Furious Fire: Grimm's Circle, Book 8 (13 page)

But he had to ask. This one time, he had to ask, and he had to know.

Pressing his cheek to hers, he whispered, “What do you want…after this?”

She turned her face to his. Her mouth was soft, gentle. Then she slid the hand still on his chest over, just a little, until it covered his heart. “This,” she murmured. “When I said I wanted you, I meant all of you. I’m a greedy girl, you foolish man. Don’t you know that? I want you…tonight. I want your heart. Your always. You ask me what’s next…if I had my way, you’d show up at my door tomorrow and tell my father you want to marry me.”

His hand tightened, twisted in the material of her gown. “Becky…” he rasped, shock rushing through him. Shock. Joy. Then… “He’d never allow it.”

“You idiot. He told Mama a month ago if you didn’t ask soon, he just might drag you to the church himself.” She tangled her hands in his shirt, shook him gently. “I’ve refused every suitor who ever came to my door and he always knew why. So did Mama. She doesn’t approve, but Father says she’s forgotten what he was like…one of these days, maybe I’ll tell you how they met. But for now…”

She stepped back and, reluctantly, he let go of her gown. And then, he almost went to his knees, because she’d caught the hem and whipped it over her head. “Now, if you would…” She held out her hand, a blush raging on her face. “I can’t have you changing your mind and running again. It took me too long to make you see the truth as it was. I don’t want anything pulling us apart again.”

He said nothing, simply took the gown from her and spread it out on the ground. Then he caught her up in his arms and laid her down. Coming down on his knees beside her, he looked into her eyes and then he spoke. “Not even death could do that. Not now.”

A smile danced on her lips, but it faded as he lowered his head and brushed a soft kiss against her.

Not her lips, though. The soft, smooth slope of her shoulder. Then the swell of her breast. The fragile sweep of her collarbone. As he learned the delicate swells, the sweet curves, he freed himself from his weapons, leaving them near her head. He didn’t notice where he’d flung his shirt and vest, nor did he care. He didn’t bother to remove his trousers but he fought to tear them open, the aching swell of his cock a torturous form of pleasure.

He settled between her thighs, his lips circling her naval.

Her hands caught and tangled in his hair, though, as he tried to go lower.

“What…” She licked her lips. “What are you doing?”

He flashed her a grin. “You wanted all of me. I think it’s only fair I get the same.”

Her mouth fell open.

He ignored it and kept on moving.

Her startled exclamation quickly became a moan, although she tried to squeeze her thighs together. Difficult, though, as he had her legs draped over his shoulders and her rump in his hands. Sliding one up her knee, he held her in place. “Shh…if you don’t like it,” he whispered, catching the hard nub between his teeth. Her breath caught and then she let out a broken, shaky moan. “I’ll stop.”

He moved lower. When he moved his hand from her knee, she didn’t try to close her thighs. He used his fingers to part her flesh and then he pressed his mouth to hers. “Tell me if you want me to stop, Becky-girl,” he whispered teasingly as she bit back a cry and arched up.

She tasted wild and salty and female. He slid his tongue around her entrance, then pushed inside. Her body quaked and he eased up, replacing his tongue with his fingers. He could taste her all night long, but he wanted—no—
needed
more. He caught her clit again, carefully, teasing the peaked flesh with his teeth, his tongue, applying a light suction and when she started to rock up, meeting his mouth and fingers, he thought he just might have died a little. She was here. With him.

When she started to come, he lowered her hips and stretched out atop her, even as the orgasm shuddered through her body. “What…why…” She blinked up at him, gaze half-blind. “Why are you stopping?”

“I’m not.” He caught one hand, twined their fingers, keeping his weight braced on his elbow. “This will hurt, darling girl. I’m sorry.”

Then, as her gaze started to clear, he used his free hand to grip his cock and settle himself at the hot, wet core of her. He eased in, pleasure licking up his spine at the tight grip of her. Sweat beaded along his brow and he let go of his shaft, reached up to fist his hand in the grass near her hand, trying to find some measure of control.

