Chapter 14
Chapter
Fourteen
Elijah
W alking into the bunkhouse, I had not expected to find Kainda casually strolling naked across the room. Her tan skin glowed in the fire light coming in through the windows from the old-fashioned streetlights around the building. The dim light in the bunkhouse still provided enough for me to get a detail filled look at her. Even as I moved my eyes to focus, or attempt it, on the ceiling, the imaged had burned itself in my mind.
The red in her hair looked like flames in the light, still held back from her face in her braids. Hazel eyes sparked with emotions so fast I couldn’t decipher them before the next one appeared. Her lips parted just the slightest bit with surprise, seeing me. A faint blush colored her cheeks. As a redhead, I had expected the color to shade her whole face, down her neck and chest when she felt embarrassed or shocked. I’m sure the latter was how she felt now. The Kainda I knew, the personification of confidence.
She had more than just the one tattoo under her navel. More ink marked the top of her hip, curving back toward her ass. This one a full color image of the moon in various phases surrounded by magical symbols with a galaxy type background. Just before she’d whipped around to face me, I’d caught sight of the other inked designs.
Another piece graced the back of her right thigh. It looked to be a portrait of a goddess done in mostly tones of green with colorful flowers in her hair while she cradled the Earth in her hands. The top of the goddess’s head placed just under the full curve of Kainda butt and faded out just before it reached the back of her knee. Yet another tattoo took up her back, only this one didn’t appear to have anything to do with magic.
The last tattoo, a pair of daggers with ornate hilts. One dagger pointed down her spine, the other pointed to the base of her skull. Filigree sprung out around their edges. Theron’s name written on the blade of the upward pointing dagger. The black and gray ink stood out next to her auburn hair. When we’d taken the ritual baths, her loose hair had covered the tattoo.
I kept expecting her to turn away, yell at me to leave, to cover herself, or anything, something, but she did nothing. It took all of my willpower to keep my eyes from wandering past her shoulders, as I’d failed to keep them trained on the ceiling. My restraint gave under the pressure and I finally allowed my eyes to roam her exposed body.
Kainda had a natural hourglass shape, even with how in shape she kept it. Her waist just tucked in a little extra between her breasts and hips. Those hips had a definite curve to them, perfect to grip in passion. They made my palms itch to grab them. Her pert breasts the right size to fit in my hands. Those pink nipples hardened under my gaze. The tattoo near her navel drew my eyes again. Somehow I hadn’t noticed the belly button piercing she had earlier either. The silver bar had a crescent moon charm dangling from it. Her flat stomach sported a few scars under her ribs that looked like claw marks. One of the fade marks ended in a point over her pubic bone. Neatly trimmed dark auburn curls shielded her sex from view.
I met her eyes again, this time seeing a heat I felt reflected at me. The tension in the air stretched to the breaking point and the snap explosive when it came. Every part of me wanted to touch all of this gorgeous little demon hunting witch. The feelings surprising given I hadn’t felt anything, especially desire, since my capture.
“Kainda?”
She shivered like her name had been a caress from my hand. A war took place in her head, I could see her fighting her desires in the clench of her jaw and the changes in her eyes. Kainda and I were drawn to each other in a way I hadn’t expected when we first met only hours ago. It felt more like days than hours, honestly. I felt I knew her on a deeper level. The air felt electrified as we both stood there like statues. Something had to give, and soon.
Kainda took one step toward me, a silent permission I needed to close the rest of the distance between us. Like the bubble we’d stood in where time stood still burst. I cupped her face in my hands, taking her mouth with mine for the first time. Her tongue danced with mine and I felt the impact down to my soul. She wrapped her arms around my neck, drawing her body against me, rising on her toes to get even closer.
“E?” She pulled back breathless, blinking her eyes open. A nervous smile I had expected from her. “Can you feel that?”
“You’ve got to be a little more specific, Kainda, because I’m feeling a number of things right now.” I kept her close, wrapping my arms around her hips, stroking the soft skin of her lower back.
“My magic. It’s reaching out for you. Moving. I can feel it stroking us. Like how a cat would twine around your ankles. It’s intense and it’s never happened before. I don’t know how to explain it exactly.” She looked so frustrated, as if she couldn’t find the right words to describe it.
“Show me what you mean, Kainda,” I said, taking her hands and tangling our fingers.
