Eva followed suit, her arms stroking lazily as she kicked her way through the shimmering water. Opening her eyes, she watched with lazy interest as fish swam past, each the size of a dinner plate, scales iridescent and bright as rainbows.
She lifted her head as she reached the waterfall. Smoke had climbed up on one of the great black stones that surrounded the tumble of water so that the steam pelted his cat face, slicking his fur to his massive body. As she watched, magic swirled around him, and he shrank back into Sidhe form.
Eva pulled herself up onto the rock beside him and gasped in delight. The water pounding on her head carried a rush of warm magic that stole her breath. It felt delicious, and she tilted her head back and opened her mouth, gulping both the water and the raw power it carried from the dimensional portal overhead. As she drank, she let the magic roll through her body.
The shift to human barely hurt at all.
Eva opened her eyes to find Smoke reaching for her. She went into his arms joyfully, slipping hers around his neck as he pulled her tight. Their mouths met under the pounding spray, lips pressing, tongues stroking in a hot and hungry kiss that burned with magic.
His hands found her bare, thoroughly healed breasts and cupped her, his fingers rolling and pinching nipples that had gone pert and eager under the pounding tingle. She threw back her head and gasped at the startling intensity of the sensation he created. It was as if the magic made it more, somehow. Hotter, fiercer, even more luscious. He grinned against her mouth as if sensing her reaction.
They stood there on the slick black stone, hands drifting over wet skin, stroking and sliding and squeezing, savoring each electric zing of pleasure, each falling drop of magic.
Smoke dropped to his knees before her and parted the lips of her sex. She sucked in a breath as his tongue slipped deep. He sent a stream of enchanted water sluicing over her clit, and she damned near jolted into orbit.
That boy always was creative
, Zephyr laughed in her mind.
Shush,
Fluffy told him.
I want to enjoy this
.
Good God
, Eva thought.
I’ve got my own peanut gallery
.
But then Smoke gave her another hot mouthful of magic, and her mind went deliciously blank. His tongue swirled lazily over her clit, tracing a slippery figure eight. She fisted her hands in his hair and let her head fall back, rolling her hips against his mouth.
He reached one hand up and found a nipple, then began to play with it lazily as his mouth slowly drove her insane. Fingers pinched and stroked and played as he alternated licking her clit and spraying mouthfuls of magic across it.
Her climax thundered out of nowhere, quick and hard and merciless, and she screamed into the delicious pound of the waterfall.
Her knees buckled, but Smoke caught her hips with one hand, steadying her. Then he lifted one of her legs and draped it over his shoulder. And went back to eating her lazily as she gasped and moaned her way into another blazing orgasm.
Finally she fell back against the wet stone, limp as a drenched sock, weak from his ruthless pleasuring. Smoke pulled away from her and stood, one arm going around her waist, the other hooking under her knee to sling it over his hip.
Eva read his intention and grabbed his shoulders as she wrapped her other leg around his waist. He took her butt in both hands and lifted her just above the eager jut of his cock. The hard tip found her slick opening as he arched his hips and lowered her, pushing his width between her creamy lower lips, moving slowly, his eyes on hers.
Eva sucked in a breath, loving every inch of the exquisite penetration.
God, he felt incredible, his wet shaft beaded with magic, tingling and hot inside her.
Finally he was in up to the balls, and she let her head fall back, savoring him, loving his blazing length. His mouth found her throat, his teeth raking the sensitive cords of it, gently ruthless.
“God, Smoke ...” she whimpered.
“That’s right—Smoke,” he growled against her skin. “I’m your Smoke, no matter who else I am.”
She smiled as she tightened the grip of her thighs, hunching hard against his hips. “And I’m yours, period. As I always will be.”
Smoke growled in pleasure, loving the heat of her slick grip, the way her hips rolled in his hands as he held her plastered against his pelvis, his cock buried to the balls. “Always,” he gritted. “You do realize Zephyr made you immortal? Like me ...”
Her smile took on a fierce edge. “Just like you.” Digging her sharp little nails into his back, Eva hooked her ankles together and ground down on his cock.
The sensation of her slick cunt taking every inch of him nearly hurled him right to orgasm, but he held it off, desperate to ride a little longer.
He braced her back against the wet stone and stepped deeper into her grip, sliding that last delicious fraction into her cunt. The waterfall pounded down on their heads, drenching them in magic as they kissed again, licking, biting, tongues thrusting deep. Kisses that dizzied them as they ground together, cock in cunt, magic surging into magic, blending together in a blue-white glow that spilled over their skin, rolled from head to heels.
The orgasm tore through them both in a white-hot cascade that made them scream together in one long chorused howl of delight.
Singing their pleasure to the magic.
Naked and deliciously
limp, Eva floated in the magical pool, the fingers of one hand twined with Smoke’s as he floated with his head inches from hers, his body at an angle to hers.
“Damn,” she purred. “I can see we’ll be making a habit out of this.”
He growled a deep sound of assent, his eyes closed, his expression relaxed. She could sense his emotions as clearly as his own, as if they’d linked somehow, and she knew he’d never felt this at peace. Neither had she, though she knew there was so damned much to do.
They were going to have to set wards around the comic shop as well as her parents’ home and vehicles. If any werewolf got close, she and Smoke could gate there first and kick whatever ass needed kicking. They had more than enough power to take care of Warlock’s henchmen.
Unfortunately, Warlock had gained power, too, and he’d use it, God only knew how.
