Aflame (Apotheosis) (20 page)

The ladies of the house were going to be pissed.

With Stephen in tow, Zander bolted east, deep into the mountains. The sun was already hard at work evaporating the morning dew when he found an ample sized clearing miles from civilization. Far from the threat of prying eyes or discovery.

“That was so cool.” Stephen’s hair looked as if it’d been sucked through a vacuum nozzle and plastered with quick-dry cement. Zander held back a laugh.

“Okay my man, let’s do this.” Zander squatted. Stephen’s eyes grew to the size of Chelsea’s pancakes as they studied the expanse of his bare chest. The boy inflated his own chest and looked down at himself with lips pursed. It was comical, yet heartwarming to watch the small, breakable child size himself up with such confidence.

“First, I want you to show me what you’ve got.” Zander pointed toward a boulder across the clearing at the base of a hill. “Can you shoot that far?”

A snort escaped Stephen’s lips. “Um, yeah. I think so.”

“Well, let’s see it.” Zander stood back resting his hands on his hips. The boy widened his stance, stretched his left arm toward the boulder and inhaled. With a shrug of his shoulder, he shot a bolt of blue toward the stone. It struck the outside left and sent shrouds of dust and shards of rock flying. Pride filled his hazel eyes as he turned toward Zander.

“Interesting.” He smiled, nodding. “Can you do it with the other hand?”

Stephen, overconfident, shot another bolt from his right hand and missed by a few feet. Without hesitation, he threw his arm back up, paused to aim, then shot again. He hit the target, just shy of a bull’s-eye.

“Good job.” Zander grabbed Stephen’s shoulders and gave him a playful shake. “Can you use both at the same time?”

Without a word, the little boy with the big power, shot two bolts of blue electricity and struck the rock dead center, transforming it to a pile of dirt and pebbles.

“Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about.” Stephen jumped up and down. With hands raised in the air he performed a little dance. “Oh yeah, oh yeah.”

Zander let Stephen have his moment. His skin already tingled and itched from being so far away from Grayce. Fuck, he didn’t like this withdrawal shit.

Time passed in painful waves of ravenous craving and burning prickles while he allowed Stephen to target practice. Little more than an hour had passed and already the gnawing need to be near Grayce drove him out of his mind and nearly out of his skin. If they were going to keep up this training, it would have to be closer to home.

“Or, you could bring Grayce with you,”
Zander heard Chelsea’s voice in his head.
“Come home boys, breakfast is ready and your woman is going to burn down the house if you don’t get back soon.”

Oh shit. He hadn’t considered Grayce’s withdrawals. There’d be hell to pay when he returned. The thought made his pulse quicken and his cock throb.

* * * *

A faint, thermal glow dusted Grayce’s skin. It would’ve taken a chainsaw to cut through the tension that hung thick as lard in the air. Lips drawn tight, she mumbled under her breath, words not appropriate to speak in front of a child. Zander let her spew. It was kinda cute.

She continued until Nikolas whisked Stephen and Chelsea to the lab. Stephen was the youngest one of their kind to surface with active powers and Nikolas had been eager to start running tests on the boy. Before the door shut behind the doctor, Grayce was straddled in his lap. He cupped her ass and hunted down the tender region in the crook of her neck.

“Fuck Baby. I need to be in you.” He worshipped her musky skin from her neck to the deep dip between her breasts that had become his favorite spot. Her moan was the only invitation he needed. Before she protested, he had them back in their bedroom. They’d hammer out their issues the fun way.

Zander lowered Grayce to her feet, then bent to taste her succulent pink lips. Her kisses were his nourishment. And he was a greedy bastard.

He kissed her until she melted against him. He ran his hands down her backside and pulled her to the floor as he knelt. “Fuck, I can’t get enough of you.”

“Zander,” she whispered. “Get naked, then I’m all yours.”

“You want me here on the hard floor?” He patted the ground next to him.

“No. I want you here.” She pointed to the heavenly place between her legs. “And I want you fast and hard.”

Before the last word left her lips, her panties tore at the seams and drifted to the ground. With eager hands, his shirt was removed and his erection was freed from his jeans. Grayce mounted him. He leaned back on his arms to allow deeper penetration and to watch as she had her way with him. This woman of his was pure, unbridled sensuality.

Lean thighs supported her weight as she stroked his cock with her silky heat. She rode him with wild abandon. Hair tossed back, lush lips parted, nails scoring his chest. Her slick, tight insides pulled and massaged him with perfect friction. Nothing in the world was more satisfying than being inside of her. Nothing.

Grayce pounded against him one last time, ground their hips together, kissed his chest, then stood and backed away.

His heart skipped a beat or two, amazed that someone so breathtaking was hungry for his touch. He laid back, crossed his legs and folded his hands behind his head.

He groaned. “We need to get rid of that dress.”

Her eyes darkened to a sultry hue. “You take it off,” she teased and inched toward the bed.

Her shy smile made his balls tighten. He jumped to his feet, removed his jeans and prowled after her. The dress was removed with a simple rip and tug. The dark peaks of her breasts puckered in anticipation. He stood back to enjoy the view.

“That was my favorite dress,” she murmured.

“That’s a shame.” He shook his head and smiled. “But I like you so much better without it.”

He was about to go in for the kill, but came damn close to hitting the floor when Grayce crawled onto the bed and positioned herself on hands and knees. He’d never taken her from behind. Feared it was too dominating a position and would flood her with unwanted memories. But she offered herself to him with complete trust.

He swallowed the lump in his throat, then cautiously positioned himself behind her.

