Of Flame and Promise (10 page)

Slowly, he made his way in, both of us cursing when he filled me. I clasped his jaw, my eyelids heavy and my irises swimming with lust. He growled at my inviting smile just once before crashing his lips against mine.

It had taken him time to enter, but that leisurely pace was now long forgotten. He withdrew, only to slam into me hard. Again. Again. And again, forcing my body to slide against the cool wall.

“More,” I begged. “Please, more.”

And that’s exactly what he gave me.

This position minimized my movements and allowed him to seize all control. I wasn’t subservient by any stretch, but I made exceptions when it came to Gem and our moments alone. So instead of dominating, I allowed myself to succumb, welcoming every inch of him, the aggression behind those thrusts, and his strong body pressed against me.

My legs flailed uselessly and sweat poured down my back in rivers as his hips rammed me. I screamed his name, pleaded for him to go faster, and spoke dirty words to fuel our passion.

I bucked—trying to move, trying to breathe, trying to do more than scream with pleasure. God, what was he doing to me?

Whatever he did, I could only plead for more, refusing mercy and urging him forward with the tilts of my pelvis.

My heart threatened to punch through my chest. Sex with Gemini was going to kill me. I knew it then. A sinful smile spread across my face. Yeah, and what a way to go. I bounced against the wall with every grind of his hips, every deep thrust, begging him not to stop, to go harder until I surrendered to the wave of pleasure engulfing me.

My nails dug into his shoulders when I lost control, my way of trying to endure the ardor tightening my core. As the wave peaked and my legs kicked out, I squeezed my eyes tight. Tears of pleasure streamed along my cheeks, but my lover wasn’t done with me yet. Another wave of ecstasy struck before the first could fully cease.

I didn’t feel him move us, too blinded by one last mind-blowing orgasm that bowed my spine. My back hit the mattress with Gem falling on top of me, panting hard, while I struggled to take large gulps of the sex-charged air.

My eyes met his, my body quivering from the rush and the way he took me in. “I love you,” he gasped. “Nothing will ever change who you are to me.”

I had this great idea—a seriously kickass idea. The Grizzly’s Song was one of the premier restaurants in the world, renowned for its breathtaking views and exotic dishes that ranged from venison to pheasant. Meals were comprised of game meat, peeps.
Game.
Wolves like that sort of crap, right? So I called in another favor to Misha once I discovered the waiting list was three months long, and booked us a table for four.

Well, we all know how well my great ideas had gone during this little meet-and-greet adventure. Because of the restaurant’s remoteness, the path leading up the mountain was, let’s just say, from
hell.
I don’t think we passed more than two cars along the way. Mostly, I think local residents were smarter than we were and knew to avoid what was apparently nature’s version of the spin cycle. I don’t get carsick, ever. I did then.

Momma and Pop? Their heads hung out the windows long before we pulled into the restaurant’s circular drive. The valet opened the SUV door, a big smile firmly in place. “Good evening. I’m Kevin. Welcome to the Grizzly’s Song. How is your evening?”

“My evening sucks, Kevin!” I slipped around him and threw open the rear passenger-side door. Momma’s lovely pursed lips and snow-white face greeted mine. I whirled on Kevin. “What kind of sadist designed your roads? Look at her. She’s nothing short of death on French toast—no offense, Momma.”

Kevin must have heard this rant several times in his valet parking career and kept his grin. “Oh, yes, the road to the Grizzly is quite windy. Which is why we offer a helicopter service at the bottom of the mountain for an additional fee.”

Okay, wasn’t aware of that one. Thanks, Kevin, for making me look like a cheap bastard. I turned back to Momma and tried to help her out of the SUV. She glared at my hand but allowed me to assist her. Yeah,
Steel Magnolias
is bullshit. This woman would never give me a kidney.

Her skin returned to its normal olive tone when we reached the top of the stacked stone steps. But she had a wolf to hook her up and ease her nausea. Pop didn’t. He only had his son, who practically carried him out of the rear. We should have turned around twenty minutes ago, but Siri insisted we were almost there. Well, we would have been if the road were a straight line rather than a hideous spiral that made our bellies churn.

Pop draped his arm around Gemini and leaned heavily against him. “Maybe the fresh mountain air will help?” I offered rather desperately.

Pop responded by puking all over the second step. Some guy appeared with a hose. I guessed it wasn’t the first time some poor sap spilled his stomach contents here at the Grizzly. Momma hurried to her husband, but not before one less-than-enthusiastic glimpse my way.

If it were possible to nut-punch the “Grizzly” I would have then.

