It was another point in Lucas’s favor, but he hid his pleasure behind a stony mask and straightened once more. “Well?” he asked.
Danny’s gaze slipped to the floor where he had placed thick rugs and blankets in case this “negotiation” of theirs took all night. Then she closed her eyes and licked her lips again. Lucas’s gaze flicked to where her pink tongue darted out and his crotch felt tight. His right hand curled into a fist. She was trying his patience in the worst way.
“I can’t,” she finally said.
He felt the stirrings of victory rise to life deep inside. “Why not?”
She looked back up at him then and her gorgeous gem-colored eyes were luminescent with what looked like tears. “I can’t because I already know who your dormant is,” she admitted softly. It was barely a whisper.
Triumph swelled within Lucas, but the wet gleam in Danny’s eyes stayed the emotion, holding it in check. He was done for – defeated by her, even as he had won.
Somehow, his body continued with the charade while his soul writhed in sweet agony. “Really?” he asked, crossing the cavern with long, slow strides. His boots echoed on the cold stone. She watched him come, a doe trapped in his headlights. “Why is that?” he asked, drawing out the pain.
He stopped a foot away from her and gazed steadily down at her. Her slim body was trembling; he could see it and hear it in each shaky breath she exhaled. Without waiting for her to answer, he slowly leaned over her, ran his arms around her, and grasped the metal that encased her wrists. She shuddered against him and he knew it wasn’t due to fear. “Is there something you’d like to tell me, Danny?” he asked, speaking the words as a lover would, low and soft beside her ear.
“No,” she admitted with a near sob. “I don’t want to tell you.” She shook her head and her long black hair cascaded like silk down her back. She wore a long-sleeved sleep shirt, form-fitting fleece pants and warm socks, but the collar of her shirt had slipped over her right shoulder, revealing a long expanse of smooth, tempting flesh. He’d never wanted to bite something so badly in all his life.
“But I have to tell you,” she continued.
He pulled back just enough to let her breathe, but retained his grip on her cuffs. And then he waited. Here it comes. Say it, Danny.
It was a whisper, barely audible. “I’m your dormant.”
With one swift yank, Lucas snapped the cuff’s link in two and took her wrists in his strong hands. “I know,” he growled, spinning her roughly away from the wall. She cried out as she lost her balance. He pulled her against his body and took them both to the rug and blankets on the ground. Lucas’s arm caught their descent, cushioning their fall.
He caged her there beneath him, pinning her wrists to the floor above her head. “You walked into the wolf den, little witch,” he hissed the words across her lips, listening to the ragged breaths she exhaled against his own watering mouth. The feel of her beneath him instantly ignited a fire within him and his cock was at once rock hard. His chest felt tight and his vision was turning. His gums ached around his great white fangs.
“So now’s your chance,” he warned her, mere heartbeats away from losing control. “Use your magic on me now, Dannai. Kill me if you can.” He squeezed her wrists for emphasis, just hard enough to drive his point home. He saw her wince and went on. “Or accept your fate, Danny.” He speared her with his gaze, needing her to know just how serious he was. “Because if you let me live, I will claim you.”
She stared up at him and, instead of the terror he expected to see as he delivered his ultimatum, he witnessed something else. Her eyes grew glassy, her lips parted, and her cheeks flushed.
There was no escape for her now. Her chance was over. She’d made her decision.
With that, he shoved both of her wrists into one of his hands, grabbed her chin with the other, and took her mouth with his. Cocoa and vanilla and caramel…. He growled against her lips, knowing he risked piercing them with his fangs. He kissed her long and deep and hard and then pulled back just enough to hiss a single word across her lips. “Mine,” he told her, barely believing he was saying it.
He was nearly incapable of coherent thought. The taste of her and the feel of her beneath him was overpowering. Before he realized what he was doing, he had her head turned, exposing the long column of her throat. He wanted to take her. He wanted to rip her clothes off and drive into her. He wanted to sink his fangs into her perfect neck and drink her in. He was going crazy.
