My Forbidden Desire (28 page)

“Killing you is the simplest solution for us all.”

“Why don’t you kill Xia instead?” she asked. Her sarcasm was lost on Kynan. “Wouldn’t that solve the problem, too?” She put a hand to Kynan’s wrist and pushed hard enough to break their contact. “Oh, right. But then you’d still have a witch on your hands.”

Kynan turned his torso in Xia’s direction, licking Alexandrine’s blood from his finger. Their psychic connection flared hot. “See? She doesn’t care about you.”

“You asshole,” Alexandrine said.

“Do you want me to do it?” Kynan asked. “I’m not afraid of Harsh. I’ll handle him. Right now, Xia, Harsh is planning how to take your head for this disappearing act of yours. If he finds out you kept her alive until I got to her, you can come back whenever you want. You’d be a hero, practically.” He smiled, but it was a smile that reminded Xia of the kinds of things magehelds dreamed of doing to their mages. “She tastes good, Xia. Give me a spare room and an hour or two to get good and worked up to it, and the witch isn’t a problem anymore. Guaranteed.”

Alexandrine shot to her feet, magic coming out of her wild and scattershot. Her fear changed the balance of emotions between them. Not for the better, unfortunately. Xia got a charge of adrenaline, an instinctive reaction to strong emotion from one of the magekind. He wanted her locked down, under his control. His. Totally his. And Kynan wanted the same thing. Same means, different result.

She was staring at Kynan, her eyes wide open and face dead white. Xia’s head filled with the image of him pulling himself on top of her, skin to skin, and biting hard enough to draw blood. Sweet, hot blood. Witch magic resonating in his bones. The problem was the image came from Kynan. That was what Kynan was thinking right now. And the warlord was a nanosecond away from making it happen.

“Get the hell away from me, you sick fuck.” Alexandrine pushed Kynan away. Her attention shifted to Xia, and,
wham
, the connection with her was like a bomb going off in his head. She felt it, too. He
knew
it made her feel alive.
Bam
again. Three way. The minute Kynan was back in the connection, all three of them knew a part of her was turned on by the idea of the warlord touching her like that. She didn’t like the idea—Kynan frightened her—but something in her wanted it. Bad. What a wicked witch she was.

Her magic echoed in Xia. Hell, he could feel her pulling, and that cranked him up. He and Kynan both responded. Kynan got a hand around the front of Alexandrine’s throat and immobilized her before Xia could act. The built-in lure of her magic for his kind was tinged with a sense that she belonged to the kin. Worse than their desire to subdue one of the magekind, with her having that spice of kin in her, her challenging Kynan was like dangling fresh meat in front of a starving lion. Kynan was a warlord, and he wasn’t made to overlook a challenge. Nobody challenged a warlord without a death wish or believing he had one hell of a good shot at surviving the consequences.

“You’re very beautiful.” Kynan brought Alexandrine closer to him. He was reacting on two levels now, his nature as a warlord taking care of a challenge from a lesser fiend and as one of the kin reacting to one of the mage-kind. Alexandrine was up on her toes, both hands clenched around the warlord’s wrist. “We’d have some time first. Before I kill you. Several hours, even. I could make your last time good for us both.” He ran his free hand through her hair, letting the white-blond locks spill through his spread fingers. “Would you like that, witch?”

“Let her go,” Xia said. He was dealing with his own set of reactions to what Kynan was doing. His muscles rippled as the urge to crush Kynan flooded him. He crouched on the bed, ready to leap, a growl rumbling in his chest. He didn’t care that he was dizzy or that he hadn’t recovered from the mess after the talisman’s magic had shot into him all at once. He wasn’t reliable enough to take on a warlord and hope to come out alive at the end. But he was going to try.

“Come off it, fiend.” Kynan stroked Alexandrine’s cheek. “It’s not like she won’t betray you eventually. In your own immortal words, she’s a fucking witch. She ought to be dead. Let me take care of this.”

“You’re not killing her,” Xia said. On some level, he agreed with Kynan. Hell, yes, killing Alexandrine would solve their issue. But killing her wasn’t going to happen. He was responsible for her. For her situation. And, anyway, she wasn’t like the magekind who came after the kin. But most of all, he just couldn’t give her up. She was his, and he wanted it to stay that way.

