Sinful Magic (24 page)

He looked at the man across from him. “Yeah. I wore it when I ran away and for a couple days until I started finding places to hide it. And various times when I was moving it.”

Sutton lifted an eyebrow. “You don’t look like an old man, so your life didn’t drain away instantly.”

He didn’t want to do this.

Roxy said, “Please, Key. If you don’t trust me, at least trust Dyfyr. He tried to tell you all those years that Liam wasn’t dead, didn’t he?”

He looked into her eyes again and knew he was lost. “Fine. But just for a short time. When I say so.” He was going to put it on her at the pivotal moment. Not before.

She gave him a tense smile. “Thanks.”

Key took his hand away and tried to eat. But he was still uneasy. He heard the others talk but only half listened.

“Roxy,” Carla said, “how could you hear the dragon’s story? You don’t have your fifth chakra that is your communication with other realms.”

“When Liam kept demanding to know if I woke the dragon and about the Tear, I was desperate to answer him. I’d have told him anything. The only dragon I could think of was Dyfyr from Key’s comic book. And then

I guess

it felt like my mind splintered and Dyfyr was there. I remembered him, and I knew he was coming, that he’d save me. And then Kieran came.”

“Amazing. Dyfyr reached out to you,” Carla said. “That’s one powerful dragon. He cares so much about you.”

“Damn, you’re doing it again,” Phoenix said in a hoarse voice.

Key snapped out of his thoughts and felt the rush of hot sex magic rushing over him. Turning, he saw Roxy’s witch-shimmer flickering between rich sunsets and a sickly pallid yellow. He could smell her pain. He moved his chair closer and put his arm around her. Her schema was going apeshit. The lust hit him right in his balls.

“What happened?” he asked gently, trying to get her to relax. She was too tense.

“My magic just

surged. Thinking about Dyfyr helping me, you rescuing me.” Her voice was strained, and she bent forward slightly as another wave burst out.

Her magic was too wild, he could feel her clenching and fighting it, fighting him, as she tried to get control.

Phoenix fisted his hand on the table in reaction and said, “I figured you’re just paying me back for being an asshole earlier today, Elf Witch.”

She lifted her head, looking at the other hunter. “Elf Witch?”

While she was distracted, Key laid his other hand on her stomach, hoping to call her wild, sexual magic back to her chakras. Seconds later, he smelled more power in the room as the other witches managed to connect with Roxy’s chakras and help.

“Red hair, green eyes, freckles—do the math and it adds up to elf. Then there’s your magic, it’s making me sweat. You want to punish a man, throw that at him when he can’t do anything about it,” Phoenix groused.

Key felt her power rush to his hand. It was calming down, aided by the other witches.

Roxy frowned at Phoenix. “I didn’t mean to

wait I feel that. Power. Other witches,” she looked around the table. “You’re helping me.”

“Yes,” Carla said gently. “We just needed you distracted for a minute. You were too tense and blocking us.”

Roxy looked incredulous. “Thank you.” She turned to Phoenix. “Ailish told you to distract me, didn’t she?”

Phoenix grinned. “She said I was a jackass earlier today. Really hurt my feelings.”

Relaxing against Key, Roxy said to the other hunter, “You have feelings? Like real people?”

Key laughed, feeling the tension break. He let his hand fall from her stomach. Her shimmer was just a flicker now, very pretty. He could still feel the power of the others, they were all working to keep her schema under control. But once they stopped, it was going to rise fast and hurt her again. It was time for them to go, to take her to the place he’d chosen. He started to stand when his phone rang. Sinking back in his chair, he reached for the device on the table and saw it was Ram. He answered, “Ram, I put you on speaker.”

“Good, I’m at Roxy’s apartment.”

“Why?” Roxy asked, surprised.

Key answered, “We put a camera on your apartment to see if Liam or any of the mortals he’s got looking for fertility witches show up.” He turned toward the phone on the table. “So did you get a hit?”

“No. The camera died and I went to check it out. I heard someone moving inside. I entered, went around a corner and got blasted in the face.”

Key’s gut went tight. “Shot? How bad?” Roxy’s apartment was in Sherman Oaks. How fast could one of them fly a witch there to heal him?

“Ram?” Axel snapped when the hunter took too long to answer.

“Fire extinguisher. I couldn’t see, couldn’t smell

target got away. It wasn’t a rogue. I think maybe a female; the blast came from someone smaller than a fullgrown man.”

