Dark Flight (The Shadow Slayers) (10 page)

Engus guided Kara back to her seat and with a gesture from Nefren’s hand, another stool appeared and wedged between Nefren’s and Kara’s.

Kara sat, but she literally couldn’t take her eyes off the red-haired man. As the other people gathered around the table began to eat and joke, Kara simply stared. She raised her hand and brought it to Engus’s cheek. He smiled and kissed her fingers once more, slower this time, where her nails met her skin.

Gavin pushed from his stool and stood to his full height, his hands fisted at his sides. The angry gesture finally pulled Kara’s attention away from Nefren’s son.

“Are we guests here?” Gavin demanded. “If we are guests here, then I ask that you kindly rein in your son and his ‘gifts’. That woman belongs to me and my clan.”

“Huh?” Kara muttered, still feeling woozy and wanting to get back to mapping Engus’s every eyelash.

“Don’t look in his eyes, Kara.” At Gavin’s pronouncement, Engus released an indignant huff of air. “No doubt his gifts are a credit to the strength of his sire,” Gavin continued, seeming to moderate his voice now, “but I’m sure you want to go home tonight, where you belong, and not reside here for the next thousand years.”

Nefren turned to Kara. “Is that true, young woman? Do you not want to stay with us?”

“I…uh…” Kara massaged her temples. “I have to work tomorrow night. I don’t think I can get anyone to cover my shift.”

“Ha!” The black-wing laughed so hard that everyone at the table and the surrounding tables turned to look, and as though his laugh was infectious, soon everyone was joining in, mugs sloshing and feet stamping with the power of their guffaws.

Gavin turned a different shade of pink than Kara had ever seen, but he sat once again on his stool. “There you have it. The lady has to work.”

“I was just teasing you, anyhow, Cross,” Engus said to Gavin, then he picked up a piece of barbequed meat so large, it must have either belonged to a turkey on steroids or a chicken the size of a golden retriever.

Although it niggled at Kara over the entire meal, she did her best to keep her eyes on Gavin and only rotate her head far enough to see Nefren when he addressed her.

Having Engus sit to her side was actually a good thing. Yes, his very nice thigh was pressed to hers and her cleavage was sticky with sweat, but if that green-eyed hunk had sat across from her as Gavin was doing, where she could see his face, she would have been naked on the table and offering herself up for his next course.

After dessert had been eaten and the servants began clearing away the plates and platters, the band kicked it up a notch. The men outnumbered the women probably twenty to one, so as they downed the last of their ale and took to the courtyard in a flurry of kicking boots, the ladies were right behind them.

They danced in beautiful, well-practiced patterns, the men ringing the ladies and taking turns spinning them around the yard. It looked like fun, but Kara couldn’t even remember the moves to the Electric Slide. This was way beyond her.

“Come, my lady.” Engus slid his hand seductively down her arm until he linked his fingers with hers.

Despite Gavin’s deep look of concern, Kara smiled and allowed herself to be towed onto the dirt equivalent of a dance floor. Next thing she knew, Engus was spinning her around until she felt dizzy from the motion and the sheer delight of it all.

“Having fun?” His words drew Kara’s attention back to those amazing eyes.

“The time of my life,” she answered, surprised that she meant every word. Acting on an impulse, she took his face in her hands and kissed him. She’d intended it as a quick kiss, but once her lips met his they kind of…stuck. A moment later, she was perspiring from every pore, ready to claw his pants off. And when she realized that her claws had indeed come out, it was almost surprising enough to have her break the kiss.
Almost.

A second later, a growl preceded a horrible pulling away from Engus’s body. She felt the loss of him like the tear of Velcro, being yanked from her mated half. Her fangs pushed through her gums and she bared them at…
Gavin
?

Gavin took her hand. “Kara Reed is spoken for. You are insulting not only me but every member of my clan. I came here with peaceful intentions, Engus, son of Nefren, but if you touch her again, it will be the end of you.”