He stilled above her, ready to do it.
But he also wanted to mark her. He wanted to see the lines of his claim trace themselves across her perfect flesh. He wanted the world to know that she was his. He wanted her to know that she was his. And for that, she would need his blood.
Danny moaned and then inhaled sharply beneath him as he rose above her, releasing her wrists and straddling her with fluid grace. A split second later, he was sinking his long, sharp fangs into the inside of his own right wrist. Blood welled from the wound, but he ignored it.
She watched through half-closed lids as he then took her right hand and pulled the metal of the cuff apart with easy werewolf strength. He then lifted her hand to his lips. He kissed the knuckles, his gaze never leaving hers. Then he turned her arm over and slid the sleeve of her shirt away from her slender wrist.
With a firm but gentle grip, he held her wrist before his mouth. Her breath caught as he exposed his fangs once again and didn’t hesitate before he was sinking them into her arm. Danny cried out and arched beneath him, making his vision spike red once again and drawing another growl of need from deep within his chest. Whatever pain she felt as he marked her was quickly overshadowed by pleasure.
Slowly, he pulled his fangs from her wrist. He could have kept swallowing, kept drinking her in. She was sweet and precious, and having to stop was agonizing. But he reigned himself in and raised his right arm above her wrist. He held her fast, transfixed by the wonder in her eyes as she watched the crimson liquid pool beneath his self-inflicted bite marks.
He held his breath and could hear that she did the same as a single drop of his blood then dripped from his wound to hers.
Chapter Nine: “Black Magic”
Danny felt the drop of blood hit almost before she saw it. She inhaled sharply as instant heat claimed her wrist. It spread in a slow burn, climbing up her arm to her elbow and then her shoulder. She closed her eyes and shuddered as that heat raced across her chest to her stomach and then pooled between her legs.
And then the heat lessened, becoming a warm, comforting blanket that draped itself over her body as if protecting it. She opened her eyes and looked up at Lucas. He was gazing at her wrist, which he still held in his hands. His expression was transfixed, his black eyes glittering in the torch light. He seemed amazed; in fact, she couldn’t see him breathing.
Slowly, he pulled his gaze from her arm and looked up. He let her go and she turned her wrist over. The double puncture wounds made by his teeth were gone. In their place, an intricate, sparkling black line had drawn itself across the inside of her arm. She had never seen anything like it. The design was so tightly woven, so labyrinthine, it was like a Celtic knot designed by diminutive fairies. It was impossible.
It was the most beautiful thing Danny had ever seen.
“I honestly thought….” Lucas let out a ragged breath, cutting himself off. His voice was hoarse with emotion. He closed his eyes, swallowed hard, and began again. “I never thought I would see it,” he told her. He opened his eyes once more and captured her gaze in his. “Not on anyone.”
Danny slowly lowered her arm and stopped breathing. There was a strange and eerie glow in the center of Caige’s pupils. It was like watching oncoming headlights slowly break through a foggy night. She was paralyzed in that glow, unable and unwilling to look away.
Caige leaned forward, placing one of his hands on either side of her head against the rug-covered ground. She watched his fangs, hidden just behind his lips as he spoke to her. ??
?Dannai,” he whispered, shaking his head in wonder. “You are the most precious woman in the world,” he said, breathless with what he clearly felt to be true.
He held her paralyzed in that enigmatic, eerily lit gaze as he leaned in until his lips were a hair’s breadth from her own. She could feel his next words brush across them, heat and promise and torture. “And I’m the luckiest man.”
Danny couldn’t hold back any longer. His mark, his nearness, and his power were driving her toward delicious insanity. She reached up and shoved her hands through his thick, silken black locks as he claimed her lips with his own. There was the tiniest hint of gentleness to the kiss and no more. He was demanding and hungry and his razor-sharp fangs pinpricked her lips as he drank her in.