“What the hell, a woman got the drop on you?” Sutton stared at the phone like it had morphed into a snake.

Roxy straightened. “A woman in my apartment? Maybe it was my cousin looking for me.”

“Doubtful unless your cousin has a high-tech weapon,” Ram said. “Something caused me to freeze, as if I’d been hit with a supersized stun gun.”

Key growled, “Some kind of new weapon? Engineered for witch hunters?”

“Could be. Don’t see a mark on me anywhere, but that could have healed. I have to wonder, though, why the fire extinguisher?” Ram said. “This isn’t tracking. First-class strange is what it is. Even now, it feels like something is crawling on my skin.”

Sutton stood up. “Hold your position, Ram. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes tops. We’ll figure it out.” He turned to Axel.

Their hawk nodded, and Sutton kissed Carla and said, “Stay here, Carly, where you’re safe. Please?”

“Sure, I want to talk to Tyler and his mom anyway. See if I can help them. They didn’t want dinner, but Tyler’s getting restless; he just doesn’t want to leave his mom alone.”

He smiled. “Do your magic, baby.” Then he turned and went out the back.

“I’ll stay but I think there’s something I need to do,” Ram mused. “Feels urgent. Important.”

Christ, Key thought, something rattled Ram. He never thought he’d see the day. “What about Roxy’s apartment?”

“I’ll send you pics, but her laptop is open and running. Desk drawers are opened. If Roxy is normally neat—”

“I am,” Roxy said, sounding almost as baffled as the hunter in her apartment.

Ram went on, “Then they’ve been searched. Kitchen looks orderly, just a mug on the counter. I think she only got as far as the desk before I got here.”

Now that sounded calm and methodical like Ram normally was.

“Ram,” Axel said. “I’m going to call you back on my phone in a couple minutes. Key needs to leave.”

“I’ll take the pictures,” Ram said. “And try to remember what I’m supposed to do.” He hung up.

Key lifted his gaze to Axel.

“Hell if I know,” the man said, rubbing his hand over his face. “Go. We’ll deal with Ram.”

Key needed to take care of Roxy. He knew that once the witches pulled back their magic, she was going to hurt.

And he was going to ease her. Make love to her. Fill them both with pleasure.

By the time they got to Kieran’s truck in front of the house, she was hot with rushes of desire, the need to be touched. His touch. She gritted her teeth, took her hand from his, and hurried around to the passenger side.

But he was there already, pulling open the door and holding it while she slid into the seat. “You need to learn to stay behind me when we’re out in the open,” he told her. “I’m protecting you, remember? Think of my body as a shield.”

He stood in the opened door, looming over her, his scent filling her lungs. “I can’t.” She closed her eyes and saw him in the shower. He was powerful enough to be a shield, but all she wanted to feel was him against her. She opened her eyes and told him the truth. “I think of you as my Awakening. The man who can make the pain stop.”

He leaned in, touched her face, his eyes darkening to blue. “I’ll make it stop, and then I’ll bring you pleasure. All the pleasure you want.” He slammed the door. And before she could turn her head, he was sliding in on the driver’s side.

She needed him with a desperation that was deeper than sex. It was a connection so profound, she knew she wasn’t going to be able to breathe again without it. It was like she was finally getting her soul back. “Do you feel it, too?” Was she alone?

“You. I feel you.” Key pulled out onto the street and turned his gaze on her, radiating hot intensity. “Jesus, woman, your scent, your magic, everything about you is consuming me inside out.”

Her nerves stretched and pulled until she couldn’t sit still. They were going to have sex. She tried to think of something else. She wanted to know more about him. His own family had been cruel to him, hurting him to get the Tear. His father sending those rogues after Key, then his uncle

She remembered what Phoenix said about Key drawing the pictures of their deaths and sending them to his father. “You sent your father the pictures to warn him, didn’t you? You knew the dragon in you was going to kill him.”

His jaw hardened. “I knew I’d kill him if he came after me. Back then, I was still trying not to be the animal they made me into. All of them, my mother playing with magic, my father

all of them. But I couldn’t escape.” His mouth pulled into a flat line. “He didn’t believe it, I guess. Thought I was still the spineless boy who took the abuse without fighting back.”

Her heart bled for him. He wasn’t an animal, but a man with the soul of a dragon. His father had deserved to die. “Is that how you learned to fight? From being attacked?”

