The Circle (9 page)

The weight on my mind increased again, filled with all that he was, every memory, every sight, every flavor and sound he’d ever savored in his long lifetime. The decade-long love that grew within him as he watched me from afar wrapped me in a tender embrace. My heart swelled as we grew closer, our spirits mingling in the confines of my soul.

A rapid roll brought me on top of him. My fingers slid up his heaving chest, along his throat, and tangled into his soft hair. He gripped my hips, his strength urging me to ride him. I complied, slid up and down his glorious width, and savored the way he stretched me open. As I moved, my swollen nub rubbed against his satin skin.

His arms moved up my back and pulled me down against him. Hot breath washed across my ear, down my throat, and over my shoulder. Locked in his arms, a shiver rattled along my spine. Devin spread his legs open as he continued to pump his cock into me.

Another pair of hands stroked my lower back. I tensed when I realized who it would be.

“Submit to your sovereign, Katharine,” Devin whispered against my ear. “We’ll all go together.” His lips sought mine and took my thoughts away from the sudden cool wetness dripping onto my ass.

Malachi’s thumb manipulated my tight knot, inducing a tremble in me. I’d never understood the attraction to anal play, but so far gone into ecstasy, his digit pressing harder and harder against my back door gave me a dark sort of pleasure. The plethora of sensations from the two men pressing me between them threatened to overwhelm my senses.

My fingernails pressed into Devin’s shoulders as Malachi invaded me with a finger. Devin clamped one arm around my back and used the other to grip my hip, stilling my movements on his cock.

Trembling with anticipation, I obeyed my Dom and relaxed my weight down on his body, concentrating on the second finger Malachi shoved into my ass. My channel tightened against my will, but the more he stroked the easier his fingers moved and the more pleasure he induced in me.

“You like that, don’t you, Katharine?” Malachi said, his voice thick with desire. The head of his meaty cock rested where his fingers had been. “Tell me how much you want it.”

I raised my face to look at Devin for approval. Although I wanted Malachi inside me, part of me still rebelled. I belonged to Devin, and it was wrong to want another no matter what he said. Wasn’t it? Would he hate me for it later?

His eyes held only affection and need. He nodded. “Submit.”

All the tension, all the doubt faded with his encouragement and joy. I pressed my lips against his throat and inhaled his scent, which only heightened the sensations. “Yes, I want it. Fuck me, Sovereign.”

Malachi uttered a dark chuckle, leaned forward, and smacked my ass. “That’s a good girl.” The pressure against my tight hole descended to pain as he breached my surface. I cried out as he worked in farther. Devin and Malachi moaned under my sudden clenching.

As Malachi began a slow, deep rhythm, his movements slid me along Devin’s length. The initial pain subsided and filled me with glorious golden ripples of pleasure. Malachi’s essence differed from Devin’s, darker, more intense and somehow frightening and titillating at the same time. Both of them wrapped themselves around my soul until I thought I might drown.

My mate tangled fingers into my hair as he fed at my lips, plunging his tongue into my mouth to dance with mine. Something like a purr vibrated his chest.

Malachi gripped my hips and pounded hard and deep as if to keep my attention on him, his groans mixed with animalistic growls.

The heat in my abdomen grew to the edge of combustion. Tingles spread out from my center, to the top of my head, and out to my fingertips and toes. They rolled back toward my pussy like a wave about to crash upon the shore. My breaths turned to shallow pants.

“Come for me.” Devin stared up at me with a joy I didn’t understand. His smile swept warmth over my skin.

Unaware that I’d been holding back for his permission, I let go of every resistance, letting myself drift while the men drove my body and mind to a new high, one I never imagined could exist. My stomach went into spasms a moment before impact. I screamed as I rolled over the hill. Devin bit my throat at the same time Malachi sank fangs into my shoulder. The pain turned up the dials on my pleasure meter. My orifices contracted around the solid cocks still buried deep and brought them to explosion with me. Their hot injections coated me as I milked them dry.

Caught in a bright flash, the three of us broke free of our bodies, drifting together as we ascended. We became the air, everywhere and nowhere, lingering until the other spirits from the Circle joined us. As one, we rose higher into a white place I didn’t recognize, filled with the energy of the earth and the sun. I was the center of our new universe, the nucleus of our existence. Each soul touched me and wrapped me in mirth and ecstasy that continued the communal orgasm we all rode upon.

