A Kiss of Magic: A Kiss of Magic Book One (22 page)

He burrowed beneath the covers with her, his hand running down the knobby length of her spine, touching and caressing each little bump and hollow. He marveled as he began to grow hard just from that simple a touch. Very hard. He pressed his hips forward, his length settling along the crease between her buttocks. His hand slid around to the nest of curls at the apex of her thighs. He dipped his fingers past them, burrowing them into the damp warmth he found there. The moment the pad of his finger stroked over the tight little bud of nerves nestled there between her nether lips, her eyes flew open. He watched her pretty face as she adjusted to wakefulness. The soft curves of her cheeks, the slope of her forehead. The dainty crest of her chin and the thick dark lashes that framed fathomless blue eyes.

“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice caught with sleep still.

“I should think that was obvious,” he said with a chuckle.

“Well, I mean—of course it’s obvious. But…”

“Don’t you like when I touch you?” he asked, giving her an expert stroke.

She gasped lightly, squirmed, pressing her backside back against him. He thought of how easy it would be to part her legs and thrust into her from behind like that.

“You have such a delectable body. Such mouth-watering curves and such responsive nerves…I cannot help but touch you. Even when you are asleep.

She sighed out a huff of exasperation. “How am I supposed to sleep like this?”

He grinned against her ear before whispering, “You’re not.”

His hand on her mound provided counterforce and he thrust up against her from behind. Then he reached for her thigh and pulled her open slightly, shifted his hips and allowed his jutting length to slide through her moist folds from behind.

“I have not taken you from behind yet,” he noted on a purr of intensity. “I like to look at your face too much. The way the color comes to your cheeks…the way your eyes dilate with need. God! Can you feel how hard you make me without even trying?”

She nodded silently and instinctively thrust her bottom against him. Dendri found her entrance with ease and slowly worked his way inside of her.

“The room is so cold,” he said, “but you are so hot.”

She shivered as he embraced her breast with a kneading palm, his fingers tugging and pulling at her nipple until she moaned. She burrowed back tighter against him, drawing him all the way into her devouring body. Once he was fully seated inside of her he paused to catch his breath a moment.

“Have I mentioned,” he murmured against her ear, “how beautiful you are?”

“You may have mentioned it once or twice,” she said breathily.

“Is that all?” He bent his head and kissed the side of her neck. Then he licked a line of kisses down the entire length of it as he spoke all along. “You have the most graceful neck. Like that of a sana bird. Feathers of ebony gleaming in the sunlight…much like your hair as it rests against this gorgeous neck.”

He thrust up into her in tiny, shallow thrusts and she continued to wriggle back against him. Until he chuckled. “So impatient? In a hurry to get back to sleep?”

“No,” she breathed. “You’re just driving me mad. I’m so hot,” she fretted.

“Yes. You are.” His fingertips glided back down her belly and buried themselves once again in her silky black curls. He stroked his touch until he could feel the place where their bodies were joined, could feel his hardness sliding in and out of her soft, wet core.

It excited him to no end to feel that connection. To feel the damp readiness of her body as she accepted him. He was a brute, invading her thickly, and she took every inch of it with gentle equanimity.

“Do you want me to come inside of you,” he whispered against that delicate ear. “Or shall I pull out just at the very end and spend myself all over this perfect warm skin?”

He began to thrust harder into her, the images his own words conjured up exciting him all the more. Her only response, however, was a long low moan.

“Tell me,” he whispered into her ear. “Tell me.”

“Can’t I have both?” she asked in frustration.

He laughed, his fingertips swirling and stroking against her clitoris on erotic sweeps. She was close. He could feel it.

“Not today,” he said. “We don’t have time.”

At that she stilled and looked over her shoulder at him. Damn it, he shouldn’t have reminded her. He may as well have thrown cold water on her.

“Shh,” he soothed her, taking her mouth in a deep, drugging kiss. She responded until she was soft, warm and willing once more. “There’ll be time for worry later, sweetheart. For now,…let me have you.”

He kissed her again and then again, wrapping her up in a blanket of passion. Making certain she was thinking of nothing but being there with him. Of making love with him.

But he could get no force, no true penetration out of the position they were in so he rolled her onto her belly, drew back her hips and knelt behind her. He returned to her with a bone jarring thrust, taking their coupling from a soft easy passion to something hot and hard. Demanding. As he began a slow, drilling rhythm she came up on her hands and pushed back against him so that every time they met it was deep as could possibly be.

He couldn’t see her face, and it frustrated him. He tolerated it though as she tightened her muscles around him purposely, clutching at him. He felt a familiar, burning sensation in his groin, the pulsing need to come. But he wouldn’t. Not yet. He had started this with the intention of making a lasting impression on her and damn it that was exactly what he was going to do.

