Master of the Night (11 page)

She hesitated, then sighed. “Yeah, I was. You've got to admit, there's a certain logic in it.”

He went back to work on her slender, knotted muscles. “Where did all this come from?”

She groaned. “Damn, you're good. All what?”

“All that toughness and dedication.”

“I'm not that damn heroic, Champion.” She didn't even open her eyes as he massaged her neck. “I'm just trying to do the job.”

He lifted a brow. “Somehow I don't think fighting demons is in the FBI oath.”

“I'm not FBI anymore. I'm not even Outfit.”

“Very true. Yet here you are, ready to risk your life and your sanity to stop Geirolf. Why is it so damn important to you?”

She opened one eye and turned her head to look at him. “What, preventing the destruction of mankind isn't a good enough reason?”

“Well, yes, but it's such an overwhelming task, most people would have trouble taking it seriously. And I think it's more personal to you than that.”

He felt her narrow shoulders tighten even more under his hands. “I've told you about David.”

“But why were you in the FBI to begin with? You've got to admit, it's not the typical career.”

She hesitated, then shrugged. “I come from a long line of soldiers, that's all. I grew up listening to the propaganda. You know, Semper Fi and all that stuff.”

“Oh?” He started massaging the length of her back, rubbing circles around each fragile vertebra.

“Mmmm. Yeah. My dad was a Marine. He died in the last fighting in Vietnam when I was just a baby. Never got to know him at all.”

“Tough break.”

“A lot of people in my generation caught that particular break, though. And my granddad worked really hard to provide that paternal…whatever. Oh, down some—yeah, that's it.” Her sensual purr had his body tightening, but he ignored it, hungry to hear more of her story.

He wanted to know her, know more about her. He told himself it was because he needed to understand his ally in this unlikely mission. “So your father was a hero.”

Erin nodded. “Though there was a time I didn't see it that way. I was maybe fourteen or so, and we were studying the war in U.S. History class. I ended up railing about it to my granddaddy. Something about old politicians sacrificing young men.”

He made an encouraging noise in his throat as he explored her slim muscles looking for another knot.

“My little anti-war speech didn't sit too well with Granddad.” She shrugged. “Not surprising. I'd known he'd been in the Army during World War II, but what I hadn't known was that he was one of the GIs who'd liberated the Jews in the death camp at Dachau. He'd never talked about it before.”

“The ones who've seen the worst side of humanity don't,” Reece said softly, remembering some of his own past battlefields. “Talking about it means reliving it.”

“Yeah. And this was evidently pretty damn bad. The whole story just
exploded
out of him in this wave of horror and rage. He talked about the emaciated corpses piled up like discarded garbage, about the crematoriums, about the horror and the stench and the pity. About how stopping the Nazis had been the right thing to do, no matter how many good men we'd had to spend to do it.” She took a deep breath and blew it out. “And then I said something really stupid. ‘But that was a
good
war.' And he said, ‘Erin, there is no good war when you're fighting it. There's only necessary wars.'”

He nodded. “Smart man.”

She was silent a long moment. “My brother ended up enlisting in the Marines, too. Fought in the first Gulf War. He came back talking about Saddam and starving Khurds.” Erin shrugged. “Sounded a lot like Granddad.”

Reece nodded thoughtfully. “Quite a legacy.”

“Yeah. I considered going into the service myself, but while I was still in college, my roommate's little sister got molested by a neighbor. I watched what the family went through—my friend and her mother and the little girl. That was when it hit me that I didn't need to go overseas to find evil.” She shrugged under his hands. “So I decided to use my degree and try to get on with the Bureau. I succeeded, and here I am.”

“No wonder you've got that self-sacrificial streak,” he said aloud. “It's practically written into your family's genetic code.”

“No, actually, I have no desire to sacrifice myself.” Her voice firmed with determination. “Like Granddad said, the idea is not to die for your country, but to make the other son of a bitch die for his. And I'm not going to die. I'm going to make this work, Champion. I'm not going to fail.”

“I know that.” And he knew he had to believe it. Any doubt on his part could infect her, and that alone could doom them.

Erin pulled away and threw a quick look at him over her shoulder. “Didn't you say earlier that there was a good chance I'd go nuts?”

He hesitated, weighing how to answer. “You're a strong woman, Erin.” Unfortunately, he would have said the same of Lizzie. Apparently, there was more to it than strength, though nobody was sure what. Sometimes even the Majae's Council made mistakes.