Grayce turned her head to meet his gaze. “Fast and hard, Zander. Please.” There was no fear present in her eyes. They burned with hunger.

“Are you trying to kill me?” he asked through gritted teeth.

Before she could answer, he was buried so deep she yelped. Her flesh gripped hard and he pulled out with a steady drag. His erection glistened with her slickness. He could’ve continued with the slow burn. Could’ve watched his cock enter and retreat her backside all day. But his firecracker wanted fast and hard. Who was he to deny her wish?

With one hand gripping her hip and the other splayed across the small of her back, he rammed her again and again. Through her whimpers, her moans, he pumped and ground his hips against her perfect round ass. Fast. Hard.

He continued until her sex clenched and spasmed around him. With one last forceful thrust, he exploded inside of her, then collapsed on the bed by her side.

Without a doubt, he was the luckiest man alive.

As he skimmed the sultry surface of the naked body sprawled next to him, Zander had a heated debate with himself. He knew what needed to be done. He hated it, but fuck him, there was no better option at this point.

“We’re going to train. We’ll start tomorrow.”

“Why the sudden urgency?” Turning toward Zander she pulled the sheet up to cover herself. “You’re keeping something from me. I can see it in your eyes.”

Zander rubbed a finger over the curve of her ass. With a less than convincing smack, she put distance between them. “What’s going on?”

He had to tell her.

“He killed Carrie. Another woman from the bar is missing too.”

The fire in her eyes dulled to ash. Grayce sat and curled into a ball.

“Oh my fucking hell.” Fisting her hair, she rocked back and forth. “We have to stop him.”

Zander’s heart split into a thousand tiny shards seeing her like that, scared and frail, retreating to her dark place. “There’s more.” Before continuing, he sat and pulled his precious, broken lover into his lap.

“What? What more?” Grayce shivered then relaxed into his hold.

“He left Carrie in your car in Armstrong’s parking lot. They haven’t found the other girl, Georgia I think her name is.”

No need to talk about the horrific condition Carrie was found in. Grayce shouldn’t hear about the wounds, or the torture devices he left with the body. Most likely, Grayce had seen those tools up close and personal. Tyr wanted her to see them. Zander would not let that happen.

The rocking continued. “Why is he doing this?”

Unable to bear it any longer, Zander untangled Grayce’s hands from the strands of hair she frantically twisted. He turned her to face him. “Because he can. Because he’s insane. Shit. He’s been consumed by the darkness, that’s why his eyes are black.” Zander had only heard of the evil ones, he’d never come face to face with one. Nikolas and Chelsea had. Loved ones had lost their lives during the horrific encounter.

“He’s one of us,” Grayce whispered.

“Yes. But he’s not like us, not anymore. He’s pure evil, the darkness owns him, controls him. Nikolas believes he has the ability to teleport. That’s how Houghton escaped from prison.”

Mindful of her fragile disposition, Zander pushed. “I know this is hard to talk about, but if you have any information that may help, we need to hear it. We need to know everything we can about him.”

“Fuck Zander, what can I say? We lived in California. I never met his family, but I know they were stinking rich. He had an older brother. I’ve seen pictures, but he never talked about siblings. I didn’t ask. If he had powers back then, it was kept from me.

“Grayce, baby. Think back. Do you remember anything peculiar?”

“For fuck’s sake Zander. He kept me in a torture room, shared me with strangers, charged admission. Does it get any more bizarre than that?” She looked at him with pleading eyes, her internal struggle evident.

“Wait. There is something. When he left for more than a few days, he’d come back pale and sickly. The color would come back to his face after he’d touch me.” Violent shivers wracked her body. “Those were the best days. When he was gone on business. I would be locked in my room and left alone. Servants would bring me food. I begged for help once...” Grayce stopped. The shimmer of tears told him all he needed to know. He didn’t urge her to continue.

“Firecracker, there’s something extra special about you. Tyr and Stephen can’t get their fill. Shit, I even noticed at the bar. Men are drawn to you. It’s not just physical. It’s chemical, like you’re a walking bottle of pheromones.”

“Talk about a cluster fuck of DNA,” Grayce huffed. “Why isn’t Nikolas attracted to me then?”

Zander ran a hand through his hair. Thank God Nikolas wasn’t attracted to her. It was bad enough that he had to compete with a six-year-old for her attention. “Maybe because he already has Chelsea. Stephen and Tyr, they haven’t bonded yet.”

Grayce gasped. “Oh shit. What if Tyr finds his mate? How powerful would he be?” She trembled.

Zander loosened his grip on Grayce, hoping to hide his own sharp shiver. “Let’s hope we never find out.”

“So we’re going to do this. We’re going to find him, right?” Hope lit up her face like a spring sunrise. “When can we start?” She tried to crawl away.

Zander pulled her back to his chest. “I told you, we’ll start tomorrow. Right now, I need to make love to you again. Soft and slow this time.”

9

“Insatiable fiend. Let me eat first.” Grayce pried Zander’s fingers from her hip bone and stormed toward the door. Sure, she wanted round four every bit as much as he did, but come on, a girl needed to recharge and rehydrate. “Fuel. I need fuel.” As she stepped through the threshold, she entered a lush green jungle. The air hung heavy and wet. Bird calls echoed through the foliage and a monkey screamed somewhere in the distance.

“What the hell?” Grayce stumbled back into Zander’s embrace. Her head bounced against his chest as he laughed.

“Where are you my friend?” Zander called out. With a sweeping motion, he moved his arm in front of him and the jungle swirled in a rainbow of colors. “This is some of your best work yet.” He chuckled. “Sound effects are new.”