a bear hug. “Don’t you worry about Daddy. We’ll straighten him out before you ever have to lay eyes on him again.”
Victor clapped him on the back. “Thanks, man. I don’t think I could face him with this hanging over my head.”
“You leave him to me. He keeps saying I’m supposed to take over the family business after him, so I guess I can start now.”
Victor puffed out his breath. “Thanks.”
Damien backed away. “See you around the block.”
Pablo and Conrad came forward. They and Lucy shook hands with Victor one after the other. “Thanks for a great time tonight. You can definitely count on us getting involved more in the future.”
They took their leave and walked away. They formed a line over by the creek. The firelight shone on their cheeks for a second. Then, in the blink of an eye, they vanished into thin air. Conrad sank into the dark Earth. The others vaporized and then ceased to be.
Claire let out her breath. They would be home in a matter of minutes. They would walk into that house and…She didn’t want to think about them dealing with the fallout of flouting their father.
Victor’s shoulders slumped and he sighed. Then he gathered his resolve and spun around to face the village. When he did, he saw Finn and Claire standing there with their arms around each other.
He paused for a second before he strode toward them. “Are you two going home, too? You don’t have to stay here when you have a comfortable bed waiting for you on the other end.”
Claire didn’t know what to say. She didn’t feel right letting her brothers and her sister deal with her father when she was the one who got them to thumb their noses at him in the first place. She should go home and face the music, but she didn’t want to leave. She felt more at home here in this war zone than she ever did in the house on St. Charles Avenue.
She wanted to stay around the Prometheus Crest. These people seemed more alive and more feeling than anyone she ever met. They pulsated with a vitality she didn’t find anywhere in SeamStream Crest. She didn’t want to lose that, but she had to go back where she belonged. She had to fulfill her obligations to her clan and her Crest.
Before she could say anything, Finn cut her off. “We’ll stick around until morning if you’ll have us.”
“Sure, man,” Victor exclaimed. “It’s always a pleasure. I’m just sorry I can’t offer you some more suitable accommodation.”
“Oh, will you shut it?” Finn blurted out. “Do you know how many times I’ve slept on the bare ground out here? I’m still the same man even if I am representing SeamStream Crest.”
Victor blinked. Then he rounded his shoulders and nodded. “Right. I keep forgetting that. Well, I’ll see you in there, I guess.”
He walked away toward the hut. Lamplight shone through the thatch. Lincoln, Lieutenant Wilkins, and a few other soldiers still sat around the fire swapping tales of high adventure and near-death battles.
Victor climbed the steps and disappeared into the crude house. More voices murmured inside, but the festive air that once enlivened the village subsided to a whisper. Claire observed the scene with a pang of nostalgia. She would probably never be a part of this. She would always be other.
On the other hand, if her father refused to see reason about this alliance, she might have to go live with Finn at Ogru-Kuche. She would become Prometheus Crest just like Riley. She might never be able to go home. Would that be so bad? She might become a warrior of the Prometheus Crest fighting the military in the Quag just like all these powerful shifters.
The idea gave her a squirm of excitement in her middle. She could think of worse ways to spend her life. She could even get used to sleeping on the ground out here as long as she was with Finn and they were fighting the same battles. She almost hoped her father wouldn’t take her back so she would have an excuse to do it.
Out of nowhere, Finn’s warm palm came to rest on her cheek. He turned her face toward him. For a second, his eyes caught her in their overpowering thrall. The next instant, his mouth closed over her and blocked out the whole world. She floated into his kiss. His fingers trailed into her hair and commanded her mouth to meet him in a hot, wet union of dreamy completion.
She swayed in his grasp. She didn’t know where they would do it, but she never doubted that was what he meant. While he enveloped her mouth in his delicious lips, her mind drifted over the surrounding area. She didn’t want to go into the hut with him. She wanted somewhere private, but where?
He pulled back and the distant orange flames shone off his moist pupils. She caught a breathless glimpse of his features smoldering in open desire for her. His full lips looked so hungry and hot she couldn’t control herself. She sobbed to taste him one more time.
He left her cold and alone, but only for a moment. He took her hand and lured her away to the dense, dark Quag. The wild, sultry bayou closed around them until the fire shrank to a speck.
She couldn’t make out the men’s voices. Nothing existed in the whole world but the two of them. The air swam through Finn’s lungs and came back to her. It whispered the same undeniable message. He wanted her and he wouldn’t be denied.
She needed to descend into him to the innermost depths of her being. She needed to lose herself in the cosmic joining of her body submitting to his every whim. She craved him in ravenous hunger, but she never worried that it would happen. He would take her. He would leave her satisfied and yearning for even more, forever.
