Victoria keened, coming hard, her back bowing as the orgasm stole her sight. Magic exploded from her like ripples on water, pouring into Max until he shook as savagely as she did.
But he didn’t stop.
His lips, tongue, and teeth continued to feast on her, groans spilling from his throat as he drank her down. The silky curtain of his hair brushed against her inner thighs, adding to the overwhelming barrage of sensation that assailed her. It would all be too much if not for his love, which anchored her in the maelstrom and prevented her from losing her mind.
“Oh gods, Max,” she whimpered, shivering with the aftershocks.
She’d never known sex could be so . . . fervent until she met Max. He took her body to places she hadn’t known it could go. He allowed no barriers between them, no resistance.
Max released her wrists and she sank limply into his arms, her cheek falling to his shoulder and her lips touching his skin. The taste of him was an aphrodisiac, keeping her hot and wet. Hungry.
He set her carefully on her feet, then applied gentle but insistent pressure to her shoulders. “Suck my cock, kitten.”
She sank gracefully and gratefully to her knees, her mouth watering for the taste of him and the feel of that heavy, vein-lined shaft sliding over her tongue. She was desperate for it, her throat clenching in anticipation.
He held the weighty length in one tightfisted hand and guided the flushed, glistening head to her parted lips.
“Yeah,” he groaned, his chest heaving. “You look so beautiful when you’re giving me head, baby.”
Hot and throbbing, Max’s cock slid inexorably into her drenched mouth. Her hands cupped his buttocks and drew him closer, her throat working to swallow and lure him deeper.
He kept one hand fisted around the base so he didn’t feed her too much. The other hand cupped her cheek, feeling her mouth worshiping his cock from the outside.
“Gods,” he gasped, his buttocks clenching against her palms as her tongue fluttered over the sensitive spot beneath the crown. “Slow down, kitten.”
Victoria pulled free with a wet pop, her lips curving in a catlike smile. Tilting her head, she followed a throbbing vein with the tip of her tongue, then circled his grasping hand. She backtracked, sucking softly as she moved upward, her emotions entangled with her physical responses.
“Fuck,” he growled, his thighs quaking. “Suck it, baby. Don’t play.”
Pressing her lips to the tiny hole at the tip, she barely parted them, then flowed over him in a rapid dip of her head.
His hand left her cheek and cupped the back of her head, holding her still as he fucked her mouth in rapid, shallow digs. She moaned in delight, her thighs squeezed tightly together to fight the ache of emptiness in her pussy.
“Suck it hard, kitten.”
Her cheeks hollowed on a drawing pull and his fierce shout of triumph swelled upward through the exposed ductwork, combating the sounds of the Triumvirate’s challenge in the wind outside.
Shuddering, he spurted hot and thick, the creamy wash of his semen flowing over her tongue and down her throat. His fist stroked from the thick base of his cock to meet her lips, pumping his cum hard and fast along the jerking shaft into her waiting, willing mouth.
The power she’d given him with her climax flowed back into her, hotter and more powerful, a deluge so intense she wouldn’t have been able to take it if not for the gift Darius gave her. She felt Max in her mind, his love flowing through her in a saturating embrace, his pleasure as necessary to her as breathing.
He pulled free of her suckling. The next instant cool, crushed velvet cushioned her back and Max was over her, kneeing her legs wider so his hips could sink between them. She purred at the feel of the slick head of his cock notching into place at the tiny slitted entrance of her pussy.
With a powerful lunge, he was deep inside her, his still-rigid cock thrusting through her swollen tissues until he’d hit the end of her.
“Max!” His name was a breathless cry on her lips, her toes curling with the delight of having him pulsing within her, stretching her to her limits in the most delicious way possible.
“Naughty kitten,” he rumbled, nuzzling his cheek against hers. “You almost finished me with your mouth.”
“I love your cock, Max.”