Our crystal laughter broke into play as we swirled and bathed in one another. For hours or maybe days, we remained bound together in what I could only compare to sensual heaven.

* * * * *

I opened my eyes and blinked in confusion, trying to make sense out of the ornate ceiling and the silk duvet wrapped around me.

Where was I?

“Devin?” My heart pounded as I sat up. Dizziness sent the room—and my stomach—into a sickening tailspin. Had it all been a dream?

The rest of my grogginess evaporated as the murmur of voices reached my ears.

I swung my legs over the side of the giant bed and slipped down until my bare feet met cold tile. A shiver took me as I gripped the edge of the mattress to steady my tremulous legs. Slow, deliberate steps brought me to a door edged by a tiny strip of light.

My hands shot out for the wall as a wave of rage burned through me, but it wasn’t mine. It belonged to Devin. I could feel his emotions? My stomach ceased its knotting when the shock I expected never arrived. We were bonded, and I liked it, something so natural I didn’t know how I’d existed without our connection.

Eyes closed, I searched my mind for him. Although I sensed the path I could take to speak to him and hear his thoughts, an invisible barrier that smelled of him stood in my way. Why was he keeping me out?

The voices on the other side of the door grew to roars. I clamped a hand over my mouth to muffle my frantic breaths and turned the knob. Through the crack, I found Devin standing nose to nose with Malachi. Both displayed fangs.

My heart stopped when their faces—contorted with fury—turned to me.

Chapter Ten

Devin’s eyes softened as his fangs retracted. “Katharine, you’re awake.” Smiling, he strode toward me. The air and light around him pulsed and changed from indigo to white as he grew nearer.

Malachi’s gaze swept over my body, an aura similar to Devin’s surrounding him, only much darker. I covered the tightening of my nipples under his look of approval. Uncertain what might happen when an immortal got angry, and what had caused my mate to be so furious, I retreated from the doorway.

Devin’s smile faded. He cocked his head as he cracked the door open farther and stepped inside. “There’s no need to fear me, my love. My anger is not for you. You feel it now, don’t you?”

I nodded and forced myself to remain still while he closed the distance. His energy popped and crackled as it made contact with my skin. I half expected lightning to shoot from his fingertips with the intensity.

He pressed his cheek to mine, beginning a cascade of shivers through my body.

“You’re so warm now.” I leaned away and stared at him with narrowed eyes. “Why are you warm? And where am I? How did I get here?”

He placed a loving kiss on my forehead. “I know you’re confused. Allow me to send Malachi on his way. I’ll get you a drink to restore your energy and explain everything. I promise.”

My gaze searched deep into his for answers as he scooped me into his arms and settled me into the bed, but I found his eyes guarded and unreadable.

“You’re hiding something from me. You’ve shut me out somehow.” I pressed palms over my eyes and groaned. “I don’t understand any of this. I felt your anger as if it were my own. I know I should be able to hear what you’re thinking, but you’re keeping me out. How is any of that even possible?”

“Wait for me.” Devin brushed a tangle of hair away from my face. “I’ll return in a moment.”

As he walked away and shut the door behind him, a new tightness clung to my chest. Something was wrong, but what?

Muffled voices rose up from the silence again. I strained to hear but only made out the fractious tone, not the words. Was I in Devin’s house? If so, why was Malachi there? I clamped a hand over my mouth to keep in any sound that might escape. Had I broken the rules? Would Malachi order Devin to punish me? He wouldn’t really flog me…would he?

Shit!

I crawled out of bed and pulled open a door beside the headboard, hoping for a closet, but finding a bathroom instead. There were no dressers in the room, only a robe hanging on the inside of the door to the en-suite.

The voices continued to battle, and a glance at the exit Devin had gone through confirmed it remained closed. I grabbed the black robe and wrapped it around my body. His scent surrounded me, but I shook off the desire threatening to render me into a cat in heat and looked for another way to escape. Flashes of memory from my time at the Circle drifted through my thoughts, the never ending orgasm that we all seemed to share in, the white nowhere we’d played in.

Was that why Devin felt warm and why he glowed like an angel?

My hands trembled like an addict too far from her fix. I shook them out and took a few breaths so I could think.

Panic and dread waited in the background for me to embrace it. I needed to get away from there and go home so I could think over what I’d done.

