The Heart of a Monster: The Complete Series

Chapter 23

Rollick

These days, the house that’d once been a sanctuary to me rarely offered much peace or solitude. The heaps of shadowkind who’d joined our crusade stuck to the yard and the areas beyond the ring of protections depending on their tolerance for silver and iron, but I was always aware of them nearby. And more often than not, if I was here, at least one of my mutinous former employees was too.

But I couldn’t say their presence was necessarily a bad thing, because at least having other beings around kept me a little distracted. Kept my mind from veering in directions I’d rather it didn’t go but couldn’t seem to prevent.

Five in the morning was about as quiet as the place got. I wandered into the kitchen, having just finished a call with a few old associates overseas, wheedling them to the limits my pride allowed to join this fight and gritting my teeth as they balked. They saw the current disaster as a distant problem, nothing for them to stick their necks out over.

When I’d told them what we believed the leviathan intended to do next, they’d laughed. But they hadn’t seen him in action.

None of us had seen him in action since he’d devoured the entire enclave’s worth of sorcerers. That much more magic now hummed through his veins?—

My pulse lurched, and I found myself clutching the edge of the island as if it were the only thing holding me upright. My thoughts had scattered, my heart hammering at my chest so hard I half expected to feel a rib crack.

I closed my eyes, clenched my jaw even tighter, and breathed evenly in and out until the rush of panic receded.

So ridiculous. The being that’d bound me was gone, dead. The other fiend that could wield as much power was hundreds of miles distant. I wasn’t even thinking anything when the fear took over. It was pure, random emotion.

I didn’t let emotion dictate my life, especially not irrational fears. Why the hell didn’t this after-effect wear off already?

What if it never did?

The discomfort that came with that consideration brought a milder chill but one that lingered longer. I tried to walk away from it, ambling back to the living room where the solar lights still glowed dimly around the pool, and soft footsteps reached my ears.

“Hey,” Quinn murmured, coming up beside me. “Is everything okay?” She winced as soon as the words came out of her mouth. “I mean, no more horrible than things were a few hours ago.”

“I know what you meant. There’s been no news.” I also knew exactly why she was asking—that damned connection I’d inadvertently forged. Every time the panic hit me, she felt it too. “I hope I didn’t wake you.”

She shook her head, peering past me over the rectangle of dark water rippling with a breeze. “I woke up a while ago and haven’t been able to get back to sleep. I figured maybe taking a break from trying would help.”

“You need your rest,” I couldn’t help telling her. Her face definitely looked paler than it had when I’d first met her, with a sallow tone creeping into her normally peachy skin that I didn’t like at all. And she moved a little slower these days, as if her usual briskly determined pace would have worn her out too quickly.

“I’m fine,” she said emphatically, fixing me with a sharp look. In that moment, I was more annoyed than ever that the connection between us didn’t flow both ways.

How was she really coping? She could be as stubborn as I was. I wasn’t totally sure how much she’d admit to struggling, especially with all the responsibility that’d been piled on her shoulders.

“Well, so am I,” I retorted.

She narrowed her eyes at me. “The flashbacks have gotten stronger. They’re hitting me harder through you, which means they’ve got to be hitting you harder too.”

“And I keep living through them just like you keep living with your heart.”

Quinn frowned. “They might get even worse when we go out to confront the leviathan, though. I don’t know if I can protect you enough.”

The fact that she was worried about protecting me when I was the all-powerful demon around here rankled me. I slipped my hand around her head to turn her to me and tucked her against my human-like frame. “I’ve survived just fine being near one enhanced sorcerer. I’ll manage the shadowkind one out there too.”

Quinn’s body went still, not tensed but as if she were trying to listen hard to something she couldn’t quite make out. She glanced up at me, close enough now that her breath brushed across my neck in a ghostly sensation. “You said it was having the behemoth work his sorcery on you that set this off. The idea of losing control again is what makes you panic.”

“Something like that.” I didn’t really want to talk about it at all.

Thankfully, my lovely mortal seemed to have decided she’d had enough talking too. She curled her fingers into my shirt and tugged me with her, and I followed willingly. The spark that had lit in her eyes promised something interesting to come, whether I ended up liking it or not.

When she led me through the doorway to her bedroom and kicked the door shut behind us, I decided that chances were good that I’d approve. As she drew me over to the bed, I raised my eyebrows at her. “If you’re in need of some carnal satisfaction, you only needed to say so.”