“That…” She licked her lips. “That’s not so bad.”

A pained laugh escaped him. Pressing a kiss to the delicate skin behind her ear, he whispered, “I’m not quite done, Becky.”

Then he eased out before surging deeper inside, almost halfway.

A startled gasp escaped her as she tensed up.

Eyes closed, he forced himself to ask, “Should I stop?”

“Don’t you dare.” Her nails bit into the skin of his back.

A desperate growl escaped as he withdrew, and with one hard, deep thrust, he buried himself completely inside. At the same time, he covered her mouth with his, swallowing her pained, shock cry. She trembled, shuddered. He kissed, tried to soothe.

“The worst is done,” he said against her mouth, trying not to think about how sweet she felt around him, the wet heat of her a fist around his cock. “The worst is done.”

He lifted his head to look at her. A shaky smile curved her lips. “If that is the worst, then please show me the best.”

“Oh, I intend to.” Catching her lower lip between his teeth, he tugged gently as he started to move, slow and easy, ignoring the urge to plunge deep, ride her as hard and fast as his need rode him. “I intend to do that and so much more, Becky-girl.”

Her eyes locked on his as she smiled, a rich, lush curve of her lips. “Lovely…”

That connection, in that moment, had seared him to his soul.

More than a hundred years later, he could recall that night in vivid, almost painful detail.

Less than a month later, he’d left her.

Two years later, she was lost to him…forever.

Here, now, more than a century and a half later, he stared at another woman, one who was a stranger to him. And he felt that gut-deep connection.

It all but tore out the heart he had no use for.

There were emotions clashing inside him that belonged only to one woman. Setting his jaw, he forced his face into impassive lines and focused on Will. “This isn’t the place for her. If you can’t send her anywhere, then send me…” He gave the demon a shark’s smile. “And that waste of an existence. I’ll deal with it while you find someplace safe for her.”

Will’s only answer, for the longest time, was to lower his head and stare at the floor.

Finn was used to long, brooding silences from that one. The lack of anything verbal didn’t surprise him.

But then, when Will finally did look up and speak,
that
was what shocked him. “She stays,” he said, his tone remote. Almost…bored.

“
What
?” Fire flamed inside Finn and for the first time in over a century, it almost slipped his control. It didn’t just rage under his skin, the flames flickering and rolling like a red wave, but there was steam rising from him and the very air around him began to waver as it became supercharged, superheated.

She can’t die
—

Voices swelled, raged.

He slammed back a flood of memory. No. This wasn’t like those times—
any
of those times. He didn’t know this woman, and all he had to do was convince Will to get her away from this mess, so she wasn’t surrounded by a threat he couldn’t see, yet he sensed with every fiber of his being.

An icy wave slammed against him, a shock of cold that chilled him despite the fire spiraling within.

Will’s voice cut through his mind.

“Don’t. You know what I have to do if you lose control again. Don’t.”

With a vicious pull, he yanked the fire under control. The heat of it all felt like it would burn him to ashes, from the inside out. His own fire couldn’t harm him, a fact he knew all too well. It
did
feel like it would drive him mad.

“This is insane,” he said, his voice hardly more than a growl.

“I can’t leave.” Will focused on the demon. “Our friend has already been missed. They’ll move quicker now, because they’ll know we’re here. I need to focus on bringing others in, not on one lone mortal.”

“One lone mortal.” Finn curled a hand into a fist. “It wasn’t that long ago that you told me when we stop caring about those we failed to protect, then we’re done…tell me, Will…are you done?”

Will’s silver eyes flashed. “If only I had that choice.” Then he focused on the demon. “You, however…are.”

Chapter Ten

It cut me, like a blade. For one moment, he stared at me and I felt a connection that reverberated all the way down to my soul.

