Chaos Burning (36 page)

So he’d let her be mad and he’d be mad too, but she’d get some rest and be better able to deal with whatever came along. There was no way he’d do anything that made her less able to deal with the monumental task before them.

“I love you, Lark. You’re not my ward, you’re my everything. I’ve got to deal with the fact that you’re walking into the face of something so strong even the Fae are freaked. I can’t stand by and watch you work yourself to the verge of passing out. You have to be ready for the Magister. I’m not going to lose you. So if you want to be mad at me, go on, but I’m not sorry.”

They pulled into his garage and she was alert again, looking, he knew, with her othersight to be sure they were safe and no wards had been tripped.

“Clear.” She got out and headed toward the house. That she didn’t sock him or kick him in the junk was probably a good indicator she was less mad than she was at first. But he was on guard because she was sneaky.

“Bed.” He followed her and steered her away from the table where she kept her laptop. “Plenty of work to do in the morning.”

“I’m totally not having sex with you. You carried me out of the office.”

She moved into his bedroom—well,
their
bedroom—and peeled her clothes off. This was going in a nice direction.

“Of course you will. But not right now. No one saw. I wouldn’t have done it if there had been people around. They’re all sleeping or out on patrol.” He handed her a T-shirt and she snatched it from his hand and glared. “Put that on and let’s go to sleep. I’ll set the alarm for seven.” He did as she watched, suspicious. As if he’d set it for nine just for fun.

“I should sleep in my room.”

“This is your room.” He pulled his shirt off and knew he had her attention. He’d use whatever he had to to make sure she got rest so he unzipped his pants ever so slowly and held back a smile of satisfaction when she got in bed while never taking her gaze from him.

“You’re cheating.”

He shimmied from the pants and tossed them in the laundry,
following up with his shorts. He came to bed totally naked and his woman seemed very fine with that.

“Don’t need to cheat. You’re easy for my body. That’s not my fault.”

He pulled her to him and she squirmed for a moment and then sighed, going lax and letting him hold her. “See. This is nice, isn’t it? Close your eyes and let yourself sleep. If anything happens, they’ll call. People are working right now. You can let go. For just a little while.”

She turned and buried her face in his neck with a little snuffle and they both let go and fell into sleep.

HE
knew they’d both been exhausted when it was the alarm clock that woke them instead of his internal clock. He usually got up before she did and she would follow rather quickly. But today she rolled over and groaned with a stretch.

“Seven came a lot earlier than I thought it would,” she mumbled and got out of bed, making him frown.

“Though you know how fond I am of your ass, why are you walking away from bed instead of toward it?”

She went into the bathroom for a bit.

When she returned, it was as she answered his question. “Because unlike
some
people who perpetually look as if they’re on a movie set with five makeup and hair people at their beck and call at all times,
I
need to go to the bathroom and brush my teeth and hair.”

She jumped back into bed, landing on him in a warm tangle of legs, the softness of her against him.

“Good morning, Adonis.”

Smiling, he stretched to kiss her. “I feel very objectified.”

“Thank God. I was worried I’d have to throw myself at you to get you to notice me.”

He grinned, hugging her tighter, keeping a grip on that delicious bum of hers. “You’re feeling better.”

She frowned and glared. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten you showed up like my dad and hauled me home like a bag of potatoes.”

“If you think I’m going to apologize for not being willing to
watch you work until you passed out—or worse gotten confronted with something major that you’d be too worn out to defend yourself against—you’re going to be waiting a long time.” He kissed her again, this time it was a slow, teasing kiss. A kiss that warmed as she softened against him again, as she slid her fingers into his hair, cradling his skull as she nipped his lip.

“Loving you is never boring.”

“Is that a compliment?”

He rolled her to her back. “Of course it is. How’s your arm?” He peeled her shirt off to examine her better. And to get his mouth and hands all over her body.

“It’s better. Mmmm.”

He kissed down the center of her chest, the swell of her breasts brushing against his cheeks.

