Aftermath: Immortal Brotherhood (Edge Book 9)

  “To protect her,” he said angrily. “You went through all this for her, that’s what you said.”

  Not a single argument came from her.

  As Talon stared her down the evil side of him flipped this night in his mind. He’d been drenched in his defeat and forgotten to count the wins. Counting wins were what kept warriors fighting, kept them looking for the final stance. Akan left Saige whole, by choice or force Talon wasn’t so sure. He may not have been able to destroy Saige, but he could’ve left serious damage in his wake. The fucker squeezing Saige’s crotch, the shit he said hammered around in Talon’s thoughts.

  “Why the fuck did you tell me to save her over you? Did you know there was nothing I could do for her? That I was pointless? Akan wasn’t, he was real, and he had you. He could’ve hurt you...why would you do that to me?”

  Saige trembled as she spoke. “Saving me is a selfish act, you are a selfless man. Being anything less will leave you with regret.”

  “You think I don’t have fucking regret?” he said as he lifted his brows and anger settled into his expression.

  Saige stared him down, unafraid of the way he had looked at her most of the time. “Play it out your way, Talon. Imagine being at my side, tossing threats at Akan, then all at once you look over your shoulder and see them take Reveca down...what would we be fighting about then?”

  In a blink of an eye he was before her, Saige sucked in a deep breath as she leaned back. Feeling the heat of his body strummed awareness through her, syncing her vim with his, sensing the healing power seized her being.

  Despite the warm sensations, Talon leaned forward in a menacing way. “It is not your place to decided what I live through and what I do not. You told me to save her like you always have. All the while you knew I couldn’t ...what does that make me, Saige? The chew toy you called me once before.”

  Another single tear streamed down her cheek.

  “You saved her a million times over. You gave her reason to exist when she swore she had none. You entertained her plights. You made her feel as if she were not a haunt screaming, begging for someone to hear her cries. You pulled in her wrath when her control was long lost, you cradled her fall, and let her swim in miseries you never understood but respected.”

  Saige’s hand shook as she landed her palm in the center of his chest, feeling the life inside of him thundering to a ferocious beat. “You let her feel this, taught her to understand no war ends without a loss, that it is felt through every generation that comes after it. You taught her to respect and honor the mortal realm. You made her humble...you were the only solution to the storm she was.”

  Was. Past tense. Final. The pain that ripped through Talon pushed him to look for an escape. A fine looking female who had left him on the doorstep of her life was before him wearing nothing more than a slip of cloth, hurting and needing to forget just a badly as he needed to. All this drama between them pushed him to hold on to his stubbornness, kept his stance just a breath from her.

  “I can’t understand this, and because I can’t...I can’t forgive it,” Talon said finding it hard to stare deep into her eyes. Second by second, he was feeling stronger, invincible. As much as it hurt to stand there, he knew it was best for now. Akan was out there. He was looking for something Talon had no idea how to defend. He needed every weapon he could get.

  “Understand that the judgment she is facing now would’ve been far harsher if you had not been there to guide her.”

  “You are her twin, her family. She had an entire coven who understood what was coming, who she was.”

  Saige’s eyes watered. “Only a rebel, a male bold enough to leer at beliefs she held discord with would stir her attention.”

  “You could have said something,” he said through gritted teeth.

  “You knew it was temporary,” Saige said stubbornly mirroring her past arguing points.

  Talon’s hands slammed down on her thighs spreading them so he could lean closer. They both stilled as they stared down a rich temptation that was determined to have its day, sooner rather than later. “I was born a mortal,” he growled as his fingertips bit into her, it was the only way he could ensure they would not drift up and figure out what, if anything, was under the tank she was wearing. “My humanity has always been my sanity. A mortal man understands temporary in his own way.”

  He’d managed to pull her closer, the heat of her thighs was scorching him through his towel, it was hard for him to catch his breath and keep his focus on the argument that had run its course. “Nothing is temporary about Reveca. You immortalized her in my existence. You put a divide that cannot be destroyed between you and me. I don’t care where she is. She will always stand between us.”

  Saige still had her hand on his chest, her nails bit into his flesh, his stare all but begged for her to use her power and sink into him and rip his heart out, rip out whatever made him feel because he was fucking sick and tired of feeling.

  “Nothing stands between you and me, never again.”

  Talon tilted his head sure his mind was playing tricks on him. A statement so bold with so much conviction was not Saige’s way. Her thighs tightened around him. “I’ve given everything. I’ve endured longer than I thought I could. It still hurts,” she said failing to hide the hitch in her tone. “I refuse to simply exist. I’m taking what I want, when I want it.”

  Words like those were dangerous for a man his position. “This is it, isn’t it,” he said at last. He didn’t care if it was or wasn’t. He just wanted to know. “We’re staying in this spell for more reasons than I’ve been told.”

  Saige’s hand eased over his chest before she finally let him go and leaned back on her arms arching her body subtly toward his. The fear she had for the words she had spoken was hidden behind the fear they both should have for what was to come.

  “I don’t know what they told you.”

  “Then you tell me,” he demanded.

