Sinful Magic (23 page)

so stupid.”

Oh dear crone. This time, she stayed quiet and let him tell his story.

He looked up and said, “I was both working in construction with Phoenix and doing freelance art jobs, and Viv found a job as a cook. We had an apartment. I worked late one night on a mural. When I got home

” His face tightened and he took a long drink of his beer. Then he said, “I smelled the blood, then heard Viv’s cries. My first thought was that something had gone wrong with the baby. She was just over three months pregnant. Then I smelled copper, and I knew. It was a little one-bedroom place. I got inside and found Liam cutting up Vivian, demanding to know where the Tear was.” He jerked his gaze to Roxy. “She didn’t know anything about the goddamned Tear.”

“Oh, Kieran.” It was all she said, all she could say.

“I pulled out my knife and attacked Liam, and both of us got cut up. Then he broke away from me, putting about ten feet between us. It was the perfect opportunity for me, I knew I could kill him then. I took aim with my knife.”

She remembered Key saying he doesn’t miss when he throws his knife.

“It was all happening so fast. I heard Viv cry out my name. She’d gotten up and run toward me at the same time I threw my knife at Liam.”

Roxy’s heart pounded; bile burned up her throat. His gaze had drained to the color of hot mercury.

“He grabbed Vivian, jerking her in front of him. My knife hit her in the throat.”

Her knees went weak. She grabbed the counter behind her and said, “Oh God.”

Key stared at her, his gaze brutal. “She died in my arms, able to say only one last word, ‘Why?’ I was never sure if she was asking why Liam attacked her or why I killed her and our baby.”

Horrified for him, she saw the haunted looked in his eyes, and it crashed in her chest, leaving her wordless.

“That’s when I began to draw the truth of myself—the dark and violent world I know. It’s what I am, and it follows me like a foul odor.”

She pushed off the counter and took a step toward him. “It wasn’t your fault!”

There was no mercy for himself in his eyes. “I killed her with my knife, her and our baby. She loved me and trusted me. I didn’t warn her, didn’t tell her about the Dragon Tear, or that I came from a sadistic, screwed-up gene pool, or that I was a witch hunter. If she’d never met me, Liam would have left her alone and she’d be alive.”

His voice was tight with guilt. Her heart broke for him. She crossed the kitchen and pressed into his arms. He stiffened. She wouldn’t let him do this. “I’m not Vivian, Kieran. And I know about Liam, the Tear, I know it all.”

He sighed, the tension easing in his muscles. He set his beer down and touched her face. “I want to show you something.” He stepped back, took her hand, and said, “Come with me.” He led her down the stairs into the gym. “One second.” He dropped her hand, strode across the mat, picked up his overnight bag, and walked back. Then he grabbed her hand, and they headed to a weight bench. He sat, then tugged her to sit on his lap.

She hesitated, wanting to stay calm, in control, and sitting on his lap would make that difficult.

He rubbed his thumb over her hand. “It’s easier if you let me hold you. It keeps the bloodlust down.”

“That’s a great line, hunter,” she said, but she settled on his thighs. She would keep her magic contained and her chakras closed, she thought fiercely. Even with the feel of his hard thighs beneath her, his left arm around her back, his hand resting on her leg. She focused on watching his right hand dip into the bag and then pull out his sketchbook.

“I want you to see through my eyes.” He opened it to the picture he’d already shown her. “I don’t see your magic here, just you, and that’s pretty damned fine. But once you let me bring out some of your magic

” He began to turn the page.

Her stomach fluttered with nerves. She could hear the sound of the page turning and wasn’t sure she wanted to see this. And then he revealed the drawing. She sucked in her breath. She was sitting in the corner of his couch, wearing only the black yoga pants. She had her right arm across her stomach and her breasts spilled over like they were too full, her nipples erect. Her skin glowed with a golden shimmer that seemed to take on all the colors of a sunset. She didn’t know how he did it, how he captured those colors dancing over her skin.

Against the backdrop of her flushed skin and fiery golden shimmer, a crystal teardrop hung on a silver chain and was nestled between her breasts. It was silvery clear, yet she thought she caught colors simmering in it if she tilted her head. Then they vanished, and reappeared. “Is that Dyfyr’s Tear?”

Kieran said, “I didn’t intend to draw that there, but then I had to.”

“Do you see colors in it?” she asked, staring at the drop.

