27. Phantom Menacing
27
PHANTOM MENACING
JADE
A fter Flint helps to clean me up, Calder and I snuggle in bed. His mating fever abates with our bond. He’s clear-headed again. He confesses to me what he can stomach to tell me about the torture he suffered. How she violated and mutilated him. It makes my stomach turn, picturing him abused like that.
I’d say I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, but it would be a lie. I wish that witch would feel the same pain she inflicted on him. I want her to experience how she ruined him all these years.
However, I suspect she’s messed up because someone hurt her, but that doesn’t give her a free pass to be a torturer.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have burdened you with all that,” Calder says, turning his face away from me.
“No. It isn’t a burden. I’m here for you, just like you have been there for me. Even when you didn’t like me or trust me, you listened when I told you about Rob’s abuse. I didn’t feel so alone when you understood how much he had hurt me.”
Calder’s hand lightly strokes my cheek. “I hate that when you were under the spell that I asked you to remember it all.”
“Are you kidding me? That was a brilliant idea. Now I understand why I felt the way I did. I was brainwashed.” I search Calder’s face, trying to read him. “Are you unhappy that I gave you back your soul pieces?”
“Of course not.” He presses a kiss to my lips. “It will take some time for my soul to integrate. If I didn’t have it back, I don’t know what kind of a mate I would be for you.”
Calder sits up and moves the pillows to the wall at the head of the mattress. Then he rests his back and opens his arms, inviting me.
I get to my knees and knee walk toward him.
My gargoyle moves closer, worried.
Calder nods to Flint. “Stay close.”
“She enjoys this sexual position. Bouncing on top,” Flint says and gives me a slanted smile when I blush.
“ Flint! I didn’t take you as a kiss and tell type.” I pout, then laugh.
“I’m not planning on fucking… right now, but thanks for the tip, big guy.” Calder catches me by my waist and easily lifts me onto his lap, my knees landing on either side of his hips.
Damn, these guys are fucking strong.
His cock perks up with my vagina’s proximity.
I feel awkward, unsure where to put my hands, so I rest them on my thighs until I understand what’s going on. I know he’s trying to get over his nightmare experience, but I worry he’s pushing himself too hard, too fast.
Calder’s finger catches under my chin and lifts my face so I’m looking into his eyes. They no longer look as haunted as they did when we first met. “I want you to touch me, my flame. Explore my body. I need to get used to it. And I crave your touch. It’s driving me insane.”
Taking my hands in his, he places them on the sides of his face.
I don’t move, waiting to see his reaction. Instead of fear, I see hope and affection in his expression.
“If it gets to be too much, tell me,” I say, moving my fingers to trace over his fantastic cheekbones and his chiseled jaw.
His unshaven beard is softer than I expect. I’ve kissed him, but I was so overcome with desire that I didn’t notice how unusually soft his whiskers are. I feather my fingertips over his strong brow, and he closes his eyes in bliss. I run my thumb over his plump lower lip, and he pokes his tongue out to lick the tip.
I move my hands down over his neck. He snaps his eyes open and shivers when I stroke my hand over his throat. He tenses, and I worry I’ve triggered him.
An image flashes in my mind. Osen’s hand wrapped tightly around Calder’s neck during sex.
Osen speaks to me, “Maybe one day we can play again like that, but not now. Not yet.”
I explore Calder’s collarbones, his huge deltoids, and down over his pecs. My hands practically thump over his washboard abs.
I skim my hands up his arms, admiring his corded forearms and his defined triceps and biceps.
Looking for the next place, I ask, “How do you feel about me touching your back?”
He holds my wrists, leans forward, and slides my arms around him. I stroke up and down his spine and touch the place where his wings usually emerge. In response, he groans with pleasure. His arms wrap around my waist, and he pulls me flush against his chest. I fall into his embrace, my face nuzzling into his shoulder and neck, and he hums happily.
It becomes clear that he isn’t likely to have an episode and hurt me. When he realizes this, Flint leaves to make us some food.
Maxum stays to monitor us. He sits in the corner, watching over me like my personal guardian demon.
I giggle at that thought.
“ Jade .” Maxum narrows his eyes at me, likely sensing I was making a joke at his expense. “What did you just think?”
“Who needs angels when I have a demon to keep me safe?” I blow him a kiss and the sweet and sappy demon reaches out and catches it. Then he wickedly tucks it in his pants, then stares down wide eyed, like it’s working some blowjob magic.
Calder and I bark out a laugh.
I’m still cautious and don’t initiate touch. Calder’s been holding my hands since our touching session and snuggling with me.
Hope fills my heart that we might get past this. If not, I will still love him the way he needs.
The cellar hatch opens, and Arran and Flint are carrying plates stacked with sandwiches.
“Guys, we don’t have to eat in here,” Calder grumbles. He looks at me with a frown. “It’s bad enough Jade has to be down in a dark hole at all because of me.”
“Yet you got down my holes anyway,” I say and waggle my eyebrows suggestively.
Every one of my guys groans at my joke, even Osen.
“What?” I wave them off. “You all are joke snobs.”
