Renegade (15 page)

“Only for you,” she gasped, hips lifting again in a silent plea. She hadn’t meant to say that, didn’t know where it had come from, but she’d worry about it later. She was tired of fighting the attraction between them, especially now, when she’d felt so alone and needed his affections.

His eyes fired, possessiveness glinting in their depths. He lowered his head to her other breast, licking, nibbling, tasting. Finally, he sucked as she writhed under him.

She slid her hands into his hair, then caressed his chest and shoulders as his thrusting finger made her core throb with need. She’d never craved anyone, ached for anyone, more than she did this man. She needed him now.

He slid another finger into her, and she shuddered.

“You like that?” he asked, his breath teasing the sensitive bud of her nipple.

“Yes,” she moaned, pressing against his hand.

He lightly kissed taut, aching breast, still stroking her core, and then the other. She struggled against the tide of pleasure. Reaching down, she found him again, thrilled at the need that flared in his eyes.

He leaned over her, and she caressed a path up his corded arms to the soft hair at his nape. His mouth caught hers in a blazing kiss as his weight settled in the cradle of her thighs. Val nipped his shoulder, slid her hands over the firm muscles of his back and ass.

Kissing her neck, he let out a ragged groan. She pushed his shoulder, and they rolled together.

Straddling him, she closed her fingers around his hard, smooth erection. She stroked him as she worked her way down his body, touching and tasting and reveling in the way his muscles tensed under her lips and hands.

“You’re gorgeous,” she said.

He winced, as though she’d embarrassed him, and she felt her heart soften. “I’m just a guy.” He rolled her beneath him. “You’re the beautiful one.”

With heat flashing through her, she dimly heard him say, “Someday, I want to paint you.”

Griffin rose above her to trail kisses and caresses down her body, leaving little streaks of heat where he touched and yearning where he didn’t.

Aching to have him, she tugged on his hair. “Come here.”

He flashed a grin that was a blend of mischief and desire, a fleeting glimpse of the younger, more easygoing man she remembered. “Not finished here.”

Before she could reply, he leaned down and kissed her sex. Pleasure ripped through her like an energy bolt, arching her back and tightening her nipples. Val let out a choked cry.

His palms slid up her inner thighs, caressing her and spreading her wide. “Gorgeous,” he said. He brushed a soft, slow kiss into the crease of her thigh. “You smell like paradise. I’ll bet you taste even better.”

Her belly clenched with wanting.

He slipped his hands under her thighs, up to her breasts to tweak the nipples, and she moaned, holding his hands to her.

“I love when you do that.” He brushed his lips over the folds of her sex. “The way you respond so completely.”

“I want you inside me.”

“Soon, honey.” Watching her face, he licked her cleft.

Blinding pleasure shivered through her. She held on to his shoulders. His soft, warm tongue stroked between her folds, across her clit, inside her. Again and again. Every touch of his mouth, every flick of his tongue on her most sensitive flesh shot alternate bliss and craving through her.

Magic sparked around them. Need tightened her belly until she gasped his name, the sound a caress and a plea. He pushed her over in a rush of heat that stole her breath away.

The sweet tremors eased. Her breathing slowed, and she opened her eyes to find Griffin cradling her close. The moment imprinted itself on her heart, the cool sheets under her, the warmth of his body against hers, the tenderness in his deep blue gaze.

She brushed her fingers over his jaw, and his eyes locked with hers. He caught her hand to kiss it.

“I have condoms,” he murmured against her knuckles.

Val smiled. “I’m on the pill, so no worries.”

Watching Val’s face, he positioned himself over her. He eased into her, the fullness of his cock giving her pleasure yet making her want even more. His tender look gave way to fierce possessiveness that made her heart pound and her body clench around him.

He moved slowly until he was fully sheathed inside of her. He withdrew himself to thrust again, faster this time, so her back arched and a moan of pleasure and need broke from her throat. He thrust again, faster.

The craving had bite now. Val thrashed beneath him. “More! Griffin…”

He groaned, thrust harder. Deeper. Her hips pumped to the rhythm he set. She could feel how much he wanted her, and that made her want him even more. His smooth skin covered hard muscle, but his lips felt soft against her neck.

When he raised his head, his taut face above her and his flesh within her consumed her world. The magic sparked again, bright behind her eyelids, feeding the tension, the hot need coiling her.

So tight. So close to the edge.

He shuddered, then thrust again, whipping white hot pleasure through her, shooting her into sweet oblivion as he cried her name.

Slowly, the hot rush faded. She surfaced to find they were still joined. Griffin’s ragged breathing brushed her cheek, but he’d pushed himself up on his elbows, taking his weight off her.

