On a Razor's Edge (6 page)

That stare had me babbling. “Too much power filled me too quickly an
d I had to do something with it! For some reason I did that thickening spell. But then I didn’t know how to undo it because I’d never successfully done it before. But I couldn’t open the door because the air was, well, you know how it was. So I ran around the side, but then your guards thought I did something awful—which doesn’t really make sense since I ran back toward them—so I locked myself in here for protection until we could figure it out!”

“You tried that spell outside and couldn’t complete it. Why did it work this time?”

“I have no idea!”

And I didn’t. Largely, everything to do with magic
had thus far eluded me. School had never been my strong suit. My magic not working properly meant I hadn’t been able to figure it out.

“She has been working with lesser levels of power in the wrong wa
y,” Toa explained, leaning against the walls. “She could have great control, but first needs to learn the ways of directing her power. It is like riding a bicycle extremely slow. The bicycle wobbles; balance is hard to maintain. Ride it with more speed, and you will steer with ease.”

Toa
could learn a thing or two from Dominicous’s stare.

“I see. I am not in the habit of sitting, for an hour, in extremely uncomfortable situations.”

“Sorry,” I mumbled.

He grunted.
Apparently an apology had been his agenda. After the explanation, obviously.

He turned to
Stefan. “We’ll need another room. I’d like to wrap this up and make plans for the next steps.”

“There’s more?” I asked in horror.

“Not for you. Please wait in your chambers until you are called. You are excused.”

After glancing toward Stefan
and seeing I wasn’t in any danger, I picked apart my protective shield and went on my way. Charles did not follow.

*****

“Toa, results please,” Dominicous asked with a straight back, sitting in a leather chair.

They’d moved to a room in the back of the m
ansion and warded the room against eavesdroppers. They each sat in separate chairs, trying to mask the importance of these findings, both for Stefan, and for their overall cause. Finding someone with a black power level could open doors they hadn’t even contemplated.

Stefan
had another reason to be nervous, as well. They would need to discuss his mate, and his future. Most importantly, what would happen if those two things couldn’t both be Sasha while in his leadership role.

“Her power is beyond my own,” Toa said easily.
“It doesn’t work like mine, either—like ours. She is like a conductor for magic. Like a hub. She doesn’t have to reach for it and pull it into herself, she merely has to identify which elements to let in, and then try to stop the flow once she has begun to draw. Her spells will continue building magic until realized, always trying to return back to her. As you saw, her spells, once laid, take longer to unravel. And like you saw, that is not always a good thing.”

“Then…she is definitely black,” Dominicous clarified.

Stefan held his breath.

“Without a doubt, she is a
myth reincarnate. And completely,
completely
ignorant as to the ways magic works. All the training she’s received thus far is useless. She blows things up because she is the polar opposite to my—our people’s—power. She tries to work a spell inverted, and it combusts.”

Stefan
let his breath out in a slow exhale. He couldn’t say he wasn’t relieved. “Odd for a human to wield black, though.”

“Not at all,” Toa waved him away like a pauper at a king’s table. “She is the polar opposite
because
she is human. You are familiar with the yin-yang sign. That was originally created as a representation of the union of the different sides of magic. White and black magic working together is the strongest cohesive bond in the world.  White magic is also a scale. As is black. She is at the higher end of the scale; I am at the middle of white. The black power has always been wielded by a human, the white by us. That is why it is so intensely rare. Not rare to possess—not any more than white—but rare to find. One in a million. Humans have power, but so rarely seen because so few believe. And also because we…have our own prejudices.

“At the top of the scale, and acting as a hub, which is rare in itself—not because she is human, but in general—it is like trying to swim in the ocean in the middle of a hurricane. Magic is wild, and forcing into her like it does, makes the wielder constantly fight for control—even in someone experienced. Mistakes can easily be fatal. Because of this—that is speculation—she has developed some sort of rough control directly tied to survival. Living untrained for so long, she has learned to coexist. Now, however, seeing how she is supposed to work with it, the danger becomes
more grave. Her ability to take in magic more extreme.”

“You see, Toa, she was fated to live,” Dominicous said in a smug sort of way.

Stefan barely had time to wonder at that comment when Toa snorted. “One in a million. The odds are incredible, but here she is. What next?”