She had bruises on her torso and he kissed them carefully. These were marks of the battle she’d been in not even two days before. A battle she’d won. They bothered him on one level. She was his woman. So small and fragile compared to him and oftentimes those who wanted to harm her.

But mainly they filled him with pride. “You’re incredible.” He kissed the now-fading love bite he’d given her.

“I am?” Her voice caught on a gasp as he flicked his tongue over her nipple. “’Cause from where I’m standing, um, laying, you’re the incredible one.”

“Watching you fight is better than any sexy movie I’ve ever seen. You’re smart and strong and you run your crew like a born leader. My beast wants to rub up all over you, to snarl and gnash teeth and rip apart our enemies side by side.”

Her teasing manner faded and she listened, her features betraying how touched she was.

“A female like you, so rare and unique, is a gift greater than any riches.” He needed her to know he not only respected what she did, but that he believed in it as she did. Needed to know why it was he found her so beautiful.

He kissed down her belly and over to the bloom of purple/green bruises on her thigh. She thought he’d spent even a single moment regretting that she wasn’t one of the women he’d dallied with before her. Which was silly.

“No one I’ve ever met has been like you. I’m a very, very lucky male.”

“You’re such a flatterer.” But she blushed. “I don’t know what to do with you sometimes. You’re smooth and classy and have a crapton of money, by the way.”

He kissed the back of her knee and she sucked in a breath and stopped speaking for long moments as she watched him kiss his way up her inner thigh.

“You’re everything I used to think I’d never want in a man. You have more hair stuff than I do. You take as long to dress too. You’re gorgeous. Every time we go anywhere it’s like people do a double take wondering why on earth you’re into me.”

He growled at the very idea and she smiled, her fingers drifting over his shoulder.

“You’re giant. And you’re bossy. And you like to try to tell me what to do.”

She opened to him, the gorgeous heart of her as he took a lick and her eyes blurred a little.

“But as I’m your key and you’re my lock and all, I’m keeping you.”

He grabbed her hips and pulled her closer, holding her in place while he tasted every part of her.

She made a little squeal when he dragged his teeth ever so gently over her clit and then punched the mattress, arching to get more.

When she flew apart, he held her, his fingers splayed over her hips, taking more, pushing her up and up and up some more until she hit a second climax.

That’s when he moved up her body and slid into her as she still fluttered all around him.

“Good to know you’re keeping me. As I have no plans to go anyway.” He pulled nearly all the way out and pressed back in, enjoying the way her eyes went half-mast and her lips parted. “You need a male like me. You’d run over anyone else. All those pretty boys you’ve wasted your life with before. Pah.”

She laughed, throwing her arms around him. “Pah.
Grrr.
They never would have thrown me over a shoulder and hauled me from work. Just sayin’.”

“Which is why I’m buried balls deep inside your body and they’re crying salty emo tears that you’re mine.”

She nipped his shoulder and then shivered when he shifted, changing his angle and got in even deeper.

“Mmm, well, they never brought this much game. I’ll say that.” The teasing light was back in her eyes as her magick surged and mingled with his. They were back on track. Back in synch. And it felt good and right.

“More,” she urged with a roll of her hips.

He’d held on as long as he thought he could. Her taste still on his lips, her body so tight and wet as it wrapped around him. But that demand unleashed his control and he went to his arms, locking his elbows to get some purchase and balance as he sped his pace.

Need. Every time he thought of her. Touched her. She brought it out in ways he’d never fully understand but he accepted anyway. And when he came, it was with her name on his lips, lips that brushed over hers.

OVER
the next three days twenty-five more Others had been taken. Everyone was on board then. The big cat shifters were on the rampage and had teamed up with the wolves. Shifter patrols had interrupted an attempted snatching the night before and had torn the three mages to shreds.

Less cleanup, she’d responded, and moved on.

She’d been in a meeting with Gage and Rose, his tech friend who hacked the phone she’d brought back from the house they’d been holding Nell in, when the door slammed open.

Quinn stood there and the look on his face had Lark on her feet before she could form words.