She grunted. “Let's just hope I'm strong enough.” Bending her knees, Erin plunged her head under and shook her hair, sending streamers of soap and gold swirling around her lush body.

When she stood again, turning toward him, lust hit him in a hard, low blow in the belly. The soaking blond strands had plastered themselves over the delicious curves of her pale breasts. Water streamed down her body. She tossed her head and peeled the sopping mass back from her face. The unconscious arch of her body as she moved made his cock rise to full, aching erection.

Opening her eyes, Erin caught sight of his face and grinned a bit wickedly. The raging lust he felt must be written all over his face. She glanced down at his groin. “Whoa,” she said, taking a half step back. “You don't need much recovery time, do you?”

Reece swallowed, trying to get some moisture back into his dry mouth. “We don't, as a rule.”

Erin gave him a sidelong look that held more than a little flirtation. “You as in vampires?”

“Yes, we as in—” He broke off with a gasp as she reached out a long, slim hand and cupped him. “You're good at that.”

“I know. So are you all hung, or are you just blessed?”

He let his head fall back as those slender fingers circled his shaft. “Right now I'm feeling exceptionally blessed.”

She laughed softly, still caressing him. “Based on the evidence, I think I'm the blessed one.”

The water swirled
around Reece and Erin as she caressed him until he was just short of squirming. His gasps bounced off the stone walls as she gently cupped the tight pouch of his balls and stroked the aching length of his cock.

Tempting as it was to let her do as she pleased, Reece reminded himself the idea was to give her pleasure, not to simply take it. He stepped back, tearing himself reluctantly from her clever fingers. “That's enough.”

She gave him the smile Eve must have given Adam right before she fed him the apple. “Not even close, Champion.”

He shook his head. “No, you don't get it. This time is for you. Your pleasure, not mine.” Then he gave her his best wolfish smile. “Though I'm sure I'll get my turn sometime.”

 

Champion moved around
behind her as if taking himself out of the path of temptation.

Then he proceeded to turn the tables. His big, warm hands came to rest on her shoulders, a sensual masculine weight that made her knees buckle before she caught herself. “Not feeling weak, are you?” he asked in her ear, his voice low.

She shivered at his breath on her ear. “Maybe a little.”

He swore softly. “I shouldn't have drunk from you so soon the last time.”

Oh, he thought her weakness came from feeding his hunger. “It's not that kind of weak, Champion.”

He stilled behind her, then began stroking his hands over her shoulders, rubbing and caressing just as he had earlier. “You sure about that?”

“Believe me, a girl knows.” Then she had to catch her breath as those skilled hands once again sought out the knots in her muscles and began to rub them away.

“I'm glad,” he said as his soapy hands trailed down her arms to encircle her ribs. Slowly, teasingly, they moved upward to capture and weigh her breasts. “I want you to be able to appreciate this.”

Erin caught her breath as his slick fingers teased her nipples, stroking and tugging until she shuddered in pleasure. “Oh, that's definitely not a problem.”

“Good,” Reece breathed into her ear. “Because I want your undivided attention.”

He had it as skillful hands tweaked and pulled both hard, rosy peaks for long glittering moments. As he caressed the taut globes of her breasts, Erin let her head fall back on his brawny shoulder. With a whimper of surrender, she gave herself up to the slow, seductive tightening of arousal he won from her with every stroke.

Finally he let one hand drift down her sensitive belly to the soft, fine hair of her sex. He parted her, slipped one finger between her folds to tease her clit and the creaming opening of her cunt. Pleasure unfurled within her in a slow, lazy bloom. “God, that feels so good,” she moaned.

“Yeah,” he agreed in a rough growl. “It does. But it's about to get better.” He turned her around and caught her under the backside, then lifted her off her feet before striding with her to the edge of the bath. She groaned in pleasure at his easy strength, wildly aroused, and wrapped her legs around his waist. But before she could get down to the serious business of grinding against him, he deposited her on the edge of the pool and tipped her onto her back. Then he draped both her legs over his shoulders and lowered his head between her thighs.