In the next moment, as though all the light in him had been eradicated, his features became shuttered and the fiery gold of his eyes became cold.

It hurt.

I couldn’t remember a time in my life—this time or the others—when I felt so thoroughly rejected.

I tried to console myself with the plain and simple truth that he likely didn’t know me. I looked nothing like the girl he’d known—and in truth, I really
wasn’t
her. There were bits and pieces of her
in
me, but each life I’d lived had twisted, fractured, then remade the parts of me.

I was a far cry from that girl.

Then…he’d called me Becky. Another fragment of memory came free and I remembered. I’d been Rebecca and he’d been all I’d ever wanted.

At least that much hadn’t changed.

But everything else had.

I wasn’t her anymore.

I was too hard.

I’d seen too much.

I
knew
too much.

Still, I remembered…and even now, more and more memories broke free. The sound of his voice, teasing me as we raced our horses. Indistinct echoes of another voice, just as teasing—

That face twisted away, out of my grasp before I could lock onto it.

A headache pulsed, making my brain pound with brutal intensity inside my skull. Nausea twisted at me and I let the memories go. If I kept pushing, it wouldn’t help and I couldn’t afford to lose myself any more than I already had.

Dully, I heard voices—one cool, almost icy. Then his, hard, harsh, angry. I shivered at the sound of it. He was close. So close.

So was a demon. The oil-slick, foul feel of it stained the air, cloyed my lungs.

It felt like too many pieces were falling into place. He was here. A demon was here. Did that mean it was time?

Part of me braced for it.

No, I didn’t feel like dancing on the side of a mountain with happiness, but for those few, brief moments as I’d looked at him, I
had
felt…something. He’d looked at me and I could have sworn he’d felt it too.

It was better than nothing. I still wished for that moment of peace I’d come to expect, but it eluded me.

It might not be time yet, but I wasn’t going to bet on anything just then.

One thing was for certain—the demon here wasn’t any threat to me.

As those voices continued to rage, the words still not clicking in my head, I stared at it with a mouth gone dry.

It no longer looked remotely human. I knew the bodies they took over
were
human. Something had to happen inside them, over time, some sort of physiological alteration—I had ideas of a demon X-Men sort of thing…the DNA altering, changing on a cellular level. I don’t know what it was, but something gave them strength beyond what we humans
should
have.

But maybe I wasn’t a fair judge. I was stronger and faster than just about any human I’d ever come across and I had been all my life.

Despite knowing all of that, I had no idea a demon could survive all of this.

My gut wrenched horribly and I was glad it had been a while—probably
too
long—since I’d eaten. Violence doesn’t bother me. I hadn’t been old enough to vote when I killed my first demon this time around and ever since then, my goal in life had been to kill as many as I could, as fast as I could, since I already knew my time in this body was limited.

No, violence didn’t bother me, but that body…

“You son of a bitch, at least get her out of here and let me handle killing it.” Thom’s voice was a vicious, fiery slap against my senses and it forced me to drag my gaze away from the body that was a mess of broken bones, bruises and burns. At least, I thought they were burns. Blackened flesh, and the air smelled of charred meat. The burns stopped at the thing’s knees, exactly at the knees. That was so strange.

Rising from the bed, I started to circle the room, still painfully aware of them arguing.

“—give me
orders
, Finn.”

I blinked at the bladed edge in Will’s voice, at the power that hummed under it. Scary bastard. I slid the two of them a look from the corner of my eye, saw that Thom—no. He seemed to go by Finn now. His last name. Perhaps he’d remade himself too. How…my head started to pound again and I focused once more on the room.

“If you want to drag around another pet mortal, go ahead,” Finn bit off.

It was a good thing I wasn’t facing them because I had to bite my lip to keep from saying anything. Since I still wasn’t sure when my status would go from
annoying nuisance
to
not worthy of life
in Will’s eyes, I’d rather not draw attention to myself.

“But don’t make some mortal who has already been traumatized deal with any more of this madness.”

