The demon put her hands on Tain’s shoulders and ran her touch down the length of his torso, bringing her fingers around to stroke his scrotum. “Face the wall, sweetheart,” she said.
She gently turned Tain around and helped him place his hands on the wall. Knife in hand, she drew her tongue down Tain’s long spine, dipping it between his buttocks. He moaned and pressed his body against the wall.
The demon stood up and carefully moved Tain’s red hair to bare his neck. She touched the tip of the knife to the first vertebra in Tain’s back.
“Amber, don’t look,” Adrian said.
The knife dipped into Tain’s skin, blood leaking around the cut. Tain made a faint moan as the demon slowly peeled his skin away as she would pare an apple.
Adrian glanced down at Amber, ready to comfort her. But she wasn’t looking at Tain and the demon; she stared intently at the black of the open doorway. Adrian felt a familiar presence there, and his pulse quickened.
Across the room Tain began to sob as the demon started on the next strip of skin, she smiling as her dress soaked through with Tain’s blood. At the same time, Ferrin slithered noiselessly over the threshold into the room and started across the board floor. Adrian glanced quickly at the demon and Tain, but they were lost in their strange and sickening ritual.
Ferrin flowed on, unhindered, to Amber, where he wound into a coil. He opened his mouth wide, wider, widest, and a clear crystal dropped out to the floor with a tiny click. Amber quietly pressed her hand over crystal and gave Ferrin a smile.
At the faint sound, the demon swung around. She stared at Amber sitting cross-legged on the floor, her hand at her side, then her black gaze took in Ferrin coiled tightly against Amber’s thigh.
The demon sprang across the room with a snarl and plunged her knife straight down at Ferrin. Before the knife could connect, Ferrin stiffened into a silver broadsword. The blades rang together, sparks stinging Adrian’s bare skin.
“Now!” Amber shrieked.
From all corners of the house came a burst of white light, life magic so strong and pure its power shoved Adrian against the damp wall. The crystal Amber held turned incandescent, as though it channeled the power of the sun itself.
Amber opened her mouth and sang a clear note. From the light, and the crystal itself, a harmony of female voices joined the music.
Adrian sensed the magic of the witches joined together, forming a circle of life magic so strong that the hairs on his body stood up. The circle encompassed the house—Adrian had a sudden vision of Ferrin slithering through the dark, dropping crystals in each room so the witches could weave a net of life magic over the entire house.
In his mind he saw a blur of women, each kneeling before a crystal, flame, or water, chanting and singing, all connected, sending their magic across miles to focus in the stones Amber must have charged to receive them.
Adrian laughed. Mirth rolled from deep within him, and pride, and relief. He let his own pent-up magic blast from him, adding it to the witches’ magic.
Adrian’s chains burst into metal shards and fell away. He reached down and scooped up Ferrin, growling as he brought the sword around.
No death magic could exist among all this life magic. The demon screamed and snarled, becoming the male demon again, the dress tearing into shreds and falling away. The demon pointed at the ceiling, opening a hole darker than night, and dove upward into it.
“Tain,” Adrian said. He felt a surge of joy. He could grab Tain and get him to Ravenscroft, where Isis could come and no demon would touch him.
Tain gazed at the fading black hole in anguish. “No!” he yelled. “Don’t leave me.”
“Tain, let him go. I’ll take you home.”
Tain looked at Adrian in pure rage. “I want to die. I want to die.” He blasted out with his magic, and despite his bloody and ravaged body, his power was hard, raw, and stronger than Adrian had ever known it to be. It picked up Adrian and drove him into the wall beside the hook that had anchored him in place.
The black hole widened and the demon’s hand snaked through. Tain grabbed it. The demon pulled him upward and out of sight, the hole slamming closed before Adrian could reach it.
Amber closed her mouth, and the music abruptly ceased. She slumped in exhaustion, the crystal rolling from her hand, the light fading.
