Bite This! (11 page)

“
F
inn
!”

The scream cut the air as Finn stepped in front of the gun.

But there was no time to reply, or to allow himself to be troubled by her despair.

Finn pulled his consciousness in tight. He slid his focus carefully but quickly inward from the room to the stage, to the gun to the air whistling in the path of the bullet.

Then he reached out and found the bullet.

He pushed his mind into it, from the shining surface into the humming molecules of the silver itself. The pentagonal structures of shining material bumped and wriggled against each other like a microscopic mound of puppies.

He wrapped his mental energy around them, like fingers curling into a fist.

He opened his eyes.

The bullet hung in mid air, a few feet from him, spinning lazily.

“What the hell?” Draven asked.

“Sorry, Draven,” Finn said, closing his hand around the bullet. You were right about one thing. Someone needs to be taken out of this game. But it’s not going to be Darcy.”

Finn opened his hand.

The bullet was gone.

It had been replaced by the black poker chip.

The chip pulsed malevolently, hungrily swallowing the glare of the stage lights.

Finn tossed it.

It hit the stage and rolled right up to Draven’s feet, falling sideways and hitting the stage floor with a light tap.

For an instant there was utter silence.

Then Draven laughed and leveled the gun again.

Before he could take aim, ribbons of black lashed out of the chip, wrapping around Draven’s legs.

His mouth dropped open mutely as the inky tendrils climbed him like ivy, covering him in shadow.

His eyes went wide with terror as they reached his chest.

Finn made a sweeping motion, and the door to the Aztec Tomb opened.

Darcy stepped forward to stand beside him.

“You’ll regret this,” Draven whimpered.

“Not as much as you and your boss will regret threatening our family,” Darcy spat.

Our
family.

Emotion threatened to topple his delicate control over the magic, so Finn set the gleaming thought aside to enjoy later.

As the shadow reached Draven’s face, Darcy kicked him, sending him backward.

She and Finn watched as Draven stumbled backward into the Aztec Tomb.

Finn shut the door gently.

Darcy gasped as he moved to open it again.

The door opened to show that it was reassuringly empty now.

“Where did he go?” she breathed.

“I’m not really sure. And I don’t know how to bring stuff back once it’s gone,” Finn remarked. “That’s why I don’t use this thing in my act.”

D
arcy gazed
at Finn for a long moment. His hazel eyes burned with emotion.

The theatre was so large, so silent and they were so alone. No bad guys, no little boy.

Adrenaline still pounding through her veins, Darcy licked her lips. She’d spent her adult life courting independence. She didn’t want it anymore. But she didn’t know how to give in.

When he leaned in, she closed her eyes, but his kiss never came.

“We’ve got to get you back to the woods,” he whispered into her hair.

Her wolf.

She had turned her back on the wolf to save her family.

But the tingling under her skin told her it wasn’t gone yet.

“Let’s go,” Finn said firmly, grabbing her hand.

They flew down the long hallways and darted around the machines and tables, traversing the labyrinthine casino as quickly as they could.

The air outside was cool against Darcy’s face as they ran, hand in hand, to the parking garage.

She hopped onto her Harley and Finn swung on behind her. They put on helmets and took off, speeding through the darkened city.

Finn’s arms were warm around her waist. She tried not to notice the sure sign of his desperate need for her, pressed against her back.

Every crack in the pavement jostled him against her, until her body burned with need.

The tattoo on her belly burned too.

Faster, Darcy, faster.

There was no time to drive to the Poconos. She went south on 95 and headed for Tarker’s Hollow. If she could make it back to the college woods she could shift and run until her wolf was part of her again, forever, couldn’t she?

They swung off the highway, through the larger suburbs.

At last the tree canopy of Tarker’s Hollow beckoned.

Darcy slowed down as they passed the cedar shake Victorians and stone colonials with their lush gardens, winding paths lit by solar lanterns and the occasional candles in the windows. The waxy leaves of rhododendrons shone mysteriously in the moonlight.

The stone pillars welcomed her to campus. She turned off her bike and they hopped off.

She marched into the woods, Finn following her. She took off her clothes as she walked.

“You don’t have to stay out here. Just take the bike and go into town. You saw the little village. The coffee shop is open late, I’ll find you in the morning,” she told him.

“No, I’m staying out here. I know I can’t keep up, but I’ll be here when you’re done,” he told her.