“As much as you can take.” His head lifted and his gaze promised hours of joy ahead of her. “I’ll always give you as much as you can handle, kitten.”
“Give it to me now,” she purred. “Hard and deep.”
Fists clenched in the coverlet, Max obliged her, pounding her into the mattress with the heated length of his magnificent cock. He whispered lewd praise in her ear, describing how she felt around him, how he loved her hot pussy and greedy cries for more.
Victoria clawed at his back, her long legs wrapping around his pumping hips, her pussy tightening on every withdraw and quivering on every plunge. Gluttonously relishing the brutality of his passion.
There was a desperation in his taking, a primal urge to sink as deep into her as possible so that they could never be separated. They faced the greatest foe of their lives tonight and they might not survive it.
I love you . . . so beautiful . . . mine . . .
As his emotions filled her mind and heart, tears coursed down her temples to wet her hair. She embraced his sweat-slick back and spread her legs wider, sobbing with the mind-numbing pleasure of his possession, trembling violently from an orgasm more fierce than anything she’d ever experienced before.
His climax followed hers, his cum spurting in scorching skeins, his cock jerking inside her with every wrenching pulse. Their combined magic swelled, shaking every item in the loft. The windows creaked, whined, barely able to contain the power they created as one. On this night.
Victoria clung to Max, crying. She wouldn’t lose him. She couldn’t.
If the end approached, it would be her life for his.
She would ensure it.
Three
Midnight, the witching hour
He was going to die.
The hot trickle of blood from Max’s nostril assured him of that fact. His veins felt scorched by acid, his chest burned with every gasping breath, his skull felt as if it were being squeezed in a vise. Every blow to his warding spell felt like a physical one and they were incessant, coming from two sides.
“Victoria!” Max yelled, his shields rippling sinuously in testament to their swiftly approaching collapse. She had to turn and flee, before his strength waned and left her vulnerable.
Run!
Just as his vision began to dim and he feared slipping into unconsciousness, a surge of power almost too potent to contain tore through him in a scalding rush.
Victoria. So visceral it felt as if her very soul had entered his body. Her augmentation whipped around and through him, strengthening and protecting him from harm.
As his target sank to his knees and victory was at hand, an invasive chill spread outward from the center of Max’s chest and gripped his heart. The icy fist tightened, then spread insidiously through his veins. The sudden dearth of Victoria in his mind was like a scream in silence, piercing and terrifying.
Turning his head, he looked for her and found her sprawled on the pavement, a smoldering hole in her beautiful chest.
“Victoria, NO!”
Her beloved voice with its soft, throaty purr whispered through his mind. I love you.
Max roared into the storm. His hands began to lower, his need to be with her a driving impulse that he couldn’t deny.
But she wouldn’t allow him to give up.
Her strength of will straightened his arms and increased the flow of gray magic he sent into the falling brother. His quivering arms shot forward and magic poured from the tips of his fingers in white-hot streams, arcing through the air like lightning, sinking deep into the collapsing body of the middle Triumvirate brother. The wards around him thickened, shielding him from the blows that pelted his frontal perimeter.
His body and magic were no longer his own. They were possessed by a force greater than himself. Something strange and new penetrated deep into his bones, embracing his grief and fury. Magnifying them and sending them outward in a shockwave of power so destructive it shattered his wards and sliced through the center of the Triumvirate brethren like a guillotine blade.
Their screams echoed through the alley, rising like banshees’ cries, ripping apart the sky in a thunderous boom. As one, the Triumvirate exploded in a blinding flash, rocking Max back on his heels and quaking the very ground beneath him. The buildings shook with such violence they threatened to topple, and animals across the city protested in a sudden cacophony. Dogs whined and howled. Cats screeched. Birds fled their warm nests in a riot of flapping wings and caws.
Then the alley fell silent. The only sounds that broke the stillness were the jingling of distant sleigh bells and Max’s own tortured sobbing.
