Sinful Magic (32 page)

“I’m here.” Key strode up to them and shoved Phoenix aside.

Roxy could see he’d washed off all the blood. The dragon watched her with his gleaming eyes, holding the lock of hair. She knew Key had heard everything she’d said, including her defense of Dyfyr—the soul memory, Carla had called it. Before she could think of anything to say, Darcy and Ailish moved behind her and next to Carla. Dee was in the room, too, but they had her back by the stairs out of harm’s way.

Carla said, “Once you summon your magic, we’ll circle our power and feed you more. Then you touch him and we’ll push in as much of the sex magic as we can.”

She nodded.

“Key,” Carla looked at him. “There’s always an exchange. Bringing up his sexual lust is going to push the bloodlust out and into Roxy. She’s going to feel the burn and craziness.”

“The hell she will. I’ll draw it off.”

He stepped behind her, so close she could feel the heat of him. But he didn’t touch her yet. Would he?

He leaned close to her ear. “I’m going to help you. We’ll do this together.”

Little sparks danced along her nerves. Her schema woke up and tendrils of desire began branching out. Her response was fast and intense; her chakras popped open quickly from her pelvis to her heart. Her magic began to spin, rushing up and down her spine and pushing at her throat. Her skin tightened, her nipples peaked, and she was overwhelmed.

“Damn, Roxy,” Key said, his voice strangled.

“Key, help her,” Phoenix ground out. “Before we all lose control.”

Oh sweet crone, her magic was rushing out and touching them all. Making them feel lust. Humiliation burned through her. She tried to stare down at Linc and focus. He was big like the others, and even in his unconscious state, she could see the cut of his muscles. He had brown hair with gold streaks. His face was elegant with an edge of brutality. He had cuts and bruises all over his chest and arms. She had to get control in order to help him.

Or Axel would have to kill him.

But her magic kept whirling and rushing. Her throat ached. She was failing. She knew it.

Two hands gripped her waist. “Come here,” Key said, his hands pulling her back to his chest. He folded his arms around her.

His warmth surrounded her, the dark spice scent, his strength. She felt the steady, strong beat of his heart. Her magic started to calm until she felt his erection press against her lower back. Oh God.

He leaned closer, “Tell me what’s happening.”

She forced herself to say, “Too much. My throat

”

“Her communication chakra,” Ailish said. “She needs it for the dragon to help her control her magic.”

He lifted one hand and drew his fingertips over her throat, then down the center of her chest, and back up. “Here?” He kept stroking softly.

Her magic paused; in the internal silence every cell waited for direction. Even her schema stilled. Then the power circled back down and rushed up through her first four chakras right to Key’s fingers.

A second later, sweet relief came as her throat chakra opened. A new, vivid awareness scuttled through her and she felt not only one heartbeat against her back, but two. The sound vibrated inside of her, and then she felt a gentle sweep of

wings? They swept up her arms, then down, and felt like buttery-soft leather. She tilted her head up. “He’s touching me.”

“Felt it.” He smiled down at her, his dimples flashing. “Your magic is focusing now.”

The wings that had been touching her skin were now inside her, resolutely sweeping her magic into a disciplined pattern going up and down her spine, growing and thickening. The brush of the wings was intimate and deeply sensual. She shivered. “He’s so powerful.”

Key’s gray eyes began to burn with a gas-flame blue. “Like your magic.”

“That was

intense,” Phoenix said. “That’s some awesome magic you got there, Elf.”

Key kept staring into her eyes. “Phoenix doesn’t know when to shut up.”

“Either I talk or I drag Ailish out of here,” he muttered.

Roxy laughed. “He’s your friend. I get Ailish.”

Key rubbed his thumb over the skin just below her throat. “Unfortunately, they are a package deal.”

She felt a touch of sadness. If she didn’t find a way to get this Tear off, she’d never have the chance—

“Roxy,” Darcy broke in, “we’re sending you more power through your communication chakra. You should feel it.”

She turned back to focus on Linc. She began to sense the internal touch of the other witches, a bright, warm feeling blending into her magic and strengthening the stream. “Okay, I feel it.”

“Good. Are you ready to try?”

“Yes.” She pushed Key’s arms off her and walked to the man.

“Focus on your fifth chakra, then funnel the power through it and down your arm.”