“No.” He turned to look at her. “Do you?”

“Almost, I don’t know how to explain it. Flashes, glimpses, then I turn my head, and it’s gone.”

“Must be your magic. The real Tear has colors, but even I can’t draw that kind of magic.”

“It’s painfully exquisite. Hard to look at, yet hard not to.” She reached out, touching the tip of her finger to it, almost feeling the hot dampness.

“I know it’s too dangerous, but I would give anything to see that Tear on you.” He seemed to shake himself and added softly, “Look at your face.”

She saw her chin was up, her mouth full, relaxed and parted. Her green eyes were looking right at Kieran, full of confidence. So certain. So

rich with more than sex. That same feeling she’d had while he drew her washed over her now; hot rivers of desire, the longing to pull Kieran to her, and knowing

what? That she could give him something no one else could.

“Do you see it, Roxy?” His voice was throttled low. “The beauty? The fire? The radiance in you when you let your magic surface? Roxy, this is you. It’s more than sexual beauty, it’s magic. And so goddamned enticing it makes my guts twist just looking.” He turned his face to hers, his gaze magnetic. “It’s you. And when I look at you, I know that if I fell for you, if I let myself care, my feelings for you would be a hundred times more powerful than what I felt for Vivian.” He touched his finger to the Tear between her breasts in the picture. “And then, somehow, I’d destroy you. Just like Vivian.”

He thought if he loved her he’d destroy her? That wasn’t even logical, but fears like that usually weren’t.

She touched his face. “Did you ever think that maybe together we’ll be stronger? The curse will break, you’ll be free of your bloodlust, I’ll get my high magic, and we’ll work together. We’ll defeat your brother and safeguard that Tear.” And maybe she could teach him to trust love, to trust himself.

Bits of blue flared in his gray eyes. “You make me want that, Roxy. Want to believe we can really have something together.” He leaned in and kissed her.

“Key?” Axel called from the stairs.

Roxy scrambled off his lap. Key folded the sketchbook and put it away, then answered, “Yeah.”

“We need to go. Darcy and Carla got a text that a witch is missing.”

Key was the last one to get back to Phoenix’s house. Roxy, Axel, Darcy, Phoenix, Ailish, Carla, and Sutton were around the big table. As soon as he walked in, Roxy’s scent surfed over the dinner aromas and hit him hard.

Dark chocolate; her magic was rising.

He went straight to the kitchen sink to wash his hands and saw his veins swelling, turning dark with the acid craving for her blood. Lust pounded down his spine. After drying his hands, he grabbed a beer from the fridge and went around the granite bar to the table. There was an empty chair next to Roxy.

She set a dish in front of him heaped with a BBQ beef sandwich, potato salad, and fruit. “You must be starved. I fixed you a plate.”

“Thanks.” His throat tightened. It was a small gesture, something he saw the other bonded hunters and witches do all the time for one another.

“After I left you tonight, I went by your condo. I have a couple recruits wiring a new alarm system right now,” Sutton said. “I’ll go by and test it later tonight.”

Key glanced up at the hunter across from him. “Good. Liam’s going to make another move soon. His desperation is rising. He really thought I’d leave both Roxy and the Tear in my loft.” He took a drink of beer, washing down his rage.

Roxy set down her fork. “Where is he? What’s he doing? Darcy said you rescued the missing witch and she’s okay.”

He looked at her. “We did. She sent a text that she thought she was being followed. Smart of her to send an emergency text like that.”

“Emergency text?”

Carla set down her glass of water. “Sutton, Darcy, and I have set up an emergency text system. If a witch is threatened or has been taken by a rogue and can alert us, the hunters try to find her. If she is able to keep her phone with her, we tap into the GPS and find her quicker.”

“Impressive.”

Key told her, “We arrived at the witch’s house just as the rogue broke in. Before he died, the rogue told me Liam is at the Rogue Cadre headquarters. Said he and Quinn Young are tight. We dumped the rogue’s body close to their headquarters, but we can’t get too close.” Frustration coiled in his stomach. He had to get to Liam. “It’s protected by mini–Death Daggers.”

Roxy’s eyes were huge. “What is that?”

“Quinn Young is the leader of the rogues. He bargained with Asmodeus and got the Immortal Death Dagger. That thing can kill immortals. It’s burned into Young’s arm and is damned creepy. Now we’ve learned he’s growing mini–death daggers that protect their headquarters.”

