by Lauren Dawes
Sawyer hummed with pleasure as he stroked his finger through all that arousal. “Are you ready for the finale?” he asked.
I nodded, letting out a breathy, “Yes.”
He stroked his hand down my back, running his strong fingers over the flesh of my ass. I started to pant at the promise of those fingers. Rocking back into him, I begged him wordlessly to take my pussy and ruin it for every other man. When he positioned the blunt head against me, I could’ve wept. My over-sensitized flesh welcomed him as he slid inside, each one of my nerve endings firing with each inch he took of me. When he was finally filling me, his hips sat snuggly against my ass. He kissed the base of my spine, taking his sweet time.
I groaned. “Sawyer, fuck me already. All this soft shit is pissing me off.”
He gave me a half thrust as he growled, “There’s nothing soft about this, pussy cat.” I swear my eyes rolled back in my head. “But I’ll give you what you want because it’s what I want, too.”
When Sawyer began thrusting, I lost myself to the rhythm––the rhythm of our bodies moving as one, to the way our breaths joined and mingled, to the way our bodies just seemed to fit with one another. I wasn’t a stupid woman who had romantic notions floating around in her head. I knew that once Sawyer blew his load, that this would never happen again––could never physically happen again––but that didn’t stop me from wanting it to.
Shaking my head, I chastised myself for even thinking about that as an option. I didn’t need this again. I just needed to enjoy it right now.
Sawyer’s finger dug into my hip, holding me in position as he slammed inside me. When I felt his cock kick, I knew he was close, the truth of that setting off an orgasm for me. The sudden clamping of my inner walls must’ve caught him by surprise though, because he barked, “Fuck!” He pumped twice more, then roared as he filled me.
I sucked in a gasp that turned into a moan. I felt it all, but I especially felt how his semen had triggered another orgasm. I hadn’t been ready for it. I didn’t want it. To my already strained body, it felt like torture rather than pleasure, but I rode that bitch like a pro, taking it all in.
My arms and legs collapsed under me, taking Sawyer with me. He rolled off me, laying on his back and breathing heavily. Turning over, I looked at him, committing that relaxed face of his to memory.
Sensing me staring, he rolled his head to look at me. His eyes were black, but even as I watched, his usual cool gray replaced it.
“Are you okay?”
I nodded.
“Thank you.” His voice was serious, and I was stunned to see that all the strain and pain that had been on his face was now completely gone. His skin was tanned and healthy again, his movements strong and sure.
Tilting my head back, I looked at the clock on the side table and gaped. “We’ve been fucking for four hours. Is this what it’s like every time?” The instant that question was out of my mouth, I regretted it. Waving my hand in front of me, I added, “No. Don’t answer that. I don’t want to know.”
Capturing my hand, he brought it to his mouth and kissed my fingertips. “I should leave you to get some sleep. But thank you.”
My eyes were already shut. “You probably need to go and refuel, I guess. Eat a dozen eggs. Drink some Gatorade,” I quipped.
He chuckled softly. “You have an hour before you have to get up. Get a bit more sleep, pussy cat.”
Fourteen
It was a little after eight o’clock when I rolled out of bed. I was surprised by how good I felt considering I’d only gotten an extra hour of sleep. After a quick shower, I got dressed and wandered into the kitchen to get some coffee. Sawyer was already there, dressed in black slacks and a black business shirt with the cuffs rolled up to his elbows.
Damn him and his sexy forearms.
The top couple of shirt buttons were undone, giving me a glimpse of the smooth, tanned flesh of his chest—a chest I had touched last night.
“Good morning,” he murmured, making me realize I’d been staring.
Averting my eyes, I mumbled, “Morning,” and eyed the carafe of fresh coffee on the counter behind him.
He leaned against the smooth black granite and folded his arms. “Are things going to be weird now?”
“God, I hope not,” I replied, clambering up onto one of the kitchen stools. I motioned for him to pass me the carafe. He did one better—he poured us each a cup. He even added a couple of spoons of sugar into mine. Was he going for sainthood?