He made her come. Hard. She shouted out between the pleasure of having him thrusting into her and the stroking of his wicked fingers against her. Then he turned her onto her side, hooked one of her thighs over his hip, held it with one hand while the other smoothed up along the length of her body. Now he could see her face. She was flushed and rosy, her face sated and sweet. He began to work into her mind, stroking along her thoughts, stimulating the proper nerve centers in just the right way. It was a delicate process. Pain and pleasure centers were so close to one another. One wrong thought…one wrong move and the entire situation would fall apart.

She was over sensitized by the time he took hold of her breast, making her gasp. His nails scraped at her nipple and she launched into another orgasm. She cried out his name. Just that one single word and it was so sweet on her lips. Rasping out of her throat. Again the urge to finish crept over him. Again he pushed it aside. But it was getting harder to do so, he recognized. He would finish soon. Very soon.

Her turned her one last time, moving her onto her back, lifting her legs until one knee was in the crook of one of his elbows and he was pushing hard against her as he stretched her wide. His free hand swept her skin, feeling the moisture of her perspiration, reaching up to caress her lips right before he leaned in and caught her mouth in a series of blistering kisses. She gasped and moaned into his mouth as his mind and body continued to pleasure her. He could tell she was blindly following the pleasurable sensations. Straining to make it more than what it was. She reached to touch him on his chest, her other fingers threading into his damp hair.

“Come,” she demanded of him.

His lips curved into a smile.

“You still haven’t told me where.”

“It’s your pleasure. It’s your choice,” she rasped.

“Hmm. I prefer to think of it as
our
pleasure.”

“Whatever! Just make your choice and come!”

“So demanding. So impatient.”

“Dendri I can’t take much more of this!” she cried.

He smiled at her, leaned close to her so their mouths touched and said, “Yes you can.”

She exploded into orgasm an instant later, her body reaching…straining…her cry almost painful in sound. Despite his words he knew she was wrung out, that she had reached her tipping point. He rode the wave of her pleasure with hard, punctuating thrusts, letting the need build inside of himself as her body drew in his. The closer he got the harder he got. Until he was heavy and stretching and ready.

He came with a roar, thrusting deep into her and holding himself still and deep and deep and deep. Ejaculate burst out of him in wild measure, pulsing and draining until he felt every muscle was engaged in the effort.

Then it was over and he was dropping over her, gasping for breath with her, barely aware that he had made her come yet again.

They lay there a long while, a limp pile of sated limbs, trying to catch their breath. Then he rolled away from her, separating their bodies, momentarily frowning at the sensation of loss that came with the disconnection. He gathered her close, pressing light kisses all along her forehead, cheeks and lips. Eventually her breath regulated. Slowed.

“Be careful,” she murmured.

Then she fell asleep.

Chapter Seventeen

Dendri, Ky and Jal rode the entire day. It was unnerving to see just how close to the capitol Delongo was. A day’s ride—about two day’s march—was not far at all. But Delongo had not made moves toward the capitol, instead circling it slowly, pillaging the villages and towns in a perfect circumference. They had just taken over a town called Vannendale the day before, entrenching themselves in the buildings of the town.

Delongo, from what they could see at a distance in the dark, was holed up in the Vannendale Inn. It was the central building and it was by far the most comfortable in the town. Multiple beds provided adequate shelter and comfort for Delongo and all of his most trusted men.

If such men could ever be trusted.

The best time to go after Delongo was when he was asleep. When his guard was down and his defenses were for naught. But sensing such a moment could give Dendri away. Just the act of sensing if he was asleep could alert him to their presence.

So the best thing to do would be to enter the mind of another close to him. One close enough to see him fall asleep. But selecting such a person would be tricky. Any halfway decent majji would know they were being invaded. One of the first things they learned was how to keep others out. Just as he had taught Yasra to keep others out. She was not yet strong enough to sense when someone was making a purposeful intrusion, but that was a short time in coming.

So that meant a non. But if Delongo were wise, he wouldn’t be keeping any nons that close to him. And Delongo was anything but stupid.

“I can go in there as smoke,” Jal said.

“No. You would be seen or smelled.”

“They’re bound to be cooking something,” he argued. “Or have a fire in the hearth. They could easily mistake me for burning wood.”

Dendri thought about that a moment. Not all Torrenic majji could turn into smoke. It was a very advanced skill only high level majji could master.

“But smoke or no, you’ll still have your thoughts. He’ll be able to sense any bad intent toward him. You won’t have the mental control to keep from being detected.”

“So we need a non in there. But how do we get that?”

