Sin of Fury (26 page)

Jamie moaned when he grabbed her ass
roughly, jerking her lower body harder against his. The command to
stop teasing him was clear in the dominant action. She took his lip
between hers, clawing her nails down the back of his
neck.

His large body shuddered against
hers.

A large hand left her ass
and then came back with a low
slap
. She gasped, arousal flaring
even higher than before. It didn’t help how wet she was when his
deep, rough voice grated into her ear. “Don’t tease me, Jamie. You
may be gorgeous as fuck, but that won’t stop me from punishing
you.”

Boy, did she want to be punished. A
flush came over her face as she stared into his heat-filled
eyes.

“
Teasing means there won’t
be more for you later,” she moaned, threading her hands in his hair
as his head fell to her neck. Hot breath, and then a soft,
demanding bite. Her toes curled. “I plan on taking you as soon as
we have a bed, no clothes, and…”

Her voice trailed off as he kissed his
way lower, lips feathering over her skin.

His hands wrapped around her waist,
gently pressing his fingers into her even as he pulled away. The
haze covering her eyes drifted away, replaced by the fact that
Talon was pushing her away. Hot lips no longer touched her skin, no
longer caressed her as if he wanted her. She looked up at him,
catching her breath.

A dark flush had come over his cheeks,
and his breathing was as ragged as hers, if not more. He pulled
himself away from her completely, and pointed to the door. She
stared at him, almost devastated.

“
The restroom is that way,”
he told her quietly. Giving her a lingering look, he turned on his
heel and walked away. She was just to the bathroom door when she
looked back to see him watching her, in the process of running a
confused hand through his hair.

Jamie closed the door, heart
fluttering like a bee on crack.

~*~

Devlin leaned against the wall, a
cat’s smile on her graceful lips. He gave her an arch stare before
turning to the door. It would be some time before Talon and Jamie
showed up, and it seemed like Devlin was all too ready to make use
of the extra time.

“
So, this girl,” she
started, getting up from the wall. “She is going to be here
often?”

“
Whatever Talon chooses to
do with her.” He shrugged, picking up some papers from his desk and
putting them in the large filing cabinet behind him. The metal box
was locked soon afterward, and the keys clanked on the table. “I
like her, though.” A little smile lifted his lips.

Her face screwed up. “You like
her?”

Lucian looked over at her, noticing
the venom in her eyes and the doubt in her voice. He almost
chuckled. “She has spunk. Maybe a little too world-weary, but she
would fit Talon good.”

A look of understanding came over her
face. “Oh, I see.”

There was a silence. After that night
in her rooms, he had been avoiding her. She came after him like a
rabbit looking for a fuck buddy, but Lucian had managed to get out
of her way. He could have just sent her away, but he couldn’t take
the chance of something coming after them and one of his seconds
gone.

Devlin stood to her feet. The air
shifted around them as she glided to his side, soft hands touching
his shoulder and chest. The movement had his body warming, but the
desire wasn’t as intense as it used to be. He looked down at
her.

With her long hair pulled back from
her face, strands sliding around her face, she looked like a French
duchess besides the cat-suit she had on. The thought had him
realizing what was happening and he pulled back, recoiling just as
the door of the closed-off room open.

“
The life of the part has
arrived!” said a man dressed in a ti-dye shirt, suspenders, and
white capris.

Lucian breathed a sigh of relief as
Devlin all but hissed at the guy.

“
Vladimir,” he greeted,
dipping his head. The man had hair as white as snow, yet his face
was young and puckered from wind. Bright blue eyes twinkled up at
him before they landed on Devlin.

His face dropped from flamboyant to
disdainful.

“
Drama Queen,” Devlin spat,
moving to the back wall again. She pressed herself into the shadows
as if the action would make the Vladimir disappear.

“
Someday, woman, you will
be working for me,” he said with a flick of his wrist, his own
action of flipping her off. Lucian held in a smile.

“
What did you need?” he
asked, ignoring their banter. Everyone knew that Devlin and
Vladimir hated each other, so their insults and arguments were
nothing new.

“
I was just going to report
that a beautiful black haired woman and a strapping man arrived at
this disappointment of a building. They will be back shortly, the
man said. He wanted to give the lovely woman a tour – that may be
the new slang for ‘fuck’ though,” he said, crossing his arms over
his chest and standing straight.

Vladimir was the kind of man that
could direct a movie and get off on being called gay. He looked
down on half of the population, resented almost everyone, and loved
to talk in big sentences.

He was also very blunt.

Lucian moved to the door. “Why would
you say that?”

Vladimir gave him an arch look, taking
a hankie out of his back pocket and twirling it around in his
hands. He did that enough that it didn’t bother Lucian anymore.
“Oh, you should have seen the way they were looking at each other!
I was scared my booty was going to get singed off because of the
flames of heat and desire that radiated from…”

“
Alright. We get it.”
Lucian rubbed his face with his hand and opened the door, looking
out. The room was empty, the normal clicks and taps of the room
absent. He had sent everyone home for a break. Reconstruction was
going on in the front, and they were getting ready to sell the gas
station. Vladimir had unfavorably agreed to let Lucian use his bar
as the new headquarters, so they had no use of the gas
station.

Lucian had many settlements across the
nation to last his organization a lifetime—and more.

“
Gay boys should just shut
up in general,” Devlin muttered from the back, the insult aimed at
only Vladimir.

He gave her a sweet smile and waved
the hankie at her. “At least I can get the big ones, my dear.” With
that, he flounced out of the room with a skip. The action was only
to piss off Devlin, and it had done its job. The second he was out
of the room, a paper weight came flying at Lucian’s
head.

