Fairy Magic (29 page)

She was still shaking with the aftershocks of the biggest orgasm she’d ever had when he slid back up her body, his mouth trailing kisses.

“Yes,” he said, his voice vibrating with desire. “How does it feel to let go?”

She couldn’t even speak. She couldn’t move. Her body sagged against the mattress, helpless and happy.

“You can’t even imagine how much I enjoyed that,” he whispered against her lips. “You are so magnificent.” His body slid down her, just as naked as she was.

He twisted his hips against hers, slowly, teasingly, forcing a soft moan from her lips that burst into a scream as he thrust into her. Tingles of residual pleasure still burned inside of her, and as he began to move, building into a smooth, slick rhythm, the fire burned higher, hotter. His hands clenched her hips, pulling her against him with every thrust. Need boiled inside of her, driving out every thought but the hard, deep collision of their bodies.

He looked down at her, a desire as ancient and dangerous as the dragons gleaming in his eyes. She stared into those eyes, gasping in delight the moment she watched his control wash away into the tousled pile of mental armor that lay at the bedside. His movements grew harder, faster as his hips ground against hers with savage need, carrying her away on the waves of pleasure. A fierce growl rumbled in his chest, wrenching a cry from her lips as she shuddered and crashed against the gates of euphoria. His face twisted in sweet release, then he sagged against the spasming aftershocks of her own climax.

He lifted his mouth to hers, kissing her softly. “I told you I’d make you lose control.”

A sappy, spent smile curled her lips. “You lost control yourself.”

He laughed. “Yes, I did.” He turned, wrapping his body around her back, squeezing her to him. He pulled the blanket over them. “I couldn’t help myself. Not with you. When I saw the need burning in your eyes, when I felt it pulsing in your magic, I nearly lost it right there.” He kissed her shoulder.

She sighed. “You don’t know what you do to me.”

“Oh, I know exactly what I do to you.” His mouth dipped to her neck. “And I’m going to do it to you every morning and every night.”

“Ambitious, aren’t you?”

“Yes.” His hand stroked down her leg, feather-soft with a whiff of mischief.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Getting started on fulfilling my promise to you.”

She flipped to face him. “Are you sure you’re up to the task?” she said with a challenging smile as she brushed her fingertips across his cheek. “There aren’t many people who can keep up with a fairy.”

“You obviously haven’t dealt with a dragon before. When I’m through with you, you won’t even be able to move a muscle on your gorgeous body,” he said, his brows lifting in wicked promise.

“I’d like to see you try, dragon.”

His eyes burning with gold magic, he shot her a predatory smile. “My lady,” he said, rolling on top of her. “I was just waiting for you to ask.”

* * *

Naomi sat with Makani on the edge of the air mattress, eating sandwiches. She wrapped the edge of her Midnight Cape around her shoulders, brushing the silky-smooth fabric between her fingers. She really should work on her magic as soon as dinner was over. And as soon as she could sit again. Naomi adjusted her weight, trying to get comfortable. The fact that she was stiff and it hurt to move didn’t help matters.

Makani shot her a smug smirk, looking very pleased with himself. “I told you that you wouldn’t be able to move a muscle.”

She held up her hand and wiggled her pinkie at him. “You missed a spot,” she told him.

His eyes lit up. “My apologies, my lady. Let me take care of that for you.”

“No need.” She tossed him a Magic Spike bottle. “To recharge your spent magic.” She winked at him.

He twisted off the lid, still smirking at her.

She took a swig from her own Magic Spike bottle. “Refilling magic… it reminds me of the escaped prisoners from hell. Cyrus told me Darksire’s soldiers recharged their magic by draining other supernaturals. That’s why so many people have been kidnapped here recently.”

“Cyrus was a fanatic,” Makani said. “But he sounds right in this case. After being in hell for so long, their magic drained to nothing, Darksire’s new soldiers had to recharge somehow. Draining the magic from others would be considerably faster than waiting for their own magic to return.”

“And Firestorm,” Naomi asked. “Why did she need to drain hybrids? Is she a hybrid?”

“Not exactly,” he said. “But her magic is mixed.”

“In San Francisco, Darksire kidnapped hybrid children,” Naomi told him.

“For Firestorm to drain them.”

“But why?” she asked.

“He only took children in the beginning?”