  “No rules right now,” she bit her lip. “I can touch you all I want, and the Gods will not know. This is the space between endings and beginnings. We are staying here to gain strength. Akan will wait for the perfect time to attack our Throng...he will wait until we are twisted by our distractions.”

  “Then we take him out before then,” Talon said stating the obvious.

  “He has stilled too, but he can not gain strength.” Talon’s furrowed brow questioned her. “He created the dark side of this spell we are all under, he’s alone, no Throng to pull from...he grows weak. Scorpio and Toril created the light side. They can grow stronger.”

  “And you and me?” Talon asked dipping his stare over her body. Should he care that a witch was looking at him like he was the last piece of chocolate in the universe? Maybe. He didn’t give a fuck, though. Sometimes you just gotta take life as it dishes itself out.

  “We...,” she hitched a breath as his hands edged further up her thighs, “are characters in the spell, like the Sons and the dead. Our only job is to react to the environment we are in. What power we have or lose is our choice.”

  You didn’t get to be a man like Talon without thirsting for power, more so a way to control the out of control circumstance he always found himself thrown into. He wanted power, all he could find. He wanted to rip Akan from limb to limb, spit on his remains then throw a party. Once his kicks were had he’d go angel hunting. He’d make those fucks pay for not standing up for Reveca when she needed them to.

  Yes, power is what he needed. Talon had been groomed, to find and coax the sweetest most dominant source of power to the surface. He’d been taught to hunt and devour it every chance he had, savor the shot of glory and pray for his next one.

  The hitch of his lip was near sinister as he leaned forward to take this female.

  Chapter Two

  Scorpio was in a wicked kind of heaven. He had lusted for the simplest of touches from his woman for so long, and now that he could feel her in his arms, sense the invitation that was only driven by the danger lurkin
g, his head was spinning.

  Abstinence had focused him over the years. He’d prided himself on how clear headed he was when it came to strategies that had to be set. No chick across the way could steal his thoughts from where they needed to be. His enemies didn’t have a hope of hurting him through someone else because he never let anyone near him who could not fend for themselves.

  Tonight, all his mindsets were turned on their head. He was distracted, much like the night he fought the phantom that had knocked Toril lifeless. He was starved and had everything to lose. The better part of him told him to set aside his whirling thoughts about what they were in the middle of, the risks that were barking at the door. It told him not to digest Toril’s words. To believe that his earliest of memories had been altered, and that Akan and company were cowards who would not face the man Scorpio would become. Instead, they preyed on the blameless child he once was.

  His mother’s stone... thinking of such a thing twisted Scorpio’s mind even more. Any power his mother had would make those he had crossed in this dimension, not to mention the realms of death, tremble with fear. It was a pure power, not an ounce of it was diluted by the mortal element. It was the power every soul had inside of it before darkness began to invade and enslave souls.

  Toril was telling him he did not fight a phantom on the ship long ago, but his power was so insane that it was believable. The phantom only wanted Toril, the only element it was born lacking, the one thing it needed to be complete in all ways. Scorpio had lived his life much the same since he first found her.

  The idea of fighting such a power all over again was enough to give any sane male pause. Scorpio wasn’t very sane just now, the taste of Toril’s kiss was so divine that it had left him weak in the knees. She tasted far more innocent now than she did when he approached her with familiar rage on the ship. Then he’d been toyed with, taunted and provoked for years. He was at the whim of her mercy, and no matter what he did it wasn’t good enough.

  Tonight, he knew she hadn’t broken him, but Akan. He wasn’t ready to forgive her for not reaching out to him in some way to tell him how played they both were. The thing was, he was far more furious at himself for not realizing what was up. He’d let his misery lead him. It was a mortal flaw that would make both his parents frown if they were ever to know. Misery blinds its captives, its whispers lie and destroy the trust that had no reason to be challenged.

  Scorpio knew under it all, where he was tonight, leering at risks that held the fate of an entire universe was his fault, no one elses. Laying blame while weakly clinging to instincts that were fading more each day was a wicked blow he had delivered himself. Its result was yet to be determined.

  There was no time like the present to become who you were meant to be, to live and love the way one is created to.

  His kiss imploded with power as his arms held her as hard as he could against him. She was the softest, purest being he’d ever touched. Her arms encircled his neck as she tried to overcome his kiss, she wanted to make him as weak as he was making her feel, she wanted him to lose himself at the moment and arise from it as the male he was meant to be.

  Scorpio’s vim encircled her and then soared them up. Hundreds of feet in the air was a ledge. The spring water made its way into the cavern from there, and just behind it, the stone was as smooth and cool as a marble stone. He didn’t care how soft or hard any landing he found was, he was searching for beautiful seclusion—a place where their wars and victories were out of sight.

  Toril gasped as he broke their kiss and left a trail of kisses down her neck, the arch of her back had dipped her into the slow falling sheet of water. Rivulets of the sweetest water rushed down her neck, then her chest, Scorpio chased every one of them as he lifted her up once more. His hands rushed down her sides and gripped her thighs, lifting them around his waist as he fell to his knees.

  Toril’s fingers glided through his dark locks as she watched him love her, there was nothing more beautiful than the sight of his lips landing on her ivory skin, the careful way his eyes closed, so the sense of touch was amplified more. Her hips rocked into his waist as her hands fought to reach for his chest.

