Chapter 17
seventeen
KAT
Jonah called me while I was lounging in Callum's tub. The air smelled like some calming mixture of plants, and I was so relaxed that I was starting to wonder if you could get high from a bath bomb.
Considering the spellcasters had created it, it wasn't an impossibility.
"Hey," I said, my head tipped back and my eyes closed as I answered the phone. Callum had a desk of sorts set up over the top of his tub, which was the perfect place to rest the iced coffee I was sipping. And my phone, which was now on speaker.
"Hey. Something's going on with Gwen."
"Huh? Are you back together?"
"No."
"Gwen isn't our business anymore, Jonah."
He let out a breath. "She showed up at my door twenty minutes ago and said she needs help."
"What?" I sat up. "Is she still there?"
Even the bath bomb high couldn't soften that blow.
My sister needed help, and she went to her ex-fiancé instead of the most powerful werewolf in the city.
Ouch.
"No, she just stopped by and asked me to meet her at the villa before the next challenge. Did she ask you?"
"Of course not. Even if Gwen wanted my help, which she doesn't, she's not going to come to Callum's door."
"Good point."
"You're going, right? You want to get back with her," I said.
"I don’t know. If I'm fighting in these challenges, I might become her Beta, so I should probably go."
"You totally want her."
"Just come with me to the meeting."
I scoffed. "I'm not a glutton for punishment, Jonah. She would just ask me to leave. And Callum would insist on going with me, anyway."
"If something bad enough is going on that she bothered asking me to meet with her, she could probably use his help."
"Callum killed Simon," I reminded Jonah.
"For you. And all of Rumor, honestly. We're better off without that fucker."
"I don't think that will matter to Gwen. And there's a very obvious reason that could be her motivation for the meeting."
"What?"
"She could want to get back together with you. Obviously."
"She doesn't."
"Stop denying it. We both know the truth." I relaxed against the tub's curved back. It was obviously made for someone bigger than me, but I mostly fit, and I had been having a fabulous time up until Jonah called.
"I'll go alone if I have to, but I'd really prefer if you came. Just think about it," Jonah said. "Eight AM, before the next challenge. You have a day and a half to change your mind."
"I'm not going to change my mind."
"Do it for me."
"I'll think about it. Bye, Jonah." I hung up and dropped my phone on the makeshift desk, picking up my cup of coffee just as Callum walked into the bathroom.
"What does he want?"
"Apparently, Gwen set up a meeting with him before the next challenge. I think she wants to get back with him. They were seriously in love. He doesn't think so, and wants me to go with him."
Callum leaned against the cabinets, folding his arms stiffly.
I waved him toward the tub. "I'm not getting out yet. Just get in so you're not in pain."
He blinked. "Get in?"
"Yeah. Hot water is obviously good for your pain, and I'm even better, so get in."
He eyed me, almost suspicious. "This isn't about sex."
I rolled my eyes. "Do I look like I'm trying to seduce you, Callum? There are bubbles nearly up to my throat. Whatever. Get in or don't."
He watched me for a few more seconds before he finally undid the top button of his shirt. His movements were slow and measured. Not for my sake, but for the sake of the magic that must've been driving him mad again.
When he dropped his shirt on the bathroom countertop, I took him in.
The magic that made him both powerful and miserable also made him really fucking gorgeous. I practically itched to touch him.
His hand went to the button on his pants, and his eyes met mine.
"If you tell me to look away, I'm going to throw my phone at you," I warned.
His lips twitched, like he was suppressing the world's smallest smile. "I wasn't planning on it."
Callum pushed his pants and boxer-briefs down his strong thighs. The man was a masterpiece of swirling gray bargain markings and chiseled muscle.
He stepped out of his pants and dragged a hand lightly down his thick erection, like he couldn't stand not to.
Damn, he was gorgeous.
I wanted him. Badly.
"You could keep going," I said. "I would be safe from your magic all the way over here if you were just jerking off."
"You wouldn't be safe in any part of this house if I truly lost control, Kitten."
He crossed the bathroom slowly. His hand skimmed the bun I'd piled on top of my head, tugging one of the curls lightly. He stayed where he was and slid his fingers into the strands. I wasn't sure what he was doing, but I knew I had his full attention.
"Have you imagined me wrapping my mouth around you yet?" I asked playfully, even though I wasn't joking in the slightest.
His cock throbbed violently for me. "Kitten, you would be bright red if you knew the things I've imagined you doing."
He released my hair and dragged the backs of his fingers over my cheek before he stepped into the tub. His motions were significantly smoother as he took a seat across from me, his bare legs framing mine. He pulled my feet over his thighs, and nearly dragged me under the water in the process.
I grabbed the sides of the tub to stabilize myself.
The water cooled immediately with him in it.
He closed his eyes, tipping his head back after he turned the faucet to add more heat.
"Sorry," he murmured.
"Don't apologize. I invited you, remember?"
His chest rumbled slightly.
"How was the meeting?"
"Pointless."
"Did you really tell them you want me to go?"
"No."
Oh. Maybe Liv was wrong about him wanting me there.