The first time he'd pleasured her with his mouth, it had barely taken him five minutes to drag her to a ruthless climax. Now he took his time, tonguing her clit in slow circles and wicked little flicks, licking and teasing. Simultaneously his fingers were busy in her depths, first one and then two, teasing glowing curls of pleasure from her jangling nerves. With the other hand, he returned to her nipples, pinching and rolling them. Pleasure stormed her body from so many different directions, she could only moan.

And so he gently seduced her into orgasm after orgasm until she writhed helplessly on the marble, half maddened from the pleasure he gave her.

At last, when she was limp and stunned, he lifted his head and surveyed her boneless body with a hot, possessive smile. Then he scooped her off the floor again. Water swirled around her legs as he pulled her back into the pool—and right onto his rock-hard cock.

Erin yelped as she found herself suddenly impaled on him. Blinking, she met his carnal gaze. “How's that?” he asked with a wicked, lazy smile.

“It's, uh—” She squirmed, feeling him touching her in places that had never been touched before. “A lot.”

“You have that effect on me. Hold on, sweetheart.”

Wrapping her arms around his broad shoulders, she obeyed as he began, lazily, to thrust. Which was a good thing, because she still felt a little tender from the rough, dominating ride he'd given her last time. Not that she'd objected.

Yet there was something just as arousing in being cradled in those powerful arms, feeling him use his cock like a wizard's wand to lay a spell of pleasure over her shivering body.

He probably knows I'd be sore from prior experience,
she thought muzzily.

Centuries of prior experience.

And he seemed to be making good use of every year of it now as he patiently rolled his hips, stroking the sensitive depths of her body with breathtaking tenderness. As her arousal spiraled with the lazy rise of her latest climax, she found herself wanting to grind against him, take him deeper.

And as if sensing that rising hunger, he began to thrust harder by carefully controlled increments, his green eyes watching her face. She returned his gaze and found herself blinking at its intensity. No man, even David, had ever looked at her like that—as if she was the center of his universe.

The orgasm burst within her in a shower of iridescent bubbles. She threw back her head and moaned at the gently extravagant pleasure.

As Erin went limp in his arms, Reece lowered his dark head toward the arch of her throat. She tensed, remembering the delicious sting of his fangs sinking into her throat.

But at the last moment he closed his mouth and turned his head. Before she could wonder why he'd denied himself, his powerful body bowed with the force of his orgasm, pistoning his cock to the balls. He came, shuddering against her.

For a moment, she was aware only of his width and length pressing so deep inside her.

And then something happened. It seemed a white-hot light rolled across her vision, leaving only Champion in its center. For a single, blazing instant, she felt the universe shift around her, as if it was about to crack open and spill.

Erin caught her breath in a combination of anticipation and terror.
Three times. He'd said it would take three times. It's only been two!

Or had it been three? That time at his house, after the party—no, he'd worn a condom, then. It only counted if he came in her…

And then everything settled again, the normal rules clicking into place like a sliding glass door jarring back into its track.

Sucking in a deep breath, Erin wrapped her arms around Champion and held on to the only stable thing in her world.

As if sensing her fear, he tightened his own hold. The arms that normally felt so powerful abruptly seemed like an insufficient barrier against…whatever it was.
So that's the Mageverse
. Suddenly Erin understood a little too well why women went insane when they became Majae.

It was an insight she could have done without.

Champion drew back a little and looked down at her, a concerned frown on his mobile mouth. “What's wrong?”

Erin licked lips that suddenly felt dry and chapped. “I felt it,” she said, working to keep her voice steady. “The Mageverse. Just for a moment—let me go.” She needed space.

Something in her voice had him lifting her off the cock that still hadn't softened. The minute her feet touched the floor of the pool, Erin turned to the edge and hoisted herself up. Dripping, she stood and waited for her pounding heart to slow.

“Erin—”

“Stay back a minute, would you?” Propping her hands on her hips, she stared down at the floor battling her fear as water dripped around her. “Just give me a damn minute.”

“You felt it, didn't you?” He climbed the steps out of the pool, then hesitated when he saw her stiffen. “I'm not going to hurt you.”

“No, of course not.” She lifted her head and made herself meet his eyes. “It was just a little overwhelming.”

Reece looked at her, both dark brows lifting. “Well, that has the distinct ring of understatement.” He turned to stride for the stack of towels, collecting one for himself and pitching her another. She caught it and wrapped it around her shoulders, grateful for his sensitivity in keeping his distance.