He was quiet for a few seconds, skillfully driving through the dark city.

“If you don’t want to talk about it, I shouldn’t pry. Sorry.” She had her own secrets. Like who her mother was and what Roxy believed she’d done, and Shayla being an infertility witch. Roxy was going to tell them as soon as she knew Key’s soul was safe. But still

they were going to feel betrayed, and how could she blame them?

He looked over at her. “Phoenix taught me to fight. He found me getting my ass kicked by a group of boys. First, he bloodied them and sent them crying for their mothers. Then he yanked me up and asked me what the hell was wrong with me.”

“You didn’t know how to fight. All those times your father hurt you

” She couldn’t bear it. “Your mother should have protected you—”

He cut her off with, “It’s pointless to go there. She was addicted to the idea of immortality. Like a gambler. She couldn’t stop and justified everything in her mind.”

She didn’t care. “I would have protected my child,” she said fiercely. It was all so wrong. “I’m glad you killed him.”

He looked over at her. “I’m good at killing, Roxy. And I learned from the best. Phoenix made damn sure I learned.”

“Why?” She didn’t know Phoenix well, didn’t really understand him.

Key stared out at the road, then answered, “Those boys who were beating me up? They’d been tormenting Phoenix’s mother and were going to rape her. I couldn’t fight, but I gave them a new target, and Sheri, his mother, got away and found Phoenix.”

She felt that down to her chakras. “You protected his mother, so he taught you to protect yourself.” But it was more, much more. They became brothers that day. Because Phoenix respected strength, not bully strength, but true strength. She thought of Phoenix stopping her from going to Key in the shower, trying to tell her Key needed space. No wonder he was so protective.

“You okay?”

“Yes.” Nervous as hell. Her stomach was flipping over. It had been different in the shower when all she’d wanted to do was take care of him. She hadn’t been thinking about her own inadequacies. She took a breath and blurted out, “I haven’t had much sexual experience, but I’m not

I think I do something wrong.” She didn’t dare look at him but stared out at the city, digging her fingers into her thighs. “I haven’t really had real relationships. Mack wasn’t serious. I knew he wasn’t, you know, totally into me. I was just convenient or something. When a guy really liked me, I didn’t sleep with him.” She couldn’t look at him. It was completely dark now, the moon was past half full, and she had no idea why she was spilling her guts.

“You had sex with men who didn’t care about you?” The words sounded harsh, like they hurt.

“I didn’t want to end up hurting them.” She dug her fingers into the leather seat. “If my Awakening came along, and I wasn’t strong enough to resist, and some man cared about me

” She closed her eyes, feeling the pull of Kieran.

Key snatched her hand up off the seat, his warm fingers wrapping around hers. “Got it.”

“Didn’t matter anyway. There were only two guys, and afterward, they could never get away from me fast enough. No calls, no texts, no emails. Even the one that I thought was a friend. He said I was too intense, trying to get too much from him. That’s my sex magic, I guess, trying to draw energy from him. We weren’t friends after that. He wouldn’t look at me, like I was a dirty secret.” She couldn’t seem to shut up. “So I stopped trying to, I don’t know, to fill something missing inside me, I guess. Until Mack. I trusted him.” She had no idea where Key was going. He drove like he did everything, with utter confidence, winding into a part of town with older buildings.

“Mack signed his death warrant when he hurt you.” He turned to look at her. “I told you I’m not good at relationships, but I can kill anything that threatens you.” Looking back at the road, he said, “We’re soul mirrors, we’ll have eternity for me to figure this out. Tell me your birthday.”

The sudden shift confused her. “May twenty-first. I’ll be twenty-five. Why?”

He glanced over. “I won’t forget. Ever. I’ll figure out what you like and get you a present. See? I’ll learn.”

Roxy’s heart forgot to beat. “Kieran—”

He squeezed her hand. “You won’t ever want for anything. And sweetheart, after we have sex, we’ll develop a mental link like the other soul mirrors. I’ll know if you need anything. For sure, the dragon will know if you’re in danger.”

She dropped her gaze to his hand wrapped around hers. He was trying to give her affection, romance. She knew he didn’t think he was capable of love, yet for her, he was going to try. It filled her with warmth and hope, and thick emotion. How could she not care about him? Yet, she had to ask, “What if I do that to you, too? Try to take too much of your energy or something?” The need for him was overwhelming her.