On a Razor's Edge (2 page)

“Yes, we could. And have. But then the cops get called, and that whole sermon about keeping under the humans’ radar…”

“I get it, I get it.
All right.”

His fingers brushed against my sex. “You can be taught.” He laughed, his lips pressing against mine.

I spread my legs as his fingers dipped into me, his thumb applying pressure to the sensitive top, making slippery circles. I breathed deeply, my body warming from his ministrations. I’d never felt like I did with Stefan. Even before I’d met him, his body had called to me, begging me to cross whatever distance separated us and wrap myself around him. Though we hadn’t uttered the “L-word” to each other yet, we felt it. Both of us did. We felt it like normal people didn’t. A deep-rooted connection attached us, not only relaying our emotions through a link between us, but merging our souls into one, then delivering each half to a body.

I climbed onto his large body, eager to feel that rush. The tip of his manhood rubbed along my folds, getting
them nice and slick. I leaned up, positioned him, then slowly sat down, accepting him deeply into me. My sex stretched over him, feeling that glorious fullness, pushing all the breath from my lungs.

His palms reached up to me, cupping my breasts, rubbing a thumb along each nipple. I rocked over him, building that wonderful friction, my body winding tight, soaking in the sensations. Tighter and tighter I strove, bobbing on top of him, my head falling back
as the tremors gathered and lit me on fire. My body started to sweat, his as well, as his hips thrust up to my downward motion.

“Oh, Sasha,”
Stefan breathed, eyes closed in determination.

My core vibrated, pulsed, constricted…then blasted apart
. A glorified scream filled the room as I exploded in pleasure. I lay my body on top of his, my head resting in the groove of his neck and shoulder as I came down.

“What will happen to us,
Stefan?” I asked softly, enjoying the feeling of his fingers trailing along my back.

“We will stay together no matter what comes.”

“But what about your mate? You need one, and from what Charles says, she has to have lineage and birthing ability and all sorts of crap that I don’t have.”

“You might have.”

“I’m a human. By default I’m not mate material. Just ask that ginger in my class that hates me.”

Stefan
tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “We’ll stay together. I’ll bring the matter before the Regional and see what he says.”

“I can’t share you any
more than you can share me, Stefan, regardless of your duty.”

He kissed my shoulder. “I know, love. I know that. We’ll figure it out.”

Another half hour had me showered and in combat boots and yoga clothes, striding toward the living room where my bodyguard, Charles, the youngest member of the Watch Command, waited. As usual, the giant muscled guy, dressed in leather from head to foot, sat on the leather couch, knitting some hideously colored monstrosity.

“What are you making this time?” I inquired, snatching an apple out of the fruit bowl resting on the coffee table.

“Well, since you never wear the scarf I made you, I am making a blanket this time.”

“Is it for a little girl?”

Charles stopped in his work and surveyed the thee-by-four square foot of fabric. “No, why? What’s wrong with it?”

“Charles,
it’s fluorescent green and pink! Who do you know, who isn’t a three-year-old girl, who wants a blanket made with these two colors?”

Charles’
s bushy eyebrows rumpled on his striking face. “You couldn’t have mentioned this
before
I started?”

“Eyes and logic, Charles, they’
re a lethal combination.”

Charles
dropped his masterpiece-in-making into his knitting bin beside the couch. He followed me out, headed toward magic class.

“Charles, how am I not considered evil?”

“You’
re a female. Of
course
you are considered evil.”

“Yeah, hilarious.
But seriously, if I can wield the black magic level, and Trek does white, doesn’t that make me evil?”

“Nah.
Magic isn’t evil or good. It just
is
. The wielder is the asshole. And the colors are just that. Colors. We’ve identified their output in power, but the actual color doesn’t mean anything.”

“And why is black so rare?”

Charles shrugged. “The higher power levels become more rare as they progress. White is super rare. And then black is beyond, I think, so rarer still. It probably wouldn’t be as much if humans would admit that magic exists somewhere besides crystal balls and Tarot cards. Instead, they dump their magic into technology and create some truly fantastic things. I’m all for the way things turned out. If humans could procreate like rabbits
and
wield all sorts of magic, we’d be in serious trouble.”

“I thought you were working on your ability to summarize.”

“Nope. You just continue to hope.”

“I do, yes.”

We walked into an empty elements class.

“No class today, which you would know if you bothered to read the bulletin.” A harried teacher, Andrew, turned to us. “Oh. Well,
you two
will probably be needed with the Boss. Doesn’t
anyone
read the bulletins?”

“Don’t blame Charles,” I said with a dour face. “He can’t read at all.”

“Oh, you’re on fire today. What the hell did I ever do to you?” Charles asked with his hands on his hips as Andrew rolled his eyes and turned away.

“Burnt down my damn apartment, Charles, or don’t you remember
past yesterday?”

“
Get over it. You got a sweet set-up. I did you a favor. And, you nag.”

“What does that have to do with the price of apples?”

Charles cocked his head as we shuffled out. “Apples? Who said anything about apples? Did the Boss accidentally take too much blood, or something? You’re starting to lose it.”

“So, now what?” I asked, happy-go-lucky now that I had a furlough.

“
Sure, change the subject. Why have a straightforward, intelligent conversation when we can jump all over the place.”

I laughed. “Let me dumb myself down so we can have that conversation.”