“I don’t have the supplies here to show you the way we did when you showed me your memories.” Her grumpy pout I found adorable. Maybe a convenient excuse, but it felt like she didn’t want me to see something else.
“This is obviously important to you, or we wouldn’t be having this discussion. Try again to explain it.” She was stubborn, but she hadn’t realized yet that I could outlast her stubbornness with my patience. It came in handy every once in a while, a real gift.
Kainda dropped her head until her forehead rested against my chest. She muttered, almost so quiet I couldn’t hear her. “Ugh! How am I supposed to explain something that I don’t even understand and is more of a feeling than anything else! Wait, that’s it!”
Jerking back, she gave me a smile and said, “I can’t show it to you, but I can share what I’m feeling. Do you trust me?”
“When have I not trusted you, Kainda? I took a leap of faith when I left that hospital with you, and I’ve done nothing but let you take me on this wild ride with you since then. Why should I stop trusting you now?”
Not letting me go, she dragged me over to her bag sitting next to her clothes, the coven had returned. She went to bend over, but at the last second changed her mind and dropped into a crouch. I knelt next to her, unable to stop touching her, I ran my hands over her arms and back. Goosebumps broke out over her skin, chasing my touch.
She turned back to me after digging in her bag with a marker and a vial of some unidentified liquid. Grabbing my right hand, she popped the cap on the marker with her teeth, spitting it to the side, and drew an eye on my palm. Taking my left, next drew a heart on that palm. Shapes, more than the anatomical versions. She brought both of my hands to her mouth and blew across the slightly damp ink, keeping our gazes lock. Now she was just messing with me. I shuddered, my eyes narrowing on her, telling her without words I’d pay her back.
“So, what exactly are you planning?” I asked and began untangling her braids as she turned the marker to her left hand, drawing an eye on her palm.
“Well, I don’t have the tools here or the time for something more formal, so I’m going to try something off the cuff?—”
“Um, did you say you’re going to work magic while flying by the seat of your— well, you’re not wearing pants, but you know what I mean.” I let go of her hair, watching her face as she answered me.
“Relax, I know what I’m doing. I’ve done free hand magic before— hell, most of the magic I use when demon hunting is free hand. Anyway, as I was saying before you interrupted me. I’m mashing together an empathy spell with a clairvoyance spell. Essentially, it should allow you to feel what I’m physically feeling psychically. Trust me.” She gave me a sweet, charming smile, holding out the marker to me.
“And if this doesn’t work the way you intend for it to, what happens?” I felt more curious than nervous because I trusted her.
“Well, I’m not summoning anything or calling upon a deity or working with a potion, so nothing. If it doesn’t work, nothing will happen. I’m keeping this simple to be on the safe side. I am an adrenaline junky— have to be to hunt demons— but I’m not stupid.”
“I trust you, Kainda. Let’s do this.” I took the marker from her, waiting for her to give me instructions.
“Okay, I need you to draw a heart on my right palm.” She placed her hand palm up in front of me. I took it, resting it on my knee. Very carefully I drew the heart and returned the favor by blowing on the wet ink holding her wrist when she would have pulled away.
Kainda opened the bottle of liquid when I finally released her. I picked up the marker cap where it had fallen by my foot. A lemony, spicy, orange blossom like scent perfumed the air immediately. The smell of grass crept in on the back edge of the scent. She dabbed the tip of her right index finger into the liquid.
“You’ll repeat my actions and words back to me.” She made a spiral with the oil in the center of my forehead before touching the oil to my wrists, spreading it down to the tips of my middle fingers. She spoke the incantation as she went. “My feelings to your consciousness. Share the sensations of my body I shall. See what I see, feel what I feel. I grant you access. My will be done.”
Once I dipped my finger in the oil, she put the cap back on what I guessed was lemongrass essential oil, setting it to the side. I repeated the incantation and her actions. As the last words left my lips, she threaded her fingers through mine, touching her forehead to mine for just a moment. “How do we know if it worked?” I asked, eager to know one way or the other.
“We get back to doing what we were doing. Oh, and E, get rid of the clothes.” She stood, pulling me with her. The last words practically panted out.