He caught it, glaring at her. “Be
grateful, at least you get to work with us still. He could have
easily said that you couldn’t work at the Alley Cat and I wouldn’t
have cared enough to convince him to let you stay with the group.
So instead of acting like a child, get your priorities straight and
not piss off the gay man.”

Devlin was silent. He could tell that
she was debating about throwing another paper weight at his head or
sulking out of the room. She chose the latter, and he followed
after her. It wouldn’t do to have Talon and Jamie making out like
sex-crazed teenagers in his store when there was business to
do.

Talon grabbed his cell phone out of
his pocket. He didn’t bother to look at the caller ID.

Jamie was standing next to him,
looking at the walls with a dazed look on her face. They were
silvery, metallic, and apparently something that she had never seen
before. The whole station was at odds with the work space that lay
behind it.

The look of distaste on her face when
they had walked into Sinclairs had had him chuckling, and now that
they were behind the store and she was getting a little taste of
what Talon put up with, it was almost comical. What would she think
if she knew he didn’t live anywhere near here?

She would love his condo, he thought,
watching her. The empty, one-point five million dollar a month room
didn’t have the touch of a woman, nor a man. He had got the room in
impulse, and since then he hadn’t had time to actually settle in.
Lucian had needed him in Omaha, and soon after Talon had taken his
first vacation, all but forgetting about the condo.

He would have to take her shopping, or
at the very least go to her house to get her clothes. He finished
the call with an affiliate from Texas and slipped the phone into
his pocket. Lucian had been considerate enough to put it on the
seat of his cycle.

“
Where is that man?” she
asked. He almost laughed when he realized she might not have heard
the way she said “that man”, as if saying Lucian’s name was calling
the devil.

He hid his mirth and put a hand on her
shoulder, steering her away from the back rooms and toward the
office. Down the hall, he heard the thump of Lucian’s boots and
looked down at her with a humored smile. Jamie didn’t have the same
enhancements he did, so she didn’t hear him until he was right
around the corner.

A look of disgust came over her face
the second Lucian came into view. “Vladimir said he would do the
honors of explaining everything to her,” Lucian said. Talon looked
at him with almost shocked eyes, and he burst into
laughter.

Jamie backed away, crossing her arms
over her chest.

“
Maybe I should just do
that…” he said, unsure. Vladimir would, for sure, go overboard. He
could just see the two of them, sitting in a dark room, Vladimir
acting like he was telling horror stories at a campfire and Jamie
looking like she was about to cry.

“
He already said he would.”
Lucian laughed, looking at Jamie, then back at Talon. “Sign her up
for therapy the first chance you get.” He burst into laughter
again.

“
What room is he in?” Talon
sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. Jamie was staring between
them like they shared a head or something. He felt bad for
her.

Jamie was put into a small, dark,
clean room. There was a fluffy chair in the corner, a wooden table
in the center, and a swivel chair set in front of it. She was in
the fluffy chair, waiting for a “Vladimir” person, wondering if
that by the end of this interlude she would be a sparkly
vampire.

Most likely.

The door opened with a groan. Jamie
sat still while a looming shadow entered the doorway. It spread
into the room like a blanket of fear. She swore she almost puked
right then and there.

Except, the first thing she saw was a
sandel. A bedazzled sandal. On a slim foot. A tan slim
foot.

And then she saw a hairless leg. A
male, hairless leg, yet slim and short.

She stared with a deadpan look as a
small man strode into the room like he owned the place. It was hard
not to laugh at the strut he pulled off, along with his spiky white
hair, pink eyeshadow, and colorful shirt that went completely at
odds with his demeanor.

The door closed with a thump and the
lights flickered on like a broken light struggling to work. Jamie
bit her lip against giggling.

“
My name is Vladimir,” he
said haughtily as he came around the table. In front of her, he
started to sit on empty air when the swivel chair appeared under
his butt. She barely held in her gasp of surprise. “Tell me your
name, raven haired beauty.”

She told him, all the while trying not
to cry with laughter. He seemed to know that she was struggling and
smiled, folding his hands on his lap. Sparkles caught in the light
as his eyes crinkled, the eye shadow starting to glow.

“
It is my understanding
that you do not know of us, or even Talon’s curse,” he started with
a smile in his voice, like he was telling a bedtime story. “Well, I
am here to inform you. As you will soon be under my power, I wish
to keep all people informed and aware.”

She coughed. “Under your
power?”

“
Yes,
cher
. Now, listen to what I tell you
and do not give any outward reactions till I am done. I will
console you afterwards.” Jamie couldn’t help the small laugh that
came from her before she nodded, biting her lip at his chiding
glare.

“
Let us start with The
Beginning. Now, there are things such as powers and witches. It is
all natural, mind you. It is not the people that are powerful, but
the earth. Witches are just vessels in which the earth releases its
powers.” He paused and looked at her, waiting for her nod to
continue.

It wasn’t like she could
tell him to stop. While she was engrossed in what he was saying,
nothing was making sense to her. Her head hurt like hell, and it
felt like everything was a dream. But there wasn’t any reason why
she
shouldn’t
believe any of it...

God,
she thought, closing her eyes.
Make
up your damn mind!

The mental shouting didn’t help
any.

“
The earth does not let
those who do not belong know of its powers. You are connected to
Talon in such a way that even the earth cannot hold you two apart.
Why is this, you might ask? Well, without permission, you cannot be
together. Yet you are. There are no such things as Fates. As Gods.
As superhumans. Nothing like that, minion.