Heart and Soul (34 page)

“It is not healing at all,” he said. Unnecessarily, he knew. Regina was a fine Healer and knew exactly what was wrong. Still, he wasn’t hovering.

“She’s just a bit too drained for self-healing, Malachi.” She glanced at him, her normally mild brown eyes dark and angry. “She had no reason to be moving around at all, much less fighting.”

Thus far, none knew exactly how Kelsey had been injured. Until the Council had made public the odd events that had happened of late, they were not speaking of it.

Chan was temporarily out of commission. Placed in one of the remaining prison cells in the lower levels of Brendain, he waited. Malachi would have been content to just gut him, but neither Kelsey nor Nessa would tolerate it. Still, just imagining it brought a pleased smile to his lips.

“You look absolutely evil, Mal.”

Looking at Kelsey, he shrugged absently. “Thinking about something that would have been fun.”

Regina still sat by Kelsey, now gripping Kelsey’s hand instead of her arm. The cut flesh there was knitting itself together, and it took only seconds to for there to be nothing more than a fading red line.

Moving around to the other side of the bed, he sat down and took her free hand. “How do you feel?”

She grimaced. “Exhausted. I want to go back to my normal, boring life of teaching.” A hopeful look entered her eyes, and she asked, “Maybe the Council will let me resign?”

Dryly, he said, “I wouldn’t bet on it. I’ve been trying to do just that for the past two centuries.”

Lifting a shoulder in a shrug, Kelsey said, “I’d be easier to replace than you.”

Staring at her out from under his lashes, he murmured, “I wouldn’t bet on that either.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw movement, and he turned, watching as Regina sat back and released Kelsey’s hand. “Now will you really rest this time?” she asked.

“I will make certain of it, Regina,” Malachi murmured before Kelsey could even answer.

The Healer laughed. “I’ll hold you to that, Malachi. I will go and speak with Tobias. Kelsey needs at least a day of uninterrupted rest. That means not leaving this bed for anything but the bathroom,” Regina said flatly, reaching out and tapping Kelsey square in the chest. “I’ll have your meals brought to you for now. And I’ll be back in the morning to check you out. Until then . . .
stay
in bed.”

A weak smile appeared on Kelsey’s lips. “Honestly, Regina, I don’t even have the energy to go pee, much less anything else.”

“Good.”

Regina was gone seconds later, closing the door quietly behind her. Malachi was silent for a little while. He stared down at her hand, clasped in his. Her fingers were long and tapered, matching the narrow palm and the slender wrist. She looked delicate. He knew otherwise. He’d seen the strength in her long, willowy body. So soft, but still so strong.

She had more of a warrior inside her than she thought; it took a warrior to face Chan as she had done.

Warriors—they all ended up battle scarred at some point. Yet that knowledge did nothing to ease the fury he felt every time he remembered seeing Chan clip Kelsey across the face.

She’d flown through the air like she weighed nothing.

“I’ve known Chan for nearly five hundred years,” Malachi said slowly. “Agnes and I were together when we found him. Did you know that we spent several years together, Nessa and I? She was one of the few I agreed to take on as partner.”

“No. I didn’t know,” Kelsey murmured. She rolled toward him, lying on her side. He was staring at their joined hands. Following his gaze with her own, she felt a warmth start to spread deep inside as he began to stroke the back of her palm with his thumb. “I know you two were . . .
are
close.”

“Aye. We were. We will be again. It will take a bit of time, adjusting to what has happened,” he mused, that hard, sexy line of his mouth frowning thoughtfully. “We were together when we found Chan. He was damn near broken. Had spent close to a century serving as a blood slave to a vampire and his mistress, a witch who practiced on the blood paths. They had nearly driven him mad.”

Kelsey reached up, combing her fingers through the long strands of his deep red hair. “I know he’s a good man, Malachi.”

A bitter smile curved his lips. “That good man was ready to kill you. Blinded by his own sense of honor.” His lids drooped lower, shielding his eyes as they began to glow. “If he had seriously harmed you, nothing on earth could have saved his life.”

“I knew you would come,” Kelsey whispered. Her cheeks heated as she glanced up at him. “I don’t know how I was so certain, but I knew you’d come.”

