SEVENTEEN
As they walked away from Grace, Reece looked down into Erin’s lovely face and felt his heart ache. There was a good chance that he’d lose her to death tonight. A good chance he’d end up dead himself. “I want to make love to you,” he said in a low voice. “I want to touch you.”
He was prepared to argue and desperate enough to lie if she’d refused him: It’s necessary for the Truebond. But instead Erin said softly, “I’d like that.” She hesitated. “Where should we go?”
Reece smiled slightly. “My place.” He felt the brush of her thoughts as she picked up the picture from his thoughts, then the flash of light and cool air as she transported them.
They stood in his bedroom of his Avalon home. It was a simple place next to those of most Magi and Majae—hell, even next to the homes he owned back on Earth. Instead of hiring some Maja to create it, he’d built it himself with the techniques he’d learned as a boy. The walls were rough plaster, the floor polished heart of pine. A magical fire burned in the fireplace, and candles stood around the room, casting a golden glow over the simple wooden furniture: the oak armoire, the sturdy chest and chair, the canopied bed with its velvet hangings. He watched Erin look around in surprise.
“It’s beautiful,” she murmured. “Like being transported back in time.”
“It’s a replica of a house I owned when I first became a vampire. I come here to think, to get back to myself.” He hesitated a moment. “I’ve never brought a woman here before.”
Erin turned to look at him, her eyes mysterious in the candlelight. “I’m honored.” She reached out to lay a palm on his chest. “Especially after the way I hurt you. You were right, Reece. My willingness to marry Llyr had more to do with cowardice than anything else.”
“Cowardice?” He took her hand in his own, caressed the long, cool fingers. “You’re the least cowardly woman I’ve ever known.”
Candlelight slid over the shimmering silk of her hair as she shook her head. “No. Oh, I don’t mind risking my life. I wouldn’t be in my line of work if I did. But when it comes to the emotional stuff, that’s different.”
“The emotional stuff can be a lot more frightening.”
“Especially when you haven’t had much luck with it. I knew David, my partner, for two years before I admitted I was falling in love with him. And I might have put it off even longer if he hadn’t been so damn safe.” Sadness shadowed those lovely cobalt eyes. “He was even more skittish than I was, all tied up in rules and regulations. We could have danced around each other for years before we actually did anything about it.” As if unable to hold his gaze, she looked toward the fire. “But we didn’t have years. What does it say about him that he found it easier to sacrifice his life for me than take me to bed?”
That he was an idiot, Reece thought. He managed to keep his mouth shut.
“We both were.” She turned to give him a small, sad little smile. “But then you came along. You had no interest in taking it slow and sweet. You just roared over me like a tidal wave, all fearlessness and sex. And so damn much more. Falling in love doesn’t seem to worry you.”
Reece hesitated, brushing his thumb over the silken skin on the back of her wrist. “The thing about being immortal is, you have the experience to realize how rare something special is when it comes along,” he said at last. “You know if you don’t grab it now, you may never have the chance to taste anything quite that sweet and strong again.”
“On the other hand, imminent death also does a pretty good job of focusing the attention,” Erin said dryly. “It was only when I thought everything was going to be all right that I got stupid again. I knew Llyr and I would have a nice, comfortable, bloodless relationship.” She grimaced. “Almost professional. I know how to do that. I don’t know how to do love.”
Reece could feel his heart pounding, but he kept his smile easy. He didn’t want to scare her off again. “It’s not that hard to pick up.”
Her blue eyes looked endlessly deep. “Certainly not where you’re concerned.” She rose on her toes and kissed him, her mouth moving over his hungrily, hot and wet and wickedly skilled. Reece’s body instantly leaped in response. With a deep-throated groan, he pulled her against him and thrust his tongue deep, greedy for every bit of her she was willing to let him have.
By the time he pulled free, his heart was pounding. Breathing hard, Reece rested his forehead against hers, looking deep into her eyes. For an endless moment they stood like that, body to body, feeling the warmth and strength of each other, feeling the contrasts between them, male and female, hard and soft. Just listening to each other breathe.
In an hour, perhaps two, they’d plunge back into the war again. It was possible one or both of them would die. But for now they existed in a precious bubble of peace. And only a fool would fail to make the best of it.