“Yes. This whole thing started with children, right when a desperate guy decided to summon the demon Arkan. After Firestorm came back, she and Darksire must have fled San Francisco because there have been no signs of them since.”

“They came here, to this tear in the veil,” he said.

“Yes, and then they started building an army. And kidnapping supernaturals to recharge their magic—full-bloods for his soldiers, hybrids for Firestorm. But why children then and adults now? What changed?”

“Children have less magic,” Makani explained. “When it comes to draining magic from a supernatural, the magic of children is easier to digest, simpler, weaker. Firestorm has hybrid magic. And she started her recovery by draining hybrid children first. She spent a long time deep in hell, on the sixth circle. Centuries she was trapped there. Her magic was drained even at the superficial level. She had nothing left. It’s like suffering from severe dehydration. If you drink all at once, you get sick. So she did it in stages. She needed something weak to start, the children. Then the adult hybrids. And now she needs…”

He jumped up. “Shit,” he said as the bay doors exploded.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Bonds of Love

THE EXPLOSION HAD thrown Makani to the ground. Naomi lowered to her knees beside him. “Are you all right?”

He rose to his feet. “I am unharmed.”

He glared at the burning hole that used to be the bay doors. Smoke sizzling with magic was thick in the air. Naomi squinted at the cloud, trying to see past it.

“Is it Bael’s people?” she asked. “Have they found us again?”

“No,” Makani said darkly. “It is someone much worse.”

A man in a black cloak penetrated the dark smoke—the dark fairy who’d attacked her, who’d linked her to Makani, who’d manipulated her into freeing Makani from the spirit realm. Darksire the Destroyer.

Darksire extended his hand behind him. A gloved hand closed over his, and a woman stepped through the hole, dressed in red battle leather. She was tall, strong, beautiful. Her hair, dark with a hint of warm amber, flowed like a waterfall. It moved in soft swirls in the air as though caught in a gentle, magical breeze. Her skin was beautifully bronzed, like Makani’s but paler, as though hell had drained some of the luster from her. She carried a long sword that shimmered red-orange. It looked like it had been made in the forge of hell.

“Firestorm?” Naomi asked Makani.

“Yes,” he said, his eyes trained on Firestorm, his magic smoldering with anger.

Darksire glided forward, spreading his arms. “Thank you for bringing Makani to us,” he said to Naomi.

She glared at the dark fairy. “Go to hell.”

He winked back at her.

“Makani,” Firestorm said. A hard, hateful smile cracked her lips, ruining her beautiful face. “How are you?”

“Be gone from here,” he growled at her. “You are dead to me.”

“You were the one who banished me to the sixth circle of hell,” she snapped back. “If anyone has a right to be angry, it’s me. Do you know what it’s like down there? Do you have any idea of the heat? The dark souls? The demons? The last seven hundred years of my life have been wretched. Thanks to you.”

“You brought that upon yourself.” Makani’s face was devoid of any sympathy. “You betrayed me. You betrayed everyone we ever knew.”

“Not everyone,” Firestorm said, smiling at Darksire as she took his hand.

“Was it worth it?” Makani demanded.

“Love is always worth it. It is stronger than any magic. It endures even the deepest circles of hell.” Firestorm’s gaze shifted to Naomi. “A painful, delightful truth you will soon have the chance to experience for yourself, Makani.”

He moved in front of Naomi, barring Firestorm’s path. “You will not touch her.”

Firestorm threw back her wretchedly beautiful head and laughed. “He’s thinking about killing me,” she told Darksire.

“He wouldn’t. He loves you too much.”

“True.” Firestorm strode forward, her gaze locked on Makani. “You couldn’t do it before. Even after all I did to you.” A dark smile twisted her lips. “See? Like I said, love is stronger than any magic.”

“It was dark magic that tore us apart,” Makani told her. “Not love.”

“Call it what you will. I no longer care what you think of me. The days when I loved you are long gone.”

Makani once loved her? Could she be his Spirit Warrior—not really dead, but dead to him?

“I loved you once,” he told her. “But you destroyed that bond. I will not hold back.” He dipped into a fighting stance.

“You’re kidding, right?” Firestorm laughed.

Darksire set his hand on her shoulder. “Keep back, my love. You are still recovering.” His gaze flicked to Makani. “And he is a beast.”

Makani rushed forward, his sword raised. Darksire spun, meeting his blade in a clash of steel that sang through the bay.

