Demon Crossings (18 page)

“It’s all about bloodlines. Lois is getting older and we need a witch to replace her.” He sighed and didn’t quite meet her eyes. “My parents signed a betrothal contract when I was still in the womb. I’ve never met my fiancée. She’ll come here when she turns twenty-five. Two more years. Until then, I choose.”

“Aiden said the magic of Asgard makes sure all of the roles are filled.”

“It’s always worked that way in the past but there are too few of us now. We’ll have to merge in the next decade or so. For now, we do what we need to in order to survive. Don’t look at me like that, Grace. I’m not upset about this, why should you be?”

She didn’t have an answer for that and she’d just yelled at him for prying into her life.

“You don’t need to worry about Aiden,” she told him. “He hasn’t asked me to stay. He’s completely focused on getting his daughter back and I know he’ll have his hands full when we come home. I’m just…” She looked out over the fields at the storm clouds overtaking the setting sun. The wind was picking up, drying the sweat on her face. “It’s just a way to take our minds off what’s coming, that’s all.”

A funny look crossed Christian’s face and he pushed her toward the house. “Well, if you do decide to stick around, I’ll train you. I don’t have the same problem as Aiden.” He grinned wickedly. “I’m not afraid to hurt you. You’ll get a better lesson from me.”

She punched his shoulder and he dodged, waving as he headed toward his car. She walked to the house as he drove off, wondering what she’d say to Aiden when she got inside. But she didn’t have to worry about it.

A note on the countertop said that a group of huntsmen from the Ozark clan had agreed to help them. They’d come into town and Aiden had gone to see them settled. There was still the casserole in the refrigerator from Lois and he’d be late.
Get some sleep.

As if. Grace never seemed to be able to fall asleep anymore unless he was lying beside her.

She was reading the small, neatly leather bound journal Aiden had given her that morning. He was still outside even though a storm that had rolled in last night had stuck around all day. The sky was dark and in the distance she could hear the dull rumble of thunder.

Unfortunate timing, that. She’d just finished up a section on the giants, or Jötunn, and all she could think about was the chest deep roar of those long dead creatures. This was a textbook, a history lesson taught at the local elementary school complete with colored illustrations. On the inside cover, a five year old Aiden had painstakingly printed his name in capital letters.

The fire demons were in there. The Wild Hunt was too, led by a white-bearded Odin who carried a sword startlingly similar to the one she’d seen Aiden use. The hounds and the twin ravens. Asgard. Aiden and the others kept insisting that was where she came from too but it was too strange. She couldn’t wrap her head around it.

Rubbing her eyes, she glanced out the window. The first fat drops were falling straight and heavy to the earth. She could feel the electric lift to the air. Aiden should be coming home soon. It was a lonely house when he was gone. Quiet and neat, with the small clock on the mantel ticking off the seconds. He’d lived here by himself for a long time. Sometimes when they were alone, she would feel him watching her, but he never seemed to mind her presence and she liked staying here. There was something restful about the place, about him, that set her at ease. More so than anywhere she’d lived before.

Definitely more than her condo in St. Louis.

She reached over and flicked on the light. The back door opened and she resisted the urge to get up, go to him. She kept reading even though she wasn’t really processing the words. Jotunheimr. Midgard. Asgard, the Æsir’s ruined home world. Hel…

She heard the cabinet close and a minute later, she knew he was there. Sometimes, he moved silently around the old house and she couldn’t figure out how he did it with all the creaky boards. She looked up.

His hair was wet, as if it had been plastered to his head and then he’d run a hand through it. His jeans were filthy and his T shirt was spattered with raindrops. She tried not to stare at the way it clung to his torso.

The corner of his mouth edged up in a smile. “Interesting reading?”

“If you like fairytales.” She closed the book and set it aside.

“Except in this case, the fairytales are real.”

“Some of them anyway.”

He shook his head and a few drops scattered from his hair. “How can you still doubt it?”

“Fire demons, Asgard and the hunt—they’re real, I can’t deny that. The rest?” She shrugged. “I’d rather see with my own eyes.”

“Always a skeptic.” He looked at her for a minute as if trying to make up his mind about something. “Do you mind getting a little wet? There’s something I’d like to show you.”

She didn’t think he was looking to terrify her into accepting his reality this time. He seemed worn out and a little ragged. Whatever demons had been gnawing at him yesterday during their lesson were gone, but they’d taken a toll. She wanted to be with him. “Do I need to get changed?”

She stood and his eyes swept over her. Goose bumps rose on her bare skin. There was a cut on his arm, shallow and dry from the inside of his elbow straight down to his wrist.
Human enough after all.

