Logan: Her Warlock Protector Book 3 (12 page)

Darren dropped the whip, and suddenly there was a sword in his hand as well.

Logan was moving at a dead run. Before the cleric could fully rise, Logan was swinging his sword. The man’s head flew from his shoulders, and the body slumped sideways to the floor. Caitlin turned her head the other way, just in time to vomit.

“This ends now,” Logan growled. “For her and for everyone else.”

The clanging and clashing of the two weapons filled the air. As though through a haze, she heard feet shuffling, heaving breaths and grunts, and always the sounds of the swords.

“Did you tell her?” Darren asked, breathing hard. “That the last person you tried to save, I beheaded?”

But Logan made no reply—at least none that she could hear.

Instead, moments later there was a wild shriek.
 

Caitlin jerked her head around. Oh, please don’t let it be Logan! Finally, she saw them, the two men standing close, and perfectly, frighteningly still.
 

“This is for Adam,” she heard Logan say.
 

The tip of Logan’s sword was protruding from Darren’s back. But now the bloody length of it followed. Darren’s mouth hung open in a soundless scream, his expression one of shock. “And this,” Logan said lowly, their faces close, “is for me.”

In a single blurred motion, the sword disappeared, Logan spun, and Darren’s head was flying across the room.

Possibly before it even landed, Logan was at her side.

“
Caitlin
,” he whispered, just as the world went black.

LOGAN SAT ALL night at Caitlin’s bedside as the healers worked over her. Some of the horrific wounds inflicted by the whip had run deep. He was sickened at what she’d endured, and yet relieved and grateful for the healer’s balms, salves, and spells. Jonathan had looked in as well. Only as dawn began to creep through the window did their ministrations stop. Their work had never seemed more miraculous.
 

For some time after they’d left, Logan had simply watched Caitlin sleeping, her nose already fresh and pink instead of the mottled purple mess it had been. Though she slept, her brows furrowed from time to time, and Logan could only imagine what she was seeing. He carefully took her hand in both of his.
 

There was a clearing of the throat at the door. He turned to see Sheila.

“How is she?” she asked quietly, as she came to the bedside.

“She’s healed,” Logan said.
At least physically
, he thought, though he didn’t say it.

Though Sheila’s hair was shorter, the family resemblance was strong.

“So the two of you were Wiccans but didn’t tell each other?”

“I started studying early, but I had no idea that Caitlin had abilities. She was so private.” There was a shortness to her tone, a hint of accusation. But then it softened. “Or maybe she was trying to protect me. She’s been protecting people for her whole damn life. She deserves more than being the almighty eyes for the Corps.”

Logan’s hand tensed around the metal side rail to the bed. “We agree on that.”

“I see the way she looks at you. Her letting Darren do all that to her. That was about loving you too, not just me. You treat her right, that’s all I’m saying, and you keep her safe.”

It sounded like a farewell.

“Sheila, you can’t leave the coven.”

“Then I’m just a different kind of prisoner. Before, Darren had me bound and was ready to kill me on the spot. Here, well, it’s very nice accommodations but if I get thrown into a war too, who’s to say I won’t end up like my parents did.”

“If they’d been with others and protected–”

“And your friend? That Adam guy? Did being part of the Corps save him?”

He frowned. “What is your gift exactly?”

“It’s not seeing the future or having exceptional luck.”

“Are you a telepath then?”

She chuckled and arched an eyebrow at him. “I’m sure the Corps would like to know.”

He shrugged. “This is your heritage as much as Caitlin’s. I know she’d want you to stay together.”

She snorted. “And what does your commandant want? I don’t trust him worth a damn.” Sheila sighed. “She might have a short life, and I know she’ll have a dangerous one, but I know there’ll be no dissuading her. So you take care of her.”

“I don’t have a choice, and it’s not about her abilities. I don’t give a damn about those. I’m going to do it because life without her wouldn’t be life.”

Sheila seemed to consider that and nodded. Then she headed to the door and paused. “Maybe we’ll both learn to like life with a coven and Magus Corps. Just don’t hold your breath.”