A tiny bit of light filtered around the heavy black curtains at the window. Pulse jumping, I tiptoed to the wall and shoved the fabric aside. Street lamps illuminated a circular driveway, and floodlights cast a yellow glow against the white mansion. I was still at number one Cornet Drive. At least Devin hadn’t put me on the third floor.

My fingers worked the latch on the window and slid it across with a whisper. Holding my robe closed with one hand, I lifted my leg and straddled the sill.

“What are you doing, Katharine?”

Devin’s voice—steeped with hurt—sent a jolt of electricity up my spine until it ignited at the crown of my head. His fingers wrapped around my upper arm, holding tight, but not hurting.

I closed my eyes, my lungs straining as if all the air had gone from the room. “I thought …”

“You thought I was going to beat you.” He uttered something low that might have been a curse. “I told you my anger wasn’t for you.” Devin looped his arms around my waist and lifted me out of the window. He pulled me into his arms and held me close, stroking his fingers over my hair. “Malachi and I just had…a disagreement.”

Taken by the comfort in his embrace and his unique smell, I molded my body to his and buried my face in his collar. “He wants you to hurt me, though, doesn’t he? Because I disobeyed you.”

Devin stiffened. “Not exactly, but we won’t talk about that now. You need to rest, and you must have questions.” He guided me back to the bed and sat me against the headboard. From the night stand, he retrieved the same kind of bottle with blue liquid that he’d left in my fridge a week before.

I sucked on the straw, savoring the sweet symphony in my mouth. After I’d downed half the bottle, Devin set it back on the table.

“What is that stuff?” I licked the flavor from my lips, its electric charge dancing through my flesh. “It’s so good.”

He grinned. “Trade secret.” His eyes took on a warm glow as he stared at me. “Feeling better?”

Was I? “Physically, I suppose I have more energy.” I averted my gaze to stare at my fingers tangled into the duvet.

“You’re still afraid of me.” The sad tone in his voice squeezed my heart.

“I’m not afraid of you, Devin. I’m afraid of—” I pointed at the door where Malachi had been. “—what we did together, the three of us.” I glanced at him through strands of my hair. “What did we do? And what will happen to us now? Why are you glowing like a god about to unleash a lightning storm?”

He unbuttoned his shirt, kicked off his shoes, and crawled into bed with me. “Come here.”

I hesitated for a moment before allowing him to pull me on top of him and push the robe down my shoulders. His fingers tickled up and down my back, his new furnace-like heat wrapping me in comfort.

I shivered and settled down against him. “Why do I get the feeling you’re trying to distract me?”

A half-hearted chuckle met my ears. “Is it working?”

I raised my face. “What are you hiding from me? What did we do?”

“Our souls are bound, tied together as one. What happens to one will happen to the other.” He grasped my face as if I might try to bolt. “You are mine for all time.”

I scrambled out of his arms, gasping, and jumped off the bed. “Are you saying…?” I paced to the window and back, fingers shoved into my hair to keep it away from my face. The word wouldn’t come out. I stopped in front of Devin, where he’d moved to sit at the side of the bed.

“You are bound to my immortal soul, so yes, I’ve made you immortal. Young as you are until one of us meets death somehow. When I am reborn, so shall you be.”

My hands shot out for something to hold onto as my knees protested my will to stand, but I found nothing. Before they gave out, Devin caught me around my waist and held tight.

“I can’t—how…?” I shook my head. “And what happened in the Circle, the light, the fact that we all shared a single orgasm, what was that?” My voice had degraded to a strained whisper.

“You let go for the first time in your life, Katharine. With our combined energies and the opening of your mind, we all ascended to a new level of awareness, one beyond this time and place, beyond our bodies and the confines of our brains. Those of us closest to you that night have gained power, some extra senses and abilities we didn’t have before. You are the gateway to our evolution.” His tone held a mixture of awe and regret. “At least that’s what Malachi believes.”

I shook my head and wrestled free of his grasp. “I need—I want to go home now.” My palms pressed over my eyes. “I need some time to think this through without you to distract me.” Sudden fire burned through my blood. I clenched my fists and glared at him. “How could you make me immortal? Why the fuck didn’t you tell me that’s what it all meant? I don’t want to live forever, Devin. How do we undo it?”

Devin’s mouth opened and closed, a frown settling into his features. “I thought it would make you happy to remain young. I thought you wanted to be with me.”