Without a word, Reece bent and slid a hand behind her knees, scooping her easily into his arms. She looped hers around his neck, gazing into his eyes as he carried her to bed. As he laid her down on the thick quilt, she made their clothing fade away.
Naked, he eased down over her. Erin took his weight with a soft murmur of pleasure, spreading herself into a cradle for him. His cock lay hard along the length of her velvet belly as she rested her hands on his chest.
The green of his eyes, normally so catlike and fierce, looked soft in the candlelight. His lids came down as he lowered his head to kiss her again. His lips felt like sun-warmed silk as they moved across hers, his tongue easing into her mouth. She opened wider for him and slid her arms around the tight flesh of his waist.
He brushed his fingertips along the line of her jaw, stroking gently as he kissed her. She found the hollow of his spine and traced it with her nails until he laughed against her mouth in a deep purr of male pleasure, twisting his broad shoulders in mock protest. “Wench,” he whispered.
“God, I love a ticklish vampire,” she murmured back.
“Oh, now, you don’t want to go there.” He raked his fingertips across her ribs until she writhed and giggled. He nuzzled under her chin, nibbling gently at the line of her jaw as his hand found one full breast, cupped, squeezed. A thumb stroked over her peaked nipple. She caught her breath and sighed.
“Have I ever mentioned,” Erin murmured, slipping her hand down to his muscular backside and tracing a teasing pattern, “how much I love your ass? It’s just so…biteable.”
“You’re pretty biteable yourself.” He gave the curve of her throat a promising lick.
She laughed softly. “I should have known better than to make a crack like that to a vampire.”
“Never hesitate to flatter me, love.” He kneaded the peak of her breast between thumb and forefinger until sweet streamers of pleasure curled through her and settled between her thighs. “Though you do make my…head swell.”
She rolled her hips against the thick erection pressing into her belly. “Your head isn’t the only thing that’s swelling.”
He laughed softly, still teasing her nipple with slow, gentle pinches. “Darlin’, where you’re concerned, that’s a perpetual state of being.”
“My pleasure.” She caught her breath.
“Like that?”
“Oh, yes.”
“More?”
“More.”
He moved down her body, stopping briefly to explore the curve of her collarbone with his tongue, then pressing tiny bites along the upper curves of her breast. She threaded her fingers through his hair and let her head fall back on the pillow.
Reece reached the aching peak and gave it a long, slow lick. Erin made a purring sound of approval. He looked up at her, his smile lusty and male. “Like I said. Biteable.”
“No…ah!…teeth, Double Oh Fang.”
“Oh, come on—just a little tooth.” He caught her nipple in a gentle not-quite-bite.
She caught her breath. “Well, maybe a little.”
Reece rumbled something approving and began to suck, his mouth moving in long pulls that did wonderful things to every nerve ending she had. Especially the ones between her legs.
Meanwhile, one of those clever hands went exploring down her body. Delving between her thighs, he slid inside. Erin bit her lip at the feeling of that big finger working its way deep. “God, you’re”—she had to stop to swallow the saliva pooling in her mouth—“good at that.”
His green eyes lifted to her face, and he lifted his head, giving her nipple a last contemplative lick. “Oh, darlin’, I’m just getting started.”
He pushed onto all fours and looked down her body. She grabbed a handful of his hair. “Why don’t you let me return the favor this time?”
Reece grinned, his teeth flashing white and wicked. “Well, that’s an offer I’m not going to turn down.”
“Good to hear it. Let me get on top.” She scooted out of the way. He flung himself down on the mattress, watching hungrily as she started to straddle him. Their eyes met, and they both stopped to look at each other for a long, suspended moment.
Erin had never seen such love in a man’s eyes. His gaze seemed to physically warm her, even as it created a wild, swooping sensation in the pit of her stomach. Impulsively she bent and kissed him, sinking back into the wet hot silk of his mouth. His fingers threaded through her hair and held her there as they licked and suckled one another.
She was panting when she pulled away. “I love you.”
“I’ve lived almost three centuries, but I’ve never known a woman like you.” Reece smoothed her hair back from her face, his hand shaking just slightly. “And I’ve never loved a woman like I love you.”
Erin blinked at the sweet sting in her eyes. “Keep that up, and you’ll make me say something stupid.” She tried out a watery grin. “Maybe I’d better just suck your cock now.”
