The Beast Within (17 page)

G
age was frozen in place with his hands braced on either side of her.

Mira’s touch had sucked the breath from him. Then the air returned, laced with an energy he had not felt since that day one hundred and eighty-three years ago when he’d knelt naked in the moonlight in the Realm and Rhys lifted the iron brand from the flames, turned and pressed it over his solar plexus.

There had been no pain, but he’d felt the energy fire into his body, root in his blood and begin to grow.

That was precisely what he felt when Mira touched his triskellion. As he watched now, the mantling on her wrist and arm faded and vanished.

She stared up at him with huge eyes, her face flushed and her full lips parted. Her hair cascaded down, coming to rest over the tops of her breasts. She had asked him what he’d done to cause her hand to mantle like that, but he didn’t know. All he knew was he wanted to do it again.

And again.

Taking his hand from the shelf, he lifted a lock of hair resting against her breast, feeling the heavy silk and said, “What? I didn’t do anything.”

She looked down at her clear hand, then back up. “You didn’t see that?”

He loved the feel of her smooth hair. “See what?”

“I…” She dropped her hand. “Nothing. Just a shadow.” The gold color of wonder in her eyes turned hard. “You must be doing something. Bespelling me, or something. Knock it off and move.”

“What?” He wasn’t lying now. He was truly surprised.

She pulled her hair from his hand. “In the shower, here, this isn’t me. You’re doing something with your magic. I’m even seeing things.” She leaned back into the shelf and crossed her arms over her chest, obviously trying to put distance between them. “Let’s get something straight, wizard. I don’t trust you, I don’t even like you. I just want to find my grandmother.”

Ouch.
She was suspicious. He had to stay focused on his priorities—finding the wizard who had kidnapped Calia and figuring out how to ground his power. His magic had seemed to react to Mira. He needed to find out if that was real or just some kind of fluke. His body sure as hell was reacting to her. Lust coiled low in his gut and swelled his cock. He leaned closer, crowding her, and said, “You felt it, my frigid little mortal. You felt the sexual charge between us. You want to hate me, fine, but don’t lie to me. Or yourself.”

She sucked in a breath and refused to meet his eyes. “I don’t fall into instant lust. You did something, maybe be-spelled me with your wizard gaze. Probably the same thing you do to all women when you want to get laid.”

She was really starting to piss him off. He never used magic to get sex; hell, he hadn’t had to. Women vied for his attention, for the chance to have sex with a wizard. “Close your eyes.”

She pulled her eyebrows together. “Why?”

“You accused me of using magic to make you want me. I’m going to prove I didn’t.” He leaned his head to her ear, inhaling the scent of his shampoo on her. “Close your eyes, Mira. Then you won’t be able to see my eyes when I kiss you.”

He felt her slight shiver. Then she jerked her head to the side, away from him. “I’m not—”

Pulling his head back, he watched the flush that warmed her cheeks and made her eyes sparkle. She licked her lips and he fought back a groan. Instead, he said, “Unless you’re willing to concede that you’re turned on by me.”

She closed her eyes, her shoulders tensed and her jaw went rigid.

Gage cupped her chin and stroked his thumb over her lips. They were smooth, slightly damp and warm from her tongue. His balls tightened and his dick hardened. Her feminine scent of warm vanilla mixing with his soap and his shampoo from the shower was arousing as hell. Using his fingers, he stroked along the sensitive line of her jaw to her ear and down the curve of her neck. Then he leaned down and brushed his mouth over hers.

Nice. But not earth shattering. So why had he seen mantling on her skin before it faded? Maybe it was just another side effect of his fried magic? He meant to find out and slid his hand up into her silky hair, tilted her head and took the kiss deeper.

Then Mira laid her hand on his shoulder, sighed in his mouth and touched her tongue to his.

A shock of pure, white-hot pleasure exploded, slamming into his chest and heating up his mantling. Gage forgot about his magic, forgot about everything. His focus, all his need, narrowed down to the hot woman in front of him. His skin burned for her touch, his tongue longed for her taste, and his cock throbbed to fill her. He shifted, wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her off her feet.

She gasped once.

