Into the Darkness (11 page)

Chapter Fourteen

Stefan
sat down at his desk, tired and strung out. He should get some sleep; it’d been over twenty-four hours since he last lay down. But there was work to be done.

He rubbed his eyes and stared down at Jameson’s report. They’d lost over a dozen men and women
—decent fighters, but not the best. It was nowhere near as bad as he’d thought. As far as his people could tell, most of the injuries had come from blades in the hands of mortals, not the
Dulcha
. It was as if magical creations had lost interest in the battle half-way through.

Stefan
shook his head and leaned back. He needed to call a council. They needed to train someone to fill Stefan’s clan’s mage role. The E.T. were the biggest upstarts wanting to expose themselves to humans in a great many years. Stefan was fighting lopsided without a strong magic thrower to compete. All Trek, their White mage, did now was hone his craft, readying his crew to take out Stefan and reach out their hand. This turf war would become a national war quickly, with everyone seeking grandeur stepping up by Trek’s side. It would be damned hard to stop him, especially since the Council, which should’ve already stepped in, were a bunch of old fools waiting around and hoping for a peaceful resolution to fall out of their asses.

“Boss?”

Charles stood in the doorway with a plate of food.

“Yes, Charles, come in.”

The young male approached the large desk and laid the tray of stew to the side. He took a seat in one of the visitor chairs facing
Stefan. “You wanted to see me, sir?”

Stefan
willed himself wakefulness as he beheld the eager warrior. “Yes, Charles. I’m assigning you to the human. I want her watched at all times. She very nearly died from excessive magic usage, which means she has it in large enough supply to pose a threat. We will want to test her, see if we can train her; use her. Until then, however, we’ll need to make sure she doesn’t harm herself or anyone else.”

Charles looked like he’d just swallowed a slug.
“And the boyfriend?”

“Will lose his memory and never be touched again
; is that clear?”

“Absolutely!
Yup, yes it is. I didn’t even want to in the first place—guys aren’t really my thing. I mean, yes, they’ll do in a pinch, but if I had—“

Charles stopped babbling as
Stefan hardened his stare. The other male’s eyes found the floor in a hurry.

“You will need to change your schedule to match hers. I want to be updated on all large goings-on. I want her kept away from here, by force if necessary, and I do not want weapons at her disposal.”

Charles bobbed his head in acknowledgement.

Stefan
matched the nod with one of his own. Then sighed. “It is a damned irritating distraction at a time like this.”

“Can I take a shot at her?” Charles asked sheepishly. “I’ve wanted to since I saw her.”

A sudden flash of rage burst through Stefan’s insides. He had to stop himself from clenching his fists. “It seems we can’t beguile her, though I plan to test that theory, and she’s hung up on this boyfriend of hers. I doubt she’ll have you. But…” He let his breath out in a controlled exhale. “You’re welcome to try, so long as you don’t push her boundaries in any way.”

“Yes, sir.”

The male sounded gleeful. And yes, the human had something that seemed to call, seemed to tug a male’s vitals until he could barely think, but she wasn’t worth the hassle. Not to mention she had yet to really explore her sexual side, and was probably entirely boring in the sack.

So why the hell was the thought of her with another man pinching his insides and making him want to rip someone’s arms off?

Charles interrupted
Stefan’s thoughts by saying, “Have you chosen a mate yet, sir?”

And then there was that little problem. “No.”

“Excuse me for saying, but you have the pick of the breed-able females—anyone you want can be yours…”

Stefan
rubbed his eyes. There were some exquisite beauties with high levels of power, all right; each ready to throw herself at him. Based on his position and his own high level of power, he needed to bond with someone and create offspring—or try, anyway. He just…didn’t want to bother. He didn’t want a female to have a claim on him. They were all too concerned with his position, or his time, or his conversation. Plus, he hated sharing his bed. He could never sleep when someone was breathing on him.

He waved the thought away. “I don’t have to make the decision for a few more months.”

“Eenie, meenie, miney, huh?” Charles grinned. Then dropped his eyes again when he felt the heat of the stare.

“You’re excused,”
Stefan said in clipped tones.

Stefan
was just about to get up and finally head to bed when Charles stepped aside from the door and turned his body. Thinking the young man wanted to discuss something further, Stefan waited, then wished he hadn’t. A slinky woman in four inch heels and a see-through chemise wandered in, all hip and breast.

Speaking of possible mates.

“Hi, baby,” she said in a lioness purr.

Charles hovered in the door, wondering if he’d be invited to play.
Which would just take longer. Stefan minutely shook his head.

“Hello, Darla. What brings you?”

She wound her way to his side of the desk, her nipples puckered in arousal. She heaved herself onto the desk in front of him, legs draping to each side of his chair, her bare sex spreading for his inspection.

He felt a stirring in his groin as she said, “I just wanted to drop in and say hi. See how you were…” She gracefully pushed herself forward until she sat high on his lap, pushing down on his hardening manhood. Her body leaned back, putting her perfect breasts on display through her sheer top.

He was dead tired, melancholy from the men and women he lost, distracted from the irritating human and her magic issues, and really just wanted to head up to bed. But now he had an erection.

First thing’s first
.

He ran his hands up her thighs, pushing the fabric up with it. Up her stomach and over her chest, he slipped the fabric over her head and into a bunch on the desk. He bent forward, taking a taut nipple in his mouth and sucking, lightly sticking it with his teeth. A small amount of blood trickled out over his tongue, tasting of sweet cherries.

“Hmmmm,” she moaned, rubbing her crotch against his in graceful hip swings, experienced and practiced at the best way to get a man off.

Suddenly he needed a good, hard screw.