One by one, Adrian sensed the crystals in the house dim, but the shell of living magic remained, reinforcing the witch wards that glowed stronger than ever.
The door downstairs slammed open, and he heard snarls and claws scrabbling on wood as a werewolf bounded inside, followed by quick human footsteps. Something flashed at the window, and a huge face appeared, a dragon snout bending down to reveal two huge, unblinking blue eyes.
“Everything all right in there?” Valerian asked.
Adrian growled a laugh as he sank to the floor and drew Amber onto his lap. She raised tired eyes to him and smiled.
“I guess it worked,” she said.
Chapter Twenty
Adrian rested his head against the cool tiles of the shower of Amber’s guest bathroom, letting steam roll over him, the heat soothing the aches in his body. Water slid down his back, rolling in rivulets over his skin to pool at his feet.
He smoothed back his hair, slick with water, the weight of it gathering to a point. The blood had long since washed down into the drain, healing water wiping away signs of his ordeal.
The demon had Tain, and Tain was ready to destroy the world. Adrian had not been able to stop him. Amber’s ruse with the life magic circle had been clever, but even with her at his side, Adrian’s power was not enough. Tain was mad, and Tain had to be stopped.
Sometimes it was hell to be an Immortal.
The bathroom door opened, the draft rolling steam through the room. He knew who entered, having by now learned her step, her scent, and the way she moved.
Adrian glanced through the wavy-glass shower door to see Amber pause in the middle of the room. The colorful pieces of her clothing began to fall to the floor, until she was a pale smudge of nude body. She moved to the shower and opened the door, stepping in next to him without embarrassment.
The shower plastered Amber’s short ringlets to her head and beaded on her breasts, her nipples already dark and tight. Adrian leaned down and licked water from her lips, his thumbs pressing the corners of her mouth to open her to him.
She laced her arms around his neck, her breasts pressing his chest as he took her mouth in fierce strokes. He’d almost lost her this day, almost. The almost made him know he never wanted to lose her again.
The kiss went on, both of them hungry. When they eased apart, Adrian held her face between his hands, studying the woman who had become the most important thing in his world.
“Why did you tell the demon to torture Tain and not me?” she asked, her voice hollow against the running water.
Adrian remembered his sickening horror when the demon had pushed the knife against Amber’s throat, marking a line of blood. He shrugged. “There was no question.”
Her tawny eyes held worry. “You spent so many years trying to find Tain. You could have taken him to safety while the demon busied himself with me.”
Adrian gave her an incredulous look. How she could think that . . . “I would have done anything to stop him from hurting you.”
“Including sacrificing your own brother?”
She didn’t understand. Adrian stroked her face, touching skin smooth with water. “To Tain, it was just one more step in the demon’s hold over him. He could stand it.”
Amber studied him with sudden compassion that made his heart warm. “It must have been difficult for you.”
“It wasn’t difficult at all. The demon knew the only way to break me was to hurt you. He wanted to see how far I’d go to keep you from harm.”
“And you played right into his hands.”
Adrian cupped her face in his hands, fingers brushing water from her cheekbones. “I don’t care about his g
ames. I care that you are safe from him.”
Amber stopped arguing, the answering spark in her eyes showed she understood. “He hurt you so much.” She touched his collarbone. “I wish I’d been able to reach you sooner.”
“I wished you hadn’t reached me at all.”
“What, you wanted me to leave you chained in my tower room while the demon used you as a pincushion?”
“I wanted you well out of this. Valerian knows he should have kept you away, which is why he looked so sheepish downstairs.”
Valerian, human-shaped once more, hadn’t wanted to look Adrian in the eye. Valerian was lucky Amber and the Coven of Light had prevailed, or Adrian would have wrung his dragon neck, and Valerian knew it.
“Valerian did what I asked him to do,” Amber said.
“A sixty-foot dragon backing down from a five-foot-five witch? He’s losing it.”
Amber gave him a look of defiance. “He wanted to help you. He felt responsible for not being able to save you from the ice cave. He thought my plan a good one.”