Dominicous turned to
Stefan. “You plan to mate her, is that right?”

A thrill went down
Stefan’s back. Without hesitation, he answered, “Yes.”

“Like her power level, mating between kinds has turned into myth.
At least with someone of your stature and position. Your people must approve in order to grant her that title. If she cannot lead, she is useless, and therefore cannot mate you. It is twisted, you see.”

Stefan
nodded.

“I understand you
r enthusiasm, of course,” Dominicous went on. “She is your one true mate. She needs your power and special ability balancing the wildness of it, and you gain and exult from hers. You two sync. That is plain to see. If you can work in tandem, you could create an exponentially dynamic team. You have linked with her already, you have marked her…and you are in luck on a couple of scores. One, she is a
seer
. Or, more probably, has
seer
blood
.
That is the reason for the smell she has when aroused. Or, I should say, that is the side-effect. There are other smells, but mostly females exude them. It doesn’t seem as though she has many female friends within this group…”

Stefan
shook his head to the question as he asked, “
Seer?
” He’d never heard of such a thing.

“Humans have this trait in large doses. Many become psychics or readers of some
kind, some even ghost hunters—even though that is a different talent. Some just think it is female intuition or, for a man, a shot of ego. Regardless, she has some sort of partial ability on that score. That secures her as a justifiable lineage for mating, besides the huge blessing in magical power, of course.”

“Why are you helping me? I would’ve thought you’d resist a human as my mate. Possibly even try to take her with you back to the
Council for training within the folds of political power.”

“Why am I helping you?
” Dominicous asked. “That is simple. She is my kindred.”

After a long pause,
Stefan said, “Come again?”

Chapter 5

I sat facing the woods on a wooden bench just behind the mansion’s back door. For the last half hour Stefan had blasted incredulity through the link, then suspicion, then mistrust. Finally, resignation. I knew it had to be about me. What else could it be? I could be hopelessly narcissistic at times, especially while hopeful in a dress, but I didn’t think this was a case of fashion-itis.

I felt his presence come up behind me, then around, sitting next to me on the stone bench. I leaned into his great, muscled shoulder, feeling solidity and strength.

“I just had a very…interesting meeting,” he started, roping an equally great arm around my shoulders.

I closed
my eyes as a delicate wind caressed my face in passing. The night sky had lightened, swishing its metaphorical cape to
olé
the daylight through. The familiar magic soaked into my skin, my chest and limbs warming.

“Hmm,”
Stefan said, squeezing me. He could feel it as I could. However his special gift worked, it enabled him to share in the feeling, his skin electrifying, as mine did to outsiders. But within our embrace, only pleasure pulsed between our bodies. We sat outside often, sharing the night with each other.

“You are a
seer,
did you know?” he asked quietly.

“As in, like, a fortune teller?”

“Yes.” He shrugged. “I guess. In full strength a person can see the future before it happens. Can you do that?”

“No. But I do get, like, premonitions. Kind of…I don’t know. Like a directional sense.
It’s how I find your secret doors.”

He shook his head. “That sounds like your magic. What about when you battled Jonas? You seemed to move right before he got there…”

I thought back. I’d had a letter opener and a whistle as my only defense to rescue my ex-boyfriend Jared from a sadist named Jonas. Oh, yeah, I remembered. Stefan was right, I had moved just in time.

“I don’t know.
Maybe a
seer
, or maybe my survival instinct, or maybe just female intuition.”

“Apparently female intuition is a
mark of a
seer.
I am led to believe more than a few humans have this trait.”

“Ah. And how did you know I had this?”

“That smell you give when you’re aroused. Arousal has to come naturally, however. Since we are rarely without the pheromones when dealing with humans, manipulating their lust or some other emotion, well…”

That wasn’t the cause for concern. The shoe had yet to drop.

“You have to go away,” he said.

And there it was. I turned my face into his shoulder. “Without you, I take it.”

“Yes, but only for a short time. Dominicous is sending you and Toa into the
Mata
territory as some sort of…exchange program. You will go as a delegation. As my mate.”