Let’s just say dinner wasn’t fun. Every time Gem or I tried to initiate conversation, his parents remained tight-lipped. In all fairness, Pop wasn’t feeling well, and Momma was clearly worried about him and likely pissed at me. Gemini, in his last-ditch effort to make me look good, made a show of explaining how famous the restaurant was, the exotic cuisine that changed with each season, and how it was all my genius plan.

Yay for me.

As it was, my stomach remained topsy-turvy following the windy ride. I took a few sips of my quail soup and some bites of bread, which is more than poor Pop managed. Gemini and his mother didn’t feel right eating without him and requested their meals be wrapped.

Forty-three minutes. That was how long we lasted at the Grizzly, including the time it took us to pay the tab. Pathetically enough, it was only two whole minutes more than the drive there.

Gem slipped into the SUV after tipping the valet, who continued to grin as if my world wasn’t imploding around me. I glanced toward the backseat, where Pop lay slumped across Momma’s lap. If she wasn’t with him, I’d be flinging myself over the seats and starting chest compressions, thoroughly convinced the old guy had coded.

I quickly turned around when my stomach twisted as Gem took the first bend. “Are you all right?” he asked me.

I tried to shake my head, but that only made me dizzy and churned the quail soup fighting to stay down. “I’m sorry,” I said, meaning it, but Jesus, how many times could I apologize?

“It’s not your fault,” he said quietly. “You meant well.”

I sighed. Yeah, and how many more times could he say that?

Gem’s dark eyes were marked with worry as he maneuvered the vehicle around the perilous turns. I didn’t like it one bit. While he’d never expressed what he’d hoped to accomplish from my encounter with his parents, it was obvious nothing had gone as planned. “I’m sorry,” I said again, since maybe I couldn’t say it enough.

“Taran…” was all he managed.

He slowed the SUV as we rounded a more precarious curve. The rest of us collectively groaned. Good God, we weren’t even halfway down the mountain yet.

I lowered my window to breathe in some air, only for screams to punch through the opening. Gemini screeched the SUV to a stop in time to see a group of men dragging a man and a woman from their vehicle.

My magic stirred a warning as Momma yelled, “Vampires, Tomo!”

She was right. And their protruding fangs and bloodthirsty eyes told me they planned to do more than feed.

Gemini flung open the door. “Stay here!” he yelled.

Yeah, right.

I hit the seatbelt release and bounded out, stomping as fast as my platform heels could take me. The cold mountain air struck my face, slapping the nausea down and forcing me to take in the scene ahead of me. As he ran, Gemini shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it aside. From one leap to the next, his twin wolf ripped through his dress shirt, cutting in front of him and tackling the closest vamp. One wolf joined the other as Gem’s remaining half
changed
.

Bloody ash spilled from his powerful fangs as he fought the other vampires. But I couldn’t stop and watch. I stumbled to where the woman lay motionless on the ground. I pushed on her shoulder, shaking her hard. “Hey, are you okay?”

I recognized too late she was also a vampire. Sharp nails dug into my throat as she hoisted me from the ground. But I wasn’t helpless, and she was messing with the wrong chick. With a pained grunt, my fire of blue and white engulfed me, igniting her in a wash of flame.

Ash exploded in my face as my body struck the ground. I rolled onto my side, grunting from the impact. “Gem, it’s a trap!”

I’d barely choked the words out when another SUV screeched around the bend and more hissing vampires charged out. From behind me, yet another loud engine roared.

An old utility truck sped forward to where Momma was lifting Pop’s slumped form from our vehicle. The truck was gunning for them, ready to mow them down. I raced forward, unleashing my power in one primal scream.

Blue and white electrified heat rocketed from my core, spiraling and striking the truck’s face. The impact born of rage and fire flipped the truck directly above Momma, who curled against her mate’s limp form. In a burst of angry flames, the truck soared over the guardrail, the impact of the crash shaking the mountain.

A whooshing sound and a pained snarl had me reeling back to the other fight. Tribesmen in the forms of two wolves bounded toward me. I crouched low, my hands shaking with the energy crackling in my palms. “Come on, Mommy’s waiting for you,” I said under my breath.

I rammed my hands out, the bolts I released spinning like blades and slicing the wolves in half. My head whipped around, searching for Gem, only to catch sight of the vamps closing in on Momma and Pop.

Momma carefully released Pop and stood slowly, her body unmoving while her eyes took in the encroaching vamps. I ran forward, cursing, knowing I wouldn’t reach them in time before the first vamp attacked.

I wasn’t fast, but my power was.

I fell forward and slapped my hands against the asphalt. My magic released the moment my palms connected with the road, sending a ripple of fire in a building crest of blue and white light. The ripple swelled, striking the hissing vampires’ backs and engulfing them in fire.