“Your funeral, fiend,” he said. “No killing the witch. But that leaves only one way to fix this.” Kynan’s magic went full on, filling the room with power Xia couldn’t help but respond to. Even Alexandrine reacted. Kynan set both hands on her face, tipping her head toward him while her hands curled around his wrists.

Her eyes darted to Xia, the whites of her eyes showing. “Is this really the only way?” she asked the warlord.

“Yes,” Kynan said. “It is. If you want it fixed right.” Alexandrine nodded, and Kynan smiled while he brought her closer. “Then let’s go, witch.”

The connection went hot and dark and right at the edge of going out of control. The three of them were hooked into each other, and the link was seriously, beautifully fucked up. No wonder Kynan Aijan was feared. He was a sick monster. The magic filling the room quivered. Xia didn’t doubt the warlord could do just about anything he wanted to with it or that Xia and Alexandrine would be right there with him while he did.

Kynan leaned closer to Alexandrine, and the connection between the three of them went deeper. Jesus. They were throwbacks to the way things had been before everything went to hell between humans and the kin. Before the magekind started fighting back. Before assassins like Durian were necessary to put a stop to the kin’s predation of humans when it seemed like there was still a chance to save the way things used to be.

Magic flowed between them, sharing, even soothing, the chaotic effects of the talisman’s magic. Damn, but Kynan had some powerful shit going. Xia felt practically whole. Energetic, almost. And Alexandrine’s magic was an alluring spice, amping him and Kynan. The warlord’s hand moved forward, raking through Alexandrine’s hair. Through their connection, Kynan felt her magic the way Xia did. An intimate bond of witch with fiend thrown in to make her irresistible. If Kynan was remembering the sex, it was without distinguishing the fact that he hadn’t been her partner. The memories were shared and real to them all. Alexandrine herself might not be capable of making that distinction right now.

Kynan released Alexandrine. She tilted her head to keep looking at him, offering—if only she knew… well, maybe she did—her throat to a monster already smelling blood and high on power. Just to help a bad situation get worse, Kynan’s interest level ratcheted up along with Xia’s. Throw a warlord’s power into a volatile mix and watch everything go boom.

Kynan set the tip of his finger to Alexandrine’s forehead. “Ready, witch?”

Her mouth was open as she panted, but she reached up a hand and grabbed Kynan’s wrist. Cords of sinew and muscle stood out in her forearm. The skin over Xia’s back rippled, and he let the change take him, because killing Kynan would be quicker and easier if he wasn’t burdened with his human form. “She’s not agreeing. Get away from her, Kynan.”

Kynan turned to Xia. “You’re sure? I thought you didn’t want me to kill her for you. There are two solutions to this that I see, fiend, and you know it. Kill her or I take her magic. That’s it. There’s no door number three.”

“Get away.” Xia was on his feet now, standing on the bed, ready to leap. Wanting to leap.

“As you wish.” Kynan released Alexandrine, and once again, she dropped out of their connection. He kept a hold of his magic, though. “You two can stay like this, then. Have a long and happy life. All six weeks of it, if you’re lucky.”

“Shut up. Both of you.” Alexandrine pulled in a deep breath. The room stayed silent while Xia and Kynan stared at her. “He has to do this,” she said. Her eyes were hardly gold at all anymore. Back to nearly vanilla. “Think about it, Xia. I sure don’t want to be following you around like a puppy until the day comes when you can’t stand it anymore. Because let me tell you something in case you hadn’t noticed: We can’t be more than five feet apart before we both start getting the shakes.” She looked at Kynan. “If you take my magic, Warlord, what happens to me? Would I still be able to pull?”

“No.”

“Alexandrine—”

She lifted a hand in Xia’s direction. “It’s better this way,” she said. “I never really had any magic, anyway.” Alexandrine took a deep breath. “All right, then, Warlord. Do it.”

“Fuck this,” Xia said. He grabbed the front of Kynan’s shirt and yanked the warlord forward. Kynan budged, a little, but he kept an eye on Alexandrine like he wanted something tender and human for lunch. And it seemed he did, having volunteered to take Alexandrine’s magic and with her having just said that’s what she wanted. Like hell was Kynan going to do that to her. She was his, and nothing was changing that. Kynan pushed Xia hard.