A growl that felt like thunder rumbled up from his chest and enveloped her. It was almost scary. Lucas deepened his kiss, and she felt the tell-tale influence of his werewolf power transferring to her through it. No fair, she thought recklessly as he parted her teeth, opened her up beneath him, and delved deep. She was supposed to be the magic one.
But a werewolf’s kiss was a powerful thing and, in the space of a heartbeat, she was brought to the brink of an orgasm. As she teetered on that edge and it threatened to rip through her, a deep, familiar voice sounded in her mind. Danny froze as Jason’s words rolled through her.
I’m sure I don’t have to remind you what will happen should you sleep with the werewolf, his voice warned, an echo to what he had told her earlier that night. Is a man who despises everything you stand for really worth throwing something so precious away?
Danny opened her eyes as Lucas suddenly broke the kiss. She stared up at him, but he wasn’t looking at her. His tall, strong form had gone as still as her own and his gaze was skirting the flickering shadows of the cavern around them. His expression was changed; utterly different than it had been only seconds ago. He now looked wary, careful, and mean. His fangs were still out and his eyes still held that eerie glow, but now the angles of his face were sharp in contrast and he had a hungry, angry air about him.
“What… what is it?” she asked softly, catching her breath after his kiss had all but taken it from her. She felt the coiling need between her legs receding, melting away, and she could taste the disappointment in her mouth, it was so strong.
Caige slowly straightened above her and placed a single forefinger across her lips, shaking his head as if to signal that he wanted her silence. With immense and fluid grace, he stood, taking her hand and pulling her up with him. Slowly, he backed her up against the nearest wall and turned, shielding her body with his own as he continued to scan their surroundings.
Danny had no idea what was happening. Had he heard something? An intruder?
“Magic,” he whispered over his shoulder, keeping his eyes trained on the opening to the cavern. The foggy night had grown darker with the passing of the moon and now an unnatural stillness waited beyond the cave’s entrance.
Danny frowned. Magic? But she was magic! Did he just mean that he scented her? She wasn’t wearing her magic shield. The dormancy shield was still up, out of sheer habit and nothing else. But her magic was out there and highly detectable.
Had he simply gotten too close to her? Did he not like the way it smelled?
Sudden anger rushed into her veins, singing her blood like fire. “Did you catch a whiff of something nasty, Caige?” she asked, feeling suddenly and almost inexplicably rancorous.
In front of her, Lucas froze, his broad back visibly stiffening at her question. Very slowly, he turned to face her. There was a new and different kind of wariness in his expression now.
“I knew you despised magic, but to let me get this close and then spring your hatred on me is beyond cruel,” she hissed. Her body was shaking. She couldn’t explain it. She was just absolutely furious. A part of her wanted to lash out at him. Another part of her wanted to flee before she could do him any harm.
Lucas said nothing. His gaze carefully traveled across her face and then flicked to her neck. There, it paused for the slightest instant before he was once more looking into her eyes. Danny wondered what the hell he was looking at. What was he looking for? She couldn’t read his expression. All she saw in the depths of his dark eyes was suspicion.
Of course, she thought. He probably thinks I put him under a spell. Did he honestly believe that there was no way he could have liked her on his own? Did he hate her kind that much?
Suddenly, all she wanted to do was get away from him.
With something that sounded like a sob of pain, Danny tried to push past him to make her way to the exit. But Caige easily caught her wrist, his grip tight over the intricate mark on her arm.
Danny whirled on him and attempted to rip herself free. He easily held on, still saying nothing. “Get away from me!” she yelled. She could feel her eyes watering even as Caige’s mark and his touch both sent warmth racing through her body once again. It infuriated her. It was wholly unfair that he could make her feel this way about him while he loathed her.
“Let me go!” she hissed.
Caige’s jaw was clenched and his dark eyes flashed with something sinister. He bared his fangs, shaking his head. “Not gonna happen,” he told her simply. Danny watched as he zeroed in on the large trunk filled with money and supplies against the wall and began to pull her in that direction.