Momma lifted Pop over her shoulder, bounding over the flames and away from the fight. They were safe, but not for long. The sound of peeling tires alerted me that more Tribesmen had arrived. I couldn’t see them through the billowing smoke overtaking our surroundings, but I knew they were there and that the danger was far from finished.

I looked right and left, trying to get a sense of what would attack next. The energy I expended rivaled that of my biggest supernatural brawls. But I wasn’t done, and I refused to let Pop and Momma perish.

A werecat punched through the smoke. I released my lightning, singeing its snout off, but missed the werecougar charging behind him.

I lashed out again, detonating its skull with my lightning and killing it mere feet from where I stood. Yet as hard as we fought, we were outnumbered and trapped. But it was what happened next that robbed my lungs of air. Gem’s black wolf, the one with a white left paw, rocked from side to side, abandoning his prey before collapsing onto the road.

My hands trembled with energy as I released more lightning and raced toward him. But my efforts were in vain. A gun blast followed an odd
whooshing
sound. A sharp, stinging pain pierced my back. I remember trying to scream before the vampire jetting toward me morphed into a blur of color and everything faded into darkness.

I blinked my heavy eyelids open as spurts of the attack fought their way through the fog continuing to dull my senses. I tried to swallow, coughing from the dryness stretching from my throat to my belly.

At first, I thought the fight had been nothing more than a bad and twisted dream, since all I initially felt was Gem’s naked body on top of mine. But this wasn’t our bed, and Toto, we were a long-ass way from Kansas.

We lay huddled in a corner. Cold, dank air claimed the parts of my body his large form failed to shield. I shuddered. But it wasn’t just because of the chill. It was because our night had gone from bad to dangerous, then landed headfirst into deadly.

Dim light from a small bulb shone through heavy metal bars a few feet away, cutting lines into the concrete floor. The Tribesmen had apparently shoved us into a large cell. Wall-to-wall cinder block pressed against our backs like cold and lecherous hands. I tried to push the strands of hair gathered around my face only to discover my hands were bound behind me.
“God,”
I muttered.

Gem stilled above me. “You’re awake,” he said, sounding relieved.

“Awake and pissed.” I struggled against the handcuffs, but all I did was dig the metal into my skin. When I tried to kick my legs out, it occurred to me that hey, look at that, they were shackled, too. “Where are we?”

He released a growl intermixed with a frustrated breath. “The Tribe stronghold where they’ve been housing the demon children.”

“You
have
to be kidding me.”

The nearby flapping of wings followed by rather enthusiastic and wet munching confirmed his suspicions. Awesome. Just awesome.

Fear pumped adrenaline through me, shaking off whatever tranquilizer the vamps had shot me with. Everywhere I looked, I caught sight of something new and more gruesome. Deep claw marks scarred the concrete floor, the bars in front of us, and the cinder-block wall. Whatever had been caged before us had fought to escape. The stained red concrete made it clear it hadn’t made it out in one piece, if it had made it at all.

“Are you hurt, Taran?” Gem asked.

It was then that I realized how hoarse he sounded. My head pounded from stress and my throat throbbed where the vamp had choked me. But I was alive.

At least for now.

“Some bruising, but nothing serious….” My voice trailed as I realized who was missing. “Gem, where are your parents?”

“In the cell beside ours.”

“Are they okay?”

“Father is weak from vomiting, but Mother is well and keeping him warm.”

“And how are you?” He sounded awful. As he edged off me I tried to sit up, waiting for him to tell me he was fine.

But he wasn’t.

A gold spear extending past his shoulders circled tight against his throat, and gold shackles bound his wrists and ankles. Sweat poured down his face. I wasn’t sure how long we’d been out, but it didn’t take long for cursed gold to sicken a
were
or vamp.

I tried to scoot closer. “Jesus, baby…are you okay?”

His face momentarily flushed only for beads of sweat to form along his forehead. “The gold from the shackles is taking its toll, and there’s a bullet lodged in my stomach. My twin is too weak to leave me with all the gold encasing us.”

My eyes swept over his paling skin. Blood caked his abdominal muscles, but I didn’t see a wound. “It healed,” he said before I could ask.

I crinkled my brow. “Then it’s not gold, right? If it was, it would burn and keep the wound open, correct?”

“Yes. But something isn’t right. I’m not sure what it is, but there’s something odd about the alloy. I don’t know if it’s tainted with magic or cursed, but its negative effects are poisoning my body.” His hard expression met mine. “We have to get out of here.”