Still trying to take care of me
. I might have laughed if I could have found the energy. Something on the table tucked up against a door caught my eye. Casually, like I was still on my restless circuit around the room, I made my way over there.

“We don’t have time for this,” Will said and his voice was ice. Pure, chilly ice. “I’m not taking her away from here and when we leave, we leave together. I have bigger concerns on my mind than a woman who was foolish enough to plunge headlong into a world she doesn’t understand. Now, be—”

I tuned them out.

Quick. I had to be quick if I was going to do this.

There was a faint, almost strangled gasp and I watched the demon tense, saw the gleam in its eyes as it saw what I was doing. I didn’t hesitate, lifting the blade.

A moment later, its eyes glazed over and its body went limp.

“Son of a
bitch
!”

Finn’s furious growl shattered the shocked silence as the demon’s incorporeal form wound out from the now lifeless corpse.

Will flicked me a look, barely suppressing his sigh before he spread his hand out.

I didn’t have much time to wonder why because I was too busy backing away from the black maw that had opened up at my feet.

That vaporous, somehow oily mist slid toward me, a plume of putrid evil and I tensed. I knew they couldn’t enter me—they’d tried—but it’s still damn unsettling.

“I don’t think so,” Will murmured and there was a ferocious wrench in the power.

The thing was gone in the next second, that black vortex sucking it up before it disappeared into nothing.

Cocking my head, I studied the floor, warped from heat, covered in things I didn’t want to name—and not just blood. “Whoever got the room, I have a feeling you are going to owe an awful lot more than you originally planned on paying.”

My legs still felt weak and I gave into the urge to sit down. As I did, I put down the long, wickedly curved bowie knife I’d used to skewer the demon. Sitting down…yes, that was nice. My weary body appreciated it very much.

For a few seconds at least. Then a shadow fell across me.

Slowly, I looked up and damn me if my heart didn’t start to race.

Whiskey-gold eyes glittered as Thomas Finn glared at me.

Well, you’re looking at me, at least
.

“You got any idea what could have happened to you just now?”

Thick lashes swept down over her eyes and for a minute, Finn was glad. He should have gotten himself in control, stayed away, tried to talk sense into Will, but that clearly wasn’t happening.

However, getting close to
her
wasn’t doing him any good.

Now that she wasn’t looking at him, some of the fear and fury eased back and he almost turned away.

But then her lashes lifted and she met his gaze levelly. “Oh, I have a better idea than you probably realize.” A faint smile tugged at her lips, a cynical sort of smirk.

As if some puppet master had control of him, Finn found himself looming closer when all he wanted to do was get away. No. That wasn’t what he
wanted
—but that was what he needed to do. That was what common sense and the rational part of him was screaming for him to do. Instead, he was close enough that he could feel the soft caress of her breath disturbing the air currents around him. He caught the scent of her skin and it intensified as the heat coming off him warmed her as well.

She seemed to notice the heat too, and her eyes dropped, lingered on his arms. Flames danced and flickered under his skin in what Finn had come to accept as a warning. Not that he needed it anymore. He knew when he was walking too close to that line. He could be polite and pull it back in,
pretend
to be something a little closer to human.

The reddish shadows danced faster as he curled one hand around the edge of the table, too pissed off to worry about being
polite
. He hadn’t been mortal in too long and there was no reason to pretend around a woman he didn’t know. A
mortal
woman.

“Do you know how
stupid
that was?”

“Oh, stop.” She heaved out a sigh and slumped in the chair, crossing her arms over her chest. “Let me guess, you want to tell me all about how demons can invade human hosts…I’ll save you the trouble.”

She went to stand, moving with swift fluidity that caught him off guard.

Oh, he was faster, but he hadn’t seen a mortal move that fast. Ever.

He hadn’t backed up, though, and now they stood just a few inches away. She was tall. In her bare feet, he’d guess she was five eleven, leaving him with just three inches on her. She tipped her head back to meet his gaze, that maddening, enticing smirk on her face.