“Keep your hand away from his teeth,” Axel said as he pulled the chains tight. “He’s going to be vicious. Phoenix, get your knife out. Key, you be ready to pull Roxy back.”

Her nerves stretched spiderweb thin. She crouched down next to the man.

His eyes popped open, so fast that she fell back on her ass. The gold depths burned with a feral light. His muscles went rigid and a vibration rumbled in his chest. His nostrils flared.

Key caught her beneath her arms, lifted her to her feet, and swung her behind him.

Linc began to struggle. “Let go, dickheads!”

Axel wrapped the chains around his forearms and pulled tight. Sutton did the same, stretching Linc to immobility. “He’s going to rip out his joints. Now, Roxy.”

Roxy responded to the authority in Axel. She moved around Key and refocused. Drew the power up her spine, through her throat chakra, and down her arm.

Linc thrashed and bellowed. “Bitch

pricks

kill you

blood

want the blood

not her blood, goddammit.” A pause. Then Linc looked down at Sutton.

Roxy glanced down to see clarity in his gold eyes. “Kill me. By all that is holy, kill me!”

The furious desperation in the hunter’s words drove her as nothing else had. She dropped to her haunches and laid her hand on his ribs. His skin was hot and dry, as if he burned with a fever.

Linc’s body bucked up, almost throwing her hand off.

She heard the chains rattle, the men grunting as they fought for control, but she pushed it all from her mind and focused on Linc. Her magic streamed through her palm and fingers. She concentrated and kept herself open, like a conduit.

Seconds later, she felt a return of something dark and ugly. It began snaking up her fingers, burrowing into her palms, and a sweat broke out on her body. She looked down. The veins on the back of her hands swelled and distorted. It felt like acid was being injected into her. Ugly red and black welts pulsed. She suddenly felt smothered, like ashes coated in her lungs, making it impossible to get air.

Key crouched next to her, wrapped an arm around her shoulder, and pulled her into his side. “Breathe,” he said softly, then put his hand over hers on Linc.

She stared at his bigger, darker hand that was strong enough to kill, yet gentle enough to draw. Then she felt the dragon wings brushing back and forth, matching the rhythm of the dual heartbeats. Her communication chakra allowed her to feel and hear the dragon so clearly. And she felt Key’s arm around her shoulder, anchoring her in the maelstrom of magic mixing with darkness. Her Kieran.

A second later she could pull in a full breath. Then the pain eased. Her magic flowed, the wings helping her control it. She felt only a fraction of the return before Key siphoned off the pain and smothering blackness. But now Key was feeling it—was he okay?

“Keep going, Roxy,” Key said. “I’m fine.”

She hadn’t spoken out loud

had she? With her hand pressed to Linc, she kept the magic flowing, pulling in the extra power from Darcy, Ailish, and Carla. She looked over at Linc’s face. Sweat dotted his upper lip, and his color was splotchy. That strange light in his eyes was flickering. “Head’s spinning,” he said.

“We’re trying to pull out the bloodlust, Linc,” Key told him.

“Remember it. The blood on me. Felt so fucking good. More

blood.” His body twisted in the throes of some internal cramping.

“His shoulder popped,” Axel said. “More, Roxy. Force in more sex magic.”

She sucked in a breath and tried. So much power winging through her began to make her skin hurt. Key kept his hand over hers but moved behind her, wrapped his arm around her middle, and settled her on his lap. She just let him, concentrating. She didn’t know how to sort her sex magic from her power. It had something to do with the goddess.

He reached his hand down between her thighs.

“Key!” Her magic stuttered with thick embarrassment. What was he doing?

“Just touching your schema. That’s all.” Through her jeans, he settled his palm over the inside of her upper left thigh. His other hand rested on top of hers pressed to Linc.

His touched ignited a firestorm in her. Rich, thick waves of desire blossomed outward. Filling her body. A roar of need saturated her womb and clenched through her. Her core ached, her breasts ached, her cleft ached, she

needed. And she summoned all that, every little bit of it, and poured it through her magic.

Into Linc.

“Jesus,” Phoenix said.

“What the hell kind of magic is that?” Linc asked.

Roxy felt the voice rumble through Linc even as she heard the words. She blinked, and then lifted her head to look at him.