She didn’t keep track of where he took her. He guided her footsteps through unknown terrain. He halted on the shores of an enormous lake reflecting the stars. It stretched out of sight to the far horizon. She didn’t know which lake it was and she didn’t care.
He swiveled her around to gaze over the lake and he slid in behind her. His black forearms glided around her waist and hugged her against him. His body slithered out of the night itself. The night was making love to her out here. It swathed her in the Quag itself and erased all taint of city life.
He flattened his dark hands against her stomach. He pressed her ass against his rod hardening between her butt cheeks. She sashayed her pelvis back and forth to feel his rigid member, but he kept her
standing upright. She had no choice but to look across the vast emptiness of this forgotten world while he carried her beyond the stars to Heaven.
His fingertips crept lower down her hips, but he managed to skip the burning slit between her legs. He scratched agonizing slow lines down her thighs and back up. He left her whimpering for more, for some contact with her smoking crotch.
He rocked her ass against his spike. She wanted to bend over, but he wouldn’t let her. Every inch of her skin burned for his touch. Her nipples pricked the night searching for the hands they needed so bad.
He glided his palms up her abdomen and inside her jacket. He massaged her chest, but that could never be enough even as it satisfied her deepest desire. She undulated against his solid form behind her. She whined for him, but he always would move at his own pace. He would take what he wanted the way he wanted.
He couldn’t touch her fast enough. He couldn’t cover all of her at once. When he squeezed her breasts in both angry fists and pinched her nipples between his knuckles, she wanted them between her legs. When he stroked down her belly to the sensitive skin along her sides, she wanted him to touch her breasts again.
She convulsed everywhere for him, for anything he would do to her. She pumped her ass into his package tightening his jeans. He throbbed through the stiff canvas. She wanted him inside her. he was too far away.
She almost burst into tears when he unhitched her fly and plunged his fingers into her panties. He dove into her damp fissure discovering all the most desperate places where she wanted him. Her knees sagged taking his fingers inside.
She released all thought to the endless sea of delight. She couldn’t tell anymore what she wanted or where. She knew only the blissful pleasure of his body moving behind her, his hardness drilling into her ass, and his fingers fondling the nodes of excitement in her channel.
She threw herself down on his hand. Her juices gushed over his palm and saturated her panties. She didn’t even care about that. She didn’t care if he ever took her or if this was the most he wanted of her.
His fingers left a slippery trail of honey across her thigh when he slithered out to pull her pants all the way down. He pushed them to her knees and left them there. He left her standing upright where she had to stare out at that lake, that bottomless void of emotion and meaning.
When he closed her in his embrace again, his naked shaft brushed her bare ass. She caught her breath in her throat waiting for the inevitable cataclysm to sweep her away.
How fitting that this adventure should end like this. She didn’t want to do it in front of all those people back at the village. She didn’t want to wonder if they heard her screaming in climax.
This lake, this dark moment on the surface of the unblemished Earth—he brought her here to the opposite extreme. No one knew where they were. No one would see. No one would hear. They were utterly alone in the world. Her father and her siblings would never know—not in that way, anyway.
The walls of the mansion on St. Charles Avenue wouldn’t observe her breaking down in rapt ecstasy. No one was thinking about her. This moment existed between her and Finn—no one else.
His fingers closed around her hips and steered her into him. She stiffened and he strapped his enormous biceps around her torso. He took possession of her and folded her onto his cock. He glided into the cavern waiting for him, prepared for him by acres of wetness. Her body didn’t resist, but what about the rest of her?
Now that he got hold of her, she melted in his powerful presence. His long shaft found its place where not one particle of space parted her from him. Now they were one. They were more than allies. They occupied the same space in the world. No one could tell where he ended and she began.
She floated out there above the shadowy waters. Her spirit explored the black distance below the surface and above it, beyond the clouds and beneath them, above the atmosphere and below it. She was everywhere in the mindless ecstasy of being.
20
Finn spread his arms and crushed Victor against his chest. He didn’t slap him on the back. He just held his friend and let emotion take him. A tear squeezed between his eyelids. Victor laughed in his ear, but when the big Anarock leader pushed him back, Finn saw tears on his cheeks.
Victor gripped the back of Finn’s neck and gave him a subtle shake. “You the man, Finn.”
Finn bit back a grin. “Shit, man. I ain’t nothing of the sort.”
Victor shot a glance at Claire. “When will I see you again?”
“Soon, I hope. It might be sooner than you think if Bernard decides to play hardball.”
“I wouldn’t worry too much about that,” Claire added. “Daddy can be stubborn about getting his way, but I trust Damien. I’m sure when we get home Daddy will act like none of this ever happened.”
