Demon's Triad (9 page)

Her vision cleared and she saw that his face, only inches away from hers, was thankfully unmarked. Had she really seen that? Goddess, had she really imagined doing something so terrible to Gavyn, her coven leader, her friend?

Her legs shook as she sank back into the chair. “I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine.”

“I am, I’m just…I’m just tired. Could you get me something to drink, please?

Preferably something with caffeine?”

“Caffeine might not be a good idea if you’re unbalanced today,” he said, actually looking as if he might regret having given her such a hard time. “I have—”

“Just anything. Please.” Please, let him leave her alone for a minute. He needed to leave her alone for a minute. Because the image of his broken body still shone in her head like a bright new penny and she had no idea why, but the thought of hurting him made her pussy throb.

Something was definitely wrong, horribly wrong.

The feeling of foreboding didn’t disappear when Gavyn brought her some orange juice and started briefing her on the new job.

“Three witches murdered,” he said. “All on Fire Festivals. The first was Rimer Lorcan, at the Spring Equinox. Rimer was a loner, a petty criminal. He’d been covenless for years, and pissed off more people, super and human, than you can count on two hands. Everyone assumed it was a revenge killing until they did postmortem.” The picture she pulled from the file was so lurid with blood Aleeza had to close her eyes for a second. “They found evidence of ritual murder. Magical symbols carved into his organs—the ones they didn’t take, anyway.” Aleeza swallowed hard.

“Next was Carantha Smoler, on Beltane. This one was better documented than the first, more pictures, close ups of the symbols in the organs.” A picture of a woman’s battered, broken body seemed to leap out of the file at Aleeza. Tears sprang to her eyes.

The woman was lovely—had been lovely. For a moment it was almost as if she could see her smiling, laughing…Aleeza shook her head. She was more tired than she’d thought. She’d never had psychic flashes like these before.

Unless the sex spell had opened her up somehow. She didn’t even want to think about that, couldn’t think about things like that until she was far away from Gavyn.

Whatever that odd flash was, it didn’t happen with the next picture.

“Lymera Brown.” Gavyn shifted on the arm of her chair. “Lammas. The Amiantos have no leads. Since the murders all took place in the forest, they’ve been the ones responsible for investigating, even though only two of the victims—Rimer and 46

Demon’s Triad

Carantha—were theirs. Lymera was Phillias coven, but she was going to marry an Amiantos, so they feel she was theirs too.”

“And now they want us to find the killer?”

Gavyn nodded. “Not only that. They want us to prevent the next murder, which if the perps follow their pattern will take place on Samhain…not quite a month away.”

* * * * *

The leaves crunched under her feet as she made her way from the small gravel-covered parking lot and into Amiantos lands. For years they’d lived up here, separate from the other covens, separate from society. Tree-hugging freaks, she’d always thought, picturing Grizzly Adams with a lordly sneer and a rotten attitude toward women.

But her father hadn’t been like that and neither had Dorand. She wondered if she would see either of the men and couldn’t decide if she wanted to or not. She probably wouldn’t even recognize her old man. She’d been six years old when he left, and her memories of him were more than a little fuzzy. Besides, what would she say to him?

He’d abandoned their family, was good as dead to her, and it would probably be best if he stayed dead.

Dorand, however, was a more complicated issue.

Her body certainly wanted to see him,
all
of him, again. Just the thought of him, of his hard chest and even harder cock, made her panties wet. She’d fallen asleep thinking of him, and if Mona hadn’t barged in, she probably would have woken up thinking of him too.

It was probably like this for every woman who lost her virginity. Surely that first man made an impression that was hard to shake? Or even every man. She’d read
Cosmo
. She knew how many women got upset when men they slept with never called again. And she hadn’t even told him her name, though Ferrin had seemed to—

Hell. If Dorand saw her, he would know for sure. He would also know she was Gunera, and he would know exactly what kind of spell she’d worked last night. Dorand would know she’d danced the line, nearly executed black magic to free herself of the Gunera enchantment. He might even turn her in.

And what would her coven do then? What would they do to her? Banish her?