She wanted to move closer to him, but her body was too damned drained. Instead, she tugged on his hand until he stretched out next to her. As Kelsey cuddled against his side, his big, strong arms came around her and pulled her close.

Weariness weighed down on her, and her lashes drifted closed. “I’m so tired,” she whispered softly.

“Then rest.” His lips brushed against her forehead.

“Will you stay?”

One big hand started to stroke up and down her back. “Aye. I’ll stay.” His hand moved to the back of her head, fisted there. Malachi drew her head back and she stared into the deep blue of his eyes. “When you wake, we have to talk, you and I.”

The hand in her hair loosened, and she cuddled back against him, resting her cheek in the curve where shoulder met arm. “Just be here when I wake up.”

 

 

IT WAS THAT DREAM ALL OVER AGAIN.

His hands hard and demanding as he mounted her, pushed inside, driving her to climax with quick, hard strokes.

And she woke to find herself hovering on the edge of climax all over again.

Embarrassment stained her cheeks red as she opened her eyes and found Malachi propped on one elbow, staring down at her. His hand rested on her belly, but as their eyes met, he stroked down, cupping her in his hand. “Dreaming?” he murmured as he pushed one finger inside her.

She clenched around him, a broken moan escaping her lips. “About you.”

The smile that curved his lips was hot and male. “Good.”

As he began to pump in and out of her sheath, his mouth came down on hers. Kelsey opened for him, and his tongue pushed inside her mouth. She moaned into his mouth and reached up, clutching at his shoulders.

The rhythm of his fingers slowed to a teasing, gentle pace, and he started to circle his thumb around her clit. She reached for him, trying to draw him closer, but he wouldn’t budge. Tearing her mouth away from him, Kelsey demanded, “Don’t tease.”

He laughed, the sound husky and strained. “I am not teasing,” he whispered, biting her lip gently. The slight pain sent shivers racing down her spine. His mouth cruised down her jawline, and she moaned as he pressed a hot, openmouthed kiss to the crook of her neck. “I was trying to let you rest, and then you wake me up with those soft, sexy little moans. You’re so hot—so wet. I’d give my right arm just to bury my cock inside you, but I can’t. But I can do this . . .”

He emphasized his words by circling his finger gently around the opening to her sheath. Slowly, he penetrated her, lifting his head up and staring into her eyes.

“Malachi . . .” she hissed out his name, trying once more to draw him to her. When he wouldn’t come, she ran her hand down his belly, stroking him through the thick denim. “Please.”

“I’ll please,” he whispered. “As often as you wish.” He rubbed his thumb against her clit. As she cried out, he lowered his head, muffling her moans with his mouth.

He kissed her softly, keeping his strokes easy and light. The climax pulsed through her, slow and gentle. When it passed, he wrapped her in his arms and rolled onto his back, taking her with him so that she lay cuddled on his chest.

She could feel him pulsing against her belly. “What about you?” she murmured.

Malachi laughed. “Any time I think of you, I get like this. I can handle it.”

Blood rushed to her cheeks, but before she could say anything, there was a knock at the door. Lifting her head, she glanced at the clock across the room. “Time for the feeding trough again,” she muttered. “Maybe there’s some chocolate cake.”

There was. There was also a spinach soufflé that tasted pretty good. “Nice subtle way of getting me to eat my veggies,” Kelsey drawled as she scooped up another forkful.

“Well, you bitched about the vitamins they sent up last night.”

Loftily, she said, “I didn’t bitch. I merely commented that there were horse pills smaller than that.”

Malachi just smiled at her. After a few minutes, he reached up and trailed his fingers down her cheek. “You’re not so pale.”

Kelsey shrugged. “I feel better. Just getting some rest helped.” She’d eaten half the soufflé and cut into the cake. But after two or three bites, her belly was full.

“Eat more.”

Glancing up, Kelsey wrinkled her nose. “Can’t. I’m full.” She went to stand up so she could put the tray away, but Malachi took it from her and carried it to the door. He set it on the floor outside in the hall. One of the students would come around to pick it up later.