“I was stronger back then, and I am stronger still,” Darksire taunted Makani. “I’ve had centuries to build up my power while you rotted in hell, without magic.”

“But I wasn’t without magic.”

He lifted his hand, casting a bolt of lightning that slammed Darksire into the ground. The dark fairy recovered quickly, jumping to his feet.

“Well, isn’t this a surprise,” he said. “You kept your magic. You weren’t playing by the rules of hell.”

“I don’t ever play by the rules.”

“Neither do I,” Darksire declared, launching a cloud of dark Fairy Dust at Makani.

Makani blasted it with fire, and the Dust shattered into tiny black crystals that rained to the floor. He followed it up with a quick blast of wind. Darksire jumped back. He waved his hand, dissolving the wind into mist.

“You are weak,” Darksire told him. “It’s no wonder that she chose me over you.”

Anger rippled across Makani’s face as magic exploded out of him. Naomi joined in, pouring her Fairy Dust into his thick storm of elemental spells. Lightning snapped, and the Dust ignited, blasting smoke everywhere.

Naomi coughed, struggling to see anything. Magic blasted out of the smoke, hitting Makani in the chest. As he dropped to the ground, Naomi dove for him. She smacked his face, trying to wake him.

Darksire emerged from the smoke, Firestorm right beside him. Naomi wove her magic into a hasty ward, just like Makani had shown her in the spirit realm. But her spirit magic was still weak. Darksire pushed right through the ward, splitting the threads of her spell.

Darksire stalked forward, looming high over them, his cloak whipping in the magic wind. “Your magic is weak, Spirit Warrior. Too weak to defeat me. Too weak to survive this.” He lifted his hands to blast her.

“Not so weak,” she spat back. She rolled the Midnight Cape over her and Makani, pushing them both through to the first circle of the spirit realm.

“I will regain my power with or without you, Makani,” Firestorm’s taunting voice echoed as they escaped.

Makani surged to his feet the moment they touched down in the first circle, kicking up dust as he paced in frustration.

Naomi watched him. “You want to go back to fight Darksire and Firestorm.”

“Yes,” he said fiercely.

“Are you insane? Darksire alone was kicking our asses.”

He spun to face her, fire-frosted fury pulsing through his magic. “And if we don’t stop Firestorm from getting her power back, there will be two of them.”

“It sounds like they think you are the key to her regaining her power, so marching up to them doesn’t seem like the best plan, especially knowing we will lose. We’d be playing right into their hands. They want you to go to them.”

Makani turned on his heel and slammed his magic into a nearby building, blasting off a chunk of concrete. At that, the gang who’d been starting to close in on them scattered in fear.

“We need to keep our heads,” she told him. “Do you have any idea what Darksire and Firestorm want with you?”

“Darksire wanted to get me out of hell, so he could feed my magic to Firestorm.”

“But why you?”

Makani stared at her for a while, as though debating something with himself.

“You loved her once,” Naomi said.

“Long ago. That love is dead. Now there is only hate left.” He sighed. “Darksire wants to feed my magic to Firestorm because our magic is almost the same.”

“What do you mean?”

“We are both Dragon Born,” he said. “Firestorm is my twin sister.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The Story of Firestorm

“FIRESTORM IS DRAGON Born?” Naomi said, her mouth dropping.

So she wasn’t his Spirit Warrior after all. In some ways, this was even crazier.

“Yes,” Makani replied.

“But Dragon Born are mages. Why would she need to feed on hybrid blood?”

“She was born a mage, but her dragon magic was changed by absorbing more supernatural magic into her,” he said. “The mixed magic of Darksire’s kidnapped hybrids would nourish her well.”

“How did this even happen?”

“It happened over many years. Not long after they became lovers, she mated with Darksire in a dark fairy ritual. A few years later, her magic was corrupted further when one of her spells against a group of vampires backfired,” he explained. “She is not a hybrid, but her mage magic is streaked with fairy and vampire magic. Those streaks grew with time, twisted by Damarion’s vile powers.”

“Damarion?”

Makani leaned against the wall he’d earlier blasted with magic. “Perhaps I should start at the beginning. Long ago, Firestorm was called Leilani. My twin sister. Dragon Born, two souls bound together, born into a single body and split with magic at birth. But that link between siblings endures. Leilani and I were close. We were happy. We thought our connection would never fade. And then Darksire came.”