FROM THE CHAIR in the corner, Logan watched intently as Caitlin began to stir. Morning sun flooded the room, and she squinted a little at the brightness. Her hand moved lazily over her eyes as she took in a deep breath. Then she froze, quickly raised her head, and scanned the room. Their eyes met.

Her smile, though shy at first, slowly grew. Only then did Logan realize how much it meant. Like rays of light breaking through a cloud covered sky, it buoyed him. He found himself at her side, taking in the scent of her—the soap they’d bathed her in and the sweet fragrance that was all woman and all Caitlin, a goddess in her own right. Leaning down, he kissed her, reveling in the feel of her tongue stroking against his own. They stayed like that for hours it felt like, exploring each other’s mouths, enjoying the sensation of tongues dancing.

When she drew back from him, he grinned at her. “So, darling, I guess that means even with our ups and downs, you’re glad to have me.”

She shook her head and chuckled, it was like the tinkling of bells to him, so light and free.
 

“You’re nuts. You didn’t have to come. I was saving you.”

“I think we make a good team after all.”

She laughed and sat up, hissing a bit at the angry welts left from her whipping. He quickly took her hand.
 

“Yes,” she said. “We play ‘Gift of the Magi’ with our martyr complexes, perfectly.”

There was a long pause, and her smile slowly faded. She leveled her green eyes at him.

“Tell me about Adam.”

He nodded, and lowered the bed’s side rail. He carefully sat on the edge of the mattress, even as he fought against the pounding in his chest.
 

“Adam was the best second I could have ever asked for, and the toughest damn colonel the Corps ever had. I failed him, with Darren, and it cost him his head.”

He blinked and felt feather light hands reaching around his shoulders and then arms hugging him tight. He burrowed into her, her embrace like a refuge.

“Jesus,” she said lowly. “I’m so sorry. You had to watch?”

He sat up and shrugged, looking down at her. There was no point in reliving the horror. He gently stroked auburn ringlets back from her face.
 

“So did you. We’ve all had losses. I still blame myself. If I’d been smarter or faster. Hell, if my famous
luck
had actually been worth a damn.”

“How many people have you saved? Not just me and my sister. I mean how many novice witches have you saved from the Knights over the years? How many men would have died in battle without you? You can’t save everyone.”

“He was the best friend I’d ever had. I let the person who mattered most down at exactly the wrong time. I…I learned I could fail. What if I fail you?”

She smiled softly. “You won’t. You didn’t. You saved me. We saved each other.”

Logan considered that, watching the tender curve of her lips. “Maybe we can both learn that it’s okay to be taken care of.”

She blinked at that, and then her smile grew to a grin. “Teamwork. It sounds awfully good to me.”

“Me too.”

LOGAN’S HAND TENSED while holding Caitlin’s, and he had to remind himself not to squeeze too hard. But Jonathan’s withering gaze was on them both. In the conference room of the DC coven’s headquarters, he sat across the table from them and looked silently from one to the other.

“It’s true,” he finally said.

Logan could have rolled his eyes at the drama.

“You already knew that from Sheila. Caitlin has the Eyes of Fate.”

“But what she overheard doesn’t compare to our own seers sitting with Caitlin and assessing her sight.”
 

Despite himself, Logan had to beam at her.

“You’re the first witch in almost two millennia to have this ability,” Jonathan said. “It’s like a deliverance.”

Caitlin shook her head. “I’m not a weapon for you to wield.”

“Exactly–” Logan started and then stopped when she side-kicked him under the table.

“I’m not a weapon,” she continued, “to be played with by the Corps’ higher ups, but I’m not a wilting flower either. I want to be trained up, and work in the field.”

“What?” both he and Jonathan said.

“I want to help in the fight. I’m serious, but I need to do it my own way. One day maybe what I can see can turn the tide, but if Logan’s out there, I want to be by his side. A team.”

Jonathan considered that, purple sparks of electricity arcing between his right fingers as he thought over her request.
 

“I’ll allow that you’re sorely in need of training, but eventually you will take your place among our precious few seers. Make no mistake. We’re losing this war and it will take every last one of us to survive.”