“Kieran! You didn’t get too close to those things, did you?”

He could feel her worry for him. “No. I’m not going to get killed and leave you without protection.” Or someone to tame her schema and feed her magic. She needed him alive.

“He did use his knife to save me. I was hauling the rogue’s body, planning to drop it at the rogue headquarters, then from there head over to Key’s condo and look at the alarm system. But I got too close, and the fun, started. Kieran saw the dagger coming and threw his knife, knocking it off the path before it hit me,” Sutton said. “Then we played a game of chicken because hotshot rocket-arm just had to have his knife back.”

Phoenix laughed. “Sutton and I flew overhead, drawing the daggers up while Key ran in and got the knife.”

“I like that knife,” Key said and took another bite of his sandwich.

“You could have been killed! All of you!” Roxy said. “Why would you do that?”

“Because they are idiots,” Ailish announced. “And because they know that the only antidote to the Immortal Death Dagger is the blood of a soul mirror.” She turned her face toward Roxy. “Phoenix and Sutton made sure the dagger didn’t hit Key. They both have soul mirrors who could save them. But they are still idiots.”

“Sounds like it,” Roxy glared at Key.

Damn, she looked mad. “We were testing the range of the daggers, Roxy, looking for a pattern, a way to get by them. Wing Slayer and Asmodeus are in a war for control of Earth. The rogues are the demon’s soldiers, and we are Wing Slayer’s. We have to get to the rogues to kill them.”

“And keep the Dragon Tear away from them,” she added.

“Speaking of that, did you move the Tear?” Axel asked.

“Yes.” That’s why he was so much later getting to the house than the rest of them. He was going to need to keep moving the Tear in case Liam really did have a way of tracking it with fertility witch blood.

“About the Tear,” Roxy said. “I’ve been thinking. You know that drawing you did of me wearing the Tear?”

Her voice was tense, and he turned to her. He saw the flush rising up her throat. Did she think he could forget that drawing, or the real thing? He put his hand on her thigh. Before he opened his mouth to say anything, he felt streams of itching, discomfort

Shit! She was hurting! For sex. For him. His cock responded with enthusiasm, but his chest ached for her. He’d been out, and she’d been here suffering. “What about it?”

“I think that was you channeling Dyfyr again. He’s telling us that I should wear the Tear tonight.”

“No!” Realizing he snarled at her, he softened his tone. “I don’t want you touching the Tear.” He didn’t want anything to hurt her.

“Key, you drew it,” she emphasized. “Like when you drew on the wall in the bedroom in Vegas. It’s Dyfyr, I know it is. I think once he’s awake, he can get rid of the Tear.”

He didn’t know why he’d drawn it on her, and now he regretted it. “Roxy, that Tear is too dangerous. Wait until the dragon is awake. Until you have enough power to communicate with him. I’m not going to risk you, Roxy. It could drain off some of your life. First we’ll wake the dragon and go from there.”

“But is that really a risk?” Phoenix said. “Wing Slayer will grant you both immortality. He’s done it for all of us soul mirrors. That will counteract any small amount of life drained from her.”

Immortality. With Roxy. She’d be his to protect, to make love to

and she’d be damn hard to kill. He would be able to relax a little bit if she had immortality. Maybe figure out how to be her lover and not destroy her.

Roxy put her hand on his arm. “What if I’m right and Dyfyr can use his magic to destroy the Tear as soon as he wakes?” She took a breath.

Kieran looked into her eyes and discovered something that shocked him—it was hard to deny her what she wanted. But she was his soul mirror, he couldn’t risk her. “I don’t think—”

“Key,” Carla said, “Roxy had a real connection with the dragon in the gym. You know she did. I think she might have a point.”

“Don’t forget Linc’s house,” Axel added. “The way her magic rose and she connected to your drawings.” He shifted his gaze to Roxy. “You were magical then, Roxy. Your witch-shimmer surfaced and there was almost an otherworldliness to you. Like you were with us, but also there with the dragon centuries ago at the same moment.”

Ailish added, “The Ancestors said that only the dragon can destroy the Tear. Roxy’s been right so far, hasn’t she?”

Key was torn, realizing that Roxy was getting real support, making her face glow with their acceptance. But he was worried, damn it.

“Have you worn the Tear?” Sutton asked.