“It happened, all right.” Victor took Claire’s hands and pressed them. “We’re allies now. Nothing can stop that.”
“I’m glad.” On an impulse, she raised his knuckles to her lips and kissed them. She didn’t know why, but she had to. “I’m sure we’ll have a few more meetings to iron out the logistics but consider those an afterthought.”
Finn peeked behind Victor’s back. “Are you sure about them?”
Victor followed his gaze. Lieutenant Wilkins and Lincoln Manning stood together in front of the only hut standing in this village. The other New Breed and the rest of the Special Forces squad sat and stood around them watching the visitors depart.
Victor smiled at Lieutenant Wilkins. “I’m sure, but what’s more important, Lincoln is sure. They’ll do what they can to integrate the squad into our society. It might take a while and I wouldn’t be surprised if the military sends another crew after them, but I don’t see that we have much choice. We have better things to do than to throw people out on their asses to face certain death from our enemies.”
Finn snorted to himself. “This must be the first time in history that a bunch of humans has taken up residence with a pack of mutant freaks.”
Victor smiled across the yard at his wife. “Maybe not the first time.”
Finn took Claire’s hand. “See you around. Have a good trip back to Ogru-Kuche.”
The pair strolled down the village to the creek. Finn checked the water’s edge for the best place to cross, but before he got there, he spotted another figure hovering in the trees. He froze when he recognized the unmistakable outline of his father’s half head.
Claire clung closer to his side. “Maybe you should talk to him alone.”
Finn tightened his grip on her hand. “No. We’re doing this together. Come on.”
He hopped over the steppingstones and advanced on his father. Colonel Weeks stood up to meet them coming. When Finn halted in front of his father, the Colonel clapped him on both shoulders. “You take care of yourself, son, and you take care of this lady of yours. I’m proud of you both. Don’t ever forget that.”
Those words burst the dam on the last of Finn’s buried emotions. He choked down the lump in his throat. “Thank you, Sir. Thank you for everything.”
“It’s me who should be thanking you.” He turned to Claire. “And you. Whatever happens for you back in town, you’ll always have a home with the Prometheus Crest. It would be an honor to have you.”
Claire gulped, too. “Thank you, Sir. Thank you for having me. The honor was all mine and it would be an honor to be a part of the Prometheus Crest. I’m only sorry it took me so long to learn that.”
The Colonel compressed his lips and braced his mid-section. He dropped his hands to his sides in a near approximation of a military salute. “Well! You folks have a good flight home.”
“I’ll be in touch with you in a few days about that dinner date,” Finn added. “Just make sure you and Elliot don’t strangle each other in front of the in-laws.”
Colonel Weeks broke into one of his rare grins. “Hey, you just might be coming home to dinner at Ogru-Kuche instead.”
Finn couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah. Ma
ybe. See you around, Dad.”
“I love you, son,” his father whispered. “Don’t be a stranger.”
Finn backed away. He squeezed Claire’s hand, but the next minute, it wasn’t there anymore. It turned to smoke in his grasp. That was his cue. He launched off the ground. In seconds, he was flying fast and free over the wide Quag into the rising sun. He had the sky to himself, but that was just an illusion.
She was out here. She was flying with him even if he couldn’t see her. Before he had time to think, that mysterious wind gusted under his wings. It lifted him and sped him overland faster than any dragon could fly. It blasted him over a hundred miles in the blink of an eye.
It tightened its grip around his body and tumbled him head over heels. New Orleans rushed into view way too fast. He didn’t have time to find a place to land and she didn’t give him one. Audubon Park zoomed straight at him. He had a fraction of a second to react.
He shifted miles above the ground. He never would have dared a stunt like that if he wasn’t with her. He relinquished all control to the strange air throbbing all around him.
She caught his frail human form in her inexorable fist. She shot at the ground in a lightning streak of motion. The wind set him on his feet in the driveway. The next thing he knew, she was standing next to him raking her hair out of her eyes. She showed all her teeth when she smiled. “That was fun.”
He scowled at her. “Do you always land like that?”
“Usually.”
He shook his head and let the subject drop. He took her hand. “Come on. Let’s go see what he has to say for himself.”
She lost her cheerful mischief walking up the steps. Finn let them through the front door, but when they entered the house, an odd silence hovered over the corridors. Finn cocked his ear to listen. Where was everyone?
Footsteps clipped along the tiles. Claire stood rooted to the spot as her father turned a corner and strode toward the pair.
He swept his gaze back and forth between them. “You took long enough getting back. The others are all at work in the office. We thought you’d get back last night.”