Amber’s glare told him she expected Adrian to agree the plan had been brilliant. And it had been, except for the fact that it had put Amber in danger. She took his silence in a negative light and scowled.
“It got rid of the demon, didn’t it?” she said.
“Yes, but before I was able to get Tain away from him.”
“Get Tain away from him?” Amber pressed her hand over the closed wound in his chest, which still ached and throbbed. “You were chained up and tortured. The demon stabbed you through the heart.”
“I can’t die, Amber. He would have tired of the game after a while.”
“Not until you were in so much pain you couldn’t stand it. You said he was trying to break you. How much pain could you take before that happened?”
Adrian couldn’t answer, because he didn’t know.
“He would have had two Immortals under his power then,” Amber said. “He still only has one.”
“Yes, and I can’t stop them. The demon alone I could deal with, with enough effort. But not the pair of them.” Adrian leaned forward, hands taking his weight on the wall on either side of her head. “I’ve never before faced anything I couldn’t stop.”
Amber’s lips curved in a faint smile. “Welcome to how the rest of us feel most of the time.”
Adrian let out his breath. “I learned today that it’s easy to be brave when you have nothing to fear.”
“You are brave. If you weren’t you wouldn’t have bothered following the demon to rescue me in the warehouse in the first place.”
Adrian went silent, letting her believe what she wanted. Amber didn’t understand the immense power of an Immortal—she’d only seen what Adrian had let her see of his power. Immortals were so strong that if one of them decided to turn against the world, the world was in trouble.
“I didn’t come here to argue with you,” Amber said, her voice softening. “I came here to wash your back.”
Adrian’s blood heated, his arousal tightening. This was more like it. “My back?”
The sly look she slanted him made his cock rise all the way. “Well, we can start with your back.”
He growled and pressed her into the wall, his mouth coming down on hers, but she only laughed.
* * *
Amber assumed he’d shut off the water and carry her out of the guest bathroom to the bed waiting in the room outside. Instead Adrian wrapped his hand around the bar of soap and drew it slowly down her body, palms cupping her breasts with a wet sound before sliding to the curve of her waist.
He soaped her hips, moving to her back, then down between her buttocks. He renewed the soap on his hands and slid them between her legs, parting her without coyness.
Amber braced herself on the shower wall and let him wash the insides of her thighs, drawing his hands down the backs of her knees then her calves and ankles. He lifted each foot to wash it thoroughly, then, kneeling next to her, he rinsed her off, rubbing the clean water all over her.
Adrian pressed her against the wall, his hand on her abdomen, and teased his tongue over her opening. Amber slid her fingers through his wet hair, tilting her head out of the line of falling water, her heart beating with rising excitement.
Adrian teased and rubbed with the tip of his tongue until Amber was tingling and hot, then he closed his mouth over her and suckled. His tongue was fiery, grating on her with just the right friction. Heat streaked down every limb, Amber’s toes splashing little fountains on the bottom of the shower.
Adrian alternated between licking and suckling, teasing and heating. His hands were strong on her thighs, fingers hot bands on her skin, the shower wall cold and slick on her back.
“I’m supposed to be healing you,” Amber said, swallowing a moan.
“You are. You always heal me.”
Adrian renewed his working between her legs, while Amber rose on her toes, a cry escaping her mouth to ring in the steam-filled bathroom. “Adrian, dear Goddess.”
He pleasured her without mercy, his tongue doing its magic. Then Adrian rose the length of her, pressing her against the tile, hands finding her waist. Water streaked his face like tears, and his eyes swam with white sparks, the dark of them fathoms deep.
There was no question, he’d said in that heart-stopping voice when Amber asked him why he’d saved her instead of Tain. Something in Adrian had settled, the uncertainty gone. He had made up his mind what he’d do, with a honed ruthlessness that was terrifying.
“Do you still want to argue about belonging to me?” Adrian asked her.
“Not really.”