I made grabby hands at him, and he passed one over with a smile. Once I had that cup in my hands, I took a sip and let out a content sigh.
Heaven.
Peering at him over the rim, I asked, “Why? Was it weird for you?”
“No. It felt… natural. Right.”
I squirmed in my seat. Took another sip of coffee. Cleared my throat. I needed a new subject to get away from the way my stomach fluttered at his admission. “So, you still haven’t told me about your beef with Kailon. You promised you would on Monday night.”
At the mention of the fae’s name, his whole demeanor changed. His shoulders tightened. His jaw set. A growl escaped his lips.
“You promised you would,” I reminded him.
“I did no such thing.”
“Come on,” I whined. “I’ve had a rough week.”
He let out a hard sigh through his nose. “You’re infuriating.”
“You love me,” I said, smirking.
Sawyer shook his head, and I was sure he was going to deny me once more. But then he unfolded his arms and said, “Three years ago, I was working a case that I knew involved a fae. Supernaturals hadn’t revealed themselves to humans yet, so I had to do my own investigative work while my human partner chased his tail trying to follow leads that didn’t exist. The perpetrator was a boggart… a malevolent spirit, who had been terrorizing a boarding school. Maiming children mostly, but there had been at least one death, too. The boggart escaped into Wonderland once it knew I was getting close, so I followed it.”
Dragging fingers through his hair, he created furrows. “I’d investigated crimes in Wonderland before, but I was never overt about it. I’d never gone in uniform like I had that day, so the fae felt as if I’d tricked them somehow. I was detained. I later found out it was under Kailon’s orders that I was locked away.”
“How long were you stuck there?”
“About two hours, but as you know, time in Wonderland moves much more slowly. When I got out, five days had passed. The boggart had killed six more students in that time, forcing the boarding school to close.”
“So you figure Kailon has the death of those children on his hands?”
His nod was stiff. “If the bastard had just left me alone, those six kids would still be alive. Their parents would still have their children.”
Okay, so now I got it. Kailon was a prick, but really, I kind of already knew that.
My head jerked up when there was a knock on the door. Sawyer was instantly on alert. He motioned for me to stay where I was, then headed for the door, picking up his Glock as he went. From my vantage point at the kitchen counter, I could just see the front door if I craned my neck.
Which I did.
Because I was nosey as fuck.
He pulled open the door, and I felt the tension physically ripple through the room.
“What are you doing here?” Sawyer’s voice was a crawling growl.
“I don’t have time for this. Let me in,” Kailon said in a commanding tone. It was a peek at the deadly fae I knew him to be under the mask of civility he wore so well.
Sawyer stepped away from the door, and the fae was suddenly filling the space with his presence. When he saw me, his eyes quickly tracked down my body, and despite being fully clothed, I felt a faint current of air caressing me like ghostly fingers.
“Cute parlor trick,” I quipped, sliding off my stool until my feet touched the floor. “Is that the only way you can touch a woman?” He flashed me a dark smile. �
��What are you doing here?” I asked.
My gaze flickered to Sawyer, who came to a stop behind Kailon’s shoulder. He was glowering at the fae, and after that story, I couldn’t blame him for being pissed off.
The fae glanced at Sawyer over his shoulder, then dismissed him by turning to face me. “Baba Yaga was killed last night.”
“What?” I demanded, straightening.
“How?” Sawyer hissed at the same time.
“How do you think?” Kailon asked, strolling into the kitchen to pour himself a cup of coffee from the carafe. Sawyer stalked after him, placing himself between Kailon and me. “The witch got to her.”
“And killed her?” I don’t know why I was surprised. I’d accidentally got into a fight with the legendary Baba Yaga when I’d stumbled into Wonderland. She looked like a frail old woman, but man, she made the aquatic stars of Shark Week look like a bunch of pussies with what she was packing in dental hardware.
“Yes.”