Logan held his tongue. Though Jonathan was his friend, he was the commandant first and foremost.

“But for now?” Caitlin demanded.
 

“For now you’re allowed to train with Logan as you wish. Maybe you can also talk some sense into that hard-headed sister of yours.”

LOGAN WAS SURPRISED when Caitlin stilled at the bedroom doorway. They’d made love before, and it had to be more foreign to his young witch to have sex as part of a ritual than to caress on red silk sheets. Still, Caitlin was practically shaking at the threshold and wouldn’t move forward.

“Are you all right?”

She shook her head. “I saw this. The first time I touched your hand, I got this clear vision of us here.” Caitlin blushed and her fair cheeks flamed almost the color of her hair. He loved that he could make her do that, that even after all they’d done together she could grow shy about it. “I saw us make love.”

“I want that,” he said, turning toward her. She shuddered under his grasp and made a small moan. She seemed so ready. But was she? “It’s not about giving you more powers or mastery of your skills. It’s not about the war. It’s about us. I love you, and I want to feel myself inside of you, joined without a barrier.”

Her eyes fluttered for a moment as she stared up at him.

“Make me immortal?” she asked.

“You were almost killed more than once in the last few days. I can’t lose you,” he said, his voice low. “I just can’t.” But he paused, forced himself to let her go, and took a step back. “But this is your decision. It has to be. If you decide against it, I will still be there to protect you. Always.”

Her response was so immediate, it took him by surprise. She stepped over the threshold and directly into his arms.

“I don’t think I could stay away from you if I tried.”

She shuddered under his embrace as he drew her close. “Oh Caitlin, just let me love you.”

SHE WAS FINALLY there, naked on the red silk sheets she’d seen in her vision, the feel of them luxurious and tantalizing against her bare skin. They had undressed each other, almost nervous, as though it were their first time. Logan looked down at her, his heated gaze lingering, as a flush rose to her cheeks. Slowly, he knelt on the bed, his arousal already immense. He loomed over her, the muscles of his arms and chest rippling as he moved up her body. Though he had yet to touch her, her body quivered under his steady gaze.

As he settled to his elbows, she felt the silky glide of his shaft up the inside of her thighs. She bit her lip, spreading her legs, trying to encourage him. Never in her life had she wanted something so badly. She needed to feel that completion, that nearness to him, like soul touching soul. Finally, the tip of his hot flesh slid along her wet slit, and she gasped. Though he’d barely nudged inside, he stopped. Blue eyes like sapphires stared hard into hers. He cupped her face in the palm of his hand.

“I love you, Caitlin,” he said, quietly. “I always will, no matter what. Are you sure?”

For a moment she thought of simply answering with her body, but that would have been too easy. She drew in a shaky breath, not sure if she could trust her voice. She looped her arms around his neck.

“I love you too,” she said, her voice trembling. “I’m sure.”

He lowered his face to her, his lips caressing her mouth in a feather-light kiss, as he eased himself inside her.

Caitlin hissed.

Slowly, inexorably, he filled her. Their bodies slotted together as though they’d been made for this moment. He speared into the core of her, as heat flooded between her legs. His masculine scent filled her nostrils as his cock filled her channel. She lifted her knees, opening herself to him completely.

His next penetration was even deeper, sinking himself to the hilt. He moaned with the slow downward stroke, and sucked in a breath as he drew back. But when her legs tightened around his waist, her ankles crossed in the small of his back, something in him unlocked. His hips twitched, and he thrust hard.

A small gasp was forced from her at the thudding collision, and he did it again, then again. He slid one hand down her side, then under her buttocks, supporting her hips, as he pounded into her. Her G-spot vibrated under his relentless rhythm, her hips bucking in time to his. She grunted with each possessive thrust and the tension that coiled deep inside. A wave was building, rising higher, and as though he’d sensed it, he responded. A primal rhythm joined them, his powerful body arching over her, as she writhed beneath.
 

Every nerve was alight, their quickening tempo like a drum beating in her core. Logan grunted as her lungs heaved, their breaths mingling like a breeze. Then she saw it.