“You should be fine,” he told her. “Wear boots though. We’ll have to take the horse. I’ll go saddle him.”

She tugged on her boots and headed outside, jumping when a bolt of lightning split the sky. She trusted him. He wouldn’t take her out riding in the storm if it wasn’t safe.

When she opened the back door, Aiden was walking through the rain toward her on his huge black horse. “We won’t be struck. We’re never struck. If you get close enough to a bolt you’ll feel the charge for hours but it won’t hurt you. There’s nothing like it.”

She paused. “This isn’t a test is it? To find out exactly how human I am?”

“You survived the crossing. If you’re Æsir enough for that, you’re Æsir enough for this too. Come on.” His mouth tilted in a little smile and her stomach flipped. “You trust me, don’t you?”

His hand swallowed hers up when he pulled her behind him. She wrapped her arms around his waist. The rain fell soft and thick, and the water running down her face was warm. “Won’t the storm scare the horse?”

“They’re Asgard stock. Stronger, braver, hardier than the horses you’re used to.”

“I’m not used to any kind of horses.”

He glanced back, eyes glinting with amusement. She wasn’t joking. She’d never even had a pet. He turned toward the woods. She liked feeling the flex of his body like this, strong and so perfectly balanced. She liked having an excuse to hold him. To splay her hands on taut muscle and press her nose right to his skin. They’d shared a bed the last few nights but during the day he was gone, making these moments precious to her.

He brought them to the lake surrounded on all sides by Æsir land. They were at the highest point, on some cliffs overlooking the black water. She could feel the fault now, though they were still a fair distance away. Lightning cracked through the clouds over their heads but this time it stayed in the clouds. Aiden dismounted and dropped the reins before lifting his arms to catch her. Her body slid down his in one long delicious stroke of sensation. She clung to him for a moment, letting his heat seep through her damp clothes. She never got tired of touching him and would have been content to stand there for a while longer doing just that. But apparently that wasn’t the plan. Aiden caught her hand and pulled her to the cliff’s edge.

He bent his head so close, his breath fanned across her cheek. “Look.”

It was worth the trip, even in the rain. The water reflected silver-blue and black beneath the shuddering sky. A wolf howled somewhere in the distance and she wondered if it was one of the hounds.

“It’s beautiful.”

A rumble deep in his chest that might have been amusement or exasperation. He shook her shoulder. “Look.”

She looked down at the lake where he was pointing, then stared. It wasn’t a reflection. The lights were in the water, twisting under the surface, glowing as if touched by moonlight.

Maybe it was like the horses. If they’d brought one thing with them from the other side, maybe they’d brought more. “Is it…are they fish?”

“The algae that feeds the fish.”

He released her and pulled his shirt over his head, letting it fall to the rock in a sodden heap. Lightning slivered down to the earth nearby and lit up his face for a second. It made him look strange to her, darkened his eyes and made his smile sharp and a little wild. “Want to go for a swim?”

She stepped back when he tugged down his pants. She couldn’t see much, the gleam of water on skin, slick and hard. She shook her head. “In a lightning storm? I believe you that it won’t hurt you but—”

“You’re one of us, Grace. I can prove it to you. It’s not a test but you can trust me.” He held out his hand. That steady, rock hard hand that could wield a sword as if it was a part of him or touch her so gently she could lose herself in the sweep of his fingers over her body. “Do you trust me?”

Not a test her ass. But she wanted to know the truth. She was tired of hiding. Sitting on an outcrop of rock to take off her boots, she said, “I can’t believe I’m doing this. What if you’re wrong?”

“I’m not wrong.”

Feeling unaccountably shy, she looked at him before she reached back to unhook her bra. It seemed very intimate even here in the near dark. Even though he’d already seen every part of her. The way he watched her, so still and intent, made her hesitate before letting the straps slide down her arms.

His quick hiss of indrawn breath raised goose bumps on her arms as she kicked free of her panties.

“You’re beautiful.” He gave a shaky laugh. “But I suppose you know that.”

Not until he said it like that, all breathless and wanting. Sure, she knew she was attractive to men and she used it when she needed to. But the way Aiden’s gaze burned over her body,
that
made her beautiful.

Thunder rolled overhead and he glanced up again, gauging the movement of the storm and…he did something. To anyone else, it would have looked like he just lifted his hand but she felt a surge of energy from him that almost knocked her back a step. It was similar to the snap of power she’d felt when the portal split open.

“What was that?”

He gave her that reckless smile again and took her hand. “Setting the mood.”

The wind picked up, driving in the opposite direction of the storm, and the cloud mass started to curve back on itself. While she stared, he drew her over to the edge of the cliff and without any warning, jumped over, pulling her with him. She lost his hand when they hit the water.