My body froze, a tear nearly wobbling free from the first piece of news. I straightened up slowly, my eyes meeting his. I could just make out his perfect face in the shadow, breathtaking as always, but with a slow smile and softening of eyes that he wouldn’t show in public.

“I love you.”

It was
the first thing that came to me.

He leaned over slowly, brushing his lips with mine. “I love you, too. I know a human tradition is to ask for your hand with jewelry and surprise and all that, and I will do that for you, but this exchange is, unfortunately, business.”

I shook my head, tears at the surface for a different reason. “You don’t need to.”

He nibbled my lips, softly brushing them with his tongue, but backed off before I could deepen it. “Your status as my mate is my intention. It is not cemented, unfortunately. My clan has to accept you as co-leader.
Which means you actually need to learn to lead.” He smiled at me in jest. “Dominicous thinks it is wise to train you away from prying eyes.

“This progression is important, and your status as human and my mate is important. You are very much one of us, but also human. You cross that line. We hope…” He paused
, a vein popping out on his jaw from how hard his jaw clenched.

I nudged him with a grin
.

“I am
supposed
to hope,” he amended, “that you develop a positive relationship with them. To unite our two factions.”

“Who are th
ese
Meta?”

“
Mata.
Shape Changers. Varmints and critters and useless fools that think I should make way for their strange rituals and odd behavior.”

“I’m sorry—
ˮ I leaned forward to think for a second. I turned to him on the bench, needing to be absolutely clear about this. “Shape Changers? As in…werewolves?”

“
Yes, and no. Well, not really. There are wolves—the stinky, mangy animals. But also other absurd human mutations.”

“Okay, I am getting
the feeling that you don’t like these people—ˮ

“
Mata
.”

“—but I am stuck on the ‘turning into an animal’ part of the story. How is that
real?”

“I’ll let them explain it.
There is one other thing. Who are your parents?”

That took me aback.
“Because of the lineage thing? I don’t know. I lost them when I was five years old in a multiple car accident. I told you that, remember?”

“But you survived.”

“Yes. I was found a mile away in a park sitting on my own. Do you not listen to me?”

“And you have no idea how you got there?”

I shook my head, returning Stefan’s intense gaze. “Why?”

“Dominicous. He…is claiming you as his.”

Two emotions warred through me. One was an intense confusion, because since I first walked into the room with him, I’d felt something. It was very faint, almost a non-thing, but…it was vaguely familiar. Like I’d known him all my life.

The next was a
thrill of fear, dropping my jaw. “So you had to challenge him, or whatever? Because I am not sleeping with that man!”

Stefan
chuckled, and then looked around to make sure the big bad leader wasn’t caught actually laughing. We wouldn’t want a mass challenge because he had a sense of humor…

“He put you in that park. He saw you that night, a little girl standing amongst the carnage, flame starting to lick up your leg. He removed you, fed you his blood to ensure you lived until found, and then waited until you were. He’s as close to a father as you have. H
e has put himself in that role. I’m sure your power level helped solidify his decision regarding this.”

My world ti
lted and reeled. Then fell over.

A huge
chunk of my life had just surfaced. The last piece that helped me put it all in perspective.

I had alw
ays been able to see the shadow men and women lurking in the night, huge people no one else had noticed. I could sense their presence, knowing I shared the world with something else, but never able to identify it with a likeminded person. Strange events had mentally crippled others, but energized me. I rushed into scuffles and battles where others, like Jared, whimpered.

“Would his blood have any lasting effect?” I asked in a daze.

Stefan pulled me into his body, sensing my strangeness to this news. “We don’t know. Trauma is a funny thing, especially to a child. But you resist our pheromones easily, and you have a soft link to him, though the experiences of the day have probably masked that. He thinks of you as blood, since he gave you blood as a child. Usually, giving blood once isn’t enough for any sort of lasting link.”

“
But maybe to a child…”

Stefan
gave a noncommittal shrug.

“
So…what does that mean?” I asked.

“It means lineage is the least of your worries. So is a backer. That will help bring people around. All you have to do is learn to lead. Learn to hold your cards to your chest, and most importantly, learn to defend yourself. As my mate and especially bearing my mark, any battles you have are also my battles. Unfortunately, that reverses, as well. If I am challenged, you will be expected to meet that challenge with me.”

