Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Tempest
I stared up at the ceiling of the storage cupboard. Jack had put a bed in the small space, since every other room was taken, and had forced us to take shifts resting. That was half an hour ago. Despite my exhaustion, my mind wouldn’t let me sleep.
I’d been here seventy-two hours straight. We’d treated everyone in the hospital with my potion and there was only a little left, but we didn’t know what would happen if they were exposed again. Meanwhile the virus was tearing through the humans in record numbers.
Draven and the twins were still unconscious, and apart from their temperatures returning to normal, there’d been no change.
Iris hadn’t left their sides. Her mom and sisters called constantly.
They wanted to come in, but with the virus spreading beyond shifters and humans, Magnolia and Iris told them not to come.
With a witch afflicted, the witches council was also telling everyone to stay home. The vampires had gone to ground, isolating completely, and so far we knew of only one case among them, but there had to be more.
Somehow, we had to stop Disease before the virus grew stronger and spread even further.
The Matildas were still being silent, and in the state I was in, my magic depleted and my body weary to the bone, I wasn’t capable of helping anyone.
I’d managed a nap here and there over the last few days, when I’d been dead on my feet, but I hadn’t been home.
June had agreed to feed Glinda and Manny for me since I couldn’t get there.
It wasn’t something I did often, but both Glinda and Manny knew her and wouldn’t think she was an intruder… or lunch.
Magnolia had agreed not to tell anyone what the potion was, at least not yet, and instead said the cure was something we’d found in an old medicinal spell book that belonged to her late great-aunt, who had apparently also been an exceptional healer.
It hadn’t been easy, but I’d managed to convince her that if people knew Agattealia Pontella still existed, well, a small quantity of seeds, anyway, we’d have even more hell to deal with than we already did.
Deep down, I was still hoping to salvage my life, but I wasn’t sure I could make the Matildas understand why I’d done what I had.
I checked my phone. It was the early hours of the morning.
There were missed calls and texts from Fender.
I really wanted to call him back, to hear his voice, but I didn’t want to wake him.
He’d come to the clinic every day, bringing me food and checking on me.
I missed him. Goddess, I missed him in a way that felt vital.
It was dangerous to allow myself to feel that way, and terrifying.
It was as if he took a small piece of me with him every time we had to say goodbye. Still, more than anything, I wished I was with him, because I needed him to hold me. Hold me down before I fell apart and floated away.
My phone rang.
His name flashed up on the screen.
If I allowed myself to believe there was a real connection between us, I might think he felt how much I needed him just then, but that was just me being silly and feeling alone. I tapped the screen. “Hello.”
“Where are you?”
“In the storeroom by my treatment area.”
“See you in a sec,” he said and disconnected.
A sec? There was a knock at the door a moment later, then it opened and Fender slipped in, filling the tiny space. Without a word, he shut the door behind him, locked it, then grabbed one of the shelves and lowered himself to the floor beside me.
“What are you doing?” I whispered. I wasn’t sure why I was whispering, only that the tiny room was so quiet.
“Scooch over,” he said.
I did, instantly, moving as far to one side as I could in the small bed. Without another word, he lay down beside me and pulled me into his arms, surrounding me in his strength and warmth. I hadn’t realized how cold I was until he pulled me against his body.
“Why are you here?” I said as I rested my hand on his hard chest.
“Couldn’t go another day without being close to you,” he said against my head.
I wriggled closer, and he wrapped his arm around me tighter. Yes, if I thought it was possible, I might think that somehow he’d felt me reach out to him in my loneliness, in my need to be close to him, but that was impossible. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Me too.”
“I’m so tired,” I said, and my voice cracked. I swallowed down the sob that was clogging my throat.
“I know,” he said and kissed the top of my head. “I got you now, baby. You can sleep now.”
“Okay,” I said, then I let my eyes drift closed, and for the first time in days, I slept.
The next time I woke, Fender was asleep on his back, and I was draped over his chest. It was still dark outside, and I carefully checked my phone.