Slurp, slurp, chomp, chomp,
followed by more excited flapping. I pushed aside the chills those freak demons riled and tried to think. “Can you
change
?”

His hoarse voice stiffened. “No, this device around my neck is jagged. If I
change,
it will slice my head off.”

I swore under my breath. “They were looking for food, weren’t they? And I take it we’re their groceries?”

“For their leeches and demons,” he answered. My blood boiled over, this time with fear I could no longer suppress. I nuzzled up against him for comfort as he continued. “From what I heard, they’re to move out by nightfall.” He waited as if debating what to say. “One of the
weres
recognized me,” he admitted.

This wasn’t good news. I swallowed hard. “If they know you, they’ll try to kill you, won’t they?”

“Ordinarily, I’d agree. But I think they plan to keep me and Mother alive. As
weres,
our kind provides longer, more satisfying feeds. Vampires can drink from us for months, possibly even years, as we replenish our blood supply quicker. Since we can also regrow limbs, they’ll sever our arms and legs for meat to feed the demons—”

“I’m going to stop you right there, big guy.” Horror ripped through me. This couldn’t be happening.

Sets of heavy footsteps echoed down from a row of nearby stairs. “Shit, grab ’em,” someone growled as shrieks and frantic flapping ensued.

“God
damn
it!” another yelled.

What sounded like cage doors were slammed shut. “Get them upstairs and load them up with the others. They should be satisfied by now.”

Metal rattled and someone grunted. “Grab the other end,” yet another Tribesman muttered. “I don’t want to get bit.”

The crazed flapping and shrieking from the demon children seemed to fade as a few pairs of feet hurried up the creaky wooden steps. But the Tribesmen weren’t all gone, and those who remained gathered at the bars in front of us.

A
were
in really ugly flannel rubbed his arm where one of the demon children had taken a chunk. But it was the vamp with the lengthening incisors who spoke. “Well, well, well. Looks like sleeping beauty is finally awake.”

Gem snarled, positioning himself in front of me. I screamed when the vamp lifted his gun and fired. The shot struck Gem in the stomach, its force hurtling him back against the wall beside me. The Tribesmen swarmed in, three shoving him back as he fought to return to where I lay.

“Get away from him,” I shrieked. “Don’t you touch him!”

The two vamps standing before me reached for the snaps on their jeans and shoved their waistbands down past their hips. “You should be more worried about yourself, cutie,” one of them said.

Gem went ballistic, shoving his way forward. I didn’t move, watching, waiting, and focusing, allowing the vamp to reach for the front of my dress before I exploded with fire and set him ablaze.

My magic was hindered with my hands tied behind me. But flame and light could still protect me and encase me with its power.

The vamp lit up like a torch and exploded—spraying us with his dusty remains. I choked on ash as his buddies slid over his leftovers, falling over each other in their mad scramble out.

Gem rolled forward, desperate to reach me. But I was blind to anything but the fleeing vamps.

My breath released in pained bursts. They were going to rape me. I should have been scared out of my mind, but only fury reigned, knowing how bad they’d hurt my wolf.

The vamp hoisting his jeans up hissed through the bars. “Just as well,” he spat. “I don’t want the whore of a werewolf.”

My glare trained on him. “At least he has a bat, not a light switch for a penis.”

Gem’s furious face lessened in severity. “Taran—”

“Keep talking, you ball-less bastard,” I snapped. “You’ll never be the stud he is in bed.”

“Taran—”

I motioned to Gem’s lap. “You think he’s hung now, you should see him when I work that log—”

“Taran!”

“What, babe?” I asked, getting annoyed. I was on a roll, and these idiots deserved far worse than my words.

He spoke through gritted teeth. “My parents can hear you.”

Oh, yeah…them.

Oops.

From the other side of the wall, Pop muttered something in Japanese. Whatever it was turned Gem’s pale face crimson.

The vamp hadn’t appreciated the penile belittling and bashing of his boys. A sinful grin lit his face. “The lead demon child hasn’t had his fill. But maybe the old ones will satisfy his needs.”

My eyes widened as the vamps disappeared from sight. Gemini waited for their quick steps to bound up the stairs, and for a metal door to slam shut, before speaking fast. “Taran. Use your fire to burn through my restraints.”

“I can’t. With my hands bound I can only surround myself with fire. To generate enough heat to melt the restraints, I’d burn you.”

“Don’t worry about me—I’ll heal.” When he sensed my hesitation, his voice lowered to more of a plea. “Taran, it’s the only way we’ll get out alive.”

About every swear word I knew spouted from my lips. I didn’t want to hurt him, but I also didn’t want us to die. “Get your hands behind mine,” I managed.