“And more likely stole her powers too, right?”
Kailon narrowed his eyes at me as he took a sip of coffee. “And that’s a power you don’t want in the hands of a mass-murdering witch.”
I looked at Sawyer briefly––just to see what his reaction was. He still looked pissed. “And what was her power? I mean, aside from eating children because yum.”
The fae cocked his head to the side. “Necromancy.”
I backed up a step until the counter jabbed me in the spine. “Necromancy as in… raising the dead?”
“She fed off children in order to power her spells. There’s nothing like virgin blood to raise the dead.”
“I shall keep that in mind,” I mumbled, clutching my stomach as it roiled with the news. “So we now have a witch running around with the abilities to seek people out, control others, wield fire and water… I’m assuming that was Rose’s power since the witch flooded the subway… control light and to top all that off, she can now raise the dead? Did I miss anything?”
“No, that was quite the comprehensive list,” Kailon drawled.
I glared at him. “Sarcasm is not appreciated in times of crisis.” Unless it was my sarcasm. I blew out a breath. “Who the hell is this witch?” It was a question more for me than anyone else.
“I’ve been doing some digging,” the fae said, reaching into his pocket for his phone. “I was looking through the photographs the news outlets have been splashing around after each incident, and I noticed something. She was there, at each scene. She was part of the crowd salivating for the ME to bring the body to the ambulance.”
Kailon turned his phone in my direction, scrolling through each image with his thumb. He was right. He was goddamn right, and neither Sawyer nor I had even thought to check this. A lot of murderers liked to watch the police discover the body.
I tried to remember who was standing outside the subway station when Sawyer and I emerged. I couldn’t remember seeing a crowd, but could Kseniya have been watching from a distance?
“So who is she?” Sawyer asked gruffly.
“I spoke to a fae in Wonderland who owed me a favor. She recognized the symbols. This witch…” he tapped at the screen, “… is from a very old and very powerful family who can trace their lineage back to the first tsars of Russia. About three decades ago, her family, the Chernov family, were decimated by another powerful coven, the Morozovs, in the western United States. Where and why I don’t know. All I know is it was a long-standing feud that was thought to have left no survivors on the Chernov side. The Morozovs went into hiding afterward for fear of retribution from other covens. Kseniya Chernov, it seemed, did survive, although it’s not known how.”
“Do you have any idea where she is right now?” I asked.
The fae shook his head. “I’m not a witch. I can’t track people like a Seeker. I have no idea where she is, nor do I know where she’ll show up next.”
To Sawyer, I asked, “Are there any Morozovs in America? Do you think Kseniya will be going after them next?”
“I don’t know. We’d have to start going through the databases,” Sawyer said.
I returned my attention to Kailon. “Th––” I started, then stopped. I could’ve kicked my own butt for almost telling the fae thank you. I had to be more careful. “We appreciate what you’ve found,” I ground out.
And from the smirk on Kailon’s face, he goddamn knew how close I’d been too.
“Where is Baba Yaga’s body now?”
“Still in Wonderland.”
“What do you want us to do?”
“What do I want him to do is a better question,” Kailon said, jerking his chin at Sawyer. “You can’t enter Wonderland,” he reminded me pointedly.
Sawyer shot me a look. He was warning me to stay quiet about my ability to enter Wonderland when it should have killed me.
“So Sawyer goes and then what?”
“He processes the scene.”
“Wait. How in the hell did Kseniya get into Wonderland in the first place? I mean, this is the second time she’s gone in, but witches are humans with magic, right? They’re not a kind of fae.”
Kailon’s jaw was tight, and I could tell he was even more pissed off with the witch. “We still don’t know, but I suspect her father may have been fae. That part of her blood appears to be strong enough to enter Wonderland.”
“And to kill Baba Yaga,” I tacked on helpfully.
“Yes.” He practically spat the word at me.
