Tegan's Power (The Ultimate Power Series #4) (26 page)

I drive away from
Cristescu’s street and pick a random road. I don’t really care where we go, I
just want to spend some time alone with her.

“I’m sure he wouldn’t
say no to a little prediction. So, since I’ve helped you these last few days,
do I get one too?”

Her cheeks colour.
“What’s to say I’ve seen anything of your future, Finn?”

“Well, have you?”

She glances out the
window at the world passing by and doesn’t turn back to face me when she
replies, “I might have.”

“It’s bad isn’t it?
That’s why you don’t want to tell me.”

She hurries to reassure
me. “No, no that’s not it. It’s not bad, it’s just kind of personal.”

I glance at her
sideways. “I can deal with personal.”

She bites her lip,
which I’ve noticed is a nervous tick of hers. “It actually, well, it actually
involves me.”

Now I grin big,
glancing from the road to her. “Really? It must be good then. Come on, don’t
leave me hanging. Tell me.”

She doesn’t say
anything for at least a minute, then ventures. “Remember when we first met?
When I said I’d heard your voice before?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I heard it in a
vision I had when I was just sixteen. It’s rare that I see something that’s
about me personally, so I always held onto the memory of it. That, and it was
one of the few happy things I’d seen. I was older in it, maybe late twenties or
early thirties, and I was laughing and running through a country meadow.”

I swallow as I listen
to her description, waiting with bated breath for her to finish.

“I was being chased by
someone, like in a playful way,” she continues. “It was a man with an accent I
wasn’t used to hearing, an accent just like yours. He was calling me, teasing
me that I’d never be able to outrun him. Finally, I was caught up by a pair of
strong arms and hauled into an embrace. That’s when the vision ended. Now that
I’ve heard your voice, Finn, I know undoubtedly that the man was you.”

I pull over onto the
side of the road, unable to help myself, and drag her from her seat onto my
lap. Framing her face in my hands, I look between her eyes, trying to figure
out if she’s playing with me. All I see is complete and total honesty and I
know she’s telling the truth. This beautiful woman saw me in her future. She
saw the two of us being happy together and I can’t help but to be stunned. I’ve
never felt more hopeful.

“You really saw that?”
I ask as I whisper my lips over her silky soft cheek and she sucks in a breath.

“Yes. I’m not sure what
it means exactly…”

“You know what it
means,” I cut her off. “It means we belong together.”

“Finn, those are
awfully committed words to be saying to a girl you hardly know.”

“I trust in your sight,
Allora. Neither of us knows what road is going to take us to that place you saw
us in. It could be a road full of trouble and strife, but so long as I know
that’s where we’re going to end up I can be happy. I’ll go through all of it
just to get there, to that little spot in the country where we’re together and
finally at peace.”

She blinks, stunned by
my words. I might be a little bit stunned by them also. I didn’t know I had it
in me to be such a romantic.

Moving her so that her
legs are astride my lap, I run my hands up and down her thighs.

“I like touching you,”
I say in a gravelly voice before dipping my mouth to her neck. “Do you like
being touched by me, Allora?”

“Mm-hmm,” she mumbles.
“I – I do.”

“That’s good.”

Pressing my lips to her
skin, I trail kisses from the spot below her ear right down to her collarbone.
She sighs and both of her hands clutch my shoulders tightly. I’m so hard I feel
like I might be scaring her a little, but she only moves against me, seeking
friction. Moving one hand to the back of her neck, I pull her mouth to mine,
licking inside her lips with my tongue.

Sometimes I think I
forget how relieving it can be to just lose myself in a woman. I’m always so on
edge, always waiting for the next disaster to hit.

Moments later my hands
are under her top, pulling down her bra and squeezing at her breasts. Her hands
are lifting my shirt up and over my head, throwing it onto the other seat. I
want this to happen with her, in fact, I need it to happen. However, I don’t
want it to happen on the side of the road in the front seat of a van.

I want her in a bed.
More importantly, I want her in my bed.

I groan, knowing I’m
going to have to stop this now. The problem is, it feels way too good to stop.
She starts fumbling with my belt buckle and before I know it she’s slipping her
fingers inside my pants, groping for my erection.

The feel of her slender
fingers wrapping around my thick length almost undoes me.

“Baby,” I murmur but
she doesn’t stop. She keeps on moving her hand up and down and I close my eyes
from the pleasure. Jerking off never really does it for me anymore. I think
there’s a point when you reach a certain age and you’re just so over yourself,
but having Allora do it is like starting anew. I feel like a randy teenager
who’s going to come within seconds.

I pinch at her nipple
and fist one hand in her long hair, kissing her with urgency and feeling the
need build. I can tell that she’s excited, too, because her breathing is all
erratic and her cheeks are flushed. Her lush lips seem to have become even
softer; I really can’t get enough of them.

When she breaks the
kiss and whispers, “Come for me, Finn,” in my ear I can’t hold back any longer.
I blow my load in her hand and she smiles against my lips. I grab a box of
tissues from the glove compartment to clean up and then she curls herself
around me. Holding her in my arms, I close my eyes and a feeling of contentment
takes over.

“That
was…embarrassingly incredible,” I tell her, kissing her hair.

She scrunches up her
nose as she grins at me. “Why embarrassing?”

“Because I’m a thirty
year old man and I haven’t come from being jerked off by a woman in a really
long time.”

She stares at me and I
wonder if I said something wrong. “You’re thirty?”

Ah, so she wasn’t aware
of the age difference. I laugh affectionately. “Should I take your surprise as
a compliment that I don’t look thirty?”

“Um, I guess I just
didn’t think you were that much older than me.”

“Is it a problem for
you?”