“Stop it!” Alexandrine’s voice shook. “Geez, you two are like little boys. Can the macho shit, would you? I said let’s do it. So let’s do it, all right?”

“You don’t understand,” Xia said. Oh. Crap. Completely the wrong thing to say. Alexandrine gave him a glare that could have melted steel; she was that hot with anger.

“No,
you
don’t get it, Xia.” She leaned toward him. “You don’t get it at all. Since the minute you walked into my apartment, you’ve been telling me what people like me do to people like you. Did you think I wasn’t listening? Or not paying attention to what my father was trying to do to you?” She blinked hard. Xia didn’t miss the glitter of tears. Kynan stayed close to her, and Alexandrine didn’t back away from him. She threw a hand into the air. “I fall apart if we’re twenty feet apart, and so do you. Do you want to live like that? Could you? That’s twisted and sick.” She closed her eyes for half a second. “We’ll start hating each other for real, and I don’t want that. I really don’t.”

“I’m not arguing,” he said.

“Good. Since there’s only one way out of this, and we all know it, why don’t we get it over with?”

“It won’t work out the way you think,” Xia said.

The warlord gave him a look that said more than words could have about his opinion of fiends who stood up for witches.

“Nothing ever does, Xia.” She turned to Kynan and met his gaze head-on. “Warlord.” She touched her fingers to her forehead. Guess she had been paying attention. “Whatever you have to do to make this go away, do it.”

Kynan smiled. “Sit down, fiend,” Kynan said to Xia.

He did. But he stayed prepared. Xia was getting a hell of a wave from Kynan. The flow of magic through and around him increased, and it floated him as high as a kite. Kynan was shaping his magic, focusing on Alexandrine and bringing Xia along. He could feel her, close and real, her magic flaring hot. Alexandrine’s fear rolled through him, and Xia edged off the bed toward her. Her eyes were losing their pinpoint status now. She was practically back to vanilla. He stretched out a hand, just close enough for him to brush her shoulder.

“I won’t let Kynan hurt you,” he said. “Not physically. This is going to be all about your magic. If you’re really going to do this, I’ll make sure you come out okay. I promise.”

She licked her lips, and Xia and Kynan both followed the tip of her tongue. The connection between him and Kynan drew hard at him. The warlord was turned on by Xia’s recollection of sex with Alexandrine. He wanted to do her like that, too. He wanted her long legs wrapped around him, hearing her moan while he was changed, going harder and harder.

Alexandrine touched the back of her head. “I’m cold here,” she said. “Like ice.”

“Kynan’s pulling, and you’re reacting to that.” So was he. Reacting and pulling. The warlord had some twisted magic. His power flashed hot, then settled down.

She rubbed her arms. “Was that him?” she asked.

“Yeah, baby. That was him.”

The mattress dipped as Kynan knelt on the end of the bed. He’d already pulled enough magic to incinerate the room. The air got hot, and Alexandrine, whose body wasn’t adapted to this, broke out in a sweat. She knelt on the bed, too, rubbing her forearms.

“What’s going to happen?” she asked. “Will it hurt? I want to be prepared, that’s all.”

Kynan leaned forward, looking down into her face. Her eyes were wide open and fixed on his. “I’m going to pull,” he said. He put a hand behind her neck, cupping her nape. “You might feel it. If you do and you feel like fighting it, don’t.”

“How?” she whispered. “How do I do that?”

Kynan’s eyes turned dead black. “Just don’t, or I won’t be responsible for the consequences.”

“She can’t promise that, Kynan.” Xia slipped an arm around her waist. “I’ll keep her under control, all right?”

“See that you do, fiend, or I’ll fry you both.”

“I can handle it, Warlord.” Xia reached for the magic building in him. Alexandrine was familiar to him now, and getting himself settled in her head wasn’t hard at all. He felt her mind join his and then theirs. He was far from stable, and he had to work hard to stop the chaos in him from boiling over. Despite Kynan being so near, Xia pulled Alexandrine into his arms. Her magic beckoned to him. Sweet and hot. Power rippled down his skin and along his spine.

The warlord returned his attention to Alexandrine with considerable intensity. “All you need to do right now, witch, is fall in. Like you did before when it was Xia. I’ll do the rest.”