Chapter 12
“Okay.” Flash’s voice was barely a whisper. “Her touch was crazy good, but when I put my palm on her chakana, I almost had a full-body orgasm.”
When Flash described the electric touch of the chakana, a phantom warmth bloomed in Fly’s own chest. When he spoke of the feeling of finding a missing piece, a sharp, inexplicable ache of longing echoed in Fly’s gut. He shifted his weight, uncomfortable in his own skin.
“It was more than physical. It was like finding someone I hadn’t known I needed on a level I couldn’t comprehend, that she was the missing piece, and I wouldn’t be whole if I lost her.
” He bowed his head, digging at his eyes as if to physically push the memory back.
“Can we go somewhere else. I can’t…do this near her. ”
He nodded as he rose with Flash, and they exited the library.
Lechuza gave Flash a longing look that Fly felt in his gut, a pang of pure, unadulterated envy before the heavy wooden door closed with a soft thud.
He’d been involved with women, but none of them had ever looked at him like that, like he was the axis on which her world spun.
Flash practically sprinted away and out onto the stone balcony, the cool mountain air a shock after the stuffy warmth of the library.
He gripped the wrought iron railing. Its intricate patterns had to be biting into his palms, but he held on until his knuckles were white.
Below, the manicured gardens of the estate rolled out into the wild, untamed beauty of the Andes.
“Even now, I want her like it’s a living thing inside me, and holding back is killing me.
” Fly just stood there, a solid, silent presence, letting Flash get a hold of himself.
“That was only the beginning. She went behind me and just looked at my wings…man, they lifted off my back. It had happened before, right after I got them, after she disappeared…she has them too.”
Fly continued to be silent, letting Flash find his footing, letting him tell the story in his own time. “She removed the rest of her clothes, and…when she took off my jeans…we were completely naked, and she was giving me head.”
That hum in Fly’s body spiked into a full-blown roar.
It was like standing next to a massive speaker and feeling the bass vibrate through every organ.
It was as if a hot, aggressive mouth was on his own dick.
A wave of pure, undiluted want washed over him, so strong and sudden it was staggering.
It wasn't directed at Flash, or at Lechuza, or at anyone.
It was just…there. An overwhelming, biological imperative to touch, to take, to lose himself in the kind of primal connection Flash was describing.
Flash drew in a hard breath, the sound ragged, as if he were drowning.
“I was lost in it. It was…everything, and then she stopped.” He turned, his eyes wild with a pain so deep it was almost feral.
“She just stopped, and she screamed his name…Cisco,” Flash snarled.
“I saw it. Through her. I saw a blade. I saw blood on her hands. I saw her killing a man who looked just like me.”
As Flash’s words painted the scene, Fly felt a strange hum start in his own bones, a low vibration that matched the desperate energy pouring off his friend. It was something more than empathy, resonating like a flash flood of force.
“That’s not all. When I picked her up to hold her and help her calm down, our chakanas touched, and I saw her, begging me to stay away before we came here, and she saw me in the shower experiencing that same vision, that death that felt like mine.
It’s like our minds touched, and it was overwhelming, almost unbearable how beautiful and terrifying it was.
” Flash’s agonizing words set off some kind of a charge.
Every nerve ending came alive. Fly’s whole body was one big receiver, settling in his nipples and his groin.
He got achingly, painfully hard as granite, a sudden, unwelcome physical reaction that had nothing to do with conscious thought or as petty as titillating knowledge of his brother’s interaction with Lechuza.
Flash was so open, so raw, the intensity of the Veil running through the brotherhood and Shadowguard connections, flooding the balcony, and Fly, the sensitive Visionary, was getting caught in its wake.
He was a tuning fork, and Flash had just struck the cosmic note.
Fly crossed his arms, hunching over slightly as he tried to control the chaotic response of his own body.
Gritting his teeth, he forced the feeling down, shoving it behind the thick, reinforced wall of his training.
It was just momentum. Just a resonance. It didn't mean anything.
But as he stood there, his body humming with a desire that wasn't his own, he knew, with a certainty that chilled him to the bone, that this war they were in was fought on a level he was only just beginning to comprehend.