"I told them you're coming when I feel like bringing you, Kitten. I don't ask the Cabinet for permission."
My eyes widened slightly.
His were still closed, so he didn't see my reaction.
"Rumor stands or falls based on the four of us. To power something as large as the city's wards, they need a battery, which we are. No one else in Rumor could do what we do. The wards take the edge off our magic's effect on us, which is a benefit."
"Holy shit. Your magic was even stronger before you were here?"
"It was." Callum breathed out slowly. I watched him, taking in the complete and utter relaxation on his face. He looked kinder, without the tension. More… real. "So Gwen wants to meet with Jonah, and he wants you to go. What would your role be?"
"Something between cock-blocker and gunslinger, I think."
"What do you mean?"
"He says he's not interested in her, so I'd be there to make sure she doesn't make a move, I guess. And where I go, you go, so..." I shrugged.
"I'm the gun you're slinging?"
"Yep. If she's in danger, Jonah thinks you'll protect her. I told him he's crazy, but he didn't listen."
"He's not crazy. If my mate's sister was in danger, I would protect her. Immortality is a long time. You may want to make up with her at some point, which wouldn't be possible if she was dead."
"I think that's the most romantic thing you've ever said to me," I drawled.
He opened his eyes. "I've said plenty of romantic things."
"Like what?"
"I tell you frequently that you look good."
Usually there was some form of a fuck in the sentence, but that was true. "Fine, you're romantic. Anyway, I'm not sure if I'll go to the meeting. Gwen's been on the Cabinet for five years, so she must have allies she could turn to other than me and Jonah. And she obviously doesn't want me there."
"Actually, the Cabinet despised Simon. Gwen hasn't said more than three words to anyone on it in the five years she's been the Alpha, so she can't have connections."
I blinked. "What?"
Callum took my hand off the side of the tub, studying the marking of our mate bond on my skin as if he wanted to see it up close.
"I killed him to force you into a mate bond, but I was also tired of dealing with him.
If I had killed someone the Cabinet cared about, like the demon king, there would've been consequences, wards be damned.
I could technically continue powering them from Shadowside Penitentiary, and no one would have to deal with me any longer. "
"The Cabinet likes the demon king?"
"They do."
His name was Grayson Darke, and he was a legendary MMA fighter. He owned most of the fighting gyms in Rumor, including the one Jonah trained at. While Grayson didn’t fight regularly, it was widely televised when he did.
When I saw him at the challenges, he was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, along with a baseball cap. Shadows moved over his tan skin constantly, resembling living gray smoke, and he had a bargain mark wrapped around his throat like a collar.
"He's friendly. Annoyingly so, but some people enjoy that kind of thing."
"Who's his bargain with?"
"Merrily."
"You're not going to tell me not to talk to him?"
"He's an incubus, and you're mated to me. There's no world in which he would be interested in you, Kitten."
"You might not want to screw me that badly, but I've turned down at least two dozen MMA fighters in the past few years, so I know I have some sex appeal."
His eyes narrowed. "Who the fuck was interested in you?"
It sounded like an insult, but I knew it was more of a threat.
"I know the drill, and I'm not giving you names. I'm just saying, I can be attractive to some people, so a sex demon could potentially be interested in me."
"Do you know how incubus magic works?"
"No."
"They have to recharge their power by visiting the dreams of someone who is attracted to them and having sex with them in those dreams. A mated incubus can only visit their mate. A mated immortal cannot be visited by anyone other than their mate. It has nothing to do with sex appeal."
"So he couldn't feed from me."
"No. There's also the fact that his bargain mark is actually the mark of a fated mate, which is an annoyance, to say the least."
My eyebrows shot upward. "It's what?"
"He's Merrily's soulmate. It makes him untouchable in fae society, as you know. Like you did, he thinks it's the mark of a favor he owes her."
"She doesn't want to be with him?"
"I assume not. None of us have brought the topic up. Merrily's the oldest of us, and she has her reasons for everything she does."
"Damn."
"She may not be aware that we know at all, so don't mention it."
My eyebrows lifted. "You keep secrets from each other?"
"Not many, but a few."
"Does Liv know?"
"She does. She asked me about it after the Cabinet meeting where he showed up with the mark. It was nearly a full century ago."
"Wow."
Callum turned the hot water off. I realized the tub was near overflowing, the water above my chin. If I slouched, I'd be under.
"Did you close the overflow drain somehow?" I asked.
"Long ago."
We both leaned back in the tub, and I closed my eyes, enjoying the relaxation.
Callum's hands each took one of my feet, and I groaned softly when his thumbs pressed into the pads of them, massaging slowly.
"If this is about trying to convince me to let you get me off again, you're not going to win," I said, digging my fingers into the sides of the tub.
"I just want to make you feel good."
"You can't ask for that without accepting reciprocation." I nearly moaned the words.
"You make me feel good just by maintaining physical contact."
He wasn't joking. To him, not being in pain was feeling good.
"I won't allow this for long," I warned.
It was halfhearted.
Something told me he knew it.