No calls or messages from anyone here needing me.
I could rest with him for a while longer.
His hand slid up and down my back, and I wanted to press into it, seek out more of his reassuring touch. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“I was already awake. How you feeling, peaches?”
I slid my hand over his chest, needing to feel his solid warmth, to reassure myself that he was actually here and that this wasn’t a dream. “Much better, now,” I said as I carried on lower, over his stomach.
My hand brushed hot, bare skin where his T-shirt had lifted. The heat and texture felt wonderful under my fingers, smooth at his sides and dusted with soft hair down the middle.
I closed my eyes and everything that had happened the last few days rushed back. Iris and Draven and their twins, the shifters who we’d treated, the people we’d lost—the look of betrayal in Magnolia’s eyes.
Drawing in a breath to calm the battling emotion inside me, the guilt and fear and hurt, I forced all of it back out, then took another breath, this time letting myself drown in Fender’s masculine, familiar scent.
The tension coiled inside me loosened and, at the same time, his abdominal muscles tightened under my hand. The muscle there was so hard, it was like running my hand over smooth, sun-drenched marble. The feel of him was fascinating, thrilling, and I continued to explore.
“You keep touching me like that, peaches,” he rumbled into the darkness, “and I’m gonna have to kiss you. And if I kiss you, then I’ll have to touch you, and if I touch you, I won’t wanna stop.”
That voice, so harsh and low, comforted and excited me all at once. “Lovers kiss when they’ve been apart, Fender, you told me that. You didn’t kiss me when you came in,” I said because I needed him to kiss me, to touch me. It was an ache inside me that only he could cure.
“I need to rectify that right now.” Then his fingers slid into my hair, and he dipped his head as I looked up at him.
His lips found mine in the darkness, firm and warm and perfect, and he kissed me.
It was slow and deep, and it made me dazed and warm all over.
His tongue slid over mine, and I moaned helplessly into his mouth, under his spell.
My toes curled and I wriggled closer, whimpering against his lips. Fender had shown me how good he could make me feel, and I wanted to feel that way again, I needed to so badly I ached. My body demanded I get closer, and I climbed on top of him, straddling his thick waist.
As soon as I did, his hands went to my hips, pulling me down, and the hard length of him pressed against my core. I gasped at the sensation and ground down, seeking more. Fender growled low. His hips lifted, rocking against me as he held me to him.
My head tipped back on a cry, and I quickly bit my lip to stop the sound so no one behind the door heard me.
Gasping, I leaned forward, and planting my hands on Fender’s chest, I swiveled my hips against the massive, steel length of him, giving in to the heated, needy part of me and rocking against his hard flesh in a near frenzy.
“Want you inside me,” I said into the darkness, my movements wild now. “Please, I want you.”
“I want that, too, baby, but I’ll hurt you if we don’t take our time. I need to work you up to it, and we’re gonna need a lot of lube.”
“I’m so…so….” I gasped, feeling out of control now. “I’m already so wet, Fender.”
“Soon,” he said, his voice strained. “I promise, Temp, real soon. I won’t hurt you. It doesn’t matter how much we want it, and I fucking want it, baby, but we have to do this right.”
My sob escaped before I could stop it. Fender grabbed my hips more firmly and thrust up against me again. “Ride me, peaches, do whatever you need to feel good, to get off. Fucking use me, Temp, use my body all you need, as long as you need.”
My panties were soaked, and I was gasping and whimpering and rocking against him, completely out-of-control wanton.
Fender did this to me. Only he did this to me.
Taking his hand, I brought it to the front of my pants, asking without words for him to touch me.
He slid it down the front instantly, giving me what I needed, his thumb seeking out and rubbing over the spot that made me see stars.
“You feel so good. Baby, you’re so fucking wet.”
I cried out, and his free hand hooked me around the back of the head, then he pulled me down and turned my head so my face was pressed into his throat to stifle my cries as I came.