Quinn hummed low in her throat, a sound that sent a heady shiver straight to my cock. But the heat in her gaze was as much determination as it was desire. “I think we can do a little more than that in here,” she said, and hopped onto the bed, pulling me with her.

When I clambered after her, she shifted to the side and pushed me onto my back. I sank down without complaint, watching her curiously. She obviously had something specific in mind, and I saw no need to rush her.

Quinn gazed down at me, wetting her lips. She straddled my waist, her ass settling against my groin with enough pressure to bring a groan to my lips even with at least three layers of fabric between us. Her hands splayed against my chest.

“Maybe being commanded doesn’t have to be a painful thing,” she said. “Maybe it’d help your mind stop freaking out about it if you got to experience a more enjoyable enchantment.”

A quiver of anxiety wound through my growing sense of anticipation, but I resisted giving it much attention. I’d seen how distraught Quinn got over even the thought of hurting any of us. I didn’t fear her intentions at all.

“What did you have in mind?” I asked, keeping my voice languid.

She leaned forward, her hair falling like a golden veil on either side of her face, until her nose nearly touched mine. Then she spoke at a volume barely above a breath. “Touch me.”

Magic resonated through the words and wound through my mind. My body stiffened against it instinctively—but there wasn’t anything brutal about this sorcery. It was tentative enough that I could have thrown off the order if I’d wanted to.

I didn’t, though, did I? I could play along with her little game and see where it led us. If I wasn’t strong enough for that, then the leviathan might as well kill me now.

I unclenched my muscles and let my hands rise as they’d itched to do at her words. My fingers stroked up her back and twined in her silky hair. I pulled her the last few inches down so our lips could meld together the way I’d been hungering for since she’d mounted me.

A soft noise worked from Quinn’s throat. She kissed me back just as eagerly. I tilted her head to the side with a twist of her hair so I could delve my tongue into that hot mouth, and earned my first whimper in return.

It wasn’t bad. No, it was absolute fucking paradise going along with her vague instruction. After a few minutes, the tendril of magic that’d gripped my thoughts gradually eased away, barely enough to direct my will, and I felt a sudden, strange thrill at the idea of continuing on this course.

I tipped Quinn’s head even farther and pressed my mouth against her neck. A swipe of my tongue and the scrape of my teeth drew another gasp from her. Then I eased back just enough to speak, my lips grazing her smooth skin. “What does my sweet sorcerer want from me next?”

A tentative smile crossed her face, as if she’d been waiting for the confirmation that I was on board—and still wasn’t totally sure she could accept it. She gave her next order in the same whisper with its faint whiff of compulsion. “Uncover me.”

I sure as shit didn’t object to that request. Even less anxiety twanged through me as I reached for the hem of the tank top she’d been sleeping in and peeled it off her. She’d used broad enough wording that I didn’t feel overly controlled. It was like the gentlest sort of bondage, restraints I could have slipped in an instant but that gave a little jolt of excitement having them in place.

Somehow I doubted the sorcerers who’d developed and spread this magic had ever intended it to be used like this—and knowing that only made the moment more delightful.

Quinn wasn’t wearing a bra under her shirt. I cupped my hands around her breasts and tweaked the peaks before pushing up on my elbows so I could suck one into my mouth. The feel of her nipple stiffening beneath my tongue made me growl. I hadn’t been able to do this the first time we’d come together on our own—she’d had to wear that damned protective undershirt the whole time.

Quinn’s hands traveled down my chest, making quick work of my button-up shirt and sliding across the planes of muscle beneath. It felt as if she were drawing flames across my skin with her touch, but only the most blissful kind.

Her command still tingled through me. I knew that I hadn’t completely uncovered her yet. I could have fought the pull, but why would I want to when it aligned so well with my own interests?

As I suckled her breast, teasing the nipple with my teeth until she started to pant, I glided one hand down her body to her pajama shorts. As soon as I grasped the waist, her hips lifted to allow me better access. I dragged the shorts off her as quickly as I could manage, and then I couldn’t stop myself from tucking my fingers between her legs.

She was so wet already, her pussy slick with arousal, that I groaned against her breast. As I stroked her from clit to slit, a matching moan spilled from her lips. She rocked against my hand, and another command tumbled out of her. “Let me see the demon.”

I knew what she meant, even if I could have satisfied the tug of the magic by simply blinking in and out of my shadowkind form for a brief glimpse. She was after a more extended experience.