He dropped to the snow on his knees, the emptiness inside him a gaping, yawning hole he knew he couldn’t survive. He needed Victoria. Couldn’t live without her.
Centuries he’d spent alone, focused on his primary mission—enforcing the will of the Council by death. Victoria had brought light into his life, warmth with the heat of her passion, and love into the emptiness of his heart.
“Damn you,” he said hoarsely, crawling toward her as debris rattled down and mingled with the snowflakes. “You can’t leave me here alone.”
Max caught her up and pulled her into his lap. Chanting one spell after another. Trying everything he knew, black and white magic, anything at all to heal her and bring her back to him.
But she didn’t move, her chest did not rise and fall with breath, her eyelids didn’t flutter over the brilliant emerald irises he adored.
“Kitten . . . ,” he sobbed. “You can’t leave me here alone . . . you can’t leave me . . . ”
Rocking her, Max pressed shaking lips to her forehead and felt his sanity slipping from him like sands through an hourglass.
“Heal her!” His command cracked through the night, reaching out to the Council who heard and saw everything. “Heal her or I will hunt you down,” he hissed. “Every last one of you. I’ll kill you all. I swear it.”
We told you this would happen, They crowed. Her loss is the penalty for your arrogance.
Max’s jaw tightened. His gaze narrowed on Victoria, who looked beautiful and oddly peaceful. Her skin pale and luminous like a pearl, her thick lashes spiked from tears and melting snow. She glowed. Softly, faintly. With an inner radiance.
Stilling, Max took in that hint of illumination. And what it signified.
The magic within her still lived. Darius’s magic.
You can’t have her, Max growled, fury overtaking his crushing grief. She’s mine.
There were consequences for penetrating the Transcendual Realm. Dire penalties.
He didn’t care.
He would be stained, marked. Some would hunt him as a rogue. Peace would be ephemeral with a price on his head.
Max didn’t hesitate. It would all be worth it. If he had Victoria.
Slicing across his wrist with a sliver of magic, he held his arm above the wounds in Victoria’s chest. The crimson of his blood blended with the snow and dripped onto her charred flesh. The mixture sizzled atop her skin and smoke rose.
Max closed his eyes and began to incant.
Victoria woke with a gasp and found herself lying in a field of yellow flowers. The air was redolent of lilies and sun-warmed grass, and butterflies flitted through the air in rarely seen numbers.
Pushing up to a seated position, she perused her surroundings with greater care, attempting to reconcile the beauty of the summer day with the snow-covered alley she’d occupied just a moment before. She looked down, noting the simple linen shift she wore, cleanly cut and unadorned. Her hand lifted to her unmarred chest and she frowned.
Where was Max? And where was she?
A masculine hand penetrated her vision.
Her gaze lifted and came to rest on a beloved face she thought she would never see again.
“Darius.”
“Hello, Vicky.” His beautiful mouth curved in a loving smile. The sunlight lit his golden hair with a luminousness that stole her breath and tightened her chest. Her favorite dimple dotted his cheek and brought back a flood of treasured memories.
“Where are we?”
She accepted the hand he held out to her, allowing him to pull her to her feet.
“Together,” he said simply. “Although I’ve always been with you.”
Darius linked his fingers with hers. “Walk with me?”
“Am I dead?”
His head tilted to the side, as if listening to something she couldn’t hear. His handsome features took on a thoughtful cast and his lips pursed. Then he set off, pulling her along with him, forgetting to answer her. Or choosing not to.
As they strolled, recognition of their location came to her—the south of France. One of the many places they’d visited and enjoyed as a couple.
“Have you been here the whole time?” she asked.
“No. I switch it up every now and then.”
“ ‘Switch it up’?”
He glanced aside at her with a familiar twinkle in his eye. “I’m keeping up with vernacular.”
As flowers crushed beneath their feet, sweetly alluring fragrances filled the air. It was paradise, in a fashion, but echoes of pain and longing turned down the corners of her mouth.