Closing the door behind him, he leaned against it and hooked his thumbs in the pockets of his jeans. Kelsey curled up against the headboard and drew her knees to her chest. “We were supposed to talk.”

His lips crooked up in a half smile. “Yes. Where to start . . .”

“Why don’t you start by sitting down here with me?”

She held his gaze. Her pretty eyes looked about as nervous as he felt. Shoving away from the door, he crossed over and dropped down on the bed, stretching out next to her. “You make me nervous, you know that?” he murmured.

Kelsey snorted as she shifted around on the bed. “If you say so.”

As she stretched her legs out in front of her, he rested his head on her thigh and looked up into her face. “It is not something I would say if I did not mean it,” he murmured. “You’ve been making me nervous for ten years now.”

“Uh-huh.”

Malachi grinned at her. “I try to bare my soul, and you give me skepticism.”

She smirked down at him. “Malachi baring his soul to anybody is worth a little bit of skepticism.”

“Such a brat,” he muttered, reaching up and tugging on a thick lock of hair.

She opened her mouth to answer, but even as she did, her lids flickered, then closed altogether. Seconds later, a bell started to toll. Her breasts rose and fell as she sighed. Their eyes met, and Malachi scowled. “You need more rest than that.”

He rolled into a sitting position, but before he climbed off the bed, Kelsey reached out and caught his hand. “I’ll rest better when this is all over with. The Council needs to understand what’s happened, and I’ll rest easier once it’s done.”

 

 

ONCE IT’S DONE
, KELSEY THOUGHT MOROSELY.

More than two hours had passed since the Council had come together. Malachi, once more, sat in the center chair, and his face was as unreadable as always. He had passed the point of frustration long ago, though. Tobias, for once, looked like he was about ready to chew nails.

Kelsey was getting damned tired of answering questions.

She imagined that the other witches in the room were getting as fed up as she was.

Yet Niko kept firing off more and more questions.

Lori seemed to be tolerating it better than the rest of them, but there were lines of strain fanning out from the corners of her eyes.

Leandra looked just plain furious. Her topaz-colored eyes were snapping, and as she spoke, it was pretty obvious she was speaking through clenched teeth. “I grow tired of answering the same questions, over and over, Nikolas. How long do you plan on keeping me here?”

“Until you have me convinced, Leandra.”

From the corner, Vax spoke up. “Looks like it would be easier to convince a brick wall.”

Kelsey suppressed a smile. As Vax pushed away from the wall and started forward, she settled back in her chair. He hadn’t been summoned, but as the Council members filed in, he had strolled inside and taken up residence in the corner. This was the first time he had spoken, and Niko looked at him as though he wished the witch had just stayed quiet. “You chose not to join the Council. You were not summoned to speak here. I fail to see why you feel you have anything to add.”

“Maybe because I actually know how to listen with my brain instead of sitting on it?” Vax offered.

Kelsey compressed her lips to keep from laughing, but Leandra didn’t bother. Lori was staring steadfastly at the floor, but Kelsey could see her lips bowing up in a grin.

Niko narrowed his eyes. “If you do not have anything to offer here, then get the hell out. Technically, I don’t see why you think you can offer a damn thing. You left the Council’s service decades ago.”

Vax lifted one broad shoulder in a shrug. “That sure as hell didn’t keep you from trying to get me to join the Council.”

“Well, as I recall, you declined.” Niko looked back at Leandra and said, “I am still waiting for you to explain exactly when you knew something was wrong.”

A slow smile curved Leandra’s lips. “It was not that something was wrong,” she drawled. Turning on her heel, she sauntered over to the table where Lori was sitting. Instead of sitting in a chair though, she hopped up on the table. As she drew up her legs and folded them together, the wooden beads on the ends of her braids clacked together.

Kelsey hid a small smile as Leandra stared at Niko. There was something very disconcerting about Leandra—it was like those gold eyes could stare right through a person, see straight into the soul. That sly smile might not intimidate the shifter, but it sure as hell made it clear that she wasn’t impressed by Niko or the Council.

“I knew the minute she woke that something had changed. Every single thing about her was different. The way she spoke, the way she looked, the very air around her had changed.”