The spottiness was gone. His skin was tanned except for slashes of red over his cheekbones. His gold eyes were clear but the pupils were dilating. He seemed to be panting. She didn’t want to look down to his hips.

She already knew he’d be hard.

“Sex magic,” she said.

He groaned in a low, throaty voice. The violent twisting of his body slowed into an undulating rhythm. “You have nice hands, love.” He rubbed up against her palm. “Little lower

”

Key roared behind her. He jerked her hand away.

Linc ignored him, his eyes on Roxy. “Undo my pants. Touch me,” he arched up, angling toward her.

Another roar behind her, and Key’s chest vibrated like a fast-approaching train. It all happened so fast! He stood, lifting her with him, then pushed her behind him toward the witches. Then he whipped around and demanded of Axel, “Let him go!”

Roxy watched in total shock. His back bunched, the muscles popping and twitching. Key was just over six feet and packed 210 pounds of raw strength. All of it rippled now, expanding his back. He held his arms out at his sides, opening and closing his fingers. The threat in him so vivid, it made her mouth go dry and her heart hammer.

“Stand down, Key!” Axel shouted. “Now!”

“Let him go!” Key yelled back.

“Come back, little witch,” Linc said. “Give me more of your hot sex magic.”

Another current went through Key. He flexed his fingers and claws burst out, spraying blood. Then his back rippled, the shoulder blades bulged, and a sudden whoosh filled the room.

Then silence. Even Linc shut up, and stopped rattling the chains.

Wings. Magnificent wings that spanned at least six feet on each side, and at the top curve had to reach eight feet, maybe more. They were different from the other men’s wings, made from a membranelike substance and covered with iridescent scales of emerald green and sapphire blue. The bottoms of the wings were scalloped. Stunning.

“Roxy,” Axel broke the silence. “Move where Key can see you.”

She walked around and realized Phoenix had glued himself to her shoulder. “He’s not going to hurt me.” Dyfyr hadn’t hurt her last time his claws came out in the gym. Roxy really was coming to believe something else was going on.

Key looked down at her. “Probably not, but he’s going to kill Linc. The dragon is jealous. It’s going to be funny as hell as soon as he calms down.”

“Jealous. Of Linc.” That meant he really did care about her.

Phoenix rolled his eyes. “Elf, unless you want to watch Linc sliced up into bloody strips of jerky, you’d better go tell the dragon to knock that shit off.”

Too many feelings crowded her chest. She moved in front of Key. His gaze was gray like wet cement, and his wings twitched in fury. “Get up,” he snarled at Linc.

“Tell them to let go, lizard, and I will.”

Lizard? He called her dragon a lizard? “Oh, shut up!” She snapped at the hunter, then turned back to Key. Her breath caught in her lungs. The tattoo on his chest was gone. He had massive muscles in his shoulders, arms, and chest, and even down his flat, ripped stomach to handle those wings. And the inside of the wings gleamed a light amethyst that changed shades with each movement. Then she looked up to his face.

Lethal.

“Key?”

“Out of the way, Roxy.”

She didn’t know how to talk to the dragon if he was gone from Key’s chest. Instead she reached up a hand and touched the inside of a wing. Soft and warm, and she wanted to burrow herself into the feel of them.

Key shuddered.

She said, “Kieran.”

He looked down at her. “Going to kill him.”

“No,” she said softly and put her other hand on his chest. “He’s reacting to the sex magic.”

He pulled his face tight. “Still want to kill him.”

“But you’re not going to.”

The wing curled around her, stroking her back. “You’re mine.”

Warmth spread through her. In this moment, Kieran wasn’t afraid Dyfyr would hurt her; he was staking his claim. It was stupid, Neanderthal and primitive, yet her magic, and her heart, danced in joy. She stroked her fingers over the inside of his wing. Blue smoke misted his gaze as he added, “He can’t have you.”

She smiled at him. “No. I only want you and Dyfyr.”

He closed his eyes and dragged in a breath. “You’re our treasure.” He opened his eyes, passion burned in his gaze. “You have to live.”

She felt the change as the wing locked around her. Where it had been soft and secure like a blanket, now the wing was hard and unyielding. A second later, Kieran’s left hand came toward her, so fast that all she saw were the three-inch claws coming at her.

“No!” Key yelled, his face contorting and he managed to slow the trajectory of his strike.