CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Walt
“Can you hear me?” she whispered, her breath hot against his ear.
“Hear what?”
“My... can you hear my heart beating? Can you hear how all of my blood is rushing down... how badly I need you?” she whispered.
His cock twitched, and she sighed in his ear. “I don’t need to hear it,” he whispered. “I can feel you.”
She was so hot, her pussy soft as butter but also clenching hard enough around him to make his head swim. He thought that he could come just from her arousal, the way her muscles fluttered every time she took in a shuddering breath. He wanted to do that one day, lay her down in that white enamel bed and slide inside her, cover her body with his and lie tangled together. One day there would be no danger, no psychotic hunters pacing the edge of the property, no witches huddled in the attic. He could take his time in taking her apart, let her be as loud as she wanted.
He made a silent promise, to her and to himself. He would make them safe. They would get that day.
But it was not today.
The echo of the water on the tiles went a long way to covering their whispering voices and the tiny outbursts they couldn’t help making. Even so, he pressed his lips to hers so no gasps or moans could escape. They would be the only ones to know.
She buried a hand in his hair. Her fingertips brushed against his scalp, but didn’t dig in. He could feel how tired she was, the way that the healing spell and fighting the poison she had taken from him had sapped away all of her energy. He had energy to burn. Once the wolf’s bane was gone, his wolf’s healing ability had kicked in. He was whole and healthy and had enough adrenaline still roaring through his veins to feel like he could fuck her all night long.
“Just relax,” he whispered. “Let me take care of you.”
She nodded, and tucked her head into the hollow between his neck and his shoulder. It left him with his cheek pressed to the sweet soft skin of her neck, and the wolf whispered to him that it would be so easy to bite her in this position.
The idea sent blood shooting straight to his cock, nearly tipping him over the edge to an explosive orgasm. He paused in his rhythm, breathing hard, and Elysian made a small noise of protest.
“The wolf wants to bite you,” he whispered.
She stared at him, her pupils blown wide, and the red in her cheeks deepened. The noise she made was something out of a wet dream, a strangled little “Oh!”
It was a bad idea. It was a wonderful idea. It was a wonderful idea for a better time.
“Would that turn me into a wolf?” she whispered.
“I don’t know.” He pressed into her, as deep as he could go, and held himself there. She slid minutely down the wall, pulling him in even deeper, and sighed. “I don’t think so. But I think it would make you mine.”
“Huh,” was all she said. “Please don’t stop. We don’t have much time. The others are waiting. Annette could come back. And I need you.”
He pulled her away from the wall, hooking his forearms under her butt to hold her weight. He pushed himself up to a full standing position, swallowing up her little gasp of surprise with another kiss. He bounced her, each movement of her body sending a wave of pleasure crashing through him. With each movement her lips hummed, a little “oh, oh, oh,” that was only for him.
She came like an earthquake around him, her thighs trembling even as she gripped tighter around his waist. He stroked her back through it, then broke the kiss and set his teeth again to the soft skin of her neck. He wanted to sink down so badly that he thought he would lose his mind, but he resisted, even when his own climax whited out everything except the feeling of being buried inside her.
“Nice of you to join us,” Praneeta said, raising an eyebrow at Walt as he hauled himself up from the attic ladder, then turned to help Elysian. “Now that you’re done with your shower.”
“We had an emergency to deal with,” Elysian said. “Aconitum poisoning.” She didn’t mention the other thing that had delayed them.
A tiny curl of guilt twisted in Walt’s stomach, but mostly he felt thrilled.
“I warned you about putting a poison plant in your garden,” Julia said. She was stationed at the small gable window, keeping an eye on the street.
“Aconitum is a powerful spell component,” Elysian argued. “I didn’t want to end up on a watch list because I kept buying it from eBay.”
The attic was clearly Annette’s space. Right now it was also the safest spot in the house, with few windows and only one entrance. The only furniture was the old leather armchair she was sitting in. She’d paired it with a rug and a lamp to make a little reading corner, a strange little patch of domesticity in the chaos of boxes.
The rest of the circle was similarly perched on boxes and the edges of shelves.
Elysian took a seat on the corner of a tea chest, and scooted across so Walt could sit beside her. He put one hand behind her, palm flat on the lid of the chest, with his thumb brushing against her hip. She leaned back against his arm.
“Blondie circled the house for about twenty minutes,” Julia said, dropping the curtain so it fell back in front of the window. “But seems to have gotten bored and retreated to a truck on the other side of the street. Annette says you called her a hunter?”
“That’s what she called herself,” Elysian said. “Well, what she said was that she was going to ‘call every hunter she knows’.”
“And these hunters hunt witches?” Katie asked. She looked down at her daughter, who was asleep at her feet in a makeshift nest of blankets and pillows.
“Not usually, I don’t think,” Walt interjected. “She didn’t seem to know what to expect. The wards surprised her.”
“An opportunist then,” Julia said. “How long do we have until her reinforcements arrive?”