Val had to swallow hard and draw a deep breath before she could speak. “Come back,” she said, caressing his cheek.

He smiled, kissed her shoulder, and rested his head in the curve of her neck. His heart hammered against her while her pulse echoed in her ears. His body was warm, faintly damp with sweat from their joining. She wrapped her arms around him and pressed her cheek to his.

Griffin raised his head. She smiled, and a slow, tender smile widened his mouth. He rolled to the side, pulling her with him. Val nestled against him and let her fingers drift softly over his strong jaw.

He switched off the bedside lamp, leaving the room in the dimness of sunlight filtering through cheap drapes. “We should sleep for a while. We have a busy night ahead.”

Searching the homes of the people from the diner. She let him settle her against his side. He pushed her hair back with a touch so gentle, so tender, it made her heart yearn.

She couldn’t afford to yearn for Griffin. To want him. To feel any more than she already did. So why did lying here with him feel so right?

He drew back to look into her face. “Let’s take this one day at a time. See how it goes.”

It was almost as if he’d read her mind.

“Works for me.” She slid an arm across his chest, savoring its soft dusting of hair, and he tightened his hold on her.

One day at a time
, indeed. With the mages hunting them and the ghouls summoning dark forces, every day would be a bonus.

T
he summer night was muggy, but little shivers of dread rippled under Val’s skin as she and Griffin waited, screened, under an elm tree in Carson. Modest bungalows and small post-war ranches lined the street. Lights burned in a few of the houses, but most were dark, including the diner owner’s house three doors down.

Once the neighbors were in bed, she and Griffin would break into their target and search. With just over an hour until midnight, they’d be at a slight but manageable disadvantage if they encountered dark forces. Better to deal with that, though, and have the Mundane neighbors in bed, than risk their involvement if she and Griffin had to engage the people from the diner.

The streets were empty. Most residents had gone to bed for the night.

“Lights went out next door to the target.” Griffin nodded down the street. “When the neighbor across the street turns in, we’ll move.”

“Right.” She didn’t think she could stand finding evidence that tied the tainted coffee to mages. On the other hand, solving a big problem involving dark magic or—worst case scenario—Void demons might open the way for him to return home. To at least have the chance to explain his side of the story to the Council.

But dark magic could kill hundreds of Mundanes, as well as honest mages, before his crew got a handle on it.

“Interesting,” she said softly, so the words wouldn’t carry through her screen to any unexpected passerby, “that there were two different coffee urns, one with that bloody residue in it and one plain.”

“Yeah.” Frowning, he stroked her shoulder absently. “Maybe only people who’re passing through get the nasty stuff.”

“But that means they’re being selective.”

“Did you notice, there are no pets of any kind wandering around, not even cats?”

Val kept her voice low. “Lots of rats, though. Ugh.”

“That’s why I looked for cats.” He gave her arm a reassuring squeeze and grinned. “Don’t worry, hon. I’ll protect you from the big, bad rats.”

She wrinkled her nose at him. “Wiseass.”

“Always.” He kissed her quickly. “Light just went out across the street. Let’s go.”

They strolled down the sidewalk with their magical senses alert but detected nothing abnormal. No wards had protected the diner, so maybe there would be none here. Their absence was encouraging. As Will had said, demons of any sort guarded what was theirs.

At the target house, a Craftsman bungalow, Griffin halted. “I’ll take point,” he murmured.

“On the grounds of being a guy?” Val raised an eyebrow and put a chill into the soft reply.

He answered in a tight, irritated whisper, “On the grounds of my ranking you, Banning, by both time in rank and in the field. I take point.”

Going into a fight arguing disrupted teamwork. Val shut up, for now. Considering the friends Griffin had lost, maybe his protectiveness made sense, but his lack of trust in her skill could prove fatal someday.

She stood by one of the porch pillars to keep watch while he checked for door wards. The screen she and Griffin shared concealed them both from Mundane eyes, so she drew her sword, raising it in the guard position.

“Nothing,” he said softly. A faint click sounded, like a latch sliding back. He eased the door open.

No strange smells drifted out of the house, no eerie sense of presence. “I get nothing,” he said. “It’s empty.”

Val backed toward him so she could keep her eyes on the street. “Trap empty or just empty?”

“That would be the question.” Staff at the ready, copper runes glowing softly, he slipped inside.

“Do you think they left because of us?” Val slid in after him. The house looked tidy, the wood floors shiny with wax. The living room’s modest furnishings could’ve belonged to any blue-collar family in America, but the place felt empty, as he’d said.