When she opened her eyes, she was surrounded by the blue-tinged light, everywhere. From above, the algae had looked like it was floating on the surface. Maybe their jump disturbed it because, down here, she saw that it was layered throughout the water.

She kicked up to where Aiden waited for her. His skin was covered with the stuff. Literally, he was glowing. “I forgot to ask if you could swim.”

For an answer, she pulled her legs up, planted her feet on his torso and pushed off, spiraling back under, feeling him follow. His hand brushed her calf and she pushed through the water with her hands, going deeper, wanting to see what the algae looked like from the bottom. She folded her legs in and turned, drifting to a stop. Aiden was there. His big body moving easily. His hair fanned out around his head and his hand reached for her. She spread her fingers wide and their palms touched. His fingers twined through hers but he didn’t pull her any closer. He just looked at her. At her face, her breasts, the whole length of her body. His hot gaze touching every exposed part of her. There was hunger in his eyes but restraint too. Part of the reason she loved having sex with him was that just for a minute at the end there, that restraint was gone.

She’d need air soon but she held it until her lungs started to burn. She wanted the algae to settle back into place and it was, drifting lazily toward the top.

She felt the thunder in her chest. The quick pull and heavy percussion like the blow of a hammer. Lightning. It had hit the water. She pushed up but Aiden grabbed her, holding her down. Light flared in a white-blue ripple through the algae. Too quick for her to react.

It hit her, sparking through and lighting her up from the inside. She was on fire. It pulled her outside of her body and then slammed her back in, all the pieces rearranged. Her eyes flared wide and she stared at Aiden. Saw the same shocked elation on his face she felt on her own. And then he pushed off the bottom and they shot toward the surface.

She gasped and he dragged her in close. “You’re all right.”

She smacked his chest. “I thought you knew. What happened to ‘trust me you’re one of us’?”

“I
was
sure or I wouldn’t have brought you. But…”

Their legs tangled as they tried to keep their heads above water. “But what?”

The hair on his legs was soft. The bob of his penis when it hit her thigh felt so fragile. She shouldn’t mention that to him probably.

He was frowning. A wet strand of hair caught in her mouth and he pulled it aside. “I don’t want anything to happen to you, even by mistake.”

She smiled. He was worried about her? She kicked forward and kissed him, fast and light. “I’m fine. No harm, no foul.”

She wasn’t an idiot. She’d known the risk when she decided to follow him into the water. And now she knew for sure. She wasn’t human, at least not completely. All this time trying to be normal when she was something else altogether. She
was
Æsir.

“The hounds said I smelled human.”

His arms tightened around her. “Fen needs a leash. Don’t let the hounds think they can go around smelling you whenever they want. They’ve got no concept of boundaries. And you are human but you’re Æsir too.”

Whatever she was, she felt pretty freaking invincible right then. Aiden must have seen it on her face because his frown disappeared. He licked a droplet of water from her cheek and then nipped at her jaw line. She jerked back, startled. He tugged her under the water and then shot away from her, sleek as a seal just as another bolt shuddered through the water.

She knew where he was, always. Even in the dark, underwater. It was more than her gift, as if he was marked on her heart. The lightning hit her, this one closer, and she rode it out, closing her eyes tightly and drifting to the top, finding herself in Aiden’s arms when she opened them again. She kissed him, licking the water from his lips, swallowing his laughter.

They played like kids, except she’d never played like this even when she was little. Laughing, kicking, dunking each other in the water and splashing away. He stayed with her as they swam, brushing against her arm, her hip. Every once in a while lightning flashed in the distance and she caught a glimpse of him. Heavy shoulders, strong arms slicing through the water. Her arms were starting to get heavy but she didn’t want to give this up.

Aiden caught her and touched her cheek. “It’s not all bad here.”

She couldn’t see his expression clearly. The storm was passing and with it, the light faded from the algae. They’d moved into shallower water. Aiden was standing but she could barely touch the sandy bottom with her toes. She held on to his shoulders and he cupped her ass, sliding her down his abdomen until she bumped against his erect cock.

“Not bad at all,” she whispered, and he kissed her.

When she wrapped her legs around his waist, he ran his hands over her thighs, kneading them gently then notching his thumbs to the bend at the top. He let her ride him, locking his legs while she stroked herself up and down the length of his hard cock. She slipped her hand between their bodies and wrapped her hand around him, guiding him inside. When she had him where she wanted him, she lifted her hands to his shoulders. The water had cooled along with the air. Her skin above the waterline was covered with goose bumps, but Aiden was so hot inside of her, slowly stretching her, filling her up.