The black witch didn’t reveal himself until Indigo was well away from the crowd and into a room—one that was located in a far corner of the island, wasn’t as thin as the others, and had more locks than anything she’d seen here so far. Her cage was unlocked inside, allowing her to step out and eye the man in a pinstriped suit who just bid the highest for her value.
The thought that he was a businessman came to mind, based on that outfit and the cool expression on his face alone. But something was off, and it wasn’t until he spoke that she felt it, freezing her from head to toe until she thought she was paralyzed for good.
It was the same dark energy that she felt probing her mind, and it was emanating from him in waves.
The paralysis disappeared like a bubble being popped, and the split second that followed gave Indigo the opportunity to make a run for it—in his direction, because there was no other place to go to. A burst of energy came out of her, and spells were already swirling in her head as she tried to think of what to use.
Another burst of energy that wasn’t from her exploded inside, making her fly up and across the room. Her back hit the wall, earning a cry before she crashed on the ground on tangled limbs.
When Indigo tried to stand up, her legs and arms were already chained by an invisible force, and there was nothing she could do but try to struggle against it as her panic started up.
How could she have missed this?
It was too late now as she felt a weight drag her off the floor until she was floating up. She was taken near the witch, whose eyes were still cool but held a glint that spoke of his intention. She opened her mouth to scream—for help or to throw curses at him, she didn’t know yet. But nothing came out, and she realized the wisps she felt in her mind earlier were now spreading throughout her body, rendering her soundless and unmoving.
The panic escalated until she felt herself drowning in it. The invasion in her body brought memories back, but this time they were starker than ever, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to escape it as she did in the cage.
She wanted to go back to the cage and close herself in, but it was too late for that, too.
Only one solution came to mind, the decision brought about when the witch started loosening his tie as if preparing himself. Wisps surrounded her mind, floating about, and she knew it would only take a second for those wisps to plunge in and open her brain again.
And it would take him less to hurt her again.
So she became faster, erecting imaginary walls around her head to block whatever he had planned. Then she let that energy travel all over her body, covering her up like a shell. It wasn’t a very hard shell, so she strengthened it slowly, trying not to shudder at the sudden use of her magic in a strong way. She hadn’t done this in a while, not when she wanted to forget who she was and the reason why they wanted to probe her so much.
The wisps didn’t retreat, and she realized the witch was expecting what she did. She eyed him from her shell, a blurry figure that she closed off as she closed her eyes and concentrated on her energy. The lack of use made her rusty, and she could still feel the wisps around her. They surrounded her almost lazily, rubbing her skin here and there and trying to find a crack for it to go through. She sealed herself in, closed herself in from the outside world as he kept on.
Then she began to hallucinate.
Pictures came in droves, one after another, flashing in her mind. Her easy childhood as she followed her hag mother around, who refused to say anything about her father. Her teenage years, when she was given the spell book her father owned and she set it aside because she was more interested in earning money the hag way and just being wild in general with the boys.
Her kidnapping, where she discovered that she had magic inside her and could use it for whatever she wanted.
Her escape, and how she almost went crazy after it.
A flash of the same faceless man came, but she knew who that man was. A flash of their kisses sunk in her senses, and the need for more followed it.
She wanted to see him again. She wanted to experience more of life, wanted to explore this desire she felt for him that she never felt as intensely for anyone else.
Her energy surged. She felt it brightening up inside her and moving outward, trying to drive the wisps away. But the wisps were also getting stronger, becoming visible black threads that slithered around her like a snake.
It found an opening—a tiny hole in her shell, and it slithered in that direction before shooting inside her and touching her skin. She felt herself being pricked, then burned, and she felt the wisp getting thicker as it tried to break her shell apart.
Indigo fought it. She fought it with all her might and tried not to scream as pain came and touched her. But she ended up screaming in her mind, anyway, and she felt herself get lost. Air became harder to breathe until there was nothing left, and she fell on the floor and bit her tongue.
The wisps touched her once more, a second burn.
Then they disappeared altogether.
She tried to breathe in and out, but the drowning feeling was still there, and she clutched at her throat and tried to scratch it. A hand clamped on her wrist, and electricity traveled from her skin to his…except he wasn’t the witch.
He didn’t feel like the witch.
Belatedly, Indigo realized the wisps were gone, and so was the dark energy. She opened her eyes and found not the witch but Dean right in front of her, his scars gone. He was in his original form, and he was naked.
Beside him, the man who tried to invade her body and mind was dead and bleeding on the floor, his head at an odd angle that told her he was gone for good. She shuddered at the look of him, those eyes dead, but Dean’s golden eyes brought her back as they looked at her intensely.
“Indigo, concentrate. I need you to concentrate.”
His voice was matter-of-fact and urgent, pricking through her state of shock right away. She listened to his next words, trying to slowly take them in.
“I need you to burn this body to ashes if you can. There should not be any evidence left of what happened here. Can you do that?”
She nodded. Then she focused on the black witch again, trying to ignore the human body and concentrate on the evil inside. She pulled up a spell in her mind, said the chant as she let her energy flow again and touched her fingers to the man’s skin.
Black energy pushed back at her.
She pushed harder.
A spark lit up, going higher and higher until the body thrashed and the black energy wailed. The smell of burning filled the closed room, and bile rose in her throat. But Dean was covering her body and face with his, murmuring words to her that everything was going to be okay, and he was going to get her out of here.
Cold, calculated Dean did this for her.
She found comfort in that and held on to it for as long as she could.