“No brimstone stench from Void demons,” he noted. “Or charnel reek from earthly ones. But if not demons, what?”

Val shrugged. “Let’s check the house and the other two homes anyway, cover our bases.”

“Agreed. My gut, though, says the threat probably moved on.”

But to where?
she thought. They separated to search.

In one of the bedrooms Val found a scrap of paper about the size of her palm on the floor between the bed and nightstand. “Griffin,” she called, “come look at this.”

He hurried in from the other room as she reached for it. “Wait, let me get it!”

“I’m shielded.” As he must’ve noticed. She picked up the paper and felt, through her shield, icy cold roll over her hand. “Don’t touch it unshielded. Look at these weird runes.”

He looked over her shoulder. “I don’t recognize them. I’ll take a photo and send it to Will.”

As he pulled his phone from his pocket, it rang. “Stefan,” he said, eyebrows rising. He flipped open the phone and leaned down so she could hear. “Hey.”

“I don’t have much time. Healey scried what had been on Val’s whiteboard. He’s convinced the Council to authorize a raid on the Americus ghoul nest at daybreak tomorrow.”

Val scowled at the phone. “He doesn’t have the personnel for that.”

“He’s borrowing them. Northeast wants payback, if not actual recovery of the Goodwin kid. I have to go prepare for casualties and hope to hell I don’t have any.”

Griffin looked as appalled as she felt, but he said only, “Good luck, bro. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“Wait. There’s one more thing. Will picked up from the deputy reeve grapevine that Healey did some scrying, figured out you rescued Val near Wayfarer because that’s where she disappeared under screening. He thinks you’ve got ‘a hidey-hole’ there, and he has reserve deputies looking for it and you. Stay out of Wayfarer.”

“Right. Thanks.”

As Griffin signed off, Val muttered, “Hell of a time for Joe to start thinking logically.”

“Hell of an idiotic idea for that raid, too.” He took the photo, transmitted it, and pocketed his phone.

She touched his arm. “Griffin. I have to go to Americus.” That would delay analyzing the blood-tainted coffee, but the diner was shut down so it wasn’t an immediate danger. It could wait. “I have to warn them if they’re walking into a trap. Maybe I can help them, but you’re a high-value target. I know you won’t want to, but you should wait for me somewhere.”

“Oh, like that’ll happen.” He frowned down at her. “Honey, I’ve been a high-value target for years. I know how to watch my ass. If those mages are heading into an ambush, they need all possible hands.”

“Not yours. It’s too dangerous.” She should’ve known he’d react like this. Should’ve just sneaked away on her own. “I wish I hadn’t said anything.”

“Yeah, well, that ship’s sailed. Besides, I would’ve said it if you hadn’t. Even though you’re a pretty valuable target, yourself.” He paused. “In fact, we may end up distracting them instead of helping.”

“I know, but we
have
to try.”

“True…Okay, we go, on one condition.” His face hardened. “If things get tight for us, and I say we leave, no argument. We can’t afford to have either side catch us.”

“Agreed.”

Floodlights shone through the pine trees, illuminating a cleared area around the ghoul nest’s double chain-link fences. Nothing moved in that space. Overhead, the stars were fading, the sky easing from night black to deep gray.

Griff crouched in the scrubby undergrowth with Valeria. Seeing her this tense twisted his heart. He’d had years to adjust to the idea of a traitor on the Council, to being an outcast. She was dealing with a lot in very little time.

She glanced at the sky. “Almost daylight, a good time to set up an attack. Let’s work our way around to the other side.”

They’d already checked one part of the nest for land mines and other traps but found none.

“I’ll take point,” he said. As she opened her mouth to argue, he added, “If any mages are already here, better they see me than you. My rep’s already crap.”

“Which I’m trying to change, if you’d pay attention. Besides, my rep’s crap now, too, you know.”

“I know. We’ll talk later.” The vision she offered, of exoneration and even acceptance, tempted him. Her faith in him, her hope for change, reminded him so much of Allie, who’d died because of those traits. He wouldn’t let that happen to Valeria.

But if he could go home…

Yeah. As if. Pipe dreams only led to trouble.

The dirt road to the nest came into sight, and something niggled at his magical senses. He stuck out an arm to stop Valeria and said softly, “Check our screen.”

Her face tensed, but she nodded. Opening his own senses, he felt the whispery brush of hers.

Beyond that lay a nasty, weird tingle. Mage magic and ghoul mixed.
Hell.

Her face set in grim lines, and her pain vibrated in the magic between them. “Like before,” she muttered. “Bastards.”