Worse? Mona hadn’t said a word after she’d given Aleeza the herbs, but the expression of impending doom on her face hadn’t been comforting. Neither had her order for Aleeza to get her ass to Sunday afternoon dinner with the family, come hell or high water.

She’d been so busy shielding, and then so unsettled in Gavyn’s office, she hadn’t allowed her imagination to run wild. Now she stopped still, caught by a terrible urge to run, to run away from all of it and hide.

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“Well, well. Look who it is.” The voice came from the trees off to her left. She couldn’t see the speaker, but she didn’t need to. She knew that voice. A bolt of pure heat ran from her head down through her stomach and settled between her legs. It was Ferrin.

Raising her eyebrows and crossing her arms, she turned toward him. “Oh, it’s you,”

she said, but the cool tones she’d intended turned into a gasp when she saw his bare upper body. Didn’t Amiantos men ever wear clothes?

But then, he wasn’t Amiantos, was he?

“I knew you’d be back.” He smiled, a slow sexy tilt of the lips as he kept walking toward her. “I just had a feeling.”

“I’m not here to see you,” she managed. “I’m here on official business.” Her nipples poked through the thin fabric of her long-sleeved t-shirt. Damn it, why hadn’t she worn something heavier? The days were only starting to cool down and she just hadn’t thought of it, but what she wouldn’t give for a nice blousy shirt or a heavy cardigan right now.

“Official business?” He stood so close she could smell him. Salty-sweet, musky and pure male. He affected her just as strongly now as he had the night before. He’d barely said three words and she already wanted him to touch her, to stroke her. Wanted his fingers delving into all the places he hadn’t gone last night, wanted the cock she remembered seeing so well to move inside her.

She hugged herself a little tighter. “I’m here to see the chieftain.”

“On official business?”

“Yes.”

He stared at her for a long moment, his dark brown hair curling down around his shoulders, his dark eyes staring into hers. He looked good enough to eat, and he was definitely offering her the chance to try. “You want to tell me what the business is?”

“No.”

“You want to come to my place for a little while first?” He winked, and grinned until a dimple appeared on his left cheek. He looked wicked and adorable. Adorably wicked and more than prepared to follow up on all that promise in his eyes.

“No!” It came out as a whisper. Her face grew almost as hot as her pussy. Almost.

He raised an eyebrow and stepped even closer. “You sure about that? You look like you want to.”

Aleeza didn’t respond. His hands slid up her arms. It took all her strength not to gasp as the same electricity she remembered from the night before, the same connection, flooded her body. “I’m here on official business,” she whispered.

Ferrin paused. “I’ll take you to the Chieftain. He’s doing some work at the dam.

Follow me.”

Aleeza stood still for a minute, shaking, watching his lean hips move as he walked away. Part of her knew following him was not a good idea. The other parts—48

Demon’s Triad

specifically, the parts practically begging for his touch—didn’t care if it was a good idea or not.

She followed.

The path he took wound over hills and through trees for what seemed like miles.

Aleeza’s feet would have started hurting if she hadn’t been so distracted by the way his ass moved in his jeans. The sight made her heart pound, but it wasn’t until the roaring in her ears grew so loud she couldn’t ignore it that she realized it wasn’t the sound of her blood.

It was a waterfall.

The path came out at the foot of it, where large rocks guarded the edge of the pool at the bottom. Aleeza opened her mouth, but before she could speak or gasp Ferrin covered it with his, and she fell into the pit of desire without a word of protest.

She’d never been kissed like this, not once in her life. Ferrin dove into her with more than his tongue and lips. He dove into her with power, making her weak and dizzy before a few seconds had passed. In the blink of an eye he mastered her. Some small part of her knew instinctively that when it came to personalities, when it came to life, she was the stronger one. But this—this was where Ferrin dominated—and he overpowered her as easily as she forced humans to get out of her path in a crowded store.

He tasted of the forest, clean and cool, but something else hid there. A hint of spice that Aleeza was too caught up to name, something as indefinable as the difference in his energy that told her he was not Amiantos.

Whatever he was, she didn’t care because his lips and tongue were already sending her to the edge and he hadn’t even taken his hands from her waist yet.