They had reached the stone monuments that marked the top of the amphitheater. Moonlight revealed the rows of semi-circular granite benches below.

“All this just to get to another theatre,” Finn observed.

“Very funny,” Darcy smiled, peeling off the last of her clothes.

She paused, looking up at him, her whole body stretched taut between the pull of his big body and the scent of the woods.

“Go on, love, I’ll be waiting,” he urged her.

She turned toward the trees and slid into her wolf form.

She’d been afraid the shift wouldn’t come, but the change was easier than it had ever been.

“Amazing,” she heard him whisper as the stone stairs came up to meet her.

She turned back to him.

He smelled like fresh coffee and sunshine. And a bright smell, so clean it almost hurt her nose - that must be his magic. Delicate vestiges of Luke’s scent still hung around him too.

She found herself butting his hip with her head in approval.

He laughed, the rich timbre of his voice was like a waterfall.

“Darcy, I don’t know how much you can understand me. And I don’t really know how this three hundred moons thing works, but… these last forty-eight hours have been the best of my life,” he said gruffly. “It’s time for you to run now, come on, I’ll get you started.”

She cocked her head at him in amazement as he leapt down the first few steps.

He was traveling quickly for a human; especially for one of such enormous size.

Darcy’s whole body was electrified with delight. She sailed down three stairs at a time to beat him to the stage, then dropped to her belly, paws splayed, to wait for him.

He was coming for her as quickly as he could. But the woods were too close now. Darcy could smell the mice, the owls, and the sweet fatty scent of a rabbit.

It was too much.

But maybe she could get him to follow…

She spun on her belly and then dashed into the trees, ears flattened to her head, rear legs and tail tucked under clownishly as if she were being chased.

She could feel his tread reverberate in the rich soil beneath her paws.

But then the wet, lazy thump of a jackrabbit’s heart came to the front of her consciousness and she lost her tie to the human world.

Thump, thump. The smell of the world’s most tender filet mignon on legs which made the chase like playing the world’s most awesome video game.

Crashing through the trees and underbrush, Darcy Harkness let herself go to the wolf, her heart as light as a feather.

F
inn followed the wolf
, his Darcy, into the trees. He slowed to a jog when he saw that she was streaking madly ahead.

When the sound of the greenery shivering in her path died down, he found himself standing in the middle of the forest.

Finn Butler, city boy, took in the cool moist air, the stars twinkling between the leaves above, and the chirp of crickets, and felt like a part of it. After all, he was Darcy’s human. He had a backstage pass to nature now.

At least he hoped he did.

Darcy had said that her 300th moon was special. She had said that if she didn’t shift and embrace her wolf this moon, she might lose her.

Reading between the lines, Finn wondered if she had considered the opposite scenario.

Darcy was impetuous, instinctive, loyal and brave. She was a great wolf.

What if she immersed herself in the wolf and couldn’t come back?

The idea of it pained him, even as he chastised himself for his selfishness.

She had paid the price of three hundred moons unable to let go fully to the wolf. Didn’t she deserve to enjoy her gift? Just as he enjoyed his magic?

So what would happen if Darcy lost herself to the wolf?

Finn would go on being Finn, as he had to do. He would find a way to protect Luke. He would buy a cabin in the woods and share his life with her as a human can with an animal - a silent relationship of mutual respect: company.

But he would never feel her soft embrace again.

Luke could be the link between them, if he didn’t have parents waiting for him. If Finn could find a way to hold onto the boy. Which was doubtful. His magic couldn’t overcome those kinds of odds.

Hopelessness threatened to overwhelm him. He pushed his mind back to Darcy.

She had been so joyful, bounding past him down the stairs of the ancient amphitheater. It was enough for him that she was happy.

He followed the path she had seemed to take. The land sloped slightly downward.

At length he found himself at the bank of a creek. A large flat rock formed a ledge over the meandering water.

Finn stepped onto the ledge and sat down. It was pretty here. And he was unlikely to catch up to Darcy anytime soon.

The moonlight reflected in the black water. In the rippling movement of the current, the shape of the moon seemed to shiver and pulse. The effect was hypnotic. Finn lost himself to the quiver and sway of the glowing orb. Minutes passed, or maybe hours.

All at once, the moon exploded into a thousand fragments.

Finn was roused from his reverie to see the black wolf crashing through the water toward him, kicking up a spray and splashing him with cold water.