“I can’t just skip through minds searching for the right one. I’ll be detected,” Dendri said. “I need someone to come out of that building that I can see…and hope they go back in.”

“That could take all night.”

“Perhaps. But I can read a non’s intent easily. I can sense if they are planning to return to the building. I can sense if they are close to Delongo.”

“And Delongo won’t sense you in their minds?”

“No. As long as I don’t push my will on them and use them only to observe.”

“This is a tricky business.”

“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, Ky,” Dendri said grimly.

“I know. As soon as he’s asleep, you can crush his mind. Give him a stroke or something. Then we’ll go in and mop up some of this mess. There’s a camp full of rogues here.”

“Yeah but you can’t take them all in at once. You’d be outnumbered. Focus on getting the main lieutenants. The ones in the building with him. The triumvirate has given us permission to kill them with impunity. The rest of these,” he said indicating the camp, “we’ll have to gather together at a later date. Get them to face justice. Keep you rogue hunters busy for a while.”

“Good. Nothing worse than being bored and out of work,” Ky quipped.

“I’d prefer to be out of work,” Jal said. “Then it means none of these bastards are out there hurting innocent people.”

“True. Forgive me,” Ky said with a wince.

“No. You love the hunt. There’s nothing wrong with that,” Jal said. “I know the feeling well.”

“Still, you’re right. I’d be nice to have to find another line of work.”

“Maybe we’ll reform and become diplomats like Dendri here.”

Dendri chuckled. “You? A diplomat? Jal, you can’t be bothered to say hello to people. In fact, I think you once said you hate people.”

“Sounds like something I would say,” Jal agreed grimly.

“Look. There’s someone. Non clothing. I’ve seen her go in and out of the building twice.”

“Poor kid. She looks scared to death,” Dendri said, anger lacing his tone, but he controlled the emotion. He would have to be completely placid for this to work. Calm and cool. Unobtrusive. A passenger not a conductor. “Stay quiet. I need to focus.”

The other majji nodded.

Dendri focused on the girl. Gently he read her thoughts, not entering her mind fully as yet. He wanted to make certain she would be returning to the building at a later time. She would be. She was frightened, had been victimized, and had only been allowed escape to run an errand for the men inside.

I don’t want to go back! I saw what they did to Ayyla. They’ll do that to me next. Maybe I can run away!

Dendri tried not to react emotionally to the girl’s thoughts. He resisted the urge he had to help her as men in the camp accosted her, coming up to her and trying to grab her or fondle her.

“N-no! I h-have to go back t-to your g-general!” she would cry, using it as a talisman to keep them at bay.

“You’ll be ours soon enough. Once General Delongo gets tired of you,” one of the coarse men said.

General. He was calling himself a general. That had the sounds of someone truly marshaling an army bent on destruction of more than just villages and towns.

I have to run away!
the girl thought.
I have to go!

But she knew she could not possibly make it. Not even in the cover of the night. There was a perimeter of guards all around the town. It would be difficult for even a majji to make it through that perimeter.

Other majji. Not majji like Dendri, Ky and Jal.

Most of the majji on guard were lower level majji. They didn’t score above tenth level if Dendri had his guess. In fact, the camp was full of low level majji. There were even non followers, whores and servants and the like. But Delongo using nons for those purposes would be his downfall. A wiser man would keep away anyone whose mind could be easily controlled by an invading source, but it appeared Delongo’s hubris was getting the better of him, Dendri thought as the girl did her errand and came back toward the inn. He was clearly thinking that any attempt to reach him through a non would be detected by himself or another. More than likely himself. An Aspano that high in level held life and death easily in his hands. It had the potential to make a man feel like a god. Especially a man as arrogant as Delongo was. He knew Delongo very well, their past history writing similar yet different paths for them. They had both known what they were at an incredibly young age. They had both grown into their majic showing high levels of aptitude. They had both outstripped most of their mentors long ago.

Before he had turned to this lawless behavior, Delongo had carried around a thin veneer of civilization. He had been one of the Heddah, the body of representatives and advisors who came from all over the country of Saren. The Heddah were elected into their positions by the people’s districts Saren was divided into. Delongo’s district had elected him at a young age, their respect for his power overwhelming. He was a handsome and dynamic man, reeking of self-confidence and arrogance. It had seemed he would be happy with the voice he had in the government.

But he had quickly become frustrated by the true lack of power the Heddah could have. They could propose dozens of things to the triumvirate, but with unilateral vetoing power, the triumvirate didn’t have to accede to a single one of them.

