Tall, Dark & Apocalyptic (17 page)

Agony stabbed through him, jolt after jolt of it, until it finally tore a long, low scream from his throat. When the pain briefly halted, he lay there panting and vibrating. Beads of sweat broke out on his skin and his stomach wrenched violently, feeling as if someone had opened it with a knife. He had only a few seconds respite before the pain returned, and he could barely breathe under its razor-like assault.

The pattern repeated itself several times. During one of these small respites, Audie reached for his knife, intending to kill the gnome with it. He wasn’t fast enough. Cold, spidery fingers slipped over his skin and snatched the weapon away.

He roared, certain the gnome was killing him and determined to take the little bastard out before he succumbed. Sunlight dulled as a blanket of shadows curled toward him from the recesses of the small room. He shivered violently, certain the darkness held his death.

Audie tried one last time to wrench free of the restraints and failed, his body so weak he could barely lift his head. All he could do was lie there, watching death slide silently toward him, as ice formed along his veins.

Finally, when he could no longer see through the black veil, a touch, like arachnids crawling across his face, soothed the pain and softened his muscles with weariness.

Just before he succumbed, a harsh whisper tickled against his ear. “It is I who hold
you
, Audie Kord, responsible for the Glowbug’s safety. See that you never forget it.”

Audie tried to open his eyelids but found them made of stone. He thought he might have twitched in response, but that was all the reaction he could summon before spiraling into velvet black unconsciousness.

~
TD&A
~

A deep rumbling woke her. Yeira lay there a moment longer, trying to place the sound. It sounded like a dying water buffalo.

The soft surface she was lying on moved and something heavy dropped around her middle.

Her eyes snapped open and she was looking into the sexy blue gaze of her hunter.

“Mornin’ sunshine.” Audie’s wide jaw had a sheet crease in it and his hair was disheveled, sticking up on one side.

As usual, he looked delicious. “You snore.”

The arm around her waist moved as he caressed her hip under the sheet. “So do you.”

The sheet slipped across her breasts and Yeira realized she was naked beneath the thin fabric. She crossed her arms over her chest to hold the sheet in place.

Audie ignored her feeble attempt at modesty, finding a gap in the sheet at the side of the bed and slipping his hand through.

She gasped as his hot skin slid over hers.

Yeira tried to move away from the invading fingers and bumped up against the long lean form of her adversary. “How’d we get here?”

“I don’t even know where
here
is.” He skimmed his hand over her hip and upward, scalding the skin over her ribs with his heat. “I just woke up, too.”

Yeira was finding it hard to breathe. “We’re in my room.”

When he lifted a dark eyebrow in question, she elaborated.

“I come to the Healer a lot.” She shrugged self-consciously. He gave me a room.”

Audie’s hand shoved past the protective barrier of her arms and skimmed across her belly, sliding over her belly button. Yeira’s brain told her to push him away and escape the room before it was too late. But her body was already thinking about how he’d feel nestled deep inside her.

Audie ran his finger over a slightly tender area on her throat. No doubt the spot where her blood had been exchanged for his.

“You’ve known him a long time.”

It wasn’t a question, but she nodded in affirmation. “Since I was a little girl. My moth…” She frowned, realizing she’d have to get over her reluctance to speak about Edwige if she was ever going to explain her life to him.

In the next thought she wondered why she even needed to explain. They certainly didn’t have a future together.

“Edwige realized very quickly that, even though she’d saved my life with death magic, she couldn’t keep using it on me or I’d degrade into something not much better than her zombies.”

Audie’s hand rested on her belly, his fingers splayed over the quivering flesh. He looked into her eyes. “She saved your life?”

“Yes. When I was two years old I was gored by a bull and nearly died. Edwige had been working her death magics for years at that point but she’d never used them to save a life rather than revive one.”

Audie’s hand came out from under the sheet and Yeira experienced a sharp pang of disappointment. Which she quickly berated herself for.

“She healed you?”

“Yes. Using my father’s blood to enhance the magics.” She loosened her grip on the sheet and plucked at a string, feigning nonchalance as she spoke of the man who’d fathered her. She’d never been indifferent to his existence. Though she’d learned at a very early age to pretend she was.

“Your father? Was he a mage?”

“From what I’ve been able to learn he was a Sorceri bounty hunter who fell in love with my mother when she was a young witch.”

“What happened to him?”

She frowned, looking around for her clothes. She had no taste for the present conversation. “He left when he found out about Edwige’s dark magics.” She looked at him, anger making her face heat. “That’s all I know. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

Audie stared at her for a moment and then nodded. His hand snaked out and grasped the edge of the sheet, tugging it down to expose Yeira’s breasts. “Good. I have no intention of doing any more talking.”

He lowered his head toward her breasts. Yeira’s nipples peaked in anticipation and her clit throbbed. She lifted her hands as his mouth closed over a nipple, intending to push him away, but, somehow, as moist heat enveloped the achy little nub, she slid her fingers through the heavy satin of his hair and pulled him closer instead.

He drew gently on the eager bud, his hand rolling the other nipple until it stung deliciously. When he nibbled gently on the nipple in his mouth, Yeira’s head dropped into the pillow and her legs widened beneath the sheets, eager and ready for his touch.

Audie was just as eager to accommodate her.

He skimmed a hand over her ribs, pushing the rumpled sheet down with it. Her belly jumped in anticipation as his hand covered the smooth mound at the vee of her thighs and she moaned softly, arching her hips to press into his touch.

Audie lifted his head, his dark gaze swimming with lust. “I’ve waited so long to be inside you.”