He laughed and she stood still, a foot from the rock ledge.

One moment a wet black wolf stared him down.

The next, Darcy stood before him, tantalizing in her very human, very naked form.

Droplets of water, fiery with moonlight, clung to her breasts. Her dark hair hung around her shoulders in wet ribbons.

She didn’t speak.

Finn wondered fleetingly if perhaps her mind was shifting more slowly than her body.

When she leaned forward to press her lips to his, he rejoiced.

And when she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed herself closely to him, his joy faded to need.

He held her face in his hands and kissed her with all the tenderness his hunger would allow.

When she sighed into his mouth, he slid into the water with her.

The current was cold, but not cold enough to drown the raging heat between them. He clutched her tightly against him, for once not afraid that his strength would frighten her. She could handle his size, his strength. She was the strongest woman he had ever known. In every possible way.

She kissed him back, but struggled in his hold. He was confused until he realized she was trying to get his clothes off.

He released her and she ripped his t-shirt to shreds. They removed his pants together.

At last he stood before her, naked as she was.

The reflection of the moon wavered on the water between them.

Finn called to it, lifting a finger.

The moon’s reflection slid off the surface of the water like a circle of waxed paper. He blew air toward it softly and it took on dimension, floating like a bubble upward.

Darcy watched in wonder, her face lit softly by the reflected moon.

Finn called to it with his mind, and it hovered a few feet above their heads.

But now there was another moon between them.

Darcy grinned down at it, and then looked at Finn.

He lifted it the same way for her. Then another and another and another, faster and faster until the echoed moons filled the air above them like a ceiling, reflecting back in the water as if three hundred moons were all full at once.

And by the light of the three hundred moons, Finn knelt before her, to lap the droplets of water from her perfect breasts as he had wanted to do from the blindingly happy moment she had come back to him.

D
arcy the wolf
had thrown herself into the water, wild happiness bursting from her soul as if the emotion would disintegrate her. Her wolf was whole, nothing had been lost. The cold water tickled her tender snout but the sensation barely made it through her satiny pelt.

When Finn gazed down at her with his gentle smile, the depth of her inner human’s emotion overwhelmed her, so she slipped back into her woman form. The wolf let go willingly, it was not her job to sort through these strange layers of human feeling where joy was so strangely linked to fear.

Darcy looked back at Finn.

She was naked before him, naked in her body but more importantly in her spirit.

She was a woman and yet, she was not a woman. She would lope into the woods sometimes and eat a rabbit. Sometimes she would read the newspaper with him on a lazy Sunday morning. And sometimes she would answer the call of the pack and disappear in the night, robed in fangs and fur, putting her own life at risk to protect another - whether she knew them or not.

Darcy stood proudly because she liked who she was.

She intended to wait for Finn to declare himself.

But the wolf read his heartbeat and told her the truth of things.

So she leaned forward to anoint him with her kiss.

And he reminded her of his own gift.

They stood in cold water, the air above them dancing with glowing moons.

Finn didn’t wait to see if she would accept his magic, because even without the senses of a wolf he knew her heart.

As he knelt and his hot kisses warmed her cool skin, Darcy felt a sharper heat.

Her belly was burning.

The tattoo.

She ignored it, and the warmth seemed to spread.

Finn abandoned her breasts in wonder as the whole creek turned warm as bath water. Steam drifted on its surface.

“What’s happening?” he asked her.

But she pulled his face back to her breast instead.

He licked one nipple into his mouth, tugging and sucking madly.

Darcy felt it to her core. The pain of the tattoo receded as pure pleasure pounded through her veins. She ran her fingers through his hair, and then used her hold to pull him closer, closer still.

One of Finn’s arms tightened around her waist, but he slid the other down, drifting his hand between her thighs.

Darcy moaned in entreaty, and he slid a finger against her opening.

She held her breath, feeling her own body blossoming at his touch. She closed her eyes and saw the afterimages of glowing moons as Finn slowly penetrated her swollen sex with his warm finger.

“Oh,” he breathed against her breast, flexing his finger slightly and causing a rainbow of sensation inside her.

She echoed him with a whimper, and he slid his finger almost out and back in again.

Half-crazed with need, Darcy tried to pull him to his feet. They had to get to the bank, had to make love, now.