It was then that Kara looked past her own claws and saw that Gavin’s were fully extended and his fangs protruded well past his bottom lip. Kara sucked in a breath when Nefren’s red smock came into view in her peripheral vision.

“Come now, men,” he said. “There is no need to quarrel. If she belongs to Gavin and his clan, then we will say no more on it.” Then the black-wing turned more fully to Gavin. “Although I have to say…she certainly doesn’t seem to be yours, does she?”

Gavin’s fangs retracted, but his eyes narrowed a fraction. “She’s mine. I brought her, and I will be taking her home.”

“Engus.” Nefren looked to his son and shook his head. Engus stepped away from Kara and extended his hand, as though offering her to Gavin.

Without another word, Gavin pulled her close and began moving with the music as the other Demiáre around them were doing. He turned her away and slowly moved her through the crowd as they danced until Nefren’s green-eyed son was completely out of her line of sight. After a moment, she started feeling more herself again.

“What just happened?” she asked.

Gavin leaned close to Kara’s ear and lowered his voice, which was probably a good idea considering the exceptional hearing of the people around them. “If it’s not already obvious, Engus’s strongest gift is mesmerizing the females around him. He’s a damn nuisance.”

Kara sighed. She’d never been particularly attracted to red-haired men…but
damn
. Those eyes of his did a number on her already fragile control over her libido. She squeezed Gavin a little tighter as they moved. “Thank you. To say that screwing him on the dance floor would have been embarrassing doesn’t even begin to cover it.”

“I apologize for claiming you were mine, but you are a member of my clan. I would have done the same even if I didn’t—” His words suddenly dropped off.

Kara cocked her head. “If you didn’t what?”

He spun her once again, this time around a lady whose dance with three men seemed to be slipping rapidly into something more like clothed group sex. “If I didn’t…want you for my own in truth.”

Kara swallowed. Part of her felt like pulling away, but the other part gripped him tighter. So much had happened since the day she’d met Gavin, and their lives were still way too complicated…but
what if things could be different? What if she allowed herself just a moment of solace in his arms? “You still do?”

“Want you?” he asked. She merely nodded. “I always have, princess. From the day we met—you and only you.”

The bodies around them were quickly losing the formal attire they’d had on when Kara arrived, and the band was picking up the beat, their songs becoming frenetic and pulsating. It looked like the Demiáre who resided with Nefren were much like other Demiáre she’d seen—hot-blooded, willing and ready.

The sounds and smells were almost too much for Kara, so she tucked her forehead against Gavin’s shoulder—not that his heady scent made her control any better. He put his arms around her back, and his heavy thigh worked its way between her legs. She tried with everything in her not to grind against it, but she lost the battle.

When she cracked open her eyelids, the landscape had altered even more. Nefren must have turned up the heat because it was the perfect temperature now for all the half-naked and completely buck-naked bodies gyrating in pairs or groups in the courtyard.

Apparently she didn’t need to worry about Engus’s attention anymore, because he’d decided another brown-haired woman would be the recipient of his ardor for the night. He had the woman bent over and as Kara watched, his long shaft disappeared between the full, round globes of the woman’s ass, just to reemerge again when he cocked it back.

Nefren seemed to be enjoying his status as well. One woman had her hand down the front of his pants while he suckled another’s large breasts.

Kara closed her eyes again and fought the chills that had broken out across her skin. She swiped at her forehead with the back of her hand, but Gavin never missed a beat. His thigh was doing things to her resolve. Very bad things. “I’m not sure we should be here, Gavin. Seeing this…scenting it…feeling the energy…it does something to me like I don’t experience on the surface.”

He dropped his lips to her ear and his breath tickled and delighted her senses. “This is who you are, Kara. You don’t have to apologize for how you were made. Not in this place.”

His hand slid down her side and cupped her ass through her tight denim capris, bringing her even more firmly onto his thigh. He punctuated his gentle thrust with a wet tongue on the curl of her earlobe.