Yeira gasped as he slid a finger along the moist crease of her mons. “Don’t wait any longer, Hunter. I need…” She swallowed hard as the finger thrust inside.

He kissed a trail up her throat, leaving tingling awareness behind. “You need what, Beauty?”

A second finger joined the first, rasping deliciously along her nerve endings and sending tremors of bliss through her belly. “I need you…inside me. Now,” she gasped.

Audie was suddenly between her legs, braced on his elbows, and his hands slipping through the sleep-tangled locks of her hair.

Yeira pressed her moist mons against the hard column of his cock and wrapped her legs around him, opening herself for his invasion.

Audie cupped her buttocks, pulling her lower body off the mattress. “For once we are in accord, woman.” He positioned the thick head of his cock against her entrance. You need me inside you…”

He drove deep and Yeira cried out, gasping from the exquisite fullness. “And I really need to be there.”

Yeira clasped his head and pulled him down for a kiss. “Make love to me, Kord.”

He captured her offered lips, greedily, hungrily. As Yeira returned his kiss with equal fervor, Audie moved his hips to drive deep.

Sensation spun, wildly delicious, as his body moved within hers.

The world tilted in a velvet embrace, spiraling out of control as his tongue swept through to dance with hers and his cock filled her…stretched her…to delightful fullness.

Impossible sensations gathered, tightening in her core. She grabbed his arms and held on tight as he pounded into her.

Her clit throbbed. Her skin warmed. Her nipples ached against the firm planes of his pecs.

Pleasure rose, heating her face and tightening her sexual muscles as she lifted to meet it, reaching for release.

Audie seemed to be climbing quickly toward his own orgasm. His arms were like iron bands under her fingers. His buttocks were rigid beneath her calves. He looked down at her as the tempo of his thrusts increased, his dark-blue gaze filled with heat. Yeira felt the impact of that gaze in her very core. It warmed her skin, sped her heart, and stopped the breath in her chest with its power.

Her body reacted to his like no other. His moans became her sighs. His building orgasm throbbed within her sexual core.

He slipped his hands beneath her buttocks, lifting her higher, and drove himself deeper. Yeira sucked in a delighted breath and dug in, reaching for her peak. Release finally found her, bright and intense, and pulled her over into bliss. Yeira moaned his name on a husky sigh as waves of delight rolled through her.

Audie stiffened when her pussy tightened around him, his gaze holding hers as he thrust one last time and groaned out his release.

As tension fled her muscles, the violent waves of her release softening to gentle swells, Audie softened too. He lowered himself over her, holding her gaze until his lips touched hers. His kiss was so incredibly gentle it brought tears to Yeira’s eyes. She placed her hands on his face and savored the touch…the bottomless emotion infusing it.

Audie broke the kiss, resting his forehead against hers, and sighed. “Yeira, I…”

“Shhh…” She covered his mouth with her fingertips. “Let’s live in the moment for now. It’s really all we’ve got.”

He looked into her eyes, a suspicious brightness in his gaze, and then shook his head and pushed away, rolling to his side and pulling her close. He kissed her temple, his hand making heated circles over her ribs.

She closed her eyes tight to press back tears. After a moment, when she thought she could open them without waterworks, Yeira took a deep, shaky breath and placed her hand over his. “We need to check in with the Healer. Get a progress report.”

The door rumbled under an over-zealous knock. “Come, Glowbug. I have it.”

Audie groaned. “Speak of the devil himself.”

Yeira grinned. “His timing
could
have been worse.”

“The little asshat was probably listening outside the door.” Audie sat up and started pulling on his clothes, which had been cleaned and folded neatly on the bottom of the bed. He had a thought that made him blink. “How do you suppose he got us into this room by himself?”

Dropping a lightweight white tunic over her head, Yeira suppressed a grin. “He’s very resourceful. I never question how he does anything.” She grabbed her battle pants.

“Not even why he put us both in the same bed naked?”

She snorted. “Especially that. Gnomes are notoriously asexual. It wouldn’t have even occurred to him that it was a bad idea.”

“It wasn’t.” Audie touched the back of her neck with a gentle kiss. “It was actually one of his better ones.”

They finished dressing in silence and headed out of the room. Placing his hand in the small of her back, the hunter ushered her through the door before him. “Glowbug, huh?”

She grimaced. “He’s called me that since I was little. I can’t get him to stop it.”

Audie smoothed his hand over her bright hair. “It suits you.”

She groaned. “Thanks a lot, Kord.”

He snatched her hand and tugged her close, wrapping his massive arms around her and dragging her off her feet. “You’re welcome, Beauty.”

Then his lips took hers, and Yeira didn’t care about anything else except that moment in time and the blissful sensations sliding through her.

Because she hadn’t just been putting him off when she’d told him they only had that moment.

She’d been telling him the gut-wrenching truth.

Grimm was waiting for them when they joined the Healer in his laboratory. The big hunter eyed them carefully but didn’t speak. He looked tense.

“What’s going on?” Audie asked. He knew Grimm well enough to know when the other hunter was upset.

“Edwige’s been on a rampage. She knows Joris took Ebon and she’s killed hundreds of reborn in her search for him.”

Yeira paled. “She’s searching for Ebon? Or for Joris?”

Grimm slid his gaze her way. “Both. She’s figured out that we…or at least Joris…killed the bird.”

Yeira slumped down in a chair. “Then we’ve lost our chance.”

She looked so despondent Audie couldn’t resist touching her bright hair, soothing his hand over it. “Not necessarily, Beauty.” He looked at Grimm. “She doesn’t know about the potion? Or what Joris is trying to do with the bird?”

Grimm shook his head. “No. But she’s going to be very suspicious when the bird turns up again.”