“No,” she answers
quickly. “Of course not. You just took me by surprise. Actually, I kind of like
it. It’s cool to go out with an older guy, right?”

I chuckle and talk like
a vacuous teenage girl. “Way cool, Allora. All your girlfriends are going to be
like
totally
jealous.”

She punches me in the
chest and I pretend she winded me. “Stop making fun.”

“Sorry, no can do.
There’s something you should know about me,” I say leaning close to her.

“What is it?”

I let my voice drop
several notches lower when I answer, “I’m a
massive
tease.”

She narrows her eyes at
me but she’s still smiling. “Shut up.”

I’m about to say
something else when there’s a loud thump on the hood of the van. It’s started
to rain so I have to turn on the windshield wipers to clear the glass. When I
do I see Marcel standing in front of the vehicle. He’s dripping wet, his long
grey hair straggled around his face – and a massive blood stain smeared across
his hemp shirt.

Baking Cakes for the
Enemy

Tegan

The atmosphere in the house has settled
down since Roman brought Emilia and Rebecca back from where Theodore had been
keeping them. I’m lounging in the living room, nibbling on a selection of cream
buns and scones that Alvie put together for me, (yeah, my appetite is still
crazy strong) when a loud ruckus sounds from the front door.

I sit up just in time
before Finn bursts into the room dragging a rain soaked Marcel by the scruff of
the neck.

“Evening, Petal,” he
greets. “I brought a visitor for you.”

My mouth curves a
little in a smirk as I eye Marcel. I hold the plate out to him, saying
casually, “So nice of you to stop by. Scone?”

Marcel shakes his head
and the usual confidence that accompanies him isn’t there anymore. He looks
scared and desperate.

“I need your help,” he
says in a low voice. It sounds like he’s sacrificing a good deal of pride just
to spit those words out.

“Evidently. Is that
your blood or someone else’s?”

“It’s not mine, it’s
Michael’s.”

“Michael Ridley?” Finn
asks stepping forward. Allora’s hovering by the door, watching Marcel closely.
Perhaps she’s trying to figure out if this is a ruse.

Suddenly, she asks in a
whisper, “Is he dead?”

Marcel glances at her
and nods solemnly. “Yes.”

The tension in Allora’s
shoulders dissolves when she hears this.

Marcel continues,
“Theodore killed him. He flew into a rage after Rebecca and Emilia were taken.
He said it was Michael’s fault for allowing himself to be overpowered. He was
being completely unreasonable. Everyone knows that there’s no way for a mere
warlock to fight off a sorcerer of Roman Abraham’s power.”

“So Theodore killed
him?” I question.

“He did. I fear he
would have killed me too simply to assuage his fury, but I managed to escape
when Rita began to calm him down.”

Oh, how the mighty have
fallen. I fold my arms. “And now you’re here to beg for sanctuary?”

“I didn’t know where
else to go. I had thought my grandfather was the answer to restoring the
balance in Tribane, but now I see he is too old. His age has caused his sanity
to slip. Most of the magical families are afraid of him and are in hiding.”

“You should have
thought of that before you decided to bring him back from hell,” I tell him and
take a bite out of a scone. I have to say, I really am enjoying this. It wasn’t
too long ago that Marcel thought he was so high and mighty with Theodore on his
side. Now it seems his plan has backfired. It serves him right for what he did
to my poor father. Just thinking of my dad makes my throat get tight with
emotion.

“I know I’ve made a
terrible mistake, and I will do anything in my power to make up for it. All I
ask is for protection.”

“And how do we know
Theodore didn’t send you here himself?” Ethan asks in a foreboding voice as he
steps into the room.

Marcel’s eyes
practically pop out of his head when he sees Ethan. Obviously, he can sense the
change in him, feel the power.

“I can prove it, I promise.
I’ll tell you all of his plans,” Marcel replies in a jittery voice.

Ethan walks to me and
sits, pulling me into his side, his strong arm wrapping around my waist. “Go
ahead.”

“I need a promise from
you first that ensures my safety.”

Ethan raises an
eyebrow. “I will promise you nothing, Warlock. You will tell me Theodore’s
plans and then I am going to lock you up until I see with my own two eyes that
these plans are real and not some ploy to lead us into a trap. Once we have
defeated the sorcerer I will set you free.”

“That sounds mighty
generous,” Finn interjects nudging Marcel’s shoulder. “I’d take that offer if I
were you, mate.”

“Yes, yes, okay,” says
Marcel in a fluster, running his hands through his long wet hair.

“I’m waiting,” Ethan
urges him blandly but there’s an edge of impatience to his words.

“He’s going to release
the chaos again,” Marcel answers swiftly. “But this time it will be far more
powerful. He has been summoning it from the hell dimension, building up a store
to release when you are least expecting it.”

“And when would that
be?”

“Sunrise, three days
from now. He’ll release the chaos but because it’s stronger than before it will
kill the humans the moment it enters their bodies. By the time night falls and
the vampires awaken, the humans will all be dead. There will be no blood for
them to feed on so they will weaken. Theodore will wait a few days and then he is
going to open a portal from the hell dimension and let all variety of entities
through. Those entities will kill the vampires in their weakened states.”

“That is quite an
ambitious plan,” Ethan muses while scratching his chin. “But why did he want
Emilia and Rebecca?”

“He needed Rebecca’s
blood to cast the spell that will open a big enough portal. He has a vial of it
that he’s keeping hidden safe. He was holding Emilia hostage to keep her from
undoing the barrier spell around the city. It was an added bonus to his plan,
because not only would the vampires be weakened when he opened the portal, they
would also be unable to flee.”

“Lovely. But what, pray
tell, does Theodore want with an empty city? The magical families can’t number
more than a hundred or so people at this stage. That’s not much of a kingdom to
rule.”