“They’ve taken an entire haven.”

“Where?”

“Gennessee. I’m sorry, Lark.”

She was on her phone before he’d finished speaking. Her sister answered on the second ring.

“Tell me.”

“They hit the safe house out in Indio. We had twenty-two witches out there. Five of them were children.”

She had to sit down because the room seemed to tilt.

“What can Owen do to help?”

“You’re really seriously going to stay there?”

“Yes. We can’t run the crew together anymore. You know it. And right now we’re better, stronger, with the two of us running teams and holding the West Coast against this thing.”

Helena sighed, the anguish clear in the sound. Lark could go back, but what of Owen? Her father and Helena were fine without her. Better off most likely. She was definitely better off up there.

But those witches out in the desert were hers too and the pain of it lanced through her gut.

“Did you send your people to havens?”

“No.”

She didn’t want to rub salt in her sister’s face over it. But they’d disagreed and moved on.

“They’re discussing it now. Whether or not to call everyone back. What do you think?”

She’d already gone over contingency plans when she thought over whether or not to send her own witches to the havens and that shared sense of mission she’d always had with her sister clicked into place.

“I think they’d be on the road, exposed as they went streaming back to a really big territory. Which might make them safer if they could blend in. But this enemy seems to find them no matter where they are. You can’t protect them all when they’re scattered over six hundred miles. In the havens at least for now they’re together. You can send a hunter to each one and the hunter can organize them all into a better defense force. We’re not entirely powerless against them. We have magick; they don’t. I think you should leave them in the havens and send backup. I don’t think it protects them better to bring them back.”

“That’s what I think.” She heard the shaky breath her sister let out and wished she was there, close enough to hug. “I should have sent hunters to all of them at the very start. We did to some of the bigger havens where there were a lot of kids and elderly. I should have known.”

“Hold on one moment.” She looked to Gage. “I need to take this in private. They lost the Indio haven. All the witches there
are gone, including the children. They’re discussing whether or not to bring them back now. They’ll let us know when a decision is made.”

Gage nodded. “Go on.”

She left the room and headed to her office.

“You didn’t know, Helena. You did what you thought was best.”

“
You
didn’t make that choice.”

There was so much recrimination in that sentence. Lark knew Helena blamed herself. “No, I didn’t. But not because it was so clear-cut. It was on the margins. I went one way, you did the other. I could have easily been the wrong one. And the truth is, I can’t say yours was a worse choice. The options aren’t that great to start with. We’re doing what we have to to survive.”

“I miss you, Lark. I’m scared I’m going to mess this up even more.”

She laughed, but not with a great deal of humor. “Girl, me too. Makes me yearn for the days back when my biggest problem was a bunch of rogue werewolves making me track them and kick their ass.”

“Just…” Helena didn’t speak for a long time. “This is accelerating. I can feel it.”

“Yes.” The disappearances kept coming. They weren’t even holding it back at this point. Just doing their best to triage it. The Magister was gaining power and beginning to break through.

Helena continued, “Things are coming to a head and I don’t want to go there until I’ve told you I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you in person, but then you left and I thought I’d tell you when you got back but since you’ve been gone you’ve met your one and only and have taken on a new clan. So much has happened for you and I haven’t been there and now maybe I’ll never see you again.” Her sister’s voice broke and pulled her own tears to her eyes and the well of sadness she’d had over this broken thing between them overflowed and she covered her eyes with a hand and made herself keep going.

If it all ended and she never got to hug her sister again, she at least needed to say what she should have said a long time ago.

“I’m sorry. Sorry that I was part of such a sad time in your
life. Maybe I shouldn’t have told you. I didn’t want you to get hurt. I just was so offended on your behalf.”

Helena was crying in earnest at this point. “No. You were right to tell me. I told you then I appreciated it and I’m saying it now. He wasn’t for me. I knew it before he proposed. But I didn’t want to see it. Didn’t want to fail, I guess, and did in such an incredibly spectacular fashion. Afterward, each time I saw you I’d remember how horribly I’d messed up.”