“We’ll stop him,” Smoke said, reading her thoughts, his eyes still comfortably closed. Apparently the waterfall adventure had indeed linked them. And wasn’t that luscious?
Better enjoy it now
, Zephyr warned in his deep, ghostly voice.
Because there will be war.
Then we’ll fight
, Fluffy told him.
And we’ll win
.
Together
. She couldn’t tell who’d thought that, but it didn’t really matter.
It was true.
EPILOGUE
Miranda bustled through
the diner with two plates in her hands, the scent of fried eggs, pancakes, and bacon teasing her nose. She found the correct table and put the plates down in front of a middle-aged couple in their Sunday best, gave them a sunny smile and a “you’re welcome” in exchange for their thanks, and strode to the next table.
“Hi!” She smiled at the family of four, also fresh from the Baptist church, and started scribbling their orders on her pad.
Miranda had not expected to be happy. True, there were moments when grief for her mother weighed hard, especially when she went home to her lonely apartment. But Randy had found that as long as she kept busy, she could avoid her darker memories and concentrate on the present. The present, with its new friendships and bright hopes.
She had not expected to like humans. Miranda had never known any, since Joelle had home schooled her, probably because Warlock had wanted to make sure she never complained to school authorities. That kind of attention would have been damned inconvenient.
Or maybe he was just a controlling bastard who wanted to make sure her every move was carefully supervised.
Miranda found the people she worked with almost restful by comparison, far less inclined to anger and casual violence than Dire Wolves. And in the event anyone did get violent, she knew she could defend herself, since her werewolf nature made her strong even in human form.
It was nice not being afraid.
And it was interesting, watching the way humans interacted, watching them eat and talk and tell jokes. Learning how to pass for human was the whole point of getting this job.
She had also created a whole new identity for herself, complete with school records, driver’s license, and a birth certificate in her new name. It hadn’t even been difficult. All she’d had to do was to go to the appropriate schools, the DMV, and the health department, then cast a spell or two on the right people.
Magic made officials very helpful.
So now she was Randi Crestfield, 28—she’d made herself a couple of years older than her actual age to make it more difficult for any of Warlock’s hackers to find her with a casual search. A trip to the beauty shop had turned her red curls into a sassy brunette bob, and colored contacts had given her the eyes to match.
Of course, there was the possibility some Dire Wolf would catch her casting spells, realize who she was, and report her to Warlock. If that happened, she’d have to run like hell and start all over again. So Miranda had done everything she could to minimize the threat of discovery by picking a town that had no Dire Wolf population, at least according to the Southern Clans database she’d hacked into.
Morgan, South Carolina did have a decent community college, though, and she’d already enrolled there for the fall semester in the Radiologic Technology program. She should be a certified X-ray tech in a couple of years.
The medical field was ideal for her purposes. Werewolves avoided hospitals, since they could heal their own injuries and didn’t get sick. On the other hand, certain medical tests could draw attention to their magical differences. Miranda, however, could avoid that problem with a few judicious spells.
So she had a future now, one which didn’t include rape or violence. She had an apartment and a used Honda Civic, having sold her father’s Lexus and its magically doctored car title. She’d become an ordinary human woman working her way through college.
Life was good—as long as Warlock didn’t find her.
But if he did find her ...
Well. She just wouldn’t think about that.
Turn the page for a special preview of
Angela Knight’s next Mageverse novel
MASTER OF SHADOWS
Coming soon from Berkley Sensation!
“What do you
do when they order you to kill?”
The conversation instantly died as every witch and vampire in the room turned to stare at Davon Fredericks. Davon did not flinch under the weight of those incredulous stares. He’d been a trauma surgeon before becoming a vampire, and he’d never lacked balls. He just gazed at Belle, his chocolate eyes level and troubled.
Belle looked up at him from the plates of hors d’oeuvres on the coffee table, a stuffed mushroom halfway to her mouth. She’d cooked all day, and her efforts had turned out rather well. “Why do you ask?”
A muscle flexed in his dark, chiseled jaw, and he looked up at the “
Congratulations, Davon and Cherise!
” banner hanging across the back of the den.
Belle had designed the room especially for the dinner parties she loved to throw, with two big, white leather sectionals arranged around a low, circular coffee table. Davon’s brooding gaze dropped to the table, flicking among the trays and bottles that crowded it. He chose a beer and opened it with a violent twist of one strong hand. “I was just wondering.”
Now all twenty of her guests looked uneasy. Ten vampires and ten witches, all of them wet behind the ears. Though, like Davon, they were in their early thirties or late twenties, none of them had been Magekind for longer than a few months. Well, except for Cherise.
And Belle herself, who had been around one hell of a lot longer than that. She sighed and decided she’d better scotch this concern before they
all
started obsessing about it. “First off, none of you kids is going to be ordered to kill anybody.” She dropped the mushroom on her paper plate and used a toothpick to stab a couple of cheese cubes from a tray. “If someone needs killing, Arthur will send one of the Knights of the Round Table.”
Like Tristan, who had been avoiding her for the past month. She curled a lip and stabbed a cheddar cube through its cold, imaginary heart.
“But . . .” Cherise began, only to fall silent with a glance at Davon, who sat beside her on the sectional. Each promptly looked away from the other, as if they’d synchronized their chins.
Frowning, Belle eyed them. The two had just returned from their first mission a few days before, which was the whole point of this get-together. Belle always threw her boys parties to celebrate that first-mission milestone.
You’re a real Magus now, kid.