“Well, I’m pretty good at protective boxes and freezing air…”

He chuckled,
rubbing my back. “Yes, very. If they’d had any doubt to your power level, that took it away. Toa has not recovered. He’s not used to someone with a higher power level that is not sitting on a council somewhere.”

I closed my eyes as his soft lips trailed up my neck. “Shall we head to bed?”

“No time. I need you.” His teeth barely scraped against my suddenly throbbing pulse.

I gasped, my stomach doing a somersault.

“Hmm, freshly baked cookies on a warm summer evening.”

I had yet to ask him about his parents, forever curious how they had died, but never sure how to bring it up and chickening out. Once again, this wasn’t the time.

I let my head fall back as he kissed down my chest, getting to my cleavage, and then unzipping my hoodie. His hands tucked under my thin shirt, lightly trailing along my stomach as his mouth took in my ear lobe. I felt him undo the top button of my pants.

“Oh!” A thrill shot through me, a possible witness making my panties go wet.

I kissed Stefan harder, wanting to try this. Wanting to act like his people and express myself openly. Wanting to engage in sexual expression outdoors! In plain sight!

Embarrassment and social rules reared their head.
Oh,
my God, am I seriously going to do this?

“We’ll go fast, love. Like getting into cold water
,” Stefan assured me, his lips quirking.

He knew I wanted to experiment.
That I wanted to try some kinky things in an extremely safe and trusting situation. But oh, Lord…

I jumped up and ripped off my pants, trying to get my panties off as well, but
was stopped by his hands.

“Hold on just a moment.”

He bent forward, his fingers peeling off the lace of my underwear as his face dipped between my legs. I moaned and closed my eyes, all thought slipping away as his naughty tongue hit me in just the right places. My body started to burn as the pressure increased, shivers erupting from my groin and spiraling up my torso.

He backed off, his eyes holding mine hungrily. “I love you,” he said as he undid his pants and slipped them down his muscular thighs. His erection sprung free, large and bobbing.

He took my hand and brought me closer, lifting my legs to each side of him, allowing me to kneel on the bench and position my body over his. His tip pushed past my lips slowly until he had sheathed himself completely, filling me up.

I hug
ged him, showing him my throat, craving that deeper connection. The scrape of his tooth exhilarated me, offsetting the sweet rush of him inside my body. Pain, like pinching, blossomed at the base of my neck. My gasp immediately turned into a moan; his suction reached all the way through my body, tingling my groin as he dove in and out, the pleasure from the contrast something I could barely comprehend with sensations so complex.

I rocked harder, my body feeling that pull, then the wet slide, tingles overcoming me. I sucked in magic, fire and air mostly, the others swirling in, too, and poured it into his body along with my
essence, wanting to share myself with him in this new, magical way.

With each pull my chest grew hotter, my limbs humming, the connection with him deep inside me exploding.
Stefan moaned, his lips still at my throat, thrusting into me as I pounded down on him. The pressure mounted, at a crest now, so tight.

“Oh
,
G—od!”
I cried, blasting apart, the very seams of my being coming undone.

Stefan
shuddered into me a second later, hugging me with ragged breaths. He leaned against my chest, his ear to my heart. “Lovely.”

“That was fun,” I
murmured contentedly, draping across him. “Let’s go to sleep. It’s been a long day.”

Fifteen minutes later we walked down the hall toward his room, only to find Charles sitting outside.
“Hey, Boss, Sasha. Heard about the trip, wanted to talk to you—ˮ

Charles squinted at
Stefan. “Sasha, step away for a quick sec, would you?”

I took one step, my hand still in
Stefan’s.

“Boss…you… Sasha, go another step. Actually, go in the room for a second.”

“What’s the matter?” Stefan asked in a deep growl.

Charles put
up his hands immediately. “Did she mark you, somehow? Can humans do that? You know what, you two have issues, that’s all I’m saying.”

Stefan stared at him.

“I’m stepping out of line, and I know it,” Charles continued, “But Jonas guarding her on this trip is a terrible idea. He can’t be trusted. He said something about other plans before you banished him for a time. Just a thought, but that’s a weird coincidence, you know? So, he has got to be a no-go. I can protect her, along with Snow White.”