“Good.” Adrian lifted her, hands on her buttocks, parting her thighs to let her wrap her legs around his hips. “You’re mine, Amber. Never forget that.”
“I thought you wanted to make me forget,” she said, slanting him a coy look.
“Never. I want you always to remember me.”
Amber smiled into his kiss, which was fierce and filled with excitement. He moved his mouth restlessly to her neck and throat, to her breasts, then back to her mouth.
He stopped kissing her only long enough to position himself, then she found the hardness of him sliding inside her.
She scrabbled for hold on his slick shoulders. He’d scarred over where the demon cut him, angry red marks that belied the pain he’d suffered. She pulled him tighter into her, wanting to comfort him.
Adrian closed his eyes, water beading on his lashes. He pressed Amber back into the shower wall, his muscles working as he moved inside her. His hand beside her head closed to a fist.
He made love to her in a frenzy, punching the tiles next to her, cracking one. Amber’s back ached from being pressed against the wall, but she didn’t care. She couldn’t believe the wildness that Adrian, this raw, beautiful man, made her feel. He gentled his strength for her, she knew, muscles straining as he held back, not wanting to hurt her.
That fact melted her. Amber’s body became as hot and fluid as the water around her. She had no idea what she said to him, but he’d reduced her to incoherence and soft, flowing joy.
Adrian muttered something and came at the same time, his seed scalding her. He caught her screams with his kisses, his eyes closed, face tight.
Amber lifted her head as Adrian opened his eyes. What she saw in him told her he wasn’t sated by a long shot.
When he shut off the water and slid her legs from him, she started to protest, but he lifted her wet body and carried her out to the guest room bed.
Their lovemaking after that was unlike anything Amber had ever done. He took her from behind on the bed, her hands and knees sinking into the wool blankets, his body hard.
She knew she screamed, but he was completely silent, focusing on riding her as hard and fast as he could. He came in silence too, his body shuddering and sweating with sudden release.
As they fell together on the bed, tears wet Amber’s cheeks, but not tears of sadness. She’d never felt like this in her life, and all
she wanted to do was lie here and kiss him. Adrian stroked her face, brushing away the tears, kissing her mouth.
“Thank you,” he said, voice harsh.
Amber smiled, weak and spent. “It’s not a hardship having sex with you.”
“For finding me. For coming to help me.”
“I thought you were mad at me for that.”
Adrian brushed back a lock of her wet hair. “Only because Tain was right—I’d want to die if you were hurt. But thank you for not making me face this alone.”
Amber studied his dark eyes, which were opaque yet full of emotion. “I’m always here for you, love. I don’t want anything to hurt you either.”
Adrian kissed her fingers in silence. He was a big, bad warrior, probably not good with words and emotions. She had the feeling that the thank you had been hard for him.
Adrian concluded the discussion by rolling her over and making love to her again, this time more gently but with no less intensity.
* * *
Valerian rocked back on the chair on the porch and took a long swallow of the beer Kelly had brought from the grocery store. After the crisis ended, the starlet had decided they all needed food and drink, so she and Sabina had headed to the store at the end of the block.
Valerian’s cold had gone for good, and he enjoyed the relatively balmy air of a Pacific Northwest late April, the cool humidity feeling good on his face.
Poor Adrian. Valerian felt sorry for the man, not so much for getting beat up and battered, from which his incredible metabolism would help him recover, but for finding out that his long-lost brother was a crazed maniac.
Valerian had known Adrian a long time, ever since they’d fought side-by-side against a nasty nest of vampires a few centuries ago in what was now the Czech Republic. They’d become friends over the incident, and after they’d known each other about fifty years, Adrian had told Valerian about Tain and his disappearance. Valerian had volunteered to help in his quest to find Tain, but neither of them had found a trace until now.
Poor guy. Valerian had no siblings that he knew of, dragons moving far and fast from their own kind not long after hatching. He barely remembered his own mother and he had no clue who his father was, and that suited him just fine.