His chest shook with silent laughter. “Well, nothing says ‘I love you’ quite like a blow job.”
She shot him a look of mock disgust. “Sometimes you’re such a man.”
“God, I hope so. Now, turn around and let me have that ass.”
“You romantic, you.” Even as he chuckled, she obeyed, straddling his torso as she caught his thick cock and aimed it upward. Her first sampling lick won a purr of approval from him, as well as a wet velvet stroke of his tongue. She whimpered as he spread her cheeks so he could gain access to her sex. His clever tongue laved between her lips and made her gasp around his cock.
With a soft moan, she went to work, sucking and licking the broad plum head, stroking the thick length of his shaft with one hand as she caressed his furry balls with the other. He tasted of salt and masculinity and felt like hot silk sliding over her tongue.
It was wildly exciting, taking him like this. He filled her mouth thoroughly, rolling his hips in short little thrusts as if he couldn’t quite help himself. Each tight lunge goaded her, made her want to take him even deeper. She doubted she’d ever experienced anything hotter than feeling Reece Champion skid out of control.
Adding to the pleasure, for every lick she gave him, he retaliated with one just as wet and lingering. Her orgasm gathered like a warm tsunami, deceptively lazy as it built.
Until he clamped his mouth fiercely over her clit. The climax slammed into her with a force that stole her breath and arched her spine. She groaned helplessly around his cock. He stiffened under her. For a moment, she thought he was going to come.
Then she was flat on her back so fast she hadn’t even seen him move. Reece loomed over her, both her knees in his big hands. He met her gaze with glittering, hungry eyes and spread her wide.
Erin caught her breath as he aimed himself for her slick little slit. Slowly he pressed his way deep, forcing her clinging flesh to spread around his width. Even after she thought herself full of him, he came on and on in a slow, creamy impalement that made her shudder in animal delight. It was only when she felt his balls brush her ass that she knew she had all of him. “How’s that?” he breathed in her ear.
“Oooh,” she groaned. “Good. It’s so good.”
“Think I can make it better?” He began to ease out.
Erin bit her lip. “I’m not sure I’d survive better.”
“Let’s find out.”
In. Stretching her wide, pulling deliciously across sensitive nerve endings. Out, in a long, erotic rake of flesh on wet flesh. She twisted under him, wrapping her legs tight around his ass, pulling him close with her calves. His muscled butt worked between her thighs. Green eyes stared into hers, fierce with pleasure.
She licked her lips, staring up at his hungry, handsome face as he possessed her. Lowering his head, he kissed her slowly, sliding his tongue in and out in concert with his cock. He slid one arm under her shoulders and the other beneath her hip and picked up the pace, lengthening his strokes, jarring her clit deliciously.
The climax poured hot up from her core like a burning spring. She keened, throwing her head back on the pillow, arching into him. “Reeeeece!”
“Yes! Oh, God, Erin, I love you!” He began to pound her, driving hard. Her climax strengthened into long rolling waves.
Reece stiffened, roaring in pleasure as he came, driven to the balls.
Minutes passed before she could move again.
Dazed, shivering with the aftershocks of the erotic storm, Erin looked up at him. He panted, braced above her on trembling arms. Despite the shattering orgasm they’d just shared, there was hunger in his eyes.
He lowered his head. Knowing what he wanted, she tilted her chin and arched her throat. His lips felt like hot silk as they touched her skin. His fangs sank deep with that startling, feral pleasure that tore a strangled scream from her throat.
“Reach for me,” the words came clearly through the ghost of the light mental bond they’d formed when she’d changed. Instinctively she obeyed.
He must have been holding back before. This time he opened himself, gave himself, surrendered to the thrust of her power the same way she’d just surrendered to the bite of his fangs. They flowed together.
And she could taste her own blood in her mouth, feel the clamp of her sex around…something that had never been there before.
His cock.
She could feel his cock wrapped inside the slick fist of her cunt. She could feel how her body felt against his, so small and soft and female.
And she felt him. His mind. His spirit. The age and strength and vampire nature that was simultaneously so alien and so familiar. Fear rose in her, bringing with it an instinct to break the connection.
“No,” he said in her mind. “Stay with me. Be part of me. Let me be part of you.”
It took an effort not to throw herself out of the link, but she fought down the instinct and instead wrapped herself around him. At the same time he drew her closer, letting her feel all the love she’d seen in his eyes.