He grabbed her hips and lifted her body off of him, placing her butt onto the desk. She leaned back like a stretching cat, her feet out to the sides, exposing that lovely pink center. As he ripped down his zipper, he ran his tongue up her slit, tasting salt and sex. She’d been active earlier, he could taste it on her, which wouldn’t be unusual if it wasn’t for the battle.

Taking himself out, he kissed and licked up her body, once again focusing on a perfect breast while he stroked himself up, getting hard enough to get this underway. At the right level of turned on—which, these days, was usually just
good enough
—he laid his body over hers and pushed the head of his dick just past her outer lips. With one big push, he pumped himself all the way in, his hips hitting against her ends. Not wasting any time, he slammed into her, deep and hard, taking out his frustration on the world with her sweet sex.

“Yes, Boss. Harder! Yes!” she moaned, clutching her hair in fistfuls as her breasts bounced up and back with his rhythm.

Stefan put his body low over her, swiveling his hips, his cock working up a nice, wet friction against her inner walls. He worked harder, thinking of the human’s smell trapped in his secret den—a place which she shouldn’t have found on her own. It was spicy and fragrant, trapping his senses.

“Oh you’re so
hard!”
Darla moaned, pumping her sex up to meet his thrusts.

Stefan
’s balls were starting to constrict, the room ringing with wet slapping as his body hammered off of hers. Sweating and panting, Darla reached forward, her eyes closed, her face one of bliss, and clutched onto him, scraping those sexy nipples off of his chest.

Stefan
’s eyes rolled up in the back of his head as his cock erupted, filling her. Three more thrusts and he was emptied.

“Hmmm, that was nice,” Darla said, leaning back on the desk, her hand trailing down between her breasts.

Out of breath, Stefan straightened up and fastened his pants. He nodded. “I’ll see you.”

“Soon.”
She laughed in a low, throaty voice as he made his way out of the room. She was under the impression she all but had the mate title.

And realistically, she was probably right.

*****

I blinked my eyes in the bright sunlight. I was positioned directly under a window with the shade up, in direct line
with the sun. I blocked the glare with my palm, squinting around the room. One glance told me where I was, and the second told me who I was with. I rolled so my head was on the pillow and groaned.

“Good mid-morning,” Charles said in a tired, gruff voice.

He sat off to the side in a large, vintage chair with velvet arms. He held knitting equipment that he quickly let fall to his lap in anticipation of conversation. Which apparently meant we had to have one.

“Hi.” My voice was just as gruff and tired. “I feel like a drowned rat.”

“That’s because you
look
like a drowned rat.”

I grunted, rolling to the very edge of the bed so the sun wasn’t beating down on me. I sat up slowly, clutching my head to keep it from exploding. “What happened after I passed out?”

“A few things, mostly concerning bodily fluid. All over my car.”

A humiliated glance told me he wasn’t upset somehow. I mumbled out a
n extremely embarrassed, “Sorry…”

“
Eh,” he shrugged. “Once I threw up all over Jonas when I had too much to drink. Then I got my ass beat. It happens.”

I didn’t know what to say to that.

“So anyway…feeling horny? I know I am…”

I couldn’t help but wheeze out a laugh. It was hard to take the guy seriously. “No, I’m not really in the mood.”

He shrugged, unconcerned. “I figured, what with the near death incident, but it never hurts to ask.”

“I nearly died? What do you mean?”

“Too big of a magical release. Who would’ve thought a human would have enough magic for that, huh? Go figure. But there you go.”

My head wrapped around the information slowly, the term unfamiliar anywhere but with a clown and a wand.
“Magic? Me?”

My memory drifted back to that black stuff that shot out of my palms. It had felt like my insides were pulled out through my fingertips until I had nothing left to fill my body. Shortly thereafter I’d felt like I had the worst fever imaginable.

It made a lot more sense than I wanted it to. So I switched gears immediately. “Where’s Jared?”

“His mind was wiped and his body deposited back with his orange headed roommate. They’re both being kept in their rooms until all our influence wears off. Jared’s going to be a little spac
ey for a while, though—we had a lot of emotional damage to try and hide.”

“How do you do it? Erase memories?”

“Oh, we don’t exactly
erase
them. They’re still there, we just, kinda, cover it up. Hide it. Like really old memories that you thought were gone. Dreams will bring them back up, but everyone assumes dreams are just imaginary, so…”

My head felt like it was stuffed with cotton. I nodded, unable to process any more. “When can I go home? I have a class later this afternoon.”

He laughed, picking up his knitting. “You couldn’t even walk out of here if you tried, but you want to go to school? Tenacious. And dumb. No, Mira is taking care of that. She’ll go in your place until you’re well enough. She’s pretty smart! She has her doctorate in physics, I think. A little glamour in the right places, and actually doing your homework—something you apparently fail to do half the time…” he tsk’ed at me, “and
voila,
great grade.”

“But…”

“Plus, we’re still not 100% sure you’re accepting the Boss’s blood. You seem like you’re recovering, but sometimes humans’ bodies reject the potency of the magic. Usually, the first few times, you’d get blood from someone with a lower level of power to see your reaction, but you were too far gone.”

“The Boss’s blood?” My voice sounded hollow. I vaguely remembered choking down metallic tasting liquid, but I’d had no idea what it was. Or
whose
it was.

“Yes. Shocking, right? I know. He hasn’t given his blood to anyone since he became the leader of this territory. But he’s the strongest, most powerful of us, and if anyone could’ve saved you, it was him.
His idea, too. Good guy, that Boss. We’re in good hands with him, even though we’re against a pretty powerful mage.”