*****
When all evidence was removed, and Dean put his clothing back on, they snuck out of there as fast and as quietly as they could, with Dean guiding her shaky steps and eventually carrying her to his cabin. She could no longer feel any dark energy in the air, bringing to mind the thought that it was indeed the black witch who was at the gallery opening and in the cage trying to access her memories. There were probably others, but they weren’t on this island, and she was safe to use her magic for now as she built an invisible shell around the cabin to make sure their presence went undetected.
Inside, Dean sat on the bed and sat her on his lap, where she clung to him with hands that were sweaty. Her body shivered, suddenly cold, and he rubbed his hands up and down her in a clinical manner as he kept telling her that everything was going to be okay.
“What…what are you going to say about the witch and…me?”
“Nothing,” he muttered. “The witch is gone, and you’ll return to the mainland. I already contacted Jack. He’ll be waiting for you. You need to leave. It will make the enemies think the witch took you and disappeared. Take one of the boats.”
She nodded her head. Her teeth chattered, and he pulled her closer, lending his warmth to her as much as he could.
“What about you?”
“I’ll stay here and finish this.” His hands tightened around her. “You’ve done well. I don’t want to find you in that state anymore.”
His voice had gone low and dark, anger that sank in and made her realize he was furious on her behalf. She looked up, searching his face for answers. She was still looking at Dean—Dean’s cold features, Dean’s lion pride. Her hand touched his cheek. “Why are you no longer Peter? Did my spell not work?”
“Your spell worked.”
“Then…” Realization hit her like a ton of bricks. “You shifted?”
His lips flattened, turning hard, as if the memory of someone triggered him. She pulled his face down to look at her, and she watched him struggle with it before his eyes softened. “Yes. I needed to kill him. He won’t hurt you anymore.”
He shifted for her.
He almost blew his cover to save her.
It should have made her angry. It would have had her scolding him had they been in different circumstances, as the mission they were very careful with almost blew up in their faces. But she couldn’t feel anger in her as there was only gratefulness for getting her out of that nightmare, and she let him know it by burying her head on his shoulder. She shivered again, the coldness hitting her, and paranoia came that the wisps would come back, even while logic stated it was gone.
“Don’t leave me yet,” she whispered. “I need to feel something else. I need the darkness to go away.”
“I’m here,” he said simply. “I’m right here.”
And that was the moment she knew she could trust him fully—with her body, her heart, and her mind.
He stayed by her side, keeping the panic at bay and giving her his solid warmth without asking for anything in return. Eventually, the warmth intensified until she comprehended that it was no longer comfort she wanted from him but something else.
Something more tangible.
She didn’t think. Indigo looked up, meeting those golden eyes once more. His mouth opened, and she knew he was about to ask her how she was. She didn’t let him speak.
Instead, she covered his mouth with her own.
She felt the shock hit him, felt it in the stilling of his body. She moved her lips, tasting his, feeling that wonderful taste hit her senses. It erased the darkness completely, took away the panic until all she felt was a need that ached in her belly and traveled in her body—most especially downward, where it tingled between her legs. Her hand started running up and down his chest until she felt his rigidness melt off.
Until she felt his hardness pulse below her, indicating the need wasn’t only hers.
His mouth moved. A whispered “Are you sure?” was asked, but she was frantically nodding her head and pushing him back as she pleaded that she needed this. That was all the go signal he needed as she felt him kiss her harder, putting his all into it until it was her in shock now at how so, so electrifying it was.
They moved, crawling to the center of the bed and rolling over each other. Hands touched skin, turning them hot, and the same hands ripped her clothes off until there was nothing left. She let her hand touch his pulsing erection, wrapping around it and marveling at how huge it was—the complete opposite of her first thought that he must have been small, and his huge ego tried to compensate for it. Oh, how very wrong she was.
And how she wanted him inside her.
She must have said it out loud because suddenly he was rolling them around again until she was on top of him. Their eyes met again amidst all the touching, and what she read in them only turned her on further.
He wanted her to take the lead. He wanted her to take control, when she couldn’t earlier.
Indigo leaned her head down to kiss him, drowning in his taste. His hands played with her breasts, squeezing until they were aching, and his erection rubbed up against her entrance and waited. A moan came out of her, and a stifled groan came out of him, indicating that while he gave her the court, his control was already on the edge and he was struggling with it.
She took his cock in her hand again, whispered to him that she wanted to suck on him someday. His next groan wasn’t as controlled anymore, and it only grew louder when she slowly let his shaft sink inside her until it was fully to the hilt.
He felt even bigger inside her, stretching her muscles completely, and the feeling drove her crazy. Indigo began to move, sliding up and down, letting her body take over. Slow turned fast, and it wasn’t long before his hips were moving with hers and his hands were clutching her waist, plunging up at her every bounce down until he was hitting her pearl and making the pleasure spread. A ball of heat was forming in her stomach, and tingles ran up and down as his fingers found her nipple and twisted it playfully.
Then he replaced his fingers with his mouth, then his tongue, and she let it all out and let the wildness take over.
Her mind blanked. Her body erupted in a mass of nerves as her orgasm took over her and made her feel alive. He was rolling them back around until her back was on the mattress, and it wasn’t over yet, because he was slamming inside her repeatedly with all that he had and building the pleasure again. She clutched at his hair, clutched at his shoulders, as her body writhed and searched that pinnacle of pleasure all over again.
She found it a few seconds later, and it had her body shuddering from the force of it.
Dean pounded inside her a few more times, each plunge making her body shake.
Then his mouth kissed hers again, and he emptied himself inside her.