Trust me, he said in a velvet mental demand. I’d cut off my own arm before I’d ever hurt you.
And he meant every word. He loved her, just as she loved him. They belonged together.
With a silent click the Truebond snapped home.
For a long time after that, they lay still, neither wanting to move as they listened to the double thump of their mutual heartbeat. Their new mental connection glittered psychically between them, a bond neither had any desire to break.
Finally Erin spoke. “This is amazing.”
And odd. She could hear her own voice with Reece’s ears. Because his hearing was so much more sensitive than hers, the sound carried a resonance it never had for her.
“Damn,” he said dreamily, staring at the ceiling. “Look at the sparks. So that’s what you see when you stare at nothing.”
Erin knew he was referring to the Mageverse energies she’d slowly ceased to notice. She laughed. “Welcome to my acid trip.”
“Do something.”
He wanted to feel what it was like to work magic. She smiled and concentrated. An ostrich feather appeared in her hand, and she danced it across his ribs. And giggled at the sensation she felt through the link.
Reece grabbed her wrist. They both stopped dead, feeling her feel his grip. “Oh,” Erin said, “this is going to take getting used to.”
“Yeah.” Reece’s tone turned grim. “Too bad we don’t have the time to do it.” He’d heard footsteps out in the hall.
A moment later knuckles hit the closed door in a sharp rap. “Hey, Reece,” Lance called. “You finished in there? Morgana and Grace said to tell you the spell’s ready.”
“Would it have killed them to give us a little more time?” Erin grumbled. With an impatient gesture she dressed them both in the jeans, T-shirts, and running shoes they’d worn before.
But when they went to open the door, they found Lance dressed in glowing plate armor that had been heavily engraved with runes of protection. A scabbarded long sword hung at his hip.
“Damn.” She eyed him up and down. “Haven’t you people ever heard of Smith & Wesson?”
Lance’s grim expression lightened into a grim smile. “You don’t kill something like Geirolf with a gun. And by now he’s probably turned his human flunkies into something just as tough.”
“Has somebody had another vision?”
Lance’s smile flashed. “Arthur watched CNN. The top story is that the Death Cult compounds have all mysteriously emptied out. Thousands of people disappeared overnight.”
“Which means—” Reece began grimly.
“—Geirolf has either killed them all or transformed them into a magical army. Morgana said he’s sure as hell shielding something. Either way, it’s not good.”
“Should I—” Erin broke off. “Never mind. Human sacrifices don’t wear armor, do they?”
“Judging from Grace’s vision,” Reece drawled, “we’re not even going to get to wear clothes.”
“Have I mentioned this sucks?”
He laughed and caught her hand. “Actually, I’ve noticed that myself.”
“That’s pretty well the universal conclusion.” Lance wiggled two fingers in a come-along gesture. “And we’re not making it any better standing around here. Come along, children.”
As they followed his armored back down the hall, Erin asked, “I don’t suppose anybody actually had a vision that this is going to work and we’re all going to live happily ever after?”
He looked over his shoulder. “’Fraid not.”
She sighed. “Didn’t think so.”
To save Erin the power expenditure of creating a gate, they walked to the central square she’d seen when they arrived. But now the streets were full of grim-faced people dressed in the same intricate armor Lance wore. Moonlight glinted off gleaming silver and gem-encrusted weapons. It seemed every breath Erin took was choked with magic, and Reece’s senses were swamped with the enchanted blood-scent of vampire, Majae, and Sidhe.
Yet big as the crowd was, it was almost eerily silent, with none of the rumble of conversation one would normally hear in a group of such size.
As nervous sweat began to snake down her spine, Erin reached out and grabbed Reece’s hand. He squeezed her fingers comfortingly as they worked their way through the press of magical humanity. It was easier than it should have been; when people turned and saw them, they nodded respectfully and stepped aside.
“Damn,” Reece said to Lance, “it looks as if all Magekind is here.”
“They are,” Lance told him, “along with most of the Cachamwri Sidhe. Arthur and Llyr decided we need every sword we can muster.”
Erin licked her dry lips and tightened her sweating grip on Reece’s hand. He smiled at her, his green eyes glittering brighter than the gems in Lance’s sword. “We’ll be fine,” he told her through the Truebond.