He filled her mouth, tasting and exploring as he slid his hand over her hip. There was no panty line beneath the cotton of the sweats. He moved his hand beneath her thigh, urging her leg higher.

She wrapped her thighs around his hips and kissed him back. She pressed her core right against the erection trapped in his jeans. The explosive lust raged and burned until it felt like they were caught up by a tornado and spun…

Oh fuck.
Ripping his mouth from Mira’s, Gage realized they
were
spinning in a flash-jump. Being thrown through space at a speed that could not be seen or measured. Only master wizards were able to flash-jump and Gage hadn’t been able to do it for nearly two decades with his fried powers.

No time! Prepare!
He tightened his arm around Mira’s waist and cupped her head to press her face into the curve of his neck to protect her.

His feet hit the ground and he automatically bent his knees and caught his balance. In seconds, he regained his equilibrium. For an instant, fierce joy broke through him. Gods above, he’d missed the freedom and power of a flash-jump.

Then reality intruded with the question: Just where the hell had he taken them? And how?

Mira’s insides felt like they had been through the spin cycle, then thrown into a blender. If Gage hadn’t held her head against his neck, she thought it would have broken apart from the internal pressure. Finally, her world righted and she became excruciatingly aware of the wizard.

His rock-hard arms around her, his warm chest, the velvety feel of his mantling and his erection pressing so intimately against her that even a deep breath caused a ripple of pleasure. She had her legs wrapped around him!

Lifting her head, she looked around. “We’re not in Kansas anymore, are we?” It was dark, no lights from any kind of home or business. There was only the thin light of the moon and the dominating roar of a waterfall, along with a spray of dampness.

“Looks like Raven Mist Falls,” he said, his chest rumbling with the words.

Hades alive! They were miles and miles away from Gage’s house. That had been some crazy ride. “What happened? I mean we were kissing, then…” She realized she was still wrapped around him like a blanket. Kissing the wizard created in her a raw, wild hunger to taste, touch and be filled by him. Even now, she ached with need. At the same time his arms made her feel safe, secure, like she belonged.

Her brains had obviously been scrambled after being thrown from his house to this place.

Embarrassed at herself, at the way Gage had managed to bring out her inner slut, she forced herself to drop her legs to the ground. Damn, she didn’t even have shoes on. Quickly, she retied the loose sweats and said, “You can let go of me.”

“Better not.” He kept his arm around her waist and pulled her close to his side. “The potion flash-jumped us. Could happen again.”

“Why are we here?” She looked around. She’d heard about the falls. They were out in the Cleveland National Forest and required several miles of hiking to reach. They were standing on a shelf of rock between the cliffs and the churning pool where the falls spilled into it. From there, the water then cascaded into a second waterfall to another pool far below them. It was like being on a twelve-by-twelve island. “Is my grandmother here?” Hope welled in her chest.
Please let her be okay.

She saw him search the small ledge with his gaze. His dark hair shimmered in the moonlight, his face was expressionless and his eyes distant, as if he were thinking. “I don’t feel any energy from another wizard. They aren’t here.”

She shivered as the spray from the falls dampened her shirt and disappointment chilled her heart. “You said the potion did this, so where is she?” What the hell was going on? Why were they on this rock trapped between a cliff and a churning pool of water?

Gage’s jaw clenched, and his fingers pressed into her waist. Then he turned, his light blue eyes slightly narrowed as he said, “The potion is magnetized, pulling me to the wizard who kidnapped her, but it takes time. We’re not all the way there yet.”

The great Wizard Remington didn’t like her questioning him. Like she gave a shit about his feelings.

He turned away from her and held out his hand. She heard a pop, then sparks exploded from his fingertips.

Mira
felt
her hair frizz. Lifting her hand, she touched the staticky strands poufing out like a bad perm. What the hell? She glared at Gage. “You frizzed my hair!” I mean seriously, she had one good feature.
One.
Being attacked by trolls she could handle, but frizzing her hair?

Gage’s right hand began to glow like a lightbulb, illuminating his hard face pulled tight. His lips were edged in white fury. He stared at his hand, ignoring her.