“I’m not the one that flunks every test she takes.”

I
nodded, my chest so tight I felt like I might crack a rib. “Touché. Got me there.”

Charles smirked, his smile falling back into a grim line of lips a second later. “You’re not that clever, you know. I can tell you are nervous as hell. You always turn into a real strange bitch when you’re
freaking out.”

“
A real strange bitch.” Ice formed in my stomach. “What if it’s me? What if I’m the problem, and not the teachers? What if my magic is defunct for some reason?”

Charles shrugged, settling with me on a cold stone bench just outside the mansion. “
We’ll figure it out. The Boss will tear down the world to keep you safe. And I’m his right-hand man, so between the two of us, we’ll make this all work out.”

I leaned
against his huge body for support. He’d become my best friend. I couldn’t imagine getting through all that I had without him, requests for sex and all. “What now?”

“
We wait to be called, I guess. And don’t get too close. I don’t want the Boss tearing my arm off.”

I scoffed out a laugh, and stayed where I was.

*****

“They’re waiting for you in the purple lounge, Boss.”

Stefan nodded to Jameson and imperceptibly took a deep breath. It was always disconcerting when meeting a superior, but this visit would decide his fate. He loved a human. More than that, he was
one
with a human. They shared something indescribable. A love so deep it had turned into something else entirely. Giving her up would be like giving up food. Or sleep. He needed her to survive.

Which was not something he could go around telling his higher-up.
His kind didn’t mate with humans. They might beget their offspring by that means, since humans could blink and get pregnant, but his species didn’t settle down to a life with humans. Not traditionally speaking.

Stefan
snorted at himself. He was picking up Sasha’s penchant for being cockamamie.

Still, it had to be acknowledged that even though he might break custom and mate a human, he couldn’t expect his people to accept her as their leader. He couldn’t proclaim her lineage and the right of her
station. All she had was her magic, and his devotion.

Devotion.
Now that was a word that could get you beat up.

Ste
eling himself, his face the customary stern mask he wore in public, he entered the purple lounge with a confident step.

Two men waited patiently, elegantly lounging in the large, overstuffed armc
hairs as if they owned the mansion and the people in it. Stefan’s eyes burned into Dominicous, the Regional, with the intensity of an alpha whose territory has been encroached upon. It took one full, vicious beat to rip his gaze away and to the floor, uncomfortably acknowledging his place as lesser.

He
didn't remember that ever galling as much.

“You are just barely on the safe side of a challenge,”
Dominicous stated in elevated speech, albeit colored with humor, which originated from somewhere in Europe a great many decades ago. Stefan’s people didn’t live forever, but they did live a long damn time.

“But still on the safe side, Regional.”

“Quite. Please, sit amongst us. We have much to discuss.”

Stefan
settled into a chair, his chest turned toward the Regional with the respect due his station, Stefan's eyes able to meet his superiors now that he’d acknowledged the other male’s status. Hard brown eyes of brutality in a weather beaten face stared back. You didn’t get to be the Boss without being able to hold your own against an entire clan. You didn’t become Regional without that same trait, only against a helluva lot more people.

Dominicous
extended a scarred hand toward the other man sitting in the room. “This is Toa. He is my linked mage and excels in intricate magical working and application. He is the strongest
white
outside of the Council.”

He pronounced it like “toe.” Sasha would get a kick out of that if she was privileged enough to meet him.

Long, straight hair so blond it might’ve been white framed Toa, while cold blue eyes stared out of a pristine face. With such smooth skin and beautifully elegant features, this male appeared feminine. Those eyes, though, sent a chill to the core of Stefan. Death lived in those eyes.

Stefan
’s hackles rose, another challenge slipping into his gaze before he had to, once again, drag his eyes downward.

“Again, just barely on the safe side of a challenge. It seems you are outgrowing your post,”
Dominicous remarked lightly.

“No, Regional.
Haven’t seen a superior in some time.”

“I see. On to business, or would you rather a few minutes to discuss pleasantries?”

“Business would do me fine.”

“Splendid.” The Regional bowed his head, his gaze
focused on his scuffed fingernails before he went on. “First order of business. We have had a startling request from this clan. A female with the black power level. Is this correct?”

“
Correct. A human.”

“Yes.”
             

If that bothered either of them,
Stefan would never know. Blondie hadn’t moved more than his eyes since Stefan had come into the room.

“And you have marked her, is that correct?”
Dominicous continued.

Stefan
tried to emulate Blondie but it felt like fire ants danced up his back. “It is.”

“We will come back to that.”
Dominicous draped one long leg over the other, a gesture Stefan recognized as Dominicous’ version of comfort. “You know, I assume, that the black power level is so rare it is nearly a myth. It requires a different type of training since the magic reacts differently than what we deem “normal.” Sometimes the black level is a disguise for a lower level white. A strange mix of power and use, you see. We’ve had a few proclamations of the black level this year alone. All were false.”

The fire ants started to bite down.

“Toa has come all this way, however, to make sure,” Dominicous continued. “We like to be thorough where this is concerned. Finding a black power level would…tip certain battles in our favor. Even if those battles are not officially acknowledged.”

Blondie’s stare was starting to get irritating.

“So, we shall test her momentarily. There is another subject that needs discussion. Our Council has entered into an agreement with the North American
Mata
—or, to the layman, Shape Changers.” Dominicous paused for effect.