  Scorpio had pulled her dress over her head before she got the chance. Feeling the rush he was giving her was pumping strength into her, vim to vim the soul is empowered, flesh-to-flesh the body is empowered. Just then Toril felt both. She felt as if she had truly awakened.

  A mix of vim and physical strength was what gave her the power to push Scorpio back. He didn’t drop all the way back the way she had wanted him to. He’d caught himself on his arms as he fell back on his ass. Finally, she had more room to roam. She pulled at his shirt until he broke from his brief shock about the strength she had displayed and decided to help, in one shrug of his shoulders, his kut fell to the floor, with another swoop his shirt was gone. As if she fed on flesh itself, Toril’s kiss fell to his neck. She felt the pulse of his soul under her tongue, felt the power of his body as her legs tightened around him.

  Deeper and deeper her kiss went as her hands framed his powerful shoulders then fell to his chest, reaching to grip his back only to slide up and down his front once more. She was so taken by the shrill of possession, of finally cherishing what was hers that the feel of his hands landing on her breast felt like an explosion. Her nipples were aching, begging to be caressed, for someone to chase the pain away.

  Overpowering her, he leaned her back. Before she could protest, his scorching mouth landed on her nipple, the wet heat of his mouth beckoned a gasp from her lips, she felt the walls of her core flooding. The growl she heard purring against her flesh told her Scorpio had sensed the same rush and was hungry to swim in it. When his hand moved from holding her firmly on his lap to her folds she wretched another gasp.

  One finger slipped inside, as it did Scorpio’s kiss bit down on her tender flesh. Another finger...his kiss moved to her other breast the sensations were all new once more, the pressure of his fingers, the feel of her tender nipple surrounded by fire turned her flooding walls into an earthquake, one tremor after another left her as her breath fought to catch up with her and her body clenched his fingers like a fist.

  Toril wasn’t sure if the entire mountain was trembling or if it was just her being. One moment she was depleted, barely awake enough to appreciate the gravity of conflict at hand the very next she was new again, determined to live long enough to find this same rush a million times over.

  Driven by her need, she’d pushed Scorpio back once more. Modern clothes were a mystery Toril had no time to understand, her hunger wasn’t helping matters. She struggled with his belt for as long as she could before ripping it was her only choice, the button on his jeans was next. To her delight, the zipper fell without any force from her, and his length sprang out into the open begging to be attended to.

  Toril’s lips fell to his neck. All her power pushed him further back as her kiss paid ode to the work of art his chest was. When the journey was decidedly taking too long, she used her vim to move her down, in the next breath his slick head passed her lips. It was him struggling to hold in a roar then. Growing high on the power that she could make a male such as him bend with such a simple kiss, she let her lips fall further, then pull as she rose again. Her hands rushed to his chest and she marveled at how hard his entire body was.

  As she felt his hands slip into her hair, a new kind of rush quelled in her gut. There was something about the mindless need she sensed in him, the inability to control how tender or quiet he was that strummed her core. Scorpio pushed her head down and held her there for a second— begging still wasn’t possible for her. She straddled his legs and lifted her ass into the perfect view of him, her tongue twirled around him. When he lifted her head, she sucked in as hard as she could. He thrust up catching her off guard but turning her on all the same. Her mind was working through all the wicked ways to make him fall apart when all at once her world changed.

  His power had not only lifted her, but changed their positio
n all over again, she was hovering just above the smooth ground, and his knees were between her thighs. Scorpio’s stare raked over her body as his hands rushed up to grip her breasts only to fall and spread her legs even further apart. Her glistening heat was screaming his name, demanding that he come.

  His hands gripped her hips then canted them down to where her ass just barely hit the cool ground. She hissed a breath of shock that was quickly forgotten when she felt his head at her entrance. Taunting her, he held it there as his hand moved over her stomach.

  His eyes were locked on hers as he bit the corner of his lip just before his thumb slid over her clit bathing it in her juices as he watched her nipples get harder and harder, her breath shorter and shorter. The red blushes across her body, the marks he’d left on her only stroked his primal side more. He pushed in a bit more. Stopping just when his head was inside her throbbing body. So hot. So wet.

  Toril used her power to push her down on him, but he was ready for such a greedy move and held her in place just fine. Grinning, her body arched in the thin air displaying the work of art she was in all its glory. His thumb slid up and down, pressing just so on her clit over and over. With his vim locking her in place where he wanted her, his long arm reached up her body and pinched her nipples, the flood of desire in her core all but drown what little he had inside.

  “Good girl,” he murmured. He liked feeling her desire. He liked feeling her body calling out to his.

  “More,” she grunted trying to spear herself with his shaft.

  More is what he gave her, his fingers squeezed harder around her nipples, his thumb eased down her folds hitting his shaft before rising and squeezing her slick clit. Her short breaths, how deep the blushes one her body promised him she was oh so close.

  “No, not yet...” he rasped, giving her a little more of him.

  Her moan reached into his chest and squeezed his heart. All he was born to do was satisfy this female, to be her everything.