“I still don’t sense explosives, though, so that’s good.”

From the far side of the camp came the
kra-kow
of a massed energy blast. The attack had begun, so the time for warnings had passed.

Another energy blast came from the left side of the camp, then another from the right. Then another in front of them. The mages were hitting all sides of the camp. Did they have enough people to do that safely?

“They brought a large number of mages,” Griff noted. “But do they know they’re up against their own kind, too?”

Valeria chewed her lip. “If we join this fight, the mages will turn on us sooner or later. Can we help them enough to be worth the distraction, not to mention the risk to us, before they spot us?”

“Maybe if we go in with mages from somewhere else. They might not recognize us.” He didn’t have to tell her the newcomers would be mixed in with the Southeastern deputies. He studied her worried face. “You want to try it.”

“I can’t stand the idea of another massacre.”

Neither could he. “We’ll go, then, but the moment they come after us, we’re out of here.”

“Absolutely.”

They exchanged a grim look. “Be careful,” she said, before kissing him quickly.

“You, too. Let’s go.” If only he could hold her just a second longer, but any time wasted might cost them their lives.

Shielded, they ran toward the sounds of battle.

The deafening
brrrr
of automatic weapons fire meant multiple armed defenders. Mage energy in a rainbow of colors clashed with brown-gold ghoul power in the air. A stocky female mage, shield shimmering around her, gutted a ghoul the old-fashioned way, using only her sword. Ensorcelled arrows arced toward the ghoul compound, exploding against ghoul shields.

There were no defending mages in sight, but he could feel their power, even their conflicted emotions inside the compound, damn them. They might not like helping the ghouls fire on other mages, but they were doing it. Why?

Valeria stepped up beside him. “Do you feel that mage energy inside?” she shouted. Energy crackled along her sword. When he nodded, she whipped that power at the nearest gun emplacement inside the fence. It exploded, and a feral grin lit her face.

Exultant, he took out another gun emplacement the same way. As he turned to her, ghouls raced out of the nest, blasting muddy gold energy. From behind Griff, mages came running towards them. He stepped in front of Valeria to attack the nearest ghoul.

“Crap,” she muttered and swung left to meet another ghoul attack.

“It’s Dare,” someone shouted. “Nail him.”

Story of his life, and he was damned tired of it.

Blue energy zipped from his left. Diving clear, he tucked and rolled. A woman and three men in mage camos, shielded magically, charged at him.

“Valeria, let’s go!”

She didn’t answer, and he wouldn’t leave without her.

He rolled to one knee and focused power through the staff’s slanted
X
rune,
naudhiz
, to keep the force at the minimum necessary to stop them. The burst knocked them down. And out, he hoped.

A dozen or so mages still stood, firing on the enemy.

Where the hell was Valeria? Gripped by fear for her, he peered through the energy haze.

Val’s energy blast knocked three charging ghouls flat on their backs. A chill flickered over her neck and she spun around to see a ghoul almost on her. She ducked his blast and stabbed through his shields, gutting him.

Where was Griffin? How had they gotten separated?

“Over there,” someone shouted. “Dare. Get the fucker!”

The words rang above the din of battle. For a single instant Val’s heart stopped. Her blood chilled. She’d known the risk going in, had blocked it as she always did before a battle, but she couldn’t block it out now.

He could die out here.

She couldn’t, wouldn’t, lose him.

Oh, God, where was he?

Translocating in a battle zone was dangerous. Shielding dissolved during the position shift. But she had to reach him quickly. She picked a spot in the direction the mages who’d yelled his name were heading, then translocated. Emerging several yards ahead of them, she spotted Griffin six feet away on her left. Thank God.

Shielding again, she fired as she ran to him, a focused beam of blue that illuminated the ghoul it struck. “We have to get out of here,” she shouted. A sweep of her blade laid down a wide scythe of repelling power and blew two shielded mages backward. “We’re distracting the mages more than we’re helping them. I don’t want to engage directly.”

“I don’t either. Flash to the car, and I’ll—”

A flare of brown-gold energy burst through the woods, behind the mage forces. Ghouls in black skinsuits charged, muddy yellow energy pouring off them, stabbing into the mages. Cutting them down.

Ghouls could not translocate. If they were behind the attackers, they’d been lying in wait all along. The traitor mages’ power must’ve kept her and Griffin from sensing them.

She and Griffin exchanged one enraged look as they fired together at the ghouls. Behind a large oak lay a figure in mage camos, face concealed by the tree. Val darted around it.

“Darren,” she gasped. She dropped to her knees by the young man who lay sprawled out on the ground, bleeding from his belly.