Max. Her fear for him was paramount in her mind.
“Where are we, Darius?”
“You know where we are.” He looked straight ahead, revealing no more than the classical elegance of his profile.
“Is it over for me, then?”
“It can be.” With a gesture of his hand, he directed her to sit upon a half-moon bench that hugged a tree. A tree that had not been there just a second ago.
“You still have magic,” she said.
“It is ingrained in us.”
Victoria sat, her fingers moving restlessly over the edge of her skirt. The urgency inside her grew with every breath she took, sparking a driving need to act. For her, the clock was ticking double time, a jarring contrast to the pervasive leisure she felt in the Transcendual Realm.
Darius sat beside her and picked up one of her hands in his. “When I first saw you,” he said softly, “I knew you were the only woman for me. The sensation was lightning in a bottle, an instantaneous awareness. I was certain, prior to exchanging a word with you, that you would make me happier than I had ever been or could ever be without you.”
Her eyes stung as her vision blurred with tears. “I felt the same.”
“I always knew you loved me.”
“Yes . . . ”
“I also knew that I was not your soul mate.”
Victoria stilled. Darius smiled, but his handsome features were marred by sorrow.
“What are you saying?”
“You were all I needed, Vicky, but I couldn’t be all you needed. I didn’t have a firm enough hand. You were content with me, but not thriving.”
“No,” she protested, canting to face him directly. “That’s not true.”
“It is.” He cupped her cheek, his thumb following the line of her cheekbone. “That’s why I gifted my power to you. I wanted you to have a choice. I wanted to give you the opportunity to get it right the next time.”
“It was right the first time,” she insisted. “I will always care for you, always love you.”
“I know.” The sadness left his blue eyes, replaced by the mischievous twinkle she’d fallen in love with. “What we had was perfect . . . but now you have something even more perfect. I wish I could have been that for you. Still, I’m grateful for what we did have. I know we had something wonderful.”
“Yes. We did.” Victoria glanced at the field of flowers around them. “What happens now?”
“Now, you decide.” He squeezed her hand. “Stay with me or
live the rest of your eight lives.”
She bumped his shoulder with hers. “That’s a myth.”
Darius grinned. “Is it?” he teased, standing.
Victoria rose to her feet and stared up at him. “Are you happy?”
“Of course.” His dimple flashed. “I’m with you always. There’s nothing more I could ask for.”
“Do you want me to stay?”
“I want you to be happy,” he said, in a low ardent tone. “Whether that’s with me or with Westin. He loves you. Almost as much as I do. He’s fighting to bring you back as we speak.”
“I love him.” Her tears flowed freely.
“I’m glad, Vicky.”
“I love you, too.”
“I know you do.”
His golden head lowered, bringing his mouth to hers. His advance was slow, yet heartrendingly familiar. The press of his lips soothed a long restless part of her heart. She hadn’t had the chance to say good-bye; he’d been ripped from her too quickly. That lack of closure had haunted her for centuries.
Victoria’s hands fisted in Darius’s linen shirt and she kissed him desperately. Not with the passion she felt for Max, but with the lingering love they’d once shared. It was a bittersweet parting, but one that felt absolutely right. Her life was with Max now. So was her heart.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “I couldn’t have saved him without you.”
“I’ll see you on the flip side, love,” Darius replied softly. “Stay out of trouble until then.”
She tried to open her eyes, but sank into darkness instead.
Victoria woke to the feel of snow falling on her face. Warmth cradled her right side and she rolled into it, groaning as searing agony burned through her chest.
“Kitten?” Even from a perceived distance, the aching wonder in Max’s voice could not be mistaken.
“Hi.” She pressed her cheek to his soaked shirt. “Miss me?”
“Don’t tease, damn you. I could kill you for putting me through that.” He caught her close, his large frame quaking with the violence of his emotions. “What a shitty stunt to pull on a man. Especially on Christmas.”