Sawyer folded his arms, the movement capturing my attention. I watched the way the muscles in his forearms flexed with the movement, and fuck, I wanted another round with him. His eyes were suddenly on me, the air between us crackling with need. His eyes turned stormy with lust for a brief second before he shook his head and fixed his attention back onto Kailon.
That’s right—no lusting after my partner in mixed company.
“Since this death is part of our ongoing investigation, I’ll process the scene,” Sawyer said. “Cat can wait outside with the EMTs. Once Baba Yaga’s body is out of Wonderland, I’ll process everything and get our ME to do an autopsy.”
Letting out a sigh through my nose, I drained the last of my coffee then said, “Where’s the entrance to Wonderland right now?”
“At the docks,” Kailon replied.
Still? So much for the entrance moving all the time.
“Okay. Let’s do this.”
Fifteen
When we arrived at the docks, I shivered into my jacket—the hairs on the back of my neck prickling as dread slithered down my spine. I wasn’t expecting such a visceral reaction to coming back to this place. Can someone say PTSD? I know I could. My first walk into Wonderland had been no picnic. In my defense, I hadn’t even realized I’d wandered in there, and meeting Baba Yaga that time had been such a bonus.
For about a week, I’d had nightmares of old ladies with rows and rows of shark teeth in their mouths, smiling at me sweetly. I couldn’t stand to look at anyone over the age of sixty––and kind of still couldn’t.
Kailon was ahead of us, walking with all the confidence of a fae who feared no one and who everyone feared.
“No matter what, you stay out here, Cat,” Sawyer said in a low voice beside me.
I glanced at him quickly. “No problem. You think I actually want to go back in there?” I jerked my chin at the lined-up containers that indicated the entry into Wonderland.
“No, but I know sometimes you don’t think.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I whisper yelled at him.
“It means you often do something without thinking all the repercussions through. Wonderland isn’t a playground. You got in last time, and although I don’t know how, I think it may have had something to do with your necklace. Now that that’s gone, I don’t want to think about what could happen to you.”
I let the smirk I felt pulling at my lips slide away. “If I didn’t know any better, Sawyer, I could’ve sworn you were concerned for my safety.”
He turned his head slightly in my direction, frowning. “Just promise me you’ll stay out here.”
Giving him a quick salute, I reached for my necklace out of habit, missing the damn thing once more. Although it was a rare black opal, it was more than just a stone. It was comfort and the memory of my father. It was protection and love. It was all I had left of my family, and I wanted the damn thing back.
“You have Reaver with you?” he asked, breaking me from my thoughts.
I touched the now invisible hilt at my side. “Yes. Although, I don’t even know why I bother bringing it anywhere. It just shows up and disappears whenever it feels like it.” Yes, I was still grumpy about that, but it wasn’t like I could reliably count on it. It showed up when it thought I absolutely needed it, and not necessarily in life or death situations.
“Good. Keep it close. And no matter what you hear, don’t come into Wonderland.”
I rolled my eyes at my partner. “You’re worse than a mother with all the fussing you’re doing, Sawyer. Has anyone ever told you that before?”
Leaning over, he pressed a chaste kiss to my forehead. “I’ve never had anyone else to care for, pussy cat. I’m kind of enjoying the role.”
With nothing to say after that declaration, I refocused my attention on the sound of Kailon’s footfalls.
“We’re wasting time,” the fae called impatiently right before his footfalls disappeared completely as he stepped inside Wonderland.
I slowed to a stop while Sawyer continued on.
He paused a few feet away. Turned. “Stay safe. Don’t do anything stupid,” he told me. A ghost of a smile whispered across his mouth, and he disappeared into thin air too.
I let out a breath, seeing it hover in the air in front of me. Snuggling into the department issued PIG jacket, I tucked my hands under my armpits and settled in for the wait.
I’d probably been standing there about ten minutes when I heard a vehicle pull to a stop behind me. Looking over my shoulder, I saw an ambulance and a squad car about fifty feet away, parked side by side. I even let out a groan when I saw who got out of the squad car––Smith. Just what I needed.