“Fuck…” she whispered, melting into him, her insides on fire with the desire to feel his cock deep within her. “Not here. Please not here. If you touch me again, I’m going to drop your pants and fuck you till you make me come.” His response was a low growl in his chest that liquefied her bones.

She glanced again at the couples, and the erotic vision blew her mind. She could imagine herself as every lady she saw…one being taken by two men, another’s head bobbing frantically in a warrior’s lap as he grimaced in ecstasy that seemed to border on pain. “And if you turn me into one of them,” she said, “I’ll never forgive you.”

She’d had her share of fantasies, imagining what it would be like to be with Gavin and Julian both…but that wasn’t the same as what she saw here. If things had been different when Julian woke and they’d started a life together, just the three of them, it would have been love. This spectacle, as tingly as it made Kara feel below the belt, didn’t amount to much more than scratching a species itch. Still, having Gavin so close and eager, she wasn’t sure she would mind getting scratched if Gavin’s claws were doing the work.

He angled his head toward the heavens and took a deep breath. “I know, princess. I don’t want this for you.” Then he cupped his huge hand on her cheek and met her eyes. “The first time I take you, I don’t want another soul to distract you from how I will worship your body. I’ve waited too long for anything other than your full and undivided attention.”

His mouth might have been saying that he didn’t have plans to take her at the moment, but when it came to her body, the damage had been done. Her thong clung to her sex, so damp she worried it would show through her pants. She was slick and ready, eager to welcome him in.

Gavin glanced to the black-wing who now had his eyes closed as two women worked on him. “I think Nefren’s permission is implied at this point. Let’s find some fresher air and see if we can locate the next point on the map.”

“Sure.” Kara’s desire clawed at her from the inside. Her rational self tried to take the reins—but it failed. “Just one more thing before we go.”

She grasped the long hair covering the brand on the back of Gavin’s neck and brought his lips down hard on hers.

Chapter Eight

Gavin had exercised restraint in his life—hell, since the day he’d turned from his father’s ways, he’d been known for his rigid self-control. But never had he needed more willpower to deny his baser instincts than since he’d met Kara. His scalp burned where she grasped his hair tight, but not as much as his lips burned where they met hers.

It had been so fucking long since he’d been able to taste her. Would it really be wrong to strip her bare and sink into her body as everyone around them was doing?

When she moaned and grazed her teeth over his tongue, he knew he needed to stop them both, or he was finished. If what she said was true, if she would never forgive him for introducing her to being publicly taken, as many Demiáre females enjoyed, then nothing they could indulge in now would be worth it. Nothing was worth losing her trust.

“Princess. Enough.” He pulled back, but then quickly surged forward to give her one last kiss. Even to his own ears, he sounded drunk on her kisses.

Kara blinked and looked around again. If anything, the scene around them was becoming more carnal and frenzied. “We need to get out of here,” she said.

When her small hands came to his waist, as they always did when she expected to flash, he shook his head. “No. We’ll disturb the energy less if we simply walk away.”

He grasped Kara by the hand and maneuvered her around the crowd, and weaving in and out of such erotic displays, he began to doubt his ability to do the right thing. Finally, they stepped through the gates of the city into the field, and Gavin exhaled in relief.

Kara put her hands to her cheeks. “Holy crap. Why is it so much harder to resist here?”

“Because your subconscious knows that anything is possible in the Shadowland. It feels as unconstrained here as in a lucid dream.” She swayed on her feet, and Gavin grasped her upper arm. “Are you tiring? We need to return to the island.”

She pulled her arm from his grip and chuckled. “Given what I just experienced, I don’t think that’s what’s wrong with me, Gavin.”

“Well, we should return anyhow, just to be safe.”

“Not a chance. And if you’re worried about dawdling, then let’s hurry up and get to the next point before I really do get tired.”