“She’s based in Seattle, so around three hours,” Walt said. “But I don’t believe she called anyone.”
Elysian turned to him, her face a picture of surprise. “She pretty clearly said that was her plan.”
He shrugged. “I don’t think she’s exactly an old hand at this. She seemed… giddy. Following me from Seattle was impulsive, not the sort of thing you do if you’re part of a disciplined group.”
“She does look young,” Julia admitted.
“If this is her first rodeo, she’s not going to want someone more experienced to come in and take over,” Walt continued.
Praneeta grimaced. “A little flippant, considering it’s our heads she’ll be carrying back to Seattle as a trophy.”
“Nobody’s getting hurt,” Walt said firmly. “Not while I’m around.”
“Well, if you’re that certain, get out there and deal with them,” Annette said. She made a little ‘shoo’ gesture toward the ladder.
“We could call the police,” Katie interrupted. “Forget all of the nonsense about magic and hunters. She’s a crazy lady with a gun. That’s their department.”
“We are not calling the police,” Praneeta said with a voice carved from pure ice.
Walt opened his mouth to argue, then shut it. Praneeta was an EMT. She knew the local police. If she was that sure it was a bad idea, that was a can of worms he didn’t want to open. Not for the first time he cursed the complete void in his memory. He was swimming in deep waters with so many hidden currents, and he knew nothing about any of it. Not about wolves, not about witches, definitely not about hunters.
“She knows where we live,” Elysian said quietly. “The wards are keeping her out. There’s no immediate danger. She can’t keep us under siege for long. She’ll get bored. Need to sleep. Need to pee. The real threat is that she’ll spread that information around. We’ll never be safe here again.”
She kept her eyes on her feet, not looking over at Annette even once. Walt’s heart twisted for her. Any of the other witches could go home—assuming they found a way to slip past Willa and Doug—and wash their hands of the whole thing. But Annette was anchored to the house, and therefore so was Elysian.
Walt wrapped an arm around her waist, and she leaned into his side. He saw Praneeta and Katie exchange glances, meaning that the sudden increase in intimacy between them hadn’t gone unnoticed, but neither said anything.
“Even if we somehow got her to walk away, she’d still carry the address with her. Like a time bomb. The only way to eliminate that risk is…” Elysian’s voice trailed off.
“To kill them,” Walt finished.
“Great. Then we’re spending New Year’s Day hiding bodies,” Katie said. “An auspicious omen to start the year with.”
“You’re welcome to throw another suggestion out there,” Elysian snapped. “This isn’t Harry Potter, we can’t just run down and cast a memory charm on her.”
“You cast one on me,” Walt pointed out.
The attic went very, very quiet.
“That’s different,” Elysian said. “I didn’t mean to do that.”
“But you did. So it’s possible.”
“That was a fluke. I…” Elysian stared down at her hands, which she was opening and closing in her lap like she could read the answers in them. Maybe she could. She sighed and buried her head in her hands. “Honestly that would be perfect. A spell that wipes someone’s memory and compels them to go somewhere else? But I didn’t cast the spell on you, I cast it on me. If I cast it on them I’d be summoning their familiars.”
Julia laughed, then covered it with a cough.
“We can’t cast any spells on them,” Annette said. “Her attacks on the wards are draining all the power we have to tap into. If we cast anything major there’s a very good chance the wards will fail. If it doesn’t work, she’ll be inside the house.”
Katie looked ill. She reached down to put a hand on her sleeping daughter’s side, measuring the rhythm of her breaths rising and falling.
“I have an idea,” Elysian said. “But Annette’s right. We can’t risk anything until we’ve at least got Tila and Katie clear.”
“I’m going to ask a stupid question,” Walt said.
“Oh, good,” Annette replied.
“Can you guys fly? Like, on broomsticks?”
He expected gales of laughter, but Katie, Julia and Praneeta looked thoughtful. He didn’t even bother looking at Annette.
Elysian grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “In theory, yes. We could make a broomstick levitate, and probably hold an adult’s weight. But that would be extremely indiscreet.”
“Not to mention the fact that she’s got a gun,” Annette added.
Elysian straightened up and glared at Annette. Walt immediately missed the warmth of her. “At least he’s trying to come up with something, Annette. How about you throw an idea out there for everyone to shoot down?”
“Here’s an idea,” Annette snapped. “He brought her here. He should go out there and lead them away. Then everyone else can make a run for it.”
Elysian made a move as if to get up from the chest, but Walt put a hand on her arm. “She’s not wrong,” he said quietly.
“No.” Elysian deflated. “But you know what? We’re the only two they know about. If you go alone, one of them will stay back to watch the house. If I go with you, they’ll think that’s everybody.”
Fear shot through Walt at the thought of Elysian putting herself in that much danger, but he could see the wisdom. Getting Tila out alive had to be everyone’s priority. But he would jump in front of a silver bullet before he would let anything happen to her.