His cock jerked under me, and even through the layers of clothes, I felt the heavy pulses of his cock. He was coming with me. He growled and hissed, his hips thrusting as if he were inside me, as if he were filling my body over and over again, pumping me full of his hot seed.
His arms wrapped around me, holding me tightly against him. His lips slid along my throat, my jaw, and to my ear, then he cursed, then laughed, the sound husky and wonderful.
Pulse still racing, I lifted my head. “What’s so funny?” I hadn’t found what we’d just done funny. The way I’d needed him had been confusing and a little frighting, if I was honest.
His white teeth flashed in the shadows. “Temp, you just made a male…who, by the way, is over a thousand years old…come in his pants.” He chuckled again. “Haven’t done that since I was newly created and horny twenty-four seven.”
“I did, didn’t I?” Now I was smiling as well. It was impossible not to, and gods, I needed that.
“You’re looking far too pleased with yourself,” he said, that heart-stopping grin still front and center.
My smile widened and warmth filled my chest. “I am pleased with myself.”
He pulled me down and kissed me again with smiling lips. “You’re dangerous, Tempest.”
I studied him. Despite his words, he was happy, the joy was clear in his eyes. “How am I dangerous?” His hand slid up and down my spine, the touch firm, easing my aches and pains from days on my feet.
His smile softened, and he shook his head. “You have no idea, do you?”
“About what?”
“The power you wield.”
I stilled. “What do you mean?” Did he know? Had Magnolia said something to him.
“Over me, Tempest. The power you hold over me.”
Fender had reluctantly left when one of the nurses had knocked on the door and said I was needed back on the wards. Thanks to Fender coming here to be with me, I’d managed to sleep, and my magic had recharged. He’d offered to feed my pets before he left. I’d thanked him but declined.
That had been a few hours ago, and I hadn’t been able to get what he’d said to me in the early hours of the morning out of my head.
He’d looked so sincere when he’d said it, that I held power over him.
So solemn. He’d meant it too. But I didn’t want that.
I didn’t want to hold power over anyone, except those I was sent to punish.
The thought terrified me almost as much as the growing reliance, the insatiable need, I had to be with Fender, to have him near me.
Slowing my step, I approached the room we’d moved Draven and the twins to, then taking a fortifying breath, I walked into the room. Iris sat with her mother, who had refused to stay away, and they quieted as I approached the bed. “Any change?” I asked Iris.
“No. Their sleep, it’s so deep. None of them are responding,” she said, and there was pain in her voice and so much crippling fear. “Magnolia doesn’t know what to do, no one seems to know what to do to wake them up. This was your potion, you must know something?”
I quickly glanced around to make sure no one heard her.
No one could know that, or what was in it.
“I wish I could tell you, but I don’t know.
Keep talking to them.” Wherever they’d gone, I truly believed that only she could call them back.
“Read to them, anything. They need to hear the sound of your voice.”
I didn’t know if that would work, but it couldn’t hurt. If anyone could bring them back, it was Iris, and it would give her something to keep her going and give her hope. I checked their vitals. There was no change. My heart sank, but I forced that down as well, then left Iris to read.
Jack strode toward me. “How’re you holding up? Did you get any sleep between shifts?”
“A little. How about you?”
He gave me a look that said rest wasn’t a priority. “Things have calmed here. Whatever that potion was Magnolia brewed has done something. Whether it’s permanent, I don’t know. But while it’s quiet, I want you to head home. Eat, shower, get a proper rest. I’ll call if we need you.”
“Are you sure?”
“Leave while you can, Temp. The patients will still be here tomorrow.”
I left fifteen minutes later. I needed to see Glinda and Manfred, and I desperately needed a shower.
My babies had been given treats, and I was fresh out of the shower when my phone rang. A short break was better than no break. I grabbed my phone, but it wasn’t Jack, it was Fender.
“Hey,” I said, and despite everything, I smiled.
“Mags said you were home. I’m outside your place,” he said. “Don’t worry, not trying to fuck with your rules, but we got a possible lead on the weapons, and I thought you’d want to be there.”
More than anything. “I’m on my way out.”