“Be with you? A lifetime is one thing, but eternity— God, I can’t even comprehend what that means!” I roared. I snatched the robe up from the bed and headed to the door, but he beat me there and stood in front of it.

“You can’t go home.” He held his palms out in a stop gesture.

My heart thudded. I swallowed and slipped the robe on. “Why not? You can’t keep me prisoner here!”

“No, it’s not that.” His arms flopped to his sides. “Your mother …she had all of your things removed, and another is living there now. She has also frozen all of your financial accounts pending a law suit.”

“She—what?” My tone flew into a shriek. “How long have I been here?”

“It’s Tuesday evening. You’ve been sleeping since early Saturday morning. My energy sustained you, which is why you aren’t weaker or more parched. I woke up only this morning.”

I maneuvered to the bed and flumped down on it. My mind spun in useless circles. “But…where’s all my stuff now? Are you saying I can’t get to any of my money? Shit, my laptop. Where’s my laptop?” How could she have done that? My teeth clicked together. How had I gone from a famous author to a destitute immortal whore? What would I do? Where would I live? How would I pay the bills?

Devin knelt in front of me and cradled my hands in his. “I’ve had one of my brethren break into the storage facility and retrieve everything. He has taken it to my house for safe keeping.” His gaze searched mine until I squirmed under its intensity. “Stay with me. I love you, and we belong together. Let me take care of you.”

It was all too much. Wetness filled my eyes until it streamed down my face in an endless river.

Devin picked me up and wrapped me in the duvet. “Let’s get out of here and we’ll figure this out, I promise.”

We emerged into the night out of a door at the back of the building. Air, heavy with dew, added to the moisture on my face and carried the scent of pine. Devin scanned the darkness before he trotted down the steps with ease, as if I weighed no more than an empty shirt.

Why had he done that? Were we not supposed to leave?

He transferred me to rest over his shoulder as we neared a black sedan with dark tinted windows. After opening the passenger side door, he deposited me on the seat.

“Where are you going, Brother?” Malachi appeared behind Devin. Both of us jumped.

Devin shut the door, sealing me inside, before turning to his sovereign. My eternal husband spoke softly, but I strained to listen. “I told you I’d return her Friday evening after she’s had time to recover.”

“She must remain here where we can guard her. Why are you resisting this? You know it’s for the good of our kind.” Malachi’s flaming eyes darted to me and back to Devin.

“She is mine, and I will guard her. I will discuss this with you no further.” Devin disappeared and flashed into existence inside the car beside me. A tiny scream made it up my throat at his sudden movement and the blue light that shone beneath his skin again. The engine roared to life. We sped away from the building.

I must have been holding my breath because my next inhale came as a gulping cough. Cold wrapped my spine. “Tell me what’s going on. Why did he want me to stay there?”

Devin gripped the steering wheel until his fingers turned white.

“Devin?” I leaned toward him and grabbed his arm. “Tell me what’s going on!”

He pounded a fist against the wheel. “You are part of the Circle now, so he is your sovereign, too, and must be obeyed. He doesn’t— He believes I’m not strong enough to push you beyond your limits. He wants you to take us higher.”

I pulled the blanket away from my shoulders, a sense of suffocation settling over me. “It’s because I resisted your commands that night, isn’t it?”

Devin nodded. “Partly. He demands to have you in his private chamber once you’re recovered. Without me.” A growl filled the car, and we sped faster down the wooded road.

My hand latched onto the door handle for support. “But…you won’t let him, right?” Even as I said it, I knew Devin didn’t have a choice any more than I did. “I won’t go, not without you. Let’s go away together, somewhere he won’t find us.” My pathetic pleading came out sounding like a child begging to stay home from school.

“Don’t you think I’d do that if it was possible?” His rage-filled tone sliced me to the core. “All of the immortals in the Circle are metaphysically linked to our sovereign. He need only think about me and could teleport to my location at will. The same goes for you since he’s indulged in your…delicacies.”

“Are you saying you’re just going to hand me over to him to…do what exactly? You said push me beyond my limits. Does that mean he’s going to hurt me?” I shook my head, thoughts crashing around my mind. I pounded a fist against his shoulder. “I trusted you!”

“I’m sorry.” His apologetic tone did nothing to comfort me.

Silence fell over us except for my sporadic sobs.