“At least fix my hair,” she griped. She’d been a good sport about the clothes, but she had her limits.

“Do you want to get off this rock or not?” he snapped, then lifted his glowing hand to get a better view of their position.

She forgot her outrage when the light hit the water cascading down the side of the cliff and splashing into the pool. Her breath caught and she whispered, “Beautiful. The moonlight makes the water look silver, almost ethereal.”

“You’ve never been here?”

She shook her head, her hair moving in a frizzy clump. “No time.” She had meant to hike out here, but there was always something that needed to be done. Her cousins, Gram or aunt always needed something—the oil changed in their car, catering arranged for a dinner party. She just hadn’t taken the time.

Her gaze caught on something close to the edge of the rock by the pool. “What’s that? Right there on the ground before the pool?”

Gage lowered his hand to illuminate the rock at the edge of the pool. “Just a pebble.”

It had a green coloring and seemed oddly familiar. She shrugged out from beneath his arm and walked across the damp rock, feeling the spray of the falls get heavier as she got closer. She bent down and scooped up the small stone. There was enough light from Gage’s hand and the moon to see the multi-green gemstone. Her heart sped up. “It’s my grandmother’s!” In spite of standing on the cold rock with the waterfall dampening her shirt, she felt a flash of warm excitement. “It’s moss agate. One of the many gemstones Gram has in her bracelet that she uses when she consults with the spirits.” Tearing her gaze from the stone, she looked up at him. “She says that moss agate is the wizard’s gemstone. It’s a sign…I guess, that a wizard has her.”

Gage frowned. “She was here. So we’re following her.”

That odd feeling tightened her stomach. “Why don’t you know what’s happening? You’re supposed to be the great master wizard. Haven’t you used a tracking potion before?” Her situation hit home. She was trapped on a rock. What if he just left her? She didn’t have shoes, didn’t have a cell phone and there didn’t appear to be any way to climb down. She was at his mercy. The sense of safety, of belonging she had felt in his arms was replaced by cold fear and loneliness. She clutched the piece of agate and wrapped her arms around her waist and shivered.

He closed the step between them and glared down at her. “I told you, the wizard has their whereabouts cloaked. My potion is breaking through. But if you think you can do better on your own, with no magic, and no ability to even feel magic…” He shrugged.

She felt his glare, his implication about how she was frigid. Useless. Hell, she knew the truth She’d known the truth since the day of her parents’ funeral. Mira closed her eyes against the memory. Gram holding her hand as they walked up to stand with the family around the caskets. Her mother’s family, Nana, Papa and Uncle Ray, they’d glared down at her. Papa had told her that she’d killed her parents. She was a curse, a frigid that had shamed her parents into going to the wizard to beg him to fix her. If they hadn’t been there that day to see the wizard, they wouldn’t have been in the path of the demon.

She yanked herself from that painful memory and faced the truth—she couldn’t find her grandmother on her own. She needed the wizard. Squeezing the gemstone in her fingers, she reminded herself that her grandmother loved her just as she was. “You made your point. What do we do now?”

He stood still, watching her. “We wait for the potion to find the wizard again.”

She nodded and turned, walking away from the falls to where the cliff jutted straight up. It was dry and somewhat sheltered from the wind. She sat down and tugged the too-long sweats down over her freezing feet. Then she pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them for warmth.

Gage sat down next to her, stretched his long legs out, then reached over and lifted her up.

Surprised, she yelped as he dropped her on his lap. “Hey!”

He cupped the back of her head and looked down into her eyes. “I am not taking a chance of leaving you here.”

His intense gaze took her breath away. “Oh, if you flash-jump.”

“I need to have a tight grip on you. I won’t leave you here alone, Mira.”

His words traveled through her and hit her heart where the fear of being left lived. “I’m used to being alone.” Oh damn, she hadn’t meant to say that. But when she looked up at his sky-blue eyes outlined in sooty dark lashes, she just felt…connected. She struggled to recover with jokes. “My cousins once left me at a Burger King when I was in the restroom. Another time, my aunt left me on a yacht where she’d been giving an astrological reading.” At the time, she’d been terrified. But now it was a funny family story.