I drew several breaths as he positioned his back against mine. “Can you see where my hands are?”

He squirmed against me. “Yes.”

I extended my finger. “Put the center of the chain against it.” The moment I felt the metal slide against my skin, I bent my knuckle around it. “Okay. Here goes.”

I focused my energy on the links and took a deep breath, forcing my surrounding flame to slide along my skin and move toward my hands. Something sparked, causing Gem to grunt and jump. Nausea dug a hole in my belly as the smell of his smoking skin filled my nose. I cringed, trying not to gag. “Oh, God. Are you all right?”

He gasped as I withdrew my power. “Your fire is building and expanding outward. Can you keep it centered on the links?”

My head slumped forward. “I’m trying. But the longer it burns, the more it expands.”

“What about pinching it between your fingers.”

“I can try.” I adjusted my body so I could reach the chain and secure it with my thumb and finger. He bit back a growl, but unlike before, I could feel the metal begin to melt within my grasp.

My fingers felt close to joining when the metal door opened with a bang and heavy clawed feet scraped along the steps. What sounded like a mammoth tail slapped against the wooden stairs until it reached the floor below and dragged along the concrete.

The lead demon had come to feast.

My heart thumped against my chest as I panicked—knowing I wouldn’t be done in time to help Gem’s parents. The image of their cold scowls faded, replaced with one of fear in their eyes and horror etched into their wrinkled features when the demon lurched forward and took his first bite.

Angry and frightened tears leaked from my eyes. I couldn’t allow his parents to be eaten—I didn’t want Momma and Pop to die!

“Taran, calm down and focus. You need to finish, love.”

The cell door beside us was thrown open and a throaty, wet growl filled my ears. Moist splatters peppered the cement like rain. The demon was hungry, drool dripping from his voracious mouth. For a moment he seemed to watch, taking in the feast before him. But then from one breath to the next, he attacked.

Large wings flapped and the floor shook as the demon shot forward. They were going to die—they were going to be eaten—they—

I forced the heat to increase between my fingers, burning myself when my power rebounded.

“Taran,
stop,
” Gem growled through clenched teeth. “I don’t want you hurt!”

“But your parents—”

Flying demon innards smacking against the far wall and sliding against the cinder block completely shut me up. The demon’s entrails slithered into our cell like wet snakes, before drying near my bare feet. I gagged, but somehow managed to keep from vomiting.

Gem’s shoulders slumped. “Taran,” he said patiently. “My mother may be elderly, but she’s still a werewolf.”

“Ah…right.”

I blinked back my remaining tears and shook my head to clear it. With a determined breath, I focused hard, gathering my flame. It took some doing, and a lot more supernatural muscle, but finally Gem grunted and broke through the dissolving links.

He snapped the cuffs from his wrists and the shackles binding his feet, flinging each to the side and far from his body. His form shuddered with relief from the loss of gold, but also with weakness. My wolf wasn’t doing so hot. Yet he steeled himself, gripped the choker tight, and ripped it down the center.

He swayed from the effort but forced himself to work fast, stripping me of my bonds and wrenching me to my feet. My hands throbbed from the burn I’d caused, but I was still in better shape than my lover. I rubbed my sore wrists, watching trickles of sweat stream down Gem’s back as he kicked open the door to the cell.

We raced into the hall, our bare feet crunching over dry demon parts, and into the next cell. Gem’s parents were bound but unharmed, wearing the same stone-faced expressions as always.

Evidently, they liked the idea of being demon food about as much as they liked me.

I jumped when Momma spat a large chunk of something nasty near my feet. “Larynx,” Gem said, pointing. “And probably part of a jugular.”

I looked from the shriveling mound back to her, and back at the nastiness again. “Your mother ripped out his throat with her human teeth?”

Considering her unflinching scowl, Momma seemed quite proud of herself then. Instead of answering me, Gem beckoned the beast within him.

His twin ripped from his back, positioning himself to guard as Gem freed his folks. I glanced around their cell, my eyes latching on to a small window. Just beneath it lay an empty utility bucket. I kicked it over and stood on it, looking out to a frozen dirt lot with a large stretch of forest running along its perimeter. Feet hurried past me as Tribesmen lifted cages packed with demon children onto the back of a large freight truck.

Gem hurried to where I stood, his gaze taking everything in. “Do you know where we are?” I asked.

He took a breath. “North of Tahoe from what I can tell, but I can’t be certain.” He huffed. “There are too many of them, and not enough of us. I’ll draw their fire. You and my parents,get to the woods and head south. Don’t worry about me. I won’t be far behind.”