Seasoned warrior that he was, he’d fallen into the deep, deadly stillness he always felt before a battle. For Erin’s part, she almost vibrated with the same blend of adrenalin and tension she remembered from the days she’d kicked down doors with the FBI. “My stomach’s knotted like macramé,” she told him.
“Wait until the fight starts. You’ll steady down then.”
They stepped into the central square and instantly became the focus for thousands of eyes. The crowd stood in a great ring around them, leaving the center free.
Morgana stood there with Grace, Llyr, Arthur, and a blond woman Reece recognized as Guinevere, Arthur’s Truebonded wife. Like everyone else, they wore armor. Erin focused on the massive jeweled sword at Arthur’s hip, wondering if it was the legendary Excalibur.
“Yes,” Reece murmured in her ear.
She threw him a glance. “I’m going to have to get used to the mind-reading thing.” But come to think of it, it could come in handy in a fight…
He grinned. “It could, at that.”
“Show off.”
Arthur stepped to the center of the square and lifted his mailed hands. The crowd, already silent, instantly focused its attention on him. Erin could see why. He wasn’t a tall man, but something about him, some aura of power and authority, instantly riveted the attention.
“Tonight the Magekind faces the greatest threat we’ve seen in millennia,” Arthur said, his deep voice rolling over the square, amplified by his wife’s magic so that every person could hear him as clearly as if he stood next to them. “In this hour of peril we of the High Council are deeply grateful to King Llyr Aleyn Galatyn and the Cachamwri Sidhe for standing shoulder to shoulder with us.”
Llyr inclined his head in a royal bow, one king to another. The face within his open visor was as stern and handsome as a Renaissance warrior angel.
“And we also owe our thanks to Reece, our American Champion, and Erin Grayson, newly Truebonded, who have agreed to serve as bait in our trap.” The former High King extended a hand toward them. Reece bowed. Erin followed suit, stiff, uncomfortable, and miserably aware of her jeans and T-shirt in the face of this magnificently armored assembly.
“They will take a great risk for us today,” Arthur continued, “putting themselves into the hands of the alien Geirolf with neither armor nor helm to protect them. The threat will be no less real for King Llyr and Grace du Lac, who will lend their strength to this spell, and who risk losing their lives should it fail.” He lifted his beautiful voice until it rang. “We must be ready to take advantage of the opening their courage will give us. We must strike hard, without hesitation or mercy, to destroy this threat against us, against the Sidhe, against all Humankind. Or we will all surely fall.”
Arthur paused, letting the seriousness of the situation sink home. Then he smiled. “Yet I have no doubt, my friends, that we will prove ourselves worthy of this challenge, as we have met so many others. For Avalon!” He pumped his mailed fist upward.
“For Avalon!” the crowd roared back.
“For Cachamwri!”
Erin added her bellow to Llyr’s as the crowd howled the name.
“And for Earth!”
This time the mass shout was echoed by a thousand glittering explosions overhead as the Majae in the crowd detonated magical bursts in the sky.
When the echoes finally faded, Morgana stepped to the top point of the intricate triangular glyph inscribed in the stones of the square. Llyr and Grace moved to the other points of the triangle as she looked at Reece and Erin. “Come.”
Erin’s heart began to pound hard as Reece led her forward. Her fingers gripped his so hard, her knuckles turned white. His hand was cool and steady in hers as they stepped between the three sorcerers into the center of the glyph.
The silence was so complete it seemed to ring. No one coughed, no one scraped a foot on the pavement.
Then the three began to chant, Llyr’s deep voice twining with the lighter, higher ones of the two Majae. Erin braced her shaking knees and faced Morgana as the witch’s eyes went black, magical explosions bursting in their depths.
Suddenly three shimmering curtains of energy appeared around Erin and Reece, springing into being between the sorcerers along the lines of the glyph. As she watched, the energy triangle began to shrink inward toward them, glowing brighter, Mageverse forces writhing more violently with every millimeter it contracted.
Erin caught her breath, feeling the pressure growing against her mind. Despite her battle to remain calm, pure terror rolled through her veins.
She tightened her grip on Reece’s hand as the walls of force grew closer. The instant before they touched her, she shouted into the link, “Reece! I love you!”
“I love you, Erin!” he roared back.
With a crackle, the walls of force converged.