She tried to pull away. “We shouldn’t—”

“Oh yes, we should.”

His broad body edged her backward until she rested against one of the border rocks. Low and cool, it hit right under her bottom. She knew he’d chosen this spot for that very reason. She didn’t care.

“You know what I did last night?” he asked, his breath uneven, as he tugged her shirt off over her head. His lips left traces of fire down the side of her throat and farther down to the edge of her bra. He slid his tongue just under the lace. A tiny cry escaped her throat.

“I thought about you.” His skin was hot on hers as he took her hand and brushed her fingers down the muscles of his stomach to the open fly of his jeans. She clenched her fist. Eager anticipation so strong it shamed her coursed through her veins.

He was still talking as he inched her fist lower. “I thought about you all the way home, and when I got there, I took this in my hand.” Her fingers closed around his cock, with his fingers clasped over them. Her head swam. “I moved my hand, just like this, and I thought about you, your eyes, your hair, your body. I thought about your 49

Anna J. Evans & December Quinn

pussy, Aleeza, and how badly I want to taste it.” His eyes bored into hers as he took his hand away, leaving her to continue stroking him on her own, and reached around to unfasten her bra. “And I kept going, all night, and it wasn’t enough. I knew I wouldn’t be happy until I actually had tasted it. You’re not going to deny me my only chance at happiness, are you?”

From any other man the line would have been laughable. From Ferrin it was an order. She could barely concentrate well enough to shake her head. Her body buzzed like a swarm of bees, and it was all she could do to keep up the slow, steady rhythm he’d demonstrated on his cock. She wanted to rip off her own jeans and force him inside her.

His hands on her upper arms held her still, her back on the large rock, while his tongue danced across her nipples, first one, then the other. He pulled them into the wet heat of his mouth and sucked, nibbled, tugged. At some point the pain of his teeth scraping against her delicate skin turned into pleasure. His pelvis pressed against hers, the ridge of his erection rubbing her pussy through her jeans. Bent over backward as she was, she couldn’t see him. She could only feel him, and her body started shaking as she succumbed completely to his power.

She knew he felt it, the moment when her barriers fell, but he didn’t indicate it.

Instead he took his hands off her arms and stroked her breasts, squeezing them, twisting her nipples just hard enough to make her cry out. Seemingly satisfied, he unfastened her jeans and inched them down her hips, taking her soaking panties with them.

“Turn over.”

She hesitated. Turn over? But wasn’t he going to…?

He didn’t slap her hip hard. The sound of skin on skin wasn’t even audible over the rush of the waterfall behind them. But it still stung, and Aleeza’s eyes flew open as she started to sit up.

Ferrin watched her darkly through hooded eyes, his brawny arms folded across his chest. “I said turn over.”

She licked her lips. Something in the way her hip tingled made her say, “And what if I don’t?”

“Then I’ll make you.”

She only had a split second to decide. What would he do if she refused? Would it hurt?

Part of her was certain he wouldn’t hurt her. He was Dorand’s clan brother. Dorand would never hurt her, would never hurt anyone.

But Ferrin was different. His energy wasn’t like Dorand’s, welcoming and sexy and smooth. Something dark lurked in Ferrin’s soul, something dangerous, something that probably would hurt her if given the chance.

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Demon’s Triad

Aleeza had never thought of herself as the kind of girl who would enjoy such things. But she’d be lying if she didn’t acknowledge there was some dark part of her own soul that reveled in the idea, that wanted desperately to play with Ferrin. To really play, to let him use his hands and teeth on her and to do the same back, to scratch him until blood flowed. To fight and fuck until they were both battered and bruised and flying off the furthest edge of pleasure because they were coming so hard from the glory of it all.

She hesitated that second too long. Ferrin grabbed her arms, yanking her off the rock. The hard stone scraped against the delicate skin of her buttocks. She fell forward into him, her legs still tangled in her jeans. The power in his skin leapt onto her, mingled with her own aura, and the glow it created was the sharpest, brightest green tinged with black and gold. A color she’d never seen before.