With a growl, I flipped her over on the bed, letting my demon form stretch my body at the same time. The cool air washed over my abruptly bare back while the front of me seared with the heat we’d already generated between us. My second cock jutted below the first, equally hard already.

I claimed Quinn’s mouth again, letting my sharp demonic teeth nick her lower lip. She whimpered encouragingly, squirming beneath me until our bodies were almost perfectly aligned. My upper cock brushed against her mound, and she swayed up to meet that contact. The need to fill her burned through me—but the tension of waiting for her orders had become increasingly delicious.

“What should your demon do for you now, my lovely mortal?” I murmured.

Quinn made a needy noise and ran her fingers along the curves of my horns, sending a tremor of pleasure down them and through my scalp. “Take me—however you’d most like to.”

Somehow I hadn’t even been aware of my deepest urges until her sorcery unlocked the answer inside my skull. All at once, I was picturing her on all fours, crying out in ecstasy as I slammed into her from behind. A rumble carried from my chest, and without thinking I was already flipping her over and yanking her ass against my groin.

Quinn gasped, but there was nothing fearful in the sound. I knew without any supernatural bond necessary just how much she trusted me. That thought caught at the base of my throat, stalling me in my tracks as I bowed my head to her shoulder blades. My hand delved between her legs again to tease even more pleasure out of her. But this bodily unification wasn’t all I was craving.

“You are mine,” I muttered against her back, and kissed the faint bumps of her spine. “Mine.”

“And you’re my demon,” she said, so happily I couldn’t suppress the affection that swelled from my heart. I hugged her tighter against me, and in that moment, the most important thing was her knowing how much this “taking” meant to me.

“I love you. My sweet sorcerer. My defiant mortal. Everything you are.”

She’d helped me find the parts of myself I’d buried so far within me that I’d started to forget they existed. The only other partner I’d ever said those words to had shunned that side of me, the side that could be generous, that cared about making the whole world better. But Quinn didn’t reject the selfish, vicious side of me either. She accepted them all together, everything that I was.

And that was why I wouldn’t let anything defeat her, not that leviathan, not her treacherous heart.

Quinn shivered beneath me, but the emotion that thickened her voice told me her reaction was all joy. “I love you too. My wicked fiend. My reluctant hero.”

I chuckled at that second label and finally gave in to the other longing twined through my body. My fingers traveled up the crease of her ass to her other opening, smearing my own growing arousal with them.

My lover pressed into my fingers as I stretched her, her breaths fragmenting even more. It was the sweetest torture waiting until the give of her inner muscles convinced me I wouldn’t cause her any pain—at least not any that would do more than heighten the pleasure that came with it.

With my first thrust into her, filling both her openings at once, she buried her face in the pillow with a strangled moan. I spread her legs farther apart so I could plunge even deeper into her slick channels and braced myself on one arm so I could fondle her breasts at the same time. With each smack of our bodies colliding, she rocked back into me, the gasps and moans escaping her in a chorus electrifying me.

The craving for release was already building in my balls. I rolled her nipple and then trailed my hand down to circle her clit with a careful claw, matching the movements with the pounding of my cocks.

Quinn broke, her body shuddering and clenching, the cry I’d imagined bursting from her in a peal even more beautiful than what my mind had conjured. The passion of her welcome unraveled what remained of my self-control. I thrust into her faster, harder, and felt a second release ripple through her as I tumbled over the edge myself with simultaneous surges of cum inside her.

“Fuck,” Quinn mumbled as she sagged onto her side beneath me.

I grinned down at her. “Yes, that’s the word for what we just did.”

She swatted me with an amused wrinkling of her nose at the joke. Then a hint of somberness touched her expression. “Was that okay? The way I brought my magic into it?—”

I eased myself down next to her and pulled her against me. “I enjoyed it quite a bit. And I don’t think I’ll ever be able to think about sorcery quite the same way again, so thank you for that.”

She smothered a guffaw. “Just don’t get any ideas about romancing the leviathan.”

“Believe me, there’s no chance of that,” I said dryly, but as the words left my lips, a flicker of hope darted through me.

The mention of the ancient beast and his magic hadn’t set off even the slightest flicker of panic this time. I couldn’t say for sure that this creative interlude had completely cured my lingering fears… but maybe my precious lover’s touch had been the salve that’d healed the worse of them.

If only I could heal her troubles just as quickly.