Chapter 10
Ezra
The bass from the nearby party kept in time with the racing of my heart. It still hadn’t calmed, even after I found Rani. Her warm skin was right here and safe beneath my hands, but I couldn’t convince my brain that she wasn’t in danger. When that barrier spell went off…
Gods, she was going to be the death of me.
Her face was scrunched with fury, and her hands made little fists against my chest. Right on cue.
Any mention of her feelings or that something might not be okay and she defaulted to spicy Rani—which usually was a huge turn-on for me.
But not tonight. Not when I had enough rage to match hers and then some.
There were too many conflicting emotions warring within me to think straight.
Outrage. Pride, Jealousy. Satisfaction. All of them disappeared when I looked at her.
The way her hair fell in sensual wisps around her face.
Her flushed cheeks and the glow in her eyes.
Even the pinch of her lips was a distraction.
I was hard as fuck.
Focus, Ezra! She’s in trouble. Bad little siren, remember?
She took a breath, but we didn’t have time to sit here and argue when I already knew I was right. As usual.
“Before you say something that I’m sure you’ll regret when your common sense kicks in, we’re going back to the house. You can think of ways to make this up to me as we walk.”
I spun, pulling her along with me. She fought every step, as I knew she would. Her soft grunts as she tried to break free were a massive dick tease. This was going to be a long walk back.
“Let me go, asshole!” she growled, losing another foot of traction as we hit the start of the path.
I sighed. These motherfucking trees. I knew they were laughing at me, and if I could flip them off and corral my feisty bond at the same time, I would. Unfortunately, Rani was stronger than she looked. It took all my concentration to make sure she didn’t hurt herself twisting like that.
“Ezra!”
“Will you behave?” I asked, stopping before she broke something, like my fingers.
I watched her try to compose herself, but her hair was a lost cause, half hanging over her shoulder.
Her clothes were all askew, and she panted like I’d made her run a mile.
The silence stretched, and my suspicions rose.
As a small safety measure, I released a tiny bit of magick, not enough to register, but just enough to slide across the brick and coat the bottom of her shoes.
“I find that question insulting,” she finally replied, looking me in the eye.
I smirked, recognizing the fire in her gaze, but decided to see how this would play out anyway. “The question remains. Pinky promise you’ll behave and I’ll let you go.”
I held up my little finger, and her angry facade cracked just a little.
“That’s it?” She eyed my hand warily. “I just have to promise?”
“Not quite. You still need to wrap your finger nice and tight around—”
She hooked her pinky around mine with a glare, and I felt it all the way to my balls. There was definitely something wrong with me. But fuck, even the most innocent touches from her plucked at my control. I was an addict. I wanted that damn finger to run over every inch of me.
I released her wrist with a wide smile. Maybe it was because of how distracted I was that she got as far as she did.
She bolted the second her skin left mine, a devious grin on her lips.
I knew exactly what she planned, of course.
Sneaky she was not. With barely a thought, I activated the ice on the bottom of her boots.
The magick thickened and grew until it encased both her feet in heavy blocks.
With a high squeak, her body pitched forward while her feet remained frozen to the grass.
Her knees hit the ground, then her face.
Ass in the air and skirt flipped up, every muscle in my body locked as I got a good look at all that smooth skin on display.
That scrap of lace did nothing to hide her from me, and my mouth watered.
She screeched and clawed at the ground, trying in vain to free herself.
All it did was wiggle that ass in my face like a white flag.
Gods, if only it were a sign of surrender. I would be buried in her so fucking fast. Alas, her squirming and foul language was a level of torture I wasn’t sure I could withstand.
“Please stop talking,” I begged, adjusting my dick before I humiliated myself.
“You’d like that! Because then you wouldn’t have to hear the truth, you fucking—”
“I can make you if you’d prefer, but you might moan a little.”