Challenging
—

Moonlight, gleaming off her hair. A challenging smile on her face.

“…fuck a prostitute?”

Finn wrapped a choke chain around his memories and forced them to yield. “If you already know what they can do, then it just shows how foolish you are, because you risked your neck, your soul, your very life by killing that thing. You’re the closest body available to him. That is just
another
reason why you can’t be here.”

“Oh, please.” She rolled her eyes and cut around him, moving a few feet closer to Will. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on here. I don’t
want
to know.
Trust
me, I regret trying to pounce on you—”

The flames inside Finn exploded. He savagely shoved the fire inside, although he was now desperate for release. A sudden, blinding image flooded his mind and he curled a hand into a fist as the need to grab her and pull her away from Will all but overwhelmed him.

He didn’t give a damn what Will said. He was now certain he was going mad.

Through the thrum of the blood roaring in his ears, he listened as she continued to talk to Will. “And I’d so take that back if I could, but I also am not, and will not, go through whatever meat-grinder wyrmhole we went through. Get me clothes, get me a car. I’ll drive to St. Louis and pay you back.”

“That would be difficult.” Will flicked Finn a narrow look and then settled his glittering, silver gaze on the dark-haired woman. “You see, we aren’t in America. We aren’t even on the same continent. We’re in Scotland, and you’re quite right—a journey through that…wyrmhole…is out of the question.”

“She can’t stay
here
—”

Finn’s explosion was cut short by the woman’s sharp voice. “Excuse me, did you say
Scotland
?”

“Yeah.” Finn gave her a dark look. “You ready to fly away home? Good. I’ll get you a ticket.”

“Finn, sit down and shut up,” Will said, a steely command underlying his words.

Finn curled his lip and flipped him off.

A slap hit him mentally but he ignored it, glaring at Will. “She can’t
stay
here.”

“You’ve yet to learn you don’t give the orders, lad,” Will warned. Then he gestured to the woman who watched everything with huge, startled eyes. “Finn, this is Kalypso. Kalypso…” There was an odd hesitation before he finished. “This is Finn.”

Now, eyes narrowed, Will focused on Kalypso. “Kalypso, as I was saying, you’re quite right. A journey through the wyrmhole is out of the question. I’m
not
human, neither is he—”

“I figured that with the freaky tattoos.” Kalypso shot Finn another look.

Finn felt that look shoot straight through him, felt it in the pit of his stomach, echo right through his soul, a pang of recognition, of
longing
jolting through him. He wanted to carve her name on his brain.

Not because he wanted to remember
her
, but so that he couldn’t forget who she
wasn’t
. She
wasn’t
the one who had carved her name on his soul lifetimes ago so there was no reason for him to feel this pervasive jealousy, this gut-wrenching need to get her away, far away—

“—found her down near the riverfront in St. Louis.”

Finn whipped his head up as he felt Will’s gaze boring into him.

Will had a silver brow lifted. “She not only recognized an orin…she killed him. Shot him between the eyes before the thing even realized she was a threat.” His mouth twisted in a bitter smile. “I can send her wherever you like. I can send her to the farthest reaches of the planet, but she’ll do as she’s always done, what she’s done for a lifetime. If you want to argue with her, you can do that. But let’s get out of here first. I’m calling others in and we need a base of operations.”

The past and the present kept trying to merge on me. It didn’t help that I was exhausted and kept trying to doze off. My brain felt like it was vibrating inside my skull and my skin was all but crackling from being trapped in a car with these two.

And it
hurt
.

It was almost a physical pain because as I sat huddled in the corner, my gaze locked on the back of Thom’s—
no, he’s not Thom anymore—
Finn’s neck, more memories kept breaking free.

Times when we were children, and he’d taught me to swim.

He’d taught me to shoot. I already knew how to ride, but he’d taught me to how to
fly
.