He made a sound of protest against her breast and thrust his finger inside her again, this time extending his thumb to graze her clitoris.

Darcy’s body tried to turn itself inside out for more contact. Her hips tilted forward of their own accord, even as she knew that this honeyed pleasure wasn’t what she needed. She needed him to be inside her.

“Please,” she whispered.

Finn slid his hand out from between her legs and wrapped both arms around her hips once more.

Darcy sighed with relief as he lifted her, carrying her to the shore.

He laid her on her back on a fragrant bed of fallen leaves.

“Shouldn’t we go back, to one of our places, a warm bed…?” he asked, trailing off as she reached up for him.

The tattoo was burning again now, but touching Finn took the pain out of it.

“You’re so warm, Darcy, you’re burning,” he whispered.

“I need you,” she told him.

His hazel eyes searched hers. At first his expression was filled with concern. But he must have seen what she wanted him to see in her eyes.

Suddenly he fell on her, covering her mouth with his, his tongue seeking hers hungrily.

Darcy wrapped her arms around his big body, allowing her nails to sink into his shoulders.

She could feel the heat of his erection pressing against her belly, making the tattoo writhe in ecstasy. She tilted her hips up, pressing against him.

He pulled away from her mouth and gazed down at her again, his eyes half-glazed with desire.

“Is this what you want?” he asked brokenly.

“Yes,” she told him.

“It means something to me,” he told her, “you mean something to me. You mean everything to me. What I’m trying to say is that I love you, Darcy.”

Tears filled Darcy’s eyes.

“I love you too. But please, please I need you to be inside me,” she begged.

He leaned down to kiss her forehead, then she felt the heat of him against her.

Slowly, so slowly he pressed his impossible length inside her.

Darcy felt herself stretched with his girth almost to the point of pain.

He stilled inside her and gazed down at her, his jaw tight.

Fresh desire surged in Darcy at the raw need in his eyes.

She squeezed herself around him even more tightly.

“Oh god, Darcy, you feel so good. Am I hurting you?” he asked, his enormous biceps trembling with the effort not to thrust.

She smiled and shook her head.

He lowered his forehead to touch hers as he eased himself slowly back out of her.

The friction was delicious, but the emptiness was agony. Darcy whimpered and lifted her hips.

He rewarded her with a gentle thrust and she was filled again. The pleasure was dizzying.

She cried out, and he thrust again and again.

Darcy could feel herself building, building to a place where she was afraid the pleasure would be so intense it might harm her.

And that it was Finn who was making her feel that way, Finn’s cock filling her, Finn’s spicy scent in her nostrils, Finn’s long hair falling around them both like a curtain - the knowledge was intoxicating.

The tattoo was alive with heat now, pressing upward against the underside of her skin.

Darcy felt the tension of her pleasure wind up another notch.

“Please, Finn,” she begged, one last time.

Finn groaned and slid a hand between their bodies and his thumb found her clitoris.

Darcy lost track of her own sounds as he massaged gentle circles while keeping up a punishing rhythm of thrusts.

She heard a ringing in her ears just as he cried out her name.

The pleasure lifted her to an astonishing height, and then brought her crashing down, each crushing spasm of ecstasy clenching her sex tighter and tighter on Finn’s throbbing cock.

“Darcy,” he growled pulling her to his chest as he flooded her with surge after surge of his own rapture.

When at last he was still, and there was nothing but their beating hearts and the glow of the reflected moons, Finn rolled onto his back, pulling her on top of him.

Darcy rested her head on his chest, listening to his heart.

“You are one impatient woman,” he murmured, the vibrations in his chest tickling her ear. She could hear the smile in his voice.

She sat up, straddling his already stiffening member.

“You’re a fine one to talk. You can’t even let a lady stop being a wolf for a minute before you sweep her off her feet.”

“Hey, what’s that?” Finn asked, looking at her belly.

Darcy looked down.

She had forgotten the tattoo. It wasn’t hurting anymore. Most likely because it had finally reached the surface. The delicate swirls were dark against her tan skin.

She had a feeling she knew what it meant now.

“How much do you know about shifters?” she asked him.

“Just stories from my granda,” he said.

“Do you know what a bonded mate is?” she asked.

“No,” he answered.

“I’ll tell you all about it.” She smiled and slid herself against him. “Later.”

“Much, much later,” he agreed, wrapping his hands around her hips possessively.