I melted the ice with a wave of my hand, and she scrambled to her feet with an embarrassed speed. Her cheeks were red and covered in bits of grass. Beautiful. I made sure some of my magick remained on the soles of her boots just in case she tried again, but I had a feeling once was enough.
I allowed her a moment to brush the dirt from her knees and collect herself before I started up the path once more.
After a beat, I heard her follow. It was actually better for me to go first, in case of danger, and one never knew what would pop up out here.
Godsdammed, lurky, bad luck attracting trees.
Head on a swivel, I kept my senses on alert for the slightest sounds, but all I heard were our footsteps and her grumbling.
“You’re horrible at pinky promises,” I told her, trying to break the tension.
When she didn’t answer, I thought it was because she didn’t know how they worked.
“Maybe humans do it differently. See, you're supposed to hook your fingers together, make the promise, and then not break it. Which, of course, you did—are you listening?”
I turned, prepared to take it from the basics and teach her the proper way to complete the promise, when movement in the shadows caught my attention. What did I fucking say? Halfway back home, and there was something in the trees . I was going to burn this whole forest down.
Save bond first, commit arson after.
“Ezra?” Rani’s muffled voice was tinged with worry. I felt a nugget of it in my chest. She covered it well, but her emotions were too strong to hide from the bond.
“Stay behind me,” I ordered, but I had no intention of allowing her to move.
I failed once again. I was off my game and heavily distracted by the sultry woman behind me, but that was no excuse. We shouldn't be in these woods. Rani shouldn’t have even made it past the barrier. Because I fucking lacked the ability to do anything right, she was in danger. Again .
I knew better. I godsdamned knew. The djinn weren’t finished with us.
And case in point, walking out of the shadows in front of me, using these motherfucking trees as cover, came two hunters.
One had his hands tucked in his pockets, like this was just an evening stroll.
All nonchalant and innocent—they didn’t fool me for a second.
I heard Rani’s gasp and moved to cover her completely.
Her fear saturated the bond, and it took all my control to push it aside and not let my instincts take over.
I had to be smart about this. Grabbing her and making a run for it wasn’t an option, no matter how badly I wanted to throw her over my shoulder and get her out of here.
I coated the ground in ice, a wide arc that kept the djinn away by several yards.
“That’s close enough, boys,” I warned, fingers twitching to send frozen spikes through their hearts.
Rani’s terrified whimpers stoked the need to shed blood. Djinn blood. I thought we had more time before they’d come sniffing around again.
“Interesting,” the djinn in the back murmured.
He was taller and more broadly built. Obviously, the one in charge. I zeroed in on his wild hair that he did nothing to keep out of his face. A possible weakness? How he expected to fight like that was beyond me, but I wasn’t about to underestimate him either.
“The tribunal cleared me and my cousin of all charges related to Dalton Ashford and your heir.” The forest seemed to go silent at my decree, and only the sound of the ice cracking and shifting at our feet interrupted the tension.
“An attack on us now will be seen as a threat, and my faction will respond accordingly.”
The djinn chuckled as he stepped closer, until the toes of his boots taunted the line I’d drawn in the dirt. Fucking assholes, it was like they had no sense of self-preservation.
“No one’s attacking,” he droned. “Yet. But I’m sure you’ll give us a reason soon enough.”
His pointed look at where Rani cowered behind me was enough to start a war right there and then.
Unfortunately, taking them both on would leave her vulnerable, and I’d do anything to avoid that.
I still didn’t like how they watched her.
Her warmth was a steady reassurance at the small of my back, but there was no hiding her vibrant hair or the subtle glow her fear initiated.
I sent calming waves down the bond. Our connection was new, but I felt it grow tonight, and hopefully it was enough for me to help her. Two fists gripped the back of my shirt as one of the hunters broke off to circle us. With a flex of my hand, spikes grew along my blockade in warning.
I turned us, enough to keep both djinn in my sights.
“Is that her?” the big one called, and there was no stopping my growl.
Especially when his friend answered,
“Yeah, it's her.”