The mountain air, which moments before had felt cool and sharp, now felt charged, thick with an unseen electricity that made the fine hairs on his arms stand up.
“You need to be with her, Flash,” Fly said, his voice strained, tight with the effort of controlling his own body.
“I’m not sure where this advice is coming from, but something is demanding it.
You may not be ready, but something has to happen.
Immediately. We can’t function like this. I’m barely coherent now.”
Flash looked at him, and Fly saw blue fire ignite in his eyes, the fire that had transformed him into that eagle, it flashed and sparked, a desperate, wild mix of longing and fear.
“I’m afraid of rushing her, hurting her.
She’s not fragile, not by a long shot, but I won’t take what she’s not willing to give. ”
Suddenly, the heavy glass door to the library slid open, and Easy, Twister, and North appeared, their faces drawn and tight with the same restless current that was plaguing Fly. “Flash…you better…” Easy started, his voice a low warning.
But Flash was already moving. The raw, pleading need in Fly’s voice must have been the final push. He broke away from the railing and, with the kind of speed he was known for, he ran full out, toward the library, a man answering an uncontrollable desire he couldn't refuse.
Easy looked at Fly, his dark eyes filled with a knowing, weary frustration. “I fucking wish Astraea was here,” he whispered, the words barely carrying on the wind. “Excuse me, I’ve got to call her.” He disappeared back inside, the need for connection overriding everything else.
Twister’s smile was strained, a ghost of his usual humor. “Yeah, me, too.” He rubbed his chest, right over his trident mark, as if trying to soothe a deep, psychic ache.
North stood his ground, his solid presence a stark contrast to the chaos swirling around them. He looked at Fly, his gaze direct and unflinching. “What the fuck did you just do?”
“It wasn’t me. It was them,” Fly said, turning back to the breathtaking view.
The vastness of the Andes, the timeless, stoic mountains, should have been calming, but now it just felt like a silent, indifferent witness to their turmoil.
“This…what we’re feeling and have no outlet for?
Times that by a trillion. This is just a taste of their power. ”
“This…” he waved a hand at the charged air, “...and this quest we’re going on will help?”
Fly turned toward the view, this time his hands curling around the cold, unforgiving iron of the railing, the sharp edges grounding him.
“I hope so. The Veil wants truth, integrity, and accountability. That’s the very reason our conscription almost broke the whole system.
Now it’s recalibrating after millennia. When she touched the font, it recognized her.
I know it. I feel it, but there’s something missing.
We have to find out what that is. Now we have a name for her ancestor and the artifacts we need to really do some damage.
” He looked at North, his expression deadly serious.
“This will work as long as we don’t lose our minds over their unrequited sexual drive.
This needs to happen.” Flash needed to finish what they started in the tower.
Yeah, sex was crucial to the mission. This was mind-blowing.
Suddenly, Alessia Cruz, the pretty little thing who had been forcing food and sleep on him, stepped onto the balcony.
They’d had a flirty time, and he’d found out she was a second-generation staff member.
Her mom worked for the Rumi Family as a cook in the kitchen.
It was her delicious food she’d brought him.
Her full mouth, her luminous skin, the full, ripe curves of her body drew him with a heightened sense of need. He was sure it was nothing but the rebound of Flash’s desire, but there had already been a spark between them.
The charged air on the balcony was thick, sensual, and Fly drew it into his lungs like a strong aphrodisiac, a palpable thing that coiled around them, making every breath an effort. North shook his head, a gesture of weary resignation. He was the anchor, but even he was being pulled off-center.
“I’ll see you later. It’s clear we’re not getting any more planning done right now,” he growled, his voice a low rumble. “I’m going for a run.” He clapped a heavy hand on Fly’s shoulder, a silent promise of solidarity, before disappearing back into the house, leaving Fly alone with the storm.
The minute North left, Alessia moved with a purposeful stride, rushing toward him across the flagstones, her dark eyes burning with an intensity that mirrored the chaos in his own soul.
He caught her against him, his hands going to her waist to steady them both.
The feel of her, soft and warm and real, was a shock against the buzzing, unreal force, and he almost came.
“Alessia, this is…” he growled, the sound of guttural need in the lower register he’d never heard before.