The Heddah, a group of about fifty men and women, each controlled the armed forces, laborers, trade and taxes of their district. That was where their true power lie. But the district leaders could only make suggestions to the triumvirate who could choose to accept or disregard those suggestions, as they desired. As Heddah to the Granu district, one of the largest and most powerful districts, Delongo had had access to monies and a small army. When he had decided he had had enough of the triumvirate’s power over him, he had taken that money and a good deal of the armed forces and broken away from the district. After a while the decent men in the ranks had deserted the increasingly perverse ranks of Delongo’s army…provided they could get away. There had no doubt been a severe punishment for those caught deserting. The nons of the armed forces may just be following Delongo out of fear of him and the other majji in the ranks.

There was also the matter of the Kiltian war. Many men and women were afraid to fight the powerful Kiltians. They would much rather follow Delongo if it kept them off the front lines of the war. If Delongo was making promises to the effect that they would have glory and riches without having to die in the process, it was no wonder his army was growing.

Dendri focused on the girl as she headed back into the inn. He quieted his mind and hid himself behind her thoughts. He saw everything she saw as she entered the building.

The inn was a wooden structure, something old built many years ago. It was basically a large wooden box with three levels to it. Upon entering, the girl, Henni her name was, saw a large square main room. Directly across from the door, on the far wall, was the taproom and kitchen. On either side of the kitchen were two large fireplaces, which were built up strong and hot, warming the expansive room. There were booth tables lining both the left and right side of the walls and several long wooden tables of varying length and size in the center of the room. There were stairwells to the immediate right and left of the doorway into the inn that led upstairs.

The tables were full of boisterous, drinking men. The only women in the room appeared to be non females, some of whom had been stripped to their waists and were being fondled roughly as they were made to serve the crude majji. These were all powerful majji, Dendri sensed. He did not probe them in any way, but he could feel the majic that ebbed off of them. He could see the auras that limned their bodies. Each house of majic surrounded the majji in a specific color that Dendri could see with his advanced ability. The brightness of that color varied with the amount of power the majji had. These were very bright auras indeed.

Henni had something in her hands. Yes. She had been sent out to fetch a specific bottle of fine wine from one of the plundered stores. All the rest of the wine was currently being put into the soldiers’ bellies, but Delongo had seen that specific ones were put aside for himself and left in the private supply tent Henni had just come from.

She stood in the doorway drinking in the wild scene before her. These men were high on their victory over the defenseless townsfolk of Vannendale. It meant nothing to them that it had been an easy target and they should be ashamed of themselves for their victimization of those more vulnerable than they were. They were bullies and they were bent on the harassment of those weaker than they were.

“You! Girl! Don’t just stand there! Your master awaits you upstairs!” one of the men barked out to Henni as she stood there shaking in fear.

She turned to the stairs to the right and began to climb them, hurrying and then slowing and then hurrying. She couldn’t decide how she wanted to proceed. To go fast to keep from displeasing the general or to go slow to delay the inevitable she would find once she got to his rooms.

She knocked shyly at the door, and then stood shifting her weight nervously from one foot to the other. The door was pulled open so suddenly that Henni jolted in surprise. A man, tall with grey-white hair and two shaggy brows reached out and grabbed her by her arm, jerking her forward into the room. Henni was trembling uncontrollably as she was pushed toward the inside room. There were two rooms connected to one another. In the outer room stood two men—the one who had opened the door and a heavier, shorter man with greasy brown hair and unshaven cheeks. Both men sported the auras of high level Torenic house majji. Torenic house, known as the house with the most powerful offensive abilities, was nothing to fool around with. It made sense that Delongo would protect himself with the sheer firepower of a Torenic house majji.

The connecting room was clearly the bedroom. The front room had a table in it four chairs at the table, one of which was occupied by the man with the greasy hair, and a long sofa with a high back and thin cushion. The tall grey-haired man took a seat on the sofa and indicated to the inside door.

“Well? What are you waiting for?”

Dendri held his breath as Henni, dragging her feet, made her way into the bedroom. Once she was in the doorway, Dendri could see a lone large bed in the center of the room and a dressing table with a mirror in it and a small chair before it. There was a stand with a porcelain pitcher and basin sitting on it.

Delongo crossed into her field of vision from the opposite side of the room and went to the basin. He poured water from the pitcher into it, setting the pitcher down on the small lower shelf below the basin. He then dipped his hands into the water and scrubbed it over his face.

Delongo was a tall man, just shy of Dendri’s own significant height. He kept his auburn hair cut short to the back of his neck and head, with longer length at his forelock. The straight wave of it rested casually against his forehead until he wet his face again and pressed it back with his hands running through his hair, smoothing it wetly into place. He had a roughly handsome face overall, a wide forehead, dark reddish-brown brows and lashes, a blade of a nose, and a squared jaw. He had a full, cruel mouth bordered by a goatee that gleamed with burnished light in the gaslight.