“I’m new to jokes and even I know that one was bad,” Flint teases.
“Heathens!” I announce. “Want to get barbaric?”
“Not until you eat.” Arran places a plate in my lap as I sit at the edge of the mattress. He lifts my chin gently and gazes into my eyes. “Missed you.”
I grasp his wrist, moving his hand so I can snuggle into his palm.
After a quick glance to judge Calder’s mood, Arran dips down and gives me a soft yet dizzying kiss.
He walks around the bed and then shouts, arching his back and his body ripples with a shift. I’m freaking out. It appears something’s attacking him.
“What’s wrong?” I frantically ask my werewolf.
Arran grabs his crotch and doubles over. When he glances up at us, it’s not pain but embarrassment written on his face. “I just came in my fucking pants!” he hisses in surprise.
“I believe that was my ectoplasm,” Osen says through me. “Ecto-jism, if you will, that was floating in the room from having sex.”
Arran scans the space, warily. “Your incubus ghost cum is hovering around like mines in the air, waiting to explode our cocks?”
Maxum swiftly rushes around the room with a wicked grin. When he doesn’t cum, he says with a laugh, “Dammit, Osen. Can you jerk out another one?”
“ Haha ,” Arran grumbles and uses some napkins to clean up his mess, but it’s already soaked into his pants.
Flint shrugs and sits down on the ground next to me. His shoulder presses against my leg like a puppy needing his attention fix.
After the spontaneous ejaculation, we quiet down and eat, enjoying each other’s company.
It’s wonderfully pleasant except something’s niggling at me. The situation is far from where it needs to be. We still must rid the realms of Rob and Galiana so we can stop hiding and find a proper place to live.
And Osen. I want him here, sitting next to me, in his own body.
As amazing as it was to experience a new way with him riding along inside me. I want him physically inside my body with his real cock. I want him to have a relationship with Calder, independent of me. The way they both deserve.
“Guys, I was thinking…” I hesitate, stalling as I try to figure out how to suggest it.
“No. Don’t,” Osen warns, sensing where my mind has gone.
“I have to, Osen,” I argue aloud so the others can hear me. “If they shoot down the idea, then fine.”
Calder shifts, turning on his perch next to me. “Tell us.”
I focus on Calder as I explain. He’ll give me the most honest feedback. “With what happened at the warehouse, I think there’s a chance, maybe a slim one, to bring Osen back.”
“Jade, doesn’t it give you pause that fucking reckless Osen doesn’t want to do it?” Maxum growls.
I look over and find my demon fuming. “Just because he’s skittish now after he died doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea.”
“Do you even hear yourself?” Maxum jumps to his feet, coming close to ramming his horns into the low ceiling. “No. We would need his magic back. That means putting you in Rob’s path so you can attempt to snatch it from him. You don’t even know if you can do that. Souls are one thing. Magic is different.”
“But we’re pretty sure he used my siphoned magic to take both,” I argue.
“He might have, but he would have used a spell to manipulate it to do that.” Calder makes a stupidly smart point.
I want to scream. Why didn’t my grandmother—dammit, mother —leave me with someone who knew what I was and how to train me?
If she did, I wouldn’t be starting my new career as a fucking magical freak at forty.
“Then maybe we need to see if I can steal magic,” I say with a shrug. “Then if we just happen to wander across Rob, I can rip it from his body.”
“Fuck.” Maxum drags his hand over his face. “Fine. I can see you aren’t going to back down. And we should know what a little monster you’ve turned out to be.”
“We can hunt down some ASO witches and warlocks,” Flint proposes. “And beat them to the edge of death, then they can’t hurt our precious mate. She could test her powers on them.”
“Aw, always thinking of me.” I kiss his horn that’s only a few inches from my face.
He smiles at me, looking pleased.
We finish up our meal, and Calder insists we return to the tiny cabin.
I don’t argue. I could use another shower since the washcloths Flint used to clean me up after Calder fucked me could only do so much.
While we get ready to sleep, Calder gives me a kiss and hug. I soak up the affection and try to radiate it back out to him as much as I can. “I’m going to sleep on the couch since I’m not quite ready for a dog pile on the bed.”
“You’re welcome when you’re ready.”
“Hey!” Trouble grumbles at Calder. “I thought this was my bed now.”
“You take up a tiny bit of this entire couch!” Calder argues. “I’ll put you outside if you want your space.”
“No need to get dramatic,” Trouble squeaks.
“Yay! Cuddles!” Sage cheers as Calder sets them on his chest.
Seeing them snuggled up makes my heart glow, and I crawl into the middle of bed and what I expect to be another sweltering night of body heat.
Once we get settled in a new permanent home, I’ll need Maxum to fork out the big bucks on an industrial sized air-conditioner so I won’t suffer a heat stroke at night with them.
As soon as I’m horizontal, the heavy weight of massive arms and legs falls over me. My mind envisions I’m in a horror movie, being pulled down into a dark pit and slowly suffocated. It’s not far off, but fortunately, it’s like a warm, fuzzy version.
It’s as if I’m drugged with happy endorphins, and I fall into a smothering oblivion with a smile on my face.