She didn’t need to ask me twice. Yanking the shirt off over my head, I tossed it away. Then I untied the drawstring pants, letting them slide down my legs. They puddled on the floor, kicking them out of the way, I pulled her in close, kissing her again. I felt the spell take hold like a shift in the air, a give of a film, as her magic pushed out to me. The sensation of it odd, almost unsettling. Like the rush of a wave pulled back out to sea. A catlike grin told me she knew I could feel her magic.
“Kainda, that is the strangest thing. It’s like you’re physically touching me with your essence.” It was the most bewildering thing, but spectacular all the same.
“If this is the strangest thing about our time together, then I should be very concerned for your perception of reality.” Laughing as we stood naked in each other's arms felt scarily natural.
I kissed her, effectively shutting her up, since she found this all a little too funny. Lifting her, she wrapped her legs around my waist. Kainda ran her fingers through my slightly too long hair, curling her fingers in the strands. This moment together, the most invigorating I’d felt in a very long time, even before the attack. It could very well be the best kiss of my life.
Whatever spell Kainda had woven worked like a well oiled machine, but it scrambled my ability to think. I understood why Kainda had struggled to find the words to describe this sensation to me. I struggled to understand it, and I felt it for myself now. She’d zapped all of my brain cells with a thousand bolts of lightning. Feeling her magic this way, unimaginably bizarre. The sensation reminiscent of butterflies in my stomach. Only they'd escaped and multiplied through my body. Flutters of imagined touches as her magic stroked over, under, and in my skin. But it wasn’t my skin, it was hers and all I felt only the echoes of it.
Her magic like an extra set of hands touching us both. Shivers had her quaking in my arms, almost too good. The more her magic stroked against us, the more intense the sensations grew. The magical sensations weren’t the only thing magnified, all the other sensations had too.
I took us down to the bunk next to us that didn’t have our belongings sitting on it. Nipping her lower lip, sliding my hands up her arms, gently untangling her hands from my hair. I pinned her arms above her head, gripping her wrists in one hand. The position arched her spine, lifting her chest against mine. From this angle, it made her breasts look larger with her heavy breathing. My other hand now free, I gently tugged her legs one at a time from around my waist until her feet rested back on the mattress on either side of me. We’d hardly gotten started, but I felt ready to burst.
This link to her overwhelming my senses. The things I picked up from Kainda astounded me. She’d utter a sound of pleasure at the same time I’d feel what triggered those sounds. It felt like an eternity had passed since I’d walked in the cabin to see her nude body strutting across the room, but it had scarcely been more than a half hour, if that. The spell’s intensity had completely distorted my sense of time. Everything narrowed down to us and nothing else existed.
Kainda used her finely honed strength to flip us, so she straddled me. She peered down at me with her hair hanging in kinky waves around her face. The mischievous smile on her lips as she took control. I kept my hands busy touching as much of her as humanly possible all at once.
Our connection through the spell telegraphed her plans before she even moved. Her body sank down on mine as she flexed her hands against my chest, sending her sharp little nails digging into my skin. The sensations of experiencing her taking me inside her collided with her sensations of me entering her body. Kainda cried out at the same time I did from the shock of it.
“It’s too much.” Kainda moaned the words as she collapsed over me. Her words didn’t seem to agree with her actions because her mouth moved over my throat and neck.
Taking her hips in my hands, I helped her move over me as I started moving beneath her. She nipped at me as we moved together. This was going to be explosive, and I wanted it to go on forever. I might want it to go on forever, but our bodies wouldn’t hold up to that challenge. Our bodies poised on the verge already. This was the most intense sexual experience of my life, and it would end far too soon.
“Elijah!” She cried my name as her body jolted like she’d been electrocuted. Her nails dug in a little deeper as her whole body clenched inward.
I felt her orgasm crash over her, followed quickly by my own. Kainda crumpled onto my chest, spent. Her heart still racing as she struggled to regulate her breathing. I could feel her heart beating through both of our chests. The spell still a living entity between us pulsing with her magic trying to stoke the flames again.
Kainda slowly lifted her hand and licked her palm, smearing the ink drawing, severing the spell. The loss of that connection felt like I imagined getting sucked out into the vacuum of space felt like. A vast emptiness and a crushing, infinite silence. She rolled off me to lay on her back beside me. We both laid there staring at the ceiling for a long moment, Kainda as closed off and distant in a way I hadn’t felt from her before. We fell asleep without saying anything.