“I'm not sure I can hack it, Reece,” she admitted, driven to express the fear that had hit her when she'd felt the universe crack. “It's a hell of a lot stronger than I thought it would be.”

 

Champion looked at
her, wrapped in her towel. Despite the scent of fear in the air, her back was straight as a soldier's. And that gave him hope. Surely that kind of strength meant she'd make it. “From what I gather from talking to other Majae, everybody feels that way the first time they touch the 'Verse, Erin.”

With brisk, no-nonsense movements, she began toweling off. “You're right, of course. This doesn't change anything. I know what I have to do.”

He hesitated. “You know, there is a chance that someone from the Mageverse will notice I'm missing. They may even have launched a search party.”

She shot him a hard look. “Must be a damn slim chance, or you'd have mentioned it before now.”

Reece shrugged, uncomfortable. “Depends on too many
ifs
.
If
somebody noticed that I haven't been back to Avalon—”

“Avalon?”

“The High Court. It's kind of our base of operations. Anyway,
if
they got worried enough to start looking, and
if
they realize I'm not back on Earth—”

“—and
if
they send out a search party that somehow manages to stumble across us in this magic-shielded cell.” Erin shook her head. “You're right, Reece. Too damn many
ifs
.” Her gaze hardened. “We need to stick with the original plan.”

“Which terrifies you.”

“No, it doesn't terrify me,” she denied, as if by knee-jerk reaction. Then she added reluctantly, “It may frighten me, but it doesn't terrify me. This really is the only shot we've got to stop him.” She clenched her fists. “I've got to make it work.”

 

Despite her brave
words, Erin could almost sense the Mageverse out there, waiting for her, as malevolent in its way as the demon was.

And no matter what she'd told Reece, it scared the hell out of her more than anything ever had.

Except looking into David's eyes as he'd shoved his gun against his own chin and pulled the trigger. He'd sacrificed himself for her. He'd died to stop the demon. She owed him more than cowardice. Somehow she was going to have to overcome the Mageverse and defeat it.

Swallowing, Erin looked up. Her gaze collided with Champion's emerald gaze. She saw the sympathy in his.

And the doubt.

He doesn't believe I can do it, either,
Erin realized.
He's afraid he's going to have to kill me.
Which was oddly comforting, in a way. If she did lose it, Champion wouldn't let her suffer long.

But what will happen to you in the meantime?
a chilly voice whispered in her ear. What did it feel like to go insane? To feel your mind peeling away like an onion?

She didn't mind dying. She'd been on the job long enough that the idea of death no longer held the same sting of the unknown.

But madness was another story. She'd dealt with crazy people, had looked into their eyes and wondered in fear and pity what monsters inhabited their thoughts.

Apparently she was about to find out first hand.

Stop it,
Erin told herself savagely.
Just stop it. This isn't helping. Have a little fucking guts, why don't you?

Something touched her shoulder. She jerked around to look into Champion's concerned green gaze. “It's all right to be afraid, Erin. There's no shame in it.”

“I know that. The only shame is in letting fear stop you.” She remembered walking into the Death's Sabbat temple for the first time and looking around at the hundreds of people looking back at her.

In retrospect, it was miraculous they hadn't cut her throat, given that they'd made her. If Geirolf hadn't had other plans for her, they probably would have. But she'd faced them and her fear anyway, and she'd survived.

She squared her shoulders. “I've never let it stop me before.”

He smiled and reached for her. “I know. You're a hell of a woman, Erin Grayson.”

Her first instinct was to shy away from him, as though even such innocent contact could bring madness.

But Graysons did not run from anything. Not Nazis, not Vietcong, not Iraqis. Not even vampires who could crack the entire universe just by making love to you.

She stepped into his arms.

He felt warm and strong as he cuddled her against him, stroking her chilled flesh comfortingly. A bubble of disbelieving laughter broke free of her throat.

“What's so funny?” he asked softly, settling her a little more securely against his body.

“It just hit me that I'm cuddling with a vampire. Maybe I'm already nuts.”

He shook his head, the stubble on his cheeks scraping her face. “You're not crazy.”

“Aren't I? Vampires, soul-sucking demons that live off human sacrifices, a universe of magic where fairies fly past the windows of cells that have no doors.” She wrapped her own arms tighter around him. “Maybe I'm already in the loony bin and just don't know it.”

“You're the least crazy person I've ever met, Erin.”