Whatever it was that he had in there, she didn’t want to be a part of it. “I said,” she growled, lowering her tone as she released a sharp tendril of her magic, “let me go.” With that, a thin bolt of electricity shot from her arm and into his hand.
Caige hissed in pain and jerked his hand away. Danny hastily took advantage of her window of opportunity and rushed for the cave’s entrance. But Lucas was hot on her tail. She could feel his own power surrounding them both; it was hot with determination and black with fury.
“Danny!” he barked, his voice hoarse with werewolf rage.
She ignored him, trying desperately to think through the emotional pain and physical confusion he was creating within her. Transport yourself. She wasn’t even sure whether it was her own voice that spoke the command in her head, but she was grateful for the hint.
She reached the entrance, just as Caige’s fingers gripped her right shoulder, jerking her to a rough halt. Danny closed her eyes and the tears that had been building within them spilled onto her cheeks. As Lucas spun her around to face him, she whispered a few choice, quick words, and willed her magic to engulf her.
*****
Lucas had sensed it like a cold touch across his back on a hot summer day. It was suddenly there, breathing down his neck and his wolf reared its head, all fangs and claws and defense mechanisms. He’d broken the kiss and scanned the cave’s entrance, ready to fight – ready to kill.
Lucas stood, taking Danny with him, and then backed her up against the cave wall, wanting nothing more than to protect her. Whatever was in that cave with them would have to go through him to get to her. She was purity and goodness and he would die before he let it touch her.
But he was so focused on the intrusion, he made a paramount mistake. She’d wanted to know what it was – what had caused the sudden change in him. Without thinking, he replied, “Magic.”
It hadn’t been just magic. What made his hackles raise and crawled across his skin was something far more sinister. It wasn’t just magic he had sensed. It was dark magic.
Black magic.
And it was all around them.
It swelled across his body, feeling like a sticky, smothering red tide, and then Danny’s voice spoke behind him. “Did you catch a whiff of something nasty, Caige?”
Cold, hard realization shot through Lucas. In that instant, he knew what he’d done. He realized his mistake. And he understood what was happening.
His heart sank into his stomach as he slowly turned to face his marked mate. She was so beautiful standing there, her back up against the wall. Her gorgeous black hair had been messed up in their tousle and it fr
amed her face in silken, haphazard waves that begged to be touched. Her cheeks were flushed and her lips were temptingly red, swollen where his teeth had threatened them during his kiss.
But her narrowed kaleidoscope eyes were shooting sparks. She looked more than a little hurt in that instant. And positively furious.
It’s not her, he told himself. It’s not Danny. He felt it in his heart; Dannai was the Healer, a giver, the kindest and most trustworthy witch in the world. She was his dormant and she wore his mark and he knew, as surely as he could scent sickness or rain or blood, that there was not an ounce of evil within her body.
But dark magic was pulsing around her like a beating heart, enveloping her in its smothering sway. Controlling her.
“I knew you despised magic, but to let me get this close and then spring your hatred on me is beyond cruel,” she hissed at him. He could see her body trembling under the cocktail of emotions drugging her up. Her words hurt, but the stench of black magic lessened the blow. He knew they weren’t really coming from her.
Lucas searched her face, wishing he could read her mind – wishing he knew more about the way magic worked. His body tensed, preparing for a fight, even as his gaze traveled across her beautiful features to the curve of her chin and finally to the tiny black diamond pendant that sat in the hollow of her throat.
He had noticed it before since the first time he’d seen her, she’d been wearing a different pendant. But he had dismissed this new one as nothing more than a delicate and fetching piece of jewelry. He realized his mistake now, as the dark magic surrounding Dannai seemed to center on the seemingly innocent gem. It rested there against her precious flesh and fairly seethed with maliciousness.
Lucas knew he’d messed up with Dannai by telling her that he’d sensed magic. But it wasn’t this bad a mistake. That diamond was feeding her anger. He couldn’t help but wonder where she’d gotten it; she hadn’t been wearing it the day before. Who had she seen between then and now?