What the fuck did they want with Rani?
She’d somehow migrated to where her head was tucked under one of my arms, like she could burrow into me and hide completely. Her entire body shook, and the utter rage that evoked in me did not bode well for the djinn.
“Interesting,” the asshole said again.
I rolled my eyes. “Are you going to say anything to explain why I’m forced to deal with your ass right now, or just keep uttering the same useless word?”
His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t take the bait. “Your little human is glowing. We wondered what you were hiding behind that barrier spell of yours, but I’ve got to say, a new siren wasn’t on our list of guesses.”
So they had been watching us. We knew it, of course, but it was one thing to assume and another to hear it confirmed.
This interaction had gone on long enough.
We needed to get out of here. Ideas ran through my mind, each one discarded for the danger it put Rani in, but I was running out of options.
Something told me we were going to have to fight our way out of this, and I only hoped she was up to the challenge.
I gathered more power and funneled it into the parts of my magick already visible.
A plan formed, weak in terms of what I would like, but it was better than nothing. Now, to distract the fuckwads who thought they could look at my bond and get away with their eyeballs intact.
“She’s been registered with the tribunal and her faction,” I called out, still subtly infusing my ice. “But your concern is noted and unwanted. So, kindly, fuck off.”
“Has she now?” the big asshole leered. “We’re just going to have to check on that, won't we? Fortunately, or unfortunately for her, it doesn’t look like she has her tracking sigil.”
Her what ?
At the obvious confusion on my face, the djinn sneered,
“The tribunal decreed that all sirens receive a tracking sigil that both registers their location and their power usage so they can catch the ones causing trouble. Something you would know if you’d registered her as you claim to have done.”
What the actual fuck? We did register her. But either this was a new decree that came after, or the people we told knew this was coming and hadn’t had time to warn us. I was betting on the latter. I needed to talk with Kai.
“She will have to be taken in to receive hers.”
Rani’s grip on me tightened, and if she could have made herself smaller, she would have shrunk before my very eyes.
“Over my dead body,” I snarled.
The djinn grinned, the only warning I got before all hell broke loose. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
It took a second—no, less than a second, a heartbeat—for me to throw a dome over us.
All that pooled power was just waiting to be activated, and now two feet of ice protected us on all sides.
I felt the djinn attacking my little igloo and losing their shit when they couldn’t break it down.
I smirked. Dicks. Like I wasn’t strong enough to take them both on.
They had no idea who they just fucked with.
A small, trembling body burrowed into my abs, and I glanced down at Rani. Terror had her paralyzed. Fuck.
Gently prying her hands from my shirt, I crouched before her.
She followed me down until our knees were touching.
The ground was cold and unforgiving, but she didn't seem to notice.
Her eyes were clenched shut, and she flinched each time the djinn hit the ice. What were they using out there, an axe?
“Rani, baby, you need to get up.” I squeezed her hands. Nothing. Shit. This was not the time for her to lose her fire. “Get up!”
My hands left hers to grip her shoulders instead.
I tried to pull her, but it was like she merged with the floor.
Dammit, where was her rage when we needed it?
I could hold the igloo for as long as she needed, but the faster we got out of here, the better her chances of getting away.
An idea sparked, and I cupped her face, tilting her head back until I revealed that stormy gaze.
“If you don’t get up, right the fuck now, I’m going to kiss you.”
Her head did a little jerk, and some clarity returned to her eyes, followed by a familiar burn that, for once, I was glad to see directed at me.
“What?” she frowned and shook her head again. I refused to let go, and it only ignited her more. Her hands clamped around my wrists, and those sharp nails dug in. “How is that a threat?”
I snorted. Any harder and her grip was going to draw blood. I’d say she saw it as a threat well enough but that damn attitude of hers refused to concede. What was wrong with me that I found it so attractive?
“You’re right. It’s not.”
The slow spread of my smile was the only warning before I pulled her in and kissed her anyway.